The road hither is all a heavy sand, cut through vast forests of
ever-green timber, but not beautiful like those of Bavaria, rather
tedious, flat, and tristful: to encrease which sensations, and make them
more grievous to us, our servants complained bitterly of the last long
frosty night, which we spent wholly in the carriage till it brought us
here, where the man of the house, a bad one enough indeed, speaks as good
English as I do, and has lived long in London. I am not much enchanted
with this place however. Dean Swift said, that a good style was only
proper words in proper places; and if a good city is to be judged of
in the same way, perhaps Berlin may obtain the first place, which one
would not on an immediate glance think it likely to deserve; as a mere
residence however, it will be difficult to find a finer.
He who sighs for the happy union of situation, climate, fertility, and
grandeur, will think _Genoa_ transcends all that even a warm imagination
can wish. If with a very, very little less degree of positive beauty, he
feels himself chiefly affected by a number of Nature’s most interesting
features, finely, and even philosophically arranged; _Naples_ is the town
that can afford him most matter both of solemn and pleasing speculation.
If ruins of pristine splendour, solid proofs of universal dominion,
_once_, nay _twice_ enjoyed: with the view of temporal power crushed by
its own weight, solicits his curiosity.--It will be amply gratified at
_Rome_; where all that modern magnificence can perform, is added to all
that ancient empire has left behind. Romantic ideas of Armida’s palace,
fancied scenes of perennial pleasure, and magical images of ever varying
delight, will be best realized at smiling _Venice_ of any place; but if
a city may be called perfect in proportion to its external convenience,
if making many houses to hold many people, keeping infection away by
cleanliness, and ensuring security against fire by a nice separation
of almost every building from almost every other; if uniformity of
appearance can compensate for elegance of architecture, and space make
amends for beauty, _Berlin_ certainly deserves to be seen, and he who
planned it, to be highly commended. The whole looks at its worst now; all
the churches are in mourning, so are the coaches: no theatre is open, and
no music heard, except now and then a melancholy German organ droning
its dull round of tunes under one’s window, without even the London
accompaniment of a hoarse voice crying _Woolfleet oysters_. Come! Berlin
can boast an arsenal capable of containing arms for two hundred and fifty
thousand men. The contempt of decoration for a place destined to real
use seemed respectable in itself, and characteristic of its founder. No
columns of guns or capitals of pistols, neatly placed, are to be seen
here. A vast, large, clean, cold-looking room, with swords and muskets
laid up only that they may be taken down, is all one has to look at in
Frederick’s preparations for attack or defence.
In accumulation of ornaments one hopes to find elegance, and in
rejection of superfluity there is dignity of sentiment; but nothing
can excuse a sovereign prince for keeping as curiosities worthy a
traveller’s attention, a heap of trumpery fit to furnish out the shop of
a Westminster pawnbroker. Our cabinet of rarities here is literally no
better than twenty old country gentlemen’s seats, situated in the distant
provinces of England, shew to the servants of a neighbouring family upon
a Christmas visit, when the housekeeper is in good humour, and, gently
wiping the dust off my _late lady’s mother’s_ amber-boxes, produces forth
the wax figures of my lord John and my lord Robert when _babies_. For
this pitiable exhibition, ships cut in paper, and saints carved in wood,
we paid half a guinea each; not gratuity to the person who has them in
charge, but tax imposed by the government. Every house here is obliged
to maintain so many soldiers, excepting such and such only who have the
word _free_ written over their doors; here seem to be no people in the
town almost except soldiers though; so they naturally command whatever
is to be had. Most nations begin and end with a _military_ dominion,
as red is commonly the first and last colour obtained by the chymist
in his various experiments upon artificial tints. This state is yet
young, and many things in it not quite come to their full growth, so we
must not be rigorous in our judgments. I have seen the library, in which
we were for the first time shewn what is confidently _said_ to be an
Æthiopian manuscript, and such it certainly may be for aught I know. What
interested me much more was our Tonson’s _Cæsar_, a book remarkable for
having been written by the first hero and general in the world perhaps,
dedicated to the second, and possessed by the third. Here is an exceeding
perfect collection of all Hogarth’s prints.
This city appears to be a very wholesome one; the houses are not high to
confine the air between them, or drive it forward in currents upon the
principle of Paris or Vienna; the streets are few, but long, straight,
and wide; ground has not been spared in its construction, which seems a
most judicious one; and with this well-earned praise I am most willing
to quit it. It is the first place of any consequence I have felt in a
hurry to run away from; for till now there have been _some_ attractions
in every town; something that commanded veneration or invited fondness;
something pleasing in its society, or instructive in its history. It
would however be sullen enough to feel no agreeable sensation in seeing
this child of the present century come to age so: the tomb of its author
is the object of our present curiosity, which will be gratified to-morrow.
Ou sont ils donc, ces foudres de guerre,
Qui faisoient trembler l’univers?
Ils ne sont plus qu’un peu de terre,
Restes, qu’ont epargnis les vers[52].