Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-08-18
UNKNOWN AND u~NKNowaBLE.

NVuiu lluu tHdt lnefe are just AhOu
as many things beyond his ken now as
there We're twenty centuries ago, and
yet he would be no more In the dark
than all the rest of US. Take ever the
little globe on which we live-how
little do we know about it, not In its
details, but as a whole. Where did it
come from? How old is it? What is
its place in the universe? Is it sta
donary or on a journey? II it is
moving AMONG the stars, where is ii
going2 These are questions thai pre-
sent themselves to most of us some
time or other, but commonly we put
them aside as too much for us, and
perhaps conclude that because we do
not happen to know how to answer
them no one else does; or possibly go
still farther and add tina no one ever
can answer them.
1t may be the agnostlc is right
when he asserts that we never can
know, by means Of our senses. the III
timate reality of things, though one
always feels like asking him when he
asserts this, how can he know he can
not know? To know you can't know
and be dead sure os it is a kind of
certainty hat strangely from
one whose business it is not to know.
However, there is no use discussing
things which appear to be entirely be-
yond the reach of our five senses: it
is not ultimate realities, but matters
more profitably engage our attention.
move profitably engage our attention.
It is well within our power to learn
certain facts about the earth because
they come under the observation of
our senses. We do not kn& very
much, but what We do know appears
to be all right so far as it goes.
Where did the earth come from?
The astronomers tell us /. is a little
local condensation of the primal neb-
ula from which have come also all our
little family Of sister planets and the
great sun himself. Some of these
worlds, like Jupiter, the largest. have
not yet cooled sufficiently to support
life as we know it, but are still rudy
with heat, molten, with clouds Of met
allie vapors floating in the fiery at
mosphere. others, like our moon, be-
ing Of small bulk. have cooled more
rapidly, and now r old, worn-out
worlds, water and atmosphere prac-
tically an gone. The planet Mars is
believed to be in what may be called
a dying condition; not dead like the
moon, o able to support life
generously. like the earth, but
about half way between, hay
ing a slight atmosphere and a lit
tie snow and water. Some astrono-
mers believe tho so-callcd canals on
Mars TO be vest irrigation bitches for
conserving and distributing the water
and the melting snow at the poles.
The earth then is one OF a family
of worlds journcying like 81 around
the sun. It came from the same vast
nebua which elsewhere, as it cooled,
form d the other planets. and of
the largest portion. so vast that
is still inconeeivably hot. forms the
sun. Where this primal nebula itself
from is an unsolved problem Of
scior e; though the telescope reveals
hunC scds Of other nebulae scattered
thro sh the heavens, some actually in
the recess Of c%ondensing into suns
and ilanets.
HcH GA is the world? No one
know And yet we can reach an APP
prox mate conclusion. our estimates
of TIC earth's duration have changed
very thoroughly during the hast hum
years. How enormously has
seller c multiplied numbers. How ut
.criy Inadequate the dates for mans
appearance on the earth and the
legi ming of The world accepted one
luud ed years ago, and stlil printed
n tie margins of Bibles issued by
3iblc societies. About six thousand
'cars was given as tire age OF the
.arth by the old chronology, but to-
these sixty centuries are but a
lant Drcadth of the time hat science
demands. As a recent writer on this
ubicct declares science has mined
a ceverns ana found mans tools and
Weapons among the bones of mann
moths. II has deciphercd hieroglyph-
rs and found arts u history already
enerable before the date when conn
ientators admitted that Adam had
ogun to breathe. As far back as
600 or 1000 years before Christ.
mong the cities and temples Of Baby
mia ana Egypt man was living a
.vilized or semi-civilizcd life. For
quatcrnary age. I'm The early part
which unmistakablc relics OF man
re found. geology demands a period
al least t0.o 600 years. for the ter
AIRY and secondary epochs not less
%s.oo0.o00 years VIII suffice: for
ie primeval or azoic ages not less
ian i7.ooo.oo0 years more are need