with which he is surrounded. Before undertaking the study of any
thing, a man decides for what purpose he is studying this subject,
and not the others. But to study every thing, as the men of
scientific science in our day preach, without any idea of what is to
come out of such study, is downright impossible, because the number
of subjects of study is ENDLESS; and hence, no matter how many
branches we may acquire, their acquisition can possess no
significance or reason. And, therefore, in ancient times, down to
even a very recent date, until the appearance of scientific science,
man's highest wisdom consisted in finding that guiding thread,
according to which the knowledge of men should be classified as
being of primary or of secondary importance. And this knowledge,
which forms the guide to all other branches of knowledge, men have
always called science in the strictest acceptation of the word. And
such science there has always been, even down to our own day, in all
human communities which have emerged from their primal state of
savagery.

Ever since mankind has existed, teachers have always arisen among
peoples, who have enunciated science in this restricted sense,--the
science of what it is most useful for man to know. This science has
always had for its object the knowledge of what is the true ground
of the well-being of each individual man, and of all men, and why.
Such was the science of Confucius, of Buddha, of Socrates, of
Mahomet, and of others; such is this science as they understood it,
and as all men--with the exception of our little circle of so-called
cultured people--understand it. This science has not only always
occupied the highest place, but has been the only and sole science,
from which the standing of the rest has been determined. And this
was the case, not in the least because, as the so-called scientific