I presume not: to deterinine. Ximenes was old when he was called from this cell in which he had passed many years in all the rigours of monastic discipline, to act his part at court, where he displayed those talents and virtues, in the government of a great kingdom, which must be admired by the latest posterity, and which, without such an occasion, might have lain buried in the cloister*. And no doubt there have been multitudes in former times, who have dreamed away their lives, immured in convents, who, if they had found their proper stations in the world, would have acquitted themselves both honourably and usefully; and at all times there are some whose faculties, for want of social exertion; lie equally barren and torpid. Much of human capacity, like many of the wild

f f

* "Pierre Martyr rapporte, qu'il le vit entrer à la cour avec un visage, un habit, & un air, qui marquoient l'austerité de sa vie; & que les courtisans le regardèrent comme un des anciens pénitens de l'Egypte, ou de la Thebaide." Hist. du Card. Ximenes, par Flechier,

and uncultivated parts of nature, is never wrought and quickened into action; nor perhaps is it desirable that it should, unless men were at the same time endued with sufficient virtue to direct the application.

Upon the whole it may appear, that retirement and society are suited to contribute in their turns to self-knowledge. The former as being peculiarly favourable to the investigation of truth, will supply us with higher standards by which to try ourselves; while the latter is more likely (in some instances at least,) to shew us our strength and weakness, and to detect those principles which lie deep and latent in the heart. What proportion they should bear to each other for the attainment of the end here in view, must be left for every individual to determine for himself, after a due consideration of his particular, constitution, his habits, and his circumstances,

[87]

SECTION III.

On the Knowledge of the World.

HOWEVER OWEVER great may be the advantages afforded by a life of retirement for the acquisition of self-knowledge, it may be thought they are more than balanced by its disadvantages in relation to the knowledge of the world; a science extolled by many as paramount to all others, and which they imagine can only be acquired by an intimate and regular intercourse with society.

Under the knowledge of the world, taking it extensively, may be comprized these three things; first, the knowledge of its exterior, or of its visible manners, with the nature and forms of its business; secondly, the knowledge of its interior, or of its secret principles, views, and dispositions; and, lastly, of its value, or of the rate we

ought to set upon the various objects. which it offers to our pursuit.

I. The manners, when taken separately from the principles which produce them, constitute the surface of life, and are so much subject to every breath of fashion, that in these western parts of the world, and eminently in the land wherein we live, they seldom retain, for any length of time, one uniform appearance. An Arab or a Chinese is the same now that his ancestors were two thousand years ago; but should one of our great grandfathers rise from the dead, and revisit us, he would scarcely be able to persuade himself that he was in the region of Old England. Even the course of a few years is sufficient to induce such a change in our dress, our deportment, and other modes of life, as to give a new face to the country. The retired Englifhman must therefore learn to content himself, as well as he can, with his ignorance of the shifting forms under which his fellow-citizens are pleased to exhibit themselves;

and to resign this fugitive and local science to those whose situation enables them, as one of our poets has expressed it,

To catch the manners living as they rise.

It must likewise be admitted, that the recluse is equally shut out from an exact knowledge of business, which, like all other practical skill, can only be acquired in the school of experience. Here then, as in the former instance, we allow the man of the world to bear away the palm without contest; he must suffer us, however, in what remains, to dispute his claim to superiority,

i II. The knowledge of the world in the second sense we have stated, or to know the general principles and views by which it is governed, peculiarly belongs to him who has learned to retire inward, and to watch the secret workings of his own mind; for, since no direct access can be had to the motives of any one's actions except our own, it is evident that, without