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About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1900)
T orch or • truth VOL. 4. bears th e torch in th e search for R eason . r K .v m ." - L u c r e tiu s s a v r o r o y . ORTOOK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8. K. M 800 (A. D. MOO.) Contentment. was light on this planet long before the mouth, tickling in tactile man or any sentient being had ap nerves, etc. BY THOMAS PAINE. peared, and that cataracts roared W e know that different color3 thunder reverberated through the depend upon particular velocities could we always live and love heavens long before there was any And always be sincere, of the waves of ether, gathered to to onvcp ui einer, garnered I would not wish for heaven above, ear to hear such sounds. gether by the optical ap p a ratu s of T he B ,rth d a y of Thomas Paine, My heaven would be here. k.. „........ L- ■ . . . J a n i i a r v ->r> ____ ■ For the benefit of those whose ♦ the January 29, P Era of Han and eye, which impinge upon the Though many countries I have seen, thought is not clear on this subject, retina, affecting the optic nerve and Age of Reason 300— And more may chance to see, My little corner of the world a few illustrative statements are giving rise to sensations or con A. D. 1900. Is half the world to m e; submitted with the hope that they scious states that appear objectively The other half, as you may guess, may help some readers to free them as colors—blue, green, violet, etc. ADDRESS—“QUO VADIS?” America contains; selves from the slavery of a method And thus, between them, I possess In some persons, vibrations as diff The whole world for my pains. of thinking that is as crude as the erent in velocity as those that com To the Empire or the Republic I’m then contented with my lot, conclusions to which it leads are monly cause redness and greenness, Which? I can no happier be; superficial and unpliilosophic. For neither world, I ’m sure, has got awaken identical sensations, and D elivered Before the Liberals of S ilv e rto n , So rich a man as me. A ibrations of air communicated they cannot therefore distinguish Oregon, at Liberal H a ll. to the sense of hearing (the acous between them. Then send no fiery chariot down To take me oti from hence, tic nerve) gives rise to a sensation. B y T. B. WAKEMAN, As some animals are sensitive to But leave me on my heavenly ground- That sensation is called “sound.” motions of the jjir that to human Professor of Sociology in the Liberal This prayer is common-sense. University, Oregon. \V ithout a nerve of hearing there ears produce no sound whatever, Let others choose another plan, I mean no fault to find ; can be no sound. Of course the air so do the eyes of some creatures r . P r e s id e n t , F r ie n d s , a n d , The true theology of man vibrates whether or not there be Is happiness of mind. respond to vibrations of ether that I H o p e , F rien d s of t h e any living organism present, and are below or above the luminous R e p u b l ic :— the aerial vibrations, too, may blow limits of the human eye. If a crea All Phenomena Facts of Con I t so happens that the construct down trees and buildings as well as ture can see in the dark—i. e., sciousness. ive and social people of Silverton co-operate with the soil in causing where it is dark to the human eve— seem to he making an era in their •z the growth of vegetation; hut sound, the optic nerve of that creature is growth, and perhaps in the growth B Y B. F . U N D E R W O O D . being a sensation, requires not only affected by etheric vibrations to of Liberalism generally, by joining v u . x j 11 1 the objective factor, vibrations of which the human eye does not re in a Liberal and yet general cele ound , ’ light, heat and all the air> but lhe 6ubjective factor al80 spond. It is luminous for that bration of the great Festivals of the so-called qualities of mate —consciousnes8,-which is some- rial bodies, like fragrance, how affected by the vibrations creature when it is dark for man, year. Thus we have had such cel- because luminosity is a sensation, brations of Thanksgiving, of the sweetness, etc., are usually thought through the nerve of hearing. not an objective thing. Christmas or Sun Return, and of of as objective realities. They are Just as there is no fragrance in a Heat, too, is a sensation. The New Year’s Day, and now we may conceived as existing per se; as de rose—the word “fragrance” stand pendent in no way upon conscious ing only for the sensations produc word heat indicates how our body, well claim that this, the Birthday ness; as affecting all organisms, but ed through the sense of smell by or anything external to the body, of Thomas Paine,should be honored