A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume One | Page 7

upon wood, would have inevitably led to
failure. There are however, a few NEW PLATES, which cannot fail to
elicit the Purchaser's particular attention. Of these, the portraits of the
_Abbé de la Rue_ (procured through the kind offices of my excellent
friend Mr. Douce), and the Comte de Brienne, the Gold Medal of Louis
XII. the _Stone Pulpit of Strasbourg Cathedral,_ and the _Prater near
Vienna_--are particularly to be noticed.[14] This Edition has also
another attraction, rather popular in the present day, which may add to
its recommendation even with those possessed of its precursor. It
contains fac-similes of the AUTOGRAPHS of several distinguished
Literati and Artists upon the Continent;[15] who, looking at the text of
the work through a less jaundiced medium than the Parisian translator,
have continued a correspondence with the Author, upon the most
friendly terms, since its publication. The accuracy of these fac-similes
must be admitted, even by the parties themselves, to be indisputable.
Among them, are several, executed by hands.. which now CEASE to
guide the pen! I had long and fondly hoped to have been gratified by
increasing testimonies of the warmth of heart which had directed
several of the pens in question--hoped ... even against the admonition
of a pagan poet ...
"Vitae summa brevis SPEM nos vetat inchoare LONGAM."
But such hopes are now irretrievably cut off; and the remembrance of
the past must solace the anticipations of the future.

So much respecting the decorative department of this new edition of
the Tour. I have now to request the Reader's attention to a few points
more immediately connected with what may be considered its intrinsic
worth. In the first place, it may be pronounced to be an Edition both
abridged and _enlarged_: abridged, as regards the lengthiness of
description of many of the MSS. and Printed Books--and enlarged, as
respects the addition, of many notes; partly of a controversial, and
partly of an obituary, description. The "Antiquarian and Picturesque"
portions remain nearly as heretofore; and upon the whole I doubt
whether the amputation of matter has extended beyond an eighth of
what appeared in the previous edition. It had long ago been suggested
to me--from a quarter too high and respectable to doubt the wisdom of
its decision--that the Contents of this Tour should be made known to
the Public through a less costly medium:--that the objects described in
it were, in a measure, new and interesting--but that the high price of the
purchase rendered it, to the majority of Readers, an inaccessible
publication. I hope that these objections are fully met, and successfully
set aside, by the Work in its PRESENT FORM. To have produced it,
wholly divested of ornament, would have been as foreign to my habits
as repugnant to my feelings. I have therefore, as I would willingly
conclude, hit upon the happy medium--between sterility and excess of
decoration.
After all, the greater part of the ground here trodden, yet continues to
be untrodden ground to the public. I am not acquainted with any
publication which embraces all the objects here described; nor can I
bring myself to think that a perusal of the first and third volumes may
not be unattended with gratification of a peculiar description, to the
lovers of antiquities and picturesque beauties. The second volume is
rather the exclusive province of the Bibliographer. In retracing the steps
here marked out, I will not be hypocrite enough to dissemble a sort of
triumphant feeling which accompanies a retrospection of the time,
labour, and money devoted.. in doing justice, according to my means,
to the attractions and worth of the Countries which these pages describe.
Every such effort is, in its way, a NATIONAL effort. Every such
attempt unites, in stronger bonds, the reciprocities of a generous feeling
between rival Nations; and if my reward has not been in wealth, it has

been in the hearty commendation of the enlightened and the good:
"Mea me virtute involvo."[16]
I cannot boast of the commendatory strains of public Journals in my
own country. No intellectual steam-engine has been put in motion to
manufacture a review of unqualified approbation of the Work now
submitted to the public eye--at an expense, commensurate with the
ordinary means of purchase. With the exception of an indirect and
laudatory notice of it, in the immortal pages of the Author of Waverley,
of the Sketch book, and of Reginald Dalton, this Tour has had to fight
its way under the splendour of its own banners, and in the strength of
its own cause. The previous Edition is now a scarce and a costly book.
Its Successor has enough to recommend it, even to the most fastidious
collector, from the elegance of its type and decorations, and from the
reasonableness of its price; but the highest ambition