ment; but he seems frequently to enter into too minute details, which could not be interesting except to his own family.

However eftimable and instructive all these travels may be, and two or three others I have not mentioned because they are lefs confiderable. Spain is not yet well known, nor do I flatter myself with the idea of being able to give a complete description of it. I propofe the obfervations I have made in travelling through that kingdom as fimple effays, and shall endeavor to prefent the objects in the manner they appeared to me.

I am aware of the difficulty of my undertaking, and it, perhaps, behoves me to follow the advice of Fontenelle, and fhut my hand if I have really found the truth. Men like not to fee it in front; and various means are neceffary to gain it admiffion. Great delicacy is required in the choice of expreffion, that felflove may not be mortified. If the hiftorian be impeded in his progress by hu

mane

mane confiderations, for a long time, and even ages after the events he relates, what must be the fituation of the traveller, whose pen is confined to present objects, and who dares to judge of nations and men in power as well as of received and deeply rooted abuses? He proceeds tremblingly, because every step he takes furrounds him with enemies. He cannot always flatter; and it would not be worth while to quit his native country for the purpose of bafely applauding, in. a foreign clime, that which is repugnant to reason and not unfrequently to humanity.

It would undoubtedly be much better not to write, and that a traveller fhould go in pursuit of knowledge for his own fatisfaction; but in fuch a cafe the powerful incentive of being ufeful would be wanting. His obfervations would be fo negligently made, as but feldom to difcover the truth; and having found much amufement for his eyes, and but little for his mind, he would return home with

his head full of phantoms, like that. of a child who has paffed several hours before a magic lanthorn.

Be not offended, brave and generous Spaniards, from whom I have received fo many open marks of friendship; do not blame me if, fometimes, carried away by my fubject, blinded by my national prejudices, or tempted by a liberty of thinking yet unknown amongst you, I have feen, with an evil eye, certain of your received manners, customs and inftitutions, and the laws which tyrannife over you. Let my excufe be found in the love of truth and the frankness of my character,

I fhall speak of monuments also, and with my own thoughts upon them give those of others. My intention is to relate and defcribe, and but very feldom to judge. I fhall conduct my reader to the feveral cities through which I have pasfed, and there point out to him what appeared to me moft worthy of attention,

admiration, or cenfure. In order to give him some relaxation from the fatigue of travelling, I fhall communicate to him my ideas on legislation, commerce, manners and customs, as they may arife from the subject, without aiming at any other order or plan throughout the whole work. I do not mean to go provided with a square and compass to take the height of fteeples, and give the exact dimensions of churches, but I shall not so far subject myself to this prohibition as not to measure any: my intention is to introduce fome variety into the too great uniformity of a travelling journal.

GENERAL VIEW OF ANCIENT AND MODERN SPAIN.

WERE not a research after etymologies equally fruitlefs, disgusting and fatiguing, I would willingly dedicate fome time and paper to a long differtation on the different names given to Spain, repeating what the ancients, before me, have faid of them, and call to the recollection of my reader the appellations of Iberus, Hifpalis, Hefperus, Tubal, and the Rabbits, the Phoenician name for which, Sepana, was, we have been told, the root of that of Spain. But the proofs of this illustrious origin would not at present be well received, and but little regard would be paid to my extenfive erudition, fince facts are generally allowed to be much preferable to words.

Spain is placed by nature in the most happy fituation: furrounded by feas and mountains, fhe enjoys a temperature of

climate