however, afterwards repealed. Lord Kaims1 justly remarks, that hospitality is one pregnant symptom of improving manners. It has been found so in most states and countries. But hospitality is sometimes characteristic of people, scarcely distinguished for any other quality. The Walachians and Moldavians, for instance, are both hospitable: but the former are idle and covetous; and the latter haughty in prosperity, and effeminate and cowardly in adversity." Take away the orthodoxy and hospitality of a Moldavian," said Prince Kantemir," and what remains to him?" But, in general, hospitality is a virtue practised in all the East. The Hindoo governments extended it even to planting trees for shade, and to the digging of wells in the most frequented roads. Their attention even embraced animals; for they built hospitals not only for sick quadrupeds3, but sick birds. The Moguls of India were accustomed to salute each other with "I wish you the prayers of the poor and the stranger:" and the Kaliph Omar used to exclaim, “ prayers and ablutions carry us half way to God; abstinence takes us to the gates of paradise; but charity and hospitality open the door, and give us admittance." XXVII. There was a time in England, when most noblemen and gentlemen of large fortunes had public days, on 'Sketches, b. ii. sk. i. p. 192. 2 Travels in the Crimea, by the Secretary of the Russian Embassy, from Petersburg to Constantinople. 3 At Ahmed Abad.-Thevenot, part iii. p. 31. * St. Ambrose observes, more truly than prudently,-" Natura omnia omnibus in commune profudit; sic enim Deus generari jussit omnia, ut pastus which all might partake of their bounty: and in the Highlands of Scotland, not sixty years since1, a gentleman took it as an affront, if a stranger passed his door without calling. Men of overgrown estates, as Montesquieu justly said of large landholders in France, seem now, on the other hand, to consider every thing an injury, which does not contribute to their honour and power. They have little or no sympathy for distress; and genuine hospitality is a virtue totally unknown. A German writer has said, that were all ideas of a God obliterated from the mind of man, they would first return to the inhabitants of a mountainous region. With equal propriety we may exclaim, "were all habits of hospitality exiled from the practice of man, they would fly from a citizen first, and from a mountaineer last." In the present day, this luxury of tranquil life has faded before the increase of population, and the advancement of commercial relations: and such are the distresses of the times, that almost the only species of hospitality, an Englishman can afford, is a tear for want, and sympathy for misfortune. "No radiant pearl, which crested fortune wears, Shines with such lustre as the tear, that flows Down Virtue's manly cheek for others' woes." Darwin, canto iii. 459. omnibus communis esset, et terra foret omnium quædam communis possessio. Natura igitur jus commune generavit; usurpatio jus fecit privatum.”—Amb. Offic. 28. 1 Sketches, vol. i. p. 383. 2 Spirit of Laws, b. v. c. 5. CHAPTER IX. HERODOTUS visited Egypt and Babylon, not only to obtain materials for his history, but to observe the face of the country, as well as the manners of the people. His mind was well stored before he set out. "A traveller," says Sadi, "without previous knowledge, is like a bird without wings." But in every country man is more studied than Nature. Plato and Strabo travelled with enlarged views: and hence the latter derived advantages for a geographical work, not to be paralleled for faithfulness of description, universality, and copious brevity. Terence passed over into Greece, at thirty-five, in order to make his Comedies represent Greek manners to the very life: while many of the more accomplished Greeks thought it a duty, almost imperative, to climb Mounts Athos, Olympus, and Parnassus, where the temple of Apollo was situated; and where the sublime Pindar fixed his residence, for many of the best years of his life. The Emperor Adrian traversed the whole of his empire. When he climbed Mount Etna, he confessed, with all the humility of philosophy, that Etna,—the Pillar of Heaven, -presented, at the rising of the sun, glories, which gave him but a mean and contemptible opinion of his own imperial condition. And one of the best naturalists of the present day has often confessed to my delighted ear, that he has travelled over so many countries, and has taken such pleasure in investigating the several branches of natural philosophy; that there have been moments, when he has felt, that if the greatest gifts of fortune were presented to him, he should, with all the stoicism of ingratitude, have accepted them with indifference. You remember, my Lelius, the effect which the district of Rhinegau had upon our friend, La Fontaine ! This district is situated in the electorate of Mentz; and its beauties are represented as exceeding all description. Baron Reisbach has given a most enchanting description of it. During one of those intervals of application, which the profession of a barrister renders so necessary and agreeable, Monsieur La Fontaine, accompanied by his wife and daughter, left Paris with an intention of taking a tour along the banks of the Rhine. After some weeks travelling, in which time they visited Dusseldorf, Coblentz, and Welnich, they arrived, at the close of a beautiful evening, at a small village in the district of Rhinegau. The village was so lovely and sequestered, that they determined to take up their abode in a small cottage for some weeks. Weeks lengthened into months, and months into years. Quitting his profession, our friend erected a mansion on the banks of the Rhine; and there resided, till the fury of political opinion obliged him to quit it for a foreign land! Upon the settlement of a regular government in France, he returned to Paris; and may the blessings of his family and his friends have awaited him there! Galen travelled into Egypt, Cilicia, Palestine, Crete, Cyprus, Lemnos, and Syria, to examine the plants and drugs, those countries and islands produced. Ariosto, on the other hand, was so attached to Italy, that he would never go out of it; a circumstance, which lost him the favour of Cardinal Hyppolyto, of Este, who earnestly desired to be accompanied into Hungary, by all the literary characters under his patronage. II. One of the kings of Persia having received an account of the manners and topography, climate, and temples of Greece, from one of his ambassadors, expressed his satisfaction at the new scenes, presented to his imagination: and congratulated himself upon journeying in fancy, like a quiet and inoffensive traveller, over a considerable portion of those territories, where his ancestor had formerly carried nothing but ruin and desolation. A desire to travel for information, or pleasure, frequently indicates a considerable portion of knowledge1. Ignorance has, on the contrary, no passion of the kind to gratify. In all the South Sea islands, and indeed in almost all half-civilized countries, the natives entertain much the same idea, in respect to travelling, that the king of Boudon expressed to Mr. Park. "I cannot conceive," said he," and therefore cannot believe, that any man in his senses would undertake so long and so dangerous a The following sketch of a journey embraces most of the objects, incumbent on a gentleman to be familiar with:-From London to Paris and Nantes; thence by the Loire to Nevers; Lyons, Bourdeaux, Thoulouse, Montpellier, Nismes, Aix, Marseilles, and Nice. Thence to Leghorn, by sea. Florence, Rome, Naples, and Palermo. Climb Mount Etna, visit Messina, and pass over into Calabria. Then traverse the shores of the Adriatic to Ancona, Rimini, Ravenna, Ferrara, Padua, and Venice. From Venice proceed to Verona, Mantua, Parma, Placenza, and Milan. From Milan to Turin; and, passing over the Alps, enter Geneva. After visiting the various lakes of Switzerland, cross the Rhine at Basle; and passing through Strasburgh, Manheim, Frankfort, Cologn, Liege, Namur, and Brussels, embark at Antwerp for the coast of Britain. |