Instructions to a Son, Chapter 5
CHAP. V. Of Travel.
THis is in some men a humour and curiosity only, in others wisedome and design, and accordingly they make their different returns; it hath been all along the practise of this Nation, and with very good successe: (to go to a forraign war is rather a transplantation then travel, passing only out of the bounds of one Country, into the confinements and limits of another; so I reckon I have said nothing to you concerning this subject in my maximes of war,) and I cannot conceive any better divertisement (besides the advantage it will afford you) for your present condition.
Homer begins his Odysseis in the praise of Ulysses, with this title and character.—Qui mores hominum multorum vidit & urbes, as the most apparentest demonstration of his wisedome. Some men there are, that have seen more with their eye, then some ambitious Princes did ever comprehend in their thoughts, 'Tis a pleasure and felicity when the mind embraces but a glancing thought of the beauteous fabrick of the universe, and is with a kind of delight transported to some peculiar part of it, whose felicity and pleasures or wealth, have won upon its running fancy; if this be so in the imagination, what delight and fruition is there, in the corporal view, and passage, and abode in the most remarkable countries of the world. Men expect rich returns in East-India Ships, and men that are far travellors, beget great expectation of their wealth; if they come home empty, they bankrupt their Credit, and dye in their Countries debt, and that narrow dark prison of their pride, buries them in utter oblivion, who might have made the wide world their Monument.
The story of the wandring Jew was a pleasant fiction, the punishment consisted only in his not having a Centre, and certainly he could as well want it as the rest of his Nation. The moral would hint, what an improved man must he be who hath so often gone the Circumference, crost the Lines, and visited the most remote and abstruse corners of the world; seen so many varieties in Nature and Providence, reconciled by the tract of time.
One Journey will shew a man more, then twenty descriptions, relations or maps; what a desolate life do Tortoises live, who cannot be rid of their shells? No man can endure confinement; and he that hath lived lock'd up in one Kingdome, is but a degree beyond a Countryman, who was never out of the bounds of his parish. Nevertheless all men are not fit for travel, wise men are made better, and fools worse. This inquires after nothing but the gue-gaws, the antick-fashions, and gestures of other lands, and becomes the shame of all Nations, by disgracing his own in carrying nothing of worth or esteem from thence, and by bringing censure and imputation upon forraign places where he conversed, by importing nothing but their vices. They vent abroad their domestick vices, and utter here, them beyond sea.
If you would advantage your self by travail, you ought to note, and then comment upon your observations, remembring as well the bad to avoid it, as applying the good into use; without committing of these things to the Pen, they will pass from your memory without leaving any profitable results behind them.
Let no hast therefore hurry you through any considerable or remarkable place, but stay and view what is worthy in it, and be sure to register it with your pen, it will very much fasten it in your memory; the charactering of a thought in paper, will fix it ready for your use; he that doth this, may when he please rejourney all his travails at home.
Solid persons are the best proficients by travail, they are not so prone to be inquinated by the dross and feces of the vices, and taking vanities of forraign Countries, being abler to compose themselves to such manners, which may sooner facilitate their inquisition. Pliance and outward freedome, and a seeming carelesseness is the readiest way to get into strangers, and to learn from them.
Policy and negotiation I commend far before BookLearning, though never so deep and knowing. When you are abroad, the best way is to converse with the best, and not to chuse by the eye but the ear, (which your own inexperience will soon warn you of) but follow report.
For the Government, and things relating to the State, your advice and instruction is no where to be had but at Court, for the Trade, Commerce and Traffick, in great Cities among Marchants; for their Religion and Church affairs amongst the Clergy, but I rather chuse the universities, where you may happly meet with an addition of the rest. For the Laws, Customes and Manners, the Lawyers; and for the Country and rural knowledge, the Husbandmen and such as we call the Yeomanry.
All rareties are to be seen, and therefore I advise you not to travail without store of money to be ready at all occasions; especially Antiquities, for these shew us the science and abilities of those times before us; (the moderns always preferring their arts and inventions to former ages) that by comparing of them with the present, we may be able to give a judgment, how the world thrives or goes less in all such learning.
Above all, think no travail too far nor discommodious to see and visit rare and eminent men, there is no monument like a vertuous learned person; living by him we shall be sure to be something the better, we shall find somewhat in him to inflame and excite our minds to strain to the like pitch, and so extern them, in a brave imitation of his excellent qualities. To such men you must carry your self with all submiss reverence befitting the dignity of those excellencies that are relucent in them; and that awe you seem to stand in, will soon invite his Candour to a free reception and neer entertainment of you, for learned men are rarely proud or stately.
Judgment is the onelyonly thing that is necessary for a travailor and therefore I approve not of your going abroad, nor permitting your children if God shall send you any, till they have grown to a good competency of discretion, which yet I would have seconded by the assistance of a Tutor, when it shall be any of your inchnations this way. I pray God bless you abroad, and return you as an Honour to your King, Country and Friends.