Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/310

This page needs to be proofread.

( 82 )

¬a night as I had spent. — Instead of peaceful and refreshing slumbers, the blessed refuge from painful recollections, whilst the body is wind- ing up into recruited strength, I tossed and tumbled in my bed, with shattered nerves, and a fever which consumed me; with images brought into view neither by waking remem- brance, nor the offspring of sleep, but partaking distractedly of both ; perplexing the mind with hideous phantoms in their pursuit. One distinct consoling thought only preponderated — the sweet remembrance of my own dear country. ¬It can hardly have escaped the observation of the reader, that in the course of life I have been describing, the Armatans could have no natural enjoyment of the summer, nor see much of the light of day. — Yet to assert that nature herself might be infected with this inversion, or affronted by such neglect, would, in this age of philo- sophy, be a hazardous proposition — but there can be no hazard whatever in stating a fact : if you hatch the eggs of a hen for three genera- tions, ¬