Torch of reason., April 09, 1903, Image 1

OF
R E A S O N .
truth bears th e torch in the search for TRUTH.
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VOL. 7.
..E-ANSAS
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NO. y.
EASTER.
wide forest, and stand beneath
SOCIOLOGY—
the intertwined and over-arching
boughs,entranced with symphonies Its Style, Method and Reality as a Science
The Absorption.
The C ontin uan ce.
of winds and woods. You are
BY PERRY MARSHALL.
borne on the tides of eager and
BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
BY TROF. LESTER F. WARD.
swift rivers, hear the rush and
T here was a tim e, a k in d of p a st
S I R IN G ! of hope an d love a n d roar of cataracts as they fall bt
1
e te rn ity ,
(F ro m “P u re S o c io lo g y .” )
y o u th an d gladn ess
B efore m an was, o r b ird o r b east were
v\iud-w inged em blem ! b rig h te st, best, neath the seven-hued arch, and
HE basis of method is logic
fleeing,
an d f a i r e s t !
watch
the
eagles
as
they
circling
W hen all was re a lly O ne—one v ast I n ­
S is te r of jo y ! th o u a rt th e c h ild who
and the basis of logic is the
fin ity ,
w earest
soar.
You
traverse
gorges
dark
O ne u n d iv id e d In te g e r, th e A ll-B eing I h y m o th e r’s d y in g sm ile, te n d e r a n d
sufficient reason or law oi
and
dim,
and
climb
the
scarred
and
sw eet;
causation. The object of method
T
hy
m o th e r A u tu m n , for w hose g rav e threatening cliffs. You stand in
T h ere in w as life, a n d from it all th e
is clearness, and what is logical ie
life we see,
th o u b earest
orchards
where
the
blossoms
fall
usually clear. At least, the same
Now d iffe re n tia te d in so m an y selves, f resh flow ers, and beam s lik e flow ers,
w ith g e n tle feet
like snow, where the birds nest and subject, however abstruse or in­
f r o m fish to fow l, o r b east an d m an,
D istu rb in g n o t th e leaves w hich are h e r
began to be,
sing, and painted moths make aim­ herently difficult, will be clearer of
O fFspriuging from th a t B eing In fin ite ,
w in d in g -sh eet.
lik e elves.
“T he good and m ighty of d e p a rte d ages less journeys through the happy comprehension if logically pre­
A re in th e ir graves,—th e in n o c e n t air. You live the lives of those sented than if incoherently pre­
T h a t s e p a ra tin g off to self we all call
an d free,
b irth .
Heroes, and p o ets, a n d p rev ailin g sages, who till the earth, and walk amid sented. This principle lies at the
B u t d e a th is s e p a ra tio n ; th a t was real
W ho leave th e v e stu re of th e ir m a j­ the perfumed fields, hear the reap­ foundation of style. I always ob­
d e a th .
e sty
’T is we are d ead who bide in self u p o n
To ad o rn an d c lo th e th is n ak ed w orld; ers' song, and feel the breadth and served that there was the greatest
th e e a rth ;
—a n d we
scope of earth and sky.
difference in the ease with which
W e tr u ly live w hen we s u r r e n d e r self A re lik e to th em . S u c h p e rish ; b u t
You are in the great cities, in I could read different authors, al­
a n d b rea th .
th e y leave
All hope o r love o r tr u th o r lib e rty
the midst of multitudes, of the though all masters in their own
T h en to th e A ll again o u r little life re ­ W hose fo rm s th e ir m ig h ty s p irits c o u ld
endless processions. You are on field, but it was a long time before
conceive,
tu r n s ,
O u r own self fu lly lo st, th e A ll-L ife To be a ru le an d law to ages th a t s u r ­ the wide plains—the prairies— I discovered the reason for this.
vive.
th e n is o u rs.
W e live th e n m ore, all life o u r own, “O ur m an y th o u g h ts an d deed s, o u r life with hunter and trapper, with I saw that it had nothing to do
o u r d u s t in u rn s,
savage and pioneer, and you feel with the language I was reading,
a n d love,
R e tu rn s to M o th e r E a rth , th e n bloom s
O u r h a p p in e ss, a n d all th a t we have the soft grass yielding under your
for it was easier to follow Haeckel’s
in flow ers.
been,
The A ll-p u lse th e n becom es o u r own Im m o rta lly m u s t live a n d b u rn
feet. You sail in many ships, and German than Darwin’s English.
a b u n d a n t life;
m ove
ixeathe the free air of the sea. On the other hand, Huxley’s Eng­
D e a th rea lly re u n ite s , b irth is d iv id ­
W hen we sh a ll be no m ore
ing strife .
lo u travel many roads and count­ lish was exceedingly easy while
—[F ro m “R ev o lt of Isla m .”
less paths. You visit palaces and the German of Sachs, for example,
prisons, hospitals and courts; you
WALT WHITMAN—
plishment of the ideal, seem to be pity kings and convicts, and your was very hard. There was the same
within your power. Obstructions sympathy goes out to all the suf­ difference with French authors.
