Preface.
vii
During the last twenty years the proportion of educated persons in this country who are unable to enjoy a French book in the original has greatly decreased. Still, there are some to whom a translation of this delightful work may be acceptable.
To them I offer the pleasant labor of a few leisuŕe hours; but not without assuring them that, in endeavoring to reproduce faithfully the author's ideas, I have felt at every paragraph how true it is that "le style ne se traduit pas,"—"style is untranslatable."
The headings of the chapters are not De Maistre's. They appear in Tardieu's pretty little edition of the "Voyage." The miniatures, by M. Veyssier, are from the same source.
H. A.
Barnes, Surrey.
Autumn, 1871.
