dergo many alterations in passing from one generation to another, even among nations that have the means of catching the nice inflexions of voice, and of handing them down, in a visible form, to posterity.

"The genius of a language is generally discoverable in the application of new words to new ideas.、 The Hottentots, who had never seen nor heard the report of a gun before their unfortunate connexion with Europeans, had a new word to invent in order to express it. They called it kaboo, and pronounced the word in so emphatic a manner that it was scarcely possible to mistake their meaning. The ka is thrown out with a strong palatial stroke of the tongue, in imitation of the sound given by the stroke of the flint against the cover of the pan; and with outstretched lips, a full mouth, and prolonged sound, the boo sends forth the report. This language at first appears to be of such a nature as to make it impossible for an European ever to acquire; the difficulty, however, which is chiefly occasioned by the action of the tongue, is soon got over. Most of the Dutch peasantry in the distant districts speak it; and many of them are so very much accustomed to the use of it, that they introduce into their own language a motion of the organ of speech sufficiently distinct to shew from whence they procured it.

"Notwithstanding the inhuman treatment that the Hottentots ex

perience from the Dutch farmers, the latter could very ill want the assistance of the former; and, were they sensible of their own interest, and the interest of their posterity, instead of oppressing, they would offer them every encourages ment. To guard their numerous herds; to drive them from place to place in search of food and water, sometimes on plans which produce not a shrub to screen them from the scorching rays of an almost vertical sun at one part of the year, or to afford them a shelter from the cold winds, frost, and snow that happen in the other, would ill agree with the temper or with the constitution of the colonists; yet, should the present sy. stem of oppression continue, the time is not far distant when their own children must take upon them the charge now committed to Hot tentots. Slaves are too expensive. In the whole district of Graaff Reynet there are not more than six or seven hundred blacks, which is about one to each family; and the said district contains about 10,000 Hottentots great and small. total number of this people in the whole colony may be about fifteen thousand. Broken up and dispers sed as the tribes of this nation now are, few of their antient usages are retained among them. If they ever had a religion of any sort, all traces of it are now lost: they marry without any of kind ceremony, and inter their dead in the same manner."

The

"I

mine it never has.

"A person may paint a lake on the right, with its shores interspersed with delightful villas, point out the chain of the Jura on the left, place Montblanc in the background, &c. He may use, on this occasion, the picturesque language of poetry: yet, in my mind, it will produce only a confused image of all these objects-confused, I say, and not even resembling the original: it hovers before me, and in vain I try to seize it.

"I have, therefore, always been an enemy to such descriptions. A person ought to see Switzerland with his own eyes, just as he ought to hear a concert with his own ears. He who paints countries with words, does still less than the person who hums a symphony: therefore I neither can nor will say any thing of Switzerland, but that I have here and there seen spots, where the Almighty may perhaps have stood, when he surveyed the world after the creation, and said: It is good.'

"The fall of the Rhine did not exceed my expectation, though I was highly gratified by it. Many travellers have endeavoured to represent to me the effect of this view as inferior to what I found it in reality. It is a grand sight, of which no pen ought to attempt the description. I was much charmed with the environs of Zurich, and perhaps more so than with any other place, as my stay was render ed additionally interesting by the worth of the people.

"The perspective from Bugeli across the lake, of the ice-clad mountains, is extremely captivat ing; but the prospect from the apartments of the inn, bearing the sign of the Sword, at which I put up, is more attractive, or at least more variegated. This perspective has often been mentioned en passant. I will more circumstantially-not describe, but only mention all that is to be seen.

"The room is a corner room. If you open a window to the left, you see the river Limmat below you, with a very broad bridge over it, lined on both sides with women selling fruit and vegetables, with groups of French chasseurs walking among them. The mainguard of these soldiers is on the opposite side of the bridge.

"You cannot conceive what stir and bustle prevail here. Downwards, to the left, you see, along the river, two long streets, and a part of the town. If you open the window on the right, you behold at your feet an open country, and straight before you the lake of

Zurich,

Zurich, surrounded by charming villas, and skirted by the Alps, on whose summits the snowy cliffs rear their hoary heads.

