Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Genius, Alchemy, Travel, Exploration

    The article represents life as a journey marked by the passing years as mile stones. Begins by reflecting that genius and piety alike involve 'a kind of peculiar mental alchymy, by which the possessor of either, if he transmute not all things to gold, transforms them all to good or fair' (38). Considers the history of travel, concluding with 'the scientific traveller' of the modern day, 'who scales mountains, dips into mines, fords rivers, crosses seas, measures Alps, and if he any where meet with a mile-stone, is sure to tell you in learned phrase whether it be granite, schistus or pudding stone', and the 'geographical traveller' who 'wanders among hordes of savages, sleeps in huts filled with mosquitoes, dines on bananas and hippopotami steaks, in a land where there are no mill-stones' (39).