Consolations in Travel or the Last Days of a Philosopher (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851 edition. Excerpt: ...The lives of our statesmen, warriors, poets, and even philosophers offer abundant proofs of the truth of this opinion. Whatever burns, consumes; ashes remain. Before the period of youth is passed, grey hairs usually cover those brows which are adorned with the civic oak or the laurel; and in the luxurious and exciting life of the man of pleasure, their tints are not even preserved by the myrtle wreath or the garland of roses from the premature winter of time. In selecting the scenes for my new journey I was guided by my former experience. I know no country more beautiful than that which may be called the Alpine country of Austria, including the Alps of the southern Tyrol, those of Illyria, the Noric and the Julian Alps, and the Alps of Styria and Salzburg. The variety of the scenery, the verdure of the meadows and trees, the depths of the valleys, the altitude of the mountains, the clearness and grandeur of the rivers and lakes give it, I think, a decided superiority over Switzerland. And the people are far more agreeable; various in their costumes and manners, Illyrians, Italians or Germans, they have all the same simplicity of character, and are all distinguished by their love of their country, their devotion to their sovereign, the warmth and purity of their faith, their honesty, and (with very few exceptions) I may say, their great civility and courtesy to strangers. In the prime of life I had visited this region in a society which afforded me the pleasures of intellectual friendship and the delights of refined affection. Later, I had left the burning summer of Italy and the violence of an unhealthy passion, and had found coolness, shade, repose and tranquillity there. In a still more advanced period, I had sought for and found...