In Alexander Pope's An Essay on
            Criticism, he is speaking about the "art" of being a good critic. This piece
            is "one of the best known discussions of literary criticism" in English. Pope was only
            twenty-two years old when he wrote it.
The first comment
            Pope makes about learning is that only those who have excelled in writing should teach
            others. If one has not mastered the skill, he (or she) should not try to instruct
            or criticize others.
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Let such teach others who themselves
            excell,
And censure freely who have written
            well.
Pope also warns of
            "false Learning," saying that it destroys "good Sense," but that some people are
            confused by the many schools of thought that exist.
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So by false Learning is good Sense
            defac'd.
Some are bewilder'd in the Maze of
            Schools...
Pope states that a
            little learning is a dangerous thing. One must be well-versed in that which he hopes to
            stand as an expert. To depend only on a little learning (taking "shallow" sips) will not
            yield the positive result that comes of "drinking deeply." One should drink at the
            Pierian Spring, the spring of knowledge in Greek mythology that
            "fed" the             href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muses">Muses. One must learn as much as
            possible.
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A little Learning is a dang'rous
            Thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the             href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierian_Spring">Pierian
            Spring:
There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,
And
            drinking largely sobers us again.
 
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