Torch of reason., May 22, 1902, Image 1

T orch of
R E A S O N.
‘ •TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TK V TH .” - L u c r e t i u s ,
VOL. 6.
y , may 2*2, K ~ J o T c i a S y
______ 2 11- ' " • ' • ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
NO. 20
THE CHALLENGE TO THE NEW LIFE.
Is there anything in these “ in­ For th e T orch of Reason.
spired” hooks th at has been of bene­
BY J. WOLFGANG GOETHE.
n a t u r e favo r s s o c ia l is m .
fit to m an? H ave they tau g h t us
how to cultivate the earth , to build
(From “F au st,” P art I, L ine 1250.)
Fighters Will Fight for ALL.
FAUST,
houses,
to
weave
cloth,
to
prepare
FAUST.
Fluch sei der H offnung !
food ? H ave they taught us to paint
Cursed be Hope,
BY NOEL L IT T L E .
Fluch dem Glauben,
Cursed be Faith,
pictures, to chisel statues, to build
Und Fluch vor allen
Accursed before all
Der G eduld !
bridges, or ships, or an y th in g of
Be Patience its e lf !
N T orch of May 8th, “ Begin
beauty or of use? Did we get our
geister - chor (unsichtbar).
CHORUS OF spirits (invisible,.
ner” tries to prove th a t natu rt
ideas of governm ent, of religious
Weh ! Weh !
Woe ! Woe !
Du hast sie zerstört,
freedom, of the liberty of thought, I
th r,’ugh the law of heredity, is
Thou has shattered it—
Die schöne Welt,
The beautiful World,
from the Old T estam ent? Did we agaHla! Socia,i8m» because strongly
Mit m ächtiger F au st;
W ith m ighty fist;
Sie stürzt, sie z e rf ä llt!
I t to tters, it falls !
get from any of these hooks a hint individualistic men are p re ferred ir
Ein H albgott hat sie zerschlagen !
A Demi-God hath stricken it down;
of any Science? Is there in the ¡m atrim onial selection, thus making
W ir tragen
We bear
Die Trüm m ern ins N ichts hinüber.
“sacred volum e” a word, a line, the race thoroughbred in th a t re
The ruins o’er to N othingness
Und Klagen
And lam ent
hat has added to the wealth, the »pect. He goes back to the savagi
Ueber die verlorne Schöne.
O’er the beauty th a t is lost.
M ächtiger
intelligence and the happiness of and the robber baron to show hov
Mighty one
Der Erdensöhne,
Among th e Children of E arth,
m ankind? Is there one of the books confirmed in men are tra its oi
P rächtiger
More Splendidly
Baue sie wieder,
of the Old T estam ent as en te rta in ­ energy and com bativeness. I accepl
Build it again !
In deinem Busen baue sie auf !
In thine own bosom build it anew
ing as Robinson Crusoe, the Travels his conclusions in this regard, hut
Neuen L ebenslauf
A
new
career
of
life
Beginne,
Begin,
of G ulliver, or Peter W ilkins and claim th a t he makes a wrong use
Mit hellom Sinne,
W ith clearer sense,
his F lying Wife? Did the author of them .
Und neue L ieder
While new songs
“ Beginner” fails to see th at h u ­
Tönen darauf !
of Genesis know as much about
Ring out therefrom .
nature as H um boldt, or D arw in, or man n atu re is indefinitely modifi­
H aeckel? Is w hat is called the able. As civilization progresses, the
ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE*
Jerem iah contains nothing of im ­
Mosaic Code as wise or as merciful stock of strength and energy, accu­
portance— no facts of value; nothing
m ulated by the coarse, rough lives
And the Foundations of Faith.
but fault-finding,
lam entations, as the code of any civilized nation? of our ancestors, becomes of ines­
Were the w riters of Kings and
eroakings, wailings, curses and Chronicles as great historians, as tim able value, but finds expression
BY ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.
p rom ises’ nothing but fam ine and great writers, as Gibbon and Draper? in better ways. The energy expend­
prayer, the prosperity of the wicked, Is Jerem iah or H ahakuk equal to ed of old in fighting savage beasts
V I.
.
{be ruin of the Jews, the captivity Dickens or T hackeray? Can the and savage men finds em ploym ent
authors of Job and the Psalm s be
,k CT ,ng
deS('r, Of and re ,u r ": and a t la .t. Jerem iah , com pared with Shakespeare? W hy now in clearing the land of rocks,
death and c n m e - a f t e r read- the traito r, in the stocks and in
should we a ttrib u te the best to man and bogs and brambles, and hum an
ing the P entateuch, Joshua, prison.
and the worst to God?
character of the brambles of selfish­
Judges Samnel Kinge and Chroni-
And L am entations is strictly a
(To be Continued.)
ness, cruelty and injustice. The
cles it is delightful to reach this continuance of the ravings o f'th e
warfare now is against evil in w hat­
grove of palm s, called the ‘‘Song of 8alDe insane pe88imi
J
IN G E R S O L L C O N F IR M E D .
ever shape it may assume.
The
Solomon -
A d ram a of l o v e - o f du8t and 8acltc|l>th
ag
«
How The Bible Came To Be Made Up.
arm or is not put off or the sword
hum an love; a poem w ithout J - and howls, railings and reviling,.
laid aside.
