Desultory Reminiscences Of A Tour Through Germany, Switzerland, And France (1838) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. Reflections on Travel. ? Environs of Leipsic. ? The Battle-Ground. ? Monument to Poniatowski. ? Absence of Public Amusements. ? Dresden.?The Gallery of Paintings. ? The Madonna of Raf- faelle. ? Paintings of Correggio. ? Jewel Office or Treasury. ? Dresden Porcelain. ? General Moreau. ? The Environs of Dresden. ? Style of Architecture. ? The King and Royal Family. ? Moral Condition of Society. Having now satisfied our curiosity in visiting the objects most worthy of interest in this city, we summoned our carriage, and whirled ofF, at a rapid pace, on the road to Berlin, indulging, as we rode along, in such reveries and speculations, as a day thus spent would naturally tend to give birth to. There is, in sooth, an intense excitement, little dreamed of by the stationary, that the ardent traveller experiences when finding himself for the first time upon a spot where were performed the most illustrious acts that gild a celebrated name. Those exploits, the bare perusal of which fired his youthful imagination at the school or university, heightened now by the association of scene, assail the mind with tenfold effect. The heated fancy lends its magical illusion; and, ceasing to be a mere spectator, he becomes, for the moment, identified with the hero of his admiration. A warmer excitement thrills through each particular vein and fibre; it passes, it is true, and, like all other excitements, has its reaction; but even the very REMARKS ON TRAVELLING. 45 melancholy that succeeds, weighs it not heavier in the balance, than the vain follies the world terms pleasure ? It has been said, that a man speaking seven or eight different languages is equivalent to an equal number of men who are acquainted with but one. May it not with similar propriety be urged, that a ma...