T orch
VOL. 2.
of
R E A SON.
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1898.
HV FREEDOM.
NO. 47.
The very heavens were full of Spirit of Zoroaster and of His Re- meditations led hi
ini to the convic
death; the lightning was regarded
ligion.
JO Y ! at last niy m ind is free!
tion that all the wroe of the world
In ruins lie its prison bars!
had its root in sin, and that the or
My bark b a th gained th e open sea as the glittering vengeance of God,
BY JA M E S F R E E M A N C L A R K E .
And sails b eneath th e etern al stars.
and the earth wTas thick with
igin of sin was to be found in the
I languish in th e clutch no m ore
snares for the unwary feet of man.
It is not likely that Zoroaster demonic world. He might have
Of S u p e rstitio n ’s palsied h a n d ;
B ehind me fades th e narrow sh o re;
I he soul was supposed to lie crowd ever saw Pythagoras or even Abra used the language of the Apostle
B eyond, th e sea of T ruth expands.
Paul and said: “ We w’restle not
ed with the wild beasts of desire; ham. But though absolutely noth
with flesh and blood”—that is, our
H enceforth no narrow , h eartless creed
ing
is
known
of
the
events
of
his
the
heart
to
be
totally
corrupt,
The freedom of my th o u g h t shall chain,
struggle is not with man, but with
life,
there
is
not
the
least
doubt
of
The tru th alohe m y steps shall lead
prompting only to crime. Virtues
Trough R eason’s lim itless dom ain.
his existence nor of his character principles of evil, rulers of dark
were regarded as deadly sins in He has left the impress of his com ness, spirits of wickedness in the
R eproachful voices now are hushed,
The conflict’s angry m u rm u rs cease;
disguise. There was a continual manding genius on great regions, supernatural world. Deeply con
W ith daw ning hope th e sky is flushed,
warfare being waged between the i various races and long periods of vinced that a great etruggle was
And o’e r me w aft th e airs of peace.
—Secular Songs.
Deity and the devil for the posses- time. His religion, like that of the going on between the powers of
sion of every soul; the latter gener Buddha, is essentially a moral re light and darkness, he called on all
a lly being considered victorious. ligion. Each of them was a revolt good men to take part in the war,
Then and Now.
I he flood, the tornado, the volcano, from the Pantheism of India, in and battle for the good God against
were all evidences of the displeas the interest of morality, human the dark and foul tempter.
BY R. G. IN G E R SO LL.
Great physical calamities added
ure of heaven and the sinfulness of freedom and the progress of the
INCE the murder of Hypatia man. The blight that withered, race. They differ in this, that each to the intensity of this conviction.
in the fifth century, when the frost th at blackened, the earth takes hold of one side of morality, It appears that about the period of
the polished blade of Greek quake that devoured, were the mes and lets go the opposite. Zoroaster Zoroaster, some geological convul
philosophy was broken by the club sengers of the Creator.
bases his law on the eternal dis sions had changed the climate of
northern Asia, and very suddenly
of ignorant Catholicism, until to
The world was governed hy Fear. tinction between right and wrong:
day, superstition has detested every
Sakya-inuni, on the natural laws produced severe cold where before
Against all the evils of nature,
effort of reason.
and their consequences, either good there had been an almost tropical
there was known only the defense
temperature.
It is almost impossible to con
or evil. Zoroaster’s law is, there
of prayer, of fasting, of credulity
Amid these terrible convulsions
ceive the completeness of the vic
fore, the law of justice; Sakya-
and devotion. Man in his helpless-
tory that the church achieved over
iquni’s, the law of mercy. The one of the air and ground, these antago
ness endeavored to soften the heart
:
nisms of outward good and evil,Zoro
philosophy. For ages •science was of i /wi
t
z.
r
..
the
supreme
good
to
consist
1 he faces of the multitude (•
. ,7 . xl
utterly ignored; thought was a poor of God.
,,
- i . , ,
,
in truth, duty, right; the other, in aster developed in’s -belief in (be du
were blanched with fear and wet i
,
«
j
. • ,
alism of all things. To his mind, as
slave; an ignorant priest was mas wHL
♦«c.a
tl
u
’
benevolence
and
kindness,
with tears. Ihe world was the prey
.
ter of the world; faith put out the . ,
, .
. . F J Zoroaster teaches providence; the to that of the Hebrew poet, God had
r ♦
v prudence.
