Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 146

122

§ 45.

WISDOM

[Div. II

a particular school, but, on the contrary, a certain accuracy of tact,

by which,

in utter disregard of the pretensions of

the schools, public opinion followed a track which turned neither too far to the right nor to the left. This weakened wisdom, which generally directs the course of life, occasionally forsook public opinion, and this gave foolishness the upper hand, and mad counsels free courses but, in the longrun, common sense almost always gained the day. And in ;

individual persons

it is

found, that

the particular " wise

if

folk " be excluded, one class

is inclined to foolishness, while another class remains subject to the influence of a weakened wisdom, and the latter are said to be the people of common

sense; a term which does not so gift (chai'isma)^ as the fact that

phenomenon

If the

itself

much they

express a personal

sail in safe

channels.

be thus sufficiently established,

the question arises, how, culminating in ivisclom and finding its antithesis in folly, this is

phenomenon

to be psychologically interpreted.

early training,

it

is

of

'•common sense"

It is not the fruit of

not the result of study, neither

the effect of constant practice.

Though

it is

is

it

granted that

these three factors facilitate and strengthen the clear operations of this

common

sense and of this wisdom, the phenome-

its origin in them. Two young men, brought up in the same social circle, of like educational advantages and of similar experience, will differ widely in point of wisdom one will become a wise man, while with the other life will be a constant struggle. Thus we have to do with a certain capacity of the human mind, which is not introduced into it from without, but which is present in that mind as such, and abides there. The Dutch language has the beautiful word " be-s^/-fen " (to sense), which etymologically is connected with the root of sa7>ientia, and indicates a certain immediate affinity to that which

non

itself

does not find

;

In this sense prudence and Avisdom are not an innate conception, but an insight which pro-

exists outside of us.

innate

;

ceeds immediately from the affinity in which by nature

we

stand to the world about us, and to the world of higher things.

Both point

to a condition in which,

if

we may

so

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