g is so barren of all possibility of remark as a
voyage by sea; nothing, therefore, is so irksome, to a mind of any
vigour or activity. If a man, by long habit, has obtained the knack of
retiring into himself--of putting all his faculties to perfect rest, and
becoming like the mast of the vessel--a sea voyage may suit him; but to
those who cannot sleep in an hammock eighteen hours out of the
twenty-four, I would recommend any thing but travel by sea. Cato, as his
Aphorisms inform us, never repented but of two things; and the one was,
that he went a journey by sea when he might have gone it by land.

The sight of land, after a long voyage, is delightful in the extreme;
and I experienced the truth of another remark, that it might be smelt as
we approached, even when beyond our sight. I do not know to what to
compare its peculiar odour, but the sensations very much resemble those
which are excited by the freshness of the country, after leaving a
thick-built and smoky city. The sea air is infinitely more sharp than
the land air; and as you approach the land, and compare the two, you
discover the greater humidity of the one. The sea air, however, has one
most extraordinary quality--it removes a cough or cold almost
instantaneously. The temperance, moreover, which it compels in those who
cannot eat sea provisions, is very conducive to health.

We reached Liverpool without any accident; and as the Captain's business
was of a nature which would necessarily detain him for some days, I
availed myself of the opportunity, and visited the British metropolis.
No city has been more improved within a short period than London. When I
saw it before, which was in my earlier days, there were innumerable
narrow streets, and miserable alleys, where there are now squares, or
long and broad streets, reaching from one end of the town to the other:
I observed this particularly, in the long street which extends from
Charing Cross to the Parliament Houses. In England, both government and
people concur in this improvement.

From London, finding I had sufficient time, I visited Canterbury, and
thence Dover. If I were to fix in England, it should be in Canterbury.
The country is rich and delightful; and the society, consisting chiefly
of those attached to the cathedral church, and to such of their families
as have fixed there, elegant, and well informed, I have heard, and I
believe it, that Salisbury and Canterbury are the two most elegant
towns, i