CHAPTER XIX.
Parson.—"You take for your motto this aphorism[8]—'Knowledge is Power.—Bacon.'"
Riccabocca.—"Bacon make such an aphorism! The last man in the world to have said any thing so pert and so shallow."
Leonard (astonished).—"Do you mean to say, sir, that that aphorism is not in Lord Bacon! Why, I have seen it quoted as his in almost every newspaper, and in almost every speech in favor of popular education."
Riccabocca.—"Then that should be a warning to you never again to fall into the error of the would-be scholar—viz., quote second-hand. Lord Bacon wrote a great book to show in what knowledge is power, how that power should be defined, in what it might be mistaken. And, pray, do you think so sensible a man would ever have taken the trouble to write a great book upon the subject, if he could have packed up all he had to say into the portable dogma, 'Knowledge is power?' Pooh! no such aphorism is to be found in Bacon from the first page of his writings to the last."
Parson (candidly).—"Well, I supposed it was Lord Bacon's, and I am very glad to hear that the aphorism has not the sanction of his authority."
Leonard (recovering his surprise).—"But why so?"
Parson.—"Because it either says a great deal too much, or just—nothing at all."
Leonard.—"At least, sir, it seems to me undeniable."