not fail to make a deep impression on a disposition which cherishes, with devout feelings, the remembrance of any kindness. It is therefore natural that I should be anxious to evince my sense of the honour done me, and in the opportunity of prefixing your titles, to inform the public how much it is indeed an honour which I ought to esteem. It will surprise some of your friends in this country to learn that you are a member of the Legion of Honour, for it was characteristic of youto conceal a distinction conferred on account of your benevolence. It will surprise yourself, however, more that I should think of enumerating it, as constituting one of your rights to respect. But is there nothing extraordinary in that humanity to which the Emperor Napoleon felt himself obliged to do homage ? Your title of Doctor of Laws imposes upon me the necessity of adverting to some expressions in the subsequent pages, which may be deemed derogatory to the venerable University which bestowed on you that degree, although you are too intimately acquainted with my political sentiments to put on any loose expression such a con struction. And you already know that my sarcasms are not directed against the institution, but the system by which the current knowledge of the time, and millions of my fellow subjects, are excluded from Oxford and Cambridge. The world will regard all your other dignities, except your hereditary rank, as proofs of the confidence of that illustrious sovereign, whom, in the enthusiasm of your loyalty, you have so often described to me as placed by the malice of Fortune in the midst of all the temptations of unbounded power, but demonstrating, by the graciousness of his own nature, that there is a limited monarch on the throne of All the Russias. It is due, however, as well to his as your character to publish, that the trusts which you enjoy were bestowed by himself alone, because you wished to abridge his imperial prerogatives. Every one but yourself will regard it as presumption in me, that to a person so honoured and endowed I should subscribe myself a faithful friend, Tunbridge Wells, 17 Sept. 1813. JOHN GALT. PREFACE. THESE Letters were written at the different places from which they are dated; and they have undergone no alteration since, except in the suppression of a few local and personal allusions, amusing to the author and the friend to whom the Letters were addressed, but not in the slightest degree interesting to others. They contain a narrative of Voyages and Travels, undertaken after the visit to Malta, described in a former publication, and completed prior to the landing at Cerigo; some account of which, and of a second journey through Greece, was given in the same volume. If in this work the Author shall appear to be a still greater heretic in classical dogmas than he was found in the other, the frequent acknowledgment of his ignorance ought to be treated as a symptom of a disposition that may be converted to a right way of thinking; and his errors, with those who enjoy a clearer light, should move rather to compassion than anger. An apology may be expected for the opinions occasionally alluded to, and delivered, relative to the Fine Arts. It is frankly confessed, that they have been printed in consequence of the approbation with which Mr. West, unquestionably the greatest artist of the age, was pleased to notice a few observations on the same subject, which the Author has elsewhere published. Tunbridge Wells, 17 Sept. 1813. |