CHAPTER
XLVIII.
WHY AND HOW." THE STRUGGLING RAY OF LIGHT FROM
THOSE FARTHERMOST OUTREACHES."
" Confronting mankind there stands a sphinx- the vast Unknown. However well
a man may be informed concerning a special subject, his farthermost outlook
concerning that subject is bounded by an impenetrable infinity."
" Granted," I interrupted, " that mankind has not by any means
attained a condition of perfection, yet you must admit that questions once
regarded as inscrutable problems are now illuminated by the discoveries of
science."
" And the ‘ discovered,’ as I will show, has only transferred ignorance
to other places," he replied. " Science has confined its labors to
superficial descriptions, not the elucidation of the fundamental causes of
phenomena."
" I can not believe you, and question if you can prove what you say."
" It needs no argument to illustrate the fact. Science boldly heralds her
descriptive discoveries, and as carefully ignores her explanatory failures. She
dare not attempt to explain the why even of the simplest things. Why does the
robin hop, and the snipe walk? Do not tell me this is beneath the notice of men
of science, for science claims that no subject is outside her realm. Search your
works on natural history and see if your man of science, who describes the
habits of these birds, explains the reason for this evident fact. How does the
tree-frog change its color? Do not answer me in the usual superficial manner
concerning the reflection of light, but tell me why the skin of that creature is
enabled to perform this function? How does the maple tree secrete a sweet,
wholesome sap, and deadly nightshade, growing in the same soil and living on the
same elements, a poison? What is it that your scientific men find in the cells
of root, or rootlet, to indicate that one may produce a food, and the other a
noxious secretion that can destroy life? Your microscopist will discuss cell
tissues learnedly, will speak fluently of physiological structure, will describe
organic intercellular appearances, but ignore all that lies beyond. Why does the
nerve in the tongue respond to a sensation, and produce on the mind the sense of
taste? What is it that enables the nerve in the nose to perform its
discriminative function? You do not answer. Silver is sonorous, lead is not; why
these intrinsic differences? Aluminum is a light metal, gold a heavy one; what
reason can you offer to explain the facts other than the inadequate term
density? Mercury at ordinary temperature is a liquid; can your scientist tell
why it is not a solid?
Of course anyone can say because its molecules move
freely on each other. Such an answer evades the issue; why do they so readily
exert this action? Copper produces green or blue salts; nickel produces green
salts; have you ever been told why they observe these rules? Water solidifies at
about thirty-two degrees above your so-called zero; have you ever asked an
explanation of your scientific authority why it selects that temperature?
Alcohol dissolves resins, water dissolves gums; have you any explanation to
offer why either liquid should dissolve anything, much less exercise a
preference? One species of turtle has a soft shell, another a hard shell; has
your authority in natural history told you why this is so? The albumen of the
egg of the hen hardens at one hundred and eighty degrees Fahrenheit; the albumen
of the eggs of some turtles can not be easily coagulated by boiling the egg in
pure water; why these differences? Iceland spar and dog-tooth spar are
identical, both are crystallized carbonate of lime; has your mineralogist
explained why this one substance selects these different forms of
crystallization, or why any crystal of any substance is ever produced? Why is
common salt white and charcoal black? Why does the dog lap and the calf drink?
One child has black hair, another brown, a third red; why? Search your
physiology for the answer and see if your learned authority can tell you why the
life-current makes these distinctions? Why do the cells of the liver secrete
bile, and those of the mouth saliva? Why does any cell secrete anything ? A
parrot can speak; what has your anatomist found in the structure of the brain,
tongue, or larynx of that bird to explain why this accomplishment is not as much
the birthright of the turkey? The elements that form morphine and strychnine,
also make bread, one a food, the other a poison; can your chemist offer any
reason for the fact that morphine and bread possess such opposite characters?
The Earth has one satellite, Saturn is encompassed by a ring; it is not
sufficient to attempt to refer to these familiar facts; tell me, does your
earth-bound astronomer explain why the ring of Saturn was selected for that
planet? Why are the salts of aluminum astringent, the salts of magnesium
cathartic, and the salts of arsenicum deadly poison? Ask your toxicologist, and
silence will be your answer. Why will some substances absorb moisture from the
air, and liquefy, while others become as dry as dust under like conditions? Why
does the vapor of sulphuric ether inflame, while the vapor of chloroform is not
combustible, under ordinary conditions? Oil of turpentine, oil of lemon, and oil
of bergamot differ in odor, yet they are composed of the same elements, united
in the same proportion; why should they possess such distinctive, individual
characteristics? Further search of the chemist will explain only to shove the
word why into another space, as ripples play with and toss a cork about. Why
does the newly-born babe cry for food before its intellect has a chance for
worldly education? Why?"
" Stop," I interrupted; " these questions are absurd."
" So some of your scientific experts would assert," he replied; "
perhaps they would even become indignant at my presumption in asking them, and
call them childish; nevertheless these men can not satisfy their own cravings in
attempting to search the illimitable, and in humiliation, or irritation, they
must ignore the word Why. That word Why to man dominates the universe. It covers
all phenomena, and thrusts inquiry back from every depth. Science may trace a
line of thought into the infinitely little, down, down, beyond that which is
tangible, and at last in that far distant inter-microscopical infinity,
monstrous by reason of its very minuteness, must rest its labors against the
word, Why. Man may carry his superficial investigation into the immeasurably
great, beyond our sun and his family of satellites, into the outer depths of the
solar system, of which our sun is a part, past his sister stars, and out again
into the depths of the cold space channels beyond; into other systems and out
again, until at last the nebuloe shrink and disappear in the gloom of
thought-conjecture, and as the straggling ray of light from those farthermost
outreaches, too feeble to tell of its origin, or carry a story of nativity,
enters his eye, be covers his face and rests his intellect against the word Why.
From the remote space caverns of the human intellect, beyond the field of
perception, whether we appeal to conceptions of the unknowable in the infinitely
little, or the immeasurably great, we meet a circle of adamant, as impenetrable
as the frozen cliffs of the Antarctic, that incomprehensible word-Why!
" Why did the light wave spring into his field of perception by reflection
from the microscopic speck in the depths of littleness, on the one hand; and how
did this sliver of the sun's ray originate in the depths of inter-stellar space,
on the other?"
I bowed my head.