As in the choice and reading of good books principally consists the
enabling and advancement of a man's knowledge and learning; yet if it be
not mixed with the conversation of discreet, able, and understanding
men, they can make little use of their reading, either for themselves,
or the commonwealth where they live. There is not a more common proverb
than this, _That the Greatest Clerks be not always the wisest men_, and
reason for it, being a very uneven rule to square all actions, and
consultations, only by book precedents. Time hath so many changes, and
alterations, and such variety of occasions and opportunities,
intervening, and mingled, that it is impossible to go new ways in the
old paths; so that though reading do furnish and direct a man's
judgement, yet it doth not wholly govern it. Therefore the necessity of
knowing the present time, and men, wherein we live, is so great, that it
is the principal guide of our actions, and reading but
supplemental.--GREY BRYDGES, LORD CHANDOS. _Horae Subsecivae._