A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practically resolvedA Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practicaly resolved

For Wisdom and Learning, and intellectual accomplishments, they are of such incomparable Excellency, that he is scarce worthy the Name of a man that slights them:^a Wisdom excelleth Folly, as far as light excelleth darkness. This is Solomons sentence, even then, when he is sentencing all worldly Vanities.

1. aEccles. 2.13.

But (and who mistrusts such a but here) the wiser men are, the more they are exempted from the ordinary Comforts of humane Society; they meet with but few, and those but seldom, that they can converse with, to any Satisfaction; the more Learning they have, the more Sense of, and Sorrow for their Ignorance.^b In much Wisdom is much Grief, and he that increaseth Knowledge increaseth Sorrow. Hence it is they affect an uncomfortable Solitude, that they are fain to force themselves into a sociable compliance, where they seldom meet with any thing but what they slight or pity; they are ordinarily the objects of their own grief, and of others envy. There's nothing more ordinary, than for Persons of lower accomplishments, to carry their designs, and attain their ends before them: they can't sneak and flatter like lower-spirited Animals, that while they are pursuing a Notion, others catch Preferment; and while they are enriching their Minds, others are filling their Coffers.

But (and who mistrusts such a but here) the wiser men are, the more they are exempted from the ordinary Comforts of humane Society; they meet with but few, and those but seldom, that they can converse with, to any Satisfaction; the more Learning they have, the more Sense of, and Sorrow for their Ignorance.^b