Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/150

 pedantry has had a very ill one upon the commonwealth of learning, and I wish the vein of ridiculing all that is serious and good, all honour and virtue, as well as learning and piety, may have no worse effects on any other state: it is the itch of our age and climate, and has over-run both the Court and the Stage; enters a House of Lords and Commons as boldly as a coffee-house; debates of Council as well as private conversation; and I have known in my life more than one or two Ministers of State, that would rather have said a witty thing than done a wise one, and made the company laugh, rather than the kingdom rejoice. But this is enough to excuse the imperfections of learning in our age, and to censure the sufficiency of some of the learned; and this small piece of justice I have done the ancients, will not, I hope, be taken any more than it is meant, for any injury to the moderns.

I shall conclude with a saying of Alphonsus (surnamed the Wise), King of Arragon:

"That among so many things as are by men possessed, or pursued, in the course of their lives, all the rest are baubles, besides old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to converse with, and old books to read."