University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XIII.

The Real Nature of Knowledge (Shih-chih).

The Literati, discoursing on Sages,[522] are of opinion that they
know thousands of years of the past, and ten thousand future
generations. Merely by the keenness of their sight, and the subtlety
of their hearing, they are able to give the proper names to new
things. They know spontaneously, without learning, and understand
of themselves, without inquiring, wherefore the term Sage is
equivalent with supernatural. They are like milfoil and the tortoise,
which know lucky and unlucky auguries, whence the milfoil plant
is regarded as supernatural, and the tortoise as a divine creature.

The talents of Worthies[523] do not reach this standard; their intelligence
is weaker and not so comprehensive, whence they are
called Worthies. This difference of name implies a difference of
nature, for the substance being the same, the name uses to be
equal. As for the name Sage, it is known that Sages are something
extraordinary and different from Worthies.

When Confucius was about to die, he left behind a book of
prophecies[524] wherein he says, "I know not what sort of fellow,
styling himself the First Emperor of Ch`in, comes to my hall, squats
on my bed, and turns my clothes topsy-turvy. After arriving at
Sha-ch`iu he will die." In course of time the king of Ch`in, having
swallowed the empire, assumed the title of First Emperor. On a
tour of inspection, he came to Lu and visited the home of Confucius.
Then he proceeded to Sha-ch`iu, but on the road he was taken ill
and expired.

Another entry is this, "Tung Chung Shu carries confusion into
my book." Subsequently, the minister of Chiang-tu,[525] Tung Chung Shu
made special researches into the Ch`un-ch`iu and wrote comments and
notes on it.[526] The book of prophecies further says, "Ch`in will be

ruined by Hu." Later on, the Second Emperor Hu Hai in fact lost
the empire.

These three instances are used to bear out the statement that
Sages foreknow ten thousand future generations.

Confucius ignored his descent, his father and mother having
concealed it from him. He blew the flute and then of himself
knew that he was a scion of Tse, a great officer of Sung of Yin.[527]
He did not consult books or ask anybody, his playing the flute
and his genius alone revealed to him his generation.[528] This would
appear to be a proof of the faculty of Sages to know thousands
of years of the past.

I say that all this is fallacy. Such miraculous stories are
recorded in prophecy books and all in the style of Hu destroying
the Ch`in, told in many books, or of the text of the Plan of the
River.[529] The plain illustrations of Confucius have been magnified
with a view to prove wonders and miracles, or the stories were
fabricated in later times to furnish evidence.

Kao Tsu having enfeoffed the king of Wu, and seeing him off,
patted him on his shoulder saying, "Within fifty years hereafter,
some one will revolt from the Han in the south-east. Will that
not be you?" In the time of Ching Ti, Pi[530] along with seven other
States plotted a rebellion against the Han.[531] Those who first made
this statement had perhaps noticed the dispositions and the signs
of the time, whence they surmised that a rebellion would come,
but they ignored the name of the leader. Kao Tsu having observed
the valour of Pi, then correctly hinted at him.

If from this point of view we consider Confucius' cognisance
of Ch`in Shih Huang Ti and of Tung Chung Shu, it may be that at
the time he merely spoke of somebody visiting his home and
deranging his book, and, later on, people, remarking that Ch`in Shih
Huang Ti entered his house, and that Tung Chung Shu studied his

work, exaggerated the dicta of Confucius and wrote down the names
of the principal persons.

If Confucius was endowed with supernatural powers, so that
he could see the First Emperor and Tung Chung Shu ere they existed,
then he ought to have at once been aware of his being a descendant
of the Yin and a scion of Tse likewise, and have no need of blowing
the flute to determine it. Confucius was unable to ascertain his
family name without playing the flute, but his seeing the First
Emperor and beholding Tung Chung Shu is like blowing the flute.

