One of these teachers was scrupulous even to minutiae, and
everywhere found some subject to raise a question; for the
smoothest surface presented inequalities to him, and there was no
rod so smooth that he could not find a knot in it, and shew how
it might be got rid of. The other of the two was prompt in reply,
and never for the sake of subterfuge avoided a question that was
proposed; but he would choose the contradictory side, or by
multiplicity of words would show that a simple answer could not
be given. In all questions, therefore, he was subtle and profuse,
whilst the other in his answer was perspicuous, brief, and to the
point If two such characters could ever have been united in the
same person, he would be the best hand at disputation that our
times have produced. Both of them possessed acute wit, and an
indomitable perseverance, and I believe they would have turned
out great and distinguished men in Physical Studies, if they had
supported themselves on the great base of Literature, and more
closely followed the tracks of the ancients, instead of taking
such pride in their own discoveries.

All this is said with reference to the time during which I
attended on them. For one of them afterwards went to Bologna, and
there unlearnt what he had taught: on his return also, he
untaught it: whether the change was for the better or the worse,
I leave to the judgment of those who heard him before and after.
The other of the two was also a proficient in the more exalted
Philosophy of Divinity, wherein he obtained a distinguished name.

With these teachers I remained two years, and got so versed in
commonplaces, rules, and elements in general, which boys study,
and in which my teachers were most weighty, that I seemed to