Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1909-10-15
in LIMITED BOUNDS.
Fallacy Of the Souls Aspirations-O a
Glimpse Permitted to Mortal View.

"A telegraph dispatch from New
York says that when Edison, the
great inventor, was asked what made
the aurora borealis interrupt electri-
cal currents, he declared that he
did not know. He said that he did
not know what electricity is and ad-
ded; " If only |. or anybody, knew
what is was, We might do something
really worth while. What is magne-
tism? Whence comes it? All! If we
only knew what it is. or if we only
knew anything about Cod great i'm
mutable laws? We are just begin
ming to intepret them a little, but that
little is very small. In fact, intellec-
tually we are just emerging from the
dog days. We say we are living in a
wonderful age. We are just at it's
threshold. Chemistry holds the key.
That is the science of sciences. There
Gods great sanctuary will be un-
locked. And when it is, what world
this will be to live in. No more
starving and struggling and clutch
ng in the dark then. Light, light,
there will be light everywhere, and
those who came after us will wonder
at our blindness.
This plaintive cry, if we only knew.
has long been echoed by man as it is
now by the wizard of modern inven-
tors. An eminent oculist once told the
writer of the limitations of his know
ledge concerning the eye. The eye
and its connection with the brain,
the optic nerve, can all be enclosed
in the hollow of ones hand" he said
Il have spent my life in studying
and treating the eye, and yet know
but little about it, There are aifec-
tons of it, the causes of which are SO
obscure rs to battle my skill and the
skill of my contemporaries. and to
abaSh me with the paucity of my
knowledge. Occasionally | obtain
vistas of what is possible, but they
elude me, try as | may to fathom the
cause of them. In the future, life
time after lifetime of scientific men
will be spent in trying to find them
out. 1t will take centuries yet to get
at some of the secrets of the eye, as
knowledge. concerning this wonder
full organ. comes slowly.
One would think that violin could
be easily mastered. There is bow
and four strings and one would be
lead 10 believe that proper manipu-
latlOn OF the instrument could be ac-
quired after few months practice,
and yet the most eminent virtuoSo
will tell you that even they. who have
great natural ability and have been
taught by the greatest of masters,
and who have never allowed Il day
to pass that they did not conscien-
tiously practice, that they can see
vistas of possibilities in the violin
that even Paganinni never, reached
and which will perhaps never be mas
tered by human beings us they are
at present constituted. Perhaps,
they say, when man has evolutcd to Il
higher state than at present, with
greater mental and physical powers,
he can produce the greatest harmon
les that the king of instruments is
capable of producing.
Great religious tea chers, inven-
tors, musicians and III edical special
lists, men in short. of genius. get oc-
casional glimpses of the future and
they take the world into their conh-
dence during these moments and
speak in what is inspired language.
Ii was during one of these periods
that Edison said: There God 5
great sanctuary will be unlocked.
And than what Il world it will be to
live in-no more starving and strug
Cling and clutching in the dark.
Then light. light, there will be light,
everywhere, and those who come
after rs will wonder at our blind
ness.