This, the first of the father’s lectures, introduces us to some of the crucial distinctions between wisdom and folly. Wisdom comes to us in the form of teaching and instruction, and so it may not look particularly appealing. However, it yields a harvest of social honour and moral beauty. Folly, contrastingly, looks enticing but in the end yields destruction. This is the boomerang effect of folly: when we act foolishly, in the end we hurt ourselves. Fools lie in wait for their own blood.
