CXCII ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT [eth. an.n. 20 



potent than another, it lias been the doctrine of phenomenon 

 and noumenon as it is hehl in metaphysie. How often have 

 men erred in judgment when brought to the test of action! 

 What muhitudes of judgments have been ]:)roved to be erro- 

 neous Ijy the test of experience througli verification! When 

 men contemplate the mistakes made in every hour of waking- 

 life; when men contemplate the hosts of erroneous notions that 

 they haAe entertained, when they realize that the result of 

 thought is mainly the reconstruction of notions, it is not strange 

 that men should despair of all certitude and cry, "We know 

 not reality, but onl}- appearance ! " 



Aristotle formulated the laws of disputation as laws of 

 thouglit itself, and so the logic of scholasticism is but the logic 

 of controversy. When men compared theories of the universe, 

 they found that anv theory coukl be maintained with plausi- 

 bility because they yet remained ignorant of the laws of veri- 

 tication; it was not strange that a sense of illusion seemed to 

 pervade the universe. Thus the metaphysical doctrine of 

 phenomenon and noumenon is seemingly confirmed. 



SCIENCE 



It would be a pleasing task to outline the history of science. 

 Science is as old as error. Although human fallacies began 

 with primordial man, knowledge also began with primordial 

 man, and the two have grown together. Science has more 

 and more prevailed, and error has more and more succumbed 

 to its power. As the errors of animism, mythology, cos- 

 mology, and metaphysie have been overthrown, there are 

 many who still entertain them, and scientific men have come 

 to call all of these errors folklore, and folklore itself has 

 come to be the subject-matter of science. 



The study of folklore is a study of superstitions. Supersti-' 

 tions are opinions which stand over from a lower into a higher 

 state of culture. 



There are people wlio can move their ears at will. The 

 lower animals can do this, but only a few human beings can 

 wink tlieir eai's. Organs that are useful in lower species inaj 

 remain in an imperfect and practically useless state in a more 



