us better. Something

thing good and useful they do afford; tho' virtue, which ought to be the principal business in view, may be acquired without them. We may become wise without the assistance of the arts, tho' (as observed before,) they are far from being useless: as by a good translation made into our own tongue, we may know what an author means, and yet by taking the pains to become masters of the original language, might gain more advantages,—such as entring better into the writer's sense, and discovering some beauties which cannot otherwise be found: So the useful things in the sciences may be very quickly and easily learned, and tho' by great labour in becoming accurately acquainted with them, we might fill our heads with speculations, yet this cannot make us the wiser and better men. Without being learned, we may be wise and good.
T.
And are the learned then in no better a condition than the people in respect of moral excellence? (I said). Are the speculations of the scholar, and the arts and fine inventions of the schools, of no use in perfecting the moral character? This to me seems a little strange.
O.
Blind as the crowd is the man of letters, in this particular (my instructor replied): All his studies and curious knowledge have no relation to his living right. With all the tongues, and all the arts, he may be a libertine,

a sot, a miser, or a knave, a traitor to his country, and have no moral character at all. This we see every day.
T.
But what is the cause of so strange a thing, I requested to know? I observe that these men of letters seem to sit down contented in the second inclosure, and do not attempt to go on to the third where Wisdom resides; tho' they see continually before their eyes so many passing on from the first court, where they had lived for some time in lewdness and excess, to the habitation of true learning.
O.
It is their remaining in this second inclosure, that occasions their being inferior in moral things to those who have not had a learned education. Proud and self-sufficient on account of their languages, arts, and sciences, they despise what Wisdom could teach them, and will not give themselves the trouble of ascending with difficulty to the mansion of true learning. They have no taste for the lessons of Wisdom; while the humble mount to her exalted dwelling, those scholars, as you see, are satisfied