Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 20, 1900)
2 T H E TORCH OF REASON, SIL V E R T O N , O REG O N , D E C E M B E R 20, E. M. 300 (1900.; tion of the m am m al-brain which speech] extinguishes its function next three decades, ' )n every side we find beauty and we call the seat [preferably the [speechj. The slow gradual degeneration of excellence held in the balance of organ] of consciousness is a p art of In fact, there is proof enough in the higher m ental powers, w hich things. We know that work is the cerebrum, an area in the late- the most fam iliar phenom ena of characterizes senility, usually sets needful, th a t winter is as necessary developed gray bed, or c o rte x ,, consciousness of their com plete de- in a t the com m encem ent of thesev- as sum m er, th at rig h t is as useful which is evolved out of the convex peudence ou chemical changes in ©nth decade— som etim es earlier, as day, th at death is a m anifesta- dorsal portion of the prim ary cere- the substance of the brain. M ary som etim es later. M emory, recep- tion of life, and just as good We bral vesicle, the ‘ fore-brain.’ Now beverages [such as coffee and tea] tiveness, and interest in p articu lar believe in the Now ai d H ere We the morphological proof of this stim ulate our powers of thought; objects g rad u ally decay; though believe in you, and we believe in physiological thesis has been sue- others [such as wine and beer] in- productivity, m ature consciousness, Power th a t is in Ourselves that cessfully given by the rem arkable tensify feeling; musk and cam- »»d philosophic interest in general i m akes for R ighteousness ’’ progress of the microscopic anato- phor reanim ate the fainting con- tru th s often rem ain for m any years y , s “ the U * s planned m y of the brain, which we owe to sciousness; ether and chloroform longer. I . » for good ’ as we ad a p t and adopt it th e perfect m ethods of research of deaden it, and so forth. How The individual developm ent of to our goodness, as stock and scion m odern science (K olliker, Plechsig, would th a t he possible if conscious- consciousness in earlier youth to each ether. Thus the goodless Golgi, Edinger, A\ eigert, and oth- ness were an im m aterial entity, in- proves the universal validity of and badless wild of the U niverse be ^ rs)- dependent of these anatom ical or- the biogenetic law; and, indeed, it comes our flower and fruit garden, The m ost im portant developm ent gans? And w hat becomes of the is still recognizable in m any ways as the good m akes it “ good.” And In any is the discovery of the organs of consciousness of the “ im m ortal d u rin g the latter years. yet n atu re m akes us too, and “ is th o u g h t by Paul Flechaig, of Leip soul” when it no longer has the a n y case, the ontogenesis of con made belter by no mean, hut n a sciousness makes it perfectly clear zig; he proved th a t in the gray use of these organs? ture makes th a t m ean .” th a t it is not an “ im m aterial enti- bed of the brain are found the four These and other fam iliar facts seats of the cen tral sense-organs, prove th a t m a n ’s consciousness hut a physiological function of W ho O wns The C hild? or four “ inner spheres of sensation” — and th a t of the nearest mam- ^he hrain, a °d th at it is, conse- — the sphere of touch in the v e rti m ais— is changeable, and th a t its q n en tly , no exception to the gener The child belongs to itself, and not cal lobe, the sphere of smell in the activity is alwa> s open to modifi al law of substance. to the S tate or the C hurch, nor the frontal lobe, the sphere of sight in cation from inner [alim entation, parent. The doctrine th a t the child the occipital lobe, and the sphere circulation, etc.] and outer causes Moreover, th a t highest stage of belongs to the parent, is a survival of hearing in the tem poral lobe. [lesion of the brain, stim ulation, consciousness, which is reached bv Between these four “ sense-centres” etc.] Very instructive, too, are man alone, has been evolved step of the savage times when the fath lie the four great “ thought-cen the facts of double ami in term ii- by step—even by the very progress er m ight »ell or kill his child. Ac cording to the priests of all relgions tres,” or centres of association, the te n t consciousness, w h i c h of civilization— from a lower con the child belongs to God and pa real organs of m ental life; they are rem ind us of “ a 1 t e r n a t e dition, as we find illustrated today rents m ust hand it to them as his those highest instrum ents of psy generations of preseuta- in the case of uncivilized races. chic activity th a t produce thought tions.” The same individual has T hat is easily proved by a com par vicars. By our civil law, m ade by and consciousness. In front we i an entirely different consciousness ison of their languages, which is the people for the people, the child have the frontal brain or centre of; On different days, with a change of closely connected with the com par is not a property but a personality, association; behind, on top there is circumstances; he does not know ison of their ideas. The higher the and the State is the guardian of the the vertical brain, or parietal cen today what he did yesterday: yes- conceptional faculty advances in child as a coming factor in the civil As the State holds the man tre of association, and underneath terdry