Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/774

754 them. Now there have been skeptics in all ages and upon all matters, some giving reasons and some not. Everybody is a philosopher, whether he knows it or not, and consciously or unconsciously makes every new fact or experience fit into his theory of things; it must be explained in accordance with the principles recognized by him and supposed to be known. Experience of mankind and the tricks of jugglers have made it easy to believe that all phenomena may be explained by personal agency of some sort, and to most persons that water should run down hill is no more of a surprise or mystery than that a juggler should be able to take four dozen eggs out of a borrowed hat, while to the physicist the first is an unaccountable phenomenon. It is this easy philosophy that gives so great a following to spiritualism. It is so much easier to understand than physical laws and movements, and is in such complete accordance with human experience of the lowest grade, that it is easier to imagine an immaterial personality that can be summoned to tip tables and rap on the floor, than it is to understand how the laws of energy must be recognized and can not be infracted.

Educational institutions as well as all others were founded upon a philosophy of things that presumed that the human mind was not necessarily related to anything in the world; that therefore its training could be best provided for by supplying ideal standards of excellence in those matters considered of most importance; these were studied chiefly for their gymnastic effects, and therefore best fitting a man for any career, but more especially a professor, a minister, a lawyer, or a doctor. It was true that many men attained to the highest eminence without the slightest aid from such institutions and without any of the gymnastic culture, but the argument was that they would have been better and have done more if they had had it, that it would have saved them valuable time. Inasmuch as the evidence goes to show that those who achieve success without such aids in this way do as much as an equal number educated the other way, it is plain that there is something wrong in the premises.

The world has been often surprised within the past two or three hundred years, but it generally takes a generation or two to discover the occasion of the surprise. The world is now aware of its surprise at the geological theory of the earth, of its surprise at the nebular theory, and at the Copernican theory.

The year 1859 was the year for another surprise, and it is just beginning to be perceived how great was the occasion for surprise. To be sure, the announcement of the theory of natural selection and that of the survival of the fittest aroused instant hostility, and bitter attacks were made upon it for a long time—all without the slightest effect in staying the acceptance of it. The surprise