CHAPTER VI.
He saw with his own eyes the Moon was round;
Was also certain that the Earth was square;
For he had travelled fifty miles, and found
No sign of its being circular anywhere.
I have trod merry England, and dwelt on her charms,
I have wandered through Erin, the gem of the sea.
I’ve wandered east, I’ve wandered west,
Through mony a weary way.
Its all very well for Chamber Students to study, in their closets, Goldsmith’s History of the Earth and Animated Nature, Shakspeare’s Humanity or Humbolt’s Cosmos, and thereby acquire a second-hand view of such things, but a real genuine knowledge of subjects can only be acquired by travelling, and seeing the world as it is, and man with his everyday clothes on. A person’s knowledge ought to be estimated by what he has seen with “his own eyes,” and heard with his own ears—and what he has seen can only be measured by the extent of his travelling, and such travelling must be bona fide. Now what is a bona fide traveller? That question has puzzled lawyers, linguists and more especially
