not, it may be, expect this. And, having experienced several times such
unmerited treatment, he is not willing again to encounter it. He knew
the worth of what he had to offer. And, finding others indisposed to
listen to his suggestions, he contentedly confines them within the
circle of his own thoughts.

To this it must be added that, though he is able to explain himself
perspicuously, yet he is not master of the graces of speech, nor even
perhaps of the niceties of grammar. His voice is not tuned to those
winning inflections by which men, accustomed to the higher ranks of
society, are enabled so to express themselves,

That aged ears play truant at their tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished,
So sweet and voluble is their discourse.

On the contrary there is a ruggedness in his manner that jars upon
the sense. It is easy for the light and supercilious to turn him into
ridicule. And those who will not be satisfied with the soundness of his
matter, expounded, as he is able to expound it, in clear and appropriate
terms, will yield him small credit, and listen to him with little
delight.

These considerations therefore bring us back again to the reasons of
the prevalent opinion, that the majority of mankind are dull, and of
apprehension narrow and confused. The mass of boys in the process of
their education appear so, because little of what is addressed to them
by their instructors, awakens their curiosity, and inspires them with
the desire to excel. The concealed spark of ambition is not yet cleared
from the crust that enveloped it as it first came from the hand of
nature. And in like manner the elder persons, who have not experienced
the advantages of a liberal education, or by whom small profit was made
by those advantages, being defective in exterior graces, are generally
listened to with impatience, and therefore want the confidence and the
inclination to tell what they know.

But these latter, if they are not attended to upon the subjects to which
their attention and ingenuity have been applied, do not the less possess
a knowledge and skill which are intrinsically worthy of applause. They
therefore contentedly shut up the sum of their acquisitions in their own
bosoms, and are satisfied with the consciousness that they have not been
deficient in performing an adequate part in the generation of men among
whom they live.

Those persons who favour the opinion of the incessant improvea