ened his anchor. The isle fled, and carried him away. That isle was LEVIATHAN." Captain Durville was similarly though not so fatally deceived. He saw at a distance an elevation on the water, which appeared to be a bank with breakers and eddies all around it, and certain patches upon it looked like rocks. 2. Above and around this seeming bank, the swallow and the stormy petrel raced and sported. The bank looked venerably gray, covered as it was with shells and madrepores. But the mighty mass suddenly moved, and two enormous columns of water, which it threw high into the air, revealed the awakened whale. 3. Whales are given to companionship. Formerly they were seen sailing along, not only in pairs, but occasionally in large families of ten or twelve in the solitary seas. Nothing exceeded the grandeur of those vast and living fleets, sometimes lighted up by their own phosphoresence,3 and throwing columns of water to the hight of thirty or forty feet, which, in the polar seas, smoked as it rose. 4. They would approach a vessel peaceably and in evident curiosity, looking upon her as some specimen of a new and strange species of fish; and they sported around, and welcomed the visitor. In their joy they raised themselves half upright, and then fell down again with a stunning noise, making a boiling gulf as they sank. Their innocent familiarity went so far, that they sometimes touched the ship or her boats, an imprudent confidence which was most cruelly deceived. In less than a century, the great species of the whale have almost disappeared. 5. Whales have always been very numerous in the Greenland seas, a grand object of desire to those to whom oil is a thing of very first necessity. The fish gives it by drops, the seal by gallons, the whale by hogsheads! He was truly a bold man who first, with his poor weapons, with the sea howling at his feet, and the darkness closing around him, dared to pursue the whale! 6. A bold man was he, who, trusting to his courage, the strength of his arm, and the weight of his harpoon, first believed that he could pierce that mighty mass of blubber and flesh, and convert it to his own profit! A daring man was he who first imagined that he could attack the whale, and not perish in the tempest that would be raised by the plunges and terrific blows of the astonished and suffering monster! And, as if to crown his audacity, the man next fastened a line to his harpoon, and, braving still more closely the frightful shock of the agonized and dying giant, never once feared that that giant might plunge headlong into the deep, taking with him harpoon, line, boat, and man! 4 7. There is still another danger, and no less terrible. It is, that, instead of meeting the common whale, that brave man should fall in with the cachalot, the terror of the seas. He is not very large, — perhaps not more than from sixty to eighty feet long; but his head alone measures about one-third the length of the body. In case of such a meeting, woe to the fisher! he would become the chased instead of the chaser, the victim instead of the tyrant. 8. The cachalot has horrible jaws, and no less than forty-eight enormous teeth. He could, with ease, devour all, — both man and boat; and he seems always drunk with blood. His blind rage so terrifies all the other whales, that they escape, bellowing, throwing themselves on the shore, or striving to hide themselves in the sand. Even when he is dead, they still fear him, and will not approach his carcass. 9. Many think that those intrepid men who first under 5 took so perilous a task as that of whale-fishing, must have been eccentric enthusiasts; and that an undertaking so hazardous could never have originated with the prudent men of the North, but must have been initiated by the Basques, those daring hunters and fishers, who were so well accustomed to their own capricious sea, where they fished the tunny. Here they first saw the huge whales at play, and pursued them, frenzied by the hope of such enormous prey; onward, and still onward, no matter whither, even to the confines of the pole. 10. Here, doubtless, the poor whale fancied it must be safe from its relentless pursuers. But our Basque madcaps followed it even into those frozen regions. Tightening his red belt around his waist, he stealthily and silently approaches the unconscious, sleeping monster, and fearlessly plunges the harpoon into its very vitals. Poor whale! He falls a victim to the selfishness and rapacity of man! Such achievements afford a striking proof of the wonderful powers of the human mind, in holding dominion, not only over the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, but also over the MIGHTY MONSTERS OF THE DEEP. LESSON XLII. 1 GAL I LEO, GALILEI, a distinguished astronomer, was born at Pisa, in Italy, July 15, 1564; and died Jan. 8, 1642. In 1592, he was appointed professor of mathematics in the University of Padua. Here he became a convert to the Copernican system of the universe; and, by means of a leaden tube and two spectacle glasses, he obtained a crude telescope of only threefold magnifying power. Subsequently he made two others, one magnifying eight, and the other thirty times. With these he discovered the mountains and cavities in the Moon, the four satellites of Jupiter, and the rings of Saturn. But prejudice and ignorance were combined against him. He was charged with heresy, imprisoned, and compelled to recant his opinions; but he stamped his foot, and exclaimed, "The earth moves, for all that!" KEPLER, JOHN, a celebrated mathematician and astronomer, was born at Weil, in Wirtemberg, Dec. 21, 1571; and died Nov. 5, 1631. During his life he published thirty-three separate works, among which his "New Astronomy," and the "Harmonies of the World," are the most remarkable. The latter work contains his celebrated law, that the squares of the periodic times of the planets are as the cubes of their distances; but, from a blunder in his calculations, he rejected it. Having discovered his error, he recognized with transport the absolute truth of a principle, which, for seventeen years, had been the object of his incessant pursuit. He was almost frantic with joy, and exclaimed, "The die is cast! The book is written to be read, either now or by posterity, I care not which! It may well wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer!" THE GAME OF LIFE. J. G. SAXE. 1. HERE'S a game much in fashion, I think it's THERE'S (Though I never have played it for pleasure or lucre,) In which, when the cards are in certain conditions, The players appear to have changed their positions, And one of them cries, in a confident tone, "I think I may venture to go it alone!" 2. While watching the game, 'tis a whim of the bard`s 3. When great Galileo1 proclaimed that the world In a regular orbit was ceaselessly whirled, And got not a convert for all of his pains, But only derision, and prison, and chains, "It moves, for all that!" was his answering tone; 4. When Kepler,2 with intellect piercing afar, Discovered the laws of each planet and star, "I can wait," he replied, "till the truth you shall own;" For he felt in his heart he could "go it alone!" 5. Alas for the player who idly depends, In the struggle of life, upon kindred and friends! Nor comfort the coward, who finds, with a groan, go it alone!" 6. There's something, no doubt, in the hand you may 7. In battle or business, whatever the game, In law or in love, it is ever the same; hold; your own, In the struggle for power, or the scramble for pelf, For, whether the prize be a ribbon or throne, can go it alone!" |