The Great Advantages Which The Very Improved State Of All Branches Of
Physical Science, And Of Natural History, Bestow On Travellers In Modern
Times, Are Enjoyed, Though Not In An Equal Degree, By Navigators And By
Those Who Journey On Land.
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: foreign languages are at present better and
more generally understood; and it is unnecessary to point out how important
such an acquisition is, or rather how indispensible it is to accurate
information. The knowledge of the languages of the East which many of the
gentlemen in the service of the East India Company, and the missionaries,
possess, has been of infinite service in making us much better acquainted
with the antiquities, history, and present state of those countries, than
we could possibly have otherwise been. There is at present greater
intercourse among even remote nations; and prejudices, which formerly
operated as an almost insurmountable barrier, are now either entirely
destroyed, or greatly weakened: in proof of this, we need only refer to the
numerous travellers who have lately visited Egypt, - a country which it
would have been extremely dangerous to visit half a century ago. At the
same distance of time, natives of Asia or Africa, especially in their
appropriate costume, were seldom or never seen in the streets of London,
or, if seen, would have been insulted, or greatly incommoded by the
troublesome curiosity of its inhabitants; now there are many such, who walk
the streets unmolested, and scarcely noticed.
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