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+====== TRAVELS OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN ======
+===== THE SECOND VOLUME =====
+==== PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME ====
+Baron Munchausen has certainly been productive of much benefit to the
+literary world; the numbers of egregious travellers have been such,
+that they demanded a very Gulliver to surpass them. If Baron de Tott
+dauntlessly discharged an enormous piece of artillery, the Baron
+Munchausen has done more; he has taken it and swam with it across the
+sea. When travellers are solicitous to be the heroes of their own
+story, surely they must admit to superiority, and blush at seeing
+themselves out-done by the renowned Munchausen: I doubt whether any
+one hitherto, Pantagruel, Gargantua, Captain Lemuel, or De Tott, has
+been able to out-do our Baron in this species of excellence: and as at
+present our curiosity seems much directed to the interior of Africa,
+it must be edifying to have the real relation of Munchausen's
+adventures there before any further intelligence arrives; for he seems
+to adapt himself and his exploits to the spirit of the times, and
+recounts what he thinks should be most interesting to his auditors.
+I do not say that the Baron, in the following stories, means a satire
+on any political matters whatever. No; but if the reader understands
+them so, I cannot help it.
+If the Baron meets with a parcel of negro ships carrying whites into
+slavery to work upon their plantations in a cold climate, should we
+therefore imagine that he intends a reflection on the present traffic
+in human flesh? And that, if the negroes should do so, it would be
+simple justice, as retaliation is the law of God! If we were to think
+this a reflection on any present commercial or political matter, we
+should be tempted to imagine, perhaps, some political ideas conveyed
+in every page, in every sentence of the whole. Whether such things are
+or are not the intentions of the Baron the reader must judge.
+We have had not only wonderful travellers in this vile world, but
+splenetic travellers, and of these not a few, and also conspicuous
+enough. It is a pity, therefore, that the Baron has not endeavoured to
+surpass them also in this species of story-telling. Who is it can read
+the travels of Smellfungus, as Sterne calls him, without admiration?
+To think that a person from the North of Scotland should travel
+through some of the finest countries in Europe, and find fault with
+everything he meets--nothing to please him! And therefore, methinks,
+the Tour to the Hebrides is more excusable, and also perhaps Mr.
+Twiss's Tour in Ireland. Dr. Johnson, bred in the luxuriance of
+London, with more reason should become cross and splenetic in the
+bleak and dreary regions of the Hebrides.
+The Baron, in the following work, seems to be sometimes philosophical;
+his account of the language of the interior of Africa, and its analogy
+with that of the inhabitants of the moon, show him to be profoundly
+versed in the etymological antiquities of nations, and throw new light
+upon the abstruse history of the ancient Scythians, and the
+Collectanea.
+His endeavour to abolish the custom of eating live flesh in the
+interior of Africa, as described in Bruce's Travels, is truly humane.
+But far be it from me to suppose, that by Gog and Magog and the Lord
+Mayor's show he means a satire upon any person or body of persons
+whatever: or, by a tedious litigated trial of blind judges and dumb
+matrons following a wild goose chase all round the world, he should
+glance at any trial whatever.
+Nevertheless, I must allow that it was extremely presumptuous in
+Munchausen to tell half the sovereigns of the world that they were
+wrong, and advise them what they ought to do; and that instead of
+ordering millions of their subjects to massacre one another, it would
+be more to their interest to employ their forces in concert for the
+general good; as if he knew better than the Empress of Russia, the
+Grand Vizier, Prince Potemkin, or any other butcher in the world. But
+that he should be a royal Aristocrat, and take the part of the injured
+Queen of France in the present political drama, I am not at all
+surprised; but I suppose his mind was fired by reading the pamphlet
+written by Mr. Burke.
+----
+Go to [[CHAPTER XXI]]