DON’T BE A WORKWORM
If you are a bookworm, you are spending too much time on reading and becoming physically inactive. The knowledge that you gain from books is theoretical. It is not reliable because it is untried in the practical fields of life.
An unschooled person is also a scholar. He has studied in the active and industrial school of existence. His knowledge is based not on words but on actions. He has preferred learning by doing to learning by reading.
Bookworms spend a lot of time and money on books, In fact they consume the money which they have not largely earned by doing some job but received it from other sources.
Scholars don’t care for money. They do not hoard it. They pile up books, develop personal libraries and when they are about to depart from this world are full of many worries about it. For example, I have not yet read all the books; what will happen to this treasure of knowledge when I am not there?; can’t I carry these books with me to heaven?
The English poet and writer Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) is best known for his book The Canterbury Tales. In one of his tales he has described an Oxford Cleric as “thin, hollow-faced, and shabbily dressed with a bare, threadbare overcoat. He rides a horse that is remarkably lean, thinner than a rake, reflecting his extreme poverty and total devotion to studies over worldly comfort.”
The poetic text of the life of this clerk is given below.
The Oxford Clerk
A clerk from Oxford was with us also,
Who’d turned to getting knowledge, long ago.
As meagre was his horse as is a rake,
Nor he himself too fat, I’ll undertake,
But he looked hollow and went soberly.
Right threadbare was his overcoat, for he
Had got him yet no churchly benefice,
Nor was so worldly as to gain office.
For he would rather have at his bed’s head
Some twenty books, all bound in black and red,
Of Aristotle and his philosophy
Than rich robes, fiddle, or gay psaltery.
Yet, and for all he was philosopher,
He had but little gold within his coffer;
But all that he might borrow from a friend
On books and learning he would swiftly spend,
And then he’d pray right busily for the souls
Of those who gave him wherewithal for schools.
Of study took he utmost care and heed.
Not one word spoke he more than was his need;
And that was said in fullest reverence
And short and quick and full of high good sense.
Pregnant of moral virtue was his speech;
And gladly would he learn and gladly teach.
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G.R.Kanwal
29 July 2026
