Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 1900)
T H E TORCH OF REASON, S IL V E R T O N , OREGON, S E PT E M B E R 13, E. M. 300 (1900.) benefit comes from the cultivation takes; the m isrepresentations and or many things; as we grow older and of our faculties which the use o f exaggerations of his ene mies, and is we are more and more narrow-eyed name, take “ local habitatio n and these tools of Science continually it any wonder th at so m any could and lim it our attention to single ated far Thus m an has him self cre- uiore th an half the world gives, and the vastness of this great very appropriately have w ritten for things, purposes, ends and ideas in, and of the beings w ith,w hich he adv an tag e cannot be realized until th eir epitaph: “ It m ight have which make up the gist of our life, has hitherto lived. T hus he has we think of the effects upon the been”? A tte n tio n not only finds for us ever beeu the victim of his atten - m inds of the men and women of , II mll8t be th a t those great what is, but it creates, th a t is, tion. th a t is, of H ypnotism and com ing generations. The orang- m inds to whom we are never tired images for us subjective ideas into auto-suggestion. Only as such vic- o u ta n g produces little orang- of looking for help in our life strug- objective nam es and forms. In tim has he im aged forth the re o u tan g » , w hich are orang-outangs gle, have learned to creep into S hakespeare’s first great comedy of the past, every one of ‘ 1 The M idsum m er N ight’s D ream ,” ligions both in body and mind. Men Men and ’ ' other m en’s m inds and see as they ¡“ which was founded by “ R evelators w om en of highly cu ltivated m inds see. They m ust have learned to we have this given in a passage (Nabi) gifted with in san ity , from will produce th eir kind, and nothing love and have helpful sy m pathy never to be forgotten, thus: David and Saul to “ Jesu s” and St. gives civilized m an more power for the most debased crim inal as Paul, M ahomet an d Swedenborg, H ippolyta . ’Tis stra n g e, m y Theseus, over his en v iro n m ent th au his bet- well as for the most righteous. and finally to Jo sep h Sm ith; and th a t these lovers speak of. ter perfected idea of space. T heseus . More stran g e th a n tr u e : I B ut our tim es are not as favor these have been sufficiently backed never m ay believe A child grasps for the moon, and able for the production of such These an tic fables, n o r th ese fairy toys. and sustained by sacred poets, like it has been said th a t some children great m inds as they may be in the Lovers and m adm en have such seeth in g Daniel, St. John the R evelator, brains, cry because they can ’t get it. So future. Such men are rare, but M ilton, and Pollock’s Such sh aping fan tasies, th a t a p p re h en d D ante, it has been with h u m an ity . I t has there m ay come a tim e when all More th an cool reason ever com pre “ Course of Tim e”— the last of the h en d s. ig n o ran tly and absurdly grasped will have much more of this p h il The lu n atic, th e lover am i th e poet C hristian poets, who reduced the a t things h eav en ly —cried for them , anthropic elem ent in th eir natures Are of im agination all co m p act: Judgm ent Day to final ab su rd ity and in childish fantasy dream ed and m any have w hat now only a One sees m ore devils th a n vast Hell can hold; second only to th a t of the Mormon th a t its desire was gratified; but very few possess. T h at is th e m a d m a n : th e lover, all as Revelator, Sm ith. frantic now the C hristian m irage is fading We like harm ony, but we m ust Sees H elen ’s beauty in a brow of E g y p t: Thus Science has widened the from the sky, and as the earth com bat the evils of our tim e. We The p o et’s eye, in a line frenzy rolling, 1 houghts of man and redeem ed him tu rn s tow ard the great sun of tru th , m ust remove the barriers th a t keep Doth glance from heaven to e a rth , from e a rth to heaven; from himself. He need be no longer and its rays begin to p enetrate th e men from this love of harm ony in And, as im ag in atio n bodies forth The form s of th in g s unknow n, th e p o e t’s the hypnotic victim of his own im d ark corners of w hat has been a order to bring harm ony about. ’ pen agination working by un regulated land of the priest and the home of So, while we love th e C hristian, T urns them to shapes, and gives to airy attention. The real world takes nothing the slave, we who love the lig h t we m ust break his God idols; we A local h a b itatio n an d a nam e. the place of the im aginary. H is can rejoice th at the old evil days m ust tear down the house of sand Such tricks h a th stro n g im ag in atio n , em otions will, as liib o t poiuts out, are over and th a t we can assist in he has built on the shores of time; T h at, if it would b u t a p p re h en d som e still feed and sustain his attention: t J oy ’ , the great ad ju stm en t of hum an af we m ust kill his jack-in-the-box It com prehends som e b rin g er of th a t “ Out of the heart the issues of life” jo y . fairs to this new’ order of things called the devil and we m ust let the H ip . B ut all th e sto ry of th e n ig h t will still spring; but H u m an ity will and help to make the whole world sunlight of tru th into his d ark told over, And all th e ir m inds tra n s fig u r’d so to direct the attention to available, a land of the free and a home of closet he calls hell. And why g eth er, beneficent and realizable purposes. the brave. m ust this be done? Because his More w itnesseth