 | Isabel, or, Sicily |  |
PREFACE.
The celebrated remark of Dr. Johnson respecting
the Hebrides, is singularly applicable to Sicily. The
antiquities of the island are eminently worthy of
observation; but the inconveniences attending a visit
to them, are such as to suggest, even in the mind of
the enthusiastic traveller, frequent doubts whether
the gratification thus afforded is not more than
counterbalanced by the discomfort consequently incurred.
The scenery, too, is peculiar and often
unsurpassed for beauty and picturesque effect; yet
it is only at certain periods that the weather is such
as to do justice to its characteristic charms. The
long and rigid quarantines to which the voyager is
liable, the want of commodious inns, and the absence
of carriage roads to some of the most interesting
localities, are also essential drawbacks to the pleasure
of the tourist, especially if he be fresh from the
superior facilities of the continent. To one who
sympathizes warmly with his race, there are, in addition,
many painful associations constantly awakened
but ill-calculated to cheer his sojourn. If these
considerations, however, are sufficient to deter the
unadventurous from exploring this remarkable island,
they afford no inconsiderable motive to one whom
circumstances have lured within its fertile precincts,
to attempt to convey an idea to others of what there
has interested his own mind. It is with such a view
that the following pages were written. The form in
which these descriptions and thoughts suggested by
a tour in Sicily are presented, was adopted for the
purpose of avoiding that egotistical tone from which
it is almost impossible to escape in a formal journal,
as well as to obviate the necessity of dwelling upon
those unimportant details and circumstances which
are common to every tour in Europe, and therefore
too familiar to be interesting.
| Isabel, or, Sicily | |