Thanking God for Ignorance

Melville Weston Fuller (1833–1910), a prominent U.S. lawyer and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1888–1910), once presided over a church conference where a speaker passionately denounced higher education, expressing gratitude that his mind had never been “polluted” by a university. Chief Justice Fuller interrupted, asking, “Are we to understand that the speaker is thanking God for ignorance?” The speaker hesitated…