mastered by European scholars, and have been found rich in
literature. The circle of knowledge has thus widened in every
generation; and you cannot now touch the circumference of what might
formerly have been clasped.

_Montesinos_.--We are fortunate, methinks, who live in an age when books
are accessible and numerous, and yet not so multiplied, as to render a
competent, not to say thorough, acquaintance with any one branch of
literature, impossible. He has it yet in his power to know much, who can
be contented to remain in ignorance of more, and to say with Scaliger,
_non sum ex illis gloriosulis qui nihil ignorant_.

_Sir Thomas More_.--If one of the most learned men whom the world has
ever seen felt it becoming in him to say this two centuries ago, how
infinitely smaller in these days must the share of learning which the
most indefatigable student can hope to attain, be in proportion to what
he must wish to learn! The sciences are simplified as they are improved;
old rubbish and demolished fabrics serve there to make a foundation for
new scaffolding, and more enduring superstructures; and every discoverer
in physics bequeaths to those who follow him greater advantages than he
possessed at the commencement of his labours. The reverse of this is
felt in all the higher branches of literature. You have to acquire what
the learned of the last age acquired, and in addition to it, what they
themselves have added to the stock of learning. Thus the task is greater
in every succeeding generation, and in a very few more it must become
manifestly impossible.

_Montesinos_. Pope Ganganelli is said to have expressed a whimsical
opinion that all the books in the world might be reduced to six thousand
volumes in folio--by epitomising, expurgating, and destroying whatever
the chosen and plenipotential committee of literature should in their
wisdom think proper to condemn. It is some consolation to know that no
Pope, or Nero, or Bonaparte, however great their power, can ever think
such a scheme sufficiently within the bounds of possibility for them to
dream of attempting it; otherwise the will would not be wanting. The
evil which you anticipate is already perceptible in its effects. Well
would it be if men were as moderate in their desire of wealth, as those
who enter the ranks of literature, and lay claim to distinction there,
are in their desire of knowledge! A slender capital suffices to begin
with, upon the strength o