no man ever had a stronger inclination for travelling than myself. i consider’d the whole earth as my country, and all mankind as my brethren, and therefore thought it incumbent upon me to travel thro’ the earth and visit my brethren. i have walk’d over the ruins of the antient world, have view’d the monuments of modern pride, and, at the sight of all-devouring time, have wept 2over both. i have often found great folly among the nations that pass for the most civiliz’d, and sometimes as great wisdom among those that are counted the most savage. i have seen small states supported by virtue, and mighty empires shaken by vice, whilst a mistaken policy has been employ’d to inrich the subjects, without any endeavours to render them virtuous.

after having gone over the whole world and visited all the inhabitants, i find it does not answer the pains i have taken. i have just been reviewing my memoirs concerning the several nations, their prejudices, their customs and manners, their politicks, their laws, their religion, their history; and i have thrown them all into the fire. it grieves me to record such a monstrous mixture of humanity 3and barbarousness, of grandeur and meanness, of reason and folly.

the small part, i have preserv’d, is what i am now publishing. if it has no other merit, certainly it has novelty to recommend it.