"Of Essay Writing" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hume David)

This would be to render the time spent in company the most
unentertaining, as well as the most unprofitable part of our
lives.

On the other hand, learning has been as great a loser by being
shut up in colleges and cells, and secluded from the world and
good company. By that means, every thing of what we call
Belles Lettres became totally barbarous, being cultivated by
men without any taste of life or manners, and without that
liberty and facility of thought and expression, which can only
be acquired by conversation. Even philosophy went to wrack by
this moaping recluse method of study, and became as chimerical
in her conclusions as she was unintelligible in her stile and
manner of delivery. And indeed, what could be expected from
men who never consulted experience in any of their reasonings,
or who never searched for that experience, where alone it is
to be found, in common life and conversation?

'Tis with great pleasure I observe, that men of letters, in
this age, have lost, in a great measure, that shyness and
bashfulness of temper, which kept them at a distance from
mankind; and, at the same time, that men of the world are
proud of borrowing from books their most agreeable topics of
conversation. 'Tis to be hoped, that this league betwixt the
learned and conversible worlds, which is so happily begun,
will be still farther improved, to their mutual advantage; and
to that end, I know nothing more advantageous than such Essays
as these with which I endeavour to entertain the public. In
this view, I cannot but consider myself as a kind of resident
or ambassador from the dominions of learning to those of
conversation; and shall think it my constant duty to promote a
good correspondence betwixt these two states, which have so
great a dependence on each other. I shall give intelligence to
the learned of whatever passes in company, and shall endeavour
to import into company whatever commodities I find in my
native country proper for their use and entertainment. The
balance of trade we need not be jealous of, nor will there be
any difficulty to preserve it on both sides. The materials of
this commerce must chiefly be furnished by conversation and
common life: the manufacturing of them alone belongs to
learning.

As 'twould be an unpardonable negligence in an ambassador not
to pay his respects to the sovereign of the state where he is
commissioned to reside; so it would be altogether inexcusable
in me not to address myself, with a particular respect, to the
fair sex, who are the sovereigns of the empire of
conversation. I approach them with reverence; and were not my
countrymen, the learned, a stubborn independent race of
mortals, extremely jealous of their liberty, and unaccustomed