for our attention. There is nothing, I think, half so valuable
as knowledge, 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