But it would be as unfair to Bacon to convert into
an aphorism the sentence that discriminates between knowledge and
power as it is to convert into an aphorism any sentence that
confounds them.]

namely, 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 ever would 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."

PARSON.--"Well, grant that it is undeniable. Does it prove much in
favour of knowledge? Pray, is not ignorance power too?"

RICCABOCCA.--"And a power that has had much the best end of the
quarter-staff."

PARSON.--"All evil is power, and does its power make it anything the
better?"

RICCABOCCA.--"Fanaticism is power,--and a power that has often swept
away knowledge like a whirlwind. The Mussulman burns the library of a
world, and forces the Koran and the sword from the schools of Byzantium
to the colleges of Hindostan."

PARSON (bearing on with a new column of illustration).--"Hunger is
power. The barbarians, starved out of their forests by their own
swarming population, swept into Italy and annihilated letters. The
Romans, however degraded, had more knowledge at least than the Gaul and
the Visigoth."

RICCABOCCA (bringing up the reserve).--"And even in Greece, when Greek
met Greek, the Athenians--our masters in all knowledge--were beat by the
Spartans, who held learning in contempt."

PARSON.--"Wherefore you see, Leonard, that though knowledge be power, it
is only one of the powers of the world; that there are others as strong,
and often much stronger; and the assertion either means but a barren
truism, not worth so frequent a repetition, or it means something that
you would find it very difficult to prove."

LEONARD.--"One nation may be beaten by another that has more physical
strength and more military discipline; whi