Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1898)
VOL. 2. D on’t .Shrink. SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1', ¡898. the cour age t<> express our thoughts. They KNOW not w hence I cam e, have changed the frightened, the I know not w h ith er I go, enslaved, tha kneeling, the pros »But the fact stand« clear That I am here trate ii.to men and w om er — c lo t h ¿ I n th is world of pleasure ed them in their right minds and and w oe; And out of th e m ist and m urk made then) truly free. They hove A nother tru th shines p lain— uncrowned the phantom s, wrested It is my power E ach day am i hour the scepters from the ghosts and To add to its joy or pain. given this world to the children of I know th a t th e e a rth exists, men. They have diiven from the It is none of m.v business why. heart the fiends of feat ami e x tin I cannot find out W hat i t ’s all ab o u t— guished the flames of hell. I ’d b u t w aste my tim e to try . My life is a brief, brief th in g , I aui here for a little space, Ami w hile I stay 1 would like, if I m ay, To b rig h ten am i b e tter the place. The tro u b le, I th in k , w ith us all, Is a lack of high conceit; If each m an th o u g h t He was sent to th e spot To m ake it a b it m ore sw eet, How soon we could gladden th e w orld, How easily right all wrong, If nobody sh irk ed And each one worked To help his fellows along. —[E lla W heeler Wilcox* W o rk of th e W o rldly. BY KOBT. G. IN G E R SO L L . W h at have the worldly done? They have investigated the phe nom ena of nature. 1 hey have in vented wavs to use the forces of the world, the w eighted falling water— of moving air. They have changed water to steam , invented engines— the tireless giants that work for man. They have made lightning a messenger and slave. 1 hey invent ed m ovable type, tau g h t us the a rt of p rin tin g and made it possible to save and tran sm it the intellectual wealth of the world. They con nected continents with cables, cities and tow ns with the telegraph — brougi t the world into one family — made intelligence independent of distance. They tau g h t us how to build homes, to obtain food, to weave cloth. They covered the sea with iron ships and the land with roads and steeds of steel. They gave us the tools of all the trades' the im plem ents of labor. 1 hey chiseled statues, pain d pictures and “ witched the world” with form and color. They have found the cause of and the cure for m any m aladies th a t afflict the flesh and m inds of men. They have given us the in stru m en ts of music and the great composers and performers have changed the common air to tones and harm onies th a t intoxi cate, ex alt and purify the soul. They have rescured us f»*om the prisons of fear, and snatched our souls from the fangs and claws of superstition’s loathsome, crawling, flying beasts. They have given us th e liberty to think and They have read a few leaves of the great volume—deciphered some of the records w ritten on stone by the tireless hands of tim e in the dim past. They have told us some thing of what has b e e n done b y wind and wave, by tire and frost, by life and death, the ceaseless workers, the pauseless forces of the world. The have enlarged the horison o f the known, changed the glittering specks that shine above us to wheel ing w orlds,and filled all space with countless suns. They have found the qualities of substances, the nature of things — how to analyze, separate and com bine, and have enabled us to use the good and avoid the hurtful. They have given us m athem atics in the higher forms, by means of which we measure the astronom ica' spaces, t’ e distances to stars, the velocity * at which theh eav en lv •* bod- ies move, their density and weight, and bv which the m ariner navi gates the waste and trackless seas. They have given us all we have of knowledge, of literature and art. They have made life worth living. They have filled the world with conveniences, comforts and lu x u ries. All this has been done by the worldly — by those who were not “called” or “ set a p a rt” or filled with the holy ghost or had the slightest claim to “ apostolic succes sion”. The men who accomplished these things were not “ inspired”. They had no revelation— no super n atu ral aid. Ihey were not clad in sacred vestm ents, and tiaras were not upon their brows. They were not even ordained. They us ed their senses, observed and re corded facts. They had confidence in reason. They were patient searchers for tru th . They turned their attention to the affairs of this world. They were not saints. They were sensible men. They worked for themselves, for wife and child and for the benefit of all. To these men we are indebted for all we are, for all we know, for all we have. They were the creators of civilization— the found» rs of free State»-— the saviors of liberty — the destoyers of superstition— the great «aptains in the arm y of progress.