Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903, January 27, 1898, Image 1

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    VOL. 2.
SIL V E R T O N , OREGON. T H U R SD A Y , JA N U A R Y 27
It Is Tim e.
isn s.
ply this rule to the ¡d«a of there violent death; they have no old
being a god because watches, wag­ age.
ons, etc., have m akers, and to the
idea of im m ortality because grub« u 1 he , following
X ' g sentence " from
j.
,
, *
g ru > H ooker’s “ Ecclesiastical Polity is
is
(become butte,Hies, etc., e tc , etc., j an instance of false analogy from
NO. 13.
Since what was thought to he p er­
fection appeared to obtain in some
In this age, when g<»l<l is king,
phenom ena, it was inferred to ob­
Seated on a brazen th ro n e ;
tain in all. * \\ e alw ays suppose
When ’tis th o u g h t th e proy>er th in g
To rate men by w hat th e y o w n ;
.that which is better to take place
5Vhen the brute is m ore and m ore.
after we have read the following, physical bodies to what are called in nature, if it be possible, ’ says
And the m oral less and less;
we believe we will never again be ’“’dies politic. “ As there could be Aristotle: and the vaguest and most
When the world is lorded o ’e r
By corruption and excess;
led astray by shallow figures from
” a t,,ra l bodies no notion of a n y - heterogenous qualities being con­
It is tim e th a t men of worth
shailow brains, and we will be able th ” ’g un,ess there were some which founded together under the notion
Boldly step into th e van,
t
, „
L
u o e a o i e rnoveth all things, and continneth of being better, there was no lim it
With this message to th e e arth :
to put others on the right road to
.
. . . .
im
m
o
v
a
b
le
,
even
so
in
p o litic socie- to the wildness of the inferences.
Down with M am m on, up w ith Man.
tru tn and common sense.— E d .
tics
• > a­ T hus, because the heavenly bodies
11,8 inere must i be some u n p u n ish
We have seen th e idler feast
ble, or else no m an shall suffer pun- were perfect they must move io
While the toiler lacked for b read ;
As a first instance, we mav <*ir<* i^hment«” 1 here is a double falla- circles and uniform ly. For ‘th ey ’
We have seen the king and priest
that favorite argum ent in defence of cy here, for not only the analogy, (th e P ythagoreans) ‘would not al
Roh the living and th e dead ;
absolute power, drawn from the an- but the prem ise from which it is '.’,V ’ sa-Vs (,e n ,>nus, ‘of an y such
Wc have seen the th ie f arrayed
a logy of paternal governm ent in a draw n, is untenable.
The notion d,'^°* der am ong di vine and eternal
In the purple robes of sta te ,
family, which governm ent is not, th at there m ust he som ething im- tb «n&8> as they should som etim es
While the honest m an was m ade
and by universal adm ission ought movable which moves all other n,ove Mu,cker a «d som etim es slow-
To beg succor at his gate.
It has ever been th e sam e
not to be, controlled by (though it things, is the old scholastic error of er’ a ,,d som etim es stand still, for
Since this reign of w ealth began;
no one would tolerate such anom aly
ought sometimes to be controlled a ‘prim um m obile’.
Let us stop, th e sickening gam e—
i ti tire movem ents even of a m an,
for) the children. P atern al govern-
Down with M am m on, up with Man.
Some ol the false analogies upon who was decent and orderly. The
; m ent, in a fam ily, works well;
therefore, says the argum ent, des­ which system s of physics were con­ occasions of life, however, are often
Earth is far to wise and old*
grounded in the lime
For a lordling or a slave ;
potic governm ent in the state w ill, fidently
,
---- of
- reasons for men going quicker or
To respect a band of gold
(Jreek
work well; im plying that the bene- j the ^’
reek philosophers, are such as slower, but in the incorruptible
• hi the forehead of a knave ;
call fanciful,
not th a t the nature of the stars, it is not possi­
ficial results of paternal govern- we
We now cal1
fancifu,> '»°t
Ear too old for war and hate ,
merit depend, in the family, upon rc8e," blances are not often real, but ble th a t any cause can be alleged of
Old enough for b ro th erh o o d ;
the only point which it has incom -i tHai
’S. ,ong since a n y one has quickness or slowness.’ It is seek­
Old enough to found a state
mon with political despotism , !
n ’npbned to draw from them ing an argum ent of analogy very
W here men seek each o th e r’s good.
We have worked for self too long,
namely, irresponsibility. W hereas, the inferences which were then lar to suppose th at the stars m ust
Let us try a b etter plan ;
it does not depend upon th a t, but draw n. Such, for instance, are the observe the rules of decorum in guit
Let us labor for the th ro n g —
upon two other atrib u tes of p a r­ curious speculations of the P y th a ­ and carriage, prescribed for them ­
Down w ith M am m on, up w ith Man.
ental governm ent, the affection of goreans on the subject of numbers. selves by the long-bearded philoso­
o h , my people! will you heed?
the parent for the children and the Finding th a t the distances of the phers satirized by Lucian.
