T H E TORCH OF REASON, S IL V E R T O N , O REG O N , JU N E 14, 1903.
lion first by d isappointm ent and up serpents; and if they drink any ciliated by supplications and an-
.'i
T rav els.
then in exultation at the thought deadly thing it shall not h u rt them ; ,,eased, but th a t we stand iu n atu re
BY PEARL W. GEER.
th a t the actualities of science are
'¿ ¿ “J ^ . ' " e r ” " '
’ fr° m WhiCh WC
grOW"
Flant interaction between our own
hicber. nobler, and better th an the
.
a ™
Did I leave mvself in W ashing-
’
..
I t is ap p aren t th a t C hristianity aspirations and the n atu ra l forces
dream s of superstition, even if they .
,
.
»us.«, a written
1
.
r.ooro in the days when this was written re g u la te d by law , we s h a ll h av e ton la st tim e? \ es, I remember I
were possible, and thus it appears
\
a / ici
* « bore a strong resem blance to what Confidence in our own faculties, was ju s t a b o u t t<> d e sc rib e ,.m y .d e ;_
•h at science comes to fulfil, not to
is now caileb" X ltfiM lan
w hich c a n he in c re ase d by in vesti- lig h tfu l v is it a t th e home of Major
destroy.
W hile the belief in, .n d the prac- failb cure- or me," al healinf!1: ,or gallon and a proper com prehen- Pechin, and I d id n ’t have paper
Now I
.ice’ of magic are not entirely ab- the a u th o r of the above-quoted p a a -; 8jon nf c01ldition8) and we shall no enough to do it justice.
plenty of paper, but words fail
j
Pr iook beyond b ut around, have pi
sent in the «;„;iUo»5nn
civilization nf
of Tarwel
Israel, we
we sage,
* the im portance of which in IongPr
me. Mr. and Mrs. Pechin, the two
, ,
, , ,
P
,
the New Testament canon cannot F
f o„vt!.
find th a t the leaders of orthodox
.
r a u s i says.
gons and oned au g h ter, would make
“ A fool w ho to th e Beyond his eyes
thought had set their face a g a i n s t ......................
»
.
xnouguv nau
e>
C hristianity in which “ these signs”
d irec te th
any home happy. I had the pleas-
it, at least as it appeared in its
J
, , OD And over th e clouds a place of peers u r e p g [a y j n g one night at their
’
, 1 .
p
. are absent m ust be regarded as
d e te c te th .
J °
crudest form, and went so far a3 to
F irm m u st m an sta n d and look aro u n d home. F iteen m inutes on the car
c
,,,i spurious.
persecute sorcerers with fire and r
him well,
and a w aik of equal d u ratio n , out
*
Traces of the religion of magic
T he world m ean s so m eth in g to th e c a p
hWOri •
are gtjji prevalent today, and it will
through the suburbs, brought me to
able.”
We read in the Bible th at when
take much p atient work before the
T his m anhood of m an, to bn the Plaw j visdltd la9t,
a ;“ ’ ‘
the Lord “ m ultiplied his signs” in
last rem nants of it are swept away. gained by science through the con found the fam ily seated on the front
Egypt, he sent Moses and Aaron to
'The notions of magic still hold in
quest of all magic, is the ideal Poroh> enjoying tl.e cool air lh a t
P haroah to tu rn their rods into
bondage the m inds of the u n ed u ­ which the present age is striving to
witb '« ¡lig h t. I h a d n ’t been
serpents, th a t the E gyptian m agi­
cated and half-educated, and even a tta in , and the ideal has plainly tb " e 1,,n8 before we were
cians vied with them in the p er­
the leaders of progress feel th em ­ been recognized by leaders of hu­ the cool ice cream th a t comes with
form ance, b u t th a t A aron’s rod
selves now and then ham pered by m an progress. The time has come KUnnner- Then we talked until
swallowed up their rods, dem on­
ghosts and superstitions.
