ABSTRACT
In no other age in the [history of the] world did people travel as much as they do in ours, where travel has become a sort of epidemic … . Indeed, even the learned man of slender means leaves his writing desk and undertakes journeys, not far, to be sure, but at least excursions, often with the intent of offering the world his hastily gathered remarks, and thereby recovering the costs incurred. Whether this frequent travel produces more advantages or disadvantages, whether it strengthens or weakens patriotism, increases or decreases the spread of true knowledge, I dare not judge.1
