(_To the Editor_.)
It is generally supposed that the extensive search after, and diffusion of,
knowledge, is in a great measure peculiar to these present times. It seems
therefore to me a very curious thing to find a learned man and an
accomplished courtier protesting against book-learning as an evil, so far
back as the year 1646, and a curious thing he himself appears to have
thought it, introducing his opinion as a "paradox" until he explains. In
this explanation we find the same opinion that is now strenuously insisted
on by Mr. Cobbett, namely, that a man who properly understands his own
business or employment, though he have nothing of literature, is by no
means to be accounted ignorant.
The letters of James Howell, Esq. are well known as fluent examples of the
best style of writing of his day, and as repositories of many curious
facts and intelligent remarks. The following letter appears to be
addressed to Lord Dorchester--
"My Lord,--The subject of this letter may, peradventure, seem a paradox to
some, but not, I know, to your Lordship, when you are pleased to weigh
well the reasons. Learning is a thing that hath been much cried up, and
coveted in all ages, especially in this last century of years, by people
of all sorts, though never so mean and mechanical; every man strains his
fortune to keep his children at school; the cobbler will clout it till
midnight, the porter will carry burdens till his bones crack again, the
ploughman will pinch both back and belly to give his son _learning_, and I
find that this ambition reigns no where so much as in this island. But,
under favour, this word, _learning_, is taken in a narrower sense among us
than among other nations: we seem to restrain it only to the _book_,
whereas, indeed, any artisan whatsoever (if he knew the secret and mystery
of his trade) may be called a learned man: a good mason; a good shoemaker,
that can manage St. Crispin's lance handsomely; a skilful yeoman; a good
ship-wright, &c. may be all called learned men, and indeed the usefullest
sort of learned men.
"The extravagant humour of our country is not to be altogether
commended--that all men should aspire to book-learning; there is not a
simpler animal, and a more superfluous member of a state than a mere
scholar, a self-pleasing student. Archimedes, though an excellent
engineer, when Syracuse was lost, was found in his study, intoxicated with
speculations; and another great, learned philosopher, like a fool or
frantic, when being in a bath, he leaped out naked among the people, and
cried, 'I have found it, I have found it,' having hit then upon an
extraordinary conclusion in geometry. There is a famous tale of Thomas
Aquinas, the angelical doctor, and of Bonadventure, the seraphical doctor,
of whom Alexander Hales, our countryman, reports, that these great clerks
were invited to dinner by the French King, on purpose to observe their
humours, and being brought to the room where the table was laid, the first
fell to eating of bread as hard as he could drive, at last, breaking out
of a brown study, he cried out '_Conclusum est contra Manichaeos;_' the
other fell a gazing upon the Queen, and the King asking him how he liked
her, he answered, 'Oh, sir, if an earthly Queen be so beautiful, what
shall we think of the Queen of Heaven?' The latter was the better courtier
of the two.
"My Lord, I know none in this age more capable to sit in the chair, and
censure what is true learning, and what _not_, than yourself; therefore,
in speaking of this subject to your Lordship, I fear to have committed the
same error as Phormio did, in discoursing of war before Hannibal.
"My Lord, your most humble, &c.
"JAMES HOWELL."
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