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hair his courteous figure seemed to re-enter and gently ask me what injury he had done me? = and why I could use him thus? = I would have given twenty livres for an advocate = I have behaved very ill, said I within myself; but I have only just set out upon my travels, and shall learn better manners as I get along.

THE DESOBLIGEANTE.

CALAIS.

W HEN a man is discontented with himself, it has one advantage however, that it puts him into an excellent frame of mind for making a bargain. Now there being no travelling through France and Italy without a chaise = and nature generally prompting us to the thing we are fittest for, I walked out into the coach-yard, to buy or hire something of that kind to my purpose: an old désobligeante (1) in the furthest corner of the court, hit my fancy at first sight, so I instantly got into it, and finding it in to lerable good harmony with my feelings, elings, I ordered the waiter to call monsieur Dessein, the master of the hotel = but monsieur Dessein being gone to vespers; and not caring to face the Franciscan, whom I saw on the opposite side of the court, in conference with a lady just arrived at the inn=I drew the taffeta curtain betwixt us, and being determined to write my journey, I took out my pen and ink, and wrote the preface to it in the désobligeante.

(1) A chaise so called in France, from its holding but one person.

PREFACE

IN THE DESOBLIGEANTE.

It must have been observed by many a peripatetick philosopher, that nature has set up by her own un= questionable authority certain boundaries and fences to circumscribe the discontent of man: she has effected her purpose in the quietest and easiest manner, by laying him under almost insuperable obligations to work out his ease, and to sustain his sufferings at home. It is there only that sbe has provided him with the most suitable objects to partake of his hap= piness, and bear a part of that burden, which, in all countries and ages, has ever been too heavy for one pair of shoulders. 'Tis true, we are endued with an imperfect power of spreading our happiness some= times beyond her limits; but 'tis so ordered, that from the want of languages, connections, and de pendencies, and from the difference in education, customs and habits, we lie under so many impediments in communicating our sensations out of our own sphere, as often amount to a total impossibility.

It will always follow from hence, that the balance of sentimental commerce is always against the expatriated adventurer: he must buy what he has little occasion for, at their own price=his conversation will seldom be taken in exchange for theirs, without a large discount = and this, by the bye, eternally driving him into the hands of more equitable brokers for such conversation as he can find, it requires no great spirit of divination to guess at his party=

This brings me to my point; and naturally leads me (if the see-saw of this désobligeante will but let me

get on) into the efficient as well as the final causes of travelling=

Your idle people, that leave their native country, and go abroad, for some reason or reasons, which may be derived from one of these general causes

Infirmity of body,
Imbecility of mind, or
Inevitable necessity.

The first two include all those who travel by land or by water, labouring with pride, curiosity, vanity or spleen, subdivided and combined in infinitum.

The third class includes the whole army of pere= grine martyrs; more especially those travellers who set out upon their travels with the benefit of the clergy, either as delinquents travelling under the di rection of governors, recommended by the magis trate, or young gentlemen transported by the cruelty of parents and guardians, and travelling under the direction of governors recommended by Oxford, Aberdeen, and Glasgow.

There is a fourth class, but their number is so small that they would not deserve a distinction, was it not necessary in a work of this nature to observe the greatest precision and nicety, to avoid a confu= sion of character. And these men I speak of, are such as cross the seas, and sojourn in a land of strangers, with a view of saving money for various reasons, and upon various pretences: but as they might also save themselves and others a great deal of unnecessary trouble, by saving their money at home and as their reasons for travelling are the least complex of any other species of emigrants, I shall distinguish

these gentlemen by the name of

Simple Travellers.

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Then follow the Travellers of necessity,
The delinquent and felonious Traveller,
The unfortunate and innocent Traveller,
The simple Traveller,

And last of all (if you please)

The Sentimental Traveller

(meaning thereby myself) who have travelled, and of which I am now sitting down to give an account= as much out of necessity and the besoin de voya ger, as any one in the class.

I am well aware, at the same time, as both my travels and observations will be altogether of a different cast from any of my fore-runners, that I might have insisted upon a whole niche entirely to myself;= but I should break in upon the confines of the vain traveller, in wishing to draw attention towards me, till I have some better grounds for it, than the mere novelty of my vehicle.

It is sufficient for my reader, if he has been a tra= veller himself, that with study and reflexion here= upon, 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 some tincture and resemblance of what he imbibed or carried out to the present hour.

The man who first transplanted the grape of Burgundy to the cape of Good Hope (observe he was a Dutchman) never dreamt of drinking the same

wine at the cape, that the same grape produced upon the French mountains he was too phlegmatick, for that but undoubtedly he expected to drink some sort 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 success: however, he hoped for the best; and in these hopes, by an intemperate confidence in the fortitude of his head, and the depth of his discretion, Mynheer might possibly overset both in his new vineyard: and by discovering his nakedness, become a laughingstock to his people.

Even so it fares with the poor traveller, sailing and posting through the politer kingdoms of the globe, in pursuit of knowledge and improvements.

Knowledge and improvements are to be got by sailing and posting for that purpose; but whether useful knowledge and real improvements, is all a lot= tery = and even where the adventurer is successful, the acquired stock must be used with caution and sobriety to turn to any profit=but as the chances run prodigiously the other way, both as to the acquisition and application, Iam of opinion, that a man would act as wisely, 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 observed how many a foul step the inquisitive traveller has measured, to see sights, and look into discoveries; all which, as Sancho Pança said to Don Quixote, they might have seen dry-shod, at home. It is an age so full of light, that there is scarce a country or corner of Europe, whose beains are not crossed and interchanged with others

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