ture, that difagreeably ftrikes the be

holder.

If the fame tafte fhould prevail throughout, one might be induced to pronounce the city at leaft hand fome, though we should not then declare it to be exactly the elect city. How ever, as feveral others are very ftriking to the eye, and yet we can only efteem one of them to be the fineft; let us declare for which we will, it must be to the difparagement of the rest. This in general difpleafed me, that from no part can one fee any thing like a continued whole. This defect is felt fo much, that a wan, on his first arrival at Berlin, is at a lofs to know where the city properly begins. At least I found myself for a time in fome perplexity on that

account.

You know what an inveterate averfion I have to fearchers, and how lamentably I have complained of them during my journey, in my letters to you. Of Berlin I had often been told that they were always very ftrict. Judge then what horrible re-, prefentations I had made to myself, and how much and how anxioufly my imagination dwelt on the detefted custom of making a poor traveller, who goes from one place to another, for the fake of no profit but that of information, deliver up all his papers and bundles, and detaining him till they have all been rummaged and ranfacked over and over again, and the officers think fit to be convinced that they do not contain one atom of whatever the fovereign has been pleafed to declare contraband. Accordingly, as quite contrary to my expectation, they treated me with great civility on my coming up to the outermost barrier, not fo much as once opening my carriage, but contenting themselves with the ticket I had got at Lenteen and a small gratuity of a piece of eight grofches, I could not perfuade myfelf that I fhould be quit for this, but kept conftantly looking

out for a fresh gate, where it would

go

fomewhat harder with me. In this doleful expectation I proceeded a confiderable way; for notwithstanding all that I faw around me, I could not convince myself that I had already really entered the city; till I reached the pleafure-garden, faw the royal palace and the cathedral, and at this fight my fears forfook me.

Excepting the Friederichstadt and Dorotheenftadt, one every where fees à mixture of hand fome modern houses with old ones, ftraight and crooked ftreets; which altogether have an appearance not properly beautiful. The king's determination is, not to embellish one part beyond the reft, but is refolved to have fomething elegant in each part of the city. Accordingly, he gives orders to build here and there, without caring whether the intervening edifices efface the good impreffion the new ones. have left, or not. He has taken up the defign of demolishing all houfes that confift of only one story, but to let all of two stories stand; by which practice the profpect is frequently interrupted in a very unpleafing manner: and even in the finest street of all Berlin, under the Lindens, fo called from its being planted with linden trees, are fome houfes of a perfectly mean appearance left standing as a difgrace to a multitude of new ones.

The public fquares, if we omit the Wilhelmfplatz, are quite deficient in any regular form; many large public ftructures ftand in them entirely without all connection or plan; the ground is no where even; in one part raised and in another low in fhort, it is in vain to look for that entire correspondence, which alone can gratify the eye of tafte. The pavement, as I have already obferved, is as bad as can well be imagined; and after a fhower of rain, it is fo entirely ufelefs, unless by splashing the traveller up to the neck, that a

a me

man can scarcely tell whether he is in a city or paffing the road through a miferable village. At every ftep be either ftrikes his foot againft a ftone that has got its head up in the world, or ftumbles into a hole that has been forfaken by another. In fhort, he must have ftudied the pavement, as he would a chapter in Burgerfdicius, if he would go out of an evening on foot, as the lamps to the houfes, from the width of the streets, generally render obfcurity ftill more obfcure. For my part, I never walked an evening in fo much terror as here; for at every moment I run the hazard of getting a fall or bruifing my toes. To enter a house is attended with great difficulty, as they ftand higher than the street, and confequently are made with fteep afcents, which, befides being inconvenient, contribute greatly to fpoil the look of the ftreet. Another naifance is occafioned by the broad gutters which run between the houses and the pavement, and in many places are badly covered, and in others not at all: fo that a man must keep a conftant eye to his feet, and beware of indulging himself in any pleafing meditation. In all the fquares, and even on the very brid ges, ftand little booths, for the fale of trifling commodities and articles of frippery. These booths or fhops for fmall dealers, are never taken down or removed, fome being even built of brick, fo that all together they disfigure the place where they appear to an extraordinary degree. The elegant Dahnhof fquare, the fquare of the palace, the gens d'armes market, are all deformed by thefe mean objects. That the art of laying out a fpot for this purpofe fo as to be really ornamental, is not here underftood, plainly appears from the Wilhelmfplatz, which, in many refpects pleases me much. It is planted with trees, and the four ftatues of the generals which ftand one at each corner, are so covered with the branches

