Knowledge is to the imagination what fuel is to flame. A little feeds it ; a great deal extinguishes it. 

It was a pleasant relief to see the tranquil Franciscan monks sunning themselves outside their monastery at Palazzuola, and not caring one baiocco piece about all the antiquities in the world. There is a consular tomb in the garden of their monastery about which there has been no end of learned wrangling. 

The good friars neither knew nor cared anything about it, and, when interrogated on the subject, observed that it was "un sepokro de’ tempi antichi" [a tomb from the old days]. That was quite enough for them ; and what is the use of bothering yourself when there are so many such, and you tread upon the dust of Etruscan or Latin heroes at every step ? 

There is a good deal to be said for this view. A little knowledge is said to be a dangerous thing, but it is not dangerous to the imagination. Knowledge is to the imagination what fuel is to flame. A little feeds it ; a great deal extinguishes it. Not that one's bare-footed friends in their brown serge habits, girded with huge rosaries, possessed either that which feeds or that which extinguishes.

§

Sages in every age, language, and clime have asserted, the superiority of "the life removed" over one of consuming ambition, idolatrous fashion, and social rivalry.

PLB

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