THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, MAY 31, 1900. F o r th e T om b of Reason. 5 n J n Hn illn en,*‘m je r? 0'' Sir w il' ,he quotation made by Mr. Under- 1 aland the world in which weT7e - ■“ * » .......... ; ? » » 'i> -I--. - grand galaxy of honor ¿ the wor , d as HVSI a SITV is able to know the activity or experience of this BY B. F . U N D ER W O O D . human race the names of those who, an<l has Earned to know it, is the i'.ubj^ ’ “u t ' he ".Y '1' ar?und u"-is i™ v.P? i o agi ° nly P°Psible world <" ">«»• a»d ulated resulto>'of man ' s experienced Anybody J who attempts »n J j r"8an.d n * 4 have » ri8lo‘!edown , \ to studv J lo Kant and Comte, done so the basis of all of his life, present This is the ground of our faith.hope philosophy without understanding much to illustrate and to make ever 9 . « « ^ » -4 a .xrei • - i « r n r .- , •. . 9 ' f — “X » " m ’e e v e r and and future. future. A A more more fruitful, fruitful, irs- and aod m-cHorism. m-cHorism. edge” with its profound im plies- of-iiw W ocfA iB . Si,fee the £ " l“ " ' , ’“ « " • ’ « " 8 chnpter, «- . » "J " '" * - at man’s explan« Ilona, will land in the ditch. ‘,me nf * “"» - Hamilton, Mill, Mr- Underwood intimates, has nev- £ than hU ow can never be S n e ' n l re __ i p p b~ boon ____j . "hn- _ i ' m u ,c iu«u ms ow Human knowledge is relative, X h r o J " in v U v " m .,on ‘ban . *u_ the giaud Perception and resultant conception an or those Who have had any lead man cenclusions which fellow from subjective synthesis and nan n t ? t ^ g h ^ v e ^ ^ ^ X i ^ “Relativity of Knowledge”, er truly be mot. untU he ca. learn are products of two factors—con made stronger and more irrefrag- theF °f lts lnev ¡table consequences to think beyond relations, as a bird sciousness and the objective v v u » v i reality. r a n í y, o ---------- will appear in another column. ^ould fly without wings or air. Our What either is “in ilself” we do abl?.tha conviction that this philo- science is our human reading and 'T'u x sophical doctrine is a law of science We continue the quotation thus: not and can not know. The two underlying all human knowledge, co-ordination of phenomena as they factors constitute a synthesis which thought and effort. “ The of Scientific Philoso- , growth ....... ........ ......... - ...... — appear to us. The center of all the is the basis of all knowledge. Now under the light of this law phy ha8 ln thls way beep a contin" sciences can, therefore, be no other v , ctory of the E xperiential than this continuous Man which What the world is except in rela what is the meaning of Goethe’s Philosophy, and a confirmation of remains as the subject, the very tion to consciousness we do not aphorism? The meaning is, that the maxim,— and only nucleus of the knowable we only know this world about us know. What consciousness is ex as it is related to us; that we know Cosmos, which he arranges in order ‘Nihil in intellectu non prius in sensn.’ around him, as he perceives it and cept in relation to what is perceiv only phenomena. We know our ed, and what is conceived as object perceptions of things, and call them That is, “Nothing in the intellect needs and wills it. All the sciences, that is, all laws and relations, cen ive, we do not know. Our world the world. W hat the world may that has not first been in sensation”. ter in him and are knowable only But the greatest of these triumphs is the perceptive and the conceptive be beyond its relation to us, and has been the reply of Sociology to as his sensations, thoughts and our perceptions of it, we have world. What the world is except neither the capacity nor the means the objection Leibnitz made to this feelings. In this grand continu in relation to consciousness is “un for learning. The consequences of maxim when he retorted, as is said, ous organism, H umanity , we, there knowable”. this conclusion are of the greatest “with the applause of Europe”, fore, find the convergence of the intellectus ipsi [Except the in external world, as far as we can The so-called properties of mat importance in regard to the subject ‘Nisi tellect itself]!’—the point of the ob know it , under the law of the rela ter are, in final analysis, states of before us. It is this conclusion jection being,that the intellect itself tivity of human knowledge. that points to man as the connect mind. No philosophy which dis ing mind by which all phenoraenas ’was prior to cr independent of ex But if this is true of the materi putes or ignores this philosophical are construed together. The nu perience, and had forms and capac al and biological worlds, it is, if proposition has any standing in cleus man is the center around ities of thought and even necessary possible, more decisively true and important in the domain of human which the knowable world hangs, truths which transcended all exper- societies court. and of moral endeavor. ince. The answer to this has come Phenomena are facts of conscious to which it all comes; for it is the from the light that Social Science For this continuous human organ human perceptive power by which ness. What, in co-operation with all phenomena are co-ordinated and Comparative Psychology have ism, now embracing our planet, has thrown upon the genesis and his gradually incorporated into its con consciousness, gives rise to the per into the whole , as a world. tinuity and solidarity the past ages ception and conception of things ob The importance of this latter tory of the human mind and its and all of the present peoples and Whatever of these jective, we do not know, because proposition calls for a fuller con conceptions. appeared inexplicable from the