Even fo it fares with the poor Traveller, failing and pofting through the politer kingdoms of the globe in pursuit of knowledge and improvements.

Knowledge and improvements are to be got by failing and pofting for that purpose; but whether ufeful knowledge and real improvements, is all a lottery-and even where the adventurer is fuccefsful, the acquired ftock must be used with caution and fobriety to turn to any profit-but as the chances run prodigioufly the other way, both as to the acquifition and application, I am of opinion, That a man would act as wifely, if he could prevail upon himself to live contented without foreign knowledge or foreign improvements, efpecially if he lives in a country that has no abfolute want of either-and, indeed, much grief of heart has it oft and many a time coft me, when I have obferved how many a foul ftep the inquifitive traveller has measured to fee fights and look into difcoveries; all which, as Sancho Panco faid to Don Quixote, they might have feen dry-fhod at home. It is an age fo full of light, that there is fcarce a country or corner of Europe whose beams are not croffed and interchanged with others-Knowledge in most of its branches, and in most affairs, is like mufic in an Italian ftreet, whereof those may partake who pay nothing-But there is no nation under heaven-and God is my record, (before whose tribunal I must one day come and give an account of this work)-that I do not speak it vauntingly-But there is no nation under heaven abounding with more variety of learning-where the fciences may be more fitly woo'd, or more furely won than here-where art is encouraged, and will foon rife high-where Nature (take her altogether) has fo little to answer for-and, to clofe all, where there is more wit and variety of character

character to feed the mind with-Where then, my dear countrymen, are you going

We are only looking at this chaife, faid they -Your most obedient fervant, faid I, fkipping out of it, and pulling off my hat-We were wondering, faid one of them, who, I found, was an inquifitive traveller-what could occafion its motion.'Twas the agitation, faid I, coolly, of wri ting a preface-I never heard, faid the other, who was a fimple traveller, of a preface wrote in a Defobligeant.It would have been better, faid 1, in a Visa Vis.

-As an Englishman does not travel to fee En glifhmen, I retired to my room.

I

CALAI S.

Perceived that fomething darken'd the paffage more than myself, as I ftepp'd along it to my room; it was effectually Monf. Deffein, the Mafter of the hotel, who had juft returned from vefpers, and, with his hat under his arm, was moft.complaifantly following me, to put me in mind of my wants. I had wrote myself pretty well out of conceit with the Defobligeant; and Monf. Desfein speaking of it, with a fhrug, as if it would no way fuit me, it immediately ftruck my fancy that it belong'd to fome innocent traveller, who, on his return home, had left it to Monf. Deffein's honour to make the most of. Four months had elapfed fince it had finifh'd its career of Europe in the corner of Monf. Deffein's coach-yard; and having fallied out from thence but a vampt-up bufinefs.

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bufinefs at the first, though it had been twice taken to pieces on Mount Sennis, it had not pro fited much by its adventures-but by none fo little as the ftanding fo many months unpitied in the corner of Monf. Deffein's coach-yard. Much, indeed, was not to be faid for it- but fomething might and when a few words will refcue mifery out of her distress, I hate the man who can be a churl of them.

-Now, was I the mafter of this hotel, faid I, laying the point of my fore-finger on Monf. Deffein's breast, I would inevitably make a point of getting rid of this unfortunate Defobligeant-it ftands fwinging reproaches at you every time you pafs by it.

Mon. Dieu! faid Monf. Deffein-I have no intereft-Except the intereft, faid I, which men of a certain turn of mind take, Monf. Deffein, in their own fenfations-I'm perfuaded, to a man who feels for others as well as for himself, every rainy night, difguife it as you will, muft cast a damp upon your fpirits-You fuffer, Monf. Deffein, as much as the machine

I have always observed when there is as much four as fweet in a compliment, than an Englishman is eternally at a lofs within himfelf, whether to take it, or let it alone: a Frenchman never is; Monf. Deffein made me a bow.

C'est bien vrai, faid he-But in this cafe I fhould only exchange one difquietude for another, and with lofs; figure to yourfelf, my dear Sir, that in giving you a chaife which would fall to pieces before you would go half way to Paris-figure to yourself how much I should suffer, in giving an

ill impreffion of myself to a man of honour, and lying at the mercy, as I muft do, d'un homme d'esprit.

The dose was made up exactly after my own prefcription; fo I could not help taking it-and returning Monf. Deffein his bow, without more cafuiftry, we walked together towards his Remife, to take a view of his magazine of chaises.

IN THE STREET.

CALAIS.

"T muft needs be a hoftile kind of a world, when

I the buyer (if it be but of a forry poft-chaife)

cannot go forth with the feller thereof into the street to terminate the difference betwixt them, but he inftantly falls into the fame frame of mind, and views his conventionist with the fame fort of eye, as if he was going along with him to Hydepark corner to fight a duel. For my own part, being but a poor fwordfman and no way a match for Monfieur Deffein, I felt the rotation of all the movements within me, to which the fituation is incident- -I looked at Monfieur Deffein through and through-ey'd him as he walked along in profile-then,_en_facethought he looked like a Jew-then a Turk-difliked his wig-cursed him by my gods-wifhed him at the devil

—And, is all this to be lighted up in the heart for a beggarly account of three or four louis d'ors, which is the moft I can be over-reached in ?-Base passion! faid I, turning myself about as a man naturally

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turally does upon a fudden reverse of fentiment -bafe, ungentle paffion! thy hand is against every man, and every man's hand against theeHeaven forbid! faid the, raifing her hand up to her forehead, for I had turned full in front upon the lady whom I had feen in conference with the monk-she had followed us unperceivedHeaven forbid indeed! faid I, offering her my own -the had a black pair of filk gloves open only at the thumb and two fore fingers, fo accepted it without referve-and I led her up to the door of the Remise.

Monfieur Deffein had diabled the key above fifty times before he found out he had come with a wrong one in his hand : we were as impatient as himself to have it opened; and so attentive to the obstacle, that I continued holding her hand almost without knowing it; fo that Monfieur Deffein left us together with her hand in mine, and with our faces turned towards the door of the Remife, and faid he would be back in five minutes.

Now a colloquy of five minutes, in fuch a fituation, is worth one of as many ages, with your faces turned towards the street: in the latter cafe, 'tis drawn from the objects and occurrences without -when your eyes are fixed upon a dead blankyou draw purely from yourfelves. A filence of a fingle moment upon Monfieur Deffein's leaving us, had been fatal to the fituation-the had infallibly turned about-fo I begun the converfation inftantly.

But what are the tamptations, (as I write not to apologize for the weakneffes of my heart in this tour, but to give an account of them)-fhall be defcribed with the fame fimplicity, with which I felt them.

THE