Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/125

 learned treatise without a panegyric of modern learning and knowledge in comparison of the ancient: and the other falls so grossly into the censure of the old poetry, and preference of the new, that I could not read either of these strains without some indignation, which no quality among men is so apt to raise in me as sufficiency, the worst composition out of the pride and ignorance of mankind. But these two being not the only persons of the age that defend these opinions, it may be worth examining how far either reason or experience can be allowed to plead or determine in their favour.

The force of all that I have met with upon this subject either in talk or writings, is, first, as to knowledge: that we must have more than the ancients, because we have the advantage both of theirs and our own, which is commonly illustrated by the similitude of a dwarf's standing upon a giant's shoulders, and seeing more or farther than he: next, as to wit or genius, that nature being still the same, these must be much at a rate in all ages, at least in the same climates, as the growth and size of plants and animals commonly are. And if both these are allowed they think the