and mind.

and wandered along its steep hills, and almost impenetrable woods. I made large excurfions into the forefts of Dalecarlia, the groves of Gothland, the heaths of Smoland, and the unbounded plains of Scania. There is fcarcely any confiderable province of Sweden, which I have not crawled thro', and examined; not without great fatigue of body My journey to Lapland was indeed an undertaking of immenfe labour; and I must confefs, that I was forced to undergo more labour, and danger in travelling thro' this one tract of the northern world, than thro' all those foreign countries put together, which I have ever vifited; tho' even these have coft me no small pains, and have not a little exhaufted my vigour. But love to truth, and gratitude towards the Supreme Being, oblige me to confefs, that no fooner were my travels finished, but, as it were, a Lethean oblivion of all the dangers, and difficulties came upon me; being rewarded by the ineftimable advantages, which I reaped from those devious purfuits. Advantages the more confpicuous, for that I became daily more and more fkillful, and gained a degree of experience, which I hope will be of ufe to myfelf, and others; and, what I efteem above all other confiderations, as it comprehends in one all other duties, and charities; to my country and the public.

Good God! how many, ignorant of their own country, run eagerly into foreign regions, to fearch out and admire whatever curiofities are to be found; many of which are much inferior to thofe, which offer themselves to our eyes at home. I have yet beheld no foreign

land, that abounds with more natural curiofities of all kinds, than our own. None which prefents fo many, fo great, fo wonderful works of nature; whether we confider the magazines of fnow heaped up for fo many ages upon our Alps, and amongft thefe vaft tracks of fnow green meadows, and delicious vallies here and there peeping forth, or the lofty heads of mountains, the craggy precipices of rocks, or the fun lying concealed from our eyes for fo many months, and thence a thick Cimmerian darknefs fpread over our hemifphere, or else at another feafon darting his rays cou tinually along the horizon. The like to all which in kind, and degree, neither Holland, nor France, nor Britain, nor Germany, nor lastly, any country in Europe can fhew; yet thither our youth, greedy of novelty, flock in troops. But it was not my intent to speak of thefe things at prefent. I come now clofer to my purpose, being about to fhew by inftances, that the natural philofopher, the mineralogist, the botanist, the zoologist, the phyfician, the oeconomift, and all others initiated in any part of natural knowledge, may find in travelling through our country things, which they will own they never dreamed of before. Nay things which to this day were never difcovered by any perfon whatever. Laftly, fuch things as may not only gratify and fatiate their curiofity; but may be of fervice to themfelves, their country, and all the world."

To give a few examples. The fagacious fearcher after nature will find here, wherewithal to sharpen and exercife his attention in beholding the top of mount Swucku,

of

of fo immenfe a height, that it reaches above the clouds. The wonderful ftructure of mount Torfburg, the horrid precipices of the rock Blakulla in an island of that name, fituated near Oeland, and that prefents by its name, ftill ufed among the Sueogothic vulgar no lefs than by its difmal afpect, an idea of the ftupidity, and fuperftition of that ancient people.

Befides the wonderful vaults, and caverns of the Skiula mountains, the high plains of the island Carolina, the unusual form and ftructure of the Kierkerfian fountains in Oeland; to pass over numberless other ftrange works of nature, the like to which perhaps are no where to be met with.

Where can we have greater opportunities, than in this Sueogo. thic tract, of confidering the intenfe rigour, and vehemence of winter, the incredible marble-like ftrength of ice? And yet in this inclement climate grain of all forts is obferved to fpring forth fooner, grow quicker, and ripen in lefs time than in any other part of the world +.

Whoever defires to contemplate the ftupendous metamorphofes of fea and land, will fcarcely find any where a more convenient opportunity, that in the fouth and eaft parts of Gothland; where the rock-giants, as they are called, feem to threaten heaven, and where the epocha's of time, the ages, the years, if I may fo fay, are as it were carved out in a furprifing

feries upon the fea fhore, and the ground above the shore.

