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 nebulae 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, he 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.
[Illustration: DESCRIPTION OF JOURNEY FROM K. [KENTUCKY] TO P.--"THE END
OF EARTH."]