Torch of reason., April 16, 1903, Image 1

T orch
“ TRUTH
R eason .
of
B E A R S T H E TO R CH IN T H E S E A R C H FO R T R U T H .” —
——
VAT
»
r
»x P IT '.'
î
»
’T- T
’»
■ ».«»W <♦* .<
“* . * • *.■ V* . l 0.
h i
R anch P hilo so ph y.
consciously produces that which in their hearts. This can be done
SO CIO LO G Y
appears
the
unconscious
result.”
only by following the impulses of
BY SAM ESTOX FOULDS.
Poetry must rest on the experi­ the heart, the winged fancies of
How It Becomes a Science.
ence of men—the history of heart the brain—by wandering from the
’V E k in d e r d o n e som e s e a rc h in ’
A ro u n d to find th e T r u th ,
BY PR O F. L E ST ER F. WARD.
and brain. It must sit by the fire­ paths and roads, keeping step with
H ave e x p ec te d to find it p e rc h in ’
side of the heart. It must have to the rythm ic ebb anti flow of the
H ig h on som e c h u r c h ’s roof.
(F ro m “ P u re S ociology.” )
A n ’ I ’ve se arc h ed till I was w eary,
do
with
this
world,
with
the
place
throbbing
blood.
H E favorite standpoint of
T ill m y b rain fro m to il fagged o u t,
in which we live, with the men
T ill ey elid s w et a n ’ te a ry ,
In the olden time in Scotland,
all who dispute the title of
M ade so ft a h e a rt once sto u t!
and women we know, with their most of the so-called poetry was
Sociology to rank as a sci­
A t la s t I ’ve fo u n d a S avior,
loves, their hopes, their fears and written by pedagogues and p ar­
ence is that of mathematics. The
My re d e e m e r tr u ly lives,
their
joys.
A n ’ I ’m b a sk in ’ in his favor,
sons—gentlemen who found out law’s of Astronomy, of Physics,
E n jo y in ’ th e b est he gives;
A fter all, we care nothing about what little they knew of the living and to a large extent of Chemistry,
W hile songs of g lad th a n k s g iv in ’
gods and goddesses, or folks with World by reading the dead lan­ can be reduced to mathematical
L ik e sw e llin ’ a n th e m s raise,
F ro m o u t a h e a rt t h a t ’s liv in ’
wings. The cloud-compelling Ju p i- guages—by studying epitaphs in notation. The assumption is that
A ’ b u b b lin ’ o’e r w ith p ra ise .
ters, the ox-eyed Junos, the feather- the cemeteries of literature. They anything that cannot be so reduced
How d id I find th is S avior?
heeled Mercurys, or the Minervas knew nothing of any life that they cannot be a science. Comte, who
L o o k in th e g lass a n ’ see.
J e s t ch an g e d m y m in d ’s b ehavior,
that leaped full armed from the thought poetic. T hey'kept as far was himself prim arily a mathema­
A n ’ heaven cam e dow n to me.
thick skull of some imaginary god, from the common people as they tician, protested against this a tti­
W hile a ray of pow er a n ’ sw ee tn e ss
Illu m e d m y S o u l’s d a rk d e p th s ,
are nothing to us. We know noth­ could. They wrote countless verses, tude and called it, as it seems to
As th e e v e n in ’ s t a r w ith m eek n ess
ing of their fears or loves, and for but no poems. They tried to put me, very appropriately “m aterial­
T h e d a rk n e s s in te rc e p ts .
that reason, the poetry that deals metaphysics, that is to say, Calvin­ ism,” because, as he says, “it tends
L ik e a b a ttle ste ed a c h a m p in ’
with them, no m atter how ingeni­ ism in poetry. As a m atter of fact, to degrade the noblest conceptions
H is b it before th e fray ,
Y o u r S o u l w ith in is s ta m p in ’—
ous it may be, can never touch the a Calvinist cannot be a poet. Cal­ and assimilate them to the gross­
L oose re in a n ’ give fu ll sw ay !
human heart.
T he fiery sw ord of E d en
vinism takes all the poetry out of est,” and he characterizes the abuse
O r s tro n g b o u n d g a te of H ell
I was taught that M ilton was a the world. If the existence of the of mathematics as the initial phase
C a n ’t k eep from fields E ly s ia n ,
wonderful poet, and above all oth­ Calvinistic, the Christian heli could of materialism. But he it was who
If one c ares th e re to dw ell !
