THE EVANESCENCE OF FACTS 185 



of a little different color is noted. Carefully brushing away this 

 mouldering matter, in the center is still found a thin streak of glass. 

 The dust in which was encased this flint-lil<:e product of man's ingenu- 

 ity was once glass too, but the whole has crumbled away to this mere 

 sliver which alone serves to betray the nature of the whole. In this 

 crumbling disintegration we may see an apt illustration of how those 

 facts, yielded by direct observation to the cerebral cortex of primitive 

 man, have ceased to preserve their recognizable outlines. In order to 

 get some idea of what they were, the archeologist must go with the 

 sociologist to the study of those remnants of primitive man still to some 

 extent uncorroded by the pressure of the environment of civilization. 

 Malay magic, the astounding beliefs unearthed by modern travelers, 

 innumerable legends fantastic to the civilized mind, so devoid of point 

 and so obscure of origin as to be not only incomprehensible but even 

 devoid of interest, are the revelations which greet the inquirer. At first 

 without a clue, this is simply a bewildering mass, confusion thrice con- 

 founded. Gradually, however, it becomes evident to the student that all 

 this has arisen from the direct observation of an external environment, 

 of an ever-pressing, an ever-intruding nature with which primitive man 

 struggles. His method of the acquisition of facts, however, we find 

 quite similar to that of Cuvier — observation, assertion, suppression of 

 ratiocination, ignorance of logic — the true inductive method. 



"When Diogenes studied the universe from his tub and bade 

 Alexander stand out of his sunshine, he probably did not realize that 

 Alexander had pushed the forest back and had started the conquest of 

 tropical nature and had given Diogenes time for the study of his 

 umbilicus, given him the leisure for reflection. The savage has it not. 

 So Diogenes and his tribe knew not direct observation and concluded 

 they could get along without it — in spite of the Stagyrite, who was 

 soon to make an abortive attempt to weld the two weapons being forged 

 for man in his future search of the truth. Back and forth these two 

 tendencies of man in his quest surged for thousands of years. Finally 

 man, by availing himself of the invention of the convex glass found in 

 the ruins of prehistoric Nineveh, by perfection in the accuracy of the 

 measurement of the curves and angles studied by Euclid and his pre- 

 decessors, by throttling those who to preserve their own autonomy had 

 hitherto prevented it, brought about the bursting forth of a flood of 

 external stimuli — new facts pressing on man, intruding on him like the 

 primeval forest did on his primeval ancestor, fairly forcing him into 

 Cuvier's attitude — record facts, never mind what they mean — there is 

 no time for the study of the umbilicus at present. 



And so again their evanescence becomes manifest. Crumbling dis- 

 integration sets in. Time with its mordant acid and alkalies encrusts 

 the bright new glass. Back and forth vibrate the forces of the micro- 



VOL. LXXXVI. — 13. 



