The most rich and splendid part of the town belongs to a family of the

name of FUGGERS (originally descended from a weaver), who enriched

themselves by commerce, and one of whom rendered not only himself, but

the whole family, conspicuous, by entertaining the Emperor CHARLES the

Fifth in a superb manner, and supplying him with money, and then

throwing his bond into the fire; in return for which, the Emperor made

him a Count of the Empire.

This city is remarkable for goldsmiths’ ware; and its mechanics are

equal to any in the world, for works in gold, ivory, clocks, and

time-pieces; and they engrave better than any people in Germany, which

brings them considerable profits. But what they are, above all other

people, eminent for, is the manufacturing steel-chains so prodigiously

fine, that when one of them, of a span in length, has been put about the

neck of a flea, it lifts up the whole of it as it leaps; and yet those

are sold for less than a shilling of our money a piece.

Controversy, and difference in religious opinions, which has almost,

ever since the commencement of Christianity, disgraced the human

understanding, and defaced society, imposes upon the liberal,

well-thinking traveller, the office of satirist but too often.

Augsburgh, however, is a splendid exception, and holds up a most

glorious spectacle of manly sense, generous sentiment, justice, and I

will say policy too, vanquishing that shark-jawed enemy of Mankind,

bigotry. The Magistracy of Augsburgh is composed of about an equal

number of Protestants and Roman Catholics——their Senate consisting of

twenty-three Roman Catholics and twenty-two Lutherans, and their Common

Council of a hundred and fifty of each: The executive power is lodged in

the Senate——the legislative authority in both bodies. But, what is

hardly to be found any where, they all, as well as the People, agree

together in the most perfect harmony, notwithstanding the difference of

religion; and at all tables but the Communion table, they associate

together, dip in the same dish, and drink of the same cup, as if they

had never heard of the odious distinction of Papist and Protestant, but

as being bound to each other by the great and irrefragable bond of

humanity: fellow-creatures, affected by the same feelings, impelled by

the same passions, labouring under the same necessities, and heirs to

the same sufferings, their means of assuaging the one, gratifying or

resisting another, and supplying the third, are the same, though

chequered and varied a little in the mode——the road alone different, the

ends alike. Is it not cruel, then——is it not intolerable, that the

calamaties inseparable from humanity should be aggravated with

artificial stings, and the nakedness of human nature exposed, and

rendered more offensive, by factitious calamities of human contrivance?

Cursed were those who first fomented those disputes, and cast those

apples of discord through the world: blind were they who first were

seduced from the paths of peace by them; and more cursed, and more

blind, must they be, who, in this time of intellect and illumination,

continue, on the one hand, to keep up a system so wicked and so

detestable, or, on the other, to submit to error at once so foolish and

so fatal.

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LETTER XX.

-------------------------------------------

For the reasons mentioned in my last, Augsburgh is a most

agreeable place to live in. Touched with the sensations natural to a man

who loved to see his fellow-creatures happy, my heart expanded to a

system of peace and harmony, comprehending the whole globe: my mind

expatiated involuntarily on the blessings and advantages derived from

such a system; and, taking flight from the bounds of practicability, to

which our feeble nature is pinned on this earth, into the regions of

fancy, had reared a fabric of Utopian mold, which, I verily believe,

exceeded in extravagance the works of all the Utopian architects that

ever constructed castles in the air.

Hurried on by this delightful vision, my person paid an involuntary

obedience to my mind; and the quickness of my pace increasing with the

impetuosity of my thoughts, I found myself, before I was aware of it,

within the Chapel-door of the Convent of the Carmelites. Observing my

error, I suddenly turned about, in order to depart, when a Friar, a

goodly person of a man, elderly, and of a benign aspect, called me, and,

advancing towards me, asked, in terms of politeness, and in the French

language, why I was retreating so abruptly——I was confused: but truth is

the enemy before whom confusion ever flies; and I told him the whole of

my mistake, and the thoughts from which they arose.

The good father, waving further discourse on the subject, but with a

smile which I thought carried a mixture of benevolence for myself, and

contempt for my ideas, brought me through the Church, and shewed me all

the curiosities of the place, and particularly pointed out to me, as a

great curiosity, a sun-dial made in the form of a Madonna, the head

enriched with rays and stars, and in the hand a sceptre which marked the

hours.

Quitting the Chapel, and going towards the Refectory, the Friar stood,

and, looking at me with a smile of gaiety, said, “I have yet something

to shew you, which, while Lady Madonna marks the time, will help us to

pass it; and, as it will make its way with more force and subtlety to

your senses than those I have yet shewn you, will be likely to be longer

retained in remembrance.”

He spoke a few words in German, which of course I did not understand, to

a vision bearing the shape of a human creature, who, I understood, was a

lay-brother; and, turning down a long alley, brought me to his cell,

where we were soon followed by the aforesaid lay-brother, with a large

earthen jug of liquor, two glasses, and a plate with some delicately

white biscuit.

“You must know,” said the Friar, “that the Convent of Carmelites at

Augsburgh has for ages been famed for beer unequalled in any part of the

world; and I have brought you here to have your opinion——for, being an

Englishman, you must be a judge, the Britons being famed for luxury, and

a perfect knowledge of the _savoir vivre_.” He poured out, and drank to

me: it looked liker the clearest Champaigne than beer——I never tasted

any thing to equal it; and he seemed highly gratified by my expressions

of praise, which I lavished upon it, as well from politeness, as regard

to truth.

After we had drank a glass each, “I have been reflecting,” said the

Friar, “on the singular flight of fancy that directed your steps into

this Convent——Your mind was diseased, my son! and a propitious

superintending Power has guided your steps to a physician, if you will

but have the goodness to take the medicine he offers.”

I stared with visible marks of astonishment.

“You are surprised,” continued he; “but you shall hear! When first you

disclosed to me those sickly flights of your mind, I could on the

instant have answered them: but you are young——you are an

Englishman——two characters impatient of reproof: the dogmas of a Priest,

I thought therefore, would be sufficiently difficult to be digested of

themselves, without any additional distaste caught from the chilling

austerity of a Chapel.”

I looked unintentionally at the earthen jug, and smiled.

“It is very true,” said he, catching my very inmost thoughts from the

expression of my countenance——“it is very true! good doctrine may, at

certain times, and with certain persons, be more effectually enforced

under the cheering influence of the social board, than by the

authoritative declamation and formal sanctity of the pulpit; nor am I,

though a Carmelite, one of those who pretend to think, that a thing in

itself good, can be made bad by decent hilarity, and the animation

produced by a moderate and wise use of the goods of this earth.”

I was astonished——

“You fell into a reverie,” continued he, “produced by a contemplation of

the happiness of a society existing without any difference, and where no

human breath should be wasted on a sigh, no ear tortured with a groan,

no tears to trickle, no griefs or calamities to wring the heart.”

“Yes, father!” said I, catching the idea with my former enthusiasm;

“that would be my wish——that my greatest, first desire.”

“Then seest thou,” interrupted he, “the extent of thy wish, suppose you

could realize it, which, thank GOD! you cannot.”

“What! thank GOD that I cannot? are these your thoughts?”

“Yes, my son; and ere Madonna marks the progress of ten minutes with her

sceptre, they will be your’s too.”

“Impossible!”

“Hear me, my son!——Is not death a horrible precipice to the view of

human creatures?”

“Assuredly,” said I——“the most horrible: human laws declare that, by

resorting to it for punishment, as the ultimatum of all terrible

inflictions.”

“When, then,” said he, “covered as we are with misery, to leave this

world is so insupportable to the human reflection, what must it be if we

had nothing but joy and felicity to taste of in this life? Mark me,

child!” said he, with an animated zeal that gave an expression to his

countenance beyond any thing I had ever seen: “the miseries, the

calamities, the heart-rendings, and the tears, which are so intimately

interwoven by the great Artist in our natures as not to be separated in

a single instance, are in the first place our security of a future

state, and in the next place serve to slope the way before us, and, by

gradual operation, fit our minds for viewing, with some sort of

fortitude, that hideous chasm that lies between us and that

state——death. View those miseries, then, as special acts of mercy and

commiseration of a beneficient Creator, who, with every calamity, melts

away a link of that earthly chain that fetters our wishes to this dismal

world. Accept his blessings and his goods, when he sends them, with

gratitude and enjoyment: receive his afflictions, too, with as joyous

acceptance, and as hearty gratitude. Thus, and not otherwise, you will

realize all your Utopian flights of desire, by turning every thing to

matter of comfort, and living contented with dispensations which you

cannot alter, and, if you could, would most certainly alter for the

worse.”

