nd
for the sake of their own happiness, concern themselves with and care for
the poor. This equality is the result of the lofty characteristics and
noble attributes of mankind.

THE CRITERIONS OF TRUTH

During my visit to London and Paris last year(7) I had many talks with the
materialistic philosophers of Europe. The basis of all their conclusions
is that the acquisition of knowledge of phenomena is according to a fixed,
invariable law,--a law mathematically exact in its operation through the
senses. For instance, the eye sees a chair; therefore there is no doubt of
the chair's existence. The eye looks up into the heavens and beholds the
sun; I see flowers upon this table; I smell their fragrance; I hear sounds
outside, etc., etc. This, they say, is a fixed mathematical law of
perception and deduction, the operation of which admits of no doubt
whatever; for inasmuch as the universe is subject to our sensing, the
proof is self-evident that our knowledge of it must be gained through the
avenues of the senses. That is to say, the materialists announce that the
criterion and standard of human knowledge is sense perception. Among the
Greeks and Romans the criterion of knowledge was reason; that whatever is
provable and acceptable by reason must necessarily be admitted as true. A
third standard or criterion is the opinion held by theologians that
traditions or prophetic statement and interpretations constitute the basis
of human knowing. There is still another, a fourth criterion upheld by
religionists and metaphysicians who say that the source and channel of all
human penetration into the unknown is through inspiration. Briefly then,
these four criterions according to the declarations of men are:
First--Sense Perception; Second--Reason; Third--Traditions;
Fourth--Inspiration.

In Europe I told the philosophers and scientists of materialism that the
criterion of the senses is not reliable. For instance, consider a mirror
and the images reflected in it. These images have no actual corporeal
existence. Yet if you had never seen a mirror you would firmly insist and
believe that they were real. The eye sees a mirage upon the desert as a
lake of water but there is no reality in it. As we stand upon the deck of
a steamer the shore appears to be moving, yet we know the land is
stationary and we are moving. The earth was believed to be fixed and the
sun revolving about it but although this appears to be so, the reverse i