p. 564 | True Learning Makes Things Plain

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 36.

True Learning Makes Things Plain

TRUE learning does not cause a man to talk mysteriously about unknown things, but to make that which to common minds is mysterious or obscure, plain and easy of comprehension. Mystery or obscurity is no evidence that a thing is incomprehensible, but simply that it is not comprehended, and affords evidence of ignorance. The ambition of learned men, if they would be recognized by sensible people as men of knowledge, should be to present plainly that which is actually known, rather than exhibit their ignorance in floundering among mysteries which they do not comprehend. Much that passes for learning is nothing but a display of pretentious ignorance.—Sel.