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C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Wisdom and Knowledge

By Friedrich von Bodenstedt (1819–1892)

FRIEND, wouldst know why as a rule

Bookish learning marks the fool?

’Tis because, though once befriended,

Learning’s pact with wisdom’s ended.

No philosophy e’er throve

In a nightcap by the stove.

Who the world would understand

In the world must bear a hand.

If you’re not to wisdom wed,

Like the camel you’re bested,

Which has treasures rich, to bear

Through the desert everywhere,

But the use must ever lack

Of the goods upon his back.