XXIV. There is another common error respecting the subject-matter of this
Essay, although the opinion built upon it, is rather better founded than
the one we have just been speaking of, and that is, looking upon every
man as wise, able, and skilful, who has studied a great deal. The labour
of study, seldom makes any great improvements, if it is not bestowed on
a clear and penetrating natural understanding; and may be compared to
the toils and expences of cultivation, that are employed upon a poor and
nearly barren soil, which seldom produce much fruit. Among mankind, are
to be found the turtles and the eagles of the human species. The last,
with a speedy and easy flight, ascend to the summit of Olympus; the
first, after several days labour, shall not be able to reach to the top
of a moderate hill.
XXV. Much time employed in reading, furnishes a man with a deal of
matter; but the being able to penetrate, or rightly comprehend that
matter, is more a gift of nature, than a production from toil. There are
some, who may be termed learned from their memories, but who are not so
in virtue of their understandings, and who may be compared to marble
tablets with inscriptions engraved on them, which display the letters,
but do not perceive them. They are a kind of mental books, that are
filled with many texts, which they no more comprehend, or have a right
idea of the meaning of, than the leaves on which they are written. If
you observe the use or application they make of the species they have
acquired, you will perceive, they deduce no proper conclusions from what
they have read, nor make any observations on the things they have been
perusing, that are pertinent or applicable to the subject-matter of those
things. Thus we see, that from the same species or set of ideas, may be
formed good reasoning and bad; just as with the same sort of materials,
you may build elegant palaces, and rustic habitations.
XXVI. Thus it may also happen, that a man shall know all the works
of Saint Thomas by heart, and be a very poor theologian; and that he
shall in the same manner, know all the statutes of the civil and canon
law, and be a very bad lawyer. And although it is commonly said, that
law-knowledge depends almost intirely upon memory, or at least, that
it depends more upon memory than understanding, yet I consider this as
another common error. With a great many law-cases and maxims at his
fingers ends, a man may draw a very bad plea; in the same manner as one,
although his memory is stored with a vast variety of texts of scripture,
may make a very bad sermon. The choice of the most fit to apply to the
subject, depends upon the understanding, and not upon the memory. If men
were obliged to do law-business by surprize, and without having time to
consider and digest what they were about, a happy memory, in which were
treasured up pertinent texts and citations, would be a most essential
ingredient, and one, that it is almost indispensably necessary they
should be possessed of. But as this, in the regular course of practice,
is not the case; he who has attended properly to the best books that have
been written on the profession, and has a good general idea of them,
will seldom be at a loss where to look for apt cases and authorities,
wherewith to support his arguments; and as I observed before, the choice
of those which are the most conducive to this end, is more the business
of understanding, than memory.
XXVII. I have observed, that professional people in all faculties and
sciences, have a great propensity to complain of the want of memory, and
I have also observed, that they are apt to set a much higher value upon
the gift of memory, than the power of reasoning; so that it appears to
me, that if there were to be two shops opened, in one of which was sold
memory, and in the other understanding, the man who kept the first would
soon make a fortune, and he who kept the second, would not take as much
money as would buy him salt to his porridge. But my opinion, was always
quite different from this common notion, and I can say for myself, that
I set more value upon a drachm of understanding, than upon an ounce of
memory. I have been told, that I do not estimate memory at a high rate,
because I have no occasion for it; but it is possible that those who told
me this, may judge of me by themselves, who are not anxious about an
increase of talents or ingenuity, because they fancy they are abundantly
provided with all they stand in need of. I would not pretend to be
endowed with a great share of memory, but I however think, I am rather
better furnished in that respect, than I am in point of understanding;
but I do not set a greater value on the last of these faculties on that
account, nor does it proceed from my being anxious of an increase of
it to myself, that I set a higher value upon understanding, than I do
upon memory; but I give this preference from a persuasion, that in all
the ordinary occurrences of life, understanding will afford a man more
assistance, and be of infinitely greater use to him than memory.