"This amphitheatre, forming a contrast of polished and rude na ture, together with the bustle of men immediately below, is incomparable. The beautiful walks about Zurich would even tempt the gouty to exercise.

"Gesner's monument is a performance of such simplicity and neatness, that you can scarcely with hold the tribute of a tear. It is a pity that the French chasseurs, who have now no other opportunity to perpetuate their name, endeavour to do it upon this marble. In many parts I found scrawled the 13th regiment of chasseurs, which is really as opposite to the world of 1dyls, as a musket to a rose-tree.

"In the library there are a great many books: an ordinary traveller can seldom say more of such an establishment. A couple of let ters, in the hand-writing of the celebrated lady Jane Grey, interested me. They are on religious sub, jects, in very good Latin, and as finely written as if by the hand of a writing-master.

"I had but a hasty glance of Lavater's cabinet of physiognomy. What is most remarkable in it does not so much consist in the multiplicity of faces he has collected, as in the superscriptions with which he honoured every significant or insignificant countenance. Sometimes it seems to have cost him a great deal of trouble to compress much of what is rare, in obscure or new-fangled words.

"The temper of the Swiss still resembles the ruffled surface of the deep, out of which a subterraneous fire has suddenly projected some rocks, against which the confined

surges dash their impotent spray. The walls of the public-houses are often covered with bitter sallies, which are sometimes not without point.

"The Swiss cherish the most inveterate hatred against general Andermatt, the bombarder of Zurich. He lives retired at his country house, where he is skreened from the general contempt.

"The Swiss do not speak favourably of the Russians. They praise general Korsakow for his love of literature and the sciences, but they will not allow him to be a good general. Being once informed that the French had occupied a mountain which commands Zurich, he answered: Tant mieux ! C'est là que je les attendois. "So much the better! It is there I expected them.” He was soon afterwards compelled to retreat, and that without knowing through which gate he was to effect his flight. The people of Zurich were obliged to show him the way. On this occasion he lost his baggage; the French hussars took a great deal of booty, and had so many cumbersome French crowns in their caps, that they gladly gave from ten to fifteen of them for one louis d'or, finding it more convenient to carry off the gold. If you wish to hear many remarkable anecdotes which have not yet been made public, but which throw great light upon the events of that period, you ought to go to Zurich.

"Baden in Switzerland.-Here I found posted up an ordinance of the tribunal of manners, which pays no compliment to the spirit of our times. It enjoins a proper celebration of the Lord's-day; prohibits gambling, dancing, shooting, fishing, swimming, &c. on Sundays; and orders all married citizens to

go to church in cloaks, and the unmarried in coats, not in jackets. The women, it further says, will observe in their dress that decorum which is due to the sanctity of the place, to the purity of their sentiments, and to modesty.

"I should indeed like for once to see our great great grandmothers attend divine service, along with their half-naked great great granddaughters; how quickly would they return to their graves, and lie down on their faces, that they might not be obliged to cry shame on our youthful females, who have bidden adieu to modesty!

"It does credit to Switzerland to have tribunals of manners; it shows at least an attempt to preserve them. I know of no other country in Europe that boasts of such institutions. Decayed build ings are usually propped up, that they may not overwhelm the unwary passenger. But degeneracy of manners, which only poisons the mind, is suffered to extend its ravages, like the fir caterpillar a few years ago, till men become as sapless as the trees in a rifled wood.

"Berne, Lausanne, Geneva.What more can I tell you of all these cities, than that I have visited them, and seen what hundreds have seen before me? The towns are not to be reckoned among the beauties of Switzerland; they are, particularly the greater ones, old, winding, and intersected by narrow, dirty streets, which the high houses completely deprive of the benefits of a free circulation of air. Whole some as the air of Switzerland may be without the gates, it is certainly no less unwholesome in the towns, excepting in the smaller ones, on the lake of Geneva, called Morges and Rolle.

