Judgment of none but those with whom he is conversant; and if he has the good luck to pitch his Tent well, he entertains an advantageous Opinion of the Nation in general. Let Foreigners, when they return home, after having kept such various sorts of Company, sit down to draw the Characters of the Nations they have seen, I do but think what a strange difference would appear in their Descriptions! The Judgment therefore which I make of People, is founded upon the Company I kept, and upon what I heard from such Inhabitants of the Country as appear’d to me to be altogether unprejudiced, and were pleased to honour me with their Information. I do not say but, after all, I may have been mistaken; for I do not pretend to have painted things in any other light than as they appear’d to me. If, nevertheless, any particular Person thinks himself particularly intended when I speak of the Inhabitants of any Province or Town in general, I beg him to remember, that I confess in my Memoirs there are worthy People in all parts of the World, and ’tis not my fault if his Conscience does not permit him to rank himself in that number._ _No doubt I shall be reproach’d for relating too many Trifles, and passing too lightly over things of greater Importance. To speak freely again, I will make no difficulty to own, that, if when I began these Memoirs, I had ever thought of printing them, the desire of promoting their Sale might perhaps have put upon inserting a great many Nothings which I omitted, as not thinking it worth while to charge my Memory with ’em. The far greatest part of what the World reads is Trifles, and a History will make its fortune not by the instructive Facts that are in it, but by the Romantic Turn the Author gives it. Besides, I am not so vain as to write with a design of Instructing; for what could I relate in my Travels which others have not done before me in better Terms? To talk of Learned Men, to make a Catalogue of Books and MSS. that are to be met with in Libraries, to ransack the Cabinet of the Curious, to publish Inscriptions, to treat of antique Medals, to affirm that I have seen an +Otho+ of Brass, which is known to be but of Silver, what a Posse of Men of Learning would rise up against me! Whereas, now I fear nothing; the Learned don’t read Trifles, or if they do, they scorn to criticise them. I shall to them remain unknown, or at least, my Meanness will be my Protection against their Indignation._