Several travellers, or rather strangers, were destroyed; but whether they were there on business or for pleasure, I know not. Among them are several respectable inhabitants of Berne, and a young lady of fine accomplishments and amiable character, whose loss is much lamented. My dear friend, bless God that we are alive and enjoying so many comforts. [In the Monthly Magazine for July, 1807, a part of the above letter is quoted, together with other particulars of this event, t. .nslated from a memoir of M. Saussure, communicated to the Philosophical Society at Geneva, and the narrative of M. J. H. Meyer. The number of individuals, who perished, was, ac.. cording to these accounts, considerably less than that stated by Mr. Buckminster. Something of the manner, in which Mr. Buckminster was affected by the Alpine scenery, will be seen by the following extract.]. YOU find in some of the rudest passes in the Alps homely inns, which publick beneficence has erected for the convenience of the weary and benighted traveller. In most of these inns albums are kept to record the names of those, whose curiosity has led them into these regions of barrenness, and the album is not unfrequently the only book in the house. In the album of the Grande Chartreuse, Gray, on his way to Geneva, recorded his deathless name, and left that exquisite Latin ode, beginning O! tu severi re ligio loci;' an ode which is indeed 'pure nectar.' It is curious to observe in these books the differences of national character. The Englishman usually writes his name only, without explanation or comment. The Frenchman records something of his feelings, destination, or business; commonly adding a line of poetry, an epigram, or some exclamation of pleasure or disgust. The German leaves a long dissertation upon the state of the roads, the accommodations, &c. detailing at full length whence he came, and whither he is going, through long pages of crabbed writing. In one of the highest regions of the Swiss Alps, after a day of excessive labour in reaching the summit of our journey, near those thrones erected ages ago for the majesty of nature, we stopped, fatigued and dispirited, on a spot destined to eternal barrenness, where we found one of these rude but hospitable inns open to receive us, There was not another human habitation within many miles. All the soil, which we could see, had been brought thither, and placed carefully round the cottage to nourish a few cabbages and lettuces. There were some goats, which supplied the cottagers with milk; a few fowls lived in the house; and the greatest luxuries of the place were new-made cheeses, and some wild alpine mutton, the rare provision for the traveller. Yet here nature had thrown off the veil, and appeared in all her sublimity. Summits of bare granite rose all around us. The snow-clad tops of distant Alps seemed to chill the moon-beams, that lighted on them; and we felt all the charms of the picturesque, mingled with the awe inspired by unchangeable grandeur. We seemed to have reached the original elevations of the globe, o'ertopping forever the tumults, the vices, and the miseries of ordinary existence, far out of the hearing of the murmurs of a busy world, which discord ravages and luxury corrupts. We asked for the Album, and a large folio was brought us, almost filled with the scrawls of every nation on earth, that could write. Instantly our fatigue was forgotten, and the evening passed away pleasantly in the entertainment, which this book afforded us. I copied the following French couplet : Dans ces sauvages lieux tout orgueil s'humanise ; Dieu s'y montre plus grand; l'homme s'y pulverise! Signed, p. ed. trénir. I wish I could preserve the elegance, as well as the condensed sentiment of the original. Still are these rugged realms: e'en pride is hush'd: NOTE B. PAGE xxviii. Review of Dr. Miller's Retrospect of the eigh. teenth century, the first piece ever published by Mr. B. Literary Miscellany, Vol. I. p. 82. Remarker, No. 5, on criticism. Monthly Anthology. Vol. III. 19. Review of Sherman on the Trinity. Id. III. 249. Review of the Salem Sallust. Id. II. 549. Intro duction to retrospective notices of American literature. Id. V. 52. Remarker, No. 34, on Gray. Id. V. 367. and 484. Review of Logan's version of Cato Major. Id. V. 281, 346 and 391. Editor's address. Id. VI. 1. Discourse before the . B. K. Id. VII. 145. Translation of the article INEYMA from Schleusner's Lexicon, with notes. General Repository and Review. Vol. I. p. 296. NOTE C. PAGE xxxi. Notices of Griesbach's Greek Testament. Anthology. V. 18. VI. 349. X. 107 and 403. Defence of the accuracy and fidelity of Griesbach. General Repository. I. 89. |