I could not but be much surprised, my dear friend, to receive your
commands on a subject, of which You, of all men, are the greatest
master. For who could so well advise the party, you speak of, or
resolve the general question concerning _The Uses of Foreign Travel_,
considered as a part of modern breeding and education, as HE, who has
himself profited so much by this practice, and, in a late excellent
treatise[36], has given so convincing a proof of its utility?
Besides, your application to me is a little suspicious; and looks as
if you wanted to draw from me a confirmation of your own sentiments,
rather than a candid examination of them. For how was it possible
for you not to foresee the difficulty I must be under, in debating
this point with you? When have I been able to dissent from you in any
question of morals or policy? and especially what chance for my doing
it in this instance, when you know the bias which my own education,
conducted in this way, must have left upon me?
I am therefore at a loss, as I said, to account for your fancy in
making me of your council on this occasion. But, whatever your purpose
might be, since you have thought fit to honour me so far, I must own
your Letter of Inquiry could not possibly have found me in a fitter
season.
I happened just then to amuse myself with recollecting a conversation,
which, not many days before, had passed between me and a certain
Philosopher of great note, on that very subject.
You know the esteem I have of this Philosopher; I mean, for such of
his writings, as are most popular, and deserve to be so; such as his
pieces on _Government_, _Trade_, _Liberty_, and _Education_. No
man understands the world better; or reasons more clearly on those
subjects, in which that world takes itself to be most of all, and is,
in truth, very nearly concerned.
His Philosophy, properly so called, is not, I doubt, of so good a
taste; at least, his notion of morals is too modern for my relish: I
had put myself to school to other masters, and had learnt, you know,
from his betters what to think of _Life and Manners_; which they
treat in a style quite out of the way of these subverters of ideal
worlds[37], and architects on material principles[38].
But on this head, my dear Sir, you have heard me speak often, and may
hear from me more at large on some other occasion. With exception to
this one article (an important one, however), no man is more able,
than Mr. LOCKE, or more privileged by his long experience, to give us
Lectures on the good old chapter of _Education_; which many others
indeed have discussed; but none with so much good sense and with so
constant an eye to the use and business of the world as this writer.
The purpose of your inquiry, then, cannot, as I suppose, be any other
way so well answered, as by putting into your hands a faithful account
of his sentiments on the conduct and use of _Travelling_: especially,
as you will perceive at the same time what my notions are (if that be
of any importance to you) on the same subject.
If I were composing a Dialogue in the old mimetical, or poetic form,
I should tell you, perhaps, the occasion that led us into this track
of conversation. Nay, I should tell you what accident had brought us
together; and should even omit no circumstance of _time_ or _place_,
which might be proper to let you into the scene, and make you, as it
were, one of us.
But these punctilios of decorum are thought too constraining, and, as
such, are wisely laid aside, by the easy moderns. Nay the very notion
of Dialogue, such as it was in the politest ages of antiquity, is
so little comprehended in our days, that I question much, if these
papers were to fall into other hands than your own, whether they would
not appear in a high degree fantastic and visionary. It would never
be imagined that a point of morals or philosophy could be regularly
treated in what is called a _conversation-piece_; or that any thing so
unlike the commerce of our world could have taken place between men,
that had any use or knowledge of it.
This, I say, might be the opinion of men of better breeding; of those,
who are acquainted with the fashion, and are themselves practised in
the conversations, of the polite world. The _formalists_, on the other
hand, would be out of patience, I can suppose, at this sceptical manner
of debate, which ends in nothing; and after the waste of much breath,
leaves the matter at last undecided, and just as it was taken up.
All this, it must be owned, is very true. But as it is not my intention
to submit the following draught to such critics, you, who know me,
will accept this recital, made in my own way, and pretty much as it
passed. You may well be trusted to make your own conclusions from what
is offered on either side of the argument, and will need no officious
monitor to instruct you on which side the truth lies.
Not to detain you, by further preliminaries, from the entertainment
(such as it is) which I have promised you; you may suppose, if you
please, Mr. LOCKE and me, in company with some other of our common
friends, sitting together in my library, and entering on the subject in
the following manner.