A TRAVELLER AT BERLIN. t2$ 



meriting the total want of order and neatnefs here ; for 

 many years the windows have not been cleaned, and in 

 feveral places the panes of gjafs are broken, and in 

 others entirely gone. The prefent wet winter has fpread 

 a damp all over it ; and the pictures are peri filing very 

 fall. From the door and window -curtains the water 

 actually falls in drops, dripping on the floor beneath as 

 from the ridge of a pent-houfe. The magnificent large 

 mirrors are already void of all reflection, and feveral of 

 the paintings are entirely fpoilt : by palling one's hand- 

 kerchief over them, it becomes as full of water as if it 

 had been dipt in a puddle. It i3 a down-right fhame, 

 that merely from want of a little care, fo many beauti- 

 ful works mould be irrecoverably toft. — In that cor- 

 ner of the palace which looks towards the great fquare, 

 commonly called the palace-liberty, and Hands facing 

 the mill-dam, lies the royal treafure, in large vaults un- 

 der the earth; and in this place the fentinels ftand 

 double. 



The library, which, in my flrfl: letter to you "from 

 Berlin, I pronounced to be a building in no good taflej 

 has a better effect from within, and reconciles one to 

 the fimplicity it exhibits without. It poffefies a very 

 refpectable frock of books ; and among them feveral 

 works of great value. They are conftantly increafing ; 

 though merely by the liberality of the king, as there is 

 no proper fund»affigned for its fapport. He every year 

 makes it a prefent, of late amounting generally to 

 15,000, dollars; the greater! part of which is laid out 

 in books. The inftitution is on a good plan ; and it 

 ftand s open to the free ufe of the public certain hours 

 in every day. Dr. Bielter, who has lately rendered 



vol. ir. jc s himfelf 



