mes
censured the Fathers, praised heretics, when they deserved it, and
occasionally even commended the Popes. It was extremely popular, though
all were not pleased with its liberal spirit. _A Comparative Biography
of Asiatic and Indian Heroes_, after Plutarch's style; _A short
Historical Account of his Native Town_; _The Narrative of Niels Klim_;
_His Autobiography_; and a _History of the Jewish Nation_, digested from
the works of Josephus, Prideaux, and Basnage, close the list of his
works.

"_The Journey to the World under ground_," or "_Narrative of Niels
Klim_," had been written for a long time, but he had refrained from
printing it from an unwillingness to provoke enmity. But the importunity
of friends, and the generous offer of a bookseller finally prevailed,
and he put it into the printer's hands. The following account of this
performance is abridged from his autobiography.

There are many persons of both sexes in my country, who believe in
fairies and supernatural beings, and who are ready to swear, that they
have been conveyed by spirits to hills and mountain caves. This
superstition is ridiculed in Klim, the hero of the tale. He is supposed
to be transported to the world under ground, where he meets with some
surprising adventures. Many strange creatures inhabit this new world;
trees, for instance, are introduced, endowed with speech, and musical
instruments discuss questions of philosophy and finance. Amongst the
characters, those geniuses, who perceive everything at a glance, but
penetrate nothing, are conspicuous. People of quick perception, whom we
use to admire, are despised by the Potuans, who look upon them as idle
loungers, that, though always moving, make no progress. Prudent men, on
the contrary, who measure their own strength, and advance cautiously,
are greatly esteemed by that nation, though with us they pass for fools
or cowards. The Potuans and Martinians are examples of both these
extremes. By the former Klim was considered a blockhead, on account of
the quickness of his perceptions; by the latter he was equally despised
for the slowness of his apprehension. To Klim, who measures virtues and
vices by the ordinary standard, everything is a paradox; but what he at
first condemns, he admires and extols after deliberation; so that the
object of the whole work is to correct popular errors, and to
distinguish the semblance of virtue and vice from the reality. Its
subordinate design is to expose the