, and yet there
is nothing which men will give themselves so little trouble to attain;
unless it be, perhaps, that lowest degree of it which is the object
of curiosity, and which hath therefore that active passion constantly
employed in its service. This, indeed, it is in the power of every
traveler to gratify; but it is the leading principle in weak minds only.

To render his relation agreeable to the man of sense, it is therefore
necessary that the voyager should possess several eminent and rare
talents; so rare indeed, that it is almost wonderful to see them ever
united in the same person. And if all these talents must concur in the
relator, they are certainly in a more eminent degree necessary to the
writer; for here the narration admits of higher ornaments of style,
and every fact and sentiment offers itself to the fullest and most
deliberate examination. It would appear, therefore, I think, somewhat
strange if such writers as these should be found extremely common; since
nature hath been a most parsimonious distributor of her richest talents,
and hath seldom bestowed many on the same person. But, on the other
hand, why there should scarce exist a single writer of this kind worthy
our regard; and, whilst there is no other branch of history (for this
is history) which hath not exercised the greatest pens, why this alone
should be overlooked by all men of great genius and erudition, and
delivered up to the Goths and Vandals as their lawful property, is
altogether as difficult to determine. And yet that this is the case,
with some very few exceptions, is most manifest. Of these I shall
willingly admit Burnet and Addison; if the former was not, perhaps, to
be considered as a political essayist, and the latter as a commentator
on the classics, rather than as a writer of travels; which last title,
perhaps, they would both of them have been least ambitious to affect.
Indeed, if these two and two or three more should be removed from
the mass, there would remain such a heap of dullness behind, that the
appellation of voyage-writer would not appear very desirable. I am
not here unapprised that old Homer himself is by some considered as a
voyage-writer; and, indeed, the beginning of his Odyssey may be urged
to countenance that opinion, which I shall not controvert. But, whatever
species of writing the Odyssey is of, it is surely at the head of that
species, as much as the Iliad is of another; and so far the excellent
Longinus