COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES 315 



state a truth, and a scientific truth, but it is a truth we could do nothing 

 with. It is qualitative only. But to say that all bodies attract each 

 other with a force which varies directly as their masses and inversely 

 as the squares of the distance between their centers of gravity, is to 

 state a quantitative truth which can be used as a tool of investigation 

 and analysis. This is the law of gravity which Newton discovered. 



On the other hand, scientists are constantly challenged by their lit- 

 erary friends to explain the essence of things as well as the laws in 

 accordance with which the essence manifests itself. Thus, they say 

 what is this force of gravity you talk so learnedly about? AYhat is 

 light, and heat, and electricity? What is the medium known as the 

 impalpable ether which pervades all space and which transmits this 

 light and heat without absorbing it? What is the mysterious life 

 principle which causes every plant and animal form to produce its kind 

 with such marvelous exactness, times without number? And, finally, 

 what is the mind itself and where does it reside? From whence came 

 it and where is it to go? These and an unending series of like ques- 

 tions we cannot answer, but must we hence admit that there is no 

 science of these things? By no means. While we freely admit our 

 ignorance as to the essence, we boldly proclaim our knowledge of 

 many of the laws of being and of the manifestation of these secret sub- 

 stantial and spiritual forces. And this is quite enough to know, for 

 most practical purposes. So rapidly as the knowledge of a subject can 

 be generalized into laws, therefore, it becomes scientific, even though 

 there remain whole realms of unknown and undiscovered truth still 

 ■enshrouding the same subject matter. 



This new knowledge is now coming to us with marvelous rapidity 

 and from sources which increase in number in a geometrical ratio. 

 This scientific knowledge has been turned also to such practical ac- 

 count in a thousand ways, and miraculous marvels follow each other 

 in such rapid succession, that the average man finds himself dazed 

 and his reason almost dethroned by daily observing the accomplishment 

 of what but yesterday he had thought impossible. He is like Alice in 

 Wonderland, quite ready to believe any improbable thing, if it only 

 wear the garments of science. In this way only can we account for the 

 extreme credulity, not to say gullibility, of this the greatest scientific 

 age the world has known. To the average citizen all things are pos- 

 sible, and they only await the coming of the scientific magician to 

 discover the trick by which the thing may be done. The very language 

 used in describing the latest fake, if it be only an unknown tongue, 

 will be accepted and adopted as properly accomi)anying the hitherto 

 unknown forces of laws. In fact the greater the fraud, and the more 

 mystifying the language, the easier it is to deceive the wary capitalist. 

 From these facts we should conclude that the greater the ])ossibilities 

 of a given agency, the gi-eater the necessity to determine its limitations. 

 Wliile it is well to know something of tlie best that has been thought 

 and said in the past, we must beware of limiting ourselves to this 

 pleasing sipping of the stored honey of all past ages. It induces 

 mental dyspepsia. This is the education of the Chinese. He studies 

 onlv the savings of his ancestors. His face is alwavs backward, and 

 hence he never goes forward. If the acquisition of a knowledge of the 

 best that has been thought and said bv our ancestors is wisdom, then 