"I was particularly pleased with

the idea of seeing the bone-house, near Murten, celebrated for three centuries and a half, where, after the great victory gained over Charles of Burgundy in 1476, the bones of the slain were collected. Alas! the spot hardly remains perceptible. The French demolished it last year, dispersed the bones, or threw them into the lake. Why? they themselves probably cannot tell. They seem frequently to be seized with a childish love of destroying. Meanwhile there still remain ribs, skulls, and bones enough on the place, with which no one meddles; so that it will very likely be distinguishable yet for

some years.

"At Geneva I saw an excellent historical picture, by St. Ours the painter. This being the only kind. of painting of which I am an enthusiastic admirer, but which I find so little cultivated, the sight of it was a real treat to me. It is very large, covers a whole wall, and represents the Olympic games, at the moment the victor has overcome his third antagonist, who having fallen down, still supports himself on his athletic arm.

"He advances to the judge of the combat, and demands the prize. The judge takes the crown, the people around shout applause, and the conquered are carried off the field. The enraptured father of the conqueror stands among the spectators; Socrates is present, and the priestesses of Ceres, the only females permitted to attend at the games, sit by the judge's side.

"The artist has represented these priestesses as young maidens of exquisite beauty, and their charms are heightened by the costume. One of them rises involuntarily from her seat; her posture bending with a lovely naïveté toward the

victor,

victor, seems to imply that she feels more interest for his person than becomes her sacred profession, and one of her sisters gently draws her back. This group, charming as it is, appears however to be a fault in the picture, as it draws the eye from the principal figure, and attracts and reattracts without ceasing. The conqueror too is, perhaps, somewhat stiff, and the colouring of his body is not the best. But I am not connoisseur enough to criticize. I have felt, and that is enough.

From St. Ours I went to the celebrated Deluc, a very ingenious old man, who with the utmost readiness showed me his fine cabinet of fossils, lavas, and shell. I am sorry I understand so little of this science. He made violent objections to the hypothesis, that the moon-stones, as they are called, are really projected upon the earth by volcanoes in that planet. He is of opinion, that the law of gravitation will not permit even a single atom to swerve from its planet. What he says concerning volcanoes in general, and their origin, is extremely interesting. Without brine or seawater, he is of opinion that no volcano can exist, and that they will always be found in the vicinity of the sea; that sea-water is absolutely necessary to create such a ferment; that at first every volcano is but a hole in the ground, which becomes a mountain by the eruptions continued for thousunds of years.

"When I objected to him with a smile, that, in this manner, it would require an infinite time to form a mountain like Mount Etna, and that this must make one suspect the truth of the scriptural account of the age of the world, he denied what I said, telling me, that the volcanoes had perhaps already from

the beginning commenced forming under the water, which was proved by the many marine animals found on the summits of mountains. 1 should like to have listened to him for hours; but unskilled as I am in the science, I could not give you a faithful report of what he said.

"I found the theatre at Geneva indifferent. Among other pieces, was acted Monsieur de Crac dans son petit Castel, when I saw several good comedians. The mayor's box looks like a parrot's cage, being twisted all round with wire; a singular mark of distinction. slovenly fashion among actors, to tear holes in the curtain to pop their noses through, is prevalent here also; but care has, at least, been taken to prevent the holes from becoming slits, they having been bordered with tin.

The

"In, Berlin the public are indebted to Ifland (to whom they owe many things) for the correction of this indecency. I would much rather have seen Mont Blanc than all the decorations of the theatre at Geneva; but it would not favour me with throwing off its cloudy mantle. But this venerable mountain will no doubt, remain on the same spot; and I hope to find it some other time.

"I missed another curiosity of Geneva, to my great regret; the, celebrated authoress of Delphine had also wrapt herself up in her veil, and was gone, I know not whither. To procure an adequate compensation for this disappointment, I went to Ferney, and entered its sanctuary with a beating heart. I had seen the model of it at Petersburgh, in the palace of the Hermitage, and was disappointed in the expectations I had formed of the building; in fact, the picture

of