he could say, “ I am I ” ; to thoughtful civilized m an, the more firm. th e principal brain, or “ the great day he m ust say, “ I am another qualified he is to detect cou mon responsible to itself, so also is It re- occipito-tem poral centre of associ- being.” Such interm itteuce of features am id a m ultitude of de sponuible to the child, and is both c ia tio n ” (th e most im portant of consciousness m ay last not only tails, and em body them in general entitled and bound to see th at it is a ll); lower down, and internally, day, but m ouths, and even years; concepts, and so much the clearer protected and rig h tly educated as th e in su lar brain or the insula of the change may even become perm and deeper does his consciousness a citizen, loyal first of all to th at governm ent which cares for its wel Keil, the in su lar centre of associa anent. become. fare and claim s its future support. tion. These four “ thought-cen As everybody knows, the new The regent of th at religion which tres,” distinguished from t he in ter born infant has no consciousness. Book N otes. more th an any other asserts its m ediate “ sense-centres” by a pecul Preyer has shown th a t it is only au th o rity above all others, is most ia r and elaborate nerve-structure, developed alter the child has begun [From “ L ittle Journeys to the inconsistent of all together, in de . re the true and sole organs of to speak; for a long time it speaks Homes of English A uthors,” from m anding rights on the grounds of thought and consciousness. Flech- of itself in the th ird person. In the “ P hilistine, a periodical of those secuiar and religious liberties »ig has recently pointed out th at, the im p o rtan t m om ent when it first protest,” published by the Roycrof- which it is one of its four c a rd in al in the case of man, very specific pronounces the word “ I,” when ters, E ast A urora, N. Y.] principles to condemn and to ever structures are found in one part of the feeling of self becomes clear, we Q uaiutness and hum or and wis affirm the Church above the S tate 1 th em ; these stru ctu res are w anting have the beginning of self-con in the other m am m als, and they, sciousness, and of the an tith esis to dom are a trin ity which we all wor If the State has any right, it is to Even the sad victim s of repel such doctrine, and if the child therefore, afford an explanation of the non-ego. The rapid and solid ship. the su periority of m an ’s m ental progress in knowledge which the “ the liver-trouble belief” cannot has any right, it is to rebel against being lau g h t such dogm atism as powers. child makes in its first ten years he wholly indifferent thereunto. So all welcome these “ Jo u rn ey s” this and its like abom inations. The 'Phe m om entuous announcem ent under tne care of parents an i and the “ P h ilistin e” which put a whole logical argum ent against the of modern physiology, th a t the teachers, and the slower progress of a soft mellow, yet alterative su n Bible in public school is this: The cerebrum is the organ of conscious the second decade, until it reaches Bible is a religious book, the public ness and m ental action in man and com plete m aturity of m ind, are in light over the world, and make us school is a secular in stitu tio n . the higher m am m als, is illustrated tim ately connected with a great ad see and feel, and so appreciate We do not insist enough on the and confirmed by the pathological vancem ent in the growth and de things and fellows as we could not Did we ever see and feel rig h ts of the State to control the study of its diseases. W hen parts velopm ent of consciousness and of before. education of the* children an d to of the cortex are destroy« d by dis its organ, the brain. But even our creed, for instance, more lov resist the efforts of the C hurch, ease tlo ir respective functions are when the pupil has got his “certifi ingly and livingly th an in these or ra th e r of its priests who try to affected and thus we are enabled to cate of m a tu rity ” his consciousness words over poor Coleridge. “ We no longer accept the doctrine tw ist heaven and earth to th eir some extent, to localize the activi- is still far from m ature; it is then own will. W hen the C atholics stop ties of the brain; when certain th a t his “ world-consciousness” first th at our n atu res are rooted in in parts of the area are diseased, th at begins to develop, in his manifold famy, and th a t the desires of the th eir holy devotions in those public schools which they control we can portion of thought and conscious relations with the outer world. flesh are cunning trap s set by Sa- ness disappears which depends on Then, in the third decade, we have tan, with G od’s perm ission to un th in k them more sincere in their We believe th a t no one protest against sectarian teaching those particular sections. P ath o the full m atu rity of rational do us. logical experim ent yields the sam e thought and consciousness, which, can harm us but ourselves, th a t i° seeula r in stitu tio n s. .. .k . j t v. i ©in i® m isdirected energy; th a t J* P- G . eeult, the decay of some known jn cases of norm al developm ent, there is no devil < r. . , - i ----- - - — -- hut fear, and th a t I’eopie who act very sm all :e a [for instance, the centre of yield their ripe fruits during th e j the U niverse is planned for good. (are not to be noticed.