was shown so full of little animals, nay, even monsters, as to make one
shudder at the thought of swallowing a drop"--the orrery, the
daguerreotype, and the diving-bell, (in which he had the courage to
descend,) as the objects principally deserving notice, "since it would
require several months, if not years, to give that attention to each
specimen of human industry which it demands, in order thoroughly to
understand it." The effects of the electrical machine, indeed, "by which
fire was made to pass through the body of a man, and out of the
finger-ends of his right hand, without his being in any way affected by it,
though a piece of cloth, placed close to this right hand, was actually
ignited," seem to have excited considerable astonishment in his mind; but
it does not appear that his curiosity led him to make any attempt in
investigating the hidden causes of these mysterious phenomena. His apathy
in this respect presents a strong contrast with the minute and elaborate
description of the same objects, the mode of their construction, and the
uses to which they may be applied, given in the journal of the two Parsees,
Nowrojee and Merwanjee. "To us," say they, "brought up in India for
scientific pursuits, and longing ardently to acquire practical information
connected with modern improvements, more particularly with naval
architecture, steam-engines, steam-boats, and steam navigation, these two
galleries of practical science (the Adelaide and Polytechnic) seemed to
embrace all that we had come over to England to make ourselves acquainted
with; and it was with gratitude to the original projectors of these
institutions that we gazed on the soul-exciting scene before us. We
thought of the enchantments related in the _Arabian Nights'
Entertainments_, and they faded away into nothingness compared with what
we then saw."

But however widely apart the nonchalance of the Moslem, and the
matter-of-fact diligence of the Parsee,[5] may have placed them