The philofopher will find room to exercife his ingenuity fufficiently in the Oeland ftone, by trying to discover how to overcome its moift nature, and quality, which whoever could accomplish would do no small service to his country, and above all would infinitely oblige the inhabitants of that place.

I fhall fay no more than what is known, and confeffedly by all the world, when I fay that there is no country in the habitable part of the globe, where the mineralogift may make greater progress in his art, than in this country. Let any one that can, tell me, and I shall efteem him no mean prophet, in what regions more rich, and and ample mines of metal are found, than in Sweden, and where they dig deeper into the very bowels of the earth than here.

Let the mines of Norburg, the ridge of Taberga, the pits of Dannemore, Bitfberg, Grengia, and laftly the immenfe treasures of Salbergen, and Fahluna, be my witnefies, which exceed all in the known world.

Where do the poffeffors fuffer foreigners more freely to approach their furnaces, and obferve their operations? where are there men more ready to communicate their knowledge? Strangers are received by us with civility, and even preffed to stay.

Who would not fhudder on beholding thofe forges, vomiting forth immenfe clouds of fire, and

fmoak,

:

Accordingly the tale is not near fo full of incidents, nor fo diverting in itself, as the ingenious author, if he had not had higher views, might eafily have made it; neither is the diftinction of characters fufficiently attended to but with thefe defects, perhaps no book ever inculcated a purer and founder morality; no book ever made a more juft eftimate of human life, its purfuits, and its enjoyments. The defcriptions are rich and luxuriant, and fhew a poetic imagination not inferior to our beft writers in verfe. The ftyle, which is peculiar and characteristical of the author, is lively, correct, and harmonious. It has however in a few places an air too exact and ftudied.

The ideas which travellers have

given us of a mountain in which the branches of royal family of Abiffinia are confined, though it may not be very well founded in fact, affords a ground for the most ftriking defcription of a terreftrial paradife, which has ever been

drawn; in this the author places. the hero of his tale.

"The place, which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had defined for the refidence of the Abiffinian princes, was a fpacious valley in the kingdom of Amhara, furrounded on every fide by mountains of which the fummits overhang the middle part. The only paffage by which it could be entered was a cavern that paffed under a rock, of which it has been long disputed whether it was the work of nature or of human induftry. The outlet of the cavern was concealed by a thick wood, and the mouth which opened into the valley was clofed with gates of iron, forged by the artificers of ancient days, fo maffy that no man could, without the help of engines, open or fhut them.

From the mountains on every fide, rivulets defcended that filled the valley with verdure and fertility, and formed a lake in the middle inhabited by fish of every fpecies, and frequented by every fowl whom nature has taught to dip the wing in water. This lake discharged its fuperfluities by a ftream which entered a dark cleft of the mountain on the northern fide, and fell with dreadful noife from precipice to precipice till it was heard no more.

The fides of the mountains were covered with trees, the banks of the brooks were diverfified with flowers; every blaft fhook fpices from the rocks, and every month

dropped

dropped fruits upon the ground., All animals that bite the grafs, or brouse the fhrub, whether wild or tame, wandered in this extenfive circuit, fecured from beats of prey by the mountains which confined them. On ore part were flocks and herds feeding in the pastures, 'on another all the beafts of chace frisking in the lawns; the fprightly kid was bounding on the rocks, the fubtle monkeys frolicking in the trees, and the folemn elephant repofing in the fhade. All the diverfities of the world were brought together, the bleflings of nature were collected, and its evils extracted and excluded.

The valley, wide and fruitful, fupplied its inhabitants with the neceffaries of life, and all delights and fuperfluities were added at the annual vifit which the emperor paid his children, when the iron gate was opened to the found of mufic; and during eight days every one that refided in the valley was required to propofe whatever might contribute to make feclufion pleafant, to fill up the vacancies of attention, and leffen the tedioufnefs of time. Every defire was immediately granted. All the artificers of pleasure were called to gladden the feftivity; the muficians exerted their power of harmony, and the dancers fhewed their activity before the princes, in hope that they fhould pass their lives in this blissful captivity, to which thofe only were admitted whofe performance was thought able to add novelty to luxury. Such was the appearance of fecurity and delight which this retirement afforded, that they to whom it was new, always defired that it might be perpetual; and as thofe, on whom the iron gates

