rise higher in the triangle we find that the uneasiness
increases, as a city built on the most correct architectural plan
may be shaken suddenly by the uncontrollable force of nature.
Humanity is living in such a spiritual city, subject to these
sudden disturbances for which neither architects nor
mathematicians have made allowance. In one place lies a great
wall crumbled to pieces like a card house, in another are the
ruins of a huge tower which once stretched to heaven, built on
many presumably immortal spiritual pillars. The abandoned
churchyard quakes and forgotten graves open and from them rise
forgotten ghosts. Spots appear on the sun and the sun grows dark,
and what theory can fight with darkness? And in this city live
also men deafened by false wisdom who hear no crash, and blinded
by false wisdom, so that they say "our sun will shine more
brightly than ever and soon the last spots will disappear." But
sometime even these men will hear and see.
But when we get still higher there is no longer this
bewilderment. There work is going on which boldly attacks those
pillars which men have set up. There we find other professional
men of learning who test matter again and again, who tremble
before no problem, and who finally cast doubt on that very matter
which was yesterday the foundation of everything, so that the
whole universe is shaken. Every day another scientific theory
finds bold discoverers who overstep the boundaries of prophecy
and, forgetful of themselves, join the other soldiers in the
conquest of some new summit and in the hopeless attack on some
stubborn fortress. But "there is no fortress that man cannot
overcome."
On the one hand, FACTS are being established which the science of
yesterday dubbed swindles. Even newspapers, which are for the
most part the most obsequious servants of worldly success and of
the mob, and which trim their sails to every wind, find
themselves compelled to modify their ironical judgements on the
"marvels" of science and even to abandon them altogether. Various
learned men, among them ultra-materialists, dedicate their
strength to the scientific research of doubtful problems, which
can no longer be lied about or passed over in silence. [Footnote:
Zoller, Wagner, Butleroff (St. Petersburg), Crookes (London),
etc.; later on, C. H. Richet, C. Flammarion. The Parisian paper
Le Matin, published about two years ago the discoveries of the
two last named under the title "Je le constate, mais je ne
l'explique pas." Finally there are C. Lombroso, the inventor of
the anthropological method of diagnosing crime, and Eusapio
Palladino.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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