Be no m ore like beasts of p rey ;
superiority of the parent in wisdom planets bore or seemed to hear to
As late as the Gopernican con­
Turn from selfishness and greed ;
one
another
a
proportion
not
v
ary
­
and experience; neither of which
troversy it was urged as an arg u ­
l e t us find a better way.
ing much from th a t of the di visions
properties
can
be
reckoned
upon,
or
from the w orn-out lies of old,
m ent in favour of the true theory of
aie at all likely to exist between a of the m onochord, they inferred the solar system , th a t ‘it placed the
Let us m ake th e whole world free:
Down w ith kings and p riests a h d gold, political despot and his subjects; i. from it the existence <»f a(, jnaud-
fire, the noblest elem ent, in the cen­
1 p with Good, H u m a n ity .
and when either of these eircum- ' ld<' ni,,p,c> that of tl,e spheres: as
tre of the universe.’ This was a
Lust tor gain breeds h a te and c rim e:
stances fail, even in the family, and ' f t,le ,,,U8’C a b a rP had depended
rem nant of the notion th a t the o r­
Let us crush it while we can ;
the influence of the irresponsibility I H° lely ° n «he num erical proportions,
Let us bring th e b e tter tim e—
der of n atu re m ust be perfect, and
¡sallow ed to work uncorrected, t h e !a " d ” Ot On ,he niatprial nor even
Down w ith M am m on, up w ith M an.
th a t perfecti<»n consisted in con­
result
is
an
y
th
in
g
but
good
g
o
v
ern
-1
°
n
the
ex,8te,,<‘e
a
”
'
m
aterial.
—[Selected.
form ity to rules of precedency in
any strings at all. It has beer,
m ent. This, therefore, is a
dignity, either real or conventional.
sim ilarly im agined th a t certain
analogy.
Again, reverting to num bers; cer­
com binations of num bers, which
A nother exam ple is the not un- were found to prevail in some tain num bers are perfect, therefore
f allacy of f alse A nalogies.
common dictum , th a t bodies poli- n atu ra l phenom ena, must run those num bers must obtain in the
tic have youth, m atu rity , old age, through the whole of nature: as great phenom ena of nature. Six
Hie following, from John S tu art
and death, like bodies natural; that th a t there m ust be four elem ents, was a perfect num ber, that is, equal
sum of all its factors; an
Mills ‘'System of Logic” , very after a certain duration of prosperi- Irecause there are four possible | to the HU*
y, they tend spontaneously to de- com binations o f hot and cold wet add,llo,,al reaMOn
there m ust
n'ppIy
illu strates
the
errors
cay. This also is a false analogy, and d ry : th a t there must be seven e exa<
8IX planH s.
ih e P y th a -
which C hristians, sp iritu alis, the- because the decay of the vital pow- planets, because there were seven ^ °n a " s’ 0,1 tbe °«ber b a n d a ttrib u t­
1 '*['[iists and others have m ade in e s in an anim ated body can be metals, and even because
there ' P‘ 1 J< ‘ «¡‘”* *° the num ber ten,
tr>ing to find reasons for their distinctly traced to the natural were seven days of tire week. Kep-
1,1 thin k in g th a t the
r h ' t num ber m ust be somehow
false, unprovable theories, and the progress of those very changes of ler him self thought there could be
structure which, in their earlier only six planets because there were r‘ a lz’ d
b< avent,i an<l know-
reader is asked to apply to them
stages, constitute its growth to ma- only five regular solids. W ith ,hg " ,d '
r,«ne heavenly bodies to
L*' great philosopher’s idea, viz.,
tu ritv ; while in th e body politic these we may class the reasonings, n * . 1
‘ nuniPration» they as-
t h .it when a resem blance in one
the progress of those changes can- so common in the speculations of <rt< < 1 at there was an an tich th o n
L".nt is inferred from resemblance not, generally speaking, have any «he ancients, founded upon a sup- » J
/ F ! ari? ,,. ? n
° th e r side
’ * m h '’ E/ e “
1,1 another point, and there is no effect but th e still further continu- l“”‘»''l perfection in n atu re ; m ean- y '’L"'*'
,
¡>.g by n atu re the eutom ary order J *u3 « - ’*»«»»'’ I«rsuaded th a t when
'idence to connect the two circum-
.
O grow h.
,8 the so p p ag e
event(< as (
o( I the number of the heavenly bodies
L Hires by way of causation, but
of th a t progress, and thecom m ence- them selves w ithout hum an inter- had reached twelve, it could not
Di evidence tends positively to
ment of retrogression, th at alone ference. This also is a ru.le guess ad m it of any further increase
disconnect them , this inference is a
would constitute decay. Bodies a t an analogy supposed to pervade C reative power could not go be-
fallacy of false analogy. If we ap­
polilic die, but it is of disease, or all phenom ena, however dissim ilar, yond that sacred number