I sat absorbed in reflection——The Friar, after some pause, proceeded——

“Errors arising from virtuous dispositions and the love of our

fellow-creatures, take their complexion from their parent motives, and

are virtuous. Your wishes, therefore, my son! though erroneous, merit

reward, and, I trust, will receive it from that Being who sees the

recesses of the heart; and if the truths I have told you have not failed

to make their way to your understanding, let your adventure of to-day

impress this undeniable maxim on your mind——so limited is Man, so

imperfect in his nature, that the extent of his virtue borders on vice,

and the extent of his wisdom on error.”

I thought he was inspired; and, just as he got to the last period, every

organ of mine was opened to take in his words.

“’Tis well, my son!” said he——“I perceive you like my doctrine: then

(changing his manner of speaking, his expressive countenance the whole

time almost anticipating his whole words) take some more of it,” said he

gaily, pouring out a fresh glass. I pleaded the fear of inebriety——“Fear

not,” said he; “the beer of this Convent never hurts the intellect.”

Our conversation continued till near dinner-time; for I was so

delighted, I scarcely knew how to snatch myself away: such a happy

melange of piety and pleasantry, grave wisdom and humour, I had never

met. At length, the Convent-bell tolling, I rose: he took me by the

hand, and, in a tone of the most complacent admonition, said, “Remember,

my child! as long as you live, remember the Convent of the Carmelites;

and in the innumerable evils that certainly await you if you are to live

long, the words you have heard from old Friar AUGUSTINE will afford you

comfort.”

“Father!” returned I, “be assured I carry away from you a token that

will never suffer me to forget the hospitality, the advice or the

politeness of the good father AUGUSTINE. Poor as I am in natural means,

I can make no other return than my good wishes, nor leave any impression

behind me: but as my esteem for you, and perhaps my vanity, make me wish

not to be forgotten, accept this, (a seal ring, with a device in hair,

which I happened to have on my finger); and whenever you look at it, let

it remind you of one of those, I dare say innumerable, instances, in

which you have contributed to the happiness and improvement of your

fellow-creatures.”

The good old man was affected, took the ring, and attended me to the

Convent gate, pronouncing many blessings, and charging me to make

Augsburgh my way back again to England if possible, and take one glass

more of the Convent ale.

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LETTER XXI.

-------------------------------------------

Leaving Augsburgh, I travelled through Bavaria a long way before I

reached the Tyrol County, of the natural beauty of which I had heard

much, and which I therefore entered with great expectations of that

sublime gratification the beauties of Nature never fail to afford me. I

was not disappointed; indeed, my warmest expectations were exceeded.

The first thing that strikes a traveller from Bavaria, on entering it,

is the fort of Cherink, built between two inaccessible rocks which

separate Tyrol from the Bishopric of Freisingen. So amply has Nature

provided for the security of this Country against the incursion of an

enemy, that there is not a pass which leads to it that is not through

some narrow defile between mountains almost inaccessible; and on the

rocks and brows of those passes, the Emperor has constructed forts and

citadels, so advantageously placed, that they command all the valleys

and avenues beneath.

After a variety of windings and turnings through mountains of stupendous

height and awful aspect, I began to descend, and entered the most

delightful valley I had ever beheld——deep, long, and above a mile in

breadth——surrounded with enormous piles of mountains, and diversified

with the alternate beauties of nature and cultivation, so as to form an

union rarely to be met with, and delight at once the eye of the farmer,

and the fancy of him that has a true taste for rural wildness. From the

heights in descending, the whole appeared in all its glory; the

beautiful river Inn gliding along through it longitudinally, its banks

studded with the most romantic little villages, while a number of

inferior streams were seen winding in different courses, and hastening

to pour their tribute into its bosom.

Here I felt my heart overwhelmed with sensations of transport, which all

the works of art could never inspire: here Nature rushed irresistible

upon my senses, and, making them captive, exacted their acknowledgment

of her supremacy: here vanity, ambition, lust of fame and power, and all

the tinselled, gaudy, frippery to which habit and worldly custom enslave

the mind, retired, to make way for sentiments of harmony, purity,

simplicity, and truth: here Providence seemed to speak in language most

persuasive, “come, silly Man, leave the wild tumult, the endless

struggle, the glittering follies, the false and spurious pleasures which

artifice creates, to seduce you from the true——dwell here——and in the

lap of Nature study me:” Here, oh! here, exclaimed I, in a transport

which bereft me, for the time, of every other consideration, here will I

dwell for ever. The charm was too finely spun, to withstand the hard

tugs of fact; and all its precious delusions vanished before a host of

gloomy truths——deranged affairs——family far off, with the distance daily

increasing——the hazards and the hardships of a long untried journey——and

the East Indies, with all its horrors, in the rear. I hung my head in

sorrow; and, offering up a prayer to protect my family, strengthen

myself, and bring us once more together in some spot heavenly as that I

passed through, was proceeding on in a state of dejection proportionate

to my previous transports, when I was roused by my postillion, who,

pointing to a very high, steep rock, desired me to take notice of it. I

did so; but seeing nothing very remarkable in its appearance, asked him

what he meant by directing my attention to it——He answered me in the

following manner, which, from the singularity of the narrative, and his

strange mode of telling it, I think it would injure to take out of his

own words: I will, therefore, endeavour, as well as I can, to give you a

literal translation of it; and, indeed, the impression it made on my

memory was such, that, I apprehend, I shall not materially differ from

his words:

“You must know, Sir, (for every one in the world knows it), that all

these mountains around us, are the abodes of good and evil spirits, or

Genii——the latter of whom are continually doing every malicious thing

they can devise, to injure the people of the country,——such as leading

them astray——smothering them in the snow——killing the cattle by throwing

them down precipices——nay, when they can do no worse, drying up the milk

in the udders of the goats——and, sometimes, putting between young men

and their sweethearts, and stopping their marriage. Ten thousand curses

light upon them! I should have been married two years ago, and had two

children to-day, but for their schemes. In short, Sir, if it were not

for the others——the good ones——who are always employed (and the blessed

Virgin knows they have enough on their hands) in preventing the

mischiefs of those devils, the whole place would be destroyed, and the

country left without a living thing, man or goat!”

Here I could not, for the life of me, retain my gravity any longer, but

burst, in spite of me, into an immoderate fit of laughter, which so

disconcerted and offended him, that he sullenly refused to proceed with

the story any farther, but continued marking his forehead (his hat off)

with a thousand crosses, uttering pious ejaculations, looking at me with

a mixture of terror, distrust and admiration, and every now and then

glancing his eye askance toward the hills, as if fearful of a descent

from the evil spirits.

My curiosity was awakened by the very extraordinary commencement of his

narrative; and I determined, if possible, to hear it out: so, assuring

him that I meant nothing either of slight or wickedness by my

laughter——that I had too serious ideas of such things to treat them with

levity——and, what was more convincing logic with him, promising to

reward him for it——he proceeded with his story as follows:

“Well, Sir, you say you were not sporting with those Spirits——and

fortunate it is for you: at all events, Saint JOHN OF GOD be our guide,

and bring us safe to Innspruck. Just so the great MAXIMILIAN was wont to

laugh at them; and you shall hear how he was punished for it——and that

was the story I was about to tell you. The Emperor MAXIMILIAN, that

glory of the world, (he is now in the lap of the blessed Virgin in

Paradise), once on a time, before he was Emperor, that is to say, when

he was Archduke, was always laughing at the country people’s fears of

those spirits——and an old Father of the Church forewarned him to beware,

lest he should suffer for his rashness: so one day he went out hunting,

and at the foot of that mountain a most beautiful Chamois started before

him; he shot at it, and missed it——(the first shot he had missed for

many years, which you know was warning enough to him)——however, he

followed, shooting at and missing it, the animal standing every now and

then till he came up within shot of it: thus he continued till near

night, when the goat disappeared of a sudden, and he found himself

buried, as it were, in the bowels of the mountain: he endeavoured to

find his way out, but in vain; every step he took led him more astray,

and he was for two days wandering about, CHRIST save us! in the

frightful hollows of those mountains, living all the time on wild

berries: on the second night he bethought himself of his want of faith,

and of the saying of old Father JEROME; and he fell on his knees, and

wept and prayed all night; and the Virgin heard his prayers, he being a

good man, and above all, an Emperor——GOD bless you and me! we should

have perished——In the morning, a beautiful young man, dressed in a

peasant’s habit, came up to him, gave him victuals and wine, and desired

him to follow him, which he did, you may be sure, joyfully——but, oh

blessed Virgin! think what his surprise must have been, when, getting

again into the plain out of the mountain, the young man disappeared and

vanished all of a sudden, just at the foot of that steep rock which I

shewed you, and which ever since goes by the name of the Emperor’s

rock——You see what a dangerous place it is, and what dangerous spirits

they must be that would not spare even the holy Roman Emperor. In my

mind, the best way is to say nothing against those things, as some

faithless people do, and to worship the Virgin and keep a good

conscience, and then one will have the less to fear.”

By the time he had ended his narrative, we were in sight of Innspruck,

when I annoyed and terrified him afresh, by laughing immoderately at the

end of his story——but attoned in some measure for it, by giving him half

a florin.

