aged commercial traveler, a well-known agnostic, but a stranger to young Duncan, and a battle royal of argument on religion ensued.
The disciple of Taine and Voltaire was
getting the better of the discussion with the
young novice, when, leaping to his feet and
looking his adversary squarely in the eye,
Duncan said: "Sir, you are twice my age.
I will ask you on your honor as a gentleman
to answer me honestly this question:
Here I am a young man. I have grown up
in the Christian faith, and am happy in it.
Would you advise me to give it all up and
come over to where you stand, without God,
without faith, and without hope?" "No,
young man," said the old agnostic; "when
you put it that way, I can not advise you to
drop your religion and faith. Keep them
and be happy." Duncan retorted: "Don't
you see you are standing on a rotten bridge
that will break down, while I am standing
on a solid bridge? Your heart belies your
head, and you admit that your arguments
are empty words." (Text.)
(996)
Experience, The Test of—See Proof by Experience.
EXPERIENCE, VALUE OF
The president of the London Alpine Club
said no man was ever lost on the Alps who
had properly prepared himself and knew how
to ascend them, and when I quoted to him
the list of guides who had fallen into crevices
and been killed, he quoted back to me a certain
passage of Scripture wherein the fate
of blind guides and those they lead is set
forth in unmistakable terms. "Choose for
your guides," said he, "the hardy men who
have learned their business thoroughly; who
have been chamois-hunters from their youth;
who have lived on these mountains from
their birth, and to whom these snows and
these rocks and the clouds speak a language
which they can understand, and then accidents
are impossible." (Text.)—James T.
Fields.
(997)
Experience versus Theory—See Criticism.
EXPERIMENT
Our most valuable successes usually are achieved on the principle followed by this dog:
In his "Introduction to Comparative
Psychology" (1894), Dr. Lloyd Morgan told
the story of his dog's attempts to bring a
hooked walking-stick through a narrow gap
in a fence. The dog "tried" all possible
methods of pulling the stick through the
fence. Most of the attempts showed themselves
to be "errors." But the dog tried
again and again, until he finally succeeded.
He worked by the method of trial and error.
(Text.)
(998)
We doubt many theories that are recorded by others, but when we see them proved for ourselves we doubt no longer. A writer, after describing Franklin's first disappointment in investigating the action of oil on water, records his later experiments:
Franklin investigated the subject, and the
results of his experiments, made upon a
pond on Clapham Common, were communicated
to the Royal Society. He states
that, after dropping a little oil on the water,
"I saw it spread itself with surprizing swiftness
upon the surface, but the effect of
smoothing the waves was not produced; for
I had applied it first upon the leeward side
of the pond, where the waves were largest,
and the wind drove my oil back upon the
shore. I then went to the windward side,
where they began to form; and there the
oil, tho not more than a teaspoonful, produced
an instant calm over a space several
yards square, which spread amazingly, and
extended itself gradually till it reached the
lee side, making all that quarter of the pond
(perhaps half an acre) as smooth as a
looking-glass."
(999)
About all of the great enterprises of mankind are built on earlier experiments that seemed to fail. Hiram Maxim and S. P. Langley each spent laborious years constructing flying-machines that would not fly. Yet those who later succeeded made use of all the important devices that these earlier experimenters had invented.
Some years since it was seen that by
damming, controlling, and releasing the
waters of the Colorado River in southern
