The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-02-20
THINKS WE DON'T KNOW.
In the Domain of Sense, Sentiment and
Drink.

!
identify few of the things we think we
know, but don't; next, few of the
things we think we don't know but do
for that is the same as not knowing
them; and finally, to part out some Of
those we know we don't know, and
which we sure enough don't, writes an
icOncolast in the Evening Sun.
For example, among the list are a
child's mind, woman meaning, q man s
purpose, the verdict of jury, the Oper-
alton of medicines, speech of cats,
ethics of dogs, and so on; all of which
we know to exist, and that
we know nothing further about them.
In another class of knowledge that is
no knowledge, we can all know, for eX-
ample, that the line at the head of this
column will attract every wit to make
merry with, but none of us can name in
advance the one who will do so. Mean
while the cap-and-bells must await him,
wrapped in the tissue paper the manu-
| facturer placed around it. Some folks
suppose they know things learned at
school; as, for example, that parallel
straight lines in plane are two that
never meet; but this isn't true. II the
lines are parallel, they dc meet-at in
! fnity. Others hug the delusion that a
straight line does not change its direc-
ton, however prolonged; the fact is, of
course, that straight line is part OF
a circumference 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 station we have once ex-
perienced. We shall, in fact, do just
what we did before. If our conduct on
that occasion turned out all ill many
people think they will do something
else, and 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 a man thinks he
doesn't know is that a fellow-creature
who cheats third for his sake, will
cheat him for the fellow-creature's own
sake Yet this is truth that governs
human relations as gavitation rules the
material universe. 1t is as a men,
strunum, in which the relations of men
and women find universal solvent.
Many folks believe they know that
iron is substance which cannot change
into different substances. More error:
Iron maintains its identify at the tenn
perature of terrestrial laboratories.
1t splits up into other substances under
the suns heat. Most folks think they
have a mental image of what the moons
surface is like, but they haven't. They
have such an image 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 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 ir-
respective of the time required to utter
them. So there are writer's of such
verse who misconceive cutlery to be
poetry if it is metrically articulate.
There are painters who believe they
produce works of art which appear to
sense without awakening any sympathy
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 the boat
than know what it really does is to
swing the stern.
Many 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 hypothesis,
even, for reducing TO any sort OF con-
crete image the simulacrum OF con-
cept waivers behind their 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 one million or upward by the COM
mercial agencies.
A popular delusion is that the liar
can be made who is not born so; the
liars gifts 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 a 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 a
steam waste pipe is the agency that,
still visible cloud. moves the steam
engine. Few. perhaps, really believe
this. for the mental impressions of most
of such people on such subjects are too
vague and unmeaning to be rightly
called beliefs. But there is a consider
able number of people who know better
than to confound live steam in its
working state with visible vapor: most
Of these. perhaps, have read, or have
heard, of a hypothesis by which parti-
cles in the gaseous condition
are conceived to fly about, bonn
harding the sides of vessels in which
the gases may be contained, coming in
to 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 Investigations
essentially mathematical, and that it
sustains. to sane conceptions of the
physical world. some such relation as
spectacular pantomime does to the con-
duct of human life in its derby hat and
rubber overshoes.
Woman in general thinks she does
cot show her champagne. She does
chow her first glass. which makes her
either brighter or sillier than she is by
nature. which creates her either sillier
IN brighter than she needs to be.
Nature created man neither as bright
NJ he ought to be nor as silly as the
preservation Of the race demands: hence
he should drink red wine, which is bet
tf z than champagne. ANYWAY.