find them

2 . Mary Shelley eccentricities consistent for ever. I shall satiate my ardent riosity with the sight of a part of the world never before ited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the fo of man. These are my enticements and they are sufficient conquer all fear of danger or death, and to induce me to con mence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when embarks in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on an exped tion of discovery up his native river. But, supposing all thes conjectures to be false, you cannot contest the inestimable ben efit which I shall confer on all mankind to the last generation by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by as- certaining the secret of the magnet which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine. These reflections have dispelled the agitation with which I began my letter, and I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven; for nothing contributes so much to tranquillise the mind as a steady purpose-a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. This expedition has been the favourite dream of my early years. I have read with ardour the accounts of the various voyages which have been made in the prospect of arriving at the North Pacific Ocean through the seas which surround the pole. You may remem- ber that a history of all the voyages made for purposes of dis- covery composed the whole of our good uncle Thomas's library. My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading. These volumes were my study day and night, and my familiarity with them increased that regret which I had felt, as a child, on learning that my father's dying injunction had forbidden my uncle to allow me to embark in a seafaring life. These visions faded when I perused, for the first time, those poets whose effusions entranced my soul, and lifted it to heaven. I also became a poet, and for one year lived in a Paradise of my own creation; I imagined that I also might ob- tain a niche in the temple where the names of Homer and Shakespeare are consecrated. You are well acquainted with my failure, and how heavily I bore the disappointment. But just at