148 WANDERINGS IN 



SncoND supposed to accompany the traveller in his journey 



Journey. 



through distant regions, are not half so numerous or 



dreadful as they are commonly thought to be. 

 Dangers to The youth, Avho iucautiously reels into the lobby of 

 hended^not Drury-lauc, after leaving the table sacred to the god of 



real but , . - • • • i t 



imaginary, wmc, IS cxposcd to morc ccrtaui rum, 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 frequent 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 Avhich precipitated 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 can- 

 nibal ; 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 fireside. 



Prudence and resolution ought to be the traveller's 

 constant companions. The first will cause him to avoid 

 a number of snares which he will find in the path as he 

 journies on ; and the second will always lend a hand to 

 assist him, if he has unavoidably got entangled in them. 



