ii USELESS KNOWLEDGE 43 



whatever I might choose to say. Money talks, as the 

 saying is, and none dare doubt but that it speaks the 

 truth. In this manner I might get men to credit the 

 whole story of my visit to you. For my credit would 

 then be practically limitless. 



I suppose you are joking and do not seriously expect 

 of me anything so atrocious. Besides, why should you 

 attribute to me, or to any of those who have departed 

 to higher spheres, any such capacity for knowing what 

 goes on in the world we are glad to have abandoned ? 



I am sure I don t know ; only that is what men 

 commonly suppose about such matters. They think 

 that there is far more education in death than ever there 

 was in life, and that even the greatest fool, so soon as 

 ever he is dead, may be expected to be wise enough to 

 know all things, and good enough to place his knowledge 

 at their disposal. 



They seem to me as foolish as they are selfish. 



No doubt ; still there is that germ of truth about 

 their action which we saw. Whatever knowledge cannot 

 be rendered somehow useful cannot be esteemed real. 



Alas, that it should be so ! 



I do not on the whole regret it, although I can see it 

 must annoy you to be considered as part of the non 

 existent of which you always thought so meanly. But 

 really I must be going, and return to my Cave to 

 convince, if possible, my fellow Troglodytes that you 

 still live and think, and to impress on them, if I can, 

 the importance of the &quot; two-world problem,&quot; both for 

 its own sake and as an illustration of the truth of 

 Pragmatism. 



