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liable to censure, and perverted from their original intention, had 

 many advantages; they afforded an asylum to learning and science 

 in the dark ages, and, before the art of printing, were the deposi- 

 tory of the manuscripts that escaped the wreck of the Roman 

 empire. They were the hospitals and places of refreshment for 

 travellers at a time when inns and houses of entertainment were 

 unknown in Europe. I can gratefully acknowledge, with many 

 other travellers, the hospitality and kindness of the monks of Grand 

 St. Bernard, after a long and fatiguing ascent up the Alps to the 

 well-named Hospice of that benevolent society. There, on the loftiest 

 site of any human habitation in Europe, Asia, or Africa, these 

 good fathers exercise the noblest charities to every weary stranger, 

 without a question as to religion or country; it is sufficient that 

 he is " a man and a brother." Not only do they leave their con- 

 vent in the darkness of the most tempestuous nights, to seek the 

 bewildered pilgrim, but train dogs to search out the wretched 

 traveller lost in the snowy tracts of those dreary regions: 



Stung with the thoughts of home ! the thoughts of home 

 Rush on his nerves ; and call their vigour forth, 

 In many a vain attempt. How sinks his soul ! 

 What black despair, what horror fills his heart ! 

 He plunges deep amid the drifted heaps. 

 Far from the tract, and blest abode of man ! 

 While round him night resistless closes fast ; 

 And every tempest, howling o'er his head, 

 Renders the savage wilderness more wild! Thomson. 



We contemplate the Hindoo colleges and brahmimcal semina- 

 ries, at Benares and different parts of Hindostan, with pleasure; 



VOL. II. 2 H 



