NUMB. 173. TUESDAY, November 12, 1751.

Quo virtus, quo ferat error?

Now fay, where virtue ftops, and vice begins?

HOR

S any action or pofture, long continued, will diftort and disfigure the limbs; fo the mind likewife is crippled and contracted by perpetual application to the fame fet of ideas. It is eafy to guess the trade of an artizan by his knees, his fingers, or his fhoulders; and there are few among men of the more liberal profeffions, whofe minds do not carry the brand of their calling, or whofe converfation does not quickly discover to what clafs of the community they belong.

These peculiarities have been of great use, in the general hoftility which every part of mankind exercifes against the reft, to furnish infults and farcasms. Every art has its dialect uncouth and ungrateful to all whom custom has not reconciled to its found, and which therefore becomes ridiculous by a flight mifapplication, or unneceffary repetition.

The general reproach with which ignorance revenges the fupercilioufnefs of learning, is that of pedantry; a cenfure which every man incurs, who has at any time the misfortune to talk to thofe who cannot understand him, and by which the modest and timorous are fometimes frighted from the difplay of their acquifitions, and the exertion of their powers.

The

The name of a pedant is fo formidable to young men when they first fally from their colleges, and is fo liberally scattered by those who mean to boast their elegance of education, eafiness of manners, and knowledge of the world, that it seems to require particular confideration; fince, perhaps, if it were once understood, many a heart might be freed from painful apprehenfions, and many a tongue delivered from reftraint.

Pedantry is the unfeasonable oftentation of learning. It may be discovered either in the choice of a subject, or in the manner of treating it. He is undoubtedly guilty of pedantry, who, when he has made himself master of some abstruse and uncultivated part of knowledge, obtrudes his remarks and discoveries upon those whom he believes unable to judge of his proficiency, and from whom, as he cannot fear contradiction, he cannot properly expect applause.

To this error the student is fometimes betrayed by the natural recurrence of the mind to its common employment, by the pleasure which every man receives from the recollection of pleafing images, and the defire of dwelling upon topicks, on which he knows himself able to speak with juftness. But because we are seldom fo far prejudiced in favour of each other, as to fearch out for palliations, this failure of politeness is imputed always to vanity; and the harmless collegiate, who perhaps intended entertainment and instruction, or at worst only spoke without fufficient reflection upon the character of his hearers, is cenfured as arrogant or overbearing, and eager to extend his renown, in contempt of the convenience of fociety, and the laws of conversation.

All difcourfe of which others cannot partake, is not only an irksome ufurpation of the time devoted to pleasure and entertainment, but, what never fails to excite very keen refentment, an infolent affertion of fuperiority, and a triumph over lefs enlightened understandings. The pedant is, therefore, not only heard with wearinefs, but malignity; and those who conceive themselves infulted by his knowledge, never fail to tell with acrimony how injudiciously it was exerted.

To avoid this dangerous imputation, scholars sometimes diveft themselves with too much hafte of their academical formality, and in their endeavours to accommodate their notions and their ftyle to common conceptions, talk rather of any thing than of that which they understand, and fink into infipidity of fentiment and meannefs of expreffion.

There prevails among men of letters an opinion, that all appearance of fcience is particularly hateful to women; and that therefore, whoever defires to be well received in female affemblies, muft qualify himfelf by a total rejection of all that is serious, rational, or important; muft confider argument or criticism, as perpetually interdicted; and devote all his attention to trifles, and all his eloquence to compliment.

Students often form their notions of the prefent generation from the writings of the past, and are not very early informed of those changes which the gradual diffufion of knowledge, or the fudden caprice of fashion, produces in the world. Whatever might be the ftate of female literature in the last century, there is now no longer any danger left the fcholar fhould want an adequate audience at the tea-table;

and

and whoever thinks it neceffary to regulate his converfation by antiquated rules, will be rather defpifed for his futility than careffed for his politeness.

To talk intentionally in a manner above the comprehenfion of those whom we addrefs, is unquestionable pedantry; but furely complaifance requires, that. no man should, without proof, conclude his company incapable of following him to the highest elevation of his fancy, or the utmost extent of his knowledge. It is always fafer to err in favour of others than of ourfelves, and therefore we feldom hazard much by endeavouring to excel.

It ought at least to be the care of learning, when fhe quits her exaltation, to descend with dignity. Nothing is more defpicable than the airiness and jocularity of a man bred to fevere fcience, and folitary meditation. To trifle agreeably is a fecret which schools cannot impart; that gay negligence and vivacious levity, which charm down refiftance whereever they appear, are never attainable by him who, having spent his first years among the duft of libraries, enters late into the gay world with an unpliant attention and established habits.

It is obferved in the panegyrick on Fabricius the mechanift, that, though forced by publick employments into mingled converfation, he never loft the modesty and seriousness of the convent, nor drew ridicule upon himself by an affected imitation of fafhionable life. To the fame praise every man devoted to learning ought to afpire. If he attempts the fofter arts of pleafing, and endeavours to learn the graceful bow and the familiar embrace, the infinuating accent and the general fmile, he will lose the

respect due to the character of learning, without arriving at the envied honour of doing any thing with elegance and facility.

Theophraftus was discovered not to be a native of Athens, by fo ftrict an adherence to the Attic dialect, as fhewed that he had learned it not by custom, but by rule. A man not early formed to habitual elegance, betrays in like manner the effects of his education, by an unneceffary anxiety of behaviour. It is as poffible to become pedantick by fear of pedantry, as to be troublesome by ill-timed civility. There is no kind of impertinence more juftly cenfurable, than his who is always labouring to level thoughts to intellects higher than his own; who apologizes for every word which his own narrowness of converse inclines him to think unufual; keeps the exuberance of his faculties under vifible reftraint; is folicitous to anticipate enquiries by needlefs explanations; and endea vours to fhade his own abilities, left weak eyes fhould be dazzled with their luftre.