152 WANDERINGS IN 



SECOND 

 JOURNEY. 



ruin, sickness, and decay, than he who wanders 

 a whole year in the wilds of Demerara. But this 

 will never be believed ; because the disasters 

 arising from dissipation are so common and fre- 

 quent in civilized life, that man becomes quite 

 habituated to them ; and sees daily victims sink 

 into the tomb long before their time, without ever 

 once taking alarm at the causes which pre- 

 cipitated them headlong into it. 



But the dangers which a traveller exposes 

 himself to in foreign parts are novel, out of the 

 way things to a man at home. The remotest 

 apprehension of meeting a tremendous tiger, of 

 being carried off by a flying dragon, or having 

 his bones picked by a famished cannibal ; oh, that 

 makes him shudder. It sounds in his ears like 

 the bursting of a bomb-shell. Thank heaven, he is 

 safe by his own fire-side. 



Prudence and resolution ought to be the tra- 

 veller's constant companions. The first will cause 

 him to avoid a number of snares which he will 

 find in the path as he journeys on ; and the 

 second will always lend a hand to assist him, if he 

 has unavoidably got entangled in them. The 

 little distinctions which have been shown him 

 at his own home, ought to be forgotten when he 

 travels over the world at large ; for strangers 

 know nothing of his former merits, and it is 

 necessary that they should witness them before 

 they pay him the tribute which he was wont to 



