ABSTRACT
One of the pleasantest things in the world is going a journey; but the author likes to go by himself. He can enjoy society in a room; but out of doors, nature is company enough for him. He is then never less alone than when alone. The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, and do just as one pleases. We go a journey chiefly to be free of all impediments and of all inconveniences; to leave ourselves behind, much more to get rid of others. The author does not feel confident in venturing on a journey in a foreign country without a companion. He wants at intervals to hear the sound of his own language. There is an involuntary antipathy in the mind of an Englishman to foreign manner and notions that requires the assistance of social sympathy to carry it off.
