The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews by Fielding Henry

Author:Fielding, Henry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: (Privatkopie)
Published: 2010-02-03T05:00:00+00:00

Coelum non Animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.

I can go farther in an Afternoon, than you in a Twelve-Month. What, I suppose you have seen the Pillars of Hercules and perhaps the Walls of Carthage. Nay, you may have heard Scylla, and seen Charybdis; you may have entered the Closet where Archimedes was found at the taking Syracuse. I suppose you have sailed among the Cyclades, and passed the famous Streights which take their name from the unfortunate Helle, whose Fate is sweetly described by Apollonius Rhodius; you have past the very Spot, I conceive, where Dædalus fell into that Sea, his waxen Wings being melted by the Sun; you have traversed the Euxine Sea, I make no doubt; nay, you may have been on the Banks of the Caspian, and called at Colchis, to see if there is ever another Golden Fleece.« – »Not I truly, Master,« answered the Host, »I never touched at any of these Places.« »But I have been at all these,« replied Adams. »Then I suppose,« cries the Host, »you have been at the East Indies, for there are no such, I will be sworn, either in the West or the Levant.« »Pray where's the Levant?« quoth Adams, »that should be in the East Indies by right.« – »O ho! you are a pretty Traveller,« cries the Host, »and not know the Levant. My service to you, Master; you must not talk of these things with me! you must not tip us the Traveller; it won't go here.« »Since thou art so dull to misunderstand me still,« quoth Adams, »I will inform thee; the travelling I mean is in Books, the only way of travelling by which any Knowledge is to be acquired. From them I learn what I asserted just now, that Nature generally imprints such a Portraiture of the Mind in the Countenance, that a skilful Physiognomist will rarely be deceived. I presume you have never read the Story of Socrates to this purpose, and therefore I will tell it you. A certain Physiognomist asserted of Socrates, that he plainly discovered by his Features that he was a Rogue in his Nature. A Character so contrary to the Tenour of all this great Man's Actions, and the generally received Opinion concerning him, incensed the Boys of Athens so that they threw Stones at the Physiognomist, and would have demolished him for his Ignorance, had not Socrates himself prevented them by confessing the Truth of his Observations, and acknowledging that tho' he corrected his Disposition by Philosophy, he was indeed naturally as inclined to Vice as had been predicated of him. Now, pray resolve me, – How should a Man know this Story, if he had not read it?« »Well Master,« said the Host, »and what signifies it whether a Man knows it or no? He who goes abroad as I have done, will always have opportunities enough of knowing the World, without troubling his head with Socrates, or any such Fellows.« – »Friend,«

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