A Compendium of English Literature, Chronologically Arranged, From Sir John Mandeville to William Cowper

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Excerpt from A Compendium of English Literature, Chronologically Arranged, From Sir John Mandeville to William Cowper: Consisting of Biographical Sketches of the Authors, Selections From Their Works, With Notes, Explanatory, Illustrative, and Directing to the Best Editions and to Various Criticisms John Mandeville was indeed a remarkable man, and though England has since distinguished herself above all other nations for the number and the character of her voyagers and travellers, who, for the sake of enlarging the bounds of geographical knowledge, have pushed their way into every part of the world, yet, considering the time and circumstances in which be mm, m none must Sir John Mandeville give place. We must bear continually in mind that he wrote nearly five hundred years ago - one hundred years before printing was introduced into England - ia an age of great ignorance, and eager for the marvellous and the wonderful in relation to other lands so little known. That he has told many ridiculous stories is m doubt true, but such he generally prefaces with thei seyn, or men seyn but I have not sene it. But if we charge these against him, we must also give him credit for those accounts which, for a long time, rested on his single and unsupported authority, but which later discoveries and inquiries have abundantly confirmed - such as the cultivation of pepper - the burning of widows on the funeral pile of their husbands - the trees which bear wool, of which clothing is made - the carrier pigeons - the gymnosophists - the Chinese predilection for mtall feet the artificial egg-hatching in Egypt - the south pole star, and Other astronomi cal appearances, from which he argues for the spherical form of the earth the crocodile - the hip popotamus - the giraffe, and many other singular pro ductions of nature. His book, says an elegant writer, is to an Englishman doubly valuable, as establishing the title of his country to claim as its own, the first example of the liberal and independent gentleman, travelling over the world in the disinterested pursuit of knowledge, unsullied in his reputation, and honored and respected wherever he went for his talents and personal accomplishments. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.