they named Evangelists. Because these Pseudo-evangelists pretended to
inspiration, as much as the others, and you are to judge their
pretensions by your own reason, and not by the reason of those
ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost. There are some, however, still
extant, collected by Fabricius, which I will endeavor to get and send
you.

5. Travelling. This makes men wiser, but less happy. When men of sober
age travel, they gather knowledge, which they may apply usefully for
their country; but they are subject ever after to recollections mixed
with regret; their affections are weakened by being extended over more
objects; and they learn new habits which cannot be gratified when they
return home. Young men, who travel, are exposed to all these
inconveniences in a higher degree, to others still more serious, and do
not acquire that wisdom for which a previous foundation is requisite,
by repeated and just observations at home. The glare of pomp and
pleasure is analogous to the motion of the blood; it absorbs all their
affection and attention, they are torn from it as from the only good in
this, world, and return to their home as to a place of exile and
condemnation. Their eyes are forever turned back to the object they
have lost, and its recollection poisons the residue of their lives.
Their first and most delicate passions are hackneyed on unworthy
objects here, and they carry home the dregs, insufficient to make
themselves or anybody else happy. Add to this, that a habit of
idleness, an inability to apply themselves to business is acquired, and
renders them useless to themselves and their country. These
observations are founded in experience. There is no place where your
pursuit of knowledge will be so little obstructed by foreign objects,
as in your own country, nor any, wherein the virtues of the heart will
be less exposed to be weakened. Be good, be learned, and be
industrious, and you will not want the aid of travelling, to render you
precious to your country, dear to your friends, happy within yourself.
I repeat my advice, to take a great deal of exercise, and on foot.
Health is the first requisite after morality. Write to me often, and be
assured of the interest I take in your success, as well as the warmth
of those sentiments of attachment with which I am, dear Peter, your
affectionate friend.

TO DR. GEORGE GILMER.

PARIS, August 11, 1787.

DEAR DOCTOR,--Your letter of January the 9th, 1787, came