Chapter 10, The Story of a Working Hypothesis, part 1

In an old Hebrew book there is a story of a person named Jacob, which means the Supplanter. If you want to know why, you had better read the story for yourself some day. It is not entirely a pretty story, but it is very instructive. Jacob had a dream in which he saw “angels” coming down a ladder. It would be a very profitable exercise of your imagination to ask yourselves why this particular patriarch saw angels on a ladder, whereas so many other Hebrews saw them in clouds, or flying down on wings, or mixed up with flames and other romantic, pretty, moving things. Jacob had another dream, and saw an angel who wrestled with him, and apparently left him with sciatica for life; which is not surprising, for he had been sleeping out of doors on bare ground, just when he had been wrestling with very serious difficulties caused by his own dishonest tricks. At such times, as I told you before, people had better be a little extra careful not to catch cold; because colds caught under such conditions are rather prone to leave unpleasant traces, which last a long time, and sometimes all one's life. Well, the angel who gave Jacob sciatica gave him something else: a new name. Why did he give him a new name? Taking a new name was an ancient ceremony which meant entering a new service. Sixty years ago servants in Devonshire were called by their employer's name. A gardener would have two names—his own, which he got from his father, and his master's. I have even heard dogs called by their master's names, for instance, Toby Smith, or Ponto Jones. You will often notice in old books that when people were converted, that is to say, when they either took up a new religion or turned from bad ways to good ones, the people who persuaded them to be converted gave them a new name, very often the teacher's own name. Well, the angel who wrestled with Jacob appears to have converted him. He seems to have persuaded Jacob that there are other ways of getting on in the world and promoting the fortunes of one's children and grandchildren besides cheating everybody, including one's own nearest relations.