NO. 379. THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1712. Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter. PERS. SAT.і. 17. _ Science is not science till reveal'd." DRYDEN. KNOWLEDGE OUGHT TO BE COMMUNICATED. I HAVE often wondered at that ill-natured position which has been sometimes maintained in the schools, and is comprised in an old Latin verse, namely, that " А man's knowledge is worth nothing, if he communicates what he knows to any one besides." There is certainly no more sensible pleasure to a good-natured man, than if he can by any means gratify or inform the mind of another. I might add, that this virtue naturally carries its own reward along with it, since it is almost impossible it should be exercised without the improvement of the person who practises it. The reading of books, and the daily occurrences of life, are continually furnishing us with matter for thought and reflection. It is extremely natural for us to desire to see such our thoughts put into the dress of words, without which indeed we can scarce have a clear and distinct idea of them ourselves. When they are thus clothed in expressions, nothing so truly shews us whether they are just or false, as those effects which they produce in the minds of others. I am apt to flatter myself that in the course of these my speculations, I have treated of several subjects, and laid down many such rules for the conduct of a man's life, 1 life, which my readers were either wholly ignorant of before, or which at least those few who were acquainted with them, looked upon as so many secrets they have found out for the conduct of themselves, but were resolved never to have made public. I am the more confirmed in this opinion from my having received several letters, wherein I am censured for having prostituted learning to the embraces of the vulgar, and made her, as one of my correspondents phrases it, a common strumpet. I am charged by another with laying open the arcana or secrets of prudence, to the eyes of every reader. : The narrow spirit which appears in the letters of these my correspondents is the less surprising, as it has shewn itself in all ages: there is still extant an epistle written by ALEXANDER the GREAT to his tutor ARISTOTLE, upon that philosopher's publishing some part of his writings; in which the prince complains of his having made known to all the world those secrets in learning which he had before communicated to him in private lectures; concluding, "that he had rather excel the rest of mankind in knowledge than in power." LOUISA DE PADILLA, a lady of great learning, and Countess of Aranda, was in like manner angry with the famous GRATIAN, upon his publishing his treatise of the Discreto, wherein she fancied that he had laid open those maxims to common readers, which ought only to have been reserved for the knowledge of the great. These objections are thought by many of so much weight, that they often defend the above-mentioned authors, by affirming they have affected such an obscurity in their style and manner of writing, that though every one may read their works, there will be but very few who can comprehend their meaning. PERSIUS, the Latin satirist, affected obscurity for another reason; with which, however, Mr. COWLEY is so offended, that writing to one of his friends, you, says he, tell me, that you do not know whether PERSIUS be a good poet poet or no, because you cannot understand him; for. which very reason I affirm that he is not so. However, this art of writing unintelligibly has been very much improved, and followed by several of the moderns, who observing the general inclination of mankind to dive into a secret, and the reputation many have acquired by concealing their meaning under obscure terms and phrases, resolve that they may be still more abstruse, to write without any meaning at all. This art, as it is at present practised by many eminent authors, consists in throwing so many words at a venture into different periods, and leaving the curious reader to find the meaning of them. The Egyptians, who made use of hieroglyphics to signify several things, expressed a man who confined his knowlege and discoveries altogether within himself, by the figure of a dark-lanthorn closed on all sides; which, though it was illuminated within, afforded no manner of light or advantage to such as stood by it. For my own part, as I shall from time to time communicate to the public whatever discoveries I happen to make, I should much rather be compared to an ordinary lamp, which consumes and wastes itself for the benefit of every passenger. I shall conclude this paper with the story of ROSICRUCIUS's Sepulchre. I suppose I need not inform my readers that this man was the founder of the Rosicrucian sect, and that his disciples still pretend to new discoveries, which they are never to communicate to the rest of mankind. A certain person having occasion to dig somewhat deep in the ground where this philosopher lay interred, met with a small door having a wall on each side of it. His curiosity, and the hopes of finding some hidden treasure, soon prompted him to force open the door.He was immediately surprised by a sudden blaze of light, and discovered a very fair vault: at the upper end of it was a statue of a man in armour sitting by a table, and leaning 2 Jeaning on his left arm. He held a truncheon in his right hand, and had a lamp burning before him. The man had no sooner set one foot within the vault, than the statue erecting itself from its leaning posture, stood bolt upright; and upon the fellow's advancing another step, lifted up the truncheon in his right hand. The man still ventured a third step, when the statue with a furious blow broke the lamp into a thousand pieces, and left his guest in a sudden darkness, Upon the report of this adventure, the country people soon came with lights to the Sepulchre, and discoyered that the statue, which was made of brass, was nothing more than a piece of clock-work; that the floor of the vault was all loose, and underlaid with several springs, which upon any man's entering, naturally produced that which had happened. ROSICRUCIUS, say his disciples, made use of this method, to shew the world that he had re-invented the ever-burning lamps of the antients, though he was resolved no one should reap any advantage from the discovery. INDEX TO THE SPECTATOR. VOL. V. A ACADEMY for politics, No. 305. The regulations of it, &c. ib. Admiration, when turned into contempt, No. 340. Age, the authority assumed by some people on the account of it, No. 336. Alexander the Great, wherein he imitated Achilles in a piece of Amanda, her adventures, No. 475. Appearances, the veneration and respect paid to them in all ages, No. 360. Aristotle, his division of a poem, No. 297. Another of his Artillery, the invention and first use of it, to whom ascribed by Milton, No. 333. Assurance, what, No. 373. Augustus, his request to his friends at his death, No. 317. B Beards in former ages a type of wisdom, No. 331. Instances of Beauty |