'Inglorious or by wants inthralled, To college and old books confined, A pedant from his learning called, Dunces advanced, he's left behind.'

It is probable that he himself understood his true sphere, which was that of a literary man,an historical critic, appealing to intelligent people rather than to learned pedants in the universities.

She desires to make herself useful to somebody, and marries a narrow, jealous, aristocratic pedant, who had spent his life in elaborate studies on a dry and worthless subject.

As to its actual merits, Johnson's contemporaries differed widely, some proclaiming him a pompous pedant with a passion for words of six syllables and more, others delighting in those passages in which weighty meaning was illustrated with splendour and vigour.

It misses its aim if it produces learned pedants, or simple artisans, or cunning sophists, or pretentious practitioners.

"Green, I'll punch your head for you directly, you unspeakable pedant!