The Poetic Realizer of Our New World.
finally I undertook to investi­
become petty and disappear. The fering and insane, the oppressed
chains and bars are broken, and and enslaved, and even to the in­ gate the matter, and I soon dis­
BY ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.
the distinctions of caste are lost. famous. You hear the din of la­ covered that aside from all em­
I he soul is in the open air, under bor, all sounds of factory, field and bellishments of style, that which
(F ro m D re sd e n E d itio n , Vol. 3.)
the blue and stars—the fiag of Na­ forest, of all tools, instruments and rendered a style easy was the strict
HE poetic is not the excep­
In
ture. Creeds, theories and philos­ machines. You become familiar logical sequence of ideas.
tional. A perfect poem is
ophies ask to be examined, contra­ with men and women of all em­ Huxley or Haeckel, if any one will
like a perfect (lay. It has
dicted, reconstructed. Prejudices ployments, trades and professions look into it he will find that every
the undefinable charm of natural­
disappear, superstitions vanish and —with birth and burial, with wed­ sentence is clearly and causally
ness and ease. It must not appear
custom abdicates.
The sacred ding feast and funeral chant. You linked to the sentence that pre­
to be the result of great labor. We
places become highways,duties and see the cloud and flame of war, cedes it, and so naturally follows
feel, in spite of ourselves, that man
desires clasp hands and become and you enjoy the ineffable perfect from it that it requires no effort of
does best that which he does
the mind to pass from one to the
comrades and friends. Authority days of peace.
easiest.
other. In difficult styles this is
drops the scepter, the priest the
In
this
one
book,
in
these
won­
The great poet is the instru­ miter, and the purple falls from
not the case. There are either
drous
“Leaves
of
Grass,”
you
find
mentality, not always of his time, kings.
I he inanimate becomes hints and suggestions, touches and complete breaks in the chain of
but of the best of his time, and he articulate, the meanest and hum­
reasoning, or there are ellipses,
fragments,
of
all
there
is
of
life,
must be in unison and accord with blest things utter speech and the
digressions, collateral ideas, or
that
lies
between
the
babe,
whose
the ideals of his race. The sub­ i dumb and voiceless burst into song.
neoterisms, which check the flow
rounded
cheeks
dimple
beneath
orner he is, the simpler he is. The
of thought and impede compre­
his
mothers
laughing,
loving
eyes,
A
feeling
of
independence
takes
thoughts of the people must be
hension. I sually it is simple in­
possession
of
the
soul,
the
body
and
the
old
man,
snow-crowned,
clad in the garments of feeling—
coherency or lack of serial order in
who,
with
a
smile,
extends
his
hand
expands,
the
blood
flows
full
and
the words must be known, apt,
the arrangement of the ideas ex­
to death. . . .
free,
superiors
vanish,
flattery
is
a
familiar. The hight must be in
pressed, in short, defective method.
lost
art,
and
life
becomes
rich,
He
felt
himself
the
equal
of
all
the thought, in the sympathy. . . .
What is true of style is true of
royal and superb. The world be- kings and of all princes, and the
As you read the marvelous book, , comes a personal possession, and brother of all men, no matter how other things. It is especially true
of education, and it is probable
or the person, called “Leaves of the oceans, the continents and con­ high, no matter how low.
Grass, ’ you feel the freedom of the stellations belong to you. You are
He has uttered more supreme that something like double the
antique world; you hear the voices in the center, everything radiates words than any writer of our cen­ progress could be made by pupils
of the morning, of the first great from you, and in your veins l>eats tury, possibly of almost any other. and students of all grades, if an
singers—voices elemental as those and throbs the pulse of all life. He was. above all things, a man, exact logical method could l>e
and above genius, above all the
of sea and storm. The horizon en­ ou become a rover, careless and snow-capped peaks of intelligence, adopted in the order of studies, so
larges, the heavens grow ample, free. \ ou wander by the shores above all Art, rises the true man’ that every new study would natur-
limitations are forgotten—the re­ of all seas and hear the eternal Greater than all is the true man, ally grow out of the one that had
alization of the will, the accom- psalrn. You feel the silence of the and he walked among his fellow- preceded it. But every large sub­
men as such.
ject is complex and embraces a
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