On inquiring at Innspruck, I found that MAXIMILIAN had actually lost his

way in the mountain, and had been conducted out of it by a peasant, who

left him suddenly; the rest was an exaggerated traditionary tale,

arising from the superstitious fears of the country people.

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LETTER XXII.

-------------------------------------------

In all Nations under Heaven, and at all times since the Creation,

there have been men formed to make a noise in the world——to increase or

impede, to direct or disturb, the calm, sober progress of social

life——and, in the eagerness and violence of their efforts to reach the

goal of superiority, overturn or thrust out of their ordinary path the

rest of Mankind, till either they provoke against them a general

conspiracy of their fellow-creatures, or, till reaching the point of

their pursuit, they become elevated objects of homage and admiration.

Such men are generally composed of great materials for mischief:——having

strong natural talents and violent ungovernable spirits; according to

the direction these get, they are harmless or mischievous——but, like

morbid matter in the animal system, if not let loose by some channel or

other, they never fail to disturb the whole economy of the body they

belong to, and produce fatal consequences to it and to themselves:

Colonial possessions have, therefore, in some views, been of use (as

America formerly to England) to draw off those dangerous spirits, who,

though they are in times of peace better at a distance, in times of war

are found to be the toughest sinews of a Nation.

The county of Tyrol, such as I have described it, formed by Nature for

the residence of the Sylvan Deities, rich in the products of the earth,

the people contented and happy, and the whole the region of peace;

manufactures, the first root of low vices, and commerce, the great

instigator of war, have scarcely been able to set their feet there:

hence it happens, that there is no channel through which those exuberant

spirits I have alluded to can take their course, or expand their force.

Home, therefore, is no place for those of the Tyrolese, who are cursed

or blessed (call it which you please) with those very combustible

qualities; and they are obliged to roam abroad in search of

opportunities of distinguishing themselves, giving vent to their

spirits, and manifesting their talents. They are found, therefore,

scattered all over the Continent: and as it rarely happens that

opportunities occur in life of signalising such talents in a dignified

line, rather than be idle they do what they can, and apply to chicanery

as a wide and appropriate field for their genius and vigour to work

on——the emigrant Tyrolese are, therefore, by most Nations of the

Continent, reckoned among the most expert and accomplished sharpers in

the world——the people, however, who remain at home, are of a different

character——they are, generally speaking, tall, robust and vigorous; the

women strong, and very fair; and both sexes exhibit a very pleasing

mixture of German phlegm and Italian sprightliness; or, to speak more

properly, they are a mean between those two extremes.

Innspruck, though a small city, is handsome and agreeable, standing in a

very beautiful valley, surrounded with mountains, which, while their

lower parts are well cultivated, are capped on the tops with perennial

snow. The castle formerly the residence of the Austrian Princes is

stately and magnificent, adorned within with fine paintings, and

decorated without by natural and artificial fountains, statues, pleasant

gardens, groves, walks and covered galleries, leading to five different

Churches.

_A-propos_——Let me not forget the Churches! In a chapel of the

Franciscan Church, there is an image of the Virgin MARY as big as the

life, of solid silver, with many other images of Saints of the same

metal. If some of those silver Deities were transferred to Paris, I fear

their divinity would not save them from the hands of the sacrilegious

Convention. One thing, however, is well worth the attention of

travellers, particularly those who wish to wipe away the sins of a

deceased friend, and get them a direct passport to happiness——This

Franciscan Church is held to be one of the most sacred and venerable in

the world, on account of the indulgences granted to it by several Popes;

so that one single Mass said in it, is declared to be sufficient to

deliver a soul from the pains of purgatory. When we consider the great

and important extent of their power in that respect, we cannot wonder if

they had all the Saints in the Calendar, and the Virgin MARY to boot, in

solid silver, even of the size of the Colossus at Rhodes.

Hall, the second city in Tyrol, lies one league from Innspruck: it is

famous for its salt-works, and for a mint and silver mines, in which

seven thousand men, women, and children, are constantly employed.

At a royal palace and castle called Ombras, lying at equal distance from

Innspruck and Hall, there is an arsenal, famous for a prodigious

collection of curiosities, such as medals, precious stones, suits of

armour, and statues of several Princes on horseback, in their old rich

fighting accoutrements; besides great variety of military spoils and

trophies taken by the House of Austria; in particular, a statue of

FRANCIS the First and his horse, just as they were taken at the battle

of Pavia, and two others of Turkish Bashaws, with the costly habits and

appointments with which they were taken, embellished with gold, silver,

and precious stones. But, above all their curiosities, the most

extraordinary is an oak inclosing the body of a deer: this last, however

unaccountable, is fact; and equals, I think, any of the wonders in the

metamorphoses of OVID.

Leaving Innspruck, I proceeded on my journey, and soon entered into the

mountains, which are there of a terrible height——I was the best part of

a day ascending them: as I got near the top, I was, shewn, by my driver,

the spot where FERDINAND, King of Hungary, and the Emperor CHARLES the

Fifth, met, when he returned from Africa, in the year 1520. It is marked

with an inscription to that effect, and has grown into a little village,

which, from that circumstance, bears the name of the Salutation.

Although this mountain, called Bremenberg (or Burning-hill), is covered

with snow for nine months in the year, it is inhabited to the very top,

and produces corn and hay in abundance: at the highest part there is a

post-house, a tavern, and a chapel, where the traveller is accommodated

with fresh horses, provisions, and, if he chooses, a mouthful of

prayers——I availed myself of the two first; but the latter being not

altogether in my way, I declined it, for which I could perceive that I

was, by every mouth and eye in the place, consigned to perdition as a

Heretic.

Just at this spot there is a spring of water which falls upon a rock,

and divides into two currents, which, at a very small distance, assume

the appearance, and, in fact, the magnitude too, of very large rivers.

The mountain is sometimes difficult to pass, sometimes absolutely

impracticable——I was fortunate, however, in this respect; for I got over

it without any very extraordinary delay, and on my way was regaled with

the most delicious venison that I have ever tasted in my life; it was

said to be the flesh of a kind of goat.

Although it is but thirty-five miles from Innspruck to Brisen, It was

late when I reached the latter; and as it contained nothing worth either

the trouble or delay attending the search of, I set out the next

morning, and, travelling with high mountains on one side, and a river

all along upon the other, arrived at a town called Bolsano, in the

Bishopric of Trent. The country all along was thickly inhabited, and the

mountains perfectly cultivated and manured even to their highest tops.

On entering the valley of Bolsano, I found the air becoming obviously

sweet, delightful and temperate; the vineyards, and all the trees and

shrubs, olives, mulberries, willows and roses, &c. all of the most

lively green, and every thing marking the most luxuriant vegetation.

Bolsano is a small, but extremely neat and pleasant town——but nothing I

saw about it pleased me so much as their vineyards, which are planted in

long terraces along the sides of the hills, and are formed into the most

beautiful arbours, one row above another.

From Bolsano to Trent, is fifty-one miles, a good day’s journey: almost

the whole of it lies through the valley of Bolsano, a most fruitful and

pleasant——indeed, delightful road, which made the day’s journey appear

to me much shorter than it really was.

Perhaps no part of the habitable globe is, within the same comparatively

small compass of earth, so wonderfully diversified by the hand of Nature

in all her extremes, as that through which I have just carried you.

There, under almost the same glance of the eye, were to be seen the

stupendous, the rugged, the savage, and the inaccessible——the mild, the

fruitful and the cultivated. Here, the mountain capped with perpetual

snow, gradually falling in blended gradations of shade, far beyond the

reach of the artist’s pencil, into the green luxuriant valley; and

there, the vineyard, the olivary, and the rich corn-field, bursting at

once from rugged rocks and inaccessible fastnesses: the churlish aspect

of the tyrant Winter for ever prowling on the mountain’s head

above——perpetual spring smiling with all her fascinating charms in the

plains below. Such scenes as these would baffle all efforts of the

poet’s pen or painter’s pencil: to be conceived, they must be seen. I

shall therefore close my account of them with a strong recommendation to

you, that whenever you travel for improvement, you go through the County

of Tyrol, and there learn the great and marvellous working of Nature.

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LETTER XXIII.

