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The  Open  Court. 


A   WEEKLY   JOURNAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


VOLUME  VIII. 


CHICAGO: 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 


Copyright,  1894 
The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 


,.ot^ 


INDEX   TO   VOLUME   VIII. 


ESSAYS  AND  CONTRIBUTIONS. 


Absolute,  The.     Hudor  Genone 4320 

Achilles  and  the  Tortoise.     Paul  R.  Shipraan 4215 

Achilles  and  the  Tortoise.     R.  N.  Foster 4251 

Aphorisms.     Hudor  Genone 4221 

Apocrypha,  Chapters  from  the  New  :  The  Spirit  of  Love — The  Free  Vine, 
3972;  The  Spirit  Hid  with  Christ,  4033;  The  Sermon  in  the  Valley, 
4098  ;  Adultery — Sagacious  Satan  and  the  Silly  Sinner,  4147;  The  Par- 
able of  the  Sisters,  4157;  Caesar's  Treasure,  4162 ;  Paul's  Epistle  to 
the  Damascenes,  4171  ;  The  Parable  of  the  Golden  Bowl,  4213;  The 
Surprise  Party,  4231  ;  The  Truth,  4338.  Hudor  Genone. 
Arena  Problem,  The.     F.  L.  Oswald  4051 

"Bishop,  The  Soul  of  the."     F.  M.  Holland 4097 

Bradweil,  Myra.     M.  M.  Trumbull 3999 

Buddhism  in  Japan.     Nobuta  Kishimoto 4183,  4197,  4202,  421 1 

Caprices,  The  Realm  of  the.     Th.  Ribot  4031 

Chicks  and  Ducklings,  Instinct  and  Intelligenc 
Christianity,  Professor  Pfleiderer  on  the  Genes 


Classics,  On  the  Relative  Educational  Valu 


Sciences  and  the,  in  Colleges  and  High  School 


n.     C.  Lloyd  Morgan, 
of.    John  Sandison.... 
4007, 
of  the  Mathematico-Physical 


4058 
4019 


Ernst  Mach 

4295.  4308, 
Stanton 

irnst  Mach 4283, 


4027 
4288 
4087 


Cobden,  Alderman,  of  Manchester.     Th 

Comparison.  On  the  Principle  of,  in  Phj 

Corti,  The  Fibres  of.     Ernst  Mach 

Current  Topics  :  A  Buddhist  Opinion  of  Christianity— Is  Christianity 
Failure  ?'-America  a  Missionary  Ground— Millions  for  Charity— Not 
a  Cent  for  Tramps,  3933  ;  The  Anti-Spoils  League— The  Report  on  the 
Tariff— Governor's  Rhetoric— Hypnotism  in  the  Pulpit— Plagiarism, 
3941 ;  Hunger  for  Of&ce— The  Colored  People  and  the  World's  Fair— 
Etiquette  at  Washington — Something  in  a  Name— John  Tyndall,  3949; 
Against  Oleomargarine— A  Raid  of  Office-Hunters— Luxurious  Reli- 
gion—Object Lessons  in  Congress— The  Prayer-Gauge,  3957;  Re- 
quested to  Resign— Idleness  More  Dangerous  than  Work— Medicine 
Against  Metaphysics— Rival  Medical  Schools— Counterfeit  Relics- 
Protection  for  the  Lawyers.  3964;  IngersoU  on  Territorial  Conquest — 
Freedom  to  Buy  and  to  Sell— The  Allegory  of  Cain  and  Abel— The  Bat- 
tle at  Rio  Janeiro— Mr.  Justice  Brewer  and  the  Cranks,  3973  ;  Reducing 
the  Tariff  to  Increase  the  Revenue— Pies  Like  Your  Mother  Made- 
Thinking,  but  Not  Speaking— The  Breaking  of  the  Rope— Hail  to  the 
Kearsarge  I  3980  ;  Trade  as  a  Policeman — The  Two  Houses  of  Lords — 
The  Civic  Federation— Canned  Goods— The  Trial  of  Satan,  3989; 
Giving  Up  a  Pension— The  Revolver  Habit— "  High-Grade  "  Milk— 
The  Civic  Federation- The  Probate  Court  as  a  Detective— The  Oys- 
ter War  in  Chesapeake  Bay,  3996 ;  The  Perversity  of  Congress— In- 
sults and  Apologies— The  Retirement  of  Gladstone— Happier  Homes 
in  Heaven,  4005;  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  Peers— The  President  and 
His  Courtiers— Christian  Citizenship— The  Tariff  on  Husbands- 
Stock- Jobbing  in  the  Senate,  4012 ;  Labouchere  and  the  Lords — In- 
vestigation Bombs —  Christians  and  the  Primaries  —  Wat  Tyler's 
March — Stop  Him!  He  Wants  to  Earn  His  Living — Toryism  Em- 
balmed, 4021;  A  Private  Mint — Coining  the  "  Seigniorage  " — Poach- 
ers and  Game  Keepers — Moody  and  Sankey  at  Washington — A  Spar- 
row's Theology.  4029  ;  Tammany  in  England— Mr.  Facing-both-ways 
—"You  May  Vote,  but  We  Will  Count  "—Save  Me  and  the  Party, 
4035;  A  Quiet  Election— Incendiary  Speech— Governor  Tillraann's 
Militia— Election  Beer— Police  Anarchy  in  Pennsylvania,  4045  ;  Sen- 
tenced to  Tramp— The  Defence  of  Washington— Independence  of 
the  Judiciary— The  Jenkins  Injunction — The  Tyranny  of  Moral  Com- 
pulsion— Commuting  Pensions — The  Russian  Thistle,  4052  ;  American 
Saints— Paying  Them  to  Move  On— Senator  Hill— Party  Loyalty- 
Counting  a  Quorum — The  Wedding  of  Coburg — American  Princes, 
4061.     M.  M.  Trumbull. 

Dictionary,  A  New.    Thomas  J.  McCormack 4036 

Ducklings,  Chicks  and.  Instinct  and  Intelligence  in.     C.  Lloyd  Morgan..  4058 

Economical  Character  of  Physical  Research,  The.     Ernst  Mach 4263,  4271 

Electrostatics,  On  the  Fundamental  Concepts  of.     Ernst  Mach 4247,  4255 

Era,  The  New.    Atherton  Blight 4044 

Eyes?  Why  Has  Man  Two.     Ernst  Mach : 4175 


Folk-Dance,  The  meaning  of  the.     L.  J.  Vance  

Froude,  Anthony,  The  Pilgrimage  of.     Moncure  D.  Conway. 
Funk  and  Wagnall's  New  Dictionary.    T.  J.  McCormack 


PAGE 

4068 

.4279.  4287,  4300 
4036 


Goethe  and  Schiller's  Xenions.    E.  F.  L.  Gauss.    4004.    P.  Carus 

3939,  3948,  3955. 3965 

Goethe's  Rhapsody  on  Nature 4135 

Government  by  Writs  of  Injunction.     M.  M.  Trumbull 4071 

Government,  The  Failure  of  Local.    E.  D.  Cope 4159 

Harmony,  On  the  Causes  of.    Ernst  Mach  4136 

Heredity,  The  Problem  of  Progressive.     Ernst  Haeckel 3975 

Holmes's  Anti-Dogmas.     Felix  L.  Oswald 4280 

Human  Sacrifice.    W.  H.  Gardner 3991,  4000 

Humanity's  Tangled  Strands.     Irene  A.  Safford 4184 


4335 


Immortality.     J.  W.  Powell 

Injunction,  Government  by  Writs  of.     M.  M.  Trumbull 4071 

Instinct  and  Intelligence  in  Chicks  and  Ducklings.     C.  Lloyd  Morgan 4058 

Islam,  The  Future  of.     M.  Aziz-ud-din  Ahmad 43^9 

Japan,  Buddhism  in.     Nobuta  Kishimoto 4183,  4197,  4202,  421 1 

Jesus  Christ,  The  Gospel  of.    John  Sandison 4019 

Kidd's  "  Social  Evolution."     Lewis  G.  Janes 4r72 

Kisses,  A  Story  of.     Hudor  Genone 4327 

Kossuth.     M.  M.  Trumbull 4023 

Kossuth  and  General  Gorgei.    Theodore  Stanton  and  Theodore  Tilton. .  4078 

Labor's  Claims  and  Methods.     Victor  Yarros 4305 

Libera!  Religious  Affairs  in  the  West.     Celia  Parker  WooUey 4119 

Light,  The  Velocity  of.     Ernst  Mach 4167 

Liquids,  The  Forms  of.     Ernst  Mach 3935 

Local  Government,  The  Failure  of.     E.  D.  Cope 4159 

Man.  What  is.  Worth  Living  For?    M.  Ratnaswami  Aiyer 4114 

Mathematico-Physical  Sciences,  On  the  Relative  Educational  Value  of 
the  Classics  and  the,  in  Colleges  and  High  Schools.     Ernst  Mach  — 

4295,  4308,  4311 

Matter  and  Energy,  Suggestions  touching.     Paul  R.  Shipman 4063 

Miracle  in  Religion.     Celia  Parker  WooUey 4024 

Moral  Life  ?  Why  Live  a.    A  "  Rationalist  "  Symposium.    Amoi  Waters.  4329 


Omar  Khayyam  :    I.  His  Communion  Cup,  4095 ;    II.  His  Garden,  4105 ; 

III.  His  Roses.     Moncure  D.  Conway 4115 

Open  Letter  to  the  Editor  of  The  Open  Court,  An.    C.  H.  Reeve 4223 

Paine,  Adventures  of,  in  London  and  Paris.     Moncure  D.  Conway 4143 

Paine  Club  in  Paris,  The.     Moncure  D.  Conway 4199 

Paine,  Thomas,  A  Newly  Discovered  Work  by.     Moncure  D.  Conway  . . .  3951 

Paine,  Thomas,  in  England,  1787-1792.     Moncure  D.  Conway 4091 

Paine,  Thomas,  in  Paris,  1787-1788.     Moncure  D.  Conway 4071 

Paine's  Escape  from  the  Guillotine,  1794,  and  His  Escape  from  the  Pious 

Pillory,  1S94.     Moncure  D.  Conway 

Paris,  Letter  from.     Moncure  D.  Conway 

Personality,  The  Barriers  of.     George  M.  McCrie 

Pessimism  ;  The  Way  Out.     Amos  Waters 

Pfleiderer,  Professor,  on  the  Genesis  of  Christianity.    John  Sandison  4007, 

Presbyter  John.     Moncure  D.  Conway 

Prison  or  Citadel— Which  ?     Francis  C.  Russell 

Prostration,  The  Origin  of.     E.  P.  Powell 


4161 

3967 
4239 
4073 
4019 
4319 
4153 
3978 

Religious  Affairs  in  the  West,  Liberal.     Celia  Parker  Woolley 4119 

Reporter,  The  Youthful.     E.  D.  Cope 4113 

Representatives,  No  Voters  Without.     F.  M.  Holland 4191 

Revolution,  The  Authority  of  the  State  and  the  Right  to 3961 


THE  OPEN  COURT.— Index  to  Volume  VIII. 


ESSAYS  AND  CONTRIBUTIONS— Continued. 


PAGE 

Schopenhauer,  the  Man  and  the  Philosopher.     G.  Koerner 3983 

Science,  An  Apostle  of.     Felix  L.  Oswald ,■,•■•■■•■  ^'^^ 

Science  and  Progress :  The  Age  of  Strikes— Vain  Appeals— Fallen  Stars 
—A  Consistent  Life-Colonial  Bieots— Turkish  Justice— Sanitary 
Despotism— Longevity  Receipts— Alcohol  and  Anarchy— Transfigured 
Tramps, +108;  Nameless  Evils— Mental  Class  Privileges—A  Progres- 
sive Mania— School  Subventions— The  American  Inquisition— Weekly 
Trials  — Refinements  of  Nomenclature,  4125;  Panic  Blunders— A 
Sanctuary  of  Freedom— Counter-Ruffians-Hctbeds  of  Disease— Sen- 
sitive Turks— Primitive  Republics— Timber  Fiends  — French  Clair- 
voyants-Signs of  the  Times,  4149;  Regicide  Remedies— The  Nemesis 
of  Reform— Sam  Jones's  Precursors— The  American  Scapegoat— An 
Ancient  Institution— A  Knout  Manual,  4173;  Definitions  of  Liberty- 
Mongol  Manhunters— Moral  Assassins— Precursors  of  Schopenhauer 
—The  Koran  Fetish— Our  Daily  Rice— Tests  of  Civilisation,  41S9; 
The  Far-West  Mirage— Noise  Martyrdom— Anti-Mongol  Precautions 
—A  Lively  Neighborhood —  Vacation  Privileges,  4205;  Northland 
Visitors— A  Consistent  Life— Fire-Storms— Tell-Tale  Photographs- 
Circus  Echoes,  4245;  A  Desperate  Expedient— Biological  Curiosa— 
Oriental  Realism— Congratulations  in  Disguise— Rosebery's  Peace- 
OSfering— A  Question  of  Candor— Tempting  Fortune— Juvenilis  Mundi 
Relics,  4317;  Count  Lesseps— Universal  Language— Forests  and  Cli- 
mate—Sanitary  Legislation— Another  Frost-Cure- The  Last  Straw- 
Mob  Verdicts,  4332.     Felix  L.  Oswald. 

"Senate  of  the  United  States,  The."     H.  P.  Biddle ..  4035 

Senatorial  Reform.     Moncure  D.  Conway 4009 

"Senatorial  Reform."     E.  P.  Powell 4034 

Spencer,  Herbert,  The  Metaphysics  of.    Thomas  C.  Laws 4039 


PAGE 

Spook  Mice.    Hudor  Genone 4203 

Standard  Dictionary.  The 4036' 

Stanton,  Theodore,  on  Kossuth  and  General  Gorgei 4078 

Strikes,  Local  and  Sympathetic.     G.  Koerner 4303 

Suffrage  a  Natural  Right.    Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton 3959 

Surprise  Party,  The.     Hudor  Genone 4231 

Symmetry.     Ernst  Mach 4015 

TrumbulI.Gen.  M.M.:  InMemoriam:  The  Farewell  at  the  House.  Editor, 
40-9.— Addresses  at  Unity  Church,  4079,  4080,  4082,  40S3,  4084,  4085.— 
Fir  Branches  on  the  Open  Grave.  Editor,  40S5.— General  Trumbull's 
Connexion  with  The  Open  Court.    Thomas  J.  McCormack,  4086. 

Tyndall.     Moncure  D.  Conway 3943 

Vision,  Erect.     [With  Editorial  Comment.]     Gustav  Glaser 4269 

"  Why  Live  a  Moral  Life  ?  "  A  "  Rationalist "  Symposium.  Amos  Waters  4329 

Will,  The.    Th.  Ribot 4055 

Will,  The  Diseases  of  the.    The  Realm  of  Caprices.    Th.  Ribot 4031 

Woman  Emancipation,  Will  It  Be  a  Success  ?  Marie  E.  Zakrzewska 4120 

Woman  Suffrage  in  France.     Theodore  Stanton 4127 

Woman,  The  Emancipation  of,  from  Woman.    William  Schuyler 4186 

Women,  The  Oppression  of.     E.  D.  Cope 4103 

"  Women,  The  Oppression  of."     Errol  Lincoln 4112 

Xenions,  Goethe  and  Schiller's.  E.  F.  L.  Gauss,  4004 ;  Paul  Carus,  3939, 
3948,  3955,  3965. 


EDITORIALS. 


Berkeley's  Positivism 4042 

Bible  Criticism,  President  Harper's 3996 

Buddhism,  The  Introduction  of,  Into  Japan..  4321 
Buddhist  Soul-Conception,  Immortality  and 

the 4259 

Chandra,  the  Pessimist 4107 

Circle  Squarer,  The 4121,  4130 

Congress  of  Religious  Societies,  American...  4101 

Disease,  Latest  Development  of  an  Old 4163 

Ego-Entity,  the  Immortality  in  Its  Negation..  4226 

God  of  Atheism,  The,  and  the  Immortality 
That  Obtains  in  the  Negation  of  the  Ego- 
Entity 4226 

Goethe  and  Schiller's  Xenions.3g39,  3948,  3955,  3965 

Harper's,  President,  Bible  Criticism 3996 

Henism,  The  Wrong  Method  of 4067 

Horses,  The  Strike  of  the 4275 

Humorist,  The  Philosophy  of  a 4266,  4291,  4298 

Immortality  a  Scientific  Truth 4155 


PAGE 

Immortality  and  the  Buddhist  Soul-Concep- 
tion   4259 

Immortality,  Pre  existence  and .   .  4315 

Immortality,  The  God  of  Atheism  and  the. 
That  Obtains  in  the  Negation  of  the  Ego- 
Entity  4226 

Japan,  The  Introduction  of  Buddhism  Into...  4321 
Jubilate  :    A   Sermon   Delivered   on   Sunday, 

April  15,  at  Unity  Church,  Chicago 4047 

Karma.     A  Tale  with  a  Moral 4217 

Labor  Day 4207 

Lover  of  "rruth,  A 04093 

Marriage  Services  Revised 4342 

Mene  Tekel 3930 

Old  Disease,  The  Latest  Development  of  an . .  4163 
Oneiros  and  Harpax 4100 

Pechvogel,  John 4193 

Philosophy  of  a  Humorist,  The 4266,4291,  4298 

Positivism,  Berkeley's 4042 

Pre-existence  and  Immortality 4315 


PAGE 

Railroad  Strike,  Travelling  During  a 4140 

Reform,  Treason  and 3971 

Religion  of  the  Ants 4076 

Religious  Societies, The  American  Congress  of  4101 
Revolution,  The  Modern  State  Based  Upon..  3970 

Revolution,  The  Right  to 3961 

Romanes,  Prof.  George  John.     Obituary ..  4iri 

Schiller  and  Goethe's  Xenions, 3939,  3948,  3955,  3965 

Science  a  Religious  Revelation 4253 

"Self,"  The  Meaning  of 4240 

Soul-Conception,  Immortality  and  the   Bud- 
dhist    4259 

State,  The,  a  Product  of  Natural  Growth. 3944,  3952 
State,  The  Authority  of  the,  and  the  Right  to 

Revolution 3961 

State,  The  Modern,  Based  Upon  Revolution..  3970 

Strike  of  the  Horses,  The  4275 

Strike,  Railroad,  Travelling  During  a  4140 

Treason  and  Reform 3971 

Trumbull,  Gen.  M.  M.,  In  Memory  of 4145 

Words  and  Their  Meaning.    A  Reply  to  Mr. 

Ellis  Thurtell 4234 

Xenions,  Goethe  and  Schiller's 

3939,  3948,  3955.  3965 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


PAGE 

"Christianity,"  The  Meaning  of.    Alfred  W.  Martin 4270 

"  Christians,  We.' '    Ellis  Thurtell 4326 

Japan,  A  Letter  From.     Nobuta  Kishimoto 4277 

Karma,  A  Buddhist  on  the  Law  of.     H.  Dliarmapala 4261 

"Mother's  Pies."   tWith  Remarks  by  Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull.]    OttoWett- 
stein 4014 


PAGE 

Names  of  the  Disciples  of  Truth.  John  Maddock.  [With  Editorial  Re- 
marks.]    4230 

Non  Sectarian  Religion,  Mr.  Martin's  Plea  for.  [With  Editorial  Re- 
marks.]   4165 

Religion,  Universal.    Alfred  W.  Martin.    [With  Editorial  Remarks.] 4181 

Reply  to  Professor  von  Hoist.    M.  M.  Trumbull 3934 


POETRY. 


PAGE 

A  Hymn  of  Hope.     J.  A.  Clarke 3932 

Ahasuerus.    Voltairine  de  Cleyre 4246 

Always  One.  By  Goethe.  (Translated  by  P.  C.)  4277 
Aunt  Hannah  on  the  Religion  of  Her  Child- 
hood.    Minnie-Andrews  Snell  4238 

Birth  Song.    G.  L.  Henderson 3998 

Consciousness.    Charles  Alva  Lane 4070 

Death  Shall  Not  Part  Ye  More.   Voltairine  de 

Cleyre 4026 


Faith  in  Action.     Louis  Albert  Lamb 4118 

Happiness.     Mattie  Miner-McCaslin 4332 

Imago.     Charles  Alva  Lane 4078 

Immortality.     J.W.Powell 4335 

In   Memoriam.     To  Gen.   M.   M.   Trumbull. 

Voltairine  de  Cleyre 4158 

In  Memory  of  M.   M.  Trumbull.     Samuel  B. 

Putnam 4261 

Kossuth  on  Gorgei's  Capitulation.    Theodore 

Tilton 4023 


Monism.    Horace  P.  Biddle 4134 

Promptings.    Charles  Alva  Lane 4102 

Sonnet.    Mary  Morgan  (Gowan  Lea) 4190 

The  Tryst.     Charles  Alva  Lane 4254 

The  Way  Out.     Hyland  C.  Kirk 4109 

To  a  Star.    J.  Arthur  Edgerton 4222 

Valor,    Viroe 4004 


THE  OPEN  COURT.— Index  to  Volume  VIII. 


BOOK  REVIEWS,  NOTES,  ETC. 


PAGE 

Altherr,  Alfred.    Theodor  Parker  in  seinem  Leben  und  Wirken 4262 

Alviella,  Goblet  d'.     The  Migration  of  Symbols 4333 

American  Mathematical  Monthly,  The 4270 

American  Secular  Union,  Congress  of  the 4262,  4270 

Atkinson,  Edward.     Suggestions  Regarding  the  Cooking  of  Food 4230 

Badeuoch,  L.  N.     Romance  of  the  Insect  World  3981 

Barrows,  John  Henry.     The  World's  Parliament  of  Religions 4030 

Bible,  The  King  James.     Correction  of  Its  Version  of  Luke  11.  xiv  4254 

Biddle,  Horace  P.    The  Musical  Scale  and  Prose  Miscellany 4182 

Brady,  Lake,  Spiritualism  at 4214 

Brussels  Institute  des  Hautes  Etudes  4278 

California  Militia,  The 4166 

Chatelain,  Heli.     Folk  Tales  of  Angola 4"8 

Chicago,  Board  of  Education  at 4126 

Christianity  and  Universal  Religion 4206 

Church.  R.  W.     Village  Sermons  Preached  at  Whatley 4109 

Cohn,  Gustav.     A  History  of  Political  Economy 4334 

Commons,  John  R.     The  Distribution  of  Wealth 3981 

Constitutions  of  Prussia,  Italy,  Colombia,  Mexico,  translated 4334 

Conte,  John  le,  Memoir  of 4230 

Cosmopoiis  Revista  Universal 4278 

Crescenzo,  Salvatore  de.     Saggio  di  una  scala  normale  del  pensiero  as- 
tratto  secondo  la  risultante  di  due  fattori.     Moduli  secondo  e  terzo 

ossia  di  media  e  d'infirma  grandezza 41 18 

Crooker,  Joseph  Henry.    A  New  Bible  and  Its  New  Uses 4342 

Crow,  D.  G.     Progressive  Eclecticism 41 10 

Darwin  and  After  Darwin,  Romanes's 4198 

Debsomania 4174 

Dictionary,  A  New 4036 

Ethnologische  Mitteilungen  aus  Ungarn 4278 

Fiske,  John.    Edward  Livingston  Youmans 4110 

Freedmen,  Appeal  to  the  Friends  of  the 4318 

Freethinker's  Magazine,  The 4158 

Gorham,  Charles  T.     Is  the  Bible  a  Revelation  from  God  ? 4078 

Grumbine,  J.  C.  F.,  Resigns  His  Ministry 4150 

Halsted,  George  Bruce,  .  . .  Prof.  A.  Vasiliev's  Address  on  Nicolai  Ivano- 

vich  Lobachevsky 4334 

Harper,  William  R.     Lectures  on  Genesis 4014 

Haeckel,  Ernst.     Monism,  a  Scientist's  Confession  of  Faith 3950 

Haeckel,  Ernst,  Sixtieth  Birthday  of  3982 

Haeckel  Professorship  for  Geology  and  Paleontology,  The 4126 

Hastings,  H.  L.     A  Square  Talk  to  Young  Men  About  the  Inspiration  of 

the  Bible 4078 

Hastings,  H.  L.    The  Higher  Criticism 4078 

Helmholtz,  Hermann  L.  F.  von 4230 

Himmel  und  Erde 4222 

Hinton,  Richard  J.    John  Brown  and  His  Men 4238 

Houghton,  Walter  R.  Neely's  History  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions  . . .  4030 
Howard,  George  Elliot.  The  American  University  and  the  American  Man  4278 
Hume,  J.  G.    Socialism 4118 

International  Dictionary  of  Contemporaneous  Folklorists 4278 

Jonesco,  Dimitrie.     Ueber  die  Ursachen  der  Blitzschlage  in  B3,ume 4278 


Kampfe,  Bruno.    Table  of  Integrals 3950 

Koch,  K.  R.     Notiz  uber  eine  einfache  Methode  um  dielectrische  Flussig- 

keiten  auf  ihr  Leitungsvermogen  zu  untersuchen 4-277 

Koch,  K.  R.     Ueber  kunstliche  Gletscher 4278 

Kossuth,  Editor's  Note  on 4046 

Larrabee.  William.    The  Railroad  Question 4006 

Lethaby,  W.  R.     Leadwork,  Old  and  Ornamental 4102 

Lindsay,  S.  M.,  and  L.  S.  Rowe.     The  Constitution  of  the  Kingdom  of 

Italy 4334 

Literary  Index,  The  Annual 4270 

Locy,  William  A.     The  Derivation  of  the  Pineal  Eye 4118 

Mach,  Ernst.     Science  of  Mechanics 3942 

Mallock,  W.  H.     Labor  and  the  Popular  Welfare 3965 

Mercer,    L.   P.     Review  of  the   World's   Religious  Congresses  of   the 

World's  Congress  Auxiliary  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition...  4030 
Mercer,  L.  P.     New  Jerusalem  in  the  World's  Religious  Congress  of  1893  4334 

Morgan,  C.  Lloyd.     An  Introduction  to  Comparative  Psychology 4333 

Miiller,  Mas.     Memorial  Pamphlet 3974 

Naden,  Miss.     Philosophical  Works 4150 

New  England  Tariff  Reform  League 4078 

Open  Court,  The,  Reduction  of  Its  Subscription  Price 4318 

Pechvogel,  John,  General  Trumbull's  Story  of 4198 

Pendleton,  Louis.    The  Wedding  Garment 4334 

Rangacharya,  M.    The  Function  of  Religion  in  Social  Evolution 4118 

Religion  des  Geistes,  Die ; 4038 

Religion  of  Science  Library,  The 4158 

Ribot,  Th.     Diseases  of  the  Will 4062 

Rice,  A.  E.     Small  Talk  About  Business 4246 

Rowe,  L.  S.,  and  S.  M.  Lindsay.    The  Constitution  of  the  Kingdom  of 

Italy 4334 

Sadler,  M.  F.    The  Revelation  of  St.  John  the  Divine 3950 

Salt,  Henry  S.    Animal  Rights  Considered  in  Relation  to  Social  Progress  4334 

Schmitt,  Eugen  Heinrich.     Die  Religion  des  Geistes 4038 

Schreiber,  Emanuel.     Reformed  Judaism  and  Its  Pioneers 4110 

Sloane,  William  M.     Life  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte 4294 

Smith.  George  H.     A  Critical  History  of  Modern  English  Jurisprudence.  3966 

Smithsonian  Institution,  Annual  Report  of  the 4134 

Spiritualism  at  Lake  Brady 4214 

Stanton,  Theodore.     Lectures  on  the  Third  French  Republic 4222 

Stetefeldt,  C  A.     Can  Organic  Life  Exist  in  the  Planetary  System  Out- 
side of  the  Earth 4278 

Superpersonal,  Not  Supernatural.     A  Correction 4174 

Tabor  College  Benefit  Enterprise 3966 

Tariff  Reform  League,  New  England 4078 

Tauchnitz's  Gift  to  Cornell  University 4022 

Tolstoi,  Count  Leo,  Note  from 3942 

Trumbull,  Mrs.,  Pension  for 4150 

Weeks,  Caleb  S.     Human  Nature  Considered  in  the  Light  of  Physical 

Science 4078 

Weismann's  Theories 39S2 

Westcott,  W.  Wynn.    The  Pymander  of  Hermes 4078 

Westermann's  Catalogue  Raisonn^  of  German  Literature 4334 

Whitney,  Henry  C.     Marriage  and  Divorce 4262 

Wixon.  Susan  H.     Right  Living 4078 

Wood,  Henry.    The  Political  Economy  of  Natural  Law 4126 


5^30 


The  Open  Court. 


A  'MTEEKLY  JOURNAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  332,      (Vol.  VIII.— I.) 


CHICAGO,  JANUARY  4,   1894. 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


AN  APOSTLE  OF  SCIENCE. 

BY  DR.    FELIX  L.   OSWALD. 

If  the  worship  of  Truth  for  her  own  sake  can  be 
called  a  form  of  religious  enthusiasm,  the  nineteenth 
century  may  be  said  to  have  already  solved  the  problem 
of  reconciling  religion  and  science.  Humboldt,  Goethe, 
Renan,  and  Darwin  ventured  and  labored  for  the  cause 
of  knowledge  as  much  as  any  missionary  for  the  cause 
of  faith,  but  it  may  be  questioned  if  since  the  days  of 
Voltaire  any  individual  thinker  devoted  himself  more 
successfully  to  the  task  of  carrying  the  torch  of  truth 
into  dark  places  than  the  self-made  scholar  and  inde- 
pendent investigator  John  Tyndall. 

Like  his  countryman  Bacon,  Tyndall  was  an  apostle 
of  popular  science.  His  love  of  truth  made  research 
its  own  reward  in  a  sense  that  enabled  him  to  ignore 
the  opposition  of  envy  and  bigotry,  and  he  possessed 
in  an  almost  unparalleled  degree  the  gift  of  interesting 
the  masses  in  the  results  of  his  inquiries.  It  has  often 
been  said  that  Robert  Ingersoll  owes  his  popularity  to 
his  rhetorical  gifts,  rather  than  to  the  attractiveness  of 
his  doctrine  ;  but  let  an  Ingersoll  or  a  Moody  announce 
a  lecture  on  such  topics  as  "  Calorescence " ;  "The 
Transmission  of  Heat  through  Gaseous  Bodies  "  ;  or 
on  "Sounding  and  Sensitive  Flames,"  and  see  if  they 
can  still  keep  a  mixed  audience  spellbound  for  hours 
together. 

Tyndall  has  repeatedly  wrought  that  miracle.  At 
the  Royal  Institute  and  the  School  of  Mines  his  lec- 
tures on  the  most  abstruse  subjects  were  attended  by 
crowds  of  workingmen,  and  deserved  to  be  studied  by 
teachers  and  orators  from  a  subjective  point  of  view, 
since  to  an  intelligent  observer  an  hour's  attendance 
revealed  the  secret  of  his  success.  With  an  unerring 
instinct  he  gained  the  attention  of  his  audience  by  se- 
lecting the  most  generally-interesting  points  of  his 
theme,  and  maintained  that  interest  by  a  discursive 
chat  in  which  wit,  humor,  and  amusing  anecdotes  were 
strangely  blended  with  philosophical  revelations  and 
sarcastic  sallies  against  non-philosophical  dogmas.  He 
could  play  on  an  apparently  one-sided  topic  like  a  vir- 
tuoso on  a  one-stringed  harp,  and  in  the  lecture-hall 
his  motto  of  "Low  Fare  and  High  Sentiments"  was 
supplemented  by  the  maxim  of  acute  thought  and  blunt 
speech.      He  detested  scholastic  pedantry  as  he  hated 


obscurantism  in  all  its  forms,  and  could  make  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Swiss  peasants  express  his  theories  on 
complex  geological  problems. 

Professor  Dryasdust  :  "The  metamorphic  strata  of 
this  defile  are  specially  fit  to  illustrate  the  erosive  ac- 
tion of  descending  glaciers  and  sub-glacial  waters,  the 
transverse  section  being  characteristic  all  along  the 
southwestern  boundaries  of  the  chasm," — and  so  on, 
till  even  his  educated  hearers  wish  him  at  the  bottom 
of  that  chasm,  and  themselves  back  to  the  tavern  of 
Pfeffer's. 

Professor  Tyndall ;  "Hasn't  this  river  washed  out 
a  wonderful  kettle  !  Wouldn't  a  railroader  prefer  to 
tackle  a  job  of  that  kind  by  day's  wages,  rather  than 
by  contract — unless  he  could  get  hold  of  that  conse- 
crated wheelbarrow  at  the  Rigi  Chapel  your  friend  was 
telling  us  about." 

Farmer:  "Yes,  and  with  a  receiver  to  control  tlie 
paymaster  of  the  Rigi  tramway.  For  my  part  I  shouldn't 
like  the  contract.  Wonder  how  many  years  it  took  the 
river  to  finish  the  job?  " 

Tyndall  (feeling  his  way):  "I  would  give  some- 
thing to  know.  Anyhow  it  seems  clear  that  the  water 
did  it,  and  nobody  else  ;  or  do  you  think  it  possible 
that  every  river  in  the  country  found  a  ready-made  gap 
on  its  way  to  the  sea?  " 

That  Socratic  method  of  interrogation  could  in  case 
of  need  give  way  to  a  quick-fire  of  irresistible  argu- 
ments, or  a  rocket-swarm  of  humorous  sallies  that  re- 
conciled the  most  unscientific  hearer  to  the  weightiness 
of  the  topic. 

But  the  consciousness  of  his  conversational  abilities 
did  not  prevent  Tyndall  from  pursuing  his  philosoph- 
ical inquiries  into  the  depths  of  solitude.  During  the 
two  years  following  his  return  from  Berlin  he  often 
passed  weeks  in  his  London  laboratory,  stinting  him- 
self in  meat  to  preserve  his  clearness  of  mind,  and  in 
favorite  intellectual  diversions  that  might  interfere  with 
the  concentrations  of  his  thoughts.  On  such  occasions 
he  locked  his  doors  against  gossiping  idlers,  and  thus 
avoided  the  alternative  recommended  by  Ernest  Re- 
nan,  who  informs  us  that  he  had  often  to  "make  him- 
self tedious  on  purpose, "  to  shorten  the  visits  of  trouble- 
some friends. 

In  the  Alps,  too,  Tyndall  frequently  dispensed  with 


3928 


THE   OPEN   Court. 


the  society  of  his  countrymen,  in  order  to  follow  a 
train  of  geological  speculations,  with  the  echoes  and 
the  whispering  winds  for  his  only  respondents,  and  on 
one  memorable  occasion  he  gave  a  personal  friend  and 
even  his  guides  the  slip  and  picked  his  way  alone 
across  the  crevasses  of  the  Corner  Glacier  to  the  slopes 
of  the  Matterhorn  and  back  to  the  hostelry  of  Breuil, 
a  twenty-mile  trip  over  ground  where  the  survival  of 
the  traveller  constantly  depended  on  the  choice  of  the 
trail,  but  where  the  risk  of  the  vast  precipices  seemed 
for  once  preferable  to  the  deadly  bother  of  small-talk. 
"There  are  moods,"  says  the  perpetrator  of  that  es- 
capade, "when  the  mother  is  glad  to  get  rid  of  her  off- 
spring, the  wife  of  her  husband,  the  lover  of  his  mis- 
tress, and  when  it  is  not  well  to  keep  them  together. 
And  so  at  certain  intervals,  it  may  be  good  for  the  soul 
to  feel  the  full  influence  of  that  '  society  where  none 
intrudes  '  ;  the  peaks  wear  a  grander  aspect,  the  sun 
shines  with  a  more  inspiring  fire,  the  blue  of  heaven 
is  more  deep  and  awful  and  the  hard  heart  of  man  is 
often  made  as  tender  as  a  child's." 

Tyndall's  analytical  talents  were  now  and  then  ap- 
plied to  the  task  of  self-study,  and  he  may  have  asked 
himself  if  his  fondness  for  communion  with  Nature, 
had  not  an  ultra-scientific  significance,  like  the  home- 
sickness of  an  exiled  Highlander.  "  I  have  sometimes," 
he  says,  "tried  to  trace  the  genesis  of  my  interest  in 
fine  scenery.  It  cannot  be  wholly  due  to  my  own  early 
associations,  for  as  a  boy  I  loved  nature,  and  hence, 
to  account  for  that  love,  I  must  fall  back  upon  some- 
thing earlier  than  my  own  birth.  The  forgotten  asso- 
ciation of  a  far-gone  ancestry  are  probably  the  most 
potent  elements  of  the  feeling.  There  was  a  time  when 
the  pleasurable  activities  of  our  race  were  among  the 
mountains,  woods,  and  waters,  and  I  infer  that  the 
hereditary  transmissions  of  that  time  must  have  come 
with  considerable  force  to  me." 

As  a  consequence,  Tyndall  had  become  so  much  at 
home  in  the  Alps  that,  in  the  words  of  one  of  his  Swiss 
friends,  "he  could  have  fallen  back  on  the  chance  of 
being  able  to  make  a  tolerable  living  in  the  role  of  an 
Alpine  guide,  if  the  British  bigots  should  have  con- 
trived to  expatriate  him  for  his  sins  of  heresy."  He 
ascended  the  Jungfrau  twice,  was  the  first  foreigner  to 
reach  the  pinnacle  of  the  Weisshorn  and  all  but  fore- 
stalled Sir  Charles  Whymper  in  his  triumphant  attack 
on  the  cloud-castle  of  the  Matterhorn.  Johann  Ben- 
nen,  the  explorer  of  the  Lepontine  Alps  pronounced 
him  the  only  Englishman  able  to  climb  a  first-class 
peak  to  the  very  top  and  long  after  the  rest  of  his 
countrymen  are  merely  able  to  stagger  (jvankeit)  along," 
and  Joseph  Jenni,  the  veteran  of  the  Pontresina  guides, 
once  went  fifty  English  miles  out  of  his  way  to  com- 
pete for  the  honor  of  accompanying  the  famous  Briton 
on  a  specially  perilous  glacier  expedition.     Their  mu- 


tual friend,  Bennen,  had  been  killed  by  an  avalanche 
a  few  months  before,  and  Professor  Tyndall  came  very 
near  sharing  the  fate  of  his  old  companion,  but  in  the 
very  crisis  of  the  terrible  glisadc  had  sufficient  com- 
mand of  his  mathematical  faculties  to  calculate  the 
chance  of  neutralising  the  momentum  of  his  sliding 
travelling  companions  by  a  well-timed  sideward  pull, 
but  to  recognise  the  difficulty  of  checking  the  impetus 
of  their  descent,  plus  that  of  the  sliding  snow  ! 

During  a  forced  march  across  a  gap  of  the  Aegisch 
horn,  he  found  time  to  stop  and  shake  with  laughing 
at  his  guide's  anecdote  of  an  honest  Tyrolese  who  had 
been  informed  by  his  father-confessor  that  the  hope  of 
attaining  the  kingdom  of  heaven  could  not  be  recon- 
ciled with  a  passion  for  the  fair  sex.  "  Herr  Pfarrer, 
es  muss  gehn,"  replied  the  Tyrolese. 

Tyndall  did  not  class  his  memoirs  of  those  diver- 
sions under  the  head  of  wasted  time,  but  held  that  a 
clear  brain  and  even  a  clean  bill  of  morals,  were  pro- 
ducts of  physical  health  as  directly  as  health  itself  is  a 
product  of  fresh  air  and  exercise.  "  Take  what  hy- 
pothesis you  will,"  he  says,  "consider  matter  as  an 
instrument  through  which  the  insulated  mind  exercises 
its  powers,  or  consider  both  as  so  inextricably  mixed 
that  they  stand  or  fall  together,  from  both  points  of 
view  the  care  of  the  body  is  equally  important.  The 
morality  of  clean  blood  ought  to  be  one  of  the  first 
lessons  taught  us  by  our  pastors  and  masters.  The 
physical  is  the  substratum  of  the  spiritual,  and  this 
fact  ought  to  give  the  food  we  eat  and  the  air  we  breathe 
a  transcendental  significance.  In  recommending  this 
proper  care  of  our  physical  organism,"  he  adds,  "it 
will  not  be  supposed  that  I  mean  the  stuffing  or  pam- 
pering of  the  body.  The  shortening  of  the  supplies  or 
a  good  monkish  fast  at  intervals  is  often  the  best  dis- 
cipline for  the  body." 

That  discipline  enabled  him  to  preserve  his  health 
under  circumstances  of  peculiar  difficulty  :  A  man  of 
naturally  feeble  lungs  and  sensitive  digestive  organs 
obliged  to  breathe  the  tainted  atmosphere  of  crowded 
lecture-halls,  and  exposed  to  the  dietetic  abominations 
of  South  European  taverns  and  English  railway-restau- 
rants. 

Lung  microbes  could  not  always  be  parried,  but 
Tyndall  had  an  instinctive  dread  of  strong  stimulants, 
and  contrived  to  utilise  even  the  leisure  of  the  sick- 
room in  a  way  that  enabled  him  to  turn  his  head  into 
a  cyclopaedia  of  secular  science.  He  was  an  accom- 
plished naturalist,  next  to  Davy  perhaps  the  foremost 
chemist  of  his  native  land,  an  acknowledged  authority 
in  astronomy,  biology,  physiology,  and  general  phys- 
ics, and  in  addition  to  his  technical  and  geographical 
studies  found  time  to  master  a  number  of  foreign  lan- 
guages. His  family  traced  its  origin  to  the  Saxon  im- 
migrants of  Ireland,  and   there  was   an  English  free- 


'I'HE    OPEN     COURT. 


3929 


thinker  Tyndall  (or  Tindall)  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, still  the  versatile  philosopher's  temper  now  and 
then  seemed  to  indicate  an  admixture  of  Celtic  blood, 
and  it  is  perhaps  a  suggestive  fact  that  he  spoke  French 
with  a  much  more  facile  accent  than  German,  though 
he  passed  several  years  in  Marburg  and  Berlin,  and 
made  the  German-Swiss  cantons  his  favorite  summer 
head- quarters.  When  I  first  met  him  in  Hermance  near 
Geneva  in  the  winter  of  1869,  he  pronounced  the  word 
gutig  alternately  like  geetik  and  gootik,  and  seemed  to 
labor  under  the  delusion  that  all  foreign  words  of  the 
German  language  have  to  be  accentuated  on  the  last 
syllable,  while  he  betrayed  a  curious,  natural  talent 
for  imitating  the  patois  of  the  French-Swiss  peasant 
children.  But  his  lexicographical  mastery  of  that  mis- 
pronounced Hochdeuisch  was  almost  incredible,  even  in 
consideration  of  his  sojourn  at  the  intellectual  metrop- 
olis of  Germany.  He  used  synonyms  with  a  subtle  ap- 
preciation of  their  etymology,  and  had  collected  data 
on  the  propriety  of  new-coined  words  and  such  rare 
archaisms  as  Recke,  a  heavy-weight  athlete,  and  unge- 
heuer,  in  the  sense  of  uncanny.  ^'Alle  Eulen  des  Ge- 
dankens  are  roosting  in  his  head,"  I  heard  him  once 
say  in  one  of  his  bilingual  bon-mots  for  the  benefit  of  a 
limited  number  of  bystanders;  and  on  a  garden-bench 
of  Hermance  (where  he  was  nursing  his  sprained  foot) 
he  once  handed  me  a  newspaper  with  a  red  query- 
mark  opposite  a  quotation  from  another  German  poet  : 

"  Nun  eilet  aus  des  Lebens  wildem  Lauf 
Mein  grosser  Schatten  zu  des  Grabes  Frieden." 

— ''Schatten  ?  what  does  that  spitlicker  mean? — grosse 
Schattenseiten,  I  suppose," — the  passage  having  been 
intended  as  an  apotheosis  of  an  individual  whose  crown 
had  been  his  chief  claim  to  distinction.  The  Untcr- 
ihanigkeit — constitutional  servility  of  a  certain  class  of 
German  contemporaries  was  a  subject  of  his  constant 
banter,  and  he  could  chuckle  for  minutes  together  at 
the  mere  mention  of  a  passage  from  a  biograph}'  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  where  the  author  describes  an 
official  chronicler  recording  certain  court-ceremonies 
with  "trembling  exactness."  The  democratic  irrev- 
erence of  Yankee  travellers  amused  him  all  the  more 
since  he  had  reasons  to  predict  the  decadence  of  that 
spirit  of  sturdy  independence.  "North  America,"  he 
said,  "is  drifting  into  a  sort  of  cosmopolitism  that  en- 
deavors to  efface  the  most  distinctive  characteristics  of 
the  freedom-loving  old  pioneers,  and  I  am  afraid  you 
will  soon  have  to  go  pretty  far  West  to  find  such  cham- 
pions of  self-help  as  Jackson  and  Boone." 

Withal,  he  often  quizzed  the  unscrupulous  land- 
greed  of  those  primitive  patriots.  "  What's  the  matter 
with  your  Spanish  Americans,"  he  once  asked  me  in 
discussing  the  chronic  revolutions  of  the  Mexican  Re- 
public, "are  they  really  unable  to  hit  a  medium  be- 
tween anarchy  and  despotism,  or  are  they  trying   to 


turn  their  country  into  a  desert  to  lessen  the  tempta" 
tion  of  their  enterprising  neighbors  to  cross  the  border 
again?  " 

Aside  from  that  penchant  for  banter,  the  practical 
sagacity  of  his  remarks  was  often  striking,  and,  I  can- 
not help  thinking,  had  something  to  do  with  the  fact 
that,  like  Thomas  Carlyle,  he  was  a  poor  man's  son 
and  was  schooled  in  the  stern  realism  of  life  before  he 
applied  his  mind  to  speculative  problems.  "  Can  the 
effect  of  prejudice  be  illustrated  by  a  more  glaring  in- 
stance," he  said,  "than  the  fact  that  Heinrich  Heine's 
works  are  not  by  this  time  found  in  every  library  of 
the  civilised  universe  !  What  an  incomparable  series 
of  intellectual  pyrotechnics — rocket  after  rocket  blend- 
ing its  sparks  with  the  very  stars  and  paling  the  bright- 
est sparkle  of  De  Stael  and  Voltaire  !  Leland's  trans- 
lation is  almost  an  equal  marvel,  and  they  can  soar 
into  sublime  pathos,  too,  but,  as  Byron  says,  they  are 
guilty  of  the  never-pardoned  offence  of  opposing  tithes. 
As  an  orthodox  court-poet  of  ....  he  would  have 
achieved  fortune  and  statues,  but  the  trouble  is  that 
the  Muses  decline  to  answer  an  invocation  on  such 
topics." 

"  A  locomotive,"  said  he  in  a  conversation  with 
Mons.  Boissonnet,  "is  really  a  highly  complex  piece 
of  mechanism,  so  much  so,  as  to  account  for  the  late 
date  of  its  invention,  but  how  is  it  that  the  simple  idea 
of  a  horse-car  railway  did  not  occur  to  the  practical 
Romans?  And  why  did  the  shrewd  First  Consul  not 
offer  a  premium  that  could  hardly  have  failed  to  lead 
to  the  construction  of  iron-clads,  a  couple  of  years  be- 
fore Trafalgar?  Any  floating  tin  wash-basin  ought  to 
have  suggested  the  possibility  of  an  armor-frigate,  and 
the  necessity  of  anti-commercial  measures  might  have 
been  obviated." 

"That  Rhadamanthus  of  atheism,  the  editor  of  the 
*  *  has  impeached  Napoleon  for  his  death-bed  recan- 
tations, but  he  should  not  be  so  hard  on  a  man  in  such 
circumstances,"  said  he  on  another  occasion.  "His 
gr^adiers  were  gone,  and  he  probably  saw  no  other 
way  to  spite  the  British  heretics." 

In  proposing  his  famous  prayer-test,  Tyndall  him- 
self possibly  intended  only  a  demonstration  of  that 
sort  and  greatly  regretted  the  consequent  controver- 
sies, partly  from  an  aversion  to  that  sort  of  notoriet}', 
partly  from  a  constitutional  preference  for  the  prac- 
tical polemics  of  science.  He  was  an  agnostic,  abso- 
lutely free  from  the  dread  of  the  unknown  beyond, 
and  with  only  a  faint,  though  long  lingering,  faith  in 
the  possibility  of  a  post  imn-tem  existence.  When  his 
friend  Bennen  perished  on  the  Haut  de  Cry  in  the 
winter  of  1864,  Tyndall,  Sir  John  Lubbock,  Prof. 
Vaughan  Hawkins,  and  a  few  others,  contributed  to 
the  monument-fund  of  the  famous  guide,  and  delegated 
the  supervision  of  the  work  to  a  Vallais  curate,  who, 


3930 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


as  the  chief  promoter  of  the  project  informs  us,  made 
but  a  poor  use  of  his  trust.  Still,  a  sort  of  memorial 
column  was  at  last  procured,  and  the  supervisor  for- 
warded his  plan  for  a  lengthy  epitaph  (in  French,  I 
think),  concluding  some  biographical  data  with  the 
information  that  the  champion  of  so  many  mountain 
expeditions  had  departed  to  explore  still  grander 
heights.  Tyndall  rather  liked  the  conceit,  though  not 
the  manner  of  its  expression,  and  contented  himself 
with  adding  one  touching  line  in  the  brave  guide's 
own  German  :  "Ich  komme  nicht  wieder,  Ihr  Lieben." 
In  the  "  interest  of  public  morals  "  that  supplement  of 
the  epitaph  was,  of  course,  suppressed,  but  Tyndall 
held  with  Arthur  Schopenhauer,  that  philosophy 
should  not  be  fettered  down  to  an  alliance  with  gnos- 
ticism, deism,  nor  even  with  the  established  system 
of  ethics,  but  only  with  truth,  and  that  if  rightly  under- 
stood, the  uncompromising  cultus  of  that  truth,  can 
never  be  unmoral.  Though  liberal  to  a  fault,  he  was 
not  fond  of  parading  his  philanthropy,  and  refuted  the 
charge  "agnostic  egotism  "  in  his  own  way,  by  donat- 
ing the  entire  proceeds  of  his  American  lecturing  tour 
— some  thirteen  thousand  dollars,  I  think — to  the  pro- 
motion of  scientific  studies  in  the  United  States. 

Tyndall's  temperance  and  methods  of  outdoor 
exercise  had  endowed  him  with  a  reserve-fund  of 
health  that  sustained  him  in  the  severe  scientific  la- 
bors of  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  fatal  issue  of  his  last  illness  was  a  direct  re- 
sult of  his  nurse's  blunder  in  administering  an  enorm- 
ous dose  of  chloral,  instead  of  magnesia,  and  dismis- 
sing his  medical  friends  upon  the  first  symptom  of 
improvement. 

It  is,  indeed,  probable  enough  that  those  mistakes 
robbed  him  and  the  world  of  twenty  years  of  his  life, 
but  according  to  Tyndall's  own  principle,  a  teacher 
may  depart  contented,  if  he  has  lived  long  enough  to 
see  the  seed  of  his  doctrine  bear  fruit. 


MENE  TEKEL. 

Winter  is  always  hard  on  the  poor,  but  this  year  it 
seems  to  be  severer  than  usual.  Thousands  of  penni- 
less tramps  are  overcrowding  our  great  cities,  and  there 
are  also  many  diligent  laborers  out  of  work,  while 
charity  institutions  have  been  created  to  bring  whole- 
sale relief  to  the  most  needy.  Yet  it  will  be  observed 
that  those  who  deserve  our  sympathy  in  the  highest 
degree  receive  but  a  small  benefit  of  all  this,  and  for 
the  most  part  are  left  to  rely  upon  their  own  reduced 
resources.  The  improvident  vagabond  is  fed  while  the 
fate  of  the  thrifty  father  of  a  family,  who  has  mortgaged 
his  home  dearly  bought  with  the  savings  of  his  wages, 
is  scarcely  considered  in  the  general  commiseration  of 
wretched  existences. 

The  reasons  of  our  present  calamity  need  not  con- 


cern us  now;  to  a  great  extent  they  are  obvious  enough. 
Fear  of  the  depreciation  of  our  money  by  substituting 
silver  for  gold  caused  a  withdrawal  of  credit  from 
banks  and  commercial  enterprises  and  produced  a  sud- 
den contraction  in  the  business-world  which  almost 
amounted  to  a  panic.  Many  factories  have  been  shut 
down  and  almost  all  the  others  reduced  their  product. 
Although  less  has  been  produced  during  the  last  months 
than  at  other  times,  the  market  is  overstocked  so  that 
our  protective  tariff  has  ceased  to  benefit  even  the 
few  and  our  want  of  export  opportunities  is  more  felt 
than  ever. 

We  have  learned,  or  at  least  have  had  occasion  to 
learn,  a  lesson  ;  we  ought  to  know  now  that  the  laws  of 
economics  cannot  be  transgressed  with  impunity.  We 
Americans  have  been  spoiled  by  Mother  Nature  and 
are  under  the  impression  that  we  are  her  favorites, 
that  we  can  do  many  things  which  other  nations  can- 
not, and  that  famines  or  other  calamities  will  never 
befall  us.  Thus  we  have  adopted  the  habits  of  prod- 
igals, which  are  often  shocking  to  the  frugal  and  eco- 
nomic European,  and  it  \s  rarely  that  we  are  prepared 
for  hard  times. 

The  hard  times  prevailing  now  are  not  as  yet  so 
disastrous  as  the  visitation  under  equal  conditions  in 
other  countries  might  have  proved  ;  yet  they  are  severe 
enough  to  be  a  mene  iekel  to  us.  Hard  times  may  come 
again,  and  they  will  come  again  ;  some  will  come  be- 
cause we  ourselves  conjure  them  up  through  our  na- 
tional follies  and  political  sins,  others  through  compli- 
cations in  the  natural  forces  of  the  world,  be  it  by 
droughts,  cyclones,  or  epidemics,  and  in  the  face  of 
such  possibilities  it  is  our  duty  to  be  prepared  for 
them. 

We  must  first  become  aware  of  the  fact  that  the 
typical  American  is  extremely  careless  as  to  the  possi- 
ble rise  of  future  emergencies,  and  frivolously  wasteful 
of  food,  money,  and  all  the  other  little  items  that  go 
to  make  up  the  conditions  of  human  life.  And  this  is, 
upon  the  whole,  as  true  of  the  employer  as  of  the  la- 
borer, of  the  master  as  of  the  servant,  of  the  rich  as 
of  the  poor. 

This  is  no  secret  to  those  who  know  the  habits  of  Eu- 
ropean countries,  especially  of  Germany;  but  veryfew  of 
us  think  that  we  are  wrong  ;  on  the  contrary,  there  are 
many  scoffers  among  us  who  ridicule  foreigners  on  ac- 
count of  their  stinginess  and  miserly  habits  ;  there  are 
many  who  look  with  contempt  upon  the  man  who  cuts 
down  his  expenses  or  denies  himself  luxuries  in  order 
to  save  a  part  of  his  wages  for  emergencies  or  times  of 
need.  We  are  a  nation  of  spendthrifts  and  take  pride 
in  throwing  away  our  money  freely  and  indiscrimi- 
nately. Such  being  the  ambition  of  the  great  major- 
ity, many  families  live  pretentiously  who  cannot  afford 
it,  and  would  rather  dispense  with  wholesome  food 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


393 1 


than  with  jewelry  and  costly  clothing  or  an  expensive 
residence  in  the  most  fashionable  part  of  the  city. 
Forced  to  economise  somewhere,  they  cut  down  their 
expenses  in  the  wrong  place. 

Now  it  is  true  that  America  has  been  blessed  with 
extraordinary  prosperit}',  a  prosperity  which  greatly 
exceeds  that  of  most  European  countries,  but  it  is  also 
true  that,  sooner  or  later,  hard  times  will  come  to  us 
also.  Anxious  to  preserve  our  natural  advantages,  we 
have  erected  a  Chinese  wall  of  protective  duties  about 
our  frontier  which  so  far  has  tended  to  make  bread  dear 
and  money  cheap.  Like  the  stag  in  the  fable  who 
praises  his  horns,  we  are  very  proud  that  American 
money  so  valuable  abroad  has  but  little  purchasing- 
power  at  home.  How  often  do  our  smart  innocents 
abroad  boast  that  a  dollar  has  no  more  value  in  the 
United  States  than  a  shilling  in  England. 

We  have  artificially  produced  these  conditions  by 
fencing  in  a  part  of  the  world-market,  and  we  imagine 
that  our  prosperity  has  been  due  to  a  sharp  little  trick 
of  ours,  while  in  fact  it  is  due  to  the  great  resources  of 
the  country,  which  yield  us  their  wealth  in  spite  of 
these  self-imposed  fetters  and  burdens. 

So  long  as  we  are  prosperous  we  shall  be  able  to 
stand  the  pressure  of  our  heavy  import  duties,  but  in 
times  of  great  emergencies  they  will  make  themselves 
felt.  Nothing  short  of  a  famine  in  England  opened 
the  eyes  of  the  people  to  the  errors  of  a  protective 
policy,  and,  considering  the  impervious  tenacity  of 
otir  protectionists,  it  is  possible  that  we  shall  have  to 
pass  through  the  same  ordeal,  for  our  people  refuse 
to  learn  from  history  and  prefer  the  more  impressive 
and  more  expensive  way  of  learning  by  direct  expe- 
rience. 

Being  prosperous,  we  can  sin  against  the  natural 
laws  that  regulate  economics  and  society  for  a  long 
time,  but  it  is  certain  that  we  cannot  do  so  forever. 
We  now  exclude,  as  much  as  possible,  foreign  com- 
petition, and  thus  weaken  our  ability  to  compete  with 
other  countries.  What  shall  we  do  when  the  time  ar- 
rives in  which  competition  becomes  inevitable?  Even 
now  we  see  the  symptoms  of  it.  There  are  toys  made 
in  Germany  and  France,  ingeniously  contrived  and 
economically  made,  which  sell  here  for  exactly  double 
their  value,  and  when  we  see  them  we  exclaim,  "Oh, 
how  cheap  !  "  With  our  conditions,  and  with  cheap 
money  our  manufacturers  cannot  compete  with  Euro- 
peans. The  benefit  of  protection  is  a  two-edged  sword. 
Its  advantages  turn  out  to  be  very  disastrous.  Our  la- 
borers are  better  paid,  but  the  higher  figures  of  money- 
values  are  very  misleading.  They  would  be  better  situ 
ated  with  less  money  of  a  greater  purchasing  power. 
We  might  better  expect  to  fence  in  a  part  of  the  ocean, 
artificially  to  raise  or  lower  in  that  part  its  level  than 
to  create  forever  exceptional  conditions  in  one  part  of 


the  mercantile  world.  The  value  of  goods  will  after  all 
seek  its  natural  level  and  will  thus  produce  a  disturb- 
ance, which  may  prove  dangerous  to  the  welfare  of 
the  community.  The  fear  of  a  cataclysm  actually  and 
naturally  keeps  many  free-traders  within  the  camp  of 
protectionists.  That  is  the  curse  of  all  errors,  wrong- 
doings, and  sins — their  chains  are  lingering. 

* 
*  * 

Whatever  the  future  may  have  in  store  for  us,  one 
thing  is  certain,  that  our  wastefulness  will  some  day 
come  into  conflict  with  European  economy.  We  en- 
joy great  advantages,  such  as  inventiveness  and  bold- 
ness of  enterprise,  but  those  Europeans  who  are  well 
acquainted  with  our  conditions  imitate  us  and  adopt 
our  machinery.  In  the  same  way  our  industries  must 
acquire  the  virtues  of  their  competitors  or  succumb  to 
their  greater  fitness  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  Un- 
economical employes  will  have  to  be  discharged  or  the 
whole  plants  will  by  and  by  pass  into  other  hands. 
There  is  no  hope  for  those  who  are  unable  to  adapt 
themselves  to  the  conditions  of  life  ;  they  must  make 
way  for  others  who  can. 

If  Jeremiah  were  to  appear  among  us,  he  would 
raise  again  his  voice  of  warning.  Hard  times  will  come 
and  how  many  among  us  have  in  their  short-sighted 
vanity  made  themselves  unable  to  face  them.  It  is 
not  possible  to  establish  economic  habits  among  large 
classes  of  the  people  as  quickly  as  the  tide  of  destruc- 
tion ma}'  rush  upon  us  ;  for  visitations  come  sometimes 
like  a  whirlwind,  and  smite  the  proud  more  severely 
than  the  humble. 

A  passage  in  Prof.  Lloyd  Morgan's  book,  "Animal 
Life  and  Intelligence,"  in  which  he  discusses  the  in- 
fluence of  good  and  hard  and  intermediate  times  on 
the  production  of  varied  forms  of  life,  seems  to  me 
instructive.  He  shows  that  good  times,  in  which  by 
some  favorable  circumstance  the  area  of  life  increases, 
will  produce  innumerable  varieties  ;  they  create  many 
new  species,  giving  them  a  chance  to  prove  their  fit- 
ness for  life,  while  hard  times,  in  which  a  contraction 
of  life-sustaining  forces  takes  place,  do  the  pruning  ; 
they  cut  down  with  ruthless  cruelty  those  kinds  which 
have  not  used  their  opportunities  to  their  advantage. 
He  says  : 

"  During  the  exhibitions  at  South  Kensington  there  were  good 
times  for  rats.  But  when  the  show  was  over,  there  followed  times 
that  were  cruelly  hard.  The  keenest  competition  for  the  scanty 
food  arose,  and  the  poor  animals  were  forced  to  prey  upon  each 
other.  '  Their  cravings  for  food, '  we  read  in  A^atin-e,  '  culminated 
in  a  fierce  onslaught  on  one  another,  which  was  evidenced  by  the 
piteous  cries  of  those  being  devoured.  The  method  of  seizing 
their  victims  was  to  suddenly  make  a  raid  upon  one  weaker  or 
smaller  than  themselves,  and,  after  overpowering  it  by  numbers, 
to  tear  it  in  pieces.'  Elimination  by  competition,  passing  in  this 
way  into  elimination  by  battle,  would,  during  hard  times,  be  in- 
creased. None  but  the  best  organised  and  best  adapted  could  hope 
to  escape." 


3932 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


In  order  to  illustrate  his  law  in  the  animal  world, 
Prof.  Lloyd  Morgan  calls  the  attention  of  his  readers 
to  the  correspondent  events  in  the  history  of  man.  He 
says  : 

"The  alternation  of  good  times  and  hard  times  may  be  illus- 
trated by  an  example  taken  from  human  life.  The  introduction 
of  ostrich-farming  in  South  Africa  brought  good  times  to  farmers. 
Whereupon  there  followed  divergence  in  two  directions.  Some 
devoted  increased  profits  to  improvements  upon  their  farms,  to 
irrigation  works  which  could  not  before  be  afforded,  and  so  forth. 
For  others  increased  income  meant  increased  expenditure  and  an 
easier,  if  not  more  luxurious,  mode  of  life.  Then  came  hard 
times.  Others,  in  Africa  and  elsewhere,  learnt  the  secret  of 
ostrich-farming.  Competition  brought  down  profits,  and  elimina- 
tion set  in — of  which  variety  need  hardly  be  stated," 

Prof.  Lloyd  Morgan  continues  : 

"  I  believe  that  the  alternation  of  good  times  and  hard  times, 
during  secular  changes  of  climate  and  alternate  expansions  and  con- 
tractions of  lite-areas  through  geological  upheavals  and  depression 
of  the  land,  has  been  a  factor  of  the  very  greatest  importance  in  the 
evolution  of  varied  and  divergent  forms  of  life,  and  in  the  elimina- 
tion of  intermediate  forms  between  adaptive  variations." 

Speaking  of  the  present  era  he  says  : 

"These  are  the  good  old-fashioned  times  of  slow  and  steady 
conservative  progress.  They  are,  perhaps,  well  exemplified  by 
the  fauna  of  the  Carboniferous  period,  and  it  is  not  at  all  im- 
probable that  we  are  ourselves  living  in  such  a  quiet,  conservative 
period." 

Let  us  mind  the  lesson  ere  it  be  too  late.  The  hard 
time  of  this  winter  is  only  a  moderate  admonition  of 
worse  possibilities.  Bad  laws  made  by  demagogues, 
fools,  or  impostors,  will  bring  misfortunes  upon  the 
people,  and  if  the  people  do  not  learn  to  watch  our 
legislators  we  shall  have  to  pay  dearly  for  it.  But 
even  if  we  cease  to  make  blunders  ourselves,  the  time 
of  trials  will  come,  for  the  balance  of  life  is  very  un- 
stable and  often  hinges  upon  trifles.  We  cannot  con- 
tinue for  good  in  our  wonted  wastefulness,  and  it  is 
una\ioidable  that  those  who  refuse  to  learn  the  lesson 
shall  be  doomed  in  their  future  generations  to  hopeless 
perdition.  How  many,  incredibly  many,  of  our  people 
are  unable  to  live  through  periods  of  hardships,  and 
we  must  shudder  to  think  how  terrible  the  pruning 
will  be,  should  the  metal  of  our  nation  be  assayed  in 
the  crucible  of  some  great  visitation. 

Those  who  have  ears  to  hear,  let  them  hear  ;  those 
who  have  eyes  to  see,  let  them  see;  and  those  who 
have  voices  to  speak  and  sufficient  understanding  to 
see  that  there  is  danger  ahead,  let  them  raise  the  cry 
of  alarm,  so  that  the  day  of  judgment  may  not  be  too 
severe  on  us. 

We  proclaim  no  pessimism,  for  after  all  we  are 
confident  that  this  is  the  country  in  which  a  higher 
species  of  man  is  to  be  developed.  Even  the  visita- 
tions, which,  as  we  fear,  will  not  be  spared  us,  must 
contribute  to  mature  the  fruit  of  a  nobler  humanity. 


So  must  it  be,  and  may  we  all  be  found  worthy  to 
contribute  our  mite  to  the  realisation  of  the  noble  des- 
tiny of  our  nation.  p.  c. 


A  HYMN  OF  HOPE. 

BY  J.   S.    CLARKE. 

Spirit  of  life  and  love. 

Music  and  flowers  ! 
Ruling  the  seas  and  streams. 
Filling  the  night  with  dreams, 
Smiling  with  sunny  beams. 

Weeping  soft  showers  ! 

Sweet  is  thy  sovereign  grace, 

Mighty  thine  art ! 
The  soul-storm  thou  dost  calm 
With  a  celestial  psalm. 
And  pour  thy  healing  balm 

On  the  torn  heart ! 

What  though  pain's  arrows  pierce. 

And  health  be  slain  ? 
Like  the  sunlight  in  the  west 
We  shall  gently  sink  to  rest 
On  thy  eternal  breast 

And  conquer  pain  ! 

It  is  not  life,  but  death, 

When  hope  is  gone  ; 
Thou  wilt  mend  all  that  mars 
Our  joy  ;  for  the  bright  stars 
That  shine  through  prison  bars 

Bid  us  hope  on. 

Sweet  joys  must  burn  and  die, 

Though  the  heart  clings 
To  its  fond  heart's  desire. 
They  shall  rise  from  their  dead  fire. 
Like  the  phcenix  from  its  pyre. 

With  beating  wings  ! 

Spirit  of  boundless  space 

And  endless  time  ! 
Thy  works  thou  dost  unroll 
As  from  a  magic  scroll  ; 
Like  music  to  the  soul 
■  Is  their  sweet  chime  ! 

Mid  the  whirl  of  myriad  wheels 

Thy  footsteps  fall  ; 
Treading  the  mystic  loom 
That  weaves  the  web  of  doom, 
And  the  flowers  that  bud  and  bloom 

With  hope  for  all  ! 

Onward  the  soul-stream  glides. 

Sparkling  with  glee  ; 
Foaming  in  many  a  lin 
Of  pain  and  sorrow  and  sin, 
Until  it  flows  within 

The  sunlit  sea. 

Spirit  of  raging  wrath, 

And  flashing  fire  ! 
It  is  thine  eye  that  reads 
All  our  unholy  deeds  ; 
Whether  it  lags  or  speeds. 

Sure  is  thine  ire  ! 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3933 


Dark  is  the  shadow  of  sin 

Over  the  soul ; 
Darkly  it  flits  and  flees 
Like  the  pirate  o'er  the  seas  ; 
Thou  wilt  heal  the  soul's  disease, 

And  make  us  whole  ! 

Spirit  of  light  and  truth, 

Guide  thou  the  way  ! 
Fiercely  the  tempests  blow  ; 
Yet  we  must  onward  go, 
Onward  through  weal  and  woe. 

Onward  for  aye  ! 

CURRENT  TOPICS. 

The  echoes  of  the  Parliament  of  All  Religions  are  just  return- 
ing to  us  from  the  lands  across  the  sea,  and  they  are  not  so  flatter- 
ing to  our  own  theologies  as  many  zealous  persons  expected  them 
to  be.  The  echo  from  Japan  comes  in  the  shape  of  a  report  made 
at  Yokohama  by  the  Buddhist  Bishops  Bourin  Yatsubuchi  and 
Shaku  Soyen,  conspicuous  delegates  in  the  Parliament  and  emi- 
nent scholars  in  their  own  country.  They  are  absolutely  innocent 
of  any  intentional  sarcasm  ;  they  were  serious,  and  even  solemn, 
so  that  the  humor  of  the  report  is  all  the  more  delightful,  because 
entirely  unpremeditated  and  spontaneous.  Dr.  Barrows  and  the 
other  Christian  clergymen  who  convoked  the  Council  of  Chicago 
will  be  surprised  to  hear  from  the  Right  Rev.  Shaku  Soyen  that 
"the  Parliament  was  called  because  the  Western  nations  have 
come  to  realise  the  weakness  and  the  folly  of  Christianity."  This 
is  not  encouraging,  for  the  object  of  the  Parliament  was  to  exhibit 
Christianity  in  its  own  dominions,  and  to  show  for  the  conversion 
of  the  heathens,  its  wisdom,  its  justice,  and  its  divine  character. 
This,  by  object  lessons  and  visible  examples  of  social  and  political 
justice,  of  moral  and  spiritual  excellence,  and  of  material  great- 
ness too  colossal  for  the  missionaries  to  carry  over  in  their  ships. 
The  purpose  was  defeated  by  the  Parliament  itself,  when  Christian 
bishops,  presbyters,  and  priests  confessed  the  failures  of  Christian- 
ity and  justified  the  Japanese  opinion  that  the  Western  nations 
had  outgrown  the  Christian  system,  and  were  seeking  for  another, 
and  a  more  beneficent,  religion. 
* 

From  personal  observation  the  Buddhist  bishops  came  to  the 
opinion  that  Christianity  in  America  is  more  a  fashion  than  a 
faith,  a  formalism  destitute  of  soul.  Not  only  did  they  suppose 
they  saw  that  for  themselves,  but  they  heard  it  over  and  over  again 
from  Christian  preachers  on  the  platform  at  Columbus  Hall.  The 
Japanese  critics  proclaimed  nothing  at  Yokohama  that  they  had 
not  heard  at  Chicago  ;  and  they  had  good  Christian  warrant  for  it 
when  they  said,  "Christianity  is  merely  an  adornment  of  society 
in  America.  It  is  deeply  believed  in  by  very  few."  The  Christian 
speeches  in  the  Parliament  bore  energetic  testimony  to  that,  but 
picturesque  and  ceremonial  Christianity  gets  a  nominal  recognition 
and  acceptance  because  it  is  really  "in  society,"  ai^  valuable  as 
religious  embroidery  for  what  the  Buddhist  bishops  call  "the 
adornment  of  society."  Like  incense  from  a  golden  censer  it  gives 
an  odor  of  sanctity  to  pleasure,  and  after  we  have  indulged  in  self- 
worship  for  a  life-time,  it  blesses  us  with  absolution  for  our  sins. 
Because  in  matters  of  religion  we  profess  what  we  do  not  believe, 
we  have  grown  false  in  other  things,  and  we  do  business  v  th  one 
another,  each  without  any  belief  in  his  neighbor's  faith  .  hon- 
esty. Happily,  there  are  inside  and  outside  the  churches  many 
exceptions  to  this  rule  of  business  ;  enough  of  them  to  break  in 
some  degree  the  force  of  heathen  censure  and  strengthen  that  so- 
cial confidence  that  gives  character  and  dignity  to  life.  I 'offer 
these  mitigating  circumstances  for  what  they  are  worth,  confess- 


ing at  the  same  time  that  they  are  not  a  full  defence  to  the  heathen 
accusation. 

■x-         '  * 

Because  the  Christian  religion  hangs  loosely  upon  the  Ameri- 
cans, many  Buddhists  and  Mohammedans  erroneously  think  that 
America  is  good  missionary  ground  for  them.  With  a  religious 
enthusiasm  like  that  of  Loyola,  or  Wesley,  Bishop  Shaku  Soyen 
points  to  the  Western  nations  eager  for  the  light  of  Asia  as  it  is  in 
Buddha,  and,  referring  to  the  Parliament,  he  said  :  ' '  The  meetings 
showed  the  great  superiority  of  Buddhism  over  Christianity,  and 
the  mere  fact  of  calling  the  meetings  showed  that  the  Americans 
and  other  Western  peoples  had  lost  their  faith  in  Christianity  and 
were  ready  to  accept  the  teachings  of  our  superior  religion."  So, 
likewise,  the  Mohammedans  think  that  the  decay  of  Christian  faith 
makes  an  opportunity  for  them  to  propagate  their  "  superior  reli- 
gion "  among  the  Western  peoples,  and  Mohammedan  missiona- 
ries are  now  at  work  in  England  and  America.  They  make  a  mis- 
take in  supposing  that  the  Western  peoples  who  have  lost  their 
faith  in  Christianity  are  anxious  to  believe  in  Buddha,  Brahma, 
Mohammed,  Baal,  or  some  other  deity  or  prophet,  when  the  truth 
is  they  have  lost  faith  in  all  religions  that  express  themselves  in 
forms  of  worship  or  claim  supernatural  inspiration.  For  centu- 
ries men  have  accepted  sacred  stories  as  a  substitute  for  truth, 
and  worship  has  usurped  the  place  of  duty.  The  rattle  and  the 
rumble  of  the  printing-press  are  shaking  the  foundations  of  every 
superstition,  of  every  error,  and  of  every  wrong.  Men  who  have 
thought  themselves  out  of  the  Christian  faith  will  rarely  think 
themselves  into  the  faith  of  Buddha  or  Mohammed.  There  is  no 
reason  why  a  man  who  has  been  released  from  one  prison  should 
strive  to  enter  another. 

The  Central  Relief  Association  held  a  meeting  last  night  and 
adopted  plans  by  which  to  raise  a  million  dollars  for  charitable 
purposes  in  Chicago  ;  and  we  are  informed  that  "A  million  dollars 
for  charity,  but  not  a  penny  for  tramps,  bummers,  and  impostors 
was  the  watchword  of  the  Association."  I  fear  this  "  watchword  " 
will  be  a  heavy  handicap  on  the  society,  for  it  will  require  the 
critical  ingenuity  of  expert  metaphysical  detectives  to  determine 
which  of  their  hungry  brothers  is  a  "  bummer  "  or  a  "  tramp." 
According  to  the  papers,  Mr.  Sterling,  a  very  active  member  of 
the  Association,  a  kindly  man,  of  good  intentions,  but  rather  se- 
vere and  rigid  in  his  benevolence,  said,  "The  class  of  loafers  that 
had  been  sleeping  in  the  City  Hall  had  attracted  entirely  too  much 
attention.  What  we  need  to  do  is  to  weed  out  the  impostors,  starve 
them  out,  and  give  assistance  to  those  who  deserve  it."  The  lan- 
guage is  rough,  like  the  lot  of  the  men  described,  and  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  Mr.  Sterling  used  the  word  "loafers"  at  all,  but  it  ex- 
presses a  prevalent  estimate  of  the  idle  men,  and  about  ninety  per 
cent,  of  it  is  unjust.  I  inspected  that  shivering  surplus  in  the 
corridors  nf  the  City  Hail,  perhaps  not  with  strict  impartiality, 
because  of  ancient  fellowship,  but  as  fairly  as  I  could,  and  by  the 
faces  and  the  hands,  and  by  the  clothes,  I  knew  that  a  large  major- 
ity of  it  was  made  of  men  who  are  in  the  habit  of  earning  their 
own  living,  but  were  just  now  out  of  work;  and  "out  of  luck  " 
besides. 

In  the  days  of  old,  some  years  before  the  war,  when  a  man's 
"  nigger"  was  a  bit  of  sacred  property,  it  was  my  fortune  to  live 
in  Virginia.  I  had  drifted  on  a  vagabond  wave  to  the  shores  of 
that  province,  and  as  soon  as  I  was  cast  upon  the  dry  land,  I  found 
the  white  opinion  to  be  unanimous  that  the  "niggro,"  as  they 
called  him  down  there,  was  lazy  and  ungrateful.  I  searched  with 
a  mental  telescope  that  multiplied  by  ten  million  diameters,  to 
discover  something  that  he  ought  to  be  grateful  for,  but  I  never 
found  it  ;  and  when  my  telescope  showed  me  that  the  "niggro" 
did  all  the  work  in  Virginia  that  was  done,  and  that  he  got  nothing 


3934 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


for  doing  it,  I  wondered  why  he  did  not  rest  oftener,  and — longer. 
Like  the  old  Virginia  planters,  the  Central  Relief  Association  is 
very  nearly  unanimous  in  believing  that  the  homeless  wanderers 
who  seek  shelter  on  the  stairs  and  in  the  passages  of  the  City  Hall, 
the  gaunt  effigies  that  besiege  the  soup-kitchens,  are  lazy  and  un- 
grateful. They  had  been  tried  by  the  street-cleaning  test  and 
found  wanting. 

In  spite  of  all  my  efforts  to  resist  the  magnetic  fascination,  I 
am  driven  by  an  uncontrollable  spirit  to  bring  Oliver  Twist  into 
this  discussion.  The  pathetic  soup-s;ory  told  by  Mr.  Sterling  to 
the  Central  Relief  Association  made  me  dream  all  night  about  that 
historic  meeting  of  the  "Board"  of  charities,  or  whatever  it  was, 
and  the  gentleman  in  the  white  waistcoat  who  prophesied  that 
Oliver  would  certainly  be  hung  because  he  had  shown  inborn  de- 
pravity enough  to  ask  for  more  soup.  "When  our  free  soup- 
kitchens  were  opened,"  said  Mr.  Sterling,  "we  offered  two  good 
meals  a  day  and  free  lodging  to  all  who  would  work  three  hours  a 
day  on  the  streets."  In  my  boyhood  I  knew  a  church,  where  the 
rear  pews  were  ostentatiously  placarded  as  ' '  Free  Seats, "  to  which 
the  poor  could  get  admission  by  the  payment  of  a  penny.  So,  Mr. 
Sterling  gives  "  free  "  soup  to  the  poor  who  pay  for  it  with  work, 
at  the  rate  of  an  hour's  work  for  a  meal.  He  is  astonished  that 
the  terms  are  not  gratefully  accepted  by  the  "unemployed,"  but 
are  looked  upon  by  them  as  a  hard  bargain,  in  which  there  is 
neither  charity  nor  justice.  They  say  that  the  two  meals  and  the 
lodging  do  not  cost  the  Association  more  than  fifteen  cents,  while 
the  work  demanded  for  the  charity  is  worth  at  least  thirty  cents 
if  it  is  worth  anything. 

For  several  months  the  country  has  been  in  a  state  of  panic, 
and  industry  has  oeen  depressed.  Business  is  dull,  money  scarce, 
and  many  mechanics,  clerks  and  laborers  out  of  work  are  depend- 
ent upon  charity.  We  have  been  told  that  this  unhapppy  con- 
dition was  due  to  a  paralysis  of  enterprise  resulting  from  a  fear 
that  the  duties  on  imports  would  be  lowered,  and  that  uncertainty 
as  to  the  fate  of  the  tariff  was  the  cause  of  the  distress.  The 
excuse  is  gone,  for  the  uncertainty  is  now  at  an  end.  Even  if  the 
Wilson  bill  should  pass,  the  "tariff  reform"  contained  in  it  is  so 
conservative  and  mild  that  the  protected  interests  themselves 
must  laugh  at  their  own  affectation  of  alarm.  To  be  sure,  the 
explosions  of  oratory  directed  against  the  "  robber  tariff  "  in  the 
campaign  of  1892  were  very  loud,  but  much  of  the  cannonading 
was  merely  "sound  and  fury  signifying  nothing."  Some  of  the 
cannoneers  themselves  were  careful  to  assure  the  listening  crowds 
that  they  were  firing  blank  cartridges.  They  resembled  the  soda- 
water  merchant  at  the  Fair  one  thirsty  day  when  the  demand  for 
his  liquor  was  so  great  that  the  noise  made  by  the  liberated  corks 
was  like  the  firing  of  guns.  "Don't  be  a  frightened,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,"  said  he,   "its  only  effervescense." 

M.  M.  Trumbijll. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 


GENERAL  TRUMBULL'S  REPLY  TO  PROFESSOR  VON 
HOLST. 

lo  llu-  Editor  of  The  Open  Court: 

I  am  glad  to  learn  that  Professor  von  Hoist  is  not  the  auihor 
of  the  article  in  the  /•'orinii  for  November,  entitled  "The  Senate 
in  the  Light  of  History";  and  I  think  that  he  is  under  some  obli- 
gations to  me  for  giving  him  an  opportunity  to  deny  the  paternity 
of  the  nameless  contribution.  The  magazine  did  not  positively 
"assert"  that  Professor  von  Hoist  was  the  author  of  it,  but  it  led 
its  readers  to  believe  so.  Not  only  does  Professor  von  Hoist  afiSrm 
that  he  is  not  the  author,  but  he  adds  :   "  Nor  does  the  Forum  say 


that  I  am."  It  is  true  that  a  very  close  and  microscopic  examina- 
tion of  the  Forum  supports  that  statement,  but  the  Professor  must 
admit  that  the  place  of  the  article  in  the  l-'onun  and  the  position 
of  its  title  on  the  outside  of  the  cover,  right  under  the  name  of 
Professor  von  Hoist,  and  without  any  other  name  to  indicate  its 
authorship,  justify  the  reader  in  supposing  that  it  was  written  by 
Professor  von  Hoist.  It  follows  in  orderly  sequence  the  article 
entitled,  "Shall  the  Senate  Rule  the  Republic, "  and  it  seems  to  be 
a  second  chapter  of  the  main  article,  ' '  The  Decline  of  the  Senate. " 
It  appears  as  a  continuation  of  Professor  von  Hoist's  contribution, 
for  the  personal  pronouns  are  in  their  proper  places,  and  to  the 
ordinary  reader  there  is  no  other  personality  visible. 

The  mischief  was  innocently  done  while  the  editor  and  the 
sub-editor  were  off  duty,  but  the  inevitable  consequence  of  it  was 
that  Professor  von  Hoist  appeared  in  a  false  position.  The  read- 
ers, too,  are  misled,  for  I  have  talked  with  many  persons  about 
the  article,  and  not  one  of  them  has  had  any  suspicion  that  Pro- 
fessor von  Hoist  was  not  the  writer  of  it, 

Professor  von  Hoist  says  that  the  title  to  his  article  was 
"manufactured  in  the  Forum  office,"  in  the  absence  of  the  editor 
and  the  sub  editor  ;  and  that  the  heading  he  had  chosen  for  his 
essay  was  cancelled  in  that  office  for  reasons  unknown  to  him.  I 
sympathise  with  him  in  his  misfortune,  but  it  only  shows  what  a 
supernumerary  can  do  when  suddenly  made  stage-manager  and 
let  loose  among  the  properties.  Professor  von  Hoist  is  lucky  to 
escape  as  well  as  he  did,  and  he  may  be  thankful  that  the  tempo- 
rary stage-manager  did  not  "cut  the  lines"  and  interpolate  a  few 
"gags"  of  his  own. 

I  cheerfully  withdraw  the  remarks  I  made  about  "  The  Sen- 
ate in  the  Light  of  History  "  so  far  as  those  remarks  apply  to  Pro- 
fessor von  Hoist,  but  I  must  let  them  stand  against  the  article  itself, 
and  its  invisible  author.  It  now  devolves  upon  him  to  reveal  him- 
.self  and  the  "six  men  of  most  excellent  judgment,"  who  classified 
the  Senate  and  ticketed  the  Senators.  M.  M.  Trumbull. 


THE    OPEN   COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN   STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION; 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 


CONTENTS  OF  NO.  332. 

AN  APOSTLE  OF  SCIENCE      Dr.  Felix  L.  Oswald  .  .   3927 

MENE  TEKEL.     Editor 3930 

POETRY. 

A  Hymn  of  Hope.     J.  S.  Clarke 3932 

CURRENT  TOPICS  :  A  Buddhist  Opinion  of  Christianity. 

Is  Christianity  a  Failure  ?  America  a  Missionary  Ground. 

Millions  for  Charity.     Not  a  Cent  for  Tramps.     Gen. 

M.  M.  Trumbull 3933 

CORRESPONDENCE 

.General  Trumbull's  Reply  to  Professor  von  Hoist.      M. 

M.  Trumbull     5934 

NOTES 3934 


^30 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "HTEEKLY  JOUENAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  333.       (Vol.  VIII.— 2. 


CHICAGO,  JANUARY  11,   1894. 


1  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publishe 


THE  FORMS  OF  LIQUIDS. 


A  POPULAR  SCIENTIFIC  LECTURE,* 


BY  PROF.  ERNST  MACH. 

Wh,\t  think  you,  dear  Euthyphron,  that  the  holy 
is,  and  the  just,  and  the  good?  Is  the  holy  holy  be- 
cause the  gods  love  it,  or  are  the  gods  holy  because 
they  love  the  holy?  By  such  easy  questions  did  the 
wise  Socrates  make  the  market-place  of  Athens  unsafe 
and  relieve  presumptuous  young  statesmen  of  the  bur- 
dens of  imaginary  knowledge,  by  showing  them  how 
confused,  unclear,  and  self-contradictory  their  ideas 
were. 

You  know  the  fate  of  the  importunate  questioner. 
So  called  good  society  avoided  him  on  the  promenade. 
Only  the  ignorant  accompanied  him.  And  finally  he 
drank  the  cup  of  hemlock,  which  to-day  even  we  often 
wish  might  be  the  lot  of  many  a  critic  of  his  stamp. 

What  we  have  learned  from  Socrates,  however, — 
our  inheritance  from  him,  —  is  scientific  criticism. 
Every  one  who  busies  himself  with  science  recognises 
how  unsettled  and  indefinite  the  notions  are  which  he 
has  brought  with  him  from  common  life,  and  how,  on 
a  minute  examination  of  things,  old  differences  are 
effaced  and  new  ones  introduced.  The  history  of  sci- 
ence is  full  of  examples  of  this  constant  change,  de- 
velopment, and  clarification  of  ideas. 

But  we  will  not  linger  at  this  general  consideration 
of  the  fluctuating  character  of  ideas,  which  becomes  a 
source  of  real  uncomfortableness,  wlien  we  reflect  that 
it  applies  to  almost  every  notion  of  life.  Rather  shall 
we  observe  by  the  study  of  a  ph3'sical  example  how 
much  a  thing  changes  when  it  is  closely  examined,  and 
how  it  assumes,  when  thus  considered,  increasing  defi- 
niteness  of  form. 

The  majority  of  you  think,  perhaps,  you  know 
quite  well  the  distinction  between  a  liquid  and  a  solid. 
And  precisely  persons  who  have  never  busied  them- 
selves with  physics  will  consider  this  question  one  of 
the  easiest  that  can  be  put.  But  the  physicist  knows 
that  it  is  one  of  the  most  difficult.  I  shall  mention 
here  only  the  experiments  of  Tresca,  which  show  that 
solids  subjected  to  high  pressures  behave  exactly  as 

*  Delivered  before  the  German  Casino  of  Prague,  in  the  winter  of  186S. 
Translated  from  the  German  by  fiKpK. 


liquids  do ;  for  example,  may  be  made  to  flow  out  in 
the  form  of  jets  from  orifices  in  the  bottoms  of  vessels. 
The  supposed  difference  of  kind  between  liquids  and 
solids  is  thus  plainly  exhibited  as  a  simple  difference 
of  degree. 

The  common  inference  that  because  the  earth  is 
oblate  in  form,  it  was  originally  fluid,  is  an  error,  in 
the  light  of  these  facts.  A  rotating  sphere,  a  few  inches 
in  diameter,  of  course,  will  assume  an  oblate  form  only 
if  it  is  very  soft,  for  example,  is  composed  of  freshly 
kneaded  clay  or  some  viscous  stuff.  But  the  earth, 
even  if  it  consisted  of  the  rigidest  stone,  could  not 
help  being  crushed  by  its  tremendous  weight,  and  must 
perforce  behave  as  a  fluid.  Even  our  mountains  could 
not  extend  beyond  a  certain  height  without  crumbling. 
The  earth  may  once  have  been  fluid,  but  this  by  no 
means  follows  from  its  oblateness. 

The  particles  of  a  liquid  are  displaced  on  the  ap- 
plication of  the  slightest  pressure  ;  a  liquid  conforms 
exactly  to  the  shapes  of  the  vessels  in  which  it  is  con- 
tained ;  it  possesses  no  form  of  its  own,  as  you  have 
all  learned  in  the  schools.  Accommodating  itself  in 
the  most  trifling  respects  to  the  conditions  of  the  vessel 
in  which  it  is  placed,  and  showing,  even  on  its  surface, 
where  one  would  suppose  it  had  the  freest  play,  nothing 
but  a  polished,  smiling,  expressionless  countenance, 
it  is  the  courtier /rt,i-  excellence  of  the  natural  bodies. 

Liquids  have  no  form  of  their  own  !  No,  not  for  the 
superficial  observer.  But  persons  who  have  observed 
that  a  raindrop  is  round  and  never  angular,  will  not  be 
disposed  to  accept  this  dogma  so  unconditionally. 

It  is  fair  to  suppose  that  every  man,  even  the  weak- 
est, would  possess  a  character,  if  it  were  not  too  diffi- 
cult in  this  world  to  keep  it.  So,  too,  we  must  sup- 
pose that  liquids  would  possess  forms  of  their  own,  if 
the  pressure  of  circumstances  permitted  it, — if  they 
were  not  crushed  by  their  own  weights. 

An  astronomer  once  calculated  that  human  beings 
could  not  exist  on  the  sun,  apart  from  its  great  heat, 
because  they  would  be  crushed  to  pieces  there  by  their 
own  weight.  The  greater  mass  of  this  body  would 
also  make  the  weight  of  the  human  body  there  much 
greater.  But  on  the  moon,  because  there  we  should 
be' much  lighter,  we  could  jump  as  high  as  the  church- 
steeples  without  any  difficulty,  with  the  same  muscular 


3936 


XHB     OPKN     COURT. 


power  which  we  now  possess.*  Statues  and  "plaster  " 
casts  of  syrup  are  undoubtedly  things  of  fancy,  even 
on  the  moon,  but  maple-syrup  would  flow  so  slowly 
there  that  we  could  easily  build  a  maple-syrup  man  on 
the  moon,  for  the  fun  of  the  thing,  just  as  our  children 
here  build  snow-men. 

Accordingly,  if  liquids  have  no  form  of  their  own 
with  us  on  earth,  they  have,  perhaps,  a  form  of  their 
own  on  the  moon,  or  on  some  smaller  and  lighter  heav- 
enly body.  The  problem  simply  is,  then,  to  get  rid  of 
the  effects  of  gravity;  and,  this  done,  we  shall  be  able 
to  find  out  what  the  peculiar  forms  of  liquids  are. 

The  problem  was  solved  by  Plateau  of  Ghent,  whose 
method  was  to  immerse  one  liquid  in  another  of  the 
same  specific  gravity.  He  employed  for  his  experi- 
ments oil  and  a  mixture  of  alcohol  and  water.  By 
Archimedes's  well-known  principle,  the  oil  in  this  mix- 
ture loses  its  entire  weight.  It  no  longer  sinks  be- 
neath its  own  weight ;  its  formative  forces,  be  they 
ever  so  weak,  have  now  full  play. 

As  a  fact,  we  now  see,  to  our  surprise,  that  the  oil, 
instead  of  spreading  out  into  a  layer,  or  lying  in  a 
formless  mass,  assumes  the  shape  of  a  beautiful  and 
perfect  sphere,  freely  suspended  in  the  mixture,  as 
the  moon  is  in  space.  We  can  con- 
struct in  this  way  a  sphere  of  oil  sev- 
eral inches  in  diameter. 

If,  now,  we  affix  a  thin  plate  to  a 
wire  and  insert  the  plate  in  the  oil 
sphere,  we  can,  by  twisting  the  wire 
between  our  fingers,  set  the  whole  ball 
in  rotation.  Doing  this,  the  ball  as- 
sumes an  oblate  shape,  and  we  can,  if 
we  are  skilful  enough,  separate  by  such 
rotation  a  ring  from  the  ball,  like  that 
which  surrounds  Saturn.  This  ring  is 
finally  rent  asunder,  and,  breaking  up 
into  a  number  of  smaller  balls,  exhibits 
to  us  a  kind  of  model  of  the  origin  of 
the  planetary  system  according  to  the 
hypothesis  of  Kant  and  Laplace. 

Still  more  curious  are  the  phe 
nomena  exhibited  when  the  formative 
forces  of  the  liquid  are  partly  disturbed 
by  putting  in  contact  with  the  liquid's 
surface  some  rigid  body.  If  we  im- 
merse, for  example,  the  wire  framework  of  a  cube  in  our 
mass  of  oil,  the  oil  will  everywhere  stick  to  the  wire 
framework.  If  the  quantity  of  oil  is  exactly  sufficient 
we  shall  obtain  an  oil  cube  with  perfectly  smooth  walls. 
If  there  is  too  much  or  too  little  oil,  the  walls  of  the 
cube  will  bulge  out  or  cave  in.  In  this  manner  we 
can  produce  all  kinds  of  geometrical  figures  of  oil,  for 


example,  a  three-sided  pyramid,  a  cylinder  (by  bring- 
ing the  oil  between  two  wire  rings),  and  so  on.  In- 
teresting is  the  change  of  form  that  occurs  when  we 
gradually  suck  out  the  oil  by  means  of  a  glass  tube 
from  the  cube  or  pyramid.  The  wire  holds  the  oil , 
fast.  The  figure  grows  smaller  and  smaller,  until  it  is 
at  last  quite  thin.      Ultimately  it  consists  simply  of  a 


number  of  thin,  smooth  plates  of  oil,  which  extend 
from  the  edges  of  the  cube  to  the  centre,  where  they 
meet  in  a  small  drop.   The  same  is  true  of  the  pyramid. 

The  idea  now  suggests  itself  that  liquid  figures  as 
thin  as  this,  and  possessing,  therefore,  so  slight  a 
weight,  cannot  be  crushed  or  deformed  by  their  weight ; 
just  as  a  small,  soft  ball  of  clay  is  not  affected  in  this 
respect  by  its  weight.  This  being  the  case,  we  no 
longer  need  our  mixture  of  alcohol  and  water  for  the 
production  of  figures,  but  can  construct  them  in  free 
space.  And  Plateau,  in  fact,  found  that  these  thin 
figures,  or  at  least  very  similar  ones,  could  be  pro- 
duced in  the  air,  by  dipping  the  wire  nets  described 
in  a  solution  of  soap  and  water  and  quickly  drawing 
them  out  again.  The  experiment  is  not  difficult.  The 
figure  is  formed  of  itself.  The  preceding  drawing 
represents  to  the  eye  the  forms  obtained  with  cubical 
and  pyramidal  nets.  In  the  cube,  thin,  shiooth  films 
of  soap-suds  proceed  from  the  edges  to  a  small,  quad- 
ratic film  in  the  centre.  In  the  pyramid,  a  film  pro- 
ceeds from  each  edge  to  the  centre. 

These  figures  are  so  beautiful  that  they  hardly  ad- 
mit of  a  description  which  does  them  justice.  Their 
great  regularity  and  geometrical  exactness  elicits  sur- 
prise from  all  who  see  them  for  the  first  time.  Un- 
fortunately, they  are  of  only  short  duration.  They 
burst,  on  the  drying  of  the  solution  in  the  air,  but  only 
after  exhibiting  to  us  the  most  brilliant  play  of  colors, 
such  as  is  often  seen  in  soap-bubbles.  Partly  their 
beauty  of  form  and  partly  our  desire  to  examine  them 
more  minutely  induces  us  to  conceive  of  methods  of 
endowing  them  with  permanent  form.  This  is  very 
simply  done.*    Instead  of  dipping  the  wire  nets  in  so- 


*  See,  for  some  interesting  developments  of  this  fact,  Prof;  J.  Delbceuf's 
article  on  physical  and  geometric  space  in  The  Monist  for  January,  1894. 


*  Compare  Mach,  Ueber  die  Molecular 
of  the  Vienna  Academy,  1863. 


rkun^  dcr  Fltissigkeiten,  Repor 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3937 


lutions  of  soap,  we  dip  them  in  pure  melted  colopho- 
nium.  When  drawn  out  the  figure  at  once  forms  and 
solidifies  by  contact  with  the  air. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  also  solid  fluid-figures  can 
be  constructed  in  the  open  air,  if  their  weight  be  light 
enough,  or  the  wire  nets  of  very  small  proportions.  If 
we  make,  for  example,  of  very  fine  wire  a  cubical  net 
whose  sides  measure  about  one-eighth  of  an  inch  in 
length,  we  need  simply  to  dip  this  net  in  water  to  ob- 
tain a  small  solid  cube  of  water.  With  a  piece  of  blot- 
ting paper  the  superfluous  water  can  be  easily  removed 
and  the  sides  of  the  cube  made  smooth. 

Yet  another  simple  method  may  be  devised  for  ob- 
serving these  figures.  A  drop  of  water  on  a  greased 
glass  plate  will  not  run  if  it  is  small  enough,  but  will 
be  flattened  by  its  weight,  which  presses  it  against 
its  support.  The  smaller  the  drop  the  less  the  flatten- 
ing. The  smaller  the  drop  the  nearer  it  approaches' 
in  form  to  a  sphere.  On  the  other  hand,  a  drop  sus- 
pended from  a  stick  is  elongated  by  its  weight.  The 
undermost  parts  of  a  drop  of  water  on  a  support  are 
pressed  against  the  support,  and  the  upper  parts  are 
pressed  against  the  lower  parts  because  the  latter  can- 
not yield.  But  when  a  drop  falls  freely  downward 
all  its  parts  move  equally  fast ;  no  part  is  impeded  by 
another  ;  no  part  presses  against  another.  A  freely 
falling  drop,  accordingly,  is  not  affected  by  its  weight ; 
it  acts  as  if  it  were  weightless ;  it  assumes  a  spherical 
form. 

A  moment's  glance  at  the  soap-film  figures  pro- 
duced by  our  various  wire  models,  reveals  to  us  a  great 
multiplicity  of  form.  But  great  as  this  multiplicity  is, 
the  common  features  of  the  figures  also  are  easily  dis- 
cernible. 

"  All  forms  of  Nature  are  allied,  though  none  is  the  same  as  the  other  ; 
Thus,  their  common  chorus  points  to  a  hidden  law." 

This  hidden  law  Plateau  discovered.  It  may  be 
expressed,  somewhat  prosily,  as  follows  : 

i)  If  several  plane  liquid  films  meet  in  a  figure 
they  are  always  three  in  number,  and,  taken  in  pairs, 
form,  each  with  another,  nearly  equal  angles. 

2)  If  several  liquid  edges  meet  in  a  figure  they  are 
always  four  in  number,  and,  taken  in  pairs,  form,  each 
with  another,  nearly  equal  angles. 

This  is  a  strange  law,  and  its  reason  is  not  evident. 
But  we  might  apply  this  criticism  to  almost  all  laws. 
It  is  not  always  that  the  motives  of  a  law-maker  are 
discernible  in  the  form  of  the  law  he  constructs.     But 

law  admits  of  analysis  into  very  simple  elements 
or  reasons.  If  we  closely  examine  the  paragraphs 
which  state  it,  we  shall  find  that  their  meaning  is  simply 
this,  that  the  surface  of  the  liquid  assumes  the  shape 
of  smallest  area  that  under  the  circumstances  it  possi- 
bly can  assume. 


If,  therefore,  some  extraordinarily  intelligent  tailor, 
possessing  a  knowledge  of  all  the  artifices  of  the  higher 
mathematics,  should  set  himself  the  task  of  so  cover- 
ing the  wire  frame  of  a  cube  with  cloth  that  every  piece 
of  cloth  should  be  connected  with  the  wire  and  joined 
with  the  remaining  cloth,  and  should  seek  to  accom- 
plish this  feat  with  the  greatest  saving  of  material,  he 
would  construct  no  other  figure  than  that  which  is  here 
formed  on  the  wire  frame  in  our  solution  of  soap  and 
water.  Nature  acts  in  the  construction  of  liquid  figures 
on  the  principle  of  a  covetous  tailor,  and  gives  no 
thought  in  her  work  to  the  fashions.  But,  strange  to 
say,  in  this  work,  the  most  beautiful  fashions  are 
formed. 

The  two  paragraphs  which  state  our  law  apply  pri- 
marily only  to  soap-film  figures,  and  are  not  applicable, 
of  course,  to  solid  oil-figures.  But  the  principle  that 
the  superficial  area  of  the  liquid  shall  be  the  least 
possible  under  the  circumstances,  is  applicable  to  all 
fluid  figures.  He  who  understands  not  only  the  letter 
but  also  the  reason  of  the  law  will  not  be  at  a  loss 
when  confronted  with  cases  to  which  the  letter  does 
not  accurately  apply.  And  this  is  the  case  with  the 
principle  of  least  superficial  area.  It  is  a  sure  guide 
for  us  even  in  cases  in  which  the  above-stated  para- 
graphs are  not  applicable. 

Our  first  task  will  now  be,  to  show  by  a  palpable 
illustration  the  mode  of  formation  of  liquid  figures  by 
the  principle  of  least  superficial  area.  The  oil  on  the 
wire  pyramid  in  our  mixture  of  alcohol  and  water,  be- 
ing unable  to  leave  the  wire  edges,  clings  to  them,  and 
the  given  mass  of  oil  strives  so  to 
shape  itself  that  its  surface  shall  have 
the  least  possible  area.  Suppose  we 
attempt  to  imitate  this  phenomenon. 
We  take  a  wire  pyramid,  draw  over 
it  a  stout  film  of  rubber,  and  in  place 
of  the  wire  handle  insert  a  small 
tube  which  leads  into  the  interior  of 
the  space  enclosed  by  the  rubber. 
Through  this  tube  we  can  blow  in 
or  suck  out  air.  The  quantity  of 
air  in  the  enclosure  represents  the 
quantity  of  oil.  The  stretched  rubber  film,  which, 
clinging  to  the  wire  edges,  does  its  utmost  to  con- 
tract, represents  the  surface  of  the  oil  endeavoring 
to  decrease  its  area.  By  blowing  in  and  drawmg  out 
the  air,  now,  we  actually  obtain  all  the  oil  pyramidal 
figures,  from  those  bulged  out  to  those  hollowed  in. 
Finally,  when  all  the  air  is  pumped  or  sucked  out,  the 
soap-film  figure  is  exhibited.  The  rubber  films  strike 
together,  assume  the  form  of  planes,  and  meet  at  four 
sharp  edges  in  the  centre  of  the  pyramid. 

The  tendency  of  soap-films  to  assume  smaller  forms 
may  be  directly  demonstrated  by  a  method  of  Van  der 


3938 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


Mensbrugghe.  If  we  dip  a  square  wire  frame  to  which 
a  handle  is  attached  into  a  solution  of  soap  and  water, 
we  shall  obtain  on  the  frame  a  beautiful,  plane  film  of 
soap-suds.  On  this  we  lay  a  thread  whose  two  ends 
have  been  tied  together.  If,  now,  we  puncture  the 
part  enclosed  by  the  thread,  we  shall  obtain  a  soap  film 
having  a  circular  hole  in  it,  whose  circumference  is 
the  thread.     The  remainder  of  the  film  decreasing  in 


area  as  much  as  it  can,  the  hole  assumes  the  largest 
area  that  it  can.  But  the  figure  of  largest  area,  with 
a  given  periphery,  is  the  circle. 

Similarly,  according  to  the  principle  of  least  super- 
ficial area,  a  freely  suspended  mass  of  oil  assumes  the 
shape  of  a  sphere.  The  sphere  is  the  form  of  least 
surface  for  a  given  content.  This  is  evident.  The 
more  we  put  into  a  travelling-bag,  the  nearer  its  shape 
approaches  the  spherical  form. 

The  connexion  of  the  two  above-mentioned  para- 
graphs with  the  principle  of  least  superficial  area  may 


be  shown  by  a  yet  simpler  example.  Picture  to  your- 
selves four  fixed  pulleys,  a,  b,  c,  d,  and  two  movable 
rings  y,  g  (Fig  5);  about  the  pulleys  and  through  the 
rings  imagine  a  smooth  cord  passed,  fastened  at  one 
extremity  to  a  nail  <?,  and  loaded  at  the  other  with  a 
weight  //.  Now  this  weight  always  tends  to  sink,  or, 
what  is  the  same  thing,  always  tends  to  make  the  por- 
tion of  the  string  e  li  as  long  as  possible,  and  conse- 
quently the  remainder  of  the  string,  wound  round  the 
pulleys,  as  short  as  possible.  The  strings  must  remain 
connected  with  the  pulleys,  and  on  account  of  the  rings 
also  with  each  other.  The  conditions  of  the  case,  ac- 
cordingly, are  similar  to  those  of  the  liquid  figures  dis- 
cussed.     The  result  also  is  a  similar  one.      When,  as 


in  the  right  hand  figure  of  the  cut,  four  pairs  of  strings 
meet,  a  different  configuration  must  be  established. 
The  consequence  of  the  endeavor  of  the  string  to 
shorten  itself  is  that  the  rings  separate  from  each  other, 
and  that  now  at  all  points  only  three  pairs  of  strings 
meet,  every  two  at  equal  angles  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  degrees.  As  a  fact,  by  this  arrangement  the 
greatest  possible  shortening  of  the  string  is  attained  ; 
as  can  be  easily  demonstrated  by  geometry. 

This  will  help  us  to  some  extent  to  understand  the 
creation  of  beautiful  and  complicated  figures  by  the 
simple  tendency  of  liquids  to  assume  surfaces  of  least 
superficial  area.  But  the  question  arises,  Wliy  do 
liquids  seek  surfaces  of  least  superficial  area? 

The  particles  of  a  liquid  cling  together.  Drops 
brought  into  contact  coalesce.  We  can  say,  liquid 
particles  attract  each  other.  If  so,  they  seek  to  come 
as  close  as  they  can  to  each  other.  The  particles  at 
the  surface  will  endeavor  to  penetrate  as  far  as  they 
can  into  the  interior.  This  process  will  not  stop,  can- 
not stop,  until  the  surface  has  become  as  small  as  un- 
der the  circumstances  it  possibly  can  become,  until  as 
few  particles  as  possible  remain  at  the  surfacey  until 
as  many  particles  as  possible  have  penetrated  into  the 
interior,  imtil  the  forces  of  attraction  have  no  more 
work  to  perform.* 

The  root  of  the  principle  of  least  surface  is  to  be 
sought,  accordingly,  in  another  and  much  simpler 
principle,  which  may  be  illustrated  by  some  such  an- 
alogy as  this.  We  can  conceive  of  the  natural  forces  of 
attraction  and  repulsion  as  purposes  or  intentions  of 
nature.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  that  interior  pressure 
which  we  feel  before  an  act  and  which  we  call  an  in- 
tention or  purpose,  is  not,  in  a  final  analysis,  so  essen- 
tially different  from  the  pressure  of  a  stone  on  its  sup- 
port, or  the  pressure  of  a  magnet  on  another,  that  it  is 
necessarily  unallowable  to  use  for  both  the  same  term 
— at  least  for  well-defined  purposes,  f  It  is  the  pur- 
pose of  nature,  accordingly,  to  bring  the  iron  nearer 
the  magnet,  the  stone  nearer  the  centre  of  the  earth, 
and  so  forth.  If  such  a  purpose  can  be  realised,  it  is 
carried  out.  But  where  she  cannot  realise  her  pur- 
poses, nature  does  nothing.  In  this  respect  she  acts 
exactly  as  a  good  man  of  business  does. 

It  is  a  constant  purpose  of  nature  to  bring  weights 
lower.  We  can  raise  a  weight  by  causing  another, 
larger  weight  to  sink  ;  that  is,  by  satisfying  another, 
more  powerful,  purpose  of  nature.  If  we  fancy  we 
are  making  nature  serve  our  purposes  in  this,  it  will 
be  found,  upon  closer  examination,  that  the  contrary 
is  true,  and  that  nature  has  employed  us  to  attain  her 
purposes. 

*  In  almost  all  branches  of  physics  that  are  well  worked  out  sucli  maximal 
and  minimal  problems  play  an  important  part. 

t  Compare  Mach,  VortrSge  iiber  Psychofihysik,  Vienna,  1863,  page  41 ;  also, 
Compendium  der  Physik  /Hr  Mediciner,  Vienna,  1863,  page  234. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3939 


Equilibrium,  rest,  exists  only,  but  then  always,  when 
nature  is  brought  to  a  halt  in  her  purposes,  when  the 
forces  of  nature  are  as  fully  satisfied  as,  under  the 
circumstances,  they  can  be.  Thus,  for  example,  heavy 
bodies  are  in  equilibrium,  when  their  so-called  centre 
of  gravity  lies  as  low  as  it  possibly  can,  or  when  as 
much  weight  as  the  circumstances  admit  of  has  sunk 
as  low  as  it  possibly  can. 

The  idea  forcibly  suggests  itself  that  perhaps  this 
principle  may  also  find  application  outside  the  realm 
of  so-called  inanimate  nature.  Equilibrium  exists  also 
in  the  state  when  the  purposes  of  the  parties  are  as 
fully  satisfied  as  for  the  time  being  they  can  be,  or,  as 
we  may  say,  jestingly,  in  the  language  of  physics,  when 
the  social  potential  is  a  maximum.* 

You  see,  our  miserly  mercantile  principle  is  replete 
with  consequences.  The  result  of  sober  research,  it 
has  become  as  fruitful  for  physics  as  the  dry  questions 
of  Socrates  for  science  generally.  If  the  principle 
seems  to  lack  in  ideality,  the  more  ideal  are  the  fruits 
which  it  bears. 

But  why,  tell  me,  should  science  be  ashamed  of 
such  a  principle?  Is  science f  itself  anything  more 
than — a  business?  Is  not  its  task  to  acquire  with  the 
least  possible  work,  in  the  least  possible  time,  with  the 
least  possible  thought,  the  greatest  possible  part  of 
eternal  truth? 


GOETHE  AND  SCHILLER'S  XENIONS. 

The  appearance  of  the  Xenions  in  the  "  Musen- 
Almanach  "  of  1797  is  a  memorable  event  in  the  litera- 
ture of  Germany  and  in  that  of  the  world.  With  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  new  era  had  com- 
menced. New  ideals,  philosophical,  religious,  and 
social,  had  dawned  upon  mankind. 

The  two  great  apostles  of  this  movement  were 
Goethe  and  Schiller ;  yet  great  as  they  were,  they 
found  not  sufficient  support  among  those  who  should 
have  been  their  first  followers  and  disciples.  The  men 
of  literary  callings,  who  should  be  the  priests  of  the 
holiest  interests  of  humanity,  were  too  envious  to  fully 
recognise  and  acknowledge  the  merit  of  these  two  great 
poet-thinkers.  Moreover,  the  men  of  letters  were 
chiefly  enamoured  of  their  own  traditional  methods  of 
literary  production  and  could  not  appreciate  the  purity, 
the  grandeur,  and  the  holiness  of  the  new  taste.  The}' 
misunderstood  the  progress-promising  spirit  of  the 
time,  and  to  their  puny  minds  the  rise  of  the  new  era 
appeared  as  a  mere  disturbance  of  their  traditional 
habits.  They  looked  upon  the  twin-giants  of  the  world 
of  thought  as  usurpers,  who  from  personal  vanity  and 

»  Like  reflexions  are  found  in  Quetelet,  Du  systetne  sociaU. 

t  Science  may  be  regarded  as  a  maximum  or  minimum  problem  exactly 
as  the  business  of  the  merchant.  In  fact,  the  intellectual  activity  of  natural 
inquiry  is  not  so  greatly  different  from  that  exercised  in  ordinary  life  as  is 
usually  supposed. 


ambition  tyrannised  all  others,  and  whose  impositions 
had  either  to  be  resisted,  or  silenced  by  shrugs.  The 
irritation  of  the  literary  dwarfs  showed  itself  in  malevo- 
lent reviews  of  Schiller's  literary  enterprise,  "Die 
Horen." 

Schiller  wrote  to  Goethe  June  15,  1795  : 
' '  I  have  thought  for  some  time  that  it  would  be  well  to  open  a 
critical  arena  in  '  Die  Horen.'  Yet  we  should  not  give  away  our 
rights  by  formally  inviting  the  public  and  the  authors.  The  public 
would  certainly  be  represented  by  the  most  miserable  voices,  and 
the  authors,  as  we  know  from  experience,  would  become  very  im- 
portunate. My  proposition  is  that  we  make  the  attack  ourselves. 
In  case  the  authors  wish  to  defend  themselves  in  'Die  Horen,' 
they  must  submit  to  our  conditions.  And  my  advice  is,  not  to  be- 
gin with  propositions,  but  to  begin  with  deeds.  There  is  no  harm 
if  we  are  denounced  as  ill-bred." 

Several  letters  were  exchanged  on  this  subject,  and 
Goethe  wrote  in  a  letter  of  December  23,  1795,  to 
Schiller  : 

"We  must  cultivate  the  idea  of  making  epigrams  upon  all 
journals  ;  one  distich  for  each  magazine,  in  the  manner  of  Martial's 
Xenia ;  and  we  must  publish  a  collection  of  them  in  the  '  Musen- 
Almanach'  of  next  year.  Enclosed  are  some  Xenions  as  a  speci- 
men." 

Schiller  answered  at  once,  December  23,  1795  : 
' '  The  idea  of  the  Xenions  is  splendid  and  must  be  executed.  .  . 
What  a  wealth  of  material  is  offered  by  the  Stolbergs,  by  Racknitz, 
Ramdohr,  the  metaphysical  world  with  its  Mes  and  A'ot-Me' s, 
friend  Nicolai,  our  sworn  enemy,  the  Leipsic  taste-mongers,  Thiim- 
mel,  Goschen  as  his  horse-groom,  and  others." 

Goethe  and  Schiller  agreed  to  publish  all  their 
Xenions  together,  and  regard  them  as  common  prop- 
erty. 

It  happened  now  and  then  that  the  authors  of  the 
Xenions  hit  the  wrong  man ;  but  this,  although  we 
may  be  sorry  for  it,  was  more  excusable  than  the  dirt 
which  their  adversaries  threw  back. 

The  Xenions,  as  was  to  be  expected,  raised  a  storm 
of  indignation,  and  Anti-Xenions  were  written  by  many 
who  had  been  attacked.  But  while  the  tenor  of  the 
Xenions,  in  spite  of  their  personal  character,  is  lofty, 
and  while  we  feel  the  high  aims  of  Goethe  and  Schiller 
in  their  attempts  at  a  purification  of  literature,  the 
Anti-Xenions  are  7£///(?//)' personal.  They  are  rude,  ma- 
licious, and  mean.  They  insinuate  thatithe  Xenions 
were  prompted  by  vile  motives  ;  that  Goethe  and  Schil- 
ler wanted  more  praise  and  flattery ;  that  they  were 
envious  of  the  laurels  of  others,  and  wanted  to  be  the 
sole  usurpers  of  Mount  Parnassus.  Schiller  was  called 
Kant' s  ape,  and  Goethe  was  reproached  with  his  family 
relations. 

The  history  of  the  Xenions  is  their  justification. 
The  Anti-Xenions  are  in  themselves  alone  a  wholesale 
condemnation  of  -the  opposition  made  to  Goethe  and 
Schiller. 

Goethe  wrote  to  Schiller  concerning  the  reception 
whjch  the  Xenions  found,  on  December  5,  1796  : 


3940 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


"  It  is  real  fun  to  observe  what  has  been  offensive  to  this  kind  of 
people,  and  also  what,  they  think,  has  been  offensive  to  us  How 
trivial,  empty,  and  mean  they  consider  the  life  of  others,  and  how 
they  direct  their  arrows  against  the  outside  of  a  work.  How  little 
do  they  know  that  a  man  who  takes  matters  seriously  lives  in  an 
impregnable  castle." 

Goethe  and  Schiller  had  wielded  a  vigorous  and  a 
two-edged  weapon  in  the  Xenions.  They  had  severely 
chastised  their  antagonists  for  incompetency  ;  but  now 
it  devolved  upon  themselves  to  prove  the  right  of  their 
censorship.  And  they  were  conscious  of  this  duty. 
Goethe  wrote,  November  15,  1796: 

"After  the  bold  venture  of  the  Xenions,  we  must  confine  our 
labors  strictly  to  great  and  worthy  works  of  art.  We  must  shame 
our  adversaries  by  changing  our  Protean  nature  henceforth  into 
noble  and  good  forms." 

Deeds  proved  that  Goethe,  as  well  as  Schiller,  were 
not  only  willing,  but  also  able,  to  fulfil  these  intentions. 
Their  antagonists  have  disappeared.  Some  of  them 
would  be  entirely  forgotten,  if  the  two  poets  had  not 
immortalised  them  in  the  Xenia. 

Many  Xenions  are  of  mere  transitory  importance, 
especially  such  as  contain  allusions  and  criticisms  that 
are  lost  to  those  who  are  not  thoroughly  versed  in  the 
history  of  the  times.  Yet,  many  others  are  gems  of 
permanent  value  ;  they  reflect  in  a  few  words  flashes 
of  the  deepest  wisdom. 

Only  a  few  of  the  Xenions  have  been  translated  into 
English,  and  as  they  are  little  known,  we  have  extracted 
and  translated  those  which  we  deem  worthy  of  being 
preserved  for  all  time.* 


INTRODUCTORY. 

OUR  PURPOSE. 

These  brisk  verses,  revering  the   good,  will  annoy  the  Philistines, 
Ridicule  bigots,  and  smite     hypocrites,  as  they  deserve. 

THE  LAST  MARTYR. 

That  you  may  roast  me  like  Huss,  is  possible  ;  but  it  is  certain, 
After  me  cometh  the  swan     who  will  my  mission  complete. 
[It  will  be  remembered  that  Huss,  whose  name  means  "goose," 
said  when  condemned  to  die  at  the  stake,  "After  me  will   come  a 
swan  whom  they  will  not  roast."] 

OUR  COMMON  FATE. 
Oh,  how  we  struggle  and  hate  !     Inclinations,  opinions,  divide  us. 
Yet  in  the  meantime  your  locks     turn  into  silver  like  mine. 

TO  INCOMPETENT  REVIEWERS. 

Difficult  'tis  to  achieve;  criticism  is  easy,  O  critics  ! 

Shrink  not,  when  finding  a  flaw,    freely  from  praising  the  good. 

TO  SOME  CRITICS. 
Wretches !    Speak  evil  of  me,  but  oblige  me  by  truthfully  adding  : 
Serious  is  he  !     For  the  rest —     wretches  speak  evil  of  me. 

*  The  schedule  of  the  distich  is  as  follows : 


PARTISAN  SPIRIT. 
Where  there  are  parties,  the  people  are  siding  with  zeal  on  each 

issue. 
Years  must  elapse  before  both     join  in  a  middle  their  bands. 

THE  POET  ADDRESSES  HIS  MUSE. 
How  I  could  live  without  thee.  I  know  not.     But  horror  o'ertakes 

me 
Seeing  these  thousands  and  more     who  without  thee  can  exist. 

THE  DISTICH. 

In  the  hexameter  rises  the  jet  of  a  wonderful  fountain. 
Which  then  graciously  back     in  the  pentameter  falls. 


SOUL  AND  WORLD. 

OUR  OWN. 

Common  possessions  are  thoughts,  and  sentiment  only  is  private. 
Shall   He  your  property  be,       feel   Him — the   God  whom  you 

think. 
THE  KEY. 
Wilt  thou  know  thyself,  observe  how  the  others  are  acting. 
If  thou  the  others  wilt  know,      look  in  the  heart  of  thyself. 

WORTH   AND  VALUE. 

Have  you  something  ?    O  give  it  to  me,  and  I'll  pay  you  its  value. 
Are  you   something,  my  friend  ?      Let   us  exchange,  then,   our 

souls ! 
MYSTICS. 
That  is  the  very  mysterious  secret  that  openly  lieth, 

Always  surrounding  your  minds,      but  from  your  sight  'tis  con- 
cealed. 
THE  HIGHEST. 
Do  you  desire  the  highest  and  greatest  ?  A  plant  can  instruct  you. 
What  it  unconsciously  is,     will  it !    'Tis  all  you  can  do. 

VARIOUS  DESTINIES. 
Millions  of  people  are  busy,  the  race  of  mankind  propagating. 
But  in  the  minds  of  a  few,     only,  humanity  grows. 

THE  VINCULUM. 
How  has  Nature  in  man  united  the  high  and  the  vulgar  ? 
Vanity  she  has  placed     right  in  the  middle  of  them. 

PRESENT  GENERATION. 

Has  it  been  always  as  now  ?  How  strange  this  to-day's  generation  ! 

Only  the  old  ones  are  young,     only  the  young  ones  are  old. 

ZEUS  TO  HERACLES. 
Thou  hast  divinity,  son,  not  acquired  by  drinking  my  nectar ; 
But  thy  divinity  t'was,     which  gained  the  nectar  for  thee. 

THE   IMMUTAISLE. 

Time,  unimpeded,  is  hastening  on.     It  seeketh  the  Constant. 
He  who  is  faithful  will  bind     time  with  eternity's  ties. 

GOD,   WORLD,   AND   MAN. 
'Tis  not  a  mystery  great,   what  God,  what  the  world,  and  what 

man  is ! 
But  as  none  fancy  the  truth,     always  the  secret  remains. 


—  wu-uw—    II    — wu  — uw  — 
For  further  reference  we  refer  the  reader  to  a  previous  article  of 
published  in  No.  iz  of  The  Open  Court  (Goethe  and  Schiller' s  Xenions) . 


IMMORTALITY. 
Art  thou  afraid  of  death  ?   Thou  wishest  for  life  everlasting. 
Live  as  a  part  of  the  whole,     when  thou  art  gone  it  remains. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


3941 


HARMONY. 
Reason,   what   is  it  ?    The  voice  of  the   whole  ;   thy  heart  is  thy 

selfhood. 
Happy  thou  art,  if  for  aye     reason  will  dwell  in  thy  heart. 

HUMAN  LIFE. 
When  we  are  starting  in  life,  an  eternity  opens  before  us. 
Yet  will  even  the  wise     narrowly  limited  end. 

TEMPTATION. 
Ev'ry  fanatic  be  nailed  to  the  cross  when  he  reaches  the  thirties, 
For  if  he  knows  but  the  world,     surely  the  dupe  will  turn  rogue. 

SALVATION. 
Out  of  life  there  are  two  roads  for  every  one  open  : 

To  the  Ideal  the  one,     th'  other  will  lead  unto  death. 
Try  to  escape  in  freedom,  as  long  as  you  live,  on  the  former. 

Ere  on  the  latter  you  are     doomed  to  destruction  and  death. 

LIGHT  AND  COLOR. 
Live,  thou  Eternally-One,  in  the  realm  of  immutable  oneness. 
Color,  in  changes  so  rich,     kindly  descend  upon  earth  ! 

OUR  FATHER. 
Though  you  aspire  and  work,  you  will  never  escape  isolation, 
Till  with  her  might  to  the  All     Nature  has  knitted  your  soul. 
[to  be  continued.] 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 

Another  "  League"  has  been  organised  for  work  in  the  field 
of  American  politics,  and  in  that  field  there  is  always  work  for 
everybody.  Industry  is  forever  active  there,  and  business  is  never 
dull.  This  new  disturber  of  ancient  privileges  is  called  "  The  Anti- 
Spoils  League,"  and  the  President  of  it  is  Gen.  Carl  Schurz.  It 
has  a  "platform,"  a  purpose,  and  all  the  other  machinery  of  a 
"league."  It  calls  for  "the  complete  abolition  of  the  Spoils  Sys- 
tem from  the  public  service, "and,  like  every  other  league,  it  hopes 
for  "a  general  uprising  of  the  people  "  to  enforce  its  demand,  be- 
lieving the  Spoils  System  to  be  "unjust,  undemocratic,  injurious 
to  political  parties,  fruitful  of  corruption,  a  burden  to  legislative 
and  executive  officers,  and  in  every  way  opposed  to  the  principle 
of  good  government."  The  description  is  well  enough  as  a  bit  of 
literary  composition,  but  where  does  the  League  find  authority  for 
calling  the  Spoils  System  "undemocratic"  ?  We  have  a  habit  of 
putting  our  thoughts  into  a  sort  of  ironical  disguise,  and  with  ad- 
mirable impudence  we  condemn  certain  customs  peculiar  to  our 
own  country  as  "un-American,"  and  certain  practices  character- 
istic of  democracies  as  "undemocratic,"  until  those  ill-used  adjec- 
tives have  become  cant  words,  almost  idiomatic  in  American 
speech.  The  Spoils  System,  if  entitled  to  any  political  epithets 
at  all,  is  "  democratic  "  and  "republican."  It  is  extinct  in  Ger- 
many, England,  and  in  the  other  "effete  monarchies,"  but  it  is 
the  obedient  servant  of  both  parties  in  the  United  States,  It  has 
flourished  here  for  seventy  years,  and  it  is  in  a  state  of  healthy 
preservation  still. 

The  debate  on  the  proposed  new  tariff  is  just  begun  in  Con- 
gress, and  I  hope  the  Republicans  will  be  lenient  in  their  censure, 
considering  that  the  majority  report  of  the  Committee  on  Ways 
and  Means  is  a  rather  courteous  apology  for  "tinkering"  the  tariff 
at  all.  I  notice  that  whenever  a  change  is  proposed  in  the  direc- 
tion of  lower  taxes  it  is  described  as  "tinkering,"  but  if  in  the  di- 
rection of  higher  taxes,  it  is  called  "amending"  the  tariff.  A 
temperance  lecturer  detected  in  the  act  of  drinking  whiskey,  ex- 
cused himself  by  saying  that  although  he  was  in  favor  of  prohibit- 
ing the  liquor-traffic,  he  was  not  bigoted.  This  e.xcuse  will  avail 
the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means.     Their  eloquent  "report" 


shows  that  although  they  condemn  the  protective  tariff,  they  are 
not  bigoted.  "In  dealing  with  the  tariff  question,"  says  the  re- 
port, "  the  legislator  must  always  remember  that  in  the  beginning 
temperate  reform  is  safest,  having  in  itself  the  principle  of  growth. " 
The  patient  having  a  serious  case  of  measles,  the  doctors  propose 
a  course  of  "  temperate  reform,"  and  heroically  devote  themselves 
to  the  cure  of  six  measles  a  year,  hoping  that  in  the  course  of  a 
hundred  years  or  so  all  the  measles  will  be  gone.  The  report  of 
the  committee  ought  to  be  satisfactory  to  both  sides,  for  it  blends 
together,  in  a  very  skilful  way,  free-trade  ethics  and  protection 
politics.  Free  trade  gets  the  sentiment,  but  protection  gets  the 
taxes. 

Conservative  and  tender  of  the  tariff  as  it  is,  perhaps,  the 
Wilson  Bill  goes  as  far  on  the  free-trade  road  as  any  bill  could  go 
with  any  prospect  of  success  ;  and  at  all  events  it  will  test  the  wis- 
dom of  a  protective  tariff.  For  instance,  if  the  abolition  of  the 
tariff  on  wool  gives  the  people  more  clothes,  cheaper  clothes,  and 
better  clothes,  it  will  make  more  work  for  weavers  and  tailors, 
and  temper  the  northern  winters  to  the  poor.  In  the  torrid  zone 
there  can  be  no  serious  objection  to  a  tariff  on  wool,  but  in  the 
realms  of  ice  and  snow  it  lowers  the  temperature  on  an  average 
ten  degrees,  and  it  raises  the  death  rate  more  than  twenty  degrees. 
It  is  not  very  high  moral  statesmanship  that  forbids  to  any  por- 
tion of  the  people  the  use  of  wool.  Free  wool  is  opposed,  not  so 
much  on  its  own  account,  as  from  a  fear  that  it  will  make  other 
things  free.     It  is  dangerous  because  it  may  set  a  good  example. 

Why  should  a  man,  because  he  happens  to  be  governor,  usurp 
the  right  of  "spellbinding  "  his  defenceless  people  by  hysterical 
declamation  whenever  he  gets  them  at  his  mercy  ?  This  is  becom- 
ing a  burning  question  because  "Governor's  rhetoric,"  from  the 
Rocky  mountains  to  the  Blue  ridge,  menaces  the  grammar  and  the 
grace  of  our  venerable  mother  tongue.  Mr.  Charles  O'Ferrall  has 
just  been  sworn  in  as  Governor  of  Virginia,  and  his  "inaugural" 
was  inflated  with  Governor's  rhetoric  to  the  size  of  the  monster 
balloon.  In  a  spasm  of  loyalty  to  Virginia,  he  said:  "She  has 
never  swerved  from  the  lighted  way  of  the  Constitution  ;  the  song 
of  the  siren  has  never  tempted  her  ;  the  tongue  of  the  flatterer  has 
never  seduced  her  ;  the  voice  of  the  hyena  has  never  frightened 
her  ;  the  menace  of  tyranny  has  never  terrified  her;  the  howlings 
of  the  wolf  have  never  disturbed  her  ;  the  threats  of  malice  have 
never  alarmed  her.  Firm  and  immovable  she  has  stood  through 
all  the  years  that  have  run  their  cycles,"  and  so  on,  in  Governor's 
rhetoric  to  the  end.  Serene  she  stands,  defying  the  whole  mytho- 
logical and  zoological  menagerie,  sirens,  hyenas,  wolves,  and  all 
the  rest.  Considering  that  the  old  commonwealth  is  of  the  femi- 
nine gender,  it  was  easy  for  her  to  resist  "the  song  of  the  siren," 
but  for  that  reason  it  is  more  to  her  credit  that  the  "  voice  of  the 
hyena  "  has  never  frightened  her,  nor  the  "  howlings  of  the  wolf" 
disturbed  her.  Bravely  she  has  resisted  those  dangers  and  temp- 
tations, but  greater  trials  are  before  her,  and  she  must  yet  prove 
by  greater  heroism  that  she  is  able  to  endure  for  two  years,  and 
perhaps  four,  the  oratorical  gymnastics  of  the  Governor. 
*  *  , 

The  champion  soporific  sermon  for  1893  was  preached  last 
Sunday  evening  by  the  Rev.  C.  E.  Wilkinson  of  Evanston.  Dur- 
ing its  delivery,  Frank  Wilson,  a  member  of  the  congregation,  fell 
asleep,  and  in  spite  of  the  tin-horn  salutation  to  New  Year's  day, 
and  many  other  noises,  he  slept  continuously  for  sixty  hours.  The 
case  is  exciting  some  psychological  and  physiological  curiosity,  but 
up  to  the  present  moment,  the  preacher  has  not  been  arrested,  nor 
has  any  warrant  been  sworn  out  against  him  ;  and  this  reminds  n 
of  Israel  Jacobs  of  Marbletown,  in  1855.  A  queer  combination  o 
names  is  Israel  Jacobs,  but  I  have  to  tell  the  story  truthfully  or 
not  at  all,  and  one  hot' Sunday  he  fell  asleep  and  snored,  lulled 


3942 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


into  oblivion  by  a  monotonous,  drowsy  sermon  preached  by  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Thompson,  D.  D.,  affectionately  remembered  by  the 
old  settlers  of  Marbletown  to  this  day,  as  "tittle  Tommy  Thomp- 
son." Under  that  provision  of  the  Iowa  code  which  punishes  any 
person  who  disturbs  a  worshipping  congregation,  Mr.  Jacobs  was 
carried  before  old  Squire  Vinton,  who  fined  him  one  dollar.  Israel 
paid  the  money,  exclaiming  as  he  did  so,  "Wall,  thar's  the  dollar, 
but  ain't  nothin'  goin'  to  be  done  with  Tommy  Thompson  ? " 

Although  two  men  may  have  equal  chances,  only  one  of  them 
can  "get  there  first,"  and  this  bit  of  luck  may  depend  upon  an  ac- 
cident. Commenting  yesterday  on  the  feat  of  Mr.  Wilkinson,  who 
preached  a  man  into  a  sleep  that  lasted  sixty  hours,  I  was  con- 
ceited enough  to  think  I  had  succeeded  very  well,  but  looking  at 
this  morning's  paper,  I  saw,  to  my  consternation,  an  article  there 
on  the  same  topic,  expressing  my  own  thoughts  in  almost  my  own 
words.  The  editor  of  that  paper  had  "got  there  first,"  and  I  was 
compelled  to  change  the  phraseology  of  my  own  essay,  in  order  to 
escape  the  charge  of  plagiarism.  That  we  should  both  have  used 
the  word  "soporific"  was  natural  enough,  and  it  was  not  surpris- 
ing that  we  should  have  referred  to  Mr.  Wilkinson  as  the  champion 
in  his  line,  but  it  is  astonishing  that  from  sheer  poverty  of  ideas, 
we  borrowed  from  our  election-literature  the  tattered  and  worn 
out  substitutes  for  wit,  which  appear  under  such  phrases  as  the 
"  latest  returns,"  "with  several  counties  yet  to  hear  from,"  and 
other  venerable  ' '  chestnuts  "  of  the  same  kind.  Showing  the  paral- 
lels to  a  counselor  and  friend,  I  was  told  to  be  original  hereafter,  as 
if  "to  be  original  "  was  easily  within  the  scope  of  every  man's  abil- 
ity. A  few  years  ago,  I  saw  in  England,  a  rowing-match  between 
two  men,  called  Higgins  and  Elliott,  and  a  north  country  man  who 
stood  near  me,  gave  this  advice  to  Elliott,  who  was  a  hundred 
yards  behind,  "Gang  past  him,  lad,  gang  past  him."  It  is  well 
"to  be  original,"  and  in  a  race  with  a  competitor  it  is  advisable  to 
"gang  past  him,"  but  neither  feat  is  quite  so  easy  as  it  seems  to  be. 

M.  M.  Trumbull. 


NOTES. 

Count  Leo  Tolstoi  writes  to  us,  "  Fosrcdnit  has  the  intention 
of  reviewing  and  publishing,  under  my  supervision,  some  of  the 
articles  which  have  appeared  in  your  periodical." 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

We  have  not  yet  noticed  in  the  columns  of  T/w  Open  Coiiit 
an  important  scientific  work  recently  published  by  our  Company, 
which  is  in  every  respect  deserving  of  the  attention  of  our  readers. 
This  work  is  the  authorised  English  translation  of  Professor 
Mach's  well-known  Science  of  Mechanics — a  book  which  is  now  in 
its  second  edition  in  Germany,  and  which  has  taken  a  pre-eminent 
place  in  the  scientific  and  philosophical  literature  of  the  times. 
Words  of  commendation,  on  our  part,  would  be  superfluous  ;  we 
need  only  refer  here  to  the  aim  and  character  of  the  work,  which, 
briefly  stated,  is  to  free  the  notions  of  science  from  metaphysical 
and  historical  obscurities,  and  to  present  the  principles  of  mechan- 
ics in  the  form  and  light  of  iheir  development.  The  book  is,  first, 
a  history  of  mechanics  and  an  exposition  of  its  abstract  principles, 
and.  secondly,  a  critical  analysis  of  the  origin  of  science  and  of 
the  methods  by  which  it  is  built  up.  A  more  interesting  and  profit- 
able method  of  studying  the  theory  of  knowledge  is  not  conceiv- 
able ;  in  fact  it  is  contended  by  eminent  philosophers  that  this  is 
the  only  correct  method.  The  book,  thus,  will  be  of  great  value,  not 
only  to  the  scientist  who  wishes  more  than  a  mere  routine-knowl- 
edge of  his  subject,  but  also  to  the  philosophical  student  and  general 
reader.  It  is  impossible  in  a  short  notice  to  enumerate  all  the  points 
of  excellency  of  the  book,  but  mention  may  be  made  of  one  inter- 
esting feature.  This  is  the  reproduction  of  the  clear  and  beautiful 
thoughts  of  the  original  inquirers,  augmented  by  fac-simile  repro- 


ductions of  the  illustrations  of  their  works.  This  feature  has  a 
very  stimulating  and  refreshing  effect  upon  the  mind,  is  a  great 
impulse  to  investigation,  and,  as  it  shows  us  that  the  heroes  of 
thought  had  to  overcome  the  very  same  obstacles  in  their  work 
which  we  encounter,  will  inspire  us  with  additional  confidence  in 
our  own  intellectual  powers.  (Chicago:  The  Open  Court  Publish- 
ing Company.     Pages,  xiv,  534.     Price,  $2.50.) 

RECENTLY  PUBLISHED. 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  MECHANICS 


CRITICAL  AND  HISTORICAL  EXPOSITION  OF 
ITS  PRINCIPLES, 

BY 

ERNST    MACH, 

PROFESSOR  OF  PHYSICS  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY 


Translated  from  the  Second  German  Edition  by  Thomas  J. 
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"As  a  history  of  mechanics,  the  work  is  admirable."— 77^*:  Nation,  N.  Y. 

"  We  regard  it  as  a  masterly  book,  such  as  can  be  adopted  with  great  ad- 
vantage as  part  of  any  course  in  physics.  . . .  To  any  one  who  feels  that  he  does 
not  know  as  much  as  he  ought  to  about  physics  we  can  commend  it  most 
lieartily  as  a  scholarly  and  able  treatise  which  he  will  find  both  interesting 
and  profitable." — A.  M.  Wellington,  in  Engineering  News,  New  York. 

"This  is  a  treatise,  not  upon  the  application  of  the  principles  of  mechan- 
ics, but  upon  mechanics  considered  as  one  of  the  physical  sciences.  We  may 
say  that  the  aim  to  provide  such  a  work  has  been  carried  out  with  conspicuous 
success,  and  those  who  are  curious  to  learn  how  the  principles  of  mechanics 
have  been  evolved,  from  what  source  thev  take  their  origin,  and  how  far  they 
can  be  deemed  of  positive  and  permanent  value,  will  find  Dr.  Mach's  able 
treatise  entrancingly  interesting.  .  .  .  The  book  is  a  remarkable  one  in  many 
respects,  while  the  mixture  of  history  with  the  latest  scientific  principles  and 
absolute  mathertiatical  deductions  makes  it  exceedingly  attractive."— jl/c^/«i»- 
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TYNDALL.* 

BY  MONCURE  D.   CONWAY. 

The  younger  generation  in  this  South  Place  Society 
can  hardly  realise  the  brave  and  noble  services  ren- 
dered by  John  Tyndali  in  making  intellectual  liberty  a 
religion.  He  sowed  much  of  the  harvest  we  are  reaping. 
His  widow,  with  whom  in  her  calamity  the  hearts 
of  all  sympathise,  who  with  her  mother  formerly  at- 
tended South  Place  Chapel,  has,  I  believe,  dedicated 
her  life, —  as  indeed  it  was  always  dedicated,  —  to  her 
husband,  and  is  gathering  his  letters.  She  will,  no 
doubt,  give  to  the  world  a  faithful  record  of  his  life. 
Many  a  sufferer,  wrestling  with  slow  death,  might  envy 
him  his  release  by  a  mistake  of  the  hand  of  love  while 
ministering  to  him.  His  own  last  thought  was  for  his 
"poor  darling,"  for  whom  his  release  must  leave  a 
tragical  memory.  But  we  will  trust  that,  in  the  depths 
of  a  sorrow  hardly  imaginable  by  others,  she  will  find 
the  strength  and  inspiration  to  bring  him,  as  it  were, 
to  life  again,  and  by  her  loving  portraiture,  her  thorough 
appreciation  of  his  scientific  genius,  restore  him  to  the 
world  from  which  he  had  long  been  much  withdrawn 
by  invalidism. 

There  was  in  Tyndali  a  large-heartedness,  a  poetic 
fineness  of  spirit,  which  only  a  loving  and  cultured 
wife  can  fully  interpret.  My  own  friendship  with  him 
began  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  His 
courage  opened  to  me  the  theatre  of  the  Royal  Insti- 
tution, where  among  other  lectures  those  afterwards 
enlarged  into  my  "  Demonology  "  were  given.  He  was 
an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Emerson,  my  early  master, 
whom  he  often  quoted,  and  at  whose  death  he  invited 
me  to  give  an  address  at  the  Royal  Institution.  What 
he  especially  loved  in  Emerson  was  his  perfect  faith 
in  science,  and  his  "fluidity,"  to  remember  Tyndall's 
own  word,  which,  like  a  tide,  followed  the  star  of  truth 
whatever  confines  of  creed  or  theory  might  be  over- 
passed or  floated.  I  learn  from  Mrs.  Tyndali  that  only 
a  few  weeks  ago  her  husband  was  desired  to  choose 
from  his  writings,  for  an  Anglo-American  magazine,  a 
motto  for  the  new  year.  He  selected  from  his  "Frag- 
ments of  Science"  (p.  231)  these  words:  "I  choose 
the  nobler  part  of  Emerson,  where,  after  various  dis- 
enchantments,   he  exclaimed,    '  I  covet  truth  !  '     The 

*  From  a  discourse  given  in  London,  December  24,  1893. 


gladness  of  true  heroism  visits  the  heart  of  him  who  is 
really  competent  to  say  this." 

At  the  same  time,  Tyndali  was  tenderly  reverent 
towards  the  sentiment  represented  in  the  shrines  of 
human  faith.  There  were  points  at  which  superstition 
was  harmful  to  mankind,  and  therein  Tyndali  calmly 
but  crucially  probed  it.  Such  was  what  used  to  be 
called  "Tyndall's  Prayer-gauge."  There  was  awide- 
spread  notion,  and  even  a  sect,  founded  in  the  biblical 
prescription  of  prayer  for  disease  ;  and  Tyndali  pro- 
posed that  there  should  be  two  hospitals,  one  under 
prayer  cure,  the  other  exclusively  under  medical  sci- 
ence, so  that  the  percentage  of  recoveries  might  decide 
which  was  the  more  effectual  treatment.  The  chal- 
lenge was  wrathfully  declined  by  the  pulpits,  but  had 
its  effect.  That  superstition  lingers,  but  has  had  to 
ally  itself  with  medical  agencies,  and  calls  itself  "Chris- 
tian Science." 

But  Tyndali  dealt  very  tenderly  even  with  what  he 
conceived  superstition  when  he  met  with  it  in  any 
form  that  involved  human  hope  and  aspiration.  The 
Brahmo  minister,  Mozoomdar,  desired  me  to  arrange 
an  interview  with  Tyndali,  and  in  the  conversation,  at 
which  I  was  present,  the  flindu  poured  out  his  soul 
with  fervor,  his  faith  being  a  devout  theism,  and  hu- 
man immortality.  Mozoomdar  was  evidently  anxious 
to  carry  back  to  India  some  confession  from  Tyndali 
of  a  faith  so  simple.  I  shall  never  forget  how  mod- 
estly and  almost  affectionately,  yet  shrewdly,  Tyndali 
said:  "You  must  feel  that  one  with  my  views,  and 
in  my  position,  could  enter  upon  any  statement  re- 
lating to  such  vast  subjects  only  with  such  precau- 
tions, reservations,  and  exact  definitions,  as,  I  fear, 
would  render  it  of  little  interest  to  you."  I  made  notes 
of  the  conversation,  but  have  them  not  in  this  country, 
and  must  trust  to  the  strong  impression  left  on  me  of 
Tyndall's  conscientiousness  as  well  as  his  sympathy. 
He  loved  to  select  the  good  and  true  from  any  en- 
vironment of  error,  and  did  his  best  to  preserve  con- 
tinuity with  the  religious  life  of  his  country.  He  was 
an  earnest  pleader  for  a  more  rational  Sunday,  and  did 
much  to  influence  the  London  clergy  in  that  cause. 
At  a  large  public  meeting  for  opening  the  Museums, 
at  which  Dean  Stanley  presided,  a  number  of  clergy- 
men being  on  the  platform,  Tyndali  made  an  admira- 


3944 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


ble  speech  ;  one  memorable  also  for  an  inadvertant 
remark,  in  which  he  said,  "  We  only  ask  a  part  of  the 
Sunday  for  intellectual  improvement."  This  caused 
much  amusement,  especially  among  the  preachers  pres- 
ent, and  Dean  Stanley,  I  believe,  thought  it  the  best 
thing  said.  Tyndall  had  meant  no  satire,  but,  as  it 
was  taken  good  naturedly,  made  no  apology  except  a 
smiling  bow  to  the  clergy. 

In  the  congress  of  liberal  thinkers,  which  sat  for 
several  days  in  this  Chapel,  a  good  many  years  ago, 
Tyndall  was  much  interested,  and  consented  to  act  on 
a  permanent  Council  which  was  proposed.  That, 
however,  was  never  completely  constituted,  it  being 
found,  after  a  number  of  meetings,  that  there  was  dan- 
ger of  our  being  understood  as  establishing  some  kind 
of  new  sect.  The  discussions  that  went  on  in  that 
Council  were  of  great  interest  and  made  clear  to  us  all 
the  conviction  that  freedom  of  religious  thought  could 
not  be  really  advanced  by  any  general  organisation. 
It  must  act  as  leaven,  and  could  not  be  diffused  if 
lumped  in  any  way  that  might  separate  it  from  the 
"measures  of  meal  "  it  should  raise.  And  in  this  con- 
nexion I  may  say  that  I  perhaps  owe,  at  least  in  part, 
to  Tyndall's  influence  a  change  in  my  feeling  towards 
public  teachers  associated  with  creeds  and  traditions. 

I  will  recall  one  more  incident.  On  the  day  of  the 
burial  of  Sir  Charles  Lyell  in  Westminster  Abbey,  I 
could  not  help  some  rebellion,  while  listening  to  the 
service,  that  it  should  be  read  over  that  great  man, 
who  was  in  sympathy  with  South  Place  and  often  came 
here  (though  he  more  regularly  listened  to  Martineau). 
I  walked  from  the  Abbey  with  Tyndall,  and  mentioned 
to  him,  I  think,  that  not  long  before  I  had,  with  Sir 
Charles,  listened  to  a  characteristic  discourse  from 
Martineau,  and  he  had  expressed  his  wonder  that  peo- 
ple should  crowd  other  churches  whilst  such  sermons 
as  that  could  be  heard.  I  also  said  that  there  ap- 
peared to  me  something  hollow  in  parts  of  the  funeral 
service  when  read  over  such  a  man  as  Lyell.  Tyndall 
stopped,  turned,  looked  on  the  Abbey  and  its  towers, 
and,  after  some  moments  of  silence,  said  :  "When  I 
think  of  that  Abbey,  of  the  ages  that  built  it,  and  all 
the  faith,  hopes,  and  aspirations  that  have  gone  into 
it,  and  even  into  the  service,  I  can  remember  only 
what  it  all  means,  not  what  it  says.  The  ancient 
faults  and  phrases  are  merged  in  a  golden  mist,  and 
the  Abbey  is  a  true  monument  for  my  old  friend." 

Tears  started  to  his  eyes.  I  had  my  lesson,  which 
I  have  never  forgotten.  Or,  I  should  say,  my  lessons  ; 
for,  although  one  of  them  tended  to  give  me  a  more 
catholic  feeling  towards  institutions  that  embody,  how- 
ever imperfectly,  the  spiritual  history  of  humanity, 
another  lesson  impressed  on  me  a  conviction  that, 
were  the  church  of  to- day  faithful  to  its  own  history, 
such   men   would  not  merely  find   in  the  Abbey  their 


sepulchre,  but  their  pulpit.  When  Dean  Stanley  re- 
monstrated with  the  Rev.  Stopford  Brooke  against  his 
leaving  the  English  Church,  Mr.  Brooke,  so  he  told 
me,  asked  him,  "Could  James  Martineau  ever  be 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury?"  "Never,"  said  Stanley. 
"Then,"  said  Mr.  Brooke,  "the  church  is  no  place 
for  me."  For  myself,  I  do  not  feel  certain  that  the 
Dean  was  right.  That  historic  sentiment,  united  with 
free  thought,  the  natural  fruit  of  culture,  though  it 
now  draws  scholars  out  of  the  Church,  may  presently 
draw  them  into  it,  over  lowered  bars  of  creed  and 
formula,  and  make  it  once  more  the  organ  of  the  re- 
ligious genius  of  England.  And  should  that  happy 
era  come,  those  who  enjoy  it  will  owe  more  than  they 
can  ever  know  to  the  high  standard  of  intellectual 
honor,  the  fidelity  to  truth,  the  absolute  integrity  of 
heart,  and  the  reverential  spirit,  of  our  beloved  John 
Tyndall. 

THE  STATE  A  PRODUCT  OF  NATURAL  GROWTH. 

Wf,  have  answered  the  question  "  Does  the  State 
exist?"  in  the  affirmative  ;*  for  the  social  relations  be- 
tween man  and  man  are  actual  and  important  realities. 
How  a  number  of  citizens  are  interrelated,  whether  in 
the  form  of  a  patriarchical  community,  or  of  a  mon- 
archy or  of  a  republic,  is  by  no  means  a  matter  of  in- 
difference ;  these  interrelations  are  real ;  and  they  are 
a  vital  factor  in  the  concatenation  of  causes  and  effects. 
They  may  be  compared  to  the  groupings  of  atoms  and 
molecules  in  chemical  combinations.  The  very  same 
atoms  grouped  in  two  different  ways  often  exhibit 
radically  different  phenomena ;  so  that  we  naturally 
incline  to  believe  that  we  are  dealing  in  such  cases 
with  different  chemical  substances.  In  like  manner,  the 
same  race  of  men  will  exhibit  different  national  charac- 
teristics if  combined  under  different  systems  of  society 
and  State-organisation. 

But  there  are  other  problems  connected  with  the 
idea  of  the  reality  of  social  relations.  The  questions 
arise  :  What  is  a  State?  What  difference  obtains  be- 
tween society  and  State?  And,  granted  that  society 
has  a  right  of  existence,  is  not  perhaps  the  State  a  ty- 
rannical institution  which  must  be  abolished  ? 

State  is  obviously  a  narrower  concept  than  society. 
The  State  is  a  special  form  of  social  relations.  Society 
is  the  genus  and  State  is  a  particular  species.  Social 
relations  are  first,  and  out  of  them  States  develop. 
States  are  more  fixed  than  the  primitive  social  condi- 
tions from  which  they  come. 

As  animals  of  definite  kinds  are  more  stable  in  their 
character  than  the  amoeboid  substance  from  which  they 
have  taken  their  common  origin,  so  States  are  a  further 
step  forward  in  the  evolution  from  primitive  social  rela- 
tions.     This   is  the  reason  why  the  absence  of  State- 

*  See  'I'hf  Oten  Court,  No.  272. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3945 


institutions  is  commonly  regarded  by  anthropologists 
and  historians  as  a  symptom  of  extraordinary  imma- 
turity in  a  people.  And  justly  so,  for  no  civilised  na- 
tion exists  whose  citizens  are  not  united  by  the  social 
bonds  of  State-life,  and  only  the  lowest  savages  are 
without  any  form  of  State-institutions. 

The  State  has  frequen^lj'  been  called  an  artificial 
institution  while  primitive  society  is  supposed  to  be 
the  natural  condition  of  n^ankind.  In  this  sense  Rous- 
seau regarded  all  culture  and  civilisation  as  unnatural. 
This  view  is  ridiculous  and  absurd.  All  progress  on 
this  supposition  would  have  to  be  branded  as  an  aber- 
ration from  nature.  We  think  that  on  the  contrary 
every  advance  in  evolution  denotes  a  higher  kind  of 
nature  ;  man's  progress  is  based  upon  a  clearer  com- 
prehension of  nature  and  consists  in  his  better  adapta- 
tion to  surrounding  conditions.  Thus  these  nature- 
philosophers  in  their  efforts  to  be  natural,  reverse  the 
course  of  nature  and  become  unnatural  in  the  highest 
degree.  The  State  is  as  little  artificial  (i.  e.  unnatural) 
in  comparison  with  the  so-called  natural  condition  of 
savage  life,  as  the  upright  gait  of  man  can  be  said  to 
be  artificial  as  contrasted  with  the  walk  of  quadrupeds. 
The  State  is  of  natural  growth  not  less  than  the  other 
institutions  of  civilised  society.  We  might  as  well  de- 
cry (as  actually  has  been  done)  the  invention  of  writing 
and  the  use  of  the  alphabet  as  unnatural. 

What  is  the  nature  of  the  State? 

The  State  briefly  defined  is  "the  organisation  of 
the  common  will  of  a  people." 

The  common  will  of  the  people  may  be  poorly,  dis- 
proportionately, or  even  unjustly  represented  in  the 
State-organisation.  It  is  a  frequent  occurrence  that 
large  classes  do  not  assert  their  will,  either  because 
they  do  not  care  to  assert  it  or  because  they  are  too 
timid  to  do  so,  so  that  the  State  is  little  influenced  by 
them.  But  that  is  another  question.  In  defining  the 
nature  of  the  State,  we  do  not  say  that  all  states  are 
perfect,  nor  do  we  defend  the  evils  of  their  inferiority. 

Every  horde  of  wild  animals  possesses  certain  com- 
mon interests,  for  it  is  these  very  interests  which  make 
them  a  horde.  A  horde  of  talking  animals,  however, 
will  soon  become  aware  of  their  common  interests. 
They  will,  in  discussing  the  problems  of  their  tribal 
life,  more  and  more  clearly  understand  the  situation 
and  regulate  the  means  of  attending  to  the  common 
interests  according  to  their  best  experience.  Com- 
mon interests  create  a  common  will,  and  as  soon  as 
this  common  will  becomes  consciously  organised  by 
habits,  traditions,  and  the  ordinances  of  those  who  have 
the  power  to  enforce  them,  by  written  or  unwritten 
laws,  by  acts  of  legislatures,  or  similar  means,  the  prim- 
itive social  life  enters  a  higher  phase  of  its  evolution  : 
it  changes  into  a  State. 

The  State-relations  do  not  cover  all  the  social  rela- 


tions of  a  people,  but  only  those  which  are  created  or 
animated  by  their  common  will.  All  the  other  rela- 
tions among  the  single  citizens  of  a  State,  that  is  those 
which  are  of  a  private  nature,  stand  only  indirectly  in 
connexion  with  the  State-relations. 

The  State  is  not  constituted  by  laws  and  institu- 
tions alone  ;  the  State  is  based  upon  a  certain  attitude 
of  the  minds  of  its  members.  The  existence  of  a  State 
presupposes  in  the  souls  of  its  citizens  the  presence  of 
certain  common  ideas  concerning  that  which  is  to  be 
considered  as  right  and  proper.  If  these  ideas  were 
absent,  the  State  could  not  exist. 

That  our  life  and  property  in  general  is  safe,  that 
we  buy  and  sell,  marry  and  are  given  in  marriage,  that 
the  laws  are  observed,  and  that  in  ordinary  circum- 
stances we  hold  intercourse  with  one  another  mutually 
trusting  in  our  honest  intentions  ;  that,  also,  we  strug- 
gle and  compete  with  one  another  and  try  our  best  to 
maintain  our  places  in  the  universal  aspiration  on- 
ward : — all  this  is  only  possible  because  we  are  parts 
of  the  same  humanity  and  the  children  of  the  same 
epoch,  possessing  the  same  ideas  of  right  and  wrong, 
and  bearing  within  ourselves  in  a  certain  sense  the 
same  souls. 

Could  some  evil  spirit,  over  night,  change  our  souls 
into  those  of  savages  and  cannibals,  or  even  into  those 
of  the  robber-knights  of  the  Middle  Ages,  all  our  sacred 
laws,  all  our  constables,  all  the  police-power  of  the 
State  would  be  of  no  avail  :  we  should  inevitably  sink 
back  to  the  state  of  civilisation  in  which  those  people 
existed.  But  could  a  God  ennoble  our  souls,  so  that 
the  sense  of  right  and  wrong  would  become  still  more 
purified  in  every  heart,  then  better  conditions  would  re- 
sult spontaneously  and  much  misery  and  error  would 
vanish  from  the  earth.  And  the  God  that  can  ac- 
complish that,  lives  indeed — not  beyond  the  clouds, 
but  here  on  earth,  in  the  heart  of  every  man  and  wo- 
man. 

It  is  the  same  power  that  has  carried  us  to  the  state 
of  things  in  which  we  now  are  ;  it  is  the  principle  of 
evolution,  it  is  the  aspiration  onward,  the  spirit  of  pro- 
gress and  advancement. 

The  State  is  based  upon  certain  moral  ideas  of  its 
members  ;  and  State-institutions,  such  as  schools,  laws, 
and  religious  sentiments,  exist  mainly  for  the  purpose 
of  maintaining  and  strengthening  the  moral  ideas  of  the 
present  and  future  generations. 

We  do  not  intend  to  discuss  here  the  evolution  of 
the  State.  Nor  do  we  propose  to  estimate  the  moral 
worth  of  its  present  phase.  The  ideals  of  the  various 
existing  States  are  just  emerging  from  a  barbarous 
world-conception,  and  we  are  working  out  a  nobler  and 
better  future.  Should  this  better  future  be  realised, 
let  us  hope  that  our  posterity  will  still  feel  the  need 
of  future  progress  as  much  as  we  do  now.    We  simply 


3946 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


wish  to  elucidate  the  nature  of  the  State  so  as  to  under- 
stand the  purpose  and  the  laws  of  its  evolution. 

The  objects  upon  which  the  common  will  of  a  peo- 
ple is  directed   are,    (i)  protection   against   enemies, 

(2)  the  administration  of  justice  among  its  members, 

(3)  the  regulation  of  common  internal  affairs  ;  which 
last  point,  in  higher  developed  States,  consists  of  two 
distinct  functions,  (a)  of  establishing  the  maxims  ac- 
cording to  which  the  commonwealth  is  to  be  adminis- 
tered, and  {l>)  of  executing  these  maxims  and  enforcing 
them. 

The  need  of  protection  against  foreign  enemies  has 
created  our  armies  and  navies,  which,  in  their  present 
form,  are  quite  a  modern  invention.  That  powerful 
State-communities  were  not  satisfied  with  defending 
themselves,  but  frequently  became  aggressive,  either 
for  the  sake  of  a  more  effective  defence  or  from  a  pure 
desire  of  aggrandisement,  is  a  fact  which  has  nothing 
to  do  with  our  present  subject.  Warfare  is  the  main, 
but  not  the  sole,  external  function  of  the  State.  It  has 
been  supplemented  in  modern  and  more  peaceful  times 
by  commercial  treaties  and  other  international  adjust- 
ments. 

The  internal  functions  of  the  modern  State  are  per- 
formed by  the  judiciary,  by  the  legislative  bodies,  and 
by  the  executive  government.  All  these  organs  of  the 
State  have  become  what  they  are  in  quite  a  natural 
course  of  evolutionary  growth  simply  by  performing 
their  functions,  like  the  organs  of  animal  bodies. 

A  certain  want  calls  for  a  certain  function,  and  the 
performance  of  this  function  develops  the  organ. 

The  State  has  been  compared  to  an  organism,  and 
this  comparison  is  quite  admissible,  within  certain 
limits. 

True  enough  that  the  historical  growth  of  our  mod- 
ern States  is  within  reach  of  our  historical  tradition, 
and  we  know  very  well  that  one  most  important  factor 
of  this  growth  has  been  the  conscious  aspiration  of  in- 
dividuals after  their  ideals — a  factor  which  is  either 
entirely  absent  from  or  only  latent  in  the  development 
of  organs  in  animal  organisms.  The  assumption  that 
the  cells  of  the  muscles,  the  liver,  or  the  kidneys,  are 
conscious  of  the  work  they  perform,  that  they  have 
notions  of  duty  and  ideals,  is  fantastical.  Moreover, 
there  is  no  need  of  resorting  to  this  explanation,  since 
the  theory  that  function  develops  organs,  together  with 
the  principles  of  selection  and  of  the  survival  of  the 
fittest,  sufficiently  accounts,  if  not  for  all  problems 
connected  therewith,  yet  certainly  for  the  problem  of 
their  existence  in  general. 

As  a  factor  in  the  development  of  States  the  con- 
scious aspiration  of  individuals  for  their  ideals  even, 
in  practical  life,  cannot  be  estimated  high  enough  ;  for 
this  factor  has  grown  in  prominence  with  the  progress 
of  the  race,  and  it  is  growing  still.      In  the  explanation 


of  the  origin  of  States,  however,  this  very  factor  can 
most  easily  be  overrated,  and  it  has  been  overrated,  in 
so  far  as  some  savants  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the 
great  age  of  individualism,  have  proposed  the  now  ob- 
solete view  that  States  are  and  can  be  produced  only 
by  a  conscious  agreement  among  individuals,  which, 
however,  they  grant,  may  be  tacitly  made.  And  this 
theory  found  its  classical  representation  in  Rousseau's 
book,  "  Le  contract  social,"  in  which  the  existence  of 
the  State  is  justified  as  a  social  contract.  This  is  an 
error  :  States  develop  unconsciously  and  even  in  spite 
•  of  the  opposition  of  individuals ;  and  it  is  a  frequent 
occurrence  that  the  aspirations  of  political  or  other 
leaders  do  not  correspond  with  the  wants  of  their 
times.  Thus  it  so  often  happens  that  they  build  better 
than  they  know,  because  they  are  the  instruments  of 
nature.  The  growth  of  States  is  as  little  produced  by 
conscious  efforts  as  the  growth  of  our  bodies.  Conscious 
efforts  are  a  factor  in  the  growth  of  States,  but  they 
do  not  create  States. 

A- State  grows  solely  because  of  the  need  for  its  ex- 
istence. Certain  social  functions  must  be  attended  to  ; 
they  are  attended  to,  and  thus  the  State  is  created  as 
the  organ  of  attending  to  them. 

Conscious  aspirations,  although  they  do  not  build 
States,  are  indispensable  for  properly  directing  the 
State-creating  instincts  of  a  social  body.  In  like  man- 
ner, an  intelligent  observation  of  hygienic  rules  is  not 
the  creative  faculty  that  produces  the  growth  of  organs, 
but  it  is  an  indispensable  condition  keeping  the  organs 
in  good  health.  The  more  clearly  the  common  wants 
of  a  nation  are  recognised,  the  better  will  be  the  meth- 
ods devised  to  satisfy  them.  The  more  correctly  the 
nature  of  society  and  of  its  aims  is  understood,  the 
more  continuous  will  be  the  advance  of  civilisation. 

The  social  instincts  which  have  created  the  State, 
the  love  of  country,  and  of  the  country's  institutions  and 
traditions,  are  so  deeply  ingrained  in  individuals  that 
in  times  of  need  they  come  to  the  surface,  (sometimes 
timely,  sometimes  untimely,)  even  in  spite  of  contrary 
theories.  Let  the  honor  of  a  country  be  attacked  and 
you  will  see  that  hundreds  and  thousands  of  the  peo- 
ple, who  from  their  individualistic  point  of  view  deny 
the  very  right  of  existence  to  our  national  institutions, 
will  clamor  for  war. 

When,  on  the  14th  of  July,  1870,  the  King  of  Prus- 
sia was  officially  and  ostentatiously  affronted  by  the 
French  ambassador,  Benedetti,  the  most  peaceful  citi 
zens  of  Germany  were  ready  to  make  the  greatest  sacri- 
rifices  in  resentment  of  Napoleon's  insolence,  and  the 
democratic  party  dwindled  away  in  the  general  excite- 
ment. The  .effect  in  France  was  similar  ;  the  King's 
refusal  to  reeeive  the  French  plenipotentiary  was  so 
generally  resented,  that  the  Emperor's  opposition,  al- 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


3947 


though  very  strong  before,  disappeared  at  once  in  the 
almost  unanimous  cry  for  vengeance. 

The  social  instincts,  and  among  them  the  State- 
forming  instincts,  are  much  stronger  and  more  deep- 
seated  than  most  of  us  are  aware  of.  They  do  not  on 
every  occasion  rise  into  consciousness,  but  slumber 
in  our  hearts,  and  even  in  the  hearts  of  our  anarchists 
and  individualists  ;  these  instincts  form  part  of  our  un- 
conscious selves  and  will  assert  their  presence,  if  need 
be,  even  in  spite  of  our  theoretical  selves,  which  are 
only  superficially  imposed  upon  our  souls. 

* 
*  * 

It  may  be  objected  that  sometimes  States  have  been 
artificialfy  established  with  conscious  deliberation  by 
mutual  agreements  which  were  fixed  in  laws.  This  is 
quite  true :  conscious  efforts  are  made  and  have  to  be 
made  to  give  a  solid  shape  to  a  State.  The  Constitu- 
tions of  the  United  States,  of  Belgiwm,  and  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire  are  instances  of  this. 

Conscious  efforts  indeed  serve  and  should  serve 
to  regulate  the  growth  of  States  ;  they  determine  the 
direction  of  its  advance,  and  bring  conflicting  princi- 
ples into  agreement.  Thus  struggles  are  avoided,  and 
questions'  which  otherwise  would  be  decided  by  the 
sword,  are  settled  in  verbal  quarrels,  more  peacefully, 
quicker,  and  without  loss  of  life. 

When  the  fathers  of  our  country  came  together  to 
form  a  bond  of  union,  they  did  not  create  the  nation 
as  a  federal  union,  or,  so  to  say,  as  a  State  of  States, 
they  simply  regulated  its  growth  and  helped  it  into 
being  by  giving  obstetrical  assistance.  The  union 
agreed  upon  by  the  representatives, of  the  thirteen  col- 
onies was  not,  however,  the  product  of  an  arbitrary  de- 
cision, but  the  net  outcome  of  several  co-operating  fac- 
tors, among  which  two  are  predominant :  (i)  the  ideas 
which  then  lived  in  the  minds  of  the  people  as  actual 
realities,  and  the  practical  wants  which,  in  the  common 
interest  of  the  colonies,  demanded  a  stronger  unity 
and  definite  regulations  as  to  the  methods  of  this  unity. 
The  representatives  themselves  were  not  mentally  clear 
concerning  the  plan  of  the  building  of  which  they 
laid  the  foundation.  The  political  leaders  of  the  time 
(perhaps  with  the  sole  exception  of  Hamilton,  who, 
on  the  other  hand,  fell  into  the  opposite  mistake  of 
believing  that  a  State  ought  to  be  a  monarchy)  were 
anxious  to  make  the  union  as  loose  as  possible,  for 
they  were  imbued  with  the  individualistic  spirit  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  So  they  introduced  (and  certainly 
not  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  union  !)  as  many  and  as 
strong  bulwarks  as  possible  for  the  protection  of  the  so- 
called  inalienable  rights  and  liberties  of  individuals. 
The  United  States  developed,  and  developed  necessa- 
rily, into  a  strong  empire,  although  its  founders  were 
actually  afraid  of  creating  a  really  strong  union. 

In  those  times  it  was  thought  that  a  State-admin- 


istration could  be  strong  only  through  the  weakness  of 
its  citizens.  Weakness  of  government  was  regarded  as 
the  safest  palladium  of  civic  liberties.  We  now  know 
that  a  powerful  administration  is  quite  reconcilable  with 
civic  liberty.  In  fact,  experience  shows  that  weak  gov- 
ernments, more  than  strong  governments,  in  the  inter- 
ests of  self-preservation,  resort  and  cannot  help  resort- 
ing to  interference  with  the  personal  rights  of  its  citi- 
zens. 

The  Belgians,  after  having  overthrown  the  Dutch 
government,  shaped  a  new  State  exactly  in  agreement 
with  the  ideas  they  held.  If  they  had  not  previously 
possessed  social  instincts  and  lived  in  State-relations, 
they  would  not  have  been  able  to  form  a  new  State  so 
quickly. 

The  idea  of  a  united  Germany  developed  very 
slowly ;  it  was  matured  in  times  of  tribulation  and 
gradually  became  quite  a  powerful  factor  in  Germany's 
national  life.  The  foundation  of  the  Empire  would  re- 
main unexplained,  were  we  only  referred  to  the  debates 
of  the  Reichstag  and  the  resolutions  finally  adopted. 
The  resolutions  drawn  up  after  a  longer  or  shorter  de- 
liberation form  only  the  last  link  in  a  very  long  process 
of  concatenations.  Yet  these  last  conscious  efforts, 
although  of  paramount  importance,  presuppose  already 
the  conditions  for  the  constitution  of  the  Empire  in  its 
main  features. 

The  existence  of  Empires  and  States  does  not  rest 
upon  the  final  resolutions  passed  at  the  time  of  their 
foundation,  but  upon  the  common  will  of  the  people, 
which,  such  as  it  is,  has  been  shaped  in  the  history  of 
national  experiences. 

The  United  States  developed  in  spite  of  the  indi- 
vidualistic clauses  of  its  founders  ;  and  in  the  same  way 
Luther,  the  prophet  of  religious  individualism,  advo- 
cated principles,  the  further  evolution  of  which  in  such 
minds  as  Lessing  and  Kant,  he  from  his  narrow  stand- 
point would  never  have  consented  to.  He  was  the  har- 
binger of  a  new  epoch,  but  he  was  still  the  son  of  the 
old  theories.  Like  Moses,  Luther  led  the  way  to  the 
promised  land,  but  he  never  trod  upon  its  ground. 
His  actions,  more  than  his  ideas,  were  the  reformatory 
agents  of  his  life,  and  we  may  well  say  now  that  he 
himself  little  appreciated  the  principles  that  underlay 
his  reformatory  and  historical  actions. 

The  philosophers  of  the  eighteenth  century,  espe- 
cially Rousseau  and  Kant,  recognise  the  State  only  in 
its  negative  rights.  The  State,  according  to  their  prin- 
ciples, is  a  presumption,  and  its  existence  is  only 
defensible  as  protecting  the  liberties  of  its  members. 
The  rights  of  the  State  are  supposed  to  be  negative. 
The  liberty  of  each  member  of  a  society  is  limited  by 
the  equal  amount  of  liberty  of  all  the  other  members, 
and  the  State's  duty  is  to  protect  their  liberties.  If 
this  principle  were  the  true  basis  of  the  State's  right 


3948 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


to  existence,  the  State  would  not  be  justified  in  levying 
taxes  or  in  passing  laws  which  enforce  any  such  regu- 
lations as  military  or  juror's  service.  Appropriations  for 
the  public  weal  would  be  illegal,  and  all  executive  of- 
ficers would  have  to  be  regarded  as  a  band  of  usurpers. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  States  have  constantly  exercised 
their  positive  rights,  interfering  greatly  with  the  liber- 
ties of  their  citizens.  They  have  taxed  them,  they 
have  passed  and  enforced  laws.  And  the  State  could 
not  exist  without  having  this  authority.  The  State  is 
actually  a  superindividual  power  and  has  to  be  such 
in  order  to  exist  at  all. 

[TO  BE  CONTINUED.] 


GOETHE  AND  SCHILLER'S  XENIONS. 

[CONTINUED.! 

THE  PHILOSOPHERS  IN  HADES. 

THE  POET  SPEAKS  : 
Well  met !     I  come   here   to  question  concerning  the  one  that  is 

needed. 
That,  philosophical  friends,     made  me  descend  to  this  place. 

ARISTOTLE. 

Question  right  out,  my  dear  sir,  for  we  read  philosophical  jour- 
nals, 
Whatsoe'er  happens  on  earth,     we  keep  instructed  on  all. 

URGENT. 
Gentlemen,  listen  !   I'll  stay  here  until  you  propose  me  a  statement 
Universally  true,     one  that  we  all  can  accept. 

DESCARTES. 
Coi;iio  ergo  sum  :  I  am  thinking  and  therefore  existing. 
If  but  the  former  is  true,     there's  of  the  latter  no  doubt. 

MY   ANSWER. 
If  I  am  thinking,  I  am.  Very  well  !  But  who  constantly  thinketh  ? 
Often  I  was,  I  confess,     when  forsooth  nothing  I  thought. 

SPINOZA. 

Things  do  exist,  sir,  and  therefore  a  thing  of  all  things  is  existing. 

And  in  the  thing  of  all  things     swim  we  just  such  as  we  are. 

BERKELEY. 
True  is  the  opposite,  let  me  declare.    Besides  me  there  is  nothing. 
Everything  else,  you  must  know     is  but  a  bubble  in  me. 

.  LEIBNITZ. 
Two  things  are,  I  admit,  the  world  and  the  soul,  of  which  neither 
Knows  of  the  other  ;  yet  both     indicate  oneness  at  last. 

KANT. 
Naught  do  I  know  of   the  thing,  and   naught  of  the   soul  know  I 

either. 
Both  to  me  only  appear  ;     but  by  no  means  are  they  sham. 

DAVID  HUME. 
Do  not  speak  to  those  folks,  for  Kant  has  thrown  all  in  confusion. 
Me  you  must  ask  ;  for  I  am,     even  in  Hades,  myself. 

FICH  TE. 

/am  /,  and  /posit  myself;  but  in  case  I  don't  posit 

Me  as  myself — very  well  :     then  the  not-me  is  produced. 

REINHOLD. 

Surely  conception  exists.     This  proves  the  existence  of  concepts, 

And  of  conceivers,  no  doubt  ;     which  altogether  make  three. 


MY   ANSWER. 
Those  propositions,  my  friends,  are  good  for  nothing  I  tell  you  ; 
Make  me  some  statement  that  helps,     and  let  it  be  to  the  point. 

K.    CH.    F.    SCHMIDT,    THE   MORAL  PHILOSOPHER. 
In  theoretical  fields,  no  more  can  be  found  by  inquirers. 

But  the  practical  word    holdeth,  "Thou  canst"  for  "Thoushalt." 

MY   ANSWER. 
Well,  I  expected  it  so  :   For  if  they  have  nothing  to  answer. 
Then  these  people  at  once     will  to  our  conscience  appeal. 


PHILOSOPHICAL   PROBLEMS. 

FOR   SALE. 

Since  Metaphysics  of  late  without  heirs  to  her  fathers  is  gathered 
Here  at  the  auctioneer's  are    ' '  things  of  themselves  "  to  be  sold. 

KANT  AND  HIS  INTERPRETERS. 
One  rich  man  gives  a  living  to  hosts  of  indigent  people  ; 

Kings  that  are  building,  provide    teamsters  with  plenty  of  work- 

TELEOLOGY. 
Worship,  O  man,.,the  Creator  !  who  while  creating  the  cork  tree 
Kindly  suggested  the  art,     how  we  might  bottle  our  wine. 

NATURAL  LAW. 
Years  and  years  I'm  employing  my  nose  ;  I  employ  it  for  smelling. 
Now  our  question  is  this:      Have  I  a  right  to  its  use  ? 

PUFFENDORF. 
Well  !  'Tis  a  critical  case  !  But  possession  is  strong  in  your  favor. 
Since  you're  possessing  your  nose,     use  it  in  future,  I  say. 

A  MORAL   PROBLEM. 
Willingly  serve  I  my  friends  ;  but  'tis  pity  I  do  it  with  pleasure. 
And  I  am  really  vexed,     that  there's  no  virtue  in  me  ! 

DECISION. 
There  is  no  other  advice  than  that  you  must  try  to  despise  friends, 
Then  what  your  duty  demands,     you  will  perform  with  disgust. 

[Kant  declared  that  the  man  who  performed  his  duty  because 
it  gave  him  pleasure,  was  less  moral  than  he  who  attended  to  it 
against  his  own  inclination.] 

THEOLOGICAL  HEDONISTS. 
Folks  who  seek  pleasure  in  all,  will  munch  and  relish  ideas  ; 
Spoons  and  forks  will  they  bring     up  to  celestial  repasts. 

EMPIRICISTS. 
On  the  securest  of  paths  you  have  started,  and  no  one  denies  it. 
But  on  the  straightest  of  roads     blindly  you  grope  in  the  dark. 

THEORETICISTS. 
You  are  obedient  to   rules,  and,  doubtless,  your  well-joined   con- 
clusions. 
Would  prove  reliable,  sure,     were  but  your  premises  true. 

LAST  REFUGE. 
How  disdainful  you  speak,  how  proud  of  the  specialist's  blindness  ! 
But  in  emergency,  he     comes  to  the  rescue  alone. 

NATURAL     SCIENCE    AND    TRANSCENDENTAL     PHILOSOPHY. 

Enmity  be  between  both,  your  alliance  would  not  be  in  time  yet. 
Though   you  may  separate  now,     truth  will  be   found   by   your 

search. 

THE   SAME. 
Both  have  to  travel   their  ways,  and   the  one  should   not  know  of 

the  other. 
Each  one  must  wander  on  straight,     yet  in  th?  end  they  will  meet. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


3949 


SYSTEMS. 
Splendidly  did  you  construct  your  grand  philosophical  systems; 
Heaven  !  how  shall  we  eject     errors  that  live  in  such  style. 

PHILOSOPHY. 
Which  will  survive  of  the  many  philosophies  ?  Surely  I  know  not  ! 
Yet  philosophy  will     truly,  forever  remain. 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 


Among  the  delinquent  members  of  Congress  now  absent  from 
their  posts,  are  Messrs.  Gear,  Hepburn,  Lacey,  and  Perkins,  all  of 
them  encamped  about  the  capitol  of  Iowa,  and  working  in  the 
time-honored  manner  for  a  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate.  As 
if  this  were  a  new  sign  of  our  political  degeneration  instead  of  a 
very  old  one.  my  democratic  paper  moralises  on  it  in  this  highly 
virtuous  way  ;  "  The  ravenous  hunger  for  office  which  seems  to  be 
characteristic  of  Republicans  everywhere,  and  particularly  in  the 
State  of  Iowa,  was  powerfully  demonstrated  by  an  incident  in  the 
congressional  proceedings  of  Saturday."  This  "incident"  was  the 
absence  of  the  said  four  members  from  roll  call,  ' '  ravenous  hunger 
for  office"  having  driven  them  to  Des  Moines,  where  the  I,egisla- 
ture  is  now  engaged  in  the  business  of  electing  a  senator.  The  ra- 
venous hunger  for  office  of  Republicans  in  Iowa  is  not  a  miracu- 
lous phenomenon  considering  that  Iowa  is  a  Republican  State, 
where  the  hunger  of  Democrats  for  office  excites  no  sympathy  in 
the  Legislature.  Should  the  General  Assembly  of  Iowa  elect  a 
Democrat  to  anything  the  Supreme  Court  would  promptly  decide 
such  action  to  be  revolutionary  and  unconstitutional.  Instead  of 
reproaching  the  Republicans  of  Iowa  as  "ravenous"  we  ought  to 
praise  them  for  their  moderation.  Iowa  has  ten  Republicans  in 
the  lower  house  of  Congress,  and  only  four  of  them  are  absent 
from  duty,  working  for  the  senatorship  and  "  sawing  wood."  It 
is  a  political  mystery,  and  at  the  same  time  a  sign  of  praiseworthy 
self-restraint  that  the  whole  ten  of  them  are  not  at  Des  Moines  in- 
stead of  Washington. 

It  is  worthy  of  contemplation  that  there  is  no  ravenous  hunger 
for  office  among  the  Republicans  of  Chicago,  but  the  Democrats 
have  a  very  healthy  appetite,  for  I  find  the  following  notice  in  my 
morning  paper:  "After  to-day.  Mayor  Hopkins  will  receive  no 
more  applications  for  appointments.  They  came  in  Saturday  fully 
as  strong  as  the  day  after  Mr.  Hopkins  took  his  seat.  There  are 
now  three  thousand  applications  on  file."  This  is  at  the  rate  of 
about  four  hundred  a  day,  all  Democrats,  and  the  new  postmaster 
can  show  an  equal  number.  Not  only  that,  the  victorious  legions 
are  advancing  on  the  Court  House  and  the  City  Hall  by  nationali- 
ties, "  le  rible'Ss  an  army  with  banners,"  and  their  motto  is  "of- 
fices or  vengeance "  as  appears  by  the  following  proclamation, 
"  The  German-American  Democrats  are  dissatisfied  with  their  al- 
lotment of  patronage  by  the  city  and  county  officers.  Yesterday 
evening  a  meeting  of  the  executive  committee  of  the  German- 
American  Democratic  Central  Organisation  was  held  at  the  Sher- 
man House,  at  which  resolutions  were  adopted  appointing  a  com- 
mittee of  three  which  should  ascertain  the  number  of  German- 
Americans  employed  in  the  various  county  offices,  and  the  propor- 
tion they  bear  to  the  whole  number  of  employees,"  Another 
committee  was  appointed  to  call  upon  Mayor  Hopkins  and  demand 
the  appointment  of  a  German-American  to  a  leading  city  office 
controlling  the  distribution  of  patronage."  During  a  long  study  of 
American  politics  I  have  observed  that  a  "  ravenous  hunger  for 
office  "  always  attacks  the  winners  of  the  election,  and  that  the 
losers  are  never  affected  by  it.  In  fact,  they  show  a  lofty  contempt 
for  "office  hunting  "  ;  they  denounce  the  Spoils  system,  and  en- 
thusiastically advocate  Civil  Service  reform. 


I  have  received  a  melancholy  pamphlet  entitled  "The  Reason 
why  the  Colored  American  was  not  in  the  World's  Columbian  Ex- 
position, "  and  the  reason  appears  to  be  nothing  worth  mentioning ; 
nothing  but  the  old  race  prejudice  manifested  in  a  persecution,  of 
which  slavery,  lynching,  chain  gangs,  and  "  Columbian  "  proscrip- 
tion are  all  consistent  and  harmonious  parts.  This  pamphlet  is 
"The  Afro-American's  contribution  to  Columbian  Literature," 
and  the  sarcasm,  though  sorrowful,  bites  hard.  There  is  an  in- 
troduction by  Frederick  Douglass,  eloquent,  of  course,  and  a  plain- 
tive appeal  to  conscience  where  there  is  no  conscience,  nothing 
but  a  savage  pride,  a  tyrant  sense  of  superiority.  Although  the 
colored  people  paid  their  share  of  the  public  money  given  to  the 
Exposition,  they  were  denied  a  place  in  its  management,  and  this 
wrong  diminishes  the  glory  of  the  Fair.  Although  his  action  made 
the  nation  look  morally  diminutive.  President  Harrison  refused  to 
place  any  colored  men  among  the  two  hundred  and  four  commis- 
sioners appointed  by  him  and  authorised  by  Congress  ;  and  this 
magnanimous  policy  was  imitated  by  all  the  other  Columbian  dig- 
nitaries from  the  commanding  generals  down  to  the  subordinate 
captains  of  the  Columbian  guards.  The  spirit  of  caste  excluded 
the  colored  people,  and  the  only  right  allowed  them  was  the  privi- 
lege of  paying  fifty  cents  to  see  the  show. 

While  the  rights  of  citizenship  are  withheld  from  the  colored 
man,  he  is  not  relieved  from  any  of  its  obligations.  On  the  con- 
trary, more  civic  duties  are  demanded  of  him  than  are  expected  of 
the  white  tnan.  Last  week  the  colored  people  of  Chicago  held  a 
festival  to  honor  the  abolition  agitators  who  created  a  national 
conscience  fifty  years  ago.  Among  the  speakers  was  Mr.  Stead  of 
London,  who  patronised  the  company  by  tacking  a  few  extra  con- 
ditions upon  their  freedom. .  Like  a  schoolmaster  advising  little 
boys,  he  said:  "You  who  vote  in  Chicago  and  other  northern 
cities  should  show  that  you  know  how  to  exercise  the  right  of  suf- 
frage with  wisdom,  and  that  you  value  the  privilege."  Mr.  Stead, 
as  a  foreigner,  did  not  know  that  this  bit  of  good  advice  was  bor- 
rowed from  the  apologetic  jargon  of  slavery  which  assumed  that 
the  negro  was  unfit  for  either  freedom  or  the  ballot,  and  which 
threw  the  burden  of  proving  the  contrary  upon  him.  Luckily  for 
the  white  man,  it  is  not  required  of  him  that  he  vote  "  with  wis- 
dom," and  why  should  such  perfection  be  demanded  of  the  colored 
man  ?  Forty-five  years  ago,  I  found  prevailing  in  the  South,  an 
ommous  fear  that  somehow  or  other  the  negro  might  get  "wis- 
dom," and  therefore  the  law  made  it  a  felony  to  teach  him  to  read. 
In  Chicago  the  colored  man  votes  with  as  much  "  wisdom  "  as  the 
white  man,  which  is  not  saying  much  in  his  favor,  but  he  will  im- 
prove, as  the  white  man  improves,  whenever  he  gets  fair  play. 
Considering  that  equal  opportunities  are  denied  them,  it  is  amazing 
that  the  colored  people  show  as  much  "  wisdom  "  as  they  do  ;  and 
their  patience  is  more  amazing  still. 

A  painful  bit  of  news  from  Washington  tells  about  a  breach 
of  etiquette  there  that  has  given  society  a  palpitation  of  the  heart. 
The  offence  is  more  trying  to  the  feelings  than  it  might  otherwise 
be,  because  two  persons  are  implicated  in  it,  and  both  delinquents 
are  from  the  State  of  New  York.  Those  who  know  anything  about 
it  are  in  such  a  state  of  nerves  that  a  coherent  story  is  not  easy  to 
be  had,  but  the  Evening  Star  of  Washingtor>,  which,  we  are  as- 
sured, is  "  a  very  reliable  and  conservative  paper, "  announces  with 
becoming  grief  that  the  President  invited  Senators  Hill  and  Mur- 
jihy  to  dine  with  him  at  the  White  House  on  Thursday  evening, 
and  that  they  both  declined  the  invitations.  Senator  Hill  was 
depraved  enough  to  spend  the  evening  at  the  theatre,  but,  says  the 
"reliable  and  conservative"  Star,  "Senator  Murphy's  where- 
abouts on  that  evening  have  not  been  ascertained."  This  lack  of 
information  shows  that  the  Washington  detectives  have  not  been 
vigilant,  or  they  certainly  would  have  tracked  Mr.  Murphy  to  his 


3950 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


"lair."  Jenkins,  the  reporter  who  telegraphs  all  this  from  Wash- 
ington, further  informs  us  that  "hitherto  invitations  to  the  Presi- 
dent's dinner  parties  have  been  regarded  as  imperative,  like  the 
commands  of  the  Queen,  and  etiquette  has  required  all  previous 
engagements  to  be  cancelled  in  order  to  accept  them."  Here  is  a 
selfish  rule,  where  etiquette  violates  good  manners  and  compels  a 
man  to  break  an  engagement  and  disappoint  his  friends  to  gratify 
the  President.  When  the  President  becomes  King,  it  will  be  time 
enough  to  regard  his  invitations  as  imperative,  "like  the  com- 
mands of  the  Queen." 

*  * 

Notwithstanding  the  authority  of  Shakespeare  to  the  contrary, 
there  appears  to  be  something  in  a  name.  A  gentleman  by  the 
name  of  Hornblower,  having. been  appointed  a  Justice  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States,  the  nomination  was  referred  to 
the  proper  committee  of  the  Senate,  and  that  committee,  by  a 
majority  of  six  to  three,  recommended  that  the  appointment  be 
not  confirmed.  A  Senator,  in  answer  to  a  question,  explained  the 
reason'for  this,  as  follows  :  "It  was  all  due  to  his  name.  I  under- 
stand that  the  committee  did  not  think  the  word  'Hornblower' 
would  look  well  on  the  records  of  the  court."  Although  this  was 
very  likely  said  in  jest,  there  was  a  trifle  of  earnest  in  it  after  all. 
Had  the  appointment  been  to  the  office  of  chief  stump  orator  for 
the  party,  the  name  would  have  been  valuable  as  a  recommenda- 
tion, but  it  was  a  disadvantage  to  a  candidate  for  the  dignified 
office  of  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  To  be  sure,  the  name  is 
only  an  accident,  but  accidents  are  potent  in  the  affairs  of  men. 
I  have  a  friend,  a  very  effective  stump-speaker,  who  was  at  one 
time  Governor  of  Iowa,  and  on  the  occasion  of  a  big  "rally"  at 
Marbletown  he  was  the  "  orator  of  the  day."  After  some  of  the 
supernumeraries  had  made  a  few  remarks,  the  chairman  arose  and 
said  :  "  We  will  now  have  a  tune  from  the  band  ;  after  which  we 
will  have  a  speech  from  the  Governor, "  whereupon  the  band  imme- 
diately struck  up  "Listen  to  the  mocking-bird."  This  tune  is  very 
pretty  in  its  place,  but  it  was  inappropriate  there,  and  the  unin- 
tentional sarcasm  of  the  band  effectually  baffled  the  argument  and 
eloquence  of  the  Governor.  Names,  as  well  as  tunes,  must  fit  the 
time  and  the  occasion.  However,  in  spite  of  his  name,  there  is 
yet  a  chance  that  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Hornblower  will  be  con- 
firmed ;  but  think  how  the  name  weighted  him  down. 
» 

In  the  Nine/tfiitk  Century  for  January  is  an  article  on  Tyndall 
by  Professor  Huxley,  the  only  man  who  knew  him  like  a  brother 
these  forty  years  and  more.  The  tribute  is  written  in  language 
graceful  as  poetry,  and  yet  symmetrical  and  strong.  The  scien- 
tific side  of  Tyndall  is  very  well  known,  but  the  full  moral  and 
spiritual  strength  of  him  was  known  only  to  his  intimate  friends, 
and  Professor  Huxley  gives  us  that.  Tyndall  stood  for  truth,  im- 
movable as  Mont  Blanc,  whose  glaciers,  and  rocks,  and  storms 
were  his  own  familiar  friends.  To  him  the  ' '  Revealed  Word  "  was 
written  in  the  sciences,  and  his  translations  and  commentaries  on 
that  Scripture  will  not  perish  until  "the  great  globe  itself  and  all 
which  it  inherit  shall  dissolve,"  and  there  shall  be  no  more  use  for 
commentaries.  "I  say  once  more,"  declares  Huxley,  with  em- 
phatic repetition,  "Tyndall  was  not  merely  theoretically  but  prac- 
tically in  all  things  sincere."  The  value  of  a  man  of  genius  with 
qualities  like  that  is  great  in  any  age,  but  how  priceless  was  it  fifty 
years  ago,  when,  in  the  language  of  Professor  Huxley,  "  the  evan- 
gelical reaction,  which,  for  a  time,  had  braced  English  society  was 
dying  out,  and  a  scum  of  rotten  and  hypocritical  conventionalism 
clogged  art,  literature,  science,  and  politics."  So  true  was  Tyn- 
dall to  the  lessons  he  learned  from  nature,  that,  and  again  I  quote 
from  Huxley,  "he  saw,  in  a  manner,  the  atoms  and  molecules, 
and  felt  their  pushes  and  pulls."  To  Tyndall,  wherever  he  found 
it,  a  lie  was  a  lie.  It  might  be  socially  respectable,  but  no  con- 
ventional etiquette  could  persuade  him  to  give  it  any  toleration  ; 


nor  was  he  ever  imposed  upon  by  the  homeopathic  principle  that 
a  lie  might  be  sometimes  useful  as  a  cure  for  some  other  lie.  With- 
out the  advantages  of  high  birth,  patronage,  or  fortune,  he  fought 
his  way  upward  against  an  army  of  errors,  and  the  truth  is  clearer 
to  us  because  of  him.  M    M.  Trumbull. 


NOTES. 

We  have  received  from  the  Messrs.  George  Bell  &  Sons,  of 
London,  through  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  "The  Revelation  of  St. 
John  the  Divine,  with  Notes  Critical  and  Practical,"  by  the  Rev. 
M.  F.  Sadler.  Rector  of  Honiton  and  prebendary  of  Wells.  (Pp. 
298  Price,  Si. 75.)  This  book  constitutes  the  last  volume  of  the 
"Church  Commentary  on  the  New  Testament,"  by  Mr.  Sadler. 
The  commentaries  on  the  four  Gospels,  the  Acts,  and  the  Epistles 
have  already  appeared.  The  notes  are  practical  enough,  but  can 
hardly  be  classed  as  "critical." 


Professor  Haeckel  writes  us  that  his  brochure,  "Monism,  A 
Scientist's  Confession  of  Faith,"  which  was  discussed  in  No  282 
of  The  Open  Court,  is  now  polizeilich  verfo/gt.  The  pamphlet  has 
run  through  five  editions  in  five  months. 

We  have  received  from  Wilbelm  Engelmann,  of  Leipsic,  a 
four-paged  table  of  the  integral 


*()) 


hi' 


compiled  by  Bruno  K'arapfe.      It  is  from   Meyer's  IViilirscheinliili' 
keitsrechnung.     (Price,  60  pf. ) 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  32+  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 


N.  B.  Binding  Cases  for  single  yearly  volumes  of  The  Open  Cour 
be  supplied  on  order.    Price,  75  cents  each.  • 


CONTENTS  OF  NO.  334. 

TYNDALL.      Moncure  D.  Conway 3943 

THE  STATE  A  PRODUCT  OF  NATURAL  GROWTH. 

Editor 3944 

GOETHE  AND  SCHILLER'S  XENIONS.      (Continued.) 

Editor 3948 

CURRENT  TOPICS  :  Hunger  for  Office.  The  Colored 
People  and  the  World's  Fair.  Etiquette  at  Washing- 
ton. Something  in  a  Name.  John  Tyndall.  Gen.  M. 
M.  Trumbull. 3949 

NOTES 3950 


The  Open  Court. 


A   ■MTEEJCLY  JOURNAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  335.      (Vol.  VIII.— 4. 


CHICAGO,  JANUARY  25,   1894. 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  fall  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


A  NEWLY  DISCOVERED  WORK   BY  THOMAS   PAINE 

BY  MONCURE  D.   CONWAY. 

London,  December  27,  1893. 

On  this  day,  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  Paine's 
imprisonment  in  the  Luxembourg,  I  am  able  to  an- 
nounce, through  The  Open  Court,  my  discovery  of  a 
very  interesting  production  of  his.  It  is  without  date, 
but  clear  internal  evidence  proves  it  to  have  been  be- 
gun in  April  or  May,  1791,  and  concluded  in  July  of 
the  same  year.  The  first  part  of  "  Rights  of  Man" 
had  appeared  in  London  March  13,  1791,  and  Paine's 
friend  Lauthenas's  translation  appeared  in  May.  This 
new  document  shows  that  Paine  (then  in  Paris)  had 
already  begun  to  write  his  Part  II  (which  appeared 
February  17,  1792),  for  he  alludes  to  a  point  dealt  with 
in  it,  and  adds,  "it  is  being  considered  in  a  work  of 
mine  now  in  course  of  composition."  Several  points 
are  made  which  were  reproduced  in  Part  II.  This 
paper  was  evidently  not  written  for  publication.  It 
was  elicited  by  four  questions  put  to  Paine,  proba- 
bly by  Condorcet,  though  perhaps  by  Lafayette,  as  to 
(i)  whether  the  basis  of  the  Constitution  was  good  ; 
(2)  whether  the  legislative  and  executive  powers  were 
not  unequally  balanced  in  the  Constitution  submitted 
by  the  National  Assembly ;  (3)  whether  the  single 
chamber  of  legislature  was  best  ;  (4)  whether  the  sys- 
tem of  administration  was  not  so  complicated  as  to 
tend  to  anarchy.  The  manuscript  was  kept  by  Con- 
dorcet until  1792,  when  he  translated  it,  and  it  was 
printed  in  the  Chroniqiie  du  Mois  (May,  June,  July), 
where  it  has  remained  buried  and  forgotten  ever  since. 
The  Rights  of  Man  being  Paine's  religion,  the  evolu- 
tion of  his  Quakerism,  he  easily  answers  the  first  ques- 
tion.     He  says  : 

"  The  basis  of  the  Constitution  being  no  other  than  the  rights 
of  man,  it  rests  on  truths  so  well  demonstrated  that  they  can  no 
longer  be  a  subject  of  discussion.  I  will  merely  quote  and  apply 
to  those  who  dispute  them  the  well-known  saying,  '  The  fool  hath 
said  in  his  heart,  there  is  no  God.' " 

With  regard  to  the  question  relating  to  a  balance 
between  the  executive  and  legislative  powers,  he  main- 
tains that  there  are  really  only  two  divisions  of  govern- 
mental powers  :  the  making  of  laws,  and  their  execu- 
tion or  administration.      If  they  both  have  their  source 


in  the  nation,  they  naturally  co-operate   for  the   na- 
tional welfare. 

"  If  any  mutual  invasion  of  these  two  powers  be  possible,  it  is 
as  possible  on  the  part  of  the  one  as  of  the  other  ;  and  in  this  alter- 
native I  should  deem  the  nation  safer  where  an  elected  legislative 
body  should  possess  itself  of  the  executive,  than  where  a  non- 
elected  executive  should  assume  the  power  of  making  laws. 

' '  Independently  of  these  considerations,  I  own  that  I  do  not 
see  how  a  government  can,  with  any  exactness,  be  compared  to  a 
pair  of  scales.  What  is  there  to  balance  ?  A  balance  suggests  the 
idea  of  opposition.  This  figure  of  speech  is,  I  think,  borrowed 
from  England,  where  circumstances  had,  at  first,  given  it  some 
appropriateness.  The  English  government  being  a  tyranny  founded 
on  the  Norman  Conquest,  the  nation  has  constantly  sought  a  coun- 
terpoise to  what  it  could  not  remove.  .  .  .  But  the  metaphor  of  a 
pair  of  scales  is  inconceivable  in  a  country  where  all  the  powers  of 
government  have  a  common  origin." 

With  reference  to  the  question  as  to  the  executive 
being  too  weak,  Paine  affirms  that  the  legislature  is 
equally  interested  with  the  executive  that  the  adminis- 
tration should  be  adequate  to  enforce  the  laws  passed. 
The  difficulty  is,  he  thinks,  that  monarchical  power  is 
still  attached  to  the  idea  of  executive  power.  On  the 
third  question, — the  relative  advantages  of  the  single 
and  the  bi-cameral  legislature, — he  offers  his  scheme, 
afterwards  elaborated  in  "Rights  of  Man,"  Part  II,  for 
dividing  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  lot,  into 
two,  which  are  to  discuss  each  measure  separately,  and 
vote  together.  One  division  will  have  the  advantage 
of  listening  to  the  debate  of  the  other,  without  being 
committed  to  either  side. 

On  the  fourth  question,  whether  so  complex  an  ad- 
ministration may  not  lead  to  anarchy,  Paine  thinks 
that  most  of  such  defects  may  be  amended  by  expe- 
rience, if  provision  be  made  for  periodical  (seven-year) 
revisions  of  the  Constitution.  He  much  prefers  this 
definite  necessity  of  revision  to  a  vague  and  general 
permission  of  amendment.  The  science  of  govern- 
ment, he  says,  is  only  beginning  to  be  studied,  and  ex- 
perience should  be  steadily  brought  to  bear  on  it. 
Here  is  a  characteristic  passage  : 

' '  I  am  very  decided  in  the  opinion  that  the  sum  of  necessary 
government  is  much  less  than  is  generally  thought,  and  that  we 
are  not  yet  rid  of  the  habit  of  excessive  government.  If  I  ask  any 
one  to  what  extent  he  thinks  himself  in  need  of  being  governed,  he 
gives  me  to  understand  that  in  his  case  '  a  little  would  be  enough ' ; 
and  I  receive  the  same  answer  from  every  one.     But  if,  reversing 


3952 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  question,  I  ask  the  same  man  what  amount  of  government  he 
deems  necessary  for  another,  he  then  answers,—'  a  great  deal.'  As 
that  other  person  decides  the  question  in  the  same  way  for  every- 
body else,  the  result  of  all  these  answers  is  excess  of  government. 
I  conclude  therefore  that  the  amount  really  necessary  is  to  be  found 
between  these  two.  It  is,  namely,  a  little  more  than  each  wants 
for  himself,  and  a  good  deal  less  than  he  thinks  necessary  for  oth- 
ers. Excess  of  government  only  tends  to  incite  to  and  create  crimes 
which  else  had  not  existed." 

This  essay  covers  twenty-four  folio  pages,  and  I 
must  consider  the  space  of  The  Open  Court.  There  is 
much  sagacious  criticism  on  the  Constitution  in  ques- 
tion, but  as  that  instrument  soon  expired,  I  omit  that 
part,  and  quote  the  eloquent  conclusion,  which,  in  the 
perspective  of  a  century,  is  a  notable  illustration  of  the 
rosy  dawn  of  the  Revolution  that  went  down  in  blood. 
"It  is  not  impossible — nay,  it  is  even  probable, — that  the 
whole  system  of  government  in  Europe  will  change,  that  the  fero- 
cious use  of  war, — that  truly  barbarous  cause  of  wretchedness,  pov- 
erty, and  taxation, — will  yield  to  pacific  means  of  putting  an  end  to 
quarrels  among  nations.  Government  is  now  being  revolutionised 
from  West  to  East  by  a  movement  more  rapid  than  the  impulse  it 
formerly  received  from  East  to  West.  I  wish  the  National  Assem- 
bly may  be  bold  enough  to  propose  a  Convention  elected  by  the 
different  peoples  of  Europe  for  the  general  welfare  of  that  portion 
of  the  world.  Freedom  for  ourselves  is  merely  happiness ;  it  be- 
comes virtue  when  we  seek  to  enable  others  to  enjoy  it. 

"A  journey  has  prevented  my  finishing  sooner  this  letter,  be- 
gun more  than  five  weeks  ago.  Since  that  time  circumstances  have 
changed  in  France,  owing  to  the  flight  and  arrestation  of  Louis 
XVI.  Every  successive  event  incites  man  to  reason.  He  proceeds 
from  idea  to  idea,  from  thought  to  thought,  without  perceiving  the 
immense  progress  he  is  making.  Those  who  believe  that  France 
has  reached  the  end  of  its  political  knowledge  will  soon  find  them- 
selves, not  only  mistaken  but  left  behind,  unless  they  themselves 
advance  at  the  same  rate.  Every  day  brings  forth  something  new. 
The  mind,  after  having  fought  kings  as  individuals,  must  look  upon 
them  as  part  of  a  system  of  government ;  and  conclude  that  what 
IS  called  Monarchy  is  only  a  superstition,  and  a  political  fraud,  un- 
worthy of  an  enlightened  people.  It  is  with  monarchy  as  with  all 
those  things  which  depend  on  some  slavish  habit  of  mind. 

"  Could  we  draw  a  circle  round  a  man,  and  say  to  him  ;  you 
cannot  get  out  of  this,  for  beyond  is  an  abyss  ready  to  swallow  you 
up — he  will  remain  there  as  long  as  the  terror  of  the  impression 
endures.  But  if,  by  a  happy  chance,  he  sets  one  foot  outside  the 
magic  circle,  the  others  will  not  be  slow  to  follow. " 

Such  was  the  man  whom  Washington's  Minister  in 
France  managed  to  get  imprisoned,  and  under  the  im- 
pending guillotine  for  ten  terrible  months. 

Having  thus  given  a  brief  account  of  the  document, 
the  whole  of  which  will  appear  in  the  second  volume 
of  Paine's  Works  on  which  I  am  engaged,  let  me  recall 
a  few  facts  concerning  his  imprisonment,  on  the  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  which  I  am  writing.  Some  weeks 
before  Paine  had  been  denounced  in  the  Convention, 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  among  other  things  be- 
cause he  would  not  attend  its  bloodthirsty  sessions. 
This  meant  death.  His  friends,  the  Girondins,  had  all 
been  guillotined,  his  English  friends  fled,  and"  he  was 
left  alone  in  an  ancient  house  in  the  Faubourg  St. 
Denis.     Knowing  that  he  would  soon  be  arrested,  he 


devoted  himself  to  the  work  of  writing  the  "Age  of 
Reason,"  which  may  thus  be  regarded  as  his  dying  be- 
quest to  mankind.  He  wrote  on  it  night  and  day,  and 
finished  it  in  the  night  of  December  26,  1793.  On  the 
following  day  the  order  for  his  arrest  was  issued,  and 
on  December  28  he  was  taken  to  the  Luxembourg 
prison.  In  the  course  of  the  following  year  he  was  in- 
cluded in  the  list  of  prisoners  who  were  to  be  taken 
before  the  revolutionary  tribunal,  which  was  certain 
death.  He  was  ill  at  the  time,  and  when  the  agent 
went  through  the  prison  corridor  to  mark  the  doors  of 
the  doomed,  some  physicians  were  with  him,  and  his 
door  was  wide  open  against  the  outer  wall.  So  the  chalk 
mark  was  made  on  the  inside  of  the  door.  Whether 
this  was  by  connivance  of  some  friendly  official,  or  by 
accident,  Paine  thus  escaped.  These  facts  will  add 
interest  to  the  following  letter,  written  by  Sampson 
Perry,  who  was  in  Paris  at  the  time,  and  which  I  have 
also  just  discovered.  It  has  escaped  all  of  Paine's 
biographers. 

' '  Mr.  Paine  speaks  gratefully  of  the  kindness  shown  him  by 
his  fellow  prisoners  of  the  same  chamber  through  his  severe  mal- 
ady, and  especially  of  the  skilful  and  voluntary  assistance  lent  him 
by  General  O'Hara's  surgeon.  He  relates  an  anecdote  of  himself. 
An  arret  of  the  committee  of  public  welfare  had  given  direction  to 
the  administrators  of  the  palace  to  enter  all  the  prisons  with  addi- 
tional guards,  and  dispossess  every  prisoner  of  his  knives,  forks, 
and  every  other  sharp  instrument ;  as  also  to  take  their  money  from 
them.  This  happened  a  short  time  before  Mr.  Paine's  illness  ;  and 
as  this  ceremony  was  represented  to  him  as  an  atrocious  plunder  in 
the  dregs  of  municipality,  he  determined  to  divert  its  effects  so  far 
as  it  concerned  himself.  He  had  an  English  bank-note  of  some 
value  and  gold  coin  in  his  pocket ;  and  as  he  conceived  the  visitors 
would  rifle  them,  as  well  as  his  trunks,  he  took  off  the  lock  from 
his  door,  and  hid  the  whole  of  what  he  had  about  him  in  its  inside. 
He  recovered  his  health, — he  found  his  money, — but  missed  about 
three  hundred  of  his  associated  prisoners,  who  had  been  sent  in 
crowds  to  the  murderous  tribunal,  while  he  had  been  insensible  of 
their  or  his  own  danger." 


THE  STATE  A  PRODUCT  OF  NATURAL  GROWTH. 

[continued.] 

THE  MODERN  STATE. 

The  State-ideal  of  classic  antiquity  (expressed  in 
Plato's  books  "On  the  State"  and  "On  Laws";  in 
Aristotle's  "Politics,"  and  in  Cicero's  fragmentary  es- 
say "On  the  State")  exhibits,  alongside  of  a  rev- 
erence for  the  State,  a  disregard  for  the  weal  of  its 
citizens.  The  mediaeval  conception,  mainly  repre- 
sented by  Thomas  Aquinas's  work,  "  De  Rebus  Publi- 
cis  et  Principum  Institutione,"  and  also  by  Dante's 
"  De  Monarchia,"  founds  the  State  upon  the  theolog- 
ical thesis  that  the  government's  authority  is  a  divine 
institution  :  the  last  great  representation  of  this  vie-\v, 
in  a  modernised  form,  is  Stahl's  "  Philosophy  of  Law." 
Against  the  oppressions  which  were  sanctioned  by  a 
wrong  enforcement  of  the  absolute  authority  of  the 
State  arose  another  conception,  which  may  be  called 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3953 


the  State-ideal  of  individualism.  The  individualistic 
conception  represents  the  State  as  a  social  contract. 
Its  most  important  advocates  are  Hobbes,  Locke,  Gro- 
tius,  Puffendorf,  Montesquieu,  and  Rousseau. 

It  is  more  than  doubtful  whether  it  is  possible  to 
realise  a  truly  individualistic  State,  for  the  most  thor- 
oughgoing individualists  deny  all  the  essential  rights 
of  States  and  will  inconsistently  have  to  accept  anar- 
chism. The  individualistic  principle,  nevertheless,  in- 
troduces a  new  element  which  constitutes  the  very 
nerve  of  the  modern  State-ideal. 

While  recognising  the  authority  of  the  State  to 
make  laws,  (and  no  law  is  a  law  unless  it  is,  when  not 
willingly  obeyed,  enforced,)  we  do  not  advocate  the 
old  view  of  the  State  which  splits  the  nation  into  two 
discrete  parts,  the  government  and  its  subjects,  the 
rulers  and  the  ruled.  The  modern  State-ideal  differs 
from  the  old  conception.  It  knows  no  rulers,  but 
only  administrators  of  the  common  will.  The  mod- 
ern State-ideal  knows  i;io  sovereign  kings,  emperors, 
or  presidents;  it  knows  only  servants  of,  the  State. 
And  this  ideal  of  the  modern  State  was  (strangely 
enough  !)  propounded  and  partly  practised  for  the  first 
time  by  a  monarch  on  the  continent  of  Europe  at  a  time 
when  monarchs  were  still  recognised  as  possessing 
absolute  power.  This  innovator  is  Frederick  the 
Great,  author  of  the  famous  book  "Antimachiavelli, " 
who,  although  born  to  a  throne,  was  conscious  of  the 
duties  of  the  throne  and  scorned  the  arrogant  preten- 
sions of  the  sovereigns  of  his  time  whose  poor  ethical 
maxim  had  been  condensed  by  the  French  king,  Louis 
XIV,  into  the  famous  sentence,  L'etat,  c'est  mot ! 

Frederick  wrote  to  the  young  King  Charles  Eugene 
of  Wiirtemberg  (1744)  : 

"  Do  not  think  that  the  country  of  Wiirtemberg  is  made  for 
your  sake,  but  the  reverse  ;  providence  has  made  you  in  order  to 
make  your  people  happy.  You  must  always  prefer  its  welfare  to 
your  pleasure." 

In  the  "  Memoir  of  Brandenburg,"  1748,  he  wrote  : 

"  A  prince  is  the  first  servant  and  the  first  magistrate  of  the 
State,  and  it  is  his  duty  to  give  account  to  the  State  for  the  use  he 
makes  of  the  public  taxes." 

The  same  idea  is  inculcated  in  his  last  will  (written 
1769): 

' '  I  recommend  to  all  my  kin  to  live  in  good  concord,  and  if  it 
need  be  to  sacrifice  their  personal  interests  to  the  weal  of  the  coun- 
try and  to  the  advantage  of  the  State." 

Frederick's  idea  does  away  with  the  personal  sov- 
ereignty of  rulers  and  makes  the  State  itself  sovereign  ; 
it  abolishes  rulers  as  such  and  changes  them  into  ad- 
ministrators of  a  nation's  public  interests  and  into  com- 
missioned executors  of  the  common  will. 

If  this  is  true  of  monarchies,  it  is  still  more  true  of 
republics.  The  President  of  the  United  States  is  not 
the  temporary  sovereign,  but  the  first  servant  of  the 


nation,  commissioned  to  attend  to  certain  more  or  less 
well-defined  duties. 

The  modern  State-ideal  has  been  matured  by  the 
individualistic  tendencies  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  reason  is  obvious  :  The  modern  State-ideal  imposes 
the  same  obligations  upon  rulers  as  upon  subjects,  and 
elevates  accordingly  the  dignity  of  the  subject.  It 
makes  all  alike  subject  to  duty,  thus  recognising  law 
simply  as  an  expression  of  the  superhuman  world- 
order.  Yet,  although  the  modern  State  adopts  the 
principle  of  individualism  by  recognising  the  inaliena- 
bility, as  it  has  been  styled,  of  certain  rights  of  its  citi- 
zens, we  cannot  say  that  individualistic  philosophers 
have  succeeded  in  establishing  a  tenable  philosophy 
of  law  or  in  shaping  the  true  State-ideal  either  of  their 
own  times  or  of  the  future. 

*  * 

Rousseau,  in  his  book  "  Le  contract  social,"  makes 
a  very  keen  distinction  between  the  will  of  all  and  the 
common  will,  saying  that  the  former  is  dependent  upon 
private  interests,  while  the  latter  looks  to  the  common 
weal.  The  former  is  only  "the  sum  of  the  individual 
wills."  If  Rousseau  had  consistently  applied  this  dis- 
tinction to  his  theories,  his  favorite  error  of  the  social 
contract  would  have  been  seriously  endangered. 

The  common  will  is  the  product  of  social  life,  it  is 
the  will  of  establishing  the  solid  foundations  of  peace- 
able interrelations  among  the  members  of  a  commun- 
ity, and  this  will  can  originate  even  though  all  single 
individuals  may  attempt  to  escape  from  its  enactments. 
There  being  the  stern  necessity  of  social  bonds  un- 
der penalty  of  destruction  to  the  \Yhole  community, 
the  common  will  develops  as  a  most  powerful  moral 
feature  in  every  single  member  of  the  tribe  as  a  kind  of 
tribal  conscience  demanding  universal  obedience  to 
certain  general  rules  or  laws.  All  the  citizens  of  a  com- 
munity may  agree  in  this,  that  everybody  regards  him- 
self as  exempt.  Such  a  state  of  affairs  would  make  a 
State  very  unruly  without,  however,  necessarily  anni- 
hilating the  common  will  and  therewith  the  State  it- 
self. For,  we  repeat,  the  common  will  is  different  from 
the  sum  total  of  all  wills  ;  and  the  enactments  of  the 
common  will  might  on  the  contrary  be,  and  usually  are, 
in  such  anarchical  conditions,  only  the  more  severely 
enforced.  The  more  the  execution  of  the  common  will 
is  assured,  the  more  leniency  is  possible  ;  the  more  pre- 
carious its  existence,  the  more  relentless,  ruthless,  and 
cruel  have  been  its  enactments. 

*  * 

The  individualistic  philosophy  always  had  trouble 
in  accounting  for  such  facts  as  States  and  other  super- 
individual  institutions.  In  explaining  them  they  always 
fall  back  upon  individuals,  as  if  the  individual  mem- 
bers of  human  society  had  first  existed  singly  as  human 
beings  and  had  created  their  language,  laws,  religions. 


3954 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


or  any  other  interrelations  by  mutual  consent,  by  a 
tacit  contract,  Biffst  not  cpvasi,  by  designing  artificial 
plans  and  not  in  the  course  of  a  natural  growth.  Thus 
Mr.  Spencer,  a  chief  representative  of  individualism, 
explains  the  evolutionary  origin  of  institutions,  cus- 
toms, religious  dogmas,  etc.,  as  follows: 

• '  The  will  of  the  victorious  chief,  of  the  strongest,  was  the 
rule  of  all  conduct.  When  he  passed  judgment  on  private  quarrels 
his  decisions  were  the  origin  of  law.  The  mingled  respect  and  ter- 
ror inspired  by  his  person,  and  his  peerless  qualities,  then  deemed 
supernatural  by  the  rude  minds  that  had  scarcely  an  idea  of  the 
powers  and  limits  of  human  nature,  were  the  origin  of  religion,  and 
his  opinions  were  the  first  dogmas.  The  signs  of  obedience,  by 
which  the  vanquished  whom  he  spared  repaid  his  mercy,  were  the 
first  examples  of  those  marks  of  respect  that  are  now  called  good 
manners  and  forms  of  courtesy.  The  care  he  took  of  his  person, 
his  vestments,  his  arms,  became  models  for  compulsory  imitation  ; 
such  was  the  origin  of  fashion.  From  this  fourfold  source  are  de- 
rived all  the  institutions  which  have  so  long  flourished  among  civil- 
ised races,  and  which  prevail  yet."  * 

This  shows  a  palpable  misconception  of  the  real 
problem.  In  some  of  these  primitive  States  and  tribal 
principalities  a  chief  rules  supreme  and  commands, 
in  certain  affairs,  absolute  obedience.  We  say  "in 
some,"  not  "in  all"  of  these  States,  for  the  savage 
States  are  as  different  among  themselves  as  are  the 
States  of  civilised  mankind.  There  are  perhaps  as 
many  democracies  in  darkest  Africa  as  absolute  mon- 
archies. Mr.  Spencer's  view  of  the  origin  of  religion, 
ceremonies,  and  fashions,  is  not  correct.  For  although 
a  chief  may  be  omnipotent  as  a  commander  in  war,  he 
will  be  unable  to  bring  about  a  change  of  the  religious 
ideas  of  his  subjects.  A  chief's  power  is  not  the  creator 
of  the  common  will  in  a  tribe  which  makes  institutions, 
religion,  ceremonies,  and  fashions,  but  the  reverse,  his 
power  as  a  chief  is  its  product.  The  members  of  the 
tribe  obey  him,  because  the  common  will  enacts  obe- 
dience. Mr.  Spencer,  accordingly,  puts  the  car  before 
the  horse.  He  is  blind  to  the  real  problem.  Instead 
of  explaining  the  authority  of  the  chief  from  the  com- 
mon will  organised  in  a  primitive  State-institution,  he 
explains  the  existence  of  the  State-institution  by  the 
authority  of  the  chief. 

Individualism  ought  not  to  be  made  a  theory  of  ex- 
planation, for  it  is  utterly  incorrect  and  explains  noth- 
ing. But  while  it  is  a  wrong  theory  it  is  nevertheless 
a  correct  principle  ;  it  stands  for  the  rights  of  all  indi- 
viduals and  demands  the  recognition  of  their  dignity. 
As  a  principle  it  is  a  factor,  and.  indeed  a  most  impor- 
tant one  in  social  life.  But  it  is  not  its  sole  principle, 
and  we  fall  into  confusion  when  we  use  it  as  an  ex- 
planation of  the  intricate  phenomena  of  the  develop- 
ment of  society  and  of  the  State. 

The  modern  State-ideal,  viz.,  the  individualistic 
State-conception  preserves  the  truth  of  the  ancient  and 

•  Quoted  from  **Outtine  of  the  Evolution-Philosophy.'^ 


mediaeval  conceptions,  but  together  with  them  it  em- 
bodies the  principle  of  individualism.  It  limits  the 
State  authority  by  the  moral  purpose  imposed  upon 
State-administrations,  but  in  doing  so,  it  raises  it  upon 
a  higher  level  and  sanctifies  its  existence. 

*  * 

There  is  a  notion  prevalent  concerning  republics, 
that  they  can  replace  the  royal  government  of  monar- 
chies only  by  a  government  of  majorities.  It  is  true 
that  most  republics,  including  our  own  country,  are 
sometimes  actually  ruled  by  a  majority.  If,  however, 
the  State  is  to  be  the  organisation  of  the  common  will, 
we  see  at  once  that  a  majority  rule  cannot  as  yet  be  the 
highest  ideal  of  a  State.  Majorities  can  only  be  called 
upon  to  decide  certain  questions  of  expediency,  they 
have  no  right,  either  to  tamper  with  the  inalienable 
rights  of  citizens,  or  to  twist  the  moral  maxims  upon 
which  the  State  institution  has  been  raised,  so  as  to  suit 
their  temporary  convenience,  or  even  to  pass  laws  that 
stand  in  contradiction  to  them.  Laws  passed  by  the 
majority  may  be  regarded  as  the  legislative  body's 
present  interpretation  of  the  moral  laws  that  underlie, 
like  a  divine  sanction,  the  existence  of  the  State  ;  but 
upon  him  who  is  convinced  that  the  laws  are  immoral, 
the  duty  devolves  to  use  all  legal  means  in  his  power 
to  have  them  repealed. 

The  most  important  legal  means  of  abolishing  im- 
moral or  unjust  laws  is  agitation,  so  that  Xh&  pro  and 
C071  of  a  question  can  be  openly  discussed.  Says  Mil- 
ton : 

"  Whoever  knew  Truth  put  to  the  worse  in  a  free  and  open 
encounter  ? " 

Freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  the  press,  freedom 
of  person  are  the  corner-stones  of  free  institutions. 
They  are  sacred  rights  which  no  majority  government 
should  dare  to  touch.  The  State  has  a  right  to  levy 
taxes,  provided  they  are  justly  proportioned  and  do 
not  greatly  exceed  its  necessary  expenses.  The  State 
is  also  entitled  to  demand  of  its  citizens  the  perfor- 
mance of  a  citizen's  duties,  which  in  times  of  need 
may  grow  into  extraordinary  sacrifices.  For  in  cases 
of  war  we  must  be  willing  to  offer  even  our  lives  for 
the  welfare  of  the  country.  But  the  State  has  no  right 
to  pass  laws  in  favor  of  certain  classes,  or  to  create 
monopolies,  or  to  prescribe  a  peculiar  kind  of  religious 
worship. 

There  are  some  questions  in  life,  and  also  in  the 
political  life  of  nations,  in  which  it  is  less  important 
hoiv  they  are  decided,  than  that  they  be  decided. 
Whether  a  travelling  party  shall  take  the  seven  o'clock 
train  or  the  eight  o'clock  train  is  perhaps  quite  imma- 
terial, the  only  requirement  being  that  either  the  one 
or  the  other  hour  be  decided  upon,  so  that  arrangements 
can  be  made  that  all  may  leave  together.  Such  ques- 
tions as  whether  a  public  enterprise  should  be  aided 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


39^^ 


with  one  million  dollars,  or  with  two,  or  not  at  all ; 
whether,  for  coast-defence,  ten  or  twelve  men-of-war 
should  be  built,  etc.,  etc.,  are  best  decided  by  majority 
votes.  They  become  actually  right  by  being  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  majority.  Real  moral  questions,  however, 
are  of  a  different  nature.  They  are  right  or  wrong, 
independently  of  majorities. 

No  majority  vote,  not  even  the  consensus  of  all, 
can  make  a  wrong  law  right.  The  majority  can  enforce 
bad  laws,  and  put  them  into  practice,  but  it  can  jus- 
tify them  as  little  as  a  ukase  of  the  Czar.  Even  the 
formal  legality  of  immoral  laws  may  be  doubted ;  for, 
even  though  it  be  the  expression  of  the  will  of  all,  it 
may  not  be  an  expression  of  the  common  will,  and  we 
have  learned  that  there  is  a  difference  between  the 
two,  and  the  authority  of  the  State  is  founded  upon 
the  latter,  not  the  former. 

We  do  not  intend  to  discuss  problems  of  casuistr}' 
with  reference  to  the  practical  politics  of  to-day,  but 
we  indicate  that  here  is  a  field  for  it.  There  may  be 
immoral  laws  which  it  is  our  duty  to  resist,  and  there 
are  other  immoral  laws  which  it  is  our  duty  to  suffer. 
Unequivocal  questions  of  right  or  wrong  are  right  or 
wrong  eo  ipso,  but  under  special  circumstances  it  be- 
comes needful  to  have  such  questions  endorsed  by  the 
legislative  bodies,  so  that  they  shall  bear  upon  them 
the  stamp  of  legality  and  no  wrong  construction  of 
them  shall  affect  the  order  of  the  State.  Doubtful 
questions  of  right  or  wrong,  however,  must  be  decided  ; 
as  long  as  they  are  doubtful,  they  can  only  be  decided 
provisionally,  and  we  have  as  yet  in  republics  as  in 
monarchies  no  other  means  of  deciding  them  than  by 
a  majority  vote  of  the  legal  authorities.  A  wrong  deci- 
sion does  not  make  wrong  right,  it  only  enforces  it ;  but 
so  long  as  we  have  no  better  means  of  testing  right  and 
wrong  we  must  employ  the  insufficient  method  we 
have  ;  we  have  to  count  votes,  instead  of  weighing 
them. 

The  system  of  deciding  questions  by  a  majority 
vote  is  a  mere  expediency,  we  grant  ;  but  it  is  the  only 
method  of  settling  doubtful  questions  that  must  be 
settled,  one  way  or  another ;  and  in  certain  public 
affairs  it  is  better  that  such  questions  be  wrongly  set- 
tled, than  not  settled  at  all.  We  grant  still  more  ;  we 
grant  that  this  method  does  not  prevent  the  passage  of 
bad  laws,  and  it  may  be  very  difficult  to  draw  the  line, 
where,  for  the  sake  of  public  peace,  they  should  be 
obeyed,  and  where  they  should  be  met  with  resistance. 
This  concession,  however,  is  by  no  means  an  indictment 
of  republican  institutions  and  their  methods  ;  for  the 
same  objection  must  be  made  against  the  laws  of  mon- 
archies; and  in  this  respect  monarchical  State  institu- 
tions have  sinned  in  no  less  degree  than  republics. 
Monarchies  have  not  only  made  the  very  same  mis- 
takes that  republican  authorities  have  made,  but  many 


additional  ones,  which  will  remain,  as  we  hope,  a  pe- 
culiar feature  of  monarchies. 


'  BE  CONTINUE 


GOETHE  AND  SCHILLER'S  XENIONS. 

[continued.] 
SCIENCE  AND  ART. 
GENIUS  A  GIFT. 
Born  is  the  poet,  'tis  said  ;  and  we  add,  the  philosopher  also. 
For,  it  is  certain  that  Truth     has  to  be  formed  to  be  seen. 

THE    LAW    OF    NATURE. 
Thus  it  was  always,  my  friend,  and  it  will  be  so  forever,  that  weak- 
ness 
Claims  in  its  favor  the  rule,     yet  it  is  strengh  that  succeeds. 

CREATION. 
Good  of  the  good,  I  declare,  each  sensible  man  can  evolve  it ; 

But  a  true  genius,  indeed,     good  of  the  bad  can  produce. 
Forms  reproduced  are  a  mere  imitation  ;  but  genius  createth  ; 

What  is  to  others  well  formed,     is  but  material  to  him. 

DIFFERENT  APPLICATIONS. 
Science  to  one  is  the  Goddess,  majestic  and  lofty,  —  to  th'  other 
She  is  the  cow  that  supplies     butter  to  put  on  his  bread. 

THE  POET  AND  THE  NATURALIST. 
Both  of  us  search  for  the  truth  ;  you  without,  and  I  in  the  inner 

Heart  of  myself.     And,  thus,     each  one  will  find  it  at  last. 
Is  clearsighted  your  eye,  it  will  meet  out  there  the  Creator. 

Is  but  healthy  my  heart,     clearly  it  mirrors  the  world. 

COLUMBUS. 
Sail,  O  sailor  courageous  !     Ne'er  mind  that  the  wits  will  deride 

thee. 
And  that  thy  boatswain  will  drop     tired  of  his  work  at  the  helm. 
Sail,  O  sail  on  for  the  West  :  There  the  land  must  rise  from  the 

ocean. 
As  your  vaticinal  mind     clearly  perceiveth  e'en  now. 
Trust  to  the  God  that  leads  thee,  and  cross  the  mysterious  ocean. 

If  the  land  did  not  exist,     now  would  it  rise  from  the  deep. 
Truly  with  genius,  Nature  has  made  an  eternal  alliance. 

What  he  has  promised,  forsooth,     she,  without  fail,  will   fulfil. 

NATURE. 
Myths  have  endowed  her  with  lite,  but  the  schools  disanimate  Na- 
ture. 
Yet  her  creatory  life     rational  insight  restores. 

THE  SUBLIME. 
Our  astronomers  say,  their  science  is  truly  subliraest; 
Aye;  but  sublimity,  sirs,     nowhere  existeth  in  space. 

FICTION. 
"  What  is  the  purpose  of  poetry  ?     Say  !  " — By  and  by  I  shall  tell 

you. 
First  of  the  real,  my  friend,     tell  me  the  purpose  and  use. 

TRUTH  AND  FORM. 
Truth  will  be  mighty  although  an  inferior  hand  should  defend  it. 
But  in  the  empire  of  art     form  and  its  contents  are  one. 

FOLLY  AND  INSANITY. 
Wit,  if  it  foolishly  misses  the  point,  is  greeted  with  laughter, 
But  when  a  genius  slips,     furious,  a  madman,  he  raves. 

ONENESS. 
Beauty  is  always  but  one,  though  the  beautiful  changes  and  varies, 
And  'tis  the  change  of  the  one,     which  thus  the  beautiful  forms. 


3956 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


WISDOM  AND  PRUDENCE. 
Will  you  attain,  my  dear  friend,  to  the  highest  summits  of  wisdom, 
Risk  it  and  don't  be  afraid,     should  you  by  prudence  be  scoffed. 
Prudence  shortsightedly  sees  of  the  shores  but  the  one  that  re- 

cedeth. 
But  she  can  never  discern     that  one  for  which  you  set  sail. 

CRITICAL  AND  PERSONAL. 

THE  GREAT  MOMENT. 
This  our  century,  verily,  has  produced  a  great  epoch, 

But  the  great  moment,  alas !     meets  with  a  very  small  race. 

TO  N.   O.   P. 

'Tis  a  great  pity,  dear  sirs,  to  espouse  the  right  cause  you  are 

anxious, 
But  you  are  void  of  good  sense  :     reason  and  judgment  are  gone. 

PHRASES  AND  THOUGHTS. 
Truly  you  may  for  a  time  palm  off  your  valueless  counters. 

But  in  the  end,  my  dear  sirs,     debts  must  be  paid  in  good  coin. 

THE  BROTHERS  STOLBERG. 
When  you  reviled  the  Olympian  gods,  threw  angry  Apollo 
You  from  Parnassus.    You  now     enter  the  heavenly  realm. 
[The  Stolberg  brothers  had  been  liberal,  but  suddenly  turned 
bigots.] 

THE    CONNOISSEUR. 
Ancient  vases  and  urns  !   Oh  how  easily  live  I  without  them  ! 
But  a  Majolica  pot     maketh  me  happy  and  rich. 

[The  pious  Stolberg,  exaggerating  the  value  of  Christian  art, 
while  deprecating  classic  taste,  said  that  he  would  give  a  whole 
collection  of  Greek  urns  for  one  Faience  vase  of  Raphael.] 

SENTIMENTALISTS. 
Never  thought  I  very  highly  of  people  who  are  sentimental. 
If  an  occasion  arrives     grossly  their  meanness  appears. 

[The  censure  is  true  in  its  generality  ;  but  the  Xenion  is  aimed 
at  a  man  (Johann  Heinrich  Jung,  whose  nom  de plume  was  Heinrich 
Stilling)  who  did  not  deserve  thiscastigation.] 

ARTIFICE. 
Do  you  desire  applause  of  the  worldly  as  well  as  the  pious. 
Paint  ye  licentiousness,  but — paint  ye  the  Devil  beside. 

[This  satirises  the  sensuous  novels  of  Timotheus  Hermes.] 
THE    PROPHET. 
Pity  'tis,  when  you  were  born,  that  Nature  created  but  one  man  ! 
Stuff  for  a  gentleman  is,     and  for  a  scoundrel,  in  you. 
[A  severe  description  of  Johann  Caspar  Lavater. ] 

wolf's  homer. 
Seven  Greek  cities  have  boasted  of  being  the  birthplace  of  Homer. 
Since  he  is  torn  by  the  Wolf,     every  one  taketh  its  piece. 

[Professor  Wolf  was  the  first  to  prove  that  the  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey  consisted  of  a  number  of  epic  poems  by  different  poets, 
which  were  collected  under  the  name  of  Homer.] 

A  SOCIETY  OF  learned  MEN. 
Every  one  of  them,  singly  considered,  is  sensible,  doubtless, 
But  in  a  body  the  whole     number  of  them  is  an  ass. 

taste  in  a  watering  place. 

This  is  a  singular  country  ;   the   springs  here  have  taste  and   the 

rivers  ; 
While  it  is  not  to  be  found     in  the  inhabitants'  minds. 
nicoi.ai. 
Nothing  he  likes  that  is  great ;  for  that  reason,  O  glorious  Danube, 
Nickel  traces  thy  course     till  thou  art  shallow  and  flat. 


[This  and  the  following  three  distichs  are  directed  against 
Nicolai,  who  was  a  great  publisher,  but  at  the  same  time  a  mediocre 
author,  shallow  and  conceited.] 

the  collector. 
War  he  wages  against  all  forms  ;  he  during  his  lifetime 
Only  with  trouble  and  pain     gathered  materials  in  heaps. 

THE  CRUDE  ORGAN. 
Can  you  not  touch  it  with  hands,  then,  O  blind  one,  you  think  it 

chimeric  ! 
And  'tis  a  pity  your  hands     sully  whatever  they  touch. 
A    MOTTO. 
Truth  I  am  preaching.      'Tis  truth  and  nothing  but  truth — under- 
stand me. 
My  truth,  of  course  !  For  I  know     none  to  exist  but  my  own. 

TO  THOSE  IN  AUTHORITY. 
Don't  be  disturbed  by  the  barking  ;  remain  in  your  seats,  for  the 

barkers 
Eagerly  wish  for  your  place,     there  to  be  barked  at  themselves. 
[Goethe  wrote  this  in  criticism  of   Reichardt's  praise  of  the 
French  Revolution.] 

THE  HALF-BIRD. 
Vainly  the  ostrich  endeavors  to  fly  :  he  but  awkwardly  saileth 
When  he  is  moving  his  feet     over  the  issueless  sand. 
[Also  directed  against  Reichardt.] 

DILETTANTE. 
Did  your  poem  succeed  in  a  language  worked  out  and  accomplished 
Shaping  your  verses  and  thoughts,     don't  think  its  poet  is  you. 

wanted. 
Wanted,  a  servant  who  writeth  a  legible  hand  and  who  also 
Fairly  can  spell,  but  he  must     leave  the  belles  lettres  alone 

TO   AN  AUTHOR. 
If  you  impart  to  us  that  which  you  know,  we'll  be  grateful  to  have  it. 
But  if  you  give  us  yourself — please,  my  friend,  leave  us  alone. 

TO  ANOTHER  AUTHOR. 
Please  do  not  try  to  teach  facts,  for  we  care  not  a  straw  for  the 

subject. 
All  we  do  care  for  are  facts     as  they  are  treated  by  you. 

[The  first  of  these  two  distichs  is  addressed  to  Karl  Philip 
Moritz,  author  of  an  interesting  novel  in  the  form  of  an  autobiog- 
raphy, "Anton  Reiser";  the  second  to  F.  H.  Jacobi,  who  had 
written  two  philosophical  novels,  "Woldemar"  and  "AUwill." 
The  difference  of  their  natures  is  sufficiently  characterised  in  the 
distichs.] 

PUNY  SCRIBBLERS. 
Don't  be  so  dainty,  dear  sirs.     Are  you  anxious  to  heap  on  each 

other 
Honors  and  praise,  you  should  rail     one  at  the  other  with  vim. 

A   DISCUSSION. 
One,  we  can  hear,  speaks  after  the  other,  but  no  one  replieth. 
Several  monologues  are,     certainly,  not  a  debate. 

[Directed  against  Plainer,  whose  philosophy  was  a  declama- 
tion of  platitudes.  The  distich  is  true  of  almost  all  the  debates 
that  take  place  in  literary  clubs  after  the  reading  of  a  paper.  ] 

ALARMING  ZEAL  OF  INVESTIGATION. 
Gentlemen,  boldly  dissect,  for  dissection  is  greatly  instructive. 
Sad  is  the  fate  of  the  frog     who  has  to  offer  his  legs. 

A  FLAW. 
Let  but  an  error  be  hid  in  the  stone  of  foundation.     The  builder 
Buildeth  with  confidence  on.     Never  the  error  is  found. 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


3957 


[Very  good  as  a  general  criticism.  Goethe,  however,  was  od 
a  wrong  track,  when  directing  this  distich  against  Newton's  theory 
of  color.] 

IN  COMPARISON  WITH  SOCRATES. 
Pythia  dubbed  him  a  sage  for  proudly  of  ignorance  bragging. 
Friend,  how  much  wiser  art  thou  ?    What  he  pretended,  thou  art. 

NATURE  AND  MORALITY. 

.MISREPRESENTED. 
Nature  is  holy  and  healthy  !    Yet  moralists  pillory  Nature. 
Reason's  divinity  is     vilely  by  bigots  debased. 

ENTHUSIAST  AND  NATURALIST. 
Had  you  the  power,  enthusiasts,  to  grasp  your  ideals  completely, 

Certainly  you  would  revere  Nature,     for  that  is  her  due. 
Had  you  the  power,  Philistines,  to  grasp  the  total  of  Nature, 

Surely  your  path  would  lead     up  to  ideal  domains. 

NATURE  AND  REASON. 
Reason  may  build  above  nature,  but  finds  there  emptiness  only. 
Genius  can  nature  increase;     but  it  is  nature  it  adds. 

PHILOSOPHER  AND  KIGOT. 
While  the  philosopher  stands  upon  earth,  eyes  heavenward  raising. 
Bigots  lie,  eyes  in  the  mud,     stretching  their  legs  to  the  skies. 

OUR  DUTY. 
Always  aspire  to  the  whole,  and  can  you  alone  independent 
Not  be  a  whole  of  yourself,     serve  as  a  part  of  the  whole. 

FRIEND  AND  ENEMY. 
Dear  is  the  friend,  whom  I  love  ;  but  the  enemy,  too,  is  of  value. 
Friends  have  encouraged  my  skill,    enemies  taught  me  the  ought. 

MOTIVES  AND  ACTION. 
"God  only  seeth  the  heart!" — Since  the  heart  can  be  seen  by 

God  only. 
Friend,  let  us  also  behold     something  that  is  not  amiss. 

DISTINCTION. 
There's  a  nobility,  too,  in  the  empire  of  morals.     For  common 
Natures  will  pay  with  their  deeds,     noble  ones  by  what  they  are. 

PERFECTION. 

No  one  resemble  the  other,  but  each  one  resemble  the  Highest ! 
How  is  that  possible  ?  Say  !     Perfect  must  ev'ry  one  be. 

GOODNESS  AND  GREATNESS. 
Only  two  virtues  exist.     O,  would  they  were  always  united  ! 
Goodness  should  always  be  great ;     greatness  should  always  be 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 

A  VERY  interesting  convention  composed  of  dairymen  from 
different  parts  of  the  country,  is  now  in  session  at  Chicago,  and  its 
purpose  is  to  organise  a  Dairymen's  National  Protective  Union. 
It  is  intended  to  be  a  sanitary  and  patriotic  society,  not  for  the 
benefit  of  the  members,  but  for  the  protection  of  the  people  against 
the  appetite  for  oleomargarine.  Adopting  the  ethics  of  all  such 
' '  Unions, "  the  dairymen  ' '  want  a  law  passed  "  for  the  suppression 
of  a  rival  industry,  and  for  "the  encouragement  of  high  grade 
dairy  products."  Although,  at  the  demand  of  the  dairymen,  oleo- 
margarine has  been  branded  by  the  State  Legislatures,  and  a  tax 
put  on  its  head  by  Congress,  it  still  gets  a  good  deal  of  patronage 
from  the  laboring  classes,  who  are  not  able  to  buy  "high  grade 
dairy  products."  In  spite  of  hostile  taxes,  the  sale  of  oleomarga- 
rine has  increased  and  is  increasing,  for  the  president  of  the  Na- 
tional Dairymen  complained  of  the  "constantly  increasing  manu- 


facture and  sale  of  bogus  butter  and  oleomargarine";  and  he  urged 
action  that  would  "put  an  end  to  the  traffic."  In  a  like  benevolent 
spirit,  the  National  Wool  Growers'  Association  "wanted  to  have 
a  law  passed  "  that  would  "put  an  end  to  the  traffic  in  shoddy." 
It  does  not  yet  appear  to  the  National  Dairymen  that  a  man  eats 
butterine  because  he  cannot  afford  to  buy  butter  ;  nor  to  the  Na- 
tional Wool  Growers  that  he  wears  a  shoddy  coat  because  he  can- 
not afford  to  wear  clothing  made  of  wool.  The  organisation  of  a 
Dairymen's  Protective  Union  comes  at  an  opportune  time  ;  be- 
cause, in  Chicago  at  least,  the  people  are  profoundly  thinking  of 
combining  themselves  into  a  Protective  Union  against  the  dairy- 
men. 

* 

Last  week  I  spoke  of  the  ravenous  raid  made  upon  the  new 
Mayor  by  the  brigade  of  patriots  who  called  upon  him  to  demand 
the  fulfilment  of  "election  promises."  Since  then,  the  siege  of 
the  City  Hall  has  been  pressed  with  so  much  vigor  that  the  Mayor 
has  been  compelled  to  evacuate  it,  and  he  has  retreated  to  some 
secret  citadel  where  he  is  hiding  himself  away.  As  the  papers  ex- 
press it  this  morning,  "  Mayor  Hopkins  has  been  driven  from  the 
City  Hall.  The  pressure  of  the  office-seekers  has  become  so  strong 
that  the  Mayor  could  not  stand  before  it."  His  retreat  is  known 
only  to  himself  and  his  private  secretary,  "who  bobbed  in  and 
out  of  the  City  Hall  all  day.  Each  time  he  went  to  the  Mayer's 
office  he  took  some  roundabout  way  which  baffled  the  attempts  of 
the  enterprising  and  unrewarded  politicians  who  hoped  to  search 
out  the  Mayor  by  following  his  private  secretary."  From  a  mili- 
tary point  of  view  the  strategy  of  the  Mayor  appears  to  be  well 
planned,  but  it  will  avail  him  nothing,  even  though  he  should  hide 
himself  on  Selkirk's  Island.  Had  Robinson  Crusoe  been  an  Amer- 
ican civil  officer  of  high  rank,  with  "patronage"  to  give,  he  would 
not  have  enjoyed  the  solitary  quietness  of  his  island  for  twenty- 
eight  years.  The  office-hunters  would  have  discovered  him  in 
twenty-eight  days  ;  and  as  for  Mayor  Hopkins,  he  will  not  be  hid- 
den for  twenty-eight  hours.  It  is  dollars  to  cents  that  he  will  be 
tracked  to  his  hole  in  the  ground  as  easily  as  the  foxhounds  find  a 
fox. 

*  * 

To  a  man  fond  of  luxurious  religion,  the  following  advertise- 
ment sent  by  a  correspondent  to  the  Sf.  /anus's  Gazette  is  as  tempt- 
ing as  venison  was  to  the  friar  of  orders  gray.  "  Church  Prefer- 
ment.— A  valuable  living  for  sale  in  the  suburbs  of  London.  Sale 
urgent.  Prospect  of  early  possession.  Net  income  nine  hundred 
pounds.  Light  work.  The  best  society.  Practically  no  poor. 
Beautiful  modern  church."  Here  is  offered  for  sale  a  fine  oppor- 
tunity to  serve  the  Lord  with  comfort,  and  get  for  the  service  nine 
hundred  pounds  a  year.  I  wonder  what  the  Twelve  Apostles  would 
have  thought  of  such  a  bit  of  "church  preferment,"  even  suppos- 
ing that  any  of  them  had  money  enough  to  buy  it,  which,  except- 
ing Matthew,  it  is  likely  none  of  them  bad.  If  life  is  worth  living 
at  all,  this  particular  "living"  is  properly  described  as  "valua- 
ble," and  as  the  sale  is  "urgent"  and  the  market  rather  dull,  the 
"preferment"  may  no  doubt  be  had  at  less  than  the  usual  rates 
for  property  of  that  kind.  The  religious  hope  that  the  present  in- 
cumbent will  soon  die  is  gracefully  thrown  into  the  bargain  as  a 
"prospect  of  early  possession,"  but  this  cheerful  promise  is  not  at 
all  to  be  relied  on,  for  longevity  is  very  conspicuous  in  clergymen 
whose  beneficies  are  coveted  by  men  who  have  bought  them  in  ex- 
pectancy. I  knew  a  case  of  that  kind — in  the  suburbs  of  London, 
too — where  the  incumbent  whose  early  death  had  been  stipulated 
for,  obstinately  refused  to  die.  The  patron  of  the  living  being  re- 
proached by  the  purchaser  of  it  for  selling  the  "prospect  of  early 
possession,"  excused  himself  by  saying,  "Well,  he  had  a  bad 
cough  and  three  doctors,  and  I  was  not  expecting  miracles."  This 
old  parson  held  on  to  his  "living"  for  more  than  twenty  years 
after  that,  and  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-three. 


3958 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


It  is  related  of  a  bishop  of  London  who  was  dying,  that  he 
called  his  servants  to  bid  them  farewell,  and  one  of  them,  thinking 
to  comfort  him,  said  ;  '  ■  Your  Lordship  is  going  to  a  better  place. ' 
"  No,  John,"  said  the  bishop,  "  there  is  no  better  place  than  old 
England."  He  was  right ;  there  is  no  better  place  than  old  Eng- 
land—for a  bishop,  or  for  the  incumbent  of  that  "  living"  in  the 
suburbs  of  London,  advertised  above.  Think  of  it,  nine  hundred 
pounds  a  year  and  "light  work  ";  hardly  anything  to  do,  because 
as  the  parishioners  belong  to  "  the  best  society,"  their  souls  are 
already  cured.  Then,  the  pleasure  of  preaching  in  a  "beautiful 
modern  church,"  not  a  cold  stone  temple  of  the  Gothic-rheumatic 
order,  but  a  warm  and  well-ventilated  house  of  worship,  whose 
plush  and  mahogany  give  to  the  eucharist  itself  a  fashionable  lone  ! 
The  spiritual  delights  of  this  coveted  ' '  living  "  would  be  very  much 
impaired  should  Lazarus  happen  to  call  at  the  parsonage  and  sit 
on  the  steps ;  but,  luckily  for  the  parson,  in  that  parish  there  are 
"practically  no  poor."  I  should  like  to  know  whereabouts  in  the 
suburbs  of  London  that  blessed  paradise  is.  I  have  never  found 
it,  although  those  delectable  suburbs  are  very  familiar  to  me.  A 
minister  of  the  gospel  who  keeps  the  sacraments  for  the  rich,  may 
have  a  delightful  time  of  it  here  below,  but  he  will  not  wear  a  very 
dazzling  halo  up  above,  and  I  fear  that  when  he  tries  to  enter  the 
celestial  gates,  he  may  be  sent  by  St.  Peter  down  to  the  lower  do- 
minions, where  there  are  "practically  no  poor." 
* 

The  tone  and  temper  of  the  speeches  made  in  Congress  justify 
the  opinion  that  the  members  would  make  excellent  foot-ball 
players  ;  and  a  game  between  the  Democrats  on  one  side  and  the 
Republicans  on  the  other  would  be  very  delightful— to  the  specta- 
tors ;  that  is,  if  the  honorable  members  worked  their  hands  and 
feet  as  viciously  as  they  exercise  their  tongues.  A  day  or  two  ago, 
a  member  of  the  House  classically  alluded  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States  as  "the  stuffed  prophet  of  Buzzard's  Bay  ";  and 
another,  at  the  end  of  an  exciting  and  vociferous  "  touch-down," 
said,  "I  have  done  up  the  Tammany  tiger,  and  I'd  like  to  tackle 
the  Kansas  gopher."  The  tiger  was  Mr.  Cochran,  and  the  gopher 
was  Mr.  Simpson.  Those  complimentary  arguments  are  very  much 
in  the  style  of  the  college  debating-club,  where  the  undeveloped 
youngsters  learn  statesmanship  by  the  aid  of  object-lessons,  as  our 
members  of  Congress  do.  Last  week  Mr.  Simpson,  in  order  to 
show  the  difference  between  woolen  goods  and  shoddy,  found  it 
necessary  to  display  an  old  coat  for  the  instruction  of  the  mem- 
bers, and  he  tore  it  up  in  the  presence  of  an  awe-stricken  assem- 
bly, in  order  to  show  how  frail  and  feeble  its  texture  was.  Imi- 
tating the  "gentleman  from  Kansas,"  Mr.  Bowers,  of  California, 
pleading  for  a  high  tariff  on  raisins,  actually  distributed  raisins 
among  the  members,  as  if  their  minds  were  too  feeble  to  compre- 
hend the  argument  without  help  from  the  visible  subject  of  it, 
raisins.  The  report  of  the  debate  informs  us  that  ■;  there  was 
great  scrambling  among  the  members,  especially  on  the  Demo- 
cratic side,  and  soon  half  the  House  was  complacently  munching 
the  fruit."  Mr.  Bowers  thought  that  he  might  convince  the  ap- 
petite, if  he  could  not  enlighten  the  mind. 
*         *         * 

In  his  admirable  essay  on  Tyndall,  which  appeared  in  The 
Open  Court  last  week,  Mr.  Moncure  D.  Conway  refers  to  the 
famous  "  prayer  gauge  "  proposed  by  Tyndall  several  years  ago, 
and  rejected,  curiously  enough,  by  the  very  persons  who  not  only 
believe  in  prayer,  but  who  actually  pray  for  health,  wealth,  rain, 
sunshine,  good  crops,  good  luck,  and  hundreds  of  other  things. 
While  I  do  not  believe  that  prayer  can  have  any  effect  on  the  laws 
of  the  material  universe,  I  am  not  at  all  certain  that  as  a  subjective 
stimulant  a  prayer  for  virtue  may  not  help  to  make  a  bad  man 
good  ;  and,  perhaps,  by  the  same  quality,  it  may  help  to  make  a 
sick  man  well.     "The  challenge,"  remarks  Mr.  Conway, "  was 


wrathfuUy  declined  by  the  churches,  but  it  had  its  effect,"  That 
the  challenge  was  wrathfully  declined  by  the  churches  is  astonish- 
ing, because  the  prayer-test  is  frequently  mentioned  in  the  Bible, 
and,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  many  important  theological  dis- 
putes were  decided  by  wager  of  prayer.  Of  this,  the  victory  won 
by  Elijah  over  the  prophets  of  Baal  at  Mount  Carmel  is  a  mem- 
orable example.  Besides,  in  England  and  America  the  "prayer 
gauge  "  is  recognised  and  established  in  the  laws  appointing  chap- 
lains, whose  official  duty  it  is  to  pray.  In  his  Thanksgiving  proc- 
lamation. Governor  Waite  of  Colorado  prayed  for  the  free  coinage 
of  legal-tender  silver  at  a  ratio  of  i6  to  i,  and  at  this  very  moment 
the  prayer-test  is  called  upon  to  settle  the  differences  in  the  Legis- 
lature of  that  State.  Here  is  what  appears  in  the  dispatches  of 
yesterday  from  Colorado  :  "In  the  Senate  this  afternoon  Parson 
Tom  Uzzel  prayed  that  there  may  be  a  giving  way  ;  and  that  the 
deadlock  stopping  legislation  and  causing  a  great  deal  of  criticism 
may  be  lifted  soon."  All  other  agencies  having  failed,  let  us  hope 
that  the  prayers  of  Parson  Tom  Uzzel  may  prevail. 

M.  M.  Trumbull. 


NOTES. 

Monday  next,  the  twenty-ninth  of  January,  will  be  the  one 
hundred  and  fifty-fourth  birthday  of  Thomas  Paine.  Our  readers 
will  find  Mr.  Moncure  D.  Conway's  article  in  the  present  number 
very  appropriate  reading  on  this  occasion. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  335. 

A     NEWLY      DISCOVERED      WORK     BY     THOMAS 

PAINE.     Moncure  D.  Conway 3951 

THE  STATE  A  PRODUCT  OF  NATURAL  GROWTH. 

(Continued.)    Editor 3952 

GOETHE  AND  SCHILLER'S  XEMIONS.     (Continued.) 

Editor 3955 

CURRENT  TOPICS  :  Against  Oleomargarine.  A  Raid 
of  Office-hunters.  Luxurious  Religion.  Object  Lessons 
in  Congress.  The  Prayer-gauge.  Gen.  M.  M.  Trum- 
bull     3957 

NOTES 3958 


^"^.O 


The  Open  Court. 


A  WEEKLY  JOURNAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  336.       (Vol.  VIII.— 5.) 


CHICAGO,  FEBRUARY  i,   1894. 


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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. — Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


SUFFRAGE  A  NATURAL  RIGHT. 

BY  ELIZABETH  CADY  STANTON. 

The  significance  of  suffrage  and  the  power  of  the 
ballot  have  been  idealised  by  statesman,  poet,  and 
artist  alike,  each  in  his  own  way.  In  the  heated  dis- 
cussions on  the  enfranchisement  of  the  Southern  Freed- 
men,  Charles  Sumner,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  said  : 

"  The  ballot  is  the  Columbiad  of  our  political  life,  and  every 
citizen  who  holds  it  is  a  full-armed  monitor." 

In  the  early  days  of  the  anti-slavery  and  temper- 
ance struggles,  in  urging  reformers  to  use  their  polit- 
ical power  at  the  polls  to  accomplish  their  objects,  the 
Rev.  John  Pierpont  said  of  the  ballot : 

"  A  weapon  that  comes  down  as  still 
As  snow-flakes  fall  upon  the  sod  ; 
But  executes  a  freeman's  will 

As  lightning  does  the  Will  of  God." 

At  the  birth  of  the  third  French  Republic,  in  one 
of  the  open  squares  in  Paris  a  monument  was  raised  to 
commemorate  the  advent  of  universal  suffrage.  The 
artist  had  carved  various  designs  and  mottoes  on  three 
sides  of  the  shaft,  and  on  the  fourth  stood  a  magnifi- 
cent lion,  his  paw  on  the  ballot-box,  with  a  sphinx-like 
questioning  look  as  to  the  significance  of  this  new  de- 
parture in  government.  He  seemed  to  say,  the  sacred 
rights  of  humanity  represented  here  I  shall  faithfully 
guard  against  all  encroachments  while  the  Republic 
stands. 

In  our  Republic  to-day  the  social,  civil,  political 
and  religious  rights  of  sixty-five  millions  of  people  all 
centre  in  the  ballot-box,  not  guarded  by  a  royal  lion, 
but  by  the  grand  declarations  of  American  statesmen 
at  the  foundation  of  our  Government.  In  their  in- 
spired moments  they  sent  their  first  notes  of  universal 
freedom  echoing  round  the  globe  in  these  words  :  "All 
men  are  created  equal."  "All  just  governments  de- 
rive their  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed." 
"Taxation  without  representation  is  tyranny." 

These  are  not  glittering  generalities,  high-sounding 
platitudes  with  no  practical  significance,  but  eternal 
truths,  on  the  observance  of  which  depend  the  free- 
dom of  the  citizen  and  the  stability  of  the  State.  The 
right  of  suffrage  is  simply  the  right  to  govern  one's 
self,  to  protect  one's  person  and  property  by  law. 
While   individual  rights,   individual  conscience  and 


judgment  are  the  basic  principles  of  our  republican 
government  and  Protestant  religion,  singularly  enough 
some  leading  politicians  talk  of  restricting  the  suffrage, 
and  even  suggest  that  we  turn  back  the  wheels  of  pro- 
gress by  repealing  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  amend- 
ments, that  charter  of  new  liberties,  irrespective  of 
race,  color,  and  previous  condition  of  servitude.  It  is 
well  for  such  as  these  to  consider  the  origin  of  rights. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  race,  when  every  man 
exercised  his  natural  right  of  self-protection  with  the 
free  use  of  the  sling  and  the  bow  and  arrow,  it  would 
have  been  the  height  of  tyranny  to  deprive  him  of  the 
rude  weapons  so  necessary  for  his  defence.  It  is 
equally  cruel  in  civilised  government  to  deprive  the 
citizen  of  the  ballot,  his  only  weapon  of  self-defence 
against  unjust  laws  and  self-constituted  rulers. 

In  the  inauguration  of  government,  when  men 
made  compacts  for  mutual  protection  and  surrendered 
the  rude  weapons  used  when  each  one  was  a  free 
lance,  they  did  not  surrender  the  natural  right  to  pro- 
tect themselves  and  their  property  by  laws  of  their 
own  making,  they  simply  substituted  the  ballot  for  the 
bow  and  arrow. 

Would  any  of  these  gentlemen  who  think  universal 
suffrage  a  blunder  be  willing  tcf  surrender  his  right, 
and  henceforth  be  subject  to  the  popular  will,  without 
even  the  privilege  of  a  protest  ? 

Does  any  thoughtful  man  really  believe  that  he  has 
a  natural  right  to  deprive  another  of  the  means  of  self- 
protection,  and  that  he  has  the  wisdom  to  govern  in- 
dividuals and  classes  better  than  they  can  govern 
themselves?  England's  experiment  with  Ireland,  Rus- 
sia with  Poland,  the  Southern  States  with  Africans,  the 
Northern  States  with  women,  all  prove  the  impossi- 
bility of  one  class  legislating  with  fairness  for  another. 

The  bitter  discontent  and  continued  protests  of  all 
these  subject  classes,  are  so  many  emphatic  denials  of 
the  right  of  one  man  to  govern  another  without  his 
consent.  Forbidden  by  law  to  settle  one's  own  quar- 
rels with  the  rude  weapons  of  savage  .life,  and  denied 
their  substitute  in  civilisation,  the  position  of  the  citi- 
zen is  indeed  helpless,  with  his  rights  of  person  and 
property  wholly  at  the  mercy  of  others. 

Such  is  the  real  position  of  all  citizens  who  are  de- 
nied the  right  of  suffrage.     They  may  have  favor§ 


396o 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


granted  them,  they  may  enjoy  many  privileges,  but 
they  cannot  be  said  to  have  any  sacred  rights. 

