Aristotle has said that "The sweetest of all things is knowledge." And
he is right. But if you were to suppose that the _publication_ of a new
view were productive of unbounded sweetness, you would be mightily
mistaken. No one disturbs his fellow-men with a new view unpunished. Nor
should the fact be made a subject of reproach to these fellow-men. To
presume to revolutionise the current way of thinking with regard to any
question, is no pleasant task, and above all not an easy one. They who
have advanced new views know best what serious difficulties stand in
their way. With honest and praiseworthy zeal, men set to work in search
of everything that does not suit with them. They seek to discover
whether they cannot explain the facts better or as well, or
approximately as well, by the traditional views. And that, too, is
justified. But at times some extremely artless animadversions are heard
that almost nonplus us. "If a sixth sense existed it could not fail to
have been discovered thousands of years ago." Indeed; there was a time,
then, when only seven planets could have existed! But I do not believe
that any one will lay any weight on the philological question whether
the set of phenomena which we have been considering should be called a
sense. The phenomena will not disappear when the name disappears. It was
further said to me that animals exist which have no labyrinth, but which
can yet orientate themselves, and that consequently the labyrinth has
nothing to do with orientation. We do not walk forsooth with our legs,
because snakes propel themselves without them!
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