Chapter 13, The Great x of the World, part 2

“We know that eating the flesh of certain uncleanly animals gives people certain diseases; we will say, for short, ‘I Am' does not intend the Hebrews to eat the flesh of those animals. We know that if people are dirty in their habits and careless in preparing their food and in washing their hands before they touch food, they get fevers; we will suppose that ‘I Am' does not intend the people of Isra¨l to be dirty in their habits. We know that if people burn things the smoke of which makes them drunk and silly, they manage their affairs badly, and make mistakes, and do not grow their crops properly, and are not ready to fight when enemies attack them. The people in neighbouring countries say that the Maker of things likes or dislikes to smell the smoke of these drugs; they know no more than we do what He likes to smell, but we are going to suppose that ‘I Am' does not like us to smell them.” The Hebrews never found out what “I Am” is; but those who stuck loyally by the hypotheses of Moses, and refused to be distracted from the matter in hand, or to talk about anything except the experiment which they were trying, found out several things that were very useful to them. For instance, about weather and the electricity of the atmosphere, and how to take care of their health, and how to use their imagination to supply them with working hypotheses for a variety of sciences, and how to use their dreams to show them where they had been making mistakes and spoiling their brains. Whereas the people who would insist on shouting and arguing and quarrelling about things which were only wild guesses got on very slowly with learning Science.