On Erudition

[Lomiei 1488]

On Erudition

A Treatise

 

 

Spoiler

Essential Question: Why should you care about learning?

        The beginning of wisdom is not the love for knowledge, but the practice of it. If the possession of skills and the ability to share them are the most appreciated, then it is the continued gathering of them that is most admirable. Through this, the young will grow into prosperous old, the ignorant will become knowing, the pioneer will come to be considered the father of his craft.

        Long life is of no use, devoid of the ability to take and give. Who can allow the takers to have their spoils, but those who present the bounty? There has never yet been a sale without a purchaser, or a conqueror without his land; Nor yet any who could learn the best of crafts, without the best instructors.

        So then he who has the most admirable opinion of himself ought to have it by cause of his constant summoning of skills. In knowing them, he benefits only himself, in the doing of them does he mark the world with inspiration. 

        Whereas the pious and virtuous few content themselves with only this, the wicked (who despise themselves) desire principally power, or wealth. When the latter are the consequence of skill’s dedication, they are honored; but when skills are dedicated to wealth and power, this is vanity. 

 

 

        Into the heart of every child is put the curiosity to know things, and God our father has enabled every human mind to attain the vast quantity of knowledge, according to the constraint of our bodies and the times in which they are bound to take their starts and meet their ends. This (among other reasons) is why those who make their trade in lying and corrupting the minds are of the utmost contempt.

        Is it not a testament to the benefit of practice, that as we endeavor to practice a skill, we learn more about the uses of it, and the tools of it, and indeed we learn more about ourselves for our adaptations to it. Likewise, the study of skills gives weight to the practice thereof. For who could dare to save a companion by medicine, if he never has looked at his many flowers and bottles? Or who could be trusted with the generalship of an army, unless he is a seen giver of lessons to his men - those harsh and those lenient? And war, in its critical nature, can be mastered only by those who are givers of lessons as well as complete students in the art of war. 

        The aforementioned medicine is no different. As that too is only called ‘mastered’ by those who are known for its longsuffering study and its successful practice. In thus form is all skill. For this reason, so many elders are humorously skeptical of physicians who are still in an abundant possession of youth. And why Knights of the highest honor only attain this reverent accolade after a careful scrutiny of those who are long acquainted with the research of texts, and the taking of heads. Like those elders, every king and commoner should be skeptical of that citizen who contributes nothing to the household in which he sleeps; and that scoundrel which is told time and time again but does not practice what he says he is learning. He has gone against the better nature of himself, and it is neither learning nor practice that has taken his attention; but liscence, greed, and sloth.

 

        It cannot be said that ‘everything there is to know, is known’. Few are of this mind, thank God. Nevertheless, there is much to know, and even the longest living of the many races cannot acquire it all before the next generation is charged with the keeping of the old, and the gathering of the new. Indeed, some are killed in their youth, and others at their times, but so long as a quaint number of them dedicate their lives to the gaining and passing of skills - thus long lives the prosperity of civilization. 

        I often reflect on how easy it is for something known to become something unknown. A swordsman who takes a long rest and does not wake for years or more, must work doggedly to restore in his form the proper mechanics, and must recall in his mind those guidelines that have died for lack of nourishment. All citizens past their youth will easily remember a time they have forgotten their better sense, when met by the strange infatuation that occurs when equal opposites come into contact. Less common only to the fortunate is this everpresent lesson which pervades every time and every place; that life and its beauty are of more worth than the costs of war. However necessary the latter may be.

        One might conclude that another is his friend for reason of gifts, kind words often sway the lightest of hearts. But it is he who shares skills with his comrade who is deserving of the loving title ‘friend’. Any flatterer can whisper praises and preach platitudes. Any rich man can bribe another to silence or to the loudest pitch according to his own will. Therefore if one searches all he knows, and finds only 1 willing to share words and show their meaning… that one only, among everyone else, is a friend. 

 

        Who will the merchant hire to captain his tradeships? If the merchant has no skill for choosing men, the captain will be bad - and bad captains are the cause of sunken ships. If the sailors have no skill for turning the sails or rowing the oars, the ship cannot run far from port, and the merchant will starve while his goods rot upon the ocean floor.

        We humans do not live by ourselves as some of Gods other creation are accustomed to do. The failure in skill then, dishonors not only the man himself, but dooms the society which brought him up, which evidently fed him through a good skill of child-rearing. Dont the elders and children freeze when trees are not felled in winter? Or starve when the farms are not ploughed? Or suffer the sword when our men flee the field? Selfish men are those who reap every fruit of civilization, and sow no seeds of any kind.

        This in mind, can civilization be called anything less than a   Golden   Age   when its citizens are indeed about their business? All at once, the generals prosper, the young learn from the old, the heathens are converted by the priests, the trade routes profit from their merchants, and the city (by honor to the architects) is revived with new benefits to the people; art is encouraged - rewarded. These are the times when the most legitimate monarch must never cease to hold his court; far too much news to tell, edicts to issue, promotions to allocate among the citizens and nobility, demotions to the idle-minded and chastisement to the idle-handed.

 

You suffer for lack of knowledge

 

        His Highness, Prince Paul Alexander of the Petra ,

Bastion of passion for knowledge and its practice, proceed with the blessings of God on your side, for he is pleased by the spread of skills and talents.

 

 

        Reverend Mother, Alrisha Von Augusten ,

Beloved truthteller, endure in confidence - those who succeed by your assistance will give you gratitude by their improvement of the world.

 

 

 

Penned 161 S.A.

Ferdinand Eryl

[Chorale__ 1692]

Prince Paul Alexander of the Petra looked over his longtime friend’s treatise and noted towards his infant children, “There is much to know. Lord Ferdinand has hit the nail on the head with this treatise, mhm, av — certainly so.” The Valfleur sounded, and as he continued to read on he noticed the dedications at the bottom of the academic work, his neutral countenance turned. His lips craning upwards into a smile, “These are all flattering things that are said about mo, I can only pray to GOD that He sees me in this same humble light.” 

[TheosVult 325]

Konstantin von Augusten smacked his lips "Well said mein cousin!" before gently sipping from his 1890 Azor Merlot and declaring "Us Augusten are such learned volk!"