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Artificial Intelligence with Uncertainty 1st Edition Deyi Li
Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Deyi Li, Yi Du
ISBN(s): 9781584889984, 1584889985
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 14.69 MB
Year: 2007
Language: english
C9985_C000.fm Page i Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
WITH UNCERTAINTY

Deyi Li and Yi Du
Tsinghua University
Beijing, China
C9985_C000.fm Page ii Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM

MATLAB® is a trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. and is used with permission. The Mathworks
does not warrant the accuracy of the text or exercises in this book. This book’s use or discussion
of MATLAB® software or related products does not constitute endorsement or sponsorship by The
MathWorks of a particular pedagogical approach or particular use of the MATLAB® software.

VC++ is a registered trademark of Microsoft.

Chapman & Hall/CRC

Taylor & Francis Group
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© 2008 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Chapman & Hall/CRC is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

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International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-58488-998-4 (Hardcover)

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C9985_C000.fm Page iii Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM

Contents
Chapter 1 The 50-Year History of Artificial Intelligence ....................................1
1.1 Departure from the Dartmouth Symposium....................................................1
1.1.1 Communication between Different Disciplines...................................1
1.1.2 Development and Growth ....................................................................3
1.2 Expected Goals as Time Goes On...................................................................4
1.2.1 Turing Test ...........................................................................................4
1.2.2 Machine Theorem Proof ......................................................................5
1.2.3 Rivalry between Kasparov and Deep Blue .........................................5
1.2.4 Thinking Machine ................................................................................6
1.2.5 Artificial Life........................................................................................7
1.3 AI Achievements in 50 Years...........................................................................8
1.3.1 Pattern Recognition..............................................................................8
1.3.2 Knowledge Engineering.....................................................................10
1.3.3 Robotics..............................................................................................11
1.4 Major Development of AI in the Information Age .......................................12
1.4.1 Impacts of AI Technology on the Whole Society .............................12
1.4.2 From the World Wide Web to the Intelligent Grid ...........................13
1.4.3 From Data to Knowledge ..................................................................14
1.5 The Cross Trend between AI, Brain Science and Cognitive Science...........15
1.5.1 The Influence of Brain Science on AI...............................................15
1.5.2 The Influence of Cognitive Science on AI ........................................17
1.5.3 Coming Breakthroughs Caused by Interdisciplines ..........................18
References................................................................................................................18

Chapter 2 Methodologies of AI ..........................................................................21

2.1 Symbolism Methodology...............................................................................21
2.1.1 Birth and Development of Symbolism .............................................21
2.1.2 Predicate Calculus and Resolution Principle ....................................24
2.1.3 Logic Programming Language ..........................................................26
2.1.4 Expert System ....................................................................................28
2.2 Connectionism Methodology.........................................................................30
2.2.1 Birth and Development of Connectionism ........................................30
2.2.2 Strategy and Technical Characteristics of Connectionism................30
2.2.3 Hopfield Neural Network Model.......................................................33
2.2.4 Back-Propagation Neural Network Model ........................................34
2.3 Behaviorism Methodology.............................................................................35
2.3.1 Birth and Development of Behaviorism............................................35
2.3.2 Robot Control.....................................................................................36
2.3.3 Intelligent Control ..............................................................................37
C9985_C000.fm Page iv Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM

2.4 Reflection on Methodologies .........................................................................38

References................................................................................................................39

Chapter 3 On Uncertainties of Knowledge ........................................................43

3.1 On Randomness .............................................................................................43
3.1.1 The Objectivity of Randomness ....................................................... 43
3.1.2 The Beauty of Randomness...............................................................46
3.2 On Fuzziness ..................................................................................................47
3.2.1 The Objectivity of Fuzziness .............................................................48
3.2.2 The Beauty of Fuzziness ...................................................................49
3.3 Uncertainties in Natural Languages ..............................................................51
3.3.1 Languages as the Carrier of Human Knowledge ..............................51
3.3.2 Uncertainties in Languages................................................................52
3.4 Uncertainties in Commonsense Knowledge..................................................54
3.4.1 Common Understanding about Common Sense ...............................54
3.4.2 Relativity of Commonsense Knowledge ...........................................55
3.5 Other Uncertainties of Knowledge ................................................................57
3.5.1 Incompleteness of Knowledge...........................................................57
3.5.2 Incoordination of Knowledge ............................................................58
3.5.3 Impermanence of Knowledge ............................................................58
References................................................................................................................60

Chapter 4 Mathematical Foundation of AI with Uncertainty ............................61

4.1 Probability Theory .........................................................................................61
4.1.1 Bayes’ Theorem .................................................................................62
4.1.1.1 Relationship and Logical Operation
of Random Event................................................................62
4.1.1.2 Axiomization Definition of Probability .............................63
4.1.1.3 Conditional Probability and Bayes’ Theorem ....................64
4.1.2 Probability Distribution Function ......................................................65
4.1.3 Normal Distribution ...........................................................................67
4.1.3.1 The Definition and Properties
of Normal Distribution .......................................................67
4.1.3.2 Multidimensional Normal Distribution ..............................69
4.1.4 Laws of Large Numbers and Central Limit Theorem.......................70
4.1.4.1 Laws of Large Numbers .....................................................70
4.1.4.2 Central Limit Theorem .......................................................71
4.1.5 Power Law Distribution .....................................................................73
4.1.6 Entropy ...............................................................................................74
4.2 Fuzzy Set Theory ...........................................................................................76
4.2.1 Membership Degree and Membership Function ...............................76
4.2.2 Decomposition Theorem and Expanded Principle............................78
4.2.3 Fuzzy Relation ...................................................................................79
4.2.4 Possibility Measure ............................................................................81
C9985_C000.fm Page v Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM

4.3 Rough Set Theory ..........................................................................................81

4.3.1 Imprecise Category and Rough Set ...................................................82
4.3.2 Characteristics of Rough Sets............................................................84
4.3.3 Rough Relations.................................................................................86
4.4 Chaos and Fractal...........................................................................................89
4.4.1 Basic Characteristics of Chaos ..........................................................90
4.4.2 Strange Attractors of Chaos...............................................................92
4.4.3 Geometric Characteristics of Chaos and Fractal...............................93
4.5 Kernel Functions and Principal Curves.........................................................94
4.5.1 Kernel Functions ................................................................................94
4.5.2 Support Vector Machine.....................................................................97
4.5.3 Principal Curves ...............................................................................100
References..............................................................................................................104

Chapter 5 Qualitative and Quantitative Transform

Model — Cloud Model ...................................................................107
5.1 Perspectives on the Study of AI with Uncertainty......................................107
5.1.1 Multiple Perspectives on the Study
of Human Intelligence .....................................................................107
5.1.2 The Importance of Concepts in Natural Languages .......................110
5.1.3 The Relationship between Randomness and Fuzziness
in a Concept .....................................................................................110
5.2 Representing Concepts Using Cloud Models..............................................112
5.2.1 Cloud and Cloud Drop.....................................................................112
5.2.2 Numerical Characteristics of Cloud ................................................113
5.2.3 Types of Cloud Model .....................................................................115
5.3 Normal Cloud Generator .............................................................................118
5.3.1 Forward Cloud Generator ................................................................118
5.3.2 Contributions of Cloud Drops to a Concept ...................................123
5.3.3 Understanding the Lunar Calendar’s Solar Terms
through Cloud Models .....................................................................124
5.3.4 Backward Cloud Generator .............................................................125
5.3.5 Precision Analysis of Backward Cloud Generator..........................132
5.3.6 More on Understanding Normal Cloud Model ...............................133
5.4 Mathematical Properties of Normal Cloud .................................................138
5.4.1 Statistical Analysis of the Cloud Drops’ Distribution.....................138
5.4.2 Statistical Analysis of the Cloud Drops’
Certainty Degree ..............................................................................140
5.4.3 Expectation Curves of Normal Cloud .............................................142
5.5 On the Pervasiveness of the Normal Cloud Model.....................................144
5.5.1 Pervasiveness of Normal Distribution .............................................144
5.5.2 Pervasiveness of Bell Membership Function ..................................145
5.5.3 Significance of Normal Cloud .........................................................148
References..............................................................................................................150
C9985_C000.fm Page vi Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM

