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About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (April 12, 1900)
g>U6HT 'M B eason . •TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR T R U T H ." - £ u c r e iiu s . VOL. 4. SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, APRIL 12, E. M. 300 (A. D. 1900.) NO. 14. especially to his own advantage, the further he recedes from probity; so that they who measure virtue by profit, acknowledge no other virtue than this which is a kind of vice.— [Nevill. tation of mind depends upon the bribe our converts with a heaven; continued integrity of the organism we cannot make them tremble with BY’ B . G. HOSMER. whose motion it is. As we have a hell. But though our religion seen that mental phenomena dur appears too pure, too unselfish for h ere is, for alm ost every m an th a t ing life depends constantly and ab mankind, it is not really so, for we breath es, T he so litary aim of )*appiness; solutely upon the integrity of the live in a noble and enlightened age. And if he do not th in k to find it h ere, brain tissues, and that when a por At the time of the Romans and He seeks it in a life beyond th e d e ath ’. His hopes and fears have m ade h im c ir The Dynamic Theory. tion of the brain is destroyed or the Greeks, the Christian faith was cu m sp ect, diseased a certain definite sort of the highest to which the common But h in d e r him from being tru ly good ; Since goodness, self-reg ard less.'d o es the mental action therefrom ceases to people could attain. A faith such BY JAMES B. A L E X A N D E R . rig h t, be performed, the conclusion ap as that of the Stoics and the Sad- And never stoops to calculate resu lts. A m ystic p ro v erb has com e dow n to him he Dynamic Theory, by show pears obvious and inevitable, that ducees could only be embraced by That w h at he chases never can be cau g h t, ing the connection between when the brain is all gone there is cultivated minds, and culture was B ut w aits for such as are not covetous. Yet still he h u n ts, for though he blindly the external stimulation and an end of the possibility of any fur then confined to a chosen few. But tru s ts ther mental action. When the now knowledge, freedom, and pros its internal sequel in mental action, In m any fictions of his fan tasy , He has no courage for th e larger faith , proves both of them to belong to body and brain are dissolved it perity are covering the earth; for W hioh, born of w isdom , com passes th e the same class of physical motion. certainly looks as if the machinery three centuries past human virtue w orld. A study of mental action therefore for the production of mind were has been steadily increasing, and U nder th o se blows w hich c an n o t be es- demands and includes an investiga totally destroyed. A disinterested mankind is prepared to receive a escaped Whoso has learned to suffer,suffers le a s t ; tion of the related and antecedent observer could hardly reach any higher faith. But in order to build But he who fears to suffer, adds his fear physical phenomena. When these other conclusion. But we are none we must first destroy. Not only To th e full w eight of o th e r suffering. And y et we curse ourselves w ith cow ard are all considered together we soon of us disinterested; and when a the Syrian [Christian] superstition ice— perceive that they belong together. conclusion is greatly against our must be attacked, but also the be \\ h e th e r avoiding an unw’elcom e tru th Or giving e ar to an agreeable lie. Particularly are the phenomena of wishes and our habit of thought , lief in a personal god, which en genders a slavish and Oriental con A m other, com forted in w idow hood mentality and vitality seen to be we naturally struggle against it. By boyish talk and m erry , careless eyes, [ The author then reviews the dition of the mind; and a belief in In fact all organic W atches w ith b reath lessn ess th e rip e n inseparable. ing m an ; reactions partake of both vital and other hypothesis of a continuation a posthumous reward, which en And, as his voice grow s deeper, hears mental characteristics, and when of thought process as a material genders a selfish and solitary con- again immaterial possibility, and findsTdition of the heart. These beliefs The fa th e r’s tones in fresh er m elody. we consider the more elementary or * that k « 4 4 the 1_J difficulties * XX?__ 1 a ’ of /• the . 1 n “material . - | 11 are, therefore, injurious to human M eanw hile com e friends to h e r w ith se r organisms, the two merge into each ious m ein, other till it becomes impossible to ether-’ to be “insurmountable,” anc nature. Ihey lower its dignity; Telling grave tales of w orse th a n levity, make any distinction between them. the immaterial ether to be unthink they arrest its development; they And bidding h e r e x e rt h e r gentle sway Io m ould his passions, ere it be too late. A similar consideration extended able and “out of the question.” The isolate its affections. We shall not And she is sta rtle d a t each new re p o rt; only remaining question is that of deny that many beautiful senti But, a t th e sig h t of th a t fair, open face, to other branches of physical phe E