the pen charms us, because we read with pleasure that which flatters our opinion of our own powers; what was composed with great struggles of the mind we do not easily reject, because we cannot bear that so much labour should be fruitless. But the reader has none of these prepossessions, and wonders that the author is so unlike himself, without considering that the same soil will, with different culture, afford different products.
Numb. 22. Saturday, June 2, 1750.
———— Ego nec studium sine divite venâ,
Nec rude quid prosit video ingenium, alterius sic
Altera poscit opem res, & conjurat amice.Hor.
Without a genius learning soars in vain;
And without learning genius sinks again;
Their force united crowns the sprightly reign.
Elphinston.
Wit and Learning were the children of Apollo, by different mothers; Wit was the offspring of Euphrosyne, and resembled her in cheerfulness and vivacity; Learning was born of Sophia, and retained her seriousness and caution. As their mothers were rivals, they were bred up by them from their birth in habitual opposition, and all means were so incessantly employed to impress upon them a hatred and contempt of each other, that though Apollo, who foresaw the ill effects of their discord, endeavoured to soften them, by dividing his regard equally between them, yet
