Whoever converses much among the old books will be something hard to
please among the new; yet these must have their part, too, in the
leisure of an idle man, and have, many of them, their beauties as well
as their defaults. Those of story, or relations of matter of fact, have
a value from their substance as much as from their form, and the variety
of events is seldom without entertainment or instruction, how
indifferently soever the tale is told. Other sorts of writings have
little of esteem but what they receive from the wit, learning, or genius
of the authors, and are seldom met with of any excellency, because they
do but trace over the paths that have been beaten by the ancients, or
comment, critic, and flourish upon them, and are at best but copies
after those originals, unless upon subjects never touched by them, such
as are all that relate to the different constitutions of religions,
laws, or governments in several countries, with all matters of
controversy that arise upon them.--SIR W. TEMPLE. _Ancient and Modern
Learning._