Here is the best solitary company in the world: and in this particular
chiefly excelling any other, that in my study I am sure to converse with
none but wise men; but abroad it is impossible for me to avoid the
society of fools. What an advantage have I by this good fellowship that,
besides the help which I receive from hence, in reference to my life
after this life, I can enjoy the life of so many ages before I
lived!--that I can be acquainted with the passages of three or four
thousand years ago, as if they were the weekly occurrences! Here,
without travelling so far as Endor, I can call up the ablest spirits of
those times; the learnedest philosophers, the wisest counsellors, the
greatest generals, and make them serviceable to me. I can make bold with
the best jewels they have in their treasury, with the same freedom that
the Israelites borrowed of the Egyptians, and, without suspicion of
felony, make use of them as mine own. I can here, without trespassing,
go into their vineyards, and not only eat my fill of their grapes for my
pleasure, but put up as much as I will in my vessel, and store it up for
my profit and advantage.
How doth this prospect at once set off the goodness of God to me, and
discover mine own weakness? His goodness in providing these helps for
the improvement of mine understanding; and my weakness in needing them.
What a pitiful, simple creature am I, that cannot live to any purpose,
without the help of so many other men's brains! Lord, let this be the
first lesson that I learn from these silent counsellors, to know my own
ignorance: other knowledge puffeth up, this edifieth.--SIR W. WALLER.
_Divine Meditations._