— [A T hanksgiving Sermon. _____________ NO. 40. ing io the term education. Unfor- Innately, most (»four high schools of learning are still under religious dom ination, and an education <le- inanded bv the tin.es is seldom ob- ta ile d in such in stitu tio n s; for ev- erv avenue that leads to a real edu cation is guard« d as if those ave E n fe tte re d E ducation. nues were infested with venomous reptiles. The pupil’s mind is put BY W. J . DEAN. into a straight j teket. Should any Anim als oftentim es commit acts natu rally progressive student suc- which if com m itted by man would Ceed in breaking the m ental fetters he called evil. 1 his tendency is and attem p t to freely rove on the displayed more by some anim als broad, breezy common of the uni- than by others. We say of some verse, he is at once sent home and dog th at he is a worthless cur, al- bis parents requested to keep him ways doing som ething m ean.W here where he can do no mischief. No does the <iog get his mean disposi- huc I i free roving is tolerated, tion? Was there somejcanine Adam T hinking, except in a prescribed th a t fell from grace and trans- channel and with prescribed con- m itted his f a l l ’ to all his dogish elusions, is virtu ally forbidden; h u t posterity? And is the good in anv students are taught, aside from dog due wholly to his having taken m athem atics and d» ad languages, advantage of a “ plan of salvation” th at C hrist died for sinners anti intended for the benefit of his race? th a t the chief end and object of life Of course the idea is absurd. I hen to m ake our “ peace, calling and is it not reasonable to suppose that » lection sure” . a mean d o g e r n e s by his mean dis- Such an education is of doubtful posjiion in about the same m anner , benefit to the race; but an educa- that a mean m an comes by his?—th a t tion th at acepts no m ental fetters, it is to a great extent the out-crop an education that expands the p in g o f a transm itted tra it? It will m ind and stim ulates it to reach out he adm itted t hat so m e anim als,m ore to the remotest corners of the uni noticeably domestic, present evi- verse and even speculate as to w hat d en ceo f having progressed farther ^ b e y o n d ; an education founded on than others of their own kind; so it pru ib and reason and whose object is apt to be said of them th at they is the universal welfare of hu m an i are better than others. Now who ty— such an education will make shall sav that the case of man is a man better, braver, nobler ami not analogous one? To those who grander in t h is life and the better accept evolution the subject is large lit him for the next, if such there ly freed from its difficulty. F o rtu be.— [The Bible Prophecies. itous circum stances have enabled some to progrès.- or evolve more rapidly than others; therefore some The ghosts and their followers have cast off th a t barbaric selfish- a lwayK took delight in torture, in ness, th a t look-out-for-num ber-one (.rLH.| Mlllj ,,„ „ hUal punishm ents, policy, and fully rocognize their F(,r the infraction of most of th eir duty to others and the H aim s of jaWH> ,Jeatb was the henalty—death others upon them . Others, and by pro(Juced by stoning and by fire, far the greater num ber, arc more or gom etin.es, when a man com m itted less actuated by m an ’s prim itive ln u ,d er, he was allowed to flee to prom ptings. some city of refuge. M urder was a Superior intelligence enables some crim e against m an. But for saying to trace the effects of an act further ce rtain wolds, or denying certain than can others. W ith such there doctrines, or for picking up slicks would he a great incentive to com- on certain days, or for w orshipping rnit any act that would result large- the wrong g h o s t, or for failing to ly in good, and a restraint should pray to th e right one, or for laug’ - l heir hereditary impulses urge them ing at a priest, or for saying that to deeds which their intelligence wine was not blood, or th a t hr» ad tells them would ultim ately result was not flesh, or for failing to re in pain and misery to them selves gard ram ’s horns as a rtilleiy , <»r f< r or others. Of course believers in insisting that a d ry bone was total depravity hold th a t m orality scarcely sufficient to take the place does not increase with education, of water works, or th at a raven, as On the contrary, we F reethinkers a rule, m ade poor lan d lo rd :—death claim th at m orality ami education produced by all the ways that the go hand in hand; hut we m ust he ingenuity of hatred c»»uld devise, perm itted to attach our own mean- was the penally.— [R . G. Ingersoll.