WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE

Hokitika Guardian, 15 March 1928, Page 1

WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE

A man, speaking of an acquaintance, said : "He’s a most knowledgeable iello, encyclopaedic, a perfect mine of information on every subject under tlie sun. His only drawback is he knows only what lie has learnt.” To his friend this later remark seemed quite incomprehensible. “AA’hat on earth can a man know,” he asked, “except what he has learnt?’’ The man’s reply was: “The tilings we learn we call knowledge, the things we know without actually learning them we call wisdom. Knowledge is material, wisdom is spiritual. It is a distinction we should try to understand. A man with vast resources of knowledge may be far from wise if he does not possess that spiritual quality also which we call wisdom. Knowledge we acquire, wisdom is horn with us. The wise man is he who knows the difference between good and evil and mis up to his knowledge who can givje sound council in emergencies, and blaze a trail through the tangled forest of difficulty. He knows by a kind of divine instinct how to deal with great dilemmas as they arise and lias tact- in giving and enforcing advice. None of this could he learn in any book. In moments of crisis it is his own spirit that informs him. He roads the invisible tablets of his soul and acts accordingly as they advise.”