that the whole of my fair countrywomen, and Priscilla among the rest, will be ready to exclaim, with Mercutio

"Men's eyes were made to look, and let them."

NUMBER 13.

"Some men there are whom Heaven has blest with wit, "Yet want as much again to manage it."-POPE.

IT has often been a matter of surprise and astonishment to many, that men of acknowledged talents and superior abilities have yet been so totally ignorant of the common forms of civil society, as to lay themselves open to the impositions of the worthless, and become subjects of ridicule to others, who in literary attainments are incomparably their inferiors. Nor is it at all uncommon to meet with men of the first eminence in some walks of literature, who either affect to despise those pursuits which differ from their own; or expose their ignorance when conversing on them in an almost incredible manner. Of the former of these characters the celebrated Dr. Goldsmith presents a remarkable instance.— Whilst engaged in works which will immortalize

his name, this great author was the dupe of every one who came to him in the garb of distress. His feelings, however, were doubtless honourable to human nature, and were productive of unpleasantness only to himself. On the latter I cannot look in so favourable a point of view. If we trace to its proper source the contemptuous manner in which some men pretend to treat certain subjects, we shall find that it does not spring from a conviction of the unprofitableness of those subjects; but that the love of fame, and the wish of standing high in the estimation of the world, induce them to display their information on topics familiar to themselves, and to despise others (though of equal importance) of which they themselves are ignorant. Characters such as these are but too common in the literary world. How much more amiable is the person who unassumingly imparts to those who surround him the benefit of his labours, and in turn listens to those whose inclinations have led them to other pursuits, than he who pompously sets forth his own abilities, and rudely refuses his assent to opinions, which he would insinuate to be beneath the notice of a man of sense. Such a one, though he be blessed with first-rate talents, yet becomes disgusting to his friends by his self-sufficiency, and affords opportunities to his enemies to expose him to deserved ridicule. Foras in beauty,

so in the endowments of the mind, does modesty confer the greatest charm. To hear a man converse with ease and elegance on the history of Greece and Rome, and, when the conversation turns on the state of his own country, betray the most palpable ignorance, though not an uncommon, must yet be allowed to be a surprising circumstance.

No less do we wonder when men, whose learning entitles them to the highest respect, support their opinions by arguments, or introduce subjects of discourse, where the rules of common society forbid their entrance. This may, in some instances, arise from a contempt of those established rules as below the regard of the man of science. But surely such conduct evinces a want of common sense. "When you are at Rome, do as they do at Rome." If the regulations of civilized life do not militate against virtue, they {ought to be obeyed even although they be trifling. Order is Heaven's first law," and the neglect of it, and of forms sanctioned by ages, has, in the instance of that nation which now proudly threatens our destruction, been attended with the direst effects. But it oftener springs from the pride of learning, of all others the most dangerous; inasmuch as it has a better foundation than either birth or beauty can afford. This overweening consciousness of ability in one branch,

most effectually closes the avenues of others, and gives that ill-directed bias to the mind which stamps with truth the observation I have chosen as the motto of this paper.

But of every species of ill-directed wit, that which chooses religion for its object is the most despicable. To say that one acting in this manner wants as much again to manage what he has, is but a feeble condemnation of his wretched misapplication of it. Arguments, irrefragable in their nature, and convincing in the detail, have been so abundantly employed by the wisest men whom this world ever saw, to prove the pernicious effects of such principles, that I need not enter at large into them in this place. Perhaps, however, Christianity has not a more formidable enemy to encounter than a person of this stamp. Few, if any, were ever turned to infidelity by argument; whilst many have to lament the time when, seduced by the glare of wit and learning, they suffered themselves to be deprived of their only sure hope, and became ashamed of their profession through the fear of ridicule. Men who employ their wit in this manner, are much more dangerous than we are in general aware of. The facility with which the uneducated human mind assimilates its ideas to those of men respectable from their learning, is

one great cause of our deflection from our preconceived opinions, even when those opinions are right. That such men, however, are justly entitled to the appellation of learned, and philosophers, I cannot conceive. Talents thus abused can only be superficial, except in very few instances, which are therefore the more to be lamented. "A little learning is a dangerous thing" but they who explore the paths of true philosophy, will, the deeper they penetrate, be the more impressed with the awful truths of religion, and the certainty of the being of a God. With regard to the common events of life, little need be said. How frequently do we express our surprise at the actions of our friends! and yet we do not, although we condemn those actions, suppose that those friends are not able to regulate their own affairs; on the contrary, we are convinced that they are men of understanding. Does not this shew that a man may be learned without much common sense; and also that he may have that sense and yet not know how to apply it?

The following character will exemplify how a man of talent may become an object of ridicule -and the more so as it is not an imaginary one, but drawn from nature. Tom Wou'dbe is now verging on that age, when, if a man continues