Travels in France 7 



highly, as having absolutely spoiled my diary by expunging 

 the very passages that would best please the mass of common 

 readers; in a word, that I must give up the journal plan entirely 

 or let it go as it was written. — To treat the public like a friend, 

 let them see all, and trust to their candour for forgiving trifles. 

 He reasoned thus: Depend on it, Young, that those notes you 

 wrote at the moment are more likely to please than what you will 

 now produce coolly, with the idea of reputation in your head : 

 whatever you strike out will be what is most interesting, for you will 

 be guided by the importance of the subject ; and, believe me, it is 

 not this consideration that pleases so much as a careless and easy 

 mode of thinking and writing, which every man exercises most when 

 he does not compose for the press. That I am right in this opinion 

 you yourself afford a proof. Your tour of Ireland (he was pleased 

 to say) is one of the best accounts of a country I have read, yet it 

 had no great success. Why ? Because the chief part of it is a 

 farnmig diary, which, however valuable it may be to consult, 

 nobody will read. If, therefore, you print your journal at all, 

 print it so as to be read ; or reject the method entirely, and confine 



yourself to set dissertations. Remember the travels of Dr. and 



Mrs. , from which it would be difficult to gather one single 



important idea, yet they were received with applause ; nay, the 

 bagatelles of Baretti, amongst the Spanish muleteers, were read 

 with avidity. 



The high opinion I have of the judgment of my friend in- 

 duced me to follow his advice; in consequence of which I 

 venture to offer my itinerary to the public just as it was written 

 on the spot: requesting my reader, if much should be found 

 of a trifling nature, to pardon it, from a reflection that the 

 chief object of my travels is to be found in another part of the 

 work, to which he may at once have recourse if he wish to 

 attend only to subjects of a more important character. 



