Preface THIS book is a record of a pleasure trip. If it were a record of a
solemn scientific expedition, it would have about it that gravity, that
profundity, and that impressive incomprehensibility which are so proper to
works of that kind, and withal so attractive. Yet notwithstanding it is
only a record of a pic-nic, it has a purpose, which is to suggest to the
reader how he would be likely to see Europe and the East if he looked at
them with his own eyes instead of the eyes of those who traveled in those
countries before him. I make small pretense of showing anyone how he ought
to look at objects of interest beyond the sea -- other books do that, and
therefore, even if I were competent to do it, there is no need
