MORAL OF ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE.

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And what, after all, is the moral of this interesting fable? It appears to me to intimate that when music gets strong possession of the soul, all other pursuits are relaxed-all other duties are neglected. From the moment that Orpheus struck his lyre in the dominions of Pluto, every thing went wrong! The monarch himself slept on his post-or, at least, disregarded the solemn commands of his superior officer in the skies—the infliction of just punishments was suspended-even Cerberus acquired a sudden taste for music-in short, the heads of half his Satannic majesty's subjects were turned by the magic notes of the Grecian Paganini!

But to descend from fable to philosophy. I can assure my fair readers that I am no enemy to music, in moderation. Let them reflect that they have more than ONE-that they have FIVE senses, besides many intellectual faculties that require assiduous cultivation and daily exercise. Let them ask themselves whether the excessive rage for music leaves time for a due proportion of intellectual acquirements and useful knowledge? A period will come-must come when the fingers will lose the elasticity of youth, and no longer touch, with effect, the trembling string-when the ear will no longer respond, with ecstasy, to the vibrations of the lute, or to the most melodious intonations of the human voice-when the bodily senses will necessarily be despoiled of that exquisite tone of feeling, with which they receive external impressions in early years. Then it is that the mind, well stored with useful knowledge, opens out a granary of wholesome food and undoubted solace for the cheerless down-hill of life, thereby enabling the individual not only to draw resources from within, but to communicate instruction to others, even till the last ray of intellectual light is extinguished in the grave!

Let it not be imagined that a due proportion of female time, in youth, allotted to the pursuit of useful knowledge, will deduct from the amount of juvenile enjoyment. Far from it. Knowledge is pleasure as well as power :-pleasure in the acquisition, pleasure in the possession, and pleasure in the dissemination.

THE ANTIDOTE TO WEAR AND TEAR.

Having thus glanced at some of the more prominent features of the WEAR and TEAR of civilised life, it is natural to enquire if there be any remedy or antidote. There is an ancient maxim which says "contraria contrariis medentur "-that is-evils or disorders are cured by their opposites. Thus the lassitude of exercise is removed by rest-the feelings of ENNUI are dissipated by employment-the effects of intemperance are overcome by abstemiousness-and, by a parity of reasoning, we should expect that the WEAR and TEAR of a London season, resulting from dissipation in the higher ranks, and avocation, mental anxiety, and a thousand moral and physical ills in all ranks, might be repaired, in some degree at least, by pure air, rural relaxation, and bodily exercise. What reasoning would predicate, experience confirms. Let any one, who has a month to spare in the Autumn, take his daily seat on the further extremity of the chain-pier at Brighton, and examine the features of the numerous faces which present themselves on the platform there. He must note the individual countenances. He will perceive these individuals, at first pale and sickly-gradually improve in their looks-and at length disappear-the chasms perpetually filled up by importations from MODERN BABYLON. From a "week at Margate" to a "tour among the Alps," or "travels in Italy," what an infinite variety of ways and means for the recovery of health or the pursuit of pleasure, are laid under contribution by the wealthy, the idle, the laborious, or the luxurious inhabitants of this great metropolis!! The valleys of Wales, the lakes of Cumberland, the lochs and mountains of Scotland, the green hills of Erin-all furnish their quota of health and recreation for the "EVERLASTING CITY" of the British Isles !

It is fortunate that the fury of politics, the pursuit of pleasure, the riot of dissipation, the madness of ambition, the thirst of gold, the struggles of competition, the cares of commerce-nay, even the confinement of the counter, find one annual interval of

relaxation beyond the smoke, and dust, and din of the metropolis. It is probably of little importance to what point of the compass the tourist steers his course. Health and recreation are not confined to North, South, East, or West; but may be found in every intermediate radiation from the scene of exhaustion. It must be confessed that, between the THAMES and the TIBER-between Ben Nevis and Mont Blanc, there is not a hill or a dale-a palace or a ruin-a city or a village—a cliff or a cataract a river or a forest- -a manner, custom, or character scarcely an animal, mineral, or vegetable, that has not been minutely described over and over again. There remains, however, one great source of VARIETY, if not of ORIGINALITY. Although the objects of survey, animate and inanimate, continue the same, yet the impressions made on the mind by these objects, and the reflections growing out of these impressions, are as various, and often as opposite, as the characters of the observers, or the features of their faces.

Even the same or very similar objects strike the same class of people for instance, poets, in a very different manner. Thus, the summits of the highest mountains in the old and new world —the ALPS and the ANDES, excited very dissimilar trains of thought in two cotemporary poets of first-rate genius.

BYRON

CAMPBELL

Above me are the ALPS,

The palaces of Nature, whose vast walls

Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps,

And throned Eternity in icy halls

Of cold sublimity.

Afar,

Where ANDES, Giant of the Western Star,

With meteor standard to the winds unfurl'd,

Looks from his throne of clouds o'er half the world.

And so it will be to the end of time. In the mind of every traveller a different cast of thought from that of his companions will be engendered by the same scenes.

