IN ATTEMPTING to sum up T. E. as a man--his personal achievement
--there is little I can add to what has emerged in the course of this
book. The idea I have formed of his character is, inevitably, no
more than what I can see--by the dim light that is one man's under-
standing of another--of the facets he has turned towards me, and
the reflection of those he has turned towards other men. But what I
have seen looks more like gold and less like brass the closer I have
come. Contact with many who are acclaimed by the world as great
men produces disillusionment, or at least a consciousness of the
limitations that encompass their powers. The same is true of a close
study of their careers. In contrast, lengthening acquaintance with
T. E. has brought explanation of certain reservations I earlier made,
while closer study of his career has served to enlarge my apprecia-
tion of his achievement, personal and public.

There is a passage in the Book of Proverbs which might have
been coined for him--"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get
wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." He comes
nearer to fulfilling it than any man I have met or studied.

A study of history, past and in the making, seems to suggest that
most of mankind's troubles are man-made, and arise from the com-
pound effect of decisions taken without knowledge, ambitions un-
controlled by wisdom, and judgments that lack understanding. Their
ceaseless repetition is the grimmest jest that providence plays on the
human race. Men who are helped to authority by their knowledge
continually make decisions on questions beyond their knowledge.
Ambition to maintain their authority forbids them from admitting
the limits of their knowledge, and calling upon the knowledge that
is available in other men. Ambition to extend the bounds of their
authority leads them to a frustration of others' opportunity and an
interference with others' liberty that, with monotonous persistency,
injures themselves or their successors on the rebound.

The fate of mankind in all ages has been the plaything of petty
personal ambitions. The blend of wisdom with knowledge would

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