Genre:

Extract, Miscellaneous

Publications extracted:

National Magazine

Subjects:

Astronomy, Aesthetics, Travel, Piety, Feeling

    The writer describes the striking alteration in the appearance of the heavens on travelling to the southern hemisphere, and its effect upon the European traveller. He refers to the particular beauty of the 'Cross of the south', and observes that it is an 'object of peculiar veneration' to Roman Catholics (98). He describes how, on his first voyage across the equator, several of the crew followed the example of one bred a Catholic in falling to their knees at the sight of it, 'not indeed from religion' but because 'their stubborn hearts were overcome by the solemn stillness and beauty of the scene around them, and the pure feeling which such sights and such a recognition were calculated to inspire' (99).