Chapter 6 Discovering Knowledge with Uncertainty

through Methodologies in Physics ..................................................153
6.1 FromPerception of Physical World to Perception of Human Self ............153
6.1.1 Expressing Concepts by Using Atom Models.................................154
6.1.2 Describing Interaction between Objects by Using Field ................155
6.1.3 Describing Hierarchical Structure of Knowledge
by Using Granularity .......................................................................156
6.2 Data Field.....................................................................................................158
6.2.1 From Physical Field to Data Field ..................................................158
6.2.2 Potential Field and Force Field of Data ..........................................160
6.2.3 Influence Coefficient Optimization of Field Function ....................172
6.2.4 Data Field and Visual Thinking Simulation ....................................178
6.3 Uncertainty in Concept Hierarchy...............................................................182
6.3.1 Discretization of Continuous Data ..................................................183
6.3.2 Virtual Pan Concept Tree.................................................................186
6.3.3 Climbing-Up Strategy and Algorithms............................................188
6.4 Knowledge Discovery State Space ..............................................................196
6.4.1 Three Kinds of State Spaces............................................................196
6.4.2 State Space Transformation .............................................................197
6.4.3 Major Operations in State Space Transformation ...........................199
References..............................................................................................................200

Chapter 7 Data Mining for Discovering Knowledge with Uncertainty...........201

7.1 Uncertainty in Data Mining.........................................................................201
7.1.1 Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery .........................................201
7.1.2 Uncertainty in Data Mining Process ...............................................202
7.1.3 Uncertainty in Discovered Knowledge............................................204
7.2 Classification and Clustering with Uncertainty...........................................205
7.2.1 Cloud Classification .........................................................................206
7.2.2 Clustering Based on Data Field.......................................................213
7.2.3 Outlier Detection and Discovery Based on Data Field...................238
7.3 Discovery of Association Rules with Uncertainty ......................................244
7.3.1 Reconsideration of the Traditional Association Rules ....................244
7.3.2 Association Rule Mining and Forecasting ......................................247
7.4 Time Series Data Mining and Forecasting..................................................253
7.4.1 Time Series Data Mining Based on Cloud Models ........................255
7.4.2 Stock Data Forecasting ....................................................................256
References..............................................................................................................269

Chapter 8 Reasoning and Control of Qualitative Knowledge .........................273

8.1 Qualitative Rule Construction by Cloud .....................................................273
8.1.1 Precondition Cloud Generator and Postcondition
Cloud Generator...............................................................................273
C9985_C000.fm Page vii Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM

8.1.2 Rule Generator .................................................................................276

8.1.3 From Cases to Rule Generation ......................................................279
8.2 Qualitative Control Mechanism ...................................................................280
8.2.1 Fuzzy, Probability, and Cloud Control Methods.............................280
8.2.2 Theoretic Explanation of Mamdani Fuzzy Control Method...........289
8.3 Inverted Pendulum — an Example of Intelligent Control
with Uncertainty...........................................................................................291
8.3.1 Inverted Pendulum System and Its Control.....................................291
8.3.2 Inverted Pendulum Qualitative Control Mechanism .......................292
8.3.3 Cloud Control Policy of Triple-Link Inverted Pendulum ...............294
8.3.4 Balancing Patterns of an Inverted Pendulum ..................................302
References..............................................................................................................312

Chapter 9 A New Direction for AI with Uncertainty ......................................315

9.1 Computing with Words ................................................................................316
9.2 Study of Cognitive Physics..........................................................................320
9.2.1 Extension of Cloud Model...............................................................320
9.2.2 Dynamic Data Field .........................................................................323
9.3 Complex Networks with Small World and Scale-Free Models ..................328
9.3.1 Regularity of Uncertainty in Complex Networks ...........................329
9.3.2 Scale-Free Networks Generation .....................................................332
9.3.3 Applications of Data Field Theory to Networked Intelligence ......339
9.4 Long Way to Go for AI with Uncertainty ...................................................340
9.4.1 Limitations of Cognitive Physics Methodology..............................340
9.4.2 Divergences from Daniel, the Nobel Economics Prize Winner......340
References..............................................................................................................342

Research Foundation Support............................................................................345

Index ......................................................................................................................347
C9985_C000.fm Page viii Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM
C9985_C000.fm Page ix Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM

Preface
It is said that there are three hard scientific questions that have not yet been well
answered: the original source of life, the original source of the world, and the working
mechanism of the human brain. This book is related to the third question by studying
and exploring uncertainties of knowledge and intelligence during the human being’s
cognitive process. The authors pay particular attention to setting up models and exper-
imental computations to deal with such uncertainties as well.
Why do humans have intelligence? How does the human brain work in daily life?
As a result of human evolution, which may have taken billions of years for biology
and hundreds of millions of years for humankind, the brain runs well in dealing with
all kinds of uncertainty in sensation, perception, learning, reasoning, thinking, under-
standing, and action. Mysteries of the brain are studied by brain science, having
achieved great success on molecule-level and cell-level research. However, there is
still a long way to go to understand the cognitive functions of a brain as a whole. How
can we understand the nonlinear function of a brain? How does the left brain (with
the priority of logic thinking) cooperate with the right brain (with the priority of visual
thinking)? We know very little about the working principles and scientific mechanisms
of a brain today. A new direction for cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study
by a diverse group of scientists, including biologists, psychologists, mathematicians,
physicists, and computer scientists.
Knowledge representation is a fundamental issue in artificial intelligence (AI)
study. Over the 50-year history of AI, it seems that people paid more attention to
using symbolic representation and problem solving for simulation of human thinking.
However, natural language is an essential tool for thinking in a brain. Human civili-
zation comes from the history of humankind. Only because of the written natural
language can human beings record the accumulation or knowledge of human history.
The most important difference in intelligence between human beings and other life
forms might be language. One of the most influential scientists in the past century,
the so-called “father of the modern electronic computer,” Dr. Von Neumann, after an
in-depth study on the differences and similarities between the electronic computer
and the human brain, asserted in his posthumous book The Computer and the Brain,
“the thinking language for human beings is not mathematic language-like at all.” We
emphasize that one of the important perspectives for AI study should be directed to
natural language, which is the carrier of knowledge and intelligence. A language
concept expressed by the cloud model in this book contains uncertainty, and in
particular, randomness and fuzziness and the correlation between them. With such a
perspective, we are going to explore the AI with uncertainty in detail.
In the twenty-first century, information is becoming the leading industry in the global
economy, and fast-developing information technology is drastically changing the global
world, including the working mode and lifestyle of human beings. It is claimed that the
knowledge age dominated by information technology is coming. While enjoying the
C9985_C000.fm Page x Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM

Internet technology and World Wide Web culture, we are also suffering from an infor-
mation deluge. It is a good wish to mine the trustful and required information from such
huge data, and mine the knowledge at multi-scales we have not discovered. From this
perspective, we concentrate on the physical methods for data mining by use of the tools
of cloud model, data field, and knowledge discovery state space in this book. Reasoning
and control with uncertain knowledge are also given in an inverted pendulum example.
What we have done in our research seems to develop a satisfying framework to show
how the uncertainty AI expands and generalizes the traditional AI.
“Seeking unknown knowledge” and “seeking beauty” are the natural desires of
human beings. How to understand the cognitive process of human beings, and how
to explain and simulate human thinking with a “beautiful” theory is a challenging
topic indeed. Due to the limit of the authors’ academic and practical capabilities,
the book is an exploration that inevitably contains some flaws and your help in
pointing these out will be sincerely appreciated.
Readers of this book could be scholar researchers in the fields of cognitive
science, brain science, artificial intelligence, computer science, or control theory, in
particular research and development (R&D) personnel for natural language under-
standing, intelligent searching, knowledge engineering, data mining, and intelligent
control. The book can also be used as a textbook or reference book for graduate
students of relevant majors in colleges and universities. We hope more and more
people will join us in discovering AI with uncertainty.
It is obvious that the development of a book of this scope needs the support of many
people. We appreciate the stimulating and fruitful discussions with professors Shoujue
Wang, Deren Li, Jiaguang Sun, Ruqin Lu, Yixin Zhong, and Jianmin Wang. Special
thanks go to the graduate students: Wenyan Gan, Changyu Liu, Guisheng Chen, Ning
Zhou, Hui Chen, Baohua Cao, Mi Tian, Zhihao Zhang, who did a very good job related
to this book under the supervision of the first author. We would like to express our
gratitude to Huihuan Qian, Ka Keung Lee, Meng Chen, and Zhi Zhong at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong who spent numerous hours reviewing the final manuscript and
providing us with valuable comments and assistance. The first author would also like to
take this opportunity to thank Professor Yangsheng Xu for his long-term support, encour-
agement, and friendship that made his time in the Chinese University of Hong Kong
more interesting and meaningful. Thanks go to the readers of the Chinese version of this
book published in China two years ago who offered helpful comments for the English
version. We also wish to acknowledge all the reviewers and editors for their contributions.
This book could not have happened without the support from our funding sources.
The research and development work described in this book is partially supported by
grants from the National Nature Science Foundation, China (Projects No. 69272031,
69775016, 69975024, 60375016, and 60496323), and by national 973 and 863 programs
(Projects No. G1998030508-4, 2004CB719401, and 863-306-ZT06-07-02).
We are grateful to all who have extended care and support to us during the
production of this book.

