•
f
■ '
T orch of
Science and Superstition.
S
rooted
In th e hu m an h eart and m ind,
M ust by reason be refuted,
Men should be no longer b lin d ;
They have been th e slaves of e rro r,
Over-aw ed by w ildest te rro r.
M ysteries have long deluded
M illions of th e hu m an race,
F rau d and falseh<xxl long h ave brooded
Over n a tu re ’s ra d ia n t face;
W e m ust seek w ith firm reliance,
In h e r b reast th e tru th of science.
X
Science is th e noblest teach er,
Benefactress of m an k in d ,
Reason is her gifted p reach er,
E levated and refined;
R aising our best th o u g h ts and feelings
W ith beneficent revealings.
Let our sp irits be aspiring
W ith th e a rd e n t love of tr u th ,
G lorious purposes adm iring,
Glow ing from our early y outh ;
S u perstition in du e season
Will give way to h u m an reason.
—[Sel.
The Protestant Revolt.
BY FELIX L. OSWALD.
slave the mind of a whole nation.
In southern Europe, the doctrines
of the Galilean church have achiev­
ed this victory. Among the Cau­
casian races of the Mediterranean
peninsula, millions of our fellow
men have lost the normal instincts
of their species and have come to
enjoy the poison of anti-natural­
ism. The Greek and Roman monks
vied in self-abasement, self mutila­
tion and the voluntary sacrifice of
their reason, as their forefathers
vied in science and heroic games.
Patriotism has withered under the
influence of anti-natural dogmas.
Unmanliness has ceased to be a re­
proach. Manly self-reliance and
athletic sports have lost their
charm. The prescription of the
Jesuitical poison mongers have
made a simple truth insipid; their
victims have contracted a morbid
craving for supernaturalism and
love of cant for its own sake. The
Celtic races, whose forefathers had
become inured to the vicissitudes
of anarchy and despotism, have
accepted the yoke of the cross and
reserved their protestantism for the
struggles of the political arena.
Their priests have maintained their
influence by catering to their na­
tional prejudices.
HE analogies of mind and
body are most strikingly
exhibited in the develop­
ment of physical and mental poison
habits. At first, every poison is re­
pulsive. Children abhor the very
smell of alcohol. The first effect of
tobacco is that of a nauseating
drug. The disgusting taste of opi­
um prevails through every dis­
But the Germanic races of north­
guise. Nature protests against the ern Europe have never been really
incipience of an insidious “second converted. Their forefathers were
nature,” and this protective instinct compelled to submit to the logic of
often saves where neither law nor superior force; but their acquies­
science yields its aid. In the slum cence was that of the North China
alleys of our great cities, and beset Vigilance Society—a latent protest.
by daily temptations, the children
Their conqueror had to baptize
of poverty and ignorance often pre­ them in their own blood, and they
serve their physical purity by an yielded only after all their able
innate repugnance tc vice; and even bodied men had literally been cut
in northern China there is a Vigil­ into piece». In the winter of 772,
ance Society, who«e members, in the apostle of northern Germany
defiance to law, pledge themselves
crossed the Weser with an army of
to antagonize the abettors of the sixty thousand men and founded
opium traffic and use all possible the bishoprics of Halberstadt, Min­
means to restrict an evil which
den and Paderborn; while the na­
they can not suppress. Gross vices tives disputed every inch of the
do not achieve an easy conquest;
ground, and only retreated after
the protests of a faithful conscience j the devastation of their villages
warns us again and again; but, if had deprived them of the means of
that protest is persistently disre­
subsistence. Two years after, they
garded, nature at last adapts her­
rallied their forces, expelled their
self to the abnormal condition, and
priests and chased them across the
the instinctive repugnance gives
Rhine, when the return of Charle­
way to a morbid craving for the un­
magne compelled them once more
natural stimulus. Healthy food
to yield their homes to the spoiler
grows insipid. The toper Incomes
and take refuge in the far north­
a slave to his drug; and, by educa­
east. Here they were attacked in
tional influence, the baneful habit
776, and repelled the invaders with
may develop into a hereditary or
»uch slaughter that the royal prop­
even a national vice.
agandist thought it wiser to con­
In a similar way such moral
fine his efforts to the Westphalian
poisons as hypocrisy, the miracle
mania and pessimism have to over­ lowlands. New bishoprics were
come the resisteitce of every health- founded; and the remaining inhab­
thier instinct before they can en­ itants shared the fate of the peas-
T
R eason .
