contempt of those very women; or, lastly, I must have hanged myself, as a man once did, for weariness of putting on and pulling off his shoes and stockings every day. My books, and only my books, are now left me, and I daily find what Cicero says of learning to be true: "Hæc studia" (says he) "adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium, ac solatium præbent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur." [October, 1746.]
Foolish Talk.—The conversation of the ignorant
is no conversation, and gives even them no pleasure;
they tire of their own sterility, and have not
matter enough to furnish them with words to keep
up a conversation. [Same date.]
World Knowledge.—Do not imagine that the
knowledge, which I so much recommend to you, is
confined to books, pleasing, useful, and necessary as
that knowledge is; but I comprehend in it the great
knowledge of the world, still more necessary than
that of books. In truth, they assist one another reciprocally;
and no man will have either perfectly,
who has not both. The knowledge of the world is
only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.
Books alone will never teach it you; but they will
