CHAPTER XLVIII.
WHY AND HOW.--"THE STRUGGLING RAY OF LIGHT FROM THOSE FARTHERMOST OUTREACHES."
"Confronting mankind there stands a sphinx--the vast Unknown. Howeverwell a man may be informed concerning a special subject, his farthermostoutlook concerning that subject is bounded by an impenetrable infinity."
"Granted," I interrupted, "that mankind has not by any means attained acondition of perfection, yet you must admit that questions once regardedas inscrutable problems are now illuminated by the discoveries ofscience."
"And the 'discovered,' as I will show, has only transferred ignorance toother places," he replied. "Science has confined its labors tosuperficial descriptions, not the elucidation of the fundamental causesof 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 herdescriptive discoveries, and as carefully ignores her explanatoryfailures. She dare not attempt to explain the why even of the simplestthings. Why does the robin hop, and the snipe walk? Do not tell me thisis beneath the notice of men of science, for science claims that nosubject is outside her realm. Search your works on natural history andsee if your man of science, who describes the habits of these birds,explains the reason for this evident fact. How does the tree-frog changeits color? Do not answer me in the usual superficial manner concerningthe reflection of light, but tell me why the skin of that creature isenabled to perform this function? How does the maple-tree secrete asweet, wholesome sap, and deadly nightshade, growing in the same soiland living on the same elements, a poison? What is it that yourscientific men find in the cells of root, or rootlet, to indicate thatone may produce a food, and the other a noxious secretion that candestroy life? Your microscopist will discuss cell tissues learnedly,will speak fluently of physiological structure, will describe organicintercellular appearances, but ignore all that lies beyond. Why does thenerve in the tongue respond to a sensation, and produce on the mind thesense of taste? What is it that enables the nerve in the nose to performits discriminative function? You do not answer. Silver is sonorous, leadis not; why these intrinsic differences? Aluminum is a light metal, golda heavy one; what reason can you offer to explain the facts other thanthe inadequate term density? Mercury at ordinary temperature is aliquid; can your scientist tell why it is not a solid? Of course anyonecan say because its molecules move freely on each other. Such an answerevades the issue; why do they so readily exert this action? Copperproduces green or blue salts; nickel produces green salts; have you everbeen told why they observe these rules? Water solidifies at aboutthirty-two degrees above your so-called zero; have you ever asked anexplanation of your scientific authority why it selects thattemperature? Alcohol dissolves resins, water dissolves gums; have youany 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 whythis is so? The albumen of the egg of the hen hardens at one hundred andeighty degrees Fahrenheit; the albumen of the eggs of some turtles cannot be easily coagulated by boiling the egg in pure water; why thesedifferences? Iceland spar and dog-tooth spar are identical, both arecrystallized carbonate of lime; has your mineralogist explained why thisone substance selects these different forms of crystallization, or whyany crystal of any substance is ever produced? Why is common salt whiteand charcoal black? Why does the dog lap and the calf drink? One childhas black hair, another brown, a third red; why? Search your physiologyfor the answer and see if your learned authority can tell you why thelife-current makes these distinctions? Why do the cells of the liversecrete bile, and those of the mouth saliva? Why does any cell secreteanything? A parrot can speak; what has your anatomist found in thestructure of the brain, tongue, or larynx of that bird to explain whythis accomplishment is not as much the birthright of the turkey? Theelements that form morphine and strychnine, also make bread, one a food,the other a poison; can your chemist offer any reason for the fact thatmorphine and bread possess such opposite characters? The earth has onesatellite, Saturn is encompassed by a ring; it is not sufficient toattempt to refer to these familiar facts; tell me, does your earth-boundastronomer explain why the ring of Saturn was selected for that planet?Why are the salts of aluminum astringent, the salts of magnesiumcathartic, and the salts of arsenicum deadly poison? Ask yourtoxicologist, and silence will be your answer. Why will some substancesabsorb moisture from the air, and liquefy, while others become as dry asdust under like conditions? Why does the vapor of sulphuric etherinflame, while the vapor of chloroform is not combustible, underordinary conditions? Oil of turpentine, oil of lemon, and oil ofbergamot 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 explainonly to shove the word why into another space, as ripples play with andtoss a cork about. Why does the newly-born babe cry for food before itsintellect has a chance for worldly education? Why--"
"Stop," I interrupted; "these questions are absurd."
"So some of your scientific experts would assert," he replied; "perhapsthey would even become indignant at my presumption in asking them, andcall them childish; nevertheless these men can not satisfy their owncravings in attempting to search the illimitable, and in humiliation, orirritation, they must ignore the word Why. That word Why to mandominates the universe. It covers all phenomena, and thrusts inquiryback from every depth. Science may trace a line of thought into theinfinitely little, down, down, beyond that which is tangible, and atlast in that far distant inter-microscopical infinity, monstrous byreason of its very minuteness, must rest its labors against the wordWhy. Man may carry his superficial investigation into the immeasurablygreat, beyond our sun and his family of satellites, into the outerdepths of the solar system, of which our sun is a part, past his sisterstars, and out again into the depths of the cold space channels beyond;into other systems and out again, until at last the nebulae shrink anddisappear in the gloom of thought-conjecture, and as the straggling rayof light from those farthermost outreaches, too feeble to tell of itsorigin, or carry a story of nativity, enters his eye, he covers his faceand rests his intellect against the word Why. From the remote spacecaverns of the human intellect, beyond the field of perception, whetherwe appeal to conceptions of the unknowable in the infinitely little, orthe immeasurably great, we meet a circle of adamant, as impenetrable asthe frozen cliffs of the Antarctic, that incomprehensible word--Why!
"Why did the light wave spring into his field of perception byreflection from the microscopic speck in the depths of littleness, onthe one hand; and how did this sliver of the sun's ray originate in thedepths of inter-stellar space, on the other?"
I bowed my head.
DESCRIPTION OF JOURNEY FROM K. [KENTUCKY] TO P.--"THE ENDOF EARTH."]