University of Oregon monthly., June 01, 1902, Image 7

UNIVERSITY ÖF OREGON MONTHLY
L
185
a r j d i p a r k s
J. A. GAMBER
One of the greatest achievements of the last century, indeed
of the whole intellectual development of the world, is the recog­
nition of the universal reign of law. Even in his primitive state
man believed in a certain regularity in nature, but only in recent
years has he realized that there is no space, no place, no condi­
tion, where there is exemption from law’s imperial domain ; that
there is one sublime force, one all-inclusive movement, whose
record lies plainly written in the history of man and of nature.
With an accumulating experience and an increasing freedom
from the bonds of superstitious tradition, man has gone forth in
search of truth and wrung from earth the secret of , her being.
He has learned that all progress in nature has been a slow, inces­
sant evolution. He believes that from a nebulous mass, through
an infinity of years, the earth has become the home and mainte­
nance if not the parent of mankind. And in evidence he points
to the flatness of the polar regions and reads to us the story of
the world’s development in the strata of its eternal hills.
Science and experience both tell us there is no exception to
the established order, no chance, no caprice, no special provi­
dences. In all nature we find a force? that is constant, reliable,
ever striving to do its work; a force whose ancient landmarks tell
the tale of never ceasing change. The snow-clad mountains
bear the sediment and shells of the sea. A few coral islands
out in the Pacific mark the burial place of a submerged conti­
nent. Unknown planets come into view, brighten, wane, and,
controlled by an invisible power, sweep onward into unexplored
infinity.
Because an inherent force is less obvious in themselves and in
their institutions than in nature, then often deny its existence, and
since they can not discern the exact working of its laws, they
think to transgress them with impunity. But gradually men are
discovering that they live, think and develop by law, and that