parrying in one
corner or another--there would be nothing but mischief among us--Chaste
stars! what biting and scratching, and what a racket and a clatter
we should make, what with breaking of heads, rapping of knuckles, and
hitting of sore places--there would be no such thing as living for us.

But then again, as we should all of us be men of great judgment, we
should make up matters as fast as ever they went wrong; and though
we should abominate each other ten times worse than so many devils or
devilesses, we should nevertheless, my dear creatures, be all courtesy
and kindness, milk and honey--'twould be a second land of promise--a
paradise upon earth, if there was such a thing to be had--so that upon
the whole we should have done well enough.

All I fret and fume at, and what most distresses my invention at
present, is how to bring the point itself to bear; for as your worships
well know, that of these heavenly emanations of wit and judgment, which
I have so bountifully wished both for your worships and myself--there
is but a certain quantum stored up for us all, for the use and behoof of
the whole race of mankind; and such small modicums of 'em are only sent
forth into this wide world, circulating here and there in one bye corner
or another--and in such narrow streams, and at such prodigious intervals
from each other, that one would wonder how it holds out, or could be
sufficient for the wants and emergencies of so many great estates, and
populous empires.

Indeed there is one thing to be considered, that in Nova Zembla, North
Lapland, and in all those cold and dreary tracks of the globe, which lie
more directly under the arctick and antartick circles, where the whole
province of a man's concernments lies for near nine months together
within the narrow compass of his cave--where the spirits are compressed
almost to nothing--and where the passions of a man, with every thing
which belongs to them, are as frigid as the zone itself--there the least
quantity of judgment imaginable does the business--and of wit--there is
a total and an absolute saving--for as not one spark is wanted--so not
one spark is given. Angels and ministers of grace defend us! what a
dismal thing would it have been to have governed a kingdom, to have
fought a battle, or made a treaty, or run a match, or wrote a book, or
got a child, or held a provincial chapter there, with so plentiful a
lack of wit and judgment about us! For mercy's sake, let u