OTIUM UM DIGKUTAN To the Right Honourable Charles Lord Hallifax. MY LORD, Imilitude of Man ners and Studies is usually menti oned as one of the strong eft Motives to Affection and Efteem; but the paffi onate Veneration I have for Your Lordship,Ithink, flows from an Admiration of Qualities in You, of which,in the whole Courfe of these Papers, 1 have acknowledged my self incapable. While I busie my felf as a Stranger upon Earth, and can pretend to no other than being a Looker-on, You are con fpicuous in the Bufie and Polite Polite World, both in the: World of Men and that of Letters! While I am filent and unobferved in publick Meetings, You are admired by all that approach You as the Life and Genius of the Converfation. What an happy Conjunction of different Talents meets in him whofe whole Difcourfe is at once animated by the Strength and Force of Reafon, and a dorned dorned with all the Graces and Embellishments of Wit? When Learning irradiates common Life, it is then in its highest Ufe and Perfection; and it is to fuch as Your Lordship, that the Sciences owe the Efteem which they have with the active Part of Mankind. Knowledge of Books in reclufe Men, is like that fort of Lanthorn which hides him who car ries |