adilscaping

Half Knowledge is Worse Than Ignorance First Prize in Essay Contest (CSR-January 1992 Issue)     K nowledge upon its brimful waters holds the mirror of Narcissus and the unwary upstart is enamoured of his own glorified reflection. It is a will-o-the wisp to the untrained eye that from the marshes of ignorance shimmers illusively only to end in a deeper quagmire of confusion. Its revelation to a novice, (as once Shakespeare wrote in a different context) is as:   “Brief as the lightning in the collied night, That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth, And ere a man has power to say ‘Behold’ The jaws of darkness to devour it up So quick bright things come to confusion”   The early draughts of the Pierian intoxicate, and sober only towards the last dregs of its perennial spring. Thus, wisdom lies not in self-assumed omniscience but in the continuing realization and thirst of one’s ignorance. All errors committed by humankind are, in fact, a direct consequence