It is more than worth while! It is necessary! That which one will comprehensively absorb during any journey depends largely upon what one has read. This is especially true of foreign travel.
The books I have named in my letters will be of assistance to you.[A]
And now you ask me to sum up my foreign experiences. Your request reminds me of the schoolmaster who gave out as the subject of a prize composition, "The World and Its Inhabitants."
In all seriousness, this has been the most delightful and at the same time the most miserable year of my life. Comprenez-vous?
They said the stars shone with a softer gleam;
It seemed not so to me!
In vain a scene of beauty beamed around—
My thoughts were o'er the sea.
Longfellow, Outre Mer,