"I do not remember ever before to have heard the saying,whether of Talleyrand or of any one else,That _all_the world is a wiser man than any man in the world.Had it been said even by the Devil,it would nevertheless be false.I have often indeed heard the saying,_On peut etre plus FIN qu'un autre,mais pas plus FIN que tous les autres_.But observe that '_fin_'means _cunning_,not _wise_.The difference between this assertion and the one you refer to is curious and worth examining.It is quite certain,there is always some one man in the world wiser than all the rest;as Socrates was declared by the oracle to be;and as,I suppose,Bacon was in his day,and perhaps Burke in his.There is also some one,whose opinion would be probably true,if opposed to that of all around him;and it is always indubitable that the wise men are the scores,and the unwise the millions.The millions indeed come round,in the course of a generation or two,to the opinions of the wise;but by that time a new race of wise men have again shot ahead of their contemporaries:so it has always been,and so,in the nature of things,it always must be.
第72章 CLIFTON(4)（3 / 3）