AUG 



102 



AUG 



*"R!>urg. postor, or in a condition to propagate, by force of 

 "* arms, opinions which reason rejects on any other 

 litions, yet Christian theologians have raged with 

 equal fury against their antagonists iii secret, and be- 

 trayed as tierce a spirit as if they had inhaled the 

 fiery blast wafted by the lion and the tiger around 

 the standard of Mahomet ; alas, they always forgot, 

 that " 'tis the heretic that makes thejire, not he that 

 burns in it.'" Shaki>pi: uie. 



Augsburg has declined in importance ever since 

 the trade of Germany forsook the direction which 

 Venice, in her better days, had given it. The rise 

 of the Dutch commonwealth, and the corresponding 

 influence of cities like Hamburgh, Bremen, Embden, 

 Frankfort, &c. better situated for carrying on the 

 commerce, which now took a westerly direction, in- 

 stead of continuing in the ancient tract, have proved 

 highly injurious to this place. Yet it is still, in spite 

 of every disadvantage, a place of some consideration, 

 and manages a great part of the transit and banking 

 business of Bavaria, Swabia, and the adjoining dis- 

 tricts. There are indeed no Fnggers or IVelsers now 

 to be found in it, to lend their emperor millions of 

 dollars on demand ; nor is Augsburg the great re- 

 sort of the literati of southern Germany. The bu- 

 siness of the last mentioned order of men has dwin- 

 dled into the manufacture of paltry devotional tracts 

 for peasants and children, and the construction of 

 coarse maps, picture-books, and toys for the lower 

 classes of their countrymen. 



As Augsburg now constitutes a part of Bavaria, 

 and is in every respect as dependent upon that crown 

 as if it had never enjoyed the privileges of a free im- 

 perial city, it is needless to describe a constitution 

 and police which were much talked of in Germany, 

 but are now no more. The Rath-haus, or town-hail, 

 110 feet long, 48 broad, and 52 high; the large 

 square, of which it forms a part ; the cathedral, with 

 its two tall spires ; the public fountains, some of 

 them said to have been built by Cxsar Augustus ; 

 the intricate gate towards the Lech ; and the aque- 

 duct which carries the water of that river into the 

 city, in sufficient quantities to supply mills and consi- 

 derable manufactories with that necessary, are often 

 mentioned with admiration, both by statistical wri- 

 ters and by travellers, as well as by the natives. But 

 to a Briton they appear diminutive and insignificant : 

 One of the locks of our canals, and the smallest man 

 of war in our navy, yields a much finer display of 

 human ingenuity and address. The manufactures 

 are still considerable, though greatly inferior to what 

 they were before the incorporation of the city with 

 Bavaria. They consist of cotton-goods, tobacco or 

 snuff, mirrors, leather, paper, carpets, gold and silver 

 laces, sealing-wax, cordials, jewellery, clocks and 

 watches, stone-ware, dyeing, bleaching, and printing, 

 besides other branches connected with these manufac- 

 tures. It is probable, that, in consequence of the 

 late acquisitions of Bavaria, and of the favourable si- 

 tuation of this city for the Italian trade, it may yet 

 recover, in some degree, its former rank among the 

 German mercantile stations. The prices of the ne- 

 cessaries of life are as low as in any of the larger com- 

 mercial towns of the continent ; and the country 

 round about it is beautiful and fertile. The acade- 



my, or college, formerly supported by the Lutherans, Augury, 

 is gone into decay, and has not been replaced by ' " v 

 any other minary of note ; but the present 



monarch of the country has always manifested liberal 

 and enlightened principles of government, and will 

 naturally promote the improvement of the second city 

 in his dominions. 



The population of Augsburg has, since 1788, 

 fluctuated betwixt 00,000 and 36,000 souls, of whom 

 two-thirds are Roman Catholics, and the rest Pro- 

 testants. Jews were not, until 1805, admitted to 

 live within the walls ; but such as carried on busi- 

 ness there, lodged in a village half a league from the 

 city, and paid a certain tax for liberty of trading in it 

 through the day. The manners of the people are, like 

 those of the principal free cities of southern Germa- 

 ny, compounded of the primitive ones of the imperial 

 towns, and of the modern of Germany in general. 

 They have afforded the German poets and novel wri- 

 ters abundant scope for ridicule, as we may see from 

 the humorous works of Wielai.d, Iff land, Schroeder, 

 La-fontaine, Kotzebue, and many others, who lash 

 without mercy the lust of titles, the vanity, the love 

 of scandal and detraction, the purse-pride, and ab- 

 surd self-importance, and, in short, the whole Rlein- 

 stadtisches Wcsen (little royal-burgh existence) of 

 those free commercial towns. The foreigner, how- 

 ever, has usually met with much kindness and ge- 

 nuine hospitality among their inhabitants ; and al- 

 though he seldom found the light manners, and the 

 versatile elegance of Dresden, Berlin, or Vienna, he 

 was perhaps fully recompensed by that primeval ho- 

 nesty, and a something approaching to originality of 

 character, which he looked for in vain in other parts 

 of Germany. 



Augsburg has suffered severely from military con- 

 tributions during the late wars. Its ramparts and 

 fortifications were not in condition to hold out one 

 moment against a powerful assailant ; and according- 

 ly, it has been for sixteen years past the drudge of 

 Bavarian, Austrian, and French armies, in succession. 

 It is now incorporated finally with a powerful slate, 

 and enjoys a prospect of better times. Every Briton 

 ought to wish for its prosperity, for no where are our 

 countrymen better received, or treated with more ho- 

 nourable marks of kindness and distinction. E.Long. 

 10 53' 38", N. Lat. 4S 41' 22". See Batching} 

 Robertson; Nicolai ; Riesbeck; Rcichart,c\c. (j.m.) 



AUGURY, an ancient mode of divination, which 

 professes to discover the will of heaven, and the se- 

 crets of futurity, by attending to the motions and 

 voices of birds. This superstitious art was called by 

 the Greeks i^viShix, or ii imtiTrixti, or iimtftxmM ; 

 the derivation of which words is sufficiently obvious. 

 The origin of the term augury is not so clearly as- 

 certained. Festus and others have derived it ex 

 avium gestu, vcl garritu, from the flight or chirping 

 of birds. Among the many strange conjectures 

 which etymologists have proposed on this subject, we 

 are surprised that none of them have ever thought of 

 ant and qutrro, or of avis and Car, the name of the 

 person who, according to some authors, was the first 

 teacher of the art, and from whom his posterity the 

 Carians learned it. Or why may it not be from the 

 Chaldaic T'"|1J> tlle soothsayers who cut up and in- 



