i i 8 Of Knowledge. SERM. acquiring a proper meafure of knowledge, V. without the addition of our own art, and in- `" "-jduftry. What a poor empty thing is the mind of man (tho' its capacities are noble) when uncultivated by Rudy, experience and inftruaion ? Its fphere of underftanding is very narrow, and fo are its pleafures ; but know- ledge refines and ennobles it, brings it to a vaft deal of entertaining objeas, and enlarges all its powers. Tho' there may be pain and difficulty in the acquifition, and, in this fenfe, he that encreafeth knowledge, increafeth for- row; yet, that is over -ballanced with great advantage and great fatisfaEtion. Human life itfelf looks quite another thingwhen improv'd by knowledge, than it is in a rude unculti- vated Rate. What a difference is there be- tween a herd of barbarous favages, fuck as there are at this day in many parts of the earth, and thofe civiliz'd nations where arts and fciences flourifh? One would almoft think them to be a different fpecies, at leaft, that there is a great diftintion between the wifeft man and the molt ignorant, as there is between this laft and fome of the brutal fpecies. But there is a great diverfity in the kinds of knowledge, which chiefly depends on the quality
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=