276 Dr Muncke's Remarks on an Account of the 



.this arduous and, as it proved, ungrateful office. Had Dr 

 Lehman (in every respect a most respectable, unassuming, and 

 modest man certainly,) been considered a more fit secretary 

 than Dr Fricke, the latter would not have been chosen ; and 

 here I must be permitted to place the vote of a whole meeting 

 against an individual opinion in support of my argument. 



Mr Johnston introduces in his account a great deal of irre- 

 levant matter of too minor importance to fill many pages, and 

 his readers would be very badly informed, indeed, were they to 

 learn from it the manners and customs of the Swedes, the 

 Danes, the French, and the Germans. Nothing is easier than 

 ridiculing certain peculiarities of a nation or nations ; but is there 

 one without it ? The philosopher, however, the liberal mind- 

 ed, and the man of good breeding, will respect in others what 

 he claims for his own. This is a principle grounded not merely 

 upon a proper moral feeling but on sacred precept. 



Page 23'$. — Mr Johnston says, " he has heard some stories 

 when sitting tete-a-tete with a German naturalist ;" and in his 

 innocent candour adding, " that it is chiefly the young men who 

 are indiscreet enough to tell them,"' 1 he commits the very same 

 indiscretion of a young German naturalist, not tete-a-tete with 

 a confidential reader, but before the great public — not over a 

 o-lass of punch in the pavillion of the Alster, but in Dr Brews- 

 ter's excellent Journal of Science ! But let the same public, 

 and by the same respectable channel, be informed that the 

 stories Mr Johnston did introduce were on the continent not 

 even considered sufficiently well founded to be received in the 

 ordinary cursory pamphlets and breakfast journals, as food for 

 idle readers. I allude to the story of the king of Denmark 

 and Professor PfafF of Kiel, and the dialogue of a Professor 

 and the Director of the Police at Vienna. — (Page 235.) 



I know very well what gave rise to both these stories, the 

 first being from the year 1820, and consequently quite out of 

 date ; — the second happened in the year 1828; but having at 

 that period been myself in Vienna, and having had the best op- 

 portunity of obtaining good information, I can positively as- 

 sert that the story, as reported by Mr Johnston, is quite dis- 

 figured ; besides, every person of sufficient experience must be 

 aware that reports of what has passed in the closet between 

 monarch* and ambassadors ought to be received with caution. 



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