Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1916-03-25

CWritten Specially for The Bulletin.)
"An Gaul is divided into three
parts That's what Caesar wrote, al
most two thousand years ago, and it's
! the first sentence which the high school
boy, beginning his account of the
Gallo War of 50 B. c., has to struggle
with.
The ancjents used to divide the ma
terial universe into three elements, air,
water and fire.
They had three Fates; three F'uries;
and three GraCeS. There were three
"cittes of refuge on each side Of Jor-
dan; three parts to the temple at Je-
rusalem; three branches on each side
the great golden candlestick; three
bowls before the altar which was three
cubits high; three chief idols among
the Brahmins, the Buddhists, the old
Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the
ScandinaVians; three Christian graces,
three that bear record in heaven and
three that hear witness on earth" The
Nine Worthless in heaven and three
that bear witness on earth The Nine
Worthless consisted Of three Jews,
three Pagans, and three Christians;
and it was the Three Tailors of Too
ley Street who once addressed pc
tition to Canning, beginning, I'VE, the
people of England
Lots of things in thie world run in
threes. 1t would take a book to de-
scribe all the triads and triumvirates
Of history. Pythagoras long ago de-
claFed that three was q divine num-
ber," perfect and complete, because it
included the beginning, middle and end
of all things.
| sometimes think that life as we
know it might be divided, like ancient
Gaul and so many other things, into
three parts-Things we know; things
we think we know; and things that
we don't know.
If such q division were made it
would be an extremely unequal one.
It would include one small cOmpart-
ment for the things we actually know;
pne somewhat larger for the things we
think we know, but don't as a matter
of cold fact; and a third stretching
endIessly out beyond the spaces Of in
fnity and across the frontiers of eter-
nifty for the things we don't know
and know that we don't.
We literally have to walk most OF
our lives by faith rather than by sight,
whether we admit it creedally and for
Inally or not. We must for the sim
pie reason that, most of the time, we
can't see and yet have to keep going.
I'm going to plow this spring-if the
bHOW ever 1uSllS SHOllSlI 81 L CciIl. Ill
faith that there will be a summer and
a harvest. I'm going to plant seeds
in faith that they'll grow. I'm going
to fertilize in faith that the little root
lets will feed and grow rank on the
manure. I'm going to buy a bunch of
raffia to tie up vegetables not yet
BoWn, in faith that they'll arrive in
due time, etc, etc.
4 And now into this world of triple
and treble diVidedness and miXed-up-
ness comes the voice of a one-idead
prophet Of the livestock industry,
raised before the cattle men of the
country.
''1f you don't know" he cries, don't
guess!"
That is, if you don't know by what
Subtle and mysterious processes OF
metabolism or something else your
best COW converts hay and bran and
siLage and brook water into butter-fat
and casein and horns and hide and
hair and a few hundred other things
don't guess about it.
sThat seems to be about what his
advice means.
sAnd I'm puzzled to know whether
10 applaud it or get mad about it!
EFF you don't know, don't guess!"
There probably are three ways il
which that may be taken. 1 can see
.Wo anyway.
Guessing is just shooting at random
without being cocksure just wha-
you're shooting at or where you're
shooting from or what the range is Oh
how the wind blows. It's an attemp
III hit something, somewhere, some
low, without certain knowledge of JUS