PREFACE.

The present volume is necessarily somewliat discursive in itsarrangement, owing to the Interpolation of tho descriptionsillustrative of the illustrations. Tliere is, howcver, a metliod inits apparent incolierence.

It consists of two parts, which, though involved, are neverfhe-less distinct—the one descriptive and the other critieal: thisexplaining the peculiar aspect of certain scenes and places in theUpper Rhine; and that treating of and testing the manners andopinions of the people of tho Rhenish capital, according to theethieal and political Standards of our own country.

With respect to the so-called " Interpolated Scenes," theyhave been interspersed through the more connected matter of thebook, simply for the purpose of distributing the engravings uni-formly throughout the volume ; while the descriptions have been,generally, written with the object of giving the untravelled readersomcthing like a sense of the places touched upon.

This pen-and-ink delineation of stränge places, or makingknown the unknown, is no very easy task—especially by means ofa non-imitative art like literature; for it is as difficult to conveyin words a sense of even the simple process of tying a shoe, as itis to produce in music a " movement descriptive of a gentlemanchanging his religion."

Of all painting, word-painting is perhaps the most difficultand subtle. It is worse than " writing on water," being indeed aspecies of drawing in tho air—a style of spectral landscape.