Deyi Li
Yi Du
C9985_C000.fm Page xi Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM

About the Authors

Deyi Li, Ph.D., was born in 1944 in Jiangsu, China. He
earned his Ph.D. in computer science at Heriot-Watt Uni-
versity in Edinburgh, United Kingdom in 1983. He was
elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering
in 1999 and a member of the Eurasian Academy of Sciences
in 2004. At present, he is a professor at Tsinghua University
and director of the Department of Information Science at
the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and vice
president of the Chinese Institute of Electronics and the
Chinese Association of Artificial Intelligence. He has pub-
lished more than 100 papers on a wide range of topics in
artificial intelligence. His other books include: A Prolog Database System, and A
Fuzzy Prolog Database System.

Yi Du, Ph.D., was born in 1971 in Shan’xi, China. He

earned his Ph.D. in computer science at PLA University of
Science and Technology in Nanjing, China in 2000. He
received his undergraduate degree from Nanjing Institute of
Communications Engineering in 1993. At present, he is a
senior engineer in a network management center in Beijing.
C9985_C000.fm Page xii Friday, August 24, 2007 10:40 AM
C9985_C001.fm Page 1 Saturday, August 18, 2007 11:49 AM

1 The 50-year History of

Artificial Intelligence
During the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century, machines were employed
to take over or reduce the routine functions of human physical labor, which conse-
quently pushed forward science and technology greatly. The information technology
in the twentieth century, especially with the advent of the computer, gave birth to
and spurred the development of artificial intelligence (AI), and thus machines are
able to take over or diminish the routine uses of human mental labor.
By AI we mean a variety of intelligent behaviors and various kinds of mental
labor, known as mental activities, can be realized artificially with some sort of real
machines.1 These intelligent activities include perception, memory, emotion, judg-
ment, reasoning, proving, identification, understanding, communication, designing,
thinking and learning, etc.
Since ancient times, humans have been dreaming of intelligence by artificial
means to explore and invent tools to free themselves from physical and mental labor.
Evidence of AI folklore can be traced back to ancient Egypt in the 200s BC. There
lived a man named Hero in the city of Alexandria. He invented a number of automatic
machines to ease people’s toil. His inventions were then used to demonstrate the
power of God in sacrifice. When the sacrificial fire was lit, the gate opened auto-
matically, and then two bronze priests standing on the sacrificial altar raised their
sacrificial pots to pour holy water onto the fire. The worshippers were able to obtain
the needed holy water automatically by inserting coins into the slit.2
If this kind of automation was regarded as intelligence, its connotation and denotation
have been extended considerably ever since. If we trace back to the time when AI was
first introduced academically, we cannot help mentioning the Dartmouth Symposium.

1.1 DEPARTURE FROM THE DARTMOUTH

SYMPOSIUM
1.1.1 COMMUNICATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES
In June 1956, at Dartmouth, New Hampshire, four young scholars: John McCarthy
(Figure 1.1), Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon jointly
initiated and organized the Dartmouth Symposium, which lasted for two months,
on simulating human intelligence using a machine. Ten scholars from various fields
such as mathematics, neurophysiology, psychiatry, psychology, information theory,
and computer science were invited to the symposium. From their own interdiscipli-
nary perspectives and backgrounds, they presented different arguments and gave rise
to violent clashes of ideas.

1
C9985_C001.fm Page 2 Saturday, August 18, 2007 11:49 AM

2 Artificial Intelligence with Uncertainty

FIGURE 1.1 John McCarthy (1927—).

Three events were highlighted in the Dartmouth Symposium: the neural network
simulator demonstrated by Marvin Minsky, the searching method proposed by John
McCarthy, and the “Logic Theorist” presented by Herbert Simon and Allen Newell.
They discussed how to go through a maze, how to do search reasoning and how to
prove a mathematic theorem, respectively.3
While working on the psychological process of proving a mathematic theorem
by humans, Herbert Simon and his colleagues found a common law. First, the entire
problem is broken down into several subproblems, then these subproblems are solved
using substitution and replacement methods in accordance with the stored axioms
and proven theorems. Based on this, they established the “heuristic search” technique
for machines to prove mathematic theorems. And they did prove a number of theorems
from chapter 2 of Principia Mathematica, a masterpiece in mathematics cowritten
by B. Russell and A. N. Whitehead, using the program “Logic Theorist.” Their work
was highly appraised and regarded as a major breakthrough in computer simulation
of human intelligence.4,5
Although the scientists had different perspectives, all of them converged on the
study of the representative form and cognitive law governing human intelligence.
Making full use of the accomplishments in symbolic logic and computer, they
provided the theory of the formalization of computation and processing, simulated
a number of basic ways and techniques of human intelligent behaviors, and created
a few artificial systems with some sort of intelligence, which enable the computer
to do a job that could be accomplished only by human intelligence.
At the Dartmouth Symposium, John McCarthy proposed the term “artificial
intelligence” (AI) as the name of the cross-discipline. This conference of great
historic significance was the first symposium on AI in human history, marking the
birth of AI as a new discipline. Therefore, John McCarthy was referred to as the
“Father of AI.”3
Evidence shows that decades after the Dartmouth Symposium, many of its
participants became experts in this field and stood in the vanguard of AI progress.
John McCarthy, Allen Newell and Herbert Simon all are recipients of Turing Awards.
Simon was also awarded a Nobel Prize in Economics.3 The Dartmouth Symposium
was the first significant event in the history of AI.
C9985_C001.fm Page 3 Saturday, August 18, 2007 11:49 AM

The 50-year History of Artificial Intelligence 3

1.1.2 DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH

Since its birth, AI has aroused fantastic imaginations and great expectations among
people and has served as a brilliant goal in the development of discipline crossing.
In 1969, the first session of the International Joint Conference on AI (IJCAI)
was convened. Since then, IJCAI has been held every two years and has become a
top academic conference on AI. In 1970, the first issue of the International Journal
of AI was published, and it has since ranked first among all the academic journals
on AI. The American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) was founded in
1976. Up to 2006, twenty-one national conferences on AI had been convened. The
association is very active, releasing its AI magazines periodically and holding various
kinds of symposiums annually. All these events have played a guiding role for
academic activities and worldwide exchanges, and they have enhanced research and
development (R&D) of AI. In China, the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelli-
gence (CAAI) was established in 1981 and ten conferences were held. In 1989, the
China Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (CJCAI) took place, and up till
now, seven conferences have been held. In 2006, CAAI had a set of activities for
AI’s 50-year anniversary.
Today, AI is increasingly popular. Intelligent economy, intelligent machines,
intelligent communities, intelligent networks, and intelligent buildings are seen
everywhere. In almost every university, there are colleges and disciplines conducting
related research on AI. However, the development of AI has not shaped up smoothly,
and collision, controversy, and misunderstanding still exist from time to time.
In the early 1980s, mathematic logic and symbolic reasoning became mainstream
in the field of AI and logic programming languages such as Lisp and Prolog were
a big hit throughout the world. At the beginning of the Japanese Fifth Generation
Computer Systems, some knowledge information processing systems pushed the AI
research to a new stage. However, the much-expected “Fifth Generation Computer”
ended up in failure. It did not go beyond the structural framework of the Von
Neumann system and still worked by means of program and data. As a result, it was
unable to realize human–machine interaction through image, sound, and language
in a natural way, not to mention simulating human thinking processes.
Research on neural networks (NNs) had also boosted AI development to a new
high level. In the early 1940s, the method of NN was proposed, later rejected, and
then proposed again. In 1982, John J. Hopfield suggested using hardware to realize
the artificial neural network (ANN) (Hopfield Neural Network).6 In 1986, David E.
Rumelhart and others put forward the back propagation (BP) algorithm of multilay-
ered networks, which became a milestone in AI development.7 At that time, machines
were expected to process information in the form of “thinking in images,” and they
were as well expected to simulate human visualization, instinct and common sense
through biology NN model, artificial neuron model, typical training algorithm and
excitation function. Nevertheless, the achievements were far from expectation,
although the research passion on ANNs remained high.
In the 1970s, AI, space technology, and energy technology were regarded as the
three top technologies in the world. In the new century, with information technology
(IT) extensively penetrating into economy, society, and everyday life, there is an
C9985_C001.fm Page 4 Saturday, August 18, 2007 11:49 AM

4 Artificial Intelligence with Uncertainty

increasingly urgent demand for machine to simulate human intelligence. Now, people
begin to question the simulation of the human brain by the Von Neumann computer
as the “electric brain,” and search for new structures like quantum computers. They
put the study of AI in a broader scope of disciplines such as cognition science, brain
science, information theory, bionics, psychology, linguistics, and philosophy.

