1803.] Sketch of the Life of Grimr Febnfon Thorkelin, L.L.D.  § 
would find refources of confolation in every 
affliction, whillt the fecond might only 
tend to inflate him with vanity, and to 
dr:w him alide from thofe uletul pus fuits 
that may be cailed the current coin cf hu- 
manilife As he found that his fon, how- 
ever, had trave'led further than he expect- 
ed along the lcttere| fhores of Greece and 
Rome, he was determined that his progrefs 
fhould not be checkei: fo that as foon as 
he had finifhed his ¢laffical cour, he re- 
turned home to, affit his father in artend- 
ing hs flocks, and the labours of the field, 
ki which he took great delight. During 
the Ione winter nigh's, be ufed to amufe 
him‘elf in reading fuch fragments of the 
native hiftorians, as had efcaped the 
wrecks of time. Of all thofe writers Snorro 
Sturleion, the north: rn Herodotus, was his 
favourite. He had read him fo often, and 
with inereafed pleafure, as he told me 
more than once, that he had almoft every 
paflage by rote. , 
The fimplicity and agreeablenefs of his 
matners, the promptitude of his memory, 
and the tore oflearnine that he had t: eafured 
up, for his years, raiied his fame in all the 
neighbouriiood—Several perfons of contfe- 
guence prefled his father to fend him to 
the Univerfity, as they faid: they were ecr- 
tain that he would refl:ct honour on his 
country. The good old man, after much 
contideration, at Jength yielded to their: 
entreaties, and fent his fon, at the age of 
feventeen, to the Univerfity cf Copen- 
hagen, 
If his. trunk was not filled: with filver 
and gold, it was piled’ with what was much 
more precious in the eyes of an indulgent 
father, a large Bible, a colle€tion of Ice- 
landic manufcripts, and-a fuit of black 
cloaths, fpun and woven by the young 
women of his own parifh,. who excelled at 
the diitaff and fhuttle.* 
I once heard. hin relate the particulars 
of his voyage to Denmark. I fhall fet 
down all that I can recolleé&t of it, in his 
own words: ‘* After a very pleafant 
journey, I took fhipping for Denmark, in 
Dyrefiordihaven. I was not long on-board 
* Black, in point of drefs, is the favourite 
colour with the men of Iceland,old and young. 
They dye the whole with a kind of black 
earth peculiar to that country, (See Waller. 
Mineralogy, p. 348). They dilute this earth 
with common water, and after the fediments 
have precipitated they ftrain it off, and boil the 
wool in it for feven or eight hours: they then 
wath it in warm water, f{pread it out to drv, 
and in a few hours it exhibits a fine glofly 
jet, which it retains te the latt. 
erp 
when the Captain, an’ honeft Norwegian, 
weighed anchor, and {pread our fails to a 
gentle gale. [ remained on deck, and 
looked towards my native mountains till 
the loftieft of them began to fade on my 
fight, and ina few hours they entirely 
vinifhed to my view. I then paffed the 
night in the cabin, and rofe the next morn- 
ing to have aview of the ocean. Theun- 
certainty of the figit filled my mind all 
at once with one fublime imace: I then: 
begin to think of the riches of the ocean, 
the tieafury of the Naturalift, the Theo- 
logian, the Poet, and the Painer; bat, 
what made a deeper im#reffion ‘han al 
was the power of God, that could rule 
fach an. immenfe body cf water witha 
nod. Towards the evening a gale {prung 
up, which increafed with fuch fury that 
we thought we fhould fink to the bottom — 
every minute. I did not grieve fo much 
for myfelf as I did for my manufcripts s 
it atfeGted me to think they fhould be loft 
to the world, as E dreaded there were no 
copies of them. At intervals I thought 
of al] thofe whom I had left behind me,and 
of what Lipfius once faid: 
Quisquis fecundo navigarit numine 
Is vel faligno navigarit vimine— 
the pleafures of which [ had often ex. 
perienced. Our veflel, however, was 
tight, and as the feamen had weathered 
many a tempeft, they kept up their fpirits 
and did their duty till the fterm funk into 
a. breeze ; and as foon as the danger wag: 
over, ic was forgotten.”” 
As foon as he was matriculated of the 
Univerfity of Copenhagen, he applied him— 
{elf to his ftudies with the greateft dili-. 
gepce. The moments he could {pare from 
the college courfe, he devoted to the per- 
ufal of the Greek and Roman Claffics,, 
not with a view of depofing one letter or 
relftoring another, nor yet to: bring a wag-. 
gon-load of meanings to one word, but 
with a view of catching their fpirit. Of 
all the commentators on the claffical: 
writers, Heinfius was his favourite. In 
the courfe of his academical career, it does. 
not appear that he reaped many laurels. 
The monkith inftitutions of a univerfity 
were ill-fuited ‘o a ftudent who withed to 
tread out fome unbeaten track in the 
wide field of literature. Antiquity and 
chronology were his. favourite purluits—. 
not toat kind of antiquity that confilts. 
in failing in love with every thing that is 
old, merely becaufe it is. old ; he had tafte 
to feleé&t what was ufeful our of the rub. 
bifh—particularly what related) to the 
laws and inititetions of our northern an- 
cefiors. 
