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440 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
having by skill and study added very much to his rich
naturall gifts. But I know not how it comes to passe,
and surely it doth so, there is as much vanitie and
weakenesse of understanding found in those that pro*
fesse to have most sufficiencies that will entermeddle
with learned vacations, and with the charges that
depend of books, as in any sort of people; whether it
be because there is more required and expected at their
hands, and common faults cannot be excused in them,
or that the selfe-opinion of knowledge emboldeneth
them the more to produce and discover themselves
over-forward, whereby they lose and betray themselves.
As an artificer doeth more manifest his sottishnesse in
a rich piece of worke which he hath in hand, if foolishly
and against the rules of his trade he seeke to apply it
and entermeddle, than in a vile and base one; and men
are more offended at a fault or oversight in a statue of
gold than in one of clay. These doe as much when
they set foorth things which in themselves and in their
lace would be good; for they employ them without
S
iscretion, honouring their memory at the cost and
charge of their understanding: and doing honour to
Cicero, to Galen, to Ulpian, and to Saint Jerome to
make themselves ridiculous. I willingly returne to this
discourse of the fondnesse of our institution: whose
aime hath beene to make us not good and wittie, but wise
and learned. She hath attained her purpose. It hath
not taught us to follow vertue and embrace wisdome :
but made an impression in us of its Etymologie and
derivation. We can decline vertue, yet can we not love
it If wee know not what wisdome is by effect and
experience, wee know it by prattling and by rote. We
are not satisfied to know the race, the alliances, and the
pedigrees of our neighbours, but we wil have them to
be our friends and contract both conversation and intelligence
with them : It hath taught us the definitions,
the divisions and distinctions of vertue, as of the surnames
and branches of a genealogie, without having
other care to contract practise of familiaritie or private
acquaintance betweene us and it She hath appointed