e against domestic morals, on
account of a diversity of methods of entering upon marriage. He might
as well judge of the minute transactions of manners all over the world
by what he sees in his native village. There, to leave the door open or
to shut it bears no relation to morals, and but little to manners;
whereas, to shut the door is as cruel an act in a Hindoo hut as to leave
it open in a Greenland cabin. In short, he is to prepare himself to
bring whatever he may observe to the test of some high and broad
principle, and not to that of a low comparative practice. To test one
people by another, is to argue within a very small segment of a circle;
and the observer can only pass backwards and forwards at an equal
distance from the point of truth. To test the morals and manners of a
nation by a reference to the essentials of human happiness, is to strike
at once to the centre, and to see things as they are.

SECTION II.

Being provided with a conviction of what it is that he wants to know,
the traveller must be furthermore furnished with the means of gaining
the knowledge he wants. When he was a child, he was probably taught that
eyes, ears, and understanding are all-sufficient to gain for him as much
knowledge as he will have time to acquire; but his self-education has
been a poor one, if he has not become convinced that something more is
needful--the enlightenment and discipline of the understanding, as well
as its immediate use. It is not enough for a traveller to have an active
understanding, equal to an accurate perception of individual facts in
themselves; he must also be in possession of principles which may serve
as a rallying point for his observations, and without which he cannot
determine their bearings, or be secure of putting a right interpretation
upon them. A traveller may do better without eyes, or without ears, than
without such principles, as there is evidence to prove. Holman, the
blind traveller, gains a wonderful amount of information, though he is
shut out from the evidence yielded by the human countenance, by way-side
groups, by the aspect of cities, and the varying phenomena of country
regions. In his motto, he indicates something of his method.

"Sightless to see, and judge thro' judgment's eyes,
To make four senses do the work of five,
To arm the mind for hopeful enterprise,
Are lights to him who doth in darkness live."

In order to "judge through judgment's eyes,"