nt your mind, and sometimes even intrude
upon you unseasonably? And when you are actually on your journey,
especially if you have never been to that place before, or are
likely to remain there, don't you begin to think a little about the
pleasures and the employment of the place, and to wish to know a
little what sort of a city London or York is? Don't you wonder what
is doing there, and are you not anxious to know whether you are
properly qualified for the business or the company you expect to be
engaged in? Do you never look at the map or consult Brooke's
Gazetteer? And don't you try to pick up from your fellow-passengers
in the stage-coach any little information you can get? And though
you may be obliged, out of civility, to converse with them on common
subjects, yet do not your secret thoughts still run upon London or
York, its business, or its pleasures? And above all, if you are
likely to set out early, are you not afraid of oversleeping, and
does not that fear keep you upon the watch, so that you are commonly
up and ready before the porter comes to summon you? Reader! if this
be your case, how surprised will you be to hear that the travelers
to the _far country_ have not half your prudence, though embarked on
a journey of infinitely more importance, bound to a land where
nothing can be sent after them, in which, when they are once
settled, all errors are irretrievable.

I observed that these pilgrims, instead of being upon the watch,
lest they should be ordered off unprepared; instead of laying up any
provision, or even making memoranda of what they would be likely to
want at the end of their journey, spent most of their time in
crowds, either in the way of traffic or diversion. At first, when I
saw them so much engaged in conversing with each other, I thought it
a good sign, and listened attentively to their talk, not doubting
but the chief turn of it would be about the climate, or treasures,
or society, they should probably meet with in the _far country_. I
supposed they might be also discussing about the best and safest
road to it, and that each was availing himself of the knowledge of
his neighbor, on a subject of equal importance to all. I listened to
every party, but in scarcely any did I hear one word about the land
to which they were bound, though it was their home, the place where
their whole interest, expectation, and inheritance lay; to which
also great part of their friends were gone before, and whit