conftant an eye to the ufe and business of the world as this writer.

THE purpose of your inquiry, then, cannot, as I fuppofe, be any other way fo well answered, as by putting into your hands a faithful account of his fentiments on the conduct and ufe of Travelling: especially, as you will perceive at the fame time what my notions are (if that be of any importance to you) on the fame fubject.

Ir I were compofing a Dialogue in the old mimetical, or poetic form, I fhould tell you, perhaps, the occafion that led us into this track of converfation. Nay, I should tell you what accident had brought us together; and fhould even omit no circumstance of time or place, which might be proper to let you into the scene, and make you, as it were, one of us.

BUT these punctilios of decorum are thought too conftraining, and, as fuch, are wifely laid afide, by the easy moderns. Nay, the very notion of Dialogue, fuch as it was in the politeft ages of antiquity, is fo little comprehended in our days, that I queftion much, if these papers were to fall into other hands than your own, whether they would not appear in a high degree fantastic and vifionary. It would never be imagined that a point of morals or philofophy could be regularly treated in what is called a converfation-piece; or that any thing fo unlike the commerce of our world could have taken place between men, that had any ufe or knowledge of it.

THIS, I fay, might be the opinion of men of better breeding; of thofe, who are acquainted with the fashion, and are themselves practifed in the conversations, of the polite world. The formalifts, on

the other hand, would be out of patience, I can fuppofe, at this sceptical manner of debate, which ends in nothing; and, after the wafte of much breath, leaves the matter at laft undecided, and just as it was taken up.

ALL this, it must be owned, is very true. But as it is not my intention to fubmit the following draught to fuch critics, you, who know me, will accept this recital, made in my own way, and pretty much as it paffed. You may well be trusted to make your own conclusions from what is offered on either fide of the argument, and will need no officious monitor to instruct you on which fide the truth lies.

NoT to detain you, by further preliminaries, from the entertainment (fuch as it is) which I have promised you; you may fuppofe, if you please, Mr. Locke and me, in company with fome other of B 4

Our

our common friends, fitting together in my library, and entering on the fubject in the following manner.

LORD SHAFTESBURY.

AND is not TRAVELLING then, in your opinion, one of the beft of thofe methods, which can be taken to polish and form the manners of our liberal youth, and to fit them for the bufinefs and converfation of the world?

MR. LOCKE.

I THINK not. I fee but little good, in proportion to the time it takes up, that can be drawn from it, under any management; but, in the way in which it commonly is and must be conducted, fo long as travel is confidered as a part of early education, I fee nothing but mif chiefs fpring from it.

LORD SHAFTESBURY.

WHAT! neceffarily fpring from it? And is there no way to flop their growth;

or

9

er at least prevent their choking the good plants, which that foil is capable of producing?

MR. LOCKE.

THIS indeed I must not abfolutely affirm: your Lordship's example, I confefs, ftands in my way. But if your own education, which was conducted in this form, and creates a prejudice for it, be pleaded against me, I may ftill fay, that the argument extends no further than to qualify the affertion; and that, as in other cafes, the rule is general, though with fome exceptions.

LORD SHAFTESBURY.

Ir was not my meaning to put your politeness to this proof. I would even take no advantage of the exception which you might confent to make in the cafe of many other travellers, who have, doubtless, a better claim, than myself, to this indulgence. What I would gladly know of you, is, Whether, in general,