CHAP.

I.

models of mining apparatus; pumps, furnaces, &c. There is no country that has afforded better proofs of the importance of mineralogical studies to the welfare of a nation, than Sweden; but the Swedes have not maintained the pre-eminence in mineralogy which they so honourably acquired'. The mineralogy of Cronstedt laid the true foundation of the science, by making the chemical composition of minerals the foundation of the species into which they are divided: and whenever an undue regard for the mere external characters of these bodies causes an attention to their chemical constituents to be disregarded, it may be regretted, as an effectual bar to the progress of mineralogical knowledge.

-

We next visited the UNIVERSITY LIBRARY.In ascending to it, we saw the Auditory, as it is called, where the Academical disputations are held, and public lectures read; having very much the appearance of one of our English Town-Halls. This place is immediately under the Public Library. The President sits at the farther end of the apartment, immediately behind the Respondent. Upon a bench below the Respondent are placed the two Opponents, and

(1) Thomson's Trav. in Sweden, p. 173. Lond. 1813.

(2) Ibid.

behind them are several rows of seats for the spectators. Voluntary opponents frequently rise among the spectators, who discuss argu⚫ments with the Respondents. The degrees, or, as they are here called, promotions, are conferred once in three years. Neither the Professors nor the Students have any distinction of dress; except upon these occasions, when the Professors wear a cloak, and coloured stockings: yet, surely, if ever in any country the dignity of its Academical institutions require a peculiarity of habit, to distinguish its members from the lower orders of the inhabitants, it is more particularly necessary in Upsala. In Cambridge and Oxford, if the students appear in the streets without their Academical dress, it is generally those only of the petit-maîtres among the undergraduates who are tempted to commit this breach of University discipline, by a desire to imitate the habits of the young men of fashion in the metropolis; but their appearance is never such as to cause them to be confounded with the poorer class of artificers: whereas in Upsala, a student in the streets is not a whit better clad than any working coachmaker or carpenter in England.

CHAP.

I.

Library.

We ascended to the University Library. It University contains fifty thousand volumes; which are kept

CHAP.

I.

in very excellent order, and in a handsome room'. The Librarian, Peter Fabius Aurivillius, Professor of Humanity, to whom we delivered our letters of introduction, told us that he had published a complete catalogue of the whole collection, arranged alphabetically, according to the names of the different authors. The alphabetical form is perhaps the most convenient which any catalogue can have, for the use of persons frequenting a public library; provided only that it be made sufficiently comprehensive, and be extended not only to the names of the authors, but also to the subjects and titles of their several works. In viewing this collection, we endeavoured to ascertain to what particular branch of knowledge it was most indebted. The Professor, to whom we applied for information, told us that it was impossible to determine this point; affirming that the library was well pro

(1) Dr Fiott Lee, in his MS. Journal, states the number of volumes at 65,000. The persons who accompany strangers in their visits to public libraries are not likely to be very accurate in the accounts which they give in round numbers. The number of the volumes in the University Library of Cambridge has never been ascertained; but Dr. Farmer, Master of Emmanuel College, when Librarian, counted the number of authors, and they amounted to 100,000. This number has since been greatly augmented; and there are, besides, sixteen other Libraries in Cambridge belonging to the different Colleges. This comparative statement will serve to mark the striking difference between the two establish

ments.

vided in all branches of learning. We found here Mr. Turner employed as the amanuensis, who formerly had the care of Sir Joseph Banks's Herbarium. The library is divided into three distinct parts: the first contains volumes of polite literature, history, and natural history; the second, a collection of various authors presented by Gustavus the Third, when he was Prince Royal: the third consists entirely of volumes of law, physic, and divinity. This library owes its origin to Gustavus Adolphus, or, as he is always called familiarly by the Swedes, Gustaf-Adolph. Like Buonaparte, it was customary with that monarch to reserve, for his share of the plunder, all the books which were found in places captured by his troops: and he afterwards presented them to this University. Several of his successors have, by similar donations, imitated his munificent example.

I.

phical

Here is preserved the first book printed in TypograSweden; namely, Dialogus Creaturarum moralisatus. Rarities. It bears the date Stockholm, MCCCCLXXXIII.'

We saw also the only copy known of the Manuale Ecclesiæ Linkopensis, printed at Souderkæuping, in 1525. The first work printed at

(2) The same gentleman is mentioned by Dr. Thomson, in his account of Upsala, as being the Librarian at the time of his visit; the name being Torner,after the Swedish manner.-See Trav.in Sweden, p.174. Lond.1813.

I.

CHAP. Upsala was a Latin Commentary upon the Psalms, of which there is a copy, dated 1515. The other rare typographical curiosities are, a work of Thomas Aquinas, printed in folio, at Mayence, in 1467; two editions of the Catholicon of the fifteenth century, without date; and a Latin Bible, in folio, printed at Nuremberg in 1475. Also, the folio Roman editions of Pliny and Suetonius; the first, of 1473; the second, of 1470.

Manu

scripts.

Among the Manuscripts, which are very numerous, and kept in a room below the Library, there are several of great value; such as, the Diarium Wadstenense, upon vellum, in small quarto, written by various hands, from the year 1344 to 1544;-an Icelandic copy of the Edda and Scalda, upon vellum;--and the Icelandic Laws, written upon vellum; a manuscript of . great antiquity. But all these are eclipsed, in splendour and value, by the well-known and Codex Ar- beautiful CODEX ARGENTEUS of the Four Gospels; considered, and with reason, by all comers, as the most worthy notice of any thing in the whole collection. We had the satisfaction of carefully inspecting this precious manuscript, if manuscript it may be called. The characters seem rather painted than written; every letter being executed in silver, with the

genteus.