To The Latter They Are Indeed Most Important,
And Will Principally Account For The Superiority Of Modern Travels Over
Those Which Were Published A Century Ago, Or Even Fifty Years Since.
It is
plain that our knowledge of foreign countries relates either to animate or
inanimate nature:
To the soil and geology, the face of the surface, and
what lies below it; the rivers, lakes, mountains, climate, and the plants;
or to the natural history, strictly so called: - and to the manners,
institutions, government, religion, and statistics of the inhabitants.
Consequently, as the appropriate branches of knowledge relating to these
objects are extended, travellers must be better able, as well as more
disposed, to investigate them; and the public at large require that some or
all of them should at least be noticed in books of travels. The same
science, and many of the same instruments, which enable the seaman to
ascertain his latitude and longitude, and to lay down full and accurate
charts of the shores which he visits, are also useful to the
land-traveller; they both draw assistance from the knowledge of meteorology
which they may possess, to make observations on the climate, and from their
acquaintance with botany and natural history, to give an account of the
plants and animals. But it is evident that so far as the latter are
concerned, as well as so far as relates to the inhabitants, the land
traveller has more opportunities than he who goes on a voyage.
But there are other advantages enjoyed by modern travellers besides those
derived from superior science:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 777 of 1007
Words from 212642 to 212905
of 273188