of thefe trees, that they feem perfectly fmothered, and one must be at fome pains to get a fight of them. In general, the fcarcity of materials is a great hurt to thefe buildings: the houses are conftructed of brick, to which is added a covering of plafter; and, as the whole is carried on with as much celerity and cheapness as poffible, the builders take no uncommon pains about the execution; and, the confequence is, that they are extremely flight. In a fhort time after the removal of the fcaffolds, pieces of the platter in various parts fall down, fo that a whole street of new houfes looks as if it had been run up in hafte for fome public rejoicing: for at the fight of fuch erections it is impoffible to get an idea of firmness and duration. Another effect of this hafte is bad workmanship. The antients fignalized themfelves not only by their mafterly forms and relations, but alfo by the accurate finishing of every fingle part: this is what we are forced to admire in all the remains of their works. Here, on the contrary, all this is totally wanting, nothing is finished to a proper fharpness; and I particularly found the capitals of the columns throughout extremely bad.

Of the tafte in architecture, alas! I have not much good to say; it is not only not really grand, but it never in any one inftance comes nearly up to that idea. What are properly called palaces are not in great numbers here; that of prince Henry is almoft the only one to which the term can be applied. The houses in general, exclufive of those under the Lindens, are by far too mean, and are in no proportion to the extraor dinary breadth of the ftreets. It was determined immediately to have a great city, and therefore the streets were made broader than they are in any other city except Petersburg, and far exceed in that refpect what is fufficient for real ornament. In many

of

of them this circumstance, and their being drawn in a ftraight line compofe their only beauty, as we meet with not one remarkable houfe in them. Of this kind are the fo-muchcelebrated Frederic's ftreet and William's ftreet, the too longest in Berlin. The windows are every where too numerous, the walls too flender, infomuch that on confidering the multitude of ornament, with which they abound, the reflection immediately arifes, that the flender and thin walls are not able to fuftain their burden. The king has a fingular maxim for excufing this whimsical taste., I keep, fays he, not only bricklayers and carpenters, but alfo carvers and artists in ftucco; that these may be able to live, as well as the others, I muft find them in work.--The operahoufe is unquestionably the handfomeft building in Berlin; the front towards the Lindens is in a grand ftyle; the fluted columns of the portico are of an excellent compofition; pity that baron Knobeldfdorf, who gave it, could think of putting that little ftair in the facade, the balluitrade whereof runs parallel with them: as by that means, this beautiful edifice is entered by a little door, not at all in correfpondence with it. The palace of prince Henry, over againft the opera-house, is likewife one of the finest buildings in Berlin, of a becoming amplitude, and without the abovementioned defects; but is perhaps too naked of ornament. The front of the roman catholic church is also beautiful, and well copied from the antique; its cupola is however too high, and not of a handfome form, and the infide of the church is not fufficiently ornamented. The library, from its miferable decorations, the bad difpofition of it, and the interfected crooked line of its facade, muft be claffed among the moft wretched of the public edifices of Berlin. The royal palace, old as it is, has no bad appearance its court, however, is

ill.

