Fact 

 Failure 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



242 



not know that the torrid zone was inhab- 

 ited, and could not visit that region, but 

 knew nevertheless how tremendous the heat 

 is there, how short the interval from great- 

 est to least heat, and so on, how ready we 

 should be to believe that neither animal nor 

 vegetable life can exist there. And in like 

 manner as to the arctic regions. Supposing 

 we knew only that there are parts of the 

 earth where the sun is sometimes unseen 

 for several successive weeks, and sometimes 

 remains without setting for as long a pe- 

 riod, while even in the heart of summer a 

 cold more intense than our bitterest winters 

 prevails, how startling would be the thought 

 (familiar tho it now seems to us) that 

 there are not only living creatures in the 

 arctic regions, but that a race of men exists 

 and thrives there, even preferring their 

 strange abode to the temperate regions 

 which seem to us so much more pleasant! 

 PROCTOR Expanse of Heaven, p. 51. (L. 

 G. & Co., 1897.) 



1182. FACTS AND THEORIES OF SCI- 

 ENCE TO BE DISCRIMINATED In every 

 physical science we have carefully to dis- 

 tinguish between the facts which form its 

 subject-matter and the theories by which 

 we attempt to explain these facts and 

 group them in our scientific systems. The 

 first alone can be regarded as absolute 

 knowledge, and such knowledge is immuta- 

 ble, except in so far as subsequent obser- 

 vation may correct previous error. The 

 last are, at best, only guesses at truth, and, 

 even in their highest development, are sub- 

 ject to limitations and liable to change. 

 COOKE The New Chemistry, lect. 1, p. 1. 

 (A., 1899.) 



1183. FACTS, DEALING WITH, DIS- 

 PELS ILLUSIONS Life Real and Earnest. 

 Provided that he remains undisturbed in his 

 study, the purely theoretical inquirer may 

 smile with calm contempt when, for a time, 

 vanity and conceit seek to swell themselves 

 in science and stir up a commotion. Or he 

 may consider ancient prejudices to be in- 

 teresting and pardonable, as remains of po- 

 etic romance or of youthful enthusiasm. To 

 one who has to contend with the hostile 

 forces of fact, indifference and romance dis- 

 appear; that which he knows and can do 

 is exposed to severe tests; he can only use 

 the hard and clear light of facts, and must 

 give up the notion of lulling himself in 

 agreeable illusions. HELMHOLTZ Popular 

 Lectures,lect. 5, p. 203. (L. G. & Co., 1898.) 



1184. FACTS MAY BE TESTED ONE 

 BY ONE A Hypothesis Must Stand or Fall 

 as a Whole Hence Intolerance of Compre- 

 hensive Systems. One characteristic of the 

 schools which built up their system on such 

 hypotheses, which they assumed as dogmas, 

 is the intolerance of expression which I have 

 already partially mentioned. One who works 

 upon a well-ascertained foundation may 

 readily adn:it an error; he loses, by so 

 doing, nothing more than that in which he 



erred. If, however, the starting-point has 

 been placed upon a hypothesis which either 

 appears guaranteed by authority or is only 

 chosen because it agrees with that which it 

 is wished to believe true, any crack may 

 then hopelessly destroy the whole fabric of 

 conviction. The convinced disciples must 

 therefore claim for each individual part 

 of such a fabric the same degree of infal- 

 libility; for the anatomy of Hippocrates 

 just as much as for fever crises; every op- 

 ponent must only appear then as stupid or 

 depraved, and the dispute will thus, accord- 

 ing to old precedent, be so much the more 

 passionate and personal, the more uncer- 

 tain is the basis which is defended. We 

 have frequent opportunities of confirming 

 these general rules in the schools of dog- 

 matic deductive medicine. HELMHOLTZ Pop- 

 ular Lectures, lect. 5, p. 213. (L. G. & Co., 

 1898.) 



1185. FACTS OF EXTERNAL WORLD 

 CORRECTIVE OF ILLUSIONS Resolution 

 Can Hold the Mind to Realities. However 

 irresistible our sense-illusions may be, so 

 long as we are under the sway of particu- 

 lar impressions or mental images, we can, 

 when resolved to do so, undeceive ourselves 

 by carefully attending to the actual state 

 of things about us. And in many cases, 

 when once the correction is made, the il- 

 lusion seems an impossibility. By no effort 

 of imagination are we able to throw our- 

 selves back into the illusory mental condi- 

 tion. So long as this power of dispelling 

 the illusion remains with us, we need not be 

 alarmed at the number and variety of the 

 momentary misapprehensions to which we 

 are liable. SULLY Illusions, ch. 6, p. 125. 

 (A., 1897.) 



1186. FACTS OF PAST IN FRAME 

 OF PRESENT Memory's Unconscious Col- 

 oring. We tend to project our present 

 modes of experience into the past. We paint 

 our past in the hues of the present. Thus 

 we imagine that things which impressed us 

 in some remote period of life must answer 

 to what is impressive in our present stage 

 of mental development. For example, a 

 person recalls a hill near the home of his 

 childhood, and has the conviction that it 

 was of great height. On revisiting the place 

 he finds that the eminence is quite insig- 

 nificant. How can we account for this? 

 For one thing, it is to be observed that to 

 his undeveloped childish muscles the climb- 

 ing to the top meant a considerable expend- 

 iture of energy, to be followed by a sense 

 of fatigue. The man remembers these feel- 

 ings, and " unconsciously reasoning " by 

 present experience, that is to say, by the 

 amount of walking which would now pro- 

 duce this sense of fatigue, imagines that the 

 height was vastly greater than it really was. 

 Another reason is, of course, that a wider 

 knowledge of mountains has resulted in a 

 great alteration of the man's standard of 

 height. SULLY Illusions, ch. 10, p. 268. 

 (A., 1897.) 



