A corroboration of what I have said is[30] the fact, that the young
come to be geometricians, and mathematicians, and Scientific in such
matters, but it is not thought that a young man can come to be
possessed of Practical Wisdom: now the reason is, that this Wisdom has
for its object particular facts, which come to be known from
experience, which a young man has not because it is produced only by
length of time.
By the way, a person might also enquire,[31] why a boy may be made a
mathematician but not Scientific or a natural philosopher. Is not this
the reason? that mathematics are taken in by the process of
abstraction, but the principles of Science[32] and natural philosophy
must be gained by experiment; and the latter young men talk of but do
not realise, while the nature of the former is plain and clear.
Again, in matter of practice, error attaches either to the general
rule, in the process of deliberation, or to the particular fact: for
instance, this would be a general rule, “All water of a certain gravity
is bad;” the particular fact, “this water is of that gravity.”
And that Practical Wisdom is not Knowledge is plain, for it has to do
with the ultimate issue,[33] as has been said, because every object of
action is of this nature.
To Intuition it is opposed, for this takes in those principles which
cannot be proved by reasoning, while Practical Wisdom is concerned with
the ultimate particular fact which cannot be realised by Knowledge but
by Sense; I do not mean one of the five senses, but the same by which
we take in the mathematical fact, that no rectilineal figure can be
contained by less than three lines, i.e. that a triangle is the
ultimate figure, because here also is a stopping point.
This however is Sense rather than Practical Wisdom, which is of another
kind.[34]
Chapter IX.
Now the acts of enquiring and deliberating differ, though deliberating
is a kind of enquiring. We ought to ascertain about Good Counsel
likewise what it is, whether a kind of Knowledge, or Opinion, or Happy
Conjecture, or some other kind of faculty. Knowledge it obviously is
not, because men do not enquire about what they know, and Good Counsel
is a kind of deliberation, and the man who is deliberating is enquiring
and calculating.
Neither is it Happy Conjecture; because this is independent of
reasoning, and a rapid operation; but men deliberate a long time, and
it is a common saying that one should execute speedily what has been
resolved upon in deliberation, but deliberate slowly.
Quick perception of causes[35] again is a different faculty from good
counsel, for it is a species of Happy Conjecture. Nor is Good Counsel
Opinion of any kind.