274 
SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON’S ADDRESS. [May 24, 1858. 
countries of great sublimity and wildness, as to incite geographers 
and naturalists to encounter the many obstacles which our country- 
man overcame, and bring us back accurate details respecting 
regions of which we, as yet, know little more than the mere out- 
lines. 
Although connected incidentally only with our subject, a work has 
recently been published which it would ill become me not to notice. 
The brilliant orator and elegant scholar who has given us his 
thoughts on the writings of the greatest poet of antiquity, has well 
said that “ To pass from the study of Homer to the ordinary busi- 
ness of the world, is to step out of a palace of enchantment into the 
cold gray light of a Polar day for, whilst we may doubtless plume 
ourselves on our present geographical knowledge, when compared 
with that of the author of the ‘ Odyssey,’ as delineated in the map 
attached to the volumes of Mr. Gladstone, we are forced to admit 
that whilst the moderns have made great and useful discoveries, 
and have vastly extended the domain of science, Greece, small as 
was her territory, has left behind her examples of the sublime and 
heroic, which, whether they be read of in the philosophic pages of 
Grote, or in the eloquent passages of Gladstone, have scarcely, if 
ever, been equalled by any succeeding nation.^ 
Among practical consulting works and maps the following may 
be noticed. Blackie’s Imperial Atlas has reached its twenty-seventh 
part, and is expected to be completed in the current year. It will 
then comprise a hundred separate maps, to which reference will be 
facilitated by an extensive index now in course of preparation. 
Mr. A. Keith Johnston has prepared a new General Atlas comprising 
a complete series of Modern Maps, of imperial size ; five wall Maps 
of the present geography of Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and 
Australasia. Europe, the first of this series, is to be published im- 
mediately. Also a Geological Map of Scotland, by Professor James 
Nicol, which will be published in June, will contain avast number 
of new data, as brought together by my distinguished geological 
associate. 
An improved form of Fullarton’s Gazetteer of the World in 1855 
is now before the public. The Eoyal Atlas of Modern Geography 
has in its publication reached the 16th part, and will be completed 
in 22 parts. A recent map, showing at one view all the British 
possessions throughout the world , presents some features of novelty, 
* ‘Thoughts on the Study of Homer,’ by the Right Hon. W. Gladstone, M.P. 
1858. 
