AFRICA. 55 
infed, or a part of an infed, and the dimen- 
fions without number of an animal. To me 
it is pleafing to begin my journeys again ; to 
think, to feel, and obferve all that I have 
feen, thought, and felt in the courfe of them ; 
leaving to great geniufes to contemn thefe 
trifles : and 1 take the greater pleafure in them, 
becaufe they keep me at my^ own level. Such 
at leaft has ever been my plan — Plan did I fay ? 
I have 'none : nor could I ever difcover what 
fcienee there is in writing a book. Mine, 
however, if it is one, will always have this 
great advantage in my opinion, that of not 
being made on purpofe ; and this is the reafon 
why I would not even think of it. I have fo 
often talked over my travels, that it is not dif- 
ficult for me to write them : and any one of my 
friends, who has a good memory, and has 
heard me give an account of them, might eafily 
and in the fame manner write them for me. 
Such are the whole of my literary pretenfions. 
As to the moft celebrated part of travels, new 
obfcrvations and difcoveries, fomething of the 
kind (for fuch there muft neceflarily be) will 
he found in the particular defcriptions of the 
new fubjeds I acquired in Africa, which I 
E 4 fhaU 
