ABSTRACT
I strolled towards Brompton, deeply rapt in reflection, and almost indifferent with regard to my own destiny, till the close of twilight, when, after taking some slight refreshment, with slow and lingering steps I returned to my new lodgings. A thousand ideas crowded on my mind during my evening walk; and every moment as I ruminated on the events of the past week, I became more and more careless of an existence which seemed to promise nothing but disappointment. The falsehood and folly of the world does more towards forming a perfect philosopher than all the pedantry of scholastic knowledge obtained in the cell of an anchoret, or the gloom of a cloister. Man may ruminate in the still sequestered scenes of life; but extensive knowledge and proportionate disgust for the mazy miseries of this sublunary sphere, can only be acquired and justly founded on an extensive intercourse with society. The citizen of the world is the only true philosopher: he examines without prejudice; he judges from experience.
