How Knowledge Comes

IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XL MAY, 1908. No. 7 HOW KNOWLEDGE COMES. BY FRANK L. WEST, B. S., PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OF UTAH. [Mr. West, the author, who read the following faith- strengthening paper at a recent convention of the M. I. A. of Cache stake, graduated some years ago at the Utah Agricultural College, and has studied in several of the leading American universities. He is one of the best physicists in the state. The study of science does not seem to have interfered with his religious faith at all.— Editors.] We believe in the existence of a personal God. We believe that he is interested in us. We believe that he will answer pray- ers and will give us aid with his Holy Spirit, when we are in the proper condition. We know of this, not because we have seen him or heard his voice, but because of the operation of the intellect upon nature^ because of the written testimony of those who have seen him, and lastly, because his Holy Spirit has borne witness to our hearts that it is a fact. Of the means by which we know everything that is without us, viz., 1st, the testimony of the senses, sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling; and 2nd, the testimony of the intellect and the heart, we rely wholly upon the latter for our knowledge of these

490 IMPROVEMENT ERA. facts. Because we believe in that which we have not seen and heard, we are sometimes looked upon as simple-minded, credulous? superstitious, and anything else that stands for a low order of intellect. I shall try to show that this is a mistake, a false atti- tude, and that the facts first stated are natural and extremely reasonable, that we need not lower our claims on scholarship for accepting testimony of this sort. For those who lay such emphasis upon the testimony of the senses, who believe in nothing that they cannot see or hear or feel, I should like to mention some facts. A group of blind men, so we are told, had heard of the ele- phant and went to determine what he was like by feeling of him. Some said that he was a wall, others a tree, and still others that he was a great fan (the last got hold of his ear) The sense of. touch is not so very valuable in the acquisition of truth, in deter- mining the nature of what exists without us. Pieces of steel and wood, in the summer time, though they be equally hot, the sense of touch says the steel is hotter. In the winter time, when both are equally cold, the sense of touch records the steel as colder. If one hand be cold, being in some ice water, and the other warm, being in hot water, and both be thrust in water luke-warm, the one will record it as hot and the other as cold, and both are in the same water. The sensations are so widely different that my statement cannot be appreciated without actually trying this. How reliable are our senses? Sight, unaided by the intellect, says that men and objects diminish in size as they recede from the observer, and increase in size as they approach. me bring to your attention the phenomenon called in T.pt science mirage. On barren deserts, frequently villages and towns with their houses and churches and barns are distinctly seen. Water always appears on the horizon. On the sea, when none are near, ships are often seen sailing by. These sights are images of towns and ships probably hundreds of miles away. By combina- tion of lenses and screens and mirrors, headless men and other weird sights can be projected into space. All of these resemble the real, just as much as any image in an expensive miiror

HOW KNOWLEDGE COMES. 491 resembles the object. How reliable is this one of our senses, for testifying as to what is real? We claim the existence of God, and yet know him not through these senses. We claim in science the existence of many things that cannot be seen or heard . No one claims to be learned in chemistry, physics or astro-physics, who dees not believe in the existence of the molecule, the atom, and the electron. The elect- ron is less than two one thousandths the size of the molecule, and yet if a drop of water were magnified until it were the size of the earth, the molecules would only be about the size of base balls. We know of their size to within four or five per cent of accuracy. We ascribe space relations and methods of linkage to the atoms that make up the molecules, and yet no one ever saw a molecule or an atom, or an electron. As we are now constituted, we never shall, for a lens strong enough to make them visible would be so thick as to be opaque, and so heavy that its thin edges could not support its weight. The molecules are less than one half wave length of light in diameter, hence, wouldn't reflect the light or be seen even if we had the lens. As I am talking, you cannot detect a movement of the air particles in the space of the room. By your senses, sight, smell- ing, feeling, tasting, can you detect that with every word I utter, and every change in. tone of voice that the little air particles are changing from an oscillation at one rate to an oscillation at another rate, and yet science states the curve along which every air particle is traveling for every particular sound that is going by it. When the air pump has removed all the gases from a vessel, science tells us that it still contains something which it has named ether. It is the substance that exists between us and the sun and interstellar space. Of its nature. Dr. Gage in his work on physics says: "We cannot see, hear, feel, taste, smell, exhaust, weigh, or measure it, and yet all this, paradoxical as it may seem, furnishes absolutely no evidence that it does not exist." Lord Kelvin, late president of the Royal Society, in his address at Johns Hopkins University, said, "In its structure the ether is assumed to be ex- cessively fine-grained. Differing from water, glass, and metals.

492 IMPROVEMENT ERA. in being very much more finely grained in its structure. Instead of saying we know nothing about it, I say we know more about it than we do about air or water, or glass or iron — it is far simpler, there is far less to know. Its natural history is far simpler than that of any other body." Dr. Gage says that the fact that it is not known by means of the senses furnishes absolutely no evidence that it does not exist. Then the fact that God is not known by the senses furnishes absolutely no evidence that he does not exist. We probably have all felt that there is something unnatural, unreal, impossible about spiritual things and impressions. In that connection let us notice the mechanism of light, sound, and elec- trical impressions, their initial cause and method of transference. They all three originate in an initial movement, a vibration of an object; such as a bell or a string for the sound, and an oscillation of the smallest of particles, the electron, for the other two. The sound disturbance is transferred to the ear by the solids and gases that are in between them. The light and the electrical one by the ether, already mentioned in this talk, to the eye and to the receiving apparatus of the wireless telegraphy. In all three we have a disturbance , a connecting medium, and a receiving apparatus. The ether exists throughout all space. We, as delicately organized beings, could take up an ether wave of slightly different frequency, radiating from the presence of God and sense and interrupt it. Transference of intelligence from God to man need be no more mysterious than light propagation to do what we know it does, for the colored band of light known as the spectrum or the rainbow commences at one end at the violet, and ends at the other with the red. We see nothing beyond each end, but it projects its length on each end, as delicate instruments show, but the eye cannot detect it. What is beyond the red dif- fers from the red only as the red differs from the yellow or orange. The eye can recognize the presence of disturbances of certain rates. When the pitch of the tone is too high or low the ear won't recognize or hear it. A sensitive flame shows that the medium has transferred to the ear the motion, but the ear is not tuned for it. The singing mice at the World's Fair were heard only by the few with ears sensitive for very high tones. No doubt

HOW KNOWLEDGE COMES. 493 many insects are producing all sorts of sounds that we don't hear. Some have claimed to be able to hear them The receiving telegraph instrument has to be properly tuned in its oscillations to detect the presence of the electrical wave. The eye and ear can detect only vibrations of a certain rate. So we must tune our spiritual natures so that we may receive spiritual impressions, and be susceptible to their influence . Only certain ears heard the mice and the insects, diflferent persons can see different amounts of the spectrum or rainbow; so in religious gather- ings and temples, some have seen heavenly visitors, and others pres- ent have seen nothing extraordinary. So in religious gatherings, everyone partakes of the Holy Spirit, there to a different degree from everyone else. We shall in no wise lower our claims to scholarship by grant- ing that God lives. Our religion is natural and rational. It is to our advantage to live God's commands, to be pure in heart, so that we may be tuned and in accord with his Holy Spirit and thereby receive his assistance. Logan. Utah.