not to be entered: and it is very judged to leave that fide next the Spree to ftand as it does, it not prefenting an object confiderable enough for the great open view of it from the water. The arfenal is fpacious, and of a regular and fuitable architecture; it clearly evinces that its defigner was not deficient in taste and imagination. He has introduced a great diverfification in the helmets placed over the outer windows. But he has fhewn ftill greater in the larves over the windows in the inner court, all of them finely imagined, all indicate the extremes of pain, but always with a different expreffion. The fentiment that arifes on feeing a place erected for a magazine of inftruments for the deftruction of the human race; and the recollection of the miferies occafioned by the pas fions of mankind, which frequently are the fole caufes of wars, could not have been more justly conceived, nor more happily expreffed.-To the reformed and the lutheran churches, which ftand in the market of the gens d'armes, the king has caufsed to be built two towers; that is, to each of them one, with three large portals, in a good taste and with much effect; the entrance by fteps and columns, and the difpofition over their frontons are really fine, though one cannot help wishing that the towers were not quite fo maffive. However, if we fhould be inclined, for the fake of the towers, to let these ugly churches pass, which feem rather to be built for them, and not them for thefe; yet they must be allowed to be again another inftance of that tawdry architecture of which I have spoken be, fore. A multitude of images are placed about them, thofe on one tower reprefenting the heroes of the old teftament, and those on the other the perfonages of the new, and in the roofs, which are painted green, gilt medallions are introduced. The art difplayed in the images, does not cer,

tainly demand our admiration; the king has indeed from time to time had kilful people to work for him, but they must always do every thing in too great a hurry, for allowing them to take any pains. This is dif cernible at first fight in almost all the ftatues we find here and there in the public places: even two of the marble figures that stand in the Wilhelmfplatz, are by no means extraordinary. Schwerin has a mantle about him, of which perfons that do not profefs to be judges of fculpture, admire the folds that are indeed wrought with much labour, but they are all stiff and formal. Both his attitude and expreffion are bad, and the whole figure is too fmall and meagre. Nor is Winterfeld more entitled to any confiderable praise. This fide of Wilhelmfplatz is therefore not well occupied; but the other is only fo much the more advantaged by that circumftance, where Seydlitz is feen, as carved by that great ftatuary Taf fart. The general of the cavalry ftands before us in complete armour, and thus harneffed he ftrikes us agreeably, though the stiffness of the coftume is not favourable to the artist. Keith is to fill the fourth angle, and his ftatue is nearly completed; in accuracy of defign he will not be in ferior to Seydlitz, and will confer on his sculptor, M. Taffart, real honour. In all I have hitherto faid, my intention has been no more than to juftify, as it were, to you, the judge ment I paffed on first appearances, by fhewing you, that it was neither formed without reafon, nor dictated by prejudice. I have accordingly had regard to the whole in general, and to those buildings in particular of which we may reasonably expect fomething on account of the object of their deftination. That here are, taken feparately, a great number of truly elegant private houses, and feveral public ftructures, which if they are not diftinguished by extraordin

ary magnificence, yet well eomport with their deftination, and make a tolerably good figure, as, for example, the houfe of cadets, the academy, the cafernes, and fome others, I will not deny, whatever charges of feverity may be brought against my foregoing remarks, and which neverthelefs, are as gentle as in my confcience I could make them. I mult send you a pretty long lift, if you require me to give an account of all that might be brought under this defcription. However, by way of conclufion, I must speak a word or two concerning a really fine edifice, and that is the cathedral. It is, except the catholic church, from without, the most fuperb temple in all Berlin, a magnificent ftructure, where the pureft proportions and combinations are preferved. If the fame tafte were proportionably observed every where in this city, I should take off my hat as often as I heard any one mention Berlin as the most beautiful city in Europe. It is only a great pity that its interior does not correspond with its outward fplendour; which is univerfally the fault with all the churches of this place. The church of St. Peter is likewife modern, and appears fuperior to all the refl; but its internal plan is by no means adapted to meet with approbation. Immediately on entering the cathedral, it feems as if all the magnificence we had contemplated without, had vanished away at once; and one cannot comprehend how fo fpacious a structure can contain fo little room within. In it are feveral royal tombs, but they are of fuch a fimple appear. ance as is feldom met with in the refidences of fovereigns. The garrifonchurch is an antient, but not a remarkable edifice; however, it is decorated with all the flags and banners that were taken by the king in his former wars.

To be continued.

MINUTES