118 LECTURE ON SWITZERLAND. 



former the result may be deeply injurious, because leading to modes 

 and habits of thought and action not in harmony with the peculiarities 

 of our country. 



Impressed with the importance to Americans of judging independ- 

 ently of the institutions of Europe, I formerly took occasion in another 

 place to present a cursory view of the capital of Austria, as illustrating 

 the effects of institutions the very opposite of our own. I design on 

 this occasion to occupy your attention, without further exceeding the 

 limits of a lecture than is absolutely necessary, by a notice of men and 

 things in the only federated republic of Europe, Switzerland. I cannot 

 pretend to set before you a panoramic view, but merely a few detached 

 pictures in outline, so selected as to convey a tolerably fair idea of 

 republican Switzerland as it appeared to an American. By contem- 

 plating it we shall have an example of the practical working of repub- 

 licanism in the Old World, under various modifications, and with the 

 disadvantages of being hemmed in on aU sides by monarchies. We shall 

 thus see the power of this system to civilize and to enlighten. 



In the course of these sketches we shall find much bearing both 

 directly and indirectly upon the objects which this Institute was estab- 

 lished to promote. Upon the map of Europe Switzerland is so well 

 defined by its boundaries that there is no danger of its escaping the 

 sight on account of its small size. The Ehine constitutes nearly two 

 sides of this boundary, from the point where the various streams from 

 the glaciers of the Grisons have met to form a river into the lake of 

 Constance, and from its exit thence to where the Jura Mountains turn 

 its course to the Korthern Ocean. The Jura separates Switzerland from 

 France, and with merely an outlet for the Ehone, the Alps take up the 

 line, dividing rugged Switzerland from the plains of Northern Italy. 



The picturesque features of this country have furnished themes for the 

 poet, the painter, and tourist. Under the influence of its snow-capped 

 mountains, its shady and sequestered valleys, its rough glaciers, and its 

 placid lakes, common-place men have warmed into something approach- 

 ing to poetic fervor, and men of genius have poured forth their inspira- 

 tions in verse or lofty prose. It is impossible to call up even in memory 

 those scenes with all their attendant circumstances of romance — both 

 nature and life so different from that to which we are accustomed — 

 without feeling the heart and the imagination moved beyond their 

 wont. 



"Who first beholds those everlasting clouds — 

 Those mighty hills, so shadowy, so sublime, 

 As rather to belong to heaven than earth, 

 But instantly receives into his soul 

 A sense, a feeling, that he loses not ; 

 A something, that informs him 'tis an hour 

 Whence he may date henceforward and forever." 



But who shall dare to speak in plain prose of scenes of which the muse 

 of Byron has sung? The rugged nature of the country within this bound- 



