human
A glass of wine, Mr. Leslie. You were saying, before dinner, that burlesque Greek is not a knowledge very much in power at present. Pray, Sir, what knowledge is in power?
gpt
Practical knowledge.
human
What of?
gpt
Men.
human
Well, I suppose that is the most available sort of knowledge, in a worldly point of view. How does one learn it? Do books help?
gpt
According as they are read, they help or injure.
human
How should they be read in order to help?
gpt
Read specially to apply to purposes that lead to power.
human
That he does, growled the squire;
gpt
Argument is the salt of talk. But now I am afraid I must agree with you, which I was not at all prepared for.
human
No two men of our education can dispute upon the application of knowledge.
gpt
Eh?--what to?
human
Power, of course.
gpt
Power!--the vulgarest application of it, or the loftiest? But you mean the loftiest?
human
The vulgarest, self-interest; the loftiest, beneficence.
gpt
You speak, Sir, as a clergyman should do. I admire your sentiment, and adopt it; but I fear that the knowledge which aims only at beneficence very rarely in this world gets any power at all.
human
That's true; I never get my own way when I want to do a kindness, and Stirn always gets his when he insists on something diabolically brutal and harsh.
gpt
Pray, Mr. Leslie, what does intellectual power refined to the utmost, but entirely stripped of beneficence, most resemble?
human
Resemble?--I can hardly say. Some very great man--almost any very great man--who has baffled all his foes, and attained all his ends.
gpt
I doubt if any man has ever become very great who has not meant to be beneficent, though he might err in the means. Caesar was naturally beneficent, and so was Alexander. But intellectual power refined to the utmost, and wholly void of beneficence, resembles only one being, and that, sir, is the Principle of Evil.
human
Do you mean the Devil?
gpt
Yes, Sir, the Devil; and even he, Sir, did not succeed! Even he, Sir, is what your great men would call a most decided failure.
human
My dear, my dear!
gpt
Our religion proves it, my love; he was an angel, and he fell.