It is to this fpur, which is ever in our fides, that we owe the impatience of this defire for travelling: the paffion is no way bad-but as others are-in its mifmanagement or excefs;-order it rightly, the advantages are worth the purfuit; the chief of which are to learn the languages, the laws and cuftoms, and understand the government and intereft of other nations to acquire an urbanity and confidence of ́behaviour, and fit the mind more eafily for conversation and difcourfe-to take us out of the company of our aunts and grandmothers, and from the track of nursery mistakes; and by fhowing us new objects, or old ones in new lights, to reform our judgmentsby tafting perpetually the varieties of nature, to know what is good-by observing the address and arts of men, to conceive what is fincere—and, by seeing the difference of fo many various humours and manners -to look into ourselves, and form our own.

This is fome part of the cargo we might return with; but the impulfe of feeing new fights, augmented. with that of getting clear from all leffons both of wisdom and reproof at home-carries our youth too early out, to turn this venture to much account; on the contrary, if the fcene painted of the prodigal in his travels, looks more like a copy than an original, -will it not be well if fuch an adventurer, with fo unpromifing a fetting out,-without carte-without compass-be not call away for ever,and may he not be faid to escape well-if he returns to his country, only as he firft left it?

But you will fend an able pilot with your fons. a fcholar.

If wisdom can fpeak in no other language but Greek or Latin- -you do well ;- --or if mathe

matics will make a man a gentleman.

or natural philofophy but teach him to make a bow, he may be of fome fervice in introducing your fon into good focieties, and fupporting him in them when he has done: but the up hot will be generally this, that, in the most preffing occafions of addrefsif he is a mere man of reading, the unhappy youth will have the tutor to carry-and not the tutor to carry him.

But you will avoid this extreme; he fhall be efcorted by one who knows the world, not merely from books—but from his own experience :—a man who has been employed on fuch fervices, and thrice made the tour of Europe, with fuccefs.

That is, without breaking his own, or his pupil's neck; for if he is fuch as my eyes have feen! fome broken Swifs valet de chambre,-fome general undertaker, who will perform the journey in fo many months "IF GOD PERMIT,"-much knowledge will not accrue, fome profit at leaft ;-he will learn the amount to a halfpenny, of every stage from Calais to Rome; he will be carried to the beft inns,-inftructed where there is the beft wine, and fup a livre cheaper than if the youth had been left to make the tour and the bargain himfelf.-Look at our governor! I beseech you :-fee, he is an inch taller as he relates the advantages.

-And here endeth his pride,his knowledge, and

his ufe.

But when your fon gets abroad, he will be taken

out of his hand, by his fociety with men of rank and ̧ letters, with whom he will pass the greatest part of his time.

Let me obferve, in the first place,-that company which is really good, is very rare, and very shy: but you have furmounted this difficulty; and procured him the best letters of recommendation to the most eminent and respectable in every capital.

And I answer, that he will obtain all by them, which courtesy strictly ftands obliged to pay on fuch occafions, but no more.

There is nothing in which we are fo much deceived, as in the advantages propofed from our connexions and difcourfe with the literati, &c. in foreign parts; especially if the experiment is made before we are matured by years or study..

Converfation is a traffic; and if you enter into it, without fome flock of knowledge to balance the account perpetually betwixt you,the trade drops at once and this is the reafon,- -however it may be boafted to the contrary, why travellers have fo little (efpecially good) converfation with natives,-owing to their fufpicion or perhaps conviction, that there is nothing to be extracted from the converfation of young itinerants, worth the trouble of their bad language or the interruption of their vifits.

The pain on these occafions is ufually reciprocal; the confequence of which is, that the disappointed youth feeks an easier fociety: and as bad company is always ready and ever lying in wait,the career is foon finished; and the poor prodigal returns the fame object of pity, with the prodigal in the Gospel.

SERMON XXI.

National Mercies confidered *

DEUTERONOMY VI. 20, 21.

And when thy fon asketh thee in time to come, faying, What mean? the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? then shalt thou say unto thy fon, We were Pharaoh's bondfmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

THESE are the words which Mofes left as a standing anfwer for the children of Ifrael to give their pofterity, who in time to come might become ignorant, or unmindful of the many and great mercies which GOD had vouchfafed to their forefathers; all which had terminated in that one, of their deliverance out of bondage.

Though they were directed to speak in this manner, each man to his fon, yet one cannot fuppofe that the direction fhould be neceffary for the next generation, for the children of those who had been eye witneffes of God's providences: it does not feem likely that any of them fhould arrive at that age of

*On the inauguration of his prefent Majefty.

reafoning which would put them upon afking the fuppofed question, and not be, long before-hand, inftructed in the anfwer. Every parent would tell his child the hardships of his captivity, and the amazing particulars of his deliverance: the story was fo uncommon,-fo full of wonder,and withal, the recital of it would ever be a matter of fuch transport, it could not poffibly be kept a fecret:the piety and gratitude of one generation, would anticipate the curiofity of another; their fons would learn the ftory with their language.

This probably might be the café with the first or fecond race of people; but, in procefs of time, things might take a different turn; a long and undifturbed poffeffion of their liberties, might blunt the fenfe of those providences of GOD which had procured them, and fet the remembrance of all his mercies at too great a distance from their hearts. After they had for fome years been eafed of every real burden, an excess of freedom might make them reftlefs under every imaginary one, and, amongst others, that of their religion; from thence they might feek occafion to inquire into the foundation and fitnefs of its ceremonies, its ftatutes and its judgments.

They might afk, what meant fo many commands, in matters which to them appeared indifferent in their own natures? What policy in ordaining them? and, What obligation could there lie upon reasonable creatures, to comply with a multitude of fuch unaccountable injunctions, fo unworthy the wisdom of Gon?

Hereafter poffibly, they might go further lengths;