It may be proper to remark, with regard to the principle of selection pursued, that many works are admitted which do not bear the title of travels; this has been done, wherever, though not under that title, they are the result of the actual travels and observations, or enquiries of the authors. The form into which information respecting the agriculture, manufactures, commerce, antiquities, natural history, manners, &c. of foreign countries is cast, or the title under which it is communicated to the world, is obviously of little consequence, provided the information is not merely compiled by a stranger to the country, and is accurate and valuable. Such works, however, as are avowedly written for scientific purposes, and for the exclusive use of scientific men, and are consequently confined to scientific researches and information conveyed in the peculiar language of the science, are omitted.
So much for the plan on which this catalogue has been drawn up. Before we proceed to explain the arrangement pursued, it may be proper to make a few remarks on some intermediate points. One advantage of a select catalogue over a complete one is, that it occupies less room. With the same object in view, only the title in the original language is given where there is no translation of the work into the English or French; only translations into English or French are noticed, where such exist, and not the original work; and all the articles are numbered, so that a short and easy reference may be made from one article to another.
Room is thus evidently saved, and not, in our opinion, by any sacrifice of utility. For German or Spanish scholars it is unnecessary to translate the titles of German or Spanish books, and for the mere English scholar it is useless. Translations into the French are noticed in preference to the original, because this language is at present familiar to every literary man in Britain, and French works can easily be obtained; and the German or Spanish scholar, who wishes to obtain and peruse the original, can be at no loss to procure it from the translated title. The advantage of numbering the articles will be immediately explained in treating of the arrangement.
The catalogue is arranged in the following manner:
After noticing a few of the most useful works which contain instructions to travellers, in the first place, Collections and Histories of Voyages and Travels are placed: next follow Voyages round the World;--Voyages and Travels which embrace more than one quarter of the World;--Travels in Europe generally;--Travels in more than one Country of Europe;--Travels in each particular Country of Europe. It is in this particular department of the Catalogue that the plan of reference by numbers is more especially necessary and useful; for the Index to the Catalogue being drawn up with reference to the numbers, not only those travels which are confined to one country,--France, for instance,--may easily be found, but also all those travels which comprehend France along with other countries.
The same arrangement is pursued in the other parts of the world,--Asia, Africa, America, Australasia, and Polynesia. The articles are arranged as nearly as possible in the chronological order in which the voyages and travels were performed in each particular country, and the countries are placed according to their geographical relation to one another.
I.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR TRAVELERS.
1. L'Utilité des Voyages qui concernent la Connoissance des Inscriptions, Sentences, Dieux, Larés, Peintures anciennes, Bas Reliefs, &c. Langues, &c.; avec un Memoire de quelques Observations générales qu'on peut faire pour ne pas voyager inutilement. Par Ch. C. Baudelot Dairval. 2 vol. 12mo. Paris 1656.--The Rouen edition is much inferior. This is an excellent work.
2. C. Linnæus on the Benefit of Travelling in one's own Country. (In Stillingfleet's Tracts.) This was published in Latin, separately, and in the Amoenitates Academicæ, in the Select, ex Amoenit.; and in the Fundamenta Botanices of Gilibert.