Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT, SAT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, and AP English Test Preparation.
LETTER 1
TO MRS. SAVILLE, ENGLAND
St. Petersburgh, Dec. 11th, 17 —
You will
rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement
of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings. I arrived
here yesterday, and my first task is to assure my dear sister of my welfare and
increasing confidence in the success of my undertaking.
I am already far north of London, and as I walk in the streets of Petersburgh,
I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my
cheeks, which
braces my nerves and
fills me with delight. Do you understand this feeling? This breeze, which has
travelled from the regions towards which I am advancing, gives me a
foretaste of
those icy climes.
Inspirited by this wind of promise, my daydreams become
more fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of
frost and
desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of
beauty and delight. There, Margaret, the sun is forever visible, its broad disk just
skirting the horizon and
diffusing a perpetual splendour. There — for with your
leave, my sister, I will put some trust in preceding navigators — there snow and
frost are banished; and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to a land
surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the