and means may be,
the motive is ever the same: a change of scene.

This book is no unbounded eulogy of the automobile, although its many
good qualities are recognized. There are other methods of travel
that, in their own ways, are certainly enjoyable, but none quite
equal the automobile for independence of action, convenience, and
efficiency. It is well for all motor-car users, however, to realize
that they are not the only road users, and to have a due regard for
others,--not only their rights, but their persons. This applies even
more forcibly, if possible, to the automobilist _en tour_.

One must in duty bound regulate his pace and his actions by the
vagaries of others, however little he may want to, or unfortunate
consequences will many times follow. Always he must have a sharp look
ahead and must not neglect a backward glance now and then. He must
not dash through muddy roads and splash passers-by (a particularly
heinous offence in England), and in France he must observe the rule
of the road (always to the right in passing,--no great difficulty for
an American, but very puzzling to an Englishman), or an accident may
result which will bring him into court, and perhaps into jail, unless
he can assuage the poor peasant's feelings for the damaged forelegs
of his horse or donkey by a cash payment on the spot.

Maeterlinck's "wonderful, unknown beast" is still unknown (and
feared) by the majority of outsiders, and the propaganda of education
must go on for a long time yet. Maeterlinck's great tribute to the
automobile is his regard for it as the conqueror of space. Never
before has the individual man been able to accomplish what the
soulless corporations have with railway trains. In steamboat or train
we are but a part and parcel of the freight carried, but in the
automobile we are stoker, driver, and passenger in one, and regard
every road-turning and landmark with a new wonder and appreciation.

We are the aristocrats of tourists, and we are bound therefore to
have a kindly regard for other road users or a revolution will spring
up, as it did in feudal times.

Take Maeterlinck's wise sayings for your guide, and be tolerant of
the rights of others. This will do automobilism more good than can be
measured, for it has come to stay, and perhaps even advance. The days
of the horse are numbered.

"In accord with the needs of our insatiable, exacting soul, which
craves at once for the small and the mighty, the quick an