As a preliminary to the Tour which forms the main subject of this volume, I shall lay before the reader a few observations on the beneficial influence of travelling exercise, as well as a short plan of a rOUR of HEALTH, performed in the year 1823, with the express view of ascertaining the effects of this species of bodily labour and mental amusement.

Six individuals, three in health (domestics) and three valetudinarians (one a lady) travelled, in the months of August, September, and October, 1823, about 2500 miles, through France, Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium, for the sole purpose of HEALTH and such amusement as was considered most contributive to the attainment of that object.

The experiment was tried, whether a constant change of scene and air, combined with almost uninterrupted exercise, active and passive, during the day-principally in the open air, might not ensure a greater stock of health, than slow journeys and long sojourns on the road. The result will be seen presently. But in order to give the reader some idea of what may be done in a three months' tour of this kind, I shall enumerate the daily journeys, omitting the excursions from and around those places at which we halted for the night, or for a few days. Our longest sojourn was that of a week, and that only thrice-at Paris, Geneva, and Brussels. In a majority of places, we only stopped a night and part of a day, or one or two days, according to local interest. But I may remark that, as far as I was concerned, more exercise was taken during the days of sojourn at each place, than during the days occupied in travelling from one point to another. The consequence was, that a quarter of a year was spent in one uninterrupted system of exercise, change of air, and change of scene, together with the mental excitement and amusement produced by the perpetual presentation of new objects—many of them the most interesting on the face of this globe.

The following were the regular journeys and the points of nightly repose : -1, Sittingbourne-2, Dover-3, Calais-4, Boulogne-5, Abbeville-6, Rouen-7, Along the banks of the Seine to Mantes-8, Paris, with various excursions and perambulations-9, Fontainbleau—10, Auxerre-11, Vitteaux -12, Dijon, with excursions-13, Champagnole, in the Jura Mountains14, Geneva, with various excursions-15, Salenche-16, Chamouni, with various excursions to the Mer de Glace, Jardin, Buet, &c.-17, Across the Col de Balme to Martigny, with excursions up the Valais-18, By the Valley of Entrement, &c. to the Great St. Bernard, with excursions-19, Back to

SALUTARY EFFECTS OF TRAVELLING EXERCISE.

23

Martigny—20, Ivian, on the Lake of Geneva, with excursions-21, Geneva— 22, Lausanne, with excursions-23, La Sarna-24, Neuf-Chatel-25, Berne, with excursions and perambulations-26, Thoun-27, Valley of Lauterbrunen, with various circuits-28, Grindenwalde, with excursions to the Glaciers, &c. -29, Over the Grand Scheidec to Meyrengen, with excursions to waterfalls, &c.—30, By Brienz, Lake of Brienz, Interlaken, and lake of Thoun, with various excursions, to the Giesbach and other waterfalls, back to Thoun31, Berne-32, Zoffengen-33, Lucerne, with various excursions-34, Zoug and Zurich-35, Chaufhausen and Falls of the Rhine-36, Neustad, in the Black Forest-37, By the Vallé d'Enfer to Offenburgh-38, Carlshrue, with excursions-39, Heidelburg-40, Darmstadd-41, Frankfort on the Maine, with excursions-42, Mayence, with excursions-43, Coblenz, Bingen, Bonn, &c.-44, Cologne-45, Aix la Chapelle, with excursions-46, Liege-47, Brussels, with a week's excursions-48, Ghent and Courtray-49, Dunkirk— 50, Calais-51, Dover-52, London.

Thus, there were 52 regular journeys during the tour, and 32 days spent in excursions and perambulations. And as there never was so much exercise or fatigue during the journeys as during the days of sojourn and excursions, it follows that the whole of this tour might be made with great ease, and the utmost advantage to health, in two months. As far as natural scenery is concerned, it would, perhaps, be difficult to select a track, which could offer such a succession of the most beautiful and sublime views, and such a variety of interesting objects, as the line which the above route presents.* It would be better, however, to dedicate three months to the tour, if time and other circumstances permitted, than to make it in two months; though, if only two months could be spared, I would recommend the same line of travel where health was the object. Perhaps it would be better to reverse the order of the route, and to commence with the Rhine, by which plan the majesty of the scenery would be gradually and progressively increasing, till the traveller reached the summit of the Great St. Bernard, the Simplon, or Mont Blanc.

The foregoing circuit was made, as far as the writer is concerned, entirely in the open air; that is to say, in an open carriage-in char-à-bancs-on mules-and on foot. The exercise was always a combination, or quick succession of the active and passive kinds, as advantage was taken of hills and mountains, on the regular journeys, to get down and walk-while a great part of each excursion was pedestrian, with the char-à-banc or mule at

* The tour which follows the one now in question, (viz. the Italian tour, 1829) is probably over a still more interesting ground, as far, at least, as intellectual excitement is concerned. But, at the end of the volume, I have endeavoured to shew good reasons for travelling in our own rather than in foreign countries, where health is the main object in view.