LXV. In general, any person whatever, be his capacity ever so great, will appear more rude than a man of little penetration, if he talks with him of such matters as the other has had experience in and he has never applied himself to understand. A labourer in husbandry, whom God has endowed with a most penetrating genius, which is no uncommon case, if it happens that his attention has never been fixed on any other thing but his work, would appear greatly inferior to the most heavy politician, if he should ever chance to converse with him about reasons of state; and the most wise politician, if he is merely a politician, who should set himself to talk about the disposition of troops, and the fighting of battles, would utter a thousand absurdities; insomuch, that if a man skilled in military affairs was to hear him, he would be apt to conclude he was mad, as Hannibal thought the great Asiatic orator was, who, in the presence of king Antiochus and him, undertook to argue about the art and conduct of war. LXVI. It happens exactly the same in the business we are now treating of. A woman of excellent understanding, whose thoughts are constantly occupied on domestic management and the care of her house, without scarce ever hearing matters of a superior nature talked of, or, if it does happen that she hears any such thing, she rarely pays much attention to it: her husband, though much inferior to her in talents, converses frequently abroad with able men of various professions, by communicating with whom, he acquires variety of knowledge, or he enters into public business, and receives important information. Instructed in this manner, if it happens at any time that in the company of his wife, these matters are talked of, she, who by the means and in the way we have just mentioned, can gain but little aid or assistance, if she happens to speak just what occurs to her on the subject, from the want of instruction, must appear a little defective in point of knowledge, let her be ever so acute and penetrating. Her husband, and the others who hear her, conclude from thence, that she is a fool; and he in particular, plumes himself on his superior talents and abilities. LXVII. As it fared with this woman, so it fares with an infinity of others, who, though they may have much more sense than the men they happen to be in company with, are condemned by them as unfit to reason on any kind of subject: but the truth is, that their not being able to reason at all, or their reasoning ill on such matters, does not proceed from a want of talents, but from a want of being properly informed; and without this assistance, a person, endued with even an angelic understanding, could not discourse pertinently on any subject whatever. The men at the same time, although inferior to them in understanding, shine and triumph over them with an air of importance, because they happen to be better provided with information.