LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 281.-6 OCTOBER, 1849.

So, the disenchantment of the world goes on! The world's gray fathers were content with seven wonders. Thirty years ago, we might learn by books that there were at least a hundred wonders of the world; but where now is there one to be found? No sooner did the phrenologists find out the whereabouts of our faculty of "wonder," "marvellousness," than straightway there ceased to be anything in the world to wonder at. About a hundred years ago, almost everything beyond our own islands, and even much that was in them, was wonderful to us. The world was so unknown-men and nature were so little understood that all things beyond the range of every--a stronger or laxer twist of wool-a somewhat Paris was some fifty years ago. Constantinople we can account for everything. Gases, vapors, is better known to us than Rome was then; and and electric fluids are familiar things. We not with Jerusalem, Cairo, Damascus, we have now long ago looked upon their spontaneous operations a far better acquaintance than we had twenty in nature with awe and wonder. But by and by years ago with Petersburgh, Lisbon, or Madrid. we grew bold in the presence of those awful powPalestine once afforded rich material for the players. We ventured to lay our hands upon their of the associative faculty upon the organ of won- manes, we vaulted upon their backs, and soon der; but presently came that great inconoclast, bowed down their terrible strength to our service. Dr. Robinson, of New York, who, by disproving Besides, this in which we have lived has been one thing and doubting another, has left but little in all respects a most extraordinary age. It has even there, in that cherished corner of the world, been full of all kinds of wonders-social, moral, for the wonder of which entire belief is a most historical, physical, scientific-so vast, so prodiessential condition. gious, as to render familiar to us, as matters of Wonder belongs to a time of ignorance, and we present interest and daily thought, results and say that the days of ignorance have passed. What facts, greater, intrinsically more strange, than any is there to wonder at? We know everything; that past ages, or any that distant countries offer and that which we understand ceases to be won- to our notice. This has tamed down the sense of derful. Look at the map of the world. There wonder. We can wonder at nothing; for nothis not a spot on which we can lay the finger whose ing is so wonderful as the things that have become inhabitants are not well known to us. They are our daily food. Even history is disenchanted. The differenced by small matters-dress, habits of life, strangest things have become comprehensible, posshades of color, climatic influences. Strip them sible, commonplace. The great conquerors of anof these, and we come by a swift process to our cient days have in our own times been surpassed. brothers-the sons of a common father-like our- The revolutions-the changes of past times-each selves in all that is essentially the man; moved one of which was a subject of curious speculation, by the same impulses, subject to the same pains have been exceeded in our own days. Subverand the same pleasures, subdued by the same sions, any one of which was erewhile good talk dreads, and nourished by the same hopes. The for a century, have been crowded upon us by the psychologist who dissects their souls finds them dozen within the space of a few weeks. If the all as like to one another, and all as like to us, sense of wonder in civilized man has not been as does the anatomist who explores their bodily wholly destroyed, we cannot doubt that this age frame. So with animals. All the most remark- in which we live will be looked back upon by our able creatures of the world have been brought to children's children as more replete with wonders us from the uttermost parts of the earth; and existences which to our grandfathers were all but fabulous, we now regard as familiar things. Our zoological gardens and menageries; our "Penny Magazines" and "Museums of Animated Nature," have quite disenchanted this branch of the world's life. Its strangest things have its horrors and marvels, was left to us. It bepassed from the realm of wonder; and the dis- came a sort of safety-valve for the fine old faculty covery of a really new beast, or bird, or reptile, -the source of so much innocent excitement, would now awaken out a languid interest in the which was smothered everywhere else under general mind. So of plants. Where are their heavy masses of dull facts and circumstances.

wonders now? Within thirty years, thousands of plants from all parts of the globe, most of which had not even been heard of, and many of which were examined with wonder, have become the well-known inmates of our stoves, our green

than any which the world's history has hitherto recorded.

But what has all this to do with the Dead Sea? it may be asked. Much every way. Amid the general diswonderment of the world, we could feel that at least the Dead Sea, with all its mysteries,

But gradually, and with aching hearts, we have seen this retreat cut off from us. One traveller after another has stripped off some one of the horrors which overhung its deeps, or rested on its shores; and now at last it stands naked before us

which it has been brought.

houses, and even our gardens. A morning's walk, -a monument, indeed, of God's wrath against or a short ride, will take any inhabitant of London the sins of man, but invested with none of the and other large towns among the most remarkable supernatural horrors ascribed to it, or exhibiting forms of transmarine vegetation. Here are the any of the features which are not the natural and palms and bananas of tropical climes, breathing an inevitable effect of the peculiar condition into atmosphere by which you are almost suffocated; there a thousand whimsical shapes of the cacti and As the books now before us bring all the quesof the unearthly orchids meet the view; and here tions with respect to this lake into their final the singular pitcher-plants distil their waters. De- condition, they afford us a favorable opportunity part now, wonder-proof! Travel where you will, of stating the question as regards the past hisyou will see, you can see, nothing to astonish- tory of the Dead Sea horrors, and of showing nothing more wonderful than that which you have seen with your own eyes at home.

And even in the phenomena of nature, the age of wonder has passed. We know everything;

what has been really done by the expedition in advancement of our knowledge. In this we must rely chiefly upon our own resources; for the commander of the expedition helps us very little

THE RIVER JORDAN AND THE DEAD SEA.

