THE NEW EARTH 



by those who should be united on all essen- 

 tials, and at the rapid proving and disproving 

 of laws and theories. While there is a whole 

 literature on plants and plant life, one is not 

 at all certain today what may happen before 

 tomorrow morning. Science to the layman 

 is, after all, a good many times a misnomer ; 

 very much of so-called science is only empiri- 

 cism, a process of testing, a very interesting 

 and honest and absolute quackery. To know 

 today should be absolute, but to know today 

 very often is to deny tomorrow, and to try 

 and humbly forget the day after. There has 

 ever been on the part of some who have 

 sought honestly to add to the world's knowl- 

 edge a painful facility in jumping at conclu- 

 sions and then abandoning them. Not that 

 a man should not admit errors and hasten to 

 change, — that goes without saying; but when 

 he adopts science as his patron saint he must 

 bear well in mind that science implies, nay, 

 demands, to know. 



And yet, while much that has been devel- 

 oped has been abandoned soon after birth, 

 vast progress has been made. The plant life 

 of the world is unfolding its secrets as never 



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