Page:An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe.djvu/131



acquire a character for learning among the English at present, it is necessary to know much more than is either important or useful. The absurd passion of being deemed profound, has done more injury to all kinds of science, than is generally imagined. Some thus exhaust their natural sagacity in exploring the intricacies of another man's thought, and have never found leisure to think for themselves; others have carried on learning from that stage, where the good sense of our ancestors thought it too minute or too speculative to instruct or amuse. By the industry of such, the sciences