th a n fan cy ’s im ages, And grows to so m eth in g of g rea t con The future welfare of m an, in d i superstition produces confusion; stan cy , vidual, and as Peoples, and as the OUR F IG H T FOR P E A C E . because it has “ set a m an a t v a ri B ut, howsoever, stran g e an d ad m irab le. Race, will be Realized by sy m p a T u b . H ere com e th e lovers, full of ance against his father, and the joy and m irth . thetic anticipation. The im m edi It may be thought strange, es daughter against her m other and ate object of life will be the best pecially by C hristians, th a t those the daughter-in-law against her This wonderful statem en t gives aud highest developm ent of the whom, they brand as infidels m other-in-law ” and m ade “ a m an ’s the true report of the S pirit and each, for the still higher welfare aud atheists would a t tim es foes of his own household” ; be “ sp iritu al” world of Man. The and progress of every Fam ily and be alm ost oyercome by love and cause it is robbing m en, women great poet has given the facts. We every Division of hum an kind. sy m pathy for their fellow m e n , and innocent children of their have only to read modern Psycho This can only be attained when in clu d in g even those who th in k ill m ental, moral and physical logy between the lines to see how reason, under the lig h t of Science of them and who would rejoice to strength; because it is very costly they blossom out into horrid and and the enthusiasm of H u m an ity , hear of their death. O, how we to support a lot of lazy clowns hellish, true and beautiful results, shall inspire, guide and d irect a t wish a t times th a t life could be all who pretend to know about these which are the substance of th a t tention to th a t conduct o f life harm ony! If every one we meet spook things; because it enters the Science and of hum an history. We which the Science of E volution could be counted on as a friend and schools, and there robs the young have only to unfold and com pare shows to be the broad and safe, an d as a brother, would not life be glo Truthseeker of his right to seek for its each sentence, and alm ost its not the narrow, path to the e n d u r rious? We th in k th a t m ost all the tru th ; because it is a great, big each word (like “ap-prehend and ing Home which Man is to m ake of young people have visions of w hat black lie th a t has dam ned, and is com -prehend,” “ transfigured lo- his own goodly planet, the E a r th . they will do when they have reached now dam ning those who have gether” » n d “ .m agination building,” The cbjl(J. ( , tb e ..C oele8tiai m anhood's or w om anhood’s estate. sense enough to understand the “ great constancy” [like D ante and Man8ion8„ wa9 but tbe 811I)8et ...... e a How they will so conduct th em trickery of the priests and honesty Goethe] out of “ la n c y s images”), , . , , , J 6 7’ cloud drapery of th a t ever-growing , a , & selves th a t all will love them ; how, enough to say so; because it is not to have th a t sam e I magination „ ... , , reality now beginning to be. perhaps, they will speak to large true, and because the truth —the spring before our own eyes th a t audiences and tell them the honest glorious truth is what the world awful panoram ic Arch of dark and Evolution of the E ucharist. tru th about some great reform ; Deeds to make happier and better light which spans M an’s existence how they will teach and ju st m ake men, women and children— to from prim eval savagery to “ the joy BY H. K. SARGENT. th eir students learn all about m ake as fair a heaven as m ankind and m irth ” of the new Lovers’ H eaven, “ The E a rth ly P arad ise.” The record of pa„ bllm an |jfe things rig h t away. B ut the virgin is capable of enjoying. m ind of the conscientious child soon For, as R ibot tells us, Im agina- upon the earth , as told by the fos- learns th a t conditions in the world The Religion of A tten tio n ; Na tion works and paints by attention, sil rem ains which have been de- are different th a n he had supposed. and atten tio n by in h ib itio n ; th a t posited in the successive layers of tural, Human and Rational AH people do not love those who is, by leaving out. A ttention makes stra ta form ing the crust of th e' vs. Hypnotic and 5pook would do them good; all people are us oblivescent or forgetful of all earth, point conclusively to the Religion. not anxious to find the tru th ; things, except those to which we fact th a t our first h u m an ancestors m any m inds are not capable of at-tend, th a t is, are stretched to. were of the lowest and ba»est grade C ontinued from 3d page. learning rap id ly , and his own in If those things exist objectively, we of savagery ; and one of the m ost herent weaknesses, which he did aucj grOw to and be. For we are dwell only on them ; if they do not assured results of the com p arativ e not at the tim e know he possessed, what we stretch, grow to and feed exist, atten tio n drops everything study of man and civilization is are not easily overcome. Add to upon, physically and m entally, out of existence, un til they stand I the dem onstration of the tru th th a t th is th e unfaithfulness of friends We are dom inated by our atten- as the only objects of the m in d ,1 our present civilization is th e re- on whom he m ay have depended; tion. At first, as babies, we are ' the only reality, and so they become suit of a gradual and progressive the death of others; his own mis- | equal-eyed, th a t is, aw are as to all 1 the imaged forms of things seen, , change from this base savage con-