THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, JULY 5, E. M. 300 (1900.)
ed in the world, which is a great form in the minds of those who see
straight
on,
no
matter
what
stum­
This book can be made to uphold
industrial and moral school, a col­ narrowly and imperfectly, and rea­
bling
blocks
are
in
the
path.
almost anything that man desires.
lege to teach people how to live, son feebly. But such observations
It
is
the
keeping
steady
at
one
It is the consolation of every vice
are the men and women of energy and reasonings, and the erroneous
employment
till
the
work
is
com­
and the barricade of every crime.
and perseverance. \\ ithout such, conclusions w’hich result therefrom,
plete.
A few years ago American Christ­
the business of living would totter are just as natural and normal
It
¡
b
the
not
being
discouraged.
ians looked upon that book as the
with undeveloped minds as are the
and reel backward.
Success does not come by acci­
foundation and defense of human
Failure is not to be entertained , more comprehensive and discrim­
slavery; yet slavery is a crime that dent. It comes by utilization of as the final goal.
inating observation* and the more
includes all others, and in compari­ time, by thought, by reason, by
One attempt, two, three or four, correct conclusions of highiyevolved
son with which most others are work. “Such an one is lucky,” may be fruitless.
minds.
you
say.
But
is
there
any
such
virtues. The Bible was the word of
The primary fact of evolution is
Try again, and still again.
God, and for that reason man was thing as luck? “Luck!’ said the
If you get thrown in an encoun­ continuity. Every condition is the
Duke
of
Wellington,
“I
made
under obligation to obey. Had it
ter with work, jump up, roll up result of modifications of previous
been considered simply as the work luck.” Instead of luck, the force your sleeves and start in again.
conditions. This is as true of
that
wins
is
application.
Kepler
of man, it would not have been
If you are trying to overcome man’s religious conceptions a& of
quoted to justify that which the in­ was a lifetime working out his evil with good, and it seems all up­ anything else. The fact that they
telligent men of the nineteenth three laws of the universe.
hill labor, call all your best forces, were originally acquired or that
A busy lawyer mastered the take a night’s rest and start on they were slowly evolved from
century hold in abhorrence. Had
the idea of inspiration been thrown French language by employing with renewed vigor. Hopefulness simple to more complex ideas,
away, a’l passages in conflict with just fifteen minutes after dinner and the will to do are what you makes them none the less natural.
liberty and science—with the re­ every day to its study. Llihu
Much that was slowly acquired
want.
corded experience of the human Burritt, called “the learned black­
If others outrun you in the race, by experience in the forgotten past
race—would instantly have become smith,” attributed his success to take a long breath and distance comes to us, of today, by heredity
harmless. The Bible would not the persevering habit of utilizing them by strength and perseverance. as a birthright. Ancestral experi­
have been considered as a guide for “odd moments.” He earned his
Do not let the word “Fail” ences are condensed and consoli­
man, but simply as a collection of daily bread at the blacksmith’s come into your mind as a possible dated in us as intuitions, aptitudes,
the opinions and mistakes of dead forge, and at the same time learned result, but go straight toward the predispositions; as “a priori forms
barbarians. The good passages not eighteen ancient and modern lan­ purpose in view, slowly, it may be, of thought.” The mental power of
only would have remained, but guages and twenty-two European but surely, till the end sought is reasoning, like the physical power
their influence would have been in­ dialects. He said, “All that I have accomplished.
of grasping with the hand, was ac­
creased, because they would have accomplished, or expect, or hope to
It was only by intense and thor­ quired through many thousands,
accomplish, has been and will be ough application for years, unceas­ and hundreds of thousands of years.
been relieved of a burden.
No one cares whether the truth by that plodding, patient and per­ ing devotion to his cause, that Our conceptions of morality, the
is inspired or not. The truth is in­ severing process of accretion which Humboldt gave to the world his moral sense or disposition, our
dependent not only of man, hut of builds the ant-heap, particle by Cosmos. All men and women who musical taste, mathematical ability
all the gods. ‘And by truth I jarticle, thought by thought, fact bless the world by their successes and power of imagination and of
mean the place of man in nature— yy fact. And if ever I was actu­ have not done so by means of any abstraction, as well as language,
the relation he sustains to the all; ated by ambition, its highest and special favoritism of fortune, but have been acquired; have come by
the relation between things, and warmest aspiration reached no by hard labor and thorough appli­ a progress of integration and
between thoughts and things; further than the hope to set before cation. The road their feet trod is growth. They are products of the
between acts and consequences, be­ the young men of the country an open for you and for all.
