rs mumbled over without the Heart going along with them, or
sitting whole Nights in quaffing off Bumpers.

_Ant._ Bookishness makes Folks mad.

_Mag._ And does not the Rattle of your Pot-Companions, your Banterers,
and Drolls, make you mad?

_Ant._ No, they pass the Time away.

_Mag._ How can it be then, that such pleasant Companions should make me
mad?

_Ant._ That's the common Saying.

_Mag._ But I by Experience find quite the contrary. How many more do we
see grow mad by hard drinking, unseasonable feasting, and sitting up all
Night tippling, which destroys the Constitution and Senses, and has made
People mad?

_Ant._ By my Faith, I would not have a learned Wife.

_Mag._ But I bless myself, that I have gotten a Husband that is not
like yourself. Learning both endears him to me, and me to him.

_Ant._ Learning costs a great Deal of Pains to get, and after all we
must die.

_Mag._ Notable Sir, pray tell me, suppose you were to die to-Morrow, had
you rather die a Fool or a wise Man?

_Ant._ Why, a wise Man, if I could come at it without taking Pains.

_Mag._ But there is nothing to be attained in this Life without Pains;
and yet, let us get what we will, and what Pains soever we are at to
attain it, we must leave it behind us: Why then should we think much to
be at some Pains for the most precious Thing of all, the Fruit of which
will bear us Company unto another Life.

_Ant._ I have often heard it said, that a wise Woman is twice a Fool.

_Mag._ That indeed has been often said; but it was by Fools. A Woman
that is truly wise does not think herself so: But on the contrary, one
that knows nothing, thinks her self to be wise, and that is being twice
a Fool.

_Ant._ I can't well tell how it is, that as Panniers don't become an Ox,
so neither does Learning become a Woman.

_Mag._ But, I suppose, you can't deny but Panniers will look better upon
an Ox, than a Mitre upon an Ass or a Sow. What think you of the Virgin
_Mary_?

_Ant._ Very highly.

_Mag._ Was not she bookish?

_Ant._ Yes; but not as to such Books as these.

_Mag._ What Books did she read?

_Ant._ The canonical Hours.

_Mag._ For the Use of whom?

_Ant._ Of the Order of _Benedictines_.

_Mag._ Indeed? What did _Paula_ and _Eustochium_ do? Did not they
converse with the holy Scriptures?

_Ant._ Ay, but this is a rare Thing now.

_Mag._ So was a blockheaded Abbot in old Time; but now nothing is more
common. In old Times Princes a