The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1911-09-06
Scientists See Play of An
Eternal Mind in
WORKING OF EARTHLY THINGS
Great Wizard of Invention
Talks About Common
Affairs of Life.
SCOPE OF THE CHRoNoGRAPH


said Thomas A. Edison to-day.
Some things he has said have given
the impression that he was an ag-
nostic, If not an atheist. 'All
scientists" he continued, Gin get
ting nearer and nearer to the first
great cause, feel that about and
through everything there is the play
of an eternal mind"
Science is mostly imagination, "
said Mr.. Edison, when asked what
part imagination plays in his work.
at is by conceiving what might be,
before one has seen the way to real
lie it practically, that scientists
have been buoyed during the period
of experiment.
"Since the beginning of time
there has always been a gap in the
evolution of ANNA; then magma
ton goes in advance to bridge It.
All inventors have passed over this
bridge before presenting some mag
nifcent utility to the world. We
wait for the missing link, as it were,
between what we know and what
we hope to know. In sense the
greatest discoveries blunder on what
they discover" Serious workers re-
lax, Mr.. Edison believes, by indulg-
ing in a hobby.
Every man should have a hob
by" said he. Mine is a storehouse
I started long ago in a part of my
laboratory. In this storehouse
collect everything under the sun
that may be useful to me. The
place is full of rubbish, but / got
in the habit of collecting rubbish,
as a boy, when my mother gave me
a cellar, at home to store the varied
stuff gathered.
"In my laboratory storehouse 1
have unearthed relics of bird, beast,
plant and crawling creatures.
have the skins of snakes and fishes,
the furs of animals, the teeth of
sharks and seals-in fact, every
thing you can think of in fora and
fauna. Out of it 1 have discovered
many useful things; for instance.
that the hair of red deer is infinite
ly more delicate for cleaning cylin-
ders than the cheaper camels' hair
brushes.
Zone learns a lot of human ma
ture by studying the traits of ami
mails" added Edison. rehectively.
81 had two monkeys in a cage on my
place in Florida. One was stronger
than the other, and when food was
put in the cage the stronger boxed
the ears of the other, which timidly
left him all the food. Such is hui
man life. The stronger hand gets
what belongs to the brother as well
as to himself. Yet I believe firmly
in the evolution of human nature
from known types, when science,
combined with better education,
will solve the present enormities of
human nature"
Mr.. Edison, who has a fine ideal
of integrity from his own life, puts
lack of honesty down to want of
intelligence and education.
Our civilization is wrong" he
declared, Sin all its exorbitant So
called necessities of living. 1t is
easy to be honest on $4,000 a year,
as poor Becky Sharp said in Thack-
eray's great novel. One great reas-
on why / so deprecate all this strife
and strain of modern show is that
under it many man whose natural
impulses are elevated, goes down
under temptations to compromise
his honor.
THAT is why l put personal
adornment down to vestige of bar
barism in us. I have brought my
family up to dress plainly. I tell
them want them to have higher
ideals than the Congo belle or the
South Sea Islander. Many a Wall
Street Spectator sees the inside OF
the State prison as the result of his
wife's or his daughters demand for
a string OF pearls.
But, as say. dishonesty is pri-
marily want of intelligence or ed
ucation. Teach man that honesty
is not only the best policy, but that,
pathologically, every base act is de-
teriorating to the brain cells and
those numerous fine fibers that dis
tinguish the developed Caucasian
brain lobe from the brain lobe of
the savage. and you take the first
step toward HIS reform. There are
number OF delicate threads in civ
ilized human beings that disting-
uish us from the savage.
II am much interested in a new
Invention called the chronegraph,
that infinitely records the time Of