NO. 2.
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, ¡S99.
VOL. 3.
u perstitio n , deeply
••
Sp ace.
antry in the priest ridden Frank­
ish crown lands, and were treated
BY GEORGE W. MOREHOUSE.
worse than brute beasts, till the
menaces of the Spanish Moors call­
F we would acquire a correct
ed their oppressor across the Pyre­
knowledge of any object it
nees. As soon as he was gone, all
must be examined from more
Saxony rose in a fierce insurrection. I
than one point of view. Close ob­
The hero Wittekind united the
servation is required to study its
scattered tribes, and advanced as
structure, and a distant, general
far a« Osnabrück, but was soon
view to judge of its relative value.
confronted by all the forces of the
This principle holds good in the
Frankish empire; and, during the
thorough investigation of any thing
next seven years, a war of exter- [
or any subject.
mination turned his native land
Watch the baby when he first
into a desert. When the insur­
begins to look around. He is a true
gents had been driven into the
scientist.
He investigates and
furthest recesses of the Hartz moun­
thinks at the same time, and his
tains, the priests returned; and the
way is our way. He begins with
“converted” Saxons tilled their land
no idea of distance, size, shape, or
as duly baptized bondsmen till 792,
color. He does not know whether
when the intolerable despotism of
an object is within reach, or a rod,
their oppressor goaded them into a
or a mile away. All must he learn­
fresh rebellion. But the tactics of
ed. He patiently watches an ob­
the iron clad Franks prevailed
ject, especially those that move or
again, and the war now became a
are bright. If he can reach any­
remorseless man hunt. The na­
thing that attracts his attention, it
tives were wavlaid at the ruins of
is tested by touch and taste, and
their homesteads and at the river
later by smell and sound. We are
fords. Thousands of women and
all growing and grown up children.
children were driven off'into exile, If it is the truth we are seeking,
and the male captives were slain their methods must remain through
like wolves. In Quedlinburg alone life our methods.
As with the individual, so with
four thousand prisoners were be­
the
human race, knowledge of the
headed in one day.
magnitude of space begins at zero
There was no gainsaying such and constantly widens during in­
arguments, and the next twenty tellectual growth. The distance of
generations of the Saxon yeomen objects in the room, the space in
acted on the principle that “Chris­ immediate reach, once learned
cease to awe. Familiarity banish­
tian submission to the powers that es fear. As development goes on
he” may sometimes be the safest the circle of the known becomes
plan. But no other slaves have so larger, and the awful unknown be­
loathed the chains they could not yond correspondingly less in extent
influence. As the dread of the
break. When famine and defeat and
unknown weighs less and less heav­
began to thin the ranks of Prince ily upon us, the known becomes
Wittekind, the Franks erected large more enjoyable. This is substan­
crosses as rallying places for “con-4 tially true from start to finish in
verts” ; i.e., deserters, who wished the race of life. At first we are
helpless, relying upon the protect­
to accept baptism and the bread of ing care of others in ways we do not
bondage.
Zu Kreuze kriechen understand. Our first efforts to
(crawling to cross) has ever since help ourselves are blunderingly
been the most contemptuous term made and we come to grief. As we
in the German language. Pfaffen­ learn by experience we become
self-reliant and begin to lose
thum and pfaffisch (from Pfaffe, a more
our fear. We are long in learniug
Romish priest) have become the to walk erect. So in the dim past,
synonyms of obscurantism and Jes­ the human race has struggled al­
uitical intrigues. The heroes of the most hopelessly to get upon its feet.
national ballads were not the whin-j However, the horizon is widening.
There are always some men,who,
ing saints of the Romish church, actuated by the love of truth for its
but men like Robin Hopd or Ritter own sake, are forever prospecting
Siegfried and Tannhauser. The along the borders of the unknown.
favorite political leaders were Free­ The opinion of one such pioneer as
thinkers, like Otto I., Frederic Bar­ to the extent of space, should count
for more than the notions of an
barossa (as afterward Frederic the army of men whose knowledge and
Great), or Goetz von Berlichingen, experience is confined to their own
Ulric Hutten and George Frunds- township, county, state or planet.
On such a subject men would not
berg.—[The Secret of the East.
be expected to go to school to ants,
whose travels have extended over
only a few square rods, and whose
Truth courts light; but error powers of vision and intellect are
shuns and deprecates impartial correspondingly limited.
i nquiry.— [ Morehouse.
C o n tin u ed on 5th p age.
I