-------------------------------------------

Perhaps the learned unwise men of the world, who spend their lives

poring after impossibilities, have never met with a more copious subject

of puzzle-pated enjoyment than the derivation of the names of places. In

all disputed cases on this subject, the utmost within human reach is

conjecture; but the joke of it is, that, fortunately for Mankind, the

certainty of it would not be of a single button advantage to them, even

if it could be acquired by their search. Doctor GOLDSMITH, in his

_Citizen of the World_, has thrown this matter into high ridicule; and I

recommend it to your perusal, lest this shadow of literature should one

day wheedle you from more respectable pursuits. Trent has afforded vast

exercise to book-worm conjectures in this way; for, while some pronounce

it to be derived from Tridentum, and for this purpose will have it that

NEPTUNE was worshipped there, though so far from the sea——others claim

the discovery of its derivation from Tribus Torrentibus, or three

streams which run there. Now, as to the first, exclusive of forcing

NEPTUNE all the way from the Gulph of Venice to their temples, I cannot

find any such similarity in the sound of Trent and Trident to warrant

the inference; and as to the Tribus Torrentibus, they might as well say

that a primmer or hornbook was found there, and that thence it was

derived from the Alphabet, since the same analogy subsisted between

them, namely, that the letters T,R,E,N,T are to be found in both. But,

in the name of God, what signifies what it was called after? Its name is

Trent; and if it had been Putney, or John o’ Groat’s house, the town

would be neither the better nor the worse, nor the treasures of

literature suffer any defalcation from the difference.

The Bishopric of Trent is about sixty miles long, and forty

broad——fertile, and abundant in wine, oil, fruit and pasture——and

pleasant, the beautiful river Adige meandering through the whole of it

from North to South. The inhabitants are bigoted Roman Catholics——you

will the less wonder, then, that the Bishop should have so extensive a

Principality, and an annual revenue of forty thousand crowns.

As I receded from Germany, and advanced towards Italy, I found the air,

the persons and the manners of the People, to display a very great

difference, and to resemble those of the Italians more than those of the

Germans. Though Popish bigotry be pretty strong in many parts of

Germany, it no where there assumes the gloomy, detestable aspect that it

does in Italy.

And now, since I have happened to mention the characters of those two

People, I may as well, once for all, more particularly as we are got to

the verge of both, give you them in full; in both which I am warranted

in saying, that all who know the two will agree with me.

Perhaps contrast was never more perfectly exemplified than in a

comparison between the Germans and Italians; and that contrast strikes

more forcibly and suddenly in passing from one Country to the other,

than it would in so short a space between any two People existing. The

Italians, jealous, revengeful, treacherous, dissembling, servile,

vicious, sanguinary, idle and sensual. The Germans, on the contrary,

open, good-natured, free from malice and subtlety, laborious, sincere,

honest and hospitable—and, with those valuable qualities, properly

complaisant. So happy is the character of this People, that to be

German-hearted has long been a phrase signifying an honest man who hated

dissimulation: and their hospitality was, even in the days of JULIUS

CÆSAR, remarkable; for we learn from him, that their houses were open to

all men—that they thought it injustice to affront a traveller, and made

it an article of their religion to protect those who came under their

roof. Did not intemperance in eating and drinking detract from their

virtues, no People on earth would bear comparison with them for

intrinsic worth, and particularly for integrity in dealing.

The city of Trent, though not very large in circumference, is populous.

The high mountains which surround it, subject it to all the

inconveniences of heat and cold——rendering the air excessively hot in

Summer, and extremely cold in Winter; besides which, they expose the

town to dreadful inundations——the torrents that descend from the

mountains being sometimes so impetuous as to roll large pieces of rock

with them into it, and having several times laid the whole place waste.

There are in Trent many stately Palaces, Churches and religious houses.

The only one, however, that I will particularize, is that of Saint MARY

MAJOR, noted for a prodigious large organ, which can be made to

counterfeit all sorts of musical instruments, together with the singing

of birds, the cries of several beasts, and the sounds of drums and

trumpets, so exactly, that it is difficult to distinguish between the

imitation and the reality. To what an end such an instrument should be

set up in a place of worship, I am at a loss to divine, unless it be to

add to the rich, useless lumber that fills all those of Popish

Countries.

But that which distinguishes this Church still further, is, that it is

the place where the famous Council of Trent was held, concerning the

Reformation, at which four thousand persons of a public character,

Laymen and Ecclesiastics, assisted. This Council sat eighteen years

before it did any thing: but at last the Pope contrived to get the

ascendant; and, after debating and deliberating so long, not only the

Protestants, but even the German and French Nations, refused to receive

its decrees. Certain of the Clergy, finding the ascendancy that the

negociation of the Pope was getting in this council, said that the Holy

Ghost had been sent there from Rome in a _cloakbag_!

Trent once boasted a curiosity——which indeed still remains, though out

of use——that, I think, would be found serviceable in most towns in

Christendom, and elsewhere too, and particularly at Bath, and such

places. It was a tower on the river Adige, into which the stream was

conducted, for the purpose of drowning such of the Clergy as were

convicted of having been too familiar with their neighbours’ wives and

daughters!

The People of Trent speak promiscuously, and indifferently, both the

German and Italian languages; but whether well or not, I was not adept

enough to discover.

My next stage was Bassano, a town in the territory of Vincenza in Italy,

situated at the end of a very long narrow valley. It is watered by the

river Brenta, which washes that very rich, fertile, serene, healthy and

plentiful district of Italy, so celebrated for its admirable wines, as

well as for its fine pasture-grounds, rich corn-fields, and prodigious

abundance of game, cattle, and mulberry-trees; from all which it is

called the Garden and Shambles of Venice.

The next day I arrived at an early hour at Venice, the description of

which I shall not injure by commencing it with the mutilated fragment of

a Letter, and shall therefore postpone it to my next.

Thus, my dear FREDERICK, have I, in order to preserve the unity and

order of my progress, brought you through Germany with a precise

regularity, that, if I was not wishing for your improvement, might be

dispensed with——yet have left much, very much indeed, untouched, in the

confidence that you will yourself have the industry to find it out.

I confess, my dear boy, that I have often, as I wrote, detected myself

in excursions from the road into moral reflection——but I could not stop:

your improvement was my object in undertaking the business; and I could

not refrain from endeavouring to inculcate such lessons as the progress

of the work suggested, and as impressed my mind with a conviction of

their truth and utility.

You must have observed, that there are two topics on which I dwell very

much——one, LIBERTY——the other, an abhorrence of Bigotry and

Superstition. But, before I proceed further, I must call to your

remembrance what I have often said, that by Liberty I do not mean that

which some people now give that name to——nor do I mean Religion when I

speak of Bigotry; for true Liberty is still more incompatible with

Anarchy than with Despotism, and Superstition is the greatest enemy of

Religion. Let the first object of your heart and soul be true

Morality——the next, rational Liberty: but remember, that the one is not

to be found independent of Religion, nor the other ever to be enjoyed

but under the restraining hands of wholesome laws and good

government——such as England now boasts.

In these times, when human opinion is actually polled on the two

extremes of political judgment, I know, that to speak rationally, is to

incur the censure of both, or to be, as POPE somewhere says, “by Tories

called a Whig, by Whigs a Tory:” But I care not——I speak my opinion with

the fair face of independence; nor would scruple to tell the KING of

PRUSSIA my hatred of Despotism, or the Convention of France my

abhorrence of Anarchy——between both of which the true and genuine point

of Liberty lies; and England, thank GOD! draws the line.

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LETTER XXIV.

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As I approached Venice, I was much delighted with its appearance.

Its stately steeples and noble buildings seemed as if just emerging from

the sea, and floating on the surface of it; and it required no great

stretch of fancy to imagine, that it undulated with the agitated waves

of its parent the Adriatic. On all the surrounding coasts, nature and

art seemed to have vied with each other in pouring the greatest

profusion of their gifts, while thousands of masts, scattered like

forests over the surrounding bays, denoted that Venice; not content with

her own, shared in the wealth and luxuries of other climes.

It is indeed difficult to conceive a more extraordinary and pleasing

appearance than this city makes at a distance, whether you approach it

from the sea or from the continent. Built not like towns in Holland,

where immense moles and walls push the sea forward, and encroach on his

dominion, it stands on piles erected in the sea; and the foundations of

the houses almost touching the water, gives it the appearance of

floating on its surface. The steeples are seen at sea at the distance of

thirty miles; and the appearance becomes more beautiful the nearer it is

approached——presenting in many views the prospect of floating islands.

To erect a city thus upon the water, while so many thousands of acres

stand unoccupied, at first sight seems extraordinary——but all those

great and strange deviations from the ordinary path presented by Nature,

have their source in necessity; and it is not till long after the

necessity has been first lamented, and afterwards obviated, that

experience comes into aid, and demonstrates, that, from her, security

and utility have often arisen. Thus it is with Venice, who, fortified by

her local situation (the effort of necessity), sits secure, and bids

defiance to the world.

The place where Venice now stands, is supposed to have been formerly a

marshy ground, on which the Adriatic Sea had gradually encroached,

leaving the more elevated parts of it above water, and thereby forming a

vast number of little islands, hence called Lagunes: on those the

fishermen of the neighbouring shores built their huts; and when Italy

was invaded by the Goths under ALARIC, and afterwards by that barbarous

race, the Huns, under ATTILA, both of whom spread ruin and desolation

wherever they came, vast numbers of people from the circumjacent shores

of the Adriatic, particularly from Padua and Aquileia, fled hither, and

brought along with them immense wealth. Here they laid the first

foundations on seventy-two distinct little islands, and certainly with

huts, of a city which afterwards stood almost foremost in the naval and

commercial world: as those islands were built upon, and became

over-peopled, they gradually pushed forward their piles, and built upon

them again, till the whole became one vast city, extending to many more

of those islands beyond the original seventy-two.

