T orch of
R eason .
“TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH.”— Lucretius.
VOL. 3.
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1899.
NO. 48.
Ingersoll.—He Left the World
Better than He Found It.
persons imagine others know less classified; theology is ignorance
Origin and Nature ot Life.
than they do, because such other petrified. Science is the friend, the
persons only assert what they benefactor, the “savior” of mankind;
BY DR. PAUL TOPINARD.
BY 8Ü8AX H . WIXON.
know, being reserved in regard to its mission is to bless and benefit
what they do not know.
the race; it hath its “victories no
e came into a world of pain,
ife reduced to its simplest
Of superstitious fear,
One may believe much and know less renowned than war.”
expression is the resultant
Where crouching Ignorance had but little, and one may know much
T heology has persecuted and mur
slain
of an ensemble of proper
Its thousands, year by year;
and have a very short creed. The dered reformers, strangled genius, ties or operations of a peculiar spe
man of large experience and knowl reddened the earth with human cies of substance called protoplasm,
A world where Sorrow sat and wept,
In gloomy, quivering dread,
edge is cautious and discriminating blood, and covered it with a mantle which impregnates all the parts of
Lest torturing flames had lapped and
in accepting unverified statements. of darkness. Science is gaining organisms and which we meet with
crept
Around the pulseless dead.
The ignorant man is less capable of ground every day; theology is as in the isolated state only in moners.
O’er lovely vale and flowery height
calculating probabilities and is eas rapidly losing its influence over the 1 he four first properties which must
Lay shadows dim and gray,
ily imposed upon by false state minds of men. The realm of sci he signalized are: (l)The oxidation
As clouds that change to stormy night
The sunlit, summer day.
ments. It is easier to assent to an ence is the region of natural law; of protoplasm, which is the source
Where should have dwelt the brave and old creed, making the authority of the empire of theology is the region of its energy or stock of vital power;
true,
a name or book serve in the place of the supernatural. The enlarge (2 ) EXCITABILITY o r R EFL EX IB IL ITY ,
Free as the bounding waves;
of proof, than it is to examine a ment of the former corresponds which gives rise to its actions and
Firm in the right, and fearless, too,—
He found a race of slaves.
subject, weigh evidence and make with man’s progress and enlight is the intermittent cause of its loss
that the basis of belief or disbelief. enment; the domain of- the latter of energy; (3) nutrition , which
Like bold and plumed knights of old,
With sword and flashing spear,
It is men accustomed more or less has for centuries, with the decay of maintains the integrity of the pro
He touched the present with the gold
to the authority of creeds and to the superstition, been growing “small toplasm and is the cause of its in
Of good and gracious cheer.
He broke the clanking chains that bound idea of the preeminent importance by degrees and beautifully less.”
crease; (4) REPRODUCTION, w h i c h
In servile bonds tbe mind,
of believing this or that dogma,
Theology claims to be able to supervenes when the augmentation
And mournful hearts new courage found,
who pride themselves more on what give an explanation of this uni has reached a certain limit. The
With Reason’s wreath entwined.
they know,and more on the amount verse. Science, which deals with results, as regards the protoplasm,
He banished many ills from earth,
of the marvelous they can swallow, the observable and calculable, are contained in two words: life as
Gave hope instead of care;
He rang the bells of honest worth,
than on the amount of evidence studies the order and sequences of an individual during a certain per
Brought joys that all might share.
they can adduce to sustain their the phenomena. The absolute na iod of time, and self-perpetuation
His was a clarion note to all,
views, or on the strength of the ture of things is unknown, and the in like forms; M. Delage adds a
To all, on land and sea;—
“ Arise, O friends, heed Wisdom’s call, reasons they can give for adopting
puzzle of existence man cannot third characterization: the perform
And evermore be free!
and adhering to them. Belief may solve. A mystery to ourselves, we ance of work. These four proper
“ Be bonest men, be true, be just,
exist without any real evidenceand are in the midst of mysteries we ties, viewed alone, are physico
Nor heed established fraud;
in conflict with truth. But what cannot unravel. We are all child chemical in character. If a par
The right way leads to truth and trust
By only one safe road.”
one knows is always true.
ren in the dark, getting now and ticle of matter, for example, comes
The music of his wondrous word
within reach of a raoner, an excita
A conviction is not to be treated then a glimpse of the light.
