116 EVOLUTION, SOCIAL AND ORGANIC 



science and thought. When a man claims to 

 have a new and fundamental discovery in 

 astronomy, and at the same time speaks 

 slightingly of the researches of physicists such 

 as Newton, Kant, and Laplace, it is fairly safe 

 to conclude that you are listening to a fool 

 who has nothing to say worthy of a second 

 thought. Not until one has trodden every 

 rung of the ladder which has been previously 

 trodden, is he able to mount a step higher. 

 And it is the performance of this task, wholly, 

 or at least in the first part, that constitutes the 

 one so doing an "authority." 



How often does one hear an addle-brained, 

 know-nothing say: "I recognize no authority; 

 I think for myself." How shall one think with- 

 out ideas? And how is it possible to obtain 

 ideas apart from the acquisition of knowl- 

 edge? And where can knowledge be obtained 

 except from those who have it? 



All "authority" in science and thought is 

 founded on knowledge of the subject in ques- 

 tion. Socialists quote Karl Marx as an au- 

 thority on political economy, because his writ- 

 ings prove that he knew more about the pro- 

 duction and distribution of wealth than any 

 man of his century. Lavoisier is an authority 

 in chemistry, because he know more about the 