had once clofed, were never fuffered to return, the effect of longer experience could not be known. Thas every year produced new fchemes of delight, and new competitors for imprisonment." In this delightful feclufion, nothing that art or nature could fupply, was wanting to folace and gladden its inhabitants; and the palace of the princes was decorated in the most fumptuous manner. “Here the fons and daughters of Abiffinia lived only to know the foft viciffitudes of pleasure and repose, attended by all that were skilful to delight, and gratified with whatever the fenfes can enjoy. They wandered in gardens of fragrance, and flept in the fortreffes of fecurity. Every art was practifed to make them pleafed with their condition. The fages who inftructed them, told them of nothing but the miseries of public life, and defcribed all beyond the mountains as regions of calamity, where difcord was always raging, and where man preyed upon man.

To heighten their opinion of their own felicity, they were daily entertained with fongs, the fubje&t of which was the Happy Valley. Their appetites were excited by frequent enumerations of different enjoyments, and revelry and merriment was the bufinefs of every hour, from the dawn of morning to the clofe of evening.

Thefe methods were generally fuccefsful; few of the princes had ever wished to enlarge their bounds, but paffed their lives in full conviction that they had all within their reach that art or nature could beftow, and pitied thofe whom fate had excluded from this tranquility, as the fport of chance, and the flaves of mifery."

Raffelas,

nece

Raffelas, in the 26th year of his age, began to be uneafy in his fituation, and thus expreffed the fource of his grief. "What, faid he, makes the difference between man and all the reft of the animal creation Every beaft that ftrays befide me has the fame corporal ceffities with myself; he is hungry and crops the grafs, he is thirity and drinks the ftream, his thirft and hunger are appeased, he is fatisfied, and fleeps: he rifes again, and is hungry, he is again fed, and is at reft. I am hungry and thirfly, like him; but when thirst and hunger cease, I am not at reft: I am, like him, pained with want ; but am not, like him, fatisfied with fulnefs. The intermediate hours are tedious and gloomy; I

his excurfion into the world at large.

Though the author has not put his name to this work, there is no doubt that he is the fame who has before done fo much for the improvement of our tafte and our morals, and employed a great part of his life in an astonishing work for the fixing the language of this nation; whilft this nation, which admires his works, and profits by them, has done nothing for the author.

A letter from M. Rousseau of Geneva, to M. d'Alembert, of Paris, concerning the effects of theatrical entertainments on the manners of man

kind.

YONE of the present writers

again quicken my attention. The birds peck the berries out of the corn, and fly away to the groves, where they fit in feeming happiness on the branches, and wafte their lives in tuning one unvaried feries of founds. I likewife can call the lutenift and the finger; but the founds that pleafed me yesterday weary me to day, and will grow yet more wearifome to-morrow. I can difcover within me no power of perception, which is not glutted with its proper pleafure; yet I do not feel myfelf delighted. Man has furely fome latent fenle for which this place affords no gratification; or he has fome defires diftinct from fenfe, which must be fatisfied before he can be happy."

In confequence of thefe reflections, he contrives to escape out of the valley; but if the hero of the tale was not happy in this fituation, we are not to be furprifed, that he did not find happiness in

lents and learning than Rousseau ; yet it has been his misfortune and that of the world, that those of his works which have made the greateft noife, and acquired to their author the highest reputation, have been of little real ufe or emolument to mankind. A tendency to pa radox, which is always the bane of folid learning, and threatens now to destroy it, a fplenetic difpofition carried to mifanthropy, and an auftere virtue pursued to an unfociable fierceness, have prevented a great deal of the good effects which might be expected from fuch a genius. A fatire upon civilized fociety, a fatire upon learning, may make a tolerable fport for an ingenious fancy; but if carried farther it can do no more (and that in fuch a way is furely too much) than to unfettle our notions of right and wrong, and lead by degrees to univerfal fcepticifm. His having be-

fore