32 FIIENCII OPINION Talking is not, with Englishmen, so completely a besoin, so entirely a natural necessity. They are more disposed to consider conversation as the refreshment than the pabulum of life. Added to this, their professional and laborious duties abroad maymake some of them frequently consider society as a scene in which rather to repose their minds, than to keep them in full exercise. They let them take an easy and natural turn, instead of lashing them up for exhibition. Learning, in this country, is not con- fined to academicians, authors, and pro- fessional men. There is scarcely a man of fortune in the kingdom, who, if he be not actually learned, has not, however, been bred to learning. The effect of that high institution, brought from the halls and bowers of our distinguished seats of learning, is generally diffused ;. it serves to fill and adorn the stations of dignity, honour, and utility of public, as well as to grace the shade and raise the tone of private life. So that an illiterate gentleman is more rarely to be met with
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