On True Wisdom

the crowd of mortals, ignorant that is, of itself of its own nature, goes about asking what may be on the earth and what is happening in the heavens. They are very much like a certain philosopher who, while measuring the courses of the stars at night with an astrolabe, fell into a muddy pit Porphyry Porphyry of Tyre (c. 234–305 AD) was a Neoplatonic philosopher; the story of the philosopher falling into a well while stargazing is a classic trope usually attributed to Thales. Seeing this, his servant girl, laughing with a great cackle, said: "My master is ignorant of the base mud that is before his feet, yet he tries to probe the secrets of the heavens." A person ought, therefore, to inquire first into what they are. Man, says Porphyry the philosopher, is a rational, mortal animal original: "animal racionale mortale"; this was the standard logical definition of a human being in medieval education. Gregory Likely St. Gregory the Great "Let 'mortal,'" says Gregory, "temper 'rational,' lest perhaps he be puffed up into pride; and let 'rational' comfort 'mortal,' lest he fall into despair." Bernard Hence Bernard St. Bernard of Clairvaux says to Eugenius, whom I just mentioned: "Let your consideration begin with yourself, lest He writes the order concerning oneself? you be uselessly extended toward other things while neglecting yourself. What does it profit you to gain the whole world if you lose yourself? You may know all mysteries; you may know the breadths of the earth, the depths of the sea, the heights of heaven—if you do not know yourself, you will be like a man building without a foundation, creating a ruin rather than a structure. He is not wise who is not wise for himself. For in the acquisition of your salvation, no one is closer nor more akin to you than yourself." These are the words of Bernard.

There are, moreover, some so foolish or so arrogant that they think they can attain the knowledge of divine things while ignoring themselves. But in what way does he wish to know God, who is proven to be ignorant of himself? It is impossible for one who does not know himself to know God. Indeed, from the knowledge of oneself arises humility and the fear of God. The first duty of the philosopher? What was man before he was born? What is he, having been born? What will he be when he has died? Indeed, from his own...