They have lost their perspective. Great things to them are small and small things great. And of all men they are the most sure of themselves, most satisfied with their ability as seekers after truth. They know how to analyze, to examine critically, and to define scientifically. They are better satisfied with the minute study of a butterfly's wing than they are with a satisfactory theory of creation. It is indeed an endeavor and a delight with them as a side issue to weave theories of creation from the wing of a butterfly. Even though all creation might be pictured in the microcosm, it does not strike them that with their imperfect equipment in the way of previous knowledge and powers of observation it may not be possible for them to perceive it.
They are those who refuse to consider the factor of the unseen forces above or within nature, the real causes of phenomena, reasoning altogether from sense impressions, and they are as unsatisfactory in their conclusions as were those who accepted the rising and the setting of the sun as real facts instead of as apparent facts. The process of obtaining knowledge, it is true, is from sense impression, thence worked over into knowledges or related impressions, thence worked over into reasonings based upon knowl-
