Article November 26, 1904 Issue

Mental Corrections

M. G. KAINS.

To the Christian Scientist who has been a student of natural science, it is a matter of surpassing interest to note the statements of other physicists, as Truth compels them to discard theories formerly cherished, and accept more advanced views. Probably no recent utterance so strikingly illustrates this abandonment of whilom natural science tenets as does Mr. Balfour's speech delivered as President of the British Association and reported in full in the London Times of August 18. For instance, in explaining the basis of the natural sciences, he said,—

"In the order of logic, sense-perceptions supply the premises from which we draw all our knowledge of the physical world. It is they which tell us there is a physical world; it is on their authority that we learn its character. But in the order of causation they are effects due (in part) to the constitution of our organs of sense. What we see depends not merely on what there is to be seen, but on our eyes. What we hear depends not merely on what there is to hear, but on our ears.... And what is true of sense-perception is of course also true of the intellectual powers which enable us to erect upon the frail and narrow platform which sense-perception provides the proud fabric of the sciences."

In making these statements Mr. Balfour has not intended to overlook the important adjustments and corrections which have been made by reason in order to arrive at truth, for a little later he says,—

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