According to the narrative of Shih Huang Ti,[532] he did not go
to Lu; how then should he have entered the hall of Confucius,
squatted down on his bed, and turned his clothes topsy-turvy?
In the thirty-seventh year of his reign, on the kuei-ch`ou day of
the tenth month,[533] Ch`in Shih Huang Ti started on a journey to Yün-mêng.
From afar he sacrificed to Shun in Chiu-yi.[534] Floating down
the Yangtse, he visited Chieh-ko,[535] crossed the stream at Mei-chu,[536]
went over to Tan-yang, arrived at Ch`ien-t`ang, and approached the
Chê river. The waves being very boisterous, he went 120 Li westward,
crossed the stream at a narrow passage,[537] and went up to
Kuei-chi, where he made an oblation to Great Yü, and erected a
stone with an encomiastic inscription. Then turning to the southern
Sea, he went back. Passing Chiang-ch`êng, he sailed along the seashore
northward as far as Lang-yeh, whence still further north he
arrived at the Lao and Ch`êng[538] Mountains. Then he proceeded to
Chefoo, and always keeping near the sea-shore, reached the P`ingyuan
Ford, where he fell sick. He passed away on the P`ing Terrace
in Sha-ch`iu.[539]

Since he did not go to Lu, wherefrom does the Book of
Prophecies derive its knowledge that Shih Huang Ti came to Lu as

it says? This journey to Lu not being a fact that might be known,
the words ascribed to Confucius "I know not what sort of a fellow,"
&c. are not trustworthy either, and this utterance being unreliable,
the remark about Tung Chung Shu deranging his book becomes
doubtful also.

In case records of famous deeds seem rather queer, they are
the work of common people. All books, unless they be directly
written by Heaven and Earth, go back on former events, there
being reliable evidence. Those without experience, of course, cannot
utilise these sources. All Sages foreseeing happiness and misfortune,
meditate and reason by analogies. Reverting to the beginning,
they know the end; from their villages they argue on the palace,
and shed their light into the darkest corners. Prophecy books
and other mystic writings see from afar what has not yet come
to pass; they are aware of what is going to happen in future,
which, for the time being, is still a void and wrapt in darkness.
Their knowledge is instantaneous, supernatural, and passing all
understanding.

Although ineloquent persons may not be qualified for it, still
it is possible to predict calamities by observing analogies, or to
predetermine future events by going back to their sources and
examining the past. Worthies have this faculty as well,[540] and Sages
are not alone fit to do it.

When Chou Kung was governing Lu, T`ai Kung knew that his
descendants would be reduced to impotence, and when T`ai Kung
was ruling in Ch`i, Chou Kung saw that his scions would fall victims
to robbery and murder. By their methods they foreknew the ultimate
end, and perceived the signs of adversity and rebellion.

Chou having ivory chop-sticks made, Chi Tse administered
reproof,[541] and Confucius sighed because dummies were buried in Lu.
From the ivory chop-sticks the one inferred the misery attending
the search for dragon-liver, whereas the other saw in the dummies
the danger that living persons might be interred along with the dead.[542]

T`ai Kung and Chou Kung were both cognisant of what had
not yet come to pass, as Chi Tse and Confucius were aware of what

had not yet taken place. As regards the source from which they
drew the knowledge of the future, there is no diversity between
Sages and Worthies.

The marquis of Lu being old, and the crown-prince weak,
his daughter by a second wife leaned against a pillar, heaving a
sigh. Old age and weakness were to her presages of future disorders
and revolutions. Even a woman was clever enough to
reason by analogies and thus discover the future. How much
more should this be the case with Sages and superior men of
exceptional parts and great intelligence?

In the 10th year of Ch`in Shih Huang Ti[543] the mother of King
Yen Hsiang,[544] the queen-dowager Hsia, saw in a dream the consort
of King Hsiao Wên[545] who said, "The queen Hua Yang together with
her husband Wên Wang[546] is buried in Shou-ling, and the queen-dowager
Hsia and King Yen Hsiang are buried in Fan-ling. For this
reason the tomb of the queen-dowager Hsia is transferred to Tu-ling,[547]
so that I can say, `I see my son[548] in the east and my husband
in the west. After a hundred years a city of ten thousand families
will rise by my tomb.' " — In course of time everything turned
out as predicted. If those foreknowing the future from analogies
be regarded as Sages, then the daughter of the second wife and
the queen-dowager Hsia were Sages.

In the 10th year of King Chao of Ch`in,[549] Ch`u Li Tse[550] died
and was interred in Wei-nan,[551] east of the Chang terrace. He said,
"A hundred years hence, an emperor's palaces will hem in my
tomb." — After the rise of the Han dynasty, the Ch`ang-lo palace
was built at his east and the Wei-yang palace at his west side.
The arsenal was just on his tomb, exactly as he had said. This
is a proof of his prescience and of his foreseeing future events.
If such an evidence constitutes a claim to sagehood, then Ch`u Li
Tse was a Sage. If he was not a Sage, then the knowledge of
the future does not suffice to make a man a Sage.

