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Article ON THE FALSE LEARNING OF THE PRESENT AGE. ← Page 4 of 5 →
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On The False Learning Of The Present Age.
" appearance , however , was presently forgotten when he began to " sing and play , both of which he did in a manner so exquisite and " masterly , that the most rapturous attention fixed every eye upon " him ; and while he touched the chords , his air and figure , and his " very instrument , homely as it was , appeared with infinitely more " grace than his opponent was able to assumewith the aid of his
, " trappings and insignia . As he was returning from the theatre , " with his crown of victory on his head , he met Evangelus , and thus " accosted him— ' Friend , you have now had an opportunity of learn' ing , that the union of folly and splendour draws aggravated ridicule c upon both ; and that where we find it yoked with arrogance and ' pompositywe cannot even pity the miscarriages of ignorance . "
, I have no intention , any more than my friend Lucian , to hold to ridicule those hunters after books and editions , in whom this curiosity is built on a certain patriotism in literature , and that delicacy of selection which true taste inspires . I have only in my thoughts a set of characters who contemplate the sacred walks of the academy as a market or fairwherein pedlar fashionthey have only to bustle
, , , among rows of book-stalls , and purchase learning on the true mercantile principle of buying that only which may be sold to advantage again . I am told , that many of our adepts in this species of traffic , introduce some speculation into the commerce of books , and will buy an . author very much out of condition , to get him up in order , against
a good time for sale ; and that oftentimes an old stager that has been hacked through a public school , will , under proper management , come out in the spring with an entire new coat , ' and so judiciously hogged and cropped , that , except you opened his mouth , you might imagine him in the full prime and mettle of his years . But this diffusion of literary property which printing lias produced , is not only chargeable with this nominal learning to which it has iven
g an injurious kind of credit among us ; but we may lay to its ; . ocount also a tendency to draw out our ancient weight of metal into flimsy wire , or to flatten its substance into tawdry plates , to cover over a larger surface indeed , but to impose a . fictitious worth on the simple and the vulgar . There is little doubt but that the practice of transcribing , on which the ancients were forced from the scarcity of
books , was calculated to impress them deeply with the subjects on which they were engaged , and opposed a salutary barrier to that roving inconstancy , of pursuit ,, which , acting on the mind with opposite impulses , suspends it in a floating medium of broken particulars . The continuity of thought , and perseverance of application , enforced by these difficulties and restraints , had a direct tendency to give to
the ancients that mastery over the subjects about which they were conversant , that power of assimilation , that unperishing tenure , that unalienable property , wdiich mi ghtily manifests itself in the vigour ancl simplicity of their details , and the masculine touches of bold orig inality with which the } ' abound . The same literary wants , in which , on a superficial view , we seem to see so much to lament , threw them upon the frequent necessity of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The False Learning Of The Present Age.
" appearance , however , was presently forgotten when he began to " sing and play , both of which he did in a manner so exquisite and " masterly , that the most rapturous attention fixed every eye upon " him ; and while he touched the chords , his air and figure , and his " very instrument , homely as it was , appeared with infinitely more " grace than his opponent was able to assumewith the aid of his
, " trappings and insignia . As he was returning from the theatre , " with his crown of victory on his head , he met Evangelus , and thus " accosted him— ' Friend , you have now had an opportunity of learn' ing , that the union of folly and splendour draws aggravated ridicule c upon both ; and that where we find it yoked with arrogance and ' pompositywe cannot even pity the miscarriages of ignorance . "
, I have no intention , any more than my friend Lucian , to hold to ridicule those hunters after books and editions , in whom this curiosity is built on a certain patriotism in literature , and that delicacy of selection which true taste inspires . I have only in my thoughts a set of characters who contemplate the sacred walks of the academy as a market or fairwherein pedlar fashionthey have only to bustle
, , , among rows of book-stalls , and purchase learning on the true mercantile principle of buying that only which may be sold to advantage again . I am told , that many of our adepts in this species of traffic , introduce some speculation into the commerce of books , and will buy an . author very much out of condition , to get him up in order , against
a good time for sale ; and that oftentimes an old stager that has been hacked through a public school , will , under proper management , come out in the spring with an entire new coat , ' and so judiciously hogged and cropped , that , except you opened his mouth , you might imagine him in the full prime and mettle of his years . But this diffusion of literary property which printing lias produced , is not only chargeable with this nominal learning to which it has iven
g an injurious kind of credit among us ; but we may lay to its ; . ocount also a tendency to draw out our ancient weight of metal into flimsy wire , or to flatten its substance into tawdry plates , to cover over a larger surface indeed , but to impose a . fictitious worth on the simple and the vulgar . There is little doubt but that the practice of transcribing , on which the ancients were forced from the scarcity of
books , was calculated to impress them deeply with the subjects on which they were engaged , and opposed a salutary barrier to that roving inconstancy , of pursuit ,, which , acting on the mind with opposite impulses , suspends it in a floating medium of broken particulars . The continuity of thought , and perseverance of application , enforced by these difficulties and restraints , had a direct tendency to give to
the ancients that mastery over the subjects about which they were conversant , that power of assimilation , that unperishing tenure , that unalienable property , wdiich mi ghtily manifests itself in the vigour ancl simplicity of their details , and the masculine touches of bold orig inality with which the } ' abound . The same literary wants , in which , on a superficial view , we seem to see so much to lament , threw them upon the frequent necessity of