#346 The University of Man- Henry Dumas
A watchmaker has learned all there is to his craft. His
knowledge has ended. His precise work
has left him stagnant and hungry for learning. “I am run down, tired of chasing
the same speck of dust away, weary of winding myself up each morning, tired of
squeezing time into metal boxes.”
What follows is a vision quest, in the vein of Voltaire’s
Candide or Zadig. At times he seems like a fool or a rube, but he knows that
his path is leading him to something:
“It is the quest for knowledge that is holy, not the
knowledge itself.”
He meets a man digging near a canal. This man is pure, he is
intent, and he is undeterred. Thus the town resents him. Man is afraid of those
who try to change the flow of the river. They engage in a conversation, like
one of Plato’s dialogues. The topic is knowledge and education.
This story here is what makes Dumas special.
Notable Passage: “The greatest tool of education is the
soul. The truly educated man is like a giant stylus etching in the sands of the
earth. As he walks, words and songs flow behind him.”
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