They could nowhere find so pleasant a
companion, for his natural talent was improved by cultivation, and it is
when humour is united with learning--a rare combination--that it attains
its highest excellence. There was much classical erudition at that day,
and it was exhibited by men of letters in their ordinary conversation in
a way which would appear to us pedantic. Thus many of Swift's best
sayings turned on an allusion to some ancient author, as when speaking
of the emptiness of modern writers, who depend upon compilations and
digressions for filling up a treatise "that shall make a very comely
figure on a bookseller's shelf, there to be preserved neat and clean for
a long eternity, never to be thumbed or greased by students: but when
the fulness of time is come, shall happily undergo the trial of
purgatory in order to ascend the sky." He continues:--
"From such elements as these I am alive to behold the day, wherein
the corporation of authors can outvie all its brethren in the
guild. A happiness derived to us, with a great many others, from
our Scythian ancestors, among whom the number of pens was so
infinite that Grecian eloquence had no other way of expressing it
than by saying that in the regions of the north it was hardly
possible for a man to travel--the very air was so replete with
feathers.
Pages:
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61