But  we  are  told  that  disfranchisement  does  not 
affect  the  position  of  women,  because  they  are  bound 
to  the  governing  classes  by  all  the  ties  of  family,  friend- 
ship, and  love,  by  the  affection,  loyalty,  and  chivalry 
that  every  man  owes  his  mother,  sister,  wife,  and 
daughter.  Her  rights  of  person  and  property  must  be 
as  safe  in  his  hands  as  in  her  own.  Does  woman  need 
protection  from  the  men  of  her  own  family  ? 

Let  the  calendars  of  our  courts  and  the  columns  of 
our  daily  papers  answer  the  question.  The  disfran- 
chisement of  woman  is  a  terrible  impeachment  of  the 
loyalty  and  chivalry  of  every  man  in  this  nation.  How 
few  have  ever  penned  one  glowing  period,  or  cast  one 
vote  for  woman's  emancipation. 

Speaking  of  class-legislation,  George  William  Cur- 
tis said  : 

"There  is  no  class  of  citizens,  and  no  single  citizen,  who  can 
safely  be  intrusted  with  the  permanent  and  exclusive  possession 
of  political  power.  It  is  as  true  of  men  as  a  class,  as  it  is  of  an 
hereditary  nobility,  or  of  a  class  of  property-holders.  Men  are 
not  wise  enough,  nor  generous  enough,  nor  pure  enough  to  legis- 
late fairly  for  women.  The  laws  of  the  most  civilised  nations  de- 
press and  degrade  women.  The  legislation  is  in  favor  of  the  legis- 
lating class." 

Buckle,  in  his  "History  of  Civilisation,"  says  : 

"  There  is  no  instance  on  record  of  any  class  possessing  power 
without  abusing  it." 

And  even  if  all  men  were  wise,  generous,  and  hon- 
orable, possessed  of  all  the  cardinal  virtues,  it  would 
still  be  better  for  women  to  govern  themselves,  to  ex- 
ercise their  own  capacities  and  powers  in  assuming 
the  responsibilities  of  citizenship. 

Whenever  and  wherever  the  right  of  suffrage  has 
not  proved  beneficial,  it  has  not  been  because  the  citi- 
zen had  too  many  rights,  but  because  he  did  not  know 
how  to  use  them  for  his  own  advantage. 

We  are  continually  pointed  to  the  laboring  masses 
and  the  Southern  Freedmen  to  show  the  futility  of  suf- 
frage. If  our  campaign  orators  in  all  the  elections 
would  educate  the  masses  in  the  principles  of  political 
economy,  instead  of  confusing  them  with  clap-trap 
party  politics,  they  would  better  understand  their  true 
interests  and  vote  accordingly.  Instead  of  repealing 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  amendments,  multiply 
schools,  teachers,  lecturers,  preachers  in  the  South 
and  protect  the  freedman  in  the  exercise  of  his  rights. 
Our  mistake  in  the  South,  when  we  had  the  power, 
was  not  in  securing  to  the  blacks  their  natural  rights, 
but  in  not  holding  those  States  as  Territories  until  the 
whites  understood  the  principles  of  republican  govern- 
ment and  the  blessings  of  individual  freedom  for  others 
as  well  as  themselves. 

George  William  Curtis  says  : 


"There  is  no  audacity  so  insolent,  no  tyranny  so  wanton,  as 
the  spirit  which  says  to  any  human  being,  or  to  any  class  of  human 
beings,  '  you  shall  be  developed  just  as  far  as  we  choose,  and  as 
fast  as  we  choose,  and  your  mental  and  moral  life  shall  be  subject 
to  our  pleasure'  !  " 

John  Stuart  Mill  says  : 

"  There  ought  to  be  no  pariahs  in  a  full-grown  and  civilised 
nation  ;  no  persons  disqualified  except  through  their  own  default. 
....  Every  one  is  degraded,  whether  aware  of  it  or  not,  when 
other  people,  without  consulting  him,  take  upon  themselves  un- 
limited power  to  regulate  his  destiny.  No  arrangement  of  the  suf- 
frage, therefore,  can  be  permanently  satisfactory  in  which  any 
person  or  class  is  peremptorily  excluded  ;  in  which  the  electoral 
privilege  is  not  open  to  all  persons  of  full  age  who  desire  it." 

The  distinctions  lexicographers  make  between  the 
elective  franchise  and  suffrage,  mark  the  broad  differ- 
ence between  privileges  and  rights.  While  suffrage 
recognises  the  natural  rights  of  the  individual,  the 
elective  franchise  recognises  privileged  classes.  It  is 
these  contradictory  definitions,  of  phrases  some  con- 
strue to  mean  the  same  thing,  that  has  given  rise  to 
the  theory  that  the  suffrage  is  a  political  privilege. 

Gratz  Brown  eloquently  said,  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate  in  that  memorable  discussion  on  the  District 
Columbia  Suffrage  Bill. 

"  Let  this  idea  of  suffrage  as  a  political  privilege  that  the  few 
may  extend  or  withhold  at  pleasure,  crystallise  in  the  minds  of  our 
people,  and  we  have  rung  the  death  knell  of  American  liberties." 

The  philosophy  of  suffrage  covers  the  whole  field 
of  individual  and  national  government.  For  the  former 
it  means  self-development,  self-protection,  self-sover- 
eignty. For  the  latter  it  means  a  rule  of  majorities  : 
"the  censensus  of  the  competent,"  the  protection  of 
the  people  in  all  their  public  and  private  interests.  I 
have  always  taken  the  ground  that  suffrage  is  a  natural 
right,  the  status  of  the  citizen  in  a  republic  is  the  same 
as  a  king  on  his  throne  ;  the  ballot  is  his  sceptre  of 
power,  his  crown  of  sovereignty. 

Whenever  and  wherever  the  few  were  endowed 
with  the  right  to  make  laws  and  choose  their  rulers, 
the  many  can  claim  the  same  origin  for  their  rights 
also.  We  argue  the  rights  of  persons  from  their  ne- 
cessities. To  breathe,  sleep,  walk,  eat,  and  drink, 
are  natural  rights,  necessary  to  physical  development. 
So  the  right  to  think,  express  one's  opinions,  mould 
public  sentiment,  to  choose  one's  conditions  and  en- 
vironments, are  necessities  for  psychical  development. 

By  observation,  we  decide  the  wants  of  animals, 
what  they  can  do,  their  degree  of  intelligence  and  treat 
them  accordingly.  So  in  the  study  of  human  beings, 
we  see  their  wants  and  needs,  their  capacities  and 
powers  and  from  their  manifestations,  we  argue  their 
natural  rights.  Children  early  show  a  determination 
to  have  their  own  way,  a  natural  desire  to  govern 
themselves.  Whoever  touches  their  playthings  with- 
out their  consent  arouses  their  angry  resistance,  show- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3961 


ing  the  natural  desire  to  own  property.  From  these 
manifestations  in  the  human  family,  at  all  ages  and  in 
all  latitudes,  we  infer  that  self-government,  the  pro- 
tection of  person  and  property  against  all  encroach- 
ments, are  natural  rights. 

Individual  freedom  comprises  freedom  in  all  de- 
partments of  nature,  the  acknowledgment  for  every 
man  of  the  full,  free  use  of  all  his  faculties.  But  it  is 
the  failure  on  the  part  of  one  individual  to  accord  to 
others  what  he  demands  for  himself,  that  causes  the 
conflicts  and  disputes  on  all  subjects.  Each  person 
strongly  individualised  maintains  that  his  theories  and 
line  of  action  must  be  right,  and  those  who  differ  from 
him  necessarily  wrong.  Here  comes  in  the  great  enemy 
of  individual  freedom  :  "  the  love  of  domination  "  ;  the 
strong  hereditary  feature  of  our  animal-descent,  which 
prevents  the  harmonious  development  of  the  oppressor 
as  well  as  the  oppressed. 

The  true  use  of  this  love  of  domination  is  in  gov- 
erning ourselves.  Every  person  given  to  introspec- 
tion is  conscious  of  contending  elements  in  himself, 
some  urging  him  to  the  highest  moral  rectitude,  under 
all  circumstances,  others  tempting  to  a  narrow  selfish 
egoism  to  exalt  one's  self  at  the  expense  of  his  fellows. 
Here  is  the  legitimate  use  of  domination  to  control  the 
evil  in  ourselves.  As  the  chief  business  of  life  is  char- 
acter-building, we  must  begin  by  self-discipline,  as 
thus  only  can  we  secure  individual  freedom.  It  is  more 
hopeless  to  be  the  slave  of  our  own  evil  propensities, 
than  to  be  subject  to  the  will  of  another. 

This  love  of  domination  is  the  most  hateful  feature 
of  human  nature,  antagonistic  alike  to  the  freedom  of 
the  individual  and  the  stability  of  the  State.  Just  as 
the  love  of  domination  retards  the  development  of  the 
individual,  so  it  prevents  the  realisation  of  republican 
principles  in  government.  Could  this  power  find  its 
legitimate  exercise  on  the  vices  and  crimes  of  society, 
on  the  fraud  and  corruption  in  high  places,  it  would 
no  longer  be  a  dangerous  element,  but  most  beneficent 
in  its  influences  and  far  reaching  consequences  on  civil- 
isation. 

Herbert  Spencer  speaking  of  the  nature  of  a  new 
social  science,  says : 

"  It  is  manifest  that  so  far  as  human  beings,  considered  as  so- 
cial units,  have  properties  in  common,  the  social  aggregates  they 
form  will  have  properties  in  common  ;  so  that  whether  we  look  at 
the  matter  in  the  abstract  or  the  concrete,  we  reach  the  same  con- 
clusion. And  thus  recognising  both  a  priori  and  a  posteriori, 
these  relations  between  the  phenomena  of  individual  nature,  and 
the  phenomena  of  incorporated  human  nature,  we  cannot  fail  to 
see  that  the  phenomena  of  incorporated  human  nature  form  the 
subject-matter  of  a  science." 

In  other  words,  the  manifestations  of  the  individ- 
ual and  of  organised  society  being  the  same  the  inter- 
ests of  the  individual  and  society  lie  in  the  same  di- 
rection.    We  often  hear  of  the  necessity  of  sacrificing 


the  individual  to  society,  but  no  such  necessity  exists, 
as  the  rights  of  the  individual  and  the  citizen  have  the 
same  origin  and  their  public  and  private  interests  de- 
mand the  same  protection. 

Individual  freedom  and  self-government,  citizen- 
ship and  suffrage  are  synonymous.  In  demanding 
their  own  enfranchisement,  have  women  been  pursuing 
a  shadow  the  last  half  century?  In  seeking  political 
power  do  they  abdicate  that  social  throne  where  their 
influence  is  said  to  be  unbounded  ? 

No,  no,  the  right  of  suffrage  is  not  a  mere  shadow, 
but  a  substantial  entity,  that  the  citizen  can  wield  for 
his  own  protection  and  his  country's  welfare.  An  in- 
dividual opinion,  counted  on  all  questions  of  public 
interest  is  better  than  indirect  influence,  be  it  ever  so 
far-reaching.  Though  influence,  like  the  pure  white 
light,  is  all-pervading,  yet  it  is  ofttimes  obscured  with 
passing  clouds  and  nights  of  darkness  ; — like  the  sun's 
rays  it  may  be  healthy,  genial,  inspiring,  though  some- 
times too  direct  for  comfort,  too  oblique  for  warmth, 
too  scattered  for  any  given  purpose.  But  as  the  prism 
by  dividing  the  rays  of  light  reveals  to  us  the  brilliant 
coloring  of  the  atmosphere,  and  as  the  burning-glass 
by  concentrating  them  in  a  focus  intensifies  their  heat, 
so  does  the  right  of  suffrage  reveal  the  beauty  and 
power  of  individual  sovereignty  in  the  great  drama  of 
national  life, — while  on  a  vital  measure  of  public  in- 
terest it  unites  the  many  voices  of  the  people  in  a  grand 
chorus  of  protest  or  applause. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  STATE  AND  THE  RIGHT 
TO  REVOLUTION. 

The  existence  of  a  common  will  in  a  tribe  is  a  fact, 
and  the  existence  of  the  State,  as  the  consciously  organ- 
ised common  will  of  a  certain  society,  is  also  a  fact. 
The  question,  however,  arises,  Is  this  power  a  usurpa- 
tion? Is  it  not  perhaps  an  unjustifiable  and  odious 
tyranny?  And  if  it  is  to  be  recognised  as  a  legitimate 
power,  on  what  authority  does  it  rest  ? 

The  old  explanation  of  State  authority  is  the  Tory 
explanation,  that  royalty  exists  by  the  grace  of  God. 
The  latest  and  perhaps  (in  Protestant  countries,  at 
least)  the  last  defender  of  the  Tory  system  was  Fried- 
rich  Julius  Stahl  (born  in  1802  of  Jewish  parentage,  bap- 
tised in  1819,  called  to  the  University  of  Berlin  in  1843 
by  the  King  of  Prussia,  Frederick  William  IV.,  be- 
came the  leader  of  the  ultra-conservative  party  1848- 
1861,  the  year  of  his  death ;  his  main  work  was  "  Die 
Philosophie  des  Rechts, "  3  vol.) 

Stahl's  criticism  of  the  old  Jus  fiaiura/e  is  poor  ;  his 
Jewish-Christian  conceptions  of  a  supernatural  revela- 
tion prevented  him  from  seeing  the  truth,  which  in 
spite  of  some  errors  was  contained  in  that  idea  of  clas- 


3962 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


sic  antiquity.  His  famous  demand  of  "DieUmkehr 
der  Wissenschaft,"  (viz.,  that  science  should  return)  is 
a  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  reveals  himself  in 
the  progress  of  science.  Rejecting  the  view  of  the 
ancients  concerning  the  authority  of  the  State,  he 
founded  it  upon  God's  ordinance.  The  State,  accord- 
ing to  Stahl,  is  Gottes  Weltordjiung ;  it  is  a  human  in- 
stitution founded  upon  divine  authority  ;  it  is  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  moral  empire. 

Stahl  is  a  reactionary  thinker ;  State  authority  l^Ob- 
rigkeit  or  Staatsgewalt),  according  to  his  view,  stands 
absolutely  opposed  to  the  idea  of  popular  sovereignty  ; 
the  former  represents  the  idea  of  legitimacy,  the  latter 
the  principle  of  revolution.  Stahl  stood  in  conscious 
and  outspoken  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  in  whose  conception  the  sovereign  had  be- 
come a  mere  servant  of  the  State.  Stahl  sees  in  the 
sovereign  a  representative  of  God  ;  the  sovereign  rules 
over  his  subjects,  whose  sole  business  it  is  to  obey. 
These  are  antiquated  ideas,  to  refute  which  is  almost 
redundant  in  Anglo-Saxon  countries,  the  institutions  of 
which  are  established  upon  successful  revolutions. 
Stahl  was  a  genius  of  great  acumen  and  profound 
philosophical  insight,  yet  his  face  was  turned  back- 
wards, and  so  he  had  not  the  slightest  inkling  of  the 
ideal  State,  which,  it  appears  to  us,  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  races  to  realise. 

Stahl  is  right,  however,  in  so  far  as  he  maintains 
that  the  State  is  actually  the  realisation  of  a  moral  em- 
pire. That  is  to  say,  the  State  is,  as  the  Roman  sages 
thought,  based  upon  the  jus  natiirale  ;  it  is  a  natural 
product  of  evolution,  and  as  such  it  reveals  the  nature 
of  that  All-power,  which  religious  language  hails  by 
the  name  of  God. 

When  we  speak  of  God,  we  must  be  careful  in  de- 
fining what  we  mean,  for  it  may  either  be  an  empty 
phrase  or  the  cover  under  which  oppressions  mask 
their  schemes  for  usurping  the  power  of  government. 

When  we  grant  that  the  State  is  a  divine  institu- 
tion, we  mean  that  its  existence  is  based  upon  the  un- 
alterable laws  of  nature.  All  facts  are  a  revelation  of 
God  ;  they  are  parts  of  God  and  reveal  God's  nature  ; 
•  but  the  human  soul  and  that  moral  empire  of  human 
souls  called  the  State  are  more  dignified  parts  of  God 
than  the  most  wonderful  phenomena  of  unorganised 
nature. 

It  is  customary  now  to  reject  the  idea  of  jus  tiatu- 
rale  as  a  fiction,  to  describe  it  as  that  which  according 
to  the  pious  wishes  of  some  people  ought  to  be  law,  so 
that  it  appears  as  a  mere  anticipation  of  our  legal  ideals 
appealing  to  the  vague  ethical  notions  of  the  people. 
Law,  it  is  said,  is  nothing  primitive  or  primordial,  but 
a  secondary  product  of  our  social  evolution,  and  the 
intimation  of  2^  jus  tiaturale  is  a  fairy-tale  of  metaphys- 
ics, which  must  be  regarded  as  antiquated  at  the  pres- 


ent stage  of  our  scientific  evolution.  It  is  strange, 
however,  that  those  who  take  this  view  fall  back  after 
all  upon  nature  as  the  source  of  law ;  they  derive  it 
from  the  nature  of  man,  from  the  natural  conditions 
of  society,  and  thus  reintroduce  the  same  old  doctrine 
under  new  names — only  in  less  pregnant  expressions. 
Most  of  these  criticisms  are  quite  appropriate,  for  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  an  abstract  law  behind  the  facts  of 
nature  ;  no  codified  jus  naturale,  the  paragraphs  of 
which  we  have  simply  to  look  up  like  a  code  of  posi- 
tive law.  In  the  same  way  there  are  no  laws  of  nature  ; 
but  we  do  not  for  that  reason  discard  the  idea  and  re- 
tain the  expression.  If  we  speak  of  the  laws  of  nature, 
we  mean  certain  universal  features  in  the  nature  of 
things,  which  can  be  codified  in  formulas.  Newton's 
formula  of  gravitation  is  not  the  power  that  makes  the 
stones  fall  ;  it  only  describes  a  universal  quality  of 
mass  concisely  and  exhaustively.  In  the  same  way 
the  idea  of  dijus  naturale  is  an  attempt  to  describe  that 
which  according  to  the  nature  of  things  has  the  fac- 
ulty of  becoming  law.  The  positive  law  is  always 
created  by  those  in  power ;  if  their  formulation  of  the 
law  is  such  as  would  suit  their  private  interests  alone, 
if  for  that  purpose  they  make  it  illogical  or  unfair  to 
other  parties,  it  will  in  the  long  run  of  events  subvert 
the  social  relations  of  that  State  and  deprive  the  ruling 
classes  of  their  power;  in  one  word,  being  in  conflict 
with  the  nature  of  things  it  will  not  stand.  If,  how- 
ever, the  codification  of  rights  properly  adjusts  the 
spheres  of  the  various  interests  that  constitute  society, 
if  it  is  free  of  self-contradictions  and  irrational  excep- 
tions, it  will  stand  and  enhance  the  general  prosperity 
of  society.  The  former  is  in  conflict  with  the  jus  tia- 
turale, the  latter  in  agreement  with  it. 

Thus  we  are  quite  justified  in  saying  that  the  positive 
law  obtains,  while  the  natural  law  is  that  which  ought 
to  obtain  ;  the  positive  law  has  the  power,  the  natural 
law  the  authority ;  and  all  positive  law  is  valid  only  in 
so  far  as  it  agrees  with  the  natural  law  ;  when  it  de- 
viates from  that,  it  becomes  an  injustice  and  is  doomed.  * 
In  a  word,  theyW  tiaturale  is  the  justice  of  the  positive 
law  and  its- logic.  That  its  formulation  is  not  directly 
given  in  nature,  and  that  it  is  difficult  to  comprehend 
it  in  exact  terms,  must  not  prevent  us  from  seeing  its 
sweeping  importance.  If  there  were  no  such  constant 
features  in  the  nature  of  society  which  are  the  leading 
motives  of  all  the  historical  evolutions  of  the  positive 
law,  our  conceptions  of  right  and  wrong  would  have  to 
be  regarded  as  mere  phantoms,  and  our  ideal  of  justice 
would  be  merely  a  dream. f 

*  See  Jodl's  lecture  Ueber  das  Wt-sen  des  Naturreclites,  Wien,.  1893. 

t  The  problem  is  at  bottom  the  same  as  the  problem  of  reason,  of  logic, 
arithmetic,  and  all  the  formal  sciences.  There  have  been  people  who  think 
that  the  world-reason  is  a  personal  being  who  permeates  the  world  and  inserts 
part  of  his  being  into  rational  creatures.  In  opposition  to  them,  other  philos- 
ophers deny  the  existence  of  a  world-reason  and  declare  that  human  reason  is 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


396s 


There  are  wrong  conceptions  of  the  jus  naturalt, 
but  there  is  also  a  right  conception  of  it.  In  the  same 
way  there  are  pagan  conceptions  of  Christianity  and 
there  is  a  purified  conception  of  it.  Stahl  did  not  see 
that  the  true  conception  of  the  jus  naturale  is  the  same 
as  the  purified  conception  of  Christianity.  For  the 
purified  conception  of  Christianity  is  monistic ;  it  re- 
gards natural  phenomena  as  the  revelations  of  God, 
and  the  voice  of  reason  as  the  afflatus  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

The  State  is  a  human  institution,  but  as  such  it  is 
as  divine  as  man's  soul  ;  the  State  should  not  consist 
of  rulers  and  ruled  subjects,  but  of  free  citizens.  And 
yet  we  must  recognise  the  truth  that  the  State  is  a 
superindividual  power,  and  that  the  laws  of  the  State 
have  an  indisputable  authority  over  all  its  members. 

*  * 

When  we  say  the  State  is  divine,  we  do  not  mean 
to  say  that  all  the  ordinances  of  government  are,  a  for- 
tiori, to  be  regarded  as  right.  By  no  means.  We  might 
as  well  infer  that  because  man's  soul  is  divine  all  men 
are  saints,  and  their  actions  are  eo  ipso  moral.  Oh,  no  ! 
The  State  institution,  as  such,  and  the  human  soul,  as 
such,  are  divine  ;  they  are  moral  beings  and  more  or 
less  representative  incarnations  of  God  on  earth. 

The  State  is  truly,  as  Stahl  says,  a  moral  empire, 
or,  rather,  its  purpose  is  the  realisation  of  a  moral 
empire  on  earth.  The  State  is,  religiously  speaking, 
God's  instrument  to  make  man  more  human  and  hu- 
mane, to  bring  him  more  and  more  to  perfect  himself, 
and  to  actualise  the  highest  ideals  of  which  he  is  capa- 
ble. But  the  State  of  Stahl's  conception  can  beget  a 
bastard  morality  only  ;  it  represents  the  ethics  of  the 
slave,  which  consists  in  obedience  ;  it  does  not  repre- 
sent the  ethics  of  the  children  of  the  free,  which  alone 
can  develop  true  and  pure  morality. 

The  State,  in  order  to  become  a  moral  empire,  must 
recognise  the  rights  of  the  individual  and  keep  his  lib- 
erty inviolate. 

The  principle  of  individualism  arose  out  of  a  revolt 
against  the  principle  of  suppression.  The  individual- 
istic movement  is  a  holy  movement,  beginning  with 
Luther,  represented  by  Kant,  but  breaking  down  in  its 
one-sided  application  in  the  French  Revolution.  Indi- 
vidualism is  the  principle  of  the  right  to  revolution,  but 
the  right  to  revolution  is  a  religious  right ;  it  is  a  duty 
wherever  tyranny  infringes  upon  the  liberty  of  its  sub- 

of  a  purely  subjective  origin,  an  artificial  makeshift,  a  secondary  product  of 
very  complex  conditions.  We  regard  both  parties  as  partially  right  and  par- 
tially wrong;  we  say  :  There  are  certain  immutable  features  in  the  relations 
of  things,  which,  in  their  various  applications,  can  be  formulated  in  logic, 
arithmetic,  geometry,  and  all  the  other  formal  sciences.  Thus,  human  reason 
is  after  all  a  revelation  of  the  world-reason.  The  world-reason,  it  is  true,  is 
no  personal  being,  yet  does  it  exist  none  the  less  ;  being  a  feature  of  facts,  it 
possesses  an  objective  reality.  Its  formulation  is  an  abstract  concept  of  the 
human  mind,  but,  with  all  that,  it  is  not  a  mere  liction,  a  vain  speculation,  or 
an  aberration  from  the  truth. 


jects,  wherever  it  interferes  with  the  natural  aspiration 
of  citizens  for  higher  ideals,  and  wherever  it  prevents 
progress. 

The  old  governments  were  class-governments.  We 
cannot  investigate  here  the  extent  to  which  this  state 
of  things  was  a  necessary  phase  in  the  evolution  of  the 
State  ;  but  we  maintain  that  the  breakdown  of  these 
forms  was  an  indispensable  condition  to  a  higher  ad- 
vance. The  old  State  consists  in  the  organisation  of 
governments  with  subjects  to  be  governed,  the  new 
State  is  the  organisation  of  free  citizens  to  realise  the 
ideal  of  a  moral  community. 

The  old  State  is  based  upon  the  so-called  divine 
right  of  kings,  an  organisation  of  a  few  rulers  or  of  the 
ruling  classes.  The  new  State  must  be  the  organised 
common  will  of  the  people  ;  and  its  authority  is  the 
divinity  of  the  moral  purpose  which  this  common  will 
adopts.  The  government  should  not  do  any  ruling  or 
mastering,  the  government  should  simply  be  an  ad- 
ministration of  those  affairs  which  the  common  will, 
for  good  reasons,  regards  as  public. 

The  ideal  of  the  new  State  can  be  put  into  practice 
only  where  the  common  will  is  animated  by  a  common 
conscience  ;  and  this  common  conscience  should  not 
be  a  tribal  conscience  justifying  every  act  that  would 
be  useful  to,  or  enhance  the  power  of,  this  special 
people  as  a  whole  :  the  common  conscience  must  be 
the  voice  of  justice  ;  it  must  recognise  above  the  State- 
ideal  the  supernational  ideal  of  humanity,  and  must 
never  shrink  from  acting  in  strict  accordance  with 
truth  and  the  fullest  recognition  of  truth. 

If  the  State  is  to  be  based  exclusively  upon  the 
principle  of  individualism,  the  State  will  break  down, 
but  if  the  State  is  recognised  as  an  embodiment  of  the 
moral  world-order,  it  will  adopt  the  principle  of  indi- 
vidualism as  a  fundamental  maxim,  for  without  liberty 
no  morality.  The  slave  has  no  moral  responsibilit)', 
the  free  man  has. 

From  these  considerations  we  regard  the  principle 
of  individualism  as  the  most  sacred  inheritance  of  the 
revolutionary  efforts  of  mankind,  which,  becoming  vic- 
torious in  Luther's  time,  still  remain  so.  We  do  not 
reject  the  truths  of  former  eras  :  on  the  contrary,  we 
prove  all  things,  and,  discriminating  between  the  evil 
and  the  good,  we  keep  that  which  is  true.  In  preserv- 
ing the  ancient  idea  that  the  State  is  founded  upon  the 
immutable  order  of  nature,  and  the  Christian  idea  that 
the  purpose  of  the  State  is  the  realisation  of  moral 
ideals,  we  avoid  the  one-sidedness  and  errors  which 
naturally  originate  when  a  man  in  controversy,  as  a 
method  of  effectually  resisting  his  adversary,  denies 
that  there  is  any  truth  at  all  in  his  opponent's  views, 
and  out  of  mere  spite  indiscriminately  opposes  all  his 
propositions. 


3964 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 

The  National  Farmers'  Alliance  met  in  convention  yesterday 
and  passed  the  customary  set  of  resolutions.  The  National  Farm- 
ers, in  the  same  patriotic  spirit  that  animated  the  National  Dairy- 
men and  the  National  Woolgrowers,  "wanted  a  law  passed,"  but 
they  wanted  it  for  the  protection  of  the  people  against  the  adul- 
teration of  food  and  food  products.  The  self-devotion  shown  in 
this  demand  is  greatly  to  be  praised,  for  if  such  a  law  should  be 
rigidly  enforced,  it  might  go  hard  with  some  of  the  National  Farm- 
ers. There  must  have  been  some  humorous  fellow  on  the  Reso- 
lutions Committee,  for  after  "demanding"  about  a  dozen'impos- 
sible  things,  the  platform  "favors  a  course  of  reading  for  farmers 
on  the  Chatauqua  plan."  In  that  resolution  there  is  irony  enough 
to  make  a  plough,  but  nevertheless,  the  resolution  is  a  good  one, 
and  if  the  Chatauqua  plan  should  for  any  reason  fail,  the  National 
Farmers  will  find  themselves  benefited  by  a  course  of  reading  on 
any  earthly  plan  whatever.  After  demanding  miraculous  money 
"with  stability  as  well  as  flexibility,  and  with  value  as  well  as 
volume,"  the  National  Farmers  called  for  a  greater  miracle  still, 
the  resignation  of  his  office  by  Mr.  Sterling  Morton,  the  Secretary 
of  Agriculture.  Perhaps  the  most  imbecile  failure  to  be  found  in 
American  politics  is  a  resolution  asking  a  man  to  resign  such  an 
exceedingly  good  thing  as  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet  with  a  good  salary 
for  himself  and  unlimited  garden-seeds  to  distribute  among  his 
friends.  National  Farmers  who  know  so  little  about  the  genius  of 
American  politics  as  to  expect  that  the  lucky  incumbent  of  such 
an  office  will  resign  it  at  their  invitation,  cannot  apply  themselves 
too  soon  to  "  a  course  of  reading  on  the  Chatauqua  plan." 

All  other  means  of  relieving  the  garrison  having  failed,  the 
"  small-pox  "  alarm  was  turned  in  to  frighten  the  legions  of  office- 
hunters  and  compel  them  to  raise  the  siege  of  the  City  Hall.  It 
availed  nothing,  and  now  the  postmaster  is  trying  another  plan  to 
scare  away  a  similar  host  of  besiegers  from  the  post-office.  He  is 
trying  to  make  it  appear  that  men  who  accept  a  place  in  the  post- 
office  rush  into  mortal  danger.  He  has  had  the  atmosphere  of  the 
building  analysed  by  expert  chemists,  and  the  report  they  make, 
though  not  so  loud,  is  more  alarming  than  guns  in  battle.  They 
find  "an  excess  of  carbon  dioxide  in  the  air,  and  the  amount  of 
dust  was  marked."  The  experiments  were  made  at  the  most  favor- 
able time,  when  the  air  was  unusually  pure,  but  in  spite  of  that, 
the  report  says,  "In  the  basement  the  amount  of  dust  was  most 
marked,  and  Petri  dishes  four  inches  in  diameter  that  were  ex- 
posed here  for  three  minutes  showed  350  bacteria  to  have  fallen 
upon  them,  while  the  amount  of  carbon  dioxide  estimated  in  parts - 
per  10,000  was  12-28."  In  some  other  parts  of  the  building  the 
bacteria  were  still  more  numerous,  and  the  carbon  dioxide  thicker. 
Up  to  the  present  moment  this  poisonous  report  has  made  no  im- 
pression on  the  applicants  for  office  ;  and  one  of  them  having  been 
assured  that  there  were  15,000  bacteria  in  every  cubic  inch  of  the 
post-office,  replied  with  reckless  hardihood,  "Well,  I  can  stand  it 
if  the  bacteriers  can.  Work  may  be  dangerous  in  the  post-office 
or  anywhere  else,  but  it  is  not  so  dangerous  as  idleness." 

#  * 

In  the  dialogue  between  the  grave-diggers  in  Hamlet,  one  of 
them  says  to  the  other,  "He  that  is  not  guilty  of  his  own  death 
shortens  not  his  own  life."  Doubtful  of  this,  the  second  grave- 
digger  says,  "  But  is  this  law  ?"  And  to  that  his  companion  an- 
swers, "Ay,  marry  is't,  crowner's  quest  law."  This  answer  ap- 
pears to  be  logically  sound,  but  the  question  is  up  again,  not  in 
Denmark  this  time,  but  in  the  State  of  New  York,  where  the  grand 
jury  has  just  indicted  the  leaders  of  several  Christian  science  so- 
cieties. "The  occasion  of  the  indictments,"  as  we  are  informed 
by  the  newspapers,  was  "  the  death  of  a  woman  while  under  the 
care  of  Christian  scientists.     She  had  been  without  the  services  of 


a  regular  physician.  The  coroner's  jury  denounced  the  individ- 
uals whom  she  had  engaged  to  treat  her,  and  later  the  grand  jury 
made  out  several  indictments. "  This  new  application  of  ' '  crowner's 
quest  law"  will  now  be  tested  in  the  courts,  and  we  shall  soon  find 
out  whether  or  not  we  can  lawfully  die  without  the  assistance  of  a 
"regular  physician."  It  is  rather  curious  that  when  a  man  dies 
under  metaphysical  treatment  the  coroner  is  called  in,  but  when 
he  dies  from  "regular"  physical  medicine  no  surprise  is  mani- 
fested and  no  "crowner's  quest"  is  held.  It  is  a  strange  anomaly 
that  the  faith-healers  have  been  indicted  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
for  in  that  State  the  people  are  supposed  to  know  the  dangers  of 
the  "regular"  practice.  Some  time  ago.  Dr.  Charles  C.  Bom- 
baugh  of  Baltimore  delivered  a  lecture  before  the  New  York  Acad- 
emy of  Medicine,  in  which  he  said:  "Of  the  eleven  thousand 
medicaments  on  the  list,  it  would  be  quite  safe  to  dispense  with 
ten  thousand.  And  as  to  the  remaining  one  thousand,  most  of  us 
would  still  find  on  the  roll  a  sufficient  surplusage  of  sawdust  to 
'  make  the  judicious  grieve.'  "  This  confession  was  frank  enough, 
but  not  prudent ;  because  if  those  ten  thousand  pretended  reme- 
dies are  injurious  and  may  safely  be  dispensed  with,  may  not  the 
doctors  who  prescribe  them  be  dispensed  with,  too. 

*  # 

Simultaneously  comes  news  from  Ottawa,  Illinois,  to  the  effect 
that  "the  allopathic  physicians,  who,  having  some  months  ago 
formed  the  Ottawa  City  Medical  Society,  have  now  decided  that 
no  homoeopathic  physicians  or  others  deemed  '  irregular '  shall 
henceforth  be  recognised  by  the  society  or  its  members  as  physi- 
cians or  surgeons."  This  action  was  deemed  necessary  because 
"  not  a  few  allopaths  had  fallen  into  the  practice  of  inviting  the 
homoeopaths  to  be  present  at  operations,  and  had  repeated  calls  to 
consult  with  them  in  doubtful  cases."  It  was  decided  by  a  unani- 
mous vote  that  "where  a  homoeopath  has  been  employed  by  a 
patient  he  must  first  be  discharged  before  an  allopath  will  consent 
to  call."  At  the  first  sight  of  it,  this  action  looks  monopolistic  and 
intolerant,  but  it  is  not,  for  there  is  no  law  to  prevent  the  homoeo- 
paths from  adopting  a  like  resolution  against  the  allopaths  and 
proclaiming  them  "  irregular."  The  homoeopaths  have  a  right  un- 
der the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  resolve  that  "where 
an  allopath  has  been  employed  by  a  patient  he  must  first  be  dis- 
charged before  a  homoeopath  will  consent  to  call."  It  is  only  when 
one  "  pathy  "  calls  upon  the  law  to  persecute  the  other  that  it  be- 
comes tyrannical,  when  it  "  wants  to  have  a  law  passed  "  for  the 
suppression  of  rival  "schools,"  or  when  it  calls  upon  the  coroner 
or  the  grand  jury  to  punish  any  doctor  who  kills  a  patient  except 
in  the  "regular"  way, 

*  "         * 

Among  the  persons  of  eminence  whom  I  respect  and  cordially 
dislike  is  the  unromantic  learned  man  who  drives  out  of  my  hos- 
pitable beliefs  the  genii  and  the  fairies  I  have  cherished  there  so 
long ;  the  detective  historian,  for  instance,  who  proves  to  me  from 
the  contemporaneous  records  and  the  authentic  documents  that 
there  never  was  any  Robinson  Crusoe,  nor  William  Tell,  nor  Jack 
the  Giant  Killer.  If  science  goes  on  at  the  present  rate  there  will 
soon  be  no  poetry  left.  Worse  than  the  historian  is  the  learned 
antiquarian  overgrown  with  ivy  who  shows  me  that  my  venerable 
examples,  types,  and  symbols  of  a  former  age  are  false  and  coun- 
terfeit. Among  the  holy  places  where  I  like  to  wander  as  a  pilgrim 
is  the  armory  of  the  Tower  of  London,  filled  for  the  length  of  a 
street  with  mail-clad  warriors  of  the  olden  time,  wax-work  effigies 
on  wooden  horses,  lances  in  rest  and  visors  down.  With  reveren- 
tial awe  I  love  to  listen  to  truthful  James  the  guide,  as  he  describes 
the  different  earls  and  kings,  and  sentimentally  remarks  as  if  he 
made  the  poetry  himself,  "  their  bones  are  dust,  their  swords  are 
rust,  their  souls  are  with  the  saints  I  trust."  Made  eloquent  by 
the  prospect  of  a  secret  shilling  which  he  thinks  I  am  going  to  give 
him,  he  says,  "This  is  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  in  the  coat  of  mail 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3965 


which  he  wore  when  he  overthrew  Saladin  the  Saracen  in  single 
combat,  as  you  may  have  read  in  history.  This  is  Edward  the 
Black  Prince  in  the  very  same  accoutrements  that  he  wore  at  the 
battleof  Cressy.  Next  to  him  on  the  right  is  King  Henry  the  Fifth, 
and  the  next  on  the  right  of  him  you  behold  Sir  Lionel  de  Mont- 
morency who  commanded  the  Dragoons  at  the  Battle  of  Hastings"; 
and  so  on  through  the  catalogue.  When  I  asked  him  if  he  could 
show  me  Sir  Goliath  de  Gath,  he  said  he  could,  and  he  did.  Now 
comes  the  iconoclastic  antiquarian  and  abolishes  all  that  innocent 
enjoyment  for  evermore.  Lord  Dillon  in  the  London  Antiquarian 
shows  that  the  ancient  curiosities  in  the  Tower  are  modern  impos- 
tors,' and  that  the  suits  of  armor  are  ignorant  anachronisms,  one 
piece  belonging  to  the  eleventh  century  and  another  piece  of  the 
same  suit  belonging  to  the  fourteeth  or  fifteenth  century,  an  expo- 
sure that  makes  the  iron  clad  crusaders  in  the  Tower  of  no  more 
historic  interest  than  the  martial  men  in  brass  and  iron  who  prance 
on  fiery  steeds  in  a  circus  parade.  I  am  assured,  however,  that 
the  collection  in  Lord  Dillon's  own  castle  is  genuine,  but  how  can 
I  believe  that,  after  I  have  been  so  basely  deceived  in  the  Tower  ? 
If  there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun,  is  there  anything  old  ? 


Following  the  fashion  of  every  man  for  himself  and  against 
everybody  else,  the  lawyers  are  now  pleading  for  protection  against 
the  competition  of  brighter  men.  They,  too.  "  want  a  law  passed'' 
making  it  more  difficult  than  ever  for  aspiring  genius  to  obtain  ad- 
mission to  the  bar.  A  magnanimous  guild  of  lawyers  in  Chicago 
proposes  to  put  six  additional  obstacles  in  the  way  of  ambitious 
young  men  who  seek  to  earn  a  living  at  the  lawyer  trade  ;  and  the 
generous  purpose  of  these  new  obstacles  is  to  lessen  competition, 
and  make  the  lawyer  business  a  more  narrow  and  exclusive  mo- 
nopoly than  it  is  now.  The  members  of  the  Bar  Association  got 
inside  when  the  fence  was  low,  and  now  they  want  to  make  it 
high.  They  want  to  raise  the  standard  of  education  and  increase  the 
time  of  study  for  everybody  but  themselves.  They  would  not  be 
willing  to  stand  the  examination  and  probation  they  propose  for 
others.  When  the  lawyers  of  Iowa  asked  the  Legislature  to  improve 
the  quality  of  the  bar  by  requiring  applicants  for  admission  to  pass 
a  more  severe  examination  they  strangled  their  own  bill  as  soon 
as  an  amendment  was  proposed  requiring  all  the  lawyers  to  pass 
the  new  examination  or  be  stricken  from  the  rolls,  "and  the  sub- 
sequent proceedings  interested  them  no  more."  From  the  caste 
system  of  ancient  England  which  made  the  professions  the  exclu- 
sive property  of  the  rich  we  have  borrowed  the  nonsense  that 
hedges  the  bar  in  Illinois.  Instead  of  putting  new  barriers  up  we 
should  throw  the  old  ones  down.  For  every  man  or  woman  who 
wants  to  earn  an  honest  living  at  anything,  we  ought  to  make  the 
opportunities  easier,  and  not  harder.  M.  M.  Trumbull. 


GOETHE  AND  SCHILLER'S  XENIONS. 

[concluded.] 

TRUTH  AND  ERROR. 

DIFFERENCE  IN  ONENESS. 

Truth  is  the  same  to  us  all  ;  yet  to  each  her  appearance  will  vary. 

When  she  remaineth  the  same,      different  conceptions  are  true. 


Truth  that  doth  injure  is  dearer  to  me  than  available  error, 
Truth  will  cure  all  pain     which  is  inflicted  by  truth. 


Whether  an  error  does  harm  ?     Not  always  !    but  certainly  erring 
Always  does  harm,  and  how  much,     friends,  you  will  see  in  the 

end. 


EDUCATION. 
Truth  will  never  do  harm.     Like  a  mother  she  sometimes  will 

punish. 
Lovingly  rearing  her  child,     but  does  no  flattery  brook. 

COMFORT. 
Error  accompanies  us,  but  constantly  in  us  a  yearning 
Gently  is  leading  our  mind     nearer  and  nearer  to  truth. 

.ANALYTICAL.    TRUTHSEEKERS. 
Do  you  take  truth  for  an  onion  whose  layers  you  singly  can  peel  oS  ? 

Never  you'll  draw  out  the  truth  save  'twas  deposited  there. 
[Schiller  was  a  disciple  and  follower  of  Kant.  In  this  distich 
and  also  in  the  next  following  "Human  Knowledge,"  he  charac- 
terises Kant's  view  of  truth,  who  finds  the  conditions  of  knowledge 
in  the  thinking  subject,  not  in  the  object  that  is  thought.  A  think- 
ing being,  according  to  Kant,  does  not  acquire  an  insight  into  the 
laws  of  form  by  experience,  but  possesses  them  a  priori.  He  thus 
produces  truth  out  of  his  own  being,  and  imports  it  into  the  objec- 
tive world. 

It  is  true  that  truth  and  the  criterion  of  truth,  viz.,  reason, 
develop  together  with  mind  ;  for  indeed  reason  is  a  feature  of 
mind.  Things  are  real,  not  true,  and  truth  can  dwell  in  mental  rep- 
resentations only.  In  this  sense  Kant  would  be  entitled  to  say,  as 
he  did,  that  things  have  to  conform  to  cognition  and  not  cognition 
to  things.  But  considering  the  fact  that  mind  develops  from  and 
by  experience  which  implies  a  knowledge  of  things,  and  that  rea- 
son is  but  the  formal  elements  extracted  from  experience  and  sys- 
tematised,  —  a  consideration  which  Kant  did  not  make  because  he 
never  proposed  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  mind — we  shall  find 
that  the  nature  of  truth  is  not  purely  so  subjective,  as  our  distich 
on  the  Analytical  Truthseekers  indicates,  but  objective. 

For  a  critical  exposition  of  the  problem  see  the  translator's  ar- 
ticle "Are  There  Things  in  Themselves  ?  "  in  Tin-  Monist,  Vol.  II, 
No.  2,  pp.  225-265,  "Primer  of  Philosophy,"  the  chapters  on  the 
A  Priori  and  the  Formal  ;  The  Origin  of  the  A  Priori,  in  "  Fun- 
damental Problems,"  the  chapter  on  the  Origin  of  Mind  in  "The 
Soul  of  Man."] 

HUMAN  KNOWLEDGE. 
When  thou  readest  in  nature  the  writing  which  thou  hast  inscribed 

there. 

When  its  phenomena  thou     castest  in  groups  for  thine  eye. 
When  thou   hast  covered  its  infinite  fields  with  measuring  tape- 
lines, 

Dost  thou  imagine,  thy  mind     really  graspeth  the  All  ? 
Thus  the  astronomer  paints  on  the  skies  his  star-constellations 

Simply  to  find  his  way     easily  in  their  domain. 
Suns  that   revolve  at  a  measureless  distance,  how  closely  together 

Have  they  been  joined  in  the  Swan     and  in  the  horns  of  the 

Bull! 
But  can  the  heavens  be  thus  understood  in  their  mystical  cycles. 

When  their  projections  appear     on  planispherical  charts  ? 

REPETITION. 

Let  me  repeat  it  a  hundred,  a  thousand  times  :    "  Error  is  error." 

Whether  the  greatest  it  says,     whether  the  smallest  of  men. 

NOT  IRRELIGIOUS. 
What  religion  have  I  ?     There  is  none  of  all  you  may  mention 
Which  I  embrace. — And  the  cause  ?     Truly,  religion  it  is  ! 


BOOK  REVIE'WS. 

Labor  and  the  Popular  Welfare.     By  W.  H.  Mallock.     Lon- 
don :  Adam  and  Charles  Black.     Chicago  :  A.  C.  McClurg 
&  Co.     1893. 
Mr.  Mallock  has  already  obtained  some  fame  by  writing  "  Is 
Life  Worth  Living  ?"  a  conundrum  which  he  answers  in  the  af- 


3966 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


firmative  by  living  ;  and  if  he  lives  as  well  as  he  writes,  he  lives 
well.  In  the  hands  of  Mr.  Mallock  political  economy  is  not  a 
■•  dismal  science,"  but  a  very  attractive  part  of  a  political  educa- 
tion. In  this  book  the  subject  is  made  philosophically  simple,  as 
it  ought  to  be,  and  the  puzzling  jargon  of  scientific  and  technical 
definitions  is  avoided.  The  argument  is  lightened  by  picturesque 
examples  and  the  charms  of  a  literary  style  admirable  for  its  read- 
ing qualities.  The  book,  of  course,  contains  the  usual  quantity  of 
arithmetic,  adding,  subtracting,  and  multiplying  all  the  men,  wo- 
men, and  children  by  the  number  of  bushels  of  this  or  that,  and 
afterwards  dividing  the  whole  wealth  of  the  kingdom  by  the  num- 
ber of  the  inhabitants,  and  showing  the  proportion  of  hogs  and 
cattle  to  each  person  at  various  periods  of  time,  but  the  author 
never  carries  us  into  the  occult  mysteries  that  lie  beyond  the  rule 
of  three.  Algebra,  diagrams,  and  logarithms  are  absent,  a  great 
merit  in  any  work  on  economics. 

The  trinitarian  doctrine,  that  material  wealth  is  the  result  of 
Land,  Labor,  and  Capital,  is  expanded  by  Mr.  Mallock  into  the 
quadrupedal  theory  that  wealth  is  the  result  of  Land,  Labor,  Cap- 
ital, and  Ability,  and  on  these  four  feet  it  stands.  The  quadru- 
pedal theory  is  not  complete,  for  a  fifth  ingredient  must  be  added, 
the  element  of  good  luck.  The  economists  have  not  yet  recog- 
nised this  proposition,  but  it  can  be  proved  by  the  testimony  of 
the  farmer  who  tells  at  the  end  of  the  season  how  much  more  he 
would  have  made  from  his  Land,  Labor,  Capital,  and  Ability  had 
it  not  been  for  the  cut-worm,  and  the  potato-bug,  and  the  hog- 
cholera,  and  the  lumpy  jaw,  and  the  late  frost  in  the  Spring,  and 
the  early  frost  in  the  Fall.  Mr,  Mallock  maintains,  and  with 
plausible  reasons,  too,  that  of  these  agents  Ability  contributes  to 
the  material  wealth  of  a  nation  twice  or  thrice  as  much  as  Labor. 

The  main  purpose  of  Mr.  Mallock  in  this  book  is  the  refuta- 
tion of  certain  socialistic  theories  which  he  thinks  are  erroneous 
altogether,  or  if  partially  correct  are  of  little  practical  importance, 
because  the  amount  involved  is  very  small.  For  instance,  he  says 
that  if  all  the  rent  exacted  by  the  "  titled  and  untitled  aristocracy," 
was  divided  equally  among  all  the  families  in  England,  it  would 
give  each  man  only  two  pence  a  day  and  each  woman  three  half- 
pence. Very  well,  but  this  amounts  to  about  a  dinner  a  day,  and 
Mr.  Mallock  ought  to  show  that  the  "  titled  and  untitled  aristoc- 
racy" have  a  right  to  confiscate  for  their  own  use  a  dinner  a  day 
from  every  man  and  woman  in  the  kingdom.  So,  referring  to  the 
cost  of  the  monarchy,  Mr.  Mallock  rather  contemptuously  says, 
"  What  does  it  come  to  a  head  ?  It  comes  to  something  like  six- 
pence half-penny  a  year."  This  apology  is  worthless,  if  the  mon- 
archy is  not  worth  sixpence  half-penny;  and  if  it  is  worth  it,  the 
excuse  is  not  necessary. 

The  most  interesting  part  of  the  book  relates  to  the  superiority 
of  Ability  over  Labor  in  the  production  of  material  wealth,  and  the 
injustice  of  demanding  an  equal  distribution  of  it.  There  is  much 
valuable  information  in  this  part  of  the  book,  and  the  argument 
woven  out  of  the  facts  is  very  strong.  m.  m.  t. 


A  Critical  History  of  Modern  English  Jurisprudence,  A  Study 
in  Logic,  Politics,  and  Morality,  by  George  H.  Smith  (San  Fran- 
cisco :  Bacon  Publishing  Co.  1893)  is  a  concisely  written  pam- 
phlet of  eighty-three  pages,  which  is  deserving  of  the  highest  con- 
sideration of  students  of  political  questions.  It  is  principally  a 
refutation  of  Hobbes's  and  Austin's  systems  of  theoretical  juris- 
prudence, in  connexion  with  which  the  author's  own  views  are 
briefly  presented.  Aside  from  traditional  legal  doctrines,  the  science 
of  jurisprudence  scarcely  exists  in  Anglo-Saxon  countries  ;  for 
there  is  no  digest  of  the  Common  Law  as  there  is  of  the  Roman, 
nor  is  there  any  well-developed  body  of  philosophical  opinion  on 
the  subject.  The  scientific  jurisprudence  of  England  has  hitherto 
been  the  system  of  Austin,  which  is  deeply  rooted  in  the  English 


philosophical  mind.  In  this  theory  law  is  the  arbitrary  will  of  an 
absolute  Sovereign  Power.  Mr.  Smith  justly  remarks,  "if  this 
theory  be  true,  jurisprudence,  as  a  science  of  right,  can  have  no 
existence."  Jurisprudence,  thus,  is  made  a  philosophical  discipline 
and  is  defined  as  "  the  science  of  the  necessary  conditions  of  ra- 
tional social  life."  Mr.  Smith's  views  are  not  new  theories,  but 
simply  a  logical  analysis  of  jural  facts,  as  this  has  been  historically 
expressed  in  the  idea  of  natural  law.  or  Naturrecht.  We  cannot 
enter  into  a  discussion  of  this  subject  here,  which  has  a  history 
strangely  mixed  with  fallacies.  We  also  forego  the  statement  of 
diiTerences  as  to  details.  The  idea  of  the  State  and  Law  as  pro- 
ducts of  natural  growth  might,  we  think,  have  been  more  distinctly 
stated.  What  Mr.  Smith  gives  us  is  a  metaphysics  (in  the  Kantian 
sense)  of  right,  such  as  it  is  given  in  latent  law,  or  in  the  jural 
sense  of  mankind.  Still,  Mr.  Smith  is  dealing  with  a  problem  of 
jurisprudence,  and  that  English,  and  not  specifically  with  a  prob- 
lem of  natural  history.  It  is  a  strange  anomaly  that  at  this  late  day 
of  inquiry  such  a  work  should  be  needed.  But  it  is.  And  it  is  very 
probable  that  it  will  be  long  before  its  conclusions  are  recognised. 
/'"P"- 

NOTES. 

We  have  just  received  from  Tabor,  Iowa,  a  descriptive  circu- 
lar of  a  new  "  Benefit"  enterprise,  which  those  of  our  readers  who 
are  interested  in  such  questions  may  wish  to  hear  of.  The  idea  is 
that  of  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  of  local  churches  by 
which  all  the  members  of  the  church,  by  paying  monthly  fifty 
cents  into  a  benefit  fund,  shall  be  entitled  to  the  free  sanitary  in- 
spection of  their  homes,  free  medical  attendance  and  care  during 
illness  or  disability  from  accident,  a  certain  sum  of  money  during 
such  disability  and  also  to  the  other  usual  benefits  of  such  organi- 
sations. As  we  have  not  space  for  a  full  account  of  this  new  move- 
ment, it  may  be  mentioned  that  full  information  on  the  subject 
can  be  obtained  from  Prof.  T.  Proctor  Hall,  Tabor  College,  Tabor, 
Iowa. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $t.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 


CONTENTS  OF  NO.  336. 

SUFFRAGE    A   NATURAL    RIGHT.     Elizabeth   Cady 

Stanton 3959 

THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  STATE  AND  THE  RIGHT 

TO  REVOLUTION.     Editor 3961 

CURRENT  TOPICS  :  Requested  to  Resign.  Idleness  More 
Dangerous  than  Work.  Medicine  Against  Metaphysics. 
Rival  Medical  Schools.  Counterfeit  Relics.  Protection 
for  the  Lawyers.     Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull 3964 

GOETHE  AND  SCHILLER'S  XENIONS.     (Concluded.) 

Editor 3955 

BOOK  REVIEWS 39^5 

NOTES 3966 


mo 


The  Open  Court. 


A  ■W/'EEKLY  JOUHNAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  337.     (Vol.  V111.-6.)  CHICAGO,  FEBRUARY  8,   1894. 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


LETTER  FROM  PARIS. 

BY  MONCURE  D.   CONWAY. 


Paris,  January  19,  1894. 

It  has  occurred  to  me  that  the  readers  of  The  Open 
Court  might  perhaps  be  interested  in  some  careful  ac- 
count of  several  matters,  now  going  on  in  Paris,  and 
of  general  importance,  as  viewed  on  the  spot,  even 
though  the  daily  papers  may  have  anticipated  much 
that  I  write.  I  shall  have  to  be  somewhat  rambling, 
for  Paris  is  rambling,  and  perhaps  a  little  gossipy; 
but  the  things  that  impress  me  here  just  now  have 
their  grave  side,  which  the  philosophical  readers  of 
The  Open  Court  will  not  fail  to  appreciate,  even  if  I 
do  not  say  much  in  the  way  of  interpretation. 

And  first  let  me  state,  more  seriously  than  the  tele- 
graph will  already  have  done,  that  the  recent  fire  at 
Chicago,  which  burnt  French  articles  sent  to  the  Ex- 
position, has  extended  to  Paris,  where  some  of  the 
newspapers  are  in  wrathful  flames  about  it.  Informa- 
tion has  been  sent  here  from  Chicago  that  on  the  Tues- 
day preceding  the  fire  the  French  agents  there  pro- 
tested to  the  American  officials  against  the  withdrawal 
of  nineteen  out  of  the  twenty  fire-engines  which  had 
been  protecting  the  property.  Some  of  the  journals' 
reveal  a  suspicion  that  the  Americans  were  not  un- 
willing to  see  the  destruction  of  artistic  objects  so 
much  superior  to  their  own.  The  culpability  of  this 
negligence  is  extended  to  our  whole  nation.  The 
Temps  says  that  the  United  States  was  the  most  tardy 
nation  in  accepting  the  invitation  of  France  to  join  in 
the  Exposition  of  1889.  The  Matin  begins  a  column 
with  the  exclamation  :  "What  blackguards  {canailles) 
these  Yankees  are  !  "  It  makes  all  manner  of  ridicule 
of  the  American  productions  exhibited,  and  declares 
that  bad  faith  was  manifested  towards  France  in  the 
distribution  of  medals  as  well  as  in  the  failure  to  pro- 
tect the  porcelain  and  tapestries  destroj'ed.  It  is 
probable  that  all  this  uproar  will  end  in  a  reclamation 
against  the  United  States  government,  from  which 
came  the  request  that  France  should  send  articles  to 
the  Exposition.  It  will  be  probably  urged,  and  not 
without  some  force,  that  this  invitation,  which  came 
from  Washington,  connoted  some  guarantee  that  the 
goods  would  be  protected  with  due  care  and  diligence. 
At  any  rate,  the  thing  is  causing  an  excitement  which 


causes  some  anxiety  at  the  United  States  Legation, 
whose  Secretary,  Henry  Vignaud,  has  already  written 
a  letter  to  Le  Temps,  denying  that  his  country  was 
backward  in  the  French  Exposition  of  1889.  A  hun- 
dred years  ago  France  was  wild  with  rage  because 
John  Jay  formed  with  England  a  commercial  treaty  in 
virtual  violation  of  our  treaty  with  France,  and  now 
the  anniversary  is  celebrated  with  accusations  of  bad 
faith  almost  as  stormy.  Chicago  ought  to  know,  also, 
that  there  is  a  general  feeling  in  Europe,  and  that  it 
is  shared  by  Americans,  of  disgust  that  the  Exposition 
should  have  terminated  with  such  a  disaster.  I  should 
add,  however,  that  particulars  have  not  been  fully  pub- 
lished here,  up  to  this  date,  but  a  long  telegram  has 
appeared,  dated  "Chicago,  January  17,"  in  which  it 
is  stated  that  the  Germans  in  Chicago  were  at  the 
bottom  of  the  obstructions  which  the  French  exhibi- 
tors met  with  from  the  first.  It  was  only  by  the  friend- 
liness of  Guatemala,  in  giving  them  part  of  its  space, 
that  the  French  were  enabled  to  exhibit  as  well  as 
they  did.  The  Chicago  Germans  managed  to  prevent 
the  French  scheme  of  arranging  a  boulevard  scene, 
"  Paris-Plaisir."  It  is  added  that  the  Commission  of 
the  Exposition  has  opposed  an  inquiry,  proposed  by 
the  State  of  Illinois,  into  the  fire,  basing  their  opposi- 
tion on  the  supreme  powers  conferred  on  them  by  Con- 
gress within  the  circle  of  the  Exposition.  Consequently 
the  mysterious  affair  will  never  be  cleared  up.  It  is 
regarded  as  a  case  of  German  incendiarism.  Of  course, 
I  do  not  give  any  credence  to  these  suspicions,  but  it 
is  well  that  they  should  be  known,  and  that  there 
should  be  a  complete  inquiry,  the  results  being  pub- 
lished in  Paris. 

The  incident  has  occurred  at  a  bad  moment.  There 
are  reactionists  enough  in  France  who  will  be  eager  to 
score  it  as  another  point  against  republican  institutions 
in  general.  At  no  previous  time  since  the  French  Re- 
public was  established  has  there  been  so  much  aliena- 
tion from  it.  It  is  a  notable  symptom  that  in  Paris  the 
Napoleonic  legend  commands  the  centenary  of  the 
Revolution.  The  chieftain  who  raised  his  military 
despotism  on  the  ruins  of  a  republic,  is  to-day  the  hero 
of  the  theatres,  figuring  in  several  plays  amid  popular 
applause.  On  the  other  hand,  the  present  republican 
regime  is  represented  on  the  stage  in  merciless  carica- 


3968 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


tures  of  Senator  Berenger  ("Pere  Pudeur"),  who  last 
year  made  a  state  affair  of  a  ball  given  by  the  art  stu- 
dents to  their  models.      Some  of  these  models,  who 
make  their  living  by  posing  in  studios  and  art  schools, 
wore  little  clothing  ;  yet  it  was  a  private  ball,  no  money 
being  taken  at  the  doors,  and  the  public  not  admitted. 
The  students  regarded  the  hall  they  had  engaged  as, 
for   that   evening,  their   legal   castle.      They   made   a 
merry  demonstration  against  "Father  Modesty,"  be- 
fore his  doors,  and  their  dispersion  led  to  riots,  in  the 
course  of  which  one  student  was  killed.    The  students 
desired  to  attend  in  a  body  the  funeral  of  their  com- 
rade,  but   the  government  resolved  to  prevent  this. 
The  government  took  possession  of  the  dead  body, 
and  the  students  stood  in  the  streets  night  and  day  be- 
fore the  gates  of  the  building.      At  length  a  mounted 
troop  dashed  out,  the  corpse  carried  among  them,  and 
galloped   away  to   some  place   of   burial,  leaving  the 
youths  enraged  behind.      The  legislature  then  passed 
a  measure,  forbidding  masquerade  dresses  in  halls  and 
streets   excepting  during  carnival   time.      The  law  is 
freely  violated  in  all  the  theatres  and  music-halls,  the 
only  sufferers  thus  far  being,  I  believe,  two  respectable 
ladies  who  were  fined  for  bicycling  in  knickerbockers 
in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne.   They  were  decently  dressed, 
but  had  they  waited  for  carnival  time  might  have  ap- 
peared on  the  boulevards  in  tights.      Thus  it  is  that 
the  Napoleonic  empire,  which  permitted  entire  free- 
dom in  popular  amusements,  and  the  Republic,  which 
has  vainly  tried  to  puritanise  them,  now  appear  on  the 
stage,  the  former  in  dignity,  the  latter  in  caricature. 
By  thus  confusing  its  functions  with  those  of  the  muni- 
cipality and   the   police,  whose   business  it  is  to  pre- 
serve public  decency  and   order,  the  legislature  and 
government,   besides  failing   in  their  attempt,    have 
.covered  themselves  with  ridicule, — a  perilous  thing  in 
France, — and  have  alienated  the  students  and  artists. 
Furthermore,  they  have  given  a  dangerous  instruction 
to   the   suffering   classes  by  assuming  the  position  of 
paternal   government.      If  government  can  enter  pri- 
vate rooms,  and  control  the  costumes  of  their  inmates, 
why  should  it  not  be  required  to  enter  them  for  the 
purpose  of  giving  clothing  to  those  who  have  none, 
and  food,  and  employment?  The  socialists,  anarchists, 
and  all  the  foes  of  the  present  social  order,  are  making 
the  most  of  every  apparent  instance  of  suffering.   Dra- 
matic presentations  are  given  of   such  events  as,  for 
example,  the  suicides  of  the  Caubet  family,  January 
15,    last.      The   father,    mother,    and   daughter,    after 
treating  themselves  to  a  fine  champagne  supper,  suffo- 
cated themselves  with  fumes  of  charcoal.      A  govern- 
ment which  occupies  itself  with  dancers'  skirts  is  nat- 
urally burdened  with  responsibility  for  all  such  things. 
The  "bourgeois"  Republic  was  really  aimed  at  by  the 
immortelles  contributed  by   socialist  societies   to   the 


ashes  of  the  cremated  Caubets.     Yet  it  now  turns  out 
that  they  were  not  in  real  want,  but  were  all  in  dejec- 
tion because   M'lle  Caubet's  artistic  efforts  had  been 
refused  at  the  Salon,  and  the  Opera  had  disappointed 
her  theatrical  aspirations.    Of  course,  a  national  legis- 
lature which  attends  to  theatrical  costumes  ought  to 
have  attended  to  Miss  Caubet's  projects  !    There  are    . 
in  this  legislature  some  able,  large-minded  men,  uni- 
versity men,  and  they  do  as  much  good  work  as  they 
can,  but   they  are   overlaid   by  the  noisy  cliques  and 
their  partisans.      Among  these  there   is  none  around 
whom  gathers  any  national  enthusiasm.   The  late  Sen- 
ator Victor  Schoelcher  was  nearly  the  last  of  the  race 
of  republican  statesmen, — such  as  Louis  Blanc,  Ledru 
Rollin,  Victor  Hugo.     Between  that  political  race  and 
the  present  yawns  a  Panama  gulf.      France  shows  no 
decline  in  literature,  science,  art,  dramatic  genius,  but 
in  political  and   parliamentary  ability  there  has  cer- 
tainly been  some  decline.      Under  the  recent  adminis- 
trations the  Republic  has  been  losing  friends,  but  still 
I  do  not  believe  in  its  immediate  danger,  for,  in  fact, 
none  of  the  parties  hostile  to  it, — papal,  legitimist,  or 
imperialist, — has  any  leader  of  sufficient  ability  or  fame 
to   strike   the  popular  imagination.      Not   one   seems 
capable  even  of  the  cock-sparrow  role  of  Boulanger. 
And  yet  there  are  various  elements,  Catholic,  commu- 
nist, anarchist,   monarchical,  which,  however  antago- 
nistic  to   each   other,  agree  in  a  sullen  dislike  of   the 
present  regime.     And   the   fund  of  popular  ignorance 
and  stupidity  which  may  be  drawn  upon  is  illustrated 
by  the   fact   that  the   irreconcilable   Henri  Rochefort 
publishes  his  suspicion  that  an  unknown  person,  who 
sent  the  anarchist  Vaillant  one  hundred  francs,  was  an 
agent  of  the  government,  which  needed  a  bomb  thrown 
among  the  Deputies  in  order  to  consolidate  a  majority! 
Amid  such  political  conditions  the  bomb  of  Vaillant 
has  had  effects  beyond  the  physical  injuries  inflicted. 
He  has  been  sentenced  to  death,  but  is   not  likely  to 
be  executed.*     As  no  one  was  killed,  the  capital  sen- 
tence is  really  meant,  in  large   part,  to  punish  the  at- 
tack on  the  national  sovereignty  ;  but  this  has  not  been 
mentioned.   The  prosecutor  did  not  claim  more  sanctity 
for  the  legislature  than  for  any  other  group  of  individ- 
uals, and  he  even  alluded  to  Panama.      Ravachol  got 
off  in  Paris  because  no   one  was  killed,  but  was  con- 
demned to  death  at  Saint-Etienne  where  a  victim  died. 
Vaillant's  case  presents  some  phenomena  worthy  the 
attention  of  those  who  study  the  mixed   elements  of 
modern    "civilisation."     The  deputy  whose  voice  is 
heard  above  all  others  in  entreaty  for  the  life  of  Vail- 
lant is  the  chief  sufferer  of  the  bomb.      This  sufferer, 
who  has  sent  Vaillant  his  pardon,  is  also  an  Abbe, — 
the  Abb6  Lemire.     Yet  it  is  the  church  of  this  Abb6 
which  is  responsible  for  the  retention  of  capital  pun- 

*  Just  as  we  go  to  press  the  cable  announces  Vaillant's  execution, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3969 


ishment  in  France.  Popular  feeling  has  long  been 
against  the  death-penalty:  the  law  remains  because  it 
is  biblical,  as  indeed  for  the  same  reason  it  survives 
elsewhere.  But  while  permitting  Moses  to  remain  the 
law-giver  to  society  in  this  particular,  the  popular 
feeling  is  so  much  against  it  that  all  manner  of  devices 
and  technicalities  are  used  to  save  the  murderer.  After 
the  criminal  is  condemned  by  a  jury,  he  may  appeal 
to  a  court  of  Cassation  ;  if  this  confirms  his  sentence, 
he  can  appeal  to  the  Commission  of  Pardons  ;  and  even 
if  this  refuses  clemency,  the  President  can  personally 
overturn  the  entire  series  of  decisions.  But  where 
there  are  any  reasons  of  State  for  overruling  a  jury's 
sentence  the  court  of  Cassation  rarely  finds  difficulty 
in  so  doing.  Article  337  of  the  Code  of  Criminal  In- 
struction provides  that  the  question  shall  be  put  to  the 
jury  in  these  terms  :  "  Is  the  accused  guilty  of  having 
committed  such  murder,  such  robbery,  or  other  crime, 
with  all  the  circumstances  contained  in  the  indictment. " 
Indictments  are  very  apt  to  be  vague  about  some  cir- 
cumstance. How  exacting  as  to  the  letter  the  court  of 
Cassation  may  be  when  it  wishes,  is  illustrated  by  curi- 
ous examples.  In  1856  it  quashed  the  sentence  of  one 
Marjoras,  who  had  unquestionably  murdered  two  chil- 
dren, because  the  indictment  had  accused  him  of  mur- 
dering "  two  children  ' '  instead  of  mentioning  the  chil- 
dren separately.  Since  then  several  wholesale  mur- 
derers have  similarly  escaped  because  each  victim  was 
not  severally  the  subject  of  a  count  in  the  indictment. 
In  some  cases  a  mistake  in  orthography  has  caused  a 
verdict  to  be  set  aside,  the  most  absurd  being  when 
the  foreman  of  the  jury  had  written  the  verdict  as  that 
of  the  "  magorit^  "  instead  of  the  "majorite."  Under 
such  precedents  the  court  of  Cassation  will  have  little 
difficulty,  as  Vaillant's  defenders  are  pointing  out,  in 
quashing  his  sentence  should  they  so  desire.  The  in- 
dictment was  that  he  had  "on  November  9,  deliber- 
ately attempted  manslaughter  on  the  persons  gathered 
in  the  Palais-Bourbon,  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
then  in  session,"  etc.  Now,  Vaillant  himself  was  one 
of  the  persons  then  and  there  gathered  :  did  he  de- 
liberately attempt  to  murder  himself  ?  The  indictment 
proceeds  to  say  that  "the  attempt  was  shown  by  a 
commencement  of  execution,  which  was  interrupted 
and  failed  only  through  circumstances  beyond  his  will." 
It  is  urged  that  according  to  law  each  of  the  charges 
and  circumstances  should  have  been  submitted  to  the 
jury  separately,  whereas  they  were  all  lumped  to- 
gether. Should  this  court  quash  the  sentence,  Vaillant 
will  be  tried  over  again.  If  the  sentence  is  again  death, 
it  will  go  on  the  Commission  of  Pardons,  and  probably 
be  commuted.  Before  this  letter  reaches  you  the  cable 
will  have  announced  the  decision.  My  belief  is  that 
it  will  be  so  arranged  that  Vaillant  will  owe  his  life  to 
executive  clemency.     The  Commission  of  Pardons  is 


entirely  secret,  even  its  members  being  unknown  ;  this 
would  be  an  admirable  institution  were  it  not  that  its 
recommendations  require  the  presidential  signature, 
which  may  be  withheld.  But  it  will  not  be  withheld 
by  M.  Carnot,  who  refuses  even  to  read  the  petitions 
sent  him  for  Vaillant,  but  transmits  them  to  the  Com- 
mission. Vaillant  and  the  anarchists  would  no  doubt 
prefer  a  breakdown  of  the  prosecution  rather  than  re- 
lease by  craving  pardon. 

But  Vaillant,  if  he  escapes,  will  owe  his  life  to 
many  considerations.  First  of  all  to  his  only  child,  his 
nine-years  old  Sidonie.  She  seems  devoted  to  her 
father,  and  the  tears  from  her  blue  eyes  are  counted 
by  all  the  reporters.  Then  the  piteous  tale  of  Vaillant's 
sorrows  and  hardships  is  told  and  retold  in  romantic 
versions.  In  his  favor  weighs  a  large  public  senti- 
ment which,  while  detesting  the  man,  is  all  the  more 
opposed  to  giving  him  the  halo  of  martyrdom.  There 
is  also  a  large  opposition  to  capital  punishment.  Some 
have  been  moved  by  his  unique  defence.  He  declared 
that  he  had  developed  his  ideas  by  reading  Mirabeau, 
Darwin,  Biichner,  and  Spencer  (the  two  Englishmen 
have  been  defended  by  Figaro  from  such  patronage). 
Vaillant  has  touched  the  spirit  of  young  Paris  by  his 
courage.  Not  only  did  he  show  pluck  in  risking  his 
own  life  along  with  others  by  his  bomb,  but  still  more 
in  his  defiant  and  scornful  answers  to  the  judge.  The 
impression  he  made  on  those  present  in  the  court-room 
was  better  than  the  papers  represent.  A  young  man, 
not  much  over  thirty,  though  almost  aged  by  hard  ex- 
periences, he  is  rather  good-looking,  and  his  manner 
free  and  impulsive.  He  asked  wherein  his  bomb  was 
more  cruel  than  the  bombs  hurled  by  the  government's 
orders  among  the  innocent  people  of  Tonquin,  and 
elsewhere,  and  made  many  other  retorts  which  will  be 
certain  to  be  quoted  by  the  socialists.  As  to  his  mis- 
tress, he  declared  that  her  husband  had  already  de- 
serted her.  The  passionate  devotion  between  these 
two,  and  the  affecting  scene  when  he  was  visited  in 
prison  by  her  and  his  little  daughter,  Sidonia, —  the 
woman  hurling  herself  against  the  grating  that  sep- 
arated them, — have  been  described  with  every  accent 
of  pathos.  Again,  the  government  probably  feels  that 
it  would  be  .unsafe  to  attempt  to  guillotine  Vaillant  in 
public.  His  mistress  declares  she  will  be  there  to  pre- 
vent it,  and  a  scene  could  not  be  avoided  which  per- 
haps might  be  attended  with  danger.  A  legislative 
committee  has  for  some  time  had  in  preparation  a  bill 
for  secret  executions,  and  it  has  been  proposed  to  hurr}' 
it  through  into  law,  in  order  that  it  may  apply  to  Vail- 
lant. But  it  is  pointed  out  that  such  a  retrospective 
application  of  a  new  law  would  be  illegal.  Vaillant 
must  be  executed,  if  at  all,  under  the  laws  existing  at 
the  time  of  his  trial  and  sentence.  Should  the  govern- 
ment execute  Vaillant  in  secret   a  popular  outbreak 


3970 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


would  be  about  as  likely  as  if  in  public.  Thus  a  mix- 
ture of  apprehensions,  sympathies,  and  sentimentali- 
ties, joined  to  a  general  aversion  to  capital  punish- 
ment, will  probably  end  in  sending  Vaillant  into  penal 
servitude  for  life, —  that  is  for  a  year  or  so,  when  he 
will  be  again  restored  to  the  bosom  of  society,  and 
perhaps  become  a  more  prosperous,  as  he  already  is  a 
more  famous,  man,  than  if  he  had  never  wounded 
thirty  gentlemen  and  ladies  in  the  Palais-Bourbon. 
Already  his  mistress  is  a  heroine,  her  every  movement 
reported  in  the  papers  more  minutely  than  those  of  any 
lady  in  France  ;  and  a  Duchess  (d'Us6z)  has  recovered 
the  lustre  lost  since  her  friend  Boulanger's  death,  by 
offering  to  support  little  Sidonie  Vaillant.  Vaillant 
rather  scandalised  the  anarchists  by  his  willingness  to 
have  his  daughter  supported  by  a  Duchess,  reared  as 
a  "  bourgeoise,"  and  they  demanded  that  she  shall  be 
the  daughter  of  their  regiment.  A  third  competitor 
for  the  child  is  M.  Heytz,  a  billiard-table  maker,  an 
old  friend  of  Vaillant,  but  an  opponent  of  the  anar- 
chists. Vaillant  agreed  that  Heytz  should  adopt  her. 
But  this,  too,  annoyed  the  anarchists,  and  so  the  child 
disappeared.  However,  she  was  found  at  the  house 
of  one  Martin,  an  anarchist,  who  happened  the  same 
day  to  be  arrested.  And  now  Vaillant' s  mistress  has 
visited  him  again,  and  reports  that  he  has  given  the 
child  to  her.  The  reason  he  did  not  do  so  first  was 
that  he  supposed  she  could  not  support  it,  but  she 
says  she  can,  though  where  the  income,  whose  absence 
he  deplored  on  trial,  is  coming  from  is  not  reported. 
But  thirty  anarchists  have  united  to  supply  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  francs  per  month  for  the  child's  support 
and  "education."  Thus  many  conceivable  destinies 
have  hovered  over  the  child's  head,  and  in  so  doing 
have  saved  her  father's  head.  Little  Sidonie' s  tears 
have  largely  effaced  all  memory  of  the  thirty  gentle- 
men and  ladies  now  prostrate  with  wounds  inflicted  by 
an  act  which  the  Prosecutor,  with  unconscious  athe- 
ism, described  as  characterised  "by  an  indiscrimina- 
tion resembling  a  catastrophe  of  nature."  A  round  of 
applause  has  gone  through  Europe  for  the  jury  which, 
in  the  face  of  many  menaces,  condemned  Vaillant  to 
death.  But  the  probabilities  are  that  the  victory  will 
ultimately  go  to  the  anarchists,  and  that  Vaillant  will 
win  by  his  bomb  wealth  for  his  mistress  and  his  daugh- 
ter, whom  he  could  not  support,  world-wide  fame  to 
satisfy  his  inordinate  vanity,  and  freedom  to  propagate 
his  reckless  species.  All  of  this  will  be  due  to  the  con- 
tinuance of  a  savage  penalty,  that  of  death.  Had  it 
not  been  a  question  of  death,  Vaillant  would  have 
passed  with  little  notice  to  his  prison-garb  and  his 
work  ;  and  a  little  surgery  would  have  prevented,  ac- 
cording to  his  beloved  Darwin's  science,  any  further 
survival  of  the  unfittest  in  his  personal  line,  besides 
humiliating  his  heroic  pretensions. 


THE  MODERN  STATE  BASED  UPON  REVOLUTION. 

Among  the  ancients  the  State  was  a  religious  institu- 
tion, and  the  State's  authority  was  to  Greek  citizens  not 
less  ultimate  than  that  of  the  Pope  is  to  Roman  Cath- 
olics. Socrates  attended  to  his  duty  of  voting  against 
the  unanimous  fury  of  the  Athenian  mob  when  the  ten 
generals  after  the  victorious  battle  of  Arginusae  were 
unjustly  condemned  to  death.  But  he  did  not  venture 
to  oppose  an  unjust  law  as  soon  as  it  had  become  law. 
He  obeyed  the  law  when  it  most  outrageously  con- 
demned him  to  death  ;  he  might,  with  the  connivance 
of  the  authorities,  have  easily  made  his  escape,  but  he 
preferred  to  stay  and  to  die.  Very  different  from  this 
attitude  was  the  position  of  Sophocles.  He  was  im- 
bued with  the  same  spirit  as  our  Protestant  heroes, 
a  Milton,  a  Luther  :  he  preached  disobedience  to  im- 
moral laws.      Antigone  says  : 

"  It  was  not  Zeus  who  gave  them  forth, 
Nor  Justice  dwellinf;  with  the  Gods  below. 
Who  traced  these  laws  for  all  the  sons  of  men  ; 
Nor  did  I  deem  thy  edicts  strong  enough, 
That  thou,  a  mortal  man.  shoulds't  over-pass 
The  unwritten  laws  of  God  that  know  no  change. 

They  are  not  of  to-day  nor  yesterday, 

But  live  forever,  nor  can  man  assign 

When  first  they  sprang  to  being.     Not  through  fear 

Of  any  man's  resolve  was  I  prepared 

Before  the  gods  to  bear  the  penalty 

Of  sinning  against  these." 

Sophocles  ranks  the  unwritten  laws  of  the  morally 
right  above  the  legality  of  State-laws.  In  a  conflict 
between  the  two,  the  former  is  to  be  regarded  as  the 
superior  authority,  and  justly  so,  for  the  State's  author- 
ity rests  upon  the  moral  law,  and  it  is  the  State's  duty 
and  its  ultimate  end  of  existence  to  realise  the  moral 
law  in  establishing  a  moral  communit}'. 

The  Saxon  nations  represent  the  revolutionary  prin- 
ciple in  history,  and  they  are  proud  of  it.  Historians 
unanimously  praise  Hampden's  resistance  to  the  pay- 
ment of  ship-money.  Hampden  became  a  mart3'r  of 
the  revolutionary  principle,  viz.,  the  right  to  resist  il- 
legal impositions  of  government,  and  such  resistance 
was  with  him  a  religious  duty.  The  free  England  of  to- 
day gratefully  remembers  his  services  in  the  cause  of 
freedom.  The  sinking  of  the  three  vessels  of  tea  was 
in  some  respect  a  boisterous  student's  joke,  but  it  was 
prompted  by  this  same  revolutionary  spirit  which  makes 
it  a  duty  to  resist  unjust  laws  ;  and  to  fail  in  this  duty 
is  regarded  as  a  sign  of  unmanliness. 

Resistance  is  right  when  the  State-authorit}'  comes 
into  conflict  with  moral  laws.  But  who  shall  illumine 
the  minds  of  the  people?  Who  shall  decide  whether 
their  own  views  of  right  and  wrong  are  correct  or  not? 
Even  such  a  scoundrel  as  Guiteau  while  standing  on 
the  scaffold  shouted  "Glory,  glory  Hallelujah!"  We 
can  only  say  that  every  case  must  be  considered  by  it- 
self, and  every  one  who  feels  called  upon  to  stand  forth 
as  a  champion  for  his  particular  ideal  of  right  and  jus- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3971 


tice,  must  take  the  consequences.  Mr.  Hampden  lost 
his  fortune  and  nobody  ever  replaced  it,  and  yet  we  feel 
sure  that  if  we  could  arouse  him  from  his  slumber  in  the 
grave  and  ask  him  whether  he  regretted  it,  he  would 
most  positively  uphold  his  old  conviction  ;  he  would  be 
proud  of  the  subsequent  course  of  events,  which  justi- 
fied his  action,  although  it  had  ruined  his  life,  and  he 
would  be  glad  to  know  that  the  same  spirit  that 
prompted  him  is  still  alive  in  the  Saxon  races. 

The  revolutionary  spirit  of  the  Saxon  races  pos- 
sesses one  peculiarity :  it  is  based  upon  manliness  and 
love  of  justice,  i.  e.,  upon  the  higher  morality  of  the 
unwritten  law  ;  it  is  pervaded  by  a  moral  seriousness 
and  supported  by  a  religious  enthusiasm.  And  this  is 
the  secret  why  the  English  revolution  and  the  Ameri- 
can revolution  were  successful.  Thej'  did  not  come 
to  destroy,  but  to  remove  the  obstacles  to  building 
better  than  before. 

With  all  this  unreserved  appreciation  of  the  revo- 
lutionary principle,  we  are  by  no  means  inclined  to  say 
that  it  is  our  duty  to  resist  any  and  every  immoral  law. 
On  the  contrary,  we  should  consider  it  as  a  public  ca- 
lamity if  every  one  who  has  peculiar  and  dissenting 
views  from  our  legislative  bodies  concerning  the  moral- 
ity of  a  certain  law,  should  resort  to  open  rebellion. 
The  method  of  settling  questions  of  right  or  wrong 
by  the  majority  votes  of  legal  representatives  has,  with 
all  its  faults,  also  its  advantages.  Problems  as  to  the 
fairest  methods  of  taxation,  as  to  restrictions  for  tem- 
porary exigencies,  as  to  peace  or  war  on  a  given 
provocation,  etc.,  have  a  deep  moral  significance  and 
should  be  decided  not  according  to  private  interests  or 
party  politics,  but  solely  from  the  moral  view  of  the 
subject.  Should,  however,  a  popular  error  concerning 
their  right  solution  be  so  prevalent  as  to  make  it  pos- 
sible to  procure  for  it  a  majority  vote,  we  may,  on  the 
one  hand,  deeply  regret  the  lack  of  the  people's  in- 
sight, but  must,  on  the  other  hand,  grant  that  under 
the  circumstances  and  in  a  certain  way  it  is  good  that 
the  State  should  act  according  to  the  erroneous  notion 
popular  at  the  time  ;  for  the  people,  if  not  amenable  to 
reason  and  the  sense  of  right,  should  find  out  their 
mistake  by  experience,  so  that  the  public  mind  may  be 
educated. 

The  justice  of  the  revolutionary  principle  can  be 
doubted  only  by  those  who  regard  morality  as  a  blind 
obedience  to  authority.  We  demand  a  higher  concep- 
tion of  morality  ;  we  require  that  the  truth  shall  be 
openly  investigated,  and  that  truth  itself,  not  a  repre- 
sentative of  truth,  as  a  pope,  or  a  church,  or  dogmatic 
formulas,  shall  be  the  ultimate  authority  of  conduct 
in  life. 

This  is  the  spirit  of  the  new  dispensation,  and  this, 
too,  is  the  basis  upon  which  we  build  our  national  life. 
And  we  are  conscious  of  the  fact  that  we  stand  upon  a 


higher  moral  ground  than  those  who  praise  submis- 
siveness  to  this  or  that  authority,  which  is  regarded 
as  a  divine  institution,  and  derives  its  power  directly 
from  the  grace  of  God,  according  to  sacred  revelations 
which  are  said  to  be  infallibly  right  and  reliable,  even 
where  they  are  in  conflict  with  facts  and  where  they 
flatly  contradict  reason. 

The  revolutionary  principle  has  been  doubted  by 
some,  not  on  account  of  its  justice,  but  on  account  of 
its  alleged  impracticability.  Its  success,  however, 
among  the  Saxon  nations,  with  their  consequent  un- 
precedented and  unrivalled  advance  in  industry,  trade, 
literature,  art,  and  general  prosperity,  can  no  longer 
be  doubted.  Those  nations  alone  possess  the  future 
who  sanction  this  revolutionary  spirit,  based  upon  the 
higher  morality  of  manliness  and  freedom. 

The  modern  State-ideal  (which  is  not  an  embodi- 
ment of  individualism,  for  that  would  make  the  State 
itself  impossible,  but  which  recognises  nevertheless  the 
principle  of  individualism)  procures  for  its  members 
a  wider  liberty  and  a  fuller  justice,  thus  removing  all 
the  shackles  that  prevent  progress  or  hinder  the  free 
pursuit  of  righteous  enterprises. 

The  State  which  in  opposition  to  the  Church  came 
to  be  regarded  as  a  profane  institution,  is  now  again 
sanctified  as  a  moral  power,  having  moral  aims,  exist- 
ing for  a  holy  purpose,  and  destined  to  realise  and  to 
help  its  citizens  to  a  life  according  to  the  highest  ideals 
of  humanity.  The  State  is  a  moral  institution,  and  it 
is  therefore  our  duty,  according  to  the  precedent  of 
Christ,  one  of  the  first  and  greatest  representatives  of 
the  revolutionary  spirit  on  earth,  to  drive  out  of  its 
halls  those  who  barter  there  for  private  gains.  The 
State  does  not  exist  to  be  a  den  of  thieves,  and  it  is 
but  right  to  cast  out  the  money-changers  and  those 
who  sell  and  buy  in  this  most  sacred  temple,  built  of 
the  souls  of  men. 


TREASON  AND  REFORM. 

The  question  now  arises.  Can  there  be  in  a  State 
which  recognises  the  justice  of  the  revolutionary  prin- 
ciple, any  such  thing  as  treason?  We  answer  in  the 
affirmative. 

Treason,  according  to  our  definition,  is  anj'  act 
which,  as  the  result  of  conscious  and  deliberate  pur- 
pose, tends  to  undermine  the  existence  of  the  State  ; 
and  treason  is  not  merely  a  punishable  offence,  it  is 
one  of  the  gravest  crimes  that  can  be  committed. 

In  giving  this  defiriition,  however,  it  must  be  added 
that  the  name  "traitor"  has  been  flung  at  every  revo- 
lutionist, at  every  advocate  of  the  rights  of  the  op- 
pressed, and  at  every  reformer.  Not  every  revolution 
is  treason.  Those  revolutions  which  stand  upon  moral 
grounds,  being,  as  it  were,  an  appeal  to  the  unwritten 
laws  of  our  highest  ideals,  are  aspirations  for  reform  ; 


3972 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


they  are  attempts  to  replace  any  traditional  law,  which, 
from  the  standpoint  of  a  more  humanitarian  justice, 
is  felt  to  be  unjust.  Treason  is  that  kind  of  revolution 
which  comes  to  destroy,  which  is  not  based  upon  moral 
motives  and  does  not  bring  to  the  front  a  higher  moral 
conception. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  draw  any  well-defined  line  be- 
tween treason  and  reform,  especially  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  every  reform  appears  necessarily  as 
treason  to  a  conservative  mind.  As  to  would-be  re- 
formers, who  commit  acts  of  treason  in  the  vain  hope 
of  doing  a  good  work  of  progress,  we  can  only  say  that 
they  take  their  chances.  If  a  man  is  not  positively  sure 
that  his  resistance  to  the  law  is  a  true  act  of  reform, 
or  a  better  and  juster  arrangement  of  society,  he  had 
better  leave  the  work  to  other  men  ;  and  even  those 
men  who  feel  quite  sure  that  they  are  called  upon  to 
become  reformers  should  carefully  question  their  own 
sentiments,  lest  their  vanity  inveigle  them  to  enter 
upon  a  thorny  path,  which  to  them  appears  as  one  of 
martyrdom,  but  in  fact  is  only  the  error  of  an  empty 
dream.  Both  will  suffer  equally,  the  reformer  and  the 
vainglorious  prophet  of  error,  but  the  former  only  will 
live  as  the  martyr  of  a  great  cause  ;  the  latter  will 
perish  without  even  being  respected  or  even  so  much 
as  pitied  by  following  generations. 

CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA. 

BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 
THE  SPIRIT  OF  LOVE. 

When  Jesus  had  finished  these  sayings  he  came 
down  from  the  mount,  and  went  into  the  city. 

And  while  he  abode  there,  certain  of  them  who  had 
heard  him  on  the  mount  came  unto  him. 

Asking  of  him  an  interpretation  of  the  doctrines 
which  he  had  preached  unto  them. 

Then  said  one  of  the  multitude  unto  Jesus,  How 
can  a  man  love  his  enemy  ? 

Jesus  answered  him,  Verily  I  say  unto  thee,  even 
as  the  sun  shineth  alike  upon  the  evil  and  upon  the 


And  upon  him  that  blasphemeth  and  him  that  bless- 
eth. 

*  These  articles  on  the  nature  of  the  State  which  appeared  in  Nos. 
334.  335.  336,  and  337  of  The  Open  Court,  originated  in  the  following  way  : 
In  October,  1892,  the  indictment  of  the  Homestead  rioters  tor  treason  was 
the  occasion  of  some  remarks  by  Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull  in  Current  Topics  (No. 
269  of  The  Open  Court)  where  treason  was  glorified  on  the  ground  of  the  fact 
that  it  has  always  been  the  fate  of  reformers  to  be  branded  as  traitors.  This 
remark  elicited  in  turn  an  editorial  comment  on  the  nature  of  treason,  which 
was  defined  as  "  that  crime  which  directly  attempts  to  undermine  the  State  " 
(No.  269),  and  also  an  editorial  article  entitled  "  Does  the  State  Exist?  "  (No. 
272).  After  the  publication  of  this  article  we  received  several  letters  from  in- 
dividualists and  anarchists  endeavoring  to  demonstrate  the  non-existence  of 
the  State,  and  in  publishing  several  of  them  (Nos.  272,  275,  279)  we  promised 
to  explain  further  the  nature  of  the  State  in  some  subsequent  articles,  but 
were  unable  at  the  time  to  find  space  for  them.  We  have  now  at  last  found 
room  for  these  articles.  They  are  as  timely  now  as  they  would  have  been  dur- 
ing the  anarchist  or  Homestead  trials,  for  the  dynamite  crimes  in  Barcelona 
and  Paris  demand  a  reconsideration  of  the  nature  of  treason  in  the  light  of 
the  modern  Slate  conception,  which  recognises  the  aspiration  for  reform  as  a 
right  and  even  as  a  duty  of  all  good  citizens. 


Even  SO  do  ye  also  unto  them  that  be  round  about 
you. 

For  as  the  sun  warmeth  them  that  be  cold,  so  is  it 
with  the  heart  of  him  in  whom  dwelleth  the  love  of  the 
Father. 

And  even  as  the  cold  of  the  earth  chilleth  not  the 
sun  in  the  heavens. 

So  is  the  heart  of  that  man  which  is  born  of  the 
spirit. 

For  the  righteous  man  hath  not  an  enem)'. 

Thus  spake  another  unto  Jesus, — a  certain  citizen 
of  Decapolis,  versed  in  the  law  : 

Rabbi,  thou  didst  say  unto  us,  if  one  take  our  coat 
let  him  have  our  cloak  also  ;  and  if  one  compel  us  to 
go  with  him  a  mile,  that  we  go  twain. 

Shall  I  then  give  unto  a  robber  the  garments  that 
I  might  give  unto  my  children? 

Or  shall  I  forsake  them  of  mine  own  household  to 
follow  after  a  stranger? 

Jesus  answered  him.  Hast  thou  not  heard  also  that 
he  that  provideth  not  for  his  own  hath  denied  the 
faith? 

And  yet  again,  Give  not  that  which  is  holy  unto 
the  dogs. 

Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  thee,  love  asketh  not, 
neither  questioneth,  nor  doubteth. 

For  to  him  that  believeth  shall  be  given  under- 
standing. 

And  he  that  loveth,  knoweth. 


THE  FREE  VINE. 

Then  the  disciples  asked  Jesus  concerning  that 
saying.  The  truth  shall  make  you  free. 

And  Jesus  saith  unto  them,  Behold  yonder  vine. 

And  the  disciples  say  unto  him,  Master,  we  see  no 
vine  ;  that  which  thou  seest  yonder  is  a  tree. 

Jesus  saith  unto  them.  Look  again.  Can  a  tree 
bear  grapes? 

And  one  of  the  disciples  ran  unto  the  tree  and 
plucked  the  grapes  ; 

And  when  he  came  again  he  saith.  Truly  it  is  a 
tree,  and  yet  it  is  a  vine  also,  for  behold  the  grapes 
that  I  have  plucked. 

And  Jesus  saith  unto  them.  Learn  a  lesson  of  the 
vine ; 

For  while  it  was  yet  young  and  tender  the  gardener 
planted  with  it  a  staff ; 

And,  after  many  years,  the  staff,  having  no  life  in 
it,  rotted  away  ; 

But  behold,  the  vine  stood  upright,  as  it  doth  now. 

So  is  every  one  that  is  called  of  the  spirit.  And  he 
shall  be  like  a  vine  that  the  gardener  planted,  which 
bringeth  forth  fruit  in  due  season. 

Wherefore  should  I  say  unto  you  :  See  that  ye  de- 
spise not  the  vine? 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3973 


Verily  the  vine  requireth  not  that  I  should  say  unto 
you,  Despise  it  not  ; 

For  behold  freedom  speaketh  while  it  is  yet  dumb. 

Or  wherefore  should  I  say  unto  you,  Despise  not 
the  fruit  thereof? 

Verily  the  fruit  that  ye  have  tasted  speaketh  for  me. 

But  I  say  unto  you  :  Despise  not  the  staff  which 
the  gardener  planted. 

And  ye  that  are  free,  despise  not  the  staff  which 
thy  brother  requireth  ; 

Neither  say  unto  thy  brother,  cast  aside  thy  staff. 

For  behold  he  needeth  it. 

But  the  time  cometh,  when  from  the  rising  of  the 
sun  unto  the  going  down  of  the  same  ; 

In  every  kingdom,  and  nation,  and  language  shall 
no  staff  be  required  any  more  forever. 

For  every  soul  shall  be  free  on  the  earth  even  as  it 
is  in  my  father's  kingdom. 

And  they  were  astonished  more  and  more  daily  at 
the  doctrine  which  Jesus  taught  unto  them  : 

For  he  spake  as  one  having  authority. 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 


Last  night  the  Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  enjoyed  its 
annual  dinner  at  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel  in  Chicago ;  and  among 
the  battle-scarred  veterans  present  was  Col.  Robert  G.  IngersoU, 
the  most  martial  man  in  all  that  martial  company,  his  voice  rever- 
berant like  the  long  roll  of  the  spirit-stirring  drum,  stimulated  the 
grizzled  warriors  and  urged  them  on  to  new  conquests  and  addi- 
tional glory.  Colonel  IngersoU  wanted  more  territory,  and  in 
pursuit  of  his  patriotic  ambition  he  would  "the  multitudinous 
seas  incarnadine."  Waving  his  metaphorical  sword,  he  said  :  "I 
want  to  gobble  up  the  West  Indies,  and  the  Bermudas,  and  the 
Bahamas."  He  wanted  Canada,  too.  "  I  don't  want  to  steal  it," 
he  said,  "but  I  want  it."  He  wanted  Mexico;  for  the  curious 
reason  that  "there  is  only  air  enough  between  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama  and  the  North  Pole  to  float  one  flag  ";  meaning,  of  course, 
the  flag  of  Colonel  IngersoU.  Even  the  Sandwich  Islands  were 
not  beneath  his  patronage,  and  he  wanted  them  "  for  a  coaling 
station."  As  there  was  no  more  land  in  sight  he  put  in  a  claim 
for  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  wanted  to  "  gobble  up"  that.  His  youth 
was  renewed  by  the  recollections  of  the  heroic  olden  time  when  he 
was  a  soldier  charging  on  the  foe,  and  in  a  glow  of  enthusiasm  he 
oratorically  mounted  his  war-horse  once  again,  while  his  dry  sword, 
thirsty  with  a  peace  of  thirty  years,  rejoiced  at  the  promise  of 
battle.  Colonel  IngersoU  was  unanimously  elected  an  honorary 
member  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  but  he  ought  to  have  been 
appointed  commander-in-chief. 

*  * 

Like  the  gushing  of  a  crystal  stream  was  Colonel  Ingersoll's 
praise  of  liberty.  What  he  said  on  that  theme  looks  like  poetry, 
reads  like  poetry,  and  it  is  poetry.  Without  freedom  as  an  in- 
spiration, a  camp-fire  of  Union  veterans  would  be  nothing  but 
ashes  and  dead  coals,  a  feast  without  a  sentiment.  When  liberty 
magnetised  our  bayonets,  victory  came  to  our  cause,  and  the  tri- 
umph of  liberty  justifies  the  war.  Eloquent  as  an  old  prophet. 
Colonel  IngersoU  said  •  "I  congratulate  you  that  you  lived  in  a 
period  in  which  the  North  attained  a  higher  moral  altitude  than 
was  ever  achieved  by  any  other  nation  in  the  history  of  this  world, 
and  that  you  now  live  in  a  country  that  believes  in  absolute  free- 
dom for  all — freedom  of  hand,  of  brain.     We  believe  that  every 


man  is  entitled  to  what  he  earns  with  his  hands  and  to  reap  the 
harvest  of  his  brains."  This  just  and  magnanimous  creed,  this 
doctrine  of  "absolute  freedom,"  was  qualified  a  little  farther  on 
when  Colonel  IngersoU  condemned  the  freedom  to  buy  and  to  sell. 
Limited  by  that  qualification,  it  appears  that  every  man  is  entitled 
to  what  he  earns  with  his  hands  if  he  will  spend  his  earnings  un- 
der the  direction  of  Colonel  IngersoU.  This  eloquent  advocate  of 
liberty  is  willing  to  allow  his  neighbors  freedom  to  think  and  to 
write,  freedom  to  work  and  to  talk,  but  not  freedom  to  trade.  He 
draws  the  line  there  and  says,  "Take  any  liberty  but  that."  He 
is  willing  to  allow  the  people  as  much  freedom  as  he  thinks  is  good 
for  them,  but  no  more  ;  and  herein  he  differs  little  in  principle 
from  the  emperors,  the  bishops,  and  the  kings.  Colonel  IngersoU 
thinks  the  public  interest  requires  that  the  "absolute  freedom  "  of 
a  laborer  to  spend  his  wages  wherever  he  can  get  the  best  bargains 
ought  to  be  taken  away  from  him  ;  and  some  other  colonel  thinks 
the  public  welfare  demands  that  the  "  absolute  freedom  "  of  speech 
indulged  in  by  Colonel  IngersoU  ought  to  be  taken  away  from  /lim. 
.\nd  these  two  colonels  differ  only  in  degree,  and  as  to  the  specific 
freedom  that  ought  to  be  restrained. 

A  very  interesting  controversy  as  to  the  character  and  mean- 
ing of  the  Scriptures  is  now  going  on  between  two  Baptist  Doctors 
of  Divinity,  the  Rev,  Dr.  Harper,  President  of  the  University  of 
Chicago,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henson,  Pastor  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church.  Dr.  Harper  is  giving  a  course  of  lectures  on  "The  Sto- 
ries of  Genesis,"  and  he  shows  by  abundant  learning  that  they  are 
not  history,  nor  science,  nor  fact,  but  are  merely  legends  and  fa- 
bles with  a  spiritual  and  prophetic  meaning.  To  this  degradation 
of  the  Bible  Dr.  Henson  objects,  and  he  thinks  it  rather  incon- 
sistent for  the  president  of  a  Baptist  University  to  conjure  fanciful 
meanings  into  the  Scriptures  when  the  language  of  the  text  is  plain. 
The  subject  of  Dr.  Harper's  lecture  on  the  2Sth  of  January  was 
the  story  of  Cain  and  Abel,  which,  he  said,  "was  no  more  true 
than  the  myth  of  the  capture  of  Troy  by  the  wooden  horse,  or  the 
founding  of  Rome  by  Romulus  and  Remus."  In  the  opinion  of 
Dr.  Henson  this  comparison  is  not  well  made,  and  he  thinks  it  not 
impossible  that  Troy  was  taken  by  means  of  the  wooden  horse, 
and  that  the  story  of  Romulus  and  Remus  is  true.  Dr.  Harper 
said  that  the  prophet  "simply  rewrote  the  stories  and  traditions 
which  were  in  the  mouths  of  men  of  his  day  to  the  purpose  of 
teaching  religious  truths. "  He  said,  "  This  is  the  principle — that 
of  turning  into  gold  the  material  at  hand  by  infusing  it  with  the 
spirit  of  good — that  the  ancient  prophets  went  by.  It  was  the 
method  of  God."  Dr.  Harper  has  made  further  explanation  of  his 
meaning,  and  that  explanation  is  described  by  Dr.  Henson  as  "in- 
volved, intricate,  and  incomprehensible";  and  he  says  that  "ana- 
lysing Genesis  is  child's  play  compared  to  discovering  what  Dr. 
Harper  means." 

The  allegorical  story  of  Cain  and  Abel  is  imperfect,  because 
it  has  been  chipped  and  mutilated  in  moving  about  from  place  to 
place  during  four  or  five  thousand  years.  It  is  like  some  of  the 
resurrected  statues  of  old  Rome  that  were  broken  by  the  Goths 
and  Vandals,  and  like  those  venerable  relics  it  must  be  repaired. 
It  is  a  chapter  in  the  story  of  Evolution,  and  although  it  is  writ- 
ten in  fable,  it  explains  a  law,  that  merciless  and  unrelenting  sta- 
tute which  we  call  the  "survival  of  the  fittest."  Properly,  there 
are  three  brothers  in  the  story,  representing  different  epochs  in 
the  development  of  civilised  man,  Seth,  a  hunter,  Abel,  a  shep- 
herd, and  Cain,  a  tiller  of  the  ground.  When  it  was  discovered 
that  food  could  be  obtained  with  less  labor  and  more  certainty  by 
herding  tame  animals  than  by  hunting  wild  ones,  the  doom  of  the 
hunter  was  decreed,  and  Abel  killed  Seth.  When  it  was  found  out 
afterwards  that  there  was  more  food  in  tillage  than  in  pasture,  the 
race  of  the  shepherds  was  run,  and  Cain  killed  Abel,  for  Cain  was 


3974 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


a  tiller  of  the  ground.  As  we  must  all  of  us  live  off  of  the  land, 
the  men  of  a  race  that  can  raise  the  most  food  on  a  given  territory 
will  have  the  territory,  and  to  get  it  they  will  kill  the  others.  The 
drama  of  Cain  and  Abel  and  Seth  is  being  repeated  now  here  in 
America,  the  new  Garden  of  Eden  discovered  by  the  white  man 
four  hundred  years  ago.  The  red  hunter  is  nearly  gone,  and  in 
due  time  the  cowboy  will  surrender  his  grassy  plains  to  the  plough- 
boy,  for  such  is  the  law,  as  it  was  written  in  the  scriptures  of  Evo- 
lution long  ago. 

It  was  not  a  great  battle  that  was  fought  the  other  day  in  the 
harbor  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  between  Admiral  Benham  of  the  United 
States  Navy  and  Admiral  da  Garaa  of  the  insurgent  fleet  of  Brazil ; 
in  fact  it  was  nothing  but  a  soft  glove  contest  for  points,  and  the 
decision  of  the  referee  is  that  Admiral  Benham  won.  The  im- 
portance of  a  battle  is  not  to  be  estimated  by  the  number  of  killed 
and  wounded,  but  by  the  value  of  the  principle  that  was  victorious 
in  the  fight.  The  principle  maintained  and  asserted  by  Admiral 
Benham  is,  that  while  belligerent  powers  have  certain  rights  in 
war,  commerce  also  has  rights  that  must  be  respected  by  the  bel- 
ligerent guns.  The  ancient  precedents  may  not  sustain  Admiral 
Benham's  argument,  but  his  cannon  spoke  the  language  of  the 
more  enlightened  opinion  of  this  modern  world  wherein  so  much 
of  individual  prosperity  depends  upon  international  trade.  The 
barbarous  blockade  code  must  be  revised.  The  action  of  Admiral 
Benham  seems  to  be  approved  by  all  the  other  powers  ;  in  fact  the 
German  Admiral  at  Rio  threatened  several  days  ago  to  sink  the 
insurgent  fleet  should  Admiral  da  Gama  forcibly  interfere  with 
German  ships  lawfully  loading  or  unloading  in  the  bay.  The  law- 
yers will  now  brush  the  cobwebs  from  their  books  on  maritime 
law  and  explain  to  us  the  ethics  of  blockade.  We  shall  now  learn 
from  the  decisions  how  foolish  it  is  for  a  merchant  ship  to  get  in 
the  way  of  an  ironclad  when  the  war  ship  is  bombarding  a  town. 
We  shall  get  an  immense  fund  of  information  concerning  the 
rights  of  neutral  powers  in  belligerent  ports,  and  at  the  end  of  all 
our  abstract  learning  we  shall  have  a  practical  suspicion  that  the 
biggest  nations  have  the  biggest  rights. 

* 

*  * 

It  is  the  misfortune  of  Mr.  David  Brewer,  Justice  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  that  he  takes  his  mouth  along 
with  him  wherever  he  goes,  and  fires  it  off  in  a  very  reckless  and 
scattering  way.  He  needs  it,  of  course,  for  eating  purposes,  but 
after  dinner  he  uses  it  for  talk,  and  his  critical  gossip  involves  him 
in  a  medley  of  absurdities  that  bring  down  upon  him  ridicule,  cen- 
sure, and  recrimination.  In  an  after-dinner  speech  delivered  by 
him  recently  before  the  Yale  Alumni  he  took  a  fling  at  what  he 
called  "  this  age  of  cranks,"  and  he  classified  among  the  cranks  a 
number  of  men,  women,  and  ideas  prominent  in  law,  labor,  edu- 
cation, and  politics,  including  within  his  ridicule  no  less  than  three 
governors  of  States,  Tillman  of  South  Carolina,  Waite  of  Colorado, 
and  Altgeld  of  Illinois.  These,  however,  are  living  men,  actually 
now  in  office,  and  therefore  public  property,  but  with  judicial  wit 
and  terrapin  pleasantry  he  referred  contemptuously  to  a  former 
President  of  the  United  States,  now  dead,  as  ' '  the  husband  of  Mrs. 
Hayes."  and  this  it  is  that  hurts  our  western  feelings,  because  his 
awkward  conversation  is  excused  as  "western  manners."  This  is 
hardly  fair  to  the  "rowdy  West,"  for  as  Mr.  Justice  Brewer  was  the 
guest  of  the  Yale  Alumni,  we  have  a  right  to  assume  that  he  is  a 
product  of  that  famous  eastern  college.  As  the  .-Irizona  Kieker 
has  well  said,  ' '  We  have  our  idioms, "  out  here  in  the  West,  but  they 
are  not  those  of  Mr.  Justice  Brewer. 

It  is  a  familiar  old  adage  that  those  who  live  in  glass  houses 
should  never  throw  stones,  and  this  venerable  warning  may  be  ■ 
profitably  studied  by  Mr.  Justice  Brewer.     In  his  light  and  chirp- 
ing way,  at  the  dinner  of  the  Yale  Alumni,  he  poured  sarcasm  upon 


Governor  Waite  as  a  crank  who  would  solve  the  financial  problem 
"by  causing  blood  to  flow  bridle-rein  deep,"  and  upon  Governor 
Altgeld  for  his  "  pardon  of  anarchist  murderers  as  a  means  of  jus- 
tice." Judge  Brewer  forgot  that  not  more  than  six  months  ago  he 
himself  was  denounced  by  the  newspapers  as  an  anarchist  and  a 
crank,  because  in  the  "calamity  speech  made  by  him  on  the 
Fourth  of  July  he  anticipated  Governor  Waite  in  his  prophecy  of 
blood.  Speaking  of  the  wage  system  and  the  conflict  between 
capital  and  labor.  Judge  Brewer  theatrically  wanted  to  know  "if 
a  bloody  struggle  would  be  required  to  abolish  this  form  of  slavery 
as  a  bloody  struggle  had  been  required  to  abolish  negro  slavery." 
This  Fourth  of  July  oration  was  condemned  by  one  of  the  great 
papers  of  Chicago  as  "  a  hysterical  cry  of  alarm  that  might  be  ex- 
pected of  a  rattle-brained  blatherskite  at  a  meeting  of  the  Trades 
and  Labor  Assembly."  Judge  Brewer  ought  to  know,  and  very 
likely  does  know  that  the  so-called  "anarchist  murderers"  were 
condemned,  not  for  what  they  did  but  for  what  they  said,  for  mak- 
ing speeches  like  the  orations  of  Mr.  Justice  Brewer.  Had  he  been 
tried  with  the  anarchists,  that  Fourth  of  July  oration,  if  already 
delivered,  would  have  convicted  him,  and  in  that  case  he  himself 
would  have  been  a  subject  for  Governor  Altgeld's  pardon. 

M,  M,  Trumbull. 


NOTES. 

Professor  Max  Muller  sends  us  a  prettily  bound  memorial 
pamphlet  which  he  has  compiled  in  honor  of  the  fiftieth  anniver- 
sary of  his  receiving  the  doctor's  degree  in  the  University  of  Leip- 
sic.  The  pamphlet  contains  pictures  of  the  Professor  in  five  stages 
of  life,  namely,  three  years  of  age,  at  school,  student. in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Leipsic,  Professor  at  Oxford,  and  as  he  is  now.  The 
rest  of  the  pamphlet  is  made  up  of  a  catalogue  of  his  principal 
works  and  of  a  list  of  his  degrees  together  with  reduced  copies  of 
his  new  and  old  Leipsic  diplomas.  No  doubt  the  Professor  would 
gladly  send  a  copy  of  this  delicate  little  memorial  production  to 
any  admirer  of  his  who  might  request  it. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION; 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  337. 

LETTER  FROM  PARIS.     Moncure  D.  Conway 3967 

THE    MODERN     STATE    BASED     UPON     REVOLU- 
TION.    Editor 3970 

TREASON  AND  REFORM.      Editor 3971 

CHAPTERS    FROM    THE    NEW .  APOCRYPHA.      The 

Spirit  of  Love.     The  Free  Vine.     Hudor  Genone  ....    3972 
CURRENT  TOPICS:    Ingersoll  on  Territorial  Conquest. 
Freedom  to  Buy  and  to  Sell.    The  Allegory  of  Cain  and 
Abel.     The  Battle  at  Rio  Janeiro.     Mr.  Justice  Brewer 

and  the  Cranks.     Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull 3973 

NOTES 3974 


"iso 


The  Open  Court. 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  338.      (Vol.  VIII.— 7: 


CHICAGO,  FEBRUARY  15,   1894. 


I  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. — Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


THE  PROBLEM    OF  PROGRESSIVE  HEREDITY. 

BY  PROF.    ERNST  HAECKEL.* 

When  Jean  Lamarck  in  1809,  in  his  profoundly 
thought  out  Philosophic  zoologique,  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  theory  of  descent  which  is  now  universally  accepted, 
he  explained,  as  we  know,  the  gradual  transformation 
of  organic  forms  principally  by  their  own  natural 
activities.  The  practice  and  use  of  organs  strength- 
ened them.  Inactivity  and  disuse  weakened  them. 
Both  the  progressive  transformation  which  in  the  first 
case  the  organ  had  experienced  by  growth,  and  the 
retrogressive  alteration  which  in  the  second  case  it  had 
experienced  by  diminution,  could  be  transmitted  by 
heredity  to  the  animal's  descendants.  By  the  accumu- 
lation and  settlement  of  these  slight  changes,  in  the 
course  of  generations,  new  "good," or  distinct,  species 
sprang  from  varieties.  Of  the  many  grand  ideas  in 
whose  conception  Lamarck  stood  far  in  advance  of  his 
times,  the  assumption  of  the  hereditj'  of  acquired  char- 
acters certainly  belongs  to  the  most  significant.  If  he 
was  not  so  fortunate  in  the  empirical  establishment  of 
this  idea  and  in  the  choice  of  good  and  appropriate 
examples,  the  fault  for  the  most  part  lay  in  the  defec- 
tive condition  of  the  biology  of  his  time. 

The  greatest  gap  which  Lamarck  left  in  his  theory 
of  descent  was  filled  fifty  years  later  by  Charles  Dar- 
win in  his  theory  of  natural  selection.  In  founding  his 
doctrine  of  the  struggle  for  life,  this  latter  inquirer 
discovered  the  most  important  efficient  cause  of  his- 
torical transformations  which  was  wanting  in  the  spec- 
ulations of  his  great  French  predecessor.  Still,  the 
theory  of  natural  selection  is  not  the  only  cause  of  the 
unparalleled  success  which  the  "Origin  of  Species" 
achieved.  This  success  is  also  greatly  due  to  the 
broad  and  ingenious  use  which  the  great  English  in- 
quirer made  of  the  stupendous  advances  of  modern 
biology.  Concerning  the  limits  of  action  of  the  new 
factor  natural  selection,  its  own  founder  had  at  differ- 
ent times  very  different  opinions.  It  was  quite  natural 
and  pardonable  that  he  should  at  first  make  these  lim- 
its very  wide  ;  subsequently  he  greatly  restricted  them 
by  placing  more  and  more  emphasis  on  the  heredity  of 

*  This  article,  sent  especially  by  Prof.  Haeckel  to  The  Open  Court  tor  trans- 
lation, is  embodied  in  his  Introduction  to  Semon's  Zoological  Travels  in  Aus- 
tralia and  the  Malay  Archipelago. 


acquired  characters.  In  doing  this,  Darwin  drew 
nearer  and  nearer  the  ideas  of  Lamarck,  of  which  at 
first  he  did  not  have  a  very  high  opinion. 

Up  to  this  time  only  empirical  experts,  such'  as 
.  stock-breeders,  animal-fanciers,  and  gardeners,  who 
were  guided  solely  by  practical  interests,  had  occupied 
themselves  with  the  investigation  of  the  wonderful  phe- 
nomena of  heredity.  Darwin  first  subjected  them  to 
theoretical  scientific  investigation  and  brought  them 
within  reach  of  the  methods  of  physiology.  The 
problem  next  presented  itself  of  a  systematic  classifica- 
tion of  the  various  phenomena  of  heredity  and  of  adap- 
tation, a  formulation  of  their  "laws,"  and  an  under- 
standing of  their  complex  mutual  relations.  The  first 
attempt  at  this  solution  was  made  by  me  in  1866  in  my 
"General  Morphology."  In  the  nineteenth  chapter  of 
this  work,  which  analyses  "The  Theories  of  Descent 
and  Selection,"  I  attempted  a  general  physiological 
explanation  of  heredity  and  adaptation  by  enunciating 
for  the  first  the  familiar  facts  of  propagation,  and  for 
the  second,  the  facts  of  nourishment  (the  change  of 
material  of  tissues),  as  the  physiological  functions  of  the 
formation  of  species.  I  classified  the  multifarious  phe- 
nomena of  heredity  under  nine  different  laws,  and  ar- 
ranged these  into  two  series  :  (i)  Five  laws  of  conserva- 
tive heredity,  (the  hereditary  transmission  to  descend- 
ants of  the  characters  received  from  parents  and  ances- 
tors generally,)  and  (2)  four  laws  ol progressive  heredity 
(the  hereditary  transmission  to  descendants  of  charac- 
ters acquired  during  the  life  of  individuals).*  In  the 
richly  diversified  phenomena  of  variation  and  adapta- 
tion I  distinguished  eight  separate  laws  and  also  ar- 
ranged these  into  two  series  :  (i)  Three  laws  of  indi- 
rect variation  or  potential  adaptation  (nutritive  change 
of  the  organism  not  expressed  in  its  own  formation 
but  in  that  of  its  descendants),  and  (2)  five  laws  of 
direct  variation  or  actual  adaptation  (nutritive  change 
of  the  organism  which  directl}^  appears  in  its  own  for- 
mation), f  I  have  collected  the  gist  of  my  discussions 
on  heredity  and  adaptation  as  they  stood  in  the  "  Gen- 
eral Morphology,"  and  put  the  results  in  more  popular 
form  in  my  "Natural  History  of  Creation."  In  eight 
different  editions  of  this  work  I  have  striven  to  improve 

*  Gen.  Morphol.,  II,  pp.  170-igo. 
t  Gen.  Morphol.^  II,  pp.  igi-223. 


3976 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


these  laws  by  constant  correction  of  details,  but  my  fun- 
damental views  of  this  subject  remain  as  they  originally 
were.*  From  here  my  views  passed  into  many  other 
recent  works. 

A  substantial  modification  of  the  modern  views  of 
heredity  was  made  in  1885  by  August  Weismann,  the 
distinguished  Freiburg  zoologist,  to  whom  the  modern 
theory  of  evolution  is  indebted  for  much  valuable  im- 
provement. In  a  long  series  of  essays  which  he  con- 
densed in  his  book  entitled  "Germ-plasm,  A  Theory 
of  Heredity,"  published  in  1892,  Weismann  attempts 
to  establish  tlie  conlimiity  of  the  ger»t-plasm  as  the  foun- 
dation of  the  theory  of  heredity.  He  assumes  that  in 
every  organism  there  exist  by  the  side  of  each  other 
two  wholly  distinct  kinds  of  plasm,  the  germ-plasm 
as  generative  material,  and  the  body  or  somatic  plasm 
as  the  substance  out  of  which  the  tissues  of  the  bod}' 
are  developed.  In  the  process  of  generation  one  part 
of  the  parent  plasm  is  not  employed  in  the  building  up 
of  the  infant  organism,  but  remains  behind  unaltered. 
On  this  unbroken  continuity  of  the  constant  germ- 
plasm  is  founded  heredity,  whilst  variation  or  adapta- 
tion is  produced  by  amphimixis,  that  is,  by  the  mix- 
ture in  sexual  propagation  of  two  different,  individual 
generative  materials.  For  this  reason,  in  all  histones 
or  pluricellular  organisms  (metaphyta  and  metazoa), 
the  heredity  of  acquired  characters  does  not  take  place, 
whilst  in  unicellular  protists  (protophyta  and  proto- 
zoa) it  is  admittedly  effected.  The  latter,  Weismann 
regards  as  immortal,  the  former  only  as  mortal. 

Weismann's  doctrine  of  the  continuity  of  the  germ- 
plasm  and  his  attempt  to  explain  by  it  heredity,  is  at 
bottom  a  metaphysical  molecular  theory  like  Darwin's 
pangenesis  or  my  perigenesis  of  plastidules  or  the 
micellar  theory  of  Naegeli.f  Its  success  has  been  a 
wonderful  one,  especially  in  England.  Also  in  Ger- 
many the  number  of  its  adherents  seems  to  grow,  whilst 
in  France  and  in  Italy,  but  especially  in  North  Amer- 
ica, it  has  met  with  the  liveliest  opposition.  If  we  look 
over  the  lists  of  eminent  disputants  arrayed  against 
each  other  in  this  significant  strife,  we  shall  see  on 
both  sides  a  large  number  of  tried  natural  inquirers. 
Among  those  who  have  openly  declared  in  Weismann's 
favor  are  Wallace,  Ray-Lankester,  Gallon,  Poulton, 
Wiedersheim.  Among  the  opponents  are  to  be  found 
Herbert  Spencer,  Huxley,  Gegenbaur,  Furbringer, 
Eimer,  Claus,  Cope,  and  Lester  F.  Ward.  The  new 
school  which  has  sprung  up  on  the  basis  of  Weismann's 
theory,  and  has  grown  very  rapidly,  especially  in  Eng- 
land, is  often  called  Neo-Darwinism.  But  this  desig- 
nation is  unjustified  and  misleading,  for  "heredity  of 
acquired  characters  "  is  just  as  essential  and  indispens- 
able an  element  in  the  evolution  theory  of  Charles  Dar- 

*  Compare  the  eighth  edition  of  1889,  pp.  157-237. 

t  Compare  the  tJafiirctl  History  of  Creation^  eighth  edition,  p.  198, 


win  as  it  was  in  that  of  his  grandfather,  Erasmus,  and 
in  the  apparently  still  remoter  theory  of  Lamarck.  The 
difference  in  the  conception  of  these  two  greatest  ban- 
ner-bearers of  the  theory  of  descent  is  simplj'  this,  that 
Darwin  did  not  impute  to  progressive  heredity  so  prom- 
inent a  part  as  Lamarck,  but  put  in  the  foreground  the 
idea  of  natural  selection  which  was  unknown  to  the 
latter.  When  Weismann  denies  the  heredity  of  ac- 
quired characters  in  any  form,  he  is,  in  point  of  prin- 
ciple, just  as  much  opposed  to  Darwin  as  he  is  to  La- 
marck. 

So  far  as  my  own  position  is  concerned,  I  have  had 
no  occasion,  despite  the  great  progress  which  the  the- 
ory of  heredity  has  made  in  the  last  twenty  years,  to 
alter  in  any  essential  point  the  principles  of  my  con- 
ception of  it  which  I  formed  in  i865  and  presented  in 
my  "General  Morpholog)'."  On  the  contrary,  my  un- 
interrupted employment  with  this  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  evolution  in  the  course  of  the  last  thirty  years 
has  convinced  me  more  and  more  of  the  correctness  of 
that  conception.  I  have,  therefore,  stoutly  opposed 
Weismann's  theory  from  the  beginning,  and  recently 
emphasised  our  differences  in  the  last  editions  of  my 
"Natural  History  of  Creation"  (1889,  p.  203,)  and  of 
my  "  Anthropogeny  "  (i8gi,  pp.  XXIII,  149,  836,  etc.). 
Here  is  not  the  place  to  recapitulate  all  the  objections 
which  I  made  against  Weismann's  doctrines,  and  I 
shall  restrict  myself,  therefore,  to  the  following  brief 
statement  of  them  : 

i)  The  hypothetical  "continuity  of  the  germ-plasm" 
is  neither  empirically  demonstrable  nor  theoretically 
admissible.  The  recent  discoveries  relative  to  the  ex- 
acter  morphological  behaviour  of  the  karyoplasm  and 
cytoplasm  in  fertilisation  and  in  the  segmentation  of 
the  ovum  prove  nothing  in  its  favor. 

2)  The  hypothetical  division  of  the  germ-plasm 
from  the  somato-plasm  is  neither  empirically  observ- 
able, nor  theoretically  tenable  ;  the  profound  physio- 
logical correlation  of  the  two  species  of  plasma,  which 
is  illustrated,  for  example,  in  the  well-known  effects  of 
castration,  also  proves  its  material  continuity. 

3)  The  separation  of  the  pluricellular  organisms 
(histones)  from  the  unicellular  organisms  (protists)  is 
no  absolute  separation,  and  with  regard  to  the  special 
point  of  heredity  not  an  essential  one  ;  in  fact,  among 
protists  which  are  pre-eminently  monogonic  there  may 
be  found  the  beginnings  of  different  forms  of  amphig- 
ony,  whilst  among  histones,  that  for  the  most  part  re- 
produce sexually,  monogony  also  exists  to  a  great  ex- 
tent ;  in  both  groups  the  laws  of  heredity  are  different 
only  in  degree. 

4)  The  unicellular  protists  (protophyta  and  pro- 
tozoa) are  no  more  immortal  than  the  multicellular 
histones  (metaphyta  and  metazoa)  ;  even  in  the  sim- 
plest case  the  organic  individual  has  only  a  limited 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


3977 


duration  of  life  ;  when  a  cell  is  broken  up  b}'  division 
into  two  filial  cells,  its  individual  existence  is  thereby 
destroyed.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  understand  by 
immortality  the  continuity  of  the  plasm  in  the  chain 
of  the  generations,  then  all  ancestral  series,  histones 
as  well  as  protists,  are  in  an  equal  degree  "immor- 
tal "  ;  in  that  case  the  immortality  of  the  plasm  is  simply 
a  special  case  of  the  fundamental  cosmological  law  of 
conscrimtion  of  substance. 

5)  Progressive  heredity,  as  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant foundations  of  phylogeny,  is  indirectly  demon- 
strated by  the  whole  empirical  body  of  facts  of  com- 
parative anatomy  and  ontogeny  ;  we  can  explain  the 
numberless  phenomena  of  "adaptation"  to  the  out- 
side world  in  its  real  sense  only  by  the  assumption  of 
this  foundation. 

6)  Progressive  heredity  has  long  since  been  experi- 
mentally and  directly  proved  by  the  experiences  of 
artificial  breeding  ;  all  experienced  and  expert  prac- 
tical breeders  (stock-farmers,  animal -fanciers,  and 
gardeners)  unanimously  accept  the  heredity  of  acquired 
characters  as  an  incontrovertible  fact ;  only  on  the 
basis  of  this  fact  and  by  the  exact  employment  of  it 
can  they  successfully  pursue  their  business. 

We  cannot  enter  here  into  a  discussion  of  the  ex- 
tensive literature  which  the  so-called  Neo-Darwinism, 
more  correctly  termed  Weismann' s  plasm-theory,  has  re- 
cently produced.  A  detailed  refutation  of  this  doctrine 
is  given  by  the  German,  Theodore  Eimer,  in  his  work 
on  "The  Origin  of  Species"  (i888)  ;  whilst  an  excel- 
lent general  criticism  of  the  theory  has  been  made  by  the 
American  philosopher  and  botanist,  Lester  F.  Ward. 
There  is  space  here  only  for  special  mention  of  one 
very  important  polemical  writing  against  this  theory, 
of  recent  date.  Herbert  Spencer,  the  acute  and  erudite 
thinker,  who  as  a  monistic  philosopher  has  so  greatly 
promoted  the  theory  of  evolution  in  the  speculative 
field,  has  published  within  the  last  year  in  the  Con- 
temporary Review  (February,  March,  and  May,  1893) 
several  essays  entitled  :  "The  Inadequacy  of  Natural 
Selection,  and  Professor  Weismann's  Theories."  The 
weighty  objections  which  Spencer  here  raises  against 
Weismann's  theory  I  subscribe  word  for  word ;  they 
are  in  part  the  same  which  I  advanced  myself  some 
time  previously. 

I  also  fully  agree  with  Spencer  when  he  extends 
his  opposition  to  other  recent  modifications  of  the  the- 
ory of  descent,  especially  the  doctrine  of  Naegeli  and 
generally  against  all  theories  which  seek  to  explain 
phylogeny  by  unknown  inner  causes  as  opposed  to  the 
familiar  and  mechanical  external  causes  which  are  given 
us  in  adaptation  and  in  the  interaction  of  the  organism 
with  the  surrounding  external  world.  Here  belongs 
especially  that  group  of  teleological  theories  which 
have  accepted  the  so-called  innate  "tendency  towards 


ends"  {Zielslrebigkeit)  of  Baer,  the  internal  "tendency 
to  perfection  "  of  Naegeli,  etc.,  etc.,  and  which  in  vari- 
ous forms  always  lead  to  the  assumption  of  a  mystical 
"  creative  force"  or  "phyletic  vital  force."  Spencer, 
as  a  monistic  philosopher,  is  perfectly  right  in  reject- 
ing, individually  and  collectively,  these  half-faced  tele- 
ological theories,  which  are  really  out-and-out  dualistic 
and  mystical  ;  and  in  saying  that  in  preference  to  such 
assumptions  it  were  much  better  to  go  back  to  the  old 
myth  of  the  special  creation  of  the  single  species  ("The 
Inadequacy,  etc.,"). 

The  question  here  at  stake  is  so  significant,  and  deter- 
mines so  completely  our  general  view  of  the  world  that 
we  must  lay  the  greatest  stress  on  a  decision  between 
the  two  following  alternatives  :  either  all  phylogeny 
is  a  purely  mechanical  process  and  the  development  of 
organic  forms  takes  place  wholly  without  a  tendency 
to  ends,  and  is  determined  solely  by  the  physiological 
activity  of  the  organs  themselves  (heredity,  adapta- 
tion) and  their  relations  to  the  external  world  (the 
struggle  for  life,  etc.)  ;  or,  this  is  not  the  case  and  the 
genealogical  history  of  organisms  is  one  of  a  tendency 
towards  ends,  that  is  to  say,  a  teleological  process 
guided  by  a  premeditated  "plan  of  creation."  In  the 
latter  case  we  shall  have  to  return  to  the  anthropomor- 
phic notion  of  a  personal  creator.  And  the  simplest 
course  then  is  to  abide  with  Agassiz  by  the  old  crea- 
tion-myth of  Moses.  With  Spencer  I  am  of  opinion 
that  also  the  theories  of  evolution  propounded  by  Weis- 
mann, Naegeli,  Kolliker,  Baer  and  the  rest,  will  lead 
us  back  to  this  transcendent  creation,  and  that  we  have 
simply  to  choose  here  between  two  alternatives  :  either 
mechanical  evolution  with  heredity  of  acquired  characters, 
or  no  natural  evolution  whatever. 

The  apposite  examples  which  Spencer  cites  for  the 
establishment  of  his  monistic  views  are  in  a  great  part 
taken  from  the  comparative  anatomy  and  physiology 
of  vertebrates,  especially  from  the  phylogeny  of  their 
members.  I  also  had  pointed  out,  even  before  Spen- 
cer, that  this  very  province  of  phenomena  furnishes  a 
host  of  obvious  proofs  for  the  action  of  natural  selec- 
tion and  for  the  heredity  of  acquired  characters.  These 
two  great  principles  in  no  respect  contradict  each  other, 
as  has  often  been  erroneously  maintained,  but  act  in 
concert;  "natural  selection"  constantly  employs  in 
the  "struggle  for  life,"  progressive  as  well  as  conserva- 
tive heredity. 

The  phylogeny  of  the  extremities  of  vertebrates  is 
especially  instructive  as  a  proof  of  progressive  heredity, 
for  various  reasons.  On  the  one  hand,  the  skeleton  of 
the  members,  with  their  corresponding  muscular  ar- 
rangements, has  been  subjected,  through  their  adapta- 
tion to  different  purposes,  to  the  most  various  trans- 
formations ;  while  on  the  other,  the  typical  composition 
and  arrangements  of  the  parts  of  the  skeleton  and  of 


3978 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  muscles  is  more  or  less  retained  in  this  adaptation 
by  tenacious  heredity.  Compare,  for  example,  to  take 
only  a  single  class  of  mammals,  the  locomotor  legs  of 
most  beasts  of  prey  and  hoofed  animals,  the  leaping 
legs  of  the  kangaroo  and  the  jumping-mouse,  the  climb- 
ing feet  of  the  pedimanous  opossums  and  monkeys, 
the  digging  feet  of  moles  and  field-mice,  the  swimming 
feet  of  beavers  and  seals,  the  floating  feet  of  sirens  and 
cetaceans.  We  are  astounded  at  the  extraordinary 
multiplicity  and  perfection  with  which  the  members  of 
all  these  mammals  are  adapted  to  their  special  func- 
tions ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  the  constancy  in  the 
arrangement  and  composition  of  their  typical  skeleton- 
parts  proves  the  common  descent  of  all.  With  re- 
spect to  the  details  of  osteological  transformation,  (for 
example,  in  carpus  and  tarsus,)  Carl  Gegenbauer's 
classical  "  Researches  in  the  Comparative  Anatomy  of 
Vertebrates  "  are,  before  all,  of  the  highest  value.  The 
gradual  transformations  which  have  taken  place  in  the 
great  class  of  Birds  have  been  very  exhaustively  treated 
by  Max  Fiirbringer  in  his  careful  "Researches  in  the 
Morphology  and  Classification  of  Birds." 

All  these  great  morphological  phenomena  can  be 
explained  only  by  the  assumption  of  functional  adapta- 
tion and  progressive  heredity  ;  the  special  habits  of 
life  and  the  corresponding  use  or  disuse  of  special 
organs  have  here  produced  by  ' '  teleological  mechanics  " 
the  most  astounding  transformations,  and  that  coinci- 
dently  in  all  the  portions  of  the  members  which  are  in 
correlation  ("correlative  adaptation").  These  "ac- 
quired characters  "  are  then  transmitted  by  heredity  to 
the  descendants,  established  in  the  succession  of  the 
generations,  and  thus  made  substantial  characteristics 
of  the  species.  In  this  process  selection  has  operated 
by  way  of  promotion  and  control  in  no  little  degree. 
But  natural  selection  alone,  in  union  with  Weismann's 
amphimixis,  would  never  have  been  able  to  produce 
these  marvellously  appropriate  adaptations.  Spencer 
has  very  prettily  shown,  in  his  example  of  the  jumping 
of  the  cat,  how  incompetent  Weismann's  theory  is  to 
explain  such  adapted  transformations. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  PROSTRATION. 

BY  E.    P.   POWELL, 

It  seems  difficult  to  account  for  many  of  our  spon- 
taneities, and  our  customs,  on  any  other  ground  than 
animal  descent.  A  dog  came  to  my  place  a  few  weeks 
since,  evidently  lost.  When  I  saw  him  and  approached, 
he  faced  me,  and  at  once  laid  down  in  an  attitude  of 
submission.  Not  a  muscle  moved  except  his  eyes.  I 
went  nearer  and  looked  kindly.  He  half  arose,  and 
dragged  himself  half-way  to  me,  and  dropped  again. 
I  spoke  in  an  easy  tone,  "Who  are  you."  He  moved 
his  tail  in  a  supplicatory,  kindly  way.  His  eyes  were 
intensely  interrogative.      Would  he  have  a  welcome. 


or  not?  I  said,  "You  look  like  a  good  dog;  come 
here."  He  came  with  a  bound  to  my  feet ;  prostrated 
himself,  and  laid  his  chin  on  my  foot.  His  eyes  looked 
up  with  a  pledge  of  loyalty.  "  Please  sir,  give  me  a 
home  and  I  will  stand  by  you  truly."  I  said,  "you 
shall  be  my  dog.  I  will  keep  you.  This  is  your  home." 
He  understood  my  looks,  words,  and  gestures  per- 
fectly. He  rose  from  his  crouching  attitude  ;  shook 
out  the  dust  ;  looked  me  in  the  eye  for  a  moment,  and 
then  gambolled  about  me  with  intense  delight.  Our 
next  ceremony  was  to  share  food.  I  took  him  to  the 
house,  and  gave  him  his  breakfast.  Our  friendship 
was  sealed,  and  he  became  my  faithful  watchman. 

What  is  this  but  the  very  same  prostration  and  ap- 
proach by  degrees  that  we  find  among  savages,  and 
for  that  matter  among  civilised  peoples — Aryans  not 
always  excepted  ?  The  bold  uprightness  of  a  few  peo- 
ples is  an  innovation  on  a  custom  almost  universal 
among  human  beings.  The  Turanians,  I  believe,  both 
the  more  barbarous  as  well  as  the  Chinese,  are  accus- 
tomed to  express  fealty  by  absolute  proneness  in  the 
dust ;  while  some  of  the  Orientals  place  dust  on  their 
heads.  The  idea  of  the  dog  seems  to  be  practically 
this  complex  one,  "  If  you  will  accept  my  services,  and 
allow  me  a  home,  I  will  be  loyal  to  your  person  and 
property."  In  the  case  referred  to,  the  dog,  a  fine 
fellow,  immediately  assumed  the  position  of  guards- 
man for  my  property,  and  myself.  He  quickly  distin- 
guished the  limits  of  my  land  ;  and  allowed  no  intru- 
sion. Here  was  a  treaty  of  alliance  and  friendship, 
following  an  act  of  submission  to  a  superior.  In  this 
treaty  was  involved  the  conception  of  individual  rights 
of  property.  The  dog  clearly  comprehended  this,  and 
fully  believed  in  the  right  of  property. 

So  I  get  from  my  canine  friend  evidently  a  very 
complex  set  of  ideas,  and  with  it  a  happy  method 
which  has  been  inherited  by  us,  and  perpetuated  in  all 
human  races.  The  submission  of  a  cat  is  very  simi- 
lar ;  and  I  have  a  case  in  hand.  Walking  in  my  vine- 
yard one  day,  some  years  since,  my  attention  was 
drawn  to  a  very  large  and  grand-looking  feline,  that 
at  first  I  supposed  to  be  a  neighbor's  cat.  But  he  was 
determined  to  draw  my  attention.  He  did  not  come 
to  me  ;  but,  standing  at  a  distance,  apparently  desired 
something.  Then  drawing  slightly  nearer,  he  laid 
down  ;  and  by  cautious  approaches  at  last  touched  me. 
I  spoke  kindly  to  him,  and  lifted  the  huge  fellow  in  my 
arms.  Up  to  this  moment  he  was  every  way  a  sup- 
pliant. But  when  assured  of  a  welcome,  a  tremulous- 
ness  showed  at  once  that  he  was  hungry.  I  carried 
him  to  my  house,  and  fed  him.  He  ate  voraciously ; 
and  had  been  evidently  half-starved.  When  satisfied 
he  began  a  quiet  expression  of  the  spirit  of  adoption  : 
explored  the  place,  and  showed  in  all  cat-ways  his 
gratitude  and  satisfaction.      "  Colonel,"  as  we  called 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5979 


him,  had  a  big  brain,  and  succeeded  admirably  in  giv- 
ing me  an  ilhistration  of  the  same  natural  principle  of 
alliance  that  I  had  seen  in  the  dog.  It  was  not  only 
allegiance  to  the  family,  but  a  personal  friendship  that 
was  declared  and  formed.  To  his  death  "Colonel" 
was  my  special  comrade.  He  was  not  born  into  our 
family,  but  was  adopted.  The  method  of  introduction 
was  not  unlike  the  primitive  forms  of  adoption  into 
patriarchal  families  :  by  prostration,  pledge  of  fealty, 
and  immediate  assumption  of  duties  in  relation  to  the 
household  and  family.  In  our  domesticated  animals, 
then,  I  find  the  antecedent  of  all  those  forms  by  which 
men  have  been  accustomed  to  form  alliances. 

The  last  act  in  every  case  was  a  touch.  The  dog 
first  laid  his  chin  on  my  foot,  then  he  touched  my  leg 
and  my  hand  with  his  nose  ;  and  when  I  sat  down  by 
him  he  kissed  my  face.  The  universal  habit  of  greet- 
ing by  a  touch  of  some  sort  is  here  evidently  of  animal 
origin.  With  their  own  kind,  noses  are  touched  ;  but 
with  us  they  touch  our  hands  or  our  faces.  "  Colonel  " 
rubbed  himself  against  my  legs.  Lower  human  races, 
as  the  Fiji-Islanders,  touch  or  rub  noses.  African 
tribes  touch  noses  and  lips.  Europeans  nearly  always 
kiss.  English  and  Americans  draw  back  slightly  and 
are  content  to  touch  hands.  The  Chinese,  for  sanitary 
purposes  perhaps,  and  still  more  to  express  unworthi- 
ness,  shake  their  own  hands.  I  have  watched  this 
animal  propensity  still  farther.  I  have  a  dog  that  longs 
much  to  run  with  the  carriage.  When  driven  back 
she  sneaks  homeward  ;  and  when  overtaken  lies  down 
and  offers  a  paw.  This  offering  a  paw  is  associated 
by  her  with  forgiveness  and  good-will.  As  soon  as  it 
is  accepted  by  us  she  evidently  considers  the  conten- 
tion ended,  but  does  not  rise  until  told  to  do  so. 

The  analysis  of  touch  in  the  cases  above  noted, 
shows  two  causes,  (i)  a  tendency  to  embrace  ;  and 
embracing  means  no  more  nor  less  than  a  desire  for 
amours.  Under  all  love  is  physical  attraction.  Nature, 
that  is  always  differentiating,  is  also  always  uniting 
and  blending.  Animals  refuse  to  touch  except  they 
like.  Other  creatures  are  ignored,  or  bitten,  or  wholly 
devoured.  To  touch  those  we  love  has  a  hundred 
grades  of  pleasure.  The  animal  illustrates  this  exactly 
as  we  do.  I  believe  those  are  right  who  consider  pro- 
miscuous kissing  or  even  promiscuous  hand-shaking 
as  an  abuse  of  an  honest  and  decent  animal  heredity. 
It  is  a  confusion  of  individualities.  In  the  case  of 
babes  and  children,  it  is  monstrous  to  allow  them  to 
be  fondled  by  all  sorts  of  organisms.  Our  social  com- 
munion might  thereby  easily  drop  into  social  confusion, 
or  even  debauchery.  But  (2)  the  animal  touches  also  to 
gather  a  knowledge  that,  with  all  creatures,  comes 
through  the  nose.  The  great  sense-organ  of  man  is  the 
eye  ;  of  the  dog  and  cat  and  horse  it  is  the  nose.  It  is 
impossible  for  us  to  comprehend  this  directly  and  fully. 


Yet  a  thoughtful  study  of  our  emotions  will  show  us  that 
we  have  not  entirely  lost  this  animal  basis  of  judgment ; 
that  in  fact  we  do  tell  ourselves  very  much  of  other  peo- 
ple by  the  nose.  Blind  persons  distinguish  their  friends 
by  the  smell  of  handkerchiefs  or  coats.  We  all  do  the 
same  unconsciously.  Our  unconscious  sensations  and 
unconscious  judgments  form  a  splendid  field  for  re- 
search, and  a  very  rich  one.  We  know  far  more  by 
smell  than  we  suppose.  The  vulgar  classes  that  revel 
in  a  confusion  of  odors  have  apparently  become  de- 
graded in  senses  as  in  habits.  Their  basis  of  social 
judgment  is  below  that  of  the  animals.  I  observe  that 
those  who  have  fortunately  had  their  senses  keenly 
educated  are  accustomed  to  judge  of  persons  by  odors. 
It  should  not  be  a  lost  power.  The  eye  does  not  pos- 
sess the  power  to  cover  the  subtle  relation  of  individ- 
ualities; neither  does  the  ear.  The  finer  sense  is  that 
of  smell;  dishonored,  as  it  has  been,  and  despised, 
as  it  should  not  be.  In  an  article,  published  in 
No.  245  of  The  Open  Court,  I  referred  to  the  fact  that 
Australian  children  possess  the  dog  sense-power  of 
trailing  people  by  scent.  I  have  experimented  with 
some  care  and  am  confident  that  this  power  is  to  some 
degree  in  all  of  us.  Strong  attachments  are  not  so 
rigidly  ideal  as  we  like  to  suppose.  There  is  a  physi- 
cal basis  or  sense  basis  to  all  our  likes  and  dislikes.  It 
is  this  which  underlies  the  demand  of  refined  people 
that  their  friends  shall  be  cleanly.  Our  social  ties 
have  created  the  maxim  that  cleanliness  is  next  to 
godliness. 

In  reality,  then,  our  physical  habits  are  found  to 
have  an  animal  origin.  Our  hand-shaking  is  but  little 
more  than  the  friendly  nose-touch  given  by  animals 
that  meet  each  other.  And  our  kissing  is  of  the  same 
sort.  The  distance  is  now  not  great  till  we  find  the 
origin  of  dancing.  It  seems  at  first  glance  very  curious 
that  any  one  should  be  willing  to  spend  hours  in  mak- 
ing motions,  with  no  end  beyond  the  motions.  But 
there  is  nothing  in  nature  more  universal  than  the 
dance.  At  this  moment  a  half-dozen  flies  are  moving 
in  most  graceful  curves  under  my  chandelier.  They 
circle  about  each  other  in  most  delightful  lines,  and 
occasionally  touch  with  a  quick  dart.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  this  touch  is  slightly  electrical  and  pleasurable. 
Three  kittens  are  outside  my  balcony  on  the  drive- 
way ;  and  I  cannot  suppress  a  conviction  that  they  are 
enjoying  motion  as  an  end.  They  are  delightfully 
graceful,  moving  in  considerable  rhythm  at  times,  and 
on  the  whole,  like  the  lambs  over  the  fence,  surpass 
the  grace  of  the  ruder  classes  of  dancers.  It  is  a  crude 
•notion  about  the  fire-fiies,  that  their  exquisite  flights 
are  purely  for  sexual  attraction.  It  needs  but  a  few 
moments'  observation  to  determine  that  these  charm- 
ing birds  of  the  insect  world  are  enjoying  rhythmic 
motion.      The  throb  of   light  is  the  pulsation  of  their 


398o 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


pleasure.  They  show  their  happiness.  The  natural 
dance  is  a  pure  case  of  animal  inheritance.  Its  arti- 
ficialities and  obscenities  we  can  claim  for  ourselves, 
as  the  result  of  the  more  creative  imagination  of  the 
human  mind. 

Let  me  add,  in  a  note  supplementary,  that  it  is  not 
at  all  impossible  that  much  that  passes  for  mind-read- 
ing is  really  dependent  on  a  keenly  educated  sense  of 
smell.  I  am  myself  so  conscious  of  the  distinct  odor 
of  a  few  persons  that  I  can  trace  their  passage  for  sev- 
eral feet,  or  from  room  to  room.  That  this  power, 
belonging  to  savage  ancestors  in  some  cases,  may  be 
regained  by  reversion  and  education  is  certain.  To 
what  extent  we  may  use  this  sense  consciously  we 
cannot  yet  determine.  Unconsciously  there  is  also 
room  for  much  self-deception,  by  attributing  to  a 
purely  psychical  cause  that  which  catches  a  directive 
suggestion  from  a  physical  organ. 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 

The  Wilson  Bill  having  passed  the  House  is  now  before  the 
Finance  Committee  of  the  Senate,  and  the  "consensus"  of  Wash- 
ington gossip  is  that  when  it  comes  out  again  it  will  be  so  changed 
in  all  its  features  that  Mr.  Wilson  will  not  know  it.  In  addition 
to  that,  the  suspicion  is  growing  that  no  bill  for  the  reduction  of 
tariff  duties  can  ever  pass  both  houses  of  this  Congress,  because 
the  "  interests"  are  too  strong.  One  senator  is  interested  in  iron, 
another  in  coal,  another  in  wool,  another  in  lumber,  and  almost 
every  constituency  is  interested  in  some  form  of  ' '  herrings  "  which 
it  wants  protected  at  the  expense  of  all  the  others.  To  the  man 
interested  in  "herrings"  of  any  kind  the  tariff  question  is  outside 
of  reason,  science,  or  argument ;  and  not  until  the  Government 
finds  itself  in  serious  financial  distress  will  any  visible  impression 
be  made  upon  the  protective  system.  Borrowing  money  in  time  of 
peace  to  carry  on  the  Government  is  the  next  thing  to  soliciting 
outside  relief.  It  is  a  sign  of  bankruptcy,  not  only  in  finances  but 
in  statesmanship.  It  can  only  be  a  temporary  makeshift,  for  at 
last  the  revenues  of  the  Government  must  be  obtained  from  the  re- 
sources of  the  nation  in  the  form  of  taxes.  As  it  was  in  England, 
so  it  will  be  here.  When  in  1841  the  Government  of  that  country 
found  itself  with  an  empty  treasury,  the  ministers  resolved  that 
they  must  either  borrow  money  or  lower  the  tariff  on  impofts. 
They  decided  to  lower  the  tariff,  and  thus  by  encouraging  imports 

increase  the  revenue. 

* 

As  all  forms  of  direct  taxation  are  unpopular,  because  we 
would  rather  pay  ten  invisible  dollars  than  two  dollars  that  we  can 
actually  see,  the  Government  is  compelled  to  collect  a  large  por- 
tion of  its  revenues  from  taxes  levied  on  imported  goods.  As  the 
income  tax  is  unpopular  because  of  its  inquisitorial  character  and 
the  unfair  proportion  of  it  that  the  honest  man  must  pay  ;  and  as 
the  Internal  Revenue  taxes  on  whiskey,  tobacco,  and  beer,  are  al- 
ready as  large  as  these  "interests"  will  permit,  there  is  nothing 
but  the  reduction  of  the  tariff  as  a  revenue-raising  policy.  It  ap- 
pears by  this  morning's  paper  that  Senator  Jones  of  Arkansas,  a 
member  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Finance,  at  yesterday's  meet- 
ing proposed  to  increase  the  tax  on  beer,  "and,"  says  the  repor- 
ter, "  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  his  proposition  would 
have  been  adopted  by  the  Committee  had  not  the  attorneys  of  the 
National  Brewers'  Association  given  notice  to  Mr.  Voorhees  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee,  as  they  did  to  Mr.  Wilson,  that  such 
legislation  would  be  considered  offensive  and  antagonistic  to  the 


brewing  and  saloon-keeping  interests  throughout  the  country,  and 
would  call  forth  their  hostility  at  the  next  congressional  elections." 
With  so  many  obstacles  in  the  way  of  raising  revenues  by  direct 
taxation,  it  must  be  raised  by  the  indirect  method  of  a  tariff  on 
imports  ;  and  ordinary  shop-keeping  sense  will  require  that  in 
levying  customs  duties,  the  work  must  be  done  in  such  a  way  as  to 
produce  the  most  money.  No  matter  what  party  is  in  power,  the 
Government  must  have  money,  and  it  can  only  get  what  it  needs 
by  lowering  the  duties  upon  imports. 

* 

*  * 

Whenever  I  take  a  ride  in  the  dismal  hearse  that  goes  by  the 
name  of  a  street  car,  I  am  tantalised  and  tormented  by  an  adver- 
tisement that  glares  upon  me  from  the  panels  just  above  the  win- 
dows proclaiming  with  reckless  audacity  that  at  a  certain  pie  fac- 
tory in  Chicago  they  make  "  pies  like  your  mother  used  to  make  "; 
the  most  impossible  miracle  that  ever  was  attempted  by  any  mortal 
woman,  or  mortal  man.  Make  me  a  pie,  O,  piemaker,  like  my 
mother  used  to  make,  and  then  draw  on  me  for  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars. A  quarter  section  of  such  a  pie  as  that  would  roll  backward 
off  my  shoulders  more  years  than  I  care  to  tell.  It  would  seat  me 
again  at  the  little  wooden  table  in  the  old  home  radiant  in  the 
glory  that  only  a  mother's  presence  can"  give  to  any  home  ;  and  as 
the  song  says,  it  would  "  make  me  a  child  again  just  for  to-night." 
It  is  not  in  the  power  of  human  genius  to  make  a  pie  "  like  your 
mother  used  to  make."  Take  all  the  cooks  in  Queen  Victoria's 
kitchen,  and  give  them  the  finest  flour,  and  the  freshest  eggs,  and 
the  richest  butter  and  milk,  and  rare  fruits  ripened  in  the  sun- 
shine, and  spices  from  Arabia,  and  every  delicious  ingredient  of  a 
royal  pie  ;  then  bribe  them  with  a  coronet  apiece  and  a  pension  of 
two  thousand  pounds  a  year  ;  and  after  all,  they  will  not  be  able 
to  make  "pies  like  your  mother  used  to  make."  The  feat  is  physi- 
ologically and  psychologically  impossible,  because  nobody  but  your 
own  mother  ever  can  or  ever  could  give  to  the  elements  of  a  pie 
that  ethereal  flavor,  and  that  spiritual  potency,  which  makes  it, 
for  you  at  least,  a  memory  of  home  for  ever.  Unless  all  their  in- 
gredients are  mixed  with  her  love,  touched  by  her  own  hands,  and 
seasoned  with  her  own  spirit,  there  are  no  "  pies  like  your  mother 

used  to  make." 

* 

Can  a  man  be  fairly  held  responsible  for  thinking  what  he 
never  said  ?  This  is  a  problem  for  the  casuists,  and  the  solution 
of  it  is  of  some  importance  to  the  Rev.  Thomas  E.  Sherman,  a 
priest  who  recently  delivered  a  lecture  in  Chicago  in  defence  of 
the  Jesuits,  as  he  had  a  perfect  right  to  do.  Mr.  Sherman's  father 
and  grandfather  were  famous  men,  and  this  it  is  that  gives  to  his 
lectures  an  interest  they  would  not  otherwise  possess.  Referring 
to  the  mob  violence  inflicted  on  some  ex-priests  who  attempted  to 
lecture  under  the  auspices  of  a  society  called  the  A.  P.  A  ,  Mr. 
Sherman  is  reported  to  have  said  :  "  For  my  own  part,  I  have  no 
apology  to  offer  for  the  acts  of  Catholics  in  vigorous  protests 
against  those  wholesale  venders  of  infamy.  The  father  who  slays 
the  corrupter  of  his  child  must  be  left  to  the  Almighty;  the  man 
who  shoots  an  anarchist  on  sight  is  a  public  benefactor.  These 
ex-priests  are  anarchists  of  the  worst  stamp."  This  was  printed 
in  the  Chicngo  Jtr-rald  from  the  manuscript  copy  of  his  address 
furnished  by  Mr.  Sherman  to  that  paper,  and  yet  he  never  uttered 
the  words  at  all.  They  were  in  the  type-written  sheets  of  another 
lecture,  which  he  was  preparing  for  some  other  occasion,  but  in 
handing  his  copy  to  the  I/i-rn/ii  he  had  mixed  the  lectures  up,  as 
Little  Buttercup  mixed  up  the  babies  in  the  plav.  Evidently  the 
Herald  \%  not  responsible  for  publishing  the  words,  for  they  were 
in  the  copy  given  to  that  paper;  Mr.  Sherman  is  not  responsible, 
for  he  never  uttered  them,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  ever 
would  have  spoken  them  at  any  time;  and  thinking  at  least,  is 
free.  Mr.  Sherman  having  proved  himself  innocent  of  speaking 
the  words,  will  he  now  disown  the  sentiment  ? 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3981 


An  intricate  legal  puzzle  is  now  tying  into  double  knots  the 
brain  convolutions  of  all  the  lawyers  in  the  State  of  Mississippi. 
It  appears  that  William  Purvis,  a  negro,  was  tried  for  murder, 
convicted,  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged.  The  sentence  was  af- 
firmed by  the  Supreme  Court,  and  on  the  7th  of  February,  at 
Columbia,  the  sheriff  proceeded  to  carry  it  into  execution  At 
12:27,  '°  'he  presence  of  a  large  company,  the  drop  fell,  and  the 
culprit  was  "  launched  into  eternity  " — almost ;  tor  the  rope  broke, 
and  Purvis  fell  to  the  ground,  without  having  sustained  any  serious 
injury.  The  sheriff  and  his  deputies  were  proceeding  to  hang  the 
prisoner  again,  when  a  question  arose  as  to  whether  or  not  Purvis 
could  legally  be  hanged  a  second  time.  It  was  contended  by  some 
of  the  congregation  that  a  man  was  entitled  to  be  hanged  right 
"even  if  he  was  a  nigger";  and  as  the  breaking  of  the  rope  "was 
not  the  nigger's  fault,"  he  ought  not  to  be  hanged  again.  It  was 
"allowed"  that  if  he  had  been  responsible  for  the  rope,  the  case 
would  be  different.  It  was  conceded  that  Purvis  had  not  fired  the 
shot  that  killed  Mr.  Buckley,  but  he  was  merely  one  of  the  riotous 
party  out  of  whose  ranks  the  bullet  came;  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sib- 
ley, of  the  Columbia  Methodist  Church,  much  to  his  credit,  plead- 
ing on  the  side  of  mercy,  said,  that  as  the  ' '  nigger  "  was  only  half 
guilty,  he  ought  to  be  only -half  hanged.  The  end  of  it  all  was  that 
the  sheriff  left  the  whole  matter  to  "a  vote  of  the  spectators, "  and 
they  decided  that  the  "nigger"  ought  not  to  be  hanged  again. 
Thereupon  the  sheriff  ordered  Purvis  back  to  jail,  and  the  next 
day  he  took  him  to  Meridian,  and  from  there  he  telegraphed  the 
facts  to  Governor  Stone.  The  question  bristles  with  law  points. 
For  instance,  the  day  appointed  in  the  sentence  having  gone  by, 
can  a  new  sentence  J^e  passed,  and  if  so,  who  is  to  pronounce  it? 
If  not,  can  Purvis  be  tried  again,  and  thus  be  put  in  jeopardy  a 
second  time  ?  If  not,  can  the  sheriff  be  hanged  in  his  place  ? 
*        '         * 

A  cheer  for  the  "  Kearsarge  "  before  she  goes  to  pieces  on  the 
reef  of  Roncador !  Farewell,  old  comrade,  beaten  at  last,  not  in 
fair  battle,  but  by  a  treacherous  enemy  hidden  in  the  sea.  The 
wooden  hulk  may  be  broken  and  scattered  by  the  waves,  but  the 
soul  of  the  old  "  Kearsarge"  is  immortal,  an  inspiration  to  all  our 
surviving  ships  and  their  sailors,  the  sons  of  the  old  sea  kings. 
Aye,  and  to  the  soldiers,  too,  as  it  was  in  that  summer-time  of 
battles  in  1S64,  when  around  our  camp  fires  in  the  night  we  spoke 
of  the  sea-fight  over  there  by  Cherbourg,  while  France  was  look- 
ing on  from  the  hills  along  the  shore.  Every  shot  from  the  "  Kear- 
sarge" which  struck  the  enemy  was  another  battle  won,  and  when 
the  "Alabama"  sunk  she  carried  slavery  down  with  her  to  the 
bottom  of  the  sea.  The  war  history  of  the  "  Kearsarge  "  we  know, 
but  how  much  peace  was  in  her  guns  is  a  secret  we  shall  never 
know.  There  was  warning  in  their  voices,  and  that  warning  kept 
the  peace,  for  the  threatened  interference  by  outside  nations  in 
our  quarrel  was  indefinitely  postponed.  Had  Winslow  struck  his 
flag  that  Sunday  morning  in  that  fight,  we  might  have  lost  some 
other  battles,  and  our  cause  ;  for  aspiring  foreign  powers  might 
then  have  openly  declared  against  us.  The  victory  of  the  "Kear- 
sarge" was  a  moral  reinforcement  to  Grant  and  Sherman  and  to 
the  National  forces  everywhere,  while  the  banner  of  the  Union 
was  lifted  higher  in  the  sky.  In  a  few  years  at  farthest  the  "Kear- 
sarge" must  have  been  laid  up  in  hospital  like  a  decrepit  sailor,  or 
have  been  ingloriously  broken  up  for  junk;  but  as  it  is,  she  dies 
on  duty  and  at  sea,  where  the  "  Kearsarge  "  ought  to  die. 


hermit  homes,  social  homes,  and  the  defences  of  insects  by  color, 
of  which  subjects  the  work  accordingly  treats.  These  topics  do 
indeed  involve  many  strange  and  interesting  features  which  may 
be  justly  termed  ' '  romantic, "  in  a  certain  sense  of  that  word.  The 
book  is  written  in  a  charming,  facile,  yet  exact,  style,  and  is  ex- 
ceptionally well  illustrated,  so  far  as  the  accuracy  of  the  drawings 
is  concerned.  In  typographical  execution  the  book  is  also  excep- 
tionable, and  may  be  recommended  without  reserve  to  readers 
who  wish,  not  to  plunge  deeply  into  the  natural  history  of  the 
insect  world,  but  only  to  spend  a  few  occasional  hours  in  pleasant 
companionship  with  it.  A  glossary  of  scientific  terms  is  appended 
to  the  volume,  which  is  also  supplied  with  a  good  index.       /(/.yi/c 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

Romance  of  the   Insect  World.     By  L.   N.  Badenoch.     With 

Illustrations  by  Margaret  J.  D.  Badenoch  and  Others.   New 

York   and   London  ;     Macmillan   &   Co.     Chicago :     A.    C. 

McClurg  &  Co.      1893.     Pp.  341.     Price  $1.25. 

In  the  author's  view,  the  "romance"  of  the  insect  world  is  to 

be  sought  in   the  metamorphoses  of  insects,  the  food  of  insects, 


The  Distribution  of  Wealth.  By  Jolin  A'.  Coinmens,  Professor 
of  Economics  and  Social  Science,  Indiana  University.  New 
■York  and  London  :  Macmillan  &  Co.  Chicago  :  A.  C.  Mc- 
Clurg &  Co.      1893.     258  pages. 

Those  who  have  time  to  study  the  subject  in  a  technical  way, 
will  find  this  book  useful,  and  some  parts  of  it  are  presented  in  an 
easy  and  popular  style  that  anybody  can  understand.  It  is  not 
more  abstruse  than  other  works  of  its  kind,  but  it  abounds,  as  most 
of  them  do,  in  subtle  definitions  and  hard  sums,  not  in  mathemat- 
ics exactly,  but  in  logic.  By  the  dissolving  power  of  applied  meta- 
physics, a  house,  or  a  tree,  or  a  beefsteak  evaporates  into  an  eco- 
nomic formula,  which  very  often  conceals  and  protects  a  fallacy. 
For  instance,  in  this  book  we  learn  that  "a  dwelling-house  is  in 
no  sense  social  capital.  When  used  by  its  owner,  it  is  not  capital, 
but  consumption  goods  ;  but  when  leased  by  its  owner  it  is  private 
capital."  Also,  we  are  told  that  "a  tree  standing  in  a  forest  is 
land,  but  as  soon  as  it  is  felled  it  becomes  capital  ";  and  a  beef- 
steak appears  to  be  "social  capital"  until  it  is  cooked  and  ready 
to  be  eaten,  because  up  to  that  time  "  utility  is  being  added  to  it." 
Now,  that  sort  of  science  is  worth  learning,  undoubtedly,  but  is  it 
worth  enough  to  pay  for  the  study  ? 

It  often  happens  that  the  analytical  and  learned  explanation 
of  a  word  is  not  so  accurate  as  the  meaning  given  to  it  by  the 
common  people,  who  know  nothing  about  social  or  political  econ- 
omy ;  and  for  an  example  of  that  let  us  take  the  familiar  word 
"rent,"  which  everybody  understands  except  the  political  econo- 
mists who  write  so  much  about  it  and  who  refine  it  into  a  verbal 
mist.  According  to  this  book,  "  the  rent  of  land  is  a  share  of  the 
social  income  which  goes  to  a  certain  class,  not  on  account  of  the 
share  this  class  has  had  in  producing  that  income,  but  on  account 
of  the  mere  ownership  of  the  conditions  for  its  production." 

The  above  definition  of  rent,  besides  being  too  much  diluted, 
is  not  correct  except  in  particular  cases  ;  as  a  general  proposition 
it  is  unsound.  The  tenant  farmer  without  any  knowledge  of  the 
books,  gives  the  correct  definition  when  he  says,  "Rent  is  what  I 
have  to  pay  the  landlord  for  the  use  of  the  farm."  When  asked 
if  the  rent  is  not  "  a  share  of  the  social  income  "  produced  on  the 
land,  he  says,  "No,  the  landlord  gets  his  rent  whether  I  make  a 
crop  or  not.  If  I  farm  the  land  'on  shares,'  his  rent  will  then  de- 
pend upon  the  crop." 

Phrases  of  occult  meaning  used  as  axioms  confuse  the  reader 
instead  of  instructing  him  ;  and  when  he  studies  them  by  given  ex- 
amples, he  sometimes  finds  that  the  fact  and  the  formula  do  not 
perfectly  agree,  and  of  this  the  following  paragraph  will  serve  as 
an  illustration  :  "  Nature  supplies  some  needs.  The  most  extensive 
in  abundance,  with  material  already  prepared,  as  air  and  sun- 
light. These  are  free  goods  and  their  marginal  utility  is  nothing. 
Other  goods  are  scarce  and  can  be  obtained  only  when  human 
labor  controls  and  exploits  nature.  These  are  economic  goods." 
The  distinction  is  too  fine  for  practical  uses,  and  the  evidence  to 
support  it  fails.  Air  and  sunlight  are  not  more  free  than  any  other 
gifts  of  nature.  Air  and  sunlight  are  free  in  public  parks,  but  in 
private  parks  they  belong  to  the  owner  of  the  land  whereon  they 


3982 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


rest.  In  the  country,  air  and  sunshine  are  cheap  enough,  but  in 
the  city  they  are  dear  ;  and  for  that  reason  the  poor  man  must  live 
in  the  slums.  He  cannot  live  in  the  country,  for  he  must  be  near 
his  work,  and  he  cannot  afford  to  pay  the  high  rents  charged  for 
air  and  sunlight  in  the  town.  Even  in  the  slums  the  rooms  that 
receive  the  most  air  and  sunshine  yield  the  highest  rent.  The 
owner  of  the  land  owns  everything  above  it  and  below  it,  from  the 
centre  of  the  earth  to  the  sky,  the  air  and  the  sunshine,  too. 

The  superficial  defects  above  noted,  if  they  are  defects,  are 
common  to  nearly  all  the  text-books  on  political  economy,  but  in 
spite  of  them  this  work  by  Professor  Commons  contains  much 
valuable  information  drawn  from  those  facts  of  human  life  on 
which  is  founded  the  science  of  political  economy.  His  critical 
examination  of  certain  accepted  economic  theories  and  maxims 
will  compel  some  of  them  to  be  revised  and  perhaps  abandoned 
altogether.  m.  m.  t. 

In  connexion  with  Professor  Haeckel's  article  in  this  number 
of  The  Open  Cotir/,  and  in  view  of  the  great  interest  which  the 
theories  of  Weismann  have  awakened,  especially  in  this  country 
and  in  England,  it  will  be  interesting  for  readers  to  learn  that 
Prof.  George  John  Romanes  has  recently  published  a  small  work 
supplementary  to  his  "Darwin  and  After  Darwin,"  entitled  ^i« 
Examination  of  Weismannism.  Professor  Romanes  was  prevented 
by  a  severe  and  protracted  illness  from  completing  Part  II  of  his 
work  "Darwin  and  After  Darwin,"  which  was  to  deal  with  post- 
Darwinian  theories,  including,  of  course,  the  theories  of  Weis- 
mann ;  but  as  the  portion  dealing  with  Weismann  was  already 
written,  and  during  the  interval  which  thus  elapsed  Weismann's 
theories  had  been  considerably  extended  and  modified,  as  is  seen 
in  his  recent  works  on  AiiipJiiiiiixis  and  Gerin-plasm,  Professor  Ro- 
manes thought  it  best  to  embody  his  special  criticisms  of  Weis- 
mann in  a  separate  volume,  to  be  published  at  once.  Professor  Ro- 
manes's examination  is  mainly  restricted  to  the  elaborate  system 
of  theories  which  Weismann  has  reared  upon  the  fundamental 
postulate  of  the  non-inheritance  of  acquired  character,  but  does 
not  treat  especially  of  this  postulate  itself,  reserving  its  examina- 
tion for  his  next  volume.  It  is  true  that  it  is  with  this  postulate 
that  Weismann's  name  is  mainly  associated,  but  as  Professor  Ro- 
manes claims,  his  merit  is  that  only  of  having  called  general  at- 
tention to  the  subject  and  aroused  a  world-wide  interest  with  refer- 
ence to  it ;  as  to  the  postulate  itself,  it  is  one  which  has  always 
been  prominent  in  Darwinian  considerations.  Professor  Romanes 
also  claims  to  show  that  the  question  of  the  transmission  of  ac- 
quired characters  was  presented  early  in  the  seventies  by  Mr. 
Francis  Gallon  in  his  Theoi-y  of  Heredity,  and  answered  by  him  al- 
most in  the  same  manner  as  Weismann  did  about  ten  years  later. 
We  shall  not  enter  into  the  details  of  the  criticisms  of  this  book, 
which,  it  is  unnecessary  to  say,  are  presented  in  the  same  spirited 
and  vigorous  style  which  distinguishes  all  of  Professor  Romanes's 
works  and  renders  them  such  splendid  reading.  A  glossary  of  tech- 
nical terms  is  appended  to  the  volume  which  will  be  of  great  help  to 
the  reader,  since  the  terminology  of  this  branch  of  natural  science  is 
multiplying  so  fast  of  late  that  for  comfortable  reading  something 
of  this  kind  is  absolutely  necessary.  The  book  is  well  indexed, 
and  contains  also  an  excellent  portrait  of  Weismann.  (Pp.  ix,  221. 
Price  $1.00.     Chicago:  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co  ) 


NOTES. 

Among  recent  noteworthy  criticisms  of  Professor  Weismann's 
theories  our  readers  may  be  referred  to  that  of  Prof.  Lloyd  Morgan 
in  The  Monist,  Vol.  IV,  No.  i,  entitled  "  Dr.  Weismann  on  Hered- 
ity and  Progress."  In  a  letter  to  the  Editor,  Professor  Weismann 
says  that  his  position  is  not  correctly  represented  in  Professor  Ro- 
manes's book  (see  its  review  in  this  number),  but  he  expects  that 
all   such   misunderstandings  as   those  of   Mr.  Romanes  and   Mr. 


Spencer,  the  latter  of  whom  he  answered  in  The  Contemporary  Re- 
view of  last  year,  will  in  time  correct  themselves.  As  to  Prof. 
Lloyd  Morgan's  objections,  he  says  these  appear  to  him  to  demand 
a  consideration,  and  he  will  in  time  reply  to  them.  At  present,  be 
says,  he  is  too  much  occupied  with  other  work,  but  hopes  he  will 
soon  be  able  to  contribute  an  article  on  the  subject  for  The  Monist. 


To-morrow,  February  16,  will  be  the  sixtieth  birthday  of 
Ernst  Haeckel.  His  friends,  associates,  and  disciples  from  all 
parts  of  the  world,  having  long  had  in  mind  the  propriety  of  a 
personal  recognition  of  Haeckel's  great  services,  have  decided  to 
take  advantage  of  this  occasion  and  to  place  as  a  permanent  memo- 
rial of  the  distinguished  inquirer  a  marble  bust  of  him  in  the  Zoo- 
logical Institute  of  Jena,  the  scene  of  his  long  and  fruitful  activity. 
The  celebration  will  take  place  on  the  seventeenth.  At  noon  the 
bust  will  be  unveiled,  and  an  address  made  by  the  Munich  zoolo- 
gist Hertwig,  Haeckel's  oldest  pupil.  Dinner  will  be  bad  at  the 
Bear,  and  in  the  evening  a  grand  Commers  will  be  held.  It  will  be 
a  day  of  universal  festivity  in  the  old  University  town,  in  which 
friends,  students,  and  colleagues  will  all  joyfully  participate.  We 
trust  that  the  celebration  will  be  worthy  of  the  occasion  and  the 
motives  which  prompted  it ;  and  sincerely  hope  that  the  great  in- 
vestigator thus  so  justly  honored  will  continue  for  many  years 
the  work  which  he  has  done  for  the  advancement  of  science.  We 
join  the  friends  who  have  the  good  fortune  to  be  with  him  in  ten- 
dering our  well-wishes  and  congratulations. 

DARWIN  AND  AFTER  DARWIN. 


1  of  the  Dar 
Pcst-Dar 


1  Theory  and  £ 
1  Questions. 


By  GEORGE  JOHN  ROMANES, 


I.    THE    DARWINIAN    THEORY. 

460  pp.;  125  Illustrations ;  Cloth;  Postpaid  S2. 00. 

THE  OPEN   COURT  PUBLISHING  CO., 

770  MONON  BUILDING,  324  DEARBORN  STREET,  CHICAGO.    ' 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Pu 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  338. 

THE    PROBLEM    OF    PROGRESSIVE     HEREDITY. 

Prof.  Ernst  Haeckel 3975 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  PROSTRATION.     E.  P.  Powell....   3978 
CURRENT  TOPICS  :    Reducing  the  Tariff  to  Increase  the 
Revenue.      Pies   Like  Your   Mother  Made.     Thinking, 
But  Not  Speaking.     The  Breaking  of  the  Rope.      Hail, 

to  the  Kearsarge.     Gen.  M,  M.  Trumbull 3980 

BOOK  NOTICES 3981 

NOTES 3982 


2^0 


The  Open  Court. 


A  ■HTEEKLY  JOURNAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  339.     (VoL.viii.-8.)  CHICAGO,  FEBRUARY  22,  1894. 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  P 


litted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


SCHOPENHAUER,  THE  MAN  AND  THE  PHILOSOPHER. 


BY    G.    KOERNER. 


Several  articles  on  Schopenhauer  have  been  pub- 
lished in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  the  last  of  which  is 
of  special  interest  and  appeared  in  September,  1893. 
Considering  the  chauvinism  which  since  Sedan  has 
shown  itself  not  only  in  the  masses  of  the  French  peo- 
ple, but  also  in  leading,  otherwise  respectable,  journals, 
in  books  and  speeches,  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  has 
manifested  upon  treating  German  affairs  and  particu- 
larly German  literature  an  impartiality  worthy  of  its 
high  standing.  For  several  years  past  it  has  devoted 
many  pages  to  German  philosophy,  and  Schopenhauer 
has  been  reviewed  by  some  of  its  best  contributors, 
such  as  Brunetiere  and  Bourdeau. 

The  present  paper  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  to 
a  translation  of  which  I  desire  to  invite  the  attention 
of  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court,  is,  as  the  title  con- 
fesses, not  quite  an  original  one,  but  is  based  in  great 
part  on  the  eighth  volume  of  the  "  History  of  Modern 
Philosophy,"  by  Kuno  Fischer  of  Heidelberg,  which 
volume  goes  by  the  title  of   "  Arthur  Schopenhauer. " 

Schopenhauer,  the  Revue  states,  was  born  on  the 
22d  of  February,  1788,  and  after  a  short  life  of  roving 
and  travelling,  he  took  up,  in  1831,  his  permanent 
abode  in  the  city  of  Frankfort  where  he  ended  his  days. 
He  was  yet  unknown,  though  he  had  in  the  month  of 
December,  1818,  published  his  system  in  a  book  which 
has  made  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  philosophy.  That 
book,  from  which  at  a  later  day  so  many  thinkers, 
writers,  and  artists  have  drawn  instruction  and  inspira- 
tion, did  not  meet  with  the  slightest  success.  Of  the 
eight  hundred  copies  printed,  ten  years  afterwards  one 
hundred  and  fifty  remained  on  hand,  and  one  hundred 
were  cut  up  for  waste-paper  :  the  edition  was  never 
exhausted. 

As  no  man  felt  more  vividly  what  he  was  worth 
and  was  less  master  of  his  imaginings,  Schopenhauer 
charged  his  misfortune  to  a  vast  learned  conspiracy  of 
the  University  professors  of  philosophy,  who  had  come 
to  an  understanding  to  kill  him  off  by  their  silence,  and 
who  forbade  Germany  to  pronounce  his  name.  He 
would  have  done  better  if  he  had  said  to  himself  that 
he  had  come  too  soon,  that  he  had  anticipated  time. 
During  the  first  half  of  this  century  optimistic  ration- 


alism was  in  vogue  in  Germany.  The  universal  reign  of 
reason  was  proclaimed  and  it  was  found  everywhere,  in 
"things"  as  well  as  in  living  and  reasoning  beings,  in 
human  existence,  even  in  politics,  in  nature  itself,  on 
earth  as  well  as  in  heaven.  It  was  said  with  Hegel 
"  that  everything  that  exists  was  rational,  that  history 
was  a  progressive  evolution,  the  progress  of  conscious 
liberty." 

A  philosopher  who  proclaimed  that  the  world  was 
created  by  the  fatal  mistake  of  a  blind  and  unconscious 
Will,  which  is  the  origin  of  the  All,  would  at  that  time 
have  been  considered  as  a  sorry  jester  or  a  melancholic 
fool.  In  a  passage  in  one  of  her  books.  Madam  de 
Stael  had  declared,  just  as  Schopenhauer  has,  "that 
the  will  which  is  the  life,  the  life  which  is  also  the  will, 
contains  the  whole  secret  of  the  universe  and  of  our- 
selves," but  she  had  not  said  that  the  will  is  the  mis- 
fortune and  the  original  sin  ;  she  had  not  reproved  the 
creative  Demon,  she  had  not,  as  Schopenhauer,  when 
pointing  out  to  the  creator  his  works,  shouted  "How 
didst  thou  dare  to  disturb  the  sacred  quietude  of  the 
nonentity  {rieanf),  to  generate  a  world  which  is  nothing 
but  a  vale  of  miseries,  of  tears,  and  of  crimes?  " 

I  may  be  allowed  to  suggest  very  timidly  (for  I  do 
not  pretend  to  be  at  all  versed  in  philosophical  lore) 
that  M.  Volbert,*  the  author  of  the  essaj',  has  done 
Hegel  an  injustice  respecting  the  dictum,  that  all  that 
is,  is  reasonable.  It  appears  to  me  that  Hegel  did  not 
mean  to  say  that  the  present  state  of  things  could  not 
be  any  better,  but  simply  that  it  is  the  inevitable  result 
of  all  events  since  historical  times  and  must  therefore 
be  accepted  as  a  necessity ;  the  very  next  sentence 
quoted  by  M.  Volbert  from  Hegel  :  "  that  history  is  a 
progressive  evolution,"  seems  to  sustain  this  view.  It 
must  be  admitted,  however,  that  Hegel,  inasmuch  as 
he  advanced  his  system  early  in  the  century  when  an 
absolute  or  paternal  despotism  prevailed  throughout 
the  greater  part  of  Europe,  was  generally  considered 
by  all  liberal-minded  people  not  only  as  an  advocate  of 
conservatism,  but  of  despotism.  Yet  his  doctrine  was 
in  truth  a  double-edged  sword.  To-day  a  king  might 
rule  absolutely  and  on  the  morrow  a  popular  rising 
might  dethrone  him  and  send  both  him  and  his  adher- 


*  G.  Volbert  is.  I  believe,  the  t 


-of  Victor  Cherbulli. 


3984 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


ents  to  the  guillotine.  That  revolution  would  then  ex- 
ist and  be  as  rational  as  the  overthrown  despotism.  It 
was  not  very  long  before  the  reactionary  parties  de- 
nounced Hegel's  philosophy  as  revolutionary,  while  it 
was  strongly  advocated  by  the  radicals. 

"Times  changed,"  M.  Volbert  continues,  "and 
doubts  arose  whether  reason  was  the  sole  arbiter  of 
human  destinies.  The  nations  had  by  patient  efforts 
and  in  the  sweat  of  their  brows  obtained  a  part  of  their 
liberties  ;  they  had  conquered  claims,  which,  the  mo- 
ment they  had  won  them,  they  underrated,  afterwards 
to  wonder  why  they  had  wished  for  them,  and  to  dis- 
cover that  hope  gives  us  more  pleasure  than  fulfilment. 
Sciences  had  made  marvellous  progress  ;  they  told  the 
people  that  history  resembled  fairy-tales  and  promised 
to  transform  the  world.  But  in  spite  of  their  admirable 
inventions,  it  was  found  that  the  sum  of  good  and  bad 
remained  nearly  the  same,  that  neither  railroads  nor 
telegraphs,  nor  chemistry  nor  physical  knowledge  could 
cure  heart-woes.  Industry  worked  wonders,  political 
economy  was  asked  to  do  the  same,  but  it  declared  it- 
self powerless.  The  old  traditions,  the  old  customs  had 
been  lost,  and  people  became  disgusted  with  the  new 
ideas  as  well  as  the  old  ones  ;  they  did  not  know  how 
to  replace  them,  but  waited  for  something  that  did  not 
come.  It  seemed  that  anything  was  possible,  and  it  was 
as  hard  to  be  happy  as  before  the  invention  of  the 
steam-engine.  There  was  much  dreaming,  and  in  con- 
sequence the  nerves  had  become  more  irritable,  the 
imagination  more  excited  and  disturbed.  Satisfied  de- 
sires created  new  ones,  at  no  time  was  the  world  more 
given  up  to  pleasure  and  more  sensible  to  privations. 
The  sages  who  were  content  with  little  did  not  dare  to 
agree  that  they  were  content,  and  with  a  mixture  of 
vanity  took  glory  in  expressing  an  inexorable  ennui.  A 
pessimistic  philosophy  was  henceforth  sure  of  winning 
the  public  favor.  Schopenhauer  dethroned  Hegel,  be- 
came the  philosopher  a  la  mode,  and  when  he  affirmed 
that  everything  was  fiction,  lie,  idle  show,  the  proposi- 
tion was  easily  admitted,  and  his  dictum  : 

'Bet  rug  ist  A  lies.  Lug  und  Schein,' 
was  repeated  by  his  followers. 

"He  had  well  calculated  that  his  day  would  come, 
and  his  sudden  reputation  gave  him  more  joy  than 
astonishment.  In  a  short  time  this  man,  so  long  ig- 
nored, at  sixty  years  of  age,  had  become  a  celebrated 
writer,  admired  and  worshipped.  People  came  from 
afar  to  see  him,  to  solicit  audiences,  were  proud  to  dine 
near  him  at  the  table  of  the  Hotel  d'Angleterre.  The 
ladies,  the  military  officers  stationed  at  Frankfort  stud- 
ied his  works  and  became  infatuated  with  this  prophet, 
so  long  unknown.  His  birthday  was  celebrated.  From 
everywhere  flowers,  presents,  addresses  in  verse  and 
prose  were  sent  him.  Some  compared  him  to  King 
Arthur  of  the  Round  Table,   others   proclaimed  him 


'the  emperor  of  German  philosophy.'  "  So,  Monsieur 
Volbert. 

The  writer  of  this  paper,  a  native  of  Frankfort,  lived 
for  more  than  a  year  not  far  from  Schopenhauer's  resi- 
dence, after  the  latter  had  moved  there  in  1831,  but 
was  not  made  aware  of  the  vast  ovations  to  the  philos- 
opher which  the  essayist  of  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes 
so  vividly  describes.  He  probably  refers  to  a  later 
period,  but  it  is  hardly  probable  that  the  ladies  became 
infatuated  with  his  doctrines  and  smothered  him  with 
flowers  and  sent  him  presents  and  addresses,  since  he 
has  in  all  his  works  treated  the  fair  sex  almost  brutally, 
hardly  allowing  them  to  have  souls.  But  M.  Volbert, 
as  far  as  style  is  concerned,  is  a  typical  Frenchman, 
and  like  all  Frenchmen  delights  in  exaggeration  and 
high  coloring.  "The  first  time,"  continues  the  Re- 
view, "that  one  of  his  devotees  thought  it  proper  to 
kiss  his  hand  he  uttered  an  exclamation  of  surprise, 
but  soon  accustomed  himself  to  this  kind  of  ceremony, 
and  when  he  heard  that  some  rich  man,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  the  philosopher's  portrait,  proposed 
to  erect  a  chapel  as  a  shrine  for  the  sacred  picture  he 
merely  observed  :  '  This  is  the  first  which  is  consecrated 
to  me;  how  many  will  there  be  in  the  year  2000?'  " 

After  his  death  his  glory  continued  to  increase,  and 
spread  over  the  world  ;  his  works  were  translated  into 
all  languages.  But  the  Germans  are  a  highly  critical 
people,  and  their  infatuations  are  often  followed  by  rude 
reversions.  One  is  betrayed  mostly  by  one's  friends. 
Mr.  Gwinner,  the  testamentary  executor  of  the  illus- 
trious dead,  thought  it  proper  to  write  a  minute  and 
indiscreet  biography  of  his  master  which  looks  much 
like  an  indictment.  What  injured,  however,  Schopen- 
hauer still  more,  was  the  publication  of  his  corre- 
spondence, wherein  he  paints  himself  as  he  was.  The 
man  appeared  unpleasant,  and  it  was  asked  whether 
his  philosophy  was  to  be  taken  in  earnest.  It  was 
more  closely  examined  and  found  incoherent  and  full 
of  contradictions.  It  is  easy  to  discover  such  incon- 
sistencies in  so  very  complex  a  system,  where  the  ideal- 
ism of  Kant  is  amalgamated  with  the  theories  of  Cab- 
anis  and  Helvetius,  the  metamorphosis  of  Lamarck 
with  the  Platonic  doctrine  of  eternal  ideas  and  perma- 
nent types,  the  most  abstract  and  subtle  aesthetics  with 
a  psychology,  which  teaches  that  our  thoughts  are  the 
secretions  of  our  brain,  and  what  more  should  I  say, 
the  irony  of  Voltaire  with  the  ecstasies,  the  remorse, 
and  unspeakable  tenderness  of  a  Hindu  Messiah  !  Das 
Gebaude,  it  was  said,  ruht  nicht  Stein  auf  Stein.  That 
is  going  too  far.  "You  cannot  get  rid  of  a  man,"  as 
M.  Brunetiere  has  well  written,  "who  has  uttered 
words  which  will  never  be  forgotten."  Kuno  Fischer 
also  recognises  that  his  system  is  very  inconsistent, 
but  he  renders  justice  to  the  originality  of  the  great 
thinker,  to  his  ingenious  and  profound  views,  and  his 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


3985 


remarkable  power  of  analysis.  Jean  Paul,  who  read 
him  when  nobody  else  did,  compared  his  first  book  to 
those  sombre  lakes  of  Norway,  enclosed  on  all  sides  by 
dark  walls  of  rocks  and  on  which  the  sun  never  shines, 
over  the  surface  of  which  no  bird  ever  flies,  no  waves 
tremble,  but  whose  depths  in  clear  nights  reflect  the 
starry  heavens.  He  added  :  "  I  cannot  but  admire  the 
book.  Fortunately  I  do  not  accept  the  conclusions." 
That  is  nearly  the  judgment  of  Professor  Fischer. 

But  the  contradictions  which  have  been  pointed  out 
in  his  philosophy  do  him  less  injustice  than  his  care- 
lessness in  regulating  his  life  according  to  his  doctrines. 
Most  of  the  philosophers  have  had  their  weaknesses, 
inconsistencies.  No  one  would  require  them  to  be  he- 
roes, grand  characters,  the  incarnations  of  an  idea, 
such  as  the  Pascals,  the  Spinozas,  the  Fichtes.  But 
Schopenhauer  seems  to  have  taken  the  mischievous 
pleasure  of  contradicting  in  many  things  his  own  max- 
ims and  principles.  Read  his  writings,  his  letters,  and 
you  will  find  that  you  have  to  do  with  two  persons  re- 
sembling one  another  in  nothing.  Leopardi,  in  de- 
scribing the  miseries  of  this  world,  had  felt  them.  It 
is  from  a  lacerated  heart  martyrised  by  destiny,  which 
starts  that  immortal  plaint,  never  heard  without  deep 
emotion. 

The  pessimism  of  Schopenhauer,  according  to  the 
spirit iicl/c  expression  of  Mr.  Kuno  Fischer,  is  "  a  pes- 
simism without  pain  ;  he  was  born  coiffc. "  And  although 
he  saw  the  light  of  day  on  a  Friday,  of  which  he  com- 
plained, he  was  in  fact  a  Sunday-child  («'«  So?intags- 
kind),  a  favorite  of  the  gods  to  whom  had  been  vouch- 
safed the  best  things  of  the  earth,  all  the  gifts  of  intel- 
lect, a  complete  independence,  all  the  leisure  for  culti- 
vating his  faculties,  a  determined  vocation,  which  he 
had  not  to  seek,  works  that  were  to  give  him  a  name, 
and  up  to  his  last  years  an  indestructible  health,  the 
sleep  of  a  child,  an  old  age  warmed  and  illuminated 
by  the  sun  of  glory,  and  ending  by  a  sudden  and  gentle 
death.  And  indeed  he  did  not  ignore  the  advantages 
with  which  he  had  been  favored.  How  often  has  he 
boasted  of  his  genius,  of  his  robust  health,  of  his  inde- 
pendence, of  his  works,  and  even  of  his  shapely  form. 
And  this  fortunate  man  blamed  the  Supreme  Being  for 
not  having  made  him  still  more  happy  by  conferring  on 
him  some  big  benefice  and  his  sweetheart.  Miss  Fiedler. 
"But  after  all,"  he  said,  "such  as  I  am  with  six  hun- 
dred and  thirty  shillings  income,  I  am  still  obliged  to 
Him."  He  had  a  great  deal  more  than  an  income  of 
six  hundred  and  thirty  shillings,  he  could  easily  do 
without  a  big  benefice,  and  if  he  did  not  marry  Miss 
Fiedler  it  was  owing  to  his  horror  of  marriage. 

Could  it  be  said  that  he  waited  for  glory  too  long, 
that  by  the  injustice  of  his  contemporaries  and  by  his 
ill  success  with  his  works,  his  imagination  had  be- 
come darkened?    When  he  was  thirty-three  years  old, 


before  he  had  written  a  single  line  and  had  no  title  to 
distinction,  he  had  said  to  Wieland  :  "Life  is  a  sorry 
thing  {eine  missliche  Sache),  and  I  will  employ  mine  to 
meditate  upon  life."  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  can- 
not be  believed  that  his  pessimism  was  a  mere  sham, 
a  hypocrisy,  or  a  fixed  literary  prejudice.  He  had  seen 
that  valley  of  tears  which  he  painted,  but  it  was  only  in 
idea ;  and  it  had  appeared  to  him  with  such  luminous 
clearness  that  he  could  not  help  finding  it  beautiful, 
and  feeling  that  his  lamentations  were  mixed  with  a 
secret  voluptuousness.  "The  grand  tragedy,"  Fischer 
tells  us,  "was  played  in  the  theatre,  and  he  was  in  a 
very  soft  orchestra  seat,  his  spectacles  in  hand  serv- 
ing him  as  a  microscope,  and  while  a  number  of  spec- 
tators, forgetting  the  play,  went  to  the  buffet,  he  fol- 
lowed with  strained  attention  all  its  incidents.  No  one 
at  that  moment  was  more  serious  than  he,  no  one  had 
a  more  penetrating  look,  after  which  he  went  home, 
feeling  at  the  same  time  a  profound  emotion  of  sad- 
ness and  joy,  and  then  he  told  what  he  had  seen." 

It  is  a  custom  of  philosophers  at  dinner,  (especially 
towards  the  end  of  it,)  to  amuse  themselves  by  dis- 
coursing upon  all  the  horrors  afflicting  human  kind  from 
Australia  to  the  Arctic  Pole.  This  indulgence  in  abomi- 
nations is  very  amusing,  it  is  a  pleasure  which  sedentary 
burghers  and  parish  priests,  who  only  know  their  own 
church-steeples,  have  no  idea  of.  But  a  still  greater 
pleasure  is  it  to  have  a  warm  and  strong  imagination 
and  the  gift  to  make  others  see  what  one  has  seen  one- 
self or  fancies  to  have  seen.  Schopenhauer  was  con- 
vinced "that  the  world  was  a  place  of  penitence,  a  col- 
ony for  convicts,"  and  he  took  as  much  pleasure  relat- 
ing the  miseries  of  mankind  as  any  English  novelist  in 
describing  the  prisons  or  the  poor-house.  The  one  who 
better  than  any  one  else  has  represented  the  gloomy 
silence  of  the  Norwegian  lakes  has  naturally  a  taste  for 
dismal  and  desolated  landscapes.  Study  the  letters  of 
Schopenhauer  and  you  will  be  convinced  that  if  he  had 
been  less  of  a  pessimist,  he  would  have  been  less  happy. 
Who  could  on  that  account  make  a  criminal  charge 
against  him  !  This  philosopher  has  the  sincerity  of  an 
artist,  and  that  is  indeed  something. 

Amongst  the  inconsistencies  his  enemies  charge 
him  with,  there  is  one  which  does  not  at  all  shock  me. 
"If  he  had  killed  himself,"  they  say,  "we  should  have 
believed  in  his  good  faith."  That  is  indeed  asking 
too  much,  and  I  have  never  understood  that  pessimists, 
in  order  to  prove  their  doctrine,  should  be  required  to 
shoot  off  their  heads.  There  was  once,  if  I  mistake 
not,  an  English  translator  of  Lucretius  who  wrote  at 
the  margin  of  every  page  of  his  manuscript,  ''Not a 
bene,  after  finishing  this  translation  I  am  going  to  kill 
myself."  He  finished  it  and  killed  himself,  proving 
thereby  that  he  was  a  man  of  his  word.  But  when 
Schopenhauer  is  blamed  for  not  having  acted  that  way. 


3986 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


one  forgets  that  on  that  point  he  was  in  accord  with 
his  doctrine,  and  that  he  had  explicitly  condemned 
suicide.  Had  he  not  declared  that  the  sage  must  try 
to  suppress  his  will  to  exist,  that  the  unfortunate  who 
kills  himself,  far  from  killing  his  will,  ceases  to  live 
because  he  does  not  cease  to  will,  but  only  attempts  to 
put  an  end  to  his  sufferings?  "  The  suffering,"  he  said, 
"is  the  supreme  mortification  which  leads  to  resigna- 
tion and  to  release,  and  a  man  who  commits  suicide  is 
like  a  sick  man,  not  having  the  courage  to  submit  to  a 
painful  but  salutary  operation,  prefers  to  retain  his 
malady." 

Not  only  did  he  never  have  a  thought  of  destroying 
himself,  but  he  occupied  himself  all  the  time  with  pre- 
serving himself;  few  people  have  taken  better  care  of 
their  precious  persons  and  have  been  more  attentive 
to  defend  themselves  against  every  accident.  Fear  of 
the  small-pox  drove  him  from  Naples  ;  he  fled  from 
Venice  because  the  snuff  used  there  was  poisoned  ;  he 
left  Berlin  to  escape  the  cholera.  For  a  long  time  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  not  going  to  sleep  before  having 
placed  a  loaded  pistol  under  his  pillow.  He  had  his 
rooms  on  the  ground  floor  in  order  to  be  quicker  in 
the  street  if  the  house  took  fire.  Only  with  his  own 
razor  was  he  to  be  shaved,  and  for  fear  of  drinking  out 
of  an  infected  tumbler  he  always  carried  a  leathern 
cup  in  his  pocket.  Mr.  Bordeau  was  right  in  saying 
that  Schopenhauer  could  have  applied  to  himself  the 
words  of  our  old  satirist,  "I  fear  nothing  but  danger." 
But  these  are  not  characteristic  traits  ;  they  belong  to 
physiology  and  heredity.  He  was  a  born  maniac  and 
not  without  cause. 

His  grandmother  on  the  father's  side  had  been  in- 
sane ;  so  were  two  of  his  uncles,  and  his  father  was 
eccentric.  From  the  first  months  of  his  mother's  be- 
ing in  the  family  way,  his  father,  Henry  Floris  Schopen- 
hauer, had  asserted  that  she  would  bear  him  a  son, 
that  this  son  would  be  a  great  merchant,  that  his  name 
should  be  Arthur,  and  as  he  was  an  Anglomaniac,  he 
concluded  that  Arthur  should  be  born  in  the  skin  of  an 
Englishman.  To  accomplish  this  he  took  his  wife  to 
London,  but  hardly  had  he  established  himself  there 
when  he  changed  his  mind,  and,  in  a  bad  season,  the 
sea  running  high,  he  took  her  back  again  to  Danzig, 
where  Arthur  was  born  two  months  afterwards.  If  her 
confinement  passed  off  favorably,  she  did  not  owe  it  to 
her  husband. 

The  same  man  killed  himself  in  an  attack  of  high 
fever,  throwing  himself  from  an  attic  into  one  of  the 
canals  of  Hamburg.  He  would  not  have  been  able  to 
compose  a  book,  entitled  "  The  World  as  Will  and  as 
Representation"  (the  English  use  instead  of  "repre- 
sentation" the  word  "idea,"  neither  word  expressing 
accurately  the  German  "  Vorstellung").  He  left  it  for 
his  son  to  write,  and  Arthur  deserves  credit  for  hav- 


ing proved  that  one  may  be  a  maniac  and  a  powerful 
reasoner  at  the  same  time. 

The  pessimists  have  always  affected  to  hate  wo- 
men, and  Schopenhauer  always  proclaimed  himself  a 
hardened  misogyne.  How  many  epigrams  has  he  shot 
off  "on  the  creatures  with  short  ideas  and  long  hair"! 
He  would  not  even  admit  that  woman  was  fair.  The 
intelligence  of  man, he  said,  must  have  been  darkened 
by  love  in  order  to  admire  the  other  sex.  And  yet  the 
great  woman-hater  had  always  loved  women.  But  we 
must  pardon  even  philosophers  the  inconsistencies 
which  women  cause  them  to  commit ;  they  have  been 
created  to  make  us  love  contradictions.  To  the  pleas- 
ure of  admiring  them  we  add  that  of  abusing  them.  Is 
there  a  happiness  equal  to  that? 

To  speak  ill  of  women  while  loving  them  is  not  a 
mortal  sin,  but  we  are  astonished  that  a  philosopher 
who  pronounced  himself  a  great  contemner  of  men 
{Menschenverachter),  who  at  all  times  professed  the  ut- 
most scorn  for  the  vulgar,  for  the  bourgeois,  for  the 
philistines,  the  souvereign  canaille,  should  be  so  anxious 
to  know  what  they  thought  of  him,  and  who  attached  a 
boundless  estimate  to  the  smoke  called  glory.  No  one 
was  more  concerned  about  his  reputation,  more  greedy 
of  laudations  and  flatteries.  Whosoever  criticised  his 
works  in  an  unfriendly  spirit  was  either  a  nobody,  or  a 
scamp  and  a  blockhead.  Those  who  praised  him  were 
at  once  sure  of  his  esteem.  It  will  be  seen  from  his 
correspondence  that  he  was  constantly  asking  his  dis- 
ciples and  particularly  his  famulus  Frauenstaedt  to  visit 
the  reading-rooms,  to  run  over  carefully  all  the  books, 
journals,  reviews,  and  to  copy  the  passages  where  there 
was  any  mention  of  Schopenhauer  and  his  genius.  He 
was  not  always  satisfied  with  their  quests.  "  My  great 
vexation  is,"  he  said,  "that  I  have  not  read  half  of 
what  has  been  written  about  me."  He  was,  however, 
not  so  very  ungrateful  ;  he  confessed  "  that  at  the  last 
he  had  tasted  much  enjoyment,  that  an  old  age,  crowned 
with  roses,  even  white  roses,  was  a  real  blessing." 
The  older  he  became  the  more  his  pessimism  was 
softened.  The  tone  of  his  letters  changed  ;  his  hot  fits 
of  passion  were  succeeded  by  sarcastic  cheerfulness. 
He  had  formerly  affirmed  with  Simonides  that  the 
greatest  good  was  "not  to  exist."  He  had  discovered 
that  there  was  some  good  in  life,  he  wished  for  noth- 
ing more  than  the  prolongation  of  his  life,  and  two 
years  before  his  death,  he  wrote  to  one  of  his  friends : 
"The  sacred  Upanishad  declares  in  two  places  that  the 
normal  duration  of  human  life  is  one  hundred  years, 
and  Mr.  Flourens  in  his  treaty  on  Longevity  says  nearly 
the  same  thing.  This  is  a  consolation."  M.  G.  Vol- 
bert  here  adds  a  sentiment  which  I  cannot  but  highly 
approve,  "Of  all  the  vanities  of  this  world  the  most 
vain  is  a  despair  which  dreams  of  a  centenary  exist- 
ence," 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


3987 


Schopenhauer  was  not  only  the  most  eloquent  of 
pessimists  but  was  also  a  moralist  as  profound  as  he 
was  rigid.  But  he  did  not  practise  morality,  and  his 
adversaries  had  in  this  respect  the  advantage  over  him. 
He  taught  that  compassion  was  the  foundation  of  mo- 
rality, but  hastened  to  add,  that  real  pity  had  nothing 
in  common  with  the  lukewarm  philanthropy  "  which 
allows  us  to  deplore  the  misfortunes  of  others  while  we 
feel  easy  in  our  own  skin."  The  holy  pity  which  he 
preaches  is  that  which  Buddha  knew,  that  mysterious 
virtue  which  cannot  be  acquired  unless  the  heart  is  pen- 
etrated with  the  idea  of  the  Unity  of  all  Beings.  If  we 
believe  with  Kant  that  time  and  space  are  only  forms  of 
our  perceptions,  the  multiplicity  and  diversity  of  things 
are  only  a  vain  appearance  and  reveal  themselves  to 
us  as  identical  with  ourselves.  The  veil  of  the  Maya 
is  rent  to  pieces,  the  grand  illusion  vanishes.  The 
egotist  with  blinded  eyes  makes  a  careful  distinction 
between  himself  and  all  that  is  not  himself,  he  sees 
in  the  universe  a  strange  thing,  which  he  uses  for  his 
own  purposes,  but  in  truth  he  believes  only  in  his  own 
existence.  For  the  wise  man  there  exists  no  ' '  ego  "  nor 
"non-ego."  He  discovers  in  the  innermost  depths  of 
his  existence  the  principles  of  the  world,  and  he  recog- 
nises himself  in  all  that  is. 

Schopenhauer,  of  all  philosophers,  is  certainly  the 
one  who  has  most  severely  and  most  logically  con- 
demned egoism,  but  in  practice  he  had  never  been 
anything  else  than  a  pronounced  egotist.  One  day  on  a 
railway  platform,  when  a  train  was  approaching  he  saw 
a  stranger  about  to  cross  the  track,  he  cried  out  to  him 
and  lectured  him  severely  on  his  imprudence  ;  that  was 
perhaps  the  most  real  mark  of  "holy  pity"  he  has 
ever  given  to  his  fellow-men.  He  was  a  bachelor,  a 
capitalist,  and  as  much  of  an  Anglomaniac  as  his  father. 
He  wanted  to  live  like  an  Englishman  residing  on  the 
Continent,  who  had  left  in  England  all  the  charges  in- 
cumbent on  him  as  a  citizen,  and  given  up  his  duties 
to  his  family.  Having  well  regulated  the  hours  of  his 
employment  he  never  sacrificed  to  any  person  the  least 
of  his  habitudes.  It  would  have  taken  a  fire  to  pre- 
vent him  from  taking  his  siesta,  of  taking  a  walk,  read- 
ing the  Times  at  the  regular  hours,  or  of  playing  a  little 
tune  on  the  flute  before  he  put  on  his  coat,  and  tied  his 
white  "cravat"  preparatory  to  going  to  dinner.  He 
managed  his  fortune  as  well  as  his  time,  and  in  spite 
of  some  unlucky  investments  he  had  doubled  his  capi- 
tal and  his  revenues.  That  was  all  very  well,  but  what 
would  Buddha  have  said  to  it? 

There  are  amiable  egotists,  but  such  was  not  his 
case.  To  his  adversaries  he  always  showed  himself 
implacable,  particularly  to  the  University  professors  of 
philosophy,  and  when  in  the  reactionar)'  period,  which 
followed  upon  the  dissolution  of  the  Frankfort  Parlia- 
ment (1849),  some  of  those  professors  were  removed 


from  their  positions  by  the  Government,  he  felt  the 
joy  of  a  cannibal  who  eats  his  enemy.  Whether  it  was 
Fichte  or  Schelling,  Hegel  or  Herbart,  he  treated  all  his 
rivals  as  charlatans,  prattlers,  old  women,  idiots,  hum- 
bugs ;  but  as  he  was  a  prudent  man  he  took  legal  ad- 
vice to  find  out  to  what  limit  a  philosopher  might  be 
abused  without  risking  a  prosecution  for  libel,  and  also 
from  prudential  motives  he  waited  for  the  death  of 
Fichte  and  Hegel  before  he  loudly  proclaimed  what  he 
thought  of  them. 

If  he  treated  his  enemies  en  canaille,  he  also  often 
maltreated  his  friends.  As  he  only  knew  friendship, 
when  useful,  those  only  of  his  disciples  were  admitted 
to  his  familiarity  who  busied  themselves  with  spread- 
ing his  glory.  Even  Frauenstaedt,  who  had  devotedly 
done  everything  to  get  him  readers  and  admirers,  and 
whom  he  occasionally  called  his  Theophrastus,  fell 
under  his  displeasure  when  in  some  journal,  as  Scho- 
penhauer believed,  he  had  not  correctly  interpreted 
him,  or  had  spoken  respectfully  of  philosophical  pro- 
fessors. If  he  was  hard  to  his  disciples,  to  whom  he 
was  under  great  obligations,  it  is  easy  to  believe  that 
he  was  still  more  so  to  low  people  to  whom  he  owed 
nothing.  Having  had  at  Berlin  a  violent  quarrel  with 
a  washerwoman,  he  used  her  roughly,  throwing  her 
down  ;  for  this  he  was  condemned  to  pay  her  sixty 
thalers  every  year.  When  informed  that  she  had  died, 
he  indorsed  on  the  letter  giving  him  the  news  :  "  Obit 
anus,  obit  onus.'" 

What  was  most  singular  and  distressing  in  his  his- 
tory was  his  quarrel  with  his  mother,  whom  for  the 
succeeding  twenty  years  he  never  visited.  Johanna 
Schopenhauer  was  more  charming  than  beautiful.  She 
loved  the  world  and  united  taste  with  gracefulness. 
In  1806,  shortly  after  her  settling  herself  at  Weimar, 
Goethe  had  married  his  mistress,  Christine  Vulpius,  to 
the  great  scandal  of  the  court  and  town.  He  presented 
her  to  Mrs.  Schopenhauer,  who  welcomed  her  with 
great  cordiality.  "  Since  he  has  given  her  his  name," 
she  remarked,  "we  can  well  afford  to  give  her  a  cup 
of  tea."  In  this  way  she  won  at  once  the  favor  of  the 
great  man,  and  within  a  short  time,  as  she  informed  her 
son,  her  salon  had  become  a  literary  circle  without  its 
equal  in  Germany. 

She  had  rendered  a  great  service  to  this  ungrateful 
son,  whom  his  father  had  condemned  to  a  mercantile 
career.  She  revoked  the  sentence,  encouraged  him  to 
pursue  the  course  for  which  he  felt  himself  born.  But 
there  was  little  harmony  in  their  characters.  Of  a 
subtle  and  gay  temper,  she  disapproved  not  only  of 
his  gloomy  ideas,  but  also  of  his  pride,  of  his  Olym- 
pian and  oracular  conceitedness.  "Although,"  she 
wrote  him,  "it  is  necessary  to  my  happiness  to  know 
that  you  are  happy ;  I  do  not  care  to  be  a  witness  of 
your  good  fortune  ;  it  would  be  difficult  for  me  to  live 


3988 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


with  you."  On  his  part,  he  accused  her  of  loving 
show  too  much,  and  of  spending  too  much  money.  But 
whatever  his  grievances  might  have  been,  he  would 
never  have  broken  with  her  had  she  not  written  biogra- 
phies, travels,  and  novels,  which  sold  well,  while  the 
prose  of  Arthur  did  not  sell  at  all.  This  wound  never 
healed.  "My  books  will  be  read,"  he  wrote  her  at  one 
time,  "when  the  last  copy  of  yours  will  have  been 
thrown  away  for  rubbish. "  A  philosopher  jealous  of 
the  literary  success  of  his  mother  is  a  rare  spectacle. 
After  her  death,  Frauenstaedt  found  in  the  posthumous 
works  of  Feuerbach  a  harsh  and  very  ill-favored  por- 
trait of  Johanna  Schopenhauer.  He  lost  no  time  in 
sending  it  to  the  master,  who  rephed  :  "The  portrait 
is  a  very  good  likeness.  God  forgive  me,  but  it  made 
me  laugh."  And  yet  one  of  his  doctrines  was,  that  in- 
telligence compared  with  goodness  of  heart  was  the 
flickering  light  of  a  torch  compared  to  the  luminous 
clearness  of  the  sun.  "God  forgive  me,  that  makes 
me  laugh."  Another  fling  ;  what  would  Buddha  have 
said  to  this  ? 

In  justice  to  him  be  it  remarked  that  he  always 
painted  himself  as  he  was  ;  his  correspondence  proves 
it.  He  very  much  admired  Ranc^,  and,  seeing  his 
portrait,  he  felt  an  emotion  and  observed,  "that  is  the 
effect  of  gracefulness.  "  He  knew  well  that  this  quality 
was  wanting  in  him.  To  those  who  reproached  him 
with  the  difference  of  his  doctrine  and  his  conduct  of 
life  he  would  answer :  "Look  at  what  I  say  and  not  at 
what  I  do.  It  is  enough  for  the  sculptor  to  make  a 
beautiful  statue  ;  is  he  bound  to  be  beautiful  him- 
self?" 

Unfortunately,  he  undertook  to  secure  for  himself  a 
place  amongst  the  founders  of  religion,  and  this  pre- 
tension spoiled  all.  The  founders  of  religion  engage 
to  practise  what  they  teach  ;  they  are  judged  by  their 
work  and  their  miracles  ;  and  if  Francis  of  Assisi,  while 
preaching  poverty,  had  been  occupied  in  doubling  his 
revenues,  he  would  long  since  have  been  forgotten. 
Bacon  was  not  a  good  man ;  but  what  is  that  to 
us  ?  He  did  not  pride  himself  on  being  a  saviour  of 
souls ;  he  was  not  an  apostle  of  quietism,  which  is  a 
renunciation  of  all  desires  ;  which  is  the  determined 
immolation  of  egotistical  will.  There  was  an  absolute 
gulf  between  the  character  of  Schopenhauer  and  the 
part  he  pretended  to  play,  and  in  truth  this  grand  con- 
tradiction is  the  only  one  which  gives  me  a  shock. 

As  Kuno  Fischer  has  justly  remarked:  "Judging 
Schopenhauer,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  his 
youth  the  adoration  of  genius  was  the  religion  of  the 
whole  literary  world.  This  worship  had  its  code  and 
its  ritual.  It  was  taken  for  granted  that  a  man  of  ge- 
nius was  above  all  common  rules  that  the  Philistines 
were  bound  to  observe.    His  existence  was  at  the  same 


time  an  honor  and  a  fortunate  thing  for  the  human 
kind,  which  he  instructed  and  delighted  by  his  works. 
His  only  duty  is  to  exist  and  to  tell  the  universe  what 
passes  through  his  imagination.  All  that  is  asked  of 
him  is  to  have  the  sincerity  of  an  artist.  Schopen- 
hauer boasted  of  having  received  from  nature  such  a 
gift  of  imagination  and  voluntary  emotional  feelings, 
as  to  enable  him  to  bring  tears  to  his  eyes  by  reciting 
his  own  writings.  He  pretended  that  if  he  had  not 
preferred  to  become  a  great  philosopher,  he  could  have 
made  himself  easily  a  great  stage-actor.  His  genius 
he  compared  to  Mont  Blanc,  or  to  the  sun.  He  wor- 
shipped only  himself.  But  why  did  he  wish  to  create 
another  worship  for  the  use  of  the  humble?  Why  did 
he  fancy  at  one  time  that  Europe  needed  a  new  reli- 
gion ;  that  his  philosophy  would  supply  it,  and  that 
he  would  be  the  Buddha  of  the  Occident?  He  tried  to 
persuade  his  disciples  that  they  were  his  apostles  ;  he 
enjoined  them  to  visit  one  another  and  wrote  them  : 
"At  any  place  where  two  of  you  assemble  in  my  name 
I  will  be  in  your  midst."  Indeed,  in  the  conduct  of 
his  life  this  skilful  flute-player  was  not  afraid  of  dis- 
cordance and  false  notes.  But  did  he  really  take  the 
religious  character  of  his  doctrines  in  good  earnest? 
It  is  hard  for  me  to  believe  it.  The  Germans,  when 
they  are  at  it,  are  terrible  mystifiers.  In  a  military 
college  in  Austria,  two  cadets,  who  passed  their  nights 
in  secretly  meditating  upon  the  works  of  the  grand 
Arthur,  had  reached  the  conviction  that  if  they  were 
to  kill  their  desire  (will)  to  live,  the  world  would  be 
annihilated.  They  were  perfectly  willing  to  extinguish 
their  will,  but  had  they  the  right  to  suppress  the  world? 
Vexed  by  their  scruples  they  addressed  the  master, 
and  a  few  weeks  before  his  death  he  answered  them  in 
a  style  of  paternal  indulgence  that  this  was  one  of  the 
transcendental  questions  which  he  did  not  charge  him- 
self to  solve.  That  is  nearly  what  Mephistopheles  an- 
swered to  the  good  young  men  who  submitted  to  him 
their  cases  of  conscience. 

Examining  one  of  his  photographs,  it  pleased  him 
to  say,  that  he  was  struck  with  the  astonishing  resem- 
blance it  bore  to  the  features  of  Prince  Talleyrand, 
and  he  wished  that  others  also  should  be  struck  with 
the  likeness.  He  liked  to  be  taken  for  an  impene- 
trable, mysterious,  diabolical  being,  inspiring  all  who 
came  near  him  with  a  sort  of  pious  fear.  Mr.  Chal- 
lomel  Lacour  who  had  gone  to  Frankfort  to  see  him  and 
dined  with  him  at  the  hotel,  wrote  :  "  His  slow-spoken 
and  monotonous  words  which  reached  me  above  the 
din  of  glasses  and  the  flashes  of  gaiety  of  my  neigh- 
bors gave  me  a  kind  of  uneasiness,  like  that  of  a  cold 
blast  across  the  open  gate  of  the  ncaiif."  In  read- 
ing Aristotle,  Plato,  Descartes,  Malebranche,  Spinoza, 
Kant,  or  Hegel,  whatever  one  may  think  of  their  sys- 
tems, one  does  not  doubt  their  good  faith.     They  had 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


3989 


all  that  metaphysical  candor,  the  supreme  virtue  of 
great  thinkers.  When  reading  "The  World  as  Will 
and  Idea,"  or  his  "  Parerga,"  one  is  less  sure,  one  fears 
that  one  is  being  duped.  The  edifice  appears  fair,  but 
while  admiring  it,  we  can  almost  fancy  that  we  hear 
as  from  the  depth  of  a  cave  the  secret  sneer  of  the 
grand  magician,  who  has  built  it  and  who  laughs  at  his 
work  and  at  himself. 

Schopenhauer  looked  upon  the  bronze  statuette  of 
Buddha,  cast  at  Thibet,  purchased  at  Paris,  as  one  of 
the  most  precious  ornaments  of  his  study.  It  was 
placed  on  a  bracket  and  he  held  secret  conversations 
with  "the  perfect  being,"  with  the  sage  of  the  sages, 
whose  sweet  smiles  console  and  redeem  the  world.  He 
might  also  have  said  to  the  bust  :  "Thy  kindness  was 
equal  to  thy  holiness,  thou  hast  discovered  the  princi- 
ple of  true  morality,  but  above  all  thou  hast  made  it 
thy  duty  to  practise  it  thyself."  Schopenhauer  might 
have  taken  for  his  motto  the  memorable  sentence  of 
Goethe,  which  he  wrote  in  the  album  of  a  student :  "  It 
is  our  good  God  who  has  given  us  the  nuts,  but  it  is 
not  He  who  cracks  them  for  us." 

The  essayist  of  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  is  not 
blind  to  the  contradictions  and  incoherencies  of  Scho- 
penhauer. He  has  frequently  dwelt  upon  them,  but 
he  has  not  pointed  out  the  one  which  seems  to  me  the 
greatest  of  all.  Schopenhauer,  in  his  attitude  to  nearly 
all  philosophical  systems,  was  an  iconoclast,  and  no 
one  was  more  maligned  and  denounced  by  him  than 
his  predecessor,  J.  G.  Fichte,  though  I  venture  to  say 
that  there  is  the  greatest  similarity,  not  to  say  identity, 
between  his  and  Fichte's  philosophy.  What  is  Scho- 
penhauer's "will"  but  the  strong  desire  to  exist,  to 
live,  which  extreme  striving  for  existence  dwells  un- 
consciously even  in  the  inorganic  world,  is  very  strongly 
implanted  in  animated  and  most  intensly  in  human 
beings.  Everything  outside  the  individual  man  is  mere 
representation  ^^idea).  The  world  is  mirrored  in  his 
head.  Now  Fichte's  "ego"  is  the  individual,  equally 
bent  on  his  existence.  The  outside  world  is  a  stranger 
to  him,  is  the  "  non-ego."  He  observes  only  phenom- 
ena. Were  it  not  for  this  most  ardent  desire  to  exist, 
impressed  on  mankind  by  the  creative  power,  the  world 
would  soon  come  to  an  end.  Were  the  desire  to  exist 
but  feeble  or  entirely  latent,  many  a  man  would  put  an 
end  to  his  life  with  a  bare  bodkin,  when  afflicted  with 
a  violent  toothache.  According  to  both,  when  the  in- 
dividual dies,  the  world  dies.  It  is  true,  from  the  very 
same  premise,  Fichte,  who  loved  mankind  and  strove 
to  live  for  it,  drew  different  conclusions,  as  Jean  Paul 
and  Madam  de  Stael  also  did,  but  that  does  not  de- 
prive Fichte  of  the  merit,  if  merit  it  be,  of  being  the 
original  source  of  Shopenhauer's  system,  nor  did  it 
justify  the  abuse  which  the  latter  so  abundantly  has 
heaped  upon  him. 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 

Probably  the  most  efficient  policeman  in  preserving  peace 
among  nations  is  International  Trade.  The  new  treaty  of  com- 
merce between  Germany  and  Russia  is  already  interpreted  as  not 
merely  a  commercial  agreement,  but  also  as  a  pledge  of  political 
friendship.  The  intention  of  the  French  Government  to  increase 
the  tariff  on  wheat  threatens  to  dissolve  the  Franco-Russian  al- 
liance against  the  Dreibund,  if  such  an  alliance  was  in  reality  ever 
formed.  The  Russian  Minister  of  Finance  will  regard  the  new 
tariff  on  grain,  if  adopted  by  the  French  Government,  as  a  declara- 
tion of  commercial  war  against  Russia,  and  in  that  case  he  will 
apply  retaliatory  and  repressive  measures  ;  and  while  he  is  about 
it  he  will  enforce  those  measures  not  only  against  France,  but  also 
against  "several  American  imports."  "  Russia,"  says  the  Minis- 
ter, "is  able  to  get  along  without  imports  from  France  or  Amer- 
ica." This  is  doubtless  true,  and  France  and  America  are  equally 
independent  of  Russia,  and  every  other  nation  can  say  the  same 
thing.  There  is  probably  not  a  nation  in  the  world  that  could  not 
"get  along,"  after  a  fashion,  without  e.\ternal  commerce,  but  it 
gets  along  better  with  it,  and  this  is  the  benefit  that  commerce 
gives  to  nations.  If  the  Russians  need  some  things  that  the  French 
have  to  spare,  and  the  French  need  some  things  that  the  Russians 
have  to  spare,  it  is  better  for  both  nations  that  they  exchange  with 
one  another.     A  war  of  tariffs  is  better  than  a  war  of  guns,  but 

peace  is  better  than  either. 

* 

The  House  of  Lords  has  been  meddling  in  politics  lately,  and 
thereupon  a  cry  for  its  reformation  or  its  abolition  comes  up  from 
the  people  outside.  That  the  abolition  of  the  House  of  Lords  will 
be  a  plank  in  the  coming  "platform  "  of  the  Liberal  party  seems 
very  likely  now.  Mr.  Gladstone  himself  may  act  as  a  conserva- 
tive break  on  the  movement,  because  a  good  deal  of  Tory  senti- 
ment remains  in  him  still,  but  the  younger  members  of  his  cabinet, 
with  hotter  and  more  tumultuous  blood  in  their  veins,  want  to 
share  in  the  enthusiasm  created  by  the  prospect  of  a  revolution 
that  will  end  the  House  of  Lords.  At  the  conference  of  the  Lib- 
eral Federation  held  at  Portsmouth  on  the  14th  of  February,  Sir 
William  Vernon  Harcourt,  Mr.  Gladstone's  first  lieutenant  in  Par- 
liament, said:  "Is  it  this  nation's  will  to  be  controlled  by  the 
representatives  of  the  people,  or  by  a  chamber  representing  noth- 
ing but  a  selfish  class  ?  ....  It  is  the  business  of  the  Liberals  to 
convince  the  Lords  that  the  people  will  no  longer  allow  them  to 
override  the  people's  will."  In  answer  to  that  the  Lords  can  say, 
"Well,  we  had  a  good  time  of  it  while  we  lasted  ";  and  when  that 
gilded  relic  of  antiquity,  the  House  of  Lords,  is  finally  converted 
into  a  committee-room,  or  something  of  that  sort,  their  lordships 
will  probably  laugh  as  heartily  as  anybody  at  the  barbarian  coro- 
nets and  robes,  and  stars  and  garters,  and  collars  and  crosses,  and 
all  the  rest  of  the  tomfooleryment  by  which  they  have  hypnotised 
the  English  people  for  seven  or  eight  hundred  years. 

The  abolition  of  the  British  House  of  Lords  will  be  a  caution 
to  its  counterpart  and  imitation,  the  American  Senate.  Although 
the  Senate  is  more  firmly  established  in  our  Constitution  than  is 
the  House  of  Lords  in  the  Constitution  of  Great  Britain,  it  will  at 
last  come  under  the  same  criticism  and  meet  the  same  fate.  Poli- 
tical causes  work  out  the  same  consequences  in  all  countries  just 
like  other  laws,  and  the  American  Senate  is  becoming  unpopular, 
partly  because  of  its  own  actions,  but  principally  because  the  peo- 
ple are  just  beginning  to  find  out  that  it  is  an  aristocracy  and  an 
elective  House  of  Lords.  It  is  criticised  and  even  menaced  for 
the  same  reasons  that  threaten  the  existence  of  its  prototype  and 
model.  It  is  rather  suggestive  that  while  Sir  William  Harcourt 
was  denouncing  the  House  of  Lords  at  Portsmouth,  the  editor  of 
the  A^ews  was  writing  like  this  at  Indianapolis  :  "The  Senate  is 
the  greatest  log-rolling  body  of  law-makers  in  the  world.     And  at 


3990 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


this  present  time  the  Senate  is  engaged  in  a  conspiracy  against  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  It  is  more  important  that  one  of 
those  fossil  millionaires  should  be  pleased  than  that  the  most 
righteous  law  should  be  passed  over  his  protest.  There  is  no  call 
for  any  wild  talk,  but  we  would  remind  the  Senators  that  the  peo- 
ple are  above  the  Constitution,  and  that  they  cannot  shield  them- 
selves behind  that  Constitution  if  the  people  are  ever  persuaded 
that  the  Senate  is  a  nuisance  that  must  be  abated."  This  is  very 
much  like  the  talk  of  Sir  William  Harcourt,  but  the  significance 
of  it  lies  in  the  warning  that  "  the  people  are  above  the  Constitu- 
tion," an  ancient  principle  that  seems  to  have  been  forgotten  by 
the  politicians  of  this  land. 

*  ■  * 

The  adjective  "un-American"  has  been  so  grievously  over- 
worked in  rebuking  some  very  American  practices  that  we  feel  a 
genuine  pleasure  when  we  find  it  properly  applied.  Some  of  the 
most  prominent  citizens  of  Chicago  have  organised  themselves 
into  a  "  Civic  Federation"  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  city.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Federation  to  adopt  a 
Constitution  and  By-Laws,  it  was  proposed  that,  "Any  member  of 
the  central  council  who  shall  become  a  candidate  for  or  accept  a 
political  office  shall  forfeit  his  membership  in  the  Civic  Federa- 
tion." The  resolution  was  opposed  by  some  of  the  members  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  putting  a  boycott  on  themselves,  and  that  such 
a  boycott  was  "  unmanly  and  un-American."  I  fail  to  see  any- 
thing "unmanly"  in  it,  but  it  really  does  appear  to  be  "un-Amer- 
ican." A  body  of  citizens  voluntarily  renouncing  all  political  am- 
bition and  all  aspirations  for  office,  is  a  remarkably  "un-Ameri- 
can "  sacrifice.  "What  are  we  here  for,"  said  Mr.  Flanagan,  "ex- 
cept the  offices  ? "  which  reminds  me  of  Judge  Wilson  of  Marble- 
town,  the  day  that  Sumter  was  fired  on.  We  had  a  meeting  in  the 
evening  at  which  the  Judge  declared  that  the  Union  must  be  main- 
tained at  any  cost,  "because  if  this  Government  is  to  be  broken 
up,  fellow  citizens,  what's  to  become  of  the  offices  ? "  And  some- 
thing like  that  was  the  argument  of  Mr.  Seward  at  the  famous 
Delmonico  dinner,  when  he  predicted  that  the  trouble  would  be 
all  over  in  ninety  days,  because  as  soon  as  our  Southern  friends 
discovered  that  in  dissolving  the  Union  they  were  losing  the  offices 
they  would  all  come  back.  It  is  gratifying  to  record  that  in  spite 
of  all  opposition,  the  Civic  Federation  stood  firmly  by  its  resolu- 
tion to  keep  the  society  free  from  the  contamination  of  office-hunt- 
ing politics. 

*  * 

The  Packing  Manufacturers  and  Canning  Association,  and 
the  Western  Canners  Association  held  their  annual  convention  last 
week  in  Chicago,  and  curiously  enough,  it  was  the  only  convention 
held  here  this  winter  that  did  not  "want  a  law  passed."  In  fact, 
as  reported  by  the  papers,  "the  question  of  the  law  pending  be- 
fore the  Ohio  Legislature  which  proposes  to  oblige  manufacturers 
of  canned  goods  to  label  their  packages  with  the  date  of  canning, 
was  brought  up  and  briefly  discussed.  The  members  of  the  Asso- 
ciation are  unanimously  opposed  to  the  measure,  and  yesterday's 
discussion  resulted  in  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  draft  a 
set  of  resolutions  denouncing  the  law."  It  is  the  business  of  those 
canners  to  pack  meat,  fish,  fruit,  and  vegetables  in  cans,  and  sell 
their  wares  in  the  market  at  the  most  favorable  time,  but  unfor- 
tunately their  merchandise  does  not  improve  with  age,  like  wine; 
in  fact,  after  fermenting  in  the  cans  for  a  few  years  it  is  likely  to 
become  insipid,  and  perhaps,  unwholesome,  sometimes  indeed, 
even  poisonous,  but  this  is  usually  attributed  to  the  chemical  ac- 
tion of  the  acids  on  the  tin  cans,  and  it  is  never  the  fault  of  the 
canners  nor  due  to  the  antiquity  of  their  goods.  The  people  of 
Ohio,  not  being  poison-proof,  like  some  of  us  farther  west,  want 
their  canned  goods  fresh  instead  of  stale,  and  when  they  buy  a  can 
of  peas  or  strawberries  they  want  to  know  at  what  time  in  the  cen- 
tury the  peas  and  strawberries  grew.     Actuated  by  the  same  feel- 


ing, the  Legislature  of  Ohio  proposes  to  pass  a  law  compelling  the 
canners  to  stamp  upon  the  cans  the  exact  year  when  the  canning 
was  done.  To  this  the  Western  canners,  and  the  Eastern  canners, 
and  the  Northern  canners,  and  the  Southern  canners,  and  all  the 
other  canners  are  unanimously  opposed,  because  they  want  the  age 
of  their  goods  to  remain,  like  the  age  of  a  woman,  a  mystery.  The 
proposed  law  being  merely  for  the  protection  of  the  general  pub- 
lic, and  not  in  behalf  of  a  special  interest,  it  will  probably  never 
be  passed. 

The  personality  of  the  Devil  has  been  judicially  determined 
in  the  affirmative  by  a  judge  and  jury  of  the  Salvation  Army  at  a 
trial  in  which  that  well-known  criminal,  Satan,  was  defendant. 
The  trial  was  held  at  the  Head  Quarters  of  the  Salvation  Army  in 
the  old  skating  rink  on  West  Madison  Street ;  and  so  great  was  the 
public  interest  in  the  case  t'nat  the  hall  was  crowded,  although  a 
general  admission  fee  of  ten  cents  a  head  was  charged,  and  twenty- 
five  cents  for  a  reserved  seat,  the  winner  taking  all  the  gate  money 
and  the  loser  nothing.  As  the  prosecutors  had  the  appointment  of 
the  judge,  and  the  selection  of  the  jury,  they  had  a  great  advan- 
tage, and  the  objection  made  by  the  defendant's  counsel  to  the 
unfair  character  of  the  tribunal  was  promptly  overruled.  Notice 
of  appeal  was  given  but  it  will  do  no  good,  because  any  ecclesias- 
tical court  will  decide  that  the  rulings  in  the  case,  and  the  law, 
and  the  evidence  were  all  strictly  orthodox,  according  to  the  letter 
and  spirit  of  the  Bible  and  the  precedents  running  back  for  nearly 
six  thousand  years.  One  witness  testified  that  in  California  he  had 
been  persuaded  by  the  Devil  to  commit  a  burglary,  for  which  he, 
and  not  Satan,  had  suffered  three  months  imprisonment.  Gro- 
tesque as  this  appears  to  be,  it  was  not  only  good  theology  but  good 
law;  and  the  witness  probably  remembered  how  it  was  charged  in 
the  indictment  that,  "being  moved  and  instigated  by  the  Devil,'' 
he  committed  the  crime.  This  was  the  form  for  hundreds  of  years 
in  England,  and  it  prevails  in  some  of  the  American  States  to  this 
day.  Other  witnesses  gave  similar  testimony,  one  saying  that  the 
Devil  had  given  him  lessons  in  theosophy,  while  another  swore 
that  Satan  had  taken  him  to  hear  Colonel  Ingersoll.  They  de- 
scribed also  the  personal  appearance  of  the  Devil,  his  horns,  tail, 
and  the  fire  coming  out  of  his  mouth.  The  high-toned  ministers 
of  the  Gospel  sneer  contemptuously  at  this  burlesque  performance, 
but  the  theology  of  it  is  in  their  own  creeds  ;  and  the  judge  who 
presided  at  the  trial,  in  justification  of  his  ruling,  can  say  with 
Uncle  Toby,  "  It  is  in  the  Scriptures  Trim,  and  I  will  show  it  thee 
to-morrow."  M.  M.  Trumbull. 

NOTES. 

The  date  of  publication  of  this  number  of  The  Open  Court, 
February  22,  is  not  only  Washington's,  but  also  Schopenhauer's 
birthday.  Our  readers  will  therefore  peruse  with  pleasure  ex- 
Governor  Koerner's  article  on  the  Frankfort  philosopher. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

324  DEARBORN    STREET, 
CHICAGO.  ILLINOIS.  POST  OFFICE  DRAWER  F. 

E.  C.   HEGELER,  Publishek.  DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 

TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  339. 

SCHOPENHAUER,  THE  MAN  AND  THE  PHILOSO- 
PHER.    G.  KoERNER 3983 

CURRENT  TOPICS  :  Trade  as  a  Policeman.  The  Two 
Houses  of  Lords.  The  Civic  Federation.  Canned  Goods. 
The  Trial  of  Satan.     Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull 3989 

NOTES 3990 


^^0 


The  Open  Court. 


A.   WEEKLY   JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  340.      (Vol.  VIIL— 9.) 


CHICAGO,  MARCH   i,   1894. 


[  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


HUMAN  SACRIFICE 

BY  DR.  W.   H.    GARDNER. 

The  conclusions  of  the  most  authoritative  scientists 
of  the  present  day  teach  us  to  believe  that : — 

When  our  earth,  under  fixed  laws  governing  mat- 
ter and  force,  had  attained  the  requisite  conditions, 
living  organisms — vegetable  and  animal — originated  ; 
and  that  from  some  of  these  lower  forms  of  animal  life, 
the  human  race  was  evolved. 

That  in  his  primitive  condition  man  was  endowed 
with  powers  and  faculties  but  little  above  his  brute 
ancestry. 

That  as  time  passed  on  his  physical  and  mental 
powers  increased  by  use  and  by  the  survival  of  the 
stronger  and  better-endowed  individuals,  and  by  the 
elimination  of  those  not  so  well  fitted  to  war  with  their 
environment. 

From  these  rude  beginnings,  hidden  away  back  in 
the  mist  of  geologic  asons,  archaeology,  monumental 
record  and  authentic  history,  all  show  us  that  he  has 
progressed  by  slow  and  weary  stages ;  sometimes  mak- 
ing but  one  advanced  step,  or  noting  but  one  valuable 
fact  in  centuries  ;  yet,  as  a  race,  always  marking  some 
increment  of  progress  ;  until  now  the  /loiiw  sapiens  has 
reached  so  high  a  degree  of  knowledge  and  civilisa- 
tion, and  placed  so  wide  a  gulf  between  his  starting- 
place  and  his  present  standpoint,  that  only  the  rem- 
nants of  the  bridge  can  be  discovered  over  which  he 
has  passed. 

In  every  stage  of  his  progress  there  have  been  men- 
tal ecdyses  in  which  some  favored  individuals  or  tribes, 
by  the  perception  and  appreciation  of  new  ideas,  in- 
volving some  beneficent  truth  to  the  whole  race,  have 
sloughed  off  their  worn-out  skins  of  custom  and  preju- 
dice and  started  less  trammelled  toward  the  goal  to  be 
attained. 

In  no  branch  of  mental  activity  have  these  mental 
ecdyses  been  more  marked  than  in  religious  belief. 
Still  each  succeeding  higher  cult  has  appropriated  from 
its  waning  predecessor  so  many  trappings  and  figments 
of  the  old  belief,  and  so  interwoven  them  with  the 
new,  that  only  the  comparative  mythologist  can  now 
select  from  the  present  creeds  of  civilisation  the  rem- 
nants of  those  effete  cults  of  which  they  are  so  largely 
formed. 


The  tendency  of  thought  of  the  present  day  shows 
unmistakable  evidence  that  another  religious  ecdysis 
is  about  to  take  place  ;  and  though  it  is  scarcely  pos- 
sible that  finite  understanding  will  ever  be  able  to 
grasp  the  highest  religious  ideas  in  their  entirety,  yet 
it  cannot  be  doubted  by  any  intelligent  mind  that 
nearer  approximations  can  now  be  made  to  ultimate 
religious  truths,  and  higher  and  nobler  conceptions 
framed  of  the  Deity  and  the  scheme  of  the  universe 
than  ever  before  ;  which  must  soon  replace  the  puerile 
and  degrading  ideas  formed  in  the  infancy  of  the  race, 
but  which  are  still  propagated  and  still  hold  sway  over 
the  great  mass  of  mankind. 

To  the  infantile  mind  of  primitive  man,  everything 
that  was  inexplicable  by  his  limited  observation  and 
rudimentary  reasoning  powers,  became  objects  of  won- 
der, amazement,  or  terror.  The  bright  sun  that  gave 
him  light  and  heat,  the  moon  and  stars  that  guided 
him  through  the  sombre  forest,  the  summer  rain-cloud 
that  cooled  the  parched  earth  and  vivified  languishing 
nature,  the  rosy  dawn  that  heralded  the  approach  of 
the  rising  sun,  were  all  objects  of  admiration.  Whilst 
the  black  night  encompassed  with  unknown  evils,  the 
rushing  hurricane  pregnant  with  the  scathing  thunder- 
bolt, the  flaming  mountain  charged  with  fiery  death, 
the  ravening  wild  beast,  and  the  deadly  serpent,  be- 
came objects  of  mortal  terror. 

From  these  ideas  was  evolved  the  religious  senti- 
ment. And  every  object  that  was  beneficent  and  con- 
duced to  man's  happiness,  or,  on  the  contrary,  was 
maleficent  and  feared,  became  deified.  They  made 
gods  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  the  earth  and  the 
dawn  ;  they  placed  Naiads  in  every  stream  and  Dryads 
in  every  forest- grove ;  the  volcano  was  the  home  of  a 
devil,  and  the  storm-cloud  the  chariot  of  an  evil  de- 
mon. 

And  as  primeval  man  could  frame  no  higher  con- 
ception of  automatic  power  than  that  of  his  own  will, 
or  the  chiefs  who  ruled  over  him,  or  the  animals  with 
which  he  was  familiar,  all  of  his  gods  necessarily  took 
those  forms — Zeus  prosecuted  his  amours  under  the 
guise  of  a  bull,  a  swan,  or  a  golden  cloud ;  the  genial 
sun  was  Baal,  or  Indra,  or  Apollo  ;  Aurora  was  a  rosy- 
tressed  maiden  that  opened  tlie  gates  of  the  sky  for 
the  chariot  of  the  sun-god ;  Thor  launched  his  fiery 


3992 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


hammer  from  the  bosom  of  the  storm-cloud  ;  the  lame 
Hepha;stus  forged  the  thunderbolts  of  Jupiter  in  the 
fierce  fires  of  ^tna;  the  blustering  Boreas  carried  off 
the  beautiful  Oreithyra  from  the  banks  of  the  Ilissus  ; 
the  Devil  masqueraded  in  the  Garden  of  Eden  as  a 
talking  serpent;  the  God  of  Israel  made  an  anthropo- 
morphic demonstration  to  Moses  on  the  top  of  Sinai ; 
and  in  the  philosophical  pantheon  of  Egypt  almost 
every  living  thing  was  the  personification  of  some 
deity. 

And  as  his  gods  all  partook  of  his  own  sensuous 
nature^  with  like  appetites  and  aversions,  their  favor 
and  assistance  could  be  purchased  and  their  anger 
averted  by  prayers,  entreaties,  praises,  and  gifts. 

In  that  far-away  past,  as  well  as  in  the  present, 
man  was  afflicted  with  many  evils — poverty  and  cold, 
hunger  and  thirst,  pain  and  disease,  and  death.  From 
every  other  evil  there  was  some  "respite  and  ne- 
penthe," but  from  death  there  was  none — the  mighty 
and  the  lowly,  the  strong  and  the  weak,  the  young  and 
the  old,  were  alike  conquered  by  the  grim  king  of 
terrors. 

The  antithesis  of  the  dark,  silent  charnel-house,  or 
the  foul,  maggot-infested  corpse,  to  buoyant  life  in 
the  bright,  genial  sunshine,  with  sympathetic  friends 
and  gay  feasts  and  dances,  was  terrible  to  contem- 
plate. What  wonder  then  that  man's  hope  and  vanity 
led  him  to  conceive  the  idea  of  a  future  life  as  the  only 
means  of  wresting  victory  from  the  grave  and  robbing 
the  sting  of  death  of  its  venom. 

As  families  coalesced  into  tribes  and  nations,  the 
experience  of  individuals  was  aggregated,  and  the 
ideas  of  every  separate  one  became  the  property  of  all. 
Apparitions,  ghosts,  and  visions  of  the  dead,  seen  by 
a  few  in  dreams  and  trances,  were  spoken  of  and  dis- 
cussed around  their  nightly  fires  and  at  their  triball 
gatherings,  until  soon  the  belief  in  an  immaterial  and 
imperishable  alter  ego,  or  spirit,  became  universal, 
and  a  continuance  of  life  beyond  the  grave  became  an 
accepted  fact. 

And  now  all  forms  of  religion,  from  the  rudest  sav- 
age fetichism  to  the  most  exalted  Christianity,  hold  as 
a  common  tenet  that  there  is  beyond  the  present  life, 
another  state  of  existence,  in  which  those  who  have 
done  what  they  believed  to  be  the  will  of  their  gods 
on  earth,  will  be  rewarded  in  that  future  life  by  honor 
and  happiness,  whilst  those  who  have  neglected  to 
praise  and  worship  their  gods,  or  who  have  disobeyed 
their  commands  will  be  degraded  and  punished  with 
inconceivable  torture.  And  though  this  conception  is 
so  nebulous  and  misty,  and  so  opposed  to  human  rea- 
son and  experience,  that  few  believers,  even  those  with 
the  most  vivid  imaginations,  can  frame  a  consistent 
idea,  how  an  individual  continuance  of  life  is  possible 
after  death,  with  an  unbroken  consciousness  of  per- 


sonal identity,  or  in  what  the  rewards  and  punishments 
of  a  future  life  could  consist ;  yet  this  belief  in  its  ac- 
tuality is  so  potent,  that  whether  Brahman,  Buddhist, 
Parsee,  Jew,  Christian,  Mohammedan,  or  Mormon,  it 
regulates  the  lives  of  its  believers  and  is  their  sustain- 
ing hope  and  dependence  in  the  hour  of  death. 

From  these  anthropomorphic  and  zoomorphic 
conceptions  of  their  gods,  arose  the  idea  of  family  de- 
scent from  them,  and  their  worship  as  deified  ances- 
tors naturally  followed.  This  belief  was  so  widely 
spread  among  the  nations  of  antiquity  that  every  family 
or  person  of  note  took  pride  in  tracing  his  lineage  back 
to  this  ambiguous  parentage  between  a  god  or  a  god- 
dess and  some  favored  mortal.  The  ruder  nations  have 
left  us  but  scant  records  of  the  genealogies  of  even 
their  sovereigns,  but  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
the  amours  of  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  Olympus  and 
the  families  begotten  by  their  illicit  loves,  are  as  widely 
known  as  the  names  of  Homer  and  Ovid.  It  would 
seem  also  from  the  second  verse  of  the  sixth  chapter 
of  Genesis  that  this  idea  was  not  unknown  to  the  writer 
of  the  Pentateuch.  The  worship  of  deified  ancestors 
{Manes')  continued  among  the  Romans  until  the  older 
cult  was  replaced  by  Christianity. 

Another  belief  common  to  all  forms  of  religion  is 
that  the  good-will  and  assistance  of  their  gods  can 
be  obtained,  and  their  malevolence  averted  by  singing 
praises  in  their  honor,  praying  to  them  and  offering 
them  gifts  of  such  things  as  it  is  thought  they  take  de- 
light in.  Hence  every  form  of  religion  prescribes  spe- 
cific rules  for  daily  conduct  :  catalogues  the  feast  days 
and  the  fast  days,  enumerating  the  kinds  of  food  that 
may  be  eaten  or  must  be  abstained  from  each  day. 
And  in  the  most  of  them  elaborate  rituals  have  been 
established,  which  specify  the  particular  kinds  and 
numbers  of  prayers,  hymns,  and  invocations  to  be  used 
on  every  occasion  of  life  :  the  amount  and  kinds  of 
penance  to  be  undergone,  and  the  kinds  of  sacrifice  or 
gifts  to  be  offered  to  the  God  as  an  atonement  for  sin, 
or  for  the  purchase  of  his  favor. 

How  closely  allied  are  these  conceptions  in  all  re- 
ligions, the  following  invocations,  prayers,  and  hymns, 
quoted  from  widely  different  sources  will  abundantly 
show. 

The  first  is  a  hymn  (or  prayer)  addressed  by  the 
worshipper  to  Varuna,  and  is  taken  from  the  "Rig 
Veda.'" 

1.  "  Let  me  not  yet,  O  Varuna,  enter  into  the  hotise  of  clay  : 
have  mercy,  Almighty,  have  mercy  ! 

2.  If  I  go  along  trembling,  like  a  cloud  driven  by  the  wind  ; 
have  mercy.  Almighty,  have  mercy  ! 

3  Through  want  of  strength,  thou  strong  and  bright  God, 
have  I  gone  to  the  wrong  shore  :  have  mercy,  Almighty,  have 
mercy  ! 

1  As  I  have  not  the  Rig  Veda  at  hand,  I  quote  this  hymn  from  Freeman 
Clarke's  Ten  Great  Religions,"  Vol,  I,  p.  03. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3993 


4.  Thirst  came  upon  the  worshippfer,  though  he  stood  in  the 
midst  of  the  waters  ;  have  mercy,  Almighty,  have  mercy  ! 

5.  Whenever  we  men,  O  Varuna,  commit  an  offence  before 
the  heavenly  host,  whenever  we  break  thy  law  through  thought- 
lessness :  have  mercy,  Almighty,  have  mercy  !  " 

The  second  quotation  is  taken  from  a  hymn  to 
Amen-Ra.  The  translation  of  this  papyrus  is  by  C. 
W.  Goodwin,  M.  A.,  from  "  Les  Papyrus  Egyptiens 
du  Mus^e  de  Bbulaq,  Fo.,  Paris,  1872."  It  is  beheved 
to  belong  to  the  nineteenth  dynasty  or  about  the  four- 
teenth century,  B.C.  There  are  twenty  verses  in  this 
beautiful  hymn,  but  the  limits  of  this  essay  allow  me 
to  quote  only  the  two  following  : 

HYMN  TO  AMEN-RA.  1 

"  Gracious  ruler  crowned  with  the  white  crown, 
Lord  of  beams.  Maker  of  light. 
To  whom  the  gods  give  praises, 
Who  stretches  forth  his  arms  at  his  pleasure, 
Consuming  his  enemies  with  flame. 
Whose  eye  subdues  the  wicked. 
Sending  forth  its  dart  to  the  roof  of  the  firmament, 
Sending  its  (arrows)  against  Naka'i-  to  consume,  him. 
Hail  to  thee  Ra.  Lord  of  truth, 
whose  shrine  is  hidden.  Lord  of  the  gods, 
Chepra^  in  his  boat, 

At  whose  command  the  gods  were  made, 
Atum  i  maker  of  men. 
Supporting  their  works,  giving  them  life. 
Distinguishing  the  color  of  one  from  another. 
Listening  to  the  poor  wlio  is  in  distress  ; 
Gentle  of  heart  when  one  cries  unto  him," 

The  third  quotation  is  taken  from  Taylor's  trans- 
lation of  the  "  Hymns  of  Orpheus,"  London,  1787  : 

TO  JUPITER. 

(The  fumigation  from  Storax.) 
"  O  Jove  much-honored,  Jove  supremely  great ! 

To  thee  our  holy  rites  we  consecrate. 
Our  prayers  and  expiations,  king  divine. 
For  all  things  round  thy  head  exalted  shine. 

The  earth  is  thine,  and  mountains  swelling  high. 

The  sea  profound,  and  all  within  the  sky. 
Saturnian  king,  descending  from  above  ; 
Magnanimous,  commanding,  sceptred  Jove, 

All-parent,  principle  and  end  of  all. 

Whose  pow'r  almighty,  shakes  this  earthly  ball  ; 
Ev'n  Nature  trembles  at  thy  mighty  rod, 
Loud-sounding,  arm'd  with  light'ning,.  thund'ring  God. 

Source  of  abundance,  purifying  king. 

O  various  formed  from  whom  all  nations  spring  ! 
Propitious  hearjny  prayer,  give  blameless  health 
With  peace  divine,  and  necessary  wealth." 

The  fourth  quotation  I  will  make  is  from  the  author- 
ised version  of  the  Sacred  Chronicle  : 

PSALM  LIV. 

1.  "Save  me,  O  God,  by  thy  name,  and  judge  me  by  thy 
strength. 

2.  Hear  my  prayer,  O  God  ;  give  ear  to  the  words  of  my  mouth. 

3.  For  strangers  are  risen  up  against  me,  and  oppressors  seek 
after  my  soul,  they  have  not  set  God  before  them.     Selah. 

4.  Behold,  God  is  mine  helper  ;  the  Lord  is  with  them  that 
uphold  my  soul. 

\Recordsoftht  Past,  Vol.  H,  p.  125. 
"^Naka,  form  of  the  Apophis. 
3 Chejna,  the  Creator. 
iAium,  the  god  of  the  setting  sun. 


5.  He  shall  reward  evil  unto  mine  enemies  ;  cut  them  off  in 
thy  truth. 

6.  I  will  freely  sacrifice  unto  thee  ;  I  will  praise  thy  name,  O 
Lord,  for  it  is  good. 

7.  For  he  hath  delivered  me  out  of  all  trouble,  and  mine  eye 
hath  seen  his  desire  upon  mine  enemies." 

I  have  given  all  of  these  hymns  in  the  authorised 
English  version,  in  order  that  they  could  be  more 
readily  compared.  And  upon  careful  comparison,  it 
will  be  seen,  that  under  whatever  name,  or  whatever 
form  the  God  was  worshipped,  the  ideas  in  the  mind 
of  the  worshipper  were  : 

First  :  That  their  gods  had  the  ability  to  assist 
their  worshippers. 

Second  :  That  the  will  of  their  gods,  like  those  of 
human  beings,  were  changeable  ;  and 

Third  :  That  their  wills  could  be  influenced  by 
prayer,  praise,  and  sacrifice. 

Belief  in  the  efficacy  of  sacrifice  was  common  to 
every  form  of  religion.  In  its  fundamental  conception, 
a  sacrifice  is  an  offering  or  gift  to  the  gods,  a  trade  or 
a  bargain  in  which  the  worshipper  gives  to  the  gods 
something  it  is  believed  they  desire,  in  payment  for 
their  countenance  and  assistance. 

Homer  taught  the  Greeks  that  the  gods  of  Olym- 
pus could  be  influenced  by  gifts.  In  the  sacred  chron- 
icle the  necessity  of  gifts  to  obtain  the  favor  of  the 
God  of  Israel  is  abundantly  shown.  In  the  dealings 
between  Jehovah  and  Noah  and  the  Abrahamidae,  the 
covenant  or  bargain  between  the  two  parties  was  never 
completed  without  a  sacrifice,  and  most  usually  of 
animal  life  in  some  form.^  The  first  covenant  between 
Jehovah  and  Abraham,  by  which  the  Abrahamidae  ob- 
tained their  {quasi)  title  to  the  land  of  Canaan,  and 
were  recognised  as  the  peculiar  people  of  Jehovah, 
was  not  ratified  except  by  circumcision  ;  Abraham 
himself  having  to  undergo  this  cruel  rite  when  he  was 
ninety-nine  years  of  age,  when  there  surely  could  have 
been  no  hygienic  or  moral  consideration  requiring  it.^ 

Among   the   Eastern   nations  even  to   this  day  no 


1  Vide  Genesis  iv,  3-4  ; 
21-29  ei  at. 

2  Regarding  the  rite  1 
there  are  conflicting  opini 
Ethiopians  practised  this 
and  Syrians  of  Palestine  ] 
testimony  that  other  tribe 
affinities  from  the  Semiti< 


Exodus  : 


,  29-30 ; 


15.  29; 


and  its  significance  as  a  sacrifice, 
s.  Herodotus  says  the  Egyptians,  Colchians,  and 
e/rom  the  earliest  times,  and  that  the  Phcenicians 
rnt  the  custom  from  the  Egyptians.  There  is  also 
ind  races  totally  different  in  ethnic  or  linguistic 
imily,  practised  the  same  rite.  Bancroft  says  cir- 
cumcision was  common  among  the  civilised  people  of  Central  America,  and  that 
it  is  still  kept  up  among  the  Teamos  and  Manoas  and  some  of  the  tribes  about 
the  upper  Amazon,  and  Eyre  says  the  custom  is  still  preserved  by  some  of  the 
Atistralian  tribes.  There  is  scarcely  a  probability  that  such  a  peculiar  rite 
could  have  originated  ab  initio  among  the  Abrahamidae   and  been  carried  to 


5  of  the  globe,  either  upon  hyg: 


such  distant 
cause  that  seems  to  me  most  con! 
history  of  human  thought  is  that  it  i 
ous  sacrifice—or  sacrifice  by  substit 


political  reasons.  The 
vith  what  we  know  of  the  earliest 
nant  of  human  sacrifice— a  vicari- 
here  a  part  is  sacrificed  or  given 


to  the  gods  to  acknowledge  their  authority  and  purchase  their  favor,  rather 
than  the  whole  victim.— C3«/^  Herodotus,  ii,  104  ;  Clarke's  Commentaries :  Gene- 
sis, xvii,  11-12;  Bancroft.  Native  Races,  Vol.  iii;  Eyre,  Australian  Dwellings 
and  Customs,  and  verb  "  Circumcision,"  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  last  edi- 
tion, by  the  Rev.  T.  K.  Cheyne,  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 


3994 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


suppliant  goes  into  the  presence  of  his  god  or  king 
empty-handed. 

To  primeval  man  one  of  the  most  pressing  and 
ever-recurring  evils  was  hunger.  Food  was  limited 
and  precarious.  Lands  flowing  with  milk  and  honey 
were  very  rare.  Sometimes  for  years  in  succession 
there  were  no  rains  in  parts  of  Asia  Minor,  and  the 
torrid  sun  parched  up  every  green  thing.  Occasion- 
ally swarms  of  locusts  were  brought  by  the  winds  into 
Syria  and  Palestine,  which  destroyed  alike  the  food  of 
man  and  beast.  Sometimes  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates 
overflowed  the  lowlands  of  Mesopotamia,  rotted  the 
seed  in  the  ground,  and  drowned  their  flocks  and  herds, 
and  occasionally  the  Nile  shut  up  his  fertihsing  waters, 
and  famine  reigned  even  in  the  prolific  land  of  Egypt. 

As  food  was  one  of  the  constant  wants  of  primitive 
man,  and,  in  primitive  thought,  one  of  the  constant 
wants  of  their  gods,  some  article  of  food,  something 
that  supported  the  life  of  man,  was  usually  selected  as 
a  gift  or  sacrifice  to  their  gods.  The  first  offerings — 
certainly  during  the  hunter  and  herder  state  of  the 
race — undoubtedly  always  consisted  of  animal  life  in 
some  form.  Among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  they 
sacrificed  different  animals  to  different  gods;  bulls, 
oxen,  and  rams  were  sacrificed  to  Jupiter;  horses  to 
Mars;  goats  to  Bacchus;  hogs  to  Ceres;  and  a  preg- 
nant cow  to  Tellus.  In  the  Iliad  mention  is  made 
many  times  of  the  sacrifice  of  bulls,  oxen,  and  heifers  ; 
and  at  the  obsequies  of  Patroclus,  Achilles  sacrificed 
horses,  oxen,  sheep,  dogs,  and  human  beings  to  the 
manes  of  the  deceased ;  but  no  mention  is  made  of 
any  produce  of  the  soil,  except  honey,  oil,  and  wine 
as  accessories.' 

In  the  sacred  chronicle  it  is  stated  that  the  God  of 
the  Hebrews  had  respect  unto  Abel  and  his  offering 
of  the  firstlings  of  his  flock,  but  unto  Cain  and  his 
offering  of  the  fruit  of  the  ground  he  had  not  respect. - 

In  the  Vishnu  Purana  we  read  that  horses  and 
other  animals  were  sacrificed  to  Siva.^  Herodotus 
tells  us  that  the  Egyptians  sacrificed  a  red  bull  with- 
out spot  or  blemish,  a  sheep,  or  a  goose.*  That  the 
Persians  always  sacrificed  an  animal,  usually  a  white 
horse,  though  Xerxes  sacrificed  a  thousand  oxen  to  the 
Trojan  Minerva;^  and  the  Lybian  king,  Croesus,  pro- 
pitiated the  Delphic  god  with  three  thousand  of  every 
kind  of  sacrificial  beast.  ^ 

Among  the  Babylonians  there  was  one  peculiar 
sacrifice  required  of  the  females  to  Mylitta,  the  Baby- 
lonian Venus,  analogous   to  circumcision ; '    but  out- 


1 1liad,  Lib.  XXIII,  205  et  sec 

•i  Genesis,  IV,  3-4. 

3  risknu  Purana,  p.  275. 

^Herodotus,  11,  38,  39,  40,  46. 

'^IIitd.,Vn.  43. 

Il/i/rf.,  1,  50. 

7  Ibid.,  I.  199. 


side  of  this  every  sacrifice  consisted  of  animal  life, 
especially  bulls,  sheep,  goats,  and  deer. 

As  the  idea  of  sacrifice  was  that  of  a  gift  or  offering 
to  the  gods,  it  necessarily  followed  that  the  higher  and 
nobler  the  victim,  the  more  acceptable  was  the  offer- 
ing to  the  god  ;  and  as  human  life,  even  in  that  sav- 
age age  was  the  most  precious  gift  that  could  be  given, 
the  sacrifice  of  human  beings  became  an  essential  part 
of  the  religious  worship  of  every  tribe  or  nation  at 
some  period  of  its  national  existence.  Among  the 
more  savage  nomadic  tribes  it  was  at  first  most  prob- 
ably the  principal  part  of  their  worship  and  was  per- 
haps always  accompanied  by  eating  some  portion  of 
the  sacrificial  victim  ;  whilst  in  those  nations  more  ad- 
vanced in  civilisation,  where  human  life  was  held  in 
higher  esteem,  it  still  existed  as  a  survival  of  the  more 
ancient  custom.  Among  the  Greeks  of  the  Homeric 
period  it  was  undoubtedly  a  usual  means  of  appeasing 
the  anger  of  an  offended  deity.  We  have  already 
cited  the  immolation  of  the  Trojan  captives  at  the 
obsequies  of  Patroclus  ;  the  same  author  also  mentions 
the  sacrifice  of  his  son  by  Idomeneus,  the  King  of 
Crete  ;  and  the  legendary  story  of  the  attempted  sacri- 
fice of  his  daughter,  Iphigenia,  by  her  father,  Aga- 
memnon, to  appease  the  anger  of  the  wrathful  Arte- 
mis, is  familiar  to  all. 

