lies all within the Verge of the Court? He will tell you the Names of the principal Favourites, repeat the fhrewd Sayings of a Man of Quality, whisper an Intreague that is not yet blown upon by common Fame; or, if the Sphere of his Obfervations is a little larger than ordinary, will perhaps enter into all the Incidents, Turns, and Revolutions in a Game of Ombre. When he has gone thus far he has fhewn you the whole Circle of his Accomplishments, his Parts are drained, and he is difabled from any further Conversation. What are these but rank Pedants? and yet these are the Men who value themselves most on their Exemption from the Pedantry of Colleges. I might here mention the Military Pedant who always talks in a Camp, and is ftorming Towns, making Lodgments, and fighting Battles from one end of the Year to the other. Every thing he speaks fmells of Gunpowder; if you take away his Artillery from him, he has not a Word to fay for himself. I might likewife mention the Law Pedant, that is perpetually putting Cafes, repeating the Tranfactions of Westminster-Hall, wrangling with you upon the most indifferent Circumstances of Life, and not to be convinced of the Distance of a Place, or of the most trivial Point in Converfation, but by dint of Argument. The State-Pedant is wrapt up in News, and loft in Politicks. If you mention either of the Kings of Spain or Poland, he talks very notably; but if you go out of the Gazette, you drop him. In short, a meer Courtier, a meer Soldier, a meer Scholar, a meer any thing, is an insipid Pedantick Character, and equally ridiculous. OF all the Species of Pedants, which I have mentioned, the Book-Pedant is much the moft fupportable; he has at least an exercifed Understanding, and a Head which is full though confused, fo that a Man who converfes with him may often receive from him hints of things that are worth knowing, and what he may poffibly turn to his own Advantage, tho' they are of little Ufe to the Owner, The worst kind of Pedants among Learned Men, are fuch as are naturally endued with a very fmall Share of common Senfe, and have read a great number of Books without Tafte or Diftinction. THE Truth of it is, Learning, like Travelling, and all other Methods of Improvement, as it finishes good Senfe, fo fo it makes a filly Man ten thousand times more infufferable,by fupplying variety of Matter to his Impertinence,and giving him an Opportunity of abounding in Abfurdities. SHALLOW Pedants cry up one another much more than Men of folid and useful Learning. To read the Titles they give an Editor, or Collator of a Manufcript, you would take him for the Glory of the Common-wealth of -Letters, and the Wonder of his Age, when perhaps upon Examination you find that he has only Rectify'd a Greek Particle, or laid out a whole Sentence in proper Commas. THEY are obliged indeed to be thus lavish of their Praifes, that they may keep one another in Countenance; and it is no wonder if a great deal of Knowledge, which is not capable of making a Man wife, has a natural Tendency to make him Vain and Arrogant. L N° 106. H Monday, July 2. Hinc tibi Copia Manabit ad plenum, benigno Hor. AVING often received an Invitation from my Friend Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY to pafs away a Month with him in the Country, I laft Week accompanied him thither, and am fettled with him for fome Time at his Country-houfe, where I intend to form feveral of my enfuing Speculations. Sir ROGER, who is very well acquainted with my Humour, lets me rife and go to Bed when I please, dine at his own Table or in my Chamber as I think fit, fit ftill and fay nothing without bidding me be merry. When the Gentlemen of the Country come to fee him, he only fhews me at a Distance. As I have been walking in his Fields I have obferved them ftealing a Sight of me over an Hedge, and have heard the Knight defiring them not to let me fee them, for that I hated to be stared at. I am the more at Eafe in Sir ROGER's Family, because it confifts of fober and ftaid Perfons: for as the Knight is the best Master in the World, he feldom changes his Servants, and as he is beloved by all about him, his Servants never care for leaving him: By this Means his Domefticks are all in Years, and grown old with their Mafter. You would take his Valet de Chambre for his Brother, his Butler is grey-headed, his Groom is one of the graveft Men that I have ever feen, and his Coachman has the Looks of a Privy-Counsellor. You fee the Goodness of the Mafter even in the old House-dog, and in a grey Pad that is kept in the Stable with great Care and Tendernefs out of Regard to his past Services, tho' he has been useless for feveral Years. I could not but observe with a great deal of Pleafure the Joy that appeared in the Countenances of thefe antient Domefticks upon my Friend's Arrival at his CountrySeat. Some of them could not refrain from Tears at the Sight of their old Mafter; every one of them prefs'd forward to do fomething for him, and feemed difcouraged if they were not employed. At the fame time the good old Knight, with a Mixture of the Father and