Saturday, March 27, 2021
I Say Only What Others Have Said Before
Walter Savage Landor, "Lord Bacon and Richard Hooker," Imaginary Conversations, Vol. III (London: J.M. Dent & Co., 1909), pp. 341-346 (at 345, Hooker speaking):
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I know my poor weak intellects, most noble Lord, and how scantily they have profited by my hard painstaking. Comprehending few things, and those imperfectly, I say only what others have said before, wise men and holy; and if, by passing through my heart into the wide world around me, it pleaseth God that this little treasure shall have lost nothing of its weight and pureness, my exultation is then the exultation of humility. Wisdom consisteth not in knowing many things, nor even in knowing them thoroughly; but in choosing and in following what conduces the most certainly to our lasting happiness and true glory. And this wisdom, my Lord of Verulam, cometh from above.