Ovid  mentions  in  his  "Metamorphosis,"  the  sacri- 
fice of  Polyxena  the  daughter  of  King  Priam  to  ap- 
pease the  wrathful  shade  of  Achilles, '  and  the  sacrifice 
of  the  two  daughters  of  Orion,  King  of  Thebes,  to  avert 
the  anger  of  their  god  and  stop  the  ravages  of  a  plague 
that  was  devastating  his  city.-  Herodotus  tells  us  that 
after  Oeobazus  the  Persian  had  fled  from  Sestus  into 
Thrace,  to  escape  from  the  Athenians,  the  Apsinthian 
Thracians  seized  him  and  offered  him  as  a  sacrifice 
after  their  wonted  fashion,  to  Pleistorus,  one  of  the 
gods  of  their  country.-^ 

Among  the  Romans  this  cruel  rite  existed  from  the 
earliest  times  until  long  after  the  Christian  era.  Livy 
says  :  That  after  the  disastrous  battle  of  Cumae  (B.C. 
216)  by  authority  of  the  sacred  books,  a  Greek  man 
and  woman,  and  a  man  and  woman  of  Gaul,  were 
sacrificed  in  the  market-place  at  Rome  to  appease  the 
anger  of  the  Gods.* 

Ovid  says  :  "On  the  Ides  of  May  the  vestal  virgin 
throws  from  the  oak-built  bridge  images  of  old  men 
plaited  in  rushes. "°  He  also  tells  us  that  Vesta  and 
Tellus  were  the  same  deities,  and  for  that  reason  a 
priestess  of  Vesta,  who  had  been  false  to  her  vows  of 
chastity,  was  sacrificed  by  being  buried  alive  in  the 


1  Metamorphosis,  Lib.  XIII,  Verses  439  et  seq. 

2  Metamorphosis,  Lib.  XII,  Verses  487  et  seq. 
■iHeroJolus,  Lib.  IX,  Chap.  119. 

^Livy,  Lib.  XXIII,  Chap.  51. 

1^  Fasti,  Lib.  V,  Verses  6zi  et  seq. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


3995 


earth.  1  Pliny  records  that  in  the  year  of  the  city  657 
(B.C.  96)  when  Cneius  Cornelius  Lentulus  and  P.  Li- 
cinus  Crassus  were  consuls,  a  decree  forbidding  liu- 
nian  sacrifice  was  passed  by  the  Senate — from  which 
time  these  horrid  rites  ceaseA  in  public  and  for  some 
ti?ne altogether.-  According  to  Macrobius  human  sacri- 
fices were  offered  at  Rome  down  to  the  time  of  Brutus 
(44  B.C.)  who  abolished  them  upon  the  establishment 
of  the  republic.  But  long  after  this  time  the  cruel 
custom  was  resorted  to  in  exceptional  cases  to  propi- 
tiate the  gods  ;  for  authentic  history  tells  us  that  in 
the  time  of  Augustus,  one  hundred  knights  were  sacri- 
ficed by  his  orders  at  Perusia  ;  and  as  late  as  A.D.  270 
a  similar  immolation  occurred  in  the  time  of  the  Em- 
peror Aurelian. 

Far  away  to  the  north,  beyond  the  snow-clad  moun- 
tains, hundreds  of  leagues  from  the  Eternal  City,  the 
shaggy,  blue-eyed  barbarians  of  Germania  worshipped 
their  cruel  gods  with  the  same  sanguinary  rites  ^  and 
poured  out  their  libations  from  the  skulls  of  their  slain 
victims  ;  while  further  to  the  west,  under  the  spread- 
ing forests  of  Gallia  and  Britannia  the  fierce  Druid 
priests  kept  their  stone  altars  reeking  with  the  stream- 
ing blood  of  human  beings.* 

To  the  north  and  east  beyond  the  Mare  Hadriati- 
cum,  the  rude  Dacians,  and  along  the  shores  of  the 
Pontus  Euxinus,  the  still  ruder  Scythians,  not  only 
worshipped  their  gods  with  human  victims,  but  feasted 
upon  their  slain  bodies  ;  so  integrating  one  rite  with 
the  other  that  they  became  known  as  Anthropophagi.'^ 
Even  Egypt,  the  ancient  and  venerable,  the  store- 
house of  learning  and  wisdom,  practised  human  sacri- 
fice. Plutarch,  quoting  from  Manetho,  says:  "Men 
called  'Typhonian'  were  burnt  alive  in  the  town  of 
Idithya,  and  their  ashes  scattered  to  the  winds."  ^'' 
Diodorus  tells  us  in  explanation,  that  what  was  meant 
by  "Typhonian"  was  men  of  a  red  color,  which  was 
believed  to  be  the  color  of  Typhon,  this  color  being 
rare  among  the  Egyptians  though  common  among  for- 
eigners ;  and  that  these  Typhonian  men  were  sacri- 
ficed by  the  ancient  kings  at  the  tomb  of  Osiris.' 

Other  branches  of  the  Semitic  family  practised  the 
same  rites.  Heliodorus,  in  his  "^thiopica,"  says  that 
the  Ethiopians  sacrificed  to  the  sun  white  chariot- 
horses,  to  the  moon  a  yoke  of  oxen,  and  to  the  Ethi- 
opian Bacchus  all  manner  of  beasts.  As  I  have  not 
"Heliodorus"  at  hand,  I  will  quote  for  the  benefit  of 
my  readers,  verbatim  et  literatim  the  account  as  given 
by  "quaint  old  Purchas." 

^  Fasti,  Lib.  VI,  Verse  455  et  seq. 
-'  riitty.  Lib.  XXX,  Chap.  3. 

8  Tacitus,  Manners  of  the  Germans.  Chaps.  9-39;  also  Mallett,  Northern 
Antiquities,  Chap.  VL 

4  Tacitus,  Annals,  Lib.  XIV,  Chap.  31 ;  Strabo,  Chap.  4,  Gaul. 

:>rliny.  Lib.  VII,  Chap.  2. 

tJ  Plutarch,  tsis  et  Osiris,  p.  380. 

■  Diod.  Sic,  Lib.  I,  Chap.  6. 


He  says  : 

"Three  Altars  were  erected,  two  ioyntly  to  the  Sunne  and 
Moone,  a  third  to  Bacclnts  by  himfelfe,  to  him  they  offered  all 
forts  of  Beasts  ;  to  Sol,  white  chariot-horfes,  to  the  Mooiie,  a  yoke 
of  oxen.  And  when  all  things  were  ready,  the  people  with  fhouts 
demanded  the  Sacrifice,  which  vfually  was  accuftomed  for  the 
health  of  their  Nation  :  That  was  fome  of  the  ftrangers  taken  in 
the  warres  to  be  offered.  First  triall  was  made  by  spits  of  gold 
heated  with  fire,  brought  out  of  the  Temple  whither  the  captives 
had  ever  knowne  carnall  copulation,  for  treading  on  the  fame  with 
their  bare  feete  fuch  as  were  pure  virgins  received  no  harme,  others 
were  fcorched.  These  were  offered  in  f acrifice  to  Bacchus  \  the 
others,  to  thofe  purer  deities.  These  things  have  I  here  inferted, 
not  as  done,  but  as  like  to  fuch  things,  which  among  the  Meroites 
were  vfed  to  be  done,  and  agreeing  with  the  general  devotions  of 
thofe  Ethiopians.  Pliilosltatiis  reporteth  like  matters  of  their 
Gymnosopliists,  and  of  the  Grove  where  they  kept  their  generall 
confultations  ;  otherwise,  each  of  them  by  themfelves  apart,  ob- 
ferving  their  ftudies  and  holies."' 

Porphyry  says,  human  sacrifice  was  also  common 
among  the  Arabs. 

Of  this  practice  among  the  Phoenicians  and  all  of 
the  lands  colonised  by  them,  evidence  scarcely  need 
be  adduced.  Porphjry  tells  us  that  :  "The  Phoenician 
history  of  Sanchoniathon  is  full  of  instances  in  which 
that  people  when  suffering  under  great  calamity  from 
war  or  pestilence,  or  drought,  chose  by  public  vote 
one  of  those  most  dear  to  them  and  sacrificed  him  to 
Saturn.  "2  It  was  a  part  of  the  established  ritual  of 
the  Carthagenians  and  every  year  youthful  victims 
were  chosen  by  lot.  Infants  were  burnt  alive  and 
their  sacrifice  had  a  special  significance.  Diodorus,  in 
narrating  the  expedition  of  Agathocles  against  the 
Carthagenians,  says  : 

"  They  gave  just  cause  likewise  to  their  god  Saturn  to  be  their 
enemy  ;  for  in  former  times  they  used  to  sacrifice  to  this  god  the 
sons  of  the  most  eminent  persons,  but  of  later  times  they  secretly 
bought  and  bred  up  children  for  that  purpose  ;  and,  upon  strict 
search  being  made,  there  were  found  amongst  them  that  were  to 
be  sacrificed  some  children  that  had  been  changed  and  put  in  the 
place  of  others.  Weighing  these  things  in  their  minds,  and  now 
seeing  that  the  enemy  lay  before  their  walls,  they  were  seized  with 
such  a  pang  of  superstition,  as  if  they  had  utterly  forsaken  the  re- 
ligion of  their  fathers.  That  they  might  therefore  without  delay 
reform  what  was  amiss,  they  offered  as  a  public  sacrifice  two  hun- 
dred of  the  sons  of  the  nobility,  and  no  fewer  than  three  hundred 
more  (who  were  liable  to  censure)  voluntarily  offered  themselves 
up ;  for  among  the  Carthagenians  there  was  a  brazen  statue  of 
Saturn,  putting  forth  the  palms  of  his  hands,  bending  in  such  a 
manner  towards  the  earth,  as  that  the  boy  who  was  laid  upon  them 
in  order  to  be  sacrificed,  should  slip  off  and  so  fall  down  headlong 
into  a  deep,  fiery  furnace."" 

Suidas  states  that  human  sacrifices  were  offered  to 
Saturn  by  the  Phoenicians,  Rhodians,  Curetes,  Car- 
thagenians, and  the  Sardi,  their  colony.  "They  (the 
Sardi),"  he  says,  "offered  the  fairest  of  their  captives 
to  Saturn,  and  such  as  were  about  three-score  and  ten 
years  old,  who,  to  show  their  courage,  laughed  ;  whence 

1  Purchas,  His  Pilgrimage,  The  seventh  Book,  Chap.  II, 

2  Kenricks,  Phtenicia,  p.  3r5  et  seq. 
'i  Diodorus  Sic,  Lib.  XX,  Chap.  i. 


3996 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


grew  the  proverb,  Sardonius  risus."  In  the  fable  of 
the  Cerast£E,  Ovid  says  that  Venus  changed  that  peo- 
ple into  bulls,  because  they  had  polluted  the  island  of 
Cyprus,  which  was  sacred  to  her,  with  human  sacri- 
fices.> 

The  Persians  also,  Photius  says,  practised  human 
sacrifice  and  buried  men,  women,  and  children  in  the 
earth  alive  to  appease  the  wrath  of  Mithra.  Herodo- 
tus also  gives  his  testimony  to  the  same  brutal  cus- 
tom ;  he  says  : 

"After  propitiating  the  stream  by  these  and  many  other  magi- 
cal ceremonies,  the  Persians  crossed  the  Strymon  by  bridges  made 
before  their  arrival  at  a  place  called  '  The  Nine  Ways,'  which  was 
in  the  territory  of  the  Edonians.  And  when  they  learnt  that  the 
name  of  the  place  was  'The  Nine  Ways,'  they  took  nine  of  the 
youths  of  the  land  and  as  many  of  their  maidens  and  buried  them 
alive  on  the  spot.  Burying  alive  is  a  Persian  custom.  I  have 
heard  that  Amestris,  the  wife  of  Xerxes,  in  her  old  age  buried 
alive  seven  pairs  of  Persian  youths,  sons  of  illustrious  men,  as  a 
taank-offering  to  the  god  who  is  supposed  to  dwell  underneath  the 
earth. "'^ 


PRESIDENT  HARPER'S  BIBLE-CRITICISM. 

Pres.  W.  R.  Harper  has  written  for  The  Biblical 
World,  of  which  he  is  the  editor,  an  article  on  "The 
Origin  of  Man  in  His  First  State  of  Innocence."  We 
have  good  reasons  to  assume  that  we  have  before  us 
here  in  condensed  form  some  of  the  President's  lectures 
which  were  recently  the  subject  of  acrimonious  discus- 
sion. The  article  is  a  concise  and  very  lucid  review 
of  the  present  state  of  theological  investigation,  show- 
ing in  the  writer  not  only  independent  critical  judgment 
and  a  full  knowledge  of  the  critical  work  of  others, 
but  also  a  reverence  for  the  Scriptures,  as  was  to  be 
expected  of  a  man  in  his  position. 

Professor  Harper  has  been  denounced  for  heresy 
and  infidelity,  but  if  his  critics  were  fully  acquainted 
with  the  Bible,  and  the  critical  work  done  by  some  of 
the  most  learned  and  faithful  of  Christians  in  the  in- 
vestigation of  the  Bible,  they  would  have  held  their 
peace.  Those  people,  who  led  by  Dr.  Hensen,  zeal- 
ously attacked  Professor  Harper's  position,  only  ex- 
posed their  own  ignorance  and  narrowness. 

When  Professor  Harper  says  of  the  Genesis,  '  'These 
are  not  scientific  records,  for  science  [viz.,  science  in 
the  strict  sense  of  the  term]  is  modern,"  he  states  a 
fact  that  cannot  be  denied ;  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  on  this  point  he  is  in  accord  with  the  most  ortho- 
dox theological  scholars  of  all  denominations,  and  that 
in  critically  investigating  the  Bible  with  the  light  of 
science  he  only  obeys  Christ's  injunction  "Search  the 
Scriptures"  (St.  John,  5,  39).  Professor  Harper  says, 
concerning  the  old  Mosaic  accounts  :  "  It  is  a  sacrilege 
"to  call  them  history.  To  apply  to  them  the  tests  of 
"history — always  cold,  and  stern,  and  severe — is  pro- 

I  Metamorphosis,  Lib.  X.  Fable  vi. 
'^Herodotus,  Lib.  VII,  114. 


"  fanation.  They  are  stories,  grand,  inspiring,  uplift- 
"  ing  stories.  Either  of  them  has  influenced  human 
"  life  more  than  all  the  historical  records  ever  penned. " 

This,  indeed,  is  the  grandeur  of  religion,  that  it 
anticipated  the  most  salient  moral  truths  long  before 
they  could  be  known  to  scientific  investigators.  But 
this  service  that  religion  has  done  to  mankind  does  not 
imply  that  science  has  become  redundant.  The  Bible 
must  be  used  as  a  help,  not  as  a  hindrance,  in  the  evo- 
lution of  the  human  mind.^ 

Avowed  infidel  publications,  such  as  The  Truth 
Seeker  of  New  York,  frequently  ridicule  religion  for 
holding  positions  which  its  representative  thinkers 
never  have  held  ;  and  we  believe  that  it  is  unfair  to 
identify  such  bigoted  exceptions  as  are  frequently  found 
in  our  churches,  with  the  traditions  of  true  Christian- 
ity— of  that  Christianity  which  has  been  a  living  factor 
in  our  civilisation.  On  the  one  hand,  our  liberals  should 
learn  that  the  leading  authorities  in  almost  all  our 
churches  are  much  more  free-thinking  and  radical  than 
is  generally  known  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  we  must 
know  that  those  of  our  well-meaning  but  narrow- 
minded  brethren  who,  ignorant  of  the  divinity  of  sci- 
ence, scorn  scientific  investigation  because  it  destroys 
some  of  their  dearest  prejudices,  do  not  represent  the 
real  life  of  Christianity ;  and  it  would  be  a  great  bless- 
ing for  our  religious  development  if  they  could  be  made 
to  understand  that  their  attitude  is  extremely  presump- 
tive and  irreligious.  Who  made  them  the  mouthpiece 
of  God  that  they  arrogate  to  themselves  the  authority 
of  representing  him  ?  God  is  in  light,  and  not  in  dark- 
ness ;  he  moves  in  the  progress  of  mankind,  not  in  re- 
trogressive movements  ;  he  appears  in  the  revelations 
of  science,  not  in  the  blindness  of  those  who  deliber- 
ately reject  reason. 

Bigots  are  no  better  than  infidels.  Infidels  ridi- 
cule the  caricatures  of  religion  but  bigots  furnish  the 
material  which  justifies,  to  a  great  extent,  the  irrev- 
erent attitude  of  infidels.  Editor. 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 

Last  Sunday  a  Chicago  clergyman  remarked  with  fine  origin- 
ality, that  "  this  is  a  wonderful  age  in  which  we  live  ";  and  he  was 
right,  for  a  new  miracle  is  reported  in  the  papers  every  day;  and 
every  day  it  becomes  easier  and  easier  for  us  to  believe  the  story 
of  Jonah  and  the  whale.  A  pensioner,  in  a  thrill  of  patriotic  ex- 
altation, has  volhntarily  surrendered  his  pension  to  the  Govern- 
ment and  will  draw  it  no  more.  I  am  not  sure  that  this  is  the  only 
act  of  the  kind  that  was  ever  done  but  I  think  it  is,  and  the  man 
who  did  it  has  set  a  bright  e.xample  that  will  doubtless  be  followed 
by  a  hundred  thousand  more.  Holding  the  great  office  of  Secre- 
tary of  State,  he  sets  the  fashion  with  greater  authority  than  any 
unimportant  person  could,  and  men  will  imitate  him  who  would 
not  care  a  brass  button  for  the  example  of  you  or  me. 
*  * 

Although  it  requires  greater  courage  to  give  up  a  pension  than 
to  charge  a  battery,  General  Gresham's  battle  record  has  been 

1  We  here  remind  the  reader  of  Goethe's  words:  "The  good  Lord  has 
given  us  the  nuts,  but  he  does  not  crack  them  for  us." 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


3997 


called  in  question,  but  not  with  great  success.  A  former  pension 
ag'snt  in  Indiana  declares  that  General  Gresham  was  never  in  a 
battle,  although  a  host  of  comrades  testify  the  other  way,  and  this 
critic  says  that  the  General  was  wounded  in  the  leg  by  a  sharp- 
shooter, or  a  bushwhacker  in  a  contemptible  skirmish,  and  not  by 
a  genuine  soldier  in  a  fierce,  tumultuous  battle.  Mathematically  it 
makes  no  difference  whether  a  man  was  wounded  in  a  big  battle 
or  a  little  one,  so  that  he  was  wounded,  but  sentimentally  the  dif- 
ference is  very  great,  as  every  soldier  knows.  It  is  more  glorious 
to  have  been  wounded  in  a  great  historic  baUle  than  in  a  skirmish 
unrenowned.  Nor  have  all  the  different  parts  of  the  same  battle 
an  equal  reputation,  for  some  particular  spots  on  the  same  field 
are  more  celebrated  in  history  than  others.  For  instance,  I  have 
never  yet  met  with  a  soldier  of  either  side  who  was  wounded  at 
the  battle  of  Shiloh  who  did  not  assure  me  that  he  was  wounded 
in  the  "Hornet's  Nest."  Not  long  ago  a  tramp  accosted  me  on 
the  street  and  said:  "Comrade,  gi'  me  a  dime;  I  ain't  able  to 
work,  because,  you  see  that  scar  on  my  hand,  I  got  that  from  a 
bullet  at  Shiloh  when  I  was  fighting  in  the  "Hornet's  Nest." 
"  Well,  comrade,"  I  said,  "It's  much  to  your  credit,  and  here's 
the  ten  cents,  for  at  the  time  that  battle  was  fought  you  could  not 
have  been  much  more  than  three  months  old."  Yes,  it  is  much 
better  to  be  killed  in  a  big  battle  than  in  a  small  one. 

*  * 

Last  Sunday  morning  a  lady  of  Chicago  said  to  her  husband, 
"  Edwin,,  have  you  a  revolver  on  ?"  He  answered,  "  Yes. "  "Well,' 
she  replied,  "then  let  us  be  ofif  to  church."  Persons  at  a  distance, 
unacquainted  with  our  "idioms,"  may  regard  this  conversation  as 
caricature,  but  as  we  have  more  pistol-practice  here  on  Sundays 
than  on  other  days,  the  precaution  was  well  advised.  In  fact,  a 
man  can  hardly  be  considered  properly  dressed  in  Sunday  clothes 
unless  he  carries  a  revolver  on  his  hip.  Of  course,  many  of  our 
citizens  fall  victims  to  the  revolver  system,  and  as  they  are  in  most 
cases  "  fit  to  kill,"  we  bear  their  loss  with  religious  resignation  ; 
but  sometimes  the  bullets  fly  wild  and  hit  some  unoffending  trav- 
eller, and  of  this  we  righteously  complain.  Last  Sunday,  as  we 
are  informed  by  Monday's  paper,  "crowds  gathered  quickly  at 
Clark  and  Harrison  Streets  about  2  o'clock.  Bullets  flew  in  all 
directions,  and  passers-by  narrowly  escaped  being  struck.  Thomas 
Gilmore  and  William  Hooley  shot  at  each  other  half  a  dozen 
times,  but  neither  of  the  duellists  was  wounded."  This  was  the 
melancholy  part  of  it,  because  we  could  have  borne  the  loss  of 
both  of  them  with  patient  equanimity.  On  the  same  day,  in  an- 
other part  of  the  town,  "Jacob  Leaper,  a  gripman  on  the  North 
Clark  Street  cable-line,  was  clanging  his  gong  vigorously  at  12:40 
o'clock  near  Ohio  Street,  when  he  felt  something  pass  through  his 
cap,  leaving  a  burning  pain  in  his  scalp.  An  examination  showed 
that  the  street-car  man  had  a  narrow  escape  from  a  stray  bullet, 
•which  came  from  an  unknown  place.  A  doctor  dressed  the  wound 
when  he  reached  the  car-barns."  A  free  people  must  necessarily 
be  a  controversial  people  ;  they  have  so  many  things  to  talk  about, 
and  we  find  that  nothing  so  effectually  as  a  revolver  gives  empha- 
sis to  argument. 

To  the  south  of  us  they  take  better  aim  than  we  do,  as  ap- 
pears by  the  details  of  a  misunderstanding  that  occurred  last  Sun- 
day in  a  church  at  Nashville.  As  the  papers  tell  the  story  better 
than  I  can,  I  will  let  them  tell  it  in  their  own  way,  thus  :  "There 
was  serious  trouble  between  the  members  of  the  Spruce  Street 
Baptist  Church  to-day,  resulting  in  Andrew  Bishop  being  shot  in 
the  neck  and  seriously  wounded.  Several  persons  were  struck 
with  chairs  and  knocked  down.  The  police  soon  made  their  ap- 
pearance, and  fourteen  persons,  including  the  pastor  and  Elder 
Purdy,  were  arrested."  It  seems  that  there  are  two  factions  in 
the  church,  and  somebody  objecting  to  some  of  the  proceedings, 
"hot  words  were  succeeded  by  blows.     Andrew  Bishop  was  shot 


by  one  of  the  worshippers  whose  name  has  not  yet  been  ascer- 
tained." Efforts  are  being  made  to  identify  him,  and  as  soon  as 
he  is  discovered,  he  will  be  severely  reprimanded  for  shooting 
while  meeting  was  going  on,  instead  of  waiting  until  after  the  ben- 
ediction. 

vr  ■  -X- 

Even  in  the  South,  among  the  most  expert  marksmen,  bullets 
will  sometimes  go  astray  and  hit  an  innocent  man,  a  mere  specta- 
tor of  the  fray  ;  occasionally,  indeed,  a  woman,  which  is  a  more 
serious  matter,  for  judging  by  the  numbers  of  the  "  unemployed,'' 
we  have  plenty  of  men  to  spare.  Here  is  an  account  of  an  "  un- 
pleasant affair  "  that  came  off  last  Monday  at  Houston.  Some 
neighbors  who  were  not  on  friendly  terms  happened  to  meet  at  the 
railway  station  just  as  the  train  was  coming  in,  when  "Jim 
Mitchell  espied  York  and  opened  fire,  which  was  as  promptly  re- 
turned, York  falling  after  firing  a  second  shot.  Mitchell  kept  up 
his  fusillade  until  he  had  fired  six  shots.  In  addition  to  York  be- 
ing killed,  Milton  Sparks  was  shot  to  death,  his  brother  was  mortally 
wounded,  and  Dan  Gleason,  an  omnibus-driver,  was  killed.  Mrs. 
Sparks  was  badly  wounded,  as  was  also  a  child  she  carried.  A 
Mrs.  McDowell,  an  aged  lady,  received  one  of  the  bullets,  and  her 
chances  of  recovery  are  slim."  All  this  barbarism  is  largely  due 
to  the  false  belief  that  a  revolver  makes  a  man  brave,  and  that  it 
is  a  chivalrous  thing  to  have  one  always  ready  to  protect  our- 
selves and  to  maintain  our  dignity.  There  are  laws  against  carry- 
ing concealed  weapons,  but  they  rather  stimulate  the  practice 
than  correct  it,  and  it  never  will  be  abated  until  we  establish 
firmly  in  public  estimation  the  true  doctrine  that  the  unarmed 
man  is  a  brave  man,  and  that  the  man  who  carries  a  pistol  about 
with  him  among  people  engaged  in  peaceful  occupations  or  in  so- 
cial enjoyments  is  a  coward.  It  is  much  to  the  credit  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Houston  that  the  shooting  of  the  women  and  the  baby  is 
"regretted." 

Four  or  five  weeks  ago,  I  referred  in  The  Open  Court  to  the 
convention  then  being  held  in  Chicago  by  the  Dairymen's  National 
Protective  Union.  It  will  be  remembered  that  those  National 
Dairymen  "wanted  a  law  passed"  for  the  suppression  of  butterine 
and  "  the  encouragement  of  high-grade  dairy  products."  I  also 
mentioned  at  the  time  that  the  people  of  Chicago  were  so  deeply 
interested  in  the  latter  purpose  that  they  were  seriously  thinking 
of  combining  themselves  into  a  Protective  Union  against  the  dairy- 
men. They  have  been  anticipated  by  the  people  of  Omaha,  who 
have  actually  had  a  law  passed  for  the  encouragement  of  "  high- 
grade  dairy  products";  and,  what  is  most  astonishing,  the  dairy- 
men do  not  approve  it,  and  even  threaten  to  rebel  against  it.  They 
held  a  meeting  on  the  evening  of  the  17th  and  bravely  resolved  : 
"That  believing  the  city  ordinance  known  as  the  milk  ordi- 
nance is  illegal  and  void,  members  of  this  association  will  pay  no 
attention  to  any  official  acting  by  its  authority,  and  we  warn  them 
one  and  all  to  keep  away  from  our  premises  and  belongings."  We 
are  further  informed  that  if  the  city  officials  attempt  to  carry  out 
the  provisions  of  the  ordinance,  "they  are  sure  to  meet  with  re- 
sistance and  a  lively  time."  No  doubt  the  people  of  Omaha, 
especially  those  who  have  children,  are  interested  in  "high-grade  " 
milk,  and  perhaps  in  their  anxiety  to  get  it  they  have  had  a  law 
passed  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  dairymen  is  harsh  and  unconsti- 
tutional. Legislative  interference  in  private  business  is  nearly 
always  mischievous,  except  in  the  case  of  dairymen.  When  we 
consider  how  many  children  of  the  poor  in  great  cities  are  poi- 
soned by  adulterated  milk,  we  are  willing  to  have  almost  any  sort 
of  a  law  passed  that  will  compel  dairymen  to  furnish  a  "high- 
grade"  article. 

Some  time  ago,  I  saw  a  play  in  which  the  hero,  "BobBrierly," 
an  ex-convict,  found  it  almost  impossible  to  reform,  because  when- 


3998 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


ever  he  got  some  honest  employment  somebody  recognised  him 
and  pointed  him  out,  thereby  causing  him  to  lose  his  place,  and 
driving  him  to  seek  work  in  some  other  part  of  the  country,  where 
his  former  history  was  not  known.  No  matter  how  hard  he  tried, 
society  would  not  allow  him  to  be  an  honest  man.  It  is  the  same 
way  here  in  Chicago  now.  Lately  some  "Civic"  societies  com- 
posed of  the  ' '  better  classes  "  have  been  organised  for  the  purpose 
of  reforming  the  city  government,  purifying  politics,  and  electing 
good  men  to  office  irrespective  of  party.  Probably  no  more  virtu- 
ous resolutions  were  ever  penned  than  have  been  adopted  by  the 
"Civic"  societies,  and  yet  scarcely  have  they  got  themselves  into 
effective  working  form  when  one  of  the  morning  papers  talks  at 
them  like  this  ;  "Amateur  political  reformers  are  generally  used 
as  cat's-paws  to  get  office  for  chronic  office  seekers.  The  new  civic 
federation  has  in  its  membership  political  hacks  who  have  never 
been  known  to  earn  a  dollar  except  in  office."  And  another  talks 
like  this ;  "The  'League  of  American  Civics,'  the  'Municipal 
Reform  League,'  the  'Civic  Federation,'  and  all  the  other  organi- 
sations of  rich  men  for  the  reform  of  Chicago  politics  ought  to 
adopt  as  a  primary  By-Law  the  rule  that  no  man  who  has  been 
guilty  of  evading  his  just  and  proper  taxes  should  be  eligible  to 
membership.  It  is  only  necessary  to  scan  the  list  of  members  of 
these  high  and  lofty  associations  to  discover  that  the  rule  is  not 
now  in  force."  Certainly  not  ;  why  should  it  be  in  force,  when  the 
object  of  the  ' '  Civic  Federations  "  is  the  civic  reformation  of  these 
men  ? 

When  a  chronic  inebriate  goes  down  to  Dwight  for  a  course 
of  discipline  under  Doctor  Keeley,  he  goes  there,  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  indulging  in  his  drinking  habits  but  in  order  to  be  cured. 
So  it  is  with  those  chronic  office-seekers  and  those  chronic  tax- 
evaders  who  have  had  the  habit  of  swearing  to  false  assessments  ; 
they  all  join  the  "Civic  Federations"  to  be  cured  ;  they  desire  to 
become  good  citizens  and  honest  men.  Must  they  be  foiled  in, 
their  good  intentions  by  the  exposure  of  their  former  delinquencies 
as  was  the  case  with  Bob  Brierly  in  the  play  ?  If  there  are  in  ihe 
Federations  rich  men  who  have  heretofore  cheated  the  city  in  the 
matter  of  their  taxes  they  virtually  promise  by  the  very  act  of 
joining  the  Federations  that  they  will  do  so  no  more.  It  is  some- 
thing of  a  hardship  to  the  rich  man  that  even  after  death  he  must 
appear  in  the  Probate  Court,  and  he  feels  meaner  than  old  Scrooge 
when  his  executor  files  an  inventory  showing  that  our  departed 
brother  had  fifty  times  more  property  when  he  died  than  he  re- 
ported to  the  assessor  while  he  lived.  Some  day,  if  the  Civic  Fed- 
eration takes  good  hold  of  consciences  we  shall  read  this  tribute 
on  the  monumental  stones,  "  Here  lies  a  rich  man  whose  tax  as- 
sessment corresponded  with  the  inventory  of  his  property  filed  in 
the  Probate  Court."  It  is  easier  to  pay  taxes  than  to  work  them 
out  on  the  roads  as  I  have  sometimes  done,  but  taxes  like  all  other 
obligations  must  be  paid,  or  worked  out,  and  if  we  evade  them 
here  on  earth,  we  must  "work  them  out"  elsewhere. 

That  volcanic  orator.  Governor  O'Ferrall,  of  old  Virginia,  has 
made  another  warlike  appeal  to  the  Legislature  of  that  State.  He 
wants  two  steam  cruisers  armed  with  long  range  guns  for  use 
against  the  Maryland  pirates  who  invade  Virginia  waters  and 
dredge  for  oysters  there.  With  the  old  war-passion  flinging  elec- 
tric sparks  from  his  eyes  he  wanted  to  know  whether  or  not  the 
sons  of  old  Virginia  would  tamely  submit  to  the  Maryland  buc- 
caneers who,  not  satisfied  with  Maryland  oysters,  were  dredging 
for  oysters  in  Virginia's  portion  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  "Never! 
Never  !  "  was  the  answering  cry  of  the  excited  members  ;  and  soon 
we  may  expect  a  proclamation  from  Governor  O'Ferrall  declaring 
war  against  Maryland.  This  whole  quarrel  appears  rather  trivial 
to  the  commonplace  mind,  but  heroic  souls  remember  that  great 
historic  wars  have  sprung  out  of  disputes  concerning  more  con- 


temptible things  than  oysters.  Instead  of  declaring  war  the  Vir- 
ginia Legislature  may  save  both  money  and  men  by  simply  sending 
Governor  O'Ferrall  to  make  a  speech  to  the  oyster  pirates  of 
Maryland.     That  will  scatter  them  quicker  than  long-range  guns. 

M.  M.  Trumbull. 


BIRTH  SONG. 

BY  G.   L.    HENDERSON. 

Hail,  thou  sweet  little  maiden  ! 

My  heart  has  been  yearning  for  thee  ; 
Thy  breath  with  perfume  laden 

Is  sweeter  than  incense  to  me. 

Come  !  Thy  cradle  is  ready  ! 

The  cosiest  corner  's  for  thee : 
Blithest  wee  little  lady, 

Our  darling  thou  ever  shall  be. 

Come  !  Than  gold  thou  art  purer  : 
I  kneel  at  thy  heart  as  a  shrine  ; 

No  treasure  can  be  surer. 
To  love,  and  be  loved,  is  divine  ! 

Ocean  gives  vapor  and  cloud, 

Which  rivers  restore  to  the  main  ; 

The  Race,  by  cradle  and  shroud. 
Gives  life  and  resumes  it  again. 

Love  out  of  love  evokes  thee  : 

Serve  Love,  'tis  the  life  of  thy  soul  ! 

When  served.  Love  shall  revoke  thee 
As  part  of  the  soul  of  the  whole. 

Come,  child,  up  through  the  ages! 

This  earth  is  our  home  in  the  sky  : 
Within  IIS  live  the  sages  : 

In  the  US  we  shall  never  die  ! 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN   STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E,  C.  HEGELER,  Pu 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Ed 


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of  The  Open  Cour 


CONTENTS  OF  NO.  340. 

HUMAN   SACRIFICE.     Dk.  W.  H.  Gardner 3991 

PRESIDENT  HARPER'S  BIBLE-CRITICISM.   Editor.   3996 
CURRENT    TOPICS  :     Giving   Up   a   Pension.     The   Re- 
volver Habit.      "High-Grade"  Milk.     The  Civic  Fed- 
eration.    The  Probate  Court  as  a  Detective.      The  Oys- 
ter War  in  Chesapeake  Bay.     Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull  .   3996 
POETRY. 

Birth  Song.     G.  L.  Henderson , 3998 


^1P. 


The  Open  Court. 


A  WEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  342.     (Vol.  VIII.— II.) 


CHICAGO,  MARCH   15,   1894. 


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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


PROF.  PFLEIIJERER  ON  THE  GENESIS  OF  CHRIS- 
TIANITY. 

BY  JOHN  SANDISON. 

Professor  Pfleiderer  of  Berlin  whose  philosoph- 
ical works  are  well  known  and  who  has  with  great  per- 
sistence endeavored  to  work  out  a  Hegelian  conception 
of  the  history  of  religion  by  applying  it  to  all  the  early 
religions  as  well  as  to  Christianity,  but  who  it  is  but 
right  to  add,  is  opposed  by  a  large  and  increasing 
number  of  theologians  following  in  the  footsteps  of 
Ritschl — is,  at  present,  engaged  in  delivering  the  Gif- 
ford  Lectures  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  I  was 
present  at  his  address  on  Saturday  the  2d  of  February, 
and  thinking  that  it  might  be  of  interest  to  the  readers 
of  The  Open  Court,  I  noted  the  substance  of  his  lec- 
ture which  was  on  the  "History  of  the  Genesis  and 
Development  of  Christianity." 

The  learned  Professor  proceeded  to  point  out  that 
the  scientific  investigation  of  this  history,  was  of 
■  recent  date,  being  not  more  than  one  hundred  years 
old.  What  made  it  impossible  sooner  was  a  double 
hindrance — (i)  a  false  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  rev- 
elations upon  which  Christianity  rested  ;  (2)  a  false 
idea  of  the  character  of  the  sources  out  of  which  we 
were  able  to  obtain  a  knowledge  of  this  genesis. 
To  investigate  a  history  meant  to  trace  up  the  connex- 
ion of  its  causes  and  to  make  it  intelligible  to  the  un- 
derstanding. This  presupposed  that  in  what  had  once 
happened  there  existed  such  a  connexion  of  causes 
and  effects  as  was  analogous  to  our  general  experience 
and  what  happened  among  men,  and  was  therefore 
intelligible  to  our  understanding.  But  according  to 
the  old  tradition  the  origin  of  Christianity  was  said  to 
have  lain  in  events  outside  of  the  connexion  of  human 
causes  and  events,  incomparable  with  all  other  expe- 
rience and  inconceivable  by  any  understanding — in 
other  words,  an  absolute  miracle,  which  again  could 
only  be  known  in  a  miraculous  way,  and  could  only  be 
believed  on  authority.  Christianity  had  arisen  accord- 
ing to  this  account  in  a  divine  being.  The  Second 
Person  of  the  Trinity  had  once  on  a  time  assumed  a 
human  nature  by  miraculous  birth  from  a  virgin,  had 
made  known  His  divine  nature  by  many  miracles,  by 
His  death  had  delivered  men  from  the  divine  wrath, 
and  had  afterwards  returned  to  His  heavenly  kingdom. 


Certainly  beautiful  conceptions,  continued  the  Profes- 
sor, which  from  of  old  and  even  now  came  home  to 
the  fantasy  and  hearts  of  men  ;  and  in  them  we  should 
never  cease  to  honor  the  venerable  vestments  of  sub- 
lime truths. 

But  was  all  this  intelligibly  conceivable  history  ? 
No.  These  representations  did  not  contain  such  his- 
tory, nor  could,  nor  ought  they  at  all  to  contain  it. 
The  appearance  of  a  Heavenly  Being  for  an  episodic 
stay  upon  earth  broke  the  connexion  of  events  in  space 
and  time  upon  which  all  our  experience  rested,  and 
therefore  it  undid  the  conception  of  history.  And  noth- 
ing was  altered  in  this  position  by  showing  how  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  Heavenly  Being  had  been  prepared  on 
earth  by  the  course  of  history;  how  the  Roman  gov- 
ernment of  the  world  favored  the  spread  of  the  Gospel ; 
how  the  state  of  things  in  the  heathen  and  Jewish 
world  had  been  so  desperate  that  men  were  the  more 
willing  to  receive  the  tidings  of  the  Divine  Redeemer 
and  such  like.  Considerations  such  as  these,  which 
were  always  at  home  in  the  apologetics  of  the  church, 
certainly  contained  much  truth  ;  but  they  nevertheless 
remained  attached  to  the  surface  of  things  and  did  not 
penetrate  to  the  inner  connexion  of  Christianity  with 
the  preceding  history.  It  was  overlooked  that  here 
too,  as  everywhere  in  the  historical  development  of 
humanity,  when  the  old  was  dying  out,  the  new  was 
prepared,  not  only  negatively  but  positively,  that  men 
no  longer  found  any  satisfaction  in  the  old  forms  of 
consciousness  and  life  only,  because  the  presentiment 
of  the  higher  truth  already  lived  in  the  depths  of  the 
soul  and  evoked  their  longing  for  elevation  to  a  higher 
consciousness  of  themselves  and  of  God.  What  broke 
the  old  forms  to  pieces  was  first  the  new  spirit  itself, 
which,  therefore,  already  pre-existed  in  germ,  under  • 
the  shell  of  the  old,  and  which  struggled  for  liberation 
from  the  hindering  bonds  and  strove  towards  forma- 
tion in  personal  and  social  existence.  It  was  first  on 
this  account  then,  that  the  appearing  of  this  new  spirit 
in  a  powerful  prophetic  personality  could  be  recognised 
and  greeted  as  the  fulfilment  of  the  hoping  of  all,  be- 
cause they  found  in  Him  their  own  growing  spirit, 
their  better  selves.  This  was  the  true,  the  positive 
and  inner  connexion  of  the  new  with  the  old  in  all  hu- 
man history  ;  and   so  it  was  too  in  particular  in  the 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


case  of  the  rise  of  Christianity.  Only  thus  could  its 
genesis  be  really  comprehended  as  history,  while  under 
the  presupposition  of  an  absolute  miracle  it  remained 
to  us  forever  inconceivable.  If  Christianity  had  ap- 
peared as  an  absolute  miracle  in  the  person  of  a  God 
upon  earth,  the  knowledge  of  this  appearance  and  of 
its  significance  could  also  have  been  communicated 
only  through  a  miracle  to  men.  Hence  supra-natural- 
ism logically  assumed  that  the  Bible,  to  which  we 
owed  this  knowledge,  was  a  work  of  the  absolutely 
miraculous  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  had 
unveiled  to  the  prophets  the  mystery  of  the  future  ap- 
pearing, and  to  the  apostles  that  of  the  accomplished 
appearance  of  the  God-man,  and  who  had  noted  down 
the  record  of  this  revelation  for  the  coming  genera- 
tions even  to  its  wording — nay,  had  specially  dictated 
it  to  an  amanuensis.  As  the  Bible,  according  to  this 
view,  did  not  contain  human  history,  but  superhuman 
miracles,  neither  had  it  arisen  in  a  historical  way  ;  it 
was  not  a  collection  of  divers  human  testimonies  about 
human  experiences  out  of  different  times,  but  it  was 
from  beginning  to  end  the  homogeneous  work  of  one 
divine  author  who  had  only  employed  different  men  as 
secretaries,  to  whom  He  dictated  the  oracles  of  His 
supra-rational  revelation. 

In  approaching  the  Bible  with  this  assumption  men 
made  quite  impossible  to  themselves  the  understand- 
ing of  its  actual  contents,  which  were  as  different  as 
the  times  and  the  men  from  which  they  sprang.  Nat- 
urally with  this  view,  all  interest  in  a  higher,  thorough 
study  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  was  lost ;  men  supposed 
they  knew  beforehand  what  was  everywhere  to  be 
found  in  them — namely,  just  the  mysteries  of  revela- 
tion, the  sum  of  which  was  already  possessed  in  the 
dogmatic  system.  Hence  the  Bible  was  only  further 
used  as  a  mine  of  proofs  for  the  established  dogmatic 
system.  Thus  it  happened  that  just  in  the  age  of  the 
dominating  orthodoxy  whose  doctrine  of  inspiration 
deified  the  letter  of  the  Bible,  the  true  study  of  the 
Bible  reached  its  lowest  ebb,  and  an  understanding  of 
the  actual  development  of  religion  in  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  was  completely  wanting.  It  was  a  merit 
of  the  rationalistic  movement  that  it  broke  with  the 
prejudice  of  the  unhistorical  dogma  of  inspiration  and 
•  recognised  the  Bible  as  a  book  written  by  men  for  men. 
The  Professor  further  pointed  out,  however,  that  the 
rationalism  of  the  period  of  enlightenment  also  still 
lacked  the  unbiassed  historical  sense  and  was  still  en- 
tangled in  dogmatic  assumptions,  and  he  traced  back 
the  beginning  of  a  historical  understanding  of  the  Bi- 
ble to  Herder,  the  friend  of  all  natural,  original,  and 
powerful  feeling  in  poetry  and  religion.  But  in  the 
words  of  Hayne,  "Herder  wanted  still  the  critical 
mediate  conception  between  poetry  and  faith — the 
conception   of  the  myth."     This  defect  was  rectified 


by  Strauss  and  Baur,  the  great  critics  of  Tubingen. 
The  merit  of  Strauss  was  that  he  answered  clearly  the 
question,  If  the  primeval  history  of  all  other  peoples 
and  religions  is  full  of  myths  and  legends,  why  should 
not  the  biblical  history  be  so,  too?  and  that  he  then 
also  applied  the  point  of  view  logically  to  the  whole 
Gospel  history.  The  strength  of  his  "Life  of  Jesus" 
lay,  it  was  true,  more  in  negations  than  in  positive 
results,  in  the  removing  of  the  hindrances  to  positive 
results,  more  than  in  the  building  up  of  such  knowl- 
edge. But  in  order  to  come  to  this  Ijnowledge  there 
was  needed  a  more  fundamental  criticism  of  the  sources 
of  the  Gospel  history.  This  foundation  of  a  positive 
history  of  primitive  Christianity  was  still  wanting  in 
Strauss,  and  here  was  the  point  where  the  epoch- 
making  achievement  of  his  teacher  Baur  came  in. 
The  Professor  then  showed  that  Baur  opposed  to  the 
old  method  of  subjective  criticism  an  objective  criti- 
cism, which  judged  of  the  biblical  writings  not  by  the 
ecclesiastical  traditions  which  arose  accidentally,  but 
by  the  contents  of  the  several  writings  themselves. 

If  the  contents  of  a  writing  were  such  that  it  was 
not  possible  without  contradictions  to  connect  it  with 
the  relations  of  the  time  and  the  person  to  whom  it 
was  hitherto  ascribed,  then  the  origin  of  this  writing 
must  be  transferred  to  another  time,  whose  relation- 
ships it  most  naturally  fitted  into,  and  out  of  whose 
ecclesiastical  as  well  as  theological  interests  it  was 
most  easily  to  be  explained.  Emphasising  the  most 
important  results  of  Baur's  method  as  applied  to  the 
New  Testament,  the  lecturer  showed  first  that  by 
thorough  investigation  of  the  Pauline  Epistles  and  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  the  critic  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  it  was  through  Paul  that  Christianity  had 
been  first  recognised  as  the  universal  world  religion  in 
distinction  from  the  Jewish  national  religion,  and  that 
Paul  had  been  able  to  carry  through  the  original  ap- 
prehension of  Christianity  only  by  hard  conflict  with 
the  Jewish  prepossessions  of  the  primitive  Church, 
and  therefore  that  the  real  history  of  the  apostolic  time 
did  not  show  the  peaceful  picture  of  ecclesiastical  tra- 
dition, but  a  development  from  the  beginning  through 
strong  opposition,  out  of  which  the  one  universal 
Catholic  Church  did  not  proceed  till  towards  the  end 
of  the  second  century.  Another  equally  important  re- 
sult of  Baur's  criticism,  the  Professor  went  on  to  say, 
related  to  the  Fourth  Gospel,  which  he  came  to  the 
conclusion  contained  a  Christian  Gnosis,  clothed  in 
the  form  of  a  life  of  Jesus.  But  that  such  a  represen- 
tation, determined  by  ideal  motives  of  a  didactic  kind, 
could  lay  no  claim  to  historical  value,  had  been  estab- 
lished by  a  running  critical  comparison  of  this  Gospel 
with  the  Synoptic  Gospels. 

This  criticism  of  Baur  had  been  much  attacked, 
yet  it  had  not  been  refuted  to  the  present  day;  whereas 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


all  further  investigations  had  always  only  contributed 
anew  to  confirm  it  in  the  main. 

The  Professor  then  referred  to  the  Synoptic  Gos- 
pels, in  his  criticism  of  which  Baur  had  been  less  suc- 
cessful. His  hypothesis  respecting  their  relations  to 
each  other  might  be  regarded  as  antiquated.  We  were 
still  far  from  having  reached  a  certain  result  on  this 
question,  and  would  assuredly  never  come  to  siJch  a 
result  unless  some  entirely  new  material  source  of  in- 
formation were  yet  discovered.  The  Professor  then 
pointed  out  that  no  one  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels  dated 
from  the  time  of  the  first  apostolic  generation,  but 
somewhat  later  than  the  year  70  A.  D.  Up  to  that 
time  oral  tradition  was  still  the  only  source  of  the  com- 
munication of  the  Evangelic  historj^  He  further 
pointed  out  that  in  such  oral  tradition  the  connexion 
in  which  the  individual  sayings  of  Jesus  had  been 
originally  spoken  could  not  possibly  be  exactly  re- 
tained, and  that  the  free  form  of  the  oral  tradition  of 
the  sayings  of  Jesus  could  not  exclude  transformations 
and  additions.  Even  in  the  case  of  some  of  the  para- 
bles there  were  cogent  reasons  for  distinguishing  be- 
tween an  original  simple  kernel  which  pointed  back  to 
Jesus,  and  an  artificial  interpretation,  explanation,  and 
transformation  which  might  well  be  a  later  addition. 
Again  we  saw  already  in  every-day  life  how  the  recol- 
lection of  a  life  which  was  dear  to  us  was  wont  to  be 
transfigured,  idealised  by  the  unconsciously  working 
fantasy.  Still  more  was  this  the  case  when  the  life  in 
question  was  one  which  was  of  great  significance  to 
many.  The  ideal  motives  which  worked  determin- 
ingly  upon  the  formation  of  the  Evangelic  tradition 
might,  if  he  saw  rightly,  be  referred  to  three  sources, 
(i)  the  existing  Messiah  idea  of  Judaism,  (2)  the  figu- 
rative modes  of  speech  used  in  the  Old  Testament  and 
by  Jesus,  (^3)  the  religious  experiences  of  the  com- 
munity of  the  disciples. 

Mark  was  the  oldest  of  the  Gospels  which,  in  com- 
parison with  the  others,  bore  the  stamp  of  greater 
op-iginality  and  definiteness  ;  especially  striking  was 
its  dogmatic  nai'veie,  the  want  of  Christological  con- 
siderations and  interests.  Mark  still  knew  nothing  of 
the  miraculous  birthof  Jesus,orof  the  miraculous  power 
of  Jesus,  which  according  to  his  representation  was  as 
yet  no  absolutely  supernatural  power,  but  was  condi- 
tioned partly  by  physical  means  and  partly  by  the  faith 
of  the  sufferers. 

The  Professor  then  pointed  out  that  the  writer  of 
Luke  was  a  Hellenist  Paulinist  of  the  post-apostolic 
time  ;  that  it  is  the  richest  of  the  Gospels,  eminently 
poetical  and  artistic,  and  remarkable  for  setting  forth 
the  love  and  mercy  of  Jesus,  and  that  the  author 
adopted  a  conservative  attitude  towards  the  universal 
mission  of  Christianity. 

Matthew,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Professor  stated, 


4009 

was  the  youngest  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels  and  was  a 
faithful  mirror  of  the  dogmatic  consciousness  of  the 
Catholic  Church  of  the  second  century. 


SENATORIAL  REFORM. 

BY  MONCURE  D.   CONWAY. 

It  is  a  curious  sign  of  our  time  that  just  as  an  able 
political  writer  was  pointing  out  in  The  Open  Court  the 
anomaly  of  our  Senate,  an  eminent  English  writer 
should  propose  to  import  it,  partly,  as  a  substitute  for 
the  House  of  Lords.  Dr.  Alfred  Russell  Wallace,  to 
whose  article  in  the  Contemporary  Revie^o  (January 
1894)  I  refer,  calls  himself  an  "extreme  radical,"  and, 
if  he  be  such,  supplies  another  example  of  the  mental 
confusion  which  has  often  led  extreme  radicalism  to 
change  king  log  for  king  stork.  His  scheme  bears  all 
the  marks  of  having  been  rapped  out  on  his  table  by 
the  "spirits"  with  whom  he  is  so  familiar,  but  the 
spirits  might  have  made  a  different  revelation  had  they 
consulted  the  shades  of  Franklin,  Randolph,  Mason, 
Madison,  and  other  constitutional  fathers  as  to  their 
impressions  of  the  Senate  after  its  hundred  years. 
Though  Dr.  Wallace  is  credited  with  the  discovery  of 
the  principle  of  natural  selection,  simultaneously  with 
Darwin,  his  reputation  is  not  enhanced  by  this  ven- 
ture in  political  selection.  The  constitution  of  the 
United  States  Senate  historically  represents  a  concen- 
tration of  "survivals"  in  America  of  the  basest  char- 
acteristics of  the  reactionary  reign  of  George  IH,  which 
the  American  Revolution  had  resisted.  The  thirteen 
colonies  claimed,  as  a  result  of  the  Revolution,  a  sev- 
eral sovereignty  more  despotic  over  their  subjects  than 
had  been  claimed  by  the  royahsm  they  had  unitedly 
overthrown.  These  thirteen  sovereigns  were  so  jeal- 
ous of  their  autocracy  that  it  was  only  under  the  con- 
tinued menace  of  England,  which  still  held  six  mili- 
tary posts  in  the  North  West,  its  ships  commanding 
our  coasts,  that  they  could  be  induced  to  form  any 
union  at  all.  It  was  really  a  military  union,  the  pres- 
ident being  a  half-civil,  half-military  chieftain  (which 
accounts  for  the  unrepublican  majesty  of  that  officer). 
The  constitution  of  1787  was  really  a  treaty  between 
thirteen  sovereigns,  the  smaller  empires  refusing  to 
unite  unless  their  inherited  supremacies  were  secured 
the  power  to  overrule  the  voice  of  the  nation.  This 
was  the  real  foundation  of  the  Senate.  But  in  the  dis- 
cussions of  the  Convention  (1787)  that  doctrine  of 
sovereignty,  discredited  even  in  England,  was  veiled, 
though  the  veil  was  as  discreditable  as  the  motive  con- 
cealed. The  necessity  being  first  of  all  to  get  the  sec- 
ond Legislature  established  in  the  Constitution,  it  was 
done  with  an  innocent  air,  and  without  discussion,  on 
the  mere  statement  that  England  had  two  Houses, 
and  that  two  Houses  had  always  proved  favorable  to 
Liberty.      Both  were  untrue  :   England   had  only  one 


40I0 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


House,  so  far  as  the  powers  given  to  the  Senate  were 
concerned  ;  and  even  her  two  unequal  Houses  were  at 
that  time  unfavorable  to  Liberty.  But  worse  remained. 
When  the  subject  of  disproportionate  representation  in 
the  Senate  came  before  the  Convention,  it  was  supported 
as  a  principle  only  on  the  ground  that  in  the  British 
Parliament  small  places  with  little  population  were 
represented  equally  with  the  largest  constituencies. 
Thus,  the  infamous  "  rotten  borough  "  system  of  Eng- 
land, long  discarded,  now  a  proverb  of  governmental 
absurdity,  was  avowedly  imitated  in  our  American 
Constitution.  And  to  crown  the  dishonorable  proceed- 
ing, the  Convention,  laying  aside  the  fundamental 
principle  of  the  Revolution,  gave  our  peerage  of  States 
as  much  hereditary  perpetuity  as  it  could,  by  except- 
ing from  the  normal  powers  of  constitutional  amend- 
ment the  right  of  each  State  to  equal  representation  in 
the  Senate.  Should  the  population  of  Rhode  Island 
be  reduced  to  the  one  family  that  used  to  elect  the 
two  Commoners  for  Old  Sarum,  that  State  would  still 
equal  New  York  in  Congress. 

It  will  therefore  be  seen,  that  in  our  Senate  are  his- 
torically embodied  the  most  antiquated  principle  of 
State  sovereignty  (to  which  we  owe  the  civil  war,  and 
State  repudiations),  the  "rotten  borough"  principle, 
the  peerage  principle,  and  the  base  attempt  to  fetter 
posterity  to  these  unrepublican  and  irrational  princi- 
ples ;  by  all  of  which  the  United  States  is  held  far  be- 
hind Western  Europe  in  constitutional  civilisation.  It 
should  be  said  that  even  Dr.  Wallace  does  not  propose 
to  invade  our  monopoly  of  the  "rotten  borough  "  fea- 
ture of  the  Senate. 

The  perpetuity  which,  as  one  of  your  correspondents 
has  pointed  out,  the  Convention  of  17S7  gave  to  the  rep- 
resentation of  each  State  in  the  Senate,  would  not  pre- 
vent the  nation  from  abolishing  the  Senate  altogether. 
The  Convention  did  not  venture  to  control  the  future 
so  far  as  that,  though  no  doubt  many  of  the  members 
would  have  been  willing  to  do  so.  The  law  is  that,  so 
long  as  the  Senate  lasts,  no  State  can  be  deprived  of 
its  equal  representation  in  it,  without  that  State's  con- 
sent. The  constitutional  reformer,  therefore,  has  first 
to  consider  whether  the  entire  abolition  of  the  State 
comes  within  the  range  of  practical  politics.  I  think 
not.  The  Senate  has  gradually  taken  deep  root  in 
American  snobbery,  it  offers  a  number  of  lordly  offices 
for  eminent  office- seekers,  and  it  represents  provincial 
pride.  Furthermore,  besides  being  "in  the  European 
fashion  "  (superficially,  for  in  no  other  country  is  there 
a  second  chamber  so  constituted),  it  has  been  as  a 
fashion  repeated  in  all  the  States.  Had  the  substance 
as  well  as  the  form  of  the  national  Senate  been  repro- 
duced in  the  several  States  the  whole  system  must 
have  long  ago  broken  down,  like  the  "  rotten  borough" 
anomaly  in  England.    But  as  in  the  States  there  is  no 


disproportionate  representation  in  the  second  cham 
ber,  nor  any  really  different  origin  of  the  two  Houses, 
the  bicameral  system  is  substantially  the  division  of 
one  representative  body  into  two.  The  fairly  smooth 
working  of  the  double-legislatures  of  the  States  has 
been  accepted  by  many  people  as  a  warrant  for  the 
soundness  in  principle  of  the  national  Senate,  though 
ther«  is  no  analog}'  between  the  two.  The  normal 
State  Senate  represents  the  somewhat  delocalised  in- 
terests of  each  district,  a  larger  community  and  a  more 
constant  popular  sentiment,  but  the  constituencies  of 
both  Houses  being  the  same  people,  there  is  little 
danger  of  one  body  obstructing  the  other.  The  na- 
tional Senate  represents  local  interests,  antiquarian 
pride,  sectional  sentiment,  traditional  notions  of  sover- 
eignty as  superior  to  justice,  and  the  power  of  a  mi- 
nority to  weigh  equally  with  a  majority  without  being 
superior  to  it.  Instead  of  its  being  the  conservative, 
calm,  mature  wisdom  of  the  nation,  the  Senate  has 
been  the  centre  of  disintegrating  elements.  It  may,  I 
think,  be  proved  that  had  there  been  no  Senate  there 
had  been  no  civil  war.  Yet  I  remember  a  conversa- 
tion with  Charles  Sumner,  after  he  had  been  felled  in 
the  Senate,  in  which,  when  I  stated  these  objections 
to  such  an  unrepublican  body,  he — even  he,  scarred 
monument  as  he  was  of  its  provincial  violence — urged 
in  reply  the  smooth  working  of  the  senatorial  system 
in  the  States  ! 

The  raising  of  this  question  in  The  Open  Court  re- 
vives in  me  an  old  hope  that  there  may  be  formed  in 
America  "Constitutional  Associations,"  like  those 
founded  in  England  a  hundred  years  ago,  for  the  study 
of  the  science  of  government.  And  I  do  not  know  any 
place  where  such  a  society  might  better  be  founded 
than  in  the  most  American  of  our  cities — Chicago. 
It  is  not  onlj'  the  Senate  that  should  be  dealt  with,  but 
other  institutions,  more  especially  the  presidency.  Con- 
cerning this  unrepublican  office  I  shall  have  something 
to  saj'  in  a  future  paper,  but  will  now  confine  myself 
to  some  reflexions  about  the  Senate. 

The  argument  which  has  recommended  the  bi- 
cameral system  to  political  philosophers,  is  the  liabil- 
ity of  a  single  House  to  impulsive  and  precipitate  ac- 
tion. This  liability  finds  apparent  illustrations  in  the 
history  of  the  French  Revolution.  In  the  first  consti- 
tution of  Pennsylvania,  framed  mainly  b}'  Franklin  and 
Paine,  there  was  but  one  legislative  chamber  ;  but  very 
early  in  the  French  Revolution  Paine  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that,  though  there  should  be  one  representa- 
tion only,  the  elected  representatives  should  be  divided, 
by  lot,  into  two  chambers, — No.  i  and  No.  2,  or  A  and 
B.  Measures  should  be  introduced  into  one  or  the 
other  chamber  (alternately).  While  the  measure  was 
debated  in  No.  1,  No.  2  should  listen.  Then  when  it 
passed  to  debate  in  No.  2,  the   representatives  in  the 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


401 1 


latter  would  come  to  the  subject  without  being  com- 
mitted, and  with  the  advantage  of  knowing  most  of 
what  could  be  said  for  and  against  it.  The  joint  vote 
of  the  two  chambers  would  decide  the  matter.  This 
plan  it  will  be  seen,  is  not  inharmonious  with  that 
adopted  in  the  majority  of  American  States. 

But  beyond  this  lies  another  question,  one  which 
the  enfranchisement  of  vast  masses  of  ignorant  people 
renders  of  increasing  importance.  A  legislature  should 
be  the  collected  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  a  nation, 
not  a  mere  reflexion  of  its  prejudices  and  errors ;  and 
how  is  this  to  be  selected  from  masses  of  people  who 
are  not  wise,  nor  learned  in  the  principles  of  govern- 
ment ?  It  is  notorious  that  in  democratic  countries  the 
ablest  and  best  men  shrink  from  vulgar  competition 
for  the  popular  vote  and  do  not  generally  enter  public 
life.  The  enlargement  of  the  franchise  in  England  has 
been  accompanied  by  a  marked  decline  in  the  charac- 
ter of  Parliament.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  how  high  states- 
manship can  be  developed  in  any  country  where  the 
representative  is  more  and  more  expected  to  be  a  mere 
messenger  to  carry  to  the  legislature  the  programme 
of  his  constituency,  and  may  be  cashiered  for  any  in- 
dependence of  thought.  Nor  can  congressional  elo- 
quence be  developed  when  the  orator  is  dealing  with  a 
foregone  conclusion,  formed  at  the  polls.  This  kind 
of  mere  delegation  might  as  well  be  intrusted  to  post- 
men or  telegraph-boys.  In  England,  the  House  of 
Lords  is  sometimes  wrongl}'  obstructive  where  its  class 
interests  are  involved,  but  on  general  questions  it  ex- 
ercises an  independence  above  that  of  the  Commons, 
whom  the  next  election  holds  in  awe.  Thus,  it  is 
known  that  a  large  majority  of  the  Commons  are  in 
favor  of  opening  the  museums  and  galleries  on  Sun- 
day, yet  they  regularly  defeat  that  measure,  through 
fear  of  their  remote  Scotch  and  Welsh  constituencies  ; 
whereas  the  Lords  have  passed  the  measure  which  the 
Commons  invariably  reject.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the 
people  generally  would  vote  for  the  ablest  man  ;  igno- 
rance does  not  love  ignorance  ;  but  the  advantages  of 
his  ability  should  be  secured  from  their  prejudices, 
and  he  should.be  secured  from  his  own  timidity. 

This,  I  believe,  could  be  secured  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  (secret)  ballot  into  Congress.  The  people 
would  then  have  to  choose  the  wisest  and  best  man, 
with  more  care  than  at  present,  knowing  that  they 
could  have  no  control  over  his  vote.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  representative  would  be  unable  to  play  the 
demagogue  by  parading  his  votes  in  favor  of  popular 
prejudices.  The  representative  might  thus  also  be 
withdrawn  from  the  pressure  of  party  leaders  and 
"whips,"  as  well  as  from  liability  to  bribery.  Men 
will  not  pay  for  votes  they  can  never  be  certain  of  ob- 
taining. 

Finally,  there  remains  to  be  considered   the  peril 


of  the  tyranny  of  maj.orities.  To  this  danger  I  have 
recently  called  the  attention  of  your  readers  (in  my 
treatise  on  "  Liberty  "),*  and  have  little  to  add  on  the 
general  subject.  I  am  writing  this  in  Paris,  not  far 
from  where  Condorcet,  Brissot,  Paine,  and  some  oth- 
ers labored  on  a  constitution  which  was  to  harmonise 
universal  suffrage  with  individual  liberty.  They  be- 
lieved that  this  could  be  done  by  a  Declaration  of 
Rights.  Around  the  individual  was  to  be  drawn  a 
sacred  circle,  including  his  personal,  natural,  inalien- 
able rights,  which  no  majority  could  invade,  and  which 
could  never  be  subjects  of  governmental  control.  This 
was  Paine's  Republic,  as  distinguished  from  a  democ- 
racy. In  America  (1786),  when  the  States  were  mak- 
ing preparations  for  a  Constitutional  Convention,  he 
sounded  his  warning  about  majorities  : 

"When  a  people  agree  lo  form  themselves  into  a  republic 
(for  the  word  republic  means  the  public  good,  or  the  good  of  the 
whole,  in  contradistinction  to  the  despotic  form,  which  makes  the 
good  of  the  sovereign,  or  of  one  man,  the  only  object  of  the  gov- 
ernment), when,  I  say,  they  agree  to  do  this,  it  is  to  be  under- 
stood that  they  mutually  resolve  and  pledge  themselves  to  each 
other,  rich  and  poor  alike,  to  support  and  maintain  the  rule  of 
equal  justice  among  them.  They  therefore  renounce  not  only  the 
despotic  form,  but  the  despotic  principle,  as  well  of  governing  as 
of  being  governed  by  mere  will  and  power,  and  substitute  in  its 
place  a  government  of  justice.  By  this  mutual  compact  the  citi- 
zens of  a  republic  put  it  out  of  their  power,  that  is,  they  renounce, 
as  detestable,  the  power  of  exercising,  at  any  future  time,  any 
species  of  despotism  over  each  other,  or  doing  a  thing  not  right  in 
itself,  because  a  majority  of  them  may  have  strength  of  numbers 
sufficient  to  accomplish  it.  In  this  pledge  and  compact  lies  the 
foundation  of  the  republic  :  and  the  security  to  the  rich  and  the 
consolation  to  the  poor  is.  that  what  each  man  has  is  his  own  ; 
that  no  despotic  sovereign  can  take  it  from  him,  and  that  the  com- 
mon cementing  principle  which  holds  all  the  parts  of  a  republic 
together,  secures  him  likewise  from  the  despotism  of  numbers  ; 
for  despotism  may  be  more  effectually  acted  by  many  over  a  few, 
than  by  one  man  over  all." 

With  this  principle  Paine  indoctrinated  the  real 
statesmen  of  France  ;  and  the  Declaration  of  Rights 
prepared  by  him  and  Condorcet  (translated  in  my 
"Life  of  Paine,"  II,  p.  39)  is  by  far  the  most  perfect 
instrument  of  the  kind  ever  written.  Whether  such  a 
constitutional  compact  would  have  proved  adequate 
cannot  be  known.  The  statesmen  who  endeavored 
to  substitute  it  for  the  revolutionary  despotism  of 
Robespierre  and  his  staff  were  guillotined,  and  a  really 
republican  constitution  remains  yet  to  be  tried.  But 
American  experiences  seem  to  show  that  popular  pre- 
judices and  passions  cannot  be  effectually  prevented 
from  overriding  constitutional  guarantees  of  individual 
rights,  by  legislative  and  legal  quibbles,  unless  re- 
strained by  some  such  power  as  that  represented  by 
our  executive  veto,  though  sometimes  in  a  mere  parti- 
san way. 

Could  not  our  Senate,  since  there  is  little  prospect 

*  The  Open  Court,  Nos.  327,  329.  331. 


40I2 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


of  abolishing  it,  be  developed  into  such  a  restraining 
power?  Might  not  its  power  as  an  equal  legislature 
be  taken  away,  its  basis  modified,  and  a  function  as- 
signed it  of  useful  revision?  One  of  the  two  Senators 
of  each  State  might  be  chosen  by  the  alumni  of  its 
colleges  and  learned  societies,  placing  in  the  revising 
council  a  compact  force  representing  a  common  in- 
terest,— the  Republic  of  Letters.  The  other  Senator 
might  perhaps  be  left  as  now  to  selection  by  the  Legis- 
lature. These  men,  though  liable  to  impeachment, 
should  be  chosen  for  terms  long  enough  to  save  them 
from  the  temptation  to  cater  to  popular  prejudices. 
They  should  not  be  eligible  for  other  offices, — certainly 
not  for  the  Presidency  or  the  Cabinet.  Their  function 
should  be  to  discuss  and  revise  measures  passed  by 
the  House  of  Representatives,  this  function  being  alto- 
gether withdrawn  from  the  President  (so  long  as  that 
dress-coat  monarch  shall  continue).  This  Senate 
would  have  a  suspending  veto.  It  might  return  a 
measure  to  the  Congress  twice  (say),  after  which,  if 
passed  a  third  time,  the  measure  to  become  law  with- 
out any  further  action  on  it  by  the  Senate.  Experience 
might  at  some  time  suggest  the  necessity  of  requiring 
a  somewhat  larger  majority  of  representatives  than 
that  which  originally  passed  the  measure,  to  overcome 
the  objections  of  the  Senators.  For  this  body,  so  re- 
moved from  the  aura  papillaris  and  from  corrupting 
ambitions,  would  thus  represent  the  simple  force  of 
reason,  of  right,  and  argument.  The  mere  cock-pit 
spirit  which  often  arises  between  two  equal  houses,  in 
a  competition  of  mere  force,  could  not  be  evoked  when 
one  side  conceded  in  advance  the  superiority  of  the 
other  in  mere  strength,  and  used  no  other  weapon 
than  argument. 

Postscript.  Today  (February  g),  when  the  proof 
of  this  article  reached  me,  it  is  announced  that  on 
Tuesday  next  the  French  Chamber  of  Deputies  will 
begin  their  discussion  of  proposed  changes  in  the  Con- 
stitution. The  first  alteration  proposed  is  to  make  the 
senatorial  veto  suspensive  instead  of  absolute.  The 
French  bicameral  system  was  avowedly  borrowed  from 
America,  but  the  Senate  is  afraid  to  assert  its  equal 
powers  against  the  representatives  of  the  people,  and 
is  becoming  a  nullity.  Probably,  if  it  shall  be  turned 
into  a  revising  and  restraining  body,  it  may  become 
one  worthy  of  being  imitated  in  the  country  from  which 
it  was,^as  a  bicameral  feature,  though  not  with  our 
"rotten  borough"  basis, —  imported. 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 


The  dramatic  ending  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  political  career  was 
not  without  some  elements  of  comedy.  At  the  very  moment  when 
he  was  threatening  the  peers,  he  was  actually  manufacturing  two 
more  of  those  Corinthian  "pillars  of  the  State."  By  very  nearly 
the  last  official  act  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  two  commoners,  Mr.  Stuart 
Kendall  and  Sir  Reginald  Welby,  who  it  is  to  be  presumed  have 


done  the  State  some  service,  have  been  "raised  to  the  peerage," 
and  this  little  bit  of  sarcasm  contains  within  it  all  the  subtle  ele- 
ments of  refined  humor.  Declining  a  peerage,  Mr.  Gladstone 
creates  peers.  Refusing  to  be  kicked  up  stairs  himself,  he  does 
not  scruple  to  kick  up  other  men  By  this  rather  inconsistent 
action,  Mr.  Gladstone  says  to  Mr.  Stuart  Rendell  and  Sir  Reginald 
Welby,  "  a  peerage  raises  you,  but  it  would  lower  me.  I  «ill  not 
allow  them  to  reduce  me  to  the  rank  of  a  lord,  but  I  will  elevate 
you  to  that  grade."  The  compliment  seems  equivocal,  but  no 
doubt  the  recipients  of  it  are  grateful  for  the  honor,  and  their 
wives  and  daughters  will  be  proud,  because  a  woman  of  title  be- 
longs to  the  aristocracy  by  force  of  law,  and  social  eminence  is  a 
luxury  still  in  England.  There  are  men  in  that  country  who  re- 
gard a  coronet  as  a  barbarian  trinket  and  yet  accept  it  for  the  sake 
of  their  families  and  the  social  distinction  it  confers  upon  their 
wives  and  children.  Sir  Robert  Peel,  a  great  Prime  Minister,  not 
only  would  not  be  a  lord  himself,  but  he  commanded  in  his  will 
that  no  son  of  his  should  ever  accept  a  peerage  for  any  service 
done  by  their  father  to  the  State.  One  of  his  sons  is  now  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  for  that  reason  will  be  made  a 
peer,  but  he  will  be  appointed  for  his  own  services,  and  not  for 
those  of  his  father. 

-X-  * 

In  the  good  old  times  whenever  the  king  and  his  courtiers 
went  a-hunting,  it  was  a  rule  of  etiquette  that  every  man  in  the 
party  should  swear  that  the  king  killed  all  the  game  ;  and  if  any 
of  the  courtiers  made  a  claim  for  his  own  bow  and  arrow  or  spear, 
he  was  immediately  handed  over  to  the  Lord  High  Executioner 
and  beheaded.  At  the  same  time  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Court 
chronicler  to  tell  the  story  of  the  sport  and  multiply  the  number 
of  the  slain  by  seven  so  as  to  exaggerate  the  prowess  of  the  king. 
The  same  etiquette  and  similar  customs  prevail  in  our  own  country 
at  this  day,  as  appears  by  the  work  of  the  court  chroniclers  who, 
after  the  manner  of  old  Froissart,  discourse  of  knightly  chivalry 
and  extol  the  warlike  expedition  conducted  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  in  the  year  1894  against  the  piratical  ducks  and 
drakes  that  vex  the  waters  of  North  Carolina  and  the  Lake  of  the 
Dismal  Swamp.  The  chronicler  who  was  on  duty  at  Elizabeth 
City  was  probably  new  to  the  business,  for  on  the  5th  of  March 
he  telegraphed  a  mournful  story  to  the  effect  that  the  President's 
party  had  killed  only  three  swans  and  two  geese.  He  was  prob- 
ably beheaded  at  once,  for  the  court  historian  at  Norfolk  tele- 
graphed the  same  evening  as  follows;  "  The  President  arrived 
here  to-night.  He  said  he  had  killed  about  thirty  ducks  and  twenty 
geese  and  swans."  Nothing  so  miraculous  as  that  has  appeared 
since  Falstaff  multiplied  the  men  in  buckram  suits  ;  three  swans 
and  two  geese  expanded  into  thirty  ducks  and  twenty  geese  and 
swans.  And  the  courtiers  and  retainers  all  declared  that  the  half 
had  not  been  told. 

It  was  not  until  the  President's  triumphant  hunting-party  re- 
turned to  Washington  that  we  got  any  properly  exaggerated  return 
of  the  killed  and  wounded  in  that  successful  expedition.  For  ex- 
uberant and  ornamental  fiction  we  must  go  to  the  flattering  scribes 
who,  mentally  dressed  in  the  king's  livery,  hang  about  the  gates  of 
the  royal  palace  and  proclaim  the  exploits  and  the  glories  of  the 
great.  One  of  these  in  loyal  adulation  declares  the  net  result  of 
the  expedition  to  be  "  thirty-one  brant,  thirteen  swans,  eight  geese, 
six  snipe,  and  two  ducks  ";  and  when  the  inhabitants  of  Snobdom, 
sixty-seven  million  of  us,  inquire  who  shot  them,  and  how  much 
glory  is  to  be  given  to  each  gun,  he  pretends  that  information  of 
that  kind  is  a  State  secret  that  Court  etiquette  will  not  prrmit  bim 
to  reveal.  Cautiously,  as  if  his  own  head  and  the  heids  of  all  the 
party  were  in  danger,  he  says,  "  Nobody  will  disclose  the  tally  of 
the  individual  shooting."  Whenever  any  of  the  party  does  "dis- 
close "  anything,  he  is  very  careful   to  say  that  the  President  shot 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


401; 


the  birds,  as  was  the  style  in  the  days  of  old.  Another  chronicler 
while  confirming  the  story  of  the  shooting,  shows  us  by  what  fine 
discipline  the  ancient  etiquette  is  preserved.  Speaking  with  be- 
coming pride  of  the  brant,  and  the  ducks,  and  the  snipe,  and  the 
swans,  he  says:  "  Secretary  Gresham  and  Commander  Evans  in- 
sist that  the  President  shot  the  most  of  them,  even  bringing  down 
two  swans  at  a  single  fire — one  with  each  barrel."  It  is  distressing 
to  learn  from  this  kitchen  gossip  that  the  President  "  looks  as  if 
he  had  been  constantly  in  the  sun  and  wind,  and  the  skin  has 
peeled  off  the  end  of  his  nose."  Some  persons  think  those  tawdry 
personal  details  are  not  worth  printing,  but  they  are — to  editors; 
and  they  will  be  printed  so  long  as  millions  of  people  consider 
them  worth  reading. 

For  three  or  four  weeks  to  come  Chicago  will  be  in  the  "  mael- 
strom "  of  a  political  campaign.  Township  officers  and  city  alder- 
men are  to  be  elected  in  April  and  as  the  perquisites  promise  to  be 
large  this  year  there  is  a  good  deal  of  political  activity  in  the  dif- 
ferent wards.  The  '  ■  Christian  citizenship  movement  "  is  becoming 
rather  troublesome  to  certain  candidates,  for  its  purpose  is  to  sup- 
port only  the  best  men  for  office,  independent  of  party  nominations, 
and  the  "Christian  citizens"  are  very  enthusiastic  and  aggressive 
too.  Many  of  the  ministers  are  interested  in  the  movement,  and 
their  churches  will  ba  thrown  open  every  night  for  public  meet- 
ings in  behalf  of  municipal  reform  and  honest  men.  A  most  en- 
couraging beginning  was  made  on  the  6th  of  March  at  the  Warren 
Avenue  Congregational  Church,  where  a  very  large  and  enthusias- 
tic meeting  was  held.  It  was  presided  over  by  Mr.  O.  N.  Carter, 
attorney  for  the  drainage  board,  and  the  principal  speaker  was 
Mr.  W.  E.  Mason,  a  veteran  politician,  formerly  member  of  Con- 
gress, and  one  of  the  most  effective  campaign  orators  in  the  Re- 
publican party.  His  appearance  was  convincing  evidence  that 
the  movement  is  entirely  disinterested'and  non-partisan,  because 
if  it  had  any  taint  of  partyism  in  it,  Mr.  Mason  would  not  give  it 
any  countenance  at  all.  He  exhorted  the  congregation  to  vote 
"  upon  every  question  from  the  election  of  a  town  officer  or  ward 
alderman  to  the  office  of  president."  He  even  "wanted  a  law 
passed"  compelling  every  citizen  to  vote,  and  especially  to  vote 
Mr.  Mason's  ticket,  and  in  this  he  reminded  me  of  my  old  friend 
Swarington,  who  was  Methodist  minister  at  Marbletown.  One 
night,  at  the  Marbletown  Mutual  Improvement  Association  and 
Hesperian  Debating  Club,  the  question  being  on  the  duty  of  the 
citizen  to  vote.  Brother  Swarington  arose  and  said  :  "  Every  man 
who  votes  right  ought  to  vote,  and  every  man  who  votes  wrong 
ought  to  stay  at  home  on  election  day  ;  and  what  I  mean  by  voting 
right,  is  voting  the  Republican  ticket." 

*  * 

In  the  province  of  Kansas  they  carry  the  principle  of  a  pro- 
tective tariff  to  its  logical  conclusion.  At  the  town  of  Concordia, 
in  that  province,  the  young  lady  teachers  in  the  public  schools  are 
in  the  reprehensible  habit  of  getting  married  and  quitting  work, 
sometimes  in  the  very  middle  of  the  term  for  which  they  have  en- 
gaged themselves  to  teach,  thus  causing  much  inconvenience  to 
everybody  but  themselves.  To  correct  this  practice  the  Board  of 
Education  has  adopted  a  rule  providing  that  hereafter  "should 
any  of  the  lady  teachers  of  the  Concordia  schools  commit  matri- 
mony during  the  term  for  which  they  have  been  elected,  they 
shall  forfeit  a  sum  of  money  equal  to  one  half  month's  salary,  pro- 
vided they  take  a  home  man,  and  a  sum  equal  to  one  month's 
salary  in  case  the  groom  is  imported  from  some  other  county  or 
State."  By  this  law  a  discrimination  amounting  to  fifty  per  cent. 
(;./  vnloii-vi  is  made  in  favor  of  the  home  article,  and  against  the 
foreign  product.  At  this  moment  three  of  the  lady  teachers  are 
engaged  to  be  married,  and  their  prospective  husbands  are  all 
"  foreigners,"  within  the  meaning  of  the  law.  The  girls  will  re- 
sist the  tariff  on  matrimony  and  will  test  its  constitutionality  in  the 


courts,  for  if  contracts  in  restraint  of  marriage  are  not  favored  by 
the  law,  why  should  school  board  regulations  in  restraint  of  mar- 
riage be  allowed. 

Last  week  my  family  paper,  the  Chicago  Ih-rald,  spoke  of  the 
American  Senate  as  "a  convocation  of  doddering  idiots,"  a  de- 
scription altogether  inappropriate,  as  the  Herald  will  doubtless 
now  c6ncede.  The  senatorial  manipulation  of  the  Wilson  Bill, 
instead  of  being  idiotic,  was  a  bit  of  crafty  statesmanship  worthy 
of  the  most  thrifty  patriots  in  any  age.  Every  day  for  weeks  the 
Senators  with  itching  palms  dexterously  shuffled  and  cut  the  dif- 
ferent schedules  as  if  the  Wilson  Bill  were  a  pack  of  cards  ;  and 
every  day  they  juggled  the  markets  and  bet  money  in  Wall  Street 
on  their  own  game.  Like  monte  men  at  the  races,  they  allowed 
their  confederates  to  show  false  cards  to  the  fools,  and  when  the 
victims  bet,  behold,  another  card  was  there.  Pretending  to  hon- 
orable secrecy,  they  allowed  false  information  to  "leak  out,"  and 
by  changing  it  every  morning  and  contradicting  it  every  afternoon 
they  kept  the  mercury  running  up  and  down  in  the  stock  market 
thermometer  anywhere  between  70  and  100,  buying  and  selling 
according  to  the  fluctuations  they  themselves  had  made.  One  day 
it  "  leaked  out  "  that  sugar  was  to  be  taxed  one  cent  a  pound,  and 
this  did  very  good  service  for  a  couple  of  days  ;  then  that  leak  was 
plugged  up  and  another  one  opened,  revealing  the  important  fact 
that  the  tax  was  to  be  only  half  a  cent  a  pound,  and  then  ft  was  to 
be  only  a  quarter  of  a  cent,  and  then  an  eighth  ;  next  it  made  a 
jump  to  a  cent  and  a  quarter,  and  then  back  again  ;  then  it  "leaked 
out"  that  sugar  was  to  be  on  the  free  list,  and  then  the  conjuring  was 
all  done  over  again  and  again  ;  the  people  wondering  all  the  time 
why  it  was  that  the  Finance  Committee  of  the  Senate  made  no  re- 
port upon  the  Wilson  Bill ;  a  conundrum  that  was  correctly 
guessed  out  by  some  New  York  editors,  who  vehemently  declared 
that  the  bill  was  delayed  in  order  that  certain  Senators  might 
cipher  information  to  their  brokers  on  the  stock  market  with  in- 
structions to  buy  or  to  sell. 

A  general  accusation  to  the  effect  that  members  of  the  Senate 
are  using  their  legislative  powers  and  their  senatorial  knowledge 
for  stock-jobbing  purposes  may  be  borne  with  intrepid  silence,  but 
when  it  takes  the  form  of  a  specific  charge  against  individual  Sen- 
ators, pointed  out  by  name,  their  silence  is  almost  a  confession.  A 
New  York  newspaper  having  asserted  that  Mr.  McPherson,  Mr. 
Vest,  and  some  other  Senators  whose  names  were  mentioned,  had 
been  speculating  in  sugar  stocks  and  holding  back  the  report  on 
the  Wilson  Bill  for  their  own  profit,  Mr.  McPherson  "arose"  in 
the  Senate,  as  bold  as  brass,  and  said  that  he,  and  he  alone,  was 
responsible  for  the  delay  in  reporting  the  bill,  and  that  he  had 
caused  the  delay  because  he  wanted  some  changes  made  in  the 
direction  of  higher  duties.  Further,  it  was  true  that  his  broker 
had  bought  for  him  a  thousand  shares  of  sugar  stock,  but  without 
his  knowledge  or  consent,  and  on  learning  the  fact  he  had  ordered 
him  to  sell  it  again,  and  he  had  not  purchased  any  sugar  stock 
since.  Mr.  Vest  followed  Mr.  McPhe,rson,  and  said  that  he  had 
not  bought  any  sugar  stock,  and  that  the  man  who  said  he  had  was 
a  liar.  The  other  suspected  Senators  answered  not,  and  although, 
says  the  report,  the  galleries  waited  with  some  anxiety  for  the  next 
senatorial  confession  or  denial,  it  came  not,  "and  the  Senate  soon 
settled  down  to  its  usually  tranquil  state."  Unless  the  accused 
Senators,  or  those  who  are  not  accused,  ask  for  a  committee  of 
investigation,  suspicion  will  settle  down  upon  the  whole  body  of 
the  Senate,  and  its  tranquillity  will  be  looked  upon  as  that  of  a 
stagnant  pool.  Either  way,  as  soon  as  the  people  find  out  that  the 
men  in  the  Senate  who  govern  them  are  a  sordid  corporation, 
legislating  for  their  own  profit,  and  not  for  the  public  welfare,  the 
days  of  the  Senate  will  be  numbered.  Like  the  House  of  Lords, 
it  must  be  "mended  or  ended."  M   M.  Trumbull. 


40I4 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

"MOTHER'S  PIES." 

To  I /if  Editor  of  The  Open  Court: 

General  Trumbull  is  no  doubt  a  great  thinker,  a  keen  ana- 
lyst and  a  puissant  writer  in  the  field  of  l<elles  lettres,  science,  art, 
political  economy,  etc.,  and  I  intensely  enjoy  his  weekly  contribu- 
tions, but  when  it  comes  to  philosophising  upon  that  most  pro- 
found of  all  mysteries  and  its  esoteric  ingredients — "  Our  Mother's 
Pie" — then,  to  use  a  military  parlance,  "  he  shoots  way  off  of  the 
mark  "!  Of  course  bis  mother's  pies,  or  mother  Jones's  pies,  or  any 
mother's  pies  were  no  better  than  the  pies  made  by  those  who  were 
not  mothers,  or  by  those  who  never  will  be  mothers,  or  by  those 
who  never  can  be  mothers — French  male  cooks,  for  instance.  This 
he  tacitly  concedes— at  any  rate  he  does  not  contend  to  the  con- 
trary, but  insists:  "Nobody  but  your  own  mother  ever  can  or 
ever  could  give  to  the  elements  of  a  pie  that  ethereal  flavor,  and 
that  spiritual  potency,  which  makes  it,  for  you  at  least,  a  memory 
of  home  forever.  Unless  all  their  ingredients  are  mi.xed  with  her 
love,  touched  by  her  hands,  and  seasoned  with  her  own  spirit, 
there  are  no  pies  like  your  mother  used  to  make." 

But,  pray,  how  about  the  cook's  pie  or  the  hired  girl's  ?  Has 
any  sound  and  healthy  boy  of  ten  or  sixteen  ever  seriously  dis- 
criminated between  the  "  ethereal  flavor"  of  the  mother  (!)  or  the 
seasoning  of  the  cook  ?(!)  Or  discerned  in  such  pie  the  gentle 
love  of  mother  or  the  (often)  churlish  disposition  of  the  servant  ? 
Have  these  psychological  potencies,  spirituelle  cogencies  or  hyp- 
notic emanations  really  exerted  an  influence  upon  the  boy?  Or  is 
the  sole  secret — why  our  mothers  are  alleged  to  have  been  better 
cooks  than  our  wives  or  any  body  else — the  simple  fact  that,  as  a 
man,  we  have  a  different  constitution — nature's  processes  of  growth 
are  completed  ;  the  necessity  for  food  is  not  so  urgent  ;  hence  that 
terrible  gnawing  of  the  stomach,  concomitant  with  a  ferocious  ap- 
petite has  subsided.  Let  us  give  our  wives  due  credit :  Nothing 
else  ever  made  mother's  (or  the  hired  girl's)  pie — though  often 
doughy  and  greasy — taste  so  much  better  than  the  most  fragrant 
delicacies  served  at  our  own  home  or  at  the  finest  table  d'hote. 

If  you  have  a  boy,  try  it :  Let  his  mother  bake  a  pie  and  give 
each  one  half.  Then  if  the  boy  does  not  place  himself  around  the 
pie  in  half  the  time  that  you  do,  I  pay  for  a  fine  cigar  for  both  you 
and  the  General.  Otto  Wettstein. 


REMARKS  KY  GENERAL  TRUMBULL. 

I  was  afraid  it  would  come  to  this  ;  I  thought  at  the  time  it 
was  printed  that  I  ought  to  have  labelled  with  big  letters  my  com- 
ment on  pies,  in  order  that  logical  men  might  understand  it.  Neg- 
lecting to  do  so,  I  am  at  the  mercy  of  Mr.  Wettstein,  because, 
looking  at  a  pie  as  merely  a  lump  of  dough,  his  criticism  is  math- 
ematically sound.  From  an  earthy  point  of  view,  Mr.  Wettstein 
is  undoubtedly  right,  because  a  pie  being  a  genuine  good-to-eat 
physical  fact,  practical  "vittles,"  there  in  no  ideality  in  it. 

Taking  a  materialistic  view  of  it,  Mr.  Wettstein  resolves  the 
discussion  into  a  mere  matter  of  chemistry,  for  he  is  able  to  ana- 
lyse a  pie  and  show  that  there  is  no  sentiment  in  it,  nothing  but 
flour,  and  milk,  and  eggs,  and  fruit,  and  some  other  substantial 
elements.  He  can  prove  by  his  own  taste  and  appetite  that  a  pie 
has  no  ethereal  flavor  and  no  spiritual  potency,  whether  it  was 
made  by  his  own  mother,  or  by  that  inferior  domestic  whom  he 
calls  the  "  hired  girl."  Considering  life  as  essentially  pie  and  po- 
tatoes, and  only  these,  Mr.  Wettstein  reast  well,  but  if  some- 
body else  fancies  that  his  mother's  cookery  ^.harmed  the  pies  of 
his  boyhood  and  gave  them  psychologic  virtue,  why  not  leave  him 
the  joys  of  his  imagination  ?  I  know  a  man  who  thinks  that  a  cup 
of  coffee  handed  him  by  his  wife  is  better  than  the  identically 


same  article  offered  him  by  somebody  else  ;  and  it  is  better — to 
him. 

The  pieman  who  advertises  "pies  like  your  mother  used  to 
make  "  may  not  be  so  learned  in  the  mechanic  arts  as  Mr.  Wett- 
stein, nor  so  skilful  in  brushing  fancy  from  fact,  but  he  is  a  more 
profound  philosopher.  He  knows  nature  better,  and  he  sees  what 
Mr.  Wettstein  does  not  see,  the  electric  powers  in  the  soul  that 
influence  human  action.  He  knows  how  delicious  is  the  recollec- 
tion of  mother's  pies,  and  he  thinks  that  if  he  can  touch  the  chord 
of  memory  that  stretches  back  to  childhood's  home  he  will  get  a 
response  in  a  call  for  pies.  He  boasteth  not  of  his  pie  materials, 
their  freshness  and  their  other  qualities,  but  he  expresses  every 
excellence  in  a  single  phrase,  and  promises  that  if  you  trade  with 
him  he  will  give  you  "pies  like  your  mother  used  to  make." 

The  man  who  says  that  a  mother's  pies  are  no  better  than  any 
other  pies  would  say  that  a  mother's  hands  are  no  better  than  the 
hands  of  Sairey  Gamp  in  smoothing  a  boy's  pillow  and  tucking 
him  into  bed  at  night.  M.  M.  Trumbull. 


NOTES. 

A  propos  of  the  discussion  on  the  National  Senate  in  this  num- 
ber of  The  Open  Court  we  take  the  opportunity  again  to  remind 
our  readers  that  Prof.  H.  von  Hoist,  our  great  constitutional  au- 
thority, has  promised  us  an  article  on  the  subject.  Professor  von 
Hoist's  views,  which  are  rather  conservative,  may  be  expected  to 
differ  from  the  suggestions  made  by  the  writers  of  this  number  of 
TJie  Open  Court. 

Having  been  asked  where  President  Harper's  "Lectures  on 
Genesis"  can  be  obtained,  we  will  state  that  they  are  to  appear  in 
The  Biblical  IVor/d,  (University  Press  of  Chicago,  Chicago,  Illi- 
nois,) beginning  with  January,  1894.  The  lectures,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, are  delivered  Saturday  evenings  at  the  Memorial  Uni- 
versity Extension  Centre,  Oakwood  Boulevard  and  Cottage  Grove 
Avenue,  and  before  the  Faculty  and  students  of  the  University 
Sunday  afternoons.  They  are  the  same  which  have  created  such 
a  stir  in  the  theological  world. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN   STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  PuBLlSHE 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Edi- 


TERMS  throughout  THE  POSTAL  UNION; 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 


CONTENTS  OF  NO.  342. 

PROFESSOR  PFLEIDERER   ON   THE   GENESIS  OF 

CHRISTIANITY.     John  Sandison 4007 

SENATORIAL  REFORM.     Moncure  D.  Conway 4009 

CURRENT  TOPICS  :  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  Peers.     The 

President    and    His    Courtiers.     Christian    Citizenship. 

The  Tariff  on  Husbands.     Stock-Jobbing  in  the  Senate. 

Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull 4012 

CORRESPONDENCE 

"  Mother's  Pies."     [With   Remarks  by  General  Trum- 
bull.]    Otto  Wettstein 4014 

NOTES 4014 


^s^ 


The  Open  Court. 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  341.     (Vol.  VIII.— 10.) 


CHICAGO,  MARCH  8,   1894. 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. — Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher, 


MYRA  BRADWELL. 


BY  M.    M.  TRUMBULL. 


The  death  of  Mrs.  Myra  Bradwell,  late  editor  of 
the  Chicago  Legal  News,  brings  to  memory  again  some 
ancient  history  wherein  she  appears  heroic.  I  say  an- 
cient history,  because  it  really  seems  as  if  the  legal 
statutes  that  made  her  "ineligible"  to  certain  offices 
and  occupations  were  of  the  old  world  and  of  the  thir- 
teenth century.  We  can  hardly  believe  that  they  pre- 
vailed in  Illinois  not  more  than  thirty  years  ago. 

It  was  Mrs.  Bradwell's  fortune  in  early'life  to  marry 
a  lawyer,  and  a  part  of  her  dowry  was  an  opportunity  to 
study  law.  She  improved  this  advantage,  and  after  a  few 
years  became  herself  a  lawyer,  but  the  statutes  of  Illi- 
nois being  all  of  the  masculine  gender,  she  was  forbid- 
den to  exercise  her  profession,  for  the  magnanimous 
reason  that  she  was  a  woman  ;  and  this  was  the  ruling 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois.  I  use  the  word 
"law)'er"  with  due  deliberation,  because,  after  Mrs. 
Bradwell  had  passed  with  credit  the  examination  pre- 
scribed as  a  qualification  for  the  bar,  she  was  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  a  lawyer,  whether  admitted  to 
the  bar  or  not.  Mrs.  Bradwell  was  not  forbidden  to 
practise  law  because  she  was  not  a  lawyer,  but  because 
she  was  a  woman. 

Hopeful  and  brave,  conscious  that  her  cause  was 
just,  Mrs.  Bradwell  carried  the  case  on  a  writ  of  error 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  there 
also  the  decision  was  against  her.  Chief  Justice  Chase 
alone  deciding  in  her  favor.  A  comical  anachronism 
in  the  nineteenth  century  was  the  spectacle  of  six  or 
seven  motherly  old  gentlemen  in  Washington,  dressed 
in  black  frocks,  poring  over  feudal  precedents,  and 
deciding  that  because  of  the  21.  Edward  the  Third, 
or  the  15.  Henrj'  the  Eighth,  a  woman  must  not  be 
permitted  to  practise  law  in  Illinois. 

Afterwards,  an  application  was  made  by  sixty  prom- 
inent lawyers  of  Chicago  for  the  appointment  of  Mrs. 
Bradwell  to  the  exalted  and  illustrious  office  of  Notary 
Public,  but  the  Governor  gravely  decided  that  a  mar- 
ried woman  was  not  eligible  to  such  a  high  position, 
because,  being  absorbed  into  the  Nirvana  of  wedlock, 
her  identity  was  lost  in  her  husband,  and  therefore  she 
could  not  give  a  bond  ;  and  the  ludicrous  part  of  it 
was   that  the  Governor  apologised  for  his  action  and 


threw  the  blame  upon  the  law.  "There  is  no  one," 
he  said,  "whom  I  would  more  cheerfully  appoint,  if 
the  matter  were  within  the  limits  of  my  official  dis- 
cretion." 

It  is  not  so  much  by  abstract  reasoning  as  by  visi- 
ble examples  that  reformations  come,  and  Mrs.  Brad- 
well offered  herself  as  a  living  example  of  the  injustice 
of  the  law.  A  woman  of  learning,  genius,  industry, 
and  high  character,  editor  of  the  first  law  journal  in 
the  West,  forbidden  by  law  to  practise  law,  was  too 
much  for  the  public  conscience,  tough  as  that  con- 
science is  ;  the  Tory  barriers  that  excluded  Mrs.  Brad- 
well were  broken  down,  and  now,  because  of  her  labors 
and  sacrifices,  women  may  practise  law  and  engage  in 
many  other  profitable  employments  to  which  they  were 
not  "eligible"  then;  and,  what  is  a  very  important 
matter,  they  may,  because  of  her  exertions,  own  their 
earnings,  too. 

Mrs.  Bradwell  chose  as  the  motto  for  her  paper 
the  words  "Lex  Vincii,"  but  these  express  merely  the 
physical  power  of  the  law,  and  not  its  moral  qualities. 
The  law  conquers  by  force,  whether  it  be  right  or 
wrong,  but  Mrs.  Bradwell's  own  victory  over  it  gives 
us  a  comforting  assurance  that  where  the  law  is  wrong 
it  may  itself  be  conquered.  The  laws  of  nature  are 
indeed  invincible,  but  the  laws  of  men  are  not,  and  the 
glory  of  Mrs.  Bradwell's  political  work  is  that  she  con- 
quered some  bad  laws  and  abolished  them. 

There  was  nothing  theatrical  or  spectacular  in  Mrs. 
Bradwell's  work,  but  with  the  courage  of  a  soldier  and 
the  strategy  of  a  general  she  went  about  it  and  did  it. 
For  thirty  years  she  was  an  active  officer  in  various 
associations  advocating  and  advancing  social  and  po- 
litical reforms  and  especially  those  that  interested  wo- 
men. She  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Lady  Man- 
agers of  the  World's  Fair,  and  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Law  Reform  in  the  Auxiliary  Congress.  She 
read  a  paper  before  the  Congress  last  May,  and  that 
was  her  last  appearance  on  the  platform. 

Mrs.  Bradwell's  public  labors  gave  an  added  lustre 
to  her  private  virtues,  and  instead  of  contracting,  they 
expanded  the  horizon  of  home.  She  proved  that  the 
sphere  of  woman  was  not  only  at  home,  but  in  ftie 
lawyer's  office,  or  in  the  editor's  office,  or  wherever 
she  could  do  something  to  make  home  happier.     Her 


4000 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


domestic  life  was  bright  with  duties  done,  and  none  of 
them  the  less  well  done  because  of  other  duties  in  an- 
other field. 


HUMAN  SACRIFICE. 

BY  DR.  W.   H.    GARDNEfft. 

[concluded.] 


At  the  time  of  the  migration  of  the  Israelites  from 
Eygpt  {circa  1320  B.  C.)  all  of  the  tribes  that  occupied 
the  land  of  Canaan,  as  well  as  the  Amalekites,  Mid- 
ianites,  and  Moabites,  whose  territories  they  traversed, 
were  worshippers  of  the  sun-god  in  some  of  his  forms. 
And  whether  their  tribal  god  was  appealed  to  as  Baal, 
Chemosh,  Milcom,  Ashtoreth,  or  Moloch,  it  was  the 
same  deity,  only  under  a  different  aspect.  Indeed,  if 
it  were  possible  to  turn  back  in  the  history  of  the  race 
to  the  earliest  age  of  human  thought,  when  man  first 
was  able  to  formulate  an  idea  of  a  deity,  we  would 
doubtless  find  that  the  only  idea  he  had  of  a  god  was 
the  sun.  To  him,  naked,  unarmed,  helpless,  ignorant 
even  of  the  art  of  producing  fire  at  will,  the  sun  was 
the  source  of  light  and  warmth  and  life  and  all  good  ; 
what  wonder  that  he  should  bow  in  reverence  and  kiss 
his  hand  when  he  beheld  the  face  of  his  god  in  the 
morning,  and  silent  and  sorrowful  seek  his  bed  of 
leaves  and  rushes  as  the  departing  glories  of  his  lord 
sunk  into  the  western  deeps  or  faded  away  over  the 
glowing  mountain-tops. 

But  not  always  was  the  sun  a  beneficent,  life-giving 
deity,  whose  genial  beams  fructified  the  receptive  earth 
and  nourished  and  sustained  all  animate  nature.  At 
times  he  became  jealous  and  angry,  and  then  he  was 
a  cruel  and  bloodthirsty  monster,  whose  fierce  heat 
withered  the  fruits  and  grain,  drank  up  the  water  in 
the  rivers  and  fountains,  consumed  the  blood  in  the 
veins  of  man  and  beast,  and  spread  famine  and  pesti- 
lence throughout  the  whole  land.  Then  instead  of 
being  worshipped  with  offerings  of  fruits  and  flowers, 
and  festive  songs  and  dances,  his  altars  were  glutted 
with  the  blood  of  human  victims  poured  out  to  appease 
his  anger. 

In  the  sacred  chronicle  of  the  Hebrews,  instances 
of  human  sacrifice  among  the  Canaanites  are  so  fre- 
quently mentioned,  that  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  call 
attention  to  them.  We  must,  however,  note  especially 
one  instance — that  of  Mesha,  King  of  Moab,  sacrific- 
ing by  fire  his  eldest  son,  who  should  have  reigned  in 
his  stead,  after  his  disastrous  defeat  in  the  valley  of 
Edom  by  the  armies  of  the  three  kings. ^ 

Encompassed,  as  the  Israelites  were,  by  tribes  and 
nations  whose  conceptions  of  a  deity  were  so  cruel  and 
bloodthirsty,  it  cannot  be  wondered  at  that,  despite 
the  teaching  of  their  prophets,  the  mass  of  the  people 

1 II  A7«^i,  iii,  2;  ;  Cont.  also  Ibid.,  xxiii,  13;  xiv,  3;  Leviticus,  xviii,  21; 
/^/(/.,  XX,  2-5  ;  Deuteronomy,  Tin,  z^.  Many  other  citations  will  occur  to  those 
familiar  with  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 


and  many  of  their  kings,  frequently  forsook  the  purer 
worship  of  Jehovah,  followed  after  other  gods,  and 
passed  their  children  through  the  fire  to  Moloch. 
From  many  passages  in  the  Old  Testament,  it  is  not 
at  all  improbable  that  the  primitive  idea  of  the  Israel- 
ites ]»egarding  Jehovah  was  not  materially  different 
from  those  of  the  nations  about  them  regarding  their 
gods.  It  is  not  the  place  here,  however,  to  discuss 
the  evolution  of  the  monotheistic  conception  of  the 
God  of  Israel,  but,  as  the  following  passages  occur  to 
me,  I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  them,  since  they 
seem  to  indicate  that  at  least  in  the  earliest  thought  of 
the  Israelites,  Jehovah  was  an  apotheosis  of  the  sun 
and  manifested  his  presence  by  light  and  heat,  or  its 
earthly  symbol-fire  :  First,  "Jehovah  spake  to  Moses 
out  of  a  burning  bush,  and  the  bush  burned  with  fire 
and  was  not  consumed."  ^  Next,  he  gave  the  Israel- 
ites, as  their  pilot  through  the  mazes  of  the  desert,  "a 
pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night.  "- 
"And  the  sight  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  was  like  de- 
vouring fire  on  the  top  of  the  mount  in  the  eyes  of  the 
children  of  Israel. ""  "The  Lord  thy  God  is  a  con- 
suming fire.  "  ^  "  He  made  darkness  pavilions  round 
about  him,  dark  waters  and  thick  clouds  of  the  skies. 
Through  the  brightness  before  him  were  coals  of  fire 
kindled.  The  Lord  thundered  from  heaven,  and  the 
Most  High  uttered  his  voice."''  "At  the  brightness 
that  was  before  him  his  thick  clouds  passed,  hailstones 
and  coals  of  fire.  The  Lord  also  thundered  in  the 
heavens,  and  the  Highest  gave  his  voice;  hailstones 
and  coals  of  fire.""  Other  passages  will  readily  sug- 
gest themselves  to  those  conversant  with  the  books  of 
the  Old  Testament. 

With  these  crude  conceptions  of  their  deity,  differ- 
ing so  little  from  the  gods  of  the  tribes  about  them,  it 
is  only  natural  that  the  God  of  the  Israelites  should 
have  been  worshipped  by  similar  rites  as  were  Baal, 
Moloch,  Chemosh,  or  Ashtoreth,  and  that  in  his  wor- 
ship human  beings  were  not  unfrequently  sacrificed  to 
him.  The  uonchalance  with  which  Abraham  obeyed 
what  he  thought  to  be  the  will  of  Jehovah  in  attempt- 
ing to  offer  up  his  only  son  Isaac,'  indicates  not  only 
that  the  practice  of  human  sacrifice  was  common  in  the 
land  of  "Ur  of  the  Chaldees  "  from  which  he  had  mi- 
grated, and  among  the  tribes  by  which  he  was  sur- 
rounded, but  it  also  shows  that  in  the  mind  of  Abra- 
ham and  the  recorder  of  the  incident,  that  the  sacrifice 
of  an  only  son  was  a  perfectly  natural  and  legitimate 
demand  for  a  God  to  make  upon  his  worshipper.  It 
would   seem  from   the  curse  laid  by  Joshua,  the  war- 

1  E.vodus.  iii,  2. 

llJem,  xiii,  21-22. 

3  MvK,  xxiv,  17. 

-1  Dettteronoiny,  iv,  24. 

5U  Samuel,  xii.  12,  13,  14. 

Q Psalms,  xviii.  12-13. 

7  Genesis,  xxii,  2-10, 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4001 


like  captain  of  the  Israelites,  upon  any  one  who  should 
rebuild  the  city  of  Jericho,  after  he  had  captured  it  and 
razed  its  walls  to  the  ground,  that  it  was  the  custom 
in  that  age  to  propitiate  the  deity  by  the  immolation 
of  human  victims  upon  the  founding  of  a  city.^  We 
also  read  in  II  Samuel,  that  King  David,  to  avert  the 
distress  caused  by  a  famine  in  the  land,  delivered  two 
sons  and  five  grandsons  of  Saul  to  the  Gibeonites,  who 
sacrificed  them  all  in  the  beginning  of  the  barley  har- 
vest.- And  in  Judges  where  Jephtha  sacrificed  his 
only  daughter  to  his  God  in  fulfilment  of  the  rash  vow 
he  had  made  when  he  went  out  to  attack  the  Ammon- 
ites.-* In  so  many  other  places  in  the  sacred  chronicle 
of  the  Israelites  are  allusions  made  to  human  sacrifice 
that  the  conviction  is  forced  upon  us  that  this  cruel 
rite  was  practised  as  commonly  among  the  Israelites 
as  it  was  among  the   other  tribes  occupying  Canaan.* 

One  especial  modification  of  human  sacrifice  could 
only  be  consummated  b}'  the  king  or  ruler  sacrificing 
his  own  son  (or  daughter)  to  turn  away  the  wrath  of 
the  deity  from  his  people.  This  was  called  the  great 
or  "mystic  sacrifice."  One  case  is  cited  in  the  "  Pre- 
paratio  Evangelica  "  of  Eusebius  from  "Sanchonia- 
thon's  History  of  Phcenicia  "  as  follows  :  "  And  when 
a  great  plague  and  mortality  happened,  Kronos  offered 
up  his  only  son  as  a  sacrifice  to  his  father  Ouranos, 
and  circumcised  himself  and  compelled  his  allies  to  do 
the  same  ;  and  not  long  afterward  he  consecrated,  after 
his  death,  another  son  named  Muth,  whom  he  had  by 
Rhea."^  It  is  quite  possible  that  this  is  only  another 
version  of  the  similar  legend  regarding  the  attempted 
sacrifice  by  Abraham  of  his  only  son  Isaac,  but  in  later 
times  the  sacrifice  of  the  two  sons  and  five  grandsons 
of  Saul  by  King  David,  the  sacrifice  of  his  son  by  Ido- 
menius.  King  of  Crete,  and  similar  instances  in  the 
Phcenician  and  Carthagenian  annals  abundantly  show 
that,  among  the  peoples  of  those  times,  the  sacrifice 
of  the  son  or  sons  of  a  king  was  considered  to  have 
especial  merit  in  the  eyes  of  their  gods  and  to  be  very 
potent  in  securing  their  favor.  And  I  ask  especial  at- 
tention to  these  cases  as  I  believe  the  idea  involved  in 
them  had  great  influence  on  the  religious  conceptions 
of  the  early  Christians. 

In  reviewing  the  subject  of  human  sacrifice  we  can- 
not fail  to  be  impressed  by  the  following  curious  facts  : 

First :  The  widely-spread  prevalence,  and  the  per- 
sistence of  this  cruel  rite. 

Second  :  The  degraded   and  bloodthirsty  concep- 


1  Joshua,  vi,  26.  It  is  also  probable  that  the  slaying  of  Remus  by  his  brother 
Romulus  had  a  similar  significance.    Lizy,  I,  7. 

2  II  Samuel,  xxi,  610. 

3  Judges,  sX,  34-39. 

^\  Samuel,  xv,  32,  33;  \\  Kin^s,  xxi,  6;  Ibid,  xxiii,  10;  Psalms,  cvi,  3G- 
38 ;  Jeremiah,  vii,  31.  Many  citations  showing  a  survival  of  this  custom  in 
recent  times  will  be  found  in  Tyler's  Primitive  Culture,  Vol.  I,  pp.  104-108. 

5  See  Corey^s  Ancient  Fragments,  Sanchonialhon,  pp.  16  et  seq. 


tion  all  the  nations  of  antiquity  had  formed  of  the 
Deity. 

Third  :  The  similarity  of  their  conceptions  of  a  vi- 
carious sacrifice — shedding  the  blood  of  an  innocent 
person  in  order  that  the  guilty  might  escape. 

In  the  instances  of  human  sacrifice  here  cited,'  to 
which  many  more  could  be  added  if  deemed  necessary, 
it  is  not  intended  to  assume  that  they  are  all  incidents 
of  veritable  history,  many  of  them  are  doubtless  leg- 
ends or  traditions  handed  down  orally  by  sire  to  son 
from  the  earliest  ages,  but  they  are  not  on  this  account 
less  useful  for  the  purpose  of  generalisation,  since  they 
show  as  unmistakably  the  prevailing  tone  of  thought 
at  the  (alleged)  time  of  their  occurrence,  as  if  they 
were  properly  authenticated.  So  much  of  the  actual 
history  of  the  early  nations  of  the  earth  has  been  lost 
to  us  by  the  ravages  of  time,  or  has  come  down  to  us 
through  ambiguous  sources,  that  many  of  their  man- 
ners and  customs  are  still  but  imperfectly  known,  for 
though  the  cuneiform  characters  of  Assyria  and  the 
hieroglyphs  of  Egypt  were  in  use  two  or  three  thou- 
sand years  B.C.,  yet  we  have  derived  the  greater  part 
of  our  knowledge  of  these  subjects  from  Greek  or  Ro- 
man sources,  and  we  must  recollect  that  the  sacred 
gift  of  Cadmus  has  borne  but  scanty  fruit  upon  the 
soil  of  Hellas  up  to  the  time  of  Solon  (638  B.C.).  The 
less  civilised  tribes  were  entirely  ignorant  of  the  art  of 
writing  or  any  other  means  of  preserving  their  records 
save  by  oral  teaching,  and  similar  rude  mementos  to 
the  pile  of  stones  Joshua  set  up  at  Gilgal  to  commem- 
orate the  crossing  of  the  Jordan.'  Hence  much  of  the 
history  of  the  past  must  ever  remain  to  us  a  sealed 
book,  though  with  all  of  these  obstructions  in  our  way, 
there  is  yet  enough  of  authentic  history  left,  to  show 
us  that,  at  the  Christian  era,  the  idea  of  human  sacri- 
fice was  not  only  a  widely  spread  but  deeply  rooted 
idea  in  the  ancient  world  ;  and  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  Roman  empire  from  the  rugged 
fastnesses  of  Britannia  Secunda  (Wales)  to  the  reedy 
banks  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  the  altars  of  the 
gods  were  constantly  crimsoned  with  the  blood  of  hu- 
man victims. 

Nor  was  the  persistence  of  this  custom  less  remark- 
able than  its  widely  spread  prevalence.  Davies  in- 
forms us  that  in  some  parts  of  Caledonia  and  Wales, 
human  sacrifice  among  the  Druids  was  not  finally  sup- 
pressed until  the  close  of  the  sixth  century  A.D.-  In 
some  parts  of  India  the  custom  has  survived  almost  to 
our  own  day.  In  the  transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society, 
for  1841,  there  is  an  account  of  the  religion  of  the 
Khonds  of  Orissa,  given  by  Lieut.  MtPherson,  in  which 
he  says  : 

"Among  the  Khonds  of  Orissa,  one  of  the  ancient   kingdoms 

1  Joshua,  iv.  6.  7,  20. 

2  Davies,  British  Druids,  pp.  4^2  466. 


4002 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


of  Hindustan,  human  sacrifice  was  constantly  practised  up  to  the 
year  1836,  A.  D.,  when  the  attention  of  the  British  government, 
having  been  directed  to  it  by  one  of  its  agents,  took  the  most 
strenuous  means  to  break  it  up.  The  victims  were  of  all  ages  and 
both  sexes ;  male  adults,  however,  being  held  in  the  greatest  es- 
teem, as  being  most  acceptable  to  the  goddess.  In  some  cases  the 
victims  were  purchased  from  families  of  their  own  tribe  who  had 
become  impoverished.  In  other  cases  they  were  captured  from 
the  plains  tribes.  The  victims  were  called  '  Meriah,' and  were 
sacrificed  to  propitiate  the  earth's  goddess,  'Kali,'  and  obtain 
through  her  favor  an  abundant  harvest." 

We  scarcely  need  call  attention  to  the  sacrifice  of 
Hindu  widows  upon  the  funeral  pyres  of  their  dead 
husbands.  In  1823,  A.  D.,  there  were  575  Hindu 
widows  burned  to  death  in  Bengal  Presidency  alone  \ 
and  as  late  as  1877  several  of  the  wives  of  Jung  Baha- 
dur were  sacrificed  at  his  funeral  obsequies.^ 

The  rivers  of  human  blood  that  were  poured  out 
before  the  shrine  of  the  Aztec  god  Huitzilopoctli  by 
his  fierce  priests  would  be  incredible,  were  it  not  abun- 
dantly substantiated  by  eye-witnesses.    Prescott  says  : 

"  Human  Sacrifices  have  been  practised  by  many  nations,  not 
excepting  the  most  polished  nations  of  antiquity,  but  never  by  any 
on  a  scale  to  be  compared  with  those  in  Anahuac.  The  amount 
of  victims  immolated  on  its  accursed  altars  would  stagger  the  faith 
of  the  least  scrupulous  believer.  Scarcely  any  author  pretends  to 
estimate  the  yearly  sacrifices  throughout  the  empire  at  less  than 
twenty  thousand,  and  some  carry  the  number  as  high  as  fifty."' 

Admiral  Wilkes,  in  his  exploring  expedition  around 
the  world  (1842  to  1845),  found  many  of  the  South 
Sea  Islanders  at  tliat  time  practising  human  sacrifice 
and  cannibalism  ;  and  even  to  this  day,  in  some  of 
those  islands  and  among  the  ruder  tribes  of  Africa, 
these  savage  customs  still  continue. 

When  we  look  back  to  the  dark  and  savage  past 
and  remember  the  cruel  and  bloody  rites  practised, 
and  the  oceans  of  human  blood  poured  out  by  our  an- 
cestors in  the  name  of  religion,  we  stand  appalled  and 
shrink  with  horror  from  the  mental  conceptions  they 
had  formed  of  the  Deity.  No  idea  we  can  now  form 
of  "The  Prince  of  Devils"  could  he  rc\ote  s/ndiously 
and  intentionally  maleficent  and  ferocious  than  were 
their  ideas  of  their  gods  ;  and  yet  the  concurring  tes- 
timony of  history  teaches  unmistakably  that  such  were 
their  conceptions,  and  that  in  their  thought  the  blood 
of  the  lower  animals  and  human  beings  was  always 
necessary  to  purchase  their  favor  and  assistance. ^  The 
reason  for  this  is  not  hard  to  discover.  The  mind  of 
primitive  man  was  in  its  infancy.  It  had  not  yet 
reached  that  stage  of  development  when  it  could  ap- 

1  Vide  article  "  Suttee  "  in  Chamber's  Eiicyclopadia,  last  edition. 

2  Prescott's  Coiiiiuest  0/ Mexico,  Vol.  I,  Chap.  3.  As  I  have  neither  Clavi- 
gers  nor  Torquemanda  at  hand  to  consult,  I  quote  from  Prescott. 

3  See  an  article  by  Mr.  Foley  in  The  yournul  0/  Philology,  No.  I,  for  June, 
18S8,  entitled  Chthonian  Worship,  in  which  the  author  shows  that  the  propitia- 
tion of  the  malignant  powers,  rather  than  the  adoration  of  the  supreme  good, 
seemed  to  have  formed  the  basis  of  the  early  religions  of  the  world  ;  and  hence 
streams  of  human  blood  was  the  only  effectual  means  of  purchasing  their 
favor. 


preciate  any  greater  or  higher  power  than  the  prince 
or  chief  who  ruled  over  him.  His  chief's  subtle  brain 
and  strong  arm  protected  his  tribe  and  punished  his 
enemies.  To  him  they  all  owed  allegiance  ;  and  over 
them  all  he  held  absolute  control — even  to  the  power 
of  life  and  death.  When  he  died,  his  wives,  slaves, 
horses,  and  dogs  were  buried  in  his  tomb  or  were 
burned  on  his  funeral  pyre,  to  attend  him  in  the  other 
world.  After  his  death  he  was  deified,  and  then  he 
became  more  powerful  for  good  and  evil  than  he  was 
when  alive,  and  his  tomb  became  a  shrine  where  sup- 
pliants came  to  offer  sacrifices  and  pray  for  his  pro- 
tection and  assistance. 

Some  of  the  later  Hebrew  prophets  and  heathen 
philosophers  had  a  higher  and  nobler  conception  of 
the  Deity  ;  but  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  their 
gods  were  the  deified  ancestors  of  the  tribe — anthro- 
pomorphic, sensuous,  and  possessed  of  the  same  at- 
tributes and  desires  as  their  worshippers.  In  the  con- 
ception of  the  compilers  of  the  Pentateuch,  Jehovah 
was  as  truly  an  anthropomorphic  and  tribal  god,  as 
Osiris,  Baal,  Moloch,  or  Huitzilopochtli.  And  though 
there  is  extant  no  legend  beyond  that  given  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis  to  indicate  that,  in  the  thought  of 
the  Israelites,  Jehovah  was  the  actual  progenitor  and 
ancestor  of  their  tribe,  yet  the  covenants  made  be- 
tween him  and  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  their 
descendants,  abundantly  show  that  he  was  the  especial 
and  particular  god  of  their  tribe,  and  that  even  by 
their  enemies  the  Israelites  were  regarded  as  his  chil- 
dren. Passages  in  the  Old  Testament  alluding  to  this 
fact  are  too  numerous  to  require  citation,  but  I  ask 
the  critical  inquirer  to  reread  i\i&  book  of  Joshua,  where 
the  warlike  captain  of  the  Israelites  recounts  with  the 
utmost  naivete  how  he  captured  the  cities  of  Jericho, 
Ai,  Makkedah,  Libnah,  Lachish,  Eglon,  Debir,  and 
the  other  cities  of  the  Canaanites,  and  massacred  every 
man,  woman,  and  child,  and  says  that  those  wholesale 
butcheries  were  not  only  committed  by  the  order  of 
Jehovah,  but  with  his  connivance  and  assistance.  Nor 
does  the  sacred  chronicle  indicate  that  these  Canaan- 
ites had  incurred  the  displeasure  of  Jehovah  in  any 
other  way  than  in  warring  against  the  Israelites,  who 
were  trying  to  drive  them  out  of  their  homes. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  theological  ideas  of 
the  Jews  underwent  some  changes  during  their  long 
captivity  among  the  Babylonians  and  Persians,  from 
contact  with  the  disciples  of  Zoroaster.  Their  Devil 
became  spiritualised  and  dignified  as  he  was  more  as- 
similated to  Ahriman,  the  Persian  embodiment  of 
darkness  and  evil ;  and  Jehovah  became  less  anthropo- 
morphic, and  more  the  apotheosis  of  power  and  life 
and  light  and  good.  Yet  in  Jewish  thought  Jehovah 
was  never  the  indulgent  "father  that  pitieth  his  chil- 
dren," but  rather  "a  jealous  God,   who  visited  the 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4003 


sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  even  to  the  third 
and  fourth  generation."  Every  infraction  of  his  law 
must  be  atoned  by  blood,  and  his  altars  were  always 
reeking  with  the  blood  of  animals  sacrificed  to  obtain 
his  favor.  After  the  crucifixion  of  Christ  and  the  rise 
of  Christianity,  the  conception  of  Jehovah  became  still 
more  ambiguous  and  contradictory,  one  class  of  his 
(alleged)  attributes  being  perfect  antitheses  to  the 
other. 

In  his  l>e?iigii  aspect  he  teaches  the  doctrine  of  hu- 
mility, charity,  and  the  forgiveness  of  offences,  "even 
to  seventy  times  seven." 

In  his  malignant  aspect,'  all  mankind  had  sinned 
and  done  evil  in  his  sight,  the  nursling  at  its  mother's 
breast,  as  well  as  the  gray-haired  worker  of  iniquity. 
Through  Adam  they  had  all  partaken  of  the  forbidden 
fruit  and  their  crime  must  be  expiated,  all  the  human 
race  were  doomed — Jehovah  demanded  their  blood — 
to  satisfy  his  jiisiice,  Jehovah  must  borrow  the  idea  of 
ignorant,  cruel  humanity,  and  sacrifice  by  an  ignomini- 
ous and  cruel  death,  his  son  begotten  of  a  Jewish  vir- 
gin by  means  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

It  is  very  hard  for  the  people  of  one  age  and  race 
to  understand  the  ideas  of  another  race,  differing  widely 
from  them  in  time,  locality,  institutions,  laws,  and 
modes  of  thought.  And  it  is  only  possible  for  us  at 
this  epoch  to  appreciate  the  ideas  the  early  Christians 
had  conceived  of  the  Deity,  when  we  remember  that 
not  only  among  the  Jews,  but  among  all  the  nations  at 
the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  the  sacrifice 
of  animal  or  human  life  was  one  of  the  essential  ele- 
ments of  worship. 

In  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  ascribed  to  Paul,^ 
where  the  writer  says  :  "Almost  all  things  are  by  the 
law  purged  with  blood,  and  without  shedding  of  blood 
is  no  remission."  He  enunciated  no  new  doctrine  to 
Jew,  Gentile,  or  Christian,  he  merely  epitomised  the 
religious  belief  of  the  whole  world  at  the  date  of  his 
letter  (perhaps  about  50  A.D.). 

When,  or  by  whom,  the  doctrine  was  first  promul- 
gated, that  Jesus,  the  son  of  the  Jewish  carpenter's 
wife,  Mary,  was  the  veritable  son  of  Jehovah,  and  that 
by  his  torturing  death  as  a  malefactor  Jehovah  had 
consummated  the  mystic  sacrifice,  must  remain  un- 
known, all  we  now  know  is  that  as  early  as  the  first 
century  after  Christ,  it  had  become  the  fundamental 
dogma  of  the  Christian  belief.  What  was  the  concep- 
tion Christ  himself  had  of  the  Deity  it  is  not  possible 
to  state  with  certainty,  since  he  has  left  us  no  word 

1  We  cannot  fail  to  see  in  this  conception  of  the  dical  n^t\iTe  of  the  Deity, 
a  mental  reversion  to  the  earliest  conceptions  of  the  Israelites,  when  their 
tribal  god  was  the  Sun  in  his  benign  or  malignant  aspect.  See  Kuenen,  Reli- 
gion 0/ Israel.  Vol.  I,  Chap.  IV. 

2The  author  of  this  epistle  is  anonymous,  thotl'gh  it  is  almost  certain  that 
Paul  never  wrote  it.  I  quote  it  here,  however,  because  it  seems  to  embody 
succinctly  the  Jewish  idea  of  the  law  of  Jehovah  regarding  sin  and  the  neces- 
sity of  its  atonement  by  the  sacrifice  of  animal  life. 


written  by  his  own  hand,  and  his  life,  teaching,  and  sys- 
tem of  ethics,  are  so  obscured  by  the  interpretations 
of  his  followers  that  there  is  scarcely  one  truth  or  pre- 
cept that  he  tried  to  inculcate,  but  what  has  been  tor- 
tured into  a  meaning  most  probably,  widely  different 
from  what  he  intended. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  unanimity  with  which 
all  the  nations  of  antiquity  accepted  the  doctrine  of 
vicarious  atonement.  And  still  more  wonderful  is  it 
that  such  an  idea  of  justice  should  have  survived  to 
our  day  and  be  still  accepted  by  rational,  intelligent 
human  beings  not  only  as  logical  reasoning,  but  as  the 
reasoning  of  the  divine  mind  of  the  Deity  himself. 
Nor  does  it  matter,  so  far  as  the  principle  of  justice  is 
involved,  whether  Jesus  Christ  was  actually  the  incar- 
nated son  of  Jehovah  or  the  natural  son  of  Mary,  the 
wife  of  the  Jewish  carpenter  ;  in  either  case  his  sacri- 
fice was  not  only  unwarrantable,  unjust,  and  cruel,  but 
could  not  upon  any  principle  of  law  or  equity  have 
atoned  for  the  crimes  of  guilty  man. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Christ  was  a  veritable  sacri- 
fice, though  not  a  sacrifice  to  the  bloodthirsty  appe- 
tite of  a  ferocious  Deity  who  claimed  the  blood  of  an 
innocent  being  for  the  sins  of  the  guilty,  but  on  the 
contrary,  if  the  alleged  accounts  of  his  execution  are 
worthy  of  acceptance,  we  must  believe  that  he  was  a 
sacrifice  to  the  jealousy  and  malignity  of  the  Jewish 
priesthood. 

The  birth  and  early  life  of  Jesus  is  so  obscured  by 
myth  and  legend  that  but  little  that  is  really  authentic 
has  come  down  to  us,  but  it  is  certain  that  he  was  kind 
and  humane  and  merciful,  that  he  taught  and  practised 
the  doctrine  of  humility,  charity,  and  brotherly  love. 
As  Greg  truly  says  :  "We  regard  him  not  as  the  per- 
fection of  the  intellectual  or  philosophic  mind,  but  as 
the  perfection  of  the  spiritual  character — as  surpassing 
all  men  of  all  times  in  the  closeness  and  depth  of  his 
communion  with  the  Father.  In  reading  his  sayings 
we  feel  that  we  are  holding  converse  with  the  wisest, 
purest,  noblest  Being  that  ever  clothed  thought  in 
the  poor  language  of  humanity.  In  studying  his  life, 
we  feel  that  we  are  following  the  footsteps  of  the 
highest  ideal  yet  presented  to  us  upon  earth." '  And 
it  seems  like  the  irony  of  fate  that  one  so  gentle  and 
pure  and  merciful,  and  so  permeated  with  the  wisdom 
of  the  divine  mind,  should  have  been  executed  at  the 
mandate  of  a  malignant  priesthood  as  a  malefactor  and 
blasphemer. 

Looking  backward  to  the  commencement  of  eccle- 
siastical history,  and  the  ridiculous  word-quibbling  of 
the  early  Christians,  and  the  vials  of  wrath  and  ink 
that  were  poured  out  upon  each  other  by  the  "  Homo- 
ousions  "  and  the  "  Homoi-ousions,"  it  is  singular  that 
no  one  of  either  sect  has  considered  that  the  real  ques- 

1  Greg,  Creed  0/ Christendom,  pp.  300-301. 


4004 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


tion  at  issue  should  have  been  not  whether  Christ  was 
of  the  same  substance  of  the  Deity,  but  whether  he  was 
of  the  substance  of  guilty  man,  in  whose  stead  he  was 
believed  to  have  been  sacrificed.  And  before  closing, 
I  must  ask  attention  to  this  peculiar  aspect  of  human 
sacrifice,  the  identification  and  unification  of  the  vic- 
tim with  the  god  to  whom  he  was  devoted.  In  some 
tribes  his  apotheosis  commenced  as  soon  as  the  victim 
was  selected ;  and  though  he  was  held  as  a  prisoner 
with  no  hope  of  escape,  except  by  death;  yet  his 
prison  was  the  temple  of  the  god ;  he  was  apparelled 
in  sacerdotal  vestments,  feasted  with  choicest  food, 
attended  by  subservient  priests,  and  provided  with 
beautiful  damsels  to  solace  and  comfort  him  in  his 
captivity.  When  the  sacrifice  was  consummated,  some 
portion  of  the  body  of  the  victim — usually  the  heart — 
was  eaten  and  his  blood  drunk  by  the  ruler  and  priests. 
Among  the  ruder  tribes,  notably  the  Scythians  and 
Aztecs,  the  sacrificial  rite  was  closed  by  a  cannibal 
feast  upon  the  quivering  body  of  the  victim.  Under 
the  Levitical  law,i  the  fat  and  blood  of  the  victim 
were  forbidden  to  be  eaten  by  the  Israelites,  these 
portions  being  sacred  to  Jehovah,  though  the  officiat- 
ing priest  was  instructed  to  place  some  of  the  blood  of 
the  victim  upon  the  right  ear,  the  right  thumb,  and 
the  right  great  toe  of  the  worshipper,  to  identify  him 
with  the  victim. 

For  more  than  fifteen  centuries  the  Christian  hier- 
archy has  held  human  thought  in  leash  in  every  land 
its  priests  have  invaded.  It  has  opposed  every  ad- 
vancement in  civilisation  and  refinement,  combated 
with  fire  and  stake  and  prison-cell  every  induction  of 
science,  and  so  construed  the  history  of  the  past  that 
even  such  a  fact  as  the  brutal  custom  of  animal  and 
human  sacrifice  has  been  made  to  appear  as  not  only 
pleasing  to  the  Deity  and  the  sure  means  of  purchas- 
ing his  favor,  but  as  the  foreshadowing  and  archetype 
of  that  mystic  sacrifice  of  his  own  son  which  in  priestly 
thought,  he  had  ordained  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  as  the  only  means  of  saving  the  human  race 
from  the  fatal  effects  of  Adam's  fall. 

But  despite  the  anathemas  of  priests  and  the  bulls 
of  popes,  one  after  another  the  savage  customs  of  our 
ignorant  ancestors  have  been  abolished,  before  the 
studious  examination  and  critical  thought  of  unpreju- 
diced minds ;  and  I  hope  the  day  is  not  far  distant 
when  reasoning  beings  will  relegate  to  the  limbo  of 
the  past  the  ideas  so  long  held  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ 
and  the  debasing  conception  they  have  been  taught  of 
a  Deity  that  could  consent  and  connive  at  such  a  cruel 
injustice. 

"Will  the  Lord  be  pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or  with 
ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil  ?  Shall  I  give  my  firstborn  for  my 
transgression,  the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ? 


"He  has  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good  ;  and  what'  doth 
the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and 
to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God."  ' 


VALOR. 

BY  VIROE. 

They  said.  How  brave  he  was  ; 
He  held  for  death  such  scorn. 
Leading  the  hope  forlorn  ; 
But  'twas  not  bravery  ; 
He  did  not  fear  because 
To  live  was  slavery. 

See,  how  he  shrinks  from  strife  ! 
Was  e'er  such  craven  born  ? 
Yet  in  the  van  forlorn 
They  marked  his  palor. 
Loving,  he  gave  his  life, — 
Ah,  that  was  valor. 

GOETHE  AND  SCHILLER'S  XENIONS.2 

BY  E.  F.    L.   GAUSS. 
THE  SOURCE  OF  LIFE. 
But  by  the  climax  of  life,  by  the  fiower,  all  new  life  is  kindled 
In  the  organical  world     and  in  the  world  of  the  soul. 
CORRECTNESS. 
Blameless  in  all  things  to  be  is  the  lowest  degree  and  the  highest. 
For,  besides  impotence,     leads  greatness  alone  to  this  end. 
CURRUS  VIRUM  MIRATUR  INANES. 
How  they  are  cracking  the  whips  !     May  good  heaven  defend  us  ! 

such  wagons 
Creaking  with  books  of  all  kinds.     Paper  en  masse,  but  no  worth. 
THE   LITERARY   AGE. 
Every  one  writes,  aye  the  boy  writes,  the  silver-haired  man  and 

the  matron. 
Give  us,  ye  gods,  now  a  race     which  for  the  writers  shall  write. 
THE   UNEQUAL  RELATION. 
Truly  our  poets  are  light,  but  we  could  perhaps  hide  the  misfor- 
tune. 
Were  not  the  critics  themselves,     oh  !  so  exceedingly  smart. 
THE  CRITICAL  WOLVES. 
When  they  have  scented  the  man  and  are  hungrily  howling  around 

you. 
Wanderer,  fire  your  gun  ;     quickly  they'll  take  to  their  heels. 
TO  A  PACK  OF  CRITICS. 
Gathered  in  packs,  like  the  wolves,  you  imagine  that  more  you  ac- 
complish ; 
Worse  'tis  for  you,  for  the  more     beggars,  the  fouler  the  air. 
LITERATURE  FOR  LADIES  AND  CHILDREN. 
Always  for  women  and  children  !  for  men  should  the  authors  be 

writing. 
Leaving  for  women  the  care     and  for  the  children  to  men. 
THE  REJUVENATING  FOUNTAIN. 
Fable,  ye  say,  is  the  fountain  of  youth  ;  oh  believe  me!  unceasing 
Floweth  its  genuine  flood.     Where  ?  In  the  poet's  domain. 
DOMESTIC  AUTHORITY. 
Fault  I  find  not  with  the  gardener  when  he  the  sparrows  is  chasing ; 
Yet  but  a  gardener  is  he,    nature  the  sparrows  brought  forth. 

\Micah,  vi,  7-8, 

2  Prompted  by  the  publication  of  the  Xenia  in  Nos.  333,  334,  335,  and  336  of 
The  Open  Coxirt,  and  by  the  idea  of  bringing  forcibly  home  to  the  American 
mind  the  worth  of  Goethe  and  Schiller's  philosophic  thought,  Mr.  E,  F.  L. 
Gauss,  of  Chicago,  sends  us  the  above  additional  Xenia  in  his  own  translation. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4005 


THE   SUBJECT. 

Truly  the  art  is  important  and  hard  of  one's  proper  comportment, 

Harder  however  it  is     from  one's  own  nature  to  flee. 

THE   GREATER  VICTORY. 

Who  so  doth  conquer  his  heart,  he  is  great,  I  admire  the  brave 

one. 
But  who  Ihrougli  his  hearl     conquers,  of  him  I  think  more. 
EXCEPTION. 
"  Why  do  you  censure  not  every  one  publicly? "     Friend  do  I  call 

him, 
Like  mine  own  heart,  thus  I     silently  censure  my  friend. 
WIT  AND  SENSE. 
Sense  is  too  timid  and  wit  is  too  bold  ;  it  is  genius  only 
That  in  its  soberness  bold,     pious  in  freedom  can  be. 

A  SOLVED  RIDDLE. 
Out  is  the  secret  at  last,  why  it  is  that  thus  Hamlet  attracts  us, 
Mark  ye  the  reason — because     quite  to  despair  he  leads  us. 
THE   MODERN   PRIESTS   OF  BAAL. 
Liberty,  holy,  sublime  !  thou  great  longing  of  man  for  the  better  ! 
Truly  thou  couldst  not  have  worse    priests  for  thy  heavenly  cause. 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 


An  angry  colored  woman  on  the  South  Side,  vehemently  scold- 
ing her  disobedient  boy  for  some  delinquency,  called  a  passing  po- 
liceman to  her  assistance,  and  said,  "I  wish  you'd  take  dat  good- 
fur-nuffin  Abrum  Lincum  an'  lock  him  up  in  de  calaboose,  I  can't 
do  nuffin  wif  him."  The  Chicago  Herald  is  in  a  similar  frame  of 
mind.  Having  labored  for  ten  or  a  dozen  years  to  overthrow  the 
Republican  party,  and  having  succeeded  at  last  in  getting  a  Congress 
"Democratic  in  both  Houses,"  it  wishes  all  the  members  were  in 
the  calaboose,  for  it  "can't  do  nuffin  wif  'em."  It  flatters  the 
Senate  as  "  a  convocation  of  doddering  idiots,"  and  the  House  as 
"  a  gang  of  brawling  blatherskites."  With  delicate  sarcasm  the 
Ilvrald  says  that  if  the  fathers  of  the  republic  ' '  can  look  down 
from  Jerusalem  the  golden,  they  must  be  highly  gratified  at  the  re- 
sult of  their  labors. "  If  the  fathers  of  the  Republic  are  in  Jerusalem 
the  golden,  as  probably  some  of  them  are,  and  if  they  care  any- 
thing about  what  goes  on  in  Congress,  as  probably  they  do  not. 
they  will  see  that  the  sons  of  the  republic  are  acting  very  much  like 
the  fathers  ;  a  little  better  perhaps  in  the  matter  of  manners,  and 
they  debate  less  with  knuckles  and  pistols  than  the  fathers  did. 
They  shoot  with  their  mouths  now,  and  they  aim  remarkably  well. 
I  have  a  valued  friend  who  was  a  member  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives forty  years  ago,  and  it  revives  me  like  a  camp-fire  to  hear 
him  tell  of  the  fistic  battles  they  used  to  have  in  Congress  when  he 
was  in  his  prime.  The  personalities  now  indulged  in  may  be  rather 
coarse,  but  they  give  useful  information  to  the  people,  and  they 
teach  us  what  sort  of  statesmen  our  members  of  Congress  are. 

«  « 

When  you  assail  a  man  "  in  the  heat  of  debate,"  or  out  of  it, 
whatever  is  true  of  your  censure  will  stick  to  him,  whatever  is  false 
in  it  will  stick  to  you  ;  and  this  is  a  maxim  that  may  well  be  heeded 
in  Congress.  Last  Tuesday,  Mr.  Pence,  a  member  from  Colorado, 
fired  skittle-balls  of  accusation  at  some  of  his  fellow-members  with 
as  much  unconcern  as  if  they  were  wooden  pins.  He  had  great 
sport  while  they  tumbled  right  and  left,  but  the  ne.\t  morning  he 
came  into  the  House  drooping  and  offered  apologies  to  the  crowd  in 
that  ' '  regardless  of  expense  "  manner  in  which  a  Colorado  man  or- 
ders drinks.  He  had  an  excellent  opportunity  to  do  so,  because, 
fortunately  for  him,  the  newspapers  had  incorrectly  reported  him 
as  charging  that  Mr.  Hainer,  the  member  from  Nebraska,  was 
"  fuller  of  beer  than  comprehension,"  when  in  fact,  said  Mr.  Pence, 
"what  I  said  was,  that  he  was  "fuller  of  beard  than  of  ideas." 


Why  a  man  who  is  long  of  beard  should  be  considered  short  of 
brains,  I  never  could  understand,  but  such  is  the  opinion  of  many 
beardless  men,  especially  "in  the  heat  of  debate."  Of  other  mem- 
bers, Mr.  Pence  had  said  harsher  things,  but  he  threw  all  his  accu- 
sations into  a  jack-pot  in  Colorado  style  and  made  a  sweeping  apol- 
ogy for  them  all.  He  was  like  Tim  Clancy  of  Marbletown  who 
went  to  confession  and  then  wanted  to  avoid  giving  a  detailed  cata- 
logue of  his  sins.  "  Yer  riverince,"  he  said,  "  I've  done  evefything 
but  murder  ;  now  give  me  the  absolution  and  make  the  penance 
light."  Imitating  Clancy,  Mr.  Pence  pleaded  thus  :  "  In  other  ut- 
terances I  have  gone  beyond  the  language  that  should  be  used  in  a 
parliamentary  body.  For  such  of  them  as  might  by  any  construc- 
tion be  deemed  unparliamentary  I  cheerfully  and  gladly  apologise." 
And,  more  fortunate  than  Tim,  Mr.  Pence  got  his  absolution. 

*  * 

One  of  the  most  dramatic  spectacles  ever  seen  in  the  House  of 
Commons  was  presented  on  the  evening  of  March  ist,  when  Mr. 
Gladstone  made  that  revolutionary  speech  which  many  persons  re- 
garded as  a  farewell  to  leadership  in  that  House  where  he  had  sat 
as  a  member  for  more  than  sixty-one  years.  There,  intellectually, 
and  even  physically  strong,  stood  the  Prime  Minister  of  England, 
representing  in  his  own  person  sixty-one  years  of  English  history, 
and  sixty-one  years  of  political  evolution  ;  a  picturesque  panorama 
stretching  from  the  Toryism  that  opposed  the  Reform  Bill  and  the 
Abolition  of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  down  to  the  Democratic 
Declaration  of  war  against  the  House  of  Lords.  Such  a  bundle  of 
nerves  and  intellectuality  with  such  opportunities  for  action,  such  a 
personality,  with  such  a  career,  is  not  possible  except  in  England, 
and  even  there  it  is  not  likely  that  such  a  prodigy  will  ever  be  seen 
again.  I  may  not  approve  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  measures  here  or 
there,  and  I  may  fancy  that  in  some  of  them  I  see  statecraft  instead 
of  statesmanship,  but  yesterday  he  stood  conspicuous  in  the  sight 
of  all  the  world,  the  type  and  model  of  a  Briton,  laying  down  the 
government  of  a  great  empire,  not  because  he  was  eighty-four  years 
old,  not  from  indolence,  or  lack  of  courage,  or  intellectual  decay, 
but  because  of  an  unfortunate  affection  of  the  eyes  which  might 
easily  have  come  to  a  younger  man.  Again,  let  us  all  stop  quarrel- 
ling with  his  politics  for  the  present,  and  look  at  his  example.  A 
member  of  Parliament  for  sixty-one  years  and  a  cabinet  minister 
most  of  the  time,  he  has  never  yielded  to  mean  temptations,  cor- 
ruption has  never  tainted  him  ;  personally  his  private  life  and  his 
public  life  are  alike  without  a  stain. 

*  * 

From  patrician  toryism  to  plebeian  democracy  is  a  long  course, 
bift  Mr.  Gladstone  went  the  distance.  LikeWolsey,  he  was  "fash- 
ioned to  much  honor  from  his  cradle."  Great  as  a  boy  at  Eton,  he 
was  greater  as  a  youth  at  Oxford,  and  greatest  of  all  in  the  senate. 
He  graduated  as  a  "double  first  "  at  Oxford  in  his  twenty-second 
year,  first  in  classics  and  first  in  mathematics,  a  distinction  rarely 
achieved  at  that  university,  or  any  other.  When  he  was  twenty- 
three  years  old,  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  gave  him  a  seat  in  Parlia- 
ment, for  in  those  days  dukes  ow^ned  constituencies  and  voted  them 
as'they  pleased.  Early  in  his  parliamentary  career,  Mr.  Gladstone 
made  a  speech  which  Greville  in  his  diary,  written  at  the  time, 
says  was  a  promising  performance  and  something  of  a  sensation. 
It  opened  the  gates  of  office  to  Gladstone,  and  the  young  politician 
saw  in  bright  perspective  the  highest  honors  of  the  Government  his 
own.  The  Tories  at  once  perceived  that  his  debating  powers  would 
be  a  great  acquisition  to  their  party,  and  Sir  Robert  Peel,  himself 
an  Oxford  man,  and  a  double  first  class  too,  put  Gladstone  in  the 
line  of  political  promotion  by  appointing  him  one  of  the  lords  of 
the  treasury,  a  great  position  for  a  man  of  twenty-five.  He  went 
out  of  oflSce  with  his  party  in  1835,  and  staid  out  until  Sir  Robert 
Peel  came  back  to  power  in  1841,  when  Gladstone  was  appointed 
Master  of  the  Mint  and  Vice  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  In 
all  the  stages  of  the  Free-Trade  revolution  begun  and  carried  on 


40o6 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


by  Peel,  Gladstone  stood  loyally  by  his  chief  ;  and  when  Peel  died, 
his  mantle,  if  it  fell  upon  anybody,  fell  upon  Gladstone.  Although 
Peel  made  many  changes  in  the  laws  of  England,  he  was  by  na- 
ture, education,  and  interest,  a  conservative,  and  it  is  not  likely 
that  he  ever  could  have  become  a  radical  and  a  democrat.  He 
yielded  to  the  pressure  of  public  opinion,  and  it  is  only  fair  to  say, 
to  new  convictions,  too  ;  and  in  that  policy  Gladstone  has  closely 
imitated  Peel. 

*  * 

I  have  read  of  a  lawyer  in  Boston  who  died  much  lamented — 
by  his  friends,  but  not  by  his  enemies  ;  and  one  of  these  being  asked 
by  another  lawyer  if  he  was  going  to  the  funeral,  said,  "No,  but  I 
■approve  it,"  thus  leaving  his  actual  feelings  in  perplexing  doubt. 
In  like  manner  the  current  theology  relating  to  a  future  life  some- 
times leads  toa  discordant  mingling  of  sorrow  and  congratulation 
at  the  departure  of  our  neighbors  from  this  world,  as,  for  instance, 
when  some  society  resolves  that,  ' '  Whereas  it  has  pleased  our 
Heavenly  Father  to  remove  our  departed  brother  from  this  world 
of  sorrow  to  the  realms  of  eternal  joy,  therefore  we  offer  our  con- 
dolence to  his  wife  and  family  in  this  their  hour  of  sad  bereave- 
ment." The  expressions  are  kindly,  although  they  appear  to  be 
irreconcilable,  and  they  spring  from  a  humane  sentiment  that 
seems  easy  to  understand  ;  and  yet  see  what  may  come  of  them 
when  they  are  not  understood,  as  occasionally  happens  in  Kentucky, 
The  editor  of  the  Mount  Sterling  Tinus  recently  published  an  obit- 
uary notice  of  a  departed  citizen  and  remarked  in  a  purely  senti- 
mental way  at  the  end  of  it,  "  he  is  gone  to  a  happier  home."  The 
meaning  of  that  appears  to  be  plain  enough,  but  the  widow  has  be- 
gun a  libel  suit  against  the  editor  for  insinuating  that  her  husband 
had  gone  to  a  happier  home  in  heaven  than  she  made  for  him  here 
on  earth.  The  sympathy  of  the  people  down  there  is  on  the  side 
of  the  widow,  not  only  on  grounds  of  chivalry  but  also  because  of 
State  pride.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  local  feeling  against  the  editor 
for  suggesting  that  heaven  is  a  more  agreeable  place  to  live  in  than 
Kentucky.  M.  M.  Trumbull. 

BOOK  REVIEWS. 

The  Railroad  Question.  A  Historical  and  Practical  Treatise 
on  Railroads,  and  Remedies  for  Their  Abuses.  By  ]Villi,iiii 
Larrahcc.  Late  Governor  of  Iowa.  Chicago  :  The  Schulte 
Publishing  Company.     1S93.     450  pp. 

This  is  by  far  the  best  work  on  the  Anti-Railroad  side  of  the 
"  Railroad  Question  "  that  we  have  seen  as  yet.  The  author  was 
Governor  of  Iowa  for  four  years,  and  for  about  sixteen  years  tie 
was  a  member  of  the  State  Senate,  and  in  both  capacities  he  had 
a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  Railroad  Question.  Besides,  as  he  in- 
forms us  in  the  preface,  "he  has  had  experience  as  a  shipper  and 
as  a  railroad  promoter,  owner,  and  stockholder,  and  has  even  had 
thrust  upon  him  for  a  short  time  the  responsibility  of  a  director, 
president,  and  manager  of  a  railroad  company." 

Governor  Larrabee's  personal  experience  with  railroads,  their 
management  and  their  mismanagement,  is  very  interesting  and  in- 
structive reading,  but  in  addition  to  that  he  seems  to  have  read  all 
the  railroad  literature  extant,  and  he  has  made  excellent  use  of 
his  materials.  The  conclusion  he  draws  from  his  experience  and 
his  reading  is  that  the  abuses  of  the  railroad  system  are  almost  in- 
curable under  present  conditions.  He  believes  that  the  corporate 
power  of  railroads,  especially  where  they  are  in  combination,  is 
too  strong  for  the  statesmanship  or  the  virtue  of  such  legislators  as 
we  are  likely  to  get  either  in  the  State  Legislatures  or  in  Congress, 
and  that  the  most  effectual  protection  against  railroad  abuses  is  to 
be  found  in  government  control. 

Whatever  may  be  the  merits  or  the  defects  of  Governor  Lar- 
rabee's proposed  remedy  for  the  abuses  practised  by  the  railroads, 
he  proves  by  startling  facts  that  the  abuses  are  very  grave,  and 


his  condemnation  of  them  is  well  justified.  He  shows  that  the 
power  of  discrimination  possessed  by  the  railroads  amounts  in 
many  cases  to  a  social  tyranny;  light  and  easy  rates  to  favorite 
localities  and  firms,  with  extortionate  rates  for  the  oppression  of 
their  competitors  ;  "  developing  "  the  business  of  certain  people  or 
certain  towns  at  the  expense  and  for  the  oppression  of  others,  and 
on  this  point  Governor  Larrabee  rather  tenderly  says  :  "More- 
over, to  tax  one  branch  of  commerce  for  the  benefits  bestowed 
upon  another  is  a  practice  of  extremely  doubtful  propriety,  and 
the  power  to  do  so  should  never  be  conferred  upon  a  private  cor- 
poration." 

Will  Governor  Larrabee  give  a  moral  glance  for  a  moment  at 
that  last  proposition  and  then  say  whether  or  not  it  is  ethically  and 
politically  lawful  for  a  public  corporation  to  do  that  which  it  is 
unjust  for  a  private  corporation  to  do  ?  If  the  Government  may 
tax  one  branch  of  industry  for  the  benefit  of  another,  why  may  not 
a  railroad  corporation  do  the  same  thing  ? 

"Railroads  in  Politics"  is  one  of  the  best  chapters  in  the 
book,  and  it  would  make  a  most  excellent  magazine  article.  It  is 
withering  in  its  exposure  of  the  insidious  bribery,  open  and  covert, 
direct  and  indirect,  practised  by  the  railroad  corporations  on  the 
courts,  legislatures,  and  the  press.  Under  the  scorching  sarcasm 
of  Governor  Larrabee,  the  judge  with  a  railroad-pass  in  his  pocket 
loses  much  of  his  dignity,  and  his  judicial  integrity  appears  to  be 
constantly  under  temptation.  Those  apologetic  persons  who  see 
nothing  sinister  in  a  judge's  pass  ought  to  read  what  Governor 
Larrabee  says  about  it.  No  doubt,  a  judge,  when  he  accepts  a  pass, 
determines  that  it  shall  not  influence  his  judgment  on  the  bench, 
but  as  soon  as  he  puts  it  into  his  pocket,  he  is  under  obligations  to 
the  railroad  company,  not  as  a  private  citizen,  but  as  a  judge. 

Governor  Larrabee  has  arranged  the  facts  of  his  case  with 
evident  care,  and  the  argument  he  builds  upon  them  is  logical  and 
strong.  The  chapters  on  "Railroad  Literature"  are  very  enter- 
taining, both  in  matter  and  in  style,  and  they  show  with  admirable 
clearness  the  literary  methods  of  the  railroad  corporations.  Gov- 
ernor Larrabee's  book  is  an  important  contribution  to  the  popular 
side  of  the  "  Transportation  Question."  in.  m.  t. 

THE   OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PALIL  CARUS,  Ed 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION; 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  341. 

MYRA  BRADWELL.     Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull 3999 

HUMAN  SACRIFICE;  (Concluded.)  Dk.  W.  H.  Gardner  4000 
POETRY. 

Valor.    ViROE 4004 

GOETHE  AND  SCHILLER'S  XENIONS.  E.  F.  L.  Gauss  4004 
CURRENT   TOPICS  ;    The  Perversity  of  Congress.     In- 
sults  and   Apologies.     The   Retirement  of   Gladstone. 
Happier  Homes  in  Heaven.     Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull.  .  4005 
BOOK  NOTICES 4006 


390 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "MTEEKLTT  JOUENAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  343.     (Vol.  VIII.— 12.) 


CHICAGO,  MARCH  22,   1894. 


I  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


SYMMETRY. 


A  POPULAR  SCIENTIFIC  LECTURE.' 


BY  PROF.    ERNST  MACH. 

An  ancient  philosopher  once  remarked  that  people 
who  cudgelled  their  brains  about  the  nature  of  the 
moon  reminded  him  of  men  who  discussed  the  laws 
and  institutions  of  a  distant  city  of  which  they  had 
heard  no  more  than  the  name.  The  true  philosopher, 
he  said,  should  turn  his  glance  within,  should  study 
himself  and  his  notions  of  right  and  wrong  ;  only  thence 
could  he  derive  real  profit. 

This  ancient  receipt  for  happiness  might  be  re- 
stated in  the  familiar  words  of  the  Psalm  : 

"Dwell  in  the  land,  and  verily  thou  shall  be  fed." 

To-day,  if  he  could  rise  from  the  dead  and  walk 
about  among  us,  this  philosopher  would  marvel  much 
at  the  different  turn  which  matters  have  taken. 

The  motions  of  the  moon  and  the  other  heavenly 
bodies  are  accurately  known.  Our  knowledge  of  the 
motions  of  our  own  body  is  by  far  not  so  complete. 
The  mountains  and  natural  divisions  of  the  moon  have 
been  accurately  outlined  on  maps,  but  physiologists 
are  just  beginning  to  find  their  way  in  the  geography 
of  the  brain.  The  chemical  constitution  of  many  fixed 
stars  has  already  been  investigated.  The  chemical 
processes  of  the  animal  body  are  questions  of  much 
greater  difficulty  and  complexity.  We  have  our  Mc- 
canique  celeste.  But  a  JMccaniqiic  sociale  or  a  Mccauiquc 
morale  of  equal  trustworthiness  yet  remains  to  be  writ- 
ten. 

Our  philosopher  would  indeed  admit  that  we  have 
made  great  progress.  But  we  have  not  followed  his 
advice.  The  patient  has  recovered,  but  he  took  for  his 
recovery  exactly  the  opposite  of  what  the  doctor  pre- 
scribed. 

Humanity  is  now  returned,  much  wiser,  from  its 
journey   in   celestial   space,   against   which   it   was  so 


\ 


*  Delivered  before  the  German  Casino  of  Prague,  in  the 
Translated  from  the  German  by  ukhk. 

A  fuller  treatment  of  the  problems  of  this  lectur 
trtige  zur  Analyse  der  Empftndungen  (Jena,  18S6). 
tion  du  beau  (Geneva.  1892),  also  regards  repetition  a 
His  discussions  of  the  t^sthetical  side  of  the  subjec 
than  mine.     But  with  respect  to  the  psychological  ; 


vinter  of  1S71 


will  be  found  in  my  Bci- 
P.  Soret,  Sur  la  percep- 
a  principle  of  aesthetics, 
are  much  more  detailed 
nd  physiological  founda- 


tion of  the  principle,  I 
pfindungen  go  (Jeeper.- 


onvinced  that  the  Beiiriige  zur 
CH  11S94). 


Analyse  der  Ein- 


solemnly  warned.  Men,  afterhavingbecome  acquainted 
with  the  great  and  simple  facts  of  the  world  without, 
are  now  beginning  to  examine  critically  the  world 
within.  It  sounds  absurd,  but  it  is  true,  that  only  after 
we  have  thought  about  the  moon  are  we  able  to  take 
up  ourselves.  It  was  necessary  that  we  should  acquire 
simple  and  clear  ideas  in  a  less  complicated  domain, 
before  we  entered  the  more  intricate  one  of  psychol- 
ogy, and  with  these  ideas  astronomy  principally  fur- 
nished us. 

To  attempt  any  description  of  that  stupendous 
movement,  which,  originally  springing  out  of  the  phys- 
ical sciences,  went  beyond  the  domain  of  physics  and  is 
now  occupied  with  the  problems  of  psychology,  would 
be  presumptuous  in  this  place.  I  shall  only  attempt 
here,  to  illustrate  to  you  by  a  few  simple  examples  the 
methods  by  which  the  province  of  psychology  can  be 
reached  from  the  facts  of  the  physical  world — especially 
the  adjacent  province  of  sense-perception.  And  I  wish 
it  to  be  remembered  that  my  brief  attempt  is  not  to  be 
taken  as  a  measure  of  the  present  state  of  such  scien- 
tific questions. 

* 
*  * 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  some  objects  please  us, 
while  others  do  not.  Generally  speaking,  anything 
which  is  constructed  according  to  fixed  and  logically 
followed  rules,  is  a  product  of  tolerable  beauty.  We  see 
thus  nature  itself,  which  always  acts  according  to  fixed 
rules,  constantly  producing  such  pretty  things.  Every 
day  the  physicist  is  confronted  in  his  workshop  with 
the  most  beautiful  vibration-figures,  tone-figures,  phe- 
nomena of  polarisation,  and  forms  of  diffraction. 

A  rule  always  presupposes  a  repetition.  Repeti- 
tions, therefore,  will  probably  be  found  to  play  some 
important  part  in  the  production  of  agreeable  effects. 
Of  course,  the  nature  of  agreeable  effects  is  not  ex- 
hausted by  this.  Furthermore,  the  repetition  of  a 
physical  event  becomes  the  source  of  agreeable  effects 
only  when  it  is  connected  with  a  repetition  of  sensa- 
tions. 

An  excellent  example  that  repetition  of  sensations 
is  a  source  of  agreeable  effects  is  furnished  by  the 
copy-book  of  every  schoolboy,  which  is  usually  a  treas- 
ure-house of  such  things,  andonly  in  need  of  an  Abbd 
Domenech  to  become  celebrated.   Any  figure,  no  mat- 


aoi6 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


ter  how  crude  or  poor,  if  several  times  repeated,  with 
the  repetitions  placed  in  line,  will  produce  a  tolerable 
frieze. 


Also  the  pleasant  effect  of  symmetry  is  due  to  a 
repetition  of  sensations.  Let  us  devote  ourselves  a 
moment  to  this  thought,  yet  not  imagine  when  we  have 
developed  it,  that  we  have  fully  exhausted  the  nature 
of  the  agreeable,  much  less  of  the  beautiful. 

First,  let  us  get  a  clear  conception  of  what  sym- 
metry is.  And  in  preference  to  a  definition  let  us  take 
a  living  picture.  You  know  that  the  reflexion  of  an 
object  in  a  mirror  has  a  great  likeness  to  the  object  it- 
self. All  its  proportions  and  outlines  are  the  same. 
Yet  there  is  a  difference  between  the  object  and  its  re- 
flexion in  the  mirror,  which  you  will  readily  detect. 

Hold  your  right  hand  before  a  mirror,  and  you  will 
see  in  the  mirror  a  left  hand.  Your  right  glove  will 
produce  its  mate  in  the  glass.  For  you  could  never 
use  the  reflexion  of  your  right  glove,  if  it  were  present 
to  you  as  a  real  thing,  for  covering  your  right  hand, 
but  only  for  covering  your  left.  Similarly,  your  right 
ear  will  give  as  its  reflexion  a  kft  ear  ;  and  you  will  at 
once  perceive  that  the  left  half  of  your  body  could  very 
easily  be  substituted  for  the  reflexion  of  your  right  half. 
Now  just  as  in  the  place  of  a  missing  right  ear  a  left  ear 
cannot  be  put,  unless  the  lobule  of  the  ear  be  turned  up- 
wards, or  the  opening  into  the  concha  backwards,  so, 
despite  all  similarity  of  form,  the  reflexion  of  an  ob- 
ject can  never  take  the  place  of  the  object  itself.* 

The  reason  of  this  difference  between  the  object 
and  its  reflexion  is  simple.  The  reflexion  appears  as 
far  behind  the  mirror  as  the  object  is  before  it.  The 
parts  of  the  object,  accordingly,  which  are  nearest  the 
mirror  will  also  be  nearest  the  mirror  in  the  reflexion. 
Consequently,  the  succession  of  the  parts  in  the  re- 
flexion will  be  reversed,  as  may  best  be  seen  in  the  re- 
flexion of  the  face  of  a  watch  or  of  a  manuscript. 

It  will  also  be  readily  seen,  that  if  a  point  of  the  ob- 
ject be  joined  with  its  reflexion  in  the  image,  the  line 
of  junction  will  cut  the  mirror  at  right  angles  and  be 
bisected  by  it.  This  holds  true  of  all  corresponding 
points  of  object  and  image. 

If,  now,  we  can  divide  an  object  by  a  plane  into 
two  halves  so  that  each  half,  as  seen  in  the  reflecting 

»  Kanl,  in  his  Prolegomena  zu  Jcder  kiliiftiscn  Mela/'liys!/:,  also  refers  to 
this  fact,  but  for  a  different  purpose. 


plane  of  division,  is  a  reproduction  of  the  other  half, 
such  an  object  is  termed  symmetrical,  and  the  plane 
of  division  is  called  the  plane  of  symmetry. 

If  the  plane  of  symmetry  is  vertical,  we  can  say 
that  the  body  is  of  vertical  symmetry.  An  example  of 
vertical  symmetry  is  a  Gothic  cathedral. 

If  the  plane  of  symmetry  is  horizontal,  we  may  say 
that  the  object  is  horizontally  symmetrical.  A  land- 
scape on  the  shores  of  a  lake  with  its  reflexion  in  the 
waler,  is  a  system  of  horizontal  symmetry. 

Exactly  here  is  a  noticeable  difference.  The  ver- 
tical symmetry  of  a  Gothic  cathedral  strikes  us  at  once, 
whereas  we  can  travel  up  and  down  the  whole  length 
of  the  Rhine  or  the  Hudson  without  becoming  aware 
of  the  symmetry  between  objects  and  their  reflexions 
in  the  water.  Vertical  symmetry  pleases  us,  whilst 
horizontal  symmetry  is  indifferent,  and  is  noticed  only 
by  the  experienced  eye. 

Whence  arises  this  difference  ?  I  say  from  the  fact 
that  vertical  symmetry  produces  a  repetition  of  the 
same  sensation,  while  horizontal  symmetry  does  not. 
I  shall  now  show  that  this  is  so. 

Let  us  look  at  the  following  letters  : 

d     b 
q    P 

It  is  a  fact  known  to  all  mothers  and  teachers,  that 
children  in  their  first  attempts  to  read  and  write,  con- 
stantly confound  d  and  b,  and  q  and  p,  but  never  d 
and  q,  or  b  and  p.  Now  d  and  b  and  q  and  p  are  the 
two  halves  of  a  vcrfically  symmetrical  figure,  while  d 
and  q,  and  b  and  p  are  two  halves  of  a  horizfintally  sym- 
metrical figure.  The  first  two  are  confounded  ;  but 
confusion  is  only  possible  of  things  that  excite  in  us 
the  same  or  similar  sensations. 

Figures  of  two  flower-girls  are  frequently  seen  on 
the  decorations  of  gardens  and  of  drawing-rooms,  one 
of  whom  carries  a  flower-basket  in  her  right  hand  and 
the  other  a  flower-basket  in  her  left.  All  know  how 
apt  we  are,  unless  we  are  very  careful,  to  confound  these 
figures  with  one  another. 

While  turning  a  thing  round  from  right  to  left  is 
scarcely  noticed,  the  eye  is  not  indifferent  at  all  to  the 
turning  of  a  thing  upside  down.  A  human  face  which 
has  been  turned  upside  down  is  scarcely  recognisable 
as  a  face,  and  makes  an  impression  which  is  altogether 
strange.  The  reason  of  this  is  not  to  be  sought  in  the 
unwontedness  of  the  sight,  for  it  is  just  as  difficult  to 
recognise  an  arabesque  that  has  been  inverted,  where 
there  can  be  no  question  of  a  habit.  This  curious  fact 
is  the  foundation  of  the  familiar  jokes  played  with  the 
portraits  of  unpopular  personages,  which  are  so  drawn 
that  in  the  upright  position  of  the  page  an  exact  pic- 
ture of  the  person  is  presented,  but  on  being  inverted 
some  popular  animal  is  shown. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4017 


It  is  a  fact,  then,  that  the  two  halves  of  a  vertically 
S3'mnietrical  figure  are  easilj'  confounded  and  that  the}' 
therefore  probably  produce  very  nearly  the  same  sen- 
sations. The  question,  accordingly,  arises,  why  do  the 
two  halves  of  a  vertically  symmetrical  figure  produce 
the  same  or  similar  sensations?  The  answer  is:  Be- 
cause our  apparatus  of  vision,  which  consists  of  our 
eyes  and  of  the  accompanying  muscular  apparatus  is 
itself  vertically  symmetrical.* 

Whatever  external  resemblances  one  eye  may  have 
with  another  they  are  yet  not  alike.  The  right  eye  of 
a  man  cannot  take  the  place  of  a  left  eye  any  more 
than  a  left  ear  or  left  hand  can  take  the  place  of  a 
right  one.  By  artificial  means,  we  can  change  the  part 
which  each  of  our  eyes  plays.  (Wheatstone's  pseudo- 
scope. )  But  we  then  find  ourselves  in  an  entirely  new 
and  strange  world.  What  is  convex  appears  concave  ; 
what  is  concave,  convex.  What  is  distant  appears 
near,  and  what  is  near  appears  far. 

The  left  eye  is  the  reflexion  of  the  right.  And  the 
light-feeling  retina  of  the  left  eye  is  a  reflexion  of  the 
light-feeling  retina  of  the  right,  in  all  its  functions. 

The  lense  of  the  eye,  like  a  magic  lantern,  casts 
images  of  objects  on  the  retina.  And  you  may  picture 
to  yourself  the  light-feeling  retina  of  the  eye,  with  its 
countless  nerves,  as  a  hand  with  innumerable  fingers, 
adapted  to  feeling  light.  The  ends  of  the  visual  nerves, 
like  our  fingers,  are  endowed  with  varying  degrees  of 
sensitiveness.  The  two  retina;  act  like  a  right  and  a 
left  hand  ;  the  sensation  of  touch  and  the  sensation  of 
light  in  the  two  instances  are  similar. 

Examine  the  right-hand  portion  of  this  letter  T  : 
namely,  f.  Instead  of  the  two  retinae  on  which  this 
image  falls,  imagine,  feeling  the  object,  my  two  hands. 
The  r,  grasped  with  the  right  hand,  gives  a  different 
sensation  from  that  which  it  gives  when  grasped  with 
the  left.  But  if  we  turn  our  character  about  from  right 
to  left,  thus  :  1,  it  will  give  the  same  sensation  in  the 
left  hand  that  it  gave  before  in  the  right.  The  sensa- 
tion is  repeated. 

If  we  take  a  whole  T,  the  right  half  will  produce  in 
the  right  hand  the  same  sensation  that  the  left  half 
produces  in  the  left,  and  vice  versa. 

The  symmetrical  figure  gives  the  same  sensation 
twice. 

If  we  turn  the  T  over  thus  :  H  ,  or  invert  the  half 
T  thus  :  L,  so  long  as  we  do  not  change  the  position 
of  our  hands  we  can  make  no  use  of  the  foregoing  rea- 
soning. 

The  retinae,  in  fact,  are  exactly  like  our  two  hands. 
They,  too,  have  their  thumbs  and  index  fingers,  though 
they  are  thousands  in  number ;  and  we  may  say  the 
thumbs  are  on  the  side  of  the  eye  near  the  nose,  and 
the  remaining  fingers  on  the  side  away  from  the  nose. 

*  Compare  Mach,  Fichte' s  Ziitscliri/l fiir  Fhilosophie,  1S64,  p.  i. 


With  this  I  hope  to  have  made  perfectly  clear  that 
the  pleasing  effect  of  symmetry  is  chiefly  due  to  the 
repetition  of  sensations,  and  that  the  effect  in  ques- 
tion takes  place  in  symmetrical  figures,  only  where 
there  is  a  repetition  of  sensation.  The  pleasing  effect 
of  regular  figures,  the  preference  which  straight  lines, 
especially  vertical  and  horizontal  straight  lines,  en- 
joy, is  founded  on  a  similar  reason.  A  straight  line, 
both  in  a  horizontal  and  in  a  vertical  position,  can  cast 
on  the  two  retinae  the  same  image,  which  falls  more- 
over on  symmetrically  corresponding  spots.  This  also, 
it  would  appear,  is  the  reason  of  our  psychological 
preference  of  straight  to  curved  lines,  and  not  their 
property  of  being  the  shortest  distance  between  two 
points.  The  straight  line  is  felt,  to  put  the  matter 
briefly,  as  symmetrical  to  itself,  which  is  the  case  also 
with  the  plane.  Curved  lines  are  felt  as  deviations 
from  straight  lines,  that  is,  as  deviations  from  symme- 
try.* The  presence  of  a  sense  for  symmetry  in  people 
possessing  only  one  eye  from  birth,  is  indeed  a  riddle. 
Of  course,  the  sense  of  sj'mmetry,  although  primarily 
acquired  by  means  of  the  eyes,  cannot  be  wholly  lim- 
ited to  the  visual  organs.  It  must  also  be  deeply 
rooted  in  other  parts  of  the  organism  by  ages  of  prac- 
tice and  can  thus  not  be  eliminated  forthwith  by  the 
loss  of  one  eye.  Also,  when  an  eye  is  lost,  the  sym- 
metrical muscular  apparatus  is  left,  as  is  also  the 
symmetrical  apparatus  of  innervation. 

It  appears,  however,  unquestionable  that  the  phe- 
nomena mentioned  have,  in  the  main,  their  origin  in 
the  peculiar  structure  of  our  eyes.  It  will  therefore 
be  seen  at  once  that  our  notions  of  what  is  beautiful 
and  ugly  would  undergo  a  change  if  our  eyes  were  dif- 
ferent. Also,  if  this  view  is  correct,  the  theory  of  the 
so-called  eternally  beautiful  is  somewhat  mistaken.  It 
can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  our  culture,  or  form  of 
civilisation,  which  stamps  upon  the  human  body  its 
unmistakable  traces,  should  not  also  modify  our  con- 
ceptions of  the  beautiful.  Was  not  formerly  the  de- 
velopment of  all  musical  beauty  restricted  to  the  nar- 
row limits  of  a  five-toned  scale  ? 

The  fact  that  a  repetition  of  sensations  is  produc- 
tive of  pleasant  effects  is  not  restricted  to  the  realm  of 
the  visible.  To-day,  both  the  musician  and  the  phys- 
icist know  that  the  harrtlonic  or  the  melodic  addition 
of  one  tone  to  another  affects  us  agreeably  only  when 
the  added  tone  reproduces  a  part  of  the  sensation 
which  the  first  one  excited.  When  I  add  an  octave 
to  a  fundamental  tone,  I  hear  in  the  octave  a  part  of 
what  was  heard  in   the  fundamental  tone.     (Helm- 

*  The  fact  that  the  first  and  second  differential  coefficients  of  a  curve  are 
directly  seen,  but  the  higher  coefficients  not,  is  very  simply  explained.  Tlie 
tirst  gives  the  position  of  the  tangent,  the  declination  of  the  straight  line  from 
the  position  of  symmetry,  the  second  the  declination  of  the  curve  from  the 
straight  line.  It  is,  perhaps,  not  unprofitable  to  remark  here  that  tlie  ordi- 
nary method  of  testing  ru'ers  and  plane  surfaces  (by  reversed  applications) 
ascertains  the  deviation  of  the  object  from  symmetry  to  itself. 


40i8 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


holtz.)  But  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  develop  this  idea 
fully  here.  We  shall  only  ask  to-day,  whether  there 
is  anything  similar  to  the  symmetry  of  figures  in  the 
province  of  sounds. 

Look  at  the  reflexion  of  your  piano  in  the  mirror. 

You  will  at  once  remark  that  you  have  never  seen 
such  a  piano  in  the  actual  world,  for  it  has  its  high 
keys  to  the  left  and  its  low  ones  to  the  right.  Such 
pianos  are  not  manufactured. 

If  you  could  sit  down  at  such  a  piano  and  play  in 
your  usual  manner,  plainly  every  step  which  you 
imagined  you  were  performing  in  the  upward  scale 
would  be  executed  as  a  corresponding  step  in  the 
downward  scale.  The  effect  would  be  not  a  little  sur- 
prising. 

For  the  practised  musician  who  is  always  accus- 
tomed to  hearing  certain  sounds  produced  when  cer- 
tain keys  are  struck,  it  is  quite  an  anomalous  spectacle 
to  watch  a  player  in  the  glass  and  to  observe  that  he 
always  does  the  opposite  of  what  we  hear. 

But  still  more  remarkable  would  be  the  effect  of 
attempting  to  strike  a  harmony  on  such  a  piano.  For 
a  melody  it  is  not  indifferent  whether  we  execute  a 
step  in  an  upward  or  a  downward  scale.  But  for  a 
harmony,  so  great  a  difference  is  not  produced  by  re- 
versal. I  always  retain  the  same  consonance  whether 
I  add  to  a  fundamental  note  an  upper  or  a  lower  third. 
Only  the  order  of  the  intervals  of  the  harmony  is  re- 
versed. In  point  of  fact,  when  we  execute  a  move- 
ment in  a  major  key  on  our  reflected  piano,  we  hear  a 
sound  in  a  minor  key,  and  vice  versa. 

It  now  remains  to  execute  the  experiments  indi- 
cated. Instead  of  playing  upon  the  piano  in  the  mir- 
ror, which  is  impossible,  or  of  having  a  piano  of  this 
kind  built,  which  would  be  somewhat  expensive,  we 
may  perform  our  experiments  in  a  simpler  manner,  as 
follows : 

i)  We  play  on  our  own  piano  in  our  usual  manner, 
look  into  the  mirror,  and  then  repeat  on  our  real  piano 
what  we  see  in  the  mirror.  In  this  way  we  transform 
all  steps  upwards  into  corresponding  steps  downwards. 
We  play  a  movement,  and  then  another  movement, 
which,  with  respect  to  the  key-board,  is  symmetrical 
to  the  first. 

2)  We  place  a  mirror  beneath  the  music  in  which 
the  notes  are  reflected  as  in  a  body  of  water,  and  play 
according  to  the  notes  in  the  mirror.  In  this  way  also, 
all  steps  upwards  are  changed  into  corresponding, 
equal  steps  downwards. 

3)  We  turn  the  music  upside  down  and  read  the 
notes  from  right  to  left  and  from  below  upwards.  In 
doing  this,  we  must  regard  all  sharps  as  flats  and  all 
flats  as  sharps,  because  they  correspond  to  half  lines 
and  spaces.      Besides,  in  this  use  of  the  music  we  can 


only  employ  the  bass  clef,  as  only  in  this  clef  are  the 
notes  not  changed  by  symmetrical  reversal. 

You  can  judge  of  the  effect  of  these  experiments 
from  the  examples  which  appear  in  the  annexed  musi- 
cal cut.  The  movement  which  appears  in  the  upper 
lines  is  symmetrically  reversed  in  the  lower. 

The  effect  of  the  experiments  may  be  briefly  formu- 
lated. The  melody  is  rendered  unrecognisable.  The 
harmony  suffers  a  transposition  from  a  major  into  a 
minor  key  and  vice  versa.      The  study  of  these  pretty 


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effects,  which  have  long  been  familiar  to  physicists 
and  musiciqins,  was  revived  some  years  ago  by  Von 
Oettingen.* 

Now,  although  in  all  the  preceding  examples  I  have 
transposed  steps  upward  into  equal  and  similar  steps 
downward,  that  is,  as  we  may  justly  say,  have  played 
for  every  movement  the  movement  which  is  symmetri- 
cal to  it,  yet  the  ear  notices  either  little  or  nothing  of 
symmetry.  The  transposition  from  a  major  to  a  minor 
key  is  the  sole  indication  of  symmetry  remaining.  The 
symmetry  is  there  for  the  mind,  but  is  wanting  for 

*  A.  von  Oettingeii:  UarwoHiesystcin  in  tiuaUr  Entwicklmtg.  Leipsic  and 
Dorpat,  1SO6. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4019 


sensation.  No  symmetry  exists  for  the  ear,  because  a 
reversal  of  musical  sounds  conditions  no  repetition  of 
sensations.  If  we  had  an  ear  for  height  and  an  ear 
for  depth,  just  as  we  have  an  eye  for  the  right  and  an 
eye  for  the  left,  we  should  also  find  that  symmetrical 
sound-structures  existed  for  our  auditory  organs.  The 
contrast  of  major  and  minor  for  the  ear  corresponds  to 
inversion  for  the  eye,  which  is  also  only  symmetry  for 
the  mind,  but  not  for  sensation. 

By  way  of  supplement  to  what  I  have  said,  I  will 
add  a  brief  remark  for  my  mathematical  readers. 

Our  musical  notation  is  essentially  a  graphical  rep- 
resentation of  a  piece  of  music  in  the  form  of  curves, 
where  the  time  is  the  abscissae,  and  the  logarithms  of 
the  number  of  vibrations  the  ordinates.  The  devia- 
tions of  musical  notation  from  this  principle  are  onlj' 
such  as  facilitate  interpretation,  or  are  due  to  histori- 
cal accidents. 

If,  now,  it  be  further  observed  that  the  sensation 
of  pitch  also  is  proportional  to  the  logarithm  of  the 
number  of  vibrations,  and  that  the  intervals  between 
the  notes  correspond  to  the  differences  of  the  loga- 
rithms of  the  numbers  of  vibrations,  the  justification 
will  be  found  in  these  facts  of  calling  the  harmonies 
and  melodies  which  appear  in  the  mirror,  symmetrical 
to  the  original  ones. 

*  * 

I  simply  wish  to  bring  home  to  your  minds  by  these 
fragmentary  remarks  that  the  progress  of  the  physical 
sciences  has  been  of  great  help  to  those  branches  of 
psychology  that  have  not  scorned  to  consider  the  re- 
sults of  physical  research.  On  the  other  hand,  psy- 
chology is  beginning  to  return,  as  it  were,  in  a  spirit 
of  thankfulness,  the  powerful  stimulus  which  it  received 
from  physics. 

The  theories  of  physics  which  reduce  all  phenom- 
ena to  the  motion  and  equilibrium  of  smallest  par- 
ticles, the  so-called  molecular  theories,  have  been 
gravely  threatened  by  the  progress  of  the  theory  of  the 
senses  and  of  space,  and  we  may  say  that  their  days 
are  numbered. 

I  have  shown  elsewhere  *  that  the  musical  scale  is 
simply  a  species  of  space — a  space,  however,  of  only 
one  dimension,  and  that,  a  one-sided  one.  If,  now,  a 
person  who  could  only  hear,  should  attempt  to  develop 
a  conception  of  the  world  in  this,  his  linear  space,  he 
would  become  involved  in  many  difficulties,  as  his  space 
would  be  incompetent  to  comprehend  the  many  sides 
of  the  relations  of  reality.  But  is  it  any  more  justifi- 
able for  us,  to  attempt  to  force  the  whole  world  into  the 
space  of  our  eye,  in  aspects  in  which  it  is  not  accessi- 
ble to  the  eye  ?  Yet  this  is  the  dilemma  of  all  mo- 
lecular theories. 

We  possess,  however,  a  sense,  which,  with  respect 

*  Compare  Mach's  /.ur  T/ieoyie  des  G^hm-organs.  Vienna  Academy,  1SG3. 


to  the  scope  of  the  relations  which  it  can  comprehend, 
is  richer  than  any  other.  It  is  our  reason.  This  stands 
above  the  senses.  It  alone  is  competent  to  found  a 
permanent  and  sufficient  view  of  the  world.  The 
mechanical  conception  of  the  world  has  performed 
wonders  since  Galileo's  time.  But  it  must  now  yield 
to  a  broader  view  of  things.  A  further  development  of 
this  idea  is  beyond  the  limits  of  my  present  purpose. 

One  more  point  and  I  have  done.  The  advice  of 
our  philosopher  to  restrict  ourselves  to  what  is  near 
at  hand  and  useful  in  our  researches,  which  finds  a 
kind  of  exemplification  in  the  present  cry  of  inquirers 
for  limitation  and  division  of  labor,  must  not  be  too 
slavishly  followed.  In  the  seclusion  of  our  closets,  we 
often  rack  our  brains  in  vain  to  fulfil  a  work,  the 
means  of  accomplishing  which  lies  before  our  very 
doors.  If  the  inquirer  must  be  perforce  a  shoemaker, 
tapping  constantly  at  his  last,  it  may  perhaps  be  per- 
mitted him  to  be  a  shoemaker  of  the  type  of  Hans 
Sachs,  who  did  not  deem  it  beneath  him  to  take  a 
look  now  and  then  at  his  neighbor's  doings  and  make 
his  comments  on  the  latter's  work. 

Let  this  be  my  apology,  therefore,  if  I  have  for- 
saken for  a  moment  to-day  the  last  of  my  specialty. 


"THE  GOSPEL  OF  JESUS  CHRIST."* 

BY  JOHN  SANDISON. 

The  Jewish  religion  was  a  religion  of  hope  in  a  fu- 
ture time,  in  which  God  was  to  glorify  Himself  in  His 
people  and  redeem  them  from  evil.  This  hope  was 
the  ground  of  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist  and 
what  he  begun  was  continued  in  another  way  and  with 
another  result  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  He  had  been 
one  of  those  who,  moved  by  John's  announcement  to 
repent  for  the  kingdom  of  God  was  at  hand,  had  hur- 
ried to  John  to  be  prepared  for  the  kingdom  by  bap- 
tism, and  there  was  nothing  that  would  justify  us  in 
holding  the  view  that  Jesus  had  from  the  beginning 
already  connected  another  sense  with  these  words  than 
the  sense  in  which  they  were  understood  by  the  peo- 
ple. Rather  was  it  extremely  probable  that  Jesus  un- 
derstood the  conception  of  the  kingdom  of  God  exactly 
in  the  same  sense  as  all  others  before  Him — namely 
in  the  apocalyptic  sense  of  redemption  of  the  oppressed 
people  and  a  revelation  of  all  things  on  earth  brought 
about  by  divine  omnipotence. 

Yet  were  the  manner  and  appearance  of  Jesus  en- 
tirely different  from  those  of  the  Baptist  from  the  be- 
ginning. His  preaching  became  glad  tidings  for  the 
consolation  and  the  raising  up  of  the  souls  that  were 
bowed  down.  The  ground  of  this  difference  lay  in  the 
religious  personality  of  Jesus  himself,  in  His  spirit  of 
child-like  trust  in  God  and  inward  love  of  God.  God 
was  not  to  him  a  far-off,  unapproachable  power  and  a 

*  Report  of  Professor  Pfleiderer's  "  Gifford  Lecture  "  No.  13, 


4020 


THE     OFEIsT     COURT. 


stern  judge,  but  a  Father  with  whom  He  knew  Him- 
self to  be  connected  in  the  most  inward  and  confiden- 
tial way;  and  with  this  view  was  connected  His  love 
of  men,  which  led  Him  to  communicate  His  belief  and 
hope  for  them  to  share  in.  Between  this  inward  love 
of  God  and  the  abiding  love  of  men  there  was  in  Jesus 
no  discordance,  but  entire  oneness.  God  who  lovingly 
revealed  Himself  in  the  world,  guided  man  and  edu- 
cated him  for  the  eternal  life.  The  pious  man  did  not 
serve  God  by  turning  away  from  the  world,  which  was 
to  be  the  sphere  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  nor  could  he 
be  indifferent  to  men  who  were  to  be  God's  children. 
Thus  inmost  piety  became  not  a  motive  for  flying  from 
the  word,  but  heartfelt  brotherly  love,  labor  for  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  service  for  humanity. 

In  the  view  of  Jesus  the  love  of  God  was  not  a 
thing  existing  for  itself.  It  had  the  root  of  its  power 
and  purity  in  religious  faith.  Nor  was  His  brotherly 
love  mere  visionary  optimism.  He  saw  that  men  were 
evil,  but  with  all  this  sober  knowledge  He  had  a  faith 
in  the  capability  of  the  saving  and  redeeming  of  those 
who  were  sunk  and  lost  in  the  sin  and  pleasures  of  the 
world.  This  view  was  possible,  because  He  recognised 
in  man  the  germ  of  the  child  of  God,  that  spiritual  im- 
pulse which  sprang  from  the  Father  of  Spirits  and 
strove  back  to  Him,  and  yearned  for  life,  and  light,  and 
freedom. 

This  message  He  wished  to  communicate  to  His 
unhappy  brethren  in  order  that  they  might  be  what 
they  were  capable  of  being — sons  of  the  Heavenly 
Father.  This  task  of  Jesus  had  become  a  task  quite 
other  than  it  had  been  for  the  Baptist.  However  much 
He  might  think  with  the  Baptist  of  the  nearness  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  it  was  not  enough  for  Him  to  pro- 
claim the  summons  to  repent.  His  task  was  rather 
beginning  the  work  of  saving  and  educating  love  in 
the  individual,  and  the  carrying  of  it  out  in  constant 
patience  and  gentleness.  In  this  consisted  what  was 
specifically  new  in  the  work  of  Jesus,  that  He  did  not 
merely  tell  of  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a 
future  event,  but  that  He  made  its  realisation  a  task 
for  human  endeavor,  which  might  be  designated  as  the 
work  of  the  religious  and  moral  education  of  man. 
Therefore,  had  He  become  the  founder  and  head  not 
merely  of  a  new  religion,  but  of  a  new  religious  world 
whose  abiding  task  was  to  educate  the  natural  man  to 
be  the  child  of  God. 

From  our  standpoint  this  work  was  the  beginning 
of  the  actually  existing  kingdom  of  God  and  not  merely 
of  preparation  for  the  future  kingdom  of  God,  but 
Christ's  view  of  the  kingdom  of  God  was  that  of  John 
the  Baptist  himself.  "There  be  some  here  that  shall 
not  taste  of  death  till  they  see  the  kingdom  of  God 
come  with  power."  But  while  among  the  Jews  the 
belief  that  God  would  come  and  take  actively  into  His 


own  hands  the  government  of  the  world,  took  a  po- 
litical significance,  with  Jesus  this  view  passed  com- 
pletely into  the  background  the  more  His  passionate 
soul  was  moved  by  the  immediate  distresses  of  the 
people  and  the  more  His  attention  was  concentrated  on 
the  remedies  for  this  distress,  which  had  to  begin  in 
the  individual.  What  we  recognised  as  new  in  the 
work  of  Jesus  was  that  He  perceived  His  task  began  in 
saving  work  among  the  individuals.  To  Him  the  com- 
ing consisted  in  the  overcoming  of  the  universal  do- 
minion of  Satan  by  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
He  did  not  seek  it  in  a  national  catastrophe,  but  in  the 
experience  of  individual  souls.  What  was  more  nat- 
ural than  that,  in  the  daily  multiplied  results  of  His 
work,  he  should  perceive  the  beginning  of  the  realisa- 
tion of  God's  universal  dominion  in  the  world  ? 

The  idea  of  the  development  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  was  set  forth  again  and  again  in  the  parables  and 
stood  in  contradiction  to  the  apocalyptic  idea  of  cat- 
astrophe ;  but  it  was  a  fact  of  history  that  the  old  ideas 
were  not  set  aside  by  the  new  at  once,  but  continued 
to  exist  alongside  of  the  new  ideas,  while  they  gradu- 
ally lost  their  significance,  and  so  the  idea  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  begun  in  the  individual,  did  not  do  awa}' 
at  once  with  the  apocalyptic  idea,  and  while  the  view 
of  the  future  lost  its  apocalyptic  eudsemonistic  aspect, 
that  of  the  religious  and  moral  conquest  of  the  world 
became  prominent.  As  the  preaching  of  the  Baptist 
had  awakened  in  Jesus  the  consciousness  of  His  life 
task,  so  now  He  also  again  in  His  preaching  made  the 
nearness  of  the  kingdom  of  God  the  motive  of  His 
moral  demands,  which  were  all  summed  up  in  one 
sentence — "  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness."  This  righteousness  consisted  in  doing 
the  will  of  God,  and  in  His  demand  He  opposed  moral 
conduct  to  the  ceremonial  observances  of  the  Phari- 
sees. Jesus  in  this  demand  did  not  destroy  the  law, 
but  fulfilled  it  by  carrying  it  back  to  the  absolute  ideal 
of  God-like  perfection.  To  become  like  God  was  to  ful- 
fil our  most  proper  designation — to  be  that  which  we 
were  already  in  the  groundwork  of  our  being  as  chil- 
dren of  God. 

With  this  view  there  was  given  an  entirely  new 
estimation  of  ritualistic  action.  It  was  no  longer  a 
service  by  which  man  could  purchase  merit  with  God, 
but  it  was  the  satisfaction  of  man's  need  to  give  ex- 
pression to  his  pious  sentiments.  The  external  per- 
formances of  asceticism  alone  were  worthless  hypo- 
crisy. The  consecration  of  one's  self  and  means  was 
true  service  to  God.  In  the  view  of  Jesus  the  denial 
of  the  world  and  self  was  not  to  lose  the  world,  but 
was  merely  a  means  of  gaining  oneself  and,  a  better 
world.  The  ascetic  demand  in  Jesus  did  not  rest  on 
a  radical  dualism  between  the  finite  and  the  infinite. 
From  the  error  of  abstract  pantheistic  mysticism  Jesus 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4021 


had  been  kept  by  His  faith  in  the  loving  Father  whose 
nature  it  was  to  communicate  Himself  to  His  children, 
and  therefore  to  preserve  and  not  annihilate  their 
lives.  What  was  to  be  denied  was  the  false  view  of 
life  that  was  at  enmity  with  God.  This  dying  and  liv- 
ing again  was  the  deep  core  in  the  ethics  of  Jesus  be- 
yond which  neither  science  nor  culture  would  ever 
pass. 

CURRENT  TOPICS. 

The  defeat  of  the  Government  on  Mr.  Labouchere's  motion  to 
abolish  the  House  of  Lords  is  ominous  of  disaster  to  Lord  Rose- 
bery  and  his  administration.  It  is  a  beginning  full  of  evil  augu- 
ries, and  Lord  Rosebery  is  justified  in  showing  vexation  and  even 
wrath.  If  he  should  resign  and  let  the  cabinet  break  up  he  would 
not  be  without  excuse.  It  is  true,  the  decision  was  reversed  the 
next  day,  but  it  was  reversed  by  the  consent  of  the  opposition,  who 
did  not  care  to  triumph  on  such  a  radical  issue,  and  Mr.  Labou- 
chere  himself  declared  that  he  did  not  intend  by  his  motion  to  ex- 
press a  "want  of  confidence"  in  the  prime  minister.  This  was 
well  enough,  but  still,  no  subsequent  proceedings  could  reverse  the 
fact  that  the  Government  had  suffered  a  defeat.  Lord  Rosebery 
could  not  help  feeling  that  he  had  been  ill  used,  and  that  had  Mr. 
Gladstone  been  in  office,  or  had  he  himself  been  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  the  disaster  would  never  have  occurred.  Of  course  it 
is  a  consolation  that  when  the  troops  got  ready  they  regained  the 
field  of  battle,  that  such  a  vote  was  not  expected,  that  the  captains 
were  at  dinner,  that  the  whips  were  asleep  on  post,  and  all  the  rest 
of  It,  but  the  disagreeable  fact  remains  that  Mr.  Labouchere  was 
not  asleep,  and  that  he  outnumbered  his  enemy  at  the  point  of  at- 
tack, which  is  good  strategy  in  war.  Mr.  Labouchere  has  been 
consistent  all  the  time.  At  the  very  beginning  he  protested  as  a 
member  of  the  Liberal  party  that  a  peer  ought  not  to  be  prime 
minister,  and  he  has  convinced  Lord  Rosebery  that  many  mem- 
bers of  Parliament,  including,  perhaps,  a  few  cabinet  ministers, 
are  of  opinion  that  the  prime  minister  ought  to  be,  and  must  be,  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  where  he  can  be  got  at. 
*  * 

Speaking  last  week  of  senatorial  stock-jobbing,  I  said  that  un- 
less the  accused  Senators,  or  some  not  accused,  should  ask  for  a 
committee  of  investigation,  suspicion  would  settle  down  upon  the 
whole  body  of  the  Senate.  Jealous  of  his  own  personal  honor,  and 
in  deference  to  public  sentiment,  Mr.  Peffer,  a  Senator  from  Kan- 
sas, moved  for  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  investigate  the 
charges  made  by  the  newspapers.  His  resolution  was  defiantly 
laid  upon  the  table,  and  the  proposed  investigation  smothered  by  a 
vote  of  33  to  27.  Questions  of  this  kind,  involving  personal  char- 
acter and  official  opportunities,  reveal  the  close  affinity  existing  be- 
tween ' '  the  two  great  parties  "  in  the  Senate.  In  the  majority  were 
twenty  Democrats  and  thirteen  Republicans ;  in  the  minority  were 
eleven  Democrats  and  thirteen  Republicans,  white  thirteen  Demo- 
crats and  twelve  Republicans  abstained  from  voting,  or,  in  the 
rude  language  of  the  reporter,  "dodged  the  vote."  The  Populist 
party  voted  unanimously  for  the  investigation,  but,  unfortunately, 
only  three  of  the  Populist  men  said  "Here!"  to  the  muster-roll. 
However,  like  the  widow  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  they  gave  all 
they  had,  three  mites,  and  they  shall  have  more  credit  than  the 
Democrats  who  gave  eleven,  or  the  Republicans  who  gave  thirteen. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  the  investigation  was  refused,  because  an 
investigation,  when  it  explodes,  is  apt  to  scatter  like  a  dynamite 
bomb  and  hit  somebody  far  beyond  its  probable  range.  A  piece 
of  it  may  shatter  a  secret  panel  and  reveal  some  collateral  corrup- 
tion that  was  never  dreamed  of  by  the  mover  of  the  resolution,  nor 
suspected  by  the  people.  The  Credit  Mobilier  investigation  was 
an  awful  warning  ;  and  some  of  the  Senators  remember  that. 


The  political  enterprise  known  as  the  "  Christian  Citizenship" 
movement  is  in  a  state  of  activity  still,  but  up  to  the  hour  of  going 
to  press  the  results  of  it  are  not  encouraging.  A  Sunday  or  two 
ago,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Giflord,  of  the  Immanuel  Baptist  Church,  in  an 
eloquent  sermon  on  the  administration  of  Joseph  in  Egypt,  ex- 
horted Christian  citizens  to  turn  out  and  vote  for  men  like  Joseph, 
and  he  called  upon  them  to  rally,  not  only  at  the  polls,  but  also  at 
the  primaries.  "Go  to  the  primaries,"  he  said,  "and  see  that 
good  men  are  nominated.  When  a  prayer-meeting  and  a  primary 
come  the  same  night,  go  to  the  primary."  The  advice  appears  to 
have  had  some  effect,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  Democratic  prima- 
ries held  yesterday,  March  13,  in  the  Twenty-fourth  Ward,  the 
account  of  which  I  find  in  the  CAii-u^'n  Record,  a  paper  entirely 
non-partisan  and  independent.  According  to  that,  the  two  rival 
candidates  for  alderman  were  Fred  Griesheimer  and  Watson  Ruddy, 
and,  as  is  usual  in  these  cases,  they  and  their  several  factions 
"were  at  swords'  points  all  day."  The  convention  was  appointed 
for  the  North  Side  Turner  Hall,  but  when  the  Democrats  arrived 
there,  they  found  the  hall  in  possession  of  the  Republicans,  and  in 
order  to  prevent  a  riot  fifteen  policemen  were  sent  over  from  the 
neighboring  station,  whereupon  the  Democrats  adjourned  their 
convention  to  Brand's  Hall,  at  the  corner  of  Clark  and  Erie  Streets  ; 
but,  unfortunately,  they  had  to  pass  through  a  saloon  to  get  there, 
a  feat  never  accomplished  by  a  Democratic  convention.  The  aroma 
of  whiskey,  beer,  and  tobacco  was  too  delicious  ;  and  so,  as  the 
Record  informs  us,  "the  crowd  stopped  in  the  saloon  below  and 
soon  became  boisterous";  then  they  proceeded  to  nominate  an 
alderman  like  Joseph,  after  a  fashion  probably  not  known  to  the 
uncivilised  people  in  the  land  of  Egypt. 

*  * 

The  moral  influence  of  the  Christian  Citizenship  Reform  will 
appear  from  the  account  of  the  proceedings  had  at  the  convention 
in  Brand's  Hall  and  the  beer-saloon  below  The  delegates  having 
reached  the  saloon,  "trouble  began  to  show  itself, "  and,  as  the 
Record  goes  on  to  say,  ' '  while  the  two  parties  were  talking,  '  Broad ' 
McAbee  and  W.  W.  Wells  jumped  up  on  beer-tables  and  called 
for  order."  Instead  of  order  they  got  chaos,  which  was  probably 
what  they  wanted,  for  Wells  nominated  McAbee  for  chairman. 
At  this  there  were  "  howls  of  disapproval  from  the  Griesheimerites, 
but  McAbee  kept  his  position  upon  the  beer-table.  Cries  for  '  Mur- 
phy '  brought  out  Frank  Murphy,  who  called  the  delegates  lo  come 
forward,  and  then  'Broad'  McAbee  made  another  speech."  The 
police  had  hard  work  to  keep  the  peace,  but  all  the  better  for  that, 
amid  "  howls  of  delig'ht  from  the  Ruddy  faction  and  groans  from 
the  Griesheimer  men,"  a  man  named  Cassidy  moved  that  Ruddy 
be  the  nominee.  This  was  declared  carried  by  the  man  on  the 
beer-table,  and  then  Ruddy  was  "  lifted  "  to  a  table  and  made  a 
short  speech.  Meanwhile  Griesheimer's  men  had  gone  up-stairs 
and  begun  a  contradictory  convention  of  their  own.  At  the  six 
polling  places  the  Record  says  the  contest  all  the  afternoon  was 
"hot,"  and  hottest  at  the  polling  place  165  North  Clark  Street. 
There,  just  before  the  polls  closed,  a  crowd  collected  in  the  alley 
and  broke  into  the  polling-place.  A  number  of  ballots  were  taken  out 
of  the  box  by  some  person  and  scattered  all  along  the  alley.  The 
judges  secured  "  what  was  left,"  and,  after  looking  over  the  situa- 
tion,— not  the  ballots,  but  the  "situation," — declared  the  Gries- 
heimer delegates  elected.  This  interesting  report  concludes  by 
saying  :  "  The  fight  will  probably  be  fought  out  this  afternoon  in 
the  Democratic  headquarters."  And  the  puzzle  of  it  all  is  that  the 
members  of  both  factions  were  Christian  citizens. 

Five  hundred  years  ago,  Wat  Tyler's  hungry  army  marched 
on  London,  captured  it,  and  very  nearly  made  a  revolution  ;  the 
reincarnation  of  it  now  threatens  to  march  on  Washington.  The 
American  Wat  Tyler  is  a  man  of  substance  by  the  name  of  Coxey, 
and  he  proposes  to  review  the  nucleus  of  his  army,  two  or  three 


4022 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


thousand  men,  on  Easter  Sunday  at  Masillon,  Ohio,  and  begin  his 
march  from  there,  preceded  by  a  brass  band  in  the  legitimate  circus 
way.  At  Pittsburg  he  is  to  be  reinforced  by  a  corps  numbering 
twenty  thousand  men,  and  marching  through  Pennsylvania,  picking 
up  recruits  along  the  road  as  Tyler  marched  through  Kent,  Gen- 
eral Coxey  expects  to  have  an  army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men  by 
the  time  he  reaches  Washington,  w-hich  curiously  enough  is  the 
number  Wat  Tyler  had  behind  him  when  he  stood  upon  Black- 
heath  and  gazed  upon  the  great  city  three  or  four  miles  away.  Wat 
Tyler's  insurrection  was  a  tragedy  for  him  and  for  his  army,  but  it 
was  a  step  forward  in  that  invincible  rebellion  against  wrong  that 
in  some  form  or  other  will  never  cease  until  justice  is  done.  Hap- 
pily, we  can  look  upon  Coxey's  imitation  of  Tyler,  and  anticipate 
nothing  more  serious  than  comedy.  One  of  the  easiest  achieve- 
ments for  any  man  in  this  country  is  to  "raise  a  ridgraent."  I  have 
tried  it,  and  I  know.  We  are  a  marching  people,  and  we  like  to  be 
in  the  procession.  Ask  a  man  to  walk  a  half  a  mile  and  he  will  re- 
spond like  a  log  of  wood,  but  invite  him  to  "  march  "  twenty  miles 
or  five  hundred,  and  he  is  ready  in  an  instant  for  the  trip  I  re- 
member a  thousand  of  my  neighbors  who  would  not  walk  with  me 
ten  rods,  but  when  I  invited  them  to  "jnarch  "  they  eagerly  "fell 
in,"  and  tramped  with  me  all  over  the  Southern  States.  So  it  will 
be  with  Mr.  Coxey  ;  he  will  find  a  large  number  of  recruits  who 
would  not  walk  the  length  of  a  street  for  wages,  who  will  "march" 
with  him  any  distance,  and  as  to  the  trifling  matter  of  subsistence, 
they  will  cheerfully  put  up  with  whatever  the  market  affords.  They 
will  forage  on  the  country,  and  there's  where  the  trouble  will  be- 
gin, for  the  country  will  very  likely  refuse  to  be  foraged  upon,  and 
the  army  will  dissolve  before  it  reaches  Pittsburg. 
*  *  * 
In  spite  of  all  the  precautions  taken  by  the  authorities  to  arrest 
him  and  prevent  his  landing,  I  have  to  record  the  humiliating  fact 
that  "one  Charles  Templeton,"  a  determined  and  dangerous  for- 
eigner, eliiding  the  vigilance  of  the  officers  and  the  detectives,  de- 
fiantly walked  into  the  overcrowded  United  States  of  America  last 
Thursday  night  from  the  steamer  Majestic,  and  he  is  now  actually 
at  large.  It  is  charged  against  this  man  Templeton  that  he  has 
come  to  this  country  with  the  desperate  intention  to  earn  an  honest 
living  as  assistant  secretary  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, and  that  he  had  already  secured  the  situation  before  he  left 
his  native  country  to  invade  this  land.  This  is  the  crime  for  which 
Mr.  Templeton  has  been  advertised  as  a  fugitive  malefactor  in  the 
following  proclamation  issued  by  an  American  potentate  named 
Stump,  a  dignitary  holding  the  imperialistic  office  of  Superintendent 
of  Immigration  :  "To  Inspectors  and  Interpreters  : — You  will  keep 
a  careful  lookout  for  one  Charles  Templeton  of  Liverpool,  Eng- 
land, who  is  reported  as  coming  to  this  country  under  contract, 
having  been  engaged  as  assistant  secretary  to  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association.  Detain  him,  if  found,  and  report  to  me  im- 
mediately." To  "detain"  a  passenger  is  to  imprison  him,  and  the 
reasons  given  by  Mr.  Stump  in  his  order  to  ' '  detain  "  Mr.  Temple- 
ton are  insufficient,  and  contrary  to  all  enlightened  law.  The 
American  Government  would  not  for  a  moment  allow  them  to  be 
good  enough  to  "detain"  an  .American  citizen  at  Liverpool,  or 
Bremen,  or  St.  Petersburg.  Mr.  Templeton  came  over  in  the  sec- 
ond cabin  of  the  Majestic  and  made  no  effort  to  conceal  himself  or 
his  business  ;  and  the  reason  why  he  was  not  arrested  I  assume  to 
be  that  the  "Inspectors  and  Interpreters"  thought  they  were  called 
upon  to  perform  an  ignominious  duty,  and  so,  instead  of  searching 
the  second  cabin  where  Mr.  Templeton  was,  they  looked  in  the  first 
cabin  and  in  the  steerage,  and  in  every  part  of  the  ship  where  Mr. 

Templeton  was  not. 

* 

It  seems  that  the  true  character  and  constitution  of  the  Amer- 
ican Senate  will  be  made  plain  through  the  columns  of  /'//<•  ('/''" 
Coiirl,  and  Mr.  Conway's  contribution  in  the  last  number  is  of 


great  historic  interest.  He  shows  what  I  have  always  contended 
for,  that  the  United  States  Senate  is  the  toryisra  of  George  the 
Third's  reign  embalmed  in  the  American  Constitution.  I  presented 
a  similar  view  of  it  in  a  contribution  to  the  Nineteenth  Cenliiiy, 
London,  August,  1885,  and  in  that  article  I  maintained  that  the 
Senate  with  its  aristocratic  prerogatives  was  a  close  imitation  of  the 
House  of  Lords  as  the  House  of  Lords  was  at  the  time  our  Consti- 
tution was  adopted.  In  that  instrument  an  additional  protection 
was  given  to  the  Senate  through  a  provision  borrowed  from  the 
Medes  and  Persians  by  which  the  "rotten  borough"  system  was 
made  perpetual  and  the  Senate  itself  preserved  from  reformation 
except  by  the  impossible  consent  of  all  the  States  expressed  in  a 
unanimous  vote.  I  also  showed  that  although  the  House  of  Lords 
had  been  compelled  to  surrender  some  of  its  prerogatives  to  the 
democratic  spirit  of  the  time,  the  Senate  had  relatively  gone  back- 
ward, for  in  a  progressive  age  like  this,  to  stand  still  is  to  go  back. 
I  repeat  what  I  have  said  before,  that  there  was  a  conservative 
party  strong  enough  to  enforce  its  will  in  the  convention  that  framed 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  this  faction  determined  that 
in  one  branch  of  Congress  the  minority  should  rule,  and  its  plan 
was  carried  out  in  the  constitution  of  the  Senate.  If  we  put  eccen- 
trics in  a  machine  we  must  not  expect  them  to  work  in  the  way 
concentrics  do ;  the  Senate  is  what  it  was  intended  to  be. 

M.  M.  Trumbull. 


NOTES. 

Baron  Tauchnitz,  the  distinguished  Leipsic  publisher,  whose 
large  book  exhibit  in  the  German  House  at  Jackson  Park  will  be 
remembered  by  many  visitors  to  the  World's  Fair,  has  sent  to  the 
Cornell  University,  at  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  some  of  the  more  solid  works 
of  that  collection.  Among  the  authors  represented  are  such  schol- 
ars as  Baer,  Delitzsch,  Fuerst,  Tischendorf,  Gebhardt,  Stahl, 
Haase,  Lipsius,  Schanz,  Berner,  etc. ;  and  among  the  works  Da- 
vidson's edition  of  Fuerst's  large  "  Hebrew  and  Chaldee  Lexicon," 
Theile's  "  Biblia  Hebraica,"  Salkowski's  "  Lehrbuch  der  Institu- 
tionen,"  and  Friedberg's  "  Lehrbuch  des  Kirchenrechts."  Baron 
Tauchnitz  has  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  George  W.  Harris,  Li- 
brarian of  Cornell  University,  thanking  him  warmly  for  his  very 
generous  gift. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  PUBLlsHE 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 


N.  B.  Binding  Cases  for  single  yearly  volumes  of  The  Op£n  Cour 
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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  343. 

SYMMETRY.     A  Popular  Scientific  Lecture.   Prof.  Ernst 

Mach 4015 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.     John  Sandison.  .   4019 

CURRENT  TOPICS  :  Labouchere  and  the  Lords.  Inves- 
tigation Bombs.  Christians  and  the  Primaries.  Wat 
Tyler's  March.  Stop  him  !  He  Wants  to  Earn  His  Liv- 
ing.    Toryism  embalmed.     Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull  .. .   4021 

NOTES 4022 


390 


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DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  344.     (Vol.  VIII.-13.) 


CHICAGO,  MARCH  29,   1894. 


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KOSSUTH.   • 

BY   M.    M.    TRUMBULL. 

The  going  down  of  a  great  man  into  his  grave  re- 
sembles in  solemnity  the  sinking  of  a  ship  ;  and  Louis 
Kossuth  was  a  great  man,  cast  in  the  old  heroic  mould. 
His  mental  and  spiritual  constitution  was  of  the  classic 
order  like  that  of  the  ideal  Greeks,  and  his  eloquence 
was  classic ;  stately  and  splendid  as  the  oratory  of  the 
ancients  who  gave  him  inspiration.  He  dies  in  exile 
at  the  age  of  ninety-two,  and  his  work  is  almost  for- 
gotten, for  it  was  done  forty-five  years  ago,  but  he 
moved  the  world  forward  a  little  ;  it  may  have  been 
but  a  few  paces,  but  he  moved  it  forward  ;  and  the 
nations  are  nearer  to  liberty  because  of  him. 

In  Louis  Kossuth  nature  had  harmoniously  blended 
many  of  the  qualities  that  make  excellence  in  man, 
and  he  was  endowed  with  a  capacity  large  enough  to 
hold  all  the  learning  possible  to  be  acquired  from  books 
or  by  experience.  As  a  scholar,  orator,  statesman, 
journalist,  popular  leader,  and  parliamentary  leader, 
Kossuth  is  entitled  to  high  rank,  while  as  Governor, 
and  Dictator  of  Hungary  he  showed  creative  and  ad- 
ministrative ability  enough  to  conjure  armies  out  of 
heterogeneous  and  untrained  materials,  to  get  revenues 
for  an  empty  treasury,  to  reanimate  the  people  of 
Hungary,  and  to  organise  an  armed  resistance  to  the 
.imperial  power  of  Austria  ;  a  resistance  that  was  over- 
come at  last,  only  by  the  desertion  of  General  Gorgey 
and  the  intervention  of  Russia  with  an  army.  Then, 
defeated  and  betrayed,  Kossuth  sought  refuge  upon 
Turkish  ground. 

As  soon  as  the  Hungarian  refugees  had  found  shel- 
ter on  Turkish  territory,  the  Austrian  Government  de- 
manded that  Kossuth  and  his  companions  be  given  up 
as  fugitive  criminals  who  had  offended  against  the  laws 
of  Austria,  but  the  Sultan  replied  that  hospitality 
to  strangers  was  part  of  the  Mohammedan  religion, 
and  that  it  would  be  contrary  to  the  law  and  practice 
of  Islam  to  surrender  a  guest  unto  his  enemies.  The 
demand  for  the  extradition  of  Kossuth  must  therefore 
be  refused.  Russia  supported  the  demand  of  Austria, 
but  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  endorsed  the 
answer  of  the  Sultan,  and  Kossuth  was  therefore  safe. 
In  a  few  months  an  American   ship  sent  over  by  Con- 


gress for  that  purpose  gave  him  shelter  under  the 
American  flag,  and  carried  him  to  England. 

Kossuth  aroused  in  England  sympathetic  enthusi- 
asm as  much  by  his  oratory  as  because  of  his  misfor- 
tunes and  his  cause.  His  command  of  the  English 
language  was  equal  to  that  of  the  great  orators,  and 
some  of  his  speeches  are  among  the  English  classics 
now.  The  marvellous  part  of  his  accomplishment  was 
that  he  had  acquired  it  in  prison,  with  no  teachers 
whatever  except  a  dictionary,  a  grammar,  and  a  copy 
of  Shakespeare's  plays.  Faithful  he  must  have  been 
to  his  chief  master,  for  some  of  his  addresses  march 
along  in  dignity  and  grace  like  the  declamations  that 
we  find  in  Shakespeare.  In  the  United  States  his 
brilliant  gift  brought  him  disappointment  and  sorrow, 
for  it  caused  the  promised  national  welcome  to  be 
withdrawn. 

In  his  address  to  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
dated  at  Broussa,  Asia  Minor,  March  27,  1850,  Kos- 
suth among  many  other  things  declared  it  to  have  been 
among  his  revolutionary  purposes  : 

"That  every  inhabitant  of  Hungary  without  regarding  lan- 
guage or  religion  should  be  free  and  equal  before  the  law — all 
classes  having  the  same  privileges  and  protection  from  the  law." 

That  was  the  key-note  of  Kossuth's  orations  in 
England  and  in  the  United  States ;  liberty,  the  right 
of  all  men  to  be  equal  before  the  law,  and  this  it  was 
that  gave  offence  to  the  dominant  caste  in  America, 
for  at  the  time  when  Kossuth  visited  this  country, 
slavery  was  our  master  here,  while  the  "two  great 
parties "  of  that  era  cringed  and  wriggled  in  servile 
obedience  to  it ;  and  that  is  the  reason  why  Kossuth's 
welcome  was  withdrawn. 

In  the  crisis  of  his  career,  and  when  he  was  a  fugi- 
tive in  Turkey  the  sympathy  of  the  American  people 
was  heartily  with  Kossuth,  and  that  sympathy  was 
never  taken  from  him  although  he  may  have  thought 
it  was,  and  very  likely  died  in  that  belief.  At  that 
time  the  interest  of  the  American  people  in  Kossuth 
and  his  fortunes  was  manifested  in  the  most  generous 
and  enthusiastic  way,  and  animated  by  it  Congress  in- 
vited him  to  be  the  nation's  guest,  an  invitation  which 
he  accepted  with  extreme  gratitude  and  pleasure,  but 
when  he  came  to  New  York  he  found,  not  that  the 
people  had   grown  cold,  but   that  the  politicians  had 


4024 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


become  alarmed,  for  slavery  had  given  orders  that  the 
man  who  talked  of  liberty  should  not  be  the  nation's 
guest ;  and  slavery  had  its  way. 

The  reception  given  to  Kossuth  by  the  citizens  of 
New  York  was  magnificent,  but  he  felt  sorely  grieved 
because  Congress  had  refused  him  a  welcome  as  the 
nation's  guest  after  having  formally  given  him  a  na- 
tional invitation  ;  and  speaking  to  a  delegation  from 
Philadelphia,  he  said  : 

"  I  must  confess  that  I  have  received  here  in  New  York  such 
a  manifesiation  of  the  sympathy  of  the  people  as  gives  me  hope 
and  consolation  ;  still  I  regard  myself  invited  to  this  country  by 
an  act  of  Congress  initiated  in  the  Senate.  Now,  had  I  known 
that,  in  the  same  place  where  I  was  invited,  the  same  body  would 
now  decline  to  give  me  welcome,  I  would  not  have  thought  that  I 
was  a  welcome  guest ;  so  much  the  more  as  the  President  of  the 
United  States  has  formally  invited  the  Congress  in  his  message  to 
consider  what  steps  are  to  be  taken  to  receive  the  man  for  whom 
he  sent  a  frigate  to  Asia,  complying  with  the  will  of  the  same  body 
in  which  the  resolution  to  give  me  welcome  was  withdrawn,  on 
account  of  an  expected  opposition." 

Kossuth  was  presented  to  the  Senate  in  a  private 
capacity  as  a  distinguished  foreigner,  or  something  of 
the  kind,  but  on  condition  that  he  would  not  say  any- 
thing when  introduced  and  invited  to  take  a  seat,  and 
a  similar  performance  took  place  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. Something  of  an  apology  was  offered  in 
the  shape  of  a  big  banquet  given  to  the  exile  and  pre- 
sided over  bj'  the  President  of  the  Senate,  with  Daniel 
Webster  at  the  table,  but  the  slight  put  upon  Kossuth 
by  Congress  wounded  him,  and  his  aspiring  soul  bore 
the  scar  of  the  wound  even  to  the  end  of  his  life  ;  but 
slavery  was  inexorable  in  those  days,  and  slavery  was 
king. 

Kossuth  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  great  events 
in  which  he  bore  so  conspicuous  a  part  fade  away  al- 
most into  ancient  history  ;  crowded  out  of  memory  by 
more  tremendous  deeds,  and  among  them  the  regen- 
eration of  Italy,  the  defeat  of  Austria  by  France,  and 
afterwards  by  Prussia  ;  and  greatest  of  all,  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery  in  America.  If  he  had  comfort  in  re- 
venge these  things  may  have  given  him  consolation, 
for  in  his  exile  Austria  was  never  generous  to  him, 
although  in  a  critical  hour  he  had  been  magnanimous 
to  Austria,  and  to  the  imperial  dynasty.  Referring  to 
the  ingratitude  of  Austria,  Kossuth  speaks  as  follows 
in  his  letter  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  : 

"Two  years  ago,  by  God's  providence,  I,  who  would  be  only 
a  humble  citizen,  held  in  ray  hands  the  destiny  of  the  reigning 
House  of  Austria. 

"Had  I  been  ambitious,  or  had  I  believed  that  the  treacher- 
ous family  were  so  basely  wicked  as  they  afterwards  proved  them- 
selves to  be,  the  tottering  pillars  of  their  throne  would  have  fallen 
at  my  command,  and  buried  the  crowned  traitors  beneath  their 
ruins,  or  would  have  scattered  them  like  dust  before  the  tempest, 
homeless  exiles  bearing  nothing  but  the  remembrance  of  their  per- 
fidy, that  royalty  which  they  ought  to  have  lost  through  their  own 
wickedness." 


The  patriotism  of  Kossuth  overflowed  the  bound- 
aries of  Hungary,  and  covered  all  the  world.  His  was 
not  an  insular  or  a  provincial  spirit.  He  wanted 
nothing  for  the  men  of  Hungary  that  he  was  not  will- 
ing all  other  men  should  have.  He  desired  freedom, 
justice,  and  prosperity  for  his  own  country,  but  he  was 
willing  to  share  those  blessings  with  all  the  other  na- 
tions of  the  earth  ;  and  this  is  patriotism. 


MIRACLE  IN  RELIGION. 

BY  C^IA  PARKER  WOOLLEY. 

The  intelligent  mind  is  no  longer  concerned  with 
questions  of  the  validity  or  reasonableness  of  miracles, 
and  the  tone  of  discourse  on  the  part  of  those  profess- 
ing belief  therein  grows  daily  more  feeble  and  apolo- 
getic ;  but  it  is  still  worth  while  to  examine  this  side 
of  the  religious  life  for  the  light  it  throws  on  the  in- 
tellectual development  of  the  race.  We  should  try  to 
study  this  subject  in  large  and  unbiassed  fashion,  not 
in  a  spirit  of  narrow  criticism  or  vain  self-glorification 
over  the  past,  whose  efforts  at  truth-seeking  were  as 
honest  as  our  own.  The  grossest  superstition,  care- 
fully examined,  will  be  found  to  be  the  logical,  per- 
haps the  only  possible  outcome  of  the  current  knowl- 
edge and  experience  which  gave  it  birth.  In  his  be- 
liefs about  God  and  the  universe,  as  in  the  tools  he 
has  fashioned  in  aid  and  support  of  his  physical  exis- 
tence, man  has  done  the  best  he  could. 

We  must  travel  back  of  Christian  tradition  here, 
back  of  all  written  records  to  pre-historic  times.  Not 
theology  but  anthropology  must  be  our  guide.  Most 
of  the  scientific  writers  on  this  subject  declare  that 
religion  is  born  of  fear;  but  this  has  never  seemed  to 
me  more  than  a  half  statement  of  the  truth.  Religious 
belief  undoubtedly  has  its  origin  largely  or  mainly  in 
feelings  of  dread  of  the  unknown  and  desire  to  pro- 
pitiate the  same  ;  but  along  with  this  element  of  fear 
may  be  traced  another  as  old  and  more  vital.  The 
sense  of  mystery  at  the  bottom  of  the  religious  life  is 
not  expressed  as  dread  alone,  but  also  as  admiration 
or  adoration  of  the  beautiful  and  good  ;  this  sense  of 
beauty  is  awakened  as  soon  as  the  sense  of  power,  and 
the  religion  of  love  begins  with  that  of  fear,  though 
held  in  abeyance  to  it. 

It  is  this  element  of  love  that  saves  religion  from 
sinking  into  complete  superstition  even  in  its  lowest 
forms  ;  it  is  the  element  of  growth.  The  miraculous 
element  in  religion  belongs  to  the  fear  side.  Belief  in 
miracle  is  the  direct  outgrowth  of  belief  in  a  supreme 
and  arbitrary  power,  responsible  neither  to  himself  nor 
anything  outside  himself.  Under  such  a  scheme  man 
is  but  the  victim  and  puppet  of  the  Almight)',  whose 
salvation  is  dependent  on  the  whim  or  caprice  of  his 
Creator.      Salvation  itself  is  the  prime  miracle. 

This  miraculous  element  in  religion  dies  hard  even 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4025 


in  many  liberal  minds,  who  associate  it  with  that 
wealth  of  traditionary  fable  and  lore  which  belief  has 
evolved  in  the  past  and  which  modern  criticism  threat- 
ens to  destroy.  As  they  are  afraid  that  imagination 
will  die  out  in  literature  if  there  are  not  ghosts  and 
fairies,  Cinderella's  slippers,  and  Jack's  beanstalk  for 
it  to  twine  upon,  so  they  distrust  that  religious  faith 
which  does  not  include  a  little  miracle.  Or  if  they 
have  rejected  all  superstitious  belief  for  themselves, 
they  still  think  a  little  superstition  is  good  for  the 
masses,  to  inspire  respect  for  authority  and  keep  them 
in  order. 

The  miracles  of  the  New  Testament  arose  from  the 
wonder- loving  mind  of  man  working  backwards,  try- 
ing not  onlj'  to  rescue  an  exalted  name  and  tradition 
from  oblivion,  but  to  elevate  it  to  a  new  godhead.  The 
idea  of  incarnation  had  long  before  taken  firm  hold 
of  the  human  mind,  growing  naturally  out  of  belief 
in  the  multiple  intermediary  agencies  between  God 
and  man,  supplied  in  the  various  ancient  mythologies  ; 
an  idea  which  the  larger  part  of  Christendom  finds  it 
painful  to  dispense  with  to-day.  Early  Christian  his- 
tory, following  the  line  of  the  New  Testament  narra- 
tive, shows  two  sets  of  miracles.  Later  historians  do 
not  pretend  to  defend  the  post-apostolic  miracles,  but 
some  of  them  employ  very  curious  reasoning  on  this 
subject.  Philip  Schaff  tells  us  that  miracles  ceased 
with  the  apostolic  age  because  the  Church  was  then 
established  and  no  longer  needed  the  support  of  such 
testimony.  The  subject,  he  adds,  is  surrounded  with 
difficulties,  "in  the  absence  of  inspired  testimony  or 
of  ordinary  immediate  witnesses  ";  but  he  does  not  ex- 
plain where  he  finds  the  immediate  witnesses  for  the 
healing  of  the  blind  Bartimseus  or  the  raising  of  Laza- 
rus from  the  dead.  He  asks  no  further  proof  of  Paul's 
conversion,  and  the  heavenly  vision  and  warning  that 
led  to  it,-  than  the  record  supplies,  but  finds  four  rea- 
sons why  we  should  reject  the  story  of  similar  import 
in  the  history  of  Constantine.  Here  the  occurrence 
may  have  been  "an  actual  miracle,"  a  "pious  fraud," 
a  "psychological  illusion,"  or  an  "  event  explainable 
upon  some  natural  phenomenon."  But  the  latter-day 
student  will  find  as  many  hypotheses  on  which  to  ac- 
count for  the  Gospel  miracles.  Another  division  in  the 
Christian  miracles  is  that  which  separates  those  in  the 
accepted  canon  from  the  rejected  Apocrypha.  For  a 
long  time  Biblical  criticism  and  revision  consisted  of 
this  winnowing  process,  separating  the  supposed  wheat 
from  the  chaff.  But,  again,  the  student  of  a  later  day 
is  at  a  loss  to  understand  what  just  principle  of  selec- 
tion operated  in  tasks  of  this  kind.  We  shall  have  no 
more  attempts  at  revision  on  this  line,  for  we  have 
reached  a  more  rational  view  of  the  entire  subject  and 
are  no  longer  concerned  to  distinguish  between  the 
so-called  divine  and  human  attributes  of  a  book  we 


now  know  we  honor  most  to  accept  in  its  human  char- 
acter alone.  We  are  learning  how  much  more  valu- 
able the  Bible  is,  looked  upon  as  history,  literature, 
life,  rather  than  as  miracle  and  dogma. 

The  subject  of  miracles  has  a  literature  of  its  own. 
The  first  most  notable  essay  of  modern  times  was 
Hume's,  who  undertook  to  show  the  manifest  improba- 
bility of  miracles,  a  method  which  Professor  Huxley, 
in  his  "Life  of  Hume,"  shows  to  be  a  mistaken  one, 
employing  much  the  same  argument  that  Lecky  does 
in  his  chapter  on  Witchcraft.  "  Scientific  good  faith  " 
prevents  us  from  believing  in  the  probability  of  these 
marvellous  occurrences,  but  can  do  no  more.  Another 
important  piece  of  writing  on  this  subject  in  its  day 
was  Gibbon's  famous  fifteenth  chapter  in  the  "  Decline 
and  Fall  of  Rome."  Prof.  J.  H.  Allen  has  summed 
up  the  merit  and  usefulness  of  Gibbon's  method  of 
reasoning,  who,  after  praising  his  general  work  in  high 
terms,  adds  that  it  is  nevertheless  in  some  ways  "a 
masterly  and  very  perfect  model  of  what  our  study  of 
history  ought  not  to  be."  He  is  without  "historic 
sympathy."  He  tells  the  undoubted  truth  about  the 
mixture  of  pagan  idolatry  with  the  new  faith,  speaking 
in  a  tone  of  harsh  and  sneering  scepticism  that  could 
not  but  arouse  the  fear  and  indignation  of  the  reli- 
gious world  of  his  day,  but  which  is  cheap  and  shallow 
wisdom  for  the  present  age. 

Protestantism,  with  its  appeal  to  individual  judg- 
ment and  its  condemnation  of  religious  tyranny  and 
fraud,  did  much  to  abolish  grosser  forms  of  supersti- 
tion, but  there  was  never  a  more  pronounced  super- 
naturalist  than  Luther,  who  burnt  witches  and  threw 
his  inkstand  at  the  Devil.  Protestantism,  gave  every 
man  a  copy  of  the  Bible,  with  implied  permission  to 
judge  its  contents  for  himself.  The  human  mind  was 
free  at  last  and  would  work  its  way;  but  belief  in  a 
dual  order  of  things,  in  God  and  Satan  still  stood  in 
the  way  of  rapid  progress.  Not  until  our  own  era  was 
the  doctrine  of  miracles  disputed  on  moral  and  scien- 
tific grounds.  The  last  contribution  to  this  discussion 
is  found  in  the  life  and  work  of  Theodore  Parker.  The 
distinction  which  he  insisted  upon  between  the  "tran- 
sient and  permanent  in  Christianity  "  marked  the  next 
step  in  the  evolution  of  the  religion  of  reason  and  char- 
acter. As  the  ripest  scholar  of  his  day  Theodore  Parker 
knew  what  he  was  talking  about  when  he  pointed  out 
the  spurious  nature  of  the  supernatural  claims  of  the 
Bible,  while  as  a  man  of  the  largest  and  most  humane 
instincts  he  felt  the  affront  put  upon  God  and  his  own 
manhood  in  a  religion  founded  on  miracle.  Thanks  to 
his  strong  outspoken  words,  more  than  to  any  other 
single  source  perhaps,  but  more  to  the  spread  of  gen- 
eral knowledge,  belief  in  miracles  is  no  longer  made 
the  test  of  religious  character.  "A  weak  and  adulter- 
ous nation   asketh   after  a  sign,"  but  our  age  is  one 


4026 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


which  will  be  remembered  as  that  in  which  man  began 
to  forego  his  trust  in  signs  for  greater  trust  in  himself. 
Faith  grows  more  open-eyed  every  day. 

But  while  the  age  of  miracle  and  the  need  of  mir- 
acle are  passing  away,  there  remains  a  wide  range  of 
phenomena  in  our  own  day  which  seems  of  analogous 
nature.  The  peculiar  phenomena  that  accompanies 
certain  modern  beliefs  and  theories,  spiritualism.  Chris- 
tian science,  theosophy,  hypnotism,  etc.,  are  of  that 
exceptional  order  which  demands  special  explanation. 
The  majority  of  us  have  but  second-hand  testimony  of 
these  things,  as  the  believers  in  miracles  have.  All 
that  we  have  yet  learned  of  these  peculiar  experiences 
is  that  they  are  peculiar,  i.  e.,  outside  the  ordinary 
rule  and  understanding.  It  is  due,  however,  to  those 
professing  these  new  forms  of  faith  to  bear  in  mind 
that  they  themselves  set  up  no  claim  to  supernatural- 
ism.  It  is  higher,  less  familiar  law  that  governs  here, 
we  are  told,  but  law  still.  The  spiritual  nature  of  man, 
and  that  other  pressing  question,  of  man's  existence 
after  death,  are,  according  to  these  new  beliefs,  no 
longer  matters  of  mere  hope  and  trust,  but  have  be- 
come subjects  of  demonstrable  knowledge.  In  so  far 
as  modern  spiritualism  and  its  allied  faiths  are  aiming 
to  establish  the  spiritual  existence  of  man  upon  a  sci- 
entific basis,  we  should  honor  them  and  hold  our  minds 
open  to  receive  all  the  light  and  information  they  have 
to  offer.  All  of  these  theories  are  tentative,  but  sug- 
gestive, being  signs  of  the  world's  advancing  progress 
on  the  psychical  side.  More  and  more  we  are  living 
in  the  world  of  thought,  of  moral  ideas,  of  spiritual 
striving  and  reward.  We  may  live  in  this  upper  world 
of  mind  and  spirit  in  ways  that  uplift  all  that  lies  be- 
low on  the  plane  of  man's  practical  activity  or  in  ways 
that  neglect  and  dishonor  these  practical  needs.  Un- 
less, like  the  monk  in  the  Legend  Beautiful,  we  have 
strength  to  tear  ourselves  away  from  the  vision  to  carry 
on  the  work  of  our  daily  lives,  it  will  desert  us.  It  is 
the  choicest  souls  that  willingly  accept  their  share  in 
the  drudgery  of  life,  and  for  whom  the  vision  waits.  It 
will  not  desert  them  until  they  have  deserted  some- 
thing better  than  it. 

It  is  this  thought  of  the  moral  import  of  belief  in 
miracle  that  should  weigh  most  seriously  with  us. 
There  is  a  weakened  will  and  moral  inertia  that  grow 
directly  out  of  the  love  of  the  marvellous.  Add  to  this 
that  thought  of  a  misdirected  and  irresponsible  power 
which  goes  along  with  belief  in  miracle.  This  irre- 
sponsible power  can  no  more  justly  be  attached  to  our 
conceptions  of  divinity  than  to  a  human  ruler.  God 
and  man  are  both  best  honored  in  the  faith  of  reason 
and  law.  The  miraculous  is  fading  out  of  religion  and 
of  life.  There  is  a  wider  basis  for  faith  in  the  reign  of 
cause  and  effect  than  in  all  the  miracles  that  were  ever 
recorded.   Man  is  born  for  the  light,  he  is  saved  through 


knowledge,  not  through  grace;  he  must  earn  whatever 
good  he  is  to  obtain,  here  or  hereafter,  not  purchase  it 
with  money  or  the  sacrifice  of  the  innocent.  His  own 
experience  will  prove  his  best  guide  and  inspiration. 


DEATH  SHALL  NOT  PART  YK  MORE. 

BY    VOLTAIRINE  DE  CLEYRE. 

"He  that  loseth  his  life  shall  find  it." 
DISCIPLE. 
Master,  my  friend  is  dead.     Around  the  world 

I  seek,  and  find  no  other  heart  like  his  ; 
And  all  my  life-dreams  are  as  dead  leaves  whirled, 

And  all  my  life-work  as  the  bare  sand  is. 
I  would  go  down  into  the  grave,  and  kiss 

The  dust  of  him  who  held  me  in  his  heart 
Living,  and  dead  has  left  me  passionless. 

Bloodless,  from  wounds  that  still  have  power  to  smart. 
But  which  no  hand  heals,  since  Death  tore  apart 
His  life  and  mine.     Master,  I  fain  would  rest ! 
I  am  unloved,  un-understood  !     All  scarred 

With  bitter  stripes  of  Hate  !     The  Grave  is  best, — 
The  Grave,  and  the  dark  mould  upon  his  breast. 


Thou  seek'st  thy  friend  ?     Unhappy,  thou  hast  sought 

With  eyes  turned  inward  !     And  thy  search  is  vain, — 
Vain  all  the  purchase  that  thy  tears  have  bought, — 

Thy  tears,  and  all  the  weary  winds  of  pain 
That  blow  upon  thy  mouth  the  bitter  rain, 

And  cast  upon  thine  eyes  the  stinging  sleet ; 
Aye,  vain  thy  purchase,  and  all  dross  thy  gain  ! 

Yet  I  command  thee,  turn  once  more  thy  feet 
Into  the  ways  ;  and  seek  once  more  to  meet 

The  undying  Heart  of  Love,  that  understands, 
And  soothes,  and  turns  the  bitter  into  sweet. 

And  fashions  life  to  kindness  with  kind  hands. 
Only  this  key  I  give  :  wouldst  find  thy  friend, 

Seek  not  in  Man  to  l>e  known,  but  to  know  ; 
Not  to  be  pitied,  but  to  pity  ;  blend 

Self  in  All-Self,— and  Ihou  shall  find  him.      Go! 
Yet,  take  these  flowers;  from  thy  friend's  grave  they  blov 


Master.  I  bring  from  many  wanderings, 

The  gathered  garner  of  my  years  to  thee  ; 
One  precious  fruit  of  many  rain-blown  springs 

And  sun-shod  summers,  ripened  over-sea. 
Years,  years  ago  Thou  gav'st  the  seed  to  me, 

Wrapped  in  the  bloom  of  Roses  of  the  Dead  ; 
Behold  the  shining  Heart  of  Love!  and  be 

Assured  the  grave-bloom  was  not  vainly  shed. 
And  partly  are  thy  sweet  words  merited. 

Yea,  I  went  hence  with  wonder  in  my  soul, 
With  bitter  wonder  that  thy  great  lips  said 

My  pain  was  worthless,  and  my  longed-for  goal 
Was  but  blind  seeking  of  myself,  that  stole 

The  face  of  Love  and  wore  it  as  a  mask  ! 
Yet  knew  I  Truth.     I  folded  up  the  scroll. 

The  useless  record  of  the  useless  task. 
And  set  my  Heart  before  my  Soul  to  ask  : 

"What  was  thy  friend  ?" — And  slow  the  answer  came 
"  Love  that  thought  not  of  self  ;  Pity  so  vast 

It  felt  all  tears,  nor  measured  It,  by  name, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4027 


Those  whom  it  pitied, — felt  not  any  blame 

Toward  those  who  injured  It;  Peace,  so  profound 
That  no  shock  might  uncentre,  and  no  shame 

Shake  from  Its  sympathy, — no  unsightly  wound 
However  cankered,  no  discordant  sound 

However  rasping,  turn  aside  its  face. 
Tills  uHis  Ihy  frietul.     Thou,  Self-torn,  hast  not  found. 

Because  thou  hast  not  sought  !     The  phantom  chase 
Of  Self  has  driven  thee  from  place  to  place, 

'With  eyes  turned  inward' — so  the  Master  spoke, — 
An  idle,  weary,  marsh-set,  rock-wrecked  race, 

A  goalless  way,  with  epitaphs  of  hope. 
Turn  now  and  seek  Ihy  friend;  long  mayst  thou  grope. 

But  light  will  break." — Master,  the  dawn  is  broke.      < 

JI.^STER. 
Now  hast  thou  found  thy  friend  ! — Depart  in  peace. 

Thy  prayer  is  heard  ;  thou  shalt  go  down  and  rest  : 
Death  shall  not  part  ye  more,  nor  shall  ye  cease 
To  dwell  together  in  the  world  ye  blessed. 

So — sleep  !   with  these  dry  flowers  upon  your  breast. 


ALDERMAN  COBDEN  OF  MANCHESTER. 

BY    THEODORE  STANTON. 

I  HAVE  just  had  a  glance  at  two  belated  gifts  to  Cornell  Uni- 
versity and  Williams  College  presented  a  propos  of  the  recent  cel- 
ebration at  those  two  institutions.  I  refer  to  copies  of  a  curious 
work  entitled  "Alderman  Cobden  of  Manchester,"  by  Sir  E.  W. 
Watkin,  Bart.,  M.  P.,  the  English  railway  magnate  and  indefatig- 
able promoter  of  the  Channel  tunnel,  who,  like  his  father,'  was  a 
warm  friend  and  ardent  supporter — "old  followers,"  Sir  Edward 
expresses  it — of  Cobden  throughout  the  corn-law  struggle  and  his 
subsequent  labors,  though  Sir  Edward  was  then  quite  a  young 
man.  The  inscription  on  the  fly-leaves  of  the  two  volumes — edi- 
tion dc  /ii.\c\  with  heavy  paper,  broad  margins,  each  volume  num- 
bered, and  only  four  hundred  copies  in  all — read  as  fellows  :  "  To 
Cornell  University  on  the  celebration  of  the  25th  anniversary  of 
its  prosperous  existence  ";  and  "  To  Williams  College  on  the  cele- 
bration of  its  first  centennial,  as  a  token  of  respect  for  Professor 
Perry  and  his  good  works." 

The  gift  to  Williams  College  is  particularly  appropriate,  for 
it  is  one  of  the  three  or  four  institutions  to  the  students  of  which 
the  Cobden  Club  awards  an  annual  medal  for  work  in  political 
economy;  and  the  reference  to  the  venerable  Professor  Perry,  who 
has  done  so  much  to  advance  the  cause  of  free  trade  in  University 
life,  is  most  appropriate. 

The  ruisoii  d'clre  of  this  volume,  the  prefatory  notice  informs 
us,  was  the  publication  of  a  series  of  Cobden's  letters  addressed  to 
the  author  and  his  father,  which  were  not  used  by  John  Morley  in 
his  biography  of  Cobden  and  which  are  here  published  for  the 
first  time.  "  I  may  add,"  continues  Sir  Edward,  "that  an  addi- 
tional object  has  been  to  endeavor  to  place  before  Manchester  the 
great  services  of  Mr  Cobden,  well  nigh  forgotten,  in  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Manchester  Athenaeum,  and  as  the  man  above  all  men 
dead  or  living,  to  whom  is  due  the  credit  of  the  establishment  of 
popular  local  self-government  in  our  city.  .  .  .  After  long  heroic 
labor  for  a  couple  of  years  in  giving  Manchester  its  local  self-gov- 
ernment, and  in  seeing  it  through  the  early  trials  of  a  new  exist- 
ence, it  was  to  those  higher  and  wider  flights  of  politics  with  which 
he  had  begun,  that  Alderman  Cobden  immediately  returned.  .  .  . 

1  "  My  father  was  associated  with  the  League  from  its  birth  to  its  triumph, 
and  spoke,  wrote,  and  worked  admirably  in  the  cause.  He  was,  however,  a 
man  who,  prompted  by  his  convictions,  did  his  work  and  never  cared  for  credit 
or  applause.  His  work  was  his  reward."  Absalom  Walkin  was  born  in  1787 
and  died  in  i86t.  This  volume  contains  a  photograph  of  William  Bradley's 
painting  of  him,  and  represents  a  man  with  a  tine,  intelligent,  gentle  face  and 
a  head  very  high  above  the  eyes. 


Mr.  Cobden  had  been  in  the  United  States,  and  he  had  seen  the 
big  crop  of  '  Institutions '  there.  In  Manchester  he  found  nothing 
but  the  '  Mechanics'  Institute  ' — nothing  for  the  '  middling  classes,' 
including  our  clerks  and  helpers  in  warehouses  and  stores,"  Mr. 
Morley  devotes  only  a  few  paragraphs  to  Cobden  as  a  local  re- 
former, so  that  Sir  Edward's  work  fills  a  lacune  in  Cobden  biogra- 
phies. 

Of  course  the  most  interesting  part  of  this  book  to  the  general 
reader,  especially  if  he  be  not  an  Englishman,  is  the  series  of  Cob- 
den letters,  which,  though  many  of  them  are  of  slight  importance, 
afford  many  delightful  and  characteristic  glimpses  of  Richard 
Cobden. 

Cobden's  breadth  of  religious  view  is  seen  in  this  post  scrip- 
turn  to  a  letter  addressed  by  him  to  the  author's  father  and  written 
— the  date  should  be  noted — in  1838.  It  ran  as  follows  •  "I  heard 
a  hint  that  you  were  going  to  oppose  the  opening  of  the  Zoological 
Gardens  on  Sundays.  Before  you  bring  your  judgment  to  a  verdict 
upon  this  subject  (one  of  the  most  important  that  can  be  discussed) 
I  should  like  to  give  you  a  few  facts  connected  with  the  observ- 
ance of  Sunday  abroad.  I  don't  mean  to  refer  to  Catholic  States, 
but  to  Prussia.  Saxony,  Switzerland,  etc.  May  we  not  be  possibly 
wrong  and  they  right  ?     At  least  let  us  judge  of  the  fruits." 

Cobden  was  not  only  radical  in  his  religion  but  in  his  politics, 
too.  Perhaps  he  might  be  called  the  Jefferson  of  England.  How- 
ever that  may  be.  these  letters  show  him  to  have  taken  a  very  ad- 
vanced, democratic  stand.  As  far  back  as  1841  he  came  out 
squarely  for  universal  suffrage,  as  is  shown  by  this  extract  from  a 
letter  written  in  that  year  to  the  author:  "I  have  sometimes 
thought  it  would  be  a  good  step  to  start  another  universal  suffrage 
newspaper,  either  in  London  or  Manchester,  advocating  democratic 
principles.  ...  I  am  in  general  very  mistrustful  of  newspaper  un- 
dertakings, and  would  not  like  to  advise  any  such  step  ;  therefore 
take  my  suggestion  merely  for  consideration.  .  .  .  You  alluded  to 
me  in  a  former  letter  as  a  leader  of  the  masses,  but  I  know  my 
own  qualifications,  and  they  are  not  such  as  are  required.  I  have 
not  the  physical  force  and  the  tone  of  my  mind  is  opposed  to  such 
an  undertaking.  I  know  exactly  my  own  field  of  usefulness — it  lies 
in  the  advocacy  of  practical  questions,  apart  from  mere  questions 
of  theoretical  reforms.  My  exertions  are  calculated  to  bring  out 
the  middle  classes,  and  that  will  lead  the  way  for  a  junction  with 
the  masses,  if  they  can  be  brought  to  act  under  a  rational  and 
honest  leader." 

In  another  letter,  written  in  the  same  year,  occurs  this  pas- 
sage : 

"  If  we  ask  the  legislator  (who  admits  the  right  of  the  people 
to  the  franchise,  but  denies  it  on  the  ground  of  expediency  until 
the  people  be  educated)  -idu'ii  he  will  undertake  that  the  people 
shall  be  educated,  he  tells  you  he  does  not  know.  And  if  you  ask 
a  chartist  ndieii  he  will  obtain  the  suffrage,  he  does  not  know.  So 
that  the  expediency  of  the  one  and  the  other  amounts  to  an  in- 
definite withholding  of  justice — an  admirable  plea  for  despots  and 
knaves,  but  one  which  honest  politicians  will  never,  unless  they 
be  fools,  listen  to  for  a  moment.  Would  not  the  substance  of 
this  letter  make  a  good  short  letter  for  Condy's  paper  [the  Man- 
chester .-Idz'ertisc-r]  on  Saturday  ?  If  you  think  so,  pray  write  it 
and  send  it." 

In  1862  he  wrote  :  "How  and  when  the  electoral  system  in 
this  country  is  to  be  altered,  so  as  to  give  to  the  masses  at  least  a 
chance  of  doing  something  better  for  themselves,  is  a  question 
which  I  cannot  pretend  to  answer." 

Household  suffrage  in  boroughs  was  established  five  years 
later  ;  ballot  ten  years  later  ;  household  suffrage  in  counties  not 
till  twenty-two  years  later,  and  a  farther  extension  among  agri- 
culturists is  believed  to  be  near  at  hand. 

The  following,  though  written  in  184S,  is  timely  to-day: 

"  I  am  not  surprised  to  see  that  even  your  father  has  caught 


4028 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


the  contagion  of  the  day,  and  is  for  having  a  special  fight  with  the 
malcontent  Irish.  Never  were  my  peace-doctrines  so  much  at  a 
discount  as  at  the  present  moment  in  England.  Wait  till  we  count 
the  cost  of  all  this  marching,  arming,  and  drilling,  and  then  John 
Bull  will  be  more  open  to  pacific  overtures.  Depend  on  it,  there 
are  faults  on  both  sides  when  a  government  and  its  population  are 
so  often  brought  into  attitudes  of  defiance.  To  have  to  resort 
habitually  to  physical  force  to  sustain  political  institutions  will,  in 
the  end,  place  them  in  the  wrong  in  the  eyes  of  the  whole  civilised 
world,  and  then,  when  their  moral  support  is  gone,  they  will  fall 
some  fine  morning  about  our  ears,  as  they  have  done  in  so  many 
other  countries  ;  that  is  to  say,  unless  we  contrive  in  the  mean- 
time by  moral  means  to  bring  the  vast  majority  of  the  population 
on  the  side  of  the  said  institutions." 

We  get  glimpses  and  explanations  of  Cobden's  "eloquence 
unadorned"  in  the  volume.  "You  know,"  he  said,  at  the  end  of 
one  of  his  speeches,  "  I  never  perorate."  "Disregard  of  mere 
form  was  characteristic  of  him, "  says  Sir  Edward.  "No  one  could 
speak  with  less  of  gesture  in  his  more  animated  moods ;  yet  his 
manner  and  movements  had  none  of  the  restraint  or  deliberation 
that  belong,  by  nature  or  art,  to  men  of  different  build  or  temper. 
Long  after  the  League  had  triumphed,  and  his  widest  fame  been 
won,  Cobden,  at  forty-five  to  fifty,  was  still  to  be  seen  half  skip- 
ping along  a  pavement,  or  a  railway  platform,  with  the  lightness 
of  a  slim  and  almost  dapper  figure,  and  a  mind  full  bent  on  its  ob- 
ject. .  .  .  Cobden  was  a  speaker  never  unmindful  of  the  circum. 
stances  in  which  he  spoke,  or  the  kind  of  audience  he  had  before 
him.  .  .  .  He  was  always  careful  to  speak  down  to  the  ears  of  an 
audience,  not  to  soar  in  the  space  overhead,"  a  very  important 
thing  in  the  public  meeting-room  of  the  Manchester  Town  Hall  of 
those  days  where  ' '  the  voices  of  most  speakers  got  lost  in  the 
glazed  dome  of  the  roof." 

The  first  time  Cobden  addressed  a  large  assembly  was  Octo- 
ber 28,  1S35,  in  Manchester  in  connexion  with  the  foundation  of 
the  Athenffium.  "He  was  the  'new  light,'"  says  Sir  Edward  ; 
' '  he  was  to  most  people  then  an  unknown  man.  He  spoke  rapidly, 
but  epigrammatically,  and  '  took  '  with  the  audience  all  through. 
His  was  the  speech  of  the  evening." 

Nearly  ten  years  later,  referring  to  this  meeting,  he  said  that 
when  he  rose  to  speak  he  could  see  no  one  ;  that  he  felt  he  was 
speaking  his  prepared  speech  very  rapidly;  that  as  he  proceeded, 
and  the  audience  cheered  him,  first  one  head  ajid  then  another 
popped  up  into  sight,  till  finally  what  was  at  first  an  aggregated 
and  indivisible  mass,  appeared  in  individual  and  distinct  shape 
before  him.  Though  in  later  years,  practised  as  a  speaker  before 
all  sorts  of  audiences,  and  under  all  sorts  of  conditions,  he  usually 
felt,  as  Wendell  Philipps  was  accustomed  to  say  he  also  felt,  some 
nervousness  at  starting.  In  a  speech  in  1846  Cobden  said  on  this 
point:  "  Many  people  will  think  that  we  have  our  reward  in  the 
applause  and  eclat  of  public  meetings,  but  I  declare  that  it  is  not 
so  with  me,  for  the  inherent  reluctance  I  have  to  address  public 
meetings  is  so  great  that  I  do  not  even  get  up  to  present  a  petition 
to  the  House  of  Commons  without  reluctance." 

Cobden,  it  will  be  remembered,  visited  the  United  States  two 
or  three  times.  So  it  is  natural  to  find  references  to  us  in  these 
letters.  The  earliest  one  is  in  a  letter  dated  January,  1852,  men- 
tioning Sir  Edward's  recent  sojourn  in  America  and  requesting  a 
copy  of  the  book  giving  an  account  of  his  travels.  Cobden  then 
goes  on  to  say:  "  I  feel  very  anxious  to  know  what  you  think  of 
the  United  States.  I  have  long  had  my  notions  about  what  was 
coming  from  the  West,  and  recorded  ray  prophecy  on  my  return 
from  America  in  1835.  People  in  England  are  determined  to  shut 
their  eyes  as  long  as  they  can,  but  they  will  be  startled  out  of  their 
wilful  blindness  some  day  by  some  gigantic  facts  proving  the  un- 
disputable  superiority  of  that  country  in  all  that  constitutes  the 
power,  wealth,  and  real  greatness  of  a  people." 


After  reading  Sir  Edward's  volume,  Cobden  says  in  another 
letter  : 

"You  could  not  have  done  a  wiser  and  more  patriotic  service 
than  to  make  the  people  of  this  country  better  acquainted  with 
what  is  going  on  in  the  United  States.  It  is  from  that  quarter,  and 
not  from  barbarian  Russia,  or  fickle  France,  that  we  have  to  ex- 
pect a  formidable  rivalry,  and  yet  that  country  is  less  studied  and 
understood  in  England  than  is  the  history  of  ancient  Egypt  or 
Greece.  I  should  like  to  go  once  more  to  America,  if  only  to  see 
Niagara  again.  But  I  am  a  bad  sailor,  and  should  dread  the  tur- 
moil of  public  meetings  when  I  arrived  there." 

A  few  days  later  he  writes  again  : 

"You  talk  of  my  going  to  America,  and  then  coming  back  to 
tell  the  people  here  what  is  going  on  beyond  the  Atlantic.  I  have 
never  missed  an  opportunity  of  trying  to  awaken  the  emulation 
and  even  the  fears  of  my  countrymen,  by  quoting  the  example  of 
the  United  States.  But  the  only  result  is  that  I  am  pretty  freely 
charged  with  seeking  to  establish  a  republican  government  here. 
To  shut  our  eyes  to  what  is  going  on  there  is  almost  as  sage  a  pro- 
ceeding as  that  of  the  ostrich  when  he  puts  his  head  under  a  sand 
heap.  However,  whether  we  will  or  no,  we  shall  hear  of  the  doings 
of  the  Americans." 

The  following  extract  was  written  on  December  10,  1862,  in 
the  period  of  the  cotton  famine  in  England  in  consequence  of  our 
civil  war,  which  is  referred  to  in  these  words  : 

"I  am  very  glad  to  see  some  public  meetings  being  held  in 
London  to  show  to  the  world  that  the  Times  and  other  aristocratic 
and  club  organs  do  not,  in  their  sympathy  for  the  slave-owners, 
represent  the  feelings  of  the  English  people.  I  look  on  such  dem- 
onstrations as  very  desirable  in  order  to  counteract  the  efforts  of 
those  who  will  try  to  induce  Parliament  to  offer  some  opinion  in 
favor  of  recognition  or  mediation.  I  think  it  very  desirable  that 
more  should  be  done  to  elicit  the  sympathies  of  the  masses  for  the 
North.  It  will  be  necessary  to  have  some  such  counterpoiee  to 
the  pressure  which  the  blockade  will  put  on  public  opinion  in  a 
direction  hostile  to  the  Federal  Government.  It  is  also  probable 
that  there  may  be  some  isolated  acts  of  violence  by  slaves  on  their 
owners  in  the  spring  after  the  proclamation  of  freedom  comes  into 
force,  though  I  hope  such  will  be  rare.  They  will  be  laid  hold  of 
to  excite  the  indignation  of  the  country.  This  will  at  least  make 
it  desirable  that  the  true  state  of  slavery  in  the  South  should  be 
kept  as  much  as  possible  before  the  public  eye.  If  the  American 
civil  war  goes  on  for  a  year  or  two  the  consequence  to  Lancashire, 
and  indirectly  to  all  this  kingdom,  will  be  more  serious  than  is 
dreamt  of  by  people  generally." 

Another  interesting  feature  of  the  book  are  its  illustrations. 
It  contains  several  portraits  of  Cobden.  There  is  a  photograph 
and  a  crayon  likeness  made  by  Lowes  Dickinson  representing 
Cobden  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven.  He  has  a  gentle,  benevolent 
looking  face.  There  is  also  a  photograph  of  him  at  twenty,  taken 
from  a  miniature  likeness.  Another  represents  him  sitting  on  the 
sward,  among  the  croquet  wickets,  before  Dunford  House,  the 
place  of  his  birth  and  residence,  when  he  had  rebuilt  it.  Then 
there  is  a  reproduction  of  the  historic  painting  of  J.  R.  Herbert, 
R.  A.,  representing  Cobden  addressing  the  Corn  League  Council. 
It  includes  portraits  of  John  Bright,  Lord  Kinnaird,  P.  A.Taylor, 
Sir  Thomas  Potter,  etc.  There  are  portraits  of  Cobden's  father 
and  mother,  taken  just  before  their  marriage,  both  having  strik- 
ingly refined  faces,  that  of  the  father  being  handsome  even.  Cob- 
den's only  son,  who  died  when  a  boy,  is  seen  in  two  portraits 
taken  at  the  age  of  five  and  fifteen.  There  is  a  strong  family  like- 
ness running  through  all  three  pictures.  A  photograph  is  also  given 
of  Cobden's  big  plain  house  in  Quay  street,  in  Manchester,  where, 
afterwards  Owens  College  first  met  and  which  is  now  the  County 
Court  House.  Fac-similes  of  letters  of  Cobden,  Carlyle,  Dickens, 
Disraeli,  etc  ,  and  a  pretty  full  index,  complete  this  valuable  work. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4029 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 

In  the  early  settlement  of  Marbletown,  old  Washington  Griggs 
and  his  three  sons  cultivated  a  farm  and  a  blacksmith's  shop  to- 
gether in  the  edge  of  the  timber  near  the  village,  and  whenever 
any  of  the  neighbors  met  him  and  said,  "How?  are  you  Uncle 
Wash  ?"  he  candidly  replied,  "Well,  I  ain't  a  complainin',  me  and 
the  boys  is  makin'  money";  and  this  was  literally  true,  but  it  was 
counterfeit  money  they  were  making,  for  old  Wash  had  a  private 
mint  in  the  garret,  as  the  officers  discovered  when  they  came  to 
search  the  place.  I  suspect  that  Uncle  Wash  and  his  boys  when 
they  came  out  of  the  penitentiary  moved  over  to  Nebraska,  for  I 
see  by  the  papers  that  a  private  mint  has  been  started  there,  and 
that  the  anonymous  firm  that  owns  it  in  some  undiscovered  place 
has  coined  about  half  a  million  silver  dollars,  and  put  them  into 
circulation  "to  relieve  the  tightness  of  the  money  market  "  Whether 
the  Nebraska  mint  is  owned  by  the  firm  of  Griggs  and  Sons  or  not, 
the  partners  in  the  business  are  "  makin' money  "  after  the  plan 
of  Griggs,  excepting  that  they  use  a  different  material.  The  Ne- 
braska coiners  make  genuine  silver  dollars,  like  those  the  Govern- 
ment coiners  make,  and  exactly  the  same  in  weight,  quality,  and 
personal  appearance.  They  can  afford  to  be  as  honest  in  this  mat- 
ter as  the  Governmenf  itself,  and  coin  fifty  cents  worth  of  silver 
into  a  dollar,  taking  the  other  fifty  cents  for  "  seigniorage, "  and 
making  a  fair  profit.  The  Government  is  hunting  for  the  Nebraska 
coiners  to  punish  them  for  infringing  on  its  exclusive  right  to  make 
dishonest  money,  and  this  illogical  proceeding  is  borrowed  from 
the  ancient  practice.  For  centuries  the  kings  of  England  were  in 
the  habit  of  adulterating  the  coin,  and  pocketing  the  "  seigniorage  " 
as  their  own.  When  a  private  citizen  did  the  same  thing  he  was 
hanged,  but  the  king  never  was. 