Ch`u Li Tse seeing the emperor's palaces close by his grave,
was like Hsin Yu, who knew that Yi-ch`uan[552] would become the
territory of the Jung.[553] In ancient days Hsin Yu passing through
Yi-ch`uan and noticing the inhabitants, wearing their hair long
down on their back, performing sacrifices, said, "Within a hundred
years this land will most likely belong to the Jung." A hundred
years hence Chin[554] transferred the Jung of Lu-hun[555] to Yi-ch`uan,
and what Hsiu Yu knew before became a reality.[556] From the omen
of the long hair he inferred the expansion of the Jung, just as
Ch`u Li Tse, on beholding the vast plain near his tomb, foresaw
that the Son of Heaven would move quite close to his tomb.

Han Hsin,[557] burying his mother, likewise had a vast and elevated
place built, that by its side there might be room for ten thousand
families. Subsequently, in fact ten thousand families settled near
his tomb. Ch`u Li Tse's comprehending the presages indicative of
the imperial buildings in the vast plain was like Han Hsin's perceiving
the edifices of ten thousand families on the plateau. The foreknowing
of things to come is not a knowledge requiring the faculty
to look through obstacles or an exceptionally fine hearing; in all
these cases omens are taken into account, traces followed up, and
inferences drawn from analogous circumstances.

When in the Ch`un-ch`iu epoch ministers and high officers
held a meeting, they had an eye for all abnormal proceedings and
an ear for strange utterances.[558] If these were good they took them
for indications of felicitous events, if they were bad they saw in
them unlucky auguries. Thus they knew how to ascertain happiness
and misfortune, and, long before, were aware of what had not yet
come to pass. It was no divine or supernatural knowledge, but
all derived from signs and analogies.

At present all things knowable may be grasped by reflection,
but all things unknowable[559] remain incomprehensible without research
or inquiry. Neither ancient nor modern history affords any
instances of men knowing spontaneously without study or being
enlightened without inquiry. For things knowable merely require
earnest thought, then even big subjects are not difficult of apprehension,
whereas things unknowable, how small soever, do not become
easy through mental efforts or research. Consequently great savants
are not apt to bring about anything without study or to know
anything in default of inquiry.

An objection may be urged on the score that Hsiang T`o,[560] at
seven years of age, taught Confucius. At the age of seven, he could
not yet have entered an elementary school, and yet he acted as
teacher to Confucius. Therefore he must have been self-knowing
by nature.

Confucius says that [those who are born with the possession
of knowledge are the highest class of men. Those who learn, and
so get possession of knowledge, are the next.][561] Speaking of those
born with knowledge, without referring to their studies, Confucius
has in view men like Hsiang T`o.

In the time of Wang Mang,[562] Yin Fang of Po-hai[563] was twenty-one
years old. He had neither had a teacher nor a friend, but
his inner light was fully developed, so that he was well versed
in the Six Arts.[564] When the governor of Wei-tu,[565] Shun Yü Tsang,
had written a memorial, Yin Fang, who had not studied, on seeing
the document, could read it and argue on its purport. The quotations
from the Five Classics he could elucidate and discourse on
the subject to the gratification of all persons present. The emperor
summoned him and gave him a theme "The flying insects," on
which he wrote an excellent essay. Verily, he was endowed with
great erudition, and all under Heaven called him a Sage. A man

conversant with the Six Arts, without having had a teacher or a
friend, and able to read a document placed before him, although
he has not studied books formerly, is a Sage. Without study he
possesses knowledge spontaneously, and without instruction he is
enlightened of himself. If this is not divine, what is it?

My answer to this objection is this:—Although Yin Fang had
no teacher or friend, yet he must himself have learned many things,
and though he did not study books, he must himself have plied
pen and ink. When an infant is born, and its eyes first open, it
has no knowledge, even though it possess the nature of a Sage.
Hsiang T`o was seven years old. At the age of three and four
already he must have listened to other men's speeches. Yin Fang
counted twenty-one years. At fourteen and fifteen years of age
he has probably learnt a great deal.

