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The Open Court of Inquiry. THE EDITOR . Physical and Intellectual Perception. “You claim that you assume nothing in your new Cosmogony. How about those mercurial discs in the earth’s shell? Have you ever seen them? Also, if the earth is a concave shell (which of course it is not), how do you know but what there are thousands of others outside just like it? Have you ever seen the dark side of the sun ? ” Intheo ld schoo ls of thought , an hypo th es is is cons id ered a s d e m o n stratedandestab lis hed if after it is put for th , it appears to exp la in fa c ts more comp le te ly thanotherhypo th eses . O n suchaba sis, theKoreshanCosmogony muststandpre - em in en t, because it fu lly explains all k n o w n fa c ts an d p h e nomena , so lv es all p ro b le ms , andre vea ls all mystery . Butun li keother schoo ls, it beginswithdemons tr at io n , an d la y s its foundationsecure ; and thentheeye ofreason se eseverything asc le a rly andunmistakablyasw ith thephys ic alv is io n . Knowledgeofa fe ws im p le princ i p le sand la wsofphysicsandkeys to the p ro cesses o f reasoning f r o m ana lo gy , brings to lightthestartling fa ctthatnoton ly have th eKoreshan sc ie n tis ts seenthed is csofmercury in theshe ll oftheearth , butthatm illio ns ofothershavea ls oseen them , anddo se ethemeverynight . The v isio n is notd ir ec t, as byrays of li g h t an d v is io nthroughas in g le medium ; but throughmany re fle c tio nsandrefrac ti onsoftransmittedsubs ta nces to and fro be tw eentheeyeandthed iscs. The d is csappear to be in thesky ; theyare ca lle dp la ne ts . We lo okaga in stspheres orp la nesofenergy in thephys ic al heavens , and see re fle c te d in themthe mercurialmirrors in th eearth ’s sh e ll. Bys im ila rp ro ce sse s, we see through theshe ll oftheearth in suchawayas to g iv ev ie ws fr omtheou ts id eof the mineralstrata of theshe ll. W e o b ta insuchav ie wthroughwhat is called themoon . Thev ie w is asac tu al as if theeye wTe re ou ts id e , withpower to penetratethe il lu m in ed in te r io r . W e are in amys ti cmaze ; it puzz le sthe astronomerandbew ild ersthe la yman . Butwhenonce th eprocessesof re fle c tio nareknown , andthepos itio nof the mirrorsa re de te rmined , wemayknow to acertainty whereandwhatthe thingsarethatwe se em to see. Wemayeven se eabso lu te ly andcer ta in ly throughtheeyeof re ason . The m in ddoesnotreach th emostsat is fac to rynorthemostcerta in c o n c lu s io nsthroughphys ic alpe rc ep tio n . The eyeofreason —t hat is, the in te lle c tu al percep tio n , is super io r to thephys ic al v is io n . Reason in gbyana lo gy , reach in gconc lu s io nsthroughtheapp lic a tio n ofthepr in c ip le sofcorrespondence , is theh ig hestandmostsa tis fac to ry fo rm of re ason in g . Wemaydemonstrateby athousandd if fe re ntprocessesthatthe fo rm of theun iv erse is ana lo gous to theformofman . Whenit is demon stratedthatsuch is tr ue , then to know thatthereared is csofmercury in the sh e ll of th eun iv erse , in the “ bowe ls of theearth , ” wehaveon ly to fin dthe ana lo gue in thephys ic alco sm o s, of the d ig es tiv e tr act in m an . Mercury is theon ly un iv ersalamalgamator , the on ly d ig es to roftheme ta llic andmin e ra le le men ts ofthephys ic alco sm o s. Throughra tio nalp ro ces se s, through in te ll ec tu alpercep tio n , themind may- see th esethingsc le a rly andabso lu te ly ; and it mayperce iv ethefurther fa ct thattheun iv erse in wh ic hwe liv e is the o n l y on e, fo rthewo rd un iv erse meansonesys te m of ex is te nce . B u t all th isrequirestheexerc is eofmeutal funct io ns , wh ic h se em to be in ac tiv eor at le astperverted in themodernm in d to theextentofcomp le te in te lle c tu al b lin dness . That is oneofthe re asons whythemassescannotnow s e e the thingsc le a rly re vea le d to th eKoreshan . tp BOUNDARIES OF MODERN IGNORANCE. Scientists Busily Mapping Out Things They Do not Comprehend. Vast as is that portion of the domain of knowledge which has yet to be explored, it is possible for the scientist to indicate at least the boundaries of human ignorance. Man’s ignorance today, so far as the sciences are concerned, is a very different kind of ignorance from that of the ancients. They were not only ignorant of the west ern hemisphere, but they were not even in a position to conceive that they were ignorant of it. Today, man can at least survey his own ignorance and map out, in a sense, its depth, width, and extent. Now that we know so much of the past history of the solar system, and in addi tion that our nearest neighbor is more than 200,000 times the distance to the sun, also that the whole system is itself moving in space at the rate of about 400 millions of miles a year, we yet need to know whether this motion is a drift or part of an orbit. At present no one knows. In the field of geology, again, the mineralogical relations and precedents among basalts, granites, and other rocks, as well as the physical conditions that determined composition, arrangement and distribution, remain to be determined. Volcanic phenomena are not at all well understood. The composition of the in terior of the earth is quite unknown. The old ideas of the nature of matter have all been abandoned, and we have come to the conclusion that matter is not inert but loaded with energy, that indeed the ether is saturated with it. The limi tations of human ignorance in physics suggests themselves in auother important respect. The nature of gravitation is as unknown as the nature of life itself. We know how it acts, and that this action is mil lions of tipies quicker than light, but that is all; and the one'who unravels the mystery will deserve to rank with the greatest of discoverers. In like degree we are ignorant of elec trical and magnetic phenomena which depend upon the ether. When the ether is understood we shall be able to under stand in a mechanical sense how moving a magnet disturbs every other magnet wherever it may be, why chemical com pounds are possible, why crystals assume geometric forms, and why cellular struc ture in plants and animals can embody what we call life. To discover the nature and mode of operation of this ether is the work of the twentieth century, and we may be sure that he who accomplishes this will deserve to rank with the highest; indeed it may fairly be said that in im portance it is not secondary to anything known, for it is apparently concerned in all phenomena from atoms to masses as big as the sun. In biology the nineteenth century made it apparent that all forms of vegetable and animal life of today are the product of slow changes in form and functions of living things reaching back millions of years. This we call evolution. But how
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 19, No. 21 · Oct 31, 1905 · PDF p. 12