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purity of his life. In fhort, whatever inaccuracies may have efcaped the attention ofthe tranflator of thefe letters,
' ■ quas ant incuria fudit,
Aut humana parum cavit natura —
it is prefumed that they will be amply compenfated by the entertainment and informa-tion with which they abound.
TRAVELS, S*.LETTER I.
dear brother, Stutgart , April 3, 1780.
H ERE I have pitched my firft camp, and intend to make excurfions from henceinto the different parts of Suabia , according as opportunities offer.
I have made it a rule to myfelf to take particular parts of Germany as middle points,and from thence to ramble round the country till I have feen all that I think worth notice.It is my intention to ftudy Germany thoroughly, without, however, extending my inqui-ries to the numberlefs landgraviates, margraviates, baronies, republics, &c. &c. As tothefe, it is doing them honour enough to fay that they exift.
You know that I flayed fome time in Strafburg, as well for the fake of learning tofpeak a little German , as to make myfelf acquainted, by the help of maps and books,with the country I mean to travel through. In this purfuit I found more affiftance thanI could have expefted, and it is certainly not the fault of the German geographers andpoliticians that their country is fo little known by foreigners.
Having fometimes been fo kind as to allow me a genius for the obfervation of menand manners, you may reafonably expeft fomething more in my letters than what youhave commonly met with in our French and Englifh travellers. Thefe, indeed, haveufually been gentlemen, who having travelled in clofe pofl-chaifes to the great courts,as if (as Yorick fays) they were riding port from death, have given us the few anecdotesthey have picked up, either at the poft-houfe, whilft they were changing horfes, or fromtheir bankers, or from their opera-girls, as true accounts of the flate of manners, legif-lation, religion, &c. of the country.
A man who would know all orders of people, fhould mix with them all; but this iswhat a common traveller feldom either can or will do ; on the contrary, they are ge-nerally compelled to live in a narrow circle, where they hear of nothing but the plea-fures and occupations of the company; therefore, again, a man muff be a ftudious tra-veller by profeffion, to enter into the peculiarities of a whole people. After all, let himbe ever fo willing, and ever fo well prepared, he will find it more difficult to know Ger-many than any other country; for it is not here as in France , where, as all ape the man-ners of the capital, by going thither you fee all, as it were, in the compafs of a nut-fhell.In Germany there is no town which regulates the manners of the whole, but the coun-try is divided into a numberlefs variety of large and fmall ftates, differing from eachother in religion, government, opinions, &c. and which have no band of union whatever,except their common language.
You