Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903, August 23, 1900, Image 1

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    T orch
of
K e a s o n .
“TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH.
VOL. 4.
___ SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, E. M. 300 (1900.)
NO. 33.
Mockery.
act, for in my hearing a lady, who in superstition; and his own high­
The Work Begun.
had been to see this compound be­ est faith was th a t “ they who die in
H Y do we grudge o u r sw eets so
BY SIN G LETO N W . DAVIS.
ing, referred to the placards and a great cause” would
to th e living,
W ho, all know , find at best too handbills as giving a good repre­
m uch of gall,
A ugm ent th e deep and sw eepingtthoughts
CIENTIFIC minds are not
A nd th e n w ith gei/erous, open h an d s sentation. If we suppose this lady AN hich overpow er all others e n d conduct
satisfied with mere approx­
k neel, giving
to have repeated in a letter that The world at last to freedom .
U n to th e dead o u r all?
imation to correctness. The
which I heard her say, and if we
W h’V o t s o rro w ? 6 ‘ h6 " 'a rl“ h e a rte ’
apk w h a t w " u ld a PP<‘a '' t b e ct,!>r i c
His poems revealed the grandeur astronomer who would be willing
undertake complex calculations
W ith idle jests, or scorn, or cruel ^er of th e e v id e n c e to o n e w h o , of scenery, as well as history, and
sneers,
some fifty years hence, had before made delight in mountains and without caring for accuracy of de­
And w hen it can n o t know , on som e to­
him the advertisement, representa­ thunderstorms felt as an ennobling tail ,n every step would be consid-
m orrow ,
Speak of its woe th ro u g h tears?
tion and the letter, we shall see influence. His speeches in the ere(l very unscientific, and the
W hat do th e dead care for th e ten d e r that the alleged fact would be House of Lords were pleas for par- chemist who would analyze sub-
to k e n —
by him incontestable. liamentary reform, Catholic eman- stances and tabulate the results
The love, th e p raise,th e floral offerings ? thought
B ut p a lp ita tin g , living h e a rts are broken Only if, after weary search through cipation, and mercy to rioters in without setting down the tenths,
For w a n t of ju s t these th in g s.
all the papers and periodicals of furiated by famine. In 1820. he hundredths, and even thousandths
—[Selected.
the time, he happened to come was one of the leading Carbonari in of his unit of measure, would be
Italy; he gave his life to help the pronounced a mere dabbler. Thor«
Influences V itiating Evidence uPon a certain number of the Lan­
cet, would he discover that this G re e k s become free; and his name oughness and exactness are the
combination was not that of two is still a watchword of »•evolution. soul and spirit of Science in every
BY H E B R E R T SPE N C E R
His friend, Shelley, went so far department—investigation, observ­
heads on one body, but that of two
ation, experimentation, generaliza­
LONG with much that has individuals united hack to back, in the same direction as to call him
self a republican, as well as an tion. If so m physical science,
of late years been done w’ith heads facing opposite ways,
should they be any less so in re­
toward changing primitive and severally complete in all re­ Atheist. He had consecrated him­
self in boyhood to .war against all ligious science? This accuracy be-
history into myth, and along with spects, except where the parts were
ing a great factor in the recent
much that has been done toward so fused as to form a double pelvis, j °PPre8HOrti> an^ his position to the
wonderful development of the phy­
changing once-questioned estimates containing certain pelvic viscera ’as| " as that of his own Prome-
fullering continually with sical sciences, would surely prove
of persons and events of past ages, common to the two. If, then, re-1
enslaved, hut consoled by faith no less effective in religious evo­
much has been said about the un- specting facts of so simple and so:
trustworthiness of historical evi- e“ i'y veriable a kind, where no ob- lbal l,ls sympathy will hasten the lution.
