 discovered the true Essence of two Things, without discerning
their Difference, seems to me hard to conceive; now this last is the undisputed
Province of Judgment, and yet some few Men of Wit have agreed with all the dull
Fellows in the World, in representing these two to have been seldom or never the
Property of one and the same Person.
    But tho' they should be so, they are not sufficient for our Purpose without
a good Share of Learning; for which I could again cite the Authority of Horace,
and of many others, if any was necessary to prove that Tools are of no Service
to a Workman, when they are not sharpened by Art, or when he wants Rules to
direct him in his Work, or hath no Matter to work upon. All these Uses are
supplied by Learning: For Nature can only furnish us with Capacity, or, as I
have chose to illustrate it, with the Tools of our Profession; Learning must fit
them for Use, must direct them in it; and lastly, must contribute, Part at
least, of the Materials. A competent Knowledge of History and of the Belles
Lettres, is here absolutely necessary; and without this Share of Knowledge at
least, to affect the Character of an Historian, is as vain as to endeavour at
building a House without Timber or Mortar, or Brick or Stone. Homer and Milton,
who, though they added the Ornament of Numbers to their Works, were both
Historians of our Order, were Masters of all the Learning of their Times.
    Again, there is another Sort of Knowledge beyond the Power of Learning to
bestow, and this is to be had by Conversation. So necessary is this to the
understanding the Characters of Men, that none are more ignorant of them than
those learned Pedants, whose Lives have been entirely consumed in Colleges, and
among Books: For however exquisitely Human Nature may have been described by
Writers, the true practical System can be learnt only in the World. Indeed the
like happens in every other Kind of Knowledge. Neither Physic, nor Law, are to
be practically known from Books. Nay, the Farmer, the Planter, the Gardener,
must perfect by Experience what he hath acquired the Rudiments of by Reading.
How accurately soever the ingenious Mr. Miller may have described the Plant, he
himself would advise his Disciple to see it in the Garden. As we must perceive,
that after the nicest Strokes of a Shakespear, or a Johnson, of a Wycherly, or
an Otway, some Touches of Nature will escape the Reader, which the judicious
Action of
