Ihave so often recommended to you attention and application to whatever you learn, that i do not mention them now as duties, but i point them out to you as conducive, nay, absolutely necessary, to your pleasures; for can there be a greater pleasure than to be universally allowed to excel those of one's own age and manner of life? and, consequently, can there be anything more mortifying than to be excelled by them? in this latter case, your shame and regret must be greater than anybody's, because everybody knows the uncommon care which has been taken of your education, and the opportunities you have had of knowing more than others of your age. i do not confine the application which i recommend, singly to the view and emulation of excelling others (though that is a very sensible pleasure and a very i warrantable pride); but i mean likewise to excel in the thing itself: for, in my mind, one may as well not know a thing at all, as know it but imperfectly. to know a little of anything, gives neither satisfaction nor credit, but often brings disgrace or ridicule. the purpose of paragraph two is to