Some  time  ago  a  correspondent  wanted  me  to  tell  him  what 
the  "seigniorage"  was  that  the  Government  intended  to  coin  into 
silver  dollars,  and  I  answered  that  in  my  opinion  it  was  moon- 
beams, but  since  then  a  better  definition  has  been  found,  and  Mr. 
Hewitt  of  New  York  describes  ii  as  a  "  vacuum."  To  coin  a  vacuum 
into  silver  dollars  worth  fifty  cents  apiece,  and  then  redeem  them 
in  gold  dollars  worth  a  hundred  cents  apiece  is  a  financial  feat 
never  equalled  since  Aladdin's  lamp  was  lost.  It  is  the  logical 
folly  of  the  "  legal  tender  "  system.  Once  allow  Government  the 
power  to  declare  gold,  silver,  or  anything  else  a  legal  tender  in 
payment  of  debts,  and  the  way  is  opened  for  wild-cat  finance 
unlimited  All  a  man  has  to  do  now  when  he  loses  in  a  trade  is 
to  add  his  loss  to  what  he  expected  to  gain,  and  coin  them  both 
into  dollars,  for  such  is  the  plan  of  Congress.  We  bought  in  round 
numbers  140  000,000  ounces  of  silver,  for  which  we  paid  126,000,- 
000  dollars,  and  according  to  the  piesent  price  of  silver  we  lost 
36.000.000  dollars  by  the  trade  ;  but  if  we  had  coined  the  silver 
into  dollars  of  the  present  weight  it  would  have  made  180,000,000 
dollars,  and  so  the  difference  between  the  126  millions  that  we  paid 
for  the  siher,  and  the  180  millions  that  we  might  have  coined  it 
into,  makes  a  vacuum  of  about  54  millions.  This  vacuum  we  now 
propose  to  coin  into  imaginary  money,  issue  it  as  legal  tender,  and 
in  this  way  get  back  the  36  millions  that  we  lost  and  something 
more  besides.  If  the  dishonest  legal  tender  principle  were  abol- 
ished altogether,  Congress  could  not  perform  fantastic  tricks  with 
money;  the  finances  of  the  country  would  soon  be  on  a  natural 
and  scientific  foundation,  and  coinage  would  be  free. 


to  punish  him,  whereupon  Looker  drew  his  revolver  and  killed 
them  both.  A  coroner's  inquest  was  held  the  next  day,  and  the 
jury  rendered  a  verdict  of  "justifiable  manslaughter."  The  Tol- 
leston  Gun  Club  owns  a  very  large  tract  of  land,  and  this  land  is 
devoted  exclusively  to  the  pleasures  of  the  gun.  By  a  hunter's 
fiction,  all  the  game  that  roams  or  flies  over  Illinois  and  Indiana 
belongs  to  the  ToUeston  Gun  Club,  and  if  any  hungry  hunter,  not 
a  member  of  the  club,  wanders  on  to  the  sacred  wastes  and  shoots 
a  duck  or  a  deer,  he  himself  is  very  liable  to  be  shot  by  the  game- 
keepers, or  pounded  into  insensibility  with  a  stick.  According  to 
the  papers  there  was  ' '  near  the  centre  of  the  marsh  a  stand  which 
the  game-keepers  would  mount  with  a  fieId-gla^■s,  and  if  any  un- 
fortunate hunter  was  near  they  would  open  upon  him  with  shotgun 
or  with  Winchester  ;  and  they  claimed  they  were  obeying  instruc- 
tions given  by  the  club."  As  to  this  latter  statement,  it  is  only 
fair  to  say  that  it  is  contradicted  by  Mr.  F.  A.  Howe  of  Chicago, 
the  President  of  the  Club,  who  went  out  yesterday  to  the  scene  of 
the  tragedy,  and  said  :  "  Conroy  and  his  companion  were  hired  to 
watch  the  grounds  and  allow  no  outsiders  to  trespass  or  do  any 
shooting  upon  them,  and  that  was  as  far  as  their  authority  went." 
Mr.  Howe's  version  must  be  believed  until  it  is  fairly  contradicted  ; 
but  at  the  best,  it  is  melancholy  enough  that  thousands  of  acres  of 
land  within  walking  distance  of  Chicago  are  used  exclusively  as 
hunting-grounds  for  a  few  men  who  kill  animals  for  "sport," 

For  a  number  of  years,  Messrs,  Moody  and  Sankey,  the  cele- 
brated evangelists,  have  had  wonderful  success  in  converting  sin- 
ners, and  so  this  winter  they  appointed  a  revival  at  Washington 
to  try  the  effect  of  their  sermons  and  their  songs  upon  Congress  ; 
but  the  result  was  a  failure,  as  might  have  been  expected  consider- 
ing the  hardness  of  the  material,  for  although  the  ' '  Houses  "  have 
chaplains  of  their  own,  paid  by  the  nation  to  pray  for  them  every 
day,  the  members  remain  impenitent  and  hard  ;  in  fact,  they  are 
like  some  regiments  of  soldiers  I  knew  in  the  army,  of  whom  the 
chaplain  said  :  "The  more  they  are  prayed  for  the  harder  they 
get."  According  to  the  latest  information,  which,  however,  is  open 
to  correction  later  on,  not  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives was  converted,  and  only  one  member  of  the  Senate,  Mr. 
Blackburn  ol  Kentucky  ;  and  there  are  some  doubts  about  him, 
for  it  is  the  general  opinion  that  his  conversion  could  be  depended 
on  with  more  certainty  if  he  came  from  almost  any  other  State 
than  Kentucky;  they  have  so  many  temptations  there.  For  all 
that,  Mr.  Blackburn  appears  tc  be  a  promising  convert,  and  there 
are  well-founded  hopes  that  he  will  stand  firm  upon  the  ice,  for 
he  is  doing  a  little  missionary  work  among  his  fellow-members  of 
the  Senate,  distributing  tracts  and  other  light  reading  judiciously 
adapted  to  the  size  and  strength  of  the  senatorial  mind.  One  of 
the  tracts  is  entitled  "  The  Song  of  the  Sparrow,"  and  the  moral 
of  it  is  that  God  cires  for  the  most  insignificant  of  his  creatures, 
and  thdt  even  a  Senator  is  not  outside  the  plan  of  salvation.  I 
have  room  only  for  the  first  verse  of  the  poem,  but  it  is  all  equally 
good.  Considering  that  the  sparrow  is  not  much  of  a  singer,  his 
poetry  is  entitled  to  more  credit  than  it  would  be  if  he  were  a  com- 
petent person  like  the  mocking-bird.     He  says  : 

"  I  am  only  a  little  sparrow, 
A  bird  of  low  deg-ee. 
My  life  is  of  little  value, 
But  the  dear  Lord  cares  for  me." 


The  killing  of  two  "  game-keepers  "  by  a  "  poacher  "  within  a 
few  miles  of  Chicago,  reminds  me  of  the  feudal  game  laws  that 
linger  still  in  England.  It  appears  that  Albert  Looker  had  been 
shooting  game  "on  or  near "  the  hunting  grounds  of  the  Tolleston 
Gun  Club,  a  corporation  of  rich  men  living  in  Chicago  ;  and  it 
also  appears  that  last  Wednesday  evening  Conroy  and  Cleary  the 
game-keepers  found  the  poacher  in  a  Tolleston  saloon  and  began 


Even  a  sparrow,  when  he  gets  religion,  can  mix  pride  and 
humility  together  in  his  poetry,  after  the  manner  of  self-righteous 
men  in  more  pretentious  hymns.  Waiving  that  for  the  present, 
the  sentiment  of  the  song  is  a  plea  of  the  weak  for  more  merciful 
treatment  by  the  strong  ;  and  it  is  an  appeal,  not  only  for  spar- 
rows, but  for  men  and  women  and  children.  The  ethics  of  it  is 
generous  and  humane,  but  the  theology  of  it  is  open  to  some  doub', 


4030 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


for  the  sparrow  is  an  outlaw  in  this  very  Christian  land.  In  the  State 
of  Illinois  there  is  a  price  upon  his  head,  and  the  reward  for  slay- 
ing him  is  two  cents.  This  looks  like  a  vote  of  censure  on  the 
"dear  Lord,"  for  taking  care  of  the  sparrows,  but  it  shows  how 
feeble  are  the  efforts  of  human  legislation  when  directed  against 
the  divine  government,  for  in  spite  of  the  destructive  ingenuity  of 
men  and  boys,  excited  by  a  bribe  of  two  cents,  to  exterminate  the 
sparrow  by  sticks,  and  stones,  and  bows  and  arrows,  and  guns, 
and  traps,  and  catapults,  and  poison,  the  chirping  nuisance  in- 
creases and  multiplies,  and  grows  more  mischievous  day  by  day. 
With  impudent  sarcasm  he  says  to  his  persecutors  as  emphatically 
as  a  sparrow  can  say  anything,  "Your  laws  are  vain,  for  the  dear 
Lord  cares  for  me."  And,  if  the  argument  from  design  is  worth 
anything,  he  dees.  Although  the  sparrow  sometimes  appears  in 
a  false  character  as  a  "  reed-bird,"  or  as  a  "quail  on  toast,"  in  the 
restaurant,  he  is  really  not  good  eating,  and  this  is  evidence  of 
providential  care.  In  addition  to  that,  the  "dear  Lord"  has  en- 
dowed him  with  superior  abilities  for  taking  care  of  himself  ;  he 
has  given  him  besides  a  good  appetite  and  a  hardy  constitution,  a 
fighting  talent  that  keeps  other  birds  far  away  from  the  sparrow's 
hunting  grounds.  And  then,  he  is  not  particular  as  to  his  diet, 
animal  or  vegt table,  worms  or  wheat,  it's  all  the  same  to  him. 

M.  M.  Trumbull. 


BOOK  REVIE'WS. 


The  World's  Pablument  of  Religions.  An  Illustrated  and 
Popular  Story  of  the  World's  First  Parliament  of  Religions, 
Held  in  Chicago  in  Connexion  with  the  Columbian  Exposi 
tion  of  1893,  Edited  by  the  A\v.  John  Henry  Barrows, 
D.  D.,  Chairman  of  the  General  Committee  on  Religious 
Congresses  of  the  World's  Congress  Auxiliary.  Two  vol- 
umes. Chicago :  The  Parliament  Publishing  Company. 
1893.     Pages,   1600.     Price,  $5.00. 

Neely's  History  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions  and  Reli- 
gious Congresses  at  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition. 
Compiled  from  Original  Manuscripts  and  Stenographic  Re- 
ports. Edited  by  a  Corps  of  Able  Writers.  Prof.  ]\'alter 
K.  Honghlon,  Editor-in-Chief.  Two  volumes  in  one.  Fully 
illustrated.    Chicago :  F.  T.  Neely.    1893.     Pages,  looi. 

Review  of  the  World's  Religious  Congresses  of  the  World's 
Congress  Auxiliary  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposi- 
tion. By  Kev.  L.  P.  Mercer,  Member  of  the  General  Com- 
mittee. Chicago  and  New  York  :  Rand,  McNally,  &  Com- 
pany.    1893.     Pages,  334. 

A  Chorus  of  Faith  as  Heard  in  the  Parliament  of  Religions 
Held  in  Chicago,  September  10-27,  1893.  With  an  Intro- 
duction by  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones.  The  Unity  Publishing  Com- 
pany,   1893.    Pp  ,  333    Price,  paper,  50  cents  ;  cloth,  $1  50. 

The  four  books  above  listed  are  the  chief  works  relative  to 
World's  Parliament  of  Religions  which  have  yet  appeared.  The 
last,  that  of  the  Rev.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  is  a  short  collection  of 
extracts,  chiefly  taken  from  the  reports  of  the  Chicago  I/era/J.  Its 
virtue  is  its  conciseness  (three  hundred  and  twenty-eight  pages). 
The  passages  chosen  bear  almost  exclusively  upon  the  common 
ethical  features  of  the  different  religions  and  on  such  general  ideas 
as  the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  universal  belief  in  God,  etc.,  etc. 
The  book  is  not  a  record  of  the  Parliament's  proceedings.  But  it  is 
legibly  printed  on  good  paper,  is  inexpensive,  and,  bearing  in  mind 
its  scope,  may  be  recommended. 

Rand  &  McNally's  "Review"  is  the  production  of  the  Rev. 
L  P.  Mercer.  It  is  an  account  of  the  Parliament,  but  a  very  im- 
perfect one.      It  contains  a  few  portraits.     The  type  is  large. 

The  second  volume  listed  above,  that  of  Neely,  is  known  to 
the  public  chiefly  in  connexion  with  an  advertising  venture  of  The 


Chicago  Tribune.  It  contains  about  one  thousand  pages  and  some 
portraits  ;  the  print  is  small,  the  binding  poor  and  tasteless.  It  is 
furnished  with  an  introduction  full  of  platitudes  and  cant.  One 
merit  of  the  book  is, — and  it  is  a  great  one, — that  aside  from  its 
thirty-one  pages  of  Introduction  and  Preface,  it  contains  only  con- 
cise notes  of  the  proceedings,  without  superfluous  comment.  The 
full  addresses  are  not  always  given,  but  what  is  given,  it  seems,  is 
given  as  nearly  verbatim  as  the  circumstances  permitted.  Where 
condensation  was  necessary,  non-evangelical  and  liberal  speakers 
chiefly  sufifered. 

Dr.  Barrow's  work,  the  Chairman  of  the  General  Committee 
on  Religious  Congresses,  is  called  "an  illustrated  and  popular 
slory  of  the  World's  First  Parliament  of  Religions."  It  is  a  com- 
plete and  detailed  record  of  the  Parliament.  Its  two  volumes  take 
up  together  sixteen  hundred  pages.  It  contains  all  the  addresses 
delivered  at  the  Parliament,  those  of  the  first  volume,  nearly  -'er- 
haliiii,  those  of  the  second,  owing  to  lack  of  space,  condensed  ; 
photographs  of  the  speakers,  and  photographic  illustrations  of 
the  different  churches,  mosques,  pagodas,  and  towers  of  the  vari- 
ous religions,  together  with  views  of  their  principal  monuments 
and  ceremonies.  It  is,  of  course,  the  best  and  most  complete 
book  of  reference  yet  published  on  the  Parliament.  The  manu- 
facture of  the  work  was  a  task  of  great  magnitude  and  one  that 
demanded  much  critical  knowledge  and  skill.  Considering  the 
difficulties  and  the  haste  with  which  it  was  prepared,  the  perfor- 
mance is  a  creditable  one ;  but  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  it  is  a 
really  scientific  piece  of  work.  Its  cost  is  five  dollars,  which,  con- 
sidering the  general  excellence  of  its  form,  is  not  very  expensive. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publishe 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  344. 

KOSSUTH.     M.  M.  Trumbull 4023 

MIRACLE  IN  RELIGION.  Celia  Parker  Woollev.  . .  4024 
POETRY. 

Death  Shall  Not  Part  Ye  More.  Voltairine  de  Clevre  4026 
ALDERMAN  COBDEN  OF  MANCHESTER.  Theodore 

Stanton 4027 

CURRENT    TOPICS  :       A    Private    Mint.     Coining    the 

"Seigniorage."     Poachers  and  Game- Keepers.     Moody 

and    Sankey   at   Washington.     A   Sparrow's   Theology. 

Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull 4029 

BOOK  NOTICES 4030 


390 


The  Open  Court. 


A  -SSrEEKLY  JOURNAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  345.     (Vol.  VIII.-14.) 


CHICAGO,  APRIL  5,   li 


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THE  DISEASES  OF  THE  WILL. 


THE  REALM  OF  CAPRICES. 


BY  TH.    RIBOT. 


To  WILL  is  to  choose  in  order  to  act ;  such  is  for  us 
the  formula  of  the  normal  will.  The  anomalies  studied 
in  my  book^  reduce  themselves  to  two  great  groups  : 
either  the  impulse  is  lacking,  and  no  tendency  to  action 
is  produced  (abulia)  ;  or  a  too  rapid  or  too  intense  im- 
pulse prevents  a  choice.  Before  examining  the  cases 
of  obliteration  of  the  will,  that  is  to  say,  those  in  which 
there  is  neither  choice  nor  acts,  we  will  study  a  type  of 
character  in  which  the  will  does  not  constitute  itself  at 
all  or  does  so  only  in  a  wavering,  unsteady  and  ineffica- 
cious form.  The  best  example  of  it  that  can  be  given 
is  the  hj'sterical  character.  Properly  speaking  we  en- 
counter here  not  so  much  a  disorder  as  a  constitutional 
state.  The  simple  irresistible  impulse  is  like  an  acute 
disease  ;  the  permanent  and  invincible  impulses  resem- 
ble a  chronic  disease  ;  the  hysterical  character  is  a  dia- 
thesis. It  is  a  state  in  which  the  conditions  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  will  are  nearly  always  lacking. 

I  borrow  from  the  picture  of  the  character  of  hys- 
terics that  Dr.  Huchard  has  recently  drawn,  the  fea- 
tures which  relate  to  our  subject :  "A  primary  trait  of 
their  character  is  mobility.  From  day  to  day,  from 
hour  to  hour,  from  minute  to  minute,  they  pass  with 
an  incredible  rapidit}'  from  joy  to  sadness,  from  laugh- 
ter to  tears ;  versatile,  fantastic  or  capricious,  they 
speak  at  certain  moments  with  an  astonishing  loqua- 
city, while  at  others  they  become  gloomy  and  taciturn, 
keep  a  complete  silence,  or  remain  plunged  in  a  state 
of  reverie  or  of  mental  depression ;  they  are  then 
seized  with  a  vague  and  indefinable  feeling  of  sadness, 
with  a  sensation  of  pressure  in  the  throat,  of  a  rising 
ball,  or  of  epigastric  oppression ;  they  burst  into  sobs, 
or  they  go  to  hide  their  tears  in  solitude,  which  they 
crave  and  seek  ;  at  other  times,  on  the  contrary,  they 
begin  to  laugh  in  an  immoderate  manner  without  se- 
rious motives.  'They  behave,' saj's  Ch.  Richet,  'like 
children  that  one  sets  to  laughing  with  noises  when 
they  still  have  on  their  cheeks  the  tears  that  thej'  have 
iust  shed.' 


1  The  Diseases  0/  the  Will,  fn 
authorised  translation  to  appear  in 
lishing  Company. 


i  (orlniglil.     Cliicago 


"Their  character  changes  like  the  figures  of  a  ka- 
leidoscope, which  has  led  Sydenham  to  say  with  rea- 
son that  the  most  constant  thing  about  them  is  their 
inconstancy.  Yesterday  they  were  lively,  amiable  and 
gracious  ;  to-day  they  are  ill-humored,  susceptible  and 
irascible,  vexed  at  everything  and  at  nothing,  capri- 
ciously disagreeable  and  sulky,  discontented  with  their 
lot ;  nothing  interests  them,  they  are  wearied  with  every- 
thing. They  experience  a  very  great  antipathy  toward 
a  person  whom  yesterday  they  loved  and  esteemed,  or, 
on  the  contrary,  show  an  incomprehensible  sympathy 
for  some  one  else  ;  so  they  follow  certain  persons  with 
their  hatred  with  as  much  bitterness  as  they  had  for- 
merly had  persistence  in  surrounding  them  with  affec- 
tion. .  .  . 

"Sometimes  their  sensibility  is  exalted  by  the  most 
trivial  motives  when  it  is  hardly  touched  by  the  great- 
est emotions;  they  remain  almost  indifferent,  impas- 
sible even,  at  the  announcement  of  a  real  misfortune, 
and  they  shed  tears  abundantly  and  abandon  them- 
selves to  the  profoundest  despair  on  account  of  a  sim- 
ple word  falsely  interpreted,  and  transform  into  an  of- 
fence the  lightest  pleasantry.  This  sort  of  moral  ataxia 
is  observed  even  in  regard  to  their  dearest  interests  : 
one  has  the  most  complete  indifference  towards  the 
misconduct  of  her  husband  ;  another  remains  cold  be- 
fore danger  which  menaces  her  fortune.  In  turn  gen- 
tle and  passionate,  says  Moreau  (of  Tours),  kind  and 
cruel,  impressionable  to  excess,  rarely  mistresses  of 
their  first  movements,  incapable  of  offering  resistance 
to  impulses  of  the  most  opposite  nature,  presenting  a 
lack  of  equilibrium  between  the  superior  moral  facul- 
ties, will  and  conscience,  and  the  inferior  faculties,  the 
instincts,  passions,  and  desires. 

"This  extreme  mobility  in  their  state  of  mind  and 
their  affective  dispositions,  this  instability  of  character, 
this  lack  of  fixity,  this  absence  of  stability  in  their  ideas 
and  their  volitions,  explain  the  incapacity  which  they 
experience  of  giving  their  attention  very  long  to  read- 
ing, study,  or  any  kind  of  work. 

"All  these  changes  follow  each  other  with  the 
greatest  rapidity.  In  this  class  of  patients  the  im- 
pulses are  not,  as  in  the  case  of  epileptics,  absolutel}' 
uncontrolled  b}'  the  intellect,  but  the}'  are  rapidl}'  fol- 
lowed   by   action.      This   is   the   explanation  of   those 


4032 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


sudden  movements  of  anger  and  indignation,  those 
headlong  enthusiasms,  those  fits  of  despair,  those  ex- 
plosions of  mad  gaiety,  those  great  bursts  of  affection, 
those  quick  accessions  of  tenderness,  or  those  sudden 
transports  during  which,  acting  Hke  spoiled  children, 
they  stamp  with  their  feet,  break  furniture,  feel  an  irre- 
sistible need  of  striking  something.  .  .  . 

"Hysterical  patients  act  as  they  are  led  by  their 
passions.  Almost  all  the  various  inconstancies  of  their 
character,  of  their  mental  state,  can  be  summed  up  in 
these  words  :  they  do  not  know  how  to  use  their  will, 
they  cannot  and  will  not  do  it.  It  is,  indeed,  because 
their  will  is  always  unsteady  and  faltering,  because  it 
is  unceasingly  in  a  state  of  unstable  equilibrium,  be- 
cause it  turns  at  the  least  wind  like  the  weather-vane 
on  our  roofs ;  it  is  for  all  these  reasons  that  hysterical 
patients  have  such  mobility,  such  inconstancy,  and 
such  changeableness  in  their  desires,  their  ideas,  and 
their  affections."  ^ 

This  portrait  is  so  complete  that  we  need  not  pro- 
long our  comments.  It  has  put  before  the  readers' 
eyes  that  state  of  incoordination,  of  broken  equili- 
brium, of  anarchy,  of  "moral  ataxia  ";  but  we  have  yet 
to  justify  the  statement  that  we  made  at  the  outset  : 
that  there  is  here  a  constitutional  impotence  of  the 
will ;  that  it  cannot  arise  because  the  conditions  of  its 
existence  are  lacking.  For  the  sake  of  clearness  I  will 
anticipate  what  is  to  be  established  with  more  details 
and  proofs  at  the  close  of  this  work. 

If  we  take  an  adult  person,  endowed  with  an  ave- 
rage will,  we  shall  observe  that  his  activity  (that  is  to 
say,  his  power  of  producing  acts)  forms  in  general  three 
planes  :  on  the  lowest  are  the  automatic  acts,  simple 
or  composite  reflexes,  habits  ;  above  are  acts  produced 
by  the  feelings,  emotions,  and  passions  ;  higher  still 
are  rational  acts.  This  last  stage  presupposes  the 
other  two,  rests  on  them,  and  consequently  depends 
upon  them,  although  it  gives  them  co-ordination  and 
unity.  The  capricious  characters  of  which  the  hys- 
teric is  the  type  have  only  the  two  lower  forms  ;  the 
third  is,  as  it  were,  atrophied.  By  nature,  save  in  rare 
exceptions,  the  rational  activity  is  always  the  least 
strong.  It  obtains  the  mastery  only  on  the  condition 
that  the  ideas  awaken  certain  feelings  which  are  much 
more  apt  than  they  to  express  themselves  in  acts.  We 
have  seen  that  the  more  abstract  ideas  are,  the  weaker 
their  motory  tendencies.  In  hysterical  patients  the 
regulative  ideas  do  not  arise  or  remain  sterile.  It  is 
because  certain  notions  of  the  rational  order  (utility, 
propriety,  duty,  etc.)  remain  in  the  state  of  mere  con- 
ceptions, because  they  are  not  felt  \ty  the  individual, 
because  they  produce  in  him  no  affective  response,  do 
not  enter  into  his  substance,  but  remain  like  something 


I  AxenfehJ  and  Hiichard.  Traiti  dt\ 
95S-97'. 


ond  edition,  1883),  pp. 


brought  in  from  outside ;  it  is  on  these  accounts  that 
they  are  without  action  and  for  all  practical  purposes  as 
if  they  did  not  exist.  The  power  of  individual  action  is 
maimed  and  incomplete.  The  tendency  of  the  feelings 
and  passions  to  show  themselves  in  acts  is  doubly 
strong,  both  in  itself  and  because  there  is  nothing 
above  it  which  checks  and  counterbalances  it ;  and  as 
it  is  a  characteristic  of  the  feelings  to  go  straight  to 
the  goal,  after  the  manner  of  reflexes,  to  have  an 
adaptation  in  one  single  direction,  unilateral  (just  the 
contrary  to  rational  adaptation,  which  is  multilateral), 
the  desires,  born  quickly  and  immediately  satisfied, 
leave  free  room  for  others,  analogous  or  opposed,  ac- 
cording to  the  perpetual  variations  of  the  individual. 
There  exist  only  caprices,  at  most  desires,  a  rough  out- 
line of  volition.! 

This  fact,  that  desire  goes  in  a  single  direction  and 
tends  to  expend  itself  without  delay,  does  not,  how- 
ever, explain  the  instability  of  the  hysteric,  nor  his  ab- 
sence of  will.  If  a  desire  always  satisfied  springs  up 
again  continually,  there  is  stability.  The  predomi- 
nance of  the  affective  life  does  not  necessarily  exclude 
the  will :  an  intense,  stable,  permitted  passion  is  the 
very  basis  of  all  energetic  wills.  It  is  found  in  the 
great  men  of  ambition,  in  the  martyr  unshaken  in  his 
faith,  in  the  red-skin  bidding  defiance  to  his  enemies 
in  the  midst  of  torments.  It  is  necessary,  then,  to  seek 
more  deeply  the  cause  of  this  instability  in  the  hysteric, 
and  this  cause  can  be  nothing  else  than  a  state  of  the 
individuality,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  final  reckoning,  of 
the  organism.  We  call  that  will  strong  whose  end, 
whatever  be  its  nature,  is  fixed.  When  circumstances 
change,  means  are  changed  ;  there  take  place  succes- 
sive adaptations  to  the  new  environment,  but  the  cen- 
tre towards  which  all  converges  does  not  change.  Its 
stability  expresses  the  permanency  of  character  in  the 
individual.  If  the  same  end  continues  to  be  chosen, 
approved,  it  is  because  that  at  bottom  the  individual 
remains  the  same.  Let  us  suppose,  on  the  contrary, 
an  organism  with  unstable  functions,  whose  unity — 
which  is  only  a  consensus — is  continually  dissolved 
and  reconstituted  on  a  new  plan,  according  to  the  sud- 
den variation  of  the  functions  that  make  it  up  ;  it  is 
clear  that  in  such  a  case  choice  can  hardly  arise,  can- 
not last,  and  there  remain  only  whims  and  caprices. 
This  is  what  takes  place  in  the  hysteric,  j  The  in- 
stability is  a  fact.  Its  very  probable  cause  is  in  func- 
tional disorders.  Anesthesia  of  special  senses  or  of 
the  general  sensibilit}',  hyperaesthesia  in  its  various 
forms,  motor  disorders,  contractures,  convulsions,  pa- 
ral)'ses,  derangements  of  the  organic  functions,  vaso- 
motor, secretory,  etc.,  occurring  successivelj'  or  siniul- 

1  Let  us  note  in  passing  how  necessary  it  is  in  psychology  to  take  account 
of  the  ascending  gradation  of  phenomena.  Volition  is  not  a  clear  and  well- 
defined  state  which  either  exists  or  does  not  exist ;  there  are  sketches  and 
attempts. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4033 


taneously,  keep  the  organism  in  a  perpetual  state  of 
unstable  equilibrium/  and  the  character,  which  is  only 
the  psychic  expression  of  the  organism,  correspond- 
ingly varies.  A  stable  character  upon  such  an  unsteady 
foundation  would  be  a  miracle.  We  find,  therefore, 
the  true  cause  of  impotence  of  will  to  be  here,  and  this 
impotence  is,  as  we  have  said,  constitutional. 

Some  facts  contradictory  in  appearance  really  con- 
firm this  thesis.  Hysterical  patients  are  sometimes 
possessed  by  a  fixed  idea,  which  cannot  be  conquered. 
One  refuses  to  eat,  another  to  speak,  another  to  see, 
because  the  labor  of  digestion,  or  the  exercise  of  the 
voice  or  the  sight  would  bring  about,  as  they  suppose, 
some  suffering.  One  meets  more  frequently  with  that 
kind  of  paralysis  which  has  been  called  "psychic"  or 
"ideal."  The  hysteric  stays  in  bed  for  weeks,  months, 
and  even  years,  believing  herself  unable  to  stand  up 
or  to  walk.  A  moral  shock,  or  the  niere  influence  of 
some  one  who  gains  her  confidence  or  acts  with  author- 
ity effects  a  cure.  One  begins  to  walk  at  the  announce- 
ment of  a  fire,  another  gets  up  and  goes  to  meet  a 
long-absent  brother,  another  decides  to  eat  out  of  fear 
of  the  physician.  Briquet,  in  his  "  Traitd  de  I'hys- 
t^rie,"  reports  several  cases  of  women  whom  he  healed 
by  inspiring  them  with  faith  in  their  recovery.  There 
might  also  be  mentioned  a  good  number  of  those  cures 
called  miraculous  which  have  attracted  the  public  curi- 
osity from  the  time  of  the  deacon  Paris  to  our  own  day. 

The  physiological  causes  of  these  paralyses  are 
much  in  dispute.  In  the  psychological  order  we  ob- 
serve the  existence  of  a  fixed  idea  the  result  of  which 
is  an  inhibition.  As  an  idea  does  not  exist  by  itself 
and  without  certain  cerebral  conditions,  as  it  is  only  a 
part  of  a  psycho-physiological  whole — the  conscious 
part — it  must  be  admitted  that  it  corresponds  to  an 
abnormal  state  of  the  organism,  perhaps  of  the  motor 
centres,  and  that  it  draws  thence  its  origin.  However 
that  may  be,  it  is  not,  as  certain  medical  men  have  per- 
sistently maintained,  an  "exaltation"  of  the  will ;  it  is, 
on  the  contrary,  its  absence.  We  are  recurring  to  a 
morbid  type  already  studied,  which  differs  from  irresis- 
tible impulses  only  in  form  ;  it  is  inhibitory.  But  there 
is  no  direct  reaction  against  the  fixed  idea  on  the  indi- 
vidual's own  part.  It  is  an  influence  from  without 
which  imposes  itself  and  produces  a  contrary  state  of 
consciousness,  with  the  concomitant  feelings  and  phys- 
iological states.  There  results  from  this  a  powerful 
impulse  to  action,  which  suppresses  and  replaces  the 
inhibitory  state  ;  but  it  is  hardly  a  volition  ;  at  best  it 
is  a  volition  with  another's  aid. 

This  group  of  facts  brings  us,  then,  to  the  same 
conclusion  :  an  impotence  of  the  will  to  form  itself. '■' 

1  For  the  details  of  the  facts  see  the  work  cited,  pp.  987-1043. 

2  For  the  facts  see  Briquet,  Traiti  de  I'hysiirie,  chap,  x;  Axenfeld  and 
Huchard,  op.  cit..  pp.  967-1012;  Cruveilhier,  Anatomie  pathologique,  book 
xxsv,  p.  4  ;  Macario,  Annates  medico-psychologiquesy  vol.  iii,  p.  62 ;  Ch.  Richet, 


CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA. 

THE  SPIRIT  HID  WITH  CHRIST. 
BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 

Now,  IT  was  in  the  winter,  while  Jesus  journeyed 
in  the  hill  country  beyond  the  Jordan  with  one  of  his 
disciples. 

And  certain  elders  of  the  church  came  and  joined 
themselves  unto  him. 

And  one  of  these  was  a  Pharisee,  and  another  a 
Saducee. 

And  as  they  journeyed,  they  disputed  among  them- 
selves concerning  the  commandments  of  the  law  of 
Moses,  and  concerning  the  mystery  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven. 

For  he  that  was  a  Pharisee  said,  that  the  body 
should  rise  again  at  the  last  day ; 

But  the  Saducee  denied  with  an  oath,  saying.  What 
saith  the  Preacher? — The  body  shall  return  to  the 
earth  as  it  was.  As  the  prophet  Sadoc  saith,  there  is 
no  resurrection. 

And  Jesus  heard  them,  and  sorrowed  in  his  heart, 
and  saith  unto  them,  Why  is  it  ye  have  no  understand- 
ing? 

And  he  stooped  down  and  took  a  clod  of  earth 
from  the  wayside,  and  he  showed  it  unto  the  Pharisee. 

And  saith  unto  him,  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  thy 
body  is  even  as  this  clod. 

But  as  the  brickmaker  cometh  and  taketh  the  clay 
and  fashioneth  it,  and  burneth  it  in  the  furnace  to 
make  bricks  ; 

And  the  builder  buildeth  of  the  bricks  an  habitation. 

Even  so  out  of  the  clods  of  the  earth  in  his  own 
way  man  fashioneth  himself  and  buildeth  an  habita- 
tion, even  a  temple  for  the  spirit. 

For  which  is  more  excellent,  the  temple,  or  the 
altar  for  which  the  temple  was  builded  ? 

Or  which  is  the  holier,  the  altar,  or  the  burnt  offer- 
ing that  is  offered  upon  the  altar? 

Or  which  is  the  greater,  the  burnt  offering,  or  the 
priest  that  offereth  the  burnt  offering  ? 

Then  Jesus  saith  unto  the  Saducee,  Verily,  the 
Preacher  saith,  the  body  shall  return  to  the  earth  as 
it  was,  but  the  spirit  shall  return  to  God,  who  gave  it. 

Now,  both  the  Pharisee  and  the  Saducee  were 
amazed  at  his  doctrine,  and  with  one  accord  they  say 
unto  him.  Master,  what  is  spirit? 

And  Jesus  answered  and  saith  unto  them,  This 
thing  God  hath  hid  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  but 
hath  revealed  it  unto  babes. 

It  is  heat  out  of  cold  ;  it  is  light  out  of  darkness; 
it  is  wisdom  out  of  folly. 

But  they  said,  Lo  !  now  thou  speakest  in  parables. 

\n  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Jan.  15,  1880;  P.  Richer.  Etudes  clinigties  sur  t'/iys- 
t£ro-ipitepsie,eXz.^  part  third,  chap,  ii,  and  the  historic  notes. 


4034 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


And  yet  thou  sayest,  we  have  no  understanding.  Make 
thy  meaning  plain. 

And  Jesus  saith  unto  them,  I  will.  All  power  is 
given  unto  me  of  the  Father  lo  discern  the  hidden 
things  ;  behold  yonder  black  stone. 

And  they  looked  and  beheld  the  black  stone. 

And  Jesus  saith  again,  Behold  this   morsel  of  ice. 

And  as  he  spake,  he  stooped  down  and  took  the 
morsel  of  ice  in  his  hand.  And  he  moulded  it,  and 
fashioned  it,  till  it  was  like  in  shape  unto  an  eye. 

And  he  looked  up  to  Heaven,  and  cried  aloud,  say- 
ing, Thou  hast  given  unto  me,  O  Father,  to  discern 
the  hidden  things  that  are  hid  in  the  earth,  even  the 
things  that  thou  didst  hide  in  the  days  of  old. 

Bring  forth  now  thy  power  and  manifest  thy  glory, 
— the  glory  that  was  hid  before  the  mountains  were 
brought  forth. 

And  Jesus  held  up  the  morsel  of  ice  betwixt  his 
fingers.  And  God  caused  his  sun  to  shine,  and  the 
might  thereof  shone  down  and  touched  the  morsel  of 
ice.     And  the  sun  was  changed  by  the  morsel  of  ice. 

In  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  behold 
the  changed  sunlight  fell  upon  the  black  stone,  and  it 
became  red  with  fervent  heat. 

And  the  Pharisee  and  the  Saducee  ran  and  touched 
their  fingers  unto  the  stone,  and  the  stone  burned 
them. 

And  they  fell  down  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  for  to  wor- 
ship him,  saying.  Truly  thou,  even  thou  art  the  Son  of 
God.   Thou,  even  thou,  art  worthy  of  glory  and  honor. 

For  thou  hast  indeed  made  our  folly  to  be  wisdom. 

But  Jesus  saith  unto  them.  Call  no  man  worthy. 
There  is  none  that  is  worthy  save  God,  and  the  spirit 
that  is  hid  in  me  with  God. 


"SENATORIAL  REFORM." 

BY  E.  P.  POWELL. 

It  seems  to  me  an  anomaly  in  literature  that  as  able  a  thinker 
as  Mr.  Conway  should  have  written  the  assault  on  the  American 
Senate  contained  in  Tlie  Open  Court  for  March  15.  In  the  first 
place  it  is  pure  assumption  to  assert  that  the  leaders  in  forming 
the  American  Constitution  :  Jefferson,  Madison,  Adams,  Frank- 
lin, Mason,  Randolph,  were  the  victims  of  an  immature  system  of 
petty  despotisms.  The  words  of  the  Constitutional  convention 
are  supported  by  the  private  correspondence  of  all  those  men 
showing  that  no  feature  of  the  Constitution  seemed  to  them  more 
happily  devised  than  that  creating  a  Senate  of  the  States,  But 
the  curious  part  of  Mr.  Conway's  argument  appears  when  he  goes 
on  to  show  the  steady  lapse  of  direct  popular  representation,  "It 
is  notorious  that  in  democratic  countries  the  ablest  and  best  men 
shrink  from  vulgar  competition — the  enlargement  of  the  franchise 
in  England  has  been  accompanied  by  a  marked  decline  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  Parliament."  Here  then  the  House  of  Representatives 
is  swept  away  virtually  as  well  as  the  Senate  :  the  first  as  repre- 
senting ' '  Rotten  boroughs  "  on  petty  jealousies  constituting  States; 
and  the  latter  as  a  democracy  that  in  its  nature  is  degenerative. 
We  are  prepared  for  cyclic  periods  of  destructiveness  ;  but  for  one 
I  was  not  prepared  to  see  Mr.  Conway  heading  the  movement  in 
America.     There  is  certainly  no  pretence  lo  argument  in  the  sup- 


position that  [he  Constitution-makers'  ghosts  would  now  inform 
Mr.  Wallace  that  they  have  changed  their  minds — would  he  only 
consult  them.  Mr,  Wallace  is  certainly  entitled  to  entire  courtesy 
both  as  a  spiritualist  and  a  scientist. 

Having  shown  the  utter  worthlessness  of  the  existing  form  or 
forms  of  democracy,  Mr.  Conway  furnishes  us  with  a  panacea  ; 
and  this  is  the  most  curious  part  of  his  paper.  It  is  the  introduc- 
tion of  "  secret  ballot "  into  Congress,  "The  people  would  then 
have  to  choose  the  wisest  and  best  man,  knowing  that  they  could 
have  no  control  over  his  vote."  On  the  contrary,  would  they  not, 
if  desirous  of  corrupt  legislation,  select  men  whose  principles  they 
would  not  fear.  Imagine  a  corrupt  gang  of  voters,  such  as  Mr. 
Conway  suggests  as  now  sending  their  tools  to  Congress,  sitting 
down  to  the  desperate  necessity  of  picking  out  saints,  because  they 
could  not  be  sure  how  the  fellows  would  vote.  The  logic  would 
be  something  of  this  sort,  "  We  can't  tell  what  our  representatives 
will  do,  because  they  will  vote  in  secret  :  therefore  let  us  send 
those  whom  we  are  siiri:  will  not  do  what  we  wish  and  who  do  not 
in  any  sense  represent  such  a  ocnstituency  as  we  compose."  The 
value  of  the  secret  ballot  as  opposed  to  the  open  ballot  would  be  a 
theme  by  itself;  but  as  a  panacea  against  the  fact  that  democracy 
lends  to  grade  downwards  its  governing  bodies,  it  is  impossible 
and  absurd. 

The  panacea  for  the  Senate  is  a  different  affair  altogether. 
Despairing  of  quite  abolishing  the  Senate,  Mr.  Conway  would 
take  away  its  power  as  an  equal  legislature.  Then  follows  this 
Parisian  concoction;  "One  of  the  two  senators  of  each  Stale 
might  be  chosen  by  the  alumni  of  its  colleges  and  learned  socie- 
ties "  (turning  them  from  top  to  bottom  into  political  bodies  ;  and 
making  our  college  presidents  very  quickly  of  different  material) 
"  placing  in  the  revising  council  the  Republic  of  Letters"  The 
other  senator  he  thinks  might  be  left  as  now  to  selection  by  the 
Legislature.  Probably  when  the  Senate  is  thus  recast  there  will 
be  at  least  one  million  American  citizens  and  English  neighbors  to 
suggest  each  an  independent  plan.  We  have  never  yet  in  the 
world's  history  got  rid  of  human  nature  ;  nor  in  any  form  of  gov- 
ernment are  we  liable  now  or  hereafter  to  secure  rulers  much  un- 
like ourselves.  A  popular  governing  body  will  stand  for  the  people 
about  as  they  are  ;  and  the  system  of  checks  and  counter-checks 
devised  by  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Washington  1.=;  about  as  much 
as  is  needed,  and  probably  quite  as  efficient  as  that  which  is  by 
Mr.  Conway  suggested.  I  will  add,  however,  that  if  we  are  to 
have  one  senator  selected  by  academic  associations  and  college 
boys,  the  other  might  as  well  be  passed  over  to  the  churches. 
These  two  bodies  at  present  probably  contain  as  much  of  the  sur- 
vival of  mediaeval  spirit  as  any  that  can  be  suggested.  If  our  very 
rottenest  boroughs  with  secret  ballot  in  vogue,  will  turn  to  the  se- 
lection of  the  most  eminently  virtuous  men  for  representatives,  the 
Church  can  perhaps  be  trusted  as  well  as  the  colleges  to  match 
these  with  senators  of  the  same  sort.  I  have  as  much  faith  in  this 
plan  as  I  have  in  reforming  our  nation  by  the  plan  of  Mr.  Morse, 
that  is  by  placing  the  words  God  and  Christ  in  the  Constitution, 

But  the  real  gist  and  heart  of  this  subject  is  not  touched. 
Waiving  the  evils  of  that  democracy,  which  was  by  no  means  a 
new  idea  devised  by  our  fathers  ;  let  us  see  that  the  one  great 
stride  ahead  in  the  way  of  government  and  society  devised  by  them 
was  "Federal  Union";  the  alliance  and  federative  co-operation 
of  distinct  and  independent  States.  This  idea  was  never  before 
broached  or  conceived  by  Aryan  diplomats  and  nation  makers.  I 
have  no  room  here  to  show  its  historic  relation  to  other  political 
ideas  ;  and  how  it  is  a  legitimate  evolution  of  popular  government 
from  the  primitive  township.  I  wish  only  to  dwell  on  it  long 
enough  to  show  that  in  it  lay  the  possibility  of  covering  a  conti- 
nent with  a  single  nation,  instead  of  a  jealous  group  of  States  like 
those  of  Europe.  It  has  taken  America  into  the  bond ;  and  added 
over  thirty  new  States  to  the  original  thirteen.    It  has  reached  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4035 


Pacific.  It  is  fraternising  to  North  and  to  South.  It  has  begun 
the  recreation  of  the  opposite  shore  of  Asia.  The  fraternity  of  na- 
tions is  before  us  ;  as  also  the  fellowship  of  religions.  Canada  and 
Mexico  are  not  the  only  ones  that  anticipate  Union.  Never  before 
was  there  an  idea  that  permitted  of  the  abolition  of  standing  ar- 
mies ;  and  the  mutual  good  will  of  peoples  three  thousand  miles 
apart.  And  this  is  iicl  democracy  merely  ;  it  is  the  federal  union 
of  States  ;  States  that  Mr.  Conway  denounces  as  "  survivals  of  the 
basest  characteristics  of  the  reactionary  reign  of  George  III." 
These  States  exist  in  our  Senate  ;  abolish  that  and  you  have  struck 
out  the  very  life  of  our  Constitution  ;  you  have  undone  all  that 
our  fathers  devised.  The  one  institution  of  America  to  be  jealously 
guarded  is  the  Senate.  We  might  even  dispense  with  an  executive 
chief ;  but  when  the  Senate  is  gone  you  have  only  a  democracy. 
Never  in  the  world's  history  could  a  democracy  cover  a  large  ter- 
ritory: the  smaller  the  safer.  But  the  federal  union  of  independ- 
ent States  is  safer  the  larger  it  grows.  Abolish  the  Senate  and  you 
abolish  the  States.  Even  Hamilton  late  in  life  became  a  convert 
to  the  integral  necessity  of  States.  Instead  of  throwing  a  half  of 
the  Senate  to  the  colleges  ;  let  us  at  once  complete  the  sublime 
scheme  of  education  planned  by  Jefferson  :  common  schools  every- 
where, centering  in  State  universities  ;  and  State  universities  gradu- 
ating into  a  great  national  university  at  Washington.  In  this  way 
we  have,  what  we  ever  should  have  in  popular  government,  two 
coextensive  collateral  forces,  the  educative  and  the  legislative. 

"THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES." 

BY  HORACE  P.   BIDDLE. 

I  have  read  the  several  articles  published  in  Tlu-  Open  Court, 
attacking  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  It  seems  to  me  that 
they  do  not  correctly  represent  the  organisation  and  the  purpose 
of  the  Senate. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  formed  by  the 
people  of  all  the  States,  not  as  one  mass  representing  a  single  in- 
terest, but  by  each  State  representing  the  people  and  the  autonomy 
of  the  State,  in  the  interest  of  a  common  union  of  the  States,  as 
sovereign  equals,  and  the  equal  rights  of  all  the  people  In  Con- 
gress the  House  represents  the  people  of  the  United  States  by 
States  ;  the  Senate  represents  the  sovereignty  of  the  States  with- 
out reference  to  the  number  of  people  in  the  separate  States.  The 
President  represents  the  people  of  the  United  States  equally,  and 
the  equal  sovereignty  of  all  the  States.  If  the  Senators  and  Rep- 
resentatives sat  in  the  same  chamber  and  voted  equally  as  one 
body,  then  the  objections  taken  to  the  Senate  would  lie,  but  as  it 
is,  they  do  not.  The  House  cannot  invade  the  sovereignty  of  the 
States,  the  Senate  cannot  invade  the  rights  of  the  people.  It  is 
immaterial  whether  each  State  has  two  or  twenty  Senators,  or 
whether  its  people  are  many  or  few,  the  representation  is  the 
same — that  is,  equal  between  the  States  which  the  Senate  repre- 
sents. Shall  a  small  State  not  have  the  same  rights  as  a  large 
State  ?  Shall  a  weak  State  not  have  the  same  rights  as  a  strong 
State  ?  Shall  a  State  with  but  few  people  not  have  the  same  rights 
as  a  State  with  many  people  ?  To  further  illustrate  the  principle, 
shall  a  small,  weak  man  not  have  the  same  civil  rights  as  a  large, 
strong  man  ? 

It  is  impossible  for  the  Congress  to  pass  a  law,  constitution- 
ally, that  does  not  represent  all  the  people  of  the  United  States 
equally  ;  and  the  sovereignty  of  all  the  States  equally,  without  a 
possible  invasion  of  the  rights  of  the  people  or  the  States  ;  and 
should  the  Congress  pass  a  law,  unconstitutionally,  that  invades 
the  rights  of  the  people,  or  of  the  States,  yet,  beyond  the  legisla- 
tive and  executive  power  stands  the  judiciary  to  correct  the  error, 
and  preserve  the  Constitution  intact.  Can  any  government  be 
more  fair,  more  just,  more  equal,  or  more  secure  ? 

Abolish  the  Senate  and  take  away  the  equal  representation  of 
the  States  in  their  autonomy,  and  there  would  be  nothing  left  to 


prevent  Congress,  by  the  power  of  the  larger  States,  from  oppress 
ing  the  smaller  States,  and  consolidating  them  all  into  one  mas- 
sive empire,  as  one  State  ruled  by  a  single  power.  History  reads 
us  many  lessons  as  to  what,  then,  would  be  the  fate  of  human 
liberty. 

CURRENT  TOPICS. 

That  excellent  English  paper,  TJu-  A'coeastlc  Wickly  Chron- 
/./(-,  fears  the  importation  of  American  political  methods  into  Eng- 
land, and  it  starts  with  justifiable  alarm  at  the  prospect  of  a  Tam- 
many Hall  in  London.  In  the  Chronicle  of  March  17  I  find  these 
words  of  warning  :  "It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  for- 
mation of  a  society  of  political  agents  is  bringing  us  nearer  and 
nearer  to  that  system  of  machine  politics  which  has  produced  so 
much  corruption  in  the  United  Slates.  As  matters  look  at  pres- 
ent, it  will  probably  not  be  long  before  we  shall  have  a  Tammany 
Hall  in  England — an  institution  which  will  make  the  ballot  a  fraud 
and  popular  government  a  scandal."  The  diagnosis  is  correct,  but 
in  the  language  of  a  famous  chief  of  Tammany,  "  What  are  you 
going  to  do  about  it  ?  "  Tammany  is  a  product,  as  a  toadstool  is  ; 
and  if  ever  a  population  like  that  of  New  York  shall  get  control  of 
London  through  the  ballot-box,  Tammany  will  spring  up  in  Eng- 
land as  naturally  as  a  weed  springs  out  of  the  ground.  Newcastle 
will  have  one,  and  Leeds,  and  Birmingham,  and  every  other  town 
where  the  conditions  that  make  Tammanies  happen  to  be.  It  will 
not  be  known  by  the  name  of  Tammany,  for  that  would  awaken 
suspicion  and  arouse  hostility;  but  the  machinery  will  be  set  up, 
the  engineers  will  go  to  work,  and  the  looting  of  the  cities  will  be 
done  in  the  manner  and  style  of  Tammany. 

*  * 

From  a  careful  reading  of  the  A'ewemtie  Chronicle  I  am  of 
opinion  that  the  scouts  of  Tammany  have  already  invaded  Eng- 
land under  the  name  of  "Election  agents,"  and  that  they  are 
smuggling  American  election  machines  into  that  country  in  a  small 
way,  and  showing  the  natives  of  that  benighted  island  how  to  use 
them  so  as  to  cheat,  and  bamboozle,  and  bribe.  The  Chronicle  is 
properly  shocked,  because  "one  of  the  questions  which  the  elec- 
tion agents  are  asked  to  answer  is  this  :  — '  What  form  of  words 
would  you  advise  for  the  use  of  a  candidate  anxious  to  pledge  him- 
self to  the  Temperance  party  without  losing  the  support  of  the 
liquor  interest  ? '  "  This  may  look  like  a  hard  problem  to  an  Eng- 
lishman, but  an  American  politician  worthy  to  be  a  coal-heaver 
for  the  engineer  who  runs  the  machine  could  give  the  correct  so- 
lution in  two  minutes.  In  our  political  arithmetic  such  a  problem 
as  that  is  merely  a  sum  in  simple  addition.  I  know  hundreds  of 
men  of  all  official  grades,  from  senators  to  constables,  who  have 
triumphantly  answered  it.  What  does  the  Chronicle  think  of  the 
following  "  form  of  words"  as  an  answer  by  a  candidate,  say  for 
mayor  of  a  city,  where  there  are  laws  requiring  liquor  shops  to  be 
closed  on  Sundays,  on  election  days,  and  at  certain  hours  of  the 
night  ?  The  candidate  wants  to  please  the  Temperance  party  with- 
out offending  the  liquor  interest,  and  he  says  : 

■'That  while  all  ordinances  shonld  be  enforced,  with  the  view  to  the  sup- 
pression of  vice,  the  executive  department  should  construe  the  laws  in  the 
spirit  of  tolerance,  with  due  regard  to  the  cosmopolitan  character  of  the  popu- 
lation, so  that  the  customs  and  habits  of  the  various  peoples  be  not  interfered 
with,  nor  their  personal  liberty  and  individual  rights  impaired." 
* 

What  does  the  Chronicle  think  of  that  as  a  duplex  machine- 
made  contradiction  ?  That  specimen  is  official  ;  it  is  not  the  pro- 
duct of  a  reckless  imagination,  but  it  is  exactly  the  "form  of 
words  "  employed  by  a  last  year's  candidate  for  the  mayoralty  of 
Chicago.  I  have  no  copyright  on  it,  and  I  am  perfectly  willing  to 
have  it  used  in  England.  This  formula,  however,  is  too  easy  to 
be  thought  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  political  algebra  that  our  skil- 
ful statesmen  use  when  they  advocate  a  tariff  for  revenue  only, 
levied  in  such  a  way  as  to  protect  American  industry;   and  when 


4036 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


they  declare  for  gold,  silver,  and  paper  legal-tender  dollars  of  un- 
equal value  and  equal  purchasing  power  according  to  the  single 
standard  of  the  markets  of  the  world,  regulated  with  a  bi-metallic 
balance-wheel,  so  constructed  as  to  prevent  the  money-kings  of 
Great  Britain  from  dictating  the  financial  policy  of  America  ;  a 
firm  and  stable  gold  medium  of  exchange  made  flexible  and  elastic 
by  the  free  coinage  of  silver  at  a  ratio  of  sixteen  to  one.  If  there 
is  any  question  of  English  policy  disputed  by  two  contradictory 
parties,  the  English  politicians  need  no  longer  be  baffled  by  con- 
sistency. Let  them  send  their  orders  over  here,  and  we  will  agree 
to  furnish  a  "form  of  words"  that  will  enable  them  to  pledge 
themselves  to  one  party  without  losing  the  support  of  the  other. 
*  * 

Speaking  of  elections  and  the  practices  of  Tammany,  reminds 
us  that  Chicago  is  in  "the  throes  and  convulsions"  of  an  election 
contest  now.  Next  week  we  elect  aldermen,  assessors,  and  some 
other  officers  to  domineer  over  us  and  misgovern  the  city.  The 
tournament  is  animated,  for  the  prizes  and  the  perquisites  are 
large  ;  unlawful,  if  you  please,  and  even  criminal,  but  the  con- 
testants care  nothing  for  that ;  the  plunder  is  close  at  hand,  while 
the  prison  is  far  away.  Passionate  appeals  are  made,  and  the 
good  citizens  are  called  upon  to  turn  out  and  vote  for  the  best 
men  ;  but  our  masters  laugh  at  the  exhortations,  and,  shaking 
their  brass  knuckles  in  the  faces  of  the  people,  say  to  them,  "You 
may  vote,  but  we  will  count ;  see  !  "  Here  is  a  description  which 
I  find  in  the  Chicago  Herald  ol  some  of  the  "  judges"  appointed  to 
superintend  the  polling,  and  to  receive  and  count  the  ballots.  In- 
troducing one  of  the  candidates  to  its  readers,  the  Herald  says, 
"Among  the  men  he  has  selected  to  act  as  judges  and  clerks  of 
election  in  the  Sixth  Ward — his  stronghold — are  one  pickpocket, 
one  indicted  ballot-box  stuffer,  one  dive-keeper,  one  professional 
thug,  one  horse-thief,  one  burglar,  one  highway  robber,  and  one 
man  charged  with  arson.  The  returns  are  not  all  in  yet,  but  it 
will  doubtless  be  found  that  the  full  list  will  comprise  men  who 
are  guilty  of  every  crime  on  the  statute  books  and  several  that 
have  not  been  classified."  These  are  the  potentates  who  appoint 
legislative  officers  and  administrative  agents  for  one  of  the  great 
cities  of  the  world.  This  is  the  dark  side  of  it,  but  there  is  a 
brighter  side.  There  are  many  judges  of  election  in  Chicago  who 
are  absolutely  honest  and  incorruptible  ;  and  there  are  candi- 
dates, too,  whose  fingers  never  were  and  never  will  be  "contami- 
nated with  base  bribes,"  and  one  of  them  is  an  independent  can- 
didate for  alderman  in  my  own  ward.  I  shall  enjoy  the  luxury  of 
giving  him  a  vote,  although  I  really  do  not  know  whether  he  is  a 
Republican  or  a  Democrat ;  but  whether  my  vote  will  be  counted 
for  him  or  not  is  one  of  the  occult  mysteries  of  the  ballot-box. 
After  I  have  dropped  it  into  the  box  it  will  be  no  longer  in  my 
care  ;  it  will  then  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  "  judges." 

I  do  not  know  whether  the  story  is  true  or  not,  but  it  is  in  the 
newspaper  correspondence  from  Washington  that,  ' '  The  President 
lost  his  temper  yesterday  while  a  party  of  Western  and  Southern 
congressmen  were  trying  to  persuade  him  to  sign  the  Silver  Bill, 
and  he  gave  them  rather  a  stiff  talking  to."  It  was  not  the  Bill 
they  cared  about,  in  fact  they  had  rather  a  contemptuous  opinion 
of  it,  but  as  many  of  their  constituents  were  silver  plated,  those 
honorable  members  were  fearful  of  the  political  consequences  that 
might  follow  should  the  President  veto  the  Bill.  They  cared  noth- 
ing for  the  country,  but  they  did  care  for  themselves.  The  country 
was  reasonably  safe,  but  they  were  not ;  in  fact  some  of  them  said 
that  if  the  Silver  Bill  failed  they  could  not  possibly  be  re-elected, 
and  that  would  be  a  tragedy  for  the  Democratic  party.  Instead  of 
rushing  to  the  rescue  of  the  party,  the  President  gave  to  his  visi- 
tors a  very  improving  lecture  on  political  morality,  holding  up  to 
scorn  ' '  those  members  of  Congress  who  pandered  to  the  delusions 
of  the  people  and  voted  for  all  sorts  of  legislation  in  order  to  keep 


themselves  in  office."  The  President  also  said  that  he  had  "a  de- 
cided contempt  for  any  one  who  would  ask  him  to  aid  in  such 
legislation  for  such  a  reason."  Leaving  out  of  the  question  the 
merits  or  the  deficiencies  of  the  Silver  Bill,  the  lecture  was  a  good 
one,  and  will  apply  to  all  the  time-serving  policies  of  all  the  dem- 
agogues who  "  pander  to  popular  delusions  in  order  to  keep  them- 
selves in  office." 

*  '  * 
I  forgot  to  mention  in  the  preceding  paragraph  that  the  dis- 
appointed congressmen  after  leaving  the  White  House  explained 
that  the  warmth  of  the  reception  given  them  by  the  President  was 
due  to  some  bodily  pain  that  made  him  irritable  and  cross.  They 
said  that  the  reprimand  he  gave  them  was  due  to  "an  attack  of 
the  gout  in  the  President's  left  foot,  and  that  the  agony  of  it  made 
him  ill-natured."  If  this  is  true  the  gout  is  a  useful  moralist  and 
the  source  of  some  good  political  doctrine.  I  hope  it  will  become 
prevalent  in  all  the  high  places  in  this  land  ;  and  I  trust  that  it 
will  become  epidemic  in  Congress.  I  am  told  that  the  gout  is  a 
very  painful  disease,  but  I  can  bear  it  patiently  in  the  left  foot  of 
the  President,  for  the  sake  of  the  public  welfare,  and  therefore  I 
pray  that  he  may  not  get  rid  of  it  until  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
present  Congress.  M.  M.  Trumbull. 


A  NEW  DICTIONARY.! 

Within  four  years  from  the  date  of  its  inception  the  Messrs. 
Funk  &  Wagnalls  have  presented  to  the  English-speaking  public 
the  first  of  the  two  volumes  of  their  new  Standard  Dictionary, 
which  in  simplicity  and  economy  of  design,  and  in  scope  and 
magnitude  of  purpose  stands  almost  unrivalled  even  in  this  pro- 
lific age  of  great  lexicographical  works.  The  commendable  celer- 
ity with  which  this  great  task  has  been  brought  to  completion  is 
characteristic  of  American  methods,  which  have  marked  the  work 
with  more  than  one  of  our  national  peculiarities.  We  cannot  feel 
too  much  indebted  to  the  zeal  and  enterprise  of  the  gentlemen 
who  projected  and  achieved  in  so  short  a  time  this  great  task  ;  for  it 
is  rarely  that  a  generation  who  sees  a  great  dictionary  begun,  sees 
it  finished. 

The  great  German  work  by  Grimm,  begun  in  1838,  had  in 
1886  not  yet  completed  the  letter  G.  Renan,  the  story  goes,  once 
calculated  that  the  new  monster  dictionary  of  the  French  language 
would  be  completed  somewhere  about  the  close  of  the  twenty- 
second  century.  "Sweet  Monsieur  Renan !  "  replied  one  of  his 
friends,  "he  tells  us  this  simply  to  keep  up  our  spirits  !  "  The 
project  of  the  New  English  Dictionary,  on  historical  principles, 
was  formed  by  Archbishop  Trench  in  1857,  and  just  lately  its  edi- 
tor. Dr.  Murray,  gives  the  part  which  almost  completes  the  Dic- 
tionary to  the  letter  F.  We  need  not  mention  Dr.  Strong's  famous 
Dictionary  of  Greek  Roots,  which  "on  the  Doctor's  plan  and  at 
the  Doctor's  rate  of  going"  was  to  take  "one  thousand  six  hun- 
dred and  forty-nine  years,  counting  from  the  Doctor's  last  or  sixty- 
second  birthday."  But  if  we  reflect  that  the  great  "botanical' 
work  of  Dr.  Strong  was  a  one-man  dictionary,  while  our  modern 
lexicons  are  the  joint  work  usually  of  hundreds  of  minds,  we  shall 
recognise  that  the  calculation  of  David  Copperfield's  friend  was 

1  A  Standard  Dictionary  of  the  English  Language  Upon  Oiiginal  Plans, 
Designed  to  Give,  in  Complete  and  Accurate  Statement,  in  the  Light  of  the 
Most  Recent  Advances  in  Knowledge,  and  in  the  Readiest  Form  for  Popular 
Use,  the  Meaning,  Orthography,  Pronunciation,  and  Etymology  of  All  the 
Words  and  the  Idiomatic  Phrases  in  the  Speech  and  Literature  of  the  English- 
speaking  Peoples.  Prepared  by  more  than  two  hundred  specialists  and  other 
scholars,  under  the  supervision  of  Isaac  K.  Funk,  D.  D.,  Editor-in-Chief; 
Francis  A.  March,  LL.  D.,  L.  H.  D.,  Consulting  Editor;  Daniel  S.  Gregory, 
D.  D.,  Managing  Editor.  Sold  only  by  subscription.  Prices  :  Single  volume 
edition— Half  Russia,  S12.00  ;  Full  Russia,  814,00  ;  Full  Morocco,  $18.00.  Two- 
volume  edition-Half  Russia,  per  volume,  S7.50;  Full  Russia,  per  volume. 
88.50;  Full  Morocco,  per  volume,  811.00.  AH  forms  have  Denison's  Patent 
Reference  Index.  New  York,  London,  and  Toronto  :  Funk  &  Wagnalls  Com- 
pany.    1893. 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


4037 


not  far  from  right.'  Only  three  great  dictionaries,  the  Imperial, 
the  Century,  and  the  Slundard  have  been  completed  within  a  rea- 
sonable time  after  their  commencement,  although  this  merit  per- 
haps belongs  more  especially  to  the  Century  than  any  other. 

In  criticising  the  Standard  Dictionary,  its  purpose  must  be 
carefully  borne  in  mind.  It  is  not  intended,  as  the  Century,  to  be 
an  'emyclopccdic  dictionary  of  the  English  language,  nor  as  the  new 
English  Dictionary  of  Dr.  Murray,  to  be  a  self-verifying  history 
of  the  English  tongue,  but,  as  its  title  states,  it  is  "designed  to 
give,  in  complete  and  accurate  statement,  in  the  light  of  the  most 
recent  advances  in  knowledge,  and  in  the  readiest  form  iox  popular 
use,  the  meaning,  orthography,  pronunciation,  and  etymology  of 
all  the  words  and  the  idiomatic  phrases  in  the  speech  and  litera- 
ture of  the  English  speaking  peoples."  At  the  same  time  it  claims 
that  its  vocabulary  is  extraordinarily  rich  and  full,  and  that  by  the 
economy  and  simplicity  of  its  plan  of  arrangement  it  has  been  able 
with  all  due  exclusiveness  to  comprehend  some  280,000  words  in  a 
compass  of  two  volumes  of  not  much  more  than  one  thousand 
pages  each.  Its  merits  will  best  be  seen  by  an  enumeration  of  its 
distinctive  features. 

It  is  pre-eminently  a  work  for  the  people  ;  but  a  work  by 
scholars  for  the  people.  In  conformity  with  its  plan  of  being  a  use- 
ful handbook  for  the  people,  that  definition  which  gives  the  most 
common  meaning  of  the  words  of  the  language  is  placed  first — a 
feature  in  which  this  dictionary  differs  from  all  others,  where  the 
historical  order  is  followed — and  the  etymology  is  placed  at  the 
end.  Etymologies  are  given  in  the  simplest  form  possible.  The 
usefulness  of  the  book  is  not  impaired  by  exuberant  philological 
jungles,  which  hide  from  the  reader  the  matter  he  really  seeks. 
In  giving  the  pronunciation  of  words,  the  scientific  alphabet,  pre- 
pared and  recommended  by  The  American  Philological  Associa- 
tion, and  also  supposed  to  be  in  harmony  with  the  principles  ac- 
cepted by  the  Philological  Society  of  England,  is  used.  This  is 
an  excellent  feature  of  the  Dictionary,  and  even  if  the  new  or- 
thography proposed  by  the  Association  is  never  adopted,  the  use 
of  it  for  the  indication  of  pronunciation  will  greatly  help  to  bring 
order  into  the  chaos  which  now  exists  in  our  schools.  All  the  im- 
proved spellings  recommended  by  the  Philological  Association,  or 
suggested  by  their  plan,  are  put  in  their  regular  alphabetical  place 
in  the  Dictionary,  seemingly  without  a  great  increase  of  the  size  of 
the  work.  In  spelling,  the  effort  has  been  towards  simplification. 
Weight  has  been  accorded  to  the  canon  "write  as  you  speak." 
But  it  is  a  pleasure  to  note  that  contrary  to  the  usage  of  our  old 
lexicographers,  in  the  Standard  all  va.x\am  forms  are  given. 

The  idea  which  has  controlled  the  inclusion  or  exclusion  of 
words  is  as  follows.  A  dictionary  must  tell  us  what  words  and 
phrases  mean  as  used  by  representative  writers  and  speakers  of 
the  language.  The  question  is  not,  should  the  word  be  in  the  Eng- 
lish language,  but  is  it.  Helpfulness  should  be  the  ideal  of  a  dic- 
tionary. Obsolete,  foreign,  dialectic,  and  slang  words  are  given 
places  only  if  likely  to  be  sought  for  in  a  general  English  diction- 
ary. A  living  dictionary  should  not  be  a  museum  of  dead  words  ; 
therefore,  only  such  obsolete  words  as  are  found  in  old  authors 
still  extensively  read,  such  as  Chaucer,  Spenser,  Milton,  Shake 
speare,  and  so  forth,  are  incorporated  in  the  Standard's  vocabu- 
lary. Self-explanatory  phrases  and  compounds  are  omitted.  New 
literary  terms  were  subjected  to  a  committee  on  new  words,  con- 
sisting of  some  of  our  most  competent  judges.  Unimporlant  tech- 
nical terms  are  omitted  ;  not  all  that  have  been  invented  but  only 
such  as  are  accepted   have  found  a  place.      Provincialisms  of  cn- 

1  But  that  great  Arabian  scholar,  It/n  Mnnziir  (A.  D.  1311),  wrote,  single- 
handed,  a  dictionary  larger  than  the  largest  of  our  many-men  dictionaries,  the 
G-w/wry  (over  seven  thousand  large  folio  pages);  and  %o  dM  Sayyid Murtadct 
(1790).  Both  these  lexicons  are  in  the  Muller  Semitic  Library,  recently  pur- 
chased for  the  Hartford  Theological  Seminary. 


tensive  local  usage,  of  course,  are  registered,  as  are  also  handicraft 
terms. 

With  respect  to  definitions  the  Standard  Dictionary  claims 
exceptional  excellence.  The  aim  here  has  been  economy  and  pre- 
cision. Illustrative  quotations  are  very  sparingly  employed.  The 
quotations  used  to  verify  or  illustrate  the  meanings  of  words  are 
supplied  not  only  with  the  name  of  the  author,  but  also  with  the 
page  and  edition  from  which  the  quotation  has  been  taken. 
"  Stock  "  dictionary  quotations,  those  which  are  seen  in  nearly  all 
dictionaries,  have  been  avoided  and  new  ones  sought — a  work  ac- 
complished by  nearly  a  thousand  readers  from  the  great  living 
books  of  English  literature,  but  chiefly  from  recent  authors.  The 
definitions  have  been  constructed  by  specialists  or  by  members  of 
the  trade  to  which  the  term  belongs,  they  being  supposed  to  know 
more  about  such  terms  than  persons  unconnected  with  the  branches. 
This  also  has  been  done  with  respect  to  the  forms  of  words. 

The  principle,  of  course,  is  the  proper  one,  although  it  must  not 
be  carried  too  far,  as  one  could  hardly  say  that  a  farmer  was  the 
best  fitted  person  to  define  the  meanings  of  agricultural  terms,  or 
to  decide  their  forms  or  proper  pronunciations.  An  instance  of  this 
is  the  decision  of  the  Dictionary  with  regard  to  the  form  of  the 
word  aluminium.  Here  the  form  al"w/«um  is  preferred,  as  we  see 
from  the  quotations,  because  manufacturers  and  dealers  in  chem- 
icals use  al"OT/«um.  This  was  the  form  first  given  by  its  discov- 
erer, Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  but  it  was  at  once  changed  by  scien- 
tific writers  to  aluminium  to  make  it  agree  with  the  general  form 
of  the  elements,  sodium,  lithium,  etc.  Now  the  same  tendency 
which  induced  the  Dictionary  to  be  "aggressively  positive"  along 
lines  of  reform  agreed  upon  by  eminent  philologists  and  to  adopt 
forms  of  words  conforming  to  analogy,  whether  originally  accepted 
in  the  literature  of  the  language  or  not,  should  have  determined 
them  in  the  present  case  to  give  the  preference  to  the  scientific 
form,  instead  of  accepting  the  dictum  of  some  commercial  firm  in 
Pittsburg  who  write  that  "  the  way  of  pronouncing  and  spelling  the 
name  in  this  country  is  entirely  aluminum!" 

To  revert  to  orthography  and  orthoepy  again,  in  the  spelling 
of  chemical  terms  the  rules  of  the  Chemical  Section  of  the  Amer- 
ican Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  have  been  pie- 
ferred,  according  to  which  chloride,  sulphide,  bromine,  morphine, 
are  spelled  chlorid,  sulphid,  bromin,  and  morphin.  This  changes 
the  pronunciation  of  common  chemical  words,  which  is  unneces- 
sary, and  which  if  any  usage  exists  on  the  matter  will  scarcely  be 
adopted  ;  while  with  respect  to  the  pronunciation  of  iieio  scientific 
words,  no  uniformity  of  usage  ever  will  obtain,  because  the  inven- 
tors of  the  terms  themselves  rarely  have  any  idea  of  how  they 
ought  to  be  pronounced,  and  individual  scientists  usually  pro- 
nounce them  according  to  their  own  ideas.  Dr.  Murray  says  he 
was  once  present  at  the  meeting  of  a  learned  Society  in  London 
where  the  word  f,'a.te,>i/s  was  systematically  pronounced  in  six  dif- 
ferent ways  by  as  many  eminent  physicists,  and  adds,  that  if  it  is 
possible  that  a  word  which  though  comparatively  new  was  even 
then  sufficiently  popular  to  have  attained  some  standard  pronun- 
ciation, how  much  more  is  it  so  with  the  words  that  have  no  pop- 
ular currency,  and  which  were  made  not  to  be  spoken  but  to  be 
used  in  books. 

The  editors  of  the  Dictionary  recognise  that  it  is  the  chief 
function  of  a  dictionary  to  record  usage,  not,  except  in  a  limited 
degree,  to  seek  to  create  it  ;  and  in  general  we  may  say  that  on  all 
moot  points  their  professed  attitude,  which  is  that  of  unprejudiced 
statement  and  not  advocacy,  has  been  steadily  preserved.  They 
claim  they  have  been  very  careful  in  their  preferences,  where  cus- 
tom or  usage  varies,  to  give  their  sanction  to  the  hest  form  or  ten- 
dencies. But  in  all  cases,  all  forms  are  given.  Their  decision 
was  simply  which  should  have  the  preference. 

But  just  here  is  an  illimitable  field  for  discussion,  and  even 
difficulties  may  arise.     We  shall  make  but  one  remark,  relative  to 


4038 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  diphthongs  .r,  a-,  etc. ,  and  the  digraphs  ///,  etc. ,  in  words  where 
these  are  transliterations  of  Greek  diphthongs  and  digraphs.  Where 
such  words  are  firmly  established  no  objection  is  to  be  made  to 
the  simplification,  as  in  enigma  and /inuy  for  example  ;  but  where 
recent  or  scientific  words  are  used,  the  letters  of  the  original  should 
be  as  strictly  adhered  to  as  possible,  because  usually  the  scientist 
has  no  means  of  knowing  the  meaning  of  a  new  word  except  by 
his  knowledge  of  the  roots,  which  if  the  transliteration  is  tampered 
with,  may  conflict.  For  example:  if  the  Greek  koinos,  common, 
and  kaiiws,  new,  are  both  transliterated,  in  English  compounds,  by 
cciio,  and  not  by  cano  and  ctcno,  then,  not  only  are  new  derivatives 
from  kciios,  empty,  likely  to  be  confounded  with  them,  but  both 
are  apt  to  be  confounded  with  each  other.  And  such  is  actually 
the  case.  Suppose  a  student  of  science,  meeting  in  the  works  of 
F.  Miiller  the  word  cenogenesis,  should  look  that  word  up  in  some 
of  our  dictionaries  ;  he  would  find  that  it  meant  both  what  cceno- 
genesis  means  and  what  csenogensis  means,  which  conceivably 
might  have  dilfercnt  meanings. ' 

In  the  etymologies,  foreign  words,  such  as  Greek,  are  trans- 
literated, which  helps  immeasurably  people  ignorant  of  foreign 
tongues.  It  also  seems  that  that  definition  of  radical  words  which 
is  the  most  common  is  given  in  preference  to  the  root  meanings 
first ;  for  example,  in  the  definition  of  the  word  aboulia,  where  the 
word  is  derived  from  a,  privitive,  and  lnnilc,  advice.  Now,  although 
the  common  meaning  of  hotile  is  advice,  its  root-meaning  is  will, 
from  Itoitloiiiai,  to  will.  And  this  is  exactly  the  meaning  which  ex- 
plains the  present  scientific  significance  of  the  word,  namely,  ab- 
sence of  will-power. 

Some  idea  of  the  extent  to  which  the  terminologies  of  the  spe- 
cial sciences  have  increased  the  bulk  of  our  dictionaries  may  be 
gained  from  the  fact  that  in  the  Slandard  there  are  about  four 
thousand  terms  that  refer  to  electricity  or  its  various  applications. 
Probably  the  number  in  the  biological  sciences  is  much  greater. 

Strongly  commendable  features  of  the  Dictionary  are  the 
omission  of  the  diaeresis,  its  system  of  compounding  words,  and 
its  system  of  syllabication,  subjects  of  extraordinary  confusion  in 
literary  and  lexicographical  usage.  But  an  enumeration  of  all  its 
mechanical  advantages  is  out  of  the  question.  In  economy  of  form 
and  in  the  logical  and  systematic  execution  of  its  fundamental  ideas, 
it  is  superior  to  any  of  its  rivals.  The  treatment  of  synonyms  and 
antonyms  is  unique.  The  pictorial  illustrations  are  appropriate 
and  well  made  ;  in  fact,  almost  gorgeous.  For  example,  the  illus- 
trations of  coins,  gems,  flags,  etc.  An  important  feature  is  the 
exact  definition  of  the  six  primary  colors  of  the  spectrum  with  an 
analysis  of  all  known  shades  and  tints.  The  plates  for  this  de- 
partment were  made  by  Messrs.  Prang  &  Co.,  Boston. 

T-here  were  engaged  in  the  production  of  this  dictionary  two 
hundred  and  forty-seven  office  editors  and  specialists  together  with 
nearly  five  hundred  special  readers  for  quotations.  Hundreds  of 
other  men  and  women  rendered  service  in  various  ways  in  the  de- 
fining of  words  or  classes  of  words.  The  specialists  engaged  in 
the  work  were  the  most  eminent  men  of  their  departments  in  the 
English-speaking  world.     It  was  only  by  the  help  of  such  a  num- 

IThe  first  users  of  cenogenesis  in  English,  sensible,  perhaps,  of  the  con- 
fusion likely  to  arise  from  the  presence  of  an  already  established  word  of  the 
same  form,  transliterated  the  Greek  word  with  a  >c  making  it  kenogencsis.  In 
this  form  it  appears  in  the  new  dictionaries,  contrary  to  their  usual  rule  of 
making  a  Greek  *,  c.  We  also  notice  that  the  Standard  gives  Itahios,  new,  as 
the  root  of  this  word,  which,  if  it  would  make  any  difference,  seems  to  be  cor- 
rect, although  in  the  German  works  in  which  the  word  first  occurs,  it  is  writ- 
ten with  an  <■  and  is  always  associated  with  such  words  as  Ver/tihrhung,  Fal- 
si hung,  meaning  vitiation,  all  of  which  epilhets,  perhaps,  prompted  the  usual 
derivation  of  the  word  from  kenos.  But  the  meaning  of  the  word  being  estab- 
lished, its  derivation  is  wholly  inditferent,  and  this  discussion  may  seem  some- 
what pedantic.  But  it  involves  a  point  which  as  this  example  well  shows  is 
not  originally  unimportant ;  because  if  the  principles  suggested  were  adhered 
to,  and  when  adhered  to  noticed,  we  should  never  have  witnessed  the  sad  spec- 
tacle of  an  etymology  being  lost  with  the  man  who  invented  it. 


bar  of  men  that  so  great  a  labor  could  be  completed.  It  is,  thus, 
in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  expression,  says  the  Editor-in-Chief,  an 
intellectual  collaboration  ;  and  is  accordingly  called  the  "Stan- 
dard" in  just  recognition  of  the  expert  knowledge  and  authorita- 
tive scholarship  of  the  editors  of  the  various  departments. 

Thomas  J.  McCormack. 


NOTES. 

We  are  in  receipt  of  the  first  number  of  a  new  periodical.  Die 
Religion  des  Geistes,  edited  by  Dr.  Eugen  Heinrich  Schmitt.  It 
represents  a  new  religious  movement,  which,  in  a  postscript  on 
page  32,  it  declares  to  be  the  same  as  the  Religion  of  Science,  repre- 
sented in  The  Open  Court  and  The  Monist.  The  present  number 
of  the  new  periodical  contains  the  following  articles  :  (i)  "  What 
the  Religion  of  Spirit  Proposes?";  (2)  "Our  Programme";  (3) 
' '  Why  Is  a  Religious  Movement  a  Necessity  ?  A  Word  Addressed 
to  the  Societies  for  Ethical  Culture";  (4)  "To  the  Freemasons  "; 
(5)  "  The  Religious  Movement  of  the  Present  Time."  The  sec- 
ond article,  "Our  Programme,"  begins  as  follows:  "  We  repre- 
sent the  freest,  the  most  radical,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most 
positive  and  deeply  religious  thought.  Our  programme  is  inde- 
pendence of  all  authoritative  creed,  and  at  the  same  time  a  spiri- 
tualisation  of  the  holy  symbols  of  all  religions.  We  have  come 
not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil."  The  editor  rejects  the  proposition  to 
teach  ethical  culture  without  a  religious  basis,  declaring  that  man 
is  a  unity  and  cannot  be  split  in  twain  ;  that  our  world-concep- 
tion is  too  intimately  connected  with  our  moral  ideals  ;  that  a 
separation  of  religion  and  ethics  would  tend  to  veil  the  errors  of 
our  time,  which  ought  to  be  exposed.  The  style  of  the  various 
articles  is  rhetorical,  rather  than  explanatory,  and  we  cannot  find 
a  calm  statement  of  the  aims  of  the  Religion  of  Spirit.  Several 
names  of  the  promoters  and  allies  of  the  movement  (e.  g.  Hiibbe- 
Schleiden,  Editor  of  the  Sphinx)  seem  to  indicate  a  spiritualistic 
tendency,  but  the  first  number  of  the  new  periodical  contains  no 
traces  of  it.  The  periodical  is  published  at  Leipsic,  Johannisgasse 
4,  by  Alfred  Janssen.  Dr.  Schmitt's  address  is  I  Festung,  Herren- 
gasse  58,  Budapest,  Hungary. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

OHIGAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  345. 

THE  DISEASES  OF  THE  WILL.  The  Realm  of  Ca- 
prices.    Th,  Ribot 4031 

CHAPTERS   FROM    THE    NEW    APOCRYPHA.     The 

Spirit  Hid  with  Christ.     Hudor  Genone 4033 

"SENATORIAL  REFORM,"     E   P.  Powell 4034 

"THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES."     H.  P. 

BmnLE 4035 

CURRENT  TOPICS  :  Tamnuny  in  England.  Mr.  Facing- 
both-ways.  "You  May  Vote,  But  We  Will  Count." 
Save  Me  and  the  Party.     Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull 4035 

A  NEW  DICTIONARY.     Thomas  J.  McCormack 403O 

NOTES 403S 


3^0 


The  Open  Court. 


A   VSTEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  346.     (Vol.  VIII.-15. 


CHICAGO,  APRIL  12,   li 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. — Reprints  are  permitted  only  c 


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THE  METAPHYSICS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER. 

BY  THOS,    C,   LAWS. 

The  school  of  thought  which  regarded  philosophy 
as  implying  merely  the  a  priori  study  of  mental  phe- 
nomena is  now  practically  dead,  and  in  its  place  has 
arisen  one  which  treats  metaphysics  but  as  a  side 
issue  in  speculative  psychology,  and  psychical  phe- 
nomena as  but  a  portion  of  those  with  which  it  is  the 
duty  of  philosophy  to  concern  itself.  It  is  to  the  in- 
creasing progress  of  experimental  science  that  this 
change  in  philosophy  is  due,  and  to  the  new  school 
belongs  one  of  the  greatest  masters  in  modern  thought, 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer. 

The  matters  placed  under  the  head  of  metaphysics 
are  capable  of  classifications  as  numerous  as  the  writ- 
ers upon  the  subject.  This  is,  indeed,  inevitable  in 
so  debatable  a  question.  From  first  datum  to  final 
conclusion  we  are  in  a  world  of  controversy.  How- 
ever, for  the  sake  of  this  essay,  we  may  distinguish 
three  discussions — mind,  externality,  and  a  theory  of 
the  universe. 

The  first  question,  then,  which  we  ask  ourselves  is, 
"What  is  Mind  ?  "  Mr.  Spencer's  answer  is  clear  and 
definite.  Attacking  the  sceptical  theory  of  Hume,  he 
asks,  "how  can  that  thinker,  who  has  decomposed 
his  consciousness  into  impressions  and  ideas,  explain 
the  fact  that  he  considers  them  as  his  impressions  and 
ideas?  Or,  once  more,  if,  as  he  must,  he  admits  that 
he  has  an  impression  of  his  personal  existence,  what 
warrant  can  he  show  for  rejecting  this  impression  as 
unreal,  and  accepting  his  other  impressions  as  real  ? 
Unless  he  can  give  satisfactory  answers. to  these  que- 
ries, which  he  cannot,  he  must  abandon  his  conclu- 
sions, and  must  admit  the  reality  of  the  individual 
mind."i  Elsewhere,  he  speaks  of  mind  as  "the  un- 
derlying something  "  of  which  distinguishable  portions 
or  mental  phenomena  are  formed,  or  of  which  they 
are  modifications.-  To  this  it  may  be  replied  that,  as 
Mr.  Spencer  himself  admits,  of  this  ultimate  mind  we 
have  no  knowledge  whatever.  We  are  acquainted 
with  mental  phenomena,  we  can  study  them,  analyse 
them,  recombine  them,  but  throughout  all  these  pro- 
cesses we   come   across  no  evidence  of  an  underlying 

1  First  Principles,  g  20. 

2  Principles  0/ Psychology,  §  58. 


something.  Here  is  a  society — a  public  company, 
say,  or  a  nation.  Corporations,  as  Sir  Edward  Coke 
said,  have  no  souls  to  save.  Take  away  all  the  units 
forming  that  society,  and  what  is  left  ?  Is  there  an 
"underlying  something"?  And  yet  every  individual 
is  conscious  that  the  society  of  which  he  is  part  exists  ; 
every  society  is  capable  of  acting  as  one  and  united. 
The  English  nation  has  a  tangible  existence,  and  will 
have,  so  long  as  Englishmen  exist,  but  if  we  scatter 
all  Englishmen  to  the  winds,  no  English  nation  will 
remain.  So  with  mind  :  an  individual  mind  exists  so 
long  as  there  exist  those  "impressions  and  ideas"  (to  ■ 
use  Hume's  phraseology),  which  constitute  it.  But, 
it  may  be  argued,  these  impressions  and  ideas  are  con- 
stantly changed.  The  same  is  true  of  the  particles 
which  form  the  substance  of  the  body,  yet  we  regard  it, 
from  the  cradle  to  the  tomb,  as  one  individual  body. 
The  English  nation  has  existed  as  such  since  the  days 
of  Egfrid  and  Ini,  or  at  least  since  the  final  union  of 
the  Saxon  peoples  was  made  by  Egbert  in  the  ninth 
century.  During  those  centuries,  however,  every  unit 
has  changed  innumerable  times,  and  the  composition 
and  condition  of  the  nation  undergone  a  complete 
transformation.  So  the  individual  mind  remains  in- 
tact, notwithstanding  the  manifold  changes  which  take 
place  in  its  component  "impressions  and  ideas."  How, 
Mr.  Spencer  asks,  do  we  recognise  these  impressions 
as  ours  ?  What  warrant  have  we  for  regarding  them 
as  real,  while  we  set  aside  an  "  underlying  something  " 
as  unreal?  How  do  we  recognise  the  consciousness, 
continuity,  or  personality,  which  constitutes  a  mental 
being  ? 

During  the  course  of  evolution,  ancestral,  prenatal, 
and  personal,  there  has  been  evolved  a  sense  of  dis- 
crimination between  subjective  and  objective  exist- 
ence, whereb)'  we  have  come  to  regard  all  impressions 
affecting  our  physical  organisation  as  ours.  Tlie  ques- 
tion of  personality  is  bound  up  with  that  of  the  rela- 
tion between  consciousness  and  body.  No  writer  has 
done  more  than  Mr.  Spencer  to  prove  to  us  that  con- 
sciousness is  as  much  a  function  of  the  body  as  respi- 
ration or  digestion,  or  any  physical  process  whatso- 
ever. Not  only  is  greater  complexity  of  mentality 
associated  with  greater  complexity  of  cerebral  and 
nervous  stucture  and  organisation,  but  during  the  pro- 


4040 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


cess  of  ideation,  chemical  and  physical  action  goes  on 
in  the  substance  of  the  brain.    Vigorous  mental  action 
leaves  the  body  as  fatigued  as  vigorous  physical  exer- 
tion ;  during  its  process  certain   alkaline  phosphates 
are  largely  produced  and  afterwards  eliminated  from 
the  system  ;  a  greater  rush  of  blood  takes  place  to  the 
brain,  resulting,  when  the  pressure  has  been  consider- 
able or  prolonged,  in  those  disorders  frequent  in  men 
and  women  of  extraordinary  mental  powers  and  activ- 
ity, such  as  vertigo  and  partial  congestion  of  the  cere- 
bral blood-vessels.    Accidents  to  the  body  often  impair 
consciousness,    sometimes  only  temporarily,  but  fre- 
quently inflicting  permanent   injury  to  the   thinking 
faculties.      Similarly,  we  have  the  connexion  between 
delirium   and  bodily  fevers  set  up  by  local  irritations 
or  loss  of  blood  ;  insensibility,  caused  by  a  blow  ;  loss 
of  speech  (aphasia),  due  to  disease  of  a  nerve  in  the 
head ;  loss  of  memory,  illusions,   insanity,  and  other 
morbid  conditions  of  the  mind,  caused  by  disease  and 
physical  injuries.      We   may   note,    too,    mental   and 
moral  diseases  arising  from  congenital  causes — mur- 
der, kleptomania,  dipsomania,  and  epilepsy — and  opin- 
ions caused  and  modified  by  climate,  temper,  health, 
and  social  surroundings.      Finally,  we  may  remark  the 
gradual   development  of  mind  as  the  child  grows,  its 
maturity  in  middle  age,  and  in  general  its  decline  as 
physical   energies    decline,    sometimes    merging    into 
dotage  and  senile  imbecility,  until  dissolution  of  the 
body  brings  the  mental  functions  to  a  close.     But  un- 
derlying all  these  special  facts  is  the  general  one  that 
the  ultimate  source  of  ideas  is  experience,  and  that  we 
can  have  no  experience  save  through  the  organs  of 
sense   and  their  adjuncts,  the  nerves.      From   which 
two  conclusions  are  irresistible.   First,  that  psychology 
is  not  in  itself  a  general  concrete  science,  but  merely 
a  special  branch  of  one, — biology,  the  science  of  life 
in  all  its  forms.      The  second  and  more  important  con- 
clusion is  that  no  "underlying  something,"  no  inde- 
pendent mind,  exists,  but  that  the  sensoriiim  (to  use  an 
expression  of  George  Henry  Lewes's),  of  which  con- 
sciousness is  a  function,  is  coextensive  with  the  entire 
body,  from   cerebrum  to  the  tiniest  and  most  distant 
nerve-filament.     Hence  it  is  that  we  regard  "impres- 
sions and  ideas"  experienced  by  us  as  ours,  because 
they  are  part  and  parcel  of  our  physical  organisation, 
just  as  are  digestion  and  the  circulation  of  the  blood. 
No  man  suffering  from  dyspepsia,  even  though  he  be 
the  most   extreme  idealist,  ever  doubts  that  it  is  Ins 
stomach   which   is   deranged.      Equally,    no   man   ex- 
periencing a  certain  sensation,  receiving  a  certain  im- 
pression,   cognising   a   certain    idea,    doubts   for   one 
moment  that  the  sensation,  impression,  and  idea  are 
Ills. 

It  is  here  that  the  modern  critical  psychology  parts 
company   entirely   with   that   of  Hume,  and  with  its 


physical   basis  runs  little  or  no  risk  of  merging  into 
idealism,  as  did  his. 

The  theory  here  advanced  is,  nevertheless,  simply 
an  extension  of  that  of  Berkeley,  who  disputed  the 
existence  of  any  "material  substratum"  or  "matter" 
behind  the  phenomena  which  are  observable,  declar- 
ing of  these  phenomena  that  "their  esse  \%  percipi,  nor 
is  it  possible  that  they  should  have  any  existence  out 
of  the  minds  or  thinking  things  which  perceive  them,"' 
stripped  of  what  is  unphilosophical  therein  and  brought 
up  to  the  discoveries  of  modern  psychology. 

What  is  the  bearing  of  this  theory  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  externality?  "I  do  not  argue,"  says  Berkeley, 
"against  the  existence  of  any  one  thing  that  we  can 
apprehend,  either  by  sense  or  reflexion.  That  the 
things  I  see  with  mine  eyes  and  touch  with  my  hands 
do  exist,  really  exist,  I  make  not  the  least  question. 
The  only  thing  whose  existence  we  deny,  is  that  which 
philosophers  call  matter  or  corporeal  substance.  And 
in  doing  this  no  harm  is  done  to  the  rest  of  mankind, 
who,  I  dare  say,  will  never  miss  it  ...  .  while  philos- 
ophers may  possibly  find  that  they  have  lost  a  great 
handle  for  trifling  and  disputation. "^  And  elsewhere 
he  remarks  with  truth,  that  "if  we  thoroughly  exam- 
ine this  tenet"  of  a  material  substratum,  we  shall  find 
it  "at  bottom  to  depend  on  the  doctrine  of  abstract 
ideas. "3  Abstraction  is  one  of  the  most  complex  of 
logical  processes,  consisting  in  the  creation  out  of 
particular  facts  of  general  or  abstract  ideas,  which 
shall  include  all  those  characters  wherein  these  facts 
agree,  while  neglecting  all  those  wherein  they  differ. 
Man  is  an  abstract  idea ;  so,  too,  are  color,  the  press, 
and  religion.  For  there  exists  in  nature  no  abstract 
man  :  we  are  acquainted  only  with  concrete,  individual 
men.  We  know  colors,  such  as  red  and  green,  but 
create  color  in  the  abstract  ;  we  acquaint  ourselves 
with  newspapers  and  their  staffs  ;  there  exists  a  variety 
of  religions,  of  religious  doctrines  and  ceremonials, 
and  of  religious  men  and  women,  but  no  religion  apart 
from  these.  The  same  is  true  of  the  sciences,  so  that 
the  so-called  controversy  between  science  and  religion 
is  meaningless,  except  as  an  expression  of  conflict  be- 
tween certain  scientific  facts  and  certain  theological 
dogmas,  or  between  the  opinions  of  scientific  obser- 
vers and  those  of  theologians.  In  the  same  manner, 
the  idea  of  externality  is  an  abstraction  :  we  are  con- 
versant with  a  multitude  of  phenomena  in  so  far  as 
they  impress  themselves  upon  our  senses,  wherefrom 
we  infer  an  existence  external  to  ourselves.  We  may 
justify  realism  by  many  arguments,  the  setting  forth 
of  which  occupies  a  considerable  portion  of  Mr.  Spen- 
cer's "  Principles  of  Psychology."     Let  it  here  suffice 

1  Berkeley,  rrhlciplcs  0/ Human  K>iowle,/ge.  §3. 

■■!«'V.,§35. 

■1  /I' id  ,  §  5. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


404 


to  remark  that  even  the  idealist  philosopher  himself 
habitually  thinks,  feels,  speaks,  and  acts  as  though  an 
external  world  exists  ;  that  our  organisation,  indeed, 
is  such  that  we  cannot  but  imply  its  existence  in  ever}' 
act  of  life  ;  and  that  the  minutest  examination  proves 
only  what  a  cursory  one  makes  us  aware  of,  that  there 
exist  facts  over  which  we  have  some  sort  of  control,  and 
which  are  evidently  ours,  and  that  there  exist  others  over 
which  we  have  no  control  whatever,  and  which  are  evi- 
dently of  an  origin  beyond  our  consciousness. '  But  an 
idea,  as  Berkeley  says,  "can  be  like  nothing  but  an 
idea";^  a  suggestion  which  Mr.  Spencer  has  worked  up 
into  his  theory  of  Transfigured  Realism.  ^  There  exist 
an  internal  world  and  an  external  world  acting  constantly 
upon  one  another,  and,  although  the  impressions  con- 
veyed to  our  minds  of  the  external  world  of  fact, 
through  the  internal  world  of  sense,  cannot  be  proved 
to  be  identical  with  the  facts  of  that  external  world, 
yet  they  have  acquired,  through  the  evolution  of  sen- 
sibility, a  relation  to  those  facts  which  is  constant  and 
reliable.  We  may  call  it  conventionality  or  habit,  if 
we  will,  still  the  relation  cannot  be  denied.  It  is  here 
that  Mr.  Spencer's  philosophy  is  immeasurably  supe- 
rior to  that  of  Berkeley,  who  appears  to  drift  from  a 
critical  statement  of  psychological  fact  into  a  visionary 
idealism  which  denies  the  existence  of  everything  out- 
side the  perceiving  mind,  and  which,  as  Hume  said  of 
it  later,  admitted  of  no  answer,  but  produced  no  con- 
viction. 

But,  if  Mr.  Spencer  be  thus  scientifically  right  in 
his  theory  of  externality,  he  is,  perhaps,  unscientifi- 
cally wrong  in  that  of  the  unknowable.  Nor  is  he  al- 
ways consistent  in  his  use  of  that  term.  In  the  first 
part  of  "  First  Principles,"  the  unknowable  would  ap 
pear  to  be  simply  that  which  could  never  come  within 
human  ken.  But  later  he  narrows  his  use  of  the  term, 
until  finally  we  are  told  by  a  writer  who  speaks  of  the 
idea  of  a  first  cause  as  unthinkable,  to  regard  this  un- 
knowable in  terms  of  the  persistence  of  force  as  an 
"absolute  force  of  which  we  are  indefinitely  conscious," 
a  "cause  which  transcends  our  knowledge  and  con- 
ception," and  an  "unconditioned  reality,  without  be- 
ginning or  end."-* 

Mr.  Spencer's  argument  may  be  briefly  put.  Locke 
urged,  in  his  celebrated  Essay,  the  existence  of  im- 
passable barriers  against  human  knowledge,  trusting 
that  when  we  had  learned  "how  far  the  understand- 
ing can  extend  its  view,  how  far  it  has  faculties  to  at- 
tain certainty,  and  in  what  cases  it  can  only  judge  and 

1  This  last  was  admitted  by  Berkeley,  who  distinguished  between  the 
ideas  of  sense  and  those  of  hiui^itation,  declaring  the  former  to  have  a  "  stead- 
iness, order,  and  coherence,"  which  is  wanting  in  the  latter,  and  to  be  ideas 
"excited  by  the  will  of  another  and  more  powerful  spirit."  [See  Priticifles, 
§§28-33.) 

and.,  §8. 

y  Spencer,  Principles  0/ Psychology,  gS  471-474. 
i  First  Principles,  §  62. 


guess,"  such  knowledge  would  be  "of  use  to  prevail 
with  the  busy  mind  of  man  to  be  more  cautious  in 
meddling  with  things  exceeding  its  comprehension  ;  to 
stop  when  it  is  at  the  utmost  extent  of  its  tether  ;  and 
to  sit  down  in  quiet  ignorance  of  those  things,  which, 
upon  examination,  are  found  to  be  beyond  the  reach 
of  our  capacities,"  for  "men  may  find  matter  sufficient 
to  busy  their  hands  with  variety,  delight,  and  satis- 
faction, if  they  will  not  boldly  quarrel  with  their  own 
constitution,  and  throw  away  the  blessings  their  hands 
are  filled  with,  because  they  are  not  big  enough  to 
grasp  everything."  i  Criticising  the  various  theories 
which  have  been  put  forward  regarding  the  origin  and 
constitution  of  the  universe,  Mr.  Spencer  finds  one  and 
all  to  be  inconsistent,  and  contradictory,  and  incapable 
of  standing  the  strain  of  criticism,  and  concludes  that 
in  our  researches  into  them  we  are  but  buffeted  be- 
tween opposite  absurdities.  He  finds  that  ultimately 
matter  and  force,  space  and  time  are  in  themselves 
alike  inscrutable,  and  that  we  can  only  know  their 
phenomena.  Had  he  stopped  there  and  maintained 
that  these  phenomena  alone  have  an  objective  exist- 
ence, and  that  matter,  force,  space,  and  time  are  ab- 
stract ideas,  having  no  existence  outside  the  human 
mind,  we  should  not  here  have  found  it  necessary  to 
criticise  him.  But,  instead,  he  maintains  their  objec- 
tive reality,  and  asserts  that  they  are  modes  of  mani- 
festation of  an  unknowable  existence.  The  fallacy  of 
the  theory  lies  in  its  assumption  of  the  objectivity  of 
knowledge.  Knowledge  is  a  sum-total  of  experiences, 
received  through  the  senses,  and,  as  such,  can  have 
only  subjective  existence.  In  other  words,  there  may 
be  external  facts,  but  knowledge  of  them  can  only  be 
within  the  thinking  mind.  Hence  knowable  and  un- 
knowable are  no  more  entities  than  are  those  human 
creations,  the  "laws  of  nature."  There  are,  so  far  as 
we  are  aware,  no  laws  in  nature — there  exist  phenom- 
ena, whose  observed  order  and  sequence  is,  for  con- 
venience sake,  framed  into  an  abstract  or  general 
law,  by  which  new  facts  are  observed,  tested,  or  ex- 
plained. To  the  savage,  the  researches  of  our  labora- 
tories and  our  observatories  are  unknowable  :  his  mind 
is  so  constituted  that  he  could  not  comprehend  them, 
if  explained  to  him.  Looking  at  the  universe  in  its 
relation  to  human  consciousness,  we  may  distinguish 
the  known  from  the  unknown,  seeking  ever  to  widen 
the  domain  of  the  former  at  the  expense  of  the  latter. 
As  we  have  already  said,  what  Kant  calls  the  "pure 
forms  of  sensibility,  elements  of  knowledge  a  priori,"  -' 
and  what  Mr.  Spencer  speaks  of  as  "ultimate  scien- 
tific ideas,"  have  no  existence  outside  the  human  mind. 
We  distinguish  facts  into  material  or  dynamic,  tem- 
poral or  spatial,  according  to  their  prevailing  charac- 

1  Locke,  Essay  on  the  Hutnan  Understanding,  g§  4, 

2  Kant,  Kritik  der  reinen  Vernun/t,  (Leipsic,  Reclam,)  p.  50. 


4042 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


ters.  But  matter  in  itself,  inert  and  apart  from  its 
phenomena,  is  a  logical  impossibility.  It  must  exist 
in  time  and  space  ;  if  in  motion,  must  be  impelled  by 
one  force  ;  if  immobile,  must  be  kept  rigidly  in  posi- 
tion by  another.  Space  and  time,  without  something 
to  exist  therein,  and  force,  without  something  to  act 
upon,  are  alike  contradictions  in  terms.  In  nature 
there  exists  no  pure  matter,  no  pure  force,  no  abstract 
time  and  space  ;  these  are  general  notions  framed  by 
man  to  synthesise  his  conception  of  the  universe  in 
which  he  lives.  And  so  long  as  he  bears  in  mind  that 
they  are  but  ideas  of  his  and  uses  them  as  such  for 
observation  and  research,  all  will  be  well.  The  evil 
arises,  when,  mistaking  his  words  for  realities,  he  dog- 
matises upon  them,  builds  up  systems  of  speculation 
upon  them,  and  raises  aloft  metaphysical  and  theologi- 
cal structures,  which,  when  the  winds  of  criticism  do 
howl  and  the  billows  of  logic  do  break  themselves 
thereupon,  shall  fall  with  mighty  crash,  for  they  were 
builded  upon  the  sands  of  obscurantism  and  ambiguity. 
"Words,"  let  us  say  with  Hobbes,  "are  wise  men's 
counters,  they  do  but  reckon  by  them  ;  but  they  are 
the  money  of  fools,  that  value  them  by  the  authority 
of  an  Aristotle,  a  Cicero,  or  a  Thomas,  or  any  other 
doctor  whatever,  if  but  a  man."i  The  fundamental 
necessity  to  all  philosophic  discussion  is  definition.  If 
we  desire  to  be  of  those  who  speak  "  with  many  words 
making  nothing  understood,"  we  shall  throw  definition 
to  the  dogs  and  exactity  to  the  winds,  using  our  words 
with  little  respect  to  meaning.  But  he  who  desires  to 
make  others  profit  by  that  which  he  tells,  must  first 
learn  so  to  train  his  language  that  it  represents  all  his 
thoughts  without  doubt  or  ambiguity,  nor  leaves  ready 
room  for  sophistry.  Knowledge  is  power,  but  unless 
in  the  exercise  of  that  power  one  learns  adequately  to 
define  one's  words,  to  maintain  those  definitions  when 
made,  and  to  swerve  therefrom  neither  to  the  right 
hand  nor  to  the  left,  one  shall  find  one's  knowledge  a 
power  not  for  good  but  for  evil. 


BERKELEY'S  POSITIVISM. 

Bishop  Berkeley  is  frequently  misunderstood  not 
only  by  the  unphilosophical  public,  but  also  by  phi- 
losophers, and  among  the  latter  must  be  reckoned  his 
own  disciples  and  followers,  not  less  than  his  adversa- 
ries. This  great  Irish  philosopher  was  much  more 
radical  than  could  be  expected  of  a  bishop,  and  he  is 
much  more  in  accord  with  positivism  than  would  be 
generally  conceded  to  a  thorough  idealist  who  denies 
the  existence  of  any  material  substratum  called  matter. 
Indeed  we  should  say  that  apart  from  a  difference  of 
terminology  and  of  our  methods  of  attacking  the  vari- 
ous problems — our  own  view  of  monistic  positivism  is 
in  close  agreement  with  Berkeley's  idealism.      We  do 

1  Hobbes,  Leviathan,  c.  iv. 


not  intend  here  to  expound  Berkeley's  philosophy  or 
enter  into  a  critical  examination  of  it,  but  shall  confine 
ourselves  to  one  point  only,  concerning  which  Mr. 
Thomas  C.  Laws,  in  his  article  on  "The  Metaphysics 
of  Herbert  Spencer,  says  : 

"It  is  here  that  Mr.  Spencer's  philosophy  is  immeasurably 
superior  to  that  of  Berkeley,  who  appears  to  drift  from  a  critical 
statement  of  psychological  fact  into  a  visionary  idealism  which 
denied   the  existence  of  everything  outside  the  perceiving  mind." 

There  are  quite  a  number  of  prominent  authors 
like  the  French  materialist  Baron  D'Holbach  and  the 
English  poet  Lord  Byron,  who  publicly  confessed  that 
they  could  not  refute  Berkeley,  however  unthinkable 
his  idealism  appeared  to  them.  There  must  be  some 
powerful  truth  in  a  statement  which  cannot  be  refuted. 
Is  Berkeley's  system  perhaps  a  consistent  description 
of  the  world  in  terms  commonly  used  in  a  different 
sense  ?  This  may  be  one  reason,  but  there  is  another 
and  weightier  one  which  makes  his  views  unacceptable 
even  to  those  who  cannot  answer  his  arguments ;  it  is 
the  fact  that  he  skilfully  trips  the  unconscious  meta- 
physicism  of  materialism  as  well  as  spiritualism  ;  and 
materialism  is  a  lingering  chain,  which  among  many 
professed,  dualists  and  monists  is  still  the  most  deeply 
seated  preconception  of  our  time. 

Concerning  the  passage  quoted  from  Mr.  Laws,  we 
believe  that  Berkeley's  view  is  not  correctly  repre- 
sented. Berkeley  denies  the  existence  of  a  hypostati- 
sation  like  matter,  but  he  does  not  deny  the  existence 
of  everything  outside  the  perceiving  mind.  Does  not 
Berkeley  speak  of  God  as  that  something  (Berkeley 
awkwardly  calls  it  "spirit")  which  excites  our  sense- 
impressions?  What  Berkeley  calls  God,  we  call  real- 
ity, and  in  so  far  as  in  reality  the  All  of  facts  in  their 
oneness  are  the  ultimate  authority  of  moral  conduct,  we 
should  make  no  objection  to  the  Bishop's  terminology. 
Berkeley  does  not  deny  the  reality  of  things.  Here  he 
differs  from  many  of  his  misguided  disciples  and  fol- 
lowers, who  imagine  they  become  deep  philosophers 
by  denying  the  reality  of  things.  Berkeley  is  as  much 
a  realist  as  any  unsophisticated  farm-laborer  can  be, 
who,  working  with  a  shovel,  trusts  that  the  soil  he 
digs  is  an  actuality  and  no  mere  illusion.  Berkeley 
(as  quoted  by  Mr.  Laws)  says:  "That  the  things 
I  see  with  my  eyes  and  touch  with  my  hands  do 
exist,  really  exist,  I  make  not  the  least  question." 
What,  then,  does  Berkeley  deny,  to  deserve  the  name 
idealist?  Berkeley  denies  the  existence  of  a  meta- 
physical substratum  called  matter ;  he  denies  what . 
Professor  Huxley  and  other  modern  physiologists  call 
the  physical  basis  of  mind  ;  he  denies  that  matter 
alone  is  real,  and  that  mind  is  only  a  property  of  mat- 
ter ;  in  other  words,  he  denies  the  metaphysical  ex- 
istence of  matter  and  regards  matter  as  a  mere  ab- 
stract term. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4043 


Mr.  Laws  regards  psychology  as  a  special  branch 
of  biology  and  says  of  "  modern  critical  psychology  " 
that  it 

"'^ith  its  physical  basis  runs  little  or  no  risk  of  merging  into 
idealism." 

The  mere  term  "physical  basis  of  mind  "  implies  a 
metaphysical  assumption  ;  it  implies  the  theory,  of 
late  so  lucidly  set  forth  by  Mr.  Lester  F.  Ward  in  the 
January  number  of  The  Monist,  that  matter  is  real, 
while  mind  is  merely  a  property  of  matter,  a  view 
which  we  reject  as  a  pseudo-monism,  because  it  uni- 
fies the  universe  by  means  of  a  one-sided  system  ;  it 
is  a  single-concept  theory,  not  a  truly  unitary  system  ; 
It  is  henism,  not  monism.' 

If  we  compare  the  formal  categories  of  our  mind 
to  a  system  of  drawers  or  pigeon-holes  in  which  all 
our  experiences  are  classified  and  stored  away  in  good 
order,  so  as  to  be  handy  when  wanted,  the  henist  feel- 
ing the  necessity  of  bringing  unity  into  his  thought- 
material,  is  like  a  man  who  puts  all  into  one  great  box. 
The  spiritualist  subsumes  everything  under  spirit,  as 
either  spirit  itself,  or  a  property  of  spirit ;  the  materi- 
alist subsumes  everything  under  matter,  as  either 
matter  itself,  or  a  property  of  matter  ;  the  dynamist 
or  mechanicalist  subsumes  everything  under  energy 
as  a  mode  of  motion  or  the  effect  of  a  motion.  True 
monism  must  always  remain  conscious  of  the  method 
by  which  we  have  constructed  our  abstract  notions ; 
it  must  not  forget  that  they  are  thought-symbols  to 
which  some  features  of  reality  correspond,  but  that 
neither  matter,  nor  spirit,  nor  energy  represent  inde- 
pendent entities  or  things  in  themselves  which  can  be 
assumed  to  be  the  substratum  of  reality  and  the  meta- 
physical basis  of  our  experience. 

We  do  not  deny  that  it  is  sometimes  convenient  in 
special  branches  of  science  to  regard  matter  as  thing, 
and  color  as  a  quality  of  matter.  But  in  doing  so,  we 
must  remain  conscious  of  the  poetical  licence  which 
we  indulge  in.  This  method  of  viewing  things  serves 
a  temporary  purpose  and  must  be  dropped  with  the 
special  occasion.  If  we  retain  the  fiction  of  matter 
being  the  true  reality  and  not  merely  an  abstract  repre- 
senting a  quality  or  a  number  of  qualities  abstracted 
from  our  experiences,  we  shall  soon  become  puzzled 
with  the  children  of  our  own  thought,  and,  like  Mr. 
Spencer,  become  victims  of  agnosticism,  standing 
overawed  with  wonder  before  the  simplest  generalisa- 
tions, as  if  they  contained  the  mysteries  of  being  in  a 
concentrated  form.  We  need  not  repeat  here  how 
Spencer,  in  his  "First  Principles,"  obscures  all  issues 
so  as   to  render  the  ideas  matter,  motion,  and  mind 

1  See  The  Monist,  Vol.  IV,  No.  2,  "A  Monistic  Theory  of  Mind,"  by  Lester 
F.  Ward,  and  the  editorial,  "  Monism  and  Henism."  Compare  also  Prof.  C. 
Lloyd  Morgan's  article  in  the  present  number  of  Ths  Monist  (Vol.  IV,  No.  3), 
pp.  321-332,  "  Three  Aspects  of  Monism." 


self-contradictory  and  incomprehensible,  thus  produc- 
ing mysteries  where  there  are  none.'  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  any  one  who  either  unconsciously  or  con- 
sciously hypostatises  his  abstract  notions  will  sooner  or 
later  arrive  at  mj'sticism  or  agnosticism,  that  is  to  say, 
he  will  sooner  or  later  be  so  bewildered  with  the  con- 
fusion of  his  own  thought  as  to  declare:  "Philosophy 
is  too  much  for  me,  I  do  not  understand  its  problems, 
and  as  I  cannot  solve  them,  no  one  can." 

Mr.  Laws,  we  are  glad  to  notice,  not  only  rejects 
Mr.  Spencer's  notion  of  the  unknowable,  but  also  ac- 
cepts the  theory  of  abstraction.      He  says  : 

"Abstraction  is  one  of  the  most  complex  of  logical  processes, 
consisting  in  the  creation  out  of  particular  facts  of  general  or  ab- 
stract ideas,  which  shall  include  all  those  characters  wherein  these 
facts  agree,  while  neglecting  all  those  wherein  they  differ.  Man 
is  an  abstract  idea;  so,  too,  are  color,  the  press,  and  religion." 

But  accepting  this  theory  of  abstraction,  is  it  not 
inconsistent  to  speak  of  consciousness  as  a  function  of 
the  body,  and  mind  as  a  product  of  the  brain  ;  to  re- 
gard impressions  and  ideas  as  part  and  parcel  of  our 
physical  (!)  organisation?  We  do  not  deny,  as  we  said 
above,  that  occasions  may  arise  in  which  it  might  be 
convenient  to  speak  of  matter  and  its  properties,  or 
even  to  represent  the  atoms  of  the  brain  as  the  true 
reality  and  our  thoughts  as  mere  functions  of  the  brain. 
But  this  view  is  unphilosophical.  Such  a  licence  is 
temporarily  allowable  when  we  compare  two  qualities 
of  which  the  one  is  relatively  stable  the  other  relatively 
transient.  For  instance,  weight  and  color.  In  the 
case  of  mind  and  brain,  however,  this  mode  of  speech 
is  not  admissible,  except  when  we  take  a  purely  physi- 
ological aspect  and  inquire  into  the  brain  mechanism 
of  thought,  excluding  feelings,  ideas,  and  the  mean- 
ings of  ideas.  By  mind,  however,  we  understand  the 
interaction  of  ideas  and  the  meaning  of  ideas.  When 
speaking  of  ideas,  we  should  not  forget  that  thinking 
is  a  mental  process,  which,  if  it  were  visible  in  a  trans- 
parent brain,  would  appear  to  an  outside  observer  as 
a  brain- motion.  But  the  relatively  constant  factor  in 
thinking  is  the  idea  thought  and  not  the  material  atoms 
of  the  brain  which  vibrate  while  we  think.  The  idea 
remains  the  same,  while  the  brain-substance  is  con- 
stantly renewed  ;  our  conceptions  remain  constant  in 
the  flux  of  physiological  changes  of  matter.  Thus,  as 
soon  as  we  discuss  psychological  problems  we  should 
rather  be  justified  in  regarding  mind  as  the  realitj'  and 
brain  action  as  one  of  its  qualities,  than  the  reverse. 
We  do  not  say  that  psychologists  must  present  men- 
tal problems  in  this  form,  but  they  can  provisionally 
assume  this  view  as  much  as  a  physicist  may  speak  of 
bodies  and  their  properties. 

In  case  psychologists  adopt  the  henism  of  regard- 
ing matter  as  the  real  thing  and  mind  as  a  property 

1  See  The  Open  Court,  No.  212. 


4044 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


only  of  the  brain-cells,  they  commit  themselves  to  the 
absurdity  of  regarding  the  secretions  of  the  nervous 
substance  which  after  having  done  the  thinking  are 
thrown  out  in  the  natural  way,  as  man's  true  self.  In 
thus  identifying  ourselves  with  the  material  that  passes 
through  our  body,  we  become  blind  to  the  spiritual 
nature  of  our  being  and  we  shall  look  upon  death  as  a 
finality.  When  an  idea  has  been  thought,  the  particles 
that  did  the  thinking  will  soon  be  replaced  by  other 
substance,  and  after  a  brief  time  be  wiped  out  of  the 
brain,  yet  the  idea  will  remain  in  our  mind.  In  the 
same  way,  when  we  die  our  remains  will  be  buried,  but 
not  we,  not  our  souls,  not  our  true  selves,  which  are 
of  a  spiritual  nature.  Our  souls  can  be  preserved.  Our 
ideas  can  be  thought  again,  and  our  aspirations  can 
continue.  The  temple  in  which  they  are  enshrined 
will  be  broken,  but  the  temple  will  be  built  up  again, 
and  our  spiritual  being  will  be  resurrected  to  new  life. 
True  monism  rejects  all  hypostatisation,  material- 
istic, spiritualistic,  or  mechanistic.  By  bearing  in 
mind  that  abstract  notions  are  part-representations  of 
reality,  describing  sections,  features  or  qualities  of 
existence,  we  do  not  fall  a  prey  to  self-mystification, 
and  see  our  way  clearly  before  us.  We  may  differ  as 
to  the  propriety  of  terms  and  their  definitions,  such 
as  Reason,  God,  Religion,  and  others,  but  we  have 
definite  issues  and  practical  problems.  The  road  of 
scientific  and  philosophical  investigation  is  no  longer 
blocked  by  insolvable  mysteries,  unknowables  or  other 
metaphysical  hobgoblins.  We  begin  with  the  facts 
given  in  experience  and  are  no  longer  in  need  of  as- 
sumptions, axioms,  or  hypothetical  principles  as  build- 
ing material  for  our  world-conception.  Thus  philoso- 
phy has  become  a  science,  the  statements  of  which  are 
no  longer  a  matter  of  partisan  position  or  dependent 
upon  postulates;  they  can  be  decided  by  investigation 
and  subjected  to  the  test  of  being  in  agreement  or  dis- 
agreement with  facts.  p.  C. 


THE  NEW  ERA. 


BY    ATHERTON    BLIGHT. 

A  BOOK  of  unusual  interest  and  importance  in  the  line  of  re- 
ligious thought  has  appeared  recently.  I  refer  to  Prof.  Edward 
Caird's  Gifford  lectures,  "  The  Evolution  of  Religion."  The  dis- 
tinguished author  and  thinker  has  only  recently  succeeded  the 
great  Greek  scholar,  the  late  Professor  Jowett,  as  Master  of  Bal- 
liol.  How  well  I  remember  hailing  with  delight  the  publication 
of  "  Essays  and  Reviews,"  in  i860,  and  how  those  of  us  interested 
in  such  subjects  were  encouraged  by  the  now  famous  dictum  of 
Jowett,  "  Interpret  the  Bible  as  you  would  any  other  book."  And 
now,  after  a  generation  of  men  have  left  the  stage  and  we  are 
nearing  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  new  Master  of 
Balliol  declares  that  what  Christ  conceived  by  a  divine  intuition, 
what  his  followers  and  the  Church  partly  developed,  partly  mis- 
understood, this  is  now  the  proper  object  of  a  religious  philosophy. 

In  an  interesting  notice  of  this  valuable  work  in  the  Ni-w  York 
F.vening  Post,  the  author  says  ;  ' '  The  result  of  Professor  Caird's 
thought  is  thus  a  revised  Christianity,  from  which  the  traditional 


sort  of  supernaturalism  has  indeed  been  banished.  The  highly 
unconventional  character  of  the  theology  thus  outlined  is  obvious. 
The  Gospel  history  is  in  consequence  interpreted  without  recourse 
to  miracle.  The  greater  part  of  traditional  Church  dogma  appears 
as  non-essential  opinion  having  only  historical  interest.  Human 
immortality  is  apparently,  in  Professor  Caird's  mind,  at  present  a 
problem  whose  philosophical  answer  is  decidedly  incomplete,  if 
not  altogether  problematic." 

The  point,  then,  which  I  wish  to  make  clear  is  that  Professor 
Caird,  like  Dr.  Momerie  and  other  profound  thinkers,  have,  with 
'file  Open  Coiirl,  utterly  abandoned  the  supernaturalism  of  the 
churches.  Even  the  Bishop  of  London  in  a  recent  address  on 
"  Faith  "  said  that  our  faith  could  not  rest  entirely  on  externals, 
including  miracles,  but  we  must  largely  rely  upon  the  faith  of  the 
soul  in  the  eternal  supremacy  of  holiness,  justice,  and  goodness. 
He  said,  and  they  are  very  remarkable  words  proceeding  from 
such  a  source,  "  that  the  recognition  of  God  is  in  reality  the  recog- 
nition of  the  moral  law  in  action."  Is  not  this  the  very  essence  of 
the  teaching  of  TJie  Open  Court  ? 

I  would  like  to  call  your  attention  to  another  book,  not  so 
weighty  and  philosophical  as  the  two  volumes  of  Professor  Caird, 
but  nevertheless  a  very  interesting  and  suggestive  little  work,  and 
one  which  should  be  read  carefully  by  every  one  interested  in  the 
great  cause  Tlie  Open  Court  has  at  heart.  I  have  reference  to 
"The  Religion  of  a  Literary  Man,"  by  Richard  Le  Gallienne. 
Allow  me  to  give  you  two  quotations,  which  fairly  give  the  key- 
note of  the  little  book  :  "The  most  vital  point  at  which  religious 
controversy  formerly  ever  arrived  was  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible. 
But  that  difficulty  has  passed  ;  we  now  either  accept  or  reject  the 
inspiration  of  a  hundred  Bibles,  and  the  question  is  no  longer  of 
the  inspiration  of  one  book,  but  of  the  inspiration  of  the  human 
soul,  which  has  dictated  all  books." 

This  is  my  second  quotation  :  "  To  speak  of  natural  religious 
senses  will  seem  redundant  to  any  one  familiarised  with  the  ob- 
vious idea  that  everything  that  exists,  religion  included,  is  '  nat- 
ural,' that 

"  '  Nature  is  made  better  by  no  mean, 

But  Nature  makes  that  mean  :  over  that  art 
Which  you  say  adds  to  Nature,  is  an  art 
That  Nature  makes.' 

"  But  one  has  been  so  brought  up  to  regard  religion  as  some- 
thing superimposed  upon  our  human  nature,  rather  than  as  some- 
thing blossoming  out  of  it,  that  the  habit  clings." 

Professor  Dowden  in  his  "Studies  in  Literature,"  published, 
I  think,  in  the  seventies,  assumes  that  such  views  as  M.  Le  Gal- 
lienne's  prevail  generally  among  educated  people  ;  and  Mr.  Sted- 
man  in  his  charming  books,  the  ' '  Victorian  Poets  "  and  "  Poets  of 
America,"  seems  to  take  very  much  the  same  position.  But  in 
Mr.  Stedman's  important  work  on  "  The  Nature  and  Elements  of 
Poetry  "  he  says  in  a  very  just  and  beautiful  eulogy  of  the  "  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  ":  "  The  sincere  agnostic  must  be  content  with 
his  not  inglorious  isolation  ;  he  must  barter  the  rapture  and  beauty 
and  hope  of  such  a  liturgy  for  his  faith  in  something  different, 
something  compensatory,  perchance  a  future  and  still  more  world- 
wide brotherhood  of  men." 

Did  Mr.  Stedman  never  read  Mr.  Frederick  Harrison's  "Apol- 
ogy for  His  Faith  "  in  the  Fortnightly  Review  ?  Therein  that  most 
interesting  essayist  shows  that  the  advanced  thinker  always  keeps 
touch  with  the  past.  The  greater  includes  the  less.  We  have  not 
bartered  the  rapture  and  beauty  and  hope  of  the  liturgy.  What- 
ever is  divine  in  it,  or,  in  Goethe's  phrase,  ministers  to  our  highest 
development,  we  retain  as  a  possession  forever.  The  scholar  with 
Emerson  "sails  with  God  the  seas, "  and  you  cannot  bring  him 
too  good  news  from  any  quarter.  To  return  again  to  Professor 
Caird  "the  idea  of  development  teaches  us  to  distinguish  the  one 
spiritual  principle  which  is  continually  working  in  man's  life,  from 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4045 


the  changing  forms  through  which  it  passes  in  the  course  of  its 
history;  ....  to  do  justice  to  the  past  without  enslaving  the  pres. 
ent,  and  to  give  freedom  to  the  thought  of  the  present  without  for- 
getting that  it  in  its  turn  must  be  criticised  and  transcended  by 
the  widening  consciousness  of  the  future." 

By  far  the  most  trenchant  criticism  of  the  kind  we  have  been 
considering  is  that  of  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  in  his  "Agnostic's  Apol- 
ogy and  Other  Essays."  In  the  course  of  one  of  his  chapters  he 
remarks  that  we  cannot  change  our  opinions  as  we  would  take 
jewels  out  of  a  box  and  replace  them  with  others.  Change  o'- 
view— of  belief  is  2u growth,  s. process  of  the  mind.  Edmund  Scherer 
the  distinguished  French  essayist,  said  it  took  him  fifteen  years  of 
study  and  reflexion  before  he  became  completely  emancipated 
from  the  old  clerical  method  of  assuming  a  supernatural  and  then 
proceeding  to  build  an  elaborate  theology.  We  must  have  a  reason 
for  the  faith  that  is  in  us.  It  is  easy  now,  as  Renan  says,  to  pro- 
claim with  the  gamin  in  the  street  that  Christ  never  rose  from  the 
dead  ;  but  to  show  the  steps  of  reasoning  whereby  one  arrives  at 
that  conclusion  is  a  very  different  thing.  We  see  now  very  clearly 
that  the  Bible  is  a  purely  liuman  production  and  being  written  aj 
the  time  it  was,  in  a  perfectly  uncritical  age  and  in  an  oriental 
country,  it  must  perforce  of  circumstances  have  contained  all  kinds 
of  marvellous  stories,  the  bodily  resurrection  of  Jesus  among  the 
rest.  Goethe  said  there  is  nothing  worth  thinking  but  it  has  been 
thought  before  ;  'oe  must  only  try  to  think  it  again.  ' '  What  Goethe 
means, "  says  Mr.  Bailey  Saunders  in  his  interesting  ' '  Maxims  and 
Reflexions  of  Goethe, "  "is  that  we  shall  do  best  to  find  out  the 
truth  of  all  things  for  ourselves,  for  on  one  side  truth  is  individ- 
ual ;  and  that  we  shall  be  happy  if  our  icdividual  truth  is  also 
universal,  or  accords  with  the  wisest  thought  of  the  past." 

"  The  spring  of  a  new  era  is  in  the  air — an  era  of  faith,"  ex- 
claims M.  Le  Gallienne,  a  great  deal  of  the  old  faith  of  the  "ages 
of  faith,  "at  least  in  the  formulas,  symbols,  and  expressions  now 
long  outworn,  is,  as  Renan  shows,  impossible  to  the  modern  crit- 
ical, emancipated  mind.     M.  Le  Gallienne  and  many  others  are 
almost  daily  giving  us  valuable  bints  for  the  faith  of  the  future. 
•■  Oh!  bells  of  San  Bias,  in  vain 
Ye  call  back  the  past  again. 
The  past  is  deaf  to  your  prayer- 
Out  of  the  shadows  of  night 
The  world  rolls  into  light, 
'Tis  daybreak  everywhere." 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 

The  Chicago  election  is  over,  and  it  is  gratifying  to  read  in 
the  morning  papers  that  it  ' '  passed  off  quietly. "  There  were  only 
about  a  hundred  fights,  all  told,  with  a  proper  proportion  of  broken 
heads  to  each.  A  goodly  number  of  shots  were  fired,  but  as  the 
gunners  were  full  of  beer  the  bullets  went  wild.  Only  two  or 
three  men  were  shot,  and  even  these  are  "expected  to  recover." 
In  the  First  Ward  it  was  bullets  against  ballots,  and  the  bullets 
won.  Much  patriotic  feeling  was  exhibited  in  this  ward  among 
the  partisans  of  Mr.  Coughlin  and  Mr.  Skakel,  the  opposing  can- 
didates for  the  cffice  of  alderman,  and  they  turned  the  election 
into  a  Donnybrook  Fair.  When  the  polls  closed  it  was  found  that 
Mr.  Coughlin  was  elected,  and  that  Mr.  Skakel's  men  were  most 
of  them  in  the  hospital,  or  at  their  various  places  of  residence  un- 
der the  doctor's  care.  A  large  number  of  colored  men  live  in  the 
First  Ward,  and  they  showed  as  much  aptitude  for  American  citi- 
zenship as  the  white  men.  Two  of  them,  "  Slicky  Sam  "  Phillips 
and  "Toots"  Marshal!  fought  a  duel  m  the  crowded  thoroughfare 
at  the  corner  of  Taylor  and  State  Streets,  but,  unfortunately,  al- 
though they  "emptied  their  revolvers,"  only  one  of  them  was 
wounded,  and  this  was  explained  as  due  more  to  accident  than 
aim,  because  his  feet  were  "unusually  large,  "  and  one  of  them 
stopped  a  bullet.  One  of  Mr.  Skakel's  band-wagons  was  filled 
with  hireling  musicians,   playing   "Marching  through  Georgia, " 


and  they  had  the  temerity  to  blow  their  bugles  in  front  of  "Hinky 
Dink's"  saloon,  the  headquarters  of  the  Coughlin  party.  As  might 
have  been  expected,  they  were  welcomed  with  a  volley  from  the 
revolvers  of  the  Coughlin  men.  The  musicians  ' '  ducked, "  and  the 
bullets  passing  o\er  them  went  into  McCoy's  Hotel,  but  merely 
breaking  the  windows  and  the  plaster  on  the  inside  walls.  No 
blame  attaches  to  the  Coughlin  men  for  this,  because  it  is  con- 
ceded by  public  sentiment  that  the  quality  of  the  music  justified 
the  shooting.  This  election  was  merely  for  aldermen  and  town- 
ship officers  ;  it  did  not  include  within  its  fortunes  the  glory  and 
emoluments  of  national,  state,  or  county  candidates,  and  that's 
the  reason  it  "passed  off  quietly." 

Anxious  to  see  how  the  civil  war  in  South  Carolina  was  get- 
ting along,  I  glanced  over  the  dispatches  from  Columbia  dated 
April  3,  and  I  found  at  the  beginning  of  them  these  rather  startling 
headlines:  "Tillman  makes  an  incendiary  speech  at  Columbia." 
Knowing  that  the  person  spoken  of  as  "Tillman"  was  the  Gov- 
ernor of  South  Carolina,  I  wondered  how  a  magistrate  of  such 
high  rank  and  royalty  could  make  an  incendiary  speech,  for  I  had 
supposed  that  only  swarthy  laborers,  rude  rebellious  men  of  low 
degree,  or  "  pale-browed  enthusiasts,"  impatient  of  social  wrongs, 
could  commit  such  a  crime  as  that.  Surely  the  order  and  arrange- 
ment of  affairs  in  this  conservative  world  must  be  turning  upside 
down  when  governors  compete  with  labor  agitators  in  the  business 
of  setting  politics  on  fire  by  means  of  incendiary  speeches.  Sedi- 
tion may  become  fashionable  yet,  although  there  is  none  of  it  in 
the  oratory  of  Governor  Tillman,  so  far  as  I  can  see.  Incendiary 
speeches  are  usually  directed  against  the  law,  but  those  of  Gov- 
ernor Tillman  are  passionate  appeals  in  favor  of  the  law,  and  they 
express  a  determination  to  suppress  the  revolutionary  factions  and 
the  mutinous  militia  that  seek  to  overthrow  the  law.  The  revolt 
of  the  militia  is  ominous,  because  it  throws  another  element  of 
uncertainty  into  the  social  problem,  for  if  the  militia  is  not  to  be 
relied  on,  what  is  the  use  of  our  armories  and  our  Gatling  guns  ' 
*        *        * 

Whatever  we  may  think  about  the  laws  of  South  Carolina,  or 
the  policy  of  Governor  Tillman,  we  must  admit  that  he  is  neither 
a  time-server  nor  a  coward.  There  is  manly  stuff  in  this  governor, 
and  a  good  supply  of  that  civic  nerve  that  all  magistrates  ought  to 
have.  "I  have  sworn  to  enforce  the  laws,"  he  said  ;  "the  dis- 
pensary law  is  on  the  statute  books,  and  I  will  exert  all  the  powers 
of  my  office  to  see  that  the  law  is  obeyed."  We  have  so  many  in- 
vertebrate politicians  in  power  now,  supple  statesmen  who,  undu- 
lating gracefully  as  worms,  can  wriggle  up  and  down  through  all 
the  rounds  of  a  ladder,  that  a  chief  magistrate,  who  in  the  midst 
of  mutiny  and  civil  turmoil,  with  assassination  promised  him,  can 
stand  erect  on  his  feet  without  breaking,  looks  like  one  of  the  old 
heroic  statues  of  the  Greeks.  The  very  sight  of  these  in  their 
majestic  strength  and  symmetry  makes  all  of  us  a  little  stronger 
than  we  might  otherwise  be.  Goiernor  Tillman  makes  no  pre- 
tensions to  orate  ry  or  scholarship,  and  perhaps  the  critics  may  be 
able  to  show  some  rhetorical  mistakes  in  the  poise  and  balance  of 
his  words,  but  there  are  parts  of  the  speech  he  made  at  Columbia 
on  Monday  that  remind  us  of  the  oration  of  Cicero  when  he  told 
the  Senate  of  the  plot  that  had  been  formed  for  his  assassination 
Referring  to  a  similar  plot  against  himself.  Governor  Tillman 
said  :  "One  man  told  Mr.  Yelldell  here  that  he  came  from  Edge- 
field, my  own  county,  with  a  shotgun  to  kill  me  Friday  night.  My 
life  is  not  worth  much  to  me,  but  it  is  worth  as  much  to  me  as  the 
life  of  any  other  man  is  to  him,  but  rather  than  desert  my  pos', 
where  you  have  placed  me,  I  would  have  stood  there  until  I  fdl 
dead.  The  men  who  are  threatening  to  fire  this  powder  magazine 
are  the  bar-room  element,  and  those  who  are  urging  them  on  are 
the  rulers  of  the  old  oligarchy.  This  riot  is  a  political  frenzy;  I 
shall   not  swerve  an  inch  from  the  stand  that  I   have  taken  as  the 


4046 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


people's  governor.  You  may  imagine  from  this  that  I  am  going 
to  aggravate  the  trouble,  but  I  am  simply  going  to  uphold  the 
law."  This  rebuke  to  the  antediluvian  aristocracy,  this  defiance 
o£  the  conspirators,  this  elevation  of  duty  above  life  itself,  all  in- 
tensified by  a  renewal  of  his  oath  to  enforce  the  law,  give  to  the 
speech  of  Governor  Tillman  a  spirit  and  dignity  not  surpassed  in 
the  famous  oration  against  Catiline. 

A  very  fine  distinction,  one  of  the  finest  in  the  moral  code, 
was  drawn  the  other  day  by  the  striking  workmen  who  had  been 
employed  at  Crane's  factory  in  Chicago.  They  were  holding  a 
meeting  at  Bricklayers'  Hall,  when  a  donation  amounting  to  twenty 
dollars  was  received  from  Mr-  Jacob  Horn,  the  candidate  for  West 
town  assessor,  and  a  discussion  immediately  arose  as  to  the  pro- 
priety of  accepting  money  from  a  candidate.  According  to  the  re- 
port in  the  paper,  as  to  the  truth  of  which,  however,  I  am  rather 
sceptical,  it  was  decided  to  return  the  money.  At  the  same  meet- 
ing, a  letter  was  read  from  A.  F.  Hoffman,  the  Democratic  candi- 
date for  West  Town  collector,  in  which  he  "  donated"  twenty  kegs 
of  beer  to  be  used  at  the  ball  which  the  strikers  will  give  at  the 
Second  Regiment  Armory.  The  beer  was  accepted  with  entbusi- 
asiic  cheers.  The  moral  difference  between  a  gift  of  money  and 
a  gift  of  beer  as  a  bid  for  votes  is  finer  than  a  spider's  thread,  and 
yet  there  are  consciences  that  can  walk  securely  on  that  flimsy 
string.  Old  Stillman  Strong  of  Marbletown  used  to  say  when 
tempted  at  election  time,  "  A  soul  I  have  above  lucre,  money  can- 
not buy  me,  but  whiskey  can."  There  are  many  men  who  have 
moral  constitutions  just  like  that  of  Stillman  Strong.  When  Gen. 
Albert  Sidney  Johnstone  was  about  starting  in  command  of  the 
Utah  expedition,  an  officer  came  to  him  and  asked  permission  to 
take  a  box  of  books,  but  the  General  answered,  "No,  there  are 
not  wagons  enough  to  carry  the  baggage  absolutely  necessary  for 
the  expedition."  Then  the  officer  asked  if  he  might  carry  a  barrel 
of  whiskey  afong,  and  the  General  replied,  "Certainly!  Certainly! 
Anything  in  reason  !" 

Two  or  three  weeks  ago,  I  predicted  that  the  army  of  General 
Coxey  would  straggle  out  of  existence  without  ever  coming  within 
sight  of  Pittsburg.  I  was  wrong  ;  and  hereafter  I  shall  prophesy 
after  the  fact,  for  in  spite  of  some  desertions,  the  army  increased 
a  little  every  day,  and  it  marched  into  Pittsburg  nearly  three  hun- 
dred strong.  Not  only  that,  but  it  was  at  Pittsburg  and  Alleghany 
that  the  army  became  of  any  serious  interest  or  importance,  and 
this  through  the  illegal  and  arbitrary  measures  adopted  by  the 
police.  Before  the  police  powers  interfered  with  Coxey 's  men  in 
a  harsh  despotic  way,  the  army  was  merely  amusing,  a  grotesque 
imitation  of  the  tatterdemallion  company  recruited  by  Sir  John 
Falstaff ;  but  after  that  interference,  it  represented  liberty,  and  it 
commanded  sympathy.  The  imprisonment  of  the  army  in  the 
corral  at  Alleghany  with  a  police  deadline  drawn  around  it,  was 
an  assault  upon  the  freedom  of  American  citizens  to  travel  from 
one  part  of  the  country  to  another  either  on  foot  or  on  the  excur- 
sion train.  The  arrest,  imprisonment,  and  punishment  by  fine  of 
citizens  guilty  of  no  crime  was  an  unwarranted  act  of  persecution 
done  by  the  magistrates  and  police  in  anarchistic  defiance  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  Constitution  of  Penn- 
sylvania. It  was  drawing  another  deadline  between  the  classes 
and  the  masses,  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  ;  and  it  was  gather- 
ing up  wraih  for  the  day  of  wrath.  It  was  altogether  gratuitous 
and  unnecessary,  a  wanton  exercise  of  bludgeon  power,  adding 
another  contribution  to  that  threatening  mass  of  discontent  which 
is  already  too  large  for  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  republic.  It 
gave  dramatic  dignity  to  a  spectacle  which  previously  was  nothing 
but  burlesque. 

M.  M.  Trumbull. 


NOTES. 

Dr.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  takes  issue  with  Dr.  Harper  for  mak- 
ing a  distinction  between  the  office  of  the  preacher  and  the  teacher. 
Dr.  Harper,  who  has  given  offence  to  his  Baptist  brethren  for 
presenting  in  his  lectures  some  of  the  results  of  modern  Bible 
criticism  says  :  "  If  I  were  a  preacher  and  were  preaching  about 
these  stories  I  would  minimise  the  human  element  and  magnify 
the  divine  element,  but  as  a  teacher  I  must  present  both  sides.  I 
am  presenting  facts."  Dr.  Jones  understands  Dr.  Harper  to  say 
that  "the  preacher's  vocation  is  less  than  that  of  a  truth  teller," 
and  that  it  is  his  business  (in  the  words  of  Jeremiah)  to  "bend  his 
tongue  as  if  it  were  a  bow  for  falsehood. "  He  takes  the  proposition 
of  "minimising"  and  "magnifying"  in  the  sense  of  disfiguring 
or  misrepresenting.  And  truly  Dr.  Jones  is  right  in  holding  that 
any  falsehood  is  to  be  denounced,  be  it  in  the  preacher  or  in  the 
teacher.  All  that  Dr.  Jones  says  in  condemnation  of  equivocalness 
is  true,  and  we  agree  with  him  that  the  preacher's  first  allegiance 
not  less  than  the  teacher's  is  to  truth,  and  all  other  considerations  of 
tact,  propriety,  regard  for  the  sentiments  of  others  and  so  forth,  are 
to  be  subordinated  to  this  supreme  law  of  moral  conduct.  But  we 
must  add.  Is  it  fair  to  understand  Professor  Harper  to  mean  that 
he  expects  the  preacher  to  hide  the  truth  ?  Is  it  charitable  to  put 
this  interpretation  upon  his  utterance  ?  We  have  not  seen  the 
quoted  sentence  in  its  context,  but  are  confident  that  Dr.  Harper 
uses  the  word  "  magnify  "  in  the  sense  of  "  emphasise."  It  is  not 
the  office  of  the  clergyman  to  preach  on  Biblical  criticism  ;  the 
office  of  the  clergyman  is  to  preach  morality.  By  God  we  under- 
stand the  authority  of  moral  conduct,  and  "  divine  "  is  according  to 
common  usage  all  that  is  elevating  and  sanctifying.  In  this  sense 
President  Harper  is  right  when  he  says  that  the  preacher  must 
make  great  the  divine,  while  a  teacher  has  simply  to  lay  down 
facts.  The  preacher's  duty  is  higher  ;  he  has  to  teach  the  truth 
and  utilise  it  for  practical  life.  The  facts  which  he  presents  must 
serve  a  purpose  and  to  present  facts  which  have  no  bearing  upon 
practical  morality  is  out  of  place  in  the  pulpit.  We  expect  that 
President  Harper  is  still  attached  to  the  old  dogmatism  of  his 
church  and  has  probably  other  conceptions  than  we  of  what  God 
and  Divine  are ;  but  that  need  not  concern  us  here.  The  main 
thing  is  that  it  is  not  probable,  nay,  impossible,  that  he  meant  what 
he  is  criticised  for. 

A  note  of  correction  seems  necessary  concerning  General 
Trumbull's  statement  in  No.  344  of  Tlic  Open  C<'«;V (article  "Kos- 
suth") of  General  Gorgei's  "desertion."  The  word  "desertion" 
does  not  imply  treachery,  but  suggests  it.  Gorgei  surrendered  to 
the  Russians  because  further  resistance  was  absolutely  hopeless, 
and  in  the  honest  belief  that  better  terms  would  be  thus  obtained, 
not  from  a  treacherous  desertion  of  the  Hungarian  cause. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

32+  DE.^RBORN    STREET, 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  POST  OFFICE  DRAWER  F. 


E    C.  HEGELER,  Pub 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 


CONTENTS  OF  NO.  346. 

THE  METAPHYSICS  OF  HERBERT  SPENCER.   Thos. 

C.  Laws 4039 

BERKELEY'S  POSITIVISM.     Editor 4042 

THE  NEW  ERA.     Atherton  Blight 4044 

CURRENT     TOPICS  :       A   Quiet    Election.     Incendiary 
Speech.   Governor  Tillman's  Militia.   Election  Beer.  Po- 
lice Anarchy  in  Pennsylvania.     Gen.  M,  M.  Trumbull  4045 
NOTES 4046 


B?0 


The  Open  Court. 


A  TSrEEKLY  JOURNAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  347.     (Vol.  VIII.— 16.) 


CHICAGO,  APRIL  19,   1894. 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


JUBILATE. 


The  name  of  this  Sunday  is  Jubilate,  which  means 
"Rejoice."  We  celebrate  to-day  no  great  event  Hke 
that  of  the  Nativity,  the  Resurrection,  or  Pentecost, 
but  in  the  lesson  ^  selected  for  this  day  we  find  the 
little  circle  of  disciples  who  gathered  about  Jesus 
stricken  with  grief  and  apprehension.  Jesus  speaks 
of  his  departure  which  will  be  in  a  little  while,  and 
anxiety  fills  their  hearts.  Nevertheless  the  key-note 
of  the  words  of  Jesus  is  "Rejoice  and  fear  not,  for  I 
have  conquered  the  world." 

This  world  in  which  we  live  is  full  of  sorrow.  We 
are  surrounded  by  dangers,  and  the  worst  of  all  dan- 
gers, temptations.  Sin  is  in  the  world,  and  as  every 
sin  has  its  evil  consequences,  there  are  the  curses  of 
sin  in  all  their  ugly  forms.  Finally,  there  is  death, 
that  gaunt  spectre  most  dreaded  of  all  evils,  yet  in- 
evitably awaiting  us  all.  Who  of  us  has  not  stood 
at  the  open  grave  of  some  one  of  his  dearest  kindred, 
parent,  brother,  sister,  or  a  beloved  child.  In  such  a 
world  we  need  support  in  tribulations,  comfort  in  af- 
flictions, and  guidance  through  the  vicissitudes  of  life. 

The  greatest  religions  of  the  world  have  found  a 
solution  of  the  problem  of  life,  in  an  entire  surrender 
of  self,  with  all  its  vanity  and  petulancy.  This  indi- 
vidual existence  of  ours  is  hopelessly  doomed,  so  let 
it  go.  Cease  to  worry  about  it,  and  attend  to  the 
nobler  purpose  of  fulfilling  the  duties  which  in  your 
station  and  position  devolve  upon  you.  A  thinking 
man,  when  considering  the  conditions  of  life,  will  nat- 
urally come  to  the  knowledge  that  it  is  a  mistake  to 
regard  ourselves  as  wholes.  We  are  parts  only,  and 
we  must  seek  the  purpose  of  our  being  in  something 
greater  than  we  are. 

The  old  philosopher  Lao-tsze,  who  lived  in  China 
six  hundred  years  before  Christ,  before  Cyrus  had 
founded  the  Persian  Empire  and  when  our  ancestors 
were  still  savages,  says  in  his  wonderful  little  book, 
the  "Tao-Teh-King  ": 

' '  He  that  regards  himself  as  a  part  shall  be  preserved  en  tire. - 

1  St.  John  svi,  16-23. 

2  John  Chalmers  translates  the  passage ;  "  He  that  humbles  Lhimself]  shall 
be  preserved  entire."  James  Legge  translates:  "The  partial  becomes  com- 
plete." 


He  that  bends  himself  shall  be  straightened. 

He  that  makes  himself  empty  shall  be  filled. 

He  that  wears  himself  out  shall  be  renewed. 

He  that  is  diminished  shall  succeed. 

He  that  is  boastful  shall  fail. 

Therefore,  the  sage  embraces  the  one  thing  that  is  needed, 
and  becomes  a  pattern  for  all  the  world. 

He  is  not  self-dispiaying,  and,  therefore,  he  shines. 

He  is  not  self-approving,  and,  therefore,  he  is  distinguished. 

He  is  not  self-praising,  and,  therefore,  he  has  merit. 

He  is  not  self-e.\alting,  and,  therefore,  he  stands  high,  and 
inasmuch  as  he  strives  not  for  recognition,  no  one  in  the  world 
strives  with  him." 

Lao-tsze  adds  these  words,  which  indicate  that 
others  before  him  had  thought  as  he  had  : 

"That  ancient  saying,  'He  that  regards  himself  as  apart 
shall  be  preserved  entire,'  is  no  vain  utterance.  Verily  he  shall 
be  returned  home  entire." 

It  is  a  natural  mistake  to  look  upon  our  self  as  an 
entirety,  as  a  whole.  Our  life  appears  to  us  as  the 
world  itself ;  everybody  is  inclined  to  look  upon  his 
own  existence  as  a  universe  which  has  its  own  pur- 
pose in  itself.  It  is  a  natural  mistake  into  which  liv- 
ing beings  will  fall  unless  they  are  on  their  guard,  but 
it  is  a  mistake  nevertheless ;  it  is  a  serious  mistake ; 
indeed,  the  fundamental  error  from  which  flow  all 
other  errors,  sins,  and  crimes.  To  avoid  this  error  of 
selfishness  must  be  the  essence  of  all  the  instruction 
we  impart  to  our  children  ;  it  must  be  the  essence  of 
all  the  religion  to  which  we  cling.  The  world  is  not 
a  part  of  us,  but  we  are  a  part  of  the  world.  If  we 
adjust  our  life  as  if  the  world  were  a  part  of  our  self, 
we  shall  inevitably  suffer  shipwreck,  while  if  we  un- 
derstand the  proper  conditions  of  our  existence  we 
shall  act  virtuously  and  find  consolation  for  the  ills  of 
life. 

The  purpose  we  set  ourselves  is  the  essence  of  our 
life  ;  our  body  is  only  the  instrument  of  this  purpose. 
Find  out  what  a  man  aspires  to,  what  ambition  he  has, 
what  aims  he  pursues,  and  you  have  the  key  to  his 
character.  His  purpose  is  the  nature  of  his  being ; 
it  is  his  soul.  Now,  he  whose  purpose  is  self,  will  in- 
volve himself  in  difficulties,  and  when  the  hour  of 
death  comes  he  will  die  like  a  beast  of  the  field  ;  his 
soul  is  lost;  the  purpose  of  his  life  was  in  vain.  He 
may  have  enjoyed  life  in  empty  pleasures,  but  they 


4048 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


are  gone  as  if  they  had  never  been.  And  his  history 
is  writ  in  water. 

It  lies  deeply  rooted  in  the  constitution  of  being 
that  selfishness  is  a  fatal  error,  for  our  self  is  transient, 
it  is  doomed  to  die,  but  if  the  purpose  of  our  being  is 
such  as  will  endure  beyond  the  grave,  our  soul  will 
not  die  when  our  life  is  ended.  Death  will  not  touch 
us,  and  we  shall  be  preserved  entire,  our  soul  will 
live. 

There  have  been,  and  are  still,  philosophers  who 
teach  that  the  purpose  of  life  is  to  get  out  of  it  as  much 
pleasure  as  possible.  How  shallow,  how  empty  is  this 
view  of  life,  and  how  insufficiently  will  such  a  maxim 
serve  us  as  a  rule  of  conduct !  The  great  religious 
teachers  of  mankind,  men  like  Lao-tsze,  Buddha,  and 
Christ  have  seen  deeper.  Jesus  says:  "Take  my 
yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  me,  for  I  am  meek  and 
lowly  in  heart,  and  you  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls 
for  my  yoke  is  easy  and  my  burden  is  light." 

Self- surrender  appears  to  the  selfish  as  the  greatest 
sacrifice  possible ;  but  it  is  only  the  first  step  that 
costs.  The  practice  of  every  virtue  is  easy  to  him  who 
has  freed  himself  from  the  vanity  of  the  conceit  of  self. 
He  who  has  taken  his  cross  upon  his  shoulders  will 
soon  experience  the  truth  of  Christ's  word  :  "  My  yoke 
is  easy  and  my  burden  is  light." 

The  great  moral  teachers  who  have  seen  the  depth 
and  breadth  of  life  agree  in  this,  that  there  is  but  one 
escape  from  the  evils  of  existence  :  it  is  the  surrender 
of  self,  and  to  live  in  a  higher  whole.  Says  Schiller  in 
his  Xenions  : 

"Art  thou  afraid  of  death  ?    Thou  wishest  for  life  everlasting. 
Live  as  a  part  of  the  whole,    when  thou  art  gone  it  remains." 

In  the  same  spirit  the  German  poet  sets  forth  his 
doctrine  of  salvation  : 

"  Out  of  life  ever  lie  two  roads  for  every  one  open  : 
To  the  Ideal  the  one    leadeth,  the  other  to  death, 
Try  to  escape  in  freedom,  as  long  as  you  live,  on  the  former. 
Ere  on  the  latter  you  are    doomed  to  destruction  and  death." 

This,  then,  is  the  essence  of  all  true  religion  :  to  sur- 
render selfishness  and  lead  the  nobler  life  of  a  higher 
purpose.  He  who  takes  this  view  lifts  himself  above 
the  limited  range  of  the  individual  and  enters  a  higher 
sphere  of  existence.  He  partakes  of  that  peace  of 
mind  which  is  the  sole  source  of  happiness,  for  thus 
the  tribulations  of  life  touch  him  no  longer.  He  has 
overcome  death  and  breathes  the  air  of  immortality. 
His  purpose  continues  after  death  and  grows  with  the 
advance  of  human  thought.  His  soul  marches  on  in 
the  progress  of  mankind,  and  his  life  will  be  a  build- 
ing-stone in  the  temple  of  humanity. 

This  essence  of  all  true  religion  has  been  covered 
by  the  overgrowth  of  superstitions.  It  has  been  ossi- 
fied in  dogmas,  it  has  been  neglected  and  forgotten, 
yet  again  and  again  men  rose  to  rediscover  it  and  tg 


teach  its  truth.  Let  us  hold  fast  to  it,  let  us  have  it 
preached  in  our  pulpits,  and  let  us  hand  it  down  to 
our  children  and  our  children's  children  as  their  most 
precious  inheritance. 

Religion  is  a  great  power  in  this  world,  and  it  af- 
fects people  in  various  ways,  according  to  their  char- 
acters. Let  our  religion  be  broad  and  kind-hearted, 
so  as  to  embrace  in  its  sympathy  all  the  world  and  ex- 
clude nothing.  Let  it  be  the  religion  of  the  serious 
thinker,  and  above  all  of  the  energetic  and  active  man. 
Thus  we  find  three  things  which  should  characterise 
religion  :  (i)  Religion  must  have  sentiment  without 
being  sentimental ;  (2)  Religion  must  be  rational  but 
not  rationalistic  ;  and  (3)  Religion  must  be  practical 
but  not  ostentatious. 

Religion  must  comprise  the  whole  man.  It  must 
penetrate  his  heart,  his  head,  and  his  will.  May  our 
religion  be  lacking  in  none  of  its  essential  elements! 
May  it  be  in  the  heart,  so  as  to  cheer  us  in  hours  of 
affliction,  and  warm  our  emotions  with  noble  and 
holy  aspirations  for  righteousness  ;  may  it  be  of  the 
head,  so  as  to  keep  our  minds  sound  and  sober,  and 
lest  we  sink  into  superstitions  ;  may  it  be  of  the  will, 
so  as  to  make  of  our  faculties  a  power  for  good  and 
our  life  a  source  of  blessing,  not  only  to  our  present 
surroundings  but  also  to  later  generations,  a  well  of 
the  living  waters  of  spiritual  influence  which  will  never 
run  dry. 

We  say  first,  religion  must  have  sentiment  without 
being  sentimental.  By  sentimentality  we  understand 
that  disposition  of  mind  in  which  sentiments  rule.  A 
sentimental  man  allows  himself  to  be  carried  away  by 
his  feelings.  He  is  like  an  engine  in  which  the  gover- 
nor does  not  perform  its  function.  He  is  not  well- 
balanced,  and  lacks  the  regulation  of  rational  self- 
critique.  Those  who  are  sentimental,  are  as  a  rule  good- 
natured,  and  in  many  respects  admirable  people.  Their 
intentions  are  pure,  but  following  the  impulse  of  the 
moment  they  are  rash  and  frequently  commit  them- 
selves to  acts,  the  consequences  of  which  they  have  not 
considered.  They  are  apt  to  venture  into  enterprises 
which  are  too  much  for  them,  and  their  judgment  is 
influenced  by  the  moment.  Sentiment  should  not  be 
lacking  in  any  man  or  woman,  for  sentiment  is  the 
substance  of  which  the  world  of  spirit  is  made.  Never- 
theless, sentiment  must  not  be  the  master  ;  sentiment 
must  not  be  the  supreme  ruler  and  king  in  the  domain 
of  the  soul.  Sentiment  must  accompany  all  thoughts 
and  actions  ;  it  must  be  the  warm  breath  of  life  that 
casts  over  them  the  glow  of  sympathy  and  love.  Sen- 
timent must  give  color  to  our  life  but  must  not 
shape  it.  Without  sentiment  life  would  be  bleak  and 
indifferent,  as  the  astronomers  tell  us  that  the  land- 
scape on  the  moon  must  be,  where  in  the  absence  of 
an  atmosphere  all  the  sky  presents  itself  only  in  the 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4049 


sharp  contrasts  of  glaring  light  or  absolutel}'  black 
darkness.  There  is  no  gentle  transition  from  night  to 
day  or  day  to  night,  no  dawn,  no  evening  red,  and  thus 
the  world  appears  to  be  dreary,  cold,  and  dead.  Pre- 
serve the  fervor  of  sentiment,  for  without  it  man  would 
become  mechanical  like  a  calculating  machine  ;  above 
all  preserve  the  enthusiasm  for  your  religious  convic- 
tions ;  but  beware  of  sentimentality  as  a  dominating 
power  ;  beware  of  suppressing  the  functions  of  crit- 
ical investigation.  Always  let  the  ultimate  decision 
in  }'Our  believing,  and  still  more  so  in  the  activity  of 
practical  life,  lie  with  cool  deliberation,  which  impar- 
tially weighs  every  reason  why.  Have  your  sentiments 
under  control.  That  will  make  you  self-possessed, 
calm,  and  strong. 

Sentiment  in  religion  is  a  valuable  quality.  It  fre- 
quently happens  that  the  youthful  enthusiasm  of  a 
man  declines  with  advancing  years  while  his  rational 
insight  increases.  But  this  is  neither  desirable  nor 
necessary.  Let  not  your  zeal  for  truth  and  right  be 
chilled  because  you  have  learned  to  winnow  the  wheat 
from  the  chaff.  On  the  contrary,  the  purer,  the  truer, 
and  the  more  clear-headed  your  religion  is,  the  more 
you  ought  to  cherish  it  and  love  it,  the  more  you 
should  be  ready  to  make  sacrifices  for  its  dissemina- 
tion, the  more  fervid  you  should  be  in  your  efforts  to 
spread  it  over  the  world. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  vitality  of  a  religion  can 
be  measured  by  the  exertions  made  in  its  missionary 
propaganda,  and  this  is  not  without  truth  ;  therefore, 
let  it  be  your  duty  to  work  for  the  propagation  of  a 
purer  religion  undefiled  by  superstition,  and  do  not 
fall  behind  others  in  your  zeal  for  its  holy  cause. 

As  the  second  requisite  of  a  sound  religion  we  de- 
mand that  it  be  rational  without  being  rationalistic. 
There  have  been  great  religious  teachers,  such  as  St. 
Augustine,  and  Luther,  who  unqualifiedly  declare  that 
religion  must  from  its  very  nature  appear  irrational 
to  us.  They  claim  that  reason  has  no  place  in  reli- 
gion, and  must  not  be  allowed  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  it.  The  ultimate  basis  of  a  religious  conviction, 
they  urge,  is  not  knowledge  but  belief,  a  view  which  in 
its  utmost  extreme  is  tersely  expressed  in  the  famous 
sentence,  Credo  quia  absurdiim — I  believe  because  it  is 
absurd.  In  opposition  to  this  one-sided  conception  of 
the  nature  of  religion,  rationalists  arose  who  attempted 
to  cleanse  religion  of  all  irrational  elements,  and  their 
endeavors  have  been  crowned  with  great  results.  We 
owe  to  their  efforts  the  higher  development  of  religion, 
and  must  acknowledge  that  they  were  among  the  he- 
roes who  liberated  us  from  the  bondage  of  supersti- 
tion. Nevertheless,  the  rationalistic  movement,  that 
movement  in  history  which  goes  by  the  name  of  ration- 
alism, is  as  one-sided  as  its  adversary.  Without  any  soul 
for  poetry  its  apostles  removed  from  the  holy  legends 


the  miraculous  as  well  as  the  supernatural,  and  were 
scarcely  aware  of  how  prosaic,  flat,  and  insipid  religion 
became  under  this  treatment.  On  the  one  hand  they 
received  the  accounts  of  the  Bible  in  sober  earnest- 
ness like  historical  documents  ;  on  the  other  hand  they 
did  not  recognise  that  the  main  ideas  presented  in  re- 
ligious writings  were  of  such  a  nature  as  to  need  the 
dress  of  myth.  We  know  now  that  the  worth  and 
value  of  our  religious  books  does  not  depend  upon  their 
historical  accuracy,  but  upon  the  moral  truths  which 
they  convey.  We  do  not  banish  fairy-tales  from  the 
nursery  because  we  have  ceased  to  believe  in  fairies 
and  ogres.  These  stories  are  in  their  literal  sense 
absurd  and  impossible,  yet  many  of  them  contain  gems 
of  deep  thought ;  many  of  them  contain  truths  of 
great  importance.  The  rationalistic  movement  started 
from  wrong  premises,  and  pursued  its  investigations 
on  erroneous  principles.  Our  rationalists  tried  to  cor- 
rect the  letter  and  expected  thus  to  purify  the  spirit. 
But  they  soon  found  it  beyond  their  power  to  restore 
the  historical  truth,  and  in  the  meantime  lost  sight  of 
the  spirit.  They  were  like  the  dissector  who  searches 
for  the  secret  of  life  by  cutting  a  living  organism  into 
pieces ;  or  like  a  chemist,  who,  with  the  purpose  of 
investigating  the  nature  of  a  clock,  analyses  the  chem- 
ical elements  of  its  wheels  in  his  alembic.  The  mean- 
ing of  religious  truth  cannot  be  found  by  rationalising 
the  holy  legends  of  our  religious  traditions. 

Rationalism  is  a  natural  phase  of  the  evolution  of 
religious  thought,  but  it  yields  no  final  solution  of  the 
problem.  In  a  similar  way  our  classical  historians 
attempted  in  a  certain  phase  of  the  development  of 
criticism  to  analyse  Homer  and  the  classical  legends. 
They  rationalised  them  by  removing  the  irrational 
elements,  and  naively  accepted  the  rest  as  history. 
The  historian  of  to-day  has  given  up  this  method  and 
simply  presents  the  classical  legends  in  the  shape  in 
which  they  were  current  in  old  Greece.  Legends  may 
be  unhistorical,  what  they  tell  may  never  have  hap- 
pened, yet  they  are  powerful  realities  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  nation.  They  may  be  even  more  powerful 
than  historical  events,  for  they  depict  ideals,  and  ideals 
possess  a  formative  faculty.  They  arouse  the  enthu- 
siasm of  youth  and  shape  man's  actions,  and  must 
therefore  be  regarded  as  among  the  most  potent  fac- 
tors in  practical  life. 

We  regard  the  rationalistic  treatment  of  Bible  sto- 
ries as  a  mistake,  yet  for  that  reason  we  do  not  accept 
the  opposite  view  of  the  intrinsic  irrationality  of  reli- 
gion. We  do  not  renounce  reason  ;  we  do  not  banish 
rational  thought  from  the  domain  of  religion.  Al- 
though we  regard  any  attempt  at  rationalising  reli- 
gious legends  as  a  grave  blunder,  we  are  nevertheless 
far  from  considering  reason  as  anti-religious.  On  the 
contrary,  we  look  upon  reason  as  the  spark  of  divinity 


4050 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


in  man.  Reason  is  that  faculty  by  virtue  of  which 
we  can  say  that  man  has  been  created  in  the  image  of 
God.  Without  reason  man  would  be  no  higher  than 
a  beast  of  the  field.  Without  rational  criticism  reli- 
gion would  be  superstition  pure  and  simple,  and  we 
demand  that  religion  must  never  come  in  conflict  with 
reason.  Religion  must  be  in  perfect  accord  with 
science  ;  it  must  never  come  into  collision  with  ra- 
tional thought.  Reason  after  all  remains  the  guiding- 
star  of  our  life.  Without  reason  our  existence  would 
be  shrouded  in  darkness. 

It  is  not  enough,  however,  to  let  religion  fill  our 
soul  with  holy  sentiments  and  penetrate  our  intellec- 
tualit)'.  Religion  must  dominate  our  entire  being  and 
find  expression  in  practical  life.  Our  religion  must  be 
the  ultimate  motive  of  all  our  actions :  thus  alone  can 
we  consecrate  our  lives  and  transfigure  our  existence  ; 
thus  alone  can  we  conquer  the  vanity  of  worldliness 
and  overcome  the  evils  of  life  ;  thus  alone  learn  to  re- 
joice in  the  midst  of  affliction  ;  and  thus  alone  can  we 
calmly  and  firmly  confront  death.  Our  rest  in  the 
grave  will  be  sweet  if  our  souls  can  look  back  upon  life 
without  regret  or  remorse,  if  they  have  the  conscious- 
ness that  with  all  our  faults  and  shortcomings  we  were 
always  animated  with  the  right  purpose  ;  that  under 
the  circumstances  we  always  did  our  best,  and  that  we 
remained  faithful  to  the  highest  purpose  of  our  most 
sacred  ideals. 

Religion  is  needed  not  so  much  in  our  churches  as 
in  the  homes  and  streets  of  our  cities.  Religion  does 
not  consist  in  joining  a  church,  and  making  people 
know  that  we  profess  religious  principles.  Joining  a 
church  is  a  means  to  an  end.  Worst  of  all  would  it 
be  to  use  religion  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  our 
credit  among  financiers.  Let  our  religion  appear  in 
our  life  and  let  our  actions  demonstrate  our  convic- 
tions. Religion  is  needed  not  on  Sundays  only,  but 
on  workdays  also,  not  for  worshipping  but  in  the  in- 
tercourse with  our  fellows,  in  the  relation  between 
husband  and  wife,  parents  and  children,  master  and 
servant,  employers  and  laborers,  buyers  and  sellers, 
in  the  offices  of  office-holders ;  in  a  word,  in  all  the 
duties  of  life.  Religion  must  become  practical ;  it  must 
be  realised  in  deeds  ;  and  the  blessing  of  a  religious 
man  will  not  only  go  out  into  the  world  and  contribute 
its  share  in  the  general  progress  of  mankind,  but  it 
will  also  return  to  himself  some  time,  perhaps  when 
he  least  expects  it. 

Religion,  if  it  be  a  real  power  applied  in  prac- 
tical life,  has  a  wonderful  faculty  of  preservatiejn. 
Even  the  lower  forms  of  religious  belief  which  are  still 
mingled  with  superstitious  elements,  afford  to  young 
men  and  young  women  an  extraordinary  strength;  they 
give  character  and  stability  to  their  whole  mental 
frame,  which  otherwise  they  might  lack.   Do  not,  there- 


fore, neglect  the  religious  side  of  education,  but  arouse 
the  interest  of  the  growing  generation  in  the  deepest 
problems  of  life.  Religion,  if  taken  seriously,  is  the 
centre  of  our  spiritual  existence  ;  as  the  religion  of  a 
man  is,  so  will  be  his  inclinations  and  his  purposes; 
and  again,  as  his  inclinations  and  purposes  are,  so  will 
be  his  destiny.  The  fate  of  a  man,  the  development 
of  his  life,  depends  in  the  first  instance  upon  his  reli- 
gion. The  absence  of  religion,  therefore,  is  a  great 
lack,  but  if  religion  be  a  mere  theory  or  an  empty  cer- 
emonial, it  is  wholly  inefficient,  even  as  if  it  had  no 
existence. 

The  ultimate  test  of  religion  after  all  does  not  lie 
in  the  satisfaction  and  comfort  we  derive  from  it,  nor 
can  it  be  found  in  the  purely  theoretical  criticism  of 
its  arguments,  but  must  be  sought  in  its  practical  ap- 
plication. That  religion  is  the  true  religion  which 
bears  fruit  and  brings  about  the  desired  results.  Our 
sentiments  must  maintain  the  right  attitude,  and  our 
comprehension  must  correctly  understand  the  nature 
of  life  ;  yet  our  religion  profiteth  nothing,  but  is  as 
sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal  unless  it  be  the 
mainspring  of  our  actions  and  find  a  realisation  in  our 
lives. 

We,  as  children  of  the  nineteenth  century  believe 
in  evolution.  Now,  let  our  belief  in  evolution  not  be 
a  mere  scientific  theory.  Let  it  be  a  truly  religious 
faith  in  the  possibility  of  moral  progress.  Let  us  not 
only  reject  the  special-creation  doctrine,  but  let  us 
trust  in  the  grand  potentialities  of  the  future.  Above 
all,  let  us  consider  that  religion  too  is  still  able  to  de- 
velop into  a  higher  and  purer  faith.  In  this  sense, 
we  repeat  the  poet's^  lines  on  the  progress  of  religion  : 

"  Upon  religion's  sacred  page 

The  gathered  beams  of  ages  shine ; 
And,  as  it  hastens,  every  age 
But  makes  its  brightness  more  divine. 

On  mightier  wing,  in  loftier  flight, 
From  year  to  year  does  knowledge  soar  ; 

And,  as  it  soars,  religious  light 
Adds  to  its  influence  more  and  more. 

More  glorious  still  as  centuries  roll 
New  regions  blest,  new  powers  unfurled. 

Expanding  with  the  expanding  soul, 
Its  waters  shall  o'erflow  the  world  : 

Flow  to  restore,  but  not  destroy  ; 

As  when  the  cloudless  lamp  of  day 
Pours  out  its  flood  of  light  and  joy. 

And  sweeps  each  lingering  mist  away." 

May  the  Spirit  of  Truth  descend  upon  our  souls, 
and  when  we  find  that  the  duties  of  life  demand  self- 
surrender,  let  us  strengthen  our  will  so  that  we  may 
shrink  not  from  what  appears  to  us  as  the  greatest  of 

1  This  hymn  on  "  The  Progress  of  Gospel  Truth  "  is  by  Sir  John  Bowring. 
It  was  apparently  intended  to  convey  another  idea  than  it  here  acquires  in  the 
connexion  in  which  it  is  quoted.  We  have  changed  the  words  '*  the  Gospel's 
sacred  page  "  and  "  the  Gospel  light  "  into  "  religion's  sacred  page  "  and  "  re- 
ligious light,"  so  as  to  indicate  that  we  believe,  not  so  much  in  the  spreading 
of  the  letter  of  the  Gospel,  as  in  its  progress,  viz,,  in  the  extensive  and  also 
intensive  growth  of  the  religious  spirit  of  the  Gospel. 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


4051 


sacrifices  but  press  on  to  attain  that  religious  attitude 
of  mind  which  fills  our  hearts  with  hallowed  joy  and 
imparts  to  us  bliss  everlasting.  p.  c. 


THE  ARENA  PROBLEM. 

BY  DR.    FELIX  L.   OSWALD. 

The  historian  of  moral  philosophy  can  derive  many 
instructive,  and  often  amusing,  commentaries  from 
the  records  of  a  time  when  our  ancestors  had  not  yet 
mastered  the  art  of  using  speech  as  a  mask  for  the 
concealment  of  their  thoughts. 

When  Joshua,  the  son  of  Nun,  decided  to  make 
war  upon  the  kingdom  of  Ai,  he  did  not  prate  about 
natural  boundaries  and  the  necessity  of  establishing  a 
balance  of  power,  but  frankly  stated  that  he  had  been 
inspired  to  possess  himself  of  the  king's  cattle ;  and 
with  a  similar  candor  Polycrates,  the  tyrant  of  Samos, 
specified  his  reason  for  suppressing  the  palestras,  or 
athletic  training-schools,  of  his  island.  He  did  not 
deny  the  importance  of  physical  exercise,  and  proba- 
bly permitted  his  subjects  to  train  in  private  gymna- 
siums, but  stated  that  he  considered  competitive  gym- 
nastics incompatible  with  that  meekness  of  character 
which  disposed  the  islanders  to  submit  to  his  rule. 

In  other  words,  the  ingenuous  pirate-king  reasoned 
that  the  worship  of  physical  prowess  tends  to  counter- 
act submissive  effeminacy,  and  should  therefore  not 
be  encouraged  by  a  despotism  founded  upon  the  sub- 
missiveness  of  its  victims. 

That  syllogism  furnishes  the  main  key  to  the 
enigma  of  the  thousand  years'  war  which  the  spirit 
of  asceticism  has  waged  against  the  culture  of  the 
manly  powers.  Experience  and  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation  convinced  them  that  the  duty  of  intel- 
lectual self-abasement  could  not  easily  be  enforced 
against  that  pride  of  self-reliance  and  independence 
engendered  by  the  enjoyment  of  physical  triumphs  and 
constantly  reacting  from  physical  upon  mental  ten- 
dencies. While  the  worn-out  nations  of  Southern 
Europe  had  accepted  the  gospel  of  renunciation  with 
the  eagerness  of  men  fleeing  from  a  forfeited  earthly 
paradise  to  the  promise  of  a  better  hereafter,  the  Sax- 
ons and  Norsemen  had  to  be  converted  with  battle-axe 
arguments  and  often  preferred  death  to  submission, 
or,  like  the  heroic  Visigoths,  metamorphosed  the  creed 
of  St.  Augustine  into  Arianism.  The  mediaeval  knights, 
in  their  mountain  strongholds,  too,  defied  the  power  of 
the  priests  almost  as  openly  as  the  Sumatra  Highland- 
chiefs  defy  the  summons  of  the  European  missiona- 
ries, and  it  is  no  accident  that  the  outbreak  of  the 
Protestant  revolt  was  confined  to  the  manful  nations 
of  Northern  Europe  and  a  few  communities  of  hunters 
and  herders  in  the  upper  Alps.  There  was  a  time 
when  the  orthodoxy  of  almost  every  country  of  the 
Christian  world  could  be  measured  by  the  physical  de- 


generation of  its  inhabitants, — the  extremes  being 
marked  by  the  saint-worship  of  the  effeminate  Byzan- 
tines and  the  semi-pagan  scepticism  of  the  iron-fisted 
Northmen;  and  the  priests  soon  learned  to  appreciate 
the  value  of  enervation  as  a  means  of  grace.  They 
lost  no  opportunity  for  depreciating  the  value  of  physi- 
cal exercise.  They  dissuaded  their  converts  from  visit- 
ing the  palestras,  and  struck  a  death-blow  at  the 
lingering  spirit  of  nature-worship  when  they  persuaded 
the  despot  Theodosius  to  suppress  the  celebration  of 
the  Olympic  Festivals. 

But  the  apostles  of  anti-naturalism  had  another 
reason  for  dreading  the  influence  of  physical  education. 
The  culture  of  physical  prowess  not  only  lessened  the 
chance  of  subduing  the  revolts  against  the  gospel  of 
renunciation,  but  directly  antagonised  the  propaganda 
of  one  of  its  root-dogmas  :  the  supposed  necessity  of 
sacrificing  the  joys  of  earth  to  the  hope  of  heaven. 

The  doctrine  of  that  dualism  that  contrasts  the  in- 
terests of  the  earthly  body  and  the  heaven- destined 
soul  explains  the  self-tortures  of  the  early  Christian 
devotees,  but  found  its  most  characteristic  assertion 
in  the  rules  of  several  monastic  orders  of  the  Middle 
Ages — rules  unmistakably  intended  to  undermine  the 
moral  and  physical  manhood  of  the  wretched  convent- 
slaves.  They  were  weakened  by  vigils  and  fasts  ;  they 
were  required  to  perform  preposterous  acts  of  self- 
abasement  ;  they  were  scourged  like  galley-slaves.  For 
centuries  novices  had  to  pass  through  an  ordeal  of  ill- 
treatment  that  broke  down  the  health  of  all  but  the 
hardiest,  while  ever}'  revival  of  vigor  was  checked  by  a 
system  of  periodical  bleedings.  The  name  of  antimony 
is  said  to  have  been  derived  from  the  custom  of  admin- 
istering the  virulent  drug  to  monks  whose  constitutions 
had  resisted  milder  prescriptions,  and  many  mediaeval 
abbots  of  the  austere  orders  mixed  the  scant  fare  of 
their  subordinates  with  wormwood,  to  obviate  the  risk 
of  the  dinner-hour  being  welcomed  as  an  intermission 
in  the  series  of  physical  afflictions. 

Few  tyrants  of  pagan  antiquity  would  have  dreamed 
of  aggravating  the  odium  of  their  despotism  by  such 
refinements  of  inhumanity,  but  the  mediaeval  hierarchs, 
besides  coveting  the  kingdom  of  the  earth,  considered  it 
their  duty  to  qualify  their  converts  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  by  making  their  bodies  the  scapegoats  of  their 
souls. 

Under  the  stimulus  of  that  two-edged  motive,  the 
Church  has  often  persecuted  the  promoters  of  arena- 
sports  with  a  rancor  rarely  shown  in  their  opposition 
to  war  or  the  most  inhuman  forms  of  slavery  and  des- 
potism. The  same  priesthood  that  instigated  the  man- 
hunts of  the  Crusades,  denounced  tourneys,  and  a  re- 
markable paragraph  of  the  Canonical  Statutes  warns 
confessors  against  absolving  hunters  without  imposing 
special  penalties,  and  adds :   "Esau  was  a  huntsman 


4052 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


because  he  was  a  sinner"  (Esau  venator,  quonium 
pecator  erat,  et  qui  venatoribus  donant  non  homini 
donant,  sed  arti  nequissimas  !) 

The  same  Puritans  who  howled  up  the  murderous 
wars  of  the  Cromwell  era,  howled  down  May- day 
sports  ;  and  numerous  moralists  who  connived  at  sla- 
very, fiercely  denounced  boxing-matches  and  cock- 
fights. 

The  suppression  of  athletic  sports  has  for  thousands 
of  our  fellow-citizens  made  city-life  a  synonym  of  physi- 
cal degeneration.  The  lack  of  better  pastimes,  rather 
than  innate  depravity,  has  driven  millions  to  the  rum- 
shops,  and  explains  such  moral  portents  as  the  White 
Cap  epidemics  and  the  organisation  of  burglar  syndi- 
cates among  the  schoolboys  of  our  f««///-ridden  Amer- 
ican country  towns. 

And  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  same  cause  tends  to 
defeat  the  efforts  of  our  metropolitan  home-missiona- 
ries. "  Every  one, "  says  Lecky,  "who  considers  the 
world  as  it  really  exists,  must  have  convinced  himself 
that  in  great  cities,  where  multitudes  of  men  of  all 
classes  and  all  characters  are  massed  together,  and 
where  there  are  innumerable  strangers,  separated  from 
all  domestic  ties  and  occupations,  public  amusements 
of  an  exciting  order  are  absolutely  necessary,  and  that 
to  suppress  them  is  simply  to  plunge  an  immense  por- 
tion of  the  population  into  the  lowest  depths  of  vice." 

In  other  ways,  too,  the  attempt  to  prevent  the 
manifestations  of  natural  instincts  is  apt  to  defeat  its 
own  purpose,  and  only  a  few  days  ago  a  shrewd  ob- 
server of  the  contest  between  the  friends  and  oppo- 
nents of  a  southern  sporting-club  remarked  that  "the 
manner  of  conducting  such  crusades  only  tends  to 
make  the  cause  of  their  leaders  odious,  by  teaching 
thousands  to  associate  the  name  of  the  Law  and  Order 
League  with  the  ideas  of  hypocrisy  and  Puritanical 
intolerance.  Imagine  the  private  comments  of  old 
sport-loving  soldiers  who  are  called  upon  to  'fortify 
the  State  frontiers'  and  '  enforce  the  peace,' against 
two  individuals,  whose  trial  of  strength,  skill,  and  en- 
durance implies  no  possible  injury  to  third  parties, 
and  who  are  perfectly  willing  to  abide  the  consequences 
of  all  personal  risks." 

There  is  even  something  pathetic  in  the  enthusiasm 
which  gathers  about  such  pitiful  caricatures  of  the 
Grecian  palestra,  and,  as  it  were,  draws  inspiration 
from  a  faint  echo  of  the  Olympic  Festivals — suggest- 
ing the  regenerative  potency  of  a  more  plenary  revival. 

It  would,  indeed,  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the 
arena  problem  could  be  settled  by  debating- club  duels 
between  an  orthodox  Sunday-school  teacher  and  an 
orator  of  the  London  Prize  Ring.  In  North  America, 
as  well  as  in  England,  the  settlement  of  the  question 
involves  a  tripartite  controversy  between  the  exponents 
of  aggressive  asceticism,  jovial  secularism,  and  philan- 


thropic reform.  The  representative  of  the  Neo-Puri- 
tans  will  dread  a  revival  of  physical  hero-worship,  and 
consider  an  international  prize-fight  an  unmixed  evil. 
The  graduate  of  the  Madison  Garden  Academy  will 
consider  it  an  unqualified  blessing  and  pity  the  monk- 
ish infatuation  of  those  who  cannot  enjoy  it  with  all 
its  adjuncts  of  brandy-fumes  and  tobacco-smoke.  The 
advocate  of  physical  regeneration  will  honor  the  re- 
vived spirit  of  athletic  enthusiasm  even  in  its  perverted 
form,  and  without  justifying  the  extravaganzas  of  its 
participants,  consider  the  transaction  as,  on  the  whole, 
a  lesser  evil. 

Boxing  ranked  third  among  the  five  chief  exercises, 
\.\-\&  pentathlon  of  Olympia,  and  owes  its  present  pres- 
tige of  popularity  partly  to  its  combination  with  wres- 
tling (which  makes  it,  indeed,  a  decisive,  though  rough, 
test  of  strength  and  agilitj')  but  chiefly  to  the  fact  that 
it  can  be  carried  on  in  a  barn  or  on  a  raft,  as  well  as 
on  the  village  green,  and  can  thus  defy  interference 
more  easily  than  May-pole  climbing  and  foot-racing, 
which  fell  likewise  under  the  veto  of  the  Puritan  bigots. 

The  competitive  gymnastics  of  the  future  will  turn 
hundreds  of  boy-topers  into  young  athletes.  They  will 
sweeten  the  dry  bread  of  drudgery  with  an  enthusiasm 
which  for  countless  thousands  will  make  life  worth 
living,  and  their  promoters  will  have  earned  the  right 
to  lecture  the  masses  on  the  expedience  of  purging 
their  arena  from  the  element  of  rowdyism. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  it  would  be  a  fair  com- 
promise to  tolerate  the  patronage  of  the  boxing- ring — 
not  as  an  irrepressible  relic  of  barbarism,  but  as  a 
preliminary  step  in  the  direction  of  that  comprehen- 
sive reform  that  shall  recognise  the  interdependence 
of  moral  and  physical  vigor. 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 


For  a  long  time  we  have  looked  upon  Dogberry  and  Shallow 
as  caricatures  drawn  by  Shakespeare  when  he  was  in  a  reckless, 
rollicking  mood  ;  and  yet  we  behold  their  living  repetitions  in  our 
court-rooms  every  day.  A  very  good  imitation  of  Dogberry  is  Mr. 
Justice  Kimball  of  Washington,  who  lately  ordered  the  watch  to 
"comprehend  all  vagrom  men,"  and  when  the  vagabonds  were 
brought  before  him,  talked  at  them  in  the  authentic  Dogberry 
style.  The  "  vagrom  men  "  were  Capt.  G.  W.  Primrose  and  forty 
invaders,  who,  under  the  name  of  Coxey's  "advance  guard," 
threatened  the  capital,  but  fortunately  were  taken  prisoners  just 
outside  the  picket  lines  of  Washington  through  the  valor  of  Kim- 
ball's men.  After  the  "vagrom  men"  had  been  illegally  impris- 
oned from  Saturday  until  Tuesday,  they  were  brought  before 
Judge  Kimball  and  discharged,  because  they  had  been  arrested 
beyond  the  city  boundaries  and  outside  the  jurisdiction  of  the  city 
magistrates.  They  were  brought  into  the  city  by  the  police,  and 
then  imprisoned  for  being  in  the  city,  which  was  very  much  ac- 
cording to  Dogberry  law.  In  his  decree,  the  Judge  decided  that 
Captain  Primrose  and  his  men  were  tramps,  that  they  were  guilty 
of  tramping,  and  he  then  rather  inconsistently  sentenced  them  to 
tramp.  He  released  them  only  on  condition  that  they  should  at 
once  seek  employment,  and  failing  to  find  it  within  a  reasonable 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4053 


time,  "leave  the  city."  When  a  magistrate  sentences  a  destitute 
man  to  "leave  the  city,"  he  sentences  him  to  tramp,  and  as  soon 
as  the  prisoner  begins  to  work  out  his  sentence  by  tramping  he  is 
liable  to  be  arrested  for  that,  and  punished  by  imprisonment,  or 
by  the  chain-gang  torture,  or  in  some  other  civilised  and  enlight- 
ened way.  Wherever  the  wanderer  halts  for  a  moment's  rest,  he 
finds  the  magisterial  Dogberry,  and  hears  the  ceaseless  monotone, 
"  Move  on." 

From  the  Capitoline  hill  comes  the  "all  quiet  on  the  Poto- 
mac" message  that  we  heard  in  (he  days  of  old.  Coxey's  army  is 
many  miles  away,  and  before  it  crosses  the  Maryland  line  Wash- 
ington will  be  safe,  especially  as  the  invading  army  has  no  guns. 
Unterrified  by  the  martial  renown  of  General  Coxey  and  his  rag- 
ged legions,  now  scaling  the  Alleghany  Mountains  as  Hannibal 
scaled  the  Alps,  the  defenders  of  Washington  are  already  in  the 
field,  and  eager  for  the  fray.  According  to  the  dispatches  dated 
April  9,  I  find  that  besides  Dogberry  and  the  watch,  "  the  district 
militia  is  making  preparations  to  meet  Coxey  and  his  army.  The 
militia  has  been  undergoing  special  drill  at  intervals  for  the  past 
two  weeks,  and  several  of  the  companies  have  been  suddenly  called 
out  by  their  officers  just  as  they  might  be  summoned  to  put  down 
a  riot  or  repel  an  invasion."  I  suppose  this  drill  is  the  beating  of 
a  counterfeit  "long  roll,"  a  very  exciting  call  to  arms,  but  not 
quite  so  stimulating  as  the  genuine  article  that  used  to  make  our 
pulses  tingle  thirty  years  ago.  The  nation  is  not  afraid  of  Eng- 
land, Russia,  France,  or  Coxey  now,  for  the  district  militia  at 
Washington  is  ready  to  "repel  an  invasion";  although  it  seems 
they  will  not  be  relied  on  altogether,  for  we  are  further  told  that, 
"if  the  district  militia  is  insufficient,  there  are  four  troops  of  cav- 
alry at  Fort  Myer,  a  large  force  of  marines  at  the  barracks  near 
the  navy-yard,  and  a  battery  of  artillery  at  the  arsenal."  Besides, 
there  are  the  members  of  Congress,  who  could  be  drafted  into  the 
service,  and  a  few  speeches  from  them  would  scatter  Coxey's  array 
quicker  than  cavalry,  artillery,  militia,  or  marines.  Those  vast 
military  preparations  to  "break  a  fly  upon  the  wheel"  will  very 
likely  frighten  General  Coxey,  and  I  shall  not  be  surprised  to  learn 
that  he  has  ordered  a  retreat,  and  fallen  back  upon  the  moun- 
tains. 


Among  the  musical  and  stately  phrases  that  captivate  our 
senses  and  subdue  us  to  humility,  one  of  the  most  awe-creating  in 
its  majesty  is,  "  The  independence  of  the  judiciary."  Whatever 
liberties  the  judges  take  with  liberty  must  be  sustained,  because 
the  "independence  of  the  judiciary"  must  be  preserved.  No 
matter  what  fantastic  tyranny  may  be  enacted  in  judgments,  or- 
ders, injunctions,  or  decrees,  criticism  is  to  be  stricken  dumb  lest 
the  "independence  of  the  judiciary"  suffer.  Although  the  pri- 
vate citizen  may  be  judicially  tormented  by  decisions  erroneous 
and  unjust,  censure  must  be  suppressed  in  order  that  "the  inde- 
pendence of  the  judiciary  "  may  stand  above  the  law.  To  sustain 
the  independence  of  the  judges,  is  it  necessary  that  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  people  be  destroyed  ?  Must  the  citizens  be  servile 
and  silent  that  the  judges  may  be  free?  A  few  years  ago  a  sus- 
pected official  in  the  postoffice,  when  requested  by  a  government 
examiner  to  show  his  books,  indignantly  refused,  because  he 
thought  that  such  examinations  were  an  assault  upon  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Postoffice  Department;  and  this  is  very  nearly  the 
answer  given  by  Mr.  Spooner  before  the  committee  of  Congress 
appointed  to  investigate  the  official  conduct  of  Judge  Jenkins  in 
issuing  an  injunction  against  the  workmen  of  the  North  Pacific 
Railroad.  ' '  I  believe, "  said  Mr.  Spooner,  ' '  that  these  investigations 
will  destroy  the  independence  of  the  judiciary."  This  plea  for  ju- 
dicial immunity  and  infallibility  is  bad,  because  the  independence 
of  the  judiciary  is  limited  bylaw  ;  and  Mr.  Spooner  might  as  well 


say  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  destroys  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  judiciary  because  it  provides  for  the  impeachment  and 
trial  of  judges  accused  of  crimes  and  misdemeanors.  The  power  of 
impeachment  is  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  when  charges 
are  made  against  one  of  the  judges  by  a  member  of  that  house,  it 
is  eminently  proper  that  a  committee  of  investigation  should  re- 
port whether  or  not  the  facts  in  the  case  warrant  an  impeachment. 
The  Constitution  is  a  check,  not  upon  the  independence,  but  upon 
the  imperialism  of  the  courts,  and  it  is  a  perpetual  warning  to  the 
judges  that  they  are  not  above  the  law. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  action  of  Judge  Jenkins  in  firing 
those  combustible  injuncticns  at  the  railroad  laborers,  has  aroused 
a  sentiment  of  revenge  in  the  minds  of  other  workingmen  ;  and 
they  may  issue  some  injunctions  now  as  reprehensible  as  those  that 
have  given  Judge  Jenkins  uncomfortable  fame.  In  fact,  there 
seems  to  be  little  moral  difference  between  an  injunction  that  or- 
ders men  to  stay  at  work  and  one  that  orders  them  to  quit.  One 
niay  be  issued  by  a  lawyer  judge  and  the  other  by  a  labor  judge, 
but  the  moral  character  of  both  injunctions  is  the  same  ;  they 
strike  at  liberty.  The  Jenkins  law  was  drawn  from  the  code  of 
serfdom;  and  the  "labor  vote"  in  its  anger  may  demand  the  im- 
peachment of  the  judge,  but  errors  of  law  or  judgment  will  not 
justify  impeachment  ;  and  there  was  no  evidence  of  corruption  or 
wilful  wrong.  Five  hundred  years  ago  in  England,  there  existed 
a  perpetual  injunction  forbidding  laborers  to  strike,  or  to  leave 
their  masters,  and  serfdom  was  its  political  result.  In  our  own 
day,  and  in  our  own  country,  a  similar  injunction  was  in  force 
against  the  black  laborers  of  the  South,  and  slavery  was  the  sign 
of  that.  Disobedience  of  an"  injunction,  is  the  offence  known  as 
"contempt  of  court,"  punished  by  imprisonment  and  fine,  but  as 
workingmen  have  no  money  to  pay  fines,  they  must  if  they  dis- 
obey an  injunction,  be  sentenced  to  a  term  in  prison.  This  plan, 
if  attempted,  will  cause  a  great  deal  of  social  confusion,  because 
there  are  not  policemen  enough  to  arrest  the  offenders  nor  prisons 
enough  to  hold  them.  The  rulings  of  Judge  Jenkins  make  the 
"labor  problem  "  harder  than  it  was ;  and  it  was  hard  enough  be- 
fore. 

*  -X- 

When  we  are  driven  by  legal  compulsion  to  perform  a  duty 
that  we  desire  to  evade,  we  feel  the  pressure  as  a  tyranny,  and  we 
resist  it  if  we  can  ;  but  when  we  are  driven  by  moral  compulsion 
to  do  something  that  we  ought  to  do,  we  find  that  the  despotism  of 
conscience  is  irresistible,  and  we  submit  to  its  writs  of  injunction 
without  any  feeling  of  rebellion  in  our  souls.  At  the  present  mo- 
ment the  United  States  Government  is  confident  that  it  is  under 
no  legal  obligation  to  pay  the  French  exhibitors  for  the  loss  of 
their  goods  destroyed  by  fire  in  the  manufactures  building  after 
the  closing  of  the  World's  Fair  ;  and  yet  it  is  mevitable  that  the 
United  States  will  be  driven  by  moral  compulsion  to  pay  that  bill. 
The  fact  of  the  loss  by  fire  seems  to  be  admitted,  and  there  is  no 
dispute  concerning  the  value  of  the  property  destroyed,  about 
ninety  thousand  dollars,  but  the  officers  of  the  Fair  say  they  are 
not  responsible  for  the  loss  because  it  was  expressly  "nominated 
in  the  bond  "  that  exhibitors  insure  their  own  goods.  To  this  the 
Frenchmen  answer  that  the  stipulation  applied  only  to  the  time 
when  the  Fair  was  in  existence,  and  that  after  the  Fair  closed  they 
were  prevented  by  the  negligence  of  the  directors  from  promptly 
removing  their  goods,  and  as  it  was  during  this  delay  that  the  fire 
occurred  the  Exposition  is  liable  for  the  loss,  and  the  United  States 
Government  is  liable  for  the  Exposition.  The  links  in  this  chain 
of  reasoning  appear  to  be  sound,  as  it  was  the  American  Govern- 
ment that  invited  the  Frenchmen  to  bring  their  goods  to  Chicago. 
It  is  true  that  Mr.  Sayres,  the  chairman  of  the  committee  on  ap- 
propriations, and  Mr.  Holman,  "  the  watch  dog  of  the  treasury," 


4054 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


with  several  other  members  of  Congress,  have  declared  against  the 
claim  because  the  United  States  is  not  liable  for  these  damages, 
and  if  this  were  a  matter  of  legal  compulsion  their  position  would 
be  stronger  than  Gibraltar,  but  moral  compulsion  is  a  more  tyran- 
nical master,  and  driven  by  that  the  United  States  will  pay  the 
Frenchmen's  bill. 

*  * 

A  financial  statesman  in  Indiana  who  desires  to  relieve  the 
tension  in  the  money  market  and  make  the  volume  of  currency 
equal  to  the  wants  of  trade  proposes  that  the  Government  shall 
do  it  by  issuing  six  hundred  million  dollars  in  legal  tender  notes, 
or  twice  as  much  if  necessary,  and  rely  upon  the  old  pensioners  to 
' '  get  it  into  circulation  "  so  as  to  start  the  wheels  of  business,  move 
the  crops,  lift  the  mortgage,  settle  balances,  abolish  interest,  re- 
store confidence,  and  make  money  so  plentiful  and  cheap  that  when 
anybody  wants  to  borrow  fifty  or  a  hundred  dollars  from  a  neigh- 
bor he  can  get  it  as  easily  as  he  can  get  the  loan  of  a  sack.  In  or- 
der that  the  money  may  be  scattered  impartially  throughout  the 
several  States,  instead  of  being  hoarded  by  the  banks,  every  pen- 
sioner is  to  get  a  thousand  dollars  of  it,  and  in  consideration  of 
that  lump  sum  he  is  to  release  the  Government  by  quit  claim  deed 
from  all  further  obligations  to  him  for  putting  down  the  rebellion. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  practical  financial  schemes  that  has  been 
born  of  late,  for  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  old  soldiers  will  cheer- 
fully accept  the  money;  and  it  is  equally  certain  that  they  will  put 
it  into  circulation  if  they  can  buy  anything  with  it,  and  as  to  this 
part  of  the  plan  a  suspicion  is  growing  in  the  military  mind,  be- 
cause although  those  paper  dollars  will  be  legal  tender  in  payment 
of  debts  they  will  not  be  legal  tender  in  the  purchase  of  goods,  for 
this  is  a  prerogative  beyond  the  fiat  power  of  governments  to  be- 
stow upon  anything.  "We  may  ridicule  the  financial  superstitions 
of  this  reformer  but  they  are  not  more  fantastic  or  impossible  than 
many  of  the  remedies  prescribed  by  doctors  of  money  in  the  cab- 
inet, in  the  Senate,  and  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 

As  an  additional  punishment  for  our  national  sins  a  new  pest 
called  the  Russian  thistle  is  ravaging  the  fields  of  the  great  North- 
west. Its  capacity  for  mischief  appears  to  be  unlimited,  and  Mr. 
Hansbrough,  a  member  of  Congress  from  the  afflicted  region, 
' '  wants  to  have  a  law  passed  "  for  the  e.xtermination  of  the  thistle. 
To  that  end  he  has  introduced  a  bill  appropriating  a  million  dol- 
lars for  the  purpose  of  weeding  out  the  nuisance  that  has  been  im- 
ported free  of  duty  from  the  Russian  plains.  As  soon  as  the  bill 
was  introduced,  patriots  willing  and  strong  as  the  thistle  itself 
sprung  up  to  claim  a  share  of  the  money  under  the  pretence  of 
"weeding  out"  the  thistle.  One  of  these,  a  citizen  of  Iowa,  has 
made  application  to  Mr.  Sterling  Morton  the  Secretary  of  Agricul-. 
ture  for  the  office  of  Chief  Exterminator  of  the  Russian  thistle  for 
the  State  of  Iowa,  and  the  Secretary  in  reply  gave  the  applicant  a 
very  good  lesson  in  ethical  and  political  economy.  With  sarcasm 
sharper  than  the  sting  of  a  thistle  Mr.  Morton  said,  ' '  I  must  thank 
you  for  the  patriotic  frankness  with  which  you  remark,  referring 
to  thistles:  'They  are  spreading  fast  but  we  dp  not  want  to  kill 
them  out  before  the  Government  is  ready  to  pay  us  for  the  work, 
or  to  send  some  one  to  do  it  for  us.'  Nothing  could  better  demon- 
strate your  peculiar  fitness  and  adaptation  for  the  position  of  Chief 
Russian  Thistle  Exterminator  for  the  Northwest."  Such  are  the 
benefits  of  a  motherly  Government.  It  pampers  its  children  until 
they  lose  the  spirit  of  self-reliance,  and  they  never  get  old  enough 
to  wean.  They  would  rather  let  the  thistle  grow  than  weed  it  out 
without  pay  from  the  national  treasury.  In  fact  they  are  already 
threatening  to  let  the  thistle  spread,  and  then  throw  the  blame  for 
it  upon  the  Government  ;  as  the  little  boy  frightened  his  mother 
into  obedience  by  threatening  that  if  she  did  not  give  him  candy 
he  would  go  and  get  the  measles,  falsely  pretending  at  the  same 
time  that  he  knew  a  boy  who  had  measles  enough  to  supply  all 


the  other  boys  in  town.  Spirited  citizens  like  that  applicant  from 
Iowa,  say  to  their  mother,  the  Government,  "  Give  us  a  million 
dollars.ior  else  we  will  go  and  get  the  Russian  thistle  and  plant  it 
on  our  farms." 

M.  M.  Trumbull. 

The  Monist 

A  QUARTERLY  MAGAZINE 

EdU,^.-  DR.  PAUL  CARUS.  AsscciaUs:  \  ^S^^CARUs""^"''^'' 

CONTENTS  OF  VOL.    IV,    NO.    3: 

PAGE 

Three  Aspects  of  Monism. 

PROF.  C.  LLOYD  MORGAN,  Bristol,  England.  -  -  331 

The  Parliament  of  Religions. 

GEN.  M.  M.  TRUMBULL,  Chicago.       -  .  -  .  333 

Modern  Physiology. 

PROF.  MAX  VERWORN,  Jena,  Germany.  -  -  -         355 

Kant's  Doctrine  of  the  Schemata. 

H.  H.  WILLIAMS,  University  of  North  Carolina.  -  375 

The  E.xemption  of  Women  From  Labor. 

LESTER  F.  WARD,  Washington,  D.  C.      -  -  -  -  385 

Notion  and  Definition  of  Number. 

PROF.  HERMANN  SCHUBERT,  Hamburg,  Germany.         -  396 

Ethics  and  the  Cosmic  Order. 

EDITOR.    ---------  403 

Karma  AND  Nirvana. 

EDITOR.  - 417 

Literary  Correspondence.     France. 

LUCIEN  ARREAT.         -.-----  439 

Criticisms  and  Discussions. 

Logic  as  Relation  Lore.     Rejoinder  to  M.  Mouret.     F.  C.  Russell.       447 
Book  Reviews. 
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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  347. 

JUBILATE:  A  Sermon  Delivered  on  Sunday,  April   15,  at 

Unity  Church,  Chicago.     Editor 4047 

THE  ARENA  PROBLEM.     Dr.  F.  L.  Oswald 4051 

CURRENT  TOPICS  ;  Sentenced  to  Tramp.  The  Defence 
of  Washington.  Independence  of  the  Judiciary.  The 
Jenkins  Injunction.  The  Tyranny  of  Moral  Compul- 
sion. Commuting  Pensions.  The  Russian  Thistle. 
Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull 4052 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "VSTEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  348.     (Vol.  VIII.— 17.) 


CHICAGO,  APRIL  26,  1894. 


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THE  WILL  1 


BY  PROFESSOR  TH.  RIBOT. 


After  having  followed  step  by  step  the  dissolution 
of  the  will,  the  fundamental  result  which  has  appeared 
to  us  to  spring  from  it  is  that  it  is  in  a  co-ordination 
variable  in  complexity  and  degree ;  that  this  co-ordi- 
nation is  the  condition  of  the  existence  of  all  volition, 
and  that,  according  as  it  is  totally  or  partially  de- 
stroyed, volition  is  annihilated  or  impaired.  It  is  upon 
this  result  that  we  would  now  like  to  insist,  confining 
ourselves  to  brief  indications  on  certain  points,  as  it 
is  not  our  aim  to  write  a  monograph  of  the  will. 

i)  Let  us  examine  in  the  first  place  the  material 
conditions  of  this  co-ordination.  The  will,  which  in 
some  privileged  persons  attains  a  power  so  extraordi- 
nary and  does  such  great  things,  has  a  very  humble 
origin.  This  is  found  in  that  biological  property  in- 
herent in  all  living  matter  and  known  as  irritability, 
that  is  to  say,  reaction  against  external  forces.  Irrita- 
bility— the  physiological  form  of  the  law  of  inertia — 
is  in  somewise  a  state  of  primordial  indifferentiation 
whence  shall  spring,  by  an  ulterior  differentiation,  sen- 
sibility properly  so  called  and  motility,  those  two  great 
bases  of  psychic  life. 

Let  us  remember  that  motility  (which  alone  con- 
cerns us  here)  manifests  itself,  even  in  the  vegetable 
kingdom,  under  divers  forms  :  by  the  movements  of 
certain  spores,  of  the  sensitive  plant,  of  the  Dionaa, 
and  of  many  other  plants  to  which  Darwin  has  devoted 
a  well-known  work. — The  protoplasmic  mass,  homo- 
geneous in  appearance,  of  whichi  .certain  rudimentary 
beings  are  exclusively  composed,  is  endowed  with  mo- 
tility. The  amceba  and  the  white  corpuscle  of  the 
blood  move  ahead  little  by  little  by  the  aid  of  the  pro- 
cesses which  they  emit.  These  facts,  which  may  be 
found  described  in  abundance  in  special  works,  show 
us  that  motility  appears  long  before  the  muscles  and 
the  nervous  system,  even  in  their  most  rudimentary 
form. 

We  need  not  follow  the  evolution  of  these  two  in- 
struments of  improvement  through  the  animal  series. 
Let  us  merelj'  note  that  the  researches  on  the  localisa- 
tion of  the  motor  centres,  so  important  in  the  mecha- 


nism of  the  will,  have  led  some  savants  to  study  the 
state  of  these  centres  in  the  newly  born.  "This  in- 
vestigation, very  carefully  made  by  Soltmann,  in  1875, 
has  furnished  the  following  results.  In  rabbits  and 
dogs  there  exists  immediately  after  birth  no  point  in 
the  cerebral  cortex  the  electric  irritation  of  which  is 
capable  of  producing  movement.  It  is  only  on  the 
tenth  day  that  the  centres  for  the  anterior  members 
develop.  On  the  thirteenth  day  the  centres  for  the 
posterior  members  appear.  On  the  sixteenth,  these 
centres  are  already  quite  distinct  from  each  other 
and  from  those  of  the  face.  One  conclusion  to  be 
drawn  from  these  results  is,  that  the  absence  of  volun- 
tary motor  direction  coincides  with  the  absence  of  the 
appropriate  organs,  and  that,  in  measure  as  the  ani- 
mal becomes  more  master  of  its  movements,  the  cere- 
bral centres  in  which  the  elaboration  of  will  takes 
place  acquire  a  more  manifest  independence.  1 

Flechsig  and  Parrot  have  studied  the  development 
of  the  encephalon  in  the  fcetus  and  the  infant.  From 
the  researches  of  the  latter  ^  it  appears  that,  if  one  fol- 
lows the  development  of  the  white  matter  of  an  entire 
hemisphere,  it  can  be  seen  to  rise  successively  from  the 
peduncle  to  the  optic  thalami,  then  to  the  internal  cap- 
sule, to  the  hemispheric  centre,  and  finally  to  the  cere- 
bral mantle.  So  those  parts  whose  development  is  the 
slowest  have  the  highest  functional  destiny. 

The  formative  period  passed,  the  mechanism  of 
volitional  action  appears  to  be  constituted  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner  :  the  incitation  starts  from  the  regions 
of  the  cortical  layer  called  motor  (parieto-frontal  re- 
gion), and  follows  the  pyramidal  fasciculus,  called  vol- 
untary by  some  authors.  This  fasciculus,  which  consists 
in  the  grouping  of  all  the  fibres  arising  in  the  motor 
convolutions,  descends  across  the  oval  centre,  forms  a 
small  part  of  the  internal  capsule,  which,  as  we  know, 
penetrates  into  the  corpus  striatum,  "like  a  wedge 
into  a  piece  of  wood."  This  fasciculus  follows  the 
cerebral  peduncle  and  the  medulla,  where  it  undergoes 
a  more  or  less  complete  decussation,  and  passes  down 
the  opposite  side  of  the  spinal  cord,  thus  constituting 
a  great  commissure  between  the  motor  convolutions 

■cdicales,  Fran^ois-Franck,  ar- 


\  Second  extract  from  our  ne 
Ki  o/the  Will,  just  published. 


uthorised  translation  of  M.  Ribot's/?/- 


1  Diciionnaire  encyclopcdique  1 
tide  "Nerveux,"  p.  585. 

2  Archives  de  pkysiolo^e,  1879,  pp.  505-520. 


4056 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


and  the  grey  matter  of  the  cord  from  which  the  motor 
nerves  are  given  out.^  This  rough  sketch  gives  some 
idea  of  the  complexity  of  the  elements  requisite  for 
volitional  action  and  the  intimate  solidarity  which 
unites  them. 

There  are,  unfortunately,  some  differences  of  inter- 
pretation regarding  the  real  nature  of  the  cerebral  cen- 
tres whence  the  incitation  starts.  To  Ferrier  and  many 
others  they  are  motor  centres,  in  the  strict  sense  ;  that 
is  to  say,  that  in  them  and  by  them  the  movement 
commences.  Schiff,  Hitzig  and  Nothnagel,  Charlton 
Bastian,  and  Munk  have  given  other  interpretations 
which  are  neither  equally  probable  nor  equally  clear. 
In  general,  however,  they  amount  to  a  regarding  of 
these  centres  as  rather  of  "  a  sensory  nature,"  the  mo- 
tor function  proper  being  relegated  to  the  striated 
bodies.  "  The  nervous  fibres  that  descend  from  the 
cerebral  cortex,  in  higher  animals  and  in  man,  down 
to  the  corpora  striata,  are  in  their  nature  strictly  com- 
parable with  the  fibres  connecting  the  '  sensory '  and 
the  'motor'  cells  in  an  ordinary  nervous  mechanism 
for  reflex  action."^  In  other  words,  there  are  sup- 
posed to  exist  in  the  cerebral  cortex  "circumscribed 
regions  the  experimental  excitation  of  which  produces 
in  the  opposite  side  of  the  body  determinate  localised 
movements.  These  points  seem  as  if  they  should 
much  rather  be  considered  as  centres  of  volutitary  asso- 
ciation than  as  motor  centres,  properly  so  called.  They 
would  in  this  view  be  the  seat  of  incitements  to  volun- 
tary movements  and  not  the  true  points  of  departure 
of  the  motion.  They  ought  rather  to  be  assimilated  to 
the  peripheral  organs  of  sense  than  to  the  motor  appa- 
ratus of  the  anterior  cornua  of  the  medulla.  .  .  .  These 
centres  would  then  be  psycho-motor,  because  by  their 
purely  psychic  action  they  command  veritable  motor 
apparatus.  .  .  .  We  believe  that  the  different  points 
indicated  as  motor  centres  for  the  members,  the  face, 
etc.,  correspond  to  the  apparatus  which  receive  and 
transform  into  voluntary  incitation  the  sensations  of 
peripheral  origin.  They  would  thus  be  volitional  cen- 
tres and  not  true  motor  ones.  "^ 

Notwithstanding  this  pending  question,  the  solu- 
tion of  which  concerns  psychology  at  least  as  much  as 
physiology,  and  in  spite  of  disagreements  in  detail  that 
we  have  neglected,  especially  the  uncertainties  regard- 
ing the  function  of  the  cerebellum,  we  may  say  with 
Charlton  Bastian  that,  "if  since  Hume's  time  we  have 
not  learned  in  any  full  sense  of  the  term  'the  means  by 
which  the  motion  of  our  bodies  follows  upon  the  com- 
mand of  our  will,'  we  have  at  least  learned  something  as 


IHuguenin,  Anaiontie  des  centres  nerveux,  (translated  from  the  German 
by  Keller).  Brissaud,  De  la  contracture  permancnte  des  hemiplegigues,  1880,  p. 
9,  et  seq. 

2  Charlton  Bastian,  Brain  as  an  Organ  of  the  Mind,  chapter  xxvi. 

3Fran5ois-Franck,  loo.  cit.,  pp.  577,  578. 


to  the  parts  chiefly  concerned,  and  thus  as  to  the  paths 
traversed  by  volitional  stimuli.  "^ 

2)  In  examining  the  question  on  its  psychological 
side,  volitional  co-ordination  assumes  so  many  forms 
and  is  susceptible  of  so  many  gradations  that  only  its 
principal  stages  can  be  noticed.  It  would  be  natural 
to  begin  with  the  lowest ;  but  I  think  it  useful,  for  the 
sake  of  clearness,  to  follow  the  inverse  order. 

The  most  perfect  co-ordination  is  that  of  the  high- 
est wills,  of  the  great  men  of  action,  whatever  be  the 
order  of  their  activity:  Caesar,  or  Michael  Angelo,  or 
St.  Vincent  de  Paul.  It  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few 
words  :  unity,  stability,  power.  The  exterior  unity  of 
their  life  is  in  the  unity  of  their  aim,  always  pursued, 
creating  according  to  circumstances  new  co-ordina- 
tions and  adaptations.  But  this  outer  unity  is  itself 
only  the  expression  of  an  interior  unity,  that  of  their 
character.  It  is  because  they  remain  the  same  that 
their  end  remains  the  same.  Their  fundamental  ele- 
ment is  a  mighty,  inextinguishable  passion  which  en- 
lists their  ideas  in  its  service.  This  passion  is  them- 
selves ;  it  is  the  psychic  expression  of  their  constitu- 
tion as  nature  has  made  it.  So  all  that  lies  outside  of 
this  co-ordination,  how  it  remains  in  the  shade,  ineffica- 
cious, sterile,  forgotten,  like  a  parasitic  vegetation  ! 
They  present  the  type  of  a  life  always  in  harmony  with 
itself,  because  in  them  everything  conspires  together, 
converges,  and  consents.  Even  in  ordinary  life  these 
characters  are  met  with,  without  making  themselves 
spoken  of,  because  the  elevation  of  aim,  the  circum- 
stances, and  especially  the  strength  of  the  passion,  have 
been  lacking  to  them  ;  they  have  preserved  only  its 
stability. — In  another  way,  the  great  historic  stoics, 
Epictetus,  Thraseas,  (I  do  not  speak  of  their  Sage,  who 
is  only  an  abstract  ideal,)  have  realised  this  superior 
type  of  will  under  its  negative  form, — inhibition, — con- 
formably to  the  maxim  of  the  school  :  Endure  and  re- 
frain. 

Below  this  perfect  co-ordination,  there  are  lives  tra- 
versed by  intermission,  whose  centre  of  gravity,  ordi- 
narily stable,  nevertheless  oscillates  from  time  to  time. 
One  group  of  tendencies  makes  a  temporary  secession 
with  limited  action,  expressing,  so  far  as  they  do  exist 
and  act,  one  side  of  the  character.  Neither  for  them- 
selves nor  for  others  have  these  individuals  the  unity 
of  the  great  wills,  and  the  more  frequent  and  complex 
in  nature  are  these  infractions  of  perfect  co-ordination, 
the  more  the  volitional  power  diminishes.  In  reality, 
all  these  degrees  are  met  with. 

Descending  still  lower,  we  reach  those  lives  by 
double  entry,  in  which  two  contrary  or  merely  different 
tendencies  dominate  in  turn.  There  are  in  the  indi- 
vidual two  alternate  centres  of  gravity,  two  points  of 
convergence  for  successively  preponderating  but  onl)' 

1  Log.  cit. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4057 


partial  co-ordinations.  Taking  everything  together,  that 
is  perhaps  the  most  common  type,  if  one  looks  around 
one,  and  if  one  consults  the  poets  and  moralists  of  all 
times,  who  vie  with  each  other  in  repeating  that  there 
are  two  men  in  us.  The  number  of  these  successive 
coordinations  may  be  still  larger  ;  but  it  would  be 
idle  to  pursue  this  analysis  further. 

One  step  more,  and  we  enter  into  pathology.  Let 
us  recall  the  sudden  irresistible  impulses  which  at 
every  moment  hold  the  will  in  check  ;  it  is  a  hypertro- 
phied  tendency  which  continually  breaks  the  equilib- 
rium, and  the  intensity  of  which  is  too  great  to  permit 
it  any  longer  to  be  co-ordinated  with  the  others  ;  it 
goes  out  of  the  ranks,  it  commands  instead  of  being 
subordinated.  Then  when  these  impulses  have  come 
to  be  no  longer  an  accident  but  a  habit,  no  longer  one 
side  of  the  character  but  the  character  itself,  there  are 
henceforth  only  intermittent  co-ordinations  ;  it  is  the 
will  that  becomes  the  exception. 

Lower  still,  it  becomes  a  mere  accident.  In  the 
indefinite  succession  of  impulses  varying  from  one 
minute  to  the  other  a  precarious  volition  finds  with 
difficulty  at  long  intervals  its  conditions  of  existence. 
Only  caprices  then  exist.  The  hysteric  character  has 
furnished  the  type  of  this  perfect  inLcwrdinaticn.  Here 
we  reach  the  other  extreme. 

Beneath  this  there  are  no  more  diseases  of  the  will, 
but  an  arrest  of  development  which  prevents  it  from 
ever  arising.  Such  is  the  state  of  idiots  and  imbeciles. 
We  will  say  a  few  words  regarding  them  here  in  order 
to  complete  our  pathological  study. 

"In  profound  idiocy,"  says  Griesinger,  "efforts 
and  determinations  are  always  instinctive  ;  they  are 
chiefly  provoked  by  the  need  of  nourishment ;  most 
frequently  they  have  the  character  of  reflexes  of  which 
the  individual  is  hardly  conscious.  Certain  simple 
ideas  may  still  provoke  efforts  and  movements,  for  ex- 
ample, to  play  with  little  pieces  of  paper.  .  .  .  Without 
speaking  of  those  who  are  plunged  in  the  profoundest 
idiocy,  we  ask  ourselves  :  Is  there  in  them  anything 
that  represents  the  will  ?  What  is  there  in  them  that 
can  will?  In  many  idiots  of  this  last  class  the  onlj'  thing 
that  seems  to  arouse  their  minds  a  little  is  the  desire 
to  eat.  The  lowest  idiots  manifest  this  desire  only  by 
agitation  and  groans.  Those  in  whom  the  degeneracy 
is  less  profound  move  their  lips  and  hands  a  little,  or 
else  weep  :  it  is  thus  that  they  express  a  desire  to 
eat.  ...  In  slight  idiocy  the  foundation  of  the  character 
is  inconstancy  and  obtuseness  of  feeling,  and  weakness 
of  will.  The  disposition  of  these  individuals  depends 
upon  their  surroundings  and  the  treatment  they  receive : 
it  is  docile  and  obedient  when  they  are  taken  care  of,  ill- 
natured  and  malicious  when  they  are  badly  treated.  "^ 

1  Griesinger,  Traite  des  Tnaladies  ntentales  (traDslatedufrom  the  German), 
pp.  433i  43-1.    For  a  complete  study  of  the  question  consult  the  recent  work  by 


Before  bringing  this  subject  to  an  end,  we  will 
again  remark  that  if  the  will  is  a  co-ordination,  that  is 
to  say  a  sum  of  relations,  it  may  be  predicted  a  priori 
that  it  will  be  produced  much  more  rarely  than  the 
simpler  forms  of  activity,  because  a  complex  state 
has  much  fewer  chances  of  originating  and  enduring 
than  a  simple  state.  And  such  are  the  real  facts  in  the 
case.  If  in  each  human  life  we  count  up  what  should 
be  credited  to  the  account  of  automatism,  of  habit,  of 
the  passions,  and  above  all  of  imitation,  we  shall  see 
that  the  number  of  acts  that  are  purely  voluntary,  in 
the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  is  very  small.  For  the 
majority  of  men,  imitation  suffices  ;  they  are  contented 
with  what  has  been  will  in  others,  and,  as  they  think 
with  the  ideas  of  the  world  at  large,  they  act  with  its 
will.  Between  the  habits  which  render  it  useless  and 
the  maladies  that  mutilate  or  destroy  it,  the  will,  as 
we  have  said  above,  must  be  taken  as  a  happy  acci- 
dent. 

Is  it  necessary,  finally,  to  remark  how  close  a  re- 
semblance there  is  between  this  increasingly  complex 
co-ordination  of  tendencies  which  forms  the  different 
stages  of  the  will,  and  the  increasingly  complex  co- 
ordination of  perceptions  and  images  which  constitutes 
the  various  degrees  of  the  intellect,  one  having  for  its 
basis  and  fundamental  condition  the  character,  and  the 
other  the  "forms  of  thought";  both  being  a  more  or 
less  complete  adaptation  of  the  being  to  its  environ- 
ment, in  the  order  of  action  or  in  the  order  of  knowl- 
edge? 

*  * 

We  are  now  prepared  for  the  general  conclusion  of 
this  work,  already  indicated  several  times  in  passing. 
It  will  illuminate,  I  trust,  with  a  retrospective  light 
the  road  which  we  have  traversed. 

Volition  is  a  final  state  of  consciousness  which  re- 
sults from  the  more  or  less  complex  co-ordination  of  a 
group  of  states,  conscious,  subconscious,  or  uncon- 
scious (purely  physiological),  which  all  united  express 
themselves  by  an  action  or  an  inhibition.  The  princi- 
pal factor  in  the  co-ordination  is  the  character,  w^ich 
is  only  the  psychic  expression  of  an  individual  organ- 
ism. It  is  the  character  which  gives  to  the  co-ordina- 
tion its  unity, — not  the  abstract  unity  of  a  mathemat- 
ical point,  but  the  concrete  unity  of  a  consensus.  The 
act  by  which  this  co-ordination  is  made  and  affirmed 
is  choice,  founded  on  an  affinity  of  nature. 

The  volition  that  subjective  psychologists  have  so 
often  observed,  analysed,  and  commented  upon  is  then 

Father  Sollier  :  Psychohgie  de  I'idiot  et  de  I'imbeciU.  It  will  be  seen  that  in 
them  the  will  cannot  be  formed  because  the  conditions  of  its  existence  are  lack, 
ing.  The  atrophy  of  the  intellectual  and  affective  faculties  renders  the  appari- 
tion of  voluntary  activity  impossible  :  which  proves  once  more  that  it  is  not  a 
primordial  "faculty,"  but  an  acquired  and  complex  state  resulting  from  an 
evolution.  These  weak-minded  persons  cannot  go  beyond  the  period  of  reflexes, 
affective  and  intellectual  ;  the  world  of  will  is  a  promised  land  into  which 
they  will  never  enter. 


4058 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


for  us  only  a  simple  state  of  consciousness.  It  is  merely 
an  effect  of  that  psycho-physiological  activit}',  so  often 
described,  only  a  part  of  which  enters  into  conscious- 
ness under  the  form  of  a  deliberation.  Furthermore, 
it  is  not  the  cause  of  anything.  The  acts  and  movements 
which  follow  it  result  directly  from  the  tendencies,  feel- 
ings, images,  and  ideas  which  have  become  co-ordinated 
in  the  form  of  a  choice.  It  is  from  this  group  that  all 
the  efficacy  comes.  In  other  terms, —  and  to  leave  no 
ambiguity, — the  psycho-physiological  labor  of  delib- 
eration results  on  the  one  hand  in  a  state  of  conscious- 
ness, the  volition,  and  on  the  other  in  a  set  of  move- 
ments or  inhibitions.  The  "/  will"  testifies  to  a  con- 
dition, but  does  not  produce  it.  I  should  compare  it 
to  the  verdict  of  a  jury,  which  may  be  the  result  of  a 
very  long  criminal  examination,  and  of  very  passionate 
pleadings,  and  which  will  be  followed  by  grave  conse- 
quences extending  over  a  long  future,  but  zvhich  is  an 
effect  without  being  a  cause,  being  in  law  only  a  simple 
statement. 

If  one  insists  on  making  of  the  will  a  faculty,  an 
entity,  all  becomes  obscurity,  perplexity,  contradiction. 
One  is  caught  in  the  snare  of  a  badly  stated  question. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  we  accept  the  facts  as  they  are,  we 
disembarrass  ourselves  at  least  of  factitious  difficul- 
ties. One  does  not  have  to  ask  oneself,  like  Hume 
and  so  many  others,  how  an  "I  will"  can  make  my 
members  move.  This  is  a  mystery  which  need  not  be 
cleared  up,  since  it  does  not  exist,  as  volition  is  in  no 
degree  a  cause.  It  is  in  the  natural  tendency  of  feel- 
ings and  images  to  express  themselves  in  movements 
that  the  secret  of  acts  produced  should  be  sought.  We 
have  here  only  an  extremely  complicated  case  of  the 
law  of  reflexes,  in  which,  between  the  period  called 
that  of  excitation  and  the  motor  period  there  appears 
a  most  important  psychic  fact — volition — showing  that 
the  first  period  is  ending  and  the  second  beginning. 

Let  it  be  remarked  also  how  easily  that  strange 
malady  called  abulia  can  now  be  explained,  and  with 
it  the  analogous  forms  considered  above, ^  and  even 
that  mere  weakness  of  will,  scarcely  morbid,  so  fre- 
quent among  persons  who  say  that  they  will  and  yet  do 
not  act.  It  is  because  the  individual  organism,  the 
source  from  which  all  springs,  had  two  effects  to  pro- 
duce and  produces  only  one  of  them  :  the  state  of  con- 
sciousness, choice,  affirmation;  while  the  motor  ten- 
dencies are  too  weak  to  express  themselves  in  acts. 
There  is  sufficient  co-ordination,  but  insufficient  im- 
pulse. In  irresistible  acts,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  the 
impulse  which  is  exaggerated,  and  the  co-ordination 
which  grows  weak  or  disappears. 

We  owe,  therefore,  to  pathology  two  principal  re- 
sults :  one,  that  the  "  I  will  "  is  in  itself  wholly  without 

1  In  the  first  chapter  of  The  Diseases  of  the  WiU,  from  which  this  article 
is  extracted. 


efficacy  in  causing  action  ;  the  other,  that  the  will  m 
the  rational  man  is  an  extremely  complex  and  unstable 
co-ordination,  fragile  by  its  very  superiority,  because 
it  is  "the  highest  force  which  nature  has  yet  devel- 
oped— the  last  consummate  blossom  of  all  her  marvel- 
lous works.  "1 

INSTINCT  AND  INTELLIGENCE  IN  CHICKS  AND 
DUCKLINGS. 

A  CONTRIBUTION  TO  ELEMENTARY  PSYCHOLOGY. 2 

BY  PROF.  C.  LLOYD    MORGAN. 

In  my  "Animal  Life  and  Intelligence"  I  quoted  some  o£  Spal- 
ding's statements  as  to  the  intelligence  of  young  birds.  I  then  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  my  friend,  Mr.  T.  Mann  Jones,  informing  me 
of  observations  of  his  own  which  did  not  accord  with  those  which 
I  quoted,  and  expressing  some  scepticism  as  to  the  existence  of 
what  he  termed  "  the  philosopher's  chick."  I  therefore  determined 
to  observe  for  myself,  and  the  following  paper  contains  some  ac- 
count of  my  observations,  which  should  be  compared  with  those  of 
Douglas  Spalding  inMacmillan's  A/agazinelor  February,  1873,  and 
those  of  Professor  Eimer  in  his  "Organic  Evolution"  (English 
Translation,  p.  245).  I  desire  to  express  my  acknowledgements  to 
Mr.  Mann  Jones  for  his  suggestions  and  criticisms. 

The  eggs  were  incubated  under  the  hen  until  about  the  third 
day  before  hatching,  when  they  were  transferred  to  an  incubator. 
After  hatching,  the  young  birds  were  left  in  the  drawer  of  the  in- 
cubator for  from  twelve  to  twenty  hours.  They  were  then  kept 
under  observation  in  a  small  pen  surrounded  with  wire  netting  in 
my  study.  There  was  thus  no  influence  of  adult  birds.  I  was 
their  only  foster-mother.  I  shall  describe  the  observations  under 
the  head  of  the  day  of  chick  or  duck  life — first  day,  second  day, 
and  so  on — dating  from  their  removal  from  the  incubator  drawer. 

First  Day. — Chicks. — On  opening  the  drawer  of  the  incubator 
the  newly-hatched  birds  are  often  seen  to  huddle  together  and  to 
try  and  burrow  under  each  other.  Experiments  on  the  co-ordina- 
tion for  pecking  show  that  any  small,  conspicuous  object  is  struck 
at.  The  aim  was  seldom  quite  correct,  the  tendency  being  appar- 
ently to  strike  somewhat  short.  Moving  the  object  a  little  with  a 
long  steel  pin  caused  it  more  readily  to  catch  their  eye.  It  was 
generally  seized  at  the  third  or  fourth  stroke,  but  a  little  awkwardly, 
and  was  not  always  successfully  swallowed.  Flies,  from  which  a 
portion  of  their  wings  had  been  removed,  were  followed  as  they 
ran,  and  were  seized  at  from  about  the  seventh  to  the  twelfth 
stroke.  The  chicks  pecked  persistently  at  their  own  and  each 
other's  toes  and  at  the  bright  bead-like  eyes  of  their  yellow  neigh- 
bors, also  at  excrement,  shaking  their  heads  and  wiping  their  bills. 

Ducklings. — The  pecking  co-ordination  was  imperfect.  When 
a  piece  of  white  of  egg  was  seized  it  was  mumbled  rapidly  and 
shaken  out  of  the  bill  unswallowed.  Towards  the  close  of  the  day 
they  began  to  swallow  what  they  seized,  but  the  pecking  co-ordina- 
tion was  not  quite  perfect.  They  were  at  first  very  unsteady  on 
their  legs  (more  so  than  the  chicks)  and  tilted  over  backwards  on 
to  their  tails.  One  scratched  its  head,  but  toppled  over,  the  double 
co-ordination  of  standing  on  one  leg  and  scratching  its  head  was 
more  than  it  could  manage.  They  walked  several  times  through 
the  water  placed  in  a  shallow  tin,  but  took  no  notice  of  it.  I 
dipped  the  beak  of  one  of  them  in  the  water ;  it  then  drank  re- 
peatedly, shovelling  up  the  water  with  characteristic  acti(»n.  Pres- 
ently the  others  imitated  the  action  and  drank  freely.     I  dropped, 

1  Maudsley,  The  Physiology  of  Mind,  p.  456. 

2  This  article,  sent  to  us  by  the  author,  was  published  in  Vol.  IV,  No.  25, 
of  Natural  Science,  of  London.  It  is  so  instructive  and  of  such  great  interest 
that  we  deem  a  republication  of  it  justified,  that  it  may  reach  as  large  a  circle 
of  readers  as  possible. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4059 


at  different  times,  two  ducks  in  a  tepid  bath.  They  kicked  vigor- 
ously and  excitedly,  dropping  their  excrement,  but  in  a  minute 
swam  about  with  easy  motion,  pecking  at  marks  on  the  sides  of  the 
bath. 

Second  Day. — CJiicis. — Several  ran  repeatedly  through  the 
water  in  a  shallow  tin,  but  took  no  notice  of  it.  Then,  after  about 
an  hour,  one  of  them  standing  in  the  water  pecked  at  its  toes.  It 
lifted  its  head  and  drank  freely  with  characteristic  action.  Another 
subsequently  pecked  at  a  bubble  near  the  brira  and  then  drank. 
The  stimulus  of  water  in  the  bill  at  once  led  to  the  characteristic 
responsive  action.  Others  came  up  and  pecked  at  the  troubled 
water  ;  they,  too,  then  drank.  Later  on  one  was  running  and  tod- 
dled into  the  tin  ;  it  stopped  at  once  and  drank.  Wet  feet  seemed 
to  suggest  drinking  by  association.  I  placed  two  winged  flies  be- 
fore them.  One  chick  seized  a  fly  at  the  first  stroke.  Another 
followed  the  second  fly  and  made  three  pecks  at  it,  but  the  other 
chick  rushed  in  and  caught  it  at  the  first  stroke.  A  large  winged  fly 
thrown  among  other  chicks  was  approached  by  one  bird  which 
gave  the  danger  note  (a  very  characteristic  sound).  Subsequently 
the  same  chick  followed  it  and  caught  it  after  several  bad  shots. 
They  pecked  about  equally  at  four  kinds  of  grain,  millet,  canary, 
groats,  and  pari  ;  but  swallowed  more  of  the  millet.  They  also 
pecked  at  and  swallowed  sand  grains.  I  took  one  of  the  chicks 
and  put  it  down  near  a  young  cat.  The  bird  showed  no  signs  of 
fear. 

Ducklings. — Both  ducks  made  at  once  for  water  in  shallow  tin, 
drank,  and  squatted  down  in  it.  They  ate  keenly  of  white  of  egg, 
swallowing  large  morsels,  the  pecking  co-ordination  being  nearly 
accurate.  Both  scratched  their  heads  occasionally  and  toppled 
over.  They  preened  the  down,  especially  of  the  breast,  in  charac- 
teristic fashion  ;  they  also  applied  the  bill  to  the  base  of  the  tail 
and  rubbed  the  sides  of  their  heads  along  the  back  in  quite  ap- 
proved duck  fashion.  They  stood  up,  stretching  out  their  necks 
and  flapping  their  wings,  sitting  down  on  their  tails  from  imperfect 
co-ordination.  They  showed  much  less  accuracy  of  aim  than  the 
chicks  in  catching  running  flies.  The  abortive  attempts  were 
numerous.  They  ate  their  own  and  chicks'  excrement  freely  and 
showed  little  sign  of  disgust.  (In  South  Africa  young  ostriches  are 
often  supplied  with  the  droppings  of  the  old  birds,  for  medicinal 
purposes.     So  I  was  informed. ) 

Third  Day. — Chicks. — The  chicks  pecked  excitedly  at  flies 
placed  in  an  inverted  tumbler,  but  failed  to  catch  them  on  the  wing 
when  the  insects  were  allowed  to  escape.  They  still  peck  at  any 
small  objects,  especially  bright  ones,  but  show  more  discrimina- 
tion in  swallowing.  They  run  to  one's  hand  when  one  pecks  on 
the  ground  with  one's  finger  or  a  pencil,  simulating  the  action  of  a 
hen.  One  can  thus  induce  them  to  seize  objects  which  they  would 
otherwise  leave  untouched.  They  will  always  run  to  nestle  in 
one's  hands,  poking  their  heads  out  between  one's  fingers  prettily. 
To  some  chicks  (Group  A)  I  threw  cinnabar  caterpillars.  They 
were  seized  but  at  once  dropped,  with  some  wiping  of  the  bill. 
The  caterpillars  were  uninjured,  and  were  seldom  touched  again. 
They  were  removed  and  thrown  in  again  towards  the  close  of  the 
day.  Some  chicks  tried  them  once,  but  they  were  soon  left.  I 
could  induce  birds  to  pick  them  up  by  "  pecking "  with  a  pencil, 
but  they  were  at  once  dropped. 

Ducklings. — There  was  nothing  special  to  note. 
Fourth  Day'. — Chicks. — I  threw  to  the  chicks  of  group  A  some 
looper  caterpillars  and  some  green  caterpillars  from  gooseberry 
bushes.  They  were  approached  with  some  suspicion.  Presently 
one  chick  seized  one  and  ran  off,  giving  rise  to  a  stern  chase.  An- 
other stole  it  from  the  first  and  ate  it.  In  a  few  minutes  all  the 
caterpillars  were  cleared  off.  Later  in  the  day  I  gave  them  more 
of  these  edible  caterpillars,  which  were  eaten  freely.  Then  some 
cinnabars.  One  chick  ran,  but  checked  itself,  and  without  touch- 
ing the  cinnabar  wiped  its  bill  (association).     Another  seized  one 


and  dropped  it  at  once.  A  third  subsequently  approached  a  cin- 
nabar as  it  walked  along,  gave  the  danger  note,  and  ran  off.  Then 
I  threw  in  more  edible  caterpillars,  which  again  were  eaten  freely 
The  chicks  thus  discriminate  by  sight  between  the  nice  and  the 
nasty  caterpillars.  To  a  second  group  (B)  I  threw  cinnabars  and 
small  worms.  Both  were  seized  at. first  with  equal  appetence,  but 
discrimination  was  soon  established.  The  chicks  began  to  scratch 
the  ground  (perhaps  also  the  day  before,  but  not  markedly).  Sev- 
eral of  them  pecked  at  the  burning  end  of  a  cigarette  two  or  three 
times,  but  some  were  stopped  by  a  whiff  of  the  smoke,  and  then 
shook  their  heads  and  wiped  their  bills.  Subsequently,  when  the 
cigarette  was  out  and  cold,  they  came  and  looked  at  it ;  and  one, 
after  eyeing  it,  wiped  its  bill  on  the  ground.  A  large  Carabus 
beetle,  sprawling  on  its  back,  was  an  object  of  fear ;  one  chick  at 
last  pecked  at  it,  uttering  the  danger  note,  and  threw  it  on  one  side. 
After  this  none  went  near  it. 

Ducklings. — Experiments  with  cinnabar  caterpillars,  loopers, 
and  worms  gave  similar  results  to  those  obtained  with  the  chicks. 

Fifth  Day. — Chicks. — One  of  the  birds,  bolder  than  the  rest, 
would  eat  large  flies  with  relish.  I  threw  in  a  bee.  Most  of  the 
chicks  were  afraid,  as  they  were  of  large  flies.  The  bolder  chick, 
however,  snapped  it  up  and  ran  off  with  it.  Then  he  dropped  it 
and  shook  his  head,  wiping  his  bill.  Probably  he  tasted  the  poison 
and  was  not  stung ;  in  any  case,  he  was  quite  lively  and  uncon- 
cerned in  a  few  minutes  ;  but  he  did  not  touch  the  bee  again.  The 
chicks  preened  their  down  early  on  this  day.  If  they  had  done  so 
before,  I  failed  to  note  the  fact.  Later  in  the  day  I  put  beneath  a 
tumbler  a  large  fly  and  a  small  humble-bee  with  a  sting.  Two  of 
the  chicks  ran  round  the  tumbler  pecking  at  the  insects.  I  let  the 
bee  escape.  The  bolder  chick  seized  it,  dashed  it  against  the 
ground,  and  swallowed  it  without  a  wink.  With  another  group  of 
chicks  I  first  gave  bees,  which  were  seized  but  soon  let  alone,  and 
then  Eristalis.  They  were  left  untouched.  Their  resemblance  to 
the  bees  was  protective.  Later  I  gave  Eristalis  again,  and  induced 
one  of  the  chicks  to  seize  it  by  pecking  at  it  with  my  pencil.  He 
ran  off  with  it,  chased  by  others.  It  was  taken  from  him  and 
swallowed.  The  other  Eristalis  insects  were  left  untouched,  but 
one  was  subsequently  eaten. 

Ducklings. — I  placed  some  frog  tadpoles  in  their  water.  They 
were  soon  spied  and  eaten  greedily.  The  vulgarity  of  the  duck- 
ling as  a  feeder  is  painful  to  witness. 

Sixth  Day. — Chicks. — I  gave  them  their  tin  without  water. 
They  stood  in  it  and  pecked,  one  lifting  its  head.  They  scratched 
at  the  bottom  vigorously,  and  pecked  again  and  again.  On  this 
day  they  frequently  stood  up,  stretching  out  their  necks  and  flut- 
tering their  wings.  They  may,  however,  have  begun  to  do  this 
earlier.  Several  of  them  pecked  at  a  sleepy  wasp,  but  soon  let  it 
alone.  I  made  a  number  of  experiments  on  this  and  the  previous 
day  with  regard  to  their  ability  to  catch  flies  on  the  wing,  placing 
the  insects  under  a  tumbler.  The  birds  pecked  at  them  as  seen 
through  the  glass.  I  then  let  them,  one  by  one,  escape.  The  chicks 
made  a  dash  at  them,  but  never  succeeded  in  catching  one,  though 
they  caught  one  or  two  as  they  crawled  out  before  they  had  taken 
flight.  I  tried  also  with  tumblers  covered  with  cards.  I  may  add 
that  up  to  thirteen  days  I  have  never  yet  once  seen  a  fly  captured 
on  the  wing  by  either  a  chick  or  duckling,  though  I  have  often  seen 
them  struck  at. 

Ducklings. — Each  morning,  at  nine  o'clock,  I  had  placed  in 
their  pen  a  large  black  tray,  and  on  it  a  flat  tin  containing  water. 
To  this  they  eagerly  ran,  drinking  and  washing  in  it.  On  the  sixth 
morning  I  gave  them  the  tray  and  tin  in  the  usual  way,  but  with- 
out any  water.  They  ran  to  it,  scooped  at  the  bottom,  and  made 
all  the  motions  of  the  beak  as  if  drinking.  They  squatted  in  it, 
dipping  their  heads  and  waggling  their  tails  as  usual.  For  some 
ten  minutes  they  continued  to  wash  in  non-existent  water  (associa- 
tion).    I  then  gave  them  water.     I  threw  them  a  bee  :   one  of  them 


4o6o 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


seized  it  and  swallowed  it.  Possibly  he  was  stung.  He  kept  on 
scratching  his  beak — first  on  one  side,  then  on  the  other,  and  seemed 
uneasy.  He  was  all  right  again,  however,  in  half  an  hour,  but  did 
not  seem  keen  after  a  bee  I  offered  him  ;  nor  would  he  take  any 
notice  of  an  Erislalis. 

Seventh  Day. — Chicks  (Group  A). — I  threw  in  a  number  of 
bits  of  red-brown  worsted,  one  to  two  inches  long.  They  were 
seized  with  eagerness  and  eaten  with  avidity.  I  could  not  satisfy 
them  with  worsted  worms,  and  desisted  in  the  attempt  lest  the  diet 
should  produce  unpleasant  effects  on  their  little  gizzards.  I  left, 
however,  one  four-inch  worsted  worm,  of  which  the  chicks  seemed 
afraid.  Presently  the  bolder  one  seized  it,  ran  off  with  it  chased 
by  the  others,  escaped  from  the  pen,  reached  a  secluded  corner  of 
my  study,  and  with  great  efforts  swallowed  it  to  the  last  half-inch. 
The  same  chick  pecked  repeatedly  at  something  near  the  corner  of 
the  turned-up  newspaper  which  then  formed  the  wall  of  my  pen  (I 
now  use  wire  netting).  This  I  found  to  be  the  number  of  the  page. 
He  then  transferred  his  attention  to  the  corner  of  the  paper,  which 
he  could  just  reach.  Seizing  this  he  pulled  at  it.  bending  it  down 
and  thus  forming  a  breach  in  the  wall  of  my  experimental  poultry- 
yard,  through  which  he  escaped.  I  caught  him  and  put  him  back 
near  the  same  spot.  He  went  at  once  to  the  corner,  pulled  it  down, 
and  escaped.  I  caught  him  and  put  him  back  on  the  other  side  of 
the  pen.  .Presently  he  sauntered  round  to  the  corner,  began  peck- 
ing again,  and  escaped.  I  then  pulled  it  up  out  of  his  reach.  He 
pecked  at  it,  but  soon  desisted.  This  is  a"  good,  simple  example  of 
the  intelligent  utilisation  of  a  chance  experience.  Group  A,  in- 
cluding this  chick,  were  near  the  close  of  their  seventh  day  returned 
to  the  yard  from  which  the  eggs  were  obtained  through  the  kind- 
ness of  my  friend,  Mr.  John  Budgett.  They  were  adopted  by  a 
broody  hen,  and  were  reported  to  seem  afraid  of  her. 

Very  noticeable  at  this  stage  is  the  effect  of  any  sudden  noise — 
a  sneeze,  clapping  one's  hands,  a  sharp  chord  on  the  violin  ;  or  of 
suddenly  pitching  among  the  chicks  a  piece  of  screwed-up  paper. 
They  scatter  and  crouch,  or  sometimes  simply  crouch  down  where 
they  are.  The  constant  piping  cheep-cheep  ceases,  and  for  a  mo- 
ment there  is  dead  stillness,  each  bird  silent  and  motionless.  In  a 
minute  or  so,  up  they  get  and  resume  their  cheeping  notes. 

Ducklings. — I  repeated  the  experiment  with  the  dry  tin.  Again 
they  ran  to  it,  shovelling  along  the  bottom  with  their  beaks  and 
squatting  down  in  it.  But  they  sooner  gave  up  the  attempt  to  find 
satisfaction  in  a  dry  bath. 

Eighth  Day. — Chicks. — On  this  day  I  noticed  for  the  first 
time  the  chicks  crouching  down  and  making  all  the  movements  of 
sand-washing  or  dusting  themselves  in  the  way  many  birds  affect. 
There  was  only  a  little  sand  strewn  over  the  newspaper  and  not 
much  good  came  of  the  operation.  I  tried  these  too  (Group  B)with 
worsted  worms.  They  seemed  to  give  complete  satisfaction,  and 
there  was  many  a  stern  chase  after  the  fortunate  possessor  of  an 
inch  of  worsted.  I  tried  them  again  with  cinnabar  caterpillars,  of 
which  they  took  scarcely  any  notice.  None  were  seized.  I  threw 
in  a  lump  of  sugar.  The  chicks  stood  round  it,  uttering  the  danger 
note.  Then  some  ran  at  it,  pecking  rapidly  and  withdrawing  in 
haste.  They  deal  thus  with  moderate-sized  suspicious-looking  ob- 
jects. 

Ducklings. — On  repeating  again  the  experiment  with  the  empty 
tin  they  soon  left  it,  and  did  not  squat  down  in  it  at  all.  But  when 
I  poured  in  water  they  ran  to  it  at  once. 

Tenth  Day. — Chicks.— I  took  two  of  the  chicks  to  the  yard 
from  which  the  eggs  were  obtained,  and  opened  the  basket,  in 
which  I  had  carried  them,  about  two  yards  from  a  hen  which  was 
clucking  to  her  brood.  They  took  no  notice  whatever  of  the  sound. 
They  were  not  in  a  frightened  condition,  for  they  jumped  on  my 
hand  and  ate  grain  off  it,  scratching  at  my  fingers.  I  put  them  with 
a  hen  in  a  small  fowl-house.  They  did  not  seem  frightened,  or,  if 
at  all,  but  little.     To  those  that  remained  I  took  back  a  large  hum- 


ble-bee.    One  darted  at  it,  giving  it  a  sharp  peck,  and  throwing  it 
disabled  to  one  side. 

Ducklings. — One  of  the  ducklings  seized  the  disabled  bee,  and, 
after  mumbling  it  for  some  time  in  the  water,  swallowed  it. 

Thirteenth  Day. — I  took  the  remaining  chicks  to  the  yard. 
A  hen  in  a  fowl-house  was  clucking  eagerly  to  her  young  brood. 
The  chicks  were  put  down  outside,  out  of  sight  of  her.  They  took 
no  notice  whatever  of  the  clucking  sounds  she  made,  but  scratched 
about  around  me.  They  were  then  placed  among  her  brood.  She 
seemed  inclined  at  first  to  drive  them  away,  but  afterwards  looked 
more  kindly  on  them.  But  they  did  not  keep  close  to  her  like  her 
own  brood.  I  went  over  to  see  them  next  day.  One  was  at  some 
little  distance  from  the  hen.  I  leant  down  and  held  out  my  hand. 
The  little  thing  ran  to  me  and  nestled  in  my  palm. 

The  sounds  emitted  by  the  chicks  are  decidedly  instinctive, 
and  some  of  them  are  fairly  differentiated.  At  least  six  may  be 
distinguished.  First  the  gentle  piping,  expressive  of  contentment. 
It  is  heard  when  one  takes  the  little  bird  in  one's  hand.  A  further 
low  note,  a  sort  of  double  sound,  seems  to  be  associated  with  ex- 
treme pleasure,  as  when  one  strokes  the  chick's  back  and  cuddles 
it.  'Very  characteristic  and  distinct  is  the  danger  note — a  sound 
difficult  to  describe, — perhaps  somewhat  as  if  a  miniature  police- 
man's rattle  were  sprung  inside  the  chick's  head.  This  is  heard  on 
the  second  or  third  day.  If  a  large  humble-bee  or  a  black-beetle 
or  a  big  worm  or  lump  of  sugar,  or  in  fact  anything  largish  and 
strange  be  thrown  to  the  chicks,  the  danger  note  is  at  once  heard. 
Then  there  is  the  cheeping,  piping  sound,  expressive,  apparently, 
of  wanting  something.  It  generally  ceases  when  one  goes  to  them 
and  throws  some  grain  or  even  stands  near  them.  My  chicks  were 
accustomed  to  ray  presence  in  the  room,  and  generally  were  rest- 
less when  I  left  them  and  made  this  sound.  Then  there  is  the 
sharp  squeak  when  one  seizes  them  against  their  inclination. 
Lastly,  there  is  the  shrill  cry  of  distress  when,  for  example,  one  of 
them  is  separated  from  the  rest.  I  have  very  little  doubt  that  all 
of  these  sounds  have,  or  soon  acquire,  a  suggestive  value  of  emo- 
tional import  for  the  other  chicks.  Certainly  the  danger  note  at 
once  places  others  on  the  alert.  But  the  suggestive  value  seems  to 
be  the  result  of  association  and  the  product  of  experience. 

The  foregoing  observations  I  have  presented  much  in  the  form, 
though  with  many  omissions,  in  which  they  were  noted  down  at  the 
time  ;  hence  much  crudity  of  expression.  They  appear  to  me  to 
suggest — 

i)  That  there  are  many  truly  inherited  activities  performed 
with  considerable  but  not  perfect  exactitude  in  virtue  of  an  innate 
automatism  of  structure. 

2)  That  associations  are  formed  rapidly  and  have  a  consider- 
able amount  of  permanence. 

3)  That  intelligent  utilisation  of  experience  is  founded  on  the 
associations  so  formed  ;  such  associations  being  a  matter  of  indi- 
vidual acquisition,  and  not  of  inheritance. 

4)  That  there  is  no  evidence  of  instinctive  knowledge,  even  in 
a  loose  acceptation  of  this  word.  This  follows  from  the  non-in- 
heritance of  associations  of  impressions  and  ideas.  Co-oniination 
of  activities  is  thus  apparently  inherited,  but  not  correlation  of  im- 
pressions and  ideas. 

5)  That  even  the  inherited  co-ordinations  are  perfected  and 
rendered  more  effective  by  intelligent  guidance. 

6)  That  imitation  is  an  important  factor  in  the  early  stages  of 
mental  development. 

7)  That  the  inherited  activities  on  their  first  performance  are 
not  guided  by  consciousness,  though  they  are  probably  accom- 
panied by  consciousness.  The  role  of  consciousness  is  that  of  con- 
trol and  guidance.  Only  on  the  first  performance  of  an  inherited 
activity  is  the  chick  a  conscious  automaton.  In  so  far  as  the  activ- 
ity is  subsequently  modified  and  perfected  by  intelligence  the  agent 
exercises  conscious  control.     If  we  then  term  it  an  automaton,  we 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


4061 


must  admit  that  the  automaton  has  a  power  of  control  over  its  ac- 
tions in  accordance  with  the  conscious  concomitants  o£  certain  cere- 
bral changes.  Into  the  physiological  mechanism  of  control,  as  I 
conceive  it,  I  cannot  enter  here. 


CURRENT  TOPICS. 

The  doctrine  of  protection  to  American  industry  has  invaded 
the  domain  of  theological  economy,  and  threatens  the  canonisation 
monopoly  that  for  a  long  time  has  been  enjoyed  by  Italy.  Not 
long  ago,  a  South  Carolina  gentleman  by  the  name  of  Collins  pre- 
sented a  new  church  to  the  colored  Episcopalians  of  his  town,  and 
according  to  Episcopalian  custom  they  proceeded  to  give  it  the 
name  of  a  saint,  but  after  considering  the  claims  of  all  the  saints 
in  the  calendar  the  congregation  finally  rejected  them  all.  With 
pious  gratitude  they  dedicated  their  house  of  worship  to  their 
American  benefactor  and  called  it  Saint  CoUins's  Church,  a  name 
by  which  it  will  be  known  henceforth  and  forever.  The  patriotic 
sentiment  that  goes  by  the  name  of  "America  for  the  Americans" 
applies  to  saints  as  well  as  to  other  foreigners,  and  the  colored 
men  of  South  Carolina  have  given  it  actual  form.  Heretofore  we 
have  imported  all  our  saints  from  foreign  countries,  instead  of  en- 
couraging the  development  of  native  saints  among  ourselves,  but 
hereafter  we  shall  have  our  own  muster-roll  of  the  beatified,  and 
we  shall  fill  it  with  American  examples.  In  making  a  saint  of  Mr. 
Collins,  the  recipients  of  his  bounty  have  not  canonised  a  myth 
nor  an  abstract  ideality,  but  an  actual  breathing  man  whose  claims 
to  saintship  are  based  on  living  deeds,  that  visible  and  practical 
test  by  which  all  saints  must  ultimately  stand  or  fall.  They  have 
a  saint  in  England  by  the  name  of  Lubbock,  a  member  of  Parlia- 
ment, who  made  one  day  in  every  summer-time  a  holiday  which 
in  the  calendar  of  labor  is  called  Saint  Lubbock's  day.  The  new 
religion  will  have  new  saints,  like  Saint  Lubbock  and  Saint  Col- 
lins, and  the  present  sainthood  will  pass  into  the  shades  of  anti- 
quity with  Saint  Hercules,  Saint  Ceres,  and  Saint  Mercury. 
* 

In  one  of  the  early  numbers  of  Punch  I  have  seen  a  picture  of 
an  organ-grinder  who  stands  in  front  of  a  London  mansion  un- 
winding torment  from  his  dismal  box  wherein  the  discords  play. 
A  servant  comes  down  the  steps  and  says  :  "  My  good  man,  here's 
a  sixpence  for  you  ;  there's  a  sick  lady  in  the  house,  and  master 
says,  will  you  be  kind  enough  to  move  on."  To  this  the  wander- 
ing minstrel  answers:  "When  there's  sickness  in  the  house  I 
never  move  on  for  less  than  a  shilling."  This  beautiful  principle 
appears  to  animate  the  different  ' '  armies  "  that  are  marching  from 
various  parts  of  the  country  to  reinforce  Coxey  in  his  raid  on 
Washington.  They  never  move  on  for  less  than  plenty  to  eat  and 
their  travelling  expenses.  These  they  readily  obtain  because  every 
community  is  happy  to  welcome  them  to  the  next  town,  and  will 
cheerfully  bribe  them  to  go.  This  liberal  and  philanthropic  spirit 
is  finely  developed  in  San  Francisco,  as  will  appear  from  the  fol- 
lowing dispatches  from  that  city,  dated  April  i6  :  "The  authori- 
ties are  arranging  to  send  five  hundred  unemployed  to  Chicago  via 
Mojave,  for  $2,000.  Three  hundred  members  from  the  second 
regiment  of  the  industrial  army  of  California  marched  to  the  City 
Hall  this  morning  and  applied  for  assistance.  Mayor  Eilert  and 
Chief  of  Police  Crowley  called  upon  the  Southern  Pacific  officials, 
and  the  railroad  company  is  expected  to  take  the  men  as  far  as 
Mojave,  where  they  can  be  turned  over  to  the  Atlantic  and  Pa- 
cific." Such  disinterested  magnanimity  will  be  appreciated  by 
the  citizens  of  Chicago.  This  town  is  trying  to  outnumber  the 
population  of  New  York  before  the  time  for  taking  the  next  cen- 
sus, and  this  contribution  from  San  Francisco  will  be  gratefully 
received.  If  the  people  of  that  remote  village  have  any  more 
"industrial  regiments"  that  they  are  anxious  to  get  rid  of  at  six 
dollars  and  sixty-six  cents  a  head,  Chicago  will  gladly  take  them 
at  that  price. 


Like  a  stiletto  drawn  suddenly  from  under  a  cloak,  the  speech 
of  Senator  Hill  flashed  upon  the  eyes  of  the  Democratic  party, 
and  the  stroke  that  followed  made  a  painful  wound  ;  so  sore,  in- 
deed, as  to  leave  a  suspicion  that  the  barb  was  poisoned.  From 
the  organs  of  his  party,  acrimonious  retorts  fell  in  showers  upon 
Hill,  and  broke  like  putty-balls  fired  at  an  iron-clad.  The  stock 
flatteries,  the  ' '  Judas  Iscariot  "  and  the  ' '  Benedict  Arnold  "  com- 
parisons were  soon  exhausted,  and  then  the  angry  editors  fell  back 
upon  their  own  resources  and  invented  such  original  compliments 
as  they  could  :  "Out  upon  him,"  says  the  melodramatic  IVor/d- 
//drn/c/ ot  Omaha,  "  Out  upon  him.  He  is  not  a  Democrat  ";  and 
it  says  that  as  confidently  as  if  there  were  any  people  in  Omaha 
or  in  any  other  country  who  know  what  a  Democrat  is.  With 
dignified  contempt  the  Jacksonville  Citizen  describes  the  oration  of 
Senator  Hill  as  "vaporing  rant,"  and  in  a  tone  of  high  tragedy  the 
St.  Louis  Posl'Dispn/c/:  proclaims  that  Senator  Hill  is  "bloodless 
as  a  turnip  and  heartless  as  a  clam."  Having  sacrificed  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Wilson  Bill  for  the  vote  of  Senator  Hill,  the  Louis- 
ville Courier-Journal  complains  that  the  Democratic  party  has 
been  cheated  in  the  trade ;  and  that  oratorical  organ  sorrowfully 
says,  ' '  Was  not  the  fundamental  principle  of  free  collars  and  cuffs 
ruthlessly  sacrificed  in  order  to  placate  the  New  York  Senator  ? 
And  so  we  lose  collars  and  cuffs  and  honor  all  alike."  This  is  a 
humiliating  punishment,  but  it  ought  to  fall  upon  any  party  so 
abandoned  as  to  ruthlessly  sacrifice  "the  fundamental  principle  of 
free  collars  and  cuffs."  The  Toledo  Bee  sharpens  its  nimble  sting 
and  hums  in  the  ear  of  Senator  Hill  after  the  style  of  Elijah  Po- 
gram,  thus  :  "  Hill  is  a  creature  of  the  money-bags  of  the  East. 
His  is  the  Democracy  of  the  East,  the  Democracy  that  knows  no 
nation  but  New  York  ;  the  Democracy  that  cannot  understand  the 
greatness,  the  incomparable  beauty  and  grandeur  of  a  country 
lapped  by  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  the  great  lakes  and  the  gulf." 
And  while  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  and  the  great  lakes  and  the 
gulf  are  lapping  the  country,  Senator  Hill,  admiring  his  mischief, 
smiles  his  own  sardonic  smile. 


