1841. RICHARD CLEASBY. Ixxxv

of the series, for the better understanding of the other class of readers. But even in the Landnama-
book the circumflex over words like Jianmn, var, vapJi, etc., is retained ; the accent also over ang, ing,
and wig, and with the greatest difficulty the separation of ce and œ has been retained ; but it appears
uncertain if it will be done in future volumes. I, at the meeting, expressed my greatest dissatis-
faction at this variance from the agreement entered into, and Pctersen, Gislason and myself, and
F. Magnusen after hearing my grounds, decidedly acquiesced in the abolition of the circumflex over
hánum, vár, svá, and the like ; also that of the ' over ang, ing, and ting, and in the separation of œ
and œ. Sivertsen was almost silent on the subject, but, even reckoning him with Rafn, we were four
against two; notwithstanding which Rafn has refused to make any alteration. As to 0? and œ, he
seemed at one time to admit the chief objection to separating them was their incapacity to correctly
distinguish them, and indeed shewed throughout the whole argument the greatest ignorance of the
first principles of the language.'

On the 2yth of April he wrote thus to Kemble :

^c I have been toiling very hard in the Icelandic field all this winter, and am not a little
exhausted. The further I get from the beginning the further I seem to be from the end ; but
in time I suppose the perspective will change. I expect to leave this in a fortnight or three weeks
for Germany, and shall, I think, very likely be in England towards the beginning of July.'

On the same clay he wrote to Mr. John Shaw Lefevre :

' As to the Icelandic Opus, I have been toiling incessantly since I wrote you last, grubbing
away at the foundations ; but it is a slow operation ; indeed the further I get from the beginning
the more I think the end seems to recede; a quality which, at ten or twelve years of age, one
would doubtless have hailed with joy in a plum-cake, but which in a pursuit like the one in question
is not so attractive; one is involuntarily reminded of the Will o' the Wisp. To judge from the
basement, of which portions here and there arc beginning to be visible above the ground, I fear
the edifice in point of extent much exceeds what I at first expected.'

Then, passing to politics, that being the time of the Turco-Egyptian quarrel with
France, he says :

' Denmark partakes, with the whole world besides, of that disquieting sensation of envy occasioned
by the unrivalled position England occupies, her gigantic power, and her unexampled successes ;
the radiance which surrounds her is too bright for a weak vision ; eyes of such a class are unable to
even gaze at it without smarting, and this annoys their possessor. I cannot, however, doubt that
every sensible and impartial man must be rejoiced at the result of the whole affair—a bold and
straightforward, decided course crowned with success—veering and truckling and cunning by-views
completely put to the rout! If the French would however but have seen their error, and acknow-
ledged it, and profited by it for the future, the injury sustained by them would have been
comparatively trifling ; but instead of this they seek to mask the truth, and attempt to glory in
their error; still further deceiving themselves with, as it were, the celebration of a sort of triumph in
their fortification of Paris ; a measifre which I regard as the commencement of a new epoch for that
unstable nation, and one decidedly of " decadence." The Icelandic labours have exhausted me not
a little, and I am looking to my departure from this place in two or three weeks for Germany.'

On the 4th of May he notes :

' Paid N. C. Möller for bookbinding nine dollars; seven dollars of it for the two books for my
Icelandic Dictionary.'

On the loth he says :

' Universal fast-day. The only day in the year that one has no new bread ; the bakers getting
a night's rest.'

On the i yth of May he left Copenhagen for Lubeck, but before he went he sent