The sun., 1918-09-01
The Law OF Mystery.

There are two kinds Of impossible
ties: the practical. and the rational.
Thus 1t is practically impossible for
man to jump ten times his own
height; for the thing exceeds human
power as we know 1t. Having no evi.
dence that any man ever did so or
ever will. we call the deed impossible
upon the sufficiently reasonable
ground Of the order Of nature. Never.
theless, there may be nothing to pre-
vent some man achieving the neces.
sary muscular power, or in some now
unimaginable way neutralizing the
effect OF gravity. But for a man to
pull himself up by the feet Is impos-
sible in quite another sense: 1t Is ra-
tionally impossible; for the force with
which he pulls up his feet itself pulls
down his shoulders. The thing is a
contradiction. To propose 1t Is only
a sport of words, an equation which
resolves itself to zero. The two i'm
possibilities are, IL you like, equally
impossible. Yet the distinction re-
mains, and Is we'll worth observing,
because the rational impossibllity is
eternal whereas the practical impos-
Sbllity may at any time turn out to
be no impossibility at all.
We have recently seen the end of
many practical impossibilities. 1t was
once impossible for man to ny. or to
calculate the distance of a star, or to
communicate Instantly with the other
side of the world. But we did not
need experience to tell US that all
these impossibilities might some day
be resolved. Reason would have told
us that from the beginning. And
reason tells us now, without wasting
expectancy, that any rational impossi-
bility must remain. Yet we confus-
edly argue that because many things
have wonderfully been learned or
done, so all things may some day be
done or known. You know many
things that SOLOMON did not know;
but you are none the nearer to know
ing how 1t Is that you can lift your
hand. For 1t is you who lift it.
From the beginning Of the world
people have said that some things
were supernatural. 1t may be so, or
not; but why should we expect any
light upon that question from our
wonderfully increased learning and
control Of nature? Though you read
this page never so carefully, you will
none the more have read what is upon
its other side. BY holding 1t up to the
light, you may discern vague pa
llmpsest Of shadows, illegible sugges-
tons Of picture or print. And you
might have done that just as well
without reading.
1t Is true that many miracles of yes
terday are playthings of to-day. Old
stories told OF magic boats moved
without sails by mysterious force
within: we give such boat to chill
dren for toy. But that only means
that we have found a number OF nat
VI ~ NuuoVo W LOot ShcNtb OuI
ers would call magical. 1t Is as IL
you are told that there are black
beans In box in a dark room but
all those which you bring out into the
light and examine turn out to be
white ones. That does not prove that
you were told wrong. 1t does not
even remotely suggest or indicate such
thing. To make that inference you
must know how many beans were
there. Now, IL that number were
very great 1t might be practically i'm.
possible to test the truth of the asser-
lion that some were black; but II the
number were infinite, then to do SO
would be nationally Impossible.
There Is in many of those matters
which we term mental or spiritual a
curious inherent uncertainty, n quail
ity In the very question which puts
it outside of proof. Dreams are re-
ported subsequently to have come
true; but IL they had not come true