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-