those eyes must be made
strong and clear; and a traveller may gain more without the bodily organ
than with an untrained understanding. The case of the Deaf Traveller[A]
leads us to say the same about the other great avenue of knowledge. His
writings prove, to all who are acquainted with them, that, though to a
great degree deprived of that inestimable commentary upon perceived
facts--human discourse--the Deaf Traveller is able to furnish us with
more knowledge of foreign people than Fine-Ear himself could have done
without the accompaniments of analytical power and concentrative
thought. All senses, and intellectual powers, and good habits, may be
considered essential to a perfect observation of morals and manners; but
almost any one might be better spared than a provision of principles
which may serve as a rallying point and a test of facts. The blind and
the deaf travellers must suffer under a deprivation or deficiency of
certain classes of facts. The condition of the unphilosophical traveller
is much worse. It is a chance whether he puts a right interpretation on
any of the facts he perceives.

Many may object that I am making much too serious a matter of the
department of the business of travelling under present notice. They do
not pretend to be moral philosophers;--they do not desire to be
oracles;--they attempt nothing more than to give a simple report of what
has come under their notice. But what work on earth is more serious than
this of giving an account of the most grave and important things which
are transacted on this globe? Every true report is a great good; every
untrue report is a great mischief. Therefore, let there be none given
but by persons in some good degree qualified. Such travellers as will
not take pains to provide themselves with the requisite thought and
study should abstain from reporting at all.

It is a mistake, however, to suppose that the study shown to be
requisite is vast and deep. Some knowledge of the principles of Morals
and the rule of Manners is required, as in the case of other sciences to
be brought into use on a similar occasion; but the principles are few
and simple, and the rule easy of application.

The universal summary notions of Morals may serve a common traveller in
his judgments as to whether he would like to live in any foreign
country, and as to whether the people there are as agreeable to him as
his own nation. For such an one it may be sufficient to bear about the