[810] See post, 1780, in Mr. Langton's Collection.
[811] Chap. xlii. is still shorter:—'Concerning Owls.
'There are no owls of any kind in the whole island.'
Horrebow says in his Preface, p. vii:—'I have followed Mr. Anderson article by article, declaring what is false in each.' A Member of the Icelandic Literary Society in a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette, dated May 3, 1883, thus accounts for these chapters:—'In 1746 there was published at Hamburg a small volume entitled, Nachrichlen von Island, Grönland und der Strasse Davis. The Danish Government, conceiving that its intentions were misrepresented by this work, procured a reply to be written by Niels Horrebow, and this was published, in 1752, under the title of Tilforladelige Efterretninger om Island; in 1758, an English translation appeared in London. The object of the author was to answer all Anderson's charges and imputations. This Horrebow did categorically, and hence come these Chapters, though it must be added that they owe their laconic celebrity to the English translator, the author being rather profuse than otherwise in giving his predecessor a flat denial.'
[812] See ante, p. 255.
[813] 'A fugitive from heaven and prayer,
I mocked at all religious fear,
Deep scienced in the mazy lore
Of mad philosophy: but now
Hoist sail, and back my voyage plough
To that blest harbour which I left before.'
FRANCIS. Horace, Odes, i. 34. 1.
[814] See ante, i. 315, and post, p. 288.
[815] Ovid, Meta. ii. 13.