the other hand, would be out of patience, I can fuppofe, at this fceptical 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 trufted to make your own conclufions from what is offered on either fide of the argument, and will need no officious monitor to inftruct you on which fide the truth lies.

NOT to detain you, by further preliminaries, from the entertainment (such as it is) which I have promised you, you may suppose, 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 subjec in the following manner.

LORD SHAFTESBURY.

AND is not TRAVELLING then, in your opinion, one of the best of those methods, which can be taken to polish and form the manners of our liberal youth, and to fit them for the business 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 mifchiefs fpring from it.

LORD SHAFTESBURY.

WHAT, neceffarily fpring from it! And is there no way to stop their growth;

or

or 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 consent to make in the cafe of many other travellers, who have, doubtlefs, a better claim, than myself, to this indulgence. What I would gladly know of you, is, Whether, in general,

Travel be not an excellent fchool for our ingenuous and noble youth; and whether it may not, on the whole, deserve the countenance of a philofopher, who understands the world, and has himfelf been formed by it?

MR. LOCKE,

YOUR Lordship, I think, will do well to put philofophy out of the question. There is fo much to be faid against Travel in that view, that the matter would clearly be determined against you. It is by other rules, and what are called the maxims of the world (which your Lordship understands too well, to join them with Philofophy) that the advocate for travelling muft demand to have his caufe tried, if he would hope to come off, in the difpute, with any advantage.

LORD SHAFTESBURY.

YET philofophy was not always of this mind. You know, when the best proficients

proficients in that fcience gave a countenance to this practice, by their own example; a good part of their life was fpent in foreign countries; and they did not prefume to fet up for mafters of wifdom, till experience and much insight into the manners of men had qualified them for that great office. Hence they became the ableft and wifeft men of the old world; and their wifdom was not in thofe days of the lefs account for the politeness, that was mixed with it.

MR. LOCKE.

THOSE wife men might have their reafons for this different practice. They most of them, I think, fet up for Politicians and Legislators, as well as Philofophers; and in that infancy of arts and commerce, when diftant nations had small intercourfe with each other, it might be of real advantage to them, at least it might ferve their reputation with the people, to fpend fome years in voyages to

fuch