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I am of a roving disposition; but I travel not to see imposing monuments, which indeed
somehow bored me, nor beautiful scenery, of which I soon tire; I travel to see men. I avoid
the great. I would not cross the road to meet a president or a king; I am content to know
the writer in the pages of his book and the painter in his picture; but I have journeyed a
hundred leagues to see a missionary of fortnight in a vile hotel in order to improve my
acquaintance with a billiard-marker.