Such subjects of thought furnish not sufficient
employment in solitude, but require the company and
conversation of our fellow-creatures, to render them a proper
exercise for the mind: and this brings mankind together in
society, where every one displays his thoughts and
observations in the best manner he is able, and mutually gives
and receives information, as well as pleasure.
The separation of the learned from the conversible world seems
to have been the great defect of the last age, and must have
had a very bad influence both on books and company: for what
possibility is there of finding topics of conversation fit for
the entertainment of rational creatures, without having
recourse sometimes to history, poetry, politics, and the more
obvious principles, at least, of philosophy? Must our whole
discourse be a continued series of gossipping stories and idle
remarks? Must the mind never rise higher, but be perpetually
Stun'd and worn out with endless chat
Of Will did this, and Nan said that?[2]
This would be to render the time spent in company the most
unentertaining, as well as the most unprofitable part of our
lives.
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