When a man of great natural intelligence and remarkable
parts is confined to his own thoughts and has no experience,
neither beholding signs and omens nor observing the working of
various sorts of beings, he may imagine that after many generations
a horse will give birth to an ox, and an ox to a donkey, or that
from a peach-tree plums may grow, or cherries from a plum-tree.
Could a Sage know this?[566]

If a subject assassinated his sovereign, or a son killed his
father and if, on the other side, somebody were as kind-hearted
as Yen Yuan, as dutiful a son as Tsêng Tse, as brave as Mêng Pên
and Hsia Yü and as critical as Tse Kung and Tse Wo,[567] would a Sage
be apt to find this out?

Confucius says that [some other dynasty may follow the Chou,
but though it should be at the distance of a hundred ages, its
affairs may be known],[568] and elsewhere he remarks, ["A youth is
to be regarded with respect. How do we know that his future
will not be equal to our present?"][569] In regard of abrogations and
innovations he believes that they may be known, but he asks how
the future of a youth could be known. The future of a youth is
hard to be pre-ordained, whereas aborgations and innovations are
easy to detect.

However, all this is very far away, and nothing that may
be heard or investigated.

Let us suppose that somebody standing at the east side of
a wall raises his voice, and that a Sage hears him from the west
side, would he know whether he was of a dark or a pale complexion,
whether he was tall or short, and which was his native place, his
surname, his designation, and his origin? When a ditch is dug out
and filled with water, affectionate care is bestowed on human
skeletons excavated. Provided that the face and the hair of such
a skeleton be deformed and partially destroyed, and the flesh decomposed
and gone, would a Sage, upon inquiry, be apt to tell
whether the deceased was a peasant or a merchant, young or old,
or eventually the crime he had committed and for which he had
to suffer death? Not that a Sage is devoid of knowledge, but this
cannot be known through his knowledge. Something unknowable
by knowledge may only be learned by inquiry. Being thus unable
to know, Sages and Worthies equally fail.

An opponent might retort with the following story:—When
Chan Ho[570] was sitting in his room with a pupil in attendance upon
him, a cow was heard lowing outside the gate. The pupil said,
"This is a black cow, but is has white hoofs." Chan Ho concurred
saying, "Yes, it is a black cow, but with white hoofs", and he
sent somebody to look at it. In fact, it was a black cow with
its hoofs wrapped in some stuff. Chan Ho being merely a Worthy,
was still in a position to distinguish the sound of the cow and to
know its colour; should a Sage with his superior insight not be
qualified to know this?

I beg leave to put a counter-question:—If Chan Ho knew the
cow to be black and to have white hoofs, did he also know to
whom it belonged, and for what purpose its hoofs had been made
white? With this manner of devices one barely finds out one
point, but cannot exhaust the whole truth. People thus may learn
one thing, but being questioned and cross-examined, they show that
they do not possess the entire knowledge, for only what has been
seen with the eyes and asked with the mouth, may be perfectly
known.

In the 29th year of Duke Hsi of Lu, Ko Lu of Chieh[571] came
to court and stopped above Chang-yen. Hearing a cow lowing, he

said, "This cow has already had three calves, but they have all
been taken away from her." Somebody asking how he knew this,
he replied that her voice disclosed it. The man applied to the
owner of the cow, and it was really as Ko Lu had said.[572] This
again is an instance of the use of some scheme and not knowable
by knowledge alone.

Yang Wêng Chung of Kuang-han[573] understood the voices of birds
and brutes. Once, when he was driving a lame horse in the open
country, another blind horse was grazing at some distance. Both
horses took notice of each other by neighing. Yang Wêng Chung
said to his charioteer, "That loose horse knows this one, although
it be blind." The charioteer inquiring how it could know that,
Yang Wêng Chung replied, "It abuses this horse in the shafts for
being lame, and our horse, in turn, reviles the other because it is
blind." The charioteer did not believe it; he went to look at it,
and the eyes of the other horse were really blind.[574] Yang Wêng Chung
understood the voices of horses as Chan Ho and Ko Lu of Chieh
could distinguish the lowing of cows.

They used a method and relied on a certain device. If both
are combined it is not necessary to look or hear through, or to
see at a distance and make distinctions, the eyes wandering about.
For hearing sounds there is a method, and for discerning colours
there is a device. Using these methods is like foreseeing. The
public does not understand this, and under these circumstances speaks
of a Sage with supernatural gifts.

