Common Sense: Its Reliableness

COMMON SENSE— ITS RELIABLENESS, BY JAMES X. ALLEN, M. D. The phrase, common sense, has been, and is today, used to convey so many different ideas, that it would be almost impossible to use it in such a way that it would not agree with some of the prominent writers or speakers of past times; while at the same time it would be at variance from the definitions of some other prominent writer or speaker. I will not detain the reader by a reiteration of the many prominent writers and their special definitions of the phrase in question, but will eliminate from the catalogue all but the one best adapted to the purpose in hand. By common sense I mean the common understanding or the common judgment of the majority of the common people. One writer has said that common sense not preceded by metaphysical sense, is not an enviable possession. We of today think that the common sense of the world for untold centuries was anything but a desirable possession. And yet, this almost universal common sense was created and maintained by the most expert metaphysicians. For instance, the treatment of such mental disorders as melancholy, hysteria, and the milder form's of insanity, in Europe, was absurd, cruel and grossly wicked. These mental disorders were looked upon as the result of sin, and the possession by the patient by a devil or devils, and was treated in the most horrible manner. To be afflicted with any mental disorder, and reported to the authorities, was to be turned over to the sheriffs, tied to the whipping post, and not unfrequently imprisoned in a damp cell; and, in not a few cases, burnt alive at the stake. The best and truest of both men and women would betray such cases to-

COMMON SENSE— ITS RELIABLENESS. 457 the authorities; the best and most kindly-disposed judges would condemn such patients to the most horrible inhumanities; not because the informers or the judges were unfeeling, but because their common sense and the law told them that such practices were both lawful and right. Metaphysics did not help them very much. Our treatment of such patients is sympathy and kindness. The author of The War Between Science and Theology says: 'The majority of the fathers doubted the possibility of salvation to such as believed that the opposite side of the earth was inhabited." The same author quotes St. Augustine as saying, "Men could not be allowed by the Almighty to live on the opposite side of the earth, since, if they did, they could not see Christ at his coming."* St. Augustine was certainly a great metaphysician, and is also credited, even today, with a goodly share of common sense; but the common sense of the world of his day was a very different thing from the common sense of the twentieth century. The same author also further states that Cecco de Arsol was burnt alive at Florence for stating his belief that the opposite side of the earth was inhabited. And after Magellan had sailed around the world, the metaphysicians, and the great majority of the people, could not or would not see the point of their error. So much for metaphysical sense, and so much for common sense. Even as late as the time of Martin Luther, the metaphysical sense was greatly at fault. Listen to a passage from the greatest metaphysician of his day, Martin Luther: People give ear to an upstart (Copernicus) astrologer, who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun, and the moon. Whoever wishes to appear clever must devise some system, which of all systems is the best. This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but the sacred scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth. Common sense varies with the education and enlightenment * In past ages the priests professed to be experts in demonology ; and I have no doubt about their knowing something about it.

458 ' IMPROVEMENT ERA. of the masses, in different localities, and at different periods of time. COMMON SENSE IN DIFFERENT AGES. For instance, in the early Christian era, common sense said the earth was flat; that it was oblong— twice as long as it was broad; that it was higher at the north than at the south; that the firmament rested on the mountains that encompassed it. Lactantius, in the early part of the fourth century, in his Divine Institutes, makes these remarks: "About the antipodes one can neither hear nor speak without laughter. It is asserted that we should believe that men have their feet towards ours. Is there anyone so senseless as to believe that there are men with feet higher than their heads, or that crops and trees grow downward?" While this writer was a gentleman and a scholar, his judgment and understanding was the common sense of the world at large, with the exception of a few Greek scholars. What was common sense in the fourth century is, in respect to the form of the earth, nonsense in the twentieth century. In the fifth century, St. Augustine said: "But as to the fable that there are antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it sets on us — men who walk with their feet toward us — that is on no account to be believed." Although a very good man and a scholar, yet his judgment in scientific matters was that of the average common people, as well as the most intellectual of his day and generation. The twentieth century will have none of it. When the Greek philosophers, "in the fifth century before Christ, declared that the earth was a sphere, they shocked the sensitive minds of all Europe and Asia; they offered an insult to the common sense of the whole human family— kings, princes, priests, literati, as well as to that of the common people. All parties combatted the theory, and all people, with one accord, united in resenting the insult offered to their common sense. We have a memorable example of scientific sense intruding itself into the company of the world of common sense people in Dr. Wm. Harvey, in King James the First's time. When Dr. Harvey declared to the medical world that the blood left the heart by way of the ar-