1.2 EXPECTED GOALS AS TIME GOES ON

Looking back at the 50-year AI development and growth, the academic society has
held various views on what goals AI research is going to achieve.

1.2.1 TURING TEST

In 1950, Alan Turing (Figure 1.2), a British mathematician, proposed a test standard
called “Turing Test,” with the aim to determine whether a machine had human
intelligence.3,5 It has been acknowledged by most people. The standard states that,
if the action, reaction, and interaction of a machine are the same as a human being
with consciousness, then it should be regarded as having consciousness and intelli-
gence. In order to eliminate bias in the test, Turing uses an imitation method. A
human interrogator, who was separated from other humans, asked various questions
to two other parties, one human and the other a machine. In a given period of time,
the interrogator had to guess which is the human and which is the machine based
on the answers to his questions. A series of such tests were designed to test the level
of AI of the machine.
People differed in their views as to whether the test standard has been met within
the past 50 years.
At the beginning, the test subject was an electrograph. It gave answers in the
form of typewritten words so that it was hard to tell whether the answers had
come from the human or the machine. In this sense, the machine could be said to
possess AI.
But some scholars argued that the intelligence of the machine was still a far
cry from that of a human being. Let’s imagine a machine engaged in a natural
language conversation. No matter how smart it is, the machine cannot have the same

FIGURE 1.2 Alan Turing (1912–1954).

C9985_C001.fm Page 5 Saturday, August 18, 2007 11:49 AM

The 50-year History of Artificial Intelligence 5

commonsense knowledge as a person, nor can it have correct pronunciation, into-

nation, and emotion. It is also not resourceful enough to cope with situations arising
in the process of the conversation. In this sense, the machine can hardly be said to
have any human intelligence, even that of a child.
Others have reproached the test standard, saying that there are too many uncer-
tainties in the description and the constraint conditions cannot be well defined, that
people should not be confined to the test standard, and that essential intelligence
should be everywhere and should serve the people without their ever knowing it.
Essential intelligence should be in harmony with the people and be human oriented.
AI requirements on a machine may vary and grow as time goes on.

1.2.2 MACHINE THEOREM PROOF

Mathematics has long been crowned as the queen of science. As the basis for the
most extensive disciplines, it mainly emphasizes number and shape. As a typical
kind of mental labor, mathematics is characterized by preciseness in expression and
convenience to be formalized. Therefore, theorem proof by machine became the first
target of scientists in pursuit of AI. In the field of mathematics, while seeking proof
for a known theorem, a mathematician is not only required to have the ability of
deducing a hypothesis, but is also required to have intuition. In theorem proof, a
mathematician will adroitly exploit the rich professional knowledge, guess which
lemma to prove first, decide precisely which theorems to utilize, divide the main
problem into several subproblems, and finally solve them one by one. If you can
turn these tricky and difficult behaviors into sophisticated but easy mechanical
calculations on a computer, you have already mechanized mental labor. Much
progress has been made in this aspect.1,8,9
Generally speaking, the hypothesis and the conclusion of a theorem will be
transferred into a system of polynomial equations and a polynomial equation, respec-
tively. So it will become a pure algebraic calculus, i.e., how to get the result
polynomial from the hypothesis polynomials. In particular, a mention should be
made to the outstanding contributions made by the two Chinese scholars Professor
Hao Wang and Professor Wenjun Wu in this direction.8
Deep research in theorem proof has led to the predicate logic language, expert
systems, and knowledge engineering to help people solve problems in specific
knowledge domains such as chemical and mineral analysis, medical diagnosis, and
information retrieving. The authors themselves have conducted research on the
equivalence between relational database querying and predicate logic proof.10

1.2.3 RIVALRY BETWEEN KASPAROV AND DEEP BLUE

Playing chess is considered a typical mental activity. In the year after the Dartmouth
Symposium, research on chess played by computer against humans was carried out
throughout the world. The history of chess playing (human vs. machine), to some
extent, is the history of AI development and growth.
In 1956, Arthur Samuel of the IBM Corp. wrote a self-learning, adaptive checker
program. Just like any other checker player, the computer checker player can not
only see several moves ahead, but also learn from checker manuals. The computer
C9985_C001.fm Page 6 Saturday, August 18, 2007 11:49 AM

6 Artificial Intelligence with Uncertainty

FIGURE 1.3 Garry Kasparov (1963—).

analyzed about 175,000 possible processes before it made a move. In 1958, an

IBM704 became the first computer to play against humans, with a speed of 200
moves per second. In 1988, the Deep Thought computer defeated the Danish master
player Bent Larsen, with an average speed of two million moves per second. In
1997, Deep Blue, a chess-playing computer, shocked the world with the results of
two wins, three draws, and one defeat in matches against the reigning World Chess
Champion Garry Kasparov (Figure 1.3) by using the “heuristic search” technique.
Its speed then was two million moves per second. In 2001, the German “Deep Fritz”
chess-playing computer defeated nine of the ten top chess players in the world, with
a record-breaking speed of six million moves per second. Faced with successive
victories made by the computer, people could not help asking: now that the world’s
chess champions are defeated, who can say that the computer is not intelligent?
From the perspective of AI, machine vs. human is in essence a way for scientists
to demonstrate AI. In problems with similar property and complexity as chess
playing, computers can be considered intelligent. When playing against humans,
computers take advantage of reasoning and speed and focus more on logical thinking,
while human brains may rely more on intuition, imagination, and brand new tactics
and strategies, focusing more on thinking in images. The nature of machine vs.
human is “human plus machine vs. machine plus human,” i.e., the computer is acting
onstage while humans are backstage or vice versa. A team of experts in their specific
fields store in advance huge numbers of setups and strategies before the computer
onstage can examine and evaluate moves or decide the appropriate response by
means of complicated calculation and analysis. On the other side, top human players
can enhance their techniques by interacting with computer players and find the
weakness of intelligent computers. In some sense, the rivalry between human and
machine is an endless process. Statistically speaking, the result may be a draw,
fifty–fifty somewhat.

1.2.4 THINKING MACHINE

At the beginning, people called a computer an “electric brain,” expecting that it
would become a thinking machine. However, all existing computers differ consid-
erably from the human brain in internal structure. The computer has experienced
tremendous development from electric tube, transistor, and integrated circuit (IC) to
C9985_C001.fm Page 7 Saturday, August 18, 2007 11:49 AM

The 50-year History of Artificial Intelligence 7

very large-scale integrated circuit, making great progress in many aspects, e.g.,
performance and craftsmanship, central processing unit (CPU) speed, storage capac-
ity, IC density and bandwidth for communication. Although, in every respect above,
the development speed obeys the Moore’s law or even faster, there is still no
breakthrough in the Turing machine principle at all. And the computer is still
constructed within the framework of the Von Neumann architecture. On the other
hand, large numbers of intelligent software enable small-sized and miniaturized
computers, even the embedded computers, to acquire more intelligent behaviors akin
to humans, such as cognition, recognition, and automatic processing. With speedy
advances made in pattern recognition, including image recognition, speech recog-
nition, and character recognition, the computer has obtained some extremely intel-
ligent behavior to a certain point. Such behaviors include self-learning, self-adaptation,
self-optimizing, self-organizing, and self-repairing, etc.
To enrich the thinking ability of the machine, people have developed many kinds
of perceptive machines, recognizing machines, and behavioral machines. Through
perception, learning and understanding characters, images, voices, speeches, behav-
iors, and through information exchange with humans, the machines have raised their
intellectual level. These machines include engineering sensors, intelligent instru-
ments, character readers, manipulators, intelligent robots, natural language compos-
ers, and intelligent controllers, etc.
To sum up, the objective of research on the thinking machine is to enable a
computer to think as a human being and to interact in harmony with humans.

