What is the natural end of being born in a particular country? To serve one’s fatherland. With foreign fashions? They will not fit. For every country has its own appropriate laws and arrangements, and its special circumstances can be understood only by those who study its constitution carefully on the spot. What is quite suitable and excellent for other nations may not bear transplanting here; it may not fit in with the habits of our people, or at least the change might require so much effort that it would not be worth the cost. I do not deny that travel is good, if it hits on the right person; though I think the same labour, with equally good intentions, could be spent with better results at home. He that roameth abroad hath no such line to lead him as he that tarrieth at home, unless his understanding, years and experience offer better security than is the case with those of whom I am now speaking. Foreign things fit us not; or, if they fit our backs, at least they do not fit our brains, unless there be something amiss there. If we wish to learn from other countries, it is better to summon a foreign master to us than to go abroad as foreign scholars ourselves. Our ladies at home can acquire all the accomplishments of these travelled gentlemen without stirring abroad, for it is not what one has seen that is of value, but the languages and learning that are brought back, and these are to be found at home. Our lady mistress, whom I must needs remember when excellence is being spoken of, a woman, a gentlewoman, a lady, a princess, in the midst of many other affairs of business, in spite of her sex and sundry impediments to a free mind such as learning requireth, can do all these things to the wonder of all hearers, which I say young gentlemen can learn better at home, as Her Majesty did. It may be said that Her Majesty is not to be used as a precedent, seeing she is of a princely courage that would not be overthrown by any difficulty in learning what might advance her person beyond all praise, and help her position beyond expectation. But yet it may be said, why may not young gentlemen, who can allege no obstacle, obtain with more liberty what Her Highness got with so little? It is having as much money as they like that eggs them on to wander. If they went abroad as ambassadors to acquire experience through dealing with great affairs, or if they were well known as learned men to whom important information would everywhere naturally be offered, or if they even went in the train of the former, or under the tuition of the latter, so that authority might secure benefits for them and preserve them from harm, I would not disapprove of it, as they might then learn to follow in the footsteps of their leaders. But this is a very different matter from the pursuit of those special ends that could be better attained at home. For good, simple, well-meaning young gentlemen, strong in purse and weak in