COMMON SENSE-ITS RELIABLENESS. 459 teries and returned to that organ through the veins; that the blood did not ebb and flow, as do the tides, but that there was a perfect and persisting circulation, that ceased not so long as life lasted, the statement was taken by many of his learned medical brothers as an impeachment of their intelligence and common sense. Even after the doctor's demise, there were many who regarded the new discovery as a great hoax, very much as many men, who ought to have acted differently, heard with disgust the doctrine of evolution, as enunciated by Darwin, and generally misunderstood. In the days of Dr. Harvey, anatomy was but indifferently understood. Science knew nothing of the great capillary system, and of countless numbers of corpuscles and cells which have occupied so much time and patience of microscopists up to the present time. Dr. Harvey was a man of scientific turn of mind. Observation and experimentation were his chief authorities. He turned aside from the path of the then common sense, in order that he might lift it up; and the scientific sense of Harvey has become the common sense of the present century. We have another specimen of the evolution of common sense in the unsophsiticated son of a common coal miner, George Stephenson. George, though innocent of education, or of scientific training, by metaphysical reasoning and experimentation, gave to the world steam locomotion. When in the House of Lords, seeking a permit to build and operate a line of steam railroad, he made the statement that he could construct an engine that would draw a train of wagons at the rate of as much as twelve miles an hour. This assertion was too much at variance with the common sense of the times, so much so, that one of the lords remarked, ' 'Suppose, Mr. Stephenson, that when you are traveling at such unheard-of speed, with such an enormous load, there should happen to be a cow in the way; what then, Mr. Stephenson, what then?" Common sense was startled by the apparently absurd declaration. "Bad for the cow, my lord," was the hesitating answer of the genius of his day. But on passing from the building the question was asked him by the friend who had introduced him to that august assembly, "Mr. Stephenson, do you really think that it is possible to travel with such an enormous load at the rate of speed you named?" Mr. Stephenson told him that he had not the least

460 IMPROVEMENT ERA. doubt but that he could construct an engine that would draw such a load, not only twelve miles an hour, but that it was possible to travel sixty miles an hour. The friend replied, "Why didn't you tell their lordships so?" Mr. Stephenson's answer was, "Why, bless you, man, when I told them that I could go twelve miles, they thought I was crazy. Had I said sixty, they would have had me in the insane asylum tonight." The prophetic foresight of Mr. Stephenson, wonderful as it was, has been more than fulfilled in this age of invention and graft. A believer in inspiration will find no difficulty in placing George Stephenson's name among the greatest inspired benefactors of his race. There can be no question about the evolution of common sense since the days of the father of rapid steam railroad locomotion. COMMON SENSE AND THE COSMOS. What wonderful changes have taken place in the minds of all people with regard to the universe! Common sense on this subject has turned completely topsy-turvy. Some one has said that "love is blind," and surely common sense or understanding has been equally faulty with regard to the cosmos. But as time and experience bring clearer vision to the tender passion, in like manner has observation, and the accumulated experiences during the centuries, worked a marvelous change in the minds and understandings of succeeding generations. For many thousands of years the earth was supposed to be flat, an oblong plain, but now it is known to be a globe. For thousands of years it was supposed to be the oldest, as well as the chief of all worlds around which the sun, moon and all the planets revolved; in fact, the rest of creation existed for our exclusive advantage and pleasure; at least, so said the common sense of those infantile days. The awakening to the real state of the matter has been slow but sure. The magnitude of the stellar worlds! Anaximander (600 B. C.) taught that the sun was equal in size to the earth. So also taught the great Pythagoras. Common sense, in the twelfth century, says that the sun is fourteen thousand times that of our mother earth. A witness in any court of law who should prove as far from the real state of a case as

COMMON SENSE— ITS RELIABLENESS. 461 is attributed to these Greek philosophers, would not be considered a first-class witness. Another Greek philosopher, Diogenes Laertius, besides teaching that the earth was a globe, and the center of the universe, was sure "that it was as large as the sun." He was right about the "sphere," but sadly out about the "center of the universe," and "as large as the sun." Eudoxus (370 B. C.) taught that the diameter of the sun was nine times that of the moon. The common understanding of our day, and it is not a guess nor a supposition, but a mathematical, demonstrated fact, is that the diameter of the orb of day is 400 times that of the moon. DISTANCE OF THE SUN AND MOON FROM THE EARTH. I have read somewhere that the ancients considered the moon to be about nine miles distant from the earth. What a vast difference between nine miles and 240,000 miles; the latter is now taken to be her average distance from us. Again, Pythagoras taught (in public, but it is said differently in private) that the sun was three or four times as far from the earth as is the moon; we now know it to be not less that 380 times the distance of the moon from the earth. It is evident that common sense is a very fickle thing, very unstable and, consequently, not a very reliable witness in any disputation. I remember reading that the great Sir Isaac Newton, or was it Copernicus? should have ventured the suggestion that the sun "may be as much as 5,000,000 miles distant from the earth," and that other astronomers thought that he exaggerated. Such was the common sense a few years back; now common sense says that the sun is over seventeen times as far away as the great Newton's or Copernicus' wildest imagination placed it from the earth on which we dwell. MAKING SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING. Tertulian, in the second century A. D., wrote: "There is one God who made the earth in six days out of nothing." We now take it for granted that an equation with a positive quantity on one side, and a zero on the other, is an absurdity. Nothing comes from nothing, and even the Creator himself can make nothing out

