Transcriber's Note:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation in the originaldocument have been preserved.
On page 3, Cyrnos is a possible typo for Cyrnus.
CONSTABLE'S MISCELLANY
OF
FOREIGN LITERATURE.
VOL. V.
EDINBURGH: THOMAS CONSTABLE AND CO.
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., LONDON.
JAMES M'GLASHAN, DUBLIN.
MDCCCLV.
EDINBURGH: T. CONSTABLE, PRINTER TO HER MAJESTY.
ISLANDofCORSICA
Engraved & Printed in Colours
by W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburgh.
Edinburgh, T. Constable & Co.
WANDERINGS IN CORSICA:
ITS HISTORY AND ITS HEROES.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF
FERDINAND GREGOROVIUS
BY ALEXANDER MUIR.
VOL. I.
EDINBURGH: THOMAS CONSTABLE AND CO.
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., LONDON.
JAMES M'GLASHAN, DUBLIN.
MDCCCLV.
PREFACE.
It was in the summer of the past year that I went over tothe island of Corsica. Its unknown solitudes, and the strangestories I had heard of the country and its inhabitants, temptedme to make the excursion. But I had no intention of entanglingmyself so deeply in its impracticable labyrinths as I actuallydid. I fared like the heroes of the fairy-tales, who areallured by a wondrous bird into some mysterious forest, andfollow it ever farther and farther into the beautiful wilderness.At last I had wandered over most of the island. The fruitof that summer is the present book, which I now send hometo my friends. May it not meet with an unsympathetic reception!It is hoped that at least the history of the Corsicans,and their popular poetry, entitles it to something better.
The history of the Corsicans, all granite like their mountains,and singularly in harmony with their nature, is in itselfan independent whole; and is therefore capable of being presented,even briefly, with completeness. It awakens the sameinterest of which we are sensible in reading the biography ofan unusually organized man, and would possess valid claimsto our attention even though Corsica could not boast Napoleonas her offspring. But certainly the history of Napoleon'snative country ought to contribute its share of data to an accurateestimate of his character; and as the great man is tobe viewed as a result of that history, its claims on our carefulconsideration are the more authentic.
It is not the object of my book to communicate informationin the sphere of natural science; this is as much beyond itsscope as beyond the abilities of the author. The work has,however, been written with an earnest purpose.
I am under many obligatio