―

of which they are fragments, of the domestic playfulnesses, the humorous details, in verse or prose, of travelling adventures, the very jolts of the carriage, and difficulties of the road, the rapid sketches of the mere geographical outline of the country,-the succession of historical associations, the love, brought out more strongly by absence, for his own church and country, -the strain of devout thought and prayer pervading the whole,— which, when taken altogether, give a more living image of the man himself, than anything else which he has left. But to publish the whole of any one of the many volumes through which these journals extend, was for many reasons impossible, and it has therefore been thought desirable to select, in the following extracts, such passages as contained matters of the most general interest, with so much of the ordinary context as might serve to obviate the abruptness of their introduction, and in the hope that due allowance will be made for the difference in their character, as they are read, thus torn from their natural place, instead of appearing in the general course of his thoughts and observations, as they were suggested by the various scenes and objects through which he was passing.

I. TOUR IN THE NORTH OF ITALY, 1825.

Chiavasso, July 3, 1825.

1. I can now understand what Signor A- said of the nakedness of the country between Hounslow and Laleham, as all the plains here are covered with fruit-trees, and the villages, however filthy within, are generally picturesque either from situation, or from the character of their buildings, and their lively white. The architecture of the churches, however, is quite bad; and certainly their villages bear no more comparison with those of Northamptonshire, than St. Giles's does with Waterloo Place. There are more ruins here than I expected,― ruined towers, I mean, of modern date, which are frequent in the towns and villages. The countenances of the people are fine, but we see no gentlemen

anywhere, or else the distinction of ranks is lost altogether, except with the court and the high nobility. In the valley of Aosta, through which we were travelling all yesterday, the whole land, I hear, is possessed by the peasants, and there are no great proprietors at all. I am quite satisfied that there is a good in this, as well as an evil, and that our state of society is not so immensely superior as we flatter ourselves I know that our higher classes are immensely superior to any one here; but I doubt whether our system produces a greater amount of happiness, or saves more misery than theirs; and I cannot help thinking, that, if their dreadful superstition were exchanged for the Gospel, their division of society would more tend to the general good, than ours. Their superstition is indeed most shocking, and yet with some points in which we should do well to imitate them. I like the simple crosses and oratories by the road-side, and the texts of Scripture which one often sees quoted upon them; but they are profaned by such a predominance of idolatry to the Virgin, and of falsehood and folly about the Saints, that no man can tell what portion of the water of life is still retained for those who drink it so corrupted. I want more than ever to see and talk with some of their priests, who are both honest and sensible, if, indeed, any man can be so, and yet belong to a system so abominable.

July 25, 1825.

2. On the cliff above the Lake of Como. We are on a mule-track that goes from Como along the eastern shore of the lake, and as the mountains go sheer down into the water, the mule-track is obliged to be cut out of their sides, like a terrace, half-way between their summits and their feet. They are covered with wood, all chestnut, from top to bottom, except where patches have been found level enough for houses to stand on, and vines to grow; but just where we are it is quite lonely; I look up to the blue sky, and down to the blue lake, the one just above me, and the other just below me, and see both through the thick branches of the chestnuts. Seventeen or eighteen vessels, with their white sails, are enlivening the lake; and about half a mile on my right the rock is too steep for anything to go on it, and goes down a bare cliff. A little beyond, I see some terraces and vines, and bright white houses; and further still, there is a little low point, running out into the lake, which just affords room for a vil

lage, close on the water's edge, and a white church tower rising in the midst of it. The opposite shore is just the same; villages and mountains, and trees, and vines, all one perfect loveliness. I have found plenty of the red cyclamen, whose perfume is exquisite.

On the edge of the Lake of Como. We have made our way down to the water's edge to bathe, and are now sitting on a stone to cool. No words can describe the beauty of all the scenery; we stopped at a walk at a spot where the stream descended in a deep green dell from the mountains, with a succession of falls; the dell so deep that the sun could not reach the water, which lay every now and then resting in deep rocky pools, so beautifully clear, that nothing but strong prudence prevented us from bathing in them; the banks of the dell, all turf; and magnificent chestnuts varied with rocks, and the broad lake, bright in the sunshine, stretched out before us.

II. TOUR IN SCOTLAND.

August 9, 1826.

