An ambassador to Paris must know what was especially
pleasing to a Frenchman. Even a captain in war must know the special
virtues and vices of the enemy: which nation is ablest to make a sudden
sally, which is stouter to entertain the shock in open field, which is
subtlest of the contriving of an ambush.
Evidently, since there is so varied a need for acquaintance with foreign
countries, travel is a positive duty. Noah, Aristotle, Solomon, Julius
Caesar, Columbus, and many other people of authority are quoted to prove
that "all that ever were of any great knowledge, learning or wisdom
since the beginning of the world unto this present, have given
themselves to travel: and that there never was man that performed any
great thing or achieved any notable exploit, unless he had
travelled."[60]
This summary, of course, cannot reproduce the style of each of our
authors, and only roughly indicates their method of persuasion.
Especially it cannot represent the mode of Zwinger, whose contribution
is a treatise of four hundred pages, arranged in outline form, by means
of which any single idea is made to wend its tortuous way through
folios. Every aspect of the subject is divided and subdivided with
meticulous care.
