X. It is usual to take with us as guides on our journey certain works written for the purpose, and Addison's Travels are generally recommended; and indeed his known taste and character, together with the avowed purpose of his journey, might have justified the expectation of a finished performance. But though Addison had naturally an enlarged mind, humane feelings, and a fancy teeming with imagery, yet prejudice had narrowed his extensive views, religious acrimony had soured his temper, and party spirit had repressed his imagination. He gave therefore to one half of the nation what he owed to the whole; he considered principally how he might support one party and annoy the other; and he ran over great part of Europe, particularly Italy, not so much a Classic as a Whig traveller. In his eyes countries appeared fertile and happy, or barren and miserable, not as nature formed

them, but as they were connected with France or with England, as their religion was Protestant or Catholic. Hence, he dwells with at least as much complacency on the little miserable details of German and Italian superstition, as on the interesting remains of Roman grandeur, and fills with the dreams of bigotry and the censures of intolerance, those pages which ought to have been devoted to the effusions of classical enthusiasm, and strewed with the flowers of ancient poesy.* Prejudice or malevolence, in ordinary writers, excites neither surprise nor regret; the ignorance or the folly of mediocrity can claim nothing more than contempt; but the errors and the defects of the wise and of the good awaken more serious emotions; and while we justly lament the weakness of human

* Vide seven pages devoted to St. Anthony's Sermon to the Fish, in Italian and English.

nature we are cautioned by such examples against the indulgence of passions, which could imbitter the benevolence and pervert the good sense of the mild, the judicious Addison. Succeeding travellers have improved on this author's defects, and loaded their pages with misrepresentation and invective: while, within the last ten years, some tourists have employed their journals as vehicles of revolutionary madness, and instead of the laudes Italia and the fortia facta patrum have given the public elaborate panegyrics on the French generals, and accounts of their achievements as exaggerated as their own dispatches.*

* The best guide or rather companion which the traveller can take with him, is Corinne ou l'Italie, a work of singular ingenuity and eloquence. In it Madame de Staël does ample justice to the Italian character; though a Protestant she speaks of the religion of Italy with reverence, and treats even superstition itself with indulgence. She describes the climate, the beauties, the

To conclude this topic,-an attentive traveller after having acquired the preparatory knowledge recommended in the preceding pages, may safely rely on his own diligence, aided by the observations of the intelligent inhabitants, and by the maps and guides to be procured in every great town. Books, though necessary, are an incumbrance which never fails to increase as we advance; we ought therefore to confine ourselves to the classics, if pos sible, and even then we shall find our library sufficiently numerous and bulky.

XI. Maps form an indispensable part of a traveller's furniture. At setting out, two

monuments of that privileged country with glowing animation, Museo contingens cuncta lepore; she raises the reader above the common level of thought, and inspires him with that lofty temper of mind, without which we can neither discover nor relish the great and the beautiful in

art or in nature.

will be sufficient: one of Ancient, one of Modern Italy. Of the former D'Anville's is the best; of the latter, an excellent one, extremely beautiful in the execution, and upon a scale large enough for information without being burthensome, has been published by Zannoni.* As the traveller advances, he must enrich his collection, and procure in its principal town, the map of each province or division. At Milan, he will find separate maps of the lakes and the various regions of the Milanese. Mantua, a beautiful, correct, but I believe scarce map, of that city and its vicinity, should be inquired for. At Bologna may be had the excellent maps of the Roman territory by Father Boscovich. At Rome

At

The map prefixed to the present edition has been copied from that of Zannoni alluded to. It is very accurate, and well executed, and does credit to the ingenious engraver, Mr. Smith.