VOL. 1.
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1897.
NO. 45.
The A im s of Secularism .
their brains, etdarge their intellect­
Defense of M aterialism .
lives of which we know nothing,
ual
horizon,
teach
them
something
By E. K ing,
and to have any effective science of
By Andrew H oku .
L et su p erstitio n be destroyed,
of the laws of health, and then they
And falsehood cast aw ay,
In Mr. Alleii’s reply to Mr. Wett- ethics, must care nothing. To see
may fall in love with women l>e
T h a t lib erty m ay i>e enjoyed,
stein, in a recent issue of the T orch a reetJlinker preaching Mr. Allen’s
A nd tr u th hold sovereign sw ay.
cause they are developed grandly
of R eason I notice that he states, in doctrine th a t M aterialism is “cold”
Let th o u g h t be free to all m an k in d ,
in
body
and
mind.
The
sentiment
* And rea so n ’s lig h t illum e
effect, th at a code of conduct can raises the suspicion that the Secu­
The long benighted realm s of m ind,
is
still
there—still
controls;
but
neither be form ulated nor carried lar churchmen of this type are not
D ispelling clouds of gloom .
back of the sentiment is science.
out with Mater,»l,Hn, as a ph.lopo- far removed from ProtM)1, nti
jf
Let conscience rule us everv day,
T h at we m ay h o n o r tr u th ,
bentiment can never be destroyed phy. I would not, probaoly, have their’s is minus Christianity. At
And h e r suprem e com m ands obey
and Jove will forever rule the taken np tins qnestton had I not |east, they Hre he|pjng ortbod
T hrough life from early y o u th .
seen th at Mr. Allen has before taken kv
i ™ ..; i
i i e ,
,
human race.
L et kindness fill th e h u m an h e a rt
.> •
...
v i i
,
hy what I consider a lack of thought,
this position. I had thought th a t
__________
W ith sy m p a th y for all,
Thousands,
millions
of
people
And bid us know ledge to im p a rt
time would eradicate this, as I con­
Ignorance and Devotion.
T he m ind to d ise n th ra l.
fear that science will destroy not ceive it an erroneous idea, but appar­
By
Horace Beaver.
L et love prevail o ’e r every breast,
only poetry, not only sentiment, ently it has not done so, and I am
And happiness abound ;
but religion. This fear is idiotic. moved to call attention to the loose-
May all m an k in d be tru ly blest,
The old proverb, “Ignorance is
H u m a n ity be crow ned,’
Science will destroy superstition, ness of thinking ami lack of facts the mother of devotion,” is conclu-
Science and S en tim en t in Mar­ but it will not injure true religion. displayed in advancing this idea, sively proven by the well-known
riage.
Science is the foundation of real re­ Mr. Allen is a pessimist. “Happi- fact, that among an ignorant and
ness is hut a dream, and only pain superstitious people there is little
ligion.
Science
teaches
us
the
con­
By R. O. Ingersoll.
is real,” says Schopenhauer, and or no free inquiry, doubt and
Do I believe that science will do sequences of actions, the rights and our friend as well.
Life is not ’ scepticism. These qualities indi­
away with sentiment as a basis of duties of all. Without science there worth living, and if death ends all, cate intelligence, knowledge, pro-
or if we believe death ends a ll,! gress; and hence it is that we find
love and marriage? It was thought can be no real religiop.
Only those who live on the labor then take the shortest road to noth­ them prevailing in countries which
at one time by many that science
ingness, is Mr. Allen’s advice. But are the most intellectual, which
would do away with poetry—that of the ignorant are the enemies of in spite of this the Materialists
have made the greatest improve-
it was the enemy of the imagina­ science. Real love and real relig­ cling to life with what must be to!ment in the knowledge of them-
tion. We know now that is not ion are in no danger from science. Mr. A— a surprising tenacity. In selves and the world they inhabit,
true. We know that science goes The more we know the safer aM fact, they are unanimous upon this Among these nations, England,
good things are.
question. “Ah!” says our friend, France, Germany and America
hand in hand with the imagina­
Do I think that marriage of the “hut that does not effect my argu­ stand preeminent.
