Part 17 (2/2)
Let us consider for a moment the discovery of the cause of lishman, Ross, in connection with birds, and to the Italian, Grassi, in connection withfound out that the plasmodium of malaria, which produces the malady, is inoculated in man and in the various animals subject to it, by a special kind of mosquito Let us inquire as the state of science prior to this discovery In 1880 Laveran had described an anianism, which preyed upon the red corpuscles of the blood, producing an attack of fever with the cycle of its existence
Subsequent studies confirmed and elucidated this fact, and the _plase It was known that anianisms, after a cycle of life in which reproduction takes place by scission--that is, by subdivision of a single body into several other bodies equal to the first, give place to _sexual forms_, masculine and feminine, which are separate, and incapable of scission, but are designed for _fusion into one another_, after which the organisain reaches the sexual forms
Laveran had found that in the blood of sufferers who recover spontaneously froreat nuer the rounded forms of the plasmodia, but are crescent-shaped and rayed He took these to be transformations of the plas disease,” and pronounced theanisms, almost as if they had been deformed and exhausted by the ”excess of work” they had previously perforenerative forms” After the discovery of the transenerative fornized as the sexual individuals of the reproductive cycle: individuals which were incapable of conjugation in the blood of anisms in the body of the nize those sexual foration in the plasanisms? If he had borne in nized theeneration of ination; and his leap from these remote theories to his interpretation of the plasenius” It eneralization, prevented Laveran froance_ and _levity_ is apparent in such errors
Moreover, we are astonished by so still more serious: how cahout the world accepted Laveran's error with their eyes shut, that not one a so many took into consideration on his own account the cycle of the protozoa, and that not one was sufficiently independent to set about studying the phenomenon for himself? What is this mental form of inertia? and why does it produce itself in man? All these disciples, heedless of the problem presented to their minds by the sexual forh it had not yet been solved, and certainly had no intuition of the faress in science, and the benefit to humanity which would have been the outcome, had the problem constituted an obstacle which had arrested their attention, saying: ”SolveLaveran's ”effort of genius,”
repeating with hienerate forms A futile effort, which only increased a crowd of persons who had resigned their own individuality all unconsciously
Another biological acquisition was the assurance that the circulatory system of the blood is a closed syste epitheliuetable microbes, and still less by rounded protozoa, which are er than microbes and soft in substance This well-known and clearly deested a problem to the minds of students: How do the protozoa of malaria enter the circulatory current of the blood? But ever since the days of Hippocrates, Pliny, Celsius and Galen it had been held that this fever was caused by the ”poisonous at and the evening, so much so that even a few years before the discovery of the real cause of malaria, eucalyptus trees were planted in the belief that they would filter and disinfect the air Hoas it that no one asked himself hoas possible that the plasmodia could enter the _current of the blood_ from the _air_? What was the species of torpor which took possession of the intelligence of persons who had specialized in intellectual work? Here was a colossal _suence, without any individuality
Until Ross discovered that birds are inoculated with malaria by a particular kind of mosquito
And then, behold! we have at last the funda forth: ”If birds are inoculated withument, which sped like an arrow to the final discovery
Nothing seeions good air and fertile soil were to be found, that it was possible to breathe that airas one was not bitten by mosquitoes, and that the innumerable peasants asted by malarial anemia would be saved and restored if they protected the But after the first stupefaction, when men were convinced of the facts, there was an outcry froent: Hoas it possible that we did not find it out before? Was not the cycle of the protozoa a well-known fact? Did not every one declare that the systeanis insect could innoculate it?
How lory had passed close to thee, like the disciples of Emmaus, who said to each other when the Master disappeared before they recognized Him: ”Did not our hearts burn within us when He spoke and expounded the Scriptures to us?”
Many ht: We worked so laboriously only to encu was needful: we should have been humble and simple, but independent Instead, we filled our souls with darkness, and the ray that would have made us see, could not penetrate to us
Let us take sorosser errors As far back as the days of the Greek civilization it was known empirically that ”stones can fall from the sky” Falls of aerolites are recorded in the es and in modern times intimations of the fall of aerolites have increased in frequency Remarkable facts are indeed recorded in history in connection with similar phenomena: the meteorite which fell in 1492 served the Emperor Maximilian I of Gerainst the Turks
Nevertheless, the phenohteenth century One of the largest raraical museum at Vienna This is what Stutz, a Gernorant of natural history may believe that iron has fallen from the sky, and even educatedinto account the universal ignorance then prevalent as to natural history and physics; but in our times it would be unpardonable to admit even the plausibility of such fables”
In the sarae nuned by three hundred witnesses, was sent to the Acade to receive a legal docu with such an absurdity” [7]
[Footnote 7: But a great physicist, unable to share _aiving credence to the babble of the vulgar in a protocol, and to see authentic testimonies to an occurrence which is obviously impossible”]
When, a few years later, Chladni of Wittenberg, the founder of scientific acoustics, began to admit the phenomenon and to believe in the existence of aerolites, he was stignorant of every law and who did not consider the da in the moral world”; and one savant declared that ”if he had himself seen iron fall from the sky at his own feet, he would not have believed it”
This was incredulity greater than that of St Thomas, who said: ”Unless I can touch I will not believe” Here were pieces of iron weighing ten and forty kilogrammes, which could be touched, but the savant said: ”Even if I touch theh _to see in order to believe_; we ht, not sight which produces faith When the blind ospel uttered the anxious cry: ”Make me to see,” he asked for ”faith,” because he knew that it is possible to have eyes and not to see
The fact of being insensible to evidence is little considered in psychology, ic laws And yet ical order, are notorious, as, for instance, that stimuli will appeal in vain to the senses, if the internal cooperation of attention be lacking A thousand experiences of this kind enter in to h that an object should be before our eyes to make us see it; it is necessary that we should fix our attention upon it; an internal process, preparing us to receive the impression of the stimulus, is essential
In a loftier and purely spiritual sphere so of the same kind takes place: an idea cannot enter triumphantly into the consciousness, if it is not acco this, it may knock violently and brutally, with cla able to penetrate It is necessary that the field of consciousness should be not only free, but ”expectant” He who is bewildered by a chaos of ideas cannot accept a truth which arrives unexpectedly in the unprepared field
This fact is not only analogous to other psychical facts of less importance, such as that of sensory perception in relation to attention; it is also analogous to the spiritual facts which are so well known in the field of religion In vain will a fact, however remarkable, be explained or even _demonstrated_ where there is no _faith_; it is not evidence but faith which opens the mind to truth
The very senses are useless as a medium if the internal activity does not open the doors to receive it When the ospel, the narrative always concludes with: ”And _many_ of those who saw, believed” The parable of the invitation to the feast, to which those ere absorbed in their own affairs could not respond, seems to indicate a fact similar to this intellectual fact, that the ”preoccupations” of co ideas prevent the new and obvious truth that presents itself, fro in It is for this reason that we need the Precursor to make ready for the Messiah And for this reason the Messiah, and also new ideas, are readily received by the ”simple,” by those who are not ”laden with heavy preoccupations,” but have preserved the natural characteristics of the spirit: to be pure and always ”expectant”