We must be careful to bear in mind that knowledge and wisdom are not necessarily interchangeable terms; a man may have a far-reaching knowledge, and be a perfect encyclopædia of useful and useless facts, and yet be wofully deficient in wisdom. "Learning is but an adjunct to oneself," writes Shakespeare, in "Love's Labour's Lost," a sentence luminous and golden. We see the essential difference perhaps the better if we append to each its opposite—knowledge and ignorance, wisdom and folly.
The fool has supplied material for countless proverbs. Solomon tells us that "A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother"; that "A prating fool shall fall"; that "It is as sport to a fool to do mischief"; that "The fool shall be servant to the wise of heart"; that "He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly"; that "Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom"; that "He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow"; that "A fool returneth to his folly"; that "A fool uttereth all his mind"; that "Fools die for want of wisdom"; that "The legs of the lame are not equal, so is a parable in the mouth of fools";[201:A] while the writer of Ecclesiasticus says—"Weep for the dead, for he hath lost the light; and weep for the fool, for he wanteth understanding. Make little weeping for the dead, for he is at rest; but the life of the fool is worse than death. Seven days do men mourn for him that is dead, but for a fool all the days of his life." Many other Biblical references may very readily be found.
In the domain of secular literature and proverb-lore the material at our service is equally lavish in amount and definite in its pity and scorn of these unfortunates. The following may be accepted as samples from the bulk: "Wise men learn more from fools than fools from wise men"; "Folly, as well as wisdom, is justified in its children"; "Little minds, like small beer, are soon soured"; "Wise men make jests, and fools repeat them"; "He is a fool who makes his fist a wedge"; "On the heels of folly shame treads"; "To promise and give nothing is a comfort to a fool"; "A foolish judge passes a quick sentence"; "A wise man shines, a fool would outshine"; "Cunning is the fool's substitute for wisdom"; "The fools wonder, wise men ask"; "A fool and his money are soon parted";[202:A] "The fool says, Who would have thought it?"; "Folly jumps into the river, and wonders why Fate lets him"; "Wit is folly, unless a wise man has the keeping of it"; "A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer, but a wise man cannot ask more questions than a fool is ready to answer"; "A fool shoots without taking aim." These proverbs are severe, but one feels, on full consideration of them, one after another, that there is not one that is exaggerated. They all describe people whom we have all met, and who are still living.
There is some considerable compensation in the fact that "The less wit a man has, the less he knows he wants it." The French say that "Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire"—a fool always finds a bigger fool to admire him—and that, too, must be very comforting.[203:A] As writer and reader alike happily feel beyond any uncomfortable misgiving that these various proverbs refer to quite other folk than themselves, we may pick up a few hints from yet other proverbs as to our dealings with these unfortunate people. One point that we need to remember is that "He who has to deal with a blockhead has need of much brains." It is expedient, too, to remember that "If you play with a fool at home, he will play with you in the street"; and the caution may be given that "A fool demands much, but he is a greater fool that gives it." It is painful to know that "Knaves are in such repute that honest men are counted fools," though to be counted a fool by a knave is, after all, of little moment. We must bear in mind, too, that "No one is so foolish but may give another good counsel sometimes," and the true wisdom is to value good, from whatever quarter it comes.
The value of truth and the meanness of falsehood find due place in our proverb literature. "Truth," we are told, "hath always a fast bottom," a firm anchorage. "Truth hath but one way, but that is the right way." Esdras tells us that, "As for the truth, it endureth, and is always strong: it liveth and conquereth for evermore." Even in the old classic days, before Christianity influenced the lives of men, the beauty of truth was recognised, for Plautus wrote, two hundred years before the coming of Christ, "That man is an upright man who does not repent him that he is upright"; and Seneca declared that "He is most powerful who has himself in his power." It has been beautifully said that "Truth is God's daughter," and that "It may be blamed, but it may never be shamed."
The following sayings will bear consideration:—"Truth begets trust, and trust truth," "The usefullest truths are the plainest," "He who respects his word will find it respected," "Craft must have clothes, but truth can go naked," "No one ever surfeited of too much honesty," "A straight line is the shortest in morals as in mathematics," "It is always term-time in the court of conscience," "Character is the diamond that scratches every other stone," "Truth is the cement of society," "Sell not thy conscience with thy goods," "Smart reproof is better than smooth acquiescence." Truth, then, must necessarily make enemies, for "Honest men never have the love of a rogue," and "Truth is always unpalatable to those who will not relinquish error"—to those who love darkness rather than light.
In the Library of Jesus College, Cambridge, in a manuscript of the fifteenth century we find the following excellent teaching:
"Of mankynde thou shalt none sle
Ne harm with worde, wyll, nor dede;
Ne suffir non lorn ne lost to be
If thow wele may than help at nede.
Be thou no thef, nor theves fere
Ne nothing wyn with trechery;
Okur ne symony cum thow not nere,
But conciens clere kepe al ay trewely.
Thou shalt in worde be trewe alsso;
And fals wytnes thou shalt none bere:
Loke thow not lye for frende nor foo
Lest thow they saull full gretely dere.