“All truth must be found by experience. Some is easily found, while some lies deeply buried from the superficial human view. Some truth is so conspicuous and universal that all mankind believe and know it. Some is so obscure and hidden that no man has yet found it, unless we claim that we know all that can be known, and no well-informed person will make such claims. It is often said that such and such a thing cannot be done because there are too many different opinions. But the fact is, that we all agree as far as we have found the truth. Men in their opinions are likely to differ only concerning those things about which they have not yet acquired the truth, but they will always agree as far as they have discovered the truth. Thus the concerted action of mankind becomes more and more harmonious, in proportion as we discover new truths and as the number of individuals clearly seeing these truths increases. The action of a hundred persons, each knowing a thousand truths, or facts, would be more harmonious than would be the actions of a hundred persons, fifty of whom know each a thousand facts and fifty know only seven hundred each; or than if each of the hundred individuals know only eight hundred facts each. Let us further illustrate this agreement and disagreement of mankind; also let us exemplify how conspicuous some truths are and how obscure and complex others are. “All mankind are in pursuit of the greatest happiness, either consciously or unconsciously, whether that happiness is to be enjoyed here or in some supposed unknown world. But all believe in this fundamental axiom. Perhaps all men of mature age agree that fire burns. Our experience of fire has established quite an exact correspondence between the subjective order of our conceptions and the objective order of the relations among things and our nervous system. All sane persons believe that food is necessary for the sustenance of the human body. We all agree here. We all know of some relations existing between water and the human organism; we know that we cannot breathe it like air. “The truth, or the relation existing between a drowning man and the altitude of Mt. Everest, is not so conspicuous as the example cited before; yet there is a relation between them. The man falling in the ocean from the shore, tends to raise the water of the ocean in a similar manner as a turnip thrown in a pail partly filled with water, raises the water in the pail. Mountains are measured from the sea level. A _high_ sea level makes a low mountain, and a _low_ sea level makes a high mountain. This relation is truth, but we do not all see it.” “But why do we not all know this truth the same as the truth that fire burns?” asked Rev. Dudley.