nations. It has become a grand perception and conception are pro sideration. We must take this law study of the individual, or of one unity, being first united emotional relativity for granted as the ducts of thr objective and subject of ly in the sentiment of the humane ; foundation of all knowable science stage of civilization, yields to the then by commerce, religion and in ive factors. and philosophy, and, if the Re historical vision that studies the ternational law, until now’ it dis Wo k now color only as a sensa ligion of Humanity follows from it, whole human race a s ‘one grand in- tinctly aims at the conscious control diuidual’growing through the ages, tion; we know vibrations of ether we shall have no alternative but to and retaining by unconscious her of itself, and of the earth under the recognize the fact and to conform to only as a conception. of law. It is the great organ it. I hat those who have establish edity the results of the various stag reign ism, the greatest being known to Phenomena are appearances , the ed this law have failed to deduce or es of its progress. In his contact “show of things”; the effects of the to verify all its consequences, is and struggle with his enviroment, us. From it we have come, and external something upon the sen only to say that they discovered a Man has carried away in his inmost have received all that we have in herited or acquired, and in it we larger continent than they were and instinctive nature much that literally tient organism. “live, and move and have able to explore, and that they left we can find no origin for now, un our being”. Some years ago Prof. T. B. Wake that work to their successors. less we look deeply and broadly in man, in an excellent address before I nder the light of such consider As the fundamental fact, then, to what we may call the embryolo gy of the race. ations the deeper meaning of the Free Religious Association, we know the world about us only Take, for instance, the explana presented this thought very clear as phenomena, that is, only as it tion of the conscience , or moral Goethe’s aphorism dawns upon us. If we ask now, What is the Relig ly, and I think his judicious words appears to us. We have only our, sense. It seemed at first wholly ion of Humanity? This law of the i. e., a human, conception of its now reproduced, since he belongs properties and relations. inexplicable,and therefore,of course, relativity of human knowledge an to the faculty of the Liberal Uni- I he primary or permanent, as a divine intuition, or faculty of su swers, that it is the sum of all the versity, will be read with interest wed as the secondary or transient pernatural origin. But this was so relations and emotions, infinite,cos only from its individual and partial mic and human, tnat converge in by the readers of the Torch, and ProPertie8 of matter, and also time examination. Under the historical M an as the center of the whole • • ■ - permission they are here and space—that is, succession and with his extension—upon final analysis, are analysis of Spencer, Darwin, Tylor knowahle world. These relations with presented: found to he modes of our sensation and Fiske, its origin from the nat are theoretically known and sum ural selection and heredity of the med up in the word “Science”, and “As to the first question, What is and apprehension.” Altruistic feelings, that is, those practically, emotionally and mor the Religion of Humanity? if I beneficial to society, is made out as ally in the word “Duty”. “To should give a short, concrete defi plainly as the physiological origin know the true in order to do the comment by t . b . w . nition, it would be simply this: It and evolution of the human eye or good ”, is, therefore, the fundamen the S ubjective S ynthesis . If Mr. Lnderwood has done the hand. In a word, there seems to tal maxim of the New Faith. u ask further explanation of this Liberal world another service by he nothing in the individual man, Its creed is S cience , or the Posi aphorism WnfUlr translate a llttIe insistence upon the “Relativity of physically, mentally, morally, or tive Philosophy, formed by co apnorism of Goethe, perhaps the v , , ,; , . even spiritually, that does not be ordinating the special sciences in wisest of men, which may help to KnowledBe and R« Consequences, come intelligible under this race - the order in which the forces are show what depth of meaning lurks " e are Phased that he recognizes explanation when thoroughly ap correlated through the material under this philosophic phrase. The how thoroughly this was done as plied. world as they pase from the infinite words of Goethe are: “ We know of the basis of every phase of Science ............. The next step t is to inquire how space through the domains which we ’.nn re^a^ on to man, and Humanism in the address en- the questions of human existence an ’x n « ; X W of th".°t titled ‘'Tbe R eli.lo.of Humanity”, aPPe? ' «“der this law of relativity constitute astronomy,phy sics,chem istry, biology, sociology, up to the If you ask further for an explan, delivered before the Free Religious rX ^Z redU v”*1 The’^ ^ e r individual man himself. Thus the ation of this aphorism, I must re- Association, at Boston, May 31, from the law of relativity must h« order of the sciences builds a phi losophy that binds the Cosmos into » » « » .........: m a a ; a = £ The R elativity of K nowledge. «ltiet of all the aires of thought and rePr,nt that address, but now we A . ’UH. iUmanl,tT l8> thtrtfore, organic Humanity, whose good, experience—“the law of the relativ- can only add the paragraphs which ¡native ca'i- oTeubiect^n ‘ ' wel.fare a"d glory become the main-