707 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Triumph* 

 Truth 



sediment from this source than from the 

 waste of the fine clay of the alluvial plains 

 below. LYELL Principles of Geology, bk. ii, 

 ch. 14, p. 201. (A., 1854.) 



3495. TRUSTWORTHINESS OF NAT- 

 URAL FORCES A Belief as Old as Human- 

 ity. Even the modern idea of law, of the 

 constancy and therefore the trustworthiness 

 of natural forces, has been known, not in- 

 deed scientifically but instinctively, to man 

 since first he made a tool and used it as 

 the instrument of purpose. What has sci- 

 ence added to this idea, except that the 

 same rule prevails as widely as the universe, 

 and is made subservient in a like manner 

 to knowledge and to will? ARGYLL Reign 

 of Law, ch. 2, p. 69. (Burt.) 



3496. TRUTH, ABSOLUTE, UNAT- 

 TAINABLE BY MAN Absolute truth no 

 man of science can ever hope to grasp; for 

 he knows that all human search for it must 

 be limited by human capacity. CARPENTER 

 Nature and Man, essay 7, p. 238. (A., 1889.) 



3497. TRUTH IN ANCIENT THEO- 

 RIES Hot Springs Heat of Interior of the 

 Earth. The observation made by Arago in 

 1821, that the deepest Artesian wells are the 

 warmest, threw great light on the origin of 

 thermal springs, and on the establishment of 

 the law that terrestrial heat increases with 

 increasing depth. It is a remarkable fact, 

 which has but recently been noticed, that at 

 the close of the third century St. Patricius, 

 probably Bishop of Pertusa, was led to adopt 

 very correct views regarding the phenome- 

 non of the hot springs at Carthage. On 

 being asked what was the cause of boiling 

 water bursting from the earth, he replied: 

 " Fire is nourished in the clouds and in the 

 interior of the earth, as Etna and other 

 mountains near Naples may teach you. The 

 subterranean waters rise as if through si- 

 phons. The cause of hot springs is this: 

 waters which are more remote from the 

 subterranean fire are colder, while those 

 which rise nearer the fire are heated by 

 it and bring with them to the surface which 

 we inhabit an insupportable degree of heat." 

 HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. i, p. 223. (H.. 

 1897.) 



3498. TRUTH, LIKE NATURE'S 

 GIFTS, TO BE WORKED FOR Nature 

 never provides for man's wants in any di- 

 rection, bodily, mental, or spiritual, in such 

 a form as that he can simply accept her 

 gifts automatically. She puts all the me- 

 chanical powers at his disposal but he must 

 make his lever. She gives him corn, but 

 he must grind it. She elaborates coal, but 

 he must dig for it. Corn is perfect, all the 

 products of Nature are perfect, but he has 

 everything to do to them before he can 

 use them. So with truth; it is perfect, in- 

 fallible. But he cannot use it as it stands. 

 He must work, think, separate, dissolve, ab- 

 sorb, digest; and most of these he must do 



for himself and within himself. DRUM- 

 MONO Natural Law in the Spiritual World, 

 essay 10, p. 326. (H. Al.) 



3499. TRUTH LOVED MORE THAN 

 THEORY Kepler Abandons Systems that 

 Conflict with Facts. What love of the truth 

 as it is in Nature was ever more conspicu- 

 ous than that which Keple? displayed in his 

 abandonment of each of the ingenious con- 

 ceptions of the planetary system which his 

 fertile imagination had successively devised, 

 so soon as it proved to be inconsistent with 

 the facts disclosed by observation? In that 

 almost admiring description of the way in 

 which his enemy Mars, " whom he had left 

 at home a despised captive," had " burst 

 all the chains of the equations, and broke 

 forth from the prisons of the tables," who 

 does not recognize the justice of Schiller's 

 definition of the real philosopher, as one who 

 always loves truth better than his system? 

 CARPENTER Nature and Man, essay 6, p 

 188. (A., 1889.) 



3500. TRUTH, PHYSICIAN DRIVEN 



TO SEEK Responsibility of Life or Death 

 Compels. One who, like the physician, has 

 actively to face natural forces which bring 

 about weal or woe is also under the obli- 

 gation of seeking for a knowledge of the 

 truth, and of the truth only, without con- 

 sidering whether what he finds is pleasant 

 in one way or the other. His aim is one 

 which is firmly settled; for him the success 

 of facts is alone finally decisive. He must 

 endeavor to ascertain beforehand what will 

 be the result of his attack if he pursues 

 this or that course. HELMHOLTZ Popular 

 Lectures, lect. 5, p. 225. (L. G. & Co., 1898.) 



3501. TRUTH, SCIENTIFIC, AGREE- 

 ING WITH POPULAR OBSERVATION 



There is another fact of common observa- 

 tion, and now scientifically established: 

 strong scintillations foretell rain. It is the 

 presence of water in greater or less quan- 

 tity in the atmosphere which exercises the 

 most marked influence on the scintillation, 

 and which modifies its character according 

 to the quantity, either when the water is 

 dissolved in the air, or when it falls to the 

 level of the ground in the liquid state, or 

 in the solid state in the form of snow. 

 FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, bk. vi, ch. 

 6, p. 607. (A.) 



3502. TRUTH, SIMPLE, OVER- 

 LOOKED Transparency Invisible. It is 

 probably the very simplicity of the law re- 

 garding it [spiritual conformity to type] 

 that has made men stumble; for nothing 

 is so invisible to most men as transparency. 

 DRUMMOND Natural Law in the Spiritual 

 World, essay 8, p. 275. (H. Al.) 



3503. TRUTH THE CRITERION OF 

 POETRY Tennyson's ' 'Dragon-fly " Truth 

 to Nature Increases Poetic Charm. The cri- 

 teripn of perfect poetry is not elegance, but 

 truth; and that in proportion as the poet's 



