"When you go to Naples," said Byron to Lady Blessington
('Conversations', pp. 238, 239), "you must make acquaintance with Sir
William Drummond, for he is certainly one of the most erudite men and
admirable philosophers now living. He has all the wit of Voltaire,
with a profundity that seldom appertains to wit, and writes so
forcibly, and with such elegance and purity of style, that his works
possess a peculiar charm. Have you read his 'Academical Questions'? If
not, get them directly, and I think you will agree with me, that the
preface to that work alone would prove Sir William Drummond an
admirable writer. He concludes it by the following sentence, which I
think one of the best in our language:
"'Prejudice may be trusted to guard the outworks for a short space
of time, while Reason slumbers in the citadel; but if the latter
sink into a lethargy, the former will quickly erect a standard for
herself. Philosophy, wisdom, and liberty support each other; he who
will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who
dares not is a slave.'
"Is not the passage admirable? How few could have written it! and yet
how few read Drummond's works! They are too good to be popular. His
'Odin' is really a fine poem, and has some passages that are
beautiful, but it is so little read that it may be said to have
dropped still-born from the press--a mortifying proof of the bad taste
of the age.
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