Accordingly
tion. We know that it is in the sickly and diseased ought to be pre­
ment; they may not have discovered we witness that in these nations
highest degree poetic, and that the vented by law? I have not much
how hare and barren life is.” But the doubts and disbelief of the pre­
old ideas, once considered so beau- confidence in law—in law that I
this is throwing the case away, and
ful, are flat and stale. Compare know cannot he carried out. The is the critical point in the whole vailing system of religion have
kept pace with the gradual exten­
Kepler’s laws with the old Greek poor, the sickly, the diseased, as
argument between the pessimist sion of knowledge.
The doep-
idea that the planets were boosted Jong as they are ignorant, will
or pushed by angels. The more marry and help fill the world with and the optimist. Happiness can- rooted prejudices of a long succes-
we know, the more beauty, the retchedness and want. We must not be measured, weighed norcount-' siou of ages are daily giving way
ed. What is happiness to one may to the truths of reason and philos-
more poetry we find. Ignorance is rely on education instead of legisla­
be indifference or even dislike to ophy, and the rays of science are
not the mother of the poetic or ar­ tion. We must teach the conse­
another and vice versa. If we steadily dispelling the mists of
tistic.
quences of actions. We must show could measure what constitutes superstition.
So some people imagine that the sickly and diseased what their happiness or pleasure then we
In the Bible, the standard of
science will do away with senti­ children must be. We must preach might be able to settle the disputes
their religion, the Christians have
ment. In my judgment, science the gospel of the body. I believe between optimists and pessimists.
long seen something radically de­
will not oniy increase sentiment, the time will come when the public But we cannot, and optimism and
fective, or at least not as it should
but sense.
thought will be so great and grand pessimism remain only names for he; but, never once doubting its di­
A person will be attracted to an­ that it will be looked upon as infa­ our different conceptions of how
vine origin, a thought concerning
other for a thousand reasons, and mous to perpetuate disease—to leave existence seems to each of us. The
which they have been taught to be­
what person is attracted to another a legacy of agony.
“will to live” cannot lie overcome, lieve a heinous sin, they have at­
may, and in some degree will, de­
I believe the time will come when Schopenhauer, Von Hartman or
pend upon the intellectual, artistic, men will refuse to fill the future Mr. Allen to the contrary, notwith­ tributed its incomprehensibilities
to misinterpretation, and forthwith
and ethical development of each.
with consumption and insanity. standing. We therefore come to proceeded to adopt constructions of
The handsomest girl in Zululand Yes, we will study ourselves. We the question of a code of ethics.
their own on indistinct and inco-
might not be attractive to Herbert will understand the conditions of
The principles of conduct can have herent passages, as if an emanation
Spencer, and the fairest girl in health, and then we willsav: “ We
no connection, do not come in con- from the Deity would not have been
England might not be able to are under obligation to put the flags
tact with, either Materialism or so plain that he who ran might not
hasten the pulse of a Choctaw of health in the cheeks of our chil­ Agnosticism. The first is a nega- only read hut comprehend! Hence
brave. This does not prove that dren.”
tive attitude about something be- have arisen the variety of sects in
there is any lack of sentiment.
Even if I should get to heaven yond this life: the second is an atti- the Christian religion, a variety
Men are influenced according to and have a harp, I know that I tude neither positive nor negative that is unknown in any other re-
their capacity, their temperament, could not bear to see my descendants about the same thing. Seeing that ligious system; and a convincing
their knowledge.
still on the earth, diseased, de­ conduct must deal with life which proof to the unprejudiced, that if a
Some men fall in love with a formed, crazed—all suffering the we nearly all seem determined to perfect Deity found it necessary,
small waist, an arched instep, or penalties of my ignorance. Let us live, it is readily seen that it touches after endowing man with the in-
curly hair without the slightest re­ have more science and more senti- neither upon Materialism nor Ag- herent power of distinguishing be-
gard to mind or muscle. This we ment—more knowledge and more nosticism. It is Secularism, which tween good and evil, to furnish him
call sentiment.
conscience—more liberty and more only antagonizes theology or any with written instructions, the
Now, educate such men, develop Iove>
dogmatic assertions about other Bible does not contain them.
a
t