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About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 1899)
m OECH OF “TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH.”— Lucretius. VOL. 3. SILVERTON. OREGON. THURSDAY. OCTOBER 19, 1899. F or th e T orch o f Reason. Ingersoll Is Dead. RY ISAAC A . POOL. o sang th e C h ristia n b a rd :—“ G re at P an is d e a d !” W hen from th e silence Jesu s rais- x \ ed his h e a d ; For changeful m en , in th ese long v a n ish ed davs, Ign o red th e old and gave th e new th e ir praise. B ut still, w hen th ro u g h th e forest glens stra y , Old P an upon h is pipe of reeds will play, Till held and wood a n d m o u n tain peak will sing T h eir pteans joyous to old P an th e ir king. S No c h a n t, N ew tonian, can th e ir ra p tu re drow n, Nor fear of hell, nor hope for golden crow n. M en, tru e to N a tu re ; still adore th e R ig h t, And sh u n th e creeds for h e r celestial light. She, tru e to R eason, holds th e scales a ’beam , W here flashes from th e Sword of Ju stic e g le a m ; The T ru th an d R ig h t shall 6till th e ir lu stre shed, T hrough com ing tim e, though Ingersoll be dead. W hen M editation th ro u g h th e w oodland w alks, W here ro b in -re d b rea st to th e daisy ta lk s, W here nodding bluebells ring th e ir p a ss ing chim e, For H im whose ashes m ark th e shores of T im e ; T hrough e v ’ry fibre she shall feel th e th rill T h a t th is dead Ingersoll is living s t i l l ! H is te n d e r w ords, his tr u th s shall still be read, Im m o rtal th ey , tbough Ingersoll b ed ead . Nay, th a t is life. T he pulse of b rillia n t th o u g h t Can n ev er to th e silen t grave )>e b ro u g h t. T hese are th e C h rists whose fam e im m ortal springs. (W hile only “ an g els” m ay assum e th e wings T ospeed aw ay to realm s we never knew .) W ith e a rth co n ten ted , u n to M anhood tr u e : T his, consolation for bereav em en t g iv e s : Though Ingersoll be dead, y e t Ingersoll still lives! Aug. 7, 1899. Origin of Religion. BY R. G. INGERSOLL. an , in his ignorance, sup posed that all phenomena were produced by some in telligent powers, and with direct reference to him. To preserve friendly relations with these pow ers was, and still is, the object of all religious. Man knelt through fear and to implore assistance, or through gratitude for some favor which he supposed had been ren dered. He endeavored by suppli cation to oppose some being who, for some reason, had, as he believ- ed, become enraged. The lightning and thunder terrified him. In the presence of the volcano he sank up on his knees. The great forests filled with wild and ferocious beasts, the monstrous serpents crawling in mysterious depths, the boundless sea, the flaming comets, the sinis M »»-»■til NO. 41. ter eclipses, the awful calmness of Religious Prejudice in the Way culties than the explanation of a the stars, and, more than all, the of Science. certain number of facts will cer perpetual presence of death, con tainly reject the theory. A few vinced him that he was the sport BY CHARLES DARWIN, M.A.,LL.D.,F.R.S. naturalists, endowed with much and prey of unseen and malignant flexibility of mind, and who have hy , it may be asked, until already begun to doubt the immut powers. The strange and fright recently did nearly all ability of species, may be influenc ful diseases to which he was sub the most eminent living ed by this volume; but I look with ject, the freezings and burnings of naturalists and geologists disbelieve fever, the contortions of epilepsy, confidence to the future, to young the sudden palsies, the darkness of in the mutability of species? It and rising naturalists, who will be night and the wild, terrible and cannot be asserted that organic be able to view both sides of the ques fantastic dreams that filled his ings in a state of nature are subject tion with impartiality. Whoever brain, satisfied him that he was to no variation; it cannot be prov is led to believe that species are haunted and pursued by countless ed that the amount of variation in mutable will do good service by spirits of evil. For some reason he the course of long ages is a limited conscientiously expressing his con supposed that these spirits differed quantity; no clear distinction has viction; for thus only can the load in power—that they were not all been, or can be, drawn between of prejudice by which this subject alike malevolent—that the higher species and well-marked varieties. is overwhelmed be removed. controlled the lower, and that his It cannot be maintained that spe Several eminent naturalists have cies when intercrossed are invaria very existence depended upon gain of late published their belief that a ing the assistance of the more pow bly sterile and varieties inyariably multitude of reputed species in each erful. For this purpose he resort fertile; or that