Travel be not an excellent fchool for our ingenuous and noble youth; and whether it may not, on the whole, deferve the countenance of a philofopher, who understands the world, and has himself been formed by it? MR. LOCKE. YOUR Lordship, I think, will do well to put philofophy out of the question. There is fo much to be faid against Travel in that view, that the matter would clearly be determined against you. It is by other rules, and what are called the maxims of the world (which your Lordship understands too well, to join them with Philofophy) that the advocate for travelling muft demand to have his caufe tried, if he would hope to come off, in the dispute, with any advantage. LORD SHAFTESBURY. YET philofophy was not always of this mind. You know, when the best proficients proficients in that fcience gave a countenance to this practice, by their own example; a good part of their life was fpent in foreign countries; and they did not presume to fet up for masters of wif dom, till experience and much infight into the manners of men had qualified them for that great office. Hence they became the ableft and wifeft men of the old world; and their wisdom was not in thofe days of the lefs account for the politeness, that was mixed with it. THOSE Wife men might have their reafons for this different practice. They most of them, I think, fet up for Politicians and Legiflators, as well as Philofophers; and in that infancy of arts and commerce, when diftant nations had fmall intercourfe with each other, it might be of real advantage to them, at least it might ferve their reputation with the people, to spend fome years in voyages to fuch fuch countries as were in the highest fame for their wisdom or good government. BESIDES, the Sages of thofe times made a wondrous mystery of their wif dom: a fure fign, perhaps, that they were not over-stocked with it. It was confined to certain schools and fraternities; or was locked up ftill more closely in the breasts of particular perfons. Knowledge was not then diffused in books and general converfation, as amongst us; but was to be obtained by frequenting the academies or houfes of thofe privileged men, who, by a thousand ambitious arts, had drawn to themselves the applaufe and veneration of the rest of the world. ALL this might be faid in favour of your Lordship's old Sages. Yet one of them, who deferved that name the best, was no great Traveller. I remember to have read, that SOCRATES had never ftirred out of Athens; and that, when his his admirers would fometimes afk him why he affected this fingularity, he was used to fay, That Stones and Trees did not edify bim: intimating, I fuppofe, that the fight of fine towns and fine countries, which the voyagers of those days, as of ours, made a matter of much vanity, was the principal fruit they had reaped to themselves from their fashionable labours. HOWEVER, allowing your lordship to make the most of these refpectable authorities for the ufe of travelling, it must still be remembered, that they are wide of our prefent purpose. They were Sages, that travelled: and we are now inquiring, whether this be the way for young men to become Sages. PLATO might pick up more learning in his Voyages, than any body fince has been able to understand; and yet a youth of eighteen be little the wifer for staring away two or three years in mysterious Egypt. LORD LORD SHAFTESBURY. WHY, truly, if he carried nothing abroad with him but the ufe of his eyefight, I fhould be much of your mind with regard to the improvements he might be expected to bring back with him. But let him hear and obferve a little, as well as fee; and methinks a youth of eighteen might pick up fomething of value, though he should not return laden with the myfteries of Egypt. As to the gaiety on the antient Sages, I could be much entertained with it, if I did not recollect that the more enlightened moderns have, alfo, been of their mind in this inftance. To fay nothing of other countries, which yet have rifen in reputation for knowledge and civility in proportion to their acquaintance with the neighbouring nations, furely it must be allowed of our own, that all its valuable acquifitions in both have been forwarded |