278 
WANDERINGS IN 
FOURTH 
JOURNEY. 
beg leave respectfully to answer, that the way is 
dubious, long, and dreary; and though, unfortu¬ 
nately, I cannot allege the excuse of u mepiaconjux 
detinet,” still I would fain crave a little repose. I 
have already been a long while errant:— 
“ Longa mihi exilia, et vastum maris aequor aravi, 
Ne mandate mihi, nam ego sum defessus agendo.” 
Should any body be induced to go, great and innu¬ 
merable are the discoveries yet to be made in those 
remote wilds; and should he succeed in bringing 
home, even a head alone, with features as perfect as 
those of that which I have brought, far from being 
envious of him, I should consider him a modern 
Alcides, fullv entitled to register a thirteenth labour. 
Now if, on the other hand, we argue, that this head 
in question has had all its original features destroyed, 
and a set of new ones given to it, by what means 
has this hitherto unheard-of change been effected ? 
Nobody in any of our museums has as yet been able 
to restore the natural features to stuffed animals; 
and he who has any doubts of this, let him take a 
living cat or dog, and compare them with a stuffed 
cat or dog in any of the first-rate museums. A 
momentary glance of the eye would soon settle his 
doubts on this head. 
If I have succeeded in effacing the features of a 
brute, and putting those of a man in their place, we 
might be entitled to say, that the sun of Proteus has 
risen to our museums :— 
“ Unius hie faciem, facies transformat in omnes ; 
k Nunc homo, nunc tigris ; nunc equa, nunc mulier.” 