1.2.5 ARTIFICIAL LIFE

Life is the foundation of intelligence. A long time ago, there was no life at all on Earth.
It took billions of years for life to appear, and once it did it evolved slowly — from
single cells to multicellular organisms, from simple life forms to complex animals,
eventually giving birth to humankind. However, it has not been clear what the original
source of human beings is. Is it possible to create a life from dead material? Can an
artificial material make an essential life? Many scientists tried to work out this puzzle.
In the middle of the twentieth century, Alan Turing and Von Neumann tried to
describe the logical specification of self-reproducing life. In the 1970s, Chris Lang-
ton discovered the fact that life or intelligence may come from the edge of chaos.
His idea is to set up a group of rules for the edge of chaos. This kind of life is quite
different from the life based on carbohydrates and was named artificial life since
then, such as computer virus, cell automation, etc.
In 1987, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the first symposium on
artificial life was held. Among the 160 participants were life scientists, physiol-
ogists, physicists, and anthropologists. At the symposium, the concept of artificial
life was proposed and the direction for imitating natural life was pointed out. It
was agreed that artificial life is a man-made system to showcase the behavioral
features of natural life. Life as we know it is the classical subject of biology,
whereas life as it could be is a new subject of AI. Self-reproduction and evolution
are two important features of life. Creatures on earth are but one form of life.
Entities with life features can be made artificially, and research can be conducted
based on computers or other intelligent machines. That research includes the
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
“Thank God! thank God!” he cried, his whole frame shaken with
sobs. “Grandfather, pray for me—you know I never learned to pray
for myself—at least I have well-nigh forgotten now. But down on your
knees and thank God for that for me! May be He will hear yu. It must
have been He that saved him; for the devil was at my ear all the
while prompting me to let him die.”
Abner was already on his knees, with a thanksgiving of his own to
offer. He had prayed too much and too earnestly, both in secret and
before his fellow-men, to lack words now in this hour of intense
gratitude and thanksgiving. In rugged yet not ill-chosen words he
lifted up his voice and gave thanks to God for His great and
unspeakable mercies in giving back this one life from the destruction
that had come upon all besides; and in permitting the very man
whose sin had brought about this fearful thing to be His instrument
for the salvation of the life of his friend. He pleaded for mercy for the
sinner with an impassioned eloquence which bespoke a spirit deeply
moved. He brought before the Lord the sins and shortcomings of this
erring man, now stretched on a bed of sickness, and besought that
the cleansing blood of Christ might wash them all away. He pleaded
for Saul as he never could have pleaded for himself. He brought
together all those eternal promises of mercy which are to the sinner
as the anchor and stay of the soul in the deep and bitter waters of
remorse. He pleaded with his Redeemer for the soul of his grandson
with a fervour only inspired by a love and a faith too deep to be
daunted by any considerations as to the weight of iniquity to be
pardoned, or the lack of faith in the one thus prayed for. And Saul,
lying helpless and tempest-tossed, listened to this pleading, and
found his tears bursting forth again. He had seen before all the black
and crushing iniquity of his own past record, but now was brought
before his eyes a picture of the infinite and ineffable love of a dying
Saviour—the Lord of Glory crucified for him—bearing his sins upon
the Cross of shame—stretching out His wounded hands and bidding
him come to that Cross and lay down his burden there. It was too
much for Saul, softened as he was by the sense that God had
already answered his prayer even in the midst of his sin and
wickedness, and had given him the one petition, the only one he
ever remembered to have offered. The whole conception of such
divine mercy was too much—it broke down all his pride and reserve
and sullen defiance—it broke his heart and made it as the heart of a
little child. His tears gushed forth. He clasped his hands, and lifted
them in supplication to his Saviour. He could not have found words
for his own guilt, but he could follow the earnest words of the
grandfather, whose simple piety he had hitherto held in a species of
lofty contempt. And in that still evening hour, with the dying day
about them, and the shadow of death hovering as it were in the very
air above them (for Saul was dying, although he knew it not yet; and
Abner knew that his hours were numbered, though he might linger
for a day or two yet), the erring soul turned in penitence and love to
the Saviour in Whose death lay the only hope of pardon, and in
Whose resurrection-life the only hope of that life immortal beyond the
grave, beyond the power of the second death, and found at last
peace and rest, in spite of all the blackness of past sin.
For when the Saviour’s Blood has washed away the sin, the
blackness can no longer remain. Humble penitence and contrite love
remain, but the misery and despair are taken away. He bears the
grief and carries the sorrow; He takes the shame, the curse, the
wrath of a holy and a just God. It was a thought almost too
overwhelming for Saul to bear. It broke his heart and humbled him to
the very dust. But he no longer fought against the infinite love—no
longer hardened his heart against the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of
comfort and sanctification. He had felt the blessedness of the
pardoning love, and he yearned for the guiding light that should
show him how he might direct his steps for the time that remained to
him.
Of that time he had not yet thought. Those hours had been too
crowded with extreme emotion. He had passed through a crisis of
spiritual existence which made all earthly things dwarf into
insignificance. It was only when the hour of midnight tolled forth, and
he recollected that a new day had begun for him, that he first folded
his hands in prayer, lifting up his heart to God in thanksgiving for the
light which was now in his soul, and then turning his gaze upon
Abner, who had never moved from his side all this while, asked softly
—
“What day is it?”
“Sunday, my lad. A new day and a new week. I little thought upon
the last Sunday what the Lord had in store for me for this. The Lord’s
Day, my lad—the Lord’s Day. That’s what I love to call it. May we
have grace to keep it to His glory. Saul, my lad, you have no fears
now?”
“Fears of what, grandfather?”
“Fears about the Lord’s love—about the forgiveness He has granted
yu?”
A singular radiance came over Saul’s face.
“No—I can’t doubt it. It’s too wonderful to be understood. But I can
feel it right through me. I’ve no fear.”
“And would you fear, my boy, if you had to see Him face to face—if
you should be called upon to meet Him—if He should come this very
night to gather to Himself those that wait for His coming?”
Saul looked earnestly into the old man’s face. He knew something of
Abner’s belief and hope, though it was now several years since he
had spoken of it in his hearing. As a youth his grandfather, who was
slowly gathering up fragments from the prophetic Scriptures, and, in
common with many others who met for prayer and meditation,
beginning to awaken to a belief in the sudden and instantaneous
appearing of the Lord on earth, had striven to convince the boy of
the truth of this belief, and awaken within his soul that burning love
and longing after the coming and kingdom of the Lord which was
stealing upon his own. Saul, however, had not been responsive. To
him it was all old wives’ fables, and he had sometimes mocked and
sometimes sneered, so that Abner had soon ceased to urge him,
trusting that faith would come at last through the mercy of God,
though not by the will of man. Nevertheless the foundations had
been laid, inasmuch as Saul now understood what his grandfather
meant, and could even recall the words of Scriptural promise in
which Christ had spoken of His return, and the Apostles had
exhorted the early churches to remain steadfast in the hope of it.
And as these memories crowded in upon his mind and brain now—
now that the love of the Lord had awakened within him, and he was
only longing for some means of showing that love and abasing
himself at His feet in penitence and adoration—the memory of these
words and promises came back to him charged with a wonderful
beauty and significance, and clasping his hands together he replied
in a choked voice—
“It is too wonderful and beautiful to be believed, but He has said it. If
He were to come to-night, grandfather, I dare scarcely to hope that
such an one as I should be counted worthy to be caught away to
meet Him in the air; but if I might but look upon His glorified face it
would be enough. He would know how much I love Him, and how I
hate myself and my vile life. I should see Him—I should be able to
look up to Him and say—‘My Lord and my God!’ I do not even ask
more!”
Abner was silent for a moment, and then said in a voice that
quivered with the intensity of his emotion—
“And, my lad, if the Lord delays His own coming, but calls to you to
meet Him in another way, would you be afraid?”
Saul looked at him quickly, and read in a moment all that was in
Abner’s soul.
“Do you mean that I shall die?” he asked.
There was silence for a moment, and then Abner spoke—
“It may not be to-night, but it must be soon. The doctor says you
strained your heart so terrible hard that night, and there was
something amiss with you before. I don’t rightly understand his
words, but you’ve never been the same since that fever, and when
