The Banned Lecture

universe of discourse—by the word “ knowledge.” May I ask a question ? Does anyone here know the date of the battle of Waterloo ? Pause. (Someone—I bet—tells me “ 1815.”) Thank you very much. To be frank with you, I knew it myself. I did not require information on that particular point. What I asked was, whether anyone know the date. I felt that, if so, it would have created a sympathetic atmosphere. But since we are talking about Waterloo, we may ask ourselves what, roughly speaking, is the extent of our knowledge ? I have heard plenty of theories about why Napoleon lost the battle. I have been told that he was already suffering from the disease which killed him. I have been told that he was outgeneralled by Wellington. I have been told that his army of conscripts was underfed and not properly drilled. I have also been told that the battle was won by the Belgians. Now, all these things are merely matters of opinion. There may be a little truth in some of them. But we have practically no means of finding out exactly how much, even if our documentary support is valid to establish any of these theories. It is, also, almost impossible to estimate the causes of any given event, if only because those causes are infinite, and each one of them is to a certain extent an efficient determining cause. Take a quite simple matter like the time of year. If it had been winter instead of summer, the