There is at present greater
intercourse among even remote nations; and prejudices, which formerly
operated as an almost insurmountable barrier, are now either entirely
destroyed, or greatly weakened: in proof of this, we need only refer to the
numerous travellers who have lately visited Egypt,--a country which it
would have been extremely dangerous to visit half a century ago. At the
same distance of time, natives of Asia or Africa, especially in their
appropriate costume, were seldom or never seen in the streets of London,
or, if seen, would have been insulted, or greatly incommoded by the
troublesome curiosity of its inhabitants; now there are many such, who walk
the streets unmolested, and scarcely noticed.
Commerce, which has derived such advantages from the progress of
geographical knowledge, has in some measure repaid the obligation, by
creating a much greater, more intimate, and more frequent mutual
intercourse among nations; and by doing away with those prejudices and
antipathies which formerly closed many countries effectually against
Christian and European travellers: and to the zeal and perseverance of
modern travellers, assisted as they are by commercial intercourse, we may
reasonably hope that we shall, before long, be indebted for a knowledge of
the interior of Africa. Those countries still imperfectly known in the
south-east of Asia will, probably, from their vicinity to our possessions
in Hindostan, be explored from that quarter.
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