Library of Samuel Teleki: Part One

Others, indeed, abounding or luxuriating in their own talent, following the example of Rousseau, 1.) play at a serious matter; others finally, indulging their own nature, laugh at what they have not learned, and, deterred by the difficulty and the abundance of things to be learned, disdain what they cannot attain. 2.) Their arguments, however, seem to me to have no more value than if one were to criticize fire, wine, or water, from the abuse of which it cannot be denied that the greatest damage and danger has often arisen to the human race. For those vices are not proper to books and libraries, but are common to human nature and depraved morals, which are found to have existed throughout the memory of all mankind, even in those who have never touched literature.

1.) Discours sur la question: si le rétablissement des sciences et des arts a contribué à épurer les moeurs Discourse on the question: whether the restoration of the sciences and arts has contributed to the purification of morals.
2.) A new example of a depraved judgment regarding letters and the audacity of public calumny was recently provided by a Gallic author in a booklet: Pensées et observations morales et politiques Moral and Political Thoughts and Observations, etc., page 183, where he did not blush to openly affirm: "The light of reason disturbs the soul in its degree, enervates fortitude, loosens consciences, depraves morals, and leads men, wise only to themselves, away from the republic: in a word, all peoples degenerate as each one has been illuminated and cultivated by the rays of this light; and finally, the art of printing and the abundance of books are the source and sink of all evils."