All  these  pretensions,  however  confident,  are  very
often  vain.    The  laurels  which  superficial  acuteness  gains

loin  triumphs  over  ignorance  unsupported  by  vivacity,
are  observed  by  Locke  to  be  lost,  whenever  real  learning
and  rational  diligence  appear  against  her;  the  sallies
of  gaiety  are  soon  repressed  by  calm  confidence;  and
the  artifices  of  subtilty  are  readily  detected  by  those

16  who,  having  carefully  studied  the  question,  are  not  easily
confounded  or  surprised.
But,  though  the  contemner  of  books  had  neither  been
deceived  by  others  nor  himself,  and  was  really  bom
with  a  genius  surpassing  the  ordinary  abilities  of  man-

30  kind ;  yet  surely  such  gifts  of  Providence  may  be  more
properly  urged  as  incitements  to  labor,  than  encourage-
ments to  negligence.  He  that  neglects  the  culture  of
ground  naturally  fertile,  is  more  shamefully  culpable
than    he    whose    field    would   scarcely   recompense    his

^  husbandry.
Cicero  remarks,  that  not  to  know  what  has  been  trans-
acted in  former  times,  is  to  continue  always  a  child.
If  no  use  is  made  of  the  labors  of  past  ages,  the  world
must  remain  always  in  the  infancy  of  knowledge.     The

80  discoveries  of  every  man  must  terminate  in  his  own
advantage,  and  the  studies  of  every  age  be  employed  on
questions  which  the  past  generation  had  discussed  and
determined.  We  may  with  as  little  reproach  borrow
science   as   manufactures   from   our   ancestors;    and   it

85  is  as  rational  to  live  in  caves  till  our  own  hands  have
erected  a  palace,  as  to  reject  all  knowledge  of  archi-
tecture which  our  understandings  will  not  supply.
