"For most of those which were great once are small today; and those which used to be small were great in my own time. Knowing, therefore, that human prosperity never abides long in the same place, I shall pay attention to both alike."

- Herodotus, Histories (440 BCE)

I enjoyed this book thoroughly, on multiple levels. On the surface it is grand sight-seeing adventure through Europe, the Holy Land, and North Africa, appealing to any reader with a sense of wanderlust. Twain narrates this adventure and is sort of a character in it as well, setting off on mini-excursions with a small detachment of like-minded travelers, in which he has no difficulty finding things to ridicule or situations with which to entertain. Below this one is aware that this trip is now about 150 years old, and so itself is historic: an historic travelogue through an historic land. The ship that carries Twain and his fellow pilgrims across the Atlantic and calls at various ports in the Mediterranean just a few years previously served in the Civil War, enforcing the Union blockade. The descriptions of the ship pitching and rolling over the ocean, and the difficulties this presented to the passengers, were some of my favorite parts of the book. Also, one is reminded by all the horses, donkeys, camels, and guns that this trip happened contemporaneously with Wild West adventures. Twain alternates irreverent, tongue-in-cheek reaction to attractions and locations, with genuine admiration in a way that somehow made me simultaneously respect his opinions as well as laugh at the absurdity of it all. Finally, I don't think I'm too off the mark in comparing Twain to Herodotus, as both highlight, in their own ways, the rise and decline of civilizations, tell interesting side-stories of things such as star-crossed lovers, and tell us that such-and-such things are "well worth seeing."

In the end, Twain puts his spurs to us to get out and see the world, for the good of the world:

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."