Last  Wednesday,  the  national  debating  society  at  Washing- 
ton spent  a  pleasant  afternoon  in  proving  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
country  that  the  "  two  great  parties,"  although  differing  here  and 
there  in  theoretical  politics,  practise  the  art  of  statesmanship  in 
precisely  the  same  way.  The  managers  of  the  two  rival  corpora- 
tions exhibited  the  inside  wheels  and  pulleys  of  the  two  "ma- 
chines" by  which  their  party-work  is  done  ;  also,  they  showed  in 
a  very  interesting  way  that  both  of  them  are  built  on  the  same 
pattern,  and  that  the  only  way  to  tell  them  apart  is  by  the  label 
or  trademark  tacked  on  each  machine.  Mr.  Quigg,  a  Republican 
member  from  New  York,  moralising  like  a  preacher,  exposed  the 
political  wickedness  of  appointing  Mr.  Van  Alen  ambassador  to 
Italy  in  return  for  $50,000  contributed  by  Mr.  Van  Alen  to  the 
Democratic  election  fund  ;  whereupon  Mr.  Meredith,  a  Demo- 
cratic member  from  Virginia,  promptly  "saw"  Mr.  Quigg,  and 
"raised"  him  $350,000,  by  referring  to  the  story  that  Mr.  Wana- 
maker  had  contributed  $400,000  to  the  Republican  election  fund 
in  1888,  for  which  benevolence  he  had  been  appointed  Postmaster 
General.  The  comedy  of  it  lies  in  the  impudent  affectation  by 
either  party  of  moral  superiority  over  the  other,  when  it  is  notori- 
ous that  both  of  them  have  raised  corruption  funds  by  selling  the 
offices  of  the  government ;  and  the  practice  will  continue  so  long  as 
party  loyalty  excuses  what  public  morality  condemns.  Should  a 
vote  of  reprobation  be  called  for,  we  know  without  counting  the 
ballots  what  the  division  would  be  ;  the  Democrats  would  censure 
Wanamaker,  and  the  Republicans  would  condemn  Van  Alen,  hke 
the  partisan  man-worshippers  who  declared  that  Mr.  Beecher  was 
innocent,  although  they  thought  the  testimony  against  Mrs.  Tilton 
was  very  strong. 


f 


4062 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


The  schoolboy  nonsense  known  as  "filibustering"  has  met 
with  a  check  in  Congress  by  the  adoption  of  the  tyrannical  plan  of 
counting  a  member  as  actually  present  in  spite  of  his  own  declara- 
tion that  by  a  psychological  fiction  he  is  absent  in  the  East  Indies, 
in  Kamschatka,  in  China,  or  perhaps  in  Kalamazoo.  The  sport 
called  "breaking  a  quorum"  consists  in  this,  that  if  you  area 
member,  you  have  besides  your  pay  the  fun  of  being  present  and 
absent  at  the  same  time.  Your  body  may  be  in  your  usual  seat 
visible  to  the  Speaker  and  "palpable  to  feeling  as  to  sight,"  while 
your  Mahatma,  or  the  voting  spirit  is  out  on  the  raging  sea.  The 
rule  of  stultification  declared  that  the  only  way  to  learn  whether  a 
member  was  present  or  absent  was  by  asking  him,  and  if  he  said 
yes  by  answering  at  roll-call,  he  was  to  be  considered  present,  and 
it  was  the  duty  of  the  Speaker,  like  the  captain  of  a  ship,  to  '  'make 
it  so"  ;  but  if  the  member  made  no  answer,  and  stood  mute,  his 
very  silence  was  conclusive  proof  that  his  Mahatma  had  fled  from 
the  Capitol,  and  he  was  reported  absent.  It  was  rather  stupid 
and  expensive  too,  but  that's  the  way  they  "  broke  a  quorum  "  and 
the  heart  of  the  majority.  When  Mr.  Reed  was  in  the  speaker's 
chair  four  years  ago,  he  actually  counted  as  present  all  the  mem- 
bers he  saw  present  in  the  body  whether  their  Mahatmas  were 
there  or  not,  and  his  very  sensible  plan  was  called  arbitrary,  ty- 
rannical, despotic,  un-American,  even  "  Rooshan,"  and  Mr.  Reed 
was  called  the  "  Czar."  He  was  put  in  the  national  pillory,  and 
every  stump-orator  of  the  opposite  party  pelted  him  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  end  of  the  campaigns.  Grim  triumph  made  the  face 
of  Mr.  Reed  shine  like  a  full  moon  the  other  day  when  he  saw  his 
critics  with  funeral  solemnity  adopting  the  methods  of  the  "Czar," 
and  actually  claiming  a  Democratic  patent  on  the  scheme.  It  was 
wonderful  to  see  the  nerve  of  Mr.  Wise,  who  had  the  daring  to 
show  from  the  records  that  Mr.  Reed  was  not  entitled  to  credit  for 
counting  members  to  make  a  quorum,  that  the  "  Czar"  principle 
was  first  advocated  in  1880  by  Mr.  J.  Randolph  Tucker,  a  Demo- 
crat from  Virginia,  and  that  it  was  then  vigorously  opposed  by 
Mr.  Reed.  Mr.  Wise  was  historically  correct,  but  in  1880  Mr. 
Reed  was  in  the  minority,  and  it  was  then  his  business  to  denounce 
the  majority  for  its  encroachments  upon  the  liberty  of  members 
to  be  in  two  places  at  once,  or  present  and  absent  at  the  same 
time. 

The  wedding  at  Coburg  was  a  brilliant  spectacle,  and  merely 
to  read  the  dazzling  account  of  it  in  the  papers  makes  the  eyes 
blink  as  they  do  when  we  try  to  stare  out  of  countenance  the 
noonday  sun.  Imperial  diadems  and  royal  robes,  epaulettes, 
and  plumes,  diamonds,  and  pearls,  poems  in  embroidery  and  lace, 
gave  majesty  and  splendor  to  the  ceremonial,  while  the  rulers  of 
half  the  world  were  there  to  sanction  the  festival  and  emblazon  it 
with  royalty.  The  German  Emperor  was  there,  with  his  mother 
the  Empress,  and  his  grandmother  the  Queen  of  England.  The 
heir  to  the  Russian  throne  was  there,  and  princes  and  dukes  more 
numerous  than  they  are  in  a  fairy  tale.  I  have  seen  the  valley  of 
diamonds  at  the  play,  and  I  think  the  chapel  at  Coburg  must  have 
been  something  like  that,  A  ticket  to  the  Coburg  wedding  would 
have  been  almost  a  title  of  nobility  in  itself,  but  such  luxuries  are 
not  for  me.  Many  a  time  I  have  wondered  how  it  feels  to  be  a 
king,  or  a  prince,  or  a  grand  duke,  and  the  next  time  I  meet  one 
of  those  glittering  demigods  I  will  ask  him.  We  have  hundreds  of 
them  in  Chicago  so  that  I  shall  have  no  trouble  in  getting  correct 
information,  but  I  imagine  that  the  feeling  of  superiority  and  exal- 
tation must  be  delightful  as  the  dreams  that  opium  gives.  There 
are  more  princes  at  Chicago  now  than  at  Coburg  ;  and  among  them 
are  three  or  four  whom  I  have  the  happiness  to  number  among 
my  personal  friends 

*         "  * 

It  will  appear  as  a  strange  historical  coincidence  that  at  the 
very  time  those  imperial  and  royal  potentates  were  gathered  at  the 


marriage  feast  in  Coburg,  a  company  of  equal  style  and  dignity 
was  assembled  in  Chicago ;  not  at  a  wedding,  indeed,  but  at  the 
Masonic  Temple,  giving  royalty  and  splendor  to  the  ' '  Thirty-ninth 
Annual  Reunion  of  the  Ancient  Scottish  Rite."  The  stately  titles 
of  the  visitors  who  attended  the  respective  celebrations  were  singu- 
larly alike  both  in  sense  and  sound,  but  whatever  pre-eminence 
was  visible  in  this  respect,  Chicago  had  it.  According  to  the  pa- 
pers it  appears  that  while  the  wedding  was  going  on  at  Coburg, 
"Chicago  Council  of  the  Princes  of  Jerusalem  was  in  session  at 
the  temple ;  not  at  the  temple  in  Jerusalem  but  at  the  temple 
in  Chicago,  under  the  direction  and  command  of  Chester  T.  Deake, 
sovereign  prince  of  Jerusalem,  and  James  F.  Church,  High  Priest, 
and  thrice  potent  G.  M."  I  do  not  understand  the  cabalistic  signs, 
but  I  think  G.  M.  are  the  proper  heiroglyphics  that  stand  for  Grand 
Mogul.  All  the  Chicago  princes  are  not  of  equal  rank,  for  they 
are  classified  into  three  grades,  sovereign,  illustrious,  and  sublime. 
With  reverential  awe  we  read  that  "  Gourgas  Chapter  assembled 
at  five  o'clock,  with  Illustrious  Prince  John  A.  May  presiding, 
while  Illustrious  Prince  James  B.  McFatrick  occupied  the  throne 
of  the  Grand  Pontiff,"  wearing,  I  suppose,  the  triple  crown  upon 
his  head.  George  W.  Warville,  "Sublime  Prince  of  the  royal 
secret,"  wearing  the  shining  jewel  of  his  rank,  bestowed  some  high 
degrees  upon  aspiring  princelings  ;  and  after  conferring  upon  the 
sublime,  illustrious,  and  sovereign  brethren  the  knighthood  of  the 
white  and  black  eagle  the  conference  adjourned.  An  old  army 
comrade  of  mine  is  a  hatter  in  Chicago  ;  a  knight  of  the  black 
eagle,  and  a  sovereign  prince  of  Jerusalem  ;  but  yet,  when  you  go 
into  his  place  to  buy  a  hat,  he  is  as  affable  and  condescending  as 
any  common  man.  M.  M.  Trumbull. 


NOTES. 

The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.  is  now  publishing  a  new, 
authorised  translation  by  Merwin-Marie  Snell  of  the  eighth  edi- 
tion of  M.  Ribot's  famous  monograph  on  "The  Diseases  of  the 
Will,"  the  conclusions  of  which  are  contained  in  M.  Ribot's  article 
on  "The  Will "  in  this  number.  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 
has  also  published  "  The  Diseases  of  Personality"  and  "  The  Psy- 
chology of  Attention."  No  belter  introductions  to  the  science  of 
psychology  can  be  found  than  these  little  books  of  the  great  French 
psychologist,  all  of  which  are  to  the  point,  and  not  overladen 
with  special  discussions.  In  Mr.  Snell's  elegant  and  graceful 
translation  of  "The  Diseases  of  the  Will"  the  reader  will  have  a 
perfect  equivalent  of  the  original,  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  all 
the  citations  and  authorities  of  the  original,  many  of  which  were 
faulty,  have  been  recompared  and  verified. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

324  DEARBORN   STREET, 
CHICAGO.  ILLINOIS,  POST  OFFICE  DRAWER  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher.  DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 

TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  348. 

THE  WILL.     Prof.  Th.  Ribot 4055 

INSTINCT  AND   INTELLIGENCE   IN    CHICKS  AND 

DUCKLINGS.     Prof.  C.  Lloyd  Morgan 4058 

CURRENT  TOPICS  :  American  Saints.  Paying  Them  to 
Move  On.  Senator  Hill.  Party  Loyalty.  Counting  a 
Quorum.  The  Wedding  at  Coburg.  American  Princes. 
Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull 4061 

NOTES 4062 


B30 


The  Open  Court. 


A  ■WTEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  349.     (Vol.  VIII.— 18 


CHICAGO,  MAY  3,   1894. 


I  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


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SUGGESTIONS  TOUCHING  MATTER  AND  ENERGY. 

BY  PAUL  R.    SHIPMAN. 

We  speak  of  matter  and  energy  or  force  (I  use 
these  two  latter  words  interchangeably  for  the  pur- 
poses of  this  article)  as  if  they  were  essentially  differ- 
ent, when,  in  fact,  it  should  seem,  they  are  essentially 
the  same,  differing  in  mode  only. 

Speaking  roundly,  as  well  as  figuratively,  we  may 
call  matter  funded  energy — energy  current  matter;  or 
matter  we  may  distinguish,  roundly,  as  visible  energy 
— energy  as  invisible  matter.  Take,  for  example,  the 
clod  at  your  feet.  It  is  matter,  you  say;  yet  analyse 
it,  pushing  the  analysis  as  far  as  you  may,  and  you 
get  nothing  but  modes  of  energy,  with  a  residuum 
that  offers  nothing  different.  Nevertheless,  these  parts 
together  make  the  clod.  Whither  does  this  unques- 
tioned fact  point,  if  not  to  the  conclusion  that  matter 
and  energy  are  in  essence  the  same?  Nothing  but  en- 
ergy can  be  got  out  of  matter,  because  matter  is  noth- 
ing but  energy  more  or  less  compounded,  as  energy  is 
nothing  but  matter  more  or  less  resolved.  Matter, 
one  may  say,  bears  the  relation  to  energy,  always 
speaking  roundly,  that  a  stocking  bears  to  the  thread 
of  which  it  is  knit:  ravel  matter,  and  you  have  energy 
— knit  up  the  ravelling,  and  you  have  matter  again. 
Energy  is  the  simpler  state  of  the  common  substance 
— the  raw  material,  as  it  were,  of  which  matter  is  the 
elaboration  in  greater  or  less  degree. 

But  if  matter  and  energy  are  essentially  the  same, 
it  may  be  asked,  what  becomes  of  the  vehicle  of  en- 
ergy? The  metaphor  is  superseded.  If  energy  is  a 
form  of  matter,  it  is  its  own  vehicle.  The  notion  that 
matter  is  the  vehicle  of  energy  is  possibly  a  good 
enough  working-notion  for  physicists,  in  the  present 
state  of  physics,  but  has  as  little  philosophical  value 
as  the  notion  that  ice  is  a  vehicle  of  water,  or  water 
a  vehicle  of  vapor.  It  is  secondary,  not  to  say  illusive. 
It  relates  to  states  of  matter,  without  approaching  its 
essential  form  ;  it  sticks  in  the  outer  bark  of  things. 
Matter  might  be  described  as  fixed  energy,  and  energy 
as  free  matter ;  but  this  distinction,  like  every  other 
of  which  the  case  admits,  is  accidental  only.  No  en- 
ergy can  be  absolutely  free  ;  no  matter  can  be  abso- 
lutely fixed — not  even  that  which  Professor  Dewar,  if 


one  may  credit  the  exultanffoes  of  matter,  is  about 
to  lock  in  the  cold  embrace  of  molecular  death. 

If  matter  and  energy  are  one,  the  questioner  may 
persist.  How  is  it  that,  in  a  given  material  system,  the 
energy  disappears,  while  the  matter  remains  ?  The 
energy  does  not  disappear,  nor  does  the  matter  re- 
main— if  the  definite  article  is  used  to  signify  the  whole 
of  either  in  the  system  ;  the  energy  that  disappears 
carries  with  it  a  corresponding  part  of  the  matter,  in 
the  action  whereof  it  consists,  the  matter,  under  stress 
of  position,  no  more  remaining  intact  than  musk  re- 
mains intact  while  diffusing  its  odor  through  a  room, 
though  the  nicest  balance  may  fail  to  detect  the  slight- 
est loss  of  weight  in  either.  In  fact,  the  energy  and 
the  matter  equally  disappear — equally  remain. 

Energy  is  something  moving — not  the  effect  of 
something  moving,  but  the  fact.  The  degree  of  en- 
ergy depends  on  the  mass  of  what  is  moving,  and  the 
velocity  with  which  it  moves;  but  the  energy  itself 
consists  in  the  moving  or  resisting  something  that  is 
another  name  for  existence — matter  in  its  elementary 
state.  Matter  is  not  moved  ;  it  moves — is  essentially 
active,  not  passive.  Motion  is  neither  an  accident 
nor  an  attribute  of  matter  ;  it  does  not  belong  to  mat- 
ter, for  without  it  matter  would  have  no  existence,  and 
a  thing  cannot,  speaking  accurately,  possess  itself  or 
a  constituent  of  itself — cannot  be  at  the  same  time 
both  possessor  and  possession.  Indeed,  the  prevalent 
conception  of  subject  and  attribute,  in  general,  not 
only  has  no  objective  reality,  but  involves  this  contra- 
diction. Motion  is  an  essential  part  of  matter,  as 
energy  is  the  essential  mode. 

What  cannot  resist  does  not  exist.  Matter,  it  is 
true,  exists  in  states  wherein  it  is  so  fine  and  impon- 
derable as  not  to  offer  sensible  resistance,  but  it  must 
be  convertible  into  states  in  which  it  does  offer  sensi- 
ble resistance,  or  cease  to  exist.  The  principle  holds 
good  everywhere  and  always.  The  unseen  is  real,  pro- 
vided it  is  convertible,  theoretically  or  practically,  into 
the  sensible ;  but  not  otherwise.  The  idea  that  the 
unseen  is  the  only  real,  or  pre-eminently  the  real,  is 
philosophico-romantic  bosh.  The  divisibility  of  mat- 
ter soon  carries  us  indeed  beyond  the  reach  not  only 
of  the  senses,  but  of  the  subtlest  instruments  by  which 
the  senses  can  be   implemented;  yet,  however  far  it 


4064 


THE    OPEN    COURl'. 


may  go,  it  can  never  carry  us  beyond  a  point  at  which 
the  parts  are  reconvertible  into  the  sensible  whole 
from  which  they  were  resolved.  Not  the  absolute 
unseen,  but  the  sensible,  actual  or  possible,  is  the 
only  real.  The  insensible  is  conceivable  only  in  terms 
of  the  sensible,  into  which,  if  real,  it  is  transformable. 
Cognition  of  the  insensible  supposes  cognition  of  the 
sensible,  conception  being  possible  only  within  the 
limits  of  possible  perception.  Let  this  truth  be  firmly 
grasped.  The  intellectual  currency  that  is  not  re- 
deemable in  the  standard  coin  of  the  realm  of  sense  is 
worthless.  What  cannot  be  translated  into  resistance 
has  no  existence,  no  reality,  no  meaning,  is  nothing. 
Whatever  resists  exists,  and,  conversely,  whatever 
exists  resists.  Resistance  and  existence  are  inter- 
changeable terms  ;  but  resistance  is  synonymous  with 
energy  or  force,  which  is  the  stuff  of  sensible  matter — 
that  of  which  sensible  matter  is  the  more  or  less  com- 
plex form.  For  existence,  be  it  observed,  though  fun- 
damentally one,  is  divisible  superficially  into  ponder- 
able matter,  or  matter  so  named,  and  imponderable 
matter,  or  energy,  whereof  each  is  transmutable  into 
the  other,  the  two  mutually  blending  to  form  the  sum- 
total  of  reahty. 

There  is  thus  no  escape  from  the  inference  that  the 
consumption  of  energy  is  the  consumption  of  matter. 
Every  act,  for  instance,  of  what  we  call  consciousness, 
but  which  is  really  nothing  more  than  a  special  form 
of  interaction  or  responsiveness,  infallibly  wastes  the 
matter  of  the  brain,  determinably  or  indeterminably, 
as  exhalation  wastes  a  grain  of  musk,  which,  notwith- 
standing, experiment  has  shown,  weighs  a  full  grain 
at  the  end  of  a  generation.  No  atom  moves  without 
loss  of  substance  ;  for,  whatever  view  one  may  take  of 
the  relation  of  energy  to  matter,  it  is  admitted  on  all 
hands  that  they  uniformly  vary  in  mutual  correspon- 
dence, every  change  of  either  synchronising  with  a 
corresponding  change  of  the  other.  The  vibration  of 
an  atom,  therefore,  is  attended  by  the  expenditure  of 
both,  on  any  hypothesis.  The  table  on  which  my  eyes 
now  open  is  not,  in  rigorous  exactness,  the  table  on 
which  they  shut  an  instant  ago,  for,  even  in  the  twin- 
kling, it  has  felt  that  hand  of  change,  inevitable,  irre- 
sistible, irremovable,  which,  sooner  or  later,  come  what 
may,  will  destroy  its  formal  identity,  reducing  it  to  its 
elements,  and  dispersing  these.  The  distinction  be- 
tween reality  and  appearance  that  once  cut  a  figure  in 
metaphysics  resolves  itself  into  a  simple  distinction  be- 
tween the  more  or  less  permanent  and  the  transient, 
which,  though  not  always  equally  tangible,  are  equally 
real,  and  in  due  time  equally  pass  away.  It  is  ever 
thus;  metaphysics  propounds  riddles,  and  physics 
reads  them.  Some  day,  thanks  to  physics,  only  one 
riddle  will  remain  ;  and  thai  the  world,  if  guided  by  a 
sound  philosophy,  will  give  up. 


But,  says  the  physicist  of  to-day,  atoms  are  con- 
stant, undergoing  no  change.  No  doubt  atoms  (by 
which  I  mean  the  organised  constituents  of  molecules) 
are  relatively  constant,  as  they  are  relatively  simple  ; 
but  everything  in  ceaseless  action  undergoes  ceaseless 
waste,  and,  accordingly,  is  on  the  highway  to  dissolu- 
tion, from  which  nothing  organised  is  absolutely  free. 
The  catastrophe  may  be  remote,  and,  in  the  case  of 
atoms,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  it  would  not  be  rash  to  ad- 
mit that  it  may  come  only  with  the  general  catastrophe 
of  things  under  the  sun,  of  which,  in  this  event,  it 
would  probably  mark  the  crisis,  the  elements  of  our 
system  melting  with  fervent  heat,  but  the  atoms  last 
of  all — that  atoms,  in  a  word,  are  formed  in  some  stage 
of  the  catastrophe  which  gives  birth  to  a  S3'stem,  and 
dissolved  in  the  catastrophe  which  ends  it. 

All  this,  however,  is  consistent  with  their  incessant 
loss  of  substance  throughout  the  stupendous  interval. 
An  atom,  to  be  sure,  is  a  very  small  thing,  and  this 
interval  is  indeed  stupendous,  yet  we  can  fairly  assign 
such  a  ratio  between  the  momentary  waste  of  the  atom 
and  its  weight  that  it  might  endure  without  appreciable 
loss  of  substance  for  the  lifetime  of  a  planetary  system, 
as  well  as  a  grain  of  musk  endures  in  like  manner  for 
the  average  lifetime  of  man.  A  finite  ratio,  if  low 
enough,  would  answer  the  purpose. 

Besides,  an  atom  realises,  what  Webster  on  a 
memorable  occasion  told  Hayne,  Benton,  &  Co.,  that 
there  are  "blows  to  take  as  well  as  blows  to  give," 
causing  substantial  gains  no  less  than  substantial 
losses,  and  reducing  the  net  loss  of  substance,  it  may 
be,  to  the  lowest  quantity  possible  under  the  law  of 
the  dissipation  of  energy;  which  would  bring  the  as- 
signment of  a  proper  ratio  in  the  case  still  more  clearly 
within  the  limits  of  theoretical  possibility. 

For  the  rest,  we  may  easily  make  too  much  of 
atoms,  as  members  of  the  cosmos,  I  apprehend,  since 
the  range  of  existence  from  the  infinite  to  the  infini- 
tesimal leaves  us  no  choice  but  to  admit  an  infinite 
range  of  magnitudes  beyond  atoms,  with  some  of 
which,  and  presumably  with  the  least  conceivable  of 
the  series,  nature  gets  in  her  fine  work,  if  not,  in  a 
broad  sense,  her  whole  work.  Compared  to  these, 
atoms  are  worlds.  Anyhow,  in  the  analysis  of  things 
atoms  are  not  the  last  word. 

One  other  objection  may  be  anticipated.  If  matter 
is  resolvable  into  energy,  and,  when  pressed  by  anal- 
ysis, yields  nothing  else,  how  can  we  perceive  some- 
thing resisting,  without  at  the  same  time  perceiving 
the  resistance  as  resistance  ?  The  former  is  concrete 
resistance,  which  we  perceive  immediately,  while  the 
latter  is  abstract  resistance,  the  product  of  analysis. 
Agreeably  to  a  familiar  law  of  mind,  not  questioned  in 
our  time,  I  believe,  we  perceive  the  whole  of  the  ob- 
ject in  perception,  before  we  perceive  its  parts — per- 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4065 


ceive  it  generally,  first,  and  specially  afterwards.  The 
resisting  something  that  affords  our  primordial  con- 
sciousness, presenting  itself  as  external  and  conse- 
quently as  extended,  is  the  object  thus  perceived  in 
its  wholeness  or  generally,  before  analysis  has  spe- 
cialised it,  bringing  into  consciousness  the  resistance 
as  such.  Resistance  as  such  is  disembodied  motion  ; 
but  the  mind  must  apprehend  motion  embodied  be- 
fore it  can  disembody  it.  And  embodied  motion  is 
energy, — living  matter, — matter  to  whose  essence  mo- 
tion pertains,  and  which,  accordingly,  like  Milton's 
angels, 

"...  .vital  in  every  part, 
Cannot  but  by  annihilating  die." 

Force  has  been  called  the  primary  attribute  of 
body.  But  in  what  sense  is  this  true?  In  a  psycho- 
logical sense  purely,  according  to  my  judgment.  It 
defines  a  subjective  appearance  in  terms  that  have  no 
objective  validity.  The  force  which  at  any  given  mo- 
ment a  body  puts  forth,  or  is  fancied  to  put  forth,  is  a 
partial  resolution  of  the  compounded  force  composing 
the  body;  for  though  the  body  and  the  force  it  puts 
forth  are  of  corresponding  form  and  the  same  ultimate 
nature,  they  are  not  of  the  same  quantity  or  duration, 
the  greater  mass  and  permanence  of  the  former  giving 
rise  to  the  distinction  of  subject  and  attribute — matter 
and  force.  The  relation  of  matter  and  force  is  indeed 
the  relation  of  subject  and  attribute  in  its  most  general 
form,  and,  what  most  concerns  us  here,  is  non-essen- 
tial throughout,  disappearing  in  the  fundamental  unity 
of  things.  The  difference  between  a  body  and  the 
force  it  is  said  to  exert  is  at  bottom,  therefore,  purely 
quantitative ;  the  force  is  an  integrant  part  of  the 
body. 

The  plain  fact  is  that  energy,  as  essentially  distin- 
guished from  matter,  is  a  creature  of  the  imagination, 
formed  by  transferring  to  objective  changes  the  effi- 
ciency or  causal  nexus  which  that  power  reads  into 
subjective  ones — unreal  in  both  :  no  reality  answers  to 
it  in  either.  There  is  matter  or  existence  or  resistance, 
with  its  changes — nothing  else.  This  is  the  bare  fact ; 
although  men,  not  appreciating  the  simplicity  of  na- 
ture, have  clothed  it  with  the  fig-leaf  of  energy  or 
force.  Philosophy  need  not  tear  off  this  covering. 
But  it  is  bound  to  look  beneath  it.  There  it  will  find, 
if  it  looks  deep  enough,  not  matter  and  energy,  but 
simply  matter  in  its  various  modes,  whereof  the  mode 
that  men  use  the  word  energy  to  explain  is  the  primary 
one,  though  no  more  distinguishable  from  the  other 
modes  or  from  matter  than  the  sea  is  distinguishable 
from  the  billows  it  heaves  or  from  the  water  that  forms 
it.  The  primary  mode  of  a  thing,  like  the  primary 
attribute,  is  really  the  equivalent  of  the  thing  ;  its  pri- 
mary mode,  as  comprehending  its  other  modes,  being 
the  sum  of  all  its  modes,  and  consequently  the  thing 


itself.      The  primary  mode  of  a  thing  is  the  thing  in 
its  elements. 

In  fine,  matter  and  energy  are  two  names  for  two 
aspects  or  two  states  of  the  same  thing — of  that  re- 
sisting something  to  which  the  former  of  these  names 
is  usually  given,  and  may  be  given  fitly  enough  by 
synecdoche  or  comprehension,  but  for  which  I  think  a 
better  name  is  existence,  or,  better  still,  resistance,  each 
of  which,  properly  considered,  has  the  same  extension 
and  intension  as  matter  in  its  figurative  sense.  Matter 
in  this  sense,  it  will  be  noted,  is  indistinguishable  from 
energy,  of  which  matter  in  its  common  acceptation  is 
a  mode  or  state,  energy  itself  being  the  primary  state 
of  the  fundamental  thing.  In  one  of  these  states  or 
in  certain  degrees  of  it,  the  thing  is  so  massed  and 
complex  as  to  overwhelm  imagination  ;  in  certain  de- 
grees of  the  other  it  is  so  diffused  and  simple  as  not 
only  to  elude  imagination,  but  to  dupe  reason,  for, 
while  in  the  former  state  we  all  agree  to  call  the  thing 
matter,  in  the  latter  some  of  us,  misled  by  its  tran- 
scendent subtilty,  are  weak  enough  to  assume  that  it 
has  become  nothing,  naming  it  consequently /wOT^y/^r/a/ 
substance,  incorporeal  agent,  hyperphysical  being,  spirit, 
and  the  like,  words  that  signify  nothing — that  keep 
the  pledge  of  meaning  to  our  ear,  and  break  it  to  our 
sense. 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  "Principles  of  Psy- 
chology," has  a  chapter  on  "  The  Substance  of  Mind," 
wherein  he  undertakes  to  demonstrate,  first,  that  mind 
cannot  be  conscious  of  its  substance,  and,  secondly, 
that  mind  is  conscious  that  its  substance  is  immaterial, 
or,  what  comes  to  the  same  thing,  that  mind  is  imma- 
terial because  it  cannot  be  conscious  that  it  is  material 
— about  as  sleek  a  bull,  to  my  mind,  as  ever  pastured 
in  the  green  fields  of  philosophy.  The  chapter  might 
put  one  in  mind  of  the  lawyer's  famous  answer  to  the 
complaint  that  his  client  had  returned  a  borrowed 
kettle  broken.  "In  the  first  place,"  said  he,  "the 
kettle  was  cracked  when  my  client  borrowed  it ;  sec- 
ondly, it  was  whole  when  he  returned  it ;  and,  thirdly, 
he  never  had  it."  Even  Mr.  Spencer's  conception  of 
the  substance  of  mind  is  open  to  question,  I  think.  He 
holds  the  substance  of  mind  to  be  "that  which  per- 
sists in  spite  of  all  changes,  and  maintains  the  unity 
of  the  aggregate  in  defiance  of  all  attempts  to  divide 
it."  But  "that  which  persists  in  spite  of  all  changes" 
must  be  either  the  sum  of  the  changes  or  the  subject 
of  them.  If  the  sum  of  the  changes,  it  consists  of 
them,  and  cannot  persist  in  spite  of  them.  If  the  sub- 
ject of  the  changes,  it  is  a  whole,  whereof  they  are  the 
parts,  independently  of  which  it  has  no  existence,  and 
of  course  no  persistence,  in  spite  of  them  or  other- 
wise. The  subject  of  the  changes  and  the  sum  of  the 
changes  are  in  reality  one  and  the  same.  A  thing  apart 
from  its  modes  is  nothing.     As  there  is  thus  no  such 


4o66 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


thing  it  cannot  be  the  substance  of  mind  or  of  anything 
else,  much  less  that  which  "  maintains  the  unity  of 
the  aggregate  in  defiance  of  all  attempts  to  divide  it." 
The  latter  service,  happily,  in  place  of  resting  with 
this  nonentity,  is  discharged  by  the  unity  of  the  or- 
ganism, whereof  "the  unity  of  the  aggregate"  is  the 
expression.  The  unity  of  the  aggregate,  moreover, 
belongs  to  mind  as  mind,  and  the  substance  of  mind, 
it  hardly  need  be  said,  is  not  mind,  as  the  substance 
of  a  watch  is  not  the  watch.  It  is  not  the  substance 
but  the  form  of  mind  that  gives  it  unity.  The  sub- 
stance of  mind,  according  to  my  view,  I  have  already 
said,  is  ethereal  stress,^  or  matter  enormously  subtile, 
vibrating  with  enormous  velocity,  and  of  which  we  are 
conscious  as  energy,  mind  being  the  specific  form  of 
stress  determined  by  the  nervous  system. 

If  this  be  so,  the  mind,  though  unconscious  of  it- 
self, not  only  is  conscious  of  its  substance  (of  that 
whereof  its  substance  is  a  direct  portion),  but  is  not 
conscious  of  anything  else  ;  for  visible  matter  we  per- 
ceive only  through  the  intermediation  of  the  invisible 
matter  that  we  call  energy.  The  unseen  is  not  more 
or  less  real  than  the  seen,  yet  it  is  only  the  unseen  (the 
unseen  not  the  insensible)  that  we  perceive  immediately 
— of  which  we  are  conscious  in  the  strict  meaning  of 
the  word.  Strictly,  I  am  not  conscious  of  the  pen  in 
my  hand,  but  only  of  the  wave  lengths  that  it  propa- 
gates to  my  sensorium,  and  which,  by  a  train  of  rea- 
soning, I  trace  back  to  it,  synthesising  them  into  the 
symbol  of  it.  Of  these  vibrations,  forming  the  imme- 
diate object  of  perception,  I  am  momently"^  conscious 
through  the  sense  of  resistance — the  sense  that,  in  my 
opinion,  comprehends  all  the  other  senses,  and  is  in 
reality  the  fundamental  mode  of  consciousness,  every 
possible  object  of  which,  by  the  bye,  in  all  its  modes, 
is  external,  the  idea  that  a  state  of  consciousness  is  or 
may  become  an  object  of  consciousness  being  a  sover- 
eign absurdity.  But  I  am  here  anticipating  a  discus- 
sion whereon  I  do  not  now  propose  to  enter. 

Having  been  betrayed  into  saying  thus  much, 
though,  I  maybe  allowed  to  add  certain  precautionary 

1  Here  obviously  is  an  opening  for  the  telepathist,  who  may  suggest  tliat 
ethereal  stress  bears  the  same  relation  to  mind  as  the  physicists  say  it  bears 
to  electricity— that,  although  it  cannot  think  or  conduct  thought,  it  may  con- 
duct the  peculiar  stress  set  up  by  the  thought  of  one  mind,  and  capable  of  re- 
producing it  in  another,  no  matter  how  distant.  The  suggestion,  it  seems  to 
me,  1  confess,  conflicts  with  no  known  fact  or  principle,  but  rather  accords 
fundamentally  with  all  the  known  modes  of  communication  from  mind  to 
mind.  The  difference,  so  far  as  principle  is  concerned,  between  communicat- 
ing an  idea  through  the  air,  by  actual  articulation,  and  through  the  ether,  by 
ideal  articulation  {we  think  in  words),  is  not  apparent.  Why  may  not  the 
subtler  determination,  in  exceptional  circumstances,  pass  by  the  subtler  me- 
dium, as  well  as  the  coarser  determination,  ordinarily,  by  the  coarser  medium? 
Be  this  as  it  may,  the  marvels  of  the  so-called  spiritual  world,  it  is  my  un- 
doubting  faith,  are  solely  due  to  what  we  call  matter,  whose  properties  will  be 
found  sooner  or  later  to  account  for  all  of  them  that  are  real. 

2  In  developed  mind,  psychologists  agree,  the  immediate  object  of  con- 
sciousness, as  a  fleeting  step  in  the  process  of  acquired  perception,  excites  no 
a'tention,  and  immediately  lapses  out  of  consciousness,  presenting  a  case  un- 
der the  familiar  law  o   obli' 


remarks,  (i)  Touch,  I  hold,  may  be  analysed  into  re- 
sistance, as  certainly  as  the  remaining  senses  may  be 
analysed  into  touch  ;  resistance  is  the  essence  of  all 
the  senses — is  for  that  matter  the  essence  of  mind. 
(2)  The  part  commonly  assigned  to  muscular  tension 
and  volition  in  the  perception  of  resistance  seems  to 
me  unwarranted  ;  they  are  needed  to  measure  resist- 
ance, but  not  to  perceive  it.  (3)  What  Kant  called 
the  vital  sense,  including  the  sense  of  temperature, 
the  sense  of  health,  the  sense  of  hunger  and  thirst,  and 
so  on,  is  no  more  than  a  consciousness  of  the  several 
organic  states  which  these  names  connote,  and  which 
do  not  require  a  separate  sense,  any  more  than  hunger 
requires  one  sense,  and  thirst  another.  The  same  is 
true  of  muscular  movement  and  muscular  tension, 
which  call  for  a  muscular  sense  as  little  as  love  calls 
for  an  erotic  sense  (the  elder  Scaliger  thought  it  did), 
or  hate  for  a  demonic  one. 

Consciousness  in  truth  is  its  own  sense,  and  (sub- 
jectively speaking)  there  is  no  other,  what  are  called 
the  senses  being  simply  modified  parts  of  the  bodily 
surface,  facilitating  the  communication  of  external  ob- 
jects with  the  brain  centres,  but  ending  where  con- 
sciousness begins— gateways  to  consciousness,  which, 
however,  may  be  entered  without  trouble  over  the  fence, 
through  the  fence,  and  under  the  fence,  as  well  as  by 
these  "portals  of  the  soul."  Things  open  avenues  to 
consciousness,  or  lines  of  least  resistance,  which  they 
ordinarily  travel ;  but,  when  greatly  excited,  they  some- 
times cut  across  lots,  making  nothing  of  barriers  — 
strong  feeling  is  apt  to  revive  old  habits.  Yet  so  long 
as  a  thing  gets  there,  and  brings  out  from  the  brain 
that  reaction  or  response  wherein  consciousness  essen- 
tially consists,  it  matters  little  whether  it  goes  by  the 
highway  of  the  senses  or  through  the  fields  of  general 
sensibility;  the  point  is  that  consciousness  is  acces- 
sible both  ways,  and,  when  accosted  by  an  object  ap- 
proaching either  way,  is  (like  Hamlet  adjured  by  his 
father's  ghost)  "bound  to  hear."  The  refinings  of 
science  are  very  well,  but  so  is  the  simplicity  of  phi- 
losophy, to  which,  one  should  never  forget,  they  may 
all  be  reduced  ;  fundamental  truth  is  the  pole-star  of 
the  thinker,  and  he  who  would  not  lose  himself  on  the 
trackless  sea  of  knowledge  must  habitually  recur  to  it, 
as  the  mariner  to  his  compass. 

In  closing  this  article,  I  may  venture  to  recall 
"  a  remark  or  two  of  Mr.  Spencer's,  bearing  espe- 
cially on  the  subject  of  it.  Our  experiences  of  mat- 
ter, he  observes,  are  "resolvable  into  experiences  of 
force,"  adding,  in  another  connexion,  that  "resistance 
is  the  primary  attribute  of  body."  If  hy  force  Mr. 
Spencer  means  only  matter  in  a  finer  mode  than  that 
to  which  we  ordinarily  give  the  name,  (force  in  the 
sense  in  which  I  have  sought  to  present  it,)  his  posi- 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4067 


tion  is  merely  a  paradox — false  in  appearance,  but 
true  in  fact  ;  but  if  he  means  by  force  something  im- 
material, the  position,  I  hope  I  may  be  pardoned  for 
saying,  is  not  a  paradox,  but  an  absurdity.  For, 
granting  that  a  thing  may  be  the  attribute  of  that 
which  is  resolvable  into  it,  nothing  can  be  resolvable 
into  it  without  community  of  nature  with  it,  such  as 
does  not  exist  between  the  material  and  the  immaterial. 
If  force  is  immaterial,  and  matter  is  resolvable  into  it, 
matter  not  only  is  destructible,  but  is  destroyed  whole- 
sale every  instant — nay,  it  does  not  exist  at  all,  for,  in 
this  case,  matter  is  immaterial.  The  mutual  converti- 
bility of  all  things  existing  is  a  corollary  from  the 
principle  of  which  the  conservation  of  energy  and  the 
indestructibility  of  matter  are  phases  ;  so  that  if  but 
an  atom  were  immaterialised  the  whole  world  would 
run  out  of  existence  through  the  aperture — a  single 
point  of  absolute  nothing  would  empty  the  universe. 
This  topping  contradiction  of  immaterial  matter  I 
see  only  one  way  to  avoid,  which  is  a  recognition  of 
the  fact  that  matter  and  energy  are  interconvertible 
states  of  the  one  fundamental  existence.  Assuredly, 
if  force  is  immaterial,  neither  of  Mr.  Spencer's  re- 
marks can  be  true.  Matter,  in  that  case,  is  not  re- 
solvable into  force,  as  I  have  pointed  out ;  nor  can 
force  be  the  attribute  of  matter,  for  a  substance  is 
equal  to  the  sum  of  all  its  attributes,  as  a  whole  is 
equal  to  its  parts,  and  a  material  whole  cannot  be 
made  up  of  immaterial  parts.  Assume  that  energy  is 
an  immaterial  effluence  of  matter  or  in  harmony  with 
matter,  and  you  at  once  sink  out  of  sight  into  a  bot- 
tomless quicksand.  Grant  that  it  is  a  material  agency, 
and,  in  my  conviction,  you  stand  on  solid  ground,  with 
the  key  to  a  consistent  and  complete  explanation  of 
world  phenomena.  And  there  seems  to  me  to  be  no 
third  position.  Existence  is  an  inscrutable  fact — in- 
scrutable because  infinite,  the  properties  of  infinite 
existence  requiring  for  their  manifestation  infinite  time 
and  space,  which  no  finite  being  may  compass  ;  it  is 
the  one  mystery,  if  we  may  with  propriety  call  that  a 
mystery  which  is  the  principle  of  explanation — that 
into  which  we  resolve  things  to  explain  them.  To  this 
one  mystery  immaterialism  or  unresistantism  adds  two 
other  mysteries,  which,  however,  may  be  reduced  to 
one — namely,  the  action  of  a  thing  where  it  is  not,  by 
something  else  that  is  not.  To  say  the  least,  this  is 
unphilosophical.  It  falls  under  Occam's  razor,  not  to 
mention  the  bludgeon  of  common  sense.  It  is  an  ob- 
vious form  of  the  doctrine  that  in  our  day  has  become, 
justly,  the  especial  opprobrium  of  philosophy — dualism. 
On  the  other  hand,  resistantism,  by  whatever  name 
distinguished,  leaves  the  one  mystery  in  its  awful  sin- 
gleness. It  is  monism — monism  pure  and  unquali- 
fied— monism  in  the  full  length  and  breadth  and  depth 
of  the  term. 


THE  WRONG  METHOD  OF  HENISM. 

We  publish  Mr.  Paul  R.  Shipman's  article,  not  be- 
cause we  agree,  but  because  we  disagree,  with  him. 
The  line  of  thought  which  he  follows  is  exceedingly 
suggestive,  but  we  regard  his  methods,  not  less  than 
his  results,  as  faulty.  He  aims  to  construct  a  mo- 
nistic system,  "monism  pure  and  unqualified,"  as  he 
calls  it ;  but  his  philosophy  is  what  in  previous  articles 
we  have  characterised  as  Henism,i  or  a  single-concept 
theory,  which  in  utter  disregard  of  the  nature  of  ab- 
straction selects  some  one  general  term  and  subsumes 
under  it  all  other  ideas,  whether  or  not  they  belong  to 
its  category. 

A  few  paragraphs  quoted  from  the  "Primer  of 
Philosophy  "  will  suffice  to  explain  the  nature  of  ab- 
straction : 

"  The  importance  of  understanding  the  process  and  scope  of 
abstraction  is  very  great,  for  abstraction  is  the  very  essence  and 
nature  of  man's  method  of  thought.  .  .  .  Abstraction  is  a  very  sim- 
ple process,  and  yet  some  of  the  greatest  philosophers  have  mis- 
understood it.  .  .  .  The  greatest  difficulty  for  a  child  when  he  learns 
to  walk  is,  not  to  stumble  over  his  own  feet.  Similarly,  the  great- 
est difficulty  with  philosophers  is,  not  to  stumble  over  their  own 
ideas.  .  .  .  The  very  existence  of  many  problems  proves  how  little 
the  nature  of  abstract  ideas  is  understood.  There  is,  for  instance, 
the  question  which  has  again  and  again  been  raised,  whether  the 
soul  can  be  explained  from  matter  or  energy.  The  question  itself 
is  wrong,  and  proves  that  the  questioner  stumbles  over  his  own 
ideas.  We  might  just  as  well  ask  whether  matter  can  be  ex- 
plained from  energy,  or  energy  from  matter.  Matter  and  energy 
are  two  different  kinds  of  abstraction,  and  feelings,  or  states  of 
consciousness,  are  again  another  kind.  We  cannot  explain  an  idea 
by  confounding  it  with  other  heterogeneous  ideas.  What  should 
we  say,  for  instance,  of  a  man  who  spoke  of  blue  or  green  ideas, 
or  who  attempted  an  explanation  of  mathematical  problems  from 
the  law  of  gravitation  ?  What  should  we  say  of  a  philosopher  who 
sought  to  determine  whether  ideas  could  be  explained  from  the  ink 
in  which  they  are  written  ? 

"  Our  abstracts  are  stored  away,  as  it  were,  in  different  draw- 
ers and  boxes.  Any  one  who  expects  to  solve  problems  that  con- 
found two  sets  of  abstractions,  has  either  stored  his  ideas  im- 
properly, or  searches  for  them  in  the  wrong  box." 

Henists  are  philosophers,  who,  in  their  efforts  to 
be  monists,  store  away  all  their  notions  in  one  box,  be 
it  the  category  of  matter,  or  of  energy,  or  of  spirit,  or 
of  whatever  else,  instead  of  distributing  them  in  the 
places  where  they  belong. 

For  our  present  purpose  it  is  indifferent  what  defi- 
nition of  matter  we  adopt.  We  may  define  it  with 
Kant  as  that  which  affects  or  can  affect  the  senses, 
or  we  may,  with  the  phj'sicists,  say  it  is  that  which 
can  be  acted  upon  by  or  can  exert  force.  It  is  true 
that  all  our  experiences  are  possible  only  because  we 
exert  force  and  meet  resistance ;  reality  consists  of 
action  and  reaction,  it  is,  as  the  Germans  so  appro- 
priately call  it,  Wirklichkeit.  But  for  that  reason  we 
cannot  say  that  everything  is  resistance.      We  must 

1  See  ThcMonist,  vol,  iv.  No,  2.  "  Monism  and  Henisni," 


4o68 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


not  forget  the  nature  of  our  abstract  terms.  To  say 
"  matter  is  resistance  "  is  at  once  a  mistake.  We  ought 
to  say  "  matter  is  that  which  resists  ";  for  it  is  not  the 
act  of  resistance,  but  that  enduring  something  which 
resists.  Professor  Mach  in  his  definition  of  matter, 
"  zu  dessen  Wahrnehmung  «//;■  die  Wirksamkeit  der 
Sinne  erforderlich  scheint,"  very  guardedly  adds  and 
itahcises  nur ;  for  forms  and  motions  are  also  perceiv- 
able by  the  senses  ;  yet  neither  forms  nor  motions  are 
matter,  for  indeed  they  are  not  perceivable  by  the 
senses  a/on c ;  an  element  of  memory  and  mental  ob- 
servation enters  into  the  ideas  of  form  and  change  of 
place  ;  they  are  not  products  of  mere  sensation. 

When  we  make  the  abstraction  "matter,"  we  se- 
lect certain  features  of  our  experiences,  and  drop  all 
others.  When  speaking  of  the  matter  of  which  a  man 
is  composed,  we  advisedly  omit  his  feelings,  his  in- 
telligence, his  character,  his  plans,  and  purposes,  and 
so  forth.  When  speaking  of  motion,  we  mean  change 
of  place,  and  not  mass,  not  matter,  not  spirit,  nor  any- 
thing else  ;  when  speaking  of  force,  we  refer  to  that 
which  can  produce   motion  and  overcome  resistance. 

This  seems  clear  enough,  and  yet  how  much  is 
this  elementary  rule  of  thinking  sinned  against!  There 
are  plenty  of  henistic  philosophers  who  are  satisfied 
they  are  monists  as  soon  as  they  have  stored  all  their 
ideas  into  the  one  box  of  their  favorite  generalisation. 
Whenever  they  try  to  think  their  ideas  to  an  end  they 
become  entangled  in  contradictions,  and  seeing  no 
way  out  of  it,  they  naturally  turn  agnostics. 

Mr.  Shipman's  method  is  henistic,  and  we  may 
characterise  him  as  a  materialistic  agnostic.  In  former 
articles  he  propounded  the  theory  that  there  is  but  one 
reality,  viz.,  matter,  and  that  is  unknowable  and  mys- 
terious. To-day  he  presents  us  with  a  number  of  conun- 
drums which  grow  out  of  the  henistic  principle  of  his 
method.  We  are  told  that  "matter  and  energy  are  in 
essence  the  same."  "Force  is  material,"  yet  at  the 
same  time  "  matter  is  immaterial."  This  being  so,  the 
old  refrain  follows  :   ' '  Existence  is  an  inscrutable  fact. " 

That  any  one  could  regard  "change  of  place  "  as  a 
material  thing  seems  impossible,  but  such  is  the  con- 
sistent sequence  of  Mr.  Shipman's  materialistic  he- 
nism. 

There  are  a  number  of  minor  points  in  Mr.  Ship- 
man's  article  ;  e.  g.  "  energy  is  something  moving," 
while  it  is  the  actual  or  potential  moving  of  some- 
thing ;  matter  and  energy  are  "transmutable  each 
into  the  other,"  which  is  a  new  law  that  if  true  would 
produce  changes  more  wonderful  than  Aladdin's  lamp; 
"  energy  is  a  form  of  matter,  and  is  its  own  vehicle  "; 
which  sounds  like,  "a  blow  is  the  fist  which  deals  the 
blow,  and  a  blow  is  its  own  striker";  "no  atom  moves 
without  loss  of  substance,"  an  observation  which,  for 
all  we  know,  might  prove  true,  but  where  is  the  veri- 


fication of  this  startling  proposition?  Shall  we  believe 
that  the  ether  profits  thereby  and  is  thus  constantly  in- 
creasing, or  is  this  loss  of  substance  an  absolute  loss 
so  that  in  the  long  run  the  world  would  dwindle  away  ? 
"  What  cannot  be  translated  into  resistance  has  no  ex- 
istence. "  Can  we  translate  the  theorem  of  Pythagoras 
into  resistance,  or  the  ideas  of  truth,  beauty,  and  right- 
eousness? And  as  we  cannot,  have  they,  therefore,  no 
existence? 

It  would  take  more  space  than  editorial  considera- 
tions will  permit  to  unravel  the  stocking  so  ingeniously 
knit  from  the  yarn  of  a  thin  philosophical  abstraction. 
Nevertheless,  who  will  not  find  much  food  for  thought 
in  Mr.  Shipman's  article,  which  deals  with  problems 
which  prove  so  difficult  for  many  profound  naturalists 
as  well  as  philosophers  !  p.  c. 


THE  MEANING  OF  FOLK-DANCE. 

BY  L.  J.    VANCE. 

Folk-dancing  is  not  an  overdone  subject.  The 
truth  is,  not  one  person  in  a  thousand  knows  what 
folk- dances  are,  what  they  really  mean,  or  how  they 
reach  artistic  development. 

To-day,  when  people  think  or  speak  of  dancing, 
they  have  in  mind  the  social  dances  of  the  parlor,  of 
ball-room,  or  of  the  theatre.  But  these  dances  have 
little  or  nothing  in  common  with  folk- dances,  or  with 
the  classic  dances  of  the  ancients. 

The  characteristic  of  folk-dancing  is  the  faithful- 
ness with  which  it  reflects  human  nature.  In  this 
respect  it  differs  from  modern  social  dancing,  which  is 
highly  artificial  in  every  way.  If  we  look  at  cultivated 
people,  we  see  that  they  take  real  aesthetic  pleasure  in 
complicated  steps,  in  involved  figures,  and  in  unusual 
movement  ;  or,  they  enjoy  the  springs,  pirouettes, 
contortions,  and  high  kickings  of  the  ballet-dancer. 
But,  if  we  look  at  a  savage  or  a  peasant,  we  see  that 
they  derive  no  great  aesthetic  enjoyment  from  these 
features  of  the  modern  dance.  We  might  almost  con- 
clude, at  first  blush,  that  they  have  no  idea  of  dancing 
whatever.  And  yet,  when  we  examine  folk- dances 
more  closely,  we  find  in  them  a  certain  aesthetic  mean- 
ing and  significance. 

There  is  much  to  learn  concerning  the  nature  of 
dancing  and  of  the  aesthetic  feelings  which  have  al- 
ways accompanied  the  dance.  As  yet  little  has  been 
done  ;  but  enough  to  show  that  dancing  is  of  gradual 
growth,  and  as  an  art  is  subject  to  a  general  law  of 
mental  evolution. ^ 

In  this  paper  I  shall  attempt  to  point  out  some  of 
the  aesthetic  elements  of  the  dance,  and  we  cannot  be- 
gin better  than  by  looking  at  their  appearance  in  the 
lower  animals.     The  feeling  for  form,  rhythm,  meas- 

1  See  a  paper  on  "  The  Evolution  of  Dancing,"  by  the  writer  in  T/tt;  Popu 
lar  Science  Monthly^  October,  1892. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4069 


ured  sound  and  motion  is  found  very  low  in  the  scale 
of  nature  ;  how  low,  we  do  not  undertake  to  say.  The 
Eesthetic  sense  is  very  pronounced  among  the  birds. 
Mr.  Darwin  refers  to  the  rock-thrush  of  Guiana,  birds 
of  paradise,  and  some  others  that  congregate  during 
the  mating  season,  and  then  the  males  show  off  their 
plumage  and  perform  dances  before  the  females,  which, 
standing  by  as  spectators,  at  last  choose  the  most  at- 
tractive partner.  From  the  taste  for  bright  colors,  for 
musical  sounds,  and  for  rhythmical  movements  we  get 
by  sexual  selection  such  highly  evolved  aesthetic  pro- 
ducts as  the  waving  plumage  of  the  bird  of  paradise, 
the  song  of  the  mocking-bird,  and  the  remarkable  per- 
formances of  the  spur-winged  lapwing.  The  lapwing 
display,  called  by  the  natives  its  "  dance, "  requires 
three  birds  for  its  performance.  When  a  visitor  comes 
to  a  pair,  the  latter  advance  to  meet  it,  and  place 
themselves  behind  it ;  then  all  three  begin  a  quick 
march  and  keep  step  to  drumming  notes. 

If  the  lower  animals  show  a  marked  festhetic  en- 
joyment of  singing  and  dancing  performances,  there 
is  no  good  reason  for  doubting  that  primitive  man 
must  have  possessed  these  elements  of  aesthetic  feel- 
ing. He  must  have  been  endowed  with  a  sense  of 
form  and  rhythm.  He  must  have  been  pleased,  as 
Mr.  Darwin  argues,  by  musical  sounds  and  combina- 
tions, though  chiefly  in  the  form  of  human  song  and 
rhythm  alone.  And  he  must  have  been  moved  to  in- 
dulge in  dancing  performances.  The  spirit  that  moves 
men  to  shuffle  their  feet,  kick  up  their  heels,  and  leap 
in  the  air,  comes  from  different  feelings, — now  from 
animal  or  exuberant  emotions  and  vivacity  of  every 
kind,  and  now  from  joy  and  triumph  and  rage. 

The  savage's  love  of  the  dance  is  derived  from  that 
instinctive  delight  in  form,  rhythm,  measured  sound 
and  motion,  which  is  faintly  foreshadowed  in  the  lower 
animals.  So  the  earliest  evidences  of  derivative  aes- 
thetic feeling  which  we  possess  are  those  of  rude  songs 
and  dances  and  ornaments.  The  most  naked  savage 
is  exceedingly  fond  of  dancing.  People  so  low  in  cul- 
ture as  to  have  developed  no  musical  instruments 
dance  with  passionate  enjoyment  to  the  clapping  of 
hands  and  the  beating  of  sticks  together.  I  notice  in 
many  books  of  travel  and  reports  that  the  lowest  races 
of  men  spend  half  their  time  in  dancing.  Thus,  we 
read  that  the  chief  occupation  of  the  Indians  of  south- 
ern California  used  to  be  dancing,  when  the  men  were 
-not  engaged  in  procuring  food.^ 

The  part  played  by  dancing  in  the  drama  of  court- 
ship in  most  savage  communities  is  not  important  or 
decisive.  That  is  on  account  of  the  social  position  of 
woman.  She  is  won,  not  by  choice,  but  by  force  and 
strength.  The  men  do  most  of  the  dancing,  but  they 
seldom  dance  in  their  love-making.      Among  many  of 

1  United  States  Geological  Survey  Under  Lieutenant  Wheeler,  vol.  vii,  p.  29. 


the  lowest  races  the  only  love-dances  in  vogue  are 
those  performed  by  the  women,  not  by  the  men.  Such 
are  the  dances  of  the  Polynesians,  some  of  the  Indian 
tribes,  and  the  natives  of  Tahiti.  The  semi-civilised 
peoples  of  Asia,  and  to  a  greater  extent  the  peasants 
of  Europe,  have  dances  of  love  in  which  the  drama  of 
courtship  is  set  forth — the  shy  advances,  the  meeting 
of  the  lovers,  the  maiden  modesty  and  retreat,  the 
proposal,  the  rejection,  and  at  last  the  open-armed 
acceptance.  Such,  for  example,  is  the  Csardos,  the 
well-known  folk-dance  of  Hungary. 

There  is  no  question  that,  from  the  beginning,  dan- 
cing has  been  especially  the  expression  of  love  and  of 
love-making.  The  love- notions  possessed  by  folk  are 
pretty  uniform  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  How- 
ever much  they  differ  in  details,  all  folk  agree  in  mak- 
ing dancing  a  necessary  part  of  the  drama  of  courtship. 
The  Greeks  regarded  Cupid,  the  god  of  love,  as  an 
expert  dancer ;  and  the  early  painters,  in  all  their 
pictures  of  love,  figure  Cupid  ever  smiling  and  look- 
ing upon  dancers.  Burton,  in  his  quaint  chapter  on 
"Symptoms  of  Love,"  makes  dancing  the  most  promi- 
nent symptom. 1  It  is  a  sure  sign.  Dancing  still  is, 
says  he,  a  necessary  appendix  to  love  matters,  and 
"young  lasses  are  never  better  pleased  than  when 
they  may  meet  their  sweethearts  and  dance  about  a 
May-pole  or  in  a  town-green  under  a  shady  elm." 

The  folk-dances  of  love-making  have  served  to 
quicken  the  sense  of  personal  beauty.  By  the  common 
consent  of  poets,  painters,  and  sculptors,  the  standard 
of  beauty  for  mankind  is  to  be  found  in  the  form  of  a 
lovely  woman.  So,  when  dancing  falls  into  the  hands 
of  women,  it  becomes  more  and  more  beautiful,  more 
and  more  artistic. 

In  different  ways  has  dancing  been  the  means  of 
developing  man's  aesthetic  feelings.  This  is  shown, 
at  first,  in  the  use  of  ornaments  and  decorations  for 
the  person.  Clay  and  ochre  are  used  for  painting  or 
staining  the  body ;  perforated  shells  and  animals' 
bones  for  necklaces,  and  so  on.  Feathers  are  made 
into  head-dresses  by  the  North  American  Indians,  and 
into  magnificent  cloaks  by  the  Hawaiians.  Flowers 
are  favorite  objects  of  decoration  with  the  South  Sea 
Islanders  and  the  Polynesians.  When  the  savages 
dance  they  always  array  themselves  in  fantastic  style; 
they  color  their  naked  bodies ;  they  wear  wampum 
beads  around  the  neck,  ornaments  about  the  knees  or 
ankles  and  the  waist;  they  often  have  large  and  un- 
wieldy coiffures ;  they  carry  carved  sticks  or  wands, 
rattles,  whistles,  and  weapons  in  their  hands.  The 
habit  of  wearing  painted  or  carved  masks,  and  the 
employment  of  odd,  grotesque,  or  fantastic  costumes 
in  the  dance  is  found  the  world  over. 

The  more  elaborate  the  decoration   and  the  para- 

'^  Anaiotny  0/  Melancholy ,  part  iii,  sect.  2. 


4070 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


phernalia,  the  more  important  is  the  dance.  The 
"medicine  dances"  of  the  lower  races  are  character- 
ised by  a  display  of  color,  ornament,  and  costume. 
Then,  at  a  higher  level  of  culture,  we  have  the  dances 
with  which  people  celebrate  their  religious  festivals. 
These  are  often  elaborate  and  spectacular  affairs.  Such, 
for  example,  is  "The  Mountain  Chant"  of  the  Navajo 
Indians.'  This  ceremonial,  lasting  nine  days,  pre- 
sents in  a  dance  or  series  of  dances  a  myth  of  the  Na- 
vajos  and  shows  a  great  advance  in  dramatic  develop- 
ment. In  the  use  of  mechanical  devices,  in  the  scenic 
effects,  in  the  skilful  jugglery,  in  the  employment  of 
the  Shaman,  or  priest,  as  stage- manager — in  all  these 
we  see  the  germs  of  the  popular  drama. 

The  mystical  ceremonies  of  the  ancient  Greeks 
were  dances,  or  series  of  dances,  setting  forth  the  story 
of  some  god  or  some  person.  Thus,  the  Eleusinian 
Mystery  was  a  spectacular  miracle-play,  representing 
the  sorrows  and  consolations  of  Demeter,  "She  of  the 
harvest-home."  At  the  Bacchic  festivals  the  ancient 
Greeks  were  no  better  than  a  mob  of  Navajo  Indians. 
The  dancers  covered  their  bodies  with  the  skins  of 
beasts,  smeared  themselves  with  wine-lees,  put  on 
masks,  and  assumed  the  parts  of  fauns  and  nymphs 
and  satyrs.  And  yet,  as  every  schoolboy  knows,  out 
of  the  dances  with  which  the  people  of  Hellas  cele- 
brated their  religious  festivals  was  evolved  the  marvel- 
lous structure  of  the  Greek  drama. 

In  ancient  times,  the  connexion  between  dancing 
and  religion  was  very  close.  The  medicine-men  or 
chiefs  of  the  tribe  are  the  leaders  of  the  dance.  Ac- 
cording to  Mr.  Beckwith,  "the  high  priest  in  the  reli- 
gious ceremonies  of  the  Dakotas  is  invariably  a  chief, 
who,  through  these  dances,  retains  his  influence  in  the 
tribe."  In  India  the  priests  led  the  dances  around  the 
sacred  altars.  India's  heaven  was  the  scene  of  dancing, 
and  every  temple  kept  its  band  of  dancing  girls.  The 
kings  of  Israel  were  all  distinguished  dancers,  none 
more  so  than  David,  who  danced  before  the  Ark.  The 
Greeks,  who  were  the  greatest  dancers  the  world  has 
ever  seen,  brought  dancing  to  its  highest  pitch.  They 
made  dancing  part  and  parcel  of  their  religion.  Plato, 
in  his  "Commonwealth,"  advocated  the  establishment 
of  dancing-schools  in  the  ideal  state.  The  Romans 
had  dances  in  honor  of  the  pastoral  gods,  vine-dances 
and  harvest-measures.  "You  cannot  find  a  single 
ancient  mystery,"  says  Lucian,  "in  which  there  is  not 
dancing." 

The  connexion  between  dancing  and  religion  con- 
tinued even  in  Christian  times.  The  early  Fathers  had 
no  serious  objection  to  dancing ;  in  fact,  Gregory 
Thaumaturgus  introduced  dancing  into  the  ritual. 
Later  on,  the  Church  endeavored  to  suppress  pagan 
dances,  which  had  become  coarse  and  immodest.     On 

1  Described  in  Fi/lh  Ethnological  Report,  pp.  384-468. 


the  other  hand,  she  fostered  miracle-plays  in  which 
moral  stories  and  Bible  stories  were  told  to  the  folk, 
to  the  unlettered  public.  These  plays  were  simply 
choral  songs  and  dances,  and,  in  some  cases,  mere 
spectacular  shows.  Finally,  as  a  survival  of  the  autos 
sacrameniales,  or  miracle-plays,  we  have  the  Corpus 
Christi  dances,  which  are  performed  to  this  day  during 
carnival  season  in  the  Seville  cathedral.  Every  even- 
ing at  five  o'clock  the  little  choir-boys  dance  before 
the  Host. 

Such,  then,  is  the  meaning  of  folk-dance — passing 
from  the  region  of  history  and  religion  into  the  region 
of  poetry  and  frivolity,  and  thus  following  a  general 
law  of  mental  evolution,  namely,  that  practices  which 
occupy  an  important  place  in  the  minds  and  daily  do- 
ings of  people  in  a  savage  stage  of  culture,'  survive 
only  as  matters  of  amusement,  or  of  aesthetic  feeling 
in  a  period  of  civilisation. 


CONSCIOUSNESS. 

BY  CHARLES  ALVA  LANE. 

Sleep  said  :  From  thine  own  soul  I  loosen  thee, 
And  lo  !  a  sense  thou  art  that  sense  knows  not 
To  trace  the  metamorphoses  of  thought 

Within  thy  spaceless  spirit's  mystery  : 

As  though  a  God,  with  potent  alchemy, 
Were  crystallising  Being  from  the  naught, 
Behold  the  phantom-miracles  enwraught 

Within  thy  vast  of  living  vacancy  : 

From  dewdrop,  pinioned  on  star-hilted  ray, 
The  thought  in  mountains  'rose  athwart  the  day  ; 

Then  slipt  to  tone,  as  touched  with  alkahest 
Through  all  the  mass.     It  grew  a  flower  straightway. 
Or  will  or  pain,  but  never  came  to  rest. 
And  on  through  myriad  modes  of  Being  pressed. 


ery  : 


1  Dancing 
:ient  Mexicans  did 


ous  affair  to  the  savage.  Among  the  KwakiutI  In- 
,  the  dancer  who  makes  a  mistake  is  killed.  The 
lind  putting  an  awkward  dancer  out  of  the  way. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN   STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  349. 

SUGGESTIONS  TOUCHING  MATTER  AND  ENERGY. 

Paul  R.  Shipman 4063 

THE  WRONG  METHOD  OF  HENISM.     Editor 4067 

THE  MEANING  OF  FOLK-DANCE.     L.  J.  Vance 406S 

POETRY. 

Consciousness.     Charles  Alva  Lane 4070 


330 


The  Open  Court. 


A  WEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  350.     (Vol.  VIII.— 19  ) 


CHICAGO,  MAY  10,   1894. 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents.', 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publishe 


GOVERNMENT  BY  WRITS  OF  INJUNCTION. 

EV  M.    M.   TRUMBULL. 

The  old  self-reliant  spirit  of  the  independence  days 
appears  to  be  dying  out  of  our  people.  From  citizens 
we  have  turned  ourselves  into  subjects,  humbly  crav- 
ing the  protection  and  the  correction  of  government. 
Our  will-power  and  our  work-power  are  growing  fee- 
ble, and  we  pray  to  be  coaxed  or  driven.  Our  ancient 
freedom  bows  in  obedience  to  the  writ  of  injunction, 
and  when  we  are  not  ourselves  "enjoined"  we  are 
"enjoining"  somebody  else. 

The  writ  of  injunction  was  formerly  a  private  rem- 
edy but  it  is  rapidly  becoming  a  social  domination  and 
a  political  power.  Its  imperious  veto  may  reach  across 
a  continent  and  subjugate  a  whole  community,  as  well 
as  a  corporation.  The  injunction  issued  by  Judge 
Jenkins  forbidding  the  laborers  on  the  Pacific  Railroad 
te  leave  their  work,  was  the  resurrection  of  the  serf- 
dom that  was  buried  long  ago,  and  it  gives  judicial 
sanction  to  the  writs  of  injunction  issued  by  the  walk- 
ing delegates  elected  by  the  Knights  of  Labor.  Those 
comfortable  persons  who  sustain  Judge  Jenkins  have 
no  right  to  complain  when  his  law  is  adopted  and  his 
methods  imitated  by  laboring  men. 

The  quality  of  a  writ  of  injunction  must  be  deter- 
mined, not  by  its  legality  but  by  its  morality,  whether 
the  source  of  it  be  a  judge  appointed  by  the  President 
of  the  United  States  or  a  judge  appointed  by  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  Confederation  of  Labor.  It  is  time  to  ar- 
rest writs  of  injunction  and  confine  them  within  their 
ancient  boundaries. 

Referring  again  to  the  writ  of  injunction  issued  by 
Judge  Jenkins  of  the  United  States  court,  I  wish  to 
place  alongside  of  it  the  following  writ  of  injunction 
issued  by  Judge  McBride  of  the  United  Mine  Workers, 
and  dated  Columbus,  Ohio,  April  18.  "  Coal  must  not 
be  loaded  for  any  purpose  or  for  any  price  (after  the 
strike  is  inaugurated),  but  where  companies  want  en- 
gines run,  water  handled,  timber  or  other  repair  work 
done,  it  will  be  permitted  provided  the  wages  are  in 
accordance  with  the  scale  demanded  by  the  conven- 
tion." Now,  this  is  a  comprehensive  injunction,  and 
a  lawyer  could  not  have  drawn  it  better,  although  Mr. 
McBride  is  neither  a  lawyer  nor  a  judge.  He  is  merely 
President  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  ;  and  yet,  any 


man  who  exercises  judicial  functions,  who  can  issue 
writs  of  injunction,  and  have  them  obeyed,  may  very 
properly  be  called  a  judge,  and  so  I  leave  the  title 
with  Mr.  McBride. 

The  day  after  the  McBride  injunction  was  pro- 
claimed, a  similar  injunction  was  issued  at  Minneapo- 
lis, not  by  Judge  McBride,  but  by  the  judge  of  another 
circuit,  who  forbade  any  work  to  be  done  within  his 
jurisdiction  after  April  the  19th,  and  the  record  further 
says,  "A  delegation  has  gone  to  St.  Paul  to  induce 
Debs  to  declare  a  strike  on  at  St.  Paul  also.  What  is 
that  but  another  way  of  saying  that  a  delegation  has 
gone  to  St.  Paul  to  ask  Debs  to  issue  a  writ  of  injunc- 
tion there.  I  do  not  know  who  "  Debs  "  is  but  I  think 
I  shall  be  safe  in  calling  him  Judge,  although  he  may 
not  have  any  commission  or  authority  from  the  State. 

Another  and  more  practical  injunction  was  issued 
April  the  23d  at  Chicago  by  the  brickmakers  of  Blue 
Island  against  the  brickmakers  of  the  Harland  and 
Alsip  yards,  and  three  hundred  of  the  Blue  Islanders 
went  over  to  serve  the  writ,  but  in  this  case  there 
seems  to  have  been  a  conflict  of  jurisdiction  somewhere 
for  "thirty-five  deputy  sheriffs  each  with  a  rifle  firing 
sixteen  shots  a  minute  "  were  on  hand,  and  they  pre- 
vented the  service.  Perhaps  the  deputy  sheriffs  had 
their  own  writs  in  their  pockets  for  the  protection  of 
the  Harland  and  Alsip  yards.  And  thus  it  is,  that  the 
American  republic  i3  gradually  becoming  in  some  of 
its  political  and  social  characteristics  a  government  by 
writs  of  injunction,  one  set  of  judges  declaring  that 
the  people  shall  not  work,  and  the  others  that  they 
shall. 


THOMAS  PAINE  IN  PARIS,  1787-1788. 

BY  MONCURE  D.    CONWAY. 

I  HAVE  recently  made  some  investigations,  histori- 
cal and  topographical,  concerning  Thomas  Paine  in 
Paris,  and  have  some  facts  and  letters,  not  hitherto 
published,  which  will  interest  American  readers. 

Paine  left  New  York  for  France  in  April,  1787,  in 
a  French  packet,  and  passed  a  happy  summer  in  Paris. 
He  was  welcomed  by  the  savants  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences,  who  were  deeply  interested  in  the  iron  bridge 
he  had  invented,  also  by  his  old  fellow-soldier  Lafa- 
yette, and  by  Jefferson,  the  United  States  Minister, 


4072 


THE    OFEN    COURT. 


He  probably  lodged  at  White's  Hotel,  as  he  did  when 
he  took  his  seat  in  the  Convention.  Jefferson  was  re- 
siding at  Challiot,  a  suburb  now  absorbed  by  the  city, 
not  far  from  the  Arc  de  Triomphe.  The  main  avenue 
of  the  Champs  d'Elysees  had  been  laid  out  some  years 
before,  and  the  fountains  were  playing.  Paine  one 
day  sent  Jefferson  the  following  quaint  little  essay 
(unpublished),  with  neat  drawings  on  it,  which  is 
characteristic  of  his 'fondness  for  fancies  about  na- 
ture. 

"  I  enclose  you  a  problem,  not  about  bridges  but 
trees.  And  to  explain  my  meaning  I  begin  with  a 
fountain.  The  idea  seems  far-fetched,  but  fountains 
and  trees  are  in  my  walk  to  Challiot. 

"Suppose  Figure  i  a  fountain.  It  is  evident  that 
no  more  water  can  pass  through  the  branching  tubes 
than  passes  through  the  trunk.  Secondly,  that,  admit- 
ting all  the  water  to  pass  with  equal  freedom,  the  sum 
of  the  squares  of  the  diameters  of  the  two  first  branches 
rnust  be  equal  to  the  diameter  of  the  trunk.  Also  the 
sum  of  the  squares  of  the  four  branches  must  be  equal 
to  the  two;  and  the  sum  of  the  squares  of  the  eight 
branches  must  be  equal  to  the  four.  And,  therefore, 
8,  4,  2,  and  the  trunk,  being  reciprocally  equal,  the 
solid  content  of  the  whole  will  be  equal  to  the  cylinder 
(Figure  2)  of  the  same  diameter  as  the  trunk  and 
height  of  the  fountain. 

"Carry  the  idea  of  a  fountain  to  a  tree  growing. 
Consider  the  sap  ascending  in  capillary  tubes  like  the 
water  in  the  fountain;  and  no  more  sap  will  pass 
through  the  branches  than  passes  through  the  trunk. 
Secondly,  consider  the  branches  as  so  many  divisions 
and  subdivisions  of  the  trunk,  as  they  are  in  the  foun- 
tain, and  that  their  contents  are  to  be  found  by  some 
rule, — with  the  difference  only  of  a  pyramidal  figure 
instead  of  a  cylindrical  one.  Therefore,  to  find  the 
quantity  of  timber  (or  rather  loads)  in  the  tree  (Fig.  3) 
draw  a  pyramid  equal  to  the  height  of  the  tree  (as  in 
Fig.  4),  taking  for  the  inclination  of  the  pyramid  the 
diameter  at  the  bottom,  and  at  any  discretionary  height 
above  it  (which  in  this  is  as  3  and  2). 

"As  sensible  men  should  never  guess,  and  as  it  is 
impossible  to  judge  without  some  point  to  begin  at, 
this  appears  to  me  that  point,  and  one  by  which  a 
person  may  ascertain  near  enough  the  quantity  of 
timber  and  loads  of  wood  in  any  quantity  of  land  ;  and 
he  may  distinguish  them  into  timber,  wood,  and  fag- 
gots. Yours,   T.  P." 

A  note  of  Paine  to  Jefferson  February  19,  1788, 
shows  Paine  again  in  Paris,  and  in  consultation  with 
Lafayette  concerning  his  proposed  erection  of  an  iron 
bridge  over  the  Seine,  and  this  must  have  been  near 
the  date  of  another  little  essay  sent  to  Jefferson.  It 
relates  to  a  conversation  at  Challiot,  on  attraction  and 
cohesion,  and  has  never  been  printed. 


"  Dear  Sir  :  Your  saying  last  evening  that  Sir  Isaac 
Newton's  principle  of  gravitation  would  not  explain, 
or  could  not  apply  as  a  rule  to  find,  the  quantity  of 
'the  attraction  of  cohesion,'  and  my  replying  that  I 
never  could  comprehend  any  meaning  in  the  term 
'attraction  of  cohesion,'  the  result  must  be  that  either 
I  have  a  dull  comprehension,  or  the  term  does  not  ad- 
mit of  comprehension.  It  appears  to  me  an  Athana- 
sian  jumble  of  words,  each  of  which  admits  of  a  clear 
and  distinct  idea,  but  of  no  idea  at  all  when  com- 
pounded. 

"The  immense  difference  there  is  between  the  at- 
tracting power  of  two  bodies,  at  the  least  possible  dis- 
tance the  mind  is  capable  of  conceiving,  and  the  great 
power  that  takes  place  to  resist  separation  when  the 
two  bodies  are  incorporated,  prove,  to  me,  that  there 
is  something  else  to  be  considered  in  the  case  than 
can  be  comprehended  by  attraction  or  gravitation. 
Yet  this  matter  appears  sufficiently  luminous  to  me, 
according  to  my  own  line  of  ideas. 

"Attraction  is  to  matter  what  desire  is  to  the  mind  ; 
but  cohesion  is  an  entirely  different  thing,  produced 
by  an  entirely  different  cause, — it  is  the  effect  of  the 
figure  of  matter. 

"Take  two  iron  hooks, — the  one  strongly  magneti- 
cal, — and  bring  them  to  touch  each  other,  and  a  very 
little  force  will  separate  them,  for  they  are  held  to- 
gether only  by  attraction.  But  their  figure  renders 
them  capable  of  holding  each  other  with  infinitely  more 
power  to  resist  separation  than  attraction  can ;  by 
hooking  them. 

"Now  if  we  suppose  the  particles  of  matter  to 
have  figures  capable  of  interlocking  and  embracing 
each  other,  we  shall  have  a  clear,  distinct  idea  be- 
tween cohesion  and  attraction,  and  that  they  are  things 
totally  distinct  from  each  other,  and  arise  from  as  dif- 
ferent causes. 

"  The  welding  of  two  pieces  of  iron  appears  to  me 
no  other  than  entangling  the  particles  in  much  the 
same  manner  as  turning  a  key  within  the  wards  of  a 
lock, — and  if  our  eyes  were  good  enough  we  should 
see  how  it  was  done. 

"  I  recollect  a  scene  at  one  of  the  theatres  that  very 
well  explains  the  difference  between  attraction  and  co- 
hesion. A  condemned  lady  wishes  to  see  her  child, 
and  the  child  its  mother, — this  I  call  attraction.  They 
were  admitted  to  meet,  but  when  ordered  to  part  they 
threw  their  arms  round  each  other  and  fastened  their 
persons  together.  This  is  what  I  mean  by  cohesion, — 
which  is  a  mechanical  contact  of  the  figures  of  their 
persons,  as  I  believe  all  cohesion  to  be. 

"Though  the  term  'attraction  of  cohesion'  has 
always  appeared  to  me  like  the  Athanasian  Creed,  yet 
I  think  I  can  help  the  philosophers  to  a  better  explana- 
tion of  it  than  what  they  give  themselves;  which  is, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4073 


to  suppose  the  attraction  to  continue  in  such  a  direc- 
tion as  to  produce  the  mechanical  interlocking  of  the 
figure  of  the  particles  of  the  bodies  attracted. 

"Thus,  suppose  a  male  and  a  female  screw  lying 
on  a  table,  and  attracting  each  other  with  a  force 
capable  of  drawing  them  together.  The  direction  of 
the  attracting  power  to  be  a  right  line  till  the  screws 
begin  to  touch  each  other,  and  th'en,  if  the  direction  of 
the  attracting  power  be  circular,  the  screws  will  be 
screwed  together.  But  even  in  this  explanation  the 
cohesion  is  mechanical,  and  the  attraction  serves  only 
to  produce  the  contact. 

"While  I  consider  attraction  as  a  quality  of  matter 
capable  of  acting  at  a  distance  from  the  visible  pres- 
ence of  matter,  I  have  as  clear  an  idea  of  it  as  I  can 
have  of  insensible  things.  And  while  I  consider  co- 
hesion as  the  mechanical  interlocking  of  the  particles 
of  matter,  I  can  conceive  the  possibility  of  it  much 
easier  than  I  can  attraction  ;  because  I  can,  by  crook- 
ing my  fingers,  see  figures  that  will  interlock.  There- 
fore, to  endeavor  to  explain  the  less  difficulty  by  the 
greater,  appears  to  me  unphilosophical.  The  cohesion 
which  others  attribute  to  attraction,  and  which  they 
cannot  explain,  I  attribute  to  figure,  which  I  can  ex- 
plain. 

"A  number  of  fishhooks  attracting  and  moving 
towards  each  other  will  show  me  there  is  such  a  thing 
as  attraction,  but  I  see  not  how-  it  is  performed.  But 
their  figurative  hooking  together  shows  cohesion  visi- 
bly. A  handful  of  fish-hooks  thrown  together  in  a 
heap  explains  cohesion  better  than  all  the  Newtonian 
philosophy.  It  is  with  gravitation  as  it  is  with  all  new 
discoveries, — it  is  applied  to  explain  too  many  things. 

"It  is  a  rainy  morning,  and  I  am  waiting  for  Mr. 
Parker,  and  in  the  meantime,  having  nothing  else  to 
do,  I  have  amused  myself  with  writing  this.  T.  Paine." 

The  use  in  the  above  of  the  phrase  "Athanasian 
jumble  of  words,"  more  than  five  years  before  Paine 
had  expressed  any  theological  heresies,  suggests  that 
the  conversations  between  him  and  Jefferson  at  Chal- 
liot  had  not  been  confined  to  science  or  politics. 


PESSIMISM  :   THE  WAY  OUT. 

BY  AMOS  WATERS. 

"  I  am  no  optimist  whose  faith  must  hang 
On  hard  pretence  lliat  pain  is  beautiful 
And  agony  explained  for  men  at  ease 
By  virtue's  exercise  in  pitying  it. 
But  this  I  hold  :  that  he  who  takes  one  gift 
Made  for  him  by  the  hopeful  work  of  man. 

Who  clothes  his  body  and  his  sentient  soul 
With  skill  and  thoughts  of  men,  and  yet  denies 
A  human  good  worth  toiling  for,  is  cursed 
With  worse  negation  than  the  poet  feigned 
In  Mephistopheles." — George  Eliot. 

\  Horace  Greeley  was  once  asked  how  he  decided 

j     the  success  of  his  lectures?     He  replied,  "  I  think  I 
1     have  succeeded  when   more  people  stay  in  than  go 


out."  That  test  of  excellence — more  staying  in  than 
going  out — fliouts  the  average  pessimist.  Is  life  worth 
living? — it  all  depends  on  the  liver.  If  the  liver  keep 
his  liver  in  fair  condition,  he  is  fairly  certain  to  keep 
his  place  till  the  natural  end  when  the  peroration  of 
life  descends  into  unbroken  silence.  It  is  precisely 
this  crisis  of  change  called  death,  which  the  other- 
worldlings  decline  to  accept  without  revolt.  They  hold 
as  valueless  the  precious  labor  of  the  work-days  of  our 
existence,  if  there  be  no  eternity  of  exaggerated  Sab- 
baths beyond  the  grave.  If  the  black  pall  is  to  blind 
their  eyes  to  all  successions  of  sunlight  and  starlight 
they  will  refuse  to  be  comforted  by  the  future  of  hu- 
manity. Not  for  them,  to  share  the  promise  of  human 
correspondence,  when  the  song  of  hope  from  the  soul 
of  man  is  translated  in  the  realisations  of  the  poet's 
Golden  Year.  The  pessimism  of  prophetic  profitless- 
ness  in  the  matter  of  post-mortem  scrip  is  unpic- 
turesque. 

Less  prosaic  and  sordid  is  the  pessimism  of  cul- 
tured speculation — the  concentration  of  fine  sympa- 
thies into  lament  at  the  barrenness  of  progress,  the  in- 
evitableness  of  evil,  and  the  vast,  dramatic  sorrow  of 
the  world-enigma.  The  end  of  the  whole  matter  seems 
then  to  be  that  man  is  but  the  fallen  god  of  sublime 
despair.  The  voices  of  the  dead  ever  grow  more  numer- 
ous, and  the  memories  of  music  fled  and  the  tender 
graces  of  days  that  are  no  more  accumulate  till  all 
passion  seems  lost  in  annihilation.  These  are  as  shad- 
ows of  fate  on  the  human  soul,  but  the  faltering  of 
them  is  confused  with  pessimism  as  a  reasoned  theory 
of  life. 

The  pessimist  pure  and  simple  is  popularly  imaged 
as  a  malevolent — possibly  talented — dyspeptic,  with 
ill-starred  designs  on  the  comfortable  sanity  of  the 
prosperous  Philistine.  The  latter  adores  laisscz  fairc 
in  luxurious  privacy.  He  wishes  to  be  "let  alone" — 
not  to  have  his  digestion  impaired  by  the  recital  of  a 
catalogue  of  mortal  diseases.  The  Philistine  spirit 
cleaves  to  light  and  pleasant  fiction — especially  in  the 
enthusiasm  of  excellent  dining.  In  the  tranquil  season 
succeeding  a  dinner  decorously  conducted,  the  Philis- 
tine distrusts  the  philosopher  more  than  ever,  and  re- 
gards the  philosophic  bias  as  tending  to  distinct  im- 
propriety— stealing  the  spoons  perhaps,  or  eloping  with 
the  lady  of  the  house,  whichever  the  average  Philis- 
tine might  deem  the  greater  calamity. 

Pessimism  initially  is  not  a  distemper  of  revolt,  but 
a  natural  incidence  of  intellectual  and  emotive  in- 
fluences. Individually,  it  may  be  an  undesirable  mood 
or  manner — not  necessarily  so.  A  despairing  sense  of 
the  dreariness  and  emptiness  of  life  is  the  legacy  of 
physical  suffering — equally  of  theological  misbeliefs  to 
which  pertain  deliriums,  destructive  of  the  homely 
senses  of  joy   and  sanity  on   earth.      Unworthily  the 


4074 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


good  of  this  life  is  outweighed  by  the  adumbrated  in- 
toxications of  the  celestial  city. 

The  seizure  of  malign  vicissitude  is  upon  our  mod- 
ern life,  and  the  Hindu-Germanic  philosophy  exactly 
diagnoses  the  symptoms  of  evil,  and  reduces  the  pres- 
sure of  weariness  in  whatever  measure  the  meaning  of 
pain  is  properly  apprehended.  Salvation  is  under- 
standing. Blind  leaders  of  the  blind  are  the  optimistic 
orgiasts  of  the  Hebraistic  afterglow.  These  have  not 
understanding,  wherefore  instead  of  redeeming  the 
soul  of  man  they  mildew  the  soul  of  man.  The  wave 
of  intellectual  sympathy  which  struck  the  sensitive 
brain  of  the  Dantzig  misanthrope  from  remote  Oriental 
meditation,  is  straining  for  speculative  renewal.  The 
spiritual  democracy  of  Jesus  is  a  destitute  alien  force. 
We  have  loved  and  wholly  lost  that  supreme,  withal 
so  simple  soul,  that  glowed  in  Nazareth  nineteen  cen- 
turies backward  with  inexhaustible  mysticism  and  il- 
limitable dreams.  The  sorrowful  fervor  of  these  will 
influence  the  soul-organism  of  the  Latin  races,  in  cen- 
turies and  civilisations  yet  to  come.  Yet  while  the 
suffering  visionary  is  shorn  of  his  royal  sanctions  and 
therefore  is  but  as  a  fabled  remembrance — the  lurid 
perception  of  evolution  has  temporarily  created  an- 
other sorrow,  another  shadow  of  the  spirit.  We  lament 
what  lies  in  a  receding  sepulchre — our  eyes  are  not  ac- 
customed to  the  new  illumination.  Immortal  man  is 
at  the  parting  of  the  ways — between  Christ  and  science, 
and  reconciled  to  neither.  Therefore  in  the  world- 
sorrow  of  the  Goethean  aroma.  More  priggish  per- 
fumes are  abundant — with  these  pause  is  unnecessary. 

Evolution  shall  grow  more  sacred  as  time  lends  it 
consecrated  contemplations,  but  that  time  is  unready. 
Evolution  is  not  an  entity  to  dethrone  paternal  provi- 
dence— it  is  but  yet  a  lonely  enthusiasm,  which  a  de- 
vout minority  cherished  and  defended  through  years 
of  upbraiding.  But  this  enthusiasm  may  fulfil  the  fine 
promise  of  the  first  impulse,  and  develop  a  devotion 
to  the  ideal  of  progress  as  far  redeemed  from  our  faint 
endorsement,  as  complex  structures  are  redeemed  from 
the  beginnings  of  life  on  primordial  shores.  The  story 
of  the  crucifixion  was  an  incomparable  drama,  but  the 
heart  of  faith  that  once  responded  to  it  is  warming  with 
emotive  preparation  toward  the  new  ideal,  and  what 
seemed  incomparable  maybe  wondrously  transcended. 

Meanwhile,  for  a  space  the  spirit  of  man  wanders 
forlorn  and  bereaved  between  two  worlds — dead  faith 
and  hope  but  instantly  born.  Between  these  dim 
worlds  the  imperishable  instinct  of  construction  hovers 
like  a  star.  All  the  emphasis  possible  to  educated 
sincerity  pronounces  that  Great  Christ  is  dead  to  dogma. 
The  Syrian  stars  are  oblivious,  and  look  down  with 
shining  eyes  on  an  indiscoverable  grave.  The  angels 
rolled  not  away  the  stone  from  his  sepulchre.  Eccle- 
siasticism  maintains  the  idol  it  purloined  and  set  high 


in  the  temple — and  the  image  remains  an  adamantine 
sphynx,  the  symbol  of  eternal  apathy.  Whatever  there 
was  of  genuine  beauty,  of  gentle  appeal,  of  winning 
tenderness,  of  suffering  devotion,  in  that  storied  life  of 
mystical  import,  is  now  suspended  like  an  unanswer- 
ing  icicle  above  the  altar  of  endowed  convention.  The 
altar  is  of  stone  and  the  music  of  its  inspiration  is  the 
ringing  charm  of  the  almighty  dollar.  The  Rock  of 
Ages  is  a  rock  of  solid  gold  and  around  it  tempestu- 
ously sweeps  a  flood  of  ferocity  and  sick  travail.  The 
ministers  of  hereafter  appropriate  present  advantage — 
they  live  on  the  cross  their  idol  died  on. 

Evolution,  was  remarked,  is  not  an  entity.  Neither 
is  pessimism,  or  discontent  more  nebulous.  Evolution 
subdues  revolution  and  recreates  pessimism,  equally 
enlarging  either  in  the  service  of  the  future.  Manifestly 
the  race  endures  and  prospers  by  the  persistence  of  a 
Force  which  is  not  ourselves — and  if  it  be  true  that 
evolution  is  another  name  for  this  persistence  of  a 
reality  behind  phenomena,  the  meanest  imagination 
will  discern  the  guidance  of  an  ideal  at  once  sovereign 
and  appealing — at  once  massive  and  impersonal.  Even 
as  coral-insects,  so  all  of  human  life  on  this  planet 
maybe  subject  to  immemorial  pressure,  blindly  build- 
ing for  a  strange  and  mighty  purpose.  Look  we  back- 
ward or  futureward,  all  narrow  ambition  insensibl)' 
blends  with  larger  growth.  Only  the  conspicuous  in- 
telligence of  service  is  definite.  The  nomad  chief  of 
ancient  Israel  who  died  full  of  years,  and  sustained 
only  by  the  consolation  that  in  his  children  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth  should  be  blessed,  represented  this 
truth.  The  excellence  of  unselfishness  is  a  religion 
in  itself.  "Lay  up  treasures  for  yourselves  where 
neither  moths  nor  rust  destroy,"  is  a  sensual  injunc- 
tion, the  negation  of  ethical  grace.  Other-worldliness 
is  the  evillest,  the  most  voluptuous  and  languorous 
worldliness.  It  is  the  lust  for  a  good  not  deserved  by 
righteous  labor.  Plato  in  the  seventh  book  of  the  Re- 
public, pronounces  that  he  who  is  not  able  by  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  wisdom  to  define  the  idea  of  tlic  good,  and 
separate  it  from  all  other  objects  is  sunk  in  sleep  and 
will  descend  to  Hades.  Life  is  not  merely  to  be  profit- 
ably lived,  but  as  Aristotle  defined  it,  to  be  nobly  lived, 
and  if  evolution  have  any  accessible  guarantee  of  heroic 
continuity  it  must  be  in  the  contemplation  of  good 
without  heed  to  personal  advantage — heedful  only  of 
membership  in  the  grand  historic  life  of  humanity. 
Simple  it  is  to  review  the  organic  communion,  as  it 
picturesquely  recedes  and  distantly  vanishes  beyond 
the  birth  of  history.  But  it  needs  an  educative  disci- 
pline to  transcend  the  strenuous  glamours  of  our  imme- 
diate outlook,  and  realise  our  incalculable  littleness 
along  with  our  immortal  greatness,  in  the  policy  of 
impersonal  and  unremunerating  law.  Still  more  diffi- 
cult is  this,  when  assailed  by  the  morbid  despairs  that 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4075 


overtake  the  wisest  and  the  best — when  we  asself  the 
gaunt  vacuousness  of  the  world,  the  inscrutable  illu- 
sions of  existence,  and  the  iridescent  inutility  of  our 
purpose.  How  difficult  then,  to  emerge  into  the  en- 
thusiasm of  understanding  and  rejoice  in  the  conspira- 
cies trending  outside  ourselves,  toward  that  "far-off 
divine  event  to  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

It  is  precisely  here  that  evolution  needs  a  super- 
structure of  vital  philosophy.  Monistic  agnosticism  is 
scientific  humility  before  God,  and  assures  the  humility 
of  man — his  incalculable  littleness.  Historic  evolution 
is  the  visible  signal  of  man's  immortal  greatness.  The 
individual  man  stands  at  night-tide  by  the  sea.  The 
hollow  vault  above  him  is  stupendously  scattered  with 
the  starry  genius  of  God — worlds  on  worlds  everlast- 
ingly rolling.  Carlyle,  on  a  memorable  occasion,  cov- 
ered his  face  as  he  looked  up  into  the  immensities. 
Heine  and  Hegel  stood  together  one  night  at  an  open 
window,  and  the  latter  sneered,  "H'm,  the  stars  are 
only  a  brilliant  eruption  !  "  Carlyle  knew  the  impossi- 
bility of  the  old  faith,  he  knew  not  the  new  faith  of 
science — his  vision  was  smitten.  Hegel  retreated  in 
a  withering  cynicism.  Carlyle  unconsciously  fell  back 
on  an  ignorabimiis — Hegel  in  mocking  negation.  Such 
sights  humble  the  souls  of  all  but  the  impervious. 
But  pass  into  the  multitudinous  murmurs  of  the  day, 
the  labors  and  signals  of  labor,  love  and  the  burdens 
of  love,  imagination  and  statecraft  all  mixed  and  con- 
tending in  the  complex  life  of  man — here  we  forget  (or 
act  out)  abstractions  in  strong  service.  Contempla- 
tion is  submerged  in  action.  We  have  acknowledged 
our  littleness — we  are  humble  no  longer,  but  assertive, 
masculine,  and  potent.  The  most  hypersensitive  pass 
from  desolate  moods  into  new  accessions  of  sanity  and 
wisdom.  As  of  the  individual,  so  of  the  race — pessi- 
mism is  accidental  and  transient.  The  reverence  of 
science  and  the  enthusiasm  of  evolution,  if  sturdil}' 
apprehended,  will  uphold  the  Western  races  through 
the  tribulations  of  the  intellectual  exodus. 

Pessimism,  therefore,  is  a  mood  and  not  a  leprosy — 
the  crown  of  surrendering  love,  and  not  necessarily 
the  penalty  of  transgression.  As  a  reasoned  theory  it 
is  one  of  Truth's  innumerable  cobwebs,  dim  with  subtle 
interlaceries.  But  the  stars  shine  through  and  brightly 
contradict  phantasmal  futilities  ;  and  summer  blooms 
with  radiant  refutations.  The  traditions  of  heroic 
martyrs,  and  the  living  breed  of  noble  hearts,  sur- 
charge the  great  organic  agencies  of  the  earth  with 
assurance  that  goodness  and  gladness  are  possibilities 
of  life  secured  by  love  and  labor.  Mere  happiness  is 
not  to  be  striven  for.  The  "highest  happiness"  is 
not  attained  by  seeking,  or  recognised  if  attained — it 
is  often  akin  to  sorrow,  in  that  tears  and  laughter  deli- 
cately blend.  "Those  only  love  who  love  without 
hope,"  said  Mazzini,  and  his   thought  is  true  of  all 


provinces  in  the  empire  of  emotive  experience.  The 
wanderer  tempted  of  despair  in  the  wilderness  may 
take  heart  of  endurance  if  he  dwell  in  his  exile  on  the 
darkest  chapters  in  the  lives  of  illustrious  protagonists. 
From  rifted  hearts  and  doom-distraught  souls,  with  no 
mirages  of  immortality  to  sustain  them,  rays  of  ecstasy 
and  joyous  melodies  have  wandered  like  marvellous 
ghosts  from  the  old  Greek  temples,  with  a  message  to 
the  repining  to  be  strong  and  fear  not.  The  world  is 
weary  of  Hebraism — Hellenism  is  ready  for  new  im- 
pulses. The  beautiful  old  Greek  gods  have  a  blessing 
for  penitents.  We  shall  love  the  mountains  and  the 
seas  anew,  and  poets  will  sing  merrily  again  of  youth 
and  godhead,  and  birds  will  build  their  nests  on  carven 
Christs  when  the  nails  and  spectres  of  Calvary  afflict 
us  no  more.  Heine  on  his  mattress-grave,  gaunt  and 
ravaged,  yet  beautiful,  evolved  from  his  luminous 
brain  images  of  life  and  love  that  buzzed  forth  like 
golden  bees,  as  Th^ophile  Gautier  conceived.  If  this 
was  possible,  pessimism  loses  the  significance  of  its 
logical  menace.  For  if  singers,  in  exquisite  suffering, 
have  dowered  their  age  with  eloquent  allegiance  to  the 
passion  of  life,  the  beauty  of  love,  and  the  mysterious 
pity  of  death,  surely  science  may  subdue  the  tyranny 
of  suffering  into  service  of  the  social  order.  Pain  is 
inevitable,  but  is  not  the  supreme  factor  in  our  mortal 
pilgrimage.  And  the  intellectual  or  spiritual  grandeur 
which  so  illy  accords  with  the  meanness  of  opportunity, 
increases  the  sum  of  pain  in  our  tangled  circumstances. 
Pessimism  and  optimism  are  equally  untenable  as  the- 
ories of  life.  A  workable  compromise  may  be  discov- 
ered in  a  coherent  social  faith  which  accepts  suffering 
as  an  incidence  to  bind  man  more  indissolubly  to  man. 
And  where  the  strain  is  acutest,  the  strength  of  this 
social  faith  must  strengthen  the  believer  against  the 
querulous  spirit  of  isolation  which  justifies  the  recreant 
in  suicide.  In  the  age,  the  country,  the  family,  and 
in  sublime  resistance  to  whatever  would  make  for  the 
dissolution  of  duty,  must  be  wrested  the  necessity  of 
the  sentinel  accepting  the  troublous  hour  as  regal, 
quite  heedless  of  personal  requital.  Inveterate  cul- 
prits will  flourish  through  the  ages,  but  contemporary 
discouragement  does  not  disprove  the  great  thoughts 
of  the  faithful.  For  the  proudest  spirit  submerged  in 
disaster  and  prone  to  claim  in  defiance  not  to  be 
judged  by  the  rules  of  the  multitude,  there  is  infinite 
meaning  in  the  indignant  query  of  George  Eliot's 
"  Walpurga"  : 

"  Where  is  the  rebel's  right  for  you  alone  ? 
Noble  rebellion  lifts  a  common  load  ; 
But  what  is  he  who  flings  his  own  load  oft" 
And  leaves  his  fellows  toiling  ?  Rebel's  right  ? 
Say  rather  the  deserter's." 

Such  compromise  and  social  conviction  may  be  re- 
solved by  monists,  or  agnostics,  from  the  theory  of 
existence  labelled  meliorism.    Optimism,  which  affirms 


4076 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


that  pleasurable  consciousness  overwhelms  the  dis- 
pleasurable  throughout  the  universe,  so  far  as  we  have 
explored  it — and  at  every  accident  of  time — is  impos- 
sible for  the  educated  observer  of  human  life.  Pessi- 
mism, which  per  contra  affirms  the  greatest  sum  of 
misery  consistent  with  the  conditions  of  the  universe, 
as  we  know  them — has  been  reviewed  in  its  various 
aspects  and  protean  moods,  or  shadows  of  aspects  and 
echoes  of  moods.  Bonism,  which  implies  increasing 
happiness,  and  malism,  which  implies  increasing  pain, 
are  distinct  theories  without  pronounced  differences 
beyond  the  element  of  locomotion.  Pejorism  is  too 
nearly  akin  to  pessimism  and  malism  to  need  pausing 
with. 

Meliorism — a  term  invented  by  George  Eliot — af- 
firms that  the  relative  proportions  of  pleasurable  and 
painful  consciousness  are  ever  tending  toward  read- 
justment for  the  good;  that  it  is  possible  for  human 
effort  to  diminish  the  million  miseries  of  life  one  by 
one,  and  above  all  that  science  is  extending  its  empire 
in  a  plastic  world  and  vitally  expanding  the  hopes  and 
faiths  of  devoted  men.  This  is  intellectually  reason- 
able, and  appeals  to  the  best  instincts  of  mankind. 
To  monists,  meliorism  may  be  commended  as  the 
scientific  approach  to  a  saving  faith. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  ANTS. 

Since  the  holding  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions 
at  Chicago,  the  interest  in  comparative  religion  has 
greatly  increased.  Ancient  and  modern  creeds  are 
now  the  objects  of  close  investigation,  and  it  is  hoped 
that  in  time  they  will  all  be  exhibited  in  a  museum  to 
be  erected  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan.  It  is  to 
be  feared,  however,  that  one  branch  will  be  neglected 
— the  religion  of  animals,  especially  of  ants  and  bees. 

An  old  German  professor,  Atbert  Weller  by  name, 
one  of  the  liberals  of  '48,  after  having  retired  from 
public  life,  sought  refuge  in  the  backwoods  of  North 
America  and  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life  to  the 
study  of  the  various  animal  civilisations.  He  must 
have  known  many  of  their  languages,  for — at  least  so 
it  is  said — he  had  begun  to  write  a  grammar  of  Com- 
parative Ant-Speech.  He  observed  that  ants  of  one 
species,  if  educated  from  pupahood  in  the  hill  of  an- 
other hostile  species,  would  speak  the  language  of 
their  adopted  country  and  as  little  understand  the 
speech  of  their  parents  and  brothers  as  an  Englishman 
reared  by  Chinese  nurses  in  the  interior  of  China  would 
understand  English.  In  case  of  war  between  the  two 
ant  tribes,  the  transferred  ants,  although  different  in 
size,  shape,  and  color,  fight  on  the  side  of  those  whose 
language  they  speak,  against  their  own  kin  whom  they 
resemble  so  much  that  no  human  being  could  tell  them 
apart.  This  is  only  one  argument  among  many  which 
proves  how  important  language  is  in  the  life  of  ants. 


It  seems  that  ants  have  no  printing  presses,  but 
according  to  Professor  Weller  it  is  safe  to  maintain 
that  they  must  possess  something  equivalent,  for  there 
are  not  only  old  traditions  as  faithfully  preserved  as  if 
they  were  written  down  in  books,  but  they  have  also 
daily  news  promulgated  in  some  such  form  as  that  of 
human  newspapers.  Professqr  Weller  has  studied  what 
he  calls  their  literature,  and  we  have  no  doubt  that  he 
knows  what  he  is  speaking  of. 

Professor  Weller  had  intended  to  visit  the  World's 
Parliament  of  Religions  in  Ciiicago  to  read  a  paper  on 
ant-religion,  but  he  fell  sick  before  he  could  announce 
his  intention  to  the  committee,  and  died.  This  is  la- 
mentable, especially  as  a  few  months  after  his  death 
all  his  manuscripts  were  accidently  destroyed  by  fire, 
and  we  know  only  some  of  the  most  important  state- 
ments which  he  intended  to  make  before  the  Parlia- 
ment ;  and  as  no  system  of  comparative  religion  can 
be  perfect  which  does  not  at  least  consider  one  branch 
of  animal  religion,  we  here  reproduce  briefly  from 
memory  what  we  know. 

The  ants  have  as  many  and  as  various  religions  as 
human  beings,  some  very  primitive,  others  highly  de- 
veloped. There  are  also  freethinkers  among  the  ants, 
but  Professor  Weller's  references  to  them  were  few. 

Our  black  garden  ants  were  the  main  subject  of 
his  inquiries  and  experiments.  And  he  found  that 
their  sacred  scriptures  contain  a  highly  creditable  re- 
ligious system.  He  made  a  translation  of  several  books 
of  which  we  recapitulate  a  few  passages.  The  first 
chapter  of  a  book  called  "The  Origin  of  the  World" 
begins  as  follows : 

"In  the  beginning  there  was  the  Arch- Ant,  and 
there  was  nothing  beside  Her,  neither  heaven,  nor 
earth,  nor  an  ant-hill  in  which  ants  could  sing  the 
praise  of  the  Arch-Ant.  And  the  Arch- Ant  begot  heaven 
and  earth  and  upon  the  earth  She  made  a  great  and 
glorious  ant-hill,  but  there  was  no  one  who  lived  in 
the  anthill.  Then  She  thought  to  herself,  '  I  shall 
create  beings  that  are  like  unto  Myself,'  and  She  took 
some  grains  of  sand  and  formed  out  of  them  pupas 
which  She  left  exposed  upon  the  hill  to  the  rays  of  the 
sun.  After  a  few  days  ants  came  out  of  the  pupas, 
some  female,  some  neuter,  some  male,  and  peopled 
the  whole  hill  ;  and  they  were  blackish  in  color  and 
like  in  shape  unto  the  Arch-Ant ;  and  the  female  black 
garden  ants  are  the  only  ones  whom  She  created  in 
Her  own  image,  unto  the  image  of  the  Arch-Ant.  All 
the  other  ants,  be  they  red  or  yellow,  are  inferior  in 
intelligence  and  in  anthood. 

"And  the  ants  enjoyed  life  and  forgot  in  their  pros- 
perity to  worship  the  Arch-Ant.  When  the  Arch-Ant 
saw  that  Her  creatures  cared  little  for  Her,  but  other- 
wise everything  was  well.  She  retired  from  the  world 
She  had  begotten  to  the  Celestial  Hill  where  there  is 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4077 


joy  everlasting.  From  that  moment  evil  originated 
and  all  kinds  of  injurious  animals  sprang  into  existence, 
among  which  the  most  formidable  ones  are  the  ant- 
bears  with  their  long  tongues  and  the  two-legged  giants 
called  men.  Among  all  the  enemies  of  anthood  they 
are  the  most  fiendish  and  threaten  to  exterminate  all 
the  ants  upon  the  earth. 

"  Since  the  origin  of  men  ants  began  to  pray  to  the 
Arch-Ant,  and  the  Arch-Ant  took  pity  on  the  ants  and 
roused  prophets  in  the  hill  and  revealed  Herself  to  the 
ants.  And  the  prophets  of  the  Arch- Ant  said  to  the 
ants  :  '  The  evil  that  afflicts  you  has  been  created  by 
your  negligence  and  the  Arch-Ant  will  not  undo  it. 
You  must  suffer  the  consequences  of  your  sin.  But  She 
will  have  mercy  on  you  and  such  as  believe  in  Her ; 
She  will  resurrect  them  and  receive  them  in  the  Eternal 
Hill  where  they  shall  have  sweet  food  forever,  milch- 
kine  and  slaves  in  abundance.'  " 

Theological  discussions  arose  and  created  schisms 
in  the  church.  Professor  Weller  mentioned  some  of 
them. 

There  is  the  sect  of  the  male  ants.  A  male  ant  be- 
gan to  preach  and  declared  that  the  Arch-Ant  could 
not  be  a  female,  but  was  most  probably  a  male.  He 
explained  that  all  the  misfortunes  in  the  hill  originated 
from  the  preponderance  of  the  females.  He  demanded 
with  good  logical  reasons,  equality  of  the  three  sexes 
in  politics,  economics,  and  in  religion.  "Education," 
he  said,  "is  monopolised  by  the  female  and  the  neu- 
ters; and  the  neuters  are  only  sterile  females.  No 
wonder  that  our  race  degenerates  and  succumbs  to 
men  and  other  creatures  of  evil  influence."  The  sect 
of  the  male  ants  has  acquired  little  recognition.  "The 
idea  that  the  Arch-Ant  should  be  a  male  individual," 
says  one  prominent  ant-philosopher,  "is  so  absurd  as 
to  be  unworthy  the  trouble  of  refutation.  Not  only  are 
the  males  naturally  inferior  in  everything,  but  how 
could  they  have  begotten  the  world?  " 

There  is  another  sect  called  the  sceptics.  They 
say,  "We  cannot  know  whether  or  not  the  Arch-Ant 
exists,  whether  or  not  there  is  an  Eternal  Hill  above 
the  clouds,  whether  or  not  ants  will  be  resurrected 
after  death."  Thus,  they  conclude,  "We  should  wor- 
ship the  Arch-Ant,  so  as  to  be  on  the  safe  side.  But 
we  must  not  be  over-confident  in  our  expectations. " 
The  sceptics  are  suspected  of  being  infidels.  Under 
the  guise  of  a  modest  suspension  of  judgment  they 
promulgate  indifference  in  religion. 

A  third  sect  maintains  that  the  Arch  Ant  is  neither 
female  nor  male,  nor  neuter.  Nor  is  the  Arch-Ant,  as 
the  bees  maintain,  a  bee  queen.  The  Arch-Ant,  they 
say,  is  indescribable,  and  indeed  superior  to  all  crea- 
tures, being  the  creator  of  all.  The  adherents  of  this 
sect  do  not  deny  that  the  Arch-Ant  has  begotten  the 
world  to  serve  as  a  great  hill  for  ants  ;   "the  world," 


they  maintain,  "exists  for  the  sake  of  ants,"  but  they 
doubt  the  utter  uselessness  and  badness  of  men,  while 
they  insist  on  the  devilish  nature  of  ant-bears. 

Some  liberal-minded  prophets  love  to  speak  of  the 
"sisterhood  of  ants  and  the  motherhood  of  the  Arch- 
Ant,"  but  they  find  little  support  among  the  fashion- 
able churches,  for  the  race  prejudice  of  the  black  ants 
against  all  other  ants  is  very  strong. 

Lastly  we  may  mention  a  very  small  sect  of  inno- 
vators who  are  generally  considered  as  what  men  call 
atheists.  They  find  an  esoteric  sense  in  the  traditional 
religion.  Although  they  deny  the  existence  of  a  per- 
sonal Arch- Ant,  they  have  faith  in  antideals  and  thus 
propose  to  worship  the  general  idea  of  anthood. 

There  are  many  more  issues  in  the  religious  life  of 
ant-religion,  but  it  is  too  difficult  for  us  to  understand 
them  and  Professor  Weller  who  was  thoroughly  familiar 
with  them  has  passed  away. 

Human  beings  have  their  peculiar  notions  about 
the  world,  its  origin,  and  the  future  fate  of  beings  after 
death.  It  seems  advisable  for  us  to  let  some  ant-phi- 
losopher explain  his  notions  on  these  different  subjects 
and  compare  notes  with  our  conceptions.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  say  how  we  shall  get  at  the  facts  to  make  a 
comparison  possible ;  but  we  ought  to  do  it.  The 
mere  consideration  that  there  are  other  beings  in  ex- 
istence and  that  they  also  are  God's  creatures  yearning 
to  be  "delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into 
the  glorious  liberty  of  a  divine  childhood,"  will  help  us 
to  purify  our  own  religious  views.  "We  know  that 
the  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  to- 
gether until  now.  And  not  only  they,  but  ourselves, 
also,  who  [so  at  least  we  trust]  have  the  first  fruits  of 
the  Spirit,  even  we  ourselves  groan  within  ourselves, 
waiting  for  the  adoption." 

We  must  conclude  from  Professor  Weller's  remarks 
that  the  ants  are  very  exclusive  and  dogmatic.  They 
would  scorn  to  confer  with  bees  whom  they  regard  as 
very  inferior  beings,  and  will,  most  likely,  refuse  to 
send  delegates  to  a  religious  parliament  in  which  they 
are  likely  to  meet  on  an  equal  footing  either  with  men 
or  ant-bears  or  other  lower  creatures,  none  of  which 
pay  reverence  to  the  Arch-Ant  in  the  Eternal  Hill  of 
Bliss. 

Some  ant- philosophers  regard  mankind  as  quite 
rational  and  concede  to  them  a  high  rank,  not  in  mo- 
rality, yet  in  intelligence  and  cunning.  It  is  true  that 
the  fanciful  notions  on  the  intelligence  of  men  have 
been  given  up  again  among  the  ants,  since  a  great 
ant-naturalist  has  proved  that  what  appears  to  be  in- 
telligence is  mere  instinct  developed  by  the  survival  of 
the  fittest.  Instinct,  he  claims,  is  sufficient  to  account 
for  the  facts,  thus  it  is  quite  redundant  according  to 
the  principle  of  economy  in  explanations  to  assume  the 
existence  of  any  conscious  or  purposive  intelligence. 


4078 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


We  cannot  here  investigate  how  far  the  good  opinion 
of  ants  concerning  men  is  justified,  but  we  hope  that 
there  is  some  fact  back  of  it. 

We  regret  that,  owing  to  the  exclusiveness  of  ants, 
there  is  little  hope  of  meeting  in  conference  with  them. 
All  the  more  ought  we  to  consider  the  statements  made 
by  Professor  Weller.  We  repeat,  that  without  a  proper 
appreciation  of  the  religious  problems  from  a  radically 
different  standpoint,  such  as  that  of  the  ants,  compara- 
tive religion  cannot  attain  completion.  p.  c. 


IMAGO. 

BY  CHARLES  ALVA  LANE. 

O  fools  and  blind,  to  whom  the  life  is  meat  ! 
Across  whose  multitude  of  business  fall 
No  dreams;  whose  deaf  ears  will  not  hear  the  call 

That  starry  silence  and  blue  days  repeat 

In  Gabriel  tones,  proclaiming  Life  is  sweet 
Unswathed  of  its  aurelia,  wherewithal 
The  sense  doth  seal  the  soul,  till  Thought  is  thrall 

To  appetence,  and  gyved  of  wing  and  feet ! 

Unseal  thine  eyes,  O  Soul  !  for  all  the  hills 

With  flaming  chariots  burn  of  thronging  Truth, 

And  Beauty  of  her  speech  the  world  fulfils, 

Whose  words  the  flowers  are  and  dreams  of  youth. 

Delight  and  song  and  longings  rich  and  rare 

As  gathered  fruits  of  Love's  first  visions  are. 


KOSSUTH  AND  GENERAL  GORGEL 

Mr.  Theodore  Stanton  writes  us  as  follows  from  Paris  : 
"  I  notice  in  TJic  Open  Court  some  little  discussion  concerning 
Kossuth  and  Gorgei,  which  makes  «  propos  a  poem  by  Theodore 
Tilton,  given  in  his  new  volume,  'The  Chameleon's  Dish,'  pub- 
lished at  the  Oxford  University  Press,  a  very  pretty  piece  of  typo- 
graphy, by  the  way.     Here  is  this  spirited  bit  of  verse  : 
'  KOSSUTH  ON  GORGEl'S  CAPITULATION, 
A.  D.  1849. 
I  could  have  better  borne  the  blow 
And  throbbed  with  less  of  fever 
Had  he,  the  Traitor,  been  my  toe 
And  not  my  Captain,— whom  I  know 

As  my  deceiver. 
Is  ancient  fealty  at  an  end  ? 
Is  shining  honor  rusted  ? 
Alas,  the  blow  to  which  I  bend 
Was  from  "  mine  own  familiar  friend 

In  whom  I  trusted." 
To  such  a  blow  what  balm  can  be  ? 

O  God,  it  healeth  never  \ 
For  even  if  the  land  be  free, 
My  heart,  a  wounded  aloe-tree, 
Musi  bleed  for  ever  ! ' 
"  The  note,  which  the  author  appends  to  this  poem,  is  in  ac- 
cord with  your  own,  in  your  issue  of  April  12.      Here  it  is  ; 

"  'Gorgei,  the  Hungarian  General  of  1848,  and  the  friend  and 
comrade  of  Kossuth,  unexpectedly  surrendered  the  Hungarian 
army  ;  but  it  is  fair  to  add,  in  Gorgei's  behalf,  that  his  surrender 
has  been  vindicated  on  the  ground  of  military  necessity,  and  as  a 
humane  measure  to  prevent  the  needless  slaughter  of  his  troops.'  " 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

Is  the  Bible  a  Revelation  from  Cod?  Dialogues  Betivecn  a  Sceptic 
and  a  Christian,  by  Charles  T.  Gorham  (London;  Watts  &  Co.)— 
103  pages— impugns  the  notion  of  revelation;  the  arguments  o£ 
the  author  are  chiefly  rationalistic.— 77;^  Pymander  of  Hermes, 


With  a  preface  by  the  editor,  (Collectanea  Hermetica) — pp.  117 — 
edited  by  W.  Wynn  Westcott,  M.  B.  Lond.,  D.  P.  H.,  Supreme 
Magus  of  the  Rosicrucian  Society,  Master  of  the  Quatuor  Coro- 
nati  Lodge  (Theosophical  Publishing  Society,  London,  1894),  is  a 
reprint  of  the  English  translation  by  Dr.  Everard,  1650,  of  one  of 
the  seventeen  tracts  attributed  to  Hermes  Trismegistus  ;  the  book 
is  neatly  got  up. — -•/  Square  Talk  to  Young  Men  About  the  Inspira- 
tion of  the  Bible,  by  H.  L.  Hastings  (Scriptural  Tract  Repository, 
1893,  pp.  94,  price,  75  cents),  was  originally  a  lecture  delivered  at 
Massachusetts  before  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association ; 
and  after  revision  and  enlargement  was  issued  as  the  first  number 
of  the  Anti-Infidel  Library;  it  claims  to  be  in  its  third  million, 
twelve  tons  of  it  having  been  printed  in  London  at  one  time  ;  the 
book  is  within  the  comprehension  of  any  reader.  We  have  also 
received  tracts  by  the  same  Library  and  with  the  same  tendency, 
entitled  "The  Higher  Criticism." — Right  Living,  by  Susan  H. 
Wixon  (Chicago,  Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Co.,  1894,  pp.  292),  is  a  col- 
lection of  pleasant  talks  upon  the  chief  practical  problems  of  life ; 
we  cannot  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  foundations  of  the  author's 
views. — Human  Nature  Cotisidered  in  the  Light  of  Physical  Science, 
Including  Phrenology,  with  a  New  Discovery,  by  Mr.  Caleb  S. 
Weeks  of  New  York  (Fowler  &  Wells  Co.,  1893;  pp.  240;  117 
illustrations;  cloth,  $1.00;  paper,  50  cents)  is  written  in  a  sober, 
self-contained  style,  which,  considering  the  subject,  does  the 
author  much  credit ;  it  is  free  from  most  of  the  vagaries  which 
usually  characterise  such  works. 


It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Mr.  Louis  Prang,  the  well  known 
art-publisher  of  Boston,  who  from  the  character  of  his  business 
might  be  expected  to  hold  just  the  opposite  views  upon  this  sub- 
ject, has  delivered  an  address  at  the  dinner  of  the  New  England 
Tariff  Reform  League,^  March  9,  1894,  in  favor  of  free  trade.  Mr. 
Prang  declares  he  is  perfectly  ready  to  compete  with  the  European 
market,  even  in  the  formidable  domain  of  lithography.  Other 
speeches  were  delivered  by  Hon.  Peleg  McFarlin,  Treasurer  Ellis 
Foundry  Co.,  Mr.  Henry  C.  Thacher,  wool  merchant,  and  Mr. 
W.  O.  Blaney,  flour  and  grain  merchant.  (Boston  :  New  England 
Tariff  Reform  League,  1894.) 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION; 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 


CONTENTS  OF  NO.  350. 

GOVERNMENT  BY  WRITS  OF  INJUNCTION.     Gen. 

M,  M.  Trumbull 4071 

THOMAS    PAINE   IN  PARIS  1787-1788.     Moncure  D. 

Conway 4071 

PESSIMISM;  THE  WAY  OUT.     Amos  Waters 4073 

THE  RELIGION  OF  ANTS.     Editor 4076 

POETRY. 

Imago.     Charles  Alva  Lane 407S 

MR.    THEODORE    STANTON    ON    KOSSUTH    AND 

GENERAL  GORGEI 407S 

BOOK  NOTICES 4078 


3,^0 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "VSTEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  351.     (Vol.  VIII.— 20.) 


CHICAGO,  MAY  17,   i J 


I  Two  Dollars  per  Yfear. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


GEN.  MATTHEW  MARK  TRUMBULL 

IN    MEMORIAM. 


THE  FAREWELL  AT  THE  HOUSE. 

We  are  assembled  here  to  pay  our  last  tribute  to 
thee,  my  dear  friend  ;  but  we  take  leave  from  thy  body 
only,  not  from  thy  soul.  We  bid  farewell  to  the 
sympathetic  features  of  thy  face,  but  not  to  thy  love, 
thy  spiritual  being,  to  thine  own  self  and  innermost 
nature.  Thou  thyself,  thy  transfigured  self,  wilt  re- 
main with  us  to  live  in  our  hearts  in  an  inseparable 
communion  with  our  souls  as  a  living  presence  to  en- 
hance, elevate,  and  sanctify  our  lives. 


ADDRESSES  AT  UNITY  CHURCH. 

THE  SERMON. 

What  is  more  momentous,  more  soul-stirring,  more 
mysterious  than  Death  ? 

Death  is  constantly  hovering  over  us :  like  the  sword 
of  Damocles,  suspended  by  a  hair,  at  any  moment  it 
threatens  to  come  down  upon  us  and  destroy  us. 

None  so  great,  none  so  powerful,  none  so  strong 
and  healthy  but  are  doomed  at  last  to  die  and  pass 
away  from  the  joyous  light  of  the  sun  and  the  loving 
circle  of  family  and  friends. 

What  is  Death  ?  Is  it  the  doom  that  seals  the  van- 
ity of  life  ?  Is  it  nature's  verdict  that  we  are  not  en- 
titled to  an  eternal  individual  existence  ?  Is  it  the 
bringer  of  peace  which  after  a  life  full  of  struggles  bids 
us  rest  from  our  labors? 

Verily,  Death  is  all  this  and  more  !  Death  is  the 
great  teacher  of  man,  and  the  lesson  which  he  teaches 
cannot  be  learned  to  the  end  :  it  is  always  new  when- 
ever we  are  again  confronted  with  the  loss  of  one  of 
our  beloved  ones. 

Like  the  hierophant  in  the  ancient  mysteries  of 
Eleusis,  Death  reveals  to  us  the  secrets  of  a  higher 
life,  teaching  the  thoughtless  to  reflect  and  the  frivol- 
ous to  become  sober.  Leaving  no  hope  to  him  who 
lives  for  himself  alone,  Death  advises  the  selfish  to  sur- 
render their  selfishness.  The  imminence  of  death  re- 
minds us  to  seek  for  that  which  will  abide.  Death 
opens  our  eyes  to  spiritual  truths  pointing  out  to  us 


the  way  of  salvation.  Thus  Death  rouses  us  to  noble 
aims  and  imparts  to  us  the  bliss  of  a  superindividual 
life  which  is  attainable  only  through  love  and  by  ideal 
aspirations. 

Death  has  stepped  into  our  midst  and  has  led  away 
a  hero  from  the  ranks  of  brave  fighters,  a  leader  in 
battle,  not  only  in  the  battles  of  war  for  the  union  of 
our  country  and  the  emancipation  of  the  slave,  but 
even  more  so  in  the  spiritual  battles  for  liberty,  jus- 
tice, and  progress. 

Gen.  Matthew  Mark  Trumbull  was  born  in  London, 
England,  1826,  and  came  to  America  in  his  youth 
where  he  began  his  career  as  a  day-laborer  working 
with  pickaxe,  shovel,  and  wheelbarrow.  He  then  taught 
school  and  studied  law.  He  served  as  a  soldier  in  the 
Mexican  and  in  the  civil  war,  and  rising  in  rank  was 
finally  made  brigadier- general  for  bravery  on  the  bat- 
tle-field. Under  General  Grant  he  held  the  office  of 
Collector  of  Internal  Revenue  in  Iowa  and  devoted 
the  rest  of  his  life  to  literary  work.  He  died  in  the 
sixty-ninth  year  of  his  active  life  after  a  wearisome  and 
in  the  end  most  painful  illness, which  he  bore  with  re- 
markable endurance  and  patience.  His  death  is  a 
sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  patriotism,  for  the  cause  of 
his  troubles  was  a  severe  wound  received  in  the  battle 
of  Shiloh. 

General  Trumbull  was  strong  in  his  convictions, 
but  he  was  not  a  fanatic  partisan.  His  allegiance  was 
always  to  the  broad  cause  of  humanity.  He  was  an 
enthusiastic  Republican,  because  the  Republican  party 
freed  the  slave.  Nevertheless  he  was  a  free-trader  be- 
cause he  regarded  the  protective  tariff  as  a  restriction 
and  a  self-imposed  shackel  that  prevented  our  people 
from  displaying  their  full  energy  in  the  competition 
with  other  nations.  He  was  a  friend  of  the  laborer 
because  the  laborer  is  a  toiler,  and  he  knew  from  ex- 
perience what  toil  means.  He  was  always  willing  to 
extend  his  helpful  services  whenever  needed,  even  at 
a  sacrifice  of  his  strength  and  health  ;  and  every  one 
in  trouble  was  his  friend. 


4o8o 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


General  Trumbull  has  often  been  misunderstood 
and  misrepresented,  but  nothing  could  alter  the  dis- 
position of  his  heart  or  make  him  swerve  from  his 
course  to  defend  what  he  regarded  as  the  cause  of  jus- 
tice. Because  he  worked  for  the  improvement  of  the 
conditions  of  the  laboring  classes,  he  was  branded  as 
a  demagogue  and  a  sower  of  discontent.  How  little 
this  is  true  those  know  who  have  read  his  writings. 
The  spirit  of  his  books  is  well  characterised  by  the  fol- 
lowing remark  in  his  "Wheelbarrow": 

"Coming  out  of  the  labor  struggles  of  my  childhood,  youth, 
and  early  manhood,  covered  all  over  \A'ith  bruises  and  scars,  and 
with  some  wounds  that  will  never  be  healed  either  in  this  world 
or  in  the  world  to  come,  I  may  have  written  some  words  in  bitter- 
ness, but  I  do  not  wish  to  antagonise  classes,  nor  to  excite  ani- 
mosity and  revenge,  I  desire  to  harmonise  all  the  orders  of  so- 
ciety on  the  broad  platform  of  mutual  charity  and  justice.  I  have 
had  no  other  object  in  writing  these  essays." 

Because  General  Trumbull  objected  to  creeds  and 
dogrnas,  he  has  been  called  an  infidel  and  an  atheist. 
Certainly  he  was  ready  to  take  the  odium  of  these 
names  upon  him,  and  it  is  true  that  he  did  not  believe 
in  a  God  who  would  be  pleased  with  the  flattery  of 
his  worshippers  or  alter  the  order  of  nature  as  a  spe- 
cial favor  to  supplicants ;  but  he  did  believe  in  the 
God  of  righteousness,  charity,  and  love.  General 
Trumbull  rejected  the  creeds  of  sectarianism  because 
to  his  mind  they  contained  no  religious  truth,  but  he  was 
confident  that  mankind  would  gradually  adopt  a  broad 
cosmic  religion  which  could  stand  the  criticism  of  the 
infidel.  His  religious  denomination  was  a  faith  in  the 
religion  of  the  future.  He  saw  in  the  Parliament  of 
Religions  "the  dawn  of  a  new  religious  era,  contain- 
ing less  myth  and  more  truth,  less  creed  and  more 
deed,  less  dogma  and  more  proof,"  and  sums  up  his 
opinion  concerning  it  in  these  words  : 

"The  Parliament  provided  a  sort  of  intellectual  crucible  in 
which  all  the  creeds  will  be  tested  and  purified  as  by  fire.  That 
sectarians  of  a  hundred  theologies  have  brought  them  to  the  fur- 
nace is  a  sign  of  social  progress,  and  a  promise  of  larger  tolera- 
tion. He  who  fears  the  fire  has  no  faith,  for  whatsoever  is  true 
in  his  religion  will  come  out  of  the  furnace  as  pure  metal,  leaving 
the  dross  to  be  thrown  away." 

It  can  truly  be  said  of  General  Trumbull  that  he 
remained  a  youth  as  long  as  he  lived,  youthful  in  his 
enthusiasm  for  the  ideals  of  humanity,  youthful  in  his 
combative  disposition,  and  j'outhful  in  the  spirit  with 
which  he  wielded  his  pen,  always  sprightly,  always 
buoyant,  always  brisk  and  quick  in  his  thrusts  and  re- 
partees. He  did  not  shrink  from  sarcastic  expressions, 
and  his  strictures  were  the  more  telling  as  he  made  them 
with  good  grace  and  often  jokingly,  for  he  always  saw 
at  once  the  comical  side  of  his  adversary's  weakness. 
But  back  of  the  sarcasm  of  his  caustic  pen  there  was 
always  the  good  heart  of  a  sympathetic  nature  and 
an  unshaken  confidence  in  the  final  victory  of  truth 
and  justice. 


The  loss  of  our  departed  friend  is  irreparable  to 
his  family,  to  his  now  widowed  wife  who  was  the  faith- 
ful companion  and  indispensable  helpmate  of  his  life  ; 
to  his  daughters,  his  sons,  and  his  grandchildren.  His 
loss  is  irreparable  to  his  friends  who  loved  him  for  the 
kindness  of  his  heart  and  the  brilliancy  of  his  genius. 
His  loss  is  irreparable  also  to  me.  I  shall  miss  him 
and  not  find  his  like  again.  He  was  my  most  valuable 
and  intimate  coworker,  always  ready  to  aid  me  with 
his  pen,  or  his  advice  whenever  I  needed  it.  The  rea- 
ders of  The  Open  Court  will  no  longer  have  the  benefit 
of  enjoying  the  flashes  of  his  inexhaustible  wit  with 
which  he  good-humoredly  pilloried  the  follies  of  our 
time. 

The  worth  of  the  man  shows  the  greatness  of  our 
loss,  and  we  stand  here  as  mourners  complaining  of 
the  curtailment  of  his  usefulness  to  mankind  and  be- 
wailing our  bereavement. 

The  personality  of  the  dead,  of  our  beloved  hus- 
band, father,  and  friend  seems  to  have  vanished  as  an 
air-bubble  that  breaks  up,  because  we  observe  the  de- 
cay of  the  body  and  bury  the  remains  ;  we  write  upon 
the  tombstone  his  name  as  if  he  himself  rested  there 
and  visit  the  grave  as  if  we  visited  him.  Let  us  open 
our  eyes  to  spiritual  facts  and  remember  the  signifi- 
cant words  spoken  at  the  grave  of  him  whose  name 
has  become  the  religious  symbol  of  resurrection:  "Why 
seek  ye  the  living  among  the  dead  ?  "  Let  us  not  for- 
get in  our  grief  that  Death  is  not  a  dissolution  into 
nothingness  ;  the  discontinuance  of  life  is  all  that  we 
have  a  right  to  murmur  against,  for  the  soul  abideth 
and  cannot  be  annihilated. 

Man's  real  being  is  his  soul  and  not  the  dust  of 
which  his  body  consists.  We  bury  the  body  and  not 
the  soul ;  and  the  soul  of  our  beloved,  departed  friend 
is  wherever  his  thoughts  and  sentiments  have  taken 
root.  The  soul  remains  with  the  living  in  life  ;  it  is 
preserved  in  its  entire  individuality  with  all  its  beau- 
ties and  preferences. 

As  a  stone  that  is  built  into  a  building  loses  noth- 
ing of  its  own  being,  so  the  souls  of  our  ancestors  are 
preserved  in  the  living  temple  of  humanity  forming 
the  foundation  of  a  nobler  future.  When  our  life  is 
ended,  we  find  a  home  in  that  great  empire  of  soul- 
life  in  which  have  been  gathered  all  our  fathers  and 
the  fathers  of  our  fathers  since  the  beginning  of  life 
upon  earth. 

[I/erc  a  psalm  was  sung  by  lite  Lotus  Quar telle,  undey  the  direc- 
tion of  Mr.  McGaffey.'\ 


THE  LION  AND  THE  LAMB  BLENDED. 

BY  GEORGE  A.   SCHILLING. 

What  can  I,  feeble  man,  say  that  is  a  fitting  tribute 
to  the  worth  and  character  of  our  departed  comrade 
whose  life  was  an  intense  struggle  from  the  cradle  to 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4081 


the  grave.  From  early  life  to  manhood,  against  pov- 
erty with  all  the  disadvantages  it  entails  ;  from  early 
manhood  until  he  closed  his  eyes  in  death,  against  so- 
cial wrong  and  for  the  higher  recognition  of  the  equal- 
ity of  rights  for  all  men.  Born  amidst  the  lowly  peo- 
ple of  England,  "where,"  he  says,  "pictures  of  human 
life  are  seen  in  strongest  light  and  shade,  where  oppo- 
site extremes  menace  each  other  forever,  and  where 
Dives  and  Lazarus  exhibit  the  most  glaring  antithesis 
in  this  world ";  he  was  driven  by  necessity  to  seek 
work  at  a  tender  age,  so  that  he  could  aid  in  the  sup- 
port of  the  family.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
pangs  of  physical  hunger  from  which  he  suffered  in 
his  youth,  that  which  pained  him  most  was  the  hunger 
of  the  mind  ;  the  desire  for  education  and  knowledge. 
When,  therefore,  the  Chartist  movement  of  England, 
with  its  gospel  of  social  and  industrial  equality  devel- 
oped, with  its  promise  for  a  higher  intellectual  life  to 
all  those  who  live  by  toil,  it  was  not  strange  that  our 
friend  should  become  entangled  in  its  magic  circle  and 
be  one  of  its  most  enthusiastic  votaries.  Coming  to 
this  country  with  such  ideas  ag  the  Chartist  movement 
inculcated,  we  need  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  his 
conscience  was  tortured  beyond  expression,  when  he 
came  face  to  face  with  the  institution  of  chattel  slav- 
ery. In  my  whole  life  I  never  knew  a  man  in  whose 
character  the  lion  and  the  lamb  were  so  thoroughly 
blended.  He  was  as  meek  and  gentle  as  a  child.  He 
loved  peace  and  the  arts  of  peace.  His  tongue  and 
pen  was  ever  busy  advocating  the  principle  of  com- 
mercial freedom,  which,  aside  from  its  industrial  ad- 
vantages and  equities,  he  believed  would  tend  to  cul- 
tivate a  fraternal  feeling  among  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  and  thereby  lessen  and  ultimately  destroy  the 
warlike  spirit  of  mankind.  He  disliked  wars  with 
their  brutalising  effects,  their  devastations,  their  blood 
and  carnage,  yet,  when  entrenched  wrong,  intoxicated 
and  arrogant,  refused  to  recede,  and  grew  even  ag- 
gressive, he  was  ever  ready  to  buckle  on  the  armor 
and  with  his  life  in  his  hands  fight  for  what  he  believed 
to  be  right.  When  therefore  in  i860  our  Southern 
slave-holders  sought  to  perpetuate  their  peculiar  insti- 
tution by  dismembering  the  Union,  he  was  one  of  the 
first  to  come  forward  and  sign  the  roll  in  defense  of 
his  country.  Some  may  have  joined  the  army  in  those 
days  simply  to  preserve  the  union  of  States — not  so 
General  Trumbull.  He  joined  the  army  and  partici- 
pated in  that  great  conflict  for  the  purpose  of  free- 
ing the  negro.  No  matter  how  Ipud  the  cannons 
boomed,  or  how  fast  and  thick  the  shot  and  shell  flew 
on  the  field  of  battle  ;  it  was  all  sweet  music  to  him, 
because  he  felt  that  the  end  of  the  war  would  simul- 
taneously be  the  end  of  slavery.  Sitting  by  his  fire- 
side in  latter  years,  conversing  with  friends,  repeating 
his  reminiscences  of  the  war,  he  frequently  expressed 


the  joy  he  felt  in  his  old  days  because  of  the  fact  that 
no  negro  ever  came  to  his  camp  and  left  it  a  slave. 

One  cold  morning,  while  stationed  at  St.  Louis  in 
the  early  part  of  the  war,  he  boarded  a  street-car  in 
which  there  was  seated  a  colored  woman,  poorly  clad. 
As  the  car  glided  along  it  soon  filled  up  with  passen- 
gers, the  space  becoming  limited ;  the  conductor 
"hustled"  the  colored  woman  out  of  the  car  on  to  the 
front  platform.  General  Trumbull  discerning  the 
meaning  of  this  was  overcome  with  indignation.  Go- 
ing out  after  the  woman,  he  brought  her  back  into  the 
car  and  commanded  her  to  take  her  seat.  To  this  the 
conductor  remonstrated,  saying  that  it  was  against 
the  rules  of  the  company  for  any  colored  person  to 
ride  on  the  inside  of  the  car.  General  Trumbull  ex- 
claimed :  "I  don't  care  about  your  rules;  if  you  at- 
tempt to  eject  this  woman  again,  you  will  have  to 
fight."  To  this  the  conductor  replied  :  "Well,  what 
am  I  to  do  ?  If  I  do  not  enforce  the  rules  I  will  be  dis- 
charged." "Well,"  said  General  Trumbull,  "who  is 
the  president  of  your  road?"  To  this  the  conductor 
replied:  "It  is  B.  Gratz  Brown."  Then  said  he: 
"Tell  B.  Gratz  Brown  that  you  were  interfered  with 
in  the  discharge  of  your  duty  in  enforcing  this  rule  by 
Captain  Trumbull  of  the  United  States  Army."  This 
act  on  the  part  of  our  dead  hero  ended  this  discrimi- 
nation which  prevented  colored  people  from  riding  on 
the  inside  of  cars. 

One  day,  from  headquarters,  he  spied  an  excite- 
ment in  his  camp.  Hurrying  to  the  scene,  he  learned 
that  a  slave-holder  wished  to  reclaim  his  slave — a  ne- 
gro girl,  dressed  in  men's  clothes,  engaged  in  the 
camp  cooking  for  a  mess  of  the  Union  soldiers.  The 
General,  discovering  the  cause  of  the  trouble,  ordered 
the  slave-holder  to  leave  the  camp,  refusing  to  surren- 
der the  colored  girl.  The  next  day  the  slave-holder 
returned  with  an  order  from  General  Sherman  asking 
General  Trumbull  to  surrender  the  slave.  After  read- 
ing the  order  he  tore  it  into  strips,  exclaiming:  "I 
don't  care  about  the  orders  of  General  Sherman  ;  get 
out  of  this  camp — git,  git,  git."     And  he  got. 

He  loved  to  tell  of  a  character  connected  with  his 
regiment  who  considered  it  his  special  duty  to  free  all 
the  negroes  along  the  line  of  march.  He  would  take 
the  negroes  by  the  ear,  spin  them  around  the  circle 
three  times,  and  repeat  the  following  ceremony : 

"By  the  authority  of  the  Constitution  and  the 
power  in  me  vested  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  I  declare  that  you  are  as  free  as  the  water  that 
runs,  the  birds  that  sing,  and  the  wind  that  blows." 

Whether  pleading  for  the  liberty  of  the  slave  on 
the  stump,  or  striking  at  the  shackles  that  bound  his 
limbs  on  the  field  of  battle,  or  whether  in  the  quiet 
recesses  of  his  home  with  pen  in  hand,  sending  forth 
the  message  of  his  conscience  to  mankind  ;  in  any  and 


4082 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


all  of  these  stations  he  was  always  the  soldier  of  lib- 
erty, hurling  thunderbolts  of  defiance  at  the  tyrants  of 
the  earth.  No  man  feared  death  less  than  he,  yet  no 
man  desired  life  more.  The  great  social  and  indus- 
trial questions  of  our  day,  which  cause  many  to  look 
into  the  future  with  doubt,  and  which  tax  the  minds 
of  the  wisest  of  our  men  and  women,  excited  his  high- 
est interest.  He  saw  new  issues  developing,  and  he 
wished  to  remain  with  us,  so  that  in  their  proper 
settlement  his  pen  and  tongue  might  be  a  helpful  aid 
to  the  world. 

If  he  did  not  leave  his  family  full  in  pocket,  he 
left  them  the  wealth  and  legacy  of  a  rich  and  honor- 
able life.  Would  that  all  wives  and  all  children  could 
feel  that  ineffable  blessing,  while  standing  at  the  bier 
of  their  departed  husband  or  father,  that  his  wife  and 
children  can  feel  to-day.  I  am  sure  we  can  all  join 
with  the  poet  and  say : 

'  'An  honest  man  has  gone  to  rest, 
To  rise  or  sleep  on  nature's  breast, 
The  friend  of  man,  the  friend  of  truth. 
The  staff  of  age  and  guide  of  youth  ; 
Your  head  with  knowledge  well  informed, 
Your  heart  with  tenderness  was  warmed  ; 
If  there's  another  world,  you  live  in  bliss. 
If  there  is  none,  you  made  the  best  of  this." 

And  now,  is  this  final  farewell  on  earth  an  eternal 
good  night?  Shall  we  never  meet  again?  I  think  we 
shall.  I  cherish  the  hope  that  when  my  own  soul  cros- 
ses the  river  Styx  the  General  will  be  on  the  opposite 
bank  extending  a  welcome  hand  with  a  "Good  morn- 
ing "  on  his  lips. 

MORAL  COURAGE  RARER  THAN  PHYSiCAI^  BRAVERY. 

BY  CLARENCE  S.    DARROW. 

It  is  a  solemn  privilege  to  speak  a  few  last  words 
above  this  friend  I  knew  and  loved  so  well.  He  was 
a  gentle,  brave,  and  noble  man,  and  had  a  heart  so 
large  and  mind  so  broad  that  no  family,  state,  or  na- 
tion could  claim  him  for  its  own,  but  he  belonged  to 
all  the  world. 

One  man  in  the  great  mass  of  human  life  is  like  a 
drop  of  water  in  the  sea,  but  when  this  light  went  out 
we  lost  a  true  and  faithful  friend  to  whom  we  never 
needed  to  explain,  but  who  viewed  our  every  act  as  if 
born  of  the  high  motives  which  always  moved  his  soul. 

He  was  a  soldier  in  our  civil  war,  and  bravely  faced 
the  shot  and  shell  to  liberate  the  poor  and  weak,  but 
the  battle-fields  of  our  great  rebellion  vifere  not  the 
only  ones  on  which  our  brave  friend  fought.  He  was 
not  "mustered  in,"  in  sixty-one,  or  "mustered  out," 
in  sixty-five,  but  when  his  great,  young  heart  first 
learned  to  beat  for  all  the  poor  and  weak,  he  became 
a  soldier  in  humanity's  great  cause,  and  with  undaunted 
courage  and  a  heart  that  never  quailed  he  served  that 
cause  until  the  last  message  came  which  bade  our 
weary  soldier  leave  his  post  for  an  eternal  rest. 


How  often  have  I  heard  him  say  that  moral  cour- 
age is  far  rarer  and  finer  than  physical  bravery,  and 
were  he  to  speak  to  us  to-day,  he  would  say  with  me 
that  his  greatest  victories  were  not  won  with  sabre  and 
with  gun,  but  in  those  dark  moments  which  here  and 
there  are  scattered  through  our  lives  where  a  few  brave 
and  loyal  souls  are  gathered  close  together,  to  feel  the 
beating  of  each  other's  hearts,  gain  courage  from  each 
other's  lives,  and  bravely  stand  within  the  citadel  of 
truth  to  resist  the  angry,  surging  sea  of  wrong  which 
comes  to  overwhelm  and  to  destroy.  Whatever  the 
occasion,  however  few  the  comrades,  however  desper- 
ate the  struggle,  however  threatening^  the  tide  and  re- 
sistless the  onslaught  this  dead  hero  was  ever  firm  and 
ready,  ever  brave  and  powerful  to  defend  the  right. 
Let  no  one  think  that  because  we  hear  no  cannons 
roar  and  see  no  sabres  flash  that  these  are  days  of 
peace,  for  the  old,  old  strife  between  the  right  and 
wrong,  the  oppressor  and  oppressed,  is  raging  fierce 
and  desperate  now,  and  we  who  loved  the  dead  and 
what  he  loved,  feel  that  we  leave  upon  the  field  of 
battle  a  comrade  brave. and  true,  whom  we  will  surely 
miss  and  sadly  need  in  the  great  conflicts  that  are  sure 
to  come  ;  but  when  the  battle  rages  fierce  and  strong 
we  will  not  fail  to  hear  his  old  heroic  words  ringing 
bravely  to  inspire  our  souls. 

The  dead  believed  in  no  narrow  dogmas  or  creeds  ; 
he  was  often  called  an  infidel  and  an  atheist,  and  while 
he  took  no  exception  to  these  terms,  those  who  knew 
him  best  were  well  aware  that  they  did  not  define  his 
religious  views.  I  think  I  know  what  he  believed  and 
can  say  that  he  was  not  an  atheist.  He  looked  on  na- 
ture in  all  her  countless  forms  of  life  ;  he  could  not 
understand  the  power  that  makes  a  blade  of  grass  to 
grow,  that  holds  the  planets  in  their  place,  and  that 
forms  a  human  brain  ;  he  did  not  know  and  would  not 
guess.  He  listened  to  the  creeds  and  dogmas  of  the 
world  which  assume  to  speak  for  the  great  heart  of 
the  universe  itself,  and  he  believed  that  it  was  little 
less  than  blasphemy  for  a  finite  mind  to  seek  to  limit, 
define,  and  understand  the  great  source  of  life  that 
pervades  the  smallest  portion  of  the  mighty  whole. 

It  seems  to  ine  that  could  he  know  my  thoughts  he 
would  wish  that  I  should  say  of  him  as  I  would  hope 
that  he  would  speak  of  me,  were.I  beneath  his  coffin- 
lid  and  he  standing  by  my  side.  That  as  to  the  great 
questions  of  a  deity  and  immortal  life  he  meekly  and 
reverently  bowed  his  head  in  the  presence  of  this  in- 
finite mystery  and  admitted  that  the  wisdom  of  the 
sages  was  no  more  than  the  foolishness  of  babes  ;  to 
these  old  questions  he  could  answer  neither  yes  nor 
no,  but  confessing  his  ignorance  of  the  great  problem 
of  the  ages  he  refused  to  guess  where  he  could  not 
know. 

But  religion  is  not  made  of  creeds  and  dogmas,  but 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4083 


of  thoughts  and  deeds,  and  his  great  mind  and  heart 
knew  and  understood  full  well  that  the  highest  wor- 
ship is  to  lay  the  richest  treasures  of  the  soul  upon  the 
altar  built  in  humanity's  great  cause  ;  and  all  the 
strength  of  his  frame  and  the  treasures  of  his  mind 
from  his  earliest  youth  until  his  last  hour  on  earth, 
were  lavishly  given  to  this  noble  cause. 

His  was  a  soul  so  great  and  true  that  no  ignoble 
motives  ever  influenced  his  conduct  or  shaped  his  acts; 
he  needed  no  hell  to  threaten,  no  heaven  to  coax,  but 
seeing  where  his  duty  lay  he  never  dreamed  that  there 
was  any  other  path  his  feet  could  tread. 

And  now  good-bye,  my  dear,  dead  friend,  good-bye, 
we  leave  you  at  the  open  grave  where  all  the  living 
part  from  all  the  dead.  'Tis  hard  to  say  farewell,  to 
feel  that  those  lips  which  never  spoke  to  defend  the 
wrong  or  strong,  must  be  silent  ever  more,  to  know 
that  your  brave  hand,  that  was  ever  quick  to  write 
and  fight  for  the  oppressed  and  poor,  is  now  withering 
into  dust ;  to  know  that  for  us  you  can  live  only  in  the 
memories  that  your  grand  life  has  made  a  portion  of 
our  own. 

We  give  you  back  to  the  elements  which  lent  the 
life  and  clay  which  you  used  so  wisely  and  so  well  ;  it 
may  be  that  in  nature's  wondrous  laboratory  this  dust 
may  go  to  make  another  human  form,  but  no  miracle 
or  chance  will  ever  mould  this  clay  again  into  another 
man  like  this  we  sadly  cover  over  with  earth  and 
flowers. 

THE  SAXON. 

BY    GEORGE    E.    GOOCH. 

We  are  assembled  to-day  to  do  homage,  to  pay  a 
last  tribute  of  respect  to  all  that  is  mortal  of  our  late 
President-elect  of  the  Saint  George's  Benevolent 
Association  of  Chicago,  Gen.  Matthew  M.  Trumbull. 
He  belonged  to  a  race  that  has  girdled  the  earth  with 
its  sons,  and  in  whatever  longitude  that  race  governs, 
whether  they  be  native  born  or  the  descendants  of 
Britons  there  is  true  liberty.  The  sons  of  the  old 
land,  the  land  so  dearly  loved  by  our  departed  Gen- 
eral and  President,  meet  here  to-day  with  the  soldiers 
and  sons  of  England's  greatest  daughter,  Columbia,  to 
say  a  last  and  sad  farewell  to  him  whose  daily  life  and 
gentle  nature  were  an  example  to  us  all.  Brave  as  the 
lion,  the  emblem  of  Britain,  his  native  land,  he  fought 
like  a  true  soldier  for  the  land  of  his  adoption.  He 
fought  to  burst  asunder  the  shackles  of  the  slave,  and 
that  this  great  country,  the  land  of  his  and  our  adop- 
tion, might  be  and  remain  a  nation. 

There  are  times  and  occurrences,  doubts  and  fears, 
in  the  life  of  every  man  that  we  cannot  fathom  ;  our 
lights  are  dim,  and  we  seek  for  a  greater  knowledge, 
a  greater  light ;  but  who  is  there  of  his  fellow  country- 
men present  on  this  solemn  occasion  who  knew  in- 
timately our  departed  friend  and  does  not  believe  that 


he  practised  during  his  daily  walks  through  life  the 
great  teachings  and  precepts  of  the  lowly  Nazarene, 
"  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain 
mercy."  Are  there  not  men  with  us  to-day  who  can 
tell  us  that  this  departed  philanthropist  believed  in 
the  doctrine,  and  shall  not  the  family  of  our  late  friend 
have  the  consolation  of  another  promise,  "Blessed 
are  they  which  are  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake, 
for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  "  ?  Yes,  thrice 
yes  !  A  great  man  has  gone  from  our  midst,  but  his 
works  shall  be  remembered  by  us  forever  : 

"  The  sun  is  but  a  spark  of  fire, 
A  transient  meteor  in  the  sky  ; 
The  soul  immortal  as  its  sire, 
Shall  never  die." 

And  now,  in  the  presence  of  this  great  congrega- 
tion and  his  sorrowing  family,  I  proclaim  with  rev- 
erence and  with  love  on  behalf  of  my  fellow-country- 
men, whose  representative  I  am  this  day,  the  final 
words  of  tribute  to  our  departed  associate.  He  was  a 
devoted  husband  and  father,  a  true  and  steadfast 
friend,  a  brave  and  loyal  soldier,  a  child  of  God. 
Farewell  !  and  may  we  who  are  left  on  this  earthly 
pilgrimage  emulate  thy  virtues  and  thy  example,  and 
may  thy  love  of  right,  thy  love  of  justice  to  every  man, 
remain  with  us  to  guide  our  daily  lives  and  actions  as 
God  in  his  wisdom  may  give  us  the  light. 


WHEELBARROW. 

In  the  name  of  Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull's  admirers 
we  place  upon  his  coffin  a  copy  of  "Wheelbarrow," 
the  matured  fruit  of  his  literary  work  ;  and  this  is  the 
envoy  written  on  the  fly  leaf : 

"  The  body  of  our  dear,  beloved  friend  has  become 
a  prey  of  death  ;  the  dust  is  given  back  to  the  dust. 
But  his  never-dying  soul  is  not  buried  with  the  body. 
Let  us  not  seek  the  living  among  the  dead.  His  soul 
still  lives  with  us  as  an  immortal  presence,  and  even 
those  who  have  never  seen  his  face,  will  find  him  in 
his  works.  The  most  valuable  bequest  of  Gen.  M.  M. 
Trumbull  to  mankind  is  his  book  'Wheelbarrow.' 
Every  page  of  it  is  aglow  with  his  youthful  zeal  for 
liberty,  justice,  and  progress." 

INTEGER  VITAE. 

(Horace,  1,  22.)  Adapted  Version  Sung  by  the  Lotus  Quartette. 
He  who  is  upright,  kind,  and  free  from  error 

Needs  not  the  aid  of  arms  or  men  to  guard  him  ; 
Safely  he  moves,  a  child  to  guilty  terror. 

Strong  in  his  virtues. 

What  though  he  journey  o'er  the  burning  desert. 
What  though  alone  on  raging  billows  tossing. 

All  aid,  all  succor  of  his  kind  shall  fail  him, 
God  will  attend  him. 

So  when  cometh  the  evening  of  his  days. 

Fearless  and  glad  shall  he  pass  the  dark  portal. 

Sure  as  he  treadeth  the  valley  of  the  shadow — 
God  will  attend  him. 


4084 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


RITUAL  OF  G.  A.  R. 

Commander,  taking  his  position  at  the  head  o£  the  coffin  : 
"Assembled  to  pay  our  last  tribute  of  respect  to  this  dead  soldier 
of  our  Republic,  let  us  unite  in  prayer.  The  Chaplain  will  invoke 
the  Divine  blessing." 

Chaplain,  standing  at  the  foot  of  the  coffin  :  ' '  God  of  battles  ! 
Father  of  all  !  amid  these  monuments  of  the  dead  we  seek  Thee, 
with  Whom  there  is  no  death.  Open  every  eye  to  behold  Him  who 
changed  the  night  of  death  into  morning.  In  the  depths  of  our 
hearts  we  would  hear  the  celestial  word,  '  I  am  the  Resurrection 
and  the  Life  ;  he  that  believeth  in  Me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet 
shall  he  live.'  As  comrade  after  comrade  departs,  and  we  march 
on  with  ranks  broken,  help  us  to  be  faithful  unto  Thee  and  to  each 
other.  We  beseech  Thee,  look  in  mercy  on  the  widows  and  chil- 
dren of  deceased  comrades,  and  with  Thine  own  tenderness  con- 
sole and  comfort  those  bereaved  by  this  event  which  calls  us  here. 
Give  them  'the  oil  of  joy  for  mourning,  the  garment  of  praise  for 
the  spirit  of  heaviness.'  Heavenly  Father!  bless  and  save  our 
country  with  the  freedom  and  peace  of  righteousness,  and,  through 
Thy  great  mercy,  a  Saviour's  grace  and  Thy  Holy  Spirit's  favor, 
may  we  all  meet  at  last  in  joy  before  Thy  throne  in  heaven.  And 
to  Thy  great  name  shall  be  praise  for  ever  and  ever." 

All  Comrades,  standing  in  the  rear  of  thechaplain  ;  "Amen!" 

Commander  :  "  One  by  one,  as  the  years  roll  on,  we  are  called 
together  to  fulfil  these  last  sad  duties  of  respect  to  our  comrades 
of  the  war.  The  present,  full  of  the  cares  and  pleasures  of  civil 
life,  fades  away,  and  we  look  back  to  the  time  when,  shoulder  to 
shoulder  on  bloody  battle-fields,  or  around  the  guns  of  our  men- 
of  war,  we  fought  for  our  dear  old  flag.  We  may  indulge  the  hope 
that  the  spirit  with  which,  on  land  and  sea,  hardship,  privation, 
dangers  were  encountered  by  our  dead  heroes — a  spirit  uncom- 
plaining, nobly,  manfully  obedient  to  the  behest  of  duty,  whereby 
to-day  our  homes  are  secure,  and  our  loved  ones  rest  in  peace  un- 
der the  aegis  of  the  flag,  will  prove  a  glorious  incentive  to  the  youth 
who,  in  the  ages  to  come,  may  be  called  to  uphold  the  destinies  of 
our  country.  As  the  years  roll  on,  we,  too,  shall  have  fought  our 
battles  through,  and  be  laid  to  rest,  our  souls  following  the  long 
column  to  the  realms  above,  as  grim  death,  hour  by  hour,  shall 
mark  its  victim.  Let  us  so  live  that  when  that  time  shall  come 
those  we  leave  behind  may  say  above  our  graves,  '  Here  lies  the 
body  of  a  true-hearted,  brave,  and  earnest  defender  of  the  Re- 
public' " 

First  Comrade  {/ayiii^  a  li-ucath  of  cvcygreen  upon  tltd  coffiii) : 
"In  behalf  of  the  Post,  I  give  this  tribute,  a  symbol  of  an  undying 
love  for  comrades  of  the  war." 

Second  Comrade  \layiiig  a  wJiilc  rose  upon  Ihc  coffin)  :  "  Sym- 
bol of  purity,  we  offer  at  this  lowly  grave  a  rose.  May  future  gen- 
erations emulate  the  unselfish  devotion  of  even  the  lowliest  of  our 
heroes." 

Third  Comrade  (hiving  a  laur,-l  Uaf  upon  tlu  coffin) :  "  Last 
token  of  affection  from  comrades  in  arms,  we  crown  these  remains 
with  a  symbol  of  victory." 

Mrs.  Nettie  E  Gunlock  (placing  a  flog  iipo?i  Ihc'  breast  of 
the  deceased)  :  "In  grateful  remembrance  of  the  time  when  he  of- 
fered his  life,  if  need  be,  that  this  flag  should  wave  forever,  we, 
the  mothers  and  wives  of  his  comrades,  now  lovingly  and  reve- 
rently place  it  on  his  breast." 


A  tribute  to  the  old  soldier. 

BY  COL.  JAMES  A.    SEXTON. 

M.  M.  Trumbull  is  dead.  Our  genial,  light- 
hearted,  buoyant,  and  companionable  friend  is  gone. 
He  was  honest,  capable,  and  faithful,  possessing  an 
attractive  personality,  making  innumerable  steadfast 
friends.      The  taste  he  acquired  in  the  army  for  mili- 


tary drill  and  discipline  remained  with  and  grew  upon 
him  until  the  end  of  his  life  ;  for  he  was  always  deeply 
interested  in  military  affairs. 

Another  name  has  been  added  to  our  roll  of  honor ; 
and  Post  28  not  only  numbers  one  less  in  membership, 
but  also  sustains  the  loss  of  one  of  its  most  earnest 
and  devoted  comrades. 

Gen.  Matthew  M.  Trumbull,  was  one  of  those  men 
whose  work  and  influence  will  scarcely  be  appreciated 
until  after  his  death.  He  was  a  strong,  original  thinker, 
a  constant  advocate  of  what  he  believed  to  be  right 
and  an  enemy  of  wrong,  in  any  shape  or  form,  either 
social  or  political.  An  abolitionist  in  the  days  when 
abolition  principles  were  not  only  unpopular,  but  posi- 
tively dangerous  to  the  men  who  advocated  them,  he 
lived  to  see  the  evil  and  folly  of  slavery  admitted  by 
every  one.  He  was  equally  sincere  in  his  opposition 
to  wrong  and  the  inequalities  of  our  economic  system, 
and  his  voice  and  pen  were  never  idle  in  his  endeavors 
to  remedy  these  evils. 

He  was  a  patriot  without  being  a  politician,  a  re- 
former for  reform's  sake  only.  He  served  the  country 
of  his  adoption  in  two  wars  enlisting  originally  as  a 
private  soldier,  and  by  intelligence,  faithfulness,  cour- 
age, and  earnest  endeavor  wherever  duty  called,  he 
rose  step  by  step,  until  he  won  the  star  of  a  brigadier 
general,  which  he  proudly  wore,  discharging  all  the 
responsibilities  thereof  to  the  satisfaction  of  himself 
and  his  superiors.  His  death  is  a  distinct  loss  to  the 
country. 

Comrades,  he  was  our  friend,  loyal  and  true,  and 
we  loved  him  dearly,  and  all  his  old  soldier  associates 
honored  and  respected  him. 

We  shall  cherish  the  memories  of  our  comrades 
dead,  we  will  be  loyal  to  our  comrades  living.  We 
cannot  forget  our  dead,  they  will  live  in  our  hearts 
forever  ;  we  will  not  desert  our  living.  We  shall,  in- 
deed, never'again  feel  the  warm  hand-grasp  of  our 
noble  friend,  nor  be  glad  in  his  sunny  smile,  nor  drink 
in  the  deep  delights  of  his  discourse  ;  but  sweet  mem- 
ories of  his  generous  nature,  of  his  chivalrous  bearing, 
of  his  devotion  to  principle,  of  his  boundless  love  for 
his  country,  of  his  fidelity  to  his  home,  will  survive. 
He  was  his  own  biographer,  his  own  sculptor,  for  he 
made  his  life  a  part  of  the  undying  history  of  his  coun- 
try and  engraved  his  image  on  the  hearts  of  his  coun- 
trymen. 

From  an  intimate  acquaintance  and  association 
with  him  I  learned  to  know  of  his  kindly  disposition 
and  his  earnest  sympathy  for  his  fellow-men,  and  a 
sincere  desire  to  inculcate  loving  kindness  in  all.  His 
creed  was  in  sentiment  about  as  follows  ;  and  he  de- 
lighted in  saying  :  ^' Do  not  keep  the  alabaster  boxes 
of  your  love  and  tenderness  sealed  up  until  your  friends 
are  dead,  but  fill  their  lives  with  sweetness.      Now — 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4085 


speak  approving  and  cheering  words  while  their  ears 
can  hear  them,  and  while  their  hearts  can  be  thrilled 
and  made  happier  by  them.  The  kind  things  you  will 
say  after  they  are  gone,  say  before  (hey  go.  The  flower 
you  mean  to  send  for  their  coffins  destow  now,  and  so 
brighten  and  sweeten  their  earthly  homes  before  they 
leave  them.  If  my  friends  have  alabaster  boxes  laid 
away,  full  of  fragrant  perfumes  of  sympathy  and  affec- 
tion, which  they  intend  to  break  over  my  dead  body, 
I  would  rather  they  would  bring  them  out  in  my  wea- 
ried and  troubled  hours,  and  open  them,  that  I  may  be 
refreshed  and  cheered  by  them  while  I  need  them.  I 
would  rather  have  a  plain  coffin  without  a  flower,  and 
a  funeral  without  an  eulogy,  than  a  life  without  the 
sweetness  of  love  and  sympathy.  Comrades,  let  us 
learn  to  anoint  our  friends  beforehand  for  their  burial  ; 
post-mortem  kindness  does  not  cheer  the  hardened 
spirit.  Flowers  upon  the  coffin  shed  no  fragrance 
backward  over  the  weary  way  by  which  loved  ones 
have  travelled." 

And  now,  at  the  grave  of  this,  our  comrade  and 

friend,  let  us  highly  resolve,  through  evil  and   good 

report,  to  touch  elbows  with  the  deserving  veterans, 

though  old,  worn,  broken,  and  in  rags,  and  with  them 

■  again  drink  from  the  same  canteen. 

When  the  spirit  of  this  grand,  good  man  and  once 
intrepid  warrior  wings  its  flight  to  the  land  beyond  the 
river,  ready  and  willing  to  give  an  account  of  his 
stewardship,  I  can  imagine  that  I  can  see  St.  Peter 
standing  at  the  Golden  Gate,  watching  and  waiting 
for  the  mighty  concourse  of  his  elect,  and  when  he  be- 
iholds  the  image  of  our  dear  friend,  he  will  repeat  the 
srders  as  were  given  in  Hardee's  old  tactics  : 

"  Turn  out  the  Guard  ! 
Parade  the  Colors  ! 
Beat  the  Drums ! 
Another  Comrade  Comes  !  " 


FAREWELL,  COMRADE. 
RECITED  BY  CHARLES  E.    ST.   CLAIR. 

Silent  comrade,  gently  sleeping, 

We  meet  here  to  honor  you. 
As  our  retrospection  takes  us 

Where  the  scenes  of  strife  we  view  ; 
Then  you  faced  the  cannon's  belching, 

Elbows  touched  with  comrades  there 
While  the  earth  was  sadly  quaking, 

Still  our  flag  waved  proud  and  fair. 

In  the  hour  of  greatest  danger, 

When  your  ranks  were  thinning  fast. 
How  your  comrades  closed  around  you 

For  the  final  charge  at  last. 
We  will  ne'er  forget  your  valor 

Shown  upon  the  battle-field, 
Though  opposed  by  fiercest  traitors. 

Never,  comrade,  would  you  yield. 


On  and  on,  through  years  of  battle, 

Weary  march  in  scorching  sun, 
Sleet,  and  snow,  'mid  musket's  rattle. 

Still  you  pressed,  and  victory  won. 
Thus  you  tarried,  under  orders. 

Many  long  and  dreadful  years. 
Victory  perched  upon  your  banner. 

Thankful  hearts  give  honored  cheers. 

By  our  comrade's  zeal  our  nation 

Is  cemented  to  the  core  ; 
Country,  flag,  and  Constitution 

Stands  revered  as  ne'er  before  : 
Rest,  then,  comrade,  in  your  glory, 

As  a  grateful  nation's  praise 
Ever  weaves,  in  song  and  story, 

Victors'  chaplets  for  her  braves. 

Glad  hearts  bow  in  admiration, 

Loyal  souls  exult  with  pride, 
You  with  others  saved  this  nation 

From  a  vortex  dark  and  wide. 
Rest,  proud  hero,  ever  living 

In  the  hearts  of  patriots  true. 
And  your  mem'ry  ever  bringing 

Glad  thoughts  of  the  boys  in  blue. 

Farewell,  comrade,  gently  sleeping 
'Till  the  angel  trumpet  strain 

Wakes  again  the  loyal  millions 
Evermore  to  live  again.    ■ 


TENTING  ON  THE  OLD  CAMP-GROUND. 

Sung  by  the  Lotus  Quartette. 
"We're  tenting  to-night  on  the  old  camp-ground; 
Give  us  a  song  to  cheer 
Our  weary  hearts,  a  song  of  home. 
And  friends  we  love  so  dear. 
Chorus  :   Many  are  the  hearts  that  are  weary  to-night. 
Wishing  for  the  war  to  cease  ; 
Many  are  the  hearts  looking  for  the  right, 
To  see  the  dawn  of  peace. 

We've  been  tenting  to-night  on  the  old  camp  ground, 

Thinking  of  days  gone  by, 
Of  the  lov'd  ones  at  home  that  gave  us  the  hand, 

And  the  tear  that  said  '  Good- by  ! ' 
Chorus  :   Many  are  the  hearts  that  are  weary  to-night, 

Wishing  for  the  war  to  cease  ; 
Many  are  the  hearts  looking  for  the  right. 

To  see  the  dawn  of  peace. 

We've  been  fighting  to-day  on  the  old  camp-ground, 

Many  are  lying  near  ; 
Some  are  dead,  and  some  are  dying. 
Many  are  in  tears. 
Chorus  :  Dying  to-night. 
Dying  to-night. 
Dying  on  the  old  camp-ground." 


[  77/1?  interment  took  place  at  Rosehill  Cemetery.  ] 


FIR  BRANCHES  ON  THE  OPEN  GRAVE. 

■•  Howl,  fir  tree,  for  the  cedar  is  fallen."— 
Zech.,  ii,  2. 

The  fir  is  the  prophet  among  the  trees,  for  it  re- 
mains green  in  winter  and  serves  us  during  the  time 
of  the  longest  nights  in  the  year  as  a  light-bearer,  a 


4o86 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


bringer  of  joy,  and  as  a  symbol  of  life.  Remembering 
the  meaning  of  the  fir,  we  understand  the  message  of 
its  prophecy  and  in  this  sense  cover  the  open  grave 
with  its  branches.  We  are  surrounded  by  darkness 
but  the  night  will  give  way  to  a  brighter  morn,  we  are 
visited  with  grief,  but  our  affliction  will  only  serve  to 
chasten  the  cheer  of  our  joy ;  we  stand  before  the 
portal  of  Death,  but  out  of  the  seeds  which  we  bury 
in  the  ground  a  new  spring  will  burst  forth  promising 
a  rich  harvest. 

We  have  accompanied  the  slumbering  body  of  the 
departed  to  its  final  resting-place,  and  now  bid  it  a 
last  farewell. 

Peace  be  with  these  ashes  !  May  their  rest  be  sweet 
and  undisturbed  like  a  dreamless  sleep.  We  part 
from  them  as  from  the  bed  of  a  beloved  child  whom 
we  have  lulled  to  sleep. 

The  body  slumbers,  but  as  there  is  no  sunset  to  the 
sun,  so  there  is  no  death  to  the  soul.  The  day  is 
gone  when  the  evening  sinks  down,  but  the  light  con- 
tinues to  illumine  the  world. 

While  dust  returns  to  dust,  the  soul  finds  its  sphere 
of  being  among  souls.  There  it  is  cherished  and  kept 
as  a  sacred  memory;  there  it  lives  and  breathes  the  air 
of  immortality. 


'  THE 


GENERAL  TRUMBULL'S  CONNEXION  WITH 
OPEN  COURT." 

General  Trumbull's  connexion  with  The  Open 
Court  dates  from  the  first  year  of  the  existence  of  this 
magazine,  when  the  well-known  series  of  articles  on 
the  Labor  Question,  with  the  discussions  to  which 
they  gave  rise,  began.  Our  early  readers  will  all  re- 
member the  powerful  controversial  abilities  which 
General  Trumbull  there  displayed,  and  the  delightful 
humor  and  merriment  which  pervaded  all  his  thrusts 
and  parries.  These  articles,  together  with  three  splen- 
did essays  of  the  highest  literary  character  on  the  Poets 
of  Liberty  and  Labor,  Gerald  Massey,  Robert  Burns, 
and  Thomas  Hood,  were  afterwards  pubHshed  in  book- 
form  under  the  title  of  "  Wheelbarrow."  To  this  book 
he  added  his  Autobiography,  which  in  its  frank,  beau- 
tiful simplicity  will  justly  bear  comparison  with  the 
famous  masterpiece  of  David  Hume,  which  he  so  much 
admired. 

His  best  known  work,  perhaps,  is  "  The  Free  Trade 
Struggle  in  England,"  the  second  edition  of  which  was 
also  published  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 
This  book  was  dedicated  to  John  Bright,  who  prefaces 
the  work  with  an  interesting  and  highly  commendatory 
letter. 

General  Trumbull  also  contributed  to  several  prom- 
inent magazines,  among  them  to  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury and  The  Monist.  But  the  journal  with  which  his 
name  is  last  and  perhaps   most  intimately  associated 


is  The  Open  Court,  in  which  his  "Current  Topics" 
began  with  No.  141  on  May  8,  1890,  under  the  modest 
designation  of  "Notes."  Here  he  applied  those  pow- 
ers of  wit,  humor,  and  sarcasm  which  were  his  richest 
patrimony,  to  the  castigation  of  snobbery,  vice,  and 
hypocrisy  in  every  form,  drawing  from  an  inexhaust- 
ible wealth  of  anecdote,  which  only  such  a  life  could 
have  gathered,  the  illustrations  which  gave  force,  light, 
and  beauty  to  all  that  he  said.  He  furnished,  too, — 
what  must  never  be  forgotten, — Qne  of  the  first  note- 
worthy examples  of  that  rarest  of  national  qualities 
which  Matthew  Arnold  said  our  country  so  sadly  lacked, 
fearless  and  searching  self-criticism.  His  discernment 
for  national  conceits  and  Chauvinistic  illusions  was 
unexampled,  and  his  lash,  when  once  he  caught  a 
lurking  vanity  or  folly,  was  merciless.  His  utterances 
were  read  and  quoted  from  one  end  of  this  country  to 
the  other.  Many  in  authority  have  acted  more  wisely 
because  of  his  sayings,  and  many  of  us  not  in  authority 
have  learned  to  think  more  justly  and  unselfishly  of 
our  national  and  social  conditions.  In  this  respect,  at 
a  time  when  such  work  is  so  much  needed,  his  death 
must  be  mourned  as  a  public  loss,  reaching  far  beyond 
the  gap  which  the  silence  of  his  pen  will  leave  in  the 
hearts  of  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court. 

Thomas  J.  McCormack. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

324  DEARBORN    STREET. 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  POST  OFFICE  DRAWER  F. 


I 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher.  DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 

TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION; 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  351. 

MEMORIAL  NUMBER. 

THE  FAREWELL  AT  THE  HOUSE.     Editor 4079 

ADDRESSES  AT  UNITY  CHURCH. 

The  Sermon.     Editor 4079 

The  Lion  and  the  Lamb  Blended.     George  A.  Schil- 
ling   40S0 

Moral  Courage  Rarer  than  Physical  Bravery.  Clarence 

S.  Darrow 4082 

The  Saxon.     George  E.  Gooch 40S3 

Wheelbarrow.     Editor 4083 

Integer  Vitae.     The  Lotus  Quartette 40S2 

Ritual  of  G.  A.  R 4084 

A  Tribute  to  the  Old  Soldier.     Col.  James  A.  Sexton.   4084 
Farewell,    Comrade.     (A   Poem.)     Recited   by   Charles 

E.   St,  Clair 4085 

Tenting  on  the  Old  Camp  Ground.     The  Lotus  Quar- 
tette    40S5 

FIR  BRANCHES  ON  THE  OPEN  GRAVE.     Editor.  .   4085 
GENERAL  TRUMBULL'S  CONNEXION  WITH  "THE 

OPEN  COURT."     Thomas  J.  McCormack 4086 

Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company. 


^CjO 


The  Open  Court. 


A  ■VSTEEKLY  JOUKNAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  352.     (Vol.  VIII.— 21. 


CHICAGO,  MAY  24,   1894. 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


I 


THE  FIBRES  OF  CORTI. 

A  POPULAR  SCIENTIFIC  LECTURE. 1 
BY  PROF.  ERNST  MACH. 

Whoever  has  roamed  through  a  beautiful  country 
knows  that  the  tourist's  deh'ghts  increase  with  his  pro- 
gress. How  pretty  that  wooded  dell  must  look  from 
yonder  hill !  Whither  does  that  clear  brook  flow,  that 
hides  itself  in  yonder  sedge?  If  I  only  knew  how  the 
landscape  looked  behind  that  mountain  !  Thus  even 
the  child  thinks  in  his  first  rambles.  It  is  also  true  of 
the  natural  philosopher. 

The  first  questions  are  forced  upon  the  attention  of 
the  inquirer  by  practical  considerations  ;  the  subse- 
quent ones  are  not.  An  irresistible  attraction  draws 
him  to  these ;  a  nobler  interest  which  far  transcends  the 
mere  needs  of  life.      Let  us  look  at  a  special  case. 

For  a  long  time  the  structure  of  the  organ  of  hear- 
ing has  actively  engaged  the  attention  of  anatomists. 
A  considerable  number  of  brilliant  discoveries  has  been 
brought  to  light  by  their  labors,  and  a  splendid  array 
of  facts  and  truths  established.  But  with  these  facts 
a  host  of  new  enigmas  has  been  presented. 

Whilst  in  the  theory  of  the  organisation  and  func- 
tions of   the   eye  comparative   clearness  has  been  at- 
tained ;  whilst,  hand  in  hand  with  this,  ophthalmology 
has  reached  a  degree  of  perfection  which  the  preced- 
ing century  could  hardly  have  dreamed  of,  and  by  the 
help  of  the  ophthalmoscope  the  observing  physician 
(penetrates  into  the  profoundest  recesses  of  the  eye, 
the  theory  of  the  ear  is  still   much  shrouded  in  mys- 
terious darkness,  full  of  attraction  for  the  investigator. 
Look  at  this  model  of  the  ear.      Even  at  that  fami- 
iar  part  by  whose  extent  we  measure  the  quantity  of 
eople's  intelligence,   even   at  the   external   ear,    the 
.problems  begin.    You  see  here  a  succession  of  helixes 
r  spiral  windings,  at  times  very  pretty,  whose  signi- 
cance  we  cannot  accurately  state,  yet  for  which  there 
ust  certainly  be  some  reason. 
The  shell  or  concha  of  the  ear,  a  in  the  annexed 
diagram,  conducts  the  sound  into  the  curved  auditory 
assage  b,  which  is  terminated  by  a  thin  membrane, 
he  so-called  tympanic  membrane,  c.    This  membrane 

IGraz,  1865.     Translated  hy  uKpK. 


is  set  in  motion  by  (he  sound,  and  in  its  turn  sets  in 
motion  a  series  of  little  bones  of  very  peculiar  forma- 
tion, c.  At  the  end  of  all  is  the  labyrinth 
d.  The  labyrinth  consists  of  a  group  of 
cavities  filled  with  a  liquid,  in  which  the 
innumerable  fibres  of  the  nerve  of  hear- 
ing are  imbedded.  By  the  vibration  of  ''"^'  '' 
the  chain  of  bones  c,  the  liquid  of  the  labyrinth  is 
shaken,  and  the  auditory  nerve  excited.  Here  the  pro- 
cess of  hearing  begins.  So  much  is  certain.  But  the 
details  of  the  process  are  one  and  all  unanswered  ques- 
tions. 

To  these  old  puzzles,  the  Marchese  Corti,  as  late 
as  1 85 1,  added  a  new  enigma.  And,  strange  to  say, 
it  is  this  last  enigma,  which,  perhaps,  has  first  received 
its  correct  solution.  This  will  be  the  subject  of  our 
remarks  to-day. 

Corti  found  in  the  cochlea,  or  snail-shell  of  the 
labyrinth,  a  large  number  of  microscopic  fibres  placed 
side  by  side  in  geometrically  graduated  order.  Accord- 
ing to  Kolliker  their  number  is  three  thousand.  They 
were  also  the  subject  of  investigation  at  the  hands  of 
Max  Schultze  and  Deiters. 

A  description  of  the  details  of  this  organ  would 
only  weary  you,  besides  not  rendering  the  matter  much 
clearer.  I  prefer,  therefore,  to  state  briefly  what  in 
the  opinion  of  prominent  investigators  like  Helmholtz 
and  Fechner  is  the  peculiar  function  of  Corti's  fibres. 
The  cochlea,  it  seems,  contains  a  large  number  of 
elastic  fibres  of  graduated  lengths  (Fig.  2),  to  which 
the  branches  of  the  auditory  nerve  are 
attached.  These  fibres,  called  the  fibres, 
pillars,  or  rods  of  Corti,  being  of  unequal 
length,  must  also  be  of  unequal  elasticity, 
and,  consequently,  pitched  to  different 
notes.  The  cochlea,  therefore,  is  a  species  of  piano- 
forte. 

What,  now,  may  be  the  office  of  this  structure, 
which  is  found  in  no  other  organ  of  sense?  May  it 
not  be  connected  with  some  special  property  of  the 
ear  ?  It  is  quite  probable ;  for  the  ear  possesses  a  very 
similar  power.  You  know  that  it  is  possible  to  fol- 
low the  individual  voices  of  a  symphony.  Indeed,  the 
feat  is  possible  even  in  a  fugue  of  Bach,  where  it  is  cer- 
tainly no  inconsiderable  achievement.     The  ear  can 


Fig.  2. 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


pick  out  the  single  constituent  tonal  parts,  not  only  of  a 

harmony,  but  of  the  wildest  clash  of  music  imaginable. 

I  iThe  musical  ear  analyses  every  agglomeration  of  tones. 

The  eye  does  not  possess  this  ability.  Who,  for 
example,  could  tell  from  the  mere  sight  of  white,  with- 
out a  previous  experimental  knowledge  of  the  fact, 
that  white  is  composed  of  a  mixture  of  other  colors? 
Could  it  be,  now,  that  these  two  facts,  the  property  of 
the  ear  just  mentioned,  and  the  structure  discovered 
by  Corti,  are  really  connected  ?  It  is  very  probable. 
The  enigma  is  solved  if  we  assume  that  every  note  of 
definite  pitch  has  its  special  string  in  this  pianoforte 
of  Corti,  and,  therefore,  its  special  branch  of  the  audi- 
tory nerve  attached  to  that  string.  But  before  I  can 
make  this  point  perfectly  plain  to  you,  I  must  ask 
you  to  follow  me  a  few  steps  into  the  dry  domain  of 
physics. 

Look  at  this  pendulum.  Forced  from  its  position 
of  equilibrium  by  an  impulse,  it  begins  to  swing  with  a 
definite  time  of  oscillation,  dependent  upon  its  length. 
Longer  pendulums  swing  more  slowly,  shorter  ones 
more  quickly.  We  will  suppose  our  pendulum  to  exe- 
cute one  to-and-fro  movement  in  a  second. 

This  pendulum,  now,  can  be  thrown  into  violent 
vibration  in  two  ways ;  either  by  a  single  heavy  im- 
pulse, or  by  a  number  of  properly  communicated  slight 
impulses.  For  example,  we  impart  to  the  pendulum, 
while  at  rest  in  its  position  of  equilibrium,  a  very  slight 
impulse.  It  will  execute  a  very  small  vibration.  As 
it  passes  a  third  time  its  position  of  equilibrium,  a 
second  having  elapsed,  we  impart  to  it  again  a  slight 
shock,  in  the  same  direction  with  the  first.  Again  after 
the  lapse  of  a  second,  on  its  fifth  passage  through  the 
position  of  equilibrium,  we  strike  it  again  in  the  same 
manner  ;  and  so  continue.  You  see,  by  this  process 
the  shocks  imparted  augment  continwally  the  motion 
of  the  pendulum.  After  each  slight  impulse,  the  pen- 
dulum reaches  out  a  little  further  in  its  swing,  and 
finally  acquires  a  considerable  motion.,^ 

But  this  is  not  the  case  under  all  circumstances. 
It  is  possible  only  when  the  impulses  imparted  syn- 
chronise with  the  swings  of  the  pendulum.  If  we 
should  communicate  the  second  impulse  at  the  end  of 
half  a  second  and  in  the  same  direction  with  the  first 
impulse,  its  effects  would  counteract  the  motion  of  the 
pendulum.  It  is  easily  seen  that  our  little  impulses 
help  the  motion  of  the  pendulum  more  and  more,  ac- 
cording as  their  time  accords  with  the  time  of  the 
pendulum.  If  we  strike  the  pendulum  in  any  other 
time  than  in  that  of  its  vibration,  in  some  instances,  it 
is  true,  we  shall  augment  its  vibration,  but  in  others 
again,  we  shall  impede  it.  Our  impulses  will  be  less 
effective  the  more  the  motion  of  our  own  hand  departs 
from  the  motion  of  the  pendulum. 

1  This  experiment  with  its  associated  reflexions  is  due  to  Galileo. 


What  is  true  of  the  pendulum  holds  true  of  every 
vibrating  body.  A  tuning  fork  when  it  sounds,  also 
vibrates.  It  vibrates  more  rapidly  when  its  sound  is 
higher ;  more  slowly  when  it  is  deeper.  The  standard 
A  of  our  musical  scale  is  produced  by  about  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  vibrations  in  a  second. 

I  place  by  the  side  of  each  other  on  this  table  two 
tuning-forks,  exactly  alike,  resting  on  resonant  cases. 
I  strike  the  first  one  a  sharp  blow,  so  that  it  emits  a 
loud  note,  and  immediately  grasp  it  again  with  my 
hand  to  quench  its  note.  Nevertheless,  you  still  hear 
the  note  distinctly  sounded,  and  by  feeling  it  you  may 
convince  yourselves  that  the  other  fork  which  was  not 
struck  now  vibrates. 

I  now  attach  a  small  bit  of  wax  to  one  of  the  forks. 
It  is  thrown  thus  out  of  tune  ;  its  note  is  made  a  little 
deeper.  I  now  repeat  the  same  experiment  with  the 
two  forks,  now  of  unequal  pitch,  by  striking  one  of 
them  and  again  grasping  it  with  my  hand  ;  but  in  the 
present  case  the  note  ceases  the  very  instant  I  touch 
the  fork. 

What  has  happened  here  in  these  two  experiments? 
Simply  this.  The  vibrating  fork  imparts  to  the  air  and 
to  the  table  four  hundred  and  fifty  shocks  a  second, 
which  are  carried  over  to  the  other  fork.  If  the  other 
fork  is  pitched  to  the  same  note,  that  is  to  say,  if  it 
vibrates  when  struck  in  the  same  time  with  the  first, 
then  the  shocks  first  emitted,  no  matter  how  slight  they 
may  be,  are  sufficient  to  throw  the  second  fork  into  rapid 
sympathetic  vibration.  But  when  the  time  of  vibra- 
tion of  the  two  forks  is  slightly  different,  this  does  not 
take  place.  We  may  strike  as  many  forks  as  we  will,  the 
fork  tuned  to  A  is  perfectly  indifferent  to  their  notes; 
is  deaf,  in  fact,  to  all  except  its  own  ;  and  if  you  strike 
three,  or  four,  or  five,  or  any  number  whatsoever,  of 
forks  all  at  the  same  time,  so  as  to  make  the  shocks 
which  come  from  them  ever  so  great,  the  A  fork  will 
not  join  in  with  their  vibrations  unltss  another  fork  A 
is  found  in  the  collection  struck.  It  picks  out,  in  other 
words,  from  all  the  notes  sounded,  that  which  accords 
with  it. 

The  same  is  true  of  all  bodies  which  can  yield 
notes.  Tumblers  resound  when  a  piano  is  played,  on 
the  striking  of  certain  notes,  and  so  do  window  panes. 
Nor  is  the  phenomenon  without  analogy  in  other  pro- 
vinces. Take  a  dog  that  answers  to  the  name  "Nero." 
He  lies  under  your  table.  You  speak  of  Domitian, 
Vespasian,  and  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus,  you  call 
upon  all  the  names  of  the  Roman  Emperors  that  oc- 
cur to  you,  but  the  dog  does  not  stir,  although  a  slight 
tremor  of  his  ear  tells  you  of  a  slight  response  of  his 
consciousness.  But  the  moment  you  call  "  Nero  "  he 
jumps  joyfully  towards  you.  The  tuning-fork  is  like 
your  dog.     It  answers  to  the  name  A. 

You  smile,  ladies.     You  shake' your  heads.     The 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4089 


simile  does  ngt  catch  your  fancy.  But  I  have  another, 
which  is  very  near  to  you:  and  for  punishment  you  shall 
hear  it.  You,  too,  are  like  tuning-forks.  Many  are  the 
hearts  that  throb  with  ardor  for  you,  of  which  you  take 
no  notice,  but  are  cold.  Yet  what  does  it  profit  you  ! 
Soon  the  heart  will  come  that  beats  in  just  the  proper 
rhythm,  and  then  your  knell,  too,  has  struck.  Then 
your  heart,  too,  will  beat  in  unison,  whether  you  will 
or  no. 

The  law  of  sympathetic  vibration,  here  propounded 
for  sounding  bodies,  suffers  some  modification  for 
bodies  incompetent  to  yield  notes.  Bodies  of  this 
kind  vibrate  to  almost  every  note.  A  high  silk  hat, 
we  know,  will  not  sound  ;  but  if  you  will  hold  your 
hat  in  your  hand  when  attending  your  next  concert  you 
will  not  only  hear  the  pieces  played,  but  also  feel  them 
with  your  fingers.  It  is  exactly  so  with  men.  People 
who  are  themselves  able  to  give  tone  to  their  surround- 
ings, bother  little  about  the  prattle  of  others.  But  the 
person  without  character  tarries  everywhere  :  in  the 
temperance  hall,  and  at  the  bar  of  the  public-house — 
everywhere  where  a  committee  is  formed.  The  high 
silk  hat  is  among  bells  what  the  weakling  is  among 
men  of  conviction. 

A  sonorous  body,  therefore,  always  sounds  when 
its  special  note,  either  alone  or  in  company  with  others, 
is  struck.  We  may  now  go  a  step  further.  What  will 
be  the  behaviour  of  a  group  of  sonorous  bodies  which 
in  the  pitch  of  their  notes  form  a  scale  ?  Let  us  pic- 
ture to  ourselves,  for  example  (Fig.  3), 
a  series  of  rods  or  strings  pitched  to 

the  notes  c  (^  (.'/ g On  a  musical 

instrument  the  accord  i-  ^  ^  is  struck. 
Every  one  of  the  rods  of  Fig.  3  will 
cdefgabciief      see  if  its  special  note  is  contained  in 
P'e-  3-  the  accord,  and  if  it  finds  it,  it  will  re- 

spond. The  rod  c  will  give  at  once  the  note  c,  the  rod 
e  the  note  e,  the  rod  g  the  note  g.  All  the  other  rods 
will  remain  at  rest,  will  not  sound. 

We  need  not  look  about  us  long  for  such  an  instru- 
ment. Every  piano  is  an  instrument  of  this  kind,  with 
which  the  experiment  mentioned  may  be  executed 
with  splendid  success.  Two  pianos  stand  here  by  the 
side  of  each  other,  both  tuned  alike.  We  will  employ 
the  first  for  exciting  the  notes,  while  we  will  allow  the 
second  to  respond  ;  after  having  first  pressed  upon  the 
loud  pedal,  and  thus  rendered  the  strings  capable  of 
motion. 

Every  harmony  struck  with  vigor  on  the  first  piano 
is  distinctly  repeated  on  the  second.  To  prove  that 
it  is  the  same  strings  that  are  sounded  in  both  pianos, 
we  repeat  the  experiment  in  a  slightly  changed  form. 
We  let  go  the  loud  pedal  o'f  the  second  piano  and 
pressing  on  the  keys  c  e  g  oi  that  instrument  vigorously 
strike  the  harmony  c  e  g  on  the  first  piano.      The  har- 


mony ce g  is  now  also  sounded  on  the  second  piano. 
But  if  we  press  only  on  one  key  g  of  one  piano,  while 
we  strike  c  c g  on  the  other,  only  g  will  be  sounded  on 
the  second.  It  is  thus  always  the  like  strings  of  the 
two  pianos  that  excite  each  other. 

The  piano  can  reproduce  any  sound  that  is  com- 
posed of  its  musical  notes.  It  will  reproduce,  for  ex- 
ample, very  distinctly,  a  vowel  sound  that  is  sung  into 
it.  And  in  truth  physics  has  proved  that  the  vowels 
may  be  regarded  as  composed  of  simple  musical  notes. 

You  see  that  by  the  exciting  of  definite  tones  in  the 
air  quite  definite  motions  are  set  up  with  mechanical 
necessity  in  the  piano.  The  idea  might  be  made  use 
of  for  the  performance  of  some  pretty  pieces  of  wiz- 
ardry. Imagine  a  box  in  which  is  a  stretched  string 
of  definite  pitch.  This  is  thrown  into  motion  as  often 
as  its  note  is  sung  or  whistled.  Now  it  would  not  be 
a  very  difficult  task  for  a  skilful  mechanic  to  so  con- 
struct the  box  that  the  vibrating  cord  would  close  a 
galvanic  circuit  and  open  the  lock.  And  it  would  not 
be  a  much  more  difficult  task  to  construct  a  box  which 
would  open  at  the  whistling  of  a  certain  melodj'.  Se- 
same !  and  the  bolts  fall.  Truly,  we  should  have  here 
a  veritable  puzzle- lock.  Still  another  fragment  res- 
cued from  that  old  kingdom  of  fables,  of  which  our  day 
has  realised  so  much,  that  world  of  fairy-stories  to 
which  the  latest  contributions  are  Casselli's  telegraph, 
by  which  one  can  write  at  a  distance  in  one's  own  hand, 
and  Prof.  Elisha  Gray's  telautograph.  What  would 
the  good  old  Herodotus  have  said  to  these  things  who 
even  in  Egypt  shook  his  head  at  much  that  he  saw? 
6/<0i  i-dv  ov  Tiiara,  just  as  simple-heartedly  as  then, 
when  he  heard  of  the  circumnavigation  of  Africa. 

A  new  puzzle-lock!  But  why  invent  one?  Are 
not  we  human  beings  ourselves  puzzle-locks?  Think 
of  the  wonderful  groups  of  thoughts,  feelings,  and 
emotions  that  can  be  aroused  in  us  by  a  word  !  Are 
there  not  moments  in  all  our  lives  when  a  mere  name 
drives  the  blood  to  our  hearts?  Who  that  has  at- 
tended a  large  mass-meeting  has  not  experienced  what 
tremendous  quantities  of  energy  and  motion  can  be 
evolved  by  the  innocent  words,  "Liberty,  Equality, 
Fraternity." 

But  let  us  return  to  the  subject-proper  of  our  dis- 
course. Let  us  look  again  at  our  piano,  or  what  will 
do  just  as  well,  at  some  other  contrivance  of  the  same 
character.  What  does  this  instrument  do  ?  Plainly, 
it  decomposes,  it  analyses  every  agglomeration  of 
sounds  set  up  in  the  air  into  its  individual  component 
parts,  each  tone  being  taken  up  by  a  different  string ; 
it  performs  a  real  spectral  analysis  of  sound.  A  person 
completely  deaf,  with  the  help  of  a  piano,  simply  by 
touching  the  strings  or  examining  their  vibrations  with 
a  microscope,  might  investigate  the  sonorous  motion  of 
the  air,  and  pick  out  the  separate  tones  excited  in  it. 


4090 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  ear  has  the  same  capacity  as  this  piano.  The 
ear  performs  for  the  mind  what  the  piano  performs  for 
a  person  who  is  deaf.  The  mind  without  the  ear  is 
deaf.  But  a  deaf  person,  with  the  piano,  does  hear 
after  a  fashion,  though  much  less  vividly,  and  more 
clumsily,  than  with  the  ear.  The  ear,  thus,  also  de- 
composes sound  into  its  component  tonal  parts.  I  shall 
now  not  be  deceived,  I  think,  if  I  assume  that  you 
already  have  a  presentiment  of  what  the  function  of 
Corti's  fibres  is.  We  can  make  the  matter  very  plain  to 
ourselves.  We  will  use  the  one  piano  for  exciting  the 
sounds,  and  we  shall  imagine  the  second  one  in  the 
ear  of  the  observer  in  the  place  of  Corti's  fibres,  which 
is  a  model  of  such  an  instrument.  To  every  string  of 
the  piano  in  the  ear  we  will  suppose  a  special  fibre  of 
the  auditory  nerve  attached,  so  that  this  fibre  and  this 
alone,  is  irritated  when  the  string  is  thrown  into  vibra- 
tion. If  we  strike  now  an  accord  on  the  external 
piano,  for  every  tone  of  that  accord  a  definite  string  of 
the  internal  piano  will  sound  and  as  many  different 
nervous  fibres  will  be  irritated  as  there  are  notes  in 
the  accord.-  The  simultaneous  sense-impressions  due 
to  different  notes  can  thus  be  preserved  unmingled  and 
be  separated  by  the  attention.  It  is  the  same  as  with 
the  five  fingers  of  the  hand.  With  each  finger  I  can 
touch  something  different.  Now  the  ear  has  three  thou- 
sand such  fingers,  and  each  one  is  designed  for  the 
touching  of  a  different  tone.^  Our  ear  is  a  puzzle  lock 
of  the  kind  mentioned.  It  opens  at  the  magic  melody 
of  a  sound.  But  it  is  a  stupendously  ingenious  lock. 
Not  only  one  tone,  but  every  tone  makes  it  open  ;  but 
each  one  differently.  To  each  tone  it  replies  with  a 
different  sensation. 

*  * 

More  than  once  it  has  happened  in  the  history  of 
science  that  a  phenomenon  predicted  by  theory,  has 
not  been  brought  within  the  range  of  actual  observa- 
tion until  long  afterwards.  Leverrier  predicted  the 
existence  and  the  place  of  the  planet  Neptune,  but  it 
was  not  until  sometime  later  that  Gall  actually  found 
the  planet  at  the  predicted  spot.  Hamilton  unfolded 
theoretically  the  phenomenon  of  the  so-called  conical 
refraction  of  light,  but  it  was  reserved  for  Lloyd  some 
time  subsequently  to  observe  the  fact.  The  fortunes 
of  Helmholtz's  theory  of  Corti's  fibres  have  been  some- 
what similar.  This  theory,  too,  received  its  substan- 
tial confirmation  from  the  subsequent  observations  of 
V.  Hensen.  On  the  free  surface  of  the  bodies  of  Crusta- 
cea, connected  with  the  auditory  nerves,  rows  of  lit- 
tle hairy  filaments  of  varying  lengths  and  thicknesses 
are  found,  which  to  some  extent  are  the  analogues  of 
Corti's  fibres.      Hensen   saw  these  hairs  vibrate  when 


lA  development  of  the  theory  of  musical  audition  differing  in 
points  from  tfie  theory  of  Helmholtz  here  expounded,  will  be  found 
treatise  Beitri'ige  zur  Analyse  dcr  Empfindungen^  1886. 


sounds  were  excited,  and  when  different  notes  were 
struck  different  hairs  were  set  in  vibration. 

I  have  compared  the  work  of  the  physical  inquirer 
to  the  journey  of  the  tourist.  When  the  tourist  as- 
cends a  new  hill  he  obtains  of  the  whole  district  a 
different  view.  When  the  inquirer  has  found  the  so- 
lution of  one  enigma,  the  solution  of  a  host  of  others 
falls  into  his  hands. 

Surely  you  have  often  felt  the  strange  impression  ex- 
perienced when  in  singing  through  the  scale  the  octave 
is  reached,  and  nearly  the  same  sensation  is  produced 
as  by  the  fundamental  tone.  The  phenomenon  finds  its 
explanation  in  the  view  here  laid  down  of  the  ear.  And 
not  only  this  phenomenon  but  all  the  laws  of  the  the- 
ory of  harmony  may  be  grasped  and  verified  from  this 
point  of  view  with  a  clearness  before  undreamt  of. 
Unfortunately,  I  must  content  myself  to-day  with  the 
simple  indication  of  these  beautiful  prospects.  Their 
consideration  would  lead  us  too  far  aside  into  the  fields 
of  other  sciences. 

The  searcher  of  nature,  too,  must  restrain  himself 
in  his  path.  He  also  is  drawn  along  from  one  beauty 
to  another  as  the  tourist  from  dale  to  dale,  and  as  cir- 
cumstances generally  draw  men  from  one  condition  of 
life  into  others.  It  is  not  he  so  much  that  makes  the 
quests,  as  that  the  quests  are  made  of  him.  Yet  let 
him  profit  by  his  time,  and  let  not  his  glance  rove  aim- 
lessly hither  and  thither.  For  soon  the  evening  sun 
will  shine,  and  ere  he  has  caught  a  full  glimpse  of  the 
wonders  close  by,  a  mighty  hand  will  seize  him  and 
lead  him  away  into  a  different  world  of  puzzles. 

Respected  hearers,  science  once  stood  in  a  differ- 
ent relation  to  poetry  than  at  present.  The  old  Hindu 
mathematicians  wrote  their  theorems  in  verses,  and 
lotus-flowers,  roses,  and  lilies,  beautiful  sceneries, 
lakes,  and  mountains  figured  in  their  problems. 

"Thou  goest  forth  on  this  lake  in  a  boat.  A  lily 
juts  forth,  one  palm  above  the  water.  A  breeze  bends 
it  downwards,  and  it  vanishes  two  palms  from  its  pre- 
vious spot  beneath  the  surface.  Quick,  mathemati- 
cian, tell  me  how  deep  is  the  lake  !  " 

Thus  spoke  an  ancient  Hindu  scholar.  This  poetry, 
and  rightly,  has  disappeared  from  science,  but  from 
its  dry  leaves  another  poetry  is  borne  aloft  which  can- 
not be  described  to  him  who  has  never  felt  it.  Who- 
ever will  fully  enjoy  this  poetry  must  lay  his  hand  to 
the  plough,  must  himself  investigate.  Therefore, 
enough  of  this  !  I  shall  reckon  myself  fortunate  if  you 
will  not  repent  of  this  little  excursion  into  the  flowery 
dale  of  physiology,  and  if  you  take  with  yourselves  the 
belief  that  we  can  say  of  science  what  we  say  of  poetry, 

"  Who  the  song  would  understand, 
Needs  must  seek  the  song's  own  land; 
Who  the  minstrel  understand 
Needs  must  seek  the  minstrel's  land." 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4091 


THOMAS  PAINE  IN  ENGLAND,   1787-92. 

BY  MONCURE  D.    CONWAY. 

Although  my  fresh  information  relates  chiefly  to 
Paine's  residence  in  Paris,  I  have  several  new  items 
concerning  his  sojourn  in  England,  where  he  arrived 
early  in  September,  1787.  He  stopped  at  the  White 
Bear,  Piccadilly,  only  long  enough  to  place  with  a  pub- 
lisher a  pamphlet  he  had  written  in  Paris,  then  went  to 
his  native  town,  Thetford,  for  a  long  visit  to  his  widowed 
mother,  then  in  her  ninety-first  year,  on  whom  he  set- 
tled an  annuity.  After  a  brief  visit  to  Paris  in  1788,  to 
secure  the  patent  of  his  iron  bridge,  he  returned  to 
England  in  the  spring,  and  passed  most  of  the  summer 
at  Rotherham,  Yorkshire,  where  a  workshop  was  fitted 
up  in  the  iron  works  of  Messrs.  Walker.  The  bridge- 
model,  two  hundred  feet  long,  was  set  up  on  Padding- 
ton  Green  in  June,  1790,  and  exhibited  at  a  shilling  ad- 
mission. Most  of  the  above  items  are  in  my  "  Life  of 
Paine,"  but  I  now  add  a  note  written  by  him  to  Jeffer- 
son, February  16,  1789,  which  reveals  a  picture  of 
Paine  in  his  Yorkshire  workshop  worthy  the  attention 
of  an  artist. 

"Having  found  a  straight  wall  suited  to  my  pur- 
pose, I  set  off  a  centre  and  five  feet  for  the  height  of 
the  arch,  and  forty-five  feet  each  way  for  the  extent ; 
then  suspended  a  cord  and  left  it  to  stretch  itself  for 
a  day  ;  then  took  off  the  ordinate  at  every  foot  (for 
one-half  the  arch  only).  Having  already  calculated 
the  ordinate  of  an  arch  of  a  circle  of  the  same  extent 
I  compared  them  together  and  found  scarcely  any  cer- 
tain distinguishable  difference.  The  reason  of  this  is 
that,  hovvever  considerable  the  difference  may  be  when 
the  segment  is  a  semicircle,  that  difference  is  con- 
tained between  the  first  and  sixtieth  or  seventieth  de- 
gree, reckoning  from  the  bases  of  the  arch.  And  above 
that  the  catenary  appears  to  me  to  unite  with  the  arch 
of  the  circle,  or  exceedingly  nearly  thereto.  So  that 
I  conclude  that  the  treatise  on  catenarian  arches  ap- 
plies to  the  semi-circle,  or  a  very  large  portion  of  it. 
I  annex  a  sketch  to  help  out  my  meaning. 

"Having  taken  my  measurements  I  transferred 
them  to  the  working-floor,  (i)  I  set  off  half  the  cord 
divided  into  feet ;  (2)  the  ordinates  upon  it ;  (3)  drove 
nails  at  the  extremity  of  every  ordinate  ;  (4)  bent  a 
bar  of  wood  over  them  corresponding  to  the  swinging 
cord  on  the  wall.  Above  this  first  bar,  and  at  the  dis- 
tance the  blocks  would  occupy,  I  set  off  all  the  other 
bars,  and  struck  the  radii  through  the  whole  number; 
which  marked  the  places  where  the  holes  were  to  be, 
and  consequently  the  wooden  bars  became  patterns 
for  the  iron  bars. 

"  I  had  calculated  on  drilling  the  holes  for  8d  each, 
but  found  that  I  could  punch  a  square  or  oblong 
square  hole  for  id  or  i}^  each.  This  was  gratifj'ing 
to   me  not  only  because  it  was  under  my  estimation, 


but  because  it  took  away  less  of  the  bar  in  breadth 
than  a  round  hole,  and  made  the  work  stronger.  I 
was  apprehensive  of  difficulty  in  getting  the  work  to- 
gether owing  to  diverging  of  the  bolts,  but  this  I  think 
I  have  completely  got  over  by  putting  the  work  to- 
gether with  wood  bolts  and  then  driving  them  out  with 
the  iron  ones." 

The  chief  investor  in  Paine's  bridge-enterprise  was 
Peter  Whiteside,  an  American  merchant  in  London. 
Towards  the  close  of  1790  Whiteside  became  bank- 
rupt, and  in  1791  his  assignees  demanded  of  Paine 
payment  of  six  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  found  on 
his  books  in  connection  with  the  bridge.  I  now  find 
a  note  written  from  London  by  Paine's  friend,  John 
Hall,  April  20,  1792,  which  suggests  that  this  annoy- 
ance, and  the  unjust  claim  (which  Paine  paid),  were 
due  to  political  animosity  arising  from  his  reply  to 
Burke. 

"  Mr.  Paine  was  arrested  as  the  papers  mention  in 
that  public  manner  by  the  manceuvres  of  his  oppo- 
nents, on  the  settlements  of  a  bankruptcy  from  whom 
he  had  some  time  past  had  money  on  a  mechanical 
scheme.  He  directly  gave  bail  and  was  released.  He 
speaks  with  confidence  on  carrying  his  political  scheme 
by  many  societies  arising  at  Manchester,  Sheffield, 
and  different  parts  of  the  country.  He  is  now  out  of 
town  and  will  be  some  little  time  longer  composing 

what  I  expect  may  be  deemed  B s  [Burke's]  funeral 

sermon,  and  pointing  out  the  further  measures  proper 
for  the  people  to  proceed  on.  The  first  and  second 
part  of  '  The  Rights  of  Man  '  are  now  printing  and  will 
be  sold  IS  6d  for  both.  He  printed  ten  thousand  of 
the  second  part  which  are  nearly  gone  off.  The  Gov- 
ernment papers  execrate  him  to  the  highest  degree  ; 
he  says  that  they  feel  pinched  and  hurt,  that  makes 
them  squeak  so.  There  is  now  another  society  arose 
that  seems  to  be  a  go-between  on  the  reforming  plan 
by  stimulating  the  people  to  petition  Parliament  for  a 
reform  in  representation.  I  deem  it  they  may  as  well 
ask  them  to  cut  their  throats,  for  the  few  interested  in 
the  slave-trade  show  you  what  interest  will  do  in  its 
support — and  what  can  we  expect  when  the  whole 
phalanx  of  Government  are  so  interested  from  the 
k — g  [king]  to  the  tidewaiter.  But  betwixt  one  and 
the  other  a  reform  of  some  kind  will  take  place,  I  be- 
lieve there  is  no  doubt." 

I  have  recently  discovered  the  house  in  which  Paine 
finished  Part  H.  of  his  "Rights  of  Man,"  for  which 
he  was  prosecuted  and  outlawed.  He  began  writing 
this  second  part  in  Paris  early  in  1791,  soon  after  the 
publication  of  Part  I.  (March  13,  1791),  and  it  was  pub- 
lished in  London,  February  17,  1792.  The  "Burke's 
funeral  sermon"  to  which  John  Hall  alludes  was  one 
of  the  various  public  letters  written  by  Paine  about 
that  time, — probably  "Address  to  the  Addressers,"  in 


4092 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


which  he  charges  Burke  with  being  a  masked  pen- 
sioner. Part  I.  of  the  "Rights  of  Man"  was  begun 
early  in  November,  1790,  at  the  Angel  Inn,  Islington, 
and  completed  in  Harding  Street, — the  house  undis- 
coverable,  but  not  far  from  Newton  Hall,  where  the 
positivists  gather  to  hear  Frederic  Harrison  and  other 
leaders.  As  to  Part  II.  I  was  long  puzzled  about  the 
place  where  it  was  written,  because  I  had  taken  seri- 
ously the  words  of  the  indictment  that  "with  force 
and  arms  at  London  aforesaid,  to  wit,  in  the  parish  of 
St.  Mary  le  Bow,  in  the  Ward  of  Cheap,  he,  the  said 
Thomas,  wickedly,  maliciously,  and  seditiously,  did 
write  and  publish,  etc."  On  consulting  some  old  law- 
yers, however,  I  learned  that  this  reference  to  the  city 
parish  was  a  mere  formula,  a  legal  fiction,  meant  to 
certify  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Guildhall  Court.  It  did 
not  at  all  imply  that  Paine  really  resided  in  that  parish. 
Having  got  off  this  false  scent,  I  discovered  that  Paine 
resided,  during  the  year  1792,  until  he  left  for  France 
in  September,  at  the  house  of  Thomas  Rickman,  a 
publisher  and  bookseller.  The  house  was  then  and  is 
now  No.  7  Upper  Marylebone  Street.  It  is  now  a 
bookbinding  establishment,  and  the  present  occupant 
tells  me  that  to  his  own  knowledge  it  has  been  a 
"  bookbindery"  for  over  seventy  years.  There  is  lit- 
tle doubt  that  it  has  been  such  since  Rickman's  time. 
The  front  shop  has  the  same  old  bookshelves,  and 
otherwise  has  been  little  changed.  It  is  a  fairly  com- 
fortable house  of  three  stories.  In  this  house  the 
London  radicals  gathered  around  Paine  up  to  the  time 
when  the  government  became  cruel.  Among  them 
Romney,  who  painted  his  portrait  (now  lost).  Sharp, 
who  engraved  it,  Mary  Wollstonecraft,  Home  Tooke, 
Sampson  Perry,  Dr.  Priestley,  Col.  Oswald,  Joel  Bar- 
low. 

I  have  a  diary  kept  by  Paine's  friend  John  Hall, 
then  in  London  (1792),  which  contains  some  sugges- 
tive entries.  Hall  used  to  attend  the  popular  debat- 
ing societies  or  clubs,  some,  those  of  mechanics,  held 
in  the  public  houses.  The  reader  will  note  the  bold- 
ness of  these  societies,  and  their  handling  of  large 
public  questions,  in  April  and  May,  as  contrasted  with 
the  last,  May  21,  when  the  intimidated  men  could  only 
venture  to  discuss  whether  accomplishments,  beauty, 
or  fortune  should  be  sought  for  in  marriage  !  Such 
was  the  panic  caused  by  Paine's  prosecution.  About 
that  time  the  societies  were  suppressed,  though  it  is 
said  one  of  them  survives  in  "The  Codgers, "  who 
meet  in  a  Fleet  Street  public- house.  The  Codgers 
are  those  who,  when  they  could  no  longer  debate, 
could  silently  "cogitate."  John  Hall's  entries,  so  far 
as  they  report  such  events,  are  as  follows  : 

"April  5,  1792.  Coachmakers'  Hall.  The  ques- 
tion about  putting  confidence  in  government — whether 
Ins  or  Outs,  Whigs  or  Tories.      The  proposer  stated. 


from  historic  facts,  that  there  was  no  dependence  to 
be  placed  in  them,  but  that  the  people  at  large  should 
begin  to  act  for  themselves.  It  went  against  him  by 
a  small  majority.      Returned  at  eleven. 

"April  9.  King's  Arms.  Lotteries  improper,  and 
Pitt  was  responsible  for  continuing  them. 

"April  14.  Mr.  Paine  and  Mr.  Henry  had  called 
when  out. 

"April  16.  King's  Arms  debate.  Whether  the 
people  in  general  were  in  favor  of  a  direct  abolition  of 
the  Slave  Trade.  Carried  in  the  affirmative  by  a  great 
majority. 

"April  20.  Met  Mr.  Paine;  he  goes  out  of  town 
to-morrow  to  compose  what  I  call  Burke's  funeral  ser- 
mon. He  went  with  me  to  an  acquaintance  where  he 
had  just  dined,  near  the  bridge  foot,  to  desire  him  to 
introduce  me  to  Dr.  Priestley  for  advice  on  what  I  in- 
tended to  pursue  ;  which  he  very  readily  agreed  to, 
and,  being  a  philosopher  himself,  he  will  give  me  any 
information,  and  show  me  his  philosophical  apparatus, 
which  he  says  is  capital.  He  gave  me  a  card  of  his 
address,  and  I  am  to  go  up  with  him  to  Hackney  when- 
ever I  please  to  call.  Parted  with  Mr.  Paine  at  Fleet 
Market.  [Hall  was  a  scientific  engineer  and  electri- 
cian.] 

"April  23.  King's  Arms  Debate.  On  a  political 
and  commercial  alliance  with  France.  Carried  in  fa- 
vor. Much  good  sense  urged  by  one  person  on  the 
trade  of  war. 

"April  26.  Coachmakers'  Hall  Debate.  On  the 
propriety  of  Sheffield  and  Manchester  addressing  Paine 
and  Tooke.      Carried  in  favor  by  a  small  majority. 

"May  3.  Found  Mr.  Paine  is  returned  to  town  ; 
had  called  on  me  ;  left  an  advertisement  of  a  fresh 
association.  [Associations  for  propagating  the  prin- 
ciples of  Paine's  'Rights  of  Man'  were  springing  up 
throughout  the  country.]  Coachmakers'  Hall  De- 
bate :  Praise  or  censure  on  the  new  Society  for  Re- 
form, from  men  not  principles.  Noes  seem  to  pre- 
vail ;  fro  much  broke  by  a  man  answering. 

"May — .  Freemasons' Arms  Society.  Much  said 
in  favor  of  Mr.  Paine  and  'Rights  of  Man,'  and  noth- 
ing unmanly  against  him. 

"  May  II.  Carpenters'  Hall  House.  Noisy  meet- 
ing.     The  question.  Are  societies  good,  etc. 

"May  15.  To  Johnson's  [Paine's  first  publisher, 
who  lost  courage].  Asked  him  on  Mr.  P — e.  He  said 
it  might  be  feared,  but  he  was  yet  safe.  [The  indict- 
ment of  Paine  is  referred  to.  For  the  first  time  his 
friend  Hall  enters  his  name  with  a  blank.] 

"May  21.  King's  Arms.  Question,  Accomplish- 
ments, beauty,  or  fortune  be  first  married?  Did  not 
stay  finishing." 

This,  the  last  debate  mentioned  by  John  Hall,  was 
on  the  day  of  Paine's  indictment. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4093 


"July  27.  To  Johnson's,  St.  Paul's.  My  country- 
man [Paine]  out  of  town;  his  trial  does  not  come  on 
until  winter. 

"August  5.  Mr.  Paine  called  on  me  between  2  and 
3,  looking  well  and  in  high  spirits. 

"August  15.      Bad  news  from  France  ;   riots. 

"August  16.      Mr.  Paine  has  just  called  on  me. 

"September  i.  To  Johnson's;  saw  Barlow,  the 
American  author  of  'Advice  to  Privileged  Orders.' 

"September  3.  A  walk  up  to  Newgate  to  see  the 
Lord  Mayor,  as  he  passed  by,  drink  his  cold  tankard 
with  the  Keeper,  as  he  was  going  to  Smithfield  to  pro- 
claim Bartholomew  Fair. 

"September  6.  Mr.  Paine  called  in  a  short  time. 
Does  not  seem  to  talk  much,  rather  on  a  reserve,  of 
the  prospect  in  political  affairs.  He  had  a  letter 
from  G.  Washington  and  Jefferson  by  the  ambassador 
[Pinckney,  who  had  just  arrived  in  London]." 

Paine  left  England  on  September  14,  1792,  and 
never  set  foot  on  it  again.  His  English  adherents 
were  scattered  abroad,  and  as  for  the  debating  socie- 
ties, John  Hall's  last  entry  concerning  them  is  :  "No- 
vember 26.  To  Change,  but  could  not  find  where  de- 
bating society  met."  The  royal  proclamation,  at  the 
end  of  May,  against  seditious  utterances,  virtually  sup- 
pressed the  societies.  But  it  will  be  seen  by  some  of 
the  above  entries  that  Paine  had  not  carried  the  Lon- 
don masses  with  anything  like  unanimity  in  favor  of 
his  new  gospel  of  rights.  Only  a  small  majority  of 
one  society  approves  the  addresses  of  Sheffield  and 
Manchester  to  Paine  ;  in  another  (May  3)  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  a  majority  does  not  favor  a  reform  society 
which  was  formed  really  to  oppose  Paine's  appeal  to 
first  principles. 

I  close  this  paper  by  translating  a  letter  (unpub- 
lished) written  from  London  by  the  French  Minister, 
Chauvelin,  referring  to  the  reform  society.  It  is  dated 
May  23,  1792,  two  days  after  the  indictment  of  Paine, 
to  whom  the  writer  was  not  friendly.  ("  French  State 
Archives."     Angleterre.      Vol.  581,  fol.  48.) 

"An  association  has  been  formed  ....  including 
some  eminent  members  of  the  commons  and  a  few 
peers.  The  writings  of  Mr.  Paine,  which  preceded  a 
little  this  association,  have  done  it  infinite  harm.  It  is 
suspected  of  concealing  under  a  veil  of  reform  long  de- 
manded by  reason  and  justice  the  intention  of  destroy- 
ing a  constitution  equally  cherished  by  the  peers  whose 
privileges  it  consecrates,  the  wealthy  whom  it  protects, 
and  the  nation  to  which  it  assures  all  the  liberty  de- 
sired by  a  people  methodical  and  slow,  and  who,  con- 
stantly occupied  with  commercial  interests,  do  not 
wish  to  be  continually  agitated  with  public  affairs.  In 
vain  have  the  friends  of  reform  protested  their  attach- 
ment to  the  constitution.  Vainly  have  they  declared 
that  they  wish  to  obtain  nothing  save  by  legal  ways. 


People  persist  in  disbelieving  them.  They  see  only 
Paine  in  all  their  projects  ;  and  this  writer  has  not,  like 
Mackintosh,  rendered  imposing  his  refutation  of  Mr. 
Burke's  work.  The  members  of  the  association,  al- 
though of  opinions  very  different,  find  themselves  en- 
veloped in  the  disgrace,  now  almost  general,  of  Paine. 
Such  are  the  prejudices  that  they  dare  not  do  a  good 
thing  because  it  is  advocated  by  a  man  whom  they 
fear.  Paine  is  mixed  up  in  all  the  questions  which 
trouble  the  comfortable  class  which  values  above  every- 
thing a  quiet  life.  Thus,  up  to  this  time,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  new  association  have  obtained  little  hold 
on  the  people,  except  in  some  towns  of  Scotland  whose 
interests  ^hey  have  defended." 


A  LOVER  OF  TRUTH. 


Mr.  William  Rough,  a  real-estate  agent,  was  a 
gentleman  without  any  affectation,  blunt  in  his  speech, 
and  not  without  coarseness  in  his  manners.  It  cannot 
be  said  that  he  was  much  liked  among  his  acquain- 
tances, and  those  who  had  business  with  him  preferred 
to  deal  with  one  of  his  two  clerks  ;  but  he  prided  him- 
self on  the  cause  of  his  unpopularity,  which  he  unhesi- 
tatingly attributed  to  his  love  of  truth.  In  his  eyes, 
all  men  were  miserable  sinners  ;  all  the  poor  were 
thriftless  vagabonds  ;  all  the  wealthy  were  robbers  who 
had  grown  fat  on  the  fleecings  of  the  poor  ;  all  politi- 
cians, the  President  included,  hungry  office-seekers; 
all  labor- agitators  demagogues;  all  lawyers  frauds; 
all  physicians  quacks;  all  clergymen  hypocrites;  and 
all,  without  exception,  save  himself,  were  liars.  It  was 
his  favorite  pastime  to  discourse  on  truth,  and  he  used 
to  contend  that,  for  an  ordinary  mortal,  it  was  impos- 
sible to  live  and  prosper  without  telling  lies.  It  is  true 
that  he  "boomed"  his  real  estate  when  he  wanted  to 
sell,  and  undervalued  that  of  his  neighbors  when  he 
wanted  to  buy.  Truth-loving  as  he  pretended  to  be 
in  his  private  conversation,  he  was  shrewd  enough  in 
his  business. 

During  the  summer  season,  when  his  business  was 
light,  he  used  to  travel,  and  one  of  his  main  enjoy- 
ments was  to  shock  strangers  with  his  peculiar  views 
whenever  there  was  an  opportunity  at  the  hotels  or 
on  the  trains. 

Once,  in  a  Pullman  sleeping-car,  he  met  an  elderly 
gentleman,  dignified  and  obliging,  who  was  quietly 
reading  his  papers.  Curious  to  know  with  whom  he  had 
the  pleasure  of  sharing  the  compartment,  Mr.  Rough 
intruded  himself  repeatedly  on  his  fellow-traveller's 
notice,  but  without  success,  for  his  partner  was  not 
less  polite  than  reserved.  "What  method  of  lying," 
Mr.  Rough  thought  to  himself,  "  may  his  specialty  be  ? 
He  is  apparently  no  clergyman,  no  physician,  and  no 
business  man.     Perhaps  he  is  a  professor." 


4094 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


At  length  Mr.  Rough  took  occasion  to  launch  the 
conversation,  carried  on  mainly  by  himself  alone,  into 
the  subject  of  truth  and  falsehood,  and  he  paraded  his 
hobby  with  his  wonted  vigor.  "All  men  are  liars,"  he 
said,  ' '  and  they  hate  to  hear  the  truth.  I  know  it  from 
experience,  for  I  am  much  disliked  at  home  for  telling 
the  truth  squarely  and  unreservedly.  Society  is  built 
upon  falsehood  ;  success  is  possible  only  by  trampling 
truth  underfoot  ;  religion  is  hypocrisy;  charities  are 
merely  given  to  evade  justice ;  they  are  shams.  In 
brief,  all  human  intercourse  is  a  great  public  lie." 

The  stranger  looked  up  at  Mr.  Rough.  "I  sup- 
pose," he  said,  "there  is  much  lying  done  in  the  world 
by  people  who  cannot  appreciate  the  worth  of  truth. 
Yet  business  succeeds  in  the  long  run  only  when  con- 
ducted with  honesty.  The  tenets  of  our  churches  are 
undoubtedly  full  of  errors,  but  there  is  a  spirit  stirring 
in  the  souls  of  men  that  seeks  for  the  truth.  He  who 
errs  is  not  a  liar.  Truthful  is  he  who  obeys  the  truth 
as  he  best  understands  it.  Lies  go  a  little  way,  but 
the  truth  abides.  Our  public  life  is  of  a  mixed  nature  : 
there  is  truth  and  error,  and,  I  am  sorry  to  add,  also 
much  conscious  lying.  But  if  truth  were  altogether 
absent,  society  would  soon  cease  to  be,  for  truthfulness 
is  the  sole  basis  of  healthy  conditions  in  our  social  in- 
tercourse." 

"There  1  have  you,"  interrupted  Mr.  Rough;  "the 
truth  is  not  only  absent,  but  it  is  directly  offensive  and 
therefore  injurious.  Is  there  any  one  who  even  for  a 
single  day  could  tell  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and 
nothing  but  the  truth?" 

"  My  dear  sir,"  replied  the  stranger,  "you  are  by 
no  means  requested  to  tell  the  truth,  the  whole  truth, 
and  nothing  but  the  truth  to  everybody  whom  you 
meet.  I  do  not  ask  you  to  tell  me  that  my  face  is 
homely,  nor  do  I  myself  bore  others  with  the  truth — 
let  alone  the  whole  truth— of  my  private  affairs,  whether 
I  smoke,  or  drink,  or  chew,  or  am  a  total  abstainer. 
All  that  is  requested  of  you  and  of  me  and  of  every- 
body else  is  to  tell  the  truth  where  it  is  our  business 
and  duty  to  tell  the  truth  ;  and  it  is  not  sufficient,  nor 
the  right  thing,  to  tell  the  truth  squarely;  we  must  tell 
the  truth  with  discretion.  The  physician  who  shocks 
a  sick  man  by  bluntly  telling  him,  'your  disease  is 
fatal,'  may  be  guilty  of  a  criminal  offence  in  so  far  as 
he  hastens  the  dissolution  of  his  patient.  He  must  be 
on  his  guard  and  break  the  truth  to  him  in  an  appro- 
priate way,  as  the  occasion  requires.  Due  reserve  is 
not  lying,  and  bluntness  is  not  love  of  truth.  Consider 
the  consequences  of  your  words,  and  choose  such  ex- 
pressions as  will  bring  about  the  result  at  which  you 
truthfully  aim." 

The  train  was  approaching  the  next  station,  and 
the  stranger  rose,  taking  his  valise.  "But  I  main- 
tain," said   Mr.  Rough,  "that  we  cannot   reach  our 


aims  without  telling  lies,  and  that  is  the  reason  why 
all  men  are  frauds  and  all  life  is  a  great  social  lie." 

"You  are  mistaken,"  said  the  stranger,  "and  I 
advise  you  to  subject  your  opinion  to  a  thorough  and 
searching  revision.  I  do  not  know  your  special  pre- 
dicament, but  there  must  be  an  unhealthy  sp®t  some- 
where, either  in  your  heart  or  your  logic,  or  in  both. 
Excuse  my  frankness.  But  if  you  cannot  pursue  your 
aims  without  telling  lies,  your  aims  are  perhaps  not 
good." 

"I  beg  your  pardon,"  cried  Mr.  Rough. 

"  I  repeat,"  continued  the  stranger,  quietly,  "I  do 
not  know  your  case,  and  it  is  not  my  business  to  cure 
the  diseases  of  your  errors  ;  but  the  greatest  proba- 
bility is  that  while  you  are  faithfully  telling  the  truth 
to  everybody,  you  carefully  hide  the  truth  from  your- 
self. Honestly,  did  you  ever  make  up  j'our  mind  to 
tell  yourself  the  truth  about  yourself  squarely  and 
bluntly  ?  Did  you  never  make  your  vanities  appear  in 
your  eyes  as  virtues  ;  and  did  you  never  palliate  your 
most  obvious  vices  ?  They  are  perhaps  known  to  every 
one  who  meets  you,  while  they  remain  hidden  to  your- 
self.     Remember, 

•■  This  above  all :  to  thine  own  self  be  true, 
And  it  must  follow  as  the  night  the  day 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 

The  train  stopped.  "This  is  my  station,"  said  the 
stranger  ;  "I  am  sorry  that  we  disagree  on  the  most 
important  question  of  life  ;  but  don't  give  up  your 
love  of  truth,  even  though  you  erroneously  regard  truth 
as  a  nuisance.  I  hope  that  you  will  understand  the 
problem  better  as  soon  as  you  begin  with  your  truth- 
fulness at  home,  for  there  it  is  most  sorely  wanted. 
Good-by." 

The  stranger  left  the  train,  and  Mr.  Rough  was  at 
leisure  to  think  over  the  lesson  which  he  had  just  re- 
ceived. P.  c. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  352. 

THE  FIBRES  OF  CORTI.     Prof.  Ernst  Mach 4087 

THOMAS   PAINE   IN    ENGLAND,    1787-92.     Moncure 

D.  Conway 4091 

A  LOVER  OF  TRUTH.     Editor 4093 


o,'^ 


^ 


The  Open  Court. 


A   'HTEEKLY  JOURNAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  353.     (Vol.  VIII.— 22. 


CHICAGO,  MAY  31,   1894. 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


OMAR  KHAYYAM. 


BY  M.  D.    CONWAY. 


I.     HIS  COMMUNION  CUP. 

Somewhat  over  eight  centuries  ago  there  were  in  a 
college  at  Naishapur,  Persia,  three  young  friends. — 
Nizam  Ul  Mulk,  Hassan  Sabbah,  and  Omar  Khayyam. 
These  )'ouths  entered  in  a  compact,  that  if  either  should 
reach  power  or  wealth  he  would  share  with  the  two  oth- 
ers. Nizam  Ul  Mulk,  on  becoming  Prime  Minister,  of- 
fered his  two  friends  high  offices  at  Court.  Hassan  Sab- 
bah accepted,  but  Omar  Khayyam  declined  ;  he  had  be- 
come an  astronomer,  also  a  poet,  and  the  Prime  Min- 
ister gave  him  what  he  desired,  an  annuity  sufficient 
for  the  erection  of  an  observatory  in  his  garden,  and 
ability  to  cherish  his  own  roses  and  his  own  thoughts 
without  carrying  either  to  market.  Of  the  two  fellow- 
pupils  whom  Nizam  thus  befriended,  Hassan,  who 
chose  the  Court,  ultimately  organised  a  fraternity  of 
pious  assassins,  one  of  whose  victims  was  Nizam,  his 
benefactor  ;  while  Omar,  who  chose  privacy,  now  gives 
the  good  Prime  Minister  a  share  of  his  own  immor- 
tality. 

When  Omar  Khayyam  made  that  choice,  sectarian 
civil  strife  was  raging  in  that  region.  With  their  dog- 
mas and  divisions  he  could  have  nothing  to  do  :  his 
religion  was  in  the  Koran  of  the  star,  the  Avesta  of  the 
rose  and  the  vine.  The  miracle  of  his  faith  was  the 
heart  of  man  ;  and  to  him  that  heart  is  still  respond- 
ing, after  all  those  seventy-two  warring  sects  are  ex- 
tinct, or  only  traceable  in  the  satires  of  his  pages,  as 
fossils  in  the  geologist's  studies.  But  one  reason  for 
the  hold  Omar  Khayj'am  has  on  the  intellect  of  our 
time  is  that  he  deals  essentially  with  the  successors  to 
those  same  dogmas,  which,  under  new  names,  still 
haunt  the  mind  of  Christendom  :  he  punctures  Calvin- 
ism with  divine  indignation,  formalism,  asceticism, 
Puritanism,  ritualism,  so  pointedly  that  his  verses  are 
alive  as  if  written  yesterday.  Some  fifteen  3'ears  ago, 
when  I  printed  in  my  "Sacred  Anthology  "  prose  trans- 
lations of  his  heretical  quatrains,  these  were  selected 
by  some  orthodox  critics  for  especial  lamentations, — a 
curious  confession  that  our  Christian  dogmas  are  little 
wiser  than  those  of  Persian  Islam  eight  centuries  ago, 
and  a  notable  tribute  to  the  ancient  genius  who  speaks 


more  pertinently  to  the  superstitions  of  our  rentur\- 
than  any  poet  born  in  it. 

There  is  indeed  one  respect  in  which  Omar  Khay- 
yam's reputation  suffers  by  reason  of  his  living  rela- 
tion to  the  thought  of  our  own  time.  Ordinary  read- 
ers, finding  his  thoughts  so  applicable  to-day,  make 
no  allowance  for  distance  in  time  and  space  in  one 
point  where  it  is  required ;  that  is  in  his  enthusiastic 
laudations  of  wine.      Martin  Luther  wrote  : 

"  who  loves  not  wine,  woman,  and  sohk. 
He  lives  a  fool  his  whole  life  long." 

But  that  which  is  allowed  to  the  leader  of  the  Re 
formation  is  inadmissible  in  a  heretic.  Some  of  this 
old  Persian's  admirers  interpret  his  beloved  wine  as 
mystical,  a  symbol  of  divine  inspiration.  There  is  no 
foundation  for  that.  His  wine  is  a  symbol,  but  not  of 
divine  inspiration, — rather  of  human  inspiration.  We 
owe  to  a  lady,  the  late  Mrs.  Cardell,  a  Persian  scholar 
who  lived  long  in  the  East,  the  elucidation  of  this 
matter.  In  an  admirable  paper  in  Fraser's  Magazine 
(^1879),  she  pointed  out  that  in  Omar  Khayyam's  time 
and  region,  wine-drinking  had  no  low  associations,  but 
the  reverse.  Although  drunkenness  was  not  an  evil 
of  the  time,  the  Moslem  Puritans  regarded  wine  with 
especial  hatred,  not  on  account  of  any  intoxicating 
quality,  but  because  of  its  association  with  gladness, 
mirth,  good  fellowship,  earthly  happiness.  "The 
wine-parties,"  says  Mrs.  Cardell,  "were  in  fact  nur- 
series of  all  the  intellectual  life  of  the  time,  which  was 
unconnected  with  religion,  and  did  much  to  counter- 
act the  dulness  of  orthodox  Mohammedan  life."  The 
hostility  to  it  was  much  like  the  puritanical  horror 
some  pietists  now  have  of  dancing  and  theatres.  Those 
fighting  Moslem  fanatics  wished  men  to  scorn  earthl}' 
life,  and  welcome  death  as  an  entrance  to  such  pleas- 
ures. Hassan  Sabbah,  mentioned  above,  who  founded 
the  religious  fraternity  of  assassins,  occasionally  nar- 
cotised one  of  them  and  had  him  conveyed  to  a  palace 
(like  Shakespeare's  Christopher  Sly),  where  he  was 
for  several  days  indulged  with  all  sensual  delights  ; 
then  another  narcotic  was  administered,  and  the  soldier 
was  carried  back  to  his  hardships.  On  awaking  he 
was  told  that  he  had  been  in  paradise  enjoying  pleas- 
ures that  would  be  his  eternal  portion  if  he  obeyed  his 
chief  and  Allah.      In  this  way  the  zeal  of  fanatics  was 


4096 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


stimulated.  The  wine  of  Omar  Khayyam  and  his 
friends  was  thus  not  merely  something  to  drink ;  it 
was  the  supreme  response  of  the  earth  to  the  sun,  and 
symbolised  a  separation  from  otherworldliness,  a  de- 
fiance of  morose  and  gloomy  dogmas  and  fears.  It  is 
probable  that  the  wine-cup  which  Jesus  passed  roun^ 
to  his  friends  at  supper  was  a  similar  cup  of  commu- 
nion among  people  withdrawn  from  surrounding  phari- 
saism.  Omar  Khayyam  desired  his  circle  of  kindred 
spirits,  when  they  met  together,  after  he  was  dead,  to 
remember  "old  Khayyam"  and  "turn  down  an  empty 
cup."  Probably  Jesus  said  and  meant  no  more,  and 
for  a  long  time  after  his  death  the  annual  supper  was 
a  merfy  festivity.  (I  Cor.,  xi.)  It  was  Paul,  whose 
Pharisaism  was  rather  intensified  than  removed  by  his 
conversion  (Christianity's  greatest  misfortune),  who 
turned  the  feast  into  a  sanctimonious  affair.  There  is 
little  doubt  that  all  the  accounts  of  the  supper  in  the 
Gospels  are  mythical  variants  of  Paul's  story  in  I  Cor. 
xi,  and  derived  from  it.  Jesus  did  not,  any  more  than 
Omar,  escape  the  charge  of  being  a  winebibber,  be- 
cause he  ate  and  drank  with  publicans  and  sinners. 
His  fellowship  and  his  communion  was  with  man. 

This  will  not  be  agreeable  reading  for  the  prohibi- 
tionists, but  it  might  be  instructive  to  them.  Among 
the  many  literary  and  artistic  men  whom  I  have  met, 
I  cannot  recall  but  one  prohibitionist  (Professor  New- 
man), nor  one  who  did  or  does  not  drink  wine,  unless 
some  college  professors  who  abstain  as  an  example  to 
their  pupils.  Many  prohibitionists  really  seem  to  be 
trying  not  so  much  to  promote  temperance  as  to  puri- 
tanise  the  nation  ;  otherwise  they  would  not  include 
in  their  project  of  extermination,  along  with  drinks  gen- 
erally injurious,  pure  wine  ' '  that  maketh  glad  the  heart 
of  man."  I  am  writing  this  in  Paris,  amid  the  festiv- 
ities of  Carnival.  Daily  and  nightly  I  see  much  of  the 
people,  and  have  not  yet  seen  a  tipsy  person.  Wine 
is  cheap  ;  all  drink  it.  The  American  duty  on  wine  is 
a  heavier  blow  to  temperance  than  prohibition  will 
ever  be  able  to  remedy  unless  they  insist  on  its  re- 
moval. The  cheapness  is  given  to  that  which  steals 
away  man's  wits  instead  of  to  that  which  helps  his  wits. 
The  prohibitionists  have  not  considered  this  last  fact, 
nor  understand  why,  though  none  write  sonnets  on 
beef  and  mutton,  there  is  a  large  library  of  poems  in 
praise  of  wine.  Several  of  Omar's  tributes  to  wine  are 
strikingly  like  this  passage  in  Esdras  (xiv):  "A  voice 
called  me  saying,  Esdras,  open  thy  mouth  and  drink 
that  1  give  thee  to  drink.  Then  opened  I  my  mouth, 
and  behold  he  reached  me  a  full  cup,  which  was  full 
of  liquid,  but  the  color  of  it  like  fire.  I  took  it  and 
drank  ;  and  then  my  heart  uttered  understanding,  wis- 
dom grew  in  my  breast,  for  my  spirit  strengthened  my 
memory."  Dr.  John  Chapman,  the  well-known  editor 
oL  the  Westminster  Revieiv,  in  whose   house  Emerson 


staid  while  giving  his  lectures  in  England  (1848-1849), 
told  me  that  it  was  remarked  by  himself  and  others  that 
Emerson  did  not  enter  easily  into  conversation  until  he 
had  taken  a  little  wine.  He  was  abstemious,  drank 
very  little,  but  that  little  opened  his  cabinet  of  treas- 
ures like  a  key.  In  his  "  Hafiz  "  Emerson  says  wine 
was  mixed  with  Hafiz's  clay.  Emerson  loved  Omar 
Khayyam  also,  and  translated  a  quatrain  of  his  before 
he  was  known  in  England.  I  have  it  not  before  me, 
but  it  is  nearly  this  : 

"  Each  spot  where  tulips  prank  their  state 
Has  drunk  the  life-blood  of  the  great ; 
The  violets  that  deck  the  plain 
Are  moles  of  beauties  Time  hath  slain." 

"Though  I  drink  wine   I   am   no   libertine,"  says 
Omar  Khayyam. 

"  Give  me  a  flask  of  wine,  a  crust  of  bread. 
A  quiet  mind,  a  book  of  verse  to  read. 
With  thee,  O  love,  to  share  my  lowly  roof, 
1  would  not  take  the  Sultan's  crown  instead," 

He  thinks  that  if  the  Devil  only  drank  wine  he  would 
become  a  good  fellow,  which  recalls  the  personal  as- 
ceticism Goethe  ascribes  to  Mephistopheles,  who  is 
shocked  by  the  nudities  of  Greek  art,  and  though  he 
draws  wine  from  the  table  in  Auerbach's  cellar  for  the 
students,  does  not  drink  any  himself  Isa's  breath 
turns  water  into  wine  ;  but  Mephistopheles  turns  the 
wine  into  fire-water,  to  reduce  the  students  to  "besti- 
ality,"—  pretty  much  the  miracle  of  those  who  tax 
wine  and  leave  whiskey  cheap.  Omar's  wine  is  that 
of  his  Isa's  (Jesus's)  vernal  breath.  Sensible  men,  he 
tells  the  Mollahs,  go  to  the  tavern  to  repair  the  time 
misspent  in  mosques.  It  will  be  evident  to  any  care- 
ful reader  that  a  good  deal  of  this  kind  of  writing  is 
satirical  and  defiant.  Omar  Khayyam  praised  wine  a 
good  deal  more  than  he  drank  it.  The  Moslem  Mol- 
lahs had  made  wine  a  religious  test,  and  he  accepted 
it.  Something  of  the  same  kind  still  goes  on  in  the 
East.  The  genuine  Moslems  never  drink  wine,  and 
they  are  without  any  literature  except  that  of  these 
ancient  Persian  wine-drinkers,  which  they  read,  while 
interpreting  the  wine  in  a  mystical  way.  Omar  Khay- 
yam advised  the  Mohammedans  to  sell  their  Koran  to 
buy  wine  ;  they  would  understand  then  that  if  pleasure 
is  a  good  thing  in  paradise  it  might  as  well  begin  on 
earth.  It  would  bring  them  into  communion  with  the 
earth  and  with  mankind.  His  writing  is  not  Anacreon- 
tic, but  rather  in  the  vein  of  Robert  Browning's  open- 
ing fable  in  "  Balaustion's  Adventure."  Apollo  visits 
the  Fates  to  plead  with  them  for  an  extension  of  the 
thread  of  Admetus's  life.  He  finds  the  weird  sisters 
in  a  gloomy  dismal  cavern,  and  they  tell  him  that  he 
ought  rather  to  plead  for  his  friend's  release  from  the 
miseries  of  earthly  existence.  But  Apollo  offers  them 
a  bowl  of  wine,  which  makes  them  merry,  and  they 
begin  to  feel  that  existence  is  not  so  bad  after  ail. 


"THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4097 


"THE  SOUL  OF  THE  BISHOP." 

BY  F.    M.    HOLLAND. 

This  is  the  title  of  a  very  interesting  book,  which 
deals,  like  "Robert  Elsmere "  and  "John  Ward, 
Preacher,"  with  the  conflict  between  the  love  that 
unites  and  the  creed  that  separates.  The  deep,  strong 
current  of  argument  is  usually  kept  in  the  background, 
its  results  are  occasionally  brought  out  with  great  dra- 
matic power,  but  much  of  the  meaning  of  the  book  is 
shown  by  the  lively  conversation  of  servants  and  other 
subordinate  characters.  I  shall  not  deprive  my  read- 
ers of  the  pleasure  of  finding  out  for  themselves  how 
it  comes  out ;  but  they  can  be  sure  that  the  story  is 
told  too  well  to  be  abridged  without  serious  loss.  The 
underlying  argument  deserves  to  be  presented  more 
clearly  and  fully  in  these  columns  than  could  be  done 
in  a  novel  without  injury  to  artistic  unity. 

The  hero  is  a  handsome  young  bishop  of  the 
Church  of  England,  who  is  liberal  enough  to  go  on 
principle  to  a  ball-room.  In  its  corridor  he  wins  the 
heart  of  a  lovely  girl,  whose  eager  face  had  fascinated 
him  as  he  was  preaching  in  his  cathedral.  There  is 
nothing  to  prevent  an  immediate  marriage,  except 
Lent.  She  has  thought  herself  a  faithful  daughter  of 
the  Church  ;  but  she  is  surprised  to  find  him  unwilling 
to  come  to  the  dinner-party  by  which  her  father  wishes 
to  announce  the  engagement. 

"I  don't  think,"  she  said,  thoughtfully,  "that  you 
ought  to  have  engaged  yourself  to  me  just  before  Lent 
if  you  meant  Lent  to  interfere  with  proper  attention  to 
me,  and  it  is  a  proper  attention  to  me  that  you  should 
meet  my  friends  and  my  fathers's  friends  as  my  future 
husband.  If  it  were  not  Lent,  it  would  be  a  perfectly 
natural  thing  ....  and  I  don't  think  it  is  at  all  right 
for  you  to  slight  me  because  of  the  season  of  the  year." 

"  But,  my  darling,"  he  exclaimed,  "you  keep  Lent 
in  some  way  yourself,  surely." 

"Never,"  she  answered,  "never.  I  believe  in  be- 
ing good  all  the  year  round." 

Soon  after  she  tells  her  lover  that  she  has  been 
reading  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  asks  him  if  he 
really  believes  them.  He  answers,  "  Of  course  ";  but 
then  she  reads  him  the  thirteenth,  and  says  :  "Now 
do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  God  does  not  love  good 
for  its  own  sake,  and  that  good  cannot  exist  without 
a  certain  faith  in  an  accepted  creed  ?  " 

"  Why,  it  amounts  to  this  :  If  you  do  not  believe 
in  Christ,  if  you  have  not  the  grace  of  God,  your  good- 
ness is  wicked."  He  tries  to  explain  in  what  sense  he 
accepts  the  Articles ;  but  she  becomes  onl)'  more 
curious  to  find  out  what  is  really  taught  by  the  Church. 
She  often  spends  half  the  night  studying  the  Fathers 
and  other  standard  theologians.  She  has  many  dis- 
cussions with  her  lover  about  what  is  to  become  of 


good  people  who  are  not  Christians.  He  assures  her, 
in  direct  contradiction  not  only  to  the  thirteenth  but 
to  the  eighteenth  article,  that  he  does  not  think  that 
any  one,  whatever  his  religion,  "is  totally  cut  off  from 
the  God  who  made  him."  She  interrupts  him  with  a 
cry  of  despair,  for  his  admission  makes  her  think  that 
the  doctrines  of  the  Church  are  so  false,  that  even 
those  who  profess  to  accept  them  cannot  really  believe 
them  with  sincerity.  Why  is  she  to  believe  what  he 
cannot? 

"You  tell  me,"  she  says,  "that  I  must  believe 
those  Thirty-nine  Articles  ;  then  I  must  believe  that  a 
dear  little  innocent  babe  of  a  week  old  shall,  if  by 
some  accident  or  other  it  has  not  been  baptised,  merit 
God's  wrath  forever.  .  .  .  Why,  you  will  not  even  read 
the  burial-service  for  the  comfort  of  the  living,  over  a 
child  that,  according  to  the  Church's  theory,  has,  for 
no  fault  of  its  own,  been  let  slip  into  eternal  damna- 
tion. ...  If  you  knew  how  wretched  I  am — if  you 
know  how  anxious  I  am  to  believe  everything  as  you 
would  have  me  believe  it,  you  would  pity  me.  Now  I 
understand  what  a  poor  woman,  whose  child  died  last 
year  in  the  next  village,  felt  like  when  she  cried  out 
that  they  had  buried  her  baby  like  a  dog." 

Imagine  the  agony  of  a  poor  girl  who  keeps  on 
studying  orthodox  books  in  what  she  calls  "  my  fever- 
ish anxiety  to  believe  what  my  reason  tells  me  is  per- 
fectly impossible."  She  sits  up  all  night  reading  the 
four  Gospels  over  and  over  again,  and  at  last  finds 
herself  "regarding  it  all  as  a  mere  fable,  having  no 
reverence  for  the  religion  of  the  present,  and  without 
any  belief  or  hope  in  a  world  to  come."  She  loves  the 
Bishop  passionately,  but  she  has  to  ask  him  if  he  does 
not  fear  that  their  marriage  would  imperil  his  soul. 
No  wonder  that  she  says,  "My  whole  life  is  a  black- 
ened waste,  and  the  sooner  it  is  over  and  I  am  no  more 
able  to  think,  the  happier  for  me." 

The  worst  of  it  is,  that  this  is  a  very  common  case. 
I  have  just  heard  of  an  American  girl,  whose  engage- 
ment with  an  orthodox  minister  ended  in  his  telling 
her  that  unbelief  had  made  her  a  prey  to  Satan.  I 
knew  myself  a  pious  young  man  in  a  Unitarian  divin- 
ity school,  who  devoted  himself  to  studying  the  New 
Testament  under  a  devout  teacher  of  profound  and 
liberal  scholarship.  My  friend's  chief  anxiety  was  to 
find  out  precisely  what  Jesus  had  claimed  to  be;  and 
his  studies  had  led  him  to  the  painful  conviction,  not 
only  that  he  could  not  accept  the  theology  and  ethics 
of  the  New  Testament,  but  that  he  ought  not  to.  I 
speak  of  this  case  because  it  illustrates  a  fact  which  is 
not  mentioned  by  the  novelist.  Such  scepticism  is 
often  very  painful ;  and  therefore  it  usually  is  very 
brief.  The  student  I  spoke  of  soon  came  under  the 
influence  of  a  writer  whom  he  had  hitherto  neglected, 
Theodore  Parker,  and  was  thus  enabled  to  go  on  as 


4098 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


zealously  as  ever  in  the  ministry.  The  lady  who  was 
handed  over  to  Satan  is  now  a  Unitarian. 

Then  again,  I  have  known  people  pass  on,  with- 
out regret,  from  the  theological  to  the  scientific  view 
of  their  duty  and  destiny.  I  see  them  live  as  happily 
and  virtuously  as  any  bishop  ;  and  I  deny  the  truth  of 
the  words  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  hero  of  this  novel, 
"Cast  aside  your  faith,  break  down  the  beliefs  of  your 
childhood,  and  what  have  you  left  ?  Nothing,  nothing, 
nothing."  Ministers,  even  in  novels,  ought  to  let  the 
people  know  that  all  the  churches  are  now  provided 
with  fire-escapes. 

Justice  to  the  Episcopalians  in  America  requires 
me  to  add  that  a  bereaved  mother  finds  more  mercy 
here  than  in  England.  The  American  prayer-book 
merely  says,  at  the  beginning  of  its  burial-service,  that 
it  "is  not  to  be  used  for  any  unbaptised  adults,  any 
who  die  excommunicate,  or  who  have  laid  violent  hands 
upon  themselves."  This  little  point  is  all  the  more 
interesting  because  the  Bishop  in  the  novel  says  in  his 
argument  against  expurgating  the  Articles:  "It  is 
proved  beyond  all  question  of  doubt,  that  you  cannot 
pull  any  constitution  to  pieces  without  doing  a  vast 
amount  of  harm."  English  Episcopalians  talk  in  the 
same  way  about  the  danger  of  discarding  the  Athana- 
sian  creed,  with  its  threats  of  damnation  against  all 
who  do  not  believe  a  series  of  contradictions.  This 
reminds  me  of  the  politicians  who  carried  the  election 
of  1888  by  saying,  as  they  do  now,  "It  would  ruin  the 
country  to  change  the  tariff,"  and  then  passed  the 
McKinley  bill.  The  Church  in  America  owes  much 
of  her  prosperity  to  the  courage  with  which  she  per- 
mitted burial  of  unbaptised  babies,  and  dropped  the 
Athanasian  Creed  as  well  as  one  of  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles.  If  she  were  to  deal  just  as  radically  with 
what  she  says  of  baptismal  regeneration  and  "the 
resurrection  of  the  body,"  her  position  would  be  none 
the  worse.  As  far  as  constitutions  go,  it  is  plain  enough 
to  an  American  that  those  of  our  States,  as  well  as  of 
our  nation,  owe  much  of  their  strength  and  value  to  the 
frequency  with  which  they  have  been  revised.  Creeds 
and  articles  of  faith  really  are  like  constitutions.  If 
they  cannot  be  amended,  they  ought  to  be  repealed. 


CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA. 


BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 


THE  SERMON  IN  THE  VALLEY. 

Now  THE  multitudes  were  gathered  together  in  the 
valley  nigh  unto  Bethany  ; 

And  Jesus  stood  in  the  midst  of  them  and  taught 
them,  saying  : 

It  is  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  To  God  belongeth 
vengeance  and  recompense  ; 


And  again  in  the  prophet  Nahum,  God  is  jealous 
and  the  Lord  revengeth  ; 

But  David  saith  also,  God  is  gracious  and  merci- 
ful ;  his  mercy  is  from  everlasting. 

But  some  shall  say,  How  can  these  things  be,  and 
how  can  God  have  wrath  and  yet  mercy,  and  vengeance 
and  yet  loving  kindness  ? 

Behold  the  truth  which  endureth  from  generation 
to  generation  ; 

For  he  that  doeth  evil  is  God's  adversary,  and  the 
worker  of  iniquity  is  at  enmity  with  the  Lord. 

God  is  not  unrighteous  who  taketh  vengeance.  I 
speak  as  a  man,  otherwise  ye  could  not  understand  ; 

Neither  doth  God  make  void  the  law  by  his  mercy 
to  them  that  transgress. 

For  what  is  vengeance  but  recompense? 

It  cometh  from  God  and  returneth  unto  him  again  ; 
for  thou  thyself  givest  and  gettest  it. 

And  will  ye  call  that  man  guilty  who  runneth  not 
in  the  race  ? 

Verily  ye  will  not  if  he  be  halt. 

Or  will  ye  esteem  him  to  be  a  runner  if  he  see  not 
his  way  to  walk  ? 

Verily  if  he  be  blind  ye  will  say,  The  Lord  will  not 
hold  him  guilty. 

I  charge  them  that  would  be  just  in  this  world  that 
they  be  not  high-minded,  nor  trust  in  uncertain  judg- 
ment : 

For  there  were  two  brothers  in  one  household,  even 
Jacob  and  Esau  in  the  house  of  our  father  Isaac. 

As  it  is  written,  Jacob  have  I  loved,  but  Esau  have 
I  hated. 

Sayest  thou  God  was  jealous  and  his  anger  against 
Esau  was  kindled  without  a  cause  ? 

Nay,  but  rather  that  Esau  sold  his  birthright. 

Which  things  are  an  allegory. 

Therefore,  if  thou  seest  thy  brother  have  faults  re- 
prove him,  but  with  loving  kindness  lest  in  spirit  which 
thou  knowest  not,  he  be  halt  or  blind. 

Let  him  be  blessed  in  his  doing  who  doth  hunger 
and  thirst  after  righteousness. 

Let  him  despise  not  the  time  of  small  things,  but 
let  him  rather  be  grateful. 

Let  him  say  unto  the  wind  that  holdeth  back,  I  am 
glad,  and  unto  the  flood  that  delayeth,  I  rejoice. 

Let  him  say  unto  the  pestilence,  I  am  happy  be- 
cause of  thee ;  and  unto  evil,  Thou  art  good,  for  thou 
hast  taught  me. 

Verily  I  say  unto  you.  If  your  heart  be  fixed,  no 
evil  can  come  nigh  unto  you  or  touch  you. 

There  was  an  oak  tree  planted  by  a  water-course 
which  flourished  exceedingly. 

But  the  gardener  came  and  dug  about  the  tree  and 
transplanted  it  to  an  high  place. 

And  the  tree  cried,  I  perish  for  lack  of  water. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4099 


But  lo  !  the  heavens  opened  and  the  clouds  poured 
down  rain. 

Again  the  tree  cried,  My  feet  are  in  stony  ground 
where  there  is  no  nourishment. 

But  the  roots  thereof  did  spread,  and  went  down, 
and  gathered  nurture  where  none  was. 

And  again  the  tree  cried,  1  cannot  live  ;  for  the 
stormy  wind  that  is  roundabout  me  on  this  high  place. 

But  the  wind  taught  it ;  aye,  even  the  roots  thereof 
that  they  took  firmer  hold. 

And  the  tree  that  was  but  a  sapling  by  the  water- 
course waxed  strong. 

And  grew  and  became  a  great  tree,  and  the  fowls 
of  heaven  lodged  in  the  branches  thereof. 

Learn  a  lesson  of  the  oak  tree.  For  which  of  you 
fathers  reproveth  not  his  son  and  correcteth  him  ? 

And  whether  is  it  better  that  a  young  man  be  sloth- 
ful, or  that  he  learn  in  his  youth  to  endure  hardness  ? 

Verily  as  a  father  pityeth  his  children  so  is  the  lov- 
ing kindness  of  God  to  the  children  of  men. 

But  say  not  when  tribulation  cometh.  My  father  is 
wroth  with  me  ;  but  rather.  It  is  good  that  I  suffer  that 
I  may  learn  ; 

For  tribulation  worketh  patience,  and  patience 
when  it  is  finished  bringeth  forth  good  to  as  many  as 
are  called  of  God  ; 

For  the  calling  of  God  is  of  the  spirit  of  God. 

And  as  many  as  have  the  spirit  are  called  of  the 
spirit. 

But  I  sa}'  unto  you  God  calleth  not  with  his  mouth, 
nor  doth  man  hear  the  voice  with  his  outward  ears. 

The  life  is  more  than  flesh  as  the  body  is  more  than 
raiment  ; 

But  I  say  unto  you  also  that  the  spirit  of  man  is 
more  than  his  life. 

For  after  the  fashion  of  this  world  men  say,  Lo  ! 
this  man  is  good,  for  he  doeth  good. 

Verily  his  doing  is  a  sign  of  his  heart's  intent  ;  but 
God  only  knoweth  his  goodness  ; 

For  his  ways  are  not  as  our  ways,  nor  his  thoughts 
as  our  thoughts. 

There  is  that  mercy  which  is  more  merciful  to  with- 
hold than  to  grant. 

There  is  that  loving  kindness  which  is  more  lovely 
to  smite  than  to  spare. 

There  is  that  charity  which  is  more  charitable  to 
take  than  to  give. 

For  if  ye  give  unto  all  that  ask,  these  shall  all  be- 
come beggars,  and  thou, thyself  become  like  unto  them. 

It  is  better  to  give  help  to  earn  than  money  with- 
out labor. 

For  which  of  you  will  give  unto  his  children  all 
they  ask  ?  And  what  shall  it  profit  a  child  to  have  all 
his  desire  ? 

Truly  at  the  end  the   sweet  shall  be  as  gall.     But 


the  affliction  that  chasteneth  shall  be  sweeter  than 
honey  and  the  honey-comb. 

Behold,  I  say  unto  you,  vengeance  belongeth  unto 
God. 

Hath  God  passions  like  unto  men  that  he  should 
be  angry,  or  hath  he  weakness  that  he  should  desire 
the  death  of  him  that  hateth  him  ? 

Doth  God  fear  him  whom  he  smiteth  ? 

Behold  God  is  over  all  and  through  all  and  in  all. 

Shalt  thou  say  to  him  who  hath  a  withered  hand. 
Why  didst  thou  do  this  unto  thyself? 

Or  shalt  thou  say  to  the  blind.  Why  didst  thou 
pluck  out  thine  eye  ? 

The  hand  withereth,  and  the  eye  loseth  sight,  and 
the  man  endureth  though  he  hath  no  power  over  such 
of  his  members  as  perish. 

Say  ye  not  when  the  lightning  smiteth  a  man  and 
he  die  that  it  was  God  slew  him. 

Nor  say  of  him  whom  the  waters  overwhelmed  it 
was  God's  doing ; 

Neither  of  him  whom  the  adder  hath  bitten,  It  is 
God's  wrath. 

But  say  rather  that  God  maketh  his  lightnings  to 
fall,  and  his  waters  to  rise,  and  his  serpents  to  sting  ; 

And  lo  !  that  man  who  standeth  in  the  way  thereof 
is  like  unto  the  withered  hand  or  the  eye  that  was 
plucked  out. 

For  the  ways  of  God  are  changeless  ;  his  law  is 
from  everlasting  to  everlasting  ; 

And  woe  unto  him  who  transgresseth  one  of  the 
least  of  these  ; 

For  iniquity  is  not  always  guilt,  nor  transgression 
crime. 

And  a  man's  foolishness  shall  ensue  evil  even  as 
the  mischief  that  he  deviseth. 

Verily  the  kingdom  of  this  world  is  round  about 
you,  but  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  within  you,  and 
the  ruler  of  that  Kingdom  cannot  be  slain. 

Neither  by  the  lightning,  nor  the  waters,  nor  the 
serpent's  sting. 

For  in  God's  image  were  ye  made,  inhabitants  of  a 
celestial  city  eternal  in  the  heavens. 

Say  not  that  God  sendeth  plague,  pestilence,  and 
famine  ; 

Neither  say  it  is  he  who  hath  given  sorrow  in  an- 
ger; for  all  things  work  together  for  evil  unto  them 
that  do  evil ; 

But  unto  them  that  do  good  all  things  work  to- 
gether for  good. 

And  when  Jesus  had  done  speaking  many  came 
unto  him  saying.  Master,  we  heard  what  thou  didst 
say  unto  the  young  man  ; 

For  when  he  asked  thee,  What  shall  I  do  to  in- 
herit eternal  life?     Thou  didst  say  unto   him,  Sell  all 


4IOO 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


thou  hast  and  give  unto  the  poor,  and  come  and  fol- 
low thee. 

Is  it  then  required  of  all  to  do  this  ? 

Jesus  answered,  Nay,  I  said  not  so ;  for  when  I 
spake  I  spake  unto  the  young  man,  and  not  to  an- 
other. 

Then  said  he  that  had  spoken,  Tell  me  then,  I  pray 
thee,  what  must  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life  ? 