As it was indebted, in a great measure, for its rise and importance to

the commerce of the East, which then was carried on by way of the Red

Sea and Alexandria, when the passage by the Cape of Good Hope was

discovered, that trade declined, and Venice declined gradually along

with it.

It is amazing, what an extent of territory and accumulation of power the

Venetians once possessed. Besides their present possessions, which

comprehend the territories of Padua and Verona, the Vincentine, the

Brescians, the Bergamases, the Cremasco, the Polesin of Rovigo, Marca

Trevigiana, the Patria del Friuli, and Istria, they had under their

dominion the islands of Rhodes, Scio, Samos, Mytilene, Andros, Candia,

the Morea, and the cities of Gallipoli and Thessalonica: besides which,

they, in conjunction with France, took Constantinople, and remained for

some time masters of that part of the Empire; and disputed the dominion

of Sclavonia, Croatia, Morlachia and Dalmatia, with the Kings of

Hungary, and contended with the Genoese for the empire of the sea: but

of a great part of these, and their other conquests, they have since

been stripped, almost entirely, by the Turks.

As to the government of Venice, I shall not enter into any particulars

of its history——It is called a Republic, and was once a Democracy. The

name remains, while that which gave it is gone. It is, certainly, now a

downright Aristocracy——the privilege of sitting in the great Council

being confined to the Nobility; and the Doge, under the name of Head,

being no more than a gaudy slave, loaded with fetters: yet, such is the

idle fondness of Man for superficial pomp, that this office is sought

after with avidity; for though his power be small, his state is very

splendid. Hence it is said, that the Doge of Venice is a king in his

robes, a senator in council, a prisoner in the city, and a private man

out of it; and what is more extraordinary, is, that though he may be

deposed, he cannot resign——nor even decline the office, if he be once

chosen, without exposing himself to banishment, and his effects to

confiscation.

The established religion of this State is the Roman Catholic; but the

Venetians are not bigots, and reject the supremacy of the Pope. Jews,

Armenians, Greeks, and Protestants, are allowed the exercise of their

religion there; and, provided they do not intermeddle with state

affairs, of which they are extremely jealous, even their Priests, Monks

and Nuns, may take almost any liberties they please——a privilege that

you may be assured is not neglected by any of them.

As few places have excited greater admiration and attention than Venice,

so none have been more copiously described by travellers, every one of

whom may, when he returns to his native country, give a very accurate

account of the public buildings, curiosities, paintings, &c. by only

translating the book given to him by his Valet de Place, or Cicerone, on

his arrival there——It is certain, Venice abounds with all those,

particularly paintings; but I had not the time minutely to investigate;

nor should I have the inclination, if I did, to describe such things:

they are open to you in many well written volumes, which I recommend to

your perusal. Such things, however, as strike me for their novelty, or

difference from those in other places, I will, as well as I can

recollect them, give you an idea of.

To their local situation they owe their security——separated from _terra

firma_ by a body of water of five miles in breadth, too deep to be

forded, and too shallow for vessels of force to pass; and on the other

sides, by scattered shallows, the channels between which are marked out

by stakes, which, on the appearance of an enemy, they can take away;

they bid defiance to hostile army or navy, and have not been reduced to

the necessity of erecting walls or fortifications for their defence.

The first peculiarity that strikes me, as arising immediately from their

living, I may say, in the sea, is the total exclusion of all sort of

carriages; for those streets that are on firm ground are extremely

narrow and crooked; and on most of the canals, so far from having a quay

on either side to walk on, the water comes up to the doors of the

houses; so that walking is but little known, for they get into a boat

off their threshold, and their first step out of it again is, ten to

one, on the threshold of another. This circumstance, though in some

respects it has its uses, is, in others, extremely disagreeable, as well

as injurious; for, though those who have occasion to labour have a

sufficiency of exercise, those whose condition exempts them from labour,

and who, therefore, in all other countries, resort to artificial labour

(exercise) for the promotion of health, are here entirely cut off from

all such means of it as we practise, having neither hunting, shooting,

riding, bowling, &c. &c. nor can they have them, unless they go to the

Continent for them. The chief amusements of the Venetians are reserved

for the Carnival time, which commence about a week after Christmas, and

which, therefore, I could not see; but, from the concurrent testimony of

all travellers and the People themselves, as well as from the evidence

of my own observation on the manners of the People, I am well warranted

in saying, are festivals of debauchery, riot and licentiousness. This is

a subject on which I am, nevertheless, disposed to believe, that more

has been said than truth will bear out——yet, a bare statement of the

truth would, I fear, bear hard enough upon the moral character, or at

least the piety, of the Venetians.

That masquerades are the very worst schools of vice, the private

anecdotes of the _beau monde_ even in England might suffice to

demonstrate——That courtezans are found lost to all sense of modesty, and

common decency, the streets of London afford nightly proofs——Therefore,

that masquerading (which is the chief amusement of the Venetians) should

cloak many crimes, and that their courtezans should be shameless and

their women lewd, is no such wonder, seeing, as we do, those things in

this Northern clime; but we may, without any illiberality, suppose,

that, from physical causes of the most obvious kind, they are carried to

a greater extent there than here: though one of the most enlightened and

amiable of all travellers says it would be hard to be proved, yet, with

deference to him, I think it may be rationally supposed.

There is an active principle in the mind of Man which will not suffer

it to rest; it must have some materials to work upon. Men, enlightened

by science, have within themselves a fund, and can never want food for

contemplation; but the many, in those hours when a suspension of

labour or worldly business drives them to expedients for the

employment of their time, are but too prone to leave the mind to the

guidance of the senses, and to cogitate on vice till they wish to

practise it. Hence that homely but true saying, “Idleness is the root

of all evil.” In England we have a variety of expedients which the

Venetians want, whose minds being besides naturally more vivid, are

more prompt to give a loose to the warm illusions of sensual fancy.

Thus prepared, they meet the Carnival, when every thing conspires to

give circulation to indulgence; and when those operations of the mind

which with us have so many channels to discharge themselves, with

them, like a vast stream suddenly confined to one narrow channel,

burst forth with an irresistible torrent, and carry away before them

every bond that religion or morality has laid down as restraints on

the exuberance of human passion. The customs and habits of the place

and time contribute to it; for, while the severe restrictions of the

female sex for the rest of the year sharpen both inclination and

invention on the one hand——on the other, the unbounded license, the

universal change of habits, customs and laws——the total suspension of

all distinction, care, or business which take place at that time,

aided by perpetual masquerade——and those most convenient of all

receptacles, the gondolas, with those most expert and forward of all

pandars, the gondoliers——afford ample scope to their wishes, and form

altogether a mass of circumstances in favour of vicious indulgence,

not to be found in any other part of Christendom; to resist which,

they must be more virtuous than any other people——a point never yet

laid to their charge by the best-natured and most extenuating of all

those who have written upon that subject.

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LETTER XXV.

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Profligate though the People of London are, I will not allow that

it is so vicious a city as Venice. That there are in it, and indeed in

all capitals, individuals who have reached the highest achme of

shameless debauchery and depravity, it would be foolish to deny: but

that concubinage is practised in the same open way, so generally, or so

systematically as at Venice, no one will venture to assert. I trust the

day of depravity and indelicacy is far removed from us, that will

exhibit a British mother arranging a plan of accommodation for her son,

and bargaining for a young virgin to commit to his embraces——as they do

in Venice——not as wife, but as concubine. On that one custom of the

Venetian ladies I rest my position; and have no hesitation to avow, that

all the private concubinage of London amounts not to such a flagrant

consummation of moral turpitude and shameless indelicacy as that

practice to which I allude.

The Venetian men are well-featured and well-shaped——the women,

well-shaped, beautiful, and, it is said, witty: but I had _that within_

which robbed every object of its charms; and I might say with HAMLET,

that “Man delighted not me, nor Woman either.”——In short, not all the

beauties and novelty of the place, not all the pleasures that stare the

traveller in the face, and solicit his enjoyment, not all the exquisite

looks of the ladies, could rouse my mind from its melancholy, or fix my

attention——I grew weary of Venice before I had been many hours in it,

and determined to grasp at the very first opportunity that offered for

my departure.

