

COL 



745 



COL 



guage are, in some measure, limited, that while straining 

 to express them, by means unequal to the end, he be- 

 comes at times unmusical and incorrect, and more fre- 

 quently obscure. The best of his works are not entirely 

 free from these fault?. In the Ode to the Passions, which 

 is perhaps the most popular of them all, we find the fol- 

 lowing offensive change from the singular pronoun, to 

 the plural, in its singular use. 



" Why, goddess, why, to us denied, 

 Lay'st thou thy antient lyre aside ? 

 As in that lov'd Athenian bower 

 you learn'd an all commanding power, 

 Thy mimic soul, O nymph endear'd," &c. 



Our praise of Collins may, perhaps, appear extrava- 

 gant, especially to those who adopt the fastidiousness of 

 Johnson ; but we appeal from this opinion, to the judg- 

 ment of the public, already pronounced. A lofty place, 

 in the temple of genius, can scarcely be denied to him, 

 whose " gifted mind" had the power of producing com- 

 position?, so often read, rehearsed, and sung, as the Odes 

 to Evening ; to the Passions ; and to the Memory of those 

 who died in 1 74-5. Nor should we forget the Dirge in 

 Cymbeline, and the Verses on the Death of Thomson, 

 which breathe the genuine spirit of sweetness, pathos, 

 and simplicity. If a short fragment can preserve for 

 Sappho a station among the higher rank of poets, we 

 may offer these Odes as a standard to which the poetical 

 energy of Collins was qualified to rise, notwithstanding 

 his occasional inequality in its exertion, (w) 



COLLINSONIA/a genus of plants of the class Di- 

 andria, and order Monogynia. See BOTANY, p. 90. 



COLLISION". See MECHANICS. 



COLMAR, a town of France, and the capital of the 

 department of the upper Rhine, is situated at the junc- 

 tion of the Fecht and the rivulet Lauch, about half a 

 league from their confluence with the III. The town 

 stands on a fine plain near the foot of a mountain, and is 

 reckoned one of the most agreeable and healthy places in 

 the country. Colmar is surrounded with a wall, flanked 

 with towers, and its streets are kept remarkably clean, 

 by a number of small canals from the Fecht and the 

 Lauch. It carries on a considerable trade in corn ; and 

 the wines of the adjacent country are exported in consi- 

 derable quantities. At a little distance from the town 

 there is a powder mill, and there are manufactures of 

 woollen cloths, calico prints, stocking, hardware, &c. 

 Population 1.1.S96'. East Long. 7 22' 11", North Lat. 

 48 4' 44". () 



COLOGNE, the Colonia Agrippina of the ancients, 

 is a town of France, and capital of the department of the 

 Roer, is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, and is of 

 a semicircular form, having its concavity towards the ri- 

 ver. In 1187, Philip, archbishop of Heinsberg, took 

 down the old walls of Cologne, and built those with 

 which it is at present surrounded. These walls, which 

 are now in a ruinous state, have 83 towers with conical 

 roofs, 13 principal gates, and a circumference of 10,326 

 yards, or neaily 6 miles. 



The streets, which are all paved with basalt, are 

 narrow, winding, and gloomy, particularly those near 

 the Rhine, which are crowded together for the purpo- 

 ses of commerce. The houses are very high, old, and 

 ruinous, and form a singular mixture of all stiles of 

 building during the last 1000 years. There is now, how- 

 ever, a very considerable number of modern houses. The 

 materials for building are very expensive, being brought 

 from a considerable distance, and the Dutch stile gene- 

 rally prevails. 



The principal squares at Cologne, are the old market, 



VOL. VI. PART II. 



the hay market, and the new market. The last of these Cologne; 

 is very extensive, and contains a beautiful promenade un- v " ^V*"'' 

 der a double row of lime trees. The chief streets, are 

 the Rue Large, the Rue St Jean, the Rue des Aposlres, 

 the Rue de Scxenhauser, the Trankgass, and the large 

 street, which extends from the gate of St Severin to that 

 of Eichelstein. 



One of the principal edifices in Cologne is the cathe- 

 dral church of St Peter's, which was begun in 1248, by 

 the elector Conrad, but remains still an unfinished ruin. 

 Had the design been carried into execution, it would have 

 formed one of the finest and most stupendous Gothic 

 edifices in Europe, and even as it stands at present, over- 

 grown with grass, and mouldering away with age, it pre- 

 sents a spectacle of unexampled sublimity. In the origi- 

 nal plan, the two towers were each to have been 500 feet 

 in height ; one of them is only raised 2 1 feet above the foun- 

 dation, and the other ,is no higher than 150 feet, and upon 

 the top is still to be seen the crane by which the stone* 

 were raised. The body of the cathedral is very large. It 

 is divided by four ranges of columns, amounting to 100, 

 and the four middle ones are no less than forty feet in cir- 

 cumference. Behind the principal altar, which has a most 

 imposing effect, is the chapel of the three kings, which 

 the elector Maximilian bulk of marble. It contains the 

 bodies of the three kings, and of the martyrs Felix, Na- 

 bor, and Gregory of Spoletto. In the year 1789, before 

 the French revolution, the tombs were adorned with dia- 

 monds, and precious stones of all kinds, and 226 pieces 

 of antiquity, and was reckoned the most superb and rich 

 monument in Europe ; but we fear, from the silence of 

 recent travellers, that these spoils have been carried to 

 Paris. A full account, however, of the tombs, and of all 

 their ornaments, is preserved in a work entitled Collection 

 des pierres antiques dont la caisse des .taints trois Roix 

 Mages est enrichie dans Veglise metropotitaine a Cologne, 

 gravies aprcs leur empreintes, avec un dhconrs hisloriqiic 

 aitti/iigue, par. J. P. M. N. Bonn, 1781. The cathedral 

 was used as a granary in 1800. 



Next to the cathedral in importance and antiquity is 

 the chapter of the ladies of St Marie an Capitate. The 

 church is vast and well illuminated, and appears to have 

 been built in the eighth century. The chapter of St Ge- 

 reon is very rich and fine. The church, which was built 

 in the eleventh century, hag a vast cupola, and is reckoned 

 the finest in Cologne. The chapter of St Ursula, which 

 is filled with the bones of 1 1 000 virgins, is very an- 

 cient. In the choir of the church is a painting repre- 

 senting St Ursula arriving at Cologne, with a numerous 

 attendance, in a large ship of war. The other chapters 

 are those of St Severin, St Cunibert, of the Mere de 

 Dieux a Staffeln, of St Andrew, of St George, of the 

 Apostles, and of St Cecilia. At one time Cologne is 

 said to have contained 260 churches and 37 convents. 



The arsenal, which is used also as a kind of granary, is 

 remarkable only for its size. It contains a great quan- 

 tity of ancient arms, and is in a state of rapid decay. 

 The theatre was built in 1783, but is far from being an 

 elegant building. There are no fewer than twelve hos- 

 pitals in Cologne, a society of emulation, a central school, 

 a botanical garden, a physical cabinet, and a library in 

 which are preserved the original letters of the Marshal 

 de Turenne. 



A large flying bridge serves as a communication be- 

 tween Cologne and Deutz on the right bank of the 

 Rhine. 



A very considerable trade is carried on in this ci- 

 ty. It is the centre of all the commerce on the Rhine ; 

 it exports the Wines of the Rhine and the Moselle, cast- 



5'i 



