Why, truly, if he carried nothing abroad with him but the use of
his eye-sight, I should be much of your mind with regard to the
improvements he might be expected to bring back with him. But let him
hear and observe a little, as well as see; and methinks a youth of
eighteen might pick up something of value, though he should not return
laden with the mysteries of _Egypt_.
As to the gaiety on the ancient Sages, I could be much entertained
with it, if I did not recollect that the more enlightened moderns
have, also, been of their mind in this instance. To say nothing of
other countries, which yet have risen in reputation for knowledge and
civility in proportion to their acquaintance with the neighbouring
nations, surely it must be allowed of our _own_, that all its valuable
acquisitions in both have been forwarded at least, if not occasioned,
by this reasonable practice. We are now, without doubt, arrived at the
summit of politeness, and may subsist at length upon our own proper
stock. But was this always the case? And must it not be acknowledged,
that the brightest periods of our story are those, in which our noble
youth were fashioned in the school of foreign Travel? You will hardly
pretend that the ornaments of the second CHARLES’ and ELIZABETH’S
courts were cast in the coarse mould of this _home-breeding_.