A Letter to the fame purpofe, by SIR PHILIP SYDNEY.

"My good Brother,

"You haue thought vnkindneffe in me that I haue not written oftner vnto you, and "have defir'd I fhould write vnto you fome

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thing of my opinion touching your trauell;

you being perfwaded my experience there"unto be fomthing, which I muft needs con"feffe, but not as you take it; for you thinke

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my experience growes from the good things "which I have learned; but I knowe the only experience which I have gotten, is to find "how much I might have learn'd, and how "much indeed I have miffed, for want of di"recting my courfe to the right end, and by "the right meanes. I thinke you have read "Ariftotle's Ethiques; if you have, you "know it is the beginning and foundation of "all his works, the end to which every man "doth and ought to bend his greatest and "fmallest actions. I am fure you have im

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printed in your mind the fcope and marke you meane by your pains to fhoot at; for if you should traucll but to trauell, or to fay ແ you had trauelled, certainly you fhould proue a pilgrim no more. But I prefume "fo well of you (that tho' a great number of

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us never thought in ourfelves why we went, "but a certaine tickling humour to do as "other men had done), you purpose, being

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a gentleman borne, to furnish yourfelfe with "the knowledge of fuch things as may be "serviceable for your country and calling; "which certainly ftands not in the change of ayre (for the warmeft funne makes not a wife ma); no, nor in learning languages (altho' they be of ferviceable vfe), for words are "but words in what language foever they be, "and much leffe in that all of vs come home "full of difguifements, not onely of apparel, "but of our countenances, as tho' the credit "of a traueller ftood all vpon his outfide; "but in the right informing your minde with "thofe things which are moft notable in those places which you come vnto.

"Of which as the one kinde is fo vaine, "as I thinke ere it bee long, like the moun"tebanks in Italy, wee trauellers fhall bee "made sport of in comedies; fo may I juftly fay, who rightly trauels with the eye of Ulyffes, doth take one of the moft excellent ways of worldly wifdome. For hard fure "it is to know England, without you know "it by comparing it with fome other coun

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trcy, no more than a man can know the "fwiftneffe of his horfe without feeing him "well

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"well matched. For you, that are a logician, "know, that as greatneffe of itfelfe is a quan

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tity, fo yet the judgment of it, as of mighty "riches and all other ftrengths, ftands in the "predicament of relation; fo that yoù can"not tell what the Queene. of England is "able to do defenfively or offenfively, but through knowing what they are able to doe "with whom fhee is to bee matched. "therefore is one notable vfe of trauellers, "which ftands in the mind and correlatiue

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knowledge of things, in which kinde comes "in the knowledge of all legues betwixt "prince and prince; the topographical de-. "fcription of each country; how the one lyes "by fcituation to hurte or helpe the other; "how they are to fea, well harbored or not; "how ftored with fhippes; how with reve-.

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nue; how with fortification and garrisons; "how the people, warlike, trained, or kept

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vnder, with many other fuch warlike confi"derations, which as they confufedly come "into my mind, fo I, for want of leisure, haf

tily fet them downe; but these things, as I "have faid, are of the firft kinde which stands "in the ballancing one thing with the other.

"The other kinde of knowledge is of them "which ftand in the things which are in themfelues either fimply good, or fimply bad, " and

"and fo ferve for a right inftruction or a fhun"ning example. Thefe Homer meant in "this verfe, Qui multos hominum mores cognouit

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et urbes. For he doth not meane by mores "how to looke, or put off one's cap with a (6 new found grace, altho' true behavior is not "to be defpifed; marry my herefie is, that "the English behaviour is best in England, " and the Italians in Italie. But mores hee "takes for that from whence moral philofophy is fo called; the certainneffe of true difcerning of men's mindes both in vertue, paffion, and vices. And when he faith, cog"novit urbes, hce meanes not (if I be not "deceiued) to have feene townes, and marked "their buildings; for furely houses are but "houses in every place, they doe but differ fecundum magis et minus; but he attends to "their religion, politics, lawes, bringing vp children, difcipline both for warre and peace, "and fuch like. Thefe I take to be of the "fecond kind, which are euer worthy to be "knowne for their owne fakes. As furely in "the great Turke, (tho' wee have nothing to "doe with him), yet his difcipline in warre "matters is, propter fe, worthy to be learned.

"Nay, even in the kingdome of China, "which is almoft as far as the Antipodes "from vs, their good lawes and cuftomes are

"to be learned; but to know their riches and

power is of little purpose for us; fince that "can neither advance vs nor hinder vs. But "in our neighbour countries, both these things 66 are to be marked, as well the latter, which "containe things for themselves, as the former, "which feeke to know both those, and how "their riches and power may be to us auail<< able, or otherwife. The countries fitteft for "both thefe, are thofe you are going into, "France is above all other most needfull for vs "to marke, especially in the former kind;

next is Spaine, and the Lowe Countries ; "then Germany, which in my opinion excells "all others as much in the latter confidera

tion, as the other doth in the former, yet "neither are voyd of neither; for as Germany, "methinks, doth excell in good lawes, and "well adminiftering of juftice, fo are wee "likewise to confider in it the many princes "with whom we may have league, the places "of trade, and meanes to draw both fouldiers " and furniture there in time of need. So on "the other fide, as in France and Spaine, we

are principally to marke how they ftand "towards vs both in power and inclination; "fo are they, not without good and fitting "vfe, even in the generality of wisdome to bee "knowne. As in France, the courts of par "liament, their fubalterne jurisdiction, and "their

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