Paradoxical and important parables in George Macdonald's rich young person's novel "At the Back of the North Wind" (1871) – first, about knowing, in Chapter V:

"Are you the fairy that herds the bees?" he asked, going out of the summer-house, and down on his knees on the green shore of the tulip-bed.
"I'm not a fairy," answered the little creature.
"How do you know that?"
"It would become you better to ask how you are to know it."
"You've just told me."
"Yes. But what's the use of knowing a thing only because you're told it?"

... and about doing, and trying to do, and obligation, in Chap VII:

"... You had to be taught what courage was. And you couldn't know what it was without feeling it: therefore it was given you. But don't you feel as if you would try to be brave yourself next time?"
"Yes, I do. But trying is not much."
"Yes, it is–a very great deal, for it is a beginning. And a beginning is the greatest thing of all. To try to be brave is to be brave. The coward who tries to be brave is before the man who is brave because he is made so, and never had to try."
"How kind you are, North Wind!"
"I am only just. All kindness is but justice. We owe it."
"I don't quite understand that."
"Never mind; you will some day. There is no hurry about understanding it now."

(cf Knowing Choosing Doing (1999-05-29), Mantra - More Choosing, Less Doing (2018-05-17), ...) - ^z - 2020-06-26