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same extent as this weight of opium. If a physicist were informed of this fact,
and had not discovered it by experiment, he would say, `This is impossible;
the proof of its impossibility is that the opium contains the elements of fire and
air, and these elements do not increase cold; even supposing it was entirely
composed of water and earth, that would not necessitate this extreme
freezing action, much less does it do so when the two hot elements are joined
with them.‟ He supposes that this is a proof!
Most of the philosophers‟ proofs in natural science and theology are
constructed in this fashion. They conceive of things according to the measure
of their observations and reasoning. What they are unfamiliar with they
suppose impossible. If it were not that veridical vision in sleep is familiar,
when someone claimed to gain knowledge of the unseen while his senses
were at rest, men with such intellects would deny it. If you said to one, `Is it
possible for there to be in the world a thing, the size of a grain, which if placed
in a town, will consume that town in its entirety and then consume itself, so
that nothing is left of the town and what it contained nor of the thing itself‟?; he
would say, `This is absurd; it is an old wives‟ tale‟. Yet this is the case with
fire, although, when he heard it, someone who had no acquaintance with fire
and had not discovered it by experiment, he would say, `This is impossible;
the proof of its impossibility is that the opium contains the elements of fire and
air, and these elements do not increase cold; even supposing it was entirely
composed of water and earth, that would not necessitate this extreme
freezing action, much less does it do so when the two hot elements are joined
with them.‟ He supposes that this is a proof!
Most of the philosophers‟ proofs in natural science and theology are
constructed in this fashion. They conceive of things according to the measure
of their observations and reasoning. What they are unfamiliar with they
suppose impossible. If it were not that veridical vision in sleep is familiar,
when someone claimed to gain knowledge of the unseen while his senses
were at rest, men with such intellects would deny it. If you said to one, `Is it
possible for there to be in the world a thing, the size of a grain, which if placed
in a town, will consume that town in its entirety and then consume itself, so
that nothing is left of the town and what it contained nor of the thing itself‟?; he
would say, `This is absurd; it is an old wives‟ tale‟. Yet this is the case with
fire, although, when he heard it, someone who had no acquaintance with fire