I had arranged, in my own mind, a plan to proceed to Latachea, a

considerable sea-port town in Syria, and thence to Aleppo, whence, as it

was a great Eastern mart, I entertained hopes that I should find a

speedy, or at least a certain conveyance, by a caravan, across the

deserts, to Bassorah, and little doubted but that I should find a vessel

at some of the Venetian ports, either bound, or belonging to a sea-port

of such commercial consequence, upon which I could procure a

passage——But in this I was disappointed; for, on the fullest inquiry

that I could make, I found that there was only one ship ready to sail,

and no probability of any other for a considerable time after——I did

every thing I could to avail myself of this conveyance, but was

disappointed, owing to a young lady being passenger, who was daughter to

the owner of the vessel——and the old gentleman did not approve of an

English Officer being of the party with his daughter. I used every

argument without success, urging the Resident, Mr. STRANGE, who had

behaved very politely to me during my short residence at Venice, to

interest himself about it: I likewise entreated Mrs. STRANGE, an

affable, pleasant woman, to exert her endeavours, and made her laugh, by

proposing to her to give me a certificate of my behaviour, and to pledge

herself to the old gentleman that the happiness or honour of his family

would not be disturbed by me during the passage.

Hearing, however, that a ship lay at Trieste, which was to sail thence

for Alexandria in Egypt, I determined to embrace that opportunity, and,

instead of my former intended route, go to Grand Cairo, thence to Suez,

and so down the Red Sea, by way of Mecca, to Moca, and thence to Aden,

where company’s vessels, or India country traders are always to be found

going to one or other of the British settlements.

I accordingly set out for Trieste, with all the impatience of a sanguine

mind, anxious to change place, eager to push forward, and full of the

new route I had laid down——the charms of which, particularly of seeing

Grand Cairo, the Land of Egypt, and the Pyramids, were painted by my

imagination in all the glowing exaggerated colours of romance. The

Captain of the vessel was then at Venice, and I accompanied him to

Trieste, which is about sixty miles from Venice.

Soon after our arrival at Trieste, I had the mortification to find, that

the vessel was by no means likely to keep pace with the ardour of my

mind, and that, owing to some unforeseen event, her departure was to be

delayed; so, after a few of those effusions which may be supposed on

such an occasion to escape a man of no very cool temper hanging on the

tenterhooks of expectation, I found it necessary to sit down, and

patiently wait the revolution of time and event, which nothing could

either impede or accelerate.

It has often been remarked, and is held as a point of faith by

Predestinarians, that some men are doomed by fate to disappointment——and

that, when they are so, no wisdom can obviate, no vigilance provide

against, nor no resolution resist, her decrees; but, that, in spite of

all the efforts of reason and industry, a series of sinister events

shall pursue them through life, and meet them at every turn they attempt

to take. Such has been my lot for the greatest part of my life——but I

have neither faith enough in Predestination, nor self-love enough, so

far to blind me to my own faults, as to suppose that lady Fate had any

thing at all to do with it. No, no; it was often owing to a temper,

warm, impatient and uncontrouled, which, in almost all cases of

momentary embarrassment, chased reason from her office, usurped her

place, and decided as chance directed. Let every man examine the grounds

of all his serious disappointments in life with candour, and he will

find physical causes to which to assign them, without resorting to

supernatural. For my part, when I hear a man say that he has been all

his life pursued by ill-fortune, I directly conclude, that either he has

been a blunderer, or those he dealt with, brutes. In the ordinary

operation of earthly contingencies, mischances will happen; but an

uniform life of mischance can only arise from mismanagement, or a very

extraordinary chain of human injustice——

These reflections arose from the following incident:

I had procured a servant to attend me on my journey, who, from my short

observation of him, promised to contribute very considerably to my

comfort, my convenience, and, indeed, to my security as he was

apparently honest, sincere, active and clever in his duty, and master of

several languages, and particularly of the _lingua Franca_, a mixture of

languages, peculiarly useful in travelling through the East. Finding

that I was likely to be delayed at Trieste, and conceiving that in this

interim letters from England, for which I most ardently longed, might

have arrived at Venice for me, I imprudently and impetuously sent him to

Venice, for the purpose of taking them up, and carrying them to me. But

guess what must have been my feelings when I found, almost immediately

after his departure, that the vessel was preparing to sail, and that I

must either lose my passage or my servant: anxious though I was to get

forward, and grievous though my former delay had been to me, I hesitated

which to do; but prudence, for once, prevailed over inclination; and I

determined, at all events, to depart, under all the embarrassment

attending the want of a servant and linguist, and all the poignant

feelings of having been accessary to the disappointment, and perhaps the

injury of a poor fellow, whom I really conceived to be a person of

merit. In our passage to Alexandria, we touched at Zante, an island on

the coast of Greece, belonging to Venice: it was anciently called

Zacynthus——is about fifty miles in circumference, and contains fifty

thousand inhabitants. Never before had I tasted any thing equal to the

delicious flavour of the fruits of this island—the grapes exquisite, and

the melons and peaches of prodigious bigness and unequalled flavour. The

island is abundantly fruitful in wine, currants, oil, figs and corn, but

is very subject to earthquakes. Near the seaport which we entered is as

great a curiosity in Nature as is any where, I believe, to be found. Two

spring wells of clear fresh water threw up large pieces of real pitch,

in such quantities, that, it is said, the people collect, one year with

another, one hundred barrels of it, which they use in paying their

shipping and boats.

In the first stages of melancholy, consolation is rejected by the mind,

as premature. The heart, intent, as it were, upon supping full of woe,

disclaims all advances of comfort, and feeds on grief alone. Hence the

truly skilful in the human heart consider premature consolation as an

aggravation of woe, and comfort only with condolence, well knowing that

the tide of grief must take its course, and that, until it be first

full, no hopes can be had of its retiring. The full force of this I

began now to feel. The disquietude of domestic embarrassment——the

bitterness of separation from all I loved——the solitary sadness of my

situation, wandering through unknown countries——myself unknown and

unfriended——aggravated; at length by the loss of my servant, who was a

sort of prop to my spirits——and my being cast into a ship among a

people, whose language I little understood, without any soul or one

circumstance to mitigate my sorrow, or console me under it; all these, I

say, had wound up my feelings to the highest pitch of fortune——More

miserable I could not be when the Island of Zante received me, and, for

the first time for a sad series of days, raised me with the transporting

sound of an English voice.

I have promised, my FREDERICK, to give you a candid relation, in hopes

that you will improve by it: but if I thought, that, on the contrary,

any thing I said should tend to raise in your mind a sentiment injurious

to your principles, or reflective on your father’s conduct, but to be an

example and admonitory guide to your own, I should condemn my candour

and curse the hour that I wrote——but, I trust to your good sense and

disposition, with my care to direct them; and shall, but not without

hesitation, proceed. But, as I have already spun out this Letter to such

an extent, I will defer my further relation to another.

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LETTER XXVI.

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At the time I set out upon my journey over land to India, I was

(though married, and the father of children) very young, naturally of a

sanguine constitution: my attachment to the fair sex was no ways

diminished by a military education; and a warmth of temper, an ardent

sensibility of mind, and a frank unsuspicious disposition, left me but

too often to regret the facility with which I yielded to the charms of

women. But the regret for each error was willfully smothered in vain

determinations of amendment——and the promised amendment again broken in

upon by some new error. Thus it was, till riper years and circumstances

of weight strengthened my reason, and gave it in some greater degree

that dominion it should have over my actions.

Circumstanced as I have in my last Letter described myself to be, and

constituted by nature and education as I have mentioned above, I landed

in the charming island of Zante, where Nature herself seems to have

conspired against chastity——making the very air breathe nothing but

transport and delight. There I met a young lady, a native of

England——extremely pretty, highly accomplished, and captivating in the

extreme: she had been at Venice for her education——was a complete

mistress of music, and expressed an intention of following it

professionally on her arrival in England, whither she was going

passenger in a vessel bound there from Zante. To have accidentally met

with a native of England, even of my own sex, in such a distant corner

of the world, under such circumstances as mine, just escaped from the

horrid life I had for some time led, must have filled me with joy:

allowance, therefore, may be made for my feelings on meeting this young

lady, and for my thinking of some expedient to prevent our separation.

She laboured, perhaps, under the pressure of feelings as disagreeable as

my own, and expressed her satisfaction at meeting with a countryman so

very unexpectedly. Reserve was soon thrown off on both sides: we entered

into a conversation interesting and confidential, which increased my

anxiety to keep her with me, and in order to persuade her to accompany

me, I pointed out in the strongest colours possible, the great

advantages she might derive from her accomplishments in India, where her

musical talents alone, exclusive of her various captivating qualities,

would be an inexhaustible mine of wealth. In short, I so very eagerly

enforced my proposal to accompany me, and time was so very short, that

she consented, and in two hours we had arranged every thing for our

departure together——and here with shame and sorrow I confess (nor shall

ever cease to regret it), that this ecclairecissement communicated the

first ray of substantial pleasure to my heart that it felt since I left

London.

