T orch of
VOL. 2.
R eason
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, ¡898.
NO. 50
The Golden City.
Thom pson who, in his effort to ac as I lie scientist, t be fool as the phil
Devils.
count
tor
the
origin
of
life
upon
this
osopher. Only those who think
BY FELIX ADLER.
e a tth , stated th a t it m ight have they have had so ne supernatural
BY C H A R L E S B R A D L A U G H .
A V E you heard of th e golden city come from some meteoric stone fall-
inform ation pretend to answ er these
M entioned in th e legends old?
ing
from
some
other
planet
having
questions,
and the unknowable, the
OR myself, the only devil I
E v erlastin g light sh in es o ’e r it,
W ondrous tales of it are told ;
in it the germ s of life. W hat would impossible, the unfathom able, is
know is that black devil
Only righteous m en and women
ignora nee,fostered by k n av
you th in k of a farm er who would the realm occupied wholly by the
Dwell w ithin its gleam ing wall,
W rong is banished from its borders,
ery and ty ra n in ; a devil personi
prepare his land and wait to have “ inspired.”
Ju s tic e reigns suprem e o ’er all.
fied by the credulous m any, and
it planted by meteoric stones? So,
We a ie builders of th a t city,
kept up in the p a s t by the learned
w hat would you think of a Deitv
I he World floves.
All o u r joys and all our groans
hut treacherous f« w, who preferred
who would m ake a world like this
H elp to rear its sh in in g ram p a rts,
All o u r lives are building sto n es;
to rule the masses hv their fears
and allow it to whirl thousands and
BY H O RA CE 8E A V E R .
B ut th e work th a t we have builded,
rath er than to guide them through
m illions of years, barren as a grave
O ft w ith bleeding h an d s and tears,
And in erro r an d in an g u ish ,
TA TES of a ciety, and forms th eir love. The devil has, indeed,
stone, w aiting for some vagrant
Will not perish w ith th e years.
of governm ent have alw ays not been a roaring lion, hut a cow-
comet to sow t h e seeds of life?
It will lie, a t last, m ade perfect
been forced upon men h y ardly and treacherous boa const ric-
J believe th a t hack of anim al life
In th e universal p la n ;
It will help to crown th e labors
is the vegetable, and back of th e the common m arch of events; and tor; it has enveloped in its massive
Of th e toiling hosts of m an ;
vegetable, it m ay he, is the m in that 4a te of society or form of gov- folds glorious tru th s, and in the
It will last and sh in e transfigured
In th e final reign of rig h t,
eral. It m ay be th a t cry sta lliza em in en t which existed at one per- fierceness of its brute power has
It will m erge in to th e splendors
tion is the very first step toward iod <»f a n a tio n ’s history, and was crushed them in its writhings. But
Of th e C ity of th e lig h t.
—Songs of Love and D uty.
what we call life, and yet I believe sufficient for all its wants, will not o h ! a glorious day is com ing; am id
life is hack of th at. In m y ju d g be toh rated at a later period. \\ ho the heretofore gloom of night the
How do You Account for the Or m ent, if the earth ever was in a at the present day would wish to bright rays of the rising sun are
gaseous state, it was filled with life. return to a state of society, with its piercing, th e lig h t of tru th dispels
igin of Life?
These are subjects about which we accom panying m anners and form of Hie m ists of ignorance. Bright facts
A N SW E R E D BY R. G. IN G E R SO LL.
know hut little. IIow do vou ac governm ent, and religious in s titu drive out d-ark delusions; m ighty
count for chem istry? How do you tions, such as existed in G reat tru th s trium ph over pious frauds,
F irst. Since L aplace and o th e r m ost
(.... so Britain in the time of the Druids, and n o longer need men be affright-
«iistinguished astro n o m ers hold to account for the fact th at just
th e th eo ry th a t th e e arth was orig m any particles of one kind s»-ek the or ^ ‘e Romans, or the Saxons, or
by the notion of an om nipotent
inally in a gaseous sta te , and th en a
Norm ans? How m any Protest- fiend w andering through the e a rth ,
m olten m ass in w hich th e germ s, society o f just so m any particles of
even, of vegetable or anim al life, another, and th a t when thev meet un,s v/ouhl wish to revive the days j ever seeking their «lamnation.
could not e x ist, bow do you account
Y es— to p artially adopt the
for th e origin of life on th is p lan et they in stan tly form a glad and last when Catholicism was in its glory
w ith o u t a “ c re a to r” ?—Dr. T. B. ing union? How do you know but and its power, and the brand of phraseology of a writer in Maemil-
T aylor.
atom s have love and hatred ? How perseeution dried up the blood of bin’s M agazine— I do refuse to see
in God a being om niscient as om
H E T H E R or not “ the do you know th a t t lie vegetable does the m artyrs?
