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ART. VIII.-Travels through Russia, Siberia, Poland, Austria, Saxony, Prussia, Hanover, &c. &c. in the Years 1822, 1823, and 1824. By James Holman, R. N. and K. W. Second Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. 24s. boards. London, Whittaker.

THE Russian empire was nearly a terra incognita previous to the reign of Peter the Great; and even during that sovereign's reign, as well as in that of some of his successors, little progress was made in geography, navigation, history, arts, and sciences. True it is that the rude but intelligent Tzar transplanted learned men of all nations to the shores of the Baltic, and reared magnificent establishments for the education of youth of the higher classes on the banks of the Neva, and thus paved the way for the superstructure which has since been elevated with an astonishing though forced, unnatural, and mushroom growth. But Peter the Great did little for the civilization of the bulk of the population-the peasantry, because civilization, and especially the civilization of a widely-scattered population, must advance with tardy steps. The laudable ardour of the Empress Catherine the Second to obtain a knowledge of her realms, led to the repeated appointment of distinguished academicians to travel into various regions of the empire, with a view to the elucidation of their geography and natural history, as well as the acquisition of accurate information on the moral and intellectual state of their numerous tribes. Though very expensive to the government, these expeditions were crowned with much success, and a mass of knowledge was accumulated and published, which did equal honour to the sovereign who encouraged men of real science in such praiseworthy enterprises, and to the celebrated travellers themselves. Russia owes much to the Germans, who are the most numerous, and have proved the most laborious and most scientific contributors to the civilization of that empire. They are scattered throughout cities, and towns, and villages, as professors at the universities, physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, ministers of religion, teachers of languages, ingenious artists, and clever mechanics. They form colonies of cultivators of the land in almost every government of the empire, from Poland to Kamtchatka, and from the Frozen Sea to Persia; exhibiting an example of industry, order, and comfort to the neighbouring nations and tribes, demi-civilized or barbarous, and supplying the wants of the more refined, and of the epicure, with the products of their farms, gardens, and orchards. The Germans, besides, have contributed infinitely more towards the elucidation of the geography and of the history of the empire than even the natives.

*

Among the most distinguished travellers are to be enumerated, Pallas, Guldenstädt, Georgi, the Gmelins, Falk, Schmit, Reineggs, Biberstein, Fischer, Müller, Klaproth, Engelhardt, Parrot, Kotzebue, Kruzenstern, Vrangel, Erdmann, and we believe also the Roman Catholic Metropolitan, Sistrenewiz de Bohujg, who is of Germano-Polish descent. Busching, Müller, Schloetzer, Herrmann, Hupel, Storch, Hassel, and Cromé, have thrown much light upon the general history, and especially the statistics, of the Russian empire. Towards its natural history, many of the abovenamed individuals have likewise accomplished much; and the two Fischers, one of whom is now at Moscow, and the other at Petersburgh, have for many years followed up the path of their predecessors with great success, and are continually making additions to scientific knowledge which exalts their characters. The enormous extent of the Russian empire, the immense variety of its inhabitants, and, of course, languages, and the savage or rude state of many tribes of its people, appeared powerful obstacles to the acquisition of general and particular knowledge; but the works of the academicians decidedly proved the utility of the division of even scientific labour, every one of them having had a certain duty to perform. They collected and published many volumes, which surprised by the extent of novel and interesting information, though mixed up with many tiresome and dry details. To the late Mr. Tooke our country is indebted for a useful compilation of their works, in his View of the Russian Empire.

The fury of travelling has long been characteristic of our countrymen, and perhaps it never was at such a pitch as at the present day. Besides travellers of all the denominations alluded to in Sterne's Sentimental Journey, we have now to add to their number intended pedestrian and blind circumambulators of the globe. Captain Cochrane, after having traversed a great part of America, France, Spain, and Portugal, on foot, undertook a pedestrian excursion of many thousand miles to the remote peninsular of Kamtchatka, where he married, and then returned to his country; and Mr. Holman, animated by the same propensity to locomotion, although he had been blind 15 years, commenced a similar journey, and was only prevented from its execution by the fatal mandate of the late Alexander, after having reached the centre of Siberia. Omitting the names of Coxe, Clarke, and numerous continental writers, of less modern date, within the last few years,

*Proiessor Gotthelf Fischer, well known by numerous works on natural history, and especially by his late "Entomographia," as he has a predilection for zoology, is called Animal Fischer; while Dr. F. L. Fischer, who, though well acquainted with almost all departments of natural history, is an enthusiastic and most distinguished botanist, is called, by way of distinction, Vegetable Fischer.

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Russia has been traversed by Britons in all directions. Po rter James, and Lyall, have published their accounts of a line of route which leads from the north to the south, or from Petersburgh to the boundaries of Persia; while Cochrane and Holman have presented the public with the results of their observations, made during a progress of many thousand miles, stretching chiefly from west to east, or from the borders of Poland to the extremity of Asia.

Since the establishment of numerous institutions for their reception, and the introduction of improved methods of teaching them, the world begins to be less astonished than formerly, by the deeds of the blind among the lower classes of society. Among the higher or better-educated classes, there have been divine blind poets-superior prose authors-excellent mathematiciansmost accurate land-surveyors-good blind physicians-eminent natural historians-and distinguished blind philosophers. Mr. Williamson, an independent gentleman, who lives at Edinburgh, is a first-rate botanist, though deprived of the use of his visual organs, and has a fine garden, which is celebrated for its collection of the genus Narcissus. He distinguishes the genera and species of plants by the touch; and one of our friends heard him point out the peculiarities of a new species of Fuchsia with great neatness and accuracy. The learned Mr. Gough, of Kendal, whose general knowledge of plants, as well as of vegetable physiology, is well known, we have been informed by Sir James Edward Smith, examines the stamens and the pistils, as well as every other part of plants, when necessary, by means of-not his fingers-but his tongue. This seems a very extraordinary circumstance, and well demonstrates the exquisite sense of touch-not of taste, though it is also very refined-which that organ must have acquired by use.

