Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

By Mr. de VOLTAIRE,
AUTHOR of the HENRIADE.

The Second Edition,
Corrected by Himfelf.

V8.E6.1728(3)
LONDON;

Printed for N. PREVOST and Comp. at the
Ship, over-againft Suthampton-street, in

the Strand.

M.DCC.XXVIII.

(Price ftitch'd s. 6d.)

[blocks in formation]

ADVERTISEMENT

I'

TO THE

READER.

has the Appearance of too great a PreJumption in a Traveller, who hath been but eighteen Months in England, to attempt to write in a Language, which he cannot pronounce at all, and which he hardly underftands in Converfation, But I have done what we do every day at School, where we write Latin and Greek, tho Jurely we pronounce them both very pitifully, and should understand neither of them if they were uttered to us with the right Roman or Greek Pronuncia

[ocr errors]

I look upon the English Language as a learned one, which deferves to be the Object of our Application in France, as the French Tongue is thought a kind of Accomplishment in England.

Befides, I did not learn English for my Private Satisfaction and Improvement only, but out of a kind of Duty.

I am ordered to give an Account of my Fourney into England. Such an Undertaking can no more be attempted without understanding the Language, than a Scheme of Aftronomy could be laid without the help of Mathematicks. And I have not a mind to imitate the late Mr. Sorbieres, who having ftaid three Months in this Country without knowing any Thing, either of its Manners or of its Language, thought fit to print a Relation which proved but a dull fcurrilous Satyr upon a Nation he knew nothing of.

Our European Travellers for the most part are fatyrical upon their neighbouring Countries, and beftow large Praifes upon the Perfians and Chinese; it being too natural to revile those who ftand in Competition with us, and to extol those who being far remote from us, are out of the reach of Envy.

The

The true Aim of a Relation is to inftruct Men, not to gratify their Malice. We should be bufied chiefly in giving faithful Accounts of all the useful Things and of the extraordinary Perfons, whom to know, and to imitate, would be a Benefit to our Countrymen. A Traveller who writes in that Spirit, is a Merchant of a nobler Kind, who imports into his native Country the Arts and Virtues of other Nations.

I will leave to others the Care of defcribing with Accuracy, Paul's Church, the Monument, Westminster, Stonehenge, &c. I confider England in another View; it ftrikes my Eyes as it is the Land which hath produced a Newton, a Locke, a Tillotfon, a Milton, a Boyle, and many great Men either dead or alive, whofe Glory in War, in State-Affairs, or in Letters, will not be confined to the Bounds of this Inland.

Whofoever had the Honour and the Happinefs to be acquainted with any of them, and will do me the favour to let me know fome notable (though perhaps not enough known} Paffages of their Lives, will confer an Obligation not only upon me, lick.

but

upon the Pub

Like

« PoprzedniaDalej »