"...that wondrous thing of twelve inches length..."
I came across this delightful quote in a naval biography recently. I'll leave you to imagine my reaction...
Smooth, brilliant, speckless, a thing so brilliant in form, so graceful in position, so admirably proportioned.....the whole compact, fitted utility and beauty, even more perfectly than that wondrous thing of twelve inches length, on which I had looked with so much admiration!
In case you're wondering, the author is comparing a ship model to an actual ship. Why? What else did you think he was referring to? :}
What a wonder of creation did she appear to me! The most delicate and exquisite work of hands which I had ever seen, in imitation of a ship, was enshrined in a glass case; a corvette, built of ivory and ebony, and tackled with silken cordage. Smooth, brilliant, speckless, a thing so beautiful in form, so graceful in position, so admirably proportioned, so elegantly neat in finish, that I almost loved it, as if it had been some creature of life, endowed with a soul. But here was one which, with her vastness of size, her admeasurement of more than two thousand tons, her three tiers of ports, her hundred and twenty guns, which could rain forth a deluge of destruction and death by three thousand three hundred pounds weight of iron, in tremendous thunder; and lodging within her bowels one thousand men; with the immense thickness and strength of her lower masts, and extended yards and upward towering topmasts, with her tons on tons of cables and cordage, exhibited all the elegance of form, neatness of decoration, nice accuracy of arrangement, the whole compact, fitted utility and beauty, even more perfectly than that wondrous thing of twelve inches length, on which I had looked with so much admiration! A fairy's fingers, working on gossamer and pearl, would not have turned out of hand a thing of more faultless order and delicacy.
Fox, W.J., (1843), The Life and Literary Remains of C. R. Pemberton; with Remarks on His Character and Genius, London.
And on and on it goes... :}
Smooth, brilliant, speckless, a thing so brilliant in form, so graceful in position, so admirably proportioned.....the whole compact, fitted utility and beauty, even more perfectly than that wondrous thing of twelve inches length, on which I had looked with so much admiration!
In case you're wondering, the author is comparing a ship model to an actual ship. Why? What else did you think he was referring to? :}
What a wonder of creation did she appear to me! The most delicate and exquisite work of hands which I had ever seen, in imitation of a ship, was enshrined in a glass case; a corvette, built of ivory and ebony, and tackled with silken cordage. Smooth, brilliant, speckless, a thing so beautiful in form, so graceful in position, so admirably proportioned, so elegantly neat in finish, that I almost loved it, as if it had been some creature of life, endowed with a soul. But here was one which, with her vastness of size, her admeasurement of more than two thousand tons, her three tiers of ports, her hundred and twenty guns, which could rain forth a deluge of destruction and death by three thousand three hundred pounds weight of iron, in tremendous thunder; and lodging within her bowels one thousand men; with the immense thickness and strength of her lower masts, and extended yards and upward towering topmasts, with her tons on tons of cables and cordage, exhibited all the elegance of form, neatness of decoration, nice accuracy of arrangement, the whole compact, fitted utility and beauty, even more perfectly than that wondrous thing of twelve inches length, on which I had looked with so much admiration! A fairy's fingers, working on gossamer and pearl, would not have turned out of hand a thing of more faultless order and delicacy.
Fox, W.J., (1843), The Life and Literary Remains of C. R. Pemberton; with Remarks on His Character and Genius, London.
And on and on it goes... :}