AND LOWER EGYPT. 9 



And just as every painter has his particular touch 

 and mode of colouring, which animate subjects, 

 already treated, with the graces of novelty, the tra- 

 veller who carries with him his own manner of ob- 

 serving, has likewise in his narratives his peculiar 

 mode of expression ; and it is from this combina- 

 tion of paintings that we are to expect the perfect 

 knowledge of a country so interesting, and the 

 more so that, it being impossible to know every 

 thing, each particular traveller applies himself in 

 preference to the particular object of his research. 

 Directed by his taste, and sometimes by an enthu- 

 siastic impulse, he relates every minute particular 

 connected with his darling pursuit, and overlooks 

 what is foreign to it. The botanist, accordingly, 

 in many cases, sees plants only; the zoologist, no- 

 thing but animals ; the antiquarian, nothing but 

 ruins ; the naturalist, only the phenomena of na- 

 ture ; the merchant, only the means of extending 

 commerce and increasing his fortune ; while the 

 politician confines his attention tothe relative situa- 

 tion of country to country. One scorns to descend 

 into detail, and presents the results of his observa- 

 tion in a mass ; whereas another dwells with mi- 

 nute exactness on particulars : one sometimes sa- 

 crifices accuracy to elegance of description, or to 

 copiousness of expression ; and another, a scrupu- 

 lous observer, but dull and destitute of genius, 



communicates 



