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VOL. 1.
The Path of Independence.
4 V.
*
-X_L 1 J ï 1 k J V7 L i t
SIL\ ERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, APRIL 29, »897.
NO. 26.
the birth of those creatures which lieves in building a home here, in he is a man of science; of another,
we may regard as the earliest rep this world. It trusts to individual he is a man of imagination. The
An easy task it is to tread
resentatives of the human type, for effort, to energy, to intelligence, fact is, science and imagination are
The path th e m u ltitu d e will ta k e ;
But independence dares th e stake
only the gradual evolution and in- to observation and experience, rath- not only compatible, but there can
If t)ut bv fair conviction led.
beritance from generation to ge"er- er than to the unknown and super- be no really great scientific man
Then haste, tru th -see k er, on th y way,
ationof the faculties awakened in natural. It desires to be happy on who is deficient in imagination.
Nor heed th e w orlding’s sm ile o r frow n, those creatures by their more perfect this side the grave
Science does not consist merely in
The brave alone can w ear th e crown
organization could originate that. Secularism means food and fire- collecting facts, It does not con
The noble only clasp the bay.
advance or continual improvement j side, roof and raiment, reasonable sist in enumerating things that
(Io, w orker of th e public w e a l;
of mankind which we must at pres work and reasonable leisure, the have been observed. It consists
W hen knaves com bine, and plot and ent regard as the final and highest
cultivation of the tastes, the rather in the observation and col-
plan,
object
of
all
earthly
existence.
But
acquisition of knowledge, the enjoy- lection of facts, in their classifica-
A ssert th e d ignity of m an,
whilst, in those earliest periods of menX of the arts, and its promises tion and the discovery of the prin-
Teach th e honest h earts to feel.
his development, man was sub for the human race comfort, inde ciples which underlie them. The
Still keep th y independence w hole;
jected to precisely the same natural pendence, intelligence, and, above popular idea that a man who brings
Let nothing w arp thee from thv course,
laws or conditions as the forms of all, liberty. It means the abolition together a basket of bones or a bo
And thou sh a lt wield a g ia n t’s force,
, the vegetable and animal worlds of sectarian feuds, of theological of shells is a scientist is a very
And wrong before th y foot shall roll.
—Selected.
which had preceded him in a long hatreds. It means the cultivation great error. The man of science is
series of influences, whether inju of friendship and intellectual the one who can distinguish be
Man, the Final Product of Terres rious or beneficial, to which he hospitality. It means living for
tween the different bones, can put
trial D evelopm ent.
could oppose but a feeble resistance, ourselves and each other; for the those of the same genera specses of
Man did not come upon the earth i he has subsequently, in the laps« present instead of the past; for this variety together and reconstruct
spontaneously, but by the medita of time, by the further development world rather than for another. It the frame of the creatures to which
tion of the same natural forces and of his menial faculties, emancipated means the right to express your they belong. He is the one who
causes to which all life owes its ori- himself more and more from those thought in spite of popes, and can take those shells, separate them
g in . He did not descend from influences, and has finally attained priests, and gods. It means that and describe the creatures which
above or from the ether, but he has a point at which he may say to impudent idleness shall no longer live in them and their relations
sprung up from below by the same himself with no little pride that live upon the labor of honest men. with one another. In the higher
processes which lie at the founda-
present and future late has fic It means the destruction of the sense, the man of science is one
tion of all terrestrial development. come more or less independent
business of those who trade in fear. who from the observation of facts
In accordance with the present nature, that is to say, it is in his It proposes to give serenity and has the ability to arrange them in
state of our knowledge, he can be own hands. Nature has, as it were, content to the human soul. It will order and to explain their meaning,
regarded as nothing more than the recognized herself in him has con put out the fires of eternal pain. as Newton explained the cause of
last and highest product of that sciously advanced in opposition to It is striving to do away with the fall of the apple, when he by
slow process of development and herself—and has thus undertaken violence arid vice, with ignorance, the power of imagination conceived
evolution by which our planet, the a peculiar task, the fulfillment of poverty, and disease. It lives for that the same force which brought
earth, in the course of enormous which will remove both nature and the ever-present today, and the the apple to the ground was that
periods of time completes its nat man further and further from the ever-coming tomorrow. It does which held the planets in their or
ural cycle of life, which in turn is rude and imperfect states of the not believe in praying and receiv bits. No great discovery is made
only a single phase of eternity. past.—Buchner.
ing, but in earning and deserving. without the use of the imagination.
What higher or more perfect struc
It regards work as worship, labor It enables the man of science
Secularism .
tures than ourselves may still slum
as prayer, and wisdom as the savior to think beyond what
has
BY R. G. INGERSOLL.
ber, to come forth hereafter by the
of mankind. It says to every been actually discovered; then by
same process, we know not. But
Secularism is the religion of human being; “Take care of your the use of the scientific, method,
upon one point our science leaves humanity; it embraces the affairs self, so you may be able to help he can verify what he has con
no doubt, namely, that hitherto of this world; it is interested in others; adorn your life with the ceived as possible. Imagination
nothing higher or more perfect than everything that touches the welfare gems called good deeds; illumine is to the scientist what the lamp is
man has been produced by Nature, of a sentient being; it advocates at your path with the sunlight called on the cap of the miner; it en
and that it is not only the right, tention to the particular planet in friendship and love.”
ables him to see a little beyond
but the duty of man to regard him which we happen to live; it means
Secularism is a religion—a his present position. Men like
self as the ruler over all existences that each individual counts for religion that is understood. It has Humboldt, Huxley, Tyndall, are
accessible to him, and to guide and something; it is a declaration of no mysteries, no mummeries, no those in whom imagination is
change them as much as possible intellectual independence; it means priests, no ceremonies, no false strong and vivid. Darwin and
for his own necessities and pur that the pew is superior to the hoods, no miracles, and no persecut Wallace never could have discov
poses.
pulpit, that those who bear the ions. It considers the lilies of the ered the principle of natural se
It is easy to see that hy this a burdens shall have the profits, and fields, and takes thought for the lection without imagination to
perfectly new and previously un- that they who fill the purse shall morrow’. It says to the whole enable them to look beyond the
known principle was introduced hold the strings. It is a protest world: “ Work, that you may eat, popular theory as well as the
into nature and the world in gen- against theological oppression, drink, and be clothed; work, that scientific knowledge to see that
eral, a principle which is essentially against
ecclesiastical tyranny,
enjoy; work, that you ; the popular theory was untenable.
distinct from any thing that pre- against being the serf, subject, or may not want; work that you may
B. F. UNDERWOOD.
ceded it. For it is only in man slave of any phantom, or of the give, and never need.”—The Free-
Like rnoc! garments, everything
that the world becomes conscious priest of any phantom. It is a thinker.
in life has a right and a wrong side.
to such a degree that it rises out of protest against wasting this life
Science and Im agination.
You can take any joy, and by turn
its previous dream-like natural ex- for the sake of one that we know
ing it round, find troubles on the
istence and allows dominion over not of. It proposes to let the gods
It is not uncommon for those who
nature to take the place of a nearly take care of themselves. It is know very little or nothing of sci other side; or, you take the greatest
involuntary subjection to it. Never- another name for common sense; ence to put science and imagination trouble, and by turning it round,
theless this did not take place sud- that is to say, the adaptation of in opposition to each other, as find joys on the other side. The
gloomiest of mountains never casts
denly or all at once, but very grad- means to such ends as are desired though one were inconsistent W
’ith a shadow’ on both sides at once.—
ually and only a long time after and understood. Secularism be- the other. It is said of such a one, Investigator.