and is known in the family by the name of the Purling Stream.

The knight likewise tells me that this lady preserves her game better than any of the gentlemen in the country. 5 "Not," says Sir Roger, "that she sets so great a value upon her partridges and pheasants as upon her larks and nightingales; for she says that every bird which is killed in her ground will spoil a consort, and that she shall certainly miss him the next year."

ΙΟ When I think how oddly this lady is improved by learning, I look upon her with a mixture of admiration and pity. Amidst these innocent entertainments which she has formed to herself, how much more valuable does she appear than those of her sex who employ themselves 15 in diversions that are less reasonable, though more in fashion! What improvements would a woman have made who is so susceptible of impressions from what she reads, had she been guided to such books as have a tendency to enlighten the understanding and rectify the passions, as 20 well as to those which are of little more use than to divert the imagination!

But the manner of a lady's employing herself usefully in reading shall be the subject of another paper, in which I design to recommend such particular books as may be 25 proper for the improvement of the sex. And as this is a subject of a very nice nature, I shall desire my correspondents to give me their thoughts upon it.

C.

V. PEDANTRY

[No. 105. Saturday, June 30, 1711. ADDISON.]

Id arbitror

Adprime in vita esse utile, ne quid nimis.

TER.

My friend Will Honeycomb values himself very much upon what he calls the knowledge of mankind, which has cost him many disasters in his youth; for Will reckons every misfortune that he has met with among men as parts of his education; and fancies he should never have been the man 5 he is had not he broke windows, knocked down constables, and disturbed honest people with his midnight serenades when he was a young fellow. The engaging in adventures of this nature Will calls the studying of mankind; and terms this knowledge of the town the knowledge of 10 the world. Will ingenuously confesses that for half his life his head ached every morning with reading of men overnight. This Will looks upon as the learning of a gentleman, and regards all other kinds of science as the accomplishments of one whom he calls a scholar, a book- 15 ish man, or a philosopher.

For these reasons Will shines in mixed company, where he has the discretion not to go out of his depth, and has often a certain way of making his real ignorance appear a seeming one. Our club, however, has frequently caught 20 him tripping, at which times they never spare him. For as Will often insults us with his knowledge of the town, we sometimes take our revenge upon him by our knowledge of books.

He was last week producing two or three letters which he writ in his youth to a coquette lady. The raillery of them was natural, and well enough for a mere man of the town, but, very unluckily, several of the words were 5 wrong spelt. Will laughed this off at first as well as he could; but, finding himself pushed on all sides, and especially by the Templar, he told us, with a little passion, that he never liked pedantry in spelling, and that he spelt like a gentleman, and not like a scholar. Upon this Will 10 had recourse to his old topic of showing the narrowspiritedness, the pride, and ignorance of pedants; which he carried so far that, upon my retiring to my lodgings, I could not forbear throwing together such reflections as occurred to me upon that subject.

15

A man who has been brought up among books, and is able to talk of nothing else, is a very indifferent companion, and what we call a pedant. But methinks we should enlarge the title, and give it every one that does not know how to think out of his profession and par20 ticular way of life.

What is a greater pedant than a mere man of the town! Bar him the play-houses and a catalogue of the reigning beauties, and you strike him dumb. How many a pretty gentleman's knowledge lies all within the verge 25 of the court! He will tell you the names of the prin

cipal favorites, repeat the shrewd sayings of a man of quality, whisper an intrigue that is not yet blown upon by common fame; or, if the sphere of his observations is a little larger than ordinary, will perhaps enter into all the 30 incidents, turns, and revolutions in a game of ombre. When he has gone thus far, he has shown you the whole circle of his accomplishments, his parts are drained, and he is disabled from any further conversation. What are these but rank pedants? And yet these are the men who

value themselves most on their exemption from the pedantry of colleges.

I might here mention the military pedant who always talks in a camp, and is storming towns, making lodgments, and fighting battles from one end of the year to 5 the other. Everything he speaks smells of gunpowder; if you take away his artillery from him, he has not a word to say for himself. I might likewise mention the law pedant, that is perpetually putting cases, repeating the transactions of Westminster Hall, wrangling with 10 you upon the most indifferent circumstances of life, and not to be convinced of the distance of a place, or of the most trivial point in conversation but by dint of argument. The state pedant is wrapt up in news, and lost in politics. If you mention either of the kings of Spain or 15 Poland, he talks very notably; but if you go out of the Gazette, you drop him. In short, a mere courtier, a mere soldier, a mere scholar, a mere anything, is an insipid. pedantic character and equally ridiculous.

Of all the species of pedants which I have mentioned, 20 the book pedant is much the most supportable. He has at least an exercised understanding and a head which is full, though confused, so that a man who converses with him may often receive from him hints of things that are worth knowing and what he may possibly turn to his own ad- 25 vantage, though they are of little use to the owner. The worst kind of pedants among learned men are such as are naturally endued with a very small share of commonsense, and have read a great number of books without taste or distinction.

The truth of it is, learning, like traveling and all other methods of improvement, as it finishes good sense, so it makes a silly man ten thousand times more insufferable, by supplying variety of matter to his impertinence

30

ΙΟ

and giving him an opportunity of abounding in absurdities.

Shallow pedants cry up one another much more than men of solid and useful learning. To read the titles they 5 give an editor or collator of a manuscript, you would take him for the glory of the commonwealth of letters and the wonder of his age, when perhaps upon examination you find that he has only rectified a Greek particle or laid out a whole sentence in proper commas.

They are obliged, indeed, to be thus lavish of their praises that they may keep one another in countenance; and it is no wonder if a great deal of knowledge, which is not capable of making a man wise, has a natural tendency to make him vain and arrogant. L.

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VI. COVERLEY HALL

[No. 106. Monday, July 2, 1711. ADDISON.]

Hinc tibi copia

Manabit ad plenum benigno

Ruris honorum opulenta cornu.

HOR.

HAVING often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de Coverley to pass away a month with him in the country, I last week accompanied him thither, and am settled with him for some time at his country house, where I intend to form several of my ensuing specula20 tions. Sir Roger, who is very well acquainted with my humor, lets me rise and go to bed when I please, dine at his own table or in my chamber, as I think fit, sit still and say nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of the country come to see him, he only