Confucius seeing an animal named it rhinopithecus, and the Grand
Annalist had the idea that Chang Liang looked like a woman.
Confucius had never before seen a rhinopithecus, but when it arrived
he[575] could give it its name. The Grand Annalist belonged to another
age than Chang Liang, but his eyes beheld his shape. If the people
at large had heard of this, they would have looked upon both as
divine beings who were prescient. However Confucius could name
the rhinopithecus, because he had heard the songs of the people
of Chao, and the Grand Annalist knew Chang Liang from a picture

which he had seen in the emperor's memorial hall.[576] They kept
secret what they had seen, concealed their knowledge, and did not
disclose their hidden thoughts. The great majority of people are
thoughtless and know little. Noticing Worthies or Sages giving
some creatures their proper names, they take them for supernatural
beings.

From this point of view Chan Ho as well, who knew a cow
to be black with white hoofs, comes under this category. Unless
he was in possession of a peculiar method or device of his own,
he must have got his information about the animal from without
beforehand.

The present diviners look to their methods and calculations
and, those being of no avail, contemplate the circumstances of the
case. By combining these circumstances with their theory, they
appear to be in possession of supernatural powers. Chan Ho and
the like are the diviners of the present day. If Chan Ho and others
had an intuitive knowledge and needed no theory, then they were
like those animals living in nests which foresee a storm, or those
cave-dwellers which foresee rain.[577] Their intellect was prematurely
developed as was the case of Hsiang T`o and Yin Fang.

Against this it may be urged that Huang Ti, at his birth, was
endowed with supernatural faculties, and that he could already
speak as a babe. The emperor K`u could tell his name after he
was born. They had not yet gained any experience from without
and immediately after their births were able to talk and tell their
names. Was not this a proof of their superhuman faculties and
an instance of their innate knowledge?

I answer that, if Huang Ti could talk after his birth, his
mother had carried him twenty months before she gave birth to

him, and that, according to this computation of the months, he must
have been about two years in his mother's womb.[578]

The Emperor K`u could speak his own name, but he could
not tell those of other people. Although he possessed this one
gift it did not reach very far. Did his so-called divine and innate
knowledge merely amount to his faculty to utter his name when
he was born? The allegation that he knew it and did not learn
it from any one, cannot be verified. Even if Huang Ti and Ti K`u
should really have been in possession of supernatural powers, these
would only have been some prematurely developed talents.

A man's talents may be precocious, or they may be completed
rather late. Even in case he has been without a teacher, he has
at home acquired the learning of his family. People upon remarking
his precociousness and premature erudition, in their admiration
exceed all bounds. If they say that Hsiang T`o was seven years
of age, he must have been ten, and their assertion that he instructed
Confucius shows only that Confucius put a question to him. If they
say of Huang Ti and Ti K`u that, after their birth, they were able
to talk, the time has, no doubt, been several months, and the
twenty-one years which they ascribe to Yin Fang must have been
about thirty. If they contend that he had no teacher nor a friend,
and that he did not study, as a matter of fact, he travelled about
to gather information and worked at home. But the masses are
extravagant in their commendations, and in condemning they magnify
the faults.

There is a popular tradition about Yen Yuan to the effect that,
at the age of eighteen, he ascended Mount T`ai, whence, in the far
distance, he viewed a white horse fastened outside the Chang gate
in Wu.[579] An investigation reveals the fact that Yen Yuan, at that
time, was thirty years old, and did not ascend Mount T`ai, nor
descry the Chang gate in Wu. The credit given to Hsiang T`o and
the praise bestowed on Yin Fang are like the admiration of which
Yen Yuan was the object.

Tse Kung asked, ["Why should the Master not study? But,
on the other side, how could he always find a teacher?"][580] And
Confucius remarks that at the age of fifteen he had his mind bent

on learning.[581] The Five Emperors and Three Rulers all had their
teachers. I believe that this has been set up as an example for
mankind.

Somebody may object that mere cogitation might be recommended
as well, and that there is no need for learning. Things
may be difficult to be grasped without any alien assistance, still the
talents of Worthies and Sages are equal to it.

The so-called spirits have knowledge without learning, and
the so-called Sages require learning, to become Sages. Since they
are compelled to study we know that they are not Sages.[582]

Among the creatures between Heaven and Earth that are not
provided with innate knowledge, the rhinopithecus knows the past
and the magpie, the future.[583] The heavenly nature which pervades
them thus acts spontaneously. Should Sages resemble the rhinopithecus,
then they ought to belong to the same class viz. of beasts
and birds.

