24 
doubt, my dear James, you will meet with many such 
friends during your stay in Edinburgh. 
My dear, I cannot disapprove of any expense that 
is useful to your pursuit, therefore have no objection 
to a Latin master. Latin and Greek are necessary 
to your profession in more respects than being keys 
to the doors of science, into any of which you may 
enter if you have those keys ; and I would wish you 
should have as good ones in your possession as any 
body else has; they should have no advantage over 
me in that respect, and I believe, between ourselves, 
there is a great deal in the parade of it, besides the 
use. The men of learning have agreed to stamp a 
high value upon classical learning: it sets them out 
of the reach of the vulgar, and of those who are 
their superiors in every other worldly advantage; 
yet Ido not think it is all sterling worth, but a great 
deal of it imposition. I would not be without any 
of it that will be really useful to you, nor without 
enough of it to be creditable, but I would not sacri- 
fice anything substantial to attain more ; the know- 
ledge of ¢hings is your proper study, and an acquisi- 
tion of that knowledge will be the solid and profit- 
ableadvantage of your attention *; that will be your 
grand aim; andas the study you have so delighted 
in, not only requires a mind formed for nice observa- 
* The opinions on the subject of education in the above pas- 
sage very much coincide with those of Milton. 
“ Though a linguist should pride himself to have all the 
tongues that Babel cleft the world into, yet if he have not studied 
the solid things in them, as well as the words and lexicons, he were 
nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man, as any yeoman 
or tradesman competently wise in his mother tongue only. Hence 