3

to

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further than by stating what he saw, and what he | by hearing of the proposed publication of a Nardid. He appears to have had a sincere zeal in rative of the Expedition, said to be by a member the enterprise, which originated in his sugges- of the party. The permission asked was granted tions, and he exhibited much energy and consid- by the Hon. J. G. Mason, Secretary of the Navy,

with the remark-" I give this assent with the
more pleasure, because I do not think that you
should be anticipated by any other who had not the
responsibility of the enterprise."

Feeling that what may be said on the subject had
better be rendered imperfectly by myself than by
another, I have been necessarily hurried; and the
reader will decide whether the narrative which fol-

lows was elaborately prepared, or written "cur-
rente calamo."-Pp. v. vi.

erable tact in carrying out his objects in spite of
the obstacles he encountered. He also knew how
to observe, at least as a sailor, and he states well
and clearly the process and results of his observa-
tion; but he scarcely knew what to observe, and
certainly has not turned the rare advantages com-
mitted to him to all the account of which they
would have been susceptible in the hands of a
more literate traveller. Oh, that Dr. Robinson or
Eli Smith had been of the party! Between their
It would, however, have been much better that
learning and deep studies in Palestine geography, it should not have been so written. The object
and Lieutenant Lynch's practical energies, we was not adequate to justify the production of a
might have had something far more worthy than very crude account-which this certainly is-of
the book before us of being set forth as the result an expedition to which the public funds had been
of this most praiseworthy and liberal enterprise, applied, and in the results of which all Christen-

which is in every way most creditable to the dom was interested. After all, the rival account
United States government, and contrasts advan-
was produced before the authentic statement ap-
tageously with the unutterable meanness of our
peared; and the object of haste being thus frus-
own government in all things of the sort. What trated by a work which could satisfy no cultivated
is there in our position which places the inevita- mind, more time might have been safely taken.
ble mark of shabbiness, procrastination, and futil- Perhaps, indeed, our worthy sailor could not, with
ity upon whatever our rulers do for the encour- any amount of time, have produced a much better
agement (!) of literature, art, and scientific book; and we regret that he had not been advised
investigation? Despotic powers act handsomely to put his materials into hands better qualified than
in such matters. So, as we now see, in this and
other instances, can a republican government, quite
as amenable as our own to the people for the employ-
ment of public money. Whence this unhappy pe-
culiarity, for it is no less, of our position among
the nations of the earth-with wealth
abundant-dominions more widely spread-and
advantages far greater than any other nation ever
possessed? We hope to look into this matter
some day; but must now keep to our text.

more

Before proceeding to state the results which have been promised, we may give the reader some notion of the books before us. The second and

smaller of them has been procured with difficulty; and the accounts which fell under our notice in

American papers might have been sufficient to prevent the desire to see it; but it occurred to us that the different position and point of view of the writer would induce him to state some particulars which might throw light on the other account, or furnish some points of comparison with, or contrast to it. We are bound to say, that in this case there has been discreditable haste even in the

authentic account by the commander of the expedition, in taking advantage of the public curiosity, without proportionate regard to the real advantage of the public and the interests of science, by the preparation of a well-digested account of the explorations. The writer actually apologizes for the manifest defects of his book on that very ground.

his own to do them justice. Dr. Robinson might
have made something of them. The lesser book,
however, appeared before the other, and was an
obvious and gross attempt to forestall the market.
On its appearance it was disavowed by Lieutenant
Lynch; and from the explanations which passed
on both sides in the American papers, but which
do not appear in either of these volumes, it seems
that Mr. Montague is an Englishman, who held a
petty officer's berth on board the "Supply." He
was left ill of the small-pox at Port Mahon on the
outward passage, and saw nothing of the expedi-
tion from the 1st of February, 1848, two months
before it landed in Syria, until it reëmbarked at
Malta on the 12th September following. It is ev-
ident, therefore, that he has no responsibility save
of literary execution for that part which relates
to this long interval, and which, he alleges (but
not in the book) was prepared from the diary of
one of the men. His claim to any peculiar qual-
ification for this task is not very clear, unless it
be that he performed part of the outward voyage
with those who afterwards formed the exploring
party-and to which very common run he devotes
no less than ninety pages. Again, he was with
them for several weeks on the homeward voyage,
and might have picked up by questioning the men
all that he here states. But we believe, from in-

As soon as possible after our return I handed in my official report, and, at the same time, asked per

mission to publish a narrative or diary, of course embracing much, necessarily elicited by visiting such interesting scenes, that would be unfit for an official paper. To this application I was induced

ternal evidence, that he had, as he states, the
diary of one of the men for his guidance. There
is, indeed, in the part Montague might have fur-
nished for his own observations, the same vile
taste, the same school-boy balderdash, and the

same wretched forecastle slang as in the rest; but
it is only afterwards that we encounter the pecu-
liar American crow which pervades the rest of

ering influence of disease; we fear neither the wretchedly engraved; and the effect of the Araheat of the sun nor the suffocating sirocco. We bian figures is spoiled by the stiff cable ropes have determined souls, enduring constitutions, plen- which are twined around the koofeyehs, or headty of provisions, lots of ammunition, swords, bowie shawls, in place of the soft twists of wool or