The conditions upon which re­
dence. Hence there will be ready ,'iou9 niotive f,,r misrepresentation |
‘>■*? wl’en every man .hall
k*ng over himself, when wo ligion has been and is still being
acceptance of the statement that exists, we cannot count on true
one of the impediments to socio­ representations, how shall we count j men> ^ree from custom’s evil taint,” developed from a lower to a higher
on tiue representations of social | 8^a^' ,nake earth like heaven, when state becoming known, rules for
logical generalization is the uncer­
tainty of our data. When we bear facts, which, being so diffused and I thrones, altars, judgment-seats, practical application in religious
in mind that from early stories so complex, are so difficult to ob-jan<^ prisons “shall seem as anti­ culture in accordance therewith
may he formulated and reduced to
such as those about the Amazons, serve, and in respect of which the Quated as-the pyramids, and when
perceptions are so much perverted human nature
in»tnr« b shall
B u II be
1«. “its
“>»«, own practice, resulting in a rational
their practices, the particular bat­
divine control.” He took the side
tles with them and particular by interests, and prepossessions, of the poor against the rich in a voluntary evolution of religion
analagous in method and modus
events in those battles, all of which and party feelings?
drama which was suppressed on operandi to muscular training, in­
are recorded and sculptured as cir­ In exemplifying this difficulty, account of its severity against
tellectual education, æsthetic cul­
cumstantially as they might be let us limit ourselves to cases sup­ George IV., and which ends with a
ture, etc. 1 he study of compara­
were
\>A V the persons
WtiM L
and
«
VsVV'lJVOlim'"'*
events his- plied by
* the life of our own time, '
portentous scene, where
tive religion, comprehending the
toric—when we bear in mind, I i®aying it to be inferred that if, in
history of its development in all
say, that from such early stories a cornParatively calm and critical Freedom calls famine, her eternal foe
forms in all countries and times,
down to accounts of a well-known a8e> sociological evidence is vitiated To brief alliance,
as a means of discovering the laws
people like the New Zealander«, b>' ™Ho0. influences, much more
He spoke as well as wrote for the
and conditions of its development,
who, “by some . . .
are said mu? “ >«« ba™ be«n vitialio"
independence of Ireland; and he
is a correct scientific method and
to be intelligent, cruel and brave; sucb evidence in the past, when wouk, havc d()lle much for that o(
by others, weak, kindly and cow- passions ran higher and credulity I Greece, if lie had not died soon after rational antithesis of supernatural
“revelation,” Ro-called, for obtain­
ardly,” we have to deal with an was greater-
publishing a magnificent tragedy, ing dispensations of religious in­
enormous accumulation of conflict­
in which he showed what cruel formation. By the adoption of
ing statements; we cannot but feel
massacres were perpetrated while scientific methods in the study of
Byron and Shelley.
that the task of collecting facts
the rulers of Christendom refused to this subject, we may hope to dis
from which to draw conclusions is
help Christian patriots against the cover and apply principles by
BY F R E D E R IC MAY H O LLA N D .
in this case a more arduous one
Turks. Byron is culled the poet of which religion may be rapidly
than in any other case. Passing
revolution; but Shelley was the evolved from chaos to kosmoe,
over remote illustrations, let us
T O writer has spoken more poet of liberty. One was like a from something of doubtful influ-
take an immediate one.
1
mightily than Byron against painter who captivated the multi- ence for good to the immaculate
Last year advertisements an-
the “blasphemy” of ascrib- tude, sometimes by his brilliancy of producer of good only; and the
nounced the “Two-headed Nightin- ing divine authority to the “royal color, sometimes by his tragic founding of a system of rational
gale,” and the walls of London vampires.” He knew that Napo- pathos, and sometimes by his amor- religious culture is the noblest un-
wer© placarded with a figure in leon had been “the scourge of the ous warmth. The other was like a dertaking any one can engage in,
which one pair of shoulders was world;” hut he was indignant to sculptor who left a few statues and and its consummation would come
shown to bear two heads looking see the men who had struck down tablets, fanciful in design and ma­ to the human mind like a flood of
the same way (I do not refer to the the lion kneeling before wolves; and jestic in execution, for the delight light from the scientific “sun of
later placards, which partially dif- yet he looked forward to the reign of connoisseurs. Fortuuately, the righteousness!” All hail the dawn I
fered from the earlier). To some everywhere of “equal rights and marble is likely to outlast the can-
this descriptive name and answer-, laws.” He spoke freely of the VBS-—[Liberty in the Nineteenth
Theologiaus have exhausted in­
ing diagram seemed sufficiently ex-1 “sacerdotal gain but general loss” Century.
genuity in finding excuses for God.
W
S'
A
** V*