Thus
for us “ to put aw ay childish things,” time to retire, and of course, as us­
stratin g thus A aron’s superiority.
ual, conversation postponed the
Goethe m akes F a u st say at the end
and to relinquish the beliefs and
It is an interesting fact th a t the
the bedtim e. I don’t know how the
of his career:
practices of the medicine m an.
snake charm ers of E gypt perform
rest felt, but I was well paid for all
B ut w’hile m agic as superstition
today a sim ilar feat, which consists “ N ot y e t have I m y lib erty m ade good:
So long as I c a n ’t b an ish m agic’s fell
,
.
•, . i
i
•
the sleep I lost. In the m orning I
and as fraud is doomed, magic as
H
•
in paralyzing a snake so as to
c reatio n s,
an
a
rt
will
not
die.
Science
will
i
waa
so
rry
to
k
8
v
e
,or
tb
e
c
,ty
lo
611
render it motionless. The snake A nd to ta lly u n le a rn th e in c a n ta tio n s.
Stood I, O N atu re, as a m an in th ee,
then looks like a stick but is not T h en w ere it w orth o n e ’s w hile a m an tak e hold of it and perm eate it “ tb *’r appointm ents.
•xi its own sp irit changing
k „„I™ a it ¡rvtrJ
to lie.
with
into , I had a very J / pleasant visit with
rigid.
And such was I ere I w ith the occult
• x-c magic
• which
i
a
scientific
is destitute Miss W hite at her btan to n -b q n u are
Exorcism is first replaced by
conversed,
r n
~ «„niorw ont, home, and found her to be very
__ j •_ z,
t
t.
_
prayer, and prayer together with And ere so w ickedly th e world I c u rse d .” of all m ysticism , occultism , ana
much interested in C onstructive or
other religious exercises (such as
To be a man in nature and to superstition, and comes to us as a
Positive Liberalism , and of course
fasts, ecstasies, trances, visions, fight one’s way to liberty is a much witty play for recreation and d iv e r­
news of the work being done at Sil­
asceticism , with its various modes more dignified position than to go sion.
verton was welcome. On short ac­
of self-mortification) are practiced lobbying to the courts of the celes­
I t is an ex tra o rd in ary help to a
quaintance I learned to adm ire
for the purpose of a ttain in g super­ tials and to beg of them favors. At m an to be acquainted with the
n atu ral powers. A higher religion the beginning of the d ram a F au st tricks of prestidigitators, and we Miss W hite for her common sense
is not attain ed until the sphere of had tu rn ed agnostic and declared advise parents not to neglect this and goodness, and I know enough
know lb a t
religion is discovered in practical th a t we cannot know anything phase in the E ducation°of’ their \of bum 8n n atu re
m orality and prayer is changed worth knowing, saying:
children, The present age is lay- °P inion would " ot be c b a "g ed bX
into vows. Then supplications of
ing the basis of a scientific world longer acquaintance.
“ T h a t w hich we do n o t know is d early
The scientific men of W ashington
th e deity to a tta in one’s w ill are
conception, and it is perhaps uot
needed;
w ithout good reasons th a t it has are nearly all Liberals and thor-
surrendered for the moral endeavor And w h a t we need we do not k n o w .”
produced quite a literatu re ou the oughly educated in Liberalism ,
of self-control, disciplining the will
And in another place:
subject of m odern magic.
Maj. Powell, in the Bureau of Eth-
to comply witli the behests of the
“
I
see
th
a
t
n
o
th
in
g
can
be
k
n
o
w
n
.”
T he old magi© still continues to nologv, and Carroll D. W right,
moral ought.
