Chapter II A Verses 32—33
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More yet, all the instruments used have been tested and 
declared “true” on the evidence of those very eyes, distrust of 
which drove me to the research.
Modern Science has at last grown out of the very-young-man 
cocksureness of the 19th century. It is now admitted that axioms 
themselves depend on definitions, and that Intuitive Certainty is 
simply one trait of homo sapiens, like the ears of the ass or the 
slime of the slug. That we reason as we do merely proves that we 
cannot reason otherwise. We cannot move the upper jaw; it does 
not follow that the idea of motion is ridiculous. The limitation 
hints rather that there may be an infinite variety of structures 
which the jaw cannot imagine. The metric system is not the neces­
sary mode of measurement. It is the mark of a mind untrained to 
take its own processes as valid for all men, and its own judgments 
for absolute truth. Our two eyes see an object in two aspects, and 
present to our consciousness a third which agrees with neither, is 
indeed, strictly speaking, not sensible to sight, but to touch! Our 
senses declare some things at rest and others in motion; our rea­
son corrects the error, firstly by denying that anything can exist 
unless it is in motion, secondly by denying that absolute motion 
possesses any meaning at all.
At the time when this Book was written, official Science 
angrily scouted1 the “factor infinite & unknown”, and clung with 
pathetic faith to the idea that reason was the touchstone of truth. 
In a single sentence, Aiwaz anticipates the discoveries by which 
the greatest minds now incarnate have made the last ten years 
memorable.
1 [Rejected, scoffed at.]
33. Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog!
Commentary: This is the only way to deal with reason. 
Reason is like a woman; if you listen, you are lost; with a thick 
stick, you have some sort of sporting chance. Reason leads the 
philosopher to self-contradiction, the statesman to doctrinaire 
follies; it makes the warrior lay down his arms, and the lover