¶ Lever: Fallen Tree as a Lever
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Index Entry
Lever: Fallen Tree as a Lever:
"Out of industrialization came the ability to do very large things in very big ways. But I’d like to get down to something rather more fundamental. What man then has to discover is generalized principles. In literature, the word ‘generalization’ means trying to cover too much territory too thinly. In science the word refers to the discovery of a principle that holds true in every case; if you find even a single exception, then it is no longer a generalized principle in science.
“Consider, in ancient times, a man like any of us going through the woods from time to time, woods where men have not gone very often. Trees, fallen in great storms, are strewn across one another, and he tries to reach his destination as directly as he can by climbing over them. As he climbs over one of the trees, it begins to sink with him slowly and he moves back for a moment and then comes up again to the same place. As he walks on the tree and it sinks lower and lower, he wonders what’s going on. He looks at the tree and sees that it’s lying across another one, the other end of which is under a very big tree–and as he moves out farther that enormous tree is being lifted, and he says: ‘I never lifted a tree like that.’ He goes over and tries to lift it with his muscle and finds that he can’t”
