于是一位教师说，请给我们讲教授。

他说：

除了那已经半睡着，躺卧在你知识的晓光里的东西之外，没有人能向你启示什么。

那在殿宇的阴影里，在弟子群中散步的教师，他不是在传授他的智慧，而是在传授他的忠信与仁慈。

假如他真是大智，他就不命令你进入他的智慧之堂，却要引导你到你自己心灵的门口。

天文家能给你讲述他对于太空的了解，他却不能把他的了解给你。

音乐家能给你唱出那充满太空的韵调，他却不能给你那聆受韵调的耳朵和应和韵调的声音。

精通数学的人能说出度量衡的方位，他却不能引导你到那方位上去。

因为一个人不能把他理想的翅翼借给别人。

正如上帝对于你们每个人的了解都是不相同的，所以你们对于上帝和大地的见解也应当是不相同的。

18

on teaching

then said a teacher, "speak to us of teaching."

and he said:

no man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of our knowledge.

the teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.

if he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.

the astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.

the musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.

and he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.

for the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.

and even as each one of you stands alone in god's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of god and in his understanding of the earth.