J
placed all things against each
eyes of the soul; reason was a trem of hypocrites, kings and priests.
1
monk . of fT India
teaches
My heart bleeds when I contem-! Zoroaster aims at holiness, the Bud- other, two and two, No Pantheis
bling coward; the imagination was
set on fire of hell; every human plate the suffering endured by the dha at merit. Zoroaster teaches ms optimism, like that of India,
feeling was sought to be suppress millions now dead; of those who and emphasizes creation; the Bud- could satisfy his thought. He could
ed; love was considered infinitely lived when the world appeared to dha knows nothing of creation, but not say: “ Whatever is, is right”;
sinful, pleasure was the road to be insane; when the heavens were only nature or law. All these op some things seemed fatally wroug.
eternal fire, and God was supposed filled with an infinite Horror, who positions run back to a single root. The world was a scene of war, not
to be happy only when His chil snatched babes with dimpled hands Both are moral reformers. Zo of peace and rest. In the far dis
dren were miserable. The world and rosy cheeks from the white roaster cognizes all morality as tance he saw the triumph of good;
was governed by an Almighty’s breasts of mothers and dashed them having its root within, in the eter but that triumph could only come
whim; prayers could change the or into an abyss of eternal flame.
nal distinction lietween right and by fighting the good fight now.
der of things, halt the grand pro Slowly, like the coming of the wrong motive, but Sakya-muni But his weapons were not carnal.
cession of nature—could produce dawn, came the grand truth that finds it outside of the soul, in the “Pure thoughts” going out into
rain, avert pestilence, famine and the universe is governed bv law’* results of good and evil action, “true words” and resulting in “right
death in all its forms. There was that diseane fastens itself upon the therefore in the nature of things. actions ’; this was
T”" the whole
" duty
' I 1 rea eligi ions.
no idea of the certain; all depended good and upon the bad; that the The “ ethod of eakation, therefore, |
upon divine pleasure—or displeas tornado can not be stopped by according to Zoroaster, is that of a
n
------------- —
ure, rather; heaven was full of in counting beads; that the rushing eternal battIe for good against evil;
Ihe ldea of Greek religion which
consistent malevolence, and earth lava pauses not for bended knees, but according to the Buddha, it is
of ignorance. Everything was done the lightning for clasped and up- lbat self-culture and virtuous ac- distinguishes it from all others is
to appease the divine wrath. Every lifted hands, nor the cruel waves of livity-
the human character of its gods,
public calamity was caused by the the sea for prayer; that paying
Both of these systems, as being I he gods of Greece are men and
sins of the people; generally by a tithes causes, rather than prevents, essentially moral systems in the in- women, men and women on a Iarg-
failure to pay tithes. To the poor famine; that pleasure is not sin; terest, of humanity, proceed from er eCale, but still intensely human,
multitude, the earth was a kind of that happiness is the only good; persons. For it is a curious fact, The gods of India, as they appear
enchanted forest, full of demons that demons and gods exist only in that, while the essentially spirit- jn the sacred books, are vast ab-
ready to devour, and theological the imagination; that faith is a lul- ualistic religions are ignorant of factio n s; and as they appear in
serpents lurking with infinite pow’- laby sung to put the soul to sleep; their founders, all the moral creeds sculpture, hideous and grotesque
er to fascinate and torture the un that devotion is a bribe that fear of the world proceed from a moral idols. The gods of Egypt seem to
happy and impotent soul. Life to offers to supposed power; that of- source, i. e., a human will.
pass away into mere Rymbois and
them was a dim and mysterious faring rewards in another world for
Zoroaster was one of those who intellectual generalizations.
But
labyrinth, in which they wandered obedience in this, is simply buying was oppressed with the sight of the gods of Greece are persons,
weary and lost, guided by priests souls on credit; that knowledge evil. . But it was rot outward evil warm with life, radiant with beau-
as bewildered as themselves, with consists in ascertaining the laws of which moat tormented him, but tv, having their human adventures,
out knowing that at every step the nature, and that wisdom is the spiritual evil—evil having its ori- wars, loves. The symbolical mean-
Ariadne of reason offered them the science of happiness.—Prose Poems gin in a depraved heart and a will ing of each god disappears in his
long lost clue.
and Selections.
turned away from goodness. His personal character.—[Sel.
O
S