Omniana/Volume 1/Wise Ignorance
114. Wise Ignorance.
It is impossible to become either an eminently great, or truly pious man without the courage to remain ignorant of many things. This important truth is most happily expressed by the elder Scaliger in prose, and by the younger in verse; the latter extract has an additional claim from the exquisite terseness of its diction, and the purity of its latinity. We particularly recommend its perusal to the commentators on the apocalypse.
Quare ulterior disquisitio morosi atque satagentis animis est; humanæ enim sapientiæ pars est, quædam æquo animo nescire velle.
Ne curiosis quære causas omnium.
Quæcunque libris vis prophetarum indidit,
Afflata cælo, plena veraci Deo:
Nec operta sacri supparo silentii
Irrumpere ande; sed prudenter præteri!
Nescire velle quæ magister optimus
Docere non vult, erudita inscitia est.