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.