will be realized, becaufe the greateft works, of which we now reap the benefit, once exifted only in plans and projects. However at firft ridiculed by the ignorant, and difcouraged by the idle, they were at last reduced to practice.

It is the happy characteristic of the English to improve upon the arts of other nations; it only remains therefore, that, in order to complete our reputation for this excellence, we adopt every ufeful fcheme, and, by adding our dexterity to the invention of others, make nearer approaches to perfection. The CAPACITY FOR IMPROVEMENT vifible in our foil and its productions conftitutes the intrinfic excellence of our ifland; and the induftry and public fpirit of its inhabitants form fome of the moft valuable parts of our national character.

Thefe united advantages undeniably prove, upon a comparison with the circumftances of the other nations of Europe, that Great Britain is eminently qualified by art and nature to carry on a widelyextended Commerce; and that the derives every requifite for that purpofe from her iniular fituation, the produce of her lands and plantations, the excellence and variety of her manufactures, the skill and perfeverance of her failors, and the large capitals and enterprizing difpofition of her merchants.

CHAPTER IV.

Foreign Travel.

As travelling is confidered a part of education indifpenfably neceffary for all young men of rank and fortune, it becomes a very interesting fubject of obfervation. The moft important topics which this fubject includes are its general Advantages, the confideration of the Time of Life when the traveller ought to begin his excurfions, the previous Information neceffary to be acquired, the Countries moft proper to be vifited, the Objects most deferving his attention; and what are the best Effects, which a tour through foreign countries is calculated to produce upon his Character and Manners.

Travelling, as far as it introduces a man into genteel and well-informed fociety in various parts of the world, and leads to an extenfive knowledge of perfons and places, expands the mind, removes local prejudices, produces a comparifon between our own and foreign countries, fatisfies that curiofity and fondnefs for change, which are natural to mankind, fupplies new fources of pleafing and useful information, and conduces to the increase of philanthropy and generofity of fentiment. He who is confined to his own country reads only one page of the

book

book of human nature, and perpetually ftudies the fame leffon; nor does he understand that completely, from his ignorance of its relative merit, and connexion with all other parts.

If the great and the opulent refide constantly in their own country, they are acquainted only with a luxurious, eaty, and enervating mode of living. Foreign Travel enures them to the feverity of wholefome hardships; the dangers of the fea, disturbed nights, fcanty fare, uncomfortable inns, and bad roads diverfify their lives, and place them in new fituations. Thus they experience fuch -changes and wants, as render the luxuries which they can command at home, and which otherwife would be infipid, the fources of real enjoyment; and their occafional privations of eafe and plenty may increase their fympathy for the lower and more indigent claffes of the community.

He who forms his notions of mankind from his conftant refidence in one and the fame place, refembles the child who imagines the heavens are confined to his own limited profpect. The Ruffians, before the reign of Peter the Great, thought themfelves poffeffed of every national bleffing, and held all other people in contempt; fo contracted were they in their notions as to believe that their northern mountains encompaffed the globe. The untravelled Spaniard may fuppofe that every Englishman is dreffed in boots and a hunting-cap, and that horfes and dogs are the conftant fubjects of his thoughts B b 4 and

and converfation. The untravelled Englishman may imagine that the Spaniard is always wrapt in a cloak, that he is a prey to perpetual jealouty, and is haughty, fuperftitious, and inactive. These prejudices may probably refult, in a confiderable degree, from the popular novels of each country; and the Knight of La Manca and Squire Weftern may have equally caufed them to mistake a particular for a general character, and filled them with falfe and exaggerated notions of each other. Thus is one nation difpofed to draw fuch a caricature of another, as gives an extravagant as well as an unpleating idea of the original:-it is only amid the civilities of mutual intercourfe, and the exchange of friendly offices, that the true and faithful likepefs can be taken,*

"Not

t I am happy to find my observations confirmed by my intelligent and judicious friend, the late C. G. Kuittner, of Leipzic, whofe excellent converfation enlivened many hours of my refidence in Oxford, and whofe death I have the pain to deplore. "The obfervations, he fays, I have made in the countries themselves, through which I have travelled, in general contradict the characters of thofe nations, commonly afcribed to them in books, and in converfation. Thus for example in the Spaniards with whom I have been acquainted, I never could find the gravity and tiffnefs by which that nation is generally fuppofed to be diftinguifhed. In the Frenchman I have feldom difcovered that winning amiableness of difpofition, and the high degree of politenefs and delicacy infeparable from it, which are univerfally afcribed to him. I never obferved that in his own country, the Englishman was that melancholy, referved, and gloomy being, for which he is proverbial. The German is by no means the drunkard, or the

clownish

"Not long ago the map of the world in China was a fquare plate, the greater part of which was occupied by the provinces of that vaft empire, leaving on its fkirts a few obfcure corners, into which the wretched remainder of mankind were fuppofed to be driven. If you have not the ufe of our letters, nor the knowledge of our books, faid a Mandarin to a European Miffionary, what literature, or what fcience can you have"?"

Travelling not only divefts the mind of fuch prejudice as this, but gives the highest polish to the manners. This polifh however does not refult from that exceffive attention of the traveller to his deportment and external appearance, which takes off the mind from more important purfujts, and gives a ftudied air to his general behaviour; but arifing originally from true benevolence, and a defire to pleafe, is perfected by intercourfe with well-bred and polite company, difplays itself upon every oc

clownifh uncivilized brute, that in many countries he is described to be. Am I to fuppofe, that all the individuals, with whom I was acquainted, were exceptions, and that the obfervations of fo many years were falfe? Or may it not rather be afferted, that the characters of whole nations, as delineated in early works, from which probably they have got into every one's mouth, are incorrect? It is much easier to collect ideas of men and things from books than from real life, and it is inconceivable how ideas once adopted, continue to be propagated for fucceffive ages."

Kuïttner's Travels through Denmark, &c. in Phillips's Collection, Vol. I, p. 146.

Fergufon on Civil Society, p. 313.