conversation as he can find, it requires no great fpirit of divination to guefs at his party This brings me to my point; and naturally leads me (if the fee-faw of this Defobligeant will but let me get on) into the efficient as well as the final caufes of travelling. Your idle people that leave their native country and go abroad, for fome reafon or reasons which may be derived from one of these general causes - Infirmity of body, Imbecillity of mind, or The first two include all those who travel by land or by water, labouring with pride, curiofity, vanity or fpleen, fubdivided and combined in infinitum. The third clafs includes the whole army of peregrine martyrs; more especially thofe travellers who fet out upon their travels with the benefit of the Clergy, either as delinquents travelling under the direction of governors recommended by the magiftrate- or young gentlemen tranfported by the cruelty of parents and guardians, and travelling under the direction of governors recommended by Oxford, Aberdeen, and Glasgow. There is a fourth clafs, but their number is fo small that they would not deferve a diftin&tion, was it not neceffary in a work of this nature to obferve the greateft precifion and nicety, to avoid a confufion of chara&er., And these men I fpeak of are fuch as crofs the feas and fojourn in a land of ftrangers with a view of faving money for various reasons and upon various pretences: but as they might also fave themselves themselves and others a great deal of unneceffary trouble by faving their money at home and as their reafons for travelling are the leaft complex of any other fpecies of emigrants, I fhall diftinguish thefe gentlemen by the name of Simple Travellers. Thus the whole circle of travellers may be reduced to the following Heads: Idle Travellers, Inquifitive Travellers, Lying Travellers, Proud Travellers, Vain Travellers, Splenetic Travellers. Then follow the travellers of neceffity: And laft of all (if you please) The fentimental Traveller (meaning thereby myself) who have travelled, and of which I am now fitting down to give an account as much out of Neceffity, and the befoin de Voyager as any one in the clafs. I am well aware, at the fame time, as both my travels and obfervations will be altogether of a different caft from any of my fore-runners; that I might have infifted upon a whole nitch entirely to myfelf- but I fhould break in upon the confines of the Vain Traveller, in wishing to draw attention towards me, till I have fome grounds for it than the mere.Novelty of my vehicle. It is fufficient for my reader, if he has been a traveller himself, that with study and reflecti on on hereupon he may be able to determine his: own place and rank in the catalogue it will be one step towards knowing himself: as it is great odds, but he retains fome tincture and refemblance, of what he imbibes or carried out, to the present hour. The man who first transplanted the grape of: Burgundy to the cape of Good Hope (obferve he was a Dutch-man) never dreamt of drinking the fame wine at the Cape, that the fame grape produced upon the French mountains- he was too phlegmatic for that but undoubtedly he expected to drink fome fort of vinous liquor; but whether good, bad, or indifferent-he knew enough of this world to know, that it did not depend upon his choice, but that what is generally called chance was to decide his fuccefs: however, he hoped for the beft; and in thefe hopes, by an intemperate confidence in the fortitude of his head, and the depth of his difcretion, Mynheer might poffibly overfet both in his new vineyard; and by discovering his nakedness, become a laughing stock to his people. Even fo it fares with the poor Traveller, failing and posting through the politer kingdoms of the globe in pursuit of knowledge and improvements. Knowledge and improvements are to be got by failing and posting for that purpose; but whether useful knowledge and real improvements, is all a lottery and even where the adventurer is successful, the acquired stock must be used with caution and fobriety to turn to any profit but as the chances run prodigiously the other way both as to the acquifition and application, I am of opinion, That a man would act as wifely, if he could prevail upon himself, to live contented without foreign knowledge or foreign improvements, especially if he lives in a country that has no absolute want of either and, indeed, much grief of heart has it oft and many a time cost me, when I have obferved how many a foul step the inquifitive Traveller has measured to fee fights and look into discoveries; all which, as Sancho Pança faid to Don Quixote, they might have feen dry-fhod at home. It is an age fo full of light, that there is fcarce a country or corner of Europe whose beams are not croffed and interchanged with othersKnowledge in most of its branches, and in most affairs, is like mufic in an Italian street, whereof those may partake who pay nothing - But there is no nation under heaven and God is my record, (before whofe tribunal I must one day come and give an account of this work) -that I do not speak it vauntingly-but there is no nation under heaven abounding with more variety of learning where the fciences may be more fitly woo'd, or more furely won than here where art is encouraged, and will fo foon rife high where nature (take her all together) has fo little to answer for-and, to close all, where there is more wit and variety of character to feed the mind with-Where then, my dear countrymen, are you going? We are only looking at this chaife, faid they Your most obedient fervant, faid I, fkipping out of it, and pulling off my hat We were wondering, faid one of them, who, I found, was an inquifitive traveller what what could occafion its motion 'Twas the agitation, faid I coolly, of writing a preface I never heard, faid the other, who was a fimple Traveller, of a preface wrote in a Defobligeant. It would have been better, faid I, in a Vis à Vis. -As an Englifoman does not travel to fee Englishmen, I retired to my room. CALAIS. |