you were knocked down by the horses they did you a mischief
you’ve never got over. That night on the wreck was the last straw, as
folks say. There’s something broke and hurt past mending. You won’t
have no pain, but things can’t go on long. You’ll not be long before
you see your Saviour, my lad; for I’m very sure we go to be with Him,
even though we may not share His glory till the blessed day of the
Resurrection.”
A strange awe fell upon Saul. His eyes looked straight at Abner with
an expression the latter could hardly fathom. Was it fear? Was it joy?
Was it triumph? He did not know, but Saul’s next words gave him the
clue.
“It is goodness past belief—I can’t understand it!”
“What, my boy?”
“Why, that the Lord should take me to Himself, when He might have
left me to a life of misery and degradation in a far-off land with
criminals and evil-doers, or sent me to the scaffold, as I was nearly
sent before. After such a life as I’ve led, to take me away to His
beautiful land of rest. It’s too much—it’s too much! I don’t know how
to thank Him aright. Grandfather, get down upon your knees again
and tell Him—though He knows it, to be sure—that for love of Him
I’m willing to live that life of misery, or die the shameful death I’ve
deserved, and led others to, I fear. Let it be only as He wills, but to
be taken away from it all to be with Him seems more blessedness
and goodness than I can rightly understand.”
Tears were running down Abner’s face. His voice was broken by
sobs.
“Oh, my boy! my boy! if that’s how you feel, I’ve no fears for you.
That’s the feeling we should all strive after. Whether we live, we live
unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: so that,
living or dying, we are the Lord’s. If it’s so with thee, my boy, there’s
nought else to wish for thee. The peace that passes all
understanding will be with thee to the end. Oh, bless the Lord! thank
the Lord! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!”
For many minutes there was in that chamber of death such a sense
of joy and peace as was indeed a foretaste of the everlasting peace
of God. Saul lay and looked out before him through the casement,
through which a very young moon was just glinting. It was a strange
thought that before that moon waned his body would be lying stiff
and cold beneath the churchyard sod. But there was no fear in
Saul’s mind. Fear had never been a friend to him, and now the
perfect love of his crucified and ascended Lord had driven out all
fear. Yet even with the prospect of that wondrous change to pass
upon him, Saul’s thoughts were not all of himself. He listened to all
there was to know of the men he had lured and tempted to this great
crime, and heaved a sigh of relief to hear that the magistrates had
themselves dealt with the cases of the younger men—men some of
them little more than lads, who had plainly been led away by their
associates, and had had a lesson they would not be likely to forget.
Only six had been committed for trial, and these were all men of bad
character and reckless lives. Their fate might likely be a hard one,
but they were to have counsel to defend them, and stress was to be
laid upon the action of Saul in the matter, and the part he had taken
in urging the crime upon them. Saul made a full confession of all his
share to Abner that night, and made him promise to attend the trial
and repeat this before the judges if possible. It might militate in their
favour perhaps, and Saul directed that his boat and all that he had
should be sold and given to the wives of the two men out of the six
who were married; and having settled all this with his grandfather, he
felt his mind relieved of a part of its burden, and lay quiet and
exhausted for some time.
He had fallen into a doze when Abner aroused him to take food, and
looking up quickly he asked—
“Where are we now? I don’t know this place.”
“It’s a room in the castle—in the servants’ block,” answered Abner. “I
told yu they could not get your clasp loosened from Mr. Marchmont’s
neck. They had tu bring yu both here, and then the doctor would not
let yu be taken away—not even so far as my cottage. Yu were
brought here, and yu’ve had the same care and attention as Mr.
Marchmont himself. The doctor went to and fro betwixt yu all that
night, and has been three and four times a day tu see yu ever since.”
A little flicker passed over Saul’s face. He remembered, as a thing
long since past, his old hatred of the class above him. Now he could
only feel love for all men—a natural outcome of the intense and
burning love for his Lord which was filling all his heart.
“If I could only see him once more!” he said softly.
“See what?”
“Mr. Marchmont.”
But Abner shook his head, and such an expression of gravity came
over his face that Saul cried out quickly—
“What is it? Yu said he was doin’ well!”
“Yes—that is what we heard at first. It is true tu—so far as it goes.
When we feared he would die, it seemed everything to know that his
life was spared; but after that came terrible bad news tu. His life is
safe—the doctor says he will live years and years—to be an old man
like enough; but it’s doubtful whether he will ever walk again. He’s
been hurt in the back, and is what folks call half paralysed. He’s got
the feelin’s in his limbs, but no power. He lies on his back, and there
he’ll lie for years. He may get better very slowly, they say. A great
doctor from London has been down, and says with his strength and
youth he may bit by bit get back his strength and power; but anyhow
it’ll be a question of years; and meantime there he’ll lie like a log, and
have to be tended and cared for like a baby.”
Saul put his hand before his eyes and Abner stopped short, realising
that perhaps he had said too much, and that what had grown familiar
to him during these past days had come on Saul as a shock.
And indeed it might well do so; for if any one in so different a position
in life could estimate the terrible death-in-life of such a fate for one
with all Eustace’s enthusiasm and ardent thirst for active work, Saul
Tresithny could; for Eustace had talked with him as man to man, and
had told him of his personal aims and ambitions and purposes as a
man of his class seldom does to one in a sphere so entirely different.
“Crippled for life—perhaps! Crippled through my crime! O my God,
can there be forgiveness for this? Ah! yes—His Blood washes away
all sin. But my punishment seems greater than I can bear!”
He lay still for a few moments and then half rose up in bed.
“I must see him—I must! I must ask his pardon on my knees. If my
Saviour has pardoned my guilt, I must yet ask pardon of him whom I
have so grievously wronged. Grandfather, help me!—I must go to
him. I cannot die till I have seen him once again!”
In great perplexity and distress, Abner strove to reason with the
excited patient, and great was his relief when the doctor appeared
suddenly upon the scene.
Inquiring what all the commotion was about, and learning that Saul
had recovered his senses, but had grown excited in his desire to see
Mr. Marchmont once more, he thrust out his under lip and regarded
the young man intently, his finger upon his patient’s wrist all the
while. Then he spoke to him quietly and soothingly.
“I will let you see him to-morrow, if possible,” he said kindly. “I
understand your feeling; but to-night you must be content to wait and
gather a little strength. Mr. Marchmont is sleeping, and had better not
be disturbed; but if you sleep too, the hours will soon pass. To-
morrow I will do what I can to gratify you,” and having quieted Saul
and administered a soothing draught, he drew Abner with him
outside the door.
“Can he really do it?” asked the old man wonderingly. “I thought he
was like to die at any sudden movement or exertion.”
“Yes, that is true; but there are cases where repose of mind does
more than rest of body. Saul is so near to the gates of death that it
matters little what he does or does not do. How the heart’s action
keeps up at all in the present condition of the organ I do not know;
but the end cannot be far off. If he is bent on this I shall not thwart
him beyond a certain point. He may have forgotten by the morning;
but if not, we must see what we can do to get him there. The
distance is very short—only a few steps along this corridor, and
through the swing door, and you are close to Mr. Marchmont’s room.
I think the exertion of movement will try him less than the tossing and
restlessness of unfulfilled expectation and desire. Let him have his
night in peace, if possible. But if the desire should grow too strong
upon him, let him have his way. It cannot do more than hasten the
inevitable end by a brief span. I am not sure whether his strength will
not desert him at the first attempt to move, and he may give it up of
his own free will; but do not thwart him beyond a certain point. We
doctors always try to give dying men their way. It is cruelty to thwart
them save to gain some real advantage. In your grandson’s case
there is nothing to be gained. He is past human skill; but if we can
ease his passage by relieving his mind of any part of its burden, I
should not stand in the way because it might hasten the end by a
brief hour or more.”
Saul, lying with closed eyes, his senses preternaturally acute and
sharpened by illness, heard every word the doctor spoke, and a
quick thrill of gratitude and thankfulness ran through him. He lay
quite still when his grandfather returned. He gave no sign of having
heard. He was exhausted to an extent which made any sort of
speech or movement impossible at the moment, and told him even
more clearly than the doctor’s words had done of his close approach
to the dark valley. But his mind was at rest, concentrated upon the
one purpose of making his peace with man, as he had already made
it with God. He felt a perfect confidence that this thing also would be
permitted him, and he lay calm and tranquil, resting and thinking.
He saw his grandfather moving softly about the room, saw him put