These changes were hut m ani- nipotent, who puts us into this
earth was o riginally in not enjoy growing and t hat crystal H
a gaseous state and zation itself is not an expression o f i testations of the common progress world without our volition, leaves
afterw ards a m olten m ass in which delight? How do you know th a t a of things, and they all happened us to struggle through it as we can,
inde- \ unequally pitted against an alm ost
the germs of vegetable and anim al vine bursting into flower does not n atu ra lly and unavoidably,
* •
life could not exist,” I do not know, j feel a th rill? We find sex in the pendent of the control of govern- om nipotent and supersubtie devil,
My belief is th at the earth as it is m eanest weeds—how can you say m ents or individuals. Catholicism and then, if we fail, finally drops
succeed P aganism ; then Protest- U8 ° u t of this world into hell fire,
and as it was, taken in connection they have no loves?
with the influence o f the sun and
After all, of what use is it to antism cam e after Catholicism , and "'here a legion of inferior devils
of other planets, produced what- search for a creator? The difficulty ,)Ot^ are now being superceded hy find constant and never ending em
ever has existed or does exist on the is not thus solved. You leave your (' ’R8er,tJ and all the evils which ploym ent in inventing fresh to r
earth . I do not see why gas would creator as much in need of a crea- these changes brought upon the tures for us; our crime being th a t
not heed a “creato r’’ as much as a tor as a n y th in g your creator is sup- people of other days, as well as the we have not succeeded where suc
vegetable. N either can I im agine posed to have created. The bot miseries th at have befallen nations cess was rendered impossible. N o
th a t there is any more necessity fo r tom of your stairs rests on nothing, ’n our ° wn D’meg, are solely attrib - b ’gb, no rnanlv, no hum ane think-
some one to s ta rt life than to start and the top of • your sta
irs leans
up- ’ u ,a »^e to the insane and blasphem-1
,n £8 are developed
in the doctrine
** B
' ** I I D U
. i ........ r •
» I
r .i •,
ii ■
a m olten mass. There may be °n nothing. You have reached no °us endeavors of hum an rulers to 1 °f devils and dam nation. If a po
now portions of the world in which solution.
set up I heir a u th o rity against Rea- ten t faith, it degrades alike the
there is not one particle of vegeta-
T he word God is sim ply born of son an(^ Progress, and to tell man teacher and the taught, by its a b
h o rre n t mercilessness; and if a
ble life. It m ay be th a t on the wide our ignorance. We go as far as
should go no farther,
waste fields of the Arctic zone there we oan, and we say the rest of the
And have all the treasures wast- form, instead of a faith, then is the
devil doctrine a m isleading sham ,
are places where no vegetable life way is God. We look as far as we ed and the blood spilled — all the
which frightens weak m inds and
exists, and there m ay be m any can, and beyond the horizon, where persecutions and punishm ents and never develops strong m en.—[A
thousand miles where no anim al there is nought so far as we know revo'tin g crim es which have taken Few W ords About the Devil.
can he found. But if the poles of hut blindness, we place our Deitv. l’^aee to keep man and his institi!-
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the earth could be changed and if We see an infinitesim al segement tions statio n ary , effected the o b je c t, Man is
by birth so poor a crea
tile Arctic zone could he placed
in <>f a circle, and w- say the rest is ^or " hich they were intended? ture that he is good only when he
(Lfforunt relative
raiutitiu position to ti—
ì fwl
I I urn
r M
il oriuu-ot*
rw... s. ir„
i
.
urn to to hlHtorv
history f o for
an
a n s w e r— dream
He needs lit
illusions
to
a a different
the l Hod.
sun, the snows would melt, the hills
Man m ust give up searching for look hack from our days, to the m ake him do w hat he ought to do
would appear and in a little while the origin of anything. No one days of our forefathers, and ask if for the love of good. This slave
even the rocks would he clothed knows the origin of life, nor of rnat- any of the m any powerful endeav- has need of fear and of lies to per
with vegetation. After a tim e veg- t°r, nor of w hat we call m ind. The ors to prevent changes, ever yet form his duty. You get the mass
n,e" ,‘° " ,Hke Racrific,>“ only Hv
ctatio n would produce more soil, whence and the w hither are ques- succeeded. [Occasional Thoughts. giving
them assurances th a t they
and in a few th o u sin d years forests tions th a t no man can answer. In
will
he pan»
paid ww».
hack. The
self-denial
ii- , , „
,
,
. . ,
” ••• w
i ne seii-<iemai
M l,at an immense book m ight be of th e Chrhrtlan ia only a »hrew.l
would he filled with beasts and the presence of these questions all
intellects are upon a level The u T T ' “', " u • “J* I '" " * 9 ° nCe H”’ ; '« ¡ « » '" ‘¡on, an investm ent for th e
birds.
H
F
s
i t}lH
W
7
I
th in k
it
was
Sir
#
*
W .ll.am b arbarian knows exactly the same doubt.— [V oltaire.
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