The energies rem ain,
novah a r poem born of the heart [ A And
F
io
tto
i
—
vail
ug
man
uBcri
pis.
nd
L ze k iel—e a tin g 6 m a n u sc rip ts.
N April and May “ Open C ourt,” but the object of attack is changed.
a and
n d t true
r n o t to
n the
f L .. divine instincts ___ of
r prophesying
.
siege and desolation,
of Chicago, edited by Dr. Paul
The greatest possible am ount of
the soul.
with visions of coals of fire, and
C arus, the noted lecture, d e­ strength and aggressiveness is need­
“ I sleep, but my heart w aketh.” cherubim , and wheels with eyes,
livered before the Em peror, by Prof. ed to organize and develop m odern
Isaiah is the work of several. Its and the type and figure of the boil­
Delitzsch, of the U niversity of Ber­ in d u stry and beneficent institutions,
swollen words, its vague imagery, ing pot, and the resurrection of dry
lin, entitled “ Babel and Bible,” is and is put forth by men who are
its prophecies and curses, its ra v ­ bones — is of no use, of no possible _
_______ ... modern Scien-
given. It confirms
thoroughly peaceful. They are of
ings against kings and nations, its
1 "
♦ Ik
........ — value. W ith V oltaire, I say that tific criticism and shows th a t the
the highest type of m anhood and
hnt /I f -
u W1? ° m ° raatl’ ,ts any one wbo ad m ires Ezekiel should Old Testam ent stories and histones
hatred of joy, have not the slightest be compelled to dine with him.
were never “ revealed” to the Israel- several grades higher than any c h a r­
tendency to increase the well-being
Daniel is a disordered d r e a r , - a ¡tea. but were borrowed and re- acters w hatever, ancient or m odern,
th e’e t " ' a . ,‘8 ? °
' 8, reC° rded nigh,m are‘ W h a t can be made of w ritten by them at a late d ate from whose fame rests on m ilitary achieve­
m ents.
. . SUr ^ 1 , ^ * 1 m irac e9' Ttie lh ' 9 hook with its im age with a the fa ro ld et B abylonian and Egvpt-
“ B eginner” uses the m odern fond­
ow on
e lal is turned back golden head, with breast and arm s ian mythologies. This they did be-
H e v e k ^ rV h . ,'n T7 d e r, t0 ." Sti8fy ° f ’ ilT<,r- wilh belly and thighs of cause they were wild and nom adic ness for hu n tin g to illu stra te the
persistence of traits; and it serves
...
a
8 °va
«i
add brass, with legs of Iron, and with tribes, w ithout a god, or literatu re
my purpose exactly. The civilized
fifteen years to b,s life. In this feet of iron and clay; with its writ
or civilization.
The tablets are refined expression o f the ancestral
—-- '••• J'«
vu vyi UIU LlIJCfHira
m iracle the world, turning from ing on the wall, its den of lions, i
Show" from which they obtained hunting instinct is found in the al
west to east at the rate of more thau and its vision of the ram and goat?
„A® S'’d t . ? a^ eh,’’,’, lHe C ha,dean moet “ "¡versa! fondness fordom esti,
a thousand miles an hour, - is not .
Is there an y th in g to be learned
p I L u i
ar" , h e “ v,81on a "i>nal8 and pels, and in the ennob
only stopped, but m ade to turn the from Hosea and his wile? Is there of E zekiel,” etc., etc.
ling love of nature, carried out in
Hi«rr
i / h * f id a d l,w o n
an y th in g of use in Joel, in Amos,
These are very im portant “ re- n atu ral histnrv s tu d ie s
Th
th
Wel|E 8k i ten egreesl
O badiah? Can we get any good ligious” item s, w ithout which there brutalities of the chase a T *
there in the whole world an ¡nielli- from Jo n ah and his gourd?’ is it could have been no C hristianity a t disappe r nJ- and
bird a 7 / '
gent m an or woman who believes possible th a t God ie the real author »11. The Flood story was a m yfbic wild an im als’ are . ,w h 7 1
k
this im possible falsehood?
of Micah and N ahum , of H ahakuk story of inundations of the F , t h .
w,th
------------ ------------------------------------- and Zephaniah, of Hainrai and k .
'" '" a tm n s of the Eu- the cam era instead of the gun.
M alachi and Zechariah, with bis I
* " d T lg" 8’ '*•« « t e n d i n g “ N ature studies” are introduced in
n ° t to be had except i n t l i e T h ird and Fourth
and Zechariah, w ith h is
lump« of the D resden h d itio n . W e w ill t>nnt red horses,
hor9e9‘ his
bia four hnrn«
horns, Liu
his fo„r
four 01 a 1,00(1 oyer the whole world was our schools, while am ong the most
t>ecause u n til th® people are em ancipated Carpenters, his
flying roll, his H Dl ile-bl U nder. T et without HUCh popular and highly paid articles io
and the belief in “ the H a p e ra a ta ra Ì.^ th e i-p ^ e ’i o rn.°)Jn ,a ’n8 °f brass and the stone C reation, Fai I, Fiood and Babel, the
,
our magazines are those on th e lives
hope fo r thia w orld.—E d . T o r c h .
With four eyes?
------ - * ~
j rest of the Bible history is absurd, { and habits of beasts and birds, and
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