Fools set stools for wise men to stumble over
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Pictures; or, More of His Plain Talk for Plain People
MEN TO STUMBLE OVER.
THIS is what they call " a lark." Fools,
set stools for wise men to stumble
over. To ask questions is as easy as kissing
your hand ; to answer them is hard as fat-
(192)
FOOLS SET STOOLS FOR WISE MEN. 193
tening a greyhound. Any fool can throw
a stone into a deep well, and the cleverest
man in the parish may never be able to get
it up again. Folly grows in all countries,
and fools are all the world over, as he said
who shod the goose. Silly people are
pleased with their own nonsense, and think
it rare fun to quiz their betters. To catch a
wise man tripping is as good as bowling a
fellow out at a cricket-match.
" Folly is wise in her own eyes,
Therefore she tries Wit to surprise."
There are difficulties in everything ex-
cept in eating pancakes, and nobody ought
to be expected to untie all the knots in a
net, or to make that straight which God
has made crooked. He is the greatest fool
of all who pretends to explain everything,
and says he will not believe what he cannot
understand. There are bones in the meat,
but am I to go hungry till I can eat them ?
Must I never enjoy a cherry till I find one
without a stone ? John Ploughman is not
of that mind. He is under no call to doubt,
for he is not a doctor : when people try to
puzzle him he tells them that those who
13
194 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
made the lock had better make the key, and
those who put the cow in the pound had
better get her out. Then they get cross,
and John only says — You need not be
crusty, for you are none too much baked.
After all, what do we know if all our
knowing was put together? It would all
go in a thimble, and the girl's finger, too.
A very small book would hold most men's
learning, and every line would have a mis-
take in it. Why, then, should we spend our
lives in perplexity, tumbling about like pigs
in a sack, and wondering how we shall ever
get out again ? John knows enough to know
that he does not know enough to explain
all that he knows, and so he leaves the
stools to the schools and the other — ools.