Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 70.djvu/150

146 four ounces of gold, one third of the substance being somehow lost in the process. But with improved appliances this third should be saved and the finances of the world may be reconstructed on a basis of genuine bimetallism, gold being made when wanted from the condensation of silver. Yet all-important as this discovery should be, neither chemistry nor finance pays any attention to it. It belongs to the science of the newspaper having only the validity of a 'fake advertisement,' 'Common sense' demands that the experiments be verified and the steps which led to them be made known before considering for a moment the probability that there is any truth in the newspaper statement.

"Now how amid all the wonders of science, non-science dreaming, fakery and insanity is the common man to find his way? How shall he recognize the claims of science among all the other voices and noises in this vociferous world?

"This is my answer, and I believe that it is the answer of science. As to many things the common man may not know at all. Where he is not concerned in any way so that error and truth are alike to him because they can not affect his action, he may be powerless to decide. It is not always important that he should decide. 'I do not know' is the affirmation characteristic of the wise man. It is safe to believe mildly in mahatmas and norms and hoodoos and voudous if one does not regulate his life according to this belief. The vague faith in protoplasm, in natural selection or in microbes which the average man possesses will serve him no better if it is put to no test. The difference appears when one acts upon his belief. The nearer one's acquaintance with molecules or protoplasm, the more real and more natural do they appear. The microbe is as authentic as the cabbage to one engaged in dealing with it. Protoplasm is as tangible a thing as wheat or molasses. But the astral body and the telepathic impulse become the more vague the nearer we approach them. They are figments of the fancy, and their names serve only as a cover for our ignorance of the facts. The charm of such words as Karma, Avatar and Kismet lies in the fact that most of those who use them have no idea of what they mean. Lack of meaning or ignorance of meaning lies at the foundations of most occultism. Scientific induction in its essence is simply common sense. The homely maxims of human experience are the beginnings of science. To know enough 'to come in when it rains' is to know something of the science of meteorology. By scanning the clouds we may know how to come in before it rains. By observing the winds we may tell what clouds are coming. By studying the barometer we may know from what quarter the winds and clouds may be expected.

"The discoveries of science are made by steps which are perfectly simple to those trained to follow them. No discovery is made by chance in our day. None come to contradict existing laws or to discredit existing knowledge. The whole of no phenomenon is known