On Knowledge and Comprehension

[SanTelmo]

On Knowledge and Comprehension


Prologue


This book offers insight to both those who are ascending to the path of  Knowledge as well as to those who have already spent many hours in  libraries and otherwise. I do not write here about how one can best  achieve knowledge, those means are numerous and for such another book  should be dedicated. On this book, I write of the nature of knowledge  and the most important aspect of it, comprehension.


I Chapter - Founding of Knowledge


Knowledge is something that surrounds us every day and often we do not  perceive it as knowledge, rather we take it for granted and something  that is part of us. An example of that would be of a farmer who holds  knowledge of how water makes the plants grow. None might have ever told  this farmer that the plants require water to grow or he might not even  know how to read to find it out from a book dedicated to farming but he  has acquired this knowledge through experience. He might have watched  when his father always sprayed extra water on the plants during dry  seasons or when his uncle dug ditch to direct more water to the field.  Usually curiosity arises at this point and a child asks "Why do you do  this?" or "Does this help the carrots, father?" and then he receives an  answer which confirms his doubt that the good growth in plants requires  at times, water.

What of the first farmers who began cultivating the land? I do not know  of them but I believe that if the Great Mother did not tell to them how  to spray water on plants, they would have realized this in time. I will  not say that this new knowledge was easy to discover and perhaps it  became costly to the first farmers. Their whole crop destroyed when the  rain did not come, and they realized the need of extra water for these  seasons too late. They starved most likely and suffered when they did  not know what had happened to their crop. After a while, when the rain  appeared again, some of the few plants that survived recovered from  their poor state and refreshed their life force again. They now thought  that for the next season, they will create cans and jars to carry water  from the well or river nearby to nurture the plants during the dry  season. And so they did and many of the plants survived through the dry  time.


II Chapter - Accumulation of Knowledge


In time the farmers learned that making a ditch would not require them  to run to the well and back but rather direct amounts of water they  needed directly to the plants. So they began to dig a ditch from the  nearby lake, well or river to the farmlands. They also made notices that  the choice of land and type of plant also effected how well the plants  would grow there. And generation after another, they made new  discoveries about farming and told of them to the sons so they did not  need to learn of it again. And when they needed not first to suffer from  the dry seasons, they were able to concentrate on other issues that  harassed the farmers, such as rampaging wild beasts. And of the ways to  deal with them, they told to their sons and so forth.

Of course, humans of Toril would eventually meet with other races, those  who had already discovered what we had long ago, and more. We were  ignorant and young compared to them, the elven and the dwarven. The  dwarven who had mastered the craft of metals and tools, were strong  warriors and the elven who had mastered the Arcane and connected  themselves deeper with the nature that surrounds us all. What actually  happened during these days, during the early ascension of humankind, is  much lost in history. We of course, could not write back then and  writing was the greatest gift we received, our ability to pass our  knowledge further than our sons. To my knowledge, the elven were the  ones to teach us the secrets of arcane and possibly writing as well.

With the newly gained strength of arcane, metal craft and writing we  were able to build our own kingdoms. Our lives are quite short but  compared to the elves and dwarves, we were filled with desire to know,  learn and experience as fast as we could- and we still are. But our  secret to our grand Empires was truly the gift to pass our enthusiastic  search for knowledge forward in forms of books, tomes and writings. An  elven perhaps did not bother to write down everything he experienced  during his long life but a human thought otherwise and because of this  fact, he was able to pass much more detailed knowledge to his sons. The  knowledge that we still witness in our own ruins at the West side of  Ymph, the knowledge of Empire Netheril.


III Chapter - Comprehension of Knowledge


Good reader, you now wonder why all this knowledge that we achieved when  we surpassed the elven and dwarves, then brought us to doom rather than  our salvation. Many say that we "tried to reach for that which only  Gods are allowed to gaze" or that "greed is what brought us down, it is  the same fate that a thief suffers when he is caught and his hand is cut  for his crimes". While the latter maybe holds truth in it about the  greed which blinds us, the real reason is much more complicated and at  the same time, very simple. To illustrate this point, I will return to  the farmers I spoke of earlier.

The farmers indeed learned of a way to water the plants through a ditch  from river to the farmlands. They thought they would make a great ditch,  so they would never need to be starving. And so they did, the plants  were soaked in water for days, for weeks. First they seemed to enjoy it  but in time, the plants began to suffer. And when the farmers hurried to  block the ditch, it was already too late. Many of the plants had drown,  they were not accustomed to abundance of that much water so they could  not survive in their new environment. And once again, the farmers were  starving this season.

What the farmers had learned was that plants required water to grow.  What they did not comprehend is that plants require -right- amount of  water to survive and flourish and be bountiful on the next harvest.  Similar error happened to the Netherese, I believe. During the era of  Accumulation of Knowledge, the humankind had created so many pieces of  texts, discovered so many secrets about the Realm that surrounds us that  some thought it to be wise to ignore the basics. They thought it would  be wise to jump from the beginners studies to the masters studies  because "Why would man waste his time on collecting silver when he can  acquire as much gold as he wishes with a single word?". The Netherese  then took the swift path when they discovered what secrets we can hardly  now fathom and tried to make even greater things but they suffered the  same faith as the farmers although in much more larger volume. They  brought down their Empires and crashed into the ground and like the  farmers, the humans had to begin a new season.


IV Chapter - New Era - Accumulation of Comprehension


Now we must, once and for all, learn the errors of what false Knowledge  causes. Knowledge is a dangerous tool without the Comprehension guiding the right way to use it, the way that preserves ourselves and  allows us a path to new Knowledge. There is no false texts or knowledge  one can see, only false meanings. Through careful study a keen mind can  learn to separate all the Knowledge he has thus far learned and upon  that, make right choices and continue towards new Knowledge and  Comprehension.

As Lord Deneir teaches us, reading a book once does not always reveal us everything about the subject. Especially if a part of the text is clouded to us, we must read it  twice, thrice or so long that we comprehend the meaning of the text and  only then the path to True Knowledge will be revealed to us. I urge  that after completing this book, you take a tome or text that you had  once read. Now read it with time and search for something that you  missed, a careful hint or word that has ambiguous meaning perhaps, a  sentence that fits with something said earlier that you did not note  before. I am sure that whatever the book you take, you will find  something that you had not thought of before.

I do not ask for you all to read again every book that you have but  rather keep in mind that when you take the next book, tome, text or  ponder a revelation that has occurred to you, you seek for a deeper  meaning and the True Knowledge and Comprehension hidden in those with  open eyes. Leave no possibility outside and ponder them carefully. When you  come to your answer, also remember that this might not be the final  answer as you do not know all yet and be prepared to accept another at  later time, when new knowledge becomes available to you.

Our mind is our greatest gift and understanding ideas and knowledge is  our foremost goal in life. We can build an empire of the future that  will last forever if we bear in mind the errors of our past and accept  that false meanings will be present in our future as well. By  careful studying, the mistakes can be avoided.

Read, write and learn.




Aegelmaer Corbonne