Grand, romantic,
and picturesque in natural scenery, or attached to the study of man in
that state, in which civilization and knowledge have brought with them
the least intermixture of artifice, luxury, and dissoluteness - in
Switzerland, he will find an ample and rich feast. It does not often
happen that one and the same country attracts to it the abstract and
cold man of science, the ardent imagination of the poet, and the strong,
enthusiastic, and sanguine sympathies of the philanthropist.
355. Descriptio Helvetiae, a Marso, 1555-9. 4to. - Marsus was ambassador from
the Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V., to the Swiss, and gives a
curious picture of their manners at this period.
356. Helvetia Profana et Sacra. 1642. 4to. - This work by Scotti, which is
written in English, depicts the manners of the Swiss a century after
Marsus.
357. Travels through the Rhaetian Alps. By Beaumont, 1782, fol. - Travels
through the Pennine Alps, by the same, 1788. small folio, both translated
from the French.
358. Travels in Switzerland, and in the country of the Grisons, by the Rev.
W. Coxe, 1791. 3 vols. 8vo. - These travels were performed in 1776, and
again in 1785 and 1787, and bear and deserve the same character as the
author's travels in Russia, &c., of which we have already spoken. Mr. Coxe
gives a list of books on Switzerland at the end of his 3d volume, which may
be consulted with advantage. There is a similar list at the end of his
travels in Russia, &c.
359. A Walk through Switzerland, in Sept. 1816. 12mo. - The scenery and
manners sketched with much feeling, taste, and judgment, in an animated
style.
360. Journal of a Tour and Residence in Switzerland. By L. Simond. 1822.
2 vols. 8vo. - A description of Switzerland and the Swiss, which brings them
in a clearer and stronger point of view, to the presence and comprehension
of the reader than most travels in this country: though the range of
observation and remark is not so extensive in this work, as in the author's
work on Great Britain; in every other respect it is equal to it. The second
volume is entirely historical.
The following French works particularly and accurately describe the
natural history and the meteorology of the Swiss mountains and glaciers;
the names of at least two of their authors must be familiar to our
readers, as men of distinguished science.
361. Histoire Naturelle des Glaciers de Suisse. Paris, 1770. 4to.
Translated from the German of Gruner.
362. Nouvelle Description des Glaciers. Par M. Bourrit. Geneva, 1785.
3 vols. 8vo. - This work of Bourrit is chiefly confined to the Valais and
Savoy, and its most important contents are given in the following work by
the same author.
