%&& tETTE&S FROM A TRAVELLER AT BERLIN*. 



evening I have been fo fatigued with tramping about 

 on this wretched pavement, in truth the wretchedefl I 

 have ever trod, that it was impoffible for me to think 

 of writing. You know my euftom is, on coming to 

 jbme great city, to begin by taking a view of the 

 lioufes, palaces, ftreets, avenues, and public fquares ; 

 here however I made it my particular bufinefs to make 

 tny furvey with the utmoff. accuracy; as, whenever 

 one hears of the remarkable objects in capital cities, 

 the elegant ftyle arid exterior magnificence of Berlin is 

 fure to be cited. I therefore took extraordinary pains 

 on this fubject, and often flood looking at a flreet from 

 three or four different places ; fo that, if it had been at 

 Paris, I mould certainly have been favoured with the 

 name of un homme de cocagne. And now the refult 

 of my obfervations is, according to my ufual fate, to 

 find the matter othervvife than books and travellers had 

 defcribed it to me, — totally different from the general 

 judgement. 



There is no want of itinerary defcriptions of Germa- 

 ny in general, or of particular circles of it ; but then 

 thefe are moftly written by natives. The Gefman, 

 who has never been out of his country, and yet will 

 pretend to pafs a judgement on its- towns and cities, can 

 naturally only take for his ftandard the things he has 

 met with in it, and will hold what he here has thought 

 the moft perfect of its kind, to be alfo the moft per- 

 fect that can any where be produced. The Swifs think 

 with great liberality on this point. No country has 

 ever been fo frequently travelled over throughout, by 

 all clafl es and conditions of its inhabitants, as Helvetia ; 

 but every company that form themfelves for fuch a 



party, 