Thus far, our project sailed before the wind: wayward imagination had

decked it out in the most alluring drapery that fancy could fabricate,

and prevented us from seeing the impracticability of it, as it stood in

the nakedness of truth; and when it came to be carried into execution, a

thousand difficulties occurred, that the wildness of passion, and the

warmth of our feelings, had before concealed from our view. In the first

place, it was necessary for her to obtain the consent of a lady to whose

care and protection she was committed: in the next place, accommodations

were to be procured for her in the same ship with me——a circumstance of

most arduous difficulty; besides which, a variety of other

impediments——insuperable indeed——concurred to frustrate our views, and

put an end to our project. If my pleasure at meeting her was great, my

anguish at parting with her was inexpressible. I had once more to face

the world alone; and, on the second day of my sojourning at Zante,

embarked with a heavy heart, and set sail for Alexandria. The last

disappointments we undergo, seem always the heaviest; and this at Zante

I thought at that time to be the greatest of my life. But——oh!

short-sighted Man! bubble of every delusive shadow! I never reflected,

as I have since done, what serious mischiefs, what endless misery, what

loss of time, means and reputation, I may by that providential

disappointment have escaped——for these are the almost never-failing

consequences of such affairs. It too often happens, that the syren who

deludes a man into her snares, is the very person who inflicts the

deadly wound into his heart. Avoid, my dear FREDERICK! avoid all such,

as you would avoid plague, pestilence, or ruin——steel your heart by

timely reflection against their advances. In all your transactions with

women, like a good General in warfare, secure for your heart a retreat;

for it will be too late to find that they are unworthy when your heart

is ensnared——and when you find them worthy of your affection, it will be

time enough to give a loose to the sensibility of your heart. A virtuous

woman is beyond all calculation to be valued, when she is found; but,

alas! in finding her, you may pass through so many fires ordeal, and run

such danger, that it is almost a doubt, whether a wise man (if he can

fetter his passions) had not better dispense with the blessing, than run

the hazard of searching for it.

On my arrival at Alexandria, I found, to my fresh mortification, that

the plague was raging all over Egypt——and as, if this was not of itself

sufficient to block up my intended route, an irruption of the Arabs, who

in formidable bodies infested all the roads, put a period to all my

hopes of seeing Grand Cairo, and viewing the curiosities of that

Country, which all who, like us, have the Bible put early into their

hands, are taught to venerate as soon as they are taught to read. Here I

thought to have viewed the pyramids, whose antiquity, origin, or

intended use, have baffled the learned and ingenious inquiries of so

many ages——of beholding mount Sinai, the stone of Moses, the track of

the Israelites, all of which are said to be clearly pointed out, and

Geography by that means brought into the support of Sacred History.

These, and many things, I did wish to see——they are worth it: but I have

had since reason to believe, that my ill luck was not so great as I then

thought it; for the search is dangerous, and made prodigiously expensive

by the exactions of the Mahomedan Magistrates. It is as well, therefore,

to travel over this Country in books, which afford us good information,

and more of it, at an easier rate than you could purchase it in the

Country.

Alexandria was built by ALEXANDER the Great, soon after the overthrow of

Tyre, about 333 years before CHRIST, and is situated on the

Mediterranean, twelve miles West of that mouth of the Nile, anciently

called Canopicum. A very extraordinary circumstance is related, as a

proof of the suddenness of ALEXANDER’S resolution to build it: After he

had directed the number of public structures, and fixed the places where

they were to stand, there were no instruments at hand proper for marking

out the walls, according to the custom of those times: upon this, a

workman advised the King to collect what meal was among the soldiers,

and sift it in lines upon the ground, in order to mark out the circuit

of the walls: the advice was followed, and the King’s soothsayer

interpreted it to be a presage of the future prosperity and abundance of

the city. This prophecy was certainly afterwards verified; for it soon

became the emporium of Commerce, of Arts and of Sciences.

By the description of STRABO and other Ancients, it appears that this

city was built upon a plan well worthy the vast mind of its founder; and

the fragments of its ornaments afterwards composed a part of the

grandest embellishments of Rome and Constantinople. In the Museum of the

Royal Palace, which occupied a fourth part of the city, the body of

ALEXANDER was deposited in a golden coffin——but the detestable SELEUCUS

CIBYOFACTES violated the monument, took away the golden coffin, and

substituted a glass one in its place.

This city, like most others of antiquity, has been the scene of terrible

massacres. About two hundred years after its foundation, it was totally

depopulated by PTOLEMY PHYSCON——the very few who escaped slaughter,

flying into other Countries. Desirous, however, not to reign over empty

houses, he seduced inhabitants from the neighbouring Countries; and

again, for some slight offence, determined on a general massacre of the

young men; and accordingly, when they were one day assembled in the

Gymnasium, or place of public exercise, he ordered it to be set on fire,

so that all perished, either in the flames, or by the swords of his

mercenaries, whom he had placed at all the avenues. Afterwards, in the

year of CHRIST 215, the Emperor CARACALLA, having been lampooned by some

of the inhabitants, ordered a general massacre by his numerous troops,

who were dispersed over the city. The inhuman orders being given, all

were murdered, without distinction of age or sex; so that, in one

night’s time, the whole city floated in blood, and every house was

filled with carcases: the monster himself, retiring to the Temple of

Serapis, was all the time imploring the protection of the Deity——a proof

that practical devotion and the most attrocious inhumanity may meet in

the same bosom. As if this had not been sufficient vengeance, he

stripped the city of all its ancient privileges——ordered all strangers

who lived there to depart——and, that the few who remained might not have

the satisfaction of seeing one another, he cut off all communication of

one street with another, by walls built for the purpose, and guarded

with troops.

Notwithstanding these massacres, Alexandria again recovered its former

splendour——and was again sacked by AMROU, the infamous Saracen——and all

the intrepid youth of the city perished with arms in their hands. The

magnificence of the city may be estimated from the account written by

AMROU to the Caliph: “I have taken,” said he, “the City of the West; it

is of an immense extent; I cannot describe to you how many wonders it

contains: there are 4000 palaces, 4000 baths,” &c. &c.

The great advantages of the East India trade, which was then carried on

by the Red Sea, preserved Alexandria through several revolutions; but

having fallen under the dominion of the Turks, and the passage round the

Cape of Good Hope being discovered, a fatal blow was given to its

commerce, and it has since fallen to decay. It is, however, even now,

worth the attention of the classical traveller. Entering the harbour, we

passed by the Island of Pharos, where PTOLEMY built the enormous Tower

which was once the wonder of the world; and, when riding within the

port, nothing could be more gratifying than to see from thence that

mixture of ancient and modern monuments that presented themselves to the

view, on which ever side the eye could be turned.

Of myriads of antiquities which this place affords for the inspection of

the curious, I shall mention only two——One, the Column of POMPEY, on

viewing of which, the remembrance of that great and good man’s most

unmerited and cruel fate extracted a sigh from the bottom of my heart:

this pillar engages the attention of all travellers; it is composed of

red granite; the capital is Corinthian, with palm leaves, and not

indented; the shaft and the upper member of the base are of one piece,

ninety feet long, and nine in diameter; the base, a square of fifteen

feet on each side; the whole column is one hundred and fourteen feet

high, perfectly well polished, and only a little shivered on the Eastern

side. Nothing can equal the majesty of this monument: seen from a

distance, it overtops the town, and serves as a signal for vessels;

approaching it nearer, it produces an astonishment mixed with awe: one

would never be tired of admiring the beauty of the capital, the length

of the shaft, nor the extraordinary simplicity of the pedestal. Some

years ago, a party of English seamen contrived, by flying a kite, to

draw a line over the pillar, and by that means made a kind of a shroud,

by which they got up, and on the very top of of it drank a bowl of

punch, to the utter astonishment of a multitude who came to see them;

they broke off one of the volutes of the column, but amply compensated

for this mischief by a discovery they made, as, without their evidence,

the world would not have known, at this hour, that there was originally

a statue on this column, one foot and ancle, of which, of enormous size,

are still remaining.——The other is the Obelisk of CLEOPATRA, of immense

size, and of one single piece of granite marble. Here I observed, too, a

thick wall, with towers mouldering under extreme age, which contained,

in its face, fragments of architecture of the most exquisite

workmanship, such as broken columns, friezes, &c.; those were the

antique ruins of some fallen pieces of antiquity, at the time that this

antique wall was built: what, then, must be the length of time since

they had first undergone the hands of the workman? These circumstances

tend to demonstrate, that, far back beyond the reach of our calculation,

the Arts flourished: and when one thinks of the miraculous masses of

work done in former ages——the magnitude of the pieces of which those

works were composed, such as whole columns and obelisks of a single

block of marble——the Colossus of Rhodes, made of brass, one foot of

which was placed on one side of the harbour, and another on the other

side, so that ships passed between its legs——we cannot help yielding up

the palm to the Ancients for stupendous magnificence, however we may

surpass them for the useful, the elegant and the good.

