beluosus | Discoveries in Lycia, Sir Charles Fellows

Diem Saturni cunctam in Bibliotheca Artis Gentilica (National Art Library) librum An account of discoveries in Lycia, being a journal kept during a second excursion in Asia Minor Charles Fellowsi legebam. Lectio diem totam paene consumpsit, sed et horam cum Melle media die prandi. Pagina ultima evoluta, e bibliotheca clausura discessi.

Codex vetusta et mucida mihi et sententiis et scientia et corpore suis placebat, et dies pluvia ac frigida aeque delectabat. Porro bibliotheca ipsa est perpulchra. Nec recentior nec inornata, sed thecis ligneis librorum antiquorum plenis circumdata, ferreis cum scalis spiralibus, ingentibusque cum fenestris e quibus conspectus aulae musei latericiae (cum toreumatis neo-classicis) videtur. Silens est, praeter paginorum crepitum ; tamen me iuxta puellam irate sese murmurare thesaurum verborum Germanicorum Anglicorumque scrutentem audivi.

Paginas VI commentariorum e libro exscripseram, inscriptionum plerumque Graecarum et unius et Graecae et Lyciae. Valde similes Etruscis sunt litterae Lyciae (non solum eae quas Graecum communiter fert), sed verba haudquaquam. De monumentis et ruinis urbium multa, de moribus vitisque Lyciorum perpauca Fellows scripsit. Sic expectaveram ut studio lectionis non noceret, attamen de religione et ritibus funereis notionibusque legere desidero. Illi sarcophagi lycii me obsident. Aedificatores eorum intellegere volo. Heu, nec Herodoto nec Homero funditus credo, nec Stabo nec Plinius rem quamdam tractat. Nam, quondam dum Lyciam sepulchraque illius cognovi, opinionem insolitam sive rumorem insanum audivi, vel audivisse me credebam. Aut somnium aut verum me adeo percussit ut permultas post annos etiam me obsideret. (Memini certitudinis prioris, sed cum totiens effugissent anni dubium surrepsit crescebatque.) Quem dixisse ignoro, sed diu comperire nitebar, iam niteor : Lycios mortuos suos in terra humare timuisse.

In valle Arycandi locum bellum, quem Freya Stark quoque in libro suo de Lycia eandem vallem spectans memoravit, Fellows scripsit :

...A journal is, after all, only a register of the state of the mind as impressed by the objects of the day; I shall therefore not hesitate to describe my own feelings, and confess that I never felt less inclined or less able to put to paper any remarks than the impressions produced by my ride during the last five hours. I have heard others speak of a melancholy being caused by the overwhelming effect of the sublime; but it is not melancholy when better analysed; it is a thoughtfulness and feeling of gratified pleasure which affects me, and I long to express what perhaps is better indicated by the prostration of the Oriental worshipper than by any verbal description; I feel as if I had come into the world and seen the perfection of its loveliness, and was satisfied. I know no scenery equal in sublimnity and beauty to this part of Lycia.

Peregrinari debeo. Antea autem, quod amoenitatem propriam habet, ad bibliothecam redibo.