Imagination is as good as many voyages - and how much cheaper!

Curtis contrasts physical travel with the mind’s capacity to range freely. The line treats imagination as a form of inward voyaging: through reading, daydream, and creative thought one can experience novelty, perspective shifts, and emotional enlargement without the expense and hardship of actual journeys. The humorous tag—“and how much cheaper!”—adds a practical, democratic edge, suggesting that the pleasures of exploration are not reserved for the wealthy or mobile. In a broader literary sense, the remark also defends the value of books and art as vehicles of experience, implying that mental travel can be as enriching as geographic movement, even if it lacks travel’s literal risks and encounters.