; 
1824.] 
From Sir Isaac Newton to a young 
Gentleman, Francis Aston, Eszq., 
about to proceed on his Travels. 
Trinity College, Cambridge, 
May 18, 1669. 
Sir:—Since in your letter you give 
me so much liberty of sending my judg- 
ment about what may be to your advan- 
tage in travelling, I shall do it more 
freely than perhaps otherwise would 
have been decent. First, then, I--will 
lay down some general rules, most of 
which, I believe, you have considered 
already ; but, if any of them be new to 
you, they may excuse the rest ; if none 
at all, yet is' my punishment more in 
writing than yours in reading. 
When you come into any fresh com- 
pany, = ' 
J. Observe their humours. 
IJ. Secondly, suit your own carriage 
thereto, by which insinuation you will 
make their converse more free and open. 
Tif. Let your discourse be more in 
queries and doubtings, than peremptory 
assertions or disputings, it being much 
the design of travellers to learn, not to 
teach. Besides, it will persuade your 
acquaintance that you have the greater 
esteem of them, and so make them 
more ready to communicate what they 
know to you’; whereas, nothing sooner 
occasions disrespect and quarrels than 
peremptoriness. You will find little or 
no advantage in seeming wiser, or much 
more ignorant, than your company, 
IV. Seldom discommend any thing, 
though never so bad; or doe it but mode- 
rately, lest you bee unexpectedly forced 
to an unhandsome retraction. It'is safer 
to commend any thing more than it de- 
serves than to discommend a thing so 
much as it deserves ; for commendations 
meet not soe often with oppositions, or 
at least are not usually soe ill resented 
by men that think otherwise, as discom- 
mendations; and you will insinuate into 
men’s favour by nothing sooner than 
seeming to approve aud commend what 
they like, but beware of doing it by 
comparison. 
V. If you bee affronted, it is better, 
in a forraine country to pass it by in si- 
lence, and with a jest, tho’ with some 
dishonour, than to endeavour revenge; 
for, in the first case, your credit’s ne’er 
the worse, when you return into Eng- 
land, or come into other company, that 
have not heard of the querrell. But, in 
the second’ ¢ase; you may beare the 
marks of the quarrell while you live, if 
you outlive it at all. But, if you find 
yourself unavoidably engaged, ’tis best, 
Remains of eminent Persons. 
135 
I think, if you can command your pas- 
sion and language, to keep them pretty 
eavenly, at some certain moderate pitch, 
not much hightning them to exasperate 
your adversary, or provoke his friends, 
nor letting them grow over much de- 
jected, to make him insult. In a word, 
if you can keep reason above passion, 
that and watchfulnesse will bee your 
best defendants. To which purpose you 
mayconsider, that, though such ex- 
cuses as this, “ He provokt mee soe 
much, [ could not forbear,” may pass 
among friends, yet amongst strangers 
they are insignificant, and only argue a 
traveller's weakness, 
To these I may add some general 
heads for inquirys or observations, such 
as at present I can think on. As,— 
I. To observe the policys, wealth, and 
state-affairs of nations, so far as a soli- 
tary traveller may conveniently doe. 
II. Their impositions upon all sorts 
of people, trade, or commoditys, that 
are remarkable. 
Ill. Their laws and customs, how far 
they differ from ours: 
IV. Their trades and arts, wherein 
they excell, or come short of us in Eng- 
land. 
V. Such fortifications as you meet 
with, their fashion, strength, and advan- 
tage, or defence, and other such mi- 
litary affairs as are considerable. 
VI. The power and respect belonging 
to their degrees of nobility or magistracy. 
VII. It will not be time mispent to 
make a catalogue of the names and ex- 
cellencys of those men that are most 
wise, learned, or esteemed, in any 
nation. 
VIII. Observe the mechanisme and 
manner of guiding ships. 
IX. Observe the/ products of nature 
in several places, especially in mines, 
with the circumstances of mining and of 
extracting metals or minerals out of 
their oare, and of refining them; and, if 
you meet with any transmutations out 
of their own ‘species into another, (as 
out ofiron into copper, out of any metall 
into quicksilver, out of one salt into 
another, or into an insipid body, &c.) 
those, above all, will be worth your 
noticing; being the most luciferous, and 
many times luciferous experiments too 
in philosophy. , 
X. The price of diet and other things.’ 
And— 
XI. The staple commodity of places. 
These generals, suchat present as I- 
could think of, if they will serve for 
nothing else, yet they may assist you in 
drawing 