At Alexandria I remained about twelve days, till, wearied of the

confined state I lived in on account of the plague, I resolved to devise

some means, if possible, to get away, and at length hired a boat to

carry me to the island of Cyprus, from whence I concluded, that I should

find no sort of difficulty in procuring a conveyance to Latichea, and so

proceed by my first intended route. I accordingly arrived at Cyprus in

perfect safety, where, to my great sorrow and astonishment, I found that

an epidemical fever, equal in its effects to a plague, prevailed:

however, there was no alternative; I must run the risque, and I

dismissed the boat that carried me from Alexandria.

Although the etymologies of the names of places are of very little

importance, and most frequently uncertain, I think it probable that the

Learned are right, who assert the name of this is derived from Κυπρος

(Cyprus) or Cypress——with which shrubs the island abounds. It had, in

ancient times, a number of other names——one of which was Paphia, whence

Venus, who was worshipped in it, was called the Paphian Goddess. It lies

thirty miles West of Syria, whither I was bound, stretching from the

South-west to the North-east, one hundred and fifty miles in length, and

seventy in breadth in the widest part of it.

This island holds a very high rank in classic lore——It gave birth to

some great Philosophers and considerable Poets——The Apostle BARNABAS was

a native of it, and, assisted by ST. PAUL, first introduced Christianity

among them. Famagusta, a town on the Eastern part of the island,

opposite to the shore of Syria, is the ancient Salamis, built by TEUCER

the son of TELAMON, and brother of AJAX.

Symisso, on the South-east, the best port in Cyprus, is the _Amathus_

mentioned by VIRGIL in his Æneid, and by OVID in his Metamorphoses. And

Baffo, on the Western coast, is the Παφος (Paphos) of antiquity, famous

for the Temple of Venus.

As the branches of an Empire most remote from the great feat of

Government are always more despotically governed than those nearer the

source of redress, Cyprus has been continually ruled with a rod of iron

since it came into the hands of the Turks. While it was under the

dominion of Christians, it was well-peopled, having no less than eight

hundred or a thousand villages in it, besides several handsome cities;

but the Turks have spread ruin and desolation over the country, and it

is now so thinly inhabited that more than half the lands lie

uncultivated.

The air of this island is now for the most part unwholesome, owing to

the damps arising from the many fens and marshes with which the country

abounds——while, there being but few springs or rivers in the island, the

want of a plentiful fall of rain, at proper periods, distresses the

inhabitants very much in another way; and by means of the uncultivated

state of the country, they are greatly infested with poisonous reptiles

of various kinds.

The most remarkable mountain in Cyprus is called Olympus——a name common

to several other mountains in Greece, particularly to that in Thessaly,

so famous in the poetry of the Ancients. That in Cyprus is about fifty

miles in circumference: great part of it is covered with woods; and at

the foot of it are fine vineyards, which produce admirable wine, not

only in a sufficiency for their own consumption, but some also for

exportation——And although the greater part of the island lies

uncultivated, as I have before observed, it produces a sufficient

quantity of corn, unless in seasons when their harvest fails, in which

case the people are easily supplied from the continent. They have,

besides, cattle enough for their own consumption——Many parts of the

country abound with wild-fowl, and several sorts of game, and they have

plenty of fish upon the sea coasts.

The trade of Cyprus is not inconsiderable, and carried on chiefly by

Jews and Armenians: the commodities in which they deal are wine, oil,

cotton, wool, salt, silk, and turpentine——besides, it produces several

sorts of earth, fit for the use of painters, particularly red, black and

yellow.

Its most wonderful production, however, is the famous stone Ασβεσος

(Asbestos) inextinguishable, or Αμιαντος (Amiantos) impollutus, so

called from its extraordinary property of resisting fire. It is related

that the Ancients made out of this stone a kind of thread that would

remain unconsumed in the most intense fire. It is even said, that some

experiments have been made in modern days, which have sufficiently

proved that the thing is not a fiction. In such extraordinary questions

as this, though I do not positively contradict, I always suspend my

belief, till something stronger than mere assertion is offered to

convince me.

There is one dreadful mischief to which this island is subject——In the

hot season, locusts come from the Continent, in swarms so vast and so

thick as to darken the sky like clouds. Those would certainly devour all

the fruits of the earth, if they were not driven to sea by a North wind

that usually blows at the time of their coming. When that wind happens

to fail, which fortunately is seldom, the consequence is a total

demolition of the fruits of the Country.

The whole island, as well as particular towns, was entirely consecrated

to the Goddess VENUS, who thence was called VENUS CYPRIA, or DEA CYPRIA,

and is represented by the Poets as taking a peculiar pleasure in

visiting it——and this unquestionably arose from the loose habits and

lascivious temperament of the women there, who certainly are, at this

time, not remarkable for chastity.

I must confess, however, that I felt great pleasure in entering

Cyprus——it was, as I have already stated, classic ground, and dedicated

to the Queen of Love. But a traveller who visits it with hopes of

amusement, will be much disappointed; for in no one particular did it

seem to me to resemble that Cyprus famed in the Heathen Story and

Mythology. Of the Cyprian Queen’s favours the ladies seemed to boast no

one mark, save the most nauseous, disgusting lewdness——and the natural

fertility of the soil is half lost beneath the oppressive yoke of the

servants of the Turkish Government. Thus, in the extraordinary

revolutions that human affairs are incessantly undergoing, that island

which for its superior beauties was supposed to be the residence of

Love, which gave birth to the Philosophers ZENO, APPOLLONIUS and

XENOPHON, is now a miserable, half-cultivated spot, peopled with a

mixture of wretched Turks, Jews, Greeks and Christians——groaning under

the tyrrany of a barbarous despotic abuse of delegated power——infested

with locusts which devour the fruits of the earth——and disgraced by a

race of ignominious women, who esteem it to be an act of religion to

prostitute themselves to all strangers.

Our RICHARD the First made a conquest of this island on his way to the

Holy Land, and conferred the Royalty of it on GUY LUSIGNAN, King of

Jerusalem. The Venetians possessed themselves of it in the year

1480——but, in the sixteenth century, the Turks dispossessed them, and

have ever since kept it under the yoke——I should have remarked that

their wine is excellent.

Continuing my route, I hired another boat, after only forty-eight hours

stay at Cyprus, and proceeded for Latichea, which, as I have somewhere

before mentioned, is a considerable sea-port town of Syria, built on a

promontory of land, which, running into the sea, occasions its being

continually refreshed with breezes. Fortune, who had hitherto been not

very liberal in her dispensations, now favoured me; for, just as I

arrived at Latichea, a caravan was preparing. The Consul of the Turkish

Company at Cyprus received me with great politeness and

hospitality——gave me a Letter to the Resident at Latichea; and by his

instruction and assistance, after a very short stay, I set out on my way

to Aleppo with the caravan.

As I shall hereafter have occasion more particularly to describe the

nature of those caravans, I shall, for the present, tell you, that this

was composed of no other beasts of burden than mules and asses, of which

there were not less than three or four hundred in number.

Mounted on a mule, I travelled along, well pleased with the fertile

appearance of the country, and delighted with the serenity of the

air——We were, as well as I can now recollect, near ten days on the road;

during which time we travelled only in the morning early, and in the

heat of the day reposed under the shade of trees.

I was informed, that if, instead of going to Latichea, I had gone to

Scanderoon (otherwise Alexandretta), I should, in the road from thence

to Aleppo, have travelled through a Country, in which the most singular

and extravagant customs prevail that exist in any Country emerged from

barbarism——Several of those I heard; but one in particular was, that the

men prostituted their wives and daughters to all comers——and that this

originated from a principle of religion, though there was every reason

to believe, that, like many of their religious institutions, it was at

last made subservient to the gratification of avarice.

On my way to Alleppo, I was met by a Mr. ——-, an English Gentleman, who

had heard of my coming, and who, in the most kind and hospitable manner,

insisted upon my living at his house instead of the British Consul’s,

where I should otherwise have resided during my stay there; and his

manner of asking me was so engaging, interesting and impressive, that I

found it impossible to refuse him.

As the great public caravan had departed from Aleppo before my arrival,

and the expence of forming a private one on my account was too great, as

I was travelling on my own account, and had no dispatches to authorise

or enforce my departure, or bear me out in the expence; I was

constrained to remain at Aleppo till some eligible mode of travelling

occurred, or another public caravan was formed——This delay gave me an

opportunity of seeing and informing myself of the city and surrounding

country; the result of which, I shall, in as short a manner as possible,

relate to you in a future Letter. It also gave occasion to one of those

unhappy incidents which I have so often had occasion to lament, not from

any consciousness of direct criminality, but for the scope it gave to

misrepresentation and the injury which that misrepresentation did me in

the opinion of some of my friends.

END OF PART I.

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A

JOURNEY TO INDIA, &c.

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