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676 Retrospect of Domestic Literature—Voyages and Travels. 
which have preceded it, yn short, he con- 
siders that his work 1s now a complete pic- - 
ture of the country to whiclrit relates ; 
while that of a traveller who passes 
hastily along, can at any ume be nothing 
more than a sketch.” ie ; 
The other part of this ninth volume 
consists of Travels from Paris through 
Switzerland and Italy, in the years 1801 
and 1802; with Sketches of the Manners 
and Characters of the respective Iitha- 
bitants; bye Native of PENNSYLVANIA. 
These travelling sketches are m form of 
letters, and are sprightly and amusing. 
The author appears a man of good sense 
and obervation; and his remarks om the 
interesting countries he visited, will be 
read-with pleasure and instruction. 
In his Fraveliing Sketches in Russia 
and Sweden, during the Years 1805, 
4806, 1807, 1808, Mr. Rosert Ker Por- 
tern has presented the public with an 
equally elegant and pleasing performance. 
He premises that these volumes are not 
« the studied work of an author bringing 
forward deep researches, valuable disco- 
veries, and consequential observations ; 
but the familiar correspondence of a 
friend noticing the manners of the peo- 
ple with whom he associates, their fa- 
shions, their amusements, the sentiments 
of the day; and mingling with these a 
few occurrences happening to himself, 
and the reflections to which they gave 
rise.” We may truly add, that the quan- 
tity of new information and interesting 
znecdotes, interspersed in this work, can- 
not fail to gratify all those whose leisure 
or circumstances alloy’ them to peruse 
or purchase it. 
Fhe author embarked in August 1805, 
in a vessel bound to Cronstadt, and 
touched at Elsineur; where he explored 
the spot on which the residence and gar- 
den of the Danish prince Hamlet are 
said to have stood, and which still bears 
his name. This furnishes occasion for a 
digression of eunsiderable length, relative 
tothe history of a personage on whom 
the pen of Shakspeare has conferred such 
celebrity. Passing over the details re- 
lative to the principal butldings and 
monuments of art in the Russian capital, 
as well as the ceremonies of the Greek 
church, we shall confine our notice to a 
few extracts from the author’s delinea- 
tions’ of the manners of the Russtans, 
many of which strikingly demonstrate 
how little they can yet lay claim to the 
character of a eivilized nation. i 
“ Owing to the peculiar constitution of 
this empire, the arts and sciences are In 
general but secondary objects in the 
re 
minds of the natives. The-nobles deem 
no profession honourable, but that of 
arms. Ambition would be thought to 
stoop, if it sought ‘any celebrity from ex- 
celling by the chisel, the pencil, or the - 
pen. Hence the finest talents among the 
high-born, are never directed to any of ~ 
these points.—No. fame accrues from. 
classical endowments. The study of the 
arts and sciences is left to slaves, or at 
best to slaves made free: and they, un- 
happy men; from being descended from 
that condemned #ace, can never, by any 
exertions of their own, or by the con- 
clusive appeal of appropriate actions as- 
sert the inherent nobility of the heavenly- 
gifted mind. Slavery is a taint that can 
never be erased, and thus the generous 
ambition of genius is cankered at the 
very root. 
“* The domestics in every family being . 
slaves, they as much belong to their lord, 
as the chairs and tables of the house, 
and are in general treated too much 
like mere pieces of furniture. While they 
do their duty, it is well; they are quietly 
used according to their appropriate ser- 
vice; but as fellow-creatures they are 
seldom considered. Should they trans- 
gress, they are taught better by a manége, 
something like that our countrymen exer- 
cise on the backs of their asses.” 
We should scarcely have expected to 
meet in Europe, with a practice so grossly 
indelicate as the author witnessed at 
Mosco, and which he describes in the 
following terms:—= 
“¢ According to my promise I shall 
give you adescription of the baths of 
Mosco; and as they are not at all like 
those of Diana, you need not fear any 
share in Actzon’s fate, for daring to peep 
at the robeless goddesses. Having dined 
in the neighbourhood of the scene, after 
dinner I took my course, accompanied 
‘by a friend as curious as myself, along 
the banks of the river which flows through — 
the summer-gardens The spirit of in- 
vestigation led us to the foot of the 
hospital, where we found a couple of 
baths for the reception of the bathers. 
These purifying reservoirs being the hot 
baths,. consisted of low wooden build- 
ings, with small openings in their sides, 
whence issued a thick muddy stream, 
flowing from the first washings of the 
natives, and in which they still laved 
their grease-incrusted bodies, as they 
sallied forth to enjoy the cooling waves 
of the river. AS we approached these 
cleansing elevations, we beheld the wae _ 
ters that rolled from under their founda. ~ 
tions, filled with naked persons of both 
sexes, 
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