SOUTH AMERICA. 
137 
Ins lourney through distant regions, are not half so second 
J „ , JOURNEY 
numerous or dreadtul as they are commonly thought 
to be. 
The youth who incautiously reels into the lobby Dangers 
of Drury-lane, after leaving the table sacred to the prehend- 
god of wine, is exposed to more certain ruin, sick- real but 
ness, and decay, than he who wanders a whole year nary. 1 
in the wilds of Demerara. But this will never be 
believed; because the disasters arising from dissipa¬ 
tion 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 
which precipitated them headlong into it. 
But the dangers which a traveller exposes himself 
to in foreign par$s 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 traveller’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 
