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civilities and attentions, he treated it as their affair, not his. He received all kindnesses with manly gratitude, and though not gifted, like the Hebrews in the wilderness, with shoes and raiment that waxed not old, and sometimes obliged to bid the last shilling a sad and affectionate farewell, he managed to see as much, and to enjoy as much, as Rothschild or the Barings would have done in the same expedition, and for an expenditure, we imagine, considerably less than theirs would have been. Those potentates, we surmise, could hardly have kept their subsistence and recreation within the bounds of three shillings a day. But it is doubtful if either of them would have produced a better book than Mr. Taylor, with his two years' outlay of five hundred dollars, which appear to have learned of their owner to travel, so that they might jointly and severally have boasted that never dollars went farther than they.

It may seem superfluous to raise the question, under what circumstances one can travel to most advantage. Using the word travel in its ordinary sense, that of passing through a foreign country where one has no time to stay, certain it is, that most men, if they had the power, would choose to go well provided with letters of credit, at least, if not with some show of rank and wealth, such as conveyances at leisure and trains attendant. But this prevailing taste does not settle the question, for we often prefer what is not best for us. And the answer depends very much upon the objects which we have in view. If it is to see the country, with whatever scenes of interest it contains, they are about as much at the service of the poor as the rich. No one can rob him of the right of nature; bricks and stones in their different circumstances and positions are not hidden from his eye; his deliberate way of journeying enables him to see every thing to advantage; and when it comes to ascending mountains, he has prospects before him which gouty toes and fashionable dresses would never undertake to reach. If his aim is to see those distinguished men whose names are familiar to him, he may get a sight of Wordsworth, or hear a speech of Brougham, without money as well as with it. Few travellers find much advantage from their letters, which are given without heartiness, and received without much delight. Besides, a hasty snatch of conversation with an eminent man affords us very little idea of what he is or how he

appears; men do not open their minds and hearts to a stranger. And this transient acquaintance is so apt to overset enthusiasm, and remove all its imaginative glories, that after we have had such opportunities, we often wish we could restore the old relation of unknowing and unknown.

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But if his object is to see man, and everywhere humanity is the chief subject of interest to man, he will not satisfy his curiosity, if it be intellectual, with the mere sight of crowns, trappings, and orders; for the more refined and cultivated must be substantially alike in all countries. He will wish to go deeper, and explore beneath the surface; for it is with the world of mankind as with the world of nature, where geology has unfolded a whole science of wonderful interest in the earth's foundations, hidden, till of late years, from every human eye. So the study of man teaches the importance of those human strata, which have lain for centuries unthought of and uncared for, and which might have remained so for centuries longer, had they not been upheaved by revolutions, like the primary rocks bursting up into mountain ridges, crushing and overwhelming all that was once above them. These sudden and sharp explosions have made it necessary, and somewhat interesting, to dig into these regions below; and whoever takes his safety-lamp, and goes down into these human depths, is surprised at the mines of character, the riches of feeling, and the extent and grandeur of those formations, over which proud feet so carelessly tread.

Now, the wealthy wayfarers have no idea of diving into these caverns; you will not persuade them to go mourning, without the sun, into the damps and darkness of those regions. But the pedestrian, having less reverend care for his raiment, wants nothing better than to see these pillars on which all social systems rest. He therefore goes among "the masses"; he walks and talks with them as an equal. They neither insult nor cheat him; they show neither servility nor defiance to him who comes like one of themselves. He can study them at leisure; he learns how climate, government, and similar influences affect them; he has full opportunity for investigating the great problems of humanity, of which the rich traveller knows as little as the graceful pennon at the masthead does of what is passing in the forecastle below.

But all this depends very much on the purpose, and the outfit we mean intellectual outfit, of course

with

which one travels. If he has ample resources of time and money, he will go forth like Adam and Eve, with the world before him, though not precisely with Providence for his guide, but rather following the steerage of his own sweet will. He sets forth in gallant trim, like Gray's gilded vessel, not doubting that he shall find brilliant and happy adventures, delightful sights and emotions, and that he shall return at last, laden with treasures of memory, to bless and cheer his days. But alas for his anticipations! As one of our own writers has touchingly said, "human hopes are rotten things." The steamer is unsavory to the sense, and his comrades of the voyage pugnacious and vulgar. The angels of the storm have sea-sickness in their wings; the agents of the customs are rude and unaccommodating; he is stripped of the golden fleece at princely hotels; if there is a landscape to be seen, the sky is darkened with a shower; if he is to explore a romantic country, the almanac has "much rain about this time," running down the whole length of its page. The parliament is indefinitely postponed, and the court in mourning. The weather brings such rain or drought, heat or cold, as was never heard of before. If he flies to the Continent, some servant shall take him in hand for his own special picking; a vagrant prince shall appropriate the post-horses which he had contracted for; by day he shall be browbeaten and lightened of his coin, and at night those small destroyers of peace which make night hideous shall come with grim welcome, seeking whom to devour. In Switzerland, he shall be frozen almost beyond all chance of thaw. When he flies into sunny Italy, the arctic circle shall come to spend the same winter in Rome. When he wants moonlight for the Coliseum, that uncertain luminary shall be in her last quarter; and so, like dark care behind the rider, vanity and vexation shall be the companions of his way. Many times shall he wonder at his own folly in leaving a comfortable home for such varieties of woe. He shall weep aloud at the units daily added to the sum-total of his unmerciful bills; and often shall he swear in his wrath, that if he ever outlives these afflictions, no earthly inducement shall prevail upon him to take to the waves and highways again.

