itiously employ'd we are
doing what we should not do; when we are employ'd about frivolous
Matters we do that we should not do; and when we study Philosophy, in
that we do it negligently and carelesly, we do something to no Purpose.
If this Interpretation don't please you, let this Sentence of _Seneca_
be set down among those Things of this Author that _Aulus Gellius_
condemns in this Writer as frivolously witty.

_Hi._ Indeed I like it very well. But in the mean Time, let us fall
manfully upon the Hen. I would not have you mistaken, I have no more
Provision for you. It agrees with what went before. _That is the basest
Loss that comes by Negligence_, and he shews it by this Sentence
consisting of three Parts. But methinks I see a Fault a little after:
_We foresee not Death, a great Part of it is past already._ It is my
Opinion it ought to be read; _We foresee Death._ For we foresee those
Things which are a great Way off from us, when Death for the most Part
is gone by us.

_Le._ If Philosophers do sometimes give themselves Leave to go aside
into the Meadows of the Muses, perhaps it will not be amiss for us, if
we, to gratify our Fancy, take a Turn into their Territories.

_Hi._ Why not?

_Le._ As I was lately reading over again _Aristotle_'s Book that he
entitles [Greek: Peri ton elenchon], the Argument of which is for the
most Part common both to Rhetoricians and Philosophers, I happen'd to
fall upon some egregious Mistakes of the Interpreters. And there is no
Doubt but that they that are unskill'd in the _Greek_ have often miss'd
it in many Places. For _Aristotle_ proposes a Sort of such Kind of
Ambiguity as arises from a Word of a contrary Signification. [Greek: ho
ti manthanousin oi epistamenoi ta gar apostomatizomena manthanousin oi
grammatikoi to gar manthanein omonymon, to te xunienai chromenon te
episteme, kai to lambanein ten epistemen.] And they turn it thus.
_Because intelligent Persons learn; for Grammarians are only
tongue-learn'd; for to learn is an equivocal Word, proper both to him
that exerciseth and to him that receiveth Knowledge._

_Hi._ Methinks you speak _Hebrew_, and not _English_.

_Le._ Have any of you heard any equivocal Word?

_Hi._ No.

_Le._ What then can be more foolish than to desire to turn that which
cannot possibly be turn'd. For although the _Greek_ Word [Greek:
manthanein], signifies as much as [Greek: mathein] and [Greek:
matheteuein], so among the _Latins_, _discere_, to l