Facts is the highest form for referrence of knowledge which s formulated with hard science. However, facts can also be fabricated and faked. So it needs be carefully eveluated and scrutinized just as opinions are.
In 1840, the transcendentalist periodical The Dial Walden "Self-Reliance" "Nature" was founded, and in that same year it published "Orphic Sayings" by Amos Bronson Alcott.