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This letter came to me: "Will more knowledge about marriage, and even careful education as to married life, make happy marriage possible? Mere ideas in the mind are not going suddenly to transform you or your partner into persons of perfection. In other words, how much can we avoid by knowledge and how much are we bound to learn by hard and often unlovely experience?"

Suppose one were going to cross the ocean on a ship which he was to steer. How useful would it be for him to know all about ships in general and his ship in particular? How useful would it be for him to know in theory how to steer a ship? How useful would it be for him to know about the shortest and best routes to the ports he might want to visit? How useful would it be for him to know about storms and other dangers he might encounter?

The fact is that knowledge about any course of life we want to pursue is of the greatest value.