_January_, 1747. I am very sorry to hear you treat philosophy and her
followers like a parcel of monks and hermits, and think myself obliged
to vindicate a profession I honour. The first man that ever bore the
name used to say that life was like the Olympic games, where some came
to show the strength and agility of their bodies; others, as the
musicians, orators, poets, and historians, to show their excellence in
those arts; the traders to get money; and the better sort, to enjoy the
spectacle and judge of all these. They did not then run away from
society for fear of its temptations; they passed their days in the midst
of it, conversation was their business; they cultivated the arts of
persuasion, on purpose to show men it was their interest, as well as
their duty, not to be foolish and false and unjust; and that, too, in
many instances with success; which is not very strange, for they showed
by their life that their lessons were not impracticable.