Norwich bulletin., 1920-01-23
AS TO THE VALUE OF CONSISTENCY AS
 PERCEIVED.

CWr1tten Specially For The Buretin-)
 A friendly critic, who nevertheless rather enjoys catching up" people when they make any little slips of speech or conduct, intimates that am a bit inconsistent.
 cone week" she says, you scold us oufts sharply for not trying to find o7lt the Why of everything. Another week. you turn right round and tell us we don't know anything. anyway, sn5 can't. try as hard as I've may. Isn't this a little bit inconsistent?' ?'
 Well. perhaps It is-and perhaps it isn't. whatever the decision may be, I shall not get mad about it.
 For. try no matter how hard. I somehow can't get up any great en- thusiasm over consistency" As that word is commonly understood and uopularly used, it comes so near to heinz a synonym for stubhornness or ssEmatism or one-ida-isrn that I can't help looking on it little doubt fully.
 cnly perfectly consistent thing in nature is a bailly horse? When such a beast makes Up his mind that he won't 20, he doesn't go-whip, spur, burning straw or anything else to the contrary. notwithstanding. He is the ideal picture of consistency" as he stands in the middle of the road with his legs well braced apart. his head down his under jaw twitchiug. and his ears laid well back. Having set lied it in his equine mind that the lme is not propitious for going. he Stsnds still And nothing short of ar earthquake win move him.
 Yet he isn't half as useful nor any N-- L. moro ame1ahle horse who goes ahead. can't see the need Of it
 I've lived tho long on a New England farm under New England weather to make consistency a retich. Sometimes
 qrerlliousiv wonder whether # would Se possible for the most inventive Ill- man mind 10 discover and Dut into practice such a tumble of everlasting Inconsistencies as apparently make up the sum of natures relations with Us farmers
 IFs a mad world, my n1sstsrs. You must excuse little inconsistency now and then in . fellow who has got so used to being stood on his head with put any warning or preparation that ae takes it as part of the regular day's performance.
 T. uy alleged Inconsistency is more in seeming than in fact IL is rather due so the inadeGuacy of words than to real contradictions of fact.
 Take that word know" for exam nle- In one sense it means absolute. 5emonStrated. infallibie certainty In snother sense it is used to describe mere acguain tanceship. Used one way C implies a positive eertitude; used another way it means a presumptive probability.
 Now. when John Farmer or any oth- er man says that he knows a thing in the former of these senses knows 1t is an absolute and infallibie certainty. he is going jest a leetle tee far. He is taking hold If the horns of ihe infinite too familiariy. He js 9resCmiuE to exercise a power which iasR't. yet. been given to him. He is c'aiming a capacity which so far q; cln be seen belongs only to onl- 1isaien~e. He had better much bet ter. hide his head in inc dust an( nrav. Lord. be merciful to me, . ioaIi~
 Fortunately. that unpleasant nro. ,rediug is rot the only other altsrna five.
 While We none of us know or car 'knnv.~ in the sense Of demonstrated certainty much of anything. while even the propositions of Euclid ana The syIlogisms Of logic are. really. onll .lose approaches to certitude. thev ani s1rns other things stand so apparently firm and fixed that We can and d use that same word .SinOw' in re gard to them. Use itsin that secont sense Of the highest probability.
 Can any power make two and twt equal nine? Can any power make two-year cold in a minute2 I've heard such questions asked. Truly. s5 far al we can see, both things seem impOssi ble. But. man alive what we cal sec" doesn't comprehend the whol' universe. What we can do doesn' cover the entire range of possibilities We can't loose the bands of Orion We can't see. even with the bigges telescope that ever was made or eve win be made. the stars and system