Now, the difficulty is, not that Nature has suspended her usual business in order to vex these travellers, nor that their doom is very different from that which other poor mortals

bear. But in all cases of prosperity, the wants, as Malthus said of population, increase in a geometrical ratio, while the gratifications observe a more lingering rate of advance; the supply may be very fair, but the demands far exceed it; as we see that wayfarers, who formerly thought nothing of the delay of a few hours in stages, are ready to put the conductor of the railway train to death if the cars are ten minutes behind their time. The wayfarer on foot takes all these things as matters of course; he is glad when he escapes troubles, but he is not astonished when they come; being in that condition to which much in the way of comfort and pleasure can be added, while not much can be taken away from it, he is really best situated for enjoying every thing as he goes. And so, no doubt, he does; he is not oppressed with the weight of splendid chains; and whether his cares are light or not, he makes light of them, and so finds them easy to bear.

But after all, the thing most to be regarded in relation to travelling is the personal improvement which it will bring. It is not necessary to observe for the sake of others; and when one has the prospect of writing a book before his eyes, as we may see in the case of English tourists in this country, he is more apt to ask what is merchantable than what is just or true; and surely the customers of Peter Pindar's razorseller were as much beholden to that person, as readers are to those ladies and gentlemen who have undertaken to tell them what America is, and is to be. Neither is it necessary that a traveller should enjoy his peregrinations; if he is happy in the prospect and the recollection, both of which joys he is sure of, let his experience be what it may, he secures the chief happiness which this strange world affords, though, while he is on the way, he may sometimes "distrusting ask, Can this be joy?" While these things are of less importance, it is essential that he should find improvement, if nothing else, in his expedition; and this purpose can be most effectually answered by encountering difficulties and hardships, the more the better. The great object is, to call out the energies of mind and heart. Prosperity lets them snore life away to their own lazy satisfaction; adversity applies its rough voice, not to speak of its hands, to the sleeper's ears, and lets him know that there is something for him to suffer, and to do. It is true, it is but a pale sort of gratitude we feel to No. 135.

VOL. LXIV.

42

those who wake us in the morning from any sort of slumber; still, though rather thankless, the office is severely kind. And nothing renders more effectual service of this sort to the faculties, than travelling with resources at their last gasp, shoes that have almost finished their mortal pilgrimage, with wits which the fear of want sharpens like a whetstone, and a heart which, having nothing else to lean upon, grows brave and strong from the feeling that it depends on itself alone. There are times when years of life seem condensed and crowded into one, and when the effect of a gigantic struggle on the moral nature does more to strengthen it than the patient labor of years. We hear of instances in which a single night of agony has whitened the hair upon the head; but this, if true, is only an outward presentment of the manner in which difficulties and dangers supply at short notice that experience and maturity which were before entirely wanting.

Let any one who is particularly desirous to secure this advantage set forth, as Mr. Taylor did before him, with a preparation as sparing as that of the first apostles. Let him meet the troubles of wayfaring as manfully, and take the same intelligent pleasure in all-that he sees. Let him as cheerfully postpone the wants and wishes of the body in favor of the higher interests of the mind; and if he is not a wiser and happier man after thus buffeting the waves of the world, it must be, not because the effort is not improving, but because there is nothing in him to improve; a radical deficiency which sometimes exists in those who travel, as well as in those who stay at home. We think that the community is under great obligation to Mr. Taylor, not only for the pleasant story of his wanderings, but for proving to others that it is not necessary to be rich, in order to secure the benefit of travel; and, lest they should be unwilling to take his word for it, showing them by his own example how the thing is done. It is not every one whose natural taste and temperament are so well suited to such an enterprise. There are many who, like Lord Anson, might go round the world without ever being in it. But we have many whose natural inclination turns to the Peripapetic school, and who, if they cannot meet the expense of a college education, will be glad to take their degree in the university of the world, where the student must at least be active, and where he will meet

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