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About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1900)
R eason . OF •TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH. VOL. 3. SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, E. M?300 (ATO. 1900.) NO. 52. ----- ence, not to have need of any one, Childhood’s Festival ot Joy. the direction of motion is changed, and to create for myself a safe and BY ALFRED TENNYSON. viz., Dec 21-5 and June 21. (See delivered at a L ib eral C hristm as enviable position. The esteem in A Address Index, and §§ 164-181.) Celebration at L ib eral H a ll, S ilv e r- ton, Oregon, C h ristm as E ve, ing ou t, wild bells, to th e wild sky, which people shall hold me, the The E quinoxes are the points at E ra of M an , 299, T he flying cloud, th e frostv lig h t: number of my friends, my credit, (A . D . 1899.) which the sun crosses the equator The y ear is dying in th e n ig h t; my power, will be proportional to Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. and gives us equal days and nights, X that independence and that posi BY THADDEUS B. WAKEMAN, Ring out th e old, ring in th e new, viz., March 21 and September 21. tion. The less that I have need of R ing, h ap p y bells, across th e snow : Professor of Sociology, etc. in th e L ib I t has been said that civilization The y e ar is going, let him go; eral U niversity a t Silverton. others, and the more that they Ring ou t th e false, ring in th e tru e. was the gift of the Nile; we may have need of me, the more will I Ring out th e grief th a t saps th e m ind, well say yes, plus the Solstices and TEXT8. be sought after. What I love most For those th a t h ere we see no m ore; Ring o u t th e feud of rich and poor, of all in the world I must confess Ih r G läubigen ! rü h m e t n u r n ich t E u ren Equinoxes. For all of its deep Ring in redress to all m an k in d . G lauben foundations were laid for us by the is myself. Next come my wife and •Vis einzigen :W ir glauben auch wie ih r ; Ring ou t a slowly dying cause, my children. I love them, protect D er Forscher b ist sich keinesw egs ber great I riest hoods of the great per And a n cien t forms of p arty strife ; iods of astrolatry in Egypt, Chal them because they belong to me, Ring in th e nobler modes of life, auben W ith sw eeter m an n e rs, p u re r laws. because they do me honor, and be Des E rb th e ils, aller W elt gegdnt_ dea, Assyria, Medea and Persia, from whence, through the Aryan peoples, und m ir! Ring ou t th e w ant, th e care, th e sin, cause they render hack to me the The faithless coldness of th e tim es, civilization passed, by help of their — [G oethe. R in g o u t,rin g o u t m y m ournful rhym es. affection which I render them, and own native observations of course, But ring th e fuller m in strel in. • because they will take care of me in Ye believers, boast not y o u r faiths o n ly : We believe as well as over the whole Northern Hemi heir turn when I have grown sick As if th e you. Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic sla n d er a n d th e s p ite ; or aged. So true is this, that if The T ru th Seeker in no wise lets h im sphere, “from Greenland’s icy Ring in th e love of tru th and rig h t, mountains to Afric’s golden sands.” they do not give me the satisfac Ring in th e com m on love of good. self be robbed The sun’s course through the Zod tion which I expect from them,that Of th e in h eritan ce to all th e world Ring ou t old shapes of foul disease ; iac was pictured in upper Egypt, g ran te d —and to m e! Ring out th e n arrow ing lu st of g o ld ; if they cause me more sorrow than Ring ou t th e th o u san d wars of old. happiness, I shall stifle my senti Gibbon in his account of th e origin of at Dendera on the Nile, 5000 years Ring in th e th o u san d years of peace. “before Christ,” and in China it ments, cast them aside, arrange my C h ristian ity sa y s:— Ring in th e v a lian t m an and free, life differently,and disinherit them. “ The R oman C h ristia n s, ig n o ran t of is far older than the memory of The larger h e a rt, th e k in d lier h a n d ; th e real d ate of his [C h rist’s] b irth , fix man. Our almanack and our years, Rintr ou t th e d ark n ess of th e land, I love my neighbor because I am Ring in th e C h rist th a t is to be. the solem n festival of th e 25th of months and days are based upon rewarded in some way by him; he ed Decem ber, th e B rum alia , o r W in ter listens to me, he comprehends me, St ib’ice, when the Pagan a n n u a lly cele- it, and so its results are heard in every one of the schools and homes The Plea of the Anima! Ego. his conversation is agreeable tome, bnxvev. th e b irth of Sol” —th e S un. on earth today—from China’s shores he is indulgent to me. I am will or the Pacific of the East, around B Y D R . P A U L T O P IN A R D . ing even to make certain sacrifices M r . P resident , Y oung P eople of and through all of the peoples of for him on