ΤΟ FRANCIS BOOTT, M.D. of London, THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, BY HIS FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. A FEW words will explain the title and purpose of these volumes. They are not offered to the public as an Itinerary; and for the sake of anything which they contain of that kind, they would not have been published. But on returning to his native country, the author felt a desire which before he had not anticipated, to offer to his countrymen some of the thoughts which the Old World had suggested to his mind concerning the New. It seemed to him that every traveller to the Old World stood on a vantage-ground for surveying the institutions, customs, and character of his own country, which might entitle the results of his observation to some regard. There are many subjects of this nature, which the spectacle of the Old World will force upon the most negligent attention: such as manners, national health, amusements, churches and church establishments, the Catholic religion, the cultivation of the arts, and the many and momentous questions in politics which are now agitating the civilized world, and which press with peculiar weight upon our own country. It was the author's first intention to collect and expand the scattered hints on these and other general topics which he found in his journal, and to publish them in a small volume of essays. But, as observation may lend weight to reflection-as the scene may impart some interest to the sentiments which it awakened—he has thought fit, instead of presenting those reflections and sentiments in an abstract form, to embody them in a general narrative of his tour. It is only necessary to add, in order to explain the style of address which may occasionally appear in these pages, that they were written for, and sent parcel by parcel, to his friends at home. |