"
[6] Milton.
[7] Seneca.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PLEASURES OF TRAVEL.
"I am a part of all that I have seen."--TENNYSON.
I am sometimes disposed to think that there are few things in which we of
this generation enjoy greater advantages over our ancestors than in the
increased facilities of travel; but I hesitate to say this, not because
our advantages are not great, but because I have already made the same
remark with reference to several other aspects of life.
The very word "travel" is suggestive. It is a form of "travail"--excessive
labor; and, as Skeat observes, it forcibly recalls the toil of travel in
olden days. How different things are now!
It is sometimes said that every one should travel on foot "like Thales,
Plato, and Pythagoras"; we are told that in these days of railroads people
rush through countries and see nothing. It may be so, but that is not the
fault of the railways. They confer upon us the inestimable advantage of
being able, so rapidly and with so little fatigue, to visit countries
which were much less accessible to our ancestors.
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