The Separation of the Learned From the Conversible World David Hume (1742)

The Separation of the Learned from the conversible World seems to have been the great Defect of the last Age, and must have had a very bad Influence both on Books and Company:

For what Possibility is there of finding Topics of Conversation fit for the Entertainment of rational Creatures, without having Recourse sometimes to History, Poetry, Politics, and the more obvious Principles, at least, of Philosophy?

Must our whole Discourse be a continued Series of gossipping Stories and idle Remarks?

Must the Mind never rise higher, but be perpetually

Stun’d and worn out with endless Chat
Of WILL did this, and NAN said that.

Credit: David Hume

•  Two Realms of Intellectual Discourse ** The learned and the conversible