communication, even with ignorance itfelf; ju ft as commerce
and wealth derive profit from an intercourfe with poverty. Every
ipecies o f knowledge may be promoted by travelling into different
countries : in all o f them there will be found ample fcope for ob-
feivation and refledion, natural, moral, and political. It is only
by a comprehenfive and unconfined furvey o f nature, external
and internal, by a growing accumulation o f faCts and conclufions,
compared and combined with one another, that the empire o f
fcience is to be extended : and the moil finking objeCts for fuch
a combination and comparifon, will probably be thofe which
prefent themlelves in a fudden tranfition from one extreme to
the other; fuch as from the South to the North o f Europe.
It was not without the utmoft reluClance, that the Author
yielded to the preifing folicitations o f his friends to print this
work. It is the firft that he has offered to the public, and he is
fenfible that it would be in vain to court for it the indulgence o f
his readers, i f he fliould fail o f recommending himlelf by it to
their efteem.
T he firft part o f thefe Travels, written for the gratification o f
a fmall circle, who were curious to learn the prefent ftate o f arts,
8 fciences,
fciences, and manners in Sweden, contains an account o f circum-
ftances too bold, perhaps, to meet the public eye. But to have
re-compofed and foftened it, by the fupprefiion o f forne particulars,
however perfonally prudent for the Author, would have been
to withhold from the reader a ju ft and accurate idea o f the ftate
o f fadls. It was incumbent upon him to facrifice all inferior
confiderations to a relpedt for the public and for truth.
W ith regard to that portion o f the volumes which relates to
Finland and Lapland, the Author was for fome time reftrained
from producing it to the Public, by a motive o f delicacy. C o lonel
Skioldebrand, a Swedilh officer, the companion o f his travels,
had announced his defign o f publifhing in Stockholm his
drawings o f picturefque fcenery in thole countries, accompanied
with defcriptions o f the objedts reprefented in his plates. The
Author, therefore, fufpended his own publication from a fear o f
injuring the interefts o f his friend. But, on obferving that the
announced work made its appearance only in numbers, that it
will not be completed for lome years, and what is moft material,
that any degree o f iuccels which might attend the prefent publication,
muft only ferve to promote that o f the other, all fcruples
o f delicacy were removed.
V o l . I. b Another