They will have learnt all the more, while trying for the prize; and so will you, even if you don't get it.

But I tell you fairly, trying for prizes is only fit for a child; and when you become a man, you must put away childish things--competition among the rest.
But surely I may try to be better and wiser and more learned than everybody else?
My dearest child, why try for that?
Try to be as good, and wise, and learned as you can, and if you find any man, or ten thousand men, superior to you, thank God for it.

Do you think that there can be too much wisdom in the world?
Of course not: but I should like to be the wisest man in it.
Then you would only have the heaviest burden of all men on your shoulders.
Why?
Because you would be responsible for more foolish people than any one else.

Remember what wise old Moses said, when some one came and told him that certain men in the camp were prophesying--"Would God all the Lord's people did prophesy!" Yes; it would have saved Moses many a heartache, and many a sleepless night, if all the Jews had been wise as he was, and wiser still.

So do not you compete with good and wise men, but simply copy them: and whatever you do, do not compete with the wolves, and the apes, and the swine of this world; for that is a game at which you are sure to be beaten.
Why?
Because Lady Why, if she loves you (as I trust she does), will take care that you are beaten, lest you should fancy it was really profitable to live like a cunning sort of animal, and not like a true man.