September 03, 2013

A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing

Essay : [A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing]

English Essay on "A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing"

A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing

Points: Introduction – Shallow knowledge is a danger knowledge is beneficial when it is thorough – Fools rush in where angles fear to tread.

The saying owes its origin to the great English poet Pope who says:
A little learning is a dangerous thing:
Drink deep, or taste not the Perian spring;
The shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers again.
The saying means that shallow knowledge is a danger. As empty vessels sound much, so a man with a smattering of knowledge often poses as a scholar and talks haughtily with all and sundry. He thus makes himself an object of annoyance trouble arid even danger to the society in which he lives. But the man who has drunk deep at the fountain of knowledge is sober and reticent. He is polite in manners, civil in talks and humble in bearing. Unlike the man hot, turbulent and surging with his shallow knowledge, he, just like Socrates, considers himself a child gathering pebbles on the shore while the vast ocean of knowledge lies unexplored.
Knowledge is beneficial to man when it is thorough and clear. But a man who is ill-informed does more harm than good. If, for example, the task of piloting a plane is taken up by a novice the fate of the crew and the passengers is a foregone conclusion.(4essay.blogspot.com) Dangerous , again, is he who haughtily takes upon himself the task of driving machines and engines without knowing how even to handle them.
Fools’, says Pope, ‘rush in where angels fear to tread. An ill-informed man will pose to be a great scholar in subjects in which even erudite scholars hesitate to offer their opinions. His scant knowledge coupled with his tall talks makes him extremely odious and his company is shunned by one and all. He is just like a small frog living and croaking in a pond and taking it to be as vast and limitless as the ocean. A little learning is thus a dangerous thing.

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