THE SCHOOL OF ACTION.
ACT THE FIRST.
Enter Mr. Severn and Mr. Humber.
Sev. The world is much more easily imposed upon, than you studious and modest men imagine.
Hum. Dear Severn, if such superficial qualifications as you talk of will accomplish gentlemen and ladies, I own to you, hard has been our fate, in having suffered pains and penalties (fit only for malefactors) in great schools, and been immured in college the best years of life, to acquire learning and attain to sciences that are all useless when we come into the world.
Sev. Pardon me, dear Humber, I did not say useless; I only argue that you had better, to make your fortune, have ordinary qualifications, such as a good mien, common understanding, and an easy address, than great faculties and talents under the oppression of bashfulness, rusticity, or——
Hum. Or knowledge.
Sev. It shall be or knowledge if you please—if you mean knowledge kept to a man's self, or in a man's keeping, that is afraid or ashamed to exert it.