PUBLISHED BY ANTHONY FINLEY. Sold also by B. B. Hopkins & Co; D. W. Farrand and Green, 03975 PREFACE. UNDER circumstances of peculiar anxiety, the author presents the first part of his travels to the publick. A sense of unearned praise, already bestowed by too eager anticipation, weighs heavy on his mind; and some degree of apprehension attaches to the consciousness of having obeyed a strong impulse of duty in the unfavourable representation made of the state of society in Russia. The moral picture afforded of its inhabitants may seem distorted by spleen, and traced under other impressions than those of general charity and Christian benevolence: on which account the reader is doubly entreated to pardon defects, which experience, chas tened by criticism, may subsequently amend; and to suspend the judgment, which more general acquaintance with the author may ultimately mitigate. The present publication is not the only one on which he will have to form an opinion. It is merely an introduction to his future notice. The plan under contemplation is to complete, in THREE separate PARTS, a series of travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa; so that each portion, consisting of one or more volumes, may consitute a survey of some particular region. Thus, for example, the work now published, relates to travels in Russia, Tartary, and Turkey; a second may include the observations collected in Greece, Syria, and Egypt; and, finally, a third, those which presented themselves in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and Finland. But, in order to accomplish so extensive an undertaking, some indulgence is required |