Travel and Horizons

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ eastward to the sea, There’s a Burma girl a-settin’, and I know she thinks o’ me; For the wind is in the palm trees, and the temple bells they say: “Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!”

How they brought the good news from Ghent to Aix.

I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

One should always have one’s boots on, and be ready to leave.

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.

What, you are stepping westward?

Even in Paris, I remained a Canadian. I puffed hashish, but I didn’t inhale.

Broad, wholesome, charitable views .. can not be acquired by vegetating in one's little corner of the earth.

Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents by flood and field, Of hair-breadth ’scapes i’ the imminent deadly breach.

The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared, Merrily did we drop Below the kirk, below the hill, Below the lighthouse top.

A solitary sail that rises White in the blue mist on the foam— What is it in far lands it prizes? What does it leave behind at home?

In America there are two classes of travel—first class, and with children.

There’s milestones on the Dover Road!

At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue:

Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.

Like one that stands upon a promontory, And spies a far-off shore where he would tread, Wishing his foot were equal with his eye.

My ventures are not in one bottom trusted, Nor to one place.

Then westward-ho!

Here is my journey’s end, here is my butt, And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.

On the road to Mandalay, Where the flyin’ fishes play, An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ’crost the Bay!

I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!