himself, no matter whether they are of the very same trades or no, and
perhaps better not of the same--such a society, I say, shall, if due
observations are made from it, teach the tradesman more than his
apprenticeship; for there he learned the operation, here he learns the
progression; his apprenticeship is his grammar-school, this is his
university; behind his master's counter, or in his warehouse, he learned
the first rudiments of trade, but here he learns the trading sciences;
here he comes to learn the _arcana_, speak the language, understand the
meaning of every thing, of which before he only learned the beginning:
the apprenticeship inducts him, and leads him as the nurse the child;
this finishes him; there he learned the beginning of trade, here he sees
it in its full extent; in a word, there he learned to trade, here he is
made a complete tradesman.

Let no young tradesman object, that, in the conversation I speak of,
there are so many gross things said, and so many ridiculous things
argued upon, there being always a great many weak empty heads among the
shopkeeping trading world: this may be granted without any impeachment
of what I have advanced--for where shall a man converse, and find no
fools in the society?--and where shall he hear the weightiest things
debated, and not a great many empty weak things offered, out of which
nothing can be learned, and from which nothing can be deduced?--for 'out
of nothing, nothing can come.'

But, notwithstanding, let me still insist upon it to the tradesman to
keep company with tradesmen; let the fool run on in his own way; let the
talkative green-apron rattle in his own way; let the manufacturer and
his factor squabble and brangle; the grave self-conceited puppy, who was
born a boy, and will die before he is a man, chatter and say a great
deal of nothing, and talk his neighbours to death--out of every one you