out beside the fire a suit of his own (Saul’s) clothes, evidently ready
against a possible emergency. He saw a servant come in with food
for them both, and watched through half-closed eyes while Abner ate
his supper. Then he felt himself made comfortable in bed and fed
with something strong and warm, which gave him an access of
strength. He fell into a light sleep after that, and when he opened his
eyes again, Abner was sleeping soundly in his chair—sleeping that
deep sleep of utter exhaustion which always follows at last on a
prolonged vigil.
Saul lay still and watched him, and then a sudden and intense desire
took possession of him. He sat up in bed, and found himself strong
beyond all expectation. A glass of some cordial was standing at the
bedside. He took it and swallowed the potion, and rose to his feet.
He crossed the room softly, still marvelling at the power which had
come to him, and clad himself in the warm garments put out in
readiness. Abner meantime slept on, utterly unconscious of what
was passing. To Saul it all seemed like part of the same wonderful
miracle which had been wrought upon his spirit by the power of the
Eternal Spirit of God. His eyes had been opened at the eleventh
hour to see the light; and now the goodness of God was giving to
him just that measure of physical strength which was needed to
accomplish the last desire of his heart before he should be called
away from this earth.
Once dressed, there was no difficulty in finding his way to the room
where Eustace lay. Saul knew something of the castle, and had once
been taken by Eustace himself up the staircase in the servants’
wing, past the door of this very room, and into the rooms he
occupied to look at some plant under the microscope. He opened the
door softly, and found that the passage was lighted by a lamp. He
was able to walk by supporting one shoulder against the wall and
crawling slowly along. His breath was very short; every few steps he
had to pause to pant, and there were strange sensations as of
pressure upon his windpipe; but he felt that he had strength for what
he purposed, and he persevered.
Through the swing door he passed, and into the carpeted corridor of
the main block of building, and here a light was also burning, whilst
the door he remembered to have opened before stood ajar. He
paused there a moment and looked in. The room was empty, and
beyond lay the sleeping chamber, its door half-open also. Pausing
again to gather breath, Saul passed slowly through that door, and
found himself in a dim and quiet chamber, where a man-servant kept
a quiet watch in a chair beside the fire; and upon the bed, his eyes
closed and his face quite peaceful, lay Eustace Marchmont.
But the entrance of this tall, gaunt, spectre-like figure produced an
effect Saul had not calculated upon. The man-servant well knew
Saul Tresithny by sight, and knew that he lay at the point of death in
an adjoining chamber of the castle. Seeing this figure glide
noiselessly through the door and up to the bed, he fully believed he
saw the young fisherman’s ghost, and springing to his feet with a cry
of terror, he fled precipitately from the room, overcome by invincible
fear. The cry awoke Eustace, and the next moment he and Saul
Tresithny were looking into each other’s eyes—almost as men might
look who had passed beyond the realms of this world and had met in
the land of spirits.
“Is that you, Saul—in the flesh?” asked Eustace faintly. “I have asked
for you, but never thought to see you again.”
“I have come to ask forgiveness of you,” cried Saul in a choked
voice, sinking to his knees beside the bed, partly through physical
weakness, partly through the abasement of his self-humiliation. “I am
dying, sir; I am glad to die, for I know my sins are forgiven by a
merciful Saviour. But oh! I feel I cannot go without your forgiveness
too! I have done you so terrible an injury. Ah! let me hear you say
you can forgive me even that before I go!”
The voice was choked and strained. Saul’s head sank heavily upon
the bed. Eustace heard the gasping breath, and a hoarse rattle in the
throat, which told its own tale. With a great effort he just lifted his
hand and laid it on the bowed head.
“My poor fellow,” he said, “you have as much to forgive as I. May
God forgive you all your sins, as I forgive all you have done amiss
towards me, and as I pray I may be myself forgiven for such part and
lot as I have had in much of sin that has stained your past life.”
With one last effort Saul raised his head, and saw standing beside
him a shining figure which he took to be one of the angels from
heaven. A wonderful, radiant smile lit up his haggard face, his eyes
seemed to look through and beyond those about him, and with the
faint but rapturous cry—
“My Lord and my God!” he fell prone upon the bed.
Bride, aroused by the cry of the servant, had come in hastily, clad in
her white flowing wrapper, with her hair about her shoulders, and laid
a soft hand upon his head as she said in a very low voice—
“Lord, into Thine Almighty Hands we commend the spirit of this our
brother!” and even as she spoke the words, both she and Eustace
knew that the soul of Saul Tresithny had returned to the God who
gave it.
 CHAPTER XXIII
BRIDE’S PROPOSAL
“PAPA,” said Bride softly, coming into the Duke’s study and standing
behind his chair with her arms loosely clasped about his neck, “will
you let me marry Eustace now?”
The Duke gave a very slight start, and then sat perfectly still. He
could not see Bride’s face, and he was glad for a moment that his
own could not be seen.
“My dear child,” he said, after an appreciable pause, “do you mean
that you do not know?”
“I think I know everything,” answered Bride softly. “I know that
Eustace will be as he is now for two or three years—perhaps all his
life; but I do not think it will be that—I mean not all his life. I had a
long talk before he went with the doctor from London, and he said he
was almost confident that power would return, only the patient must
have good nursing, care, and freedom from worry of mind, or
anxious fears for himself, which might react unfavourably upon him.
It is only for a few years he will be helpless; and I want to be his wife
during those years, to help him through with them, to keep him from
the worry and the care which I believe he will feel if he thinks he may
perhaps never be a strong man again, never be able to ask me to
marry him. I know that he loves me, papa, and that I can do more for
him than anybody else. I know that even now he is beginning to lose
heart, not because his work is stopped—he is most wonderfully
brave over that—but because he thinks he may lose me. Does it
sound vain to say that? But indeed it is true. I can read Eustace
through and through, because I love him so. Why should I not be his
wife? Then I could nurse him back to health and strength, and he
could stay here with us all the time, and we should be so happy
together!”
The Duke had been silent at first from sheer amaze. He had never
yet entered into all the still depths of Bride’s nature; and though
personally conscious of his disappointment that his daughter and
heir could not now think of marriage till the health of the latter was
reestablished, he had never thought of a different solution of the
difficulty with regard to Eustace in his helpless and lonely condition.
He had been grieving over the situation in silence many long days,
but the thing that Bride suggested so quietly and persuasively had
never entered his head.
Yet even as she spoke there came upon him a conviction of the truth
of her words. None knew better than he the comfort and support that
a man can receive from a loving and tender wife. He was beginning
to recognise in his daughter those very traits of character which had
been so strongly developed in her mother. Well could he understand
what it would be to Eustace to be nursed and tended, consoled and
strengthened, by such a wife. Doubtless it would be an enormously
powerful factor in his recovery, and the father had long wished with a
great desire to see the future of his child settled before many more
months should pass. It had been a sad blow to him to hear that
Eustace’s recovery must be so slow, for he felt very sure he should
not live to see him on his feet again; and what would become of
Bride, left so utterly alone in the world?
Now he drew her gently towards him, and she knelt beside him at his
feet, looking up into his face with a soft and lovely colour in her
cheeks.
“Has Eustace spoken of this to you, my dear?” he said.
“Ah no!” she answered quickly. “Is it likely he would? He calls himself
a helpless log; and I know that the worst trouble of all is, that he
thinks his helplessness divides him from me. Papa, I want you to go
to him. I want you to tell him that we will be married very soon—as
soon as it can be arranged—and that I will nurse him back to health.
Tell him that we will stay happily together here, and have only one
home, here at Penarvon. I know you do not want to lose me, yet I
know (for you have told me) that you would like to see me Eustace’s
wife. Well, it is all so easy. Do you not see it so yourself? Dearest
father, I love him, and he loves me. What can anything else matter?
Does not his weakness and his helplessness make me love him all
the more? I want to have the right to be with him always, to lighten
the load which will weigh on him, however brave and patient he is,
heavily sometimes. I shall never love anybody else; and I think he
will not either. Why should we wait? Why should we not have the
happiness of belonging to one another before he is strong again as
well as after? Why should those years be wasted for us both?”
The Duke looked into her soft, unfathomable eyes, and he ceased to
oppose her.
“It shall be as you wish, my dear,” he said. “I believe had it been with
me as it is with Eustace, your mother would have done just what you
propose to do. God has His angels here below amongst us still. I will
go and speak of this to Eustace, if you wish it. You are right, my
