I
Introduction
A Formal solemn Owl had many years made his habitation in a grove amongst the ruins of an old monastery, and had pored so often on some mouldy manuscripts, the stupid relicks of a monkish library, that he grew infected with the pride and pedantry of the place, and mistaking gravity for wisdom, would sit whole days with his eyes hal shut, fancying himself profoundly learned. [Quoted from Robert Dodsley, 1761]