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16. This being the case, when that verse of Maro's
gives us pleasure,
"Happy is he who can understand the causes of
things,"(28)
it still does not follow that our felicity depends
upon our knowing the causes of the great physical
processes in the world, which are hidden in the
secret maze of nature,
"Whence earthquakes, whose force swells the sea to
flood,
so that they burst their bounds and then subside
again,"(29)
and other such things as this.But we ought to know
the causes of good and evil in things, at least as
far as men may do so in this life, filled as it is
with errors and distress, in order to avoid these
errors and distresses. We must always aim at that
true felicity wherein misery does not distract, nor
error mislead. If it is a good thing to understand
the causes of physical motion, there is nothing of
greater concern in these matters which we ought to
understand than our own health. But when we are in
ignorance of such things, we seek out a physician,
who has seen how the secrets of heaven and earth
still remain hidden from us, and what patience there
must be in unknowing.
17. Although we should beware of error wherever
possible, not only in great matters but in small ones
as well, it is impossible not to be ignorant of many
things. Yet it does not follow that one falls into
error out of ignorance alone. If someone thinks he
knows what he does not know, if he approves as true
what is actually false, this then is error, in the
proper sense of the term. Obviously, much depends on
the question involved in the error, for in one and
the same question one naturally prefers the
instructed to the ignorant, the expert to the
blunderer, and this with good reason. In a complex
issue, however, as when one man knows one thing and
another man knows something else, if the former
knowledge is more useful and the latter is less
useful or even harmful, who in this latter case would
not prefer ignorance? There are some things, after
all, that it is better not to know than to know.
Likewise, there is sometimes profit in error--but on
a journey, not in morals.(30)
This sort of thing happened to us once, when we
mistook the way at a crossroads and did not go by the
place where an armed gang of Donatists lay in wait to
ambush us. We finally arrived at the place where we
were going, but only by a roundabout way, and upon
learning of the ambush, we were glad to have erred
and gave thanks to God for our error. Who would
doubt, in such a situation, that the erring traveler
is better off than the unerring brigand? This perhaps
explains the meaning of our finest poet, when he
speaks for an unhappy lover:
"When I saw [her] I was undone,
and fatal error swept me away,"(31)
for there is such a thing as a fortunate mistake
which not only does no harm but actually does some
good.
But now for a more careful consideration of the
truth in this business. To err means nothing more
than to judge as true what is in fact false, and as
false what is true. It means to be certain about the
uncertain, uncertain about the certain, whether it be
certainly true or certainly false. This sort of error
in the mind is deforming and improper, since the
fitting and proper thing would be to be able to say,
in speech or judgment: "Yes, yes. No, no."(32)
Actually, the wretched lives we lead come partly
from this: that sometimes if they are not to be
entirely lost, error is unavoidable. It is different
in that higher life where Truth itself is the life of
our souls, where none deceives and none is deceived.
In this life men deceive and are deceived, and are
actually worse off when they deceive by lying than
when they are deceived by believing lies.
Yet our rational mind shrinks from falsehood, and
naturally avoids error as much as it can, so that
even a deceiver is unwilling to be deceived by
somebody else.(33) For the liar thinks he does not
deceive himself and that he deceives only those who
believe him. Indeed, he does not err in his lying, if
he himself knows what the truth is. But he is
deceived in this, that he supposes that his lie does
no harm to himself, when actually every sin harms the
one who commits it more that it does the one who
suffers it. |