these authors, whom I should otherwise have been very partial to. For the first could not end his learned treatise without a panegyrick of modern learning and knowledge in comparison of the ancient and the other falls so grossly into the censure of the old poetry, and preference of the new, that I could not read either of those strains without some indignation, which no quality among men is so apt to raise in me as sufficiency, the worst composition out of the pride and ignorance of mankind. The force of all that I have met with on this subject, either in talk or in writing, is, first, as to knowledge, that we must have more than the ancients, because we have the advantage both of theirs and of our own, which is commonly illustrated by the similitude of a dwarf standing upon a giant's shoulders, and seeing more and farther than he. to us. Next, as to wit or genius, that, nature being still the same, these must be much at a rate in all ages, at least in the same climates, as the growth and size of plants and animals commonly are; and if both these are allowed, they think the cause is gained. But I cannot tell why we should conclude that the ancient writers had not as much advantage from the knowledge of others that were ancient to them, as we have from those that are ancient The invention of printing has not perhaps multiplied books, but only the copies of them; and if we believe there were six hundred thousand in the library of Ptolemy, we shall hardly pretend to equal it by any of ours-not, perhaps, by all put together; I mean so many originals, that have lived any time, and thereby given testimony of their having been thought worth preserving. For the scribblers are infinite, that, like mushrooms or flies, are born and die in small circles of time; whereas books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed. Besides the account of this library at Alexandria, and others very voluminous in the lesser Asia and Rome, we have frequent mention of ancient writers in many of those books, which we now call ancient, both philosophers and historians. . . . But if any should so very rashly and presumptuously conclude, that there were few books before those we have either extant or upon record, yet that cannot argue there was no knowledge or learning before those periods of time, whereof they give us the short account. Books may be helps to learning and knowledge, and make it more common and diffused; but I doubt whether they are necessary ones or no, or much advance any other science, beyond the particular records of actions or registers of time; and these perhaps might be as long preserved without them, by the care and exactness of tradition in the long successions of certain races of men, with whom they are intrusted. So in Mexico and Peru, before the least use or mention of letters, there was remaining among them the knowledge of what had passed in those mighty nations and governments for many ages. Whereas in Ireland, that is said to have flourished in books and learning before they had much progress in Gaul or Brittany, there are now hardly any traces left of what passed there before the conquest made of that country by the English in Henry the Second's time. A strange but plain demonstration how knowledge and ignorance, as well as civility and barbarism, may succeed each other in the several countries of the world; how much better the records of time may be kept by tradition in one country than by writing in another; and how much we owe to those learned languages of Greek and Latin, without which, for aught I know, the world in all these western parts would hardly be known to have been above five or six hundred years old, nor any certainty remain of what passed in it before that time. ... I have long thought that the different abilities of men, which we call wisdom or prudence, for the conduct of public affairs or private life, grow directly out of that little grain of intellect or good sense which they bring with them into the world; and that the defect of it in men comes from some want in their conception or birth. . . . And though this may be improved or impaired in some degree by accidents of education, of study, and of conversation and business, yet it cannot go beyond the reach of its native force, no more than life can go beyond the period to which it was destined, by the strength or weakness of the seminal virtue. If these speculations should be true, then I know not what advantages we can pretend to modern knowledge, by any we receive from the ancients: nay, 'tis possible men may lose rather than gain by them: may lessen the force and growth of their own genius, by constraining and forming it upon that of others: may have less knowledge of their own, for contenting himself with that of those before them. So a man that only translates shall never be a poet, nor a painter that always copies, nor a swimmer that swims always with bladders. So people that trust wholly to others' charity, and without industry of their own, will be always poor. Besides, who can tell whether learning may not even weaken invention in a man that has great advantages from nature and birth; whether the weight and number of so many other men's thoughts and notions may not suppress his own, or hinder the motion aud agitation of them, from which all invention arises; as heaping on wood, or too many sticks, or too close together, suppresses, and sometimes quite extinguishes a little spark, that would otherwise have grown up to a noble flame. The strength of mind, as well as of body, grows more from the warmth of exercise than of clothes; nay, too much of this foreign heat rather makes men faint, and their constitutions tender, or weaker than they would be without them. Let it come about how it will, if we are dwarfs, we are still so, though we stand upon a giant's shoulders; and even so placed, yet we see