"Every Author almost has some beauty"

"For it is to litle purpose to Think well and speak well, unless we Live well this is our Great Affair and truest Excellency, the other are no further to be regarded than as they may assist us in this (p. 858, Col. 1, VI.)

Astell then goes on to explain what it means to "live well." Could we also add, learn well? They seem to go hand-in-hand.  "She who does not draw this Inference from her Studies has Thought in vain, her notions are Erroneous and Mistaken. And all her Eloquence is but an empty noise..."(858, Col. 1, VI). Learning well seems to be what Astell meant, which I find to be interesting. Knowledge has been a common theme throughout many of the texts we have read, but the type of knowledge has not. If I chose to read a fictional fantasy story and someone else chose to read a nonfictional textbook, who is to say one grants knowledge but the other does not? Both contain it, they are simply different from one another. Anything new constitutes learning and, according to Astell, learning well (living well) is what fuels thinking well and speaking well.

I can't help but reflect on certain individuals I know, who are so intellectual it is heard in every word spoken by them. These individuals, in my mind, are those who have truly "lived well". When they offer advice or give a speech, their credibility is immediately through-the-roof. They have the ability to persuade individuals due to the intelligence which radiates from them. Such is the power of knowledge (living well).