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    62

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    VISIT TO THE GREAT OASIS OF THE LIBYAN D...

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    62

    62

    Visit To The Great Oasis Of The Libyan D...

    VISIT TO THE GREAT OASIS OF THE LIBYAN DESERT

    Visit To The Great Oasis Of The Libyan D...

    By G . A . Hoskins . 1 VolLongman , 1837

    We have long been of opinion , and every succeeding opportunity for judging has confirmed it , that to obtain an

    entirely satisfactory account of any comparatively unknown portion of the globe , two works , the respective products of opposite minds , are absolutely

    necessary . We wish to see the new region through the medium , both of a sensitively imaginative mind , and of a literal matter-of-fact mind . Unless

    we obtain this , there will always be much wanting to a correct and entire impression . He who only gives us a strictly true and particular account , does not give a full account , since we have little more in

    such a case than the skeleton outline of truth . In all travels through wondrous and unknown places , so many novel , startling , and vast things must be continually presented to the senses ,

    •—with so many more things , which are only suggested to the imagination , —that to attempt giving an account of them without entering into all those

    relations , and describing their effect upon the mind , as well as aiding comprehension by an elogy rather than analysis , and illustration rather than disquisition on details , would be in itself a fruitless task . Until we were

    Visit To The Great Oasis Of The Libyan D...

    presented could not former , and with well the latter , we appreciate the vice versa either case nor taken could singly , we in _» feel any great satisfaceven confidence , in the tion , or impression we derived from given work . We do not k impression we derived from the given work . We do not know a more striking instance of the two kinds of works we require in those cases , than those of Dr

    Hogg and De Lamartine , Syria and the Holy Land ; on the doctor being as dry as mummy powder , and the poet being absolutely carried beyond himself

    by the associations of the places , so far indeed as even to insist upon indulging in the gifts of vision and prophecy . Of the by the associations of the so far indeed as even t

    former class , is the present work on the Oasis of Libyia . Very good it is , and may do as one , — but we are sadly in want of a little imagination and enthusiasm to make us feel an

    interest in the houseless , herbless , pathless , waterless , every thingless desert sands of the country . Until we are presented with such a work , we can experience no enthusiasm about the region beyond that which our own thirst of soul may occasion ,.

    An oasis in the desert has long been proverbial as conveying an impression of all that is beautiful , and sweet and fresh , after all that was ugl y > and

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1837, page 62, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_01071837/page/60/