FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   >>  
of payment, some African elephants' teeth which I easily obtained, though I was obliged to choose the smallest among them, that they might not be too much for my strength. I was soon supplied and stocked with everything I required, and began my new mode of life as a retired philosopher. I journeyed over the east, now measuring its mountains--now the temperature of its streams and of its air; now observing its animals--now examining its plants. I hastened from the equator to the pole--from one world to another--comparing experience with experience. The eggs of the African ostrich, or the northern sea-fowl, and fruits, especially tropical palms and bananas, were my usual refreshments. Instead of my departed fortune I enjoyed my _Nicotiana_--it served instead of the good opinion of mankind. And then as to my affections: I had a love of a little dog, that watched my Theban cave, and when I returned to it laden with new treasures, it sprang forwards to meet me, making me feel the spirit of humanity within me, and that I was not quite alone on the earth. But, notwithstanding this, calamity was yet to drive me back to the haunts of men! CHAPTER XI. Once, being on the northern coast, having drawn on my boots while I was gathering together my straggling plants and seaweeds, a white bear approached unawares the verge of the rock on which I stood. I wished to throw off my slippers and move off to an adjacent island, which I expected to reach over a rock whose head towered above the waves. With one foot I reached the rock; I stretched out the other and fell into the sea: I had not observed that my foot was only half-released from the slipper. {Schlemihl and the bear: p116.jpg} Overpowered by the tremendous cold, I had the greatest difficulty in rescuing my life from this peril; but as soon as I reached the land, I hurried off to the wastes of Libya to dry myself there in the sun. I had, however, scarcely set out ere the burning heat so oppressed my head, that I reeled back again to the north very ill. I sought relief in rapid movements; and with uncertain and hurried steps I hastened from the west to the east, and from the east to the west. I placed myself in the most rapid vicissitudes of day and night; now in the heats of summer, and now in the winter's cold. I know not how long I thus wandered over the earth. A burning fever glowed through my veins, and with dreadful agony I perceived my intellec
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   >>  



Top keywords:
plants
 

hastened

 

experience

 

northern

 

hurried

 
burning
 
reached
 

African

 
released
 

slipper


Schlemihl

 

observed

 
Overpowered
 

difficulty

 
easily
 

rescuing

 
greatest
 
obtained
 

tremendous

 

stretched


slippers

 

adjacent

 

wished

 

unawares

 

island

 

expected

 

choose

 

obliged

 

wastes

 

smallest


towered

 
elephants
 

winter

 

summer

 

vicissitudes

 
dreadful
 

perceived

 
intellec
 

wandered

 
glowed

payment
 

scarcely

 
approached
 
oppressed
 

reeled

 

movements

 
uncertain
 

relief

 
sought
 

bananas