child, in saying that I would fain see you married to Eustace, since
you love each other. I had not thought of this way, but perhaps it is
the best.”
“You will come and tell me what he says,” answered Bride, with a
lovely blush upon her face; and the Duke went slowly upstairs to the
sick-room.
Eustace was gaining vital power rapidly and most satisfactorily, and
was not paralysed in the ordinary acceptation of the term; but he had
received such violent blows in the spine, either from the force of the
waves whilst he was tossed to and fro at their mercy, or by being
dashed upon rocks—though there were few outward bruises or cuts
—that the whole nervous power had been most seriously impaired,
and he could neither raise himself in bed nor move any of his limbs,
although sensation was not materially affected. It was a case likely to
be tedious and trying rather than dangerous or hopeless. There was
every prospect of an ultimate recovery; but great patience would be
needed, and any premature attempts at exertion might lead to bad
results. Eustace had heard his fate with resolute courage, and had
breathed no word of repining since; but a gravity had settled down
upon him which deepened rather than lessened day by day; and
Bride had been quick to note this, and trace it to its source.
With the Duke, the relations of the young man were now of a most
cordial character. His kinsman had played a father’s part to him
during these past days, and his visits were always welcome in the
monotony of sick-room life.
“I have been talking to Bride,” said the elder man, as he took his
accustomed seat; “we have been talking about your marriage,
Eustace, and neither she nor I see why it should be indefinitely
postponed. Indeed, there seems good reason for hastening it on,
since she can then be your companion and nurse, as is not possible
now, greatly as she wishes it. We cannot think of parting with you till
you are well and strong once more, and that will not be for some
time even at best. Have I your authority to arrange with Mr. St.
Aubyn for a marriage here as quickly as it can be arranged? Since
your minds are both made up, there appears no reason why Bride
should not have the comfort of caring for you and making you her
charge. Perhaps you hardly estimate the joy which such a charge is
to a woman of her loving nature. But you know her well enough to
believe that she never speaks a word that is not literal truth; and as
she wishes to have that privilege, I confess I see no legitimate
objection.”
Eustace had been silent, much as the Duke had been silent when
the girl laid her proposal before him. Sheer astonishment and an
unbounded sense of his own unworthiness and her almost divine
devotion and love held him spellbound for a moment; and when his
words came they were tempestuous and contradictory, declaring one
moment the thing impossible—Bride’s youth must not be so
sacrificed—the next declaring that it was too much happiness, that
he dared not accept it, because it was altogether too much joy to
contemplate. The Duke let him have his fling, and then took up his
word again, imposing silence by a gentle motion of the hand.
“I respect your doubts and your scruples, Eustace; but I think you
need not let them weigh too heavily in the balance against your own
wishes and ours. I will take you into my confidence, and I think you
will then see that even for Bride’s sake this thing is a good one. She
does not know it, but I have a mortal illness upon me, which may
carry me off at any moment, though I may perhaps be spared some
few years longer. I myself consulted the physician whom we
summoned for you, and he admitted that my life was a bad one, and
that with my family history I must not look to be spared much longer.
You know how lonely Bride would be were I taken from her. You can
imagine how greatly I desire to see her settled in life with a husband
to love and cherish her. Were I to die whilst you were thus laid aside,
you must of necessity be separated, and where would Bride go?
What would she do? Money is not everything. A home—a husband’s
care—that is what a woman wants. Eustace, if you are made man
and wife now, all this anxiety will be done away, and the happiness
of all will be secured. Will you not consent? It all rests with you, for I
desire it, and Bride desires it—I think you desire it——”
“Only too much!” cried Eustace, with such a light in his eyes as had
not been seen there for weeks, “only too much. I am afraid of my
own intensity of desire.”
“If that is all, we may dismiss the objection as frivolous,” said the
Duke with a slight smile. “Then I have your consent to make the
arrangements? I will go and tell Bride, and send her to you.”
She came within half-an-hour, calm, tranquil, serene as ever, a lovely
colour in her face, but no other outward sign of excitement or
confusion. Her eyes sought his with one of those glances he had
learned to look for and treasure; and when she came to his side she
bent and kissed him, which hitherto she had not made a habit of
doing.
“Bride,” he said softly, getting possession of her hand, “is this true?”
“Yes, Eustace,” she answered softly; “I do not think we can love each
other more than we do; but we can belong to each other more when
we have been joined together by God. That is what I want, to be one
with you in His sight, so that nothing can part us more.”
He looked earnestly at her, the love in his eyes as eloquent as it was
in hers, and scarcely as much under control.
“You are not afraid, my darling? You were afraid of trusting yourself
to me once?”
“Yes,” she answered gently; “I had not learned to love you then, and
you had not learned love either. You have only learned that slowly,
as I have learned it slowly myself.”
“How do you know I have learned it—the love which you mean?”
She looked at him with a smile that brought an answering smile to
his face.
“Do you think I have been with you all these weeks, in and out, by
day and night, and have not known that? Do you forget how you
showed it in those days when you seemed to be slipping away from
life, and only the eternal promises of everlasting love and help could
reach you to help and strengthen you? You did not talk, but you
made us talk to you, and your eyes gave their answer. You found
then that it was not a beautiful philosophy, but a living Saviour you
wanted; not an abstraction representing an ideal purity, but a Man,
the one Incarnate Son of God, to whom you must cling in the
darkness of the night. Ah! Eustace, it was then that you truly turned
back to the Father’s house; and I know that the Father came out to
meet you, and to bring you into His safe shelter. I knew He would—
oh! I think I have known that for a long time now; but the joy of the
certainty is so wonderful and beautiful——”
Her voice broke, and she turned her head away for a moment, but
he said softly—
“The angels of God rejoicing over one sinner that repenteth? Is that
it, Bride? For you are a veritable angel upon earth!”
“Ah no!” she answered quickly, “do not say that—do not think it. Holy
and blessed as the angels of God are, we have yet a higher vocation
—a higher calling to live up to. It is a human body, not an angelic
body, that our Lord took and sanctified to all eternity. It is for fallen
human creatures, not for the angels, that He came down to die. And
it is glorified human beings, changed into His glorious likeness, who
are called to live and reign with Him in glory unspeakable. I never
want to be an angel. Ours is a more truly blessed and glorious
calling. To be His at His coming. To hear His voice, and be caught up
to meet Him in the air. To be ever with the Lord—kings and priests
for ever and ever! O Eustace! we cannot conceive of such a thing
yet; but the day will come when the kingdoms of this world shall
become the Kingdoms of our God and of His Christ, and He shall
reign for ever and ever!”
The face she turned upon him was as it were transfigured already,
and it seemed to Eustace as though for a moment a curtain lifted
before his eyes and showed him a glimpse of some unspeakable
glory which lay beyond the ken of mortal man. For the first time since
he had known her he began to understand that what had seemed to
him as the outcome of a mystic fanaticism might be in reality the
development of some purer spiritual understanding than he had
been able to attain to. Lying for days at the gate of the unseen world
as he had done, he had learned that many things formerly slighted
and almost despised were the very things which brought a man
peace at the last, and which glowed and strengthened beneath the
mysterious fire of peril that turned to dross and nothingness the
wisdom in which he had trusted, and the staff upon which he had
tried to lean. Having learned this much, he could believe there was
more to learn; that even when fear was cast out and faith reigned in
its stead, there was still progress to be made in the heavenly life. He
did indeed believe that the Saviour had died for the sins of the whole
world, and that He lived to make intercession eternally for those who
claimed the Atonement of His blood. But now he began to
understand that for those who truly love Him and walk every step of
their lives in the light from above, there is a vision of unspeakable
and unimagined glory always open before them; and that, leaving
those things that are behind, there is a continual pressing forward to
the prize of our high calling in Christ—the one overmastering desire
so to live as to be His at His coming, and be used for His eternal
purpose of establishing His Kingdom on the earth.
“Bride,” he said softly, after a long pause, “you must teach me more
of this Kingdom. I had hoped to do a great work for our fellow-men in
this land, and even now I may live to do something; but I can at least
seek to understand God’s ways of working, which are not always
man’s ways; that if it please Him to raise me up, I may consecrate
my life, first to His service, and secondly to the service of man.
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