CLI. Ah! Madam, reconsider your choice, I beseech you; and do not expose me to such a disgrace. Do not doom me to the unworthy destiny of seeing myself the rival of Mr. Trissotin. The love of _beaux esprits_ [Footnote: No single word has given me so much trouble to translate as this word _esprit_. This time I acknowledge myself beaten.], which goes against me in your mind, could not have opposed to me a less noble adversary. There are people whom the bad taste of the age has reckoned among men of genius; but Mr. Trissotin deceives nobody, and everyone does justice to the writings he gives us. Everywhere but here he is esteemed at his just value; and what has made me wonder above all things is to see you exalt to the sky, stupid verses which you would have disowned had you yourself written them. PHI. If you judge of him differently from us, it is that we see him with other eyes than you do. SCENE III.--TRISSOTIN, PHILAMINTE, ARMANDE, CLITANDRE. TRI. (_to_ PHILAMINTE). I come to announce you great news. We have had a narrow escape while we slept. A world passed all along us, and fell right across our vortex. [Footnote: _Tourbillon_. Compare act iii scene ii. Another reference to Cotin.] If in its way it had met with our earth, it would have dashed us to pieces like so much glass. PHI. Let us put off this subject till another season. This gentleman would understand nothing of it; he professes to cherish ignorance, and above all to hate intellect and knowledge. CLI. This is not altogether the fact; allow me, Madam, to explain myself. I only hate that kind of intellect and learning which spoils people. These are good and beautiful in themselves; but I had rather be numbered among the ignorant than to see myself learned like certain people. TRI. For my part I do not believe, whatever opinion may be held to the contrary, that knowledge can ever spoil anything. CLI. And I hold that knowledge can make great fools both in words and in deeds. TRI. The paradox is rather strong. CLI. It would be easy to find proofs; and I believe without being very clever, that if reasons should fail, notable examples would not be wanting. TRI. You might cite some without proving your point. CLI. I should not have far to go to find what I want. TRI. As far as I am concerned, I fail to see those notable examples. CLI. I see them so well that they almost blind me. TRI. I believed hitherto that it was ignorance which made fools, and not knowledge. CLI. You made a great mistake; and I assure you that a learned fool is more of a fool than an ignorant one. TRI. Common sense is against your maxims, since an ignorant man and a fool are synonymous. CLI. If you cling to the strict uses of words, there is a greater connection between pedant and fool. TRI. Folly in the one shows itself openly. CLI. And study adds to nature in the other. TRI. Knowledge has always its intrinsic value. CLI. Knowledge in a pedant becomes impertinence.