The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1891-07-08
THINGS WE DON'T KNOW.
In the Broad Domain OF Sense, sentf.
ment and Drink.

| ment and Drink.
In aiming to isolate and pick up, to
handle and examine a few of the
Things We Do Not know" the first
step is to identify few of the things
we think we know, but don't; next, a
few of the things we think we don't
know. but do-for that is the same as
not knowing them; and, finally to
point out some of those we know we
don't know, and which we sure
enough don't, writes an iconoclast in
the N. Y. EUe1ifsg Sun.
For example, among the last are q
child's mind, woman's meaning. q
mans purpose, the verdict of a jury,
the operation of medicines, the speech
| of cats, ethics of dogs, and Sc on; all
of which we know to exist, and that
we know nothing further about them.
Some folks suppose they know
things learned at school; as, for ex-
ample, that parallel straight lines in
plane are two that never meet; but
this isn't true. If the lines are paral-
lei they do meet-at infinity. Others
hug the delusion that a straight line
does not change its direction, however
prolonged. The fact is. of course,
that straight line is part of circum-
ference of infinite radius.
Among things we think we don't
know, but which we do know all the
time, the first is: What we will our
selves do in situation we have once
experienced. We shall, in fact, do
just what we did before. If our con-
duct on that occasion turned out ill
many people think they will do some
thing else, and that they don't know
what. This is delusion. They will
do the same old thing. Otherwise
man would learn by experience, which
is against nature.
Another thing man thinks he
doesn't know is that a fellow-creature
who cheats a third for his sake will
cheat him for the fellow-creature'
own sake. Yet this is a truth that
governs human relations as gravita-
ton rules the material universe. It is
a menstruum in which the relations of
men and women find a universal
solvent.
Many folks believe they know that
iron is substance which can not
change into different substances. More
error. Iron maintains its identity at
the temperature of terrestrial labora-
tories. 1t splits up into other sub
stances under the SUMS heat. Most
folks think they have mental image
of what the moons surface is like, but
they haven't. They have such an i'm
age of that half of its surface which
man sees, but none of the other half,
which man has never seen.
There are folks who believe they
know what their own inside is like,
though they have never seen a cadaver
or a hog in the cutting up.
There are even school teachers who
think they know that English verse
scans in the number of its syllables,
irrespective of the time required to
utter them. So there are writer's of
such verse who misconceive outcry to
be poetry if it is metrically articulate.
There are painters who believe they
produce works of art which appeal to
sense without awakening any sympa-
thy that is not common to man. birds
and butterflies. Yet such works are
not of art.
More people think they know that
the rudder turns the bow of boat
than know that what it really does il
to swing the stern.
Most people know, when speaking
of an electric fluid or current. that,
while electrical phenomena are devel-
oped successfully in time and space,
nothing exists corresponding to any
of our other conceptions for which the
words fluid and current stand. More
than this, very few persons have
formed any kind of provisional hypoth-
esis. even. for reducing to any sort of
concrete image the simulacrum of q
concept that wavers behind the use of
the word electricity.
Among other things we think we
know, but don't, may be enumerated:
Pointers on the stock exchange, the
figures of visible supply of staples.
and the real responsibility of parties
rated at $1,000 600 or upward by the
commercial agencies.
A popular delusion is that the liar
can be made, who is not born so. The
liars gift is in fact, one of the rarest;
its highest expression consists in the
insight that discerns its opportunity to
tell the truth with the certainty of be-
ing disbelieved.
More men believe they can play
draw than there are white blackbirds.
yet the man who can play draw is the
rarer beast.
Folks talk of steam; to most of them
visible vapor is the thing this word
stands for; many think they believe
that the cloud they see issuing from
steam waste-pipe is the agency that,
engine. Few, perhaps, really believe
this for the mental impressions of
most of such people on such subjects
rightly called beliefs. But there is a
10 hor of vhr
know better than to confound live
steam in its working state with visible
vapor; most of these perhaps have
read or have heard of an hypothesis by
which particles in the gaseous condi-
ton are conceived to fly about, bonn
harding the sides of vessels in which
the gases may be contained coming
into collision with one another. How
many stop to reflect that this fanciful
presentation of the subject is put for
ward purely in a provisional way.
awaiting the progress of inyestiga-
tions essentially mathematical, amp
that it sustains, to sane conceptions of
the physical world, some such relation
as spectacular pantomime does to the
conduct of human life in its derby hat
and rubber overshoes?
Woman in general thinks she does
not show her champagne. She does
show the first glass. which makes her
either brighter or sillier than she is by
nature, which created her either sillier
or brighter than she needs to be.
Nature created man neither as bright
as he ought to be nor as silly as the
preservation of the race demands;
hence, he should drink red wine. which
is better than champagne any way.
Brandy is drink for heroes. Avoid
it.