The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-20
Science of Metaphysics.
Some of Them Serve a Real Purpose
 In This Busy World.

From the London Spectator.
 Into the "clever fool'' class come two very rare and superior kinds One may i've a life time and not encounter more than one of each. But they do exist. We mean the learned fool and the fool of culture The learned fool is fact glut- tom if we may be allowed the express sion. He has more appetite for knowledge than power to assimilate it. Kept in his place. he is useful as kind of index to other men; but once let him get what Scotch people call above himself, and he will begin to use his facts as missiles and become great intellectual danger The cultured fool has lived in the hot house atmosphere of q highly cultivated clique till he literally smells Of culture; but the source of the aroma is not in his own mind, and if put out to air among Philistines for sufficient period, he will lose all traces of his much -prized arti- fcfaity. It is a great bore to be obliged 10 observe for any length of time the an- ties of this type of fool; but they are amusing sometimes to tell about.
 Very few silly fools" afford any pleasure to the spectator. Yet out of two types of them some dangerous en- ter tainment may be derived. The first of these two is pretty woman-an inhabit-
 
 fair of Vanity" But she may thrive anywhere in any station. As a rule. she is not such a fool as she looks, and her mind Is capable of some expansion, at least in one direction, the direction of self-nterest. The man made to match her is generally aware that folly Is his most remarkable quality, and G. he likes to be remarkable for anything, he exag- gerates 1t all he can. Did he omit to act in an ineffably silly manner no one would notice his actions at all. Those who enjoy the sight of his folly are to a great extent responsible for him, and as he is an entirely useless member of society, the responsibility is pretty heavy. As to the fool of fiction. the only fear about enjoying him is that we should come to imagine that he really exists. The greater number of fictitious fools are in French books. The fool of the French author is a puppet made of a mixture of saintlness, stiffness and sin. Generally he does not know right from wrong, and he seldom has any sense of duty. All his good works are works of supererogation He is capable of self sacrifice, and his errors proceed from de- feet rather than design. Not that he is deficient in the ordinary sense of the word. indeed, he Is usually represented as having some kind of genius.
 As to the fool who never knows hls own interest, he may be the most charming or the most irritating of people but it is impossible in either case to dislike him. In the least estimable form he Is mo ones enemy but his own" In his high est he is one of the finest types which human nature produces. The early Francscans called themselves the fools of the world and an epitaph on priest of the fourteenth century (quoted by Do- ran in his Court Fools') invokes heaven for this thy fool We find the express sion, "a fool in the court of God" used in 1909 in laudatory sense. Probably St Paul's daring and eloquent expression We are fools for Ghrist's sake" threw this fancifu and beautiful side meaning Into the word. The man who realizes that the highest wisdom is not to be measured by the foot rule of prudence is perhaps the only fool whose folly may be enjoyed without economy, and who all through the ages has illustrated the old saying that "a fool may learn wise man witt