A League of Learning 297
that “knowledge is power,” but he does not really believe it.
It requires some range of vision to agree with the great
thinker who said that knowledge is never useless. Nor is
this true, if taken too literally. As you, Mr. President, have
hinted more than once, it is not mere knowledge, but the
enlightened mind which is the reservoir of power. A great
thinker, according to Emerson, is like a fire in a great city:
you do not know where it will stop. A great idea is the
winged measure of a great mind: it begins in one head, as
Carlyle said, but, given time, it will conquer the whole world.
Great conceptions in the world of human relations, ideals
let loose upon a community, are like the physical forces
which are operative in the natural world. They are bind-
ing laws, always at work. They are capable of being dis-
obeyed, but never of being suspended; and if they are
disobeyed, they bring their inevitable, punitive consequences.
There was once, we are told, amongst a small people in
ancient times, a people obscure in every sense but one, a
very great and very humble Teacher of men. At the close of
His life, only about a dozen men believed in Him, and they
were men in every social sense of no account. These fol-
lowed their Teacher about from their love of Him, but even
thçy entirely misunderstood His doctrine. Nevertheless,
when He was facing death and His whole mission appeared
to be a total failure, He said to them, “In the world ye shall
have tribulation; but be ye of good cheer. I have overcome
the world.” There never was so great a teacher with so
humble a ring of disciples as Jesus of Nazareth. Yet, so
sublime was His faith, so sure was He of the conquering
power of the truth which He taught by word and deed, that
He spoke of its victory over the whole world as already won.
Knowledge in every domain, whether natural or spiritual,
is power: Knowledge conquers.
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