share of poignancy than ours.--What is it but _curiosity_ which
renders study either pleasing or profitable to us?--The facts we read
of would soon slip through the memory, or if they retained any place
in it, could be of little advantage, without being acquainted with the
motives which occasioned them. By _curiosity_ we _examine_, by
_examining_ we _compare_, and by _comparing_ we are alone enabled to
form a right _judgment_, whether of things or persons.

We are told indeed of many jealousies, discontents, and quarrels,
which have been occasioned by this passion, among those who might
otherwise have lived in perfect harmony; and a man or woman, who has
the character of being too inquisitive, is shunned as dangerous to
society.--But what commendable quality is there that may not be
perverted, or what _virtue_ whose extreme does not border on a
_vice_?--Even _devotion_ itself should have its bounds, or it will
launch into _bigotry_ and _enthusiasm_;--_love_, the most _generous_
and _gentle_ of all the passions, when ill-placed, or unprescribed,
degenerates into the very _worst_;--_justice_ may be pursued till it
becomes _cruelty_;--_emulation_ indulged till it grows up to
_envy_;--_frugality_ to the most sordid _avarice_; and _courage_ to a
brutal _rashness_;--and so I am ready to allow that _curiosity_, from
whence all the _good_ in us originally arises, may also be productive
of the _greatest mischiefs_, when not, like every other emotion of the
soul, kept within its due limits, and suffered to exert itself only on
warrantable objects.

It should therefore be the first care of every one to regulate this
propensity in himself, as well as of those under whose tuition he may
happen to be, whether parents or governors.--Nature, and the writings
of learned men, who from time to time have commented on all that has