New-York tribune., 1919-03-23

to show why he walks upright
and is superior to the shaggy quadru-
peds of the forest, or the lowly, Shiny
worm. Writing in "The English Re
view," Bart Kennedy suggests a fresh
conclusion. He observes:
"It is said that two and two make four,
and that four and four make eight, and
that a circle is round, and that square
has four corners. These facts are put
forward as steel-bound, copper-bottomed
axioms against which there is no appeal
Compared with them the lava of the Medes
and Persians are, were, but quantities
of the most variable order. They are as
immutable as gravitation, or the income
tax. There is no appeal against them
None may escape them.
"These facts, or axioms, or whatever you
like to call them, were invented by wise
men who came to the conclusion that it
was just we'll for man to have something
that he could swear by. The coming into
a world-that they of necessity could no
more understand than mite understands
the round of cheese wherein it lives
puzzled them and upset their dignity.
And SO they invented these cocksure things
that men have been swearing by ever
Blnce.
'When think of my dear, good old friend,
man, and his humorous little ways, / am
often tempted to think that two and two,
instead Of making four, make seven, or
seventeen, or any number you like. IL
makes me think that my dear, good old
friends regard for numerals is at best
but academic. He regards them as little
as g. gale of wind would regard feather.
That two and two make four is all right
for other people. But for him--no, very
much no! He plays all manner of pranks
with them. He turns them into combina-
tions that would make their inventors turn
in their graves, If they but knew.
"For example, he will preach in a loud
stentorian voice that honesty is the best
policy, and at the same time he will pinch
to use a rude, slang verb-everything he
can lay his hands on. He will tell you that
If you won't work, neither shall you eat
and he will tell it to you in the face of the
glaring fact that it is the people who don't
work who get the best and the most plen-
tiful supply Of food. He will tell you that
you must wait till you get to a higher
world before you can have your good time.
while he has his good time here in this
vulgar world below. In fact our dear, good
old friend, man, is-when he possibly can
manage it-a living negation of the mathe-
matical axiom that two and two make four.
~ do not grumble at him, for he is a good
fellow. Indeed, he is the best fellow we
know. But his attitude toward this axiom
is most humorous.
whether or not the other animals have
invented axioms, that they treat in this
free and easy manner, it is not for me TO
say. l leave myself, concerning this. in the
hands of the men who have spent years
in their society, studying them. But take
1t as read that the ants have axoms sad
died upon them even as we have And ]
also take 1t as read that the busy bees are
inflicted in like manner. These animals
or. rather, insects-doubtess had in the be-
ginning their geniuses who knew it all.
There must have been ants and bees with
bulgy foreheads, or the equivalent of bulgy
foreheads, who formulated plans and phi
losophies for the bees and ants to
come.
Personally, my opinion is that all the
animals, from the invisible microbe to the
obXous elephant, have tenderer regard
for$ Mathematical truths than man has. If
they believe thing, they usually stick to
it. I can't buttress up this statement with
absolute proof. I only put it forward as a
mere personal opinion of my own.
"It seems if it were only our dear.
good old friend, man - bless himi who
queries the absoluteness Of these steel
bound, copper bottomed axioms And am
bound to say that in my humble opinion,
he shows his intellect in SO doing. He is
intelligent enough to realize-in practice.
anyway-that he lives in a world where all
the lines are indefinite, despite what the
mathematicians say. His regard for these
wise, know-all persons is mere lip regard.
He listens to them with politeness, but he
goes on his own devious, mixed-up, contra
dctory way.
"Now, let US look at the matter straight
Do two and two really make four? Do
four and four really make eight? Is .
circle really round? And has a square
really four corners?
"Can it--oh, can it be possible that the.s
axioms don't really fit? Are the numerals
and the squares, and the circles, and the
triangles and other like things but arbi-
trary gauges that have been made for the
impossible task for measuring what can't
be measured? And does man prove his
superiority to the simpler and more in
nocent animals by refusing to accept then,
whenever he gets the chance? Is this in
stinet of rebellion the secret of his dori-
nation over all things?
Il wonder"