It is well known that Dr. Moise gave excellent lectures on natural philosophy, and thus made his fortune, though blind; and but a few days ago, Mr. Alexander Davidson died at Kendal, after having been employed thirty years in delivering similar lectures. He was a most successful teacher: his experiments were numerous and beautiful, and were generally performed by his wife or by himself. After lecturing in many towns of England, but more especially of Scotland and Ireland, he was attacked with disease, under which he lingered, and died in poverty. His wants were supplied by some friends, among whom was the celebrated Mr. Dugald Stewart, of Edinburgh; and the London Literary Fund Society also assisted him.

These are remarkable instances of what may be accomplished without the sense of sight. But, as far as we know, we have had

few able blind tourists, and assuredly, before Mr. Holman, no blind traveller in Siberia. The circumstance of a person in his condition undertaking journies of such immense length, and environed by so many difficulties, we scarcely know how to explain. Mr. Holman appears to be a kind of

"Monstrum ingens-cui lumen ademptum."

And we might almost be led to suspect that a deception lurked behind that evidence of veracity which his book displays, did we not know from good authority, that his misfortune is real, and that his mind is richly stored with every amiable quality, and that he possesses a spirit of perseverance not to be quelled by any difficulty or obstacle, which human power so circumstanced can surmount*. Admitting then the point of veracity, for which we can venture, unequivocally, to pledge ourselves, it must follow that, so circumstanced, his remarks will necessarily comprise a fund of novelty and interest.

Mr. Holman was born at Exeter. At twelve years of age, he entered the royal navy as a midshipman, and after being thirteen years employed, he lost his sight in 1811, in consequence of a rheumatic fever, which was accompanied and followed by severe inflammation of the eyes. Since that period he has attended the university of Edinburgh, devoted much time to study, and besides made a tour through France and Italy, which he published some years ago, and which was favourably received by the public. This enterprising sightless traveller, like Ledyard and Cochrane, had determined not only to travel through Siberia, and Kamtchatka, but to pass, in a Russian vessel, from the eastern extremity of Asia to the north-west coast of America, and from thence doubling Cape Horn, or Batavia and the Cape of Good Hope, to reach Europe, and so complete the tour of the world. This grand idea was regarded by many of his friends as truly romantic, and even Mr. Holman's plan of proceeding to Siberia excited much mirth, and even ridicule, but he urged that on every new spot much novel local information was to be gained, even by the blind, and that travelling was the most pleasant manner of passing his time, totally shut out as he is from connexion with the sensible world.

It is, however, from our author's narration of personal feelings

* The Russians began to suspect that Mr. Holman had not totally lost the power of vision; but on this point, unfortunately for the adventurer, they were totally mistaken. Perhaps it was from this suspicion that they paradoxically called him the "Blind Spy." We have read the adventures of the "English Spy," the "Chinese Spy," the "Turkish Spy," &c., but the lieges of the northern Tzar have the credit of having discovered a phenomenon, viz., "The Blind Spy."

that we have derived our highest interest in the perusal of his pages. These are the "deliciæ inter epulas." To be made acquainted with the extraordinary faculties which compensate the loss of the ordinary powers conferred upon man, becomes a point of physiological and metaphysical inquiry which cannot fail to interest the philosopher, who finds therein materials for increasing his stock of knowledge relative to the human microcosm. We will not say that our author's mental disquisitions, or ideal explanations, are deeply grounded, but to us they appear specious enough, and, at all events, indicate a mind replete with feeling and judgment. We quote the following extracts as illustrative of

these remarks :

"The various organs of sense are the mere instruments by which the impressions of external objects are conveyed to the mind, which then reasons upon and draws its inferences respecting the nature of these objects. The conclusions thus arrived at are consequently mere ideas; and yet they comprise all that we can really know respecting the appearances, forms, and qualities of whatever is external to us; and in this sense our whole knowledge of the external world is but ideal. Now, so as ideas are excited in the mind respecting the existence of external things, it matters not through what senses the impressions from which they are derived are transmitted; whether through the medium of sight, touch, hearing, or any other sense; and although the eye be the more appropriate one for this purpose, yet all the others admit of being put into requisition as auxiliaries to it, or, when vision is denied, as substitutes for it, and it is well known what extensive powers they acquire under such circumstances. But it will be urged that the knowledge thus attained cannot be depended upon as strictly correct. This I admit; but it matters not as to the ultimate effect, as regards the feelings of the individual; the operations of his mind may be called forth with equal force, and, aided by the power of imagination, and the recollection of pre-existent analogies, or other information acquired previous to the loss of the organ in question, its conclusions may, notwithstanding many inaccuracies, be equally decided, and perhaps equally agreeable, as under ordinary circumstances. Hence the opinions I am led to form of the countries through which I travel afford me ineffable delight. There is, however, probably another advantage; that the attention being chiefly directed to the more grand and interesting features, the meaner ones are, in a proportionate degree, excluded. The reader will probably now comprehend the manner in which I arrive at what perhaps may be termed an ideal knowledge of the places I visit. Accompanied by an intelligent friend, or some other guide, I examine every place of interest, touch what I can, and hear of all; and then combining the information thus gained with previously-acquired knowledge of the subject, and some portion of imagination, a picture is produced, comprising in my mind a strong impression of reality, and answering the purpose to me, almost as well

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