—[F ro m “N ow .”
ers sublime. I have read Milton be demonstrated, another poem pointed out that mathematics is
once. Few have read him twice. never could be written.
not a science but only a standard
POETRY—
W ith splendid words, with mag­
In those days they made poetry or criterion. It is a measure of
nificent mythological imagery, he abdiit geography, and the beauties the relative “positivity,” i. e., ex­
Illustrated by Robert Burns.*
musfers the heavenly m ilitia—puts of the Scotch Kirk, and even about actness, of all the sciences.
epaulets on the shoulders of God law. The critics have always been
The mathematicians, astrono­
BY RO BERT G. IN G ER SO LL.
and describes the Devil as an artil­ looking for mistakes, not beauties mers, and physicists, who affect to
lery officer of the highest rank. —not for the perfections of ex­ decry Sociology because not suffi­
(F ro m D resd en E d itio n , Vol. 3.)
E have met tonight to Then he describes the battles in pression and feeling. They would ciently exact for their habit of
honor the memory of a which immortals undertake the im ­ object to the lark and nightingale thinking, usually overlook Biolo­
poet—possibly the next possible task of killing each other. because they do not sing by note gy, which they conceive as simply
Take this line:
—to the clouds because they are the study of plants and animals,
to the greatest that has ever w rit­
ten in our language. I would place “F ly in g w ith in d e fa tig a b le w ings over not square.
and hence proper enough and quite
th e v a st a b r u p t .”
At one time it was thought that innocent, and reserve th eir c riti­
one above him, and* only one—
Shakespeare.
This is called sublime, but what scenery, the grand in nature, made cisms for Psychology and Sociolo­
the poet. We now know that the gy. But all they say of these
It may be well enough at the does it mean?
We have been taught that Dante poet makes the scenery. Holland would be equally true of Biology.
beginning to inquire what is a
poet ? W hat is poetry7 ? Every was a wonderful poet. H e de­ has prtxluced far more genius than There has been no greater progress
one has some idea of the poetic, scribed with infinite minuteness the Alps. W here N ature is prodi­ in reducing the phenomena of life
and this idea is born of his experi­ the pangs and agonies endured by gal—where the crags tower above to exact mathematical form than
ence—of his education—of his su r­ the damned in the torture-dun­ the clouds—man is overcome, or there has in so reducing those of
geons of God. The vicious twins overawed. In England and Scot­ mind and society. In fact, in cer­
roundings.
There have been more nations of superstition—malignity and sol­ land the hills are low, and there is tain departm ents of both these
than poets. Many people suppose em nity—struggle for the mastery nothing in the scenery calculated latter fields there has l)een more
that poetry is a kind of art, de­ in his revengeful lines. But there to rouse poetic blood, and yet these progress in this direction than in
pending upon certain rules, and was one good thing about Dante, countries have produced the great­ any departm ent of Biology. In
economics, for example, and in
that it is only necessary to find he had the courage, and what might est literature of ail time.
be
called
the
religious
democracy,
The truth is that poets and heroes statistical researches, much use
these rules to be a poet. But
these rules have never been found. to see a pope in hell. That is make the scenery. The place has been made of mathematics, the
where man has died for man is only danger being that of abusing
The great poet follows them un­ something to be thankful for.
So, the sonnets of Petarch are as grander than all the snow-crowned this method and making the ap­
consciously. The great poet seems
parently exact results stand for
as unconscious as Nature, and the unm eaning as the promises of can­ summits of the world.
A poem is som ething like a more than they are really worth.
product of the highest art seems to didates. They are filled not with
I t does not always follow that
have been felt instead of thought. genuine passion, but with the feel­ mountain stream that flashes in
The finest definition perhaps that ings that lovers are supposed to light, then lost in shadow—leaps because the phenomena embraced
with a kind of wild joy into the by a science are subject to uniform
has been given is this: “As N a­ have.
Poetry cannot be written by rule; abyss, emerges victorious, and laws they can always be reduced
ture unconsciously produces that
which appears to be the result of it is not a trade, or a profession. winding runs amid meadows lin­ to mathematical formulas. Only
consciousness, so the greatest artist Let the critics lay down the laws, gers in quiet places, holding w ith­ a comparatively small part of
and the true poet will violate them in its breast the hills and vales Physics is of a character to require
♦T his le c tu re is p rin te d from n o tes
fo u n d am o n g Col. In g e rs o ll’s p a p ers, all. By rule you can make skele­ and clouds—then running by the mathematical treatment. It is still
b u t was n o t revised fo r p u b lic a tio n by tons, but you cannot clothe them cottage door, babbling of joy, and less so in Chemistry. Still, the
h im . W e r e p r in t it as a c o n tr a s t w ith
th e p o e try an d e s tim a te of W h itm an with flesh, put blood in their veins, m urm uring delight, then sweeping laws of Thermology, Electrology,
in th e la s t T orch .—[E d . T orch .
thoughts in their eyes, and passions on to join its old mother, the sea. and Chemistry are just as invaria-
I
T
W