fation of learned men, when unreftrained, and without affectation, is not only the most rational, but the highest feast of which the mind is capable; for, by the warmth of converfation, TRUTH acquires additional ftrength, and knowledge thereby is enforced and diffufed, but, when enlivened by wit, and the fuperior powers of eloquence, it makes an impreffion which is not foon effaced. But when this pleafureable intercourfe cannot be enjoyed, how happy a fubftitute have we to fupply its place. That faculty of communicating our ideas to distant places and future ages (which feems to be rather an immediate gift of the divinity, than the invention of man), affords us an inexhauftible fund of entertainment *. How * The noble art to Cadmus owes its rife, He How delightful is the reflection! and, were it not that habit had occafioned us to overlook it, how furprizing the effect! That the exalted ideas and grand conceptions of those men, who, from the earliest ages, have been looked upon as the ornaments of human nature, are prefented to our minds undiminished by length of time, and endued with all the energy with which they were firft conceived and expreffed; infomuch, that we may be allowed, without exceeding the bounds of truth, to say, that the fpirits of those immortal characters attend us at all times, ready to be the companions of our leisure hours, to open to us their ftores of wifdom, which He first in wondrous fetters bound The airy voice, and stopp'd the flying found: have been the admiration of fucceeding ages. This pleasurable intercourfe of the fociety of learned men has its price, which is no trifling purchase; for these valuable acquirements can only be obtained upon certain conditions. In other words, converfation is a traffic, and to carry on the figure, except we have stock to bring to market, we can make no exchange; that those who wish to attract the notice of the learned muft have fomething valuable to transfer. But the ingenuous youth may naturally afk, "If these are the terms of admif"fion into the company of our supe"riors, we must for ever be excluded, "fince, notwithstanding our warm desire "after, and endeavour to obtain know"ledge, we ftill feel ourselves defi cient in that found wisdom, expe- rience, and difcernment, which maturity has procured them?" The obfervation may be in fome degree true; nevertheless, an aspiring youth, if poffeffed of eafy addrefs and modeft deportment, and defirous to draw his knowledge of men and things from the fountain of nature, in the fociety of men liberal of fentiment, and ready to communicate, will ftill find fome foftering hand held forth, to encourage, cherish, and support his steps on his first entrance upon the theatre of the world: provided he has purfued the introductory means, which cannot be better explained than following the practice, and imitating the conduct of the accomplished Henry II. namely, "by affiduously "reading the best books"-" by cul❝tivating his natural talents." E * NOTES HISTORICAL. ** A. D. 1162. A frolick of king Henry II. with his chancellor Becket (afterwards the archbishop), which fhews the manners of this age. HENRY, befides committing all his more important business to Becket's management, honoured him with his friendship and intimacy; and, when ever he was difpofed to relax a little, by fports of any kind, he admitted his chancellor to the party. One day, as the king and chancellor were riding in the streets of London together, they obferved a beggar who was fhivering with cold. "Would it not be praife-worthy," faid the king, "to give the, poor man a warm coat in this fe66 vere feafon ?" "It would, furely," replies the chancellor; and you do well, fir, in think"ing of fuch good actions.” “ Then he shall have "one prefently," replied the king; and feizing the skirt of the chancellor's coat, began to pull it violently. The chancellor defended himself for fome time, and they had both of them like to have tumbled off their horfes in the street; when Becket, |