Page:The lives of celebrated travellers (Volume 1).djvu/276

to the roots of institutions and manners. No European seems to have comprehended the Persians so completely; and no one has hitherto described them so well. Religion, government, morals, manners, costume—every thing in which one nation can differ from another—Chardin had studied in that bold and original manner which characterizes the efforts of genius. His style, though careless, and sometimes quaint, is not destitute of that naïveté and ease which result from much experience and the consciousness of intellectual power; and if occasionally it appear heavy and cumbrous in its march, it more frequently quickens its movements, and hurries along with natural gracefulness and facility. Without appearing desirous of introducing himself to the reader further than the necessities of the case require, he allows us to take so many glimpses of his character and opinions, that by the time we arrive at the termination of his travels we seem to be perfectly acquainted with both; and unless all these indications be fallacious, so much talent, probity, and elegance of manners has seldom been possessed by any traveller. Marco Polo was gifted with a more exalted enthusiasm, and acquired a more extensive acquaintance with the material phenomena of nature; Pietro della Valle amuses the reader by wilder and more romantic adventures; Bernier is more concise and severe ; Volney more rigidly philosophical; but for good sense, acuteness of observation, suavity of manner, and scrupulous adherence to truth, no traveller, whether ancient or modern, is superior to Chardin.