have endured, had he lived, since even the seal of death was not sufficient to confirm it. For two years he lay undisturbed among the honoured dead; had his life been spared so long, it would probably have terminated on the scaffold; but the fickle multitude could only wreak upon his bones the vengeance which the grave had wrested from them. All that remained of Mirabeau was disinterred to make room for the body of Marat; and the bust of the former was publicly burned by the same people who, a few short months before, would almost have fallen down to worship it. "So ebbs the tide of popular opinion." Mirabeau has left to posterity only some literary productions, too licentious to be read, and a name, at which human nature shudders. ESSAY XXV. ON TRAVELLING. 66 Risplende il sole sul tuo capo? I campi Si coloran di verde, il ciel d'azzurro ? Di marito sentir, sentir di padre, Tarti un amico? Non ti muover punto : O sei felice, o non sarai, tel qiuro." PINDEMONTE. Does the sun shine upon you? Are the fields green, the heavens blue? Have you virtues or talents to exert? Attachments to feel as husband, father, or friend? Then stay where you are. Either you are happy, or you never will be so. LOCOMOTION, dignified by the name of travelling, is a specious pretext for idleness, resorted to either by such as have no employment, or by such as do not choose to attend to it. Many, who would blush at the imputation of doing nothing, are not ashamed to consume their mornings on the high road, and dose away their evenings in a dirty inn, pausing only to visit the most celebrated objects of curio sity, not for any pleasure they are likely to derive from the sight, but that they may be able to say that they have seen them. There is something of information, of improvement, of importance, attached to the name of a traveller, which seems to authorize this pernicious waste of time, and encourages Englishmen to quit the scene of their duties, of their interests, of their most safe and happy pursuits, in order to overrun the continent in quest of amusement, and in hopes of killing time a little faster than they can do it at home. Fortunately, they cannot much longer deceive themselves with the notion, that travelling confers importance, since the rage for it has extended so far among our countrymen, that those who would seek distinction by going abroad, will find they can attain it better by staying at home. The variety of reasons gravely assigned for travelling form not the least amusing symptom of the prevailing mania, which drives people across the channel in search of new places. Among these economy is the most frequent. A friend will tell you, that he has a large family, and must economize. But he cannot reduce the number of his servants, or his horses, or withdraw from society, or even entertain his friends with less ostentation, or look more narrowly after his affairs; in short, he cannot consent to abridge any of his accustomed gratifications: what then can he do? He must travel. He lets his house to a stranger, leaves the management of his land to a bailiff; sells, at a loss, such articles as he can neither take nor leave; spends half a year's income in traversing his own country, and landing in another, where he intends that his economy shall begin. But, to a stranger every thing is comfortless, and expensive: it is only those who are settled in any place that can avail themselves of its local advantages. Our traveller is assailed, on every side, by difficulties, and pays his way through them, by submitting to the grossest impositions: to keep his expenditure within bounds, he makes the sacrifice of all those comforts, the smallest of which he would not renounce in his own country; and, flattering himself that the land of promise is only a little farther removed, drags his family, and his miseries, from place to place, till, weary and disappointed, he discovers that the highest gratification, purchased by his travels, will be the return to his native soil. what disappointment awaits him there! his house dilapidated, his tenantry in arrears, his books worm-eaten, his furniture shabby, new servants to But, be sought, a new household to be methodized; those things which he sold in haste, and of course at a loss, must be re-purchased in haste, and of course at a premium. It will be long before his home can be restored to the state in which he left it; and longer still before the restless, rambling habits, acquired in his search after nothing, can so far subside, as to allow him to enjoy it. Let him consult his bankers' book, and if he be candid, he will not tell of his savings. Another person has daughters to educate, and therefore goes abroad. Now the means of good education for girls consists, undoubtedly, in opportunity and leisure to learn and practise their religious and moral duties; in choice books, good society, and a sensible mother, or friend, to direct the taste, check the passions, and form the understanding. Where may these be found, if not at home? The danger of bad example, not so much to be feared from the natives of other countries, as from the worst description of persons, who wander from our own; the temptations to levity, and impiety, which occur in a land where religion, being a mixture of licence and austerity, it is so easy to indulge in the one, without practising the other; these, to say nothing of an irregular and desultory |