evolutionary process.
tween conduct and condition. The example in employing those.valu­
The same is true of religious be­
perception of truth bears the same able fragments of time called ‘odd
liefs and observances. They are
The G enesis and Growth of Re­ natural results of man’s mental
relation to the logical faculty in moments.’ ”
lig io n s.
man that music does to some por­
He did make an example for you
and physical constitution, and of
tion of the brain; it is a mental and for me, and for all.
his environment. They are sub­
melody. This sublime strain has
BY B. F. UNDERWOOD.
ject to modification by racial and
He taught us a lesson of perse­
been heard by a lonely few, and verance—how to keep right on in
climatic influences. Very different
yet I am enthusiastic enough to our work and not falter or faint.
A friend writes that the ignor­ were the religions of Judea and of
believe that it will be the music of
If we sink under discouragement, ance which preceded belief in su­ Greece, but both were natural out­
the future.—[Bible Idolatry.
or adverse circumstances, we are pernaturalism was normal, but be­ growths of the human mind. The
lief in supernaturalism appeared as religion of the Jews would have
lost.
Perseverance, th e Friend of fla n .
The thing to do is to sink dis­ a mental disease, as a morbid phe­ been abnormal for the Greeks; that
of the Greeks would have been
nomenon.
couragement, not ourselves.
According to my view, religion quite as abnormal for the Hebrews.
It is to plunge into labor, if we
BY SUSAN H. WIXON.
It would be as unreasonable to
had its genesis and growth in ex­
mean to achieve an end.
To aim toward a high mark, and perience. There was a time when say that the belief, once universal,
T h ere is to whom all th in g s are e asy ;
his tnind as a m aste r key,
resolve by all fair means to reach conceptions of gods and belief in that the earth was flat was, be­
G an open, w ith in tu itiv e ad d ress, th e
it, is wisdom. To do a little at this supernaturalism had not come into cause of its erroneousness, abnormal,
treasu res of a rt an d science.
T h e re is to whom all th in g s are h a rd ; and a little at that, is scattering existence, were no part of the as to say that religion, because one
b u t industry giveth him a crow bar
energies, wasting time. Darwin mind’s furniture. If man were does not believe in supernatural­
T o force w ith groaning labor
T he stu b b o rn lock of lea rn in g .
was a man, as all admit, of great evolved from ape-like creatures, ism, is abnormal, or a morbid phe­
—[T upper.
worth to the world. How did he and they from still lower forms, all nomenon.
The accomplishment of aims, become so? By perseverance, by conceptions aud beliefs are experi­
the successes in life are due putting all his force and energy mental; in other words, they have
A Scotch parson once upbraided
to concentration of effort, to into his work, and employing every been acquired; they originated in the blacksmith of the village for
observation and reflective thought.
energy and perseverance. We see moment of time, in spite of a poor
not paying his church rate. “But
persons plodding along day after state of health and many draw­ Thus fetichism, polytheism and I never go to the kirk,” said the
monotheism appeared, and their
day, not showing much for their backs.
origin and development were just blacksmith. “That is your fault,”
work at first, but finally astonish­ “Whatever is worth doing at all,
said the minister; “the kirk is al­
ing every one by their acquirements is worth doing well;” aud in what­ as natural as was the evolution of ways open.” A few days later the
and prosperity. “They have gen­ ever we undertake, we need to put the mind itself.
These religious ideas and beliefs blacksmith sent a bill to the min*
ius!” it is said. But what is genius? health, strength, power, energy.
ister for shoeing his horse. '1 be
Buffon said “genius is only pa­ For that purpose we should see were, it is true, founded on super minister indignantly protested that
that we live truly and morally, be ficial observations and erroneous
tience.”
his horse had not been shod-
cause right methods of living give inferences, but this fact made them
It is work.
“That’s your fault,” said the smith;
It is the power to start at work us power, energy, force, pluck, per none the less natural. Primitive “the forge is always open.—[New
ideas are, for the most part, false.
with an object in view, to never let severance.
The men and women most need They are such ideas as naturally ,York Observer.
that object out of sight, to keep