sterility is a special genus are not real spedles; but that ed to prayer, to flattery, to wor endowment and sign of creation. other species are real, that is, have The belief that species were immut been independently created. This ship and to sacrifice. To pacify these spirits was con able productions was almost una seems to me a strange conclusion sidered of infinite importance. The voidable as long as the history of to arrive at. They admit that a poor barbarian, knowing that men the world was thought to be of multitude of forms, which till late could be softened by gifts, gave to short duration; and now that we ly they themselves thought were these spirits that which to him have acquired some idea of the special creations, and which are seemed of the most value. With lapse of time, we are too apt to as still thus looked at by the majority bursting heart he would offer sume, without proof, that the geo of naturalists, and which conse the blood of his dearest child. It logical record is so perfect that it quently have all the external char was impossible for him to conceive would have afforded us plain evi acteristic features of true species — of a god utterly unlike himself, and dence of the mutation of species, if they admit that these have been produced by variation, but they re he naturally supposed that these they had undergone mutation. But the chief cause of our natur fuse to extend the same view to powers of the air would be affected a little at the sight of so great and al unwillingness to admit that one other and slightly different forms. so deep a sorrow. It was with the species has given birth to other and Nevertheless they do not pretend barbarian then as with the civilized distinct species, is that we are al that they can define, or even con now—one class lived upon and ways slow in admitting great jecture, which are the created forms made merchandise of the fears of changes of which we do not see the of life, and which are those produc another. Certain persons took it steps. The difficulty is the same ed by secondav laws. They admit upon themselves to appease the as that felt by so many geologists, that variation is a ‘vera causa’ in gods and to instruct the people in when Lyell first insisted that long one case, they arbitrarily reject it their duties to these unseen pow lines of inland cliffs had been form in another, without assigning any ers. This was the origin of the ed, and great valleys excavated, by distinction in the two cases. The priesthood. The priest pretended to the agencies which we still see at day will come when this will be stand between the wrath of the work. The mind cannot possibly given as a curious illustration of gods and the helplessness of man. grasp the full meaning of the term the blindness of preconceived opin He was man’s attorney at the court of even a million years; it cannot ion. These authors seem no more of heaven. He carried to the in add up and perceive the full effects startled at a miraculous act of cre visible world a flag of truce, a pro of many slight variations, accumu ation than at an ordinary birth. test and a request. He came back lated during an almost infinite But do they really believe that at innumerable periods in the earth’s with a command, with authority number of generations. Although I am fully convinced history certain elemental atoms and with power. Man fell upon his knees before his own servant, of the truth of the views given in have been commanded suddenly to and the priest, taking advantage of this volume [Orign of Species] un flash into living tissues? Do they the awe inspired by his supposed der the form of an abstract, I by no believe that at each supposed act influence with the gods, made of his means expect to convince experi of creation one individual or many fellow man a cringing slave and enced naturalists whose minds are were produced? Were all the in hypocrite.—[Prose-Poems and Se stocked with a multitude of facts finitely numerous kinds of animals all viewed, during a long course of and plants created as eggs or seed, lections. years, from a point of view directly or as full grown? and in the case of opposite to mine. It is so easy to mammals, were they created bear I think it is wise sometimes to hide our ignorance under such ex- ing the false marks of nourishment shut up shop and walk in the twi spressions as the “plan ofcreation”, from the mother’s womb? Un light, and look up at the stars or “unity of design”, etc., and to think doubtedly some of these same ques down upon the sea. The end and we give an explanation when we tions can not be answered by those object of science is, not to print only restate a fact. Any one whose who believe in the appearance or calicoes, but to brighten up the disposition leads him to attach creation of only a few forms of life, Conclude«! on 6th page. more weight to unexplained diffi faces of men.—[Sel. W