Joseph Conrad, among others, counseled that the path to wisdom requires no blind trust in any -ism or any -ology. That such advice has escaped George Will is surprising. He's a columnist whose journalistic spoor suggests he regularly ransacks the classics for a daily aphorism.

As columnist, he put his trust in conservativism and orthodox, for the most part Republican, theology. A one-man cottage industry of fashionable conservatism, Will is the successful proprietor of newspaper columns, TV gigs, magazine pieces, a book. He's hot, successful, rich, connected; many envy his place. He opines a lot, fetchingly to some, in a style of unctuous priggishness to others.

By: DAVID NYHAN|Date: Jul 17, 1983