The queer ditties of boys are known without study, and may
be described as supernatural and prescient. If Sages be put on a
level with these songs, they would be uncanny like these songs.

Or are the divine Sages on earth held to be sorcerers? Ghosts
and spirits speak to men through the mouths of sorcerers. If
Sages be regarded as sorcerers, in this capacity they would likewise
be preternatural. That which is of the same stuff as prodigies
are, has nothing in common with Sages. Sorcerers differ from Sages,
therefore the latter cannot be spiritual. Not being spiritual, they
are akin to Worthies, and being akin to Worthies, their knowledge
cannot be diverse.

As to their difference, Sages are quick in embracing the right
principles, and Worthies, slow. Worthies have many talents, and
Sages, great knowledge. Their objects of thought are the same,
only the amount differs. They walk the same road, but in their
progress one overruns the other.

Things are hard to be understood, or easy of apprehension,
and call the attention of both Worthies and Sages. For example,
the alternation of culture and simplicity, the repetition of the three
systems of government,[584] the succession of the first days of the first
moon, the concatenation of the abolitions from, and improvements
upon the institutions of the various dynasties, all these things

Worthies and Sages equally know. Water and fire of ancient times
are the water and fire of the present day, and sounds and colours
of the present are the sounds and colours of later ages. As regards
beasts and birds, plants and trees, the goodness and wickedness
of men, we learn to understand antiquity from the present, and
from what is now infer what is to come. Between a thousand
years back and ten thousand generations hereafter there is no
diversity. In investigating remotest antiquity and in inquiring into
future ages, in such matters as civilization and primitive simplicity,
or water and fire, Worthies and Sages are equal. In observing
omens and noticing signs as well as in drawing schemes showing
people's destiny, Worthies and Sages are equal. Meeting with
anomalies, they know their names and have no doubts about them,
Worthies no less than Sages.

Things that may be known Worthies and Sages equally know,
and things that may not be known, Sages do not comprehend either.
I prove it thus:—

Suppose that a Sage by mental abstraction foresees a rainfall,
then his nature excells in one thing, but if his understanding does
not reach to the remotest principles with all their details, it is not
worth speaking of. What we speak of is the gift of prescience,
and an intelligent mind, completely understanding the natures of
all creatures, and fully apprehending thousands of important methods.
If somebody is familiar with one thing, but not with the second,
or if he knows the left and ignores the right, he is one-sided and
imperfect, crippled in mind and not accomplished, and not what we
call a Sage. Should he pass for a Sage it would be evident that a Sage
has no superiority, and men like Chan Ho would be Sages, as Confucius
and his equals are considered Sages. Then Sages would not distinguish
themselves from Worthies, or Worthies come short of Sages.

If Worthies and Sages both possess many abilities, wherefore
are Sages held in higher respect than Worthies? If they are both
dependent on their schemes and devices, why do not Worthies
come up to the standard of Sages? As a matter of fact, neither
Worthies nor Sages are apt to know the nature of things, and
want their ears and eyes, in order to ascertain their real character.
Ears and eyes being thus indispensable, things that may be known
are determined by reflexion, and things that may not be known
are explained after inquiry. If things under Heaven or worldly
affairs may be found out by reflexion, even the stupid can open
their minds, if, however, they are unintelligible, even Sages with
the highest intelligence cannot make anything out of them.

Confucius said ["I have been the whole day without eating,
and the whole night without sleeping—occupied with thinking.
It was of no use. The better plan is to learn."][585] Those things
under Heaven which are incomprehensible are like knots that cannot
be undone. By instruction one learns how to untie them, and there
are no knots but can be undone. In case they cannot be untied,
even instruction does not bring about this result. Not that instruction
does not qualify to undo knots, but it may be impossible
to untie them, and the method of undoing them is of no use.[586]

The Sage knowing things, things must be knowable, if, however,
things are unknowable, neither the Sage can understand them.
Not that a Sage could not know them, but things may prove incomprehensible,
and the knowing faculty cannot be used. Therefore
things hard to grasp may be attained by learning, whereas
unknowable things cannot be comprehended, neither by inquiry, nor
by study.