CONTENT S.* Pace, 254 Adamson's' Life and Writings of Camoens 559 Barton's Inquiry into the Causes of the Depreciation of Labour Bonaparte's, Louis, Historical Documents on the Government of Holland 67 Brackenridge's Voyage to South America Bray's Memoirs illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, Esq. 137, 582 Bristed's America and her Resources Brown's, Margaret, Lays of Affection Burder's Village Sermons, Vol. VIII. Burrows's loquiry into certain Errors relative to losanity . Delany's, Mrs., Letters to Mrs. Frances Hamilton Edgeworth's, Miss, Memoirs of R. L. Edgeworth, Esq. Elton's The Brothers, and other Poems Essays and Sketches of Life and Character, by a Gentleman who has left Foster's Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance Gerning's, Baron Von, Picturesque Tour along the Rhine Gorham's History and Antiquities of Eynesbury and St. Neot's Harris's Remarks made during a Tour through the United States of Heger's Tour through a Part of the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland. 581 268 578 105* * Through an oversight, there is a repetition of pages 105 to 198 : the second Horne's Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity Hughes's Travels in Sicily, Greece, and Albania Hyatt's Sermons on the Seven Epistles in the Apocalypse Jeffreys's Geographical and Descriptive Delineations of Van Dieman's Jones's (Essenus) New Version of the First Three Chapters of Genesis 230 Letters from Germany and Holland, during the years 1813, 1814 List of Works recently published M®Adam's Remarks on the present System of Road-making Malortie's, de, Treatise on Topography Mitchell's Introduction to the Writing of Latin Exercises O'Hara's History of New South Wales Ormsby's Letters from the Continent Oxley's Journal of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales. Parnell's Letter to the Editor of the Quarterly Review Philalethes's New Version of the Epistles of St. Paul to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, to Timothy, and to Titus, and the General Epistle of Renals's Exhortation to an Early Attendance upon Religious Assemblies. 98 102, 198, 200, 297, 393, 594 Sheppard's Inquiry on the Duty of Christians with respect to 'War 332 580 Timms's Remarks on the Foreknowledge of God Thoughts on Death, Sickness, and the Loss of Friends Wentworth's Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales Wordsworth's River Duddon 131 170 THE ECLECTIC REVIEW FOR JULY, 1820. Art. I. , Picturesque Tour along the Rhine, from Mentz to Cologne : with Illustrations of the Scenes of remarkable Events, and Popular Traditions. By Baron J. J. von Gerning. Embellished with 24 highly finished and coloured Engravings, from the Drawings of M. Sclfuetz, and accompanied by a Map. Translated from the German, by John Black. Elephant 4to. pp. xvi. 178. Price 41. 4s. 1820. NO O river, if we except the Jordan, has so large a share of fame as the Rhine ; not the Danube, the Nile, the Euphrates, nor the Ganges. A river brought conspicuously to view in almost every part of the Bible, would, from that cause alone, surpass in celebrity every other; that celebrity being estimated by the dumber of persons made acquainted with the remarkable things connected with the object in question. For when it is considered to how many persons the objects of great note in the Bible have been made familiar, by that book itself, and by the infinity of books and discourses relating to what it contaius, we may assume that no other objects, of distant place and time, bave become so well known to so many. And besides, the fame of the river of Judæa is of a bigher quality than that of all others. That of the Euphrates, indeed, and still more that of the Nile, partake in a certain degree of this quality; but it is still the Jordan that flows through the most extraordinary and magnificent moral scenery, the scenery of all manner of Divine manifestations ; of miracles, judgements, revelations, of angelic apparitions ; of the most memorable and important sojourn of a Superior Existence; and all this combined with a most striking succession of human transactions, consummated by the most şignal and stupendous crime that ever was or could be perpetrated on the globe. The renown possessed, in the next degree, by the Rhine, is of the vulgar kind, but the measure of it is prodigious. Its bordering tracks are the scene of a large share of the Roman history. In later periods, they have been that of a strangely draCOL. XIV. N.S. B matic crowd and succession of events; an infinite confusion of political institution and demolition, of superstition, religion, literature, important inventions, and wars; intermingling, interchanging, conflicting, and forming a long tragi-comedy of favours and plagues to the people, but with a mighty predominance of the disastrous quality. During a still later age, and almost to this time, these bordering regions have seemed to be surrendered, in paramount unquestioned right, to war. If human creatures were too abundant in Europe, go to the neighbourhood of the Rhine, the proper place for killing and burying them; and no questions to be asked, indeed no doubt to be entertained, about the moral lawfulness and the benefit of the proceeding. Half a life would hardly suffice for reading a detailed account of the battles, bombardments, and ravages; the alternations of these spirited amusements between the opposite borders of the river; the treaties for suspending them awhile, and the causes and pretences for soon beginning them again. So that the bistorical stream (if the figure may be allowed) which runs parallel to the placid course of this noble river, flows as turbulently as any torrent from the melting of Alpine snows, and of the colour which the rod of Moses inflicted on the river of Egypt. From such a view of the river, it is really a very agreeable change to turn to that of the picturesque character of its banks. In truth, the landscape painter has the best of it in looking at this world almost anywhere, little as some parts of it may charm his eye, or seem adapted to his art. But the banks of the Rhine present a great deal of what might seem made on purpose for him; we were not fully aware how much, before the present work came under our inspection. It shares the fate of many great rivers, in being forbidden to come into the ocean in a grand style. But it is peculiarly unfortunate in leaving behind such scenery as that here delineated, to run its last stage through one of the most doleful flats in the creation. • Some parts of this river are of course more interesting than others. In its earlier course through Switzerland, it is comparatively overlooked amidst the stupendous grandeur of alpine scenery. In the lower part of Germany again, and the kingdom of the Netherlands, it no longer possesses its former romantic beauties. It is in that part of it which is called the Middle Rhine, or the course from Mentz to Cologne, where this noble river appears to the greatest advantage. The beauty and sublimity of this portion of the Rhine, exhibiting in varied succession every description of scenery, from the wildest mountains, rocky precipices, and hills crowned by ancient castles, to valleys, vieing in sweetness and fertility with the most favoured spots of Italy, attract to it every summer a multitude of travellers from all parts of Europe.? - Translator's Preface. This work, however, of Baron von Gerning, is not, as taken |