(HANCOCK _goes out._)




IX

THE WISDOM OF "A STUDENT IN ARMS"


It is no good trying to fathom "things" to the bottom; they have not
got one.

Knowledge is always descriptive, and never fundamental. We can
describe the appearance and conditions of a process; but not the way
of it.

Agnosticism is a fundamental fact. It is the starting-point of the
wise man who has discovered that it needs eternity to study infinity.

Agnosticism, however, is no excuse for indolence. Because we cannot
know all, we need not therefore be totally ignorant.

The true wisdom is that in which all knowledge is subordinate to
practical aims, and blended into a working philosophy of life.

The true wisdom is that it is not what a man does, or has, or says,
that matters; but what he is.