p. 626 | Learning by Lyman Abbott

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 23, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 40.

Learning.

By Lyman Abbott

THERE is a difference between learning and wisdom. Learning is intellectual wealth; wisdom is intellectual power. Learned men are not always wise; wise men are not always learned. Learning tends to give wisdom, but wisdom is by no means always the accompaniment of learning. Abraham Lincoln was not a learned man, but he was a very wise man. James I. of England is said to have been a learned man, but he certainly was not a wise man. F. W. Robertson states admirably this distinction:—

"Let us distinguish wisdom from two things; from information first. It is one thing to be well informed; it is another thing to be wise. Many books read, innumerable books hived up in a capacious memory—this does not constitute wisdom. Books give it not; sometimes the bitterest experience gives it not. Many a heart-break may have come as the result of life errors and life mistakes; and yet men may be no wiser than before. Before the same temptations they fall again, in the same ways they fell before. Where they erred in youth they err still in age. A mournful truth! 'Ever learning,' says St. Paul, 'and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.' Distinguish wisdom, again, from talent. Brilliancy of powers is not the wisdom for which Solomon prayed. Wisdom is of the heart rather than of the intellect; the harvest of moral thoughtfulness reaped in through years. Two things are required—earnestness and love. First, that rare thing, earnestness, which looks on life practically. Some of the wisest of the race have been men who have scarcely stirred beyond home, read little, felt and thought much. 'Give me,' said Solomon, 'a wise and understanding heart'—a heart which ponders upon life, not in order to talk about it like an orator, nor in order to theorize about it like a philosopher, but in order to know how to live and how to die."

Learning comes by studying; wisdom, by thinking. Learning comes from without; wisdom, from within. Learning is an acquisition; wisdom is a development. Learning may be forgotten, and so lost; wisdom is a part of the character, and so will abide forever. These two possessions are the greatest which any man can possess. These two gifts are the greatest which any man can bestow upon his children. And in our times and country they are, in some measure, within the reach of every child. The poorest parent can give to his children, the poorest child can make for himself, the choice of Solomon.—Lyman Abbott.