SKETCHES OF SWITZERLAND. By J. FENNIMORE COOPER, Author of “The Spy,”
&c. &c. in 2 vols. 12mo.
A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE, with an Excursion up the Rhine, and a Second
Visit to Switzerland. By the same Author. In 2 vols. 12mo.
“As we take up the pen to note down our impressions of these volumes,
we feel as though we had just returned from an excursion in
Switzerland, with a companion full to overflowing with an intense love
of nature, and an exquisite taste for the picturesque. We cannot give
our thanks and praise a more cordial emphasis—but if we could, we
would; for so much pleasure are we indebted to Mr. Cooper. After the
dull flats and dreary wastes of reading, of which there is abundance
in all seasons, how “refreshing” (the word is unavoidable) to ascend
with such a guide into the mountainous regions of literature. To those
who are at all acquainted with the bold and vivid style of Mr.
Cooper’s descriptions of natural marvels and magnificence—and to whom
are his original powers of imagery and expression unknown?—we need
only say, that these powers have been unsparingly employed in the
present volumes. It is only necessary to remind the reader of what Mr.
Cooper can do, when his enthusiasm is kindled, to bid him recollect
that the scene of the author’s excursions is Switzerland. Upon such a
subject as the scenery of Switzerland, how could Mr. Cooper fail to
write with infinite freshness, grace, energy, and poetic ardour. Many
of the letters moreover (for the work is in that form) have the
advantage of being written under the immediate feelings excited by a
first, unfading view of the beauties and wonders described. In short,
this is just the work for every body to read and every body to relish.
Mr. Cooper has attempted, in these letters, little beyond descriptions
of external nature. Switzerland, as he remarks, enjoying probably the
sublimest as well as the most diversified beauties of this sort that
exist on the globe, would seem to have a claim to be treated sui
generis. Man, says the writer, appears almost to sink to a secondary
rank in such a country. We feel all the force of this remark, and are
quite content that Mr. Cooper should have confined the range of his
genius to the higher ground. He has found room and reward there, much
as it had been described before.”—_Court Journal._
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