an inexhaustible fund of valuable materials to those minds which possess the talent of employing them to the best advantage.
To judge by our own experience of the attainments of others, and to measure their dispositions by our own, is frequently fallacious and unjust. With the study, therefore, of ourselves, should be joined the less certain, but more easily acquired reflections, which an attention to the conduct and deportment of others enables us to form; for, perceiving in others feelings that are wanting in ourselves, we learn to reduce to their real value our own sentiments, to try them by a standard authorized by society, to elevate or sink them to a degree capable of being communicated to the others. Hence we are taught how to command conviction, and to shake the soul.
From the instruction which private society affords, we advance to a wider field of information, opened by the world and history. The contemplation of different nations and different ages enlarges our conceptions. Enabled to extend our influence beyond surrounding objects, we acquire the means of earning the veneration of mankind in future times.
Upon this immense stock of knowledge the man of letters may graft the theory of an art, which sensibility and genius qualify him to exercise, but which should always be directed by an enlightened taste. On the same basis, though on a different plan, the lawgiver, statesman, and
