Norwich bulletin., 1920-10-22

It Isn't how many times ths tru:i. has heen told. but how true is the telling, which counts.
 seed many of us-espeeiaIly Of us ia 7rer.-are inclined to class as uSe;ess all tliat we can't understand. We don't see the use of the bugs and the biights. of the worms and the weeds. of rnosqui- toes and flies and copperheads and pois- on ivy.
 We'll, that failure of ours to under stand, as my text aptiy concludes, Is quite another matter"
 The truth as 1t is and was and for ever shall be is one thing. what re hap pen to understand is another and an en- tlreiy different thing. If we had been there when the foundations of the earth were laid. when It's measures were de- termine.l and the line stretched upon it. when the morning stars sang together. we should then have known more and understood several things more clearly than we do. noT. But we were not there. We have come later upon the scene. We | find it altogether beyond our compTe. ! hension, altogether too complicated for | eur uarageliinE.
 Wherefore. like Job, we utter that which we understand not, things too won derful for US. which we know not We would show keeaer appreciation Of our own incapaci;y. clearer eon'Dre- ] hension. Of our own igaoTtnse. and 2 l much closer approach 70 real w'sdori # we would stop that sort ct tF'rs, and stop t for good.
 The truth is not always what VIC un- 1 derstand or think or believe. Moreover. l what we understand or think CT believe lt 1 Is of exceedingly small importance to | anyone but just ourselves. The truth Is eternal. invariable. inln1utabie. We are creatures Of a day. changeable. short l slEhted. Our nn.sHaderstaadings may be- | cloud 1t: OUT stubboFnness withstand t. our pit;fui vanity distort l. All to nc purpose. l. rcE1zirs. while we pass away. l As ages go by and knowledge slowly broAdens. we come dirnly 10 understand some things which were mysterious tc former generations. Here and there Tc fall upon explanations of what once seemed i'a'Spi;cable- And this Is the startiing fact about all such discoveries
 Thny are all revelations of the useful ness of that which had been, heretofore held useless.
 1 To bs sure. eueh discoveries arc rot | numerous. as compared with the nys teries Of the uHexp!ored universe. It wal the great Sir Isaac Newton who coTnpzr 1 cd himself to "a boy playing on the sea shore ard d.vertinG myself In now aRr then finding a smoother pebble or Pret tier shell than ordinary, whilst the erea ocsaa of truth lay all undiscovered be fore me"
 Ho8eve-. the informative and ir-lpres siye fact Is that, the more we find ou sbout that great ocean, the more 2ssur cd becomes OUT conviction that not on drop in all Its yastsess Is either use less or out, of place.
 FartheEzaeve. the more we Isarn iron It's edges and sAallows. the more sterni. does the knowiedge confront us that whether we understand or do not under stand, whether we approve or disspprovs VIC can neither stay nor modify It's move rnent.
 Tne truth remains that. whether VI consider some function of Nature -use less" or no., the function will coutinu functioning. Our failure to understand will make no difference with its aetio. Our disapprovai c. #, even, will put e check on its processes. Our resisteac l will TO more impede it than a etraw c tho coTcatehsr will check the roarin speed of the t-zns-contineutzI express We can no more change 4 by denying | than we can abolish the sun by ehutt.n oqr eyes to Its light.
 Nature makes nothing that is sselen This Is one truth we may accept, not oul with confident faith, but with eenyi, ton Of its assured certainty. Very vel then {; Thy put the cart before the fors and complain h<cause we don't unde. stand all the details of Natures r1ar aGeneat7 Why charge her with ineor sisteney or uEfziTneSs because we ar ourselves, incompetent?
 Why not make the best of an admitted iy bad job-bad so far as we gre concer7 ed-and humbly own up that we don know 1t all? or even . considerable DO ton Of it?
 I've heard farmers actually vhimpi about potato bugs, pretending to belie- that they were unnaitlKatsd curses. eel solely to increase the farmers tolls ar that any agricultural or entomologic Newton. putterinG along the shores
 bugoiogy, has thus far discovered N trre's use for that peszy insect What nf
 think I view the miserable burs vi as much distavor as any other farns Personally. I'll freely zdrnt that dor know a sood word to say for them potato-grower, they do me much da7 age, they increase my work and T erpense and diminish my crop
 But-
 Perhaps ths Paisizg of pota4ees is T tile sole purpose of Nature. Ever thii of that? Perhaps the saving me wo and money was not the primary obje for the creation of the universe. with ; It's attendant iife-including potato bug Perhaps even the predatory beetle whi Ee tvo-iegged creatures view with
 much aniriosity Is just as much pa of Natures plan as We? We don't a Of us, know for sure.
 An we do knew Is that Nature nev has made anything useless-vhen
 have gumption enough to find out
 truth about 1t. If we haven't, yet. fou
 out the use of the potato bug, neFha
 that is less due to Natures unvlsds
 than to our inability to deciDher |
 meaning.
 It's q big world, my masters. And
 things re do not know about 1t vol
 fn a great many books.