The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction eBook
Various
To say that Popanilla resembles Swift’s “Tale
of a Tub,” or Sir Thomas More’s “Utopia,”
would be an advantageous comparison for our modern
voyager, but it would not sufficiently illustrate
the character of his work, since the latter books
are so much less read than talked of. Swift wrote
“for the universal improvement of mankind,”
but Popanilla publishes for the benefit of the people
of England, whom he represents as living in a too
artificial state. He tells his story as the native
of an Indian isle, whose men combine “the vivacity
of a faun with the strength of a Hercules, and the
beauty of an Adonis,” and whose women “magically
sprung from the brilliant foam of that ocean, which
is gradually subsiding before them.” This
favoured spot he calls the Isle of Fantaisie,
about the shores of which appears a remarkable fish,
or rather a ship, to the no small terror of the islanders.
The ship is wrecked, and Popanilla “having in
his fright, during the storm, lost a lock of hair
which, in a moment of glorious favour, he had ravished
from his fair mistress’ brow,” is next
introduced in search of this precious bijou.
“The favourite of all the women, the envy of
all the men, &c.
&c, and—you know the rest,—Popanilla
passed an extremely pleasant life. No one was
a better judge of wine—no one had a better
taste for fruit—no one danced with more
elegant vivacity—and no one whispered compliments
in a more meaning tone. What a pity that such
an amiable fellow should have got into such a scrape!”
Instead of the dear lock, Popanilla finds a chest
saved from the wreck, and filled with “Useful
Knowledge Tracts,” books on “the Hamiltonian
system,” &c. which our adventurer, like Faustus
and his bible, turns to bad account; he falls asleep,
is swallowed by a whale, and spouted forth again.
“The dreamer awoke amidst real chattering, and
scuffling, and clamour. A troop of green monkeys
had been aroused by his unusual occupation, and had
taken the opportunity of his slumber to become acquainted
with some of the first principles of science.
What progress they had made it is difficult to ascertain.
It is said, however, that some monkeys have been since
seen skipping about the island, with their tails cut
off; and that they have even succeeded in passing themselves
for human beings among those people who do not read
novels, and are consequently unacquainted with mankind.
As for Popanilla, he took up a treatise on hydrostatics,
and read it straight through on the spot. For
the rest of the day he was hydrostatically mad; nor
could the commonest incident connected with the action
or conveyance of water take place, without his speculating
on its cause and consequence.” So much for
the first steps of “intellect;” now for
the “march.” Popanilla soon becomes
a man of science: his wit flies off in tangents,
and he tries to prove his sovereign a lantern, and
himself a sun,[10] by undertaking to re-shape all
the institutions of Fantaisie. Then follow a string
