As this false claim to wisdom is the source of many faults, as well as miseries, to men of learning, it seems of the utmost importance, to obviate it in the young, who may be imagined to be very little tainted, and suppress it in others, whose greater advances, and more extensive reputation, have more endangered them; nor can any man think himself so innocent of this fault, or so secure from it, as that it should be unnecessary for him to consider,
First: The dangers which men of learning incur, by being wise in their own conceits.
Secondly: The proper means by which that pernicious conceit of wisdom may be avoided or suppressed.
In order to state with more accuracy the dangers which men dedicated to learning may be reasonably imagined to incur, by being wise in their own conceits; it is necessary to distinguish the different periods of their lives; and to examine, whether this disposition is not in its tendency equally opposite to our duty, and, by inevitable consequence, in its effects, equally destructive of our happiness, in every state.
The business of the life of a scholar is to accumulate, and to diffuse knowledge; to learn, in order that he may teach. The first part of his time is assigned to study, and the acquisition of learning; the latter, to the practice of those arts which he has acquired, and to the instruction of others, who have had less time, or opportunities, or abilities for improvement. In the state, therefore, of a learner, or of a teacher, the man of letters is always to be considered; and if it shall appear, that, on whatever part of his task he is employed, a false opinion of his own excellence will naturally and certainly defeat his endeavours; it may be hoped, that there will be found sufficient reason, why no man should "be wise in his own conceit."
Since no man can teach what he has never learned, the value and usefulness of the latter part of life must depend in a great measure upon the proper application of the earlier years; and he that neglects the improve-