less than he, if we are naturally short-sighted, or if we do not look as much about us, or if we are dazzled with the height, which often happens from weakness either of heart or brain. Essay on Ancient and Modern Learning. I shall conclude with a saying of Alphonsus (sirnamed the Wise), king of Aragon;—That among so many things as are by men possessed or pursued in the course of their lives, all the rest are baubles, besides old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to converse with, and old books to read. Works, i. p. 168. Temple's knowledge of life entitles his aphorisms to attention. A shattered reputation is never again entire. Youth is most inclined to the better passions: Love, Ambition, Joy; age to the worst: Avarice, Jealousy, Revenge. The wisest men are easiest to bear advice, and the least apt to give it. Man is a thinking being, whether he will or no: all he can do is to turn his thoughts the best way. Nothing is so unreasonable or insufferable in conversation, as sufficiency. Nothing keeps a man from knowledge and wisdom like thinking he has both. In conversation, the first ingredient is truth, the next good sense, the third good humour, and the fourth wit. Flattery like poison requires the finest infusion. Good breeding is doing nothing needlessly one thinks will either hurt or displease others. The only way for a rich man to be healthy is-Exercise and abstinence, to live as if he were poor: which are esteemed the worst parts of poverty. Miscellanea. Works, pt. iii., vol. i., p. 308. 125. John Ray, 1628-1705. (Handbook, par. 329.) The founder of true classification in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. His volume on the Wisdom of God manifested in Creation was the forerunner of Derham's Physico-Theology, and of Paley's Natural Theology. God, the Author of Civilisation. Methinks by all the provision which he has made for the use and service of man, the Almighty interpretatively speaks to him in this manner. I have now placed thee in a spacious and well furnished world, I have endued thee with an ability of understanding what is beautiful and proportionable, and have made that which is so agreeable and delightful to thee; I have provided thee with materials whereon to exercise and employ thy heart and strength; I have given thee an excellent instrument, the hand, accommodated to make use of them all; I have distinguished the earth into hills and valleys, and plains, and meadows, and woods; all these parts capable of culture and improvement by thy industry; I have committed to thee for thy assistance in the labours of ploughing and carrying, and drawing, and travel, the laborious ox, the patient ass, and the strong and serviceable horse; I have created a multitude of seeds for thee to make choice out of them of what is most pleasant to thy taste, and of most wholesome and plentiful nourishment; I have also made great variety of trees, bearing fruit both for food and physic, those, too, capable of being meliorated and improved by transportation, stercoration, incision, pruning, watering, and other arts and devices. Till and manure thy fields, sow them with thy seeds, extirpate noxious and unprofitable herbs, guard them from the invasions and spoils of beasts, clear and fence in thy meadows and pastures; dress and prune thy vines, and so rank and dispose them as is most suitable to the climate; plant thee orchards, with all sorts of fruit trees, in such order as may be most beautiful to the eye, and most comprehensive of plants; gardens for culinary herbs, and all kinds of salading; for delectable flowers to gratify the eye with their agreeable colours and figures, and thy scent with their fragrant odours; for odoriferous and evergreen shrubs and suffrutices; for exotic and medicinal plants of all sorts, and dispose them in their comely order, as may be both pleasant to behold and commodious for access. I have furnished thee with all materials for building, as stone, and timber, and slate, and lime, and clay, and earth, whereof to make bricks and tiles. Deck and bespangle the country with houses and villages convenient for thy habitation, provided with outhouses and stables for the harbouring and shelter of thy cattle, with barns and granaries for the reception and custody, and storing up thy corn and fruits. I have made thee a sociable creature, Ζῶον πολιτικὸν, for the improvement of thy understanding by conference, and communication of observations and experiments; for mutual help, and assistance, and defence; build thee large towns and cities, with straight and well paved streets, and elegant rows of houses, adorned with magnificent temples for thy honour and worship, with beautiful palaces for thy princes and grandees, with stately halls for public meetings of the citizens and their several companies, and the sessions of the courts of judicature, besides public porticos and aqueducts. I have implanted in thy nature a desire of seeing strange and foreign, and finding out unknown countries, for the improvement and advance of thy knowledge in geography, by observing the bays, and creeks, and havens, and promontories, the outlets of rivers, the situation of the maritime towns and cities, the longitude and latitude, etc., of those places: in politics, by noting their government, their manners, laws, and customs, their diet and medicine, their trade and manufactures, their houses and buildings, their exercises and sports, etc. In physiology, or natural history, by searching out their natural rarities, the productions both of land and water, what species of animals, plants, and minerals, of fruits and drugs are to be found there, what commodities for bartering and permutation, whereby thou mayest be enabled to make large additions to natural history, to advance those other sciences, and to benefit and enrich thy country by increase of its trade and |