that is,
for most of those objects which are meant by the ordinary titers of
the saying, "Knowledge is power"]--"and seldom sincerely to give a
true account of these gifts of reason to the benefit and use of men,
as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a
searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and
variable mind to walk up and down, with a fair prospect; or a tower
of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or
commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit or
sale,--and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and
the relief of men's estate."--Advancement of Learning, Book I.]

PARSON (remorsefully).--"Are those Lord Bacon's words? I am very sorry
I spoke so uncharitably of his life. I must examine it again. I may find
excuses for it now that I could not when I first formed my judgment.
I was then a raw lad at Oxford. But I see, Leonard, there is still
something on your mind."

LEONARD.--"It is true, sir: I would but ask whether it is not by
knowledge that we arrive at the qualities and virtues you so well
describe, but which you seem to consider as coming to us through
channels apart from knowledge?"

PARSON.--"If you mean by the word 'knowledge' something very different
from what you express in your Essay--and which those contending for
mental instruction, irrespective of religion and ethics, appear also to
convey by the word--you are right; but, remember, we have already agreed
that by the word' knowledge' we mean culture purely intellectual."

LEONARD.--"That is true,--we so understood it."

PARSON.--"Thus, when this great Lord Bacon erred, you may say that
he erred from want of knowledge,--the knowledge which moralists and
preachers would convey. But Lord Bacon had read all that moralists and
preachers could say on such matters; and he certainly did not err from
want of intellectual cultivation. Let me here, my child, invite you
to observe, that He who knew most of our human hearts and our immortal
destinies did not insist on this intellectual culture as essential to
the virtues that form our well-being here, and conduce to our salvation
hereafter. Had it been essential, the All-wise One would not have
selected humble fishermen for the teachers of His doctrine, instead of
culling His disciples from Roman portico or Athenian academe. And this,
which distinguishes so remarkably the Gospel from the