VORKSIIIKE :;ili 



have executed tlie tusk Ijetter ; but in one respect i ;uii nut ill- 

 qualified for a traveller. I have neither antipathies, nor prejudices 

 to manners, habits, climate, meat, drink, persons, or things, having 

 long learned to take the world as it comes, making the best of every- 

 thing. I am now verging on those years in which I am entitled to 

 confirm by practice what was taught me in theory, and I have found 

 most of those lessons good. My experience, however, has given the 

 lie to one. I was told, 



" You'll find thu friendship of the world a. show ! 

 Mere outward show ! 'Tis like the luirlot's tears, 

 The statesman's promise, or false patriot's zeal . . . 

 Full of fair seeming, but delusion all." 



/ caiiiiot say I liaoc found it so ! Rather would 1 tell the snarling 

 cynic that the world to me has proved a friend, and I am proud to 

 say " I owe thcc iiittch.'' Were I, however, to allude for a moment 

 to the commendations bestov/ed upon what little I have written, I 

 should account for them all in the language of Swift. "It is the 

 wise choice of the subject," says he, " that adorns and distinguishes 

 the writer ; " and mine, we know, is a popular one. In the shape 

 of a Toiu", however, this is my last attempt ; Imt it may serve for a 

 model for others to improve upon ; and, perhaps, more good than 

 harm might be the result. Society exists amongst men by a mutual 

 communication of their thoughts ; and, although I fear I have added 

 little to the stock, their reciprocal commerce is the chief source of 

 knowledge. 



To conclude : — I shall never forget the pleasure I derived in the 

 perusal of a passage from the pen of Gibbon, wherein he describes 

 the hoiu- in which he completed that great monument of his fame — 

 The Decline and Fall of the Boinan Empire. " It was, " says he, 

 " on the day, or rather the night, of the 27th June, 1787, between the 

 hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last 

 page in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I 

 took several turns in a covered walk of acacias, which commands a 

 prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was 

 temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was 

 reflected on the waters, and all Nature was silent. I will not 

 dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom. 



