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H. Bryer, Priuter, Bridge-street, Blackfriars, London.

THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW

FOR JULY, 1820.

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Art. I. A 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. Schuetz, and accompanied by a Map. Translated from the German, by John Black. Elephant 4to. pp. xvi. 178. Price 41. 4s.

1820.

JO 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 number 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 contains, 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 higher 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 signal 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 draVOL. XIV. Ñ.S.

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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 historical 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

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