462 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of nothing but nothing! How common sense must blush when she views her picture, as painted in the different ages through which her changing character has passed! COMMON SENSE IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. What is common sense in one part of the world may be, and very often is, the veriest nonsense in another part of the world: For instance, the Eskimo in Labrador, dressed in his fur and dwelling in his ice-built hovel, should you tell him that you had seen whole tribes of people who live under the shade of trees, and wore no clothing save a breech cloth; that they subsisted mainly on fruit; that they eat very little meat, and cannot eat fats, etc.; why the Eskimo would think that you were trying to make sport of him, and no doubt, would tell you to talk sense and he would listen to you. ''Why, a man could not exist without clothing; he would be frozen stiff, and as to living on fruit, and not eating fat, such talk is absurd. What is the matter with you? Are you crazy?" On the other hand, you tell a company of south sea islanders that you have been among people who dwell in houses built of blocks of water; that they dress in the warmest kind of furs, and relish a meal of tallow; what do you suppose they would think of you? I am sure I do not know what they would say, but whatever it should be, it would not be pleasant to listen to. The common sense of a people is formed by their teachings, in part, but by their experiences, in the main. Kingdon Clifford once said: "A man knows nothing outside of his experience." The experiences of the south sea islander and that of the Eskimo differ so greatly that what is common sense with one is an absurdity with the other. I will not multiply examples, as numerous ones will occur to most of you. But I may mention one more, as related by Sir Walter Scott: In his Kenilworth, wherein an armored knight, traveling alone on his big war horse in the east, was attacked by an Arab, a single horseman on his wonderful, swift steed. The well-armored knight, astride his powerful Normandy horse, which was equally well protected with his rider, saw, in the distance, a mere speck which rapidly grew larger as it approached. Very soon an Arab was circling around him, and the

COMMON SENSE— ITS RELIABLENESS. 463 knight was literally being peppered with flying arrows. Not conceiving any means of coming in close contact with this uncivil stranger, the knight conceived the idea of acting as if he were wounded. He slid from his horse, when at once the Arab was upon him with a drawn dagger. But before the weapon could be used, the knight seized the belt of his enemy, expecting thereby to have him in his power. But lo and behold, the Arab pressed a button in his belt, and was free in an instant. The two, finding that they could neither one get the better of the other, agreed to be friends, and travel together. Accordingly, they rode side by side, when the conversation turned on the country whence the knight came. The knight told of his cold, northern home; of rivers frozen so hard that heavily laden teams would cross, year even whole troops of cavalry, many men and horses abreast, would march dry-shod over them. The Arab professed incredulity by informing his companion that it would be impossible for them to travel further in company, if such unheard of and impossible stories were to be indulged in. So, of course, the knight was compelled to cease his talk about his northern home. Subsequently, this same knight, in company with his commander, Richard the Lionhearted, had occasion to visit at the Sultan's court, and to the knight's astonishment, he discovered that his uncivil acquaintance of former days was none other than the great commander of "the faithful." Now comes the point that I wish you to notice: The knight expressed his surprise at the Sultan's former conduct in professing not to believe the story about troops passing over rivers, dry-shod, etc., as, being a prince, he must be familiar with geography, and the extreme cold of the northern countries. The Sultan's answer was, "I was then playing the part of a common emir, and it would have been inconsistent, while acting such a part, to display the education of a prince. " The knight's recital would naturally have insulted the common sense of a common Turk. APPEALS TO COMMON SENSE ARE OFTEN APPEALS TO PREJUDICE. For instance, when the chief priests in council said of Jesus: "If we let this man alone, all men will believe on him, and the

464 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Roman shall come and take away both our place and nation." The Jews were jealous for the "holy of holies;" they were jealous for their nation, and the priests and Pharisees knowing it, made a pretense of appealing to their common sense, while they knew that said appeal was made solely to their ignorant prejudice. Their cunning falsity resulted in the cruel sacrifice of God's best beloved Son, while it only hastened the thing which they most dreaded, the destruction of their temple and city. They have ceased to be a nation, but, thank God, they are not without hope of re-establishment. It is known by all men that the priests and Pharisees of our God-given Nation have frequently met in council and concocted appeals to the common sense of the multitude equally misleading, and eqally false, with those made by the enemies of the Master: They have addressed themselves to the prejudices of the common people. Some time ago in the East, the hue and cry was: "The 'Mormons' are filling up the West, spreading throughout all of the surrounding states and territories, and if we do not put them down, they will soon hold the balance of power, and then what will become of the nation?" Have these false appeals accomplished anything? Yes; like that of the Jewish priests, they have accomplished the death and suffering of many honest souls, but they have not deprived the Church of God's love and care. The priests and Pharisees of both sects are today making a great hue and cry: "Turn Smoot out of Congress, or else the American home is lost." This appeal to the common sense of the people is like that concocted in Jerusalem; it is addressed solely to the prejudiced and the ignorant, and to supposed interests of those who make the spreading of their dogmas a trade. They are jealous of the "Mormon" economy. "Turn out Smoot, and save the American home." Has Congress any more honest, virtuous, energetic, any more exemplary, man, in its august body? All people who know Senator Smoot respect him, and those who know him best love him most. It is not Senator Smoot that is the bugbear, it is "Mormon" economy. The rest of the churches have to buy their ministry or have none! The "Mormon" Church has nearly two thousand active workers in foreign states and na-