es where there is good company of
the nation where he traveleth. Let him upon his removes from one place
to another, procure recommendation to some person of quality residing
in the place whither he removeth; that he may use his favor in those
things he desireth to see or know. Thus he may abridge his travel with
much profit.

As for the acquaintance which is to be sought in travel: that which is
most of all profitable, is acquaintance with the secretaries and
employed men of ambassadors; for so in traveling in one country he shall
suck the experience of many. Let him also see and visit eminent persons
in all kinds, which are of great name abroad; that he may be able to
tell how the life agreeth with the fame. For quarrels, they are with
care and discretion to be avoided. They are commonly for mistresses,
healths, place, and words. And let a man beware how he keepeth company
with choleric and quarrelsome persons; for they will engage him into
their own quarrels. When a traveler returneth home, let him not leave
the countries where he hath traveled altogether behind him, but maintain
a correspondence by letters with those of his acquaintance which are of
most worth. And let his travel appear rather in his discourse than in
his apparel or gesture; and in his discourse let him be rather advised
in his answers, than forward to tell stories; and let it appear that he
doth not change his country manners for those of foreign parts; but only
prick in some flowers of that he hath learned abroad into the customs of
his own country.

OF FRIENDSHIP

From the 'Essays'

It had been hard for him that spake it to have put more truth and
untruth together in few words than in that speech, "Whosoever is
delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god." For it is most
true that a natural and secret hatred and aversion toward society in any
man hath somewhat of the savage beast; but it is most untrue that it
should have any character at all of the divine nature, except it
proceed, not out of a pleasure in solitude, but out of a love and desire
to sequester a man's self for a higher conversation: such as is found to
have been falsely and feignedly in some of the heathen, as Epimenides
the Candian, Numa the Roman, Empedocles the Sicilian, and Apollonius of
Tyana; and truly and really in divers of the ancient hermits and holy
fathers of the Church. But little do men perceive what solitude is, and
how far it extendeth. For a crowd