orgets h e r fears, and can n o t even d o u b t; nomena show them to be derived supernatural causation of existence ments are often mingled with the And lets him rule h er, as he alw ays d id — from a common stock, and that fin continued in some way unknow faith in a personal deity, and with I ntil th e fatal stroke falls su d d e n ly ; And she lies cru sh ed b en eath an in fam y , ally we must consider all energies able to us, and which we are said the hopes of happiness in a future I iiat has been fostered by h e r over-love. to accept by act of faith, as Ter- state; yet we maintain that how as only one. tullian did, who said, after denying ever refined they may appear, they A d re a m e r,n o tsu sp e c tin g th a t he dream s, Surrounds h im s e If L with ....... r----------------- phan to m im ages, If the mind is simply an aggre the immortality and incorporeality are selfish at the core, and that if tra n s m itte d dow nw ard from h is ances of the soul: “C redo quid impossi removed they will tie replaced by tors. But b u rn ish ed and recolored bv h im self. gate of phenomena, the sum of the ble est .” (I believe because it is sentiments of a nobler and purer He peoples th e celestial d e p th s w ith motions of something, of course it impossible). As to such a state of form s kind. They cannot be removed ceases or dies whenever the sub Created from analogies of e a r th — stance of which it is the motion “belief,” if it can be so called, it is without some disturbance and dis A God, co n tro llin g like a m ortal k in g ; ceases to act. And this must be beyond a rational ’ mind and can tress; yet sorrows thus caused are Angels in h u m a n bodies, glorified; laces of c h astise m e n t and recom pense, true whether we consider the soul “neither be supported nor disproved salutary and sublime. And o th er copies of o u r d aily life. by scientific research.” In order to [Evolution means] that mankind In this, h is p h a n to m -w o rld , he finds material or immaterial. The mo believe in this way we must cease should be elevated by misfortune, su p p o rt, tions constituting mind cannot be I hough feeble and oft failing to his needs, to be rational beings.] and that happiness should grow out inging to th is, in fear to follow th o u g h t supposed to exist after the dissolu of misery and pain. I give [then] On its dim jo u rn ey th ro u g h th e d is ta n t tion of the thing that moves, any . w ilds, The Martyrdom of flan, to Universal History a strange but more than the waving of a flag or He rises never to th a t calm rem ove true title: T he M artyrdom of M an . from w hence philosophy surveys th e the ticking of a watch continue as by winwood reade . creeds. In each generation the human such after the flag and watch have L jt us repose in N a tu re ’s u n ity , race has been tortured that their »'here i r u t h an d G ladness sta n d in been destroyed. The effects of all he system of ptolemy was children might profit by their woes. of our acts go on in other forms of b ro th e rh o o d ; supplanted by the system of Our own prosperity is founded upon here, like th e e a rth , o u r d estin ies a d motion, because being a part of the vance: Copernicus. . . . In the the agonies of the past. Is it there G ke it, not lost, a lth o u g h no tra il is left sum of all physical energy, they same manner we are the true fore suc unjust that we also should pon th e space th ro u g h w hich it w an cannot be lost. But for the very ders o n ! cessors of the early Christians suffer for the benefit of those who ’ sacred T ru th , receive us u n to T hee, reason that our acts do thus pass above whom we are raised by the are to come? Famine, pestilence i hat we m ay lose in T hee o u r p u n y w ills, into other forms of motion, they know no o th e r hopes and fears th a n cease to be our acts. If the move progress of eighteen hundred years, and war are no longer essential to _ T h in e ! As they preached against gods the advancement of the human race, J hen, while we live, it is a h e ro ’s life ; ments that have been made by our Aii 1 w'h en we fall, it is a m a r ty r ’s d e a th . that were made of stone, so we But a season of mental anguish is hands no longer exist as such, preach against gods that are made at hand, and through this we must neither is it possible that the move if we weigh virtue by the mere ments that have constituted our of ideas. As they were called Athe- pass, in order that our posterity h ilitv and profit that attend it and minds from day to day any longer iste and blasphemers, so are we. | may rise. The soul must be sacri- h 1 by its own merit, the one virtue exist. And as any future move And is our task more difficult than ficed; the hope in [personal] im- Hbich results from such an estimate ment of the hands depends upon theirs? We have not, it is true, mortality must die. A sweet and H be in fact a species of vice. For the continued integrity of the hands the same stimulants to offer. We charming illusion must be taken bhe more a man refers all his actions themselves, so any future manifes- cannot threaten that the world is from the human race, as youth and about to be destroyed; we cannot beauty vanish never to return. T T T