Poetics
, Part II. § 13.
| [No. 43] | Thursday, April 19, 1711 | Steele |
Ha tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem,
Parcere Subjectis, et debellare Superbos.
Virg.
There are Crowds of Men, whose great Misfortune it is that they were not bound to Mechanick Arts or Trades; it being absolutely necessary for them to be led by some continual Task or Employment. These are such as we commonly call dull Fellows; Persons, who for want of something to do, out of a certain Vacancy of Thought, rather than Curiosity, are ever meddling with things for which they are unfit. I cannot give you a Notion of them better than by presenting you with a Letter from a Gentleman, who belongs to a Society of this Order of Men, residing at
Oxford