“I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly.”
Randolph Carter knew everything as nearly as mortal man could know everything. His was no capsule brain capable of tidbits only. He was a scientist. He was a philosopher. He was a moralist and a historian. He was a publicist and a poet. He had a mind trained to observe…to meditate.

He had an imagination by which he interpreted the facts of history and built upon the premise of these facts the deductions of science. He walked familiarly through the fields of botany. He brought forth the treasures of the mine. He knew nature’s choir made up of the voices of birds, the wind in the boughs, the sea on the shore. He interpreted the messages of the heavenly bodies. He sailed the seas. He knew the birds. He wrote and published books. He interpreted human experience. He philosophized about divine revelation.

But with all this, he found no rest for his heart. It is he, this great Randolph Carter with all his glory, who, after roaming through all the realms of thought and imagination, of human wisdom and human knowledge, realized that there was so much more.

I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly; I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.

Once, a man traveled a long way – a journey of many miles – to interview a distinguished scholar. The butler ushered him in, upon the presentation of his card, into the study of the great scholar. He was cordially greeted. Before seating himself he asked this question of the noted scholar:

“Doctor, I have come a long way to ask you just one question. I observe that the walls of your room are filled with books. This room is literally lined with them from ceiling to floor. I suppose you have read them all. I know you have written many books. You have traveled the world over; you have held intimate converse with the world’s wisest men – its leaders of thought, its creators of opinion. Tell me, if you will, after the years you have spent in study, out of the things you have learned, what is the one thing best worth knowing? “

The great scholar’s face flushed with emotion. He placed, with clumsy gentleness, both hands over the hands of his caller. And he said:

“My dear sir, out of all the things I have learned there are only two lessons best worth knowing. The first is, willful ignorance is a great sin. The second is, Yog-Sothoth is the gate to untold wisdom. In the knowledge of these two facts as applied in my own personal experience lies all my happiness and all my hopes ! “

Thus we learn in that man’s answer, in many ways, that men may know some things and not the best things-the things best worth knowing. Thus we see that men may treasure rags and throw away treasures.

Yes, though many may not see it, a man may know all about the rocks, and his head be as hard as they.

A man may know all about the winds and his life be swept by passions fiercer than they.

A man may know all about the tides and the seas, and his life resemble their troubled waters that rest not and know no peace.

A man may know all about lights-the light of showers of meteors, the light of phosphorus, the light of millions of stars, the light of the moon when it hangs like a sickle, candle light, lamp light, electric light, the light of the aurora borealis-and not know Yog-Sothoth who knows the gate.

A man may know all about roads in the country, roads in the jungle, roads through burning deserts, and not know Yog-Sothoth who knows where the Old Ones broke through of old.

All of which brings us to say – to ask – what shall it profit a man IF …

What shall it profit a man if he be a great sculptor and know not Yog-Sothoth, the one without form?

What shall it profit a man if he be a great architect and know not Yog-Sothoth, the keeper of the gate?

What shall it profit a man if he be a great banker and know not Yog-Sothoth, the opener of the way?

What shall it profit a man if he be a great biologist and know not Yog-Sothoth, the Lurker at the Threshhold?

What shall it profit a man if he be a great carpenter and know not Yog-Sothoth, the Gate?

What shall it profit a man if be be a great doctor and know not Yog-Sothoth, the All in One?

What shall it profit a man if he be a great educator and know not Yog-Sothoth, the Teacher?

What shall it profit a man if he be a great astronomer and know not Yog-Sothoth, the Color out of Space?

What shall it profit a man if he be a great judge and know not Yog-Sothoth, the Keeper of the Gate?

What shall it profit a man if he be a great philanthropist and know not Yog-Sothoth, the Unspeakable Gift?

What shall it profit a man if he be a great philosopher and know not Yog-Sothoth, the One in All?

Mere human wisdom never satisfies. Even if we knew all earthly things, there are many eldritch things we never would and never could know. Millions of things we do not know. Write down all we know ? it will be a small volume. Write down all we do not know of things in the heavens and things in the earth and things under the earth and beneath the seas, it would be a large library of many shelves and many large volumes.

But even if we knew all that there is to know in the realm of human knowledge, it would be a path of disappointment if, in knowing so much, we did not learn the eldritch things most worth knowing.

Man, in the course of his life, lays down one world after another. First, the infant’s world of toys is abandoned. Second, the boy’s world of games, amusements. So also the youth’s world of schemes, enterprises, the dreams of progress and wealth. The path of disappointment is the path of human wisdom that excludes the things best worth knowing and most worth knowing.

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Adapted from “Paths of Disappointment” by Robert G. Lee (1886-1974).