The cheapness of education is certainly a great thing for Scotland; and the new Edinburgh Academy promises to be as economical as the High School. They are both day schools; and parents mostly, therefore, reside in Edinburgh whilst their children are at school. About fourteen, youths enter at college, and at twenty-one they enter on their professions, at least those of Law and Physic; but at college they board at home, or with some relation, or in some cheap boarding-house; thus the expenses are limited to the mere fees for attendance on lectures, which of course are trifling, but not more moderate than in Oxford; nay, a pupil at Oxford gets his college tuition comparatively cheaper, considering how much more an Oxford tutor can do, and does commonly, than a Professor who merely reads Lectures. The advantages of the Edinburgh system are, however, very considerable. In many respects I wish we could adopt them, or rather blend them with those points in which we are certainly far superior. The friendships of an English public school and university can rarely, I should think, be formed on the Scotch system; but on the other hand the domestic affections are more cherished. Jeffrey said that all nations remarked the want of filial affection in sons towards their fathers in England; the looking upon them as harsh and niggardly, and the want of

entire love and confidence towards them, was peculiarly English; and he attributed it to the estrangement from home, and the habits of expense which are at once generated by our system of education; the one loosening the intimacy, and close knowledge of one another, which should subsist between father and son, the other supplying a perpetual food for mutual complaints and unkindness. Assuredly this is true in some measure, and is an evil arising out of our system of education which had never struck me before. It certainly furnishes an additional reason for doing everything to reduce the expenses of our system; and there is this also to be said if a boy in Scotland wastes the advantages given him, at least the loss to his father is not great in a pecuniary point of view; but in England a little fortune is sunk in a boy's education, and how often is the fruit returned absolutely nothing. On the other hand, in the most favorable cases, there can be no comparison between what Oxford and Cambridge can do for a man, and what he can gain at Edinburgh, -nor indeed is the comparison quite fair, because we rarely leave the University till a year or two later than is the case in Scotland; and in the most favorable cases, a year between twenty-one and twentytwo is of incalculable benefit.

III.

TOUR TO ROME THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY.

Paris, March 1, 1827.

1. In church to-day there was a prayer read for the king and royal family of France, but they were prayed for simply in their personal capacity, and not as the rulers of a great nation, nor was there any prayer for the French people. St. Paul's exhortation is to pray, not for kings, and their families, but for kings and all who are in authority," that we may lead a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." So forever is this most pure command corrupted by servility and courtli

ness.

Joigny, April 6, 1827.

2. Sens has a fine cathedral, with two very beautiful painted rose-windows in the transepts, and a monument of the Dauphin, father to the present king, which is much spoken of. Here the cheating of the blacksmiths went on in full perfection, and is really a very great drawback to the pleasure of travelling in France. The moment we stop anywhere, out

comes a fellow with his leathern apron, and goes poking and ́prying about the carriage in hopes of finding some job to do; and they all do their work so ill, that they generally never fail to find something left for them by their predecessor's clumsiness. Again I have been struck with the total absence of all gentlemen, and of all persons of the education and feelings of gentlemen. I am afraid that the bulk of the people are sadly ignorant and unprincipled, and then liberty and equality are but evils. A little less aristocracy in our country and a little more here, would seem a desirable improvement; there seem great elements of good amongst the people here, great courtesy and kindness, with all their cheating and unreasonableness. May He, who only can, turn the hearts of this people, and of all other people, to the knowledge and love of Himself in His Son, in whom there is neither Englishman nor Frenchman, any more than Jew or Greek, but Christ is all and in all! And may He keep alive in me the spirit of charity, to judge favorably and feel kindly towards those amongst whom I am travelling; inasmuch as Christ died for them as well as for us, and they too call themselves after His name.

Approach to Rome, April, 1827.

3. When we turned the summit and opened on the view of the other side, it might be called the first approach to Rome. At the distance of more than forty miles, it was of course impossible to see the town, and besides the distance was hazy; but we were looking on the scene of the Roman History; we were standing on the outward edge of the frame of the great picture, and, though the features of it were not to be traced distinctly, yet we had the consciousness that there they were before us. Here, too, we first saw the Mediterranean; the Alban hills, I think, in the remote distance, and just beneath us, on the left, Soracte, an outlier of the Apennines, which has got to the right bank of the Tiber, and stands out by itself most magnificently. Close under us, in front, was the Ciminian Lake, the crater of an extinct volcano, surrounded, as they all are, with their basin of wooded hills, and lying like a beautiful mirror stretched out before us. Then there was the grand beauty of Italian scenery, the depth of the valleys, and the endless variety of the mountain outline, and the towns perched up on the mountain summits. and this now seen under a mottled sky which threw an ever