he had together and take his journey into a far country.”  In other words, “I propose to make the parable a peg whereon to hang a few observations on (what does the reader suppose?) the practice of sending young men upon the Grand Tour, accompanied by a ‘bear-leader,’ and herein of the various kinds of bear-leaders, and the services which they do, and do not, render to their charges; with a few words on society in Continental cities, and a true view of ’letters of introduction.’” That is literally the substance of the remainder of the sermon.  And thus pleasantly does the preacher play with his curious subject: 

“But you will send an able pilot with your son—­a scholar.  If wisdom can speak in no other tongue but Greek or Latin, you do well; or if mathematics will make a man a gentleman, or natural philosophy but teach him to make a bow, he may be of some service in introducing your son into good societies, and supporting him in them when he had done.  But the upshot will be generally this, that on the most pressing occasions of addresses, if he is not a mere man of reading, the unhappy youth will have the tutor to carry, and not the tutor to carry him.  But (let us say) you will avoid this extreme; he shall be escorted by one who knows the world, not only from books but from his own experience; a man who has been employed on such services, and thrice ’made the tour of Europe with success’—­that is, without breaking his own or his pupil’s neck; for if he is such as my eyes have seen, some broken Swiss valet de chambre, some general undertaker, who will perform the journey in so many months, ‘if God permit,’ much knowledge will not accrue.  Some profit, at least:  he will learn the amount to a halfpenny of every stage from Calais to Rome; he will be carried to the best inns, instructed where there is the best wine, and sup a livre cheaper than if the youth had been left to make the tour and the bargain himself.  Look at our governor, I beseech you!  See, he is an inch taller as he relates the advantages.  And here endeth his pride, his knowledge, and his use.  But when your son gets abroad he will be taken out of his hand by his society with men of rank and letters, with whom he will pass the greatest part of his time.”

So much for the bear-leader; and now a remark or two on the young man’s chances of getting into good foreign society; and then—­the benediction: 

“Let me observe, in the first place, that company which is really good is very rare and very shy.  But you have surmounted this difficulty, and procured him the best letters of recommendation to the most eminent and respectable in every capital.  And I answer that he will obtain all by them which courtesy strictly stands obliged to pay on such occasions, but no more.  There is nothing in which we are so much deceived as in the advantages proposed from our connexions and discourse with the literati, &c., in foreign parts, especially if the experiment