Reliable Knowledge

The growing comipiiexity of civilized ]Afe dematnds with eooh age broader and more exact knawledge as to the material surrouindings and greater precisión in. our recognition of the Invisible io:ces or tendenties about us. We are in. the hands of the Fates, and the greater our actdriitles the more evident beoome these limiting eoud'itkms. The secret oï power with man is to know its liinitations. To thds end we need oonstantly new accessions of truth, as to the universe and better defilnii'tion of the truths whaxïh are old. Such knowledge, tested and placed im. order, we cali cience. Science is the gathered wisdom of the race. Oa:y a part oï lt can be grasped by any omei man. Bach must einter i'nto the work of otbers. Scd'emce is tte ücwer of the alttniism of tbe ages, by which noth■ng tlhat lives "livetfh foir iteelf alone." The i-eciagnd'tdoin oí facts and laws is the pro.vd-nce of sciemce. We only know wbat li'es abaiit us frcxm our own experi'emc and tbat oí others, tliiü experienoe of others being translated i'rutio tenns of oor owm experience and more or iiess perfectly blended wii'tlh ifc, We oan find the meaning oí phemomiena oniy from our reasonïng based om thiese experiences. AU knowledg"e we ca.n attai'n or hope to ditbaiin must, in 83 far as it is knawledge at aül, be stated in term of hmmian experienoe. The laws O'f Nacuft-e are no-t the producta of sciieace. They are the human giúímpses tf that which is the "ïaw befoire all time." Thus expea-ince is the foundation of all knowledge. Even innate ideas, If such ideas exist, are derived in some way irom knowledge possessed by aJicestors, as innate impulses to action are nelated to ancestral needs for actton.- David Btarr Jordán, in Appletioms' Popular Bcience Monthly.