ADVANTAGES OF OLD-WORLD TRAVEL. 341 



any other to the advancement of science. Often, amidst 

 dry discussions on meteorology, it contains many charm- 

 ing descriptions ; such as those of the modes of life of the 

 inhabitants of the mountains, the dangers of hunting the 

 chamois, and the sensations felt on the summit of the 

 higher Alps. 



" There are details of ordinary life which it may be 

 useful to note in an itinerary, because they serve for the 

 guidance of those who afterwards journey through the 

 same countries. I have preserved a few, but have sup- 

 pressed the greater part of those personal incidents which 

 present no particular interest, and which can be rendered 

 amusing only by the perfection of style. 



" With respect to the country which has been the 

 object of my investigations, I am fully sensible of the 

 great advantages enjoyed by persons who travel in 

 Greece, Egypt, the banks of the Euphrates, and the 

 islands of the Pacific, in comparison with those who 

 traverse the continent of America. In the Old World, 

 nations and the distinctions of their civilization form the 

 principal points in the picture ; in the New World, man 

 and his productions almost disappear amidst the stupen- 

 dous display of wild and gigantic nature. The human 

 race in the New World presents only a few remnants of 

 indigenous hordes, slightly advanced in civilization ; or it 

 exhibits merely the uniformity of manners and institu- 

 tions transplanted by European colonies to foreign shores. 

 Information which relates to the history of our species, to 

 the various forms of government, to monuments of art, 

 to places full of great remembrances, affect us far more 

 than descriptions of those vast solitudes which seem 

 destined only for the development of vegetable life, and 



