The following, each 1 vol. Copyright, By L. Boston, Mass. T OO oftenโit is a half-acknowledged delusion, howeverโone meets with what appears to be a theory: that a book of travel must necessarily be a series of dull, discursive, and entirely uncorroborated opinions of one who may not be even an intelligent observer.
This is mere intellectual pretence. Even a humble authorโso long as he be an honest oneโmay well be allowed to claim with Mr. Howells the right to be serious, or the reverse, "with his material as he finds it;" and that "something personally experienced can only be realized on the spot where it was lived.
He rightly says, too, that nothing of perilous adventure is to-day any more like to happen "in Florence than in Fitchburg. A "literary tour," a "cathedral tour," or an "architectural tour," requires a formula wherein the author must be wary of making questionable estimates; but he may, with regard to generalities,โor details, for that matter,โstate his opinion plainly; but he should state also his reasons.
With respect to church architecture no average reader, any more than the average observer, willingly enters the arena of intellectual combat, but rather is satisfiedโas he should be, unless he is a Freeman, a Gonse, or a Corroyerโwith an ampler radius which shall command even a juster, though no less truthful, view.
Not from one book or from ten, in one year or a score can this be had. The field is vast and the immensity of it all only dawns upon one the deeper he gets into his subject. Some will consider that in this book are made many apparently trifling assertions; but it is claimed that they are pertinent and again are expressive of an emotion which mayhap always arises of the same mood. Notre Dame at Rodez is a "warm, mouse-coloured cathedral;" St. Such expressions are figurative, but, so far as words can put it, they are the concentrated result of observation.