Now  Jesus  knew  this  man's  heart,  because  of  the 
power  given  him  from  on  high,  and  he  saith  unto  him. 

Go  thy  way,  and  what  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do 
that  diligently  as  unto  the  Lord.  Be  silent  and  let 
thine  acts  speak  for  thee.  Sufficient  unto  the  life  is 
the  duty  thereof. 

And  one  of  the  multitude  lifted  up  his  voice  and 
said.  Verily  thou  speakest  as  one  having  authority. 
Tell  us  now  plainly  whether  thou  art  God  or  man. 

Jesus  answering  saith  unto  him,  Can'st  thou  tell 
me  of  thyself  what  in  thee  is  of  God  and  what  of  man? 

And  he  was  dumb.  And  when  Jesus  perceived  that 
he  answered  not  he  saith  again  unto  him. 

When  thou  knowest  what  in  thine  own  self  is  of 
God  and  what  of  man,  then  will  I  tell  thee  whether  I 
am  God  or  man. 


ONEIROS  AND   HARPAX. 

When  God,  the  Lord,  had  finished  heaven  and 
earth,  he  created  man  out  of  the  dust  of  the  ground 
in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God  ;  male  and  fe- 
male created  he  them.  And  the  Lord  planted  a  gar- 
den in  Eden  and  made  trees  to  grow  that  bear  fruits 
good  to  eat  and  pleasant  to  the  sight,  and  God  took 
the  man  and  put  him  into  the  garden  of  Eden,  com- 
manding him  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it.  And  the  man 
did  as  he  was  bidden. 

And  man  saw  the  trees  of  the  garden  ;  he  saw  the 
rivers  and  the  rocks,  the  birds  that  lived  in  the  foliage 
of  the  trees,  and  the  beasts  that  roamed  through  the 
woods,  and  the  creation  of  the  Lord  was  imaged  in  his 
mind.  Thus  man  lived  without  cares  and  tribulations, 
in  a  state  of  perfect  contentment.  He  attended  to  the 
trees  and  ate  of  their  fruits;  he  thought  neither  of  the 
future  nor  of  the  past,  but  lived  solely  in  the  present, 
in  blissful  indifference  ;  and  when  he  was  tired  he  lay 
down  on  the  soft  sod  beneath  a  tree  and  slept  a  dream- 
less sleep. 

And  God  the  Lord  was  displeased  with  his  work 
and  said  to  himself,  "The  man  whom  I  have  made 
and  into  whose  nostrils  I  have  breathed  the  breath  of 
life  so  that  he  is  life  of  my  life,  worthy  to  be  called 
my  son,  leads  a  life  of  indolence  and  has  become  like 
a  spoiled  child.  I  have  done  the  work  of  creation, 
and  he  enjoys  it  ;  and  he  lives  in  indifference,  know- 
ing not  good  nor  evil.      He  is  a  living  soul,  but  not 


knowing  death,  he  comprehendeth  not  what  life  is  and 
gives  no  care  to  investigate  what  is  truth  and  error.  I 
will  teach  him  to  make  comparisons  and  he  will  learn." 

And  God  called  two  angels,  Oneiros,  who  stands  at 
his  right  hand,  and  Harpax,  who  stands  at  his  left 
hand,  and  said  to  them  :  "  Go  down  to  man  and  when 
he  falls  asleep,  stir  thou,  O  Oneiros,  the  images  of  his 
soul  and  impart  to  him  the  secret  of  creation  so  that 
he  may  become  like  unto  me,  his  God  and  Heavenly 
Father.  But  when  he  awakes,  O  Harpax,  be  quick 
and  snatch  away  the  dreams  he  has  shaped." 

The  two  angels  did  as  they  were  bidden.  When 
man  fell  asleep  Oneiros  approached  him  and  caused 
him  to  have  dreams,  and  man  created  out  of  the  images 
of  his  soul  new  things.  Harpax,  however,  was  ready 
to  seize  the  beautiful  dreams  and  destroy  them  as  soon 
as  man  awoke. 

Now  man  began  to  compare  the  things  and  ani- 
mals which  God  had  made  with  the  creatures  of  his 
own  imagination,  and  he  thought  to  himself  :  "The 
world  which  I  create  in  my  dreams  is  far  superior  to 
the  world  made  by  God,"  and  he  began  to  be  dissatis- 
fied and  complained  about  the  faults  of  God's  creation. 
"O  Lord,  God,  my  Father,"  said  the  man,  "thou 
sendest  me  Oneiros  with  beautiful  dreams,  why  dost 
thou  allow  Harpax  to  take  the  dreams  away  from  me 
as  soon  as  I  awake  ?  " 

And  God  the  Lord  said  :  "Oneiros  will  show  thee 
the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  which  I 
have  planted  in  Eden,  but  know  thou  that  I  have  placed 
Harpax  who  will  not  allow  thee  to  eat  of  its  fruit.  I 
offer  thee  the  gift  of  life,  but  death  is  the  price  which 
must  be  paid  for  it.  I  have  created  thee  unto  my 
image,  but  if  thou  wilt  become  like  unto  me,  thy  God 
and  thy  Creator,  thou  must  open  thy  eyes  and  learn, 
thou  must  be  active  to  do  work  ;  thou  must  give  shape 
and  real  existence  to  the  dreams  of  thy  fancy  ;  thou 
must  create  as  I  do." 

And  God  left  the  man  and  the  woman,  but  Oneiros 
and  Harpax  staid  with  them. 

And  the  man  said  to  the  woman  :  "Our  ambition 
to  be  like  God  implicates  us  in  danger  ;  life  begets 
death,  the  knowledge  of  good  presupposes  the  expe- 
rience of  evil.  Let  us  live  contentedly  and  worry  no 
longer." 

This  was  the  work  of  Harpax  who  took  away  from 
Adam's  mind  his  dream  of  divinity,  and  the  woman 
became  very  sad  at  heart  and  said  to  the  man  :  "We 
are  in  a  sorry  plight.  There  is  the  tree  of  life  and 
knowledge,  yet  God  has  forbidden  us  to  taste  of  its 
fruit,  for  he  has  said  :  '  On  the  day  that  thou  eatest 
thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die.'  We  are  unhappy  and 
miserable."  So  their  souls  were  filled  with  melancholy 
thoughts,  and  wearied  by  their  disappointments  they 
experienced  a  feeling  which  they  had   never  felt  be- 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4101 


fore  ;  it  was  as  if  for  a  moment  they  had  been  over- 
come by  old  age  and  they  fell  asleep. 

Now  Oneiros  roused  their  souls  to  new  hopes,  and 
the  man  saw  in  his  dream  that  the  woman  had  the 
miraculous  power  of  restoring  youth  and  imparting 
life.     Yet  when  he  woke  up  his  dream  was  gone. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  man  and  the  woman 
when  the  serpent  approached  them  with  the  words  of 
the  tempter.  And  the  serpent  said  :  "God  doth  know 
that  in  the  days  ye  shall  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge,  your  eyes  shall  be  opened  and  ye  shall  be 
as  gods,  knowing  good  and  evil."  And  the  woman  be- 
came confident  that  it  was  good  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of 
the  tree  of  knowledge  and  they  both  ate  of  it. 

Now  Oneiros  placed  the  man  into  an  abode  that 
was  better  than  Eden,  for  it  was  the  product  of  man's 
own  work  and  everything  was  arranged  as  he  wanted 
it ;  yet  Harpax  took  away  the  beautiful  abode  and  left 
man  in  dreary  poverty.  So  the  man  and  the  woman 
decided  to  stay  together  for  better  or  for  worse  in  the 
struggle  for  life,  in  the  faithful  alliance  of  husband  and 
wife,  and  to  build  up  a  world  of  their  own  in  which 
everything  should  be  as  they  wanted  it.  So  they  left 
Eden  and  the  man  began  to  pull  up  the  thorns  and  this- 
tles and  to  till  the  ground  ;  and  he  ate  the  bread  which 
he  had  procured  himself  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  and 
gave  his  wife  also  and  they  both  ate  of  it.  She  bore 
to  her  husband  children  and  their  sorrows  were  multi- 
plied, but  they  went  on  undaunted  ;  they  planned  and 
in  carrying  out  their  plans  they  toiled,  and  they  had 
failures  and  successes,  yet  they  were  satisfied  that  this 
world  of  work  and  struggle,  in  spite  of  so  many  dan- 
gers, miseries,  and  disappointments,  was  better  than 
the  Eden  of  unconscious  happiness. 

The  man  died  and  the  woman  died,  for  death  was 
the  price  of  the  eternal  rejuvenescence  of  their  souls, 
but  mankind  lives.  We  are  in  mankind  and  mankind 
is  in  us,  and  we  eat  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  ;  and  the 
more  we  struggle  and  work  the  grander  and  nobler, 
the  holier  grows  the  image  of  God  in  our  minds. 

Oneiros  and  Harpax  are  still  with  us,  and  it  is  good 
that  they  are.  If  your  child  wakes  up  crying,  you  must 
know  that  Oneiros  had  given  him  some  beautiful  toys 
to  play  with,  but  Harpax  took  them  away  when  he 
awoke.  The  little  pessimist  thinks  that  the  world  of 
dreams  is  more  beautiful  than  the  world  of  realities. 

Do  not  mind  the  child's  tears  ;  if  he  but  have  energy 
in  him,  he  will  by  and  by  become  a  man  and  build  up 
the  noble  visions  of  his  soul.  p.  c. 


THE  AMERICAN  CONGRESS  OF  RELIGIOUS  SOCIETIES. 

We  have  to  announce  the  birth  of  a  new  movement  which  we 
hope  will  prosper  and  increase  to  the  benefit  of  mankind,  and  con- 
tribute its  share  to  the  enlightenment  of  the  world  It  is  "The 
.\merican  Congress  of  Religious  Societies,"  which  convened  in 
Sinai  Temple,  Chicago,  on  May  21st,  8  P.  M.,  and  having  remained 


in  session  during  the  whole  week  organised  on  Saturday,  May  26. 
Its  object  is  :  "To  unite  in  a  larger  fellowship  and  co-operation 
"such  existing  societies  and  liberal  elements  as  are  in  sympathy 
"with  the  movement  toward  undogmatic  religion  ;  to  foster  and 
"encourage  the  organisation  of  other  non-sectarian  churches  and 
"kindred  societies  on  the  basis  of  absolute  mental  liberty  ;  to  se- 
"  cure  a  closer  and  more  helpful  association  of  all  these  in  the 
"thought  and  work  of  the  world  under  the  great  law  and  life  of 
"love  ;  to  develop  the  church  of  humanity,  democratic  in  organi- 
"sation,  progressive  in  spirit,  aiming  at  the  development  of  pure 
"and  high  character,  hospitable  to  all  forms  of  thought,  cherish- 
"ing  the  spiritual  traditions  and  experiences  of  the  past,  but  keep- 
"ing  itself  open  to  all  new  light  and  the  higher  development  of 
"the  future." 

We  looked  forward  to  the  Congress  with  great  hope,  but  not 
without  anxiety.  The  new  movement  is  one  of  the  fruits  of  the 
Parliament  of  Religions  which  took  place  during  the  memorable 
year  of  the  World's  Fair.  We  say  one  of  the  fruits,  for  the  com- 
mittees of  the  World's  Fair  Auxiliary  Congresses  are  still  in  office, 
and  as  they  have  not  yet  finished  their  labors,  we  may  expect  that 
they,  too,  will  produce  some  good  or  even  better  results.  The 
religious  committee  has  proposed  to  extend  the  work  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Religions,  so  as  to  make  its  blessings  a  lasting  possession 
of  mankind,  a  KTfifia  if  ad.  And  this  ' '  Religious  Parliament  Exten- 
sion "  is  planned  to  embrace  all  creeds.  Christian  and  pagan,  or- 
thodox and  liberal ;  it  is  not  intended  to  proclaim  a  new  religion, 
but  it  invites  all  religious  people  to  come  into  friendly  relation,  to 
exchange  their  ideas  and  explain  their  meaning.  As  a  motto  the 
saying  of  Isaiah  i,  i8,  has  been  selected  :  "  Come  now,  and  let  us 
reason  together,  saith  the  Lord."  That  such  friendly  intercourse 
is  possible  has  been  proved  by  the  Parliament  of  1S93.  What  the 
World's  Religious  Parliament  Extension  wants  is  to  be  broad 
enough  to  let  even  the  most  narrow-minded  find  room  in  the 
movement.  If  we  but  apply  to  religious  affairs  the  same  rules  of 
gentlemanly  behavior  which  in  worldly  aflairs  are  as  a  matter  of 
course  expected  of  everybody,  we  shall  be  able  to  clear  away  many 
prejudices  and  understand  one  another  better.  We  only  need  pa- 
tience and  mutual  brotherly  assistance.  The  American  Congress  of 
Religious  Societies  is  another  and  an  independent  movement. 
While  the  Religious  Parliament  Extension  is  liberal  in  the  sense  of 
excluding  no  one  and  opening  its  doors  to  all,  the  recent  Congress 
proposes  to  bring  about  a  closer  alliance  among  the  liberals.  It  is 
not  for  the  Roman  Catholics  :  it  is  not  for  the  orthodox  ;  it  is  for 
those  who  have  thrown  o£f  the  shackles  of  traditional  authority  and 
avow  the  principles  of  liberalism.  There  is  a  certain  contrast  be- 
tween the  two  but  no  antagonism.  Both  movements  are  sorely 
needed,  and  we  wish  heartily  that  both  may  succeed.  It  is  much 
needed  that  all  liberal  religions  should  unite,  and  that  they  should 
organise  themselves  and  become  better  acquainted  with  one  an- 
other. But  it  is  more  difficult  to  accomplish  a  union  among  liberals 
than  among  the  old-fashioned  orthodox,  for  so  far  their  agreement 
appears  to  consist  in  negations  only. 

Dr.  H.  W.  Thomas  of  Chicago  opened  the  Congress  of  Reli- 
gious Societies,  and  no  better  man  could  have  been  selected  for  the 
purpose,  for  he  is  one  of  the  most  prominent  pulpit-orators,  keen  in 
thought,  not  afraid  of  hereticism,  and  highly  esteemed  by  every- 
body. The  active  worker  and  propeller  of  the  new  movement  is 
its  secretary.  Dr.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones;  he  is  here  in  his  element  as 
an  organiser  and  founder.  Dr.  Jones  is  one  of  the  most  energetic 
men  on  the  globe.  He  undertakes  three  or  four  great  schemes  at 
the  same  time  and  loses  track  of  none  of  them.  There  is  certainly 
no  danger  that  he  will  let  the  movement  go  to  sleep  ;  if  there  is 
any  danger  it  is  that  he  takes  too  many  steps  at  once.  The  inno- 
vations which  he  proposes  are  far  reaching,  and  he  must  be  on  his 


4I02 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


guard  lest  he  break  down  under  their  burden.  He  has  left  the 
Unitarian  Church,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  in  order  to  be  free 
from  all  fetters.  This  involves  the  obligation  to  refund  to  the  Uni- 
tarian Conference  an  investment  of  seven  thousand  dollars,  and 
Dr.  Jones's  congregation  is  willing  to  pay  the  amount.  At  the  same 
time  Dr.  Jones  proposes  a  new  building  of  eight  stories  in  height, 
which  is  to  be  a  type  of  the  church  of  the  future,  containing  as- 
sembly halls,  gymnasium,  baths,  business  rooms  for  rent  to  pay 
the  running  expenses,  and  on  the  top  floor  the  parsonage.  God 
speed  thee,  courageous  sailor,  and  give  thee  in  the  rush  of  business 
the  necessary  calmness  of  consideration. 

*  '         * 

It  is  a  very  favorable  symptom  of  the  vitality  of  the  Congress 

that  Dr.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones's  breaking  away  from  the  Unitarian 

fold  did  not  explode  the  entire  undertaking.    The  Unitarians  have 

long  since  adopted  the  motto,  "Truth  for  authority,  not  authority 

for  truth,"  and  extend  to  their  preachers  the  widest  possible  range 

of  liberty.     They  can  justly  say  that  the  shackles  of  which  Dr. 

Jones  complains  do  not  exist,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  justify  his 

act.     His  brethren  might  have  taken  offence  and  stayed  away  from 

the  new  movement,  but  they  came  and  joined  hands  with  him  in 

laying  the  corner-stone  of  the  new  organisation. 
* 

The  Congress  of  Religious  Societies  consists  mainly  of  Unita- 
rians, Universalists,  Jews,  societies  for  ethical  culture,  and  inde- 
pendent liberals.  There  is  no  question  about  their  having  suffi- 
cient interests  in  common  to  establish  a  closer  companionship, 
but  we  must  not  be  blind  to  the  rocks  which  threaten  to  sink  the 
young  craft.  While  scarcely  any  note  of  discord  was  heard  during 
the  Congress,  we  cannot  help  noticing  a  great  divergency  of  aims 
and  methods  among  its  most  prominent  members.  While  Dr.  Jones 
regards  his  liberalism  as  too  broad  for  the  Unitarians,  Rabbi 
Hirsch,  in  whose  synagogue  the  meetings  were  held,  took  pains  to 
explain  that  the  solution  of  liberalism  is  Judaism.  ' '  The  Jews  must 
raise  their  own  flag,"  he  said,  and  he  expressed  deep  regret  to  see 
"  some  veterans  of  his  congregation  permitting  their  children  to 
look  with  favor  upon  the  new  movement."  Thus  it  appears  that 
two  leaders  of  liberal  religious  aspirations.  Dr.  Jones  and  Dr.  Hirsch, 
employ  diagonally  opposed  methods ;  the  former  carries  to  its  ex- 
treme the  principle  of  shaking  off  the  dust  of  traditional  authority 
from  his  feet,  while  the  latter,  cherishing  the  conviction  that  ne- 
gations are  not  sufficient  as  a  bond  of  union,  appears  almost  as  a 
champion  of  reactionary  thought.  Such  divergencies,  however,  are 
good,  and  if  they  are  not  glossed  over,  but  recognised  in  their  full 
importance,  will  only  give  life  to  the  new  movement  and  increase 
its  interest. 

The  Congress  will  meet  once  every  year,  either  in  May  or 
June,  and  various  branches  will  be  founded  in  the  East  as  well  as 
in  the  West,  so  as  to  spread  the  spirit  of  fellowship  and  good-will 
among  all  the  liberally  minded  churches  and  societies  of  this  con- 
tinent. 

*  "         ^• 

There  were  two  addresses  on  the  Philosophical  Basis  of 
Modern  Theology;  the  one  by  the  Rev.  Merle  St.  Croix  Wright, 
the  other  by  E.  P.  Powell  of  Clinton,  N.  Y.  Both  took  their 
stand  upon  the  ground  of  a  monistic  world-conception,  rejecting 
the  old  pagan  notion  of  a  dualistic  Deity  above  the  clouds,  and 
inculcating  the  grandeur  of  the  new  God-conception,  which  is  not 
less  but  more  intensely  religious  than  the  old  one.  Mr.  Wright  is 
an  impressive  speaker  and  was,  as  Dr.  Hirsch  said  at  the  close  of 
the  debate,  "  the  right  man  in  the  right  place,  who  said  the  right 
word  at  the  right  time." 

BOOK  NOTICES. 

Marniillan  &  Co  publish  a  beautiful  little  work,  whose  form 
perfectly  harmonises  with  its  subject,  on  Lcadwork,  Old  and  Oi- 
liamailnl  cuid  for  the  Mosl  Pari  Eno/ls/i,  by  //'.  R.  Leilinhy .     The 


author  gives  an  interesting  historical  sketch  including  an  account 
of  the  material  and  of  the  craftsmanship  necessary  to  its  working, 
with  a  description  of  all  the  beautiful  frames,  domes,  roofs,  tur- 
rets, coffins,  fonts,  inscriptions,  statues,  fountains,  and  crestings 
in  which  his  art  has  found  expression.  The  illustrations  are  ex- 
ceptionally fine.  "The  plumber's  art,"  he  says,  "  as  it  was,  for 
instance,  when  the  Guild  of  Plumbers  was  formed,  a  craft  to  be 
graced  by  the  free  fancy  of  the  worker,  is  a  field  untilled.  That 
some  one  may  again  take  up  this  fine  old  craft  of  lead-working  as 
an  artist  and  original  worker,  refusing  to  follow  '  designs '  com- 
piled by  another  from  imperfectly  understood  old  examples,  but 
expressing  only  himself — this  has  been  my  chief  hope  in  preparing 
this  little  book."     (Pp.148.     Price  $1.25.) 


PROMPTINGS. 


BY  CHARLES  ALVA  LANE. 

Nay  God,  I  bring  no  voice,  against  they  will  ! 
Thou  hast  appointed  toil  :  With  purblind  brain 
I  scan  the  riddle  that  the  worlds  contain, 

.\nd  strive,  with  hands  that  feel  their  feeble  skill. 

To  trace  my  answer  in  a  work  shall  fill 

Thy  half  divined  desire.     Yet  seems  it  vain 
To  carve  on  crumbling  hours  ;  for  life  is  fain  ~ 

Of  immortality's  portentous  thrill 

Yea,  motives  rise  and  strength  and  life's  designs 
From  hopes  that  feed  upon  futurity. 
As  flowers  drink  the  sun  :  and,  promptingly, 

From  Godward  heights.  Ideals  mark  the  lines. 
Awry  and  graceless,  that  our  tellings  trace. 
Sad  of  our  weary  hands  and  wistful  face. 

THE    OPEN   COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Pi/Slishe 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

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of  The  Open  Court  will 


CONTENTS  OF  NO.  353. 

OMAR    KHAYYAM.      I.     His    Communion    Cup.      M.    D. 

Conway 4095 

"THE  SOUL  OF  THE  BISHOP.  "     F.  M.  Holland 4097 

CHAPTERS    FROM    THE    NEW    APOCRYPHA.     The 

Sermon  in  the  Valley.     Hudor  Genone 4098 

ONEIROS  AND  HARPAX.     Editor 4100 

THE    AMERICAN    CONGRESS    OF    RELIGIOUS    SO- 
CIETIES.     Editor 4101 

BOOK  NOTICES ,102 

POETRY. 

Promptings.     Charles  Alva  Lane  ,  .  ,  , 4102 


?)90 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "HTEEKLY   JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  354.     (Vol.  VIII.-23.) 


CHICAGO,  JUNE  7,  1894. 


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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. — Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


THE  OPPRESSION  OF  WOMEN. 

BY  PROF.  E.  D.  COPE. 

Mrs.  Mona  Caird,  Miss  Sara  Grand,  and  the  other 
ladies  of  their  "persuasion,"  are  furnishing  some  in- 
teresting reading  nowadays.  Representing  the  edu- 
cated woman,  with  constitutional  fluency  they  display 
the  art  of  the  pleader  in  excellent  literary  form.  But 
the  subject-matter  of  their  discourse  is  so  astonishing 
that  some  men  rub  their  eyes  in  wonderment  at  what 
this  eruption  can  be  about ;  while  others,  more  dis- 
posed to  listen,  stop  to  reflect  seriously  whether  soci- 
ety is  really  upside  down,  or  whether  there  is  or  is  not 
something  fundamentally  wrong  with  so-called  civili- 
sation in  its  treatment  of  women.  It  is  evident  that 
a  good  many  men  have  not  reached  any  definite  con- 
clusion in  their  own  minds  as  to  the  rights  and  wrongs 
of  the  situation.  In  consequence  some  men  are  dis- 
posed to  grant  all  that  is  claimed,  trusting  to  luck  for 
the  outcome,  while  others  are  urged  to  an  undiscrimi- 
nating  hostility  towards  all  women  who  are  or  wish  to 
be  educated,  if  an  education  only  serves  to  sharpen 
their  tongues  in  such  wise.  Others  of  both  sexes  are 
inclined  to  suspect  that  theses-writers  know  little  of 
the  normal  relation  which  exists  between  men  and  wo- 
men, and  are  quite  oblivious  to  the  grande  passion 
which  renders  hard  things  easy  and  makes  the  world 
fit  to  live  in. 

The  question  may,  however,  be  reasoned  out  in  a 
judicial  way  outside  of  the  influence  of  passions,  either 
good  or  evil.  If  the  universe  is  on  a  sound  basis,  as 
most  people  suppose,  it  ought  to  be  possible  to  find 
out  what  the  foundation  facts  of  the  situation  are,  on 
which  a  system  of  social  life  must  repose.  It  is  not 
my  intention  to  go  into  an  exposition  of  this  subject 
now  and  here,  but  I  only  refer  in  passing  to  some  pre- 
vious attempts  in  this  line.'  There  is  one  aspect  of 
the  case,  however,  which  these  ladies  appear  to  have 
overlooked,  and  to  which  I  will  call  attention.  This 
part  of  the  subject  is  so  fundamental  that  men  accept 
it  as  a  matter  of  course  in  their  lives.  It  is  in  fact  a 
matter  of  instinct  rather  than  of  reason,  and  as  such 
is  rarely  formulated,  but  men  regard  it  as  a  foundation 
fact,  like  their  senses  and  sensations,  which  require  no 


\Popular  Science  Monthly.    The  Monist,   Vol.   I,   No. 
Nos.  64,  65,  and  187. 


The  Open   Court, 


explanation  for  practical  purposes.  I  refer  to  the  fact 
that  the  lives  and  conduct  of  men  are  determined  by 
force  in  the  hands  of  other  men,  and  that  they  cannot 
escape  from  it  any  more  than  they  can  escape  from 
the  forces  of  nature.  In  fact,  this  human  force  is  one 
of  the  forces  of  nature.  The  class  of  writers  men- 
tioned neglect  this  factor  in  men's  lives,  but  think  of 
it  only  as  it  appears  to  them  in  women's  lives.  But 
if  men  are  subject  to  it,  women  must  be  also. 

Advocates  of  women's  entrance  into  state  govern- 
ment frequently  respond  to  the  allegation  that  all  gov- 
ernment rests  on  force,  by  the  counter  assertion  that 
that  time  has  passed,  and  that  government  now  rests 
on  good- will  and  "the  consent  of  the  governed."  The 
very  word  government,  as  well  as  its  nature,  however, 
implies  the  use  of  force  against  the  unwilling  ;  and  if 
all  mankind  consented  to  uniform  and  harmonious 
lines  of  action,  government  would  be  no  longer  neces- 
sary. The  fact  is  that  not  only  government,  but  all 
human  acts  whatsoever  are  expressions  of  force ;  and 
another  fact  is  that  the  greater  force  will  always  con- 
trol the  lesser,  no  matter  whether  the  object  to  be  at- 
tained be  good  or  ill.  It  follows  from  this  that  the 
weaker  members  of  society  must  always  adopt  meas- 
ures for  attaining  their  ends  other  than  by  the  appli- 
cation of  direct  force,  but  must  frequently  use  indi- 
rection. This  is  what  men  and  women  always  have 
done  under  such  circumstances,  and  always  will  do. 
It  is,  however,  the  burden  of  these  lady  doctrinaires, 
that  women,  the  weaker  sex,  are  compelled  to  use  in- 
direction !  It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  this  kind  of 
sentiment  appears  to  some  men  sophomoric,  and  that 
others  cannot  be  made  to  see  what  it  is  really  about. 

Let  us  illustrate  from  the  ordinary  experience  of 
men.  In  any  region  away  from  police  protection,  men 
are  very  careful  not  to  put  themselves  into  the  power 
of  thieves  and  other  dangerous  characters,  or  even 
men  whom  they  do  not  know,  who  have  or  may  be 
possessed  of  superior  physical  force.  In  the  presence 
of  physically  stronger  men  they  are  careful  to  observe 
civil  manners,  and  to  avoid  the  language  of  command. 
So  much  for  direct  physical  force.  The  rich  control 
physical  force  by  its  representative,  money.  Now 
every  one  knows  that  if  a  man  desires  the  co-opera- 
tion  of   a   capitalist   in   his  enterprises,  he  must  not 


3^ 


4I04 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


make  himself  disagreeable  to  the  holder  of  the  purse. 
The  antagonism  of  the  rich  man  is  to  be  avoided, 
since  he  has  in  his  hands  power  to  neutralise  the  efforts 
of  the  less  wealthy,  even  as  an  unconscious  rival.  Let 
us  now  place  ourselves  for  a  moment  in  the  position 
of  the  shop-keeper  and  salesman.  The  fundamental 
element  of  success  is  to  please  his  customers  by  his 
personal  bearing  towards  them.  Rudeness  over  the 
counter  will  effectually  neutralise  the  attractions  of  his 
goods.  If,  however,  the  merchant  gets  control  of  the 
entire  supply  of  certain  goods,  so  that  customers  must 
buy  of  him,  then  the  tables  are  turned.  The  prepon- 
derant force  is  on  his  side,  and  manners  become  less 
important  to  him  as  an -element  of  success. 

Apart  from  and  beyond  these  personal  aspects  of 
the  force  question,  lies  the  great  truth  that  the  courses 
of  human  activity  are  directed  by  forces  which  are 
rarely  controlled  by  any  single  man.  Wealth  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  aggregated  and  directed  to 
a  given  end,  determines  the  occupations  and  lives  of 
the  industrial  population,  as  the  weather  and  the  crops 
direct  the  human  forces  which  are  dependent  on  agri- 
culture. Men  take  advantage  of  these  conditions,  or 
lose  by  them,  and  no  question  of  freedom  or  slavery 
can  be  considered  in  either  case.  It  is  necessity,  so 
far  as  it  can  be  understood,  that  confronts  the  indi- 
vidual man,  and  to  this  he  must  bend,  or  be  broken. 
Men  who  are  engaged  in  this  struggle  must  use  their 
energies  to  the  best  advantage,  as  they  understand  it, 
and  questions  of  secondary  importance  must  yield. 
They  must  use  the  modicum  of  force  which  belongs  to 
them,  and  not  waste  it,  and  they  will  get  what  they 
can  for  the  increase  of  their  stock  of  force,  and  for  the 
purpose  of  acquiring  the  pleasures  for  themselves  and 
for  those  that  are  dependent  on  them,  which  the  pos- 
session of  force  places  within  their  reach. 

It  is  impossible  that  women  as  a  sex  can  stand  on 
an  equality  with  man  as  a  sex  in  this  struggle.  Al- 
though this  is  perfectly  well  known,  there  are  men  and 
women  who  are  clamoring  for  equality  of  the  sexes. 
Such  a  proposition  is  a  form  of  communism,  like  that 
which  demands  an  equal  division  of  property.  On  the 
morrow  after  the  division,  inequality  would  imme- 
diately appear.  Let  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of 
force  be  equally  distributed  between  men  and  women 
to-day,  to-morrow  the  superior  force  of  men  would  as- 
sert itself.  The  claim  of  equal  share  in  government 
by  women  involves  a  logical  absurdity  ;  and  if  it  were 
granted  in  word,  it  could  not  be  granted  in  fact,  even 
if  men  were  a  unit  in  desiring  it.  The  fact  that  there 
are  men  who  support  the  idea  only  shows  how  invet- 
erate has  become  with  men  the  habit  of  drawing-room 
gallantry. 

It  may  be  inferred  from  what  has  preceded,  that  in 
the   present  writer's   opinion,  "might   makes  right," 


His  opinion  is,  that  since  might  makes  everything,  it 
is  right  in  the  long  run.  In  some  particular  cases, 
however,  it  may  and  does  make  wrong.  The  direction 
of  might  obviously  determines  its  utility.  If  the  ma- 
jority of  people  in  a  country  are  bad,  it  is  evident  that 
that  will  be  a  bad  country,  and  nothing  can  long  pre- 
vent such  a  result.  The  directing  of  human  might  is 
performed  by  the  human  mind,  and  if  we  want  might 
to  be  right,  we  must  cultivate  right  thinking  and  right 
feeling.  The  source  of  right  thinking  is  experience  ; 
and  the  source  of  right  feeling  is  love.  The  source  of 
love  is  the  relation  between  the  sexes,  and  in  this  fact 
we  find  the  true  significance  of  that  relation  to  all  the 
other  relations  of  men. 

There  is  absolutely  no  reason  why  men  should  ex- 
pend their  energies  on  women,  excepting  as  an  expres- 
sion of  personal  affection.  In  other  words,  were  wo- 
man to  be  of  the  same  sex  as  man,  and  were  she  ag- 
gregated into  a  separate  nation  in  a  separate  country, 
she  would  be  subject  to  all  the  conditions  to  which 
weaker  nations  have  to  submit.  It  is  probable  that  in 
such  a  case  her  country  would  be  invaded  by  emigrants 
from  the  men's  country,  whom  she  could  not  expel, 
and  that  she  would  ultimately  succumb  and  experience 
the  fate  of  the  nations  who  resist  the  advance  of  the 
strongest  race.  This  picture  is  in  broad  contrast  to 
the  position  which  she  now  occupies,  and  which  is  at 
least  as  good  as  that  of  man.  The  qualities  which  are 
special  to  herself  are  so  useful  and  so  attractive,  and 
her  indirect  influence  is  so  considerable,  that  she  is 
excluded  in  great  measure  from  the  conditions  of  man's 
struggle  for  existence.  Man  assumes  it  for  her,  since 
she  furnishes  him  with  satisfaction  of  those  parts  of 
his  nature  which  belong  to  the  affections,  and  which 
his  contact  with  men  can  never  supply.  This,  then, 
is  the  "celebrated"  sphere  of  women.  It  is  not  the 
product  of  human  law  or  of  man's  "tyranny,"  but  is 
the  flower  of  her  evolution,  the  product  of  nature's 
forces.  When  woman  abandons  it,  she  throws  away 
her  opportunity,  takes  brass  for  gold,  and  consigns 
herself  to  insignificance. 

The  views  here  expressed  in  no  way  encourage  the 
idea  that  woman  should  be  kept  in  ignorance.  The 
better  educated  she  is  the  more  certainly  will  she  know 
that  the  positions  assumed  in  these  pages  are  true.  It 
is  indeed  ignorance  of  the  facts,  as  it  appears  to  me, 
that  is  at  the  bottom  of  much  so-called  "advanced" 
opinion  on  the  subject.  Particular  women  doubtless 
have  just  grievances  against  particular  men.  If  under 
such  circumstances  such  women  see  opportunity  of 
bettering  their  condition,  they  should  be  permitted  to 
do  so.  But  if  they  are  instructed  they  will  know  that 
it  is  on  the  sex  instinct  of  men  that  they  have  ulti- 
mately to  depend,  and  not  on  any  preponderance  of 
force.     The  law  can  only  give  them  rudimental  rights. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4105 


and  nothing  more  ;  and  they  must  depend  on  men  to 
execute  those  laws.  The  rivalries  of  men,  the  law  does 
not  touch,  so  long  as  they  are  honestly  conducted.  If 
particular  women  cannot  escape  from  association  with 
unpleasant  men,  they  can  remember  that  men  are  even 
more  frequently  in  the  same  disagreeable  position  in 
their  relations  with  men,  and  cannot  help  themselves. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  remembered,  that 
men  do  not  cheerfully  submit  to  be  governed  by  those 
who  are  dependent  on  them.  If  necessity  compels 
them  to  be  so  in  some  cases,  no  personal  affection  is 
possible  in  such  a  relation.  Political  opponents  are 
enemies  ;  and  the  importance  of  the  interests  involved 
determines  the  intensity  of  the  hostility.  Such  hostil- 
ity, be  it  mild  or  intense,  is  not  compatible  with  the 
marriage  relation.  The  fact  is  that  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal objects  of  government  is  the  protection  of  the 
marriage  relation,  and  any  form  of  government  which 
renders  that  relation  undesirable  to  men  has  not  long 
to  exist. 


OMAR  KHAYYAM. 


BY  M.  D.    CONWAY. 
11.     HIS     GARDEN. 

When  Antioch  College,  at  Yellow  Springs,  Ohio, 
was  flourishing  under  the  presidency  of  the  most  emi- 
nent educator  of  his  time,  the  Hon.  Horace  Mann,  it 
had  for  its  motto  :  "  Orient  thyself."  I  know  not  who 
selected  the  motto,  nor  precisely  what  it  was  meant  to 
convey,  but  there  is  a  sense  in  which  it  becomes  in- 
creasingly significant  now  that  the  Western  world  has 
come  more  and  more  under  the  influence  of  Oriental 
thought.  The  seventeenth  century  made  the  discov- 
ery of  a  "  Republic  of  Letters"  above  all  national  par- 
titions ;  the  nineteenth  century  has  revealed  above 
racial  divisions  a  "  Republic  of  Religions."  But  our 
studies  should  go  farther  than  the  estimation  of  these 
great  formations  in  the  lump,  and  this  is  not  so  easy. 
The  traveller  who  leaves  his  own  region,  where  persons 
are  individualised,  and  finds  himself  amid  swarming 
populations  of  other  races — Hindus,  Chinese,  etc. — 
can  scarcely  distinguish  one  from  another,  any  more 
than  if  they  were  blades  of  grass.  In  a  great  festival 
at  Allahabad,  amid  two  millions  of  pilgrims,  I  had  to 
pin  a  ribbon  on  the  head-dress  of  my  guide  in  order  to 
follow  him.  Something  like  this  occurs  also  to  the 
reader  of  Oriental  and  Eastern  classics.  We  are  gen- 
erally brought  up  to  mass  the  books  of  the  Bible  in 
one,  and  it  requires  special  studies  to  distinguish  the 
varieties  and  shades  of  thought  so  bound  up  together 
and  called  the  Word  of  God.  But  though  we  may 
have  ceased  to  confuse  such  different  and  often  antag- 
onistic ideas  as  those  of,  say.  Job  and  Jeremiah,  Mark 
and  Paul,  we  are  still  liable  to  lose  distinctions  in  the 


Buddhist,  Brahman,  Moslem,  and  Zoroastrian  litera- 
tures. Each  of  these  Oriental  literatures  comprises 
intellectual  differences  as  marked  as  those  of  Carlyle, 
Tennyson,  Spencer,  Emerson,  Hawthorne,  Goethe, 
Heine,  or  any  other  authors  of  our  time. 

At  a  time  when  America  was  not  yet  discovered  by 
Europeans,  and  when  Europe  was  mainly  barbarous, 
Christendom  being  without  anything  that  could  be 
called  a  literature  of  its  own,  and  holding  Greek  and 
Latin  classics  accursed,  Persia  had  a  literature  com- 
parable with  that  of  the  Elizabethan  age.  Nizami, 
Jami,  Jellaleddin,  El  Ri'imi,  Hafiz,  Omar  Khayyam, 
Saadi,  'Urfu,  Fai'zi,  to  name  some  of  them,  are  great 
and  original  thinkers.  The  literature  represented  by 
these  men  is  a  wonder  of  the  intellectual  world.  Al- 
though Mohammedan  fanaticism,  like  that  which  burnt 
the  Alexandrian  library, — saying,  "its  value  is  in  the 
Koran," — ultimately  trampled  out  Persian  genius,  its 
development  was  largely  due  to  the  Moslem  inva- 
sion. It  is  difficult  now  to  realise  that  the  hard  Mos- 
lem system,  not  much  better  than  an  Eastern  Mor- 
monism,  ever  had  that  scientific  phase  which  created 
chemistry  in  Arabia,  and  that  artistic  phase  which 
built  the  Alhambra.  However,  it  was  not,  I  think, 
chiefly  by  that  influence  of  its  better  days  that  Mo- 
hammedanism temporarily  stimulated  Persian  thought ; 
it  was  more  probably  by  its  rude  iconoclasm  in  break- 
ing up  the  previous  dead  formation.  There  is  a  won- 
derful Persian  book  called  the  "Desatir, "  ascribed  by 
some  scholars  to  the  first  century  of  our  era.  It  was 
written  by  various  hands,  and  impresses  me  (there  is 
a  good  English  translation)  as  a  sort  of  Zoroastrian 
New  Testament.  From  that  book  we  learn  that  there 
had  come  upon  Persia  an  era  of  barrenness.  The  re- 
ligion of  Zoroaster  had  sunk  into  ruts  of  formalism  ; 
his  real  teachings  were  forgotten ;  nobody  believed 
anything.  Then  appeared  a  prophet,  Sasan,  much  in 
the  same  way  as  John  the  Baptist  in  Judea  :  there  was 
a  revival ;  and  it  is  said  that  a  poet,  Arda  Viraf,  was 
given  a  sacred  narcotic  that  he  might  visit  Heaven  and 
Hell,  and  bring  back  tidings  of  the  true  religion.  His 
reports  are  more  beautiful  than  anything  in  Dante.  I 
do  not  know  whether  this  sacred  fire  was  kept  up,  but 
if  so,  it  was  probably  in  a  half-suppressed  way,  until 
the  invasion  and  establishment  of  an  alien  religion  (Is- 
lam) released  Persian  genius  (which  is  of  the  highest 
order)  from  bondage  to  dead  formulas  of  Parsaism. 
(Some  scholars  identify  this  word  with  Pharisaism.) 
Islam  was  then  contented  with  a  nominal  conformity; 
it  required  some  centuries  for  the  conqueror,  speaking 
another  language,  to  discover  that  under  such  external 
conformity  the  mind  of  Persia  might  be  thinking  its 
own  thoughts,  and  reviving  the  ancient  Zoroastrian 
fire.  Out  of  this  condition  of  things  arose  Sufism, 
originally    a    compromise    between    free-thought    and 


4io6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Mohammedanism,  corresponding  to  the  compromise 
between  rationahsm  and  Christianity  now  represented 
in  Unitarianism.  But,  as  Emerson,  Parker,  and  other 
minds  left  Unitarianism,  and  the  best  rehgious  thought 
is  more  and  more  developed  outside  of  it,  so  was  it  in 
Persia.  Those  great  thinkers  were  unchurched.  They 
retreated  to  their  own  gardens.  Emerson's  early  poem, 
"Good-by,  proud  world,  I  am  going  home,"  is  an  un- 
conscious refrain  of  Omar  Khayyam's  quatrains  : 

'■  My  law  It  is  my  own  sweet  will  to  obey, 

My  creed  to  shun  the  fierce  sectarian  fray; 
I  wedded  Fortune,  offered  her  a  dower. 
She  said,  '  I  want  none,  so  thy  heart  be  gay.' 

•■  Sooner  with  crusts  of  bread  contented  be. 
And  water  from  the  well,  and  liberty. 
Than  crouch  and  fawn  and  bend  the  vassal  knee 
To  one  who  is  nothing  worth  compared  to  thee. 

"  O  man,  creation's  glorious  summary, 

Gaining  and  spending  too  much  trouble  thee  ; 
Arise  and  quaff  the  stern  cup-bearer's  wine. 
And  live  from  life's  annoys  forever  free." 

I  have  thus  far  tried  to  bring  my  reader  to  the  gate 
of  the  astronomer-poet's  garden  ;  but  in  it  we  can  en- 
ter veritably  only  so  far  as  we  can  "orient  ourselves." 
That  is,  we  must  not  westernise  Omar  Khayyam,  not 
measure  him  by  his  approximation  to  our  assumed 
Occidental  culmination  of  wisdom,  but  be  equally  ready 
to  measure  ourselves  by  his  wisdom.  At  the  same  time 
it  is  ourselves  we  are  to  orient ;  we  may  well  leave  be- 
hind our  hemispherical  conceit,  our  notion  of  the  mere 
paganism  of  non-Christian  races,  but  not  our  organic 
individuality,  which  represents  our  point  of  access  to 
the  universal  reason.  Lately  the  Omar  Khayyam  Club 
of  London  has  been  planting  on  the  grave  of  Edward 
Fitzgerald,  who  introduced  the  quatrains  into  Eng- 
land, two  rose-trees.  The  hips  were  brought  from 
Omar's  grave  at  Naishapur  and  grafted  on  a  rose-tree 
in  Kew  Gardens.  They  have  never  yet  budded,  but 
we  are  hoping  to  see  next  spring  what  colors. the  Per- 
sian rose  will  catch  from  English  skies.  But  as  to  the 
poetic  roses,  it  is  equally  important  to  graft  our  West- 
ern flowers  on  the  Persian  stem.  That  is  our  due 
orientation.  We  are  too  much  confined  to  the  grooves 
of  our  German-English-American  line  of  mental  and 
moral  development  and  progress.  Omar  was  more 
cosmopolitan.  In  his  garden  were  the  rose  of  Sharon 
and  lilies  of  Jerusalem  :  its  spiritual  growths  gained 
their  rarest  beauty  from  the  poet's  graftings  of  foreign 
flowers  on  his  Persian  stem.  This  stem  grew,  as  I 
think,  out  of  the  heart  of  Zoroaster.  Zoroaster  divided 
the  universe  into  "the  Living  and  the  Not-Living," — 
or,  as  we  might  now  say,  the  organic  and  the  inor- 
ganic. He  personified  the  living  as  Ahuramazda,  but 
he  did  not  personify  the  not-living.  The  evil  power, 
Ahriman,  was  the  later  creation  of  Parsi  theology. 
Omar  Khayyam  believes  in  one  God,  whose  heart  is 
Love.      He  says:    "  Diversities  of  belief  have  divided 


the  world  into  seventy-two  nations  :  from  all  their  doc- 
trines I  have  selected  one — the  Divine  Love."  This 
divinity  he  will  not  associate  with  the  unbending  and 
destructive  forces  of  nature.  On  the  inorganic  uni- 
verse he  looks  with  the  eye  of  an  astronomer,  and  is, 
of  course,  an  agnostic  in  philosophy,  though  not  in  re- 
ligion. 

"  Whilom,  ere  youth's  conceit  had  waned,  methought 
Answer  to  all  life's  problems  I  had  wrought ; 
But  now  grown  old  and  wiser,  late  I  see 
My  life  is  spent,  and  all  my  lore  is  naught. 

"  I  solved  all  problems  down  from  Saturn's  wreath 
Into  the  deepest  heart  of  earth  beneath. 
And  leaped  out  free  from  bonds  of  fraud  and  lies ; 
Yea,  every  knot  was  loosed  save  that  of  death. 

"  The  shining  lights  of  this  our  age  who  keep 
Ablaze  the  torch  of  art  and  science  deep. 
Never  see  day,  but,  whelmed  in  endless  night. 
Recount  their  dreams  and  get  them  back  to  sleep. 

"  The  stars  that  dwell  on  heaven's  empyreal  stage, 
Still  mock  the  wise  diviners  of  our  age  ; 
Take  heed,  hold  fast  the  rope  of  mother  wit. 
These  augurs  all  distrust  their  own  presage. 

"  For  me  heaven's  sphere  no  music  ever  made. 
Nor  jarring  discords  in  my  life  allayed  ; 
Nor  granted  me  one  moment's  peace,  but  straight 
Into  the  hands  of  grief  betrayed. 

"  These  circling  heavens  which  make  us  so  dismayed, 
I  liken  to  a  lamp's  revolving  shade  ; 
The  sun  the  candlestick,  the  earth  the  shade. 
And  men  the  trembling  forms  thereon  portrayed. 

"  Ah,  wheel  of  heaven,  running  a  course  so  blind, 
'Twas  e'er  your  wont  to  show  yourself  unkind  ; 
And  cruel  earth,  if  one  should  cleave  your  breast 
What  store  of  buried  jewels  would  he  find  I 

"  The  good  and  evil  with  thy  nature  blent. 

The  weal  and  woe  that  nature's  laws  have  sent, 
Impute  them  not  to  motions  of  the  skies — 
Skies  than  thyself  ten  times  more  impotent 

"  Souls  that  are  well  informed  of  this  world's  state. 
Its  weal  and  woe  with  equal  mind  await. 
For  be  it  woe  we  meet,  or  be  it  weal. 
The  weal  doth  pass,  and  woe  too  hath  its  date. 

"  The  wheel  of  heaven  still  holds  its  set  design 
To  take  away  thy  life,  O  Love,  and  mine ; 
Sit  we  on  this  green  turf,  'twill  not  be  long 
Ere  turf  will  hide  my  dust  along  with  thine." 

This  remorseless  machinery  of  nature,  established 
religion  ascribed  to  the  all-creating  omnipotent  Allah. 
Omar  does  not  literally  deny  the  existence  of  such  a 
potent  personality  (he  has  too  much  literary  tact  for 
that),  but  presses  the  dogma  to  logical  moral  ab- 
surdity. As  we  have  seen,  he  tells  the  Mollahs  that 
their  Allah  determined  all  the  sins  they  complain  of. 
Who  is  to  blame?  "Who  mixed  my  clay?  Not  I. 
Who  wove  my  web  of  silk  and  dross?  In  sooth  not  I." 
But  Omar  does  not,  to  use  a  phrase  of  his  own,  "mis- 
read one  for  two."  Whinfield, — whose  translations  I 
am  mainly  following  because  they  are  more  literal  than 
Fitzgerald's, —  understands  that  phrase  as  mere  as- 
sent to  the  Moslem  Unitarianism.  But  I  think  that 
quite  too  commonplace  for  Omar,  and  believe  it  to  be 
dualistic.  Amid  the  elemental  universe  Omar  finds 
signs  of  the  divine  Love.      He  finds  the  rose,  and  the 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4107 


rosy  maiden  ;  he  finds  the  heart  of  Jesus,  whom  he 
tenderly  loves.  Isa  (Jesus),  who  is  said  to  have  raised 
the  dead,  is  his  emblem  of  the  warm  breath  of  Spring 
under  which  the  earth  revives.  Whereon  he  has  a 
quatrain  curiousl}'  comparable  with  the  feeling  of 
Faust  when  in  his  cloister  he  hears  the  song  "Christ 
is  risen  !  " 

"  Now  springtide  showers  plenty  on  the  land, 

And  quickened  hearts  go  forth,  a  joyous  band, 
For  Isa's  breath  wakes  the  dead  earth  to  lite. 
And  trees  gleam  white  with  flowers,  like  Moses'  hand." 

That  is,  Moses's  hand,  which  Jahve  made  leprous, 
white  as  snow  (Exodus  iv,  6),  but  in  which  Omar  sees 
blossoming  of  the  white-thorn.  Sitting  under  his  own 
vine,  he  sees  a  hand  of  love  offering  its  juice  which 
can 

"with  logic  absolute 
The  two-and-seventy  sects  confute." 

Wherever  he  feels  the  presence  of  Love,  there  he 
recognises  a  supreme  heart  like  that  beating  in  his  own 
breast. 

"  O  Soul,  when  on  the  Loved  One's  sweets  you  feed. 
You  lose  yourself,  yet  find  yourself  indeed." 


CHANDRA,  THE  PESSIMIST. 

When  Buddha,  the  Blessed  One,  the  great  sage  of 
the  Sakya  tribe,  was  still  walking  on  earth,  the  news 
spread  over  all  the  valley  of  the  holy  Ganga,  and  every 
man  greeted  his  friend  joyfully,  and  said  :  "  Hast  thou 
heard  the  good  tidings  that  the  Holy  One,  the  Perfect 
One,  has  appeared  in  the  flesh  and  is  walking  among 
us  ?  I  have  seen  him  and  have  taken  refuge  in  his 
doctrine  ;  go  thou  also  and  see  him  in  his  glory.  His 
countenance  is  beautiful  like  the  rising  sun  ;  he  is  tall 
and  strong  like  the  young  lion  who  has  left  his  den  ; 
and  when  he  openeth  his  mouth  to  preach,  his  words 
are  like  music,  and  all  those  who  listen  to  his  sermon, 
believe  in  him.  The  kings  of  Magadha,  of  Kosola, 
and  of  many  other  countries  have  heard  his  voice, 
have  received  him,  and  confess  themselves  his  disci- 
ples. And  the  Blessed  Buddha  teaches  that  life  is 
full  of  suffering,  and  he  points  out  to  his  disciples  that 
we  can  escape  the  evils  of  existence  only  by  walking 
in  the  noble  path  of  righteousness." 

And  there  was  an  old  Brahman  by  name  Sudatta, 
who  had  devoted  his  life  to  the  collecting  of  herbs  and 
the  using  of  them  as  medicines  for  the  sick.  His  life 
had  been  full  of  toil  and  poverty  and  his  joy  was  to  see 
the  alleviation  of  suffering  in  his  patients.  On  hearing 
the  tidings,  he  said  :  "I  will  go  and  see  the  Blessed 
One  face  to  face,"  and  he  went  to  Rajagriha  where  at 
the  time  Buddha  was  preaching. 

While  travelling  on  the  road,  a  young  man  joined 
him,  who  had  the  same  longing  to  see  the  Blessed 
One.  It  was  Chandra  of  Agra,  a  gambler.  And  Chan- 
dra said  :    "Deep  is  the  wisdom  of  the  Perfect  One. 


He  teaches  that  existence  is  full  of  suffering,  nay,  that 
it  is  suffering  itself  ;  and  my  experience  confirms  the 
doctrine.  Pessimism  is  indeed  the  true  theory  of  life. 
The  world  is  like  a  lottery  in  which  there  are  few  true 
prizes  and  innumerable  blanks.  We  can  see  at  once 
how  true  it  is  that  life  is  not  worth  living  by  supposing 
a  wealthy  man  buying  all  the  chances  in  a  lottery  in 
order  to  make  sure  of  winning  all  the  prizes.  He 
would  certainly  be  a  loser.  Life  is  bankrupt  through- 
out ;  it  is  like  a  business-enterprise  which  does  not 
pay  its  expenses." 

"  My  friend,"  said  the  Brahman,  "  I  perceive  you 
are  a  man  of  experience.  Am  I  right  in  assuming  that 
being  a  gambler  you  had  for  a  time  an  easy  life  until 
you  met  another  gambler  better  versed  in  the  tricks 
than  yourself  who  cheated  you  out  of  all  your  posses- 
sions ?  " 

"Indeed  sir,"  said  the  gambler,  "that  is  my  case 
exactly;  and  now  I  travel  to  the  Blessed  One  who  has 
recognised  the  great  truth  that  life  is  like  a  lost  game 
in  which  the  prizes  are  only  baits  for  the  giddy. 
When  I  met  a  man  unacquainted  with  gambling  I  al- 
ways made  him  win  in  the  beginning,  to  make  him 
bold.  I,  too,  was  successful  for  a  time  in  the  game  of 
life,  but  now  I  know  that  those  who  win  at  first  are 
going  to  lose  more  in  the  end  than  those  who  are 
frightened  away  by  losing  their  first  stake." 

Turning  to  the  Brahman  bent  down  with  old  age 
and  care,  he  continued  :  "The  whiteness  of  your  beard 
and  the  wrinkles  in  your  face  indicate  that  you,  too, 
have  found  the  sweets  of  life  bitter.  I  suppose  you 
are  not  less  pessimistic  than  myself." 

A  beam  of  sunshine  appeared  in  the  Brahman's 
eyes  and  his  gait  became  erect  like  that  of  a  king. 
"No  sir,"  he  replied,  "I  have  no  experiences  like 
yours.  I  tasted  the  sweets  of  life  when  I  was  young, 
many,  many  years  ago.  I  have  sported  in  the  fields 
with  my  playmates.  I  have  loved  and  was  beloved, 
but  I  loved  with  a  pure  heart  and  there  was  no  bitter- 
ness in  the  sweets  which  I  tasted.  My  experience 
came  when  I  saw  the  sufferings  of  life  ;  I  was  married 
and  in  the  midst  of  happiness,  but  my  wife  fell  sick 
and  died,  and  the  babe  that  was  dearer  to  me  than  my 
own  life  died  also.  Oh  !  how  I  complained  of  man's 
fate  who  sins  in  his  ignorance  and  is  unable  to  escape 
from  the  curses  that  follow  his  errors  !  That  was  a 
bitter  experience.  So  far  I  had  been  living  as  in 
dreams,  enjoying  myself  thoughtless  as  the  birds  of 
the  air  or  the  deer  upon  the  plain.  But  when  misfor- 
tune had  awakened  me  to  the  full  consciousness  of  the 
conditions  of  existence  my  eyes  were  opened  and  I 
saw  suffering  among  my  fellow  beings  which  I  had 
never  seen  before.  Thinking  to  myself  that  much 
misery  could  be  removed,  I  began  to  study  the  causes 
of  disease  and  to  seek  for  medicines  by  which  it  might 


4io8 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


be  cured  or  at  least  its  pains  assuaged.  O,  the  misery 
I  have  seen  in  the  cottages  of  my  native  town  will 
never  be  effaced  from  my  memory.  The  world  is  full 
of  sorrow  and  there  is  no  life  without  pain.  I  have 
been  sad  at  heart  ever  since,  but  when  I  heard  that 
Buddha  was  come  into  the  world,  and  that  he  teaches 
us  how  to  escape  from  suffering,  I  rejoiced  ;  and  I  be- 
came conscious  of  the  happiness  in  which  I  lived.  I 
know  now  that  the  bitterness  of  life  is  sweet  to  him 
whose  soul  has  found  rest  in  Nirvana.  I  am  happy 
because  I  am  able  to  alleviate  some  of  the  bodily  ail- 
ments of  my  brothers  and  sisters  and  I  now  go  to  the 
Lord,  the  holy  teacher  of  mankind,  to  find  a  medicine 
for  the  maladies  of  their  minds." 

When  the  two  men  came  to  the  Vihara  at  Raja- 
griha,  they  approached  the  Blessed  Buddha  with  clasped 
hands,  saying  :  "  Receive  us,  O  Lord,  among  thy  dis- 
ciples ;  permit  us  to  be  hearers  of  thy  doctrines;  and 
let  us  take  refuge  in  the  Buddha,  the  truth,  and  the 
community  of  Buddha's  followers."  He  who  reads 
the  secret  thoughts  of  men's  minds,  addressed  Chandra 
the  gambler  asking  him  :  "  Knowest  thou,  O  Chandra, 
the  doctrine  of  the  Blessed  One  ?  " 

Chandra  said  :  "  I  do.  The  Blessed  One  teaches 
that  life  is  misery."  And  the  Lord  repHed  :  "Indeed 
Buddha  maintains  that  life  is  misery,  but  he  has  come 
into  the  world  to  point  out  the  way  of  salvation.  His 
aim  is  to  teach  men  how  to  rescue  themselves  from 
misery.  If  thou  art  anxious  for  delivery  from  evil, 
enter  the  path  with  a  resolute  mind,  surrender  selfish- 
ness, practice  self-discipline,  and  work  out  thy  salva- 
tion with  diligence." 

Said  the  gambler  :  "I  came  to  the  Blessed  One  to 
find  peace,  not  to  undertake  work."  Said  the  Blessed 
One  :  "  Only  by  energetic  work  is  peace  to  be  found  ; 
death  can  be  conquered  only  by  the  resignation  of  self, 
and  only  by  strenuous  effort  is  eternal  bliss  attained. 
Thou  regardest  the  world  as  evil  because  he  who  de- 
ceives will  eventually  be  ruined  by  his  own  devices. 
The  happiness  that  thou  seekest  is  the  pleasure  of  sin 
without  sin's  evil  consequences.  Men  who  have  not 
observed  proper  discipline,  and  have  not  gained  treas- 
ure in  their  youth,  lie  sighing  for  the  past.  There  is 
evil,  but  the  evil  of  which  thou  complainest  is  but  the 
justice  of  the  law  of  Karma.  What  a  man  has  sown 
that  shall  he  also  reap." 

Then  the  Blessed  One  turned  to  the  Brahman  and 
continued  :  "Verily,  thou  understandest  the  doctrines 
of  Buddha  better  than  thy  fellow  traveller.  He  who 
makes  the  distress  of  others  his  own,  quickly  under- 
stands the  illusion  of  self.  He  is  like  the  lotus  flower 
that  grows  in  the  water,  yet  does  the  water  not  wet 
its  petals.  The  pleasures  of  this  world  allure  him  not 
and  he  will  have  no  cause  for  regret.  Thou  art  walk- 
ing in   the  noble   path   of  righteousness  and  thou  de- 


lightest  in  the  purity  of  thy  work.  If  thou  wishest  to 
cure  the  diseases  of  the  heart  as  thou  understandest 
how  to  heal  the  sores  of  the  body,  let  people  see  the 
fruits  that  grow  from  the  seeds  of  selfishness.  When 
they  but  know  the  bliss  of  a  right  mind,  they  will  soon 
enter  the  path,  and  reach  that  state  of  steadiness  and 
tranquillity  in  which  they  are  above  pleasure  and  pain, 
above  the  petty  petulance  of  worldly  desires,  above 
sin  and  temptation.  Go,  then,  back  to  your  home  and 
announce  to  your  friends  who  are  subject  to  suffering, 
that  he  whose  mind  has  been  freed  from  the  illusions 
of  sinful  desire,  has  overcome  the  miseries  of  life. 
Spread  goodness  in  words  and  deeds  everywhere.  In 
a  spirit  of  universal  kindness  be  ready  to  serve  others 
with  help  and  instruction  ;  live  happily  then  among 
the  ailing  ;  among  men  who  are  greedy,  remain  free 
from  greed  ;  among  men  who  hate,  dwell  free  from 
hatred  ;  and  those  who  witness  the  blessing  of  a  holy 
life  will  follow  you  in  the  path  of  deliverance." 

The  eyes  of  Chandra  the  gambler  were  opened  and 
his  pessimism  melted  away  in  the  sun  of  Buddha's 
doctrines.  "  O  Lord, "  said  he,  "  I  long  for  that  higher 
life  to  which  the  noble  path  of  righteousness  leads. 
Wilt  thou  persuade  the  Brahman,  my  fellow-traveller, 
to  take  me  to  his  home  where  I  am  willing  to  enter 
"his  service  so  that  I  may  learn  from  him  and  attain  to 
the  same  bliss." 

The  Blessed  One  said  :  "  Let  Sudatta,the  Brahman, 
do  as  he  sees  fit";  and  Sudatta,  the  Brahman,  was 
willing  to  receive  Chandra  in  his  house  as  a  helpmate 
in  his  work.  And  Buddha  said  :  "Let  evil  deeds  be 
covered  by  good  deeds.  He  who  formerly  was  reck- 
less and  afterwards  becomes  sober,  will  brighten  up 
the  world  like  the  moon  when  freed  from  clouds." 

Editor. 


SCIENCE  AND  PROGRESS. 


THE  AGE  OF  STRIKES. 

The  plan  of  settling  disputes  by  stepping  aside  and  waiting 
till  yoUr  employers  or  employees  come  to  their  senses,  is  a  lesser 
evil,  as  clearly  as  the  dignified  silence  of  resentment  is  an  improve- 
ment on  violent  altercations.  There  was  a  time  when  reforms  bad 
to  be  effected  in  a  different  manner.  The  companions  of  Spartacus 
had  to  fight  fifteen  murderous  battles  for  the  privilege  of  quitting 
their  jobs.  The  malcontents  of  the  Peasant's  War  had  to  strH\- 
with  iron  clubs.  With  all  its  incidental  abuses,  the  new  plan  is 
the  best.  Retreat  to  a  platform  of  neutrality  is  better  than  flight 
to  the  shades  of  an  unknown  world.  A  thirty  years'  absence  from 
church  is  better  than  a  Thirty  Years'  War.  The  spread  of  ag- 
nosticism and  indifferentism,  so  called,  means  simply  that  millions 
of  our  contemporaries  have  decided  to  step  aside  and  wait  till  their 
spiiitual  task-masters  can  agree  on  a  less  unbelievable  doctrine. 
VAIN  APPEALS. 

Professor  Loomis  of  Kansas  City,  however,  denounces  strikes — 
railroad  strikes,  especially,  and  recommends  appeals  to  the  hu- 
manity and  self-respect  of  railway  companies.  Professor  Loomis 
is  said  to  be  an  agnostic,  and  ought  to  be  able  to  appreciate  the 
fatuity  of  appealing  to  things  that  may  have  no  existence. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4109 


FALLEN   STARS. 

During  the  last  six  months  the  distinguished  arrivals  in  the 
realms  of  Pluto  must  have  resembled  a  shower  of  shooting  stars  : 
Tyndall.  Baker  Pasha,  Childs,  Joseph  Keppler,  Kossuth,  Vance, 
Dr.  Bro.vn  Sequard,  General  Trumbull,  with  a  host  of  luminaries 
of  lesser  magnitude.  The  mystic  palingenesis  of  Angelus  Silesius 
makes  such  periods  coincide  with  the  birth  of  future  celebrities, 
and  according  to  that  theory  the  third  or  fourth  decade  of  the 
twentieth  century  ought  to  rival  the  Napoleonic  era. 

A  CONSISTENT  LIFE. 
Louis  Kossuth  has  been  called  a  "Protestant,"  but  his  claims 
to  that  distinction  were  founded  mainly  on  the  emphasis  of  his  po. 
litical  protests.  In  metaphysics  he  was  a  free  inquirer,  not  to  say 
a  freethinker,  and  a  good  deal  of  a  monist,  to  judge  from  his  often 
expressed  aversion  to  the  crass  dualism  of  the  monastic  era  And, 
moreover,  his  philosophy  was  old-age-proof.  During  the  last  two 
days  of  his  life  his  conversation  appears  to  have  been  wholly  lim- 
ited to  secular  topics,  though  after  his  partisl  recovery  from  a  se" 
vere  syncope  he  entertained  no  doubt  that  his  respite  was  measured 
by  hours.  "Poor  Bathyani, — I  have  been  lucky,  after  all,"  he 
whispered,  when  his  soul  had  already  entered  the  penumbra  of 
death. 

COLONIAL   BIGOTS. 

The  superior  liberalism  of  new  colonies  is  a  rule  with  occa- 
sional exceptions.  Exclusively  pastoral  or  agricultural  settlements 
often  attract  an  cwijuisiltiin  of  rustic  bigots,  and  a  representative 
Boer  of  the  Transvaal  now  proposes  to  abate  the  locust-plague  by 
the  persecution  of  heretics.  "Without  doubt  locusts  and  other 
plagues,"  he  says,  "have  been  sent  as  a  punishment,  not  only  for 
flagrant  desecration  of  the  Sabbath,  but  for  us  allowing  blasphe- 
mous heretics,  like  the  Catholics  and  the  Jews,  to  practise  their 
diabolical  rites  in  our  midst." 

TURKISH  JUSTICE. 
A  Turkish  judge  of  Kis-Sereth,  on  the  lower  Pruth,  recently 
persuaded  his  neighbors  not  to  mob  a  Russian  deserter  who  had 
taken  refuge  with  a  charitable  Mussulman  and  then  robbed  his 
benefactor.  At  the  kadi's  advice,  the  gentleman  who  could  not 
behave  himself  among  strangers,  was  put  in  a  boat  and  ferried 
back  to  his  knout-armed  friends  on  the  other  side  of  the  river. 

"SANITARY  DESPOTISM." 
The  despotism  of  Health  Commissioner  Emery  of  Brooklyn 
would  be  a  blessing  in  disguise  if  the  sanitary  tendency  of  his 
regulations  could  be  more  clearly  established.  He  has  been  ac- 
cused of  attempting  to  bully  persons  who  refused  to  be  vaccinated 
and  confining  them  to  their  rooms  till  they  agreed  to  comply  with 
his  orders.  His  rights  in  such  cases  would  be  those  of  every  quar- 
antine commissioner  ;  but  the  trouble  is  that  the  expediency  o' 
Dr.  Jenner's  plan  is  still  subject  to  grave  doubts.  A  large  num 
ber  of  eminent  pathologists,  both  of  Europe  and  America,  main, 
tain  that  the  benefits  of  vaccination  are  outweighed  by  its  mis 
chievous  tendencies,  and  that  the  abatement  of  small-pox  is  mainly 
due  to  dietetic  reforms,  cleanliness,  and  the  more  thorough  venti- 
lation of  our  dwelling-houses. 

LONGEVITY  RECEIPTS. 
An  English  cynic  predicts  that  the  continued  prodigality  of 
our  Pension  Bureau  will  evolve  an  enormous  crop  of  centenarians, 
and  quotes  the  precedent  of  Driffield  Parish,  "  where  sixteen  per- 
sons, in  receipt  of  outdoor  charily,  can  boast  a  combined  age  of 
1,280  years,"  an  average  of  eighty  for  each  pensioner.  A  sinecure 
seems  often,  indeed,  almost  to  realise  Ponce  de  Leon's  ideal.  The 
French  government  hardly  expected  to  run  any  risks  in  granting 
the  artist-scholar  Waldeck  a  pension  of  three  thousand  francs, 


after  the  celebration  of  his  seventy-eighth  birthday,  but  from  that 
day  the  health  of  the  venerable  savant  improved,  and  the  annuity 
had  to  be  paid  for  twenty-three  years. 

ALCOHOL  AND  ANARCHY. 
A  week  ago  the  American  press  commented  on  the  experi- 
ments of  an  Old  World  naturalist  who  fuddled  bees  with  alcohol 
and  claims  to  have  noticed  a  consequent  tendency  to  shiftlessness, 
theft,  and  insurrection.  The  alcoholised  insects  ceased  to  work, 
and  not  only  plundered  the  stores  of  their  neighbors,  but  refused 
to  recognise  the  prerogatives  of  their  queen.  As  a  compliment  to 
temperance  the  story  would  be  worth  believing,  if  it  were  not  for 
the  implied  libel  on  political  independence.  An  ardent  love  of 
distilled  liquors  is  not  un  consistent  with  an  abject  submission  10 
the  powers  that  be.  The  disciplinarians  of  the  mediaeval  convents 
knew  what  they  were  about  when  they  stinted  their  monks  in  meat, 
but  indulged  them  in  beer  and  wine.  The  all-round  rebel  Shelley 
was  a  total  abstainer,  while  the  brandy  fuddled  Russian  boors  are 
models  of  subordination. 

TRANSFIGURED    TRAMPS. 
"Don't  hope  to  attract  followers  by  the  logic  of  your  argu- 
ments," says  the  disappointed  philosopher  Schopenhauer,   "  but 


'  Gieb  ihn 
Sie  komi 


1  fressen  und  zu  saufen, 
n  Schaaren  dir  zugelauf 


Yes — or  else  supply  them  with  a  decent  pretext  for  enjoy  iug  the 
luxury  of  a  good,  long  tramp.  It  is  quite  probable  that  we  are  all 
descended  from  more  or  less  nomadic  ancestors,  and  the  chance  to 
achieve  glory  by  locomotion  has  a  charm  not  easy  to  resist.  Hence 
the  popularity  of  religious  pilgrimages  and  the  success  of  Tramp- 
generalissimo  Coxey.  Felix  L    Oswald. 


THE  WAY  OUT. 

BY  HYLAND    C.    KIRK. 

In  dreams  I  saw  a  little  bat 
Within  a  cave,  this  way  and  that 
Go  flying,  as  if  seeking  way 
To  make  his  exit  to  the  day. 

Anon  his  winglets  weary  grew, 
Tired  of  flitting,  heart-sick,  too, 
And,  perched  upon  a  friendly  stone. 
He  seemed  to  say  in  plaintive  tone  : 

'  There's  no  escaping  from  this  cave  ; 
It  is,  alas,  a  hopeless  grave. 
I've  tried  the  walls,  the  floor,  the  dome, 
And  all  in  vain,  I'm  in  my  tomb." 

Surprised  to  hear  this  winged  mole 
Speak  thus,  when  yawned  an  ample  hole. 
Permitting  egress,  had  he  tried 
To  pass  out  at  the  open  side, 

I  waking  mused  :  and  is  it  man. 
This  bat,  too  blind  the  truth  to  scan  ? 
Too  blind  to  see  his  own  way  clear 
And  that  the  light  is  now  and  here  ? 


BOOK  REVIE'WS. 

Village  Serimons  Preached  at  Whatley.     By  the  late  A',   W. 

Church,  M.  A.,  D.C.L  ,  sometime  Dean  of  St.  Paul,  Rector 

of  Whatley,  Fellow  of  Oriel  College.     London  and   New 

York:   Macmillan  &  Co.,  1894.     Pp    356;  price,  Si. 75. 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  state  that  a  collection  of  sermons 

from  the  well-known  pen  of  the  late  Dean  Church  will  be  widely 

read  and  appreciated  by  all.     This  writer  is  perhaps  best  known 


41  lo 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


to  the  general  reader  by  his  short  historical  books  and  essays, 
although  these  by  no  means  constitute  the  greater  part  of  his 
work.  The  present  sermons  are  models  of  simplicity.  This,  with 
their  brevity  and  homely  forcefulness  of  style,  well  justifies  their 
title.  "Village  Sermons."  It  is  understood  that  they  represent  the 
ultra-Christian  standpoint,  but  in  spirit  they  are  truly  pan-reli- 
gious. Their  titles  areas  follows  :  The  Advent  of  Christ,  No  Con- 
tinuing City  Here,  The  Incarnation  of  Our  Lord,  The  Wonder  of 
the  Incarnation,  The  Calling  of  the  Gentiles,  The  Use  of  Lent, 
The  Will  of  God  Our  Sanctification,  Careless  Hearing  and  Its 
Fruits,  The  Barren  Fig  Tree,  Christ's  Love  to  Mankind,  Christ's 
Love  to  the  Multitudes,  Christ's  Love  to  His  Enemies,  The  Last 
Evening,  The  Return  to  Christ's  Love,  The  Words  From  the 
Cross,  God's  Great  Day,  Continual  Improvement,  Profession 
Without  Practice,  Wasting  Away  of  Life,  Heaven  and  Purity, 
Man  at  God's  Right  Hand,  The  Promise  of  the  Spirit,  The  Holy 
Trinity,  Knowledge  of  God  by  Prayer,  Holy  Baptism,  The  Pres- 
ent Time  and  the  End,  Holy  Communion,  Causing  Others  to  Sin, 
Pleasing  Not  Ourselves  but  Others,  Common  Prayer,  The  Love 
of  Christ,  The  Truth  and  Justice  of  God,  Grieving  the  Holy 
Spirit,  What  Will  Be  Wished  for  at  Death,  The  Meaning  of  the 
World,  The  Use  of  Sunday,  All  Saints'  Day. 


Edward  Livingston  Youmans.  Interpreter  of  Science  for  the 
People  ;  A  Sketch  of  his  Life.  By  John  Fiske.  New  York  ; 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.  1894. 
In  a  letter,  dedicating  this  work  to  Herbert  Spencer,  Mr. 
John  Fiske  writes  :  "  Our  friend  expressed  a  wish  that  if  his  bio- 
graphy were  to  be  written  I  should  be  the  one  to  do  it."  And  cer- 
tainly, from  his  long  intimate  friendship  with  Youmans,  Mr.  Fiske 
was  the  most  competent  person  to  discharge  this  task,  as  the  exe- 
cution of  the  present  volume  testifies.  Not  only  is  the  book 
a  biography  of  E.  L.  Youmans,  but  it  is  a  history  of  the  move- 
ment by  which  the  great  results  of  modern  European  research 
were  first  popularised  and  made  a  part  of  the  intellectual  life  of 
our  country.  Mr.  Youmans  was  one  of  the  first  pioneers  in  this 
field,  in  which  there  are  now  so  many  able  workers.  It  was  he 
who  conceived  the  idea  of  the  International  Scientific  Series,  and 
established  it  after  much  hard  and  unselfish  labor,  and  it  was  he 
who  bore  the  main  brunt  of  the  battle  in  this  country  when  the 
theory  of  evolution  first  came  into  conflict  with  the  prejudices  of 
religious  tradition.  A  great  part  of  Mr.  Youmans's  correspondence 
with  Herbert  Spencer,  who  is  in  great  measure  indebted  lo  him 
for  the  success  of  his  works  in  this  country,  is  here  printed,  and 
also  numerous  letters  from  Tyndall,  Huxley,  and  other  prominent 
Englishmen  are  reproduced.  Altogether  Mr.  Fiske  has  compiled 
an  attractive  volume,  and  given  a  very  creditable  record  of  an 
important  period  in  the  history  of  American  education.  The  work 
contains  two  portraits  of  Youmans,  with  reprints  of  the  following 
select  writings  ;  "  Mental  Discipline  in  Education,"  "  On  the  Sci- 
entific Study  of  Human  Nature,"  "What  We  Mean  by  Science," 
"Herbert  Spencer  and  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution,"  "The  Charges 
Against  the  Popular  Science  Monthly,"  "Concerning  the  Sup- 
pressed Book."  The  volume  also  contains  an  Appendix  with 
Youmans's  ancestry  and  a  list  of  his  works.  The  book  is  elegantly 
got  up.  /"'Y'f- 

Reformed  Judaism  and  its  Pioneers.  A  Contrihiilion  lo  lis  His- 
lory.  By  Dr.  Emanuel  Schreiber.  Dr.  Schreiber  is  Rabbi  of  the 
Congregation  of  Emanu  El,  Spokane,  Washington.  The  purpose 
of  the  volume  is  the  setting  aright  of  the  history  of  Reform-Juda- 
ism which  from  Dr.  Schreiber's  accounts  seems  to  have  suffered 
much  at  the  hands  of  the  historians,  its  special  misrepresentation 
having  been  accomplished  in  the  eleventh  volume  of  Graetz's 
"  History  of  the  Jews."  This  is  not  the  author's  first  attempt  in 
this  field,  as  he  has  impugned  before  in  a  German  work  the  credi- 


bility of  ih'S  part  of  Graetz's  history.  The  history  of  the  work  is 
told  in  the  Preface.  It  was  not  accepted  by  the  Jewish  Publica- 
tion Society  of  America,  and  many  obstacles  seem  to  have  been 
put  in  the  way  of  its  publication.  The  author's  account  of  the 
fortunes  of  the  book  is  not  unmingled  with  invective.  The  expo- 
sition is  made  in  the  shape  of  biographies  of  the  prominent  Jewish 
reformers,  each  of  which  takes  up  a  chapter.  They  are :  Moses 
Mendelssohn,  David  Friedlaender,  Israel  Jacobsohn,  Aron  Chorin, 
Gotthold  Salomon,  Abraham  Kohn,  Samuel  Holdheim,  Leopold 
Loew,  and  Abraham  Geiger.  A  commendable  feature  of  the  book  ^ 
is  that  it  is  thoroughly  indexed,  but  it  is  not  wholly  free  from  mis- 
prints. It  is  too  bad,  after  all  its  misfortunes,  that  it  did  not  find 
abetter  publisher.  (Spokane,  Washington  :  Spokane  Printing  Com- 
pany.     1892.     Pp.  400.) 

Progressive  Ecleeticism.  A  Brie/  Outline  of  a  .System  of  Culture 
Based  on  Freedom  of  Selection  and  the  Katural  Developiiient  of  Char- 
acter, Guided  by  Science.  By  D.  G.  Crow.  The  dedication  is  to 
the  "children  of  the  world."  The  author  finds  the  true  norm  of 
conduct  in  eclecticism,  a  principle  which  he  sees  at  the  bottom  of 
all  modern  philosophy  and  of  all  modern  ethical  movements,  in- 
cluding "  that  curious  combination  called  the  Religion  of  Science." 
"  Progressive  Eclecticism  teaches  a  faith  in  nature,  in  science,  and 
in  man's  province  and  capacity  to  work  out  his  own  salvation." 
The  author  says  the  earnest  of  the  establishment  of  his  idea  is 
found  in  the  Parliament  of  Religions.  He  devotes  a  section  to  the 
natural  development  of  character,  and  gives  a  catechetical  resume 
of  the  teachings  of  the  Eclectic  system,  including  hints  for  the  or- 
ganisation of  eclectic  assemblies.  For  the  particulars  of  such  or- 
ganisations, the  reader  may  apply  to  the  author  at  Waco,  Texas. 
(Waco,  Texas  :   Brooks  and  Wallace.      1894.     Pp.60.) 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELBR,  Publishe 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  354. 

THE  OPPRESSION  OF  WOMEN.     Prof.  E.  D.  Cope.  .   4103 

OMAR    KHAYYAM.      II.  His  Garden.      M.  D.  Conway.  .  .   4105 

CHANDRA,  THE   PESSIMIST.     Editor 4107 

SCIENCE  AND  PROGRESS  :  The  Age  of  Strikes.  Vain 
Appeals.  Fallen  Stars.  A  Consistent  Life.  Colonial 
Bigots.  Turkish  Justice.  Sanitary  Despotism.  Long- 
evity   Receipts.     Alcohol    and   Anarchy.     Transfigured 

Tramps.     Dr.  Felix  L   Oswald 4108 

POETRY. 

The  Way  Out.     Hvland  C.  Kirk 4109 

BOOK  REVIEWS 4109 


,iri,i:MEN'r  to  the  open  court,  JUNE  U,  im.      No.  355  (Vol.  Vlll,  No.  24). 
copvkii;ht  by  the  open  COIRT  PI'BLISHING  CO. 


1 


^/V-V-V      t*-A.A.t^ 


390 


The  Open  Court. 


A  VyEEKLY  JOURNAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  355.     (Vol.  VIII.— 24.) 


CHICAGO,  JUNE  14,  1894. 


I  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


PROF.  GEORGE  JOHN  ROMANES. 

(Died  May  23,  1894,) 

The  brief  cable-announcement  of  Prof.  George  John 
Romanes's  death  came  so  unexpectedly  that  I  could 
not  bring  myself  to  believe  it,  and  have  hesitated  to 
mention  it  in  the  columns  of  The  Open  Court,  in  the 
hope  that  there  might  be  some  mistake  about  it.  But 
alas  !  the  sad  news  has  been  verified.  He  died,  three 
days  after  his  forty-sixth  birthday,  from  a  stroke  of 
apoplexy,  after  having  just  attended  to  some  important 
biological  experiments. 

Professor  Romanes  has  been  a  sufferer  from  ner- 
vous prostration  for  several  years;  and  a  hemorrhage  of 
the  retina,  which  was  observed  some  two  3'ears  ago,  was 
an  ominous  symptom,  warning  him  not  to  make  light  of 
his  disease.  However,  when  two  years  ago  my  brother- 
in-law,  Herman  Hegeler,  and  myself,  on  our  trip  to 
Europe,  visited  him  at  his  home  in  Oxford,  we  found 
him  so  much  recovered  that  he  did  not  give  in  the 
least  the  impression  of  an  invalid.  His  strict  diet  alone 
reminded  us  of  his  ailment,  which  he  seemed  to  have 
overcome  copipletely. 

Professor  Romanes  was  tall  and  of  aristocratic  ap- 
pearance, gentlemanly  and  amiable,  and  a  most  cor- 
dial host.  His  beautiful  home,  which  is  one  of  the 
oldest  structures,  modernised,  of  old  England ;  his 
unique  study  with  its  antique  woodwork  and  visible  raf- 
ters in  the  ceiling,  giving  to  the  room  an  artistic  air  ; 
his  elegantly  written  manuscripts,  well  protected 
against  fire  in  a  small  safe  ;  a  rich  store  of  letters  from 
Charles  Darwin,  bound  together  in  a  thick  volume, 
and  highly  treasured  because  they  were  all  written 
manii  propria  by  the  great  master  ;  the  garden  and 
court-yard  behind  high  walls  such  as  exist  only  in  the 
oldest  towns  of  Europe  ;  the  cages  of  guinea  pigs  in  a 
corner  of  the  court-yard  for  experiments  to  verify  or 
refute  his  famous  colleague,  Weismann  ; — all  these 
surroundings  seemed  part  of  the  man,  for  he  had  im- 
pressed his  spirit  upon  them  and  they  reflected  his 
personality.  But  more  fascinating  than  these  external- 
ities was  his  conversation,  in  which  he  showed  him- 
self not  only  a  progressive  but  also  a  conservative 
man.  Unprejudiced  and  impartial,  he  was  never  quick 
to  condemn  antagonistic  views,  but  always  expressed 
himself  guardedly.      He  spoke   highly  of  Weismann, 


his  scientific  antagonist,  and  recognised  the  importance 
of  the  issues  he  had  raised.  Nothing  sets  the  fairness 
of  Professor  Romanes  in  a  better  light  than  the  fact 
that  Weismann  was  invited  to  deliver  the  third  Ro- 
^manes  lecture  at  Oxford,  where  he  was  expected  to 
use  the  occasion  for  presenting  his  own  views.  With  all 
his  cosmopolitan  breadth,  and  although  he  was  born 
on  American  soil,  in  Kingston,  Canada,  Professor  Ro- 
manes was  a  thorough  Englishman,  believing  in  Eng- 
lish institutions  and  even  excusing  their  most  apparent 
shortcomings  as  being  adapted  to  the  character  of  the 
nation.  In  religious  questions  he  was  liberal,  indeed 
extremely  liberal,  and  I  dare  say  that  he  acceded  to 
all  the  main  propositions  of  the  monism  of  Tlie  Open 
Court }■  Yet  he  prized  the  Anglican  Church  and  re- 
garded its  symbolism  as  highly  appropriate  and  ex- 
pressive. He  loved  poetry,  and  he  wrote  poetry  him- 
self. "You  ma)' be  astonished  at  the  religious  tone 
of  my  poetry,"  he  said,  in  handing  me  a  volume  of  his 
poems,  "but  you  will  understand  how  I  mean  it." 

Professor  Romanes's  poems  have  not  been  pub- 
lished. They  were  printed  for  private  circulation  only, 
but  are  no  secret  among  his  friends. 

As  our  time,  while  visiting  Professor  Romanes  at 
Oxford,  was  very  limjted,  we  could  stay  only  a  few 
hours.  We  returned  on  the  evening  of  the  same  da)- 
to  London,  and  he  courteously  accompanied  us  to  the 
station.  There  we  parted,  and  I  did  not  anticipate 
that  it  would  be  forever. 

Mr.  Hegeler  and  myself  had  repeated  communica- 
tions with  Professor  Romanes  anent  the  publication 
of  the  second  volume  of  his  "  Darwin  and  After  Dar- 
win," which  was  delayed  on  account  of  the  recurrence 
of  his  old  trouble.  In  a  letter  of  December  10,  1892, 
he  wrote  from  Madeira,  explaining  the  delay,  saying  : 
"  I  am  condemned  to  imprisonment  here  witliout  hard 
labor,  and,  although   still   far  from  well,   am   getting 

1  To  exemplify  our  agreements  and  disagreements  with  Professor  Romanes 
we  may  state  that  in  our  conception  of  evolution  we  were  unanimous.  With 
eference  to  the  editorial  reply  in  The  Monist  to  Prof.  F.  Max  Mailer,  who  in 
his  article  "  On  Thought  and  Language  "  also  claimed  to  be  an  evolutionist, 
Professor  Romanes  wrote  in  appreciative  terms,  adding  :  "  it  exactly  hits  the 
nail  on  the  head."  Professor  Romanes  also  held  the  same  theory  as  we  con- 
cerning the  relation  between  feeling  and  motion,  consciousness  and  bodily 
organisation.  The  sole  point  on  which  there  seemed  to  be  a  disagreement  was 
a  certain  agnostic  reservation  of  his  concerning  a  possible  consciousness  in 


the 


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For  d 


this  la 


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Hide 


psychisQi  and  Panbiotism,"  Part  III,  Thi  Monist,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  2. 


41  12 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


somewhat  better.  But  it  will  be  some  time  yet  before 
I  can  set  to  work  on  finishing  Part  II." 

In  May,  1893,  he  sent  word  that  he  was  ready  to  go 
to  press,  but  that  he  saw  fit  to  change  the  plan  of  his 
work.  He  wrote  :  "  My  '  Examination  of  Weismann- 
ism  '  is  already  in  type,  and  in  view  of  his  great  modi- 
fications in  his  general  system  presented  by  his  recently 
published  work  on  'Germ-Plasm,'  I  deem  it  expedient 
to  publish  this  examination  forthwith  as  a  separate 
little  book  of  about  two  hundred  pages.  My  Part  II 
will  thus  be  rendered  less  bulky  in  size,  and  therefore 
run  more  uniformly  with  Part  I." 

We  published  four  articles  of  his  on  Weismannism 
in  Nos.  306,  313,  316,  and  317  of  The  Open  Court,  and 
soon  afterwards  brought  out  his  "Examination  of 
Weismannism. "1  The  second  part  of  his  "Darwin  and 
After  Darwin"  was  to  appear  in  November,  1893,  but 
before  Professor  Romanes  could  give  his  attention  to 
a  final  revision  of  his  book  his  health  failed  again  ; 
death  overtook  him  suddenly,  and  his  work  remained 
uncompleted. 

The  picture  which  we  add  to  the  present  issue  is 
perhaps  better  for  not  having  been  taken  at  a  special 
sitting  in  a  photographer's  studio,  but  in  the  open  air 
without  preparation.  It  shows  him  as  he  bore  him- 
self when  at  leisure,  and  resembles  him  much  as  he 
still  lives  in  my  memory.  Another  likeness  of  his, 
which  is  a  reduced  reproduction  of  the  picture  which 
was  added  about  two  and  one  half  years  ago  to  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery  of  the  British  Museum, 
will  be  published  in  the  current  number  of  The  Monist, 
together  with  one  of  Professor  Romanes's  poems.  We 
conclude  these  memorial  reminiscences  of  the  great 
scientist  with  two  stanzas  of  his,  addressed  to  Charles 
Darwin,  which  now  vividly  exgress  the  feelings  of  his 
own  friends  towards  himself  : 

"  It  is  a  cadence  sweet  to  me, 
With  sweetness  that  I  cannot  tell; 
And  notes  of  awful  memory 
Are  roused,  like  music,  by  its  spell  : 
But  have  these  notes  a  wider  range  * 

Than  beating  thus  upon  my  heart  ? 
Do  these  great  chords  of  solemn  change 
Appeal  to  me  as  to  a  part 
Of  all  the  audience  of  men, 
Beneath  the  dome  of  many  skies. 
Who  bow  the  head  in  worship  when 
They  hear  a  name  that  never  dies  ? 

If  it  were  true,  as  it  is  said. 

That  immortality  is  now. 

Why  should  I  mourn  thee,  mighty  dead. 

For  who  is  deathless  more  than  thou  ? 

Or  why,  since  thou  art  thus  so  great, 

Must  I  make  effort  to  restrain 

The  tears  that  swell,  and  sighs  that  wait 

For  tears  to  flow  and  swell  again  ? 

O  cease  1  The  change  is  everywhere  ! 

Do  I  not  know  that  vacant  place  ? 

A  silence  of  the  grave  is  there  ; 

And  we  have  spoken,  face  to  face  !  " 

1  Professor  Romanes's  first  contributions  to  The  Open  Court  were  the  ar- 
ticles on  "The  Psychic  Life  of  Micro-organisms,"  which  appeared  in  1889, 
Vol.  Ill,  of  The  Open  Court. 


"THE  OPPRESSION  OF  WOMEN." 

BY  ERROL  LIN'COLN. 

The  essay  of  Prof.  E.  D.  Cope  under  this  heading 
in  No.  354  of  The  Open  Court,  displays  a  fund  of  soph- 
istry and  inconsequential  remark,  that  ought  to  be, 
but  which,  so  far  as  the  matters  agitated  are  concerned, 
is  unhappily  not,  distinguished. 

"All  government  rests  on  force."  Men  have  more 
force  than  women.  Hence  women  are  not  fit  to  par- 
ticipate in  government.  Such  is  the  argument  actual 
and  implied  of  Professor  Cope.  By  force  Professor 
Cope  must  mean  physical  prowess,  for  as  soon  as  he 
shall  admit  mental  efficacy  or  moral  influence  into  the 
category  of  force,  his  argument  loses  every  appearance 
of  cogency.  Taking  him  to  mean  as  the  pretensions 
of  his  argument  require,  there  is  but  one  thing  to  be 
said,  viz.:  That  his  argument  is  based  upon  a  propo- 
sition that  becomes  absurd  just  as  soon  as  its  claims 
are  examined.  Government  does  not  rest  on  physical 
prowess.  There  is  not  a  government  on  earth,  nor 
has  there  ever  been  one,  that  could  exist  in  virtue  of 
its  mere  physical  prowess,  however  preponderant. 
Had  physical  prowess  the  virtue  thus  claimed  for  it, 
how  would  ever  weak,  puny  man  have  made  his  way 
to  the  mastery  of  his  fellow  beasts.  The  Oriental  des- 
pot sends  a  man  to  the  block  out  of  mere  caprice,  and 
all  his  subjects  stand  trembling  around.  Instructed 
by  Professor  Cope  we  would  look  to  see  a  giant  with 
physical  prowess  able  to  compel  these  results.  Oh  ! 
Professor  Cope  would  say.  This  despot  can  command 
the  needful  physical  power.  But  how  does  he  do  this? 
Is  it  by  his  own  physical  power  ?  Not  at  all.  There 
is  something  else  that  is  not  physical  power  that  com- 
mands, that  enforces.  There  are  powers  behind  the 
throne  of  physical  power  greater  than  phj'sical  power 
itself.  This  little,  scrawny,  harem-enervated  bantling 
of  a  despot  governs,  not  by  physical  prowess,  but  by 
mental  and  moral  forces  into  the  complexity  of  which 
he  has  become  so  insinuated  that  his  choice  has  become 
an  important  factor  in  the  current  events. 

But  enough  and  more  than  enough  words  have 
been  spent  over  this  contemptible  argument  that  wo- 
men are  fitly  to  be  and  to  remain  subordinate  in  matters 
of  government  because  men  can  whip  women. 

The  question  is  primarily  one  of  righteousness. 
The  right  to  compel  obedience  to  the  laws  comes  from 
somewhere.  Those  who  exercise  this  compulsion 
must  show  good  title  to  their  power,  or  confess  them- 
selves mere  usurpers,  deserving  hatred  for  their  un- 
authorized interference.  Some  of  them  try  to  derive 
their  title  from  God,  and  with  some  this  pretense 
passes.  But  the  common  sense  of  mankind  is  now 
pretty  much  agreed  that  all  governmental  power  comes 
from  the  delegation  thereof  by  some  part  or  the  whole 
of  those  who  are  to  be  governed.      Those  who  would 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4113 


allow  the  delegation  of  a  part  of  the  governed  to  be  a 
good  authority  for  the  government  of  the  whole,  have 
as  yet  been  wholly  unable  to  show  any  reason  that 
is  even  respectable,  for  drawing  the  line  of  division 
where  they  do,  and  simple  sense  and  logical  consistency 
indicate  that  there  is  no  reason  or  justice  in  denying 
to  any  one  that  is  sui  Juris,  his  or  her  equal  right  to  be 
consulted  when  constitutions  of  government  have  been 
or  are  about  to  be  set  up  that  he  or  she  will  be  ex- 
pected to  respect. 

When  women  ask  for  suffrage  as  a  privilege  to  be 
granted  out  of  the  graciousness  of  those  who  have 
"hogged"  this  right  all  to  themselves  and  their  own 
sex,  they  do  society  a  wrong, — suffrage  is  theirs  by  nat- 
ural right,  and  they  should  demand  it  as  such.  It  is 
simply  distressing  to  see  the  mean  mental  and  moral 
contortions,  the  silly  and  despicable  subterfuges,  that 
men,  and  particularly  the  women,  will  resort  to,  to 
evade  the  force  of  this  sun-clear  principle.  The  usual 
trick  is  to  bring  forward  some  consideration  that  sounds 
in  expediency.  Common  suffrage  for  all  would  induce 
vast  changes,  it  is  said.  So  it  would,  and  that  is  one  of 
the  glories  of  it.  And,  they  go  on,  we  men  and  we 
women  would  naturally  be  led  to  ways  of  thinking  and 
acting  that  we  are  not  used  to,  and  home  would  be 
home  no  longer,  for  we  would  get  to  talking  politics, 
and  nice  ladies  would  get  to  drinking  beer  and  smoking 
cigars  and  swearing  and  fighting,  and  so  on  and  so 
forth,  through  all  the  gamut  of  absurdities. 

But  nothing  of  another  character  seems  to  occur  to 
these  cavillers.  They  cannot  foresee  the  enlarged 
lives,  both  mental  and  moral,  that  this  change  might 
bring  in  its  train  to  both  men  and  women.  They  can- 
not prognosticate  the  oncoming  of  gentler,  purer,  and 
more  refined  manners  and  customs  in  politics.  They 
cannot  forecast,  much  less  estimate,  the  good  results 
that  ensue  from  that  charity  of  feeling  that  is  always 
consequent  on  mixing  with  one's  fellows,  and  contend- 
ing with  them  candidly  and  respectfully  over  matters 
of  real  consequence. 


THE  YOUTHFUL  REPORTER. 

BY  PROF.  E.  D.  COPE. 

The  youthful  newspaper  reporter  is  responsible  for 
a  good  deal  of  injury  to  public  ethics  in  this  country. 
If  the  editorial  eye  could  revise  his  work  more  thor- 
oughly, and  use  the  blue  pencil  in  certain  cases  more 
frequently,  the  essentials  of  his  work  might  be  re- 
tained, and  the  unnecessary  injuries  reduced  to  a 
minimum. 

How  frequently,  for  instance,  do  we  find  news 
items  which  relate  to  the  commission  of  crime,  which 
close  with  the  remark  that  "lynching  was  threat- 
ened," or,  "the  criminal,  if  caught,  will  be  lynched." 
This  assertion  is  entirely  gratuitous,  as  threats  of  re- 


venge for  crimes  committed  may  be  always  expected 
from  somebody,  just  as  profanity  is  a  usual  adjunct  of 
quarrels.  But  the  press  does  not  generally  find  it 
necessary  to  report  the  latter  fact.  Nor  is  it  certain 
that  the  criminal  will  be  lynched  if  caught,  because 
somebody  threatens  it.  This  kind  of  popularisation 
of  lynching  has,  however,  gone  on  so  long  that  a  sen- 
timent has  apparently  been  generated  in  some  quar- 
ters, that  there  is  something  wrong  with  that  com- 
munity in  which  lynching  is  not  at  least  threatened. 
This  sentiment  places  in  the  front  rank  of  progress 
the  communities  where  lynching  is  practised,  whereas 
they  are  sunk  in  a  stage  of  barbarism  far  removed  from 
a  true  civilisation. 

Much  of  the  spread-eagleism  of  the  press  is  due  to 
the  youthful  reporter.  The  repetition  of  the  assertion 
that  the  United  States  is  the  "greatest  country  in  the 
world,"  does  not  prove  conclusively  that  such  is  the 
case,  to  thinking  people  either  in  this  country  or  out 
of  it  !  It  is  probable  that  in  some  one  or  two  respects 
each  of  the  civilised  nations  is  the  greatest  in  the 
world,  and  a  reasonable  acquaintance  with  statistics 
would  settle  the  question  for  the  time  being  at  least. 
A  little  knowledge  of  our  real  status  should  relieve  us 
of  oversensitiveness  to  either  the  praise  or  blame  of 
foreigners,  and  furnish  us  with  as  much  pride  as  we 
are  entitled  to.  But  what  are  we  to  think  of  the  Pari- 
sian correspondent  of  one  of  our  great  dailies,  who 
wrote  of  the  presentation  of  our  representative  at  the 
Elysee  for  the  first  time  as  ambassador  ?  Because  a 
detachment  of  gaily  caparisoned  cavalrymen  rode  to 
his  hotel  to  escort  him  to  the  palace,  the  callow  corre- 
spondent declared  that  "the  American  heart  swelled 
with  pride,"  and  more  like  rubbish;  and  the  great 
daily  published  it.  Query:  Was  the  correspondent 
an  American  or  a  Frenchman  ?  Perhaps  it  was  like 
the  French  reporter's  commentary  on  an  address  made 
by  an  American  before  one  of  the  congresses  at  the 
Exposition  of  1878,  which  declared  that  at  its  close  the 
speaker,  "M.  ,  took  his  seat  with  great  satisfac- 
tion."    Query:  whose  satisfaction? 

On  the  woman  question  the  immaturity  of  the  av- 
erage reportorial  mind  is  often  apparent.  Generally 
of  bohemian  life,  his  preference  for  women  of  that 
type  is  conspicuous.  If  she  gets  into  trouble  through 
her  misdeeds,  she  has  his  sympath}',  and  in  this  he  is 
a  good  second  to  the  women  who  delight  to  send  bou- 
quets to  incarcerated  criminals.  Who  ever  heard  of 
a  woman  who  eloped  who  was  not  "pretty,"  accord- 
ing to  the  reporter?  Who  ever  heard  of  an  ugly  fe- 
male defendant  or  plaintiff  in  a  divorce  suit?  He  loves 
the  monstrous  and  exceptional  in  woman's  ways,  and 
often  depicts  these  as  though  worthy  of  imitation. 
While  it  is  doubtless  his  duty  to  record  the  events  of 
the  day,  he  need  not  approve  what  women  of  custom- 


4II4 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


ary  refinement  never  do.  In  lauding  women  who  enter 
into  competition  with  men,  he  displays  the  usual  pre- 
ference of  the  hobbledehoy  for  the  hoyden. 

These  remarks  are  a  not  unconscious  tribute  to  the 
power  of  the  newspaper  press.  Newspapers  are  the 
daily  mental  food  of  this  nation,  and  there  rests  a 
heavy  responsibility  on  those  who  supply  it.  They  can 
create  popular  opinion  as  well  as  follow  it.  Hence 
the  tendencies  of  the  young  and  inexperienced  mind 
should  not  determine  the  character  of  the  newspaper. 
The  senior  editor,  if  there  be  any,  should  give  it  its 
tone,  while  he  uses  the  young  and  energetic  men  who 
can  collect  news  where  older  ones  would  fail. 


WHAT  IS  MAN  WORTH  LIVING  FOR?' 

THE  ANSWER  OF  HINDUISM. 

Extract  of  an  Address  to  the  Nagercoil  Ciub  by  its  President, 
M.    RATNASWAMI  AIYER,    B.  A. 

Poets  and  fable-writers  tell  us  of  a  time  when 
everything  inanimate  as  well  as  animate  had  a  tongue, 
or,  at  any  rate,  spoke  somehow.  In  that  Elysian  age 
the  fingers  of  the  human  hand  possessed  powers  of 
elocution  too.  Once  upon  a  time  they  assembled  in 
solemn  conclave  and  held  a  pretty  warm  debate  on 
the  rather  delicate  question,  which  of  them  was  the 
greatest?  The  thumb,  as  the  first  in  position  and  fore- 
most in  order,  therefore,  to  lead,  started  the  discussion, 
and,  in  a  speech  by  no  means  as  diminutive  as  the 
orator,  claimed  for  himself  the  front  rank  of  prece- 
dence. He  argued  that  he  held  his  own  against  all 
the  other  four  members  of  the  fraternity  projecting 
from  the  same  palm  of  the  hand,  put  together.  He 
represented  one-half  the  space  and  the  direction  mak- 
ing up  the  whole  while  folding  or  otherwise  using  the 
hand,  and  acted  as,  though  single,  yet  the  essential 
complement  and  counterpart  of  the  other  fingers, 
which  collectively  represented  only  the  other  half  of 
the  circuit.  In  these  circumstances  lie  was  the  great- 
est, exclaimed  this  proud  dwarf,  winding  up  his  argu- 
ments in  the  pithy  remark,  "I  am  quite  half  against 
half,"  and  evidently  looking  down  on  his  comrades, 
who,  all  to  a  man,  had  to  combine  and  make  up  the 
other  half.  "Wait  a  bit,  my  Lilliputian  brother!" 
cried  out  the  next  gentleman,  the  forefinger,  and, 
starting  up  impatiently,  continued:  "Am  I  not  the 
guide,  the  messenger,  the  friend,  who  points  to  every- 
body the  path  and  leads  all  on  ?  And  should  not  grati- 
tude, shown  even  to  my  inanimate  symbol — the  finger- 
post— be  all  the  more  shown  to  mc,  its  more  useful 
animate  prototype  ?  Do  you  deny  then  to  the  leader 
and  the  guide,  that  is,  myself,  the  title  to  be  the  great- 
est ?     Ingratitude  cannot  go  further."     "Brethren," 


ct  reprodu 


i  of  tlie  author's 


spoke  the  middle  finger,  "why  beat  about  the  bush  ? 
The  tallest  is  certainly  the  greatest,  and  I  am  there- 
fore the  greatest  of  all.  I  am  the  biggest  man  in  the 
commonwealth.  Measure  my  height,  and  satisfy  your- 
selves. All  who  have  eyes  can  see."  It  was  now  the 
turn  of  the  next  finger  to  speak.  He  briefly  remarked  : 
"None  but  myself  is  entitled  to  be  decorated  with  or- 
naments. None  else  is  so  honored.  I  am  the  ring- 
finger,  and,  most  adorned,  shine  the  most.  Who  can 
lay  higher  claims  to  greatness?"  The  little  finger, 
however,  was  not  to  be  outdone  and  adopted  a  no  less 
ingenious  argument  to  proclaim /«>  greatness.  "Is 
not  the  man  next  or  nearest  the  king  the  greatest  ?  In 
all  salutations  (kmnhiidus),  who  stands  first  and  fore- 
most, and  therefore  nearest  the  king?  Do  I  not  lead, 
and  are  not  all  the  rest  my  followers  ? '  Though  mis- 
named the  least,  I  am  the  highest  finger  therefore. " 
These  angry  words  led  to  strikes  (a  modern  remedy) — 
not  to  hloivs,  however,  for  that  requires  union  of  all  the 
fingers;  but  it  was  soon  found  that  none  of  them  was 
able  to  get  on  without  the  others.  So,  bitterly  learn- 
ing by  experience  the  fact  that  each  of  them  was  a 
necessary  factor  for  the  happiness  of  one  and  all,  and 
realising  alike  the  folly  of  a  contest  for  individual  su- 
periority and  the  wisdom  of  harmonious  co-operation, 
they  resolved  to  turn  over  a  new  leaf  and  worked,  in- 
dividually and  collectively,  for  their  general  good  on 
the  best  of  terms. 

Neither  the  ubiquitous  shorthand  reporter  nor  Edi- 
son's phonograph  was  there  then,  to  record  and  hand 
down  to  us  precisely  the  interesting  speeches  of  these 
puny  debaters,  but  the  sentiments  above  expressed  are 
repeated  mutatis  mutandis  every  day  by  other  dramatis 
persona',  in  the  wide  arena  of  the  world's  stage  in  pre- 
cisely similar  circumstances,  so  that  this  is  a  case  of 
fiction  being  truer  than  history  and  illustrated  off  and 
on,  over  again,  by  the  successive  life-pictures,  individ- 
ual and  collective,  of  every  age  and  every  society. 

The  story  points  to  two  morals,  or  rather  estab- 
lishes two  truths.  One  is,  that  nothing  in  the  uni- 
verse exists  for  itself.  The  other  is,  that  everything 
exists  for  the  whole.  It  may  be  only  a  drop  in  the 
ocean,  but  every  such  drop  must  be  there  to  make  up 
the  ocean.  An  atom  is  nowhere  in  the  make  of  this 
glorious  fabric,  but  it  is  yet  a  unit,  a  necessarj'  factor 
in  that  whole  or  aggregate  of  atoms,  which,  without 
it,  would,  to  that  extent,  be  incomplete.  The  little- 
ness and  the  greatness  of  the  individual  are  thus  forci- 
bly brought  home  to  us  at  the  same  time. 

The  struggle  amongst  interdependent,  interadjust- 
ing,  and  interacting  human  units,  for  being  in  the  first 
place  and  for  ivell-being  later,  has  gradually  evolved 
higher  and  better  regulative  principles  of  conduct  in 
life.      The  function  that  religion  has  performed  in  this 

IThis  refers  to  the  Hindu  mode  ot  greeting. 


I 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4115 


evolution  has  been  the  holding  up  of  high  ideals  to 
follow.  Ethical  development  has  gone  on  hand  in 
hand  with,  and  with  more  or  less  dependence  on,  reli- 
gion. Self-cultivation  is  most  important  for  one's  own 
as  well  as  others'  happiness.  The  Hindu  religious 
ideal  combines  both  nislikaina  karmam  and  gnanain, 
disinterested  good  action  (i.  e.  without  any  desire  for 
the  fruit  thereof)  and  wisdom.  The  Baghavatgita 
preaches  it,  and  in  the  very  first  chapter  of  Vilmiki's 
Brihatyoga  Vasishtum  is  given  the  dictum  of  Au- 
gustya  : 

"In  the  same  way  as  both  the  wings  of  a  bird  are  necessary 
for  its  Bight,  I'olh  niihkania  karmam  and  gnanam  are  necessary  for 
mokshamy 

The  practice  of  the  duties  of  life,  self  culture  as 
well  as  the  service  of  the  universe,  so  as  to  leave  it 
better,  in  the  sphere  in  which  one  can  do  so,  than  he 
found  it,  sums  up  then  his  mission  on  earth — and  is  a 
cosmopolitan  religious  law.  It  is  because  Hinduism 
preaches  the  high  ideals  I  have  referred  to  above,  the 
law  of  universal  love, — and,  in  addition,  insists  on  no 
faith  in  any  particular  dogma,  but  onlj'  on  merit  and 
purity  of  heart  for  salvation,  it  can  accommodate  within 
its  all-protecting  shadow  the  whole  human,  or  rather 
sentient,  race.  We  welcome  as  Hindus  any  alien  re- 
ligionist actuated  by  such  love ;  no  external  conversion 
is  prescribed  or  necessary.  We  ought  not  to  confound 
any  forms,  ceremonials,  and  social  arrangements  that 
have  prevailed  or  do  prevail,  and  which  are  readjust- 
ing themselves,  with  the  gold  that  lies  imbedded  in 
the  Vedas,  Upanishads,  and  the  Gita  and  more  en- 
shrouded and  obscured  in  other  sacred  writings.  There 
is  a  good  deal  of  furbishing  of  the  gold  necessary  to 
remove  many  of  the  excrescences  around  it,  and  which 
gold  is  ever  found  pure  and  unmixed?  Hinduism  con- 
sists of.  a  series  of  systems  based  on  the  psychological 
laws  of  development  of  the  religious  idea,  and  adapted 
therefore  to  the  stages  of  growth  of  the  intellect  itself. 
From  tabula  rasa,  through  forms  of  symbology  im- 
properly called  idolatry,  next  through  forms  of  theism 
and  monotheism,  to  the  loftiest  heights  of  Advaitism 
or  Universal  Oneness,  is  not  one  leap,  but  structure 
after  structure,  support  after  support,  have  to  be  set 
up  and  removed,  as  each  arch  from  the  concrete  to  the 
abstract  is  completed. 

I  shall  not  detain  you  with  my  views  as  to  what 
formal  improvements  may  now  be  introduced  in  these 
intermediate  processes  and  ceremonials.  The  gold  is 
unaffected  and  pure,  and  we  have  only  to  adapt  to 
modern  environments  any  formal  arrangements  in 
such  matters.  It  is  fortunate  that  the  Hindu  religion, 
both' in  ideal  and  practice,  is  sufficiently  cosmopolitan 
and  progressive  to  admit  of  all  further  improvements. 
It  is  no  exclusive  nor  aggressive  religion,  nor  intole- 
rant, for  it  tolerates  even  intolerance.    It  is  no  religion 


named  after  any  particular  individual  and  binding  its 
votaries  to  any  particular  dogma.  It  breathes  univer- 
sal love  and  toleration  and  says  in  effect  with  the  En"-- 
lish  poet : 

"  For  modes  of  faith  let  graceless  zealots  fight : 
His  must  be  right  whose  life  is  in  the  right." 

Sri  Krishna  in  the  Baghavatgita  insists  only  on 
purity  of  heart  and  devotion,  and  as  for  form  and  deity 
virtually  says  :  "Worship  how  and  whom  you  like." 
One  pithy  Sanskrit  stanza  repeated  in  our  daily  prayer 
Sandyavandhanam  says,  "As  every  drop  of  water  that 
falls  from  the  sky  finds  its  way  to  the  ocean,  the  wor- 
ship dedicated  to  every  deity  finds  its  way  to  Kesava." 
I  should  be  glad  to  see  more  of  this  spirit  in  gentle- 
men attached  to  what  are  now  believed  to  be  exclu- 
sive, aggressive,  and  intolerant  religions.  Every  code 
of  beliefs  and  forms  has  to  undergo  a  purification,  and 
the  happy  result  will  be  the  harmonious  presentment 
of  the  best  ideals  in  each,  which,  I  think,  are  at  bot- 
tom one  and  the  same.      In  such  a  peaceful  parliament 

of   man  consists  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth 

Brimmanandam.  Not  only  live,  but  also  let  live.  Know 
thyself,  and  merge  thyself  in  the  universal  self. 

This  is  easil}'  said,  but  not  so  easily  accomplished. 
If  many  a  geological  period  is  necessary  for  deposit- 
ing one  foot  of  coal,  or  lifting  up  one  thin  stratum  of 
the  earth,  the  great  spiritual  elevation  and  absorp- 
tion— which  is  the  goal  towards  which  all  mankind 
has  to  march — cannot  be  reached  by  immaturely  de- 
veloped spirits  in  the  space  of  one  generation  or  the 
period  of  one  earth-life.  Successive  earth-lives,  pro- 
vided there  is  no  fresh  karma  done  calculated  to  re- 
tard or  throw  back  the  onward  march,  are  the  only 
means  here,  as  in  other  mundane  affairs,  of  reaching 
the  ideal.  Purity  of  thought,  word,  and  deed,  and 
self-culture,  pave  the  way,  till  the  mature  individual  is 
made  in  the  final  earth-life  or  generation  into  one  with 
his  general  essence  or  Paranatma.  The  idea  may 
sound  strange  to  alien  religionists,  but  psychic  inves- 
tigations are  daily  establishing  the  position  even  better 
than  physical  investigations  have  established  the  latest 
conclusions  of  geology  and  paleeontology. 

In  conclusion  let  me  remind  you  of  the  answer 
Hinduism  has  given  to  the  query.  What  is  man  worth 
living  for  ?  Nishkama  karmam  of  the  right  kind  and 
culture  in  gnanam,  so  as  to  raise  spiritual  purity,  to 
dispel  Avidhya  (ignorance)  and  to  clear  up  your  light 
and  merge  it  in  universal  light — this  is  the  end. 


OMAR  KHAYYAM. 


BY  M.  D.    CONWAY. 


III.  HIS  ROSES. 

When  death  was  near,  Omar  Khayyam  expressed 
a  hope  that  he  might  be  buried  where  the  north  wind 
might  scatter  rose-leaves  on  his  grave.    He  was  buried 


41 16 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


at  the  corner  of  a  monument  of  some  grand  personage 
of  Naishapiir,  and  his  friends  planted  rose-trees  beside 
his  grave.  The  grand  personage  is  forgotten,  his  mon- 
ument a  ruin,  but  the  roses  still  scatter  their  petals  on 
the  poet's  grave,  otherwise  unmarked.  No  doubt  they 
have  been  replanted  there  many  a  time.  The  Moham- 
medans never  conceded  any  monument  to  the  thinker 
who  assailed  their  dogmas,  but  some  hearts  have  cher- 
ished him,  and  maintained  across  the  centuries  the 
roses,  his  true  monument,  emblems  of  verses  whose 
perfume  is  still  upon  the  air.  Edward  Fitzgerald, 
beside  whose  Suffolk  grave  the  roses  from  that  grave 
in  Naishapur  are  growing,  brought  hither  the  poetic 
roses.  And  I  will  begin  this  final  paper  on  Omar 
Khayyam  by  calling  especial  attention  to  one  of  these 
mystical  roses — the  finest  of  all — which  was  written 
neither  by  the  Persian  nor  the  English  poet,  but  flow- 
ered out  of  their  united  souls. 

In  order  to  appreciate  this  miraculous  verse,  my 
reader  must  bear  in  mind  what  is  said  in  the  preceding 
paper  of  Omar's  faith  in  the  God  of  Love, — really  the 
Ahuramazda  of  Zoroaster,  the  Father  of  Jesus, —  as 
antagonistic  to  the  phantasms  of  omnipotent  inhuman- 
ity adored  by  Moslem  and  Pharisee.  Omar's  heart 
nestles  close  to  his  Beloved. 

"  Can  alien  Pharisees  thy  sweetness  tell 
Like  us,  thy  intimates,  who  know  thee  well? 
Thou  say'st,  'AH  sinners  will  I  burn  in  hell  ?' 
Say  that  to  strangers,  we  know  thee  too  well !" 

This  dualism  of  Omar  Khayyam  is  not  a  scientific  gen- 
eralisation ;  he  offers  no  philosophical  theorem  about 
the  universe.  It  is  a  religious  and  ethical  dualism  ;  he 
will  not  call  good  evil,  nor  evil  good.  If  there  be  an 
author  of  earthly  agonies  he  will  not  worship  him  ;  if 
for  that  he  must  burn  in  hell,  then  to  hell  he  must  go, 
but  he  will  never  kneel  to  the  hell's  founder.  Bearing 
this  dualism  in  mind,  the  reader  will  follow  with  more 
interest  an  investigation  I  have  made,  and  here  for  the 
first  time  print,  into  the  origin  of  the  wonderful  quatrain 
referred  to  above.  I  believe  it  to  be  unsurpassed  in 
literature  for  heretical  sublimity.  In  Fitzgerald's  first 
translation  of  the  "Rubayat"  it  is  as  follows  : 

"  oh  Thou  who  man  of  baser  earth  didst  make. 
And  e'en  in  Paradise  devise  the  snake. 
For  all  the  sin  with  which  the  face  of  man 
Is  blackened,  man's  forgiveness  give— and  take  !" 

Since  Fitzgerald's  death,  scholars  have  vainly  searched 
the  thousand  quatrains  ascribed  to  Omar  Khayyam  for 
this  particular  one.  Fitzgerald's  hundred  and  one 
translations  represent,  as  he  stated,  a  larger  number  of 
Omar's ;  but  not  even  in  detached  lines  of  different 
quatrains  can  anything  be  found  about  Eden  and  the 
snake,  nor  man's  offer  of  forgiveness  to  God.  But  there 
is  one  which,  in  literal  translation,  reads  : 

"  O  Thou  knower  of  the  secret  thoughts  of  every  man,  in  time 
o    need  the  helper  of  every  man  :  O  God,  give  me  repentance, 


and  accept  the  excuses  I  bring  ;  Thou  giver  and  receiver  of  man's 
excuses." 

This  is  not  addressed  to  Allah,  not  to  the  foreor- 
dainer  of  all  evil,  but  to  the  good  God,  who  sends  his 
sunshine  alike  on  just  and  unjust.  But  Fitzgerald 
did  not  realise  this  distinction,  nor  did  he  understand 
Omar's  idea  that  divine  Love  inspires  the  repentance 
it  accepts, — is  "giver  and  receiver  of  man's  excuses." 
He  (Fitzgerald)  interpreted  the  quatrain  in  the  light  of 
two  others  which  are  satires  on  the  theological  deity, 
Allah : 

"  In  my  life's  road  thou  hast  laid  the  snare  in  many  a  place. 
Thou  sayest,  '  I  slay  thee,'  if  I  make  any  misstep.  The  world  is 
not  free  from  thy  command — not  a  tittle, — I  can  only  do  thy  order 
and  thou  callest  me  a  sinner  ! 

"What  are  we  that  he  should  speak  evil  of  us,  and  make  a 
hundred  of  each  one  of  our  faults  ?  We  are  but  his  mirrors  ;  and 
what  He  sees  in  us,  and  calls  good  and  evil,  sees  He  in  Himself." 

Here  Omar  does  not  literally  say  (had  he  so  said 
he  might  have  been  slain)  that  the  deity  who  decrees 
man's  actions  needs  forgiveness  for  man's  sins,  but  he 
says  it  implicitly  ;  and  here  the  English  translator's 
logic  came  in,  and  recollections  of  his  Bible:  the  "snare" 
he  connects  with  the  temptation  of  Eve,  and  the  "re- 
ceiver of  man's  excuses  "  suggested  to  him  the  innu- 
merable sermons  he  had  heard  excusing  the  Creator 
for  the  evils  of  his  creation.  So  although  Omar  did 
not  precisely  offer  the  Almighty,  who  chose  to  create  a 
sinful  world,  man's  forgiveness  for  his  sins,  that  is  what 
the  Persian  wrote  across  eight  centuries  on  an  English 
mind  akin  to  his  own,  who  took  it  to  heart,  and  home  to 
his  own  Christendom,  with  its  fable  of  Eden.  Thus  we 
owe  neither  to  the  Oriental  poet  nor  the  English  poet, 
but  to  a  spiritual  unity  between  them,  availing  itself 
of  a  felicitous  mistranslation,  that  magnificent  sentence 
on  all  the  proud  Omnipotents,  "Man's  forgiveness  give — 
and  take  J" 

An  American  artist,  Vedder,  illustrator  of  the  "Ru- 
bayat "  (Quatrains)  has  accompanied  this  particular 
one,  which  flowered  of  itself  from  the  west-eastern 
genius  of  humanity,  with  a  fine  picture.  Eve  pedestalled 
on  a  coil  of  the  splendid  serpent,  has  a  winged  child 
clinging  to  her  left  knee,  while  her  right  hand  receives 
the  apple  from  the  serpent's  mouth.  Just  beneath, 
amid  the  flowers,  a  spider's  web  awaits  its  winged  vic- 
tims, as  the  snake  is  ensnaring  the  winged  child, — 
Eve's  posterity,  aspiring  from  the  coils  of  evil. 

Outside  his  typical  garden, — a  little  humanly-cre- 
ated world,  made  of  cultured  roses  and  cultured  hearts, 
— Omar  beholds  a  world  mainly  predatorj^ 

"  Ah  Love  !  could  you  and  I  with  fate  conspire 
To  grasp  this  sorry  scheme  of  things  entire. 
Would  wc  not  shatter  into  bits— and  then 
Remould  it  nearer  to  the  heart's  desire  ? 

"  Could  but  some  wing&d  angel,  ere  too  late. 
Arrest  the  yet  unfolded  roll  of  fate. 
And  make  the  stern  Recorder  otherwise 
Enregister— or  quite  obliterate  t" 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4117 


These  two,  translations  by  Fitzgerald,  have  inspired 
the  sympathetic  art  of  Walter  Crane.  He  has  painted 
the  stern  Recorder,  throned  on  stone,  under  a  dome 
of  stars,  in  an  ancient  temple.  Beneath  his  feet  an 
olive  bough  leans  against  an  hour-glass, — Peace  mak- 
ing a  truce  with  Time.  On  the  margin  of  Fate's  scroll 
is  written.  Mors  et  MutabilHas.  Love,  a  beautiful 
youth,  rainbow-winged,  passionately  grasps  the  half 
folded  roll,  and  tries  to  seize  the  fatal  recording  pen. 
The  hoary  Recorder  is  as  the  stone  he  sits  on,  not  to  be 
pleaded  with.  Yet  there  are  signs  of  crumbling  about 
his  old  temple  ;  Love  has  entered,  hope  is  on  his  rain- 
bow wings,  lustrous  from  a  sun  rising  in  the  distance. 
When  Fate's  temple  crumbles,  when  he  is  no  more 
worshipped,  perhaps  Humanity  may  follow  Love,  and 
make  and  record  its  own  fates. 

Omar  Khayyam,  at  any  rate,  is  not  to  be  victimised 
by  fate  in  his  own  spirit.  There  he  is  free.  He  sees 
that  the  worst  evil  of  the  deified  phantasms  is  the  time 
spent  in  praying  to  them,  and  the  sacrifice  of  life  to 
them.  He  fairly  begins  the  work  of  seating  man  on 
the  throne  of  providence. 

"  Nay  listen  thou  who,  walking  on  life's  way, 
Hast  seen  no  love-lock  of  thy  love's  grow  grey, — 
Listen,  and  love  thy  lite,  and  let  the  Wheel 
of  heaven  go  spinning  on  its  own  wilful  way." 

As  we  are  about  to  leave  Omar  Khayyam's  garden, 
let  us  carry  some  hips  of  his  roses  to  graft  in  our  own 
gardens — choosing  those  that  hold  the  finest  beauty  of 
character,  and  the  heart  of  happiness,  and  the  perfume 
of  sweet  influence.  To  attain  perfection  in  the  art  of 
living  a  man  must,  according  to  Omar, — whom  I  must 
now  condense  and  interpret  : 

1.  Clear  the  mind  of  all  fears  or  cares  about  any- 
thing after  this  life.  The  only  life  of  which  we  can  be 
certain  is  the  life  we  have,  and  its  roses  wither  under 
vain  menaces  about  the  future.  As  for  the  promises 
of  future  bliss,  let  us  take  the  cash  and  let  the  credit 
go.  Happiness  in  this  world  is  as  sweet  as  in  any 
other.  As  for  that  distant  paradise,  we  shall  arrive 
there,  or — we  shall  not.  The  only  hell  and  heaven 
that  really  concern  man  are  in  himself, — hell  is  the 
sum  of  our  pains,  heaven  the  sum  of  our  unfulfilled  de- 
sires. They  are  projected  b}'  fear  and  hope  into  the 
future,  but  will  be  really  dealt  with  when  we  grapple 
with  the  pains  and  attain  the  desires  in  their  actual 
forms. 

2.  A  wise  man  will  not  allow  even  to-morrow  to 
encroach  on  to-day,  and  still  less  yesterday.  Here  I 
must  quote  : 

"  My  life  lasts  but  a  day  or  two,  and  fast 
Sweeps  by,  like  torrent  stream  or  desert  blast ; 
Howbeit,  of  two  days  I  take  no  heed — 
The  day  to  come,  and  that  already  past. 

"  To-day  is  thine  to  spend,  but  not  to-morrow, 
Counting  on  morrows  breedeth  bankrupt  sorrow; 
O  squander  not  this  breath  that  heaven  hath  lent  thee. 
Make  not  too  sure  another  breath  to  borrow. 


'  Sweet  is  the  breath  of  spring  to  roses'  face 
And  thy  sweet  face  adds  charm  to  this  fair  place  ; 
To-day  is  sweet,  but  yesterday  is  sad  ; 
And  sad  all  mention  of  its  parted  grace. 

'  Now  is  the  volume  of  my  youth  outworn, 
And  all  my  springtide's  blossoms  rent  and  torn  : 
Ah,  bird  of  youth  I     I  marked  not  how  you  came, 
Nor  how  you  fled  and  left  me  thus  forlorn. 

'  Ah,  why  forecast  to-morrow's  hopes  and  fears  1 
To-day  at  least  is  ours,  O  cavaliers  1 
To-morrow  we  shall  quit  this  inn  and  march 
With  comrades  who  have  marched  seven  thousand  yea 


Vain  are  all  regrets  about  the  past  : 

"  The  moving  Finger  writes  ;  and  having  writ. 
Moves  on  :  nor  all  your  Piety  nor  Wit 
Shall  lure  it  back  to  cancel  half  a  line. 
Nor  all  your  tears  wash  out  a  word  of  it." 

3.  Let  the  pilgrim  of  life  dismiss  the  notion  that 
he  can  be  aided  by  any  supernatural  powers  outside  of 
his  supernatural  self.  The  heavens  are  not  affected  bj' 
or  concerned  about  anything  he  does  or  believes,  nor 
can  the  universe  be  moved  by  his  prayers  or  entreaties. 
The  only  thing  we  have  to  fear  is  not  what  may  be 
done  to  us,  but  what  we  do,  or  fail  to  do,  to  and  for 
ourselves  and  others.  No  mercy  in  the  universe  can 
undo  what  is  done. 

4.  He  will  study  the  laws  and  forces  surrounding 
him,  but  not  waste  his  strength  on  illusory  specula- 
tions of  metaphysics,  about  the  mystery  of  being,  and 
so  forth,  which  must  be  without  any  sure  result,  and 
fruitless  for  himself  and  others.  Many  good  brains 
have  been  spent  in  building  up  creeds  and  systems 
which  are  now  fables. 

5.  Still  less  will  the  wise  man  surrender  himself  to 
the  illusions  of  worldly  pomp  and  magnificence. 

"  Yon  palace  whose  roofs  touch  the  empyreal  blue, 
Where  kings  bowed  down  and  rendered  homage  due. 
The  ringdove  is  its  only  tenant  now. 
And  perched  aloft  she  sings,  '  Coo-coo,  Coo-coo.'  " 

6.  He  must  seek  happiness,  but  not  imagine  that 
he  can  enjoy  it  in  selfishness,  or  in  isolation  from 
others.  "Devotees  promise  paradise  to  those  who 
confer  benefits  on  God.  But  share  thy  bread  with  the 
needy,  guard  thy  tongue  from  speaking  evil  of  any  ; 
and  1  venture,  on  my  own  account  to  promise  thee  a 
paradise."  "The  whole  world  will  be  populous  with 
that  action  of  thine  which  saves  a  heart  from  despair. " 

7.  But  it  is  no  charity  for  a  soul  to  give  away  its 
individual  liberty.  He  who  is  himself  unhappy  cannot 
confer  happiness.  He  is  to  live  his  own  life,  think  his 
own  thought.  All  is  abandoned  by  him  who  truckles 
to  authority,  whether  of  the  sultan  or  the  multitude, 
accepting  their  creed  or  their  uncongenial  customs. 
Amid  the  rush  and  roar  of  elements  he  cannot  control; 
amid  the  turmoil  of  fanaticisms,  the  vain  ambitions  of 
princes  and  states,  bending  the  strength  of  nations  on 
trifles;  the  wise  man  will  find  his  unambitious  sphere, 
his  little  oasis,  his  home,  his  bride,  there  think  his 
thought,  pursue  the  task  he  loves,  and  be  content. 


4ii8 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


8.  And  there  will  he  gather  true  friends.  Omar 
holds  friendship  high.  "A  thousand  chains  broken  by 
thee  are  less  than  by  uprightness  to  have  chained  to 
thee  the  heart  of  a  true  friend." 

"  To  please  the  righteous,  life  itself  I  sell, 
And  though  they  tread  me  down,  never  rebel : 
Ye  say,  '  Inform  us  what  and  where  is  hell  ! ' 
111  company  will  make  this  earth  a  hell." 

9.  He  must  be  lord  of  his  passions.  Uncontrolled 
they  will  be  crafty  as  foxes  and  cruel  as  tigers  ;  they 
will  bring  desolation  to  his  own  heart  and  the  hearts 
of  others.  There  can  be  no  peace  in  the  house  mas- 
tered by  its  servants. 

Such  is  my  interpretation  of  Omar  Khayyam's  reli- 
gion, ethics,  and  philosophy  of  life.  His  greatness  is 
not  simply  in  his  genius,  but  in  its  freedom.  In  this 
he  surpasses  the  poets  of  our  own  time,  who  either  ac- 
cept "Mrs.  Grundy"  for  a  Muse,  or  else  are  crippled 
by  their  struggles  under  her  vengeance.  Half  the 
poetic  genius  of  our  century  has  been,  I  believe,  sup- 
pressed by  legal  or  social  censorship,  or  by  their  in- 
timidation. Shakespeare  was  great  not  merely  by  rea- 
son of  his  intellect,  but  the  stage  was  then  free  ;  and 
Goethe  was  great,  largely  because  he  was  in  a  position 
to  decree  literary  laws  instead  of  accepting  them  from 
inferiors.  Perfect  intellectual  and  moral  freedom  would 
surely  give  us  Shakespeares  and  Goethes  again.  Omar 
Khayyam's  poetry,  after  eight  centuries,  is  alive  as  if 
written  to-day.  Time  is  powerless  over  genius  when 
developed  by  perfect  freedom  to  its  full  fruitage. 


FAITH  IN  ACTION. 

BY   LOUIS   ALBERT    LAMB. 

No  faith  have  I  in  candle,  book,  or  bell ; 

Revere  no  canon  and  reject  all  creeds; 

Require  no  priest  to  ease  my  spirit's  needs. 
And  kneel  at  night  no  prayer  or  plaint  to  tell ; 

No  God  I  see  to  judge  me  ill  or  well — 
Desire  no  praise  or  pardon  for  my  deeds. 
Despise  the  virtue  done  for  heavenly  meeds 

And  hate  the  grace  that  only  saves  from  hell  ! 

But,  in  my  soul  secure,  go  I  my  way — 
In  its  stern  law  I  place  abiding  trust. 
Assured  that  it  will  guide  my  life  aright ; 

And,  having  done  the  day's  relentless  Must, 
I  boldly  claim  the  boon  of  peace  at  night — 
Too  blest  with  happy  toil  to  doubt  or  pray. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

We  have  received  from  Prof.  James  Gibson  Hume,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Toronto,  a  reprint  of  his  address  Socialism  delivered  be- 
fore the  Knox  College  Alumni  Association  at  their  Post-Graduate 
Session.  Professor  Hume  emphasises  the  necessity  of  equilibrium 
between  the  two  forces  of  individualism  and  socialism.  The  ad- 
dress embodies  an  appeal  to  "  the  best  individuals  to  react  upon 
"the  organisation  of  society,  to  purify  it,  remodel  it,  make  it  a 
"  true  expression  of  what  they  see  it  ought  to  be."  (Pages,  29.) — 
T/ie  Function  of  Religion  in  Social  Evolulion,  by  M.  Rangacharya, 
is  a  serious,  reverent,  and  profound  study,  originally  written  as  a 


lecture  for  the  Nagercoil  Club  of  Madras,  India.  Mr.  Rangacharya 
seems  to  be  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  results  of  modern  sci- 
ence and  his  interesting  essay  may  be  recommended  to  readers  in- 
terested in  the  religious  development  of  India,  although  the  author's 
remarks  refer  to  the  whole  field  of  comparative  religion.  (Pages, 
58.  Madras:  Srinivasa,  Varadachari,  &  Co.) — We  beg  also  to 
acknowledge  the  receipt  of  a  little  pamphlet  by  Salvatore  de  Cre- 
scenzo,  entitled  Saggio  di  una  scala  norinale  del  pensiero  astratlo 
secondo  la  risultante  di  due  fattori.  Moduli  secondo  e  terzo  ossia  di 
media  e  dHnfima  grandezza,  which  is  an  attempt  at  the  systemati- 
sation  of  abstract  thought.  The  systematisation  is  effected  by 
means  of  tables  or  models  of  ' '  normal  scales  of  abstract  thought " ; 
combinations  of  ideas,  after  the  manner  of  resultants,  being  re- 
ferred with  numerical  precision  by  means  of  this  scheme  to  other 
ideas  catalogued  in  the  tables.  The  scale  may  be  applied,  the 
author  contends,  to  the  analysis  of  moral  and  speculative  thought, 
serving  both  the  purposes  of  criticism  and  invention.  (Naples: 
Michele  DAuria,  3S6  Via  Tribunali.) — In  The  Derivation  of  ike 
Pineal  Eye,  reprinted  from  the  Anatomischer  Anzeiger,  of  Jena, 
Mr.  William  A.  Locy,  of  Lake  Forest,  Illinois,  claims  to  "have 
"been  fortunate  enough  to  trace  the  principal  epiphysial  out- 
"  growth  in  Elasmobranchs  to  patches  of  sensory  epithelium  lo- 
"cated  on  the  cephalic  plate,"  where  two  pairs  of  accessory  optic 
vesicles  exist  from  which  the  pineal  body  is  derived.  {^Anatomischer 
Aiizeigerr     Jena:    G.  Fischer.) 


The  Messrs.  Houghton,  Mifflin,  &  Co.  of  Boston  publish  in  a 
very  attractive  form  for  the  American  Folk-Lore  Society  fifty 
Folk  Tales  of  Angola,  with  theKi-Mbundi  texts,  literal  translation. 
Introduction,  and  Notes.  The  tales  are  collected  and  edited  by 
Heli  Chatelain.  They  will  be  unquestiona'oly  a  valuable  contribu- 
tion to  comparative  folk-lore.  The  work  contains  a  map  of  the 
Loanda  district.     (Pp.  315,     Price  $3.00.) 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  355. 

PROF.   GEORGE  JOHN    ROMANES.     Editor 4111 

"THE  OPPRESSION  OF  WOMEN."  Errol  Lincoln.  4112 
THE  YOUTHFUL  REPORTER.  Prof.  E.  D.  Cope.  ...  4113 
WHAT  IS  MAN  WORTH   LIVING  FOR  ?    M.   R.^tna- 

SWAMI    AlVER >JI  14 

OMAR  KHAYYAM.  HI.  His  Roses.  M.  D.  Conway.  .  .  4115 
POETRY. 

Faith  in  Action.     Louis  Albert  Lamb 411S 

BOOK  NOTICES 4118 


330 


The  Open  Court. 


A  ■VSTEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  356.    (Vol.  VIII.-2S.)  CHICAGO,  JUNE  21,   il 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


LIBERAL  RELIGIOUS  AFFAIRS  IN  THE  WEST. 


BY  CELIA  PARKER  WOOLLEY. 


The  progress  of  religious  ideas  in  the  West  has 
always  revealed  its  own  distinctive  aim  and  quality, 
showing  the  same  general  aspects  that  belong  to  our 
western  civilisation  at  large,  the  same  breadth  of 
thought,  the  same  practicality  of  purpose.  Freedom 
and  brotherly  kindness  have  been  its  ruling  character- 
istics, and  events  of  recent  years  have  but  emphasised 
these  principles  anew  and  accelerated  their  growth. 
The  old-time  liberal  sects,  such  as  the  Unitarian  and 
the  Universalist,  have  in  general  been  established  upon 
a  broader  basis  of  fellowship  and  work  than  older  or- 
ganisations in  the  East,  still  suffering  from  the  binding 
influences  of  custom  and  tradition.  The  Independent 
churches  in  and  west  of  the  boundary  line  of  Chicago 
far  outnumber  any  such  class  of  religious  organisations 
on  the  other  side.  The  Free  Religious  Association 
and  the  Ethical  Culture  movement,  as  exemplified  in 
the  work  of  its  brilliant  and  able  founder,  Felix  Adler, 
belong,  it  is  true,  to  the  East,  but  the  West  is  growing 
into  larger  identification  with  the  ethical  movement, 
and  the  Free  Religious  Society,  world-wide  in  the 
scope  of  its  ideas  and  influence,  has  always  been  in  its 
immediate  atmosphere  and  a  personnel  Boston  affair. 
Of  late  years  the  association  has  dwindled  in  numbers 
and  strength,  but  that  ideal  of  faith  and  fellowship 
which  it  had  the  honor  to  inaugurate  has  grown  stead- 
ily in  more  distant  longitudes,  which  hold  in  peculiar 
honor  and  gratitude  the  memory  of  Frothingham,  Pot- 
ter, and  Bartol.  The  West  then  has  a  distinct  reli- 
gious type  of  its  own,  as  social,  and  as  time  progresses 
these  ideals  approach  nearer  each  other.  Stirring 
events  have  been  taking  place  in  our  midst  of  late 
which  compel  reflexion  for  the  purpose  of  summing 
up  gains  already  won  and  prognosticating  the  nature 
of  those  which  wait  our  winning.  The  World's  Fair 
led  naturally  to  the  Parliament  of  Religions,  and  the 
Parliament  still  more  naturally  to  the  Congress  of  Lib- 
eral Religious  Societies.  Surely,  if  the  representatives 
of  all  the  great  religions  of  the  world  and  all  the  sects 
of  Christendom  could  meet  on  one  platform  and  ex- 
change ideas,  it  was  high  time  for  liberals  to  consider 
whether  they  could  not  do  the  same.  The  success  of 
the  Congress  exceeded  the  expectations   of  its  most 


active  well-wishers,  and  was  a  surprise  to  all,  but,  in- 
deed, the  surprise  should  have  been  greater  had  it  not 
succeeded.  What  was  there  to  hinder  its  success  ? 
The  question  brings  its  own  rebuke,  the  possibility  of 
failure  brings  its  own  sense  of  shame.  The  merits  of 
the  Congress  were  such  as  to  demonstrate  themselves 
in  different  lights  and  degrees  to  different  minds.  To 
some  minds  the  occasion  was  one  of  splendid  and  dra- 
matic triumph  of  certain  broad  principles  of  religious 
trust  and  hospitality,  for  rhetorical  applause  and  decla- 
mation, a  waving  of  banners  and  blowing  of  trumpets. 
To  others  it  was  cause  for  quieter  but  as  sincere  con- 
gratulation over  the  growing  popular  trust  and  recog- 
nition of  ideas  long  professed  but  not  yet  clearly  un- 
derstood in  all  their  bearings  and  ramifications.  To 
some  the  Congress  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  order, 
the  establishment  of  a  new  religion,  perhaps  a  new 
church,  to  others  it  was  more  result  than  cause,  more 
a  culmination  of  long-existing  ideas  and  aspirations 
than  a  new  point  and  origin  of  growth,  more  full  plant 
than  seed.  In  short,  to  banish  metaphor  and  other 
roundabout  ways  of  speech,  the  Congress,  in  present 
view  and  perspective,  seems  to  stand  as  the  actual  ac- 
complishment on  a  large  and  imposing  scale  of  what 
has  often  been  attempted  before  on  a  smaller  scale, 
with  partial  success  and  partial  failure  ;  owing  to  those 
innumerable  hindrances  attending  good  causes  which 
lie  in  small  numbers,  popular  misunderstanding  and 
distrust,  human  apathy  and  inefficiency.  I  cannot  but 
think  the  causes  of  the  Congress's  success  lie  further 
back  than  some  of  its  friends  suppose,  and  less  in  the 
immediate  antecedents  of  numbers,  enthusiasm  and 
the  practical  spirit  ruling  all  its  debates,  though  these 
of  course  were  potent  aids  to  all  that  was  achieved.  It 
was  the  Congress  itself  that  demanded  attention,  the 
personal  worth  and  reputation  of  those  most  conspicu- 
ously connected  with  it.  The  Congress  was  a  notable 
occasion  because  of  the  notable  men  taking  part  in  it. 
All  that  these  men  had  gained  in  mental  grace  or 
equipment,  in  spiritual  breadth  and  sweetness,  in  their 
work  as  individuals,  each  in  his  own  place  and  after 
his  own  methods,  they  brought  to  the  Congress.  The 
three-days  meeting  at  Sinai  Temple  reached  just  that 
high-water  mark  of  religious  thought  and  spirit  which 
had   been  reached  by  the  different  communions  and 


^ 


4- 


v« 


^ 


4I20 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


different  individuals  composing  it,  no  higher.  It  was 
not  possible  it  should  reach  a  higher.  The  opening 
evening  struck  the  keynote  of  the  assembly,  a  keynote 
supplied  in  the  personal  mental  integrity  of  each  of 
the  speakers.  The  Jew  brought  the  contributions  of 
the  Jew;  "not  though  I  am  a  Jew,  but  because  I  am 
a  Jew, "  were  the  ringing  words  with  which  our  learned 
rabbi,  Dr.  Hirsch,  explained  his  relation  to  the  new 
movement.  And  how  natural  that  our  gentle  and  up- 
right friend,  Mr.  Salter,  should  see  in  the  occasion  the 
nearer  hope  and  prophecy  of  wishes  long  cherished. 
Never  was  there  so  little  need  for  the  Ethical  Culture 
disciple  to  disavow  himself.  And  when  the  Unitarian 
spoke  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Savage,  all  were  prepared 
to  hear  him  say  that  he  stood  on  no  broader  platform 
there  than  in  his  pulpit  at  home,  and  warmly  applauded 
the  saying.  It  was  the  self-respectful  attitude  of  these 
men  that  won  attention  ;  their  worth  to  the  new  and 
larger  things  waiting  to  be  done  was  the  better  proved 
by  this  openly-expressed  loyalty  to  their  own. 

There  was  one  discordant  note  :  that  which  jarred 
our  ears  on  the  third  day,  in  the  brief  address  of  Mr. 
Martin  of  Tacoma,  whose  recent  withdrawal  from  the 
Unitarian  Church  has  brought  him  into  public  notice. 
It  was  reserved  for  this  advocate  of  the  "free  "  church, 
the  one  who  claimed  to  stand  in  the  broadest  position 
there,  to  utter,  the  only  word  of  self-assumption,  the 
only  dictatorial  phrase  and  comment.  Doubtless  Mr. 
Martin  honestly  believed  himself  morally  bound  to  do 
what  he  did  ;  but  years  of  reflexion  may  lead  him  to 
see  how  widely  he  mistook  the  principle  of  true  libe- 
ralism in  the  charge  he  made  against  the  Congress  of 
weakness  and  bad  logic,  because  it  was  a  congress  of 
churches  still  wearing  what  he  designated  their  secta- 
rian names  and  badges,  because  it  was  a  congress  of 
Universalists  and  Unitarians  and  Jews,  whereas  it 
should  be,  so  we  were  told,  a  congress  of  free  churches. 
An  episode  like  this,  and  it  was  only  an  episode,  only 
showed,  what  many  of  us  well  knew  before,  that  the 
spirit  of  ecclesiasticism  may  be  as  strong  in  the  professed 
liberal  as  in  the  most  pronounced  type  of  orthodox 
opinion  ;  that  the  dropping  of  a  denominational  name 
may  not  mean  the  departure  from  denominational 
narrowness  and  bigotry.  The  Congress  revealed  noth- 
ing more  clearly  than  that  it  was  little  interested  either 
in  the  assumption  or  the  abolition  of  names;  and  its 
feeling  of  manifest  indifference  on  this  point  is  one  the 
entire  liberal  world  shares  to-day.  Religious  names, 
like  the  personal  and  social  appellations  men  and  wo- 
men wear,  are  matters  of  individual  choice  and  con- 
cern only;  especially  is  the  world  little  interested  in 
talk  on  this  subject  among  that  class  of  religionists 
who  have  always  professed  that  true  religion  concerns 
none  of  these  things. 

I  have  said  the  Congress  was  a  success  ;  it  is  jus- 


ter  to  say  it  promises  success.  Everything  promised 
has  yet  to  be  achieved,  and  there  are  few  who  doubt 
the  final  achievement,  whatever  the  immediate  result 
may  be.  The  Open  Court  has  already  pointed  out  one 
danger  to  the  new  movement :  that  of  haste.  Another 
danger  springs  from  the  doubt  as  to  how  much  the 
Congress  really  is  what  its  name  imports,  how  much 
real  community,  not  of  purpose  alone,  but  of  action,  is 
to  be  secured  in  the  long  list  of  officers  gathered  from 
far  and  near.  A  movement  like  this,  so  widespread  in 
interest,  so  representative  in  character,  cannot  thrive 
unless  it  command  a  breadth  and  unity  of  actual  work 
and  effort  commensurate  with  its  geographical  dimen- 
sions. If  it  is  once  suffered  to  localise  or  individualise 
itself  in  the  work  of  a  few  it  will  fail.  But  failure  in 
so  just  and  grand  a  scheme  can  only  be  temporary. 
Final  success,  somewhere,  is  very  sure. 


WOMAN    EMANCIPATION,  \WILL    IT    BE    A  SUCCESS  ? 

BY  DR.   MARIE  E.  ZAKRZEWSKA. 

When  reading  the  article  "The  Oppression  of 
Women  "  in  The  Open  Cotirt  of  June  7  (No.  354),  I 
said  to  myself,  this  is  written  by  a  young  man,  who 
hopes  to  live  to  see  his  views  and  statements  verified, 
in  order  to  be  able  to  shout  by  word  of  mouth  or  in 
print,  "I  told  you  so!"  An  older  man  would  not 
expect  that  his  reasoning  upon  this  new  point  of  the 
subject  would  in  itself  be  of  importance  enough  to  be 
remembered  by  any  one,  beside  himself. 

However,  I  admit  that  the  writer  of  this  article  is 
right,  positively  right,  logically  right,  sentimentally 
right,  to  the  end  of  these  reasonings  which  are  lucid 
and  clearly  stated. 

Then  I  ask,  What  is  the  value  of  this  new  point, 
this  proving  that  the  evolution  of  woman's  activity 
cannot  be  otherwise  than  feminine?  If  twice  two  makes 
/('//;■,  no  exertion  of  either  man  or  woman  can  make  it 
five  ;  let  us  leave  it  as  a  positive  fact,  and  not  worry 
when  we  see  any  individual  trying  to  prove  that  twice 
two  makes  y?7'f. 

Why  are  all  these  mental  somersaults  and  caprioles 
in  men's  writings  needed  ?  Will  their  attempts  of 
prophesying  or  illustrating  the  future  effects,  arising 
from  the  activity  of  a  yet  unknown  quantity,  alter  or 
check  the  present  phenomenal  awakening  of  woman's 
ambition? 

Allow  me  to  elucidate  my  meaning  by  a  true  story 
of  what  happened  in  my  native  city,  Berlin,  Prussia, 
about  fifty  years  ago. 

In  a  courtyard  lived  a  poor  family.  The  father  was 
a  locksmith  by  trade.  His  eldest  son,  a  boy  of  twelve 
years,  bright,  industrious,  and  smart,  spent  all  his  time 
either  in  the  schoolroom,  or  in  his  father's  shop  ;  not 
even  on  Sundays  could  this  poor  family  enjoy  rest,  but 
worked  in  the  dreary  shop.      This  boy  was  ver}'  fond 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4121 


of  eating  string-beans,  which  the  mother  could  seldom 
afford  to  buy.  The  boy  therefore  decided  to  raise  them 
in  a  box  before  his  window  ;  he  used  some  old  pieces 
of  boards  for  the  construction  of  his  window-garden  ; 
and  all  the  inmates  of  the  front  as  well  as  of  the  rear 
houses  became  interested  in  his  experiment.  Every- 
body felt  it  to  be  his  or  her  duty  to  express  opinions 
on  the  subject.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  the  boy 
was  told,  that  the  beans  planted  would  rot  because  the 
boards  were  not  porous  enough  to  allow  air  to  pass  ; 
that  the  soil  in  the  box  could  not  be  regulated  as  re- 
gards the  daily  moisture  needed  ;  that  the  rain  could 
not  be  discharged  after  flooding  the  window-garden  ; 
that  the  heat  of  the  sun  reflected  from  the  window- 
glass  would  burn  the  tender  growths  ;  that  not  more 
than  two  stalks  of  beans  could  be  raised  if  the  seed 
turned  out  to  be  dwarf-beans,  and  if  pole-beans,  he 
could  not  fasten  them  high  enough ;  that  no  good 
growth  could  be  expected,  if  there  were  not  a  flow  of 
air  all  around  to  favor  the  plant ;  that  the  already  dark 
room  (this  being  the  only  window),  would  be  darkened 
too  much  by  the  growing  plants,  and  thus  the  three 
children  who  slept  in  it  would  not  awaken  in  time  for 
school,  which  commenced  at  7  o'clock  ;  that  the  health 
of  the  children  would  be  injured  by  the  exhalation  of 
the  plants  and  the  moisture  of  the  earth  in  the  box ; 
that  his  mother  should  be  warned  not  to  allow  such  an 
experiment,  as  it  would  be  a  moral  injury  to  the  boy, 
when  disappointed  in  the  success  of  his  plan,  as  the 
most  valuable  of  our  emotions,  hope,  would  be  de- 
stroyed ;  that  the  father  ought  to  realise  that  he  would 
lose,  at  least  half  an  hour  daily,  of  the  boy's  help  in 
the  shop  ;  in  fact,  all  the  arguments  and  all  the  proph- 
esying were  that  a  complete  failure  would  be  the  re- 
sult, and  that  the  boy  would  be  crushed  under  the 
weight  of  it. 

However,  the  boy  prepared  his  box,  took  note  of 
many  of  the  suggestions,  obviated  some  of  the  objec- 
tions, such  as  perforating  his  box  with  small  holes,  by 
opening  the  windows  when  the  sun  shone,  from  ten  in 
the  morning  to  three  in  the  afternoon,  etc. ;  the  twelve 
beans  which  he  had  planted,  grew,  and  proved  to  be 
pole-beans  ;  so  he  tied  the  strings  for  them  to  climb 
upon  as  high  as  ihe  tenant  above  his  room  allowed 
him  to  do,  watered  and  nursed  his  plantation  with  care 
and  love,  and  lo,  and  behold,  the  beans  flourished,  and 
blossomed,  and  bore  fruit,  relatively  plentifully.  Dur- 
ing this  time  of  growth  an  old  and  wise  tenant  of  the 
front  house,  also  a  professor,  joined  the  group  who  for 
eight  weeks  had  watched  and  discussed  in  the  yard 
this  wilful  boy's  experiment ;  this  critic  remarked  that 
he  observed  a  new  phase,  of  which  nobody  had  thus 
far  taken  notice,  and  which  might  have  both  good  and 
bad  effects  ;  namely,  that  a  hail-storm  might  yet  come, 
and  destroy  this  garden,  although  there  might  also  be 


a  good  result  as  the  plants  would  protect  the  window- 
panes,  if  the  storm  should  occur  when  the  windows 
were  closed.  All  admitted  that  this  was  true,  and  all 
admired  the  wisdom  of  the  Herr  Professor,  and  went 
to  their  respective  abodes  a  little  mortified  that  they 
had  not  thought  before  of  this  neglected  point  of  the 
subject. 

The  boy  had  the  satisfaction  of  gathering  a  mess 
of  well-grown  beans,  sufficient  for  a  hearty  meal  for  the 
whole  family.  But  while  eating  his  favorite  dish,  he 
said,  "Well,  mother,  I  did  succeed;  but  to  tell  the 
truth  the  beans  don't  taste  as  good  as  those  which  grow 
in  the  fields  ;  so  next  year  I  will  not  try  again,  but  I 
shall  sow  nasturtium-seeds  for  you  to  enjoy."  He  did 
so,  and  his  window  was  a  perfect  delight  and  source 
of  cheer  to  him,  to  his  mother,  and  to  the  tenants  of 
the  little  court.  He  continued  to  do  this  until  he  had 
to  enter  the  army,  at  eighteen  years  of  age  ;  his  younger 
brothers  (he  had  no  sisters)  followed  in  his  footsteps, 
and  when  I  left  Berlin,  my  last  look  was  at  the  nastur- 
tium window. 

Let  me  ask,  did  it  matter  much  which  the  boy 
raised,  beans  or  nasturtiums?  What  use  was  it  to  him, 
or  his  family,  or  the  tenants,  when  the  latter  all  joined 
in  the  chorus,  "  I  thought  so,"  or  "  I  told  him  he  could 
not  raise  beans"?  Let  each  one  try  nature's  forces  ; 
take  his  chance ;  and  twice  two  will  always  remain 
four. 

THE  CIRCLE  SQUARER. 

Professor  Newman  was  deeply  immersed  in  the 
correction  of  mathematical  examination  papers  when 
Bridget,  the  Irish  servant-girl,  handed  him  a  card, 
saying  :  "A  gentleman  wishes  to  see  you  ;  he  says  he 
is  a  mathematician  and  has  read  your  works."  The 
Professor  was  never  in  an  amiable  disposition  when 
confronted  with  the  blunders  of  his  students,  for  he 
felt  sick  at  heart  and  a  gloomy  pessimism  spread  over 
his  mind.  He  used  to  give  vent  to  his  bitter  feelings 
by  complaining  about  the  thick  skulls  of  the  human 
race  and  the  hard  life  of  a  teacher.  But  hearing  that 
there  was  a  man  who  had  read  his  works  and  appre- 
ciated them,  a  beam  of  sunshine  passed  over  his  face 
and  he  said  graciously,  "Show  the  gentleman  in!  " 

The  stranger  entered  and  Professor  Newman,  read- 
ing the  name  on  the  card,  addressed  him  with  a  ring 
of  expectancy  in  his  voice:  "Mr.  Charles  Gorner? 
What  can  I  do  for  you." 

Mr.  Gorner  bowed  politely.  He  was  tall  and 
strong,  wore  a  full  beard,  and  was  blessed  by  nature 
with  thick  hair.  There  was  a  certain  unsteadiness  in 
his  eyes,  but  no  evidence  of  a  lack  of  will-power.  His 
whole  appearance  indicated  that  he  was  capable  of 
enthusiasm  and  of  devotion  to  a  great  cause. 

"Have  I  the  honor,"  began  Mr.  Gorner,  hesitat- 


4122 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


ingly,  "of  addressing  the  famous  Professor  Newman, 
who  has  written  those  deep  researches  on  curves  of  the 
the  third  and  fourth  order  ?  " 

' '  I  am  the  same  Newman  who  has  written  on  curves 
of  the  third  and  fourth  order,"  replied  the  Professor, 
"but  modesty  forbids  me  to  concede  that  I  am  fa- 
mous." 

"Never  mind,  Professor,"  rejoined  Mr.  Corner, 
"you  are  famous  among  those  who  have  read  your 
works  and  can  appreciate  your  labors.  It  may  be  that 
you  are  not  widely  known  among  the  masses,  the  vul- 
gar and  uneducated  people.  But  all  who  are  mathe- 
matical scholars  will  ungrudgingly  testify  to  your  mer- 
its ;  and  I  myself  being  a  mathematician  count  myself 
among  your  admirers." 

The  two  gentlemen  shook  hands  and  the  stranger 
took  a  seat.  A  long  conversation  followed  on  general 
topics,  in  which  Mr.  Corner  showed  himself  not  unac- 
quainted with  the  modern  scientists  and  philosophers. 
The  various  subjects  were  only  lightly  touched  upon 
and  the  Professor  had  already  formed  a  good  opinion 
of  his  admirer,  when  the  latter  broached  a  new  topic. 
"  Have  you  ever  taken  any  interest  in  the  quadrature 
of  the  circle?" 

"No,  not  much,"  replied  the  Professor  coldly,  "I 
once  had  the  misfortune  of  being  interviewed  by  a 
Herald  reporter  and  dictated  to  him  a  few  remarks 
explaining  the  problem  in  brief  outlines  as  popularly 
as  possible." 

"What,  then,  is  your  solution  ?  "  asked  Mr.  Corner 
excitedly. 

"My  solution  ?  "  repeated  Professor  Newman,  and 
for  the  first  time  he  began  to  look  at  his  guest  with 
suspicion.  "Do  you  expect  me  to  say  that  a  geo- 
metrical construction  of  the  square  is  impossible  or  do 
you  want  my  solution  of  ;r?  Of  course  it  is  3.14159 
26535  89793.  etc.,  etc." 

"  I  see  !  "  said  Mr.  Corner,  "you  accept  the  usual 
solution  and  having  little  interest  in  the  problem,  you 
have  not  taken  the  trouble  to  examine  whether  the 
present  theory  of  n  is  correct  or  not.  I  have  made  it 
the  study  of  my  life  and  devoted  more  than  twenty 
years  of  most  concentrated  thought  upon  it.  You  may 
believe  me  or  not,  but  I  assure  you  I  have  solved  the 
problem.  I  have  come  solely  for  the  purpose  of  ac- 
quainting you  with  my  solution.  I  have  confidence  in 
your  ability  and  honesty.  Being  a  famous  mathema- 
tician yourself,  you  will  understand  at  once  the  great- 
ness of  my  feat ;  nor  will  you  begrudge  me  the  honor 
of  having  been  the  first  mathematician  to  make  this 
discovery.  I  shall  be  glad  to  give  you  my  solution  and 
propose  to  let  you  have  a  share  in  the  honor  of  its  dis- 
covery. For  I  am  unknown  in  the  mathematical  world 
and  you  have  all  the  facilities  for  presenting  it  to  the 
public." 


The  Professor  gazed  at  his  visitor  in  utter  dismay. 

"I  am  glad  to  see,"  continued  Mr.  Corner,  "that 
you  are  not  so  bigoted  as  your  colleagues  who  would 
even  refuse  to  listen  to  a  man  who  has  spent  thousands 
upon  thousands  in  the  interest  of  science." 

"  I  suppose  you  have  had  many  sad  experiences 
with  mathematicians,"  continued  the  Professor  sar- 
castically. "Undoubtedly  you  have  found  them  alto- 
gether too  dogmatic  for  your  advanced  views." 

"  Experiences?"  cried  Mr.  Corner,  "  Indeed  I  have 
had  enough  ;  but  I  will  shame  them  all  and  when  you 
publish  my  solution,  they  will  regret  having  rejected 
so  honorable  an  offer  !  " 

"My  dear  sir,"  said  the  Professor,  "I  cannot  pub- 
lish your  solution  whatever  it  may  be,  for  many  rea- 
sons. First,  to  confess  it  openly,  I  am  as  bigoted  and 
dogmatic  as  the  rest  of  my  colleagues,  and  then,  if 
you  have  truly  found  the  solution,  I  should  be  ashamed 
of  taking  any  of  the  honor  away  from  you.  Further- 
more, I  am  overburdened  with  work  and  can  under- 
take no  new  duties." 

"I  can  explain  to  you  my  solution  in  a  few  min- 
utes," said  Mr.  Corner,  "and  you  will  understand 
that  I  have  hit  it.  Have  but  a  little  patience,  we  may 
yet  come  to  terms.  Understand  me  aright.  Professor, 
I  do  not  want  you  to  trouble  with  the  subject  for  noth- 
ing. If  you  accept  my  offer  of  publishing  my  solution, 
I  shall  pay  you,  and  I  shall  pay  you  a  goodly  fee,  say 
a  couple  of  hundred  dollars.  There  is  money  in  it. 
Professor,  and  what  is  more,  there  is  honor  in  it.  My 
solution  is  the  only  correct  solution.  Or  do  you  think 
I  would  invest  so  much  money  in  it  if  I  were  not  quite 
sure  of  the  truth  ?" 

The  eyes  of  Mr.  Corner  were  glowing  with  enthu- 
siasm and  confidence,  and  the  Professor  felt  perfectly 
convinced  that  his  guest  was  a  remarkable  man  and 
that  he  must  have  discovered  something  extraordinary. 
To  overcome  the  spell  which  an  enthusiastic  convic- 
tion always  carries  with  it,  he  said  in  an  undertone,  as 
if  speaking  to  himself  :  "  The  quadrature  of  the  circle 
with  compasses  and  ruler  is  an  impossibility." 

Mr.  Corner  jumped  from  his  chair  in  excitement  : 
"Never  say  a  thing  is  impossible.  Remember  the 
story  of  Napoleon  the  Creat  when  waging  war  against 
England.  I  have  read  in  a  very  learned  book  on  his 
life  that  an  inventor  once  came  to  him  and  offered  him 
the  invention  of  propelling  ships  by  steam,  and  the 
Emperor  dismissed  him  as  one  would  send  away  a  man 
fit  for  a  lunatic  asylum.  Had  Napoleon  listened  to 
that  genius,  had  he  built  steamships  according  to  this 
proposition,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  beaten  the 
English,  and  the  world  would  have  been  his.  Napo- 
leon lost  his  chance,  because  he  said,  'That  is  impos- 
sible.' You  are  to-day  in  a  position  similar  to  that  of 
Napoleon,     Never  say  that   anything  is  impossible." 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


4123 


"  I  know,"  replied  Professor  Newman,  "that  many 
things  are  possible  which  we  regard  as  impossible ; 
but  there  are  things  which  are  impossible,  not  because 
they  are  very  difficult  to  achieve,  but  because  they 
involve  self-contradictions.  Look  here,"  and  draw- 
ing a  circle  on  a  sheet  of  paper,  he  added  :  "this  is  a 
circle.  Now,  it  is  impossible  to  draw  another  circle 
lying  in  the  same  plane  which  shall  cut  this  circle  in 
more  than  two  points.  Two  circles  in  the  same  plane 
either  do  not  intersect  at  all,  or  they  touch,  or  they 
cut  each  other  in  two  points.  If  I  request  you  to 
draw  a  circle  that  is  to  touch  another  circle  in  three 
points,  you  will  tell  me  :  'That  won't  do  ;  that  is  im- 
possible'; and  you  are  right.  It  is  impossible,  and 
the  squaring  of  the  circle  by  compasses  and  ruler  is 
impossible,  exactly  in  the  same  way;  the  ratio  of  the 
radius  and  the  circumference  cannot  be  expressed  in 
whole  numbers,  and  that  settles  the  question." 

"But,  my  dear  sir,"  replied  Mr.  Corner,  "I  know 
what  I  propose ;  and,  having  devoted  my  whole  life 
to  the  problem,  I  ought  to  know  better  than  you.  I 
do  not  dispute  that  you  know  more  about  curves  of 
the  third  and  fourth  order  than  I ;  so  do  not  envy  me 
my  claim  of  understanding  better  the  quadrature  of  the 
circle." 

The  Professor  tried  to  get  rid  of  his  visitor,  but  he 
found  him  too  adroit  and  too  eloquent  to  permit  the 
conversation  to  be  cut  off,  and  if  they  had  had  an  im- 
partial listener  unacquainted  with  mathematics,  he 
would  have  judged  that  the  Professor  was  a  narrow- 
minded  fool,  not  to  listen  to  the  propositions  of  so 
generous  and  enthusiastic  a  genius.  After  a  discussion 
of  about  two  hours  Mr.  Corner  left  the  Professor; 
now,  at  last,  he  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there 
was  no  hope  of  finding  a  professional  mathematician 
who  would  endorse  his  solution.  So  he  decided  to 
publish  his  theory  on  his  own  account. 

When  Mr.  Corner  arrived  at  his  hotel  he  found  a 
letter  from  home.  His  wife  complained  bitterly  about 
his  long  absence  and  urged  him  to  return.  "No,  I 
cannot,"  he  said  to  himself ;  "I  have  set  myself  a  high 
aim,  and  I  must  accomplish  my  purpose,  cost  what  it 
may.  He  felt  very  gloomy,  but  he  took  courage  again 
in  recollecting  the  miseries  which  had  never  been 
spared  to  genius.  "  Cheer  up  !  "  he  said  to  himself. 
"  Cheer  up  !  I  must  not  be  despondent.  A  great  fu- 
ture is  before  me.  And  I  reckon  that  the  sufferings 
of  this  present  time  are  not  worthy  to  be  compared 
with  the  glory  which  shall  be  revealed  in  me." 

The  next  morning  Mr.  Corner  went  to  the  library 
and  ordered  all  the  books  he  could  find  in  the  catalogue 
on  the  number  tt  and  the  quadrature  of  the  circle.  He 
soon  felt  his  inability  to  comprehend  the  formulas  and 
deductions,  but  remained,  nevertheless,  unshaken  in 
his  conviction  that  he  was  in  possession  of  the  truth. 


He  wrote  his  solution  down  and  added  a  few  other 
articles  which  had  been  suggested  to  him  while  dis- 
cussing his  favorite  topic  with  engineers  and  other 
practical  workers.  Having  heard  that  hitherto  no  one 
had  succeeded  in  constructing  a  perpetual-motion 
machine,  he  considered  the  difficulty  and  was  amazed 
that  he  at  once  saw  his  way  of  accomplishing  it.  In 
another  happy  moment  he  solved  the  problem  of  gravi- 
tation. There  was  not  the  slightest  doubt  to  him  that 
two  masses  were  pushed  toward  each  other  by  ether, 
which  thus  voluntarily  generated  electric  currents.  In 
glancing  through  Professor  Maxwell's  book,  "Matter 
and  Motion,"  he  discovered  several  grave  mistakes  as 
to  the  conditions  of  the  change  of  potential  into  kinetic 
energy.  He  put  down  his  objections  on  paper  and 
embodied  them  in  his  book.  Another  chapter  he  de- 
voted to  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  life.  Here  also 
he  resorted  to  electricity;  as  soon  as  we  understand 
that  the  brain  is  a  kind  of  battery  which  on  proper 
occasions  causes  electric  discharges,  we  shall  at  once 
comprehend  the  true  nature  of  vitalism. 

After  several  weeks'  labor  the  book  was  completed 
and  elegantly  typewritten,  and  the  author  had  only  to 
add  a  preface.  What  an  unspeakable  joy  overcame 
him  when  he  contemplated  the  scope  of  his  achieve- 
ments. All  the  great  problems  of  science  were  here 
discussed  and  correctly  solved.  The  mysteries  of  be- 
ing were  explained,  and  the  glory  of  Cod,  heretofore 
dimmed  by  unbelief  and  superstition,  shone  brightly 
again.  And  the  instrument  of  attaining  this  all  had 
not  been  a  learned  professor,  but  a  relatively  unschooled 
man !  A  sentiment  of  modest  pride —  a  truly  religious 
gladness  entered  his  soul,  and  he  felt  himself  in  the 
presence  of  Cod.  A  pious  gratitude  seized  him,  and 
he  wrote  his  preface  in  a  moment  of  holy  inspiration. 
He  confessed  that  he  himself  was  but  like  a  child, 
ignorant  and  unskilled  ;  but  by  the  grace  of  Cod  he 
had  been  chosen  as  an  unworthy  vehicle  of  divine 
revelation.  "  To-day, "  he  wrote,  "  the  prophecy  has 
been  fulfilled.  The  Lord  knoweth  the  thoughts  of  the 
wise  that  they  are  vain  ;  he  taketh  the  wise  in  their 
own  craftiness ;  and  I  can  truly  rejoice  with  Jesus 
Christ  when  he  said  :  '  I  thank  thee,  O  Father,  Lord 
of  heaven  and  earth,  because  thou  hast  hid  these 
things  from  the  wise  and  prudent  and  hast  revealed 
them  unto  babes.  Even  so,  Father,  for  so  it  seemed 
good  in  thy  sight.  The  sages  of  the  world  are  blinded 
by  their  own  haughtiness  so  as  not  to  see  the  truth. 
They  proclaim  the  irrationality  of  rr,  thus  rendering 
the  whole  universe  irrational,  the  motions  of  the  ce- 
lestial spheres  not  less  than  the  circular  whirls  of  the 
imperceptibly  small  atoms.  Since  Cod,  the  Lord,  re- 
vealed to  me  the  true  nature  of  tt,  we  can  now  proudly 
say  that  the  circle  has  been  squared,  and  the  square 
has  been  circled." 


4124 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  book  was  finished,  and  its  title  read  :  "The 
Quadrature  of  the  Circle,  a  Revelation";  and  no  more 
appropriate  motto  could  be  found  than  St.  Paul's  sen- 
tence from  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  i,  22  :  "Pro- 
fessing themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became  fools." 

Thus  far  Mr.  Corner's  work  had  proceeded  satis- 
factorily, but  now  his  troubles  again  began.  He  went 
from  publisher  to  publisher,  and  met  with  the  same 
fate  everywhere.  They  gave  various  excuses,  but  all 
of  them  refused  to  publish  the  book,  even  though  he 
would  stand  the  whole  cost.  At  last,  however,  he  was 
successful  in  his  quest.  A  clerk  in  one  of  the  great 
publishing-houses  knew  of  a  young  enterprising  prin- 
ter, Mr.  Erich  Whyte,  who  would  not  only  be  glad  to 
undertake  the  job,  but  would  also  be  interested  in  his 
work.  "Mr.  Whyte,"  he  added,  "is  a  talented  man 
and  quite  a  scholar.  He  is  President  of  the  Progres- 
sive Thinkers'  Club  and  may  be  he  will  invite  you  to 
give  them  a  lecture  on  your  discoveries." 

Mr.  Corner  called  on  Mr.  Whyte  and  found  him 
willing  to  undertake  the  publication  of  the  booklet, 
terms  cash  in  advance.  Concerning  the  Progressive 
Thinkers'  Club,  Mr.  Whyte  said  that  he  would  be  de- 
lighted to  introduce  Mr.  Corner,  especially  as  he  rec- 
ognised his  great  scientific  abilities.  "Our  club,  you 
ought  to  know,"  said  Mr.  Whyte,  "consists  of  very 
prominent  scholars  who  have  distinguished  themselves 
in  their  various  branches  and  I  must  be  careful  not  to 
invite  men  that  are  of  no  consequence.  At  our  last 
meeting  we  listened  to  the  lecture  of  Mr.  Hamlin  of 
London,  England.  He  came  to  me  with  an  introduc- 
tion from  some  philosophical  academy  of  high  stand- 
ing, I  believe  it  was  the  Royal  Society.  Let  me  see  ! 
I  have  the  letter  in  my  desk.     Here  it  is." 

Mr.  Whyte  took  out  an  elegantly  emblazoned  docu- 
ment, duly  sealed  and  signed  by  the  President  of  the 
Kings  of  Wisdom,  a  society  for  propagating  the  truth 
and  promoting  the  welfare  of  England,  and  handed  it 
to  Mr.  Corner.  "Mr.  Hamlin,"  he  said,  "is  a  man 
of  great  renown  in  his  country,  and  I  am  told  that  the 
Royal  Society,  of  which  he  is  a  member,  enjoys  a  high 
reputation.  But  imagine,  he  denies  the  Copernican 
system  !  Here  is  a  pamphlet  of  his  in  which  he  chal- 
lenges the  whole  world  to  prove  that  the  earth  is  re- 
volving round  the  sun.  We  had  a  great  discussion. 
You  ought  to  have  heard  it.  Mrs.  Hilman,  our  astrol- 
oger, plied  him  hard,  but  whether  his  theory  is  correct 
or  not,  he  defended  his  views  very  ably.  Especially 
the  scriptural  evidence  seemed  to  me  very  strong." 

Mr.  Corner  did  not  seem  to  relish  Mr.  Whyte's 
admiration  for  one  who  proposed  to  overthrow  the 
Copernican  system.  He  observed  that  the  Club  of  the 
Kings  of  Wisdom  was  not  the  Royal  Society  of  Eng- 
land, but  Mr.  Whyte  stuck  to  his  belief  that  the  latter 
was  merely  a  popular  name  for  the  former.     He  in- 


sisted on  the  fact  that  royal  means  kingly  and  if  there 
was  a  difference,  it  must  be  very  slight. 

Was  Mr.  Corner  aware  that  Mr.  Hamlin's  case  was 
closely  analogous  to  his  own  ?  No,  he  was  not ;  but 
may  be  he  felt  it  in  the  unconscious  depths  of  his  soul. 
A  sentiment  of  jealousy  took  hold  of  him,  and  he  could 
not  help  hating  and  despising  Mr.  Hamlin,  not  because 
he  had  propounded  a  nonsensical  theory,  but  because 
he  imagined  that  he  was  known  and  admired  in  Eng- 
land, and  sure  to  become  famous  within  a  few  months 
in  America.  He  took  the  pamphlet,  sat  down  and 
read  it.     It  began  as  follows  : 

"Is  there  such  another  instance  on  record,  where  one  indi- 
vidual has  for  exactly  twenty  years  (from  January,  1870,  to  Jan- 
uary, i8go)  stood  his  ground  against  all  the  most  scientific  and 
highly  educated  men  of  the  day,  and  who  has,  over  and  over  again, 
challenged  all  the  Astronomers,  all  the  Geographers,  all  the  Geolo- 
gists, all  the  Educational  Professors,  all  the  Practical  Men  in  the 
United  Kingdom  to  submit  one  single  fact  in  support  of  the  Globu- 
lar Theory,  which  could  not  be  openly  shown  to  be  a  baseless  fic- 
tion and  a  grossly  false  invention,  without  one  redeeming  feature 
to  justify  its  adoption  or  excuse  its  retention  in  our  schools  and 
colleges,  however  supported  it  may  be  by  all  the  pulpits  and  press- 
men in  the  world  ?  It  has  been  unremittingly  and  publicly  de- 
nounced as  not  only  unscriptural,  but  irrational,  unscientific,  and 
opposed  by  every  test  to  which  ingenuity  and  skill  could  appeal. 
And  the  most  unanswerable  proof  of  its  spurious  character  is  the 
fact  that  during  the  whole  of  those  twenty  years,  no  man  of  honor 
or  possessed  of  any  scientific  reputation  or  occupying  any  social 
position,  has  ventured  to  oppose  Mr.  Hamlin  or  make  the  feeblest 
effort  to  justify  or  plead  for  the  truth  of  one  single  condition  con- 
nected with  the  globular  theory!  " 

We  spare  the  reader  and  content  ourselves  with 
adding  the  resume  of  the  pamphlet,  which  sums  up 
Mr.  Hamlin's  view  as  follows  : 

"  The  Earth  can  be  naught  else  than  a  motionless  plane,  with 
the  Sun,  Moon,  and  Stars  revolving  at  very  moderate  distances 
above  us.  This  is  the  truth  of  God,  who  described  the  heaven  as 
His  throne  and  the  earth  as  His  footstool  ;  while  the  notion  of  a 
revolving  Globe  is  an  impious  blasphemy,  contradicting  every 
Scriptural  text  from  Genesis  to  Revelations,  and  contrary  to  every 
sense  and  faculty  with  which  the  Almighty  has  endowed  us  !  " 

On  the  back  of  the  pamphlet  the  announcement 
was  displayed  in  big  letters  : 

"A  premium  of  £^0  will  be  paid  to  any  Parochial  Charity  in 
England,  provided  the  incumbent  can  furnish  or  obtain  any  justi- 
fication for  teaching  these  Pagan  superstitions  to  the  children  or 
students  of  all  the  schools  and  colleges  of  this  professedly  protes- 
tant  kingdom  ; — showing  when  and  by  whom  they  were  introduced 
and  authorised,  and  the  ages  of  the  pupils  on  whom  they  were 
originally  imposed." 

Having  brooded  for  a  time  over  the  pamphlet  of 
this  powerful  rival  for  fame,  Mr.  Corner  said  :  "I  shall 
refute  Mr.  Hamlin's  proposition  ;  he  is  no  scientist ; 
he  knows  nothing  of  mathematics  and  does  not  under- 
stand the  proper  explanation  of  the  passages  from  the 
Bible.  He  says  'the  Mosaic  records  are  unassailable,' 
—  of  course  they  are  unassailable,  but  we  must  be  able 
to  read  between  the  lines.     A  literal  interpretation  is 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4125 


inadmissible.  Mr.  Hamlin's  theory  may  find  recog- 
nition in  old,  conservative  England,  but  it  won't  do 
for  the  United  States.  Americans  are  too  progressive, 
too  much  advanced  for  that  !  " 

Mr.  Whyte  suspended  his  judgment.  He  said  he 
was  an  agnostic  and  if  he  was  convinced  of  anything, 
it  was  that  we  were  groping  in  the  dark.  "After  all," 
he  said,  "what  do  we  know  for  certain?  All  the  prop- 
ositions of  science  and  philosophy  are  mere  make- 
shifts. Is  not  matter  an  unfathomable  mystery?  If 
we  analyse  the  idea  of  motion,  we  find  that  it  is  a  self- 
contradiction.  Nor  do  we  know  what  spirit  is.  Phys- 
icists call  one  mode  of  the  Unknowable  'kinetic  en- 
ergy '  and  another  mode  of  the  Unknowable  '  potential 
energy,'  and  say  that  one  changes  into  the  other.  We 
express  'mind'  in  terms  of  'matter'  and  'matter'  in 
terms  of  '  mind  '  and  not  knowing  either,  we  explain 
the  unknown  quantity  x  by  another  unknown  quan- 
tity^.     Is  not  that  the  sum  total  of  all  philosophy?" 

Mr.  Corner  did  not  know  what  to  answer,  and  Mr. 
Whyte  continued:  "Our  school  philosophers,  to  be 
sure,  imagine  they  have  found  the  truth.  You  ought 
to  know  best  how  conceited  they  are.  They  think  they 
have  found  the  value  of  tt,  they  make  long  incompre- 
hensible calculations  and  won't  allow  anybody  else  to 
have  an  opinion  on  the  subject.  I  am  glad  to  meet 
a  scholar  like  you  brave  enough  to  defy  them  all  and 
who  has  the  courage  of  his  convictions.  Well,  let  us 
learn  from  you,  and  explain  us  your  solution  at  the 
next  meeting  of  the  Progressive  Thinkers'  Club.  Will 
you?  " 

The  two  gentlemen  parted,  and  Mr.  Corner  felt 
that  he  had  now  at  last  found  the  opportunity  of  com- 
ing to  the  front  in  a  dignified  manner,  and  success 
would  soon  dawn  upon  his  great  undertaking. 

[to  be  concluded.] 


SCIENCE  AND  PROGRESS. 


NAMELESS  EVILS. 
The  neglect  of  the  once  flourishing  science  of  enforcing  si- 
lence is  as  creditable  to  our  latter-day  type  of  civilisation  as  the 
decadence  of  the  arts  devoted  to  the  manufacture  of  inquisitorial 
instruments  of  torture,  Sir  William  Jones,  in  the  second  volume 
of  his  "Asiatic  Researches,"  discusses  the  tradition  of  the  Vam- 
pire King,  who  once  reigned  over  the  kingdom  of  Ayoda  (the 
modern  Oude),  and  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  insatiable 
and  complaint-suppressing  monster  was  a  despot  who  had  brought 
the  control  of  free  speech  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  Justin- 
ian and  Philip  the  Second,  too,  were  past-masters  of  the  art  of 
silencing  adverse  comments;  but  Louis  XIV.  already  realised  the 
difficulty  of  controlling  the  activity  of  the  press,  and  that  threat- 
defying  power  has  since  become  so  irresistible  that  even  the  tem- 
porary suppression  of  truth  can  be  eifected  only  by  the  trick  of 
excluding  certain  topics  from  the  arena  of  free  inquiry.  The  sup- 
porters of  moribund  dogmas  have  secured  a  respite  by  persuading 
the  public  that  the  exposure  of  pious  frauds  is  "in  bad  taste, "and 
our  American  boodle-politicians  appear  to  have  attained  the  same 
end  by  inducing  party-organs  of  all  classes  to  avoid  discussion  of 


the  Pension  Outrage,  the  insatiable  vampire  that  is  draining  the 
life-blood  of  silent,  or  rather  temporarily  silenced,  victims. 

MENTAL  CLASS  PRIVILEGES. 
Emile  Zola  maintains  that  all  people  of  superior  talents  are 
aristocrats  by  instinct,  and  predicts  that  the  coming  age  of  com- 
munism and  Bellamy  workhouse  republics  will  be  highly  unaus- 
picious  to  the  development  of  genius.  "One  tendency  of  radical 
democracies,"  he  says,  "is  always  to  suppress  intellectual  pre- 
eminence, and  a  triumphant  />/eis  would  be  sure  to  gratify  its  se- 
cret grudge  against  aristocrats, — the  aristocrats  of  nature  not  ex- 
cepted." But  is  there  really  any  such  danger?  Mental  energy 
and  knowledge  are  powers  in  a  mob-meeting,  not  less  than  in  a 
congress  of  kings,  and  the  French  nation  cannot  have  forgotten  its 
boast  that  the  revolution  gave  talents  of  all  sorts  an  unprecedented 
chance  of  recognition.  Marat,  with  all  his  crotchets,  had  a  clearer 
insight  into  the  principles  of  popularity.  "We  have  got  rid  of 
the  cagots  [clerical  obscurantists]  so  do  not  be  afraid  to  show  your 
talents,"  he  told  a  cautious  colleague,  "the  world  needs  them  too 
much  to  neglect  them ;  only  take  care  not  to  assume  any  pompous 
titles  or  emblazon  your  coach  with  a  coat-of-arms." 

A  PROGRESSIVE  MANIA. 
The  Anti-Sport  Association  of  British  prudes  and  hypocrites 
has  far  eclipsed  the  programme  of  the  primitive  Quakers,  and  may 
soon  reach  a  state  of  sanctity  that  will  question  a  man's  right  to 
attend  a  game  of  lawn-tennis.  Before  the  accession  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  bull-fights  were  considered  rather  tame,  unless  the 
managers  could  secure  the  co-operation  of  an  able-bodied  bear; 
but  in  i8i2,  when  Lord  Wellington  held  the  military  dictatorship 
of  Portugal,  a  committee  of  British  moralists  urged  him  to  use  his 
influence  for  the  suppression  of  bull-rings  and  the  introduction  of 
race-courses,  Catalonian  wrestling-matches,  and  similar  unobjec- 
tionable pastimes.  The  descendants  of  those  reformers  now  groan 
in  spirit  at  the  recollection  of  that  compromise  project.  "The 
newspaper-battle  over  Lord  Rosebery's  connexion  with  the  turf 
continues  with  more  bitterness  than  ever, "  says  a  London  cable- 
gram. "  The  provincial  journals  have  joined  in  the  hue  and  cry, 
and  it  is  noteworthy  that  several  Scotch  newspapers,  which  were 
among  the  strongest  supporters  of  Mr,  Gladstone,  have  fiercely 
attacked  Lord  Rosebery's  horse-racing  proclivities,  comparing 
Mr.  Gladstone's  scholarly  pursuits  with  his  successor's  partaking 
in  what  they  call  a  carnival  of  brutality  and  wickedness. "  Evi- 
dently, this  is  an  age  of  progress.  Before  the  end  of  the  twentieth 
century,  Premier  Daisyblossom  will  have  to  kneel  in  penance  on 
the  back  porch  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  expiate  a  foible 
for  canary-bird  shows.  "No  self-respecting  Christian,  "his  Scotch 
censors  will  remark,  ' '  can  afford  to  waste  a  vote  on  this  abettor  of 
worldliness  and  impenitence.  Let  him  prove  his  contrition  by 
enforcing  the  suppression  of  zoological  gardens  and  similar  vani- 
ties, unworthy  of  a  tithe-paying  nation,  and  emulate  the  scholarly 
pursuits  of  Mr.  Gravestone,  who  has  just  published  a  second 
treatise  on  the  'Aramaic  Evidences  of  the  Post-Pauline  Miracles.'  " 

SCHOOL  SUBVENTIONS. 
The  school-boards  of  Camden  and  Jersey  City  have  decided 
to  furnish  the  children  of  the  poor  free  books,  and,  in  case  of  need, 
one  meal  a  day  (a  plate  of  vegetable  soup  with  a  piece  of  bread 
and  meat),  and  New  York  papers  question  the  expedience  of  brib- 
ing the  young  citizens  of  an  intelligent  commonwealth  to  accept 
the  boon  of  a  free  education.  But  is  the  special  form  of  that 
"bribe"  any  worse  than  the  gratuitous  provision  of  fuel  and 
weather-proof  buildings? — or  worse  than  the  billions  expended  to 
purchase  connivance  at  the  curse  of  dogmatic  and  political  stulti- 
fication ?  If  the  distribution  of  food  to  starving  school-children  is 
"  Socialism  "  the  doctrines  of  Charles  Fourier  have  their  redeem- 
ing features. 


4126 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


THE  AMERICAN  INQUISITION. 

The  Index  Exfiirgatorius,  published  by  Grand  Inquisitor  Com- 
stock,  now  includes  the  following  interactional  classics ;  "Ovid's 
Art  of  Love,  Decameron,  Tom  Jones,  Rousseau's  Confessions, 
Heptameron,  Rabelais,  Aladdin,  Thousand  and  One  Nights."  With 
a  single  exception,  not  one  of  the  works  named  can  plead  guilty 
to  the  sins  of  prurience  which  half  a  dozen  American  sensation 
journals  repeat  week  after  week,  and  in  three  of  the  others  the 
objectionable  passages  occur  as  incidentally  as  in  the  historical 
books  of  the  Old  Testament.  Mr.  Comstock  might  as  well  im- 
peach the  biographies  of  Plutarch  or  Hallam's  "History  of  the 
Middle  Ages." 

WEEKLY  TRIALS. 

The  Mohammedans  of  British  India  have  founded  a  theolo- 
gical college  at  Agra,  where  fifteen  professors,  with  six  assistants, 
will  expound  the  doctrine  of  the  Moslem  Scriptures.  Thus  far, 
the  patronage  of  the  institution  is,  however,  so  slight  that  lectures 
will  be  delivered  only  on  three  days  of  the  week.  The  rest  of  the 
time  will  probably  be  taken  up  by  heresy  trials,r;ince  the  lecturers 
are  required  to  teach  the  absolute  infallibility  of  the  Koran. 

REFINEMENTS  OF  NOMENCLATURE. 
The  Druses  of  Mount  Lebanon  stick  to  the  belief  that  Satan 
can  be  invoked  with  impunity  if  the  conjurer  will  only  observe  the 
precaution  to  avoid  vulgar  forms  of  nomenclature.  Instead  of 
calling  the  enemy  of  mankind  "Clootie"  or  "  Old  Scratch,"  he 
should  address  him  as  "the  Lord  of  the  Grand  Furnace,"  or  "the 
Gentleman  with  the  Coat-tail  Arabesque."  Our  American  con- 
temporaries seem  to  incline  to  a  similar  theory.  The  Mexican 
bushwhackers,  who  steal  pigs  and  pack-saddles  under  political 
pretexts,  call  themselves  "  Patriots."  Our  rum-hole  spiders  invite 
flies  to  their  "saloons,"  and  the  Coxey  hobogogues,  who  have  all 
along  refused  to  accept  any  kind  of  work,  on  any  terms  of  remun- 
eration, now  describe  their  followers  as  "  The  Industrial  Army  of 
the  United  States  of  America."  Felix  L.  Oswald. 


BOOK  REVIEWS. 

The  Political  Economy  of  Natural  Law.  By  Henry  WooJ. 
Boston  :  Lee  and  Shephard.  1894.  Pp.  305.  Price  $1.25. 
From  its  title  one  would  expect  a  more  rigorous  and  learned 
treatise  than  this.  The  general  purpose  of  the  volume  "is  the 
"  outlining  of  a  political  economy  which  is  natural  and  practical, 
"rather  than  artificial  and  theoretical.  While  independent  of 
"professional  methods,  it  aims  to  be  usefully  suggestive  to  the 
"  popular  mind.  As  a  treatise,  it  is  not  scholastic,  statistical,  or 
"historic  but  rather  an  earnest  search  for  inherent  laws  and  prin- 
' '  ciples. "  The  work  is  conveniently  cut  up  into  a  number  of  short 
and  simple  discussions  of  the  principal  questions  of  political  econ- 
omy, such  as :  Supply  and  Demand,  The  Law  of  Competition, 
The  Law  of  Co-operation,  Labor  and  Production,  Combinations 
of  Capital,  Combinations  of  Labor,  Employers  and  Profit  Sharing, 
Employees  :  Their  Obligations  and  Privileges,  Governmental  Arbi- 
tration, Economic  Legislation  and  Its  Proper  Limits,  Dependence 
and  Poverty,  Socialism  as  a  Political  System,  Can  Capital  and 
Labor  be  Harmonised,  Wealth  and  Its  Unequal  Distribution,  The 
Law  of  Centralisation,  Action  and  Reaction  or  "Booms"  and 
Panics,  Money  and  Coinage,  Tariffs  and  Protection,  The  Modern 
Corporation,  The  Abuses  of  Corporate  Management,  The  Evolu- 
tion of  the  Railroad,  Industrial  Education.  The  general  reader 
will  obtain  much  suggestive  information  from  the  work.  On  some 
main  questions,  Mr.  Wood's  views  are  in  our  judgment  not  logi- 
cally worked  out,  but  in  the  discussion  of  subordinate  topics  he 
always  throws  out  valuable  practical  hints.  His  views  on  "De- 
pendence and  Poverty,"  on  "Wealth  and  Its  Unequal  Distribu- 
tion," and  on  "  Industrial  Education  "  are  excellent.  "  The  great 
educational  lack  of  the  present  day,"  he  says  in  the  latter  place, 


"is  in  morality  and  industry."  One  dangerous  methodological 
contention  of  Mr.  Wood  is,  that  intellectual  logic  is  inadequate  to 
the  delicate  interpretation  of  Natural  Law,  and  of  its  articulated 
adjustment  to  human  affairs.  "  Intuition  alone,"  he  says,  "  is  able 
"  to  put  its  ear  to  the  ground  and  distinguish  between  discordant, 
"even  though  faint  jars,  and  concordant  vibrations.  Only  that 
"delicate  insight  which  lies  deeper  than  a  mere  intellectual  ac- 
"  count  of  phenomena,  can  cognise  the  lights  and  shades  of  those 
"fine  but  immutable  golden  threads  which  are  shot  through  the 
"  entire  social  fabric." 

We  may  end  by  quoting  his  excellent  conclusion  which  dis- 
tinctly signalises  the  point  of  view  of  the  work.  "  Man  is  One  ; 
"  and  just  in  the  measure  that  that  grand  fact  is  installed  in  human 
"consciousness,  are  all  the  natural  principles  found  to  be  altru- 
"  istic.  Any  philosophy  of  Humanity  is  incomplete  which  does 
"  not  regard  it  as  an  Organism.  Its  members,  though  unlike,  have 
"  one  interest  and  one  order.  Any  suffering  or  rejoiceing  cannot 
"  be  localised,  for  its  vibrations  thrill  to  the  utmost  limits."     McC. 


NOTES. 

Dr.  Paul  von  Ritter  of  Basel,  an  ardent  admirer  of  The  mo- 
nistic philosophy  and  a  personal  friend  of  Prof.  Ernst  Haeckel, 
has  founded  at  the  University  of  Jena  a  new  chair  which  shall  be 
called  "The  Haeckel  Professorship  for  Geology  and  Palaeontol- 
ogy." At  the  same  time  information  reaches  us  that  the  Linnsean 
Society  of  London  has  given  to  Professor  Haeckel,  for  his  merits 
in  biological  research,  the  great  gold  medal  which  is  only  awarded 
every  tenth  year. 

We  are  requested  by  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  City  of 
Chicago  to  announce  that  the  examination  of  candidates  (gentle- 
men and  ladies)  for  the  position  of  Assistants  at  the  City  High 
Schools  in  Mechanical  and  Art  Drawing,  Water  Colors,  etc.,  will 
take  place  July  5,  1894,  at  9  A.  M.,  in  the  West  Division  High 
School,  corner  Congress  Street  and  Ogden  Avenue.  Paper,  Char- 
coal, and  Drawing-Boards  will  be  supplied.  By  addressing  the 
Supervisor  at  the  offices  of  the  Board  of  Education,  City  Hall, 
Third  Floor,  any  further  information  will  be  given. 

THE   OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  356. 

LIBERAL    RELIGIOUS    AFFAIRS    IN    THE    WEST. 

Celia  Parker  Woolley 41 19 

WOMAN  EMANCIPATION,  WILL  IT  BE  A  SUCCESS? 

Dr.  Marie  E.  Zakrzewska 4120 

THE  CIRCLE  SQUARER.     Editor 4121 

SCIENCE  AND  PROGRESS  :  Nameless  Evils.  Mental 
Class  Privileges.  A  Progressive  Mania.  School  Sub- 
ventions.    The  American  Inquisition.     Weekly  Trials. 

Refinements  of  Nomenclature.     Felix  L.  Oswald 4125 

BOOK  REVIEWS 4126 

NOTES 4>26 


r>~jJ 


The  Open  Court. 


A  ■WTEEKLY  JOURNAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  357.     (Vol.  VIII.— 26.) 


CHICAGO,  JUNE  28,   il 


1  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Autbor  and  Publisher. 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  IN  FRANCE. 

BY    THEODORE  STANTON. 

The  energetic  effort  being  made  in  New  York  State 
to  have  the  Constitutional  Convention  strike  out  the 
word  "male"  from  the  article  establishing  the  qualifi- 
cations for  the  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise,  has 
called  wide-spread  attention  to  the  question  of  woman 
suffrage.  It  has  occurred  to  me,  therefore,  that  it 
might  be  interesting  to  see  what  has  been  thought  and 
done  in  regard  to  this  same  subject  in  France,  which 
in  the  field  of  ideas,  at  least,  has  always  led  the  world. 
Though  it  is  true  that  France  has  accomplished  less 
than  several  other  European  countries  in  the  practical 
amelioration  of  woman's  condition,  it  long  ago  solved 
theoretically  the  "woman  question,"  as  it  has  solved 
nearly  all  of  the  other  great  political  and  social  prob- 
lems of  the  nineteenth  century.  What  her  thinkers 
and  reformers  have  written  and  spoken,  other  more 
favorably  situated  nations  have  put  into  practice. 

Condorcet,  whom  Mill  pronounces  "one  of  the 
wisest  and  noblest  of  men,"  spoke  out  repeatedly  and 
plainly,  on  the  eve  of  the  French  Revolution,  in  favor 
of  the  rights  of  women.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  declare 
for  their  political  enfranchisement.  Nor  did  he  stand 
alone  in  holding  this  opinion.  Michelet  paints  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  celebrated  orator  and  member  of  the 
Convention,  Abb6  Fauchet,  speaking,  in  1790,  on  this 
subject,  with  Condorcet  among  his  listeners.  Sieyes, 
Saint-Just  and  other  leaders  of  the  epoch  have  left  on 
record  eloquent  appeals  for  the  enlarging  of  woman's 
public  sphere. 

Neither  was  the  press  of  the  Revolution  silent  on 
the  subject.  Besides  the  numerous  tracts,  pamphlets, 
and  books  written  for  and  against  the  question,  several 
newspapers  came  out  warmly  for  extending  the  liber- 
ties of  women.  And  more  than  one  bill  passed  by  the 
Assembly  and  Convention  put  these  ideas  on  the  sta- 
tute books  in  the  form  of  laws. 

Nor  were  women  themselves  passive  spectators  of 
this  movement  in  their  favor.  Several  petitions,  drawn 
up  by  female  pens,  prove  this.  One  of  these  petitions, 
bearing  the  date  of  1789,  prays  for  the  granting  of 
women's  civil  and  political  rights  and  their  admission 
to  membership  in  the  legislature,  while  another  begs 


that  both  sexes  be  placed  on  an  exact  equality  and 
that  even  the  pulpit  be  opened  to  women, — not  a  slight 
request  in  a  Catholic  country. 

Thus  the  advocacy  of  great  men  and  the  activity  of 
women  themselves  seemed,  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Revolution,  to  portend  the  opening  of  a  new  era  for 
the  female  sex.  But  what  followed  would  appear  to 
justify  the  assertion  which  has  been  made,  that  the 
authors  of  the  revolt  were  only  using  women  for  the 
advancement  of  selfish  ends.  It  is  certain  that  when 
the  revolutionary  movement  was  well  under  way,  these 
men  deserted  their  early  coadjutors.  In  the  beginning, 
women  were  encouraged  to  found  clubs  and  their  ardor 
in  the  cause  was  applauded,  but  the  object  gained, 
these  clubs  were  abolished,  this  ardor  checked  and 
women  saw  themselves  finally  tlyust  back  into  their 
old  dependent  and  circumscribed  position. 

The  Republic  was  gradually  merged  into  the  Em- 
pire, which  was  the  coup  de  grace  to  the  aspirations  of 
the  women  of  1789.  The  Empire  not  only  dissipated 
their  day-dreams,  but  it  fastened  the  Napoleonic  code 
about  their  necks,  with  all  its  indignities  and  injus- 
tices, which,  with  scarcely  an  exception  have  remained 
in  force  even  down  to  the  present  hour.  It  was  a  fatal 
hour  for  women's  interests.  The  general  public  had 
not  forgotten  the  many  disorders  in  which  the  female 
revolutionists  had  participated  and  was  unfriendly  to 
the  weaker  sex.  The  codifiers  were  dry  old  followers 
of  the  Roman  law,  and  Bonaparte,  woman's  evil  genius, 
was  all-powerful  among  them.  The  spirit  with  which 
the  Emperor  entered  upon  his  task  may  be  judged 
from  this  remark  to  his  colleagues  :  "A  husband  ought 
to  have  absolute  control  over  the  actions  of  his  wife. 
He  should  have  the  right  to  say  to  her  :  '  Madam,  you 
shall  not  go  out ;  Madam,  you  shall  not  go  to  the 
theater  ;  Madam,  }'ou  shall  not  see  such  or  such  a  per- 
son.' " 

Then  came  the  reactionary  Restoration  whose  views 
were  well  exemplified  in  this  ipse  dixit  of  one  of  its 
philosophers,  M.  de  Bonald  :  "Man  and  woman  are 
not  equals  and  can  never  become  such."  Divorce  was 
abolished  and  an  attempt  was  even  made  by  the  gov- 
ernment to  re-establish  primogeniture,  which  would 
have  been  a  tremendous  blow  to  women,  for  the  French 
law  of  inheritance  places  daughters  on  an  absolutely 


^ 


# 


4128 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


equal  footing  with  sons,  one  of  the  very  few  provisions 
of  the  Napoleonic  code  treating  both  sexes  alike. 

With  the  liberal  reawakening  of  1830  the  Woman 
Question  revived.  The  socialists,  individual  women, 
societies,  and  the  newspapers  began  to  turn  their  at- 
tention to  the  subject.  During  Louis  Philippe's  reign 
two  or  three  women's  rights  journals  appeared  at  Paris. 
One  of  these  was  edited  by  Mme.  Poutret  de  Mau- 
champs  who  used  the  same  argument  to  prove  that 
the  Charter  of  1830  conferred  political  rights  on  French 
women  as  do  the  American  advocates  of  woman  suf- 
frage in  their  interpretation  of  the  United  States  Con- 
stitution. She  took  the  ground  that  in  proclaiming 
the  political  enfranchisement  of  French  men,  the  ge- 
neric term  was  used,  so  that  the  new  Charter  of  Lib- 
erties included  French  women  in  its  provisions.  Every 
issue  of  Mme.  de  Mauchamps's  paper — La  Gazette  des 
Fe?n»ies,  which  is  to  be  found  at  the  Paris  National 
Library — contains  a  petition  addressed  to  king  and 
Parliament  praying  for  reforms  in  the  code,  for  polit- 
ical rights,  for  the  admission  of  women  to  the  Institute 
and  to  the  universities,  etc.  These  petitions  were  ably 
drawn  up,  sensible  in  their  claims  and  some  of  their 
demands — the  opening  of  the  universities  to  women, 
for  instance — were  granted  in  subsequent  years.  They 
were  sometimes  reported  by  the  Committees  of  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  and  briefly  discussed,  but  were 
heaped  with  ridicule  and  soon  forgotten, — a  striking 
commentary  on  the  seriousness  of  French  legislators 
and  their  high  opinion  of  the  capabilities  of  the  other 
sex.  It  should  be  added,  however,  that  what  was  true 
in  1830  would  not  be  true  in  1894.  Some  progress  has 
unquestionably  been  made,  in  this  respect,  in  France 
during  the  past  sixty  years,  as  will  be  shown  further  on 
in  this  article.  But  much  more  still  remains  to  be  made. 

That  this  demand  for  women's  political  rights  at- 
tracted some  share  of  public  attention  during  Louis 
Philippe's  reign  is  evidenced  in  several  ways.  Thus, 
at  one  of  the  elections  several  voters  cast  their  ballots 
for  the  candidate's  wife,  rather  than  for  the  candidate 
himself,  as  a  protest  against  the  exclusion  of  women 
from  political  life.  During  this  same  period  Laboulaye 
published  an  important  essay  on  the  civil  and  political 
condition  of  women,  and  M.  Legouv^,  whose  father 
sang,  in  1801,  the  "  Merit  of  Women"  in  a  celebrated 
poem,  lectured  in  the  College  of  France  on  the  "Moral 
History  of  Woman,"  these  lectures  being  broaght  to- 
gether later  into  a  volume  with  the  foregoing  title. 
The  book  is  very  liberal  in  tone  and  written  in  a  charm- 
ing style.  It  was  soon  read  all  over  Europe  and  is 
still  remembered.  "  Equality  in  difference"  was  its 
keynote.  "The  question  is  not  to  make  woman  a 
man,  but  to  complete  man  by  woman,"  the  author  says 
elsewhere  in  the  volume. 

While  this  Platonic  consideration  of   the  Woman 


Question  was  in  progress,  the  revolution  of  1848  sud- 
denly burst  upon  France,  and  for  a  moment  it  seemed 
as  if  the  era  of  female  emancipation  had  come  at  last. 
But  the  magnificent  dreams  of  the  second  Republic 
were  never  realised,  at  least  in  so  far  as  women  were 
concerned.  "In  1848  there  was  a  grand  agitation," 
Laboulaye  once  wrote  me,  "great  demands,  but  I  know 
of  nothing  durable  or  solid  on  this  question."  Victor 
Consid^rant  (who  died  in  Paris  last  winter),  the  well- 
known  disciple  of  Fourier,  made  a  strong  effort — as 
member  of  the  Committee  on  the  Constitution  in  the 
Assembly — to  have  woman  suffrage  introduced  into 
the  Constitution  of  the  new  Republic.  But  he  labored 
in  vain.  However,  his  was  not  the  only  endeavor  to 
advance  and  protect  the  interests  of  French  women. 
When,  in  the  summer  of  1851,  it  was  proposed  in  the 
Chamber  to  deny  them  the  right  of  petition  in  political 
affairs,  three  distinguished  public  men — Laurent  de 
I'Ardeche,  Victor  Schcelcher,  and  Cr^mieux — opposed 
the  motion  and  it  was  defeated  ;  and  when,  in  Novem- 
ber of  the  same  year,  the  subject  of  the  reorganisation 
of  the  municipal  system  came  up  for  consideration, 
M.  Pierre  Leroux,  the  famous  Socialistic  Radical,  of- 
fered as  an  amendment  to  Article  I.  of  the  bill  that 
"the  body  of  electors  shall  be  composed  of  French 
men  and  women  of  legal  age."  He  supported  this 
amendment  in  a  speech  which  filled  three  columns  of 
the  official  Moniteur — the  number  for  November  22, 
1851 — but  which  was  received  with  shouts  of  laughter. 
The  French  Deputies  of  1848  seemed  to  have  been  as 
risible  as  those  of  1830  whenever  woman  suffrage  was 
broached. 

The  Republic  fell,  the  Second  Empire  rose  on  its 
ruins  and  the  progress  of  the  woman's  movement  was 
again  abruptly  checked,  though  speculation  on  the 
subject  in  the  form  of  newspaper  or  review  articles, 
pamphlets  or  books,  was  rifer  than  ever  before.  Sev- 
eral authors  of  repute  came  out  squarely  for  woman 
suffrage,  and  the  late  Senator  Eugene  Pelletan  said  in 
his  book  entitled  "The  Mother":  "By  keeping  wo- 
men outside  of  politics,  we  diminish  by  one  half  the 
soul  of  the  country." 

But  it  is  since  the  advent  of  the  present  Republic 
that  the  Woman  Question,  like  every  other  liberal 
measure,  has  gained  new  life  and  fresh  vigor.  At  the 
beginning  of  1871,  Mile.  Julie  Daubi^,  "one  of  the 
worthiest  women  I  have  ever  known,"  Laboulaye  once 
remarked,  and  the  first  female  bachelor  of  arts  in  France, 
having  taken  her  degree  in  1862,  I  believe,  announced 
in  the  public  prints  the  approaching  organisation  of 
an  Association  for  Woman  Suffrage.  But  this  promis- 
ing reformer  died  before  accomplishing  her  object, 
which  was  very  dear  to  her. 

The  question  of  woman  suffrage,  in  one  form  or  an- 
other,  has   come   up   several   times,    during   the   past 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4129 


twenty  years,  before  the  French  Parliament.  In  1874, 
when  the  Versailles  National  Assembly  was  preparing 
a  new  election  bill,  one  member  moved  that  every  mar- 
ried man  or  widower  with  a  child  should  be  given  the 
right  to  deposit  two  ballots.  Another  Deputy  sup- 
ported the  motion  but  would  so  amend  it  that  the 
widower  would  have  two  votes  even  if  childless.  Count 
de  Douhet  went  still  further  :  he  would  give  every  mar- 
ried man,  first  a  vote  for  himself,  another  for  his  wife 
and  finally  one  for  each  child.  The  committee  to 
which  these  motions  were  referred  favored  the  idea 
contained  in  them,  and  Article  7  of  the  bill  which  they 
reported  read  as  follows:  "Every  married  voter,  or 
widower  with  children  or  grandchildren,  shall  have  a 
double  vote."  Although  this  article  failed  to  secure  a 
majority  and  although  one  of  the  objects  which  its  sup- 
porters had  in  view  was,  probably,  to  increase  the  very 
low  birth-rate  in  France,  still  it  shows  that  many  public 
men  do  not  consider  women  sufficiently  represented  at 
the  polls  under  the  present  system. 

Another  proposal  of  the  committee  was  quite  as 
significant.  It  moved  an  amendment  to  the  law  gov- 
erning municipal  suffrage  by  which  tax-paying  women 
would  vote  under  certain  circumstances.  Though  the 
measure  was  rejected,  the  Government  voted  with  the 
minority. 

Five  years  later,  in  1879,  M.  Laroche-Joubert  de- 
clared in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  that  he  would  vote 
in  favor  of  the  admission  of  women  if  one  should  be 
elected  to  a  seat, — a  situation  that  would  not  arise, 
however.  But  the  declaration  was  commented  upon 
at  the  time. 

The  Parliamentary  friends  of  woman's  rights  have 
not  been  satisfied,  however,  with  these  academic  dis- 
cussions and  propositions.  They  have  made  two  or 
three  attempts  to  get  some  of  their  demands  formu- 
lated as  laws  and  they  are  now  on  the  point  of  suc- 
ceeding in  one  of  these  efforts.  A  bill  granting  women 
engaged  in  business  participation  in  the  choice  of  the 
members  of  the  Tribunals  of  Commerce  will  probably 
be  a  law  before  this  article  appears  in  print.  It  has 
already  passed  the  Senate  and  is  now  in  the  hands  of 
a  committee  of  the  Chamber  that  has  decided  unani- 
mously to  report  it  favorably.  When  in  March  1881, 
the  late  M.  de  Gast^,  one  of  the  pioneer  advocates  in 
France  of  woman  suffrage,  introduced  this  bill  into  the 
Chamber,  it  was  rejected,  and  Gambetta,  who  was 
then  Speaker,  seized  the  occasion  to  perpetrate  a 
witticism  at  the  expense  of  its  friends.  It  should  be 
explained  that  the  Tribunals  of  Commerce  pronounce 
decisions  concerning  the  bankruptcy  of  merchants  and 
trades  people  and  settle  disputes  which  maj'  arise 
among  them.  It  should  also  be  added  that  while  the 
new  law  will  make  business  women  voters  it  will  not 
make  them  eligible  to  election  to  the  tribunals. 


Another  step  in  this  same  direction  is  being  taken. 
A  bill  has  been  introduced  into  Parliament  conferring 
on  working  women  the  choice  of  members  of  the  Coun- 
cils of  Prud'hommes,  one  of  the  few  institutions  of  the 
old  regime  which  have  been  preserved  by  modern 
France.  The  duty  of  this  body  is  the  settlement  of 
all  difficulties  arising  between  workmen  and  their  em- 
ployers. "They  are  the  industrial  justices  of  the 
peace,"  says  a  French  writer  in  his  definition  of  Prud'- 
hommes. The  bill  has  already  passed  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  and  Senator  Jean  Mac6,  who  is  not  unknown 
to  American  readers  by  his  once  popular  "  History  of 
a  Mouthful  of  Bread,"  who  carried  through  the  Senate 
the  Tribunal  of  Commerce  Bill,  informs  me  that  he 
means  to  father  this  new  project  also. 

Many  writers  of  reputation  go  farther  than  the  pol- 
iticians in  this  matter  of  woman  suffrage.  About  a 
decade  ago  M.  Alexander  Dumas,  while  in  an  opti- 
mistic mood,  declared  in  a  spirited  pamphlet  that 
French  women  would  vote  within  ten  years.  The  late 
M.  Rodiere,  the  distinguished  Professor  of  the  Tou- 
louse Law  School,  came  out  squarely  for  woman  suf- 
frage in  his  "  Great  Jurisconsults,"  published  in  1874.. 
Several  similar  examples  might  be  cited. 

During  this  same  period  the  professional  reformers 
have  been  many  and  zealous.  Two  of  these  cannot  be 
passed  over  in  this  resume  of  the  history  of  the  Woman 
Movement  in  France.  M.  L^on  Richer,  now  breaking 
down  under  ill  health  and  years,  has  done  good  work 
among  the  more  moderate  advocates  of  the  cause, 
while  Mme.  Maria  Deraismes,  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
female  orators  France  has  ever  produced  and  who,  I 
regret  to  say,  died  this  past  winter,  was  the  standard- 
bearer  of  the  more  radical  element. 

Three  International  Woman's  Rights  Congresses 
held  in  Paris  since  1878  were  due  chiefly  to  the  initia- 
tive of  these  two  persons.  The  one  which  occurred 
during  the  World's  Fair  of  1878  brought  together  many 
reformers  from  all  parts  of  the  globe,  but  the  question 
of  political  rights  was  kept  rather  in  the  background. 
During  the  Exhibition  of  i88g  there  were  two  of  these 
congresses.  The  first,  under  the  presidency  of  Mme. 
Deraismes,  was  more  radical  than  the  second,  which, 
recognised  by  the  French  Government  and  included  in 
its  list  of  official  congresses,  was  presided  over  by  Sen- 
ator Jules  Simon,  while,  at  the  close,  the  members 
were  given  an  evening  reception  by  M.  Yues  Guyot, 
then  a  Minister,  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  France 
that  such  governmental  honors  were  bestowed  on  the 
advocates  of  woman's  rights. 

The  important  International  Council  of  Women  held 
in  Washington  in  1888  and  the  Woman's  Congress  at 
Chicago  last  summer,  at  both  of  which  the  suffrage 
debates  overshadowed  every  other  topic,  produced  a 


4130 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


deep  impression  among  the  leaders  of  the  movement 
in  Paris,  who  were  represented  at  Washington  and 
Chicago  by  Mme.  Isabelle  Bogelot.  On  her  return 
from  America,  Mme.  Bogelot,  on  both  occasions,  pre- 
sented enthusiastic  reports  of  all  that  she  had  seen  and 
heard  at  these  gatherings.  The  fact  that  this  energetic 
lady  was  made  a  member  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  last 
April  by  the  French  Government — a  distinction  very 
rarely  bestowed  upon  women — has  given  a  sort  of  offi- 
cial stamp  to  her  mission  and  increased  weight  to  her 
utterances. 

When  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer  arrived  in  Paris  in  the 
summer  of  1892,  bent  on  securing  the  official  partici- 
pation of  France  in  the  Woman's  Department  of  the 
Chicago  Exhibition,  she  found  that  the  fame  of  the 
Washington  Council  of  1888,  spread  by  Mme.  Bogelot, 
had  prepared  the  way  for  her.  So  Mme.  Carnot  placed 
herself  at  the  head  of  the  French  Woman's  Committee 
and  had  associated  with  her  several  ladies  who  were 
pronounced  advocates  of  woman  suffrage. 

It  is  evident  that  French  public  opinion  is  being 
slowly  prepared  to  accept  the  political  rights  of  wo- 
men, though  the  day  when  complete  woman  suffrage 
will  be  introduced  into  France  is  still  far  distant.  But 
during  the  past  twenty  years  great  progress  has  un- 
questionably been  made  in  that  direction.  Two  or 
three  instances  of  this  have  been  given  already.  To 
them  may  be  added  the  creation  by  Parliament  in  1878 
of  a  State  system  of  high  school  education  for  girls, 
due  to  the  persistent  labor  of  M.  Camille  See  ;i  the  re- 
establishment  of  divorce,  brought  about  by  M.  Naquet 
in  1884;'^  the  law  authorising  workingwomen  to  de- 
posit their  earnings  in  the  postal  savings  banks  with- 
out the  consent  of  their  husband,  a  derogation,  it  should 
be  noted,  of  the  code  which  is  so  oppressive  to  mar- 
ried women  ;  the  recent  employment  of  female  clerks 
in  several  State  administrations  ;  the  new  custom 
adopted  by  the  great  railroad  companies  of  assuring 
positions  to  the  widows  and  orphan  daughters  of  faith- 
ful male  employees;  the  introduction  into  the  platform 
of  the  Workingmen's  Party,  which  is  gaining  such  a 
strong  foothold  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  of  "planks'" 
demanding  for  women  "equal  pay  for  equal  work" 
and  their  complete  political  emancipation,  measures 
adopted  only  after  a  hard  struggle  at  several  working- 
men's  congresses  ;  and  the  increasing  number  of  French 
women  who  frequent  the  universities  and  win  degrees. 

Thus,  there  is  a  healthy  and  growing  tendency  in 
France  to  avoid  extremes  in  the  advocacy  of  woman's 
emancipation.  The  namby-pambiness  of  Diderot,  who 
says  "when  woman  is  the  theme,  the  pen  must  be 
dipped  in  the  rainbow  and   the  pages  dried  with  the 

1  Described  more  at  length  by  me  in  the  Century  Magazine  last  October. 

2  See  "Divorce  in  France."  by  M.  Alfred  Naquet,  the  Deputy,  in  (he 
^ortlt-  American  Revieiu^  Dec,  1892. 


dust  of  the  butterfly's  wings,"  is  rapidly  disappearing, 
along  with  its  antipode,  the  "vile-wretch-man"  spirit. 
Horace's  ' '  golden  mean  "  is  rapidly  becoming  the  rule, 
—  "the  presage  of  victory,"  to  quote  Milton's  words. 


THE  CIRCLE  SQUARER. 

[CONCLUDED.! 


The  Progressive  Thinkers'  Club  met  at  the  home 
of  Mr.  Whyte,  and  Mr.  Corner  made  his  appearance 
half  an  hour  before  the  lecture  was  to  begin.  He  was 
received  with  great  cordiality  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Whyte. 
Soon  afterwards  Dr.  Richard  Werner  made  his  ap- 
pearance, a  young  man  and  a  tutor  at  one  of  our  West- 
ern universities,  who  had  just  returned  from  a  trip 
abroad,  where  he  had  visited  the  universities  of  Eng- 
land and  Germany.  He  was  introduced  to  Mr.  Gor- 
ner  as  a  cousin  of  Mrs.  Whyte,  and  Mr.  Whyte  added  : 
"Our  cousin  is  a  very  promising  youth,  who  will  soon 
be  professor  and  make  his  mark  in  the  world.  He  is 
not  a  member  of  our  club,  but  a  guest  only." 

Mr.  Gorner  began  a  conversation  with  Dr.  Werner 
and  was  at  first  quite  taken  with  him.  The  Doctor 
had  a  student- like  frankness,  and  his  discourse  was 
full  of  humor.  Having  talked  much  of  the  Old  World, 
and  mentioned  its  good  and  its  humorous  sides,  he 
asked  :  "What,  pray,  is  to  be  the  subject  of  your  lec- 
ture to-night?  " 

"I  shall  explain  the  problem  of  the  squaring  of  the 
circle,"  said  Mr.  Gorner,  gravely;  "but  understand 
me  aright  :  I  am  not  one  of  the  vulgar  crowd  of  circle- 
squarers  who  in  their  imperturbable  vanity  believe 
that  the  problem  has  been  settled.  No,  I  am  not  one 
of  them.  I  propose  to  attack  the  problem  in  a  strictly 
scientific  manner." 

This  remark  was  aimed  at  the  professional  mathe- 
maticians, but  Dr.  Werner  misunderstood  the  mean- 
ing of  Mr.  Gorner's  words.  Taking  for  granted  that 
what  Mr.  Gorner  called  "  strictly  scientific  "  was  what 
he  himself  would  give  that  name  to,  he  rejoined  sar- 
casticalJy:  "I  am  sorry  for  you,  for  you  are  throwing 
your  pearls  before  swine.  You  will  soon  find  out  that 
this  club  of  advanced  thinkers  is  a  society  of  erratic 
minds.  You  know,  birds  of  a  feather  flock  together. 
There  is  no  one  among  the  members  of  your  audience 
to-night  who  is  not  slightly  unhinged.  There  is,  for 
instance,  Mrs.  Hilman,  the  fantastical  lady  who  just 
entered ;  she  believes  in  astrology.  The  lady  who  fol- 
lows her  is  her  friend  Mrs.  Holborn,  the  spiritualist. 
My  cousin,  Mr.  Whyte,  is  full  of  eccentricities,  and  so 
are  all  his  friends.  Mr.  Single  studies  Volapiik.  You 
will  hear  him  to-night,  for  I  am  sure  he  will  recite  us 
a  poem  in  the  world  language,  which  is  nowhere  spoken 
or  understood.  Mr.  Bemmel  is  a  social  reformer;  he 
calls  himself  an  ideal  communist,  and  expounded  n^- 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4131 


tionalism  long  before  Mr.  Bellamy  published  his  novel, 
'Looking  Backwards.'  Mr.  Hamlin  is  an  Englishman 
who  has  made  himself  ridiculous  at  home,  and  has 
crossed  the  ocean  to  do  the  same  in  America." 

"I  am  sorry,"  said  Mr.  Gorner,  "that  I  have  ac- 
cepted Mr.  Whyte's  invitation.  I  was  under  the  im- 
pression that  I  should  meet  here  the  flower  of  scien- 
tific thinkers." 

The  Doctor  laughed  so  loudly  at  this  that  he  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  the  guests,  who  in  the  mean- 
time had  filled  the  parlor.  "The  flower  of  scientific 
thinkers?"  he  repeated,  interrogatively.  "Rather  say 
subjects  for  an  alienist.  I  am  a  student  of  psychology, 
and  1  take  great  interest  in  abnormal  specimens  of 
mankind.  That  is  the  reason  I  am  here.  I  take  pleas- 
ure in  listening  to  the  rampant  talk  of  lunatics  and 
circle-squarers,  because  I  study  them." 

Here  the  conversation  was  interrupted,  and  Mr. 
Whyte  called  the  meeting  to  order.  He  introduced 
Mr.  Gorner  as  the  speaker  of  the  evening,  greeting 
him  with  courteous  words,  due  to  a  man  of  high  dis- 
tinction and  extraordinary  accomplishments. 

Mr.  Gorner,  still  under  the  influence  of  Dr.  Wer- 
ner's information  concerning  the  character  of  the  club, 
began  his  lecture,  not  without  a  certain  diffidence; 
but  when  he  began  to  denounce  the  arrogance  of  pro- 
fessional mathematicians,  he  was  heartily  applauded 
and  he  waxed  warm  ;  he  became  more  and  more  elo- 
quent in  explaining  his  solution  and  dwelling  on  the 
importance  of  the  rationality  of  the  number  Tt.  "The 
area  of  any  circle,"  he  said,  "is  found  by  dividing  the 
circumference  of  the  circle  into  four  equal  parts  :  the 
square  erected  on  one  such  part  being  equal  to  the  area 
of  the  circle.  The  ordinary  method  of  finding  the 
square  of  a  circle  involves  us  in  the  gross  absurdity  of 
teaching  the  less  as  equalling  the  greater.  Our  pro- 
fessors of  mathematics  teach  that  the  area  of  a  circle 
is  about  one-fourth  larger  than  that  of  its  real  square. 
But  mathematical  methods  are  rigid  ;  they  cannot  be 
stretched  like  India  rubber  bands,  and  they  possess  no 
such  property  as  elasticity." 

In  order  to  remove  the  last  doubt  in  the  minds  of 
his  audience,  Mr.  Gorner  presented  the  contrast  of 
the  two  methods  of  computing  the  areas  of  circles  in 
a  table,  which  he  wrote  down  on  a  blackboard,  say- 
ing :  "If  the  circumference  of  a  given  circle  be  4,  each 
quadrant  being  equal  to  i,  the  diameter  of  the  same  is 
1-2732,  and  the  area,  according  to  my  solution,  i;  but 
according  to  the  rule  in  use  it  would  be  equal  to  1.2732. 
This  is  0-2732  too  much.  Yet  such  is  the  perversity 
of  professional  mathematicians  that  they  say,  i  ^= 
I  -2732.  If  the  circumference  be  8,  the  area  of  a  square 
on  a  quadrant  is  4 ;  yet  mathematicians  claim  it  is 
5-0928.  Is  not  this  the  most  stupendous  fraud  ever 
cornmitted  against  sound  reasoning?     Yet  the  world 


has  patiently  submitted  to  it,  because  people  have  an 
outrageous  confidence  in  established  authority." 

The  applause  of  the  audience  was  tremendous,  and 
Mr.  Gorner  felt  himself  richly  recompensed  for  the 
martyrdom  he  had  so  long  endured  in  the  cause  of 
truth.  He  ended  his  lecture  by  briefly  alluding  to  the 
important  questions  which  physics,  chemistry,  astron- 
omy, and  all  the  other  sciences  could  derive  from  a 
sound  solution  of  the  bottom  problem  of  existence. 
He  ended  with  the  enthusiastic  words:  "Here,  at 
last,  we  have  found  a  basis  on  which  to  establish  a 
true  and  consistent  theodicy." 

The  success  of  the  evening  was  greater  than  Mr. 
Gorner  could  have  anticipated.  The  audience  was 
delighted,  and  there  was  no  one  who  did  not  congratu- 
late the  speaker.  His  eyes  beamed  with  joy,  for  he 
knew  now  that  the  old  theory  of  71  was  dead  and  dis- 
carded, while  his  own  solution  had  been  adopted  by 
the  most  progressive  thinkers  of  the  world.  How 
narrow-minded  and  unkind  was  the  judgment  of  Dr. 
Werner,  and  how  sympathetically  had  these  distin- 
guished men  and  women  accepted  the  truth  ! 

When  the  first  excitement  began  to  subside,  Mr. 
Whyte's  gavel  restored  order,  and  a  discussion  of  the 
lecture  ensued.  There  was  no  speaker  who  did  not 
express  his  unbounded  admiration  for  Mr.  Gorner's 
admirably  clear  exposition  of  the  subject.  Each  one 
began  with  a  bow  to  the  lecturer  saying  a  few  polite 
things  about  the  profundity  of  his  researches  and  the 
world-wide  fame  of  the  learned  mathematician,  only 
to  drift  as  quickly  as  possible  into  his  own  line  of 
thought.  Mr.  Bemmel  preached  nationalism  as  the 
true  ratio  of  the  social  forces,  and  Mrs.  Hilman  ex- 
pounded astrology,  saying  that  the  spheres  of  the 
planets  had  been  squared  by  the  Almighty  from  eter- 
nity. No  one  understood  what  she  meant,  but  all  were 
deeply  impressed  with  her  words.  Mr.  Single  prom- 
ised to  translate  Mr.  Gorner's  work  into  Volapiik,  and 
Mrs.  Holborn  assured  the  audience  that  several  years 
ago  she  had  received  unmistakable  intelligence  from 
the  spirit  world  that  the  time  would  come  and  was  near 
at  hand  when  the  circle  would  be  squared.  "The  fu- 
ture," she  said  with  the  voice  of  a  prophet,  "has  still 
many  stupendous  surprises  in  store  for  us.  We  have 
seen  great  things.  We  have  witnessed  the  invention 
of  railroads,  of  electricity,  of  the  telegraph,  and  of 
man}'  more  marvels  of  modern  science.  To-day  we 
have  learned  that  the  deepest  problem  of  mathematics 
has  been  solved.  The  circle  has  been  squared.  I 
myself  am  engaged  in  new  inventions  which  will  ren- 
der the  work  of  scholars,  editors,  and  authors  com- 
paratively easy.  In  the  Crystal-Gazing  Club  we  dis- 
covered of  late  by  a  happy  incident,  that  when  two  or 
several  persons  look  into  the  same  glass  one  can  read 
in  it  the  ideas  of  the  others.     We  are  now  at  work  to 


413- 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


establish  the  conditions  under  which  the  phenomenon 
takes  place,  and  as  soon  as  we  have  succeeded,  we 
shall  duly  publish  the  accounts  in  the  Spirit  World 
and  other  organs  of  spiritualism.  The  writers  of  the 
future  will  simply  think  the  novels  which  they  wish  to 
write,  gazing  intently  at  a  sheet  of  white  paper  hung 
up  before  them  on  the  wall.  The  white  paper  will 
then  be  sent  to  the  printers  who,  after  some  instruc- 
tion in  the  deciphering  of  spiritual  impressions,  will 
be  able  to  read  the  mental  writing  and  at  once  set  it 
in  type.  Shorthand  and  typewriter  will  be  no  longer 
needed  and  an  enormous  amount  of  labor  saved." 
Mrs.  Holborn  alluded  to  some  other  inventions,  such 
as  a  sieve  of  truth,  which  would  retain  in  its  meshes 
the  erroneous  elements  of  utterances  spoken  into  it 
but  would  allow  correct  statements  to  pass  through  it 
without  difficulty.  A  gentleman  friend,  of  the  patent 
office  at  Washington,  an  unequivocal  authority  on  all 
patent  affairs,  had  assured  her  that  the  invention  was 
patentable. 

Dr.  Werner  was  also  urged  to  make  his  comments, 
but  he  refused  to  speak.  However,  when  Mr.  Whyte, 
the  President  of  the  Club,  declared  that  his  learned 
cousin  had  also  succeeded  in  squaring  the  circle,  and 
that  he  had  invented  an  instrument  to  accomplish  the 
squaring  of  the  circle.  Dr.  Werner  rose  to  make  a  few 
comments.  He  said  :  "  I  do  not  claim  to  be  a  circle- 
squarer  like  our  distinguished  friend  Mr.  Corner.  As 
my  cousin  alludes  to  an  invention  of  mine  by  which 
the  circle  can  be  squared,  allow  me  to  make  the  fol- 
lowing explanation.  I  side  with  the  professional 
mathematicians  and  believe  that  the  ratio  of  n  cannot 
be  expressed  in  whole  numbers,  be  they  ever  so  large. 
Mr.  Corner  has  not  won  me  over,  for  his  arguments 
rest  on  the  assumption,  disproved  by  elementary  geom- 
etry, that  the  area  of  a  circle  is  equal  to  the  area  of  a 
square  of  the  same  perimeter.  But  while  I  still  ad- 
here to  the  old  view  I  wish  to  say  that  when  mathe- 
maticians speak  of  the  impossibility  of  squaring  the 
circle  they  simply  mean  that  the  feat  cannot  be  ac- 
complished by  ruler  and  compasses.  But  while  a  geo- 
metrical construction  of  the  square  of  the  circle  by 
these  two  instruments  is  impossible,  it  is  easy  enough 
to  do  it  with  other  instruments.  The  area  of  the  circle 
is  /■  2  n,  which  is  easily  proved.  Accordingly,  we  have 
simply  to  unroll  the  circumference  of  a  circle  and  find 
a  mean  proportional  between  half  of  it  and  the  radius. 
To  accomplish  the  unrolling  of  the  circumference  of  a 
circle,  I  have  constructed  a  little  wheel,  the  diameter  of 
which  is  two  inches.  In  the  circumference  the  point  of 
a  needle  is  inserted  so  as  to  make  a  mark  when  the 
wheel  rolls  over  the  paper.  Now  take  a  circle  of  a  diam- 
eter of  two  inches  and  place  a  ruler  so  that  it  just 
touches  the  circle.  Then  turn  the  wheel  till  the  needle 
stands  at  the  point  where  the  ruler  and  circle  touch,  and 


roll  it  along  until  it  makes  another  impression.  The  two 
marks  enclose  a  line  exactly  equal  to  the  circumference 
of  the  wheel  or  of  a  circle  having  a  diameter  of  two 
inches.  The  mean  proportional  between  half  this  line 
and  the  radius,  is  the  required  side  of  a  square  whose 
area  is  equal  to  the  area  of  the  circle.  In  giving  this 
solution,  I  do  not  claim  to  have  geometrically  squared 
the  circle,  for  I  have  employed  an  instrument  not  rec- 
ognised by  geometricians.  On  the  one  hand  I  am 
ftilly  conscious  of  the  truth  that  the  numerical  value 
of  n  can  only  be  approximately  ascertained.  It  has 
been  computed  more  fully  and  accurately  than  will 
ever  be  needed  and  I  can  assure  Mr.  Corner  that  we 
need  not  worry  about  the  irrationality  of  n,  for  the 
universe  is  as  grand  and  harmonious  for  all  that." 

Mr.  Whyte  concluded  the  discussion  by  requesting 
the  lecturer  to  reply  to  his  critics.  Mr.  Corner  was 
too  full  of  happiness  to  express  an3'thing  but  thanks 
to  the  audience  for  their  kind  appreciation.  As  to  the 
remarks  of  Dr.  Werner,  he  said,  that  a  close  consid- 
eration of  his  objection  would  very  clearly  bring  out 
the  error  of  professional  mathematics  and  prove  the 
correctness  of  his  own  solution.  "  For,"  he  continued, 
"unroll  the  circumference  of  the  circle  and  divide  it 
into  four  equal  parts.  These  four  parts  are  equal  to 
the  four  quadrants  and  a  square  constructed  of  them 
is  equal  to  the  area  of  the  circle." 

"A  hopeless  case  !  "  murmured  Dr.  Werner. 
The  evening  on  which  Mr.  Corner  delivered  his 
lecture  before  the  Club  of  Progressive  Thinkers  was 
perhaps  the  happiest  hour  of  this  martyr  of  his  own 
thought.  He  had  grown  in  confidence,  and  at  once 
pushed  the  publication  of  his  booklet.  It  appeared, 
and  he  advertised  it  in  the  papers ;  but  it  was  of  no 
use  ;  he  found  no  buyers.  He  sent  it  out  to  professors 
and  students  of  mathematics,  but  received  no  reply. 
He  travelled  long  distances  to  see  influential  men,  but 
could  never  convince  one.  He  spent  much  money 
and  wasted  his  health  until  he  became  weary,  and, 
suffering  from  severe  headaches,  found  himself  obliged 
to  retire  to  the  summer  resort  of  a  famous  physician, 
which  had  been  strongly  recommended  to  him  by  his 
friends.  There  he  broke  down  completely,  and  fell  a 
prey  to  a  severe  brain  fever.  He  recovered,  but  was 
no  longer  the  same  strong,  energetic  man.  His  am- 
bition had  been  to  accomplish  a  great  work  for  man- 
kind, to  take  a  foremost  place  in  the  ranks  of  the 
world's  original  thinkers,  and  to  shine  forth  above 
all  others  by  identifying  himself  with  the  greatest  dis- 
covery of  the  age.  But  the  original  idea  on  which  he 
had  staked  his  life  found  no  recognition,  and  with  it 
he  felt  his  very  self  rejected.  He  had  concentrated 
upon  it  all  his  energies,  had  devoted  to  it  all  his  love 
and  enthusiasm,  had  spent  on  it  a  great  part  of  his 
fortune,  but  all  was  vain.     All  his   hopes  had  been 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


4133 


disappointed,  his  life  had  turned  out  dreary,  and  old 
age  overtook  him  like  a  chilly  November  day.  But 
while  usually  every  autumn  brings  the  returns  of  a 
rich  harvest,  his  mind  was  empty  like  one  whose  fruits 
had  been  destroyed  by  hail-storms. 

The  physician  of  the  institution  in  which  he  lay 
visited  him  regularly  and  encouraged  his  patient  with 
kind  words.  "Take  heart  again,"  he  said,  "you  will 
soon  be  better.  The  sole  cause  of  your  trouble  is  ner- 
vous prostration,  and  I  hope,  if  you  only  promise  to  be 
cheerful,  to  restore  you  to  your  old  vigor  and  health." 

"No,  Doctor,"  said  Mr.  Corner,  "there  is  no  herb 
that  can  cure  my  ailments  ;  my  life  is  blighted,  and 
unless  I  can  bring  out  my  discoveries,  which  are  so 
important  for  the  world,  I  shall  never  be  cured  of  my 
nervous  prostration." 

"Do  not  speak  of  your  discoveries,  Mr.  Corner; 
forget  them  for  a  while  ;  do  not  think  of  them  for  a 
whole  year,  until  you  have  recovered  your  health. 
Try  to  think  of  them  as  an  aberration,  and  begin  a 
new  life  with  other  ambitions  and  with  new  aims." 

Mr.  Corner  shook  his  head:  "No,  Doctor!  No, 
and  No  again.  My  discoveries  are  my  own  original 
ideas.  They  are  my  life-work  ;  they  are  myself.  To 
give  them  up  would  mean  to  give  up  my  own  soul. 
Do  not  speak  thus  to  me  again.  I  know,  Doctor,  you 
think  like  the  rest  of  the  world  ;  you  think  they  are 
aberrations,  and  treat  me — Oh  !  such  is  my  terrible 
fate  !  How  have  I  deserved  this  tragic  end  ?  You  treat 
me — as  a  lunatic.  Your  institute,  I  have  known  it 
long  ago,  is  an  asylum  for  nervous  diseases.  You  have 
been  kind  to  me,  very  kind,  but  it  is  humiliating,  it  is 
heart-breaking,"  and  Mr.  Corner  began  to  sob  like  a 
child. 

The  Doctor  laid  his  hand  on  his  patient's  forehead. 
"Be  strong,  sir,"  he  said,  "be  strong,  and  you  will  be 
cured." 

Mr.  Corner  continued  sobbingly:  "  You  try  to  cure 
me,  but  you  cannot,  you  cannot.  I  am  incurable.  Do 
not  tell  me  to  forget  my  discoveries,  for  I  cannot  for- 
get them — I  will  not  forget  them  ;  nor  tell  me  that  I 
am  mistaken,  for  the  day  on  which  I  became  convinced 
that  my  whole  life  had  been  a  huge  blunder,  I  should 
become  mad  ;  it  would  kill  me  ;  I  should  commit  sui- 
cide. Do  not  tell  me  that  I  am  mistaken  ;  I  could  not 
stand  it." 

"Be  composed,  Mr.  Corner,"  replied  the  Doctor. 
"  I  am  no  mathematician  and  do  not  understand  your 
discovery.  But  I  take  it  for  granted  that  while  part 
of  your  ideas  may  be  wrong,  part  of  them  will  be  true. 
And  if  nothing  of  them  were  true,  I  have  observed 
that  your  heart  is  full  of  devotion  to  the  truth,  that  is, 
to  what  you  conceive  to  be  the  truth.  You  have  suf- 
fered much,  and  you  will  be  comforted  again.  Think 
of  the  fate  of  all  martyrs,  think  of  Christ,  how  full  of 


despair  was  his  heart  in  the  hour  of  tribulation,  and 
He  who  so  confidently  proclaimed  the  great  mystery 
of  his  Sonship  felt  himself  desolate  and  forsaken  by 
Cod  and  men  in  the  agony  of  death.  Let  go  the  con- 
ceit of  your  discoveries,  and  rest  in  the  confidence 
that  whatever  be  the  truth,  the  truth  is  best  for  us  and 
for  the  world." 

"  Doctor, "  replied  Mr.  Corner,  "you  do  not  know 
my  heart.  My  conceit  is  not  based  on  vanity.  I  am 
not  anxious  for  glory,  nor  do  I  care  to  make  my  name 
immortal.  I  have  searched  my  heart  and  purified  my 
ambition  of  all  egotism,  and  am  willing  to  be  forgotten, 
if  but  my  idea  conquer.  But  to  give  up  the  idea  it- 
self,— no,  Doctor,  I  cannot  do  it.  Rather  die  than 
that.  To  give  up  my  discovery,  that  would  leave  my 
life  desolate  ;  it  would  be  an  utter  annihilation." 

Mrs.  Corner  visited  her  husband  from  time  to  time, 
but  the  hope  for  his  recovery  was  but  slight.  Being 
aware  himself  of  his  critical  condition,  he  made  his 
will,  leaving  twenty  thousand  dollars  to  his  wife,  ten 
thousand  to  his  child,  a  little  girl  of  about  ten  years, 
and  fifty  thousand  for  the  propaganda  of  his  discov- 
eries. The  poor  man  did  not  know  that  his  fortune, 
which  once  amounted  to  almost  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  had  shrunk  to  about  twenty-five  thousand,  or 
even  less. 

Soon  after  he  made  his  will,  he  no  longer  recog- 
nised either  the  Doctor  or  his  wife.  For  three  years 
he  lay  in  a  kind  of  stupor,  indifferent  toward  all  the 
world.  A  softening  of  the  brain  had  set  in,  and  he 
died  at  last  peacefully,  without  agony  or  pain. 

When  his  will  was  opened,  it  was  found  to  contain 
the  following  confession  : 

"My  aspirations  flew  higher  than  my  strength 
would  allow,  and  involved  me  in  endless  sufferings. 
My  life  was  a  constant  sacrifice  to  the  truth,  yet  the 
truth  which  I  pursued  was  a  shadow.  I  dared  to  be 
myself,  such  as  I  chose  to  be,  but  experience  has 
taught  me  that  Cod  does  not  allow  me  to  be  m3se]f. 
I  am  resigned  and  long  for  peace."  p.  c 


A  LETTER  FROM  NEW^  ZEALAND. 

We  publish  below  some  passages  of  interest  from  a  letter  re- 
ceived by  a  reader  of  Tlie  Open  Court  from  a  brother  living  in 
New  Zealand.  The  passages  relate  to  the  new  law  which  cancels 
all  restrictions  of  citizenship,  and  gives  the  ballot  to  all  persons 
without  discrimination,  male  and  female,  that  are  above  the  age 
of  twenty-one  : 

"What  do  you  think  of  our  last  attempt  at  law-making  ?  We 
have  granted  universal  suffrage,  that  is,  all  males  or  females  over 
the  age  of  twenty-one  are  now  entitled  to  be  enrolled  as  intelli- 
gent electors,  no  matter  what  stake  they  have  in  the  country  so  long 
as  they  are  not  resident  in  one  of  the  colony's  free  lodging  houses, 
that  is  the  jail.  But  even  such,  immediately  after  they  depart  from 
their  enforced  quarters  are  as  legally  entitled  to  be  considered 
electors  as  any  free  individual.  Worst  of  all  the  people  who  are 
resident  in  our  old  people's  home,  or  what  is  termed  in  the  old 


4134 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


country  as  poorhouses,  have  equal  rights  with  the  best  in  the  col- 
ony. This  is  real  democracy,  the  suffering  rate-payer  must  be 
taxed  to  keep  these  people,  and  then  they  are  placed  on  an  equal 
footing  with  their  benefactors  so  far  as  political  power  is  con- 
cerned ;  what  more  could  democracy  do  ?  Even  your  boasted 
freedom  cannot  go  so  far  as  that.  Then  there  are  Relief  Works 
all  over  the  colony  ;  single  and  married  alike  are  put  on  these  if 
supposed  to  be  unable  to  procure  work,  but  really  the  purpose  is 
different.  You  see,  we  have  our  faults  also  in  our  government 
which  requite  to  be  and  are  promptly  exposed.  Under  an  un- 
scrupulous Government  they  are  shifted  at  election  time  into  dis- 
tricts where  their  party  is  weak,  enrolled  and  made  to  vote  at  that 
party's  will ;  and  they  do  it  knowing  that  if  their  candidate  is  not 
returned  then  their  tenure  of  work  is  short. 

We  had  such  experience  at  the  general  election  three  months 
ago.  It  was  well  known  that  our  member  was  one  of  the  ablest 
politicians  in  the  House  and  would  let  nothing  wrong  happen.  He 
stood  up  nobly  and  denounced  such  trickery.  This  was  too  much 
for  our  very  radical  democracy.  What  did  they  do  ?  They  shipped 
down  from  other  parts  of  the  country  to  this  district  all  sorts  of 
people,  about  two  hundred  in  number,  and  put  them  on  relief 
works  with  the  command  to  return  their  candidate.  Our  candidate 
must  be  ousted  at  any  cost.  And  to  our  great  regret  the  man  who 
was  an  ornament  to  the  country  had  to  take  defeat. 

Of  course  the  wives  followed  their  husbands,  and  we,  who 
were  permanent  residents,  must  put  up  for  a  time  with  their  se- 
lection. And  these  slaves  to  democracy  will  again,  as  occasion 
suits,  be  shifted  for  a  like  purpose  ! 

I  am  sorry  to  say,  it  is  by  such  a  party  we  are  at  present  gov- 
erned. Of  course  things  might  have  been  altered  had  those  who 
really  had  some  stake  in  the  country  rolled  up  to  vote  with  their 
wives  and  families,  but  failing  to  calculate  upon  the  radical  change 
which  had  taken  place  on  the  granting  of  female  franchise,  a  list- 
lessness  was  apparent,  and  then  those  who  were  working  for  their 
ends  caught  at  the  opportunity  and  rolled  up  with  their  cousins 
and  their  aunts  to  the  surprise  of  all  and  for  such  we  have  to  suffer 
now  for  a  time. 

It  serves  us  right.  I  do  not  believe  in  female  franchise,  nor 
does  my  wife.  Yet  when  granted  we  took  advantage  of  it,  and  had 
all  done  likewise,  we  should  have  carried  the  day.  Woman  has  a 
place  in  society,  where  she  shines  and  becomes  beloved  by  all,  but 
once  put  on  a  political  level  with  man  she  loses  her  place  and 
power  over  her  male  partner,  and  I  can  only  hope  that  the  fran- 
chise will  again  be  relegated  to  the  shades  of  oblivion. 

Wonderful  to  relate,  in  granting  such  concessions  to  woman, 
these  pliant  politicians,  fearful  that  she  might  attempt  to  usurp 
their  places,  which  ineans  ^240  per  annum,  payable  monthly,  they 
considerately  inserted  a  clause,  making  her  ineligible  as  a  represen- 
tative. Why,  when  they  had  such  respect  for  her  voting-power, 
did  they  not  give  her  the  opportunity  of  attaining  to  such  exalted 
positions  as  representatives  ?  I  verily  believe,  had  such  been  made 
the  law,  that  several  women  would  have  gone  up  as  a  burlesque 
on  our  very  indulgent  powers  that  be. 

Next  month  (March)  we  will  have  another  election  tussle. 
This  time  it  will  be  the  licensing  elections  under  altered  condi- 
tions. Previously  the  rate-payers  in  each  district  elected  their 
committees  to  control  the  licensing  in  their  respective  districts, 
but  now,  it  is  to  be  carried  out  on  the  same  lines  as  a  parliamen- 
tary election,  that  is,  every  one  having  the  right  to  vote  who  has 
placed  his  or  her  name  on  the  roll,  irrespective  of  being  rate- 
payers." 

BOOK  NOTICES. 

Comparatively  few  people  are  aware  that  in  the  Annual  Re- 
port of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  a  General  Appendix  is  printed 
which  furnishes  brief  accounts  of  important  scientific  discoveries. 


reports  of  investigations  made  by  collaborators  of  the  Institu^OO, 
memoirs  of  its  members  on  special  scientific  topics,  and  select^ 
scientific  essays  from  foreign  journals  and  proceedings.  Appended 
to  these  articles  also  are  full  bibliographies  which  can  scarcely  be 
obtained  elsewhere.  We  have  just  received  the  annual  report  for 
1891,  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  general  scientific  articles 
which  it  presents:  "Celestial  Spectroscopy,"  by  William  Hug- 
gins  ;  "  Stellar  Numbers  and  Distances,"  by  A.  M.  Gierke  ;  "The 
Sun's  Motion  in  Space,"  by  A.  M.  Gierke;  "A  Southern  Observa- 
tory," by  A  M.  Gierke;  "Applications  of  Physics  and  Mathe- 
matics to  Geology,"  by  G.  Ghree;  "  Origin  of  the  Rock-pressure 
of  Natural  Gas,"  by  Edward  Orton  ;  "  Geysers,"  by  Walter  Har- 
vey Weed;  "The  General  Circulation  of  the  Atmosphere,"  by 
Werner  von  Siemens;  "  The  Gulf  Stream,"  by  Alexander  Agassiz  ; 
"Absolute  Measurement  of  Hardness,"  by  F.  Auerbach  ;  "The 
Flow  of  Solids,"  by  William  Hallock  ;  "  The  Scientific  Work  of 
G.  S.  Ohm,"  by  E.  Lommel  ;  "Autobiographical  Sketch  of  J.  von 
Liebig";  "Divergent  Evolution  Through  Cumulative  Segrega- 
tion," by  J.  T.  Gulick  ;  "The  Struggle  for  Life  in  the  Forest,  "by 
James  Rodway;  "  Difficulties  of  Aquatic  Insects,"  by  L.  C.  Miall ; 
"Geographic  Distribution  of  Mammals,"  by  C.  Hart  Merriam  ; 
■  The  Corbin  Game  Park,"  by  John  R.  Spears;  "  The  Home  of 
the  Troglodytes,"  by  E.  T.  Hamy;  "  Summary  of  Progress  in  An- 
thropology in  1891,"  by  O.  T.  Mason  ;  "  The  Mounds  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley,"  by  Lucien  Carr  ;  "  The  Use  of  Flint  Blades  to 
Work  Pine  Wood,"  by  G.  V.  Smith  ;  "  Time-keeping  Among  the 
Chinese,"  by  D.  J.  Magowan  ;  "Navajo  Dye-stuffs,"  by  Washing- 
ton Matthews;  "Some  Possibilities  of  Economic  Botany,"  by 
George  L.  Goodale  ;  "  The  Evolution  of  Commerce,"  by  Gardner 
Hubbard;  "The  Relation  of  Natural  Science  to  Art,"  by  E.  du 
Bois-Reymond. 

MONISM. 

BY  HORACE  P.    BIDDLE. 

The  universe  and  time,  diurnity; 

Infinity  and  space,  eternity; 

Truth,  indestructible  and  uncreated, 

Eternal,  infinite,  and  unrelated — 

These  constitute,  with  God,  the  One,  the  whole, 

Of  which  God  is  the  universal  soul — 

The  omnipresent,  and  the  All  omniscient. 

Omnipotent,  supreme,  and  ever  prescient, 

Throughout  eternity,  infinity — 

The  only  God,  and  sole  divinity. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  JOSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  357. 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  IN  FRANCE,  Theodore  Stanton.  4127 

THE  CIRCLE  SQUARER.     (Concluded.)    Editor 4130 

A  LETTER  FROM   NEW  ZEALAND 4133 

BOOK  NOTICES 4134 

POETRY. 

Monism.     Horace  P.  Biddle 4334 


41 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "WEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  358.     (Vol.  VIII.— 27.) 


CHICAGO,  JULY  5,   i! 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year 
)  Single  Copies,  5  Cents 


(About  the  year  1780.) 


TRANSLATED    BY 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 

GOETHE'S  RHAPSODY  ON  NATURE.i  Men  are  all  in  her,  and  she  is  in  all.     With  all  she 

carries  on  a  friendly  game,  and  rejoices  the  more  they 
win  from  her.  She  plays  it  with  many  so  secretly,  that 
she  plays  it  to  the  end  ere  they  know  it. 

The  most  unnatural  is  also  nature  ;  evcit  the  siiifid- 
est  Philistinism  hath  something  of  her  genius.  Who  sees 
her  not  everywhere,  sees  her  nowhere  aright. 

She  loves  herself,  and  clings  ever,  with  eyes  and 
hearts  without  number  to  herself.  She  has  divided 
herself  in  pieces  in  order  to  enjoy  herself.  Ever  she 
lets  new  enjoyers  grow,  insatiable  to  impart  herself. 

She  delights  in  illusion.  Whoever  destroys  this  in 
himself  and  others,  him  she  punishes  as  the  strictest 
tyrant.  Whoever  trustfully  follows  her,  him  she  presses 
like  a  child  to  her  heart. 

Her  children  are  without  number.  To  no  one  is 
she  altogether  niggardly,  but  she  has  favorites  upon 
whom  she  squanders  much,  and  to  whom  she  sacrifices 
much.      To  greatness  she  has  pledged  her  protection. 

She  flings  forth  her  creatures  out  of  nothing,  and 
tells  them  not  whence  they  come,  nor  whither  they 
are  going.      Let  them  only  run  ;  she  knows  the  way. 

She  has  few  springs,  but  those  are  never  worn  out, 
always  active,  always  manifold. 

Her  play  is  ever  new,  because  she  ever  creates  new 
spectators.  Life  is  her  finest  invention,  and  death  is 
her  artifice  to  get  more  life. 

She  veils  man  in  darkness,  and  spurs  him  contin- 
ually to  the  light.  She  makes  him  dependent  on  the 
earth,  dull  and  heavy,  and  keeps  rousing  him  afresh. 

She  gives  wants,  because  she  loves  motion.  The 
wonder  is  that  she  accomplishes  all  this  motion  with 
so  little.  Every  want  is  a  benefit ;  quickly  satisfied, 
quickly  growing  again.  If  she  gives  one  more,  it  is  a 
new  source  of  pleasure  ;  but  she  soon  comes  into  equi- 
librium. 

She  sets  out  every  moment  for  the  longest  race, 
and  is  every  moment  at  the  goal. 

She  is  vanity  itself,  but  not  for  us,  to  whom  she  has 
made  herself  of  the  greatest  weight. 

She  lets  every  child  tinker  upon  her,  every  fool 
pass  judgment  on  her,  thousands  stumble  over  her  and 
see  nothing  ;  and  she  has  her  joy  in  all,  and  she  finds 
in  all  her  account. 

Man  obeys  her  laws,  even  when  he  strives  against 


Nature  !  We  are  by  her  surrounded  and  encom- 
passed— unable  to  step  out  of  her  and  unable  to  enter 
deeper  into  her.  Unsolicited  and  unwarned,  she  re- 
ceives us  into  the  circuit  of  her  dance,  and  hurries 
along  with  us,  till  we  are  exhausted  and  drop  out  of 
her  arms. 

She  creates  ever  new  forms  ;  what  now  is  was  never 
before  ;  what  was,  comes  not  again — all  is  new,  and 
yet  always  the  old. 

We  live  in  her  midst,  and  are  strangers  to  her. 
She  speaks  with  us  incessantly,  and  betrays  not  her 
mystery  to  us.  We  affect  her  constantly,  and  yet  have 
no  power  over  her. 

She  seems  to  have  contrived  everything  for  indi- 
viduality, but  cares  nothing  for  individuals.  She  builds 
ever  and  destroys  ever,  and  her  workshop  is  inacces- 
sible. 

She  lives  in  children  alone  ;  and  the  mother,  where 
is  she  ?  She  is  the  only  artist :  from  the  simplest  sub- 
ject to  the  greatest  contrasts  ;  without  apparent  effort 
to  the  greatest  perfection,  to  the  precisest  exactness — 
always  covered  with  something  gentle.  Every  one  of 
her  works  has  a  being  of  its  own,  every  one  of  her 
phenomena  has  the  most  isolated  idea,  and  yet  they 
all  make  one. 

She  acts  a  play  on  the  stage  :  whether  she  sees  it 
herself  we  know  not,  and  yet  she  plays  it  for  us  who 
stand  in  the  corner. 

There  is  an  eternal  living,  becoming,  and  moving 
in  her,  and  yet  she  proceeds  not  farther.  She  trans- 
forms herself  forever,  and  there  is  no  moment  of  stand- 
ing still  in  her.  Of  remaining  in  a  spot  she  does  not 
think,  and  she  attaches  her  curse  upon  standing  still. 
She  is  firm  ;  her  step  is  measured,  her  exceptions  rare, 
her  laws  unalterable. 

She  has  thought,  and  is  constantly  meditating ; 
not  as  a  man,  but  as  nature.  She  has  an  all-embrac- 
ing mind  of  her  own,  and  no  one  can  penetrate  it. 

1  The  readers  of  The  Open  Court  are  indebted  for  the  publication  of 
Goethe's  rhapsody  on  Nature  to  Mr.  T.  B.  Wakeman,  who  has  called  the 
Editor's  attention  to  this  gem  of  philosophic  poetry. 


N* 


S" 


^ 


4 '36 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


them  ;  he  works  with  her  even  when  he  would  work 
against  her. 

She  makes  of  all  she  gives  a  blessing,  for  she  first 
makes  it  indispensable.  She  lags,  that  we  may  long 
for  her  ;  she  hastens,  that  we  may  not  grow  weary  of 
her. 

She  has  no  speech  nor  language  ;  but  she  creates 
tongues  and  hearts  through  which  she  feels  and  speaks. 

Her  crown  is  love.  Only  through  it  can  one  come 
near  her.  She  creates  gaps  between  all  beings,  and 
is  always  ready  to  engulf  all.  She  has  isolated  all, 
to  draw  all  together.  By  a  few  draughts  from  the  cup 
of  love  she  makes  up  for  a  life  full  of  trouble. 

She  is  all.  She  rewards  herself  and  punishes  her- 
self, delights  and  torments  herself.  She  is  rude  and 
gentle,  lovely  and  terrible,  powerless  and  almighty. 

All  is  always  now  in  her.  Past  and  future  knows 
she  not.     The  present  is  her  eternity. 

She  is  kindly.  I  praise  her  with  all  her  works.  She 
is  wise  and  quiet.  One  can  tear  no  explanation  from 
her,  extort  from  her  no  gift,  which  she  gives  not  of  her 
own  free  will.  She  is  cunning,  but  for  a  good  end, 
and  it  is  best  not  to  observe  her  cunning. 

She  is  whole,  and  yet  ever  uncompleted.  As  she 
plies  it,  she  can  always  ply  it. 

To  every  one  she  appears  in  a  form  of  her  own. 
She  hides  herself  in  a  thousand  names  and  terms,  and 
is  always  the  same. 

She  has  placed  me  here,  she  will  lead  me  away.  I 
trust  myself  to  her.  She  may  manage  it  with  me.  She 
will  not  hate  her  work.  It  is  not  1  who  spake  of  her. 
No,  both  the  true  as  well  as  the  false,  she  has  spoken 
it  all.      All  the  guilt  is  hers,  all  the  merit  hers. 


ON  THE  CAUSES  OF  HARMONY. 

A  POPULAR  SCIENTIFIC  LECTURE.l 
BY  PROF.  ERNST  MACH. 

We  are  to  speak  to-day  of  a  theme  which  is  perhaps 
of  somewhat  more  general  interest — the  causes  of  the 
harmony  of  musical  sounds.  The  first  and  simplest  ex- 
periences relative  to  harmony  are  very  ancient.  Not 
so  the  explanation  of  its  laws.  These  were  first  sup- 
plied by  the  investigators  of  a  recent  epoch.  Allow  me 
an  historical  retrospect. 

Pythagoras  (586  B.  C.)  knew  that  the  note  yielded 
by  a  string  of  steady  tension  was  converted  into  its 
octave  when  the  length  of  the  string  was  reduced  one- 
half,  and  into  its  fifth  when  reduced  two-thirds  ;  and 
that  then  the  first  fundamental  tone  was  consonant 
with  the  two  others.  He  knew  generally  that  the  same 
string  under  fixed  tension  gives  consonant  tones  when 
successively  divided  into  lengths  that  are  in  the  pro- 
portions of  the  simplest  natural  numbers  ;  that  is,  in 
the  proportions  of  1:2,  2:3,  3:4,  4:5. 

I  Graz,  1865.  Translated  by  ///(/)K. 