condition that I do not S ilverton , and also , T hose no the earth, until finally to us on et ns put ourselves in the run too great a risk myself. I love L onger Y oung : our shores of the Pacific on the point of view of the indi the country and society in which I This is “Christmas Eve”—the west. vidual actuated by this have been born, because they pro last of the century—and this is a These corners of the year came to animal Ego. cure for me numerous advantages, Liberal assembly. And the first “1 have a limited time to although I am quite capable of in question is, Why should L iberals , be marked by social assemblies, live upon this planet,” he fringing their law’s when they an that is the people who are liberat feasts and festivals—two of them notably—the Winter sun-turn, or will say to himself; “of the beyond noy me and when their non-observ ed from tbe superstitions of the I am ignorant, or rather I know it ance will bring on me no incon past, pay any regard to this old Solstice, and the Spring Equinox, only too well; the thing is to steer venience or penalty. I shall be holyday, now holiday, claimed to or sun-return, the birth of Spring. For the Winter’s cold and darkness my bark as skillfully as I can, and honest for numerous motives, one be Christian? compelled people to give up outside to be happy; not to suffer myself to of them being because I wish oth The answer is, that it should be work and come together in homes become a prey to illusions, or to be ers to be honest with me. I shall observed because it is the oldest of overpowered by sentiment, when no be charitable if I am rewarded for all human festivals, of astronomic and villages. But when the cold profit can be expected from it; not it by public opinion and if my sac and purely human origin, dating “began to strengthen,” there was to accept as tbe truth what reason rifice does not exceed the pleasure many thousands of years before the priest to show that “the days has demonstrated to he false; to see I can derive from it. I shall pro Christianity was ever dreamt of. began to lengthen.” The shortest things as they are; in a word, nev- fess the most exalted and most gen It is tbe principal beginning of the day was December 21, which the er to commit,from routine and nai erous principles: stoicism, justice, New Year, and recognition of tbe Christians made into St. Thomas’ vete, acts whose outcome will not liberty, solidarity, equality for all, birth and continuity of the Human Day—that is, the day of the “doubt correspond with my intentions. first, because I myself am included Race since, and even before, civili ing Thomas,” because there are My body, my health, my physical among the “all”; then because this zation began on the banks of the three or four days when the sun and psychical satisfactions, the suf- may just happen to be my favorite Nile more than seven thousand stands so that the days seem of equal length. But on December 25, rings that are to be avoided—such idea or a useful thesis; in a word, I years ago. are the things I have to consider. shall make it a point to have incar In a word it is and has ever Christmas,” the doubt was solved, 1 he non-ego has value only through nate in myself all these virtues, for been the Ù ule Festival, the common ¿he day was longer, the new year and because of the good which it the reason that they are to my best festival of all of the peoples of the was surely born. Then the priests, an bestow upon me, because of the interest. As to going to the bottom Northern Hemisphere of the earth. • like the modern Muezzin, made the profit which I draw from it, of the of my conscience, as to analyzing The perennial festival of the W in call to prayer, praise and joy, and happiness which it procures for me. my motives in all cases, that is all ter S olstice and of the Y outh of the mighty yell of the people went 1 have had experience with men; I very well, but it is useless. I pre H umanity . Lockyer’s Astronomy up, that the sun was coming to give them another lease of life, and know that if some are good the ma fer to have a high opinion of my says: to deliver them from the cold and jority are selfish, are not prone to self and to be convinced that I am “8 olstices : (Latin—S ol , the sun; dark, and make for them the new m ’e something for nothing, and good and disinterested. Of what and stare , to stand still), the points seasons of Spring, Summer and have a solicitude for me only inso- use Would it be to confess to myself in the sun’s path at which the ex Harvest. It is not possible for us ,il as they believe I can be of ser- a truth which would lower me to treme north and south declinations to realize how our old Feticbistic, ' ice to them. The first thing is to the level of the animal?” are reached, and at which the mo fire and sun astrolaters and poly *t from the world my independ- Continued on 7th page. tion is apparently arrested before 1 theists felt, for to them the great Ring In The New. I jj R L