How tenacious the idea is th a t
But now F aust is converted to h au n t the m inds of the uncultured, Labor Commissioner were both de-
religion is and m ust be magic, a p ­ science again, having found out and will resist all exposes and ex- lighted to learn the p articu lars of
pears from the fact th a t even C h rist­ th a t the study of n atu re is not a planations, until it is replaced by the Liberal U niversity, and prom-
ianity’ shows traces of it. In fact, useless rum m age in em pty words. m odern magic. For this reason we ised our library the benefit of the
the early C hristians (who, we must H ow ever, in the first and second believe th a t the spread of m odern publications from th eir depart-
rem ember, recruited their ran k s decade of the nineteenth century m agic and its proper com prehen- ments. Dr. T ynd all, in the H ealth
from the lowly in life) looked upon the rationalism of the eighteenth sion are an im p o rtan t sign of pro- D epartm ent, is also one of the
C hrist as a kind of m agician, and w aned, not to make room for a hig h ­ gress, and iu this sense the feats of Torch of Reason fam ily and very
all his older pictures show him er rationalism , but to suffer the old our K ellars aud H erm anns are a deeply interested in our work. I
with a m agician’s wand in his hand. bugbears of ghosts and hobgoblins work of religious significance. They am very sorry I could not accept
The resurrection of L azarus, the to reap p ear in a reactionary move- are in stru m en tal in dispelling the the kind invitation to visit at his
change of water into wine, the m ent. Progress does not pursue a fogs of superstition by exhibiting home. It came too late,
m iracle of the loaves and fishes, are stra ig h t line, but moves in spirals to the public the astonishing but
Then there’s Prof.Lester F. Ward,
according to the notions of those or epicycles. Periods of d aylight n a tu ra l m iracles of the art of leger­ at th e N ational Museum. If I men­
centuries perform ed after the fash- are followed by nights of super- dem ain; and while they am use and tioned him in my last letter, of
ion of sorcerers, and the m ain thing stition.
F au st (expressing here en tertain they fortify the people in which I am not sure, it doesn’t
their conviction of the reliability m atter, as he will stand two men-
in early C h ristian ity is C h rist’s Gcethe‘s own ideas) continues:
of science.— [The Open Court.
tionings. I found him in his accus­
alleged claim to the power of work- ....
,
®
I Now fills th e a ir so m an y a h a u n tin g
tomed place and his usual good hu-
ing miracles. The last injunction
shai>e,
which Jesus gives to his disciples That no one knows how h«8t he nia-v
A funny prosecution is reported mor, ready to talk over matters
,
.
r OJ
escape.
according to St. Mark (xvi., 1 5 -1 8 ) W h at th o u g h th e day w ith ra tio n a l from Belgrade. The editor of the philosophical and scientific and re­
local paper has been found guilty ga rding our friend W akem an and
is th is*
splend o r beam s,
T he n ig h t en tan g les us in webs of d ream s. of insulting the ancient greek gods
Silverton. Miss Schmitt
. .
..
j By su p e rstitio n c o n sta n tly e n sn are d ,
by
satirizing
Jove,
\
enus
and
Mer-
.
j
_____ _ ;i|>
• o ye in to a ll th e w o rld , a n d j * spooks, gives w arnings, is d eclared .
____
___
_
____
r
His
sentence
is
5
is
in
the
fiame
d
ep
artm
en t witn
cury m a poem
preach the Gospel to every creature. Intimidated th u s we sta n d alone.
\\ e did not Prof. \\ ard.
She used to be
H e th a t believeth and is baptised T he p o rtal jars, y e t en tra n ce is th e re d ay s’ im prisonm ent.
none.
th in k there was so much life left in C atholic, but her study of science
shall be saved; but he th at believ­
eth not sh all be dam ned.
And
T he aim of m an is his liberty and , th(? e old de?758' B,It.y ° u c*n
and her association with Prof.Ward
these
signs
shall
follow
them
th
a
t
n e n e v e , ...
.n j ..« u w
vuey independence.
As soon as we un- ®a8e ¡n ’which the saying,’“ Let sleep- have caused her to lose all her sup-
believe; in my nam e shall they
cast out devils; they shall speak
d erstand th a t there are not occult ing dogs lie”, oeems very applica- erstition and she is now thoroug .
with new tongues; they sh all take powers or spooks th a t m ust be con- ble.— [F reethinker.
i Liberal, ^he is interested in pc ri-