the Mafter of the Family, tempered the Enquiries after his own Affairs with feveral kind Questions relating to themselves. This Humanity and Good-nature engages every Body to him, fo that when he is pleafant upon any of them, all his Family are in Good Humour, and none fo' much as the Perfon whom he diverts himfelf with: On the contrary, if he coughs, or betrays any Infirmity of old Age, it is eafy for a Stander-by to obferve a fecret Concern in the Looks of all his Servants. MY worthy Friend has put me under the particular Care of his Butler, who is a very prudent Man, and, as well as the rest of his Fellow-Servants, wonderfully defirous of pleafing me, because they have often heard their Mafter talk of me as of his particular Friend, MY chief Companion, when Sir ROGER is diverting himfelf in the Woods or the Fields, is a very venerable Man who is ever with Sir ROGER, and has lived at his House in the Nature of a Chaplain above thirty Years. This Gentleman is a Perfon of good Senfe and fome Learning, of a very regular Life and obliging Converfation: He He heartily loves Sir ROGER, and knows that he is very much in the old Knight's Esteem, fo that he lives in the Family rather as a Relation than a Dependant. I have obferved in feveral of my Papers, that my Friend Sir ROGER, amidst all his good Qualities, is fomething of an Humourift; and that his Virtues, as well as Imperfections, are as it were tinged by a certain Extravagance, which makes them particularly his, and diftinguishes them from those of other Men. This Caft of Mind, as it is generally very innocent in it felf, fo it renders his Converfation highly agreeable, and more delightful than the fame Degree of Senfe and Virtue would appear in their common and ordinary Colours. As I was walking with him last Night, he asked me how I liked the good Man whom I have juft now mentioned? and without staying for my Answer told me, That he was afraid of being infulted with Latin and Greek at his own Table; for which Rea fon he defired a particular Friend of his at the University to find him out à Clergyman rather of plain Senfe than much Learning, of a good Afpect, a clear Voice, a fociable Temper, and, if poffible, a Man that understood a little of Back-Gammon. My Friend, fays Sir ROGER, found me out this Gentleman, who, befides the Endowments required of him, is, they tell me, a good Scholar, though he does not fhew it. I have given him the Parfonage of the Parish; and because I know his Value have fettled upon him a good Annuity for Life. If he out-lives me, he fhall find that he was higher in my Esteem than perhaps he thinks he is. He has now been with me thirty Years; and tho' he does not know I have taken Notice of it, has never in all that Time asked any thing of me for himself, tho' he is every Day folliciting me for fomething in Behalf of one or other of my Tenants his Parishioners. There has not been a Law-Suit in the Parifh fince he has lived among them: If any Difpute arifes they apply themselves to him for the Decifion; if they do not acquiefce in his Judgment, which I think never happened above once or twice at moft, they appeal to me. At his first fettling with me, I made him a Present of all the good Sermons which have been printed in English, and only begged of him that every Sunday he would pronounce one of them in the Pulpit. Accordingly, he has digefted digefted them into fuch a Series, that they follow one another naturally, and make a continued Syftem of practical Divinity. He AS Sir ROGER was going on in his Story, the Gentleman we were talking of came up to us; and upon the Knight's asking him who preached to-morrow (for it was Saturday Night) told us the Bishop of St. Asaph in the Morning, and Dr. South in the Afternoon. then fhewed us his Lift of Preachers for the whole Year, where I saw with a great deal of Pleasure Archbishop Tillotfon, Bishop Saunderfon, Doctor Rarrow, Doctor Calamy, with feveral living Authors who have published Difcourfes of Practical Divinity. I no fooner faw this Venerable Man in the Pulpit, but I very much approved of my Friend's infifting upon the Qualifications of a good Afpect and a clear Voice; for I was so charmed with the Gracefulness of his Figure and Delivery, as well as with the Difcourfes he pronounced, that I think I never paffed any Time more to my Satisfaction. A Sermon repeated after this Manner, is like the Composition of a Poet in the Mouth of a graceful Actor. I could heartily wish that more of our Country-Clergy would follow this Example; and instead of wafting their Spirits in laborious Compofitions of their own, would endeavour after a handfome Elocution, and all those other Talents that are proper to enforce what has been penned by greater Mafters. This would not only be more easie to themselves, but more edifying to the People. L T Tuesday, July 3. Afopo ingentem ftatuam pofuere Attici, Phæd. HE Reception, manner of Attendance, undisturbed Freedom and Quiet, which I meet with here in the Country, has confirmed me in the Opinion I always had, that the general Corruption of Manners in VOL. II, E Servants |