South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-01-02
Clocks Not Subject
To Influence of
Mysterious Subjects
BY Garrett p. Serviss.

There is no scientific reason why
a clock should do anything Of the
kind. il you NEAR. as you undoubt-
eddy do. that the death of the hu-
man being was the cause OF the
stopping of the clock. If clocks are
used by mysterious intelligences TO
convey information, science has
failed to discover the TACT
Moreover. science teaches us to
believe that no such thing ever oc-
ours. There is 50 much OF this sort
OF superstition abroad, and il is so
effective in muddling the brains of
a large number Of people who need
enlightenment instead Of mystifica-
ton, that I think no greater ser
vice can be performed than to point
out some OF the sources Of these
twists in mental operation.
The human race has now been
long enough on this planet n have
accumulated a vast mass of expert
ence concerning the operations of
nature BY applying careful obser-
vation and reasoning TO them we are
able to divide the results OF expert
ence into two great classes:
First, those which show that Ger
tain occurrences are related 10. one
another by an unbroken chain of
cause and effect, which we can
clearly see and understand; and
second. those which show that Ger
tain other occurrences happen CO
incidently without any such connect
ion.
IT Is not difficult 10 understand
that, in a world so fun of events, all
happening at once. many must oc-
cur simultaneously without being
directly related To one another. Con-
fusion between these two different
orders of occurrences produces
most OF the superstitiOns that still
aflict and haunt the human mind
The business of science is 10 dis
tinguish between the real and the
apparent. or imaginary, relations of
things that are presented 10 our
| sense. Nobody ever thinks of as
cribing an occult, or supernatural,
cause TO any event if he perceives
that there is a plain and natural one
that covers the ground. But so
strong is the innate conviction that
nothing happens without a cause,
that when the cause is not clearly
seen the imagination Immediately
tries to furnish one. and, with an
unframed and non-scientific mind,
the choice is almost certain TO fail
! upon a mere coincidence between
the unexplained happening and
some other striking simultaneous
event. Such mind is unable TO re-
main in suspense, and 10 patiently
seek for a cause that can be recon
ciled with universal experience, and
that violates none of the known
laws of nature.
If 1 am in a railroad accident,
and after l have got out of the
wreck l find that my watch has
stopped. 1 am logically justified in
concluding that the cause of the
stoppage was the shock of the col
| lision. But if a friend leaves his
watch in my possession and goes
away, and the watch suddenly stops,
and the next day l learn that my
| friend has died in a distant place at
about the time the watch stopped,
1 am not justified l.: jumping 20 the
conclusion that the watch stopped
/ because my friend died.
In the first case the line of cause
and effect is plain. and accOrds with
| the known forces of nature, but in
| the second case there is no known
relationship between the two stimuli
! taneOus events, and the assigned
cause has no law of nature behind
| it.