remaining the same whether cog emanations from an object that we feels—how it affects our conscious hy us, and in time let us hope, by nized or not. This view is not know only by the way it affects us—- ness. Conceived objectively, it is a the whole American people, and, confined to the ignorant: it is held so there is no sound in a ringing mode of motion, which is only one indeed by all of the Republicans of of the factors necessary to produce the world, as a great day— t h e by many, perhaps by the majority bell except as the waves of air, ex- heat, the other being an organism F estival of t h e R e p u b l ic , and of of well-educated people, and by ternally produced, excite the audit-¡in which the motion gives rise to R e p u b l ic a n ism ? some who are instructed in Science ory nerve and cause the sensation the sensation that we distinguish But it has been well said that, and are accustomed to close obser- „ j . , | we call “sound.” The quality of bv the term “ h e a t ” considering the way our public af their special field's of t'hough"8 ,be sound ^Pends upon the quality, Vibrations of air and of ether fairs have turned of late, it seems some cases it requires years for such T “ po”n i m a n n e i o ^ " ’ " ^ C“rred “ ‘"i0" 9 7T that we are called to determine for persons, even after the correct view »‘ H P °f rin8lnS Ithere wa8 e-ve or ear 011 this globe, ourselves the prior question, wheth has been n re se n fi.fi fn fl because upon these depends the | and those vibrations were doubtless g ro w t’ Z l “ ° f vibr-“ i0- » h i c h through exiernal factors in developing these er Republicanism had better contin ue, or not. Before we begin its cele O n ly th o s e b C0UCeP",°T - the nerve °f heari"g ‘he sen- organs. But only as auditory bration, we are even challenged to of a t t act " hOpO88e86 the P°Wer “«“ ¡o« o'.BO»nd- nerve was evolved was there sound: show cause why Republicanism readilvthe nhl " 1 here is no musical quality in a only as the optical apparatus was should not be abandoned. Fortun readily he philosophic idea that we violin; but one who fee,H ,.the con. developed „ J ately, we are free to review that of consciousnes^ °No 3 e?tl0,"8 cord of 8Weet sounds” may play on tions of air do not constitute sound; subject this evening. For on last thinking h a s r h A f h ° the instrument in a way that will undulations of etherdonotconsti- sion caif ever P!eahedf h,S I T 0 Ui aMU^ “music in the soul,” because tute luminousness; emanations of Sunday our Unitarian friend, Rev. Dr. Copeland, of Salem, gave you amounts to a demonstrat^1 ’ nl • ab,C l° pr°dUCe tho8e vibra" ParticIe8 from a flower do not con- lhe details of Paine’s life as a great seen t k \ 1 n an< 18 t*0Ds which, through the sense of stitute fragrance. religious reformer; and though I Philosnnh,6 ft ° T ° eCe8®,ty °f hearing, cause agreeable conscious Atmospheric vibration is one of did not hear it, because I was at erage mini a 11 * * & 8tate8, So with light (or luminous- the factors in t producing sound; u Salem o * '* iy iiig 1 o p t? 11 SO “the C ilB 11 to 0 11J dispense New crdge mind, which dwells mainly ___* I ..................... * ’ o i u t i j v trying ness)—which is psychical, not phy- etheric vibrations are eesential to Dispensation” from his pulpit, 1 things concrete and has but s sical. ic a l. This T h is is is a ft sensation s p n s a fin n produced n ffl/ln n o j uirrhf in their i k n ! . absence .. 4 the .1____ .1 . . . . . sight, fnr for in eye 1____ learn that it was an admirable ex little use for abstraction, must by the action of waves of ether and optic nerve in time become position, and hardly left Paine to think that the external world is ab- solutplv 4 v 4 4 ---------- 7 Upon the retina and fibres of the functionless and disappear, as in lie considered by us now, unless as ‘0 eye 'a n d ^ l n d senT oi9 touch' ”ptic.n.erVe- “ pr°Htbe CaVC,-fi8b > and tbe of | the Father of Republic. tha Republics. But that Say to such a person that where b b u , ? ° f by e ectr.‘c,ly’ -oater.al particles in the air is nec- topic, and by that title, I have cov ‘here is no ear here is no sound b ’ T ’ ^ ary to excite the sense of smell. eredin an address delivered last and that where there ts n 1 ‘hrough the eye, when j If all animals were to be des- Decoration Day at the unveiling of ‘here is no light and he will pro- brou«h‘ ,n con‘act " °‘her Par‘’ | ,rayed- ‘be vihrations of air and Mr. Wilson Macdonald’s bust of hably reply triumphantly that there J ” * zt 9 , aensa-, ejlherwould continue to affect vege- Paine on his monument at New P 7 tions—sounds in the ear, taste in Continued on 7th p ^ e .----------- I Rochelle, New York. That address The Festival of the Republic. o m M d v u u u j