Pythagoras  failed  to  reveal  the  causes  of  these  laws. 
What  have  consonant  tones  to  do  with  the  simple  nat- 
ural numbers?  That  is  the  question  we  should  ask 
to-day.  But  this  circumstance  must  have  appeared 
less  strange  than  inexplicable  to  Pythagoras.  This 
philosopher  sought  for  the  causes  of  harmony  in  the 
occult,  miraculous  powers  of  numbers.  His  procedure 
was  largely  the  cause  of  the  upgrowth  of  a  numerical 
mysticism,  of  which  the  traces  may  still  be  detected  in 
our  oneirocritical  books,  and  with  some  scientists,  to 
whom  marvels  are  more  attractive  than  lucidity. 

Euclid  (300  B.  C.)  gives  a  definition  of  consonance 
and  dissonance  that  could  hardly  be  improved  upon, 
in  point  of  verbal  accuracy.  The  consonance  iavf-i- 
qxjjvia)  of  two  tones,  he  says,  is  the  mixture,  the 
blending  (MpaGiS)  of  those  two  tones ;  dissonance 
(Siaq)oovia),  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  incapacity  of 
the  tones  to  blend  {a/.uSia),  whereby  they  are  made 
harsh  for  the  ear.  The  person  who  knows  the  correct 
explanation  of  the  phenomenon  hears  it,  so  to  speak, 
reverberated  in  these  words  of  Euclid.  Still,  Euclid 
did  not  know  the  true  cause  of  harmony.  He  had  un- 
wittingly come  very  near  to  the  truth,  but  without 
really  grasping  it. 

Leibnitz  (1646-1716  A.  D.)  resumed  the  question 
which  his  predecessors  had  left  unsolved.  He,  of 
course,  knew  that  musical  notes  were  produced  by  vi- 
brations, that  twice  as  many  vibrations  corresponded 
to  the  octave  as  to  the  fundamental  tone,  etc.  A  pas- 
sionate lover  of  mathematics,  he  sought  for  the  cause 
of  harmony  in  the  secret  computation  and  comparison 
of  the  simple  numbers  of  vibrations  and  in  the  secret 
satisfaction  of  the  soul  at  this  occupation.  But  how, 
we  ask,  if  one  does  not  know  that  musical  notes  are 
vibrations  ?  The  computation  and  the  satisfaction  at 
the  computation  must  indeed  be  pretty  secret  if  it  is 
unknown.  What  queer  ideas  philosophers  have!  Could 
anything  more  wearisome  be  imagined  than  computa- 
tion as  a  principle  of  aesthetics  ?  Yes,  you  are  not 
utterly  wrong  in  your  conjecture,  yet  you  may  be  sure 
that  Leibnitz's  theory  is  not  wholly  nonsense,  although 
it  is  difficult  to  make  out  precisely  what  he  meant  by 
his  secret  computation. 

The  great  Euler  (i 707-1 783)  sought  the  cause  of 
harmony,  almost  as  Leibnitz  did,  in  the  pleasure  which 
the  soul  derives  from  the  contemplation  of  order  in  the 
numbers  of  the  vibrations.' 

Rameau  and  D'Alembert  (1717-1783)  approached 
nearer  to  the  truth.  They  knew  that  in  every  sound 
available  in  music  besides  the  fundamental  note  also 
the  twelfth  and  the  next  higher  third  could  be  heard  ; 
and  further  that  the  resemblance  between  a  fundamen- 

1  Sauveur  also  set  out  from  Leibnitz's  idea,  but  arrived  by  independent 
researches  at  a  different  theory,  which  was  very  near  to  that  of  Helmholtz. 
Compare  on  this  point  Sauveur,  Mintoires  de  V Academie  des  Sciences,  Paris, 
1700-1705,  and  R,  Smith,  Harmonics,  Cambridge,  1749. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4137 


tal  tone  and  its  octave  was  always  exceptionally  marked. 
Accordingly,  the  combination  of  the  octave,  fifth,  third, 
etc.,  with  the  fundamental  tone  appeared  to  them  "nat- 
ural." They  possessed,  we  must  admit,  the  correct 
point  of  view  ;  but  with  the  simple  naturalness  of  a 
phenomenon  no  inquirer  can  rest  content ;  for  it  is  pre- 
cisely this  naturalness  for  which  he  seeks  his  explana- 
tions. 

Rameau's  remark  dragged  along  through  the  whole 
modern  period,  yet  without  leading  to  the  full  discov- 
ery of  the  truth.  Marx  places  it  at  the  head  of  his 
theory  of  composition,  but  makes  no  further  applica- 
tion of  it.  Also  Goethe  and  Zelter  in  their  correspon- 
dence were,  so  to  speak,  on  the  brink  of  the  truth. 
Zelter  knew  of  Rameau's  view.  Finally,  you  will  be 
appalled  at  the  difficulty  of  the  problem,  when  I  tell 
you  that  till  very  recent  times  even  professors  of  phys- 
ics preserved  silence  when  asked  for  the  causes  of 
harmony. 

Not  till  quite  recently  did  Helmholtz  find  the  so- 
lution of  the  question.  But  to  make  this  solution  clear 
to  you  I  must  first  speak  of  some  experimental  prin- 
ciples of  physics  and  psychology. 

i)  In  every  process  of  perception,  in  every  obser- 
vation, the  attention  plays  a  highly  important  part. 
We  need  not  look  about  us  long  for  proofs  of  this. 
You  receive,  for  example,  a  letter  written  in  a  very 
poor  hand.  Do  your  best,  you  cannot  make  it  out. 
You  put  together  now  these,  now  those  lines,  yet  you 
cannot  construct  from  them  a  single  intelligible  char- 
acter. Not  until  you  direct  your  attention  to  groups 
of  lines  which  really  belong  together,  is  the  reading  of 
the  letter  possible.  Manuscripts,  the  letters  of  which 
are  formed  of  minute  figures  and  scrolls  can  only  be 
read  at  a  considerable  distance,  where  the  attention  is 
no  longer  diverted  from  the  significant  outlines  to  the 
details.  A  beautiful  example  of  this  class  is  furnished 
by  the  famous  iconographs  of  Giuseppe  Arcimboldo  in 
the  basement  of  the  Belvedere  gallery  atVienna.  These 
are  symbolic  representations  of  water,  fire,  etc.  :  hu- 
man heads  composed  of  aquatic  animals  and  of  com- 
bustibles. At  a  short  distance  one  sees  only  the  de- 
tails, at  a  greater  distance  only  the  whole  figure.  Yet 
a  point  can  be  easily  found  at  which,  by  a  simple  vol- 
untary movement  of  the  attention,  there  is  no  difficulty 
in  seeing  now  the  whole  figure  and  now  the  smaller 
forms  of  which  it  is  composed.  A  picture  is  often  seen 
representing  the  tomb  of  Napoleon.  The  tomb  is  sur- 
rounded by  dark  trees  between  which  the  bright  heav- 
ens are  visible  as  background.  One  can  look  a  long  time 
at  this  picture  without  noticing  anything  except  the 
trees,  but  suddenly,  on  the  attention  being  acciden- 
tally directed  to  the  bright  background,  one  sees 
the  figure  of  Napoleon  between  the  trees.  This  case 
shows  us  most  distinctly  the  important  part  which  at- 


tention plays.  The  same  sensuous  object  can,  solely 
by  the  interposition  of  attention,  give  rise  to  wholly 
different  perceptions. 

If  I  strike  a  harmony,  or  chord,  on  this  piano,  by 
a  mere  effort  of  attention  you  can  fix  ever}'  tone  of 
that  harmony.  You  then  hear  most  distinctly  the 
fixed  tone,  and  all  the  rest  appear  as  a  mere  addition, 
altering  only  the  quality,  or  acoustic  color,  of  the  pri- 
mary tone.  The  effect  of  the  same  harmony  is  essen- 
tially modified  if  we  direct  our  attention  to  different 
tones. 

Strike  in   succession  two  harmonies,  for  example, 
the  two  represented  in  the  annexed  diagram,  and  first 
fix  by  the  attention  the  upper  note 
e,  afterwards  the  base  e — a  ;  in  the 
two  cases  you  will  hear  the  same 
sequence  of  harmonies  differently. 
In  the  first  case,  you  have  the  im- 
pression  as   if    the    fixed    tone    re- 
mained unchanged  and  simply  al- 
tered its  timbre  ;  in  the  second  case, 
the  whole  acoustic  agglomeration  seems  to  fall  sensibly 
in  depth.      There  is  an  art  of  composition  to  guide  the 
attention  of  the  hearer.      But  there  is  also  an  art  of 
hearing,  which  is  not  the  gift  of  every  person. 

The  piano-player  knows  the  remarkable  effects  ob- 
tained when  one  of  the  keys  of  a  chord  that  is  struck 
is  let  loose.  Bar  i  played  on  the  piano  sounds  almost 
like  bar  2.      The  note  which  lies  next  to  the  key  let 


^^ 


^ 


loose  resounds  after  its  release  as  if  it  were  freshly 
struck.  The  attention  no  longer  occupied  with  the 
upper  note  is  by  that  very  fact  insensibly  led  to  the 
upper  note. 

Any  tolerably  cultivated  musical  ear  can  perform 
the  resolution  of  a  harmony  into  its  component  parts. 
By  much  practice  we  can  go  even  further.  Then, 
every  musical  sound  heretofore  regarded  as  simple 
can  be  resolved  into  a  subordinate  suc- 
cession of  musical  tones.  For  example, 
if  I  strike  on  the  piano  the  note  i,  (an- 
nexed diagram,)  we  shall  hear,  if  we 
make  the  requisite  effort  of  attention, 
besides  the  loud  fundamental  note  the 
feebler,  higher  overtones,  or  harmonics,  p. 

2  ....  7,  that  is,  the  octave,  the  twelfth, 
the  double  octave,  and  the  third,   the  fifth,  and  the 
seventh  of  the  double  octave. 

The  same  is  true  of  every  musically  available 
sound.  Each  yields,  with  varying  degrees  of  inten- 
sity, besides  its  fundamental  note,  also  the  octave,  the 


k 


4138 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


twelfth,  the  double  octave,  etc.  The  phenomenon  is 
observable  with  special  facility  on  the  open  and  closed 
flue-pipes  of  organs.  According,  now,  as  certain  over- 
tones are  more  or  less  distinctly  emphasised  in  a 
sound,  the  timbre  of  the  sound  changes — that  peculiar 
quality  of  the  sound  by  which  we  distinguish  the  music 
of  the  piano  from  that  of  the  violin,  the  clarinet,  etc. 

On  the  piano  these  overtones  may  be  rendered 
very  easily  audible.  If  I  strike,  for  example,  sharply 
note  I  of  the  foregoing  series,  whilst  I  simply  hold 
one  after  another  the  keys  2,  3,  ....  7,  the  notes  2, 
3,  ....  7  will  continue  to  sound  after  the  striking  of  i, 
because  the  strings  corresponding  to  these  notes,  now 
freed  from  their  dampers,  are  thrown  into  sympathetic 
vibration. 

As  you  know,  this  sympathetic  vibration  of  the  like- 
pitched  strings  with  the  overtones  is  really  not  to  be 
conceived  as  sympathy,  but  rather  as  lifeless  mechani- 
cal necessity.  We  must  not  think  of  this  sympathetic 
vibration  as  an  ingenious  journalist  pictured  it,  who 
tells  a  gruesome  story  of  Beethoven's  F  minor  sonata, 
Op.  2,  that  I  cannot  withhold  from  you.  "At  the 
last  London  Industrial  Exhibition  nineteen  virtuosos 
played  the  F  minor  sonata  on  the  same  piano.  When 
the  twentieth  stepped  up  to  the  instrument  to  play  by 
way  of  variation  the  same  production,  to  the  terror  of 
all  present  the  piano  began  to  render  the  sonata  of  its 
own  accord.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who 
happened  to  be  present,  was  set  to  work  and  forthwith 
expelled  the  F  minor  devil." 

Although,  now,  the  overtones  or  harmonics  which 
we  have  discussed  are  heard  only  upon  a  special  effort 
of  the  attention,  nevertheless  they  play  a  highly  im- 
portant part  in  the  formation  of  musical  tirnb]-e,  as  also 
in  the  production  of  the  consonance  and  dissonance  of 
sounds.  This  may  strike  you  as  singular.  How  can 
a  thing  which  is  heard  only  under  exceptional  circum- 
stances be  of  importance  generally  for  audition  ? 

But  consider  some  familiar  incidents  of  your  every- 
day life.  Think  of  how  many  things  you  see  which 
you  do  not  notice,  which  never  strike  your  attention 
until  they  are  missing.  A  friend  calls  upon  you  ;  you 
cannot  understand  why  he  looks  so  changed.  Not 
until  you  make  a  close  examination  do  you  discover 
that  his  hair  has  been  cut.  It  is  not  difficult  to  tell 
the  publisher  of  a  work  from  its  letter- press,  and  yet 
no  one  can  state  precisely  the  points  by  which  this 
style  of  type  is  so  strikingly  different  from  that  style. 
I  have  often  recognised  a  book  which  I  was  in  search 
of  from  a  simple  piece  of  unprinted  white  paper  that 
peeped  out  from  underneath  the  heap  of  books  cover- 
ing it,  and  yet  I  had  never  carefully  examined  the 
paper,  nor  could  I  have  stated  its  difference  from  other 
papers. 

What  we  must  remember,  therefore,  is  that  every 


sound  that  is  musically  available  yields,  besides  its 
fundamental  note,  its  octave,  its  twelfth,  its  double 
octave,  etc.,  as  overtones  or  harmonics,  and  that  these 
are  important  for  the  agreeable  combination  of  several 
musical  sounds. 

2)  One  other  fact  still  remains  to  be  dealt  with. 
Look  at  this  tuning-fork.  It  yields,  when  struck,  a  per- 
fectly smooth  tone.  But  if  you  strike  in  company  with 
it  a  second  fork  which  is  of  slightly  different  pitch,  and 
which  alone  also  gives  a  perfectly  smooth  tone,  you 
will  hear,  if  you  set  both  forks  on  the  table,  or  hold 
both  before  your  ear,  a  uniform  tone  no  longer,  but  a 
number  of  shocks  of  tones.  The  rapidity  of  the  shocks 
increases  with  the  difference  of  the  pitch  of  the  forks. 
These  shocks,  which  become  very  disagreeable  for  the 
ear  when  they  amount  to  thirty-three  in  a  second,  are 
called  "beats." 

Always,  when  one  of  two  like  musical  sounds  is 
thrown  out  of  unison  with  the  other,  beats  arise.  Their 
number  increases  with  the  divergence  from  unison,  and 
simultaneously  they  grow  more  unpleasant.  Their 
roughness  reaches  its  maximum  at  about  thirty-three 
beats  in  a  second.  On  a  still  further  departure  from 
unison,  and  a  consequent  increase  of  the  number  of 
beats,  the  unpleasant  effect  is  diminished,  so  that  tones 
which  are  widely  apart  in  pitch  no  longer  produce 
offensive  beats. 

To  give  yourselves  a  clear  idea  of  the  production 
of  beats,  take  two  metronomes  and  set  them  almost 
alike.  You  can,  for  that  matter,  set  the  two  exactly 
alike.  You  need  not  fear  that  they  will  strike  alike. 
The  metronomes  usually  for  sale  in  the  shops  are  poor 
enough  to  yield,  when  set  alike,  appreciably  unequal 
strokes.  Set,  now,  these  two  metronomes,  which  strike 
at  unequal  intervals,  in  motion  ;  you  will  readily  see 
that  their  strokes  alternately  coincide  and  fall  out  with 
each  other.  The  alternation  is  quicker  the  greater  the 
difference  of  time  of  the  two  metronomes. 

If  metronomes  are  not  to  be  had,  the  experiment 
can  be  performed  with  two  watches. 

Beats  arise  just  in  this  way.  The  rhythmical 
shocks  of  two  sounding  bodies,  of  unequal  pitch,  some- 
times coincide,  sometimes  interfere,  whereby  they  al- 
ternately augment  and  enfeeble  each  other's  effects. 
Hence  the  shock-like,  unpleasant  swelling  of  the  tone. 

Now  that  we  have  made  ourselves  acquainted  with 
overtones  and  beats,  we  may  proceed  to  the  answer  of 
our  main  question.  Why  do  certain  relations  of  pitch 
produce  pleasant  sounds,  consonances,  others  unpleas- 
ant sounds,  dissonances  ?  It  will  be  readily  seen  that 
all  the  unpleasant  effects  of  simultaneous  sound-com- 
binations are  the  result  of  beats  produced  by  those 
combinations.  Beats  are  the  only  sin,  the  sole  evil  of 
music.  Consonance  is  the  coalescence  of  sounds  with- 
out appreciable  beats. 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


4139 


To  make  this  perfectly  clear  to  you  I  have  con- 
structed the  model  which  you  see  in  Fig.  4.  It  rep- 
resents a  claviatur.  At  its  top  a  movable  strip  of  wood 
aa  with  the  marks  i,  2  ....  6  is  placed.  By  setting 
this  strip  in  any  position,  for  example,  in  that  where  the 


I 


mark  i  is  over  the  note  c  of  the  claviatur,  the  marks 
2,  3  ....  6,  as  you  see,  stand  over  the  overtones  of  i. 
The  same  happens  when  the  strip  is  placed  in  any 
other  position.  A  second,  exactly  similiar  strip,  l>i, 
possesses  the  same  properties.  Thus,  together,  the 
two  strips,  in  any  two  positions,  point  out  by  their 
marks  all  the  tones  brought  into  play  upon  the  simulta- 
neous sounding  of  the  notes  indicated  by  the  marks  i. 

The  two  strips,  placed  over  the  same  fundamental 
note,  show  that  also  all  the  overtones  of  those  notes 
coincide.  The  first  note  is  simply  intensified  by  the 
other.  The  single  overtones  of  a  sound  lie  too  far  apart 
to  permit  appreciable  beats.  The  second  sound  sup- 
plies nothing  new,  consequently,  also,  no  new  beats. 
Unison  is  the  most  perfect  consonance. 

Moving  one  of  the  two  strips  along  the  other  is 
equivalent  to  a  departure  from  unison.  All  the  over- 
tones of  the  one  sound  now  fall  alongside  those  of  the 
other  ;  beats  are  at  once  produced  ;  the  combination 
of  the  tones  becomes  unpleasant  :  we  obtain  a  disso- 
nance. If  we  move  the  strip  further  and  further  along, 
we  shall  find  that  as  a  general  rule  the  overtones  al- 
ways fall  alongside  each  other,  that  is,  always  produce 
beats  and  dissonances.  Only  in  a  few  quite  definite 
positions  do  the  overtones  partially  coincide.  Such 
positions,  therefore,  signify  higher  degrees  of  euphony 
— they  point  out  i/te  consonant  intervals. 

These  consonant  intervals  can  be  readily  found  ex- 
perimentally by  cutting  Fig.  4  out  of  paper  and  moving 
bb  lengthwise  along  aa.  The  most  perfect  consonances 
are  the  octave  and  the  twelfth,  since  in  these  two  cases 
the  overtones  of  the  one  sound  coincide  absolutely 
with  those  of  the  other.  In  the  octave,  for  example, 
r^  falls  on  2  a,  ib  on  4  a,  3^  on  ba.  Consonances, 
therefore,  are  simultaneous  sound-combinations  not 
accompanied  by  disagreeable  beats.  This,  by  the  way, 
is,  expressed  in  English,  what  Euclid  said  in  Greek. 

Only  such  sounds  are  consonant  as  possess  in  com- 
mon some  portion  of  their  partial  tones.  Plainly  we 
must  recognise  between  such  sounds,  also  when  struck 
one  after  another,  a  certain  affinity.  For  the  second 
sound,  by  virtue  of  the  common  overtones,  will  produce 
partly  the  same  sensation  as  the  first.  The  octave  is 
the  most  striking  exemplification  of  this.      When  we 


reach  the  octave  in  the  ascent  of  the  scale  we  actually 
fancy  we  hear  the  fundamental  tone  repeated.  The 
foundations  of  harmony,  therefore,  are  the  foundations 
of  melody. 

Consonance  is  the  coalescence  of  sounds  without 
appreciable  beats  !  This  principle  is  competent  to  in- 
troduce wonderful  order  and  logic  into  the  doctrines 
of  the  fundamental  bass.  The  compendiums  of  the 
theory  of  harmony  which  (Heaven  be  witness  !)  have 
stood  hitherto  little  behind  the  cook-books  in  subtlety 
of  logic,  are  rendered  extraordinarily  clear  and  simple. 
And  what  is  more,  all  that  the  great  masters,  such  as 
Palestrina,  Mozart,  Beethoven,  unconsciously  got 
right,  and  of  which  heretofore  no  text-book  could  ren- 
der just  account,  receives  from  the  preceding  principle 
its  perfect  verification. 

But  the  beauty  of  the  theory  is,  that  it  bears  upon 
its  face  the  stamp  of  truth.  It  is  no  phantom  of  the 
brain.  Every  musician  can  hear  for  himself  the  beats 
which  the  overtones  of  his  musical  sounds  produce. 
Every  musician  can  satisfy  himself  that  for  any  given 
case  the  number  and  the  harshness  of  the  beats  can 
be  calculated  beforehand,  and  that  they  occur  in  ex- 
actly the  measure  that  theory  determines. 

This  is  the  answer  which  Helmholtz  gave  to  the 
question  of  Pythagoras,  so  far  as  it  can  be  explained 
with  the  means  now  at  my  command.  A  long  period 
of  time  lies  between  the  raising  and  the  solving  of  this 
question.  More  than  once  were  eminent  inquirers 
nearer  to  the  answer  than  they  dreamed  of. 

The  inquirer  seeks  the  truth.  I  do  not  know  if  the 
truth  seeks  the  inquirer.  But  were  that  so,  then  the 
history  of  science  would  vividly  remind  us  of  that 
classical  rendezvous,  so  often  immortalised  by  paint- 
ers and  poets.  A  high  garden  wall.  At  the  right  a 
youth,  at  the  left  a  maiden.  The  youth  sighs,  the 
maiden  sighs  !  Both  wait.  Neither  dreams  how  near 
the  other  is. 

I  like  the  simile.  Truth  suffers  herself  to  be 
courted,  but  she  has  apparently  no  desire  to  be  won. 
She  flirts  at  times  disgracefully.  Above  all,  she  is  de- 
termined to  be  merited,  and  has  naught  but  contempt 
for  the  man  who  will  win  her  too  quickly.  And  if, 
forsooth,  one  breaks  his  head  in  his  efforts  of  conquest, 
what  matter  is  it,  another  will  come,  and  truth  is  al- 
ways young.  At  times,  indeed,  it  really  seems  as  if 
she  were  well  disposed  towards  her  admirer,  but  that 
admitted — never  !  Only  when  Truth  is  in  exceptionally 
good  spirits  does  she  bestow  upon  her  wooer  a  glance 
of  encouragement.  For,  Truth  thinks,  if  I  do  not  do 
something,  in  the  end  the  fellow  will  not  seek  me  at  all. 

This  one  fragment  of  truth,  then,  we  have,  and  it 
shall  never  escape  us.  But  when  I  reflect  what  it  has 
cost  in  labor  and  in  the  lives  of  thinking  men,  how  it 
painfully  groped   its  way  through  centuries,   a  half- 


4HO 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


matured  thought,  before  it  became  complete  ;  when  1 
reflect  that  it  is  the  toil  of  more  than  two  thousand 
years  that  speaks  out  of  this  unobtrusive  model  of 
mine,  then,  without  dissimulation,  I  almost  repent  me 
of  the  jest  I  have  made. 

And  think  of  how  much  we  still  lack  !  When,  sev- 
eral thousand  years  hence,  boots,  top-hats,  hoops,  pia- 
nos, and  bass-viols  are  dug  out  of  the  earth,  out  of  the 
newest  alluvium  as  fossils  of  the  nineteenth  century; 
when  the  scientists  of  that  time  shall  pursue  their 
studies  both  upon  these  wonderful  structures  and  upon 
our  modern  Broadways,  as  we  to-day  make  studies  of 
the  implements  of  the  stone  age  and  of  the  prehistoric 
lake-dwellings — then,  too,  perhaps,  people  will  be  un- 
able to  comprehend  how  we  could  come  so  near  to 
many  great  truths  without  grasping  them.  And  thus 
it  is  for  all  time  the  unsolved  dissonance,  for  all  time 
the  troublesome  seventh,  that  everywhere  resounds  in 
our  ears;  we  feel,  perhaps,  that  it  will  find  its  solu- 
tion, but  we  shall  never  live  to  see  the  day  of  the  pure 
triple  accord,  nor  shall  our  remotest  descendants. 

Ladies,  if  it  is  the  sweet  purpose  of  your  life  to 
sow  confusion,  it  is  the  purpose  of  mine  to  be  clear  ; 
and  so  I  must  confess  to  you  a  slight  transgression 
that  I  have  been  guilty  of.  On  one  point  I  have  told 
you  an  untruth.  But  you  will  pardon  me  this  false- 
hood, if  in  full  repentance  I  make  it  good.  The  model 
represented  in  Fig.  4  does  not  tell  the  whole  truth,  for 
it  is  based  upon  the  so-called  "even  temperament" 
system  of  tuning.  The  overtones,  however,  of  musical 
sounds  are  not  tempered,  but  purely  tuned.  By  means 
of  this  slight  inexactness  the  model  is  made  consider- 
ably simpler.  In  this  form  it  is  fully  adequate  for 
ordinary  purposes,  and  no  one  who  makes  use  of  it  in 
his  studies  need  be  in  fear  of  appreciable  error. 

If  you  should  demand  of  me,  however,  the  full 
truth,  I  could  give  you  that  only  by  the  help  of  a  math- 
ematical formula.  I  should  have  to  take  the  chalk  into 
my  hands  and — think  of  it ! — reckon  in  your  presence. 
This  you  might  take  amiss.  Nor  shall  it  happen. 
I  have  resolved  to  do  no  more  reckoning  for  to-day. 
I  shall  reckon  now  only  upon  your  forbearance,  and 
this  you  will  surely  not  gainsay  me  when  you  reflect 
that  I  have  made  only  a  limited  use  of  my  privilege  to 
weary  you.  I  could  have  taken  up  much  more  of 
your  time,  and  may,  therefore,  justly  close  with  Les- 
sing's  epigram  : 

"  If  thou  hast  found  in  all  these  pages  naught  that's  worth  the  thanks, 
At  least  have  gratitude  for  what  I've  spared  thee." 

TRAVELLING  DURING  A  RAILROAD  STRIKE. 

There  seems  to  be  no  end  of  strikes.  The  coal-miner's  strike 
is  scarcely  over  and  the  Pullman  works  still  lie  idle  as  if  forever 
dead,  when  suddenly  all  the  railroads  of  the  country  are  threatened 
with  a  general  strike  under  the  auspices  of  the  American  Railway 
Union.  The  movement  began  with  the  stoppage  of  the  trains  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  but  spread  rapidly  over  the  other 


roads,  and  soon  gained  such  dimensions  that  almost  all  traffic  in 
Chicago  is  paralysed,  the  milk  supply  is  partly  interrupted,  ice  be- 
gins to  be  scarce,  thus  making  it  impossible  to  keep  meat  fresh, 
and  travelling  has  become  dangerous. 

Having  attended  to  some  business  in  Chicago,  I  thought  I  had 
better  go  home  since  my  road  was  not  yet  affected,  and  went  to 
the  Rock  Island  depot  where  the  train  was  due  at  3:30  P.  M.  The 
train  was  not  as  yet  made  up,  and  a  great  number  of  passengers 
were  eagerly  discussing  the  probabilities  of  their  fate.  Will  the 
train  run  ?  Will  it  be  stopped  by  the  strikers  ?  Anyway,  a  person 
not  compelled  to  travel  had  better  stay  home,  for  the  train  may  be 
derailed.  There  are  Pullman  cars  in  the  train.  But  then  the  train 
carries  mail  and  the  strikers  will  be  careful  not  to  interfere  with 
the  United  States  mail.  Mobs  may  assault  the  train.  Neverthe- 
less, the  passengers  need  not  fear,  for  the  strike  is  directed  against 
the  road,  not  against  the  public. 

Such  were  the  thoughts  and  sentiments  expressed.  Hav- 
ing waited  about  half  an  hour  the  cars  came  rolling  into 
the  depot  and  the  public  rushed  through  the  gate  where  they  had 
to  show  their  tickets.  "Have  your  ticket  ready,"  I  overheard 
some  one  say,  "the  man  at  the  gate  is  sometimes  very  impolite 
and  treats  the  public  as  an  overseer  in  the  penitentiary  treats 
criminals  under  his  control."  An  acquaintance  of  mine,  standing 
at  my  side,  added,  "  the  American  public  is  very  patient.  We 
love  liberty  in  name  only  but  we  suffer  the  most  outrageous  op- 
pression by  big  corporations."  Mark  Twain's  article  "  Travelling 
with  a  Reformer,"  had  no  effect  upon  the  managers  of  our  roads. 
On  entering  this  gate  we  have  to  leave  our  citizen's  rights  be- 
hind and  must  submit  to  the  sweet  will  of  the  company. 

The  train  was  overcrowded  ;  all  the  seats  were  taken  and  all 
the  aisles  filled.  The  heat  was  oppressive  ;  yet  we  had  to  endure 
it,  and  the  train  stood  there  for  another  half  an  hour.  New- 
comers crowded  the  room  still  more  and  spread  discouraging  ru- 
mors as  to  the  condition  of  things  in  the  suburbs.  All  trains  are 
stopped,  it  was  said,  and  the  engineers  and  firemen  are  induced  to 
join  the  strike.  It  is  a  bare  possibility  that  the  train  will  run,  but 
we  have  to  take  our  chances.  Another  half  hour  passed  and  many 
people  left  the  car.  I  might  have  done  so  too,  but  the  rain  poured 
in  torrents  and  I  thought,  this  may  be  the  last  train. 

At  last  the  train  started,  but  it  returned  at  once  into  the  depot 
and  was  switched  upon  another  track.  There  we  stood  again  and 
waited.  The  time  had  come  for  the  next  train,  which  was  an  ac- 
commodation train  to  run  on  the  same  line,  and  both  trains  were 
merged  into  one.  Many  passengers  deserted  the  train  but  new 
ones  took  their  seats,  and  we  were  overcrowded  as  before.  Among 
the  travellers  were  not  only  young  men  bound  for  their  Sunday 
excursion,  but   also  families  going  west  and  mothers  with  babies. 

Now  the  train  actually  started  ;  it  took  us  more  than  double 
the  usual  time  to  pass  through  the  city,  for  the  engineer  had  to 
look  out  to  avoid  danger  ;  yet  we  reached  Englewood  and  passed 
unmolested  out  of  the  city  limits.  A  gentleman  from  Blue  Island 
had  his  seat  beside  me  and  he  said,  "there  will  be  trouble  in  Blue 
Island,  for  the  strikers  are  very  powerful  there  and  a  mob  of  toughs 
is  always  ready  to  swell  their  numbers  wherever  they  are  bent  on 
mischief." 

We  approached  Blue  Island,  the  speed  of  the  train  slack- 
ened, when  suddenly  we  felt  a  jerk  that  shook  us  all  in  our  seats, 
followed  by  another  jerk,  as  though  the  train  were  thrown  off  the 
rails,  and  there  we  stood  still.  Some  passengers  left  the  cars  to 
see  what  was  the  matter.  The  engine  stood  toppling  over,  with 
one  front  wheel  upon  the  right  branch  of  the  switch,  the  other 
front  wheel  buried  a  foot  deep  in  the  ground,  while  the  hind  wheels 
of  the  tender  were  touching  the  rails  of  the  left  branch.  The 
pivots  of  the  tender  were  broken,  and  big  splinters  of  wood  testi- 
fied to  the  vehemence  with  which  it  had  collided  with  the  engine. 
The  engineer  must  have  had  an  uncomfortable  moment  while  the 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4141 


engine  was  thrown  over  under  his  feet  and  wildly  shaken,  and  no 
doubt  he  had  a  narrow  escape.  He  might  have  been  crushed  by 
the  intruding  tender,  and  if  the  boiler  had  been  injured  what  a 
terrible  death  of  being  scorched  alive  ! 

How  did  it  all  happen  ?  An  infamous  switchman  had  turned 
the  switch  at  the  last  moment,  and  the  yardmaster  tried  in  vain  to 
prevent  him.  But  the  felon  succeeded  in  pulling  the  switch  half 
open,  and  the  engine  was  wrecked.  Happily  the  engineer  had 
been  on  his  guard.  Observing  the  struggle  in  the  switch-tower, 
he  reversed  the  engine  and  applied  at  the  same  time  with  all  force 
the  air-brakes.  His  circumspection  apparently  had  saved  hun- 
dreds of  lives.  If  the  train  had  had  a  little  more  speed  the  front 
cars  would  have  unfailingly  been  thrown  upon  the  wrecked  engine 
and  would  have  been  crushed  under  the  weight  of  the  following 
cars.  Had  the  engine  run  at  full  speed,  the  whole  train  would  have 
been  piled  up  in  a  twinkle  in  a  heap  of  ruins. 

It  was  still  raining,  but  the  passengers  went  out  to  witness 
the  work  of  destruction.  The  author  of  the  wreck  had  no  chance 
of  escaping  from  the  switch-tower,  and  was  at  once  taken  into  cus- 
,  tody  and  put  in  jail.  The  rain  still  continued ;  still  there  were 
plenty  of  strikers  present,  all  elated  at  the  great  accomplishment 
which  successfully  blockaded  the  whole  line. 

In  the  meantime  the  roadmaster  was  placed  under  arrest  by 
the  local  authorities  of  Blue  Island  for  obstructing  the  crossing  by 
the  wrecked  train,  and  had  to  be  bailed  out. 

Other  trains  came  and  ranged  behind  us  and  on  side-tracks. 
The  strikers  roamed  over  the  yard  of  the  road,  talking,  laughing, 
and  sometimes  cheering.  Some  of  the  passengers  thought  it  was 
good  fun,  others  looked  rather  discomforted,  but  all  their  inqui- 
ries as  to  our  further  progress  west  or  return  to  the  city  were 
regularly  answered  by  the  officials  of  the  road  with  a  shrug  and 
"I  do  not  know  ;  we  wait  for  orders."  With  some  acquaintances 
of  mine  I  went  out  and  mingled  with  the  crowd.  There  were 
roughs  among  them,  and  their  remarks  were  not  pleasant.  Their 
general  drift  was  :  If  a  railroad  strike  is  ordered,  no  one  has  any 
business  to  travel.  Besides,  travelling  is  a  privilege  of  the  rich. 
A  little  discomfiture  will  serve  them  right.  The  engineer,  a  tall 
and  strongly  built  man,  left  his  engine  with  regret.  It  was  the 
best  engine  on  the  road,  and  tears  were  in  his  eyes  when  he  saw 
some  parts  broken,  some  bent ;  it  is  true  they  were  but  slightly 
bent,  but  they  were  beyond  hope  of  mending.  "  My  poor  ninety- 
four  !  "  he  said  ;  this  was  the  number  of  the  engine.  "  I  ran  it 
since  I  worked  on  the  road."     One  of  the  crowd  standing  by  and 

spitting  tobacco-juice  on  the  ground,  said :   "  The  d fool  !    He 

can  get  another  machine  !  " 

The  public  behaved,  upon  the  whole,  indifferently.  Without 
either  indorsing  or  condemning  their  opinions,  I  will  tell  what  I 
heard  them  say.  They  railed  at  Pullman  and  at  the  road ;  but 
their  remarks  about  the  strikers  were  made  with  more  discretion, 
or  in  secrecy,  for  disturbances  of  the  peace  had  taken  place,  and 
it  was  advisable  not  to  provoke  a  riot.  Pullman  was  denounced 
for  his  greed  and  interference  with  the  liberty  of  his  people,  as  he 
did  not  allow  them  to  choose  their  residences  for  themselves.  It 
was  urged  by  some  among  the  public  that  the  strike  had  no  rhyme 
nor  reason,  because  Pullman  did  not  directly  suffer  by  the  tactics  of 
the  .\  R.  U.,  but  only  the  roads  and  the  public.  The  roads  have  to 
fulfil  their  part  of  the  contract,  whether  they  run  Pullman  cars  or 
not.  "  Well,"  it  was  said,  "  it  will  hurt  Pullman  at  any  rale,  for 
they  will  not  renew  their  contracts."  Some  one  added  :  "Yet 
why  should  others  suffer  because  the  A.  R.  U.  have  a  spite  against 
one  man  ?"  "True,  but  then  the  main  sufferers  are  the  roads,  and 
the  roads  have  little  sympathy  with  the  public."  One  could  hear 
all  the  old  grudges  which  the  public  had  against  them. 

"This  road,"  I  heard  some  one  say,  "  is  distinguished  by  a 
peculiar  narrowness  in  its  management.  They  do  not  care  for  the 
comfort  of  the  public."    A  gentleman  who  said  with  the  assurance 


of  one  who  was  conscious  of  being  well  informed:  "Gruff  con' 
ductors  have  the  best  chance  of  promotion,  while  gentlemanly 
men,  who  treat  the  public  decently,  find  little  consideration.  One 
of  their  best  men  was  dismissed  on  a  baseless  charge,  and  a  unani- 
mous petition  of  his  comrades  was  ignored.  The  man  was  mar- 
ried, and  succumbed  to  the  worries  to  which  he  was  exposed.  He 
fell  sick  and  died."  "Of  course,"  suggested  another  passenger, 
"we  ought  to  hear  both  sides  of  the  case."  Protesting  that  mat- 
ters were  as  stated,  the  former  passenger  continued  :  "And  why  is 
this  road  so  reluctant  in  giving  reduced  rates  ?  They  ought  to  have 
shown  some  consideration  for  the  public  during  the  World's  Fair. 
It  is  their  duty  to  consider  the  wants  of  the  public,  for  roads  are 
franchises,  and  the  holders  of  these  franchises  must  not  forget 
that  they  are  public  institutions  intrusted  to  their  care.  There 
are  other  roads  which  are  more  obliging  to  the  public,  working 
also  in  good  harmony  with  their  men.  The  managers  of  some  of 
the  roads  act  exactly  as  it  they  wished  to  make  themselves  ob- 
noxious to  the  public  at  large  ;  no  wonder  that  the  public  has  no 
sympathy  with  their  occasional  losses  by  strikes."  "  By  the  bye," 
remarked  an  elderly  gentleman,  "if  the  roads  introduced  cheap 
rates  they  would  enjoy  a  greater  prosperity.  From  a  mere  business 
consideration  they  should  endeavor  to  accommodate  the  public." 

Listening  to  the  indignation  thus  openly  vented  against  the 
management  of  the  roads,  one  might  have  thought  the  public  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  strikers.  But  they  were  not.  Many  were  very 
bitter  against  the  leader  of  the  strike,  who,  dictator-like,  assumed 
the  power  to  cripple  trade  and  commerce,  and  to  marshal  the  men 
to  quit  their  work,  even  against  their  will,  by  moral  persuasion,  as 
it  is  called  ;  but  everybody  knows  what  is  meant  by  "  mcral  per- 
suasion." "It  is  true,"  someone  said,  "  that  the  president  of  the 
A.  R.  U.  forbids  violence  and  cautions  his  men  not  to  meddle  with 
the  United  States  mails.  Nevertheless,  it  is  done  ;  and  so  far  the 
strike  has  been  successful  only  through  the  derailment  of  trains 
and  other  lawless  acts,  and  the  leader  of  the  strike  must  know  it." 

There  was  another  opinion  given  by  a  business  man.  "The 
strike  has  ceased  to  be  a  war  between  the  A.  R.  U.  and  Mr.  Pull- 
man, it  is  waged  at  society  at  large  and  involves  everybody  who 
dots  not  join  the  strikers.  Hundreds  of  businesses  are  heedlessly 
ruined,  babies  have  no  milk,  food  becomes  dear,  men  are  forced 
out  of  work ;  the  enforced  idleness  degenerates  the  character  of 
the  laborer.  We  may  have  a  famine  among  the  unemployed  and 
crimes  will  rapidly  increase.  And  the  lessened  demand  will  create 
a  lesser  demand  for  work.  Times  are  hard  anyhow.  It  is  the 
worst  time  to  strike  and  strikes  will  only  help  to  reduce  wages. 
Those  who  in  the  end  will  suffer  most  by  the  increased  hardships 
of  the  times  are  after  all  the  laborers." 

"  I  am  certainly  in  sympathy  with  every  one  who  toils  for  his 
daily  bread,  but  the  laborer  is  not  the  only  toiler  in  this  world 
entitled  to  our  sympathy,  and  if  the  strikers  continue  to  act  with 
such  brutal  egotism,  trampling  under  foot  all  equity,  they  will  at 
once  lose  the  public  sympathy  which  they  still  enjoy." 

There  was  a  German  gentleman  among  the  passengers  who 
remarked  that  such  a  situation  would  be  impossible  in  the  old 
country.  "  There  is  no  government  here,"  he  said,  "and  anarchy 
prevails  as  in  the  Middle  Ages  when  every  member  of  the  Empire 
was  allowed  to  wage  war  on  his  neighbors"  "True,  "said  an- 
other German,  "but  the  consequence  is  that  the  government  is 
hated  and  is  looked  upon  by  the  mass  of  the  people  as  tyrannous. 
The  late  riot  in  Cassel  proves  how  strong  the  public  sentiment  is 
against  the  authorities  who  enforce  order  and  law.  That  is  cer- 
tainly no  healthy  state  of  conditions  in  which  every  policeman  or 
government  official  is  looked  upon  as  an  enemy  to  society  at  large, 
who  has  to  be  resisted  and  hindered  in  the  execution  of  his  office 
as  much  as  possible.  I  should  not  like  to  be  among  strikers  in 
Germany,  while  our  strikers  here  limit  themselves  to  a  special  kind 
of  mischief  as  the  occasion  may  demand,  but  are  otherwise  law- 


4142 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


abiding  and  harmless.  He  who  does  not  provoke  them,  may  feel 
perfectly  safe  among  them.  It  is  better  after  all  to  let  matters 
take  their  course  until  the  interference  of  the  authorities  becomes 
absolutely  necessary,  for  thus  alone  public  opinion  can  be  tested, 
and  thus  alone  can  we  learn  whether  and  to  what  extent  strikers 
are  deserving  of  the  people's  consideration  and  moral  assistance.'' 

One  of  our  fellow-travellers,  who  had  kept  quiet  for  a  long 
time,  burst  out,  "The  leader  of  the  strike  ought  to  be  indicted,  for 
although  he  pretends  to  keep  within  the  bounds  of  the  law,  he 
suffers  the  men  who  obey  him  to  trespass  the  laws."  "Very 
true,"  said  a  companion  of  the  speaker,  "  the  leaders  of  the  strike 
are  the  very  opposite  of  the  anarchists  who  were  sentenced  to 
death.  The  anarchists  preached  anarchy  and  revolution,  but  did 
not  partake  in  revolutionary  proceedings,  for  they  did  not  throw 
the  bomb,  while  the  leaders  of  this  railroad  strike  preach  peace 
and  law  but  induce  their  followers  to  practise  revolutionary  acts. 
The  strike  is  considered  a  great  success  at  the  headquarters  of  the 
strikers  ;  but  their  leader  is  still  an  unexperienced  man  in  such 
matters.  His  overconfidence  will  soon  give  way  to  a  bitter  disap- 
pointment. In  my  opinion,  the  strike  is  lost ;  for  the  many  acts 
of  violence,  committed  all  over  the  country,  will  without  fail  doom 
it.  We  may  congratulate  ourselves  that  we  were  not  killed  in  this 
derailment,  but  the  strikers,  too,  may  congratulate  themselves  that 
not  more  harm  is  done  in  the  various  other  happenings  of  the 
same  kind.  For  they  will,  as  the  intellectual  authors,  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  it,  even  if  they  were  not  guilty  of  it." 

There  were  more  than  twenty  deputy  marshals  and  deputy 
sheriffs  on  the  train.  One  of  the  former  explained  to  a  passenger 
the  situation,  saying  that  the  marshals'  business  was  merely  to 
protect  the  mail,  other  disturbances  that  might  happen  did  not 
concern  them.  "I  see,  I  see  !"  the  passenger  said,  and  walking 
away  with  his  friend  he  said,  "  Uncle  Sara  is  determined  to  pro- 
tect the  United  States  mail,  but  he  does  not  bother  about  the 
United  States  citizens,  that  is  a  matter  of  State  administration.  A 
labor-dictator  may  with  impunity  impede  passenger  trains  if  he 
only  allows  the  letters  to  pass  on.  Paper  is  of  greater  weight  to 
him  than  human  lives,  because  it  belongs  to  the  federal  depart- 
ment and  the  free  movements  of  citizens  is  purely  private  busi- 
ness." 

There  was  some  hope  of  the  train's  moving  on.  The  passen- 
gers were  ordered  to  resume  their  seats  and  the  deputies  cleared 
the  ground  of  the  strikers.  But  no  help  could  be  procured  to  move 
the  wrecked  engine.  The  orders  from  the  headquarters  of  the 
ro:d  in  Chicago  were  unsatisfactory.  The  strikers  did  not  allow 
trains  to  return,  and  even  stopped  a  train  conducting  fifty  more 
deputies  destined  to  preserve  the  peace  in  the  road's  yard  at  Blue 
Island. 

It  had  become  night  and  the  passengers  had  taken  their  seats 
in  the  cars,  when  suddenly  all  the  electric  lights  were  extinguished. 
The  strikers  had  called  on  the  men  in  the  electric  plant  and  plied 
them  until  they  joined  them  from  sympathy  and  quit  work. 

When  the  night  had  advanced,  our  conductor  passed  through 
the  car  and  said,  "ladies  and  gentlemen,  make  yourselves  as  com- 
fortable as  you  can.  We  shall  not  leave  the  spot  before  morn- 
ing." "And  shall  we  move  on  ?"  asked  several  voices.  "At  early 
daylight  we  shall  pull  out,  if  we  can,"  he  rejoined  and  left  us  lo 
ourselves. 

Now  at  last  we  knew  something  definite  about  our  fate  for  the 
next  few  hours  and  everybody  tried  to  make  his  bed  the  best  he 
could.  There  was  much  fun  and  good  humor.  One  gentleman  be- 
gan to  snore  ;  another  one  had  lost  one  of  his  shoes  and  suspected 
his  friends  of  having  stolen  it,  others  demanded  that  the  lights  be 
turned  low  while  still  others  claimed  that  they  wanted  to  read. 
The  most  law-abiding  passenger  was  undoubtedly  an  eleven  months 
old  boy — a  marvel  of  a  baby.  He  did  not  cry  and  slept  quietly 
amid  all  the  confusion.     His  poor  mother  sat  up  at  his  side  all 


night,  and  when  the  morning  dawned  tried  to  get  breakfast  in  the 
dining-car  of  the  train  behind  us.  But  in  vain  ;  the  car,  although 
the  property  of  the  Rock  Island  Road,  was  built  at  Pullman's  and 
the  strikers  allowed  them  no  water.  So  the  mother  bad  to  go 
without  coffee,  and,  having  the  baby,  she  did  not  venture  to  go 
into  town  to  get  something  to  eat  and  to  drink. 

When  the  morning  dawned  the  situation  was  as  hopeless  as 
ever.  The  wrecked  engine  stood  on  the  same  place,  and  trains 
could  move  neither  forward  nor  backward.  The  inconveniences 
increased.  The  ice-water  in  the  cirs  was  gone,  and  the  people 
clamored  for  wash-water  and  for  breakfast.  The  news  from  the 
city  increased  the  excitement,  for  it  was  stated  that  the  whole 
road  was  tied  up,  and  if  the  train  could  get  out  here,  it  would  meet 
with  the  same  fate  again  before  it  reached  Joliet.  Under  these 
conditions  I  thought  it  wisest  to  walk  back  to  the  next  street-car  con- 
nexion with  Chicago.  Blue  Island  lies  sixteen  mi'es  south  of  Chi- 
cago, and  the  nearest  street-car  conveyance  was  at  a  distance  of 
about  two  miles,  in  New  Pullman.  There  was  a  rumor  that  the 
street  cars  had  been  tied  up  too,  but  there  was  no  probability  of 
it,  and,  luckily,  it  proved  false  Two  gentlemen  joined  me,  but 
the  mass  of  the  passengers  stayed,  hoping  for  release  in  some 
shape  from  somebody.  In  New  Pullman  we  found  the  electric  cars 
running.  We  took  breakfast  in  an  inn  at  the  waysid,-.  The  host 
offered  us  his  bathroom  for  a  morning  wash  and  charged  no  extra 
price. 

The  papers  of  Chicago  contained  the  news  of  an  almost  uni- 
versal tie-up  of  the  roads.  Yet  I  was  lucky  still.  I  could  go  via 
Mendota  on  the  Burlington  Road,  which  was  not  touched  by  the 
strike  and  even  carried  its  Pullman  cars  without  being  molested. 

I  have  frankly  told  what  I  have  seen  and  heard,  not  because 
I  agree  with  all  the  opinions  which  I  had  occasion  to  listen  to,  but 
because  the  solution  of  the  social  troubles  which  surround  us  at 
present  depends,  I  might  say,  exclusively  on  the  public.  The  sym- 
pathy of  the  people  is  the  ultimate  court  of  appeal  before  which 
the  quarrels  of  various  classes  of  society  are  to  be  decided. 

The  boycott  of  Pullman  has  become  a  matter  of  secondary 
considaration.  The  present  revolts  and  strikes  are  represented  by 
the  strike  leaders  as  unavoidable  means  only  to  a  greater  end  ;  and 
the  ultimate  aim  finds  expression  in  resolutions  passed  at  a  meet- 
ing in  Uhlich's  Hall,  "  that  some  day  in  the  near  future  the  revolt 
will  be  more  sweeping,  not  economically  alone  against  a  few  mas- 
ters, but  politically  against  the  whole  master  class,  wresting  from 
them  the  control  of  the  law-making  power,  the  control  of  the  po- 
lice, militia,  and  the  courts,  which  in  all  cases  have  been  arrayed 
against  the  workers." 

Strikes  have  been  sanctioned,  and  the  question  is  only  whether 
and  to  what  extent  shall  strikers  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  the 
rights  of  other  people  in  order  to  render  their  strikes  effectual.  It  is 
a  question  of  power.  The  ultimate  basis  of  all  established  law  is 
the  common  will  of  the  people.  If  such  labor  unions  as  the  A. 
R.  U.  represent  the  common  will,  although  they  form  a  very  small 
fraction  of  the  people,  they  can  make  the  law  and  establish  the  dic- 
tatorship of  their  leaders.  Power  can  establish  right,  but  whether 
the  new  right  would  be  an  improvement  upon  the  old  right  is  very 
doubtful. 

We  love  progress,  but  here  is  a  side-switch  which  endangers 
liberty;  and  liberty  so  far  has  given  the  best  guarantees  of  being 
the  soundest  and  most  practical  principle  in  social  economy,    p.  c. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

324  DEARBORN    STREET, 
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DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  359.     (Vol.  VIII.— 28.) 


CHICAGO,  JULY  12,   1894. 


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I 


ADVENTURES  OF  PAINE  IN  LONDON  AND  PARIS. 

BY  MONCURE  D.    CONWAY. 

Clio  Rickman  says  that  Paine's  "  Rights  of  Man," 
Part  I,  was  mainly  written  in  London,  but  finished  at 
Versailles.  This  he  could  only  have  learned  from 
Paine  himself.  But  I  am  now  inclined  to  think  that 
he  misunderstood  Paine,  and  that  the  work  was  begun 
at  Versailles  and  finished  in  London.  This  is  sug- 
gested by  a  letter  of  Lafayette,  "Paris,  12  Jan.,  1790," 
in  which  he  tells  Washington  :  "Common  Sense  is  writ- 
ing for  you  a  brochure  where  you  will  see  a  part  of  my 
adventures."  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  among 
Washington's  papers  anything  from  Paine  that  could 
be  described  as  a  brochure,  and  think  this  must  mean 
that  he  had  already  begun  a  history  of  events  such  as 
that  with  which  Part  I  opens,  and  which  is  dedicated 
to  Washington.  The  work  was  probably  enlarged  (on 
account  of  Burke's  attack  on  the  Revolution,  early  in 
the  Parliament  of  1790)  from  time  to  time  until  its 
publication,  March  13,  1791.  Lafayette  appears  to 
have  had  a  residence  at  Versailles,  and  probably  Paine 
was  his  guest.  At  any  rate,  the  above  note  from  La- 
fayette shows  that  he  was  in  some  sense  a  collaborator 
with  Paine  in  the  history  of  the  early  stages  of  the 
Revolution.  About  the  same  time  Paine  wrote  an  ex- 
tended letter  to  Edmund  Burke,  who  had  been  his 
friend,  and  had  entertained  him  at  his  residence, 
"  Beaconsfield."  Croly,  Burke's  biographer  says: 
"Among  his  [Paine's]  earliest  missives  was  a  letter 
to  Burke  in  which  he  eagerly  urged  him  to  introduce 
the  Revolution  into  England  by  its  established  name 
of  'Reform.'  Burke  threw  back  the  temptation,  or 
the  insult,  at  once,"  etc.  I  have  made  ineffectual 
searches  after  this  letter.  Dr.  Macknight,  one  of 
Burke's  biographers,  writes  me  that  Burke  probably 
destroyed  it ;  but  Croly  had  evidently  read  it.  The 
h  investigation  has  convinced  me  that  the  family  and 
executors  of  Burke  have  suppressed  very  important 
papers  relating  to  him.  I  have  long  perceived  that 
Burke's  personal  character  will  not  bear  the  full  light. 
By  the  way,  I  lately  found  in  an  old  English  maga- 
zine, The  Argus,  1796,  an  epigram  on  Burke  : 

"A  pension  makes  him  change  his  plan 
And  loudly  damn  the  '  Rights  of  Man.'  " 


To  return  to  Lafayette.  He  begins  a  letter  to 
Washington,  March  17,  1790,  with  apologies  for  not 
writing  more  regularly;  "It  is  difficult,  in  the  midst 
of  our  troubles,  to  learn  in  time  good  occasions  ;  but 
this  time  it  is  to  Mr.  Paine,  who  leaves  for  London, 
that  I  entrust  the  care  of  sending  you  my  news.  .  .  . 
Permit  me,  my  dear  General,  to  offer  you  a  picture 
representing  the  Bastille  as  it  was  some  days  after  I 
gave  the  order  for  its  demolition.  I  also  pay  you  the 
homage  of  sending  you  the  principal  key  of  that  fort- 
ress of  despotism.  It  is  a  tribute  I  owe  as  a  son  to 
my  adoptive  father,  as  aide-de-camp  to  my  General, 
as  a  missionary  of  liberty  to  his  patriarch."  Paine 
sent  the  picture  and  the  key  from  London  by  the  hand 
of  J.  Rutledge,  Jr.,  May  31,  1790,  as  is  told  in  my 
"Life  of  Paine"  (i,  p.  274).  I  have  just  found  in 
Paris  a  letter  which  has  never  seen  the  light,  from  a 
French  agent  in  America,  Louis  Otto,  which  is  amus- 
ing enough  to  insert  in  my  rambling  story.  Under 
date  of  New  York,  August  4,  1790,  Otto  writes  to  his 
chief  in  Paris  : 

"  In  attending  yesterday  the  public  audience  of  the 
President,  I  was  surprised  by  this  chief  magistrate's 
question,  whether  I  would  like  to  see  the  key  to  the 
Bastille  ?  One  of  his  secretaries  showed  me  at  the 
same  moment  a  large  key  which  had  been  sent  to  the 
President  at  the  desire  of  the  Marquis  de  la  Fayette, 
by  the  hand  of  a  young  American  just  arrived  from 
France.  [Rutledge  came  from  London.]  I  dissem- 
bled my  surprise  in  observing  to  the  President  that 
'the  time  had  not  yet  come  in  America  to  do  iron- 
work equal  to  that  before  him.'  The  Americans  pres- 
ent  looked  at  the  key  with  indifference,  and  as  if  won- 
dering why  it  had  been  sent.  But  the  serene  face  of 
the  President  showed  that  he  regarded  it  as  an  hom- 
age from  the  French  nation."  In  a  letter  of  Decem- 
ber 13,  1790,  Otto  returns  to  the  key  again  : 

"The  key  of  the  Bastille,  regularly  shown  at  the 
President's  audiences,  is  now  also  on  exhibition  in 
Mrs.  Washington's  salon,  where  it  satisfies  the  curiosity 
of  the  Philadelphians.  I  am  persuaded,  Monseigneur, 
that  it  is  only  their  vanity  that  finds  pleasure  in  the 
exhibition  of  this  trophy,  but  Frenchmen  here  are  not 
less  piqued,  and  many  will  not  enter  the  President's 
house  on  this  account." 


^ 


■v^ 


Af 


4144 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


So  little  did  these  Frenchmen  realise  the  tremen- 
dous march  of  events  in  France,  or  the  cause  of  the 
storm,  which  really  was  the  American  Republic.  There 
were  evils  in  France,  though  rather  fewer  than  in  other 
nations  of  Europe,  and  none  to  excite  a  revolution.  It 
was  a  vision  of  the  Golden  Age  across  the  Atlantic 
which  possessed  France.  Paine  wrote  to  Washing- 
ton, "that  the  principles  of  America  opened  the  Bas- 
tille is  not  to  be  doubted,  and  therefore  the  Ke}'  comes 
to  the  right  place." 

Early  in  May,  1791,  Lafayette  writes  to  Washing- 
ton :  "1  send  you  the  rather  indifferent  translation  of 
Mr.  Paine  ['Rights  of  Man,'  Part  I.]  as  a  kind  of 
preservative  and  to  keep  me  near  you." 

The  "indifferent  translation"  was  not  that  of 
Paine's  friend  Lanthanas,  but  a  hasty  one  by  F. 
Soules,  which  appeared  with  the  following  title  (trans- 
lated): "Rights  of  Man.  In  answer  to  the  attack -of 
Mr.  Burke  on  the  French  Revolution.  By  Thomas 
'  Paine,  Secretary  of  Congress  for  Foreign  Affairs  dur- 
ing the  American  War ;  and  author  of  the  work  en- 
titled 'Common  Sense.'    Translated  from  the  English 

by  F.  S With  Notes  and  a  new  Preface  by  the 

Author.  Paris  :  F.  Buisson.  Imprimeur-Libraire. 
Rue  Hautefeuille.      May,  1791." 

The  first  enthusiastic  "Painite"  in  Paris  was, 
probably,  Achille  Duchatelet,  a  young  nobleman,  who 
had  married  an  English  wife,  Charlotte  Comyn,  and 
knew  English.  He  and  Paine,  immediately  after  the 
attempt  of  Louis  XVI.  to  escape  from  France,  in  June, 
1791,  placarded  Paris  with  the  first  republican  mani- 
festo ever  issued  in  Europe.  The  following  is  from 
Dumont's  "Recollections  of  Mirabeau": 

"The  celebrated  Paine  was  at  this  time  in  Paris, 
and  intimate  in  Condorcet's  family.  Thinking  that  he 
had  effected  the  American  Revolution,  he  fancied  him- 
self called  upon  to  bring  about  one  in  France.  .  .  . 
Duchatelet  called  on  me,  and  after  a  little  preface 
placed  in  my  hands  an  English  manuscript, — a  Pro- 
clamation to  the  French  People.  It  was  nothing  less 
than  an  anti-royalist  Manifesto,  and  summoned  the 
nation  to  seize  the  opportunity  and  establish  a  Re- 
public. Paine  was  its  author.  Duchatelet  had  adopted 
and  was  resolved  to  sign,  placard  the  walls  of  Paris 
with  it,  and  take  the  consequences.  He  had  come  to 
request  me  to  translate  and  develop  it.  I  began  dis- 
cussing the  strange  proposal,  and  pointed  out  the  dan- 
ger of  raising  a  republican  standard  without  concur- 
rence of  the  National  Assembly,  and  nothing  being  as 
yet  known  of  the  King's  intentions,  resources,  alli- 
ances, and  possibilities  of  support  by  the  army,  or  in 
the  provinces.  I  asked  if  he  had  consulted  any  of  the 
most  influential  leaders, — Sieyes,  Lafayette,  etc.  He 
had  not  :  he  and  Paine  had  acted  alone.  An  American 
and  an  impulsive  nobleman  had   put  themselves  for- 


ward to  change  the  whole  governmental  system  of 
France.  Resisting  his  entreaties,  I  refused  to  trans- 
late the  Proclamation.  .  .  .  Next  day  the  republican 
Proclamation  appeared  on  the  walls  in  every  part  of 
Paris,  and  was  denounced  to  the  Assembly.  The  idea 
of  a  Republic  had  previously  presented  itself  ttii  no 
one  :  this  first  intimation  filled  with  consternation  the 
Right  and  the  moderates  of  the  Left.  Malouet,  Ca- 
zales,  and  others  proposed  prosecution  of  the  author, 
but  Chapelier,  and  a  numerous  party,  fearing  to  add 
fuel  to  the  fire  instead  of  extinguishing  it,  prevented 
this." 

Lafayette  now  missed  his  great  opportunity.  He 
was  a  thorough  republican  at  heart,  but  did  not  realise 
that  the  people  were  also  such.  Both  Jefferson  and 
Paine  warned  him  of  this,  but  he  maintained  that  it 
would  be  twenty  years  before  France  would  be  ripe 
for  a  Republic.  This  led  Lafayette  to  trust  to  the 
momentary  alliance  of  throne  and  people,  which  sank 
under  his  foot  like  a  quicksand,  and  left  him  a  prisoner 
in  Austria.  Paine,  in  dedicating  Part  II  of  "Rights 
of  Man  "  to  Lafayette,  alludes  to  their  only  difference. 
"That  which  you  suppose  accomplishable  in  fourteen 
or  fifteen  years,  I  may  believe  practicable  in  a  much 
shorter  period."  So  short  was  the  period  that  when 
this  Part  II,  which  appeared  in  London,  February  17, 
1792,  appeared  in  the  late  summer  in  a  French  trans- 
lation, the  translator  had  to  apologise  for  Paine's  praise 
of  Lafayette  !  "  The  seed  sown  by  the  audacious  hand 
of  Paine,"  says  Dumont,  "were  now  [June,  1791]  bud- 
ding in  leading  minds."  On  September  21,  1792,  they 
had  borne  fruit  in  the  formal  abolition  of  Royalty. 

Let  me  now  refer  to  some  unknown  items  con- 
nected with  a  very  different  man,  namely  William 
Blake,  the  mystical  artist  and  poet,  the  subject  of  im- 
portant monographs  by  Gilchrist,  Yeats,  and  Swin- 
burne. There  was  perhaps  no  other  contemporary  of 
Thomas  Paine  so  remote  from  his  religious  rational- 
ism, and  yet  Blake  certainly'  saved  Paine's  life.  In 
September,  1792,  Paine  was  lodging  at  Rickman's 
house  and  book-shop  (7  Upper  Marylebone  Street,  the 
house  remains  and  is  still  a  book-bindery).  On  the 
13th  the  police  had  determined  on  his  arrest,  and  had 
they  succeeded  lie  would  unquestionably  have  been 
hung.  But  Blake  found  him  at  the  house  of  his  pub- 
lisher, Johnson,  and  said,  "You  must  not  go  home, 
or  you  are  a  dead  man."  Paine  was  got  off  by  his 
friends  to  Dover,  whither  the  police  tracked  him,  but 
arrived  too  late.  They  saw  the  distant  sail  wafting 
him  to  France. 

It  is  difficult  to  discover  from  Blake's  mystical  vi- 
sions how  much  political  radicalism  there  was  in  him. 
Paine  had  become  to  him  a  transcendental  type,  one 
of  seven  American  figures  who  appear  in  his  "  Proph- 
ecy "  concerning  America  (1793) : 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4145 


"  The  Guardian  Prince  of  Albion  burns  in  bis  nightly  tent. 
Sullen  fires  across  the  Atlantic  glqw  to  America's  shore  : 
Piercing  the  souls  of  warlike  men,  who  rise  in  silent  nighl : — 
Washington,  Franklin,  Paine,  and  Warren,  Gates,  Hancock,  and  Green, 
Meet  on  the  coast  glowing  with  blood  from  Albion's  fiery  Prince." 

These  seven  are  ■wrapt  in  the  flames  of  their  enthusi- 
asm. Albion's  Prince  sends  to  America  his  thirteen 
angels,  who,  however,  there  become  governors  of  the 
thirteen  States. 

Whatever  may  have  then  been  Blake's  politics, 
they  were  consistent  with  his  apotheosising  Pitt  during 
the  war  with  France,  though  in  a  somewhat  equivocal 
way.  In  the  National  Gallery  there  is  a  picture  by 
him  which  he  described  in  a  catalogue  (1809)  as  : 
"The  spiritual  form  of  Pitt  guiding  Behemoth.  He 
is  that  angel  who,  pleased  to  perform  the  Almighty's 
orders,  rides  on  the  whirlwind,  directing  the  storms 
of  war.  He  is  ordering  the  reaper  to  reap  the  vine  of 
the  Earth,  and  the  Ploughman  to  plough  up  the  Cities 
and  Towers."  A  close  examination  of  this  curious 
picture  suggests  that  in  his  catalogue,  printed  a  few 
years  after  Pitt's  death  (1806),  Blake  gave  it  a  euphem- 
istic construction.  The  monster  jaws  of  Behemoth 
are  full  of  struggling  men,  some  of  whom  reach  up 
imploring  hands  to  another  spiritual  form,  who  reaches 
down  from  a  crescent  moon  in  the  sky,  as  if  to  save 
them.  This  latter  face  and  form  appear  to  me  certainly 
meant  for  Thomas  Paine. 

Although  Paine  owned  a  house  and  farm  at  New 
Rochelle,  near  New  York,  and  a  small  house  and  lot 
at  Bordentown,  N.  J.,  he  had  not  much  cash.  He 
would  not  accept  rent  from  the  widow  who  occupied 
the  latter.  His  "  Rights  of  Man"  brought  in  a  good 
deal  of  money,  but  he  gave  it  all  away  to  the  various 
"Constitutional  Societies"  in  England,  which  had 
sprung  up  to  propagate  his  views.  In  order  to  do  this 
he  had  to  live  poorly.  Gouverneur  Morris  (April  16, 
1791)  speaks  of  visiting  his  "  wretched  apartments" 
in  Paris.  That  of  course  was  all  changed  when  he  re- 
turned to  Paris  as  the  representative  of  Calais  in  the 
National  Convention.  He  arrived  September  19,  1792, 
at  what  was  then  known  as  "White's  Hotel,"  No.  7 
Passage  des  P6tits  Peres,  not  far  from  the  Louvre. 
It  ie  about  ten  minutes'  walk  from  the  place  where  the 
Convention  sat.  On  the  wall  of  the  Tuilleries  Garden, 
Rue  de  Rivoli,  there  is  now  a  tablet  in  French  which 
reads  : 

"On  this  spot,  before  the  opening  of  the  Rue  de 
Rivoli,  stood  the  Salle  de  Manage,  where  sat  succes- 
sively the  Constituent  Assembly  fr  im  9th  November, 
1789,  to  30th  September,  1791  ;  the  Legislative  As- 
sembly from  I  St  October,  1791,  to  21st  September, 
1792  ;  the  National  Convention  from  21st  September, 
1792,  to  gth  May,  1793;  and  where  was  inaugurated 
the  Republic  of  21st  September,  1792." 


In  this  vanished  edifice  Paine  was  introduced  by 
the  Abbe  Gregoire,  September  21,  and  received  with 
acclamations. 


IN  MEMORY  OF  GEN.  M.  M.  TRUMBULL. 

We  have  received  many  kind  letters,  addressed 
partly  to  Mrs.  Trumbull  and  partly  to  The  Open  Court, 
from  friends  and  readers  of  the  late  General  Trumbull, 
both  abroad  and  at  home,  among  whom  we  mention 
George  Julian  Harney  of  Richmond,  England,  Prof. 
Richard  Garbe  of  Konigsberg,  Moncure  D.  Conway,  at 
present  in  London,  Louis  Prang  of  Boston,  Alexander 
Russell  Webb,  editor  of  the  Moslem  World,  New  York, 
Michael  D.  Harter  and  Col.  D.  B.  Henderson,  the  two 
latter  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  Frederick  W.  Peabody  of  Boston,  Mass., 
Edward  Atkinson  of  Boston,  the  well  known  statisti- 
cian, Lyman  J.  Gage,  President  of  the  First  National 
Bank  of  Chicago,  111.,  Col.  Edgar  T.  Ensign,  Colorado 
Springs,  Col.,  Wm.  M.  Salter,  formerly  of  Chicago, 
now  Speaker  of  the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  in 
Philadelphia,  F.  de  Gissac  of  Waco,  Texas,  C.  Stani- 
land  Wake,  W.  J.  White  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  Dr.  Mun- 
sell  of  the  Dubuque  Trade  Journal,  Col.  J.  J.  Lambert, 
editor  of  the  Pueblo  Chieftain. 

Frau  Baronin  Bertha  von  Suttner,  the  well-known 
author  of  "Ground  Arms  !  "  writes  from  Hermanns- 
dorf-Eggenburg,  Austria: 

"I  only  wanted  to  tell  you  that  I  have  shed  a  tear  for  General 
Trumbull.  I  cherished  this  author,  I  respected  this  man — his  wit 
delighted  me  ;  his  heart  was  never  cold,  his  judgment  never  erring. 
And  while  I  write  this,  my  eyes  are  again  filling  with  tears." 

Dr.  Robert  Lewins,  the  philosopher  of  Hylo- Ideal- 
ism, writes  : 

"  I  cannot  deny  myself  the  melancholy  satisfaction  of  express- 
ing the  deep  interest  and  admiration  felt  on  perusal  of  your  "Me- 
morial "  in  the  last  number  of  The  Open  Court  of  the  late  M.  M. 
Trumbull,  whose  death  must  have  been  a  specially  great  blow  and 
loss  to  his  friends  as  no  doubt  it  is  to  universal  humanity  and  the 
cause  of  truth.  He  must  have  been  a  grand  specimen  of  a  man. 
That  his  name  was  not  wider  known  and  more  prominent  in  the 
outer  world,  European  and  American,  is  one  more  proof  of  our 
racial  insensibility — I  may  even  say  hostility  to  the  good,  beauti- 
ful, and  true.  I  have  always  held  with  'martyred  Phocion  '  of 
old,  who,  when  applaudtd  on  the  Be»ia,  used  to  stop  and  ask  what 
he  had  said  amiss.   I  sincerely  condole  with  you  on  this  occasion." 

Prof.  J.  H.  Cook  writes  : 

"  My  poor  words  are  feeble  to  express  my  loss  and  apprecia- 
tion of  one  of  nature's  greatest  noblemen — the  noblest  that  ever 
graced  a  '  Wheelbarrow.'  I  sadly  missed  oneweek'smental  feast  of 
'  Current  Topics,'  then  to  hear  so  soon  of  his  death,  was  too  much 
for  my  nerves.  He  was  one  of  my  dearest  universal  brothers.  I 
wanted  him  to  live  to  spread  his  light  for  human  amelioration 
many  years." 

Among  the  newspapers  which  commented  upon 
General  Trumbull's  death,  we  mention  the  London 
Times,  the  London  Athceneum,  the  Review  of  Reviews, 


4146 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


all  the  Chicago  dailies,  and  prominent  papers  in  other 
great  cities. 

The  Hayes  Valley  Advertiser,  in  ah  editorial  article 
dwelling  on  the  merits  of  General  Trumbull,  says  : 

"The  press  dispatches  announced  the  death  of  this  great  man 
in  three  lines  ;  they  would  have  given  a  prize  fighter  or  murderer 
a  half  column  at  least." 

The  Newcastle  Chronicle  published  several  letters 
and  one  article  on  General  Trumbull's  life  by  Harney, 
from  which  we  quote  : 

' '  The  loss  to  The  Open  Court  of  General  Trumbull's  weekly 
notes  must  be  incalculable.  The  learned  and  highly-efficient  edi- 
tor is  and  will  be  sustained  by  able  contributors  both  American 
and  European  ;  but  no  one  can  fill  the  deceased's  vacant  chair.  If 
no  one  of  the  suitors  could  draw  the  bow  of  Ulysses,  so  no  one 
that  I  can  think  of  can  take  up  the  pen  which  has  fallen  from  the 
hand  of  General  Trumbull.  In  wit  and  sarcasm,  controlled  by 
unimpeachable  common  sense  and  the  loftiest  sense  of  ethical  jus- 
tice, it  will  be  hard  to  find  his  successor.  His  style  made  him  the 
most  agreeable  and  desirable  of  writers.  No  matter  what  his  topic, 
or  topics,  he  was  sure  to  be  readable  and  enjoyable  from  the  first 
line  to  the  last.  To  illustrate  his  argument,  or  to  point  his  moral, 
he  had  a  whole  gallery  of  characters  at  his  command,  giving  to 
'  airy  nothings  a  local  habitation  and  a  name  ' — such  as  his  Mar- 
bletown  and  other  worthies ;  his  cute  Yankees ;  his  wide-awake 
Westerners  ;  his  roguishly-simple  Irishmen  ;  his  military  Scara- 
mouches worthy  of  Bird-o'-Freedom  Sawin  ;  his  impecunious  phil- 
anthropists ;  his  needy  and  greedy  demagogues  ;  his  professional 
politicians,  so  adept  at  pulling  the  wool  over  the  eyes  of  their 
dupes  ;  and  many  more.     All  lost  to  us.     Waes  me  !" 

The  Pueblo  Daily  Chieftain  contains  an  excellent 
sketch  of  General  Trumbull's  life,  four  columns  long, 
written  by  one  of  his  old  war  comrades.  Col.  Edgar 
T.  Ensign.  We  quote  from  it  the  comments  made  on 
his  military  career: 

"  He  was  mustered  out  of  service  with  his  regiment  at  Little 
Rock,  Ark.,  the  i6th  of  the  next  February.  The  following  com- 
plimentary order  was  issued  by  Major-General  H.  J.  Hunt,  com- 
manding the  Frontier  district,  department  of  Arkansas  : 

"  '  The  Commanding-General  takes  this  occasion  to  convey  to 
Brevet  Brigadier- General  Trumbull  and  the  officers  and  men  of 
his  regiment  his  appreciation  of  the  good  service  they  have  ren- 
dered while  under  his  command,  and  the  excellence  of  their  disci- 
pline, which  has  frequently  elicited  the  commendations  of  the  citi- 
zens of  the  district.' 

"  General  Trumbull's  farewell  letter  to  his  command  was  as 
follows : 

"  '  Headquarters  qth  Iowa  Cavalry  Vol., 
Fort  Smith,  Ark.,  Feb.,  19,  1866. 
To  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  Ninth  Iowa  Cavalry  : 

Gentlemen  :  We  are  about  to  separate.  Our  work  is  done. 
The  flag  of  the  republic  waves  triumphantly  over  all  her  ancient 
domain.  In  the  great  struggle  which  has  passed  you  have  done 
well,  and  you  leave  the  service,  carrying  with  you  a  noble  tribute 
of  approbation  from  the  Major-General  commanding  the  district, 
one  of  the  greatest  soldiers  of  the  country.  The  hardships  and 
dangers  you  have  undergone  have  been  great,  and  many  of  our 
comrades  have  sunk  by  the  wayside.  The  discipline  has  been  se- 
vere, but  it  was  necessary  to  make  soldiers  of  you.  In  the  new 
position  you  are  to  assume  preserve  your  soldier's  name  untainted, 
and  should  the  President  of  the  United  States  again  order  the 
"long  roll  "  beaten,  I  trust  we  shall  all  be  ready  to  "fall  in." 


May  prosperity  and  happiness  attend  you  all.  Comrades,  I 
bid  you  farewell.  M.  M.  Trumbull, 

Col.  Ninth  Iowa  Cav.  Vols,  and  Brevet  Brig.  Gen.  U.  S.  A.' 

"At  this  point  may  be  noticed  a  few  of  General  Trumbull's 
characteristic  traits,  as  they  appeared  to  a  fellow  soldier  :  His 
high  courage,  manliness,  and  unwavering  loyalty  need  hardly  be 
mentioned  ;  they  were  patent  to  all.  His  sturdy  independence 
and  disregard  for  caste  were  also  strongly  manifest.  Under  all 
circumstances  he  strongly  maintained  the  inherent  dignity  of  man, 
making  no  distinction  of  '  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of 
servitude.'  Numerous  illustrations  of  this  were  shown  in  his  army 
life  and  relations  with  people  of  the  South,  both, white  and  col- 
ored. Many  a  soldier  in  the  ranks,  fleeing  Unionist  or  down-trodden 
black,  has  gratefully  cherished  the  memory  of  his  kind  and  timely 
deeds. 

"IWz  bonhomie  zmA  love  of  good  cheer  were  notable.  When 
relieved  from  the  cares  of  business  and  military  duties,  nothing 
gave  him  greater  pleasure  than  to  gather  congenial  spirits  around 
him  for  social  intercourse.  His  quarters  in  camp,  while  main- 
tained with  strict  regard  to  military  discipline,  were  always  a  so- 
cial centre.  Officers  of  other  commands  delighted  to  visit  him  and 
share  in  the  relaxations  of  the  hour.  As  a  host  and  bon  vivant,  he 
was  inimitable  Who  of  the  Ninth  Cavalry  does  not  recollect  the 
log  cabin  headquarters  at  Bayou  Two  Prairie,  Arkansas,  called 
facetiously  the  'Colonel's  Den' ?  Upon  many  well- remembered 
occasions  his  brother  officers  were  assembled  there  for  conversa- 
tion, games,  reading,  recitations,  'stump  speeches,'  and  the  like. 
The  humor  and  versatility  of  General  Trumbull  and  his  varied 
and  unfailing  social  resources  were  remarkable.  All  were  brought 
within  their  spell. 

"The  eminent  services  which  General  Trumbull  had  ren- 
dered in  the  late  war  were  generously  recognised  and  appreciated 
by  the  people  of  Iowa.  Upon  his  return  to  them  in  March,  1866, 
the  General  Assembly  then  in  session  at  Des  Moines  tendered  him 
a  public  reception.  Upon  that  occasion  he  made  an  eloquent  and^ 
impassioned  appeal,  urging  his  fellow  citizens  to  support  Congres^^ 
in  its  reconstruction  measures." 

Another  of  General  Trumbull's  old  war  comrades 
writes  in  the  Gazette  of  West  Union,  Iowa  : 

"  Our  personal  relations  with  General  Trumbull  extend  back 
to  1861,  when  we  joined  the  company  he  was  raising  under  Presi- 
dent Lincoln's  first  call  for  volunteers,  which  became  Company  I, 
Third  Iowa  Infantry,  and  of  which  he  was  captain.  He  was 
thoroughly  military,  a  strict  disciplinarian,  but  of  a  noble,  gen- 
erous nature,  faithful  and  brave  as  a  soldier,  never  shirking  a  duty, 
nor  permitting  it  of  others.  He  received  a  severe  wound  at  Shi- 
loh,  the  effects  of  which  lingered  by  him  all  his  life  and  probably 
contributed  to  his  death.  He  was  an  invalid  many  years,  and  was 
never  able  to  be  present  at  any  of  the  reunions  of  the  Third  Regi- 
ment until  the  last  one,  at  Decorah,  two  years  ago  last  summer. 
His  reception  on  that  occasion  bespoke  the  love  and  admiration  of 
his  comrades  in  a  manner  that  brought  tears  to  his  eyes,  and  when 
he  recovered  his  voice,  seemed  to  renew  his  youth,  talking  with 
that  vim  and  energy  so  characteristic  of  the  days  when  he  was 
captain,  lieutenant-colonel,  and  colonel." 

F.  de  Gissac,  the  same  with  whom  General  Trum- 
bull had  a  passage  at  arms  in  The  Open  Court  on  the 
subject  of  "  Chivalry,"  concludes  an  article  in  Xh.e.Waco 
News  on  his  late  opponent,  the  ridiculer  of  modern 
imitations  of  the  knighthood  of  old  : 

"To  condense  in  one  single  sentence  all  these  splendid  pane- 
gyrics, so  well  deserved  by  the  character  and  virtues  of  General 
Trumbull,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  bring  our  own  modest  tribute 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4147 


to  his  noble  grave,  we  cannot  think  of  anything  better  than  to  say: 
He  was  chivalrous  ;  he  was  a  true  knight." 

Horace  Traubel,  whose  controversy  on  Walt  Whit- 
man and  the  pensioning  of  nurses  will  be  remembered, 
says  in  the  Conservator  : 

"  Henry  D.  Lloyd  will  not  take  it  amiss  if  I  quote  from  a  pri- 
vate letter  in  which  he  does  tribute  to  one  whom  men  of  whatever 
liberal  stamp  should  hold  in  precious  memory. 

"  General  Trumbull  was  a  very  brave  man  and  one  who  had 
that  instinctive  love  of  justice  which  is  so  admirable  and  so  neces- 
sary in  times  like  these. 

"General  Trumbull  often  went  wrong,  but  he  loved  justice 
and  spoke  out  everywhere  for  liberty  as  he  understood  that  tran- 
scendent principle  of  life.  I  once  had  a  controversy  with  him  in 
TAf  Open  Court,  in  which  vigorous  statement  was  not  spared  on 
either  side.  He  wrote  me  afterward  as  to  that ;  '  You  were  so 
plucky  and  so  right  from  your  standpoint,  I  wished  I  could  agree 
with  you.  I  like  a  good  antagonist.'  Now  that  he  is  dead,  America 
and  freedom  lose  a  substantial  spokesman.  We  must  not  despair 
when  such  men  depart.  We  need  only  feel  thankful  that  they 
had  once  been  given.  No  star  really  goes  out,  however  we  swim 
beyond  its  immediate  orbit." 

George  Schumm  in  Liberty  writes  : 

"  A  little  over  three  years  ago  Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull  wrote 
me,  in  his  characteristic  way,  that  he  was  suffering  with  that  in- 
curable malady  'invented  by  a  fiend  named  Bright,'  that  his  kit 
was  packed,  his  knapsack  slung,  and  that  he  was  ready  to  march 
at  any  moment.  But  as  he  was  a  valiant  soldier  and  fighting  more- 
over under  the  skilled  directions  of  his  faithful  companion,  his 
wife,  he  kept  his  enemy  at  bay  and  continued  to  pursue  his  '  peri- 
lous trade  '  as  an  independent  journalist,  until  only  in  April  of  the 
present  year  he  wrote  again  (now  in  his  sixty-ninth  year),  and 
surely  without  intending  any  pious  implications  :  '  I  am  standing 
cfe  the  very  edge  of  eternity  and  calmly  looking  out  upon  a  pros- 
pective that  is  boundless,  unfathomable,  and  inscrutable.'  He  was 
still  afflicted  with  Bright's  disease,  but  he  knew  that  it  was  an  un- 
conquerable foe  and  that  it  could  'foreclose  the  mortgage'  on  him 
at  any  moment.  And  though  his  body  was  racked  with  pain,  he 
closed  his  letter  in  the  cheerful  vein  that,  '  allowing  for  that  small 
drawback,'  he  was  enjoying  himself  well,  and  that  he  was  '  very 
thankful  that  Dr.  Bright,  when  he  invented  his  dire  disease,  placed 
it  in  the  kidneys  instead  of  in  the  brain.' 

"  Only  a  month  later  the  enemy  rung  his  knell,  and  General 
Trumbull  laid  down  his  pen  forever.  Justice  mourns  one  of  her 
ablest  champions,  truth  an  enthusiastic  lover,  all  good  causes  a 
chivalrous  defender,  and  free  spirits  everywhere  a  most  delightful 
friend  and  comrade." 

After  mentioning  some  events  of  General  Trum- 
bull's career,  George  Schumm  emphasises  his  brave 
attitude  in  the  anarchist  case.      He  says : 

"General  Trumbull  thoroughly  detested  the  communistic 
ideal  of  society,  but  this  fact  did  not  blind  him  like  so  many 
others  to  the  monstrous  wrong  that  was  perpetrated  against  those 
unfortunate  men  in  the  name  of  the  State,  and  he  chivalrously 
and  without  fee  took  up  their  defence  in  the  court  of  public  opin- 
ion, thus  recalling  Voltaire,  who  in  a  similar  crisis  from  his  re- 
treat at  Farney  espoused  the  cause  of  the  hapless  Jean  Galas." 

The  Freidenker  of  Milwaukee  mentions  among 
other  facts  relating  to  General  Trumbull's  life  and 
works  that  "he  offered  to  Governor  Altgeld  the  cardi- 
nal arguments  for  his  decision  of  opening  to  the  re- 


maining three  victims  of  the  anarchist  case  the  doors 
of  the  penitentiary." 

Liberty  asks  in  an  editorial  note  : 

"How  is  it  that  The  Open  Caurl's  mourners,  in  their  sincere 
and  appreciative  estimates  of  the  late  General  Trumbull's  contri- 
butions to  the  various  fields  of  human  activity,  refrained  from 
mentioning  his  great,  brave,  and  admirable  work  in  defence  of 
the  "  Chicago  anarchists"  ?  Was  the  omission  purely  accidental  ? 
It  is  impossible  to  believe  it.  Perhaps  it  was  deemed  well  to 
avoid  offending  those  who  did  not  sympathise  with  his  attitude  on 
that  important  question,  but  such  a  course  is  in  direct  opposition 
to  the  teachings  and  practices  of  the  dead  worker.  Surely  even 
those  of  his  friends  who  could  not  endorse  his  position  must  have 
admired  the  purity  and  nobility  of  his  purpose  and  the  moral 
courage  displayed  by  him  during  the  crisis." 

The  omission  was  not  accidental.  It  was  done  be- 
cause tact  and  respect  for  the  family  of  our  deceased 
friend  demanded  it.  General  Trumbull  was  neither  an 
anarchist  nor  a  socialist.  His  defence  of  the  hapless 
seven  anarchists  ^  who  had  become  victims  of  a  mis- 
guided public  sentiment  was  made  on  the  ground 
of  justice  and  of  sympathy  with  the  sufferers,  not  be- 
cause of  an  agreement  with  their  opinions.  For  his 
brave  defence  of  the  anarchists.  General  Trumbull 
has  been  so  grossly  misrepresented  that  we  do  not 
exaggerate  when  saying  that  his  reputation  suffered. 
But  he,  independent  as  he  was,  did  not  mind  it.  Con- 
sider only  all  the  vexations  which  his  wife  had  to  suffer 
again  and  again,  on  account  of  the  alleged  anarchism 
of  her  husband,  and  every  one  will  understand  that 
the  mere  mention  of  the  name  "  anarchist "  at  the 
funeral  would  have  been  harassing  to  Mrs.  Trumbull. 
We  honor  Mr.  Schilling  for  his  self-restraint  in  omitting 
that  which,  as  we  believe,  was  burning  on  his  soul. 
Liberty  ought  to  know  that  a  funeral  is  too  sacred  to 
use  it  in  the  interest  of  a  party  propaganda  against 
the  will  and  the  wish  of  the  bereaved  family. 

There  is  another  criticism  made.   Liberty  continues  : 

"  How  is  it,  further,  that  T/ie  Open  Court  mourners  sought  to 
convey  the  impression  that  General  Trumbull  was  not  a  material- 
ist and  atheist  ?" 

The  truth  is  that  General  Trumbull  changed  his 
opinion.  He  remained  as  radical,  fearless,  and  free- 
thinking  as  ever  to  the  last  moment  of  his  life ;  but 
he  gave  up  the  crude  materialism  of  former  years, 
which  he  did  not  hesitate  to  denounce  in  unmistak- 
able terms  as  narrow  and  wrong,  and  he  accepted  the 
supernatural  God  of  science,  who  is  the  God  of  aspir- 
ing humanity,  of  free  thought,  and  of  progress.       p.  c. 

CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA. 

BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 
ADULTERY. 

It  was  at  Jerusalem,  at  the  feast  of  the  dedication  ; 

and  Jesus  walked  in  the  temple  in  Solomon's  porch. 

Then  came  certain  of  the  Jews  round  about  him, 

IThey  are  commonly  called  anarchists,  and  most  of  them  were  anarchists, 
not  "  socialists,"  as  the  peculiarly  anarchistic  weekly  Liberty  claims. 


4148 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


and  said  unto  him,  Rabbi,  the  chief  priests  and  the 
elders  and  the  scribes  have  taken  counsel  together,  to 
put  one  of  their  number  out  of  the  Sanhedrim  ; 

Forasmuch  as  it  is  written  in  our  law  that  no  priest 
shall  be  of  the  seed  of  an  adulteress,  and  this  one  was 
not  born  in  wedlock. 

How  sayest  thou  then:  is  it  lawful  to  do  this  or  no? 

Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  them.  Oh  !  faithless 
and  perverse  generation  ;  why  tempt  you  me  with  your 
vain  questions  ? 

As  it  is  written  in  Esaias,  the  prophet,  Bring  no 
more  vain  oblations,  saith  the  Lord :  incense  is  an 
abomination  unto  me  ;  the  new  moons  and  sabbaths 
and  appointed  feasts  my  soul  hateth. 

Wash  you,  make  you  clean ;  put  away  the  evil  of 
your  doings  ;  seek  judgment,  relieve  the  oppressed, 
judge  the  fatherless. 

And  again  it  is  written.  The  sins  of  the  fathers 
shall  be  visited  on  the  children  unto  the  third  and 
fourth  generation. 

But  I  say  unto  you,  As  the  crackling  of  thorns  un- 
der a  pot,  so  is  thy  contention  concerning  fables  and 
genealogies. 

For  marriage  without  love  is  more  adulterous  than 
love  without  marriage. 


SAGACIOUS  SATAN  AND  THE  SILLY  SINNER. 

It  happened  unto  me  recently  to  pass  a  half  hour 
or  so  in  Heaven. 

Whether  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body  I  say  not ; 
but  I  was  there  all  the  same  ; 

Yea,  even  as  John  in  Patmos,  when  he  had  his  rev- 
elation, was  I  there — in  spirit. 

And  if  any  man  among  you  seemeth  to  be  wise, 
and  doth  claim  that  this  was  very  different  from  being 
there, 

Lo,  I  say  unto  that  man,  A  mind  that  graspeth  a 
situation  hath  more  of  a  position  than  a  carcass  that 
holdeth  a  location. 

And  let  not  that  man  forget  it. 

Now,  it  came  to  pass  that  while  I  sat  me  down, 
certain  spirits  entered,  and  these  came  and  sat  over 
against  me. 

And  they  did  introduce  themselves  unto  me  and 
were  very  affable,  and  did  make  me  feel  quite  at  home. 

Insomuch  that  I  did  lose  all  my  very  natural  em- 
barrassment, and  did  chat  for  some  time  with  them  in 
a  friendly  way. 

And  whilst  we  chatted  thus,  behold  there  was  a 
knock  at  the  door,  and  one  of  the  angels,  whose  name 
was  Azrael,  saith  unto  me,  That  is  Satan's  knock  ; 
wouldst  thou  like  to  see  him  ? 

Then  saith  I  unto  the  angel.  Verily,  I  would,  in 
case  no  hurt  shall  come  of  it,  for  Satan  hath  a  great 
reputation  among  us. 


Then  said  Azrael  unto  me.  It  is  one  thing  to  be 
introduced  to  the  Devil,  and  quite  another  to  get  hurt 
of  him.     See  thou  to  that. 

And  I  said,  I  will  see  to  that.  And  the  door  opened 
and  Satan  came  in. 

And  I  perceived  that  Satan  was  of  a  smiling  coun- 
tenance. Wherefore  I  said  unto  him.  Why  art  thou 
so  jolly  ? 

Then  he  smiled  yet  the  more,  and  answered  me, 
saying.  He  smileth  most  who  succeedeth  best ;  I  was 
thinking  how  of  late  my  kingdom  was  enlarged  upon 
earth. 

And  I  asked  him  to  what  particular  enlargement  he 
referred  :   Was  it  Tammany? 

Nay,  saith  he,  not  that  especially  ;  Tammany  have 
I  always  with  me. 

Then  did  I  mention  certain  other  matters,  as  Dr. 
Parkhurst's  crusade,  the  silver  question,  the  tariff,  the 
liquor  traffic,  and  the  labor  problem. 

But  it  was  none  of  these  that  caused  Satan  to  be 
so  exceeding  jolly. 

Thou  tirQst  me,  saith  Satan,  for  verilj'  these  things 
are  of  the  earth  earthy,  now  dusty,  and  again  muddy, 
as  the  weather  permitteth. 

Of  a  truth  am  I  pleased  because  of  the  foolishness 
of  man,  which  no  weather  seemeth  to  affect. 

Now  lettest  thou  me  give  urtto  thee  a  straight  tip. 
Thou  hast  heard  with  thine  ears,  and  thy  fathers  have 
declared  unto  thee  that  man  hath  a  free  will. 

So  if  man  were  wise  he  would  choose  the  Lord  and 
his  ways  and  not  me  and  my  ways  ; 

For  what  shall  it  profit  a  man  to  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  himself,  and  have  no  use  for  the  world 
when  he  hath  gained  it? 

So  is  it  better  to  be  wise  than  to  be  good  ; 

For  if  he  be  wicked  he  may  repent  and  be  baptised 
and  leave  me,  I  was  going  to  say,  in  the  cold,  but  now 
I  bethink  me,  quite  otherwise. 

But  if  he  be  silly,  verily  there  is  no  help  for  him, 
and  he  cometh  unto  me  quite  naturally  ; 

For  man  hath  power  over  his  own  conduct,  but 
verily  hath  he  no  power  over  his  brains. 

As  it  is  written,  (or  ought  to  have  been,)  He  hath 
made  man  not  only  male  and  female,  but  brainy  and 
otherwise, — mostly  otherwise. 

Verily,  the  Lord  knew  this,  for  inasmuch  as  he 
hath  made  man  free,  it  must  be  morally  and  not  intel- 
lectually. 

And  so,  no  matter  how  good  a  man  may  be,  if  he 
be  not  wise,  his  goodness  profitteth  him  nothing. 

And  that  is  what  causeth  me  to  be  jolly  ;  for  man 
remembereth  not  that  saying  of  the  Lord  :  I  was  an 
hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  no  meat ;  I  was  in  trouble, 
and  ye  gave  me  no  sympathy  ;  I  was  ill-natured,  and 
ye  gave  me  no  soft  answer. 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


4149 


Then  saith  I  unto  Satan,  Hold  on  !  Go  slow,  for 
thy  memory  faileth  thee  as  to  that  quotation. 

And  Satan  saith  :  Any  poor  devil  that  erreth  ought 
verily  to  take  correction  whenever  he  findeth  it.  Be 
merciful  therefore  unto  me  and  point  out  my  fault. 

Then  saith  I,  There  is  no  mention  of  any  soft  an- 
swer in  the  passage  of  Scripture  that  thou  hast  quoted. 

Satan  smiled,  and  saith  :  That  may  well  be,  seeing 
that  I  am  not  up  in  the  Scriptures  ;  but  verily  I  know 
one  soft  answer,  and  it  is  thine  own  ; 

For  what  doth  the  language  matter  if  peradventure 
thou  gettest  the  idea  ?  And  what  is  a  word  but  the  sign 
of  a  sound  ?  And  what  is  a  sound  but  the  body  of  a 
meaning?  Understandest  thou  me  ? 

Then  saith  I  :  Satan,  now  gettest  thou  beyond  thy 
depth,  though  it  be  the  bottomless  pit  ; 

For  verily  have  I  been  taught  from  my  youth  up 
the  inerrancy  of  the  Scriptures. 

And  Satan  answered  and  saith  unto  me  :  That  is 
why  I  smile  ; 

If  thou  hadst  been  born  again,  thou  hadst  known 
the  truth,  and  the  truth  had  made  thee  free. 

But  now  I  must  be  going,  but  I  shall  see  thee  later 
on.  Verily,  I  can  do  only  the  feasible,  which  in  thy 
case  seemeth  not  difficult. 

And  when  Satan  had  gotten  gone  I  asked  the  angel 
Azrael  if  he  thought  it  prudent  of  the  Lord  to  let  him 
make  so  free  around  Heaven. 

And  then  Azrael  (curious  as  it  may  seem)  smiled, 
but  the  smile  was  quite  unlike  Satan's,  and  saith  : 
Shall  the  truth  fear  the  Evil  One? 

Nay,  but  he  who  is  true  may  get  instruction  from 
him.     See  thou  to  that. 

Verily  thou  art  in  the  way  of  truth.  As  Satan  said 
himself,  he  can  do  only  the  feasible  ;  but  with  the  Lord 
and  with  them  that  love  him  the  impossible  is  as  easy 
as  the  inevitable. 


SCIENCE  AND  PROGRESS. 


PANIC  BLUNDERS. 
The  rashness  and  recklessness  of  a  panic-struck  multitude 
would  often  be  blessings  in  disguise,  like  the  storms  that  stir  the 
stagnant  atmosphere  of  a  coast-swamp,  if  their  mismanaged  energy 
were  not,  besides,  almost  sure  to  be  misdirected.  Near  the  con- 
vent of  Montluc,  in  the  highlands  of  the  Cevennes,  a  French  sur- 
veyor one  evening  saw  the  floods  of  a  cloudburst  dash  down  a 
mountain-side  like  an  avalanche,  and  after  reaching  a  place  of 
safety,  was  horrified  to  see  a  troop  of  fugitives  run  at  breakneck 
speed  in  a  direction  that  would  bring  them  directly  in  the  path  of 
the  descending  deluge.  He  shouted  a  warning,  but  the  refugees 
had  been  misled  by  an  echo  of  the  rushing  waters  and  only  con- 
tinued their  flight  with  increased  haste.  The  warnings  of  clear- 
sighted American  patriots  are  equally  lost  upon  the  dupes  of  the 
Commonweal  demagogues,  who  rush  at  panic  speed  in  a  fatally 
wrong  direction.  From  the  almost-reached  vantage-ground  of 
free  trade  and  freedom  from  the  curse  of  a  meddlesome  bureau- 
cratic boodle-syndicate,  they  hasten  into  the  direct  path  of  the 
impending  avalanche  of  communism,  blinded  by  vague  fears  and 


deafened  by  the  mob-echoed  howl  for  Government  pap.  Their 
blind  eagerness  for  the  chains  of  a  Bellamy  workhouse  despotism 
might  be  considered  a  sufficient  proof  that  they  do  not  deserve 
their  freedom,  and  like  Buffon's  bats  in  the  Catacombs,  "must 
know  best  what  is  good  for  them,"  and  the  mental  disgrace  of  their 
blunder  is,  indeed,  eclipsed  by  the  moral  infamy  of  those  who 
crawl  under  the  yoke  with  their  eyes  open. 

A  SANCTUARY  OF  FREEDOM. 
Far  up  in  the  highlands  of  the  Athabaska  River,  the  prairies 
of  British  North  America  are  broken  by  a  wilderness  of  pines, 
stretching  a  hundred  miles  north  to  Deer  Lake,  and  east  almost  to 
to  the  shores  of  Hudson  Bay,— a  territory  of  some  fifty  thousand 
square  miles,  where  cereals  refuse  to  grow,  but  where  individual 
enterprise,  aided  by  a  good  axe  and  a  berry-basket,  might  well  con- 
trive to  keep  frost  and  famine  at  bay.  Capt.  Lloyd  Robertson's 
account  of  a  recent  trip  through  that  stronghold  of  solitude  ought 
to  be  welcomed  by  every  lover  of  independence.  The  winters  are 
extremely,  almost  arctically,  severe,  but  the  same  frosts  that  kill 
out  grain  crops  will  also  keep  out  the  slave-drivers  of  socialistic 
despotism  ;  the  pathless  forests  that  insure  the  survival  of  the 
wolf  and  the  pine-falcon,  also  offer  a  permanent  refuge  to  men 
who  decline  to  sell  their  freedom  for  the  prerogatives  of  a  Govern- 
ment workhouse-boss-in-chief.  Twenty  eight  inches  of  snow  for 
seven  months  in  the  year,  tend,  no  doubt,  to  hamper  a  hermit's 
freedom  of  motion,  but  can  be  abated  on  the  precincts  of  the  her- 
mitage, and  are,  on  the  whole,  preferable  to  perennial  slavery. 
On  the  borders  of  Afghanistan  there  is  a  mountain-range  that 
almost  precludes  the  possibility  of  road-building  by  the  frequency 
of  snowstorms  and  the  tremendous  steepness  of  the  summit-rocks. 
"Why,  you  could  not  get  a  provision- waggon  across  this  pass," 
said  the  traveller  Pallas,  when  his  guide  halted  near  the  top  of 
the  cloud-capped  ridge.  "Oh,  that's  all  right,"  said  the  native, 
"as  long  as  the  Russians  can't  get  their  artillery  up,  either." 

COUNTER-RUFFIANS. 
In  the  free-and-easy  republic  of  the  ocean,  the  over-multipli- 
cation of  every  aggressive  monster  is  checked  by  the  truculence  of 
rival  ogres,  and  on  the  same  principle  moral  philosophers  can  see 
a  beneficent  tendency  in  the  vindictiveness  of  such  men  as  the 
Caserta  brothers,  who  were  visited  by  a  committee  of  Texas 
White  Caps  and  received  their  guests  with  a  hail-storm  of  buck- 
shot. The  occasional  confessions  of  these  midnight  reformers 
make  it  highly  probable  that  their  motives  have  something  to  do 
with  the  love  of  sport,  not  to  say  of  mischief,  and  the  established 
possibility  of  an  intended  victim  contriving  to  get  the  trump-cards 
in  a  game  of  that  sort  would  undoubtedly  tend  to  moderate  the 
zeal  of  such  sportsmen. 

HOTBEDS  OF  DISEASE. 

The  violent  outbreak  of  the  plague  in  the  Chinese  seaport- 
towns  is  a  minor  wonder  compared  with  the  fact  that  the  police  of 
those  cities  have  contrived  to  keep  the  disease  within  anything 
like  manageable  bounds.  A  correspondent  of  the  Xor//i  China 
//?ra/</ describes  the  floating  suburbs  of  Canton  as  labyrinths  of 
galley-like  dungeons,  moored  in  a  festering  melange  of  garbage  and 
sewer-fiuids,  and  confining  their  tenants  to  cockpits  where  the 
supply  of  oxygen  gets  almost  exhausted  between  sunset  and  mid- 
night, leaving  an  atmosphere  of  concentrated  miasma  for  the  re- 
maining hours  of  the  night.  Under  the  brooding  rays  of  the  mid- 
summer sun  fevers  become  epidemic,  and  the  frightful  rate  of 
infant  mortality  saves  poor  parents  the  necessity  of  the  rustic 
method  for  the  removal  of  superfluous  babies. 
SENSITIVE  TURKS. 

The  eight  newspapers  published  in  Constantinople  in  the 
Turkish  and  Arabian  idioms,  are  under  control  of  a  Government 
censor,  who  shows  his  teeth  at  the  first  whisper  of  disloyal  senti- 


415° 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


ments.  and  often  orders  the  confiscation  of  an  entire  edition,  re- 
serve-files and  all.  Books,  too,  have  to  get  the  imprimatur  of  that 
Rhadamantus.  before  they  can  be  offered  for  sale  in  the  public 
book-shops,  and  violators  of  the  press-laws  can  think  themselves 
lucky  if  they  get  off  with  a  fifty-dollar  fine  and  a  week  in  jail. 

PRIMITIVE  REPUBLICS. 
The  semi-despotic  republics  of  Spanish  America  can,  in  cer- 
tain respects,  boast  a  free-and-easy  state  of  affairs  which  our  own 
country  enjoyed  only  in  the  days  of  Daniel  Boone.  Matanzas 
(beast-fights)  can  be  arranged  by  any  picnic-manager,  without  the 
interference  of  a  municipal  moralist,  and  in  Paraguay  pedlars, 
who  in  Ohio  would  have  to  pay  a  licence  of  a  hundred  dollars  a 
year,  are  not  only  tax-free,  but  exempted  from  bridge-toll,  to  give 
the  settlers  of  sparsely-settled  districts  a  chance  to  provide  them- 
selves with  the  commodities  of  civilised  life. 

TIMBER-FIENDS. 

In  the  coast-range  of  California,  timber-tharks  are  cutting 
down  magnificent  redwood  trees  for  the  sake  of  a  few  planks, 
leaving  the  rest  of  the  wood  to  rot  where  it  drops.  Groves  of  con- 
siderable extent  have  thus  been  destroyed  in  Santa  Cruz,  Mon- 
terey, and  other  counties,  where  timber  is  already  beginning  to 
get  so  scarce  that  in  a  few  years  a  tract  of  woodland  will  be  a  more 
valuable  possession  than  a  vineyard.  Is  our  continent,  after  all, 
destined  to  share  the  fate  of  the  Mediterranean  coastlands  ?  The 
progress  of  our  forestry  associations,  though  undeniable,  is  still 
discouragingly  small,  and  Professor  Goebel  of  Pittsburgh  estimates 
that  the  number  of  trees  planted  on  Arbor  Days  is  only  about  one- 
twenty-five  hundredth  part  of  the  aggregate  destroyed  year  after 
year  by  wood-cutters  and  forest-fires.  Irrigation  and  Dyrefurth's 
rain-charms  will  be  of  little  avail  against  the  consequences  of  that 
reckless  waste.  What  part  of  North  America  can  hope  to  escape 
the  doom  of  climatic  deterioration  if  sea-girt  Asia  Minor  could 
become  a  desert  ? 

FRENCH  CLAIRVOYANTS. 

The  mind-reader  Harlot  has  revived  the  Parisian  miracle 
mania,  and  every  salon  is  now  trying  to  produce  a  mesmeric  oracle 
of  its  own.  The  advertisement  columns  of  half  a  dozen  dailies 
are  crowded  with  the  addresses  of  the  mystic  fraternity,  but  female 
prophets  are  less  abundant  than  on  our  own  side  of  the  Atlantic  ; 
within  the  last  eighty  years,  at  least,  no  clairvoyant  has  contrived 
to  match  the  fame  of  the  Pythoness  Lenormand,  who  amassed  a 
fortune  by  her  successful  peeps  through  the  keyhole  of  the  future, 
and  is  said  to  have  predicted  the  career  of  Joachim  Murat  and  the 
downfall  of  the  first  Napoleon. 

SIGNS  OF  THE  TIMES. 
In  Rome,  the  same  city  where  Gordon  Bruno  was  burned  in 
1600  and  where  only  one  hundred  years  ago  Cagliostro  was  im- 
prisoned for  life  on  a  charge  of  freemasonry,  an  enterprising  pub- 
lisher has  just  announced  the  third  edition  of  Camillo  Rocca's 
Segrelo  del  Pontijicato — "The  Secret  of  the  Papacy."  "How  shall 
we  explain  the  fact,"  Macaulay  asked  in  1839,  "  that  the  power  of 
the  Roman  Pontiff  has  survived  the  revolt  of  the  Albigenses,  the 
assaults  of  Protestantism  and  of  the  French  Rationalists,  and  is 
gaining,  rather  than  losing  ground,  in  this  age  of  critical  research  ?'• 
These  questions  Signor  Rocca  answers  by  the  audacious  theory 
that  the  votaries  of  the  Vatican  are  attracted  neither  by  the  hope 
of  heaven  nor  the  love  of  truth  half  as  much  as  by  the  charm  of 
an  intellectual  dolce  far  nientf,  the  lazy  submission  of  reason  to 
authority  and  the  comfort  of  considering  mental  sloth  a  duty  and 
virtue.  "  It  is  so  pleasant,"  he  says,  "  to  be  able  to  silence  a  charge 
of  ignorance,  stupidity,  and  mental  emasculation  by  calling  your 
opponent  a  heretic."  The  author  then  proceeds  to  demonstrate 
that  the  prestige  of  the  Church  has  invariably  declined  in  periods 
of  intellectual  revival,  like  that  preceding  the  French  revolution. 


and  as  invariably  regained  its  lost  ground  during  the  far  longer 
periods  of  reaction  and  mental  indolence,  alias  indifferentisra.  The 
work  abounds  with  diatribes  against  the  leaders  of  that  reaction, 
but  the  Church  prudently  continues  to  ignore  both  the  book  and 
its  admirers,  and  the  orthodox  press  contents  itself  with  quizzing 
the  patriotic  zeal  of  the  author,  and  pointing  out  the  inconsisten- 
cies of  some  of  his  tenets.  Felix  L.  Oswald. 


NOTES. 

In  reply  to  several  inquiries  from  admirers  of  the  late  Gen. 
M.  M.  Trumbull,  we  state  that  at  present  the  widow  receives  no 
pension.  Friends  intend  to  take  steps  in  the  matter,  but  nothing 
as  yet  has  been  attempted,  and  what  will  come  of  it  we  do  not 
know. 

The  Messrs.  Bickers  &  Son,  Leicester  Square,  London,  W.  C, 
have  put  together  in  a  small  pamphlet  some  interesting  press  and 
personal  opinions  on  the  works  of  the  late  Constance  Naden,  which 
they  publish.  The  opinions  are  both  critical  and  complimentary, 
and  give  the  reader  a  splendid  insight  into  the  character  and  ge- 
nius of  this  lamented  authoress.  Miss  Naden's  philosophical 
works  have  been  frequently  mentioned  in  our  pages. 


We  are  informed  that  the  Rev.  T.  C.  F.  Grumbine,  who  has 
championed  the  cause  of  spiritualism  several  times  in  The  Open 
Cottrl,  has  resigned  his  ministry  at  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Gan- 
eseo,  Illinois,  and  expects  to  travel  through  the  South  and  Cali- 
fornia this  fall  and  winter  as  a  spiritualistic  lecturer.  As  his  in- 
clinations always  tended  in  this  direction,  Mr.  Grumbine  will  feel 
himself  more  in  his  element  on  the  spiritualistic  rostrum  than  in  the 
pulpit.  We  may  expect  to  hear  from  him  again  concerning  his 
further  development. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  359. 

ADVENTURES  OF  PAINE  IN  LONDON  AND  PARIS. 

MoNcuRE  D.  Conway 4143 

IN  MEMORY  OF  GEN.  M.  M.  TRUMBULL.     Editor.  4145 

CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA.  Adul- 
tery. Sagacious  Satan  and  the  Silly  Sinner.  Hudor 
Genone 4147 

SCIENCE  AND  PROGRESS.  Panic  Blunders.  A  Sanc- 
tuary of  Freedom.  Counter-Ruffians.  Hotbeds  of  Dis- 
ease. Sensitive  Turks.  Primitive  Republics.  Timber- 
Fiends.  French  Clairvoyants.  Signs  of  the  Times. 
Dr.  Felix  L.  Oswald 4149 

NOTES 4150 


^7 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "HTEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  360.     (Vol.  VIII.— 29  ) 


CHICAGO,  JULY  19,   1894. 


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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  VICTOR  SCHCELCHER. 

EY    THEODORE  STANTON. 

One  day  last  winter  I  was  calling  on  M.  Barth6- 
lemy  St.  Hilaire,  the  venerable  translator  and  ex- 
pounder of  Aristotle,  when  the  conversation  turned  on 
Victor  Schcelcher.  "We  were  schoolmates  at  the 
Lyceum  of  Louis  le  Grand,"  he  remarked,  "  from  1816 
to  1822.  We  parted  on  leaving  school,  but  met  again 
in  1848  as  members  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  and 
later  at  the  National  Assembly  of  1871,  and  now  we 
are  both  in  the  Senate.  One  cannot  praise  too  highly 
his  generosity  of  heart,  his  courage,  and  his  disinterest- 
edness. But  his  political  opinions  have  always  been 
extreme  and  not  very  wise."  The  next  day  the  papers 
announced  the  death  of  Victor  Schcelcher  at  the  ad- 
vanced age  of  eighty-nine.  By  his  demise  France  lost 
a  remarkable  historical  figure,  the  cause  of  republican- 
ism an  ardent  defender,  and  philanthropy  a  warm 
friend.  But  it  is  as  the  protector  of  the  negro  and  as 
the  liberator  of  the  slaves  in  the  French  colonies,  that 
Victor  Schoelcher's  name  will  be  remembered  by  pos- 
terity. 

M.  Schcelcher  once  sent  me  a  manuscript  copy  of 
a  portion  of  Arago's  memoirs  which  have  not  yet 
been  published.  This  portion,  however,  was  printed, 
through  the  kind  offices  of  Schcelcher,  in  the  Lihei'ty 
Bell  of  1 85 1,  I  believe.  The  extract  in  question  is 
Arago's  account  of  how  the  decree  of  emancipation 
was  brought  about,  Arago  being  then  Minister  for  the 
Second  Republic.  In  the  margin  of  the  manuscript, 
opposite  the  decree  of  emancipation,  Schcelcher  has 
written  with  his  own  hand  :  "At  the  end  of  my  con- 
versation with  Arago,  I  drew  up  on  a  corner  of  his 
table  the  text  of  this  decree,  and  he  immediately  sent 
it  to  the  Journal  Officicl,  where  it  appeared  on  March 
4,  1848." 

On  December  25,  i8go,  M.  Schcelcher  wrote  me  as 
follows  : 

"Very  Dear  Mr.  Stanton  : 

"  Let  me  remind  you  that  when  I  spoke  of  writing  the  '  Life 
of  Toussaint  Louverture,'  you  promised  me  to  translate  it  into 
English  if  our  worthy  friend,  Mr.  Frederick  Douglass,  would  con- 
sent to  add  to  your  translation  an  Introduction,  presenting  the 
book  to  the  American  public.  Now,  the  book  has  appeared  and 
has  met  with  some  success.  You  are  doubtless  in  communication 
with  the  excellent  and  worthy  Mr.  Douglass,  who  is  to-day  United 


States  Minister  to  Hayti.  Would  you  be  kind  enough  to  learn 
from  him  if  he  is  still  disposed  to  prepare  this  Introduction,  for 
which  I  would  be  particularly  obliged  to  him  ?  I  would  be  happy, 
with  your  assistance  and  his,  which  would  add  new  value  to  my 
book,  to  make  known  in  the  United  States  and  to  its  large  black 
population,  a  negro  who  grandly  ennobled  his  race  in  attaining 
the  position  of  what  is  called  'a  great  man.'  If  you  are  good 
enough  to  communicate  my  letter  to  the  excellent  Mr.  Douglass, 
tell  him,  I  beg  of  you,  that  I  have  not  forgotten  him.  I  am  going 
to  ask  my  publisher  to  send  him  a  copy  of  my  book.  I  regret  that 
I  did  not  do  so  at  the  moment  when  it  appeared. 

With  thanks  and  much  affection, 

V.  Schcelcher." 
In  another  letter  on  the  same  subject  he  said  : 

' '  My  best  compliments  to  our  good  friend  Frederick  Douglass. 
Will  you  kindly  send  hira  a  copy  of  my  book  ?  I  request  M.  Ol- 
lendorff to  send  it  to  you.  Surely  Frederick  Douglass  must  have 
the  life  of  'Toussaint  Louverture'  by  Victor  Schcelcher." 

These  letters  brought  the  following  one  from  Mr. 
Douglass : 
"  My  Dear  Mr.  Stanton  : 

I  am  very  glad  to  know  that  our  venerable  friend.  Senator 
Schcelcher,  has  completed  his  '  Life  of  Toussaint.'  Considering 
his  great  age  and  the  many  demands  upon  his  time  as  a  statesman, 
it  is  something  of  a  surprise  to  me,  that  he  has  found  leisure  and 
strength  to  devote  to  this  work.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  book 
will  be  a  valuable  addition  to  what  we  already  know  of  ;he  life, 
character,  and  career  of  the  marvellous  man,  and  will  do  much 
towards  lifting  the  heavy  cloud  of  prejudice  which  envelops  the 
African  race.  [Toussaint's  life  and  achievements  are  a  great  fact. 
He  was  a  genuine  negro,  and  there  is  no  robbing  the  race  of  the 
good  influence  of  his  example.  If  a  race  can  produce  one  man  of 
the  character  of  that  illustrious  individual,  it  raises  a  strong  pre- 
sumption of  its  ability  to  give  birth  to  more  of  the  same  mental 
and  moral  mould.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  was  indebted  to  any 
other  than  negro  blood  for  his  composition  and  traits,  and  hence 
the  negro  may  claim  him  as  a  typical  illustration  of  what  is  possi- 
ble to  the  negro  race.  Among  the  greatest  warriors,  patriots,  and 
statesmen  of  modern  time,  his  character  and  his  achievements 
rank  with  the  highest.]  I  know  no  Frenchman  at  this  period  so 
likely  to  do  justice  to  the  noble  qualities  of  Toussaint  Louverture 
as  Senator  Schcelcher,  the  statesman,  who  in  the  tempest  and 
whirlwind  of  a  mighty  revolution,  seized  the  occasion  to  liberate 
all  the  slaves  of  the  French  colonies.  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  see 
his  work  translated  into  English.  I  fear,  however,  that  my  ap- 
pointment as  Minister  Resident  and  Consul-General  to  Hayti,  and 
the  work  of  preparing  for  the  same,  will  make  it  impossible  for  me 
to  write  an  Introduction  to  the  English  edition  as  you  request.  If, 
however,  I  can  find  time  between  now  and  my  departure  for  Hayti, 
I  will  write  the  Introduction  and  send  it  to  you." 

In  April,  1890,  Mr.  Douglass  sent  me  from  Port 
au  Prince  a  most  interesting  essay  on  Toussaint  Lou- 


4'52 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


verture,  from  which  1  make  this  extract  concerning 
M.  Schoelcher,  whom  Mr.  Douglass  met  several  times 
during  his  visit  to  Paris  in  the  year  1887  : 

"  I  may  mention  the  surprise  I  felt  in  finding  in  Paris  such  a 
house  as  his.  The  room  in  which  I  found  myself  seated  and  where 
M.  Schcelcher  keeps  his  busy  hands  and  brain  at  work,  was  largely 
decorated  with  the  emblems  of  slavery.  There  were  old  slave 
whips  which  had  been  used  on  the  backs  of  slaves  in  the  French 
colonies.  On  the  walls  were  handcuffs,  broken  chains,  fetters,  and 
iron  collars  with  sharp  prongs  which  had  galled  the  necks  and 
limbs  of  despairing  bondmen,  but  which  now  gall  them  no  more. 
These  barbarous  implements  of  a  past  condition  were  sent  to 
M.  Schcelcher  by  negroes  from  the  colonies  in  grateful  recognition 
of  his  instrumentality  in  setting  them  free.  .  .  .  Several  colored 
men  called  upon  Senator  Schcelcher  on  the  mornings  of  my  visits. 
I  was  pleased  to  observe  that  his  manner  towards  them  had  in  it 
no  show  of  patronage.  He  received  them  as  one  gentleman  should 
receive  another,  with  dignified  cordiality." 

The  following  extract  is  from  an  earlier  letter  from 
Mr.  Douglass,  written  during  his  visit  in  Paris  : 

' '  I  send  you  herewith  the  substance  of  my  little  speech,  when 
at  the  Senate  House  you  presented  me  to  the  notice  of  the  ven- 
erable Senator  Schrelcher,  the  friend  of  the  oppressed  and  en- 
slaved, and  of  universal  liberty.  I  shall  never  forget  the  meeting 
we  had  at  his  hou:e  a  few  days  later  with  that  grand  old  man, 
blest  with  recollections  of  a  long  life  of  noble  deeds,  surrounded 
in  his  home  with  broken  chains  and  fetters  which  had  once  bound 
the  bruised  limbs  of  enslaved  men  and  women,  and  with  so  many 
tokens  of  gratitude  from  those  he  succored  and  relieved.  In  re- 
spect of  him  I  can  say  with  Burns,  as  regards  his  future : 
'■  ■  Wiih  such  as  he,  where'er  he  be, 
May  I  be  saved  or  lost.'  " 

The  "little  speech,"  which  Mr.  Douglass  mentions, 
figures  in  my  autographic  collection,  and  was  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  Sir — I  have  met  the  noble  leader  of  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  England,  Thomas  Clarkson,  who  was  then  in  his  eighty-sixth 
year.  I  have  long  known  the  leader  of  the  abolition  movement  in 
America,  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  and  I  am  very  happy  now  that 
I  see  the  emancipator  of  the  slaves  in  all  the  French  colonies." 

When  the  "Life  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison"  ap- 
peared, in  which,  by  the  way,  Schoelcher  is  mentioned 
two  or  three  times,  he  wrote  to  me  : 

"  Many  thanks  to  you  for  having  called  my  attentioB  to  the 
book  of  Mr.  Garrison's  sons.  In  the  first  place,  I  beg  of  you  to 
try  and  have  me  sent  a  copy.  I  would  be  happy,  very  happy  to 
read  it.  Those  gentlemen  had  good  reasons  to  write  the  life  of 
their  worthy  father.  Garrison  was  a  good  man  par  excellence.  He 
employed  a  great  part  of  his  existence  in  combating  slavery  with 
as  much  courage  as  admirable  persistence.  He  is  one  of  those 
who  have  the  most  contributed  to  purge  his  country  of  this  hideous 
social  plague,  which  dishonored  it.  I  may  say  this  with  assurance, 
because  I  long  followed  his  labors  with  a  veritable  admiration. 
Glory  to  him  ! 

"The  authors  are  mistaken,  however,  in  saying  that  I  was 
Minister  of  the  Colonies.  The  grand  Arago  was  then  Minister 
of  Marine  and  the  Colonies.  I  was  only  his  Under-Secretary  of 
State,  and  it  was  as  such  that  I  acted." 

I  find  in  my  papers  a  copy  of  the  following  letter 
with  this  inscription  at  the  head,  in  the  handwriting  of 
M.    Schoelcher:    "  Lettre    de   Victor   Hugo  a  Victor 


Schcelcher."  I  do  not  know  whether  it  has  ever  been 
printed  ;  and  unless  I  am  mistaken  it  is  this  letter  from 
the  poet  which  is  framed  and  hanging  in  Schoelcher's 
library.      Here  it  is  : 

"  Hauteville  House,  November  17,  1869. 
"You  are  right  to  love  me  a  little.  You  are  one  of  the  men 
who  occupy  the  most  sweetly  my  thoughts  in  this  time  of  abjection 
and  night.  You  are  at  one  and  the  same  time  haughtiness  and 
light.  I  love  you  as  a  standard-bearer  and  as  a  torch-bearer.  This 
young  man,  M  B oilier,  is  really  charming  and  noble;  coming 
with  your  name  on  his  lips,  he  had  the  true  sesame  to  open  my 
door.  So  he  was  warmly  received  at  table,  and  in  shaking  hands 
with  him,  it  se  med  to  us  that  you  felt  it.  Work;  make  good, 
beautiful  works,  and  keep  well.  France  is  not  ailing  when  men 
like  you  are  in  health.  For  France  is  not  the  Empire;  it  is  not 
the  sad  generation  which  is  passing  away  ;  France  is  human  lib- 
erty ;  France  is  universal  light.  Be  assured  that  all  goes  well. 
The  Republic  is  infallible  for  peoples,  inevitable  for  kings.  It  is 
the  future.     I  grasp  your  two  hands.  Victor  Ht;GO." 

When  the  friends  of  Theodore  Parker  were  raising 
the  money  for  the  medallion  by  Story,  now  found  on 
the  headstone  in  the  Florence  cemetery,  and  whose 
inauguration  I  described  at  the  time  in  The  Open  Court, 
Schoelcher  sent  this  little  note,  written  in  English  : 

' '  My  dear  Mr.  Stanton  :  Of  course  you  may  put  me  down  on 
the  list  of  subscribers  to  the  Theodore  Parker  Fund.  In  haste, 
very  truly  yours,  Victor  Schcelcher." 

But  Schoelcher  went  far  beyond  Parker  in  the  do- 
main of  religion.  He  was  an  out  and-out  atheist. 
M.  de  Pressens6  once  said  of  him  :  "  Schoelcher  is  an 
atheist  who  makes  one  believe  that  there  is  a  God." 
"I  go  farther,"  wrote  in  the  Temps,  the  other  day,  his 
close  friend,  M.  Legouv^  ;  "Schoelcher  was  an  atheist 
who  believed  in  God." 

This  question  of  religion  used  to  be  one  of  the  fa- 
vorite topics  of  conversation  when  Victor  Hugo  and 
Schcelcher  met.  Schcelcher  once  told  me  how,  when 
one  day  he  was  on  his  way  to  see  the  poet,  it  began  to 
snow  quite  hard.  "You  say,  there  is  no  God?"  be- 
gan Victor  Hugo,  as  Schoelcher  entered  the  drawing- 
room  ;  "who  else  could  have  made  those  beautiful 
crystals?"  continued  the  poet,  pointing  to  the  melting 
flakes  on  his  visitor's  coat. 

Schoelcher's  reply  came  quick  and  sharp:  "If 
there  were  a  good  God  in  heaven  he  would  never  have 
had  an  old  man  like  me  caught  in  such  a  storm." 

One  more  anecdote  of  "the  two  Victors,"  told  me 
yesterday  by  a  Deputy,  who  knew  them  both,  and  I 
close  this  very  incomplete  sketch  of  this  grand  man. 
The  anecdote  is  possibly  not  true,  or,  at  least,  very 
much  exaggerated.  But  as  it  is  typical  of  a  certain 
side  of  Victor  Hugo's  character,  it  may  be  worth  the 
telling. 

It  appears  that  Victor  Hugo  and  Schoelcher  were 
one  day  in  an  omnibus,  during  the  development  of  the 
coup  d'etat  of  December  2.  The  vehicle  was  stopped 
by  the  passing  of  a  company  of  soldiers   carrying  out 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


415: 


the  stringent  orders  of  the  conspirators.  Schcelcher, 
whose  indomitable  courage  is  noted  on  more  than  one 
page  of  French  history,  suddenly  threw  up  the  win- 
dow of  the  omnibus,  and  cried  out  at  the  top  of  his 
voice:  "Down  with  the  Dictator!  Down  with  the 
Dictator!  "  Whereupon  Victor  Hugo  pulled  him  back 
inside  and  exclaimed:  "That's  foolhardy;  why,  we 
may  be  all  shot !  "  The  next  day  when  they  met,  Vic- 
tor Hugo  referred  to  "our  act  of  bravery."  Two  or 
three  years  later  they  met  again,  this  time  in  exile, 
when  coming  back  to  this  event,  Hugo  actually  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  "I  (Hugo)  deserved  some 
credit  for  my  courage,  displayed  in  that  omnibus,  in 
face  of  a  line  of  loaded  rifles  !  " 


PRISON  OR  CITADEL— WHICH  ? 

BY  FRANCIS  C.    RUSSELL. 

Not  long  ago  I  stood  by  the  casket  of  a  dear  friend 
whose  soul  had  entered  into  its  larger  mansion.  Oth- 
ers also  stood  by.  Some  were  bound  to  the  dead  by 
the  intimate  relations  of  family  life  and  were  suffering 
the  pangs  that  must  needs  accompany  the  disruption 
of  tender  and  deep-seated  ties.  All  of  us  were  full  of 
the  emotions  and  thoughts  native  to  an  occasion  so 
solemn  and  so  apt  to  move  heart  and  mind.  We 
thought  of  the  man  whose  body  lay  there  in  our  midst, 
of  his  worth  and  work.  For  he  was  a  man  of  distin- 
guished excellence  in  many  ways  honorable  to  men- 
tion. But  above  all  he  was  a  lover,  a  great-hearted 
and  large-minded  lover  who  had  devoted  his  talents  to 
the  service  of  love's  justice.  "Everybody  loves  a 
lover,"  and  we  who  knew  him  well  loved  him  with  an 
affection  of  honor,  the  measure  of  which  was  not 
wholly  revealed  to  us  until  we  found  he  was  dead. 
Some  were  asked  to  speak  to  us  words  befitting  the 
occasion,  and  so  they  did.  They  spoke  of  the  traits 
and  excellences  of  our  dead  friend.  These  we  already 
knew,  but  we  were  glad  to  hear  them  told  and  retold. 
We  could  not  lay  away  that  dear  body  without  testify- 
ing to  the  worth  it  had  enshrined. 

But  on  such  an  occasion  certain  great  thoughts  at- 
tend. We  cannot  avoid  them  if  we  would.  Out  of 
the  very  depths  of  our  life  are  they  born,  and  dead 
indeed  would  we  be  were  they  absent.  So  those  who 
there  voiced  our  reflexions  spoke  of  these  thoughts 
also  :  of  their  frame,  intent,  and  import,  as  the  same 
appeared  to  them  and  to  our  dead  friend.  One  of  our 
voices,  borne  by  one  whom  we  all  also  love  because 
he  too  is  a  lover  with  great  gifts  which  he  holds  ready 
for  love's  service,  was  moved  to  say:  "It  seems  to 
me  that  could  our  dead  friend  direct  my  tongue,  he 
would  wish  me  to  say  of  nim  as  I  would  hope  he  would 
speak  of  me  were  I  beneath  his  coffin-lid  and  he  stand- 
ing by  my  side  :  that  as  to  the  great  questions  of  a 


Deity  and  a  life-again  he  did  not  know,  and  not  know- 
ing he  would  not  guess." 

In  so  saying,  the  speaker  was  in  no  wise  untrue  to 
the  dead  or  to  the  fitnesses  of  the  occasion.  No  such 
thought,  but  a  remark  of  quite  another  kind  seems  to 
me  to  push  forward  on  the  heels  of  the  protest  thus 
framed  by  the  speaker.      It  is  this  : 

Is  it  7vell  to  make  of  knowledge  a  prison-house  for 
the  soul  of  man? 

Knowledge — that  is  to  sa}',  knowledge  itself — is 
divine  ;  a  divinity  worshipful  without  abatement  or  dis- 
parity. In  no  jot  or  tittle  must  detraction  be  made 
from  its  sovereign  authority  or  from  the  devotion  paid 
to  it.  It  nourishes  the  soul-life  and  the  soul-growth 
with  the  strong  meat  of  an  assurance,  complete  and 
perfect. 

But  the  soul  of  man  has  more  than  one  function 
and  m.ore  than  one  need.  It  not  merely  knows.  It 
loves,  it  admires,  it  hopes,  it  aspires,  and  it  also  grieves, 
dreads,  Andi  fears.  Driven  by  such  impulses  and  drawn 
by  such  solicitations,  the  soul  of  man  reaches  out 
probing  and  groping  for  stays,  sustenance,  and  re- 
quital. Naturally  and  insuperably  it  asks  for  these 
things.  Some  of  these  quests  go  out  from  the  soul 
with  a  pleading  that  will  not  be  denied.  But  present 
knowledge  is  utterly  unable  to  satisfy  such  quests.  It 
cannot  even  appease  some  of  them,  the  most  urgent. 

In  this  exigency  it  is  the  counsel  of  some  that  we 
starve  the  soul  and  let  all  those  soul-functions  die  out 
that  cannot  prosper  on  knowledge  alone,  indeed  that 
cannot  thrive  on  present  knowledge  and  the  hope  of 
its  gradual  increase.  Their  commandment  is.  Thou 
shalt  not  guess.  Thou  shalt  not  believe  unless  thou 
canst  show  us  premises  that  justify  your  conclusion  as 
a  probable  result.  If  thou  violate  this  commandment 
thou  shalt  suffer  the  imputation  of  an  ill-governed 
soul-life. 

Well,  as  for  me,  I  do  not  thus  mistake  the  charac- 
ter of  knowledge.  Not  a  dungeon,  but  a  strong  fort- 
ress from  which  to  sally  out  and  upon  which  to  rally, 
is  knowledge  to  me.  If  I  am  led  to  believe  on  the  be- 
ing of  a  being  that  ensouls  the  universe  as  my  soul 
ensouls  me,  I  see  as  yet  no  reason  for  suppressing 
that  belief.  Most  certainly  my  lack  of  that  degree  of 
assurance  that  I  can  call  knowledge  is  no  reason.  To 
suppress  my  belief  on  that  account  would  seem  to  me 
no  less  than  to  install  ignorance  as  a  co-ordinate 
authority  with  knowledge.  But  I  do  not,  as  the  so- 
called  agnostics  are  prone  to  allege  of  such  as  I,  say  I 
know  God  exists.  I  believe,  I  trust,  I  have  faith  that 
such  is  the  case,  and  there  at  present,  and,  so  far  as  I 
can  see,  for  a  long  while,  I  must  rest. 

But  some  one  may  exclaim.  Why  should  you 
believe  without  any  reason  for  the  same?  Ah!  but 
stop  right  there,  my  friend,  I  have  not  said  that  I  have 


4154 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


no  reason  for  my  belief.  I  only  said  that  that  belief 
that  is  not  knowledge  may  justly  obtain.  It  should  be 
observed  in  the  first  place  that  beliefs  do  not  arise  or 
obtain  unless  there  is  some  reason,  good,  bad,  or  in- 
different, that  induces  or  sustains  them.  To  suppose 
otherwise  would  be  to  suppose  an  effect  without  any 
cause.  The  reasons  for  belief  may  be  incompetent, 
or  insufficient,  or  both,  but  a  belief  sustained  by  no 
reason  whatever  is  an  impossibility.  If  on  any  faith- 
ful examination  of  our  soul-estate  we  find  that  we  have 
a  belief  of  this  or  of  that  sort,  we  may  be  sure  that  the 
same  has  reasons  of  some  kind  for  its  presence. 

Again,  the  reasons  for  this  or  for  that  belief  are  often 
so  latent  in  our  nature,  or  so  singly  slight  that  any  at- 
tempt to  assign  them  is  defeated.  We  do  not  possess 
any  very  exhaustive  inventory  of  or  index  to  our  soul- 
estate.  Yet,  nevertheless,  these  latent  and  slight  rea- 
sons for  belief  may  conspire  together  in  a  manifold  of 
unconscious  or  subconscious  argument  so  cogent  as 
to  be  altogether  invincible.  Call  such  tendencies  and 
results  instincts  if  you  will.  Why  should  we  not  trust 
our  instincts  ?  Have  they  not  brought  us  safely  and 
prosperously  up  out  of  our  formerness  to  our  better 
and  still  better  intelligence  ?  Did  not  intelligence  itself 
begin  as  mere  feeling  ?  Will  that  which  cared  for  us 
when  we  were  children  wholly  betray  us  in  our  man- 
hood ? 

I  would  not,  however,  have  it  thought  that  we  must 
rely  on  grounds  so  intangible  as  this  for  the  belief  in 
God.  Of  assignable  reasons  there  are  several,  one 
only  of  which  will  I  mention.  In  the  void  of  counter- 
vailing reasons  it  is  to  my  mind  abundantly  sufficient 
to  justify  trust  in  God.  It  is  this.  Belief  in  the  being 
of  a  being  that  modulates  the  All  as  a  centered  organic 
unitary  whole,  is  salutary  for  soul-life  and  soul-growth. 
Be  very  careful  not  to  take  me  as  here  intending  a  God 
that  is  a  person  or  a  God  that  is  good,  etc.,  etc.  Per- 
sonality, goodness,  etc.,  etc.,  I  leave  entirely  out  of 
view.  At  present  I  only  claim  the  mere  existence  of 
God,  that  is,  that  a  being  exists  of  some  sort,  so  as  to 
orient  the  All  as  a  single  but  manifold  whole.  To  be- 
lieve thus  like  is  to  be  a  monist,  and  I  do  not  see  how 
any  monist  can  believe  otherwise. 

Now  if  we  really  believe  in  such  a  being  why  should 
we  not  name  it  God?  Is  not  such  the  proper  name 
for  that  being  ?  Why  should  we  say  thai  not  knowing 
of  the  existence  of  such  a  being  we  will  not  guess, 
when  our  believing  is  no  other  than  a  well-advised 
guessing  ? 

When  we  come  to  know  ourselves  that  we  do  truly 
believe  in  God  in  spite  of  our  refusal  to  him  of  his 
proper  name,  we  find  that  we  have  truly  only  come  to 
our  own.  Our  soul-life  finds  nourishment  and  grows 
in  the  clear  light  thus  appropriated. 

But  how  as  to  the  belief  in  a  life-again?     Now  we 


either  have  it  or  we  have  it  not.  If  we  have  it  not,  then 
any  question  of  suppressing  it  in  ourselves  is  superflu- 
ous. If,  however,  we  have  it,  or  if  others  have  it,  must 
we  suppress  or  discountenance  it  ?  If  Yes,  then  Why  ? 
Because  we  do  not  know,  will  you  say  ?  In  my  re- 
marks on  the  belief  in  God  I  hope  I  have  given  rea- 
sons for  holding  that  ignorance  is  no  reason  at  all. 
But  knowledge  may  forbid  or  discountenance  a  belief. 
Does  it  do  this  to  the  belief  in  a  life-again  ?  If  so, 
how,  and  by  what  tokens  ?  If,  however,  and  as  on  all 
sides  it  seems  to  be  confessed,  knowledge  neither  for- 
bids nor  discountenances  this  belief,  where  is  the  justi- 
fication for  tearing  it  out  of  the  hearts  of  those  who 
cherish  it  ?  We  ought,  of  course,  to  be  honest.  If 
we  lack  belief  in  this  life-again  we  may  not  say  we 
have  it.  Perhaps  we  may  not  even  imply  that  we  have 
it.  If  such  conduct  is  calculated  to  shake  the  confidence 
of  those  who  believe,  as  no  doubt  it  is  in  greater  or  less 
degree,  then  our  justification  is  found  in  our  duty  to 
be  honest.  We  are,  however,  seldom  really  called  upon 
to  report  the  mere  state  of  our  belief.  Unless  we  are 
so  called  upon  no  mere  plea  of  honesty  will  avail  to 
justify  us  for  marring  the  faith  of  those  who  do  believe. 
Because  we  are  honest  shall  there  therefore  be  no  more 
rest  and  comfort?  Usually,  when  the  belief  in  a  life- 
again  needs  to  be  spoken  of,  we  may  tell  the  truth  in 
honesty,  and  when  we  tell  the  truth  let  us  tell  the 
whole  truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  which  is  that, 
although  we  personally  may  be  weak  in  the  faith  or 
wholly  lacking  in  it,  the  same  is  neither  forbidden  nor 
discountenanced  by  knowledge.  We  may  say  we  do 
not  know  and  therefore  it  may  be,  notwithstanding  our 
disbelief  or  misgivings.  If  we  be  in  truth  honest  and 
sincere,  that  honesty  and  sincerity  cannot  possibly 
suffer  any  prejudice  by  so  ordering  our  words. 

But  I  think  we  may  do  vastly  better  than  this. 
The  belief  in  a  life-again  is  warranted  by  the  same 
reason  that  I  gave  for  the  belief  in  God.  It  fosters 
soul-life  and  soul-growth.  It  brings  no  prejudice  what- 
ever to  knowledge  while  it  gives  scope  to  all  the  other 
salutary  functions  of  the  soul.  It  its  atmosphere  love, 
hope,  and  aspiration  expand  and  thrive.  It  assuages 
the  griefs  and  disappointments  of  life,  and,  under 
knowledge  it  need  not  cast  any  shadow  of  dread  or  fear. 
The  exigences  of  ecclesiasticism  have  led  it  to  make 
up  a  prospectus  of  the  life-again  that  of  necessity 
makes  of  death  the  King  of  Terrors.  In  so  doing  it  has 
indicted  itself  of  the  most  heinous  crime  against  hu- 
manity that  can  be  committed.  But  the  hideous  night- 
mare of  this  imposture  is  fast  passing  away,  never  more 
to  return.  We  are  now  free  to  formulate  our  life- 
again  according  to  nature  and  knowledge,  and  so  to 
be  as  believable  as  possible.  What  though  such  be- 
liefs be  but  dreams  ?  Is  it  not  well  with  us  when  we 
dream  beautiful  dreams  ?     Who  ordained  it,  and  by 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4155 


what  warrant,  that  truth  must  be  nothing  but  matter 
of  fact  ? 

Again,  what  is  it  that  is  good?  Reckon  it  how  you 
will,  in  the  last  analysis  the  only  good  thing  must  be 
seen  to  be  life.  All  other  good  things  are  good  only 
in  virtue  of  their  relation  to  life.  So  far  as  living 
beings  are  concerned  the  final  cause  of  the  All  is  life. 
Not  mere  existence,  but  life,  fulness  of  life. 

*'  Whatever  crazy  sorrow  saith, 
No  life  that  breathes  with  human  breath 
Has  ever  truly  longed  for  death. 

"  'Tis  life  of  which  our  nerves  are  scant, 
oh,  life,  not  death  for  which  we  pant, 
More  life,  and  fuller  that  we  want." 

Physical  life.  Mental  life.  Moral  life.  Length 
of  life.  Breadth  of  life.  Depth  of  life.  In  short, 
manifoldness  and  amplitude  of  life,  this  and  these  sum 
up  all  that  is  good  for  us,  and  the  privation  thereof  is 
the  only  evil. 

If  there  comes  to  our  souls  the  feeling  that  death 
need  not  finally  part  us  from  our  lives,  our  loves,  our 
hopes,  and  our  aspirations ;  if  such  a  feeling  abides 
with  others,  shall  we,  because  we  are  ignorant,  be- 
cause merely  we  do  not  know,  shall  we  order  ourselves 
and  others  not  to  guess,  not  to  believe  ? 

Voltaire  used  to  say,  that  if  God  did  not  exist  it 
would  be  well  for  man  to  invent  him.  So  it  may  well 
be  said  that  whether  or  not  we  shall  live  again,  it  is 
well,  very,  very  well,  for  man  to  believe  that  such  is 
the  case.  Let  us  live  all  we  can.  Knowledge  is  of  not 
the  slightest  consequence  but  that  it  fosters  life.  When 
knowledge  depresses  life  it  is  a  bane  to  be  rejected 
like  any  other  evil. 

Because  we  do  not  know  the  contrary  let  us  believe 
in  God,  and  if  we  possibly  can,  let  us  believe  and 
make  others  believe,  that  we  shall  live  again  after 
death. 

And  let  us  not  put  knowledge  to  foreign  uses,  but 
while  honoring  it  for  its  service  to  life  let  us  use  it  as 
a  citadel  and  not  as  a  prison  for  the  soul. 


IMMORTALITY  A  SCIENTIFIC  TRUTH. 

In  The  Agnostic  Journal  (Vol.  XXXIV,  No.  26) 
Dr.  Robert  Lewins  criticises  the  attitude  of  The  Open 
Court  on  the  question  of  Theism  and  Immortality  as 
follows  : 

"  In  a  late  number  of  the  above  excellent  and  widely  circu- 
lating serial'  is  a  most  genial  and  generous  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  the  late  General  Trumbull,  a  constant  contributor  to  its  pages, 
and  who,  by  all  accounts,  seems  to  have  been  a  grand  fellow  both 
with  pen  and  sword.  But,  sincere  as  is  my  respect  for  its  editor, 
whose  cultured  and  genuine  Freethought  is  as  unexceptionable  as 
it  is  rare,  I  desire  in  this  letter  to  indicate  a  flaw  in  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  argument  for  the  resurrection  of  the  body  for  which 
Christianity  is  also  responsible,  which,  in  the  present  fin  de  siec/e 
epoch,  vitiates  its  conclusion  by  a  reactionary  principle  character- 

t  Meaning  The  Open  Court. 


istic  of  the  eighteenth  century.  My  arraignment  applies  to  the 
claim  made,  not  so  much  by  the  editor  as  by  his  contributors,  to 
immortality  for  their  dead  hero,  and,  indeed,  also  for  the  resur- 
rection of  his  body — a  claim  not  more  ghastly  and  grotesque  than 
it  is  demonstrably  absurd.  For,  if  this  world  is  only  relative  and 
phenomenal  or  phantasmal,  how  can  it  be  possible  to  'shake 
hands  '  ( !)  with  General  Trumbull,  or  any  other  man,  in  any  other 
world  but  the  present  one  ?  The  assumption  is  utterly  untenable, 
though  held  by  Kant,  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  and  even,  though  more 
obscurely,  by  Frederick  the  Great  and  David  Hume,  whose  in- 
fluence on  the  literature,  history,  and  politics  of  their  age  was  so 
conspicuous.  Spite  of  his  vast  culture,  and  probably  as  its  con- 
sequence, a  remnant  of  chromatic  metaphysics  still  seems  to  cling 
to  Dr.  Cams — from  which,  more  or  less,  barrier  to  achromatic 
reality,  after  much  experience  of  Teuton  thought,  I  never  yet 
knew  a  German  to  be  completely  free.  English  thought,  when 
genuine  and  straightforward,  is  much  more  exempt  from  such 
misleading  substitutes.  It  seems  thus  perfectly  clear  and  above 
board  that,  if  the  hylic  hypothesis — to  say  nothing,  on  this  occa- 
sion, of  the  hylo-ideal  synthesis— be  factual,  all  forms  of  Spiritual- 
ism or  Animism,  including  Theism,  Demonism,  and  posthumous 
human  existence,  must  be  relegated  to  the  sphere,  already  so  ex- 
tensive, of  our  racial  credulity  and  superstition.  Theism,  in  any 
shape,  is  now  what  serpent-worship— at  one  time  a  much  more 
universal  creed  than  any  extant  or  extinct  faith,  including  that  of 
Christendom— is  represented  to  be  in  the  Hexateuch— viz..  Fiend- 
ism  or  A'i7/J,)-demonism." 

Dr.  Lewins  should  have  been  more  charitable  in 
the  interpretation  of  the  words  of  the  various  speakers. 
Mr.  Schilling  said  : 

"And  now,  shall  we  never  meet  again  ?     I  think  we  shall." 

He  then  added  the  poetical  expression  of  the  de- 
parted one's  "extending  a  welcome  hand  on  the  op- 
posite bank,"  and  Colonel  Sexton  went  so  far  as  to 
describe  how  St.  Peter  calls  out  the  guards  to  salute 
the  General. 

Dr.  Lewins's  remarks  may  well  be  compared  with 
the  comments  of  Mr.  Francis  C.  Russell  in  his  article 
"  Prison  or  Citadel — Which  ?  "  (page  4153  of  the  pres- 
ent number)  on  Mr.  Clarence  S.Darrow's  words,  which 
affected  his  various  listeners  in  various  ways.  While 
some  were  delighted  with  Mr.  Darrow's  fine  sentiment 
of  sympathy  and  love  for  his  deceased  friend,  others 
found  his  agnostic  mode  of  comfort  depressing  and 
not  elevating. 

Mr.  Darrow  said  of  General  Trumbull,  picturing 
him  not  as  he  was  but  as  he  thought  he  might  have 
been  :  ' 

' '  He  did  not  know  and  would  not  guess.  ...  As  to  the  great 
questions  of  a  deity  and  immortal  life,  he  meekly  and  reverently 
bowed  his  bead  in  the  presence  of  this  infinite  mystery  and  ad- 
mitted that  the  wisdom  of  the  sages  was  no  more  than  the  foolish- 
ness of  babes  ;  to  these  old  questions  he  could  answer  neither  )es 
nor  no,  but  confessing  his  ignorance  of  the  great  problem  of  the 
ages,  he  refused  to  guess  where  he  could  not  know." 

The  religion  of  The  Open  Court  is  in  sympathy  with 
Mr.  Russell's  sentiment  of  fostering  life  and  the  ful- 
ness of  life  ;  it  is  in  sympathy  also  with  Mr.  Schilling's 

1  General  Trumbull  was  no  agnostic.  We  have  only  to  remind  our  readers 
of  his  expression  "  agnostics  and  other  sticks." 


4156 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


longing  for  the  immortality  of  our  dear  ones,  and  at 
the  same  time  with  the  demands  of  Dr.  Lewins  of  re- 
jecting all  untenable  assumptions.  Yet  we  reject  the 
basis  upon  which  Mr.  Russell  grounds  his  faith  in  im- 
mortality ;  we  are  not  satisfied  with  Mr.  Darrow's  sur- 
render of  the  problem  as  either  unsolved  or  unsolv- 
able,  and  we  cannot  accept  Dr.  Lewins's  conclusion 
of  the  annihilation  of  the  soul  in  death.  We  claim 
that  the  religious  problem  which  depends  upon  the 
recognition  of  the  true  nature  of  man's  soul  has  been 
solved  in  the  religion  of  science  and  that  from  this 
standpoint  we  can  afford  to  be  just  toward  all  the  vari- 
ous positions  taken  by  honest  searchers  for  truth.  We 
remain  in  close  contact  with  the  old  orthodoxy  of  tra- 
ditional dogmatism  not  less  than  the  radical  principles 
of  the  boldest  freethought,  with  the  scientist's  diffi- 
dence in  creeds  as  also  with  the  pious  assurance  of 
the  faithful.  There  is  always  some  point  in  which 
their  aspirations  are  turned  in  the  right  direction,  and 
in  a  certain  sense  we  agree  with  all  of  them.  Let  us 
only  be  charitable  and  try  to  understand  one  another 
better  ;  and  we  shall  agree  better  than  could  be  an- 
ticipated. 

Mr.  Russell  says  : 

"  Is  it  not  well  with  us  when  we  dream  beautiful  dreams  ?  .  . . 

"Voltaire  used  to  say,  that  if  God  did  not  exist  it  would  be 
well  for  man  to  invent  him.  .  .  . 

"  Because  we  do  not  know  the  contrary  let  us  believe  in  God, 
and,  if  we  possibly  can,  let  us  believe  and  make  others  believe, 
that  we  shall  live  again  after  death." 

No,  it  is  not  well  for  us  when  we  dream  beautiful 
dreams.  Let  us  not  dream,  but  let  us  search  for  the 
truth.  And  let  us  trust  in  truth.  Let  us  cherish  the 
confidence  that  the  truth  is  best,  that  it  is  most  beau- 
tiful, and  that  life  is  nothing  unless  its  fulness  be  truth. 
When  a  dream  that  has  no  truth  in  it  seems  to  us  more 
beautiful,  more  comforting,  more  life-sustaining  than 
the  truth,  let  us  revise  both  our  notions  of  beauty, 
comfort,  and  life,  and  our  conception  of  the  truth.  If 
our  faith  in  God  and  immortality  must  be  grounded 
upon  the  fact  that  we  do  not  know  the  contrary,  it  is 
built  upon  sand. 

However,  although  we  disagree  in  this  point  of 
finding  a  negative  argument  in  our  not-knowing,  we 
gladly  indorse  Mr.  Russell's  proposition  to  make  a 
citadel  of  knowledge,  and  not  a  prison.  Indeed,  knowl- 
edge can  never  be  a  prison.  Knowledge  is  power,  and 
if  anything  can,  knowledge  must  give  us  fulness  of  life. 

Agnosticism  makes  an  attempt  to  use  ignorance  as 
a  citadel,  but  ignorance  is,  and  will  always  remain,  a 
prison.  The  agnostic's  hope  is  so  intrenched  in  pusil- 
lanimity that  all  comfort  is  gone.  If  that  were  the 
final  word  of  science  and  philosophy,  we  should  be 
shut  up  in  eternal  darkness,  and  our  condition  would 
be  pitiable  indeed.     There  would  be  no  use  of  aspir- 


ing onward,  of  prospering,  of  learning,  and  of  advanc- 
ing to  a  higher  plane,  for  the  existence  of  light  is  de- 
nied, scientific  insight  into  the  central  problem  of  life 
would  have  to  be  abandoned,  and  eternal  ignorance 
would  be  our  fate. 

Dr.  Lewins  arraigns  me,  although  he  does  it  in  a 
kind  and  sympathetic  spirit,  for  "a  remnant  of  chro- 
matic metaphysics,"  because,  taking  my  stand  upon 
the  revelation  of  the  facts  of  nature  and  accepting 
nothing  as  truth  except  that  which  can  be  scientifi- 
cally demonstrated,  I  speak  of  the  continued  life  of  our 
dead  heroes  and  maintain  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

Some  time  ago  the  following  two  questions  were 
put  to  me  : 

"  Do  you  believe  in  the  survival  of  man  as  a  distinct  individu- 
ality after  bodily  dissolution  ? 

"Do  you  believe  that  man  after  such  bodily  dissolution,  can, 
as  a  distinct,  conscious,  intelligent  being  communicate  with  those 
who  still  live  in  the  flesh  ?  " 

My  reply  was  this  : 

"  In  answer  to  the  first  question  I  should  say  :  I  understand  by 
individuality  not  only  man's  soul,  viz. ,  his  sensations,  thoughts,  and 
ideals,  but  his  entire  existence,  including  his  bones,  muscles,  sin- 
ews, and  all  the  material  particles  of  which  at  a  given  time  his 
body  consists.  Accordingly,  I  believe  in  the  final  dissolution  of 
his  individuality,  and  count  it  no  loss  ;  but  I  believe  at  the  same 
time  in  the  survival  of  the  most  essential  part  of  man's  individu- 
ality, I  believe  in  the  survival  of  man's  soul. 

"To  the  second  question  I  should  answer:  Not  only  do  the  souls 
of  our  dead  continue  to  communicate  with  those  who  still  live  in 
the  flesh,  but  they  are  present  in  their  minds,  and  they  will  form 
parts  of  the  souls  of  the  generations  to  come.  The  relation  be- 
tween the  dead  and  the  living  is  too  intimate  to  be  called  a  com- 
munication. The  souls  of  the  dead  form  an  ever-living  presence 
in  the  souls  of  the  living.  Progress  and  evolution  to  higher  stages 
is  only  possible  because  the  souls  of  former  generations  continue 
to  live  If  the  souls  of  our  ancestors  were  not  with  us  and  in  us, 
what  a  wretched,  and,  indeed,  merely  amoeboid  existence  would  we 
lead." 

Dr.  Lewins  can  be  assured  there  is  notan  iota  of  met- 
aphysicism  or  animism  left  in  this  view  of  immortal- 
ity. But  perhaps  he  will  say  that  this  is  no  immortality; 
that  this  is  a  proposition  which  teaches  the  final  annihi- 
lation of  man's  personality  in  death?  If  he  does,  he  is 
blind  to  facts  and  fails  to  recognise  the  importance  of 
that  which  survives  of  us,  which  is  not  a  mere  trace 
of  it,  but  the  essence  of  our  being,  our  very  soul,  the 
substance  and  worth  of  our  personality. 

In  one  sense,  transiency  is  the  order  of  the  uni- 
verse, in  another  sense,  permanency.  The  present 
changes  into  the  past,  never  to  be  the  present  again ; 
it  passes  away.  Every  happening  in  the  physical 
world  takes  place  never  to  happen  again  in  exactly 
the  same  way  and  under  the  very  same  circumstances. 
But  being  embodied  in  the  past,  it  remains  an  actual 
part  of  the  constitution  of  the  world.  It  has  become 
a  factor  for  all  the  future,  and  will  be  a  determinant 
of  any  possible  present  to  come.     In  the  same  way 


I 


THE     OPEN     OOURX. 


4157 


every  act  of  ours  passes  away,  yet  it  is  immortalised  : 
it  remains  an  indelible  reality  of  our  life,  influencing 
and  shaping  our  fate.  Every  thought  of  ours  once 
thought  and  buried  in  the  past  of  former  years  is,  in  a 
certain  sense,  gone  forever,  but  in  another  sense,  it 
remains  an  everpresent  reality,  and  our  soul  is  a  grand 
structure  consisting  of  the  immortalised  precipitate  of 
the  sentiments,  ideas,  and  acts  done  in  past  years, 
dating  back  to  the  beginning  of  soul-life  upon  earth. 

What  is  true  of  all  events  in  the  physical  world 
and  of  the  facts  of  our  psychical  existence,  is  true  also 
of  whole  human  lives.  Nothing  is  lost  in  this  world, 
least  of  all  a  human  soul.  To  be  gathered  to  our 
fathers  does  not  mean  to  be  buried  in  the  ground,  but 
to  be  embodied  as  a  living  element  into  the  evergrow- 
ing organism  of  mankind.  There  we  are  preserved  as 
a  living  presence  with  all  our  peculiarities  and  with 
the  entire  personality  of  our  being.  Death  is  a  disso- 
lution of  our  body;  it  is  the  end  of  our  career;  it  is 
the  discontinuance  of  our  activity  in  this  individuality 
of  ours.  Yet  is  it  no  annihilation  of  our  thoughts,  of 
our  soul,  of  our  spiritual  existence,  of  ourselves.  We 
continue  after  death  as  much  as  the  memory  of  a  use- 
ful knowledge  which  we  have  learned  in  the  days  of 
our  youth  remains  a  living  presence  with  us  through- 
out life. 

Thus  we  may  lament  the  premature  cutting  off  of 
a  valuable  life  by  death,  but  we  cannot  complain  about 
the  annihilation  of  a  man's  soul ;  for  it  continues,  it  is 
here  with  us  and  in  us.  We  might  as  well  complain 
of  the  transiency  of  our  school-years,  forgetful  of  the 
fact  that  the  knowledge  we  have  acquired  is  perma- 
nent. 

The  past  lives  on  in  the  present  and  the  dead  con- 
tinue in  the  living.  Every  soul  is  and  remains  for  ever 
a  citizen  of  that  invisible  empire  of  spiritual  existence 
which  is  always  coming,  always  near  at  hand,  and  al- 
ways developing  and  growing.  This  empire  of  spiritual 
life  is  not  a  phantom  but  an  actuality.  If  anything  is 
real,  //  is  real.  It  is  the  kingdom  of  God  of  which 
Jesus  said  that  it  is  within  us. 

Now,  in  the  face  of  facts  and  in  the  face  of  the  im- 
portant part  which  the  continuance  of  the  soul  plays 
in  our  life,  shall  we  at  the  funeral  of  our  dead  step 
forward  and  preach  the  annihilation  of  their  existence? 
Would  Dr.  Lewins  advise  us  to  say  at  the  open  grave 
of  a  friend  that  the  belief  in  immortality  is  a  remnant 
of  metaphysics  and  animism  to  be  relegated  to  the 
sphere  of  superstition  ?  No  !  Spiritual  facts  are  not 
less  real  than  rocks  and  trees.  Immortality  is  a  truth 
as  much  as  the  existence  of  man's  soul  ;  and  a  denial 
of  it  will  warp  our  entire  world-conception. 

As  it  is  difficult  for  the  uneducated  mass  of  man- 
kind to  recognise  the  reality  of  the  truth  of  immortality 
and  to  appreciate  its  paramount  importance,  the  various 


religions  have  taught  it  in  allegories  which  in  Chris- 
tianity have  been  crystallised  into  the  dogma  of  resur- 
rection. The  doctrine  of  resurrection  is  a  parable,  and 
the  parable  contains  allegorical  expressions  which  are 
crude  and  inappropriate  ;  but  the  idea  contained  in  it 
is  a  truth.  Science  rejects  the  assumption  of  a  ghost- 
soul  and  also  of  a  ghost-immortality,  but  science  estab- 
lishes at  the  same  time  the  reality  of  the  continuance 
of  man's  soul  after  death. 

The  immortality  of  the  soul  as  taught  by  the  reli- 
gion of  science  is  as  complete  and  full  as  any  faithful 
Christian  can  reasonably  expect.  It  is  not  less  than 
the  ghost-immortality  of  an  impossible  dualism  ;  it  is 
not  ghastly,  not  grotesque,  not  absurd,  but  noble,  ele- 
vating, and  comforting. 

The  immortality  of  the  soul,  such  as  the  religion 
of  science  proposes,  is  right  here  in  this  actual  world 
of  ours,  not  in  a  celestial  Utopia  ;  it  is  real  and  not  il- 
lusory ;  it  is  a  fact  and  not  a  dream  ;  it  is  an  undeni- 
able truth  and  not,  as  Voltaire,  Frederick  the  Great 
and  his  friends  thought,  a  grand /f?/^'  eire.  p.  c. 

CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA. 

BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 
THE  PARABLES  OF  THE  SISTERS. 

Now  IN  those  days  many  came  unto  Jesus  asking 
of  him  what  they  should  do  to  be  saved  ; 

And  while  they  were  gathered  together  in  one  place 
a  great  multitude,  the  disciples  also  being  among  them, 
Jesus  spake  this  parable  unto  them  : 

Behold  there  was  a  certain  rich  man  which  had  two 
daughters,  and  one  was  named  Martha,  and  one  was 
named  Mary. 

The  same  was  a  just  man  and  one  who  feared  God 
and  kept  his  commandments  ; 

And  he  was  righteous  in  all  his  ways  unto  his  neigh- 
bor, and  unto  the  stranger  that  was  within  his  gates, 
and  unto  them  of  his  own  household. 

Now  Martha  said  in  her  heart.  My  father  dealeth 
not  aright  with  me,  for  he  suffereth  me  not  to  go  and 
come  as  I  will. 

And  she  asked  of  her  father  that  he  would  suffer 
her  to  go  into  the  city  yet  once  again. 

And  her  father  answering,  saith  unto  her.  Nay,  not 
so,  my  daughter,  tarry  at  home,  for  afore  time  when 
thou  wentest  out  saying,  I  will  go  to  one  place,  behold 
thou  didst  go  to  seven  places  ; 

And  when  thou  didst  say  unto  me,  I  will  return  at 
the  fourth  hour,  behold  thou  didst  not  return  until  the 
ninth  hour. 

And  Martha  was  wroth,  and  saith  unto  her  father. 
Who  made  thee  to  be  lord  over  me  ?  Am  I  not  of  full 
age? 

Then  saith  the  father  unto  her,  Daughter,  thy  heart 
is  not  right  in  the  sight  of  God. 


4158 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


But  Martha  reviled  her  father,  and  saith  unto  him, 
I  know  then  that  thou  art  an  hard  man. 

And  while  she  was  yet  speaking  Mary  came  unto 
her  father,  saying.  Father,  suffer  me,  I  pray  thee,  to 
go  into  the  city  for  a  brief  space  that  I  make  merry  in 
the  house  of  my  friend. 

And  her  father  saith  unto  her.  Until  what  hour? 

And  Mary  answered,  Until  the  fourth  hour. 

Then  saith  her  father.  Go,  my  daughter,  and  make 
merry  with  thy  friend.  But  and  if  thou  desirest  to  go 
to  yet  another  house,  I  bid  thee  go. 

And  I  bid  thee  also  when  the  fourth  hour  cometh, 
and  thou  desirest  to  tarry  longer,  that  thou  mayest 
tarry  longer  even  until  the  ninth  hour. 

Then  Martha  lifted  up  her  voice  and  reviled  her 
sister,  and  saith  unto  her.  Thou  hypocrite,  thou  sayest 
these  things  for  fear  of  thy  father,  or  for  a  reward  of 
thine  hypocrisy. 

And  unto  her  father  she  saith,  Am  I  not  the  elder? 
Why  provokest  thou  me  to  wrath  ? 

Then  saith  her  father  unto  her,  Martha,  why  re- 
vilest  thou  thy  sister,  calling  her  an  hypocrite? 

She  feareth  me  not,  nay,  but  rather  loveth  me,  for 
she  loveth  the  right.  And  whosoever  loveth  me  loveth 
the  right,  and  doeth  right. 

A  house  divided  against  itself  is  brought  to  desola- 
tion ;  but  love  endureth  all  things ;  submitteth  to  all 
things  ;  obeyeth  all  things  ;  and  is  made  free  of  all 
things. 

And  this  is  the  freedom  with  which  I  have  made 
thy  sister  free,  that  inasmuch  as  she  hath  trusted  me, 
do  I  trust  her. 

IN  MEMORIAM. 
TO  GEN.  M.  M.  TRUMBULL. 


of  two  half-numbers,  namely,  Dr.  Alfred  Binet's  treatise  on  Double 
Consciousness  (93  pages),  and  Dr.  Paul  Carus's  essay  on  The  Na- 
ture of  the  Slate  (indexed,  56  pages),  which  appeared  some  time 
ago  in  the  columns  of  The  Open  Court.  Of  The  Nature  of  the  Stale 
Mr.  C.  C.  Bonney,  the  originator  of  the  recent  World's  Parliament 
of  Religions,  writes : 

"  I  greatly  admire  the  clearness  and  strength  of  your  style, 
"and  strongly  wish  that  the  views  you  have  so  well  expressed 
' '  could  be  printed  in  the  public  press  from  one  end  of  our  country 
"  to  the  other.  I  think  there  is  no  other  subject  on  which  clear 
"thinking  is  more  urgently  needed  than  the  Nature  and  Authority 
"of  the  Government." 

"The  Religion  of  Science  Library,"  now  contains  Dr.  Paul 
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Science  of  Thought  and  Three  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language, 
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The  Freethinkers'  Magazine,  editor,  Mr.  H.  L.  Green,  formerly 
of  Buffalo,  has  been  transferred  to  Chicago,  150  Illinois  street, 
where  the  readers  and  contributors  of  this  enterprising  magazine 
may  now  address  their  communications.  The  contents  of  the  May 
and  June  number  of  The  Freethinkers'  Magazine  are  as  follows  : 
"John  R.  Charlesworth,"  frontispiece;  "From  Protoplasm  to 
Man";  "The  Glories  of  War,"  by  Cyrus  Coolridge  :  "Duty  of 
the  Community  Toward  the  Unemployed,"  by  Daniel  K.  Tenney  ; 
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THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


BY  VOLTAIRINE  DE  CLEYRE. 

Back  to  thy  breast,  O  Mother,  turns  thy  child. 

He  whom  thou  garmentedst  in  steel  of  truth. 

And  sent  forth,  strong  in  the  glad  heart  of  youth, 

To  sing  the  wakening  song  in  ears  beguiled 

By  tyrants'  promises  and  flatterers'  smiles  ; 

These  searched  his  eyes,  and  knew  nor  threats  nor  wiles 

Might  shake  the  steady  stars  within  their  blue. 

Nor  win  one  truckling  word  from  off  those  lips, — 

No — not  for  gold,  nor  praise,  nor  aught  men  do 

To  dash  the  Sun  of  Honor  with  eclipse, 

O  Mother  Liberty,  those  eyes  are  dark. 

And  the  brave  lips  are  white  and  cold  and  dumb  ; 

But  fair  in  other  souls,  thro'  time  to  come, 

Fanned  by  thy  breath  glows  the  Immortal  Spark. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  360. 

RECOLLECTIONS  OF  VICTOR  SCHCELCHER.  Theo- 
dore Stanton 4151 

PRISON  OR  CITADEL— WHICH  ?  Francis  C.  Russell.  4153 
IMMORTALITY  A  SCIENTIFIC  TRUTH.  Editor...  4155 
CHAPTERS    FROM   THE   NEW    APOCRYPHA.      The 

Parables  of  the  Sisters.     Hudor  Genone 4157 

POETRY. 

In  Memoriam.     Voltairine  De  Cleyre 4158 

BOOK  NOTICES , 4158 


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THE  FAILURE  OF  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT. 

BY  PROF.   E.   D.   COPE. 

It  is  generally  understood  that  government  has 
been  established  for  the  purpose  of  securing  safety 
to  life  and  property,  and  the  protection  of  mankind 
from  interruption  and  loss  while  in  the  pursuit  of  their 
avocations.  During  the  recent  labor  strikes  there 
has  been  a  lamentable  failure  on  the  part  of  numerous 
officials  of  the  city  and  State  governments  where  these 
strikes  have  occurred,  to  secure  these  necessary  bene- 
fits for  which  government  exists.  This  has  resulted 
from  incompetency  on  the  part  of  these  officials,  and 
in  some  instances  from  sympathy  with  the  criminal 
acts  of  the  strikers.  Under  the  head  of  incompetency 
I  include  that  demagoguery  which  fears  to  execute  the 
law,  when  law-breakers  are  sufficiently  numerous  to 
constitute  an  important  body  of  voters. 

Governor  Waite  of  Colorado  has  displayed  the 
most  signal  failure  to  protect  the  lives  and  property  of 
his  constituents.  It  never  before  occurred  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  country  that  a  Governor  of  a  State  ordered 
out  the  militia  to  prevent  a  sheriff  and  his  deputies 
from  arresting  law-breakers  in  open  insurrection.  Now 
that  the  people  of  Colorado  have  had  a  taste  of  what 
anarchism  in  office  means,  it  is  scarcely  probable  that 
such  a  usurpation  can  happen  again.  It  is  a  fit  termi- 
nation of  such  a  farce  that  the  adjutant-general  of  the 
militia  of  the  State  was  tarred  and  feathered  !  The 
general  government  stepped  in  and  arrested  without 
form  of  local  warrant  the  people  whom  Governor 
Waite  was  protecting.  The  general  government  was 
the  only  resource  of  the  people  of  Colorado,  since  their 
local  government  had  completely  failed. 

Governor  Pattison  of  Pennsylvania  has  not  shown 
the  anarchistic  tendencies  of  Waite,  but  an  imbecility, 
which  may  be  interpreted  as  demagoguery  or  timidity. 
For  several  months  riots  of  a  most  destructive  charac- 
ter have  taken  place  in  the  coke-burning  and  coal- 
mining regions  of  the  interior  of  the  State,  with  little 
hindrance.  Thousands  of  dollars  worth  of  property 
have  been  burned  and  many  lives  sacrificed  by  strikers. 
Many  men  who  have  been  willing  to  work  have  been 
brutally  abused  and  rendered  incapable  of  supporting 
their  families  for  longer  or  shorter  periods.  The  dep- 
uty sheriffs,  in  spite  of  much  courage  and  hard  work. 


have  been  unable  to  suppress,  these  destructive  pro- 
ceedings, although  they  have  done  good  service  on 
several  occasions.  Several  of  them  have  lost  their 
lives.  The  only  action  that  the  Governor  took  for 
several  weeks  was  to  consult  with  somebody  as  to  the 
possibility  of  settling  the  difficulty  by  arbitration.  But 
the  Governor  well  knew  two  things  :  first,  that  meas- 
ures were  not  needed  to  terminate  strikes,  which  are 
perfectly  lawful  proceedings  ;  and,  second,  that  meas- 
ures were  needed  to  protect  life  and  property  in  cer- 
tain parts  of  the  State.  It  is  not  good  government  to 
propose  to  arbitrate  with  the  murderer  who  has  just 
killed  your  friend  and  who  has  just  burned  your  house. 
After  the  riots  had  nearly  spent  themselves,  the  Gov- 
ernor, stimulated  by  the  press,  sent  a  few  troops  to 
another  region,  where  the  situation  was  not  worse  than 
it  had  been  elsewhere  for  several  weeks.  It  looks  as 
though  hunger  had  done  more  to  suppress  murder  and 
arson  in  Western  Pennsylvania  than  any  other  agency. 
But  the  lost  lives  and  property  cannot  be  restored. 
Justice  requires  that  payment  for  these  losses  shall  be 
made,  but  who  shall  be  the  payer?  With  such  a  man 
as  Pattison  in  the  presidential  chair,  one  would  tremble 
for  the  country. 

In  the  same  spirit  of  fear  of  something.  Mayor 
Hopkins  of  Chicago,  instead  of  promptly  suppressing 
incendiarism,  malicious  mischief,  and  assaults  on  work- 
ingmen,  wasted  his  time  in  talking  about  arbitration. 
Such  a  course  of  conduct  shows  either  fundamental 
ignorance  of  the  uses  of  government,  or  something 
worse.  It  makes  no  difference  what  the  grounds  of 
the  strike,  whether  just  or  unjust ;  the  question  be- 
fore the  Mayor  was  a  totally  different  one.  The  prac- 
tical result  was  that  the  destruction  went  on  unhin- 
dered, until,  under  the  President's  proclamation,  the 
troops  of  the  general  government  appeared  on  the 
scene.  The  tardy  action  of  Governor  Altgeld  hardly 
counted  for  much  in  the  result,  except  to  show  that 
local  government  in  Chicago  and  in  Illinois  was  as  great 
a  failure  as  in  Colorado  and  in  Pennsylvania.  The 
destruction  has  occurred,  lives  have  been  lost,  many 
men  have  been  brutally  assaulted,  and  immense  loss 
has  accrued  to  both  the  laboring  and  capitalistic 
classes.  Of  course,  the  capitalistic  class  can  stand  it 
better  than  the  laborers.      Now,  Mayor  Hopkins  was 


4i6o 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


the  candidate  of  the  "people,"  which  probably  in- 
cludes many  of  the  workingmen  of  Chicago.  Perhaps 
in  future  they  will  look  a  little  more  carefully  into  the 
qualifications  of  the  man  in  whose  hands  they  place 
the  protection  of  their  lives  and  properties  ! 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  California?  For  a  week 
the  entire  State  was  in  control  of  a  mob.  Not  a  wheel 
turned  on  a  railroad.  The  capital  of  the  State  was  oc- 
cupied by  an  armed  insurrection.  The  Governor 
(Markham)  humbly  asked  permission  of  the  strikers  to 
be  permitted  to  ride  on  a  train  to  San  Francisco  from 
his  summer  retreat.  He  was  promptly  refused.  So 
he  staid  where  he  was,  ignoring  the  water  communica- 
tion at  his  disposal.  The  conditions  being  too  bad  to 
be  overlooked,  he  dispatched  a  few  companies  of  mili- 
tia to  Sacramento.  On  being  ordered  to  expel  the  riot- 
ers from  the  railroad  property,  one  company  promptly 
threw  down  its  arms.  The  pretensions  of  the  mob 
were  up  to  the  highest  standard  of  old  time  California 
inflation.  Having  possessed  themselves  of  the  State  ; 
they  would  drive  off  the  regular  troops  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  State  government  was  a  conspicuous  fail- 
ure ;  Governor  and  militia  ;  mayor,  sheriff,  and  depu- 
ties, were  alike  overawed.  But  mark  the  result.  Before 
the  United  States  regulars  appeared  at  Sacramento,  the 
boastful  rioters  had  betaken  themselves  to  safe  retreats, 
and  the  rebellion  was  over.  Their  only  act  of  resist- 
ance was  a  dastardly  piece  of  cowardice  ;  the  tampering 
with  a  trestle,  so  that  a  train  was  wrecked,  and  two 
trainmen  and  three  soldiers  were  killed.  In  California 
the  failure  of  the  local  authorities  was  more  general 
than  elsewhere  ;  while  the  mischief  done  by  the  rioters 
was  not  equal  to  their  pretensions.  Here  as  elsewhere 
the  failure  of  the  local  government  rendered  the  inter- 
vention of  the  national  government  necessary. 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  imbecility  displayed  by 
the  local  authorities  already  referred  to,  stands  the  con- 
duct of  Governor  Brown  of  Maryland,  and  Governor 
Matthews  of  Indiana.  Both  these  executives  had  suf- 
ficient force  at  the  scenes  of  rioting  so  promptly,  that 
little  or  no  damage  was  done  in  Maryland,  and  the 
riots  at  Hammond,  Indiana,  were  promptly  suppressed. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  no  serious  riots  will  occur  in 
Detroit  during  the  term  of  Mayor  Pingree,  as  he  ap- 
pears to  be  afflicted  with  the  Hopkinsian  rickets.  His 
desire  to  have  the  mayors  of  the  chief  cities  of  the  coun- 
try to  join  in  a  request  to  the  Pullman  company  to  ar- 
bitrate, shows  that,  should  Detroit  be  fired  by  rioters, 
he  may  play  the  arbitration  fiddle  while  the  city  burns  ! 

The  sum  of  the  matter  is  that  in  four  States  of  the 
Union,  three  of  them  of  the  most  wealthy,  life  and 
property  have  not  been  safe  at  numerous  points  and 
over  a  considerable  period  of  time.  I  have  not  referred 
to  two  other  States,  West  Virginia  and  Ohio,  where 
much  destruction  took  place  during  the  miners'  strike. 


just  prior  to  the  railroad  strike.  In  both  States  the 
suppression  of  the  disorders  was  exceedingly  slow, 
and  in  one  or  two  cases  in  Ohio,  the  militl*  are  re- 
ported to  have  proved  inefficient. 

It  will  be  henceforth  a  question  with  some  capital- 
ists in  the  States  in  question,  whether  it  will  be  safe 
to  continue  business  there.  Capital  must  seek  fBgions 
where  its  enterprises  are  protected,  and  where  life  and 
property  are  safe.  In  such  States  populatioti  and 
wealth  will  increase,  while  in  those  where  such  pro- 
tection is  not  assured,  the  reverse  process  will  take 
place.  It  may  also  be  confidently  expected,  that  if  in 
future,  the  local  governments  prove  as  incompetent, 
as  they  have  done  during  the  recent  strikes,  the  na- 
tional government  will  take  their  place.  In  fact  it  is 
demonstrated  already  that  the  local  machinery  of  sher- 
iffs and  deputies  is  unfit  to  cope  with  serious  disorder. 
And  if  governors  must  wait  until  a  few  deputies  ftte 
killed  before  they  grant  them  the  support  of  the  mili- 
tia, it  will  be  difficult  to  find  men  to  serve  as  deputies. 

Something  may  yet  be  done  to  save  the  repute  Of 
municipal  and  State  government.  If  Pattison,  Altgeld, 
Waite,  and  Markham,  with  Mayor  Hopkins,  are  im- 
peached, the  future  will  be  better  assured.  The  court* 
martialing  of  the  company  that  threw  down  its  arms 
at  Sacramento  is  absolutely  necessary  to  convince  the 
world  that  California  is  not  governed  by  hoodlums. 
The  rapidity  with  which  their  opponents  disappeared 
on  the  approach  of  danger,  renders  the  position  of  this 
unfortunate  company  all  the  more  ridiculous.  But 
let  all  be  done  that  can  be,  it  still  remains  that  the 
democratic  doctrine  of  State  rights  has  received  the 
severest  blow  it  ever  experienced.  Even  the  results 
of  the  war  have  not  such  a  potent  effect  on  public  opin- 
ion as  this  failure  of  the  constituted  authorities  to  pro- 
tect the  ordinary  life  of  the  communities. 

There  have  not  been  wanting  some  humors  of  the 
situation.  According  to  E.  V.  Debs,  the  strikers,  after 
having  lost  their  wages  and  their  positions,  have  won 
"a  great  victory."  This  can  only  be  predicated  on  the 
immense  damage  they  have  inflicted  on  the  public,  in- 
cluding the  railroads.  The  proposition  to  arbitrate 
remains  as  absurd  as  ever  it  was  ;  and  the  condition 
that  the  American  Railway  Union  will  not  "  consent  to 
arbitration  "  until  the  strikers  are  reinstated,  is  one  of 
the  humors  referred  to.  This  is  like  a  previous  obser- 
vation from  the  same  source  ; — that  "the  strikers  will 
not  assist  the  military."  A  remark  which  is  distinctly 
Chicagoesque,  showing  that  E.  V.  D.  &  Co.  imagine, 
like  some  of  their  fellow  citizens,  that  they  "possess 
the  earth."  When  justice  is  done,  however,  by  the 
courts  both  local  and  national,  many  cheerful  destroy- 
ers of  other  people's  property,  will  have  found  that 
they  have  pursued  a  wrong  course.  Property  and  life 
will  be  secure  ultimately,  no  matter  what  vicissitudes 


THE    OPEN    OOURX. 


4161 


our  government  may  pass  through  in  order  to  secure 
it.  Democrats  and  RepubHcans  are  alike  agreed  on 
this  point,  and  those  who  differ  with  them  form  but  a 
small  part  of  the  population.  Laborers  may  strike  or 
use  any  other  lawful  means  of  increasing  their  wages, 
but  they  must  not  interfere  with  men  who  are  willing 
to  work  while  they  prefer  to  be  idle. 

Ultimately  it  will  be  discovered  that  the  rate  of 
wages,  is  like  the  price  of  commodities,  subject  to  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand.  This  is  a  natural  law,  and 
if  it  works  hardship,  it  only  does  so  where  too  many 
men  wish  to  perform  the  same  kind  of  labor.  The 
cure  for  this  is  to  go  into  fields  of  work  that  are  not 
already  full  ;  or  if  all  be  full,  to  migrate  to  new  pas- 
tures, of  which  the  world  is  full. 


PAINES  ESCAPE  FROM  THE  GUILLOTINE,   1794,  AND 
HIS  ESCAPE  FROM  THE  PIOUS  PILLORY,  1894. 


BY  M.  D.   CONWAY. 


I  HAVE  received  many  inquiries  concerning  the 
authenticity  of  the  story  of  Paine's  escape  from  the 
guillotine,  through  the  accident  of  his  cell-door  being 
open  and  fiat  against  the  wall  when  the  turnkey  passed 
in  the  night,  marking  the  doors  of  those  doomed  for 
the  morning,  the  chalk-mark  thus  being  brought  in- 
side. Most  of  Paine's  biographers  have  been  shy  of 
this  story,  either  because  there  is  in  it  suggestion  of 
a  mythical  derivation  from  the  destroying  angel,  or 
because  Paine's  first  narrative  of  his  escape  said  noth- 
ing of  the  chalk-mark.  Thomas  Carlyle,  for  crediting 
the  story  in  his  "  History  of  the  French  Revolution," 
has  been  sharply  attacked  by  an  English  writer,  J.  G. 
Alger,  who  has  gathered  his  articles  from  magazines 
in  America  and  England  into  two  volumes, — one 
"Englishmen  in  the  French  Revolution,"  published 
some  years  ago,  the  other  "Glimpses  of  the  French 
Revolution"  (1894).  In  the  first  of  these  entertaining 
but  uncritical  and  inaccurate  books,  Alger  challenged 
Carlyle's  statement,  but  revealed  his  ignorance  of  the 
source  of  the  story.  He  had  got  hold  of  a  legendary 
version  of  it  in  an  obituary  of  Sampson  Perry,  printed 
in  1823,  and  says  this  "is  the  sole  authority  I  have 
been  able  to  find  for  the  fable,"  etc.  This  story  is 
certainly  fabulous,  for  it  makes  out  that  Paine  and 
Perry  occupied  the  same  room  in  Luxembourg  prison, 
and  that  both  escaped  by  the  fortunately  misplaced 
mark.  "Later  in  the  day,"  adds  the  Perry  obituary, 
"the  keeper  came  round  again,  was  astonished  to  find 
Paine  and  Perry  there,  but  before  he  could  take  any 
steps  he  was  shot  by  an  infuriated  mob,  who  had 
burst  open  the  prison  and  liberated  the  captives  just 
as  Robespierre  was  being  led  to  the  scaffold."  Alger 
leaped  to  the  conclusion  that  this  fable  was  told  by 
Perry,  who  was  not  lodged  with  Paine,  and  concluded 
that  he  had  a  clear  case  against  Carlyle  and  the  story. 


Unfortunately,  however,  he  had  not  read  Paine,  who 
told  the  story  twenty-one  years  before  the  Perry  obit- 
uary. This  Alger  discovered  before  writing  his  new 
volume.  He  now  attacks  Paine's  version  also,  but 
makes  misquotations  and  comes  to  grief  over  the  whole 
thing.  The  only  point  of  importance  made  is  the  fact 
that  in  1795  Paine  expressed  his  belief  that  it  was 
owing  to  a  violent  fever,  in  which  he  lay  insensible, 
that  he  was  not  carried  out  to  execution,  and  in  1802 
explained  his  escape  by  the  chalk-mark  story.  There 
is,  however,  no  inconsistency,  as  Alger  would  have  dis- 
covered had  he  read  the  documents  recently  published 
concerning  Paine.  In  the  Luxembourg  prison  Paine 
was  placed  in  the  same  room  with  three  others,  one  of 
these  being  a  Belgian  named  Vanhuele.  Paine  was 
delirious  with  fever,  and  when  he  came  to  his  senses 
Robespierre  had  fallen.  His  room-mates  had  dis- 
appeared. He  learned  from  Barere,  who  had  been 
one  of  Robespierre's  committee-men,  that  a  sentence 
had  issued  against  him,  and  indeed  the  committee 
who  after  Robespierre's  death  examined  his  papers 
reported  in  the  Convention  an  entry  for  Paine's  "ac- 
cusation." Paine  wrote  (Preface  to  the  "Age  of  Rea- 
son," 1795):  "  From  what  cause  it  was  that  the  inten- 
tion was  not  put  in  execution  I  know  not,  and  cannot 
inform  myself ;  and  therefore  I  ascribe  it  to  impossi- 
bility on  account  of  that  illness."  But  because  Paine 
was  not  informed  in  1795  it  does  not  follow  that  he 
could  not  be  informed  in  1802,  when  he  first  published 
the  chalk-mark  story.  His  comrade  and  fellow-pris- 
oner, Vanhuele,  became  Mayor  of  Bruges,  and  in  the 
year  1800  Paine  paid  him  a  visit  there.  The  two  then 
for  the  first  time  had  an  opportunity  of  talking  over 
events  in  the  Luxembourg,  and  there  is  little  doubt 
that  Paine  learned  from  Vanhuele  the  curious  incident 
by  which  their  lives  had  been  saved.  There  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  the  truth  of  the  story.  It  is  not  one 
that  Paine  could  have  invented.  In  saying  that  "the 
destroying  angel  passed  by"  his  door  Paine  perceives 
the  resemblance  to  the  biblical  story  of  Israel  in 
Egypt,  but  this  story,  and  the  marking  of  the  oil-jars 
in  the  tale  of  the  "  Forty  Thieves,"  simply  show  how 
natural  and  universal  was  the  method  of  identification 
used  in  the  Luxembourg  prison.  Paine  also  says  "it 
happened,  if  happening  is  the  proper  word."  He  was 
answering  his  theological  antagonists,  and  may  have 
meant  that  if  anybody  could  show  providential  inter- 
position he  could ;  but  he  perhaps  suspected  that  some 
of  the  prison  officials  had  connived  in  an  artifice  to 
save  him.  However  this  may  be,  he  published  the 
story  in  a  work  which  he  knew  would  be  at  once  re- 
published in  England  and  France,  and  that  not  only 
his  three  fellow-prisoners,  but  thousands  would  be 
able  to  contradict  his  statements  if  untrue.  There  were 
numerous  religious  enemies  of  Paine  in  England  and 


4162 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


America  who  would  certainly  have  ferreted  out  any 
inaccuracy  in  a  story  which  Paine's  friends  were  utilis- 
ing against  those  who  called  him  an  "infidel."  Provi- 
dence, they  said,  seems  to  be  on  the  side  of  infidelity. 
Apart  from  the  fact  that  the  story  is  intrinsically  one 
which  Paine  could  not  have  invented,  it  seems  certain 
that  unless  true  it  could  not  have  passed  unchallenged 
through  the  life-time  of  thousands  familiar  with  the 
events  of  the  time  and  place,  to  be  questioned  only  after 
ninety  years  by  the  hasty  and  inexact  Mr.  Alger.  His 
aim  was  not  Paine,  but  Thomas  Carlyle.  He  will  have 
reason  to  remember  Emerson's  advice  to  the  young 
man  who  criticised  Plato:  "He  who  shoots  at  the 
king  ought  to  kill  him."  Alger's  arrow,  after  proving 
a-  pointer  to  Carlyle's  historical  carefulness,  has  re- 
coiled on  himself. 

There  are  certain  historical  personalities  by  whom 
the  movements  of  civilisation  may  be  measured. 
Events  have  made  them  into  ensigns.  Lord  Brougham 
said  (I  quote  from  memory)  that  political  civilisation 
might  be  measured  in  any  country  by  what  men  gen- 
erally thought  of  George  Washington.  The  Washing- 
ton in  his  mind  was  not  the  individual  as  critically  re- 
vealed, but  a  representative  character.  In  the  same 
sense  I  remark  the  present  position  of  Paine  in  Eng- 
land as  a  sign  of  the  time.  And  here  I  must  give  some 
experiences  at  the  risk  of  appearing  egotistical.  I  am 
continually  asked  to  lecture  about  Paine,  and  though 
compelled  by  my  occupations  to  decline  many  of  these 
invitations,  in  the  instances  where  I  have  complied, 
the  audiences,  to  me  strangers,  have  manifested  the 
utmost  enthusiasm  for  the  outlaw  of  1793.  Paine  has 
been  the  means  of  my  first  appearance  in  an  orthodox 
chapel  in  London.  Since  the  death  of  Spurgeon,  the 
leading  Baptist  minister  in  London  is  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Clifford,  who  is  eloquent,  and  much  more  generous  in 
his  sentiments  towards  heretics  than  Spurgeon,  though 
quite  orthodox.  The  young  people  of  his  society  have 
a  large  Bible  class,  and  have  instituted  courses  of 
lectures  from  "representatives  of  various  schools  of 
thought."  Not  long  ago  they  had  a  lecture  from  a 
Jewish  rabbi,  and  were  fiercely  attacked  in  one  or  two 
Christian  papers  for  that.  But,  unsubdued  by  that 
attack,  they  straightway  requested  me  to  lecture  to 
them  about  Paine,  without  the  slightest  suggestion  of 
any  restriction  on  my  liberty  of  utterance.  On  the 
contrary,  it  was  made  evident  to  me  that  they  desired 
introduction  to  the  genuine  Paine,  just  as  he  was,  and 
that  I  tried  to  give  them.  The  beautiful  Westbourne 
Park  Chapel  was  filled.  Dr.  Clifford  was  in  the  pul- 
pit with  me  ;  the  usual  prayer,  hymns,  and  Scripture 
readings  preceded  ;  and  the  applause  during  the  lec- 
ture, especially  at  passages  read  from  Paine,  and  the 
speeches  that  followed  from  Dr.  Clifford  and  others, 
showed  that  the  demonstration  was  by  no  means  to 


the  lecturer  but  to  the  "doubly-damned  Tom  Paine." 
And  although  the  event  has  elicited  from  the  religious 
organ  which  jealously  guards  Baptist  orthodoxy  de- 
mands for  disciplinary  dealings  with  Dr.  Clifford,  I 
observe  that  it  is  all  on  my  account,  nothing  at  all  be- 
ing said  against  Paine.  In  fact,  although  most  of  the 
English  papers  have  recently  contained  articles  or  re- 
views concerning  Paine,  I  have  not  seen  one  which 
has  assailed  him  as  a  religious  heretic.  His  political 
principles  cannot  now  be  objected  to,  being  really  the 
present  Constitution  of  England,  or  what  liberal  Eng- 
lishmen wish  it  to  be  considered.  Your  readers  will, 
I  trust,  understand  that  it  is  not  merely  the  biographi- 
cal interest  of  these  gleanings  concerning  Paine  which 
have  induced  me  to  occupy  lately  so  much  of  your 
space  with  them.  By  history  this  Thetford  Quaker 
has  been  set  for  the  falling  and  rising  of  many,  a  sign 
to  be  spoken  against,  that  thoughts  out  of  many  hearts 
should  be  revealed;  and  his  epoch  will  not  be  quite  closed 
so  long  as  the  world  is  without  one  genuine  republic.' 
Westbourne  Park  Chapel  gave  me  a  good  point  of 
view  from  which  to  inspect  a  collection  of  political 
coins  and  medals  struck  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  now 
in  the  British  Museum.  One  is  a  half-penny  of  Jan- 
uary 21,  1793:  Obverse,  a  man  hanging  on  a  gibbet, 
with  a  church  in  the  distance  ;  motto,  "  End  of  Pain." 
Reverse,  an  open  book,  inscribed  "The  Wrongs  of 
Man."  A  token  :  Bust  of  Paine,  with  his  name ;  re- 
verse, "The  Mountain  in  Labour,  1793."  A  farthing 
(1791)  with  Paine  gibbeted;  reverse,  breeches  burn- 
ing, and  legend  "Pandora's  breeches";  beneath,  a 
serpent  decapitated  by  a  dagger,  the  severed  head  be- 
ing that  of  Paine.  Another  farthing  with  Paine  gib- 
beted ;  reverse,  a  number  of  combustibles  intermixed 
with  labels  issuing  from  a  globe  inscribed  "Frater- 
nity"; the  labels  inscribed  "  Regicide,"  "  Robbery," 
"Falsity,"  "Requisition";  legend,  "French  Reforms, 
1797";  near  by,  a  church  with  flag,  on  it  the  cross. 
Half  penny,  not  dated,  but  no  doubt  struck  in  1794, 
when  the  rumor  reached  London  that  Paine  had  been 


1  Some  time  ago  I  wrote  for  The  Open  Court  an  article  pointing  out  the 
unrepublican  nature  of  disproportionate  representation  as  embodied  in  the 
United  States  Senate.  I  owe  apologies  to  two  respected  writers  who  criti- 
cised my  statement  in  your  columns.  Their  estimates  of  the  Senate  seemed 
to  me  to  require  only  a  few  sentences  of  reply,  and  these  I  did  not  doubt 
would  be  supplied  in  one  of  those  admirable  notes  which  were  appearing  in 
your  columns  from  the  pen  of  General  Trumbull.  Alas,  I  knew  not  that  the 
pen  was  falling  from  that  faithful  hand  in  which  it  was  wielded  as  bravely  as 
the  sword,  and  like  it  only  for  human  welfare.  As  for  the  critics.  I  cannot  see 
that  they  really  touched  the  issue  made  by  General  Trumbull  and  myself. 
They  assert  that  the  Senate  is  essential  to  the  State-system  of  America,  but 
that  does  not  prove  the  system  to  be  good.  There  are  large  provinces  in 
France  (Brittany,  Normandy,  etc.)  and  in  Great  Britain  (Scotland,  Wales,  etc.) 
but  they  do  not  require  to  be  made  into  a  legislative  chamber.  In  a  republic 
the  unit  of  representation  is  the  human  individual,  not  a  geographical  pro- 
vince, like  Scotland  or  Rhode  Island.  The  theoretical  utility  of  a  second 
chamber  is  to  restrain  popular  precipitation  by  graver,  o\d.%x  {Seniores  =  Sena- 
tors) revision.  Is  the  Senate  now  doing  that  ?  It  has  never  done  that ;  and  it 
is  impossible  for  an  assembly  representing  provincial  pride  and  local  self-, 
interest  to  exercise  any  such  influence.  It  must  proceed  from  ^he  cpnstuence 
and  patriotism  of  the  whole  nation. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


416^ 


guillotined  :  Paine  on  gibbet  ;  above,  a  devil  seated, 
smoking  a  pipe  ;  reverse,  a  monkey  dancing,  with 
legend,  "We  dance,  Pain  swings."  A  farthing  :  three 
men  hanging  on  a  gallows;  inscription,  "The  three 
Thomas's,  1796."  Reverse,  "  May  the  three  knaves  of 
Jacobin  clubs  never  get  a  trick."  The  three  Thomases 
were  Thomas  Paine,  Sir  Thomas  More,  and  Thomas 
Spence.  (In  1794  Thomas  Spence,  an  author,  was 
imprisoned  seven  months  for  advocating  the  republi- 
can principles  applauded  in  Westbourne  Park  Chapel, 
and  especially  for  publishing  some  of  Paine's  political 
works  at  his  press,  which  he  called  the  "  Hive  of  Lib- 
erty.") Among  these  coined  curses,  much  repeated, 
there  are  two  of  an  opposite  character.  One  farthing 
represents  Pitt  on  a  gibbet,  against  which  a  ladder  is 
resting;  inscription,  "End  of  P  [here  an  eye]  T. " 
Reverse,  face  of  Pitt  conjoined  with  that  of  a  devil, 
and  legend,  "Even  Fellows."  Another  farthing  re- 
sembles the  last,  the  inscription  on  reverse  being, 
"  Such  is  the  reward  of  tyrants,  1796."  These  anti- 
Pitt  farthings  were  struck  by  Thomas  Spence,  8 
Little  Turnstile,  Holborn,  a  few  steps  from  the  book- 
store of  freethinking  works  long  kept  by  the  venerable 
Edward  Truelove,  who  owns  the  table  on  which  Paine 
wrote  several  of  his  republican  works.  Should  there 
ever  be  a  Paine  Exhibition  in  London,  it  will  bring 
forth  many  historical  relics,  and  exhume  strange  facts 
and  records  that  have  never  seen  the  light. 


CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA. 


BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 


CESAR'S  TREASURE. 

While  Jesus  tarried  by  the  seaside,  certain  of  the 
multitudes  which  had  heard  him  came  unto  him. 

And  one  of  these  asked  him  concerning  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  saying  unto  him  : 

Rabbi,  explain  unto  us  this  saying  of  thine  that  the 
last  should  be  first  and  the  first  last,  for  many  are 
called,  but  few  are  chosen. 

Now,there  were  on  the  sea  many  ships;  and  as  they 
sailed  towards  the  haven  where  they  would  be,  even 
unto  where  Jesus  and  they  that  questioned  him  stood. 

Jesus  lifted  up  his  voice  and  saith,  O  men  of  Israel, 
behold  yonder  ships ;  which  of  them,  I  pray  you, 
beareth  the  greatest  treasure  ? 

And  they  looked  upon  the  ships ;  and  when  they 
had  looked  they  said  unto  Jesus,  How  can  we  tell? 
Lo,  every  ship  hath  sails  set  alike,  and  every  ship 
draweth  nigh  unto  the  land. 

Jesus  saith  unto  them.  Look  again.  Are  all  the 
ships  alike? 

And  they,  having  looked  again,  said,  Nay,  but  some 
are  greater  and  others  are  less. 

Jesus -saith  unto  them.  Doth  the  greater  ship  bear 
the  greater  treasure? 


They  answered  him,  We  cannot  tell. 

Jesus  saith  unto  them,  Look  again.  Though  some 
of  the  ships  be  greater  and  some  be  less,  are  they  yet 
all  alike  ? 

They  answered  him.  Nay,  but  some  be  swifter  than 
the  others. 

Jesus  saith,  Doth  the  swifter  ship  bear  the  greater 
treasure  ? 

They  answered,  Nay,  Lord ;  but  the  swifter  ship 
hath,  more  likely,  the  lighter  burden. 

Jesus  saith  again  unto  them.  Ye  cannot  tell  which 
of  the  ships  hath  the  greater  treasure ;  for  though 
some  be  greater,  and  some  swifter;  yet  it  may  well  be 
that  not  by  greatness  nor  by  swiftness  can  ye  tell. 

They  said  unto  him.  True,  Lord ;  we  cannot  tell. 

Now  the  ships  drew  nigh  unto  the  land.  And  that 
ship  which  came  first  was  empty. 

And  the  next  likewise.  But  others  were  laden  ; 
some  with  wheat  and  corn,  and  yet  others  with  spices 
and  fruits. 

And  when  the  last  ship  came  unto  the  haven,  be- 
hold, that  ship  was  the  least  of  all  the  ships. 

But,  as  they  stood  by,  the  captain  of  that  little 
ship  called  unto  all  the  people,  saying,  Give  room,  for 
I  bear  a  gift  from  Caesar  unto  Pilate. 

And  all  the  people  and  all  the  other  ships  gave 
room  for  him  who  came  with  authority  from  Caesar, 
even  for  him  who  bore  Caesar's  treasure. 

And  Jesus  saith  unto  them  who  were  round  about 
him  :  Learn  a  lesson  of  the  ships.  For  the  gift  is  not 
always  in  the  great,  nor  the  treasure  in  the  swift. 

And  again,  only  they  who  be  in  the  treasure-ship 
know  of  the  treasure  it  doth  bear, 

Save  only  Caesar,  and  him  unto  whom  Caesar  send- 
eth  the  treasure. 


THE    LATEST    DEVELOPMENT  OF  AN  OLD    DISEASE. 

There  was  a  man  apparently  in  the  best  of  health 
who  on  awaking  one  morning  after  a  jolly  evening  of 
merry-making  found  the  limbs  on  the  right  side  of  his 
body  paralysed.  The  physician  was  sent  for.  He 
came  and  examined  the  patient ;  and  considering  all 
the  symptoms  shook  his  head  deliberately  and  said, 
"  There  is  some  disturbance  in  the  capsula  interna,  left 
side.  It  may  be  a  tumor  but  it  most  probably  is  due 
only  to  the  rupture  of  a  small  blood-vessel.  You  must 
have  been  extremely  merry  yesterday,  flushed  with 
liquor  and  hilarity.  A  number  of  blood-corpuscles  in 
your  brain  got  too  much  excited  and,  overconscious  of 
its  own  importance,  a  vessel  has  burst,  shedding  its  con- 
tents between  the  lenticular  body  and  the  nerve-fibres. 
If  this  is  the  case  you  will  remain  paralysed  for  about 
nine  days,  until  the  blood  is  reabsorbed  by  the  sur- 
rounding parts  of  the  capsule.  But  if  the  cause  of  the 
disturbance  be  a  tumor  you  will  be  paralysed  for  life." 


4164 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  patient  looked  aghast :  "  Paralysed  for  life — a 
whole  life- time?  "  he  interrupted  the  doctor's  speech. 

"  Don't  be  alarmed,"  continued  the  physician  pa- 
tiently, "  your  case  is  not  bad.  A  life-time  under  such 
circumstances  won't  be  very  long.  The  tumor  will 
spread  over  the  adjacent  parts  of  the  brain  and  that 
will  end  the  whole  sickness  at  once." 

The  patient  did  not  feel  comfortable.  At  last  he 
queried  :    "What  do  you  call  this  sickness  of  mine?" 

"Interference  with  the  United  States  Mails,"  said 
the  doctor. 

"  That  is  a  new  sickness  !     Is  it  not  ?  " 

"Yes  or  no,  as  you  may  take  it.  It  is  the  latest 
development  only  of  an  old  and  long-known  malady. 
Thus  it  is  not  quite  new  ;  it  is  as  old  as  the  existence 
of  complicated  organisms  upon  earth.  The  sickness 
is  critical  but  it  is  in  the  nature  of  its  conditions  that 
it  never  lasts  long.  It  will  either  pass  by  as  quickly 
as  it  has  come  and  give  the  patient  a  lesson  to  be  more 
careful  should  he  become  a  trifle  too  jolly  again,  or  it 
will  terminate  the  life  of  the  whole  organism.  In  the 
latter  case,  viz.,  if  the  interference  is  of  a  malignant 
character  caused  by  a  tumor  or  cancer,  the  illness  may 
be  protracted  for  years,  but  the  patient  will  be  in  most 
cases  as  good  as  dead ;  he  will  be  intellectually  dead, 
for  he  will  live  in  a  continuous  stupor  without  pains 
and  ignorant  of  his  sad  plight." 

Stricken  with  this  strange  malady,  the  patient  was 
anxious  to  hear  more  about  it,  and  the  doctor  gave  the 
following  explanation  : 

Organisms  are  centralised  and  the  centre  of  the 
human  organism  is  the  brain.  Now  almost  all  the 
sensory  nerve-fibres  which  ascend  from  the  skin  of  the 
various  limbs  of  the  body  to  the  brain,  and  also  almost 
all  the  motor  nerve-fibres  which  descend  from  the 
brain  to  the  various  muscles  converge  in  each  hemi- 
sphere into  a  narrow  passage  which  is  called  by  phys- 
iologists a  capsule.  There  are  two  capsules,  one  large 
one  breaking  through  the  lenticular  body  and  the  cau- 
date body  called  capsula  interna,  and  another  small 
one  passing  down  on  the  outside  of  the  lenticular  body. 
The  arteries  and  veins  of  the  lenticular  body  are  unus- 
ually delicate  and  may  easily  be  ruptured.  Now,  sup- 
pose a  rupture  takes  place  right  where  the  inner  cap- 
sule is,  a  spot  of  coagulated  blood  would  compress  all 
the  nerve-fibres  and  prevent  any  message  of  the  brain 
reaching  the  limbs.  This  is  what  may  properly  be 
called  interference  with  the  United  States  mails,  for  it 
is  a  meddling  with  the  business  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment of  the  body. 

If  Menenius  Agrippa  had  lived  in  our  days  he  would 
not  have  told  his  fable  of  the  stomach  and  the  limbs 
to  the  striking  coal-miners  and  the  striking  switchmen, 
but  the  story  of  the  inner  capsule. 

The  blood-vessels  of  the  capsula  interna,  he  would 


have  said  to  the  Miner's  Union  and  to  the  American 
Railway  Union,  got  it  into  their  heads  that  their  ser- 
vices were  indispensable  and  that  they  could  run  the 
whole  social  body  in  matters  economical  and  political, 
if  they  only  would  persistently  cut  off  the  bounties  un- 
der their  control.  It  was  easy  enough  to  do  so,  on  the 
supposition  that  they  themselves  would  discontinue  to 
attend  to  their  work  and  allow  no  one  else  to  take  their 
places.  They  would  only  have  to  seize  the  oppor- 
tunity and  hold  it  by  all  means,  whatever  might  come 
of  it,  and  the  rest  of  the  world  would  soon  have  to 
come  to  terms.  The  proposition  is  simple  enough,  but 
is  it  feasible? 

The  details  of  the  story  of  the  internal  capsule  strike 
are  mutatis  mutandis  similar  to  those  of  the  fable  of  the 
striking  stomach,  and  the  application  is  the  same.  The 
strike  of  the  American  Railway  Union  is  new  in  its 
peculiar  complications  only,  but  the  case  is  as  old  as 
society,  and  the  first  great  satire  that  to  our  knowledge 
has  been  written  on  it  is  Aristophanes's  ingenius  com- 
edy entitled  "The  Birds." 

More  than  two  thousand  years  ago  the  Athenians 
devised  a  pretty  scheme  for  running  the  universe.  If 
they  could  but  seize  Syracuse  they  would  be  masters 
of  the  strait  of  Messina,  as  it  is  now  called,  then  the 
main  artery  of  commerce  in  the  Mediterranean.  That 
would  surrender  to  them  Sicily  and  Magna  Graecia, 
the  southern  part  of  Italy.  Dominating  Sicily  and 
Magna  Graecia  and  controlling  the  sea  routes  of  the 
Mediterranean,  they  would  be  masters  of  all  trade  and 
commerce  of  the  then  known  world.  What  a  fine 
scheme!  But  it  stood  upon  a  slender  basis,  for  these 
sea  routes  were  in  the  hands  of  other  powers,  the  vari- 
ous great  cities  and  States,  and  these  powers  would  not 
be  willing  to  surrender  without  a  fight  that  would  neces- 
sarily be  for  life  and  death  ;  and  Athens  had  neither 
the  power,  nor  the  perseverance  and  indispensable 
self-control,  nor  the  wisdom  to  seize  and  to  hold  all 
these  opportunities. 

There  were  so  many  suppositions  taken  for  granted, 
so  many  an  "if  this  were  so  "  remained  unconsidered 
when  the  people  of  Athens  ventured  into  this  bold  en- 
terprise, that  the  end  of  it  was  the  saddest  and  most 
complete  wreck  of  the  greatest  and  best  equipped 
expedition  that  ever  left  the  harbor  of  Athens.  Not 
one  man  who  went  out  ever  returned  to  his  native  city, 
and  the  decay  of  the  republic  dates  from  this  sanguine 
enterprise. 

Aristophanes  saw  the  danger  and  decided  to  give  a 
warning  to  his  countrymen.  This  was  the  occasion  of 
his  writing  the  comedy  of  "The  Birds." 

Two  Athenians,  Peisthetairos,  the  persuader,  and 
Euelpides,  the  sanguine  hoper,  leave  their  home  to 
join  the  birds.  They  climb  up  as  high  as  they  can  in 
quest  of  a  world  free  from  the  tribulations  of  life  [vv. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4165 


44,  45],  and  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  hoopoe,  who, 
according  to  a  Greek  fable,  had  formerly  been  a  man, 
and  was  changed  into  a  bird.  To  him  they  propose 
their  plans,  which  if  carried  out  will  give  to  the  birds 
unequivocal  control  of  the  universe.  Their  advice  is 
to  form  a  strong  union,  to  build  a  city  in  the  air,  and  to 
fortify  it.  This  done,  they  will  govern  mankind  like 
grasshoppers  and  starve  the  gods  into  obedience  [vv. 
185-186],  "for,"  says  Peisthetairos,  "the  air  is  in  the 
middle  between  heaven  and  earth.  When  we  want  to 
go  to  the  Pythian  temple  of  Apollo,  we  ask  the  Boeo- 
tians, in  whose  territory  Delphi  lies,  for  permission. 
So,  when  men  offer  gifts  to  the  gods,  you  must  no 
longer  allow  the  odor  of  the  sacrifice  to  pass  through 
your  realm."  [vv.  188-194.]  A  great  mass-meeting 
of  the  birds  is  called.  After  some  difficulty  the  two 
Athenians  succeed  in  persuading  the  citizens  of  the 
air  that  the  feathered  world  was  prior  to  the  gods  and 
had,  at  the  beginning,  ruled  the  affairs  of  the  world  ; 
even  now  they  were  in  possession  of  the  means  to  re- 
assert their  old  rights,  and  should  boldly  take  the  gov- 
ernment that  belonged  to  them.  The  motion  is  made 
to  unite  all  birds  into  one  great  city,  to  secure  the  air 
by  walls,  and  boldly  ask  Zeus  to  abdicate  his  power. 
Should  he  refuse,  the  celestials  should  no  longer  be 
allowed  to  pass  through  the  city  of  the  birds  [vv.  548- 
560].  That  will  soon  bring  the  gods  to  terms  and 
make  the  birds  actual  rulers  of  the  universe  [v.  565]. 
The  motion  is  carried  and  acted  upon.  The  name  of 
the  city  is  Cloudland  {vsqieXoKVKVia,  i.  e.,  the  cloud- 
cuckoo-town). 

Iris,  the  messenger  of  the  gods,  sent  down  to  man- 
kind by  Zeus,  who  begins  to  feel  the  effects  of  the 
interception  of  all  sacrifices,  is  stopped  by  Peisthetai- 
ros and  treated  with  contempt.  "  Should  we,"  says 
Peisthetairos,  "who  rule  the  rest  of  the  world,  suffer 
your  insolence?  No,  you  must  learn  to  obey  us  and 
recognise  that  we  are  more  powerful  than  you." 

When  Iris  threatens  that  Zeus  will  use  his  thunder- 
bolts, Peisthetairos  turns  the  tables  and  declares  that 
his  divine  palace  will  be  burned  down,  and  the  chorus 
of  birds  proclaims  an  injunction  upon  the  gods  not  to 
pass  through  Cloudland. 

Now  the  victory  is  gained.  Men  from  the  dark 
walks  of  life,  a  hungry  poet,  blackmailers,  informers, 
parricides,  and  criminals,  join  the  cause  of  the  birds, 
and  Peisthetairos  has  great  trouble  to  get  rid  of  them. 
Peisthetairos,  it  appears,  is  as  unable  as  many  of  our 
modern  strike  leaders  to  lay  the  spirits  whom  they 
called. 

At  last  an  embassy  from  Zeus  appears,  consisting 
of  Poseidon,  representing  the  gods  by  birth,  Hercules, 
representing  the  upstarts  among  the  gods,  and  Tribal- 
los,  representing  the  uncultured  and  barbarian  deities. 
Following  the  advice  of  Prometheus,  Peisthetairos  de- 


mands unconditional  surrender,  and,  isolating  the  old 
legitimatist  Poseidon,  he  gains  all  his  points  by  making 
the  committee  vote.  Hercules  and  Triballos  vote  in 
favor  of  surrendering  the  sceptre  of  the  gods  and  also 
Basileia  or  "  Kingdom,"  the  beautiful  companion  of 
Zeus. 

Peisthetairos  ascends  to  the  gods  to  receive  all 
power  in  heaven  and  earth,  and  the  comedy  ends  with 
a  pasan  of  glorification  to  the  victor  and  master  of  de- 
mons. 

The  comedy  is  most  ingenious  and  full  of  food  for 
thought.  It  illustrates  the  clever  idea  of  the  Archi- 
median  Aos  /xoi  nov  ffrcS  nai  Hivr/aoo  ri)v  ytiv  (give 
me  a  place  to  stand  on  and  I  will  move  the  world). 
There  are,  indeed,  places  from  which  you  can  move 
the  whole  world  ;  there  are  pivots  on  which  a  child 
may  turn  a  colossal  mass,  which,  if  it  fell,  would 
crush  numberless  people.  But  he  who  would  keep 
that  place  at  the  pivot  must  not  throw  the  machinery 
out  of  gear;  he  must  not  wage  a  war  against  gods  and 
men,  which  in  the  end  will  prove  a  hopeless  under- 
taking, but  must  serve  society  and  attend  to  its  needs. 
He  must  not  destroy,  but  build.  He  must  not  cause 
confusion,  but  preserve  order.  He  must  not  tap  the 
resources  of  the  livelihood  of  his  follow-beings,  but 
create  more  wealth  and  increase  the  possibilities  of  a 
higher  life. 

It  is  easy  for  the  capsula  interna  to  paralyse  the 
limbs  of  the  body;  it  is  easy  enough  to  throw  a  well- 
balanced  turn-table,  be  it  ever  so  heavy,  off  its  fulcrum  ; 
it  is  still  easier  to  misguide  a  number  of  half-educated 
men  who  have  become  aware  of  their  power  for  mis- 
chief :  but  it  is  difficult  to  keep  the  body  politic  in 
good  health,  and  to  manipulate  the  easy-turning  ma- 
chinery. Yet  most  difficult  it  is  to  point  out  the  path 
of  social  progress.  p.  c. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

MR.  MARTIN'S  PLEA  FOR  NON-SECTARIAN  RELIGION 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Open  Court: 

In  your  issue  of  June  21  appears  an  article  by  Mrs.  C.  P. 
WooUey  upon  "  Liberal  Religious  Affairs  in  the  West,"  in  which 
she  comments  upon  my  address  as  the  "  one  discordant  note" 
heard  at  the  American  Congress  in  Chicago.  As  a  matter  of  jus- 
tice and  truth,  let  me  say  that  I  spoke  reluctantly  and  merely  as 
a  member  of  the  Committee  on  the  Plan  of  Organisation,  forced 
to  submit  a  minority  report  because  I  could  not  indorse  two 
phrases  in  the  plan  as  finally  formulated,  viz.:  (i)  "O/Z/e-r  non- 
sectarian  churches,"  the  implication  being  that  Universalist  and 
Unitarian  churches,  for  example,  are  non-sectarian,  and  (2)  "ab- 
solute mental  liberty,"  because  no  churches  can  be  organised  on 
that  basis  without  the  surrender  of  their  Christian  or  other  secta- 
rian connexions.  No  one  regretted  this  enforced  disagreement 
with  the  other  members  of  the  Committee  more  than  myself.  I 
made  no  ' '  charge  against  the  Congress  of  weakness  and  bad  logic, " 
but  merely  stated  what,  from  my  point  of  view,  consistency  re- 
quired.  Mrs.  Woolley  has  wholly  missed  the  spirit  of  my  remarks 


^^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


4166 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


as  well  as  the  friendly  and  fraternal  attitude  of  my  society  at  Ta- 
coma  towards  the  Congress.  To  assert  that  universal  religion  musi 
be  unsectarian,  and  that  to  represent  it  consistently  one  must  be 
unsectarian  as  an  individual,  in  his  society,  and  in  the  fellowship 
of  societies,  seemed  to  me  an  obvious  and  irrefutable  truth,  and 
in  no  way  implied  any  "self-assumption,"  or  "ecclesiasticism," 
or  "narrowness  or  bigotry" — particularly  when  asserted  in  the 
spirit  of  love  and  with  deep  regret  because  it  seemed  to  detract 
from  the  glow  of  enthusiasm  and  rejoicing  that  prevailed  through- 
out the  sessions  of  the  Congress.  Alfred  W.  Martin. 


[Mr.  Martin's  proposition  that  the  Unitarians,  Universalists, 
the  Jews,  and  other  churches  represented  at  the  Congress,  being, 
after  all,  sects,  "should  pay  the  full  price  of  unconditioned  free- 
dom by  sacrificing  their  fellowship,  name,  and  connexion,"  was 
made  on  the  last  day,  during  the  business  transactions  of  formu- 
lating the  by-laws  and  electing  the  various  officers  of  the  new 
organisation.  The  feeling  of  the  audience  was  that  the  various 
churches,  represented,  had  given  up  all  those  principles  which  tie 
them  down  to  tradition ;  and  especially  the  Unitarians,  by  choos- 
ing truth  alone  for  authority,  seemed  conscious  of  having  broad- 
ened into  a  church  universal.  It  is  neither  the  name  nor  the 
number  of  adherents  which  makes  a  religion  unsectarian  or  cath- 
olic, but  the  spirit. 

The  Roman  Church  claims  to  be  catholic,  and  might  be 
judged  so  if  the  matter  had  to  be  decided  among  all  Christians  by 
a  majority  vote,  for  it  outnumbers  all  other  denominations.  But 
is  the  Roman  Church  for  that  reason  truly  catholic  ?  No,  it  is  not ; 
it  is  after  all  a  large  sect  only,  for  it  recognises  the  authority  of 
councils  and  popes  as  final ;  it  is  still  in  the  bondage  of  tradition 
and  human  authority. 

There  is  but  one  catholic  or  universal  religion :  the  religion 
of  truth,  which  not  only  allows,  but  demands,  a  free  investigation 
of  its  tenets,  rejecting  any  and  all  personal  authority,  and  accept- 
ing that  which  according  to  the  strictest  methods  of  science  can  be 
proved  to  be  true.  There  is  but  one  institution  on  earth  which  is 
truly  catholic  in  principle  :  it  is  science,  and  we  shall  have  no 
catholic  religion  until  we  have  a  religion  of  science. 

It  is  a  great  pity  that  Mr.  Martin's  proposition  was  not  made 
at  a  more  seasonable  time,  so  as  to  allow  it  a  thorough  discussion, 
for  he  touched  the  most  vital  point,  which  should  not  have  been 
left  in  the  dark.  A  ventilation  of  his  proposition  would  have  led 
to  a  clear  and  comprehensive  statement  of  the  nature  of  the  bond 
of  union  of  the  various  members  of  the  Congress. 

In  our  opinion  all  the  churches  can  retain  their  names  and 
continue  their  various  connexions  and  fellowships  ;  they  can  even 
cherish  and  revere  their  tradition,  if  they  but  adopt  the  principle 
to  recognise  scientifically  provable  truth  as  the  highest  authority. 
Should  some  of  the  customs  and  institutions  be  incompatible  with 
the  spirit  of  science,  they  will  soon  enough  find  it  out  themselves 
and  abrogate  their  antiquated  traditions. 

Says  Kant : 
"Friends  of  mankind  and  of  all  that  is  holy  to  man,  accept  whatever, 
after  a  careful  and  honest  inquiry,  you  regard  to  be  most  trustworthy,  be  it 
facts  or  rational  arguments,  but  do  not  contest  that  prerogative  of  reason, 
which  makes  it  the  highest  good  upon  earth,  viz.,  to  be  the  ultimate  criterion 
of  truth.  Otherwise  you  will  be  unworthy  of  your  liberty  and  lose  it  without 
fail."  (Kant,  "Washeisst:  Sich  im  Denken  orientiren."  Edition  Harten- 
stein,  Vol.  IV,  p.  352.) 

We  do  not  mean  to  advocate  the  crude  rationalism  that  for  a 
long  time  prospered  in  Germany,  which  in  its  one-sided  narrow- 
ness rejected  the  poetry  of  symbolism  on  account  of  its  irration- 
ality, and  with  it  the  religious  truth  contained  in  the  symbols. 
We  advocate  a  new  and  higher  rationalism,  all-sided  enough  to 
understand  the  spirit  of  religious  mysticism  without  being  op- 
pressed by  its  darkness,  but  leading  it  out  into  the  light. 

Mr.   Martin  quotes  F.  E.   Abbot,   who  says:   "Friend,  you 


must  come  out  of  your  shanty.  You  must  give  up  your  Moham- 
medanism, your  Judaism,  your  Christianity."  This  method  is  a 
cure  after  the  recipe  of  Dr.  Ironbeard  of  the  German  folk-song. 
He  kills  his  patient  to  free  him  from  pain.  To  relieve  him  of  a 
headache  he  would  cut  off  his  head. 

The  various  religions  of  mankind  are  not  radically  wrong ; 
they  contain  good  seeds,  and  these  seeds  can  grow.  We  would 
therefore  say ; 

Friend,  investigate  your  religion,  be  it  Mohammedanism, 
Judaism,  or  Christianity.  Distinguish  between  the  essential  and 
the  accidental,  between  the  good  and  the  bad,  between  that  which 
is  true  and  helpful  and  that  which  is  false  and  injurious.  Keep  the 
former,  drop  the  latter,  and  grow  spiritually,  intellectually,  and 
morally.  If  you  find  that,  in  your  conception,  your  religion  was 
in  all  its  essentials  intended  to  be  the  religion  of  truth,  keep  its 
name  ;  if  not,  drop  it.  In  either  case,  you  must  know  that  not  the 
letters  of  a  name  possess  saving  power,  but  the  spirit  of  your  re- 
ligion.— Ed.] 

NOTES. 

On  page  4160  of  the  present  number  of  The  Open  Court, Proi. 
E.  D.  Cope  proposes  the  court-martialing  of  a  company  of  Cali- 
fornia militia,  which,  in  the  face  of  the  mob,  threw  down  their 
arms.  Professor  Cope  probably  refers  to  a  sensational  newspaper 
report  which  made  a  statement  to  that  effect  but  was  promptly 
followed  by  a  dementi.  We  know  of  no  company  of  militia  guilty 
of  disobedience  or  treachery.  The  facts  in  the  mooted  case,  if  we 
are  well  informed,  were  that  a  company  of  militia,  called  out  to 
restore  order,  was  forbidden  by  the  local  authorities  to  shoot, 
whereupon  the  officers  declared  that  under  these  conditions  the 
soldiers  could  not  be  expected  to  do  their  duty,  and  the  officers  of 
the  militia  themselves  ordered  their  men  to  withdraw. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  361. 

THE  FAILURE   OF  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT.      Prof. 

E.  D.  Cope 4 159 

PAINES  ESCAPE  FROM  THE  GUILLOTINE,  1794, 
AND  HIS  ESCAPE  FROM  THE  PIOUS  PILLORY, 
1894.     Moncure  D.  Conway 4161 

CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA.     Caesar's 

Treasure.     Hudor  Genone 4162 

THE  LATEST  DEVELOPMENT  OF  AN  OLD  DIS- 
EASE.    Editor 4163 

CORRESPONDENCE 

Mr.  Martin's  Plea  for  Non-Sectarian  Religion.     [With 
Editorial  Remarks.] 4165 

NOTES 4166 


■HI 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "HTEEKLY  JOURNAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  362.     (Vol.  VIII.— 31.) 


CHICAGO,  AUGUST  2,   1894. 


(  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


THE  VELOCITY  OF  LIGHT. 

A  POPULAR  SCIENTIFIC  LECTURE.l 


BY  PROF.  ERNST  MACH. 

When  a  criminal  judge  has  a  right  crafty  knave 
before  him,  one  well  versed  in  the  arts  of  prevarica- 
tion, his  main  object  is  to  wring  a  confession  from  the 
culprit  by  a  few  skilful  questions.  In  almost  a  similar 
position  the  natural  philosopher  seems  to  be  placed 
with  respect  to  nature.  True,  his  functions  here  are 
more  those  of  the  spy  than  the  judge  ;  but  his  object 
remains  pretty  much  the  same.  Her  hidden  motives 
and  laws  of  action  is  what  nature  must  be  made  to 
confess.  Whether  a  confession  will  be  extracted  de- 
pends upon  the  shrewdness  of  the  inquirer.  Not  with- 
out reason,  therefore,  did  Lord  Bacon  call  the  experi- 
mental method  a  questioning  of  nature.  The  art  con- 
sists in  so  putting  our  questions  that  they  may  not 
remain  unanswered  without  a  breach  of  etiquette. 

Look,  too,  at  the  countless  tools,  engines,  and  in- 
struments of  torture  with  which  man  conducts  his  in- 
quisitions of  nature,  and  which  mock  the  poet's  words  : 

"  Mysterious  even  in  open  day, 
Nature  retains  her  veil,  despite  our  clamors  : 
That  which  she  doth  not  willingly  display 
Cannot  be  wrenched  from  her  with  levers,  screws,  and  hammers." 

Look  at  these  instruments  and  you  will  see  that  the 
comparison  with  torture  also  is  admissible. 

This  view  of  nature,  as  of  something  designedly 
concealed  from  man,  that  can  be  unveiled  only  by 
force  or  dishonesty,  chimed  in  better  with  the  concep- 
tions of  the  ancients  than  with  modern  notions.  A 
Grecian  philosopher  once  said,  in  offering  his  opinion 
of  the  natural  science  of  his  time,  that  it  could  only  be 
displeasing  to  the  gods  to  see  men  endeavoring  to  spy 
out  what  the  gods  were  not  minded  to  reveal  to  them.- 
Of  course  all  the  contemporaries  of  the  speaker  were 
not  of  his  opinion. 

Traces  of  this  view  may  still  be  found  to-day,  but 
upon  the  whole  we  are  now  not  so  narrow-minded. 
We  believe  no  longer  that  nature  designedly  hides 
herself.      We  know  now  from   the   history  of  science 

1  Graz,  1867.     Translated  by  /i/cpK. 

2  Xenophon,  Memorabilia  iv,  7,  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Socrates  these 
words :  oi'TE  yap  evperd  av&puTvvc^  avra  h'OfuCev  elvai^  ohre  ;i;a/)/(^e(7i?fa 
i^eoZf  av  yyeiTO  tov  Cv^ovvra  a  kHnvoi  Ga(p7/i'iGai  ovk  £(3ov?Jj^r/aav. 


that  our  questions  are  sometimes  meaningless,  and 
that,  therefore,  no  answer  can  be  forthcoming.  Soon 
we  shall  see  how  man,  with  all  his  thoughts  and  quests, 
is  only  a  fragment  of  nature's  life. 

Picture,  then,  as  your  fancy  dictates,  the  tools  of 
the  physicist  as  instruments  of  torture  or  as  engines  of 
endearment,  at  all  events  a  chapter  from  the  history  of 
those  implements  will  be  of  interest  to  you,  and  it  will 
not  be  unpleasant  to  learn  what  were  the  peculiar  diffi- 
culties that  led  to  the  invention  of  such  strange  appa- 
ratus. 

Galileo  (born  at  Pisa  in  1564,  died  at  Arcetri  in 
1642)  was  the  first  who  asked  what  was  the  velocity 
of  light,  that  is,  what  time  it  would  take  for  a  light 
struck  at  one  place  to  become  visible  at  another,  a 
certain  distance  away.' 

The  method  which  Galileo  devised  was  as  simple 
as    it   was    natural.     Two    practised    observers,   with 
muffled  lanterns,  were  to  take  up  positions  in  a  dark 
night   at   a   considerable   dis- 
tance from  each  other,  one  at       a s 

v4  and  one  at  .5.     At  a  moment  Fig.  i. 

previously  fixed  upon,  A  was 

instructed  to  unmask  his  lantern ;  while  as  soon  as  £ 
saw  the  light  of  ^'s  lantern  he  was  to  unmask  his. 
Now  it  is  clear  that  the  time  which  A  counted  from 
the  uncovering  of  his  lantern  until  he  caught  sight  of 
the  light  of  ^'s  would  be  the  time  which  it  would  take 
light  to  travel  from  A  to  B  and  from  B  back  to  A. 

The  experiment  was  not  executed,  nor  could  it,  in 
the  nature  of  the  case,  have  been  a  success.  As  we 
now  know,  light  travels  too  rapidly  to  be  thus  noted. 
The  time  elapsing  between  the  arrival  of  the  light  at 
B  and  its  perception  by  the  observer,  with  that  be- 
tween the  decision  to  uncover  and  the  uncovering  of 
the  lantern,  is,  as  we  now  know,  incomparably  greater 
than  the  time  which  it  takes  light  to  travel  the  greatest 
earthly  distances.  The  great  velocity  of  light  will  be 
made  apparent,  if  we  reflect  that  a  flash  of  lightning 
in  the  night  illuminates  instantaneously  a  very  exten- 
sive region,  whilst  the  single  reflected  claps  of  thunder 
arrive  at  the  observer's  ear  very  gradually  and  in  ap- 
preciable succession. 


1  Galilei,  Dzsca 


mate7natiche.     Leyden,   1638.     Dialogo 


4i68 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


During  his  life,  then,  the  efforts  of  Galileo  to  de- 
termine the  velocity  of  light  remained  uncrowned  with 
success.  But  the  subsequent  history  of  the  measure- 
ment of  the  velocity  of  light  is  intimately  associated 
with  his  name,  for  with  the  telescope  which  he  con- 
structed he  discovered  the  four  satellites  of  Jupiter, 
and  these  furnished  the  next  occasion  for  the  deter- 
mination of  the  velocity  of  light. 

The  terrestrial  spaces  were  too  small  for  Galileo's 
experiment.  The  measurement  was  first  executed 
when  the  spaces  of  the  planetary  system  were  em- 
ployed. Olaf  Romer,  (born  at  Aarhuus  in  1644,  died 
at  Copenhagen  in  1710)  accomplished  the  feat  (1675- 
1676),  while  watching  with  Cassini  at  the  observatory 
of  Paris  the  revolutions  of  Jupiter's  moons. 

Let  AB  (Fig.  2)  be  Jupiter's  orbit.  Let  S  stand 
for  the  sun,  E  for  the  earth,  y  for  Jupiter,  and  7"  for 
Jupiter's  first  satellite.     When  the  earth  is  at  E^  we 

B 


Q, 


fii 


o 

8 


■eW 


see  the  satellite  enter  regularly  into  Jupiter's  shadow, 
and  by  watching  the  time  between  two  successive 
eclipses,  can  calculate  its  time  of  revolution.  The 
time  which  Romer  noted  was  forty-two  hours,  twenty- 
eight  minutes,  and  thirty-five  seconds.  Now,  as  the 
earth  passes  along  in  its  orbit  towards  E^,  the  revolu- 
tions of  the  satellite  grow  apparently  longer  and  longer  : 
the  eclipses  take  place  later  and  later.  The  greatest 
retardation  of  the  eclipse,  which  occurs  when  the  earth 
is  at  jE,,  amounts  to  sixteen  minutes  and  twenty-six 
seconds.  As  the  earth  passes  back  again  to  E^,  the 
revolutions  grow  apparently  shorter,  and  they  occur 
in  exactly  the  time  that  they  first  did  when  the  earth 
arrives  at-ffj.  It  is  to  be  remarked  that  Jupiter  changes 
only  very  slightly  its  position  during  one  revolution  of 
the  earth.  Romer  guessed  at  once  that  these  period- 
ical changes  of  the  time  of  revolution  of  Jupiter's  satel- 
lite were  not  actual,  but  apparent  changes,  which  were 
in  some  way  connected  with  the  velocity  of  light. 

Let  us  make  this  matter  clear  to  ourselves  by  a  sim- 
ile. We  receive  regularly  by  the  post,  news  of  the 
political  status  at  our  capital.  However  far  away  we 
may  be  from  the  capital,  we  hear  the  news  of   every 


event,  later  it  is  true,  but  of  all  equally  late.  The 
events  reach  us  in  the  same  succession  of  time  as  that 
in  which  they  took  place.  But  if  we  are  travelling 
away  from  the  capital,  every  successive  post  will  have 
a  greater  distance  to  pass  over,  and  the  events  will 
reach  us  more  slowly  than  they  took  place.  The  re- 
verse will  be  the  case  if  we  are  approaching  the  capital. 

At  rest,  we  hear  a  piece  of  music  played  in  the 
same  tempo  at  all  distances.  But  the  tempo  seems  to 
be  accelerated  if  we  are  carried  rapidly  towards  the 
band,  or  to  be  retarded  if  we  are  carried  swiftly  away 
from  it.' 

Picture  to  yourself  a  cross,  say  the  sails  of  a  wind- 
mill (Fig.  3),  in  uniform  rotation  about  its  centre. 
Clearly,  the  rotation  of  the  cross  will  appear  to  you 
more  slowly  executed  if  you  are  carried 
very  rapidly  away  from  it.      For  the  post 

which  in  this  case  conveys  to  you   the     

light  and  brings  to  you  the  news  of  the 
successive  positions  of  the  cross  will  have 
to  travel  in  each  successive  instant  over  '^'  ^' 

a  longer  path. 

Now  this  must  also  be  the  case  with  the  rotation 
(the  revolution)  of  the  satellite  of  Jupiter.  The  great- 
est retardation  of  the  eclipse  (i5j^  minutes),  due  to 
the  passage  of  the  earth  from  E^  to  E^,  or  to  its  re- 
moval from  Jupiter  by  a  distance  equal  to  the  diameter 
of  the  orbit  of  the  earth,  plainly  corresponds  to  the 
time  which  light  requires  to  travel  a  distance  equal  to 
the  diameter  of  the  earth's  orbit.  The  velocity  of  light, 
that  is,  the  distance  described  by  light  in  a  second,  as 
determined  by  this  calculation,  is  311,000  kilometres, 
or  193,000  miles.  A  subsequent  correction  of  the  diam- 
eter of  the  earth's  orbit,  gives,  by  the  same  method, 
the  velocity  of  light  as  approximately  186,000  miles  a 
second. 

The  method  is  exactly  that  of  Galileo ;  only  better 
conditions  are  selected.  Instead  of  a  short  terrestrial 
distance  we  have  the  diameter  of  the  earth's  orbit, 
three  hundred  and  seven  million  kilometres;  in  place 
of  the  uncovered  and  covered  lanterns  we  have  the 
satellite  of  Jupiter,  which  alternately  appears  and  dis- 
appears. Galileo,  therefore,  although  he  could  not 
himself  make  his  proposed  measurement,  found  the 
lantern  by  which  it  was  ultimately  executed. 

Physicists  did  not  long  remain  satisfied  with  this 
beautiful  discovery.  They  sought  after  easier  meth- 
ods of  measuring  the  velocity  of  light,  which  might  be 
performed  on  the  earth.  This  was  possible  after  the 
difficulties  of  the  problem  were  clearly  exhibited.  A 
measurement  of  the  kind  referred  to  was  executed  in 
1849  by  Fizeau  (born  at  Paris  in  1819). 


1  In  the  same  way,  the  pitch  of  a  locomotive  whistle  seems  to  rise  as  a 
rapidly  moving  train  approaches  a  railway  station,  and  to  fall  as  the  train 
passes  away  from  it. —  Trans. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4169 


I  shall  endeavor  to  make  the  principle  of  Fizeau's 

apparatus  clear  to  you.      Let  s  (Fig.  4)  be  a  disk  free 

to  rotate   about  its  centre,  and  perforated   at  its  rim 

with  a  series  of  holes.      Let  /  be  a  luminous  point 

a    s 


1 


casting  its  light  on  an  unsilvered  glass,  a,  inclined  at 
an  angle  of  forty- five  degrees  to  the  axis  of  the  disk. 
The  ray  of  light,  reflected  at  this  point,  passes  through 
one  of  the  holes  of  the  disk  and  falls  at  right  angles 
upon  a  mirror  d,  erected  at  a  point  about  five  miles 
distant.  From  the  mirror  i  the  light  is  again  reflected, 
passes  once  more  through  the  hole  in  s,  and,  penetrat- 
ing the  glass  plate,  finally  strikes  the  eye,  0,  of  the  ob- 
server. The  eye,  ^,  thus  sees  the  image  of  the  lumi- 
nous point  /  through  the  glass  plate  and  the  hole  of 
the  disk  in  the  mirror  i. 

If,  now,  the  disk  be  set  in  rotation,  the  unpierced 
spaces  between  the  apertures  will  alternately  take  the 
place  of  the  apertures,  and  the  eye  o  will  now  see  the 
image  of  the  luminous  point  in  6  only  at  interrupted 
intervals.  On  increasing  the  rapidity  of  the  rotation, 
however,  the  interruptions  for  the  eye  again  become 
unnoticeable,  and  the  eye  sees  the  mirror  l>  uniformly 
illuminated. 

But  all  this  holds  true  only  for  relatively  small  ve- 
locities of  the  disk,  when  the  light  sent  through  an 
aperture  in  j  to  ^  on  its  return  strikes  the  aperture  at 
almost  the  same  place  and  passes  through  it  a  second 
time.  Conceive,  now,  the  velocity  of  the  disk  so  in- 
creased that  the  light  on  its  return  finds  before  it  an 
unpierced  space  instead  of  an  aperture,  it  will  then  no 
longer  be  able  to  reach  the  eye.  We  then  see  the 
mirror  l>  only  when  no  light  is  emitted  from  it,  but 
only  when  light  is  sent  to  it  ;  it  is  covered  when  light 
comes  from  it.  In  this  case,  accordingly,  the  mirror 
will  always  appear  dark. 

If  the  velocity  of  rotation  at  this  point  were  still 
further  increased,  the  light  sent  through  one  aperture 
could  not,  of  course,  on  its  return  pass  through  the 
same  aperture  but  might  strike  the  next  and  reach 
the  eye  by  that.  Hence,  by  constantly  increasing  the 
velocity  of  the  rotation,  the  mirror  i>  may  be  made  to 
appear  alternately  bright  and  dark.  Plainly,  now,  if 
we  know  the  number  of  apertures  of  the  disk,  the  num- 
ber of  rotations  per  second,  and  the  distance  sd,  we 
can  calculate  the  velocity  of  light.  The  result  agrees 
with  that  obtained  by  Romer. 

The  experiment  is  not  quite  as  simple  as  my  ex- 


position might  lead  you  to  believe.  Care  must  be 
taken  that  the  light  shall  travel  back  and  forth  over 
the  miles  of  distance  i-^  and  l/s  undispersed.  This 
difficulty  is  obviated  by  means  of  telescopes. 

If  we  examine  Fizeau's  apparatus  closely,  we  shall 
recognise  in  it  an  old  acquaintance  :  the  arrangement 
of  Galileo's  experiment.  The  luminous  point  /  is  the 
lantern  A,  while  the  rotation  of  the  perforated  disk  per- 
forms mechanically  the  uncovering  and  covering  of  the 
lantern.  Instead  of  the  unskilful  observer  £  we  have 
the  mirror  />,  which  is  unfailingly  illuminated  the  instant 
the  light  arrives  from  s.  The  disk  s,  by  alternately 
transmitting  and  intercepting  the  reflected  light, assists 
the  observer  o.  Galileo's  experiment  is  here  executed, 
so  to  speak,  countless  times  in  a  second,  while  the  total 
result  admits  of  actual  observation.  If  I  might  be 
pardoned  the  use  of  a  phrase  of  Darwin's  in  this  field, 
I  should  say  that  Fizeau's  apparatus  was  the  descen- 
dant of  Galileo's  lantern. 

A  still  more  refined  and  delicate  method  for  the 
measurement  of  the  velocity  of  light  was  employed  by 
Foucault,  but  a  description  of  it  here  would  lead  us 
too  far. 

The  measurement  of  the  velocity  of  sound  is  easily 
executed  by  the  method  of  Galileo.  It  was  unneces- 
sary, therefore,  for  physicists  to  rack  their  brains  fur- 
ther about  the  matter ;  but  the  idea  which  with  light 
grew  out  of  necessity  was  applied  also  in  this  field. 
Koenig  of  Paris  constructs  an  apparatus  for  the  meas- 
urement of  the  velocity  of  sound  which  is  closely  allied 
to  the  method  of  Fizeau. 

The  apparatus  is  very  simple.  It  consists  of  two 
electrical  clock-works  which  strike  simultaneously, 
with  perfect  precision,  tenths  of  seconds.  If  we  place 
the  two  clock-works  directly  side  by  side,  we  hear 
their  strokes  simultaneously,  wherever  we  stand.  But 
if  we  take  our  stand  by  the  side  of  one  of  the  works 
and  place  the  other  at  some  distance  from  us,  in  gen- 
eral a  coincidence  of  the  strokes  will  now  not  be  heard. 
The  companion  strokes  of  the  remote  clock-work  ar- 
rive, as  sound,  later.  The  first  stroke  of  the  remote 
work  is  heard,  for  example,  immediate!}'  after  the  first 
of  the  adjacent  work,  and  so  on.  But  by  increasing 
the  distance  we  may  produce  again  a  coincidence  of  the 
strokes.  For  example,  the  first  stroke  of  the  remote 
work  coincides  with  the  second  of  the  near  work,  the 
second  of  the  remote  work  with  the  third  of  the  near 
work,  and  so  on.  If,  now,  the  works  strike  tenths  of 
seconds  and  the  distance  between  them  is  increased 
until  the  first  coincidence  is  noted,  plainly  that  dis- 
tance is  travelled  over  by  the  sound  in  a  tenth  of  a 
second. 

We  meet  frequently  the  phenomenon  here  pre- 
sented, that  a  thought  which  centuries  of  slow  and 
painful  endeavor  are  necessary  to  produce,  when  once 


4170 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


developed,  fairly  thrives.  It  spreads  and  runs  every- 
where, even  entering  minds  in  which  it  could  never 
have  arisen.      It  simply  can  not  be  eradicated. 

The  determination  of  the  velocity  of  light  is  not  the 
only  case  in  which  the  direct  perception  of  the  senses 
is  too  slow  and  clumsy  for  use.  The  usual  method 
of  studying  events  too  fleet  for  direct  observation  con- 
sists in  putting  into  reciprocal  action  with  them  other 
events  already  known,  the  velocities  of  all  of  which 
are  capable  of  comparison.  The  result  is  usually  un- 
mistakable, and  susceptible  of  direct  inference  respect- 
ing the  character  of  the  event  which  is  unknown.  The 
velocity  of  electricity  cannot  be  determined  by  direct 
observation.  But  it  was  ascertained  by  Wheatstone, 
simply  by  the  expedient  of  watching  an  electric  spark" 
in  a  mirror  rotating  with  tremendous  known  velocity. 
If  we  wave  a  staff  irregularly  hither  and  thither, 
simple  observation  cannot  determine  how  quickly  it 
moves  at  each  point  of  its  course.  But  let 
us  look  at  the  staff  through  holes  in  the  rim 
of  a  rapidly  rotating  disk.  We  shall  then 
see  the  moving  staff  only  in  certain  posi- 
tions, namely,  when  a  hole  passes  in  front 
of  the  eye.  The  single  pictures  of  the  staff 
remain  for  a  time  impressed  upon  the  eye  ; 
we  think  we  see  several  staffs,  having  some 
such  disposition  as  that  represented  in  Fig.  6.  If, 
now,  the  holes  of  the  disk  are  equally  far  apart,  and 
the  disk  is  rotated  with  uniform  velo- 
city, we  see  clearly  that  the  staff  has 
moved  slowly  from  a  to  b,  more  quickly 
from  b  to  c,  still  more  quickly  from  c  to 
d,  and  with  its  greatest  velocity  from 
^  to  e. 

^^^'  ^'  A  jet  of  water  flowing  from  an  ori- 

fice in  the  bottom  of  a  vessel  has  the  appearance  of 
perfect  quiet  and  uniformity,  but  if  we  illuminate  it 
for  a  second,  in  a  dark  room,  by  means  of 
an  electric  flash  we  shall  see  that  the  jet  is 
composed  of  separate  drops.  By  their  quick 
descent  the  images  of  the  drops  are  oblite- 
rated and  the  jet  appears  uniform.  Let  us 
look  at  the  jet  through  the  rotating  disk. 
Fig.  7-  'j-j^g  (j-gjj  jg  supposed  to  be  rotated  so  rap- 
idly that  while  the  second  aperture  passes  into  the 
place  of  the  first,  drop  i  falls  into  the  place  of  2,  2 
into  the  place  of  3,  and  so  on.  We  see  drops  then  al- 
ways in  the  same  places.  The  jet  appears  to  be  at 
rest.  If  we  turn  the  disk  a  trifle  more  slowly,  then 
while  the  second  aperture  passes  into  the  place  of  the 
first,  drop  i  will  have  fallen  somewhat  lower  than  1, 
2  somewhat  lower  than  3,  etc.  Through  every  succes- 
sive aperture  we  shall  see  drops  in  successively  lower 
positions.  The  jet  will  appear  to  be  flowing  slowly 
downwards. 


30 
40 
50-1- 


Now  let  us  turn  the  disk  more  rapidly.  Then  while 
the  second  aperture  is  passing  into  the  place  of  the 
first,  drop  i  will  not  quite  have  reached  the  place  of  2, 
but  will  be  found  slightly  above  2,  2  slightly  above  3, 
etc.  Through  the  successive  apertures  we  shall  see 
the  drops  at  successively  higher  places.  It  will  now 
look  as  if  the  jet  were  flowing  upwards,  as  if  the  drops 
were  rising  from  the  lower  vessel  into  the  higher. 

You  see,  physics  grows  gradually  more  and  more 
terrible.  The  physicist  will  soon  have  it  in  his  power 
to  play  the  part  of  the  famous  lobster  chained  to  the 
bottom  of  the  Lake  of  Mohrin,  whose  direful  mission, 
if  ever  liberated,  the  poet  Kopisch  humorously  de- 
scribes as  that  of  a  reversal  of  all  the  events  of  the 
world ;  the  rafters  of  houses  become  trees  again,  cows 
calves,  honey  flowers,  chickens  eggs,  and  the  poet's 
own  poem  flows  back  into  his  inkstand. 

* 
*  * 

You  will  now  allow  me  the  privilege  of  a  few  gen- 
eral remarks.  You  have  seen  that  the  same  principle 
often  lies  at  the  basis  of  whole  classes  of  apparatus 
designed  for  different  purposes.  Frequently  it  is  some 
very  unobtrusive  idea  which  is  productive  of  so  much 
fruit  and  of  such  extensive  transformations  in  physical 
technics.  It  is  not  different  here  than  in  practical 
life. 

The  wheel  of  a  waggon  appears  to  us  a  very  simple 
and  insignificant  creation.  But  its  inventor  was  cer- 
tainly a  man  of  genius.  The  round  trunk  of  a  tree 
perhaps  first  accidentally  led  to  the  observation  of  the 
ease  with  which  a  load  can  be  moved  on  a  roller. 
Now,  the  step  from  a  simple  supporting  roller  to  a 
fixed  roller,  or  wheel,  appears  a  very  easy  one.  At 
least  it  appears  very  easy  to  us  who  are  accustomed 
from  childhood  up  to  the  action  of  the  wheel.  But  if 
we  put  ourselves  vividly  into  the  position  of  a  man 
who  never  saw  a  wheel,  but  had  to  invent  one,  we  shall 
begin  to  have  some  idea  of  its  difficulties.  Indeed,  it 
is  even  doubtful  whether  a  single  man  could  have  ac- 
complished this  feat,  whether  perhaps  centuries  were 
not  necessary  to  form  the  first  wheel  from  the  primi- 
tive roller.  1 

History  does  not  name  the  progressive  spirits  who 
constructed  the  first  wheel ;  their  time  lies  far  back  of 
the  historic  period.  No  scientific  academy  crowned 
their  efforts,  no  society  of  engineers  elected  them 
honorary  members.  They  still  live  only  in  the  stu- 
pendous results  which  they  called  forth.  Take  from 
us  the  wheel,  and  little  will  remain  of  the  arts  and  in- 
dustries of  modern  life.  All  disappears.  From  the 
spinning-wheel  to  the  spinning-mill,  from  the  turning- 

1  observe,  also,  the  respect  in  which  the  wheel  is  held  in  India,  Japan, 
and  other  Buddhistic  countries,  as  the  emblem  of  power,  order,  and  law,  and 
of  the  superiority  of  mind  over  matter.  The  consciousness  of  the  importance  of 
the  wheel  seems  to  have  lingered  long  in  the  minds  of  these  nations. — Trans  . 


THE     OPEN     OOURT. 


4171 


lathe  to  the  rolling-mill,  from  the  wheelbarrow  to  the 
railway  train,  all  vanishes. 

In  science  the  wheel  is  equally  important.  Whirl- 
ing machines,  as  the  simplest  means  of  obtaining  quick 
motions  with  inconsiderable  changes  of  place,  play  a 
part  in  all  branches  of  physics.  You  know  Wheat- 
stone's  rotating  mirror,  Fizeaii's  wheel.  Plateau's  per- 
forated rotating  disks,  etc.  Almost  the  same  principle 
lies  at  the  basis  of  all  these  apparatus.  They  differ 
from  one  another  no  more  than  the  pen-knife  differs, 
in  the  purposes  it  serves,  from  the  knife  of  the  anato- 
mist or  the  knife  of  the  vine-dresser.  Almost  the  same 
might  be  said  of  the  screw. 

It  will  now  perhaps  be  clear  to  you  that  new 
thoughts  do  not  spring  up  suddenly.  Thoughts  need 
their  time  to  ripen,  grow,  and  develop  in,  like  every 
natural  product ;  for  man,  with  his  thoughts,  is  also  a 
part  of  nature. 

Slowly,  gradually,  and  laboriously  one  thought  is 
transformed  into  a  different  thought,  as  in  all  likelihood 
one  animal  species  is  gradually  transformed  into  new 
species.  Many  ideas  arise  simultaneously.  They  fight 
the  battle  for  existence  not  differently  than  do  the 
Ichthyosaurus,  the  Brahman,  and  the  horse. 

A  few  remain  to  spread  rapidly  over  all  fields  of 
knowledge,  to  be  redeveloped,  to  be  again  split  up,  to 
begin  again  the  struggle  from  the  start.  As  many 
animal  species  long  since  conquered,  the  relicts  of 
ages  past,  still  live  in  remote  regions  where  their  ene- 
mies cannot  reach  them,  so  also  we  find  conquered 
ideas  still  living  on  in  the  minds  of  many  men.  Who- 
ever will  look  carefully  into  his  own  soul  will  acknowl- 
edge that  thoughts  battle  as  obstinately  for  e.xistence 
as  animals.  Who  will  gainsay  that  many  vanquished 
modes  of  thought  still  haunt  obscure  crannies  of  his 
brain,  too  faint-hearted  to  step  out  into  the  clear  light 
of  reason  ?  What  inquirer  does  not  know  that  the 
hardest  battle,  in  the  transformation  of  his  ideas,  is 
fought  with  himself. 

Similar  phenomena  meet  the  natural  inquirer  in  all 
paths  and  in  the  most  trifling  matters.  The  true  in- 
quirer seeks  the  truth  everywhere,  in  his  country- 
walks  and  on  the  streets  of  the  great  city.  If  he  is 
not  too  learned,  he  will  observe  that  certain  things, 
like  ladies'  hats,  are  constantly  subject  to  change.  I 
have  not  pursued  special  studies  on  this  subject,  but 
as  long  as  I  can  remember,  one  form  has  always 
gradually  changed  into  another.  First,  they  wore  hats 
with  long  projecting  rims,  within  which,  scarcely  ac- 
cessible with  a  telescope,  lay  concealed  the  face  of  the 
beautiful  wearer.  The  rim  grew  smaller  and  smaller; 
the  bonnet  shrank  to  the  irony  of  a  hat.  Now  a  tre- 
mendous superstructure  is  beginning  to  grow  up  in  its 
place,  and  the  gods  only  know  what  its  limits  will  be. 
It  is  not  different  with  ladies'  hats  than  with  butter- 


flies, whose  multiplicity  of  form  often  simply  comes 
from  a  slight  excrescence  on  the  wing  of  one  species 
developing  in  a  cognate  species  to  a  tremendous  fold. 
Nature,  too,  has  its  fashions,  but  they  last  thousands 
of  years.  I  could  elucidate  this  idea  by  many  addi- 
tional examples;  for  instance,  by  the  history  of  the 
evolution  of  the  coat,  if  I  were  not  fearful  that  my 
gossip  might  prove  irksome  to  you. 

*  * 

We  have  now  wandered  through  an  odd  corner  of 
the  history  of  science.  What  have  we  learned  ?  The 
solution  of  a  small,  I  might  almost  say  insignificant, 
problem — the  measurement  of  the  velocity  of  light. 
And  more  than  two  centuries  have  worked  at  its  solu- 
tion !  Three  of  the  most  eminent  natural  philosophers, 
Galileo,  an  Italian,  Romer,  a  Dane,  and  Fizeau,  a 
Frenchman,  have  nobly  shared  its  labors.  And  so  it 
is  with  countless  other  questions.  When  we  contem- 
plate thus  the  many  blossoms  of  thought  that  must 
wither  and  fall  before  one  shall  bloom,  then  shall  we 
first  truly  appreciate  Christ's  weighty  but  little  con- 
solatory words  :   "  Many  be  called  but  few  are  chosen. " 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  every  page  of  history. 
But  is  history  right?  Are  really  only  those  chosen 
whom  she  names  ?  Have  those  lived  and  battled  in 
vain,  who  have  won  no  prize? 

I  doubt  it.  And  so  will  every  one  who  has  felt  the 
pangs  of  sleepless  nights  spent  in  thought,  at  first  fruit- 
less, but  in  the  end  successful.  No  thought  in  such 
struggles  was  thought  in  vain  ;  each  one,  even  the  most 
insignificant,  nay,  even  the  erroneous  thought,  that 
which  apparently  was  the  least  productive,  served  to 
prepare  the  way  for  those  that  afterwards  bore  fruit. 
And  as  in  the  thought  of  the  individual  naught  is  in 
vain,  so,  also,  it  is  in  that  of  humanity. 

Galileo  wished  to  measure  the  velocity  of  light. 
He  had  to  close  his  eyes  before  his  wish  was  realised. 
But  he  at  least  found  the  lantern  by  which  his  succes- 
sor could  accomplish  the  task. 

And  so  I  may  maintain  that  we  all,  so  far  as  inclina- 
tion goes,  are  working  at  the  civilisation  of  the  future. 
If  only  we  all  strive  for  the  right,  then  are  we  all 
called  and  all  chosen  ! 


CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA. 


BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 


PAUL'S  EPISTLE  TO  THE  DAMASCENES. 

Dearly  beloved,  this  epistle  write  I  unto  you,  for 
as  much  as  it  hath  been  told  me  how  ye  receive  not  with 
meekness  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus  : 

But  are  puffed  up  with  your  own  conceits,  relying 
upon  your  traditions,  saying  one  to  another  and  to 
him  whom  I  sent  unto  you,  that  a  priest  must  be  of 
the  sons  of  Levi. 


4172 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


Know  ye  not  that  ye  all  are  a  royal  priesthood, — a 
peculiar  people? 

Verily  I  say  unto  you  in  Christ  Jesus  is  neither 
priesthood  nor  tradition,  neither  tithes  nor  burnt- 
offerings,  neither  temples  nor  altars,  neither  circum- 
cision nor  uncircumcision  ; 

But  ye  are  all  free,  made  free  with  the  freedom 
with  which  Christ  hath  made  you  free. 

For  now  hath  light  come  into  the  world  that  ye 
need  walk  no  longer  in  darkness,  neither  stumble  any 
more,  nor  seek  any  more,  nor  doubt  any  more. 

Was  it  not  said  of  old,  even  by  David,  King  of  Is- 
rael, Thou  art  a  priest  forever  after  the  order  of  Mel- 
chizedek. 

And  this  Melchizedek  was  a  type  of  Him  who  should 
come,  even  the  very  Truth,  who  was  first  pure,  being 
King  of  Righteousness,  then  peaceable,  being  King 
of  Peace. 

And  the  same  was  without  father  or  mother,  hav- 
ing neither  beginning  of  days  nor  end  of  life ;  but  was 
truly  like  unto  the  Son  of  God,  abiding  a  priest  con- 
tinually. 

Who  is  made,  not  after  the  law  of  a  carnal  com- 
mandment, but  after  the  power  of  an  endless  hfe. 

Behold  it  came  to  pass  that  this  same  Melchizedek 
preached  unto  your  fathers  this  doctrine  ; 

But  their  hearts  were  hardened  against  him,  and 
they  understood  him  not,  but  reviled  him, 

For  Melchizedek  came  unto  your  city.  And  be- 
held standing  in  the  market-place  thereof  images  of 
gold  of  the  gods  of  the  people. 

Of  the  Canaanites  and  the  Moabites  and  the  Midi- 
anites,  aye  and  of  the  Israelites  also,  whose  seed  ye 
are. 

Behold  there  he  saw  and  beheld  an  image  of  Baal, 
even  a  golden  image,  and  an  image  of  Ashteroth,  even 
a  golden  image. 

And  an  image  of  Jahweh  also,  even  a  golden  image. 

And  they  all  fell  down  before  the  images  and  did 
worship  them. 

Then  Melchizedek  called  with  a  loud  voice  and 
saith,  O  ye  children  of  Israel,  why  are  ye  gone  after  a 
strange  god  ? 

Then  saith  the  Israelites,  Behold  the  image  that 
we  have  set  up  is  not  the  likeness  of  Baal  nor  of  Ash- 
teroth. 

For  the  gods  of  the  Canaanites  and  the  Moabites 
and  the  Midianites  be  false  gods. 

But  He,  whose  image  we  have  made,  is  the  true 
God,  even  Jahweh,  who  brought  us  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  even  Him  do  we  worship. 

Look  now  upon  the  image  of  Baal  and  the  image 
of  Ashteroth.  Is  not  the  image,  even  the  golden 
image  that  we  have  set  up,  comlier  of  form  than  they? 


Then  was  Melchizedek  wroth  and  saith  unto  the 
Israelites : 

Behold  God,  even  the  God  of  Moses,  is  not  a  god 
made  with  hands  like  unto  the  image  that  ye  have 
set  up. 

Neither  is  He  made  in  the  likeness  of  anything  that 
is  on  the  face  of  the  earth  ; 

For  God,  even  the  true  God,  hath  no  form  nor 
comeliness,  that  ye  should  desire  his  likeness. 

And  Melchizedek  took  the  image,  even  the  golden 
image  that  the  Israelites  set  up,  and  cast  it  into  the 
fiery  furnace. 

And  there  were  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  number 
about  ten  thousand. 

And  Melchizedek  turned  the  golden  image  into 
money,  even  into  ten  thousand  pieces  of  gold,  and 
every  piece  of  gold  was  in  the  form  of  a  lamb. 