Was clear as silver bell;
tion takes place. If the particle is
From east to west, wherever heard,
as of no value simply because it is
The
widest
observation
and
ex
The rusted fetters fell.
a belief. Beliefs move men to ac perience in a lifetime, and the most nutrient in character, the pseudo
To dust have crumbled olden creeds,
tion, knowledge guides and corrects complete familiarity with the re pods of the moner will be extended,
In light he shed afar;
them. Theological teachers have sults of all investigation past and its cilia will be set in motion, and
And in their stead are loving deeds,
Each one a shining star;
prepared statements of what should present, will not remove the barriers the nutrient particle will be engulf
While noxious weeds to darkness fled,
be believed, declare disbelief and to a solution of the pro.blem of this ed. There is nothing mystical in
And vanished in the air;
A property
even doubt sinful in advance, and universe; because no amount of this performance.
Where once they grew, are roses red,
And lilies passing fair.
have then pronounced all who re knowledge possible to man can re merely is put into play—a reaction
jected their theological nostrum as lieve him from the organically im succeeding an excitation. At most
And where the baleful demons stood,
we might say that the centrosome
The fair, old earth to stain,
deserving
and
destined
to
eternal
posed
limitations
of
human
intelli
Are human forms in happy mood,
acted as the center of attraction.
suffering. How absurd. Men may gence.
And love and gladness reign.
But, reduced to their properties
be urged to examine, but to urge
All our ideas of the external
And now his gentle heart is still!
Vet lives he in our thought;
them to believe is to treat them like world are and must forever be re as above defined, protoplasms are
Lives in the higher, grander will;
.
| merely inert bodies — admirably
children. If the evidence of any lative. We can know thtngs
And in the work he wrought.
only conetructed machin
t
'
claim
is
good
it
will
sooner
or
later
as they are related to us, as they ing without coa, an() ha
* 0 ac.
So shall he live, the peerless one,
be accepted by all rational minds. are colored by our consciousness, fliai
Above all noisy strife;
,
The world’s best work is nobler done
, c . , ,
,. .
’ tual materials to work upon.
The man of science does not plead and , modified
by the conditions
of t I i heir
. o U impulse
. i
a direction
.•
. r are
Because of his true life.
'
and
for converts. He does not demand the human organism. So lone as •
i
.
i .
For him, as centuries come and go,
. . .
.
.
g
given by ontward stimuli. They
belief.
He
invites
investigation.
there is organism and environment
. . -, .
.
7
No deathly knell shall toll;
i
,
...
,
.
,
’
are
constrained
to
respond
to
the
" ith life and time must ever flow
He does not threaten men with knowledge is possible onlv in the ....
.
, r
,
The name of I ngersoll .
»
r
. .
.
commands imposed upon them, to
damnation if they believe not. He form
of a relat.o n -a relation be- pu, themselves
assures them that they will be re- tween the subject, man, and the put themselves in harmony with
the stimuli offered—in a word, to
Belief and Knowledge.
warded with possession of the truth object, external Nature.
a.
r , .
obey
the e exac
exactions
of their
their envir-
envir-
if they apply their minds to the
W p p a n k n r w t l i n
1
a
°
ions of
study of his teachings.
are relaLl T
7 “ r * onmPnW aKreeab|y totbe law of nee-
L
H
BY b . F. UNDERWOOD.
7
8
are related to the
By no essity, and on pain of death to ac-
Theology by stereotyping old er- power of thought, by no ingenuity commodate themselves to the con-
people make no distinc rors and antiquated methods, has of reasoning, by no effort of the ditions of existence in which their
tion between knowledge become the enemy not only of it,tel- will, can we scale or destroy the lot is cast. Hence results the fifth
and belief, but the distinc lectual growth and material pros- eternal wall which confines us to property of protoplasm—that of
ión is one which it is important to
^ a r in mind, especially in contro
versy. Some persons think that cal and progressive. Theology is make9 f,,rPver » » p o s s . b l e k n o w - ' p r o p e H y ; ( j ) The plasticity of p i7
they know a great deal because the Bourbon of the world o f ^ g e <>f the absolute, or of “The toplasm, the result of the joint ac-
they believe a great deal, and such thought.” Science is knowledge thing io itself.”
tiou of ite „flexibility and nutri-
any
M