14 A Wise Man is a Man Who Knows He is a

Fool

In this world of ours, most men are fools. The fools in human society may be divided under two heads: First those who are really ignorant that always think that they know much and secondly, those who know much and yet think that they know little. The first group of fools may be described as a set of inspired fools while the second group of fools are, in reality, philosophers in disguise. In our country at present day, the fools of the first type are numerous. We often see on the political platform demagogues who play upon the feelings of the mob and mislead men. They think that they understand the deeper political problems of the country in their international context. But the case is just the reverse. They freely make use of cheap rhetoric and the other ordinary arts of capturing the mob mind. In recent times, there has been no doubt a great industrial development in the country. But it is a painful fact that most of the industries are not run on strictly scientific lines; for instance, in some of the biggest galvanised iron industries, the scrapings of iron-sheets are thrown away as waste material. The managers of those concerns, do not know how to apply the latest advanced methods of science to the industry. They are inspired fools who think that they know much but, in reality, know little and are fooled to the top of their bent. Self-deception is the greatest of deceptions, Modern psychology - the psychology of Freud - teaches that in the unconscious life of man there are various forces which control and guide his waking life; these secret forces of the unconscious mislead and deceive man in the different sphere of life. A man who says thst he does not like flattery often really likes it as Julius Caesar did in Shakespeares play Julius Caesar. There are many people who having saved some money at the end of their career, desire to invest it in business with a view to growing rich soon. In reality, they do not know the secret of business with a view to growing rich soon. In reality, they do not know the secret of business and, in

consequence lose their money and meet with disappointment. Lastly, it is a commonplace occurrenre that many students in the several Universities here take up subjects for which they have no aptitude and meet with failure at the examination. A wise man always subjects himself to self-examination. Every man in this world has strength as well as weakness. Therefore, everyone should practise self-criticism in a mood of humility and find out his limitations as well as capability. Humility is the condition of wisdom. It is said about Newton, the greatest mathematician of England, that, in spite of his deep and vast knowledge of science he used to say: I am just picking pebbles on the shore of the sea of knowledge. Stephen Leacock, the well-known political economist of Canada, in his Model Memoirs, speaks of an eminent Professor, who had worked for fourteen year on the subject of Machiavelli, the great political thinker of Italy. When the Professor published his book on Machiavelli, the book was declared by competent critics as immature and full of wrong judgment. Now the Professor who was convinced