Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/11



HE laudable taste for Voyages and Travels, which prevails in the present age, has been gratified with many excellent productions, which render that species of literature highly interesting to readers of almost every description. Modern voyages of discovery have embraced so many objects, that in them the Navigator sees the progress of his important art, the Geographer observes the improvement of his kindred science, the Naturalist is gratified with curious and useful objects of research, the Merchant discovers new scenes of commercial enterprise, and the General Reader finds a fund of rational entertainment.

The Moral Philosopher, too, who loves to trace the advances of his species through its various gradations from savage to civilized life, draws from voyages and travels, the facts from which he is to deduce his conclusions respecting the social, intellectual, and moral progress of Man. He sees