And  he  gave  unto  the  Israelites  the  pieces  of  gold, 
even  the  golden  lambs  ;  to  every  man  his  piece  ;  to 
every  one  of  the  children  of  Israel  one  lamb. 

And  the  image  was  made  an  end  of,  but  the  gold 
remained. 

Behold  now  I  say  unto  you,  O  men  of  Damascus, 
that  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  old  it  is  now. 

And  this  same  Jesus,  whose  gospel  I  have  preached 
unto  you,  is  now  become  your  great  High  Priest. 

The  priest  forever  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek, 

Who  hath  made  a  new  covenant  with  his  people  in 
a  greater  and  more  perfect  tabernacle,  saying, 

I  will  put  my  laws  in  their  mind  and  write  them 
upon  their  hearts. 

For  the  law  is  a  shadow  of  good  things  to  come 
and  not  the  image  of  the  things. 

Behold  the  lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the 
sins  of  the  world. 


KIDD'S  "SOCIAL  EVOLUTION." 

BY  DR.   LEWIS  G.  JANES. 

Though  over-rated  by  some  critics,  Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd's  re- 
cently published  work  on  "  Social  Evolution  "  has  one  supreme 
merit — that  of  venturing  boldly  upon  the  frontier-line  of  thought 
concerning  the  grave  problems  pertaining  to  the  relations  of  the 
individual  to  society.  It  is  probable  that  the  author,  himself, 
would  hardly  claim  that  he  had  furnished  the  solution  of  these 
problems.  The  general  impression  produced  by  his  book,  indeed, 
is  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  author  there  is  no  rational  solution. 
Social  adjustments  must  be  made  in  the  future,  as  they  have  been 
in  the  past,  according  to  his  understanding  of  the  philosophy  of 
societary  progress,  by  the  complete  subordination  of  the  rational 
nature  to  the  super-rational  sanctions  of  what  he  sometimes  calls 
the  "  ethical"  and  sometimes  the  "  religious"  motive.  This  con- 
ception constitutes  the  key-note  of  Mr.  Kidd's  doctrine  cf  social 
evolution. 

The  conclusions  of  the  author  are  largely  vitiated  by  the  de- 
pendence of  his  argument  on  certain  underlying  and  undemon- 
strated  assumptions,  as  well  as  by  annoying  vagueness  and  inac- 
curacy in  the  use  of  terms:  He  apparently  uses  the  words  "ra- 
tional" and  "  intellectual,"  for  example,  implying  egoistic  hedon- 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4173 


ism  as  the  supreme  motive  of  human  action.  The  admitted  altru- 
istic tendency  in  our  modern  civilisation  is  traced  to  the  conception 
of  human  equality,  which  is  assumed  to  be  the  product  of  the 
"super-rational"  teachings  of  Christianity.  Religion  and  mo- 
rality, apparently  regarded  as  identical  in  their  origin  and  char- 
acter, and  as  antithetical  to  the  rational  nature,  are  traced  to  this 
super-rational  source. 

These  erroneous  assumptions  doubtless  arise  from  insufficient 
acquaintance  with  the  natural  history  of  the  evolution  of  the  reli- 
gious and  moral  sentiments,  and  in  part  from  a  common  miscon- 
ception of  the  essential  character  of  the  early  Christian  doctrine. 
To  the  student  of  human  origins,  nothing  can  be  clearer  than  the 
fact  that  religion  and  morality  were  distinct  in  their  origin  and 
earlier  evolution,  and  have  only  become  united  in  our  thought  by 
a  gradual  process  of  mental  association.  The  earlier  stages  of  hu- 
man progress  were  characterised  by  the  dominance  of  the  religious 
sentiment,  and  by  great  feebleness  of  the  ethical  impulse.  Most 
savage  tribes  are  still  dominated  by  super-rational  or  super-natural 
motives  to  a  degree  almost  inconceivable  by  the  modern  rational 
thinker.  The  progress  of  civilisation,  indeed,  has  been  marked  by 
the  gradual  supplanting  of  supernatural  or  religious  by  ethical  and 
rational  motives  in  the  government  of  conduct.  This  substitution 
has  unquestionably  been  the  result,  mainly,  of  intellectual  progress 
in  the  race. 

This  is  no  less  true  of  the  progress  of  Christianity  itself  than 
it  is  in  those  lands  where  Christianity  has  supplanted  earlier  aud 
cruder  manifestations  of  the  religious  sentiment.  That  which  dif- 
ferentiates Christianity  from  the  religions  which  preceded  it  is  not 
the  supernatural  substratum  which  it  holds  in  common  with  Ju- 
daism, Buddhism,  Zoroastrianism,  and  the  polytheistic  cults  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  but  certain  ethical  and  intellectual  conceptions 
which  are  readily  traceable  to  their  historical  antecedents  in  intel- 
lectual speculation.  To  say  nothing  of  the  teachings  of  Paul  and 
the  Alexandrian  school,  dominant  in  the  earlier  as  well  as  the  pre- 
vailing schools  of  Christian  theology,  largely  based  on  Greek  phil- 
osophical ideas,  there  is  an  intellectual  element,  too  little  recog- 
nised, in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  himself.  The  very  "repentance" 
(metanoia),  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  his  ethical  teaching, 
was  not  a  mere  emotional  "change  of  heart"  as  taught  by  Prot- 
estant divines;  still  less  was  it  the  "doing  of  penance"  (agi/L' 
pccnitentiam)  of  the  Romish  creed  ;  it  was  a  purely  intellectual 
act  of  thinking  through  to  the  results  of  one's  action,  and  thus  in- 
itiating a  rational  change  of  motive. 

Nor  is  it  less  evident  that  the  movement  of  modern  thought 
beginning  with  the  Italian  Renaissance  and  the  Protestant  Refor- 
mation, was  essentially  intellectual — a  revival  in  its  deeper  mo- 
tives of  Greek  and  pagan  ideas  ;  though  Mr.  Kidd  boldly  as- 
sumes the  contrary.  He  interprets  the  Reformation  as  a  return 
to  the  primitive  "super-rational"  religion  of  the  Gospels.  But 
every  theologian  is  aware  that  the  Pauline  and  Alexandrian,  as 
well  as  the  later  Augustinian  elements  in  Christian  doctrine  were 
never  more  strongly  emphasised  than  in  the  theologies  which 
marked  the  period  of  the  Protestant  revival.  The  Christian  doc- 
trine of  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  which  Mr.  Kidd  refers  to  the 
super-rational  teachings  of  Christianity,  has  in  reality  been  of 
slow  growth  in  the  Christian  consciousness,  and  has  blossomed 
into  deed /fl)v'/a«;(  with  man's  intellectual  enfranchisement.  The 
Gospel  teaching,  backed  by  no  explicit  condemnation  of  slavery  by 
the  founder  of  Christianity,  and  hindered  by  the  countenance 
given  to  the  "  peculiar  institution  "  by  Paul  and  the  almost  uni- 
versal custom  of  Christian  peoples  for  fourteen  centuries,  failed  to 
break  the  bonds  of  the  heavy  laden.  In  our  own  country  eco- 
nomic conditions  first  rid  the  Northern  States  of  the  curse  of  sla- 
very ;  climatic  influences  built  up  an  opposing  civilisation,  and 
pagan  powder  and  shell  rather  than  Christian  ethics  did  the  rest. 

We  cannot  think  that  Mr.  Kidd  is  doing  a  real  service  to  the 


world  by  asserting  that  the  true  interests  of  the  "power-holding 
classes  "  are  antagonistic  to  those  of  the  people.  In  so  far  as  popu- 
lar rights  have  been  secured  with  the  consent  of  the  "power- 
holding  classes,"  it  is  because  the  latter  have  been  intellectually 
convinced  that  their  own  true  interests  are  favored  by  the  libera- 
tion, education,  and  improvement  of  the  masses. 

The  economic  lever  is  to  day  the  potent  instrument  by  which 
the  standard  of  living  is  being  raised  and  the  condition  of  the 
poor  and  oppressed  is  being  ameliorated  ;  and  its  fulcrum  is  in  the 
growing  intelligence  of  the  people — capitalists  and  wage-laborers 
alike.  To  this  power  we  must  look  for  the  peaceful  correction  of 
existing  social  inequities,  not  to  sentimental  declamation  concern- 
ing the  brotherhood  of  man  ;  still  less  to  an  alleged  super-rational 
sanction  for  this  humane  sentiment. 

Mr.  Kidd's identification  of  morality  and  religion  with  "super- 
rationalism  "  must  give  joy  both  to  the  rigid  orthodox  defenders  of 
Christianity  and  to  the  crude  "liberal"  dogmatist  who  holds  that 
the  world  has  no  further  use  for  religion.  If  this  assertion  were 
well  founded,  the  effort  to  establish  religion  on  a  scientific  basis 
would  be  preordained  to  failure,  and  for  rational  minds  the  logical 
conclusion  must  be  the  entire  rejection  of  religion.  If,  however, 
religion  be  understood  as  the  reverent  recognition  of  man's  de- 
pendence upon  the  Supreme  Reality,  it  may  have  a  scientific  and 
rational  as  readily  as  a  "  super-rational  "  sanction. 

Mr.  Kidd  argues  with  much  force  and  reason,  in  opposition  to 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  that  a  condition  of  "  social  equilibrium," 
such  as  Mr.  Spencer's  ethical  system  contemplates,  could  only 
exist  as  a  prelude  to  social  degeneration.  Differences  in  function 
and  capacity,  the  competitive  struggle  for  existence,  are  essential 
conditions  to  selection  and  must  permanently  prevail  amongst 
every  form  of  life  which  is  not  actually  retrograding.  This  con- 
sideration should  constitute  a  corrective  of  all  extreme  socialistic 
experimentation,  which  aims,  as  Mr.  Kidd  truly  affirms,  to  create 
artificially  the  conditions  for  such  a  state  of  social  equilibrium. 

Though  not  devoid  of  serious  faults,  Mr.  Kidd's  work,  on  the 
whole,  is  a  wholesome  stimulus  to  thought  and  merits  the  perusal 
of  all  who  are  interested  in  the  serious  problems  of  our  modern 
civilisation. 


SCIENCE  AND  REFORM. 


REGICIDE  REMEDIES. 
On  the  Plain  of  Prayer,  south  of  Mecca,  the  traveller  Burton 
saw  an  isolated  rock,  known  as  the  Harrat  el  Sheytan,  or  "Devil's 
Head,  '  on  account  of  a  bowlder  which  the  enemy  of  mankind  is 
supposed  to  have  placed  on  the  summit  of  the  crag.  Pious  pil- 
grims endeavor  to  enhance  the  merit  of  their  journey  by  flinging 
stones  at  that  top-rock,  and  Bedouins  often  use  it  as  a  target  to 
try  the  range  of  their  long  muskets.  When  the  Emir  of  El  Obid 
was  offered  the  throne  of  the  Caliph,  he  raised  his  hands  in  horror 
and  then  pointed  to  the  fear-haunted  rock.  "  Friends  and  breth- 
ren," said  he,  "  I  have  always  welcomed  an  opportunity  to  serve 
you,  but,  as  for  your  present  request,  I  would  really  as  soon  camp 
on  top  of  the  Harrat."  The  successors  of  the  Prophet  had,  indeed, 
special  reasons  to  consider  a  common  turban  preferable  to  a  crown, 
but  Jeremy  Bentham's  remark  holds  good  that  the  establishment 
of  social  authority  always  implies  the  retrenchment  of  other  rights, 
and  that  it  is  impossible  to  assert  that  authority  in  practice  with- 
out incurring  the  open  or  secret  enmity  of  malcontents.  And 
though  tjrannicide  may  be  the  last  resource  of  the  oppressed,  it  is 
equally  true  that  under  certain  circumstances  a  mania  for  visiting 
a  nation's  sins  upon  its  rulers  may  take  the  form  of  a  moral  epi- 
demic. "  Build  an  almshouse  and  save  the  expenses  of  your  body- 
guard," was  the  advice  of  Sultan  Bajazet's  vizier  ;  but  Henri 
Quatre's  liberality  could  not  placate  the  rancor  of  fanaticism,  and 
President  Carnot's  generous  confidence  in   the   affection    of    his 


TTO    ^' 


-[9^^- 


4174 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


countrymen  did  not  save  him  from  the  dagger  of  conspirators  who 
hated  him  as  the  representative  of  authority,  with  absolute  indif- 
ference to  his  qualities  as  a  man.  The  attempt  to  extirpate  such 
mutineers  against  the  principle  of  law  and  order  has  overtaxed 
even  the  resources  of  the  Russian  autocrat,  but  it  would  be  less 
impossible  to  improve  the  present  plan  for  preventing  the  peculiar 
methods  of  their  propaganda.  "The  garotting  epidemic  of  the 
English  metropolis,"  said  Deputy  Bergeaud,  "was  suppressed  in 
a  month  by  treating  brutal  offenders  of  that  sort  to  a  dose  of  the 
whipping  post,  and  the  mania  of  our  political  amuck-runners  could 
undoubtedly  be  cured  by  a  similar  prescription.  The  prospect  of 
the  guillotine  has  no  terror  for  those  wretches,  a  large  plurality  of 
our  butcher-knife  assassins  and  dynamitards  are  men  at  war  with 
themselves,  as  well  as  with  society  in  general, — desperadoes  who 
engage  in  murderous  enterprises  with  the  deliberate  resolution  of 
risking  the  consequences  of  their  crimes.  Their  recklessness  is, 
in  fact,  a  modified  form  of  suicide  ;  they  are  weary  of  life,  but 
dread  direct  modes  of  self-destruction,  and  enjoy  the  idea  of  pre- 
paring the  finale  of  their  life's  tragedy  with  a  few  weeks  of  excite- 
ment :  notoriety,  the  gratitude  of  newsmongers  and  the  applause 
of  their  fellow  fanatics.  The  last  act  of  expiation,  they  know, 
will  be  swift  and  almost  painless  ;  they  are  insensible  to  shame, 
and  exult  in  the  thought  that  society  is  unable  to  hurt  their  feel- 
.ings.     It  would  be  a  good  plan  to  dispel  that  illusion." 

THE  NEMESIS  OF  REFORM. 
It  is  true  that  reformers  are  specially  apt  to  step  on  the  sore 
toes  of  some  contemporary  dreading  invasion  of  his  hereditary 
prerogatives,  and  that  every  change  of  political  institutions  tends 
to  provoke  the  vendetta  of  conservative  bigots.  But  that  circum- 
stance only  emphasises  the  necessity  of  forestalling  the  risk  of  as- 
sassin epidemics,  f  '  "-^  dou'  :  that  the  Listory  of  the  next 
twenty  decad"  '  ,  ■'  an  age  of  reform.  The  world 
does  not                                          of  a  superstition-disturbing  truth  : 

rav,  vergebens  tuchtig, 
1,  man  will  sogar  dich  nichtig," 

but  it  is  enough  that  the  leaders  of  emancipation  have  to  fight  the 
harpy-brood  of  envy,  bigotry,  and  stupidity,  without  unchaining 
the  furies  of  nihilistic  fanaticism — that  hatred  of  social  order 
directs  its  blind  rage  against  aristocracy  even  in  the  sublime  orig- 
inal sense  of  the  word — the  Rule  of  the  Best. 

SAM  JONES'S  PRECURSORS.  . 

There  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun,  even  in  the  way  of  bur- 
lesque pulpit  orations,  and  several  hundred  years  ago  the  Vienna 
court  chaplain,  Abraham  de  Santa  Clara,  moved  his  hearers  by 
turns  to  tears  and  paroxysms  of  laughter.  Most  of  his  jokes  were 
pointed  by  his  talent  of  mimicry,  exerted  at  the  expense  of  small 
and  great  transgressors ;  but  some  of  his  sermons  are  wholly  un- 
translatable and  would  nowadays  be  apt  to  scatter  even  a  congre- 
gation of  South  Carolina  darkeys.  Dr.  Luther  and  his  chief  op- 
ponents, Eck  and  Hochstraten,  vied  in  the  use  of  grotesque  invec- 
tives, and  various  extravaganzas  of  English  slang  have  been  traced 
to  the  sermons  of  Bishop  Latimer,  who,  e.  g.,  used  the  phrase 
"Going  to  pot,"  in  the  sense  of  being  on  the  road  to  Dante's  pic- 
nic-grounds. 

THE  AMERICAN  SCAPEGOAT. 

Four  hundred  years  ago  every  public  calamity  was  blamed  on 
the  jews.  In  America  the  prowling  tramp  has  taken  the  place  of 
the  mediaeval  back-alley  bugbear.  Unaccountable  fires,  murders, 
and  dam-breaks  are  all  booked  to  his  credit,  and  even  during  the 
recent  strike  some  fifteen  different  railway  disasters  evolved  the 
theory  that  malicious  vagrants  must  have  tampered  with  the 
switches  and  air-brakes. 


AN  ANCIENT  INSTITUTION. 

Two  hundred  years  ago  the  English  Puritans  would  have 
mobbed  a  man  for  hinting  that  the  world  could  possibly  be  more 
than  eight  thousand  years  old.  Now  Sir  Archibald  Gerkie  dem- 
onstrates that  certain  rock  formations  of  our  planet  indicate  an 
age  of  at  least  85,000,000  years.  The  length  of  what  zoologists 
call  the  mammalian  era  is  another  question,  but  there  are  reasons 
to  believe  that  in  the  valleys  of  the  French  Jura,  men,  or  man- 
like apes,  existed   15,000  years  ago. 

A  KNOUT  MANUAL. 
The  Grand  Duke  Constantine  is  going  to  publish  a  treatise  on 
the  "Principles  of  Education."  The  work  will  be  distributed  in 
the  Russian  normal  schools,  and  is  almost  sure  to  prove  a  hit,  as 
the  distinguished  author  is  known  to  have  a  bias  in  favor  of  strik- 
ing arguments.  Felix  L.  Oswald. 


NOTES. 

A  misprint  occurs  on  pape  4147  of  The  Open  Court  at  the  close 
of  the  article  "In  Memoriam  of  Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull.  The 
phrase  "  the  supernatural  God  of  science,"  should  read  "super- 
personal  God  of  science." 


With  reference  to  the  article  ' '  The  Latest  Development  of  an 
Old  Disease,"  a  reader  gives  us  the  information  that  the  name  of 
the  disease  is  Z^ci^iomania,  but  we  are  not  informed  whether  Mr. 
Keeley  is  able  to  cure  it. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEQELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  362. 

THE  VELOCITY  OF  LIGHT.     Prof.  Ernst  Mach    ...  4167 

CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA.     Paul's 

Epistle  to  the  Damascenes.     Hudor  Genone 417' 

KIDD'S  "SOCIAL  EVOLUTION."     Dr.  Lewis  G.  Janes  4172 

SCIENCE  AND  REFORM.  Regicide  Remedies.  The 
Nemesis  of  Reform.  Sam  Jones's  Precursors.  The 
American  Scapegoat.  An  Ancient  Institution.  A  Knout 
Manual.     Felix  L.  Oswald 4173 

NOTES 4174 


V7 


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WHY  HAS  MAN  TWO  EYES? 

A  POPULAR  SCIENTIFIC  LECTURE.l 


BY  PROF.  ERNST  MACH. 

Why  has  man  two  eyes  ? 

That  the  pretty  symmetry  of  his  face  may  not  be 
disturbed,  the  artist  answers.  That  his  second  eye 
may  furnish  a  substitute  for  his  first  if  that  be  lost, 
says  the  far-sighted  economist.  That  we  may  weep 
with  two  eyes  at  the  sins  of  the  world,  replies  the  re- 
ligious enthusiast. 

Odd  opinions  !  Yet  if  you  should  approach  a  mod- 
ern scientist  with  this  question  you  might  consider 
yourself  fortunate  if  you  escaped  with  less  than  a  re- 
buff. "  Pardon  me,  madam,  or  my  dear  sir,"  he  would 
say,  with  stern  expression,  "  man  fulfils  no  purpose  in 
the  possession  of  his  eyes  ;  nature  is  not  a  person,  and 
consequently  not  so  vulgar  as  to  pursue  purposes  of 
any  kind." 

Still  an  unsatisfactory  answer  !  I  once  knew  a  pro- 
fessor who  would  shut  with  horror  the  mouths  of  his 
pupils  if  they  put  to  him  such  an  unscientific  question. 

But  ask  a  more  tolerant  person,  ask  me.  I,  I  can- 
didly confess,  do  not  know  exactly  why  man  has  two 
eyes,  but  the  reason  partly  is,  I  think,  that  I  may  see 
you  here  before  me  to-night  and  talk  with  you  upon 
this  delightful  subject. 

Again  you  smile  incredulously.  Now  this  is  one  of 
those  questions  that  a  hundred  wise  men  together 
could  not  answer.  You  have  heard,  so  far  only,  five  of 
these  wise  men.  You  will  certainly  want  to  be  spared 
the  opinions  of  the  other  ninety-five.  To  the  first  you 
will  reply  that  we  should  look  just  as  pretty  if  we  were 
born  with  only  one  eye,  like  the  Cyclops  ;  to  the  sec- 
ond we  should  be  much  better  off,  according  to  his 
principle,  if  we  had  four  or  eight  eyes,  and  that  in  this 
respect  we  are  vastly  inferior  to  spiders  ;  to  the  third, 
that  you  are  not  just  in  the  mood  to  weep  ;  to  the 
fourth,  that  the  unqualified  interdiction  of  the  question 
excites  rather  than  satisfies  your  curiosity  ;  while  of 
me  you  will  dispose  by  saying  that  my  pleasure  is  not 
as  intense  as  I  think,  and  certainly  not  great  enough 
to  justify  the  existence  of  a  double  eye  in  man  since 
the  fall  of  Adam. 

1  Graz,  18(57.     Translated  by  /(K/jk. 


But  since  you  are  not  satisfied  with  my  brief  and 
obvious  answer,  you  have  only  yourselves  to  blame 
for  the  consequences.  You  must  now  listen  to  a  longer 
and  more  learned  explanation,  such  as  it  is  in  my 
power  to  give. 

As  the  church  of  science,  however,  debars  the  ques- 
tion "Why  ?  "  let  us  put  the  matter  in  a  purely  ortho- 
dox way  :  Man  has  two  eyes,  what  more  can  he  see  with 
two  than  with  one? 

I  will  invite  you  to  take  a  walk  with  me  ?  We  see  * 
before  us  a  wood.  What  is  it  that  makes  this  real 
wood  contrast  so  favorably  with  a  painted  wood,  no 
matter  how  perfect  the  painting  may  be?  What  makes 
the  one  so  much  more  lovely  than  the  other  ?  Is  it  the 
vividness  of  the  coloring,  the  distribution  of  the  lights 
and  the  shadows?  I  think  not.  On  the  contrary,  it 
seems  to  me  that  in  this  respect  painting  can  accom- 
plish very  much. 

The  cunning  hand  of  the  painter  can  conjure  up 
with  a  few  strokes  of  his  brush  forms  of  wonderful 
plasticity.  By  the  help  of  other  means  even  more  can 
be  attained.  Photographs  of  reliefs  are  so  plastic  that 
we  often  imagine  we  can 
actually  lay  hold  of  the  ele- 
vations  and   depressions. 

But  one  thing  the  pain- 
ter never  can  give  with  the 
vividness  that  nature  does 
—  the  difference  of  near 
and  far.  In  the  real  woods 
you  see  plainly  that  you 
can  lay  hold  of  some  trees, 
but  that  others  are  inac- 
cessibly far.  The  picture 
of  the  painter  is  rigid.  The 
picture  of  the  real  woods 
changes  on  the  slight- 
est movement.  Now  this 
branch  is  hidden  behind 
that;  now  that  behind  this. 
The  trees  are  alternately 
visible  and  invisible. 

Let  us  look  at  this  matter  a  little  more  closely. 
For  convenience  sake  we  shall  remain  upon  the  high- 
way, I,  II.     (Fig.  I.)    To  the  right  and  the  left  lies  the 


4176 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


forest.  Standing  at  I,  we  see,  let  us  say,  three  trees 
(i,  2,  3)  in  a  line,  so  that  the  two  remote  ones  are 
covered  by  the  nearest.  Moving  further  along,  this 
changes.  At  II  we  shall  not  have  to  look  round  so  far 
to  see  the  remotest  tree  3  as  to  see  the  nearer  tree  2, 
nor  so  far  to  see  this  as  to  see  i.  Hence,  as  we  tnove 
onward,  objects  thai  are  near  to  us  seem  to  lag  behind  as 
compared  with  objects  that  are  remote  from  us,  the  lagging 
increasing  with  the  proximity  of  the  objects.  Very  remote 
objects,  towards  which  we  must  always  look  in  the 
same  direction  as  we  proceed,  appear  to  travel  along 
with  us. 

If  we  should  see,  therefore,  jutting  above  the  brow 
of  yonder  hill  the  tops  of  two  trees  whose  distance 
from  us  we  were  in  doubt  about,  we  should  have  in 
our  hands  a  very  easy  means  of  deciding  the  question. 
We  should  take  a  few  steps  forward,  say  to  the  right. 


and  the  tree-top  which  receded  most  to  the  left  would 
be  the  one  nearer  to  us.  In  truth,  from  the  amount 
of  the  recession  a  geometer  could  actually  determine 
the  distance  of  the  trees  from  us  without  ever  going 
near  them.  It  is  simply  the  scientific  development  of 
this  perception  that  enables  us  to  measure  the  distances 
of  the  stars. 

Hence,  from  change  of  view  in  forward  motion  the 
distances  of  objects  in  our  field  of  vision  can  be  measured. 

Rigorously,  however,  even  forward  motion  is  not 
necessary.  For  every  observer  is  composed  really  of 
two  observers.  Man  has  t7uo  eyes.  The  right  eye  is 
a  short  step  ahead  of  the  left  eye  in  the  right-hand  di- 
rection. Hence,  the  two  eyes  receive  different  pic- 
tures of  the  same  woods.  The  right  eye  will  see  the 
near  trees  displaced  to  the  left,  and  the  left  eye  will 
see  them  displaced  to  the  right,  the  displacement  being 


greater,  the  greater  the  proximity.      This  difference  is 
sufficient  for  forming  ideas  of  distance. 

We  may  now  readily  convince  ourselves  of  the  fol- 
lowing facts  : 

1.  With  one  eye,  the  other  being  shut,  you  have  a 
very  uncertain  judgment  of  distances.  You  will  find 
it,  for  example,  no  easy  task,  with  one  eye  shut,  to 
thrust  a  stick  through  a  ring  hung  up  before  you;  you 
will  miss  the  ring  in  almost  every  instance. 

2.  You  see  the  same  object  differently  with  the 
right  eye  from  what  you  do  with  the  left. 

Place  a  lamp-shade  on  the  table  in  front  of  you 
with  its  broad  opening  turned  downwards,  and  look 
at  it  from  above.  (Fig.  2.)  You  will  see  with  your 
right  eye  the  image  2,  with  your  left  eye  the  image  i. 
Again,  place  the  shade  with  its  wide  opening  turned 
upwards;  you  will  receive  with  your  right  eye  the  im- 
age 4,  with  your  left  eye  the  image  3.  Euclid  mentions 
phenomena  of  this  character. 

3.  Finally,  you  know  that  it  is  easy  to  judge  of 
distances  with  both  eyes.  Accordingly  your  judgment 
must  spring  in  some  way  from  a  co-operation  of  the 
two  eyes.  In  the  preceding  example  the  openings  in 
the  different  images  received  by  the  two  eyes  seem 
displaced  with  respect  to  one  another,  and  this  dis- 
placement is  sufficient  for  the  inference  that  the  one 
opening  is  nearer  than  the  other. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  you,  ladies,  have  frequently 
received  delicate  compliments  upon  your  eyes,  but  I 
feel  sure  that  no  one  has  ever  told  you,  and  I  know  not 
whether  it  will  flatter  you,  that  5'ou  have  in  your  eyes, 
be  they  blue  or  black,  little  geometricians.  You  say 
you  know  nothing  of  them?  Well,  for  that  matter, 
neither  do  I.      But  the  facts  are  as  I  tell  you. 

You  understand  little  of  geometry?  I  shall  accept 
that  confession.  Yet  with  the  help  of  your  two  eyes 
you  judge  of  distances?  Surely  that  is  a  geometrical 
problem.  And  what  is  more,  you  know  the  solution 
of  this  problem  :  for  you  estimate  distances  correctly. 
If,  then,  you  do  not  solve  the  problem,  the  little  geom- 
etricians in  your  eyes  must  do  it  clandestinely  and  whis- 
per the  solution  to  you.  I  doubt  not  they  are  fleet  little 
fellows. 

What  amazes  me  most  here  is,  that  you  know  noth- 
ing about  these  little  geometricians.  But  perhaps  they 
also  know  nothing  about  you.  Perhaps  they  are  mod- 
els of  punctuality,  routine  clerks  who  bother  about 
nothing  but  their  fixed  work.  In  that  case  we  may 
be  able  to  deceive  the  gentlemen. 

If  we  present  to  our  right  eye  an  image  which  looks 
exactly  like  the  lamp  shade  for  the  right  eye,  and  to 
our  left  eye  an  image  which  looks  exactly  like  a  lamp- 
shade for  the  left  eye,  we  shall  imagine  that  we  see 
the  whole  lamp-shade  bodily  before  us. 

You  know  the  experiment.     If  you  are  practised  in 


A 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4177 


squinting,  you  can  perform  it  directly  with  the  figure, 
looking  with  your  right  eye  at  the  right  image,  and 
with  your  left  eye  at  the  left  image.  In  this  way  the 
experiment  was  first  performed  by  Elliott.  Improved 
and  perfected,  its  form  is  Wheatstone's  stereoscope, 
made  so  popular  and  useful  by  Brewster. 

By  taking  two  photographs  of  the  same  object  from 
two  different  points,  corresponding  to  the  two  eyes,  a 
very  clear  three-dimensional  picture  of  distant  places 
or  buildings  can  be  produced  by  the  stereoscope. 

But  the  stereoscope  accomplishes  still  more  than 
this.  It  can  visualise  things  for  us  which  we  never  see 
with  equal  clearness  in  real  objects.  You  Jinow  that 
if  you  move  much  while  your  photograph  is  being 
taken,  your  picture  will  come  out  like  that  of  a  Hindu 
deity,  with  several  heads  or  several  arms,  which,  at 
the  spaces  where  they  overlap,  show  forth  with  equal 
distinctness,  so  that  we  seem  .to  see  the  one  picture 
through  the  other.  If  a  person  moves  quickly  away 
from  the  camera  before  the  impression  is  completed, 
the  objects  behind  him  will  also  be  imprinted  upon 
the  photograph;  the  person  will  look  transparent. 
Photographic  ghosts  are  made  in  this  way. 

Some  very  useful  applications  may  be  made  of  this 
discovery.  For  example,  if  we  photograph  a  machine 
stereoscopically,  successively  removing  during  the 
operation  the  single  parts  (where  of  course  the  im- 
pression suffers  interruptions),  we  obtain  a  transparent 
view,  endowed  with  all  the  marks  of  spatial  solidity, 
in  which  is  distinctly  visualised  the  interaction  of  parts 
normally  concealed. ^ 

You  see,  photography  is  making  stupendous  ad- 
vances, and  there  is  great  danger  that  in  time  some 
malicious  artist  will  photograph  his  innocent  patrons 
with  internal  views  of  their  most  secret  thoughts  and 
emotions.  How  tranquil  politics  will  then  be  !  What 
rich  harvests  our  detective  force  will  reap  ! 

*  * 

By  the  joint  action  of  the  two  eyes,  therefore,  we 
arrive  at  our  judgments  of  distances,  as  also  of  the 
forms  of  bodies. 

Permit  me  to  mention  here  a  few  additional  facts 
connected  with  this  subject,  which  will  assist  us  in  the 
comprehension  of  certain  phenomena  in  the  history  of 
civilisation. 

You  have  often  heard,  and  know  from  personal  ex- 
perience, that  remote  objects  appear  perspectively 
dwarfed.  In  fact,  it  is  easy  to  satisfy  yourself  that 
you  can  cover  the  image  of  a  man  a  few  feet  away 
from  you  simply  by  holding  up  your  finger  a  short  dis- 
tance in  front  of  your  eye.  Still,  as  a  general  rule, 
you  do  not  notice  this  shrinkage  of  objects.  On  the 
contrary,  you  imagine  you  see  a  man  at  the  end  of  a 


1 1  have  employed   this  method   for  obtaining 
ws  of  anatomical  structures. 


sparent  stereoscopic 


large  hall,  as  large  as  you  see  him  near  by  you.  For 
your  eye,  in  its  measurement  of  the  distances,  makes 
remote  objects  correspondingly  larger.  The  eye,  so  to 
speak,  is  aware  of  this  perspective  contraction  and  is 
not  deceived  by  it,  although  its  possessor  is  unconscious 
of  the  fact.  All  persons  who  have  attempted  to  draw 
from  nature  have  vividly  felt  the  difficulty  which  this 
superior  dexterity  of  the  eye  causes  the  perspective 
conception.  Not  until  one's  judgment  of  distances  is 
made  uncertain,  by  their  size,  or  from  lack  of  points 
of  reference,  or  from  being  too  quickly  changed,  is  the 
perspective  rendered  very  prominent. 

On  sweeping  round  a  curve  on  a  rapidly  moving 
railway  train,  where  a  wide  prospect  is  suddenly 
opened  up,  the  men  upon  distant  hills  appear  like 
dolls.  1  You  have  at  the  moment,  here,  no  known 
references  for  the  measurement  of  distances.  The 
stones  at  the  entrance  of  a  tunnel  grow  visibly  larger 
as  we  ride  towards  it ;  they  shrink  visibly  in  size  as  we 
ride  from  it. 

Usually  both  eyes  work  together.  As  certain  views 
are  frequently  repeated,  and  lead  always  to  substan- 
tially the  same  judgments  of  distances,  the  eyes  in 
time  must  acquire  a  special  skill  in  geometrical  con- 
structions. In  the  end,  undoubtedly,  this  skill  is  so 
increased  that  a  single  eye  alone  is  often  tempted  to 
exercise  that  office. 

Permit  me  to  elucidate  this  point  by  an  example. 
Is  any  sight  more  familiar  to  you  than  that  of  a  vista 
down  a  long  street?  Who  has  not  looked  with  hopeful 
eyes  time  and  again  into  a  street  and  measured  its 
depth.  I  will  take  you  now  into  an  art-gallery  where 
I  will  suppose  you  to  see  a  picture  representing  a  vista 
into  a  street.  The  artist  has  not  spared  his  rulers  to 
get  his  perspective  perfect.  The  geometrician  in  your 
left  eye  thinks,  "Ah  ha  !  I  have  computed  that  case  a 
hundred  times  or  more.  I  know  it  by  heart.  It  is  a 
vista  into  a  street,"  he  continues  ;  "  where  the  houses 
are  lower  is  the  remote  end."  The  geometrician  in 
the  right  eye,  too  much  at  his  ease  to  question  his 
possibly  peevish  comrade  in  the  matter,  answers  the 
same.  But  the  sense  of  duty  of  these  punctual  little 
fellows  is  at  once  rearoused.  They  set  to  work  at  their 
calculations  and  immediately  find  that  all  the  points 
of  the  picture  are  equally  distant  from  them,  that  is, 
lie  all  upon  a  plane  surface. 

What  opinion  will  you  now  accept,  the  first  or  the 
second?  If  you  accept  the  first  you  will  see  distinctly 
the  vista.  If  you  accept  the  second  you  will  see  noth- 
ing but  a  painted  sheet  of  distorted  images. 

It  seems  to  you  a  trifling  matter  to   look  at  a  pic- 

1  This  effect  is  particularly  noticed  in  the  size  of  men  on  high  chimneys  and 
church-steeples— "steeple  Jacks."  When  the  cables  were  slung  from  the 
towers  of  the  Brooklyn  bridge  (277  feet  high),  the  men  sent  out  in  baskets  to 
paint  them,  appeared,  against  the  broad  background  of  heaven  and  water,  like 
flies. —  Trails. 


4178 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


ture  and  understand  its  perspective.  Yet  centuries 
elapsed  before  humanity  came  fully  to  appreciate  this 
trifle,  and  even  the  majority  of  you  first  learned  it  from 
education. 

I  can  remember  very  distinctly  that  at  three  years 
of  age  all  perspective  drawings  appeared  to  me  as 
gross  caricatures  of  objects.  I  could  not  understand 
why  artists  made  tables  so  broad  at  one  end  and  so 
narrow  at  the  other.  Real  tables  seemed  to  me  just 
as  broad  at  one  end  as  at  the  other,  because  my  eye 
made  and  interpreted  its  calculations  without  my  in- 
tervention. But  that  the  picture  of  the  table  on  the 
plane  surface  was  not  to  be  conceived  as  a  plane  painted 
surface  but  stood  for  a  table  and  so  was  to  be  imaged 
with  all  the  attributes  of  extension  was  a  joke  that  I 
did  not  understand.  But  I  have  the  consolation  that 
whole  nations  have  not  understood  it. 

Ingenuous  people  there  are  who  take  the  mock 
murders  of  the  stage  for  real  murders,  the  dissembled 
actions  of  the  players  for  real  actions,  and  who  can 
scarcely  restrain  themselves,  when  the  characters  of  the 
play  are  sorely  pressed,  from  running  in  deep  indigna- 
tion to  their  assistance.  Others,  again,  can  never  for- 
get that  the  beautiful  landscapes  of  the  stage  are 
painted,  that  Richard  III.  is  only  the  actor,  Mr. Booth, 
whom  they  have  met  time  and  again  at  the  clubs. 

Both  points  of  view  are  equally  mistaken.  To  look 
at  a  drama  or  a  picture  properly  one  must  understand 
that  both  are  shotvs,  simply  denoting  something  real. 
A  certain  preponderance  of  the  intellectual  life  over 
the  sensuous  life  is  requisite  for  such  an  achievement, 
where  the  intellectual  elements  are  safe  from  destruc- 
tion by  the  direct  sensuous  impressions.  A  certain 
liberty  in  choosing  one's  point  of  view  is  necessary,  a 
sort  of  humor,  I  might  say,  which  is  strongly  wanting 
in  children  and  in  childlike  peoples. 

Let  us  look  at  a  few  historical  facts.  I  shall  not 
take  you  as  far  back  as  the  stone  age,  although  we 
possess  sketches  from  this  epoch  which  show  very  orig- 
inal ideas  of  perspective.  But  let  us  begin  our  sight- 
seeing in  the  tombs  and  ruined  temples  of  ancient 
Egypt,  where  the  numberless  reliefs  and  gorgeous  col- 
orings have  defied  the  ravages  of  thousands  of  years. 

A  rich  and  motley  life  is  here  opened  to  us.  We 
find  the  Egyptians  represented  in  all  conditions  of  life. 
What  at  once  strikes  our  attention  in  these  pictures 
is  the  delicacy  of  their  technical  execution.  The  con- 
tours are  extremely  exact  and  distinct.  But  on  the 
other  hand  only  a  few  bright  colors  are  found,  un- 
blended and  without  trace  of  transition.  Shadows  are 
totally  wanting.  The  paint  is  laid  on  the  surfaces  in 
equal  thicknesses. 

Shocking  for  the  modern  eye  is  the  perspective. 
All  the  figures  are  equally  large,  with  the  exception  of 
the  king,  whose  form  is  unduly  exaggerated.   Near  and 


far  appear  equally  large.  Perspective  contraction  is 
nowhere  employed.  A  pond  with  water  fowl  is  repre- 
sented flat,  as  if  its  surface  were  vertical. 

Human  figures  are  portrayed  as  they  are  never 
seen,  the  legs  from  the  side,  the  face  in  profile.  The 
breast  lies  in  its  full  breadth  across  the  plane  of  rep- 
resentation. The  heads  of  cattle  appear  in  profile, 
while  the  horns  lie  in  the  plane  of  the  drawing.  The. 
principle  which  the  Egyptians  followed  might  be  best 
expressed  by  saying  that  their  figures  are  pressed  in 
the  plane  of  the  drawing  as  plants  are  pressed  in  a 
herbarium. 

The  matter  is  simply  explained.  If  the  Egyptians 
were  accustomed  to  looking  at  things  ingenuously 
with  both  eyes  at  once,  the  construction  of  perspec- 
tive pictures  in  space  could  not  be  familiar  to  them. 
They  saw  all  arms,  all  legs  on  real  men  in  their  nat- 
ural lengths.  The  figures  pressed  into  the  planes  re- 
sembled more  closely,  of  course,  in  their  eyes  the 
originals  than  perspective  pictures  could. 

This  will  be  better  understood  if  we  reflect  that 
painting  was  developed  from  relief.  The  minor  dis- 
similarities between  the  pressed  figures  and  the  orig- 
inals must  gradually  have  compelled  men  to  the  adop- 
tion of  perspective  drawing.  But  physiologically  the 
painting  of  the  Egyptions  is  just  as  much  justified  as 
the  drawings  of  our  children  are. 

A  slight  advance  beyond  the  Egyptians  is  shown 
by  the  Assyrians.  The  reliefs  rescued  from  the  ruined 
mounds  of  Nimrod  at  Mossul  are,  upon  the  whole, 
similar  to  the  Egyptian  reliefs.  They  were  made  known 
to  us  principally  by  Layard. 

Painting  enters  on  a  new  phase  among  the  Chi- 
nese. This  people  have  a  marked  feeling  for  perspec- 
tive and  correct  shading,  yet  without  being  very  logi- 
cal in  the  application  of  their  principles.  Here,  too, 
it  seems,  they  took  the  first  step  but  did  not  go  far. 
In  harmony  with  this  immobility  is  their  constitution, 
in  which  the  muzzle  and  the  bamboo-rod  play  sig- 
nificant functions.  In  accord  with  it,  too,  is  their 
language,  which  like  the  language  of  children  has  not 
yet  developed  into  a  grammar,  or,  rather,  according 
to  the  modern  conception,  has  not  yet  degenerated 
into  a  grammar.  It  is  the  same  also  with  their  music 
which  is  satisfied  with  the  five-toned  scale. 

The  mural  paintings  at  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii 
are  distinguished  by  grace  of  representation,  as  also 
by  a  pronounced  sense  for  perspective  and  correct  il- 
lumination, yet  they  are  not  at  all  scrupulous  in  con- 
struction. Here  still  we  find  abbreviations  avoided. 
But  to  offset  this  defect,  the  members  of  the  body  are 
brought  into  unnatural  positions,  in  which  they  appear 
in  their  full  lengths.  Abridgements  are  more  fre- 
quently observed  in  clothed  than  in  unclothed  figures. 

A  satisfactory  explanation  of  these  phenomena  first 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4179 


occurred  to  me  on  the  making  of  a  few  simple  experi- 
ments which  show  how  differently  one  may  see  the 
same  object,  after  some  mastery  of  one's  senses  has 
been  attained,  simply  by  the  arbitrary 
movement  of  the  attention. 

Look  at  the  annexed  drawing  (Fig.  3). 
It  represents  a  folded  sheet  of  paper  with 
either  its  depressed  or  its  elevated  side 
turned  towards  you,  as  you  wish.  You  can 
conceive  the  drawing  in  either  sense,  and 
in  either  case  it  will  appear  to  you  differently. 

If,  now,  you  have  a  real  folded  sheet  of  paper  on 
the  table  before  you,  with  its  sharp  edges  turned  to- 
wards you,  you  can,  on  looking  at  it  with  one  eye,  see 
the  sheet  alternately  elevated,  as  it  really  is,  or  de- 
pressed. Here,  however,  a  remarkable  phenomenon 
is  presented.  When  you  see  the  sheet  properly,  neither 
illumination  nor  form  presents  anything  conspicuous. 
When  you  see  it  bent  back  you  see  it  perspectivejy 
distorted.  Light  and  shadow  appear  much  brighter 
or  darker,  or  as  if  overlaid  thickly  with  bright  colors. 
Light  and  shadow  now  appear  devoid  of  all  cause. 
They  no  longer  harmonise  with  the  body's  form,  and 
are  thus  rendered  much  more  prominent. 

In  common  life  we  employ  the  perspective  and 
illumination  of  objects  to  determine  their  forms  and 
position.  Hence  we  do  not  notice  the  lights,  the 
shadows,  and  the  distortions.  They  first  powerfully 
enter  consciousness  when  we  employ  a  different  con- 
struction from  the  usual  spatial  one.  In  looking  at 
the  planar  image  of  a  camera  obscura  we  are  amazed 
at  the  plenitude  of  the  light  and  the  profundity  of  the 
shadows,  both  of  which  we  do  not  notice  in  real  ob- 
jects. 

In  my  earliest  youth  the  shadows  and  lights  on  pic- 
tures appeared  to  me  as  spots  void  of  meaning.  When 
I  began  to  draw  I  regarded  shading  as  a  mere  custom 
of  artists.  I  once  drew  the  portrait  of  our  pastor,  a 
friend  of  the  family,  and  shaded,  from  no  necessity, 
but  simply  from  having  seen  something  similar  in 
other  pictures,  the  whole  half  of  his  face  black.  I  was 
subjected  for  this  to  a  severe  criticism  on  the  part  of 
my  mother,  and  my  deeply  offended  artist's  pride  is 
probably  the  reason  that  these  facts  remained  so 
strongly  impressed  upon  my  memory. 

You  see,  then,  that  many  strange  things,  not  only 
in  the  life  of  individuals,  but  also  in  that  of  humanity, 
and  in  the  history  of  general  civilisation,  may  be  ex- 
plained from  the  simple  fact  that  man  has  two  eyes. 
Change  man's  eye  and  you  change  his  conception 
of  the  world.  We  have  observed  the  truth  of  this  fact 
among  our  nearest  kin,  the  Egyptians,  the  Chinese, 
and  the  lake-dwellers  ;  how  must  it  be  among  some  of 
our  remoter  relatives, — with  monkeys  and  other  ani- 
mals ?  Nature  must  appear  totally  different  to  animals 


equipped  with  substantially  different  eyes  from  those 
of  men,  as,  for  example,  to  insects.  But  for  the  pres- 
ent science  must  forego  the  pleasure  of  portraying  this 
appearance,  as  we  know  very  little  as  yet  of  the  mode 
of  operation  of  these  organs. 

It  is  an  enigma  even  how  nature  appears  to  ani- 
mals closely  related  to  man;  as  to  birds,  who  see 
scarcely  anything  with  two  eyes  at  once,  but  since 
their  eyes  are  placed  on  opposite  sides  of  their  heads, 
have  a  separate  field  of  vision  for  each.' 

The  soul  of  man  is  pent  up  in  the  prison-house  of 
his  head;  it  looks  at  nature  through  its  two  windows, 
the  eyes.  It  would  also  fain  know  how  nature  looks 
through  other  .windows.  A  desire  apparently  never  to 
be  fulfilled.  But  our  love  for  nature  is  inventive,  and 
here,  too,  much  has  been  accomplished. 

Placing  before  me  an  angular  mirror,  consisting  of 
two  plane  mirrors  slightly  inclined  to  each  other,  I  see 
my  face  twice  reflected.  In  the  right  hand  mirror  I 
obtain  a  view  of  the  right  side,  and  in  the  left-hand 
mirror  a  view  of  the  left  1, 

side,  of  my  face.     Also  ^     ~~-~~-_^_^ 

I  shall  see  the  face  of  a      ^-^  — ^ 

person  standing  in  front 

of  me,  more  to  the  right  with  my  right  eye,  more  to 
the  left  with  my  left.  But  in  order  to  obtain  such 
widely  different  views  of  a  face  as  those  shown  in  the 
angular  mirror,  my  two  eyes  would  have  to  be  set  much 
further  apart  from  each  other  than  thej'  actually  are. 

Squinting  with  my  right  eye  at  the  image  in  the 
right  hand  mirror,  with  my  left  eye  at  the  image  in 
the  left-hand  mirror,  my  vision  will  be  the  vision  of  a 
giant  having  an  enormous  head  with  his  two  eyes  set 
far  apart.  This,  also,  is  the  impression  which  my  own 
face  makes  upon  me.  I  see  it  now,  single  and  solid. 
Fixing  my  gaze,  the  relief  from  second  to  second  is 
magnified,  the  eyebrows  start  forth  prominently  from 
above  the  eyes,  the  nose  seems  to  grow  a  foot  in 
length,  my  mustache  shoots  forth  like  a  fountain  from 
my  lip,  the  teeth  seem  to  retreat  immeasurably.  But 
by  far  the  most  horrible  ,  , 

aspect  of  the  phenom- 
enon is  the  nose. 

Interesting    in    this 
connexion  is   the  tele- 
stereoscope    of    Helm-  :.    i 
holtz.    In  the  telestere-                     .      Fig.  5. 
oscope  we  view  a  land- 
scape by  looking  with  our  right  eye  (Fig.  5)  through 
the  mirror  a  into  the  mirror  A,  and  with  our  left  eye 
through  the  mirror  h  into  the  mirror  B.      The  mirrors 
A   and  B  stand   far   apart.      Again   we   see  with  the 
widely  separated  eyes  of  a  giant.    Everything  appears 


B\i 


J)  a  / 


K---%^ 


'A 


1  See  Joh.  MuHer,  Ver^Uichende  Physiologic  des   Gesichtssit 


Leipsic, 


4i8o 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


dwarfed  and  near  us.  The  distant  mountains  look 
like  moss-covered  stones  at  our  feet.  Between,  you 
see  the  reduced  model  of  a  city,  a  veritable  Liliput. 
You  are  tempted  almost  to  stroke  with  your  hand  the 
soft  forest  and  city,  did  you  not  fear  that  you  might 
prick  your  fingers  on  the  sharp,  needle-shaped  steeples, 
or  that  they  might  crackle  and  break  off. 

Liliput  is  no  fable.  We  need  only  Swift's  eyes, 
the  telestereoscope,  to  see  it. 

Picture  to  yourself  the  reverse  case.  Let  us  sup- 
pose ourselves  so  small  that  we  could  take  long  walks 
in  a  forest  of  moss,  and  that  our  eyes  were  correspond- 
ingly near  each  other.  The  moss-fibres  would  appear 
like  trees.  On  them  we  should  see  strange,  unshapely 
monsters  creeping  about.  Branches  of  the  oak-tree, 
at  whose  base  our  moss-forest  lay,  would  seem  to  us 
dark,  immovable,  myriad-branched  clouds,  painted 
high  on  the  vault  of  heaven;  just  as  the  inhabitants 
of  Saturn,  forsooth,  might  see  their  enormous  ring. 
On  the  tree-trunks  of  our  mossy  woodland  we  should 
find  colossal  globes  several  feet  in  diameter,  brilliantly 
transparent,  swayed  by  the  winds  with  slow,  peculiar 
motions.  We  should  approach  inquisitively  and  should 
find  that  these  globes,  in  which  here  and  there  ani- 
mals were  gaily  sporting,  were  liquid  globes,  in  fact 
that  they  were  water.  A  short,  incautious  step,  the 
slightest  contact,  and  woe  betide  us,  our  arm  is  drawn 
by  an  invisible  power  irresistibly  into  the  interior  of 
the  sphere  and  held  there  unrelentingly  fast !  A  drop 
of  dew  has  engulfed  in  its  capillary  maw  a  manikin, 
in  revenge  for  the  thousands  of  drops  that  its  big  hu- 
man counterparts  have  quaffed  at  breakfast.  Thou 
shouldst  have  known,  thou  pygmy  natural  scientist, 
that  with  thy  present  puny  bulk  thou  shouldst  not  joke 
with  capillarity. 

My  terror  at  the  accident  brings  me  back  to  my 
senses.  I  see  I  have  turned  idyllic.  You  must  pardon 
me.  A  patch  of  greensward,  a  moss  or  heather  forest 
with  its  tiny  inhabitants  have  incomparably  more 
charms  for  me  than  many  a  bit  of  literature  with  its 
apotheosis  of  human  character.  If  I  had  the  gift  of 
writing  novels  I  should  certainly  not  make  John  and 
Mary  my  characters.  Nor  should  I  transfer  my  loving 
pair  to  the  Nile,  nor  to  the  age  of  the  old  Egyptian 
Pharoahs,  although  perhaps  I  should  choose  this  time 
in  preference  to  the  present.  For  I  must  candidly 
confess  that  I  hate. the  rubbish  of  history,  interesting 
though  it  may  be  as  a  mere  phenomenon,  because  we 
cannot  simply  observe  it  but  must  also/<f^/  it,  because 
it  comes  to  us  mostly  with  supercilious  arrogance, 
mostly  unvanquished.  The  hero  of  my  novel  would  be 
a  cockchafer,  venturing  forth  in  his  fifth  year  for  the 
first  time  with  his  newly  grown  wings  into  the  light, 
free  air.  Truly  it  could  do  no  harm  if  man  would  thus 
throw  off  his  inherited   and   acquired  narrowness  of 


mind  by  making  himself  acquainted  with  the  world- 
view  of  allied  creatures.  He  could  not  help  gaining 
incomparably  more  in  this  way  than  the  inhabitant  of 
a  small  town  would  in  circumnavigating  the  globe  and 
getting  acquainted  with  the  views  of  strange  peoples. 

* 
*  * 

I  have  now  conducted  you,  by  many  paths  and  by- 
ways, rapidly  over  hedge  and  ditch,  to  show  you  what 
wide  vistas  we  may  reach  in  every  field  by  the  rigor- 
ous pursuit  of  a  single  scientific  fact.  A  close  exam- 
ination of  the  two  eyes  of  man  has  conducted  us  not 
only  into  the  dim  recesses  of  humanity's  childhood, 
but  has  also  carried  us  far  beyond  the  bourne  of  human 
life. 

It  has  surely  often  struck  you  as  strange  that  the 
sciences  are  divided  into  two  great  groups  ;  that  the 
so-called  humanistic  sciences,  belonging  to  the  so- 
called  "higher  education,"  are  placed  in  almost  a  hos- 
tile attitude  to  the  natural  sciences. 

I  must  confess  I  do  not  overmuch  believe  in  this 
partition  of  the  sciences.  I  believe  that  this  view  will 
appear  as  childlike  and  ingenuous  to  a  matured  age 
as  the  want  of  perspective  in  the  old  paintings  of  Egypt 
do  to  us.  Can  it  really  be  that  "higher  culture  "  is  only 
to  be  obtained  from  a  few  old  pots  and  palimpsests, 
which  are  at  best  mere  scraps  of  nature,  or  that  more 
is  to  be  learned  from  them  alone  than  from  all  the  rest 
of  nature  ?  I  believe  that  both  these  sciences  are  sim- 
ply parts  of  the  same  science,  which  have  begun  at 
different  ends.  If  these  two  ends  still  act  towards 
each  other  as  the  Montagues  and  Capulets,  if  their  re- 
tainers still  indulge  in  lively  tilts,  I  believe  that  after 
all  they  are  not  in  earnest.  On  the  one  side  there  is 
surely  a  Romeo,  and  on  the  other  a  Juliet,  who,  some 
day,  it  is  hoped,  will  unite  the  two  houses  with  a  less 
tragic  sequel  than  that  of  the  play. 

Philology  began  with  the  unqualified  reverence  and 
apotheosis  of  the  Greeks.  Now  it  has  begun  to  draw 
other  languages,  other  peoples  and  their  histories,  into 
its  sphere  ;  it  has,  through  the  mediation  of  compara- 
tive linguistics,  already  struck  up,  though  as  yet  some- 
what cautiously,  a  friendship  with  physiology. 

Physical  science  began  in  the  witch's  kitchen.  It 
now  embraces  the  organic  and  inorganic  worlds,  and 
with  the  physiology  of  articulation  and  the  theory  of 
the  senses,  has  even  pushed  its  researches,  at  times 
impertinently,  into  the  province  of  mental  phenomena. 

In  short,  we  come  to  the  understanding  of  much 
within  us  solely  by  directing  our  glance  without,  and 
vice  versa.  Every  object  belongs  to  both  sciences. 
You,  ladies,  are  very  interesting  and  difficult  problems 
for  the  psychologist,  but  you  are  also  extremely  pretty 
phenomena  of  nature.  Church  and  State  are  objects 
of  the  historian's  research,  but  not  less  phenomena  of 
nature,  and  in  part,  indeed,  very  curious  phenomena. 


THE    OPEN    OOURX. 


4181 


If  the  historical  sciences  have  inaugurated  wide  ex- 
tensions of  view  by  presenting  to  us  the  thoughts  of 
new  and  strange  peoples,  the  physical  sciences  in  a 
certain  sense  do  this  in  a  still  greater  degree.  In 
making  man  disappear  in  the  All,  in  annihilating  him, 
so  to  speak,  they  force  him  to  take  an  unprejudiced 
position  without  himself,  and  to  form  his  judgments  by 
a  different  standard  than  that  of  the  petty  human. 

But  if  you  should  now  ask  me  why  man  has  two 
eyes,  I  should  answer  : 

That  he  may  look  at  nature  rightly  and  accurately; 
that  he  may  come  to  understand  that  he  himself,  with 
all  his  views,  correct  and  incorrect,  with  all  his  haute 
politique,  is  simply  an  evanescent  shred  of  nature ; 
that,  to  speak  with  Mephistopheles,  he  is  a  part  of  the 
part,  and  that  it  is  absolutely  unjustified, 

"  For  man.  the  microcosinic  fool,  to  see 
Himself  a  whole  so  frequently." 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

UNIVERSAL  RELIGION. 

To  the  Editor  of  Ttie  Open  Court : 

In  your  editorial  remarks  upon  my  plea  for  pure  unsectarian- 
ism,  kindly  published  in  the  issue  for  July  26th,  you  make  the 
powerful  declaration  that 

"There  is  but  one  catholic  or  universal  religion :  the  religion  of  truth, 
which  not  only  allows,  but  demands,  a  free  investigation  of  its  tenets,  rejecting 
any  and  all  personal  authority,  and  accepting  that  which  according  to  the 
strictest  methods  of  science  can  be  proved  to  be  true,  There  is  but  one  insti- 
tution on  earth  which  is  truly  catholic  in  principle  :  it  is  science,  and  we  shall 
have  no  catholic  religion  until  we  have  a  religion  of  science." 
But  what  Christian  church  from  the  Roman  Catholic  to  the  Uni- 
tarian can  claim  to  have  "broadened  into  a  church  universal"  ? 
Does  not  the  very  name  Christian  indicate  that  the  Christian  con- 
fession of  the  lordship  of  Jesus  constitutes  the  ultimatJ  authority 
to  which  appeal  must  be  made  ?  To  be  sure,  Christianity,  like  all 
the  other  ethnic  faiths,  contains  a  universal  element  and  a  special 
element.  But  it  is  the  latter  and  not  the  former  that  gives  it  its 
name  and  character.  Christianity  is  a  religion  in  virtue  of  its  uni- 
versal element,  it  is  the  Christian  religion  by  reason  of  its  special 
distinctive  claim,  namely  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Lord  and 
Master  of  mankind.  Here  then  we  have  the  very  antithesis  of  the 
method  of  science  in  determining  truth,  for  Christianity  makes 
the  authority  not  of  reason,  but  of  the  spiritual  Lord,  the  Christ, 
ultimate  and  supreme. 

If  then  a  church  retains  its  Christian  name  and  connexions 
while  it  professes  to  stand  for  ' '  scientifically  provable  truth  as  the 
highest  authority,"  it  simply  occupies  a  contradictory  position  in 
the  eyes  of  the  world.  It  does  no  good  to  talk  free  trade  if  one 
votes  protection.  Our  ideas  should  not  be  compromised  by  our 
practical  connexions.  This  is  what  consistency  demands  and  it  was 
with  a  view  to  occupying  such  a  consistently  ?(«sectarian  position 
that  the  Tacoma  Unitarian  Church  changed  its  name  and  surrendered 
its  Christian  connexions  when  it  once  decided  to  stand  for  universal 
and  unsectarian,  free  religion.  Not  "numbers"  nor  "the  name" 
nor  even  the  "spirit"  makes  a  religion  unsectarian  but  ihe  quality 
of  its  principle,  its  aim  to  work  for  universal  and  not  sectarian  ends. 
The  little  Tacoma  Free  Church  is  therefore  not  a  sect  at  all,  while 
Christianity  with  its  millions  is  distinctly  sectarian.  When  the 
churches  of  the  ethnic  religions  thoroughly  believe  in  brotherhood 
they  will  no  longer  wish  to  retain  sectarian,  excluding  names,  but 
give  them  up  for  the  sake  of  love.  The  special  element  in  all  re- 
ligions is  their  transient  element,  yet  also  the  element  which  makes 


them  -ohat  they  are  as  distinguished  from  one  another.  The  uni- 
versal in  them  all  is  permanent.  This  we  must  cherish  and  it  can 
be  discovered  by  the  scientific  method,  the  only  method  whereby 
truth  can  be  successfully  obtained.  Alfred  W.  Martin. 


[Mr.  Alfred  W.  Martin  pleads  again  for  a  universal  religion 
not  tainted  by  the  sectarian  dogmas  of  traditional  Christianity,  and 
from  this  standpoint  rejects  the  name  "  Christian."  Mr.  Martin  is 
right  in  rejecting  the  name  Christian  for  himself  and  the  members 
of  his  congregation  who  think  like  him.  For  him  it  would  be 
wrong  to  call  himself  a  Christian  so  long  as  he  understands  by 
Christianity  the  blind  acceptance  of  the  doctrines  which  Jesus 
Christ,  according  to  the  belief  of  the  Christian  churches,  is  sup- 
posed to  have  taught.  So  far  we  agree  with  Mr.  Martin,  and  at 
the  same  time  we  heartily  support  his  demand  for  discussing 
the  basic  principle  of  our  convictions,  which  alone  can  give  char- 
acter to  our  religion.  But  we  object  to  his  request  for  others  to 
drop  the  names  "Unitarian"  or  "Christian"  because  to  hiut  it 
has  ceased  to  be  appropriate.  There  are  people,  and  I  have  met 
many  of  them,  to  whom  the  word  Christian  does  not  mean  what 
it  means  to  Mr.  Martin,  and  it  appears  to  me  that  these  people 
have  a  right  to  call  themselves  Christians  and  to  define  their  un- 
derstanding of  Christianity  as  they  think  fit. 

In  my  childhood  I  was  taught  that  Christianity  was  the  doc- 
trine of  Christ,  and  the  doctrine  of  Christ  that  body  of  truths  and 
ethical  injunctions  which  is  taught  by  the  Church  ;  it  had  been 
corrupted  by  the  pagan  influence  of  the  Romish  clergy,  but  Luther 
and  other  reformers  had  restored  it  to  its  primitive  purity.  Only 
he  who  accepts  the  Christianity  thus  warranted  by  appointed 
authority  to  be  genuine,  had  a  proper  right  to  call  himself  a  Chris- 
tian ;  others  had  no  right  to  adopt  the  name.  This  seemed  to  me 
very  plausible,  and  as  I  could  not  accept  the  Christianity  of  any 
of  the  churches,  I  saw  fit  to  drop  the  name  and  to  denounce 
Christianity  as  a  superstition  that  was  to  be  discarded. 

In  the  meantime  I  met  many  people  who  rejected  the  dogmas 
of  the  churches  not  less  vigorously  than  myself,  yet  continued  to 
ca'l  themselves  Christians  ;  and,  saying  that  a  Christian  could  only 
be  one  who  held  a  view  patented  by  at  least  one  of  the  Christian 
churches,  I  attempted  to  convince  them  of  their  inconsistency  and 
to  prove  to  them  that,  even  granting  their  sincerity,  their  position 
would  be  misunderstood.  But  by  and  by,  in  my  attempts  to  con- 
vince liberal  Christians  of  the  impropriety  of  their  calling  them- 
selves Christians,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  they  had  as  much 
right  to  interpret  the  name  as  any  church,  pope,  or  synod. 

The  question  has  often  been  raised,  who  is  a  Christian,  and  it 
has  been  answered  in  many  different  ways.  One  theologian  says 
he  who  believes  in  the  oecumenical  symbols,  especially  the  Apos- 
tle's creed.  That  sounds  logical  enough,  but  how  few  are  the 
Christians  of  to-day  who  believe  it  still  ?  Another  one  says,  he  who 
believes  that  Jesus  Christ  died  on  the  cross  for  our  sins  and  rose 
again  from  the  dead.  A  third  says,  he  who  is  an  exemplification 
of  Christian  ethics,  who  loves  his  fellow-beings  as  himself  and 
leads  a  life  of  righteousness.  This  last  test  of  Christianity  has 
found  a  strong  supporter  in  Lessing,  who  with  unanswerable  criti- 
cism and  rigorously  logical  acumen  proves  to  his  dogmatical  an- 
tagonists that  Christianity  existed  long  before  the  creeds  and  even 
the  gospels,  and  that  no  written  document  can  be  regarded  as 
more  than  a  special  conception  and  interpretation  of  Christianity 
as  held  by  its  author  and  by  those  who  adopt  his  views. 

Lessing's  Christianity,  which  he  expounded  so  admirably  in 
his  grand  religio-philosophical  drama,  "Nathan  the  Wise, "  can- 
not be  accused  of  sectarianism  ;  it  is  as  broad  as  the  universe  and 
as  catholic  as  truth,  and  when  the  Christian  finds  a  Jew  whose 
actions  are  what  he  is  accustomed  to  call  Christian,  he  exclaims  : 
"Nathan,  you  are  a  Christian!"  Whereupon  Nathan  replies:  "That 
which  makes  me  to  you  a  Christian,  makes  you  to  me  a  Jew." 


.0 


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4182 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


Mr.  Martin  must  not  say  that  Lessing  "occupies  a  contra- 
dictory position"  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  Lessing  considers 
"the  universal  element"  as  essential  in  Christianity,  while  Mr. 
Martin  declares  that  "its  special  element  gives  it  its  name  and 
character."  There  is  a  difference  of  definition,  and  what  defini- 
tion will  in  the  long  run  be  adopted  by  "  the  world  "  is  not  for  us 
to  say.  The  world  may  after  all  retain  the  name  Christian  and  fill, 
as  has  been  done  over  and  over  again,  its  old  bottles  with  new  wine. 
Christianity  and  Judaism  are  so  near  to  us  that  it  is  difficult 
to  be  impartial,  especially  if  we  have  just  succeeded  in  emanci- 
pating ourselves  from  the  egg-shells  of  dogmatism.  We  may  be 
fairer  to  other  religions,  the  superstitions  of  which  are  not  so 
strongly  brought  home  to  us. 

It  is  now  a  year  ago  since  I  met  the  venerable  representatives 
of  several  Buddhistic  sects  at  the  Parliament  of  Religions  in  Chi- 
cago, and  I  was  astonished  both  at  their  earnest  desire  to  preach 
to  the  Americans  the  good  law  of  Buddha  and  at  their  broadness 
in  standing  solely  upon  scientifically  provable  truth.  They  revered 
Buddha  as  their  teacher  and  worshipped  him  as  the  incarnation  of 
the  moral  law  of  the  world.  They  praised  him  as  their  saviour 
because  by  his  pure  example  and  impressive  teaching  he  had  shown 
them  the  way  of  salvation.  He  had  explained  that  egotism  was  a 
disease  and  hatred  a  malicious  fever,  that  love  embracing  all  life 
with  benevolence  and  goodwill  was  the  healthy  state  of  mind,  and 
that  the  peace  of  Nirvana  is  attainable  here  upon  earth  by  all  who 
would  obey  his  noble  exhortations.  Now,  it  is  an  indubitable  fact 
that  the  great  mass  of  Buddhists  are  much  more  superstitious  than 
the  worst  Roman  Catholic  saint- worshippers.  But  shall  we  on  that 
account  forbid  those  few  Buddhists  whose  views  are  purified  and 
elevated  to  call  themselves  Buddhists  ?  It  appears  to  me  that  they 
are  at  liberty  to  call  themselves  whatever  they  think  best. 

Buddhists  recognise  the  lordship  of  Gautama  Siddhartha  and 
call  themselves  after  his  title  of  honor  without  thereby  renouncing 
the  universality  of  truth  or  suppressing  the  duty  of  rational  in- 
"quiry.  Thus  a  follower  of  Kant  may  call  himself  a  Kantian  be- 
cause he  recognises  in  Kant  his  teacher  who  taught  him  the  truth, 
but  not  because  the  ipse  dixit  of  his  master  supersedes  demon- 
strated truth  itself. 

Now  my  position  is  that  we  should  be  very  crucial  in  stating 
the  principles  and  the  substance  of  our  convictions,  but  that  we 
.should  leave  people  unbounded  libmrty  in  retaining  or  rejecting 
names.  The  truth  is  one,  but  the  names  which  the  disciples  of 
truth  may  choose  to  be  known  by  are  many. 

It  appears  to  us  that  the  Liberal  Religious  Congress  could  not 
expect  its  members  to  cut  themselves  off  from  their  connexions, 
fellowship,  and  historical  traditions,  but  it  should  have  proclaimed 
in  a  pithy  and  unmistakable  way  the  principle  of  the  views  they 
hold  in  common  and  their  conception  of  religious  truth.  And 
this,  it  seems  to  us,  was  the  purport  and  esoteric  meaning  of  Mr. 
Martin's  proposition,  which  should  have  received  more  considera- 
tion and  ample  time  for  discussion. — Ed.] 


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BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN. 


I.  THE  RELIGIOUS  COMPOUND  IN  JAPAN. 


BY  NOEUTA  KISHIMOTO.    MA. 

Some  fourteen  centuries  ago  when  Buddhism  was 
first  introduced  to  Japan,  it  met  with  strong  opposi- 
tion, mainly  on  the  ground  that  the  natives  of  Japan 
ought  to  worship  their  own  gods  and  ought  not  to 
adopt  a  foreign  rehgion.  It  is  a  strange  fact  that  at 
the  present  time  there  are  many  Japanese  Buddhists 
who  use  just  the  same  kind  of  argument  against  the 
introduction  of  Christianity.  They  say  that  the  Jap- 
anese must  adhere  to  their  old  religions  and  must  not 
adopt  Christianity — a  foreign  religion.  They  seem  to 
forget  the  fact  that  Buddhism  itself  is  as  much  a  for- 
eign religion  as  Christianity  is,  or  else  they  seem  to 
ignore  the  fact  purposely  in  order  to  oppose  the  spread 
of  Christianity.  Once  it  was  the  followers  of  Shinto- 
ism  that  opposed  the  entrance  of  Buddhism  into  Ja- 
pan, and  now  it  is  mainly  the  adherents  of  Buddhism 
that  oppose  the  introduction  of  Christianity. 

This  is  a  strange  fact  indeed,  but  this  fact  shows 
at  once  the  extent  and  strength  of  the  influence  of 
Buddhism  among  the  present  Japanese.  Japan  is 
often  spoken  of  as  a  Buddhist  country,  and  its  whole 
population  is  counted  among  the  Buddhist  believers. 
In  one  sense  this  is  true,  but  in  another  sense  it  is 
not.  With  the  exception  of  some  extreme  cases,  there 
will  be  found  few  Japanese  who  are  exclusive  Bud- 
dhists, that  is,  who  believe  in  Buddhism  alone,  to  the  en- 
tire exclusion  of  Shintoism  and  Confucianism.  Indeed 
even  among  monks  and  priests  there  are  not  a  few  who 
worship  the  gods  of  Shintoism.  Thus  on  the  one  hand 
the  Japanese  nation,  as  a  whole,  cannot  be  regarded 
as  belonging  to  Buddhism,  if  by  this  it  is  meant  that 
all  Japanese  are  exclusive  believers  in  Buddhism;  but 
on  the  other  hand,  the  greatest  majority  of  the  Jap- 
anese people  can  safely  be  regarded  as  Buddhists,  or 
at  least  Buddhistic,  so  far  as  the  general  influence  of 
Buddhism  is  concerned. 

To  make  this  point  more  intelligible,  I  must  say  a 
few  words  about  the  different  systems  of  religion  and 
morality  which  exist  together  in  modern  Japan  and 
their  attitude  towards  one  another.  There  are  three 
different  systems  of  religion   and  morality   in  Japan, 


Shintoism,  Confucianism,  and  Buddhism.  Shintoism 
consists  of  the  worship  of  the  powers  of  nature,  under 
the  different  forms  of  Ancestor-worship,  Heaven-wor- 
ship, Nature-worship,  Fetish-worship,  and  so  forth. 
From  another  point  of  view  it  is  a  religion  of  purity 
and  gayety.  This  is  the  native  religion,  and  no  doubt 
it  is  as  old  as  the  nation  itself.  Then  Confucianism 
made  its  way  to  Japan  from  the  Asiatic  continent  some 
sixteen  centuries  ago,  and  it  was  welcomed  because  it 
inculcated  nothing  incompatible  with  Shintoism,  its 
essential  teaching  being  obedience  and  faithfulness, 
justice  and  mercy. 

In  Japan  Confucianism  was  never  understood  as  a 
religion.  It  simply  supplied  the  rules  of  life.  While 
the  integration  of  these  two  systems  was  going  on. 
Buddhism  was  introduced  in  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century  of  the  Christian  era,  that  is  about  three  hun- 
dred years  after  the  introduction  of  Confucianism.  At 
first  it  met  with  pronounced  opposition,  owing  to  the 
strong  national  feeling  against  foreign  religions.  But 
in  the  course  of  time  its  real  nature  became  gradually 
known.  Men  came  to  realise  the  truth  of  the  teaching 
of  the  misery  of  the  present  world  and  the  consequent 
need  of  salvation.  Thus  once  despised  Buddhism  be- 
came at  last  a  popular  religion  of  Japan.  But  in  this 
it  did  not  drive  out  Shintoism  and  Confucianism. 
Shintoism  supplied  the  objects  of  worship  ;  Confu- 
cianism furnished  the  rules  of  life;  while  Buddhism 
pointed  out  the  way  of  salvation.  Severally  these 
three  systems  were  defective,  each  representing,  as  it 
were,  only  one  of  the  three  corners  of  a  triangle.  But 
together,  they  were  able  for  the  first  time  to  satisfy  all 
the  religious  and  moral  wants  of  our  countrymen. 
Thus  when  we  say  there  are  three  systems  of  religion 
and  morality  in  Japan,  this  does  not  mean  that  each 
one  has  its  own  distinct  and  exclusive  body  of  believ- 
ers. On  the  contrary,  the  tenets  of  the  adherents  of 
these  three  different  systems  so  frequently  overlap 
that,  generally  speaking,  one  and  the  same  Japanese 
plays  in  his  religious  life  a  triple  part,  worshipping  the 
Shinto  gods,  adopting  the  Confucian  rules  of  life,  and 
believing  in  the  Buddhist  salvation  in  the  blessed  Nir- 
vana. 

If  one  asks,  IVhie/i  of  these  three  elements,  that 
together  form  what  I  have  elsewhere  called  the  Jap- 


4184 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


anese  i-eligious  compound,  is  the  most  influential  and 
most  important,  there  can  be  but  one  answer.  Bud- 
dhism has  been  and  is  the  most  influential  and  the 
most  important.  One  or  two  facts  will  indicate  how 
much  influence  was  exerted  by  Buddhism  in  moulding 
Japanese  thought  and  life.  One  striking  evidence  of 
the  influence  of  Buddhism  is  the  almost  complete  abo- 
lition of  animal  food,  not  only  among  the  Buddhist 
monks  and  priests,  the  majority  of  whom  are  strict 
vegetarians,  but  also  among  the  people  of  Japan  in 
general.  In  our  early  ages  animal  food  seems  to  have 
been  very  common.  Even  in  the  Shinto  rituals  col- 
lected in  the  tenth  century  of  the  Christian  era,  there 
is  mention  of  "  the  things  rough  of  hair  and  the  things 
soft  of  hair,"  "that  is,  animals,  among  the  offerings 
made  to  the  Shinto  gods.  We  have,  too,  evidence  that 
at  that  time  animal  milk  also  was  used.  Compare  this 
with  the  present  state  of  things.  We  look  in  vain  for 
the  explanation  of  such  a  great  change  in  the  principal 
food  of  the  Japanese  people,  in  anything  else  than  in 
the  deep  religious  influence  of  Buddhism. 

Additional  proof  is  found  also,  in  the  fact  that  Bud- 
dhism pessimised  Japan,  although  it  is  true,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  Japan  optimised  Buddhism.  As  far 
as  the  evidences  go,  the  early  Japanese  must  have 
been  of  a  merry  temperament.  They  seem  to  have 
lived  mainly  in  the  present.  To  live  happily  with  their 
gods  and  fellowmen  seems  to  have  been  the  end  of 
their  life.  Their  religion  was  nothing  but  the  means 
of  enjoying  their  present  life  to  its  utmost  extent. 
This  primitive  temperament  of  the  early  Japanese  still 
lingers  to  some  extent  with  the  present  Japanese.  But 
in  spite  of  this,  the  deep  and  general  pessimistic  ten- 
dency is  also  plainly  recognisable.  Take  almost  any 
novel  of  Japan  to-day.  You  will  find  in  it  a  great  deal 
of  Buddhistic  phraseology  and  a  certain  melancholy 
running  throughout  the  work. 

You  might  ask  why  such  a  pessimistic  religion  as 
Buddhism  became  so  prevalent  in  Japan  as  almost  to 
overwhelm  the  original  joyous  character  of  the  peo- 
ple? I  think  there  are  three  things  at  least  in  Bud- 
dhism which  made  it  prevail.  First,  Buddhism  ap- 
peals to  the  consciousness  of  sin  and  to  the  misery  of 
this  world.  The  consciousness  of  sin  is  found  in  one 
form  or  another  among  all  the  peoples  of  the  world. 
It  was  found,  too,  among  the  early  Japanese.  Hence 
Shintoism  has  certain  forms  for  the  purification  of  sin. 
But  Shintoism  is  a  primitive  religion,  very  simple  and 
very  crude.  It  has  no  satisfactory  way  of  meeting  or 
removing  this  consciousness  of  sin,  nor  does  it  offer 
an  explanation  of  the  misery  of  the  present  world. 
Whereas,  Buddhism  explains  the  misery  of  the  present 
world,  tracing  its  cause  to  our  sin,  our  sin  to  our  de- 
sire, and  our  desire  to  our  ignorance.  Secondly,  Bud- 
dhism  emphasises  very  vividly  the  rewards  and  pun- 


ishments of  the  future  world.  Both  Shintoism  and 
Confucianism  either  ignore  or  are  ignorant  of  a  future 
existence.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  neither  of 
these  two  systems  has  a  strong  influence  upon  the 
minds  of  men.  Buddhism,  on  the  contrary,  teaches 
not  only  the  future  but  also  the  past  existence.  When 
human  intelligence  makes  some  progress,  the  first 
question,  at  least  one  of  the  first  questions,  which  ar- 
rest man's  attention,  is  the  problem  of  death  and  the 
condition  after  death.  It  is  quite  natural  that  this 
problem  was  one  of  the  centres  around  which  super- 
stitions arose  and  grew  almost  everywhere.  The  early 
Japanese  were  in  such  a  condition  when  they  came  in 
contact  with  the  Buddhistic  doctrines  of  paradise  and 
hell  and  of  the  transmigration  of  the  soul.  Thirdly, 
Buddhism  offers  the  way  of  salvation.  Even  though 
we  know  both  the  cause  of  the  misery  of  the  present 
world  and  the  existence  of  future  life,  happy  or  mis- 
erable, yet  if  we  were  not  supplied  with  the  way  to 
escape  from  this  world  of  sin  and  secure  the  future 
happiness,  this  knowledge  would  be  worse  than  none. 
Buddhism  supplies  both  this  knowledge  and  also  the 
way  of  salvation. 

As  to  the  nature  of  this  way  of  salvation,  the  differ- 
ent sects  of  Buddhism  differ  in  their  opinions,  as  we 
shall  see  in  a  subsequent  paper,  some  ascribing  salva- 
tion to  the  merit  of  our  own  discipline,  others  to  the 
saving  mercy  of  the  Amitabha  Buddha.  But  what- 
ever these  differences  may  be,  these  sects  all  agree  in 
offering  some  way  of  salvation,  the  essence  of  which 
consists  in  the  liberation  of  man  from  the  misery  of 
the  present  life  and  also  from  the  weary  circuits  of 
birth  and  death,  and  in  the  final  attainment  of  the 
blessed  Nirvana. 

These  three,  in  brief,  are  the  reasons,  so  far  as  I 
can  see,  which  made  Buddhism  the  most  important 
and  the  m'ost  influential  element  of  our  religious  com- 
pound. It  is  all  the  more  interesting  to  know  that 
just  these  were  the  points  which  were  most  strange 
and  repugnant  to  the  Japanese  mind  when  Buddhism 
first  entered  Japan. 


HUMANITY'S  TANGLED  STRANDS. 

BY  IRENE  A.   SAFFOED. 

It  is  impossible  to  help  feeling  that  in  some  way 
the  ends  of  Providence  in  creating  man  "male  and 
female"  have  been  defeated.  It  is  beyond  credence 
that  it  was  ever  intended  to  pit  the  two  halves  of  the 
human  race  against  each  other  in  such  a  way  that,  even 
in  our  enlightened  nineteenth  century,  no  subject,  how- 
ever grave  or  general,  can  quite  escape  the  fire  of  their 
artillery,  nor  any  living  creature  flee  from  that  appari- 
tion of  "the  coming  woman,"  or  "the  passing  man," 
wliich,  in  one  form  or  another,  haunts  every  stage  of 
life  and  literature.   No  one  who  believes  in  the  benefi- 


THE     OPEN     OOURT. 


4185 


cent  ends  of  life  can  possibly  suppose  that,  for  beings 
of  the  same  interests  and  destiny,  there  was  meant  to 
be  "the  man's  age"  and  "the  woman's  age"  and  the 
long  centuries  clashing  over  the  rights  of  one  and  the 
wrongs  of  the  other. 

It  is  difficult  to  tell  when  in  the  cycles  of  time — in 
what  matriarchal  or  patriarchal  period — the  trouble 
began,  or  from  what  gardens  of  peace  and  innocence 
it  expelled  its  first  victims.  It  is  certain,  however, 
that  it  must  have  taken  more  than  one  bite  of  the  for- 
bidden fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  to  make  man  and 
woman  so  painfully  conscious  that  they  were  man 
and  woman  as  to  set  up  that  black  wrangle  over  the 
matter  that  has  followed  them  down  the  ages  ;  and  it 
is  one  of  the  curious  things  in  the  subsequent  history 
of  that  knowledge,  that,  despite  the  trouble  of  it,  man 
has  in  no  wise  been  invited  to  forget  it  or  leave  it  to 
the  gentle  gods  of  love  and  nature,  to  whom  it  was 
first  committed,  but  rather  encouraged  by  the  "higher 
lights  "  of  society  to  tangle  it  up  with  every  remotest 
question  of  law,  politics,  or  religion.  Thus  grave 
legislators  and  Christian  teachers,  instead  of  devoting 
themselves  to  fundamental  principles  of  truth  and 
justice,  have  turned  aside  to  declare  upon  what  days 
a  man  might  kiss  his  wife,  or  what  covering  a  woman 
should  wear  on  her  head.  And,  in  one  way  or  another, 
the  profane  work  has  gone  on,  till  truths  and  relations 
that  should  be  sacred  to  the  highest  gods  have  become 
the  sport  of  political  campaigns,  the  planks  in  party 
platforms. 

The  old  Greeks,  who  touch  the  key  note  in  about 
everything,  gave  us  the  droll  comedy  wherein  men  and 
women  were  in  the  beginning  literally  and  physically 
one.  And  it  was  only  when,  in  the  whirl  of  life,  they 
were  torn  apart  from  each  other  that  the  trouble  began 
in  the  efforts  of  the  two  halves  to  come  together  again 
and  getting  hopelessly  mixed  up  in  the  operation. 

Whether  the  point  of  the  satire  was  meant  to  touch 
the  general  or  domestic  relations  of  mankind,  it  cer- 
tainly contained  a  primal  truth  in  regard  to  the  whole 
case,  and  that  is,  that  it  is  not  in  their  divided  but 
united  capacity  that  men  and  women  are  to  conserve 
the  peaceful  ends  of  life  and  find  the  "harmony  that 
dwells  in  immortal  souls."  And  hence,  any  cause 
which  presents  itself  as  the  cause  of  one,  or  the  cause 
of  the  other,  instead  of  the  cause  of  humanity,  weak- 
ens its  best  claims.  It  may  be  with  some  comprehen- 
sion of  this  truth  that  politicians  attempt  to  throw  the 
odium  of  the  "woman  question,  or  the  "female  suf- 
frage movement,"  upon  matters  which  should  be  only 
question  of  popular  government  and  general  weal,  and 
it  is  strange  enough  that  woman  herself  has  fallen  into 
the  snare  and  will  rise  up  at  national  celebrations  and 
religious  congresses,  where  questions  of  eternal  truth 
and  import  are  before  the  meeting,  and  express  her 


pleasure  that  "women  are  allow^  a  place  on  the 
platform,"  and  proceed  to  set  forth  their  individual 
claims  and  achievements.  The  earnest  colored  wo- 
man who  at  the  late  Parliament  of  Religions  spoke 
for  her  benighted  race,  as  "we,  the  colored  people  of 
America,"  without  an  intimation  that  there  was  any 
distinction  of  male  or  female,  bond  or  free,  in  the 
great  tribunal  of  souls  to  which  she  appealed,  could 
have  taught  her  white  sisters  some  wholesome  lessons 
on  the  subject. 

"Do  you  believe  in  the  higher  education  for  wo- 
man?" asks  the  complaisant  youth.  "Oh,  yes,  and 
even  for  man,"  replies  the  sarcastic  maiden,  and  if  all 
women  would  treat  the  troublous  question  in  that  neat 
fashion,  the  difficulty  in  the  case  might  sooner  be  ad- 
justed. 

It  is  the  eternal  posing  as  the  man  or  woman  in  the 
play  that  keeps  the  grand  drama  of  humanity  from 
moving  on  to  its  full  action.  When  all  parties  recog- 
nise that  any  advance  step  must  be  general  and  can 
in  no  sense  include  one  sex  without  the  other  they 
will  cease  to  talk  of  "  progressive  woman  "  or  "ag- 
gressive man,"  and  turn  their  attention  to  the  pro- 
gressive civilisation  and  on-marching  truth  which  are 
surely  bringing  the  spirit  forces  to  the  front  and  re- 
solving the  battle  to  whomsoever  holds  them.  The 
degrees  of  goodness  and  spirituality  are  as  marked  be- 
tween man  and  man  as  between  man  and  woman,  and 
whoever  possesses  the  higher  degree  in  any  case  has 
the  angelic  privilege  of  helping  the  one  of  lower  up  to 
it,  whether  as  the  waiting  Mary  or  the  beloved  John  in 
the  kingdom  of  righteousness.  The  higher  either  sex 
can  climb  in  that  direction  the  better  it  will  be  for  the 
other,  for  it  is  certain  that,  with  all  the  ado  that  has  been 
made  about  it,  there  is  nothing  to  fear  from  the  superi- 
ority of  either  but  much  every  way  from  the  inferiority. 
As  stated,  however,  it  does  not  seem  to  be  the  econ- 
omy of  nature  to  grade  its  saints  and  sinners  in  that 
way.  There  are  good  men  and  bad  men,  good  women 
and  bad  women,  and  the  attempt  to  fling  the  distinc- 
tion of  sex  into  the  question  is  altogether  an  unnatural 
and  injurious  one.  So  is  it,  too,  with  the  virtues  which 
go  to  make  up  good  men  and  good  women.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  run  the  sex  line  into  them  for  any  pur- 
pose whatever,  and  wherever  it  is  done  it  proves  a 
mistake.  Everybody  knows  the  havoc  that  has  been 
made  with  all  standards  of  right  and  wrong  in  this 
way,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  discern  that  even  the 
gentler  graces  and  courtesies  of  life  have  been  turned 
astray  by  it.  The  kindly  consideration,  due  every- 
where from  one  human  being  to  another,  the  help  that 
should  be  given  everywhere,  where  it  is  needed,  have 
been  made  matters  of  gallantry  or  social  etiquette,  de- 
pending mainly  upon  well-preserved  lines  of  demar- 
cation between  man  and  woman,  so  that,  by  the  nice 


4i86 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


logic  of  the  position,  if  one  woman  in  Kansas  began, 
as  a  Western  editor  classically  puts  it,  to  "whoop  it 
up"  for  feminine  rights  and  equality,  another  woman 
in  Illinois,  just  off  a  sick-bed  perhaps,  might  find  her- 
self compelled  to  stand  for  weary  miles  in  a  street-car, 
while  stalwart  men  held  the  seats,  the  natural  and 
kindly  principle  of  giving  the  seat  to  the  one  who 
needed  it  most,  whether  man  or  woman,  having  be- 
come so  hopelessly  lost  in  the  obnoxious  question  as 
to  whether  the  frail  creature  in  the  case  "wanted  to 
be  man  or  woman." 

Now  if  only  societ}',  politics,  and  religion  would 
entrust  the  "man  and  woman  "  part  of  life's  problem 
more  to  sweet  nature's  care  and  turn  their  attention 
to  the  establishment  of  those  principles  of  truth,  right- 
eousness, and  love  which  are  at  the  heart  of  all  life  it 
may  be  that  the  clash  of  arms  would  cease  and  any 
distinguishing  qualities  of  grace  or  gentleness,  strength 
or  skill  in  either  sex  find  their  true  place  in  ministering 
to  the  exaltation  of  both. 

Certainly  the  wretched  spectacle  of  women  "  going 
up  and  down  the  land,  clamoring  for  their  rights,"  as 
the  newspapers  have  it,  and  Christian  ministers  and 
lawyers  rising  up  and  calling  them  "  Andro  maniacs  " 
and  ' '  howling  dervishes  "  for  doing  it,  could  no  longer 
disgrace  humanity  and,  in  the  calmer  atmosphere,  it 
might  be  possible  for  mankind  to  discern  some  really 
sweet  and  beneficent  ends  for  which  they  were  made 
man  and  woman,  and  cease  to  twist  the  double  strand 
into  unnecessary  knots  and  tangles. 


THE    EMANCIPATION    OF    WOMAN    FROM    WOMAN. 

BY    WILLIAM    SCHUYLER. 

In  many  things  the  emancipation  of  women  is  now 
complete — at  least  in  America  and  in  some  European 
countries — although  the  most  essential  thing  is  not  yet 
achieved.  Our  women  are  no  longer  locked  up  and 
guarded  by  slaves.  They  are  free  to  go  and  come  as 
they  please,  to  dress  as  they  please,  and,  as  far  as  men 
are  concerned,  to  talk  as  they  please.  The  laws  that 
concern  property  are  notoriously  in  women's  favor. 
They  may  also  undertake  any  form  of  work  the}-  de- 
sire— they  may  be  lawyers,  doctors,  preachers,  or  jour- 
nalists ;  they  may  and  do  displace  men  in  any  position 
where  they  are  willing  to  take  lower  wages.  Even  the 
ballot  is  in  their  power,  whenever  a  sufficient  majority 
of  the  women  really  want  it,  and  in  several  places  they 
have  already  obtained  it ;  though  what  they  will  do  with 
it,  without  the  physical  force  to  put  the  laws  they  vote 
for  into  execution,  passes  my  comprehension.  In  short, 
women  can  get  from  the  men  whatever  they  want — 
that  is,  if  their  minds  are  fully  made  up  as  to  what 
they  wish,  and  they  go  about  it  the  right  way. 

This  is  no  new  idea.  The  truth  of  it  has  been  rec- 
ognised by  thinking  men  for  ages.     The  old  Roman 


orator,  Hortensius,  is  reported  to  have  said:  "It  is 
utterly  impossible  to  get  along  with  women,  and  as 
utterly  impossible  to  get  along  without  them."  And 
the  Athenian,  Aristophanes,  in  his  inimitable  "  Lysis- 
trata,"  has  drawn  a  broadly  comic,  but  altogether 
probable  picture  of  how  the  males  could  be  quickly 
brought  to  terms  by  a  well-conducted  strike  of  the  fe- 
males. For  man  has  always  felt  his  incompleteness 
without  his  feminine  complement — it  is  only  the  wo- 
men who  believe  that  they  can  get  on  without  the 
males.  The  mystic,  Swedenborg,  put  the  case  neatly, 
when  he  said  that  in  Heaven  it  takes  two  persons  of 
opposite  sex  to  make  one  angel.  In  short,  from  the 
earliest  days  of  creation  it  has  been  admitted  that  "  it 
is  not  good  for  man  to  live  alone."  And  the  poor 
male  has  done  everything  in  his  power  to  make  his 
necessary  female  complement  satisfied  and  agreeable. 

And  yet  woman  is  enslaved.  To  be  sure,  a  large 
majority  of  the  male  sex,  even  in  civilised  countries, 
are  also  still  enslaved  in  various  ways ;  yet  there  is  no 
doubt  that  male  beings  are,  as  a  whole,  much  freer 
than  the  female  portion  of  humanity.  There  is  no 
doubt,  also,  that  woman  needs  emancipation — but  not 
from  men's  tyranny.  What  she  needs  is  emancipation 
from  women. 

In  all  parts  of  the  world  she  is  held  in  a  more  or 
less  grinding  slavery,  but  it  is  the  women  who  do  most 
to  check  her  rising  aspirations.  Travellers  tell  us  that 
in  Mohammedan  countries  the  women  are  the  strong- 
est supporters  of  the  harem.  A  wife  of  a  well-to-do 
Mussulman  would  think  that  her  husband  did  not  value 
her  sufficiently,  unless  he  locked  her  up  and  placed  a 
guard  of  eunuchs  over  her.  In  Nubia,  young  girls  are 
subjected  to  unnamable  atrocities  in  order  to  preserve 
their  virtue  intact,  but  the  awful  torments  are  inflicted 
entirely  by  feminine  hands.  A  writer  in  The  Monist 
says:  "In  New  Caledonia,  when  the  men  wish  to 
punish  a  woman,  they  turn  her  over  to  her  compan- 
ions, who  inflict  upon  her  horrible  tortures.  Sitting 
on  her  body,  they  cut  her  flesh  with  sharpened  stones." 
In  our  country  a  similar  practice  prevails.  Here  also 
the  women  sit  upon  an  unfortunate  sister,  oxAy,  our 
females  being  much  more  intelligent,  have  discovered 
that  the  tongue  is  by  all  odds  the  sharpest  weapon. 

And  this  weapon  is  used  to  enforce  the  most  grind- 
ing oppression — a  chain  of  rigid  conventions,  which 
hold  poor  woman  fast  in  cringing  terror.  Who  have 
made  them  ?  Women  say,  the  men  ;  but  certainly  it 
is  not  the  men  who  enforce  them.  Who  has  ever  heard 
of  a  Mr.  Grundy?  But  where  is  the  woman  who  has 
not  at  some  time  quailed  before  the  terrible  tongue  of 
the  redoubtable  Mrs.  Grundy  ? 

It  will  not  do  to  say  that  women  do  these  dreadful 
things  because  they  are  forced  to  do  so  by  the  men, 
for  this  would  be  a  confession  of  essential  inferiority, 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4187 


which  no  woman  clamoring  for  emancipation  should 
allow  herself  to  make.  To  be  sure,  some  women  do 
say  so,  but  it  is  not  true. 

Let  us  look  at  the  matter  somewhat  in  detail. 

To  begin  with  the  important  matter  of  dress.  Wo- 
men do  not  dress  for  men.  Few  men  notice  the  de- 
tails of  a  woman's  dress,  and  in  their  case  it  is  the  re- 
sult of  feminine  training.  Most  males  are  impressed 
by  the  tout  ensemble.  If  a  woman  is  neatly  and  taste- 
fully attired,  they  care  little  about  the  material  or  the 
style.  While  men  ruled  the  world,  woman's  attire  was 
simple  and  tasteful,  and  styles  changed  gradually  with 
the  centuries.  Now  that  woman's  day  has  come,  we 
have  new  and  utterly  opposed  fashions  every  season, 
each  one  more  senseless,  more  bizarre  than  the  other. 
Only  one  thing  has  remained  for  the  most  part  un- 
changed— the  corset.  Men's  bodies  have  always  re- 
mained free  and  untrammelled  as  Nature  made  them  ; 
but  women's  fragile  forms  are  forced  into  unyielding 
stays  to  remould  them  into  woman's  idea  of  the  human 
figure,  far  removed  from  the  model  furnished  by  Mother 
Nature.  And  not  only  is  their  bodily  freedom  de- 
stroyed by  these  contrivances  ;  but  their  mental  and 
moral  freedom  is  cramped  by  the  strait  laced  corsets 
of  conventionality,  warping  and  stunting  woman's  life 
in  almost  every  phase. 

In  her  special  business  of  housekeeping,  woman  is 
also  enslaved  by  women.  Few  men  notice  "good 
housekeeping."  Give  them  a  good  dinner,  a  cosy 
room,  an  easy  chair,  and  a  smiling  bit  of  femininity, 
and  the  low  fellows  are  content.  But  the  moment  a 
woman  enters  the  house  of  one  of  her  friends,  she  peers 
about  to  see  if  there  is  dust  in  the  corners,  if  a  book 
or  a  cushion  is  misplaced,  if — any  one  of  the  infinite 
and  infinitesimal  details  of  "good  housekeeping"  is 
neglected.  And  her  unfortunate  hostess  immediately 
feels  that  all  her  trifling  shortcomings  are  deadly  sins. 

An  honest  woman  once  said  to  me,  "  I  don't  mind 
how  often  my  husband  brings  his  bachelor  friends  to 
dinner.  They  seem  perfectly  satisfied  with  what  is  set 
before  them,  and  with  the  way  it  is  served,  if  only  they 
get  enough  to  eat,  and  have  a  good  place  to  smoke  in 
after  dinner.  But  to  invite  one  of  my  women  friends — 
that  is  an  altogether  different  matter." 

Then,  too,  in  their  conversation,  women  talk  for 
women.  For  their  life  they  dare  not  say  what  will 
bring  down  upon  them  the  disapproval  of  their  sex. 
This  has  been  my  experience,  even  with  women  of 
most  advanced  ideas.  To  me,  in  /e/<'-(7-/c/^,  after  hav- 
ing assured  themselves  of  my  discretion,  they  would 
talk  in  the  frankest  and  most  emancipated  manner  ; 
but  let  a  woman  come  in,  all  liberty  of  thought  and  ex- 
pression would  vanish  in  an  instant,  and  the  conversa- 
tion would  take  a  strictly  proper  and  conventional  turn. 

Women  are  the  unscientific  sex.   For  though  many 


women  are  fond  of  a  certain  superficial  knowledge  of 
popular  science,  yet — with  very  few  exceptions— they 
lack  the  genuine  scientific  spirit  which  ever  follows  the 
truth,  no  matter  where  it  may  lead.  It  is  utterly  im- 
possible, where  several  women  are  present,  to  discuss 
many  subjects  completely — especially  if  the  line  of 
thought  tends  to  enter  certain  highways  of  physiology 
tabooed  by  womankind,  which  are,  however,  absolutely 
essential  to  any  really  scientific  discussion  of  anthro- 
pological and  sociological  subjects — above  all  essen- 
tial to  this  very  subject  of  woman's  proper  place  in 
human  society. 

So,  women  dress  for  women,  keep  house  for  wo- 
men, talk  for  women,  live  for  women,  and  wear  them- 
selves out  for  women — to  the  endless  discomfort  of  the 
men.  And  what  makes  this  all  the  more  exasperating, 
is  that  these  same  women  allow  many  things  to  men, 
especially  if  they  happen  to  like  them,  which  they  will 
not  endure  in  each  other.  A  woman  will  lean  on  the 
shoulder  of  a  man  who  is  strongly  perfumed  with  to- 
bacco, and  even  bring  him  a  match  for  his  horrid  pipe 
or  cigar.  But  let  her  once  see  another  woman  light  a 
dainty  cigarette,  and  she  is  filled  with  horror  and  loath- 
ing. If  a  man,  as  is  often  the  case  with  this  imperfect 
being,  makes  a  slip  or  falls,  there  is  nearly  always 
some  good  woman  to  help  him  up,  and  stand  by  him 
till  he  gets  a  firm  foothold  again.  But  let  some  sister 
woman  deviate  a  hair's  breadth  from  the  strict  rules 
of  Mrs.  Grundy ;  and  this  tender,  yielding,  compas- 
sionate being  becomes  as  hard  as  steel  and  as  relent- 
less as  death. 

I  know  of  a  case  where  an  innocent  girl  was  basely 
slandered,  and,  of  course,  was  given  no  opportunity 
of  justifying  herself,  but  was  summarily  dropped  by  all 
the  virtuous  members  of  her  sex  who  knew  her — by  all 
except  one,  a  marvellous  exception,  her  intimate  friend, 
who,  happening  to  be  thoroughly  acquainted  with  all 
the  facts  in  the  case,  and  besides  having  a  deep  affec- 
tion for  her  friend,  still  stood  by  her.  But  this  staunch 
friend  was  also  finally  dropped  by  the  paragons  of  vir- 
tue, because  she  refused  to  treat  an  innocent  woman 
as  if  she  were  a  hardened  and  unrepentant  sinner. 
And,  as  everybody  knows,  this  case  is  by  no  means  an 
exceptional  one. 

Let  a  woman  once  try  to  be  really  emancipated,  to 
make  her  own  way  in  the  world,  and  whom  must  she 
fear,  the  men  or  the  women?  I  can  but  give  the  an- 
swer by  quoting  from  an  article  written  by  a  woman, 
Mrs.  Amelia  C.  Barr,  which  is  an  excellent  statement 
of  woman's  attitude  in  such  cases  : 

"  Society  has  laid  down  positive  rules  regarding  the  modesty 
of  a  woman,  and,  apart  from  these  rules  it  is  hard  to  believe  that 
modesty  can  exist.  For  all  conventional  laws  are  founded  on  prin- 
ciples of  good  morals  and  good  sense,  and  to  violate  these  destroys 
nicety  of  feeling,  sweetness  of  mind,  and  self-respect." 


4i! 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Now,  what  is  this  modesty?  Physical  as  well  as 
moral  modesty  is  the  product  of  circumstances  which 
change  with  every  age,  with  every  clime,  and  are  gen- 
erally founded  on  some  irrational  basis,  some  anti- 
quated tradition.  In  one  country  it  is  immodest  to 
uncover  the  face  in  public,  in  another,  the  leg.  In  our 
enlightened  land,  let  a  woman  put  on  a  short  skirt  or 
kilt  for  comfortable  walking,  and  who  would  object? 
Certainly  not  the  men — if  she  were  pretty. 

Let  a  woman  try  to  be  free  and  equal  with  men,  to 
have  no  nonsense,  but  only  a  frank  comradeship,  such 
as  men  have  with  each  other,  and  what  would  be  the 
result  ?  Here  again  I  let  Mrs.  Barr  speak  the  woman's 
view  : 

"  In  all  stations  of  society,  it  is  a  dangerous  thing  tor  two  peo- 
ple of  the  opposite  sex  to  chant  together  the  litany  of  Plato.  Those 
who  enter  into  'friendships  '  of  this  kind  with  what  they  think  are 
the  most  innocent  intentions,  should  sharply  arrest  themselves  as 
soon  as  they  are  talked  about.  For  in  social  judgements,  the  doc- 
trine that,  '  people  talked  about  generally  get  what  they  deserve, ' 
is  true,  however  unjust  it  may  appear  to  be." 

In  the  last  lines  of  the  above  quotation  we  have  the 
gist  of  the  whole  matter,  the  cause  of  woman's  enslave- 
ment by  women.  Women,  as  a  class,  do  not  know 
what  justice  is.  You  may  expect  kindness,  pity,  or 
mercy  from  woman,  but  never  justice. 

Yet  justice  is  the  basis  of  all  true  freedom,  and  wo- 
men can  never  be  really  emancipated  till  she  learns  to 
be  just. 

But  what  is  the  cause  of  this  injustice  from  which 
all  women  suffer?  Injustice  always  arises  from  a  feel- 
ing of  caste,  from  the  idea  of  one  class  of  human  beings 
that  it  is  essentially  superior  to  another.  A  good  ex- 
ample of  this  was  the  kind  but  unjust  slaveholder  of 
ante  belltim  days.  It  is  true  that  for  the  most  part  he 
treated  his  slaves  very  well,  and  that  they  had  under 
him  far  more  comfort  than  most  of  them  now  enjoy. 
They  experienced  kindness  and  consideration  ;  but  not 
justice,  for  justice  meant  emancipation. 

And  the  trouble  with  woman  is  that  she  considers 
herself  a  superior  being.  In  that  farrago,  "The  Heav- 
enly Twins,"  a  certain  Ideala  says,  "The  Spirit  of 
God,  it  is  in  us  women."  A  woman  once  quoted  to 
me  with  evident  appreciation  the  words  of  a  little  girl, 
"The  worstest  woman  is  better  than  the  bestest  man." 
And  lately,  another  told  me  of  a  little  girl  who  asked 
her  mother,  "What  good  are  boys  for  anyway?"  Be- 
fore her  mother  could  answer,  her  brother  entered, 
carrying  an  armful  of  wood  and  a  pail  of  water.  "Oh," 
said  the  little  girl,  "  I  know.  Boys  are  good  to  bring 
in  wood  and  water."  And  it  must  be  admitted  that 
this  is  the  idea  which  many  women  have  of  the  "func- 
tion of  the  male  sex. 

It  is  a  sad  truth  that  women  believe  that  though 
they  may  be  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  yet  morally 


they  are  vastly  superior  to  men.  It  is  probably  on  ac- 
count of  this  belief  that  they  are  so  cruel  to  any  woman 
who  may  happen  to  fall  from  this  lofty  position. 

But  is  this  correct  ?  Is  it  not  rather  that  each  sex 
is  about  equal  morally,  each  with  its  own  special  vir- 
tues and  its  own  pet  vices.  To  be  sure  women  as  a 
rule  are  chaster  than  men,  as  is  natural  from  their 
physical  constitution,  and  then  they  do  not  allow  them- 
selves many  indulgences  that  men  give  way  to.  But 
are  they  more  honest,  more  just,  more  charitable  ? 

It  is  well  known  that  men  get  along  with  each  other 
much  better  than  women  do.  The  inside  history  of 
any  woman's  club  will  testify  to  this. 

Man's  life  in  the  world  continually  calls  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  virtue  of  charity.  In  order  to  live  at  all 
in  the  world  of  business  he  must  pass  by  many  things 
which  he  cannot  indorse.  Daily  he  is  called  upon  to 
make  compromises,  and  to  say,  "Let  him  who  is  with- 
out sin  first  cast  a  stone."  A  man,  in  order  to  be  him- 
self free,  must  allow  liberty  to  others.  But  woman,  on 
the  contrary,  is  absolute  mistress  of  her  domain,  the 
household.  Her  children  and  servants  obey  her  im- 
plicitly. So  it  is  very  hard  for  her  to  give  way  to  the 
rights  of  others,  to  allow  to  her  sister  women  the  same 
liberty  which  men  every  day  must  accord  to  their  fel- 
lows. 

If  rigidity  is  morality,  then  women  are  far  more 
moral  than  men ;  and  I  fear  that  this  is  woman's  con- 
ception of  morality. 

In  talking  over  this  point  with  a  bright  woman 
once,  when  I  asked  her  why  women  did  not  treat  each 
other  as  men  did,  she  replied  with  great  disdain, 
"Would  you  have  us  come  down  to  your  level?  " 

But  why  not  come  up — or  rather  come  out — come 
out  from  the  narrow  bonds  in  which  woman  has  been 
held  for  so  many  centuries,  and  be  really  equal  and 
■  free? 

For  all  progress  has  been  in  the  direction  of  equal- 
ity, in  the  wiping  out  of  class-distinctions,  that  is,  in 
the  diminution  of  injustice.  And  only  in  that  way  can 
any  real  advance  be  made.  Let  women  learn  to  un- 
derstand freedom,  that  is,  equality.  Let  them  learn 
to  bear  with  each  other,  to  pardon  each  other,  to  en- 
dure cheerfully  what  they  cannot  change,  even  if  they 
do  not  agree  with  it.  Let  them  learn  to  discuss  freely 
and  thoroughly  every  question,  even  if  it  should  lie  in 
the  domain  of  physiology.      Let  them  learn  to  be  just. 

Woman's  chief  difficult}'  is  that  she  is  not  generally 
willing  to  see  all  things  as  they  really  are,  and  so  try 
to  understand  them  thoroughly.  Too  many  important 
subjects  are  forbidden  to  her — forbidden  by  her  own 
sex.  And  above  all,  she  has  so  high  a  consideration 
for  the  Ideal  Woman,  that  she  has  no  room  left  for 
sympathy  with  the  individual  woman  who  may  need 
her  aid. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4189 


What  use  would  the  ballot  be  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  understand  not  freedom,  who  understand  not 
equality,  who  understand  not  justice?  How  can  wo- 
man be  emancipated  from  man's  control  before  she 
emancipates  herself  from  herself  ?  She  must  learn 
that 

"  They  are  slaves,  who  dare  not  be 
In  the  right  with  two  or  three." 

But  the  da}'  of  woman's  real  freedom  is  dawning — 
though  it  will  not  come  by  way  of  the  ballot-box.  The 
desire  for  freedom  is  here.  The  actuality  must  follow. 
For  woman  has  ever  had  what  she  really  wanted — 
from  the  apple  in  the  Garden  of  Eden  to  the  ballot  in 
the  State  of  Wyoming. 

And  the  true  path  to  woman's  liberty  has  naturally 
been  pointed  out  by  men.  For  it  is  through  men  that 
women  have  always  achieved  their  desires.  Auerbach, 
in  "  On  the  Heights,"  signalises  Irma's  emancipation 
by  this  entry  in  her  journal  : 

"  'What  will  people  say  ? '  In  these  words  lies  the  tyrann)-  of 
the  world.  This  question  makes  the  mind  homeless.  Do  right 
and  fear  no  one.  Rest  assured  that  with  all  thy  consideration  for 
the  world  thou  wilt  never  satisfy  the  world.  But  if  thou  goest  on 
thine  own  way,  never  heeding  the  friendly  or  unfriendly  glances  of 
mankind,  thou  hast  conquered  the  world.  But  when  thou  regard- 
est  the  words,  '  What  will  people  say  ? '  then  thou  hast  become  sub- 
ject to  the  world." 

And  Ibsen,  that  mighty  champion  of  the  true  rights 
of  women,  has  pointed  out  the  same  road  to  freedom. 
In  "The  Doll's  House,"  Nora  announces  to  her  hus- 
band her  emancipation  in  these  words  : 

"  I  think  that  before  all  else  I  am  a  human  being,  just  as  much 
as  you  are — or,  at  least,  I  will  try  to  become  one.  I  know  that 
most  people  agree  with  you  ;  but  henceforth  I  cannot  be  satisfied 
with  what  most  people  say.  I  must  think  things  out  for  myself, 
and  try  to  get  clear  about  them." 

And  then  comes  the  ringing  defiance  of  the  truly 
emancipated  woman.  When  her  husband  sa3's,  "You 
talk  like  a  child,  Nora.  You  don't  understand  the  so- 
ciety in  which  you  live,"  Nora  replies,  "No,  I  don't. 
But  I  shall  try  to.  /  must  make  up  my  wind  i^ihicli  is 
right — Society  or  I. " 


SCIENCE  AND  REFORM. 


DEFINITIONS  OF  LIBERTY. 
The  manager  of  a  Yankee  settlement  in  northern  Mexico 
gives  an  amusing  account  of  his  experience  with  the  caprices  of 
the  would-be  colonists.  They  found  fault  with  the  color  of  the 
water  and  the  dress  of  the  natives,  and  a  farmer  from  North  Caro- 
lina announced  his  intention  to  leave  because  the  soil  proved  un- 
suitable to  the  production  of  a  kind  of  tobacco  known  as  Durham 
Bull  Broadleaf.  "Won't  you  try  some  other  crop  before  leaving 
this  land  of  genial  sunshine  ?  "  asked  the  manager.  ' '  What's  the 
use  of  the  sun  if  you  can't  raise  Bull  tabacker? "  was  the  indignant 
reply.  That  view  of  the  solar  system  is  rivalled  by  many  current 
de6nitions  of  liberty.     About  a  week  ago  the  Polish  and  Bohemian 


miners  of  Connelsville,  Pa.,  took  out  a  young  woman  and  beat  her 
within  an  inch  of  her  life  for  having  encouraged  the  attentions  of 
an  unorthodox  suitor.  The  American  residents  of  the  place  put 
the  matter  in  the  hands  of  a  detective,  and  the  friends  of  the  in- 
dicted Slavs  convoked  another  indignation  meeting.  "  What's  the 
UEe  of  a  free  country,  "  exclaimed  one  of  their  orators,  "  if  we  can- 
not enforce  morality  according  to  our  own  customs !  "  "That's 
what  those  wretches  call  freedom,"  shrieked  Herr  Most,  when  the 
police  adjourned  one  of  his  instructive  lectures  on  the  manufacture 
of  dynamite  bombs,  and  the  opponents  of  the  A,  P.  A.  scream 
themselves  hoarse  because  their  Jesuitical  machinations  have  pro- 
voked counter-intrigues  ;  "  What's  the  use  of  freedom  if  we  can't 
enforce  Papal  bulls!" 

jMONGOL  MANHUNTERS. 
The  revival  of  Napoleon- worship  has  crowded  the  art-shops 
of  Paris  with  battle-pictures,  but  a  moral  apologist  of  the  "Sa- 
tanic Corsican  "  demonstrates  that  the  diatribes  against  his  unpre- 
cedented thirst  of  conquest  were  not  warranted  by  statistical  facts. 
The  territory  ravaged  by  the  hordes  of  Attila  was  eleven  times 
larger  than  the  scene  of  all  the  Napoleonic  wars  from  Lodi  to 
Waterloo,  and  Timur  the  Tartar  in  the  course  of  his  forty  years' 
manhunts  fought  more  battles  than  all  the  French  marshals  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  In  his  zigzag  gallopade  from  China  to  Syria* 
he  demolished  nearly  three  thousand  cities  and  diminished  the 
population  of  the  earth  about  5,500,000.  The  aggregate  of  his 
conquests  was  more  than  3,000,000  square  miles  to  240,000  which 
the  victories  of  Bonaparte  subjected  to  the  direct  or  indirect  sway 
of  France. 

MORAL  ASSASSINS. 
It  has  often  been  observed  that  the  failure  of  an  attentate 
upon  the  life  of  a  ruler  tends  to  strengthen  his  power,  and  a  similar 
result  often  follows  the  attempt  to  injure  the  cause  of  a  political  or 
religious  patty  by  falsehood  and  slander.  Signer  Crispi  probably 
owes  his  present  prestige  to  the  reaction  against  the  cowardly 
calumnies  of  his  opponents,  and  it  may  be  questioned  if  all  the 
oratorical  efforts  of  Charles  Bradlaugh  have  done  as  much  to  pro- 
mote the  cause  of  free  thought  in  Old  England  as  a  little  pamphlet 
published  a  year  ago  by  the  Rev.  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  and  pre- 
tending to  record  the  deathbed  conversion  of  an  "Atheistical 
Shoemaker."  The  sensational  episodes,  the  quotations,  Ihe  entire 
biographical  framework  of  the  story  were  exposed  as  fictions  of 
the  St.  Jerome  and  St.  Gregory  type.  A  tract-form  publication 
of  the  pious  fraud  had  been  spread  far  and  wide  as  a  campaign 
argument,  and  could  not  be  retracted  in  time,  and  boomeranged 
back  with  disastrous  effectiveness.  The  title  of  Mr.  Foote's  coun- 
ter pamphlet,  "A  Lie  in  Two  Chapters,"  became  a  cuckoo-call  all 
over  Great  Britain  and  was  soon  taken  up  by  the  mocking  birds  of 
the  satirical  press,  till  the  clerical  journals  in  stress  of  better 
means  of  retaliation,  had  to  resort  to  the  risky  expedient  of  per- 
sonal abuse.  ' '  The  record  of  the  author  is  a  sufficient  refutation, " 
said  the  Mona  llerahl ;  "he  is  a  convicted  blasphemer  and  we 
defy  him  to  deny  it."  "  I  never  proposed  to  deny  it,"  replied  Mr. 
Foote  ;  "it  is  as  true  as  a  bigot  judge  and  a  packed  jury  could 
make  it." 

PRECURSORS  OF  SCHOPENHAUER. 
The  grim  champion  of  modern  pessimism  spent  years  in  col- 
lecting the  literary  analogies  of  his  tenets,  but  died  too  soon  to  en- 
joy the  discovery  of  a  precursor  in  far-off  Sjria.  Six  years  ago 
Professor  Ackermann  of  the  Vienna  Philological  Society  called  at- 
tention to  fragments  of  a  Turkish  manuscript,  the  original  version 
of  it  has  since  been  added  to  the  Arabian  library  of  the  British 
Museum.  The  work  in  question  was  first  published  A.  D.  99S, 
under   the   title   Sikta-es-Zend,    the  "  Tinder-Spark  "   and   would 


±l^^l§  ms^ 


4190 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


certainly  have  kindled  an  auto-da-fe  blaze  of  the  first  magnitude 
if  the  Eastern  Chalifs  had  been  as  intolerant  as  their  trinitarian 
contemporaries.  The  author,  Abu  il-Ala,  was  not  only  a  sceptic 
but  a  pessimist  of  the  most  radical  type  and  explains  the  universal 
belief  in  the  existence  of  a  better  hereafter  by  the  wretched  con- 
dition of  the  present  world — "just  as  paupers  console  themselves 
with  day-dreams  of  golden  times  to  come. "  "  ^  .'hat  belongs  to  the 
body,"  he  writes,  "returns  to  dust;  but  no  one  can  tell  us  where 
souls  go,"  True-believers  bewailed  the  popularity  of  his  poems, 
but  never  persecuted  bim  in  the  inquisitorial  sense  of  the  word. 
"You  need  not  dread  their  wrath,"  said  his  fellow-poet,  Al  Ma- 
nazi,  "  what  can  they  do  to  one  who  has  already  renounced  both 
earth  and  heaven  ?  "  Like  Schopenhauer,  he  remained  unmarried, 
and  prepared  for  his  last  resting-place  a  rock-tomb  with  the  char- 
acteristic inscription  :  "To  my  father  I  owed  the  sorrows  of  an 
existence  which  no  one  owes  to  me." 

THE  KORAN  FETICH. 
Abu-il-Ala  also  denied  the  inspiration  of  the  prophet,  and 
ridiculed  the  argument  founded  on  the  alleged  preternatural  lite- 
rary merits  of  the  Koran.  "  I  can  write  better  myself,"  said  he, 
"  and  admire  the  perseverance  rather  than  the  good  taste  of  the 
men  who  have  read  that  book  to  the  end.  The  endeavor  to  imitate 
their  example  has  made  me  very  weary."  In  a  stronghold  of  Islam 
an  admission  of  that  sort  must  have  required  the  courage  of  Sidney 
Smith's  "  literary  desperado  who  in  the  presence  of  witnesses  con- 
fessed that  he  preferred  Byron  to  Shakespeare." 

OUR  DAILY  RICE. 
Bread,  as  a  daily  article  of  food,  is  used  by  only  about  one 
third  of  the  fifteen  hundred  millions  that  constitute  the  present 
population  of  the  earth.  In  the  coast-districts  of  Spanish  America 
the  staff  of  life  is  the  banana,  on  the  Pampas  dried  beef,  and  in 
Eastern  Asia  rice,  either  in  the  form  of  a  soup  or  a  thick  gruel. 
"  He  has  eaten  his  last  rice,"  say  the  Chinese  in  anticipation  of  a 
funeral. 

TESTS  OF  CIVILISATION. 

The  sales  of  soap  and  printing-paper  are  usually  considered 
the  chief  criteria  of  culture,  but  a  still  higher  type  of  civilisation 
appears  to  be  indicated  by  the  demand  for  railway  passes.  Pre- 
vious to  the  recent  invasion  of  North  American  tourists,  ninety-five 
per  cent,  of  travellers  on  the  Mexican  railroads  were  primitive 
enough  to  pay  their  own  fares.  Felix  L.  Oswald. 


SONNET. 

BY  MARY  MORGAN  (gOWAN  LEA). 

O  let  me  to  the  sound  of  music  die  ! 

To  one  grand  strain  may  life's  sweet  spark  go  out ! 

Not  as  with  trembling  fear,  nor  e'en  with  doubt. 
But  as  a  soldier  walks  triumphantly 

From  one  achievement  to  another ;  still 

Fresh  courage  gathering  as  he  onward  moves  ; 
Naught  seeing  but  the  ideal  which  he  loves ; 

Believing  Time  shall  somewhere  all  fulfil. 

But  oh,  most  solemn  hour,  come  not  to-day  ! 
For  love's  alluring  voice  is  whispering  low. 
Commanding  reverently,  "  Thou  must  not  go  !  " 

Whilst  friendship  nigh  divine  binds  me  so  fast 
(Clasping  a  future  hope  to  a  loved  past), 
O  Death,  whatever  you  may  be,  delay. 


Catalogue  of  Publications 

OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  CO. 


F.  MAX  MULLER. 

THREE     INTRODUCTORY     LECTURES 
ON  THE  SCIENCE  OF  THOUGHT. 

With  a  correspondence  on  "  Thought  With- 
out Words."  between  F.  Max  Mueller  and 
1-raiicis  Gallon,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  George  J. 
Romanes  and  others.  is8  pp.  Cloth,  75c. 
THREE  LECTURES  ON  THE  SCIENCE 
OF  LANGUAGE. 

The  Oxford  University  Extension  LeAures. 
with  a  Supplement,  "My  Predecessors,"  an 
essay  on  the  genesis  of  "The  Science  of 
Thought."     112  pp.    Cloth,  75c. 

OEORQE  JOHN  ROMANES. 

DARWIN  AND  AFTER  DARWIN. 

An  Exposition  of  tlie  Darwinian  Theory  and 
a  Discussion  of  Post- Darwinian  Questions. 

1,  The  Darwinian  Theory, 

460  pp.  125  Illustrations.   Cloth,  fa.oo. 

2.  Post-Dariviniait  Questions. 

(In  preparation.) 
AN   EXAMINATION  OF  WEISMANNISM. 
L'(6  pp.     Cloth,  $i.ou. 

ERNST  MACH. 

THE  SCIENCE  OF  MECHANICS. 

id  Historical  Exposition  of  Its 


gilt  top.     Price,  I2.50. 
POPULAR  SCIENTIFIC  LECTURES. 
(in  preparation.) 

ALFRED  BINET. 

THE  PSYCHIC  LIFE  OF  MICRO-ORGAN- 
ISMS. 

Authorised  translation.    135  pp.    Cloth,  75c; 
Paper.  50c. 
ON  DOUBLE  CONSCIOUSNESS. 

New  Studies  in  Experimental  Psychology. 
93  pp.     Pai^er,  50c, 

RICHARD  QARBE. 

TH©tREDEMPT10N     OF    THE     BRAH- 


96  pp.     Pric,!,  75c. 

M.  M.  TRUMBULL. 

THE     FREE    TRADE     STRUGGLE     IN 
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By  Prof.  C.  H.  Cornill,  ofthe  University  of 
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THE    OPEN   COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Ofpce  Drawer  F. 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  364. 

BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN.     Nobuta  Kishimoto 4183 

HUMANITY'S    TANGLED    STRANDS.      Irene  A.  Saf- 

FORD 41S4 

THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMAN  FROM  WOMAN. 

William  Schuyler 4 186 

SCIENCE  AND  REFORM:  Definitions  of  Liberty.  Mongol 
Manhunters.  Moral  Assassins.  Precursors  of  Schopen- 
hauer. The  Koran  Fetich.  Our  Daily  Rice.  Tests  of 
Civilisation.     Felix  L.  Oswald 4189 

POETRY. 

Sonnet.     Mary  Morgan  (Gowan  Lea) 4190 


4T 


The  Open  Court. 


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NO  VOTERS  AWITHOUT  REPRESENTATIVES. 

BY  F.   M.  HOLLAND. 

Our  present  Congress  does  not  represent  the  peo- 
ple. This  is  not  merely  because  there  were  five  mil- 
lion and  a  half  of  voters,  of  various  parties  in  1892, 
who  could  not  elect  a  single  candidate.  The  worst  of 
it  is  that  the  party  which  conquered  at  the  election  has 
been  defeated  in  Congress.  It  got  even  more  than  its 
share  of  the  seats  ;  but  it  could  not  fill  them  with  men 
who  would  be  true  to  its  principles.  Needless  to  state 
how  far  Congress  has  failed  to  carry  out  the  people's 
command,  that  raw  materials  be  set  free,  protective 
duties  generally  reduced,  and  the  tariff  reformed  thor- 
oughly. The  heaviest  blame  belongs  to  the  Senate, 
as  was  the  case  a  year  ago,  when  our  citizens,  of  both 
the  great  parties,  had  to  wait,  for  month  after  month 
of  general  distress,  before  they  could  get  back  to  honest 
money.  We  should  not  have  such  Senators  if  the 
members  of  our  State  Legislatures  really  represented 
their  constituents.  Is  this  government  by  the  people? 
Part  of  the  trouble  is  the  smallness  of  the  districts. 
This  has  kept  the  South  solid  against  the  Republican 
party,  and  some  of  the  northern  States  almost  solid 
against  the  Democrats.  It  often  causes  the  defeat  of 
an  able  candidate,  who  could  easily  have  been  elected 
in  other  parts  of  the  State.  McKinley  himself  did  not 
carry  his  own  district  in  i8go  ;  but  he  carried  Ohio  last 
fall.  Massachusetts  failed,  in  November,  1892,  to  give 
a  seat  in  Congress  to  either  Williams,  Everett,  or  An- 
drew, though  Everett  got  one  subsequently.  Each  of 
the  three  had  more  than  fourteen  thousand  votes  ;  but 
a  less  popular  representative  of  the  same  party  in 
that  State  was  elected  by  less  than  ten  thousand.  Third 
parties  and  independent  candidates  have  little  chance 
under  this  system.  The  contest  is  often  decided  in  the 
caucus  ;  and  if  it  is  not,  the  voter  may  be  obliged  to 
choose  between  two  candidates,  both  of  whom  are  ob- 
S  jectionable  in  character,  and  are  openly  opposed  in  one 
[way  or  another  to  his  principles.  A  large  part,  pre- 
Isumably  the  majority,  of  our  citizens  want  low  tariffs 
[and  honest  government  ;  but  they  may  not  be  able  this 
•fall  even  to  vote,  in  the  largest  of  our  States,  for  a 
fsingle  congressional  candidate  who  represents  both  re- 
i^orms.  Why  force  them  to  choose  between  high  tariff 
md  Tammany's  tools  ? 


To  make  the  districts  as  large  as  the  States  would 
be  even  worse,  if  all  the  delegates  were  to  be  chosen 
by  the  majority.  That  would  enable  New  York  to  rule 
Congress  as  uniformly  as  she  now  rules  the  electoral 
college,  which  makes  our  presidents,  and  which  voted 
down  the  choice  of  the  majority  at  the  polls  in  1876 
and  1888.  There  is  too  much  temptation  to  bribery  in 
that  State  already.  We  need  to  enlarge  the  districts, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  increase  the  probability  that 
each  party  will  get  its  full  share  of  the  delegations, 
while  the  worst  candidates  nominated  can  be  defeated 
by  the  purer  section  of  their  own  party,  without  weak- 
ening that  party's  numerical  strength. 

A  reasonably  fair  method  of  dividing  the  seats  in 
the  Illinois  House  of  Representatives  between  the  two 
great  parties  has  been  in  use  since  1870.  Each  district 
sends  three  delegates  ;  and  each  citizen,  duly  qualified, 
has  three  votes  which  he  can  concentrate  on  one  can-. 
didate  or  else  distribute  among  two  or  three,  as  he 
likes.  Before  the  adoption  of  this  plan,  which  is  called 
the  cumulative,  one  part  of  the  State  could  elect  only 
Republicans,  and  another  only  Democrats.  Now  both 
parties  get  very  nearly  their  just  share  ;  and  twenty- 
seven  Independents  were  chosen  at  one  election.  A 
committee  of  senators  of  the  United  States  reported, 
in  1869,  that  if  such  a  plan  was  used  for  electing  mem- 
bers of  Congress,  they  could  devote  more  of  their  time 
to  public  business  ;  for  they  would  not  have  to  keep 
busy  doing  jobs  for  individuals  in  order  to  secure  re- 
nomination.  It  was  also  stated,  that  if  the  Union-men 
of  the  South  had  thus  been  able  to  get  adequate  rep- 
resentation before  the  war,  it  would  not  have  taken 
place.  Party  managers  have  too  much  power,  how- 
ever, in  so  small  a  district ;  and  making  it  larger,  as 
is  proposed  in  the  New  York  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion, might  lead  to  great  loss  of  votes.  Thus  in  1870, 
when  seven  members  of  the  School  Board  were  to  be 
chosen  in  one  district  in  London,  a  lady  who  needed 
only  8,000  votes  for  election  got  47,858;  and  nearly 
40,000  were  thus  thrown  away. 

Such  losses  might  easily  be  prevented  by  what  are 
called  preferential  methods.  The  best  known  was 
adopted  by  Denmark  in  1855,  and  has  since  been  ad- 
vocated by  Mill,  Lubbock,  Hare,  and  other  noted 
Englishmen,  as  well  as  in  this  country  by  Miss  Spence. 


4192 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


The  voter  can  name  on  his  ballot  one  or  more  candi- 
dates to  whom  his  vote  will  be  transferred  in  case  the 
man  of  his  first  choice  gets  too  many  or  too  few  votes 
to  be  elected  by  his  aid.  This  seems  perfectly  fair  ; 
but  there  must  be  many  cases  like  this.  Suppose  it 
needs  30  votes  to  elect  a  man,  and  Brown  has  60,  of 
which  44  have  Jones  as  second  choice,  and  16  have 
Robinson.  The  question,  whether  Jones  or  Robinson 
is  elected,  will  depend  entirely  on  the  order  in  which 
the  ballots  happen  to  be  counted.  Jones's  chance  is 
better  than  Robinson's,  but  you  are  no  more  able  to 
tell  what  the  exact  result  will  be,  than  you  are  to  tell 
what  sort  of  a  hand  will  be  dealt  you  at  your  next 
game  of  whist.  Moreover,  if  one  of  Robinson's  parti- 
sans should  do  the  shuffling,  it  is  only  necessary  to  get 
his  ballots  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  pile.  Then  he 
will  be  elected,  because  all  his  16  votes  are  counted  ; 
but  Jones  will  be  defeated,  because  30  out  of  his  44 
are  used  for  Brown.  Of  course,  this  would  not  often 
happen,  but  why  make  it  possible,  when  there  are 
better  ways  of  saving  votes  from  being  lost?  One  bad 
thing  always  would  happen,  and  that  is  that  too  much 
time  would  have  to  be  consumed  in  counting  the  votes. 
This  practical  and  necessary  defect  of  the  method 
proved  intolerable,  when  it  was  used  for  election  of 
overseers  of  Harvard  University  by  the  graduates. 
This  inconvenience  could,  however,  be  avoided,  if 
Massachusetts  were  to  adopt  the  ingenious  method 
proposed  by  Mr.  William  H.  Gove  of  Salem,  who  has 
already  had  it  brought  before  the  Legislature  of  that 
State.  It  is  one  of  the  two  systems  which  found  much 
favor  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Proportional 
Representation  League^  last  summer,  and  a  bill  has 
been  prepared  for  its  use  in  electing  Representatives 
in  Congress.  The  main  feature  is  that  each  candidate 
shall  publish,  some  weeks  before  the  election,  the 
names  of  those  other  candidates  to  whom  his  surplus 
votes  are  to  be  transferred.  No  man  can  vote  for  more 
than  one  candidate  ;  and  every  ballot  is  to  be  counted 
according  to  the  arrangement  already  published.  The 
objection  is,  that  many  of  the  candidates  would  set  to 
work,  as  soon  as  they  were  nominated,  making  secret 
bargains  at  the  expense  of  tlie  public  good  for  such 
votes  as  are  likely  to  be  transferred.  This  danger  might 
be  avoided  by  requiring  the  conventions  to  adopt 
plans  for  transfer  of  the  votes  for  every  candidate. 

Finally,  there  are  a  number  of  variations  of  what 
is  called  the  free-list  system.  This  permits  any  party 
or  other  number  of  citizens,  sufficiently  large  to  de- 
serve serious  consideration,  to  hand  in  a  list  of  as 
many  candidates  as  there  are  seats  to  be  filled,  ^or  in- 
stance, thirteen  Congressmen  in  Massachusetts  or  In- 
diana, thirty-four  in  New  York,  and  ten  in  Tennessee, 


IThis  league  \ 
Madison  street. 


founded  in  Chicago  in  August  last.     Its  office  is  at  170 


Virginia,  or  Wisconsin.  Then,  if  the  Republicans  in 
Wisconsin  cast  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  votes,  that  would 
elect  the  first  six  men  on  their  list;  and  the  other  four 
will  be  allotted  according  to  the  way  in  which  the  re- 
maining forty  per  cent,  are  distributed  among  the  dif- 
ferent lists.  The  ten  per  cent,  is  in  this  case  called 
the  quota  ;  and  it  would  be  only  five  per  cent,  if  twenty 
members  were  to  be  elected.  All  the  variations  agree 
in  trying  to  give  each  list  the  exact  number  of  Repre- 
sentatives corresponding  to  its  number  of  votes.  Com- 
parison of  that  number  with  the  whole  number  of  votes 
for  all  the  lists  determines  the  question,  how  many  of 
the  whole  number  of  candidates  to  be  elected  shall  be 
taken  from  that  one  list.  This  system  greatly  facili- 
tates the  choice  of  independent  candidates.  Such  a 
one  might,  for  instance,  be  elected  in  the  State  of  New 
York  by  three  per  cent,  of  the  voters.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  even  that  number  could  seldom  be  obtained  by 
cranks,  but  it  is  safer  to  give  them  a  seat  now  and 
then  in  Congress  than  to  let  them  think  they  can  have 
no  redress  but  dynamite.  What  is  most  certain  is  that 
the  best  men  on  each  of  the  lists  of  the  great  parties 
would  be  raised  to  the  top,  while  the  notoriously  un- 
fit candidate  would  sink  out  of  sight. 

This  plan  was  suggested  fifty  years  ago  by  a  Phila- 
delphian,  named  Gilpin  ;  and  it  has  recently  come  into 
use  in  Switzerland,  where  our  little  district  plan  worked 
so  badly  as  actually  to  bring  about  a  revolution.  The 
Liberals  in  Ticino  found  they  got  less  than  a  third  of 
the  deputies,  though  they  cast  nearly  half  the  votes. 
Their  petition  for  reform  was  disregarded.  On  Sep- 
tember II,  1890,  they  took  possession  of  the  public 
buildings,  rifle  in  hand ;  and  the  free-list  system  was 
soon  introduced,  not  only  in  that  canton,  but  in  Ge- 
neva and  Neufchatel.  Here  the  form  is  essentially 
that  which  was  recommended  last  summer,  in  addition 
to  Mr.  Gove's,  by  the  League.  All  the  names  are  to 
be  on  one  ballot ;  and  each  voter  is  to  mark  for  as 
many  as  there  are  candidates  to  be  elected.  He  can- 
not mark  more  than  once  for  the  same  candidate,  but 
he  can  scatter  his  votes  among  several  lists  ;  and  if  he 
does  not  give  them  all  singly,  he  can  state  to  which 
list  the  balance  shall  be  applied.  The  candidate  thus 
placed  highest  on  any  list  will  be  the  first  to  be  taken 
from  it ;  and  the  question,  how  many  are  to  be  elected 
from  any  one  list,  will  be  determined  as  has  just  been 
described.  It  is  hoped  that  many  a  citizen  will  give  a 
few  of  his  numerous  votes  to  the  best  men  nominated 
by  the  opposite  party  or  on  the  independent  list  ;  and 
this  possibility  will  favor  the  nomination  of  candidates 
of  high  character  and  broad  views. 

The  only  question  about  this  plan,  and  one  which 
I  have  not  seen  discussed,  is  whether  it  is  necessary 
to  give  each  individual  quite  so  many  votes.  The  bill 
which  has  been  presented  at  Washington  offers  him  as 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4193 


many  votes  for  Congressmen  as  there  are  delegates  to 
be  sent  by  his  State.  This  means  that  a  New  Yorker 
can  vote  for  thirty-four  different  candidates.  He  prob- 
ably will  not,  unless  he  marks  indiscriminately  for  every 
name  on  the  list  presented  by  his  party.  Which  reader 
wants  to  vote  thirty  times  at  one  election  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, or  twenty- two  in  Illinois,  or  even  thirteen  in 
Massachusetts  or  Indiana?  Who  can  estimate  the  ex- 
cessive amount  of  time  which  will  be  required,  first 
for  marking  and  then  for  counting  the  ballots?  The 
friends  of  this  plan  must  excuse  my  asking  wh)'  three 
votes  would  not  be  quite  enough.  Surplus  ones  might 
be  transferred  from  list  to  list. 

The  Gove  plan  seems  to  me  the  best,  because  it  is 
the  easiest  to  carry  out.  Candidates  might  be  nomi- 
nated, each  for  a  district,  as  at  present.  The  only  dif- 
ference would  be  that  a  number  of  districts  would  be 
grouped  together  on  the  Australian  ballot,  and  each 
voter  would  be  allowed  to  mark  for  any  name  in  the 
group.  Or  the  Myers  machine  might  be  used  to  count 
the  votes  for  each  candidate  as  fast  as  handed  in.  Anj' 
one  who  knew  this  result  and  the  order  of  transfer 
could  easily  find  out  who  had  been  elected.  The  most 
popular  men  would  have  the  best  chance  ;  each  party 
would  get  its  just  share  of  the  seats  ;  and  every  vote, 
even  for  an  independent  candidate,  would  help  to  elect 
some  representative  of  the  voter's  principles. 

Any  of  these  plans  would  permit  election  of  post- 
masters by  the  people.  Seven  offices  of  the  same 
grade  might  form  the  district ;  and  the  only  special 
provisions  necessary  would  be  these.  If  two  candi- 
dates should  be  elected  in  the  same  town,  the  office 
ought  to  go  to  the  man  with  the  larger  vote.  There 
would  then  be  an  office  in  some  other  town  without  a 
postmaster  ;  and  it  should  be  filled  with  the  resident 
candidate  who  should  have  the  largest  vote.  Thus 
each  town  would  choose  her  postmaster  from  among 
her  own  citizens  ;  any  voter  who  disliked  all  the  can- 
didates in  his  own  town  might  vote  for  a  good  man  else- 
where ;  and  a  notoriously  bad  nomination  would  ensure 
defeat. 

Many  more  methods  have  been  proposed,  but  most 
of  them  are  too  complicated  for  use.  The  great  weak- 
ness of  this  reform  at  present  is  that  it  has  too  many 
irons  in  the  fire.  Until  very  recently  it  was  a  party 
with  almost  as  many  platforms  as  members.  At  pres- 
ent, it  might  be  compared  by  its  opponents  to  the  two- 
headed  snake,  which  could  not  get  through  a  hedge, 
because  each  of  the  heads  tried  a  different  gap,  or  to 
the  Democratic  party  in  i860,  when  it  was  said  to  have 
two  platforms,  and  to  be  on  the  waj^  to  W'aterloo.  The 
trumpet  gives  an  uncertain  sound,  and  who  will  pre- 
pare himself  for  the  battle?  There  are  a  great  many 
people  who  are  ready,  like  me,  to  do  something  in  this 
cause,  but  who  want  to  have  the  leaders  unite  on  some 


one  practical  plan.  Some  progress  was  made  at  the 
Chicago  meeting  in  giving  a  preference  to  two  plans  ; 
but  this  is  one  too  many;  and  neither  of  these  meth- 
ods seems  as  good  as  it  might  be  made.  There  is 
great  need  of  more  discussion,  and  also  of  many  ex- 
periments on  a  large  scale.  The  editor  of  Farm,  Field 
and  Fireside,  a  Chicago  weekly  paper,  set  a  good  ex- 
ample by  publishing  four  lists  of  Representatives  of 
as  many  parties,  and  asking  each  reader  to  mark  for 
ten  different  names.  It  would  be  very  instructive  to 
be  able  to  compare  the  number  of  mistakes  and  the 
length  of  time  needed  for  counting  the  ballots  at  such 
an  election  with  those  at  one  where  only  three  marks 
could  be  made,  and  also  a  third  under  the  Gove  plan. 
Any  of  the  new  plans  described  in  this  article  would  be 
a  great  improvement  on  the  primitive  way.  The  pres- 
ent difficulty  of  the  reformer  is  that  he  is  in  the  posi- 
tion of  a  wooer  who  wants  to  marry  an  heiress,  and 
meets  her  in  company  with  her  poor  cousin.  Both  are 
charming,  but  he  cannot  tell  which  is  which. 


JOHN  PECHVOGEL 

"  How  DO  you  do,  Colonel  Anderson,  old  boy,  how 
do  you  do?  We  have  not  met  since  the  battle  of 
Shiloh.  You  were  Captain  at  the  time  and  advanced 
very  soon  to  Major,  and  afterwards  to  Colonel.  How^- 
do  you  do?  And  you  have  scarcely  grown  older.  Your 
eyes  are  as  beaming,  and  young,  and  full  of  fun  as 
ever.  Do  you  remember  when  we  sat  together  in  the 
evening,  before  the  battle,  in  3'our  tent  drinking  a 
bottle  of  hock  and  toasting  all  the  good  spirits  in  the 
world  to  love  and  good  luck  and  future  prosperity,  and 
John  filled  the  glasses?  Do  you  remember,  old  boy? 
I  see  that  bumpkin  still  before  me.  What  was  his 
name  ?  What  did  you  call  him  ?  Pitchforrel  or  Pek- 
fogle?  I  forget.      What  has  become  of  him?" 

Thus  a  burly  old  officer,  formerly  a  Brigadier-Gen- 
eral in  the  army,  addressed  one  of  his  old  war  comrades 
at  a  grand  reunion  which  took  place  in  one  of  the  great 
cities  of  the  North. 

"Hush,"  said  the  Colonel,  shaking  hands  with  his 
friend,  "don't  speak  of  John  contemptuously.  Don't 
mention  him.  I  am  deeply  in  his  debt  and  cannot  re- 
pay him.  As  to  myself,  I  am  very  well  !  Excellent, 
indeed.  Business  is  fairly  good.  I  am  a  lawyer,  you 
know,  and  am  busy  day  and  night.  Sit  down,  Gen- 
eral, I  am  glad  to  see  you  again." 

"Well,  well,"  said  the  General,  "I'll  take  this 
chair.  But  what  is  the  matter  with  John  ?  Tell  me, 
Charles,  what's  the  matter  with  that  stupid  clown  of  a 
Pekfogle?  Whence  this  sober  face  ?  Why,  that  night 
— I  shall  never  forget  it — you  swore  at  him,  and  you 
swore  like  an  old  soldier  in  the  face  of  the  rebel  bul- 
lets, so  that  even  such  an  old  sinner  as  myself  was 
painfully  conscious  of  the  danger  to  which  you  exposed 


4194 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


us  by  calling  down  upon  our  innocent  heads  the  wrath 
of  the  good  Lord  !  " 

"Hush,  General,"  repeated  Colonel  Anderson,  "I 
am  serious.  I  regret  every  oath  I  swore  at  John  from 
the  bottom  of  my  heart.  You  do  not  know  either  the 
fellow  or  his  sterling  character,  but  I  know  him,  and 
if  you  will  sit  down  and  listen  patiently,  I  shall  tell 
you  his  story — so  far  as  I  know  it.  But  please  do  not 
call  him  a  clown,  or  bumpkin,  or  fool  again,  for  my 
sake,  I  pray  you." 

The  General  sat  down  and  offered  his  friend  a  cigar. 
And  while  the  blue  clouds  rose  in  the. air  the  Colonel 
began  his  story  of  John  Pechvogel. 

"John  joined  us,"  he  said,  "on  the  very  first  day 
that  Colonel  Smith  organised  the  regiment,  and  he 
became  my  servant.  He  was  tall  and  strong,  but  awk- 
ward. He  was  faithful  and  enduring,  but  clumsy.  He 
was  kind  and  thoughtful,  as  dear  and  tender  in  his 
sentiments  as  a  girl.  Excuse  me  " — here  the  Colonel 
wiped  a  tear  from  his  eye  and  stopped  a  moment — 
"yet  he  was  ridiculously  comical.  He  could  do  noth- 
ing right.  He  was — I  do  not  like  to  say  it — he  was 
stupid.  No,  that  was  not  it  :  he  was  too  good-natured. 
He  never  suspected  that  there  were  rogues  in  the 
world.  He  was  innocence  in  masculine  incarnation. 
And  this  is  the  story  of  his  life. 

"John  was  born  in  some  German  village,  I  do  not 
know  which,  nor  where  it  is  situated,  it  may  have  been 
in  the  South  or  in  the  North,  but  never  mind.  I  am 
too  ignorant  in  geography,  except  in  the  geography  of 
the  United  States.  He  was  a  German,  and  his  parents 
settled  somewhere  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin.  His 
real  name  was  Johann  Caspar  Vogel,  but  because  he 
always  met  with  misfortunes,  the  farmers'  boys  used 
to  call  him  Pechvogel — which  means  'an  unlucky 
wight. '  When  his  classmates  in  school  played  the 
schoolmaster  a  trick  of  which  he  was  perfectly  inno- 
cent, Pechvogel  would  join  them  out  of  pure  sociabil- 
ity, and  while  they  in  a  moment  of  danger  skilfully 
escaped,  he  was  sure  to  be  caught.  He  swore  that  he 
knew  nothing  about  the  broken  window,  or  whatever 
else  the  joke  was,  and,  of  course,  received  a  double 
thrashing  ;  one  for  the  deed  which  he  had  not  done, 
and  the  other  for  lying  of  which  he  was  not  guilty. 
He  was  always  the  scapegoat  and  in  time  came  to  be 
considered  by  the  teacher  as  a  mischievous  boy.  The 
temper  of  others  would  have  soured  through  so  many 
bitter  experiences,  but  Pechvogel  remained  good- 
natured.  Educated  by  a  pious  mother  of  the  Moravian 
Brotherhood,  he  felt  confident  '  that  all  things  work 
together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God.'  John  was 
a  jack  of-all-trades,  for  he  had  tried  his  hand  at  every- 
thing. But  no  master  kept  him  long,  for  he  was  sure 
to  make  some  blunder  which  would  arouse  the  temper 
of  his  employer  and  cause  his  speedy  dismissal.     At 


the  carpenter's  he  wasted  the  precious  mahogany  ;  at 
the  blacksmith's  he  lamed  the  horses  he  shod;  at  the 
tailor's  he  burned  a  hole  in  a  silk  gown  which  he  was 
ironing.  The  poor  fellow  was  doomed  to  ill-luck  ;  he 
thought  the  world  was  wrong,  while  the  world  sus- 
pected that  he  was  wrong — ^in  his  head. 

"I  made  his  acquaintance  at  one  of  the  smaller 
hotels  in  New  York,  where  he  was  engaged  as  a  hostler. 
He  lost  his  job  and  found  employment  at  a  fashionable 
Episcopal  Church,  where  he  had  to  blow  the  bellows 
for  the  organist  and  to  perform  all  kinds  of  menial 
services. 

"At  that  time  the  war  broke  out  and  I  joined  Col- 
onel Smith.  One  morning  when  I  was  just  about  to 
leave  for  the  recruiting  office,  there  was  a  knock  at 
the  door,  and  John  stepped  in.  '  I  have  lost  my  job 
at  the  church,'  he  said,  'and  want  to  enlist  in  your 
regiment.'  'What  is  the  matter,  John,'  said  I,  'did 
you  not  like  your  work  or  did  you  not  perform  your 
duties  satisfactorily?' 

"'I  liked  my  work  very  well,' said  he  frankly, 
'but  I  met  with  an  accident  last  Sunday,  and  the  or- 
ganist suspected  me  of  having  done  it  intentionally 
and  discharged  me  at  once.  I  love  music,  you  know; 
and  when  blowing  the  bellows  I  do  it  with  conscien- 
tiousness, for  I  know  that  without  the  wind  in  the 
pipes  the  organist  could  not  play.  So  after  church 
when  the  organist  had  played  a  glorious  Hallelujah,  I 
said  to  him  :  "  Didn't  we  play  well  to-night  ?  "  "Shut 
up,  you  fool,"  says  he,  "I  play  the  organ  and  you 
blow  the  bellows."  It  was  not  fair  of  him  to  call  me 
names,  for  we  must  all  work  together  and  the  organist 
cannot  do  without  the  bellows-blower.  He  should  not 
despise  me  because  my  station  in  life  is  lower.  In  the 
eyes  of  a  higher  One  we  are  all  equal.' 

"But  that  was  no  cause  for  discharge,"  I  inter- 
rupted John.   • 

"  No,"  replied  he,  "  the  cause  for  discharge  hap- 
pened the  day  before  yesterday,  on  last  Sunday.  While 
I  was  blowing  the  bellows  I  thought  of  the  organist's 
haughtiness,  and  was  sorry  for  him  ;  for  haughtiness 
is  a  blemish  in  a  man's  character  and  will  be  punished. 
And  sure  enough  the  punishment  came.  For  while  I 
was  thinking  I  observed  that  the  bellows  went  quickly 
down  when  I  trod  upon  them,  and  that  they  rose 
slowly,  quite  slowly,  when  I  let  go.  Rising  in  life  and 
growing  takes  time,  but  humiliation  or  downfall  is  the 
work  of  a  moment.  And  what  is  the  conceit  of  the 
world  but  wind.  All  our  bragging  is  as  hollow  and 
empty  as  the  bellows  of  the  organ,  and  the  music  that 
is  produced  is  not  for  the  organist's  glory,  but  serves 
higher  ends.  While  I  was  thus  thinking,  the  beams 
of  the  bellows  upon  which  I  trod  began  to  bear  the 
features  of  the  organist,  and  I  saw  quite  plainly  his 
ugly  sneer  of  contempt,  and  I  thought,  '  he  has  offended 


THE     OPEN     CJOURX. 


4195 


me  and  now  it  is  my  lot  to  bring  him  down  again  and 
again';  and  then  again  I  thought  'I  won't  do  it.  I 
will  love  my  enemies  and  bear  no  grudge  against  any 
one.'  In  that  sentiment  I  felt  so  happy  that  I  for- 
got the  organ  and  fell  a  dreaming,  when  all  of  a  sud- 
den the  organ  stopped  with  a  whistling  sound  as  if 
gasping  for  breath.  I  resumed  my  work  at  once,  but 
the  organist,  instead  of  continuing  to  play,  came  out 
in  a  fury  and  made  matters  worse  than  they  were. 
Oblivious  of  his  station  and  the  holiness  of  the  build- 
ing in  which  we  were,  he  began  to  scold  and  to  swear, 
and  gave  great  offence  to  the  people  who  heard  him, 
saying  that  I  had  done  it  on  purpose.  He  would  not 
allow  me  to  touch  the  bellows  again,  but  asked  a  young 
man  of  the  choir  to  blow  the  bellows,  and  discharged 
me  on  the  spot.  Now  the  truth  is,  I  had  not  done  it 
purposely,  but  had  forgiven  him.  It  was  quite  a 
scene.  Everybody  blamed  me,  but  the  organist  was 
blamed  too,  and  Bob,  the  sexton,  told  me  this  morn- 
ing that  the  pastor  and  the  members  of  the  board 
thought  of  discharging  the  organist,  too." 

"  Now  you  are  out  of  work  again,"  said  I,  and  John 
replied  :  '  Never  mind,  I'll  join  the  regiment  and  fight 
the  rebels.'  Pechvogel  joined  the  regiment  and  be- 
came my  servant.  He  was  always  good-natured  but 
constantly  met  with  accidents  ;  it  is  quite  impossible 
to  exhaust  all  the  stories  of,  this  ill-fated  boy.  I  shall 
tell  only  one  or  two. 

"While  we  stayed  at  Fort  Monroe  we  organised 
among  ourselves  a  theatrical  company  to  pass  away  the 
time,  and  the  people  seemed  to  enjoy  it,  for  we  always 
played  before  crowded  houses.  John  was  our  mes- 
senger boy  and  had  to  assist  in  putting  up  the  stage, 
and  to  attend  to  other  work. 

"One  night  we  played  Pizarro,  against  my  pro- 
test, for  I  knew  the  play  was  too  much  for  an  amateur 
company  ;  but  Captain  Miller,  our  stage  manager,  was 
ambitious  to  shine  as  Rolla,  the  Peruvian,  a  part  which 
he  admitted  he  could  play  as  well  as  Edwin  Forrest, 
and  so  to  gratify  him  Pizarro  was  put  upon  the  stage, 
regardless  of  expense.  Millar  was  not  a  good  actor, 
but  he  was  better  than  the  rest  of  us,  and  liked  to 
pose  before  the  public  ;  so  he  assigned  the  best  parts 
to  himself,  and  was  always  anxious  that  everything 
should  co-operate  to  increase  his  own  glory,  and  he 
cared  nothing  for  the  rest  of  us.  If  he  could  make  a 
'  point '  as  he  called  it,  and  get  a  '  round  '  of  applause, 
that  was  enough  for  him. 

"I  was  cast  for  the  part  of  Las  Casas,  the  good 
priest,  and  after  the  death  of  Rolla  it  was  my  duty  to 
lead  the  funeral  procession,  chanting  a  solemn  dirge, 
the  Peruvian  mourners  joining  in  the  chorus.  The 
dead  Rolla  was  arrayed  in  state  upon  a  properly  dec- 
orated bier,  and  the  procession  started  round  the  stage. 
The  march  and  the  dirge  were  so  timed  that  they  ended 


together  just  as  the  procession  reached  the  front  of 
the  stage,  where  the  bearers  deposited  the  bier  while 
the  mourners  formed  a  'picture'  facing  the  audience, 
the  coffin  just  in  front  between  the  mourners  and  the 
footlights  ;  and  this  was  the  critical  moment  when  the 
curtain  was  to  fall  slowly  and  sadly  as  became  the 
solemn  scene.  And  now  I  want  to  show  how  the  ex- 
pense of  getting  up  the  play  and  the  labor  of  weeks 
were  lost  by  the   over-carefulness  of  John's  stupidity. 

"  Captain  Millar  was  fearful  that  his  funeral  would 
not  end  in  a  blaze  of  glory  unless  the  curtain  was  low- 
ered in  a  mournful  manner  at  the  precise  moment  of 
time  ;  and  to  prevent  all  possibility  of  a  mistake  he 
hired  John  with  special  instructions  to  perform  the 
special  duty  of  lowering  the  curtain,  and  he  was  to  at- 
tend to  that  and  nothing  else.  Every  night  at  re- 
hearsal Millar  gave  John  a  drill  in  the  tactics  of  lower- 
ing the  curtain,  until  the  faithful  soldier  was  'letter 
perfect '  in  the  part.  Millar  overdid  it,  for  he  made 
poor  John  believe  that  lowering  the  curtain  was  the 
most  important  part  of  the  play,  and  the  result  was  a 
state  of  nervous  anxiety  in  John  that  wrecked  our  en- 
terprise. 

"All  through  the  scene,  John  stood  manfully  at  his 
post  with  the  curtain-rope  in  his  hand,  but  unfortu- 
nately he  had  taken  a  drink  of  whiskey  about  every 
five  minutes  during  the  evening  to  steady  his  nerves 
and  keep  his  intellect  clear  so  that  he  might  not  'lose 
the  cue,'  and  that  precaution  muddled  him.  Millar 
was  careful  to  impress  it  upon  John  that  he  must  not 
lower  the  curtain  'too  soon,'  and  the  fear  of  doin<y  so 
rumbled  the  brain  of  John. 

"Well,  Rolla  was  dead,  and  I  led  the  funeral  pro- 
cession on  the  stage.  We  marched  around  singing  the 
dirge,  and  we  placed  our  precious  burthen  in  its  proper 
place,  and  stood  facing  the  audience,  expecting  the 
curtain  to  fall,  but  no  curtain  came  down.  For  two 
or  three  minutes  we  stood  there  waiting  for  the  cur- 
tain, but  we  looked  so  silly  gazing  at  the  audience  and 
saying  nothing  that  some  irreverent  persons  on  the 
back  seats  began  to  titter,  and  I  saw  that  the  corpse 
was  getting  red  in  the  face  with  rage.  Fearing  that 
an  explosion  of  laughter  would  soon  take  place  I  gave 
the  bearers  a  wink  to  pick  up  the  bier,  and  striking  up 
the  dirge  we  started  round  again.  As  we  passed  John 
standing  in  the  flies,  I  shook  my  head  at  him  to  re- 
mind him  of  his  duty,  but  I  think  this  muddled  him 
all  the  more,  for  when  our  journey  was  done,  the  cur- 
tain remained  as  obstinate  as  before.  After  standing 
for  a  while  foolishly  gazing  at  the  people,  the  tittering 
began  again,  but  louder  and  bolder  than  before,  and  I 
saw  that  the  corpse  was  boiling  mad.  So  I  gave  the 
bearers  the  wink  again,  and  again  we  started  round, 
but  the  more  mournfully  we  sang  the  louder  the  aud- 
ience laughed,  and  when  we  formed  the  'picture  '  this 


4196 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


time,  the  house  was  in  a  roar.  Then  the  corpse  lifted 
up  his  head  and  shouted  in  a  stage-whisper,  'John 
drop  the  curtain  '  ;  and  instantly  the  curtain  fell,  not 
slowly  but  with  a  sudden  flop,  and  what  was  worst  of 
all  we  had  meandered  around  with  the  body  so  much, 
that  we  laid  it  at  last  too  near  the  footlights,  and  when 
the  curtain  fell,  RoUa  was  left  outside,  and  this  mis- 
fortune set  the  house  wild  with  delight,  and  they  ac- 
tually fell  over  on  their  seats  when  the  dead  man 
jumped  out  of  his  coffin,  and  with  a  yell  of  rage  broke 
through  the  curtain  and  rushed  upon  the  stage.  There 
he  attempted  to  murder  John,  and  when  some  of  us 
interfered,  thinking  that  death  was  too  large  a  penalty 
for  the  offence,  he  turned  upon  us,  and  insisted  that  we 
were  all  in  a  conspiracy  ;  that  we  were  jealous  of  him, 
and  had  hired  John  to  bring  about  the  catastrophe  that 
had  brought  him  a  round  of  ridicule  instead  of  a  round 
of  applause. 

"The  next  night  we  tried  it  again,  but  whenever 
any  of  us  appeared  upon  the  stage  and  said  anything, 
the  audience  gave  us  so  much  ironical  applause,  and 
laughed  so  heartily  at  the  tragic  parts,  that  we  gave  up 
the  attempt  in  despair;  and  we  played  Pizarro  no  more. 

"  John  met  constantly  with  similar  misfortunes.  I 
remember  that  on  another  occasion  this  same  theatrical 
company  of  ours  had  arranged  a  concert.  A  famous 
piano  virtuoso  happened  to  be  in  town  and  he  was  en- 
gaged as  the  star  of  the  evening.  The  artist  ordered 
John  to  procure  a  Steinway  piano,  and  made  the  mis- 
take of  giving  him  more  explanation  than  necessary. 
He  said  :  'It  is  the  piano  on  which  I  always  play,  I 
am  used  to  it  and  cannot  play  on  any  other.'  John 
went  to  the  hotel  instead  of  to  a  piano  dealer  and  asked 
for  the  piano  on  which  the  artist  used  to  practise. 
This  happened  to  be  a  mute  piano,  and  as  he  had  re- 
ceived it  of  the  manufacturers  free  of  charge  as  an  ad- 
vertisement for  the  makers,  it  bore  in  big  letters  the 
inscription  :  'The  Mute  Piano,  a  Boon  to  Mankind.' 
The  mute  piano  was  placed  on  the  stage,  and  as  every- 
body minded  his  own  business,  it  passed  unnoticed. 
The  artist  who  was  always  in  the  ha,bit  of  arriving  at 
the  last  moment,  or  a  little  later,  had  no  anticipation 
of  the  fate  that  awaited  him.  The  curtain  rose  and 
the  public  began  to  whisper.  When  the  artist  ap- 
peared on  the  stage,  finding  himself  confronted  with 
the  mute  piano,  the  legend  of  which  was  squarely  dis- 
played before  the  audience,  the  whisper  grew  into  loud 
laughter  ;  shouts  of  bravo  were  heard  and  our  artist 
was  flushed  with  anger.  He  tried  to  address  the  aud- 
ience and  complain  of  the  insult  which  he  had  suffered 
in  the  intrigue  of  some  scoundrel  but  it  was  impossible 
to  restore  order.  It  broke  up  the  whole  concert.  The 
artist  left  the  stage  full  of  indignation,  threatening  to 
sue  the  company,  or  the  committee  at  whose  invitation 
he  had  accepted  an  engagement  to  play,  and  the  pub- 


lic clamored  for  the  return  of  their  money.  Poor  John 
was  the  innocent  cause  of  all  the  confusion,  and  his 
blunder  sealed  the  fate  of  our  company.  We  had  to 
give  up  and  never  dared  again  to  announce  a  per- 
formance of  any  kind. 

"  On  the  night  before  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  you  will 
remember,  John  broke  a  bottle  of  wine  and  spilled  its 
contents,  and  I  upbraided  him  for  it  rather  severely; 
but  on  the  day  of  the  battle  I  had  every  reason  to  be 
satisfied  with  him.  I  intended  to  reconnoitre  a  part  of 
the  field  and  advanced  as  far  as  I  could  towards  the 
enemy,  taking  shelter  behind  a  row  of  shrubs.  I  saw 
John  following  me.  I  understood  his  motive.  He  an- 
ticipated danger  and  in  his  good-naturedness  he  wanted 
to  be  near  me  in  case  of  emergency.  While  I  gave  him 
a  sign  to  retire  as  his  mere  presence  seemed  to  indicate 
ill  luck,  three  rebels  on  horseback,  who  appeared  from 
some  ambuscade  as  if  rising  out  of  the  ground,  dashed 
upon  me  brandishing  their  sabres.  My  horse  stumbled, 
and  a  blow  from  one  of  the  fellows  struck  off  my  hat. 
I  gave  myself  up  as  lost,  when  John  came  to  the  rescue 
and  with  his  unusual  strength  laid  my  adversary  low  be- 
fore he  could  repeat  the  blow  which  would  have  been 
fata!  to  me.  He  courageously  turned  on  the  other  two, 
shot  one  of  them,  while  the  third  one  made  his  escape. 
'Well,  Captain,'  he  said  with  beaming  eyes,  as  he 
helped  me  off  my  fallen  hgrse,  '  am  I  indeed  good  for 
nothing  in  the  world  ?  I  happen  to  have  more  ill  luck 
than  other  folks,  that  is  all  ;  but  to-day  I  am  in  luck 
and  you  are  in  luck,  too,  that  I  was  near.' 

"  I  stretched  out  my  hand  to  grasp  his,  but  before 
I  could  make  a  reply  a  bullet  whizzed  through  the  air 
and  struck  him  right  in  the  back  of  the  head.  He  fell 
into  my  arms  and  I  laid  him  gently  upon  the  ground. 
The  bullet  would  have  unfailingly  killed  me  had  not 
the  luckless  chap  happened  to  stand  between  the  rifle- 
man and  myself.  He  could  hear  me  no  longer,  yet  I 
replied  to  his  question  and  said  :  '  Yes,  John,  I  owe 
you  my  life,  and  I  shall  not  forget  it  as  long  as  I  live.' 

"  This  is  the  story  of  John  Pechvogel,  and  I  can- 
not think  of  him  without  emotion.  There  are  a  great 
number  of  persons  in  the  world  like  him.  They  are 
fated  to  ill-luck  in  whatever  they  undertake,  and  as  a 
rule  find  fault  with  the  world  instead  of  themselves. 
But  I  have,  since  John  died  in  my  arms  on  the  battle- 
field of  Shiloh,  become  very  patient  with  men  of  his 
type,  provided  they  show  good-will  in  their  awk- 
wardness. If  you  call  them  names  and  scold  them, 
you  only  irritate  them  uselessly  and  render  their  case 
worse.  Treat  them  in  the  right  way  with  firmness  but 
in  kindliness,  and  they  will  be  less  liable  to  make  blun- 
ders. I  have  adopted  the  maxim  of  considering  myself 
co-responsible  for  the  stupidities  of  my  underlings, 
and  have,  I  am  sure,  in  this  way  anticipated  many 
evil  results  that  otherwise  would  have  occurred."  p.c. 


THE 

BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN. 


OPEN    COURT. 


4197 


II.    NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  BUDDHISM. 


BY  NOEUTA  KISHIMOTO,    M.A. 

It  is  customary  among  the  modern  scholars  to  di- 
vide Buddhism  into  two  great  schools,  Northern  and 
Southern.  By  Southern  Buddhism  is  meant  the  Bud- 
dhism found  in  Ceylon,  Burmah,  Siam,  and  Anam, 
while  Northern  Buddhism  is  that  which  has  its  home 
in  Nepal,  Thibet,  China,  and  Japan.  It  is  also  cus- 
tomary among  Western  Buddhistic  scholars  to  regard 
Southern  Buddhism  as  a  purer  and  more  original 
representation  of  the  system  founded  by  Buddha,  than 
Northern  Buddhism,  which,  they  say,  is  not  free  from 
later  foreign  elements.  But,  according  to  the  Japanese 
Buddhists,  Buddha  is  regarded  as  having  taught  the 
doctrines  of  both  the  Southern  and  Northern  schools. 
I  myself  cannot  find  any  historical  grounds  for  this  as- 
sertion of  our  Buddhist  scholars.  If  there  are  any 
grounds  at  all,  I  can  mention  only  two. 

The  first  ground  for  the  assertion  on  the  part  of 
the  Japanese  Buddhists  that  Buddha  taught  both  of 
these  doctrines  is  that  Buddha  was  the  "Great  Physi- 
cian," who  came  to  cure  all  the  sins  and  miseries  of 
the  world,  and  therefore  gave  the  remedy  according 
to  the  nature  of  the  disease.  He  accommodated  his 
teaching  to  different  circumstances.  He  taught  his 
doctrine  in  different  forms  to  suit  the  needs  of  every 
case.  He  was  the  Great  Physician,  wise  and  expe- 
rienced. Expedience,  together  with  knowledge  and 
compassion,  were  the  three  great  virtues  of  Buddha. 
This,  according  to  the  Japanese  Buddhists,  explains 
the  co-existence  of  these  two  apparently  contradictory 
aspects  of  the  teaching  of  Buddha.  '^Expedience,"  to 
which  Buddha  resorted,  then,  is  the  first  assumed 
ground  that  he  really  taught  the  apparently  inconsist- 
ent doctrines  of  these  different  branches  of  Buddhism. 

The  second  ground  is  that  the  teaching  of  the  Hi- 
nayana  (Southern)  school  is  too  narrow  and  too  super- 
ficial for  such  an  enlightened  person  as  Buddha  to 
teach.  The  fundamental  teaching  of  the  Southern 
school  consists  in  the  final  attainment  of  the  annihila- 
tion of  both  the  body  and  the  soul,  and  this  teaching 
of  annihilation,  as  important  as  it  is  in  this  school,  is 
the  very  thing  which  the  Japanese  Buddhist  scholars 
regard  as  too  narrow  and  too  superficial  for  Buddha  to 
teach.  They  recognise  three  things  as  the  distinguish- 
ing marks  of  the  teaching  of  the  Southern  school,  viz., 
(i)  the  "impermanence  of  all  things,"  (2)  the  "  non- 
reality  of  the  ego,"  and  (3)  the  "ultimate  annihilation 
of  the  body  and  the  soul."  But  at  the  same  time  they 
ask  :  If  the  reality  of  all  things  is  the  result  of  igno- 
rance and  delusion,  and  if  the  putting  an  end  to  every 
form  of  existence  is  the  ultimate  purpose  of  Buddha's 
teaching,  how  did  this  ignorance  arise,  where  did  this 


delusion  come  from,  how  did  all  phenomenal  exist- 
ences of  the  present  world  come  to  be,  why  did  change 
and  transmigration  begin  at  all,  how  did  the  thought 
and  need  of  annihilation  arise?  Every  change  needs 
some  reason  for  it.  Everything  that  changes  or  even 
seems  to  change  needs  some  adequate  cause.  Can  it 
be  consistently  affirmed  that  Buddha,  who  was  the 
teacher  of  gods  and  men,  and  whose  knowledge  ex- 
tended infinitely  into  the  past  and  the  future,  did  not 
think  of  these  difficulties,  or  did  not  teach  anything 
about  their  solutions?  Hence  our  Buddhist  scholars 
conclude  that  Buddha  cannot  have  stopped  at  nihilism 
and  must  have  taught  in  addition  to  the  Southern 
doctrine  of  self-discipline  and  the  annihilation  of  self, 
the  Northern  doctrine  of  faith  and  salvation.  Hence 
the  "real  existence  of  the  Perfect,"  the  eternal  and 
immanent  principle,  in  and  beyond  all  the  phenom- 
enal existences,  is  regarded  as  the  distinguishing  mark 
of  the  teaching  of  the  Northern  school.  Such,  then,  is 
the  second  ground  on  the  part  of  the  Japanese  Bud- 
dhists for  assuming  that  the  Northern  doctrine  is  just 
as  much  the  original  teaching  of  Buddha  as  the  South- 
ern doctrine. 

But  in  spite  of  all  this,  the  Japanese  Buddhist 
scholars  all  admit  that  during  the  first  six  hundred 
years  after  the  death  of  Buddha  the  teaching  of  the 
Southern  school  alone  flourished.  They  also  admit 
that  about  one  hundred  years  after  Buddha,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Vaisali  heresy,  the  believers  were  di- 
vided into  two  bodies,  the  "elders"  and  the  "great 
congregation."  Afterwards,  the  former  school  became 
subdivided  into  eleven  sects,  and  the  latter  into  nine 
sects,  so  that  towards  the  close  of  the  fourth  century 
after  Buddha  there  were  twenty  different  schools  among 
the  believers  of  Buddhism.  These  schools  all  belonged 
to  the  Southern  or  Hinayana  Buddhism,  being  known 
as  the  "twenty  schools  of  the  Hinayana."  Some  six 
hundred  years  after  Buddha,  that  is,  about  the  middle 
of  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era,  Ashvagosha 
rose  as  a  teacher  in  Middle  India.  He  is.  the  author 
of  that  famous  work  called  the  "Treatise  on  the  Re- 
vival of  the  Faith,"  in  which  he  presented  the  teach-" 
ing  of  the  Southern  school.  Hence  he  is  regarded  by 
the  Japanese  Buddhists  as  at  once  the  restorer  and 
promulgator  of  the  Southern  or  Mahayana  system. 
After  Ashvagosha,  this  school  began  to  gain  in  power 
and  influence,  as  has  been  shown  by  the  appearance  of 
many  able  Buddhist  scholars  who  followed  him  in  his 
explanation  of  the  doctrine.  About  a  century  after  Ash- 
vagosha, that  is,  seven  hundred  years  after  Buddha, 
Nagarjuna,  the  author  of  the  famous  "Treatise  on  the 
Middle,"  appeared.  Again  a  century  later,  Vasuban- 
dhu  wrote  many  important  books.  These  two  last- 
mentioned  scholars  are  very  important.  "The  doc- 
trine  of  the   Mahayana,"  says   a  Japanese  Buddhist 


AUa   23  1S94 
4198 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


writer,  "grew  and  flourished,  owing  to  the  influence 
of  the  two  teachers,  Nagarjuna  and  Vasubandhu." 

In  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Ming,  who  reigned 
during  the  middle  of  the  first  century  of  the  Christian 
era,  Buddhism  was  introduced  into  China.  The  Em- 
peror, we  are  told,  being  informed  in  a  dream  of  a 
divine  person  born  in  the  West,  called  Buddha,  sent 
an  embassy  in  quest  of  this  personage.  The  embassy 
penetrated  into  India,  and  after  collecting  books,  pic- 
tures, and  relics  of  Buddha,  returned  home  in  A.  D. 
67,  accompanied  by  two  priests.  A  temple  named  the 
White-horse-ternple  was  built  in  the  then  capital  of 
China,  Loyang,  to  supply  a  home  for  these  Hindu 
priests  and  to  keep  their  sacred  things.  For  the  next 
two  hundred  years  Buddhism  made  little  headway  in 
China  ;  but  from  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  it 
spread  and  became  very  popular.  Gradually  many 
"  scholars  of  theDripitakas  "  came  to  China  from  India 
and  translated  the  sacred  books  of  Buddhism  into 
Chinese,  while  on  the  other  hand  many  Chinese  Bud- 
dhist pilgrims  went  from  China  to  India  in  search  of 
the  sacred  writings  and  relics  of  Buddha. 

The  formal  introduction  of  Buddhism  into  Japan 
is  generally  put  at  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  of 
the  Christian  era,  or  more  definitely,  at  the  year  552 
A.  D.,  when  the  king  of  Kudara,  one  of  the  three  an- 
cient divisions  of  Corea,  presented  to  the  Japanese 
emperor  an  image  of  Buddha  and  some  sacred  books 
of  Buddhism. 

At  present  there  are  ten  principal  sects  of  Bud- 
dhism in  Japan.  I  say  ten,  because  I  think  it  is  more 
proper  to  regard  the  three  sub- sects  of  the  Zen-sect  as 
one  than  to  count  them  as  three  distinct  sects,  as  is 
usually  done,  thus  making  the  number  of  all  the  pres- 
ent Japanese  Buddhist  sects  twelve  instead  of  ten. 
Ten,  accordingly,  is  the  number  of  all  the  present 
Buddhist  sects  of  Japan.  But  if  all  the  Buddhist  sects 
which  have  ever  appeared  in  Japan  were  counted  to- 
gether, the  number  of  the  sects  would  be  fourteen. 

These  fourteen  Buddhist  sects  can  be  divided  into 
three  groups,  ancient,  mediaeval,  and  modern,  accord- 
'ing  to  the  chronological  order  of  their  establishment. 
This  is  one  way  of  their  classification.  The  "Ancient" 
sects  are  six  in  number,  generally  known  as  the  "six 
sects  of  Nanto,"  because  they  were  first  established  in 
Japan  when  Nanto  or  Nara  was  its  capital.  Of  these 
six  "Ancient"  sects,  only  two  exist  now,  thus  reduc- 
ing the  total  number  of  the  present  sects  to  ten.  The 
"  Mediaeval"  sects  are  only  two  in  number,  the  Ten- 
dai  and  the  Shingon.  These  "Mediaeval"  sects  are 
also  called  the  "two  sects  of  Kyoto,"  because  they 
were  introduced  when  Kyoto  was  the  capital  of  Japan. 
The  "Modern"  sects  are  six  in  number,  the  Jodo,  the 
Zen,  the  Shin,  and  the  Nichiren  being  the  most  im- 
portant ones. 


Another  way  of  classifying  these  Buddhist  sects  of 
Japan  is  to  divide  them  into  two  groups,  according  to 
the  place  of  their  origination,  whether  they  were  intro- 
duced from  abroad  or  were  of  native  origin.  Out  of 
the  ten  existing  sects,  six  were  introduced  from  China, 
while  the  remaining  four,  all  of  which  belong  to  the 
"Modern"  sects,  originated  on  Japanese  soil.  Still 
another  way  of  their  classification  is  to  divide  them 
into  two  groups,  with  reference  to  the  means  or  ground 
of  salvation.  All  the  "  Modern"  sects  with  the  single 
exception  of  the  Zen-sect,  teach  that  men  are  saved 
not  by  their  own  power  but  by  a  power  other  than  and 
superior  to  their  own,  while  the  remaining  five  sects 
emphasise  one's  own  effort  after  righteousness  and  en- 
lightenment as  one  of  the  necessary  means  or  grounds 
of  attaining  salvation.  The  latter  are  known  as  the 
"  self-power  "  sects,  while  the  former  are  known  as  the 
"  other- power  "  sects." 


NOTES. 

It  will  be  of  interest  to  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court  to  know 
that  the  author  of  "  John  Pechvogel  "  is  indebted  for  the  comical 
episode  of  "Pizarro"  to  his  late  friend  Gen.  M  M.  Trumbull. 
This  episode  is  a  real  occurrence  of  the  General's  life,  and  he  used 
to  tell  the  story  with  all  the  dramatic  vigor  of  reality,  eliciting 
roars  of  laughter  from  his  hearers. 


It  will  be  welcome  intelligence  to  the  friends  and  readers  of 
the  late  Prof.  George  J.  Romanes  that  the  second  part  of  his 
' '  Darwin  and  After  Darwin, "  treating  of  posl-Darwinian  questions, 
is  to  be  edited  by  his  friend,  the  famous  naturalist.  Prof.  C.  Lloyd 
Morgan  of  the  University  College,  Bristol,  England,  whom  Pro- 
fessor Romanes  appointed  his  literary  executor.  Professor  Mor- 
gan will  take  up  the  second  volume  of  "  Darwin  and  After  Darwin  ' ' 
in  September.  It  may  be  expected  that  this  will  be  the  most  valu- 
able part  of  the  work. 

THE   OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

OHIO  AGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,   Ed 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  365. 

NO  VOTERS  WITHOUT  REPRESENTATIVES.    F.  M. 

Holland 4191 

JOHN  PECHVOGEL,     Editor 4193 

BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN.   II.   Northern  and  Southern  Bud- 
dhism.      NOBUTA  KiSHIMOTO 4197 

NOTES 4198 


47 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "WEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  366.     (Vol.  VIII.— 35. 


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THE  PAINE  CLUB  IN  PARIS. 

BY  MONCURE  D.   CONWAY. 

Thomas  Carlyle  has  remarked  the  tremendous 
ado  made  over  the  Hves  sacrificed  in  the  French  Revo- 
lution, whereas  the  number  was  so  small  compared 
with  that  of  those  slain  in  most  wars  of  the  time.  Lit- 
tle is  said  of  the  comparatively  vast  numbers  fallen  in 
the  struggles  of  the  leagued  monarchs  to  crush  the 
Republic.  Nevertheless,  the  historical  imagination  is 
right  in  regarding  the  scenes  of  the  French  Revolution 
with  especial  horror.  For  one  thing,  because  that 
Revolution  devoured  its  own  children  ;  for  another 
thing,  because  they  were  such  noble  children, — men 
and  women  whose  murder  threw  back  the  cause  of 
liberty  into  a  darkness  and  disgrace,  which  previously 
had  been  monopolised  by  royal  despotism.  The  people 
have  never  emerged  from  that  shadow.  It  was  not 
the  massacre  of  uniformed  and  hireling  soldiers,  but 
of  great  and  devoted  leaders  of  the  people.  Whenever 
the  historian  fixes  his  scrutiny  on  one  or  another  of 
those  victims,  he  is  pretty  certain,  in  a  majority  of 
cases,  to  discover  some  great  heart,  some  sublime  and 
self-devoted  enthusiasm,  struck  as  by  lightning  in  that 
black  storm.  The  circle  which  in  Paris  gathered 
around  Paine,  as  the  exponent  of  republican  princi- 
ples, were  animated  by  a  passion  for  liberty  so  ardent 
that  no  sacrifice  was  withheld,  but  all  was  given  with 
joy.  Men  like  Duchatelet,  Lafayette,  Condorcet,  Ana- 
charsis  Clootz,  and  others  threw  away  their  titles  and 
wealth  as  trifles.  There  were  Englishmen  eager  to  do 
the  like.  White's  Hotel,  where  Paine  resided,  was  a 
glowing  centre  of  English  enthusiasm.  On  Novem- 
ber i8,  1797,  a  banquet  was  held  there  at  which  Sir 
Robert  Smith  and  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald — intimate 
friends  of  Paine — formally  renounced  their  titles.  Sir 
Robert  proposed  the  toast  :  "A  speedy  abolition  of  all 
hereditar}'  titles  and  feudal  distinctions."  Another 
toast  was  :  "  Paine, — and  the  new  way  of  making  good 
books  known  by  a  royal  proclamation  and  a  King's 
Bench  prosecution."  Sir  Robert  was  long  a  prisoner, 
and  died  of  an  illness  contracted  in  prison.  Lord  Ed- 
ward Fitzgerald  was  slain  while  struggling  in  Ireland 
for  a  revolutionary  cause  kindled  from  that  in  France. 
I  have  not  been  entirely  successful  in  identifying 
the  hotel  in  the  Passage  des  P6tits  Peres.     At  the 


close  of  1793  its  name  had  been  changed  to  "Phila- 
delphia House,"  probably  because  Paine's  residence 
there  had  drawn  so  many  Americans.  The  house 
which  I  believe  to  have  been  the  one,  now  comprises 
business  offices,  one  room  being  occupied  by  a  liberal 
club, — possibly  the  same  as  that  in  which  the  Paine 
Club  gathered.  The  character  of  this  club,  formed  in 
the  latter  part  of  1792,  may  be  gathered  from  debates 
of  the  time  in  another  club,  namely,  the  English  House 
of  Commons.  For  at  that  time  the  only  reign  of  ter- 
ror was  in  England.  The  Ministry  had  replied  to 
Paine's  "Rights  of  Man"  by  a  royal  proclamation 
against  seditious  literature.  In  consequence  of  tijis 
the  Tory  gentry  became  mobocrats;  they  collected 
and  paid  roughs  throughout  the  country  to  burn  Paine 
in  effigy,  and  to  harry  the  religious  Nonconformists. 
A  handbill  was  everywhere  distributed  and  posted, 
entitled:  "One  pennyworth  of  truth  from  Thomas 
Bull  to  his  brother  John."  In  it  were  such  sentences 
as  the  following  :  "  Have  you  not  read  the  Bible?  Do 
you  not  know  that  it  is  there  written  that  kings  are  the 
Lord's  anointed  ?  But  whoever  heard  of  an  anointed 
republic? — Our  national  debt,  for  which  we  are  now 
paying  such  heavy  taxes,  was  doubled  by  the  troubles 
in  America,  all  brought  upon  us  from  the  beginning  by 
the  Dissenters  here  and  there.  Did  not  Dr.  Price 
write  for  them  ?  And  did  not  the  Birmingham  Doctor 
(late  one  of  the  '  kings  '  elect  of  France)  encourage 
them  and  write  mob  principles  of  government  to  jus- 
tify them  ?" 

The  Birmingham  Doctor  (Priestley)  had  his  house 
gutted  by  the  mob.  Mr.  Fox  (December  14,  1792) 
reminded  the  House  of  Commons  that  these  mobs  had 
"church  and  king"  for  their  watchword,  never  the 
"Rights  of  Man."  Paine's  work,  he  declared,  had 
never  produced  one  riot,  but  this  invective  against 
Dissenters,  unless  stopped,  would  endanger  the  per- 
sonal safety  of  "that  great  man.  Dr.  Priestley,  and 
every  other  Dissenter."  Among  the  other  Dissenters 
menaced  was  William  Vidler,  the  second  minister  of 
our  South  Place  Society, — a  society  originally  founded 
in  1793.  Fox  appealed  to  the  government  to  prose- 
cute such  libels  against  Dissenters  as  they  were  pros- 
ecuting Paine's  "Rights  of  Man. "  But  so  far  from  do- 
ing this,  the  ministry  utilised  the  mobs  fomented  by  its 


4200 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


own  adherents  to  justify  surrounding  London  with 
militia,  and  calling  a  meeting  of  Parliament  out  of  sea- 
son, just  before  the  trial  of  Paine.  Erskine,  Paine's 
lawyer,  amid  the  furious  denunciations  of  Paine,  said 
that  "such  reflexions  are  not  fair  against  a  work  now 
under  prosecution.  The  trial  is  at  hand,  and  the  cause 
ought  not  to  be  prejudged."  Burke,  who  now  for  the 
first  time  took  his  seat  on  the  Treasury  Bench,  found 
it  necessary  to  protest  that  he  had  not  come  over  to 
that  side  by  promise  of  a  pension  (Paine  had  charged 
him  with  already  being  a  secret  pensioner).  He 
(Burke)  was  reminded  of  how  he  had  once  "exulted 
at  the  victories  of  that  rebel  Washington,"  and  wel- 
comed Franklin.  "  Franklin,"  he  said,  "was  a  native 
of  America  ;  Paine  was  born  in  England,  and  lived 
under  the  protection  of  our  laws  ;  but,  instigated  by 
his  evil  geniu.s,  he  conspired  against  the  very  country 
which  gave  him  birth,  by  attempting  to  introduce 
the  new  and  pernicious  doctrines  of  republicanism." 
Burke  alluded  to  the  English  and  Irish  deputations 
then  in  Paris,  which  had  congratulated  the  Conven- 
tion on  the  defeat  of  the  invaders  of  the  Republic,  and 
me/itioned  among  those  on  the  deputations  J.  Frost, 
Lord  Semphill,  D.  Adams,  and  "Joel — Joel,  the 
Propliet," — i.  e.  Joel  Barlow,  who,  by  the  way,  for- 
mally became  a  French  citizen  February  17,  1793. 

We  may,  therefore,  assume  that  the  men  thus 
named  were  members  of  the  Paine  Club  at  Philadel- 
phia House.  Another  certainly  was  Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald,  who  wrote  to  his  mother  (October  30, 
1792):  "I  lodge  with  my  friend  Paine — we  breakfast, 
dine,  and  sup  together.  The  more  I  see  of  his  interior 
the  more  I  like  and  respect  him.  I  cannot  express 
how  kind  he  is  to  me  ;  there  is  a  simplicity  of  manner, 
a  goodness  of  heart,  and  a  strength  of  mind  in  him 
that  I  never  knew  a  man  before  possess."  Another 
was  Sir  Robert  Smith,  Baronet,  who,  under  Napoleon 
I.,  suffered  a  year's  imprisonment,  of  which  he  died. 
There  was  also  Franklin's  friend,  Benjamin  Vaughan, 
a  Member  of  Parliament,  who,  compromised  by  an 
intercepted  letter,  fled  to  France,  and  resided  near 
Paris  under  the  name  of  Jean  Martin.  Other  English- 
men were  Jeremiah  Joyce,  a  Unitarian  minister  and 
author  (coadjutor  of  Dr.  Gregory  in  his  "Cyclopae- 
dia"); J.  Frost,  who  assisted  Paine  in  his  escape  from 
England  ;  Redhead  Yorke,  who,  after  imprisonment 
under  Pitt,  afterwards  became  one  of  his  agents,  yet 
loyal  to  Paine  ;  Robert  Merry,  who  in  later  years  went 
with  his  wife,  the  actress  (her  stage  name  "  Miss 
Brunton"),  to  Baltimore,  where  he  died  in  1798. 
Other  Englishmen  in  the  club  were  Sayer,  Rayment, 
and  Macdonald.  These  men  were  refugees  from  a 
reign  of  terror  in  England,  which  was  filling  its  prisons 
with  its  best  men.  It  is  historically  correct  to  say  that 
at  the  close  of  1792  that  which  would  now  be  called  a 


real  English  government  held  its  Parliament  not  at 
Westminster,  but  at  Philadelphia  House,  Paris,  its 
members  being  the  Paine  Club. 

Among  the  homes  in  which  Paine  found  warm  wel- 
come was  that  of  Gen.  Achille  Duchatelet,  son  of  the 
duke,  grandson  of  the  authoress.  This  noble  family, 
in  every  sense  of  the  word,  lived  at  Auteuil,  a  beauti- 
ful suburb  of  Paris,  an  extension  of  Passy,  where,  in 
a  house  not  j'et  identified,  Franklin  had  resided. 
There  also  lived  the  Abb6  Moullet,  who  preserved  the 
arm  chair  in  which  Franklin  used  to  sit,  with  the  in- 
scription, Benjamin  FraiikUn  liic  sedebat.  These  friends 
of  Franklin  took  Paine  to  their  heart,  and  could  talk 
to  him  in  English.  For,  although  Paine  could  read 
French  with  ease,  he  would  never  trust  himself  to 
converse  on  matters  of  political  importance  in  any 
language  but  his  own.  Auteuil  is  now  reached  in  forty 
minutes  by  the  omnibus,  but  in  those  days  it  was  a 
rural  village.  Paine  was  a  guest  of  the  Duchatelet's 
soon  after  he  had  got  to  work  in  the  Convention,  as  I 
have  just  discovered  by  a  letter  of  his  not  hitherto 
brought  to  light.  It  is  addressed  "To  Citizen  Le 
Brun,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affaires,  Paris." 

"Auteuil,  Friday,  the  4th  December,  1792.  I  en- 
close an  Irish  newspaper  which  has  been  sent  to  me 
from  Belfast.  It  contains  the  address  of  the  Society 
of  United  Irishmen  of  Dublin  (of  which  society  I  am 
a  member)  to  the  volunteers  of  Ireland.  None  of  the 
English  newspapers  that  I  have  seen  have  ventured  to 
republish  this  address,  and  as  there  is  no  other  copy 
of  it  than  this  which  I  send  you,  I  request  you  not  to 
let  it  go  out  of  your  possession.  Before  I  received 
this  newspaper  I  had  drawn  up  a  statement  of  the 
affairs  of  Ireland  which  I  had  communicated  to 
my  friend.  General  Duchatelet  at  Auteuil,  where  I 
now  am.  I  wish  to  confer  with  you  on  that  subject, 
but  as  I  do  not  speak  French,  and  as  the  matter  re- 
quires confidence.  General  Duchatelet  has  desired  me 
to  say  that  if  you  can  make  it  convenient  to  name  a 
day  to  dine  with  him  and  me  at  Auteuil,  he  will  with 
pleasure  do  the  office  of  interpreter.  I  send  this  letter 
by  my  servant,  but  as  it  may  not  be  convenient  to  you 
to  give  an  answer  directly,  I  have  told  him  not  to 
wait.  Thomas  Paine." 

A  French  translation  of  the  Irish  address  is  bound 
up  with  this  letter  in  the  State  Archives  at  Paris.  It 
is  violent  enough  to  be  reproduced  by  the  Parnellites. 
Although  Paine's  letter  to  the  minister  is  Quakerlike 
in  its  lack  of  complimentary  phrases,  this  was  a  ges- 
ture of  the  time  towards  'Equality."  A  portrait  of 
Paine  as  a  "  Conventionnel "  shows  him  in  elegant 
costume,  and  it  will  be  noticed  by  the  above  note  that 
he  now  has  a  servant. 

Alas,  it  is  mournful  even  at  this  distance  to  reflect 
that  only  a  little  later  both  Paine  and  his  friend.  Gen- 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


4201 


eral  Duchatelet,  were  prisoners.  The  latter  poisoned 
himself  in  prison  (1794). 

Sampson  Perry  of  London,  having  attacked  the 
government  in  his  paper,  The  Argus,  fled  from  an  in- 
dictment and  reached  Paris  in  January,  1793.  In  1796 
he  gave  an  account  of  his  visit  to  Paine,  which  has 
never,  I  believe,  been  printed  in  America. 

"  I  breakfasted  with  Paine  about  this  time  at  the 
Philadelphia  Hotel,  and  asked  him  which  province  in 
America  he  conceived  the  best  calculated  for  a  fugi- 
tive to  settle  in,  and,  as  it  were,  to  begin  the  world 
with  no  other  means  or  pretensions  than  common 
sense  and  common  honesty.  Whether  he  saw  the  oc- 
casion and  felt  the  tendency  of  this  question  I  know 
not;  but  he  turned  it  aside  by  the  political  news  of 
the  day,  and  added  that  he  was  going  to  dine  with 
Petion,  the  mayor,  and  that  he  knew  I  should  be  wel- 
come and  be  entertained.  We  went  to  the  mayoralty 
together  in  a  hackney  coach,  and  were  seated  at  a 
table  about  which  were  placed  the  following  persons  : 
Petion,  the  mayor  of  Paris,  with  his  female  relation, 
who  did  the  honor  of  the  table ;  Dumourier,  the  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  French  forces,  and  one  of  his 
aides-de-camp ;  Santerre,  the  commandant  of  the 
armed  force  of  Paris,  and  an  aide-de-camp  ;  Condor- 
cet ;  Brissot ;  Gaudet;  Gensonnet  ;  Danton  ;  Ker- 
saint ;  Claviere  ;  Vergniaud  ;  and  Syeyes  ;  which,  with 
three  other  persons,  whose  names  I  do  not  now  recol- 
lect, and  including  Paine  and  myself,  made  in  all 
nineteen." 

I  have  found  an  interesting  account  in  the  Bicn- 
Inforvic  for  October  17,  1797  (a  paper  edited  by  Bonne- 
ville and  Paine),  of  another  refugee  who  came  to 
Paine  in  Paris  in  1793.  This  was  Thomas  Muir,  a 
Scotch  advocate.  Towards  the  close  of  1792  the  radi- 
cals of  Edinburgh  got  up  a  "Convention"  in  imita- 
tion of  that  inaugurated  in  France,  (except  that  it  was 
always  opened  with  prayer,)  and  Muir  was  its  leader. 
After  the  outlawry  of  Paine  (December  18,  1794)  the 
prosecutions  were  furious  in  England.  Muir  escaped 
to  Paris,  but  imprudently  ventured  to  return.  He  was 
tried  and  banished  to  Botany  Bay  for  fourteen  years. 
When  the  sentence  was  given,  the  judge  ordered  the 
tipstaff  to  remove  those  who  were  hissing.  "My  lord, 
they  are  all  hissing,"  was  the  reply. 

I  now  translate  the  account  of  Muir's  subsequent 
adventures  as  printed  by  Bonneville  and  Pjine  (1797). 

"  The  misfortunes  of  Thomas  Muir,  condemned  in 
Scotland  and  transported  to  Botany  Bay,  are  still 
present  to  our  minds.  His  virtues  and  talents  fur- 
nished a  motive  for  his  banishment :  he  was  especially 
condemned  for  bringing  some  patriotic  writings  into 
circulation,  amongst  others  the  work  of  Thomas  Paine, 
the  '  Rights  of  Man.'     About  two  years  after  his  ar- 


rival at  Botany  Bay,  an  American  vessel,  returning 
from  the  East  Indies,  took  him  on  board  and  carried 
him  to  Havana,  where  he  was  imprisoned  by  the 
Spaniards,  at  that  time  allies  of  England.  Put  on 
board  a  frigate,  he  was  making  for  Cadiz,  from  whence 
he  was  to  be  sent  back  to  his  persecutors,  when  a  freak 
of  fortune  brought  in  his  way  some  warships  belonging 
to  the  Jarvis  squadron.  A  fight  ensued  ;  the  Spanish 
frigate,  riddled  with  shot,  was  obliged  to  run  aground. 
Muir  was  wounded  in  the  head  by  a  blow  from  the 
muzzle  of  a  musket.  The  English  arriving,  claimed 
him.  They  were  told  that  he  was  dead,  and  had  just 
been  thrown  into  the  sea.  The  enemy,  after  plunder- 
ing the  ship,  abandoned  it  as  a  useless  hull  which  it 
would  embarrass  their  cruise  to  keep  afloat.  But,  by 
dint  of  time  and  labor,  the  stranded  frigate  was  again 
made  seaworthy  and  reached  the  port  of  Cadiz.  There 
Muir  was  left  a  prisoner  in  hospital,  and  long  lay  be- 
tween life  and  death.  He  has  lost  an  eye.  A  French- 
man, just  from  Cadiz,  who  has  visited  that  worthy 
friend  of  liberty,  assures  us  that  his  health  is  almost 
restored.  He  has  addressed  his  friend  Thomas  Paine 
a  letter  of  which  the  following  is  an  e.xtract : 

'Cadiz.  August  4,  1797.  Since  the  memorable 
evening  when  I  said  good-bye  to  you  [at  Paris]  my  sad 
and  troubled  life  has  been  a  medley  of  extraordinary 
events.  I  hope  in  a  few  months  to  tell  you  of  them 
in  person.  I  am  at  last,  against  all  hope,  cured  of  my 
numerous  wounds.  The  Directory  has  treated  me 
with  great  kindness  of  late  ;  its  solicitude  for  a  help- 
less individual  who  has  been  most  cruelly  wronged  is 
healing  balm  to  all  my  senses.  The  Spaniards  have 
kept  me  a  prisoner  under  a  pretext  that  I  am  a  Scotch- 
man ;  but  I  feel  certain  that  the  intervention  of  the 
Directory  of  the  Great  Republic  will  enable  me  to  ob- 
tain my  liberty.  Remember  me  most  kindly  to  all  our 
friends,  who  are  at  the  same  time  the  friends  of  free- 
dom, and  of  the  happiness  of  the  human  race. 

Thomas  Muir.'" 

We  learn  that  T.  Muir  was  restored  to  liberty  on 
the  16th  of  September  by  the  intervention  of  the  Di- 
rectory. 

Muir  soon  afterwards  reached  Paris,  where  he  lived 
among  his  old  friends  until  his  death,  in  1800. 

In  these  old  records  one  finds  many  an  original 
"  Man  without  a  country."  The  Scotch  advocate  ban- 
ished from  Great  Britain  is  held  a  prisoner  by  Spain 
in  Havana  because  he  is  an  offender  against  their 
ally;  then,  the  alliance  turning  to  enmity,  Muir  is  held 
prisoner  at  Cadiz  because  he  is  British  !  Thomas 
Paine  was  elected  to  the  French  Convention  as  an 
American  ;  he  was  outlawed  by  his  native  England  ; 
he  was  imprisoned  in  France  for  being  an  English- 
man, and  when  he  reiurned  to  America  his  vote  was 


4202 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


refused  on  the  pretext  that  he  was  not  an  American 
citizen  !  The  time  may  arrive  when  these  hardships 
of  Paine  will  be  quoted  to  prove  his  honor  as  the 
earliest  Citizen  of  the  World." 


BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN. 


BY     NOBUTA     KISHIMOTO,     M.  A. 


HI.    SACRED  LITERATURE. 

The  canonical  books  of  Japanese  Buddhism  are 
exactly  the  same  as  those  of  Chinese  Buddhism.  I 
say  "exactly  the  same"  because  not  only  were  all 
these  sacred  books  introduced  into  Japan  in  the  course 
of  time  by  Chinese  teachers  and  Japanese  pilgrims, 
but  they  were  also  read  and  used  in  their  original  Chi- 
nese form  and  were  never  translated  into  the  Japanese 
language.  This  is  also  the  case  with  the  Confucian 
classics.  As  a  rule,  all  educated  Japanese  scholars, 
whether  Buddhist  or  Confucian,  can  read  Chinese 
with  ease  and  facility,  so  that  for  them  there  was  no 
need  of  translating  the  sacred  books  of  these  two  sys- 
tems ;  while  furthermore  they  did  not  like  to  spoil 
these  sacred  and  elegantly  written  books  by  translat- 
ing them  into  a  foreign  tongue.  The  reason  why  the 
Japanese  study  Chinese  is  not  because  the  languages 
of  these  two  countries  are  alike,  as  is  sometimes  sup- 
posed. On  the  contrary,  these  languages  are  funda- 
mentally different  from  each  other,  to  such  an  extent 
that  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  there  is  no  more  re- 
semblance between  Japanese  and  Chinese  than  there 
is  between  English  and  Chinese.  The  reason  must  be 
sought  in  the  fact  that  the  Japanese  civilisation  orig- 
inally came  from  the  Asiatic  continent,  either  directly 
from  China  or  indirectly  through  Corea.  Philosophy, 
literature,  the  sciences,  and  all  the  arts  of  civilisation 
are  to  be  traced  to  continental  sources.  Thus  the 
study  of  the  Chinese  language  which  was  the  means 
of  transportation  of  these  treasures  became  both  a  ne- 
cessity and  a  fashion.  The  ordinary  people  who  could 
not  read  Chinese  seem  to  have  been  satisfied  with  an 
oral  exposition  of  the  teachings  of  Buddhism  and  Con- 
fucianism. If  this  were  not  so,  I  cannot  see  any  other 
explanation  why  there  is  no  vernacular  .translation  of 
the  Confucian  or  Buddhistic  literature,  as  the  case 
may  be. 

Now,  what  is  the  relation  of  these  Buddhistic  sa- 
cred books  of  China  or  Japan  to  those  of  Ceylon  ?  We 
know  in  the  first  place  that  in  both  of  these  countries 
the  whole  Buddhistic  literature  is  divided  into  three 
main  divisions,  known  in  India  as  "Tripitaka"  and 
in  China  as  "San-tsong,"  both  meaning  the  same 
thing,  viz.,  the  "  three  treasures  or  baskets  ";  and  that 
these  three  divisions  of  the  texts  are  (i)  the  Vinaya- 
pitaka  or  code  of  discipline,  (2)  the  Sutta-pitaka  or 
sermons  of  Buddha,  and  (3)  the  Abhidarma-pitaka  or 


philosophy.  In  the  second  place,  with  respect  to  the 
contents  of  these  three  pitakas  or  baskets,  there  are 
so  many  points  of  agreement  and  resemblance  that  we 
are  quite  justified  to  conclude  with  the  late  Professor 
Beal  that  "the  Chinese  Buddhists  derived  their  knowl- 
edge on  these  points  [that  is,  on  discipline  and  reli- 
gious life]  from  the  same  sources  as  the  Buddhists  of 
the  South,  and  the  two  schools,  so  far,  are  but  off- 
shoots of  one  primitive  stock."  Generally  speaking, 
the  Ceylon  canon  surpasses  all  others  in  point  of  ar- 
rangement, while  the  Chinese  canon  surpasses  al] 
others  in  point  of  copiousness. 

Probably  it  is  not  out  of  place  to  say  a  few  words 
in  this  connexion  about  the  relative  length  of  the  Pali 
canon  and  the  Chinese  canon  of  the  Buddhist  Scrip- 
tures. Dr.  Rhys  Davids,  trying  to  remove  great  mis- 
conceptions with  regard  to  the  supposed  enormous 
extent  of  the  sacred  books  of  Southern  Buddhism,  has 
examined  the  question  and  gives  his  conclusion  in  the 
following  words:  "The  Buddhist  Scriptures  [the 
whole  three  Pitakas  of  the  Southern  School,  exclusive 
of  Nos.  10  and  11  of  the  Khuddaka  Nikaya,  whose  ex- 
tent is  uncertain],  therefore, — including  all  the  repe- 
titions, and  all  those  books  which  consist  of  extracts 
from  the  others — contain  less  than  twice  as  many  ivords  as 
are  found  in  our  Bible;  and  a  translation  of  them  into 
English  would  be  about  four  times  as  long."  Such  is 
the  length  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  Southern  Bud- 
dhists, and  no  one  will  say  their  length  is  enormous. 
But  when  one  comes  to  know  the  real  extent  of  the 
sacred  books  of  the  Northern  Buddhists  which  form 
the  basis  of  the  Buddhist  religion  in  China  and  in 
Japan,  he  will  find  that  so-called  "great  misconcep- 
tions "  are  not  necessarily  misconceptions.  "It  is 
calculated,"  affirms  the  late  Professor  Beal,  "  that  the 
whole  work  of  the  Indian  translators  in  China,  together 
with  that  of  Hiouen  Thsang  amounts  to  about  seven 
hundred  times  the  size  of  the  New  Testament."  Surely 
this  is  an  enormous  mass  of  literature. 

I,  as  a  Japanese,  feel  quite  proud  in  being  able  to 
say  that  the  whole  collection  of  the  books  known  as  the 
"Sacred  Teaching  of  the  Three  Treasures,"  which 
now  stand  on  the  shelves  of  the  India  Office  Library 
in  London,  which  is  the  only  collection  of  the  kind  in 
the  West,  was  furnished  not  by  China  but  by  Japan. 
Dr.  Beal,  who  was  the  means  of  procuring  these  books, 
speaks  of  them  in  the  opening  pages  of  the  Catalogue 
which  he  'prepared  for  the  India  Office,  as  follows  : 
"This  collection  was  made  and  published  by  order  of 
the  Emperor  (of  China)  Wan-lieh  towards  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  It  was  reproduced,  in  Japan, 
in  the  sixth  year  of  the  Nengo  (year  period)  Im-po 
[Em  po?],  i.  e.,  A.  D.  1679,  and  afterwards  issued 
with  an  imperial  preface  in  the  period  Ten-wa,  A.  D. 
1681-1683.     As  first  received  at  the  India  Office,  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4203 


collection  was  contained  in  seven  large  boxes,  care- 
fully packed  in  lead,  with  padding  of  dry  rushes  and 
grass.  The  entire  series  of  books  was  arranged  in  one 
hundred  and  three  cases  or  covers  ;  in  each  case  there 
were,  on  an  average,  twenty  volumes,  so  that  the  en- 
tire number  of  volumes  is  more  than  two  thousand. 
Placed  one  above  the  other,  the  books  in  the  collec- 
tion would  reach  io  a /leight  of  about  one  hundred  and 
ten  feet."  "This  body  of  literature,"  continues  the 
same  author  elsewhere,  "  represents  the  entire  series 
of  sacred  books  taken  during  successive  years  from 
India  to  China  and  there  translated,  as  well  as  the 
works  of  native  Chinese  priests,  with  commentaries, 
catalogues,  and  indexes.  Here,  then,  is  the  ground- 
work of  our  knowledge  of  the  Buddhist  religion  in 
China  and  Japan.  It  is  plain  that  it  will  require  many 
years  before  we  can  arrive  at  a  correct  estimate  of  the 
character  of  these  books,  or  their  value  as  authentic 
translations.  But  as  far  as  is  yet  known,  they  contain 
valuable  materials  for  a  knowledge  of  Buddhism  in  all 
its  periods  of  expansion  or  development,  from  the 
simple  creed  taught  in  the  first  instance  by  its  founder 
down  to  the  subtle  and  fine-drawn  doctrine  of  the 
latest  period  of  scholastic  development." 


SPOOK  MICE. 

BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 

Between  Pharisees  and  Philistines  I  find  it  some- 
times very  difficult  to  choose.  When  I  am  with  the 
bigots  I  am  an  out  and  out  "infidel."  But  then  on 
the  other  hand  after  I  have  talked  a  while  with  an  un- 
believer, candidly,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  I  get  up 
and  come  away  feeling  more  "orthodox"  than  radical. 

I  suppose  you  wonder  how  this  can  be.  Well  if 
you're  a  good  listener,  you'll  not  need  to  wonder  long, 
because  I  shall  tell  you. 

Of  course  it  is  one  thing  to  tell  a  person  a  fact,  and 
quite  another  to  put  understanding  into  him  to  com- 
prehend the  fact.  That  I  know  ;  but  one  thing  I  can't 
make  out, — it  seems  so  irrational, — and  that  is  why 
most  people  listen, — not  with  their  ears,  but  with  their 
prejudices.  "  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear  let  him  hear  " 
is  a  good  motto;  but  (as  Mr.  Ingersoll  saj's)  :  "He 
that  hath  a  thinker  to  think,  let  him  think." 

The  better  the  thinking  apparatus,  the  better  the 
thought  product.  This  is  certainly  so  in  abstruse  mat- 
ters of  mathematics,  for  instance.  And  in  philosophy 
it.  is  much  the  same.  But  how  is  it  in  matters  of  reli- 
gion? 

Now,  of  course  up  jumps  a  Philistine  to  say  that 
he  ' '  does'nt  believe  in  religion  " ;  and  a  Pharisee  across 
the  room  bawls  out  :  "  Only  believe  and  you  shall  be 
saved." 

As  it  happens,  my  mind, — my  thinking  apparatus, 
— is  so  constituted  that  I  want  to  know  the  meaning 


of  words.  I  am  somewhat  peculiar  perhaps  in  this 
respect.  I  know  that  most  people,  liberal  and  illiberal 
alike,  are  quite  content  to  take  their  meanings  ready- 
made  ;  but  I  can't  do  it. 

There's  that  word  "religion,"  for  instance.  Now, 
be  honest  with  me,  and  yourself,  you  well-meaning 
Philistine,  say  if  it  is  not  a  spook  of  a  meaning  you 
disbelieve  in, — a  spook  of  cant,  hypocrisy,  narrow- 
ness, dogmatism,  stand-aside  I-am-holier-than-thou- 
ism?  That  it?  Why,  of  course  that's  it.  The  real 
religion  you  respect  every  time.  And  you  know  it, 
too,  when  you  see  it.  I  even  go  so  far  as  to  say  that 
some  of  you  have  got  it,  and  don't  know  it  either — of 
course  it's  not  a  very  common  type,  sort  of  varioloid 
form  of  the  disease,  not  "  catching,"  but  quite  suffi- 
cient to  prevent  your  taking  the  disorder  in  any  severer 
form. 

Then,  as  to  "believe";  what  does  our  orthodox 
friend  mean,  when  he  says,  "only  believe?" 

Don't  laugh,  please,  at  a  poor  truth-seeker,  and 
say  I'm  going  round  Robin  Hood's  barn;  for  I  tell 
you  frankly  there's  a  great  deal  in  belief.  But  if  you 
take  it  all  out  in  believing — ah,  sure  enough,  that 
would  be  bad,  and  worse  than  bad,  it  would  be  non- 
sense. 

If  you  ask  my  views  as  to  what  percentage  of  church 
members  take  it  all  out  in  "believing,"  why,  I  must 
ask  you  to  excuse  me  ;  at  least  excuse  me  from  making 
any  calculation.  I  can  guess  ;  of  course  I  can  guess — 
say  0-005,  or  thereabouts  of  the  average  attendance. 
There's  a  guess  to  swear  by — or  at. 

I  don't  suppose  this  periodical  has  a  very  extensive 
circulation  among  strict  church  people,  but  if  any  Epis- 
copalian among  you  really  hungers  and  thirsts  after 
common  sense  let  him  come  to  me.  If  you  are  a  good 
Episcopalian  j'ou  ought  to  come  ;  for  what  does  it 
say  in  your  prayer  book:  that  "all  who  profess  and 
call  themselves  Christians  may  be  led  into  the  way  of 
truth."  That's  what  I  call  a  good,  sensible  prayer, 
and  I  am  willing  to  be  the  humble  instrument  to  carry 
on  the  work. 

"  Only  believe."  Well,  well,  that  does  look  sim- 
ple, doesn't  it?  And  think  what  you  get  by  it — life 
eternal,  good  comfortable  quarters  for  all  eternity. 
You  think  it's  simple,  do  you?  Just  try  and  see  how 
simple  it  is.  I  won't  go  through  any  process  of  logic  ; 
I  just  say,  try  ;  and  I  say,  too,  try  all  day,  all  year, 
all  a  life  time,  all  forever,  and  you'll  never,  never  get 
to  believe  by  trymg,  but  you'll  go  on, — whatever  you 
profess, — believing  what  you're  built  to  believe  in. 

To  be  sure,  rational  as  well  as  doctrinal  beliefs, 
change.  Some  are  born  to  beliefs  ;  some  achieve  be- 
liefs, and  some  have  beliefs  thrust  upon  them,  though 
these  latter  seldom  stick.  Belief  is  either  automatic, 
unconscious,  in  which  case  the  correct  word  is  not  be- 


4204 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


lief,  but  habit,  or  it  is  the  effect  of  evidence,  when 
alone  it  is  genuine. 

Is  that  the  sort  of  thing  our  orthodox  friends  tell 
us  to  get?  Alas  !  it  ought  perhaps  to  be,  but  it  isn't. 
The  kind  they  refer  to  seems  more  like  the  automatic 
variety. 

As  I  look  at  it,  in  neither  case  is  it  worth  much  as 
a  soul  saver. 

If  it  is  difficult  to  believe  by  trying,  equally  so  is  it 
to  disbelieve,  or  undo  a  belief  once  acquired.  It  is 
not  only  difficult ;  it  is  impossible.  Only,  curious  as 
it  may  seem,  this  sort  of  belief  has  nothing  in  common 
with  the  other.  The  first  is  purely  intellectual ;  the 
latter  absolutely  ideal.  If  you  do  not  beheve  me,  think 
of  that  person, — your  wife  perhaps, — whom  you  love 
best  in  the  world,  and  see  if  it  would  be  possible  by 
any  study,  any  patience,  endeavor,  or  effort  of  will,  to 
dismiss  that  love.  Manifestly  not.  And  what  you 
cannot  do  yourself  it  is  extremely  doubtful  if  circum- 
stances could  do  for  you.  Love — the  true  kind — sur- 
vives all  circumstances  :  evil  report,  neglect,  unkind- 
ness,  infidelity,  even  cruelty.      The  poet  says  : 

"  Then  tell  me  how  love  cometh  ; 
It  comes  unsought,  unsent ; 
Then  tell  me  how  love  Roeth,— 
That  was  not  love  which  went." 

I  think,  from  the  foregoing,  plain  as  a  corollary  to 
a  proposition,  we  have  logically,  either  that  there  are 
two  kinds  of  "beliefs,"  or  that  one  kind  should  be 
labeled  differently,  say  as — "feeling"  or  "emotion." 

For  instance  I  believe  that  2-1-2  =  4.  If  I  am  an 
advanced  mathematician  I  believe  in  the  "binominal 
theorem  "  and  the  "method  of  least  squares  ";  because 
in  this  rational  region  belief  is  a  function  of  capacity 
of  thought. 

But  again,  if  I  am  given  a  flower  to  smell,  do  I 
think  of  ciphering  out  its  odor  ?  No,  I  put  it  to  my 
nose.  If  I  am  asked  my  views  as  to  the  flavor  of  a 
new  strawberry,  can  I  possibly  give  them  intelligently 
by  any  chemical  process  of  analysis?  Absurd, — I  taste 
the  berry.  In  this  emotional  region  belief  is  a  func- 
tion of  feeling,  taste  a  function  of  sensation. 

In  both  regions  belief  is, — and  must  ever  be, — the 
synonym  of  knowledge. 

I  am  a  Freethinker.  If  any  man  tells  me  that  I 
must  believe  intellectually  what  I  disbelieve  radically, 
I  point  to  the  above  argument. 

But  how  I  do  run  on.  I  started  out  with  the  very 
best  intentions  to  tell  a  yarn  ;  I  even  wrote  the  title  to 
the  yarn,  and  then, — just  because  my  thinker  worked 
that  way, — blundered  into  some  reasoning.  Usually 
we  start  out  to  reason,  and  blunder  into  foolishness. 
Perhaps  my  way  is  the  better.  But  now  for  the  spook 
mice  : 

My  little  daughter  Pollikins,  old  enough  to  read, 
but  (if  you  catch  my  nttaning)  not  yet  quite  old  enough 


to  think,  came  home  recently  from  school  with  a  little 
mongrel  pup  in  her  arms.  At  first  mamma  was  for 
turning  the  cur  out,  but  then,  you  see,  Pollikins  cried, 
and  the  puppy  was  so  cunning,  it  ended  the  usual 
way :  mamma  basely  betraj'ed  her  trust,  and  when  I 
came  home  in  the  evening  all  three,  pup,  Pollikins, 
and  mamma,  were  having  a  frolic  together. 

The  reasons  (or  wants  of  them)  that  actuate  a 
"  mamma,"  are  not  those  of  a  man  in  the  gas  business. 
A  pup  about  a  house,  especially  if  untrained,  is  a  nui- 
sance. But  what  was  I  to  do  ?  The  coalition  was  too 
strong ;   I  gave  in^  and  the  pup  stayed  on. 

How  mysterious  are  the  ways  of  Providence  !  That 
pup  taught  me  a  lesson  ;  indeed  a  lot  of  lessons,  which, 
as  in  duty  bound,  I  shall  try  to  pass  on  to  you. 

In  the  course  of  a  week,  the  mischief  that  dog  did 
would  surprise  you  if  told.  I  diligently  impressed 
upon  Pollikins  the  necessity  of  discipline, — certainty 
of  reward  for  good  conduct,  inevitable  "wallops"  for 
evil,  and  celerity  for  both.  There  is  only  one  way  to 
train  a  conscious  organism  ;  that  I  taught  Pollikins. 
If  she  had  been  left  to  herself,  Pollikins  would  have 
been  all  right ;  but  mamma  (as  I  have  known,  lo  ! 
these  many  years)  had  "views"  as  well  as  I,  and  a 
warm  heart,  which  no  man  in  the  gas  business  can 
have  and  thrive  ,  so  when  the  puppy  misbehaved,  and 
Pollikins  "walloped"  her,  and  she  yelped,  mamma 
interfered  directly,  reproved  Pollikins  for  what  she 
called  "cruelty,"  and  coddled  the  dog.  Of  course, 
this  meant  ruin. 

At  last,  finding  things  going  from  bad  to  worse,  I 
took  a  hand  at  training  Capers.  Did  I  tell  you  his 
name  was  Capers?  Well,  it  was.  I  provided  a  little 
misfortune — a  switch,  and  then  I  was  going  to  get  a 
few  lumps  of  sugar,  as  a  just  reward  for  a  righteous 
dog,  when  I  made  a  discovery.  It  was  in  the  even- 
ing, the  gas  up  high,  when  who  should  come  in  but 
my  brother-in-law.  He  and  I  always  contrive  to  get 
up  some  kind  of  an  argument ;  if  it  isn't  the  tariff  it's 
the  labor  problem,  and  if  not  that  religion  ;  at  which 
latter  he  holds  his  own  remarkably  well,  though,  as  I 
tell  him,  he  has  so  little  that  it  ought  to  give  him  no 
trouble.  However,  we  fell  to  talking,  and  I,  keeping 
up  my  end,  began  to  gesticulate.  The  moment  I  did 
so,  a  curious  thing  happened.  Capers  dashed  out  of 
the  corner  where  he  had  been  snoozing,  and  rushed 
frantically  across  the  room,  and  round  about,  this  way 
and  that,  as  if  possessed.  My  mother-in-law,  vijho 
somehow  never  was  thoroughly  reconciled  to  the  dog, 
bounced  up  on  the  sofa  and  screamed  that  he  had  a 
fit. 

"Heaven  be  praised,"  thought  I,  if  he  had  a  fit 
even  my  little  girl  would  be  satisfied  that  Capers  had 
outlived  his  usefulness.  But  no ;  it  wasn't  a  fit  he 
had,  nor  was  it,  as  I   suggested  to  brother  Tom,  that 


THE    OPEN    OOURT. 


4205 


the  dog  wa§  hunting  the  facts  he  had  omitted.  What 
he  really  was  hunting  was  the  light  from  mj'  glasses, 
focussed  on  the  floor,  prancing  about  as  I  gesticulated, 
and  Capers  after  it,  this  wa}'  and  that,  full  tilt. 

Capers  wasn't  so  very  fond  of  sugar  ;  but  here  was 
something  in  which  he  really  took  an  interest.  Since 
then  we  have  gotten  considerable  amusement,  Capers 
most  of  all,  out  of  his  antics.  Then,  too,  I  have  uti- 
lised his  passion  for  chasing  the  spook  mice,  I  trust,  to 
the  pup's  lasting  good.  By  the  lure  of  the  chase  for 
phantoms,  I  have  taught  him  any  number  of  useful 
and  ornamental  tricks  :  to  stand  on  his  hind  legs,  to 
give  his  paws,  to  sing,  to  swear,  and  to  pray,  all  which 
he  now  does  finely.  And  when  he  has  been  particu- 
larly virtuous,  verily  he  has  his  reward  :  out  come  my 
glasses,  the  round  spots  of  light  focus  on  the  patterns 
of  the  carpet,  and  dance  hither  and  thither,  Capers 
after  them,  delirious  with  joy  and  hope,  mad  as  hops 
that  he  has  never  yet  gotten  his  teeth  into  a  material 
spook  mouse,  but  quite  convinced  they  are  there. 

I  presume  to  that  pup's  dying  day  he  will  continue 
to  believe  in  material  spook  mice.  But  if  he  in  his 
turn  has  pups,  and  his  pups  pups,  by  and  by,  sure,  a 
great,  big-brained  pup, — a  Darwin  among  dogs, — will 
arise,  all  the  dogs  will  become  infidel,  and  the  fun  of 
chasing  spook  mice  will  be  over  for  the  race.  Alas  ! 
I  can't  help  feeling  that  that  will  be  a  pity.  Hear  me 
out,  please  ;  I  say  it  would  be  a  pity,  not  that  I  be- 
lieve in  phantoms,  but  that  even  a  phantom  may  be 
blessed,  if  it  leads  by  the  path  of  honest  investigation 
truthward. 

Suppose  (it  will  do  no  harm  to  suppose)  that  the 
future  brainy  dog,  instead  of  confining  his  line  of  in- 
quirj'  to  an  analysis  or  a  calculation,  instead  of  being 
satisfied  that  a  chase  for  spook  mice  was  wholly  and 
forever  futile,  should — either  led  thereto  by  a  process 
of  reasoning  little  short  of  angelic,  but,  more  likely, 
by  the  merest  accident — chance  to  cast  his  eyes  up- 
ward, and  see  the  eye-glasses,  and  me,  and  beyond, 
and  better  yet,  the  light,  and  should  have  the  ability 
to  draw  deductions,  and  trace  correspondences  be- 
tween the  silly,  fluctuating,  elusive  specks  and  gleams 
on  the  floor  and  the  focus,  and  the  real  great,  stable, 
eternal  Higher  Power  above. 

It  seems  silly,  doesn't  it  !  to  imagine  such  foolish- 
ness. And  yet  it's  bound  to  come,  not  perhaps  with 
Capers  or  his  progeny,  but  with  another,  more  learned, 
more  agile,  more  arrogant,  but  scarcely  less  silly  race. 

If  I  chose  I  might  perhaps  make  a  very  comical 
comparison  between  Capers  and  some  of  the  early 
fathers.  There  is  Moses,  for  instance.  I  could  depict 
that  worthy  chasing  a  spook  mouse  in  the  burning 
bush,  or  cavorting  with  his  Israelites  across  the  Red 
Sea  after  another,  and  be  as  satiric,  and  materialistic, 
and  scurrilous  as  you  please.      But  I  don't  choose.      I 


respect  Moses,  and  the  bush,  and  the  fire  too  much 
for  that. 

When  we  have  at  last  given  over  our  chase  for  the 
elusive  and  the  illusive,  and  satisfied  ourselves,  as  we 
think,  that  it  is  all  delusive  ;  when  the  ardor  and  rap- 
ture of  aspiration  for  the  material  give  room  to  a  cer- 
tain lethargy,  and  despair  mocks  and  gibes  at  our  in- 
evitable failure,  shall  we  then  say,  It  is  all  failure  ; 
there  is  nothing  tangible  in  the  light,  therefore  there 
is  no  light  ?  Fool,  the  light  is  the  one  reality.  It  is 
the  Hght  shining  on  the  symbol  that  is  holy.  There 
is  nothing  sacred  in  an  image,  but  the  light  is  sacred. 

And  yet  not  a  few  who  have  read  some  of  my  writ- 
ings tell  me,  more  or  less  civilly,  that  I  have  no  re- 
spect for  anything  sacred.  Alas  !  how  mistaken  they 
are.  I  wish  these  people  could  look  into  my  heart. 
But  while  in  many  ways  they  are  transparent  to  me,  I 
am  opaque  to  them. 

My  home  is  not  far  from  an  orphan  asylum,  and 
sometimes  when  the  windows  are  open,  I  hear  the  lit- 
tle imps  carolling,  and  I  shut  off  the  cold  faucet  of 
philosophy  and  turn  on  the  warm  current  of  love  for 
all  mankind,  and  listen  only  to  join  the  choir  invisible 
while  they  sing : 

"  Jesus  like  a  shepherd  lead  us  ; 

Much  we  need  thy  tender  care, 
In  thy  pleasant  pastures  feed  us; 

For  our  use  thy  folds  prepare  ; 
Blessed  Jesus,  blessed  Jesus, 

Thou  hast  bought  us  ;  Thine  we  are." 

not  ashamed  to  feel,  as  the  urchins  ought  to  but  do 
not,  the  sublimest,  perhaps,  of  all  emotions, — the  rev- 
erence of  the  thistle-down  for  the  wind, — the  submis- 
sion of  the  lower  to  the  nobler  self. 

Some  call  this  sort  of  thing  sentiment  unworthy  a 
thinker.  Others,  the  orthodox,  call  me  an  unbeliever. 
And  these,  on  Easter  day,  will  go  to  their  costly  tem- 
ples, sit  in  luxurious  pews,  see  the  altars  piled  high 
with  lilies,  and  think  perhaps  in  stifling  thought  they 
are  doing  honor  to  the  Nazarene.  As  Whittier  has 
written  : 

"  Ve  bow  to  ghastly  symbols, 

To  cross  and  scourge  and  thorn; 
Ye  seek  his  Syrian  manger 
Who  in  the  heart  is  born." 


SCIENCE  AND  REFORM. 


THE  FAR- WEST  MIRAGE. 
The  Spanish  sailors  of  the  Middle  Ages  used  to  while  away 
the  Slimmer-night  watches  with  traditions  that  seemed  to  fore- 
shadow the  discovery  of  the  New  World,  but  in  the  meantime 
often  lured  the  precursors  of  Columbus  to  their  ruin  in  the  water- 
wastes  of  the  stormy  Atlantic.  The  successive  discovery  of  Ma- 
deira, the  Canaries,  and  the  Cape  Verde  Archipelago  may  account 
for  the  visions  of  storm-tossed  mariners,  whose  fancy  shaped  vistas 
of  Eden  from  the  cloud-banks  of  the  Western  horizon  ;  and  on  a 
similar  theory  we  may  explain  the  delusion  of  the  East  American 
farmer,  who  leaves  the  garden-land  of  the  Alleghanies  for  the  des- 
erts of  the  Far  West.  The  imposition  of  Western  land-sharks  may 
have  helped  to  foster  that  exodus-mania,   but  its  roots  can  be 


%« 


s^ 


o,v. 


.<^ 


0 


4206 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


traced  to  the  fact  that  for  a  long  series  of  generations  Anglo-Saxon 
agriculturists  actually  improved  their  condition  by  migration  to- 
wards the  lands  of  the  setting  sun.  The  Teuton  settlers  of  Schles- 
wig-Holstein  were  not  aborigines  of  those  fertile  marshes  and  had 
probably  come  from  some  bleaker  region  further  east — North  Po- 
land, perhaps,  or  the  central  plateaus  of  the  Sarmatian  plain. 
Then  came  the  British  land-grab  and  the  progressive  settlement 
of  an  island  that  derives  its  chief  climatic  blessings  from  the  West. 
In  America,  too,  the  wisdom  of  Horace  Greeley's  advice  remained 
unimpeachable  till  the  migratory  colonists  had  pushed  their  camps 
beyond  the  Mississippi  and  found  to  their  cost  that  they  had 
passed  the  goal  of  their  ancestor's  day-dream.  General  Fremont 
already  recognised  that  fact  in  pointing  out  the  analogies  of  our 
sage-brush  deserts  and  the  Mongolian  steppes,  and  Hazen's  pam- 
phlet on  "Our  Barren  Lands"  ought  to  have  opened  the  eyes  of 
all  but  the  wilfully  blind.  His  predictions  were  more  than  justi- 
fied by  the  fearful  experience  of  drought-stricken  settlers  in  Kan- 
sas, West  Texas,  and  Nebraska,  but  the  traditions  of  eighty  pre- 
ceding generations  are  not  so  easy  to  eradicate,  and  the  admira- 
tion of  the  West,  as  the  source  of  wealth,  seems  hardly  less  argu- 
ment-proof than  the  adoration  of  the  East  as  a  source  of  wisdom. 
NOISE  MARTYRDOM. 
There  is  no  doubt  that,  next  to  stimulant-vice,  noise  is  the 
chief  cause  of  the  constant  increase  in  the  number  and  malignity 
of  nervous  disorders.  The  racket  of  modern  civilisation  is  getting 
worse  every  year,  and  the  trouble  is  that  the  affliction  does  not 
readily  admit  of  subjective  remedies.  "Why  don't  you  stop  up 
your  ears  and  let  Bedlam  roar  away  ?  "  asks  our  optimistic  friend  ; 
but  his  question  would  be  ans\vered  if  he  should  try  his  own  plan. 
The  attempt  to  obstruct  the  sense  of  hearing  by  mechanical  ap- 
pliances results  in  a  continuous  humming  in  the  ears, — a  phenom- 
enon as  troublesome  as  any  external  noise,  and  unrelieved  by  the 
blest  pauses  of  silence  that  mitigate  the  horror  of  street  uproar  in 
all  but  the  busiest  cities  of  Christendom.  The  voices  of  traffic 
are  too  manifold  to  be  abated  by  municipal  by-laws, — though  the 
citizens  of  Sybaris  are  said  to  have  managed  the  thing  by  banish- 
ing noisy  trades  to  the  suburbs, — but  a  considerable  step  in  the 
right  direction  is  the  plan  of  making  indoor  life  less  obstreperous. 
An  Antwerp  correspondent  describes  a  model  sitting-room  exhib 
ited  at  the  World's  Fair  and  abounding  in  noiseless  appliances  of 
electricity.  The  windows  will  glide  up  and  down  without  the 
faintest  creak  ;  on  the  simple  pressure  of  a  button  the  doors  will 
swing  open  as  if  on  magic  hinges.  Electric  calefactors  will  take 
the  place  of  crackling  chimney-fires,  and  cans  of  tea  and  water 
will  be  kept  warm  by  coils  of  wire  underneath  the  cooking  ap- 
paratus. 

ANTI-MONGOL  PRECAUTIONS. 

The  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
has,  after  all,  reported  adversely  on  a  bill  enabling  Japanese  to 
become  citizens  of  the  United  States.  The  danger  of  a  mass  inva- 
sion from  the  land  of  the  Mikado  is  not  very  serious,  but  the  re- 
ports from  the  seat  of  war  may  have  suggested  a  misgiving  that 
the  Children  of  the  Setting  Sun  are  apt  to  make  up  in  pluck  what 
they  lack  in  numbers.  Committee-members  from  the  Pacific  Slope 
may  also  have  learned  to  appreciate  the  mercantile  ability  of  the 
"Asiatic  Yankees."  "What  made  you  object  to  my  chum  ?"  asked 
the  friend  of  a  tourist  who  had  in  vain  sought  admission  to  the 
sportsman's  club  of  a  German  summer-resort,  "don't  you  consider 
him  a  first-class  sportsman  ?"  "Oh  yes,  and  a  gentleman,  too," 
replied  the  candid  native,  "but  you  know  he  has  practised  buck- 
shooting  in  Ceylon,  and  we  have  not  many  deer  to  spare." 
A  LIVELY  NEIGHBORHOOD. 

The  delta  of  the  Zambesi  River  is  so  infested  with  pirates  that 
the  Portuguese  settlers  take  the  last  sacraments  of  the  Church  be- 
fore entrusting  their  lives  to  a  ferry-boat,  and  travellers  on  the 


Rio  Grande  frontier  will  soon  have  to  adopt  a  similar  precaution. 
The  entire  Mexican  border  from  Matamoros  to  El  Paso  swarms 
with  cutthroats,  and  in  the  State  of  Chihuahua  alone  highway 
robberies  have  reached  an  average  of  a  dozen  a  week.  Further 
west  matters  are  even  worse  ;  the  Yaqui  Indians  ha\e  descended 
from  their  highland  strongholds,  and  the  state  of  affairs  near 
Hermosillo  seems  to  rival  the  Faustrecht  chaos  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  Is  it  the  chance  of  escape  to  a  land  of  strangers,  that  makes 
border-regions  so  specially  liable  to  afflictions  of  that  sort  ?  For 
Spanish  Americans  are  by  no  means  all  "Children  of  Chaos." 
The  citizens  of  Oaxaca  are  as  law-abiding  as  any  Saxons,  and  the 
Province  of  Vera  Paz  almost  deserves  its  poetic  name:  "The 
Land  of  True  Peace." 

VACATION  PRIVILEGES. 
The  new  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells  denounces  the  thirst  of 
gold  as  the  root  of  all  evil  and  wants  his  countrymen  to  cease 
sacrificing  their  hope  of  a  spiritual  competency  to  the  restless  pur- 
suit of  a  financial  surplus.  The  antithesis  of  the  venerable  re- 
former is  well  pointed,  but  he  might  as  well  try  to  stop  the  rush 
for  office  in  a  country  where  Government  employment  is  the  only 
road  to  honor  and  prosperity.  In  China  a  man  has  to  be  either  a 
mandarin  or  a  cipher,  and  under  the  present  system  of  British 
Sunday  laws  a  law-abiding  citizen  has  either  to  acquire  the  means 
of  indulging  in  the  luxury  of  a  yearly  vacation  or  wear  out  his  life 
in  drudgery,  aggravated  rather  than  relieved,  by  the  deadly  te- 
dium of  a  Puritan  Sabbath.  Felix  L.  Oswald. 


NOTES. 

For  a  more  exhaustive  explanation  of  Mr.  Alfred  W.  Martin's 
views  concerning  the  demands  of  unsectarian  or  universal  religion, 
mooted  in  T/ie  Open  Court  for  August  gth,  we  may  refer  interested 
readers  to  the  Free  Church  Record,  Vol.  II,  No.  4.  wherein  the 
subject  of  "Christianity  and  Universal  Religion  "  is  more  fully 
treated.  By  addressing  Mr.  Samuel  Collyer,  Tacoma,  Wash., 
copies  of  this  issue  of  the  Record  ca.n  be  obtained. 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E    C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,   Ed 


TERIUS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION; 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  366. 

THE  PAINE  CLUB  IN  PARIS.     Moncure  D.  Conway.   4199 
BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN.    III.  Sacred  Literature.   Nobuta 

KiSHIMOTO 4202 

SPOOK  MICE.     HuDOR  Genone 4203 

SCIENCE  AND  REFORM  :    The  Far-West  Mirage.   Noise 
Martyrdom.   Anti-Mongol  Precautions.   A  Lively  Neigh- 
borhood.    Vacation  Privileges.     Felix  L.  Oswald.  .  . .  4205 
NOTES 4206 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "HfEETCL^r  JOUENAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  367.     (Vol.  VIII.— 36.) 


CHICAGO,  SEPTEMBER  6,   1894. 


I  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


LABOR-DAY. 

It  has  become  customary  to  celebrate  the  first  Mon- 
day in  September  as  Labor-Day.  Not  the  authorities 
of  State  or  Church  have  introduced  the  new  festival,  but 
the  laborers  ;  and  well  may  they  be  proud  of  it,  for  it  is 
one  of  the  signs  of  the  time,  indicating  that  a  new  era 
is  dawning  upon  mankind  in  which  labor  will  no  longer 
be  regarded  as  a  burden  and  a  curse,  but  as  the  true 
and,  indeed,  the  noblest  manifestation  of  our  exist- 
ence. Labor,  as  we  understand  it  now,  is  the  very 
substance  of  our  life  and  the  seal  of  our  manhood.  He 
who  does  not  labor  does  not  live  ;  his  existence  is 
empty  ;  his  soul  is  a  cipher  ;  and  when  death  comes 
he  is  doomed  to  an  ignominious  annihilation,  for  im- 
mortality must  be  earned  by  wisel}'  directed  work  and 
untiring  exertions. 

In  commemoration  of  Labor-Day,  which  now  has 
become  a  legal  holiday,  let  us  consider  the  significance 
of  labor  in  its  most  important  aspects,  which  are  : 

1.  The  curse  of  labor  as  drudgery; 

2.  The  origin  and  nature  of  labor  ; 

3.  The  blessings  of  labor  ; 

4.  The  dignity  of  labor  ;  and  finally, 

5.  The  problem  of  labor. 

All  ye  who  labor  and  plod,  who  work  and  toil,  al- 
most breaking  down  under  the  burdens  that  the  vari- 
ous stations  of  life  in  which  you  live  place  upon  you, 
'lay  aside  for  a  moment  your  axe,  pickaxe,  hammer, 
spade,  or  pen,  and  your  cares  ;  cease  worrying,  for  a 
[moment,  and   pause   to  think  of  the  nature  of  your 
tlabor.      I  trust  that  by  rightly  understanding  the  sig- 
Inificance  of  labor,  you  will  gain  the  right  attitude  in 
|;life,  and  if  you  do,  you  will  resume  your  work  with 
greater  vigor.      If  you  comprehend  the   grandeur  of 
labor,  its   importance  in  your  psychical  development, 
land  the  close  relation  in  which  it  stands  to  the  very 
fiessence  of  your  soul,  you  will  become  reconciled  even 
rto  its  unpleasant  features,  and  will  rejoice  at  the  very 
[idea  of  being  a  laborer,  called   upon  to  contribute  his 
[mite  in  building  the  glorious  temple  of  humanity. 


Labor  is  by  no  means  a  pleasure  ;  it  is  not  mere 
[sport  or  play,  but  a  very  serious  occupation  ;  there  is 
tno  trifling  about  it.     Labor  is  hard  work  in  almost  all 


the  walks  of  life  :  no  wonder  that  it  at  first  sight  ap- 
pears as  the  curse  of  mankind. 

We  read  in  the  holy  legend  of  the  Old  Testament 
that  Adam's  disobedience  brought  down  upon  his  race 
the  dire  destiny  of  drudgery  and  death  which  changed 
paradise  into  a  valley  of  tears.  God's  wrath  makes 
the  access  to  the  resources  of  the  earth  difficult ;  the 
ground  is  cursed,  and  in  sorrow  shall  man  eat  of  the 
herbs  of  the  field  all  the  days  of  his  life.  Thorns  also 
and  thistles  shall  it  bring  forth,  and  he  shall  eat  his 
bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow  until  he  return  to  the 
ground  out  of  which. he  was  taken.  "For,"  says  the 
Lord,  "dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shaft  thou  re- 
turn." 

This  curse  of  labor  as  symbolised  in  thorns  and 
thistles  does  not  rest  upon  the  tiller  of  the  soil  alone, 
but  also  upon  the  artisan,  the  mason,  the  miner,  the 
manufacturer,  the  merchant,  the  teacher,  the  artist, 
the  poet.  All  labor  in  the  long  run  is  hard  ;  and  it  is 
the  exception  only  that  from  time  to  time  labor  be- 
comes easy  in  one  or  another  department  of  life.  The 
rule  is  that  whenever  the  rewards  of  work  are  extra- 
ordinarily bounteous  in  one  field  of  industry,  a  rush 
of  competition  towards  the  centre  of  low  pressure  will 
set  in  according  to  the  same  law  that  regulates  the 
distribution  of  water  and  the  conditions  of  our  atmos- 
phere, always  tending  to  a  universal  equalisation. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  wealthy  do  not 
feel  the  pricks  of  the  thorns  and  thistles  growing  in 
the  various  fields  of  human  work,  and  it  is  true  that 
there  are  some  few  who  draw  the  interest  of  a  goodly 
inheritance  and  their  capital  being  securely  invested 
have  little  idea  of  the  enormous  exertions  which  the 
mass  of  mankind  must  make  in  order  to  continue  ex- 
istence in  the  present  state  of  civilisation  ;  but  it  is  an 
error  to  think  that  our  capitalists  so  called,  i.  e.,  those 
men  who  possess  wealth  and  use  it  for  the  production 
of  more  wealth  in  industrial  enterprises  are  exempt 
from  the  curse  that  rests  upon  labor.  Their  lot  is, 
closely  considered,  not  better  than  that  of  other  mor- 
tals. Certainly  they  enjoy  great  advantages,  but  their 
position  is  at  the  same  time  more  intermingled  with 
worries,  unknown  to  the  rest  of  mankind,  while  the 
danger  of  losing  their  preferences  is  more  dreadful  to 
them  than  the  loss  of  life  to  the  frugal  day-laborer. 


4208 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


It  is  a  well-known  truth  upon  wliich  the  poets  of  all 
times  have  dwelt,  that  more  and  truer  happiness  is 
found  in  the  humble  cottage  than  in  the  palaces  of  the 
powerful.  Shakespeare's  words  "  Uneasy  lies  the  head 
that  wears  a  crown,"  is  true  not  only  of  those  who  sit 
on  royal  thrones,  but,  in  a  proportionate  degree,  of 
all  rulers,  leaders,  directors,  of  all  who  wield  power  of 
any  kind  in  all  the  various  walks  of  life.  Wealth  in- 
vested in  industrial  enterprises  is  in  a  constant  jeop- 
ardy, and  if  not  managed  with  great  circumspection 
will  quickly  dwindle  away  to  the  detriment  of  the 
owner  and  all  those  who.  are  dependent  upon  him  ; 
but  while  the  latter  have  their  chances  to  embark  in 
some  other  and  more  successful  venture,  the  former 
as  a  rule  is  ruined  with  but  slight  hope  of  recovery 
which  demands  more  energy  and  luck  than  before. 
He  is  in  the  position  of  a  workman  whose  tools  are 
broken  and  there  is  no  one  who  will  replace  them.  He 
has  become  unfit  to  train  himself  for  other  work,  as 
much  so  as  a  driver  who,  on  the  opening  of  a  new 
railroad  hne  having  lost  his  trade,  vainly  attempts  to 
fill  the  place  of  an  engineer.  And  nothing  is  harder 
to  bear  than  a  reversion  of  progress  previously  gained. 

Considering  all  in  all,  is  it  not  natural  that  the  so- 
called  middle  classes  alone  possess,  as  it  were,  a  mo- 
nopoly of  the  enjoyment  of  life?  Among  them  we  find 
all  those  boons  which  cannot  be  bought  with  money,  or 
money's  worth.  Among  them  we  find  humor,  laughter, 
and  genuine  contentment ;  among  them  we  find  human- 
ity at  its  best,  with  the  in-rtnediateness  of  limpid  senti- 
ment and  the  warmth  of  unreflecting  love.  Here  the 
curse  of  labor,  equalised  to  a  steady  state  of  the  psy- 
chical barometer  is  least  perceptible,  and  the  sky  of 
the  soul  is  mostly  serene.  Yet  even  here  its  pressure 
is  never  absent,  for,  indeed,  it  surrounds  mankind 
everywhere,  and  nowhere  can  we  escape  from  it. 


The  sufferings  of  mankind,  its  cares  and  toils,  are 
so  universal  that  they  appear  to  be  bound  up  with  life 
itself.  Our  forefathers  dreamed  of  a  life  without  labor 
and  thought  that  labor  had  come  into  the  world  as  the 
penalty  of  sin,  but  a  careful  investigation  of  the  nature 
of  life  will  teach  us  that  labor  is  an  intrinsic  feature  in 
the  constitution,  not  only  of  this  earth,  but  of  any 
possible  world  of  living  beings. 

No  exertion  would  be  needed  in  a  universe  which 
consisted  of  inert  matter  only,  but  as  this  world  of  ours 
is  a  world  of  life,  of  spiritual  aspiration,  and  of  pro- 
gressive evolution,  we  have  labor.  Labor  is  simply 
the  consequence  of  life,  and  labor  alone  is  the  means 
of  the  acquisition  of  higher  life. 

If  we  lived  in  a  paradise  with  an  abundance  of  sup- 
plies for  the  necessities  of  life,  mankind  would  soon 
increase  so  as  to  utilise  them  to  their  full  extent,  and 


we  should  artificially  have  to  create  new  resources  to 
render  the  old  ones  more  productive,  or  if  the  limit 
were  reached,  struggle  would  arise  ;  and  struggle  is 
only  a  peculiar  form  of  labor,  involving  the  same  or 
even  greater  hardships. 

Growth  is  impossible  without  labor,  and  thus  labor 
is  inevitable  in  any  possible  world  in  which  organised 
life  appears.  Without  labor,  life  would  never  develop 
from  its  lowest  plane  to  higher  and  ever  higher  condi- 
tions. 

Suppose  the  supplies  for  the  sustenance  of  life  were 
so  inexhaustible  that  they  were  in  space  everywhere, 
that  they  surrounded  us  as  water  surrounds  the  fish  ; 
and  suppose  the  ocean  of  life  were  as  boundless  as  infi- 
nite space,  would  not  life  be  satisfied  in  itself  ?  Would 
it  ever  develop  higher  qualities  than  those  of  a  senseless 
vegetation  ?  A  life  without  wants  lacks  the  stimulus  of 
evolution.  Resistance  is  needed  to  develop  the  spirit 
of  man  and  his  rational  will.  Progress,  growth,  aspira- 
tion would  be  meaningless  in  a  world  without  needs  ; 
they  are  actually  impossible ;  but  if  they  were  possi- 
ble they  would  be  redundant  and  even  nonsensical, 
like  the  fixed  ideas  of  a  lunatic. 

Labor  is  inseparable  from  any  life  that  has  a  pur- 
pose, for  labor  is  the  accomplishment  of  a  purpose, 
and  by  labor  we  rise  higher  and  higher  on  the  ladder 
of  Hfe. 

Labor  is  the  school  of  the  soul ;  it  is  the  educational 
system  of  nature  by  which  she  rears  her  creatures,  im- 
parting to  them  her  lessons  and  instructions.  But 
since  labor  constitutes  the  object-lessons  of  mankind's 
education,  it  is  labor  which  begets  our  souls  and  creates 
the  substance  of  which  our  spiritual  being  consists. 

What  is  our  eye  but  the  sum  of  innumerable  mem- 
ories of  seeing?  Every  organ  is  the  inherited  product 
of  a  constantly  repeated  activity. 

If  a  being  in  any  of  its  organs  fails  to  suit  the  con- 
ditions under  which  it  has  developed,  it  is  cut  off  from 
further  existence,  while  the  most  perfect  individuals 
are  selected  from  the  continuation  of  its  kind. 

Man's  entire  organisation,  corporeal  as  well  as  in- 
tellectual, is,  as  it  were,  capitalised  labor  ;  it  is  the 
preservation  of  former  work  employed  to  render  future 
work  more  effective.  When  the  psychologist  on  the 
loom  of  science  unravels  the  web  and  woof  of  the  hu- 
man soul  he  finds  that  there  is  nothing  in  it  but  work 
and  the  product  of  work.  Does  not  this  consideration 
open  a  new  vista  for  the  appreciation  of  labor? 


Thus  we  see  that  the  origin  of  labor  rises  from  the 
needs  of  life,  and  labor  itself  is  the  means  of  acquiring 
a  greater  fulness  of  existence.  Labor  is  the  symptom 
of  the  presence   of   spirit ;   it  is  the  manifestation  of 


THE     OPEN     OOURX. 


4209 


spirit,  for  without  labor  the  soul  could  never  make  its 
appearance  in  the  world. 

According  to  the  law  of  cause  and  effect  a  premium 
is  given  to  those  who  strain  their  energies  most  po- 
tently in  the  right  direction  of  the  evolution  of  life. 
Those  who  swerve  away  from  the  straight  path  or  lag 
behind  in  the  general  advance  are  cut  off  in  the  com- 
petition for  survival.  Thus  we  understand  that  na- 
ture always  exacts  the  greatest  possible  exertions,  ap- 
pearing to  her  children  as  a  cruel  taskmaster,  driving 
those  who  loiter  with  ruthless  lashes  of  her  whip,  and 
taxing  the  strength  of  all  to  the  utmost. 

The  unavoidable  urgency  of  labor  for  the  mere 
sustenance  of  life  and  its  exigency  are  perceived  as  a 
tyrannical  oppression,  and  this  is  the  reason  why  we 
can  speak  at  all  of  the  curse  of  labor  ;  but  understand- 
ing that  our  labor  represents  an  onward  march,  and 
that  every  step  taken  in  the  direction  is  an  advance  to 
higher  conditions  of  life  and  a  noble  evolution  of  spirit, 
we  shall  see  that  the  hardships  of  labor  beget  the 
highest  blessings  attainable. 

Consider  but  the  nature  of  your  soul,  analyse  your 
own  spiritual  being,  unravel  the  skein  of  your  ideas, 
thoughts,  desires,  habits,  aspirations,  and  you  will  see 
that  you  are  the  product  of  labor  previously  done. 
There  is  no  living  being  but  consists  of  the  summed- 
up  inherited  memories  of  innumerable  exertions  since 
an  immeasurably  remote  past. 

How  wonderful  is  the  structure  of  man's  bodily 
system,  nay,  of  every  tree,  every  rose,  every  blade 
of  grass,  and  of  any  creature  of  any  description. 
Their  nature  is  determined  according  to  the  law  of 
cause  and  effect  by  all  their  actions  in  former  exis- 
tences and  in  their  present  state  of  being.  Special 
conditions  make  life  react  in  a  special  way,  and  every 
mode  of  reaction  forms  a  precedent.  It  is  preserved 
as  a  memory  ready  for  revival.  It  stays  and  remains 
an  immortal  presence  for  all  time  to  come.  Thus  it  is 
for  our  own  benefit  that  nature  forces  the  unwilling 
like  a  slave- driver  to  exert  themselves,  for  while  toil- 
ing and  laboring  we  are  building  up  our  souls  and  im- 
mortalise  our  being  in  the  universal  life  of   mankind. 

Labor,  accordingly,  forms  the  contents  of  life  and 
the  substance  of  our  soul.  Labor,  with  all  its  griev- 
ances, is  a  blessing,  nay,  it  is  the  source  of  all  bless- 
ings;  it  is  the  condition  of  man's  humanity  and  the 
foundation  upon  which  rests  his  dignity. 


The  life  of  a  man  who  does  not  labor  is  an  empty 
blank.  He  is  like  seeds  that  uselessly  rot  away  with- 
out sprouting  and  blossoming  out  into  a  full  evolution 
of  the  noble  potentialities  to  which  his  spiritual  inheri- 
tance has  destined  him.  The  constant  application  of 
our  talents  is  the  price  we  have  to  pay  for  continuing 


on   the   list   of   the  living.      Says   Faust  in  the  dying 
scene  : 

"  Yes  I  to  this  thought  I  hold  with  firm  persistence 
The  last  result  of  wisdom  stamps  it  true  : 
He  only  earns  his  freedom  and  existence, 
iF/w  iiaily  ca,u,uers  tlum  ,inc-w. 
Thus  here,  by  dangers  girt,  shall  glide  away 
of  childhood,  manhood,  age,  the  vigorous  day." 

The  luxuries  of  life  and  the  ease  afforded  by  great 
wealth  quickly  inveigle  men  into  loose  ways  of  action 
and  entice  them  into  indulgence  in  the  pleasures  of 
life  to  the  neglect  of  industrious  work  and  serious  oc- 
cupation. The  truth  is  that  most  men,  perhaps  all  c^f 
us,  need  a  certain  pressure  which  will  gently  compel 
them  to  work  out  their  own  salvation,  few  can  stand 
affluence  or  ease.  Goethe,  who  knew  the  breadth  and 
depths  of  the  human  soul,  says: 

■'  Nichts  ist  schwerer  zu  ertragen, 
Als  eine  Reihe  von  guten  Tagen." 
[Nothing  more  difficult  to  bear. 
Than  many  good  days  devoid  of  care.l 

By  labor  alone  we  acquire  the  right  to  our  man- 
hood ;  he  who  does  not  work  is  not  worthy  to  be  called 
a  man  ;  he  is  like  the  prodigal  son  who  wastes  his  in- 
heritance and  is  doomed,  in  his  spiritual  existence  at 
least,  to  sink  down  to  the  level  of  the  swine,  for  he 
feeds  his  soul  with  intellectual  swill  and  degrades  his 
nobility  to  the  self-indulgence  of  a  mere  vegetative 
existence,  which  will  finally  doom  his  type  of  existence 
to  an  ignominious  extermination. 

There  was  a  time,  and  in  some  parts  of  the  world 
it  still  lingers  with  us,  when  the  ruling  classes  arro- 
gated all  the  rights  to  themselves  and  shouldered  all  the 
duties  upon  others.  The  enfranchisement  from  labor 
was  considered  the  privilege  of  the  aristocracy.  This 
principle  was  carried  to  its  extreme  in  France  since 
the  time  of  Louis  XIV.,  reaching  its  climax  under 
Louis  XV.,  and  tragically  ending  in  the  catastrophe  of 
the  French  Revolution.  It  seemed  possible  to  the 
powerful  to  divide  society  into  two  castes,  one  born 
for  enjoyment  only,  the  other  destined  to  work.  They 
contrived  a  plan  of  throwing  all  the  burdens  of  life 
upon  the  so-called  tiers  ctat,  the  third  estate,  which 
compared  with  the  nobility  and  clergy  was  considered 
as  a  lower  class,  while  luxuries  and  pleasures  were  re- 
served to  those  of  noble  birth.  The  consequence  of 
this  policy  was  the  emasculation  of  the  so-called  upper 
classes,  and  while  the  tiers  etat  had  been  nothing  but 
the  drudge  of  the  others,  it,  by  this  very  reason,  be- 
came the  standard-bearer  of  the  civilisation  and  at  last 
the  sole  wielder  of  all  power.  Said  the  Abbe  Sieyes  in 
the  critical  days  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  : 

"Qu'est-ce  que  le  tiers  ctat?"  (What  is  the  third 
estate?)  and  he  answered,  "■Tout,"  i.  e.  all  !  The  tiers 
ctat,  he  said,  does  all  the  work,  industrial  as  well  as 
intellectual  :  in  the  fields,  in  the  trades,  in  the  gov- 
ernrjient,  in   the  army,  among   the   clergy,  and  at  the 


4210 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


bar  :  the  tiers  etat  is  burdened  with  all  that  is  toil  or 
worry.  Those  positions,  however,  which  are  endowed 
with  rich  emoluments  and  honors  are  exclusively  in 
the  hands  of  the  aristocracy.  This  oligarchy  of  the 
privileged  is  a  social  crime  and  treason  against  public 
welfare.  An  aristocracy  which  places  itself  above  the 
nation  ceases  to  belong  to  the  nation  and  is  no  longer 
a  part  of  it.  Those  who  labor  are  all,  and  ought  to 
be  all. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  we  use  the  word 
"labor"  in  its  most  comprehensive  meaning.  The 
term  "labor"  is  applicable,  not  only  to  the  work  of 
the  man  who  carries  the  hod,  but  also  to  the  planning 
of  the  architect  ;  it  embraces  the  exertions  of  the 
sailor  and  also  the  thoughts  of  the  captain  who  directs 
the  ship's  course.  Toil  is  entitled  to  respect  and 
sympathy,  but  let  us  remember  that  toil  is  not  limited 
to  those  whose  work  can  mechanically  be  measured, 
because  it  is  performed  with  muscles;  toil  is  the  com- 
mon fate  of  all  workers. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  national  character  of  our 
country  that  labor  is  no  longer  regarded  as  degrading. 
Our  most  prominent  men  and  women  in  all  branches 
of  public,  industrial,  commercial,  and  private  life  have 
never  been  ashamed  to  work;  indeed  they  have  been 
great  workers,  and  success  in  this  countr)',  more  so 
than  in  any  other,  depends  not  on  birth,  inherited 
wealth,  or  even  natural  gifts,  but  upon  the  energetic 
application  of  our  abilities  in  practical  life.  America 
is  destined  to  produce  an  aristocracy  of  laborers,  not 
of  such  as  impose  restrictions  upon  those  people  who 
do  not  belong  to  a  certain  clique  or  clan,  but  of  true 
laborers,  of  producers  and  increasers  of  wealth,  of  men 
who  regard  labor  as  the  seal  of  man's  manhood,  as 
evidencing  his  worth  and  proving  his  dignity. 


There  are  many  more  considerations  which  suggest 
themselves  in  connexion  with  our  subject.  It  is,  for 
instance,  a  strange  fact  that  every  useful  work  tends 
to  spread  its  blessings  over  the  whole  world.  It  is  as 
if  all  mankind  were  destii'.ed  to  inherit  the  boons  of  a 
worker,  a  thinker,  an  inventor.  What,  for  instance, 
have  the  Bedouins  done  to  deserve  to  be  benefited  by 
the  invention  of  rifles  ?  Nothing  at  all.  Nevertheless, 
they  have  their  guns  and  protect  themselves  against 
wild  beasts  and  other  enemies,  as  if  one  of  their  fathers 
had  invented  the  use  of  gunpowder.  The  same  is 
true  of  all  other  inventions,  the  benefits  of  which  are 
communicated  more  and  more  to  all  mankind.  Fur- 
ther, no  one  can  utilise  capital,  which  is  the  hoarded 
treasure  of  former  labor,  without  engaging  labor,  and 
thus  opening  to  laborers  new  fields  of  employment. 
This  world  is  not  built  to  accommodate  the  egotist 
who  wants  everything  for  himself,  but  it  aggrandises 


him  only  who  communicates  the  fruits  of  his  industry 
to  his  fellow  men. 

Before  concluding  this  lecture  allow  me  to  add 
only  one  more  consideration.  We  must  learn  that  the 
so  called  labor  problem  is  not  due  to  special  condi- 
tions of  the  present  time  which  by  the  application  of 
some  panacea  can  be  solved,  but  that  it  is  the  present 
condition  only  of  labor  in  its  import  to  the  various 
members  of  the  human  race.  It  is  an  expression  of 
the  resentment  against  the  unavoidable  hardships  of 
labor  the  cause  of  which  is  often  ill  understood,  and 
also  the  constantly  renewed  attempts  to  readjust  their 
equal  distribution.  The  hope  that  the  time  will  come 
when  the  labor  problem  will  be  definitely  settled  can 
'only  evoke  a  smile.  We  might  as  well  expect  to  sup- 
press all  storms  and  produce  never  ceasing  sunshine 
upon  earth. 

Our  authorities  endeavor  to  give  full  liberty  to 
the  readjustments  between  the  various  classes  of 
society  among  themselves  and  also  between  single 
classes  in  their  relations  to  the  public  at  large,  as  they 
appear  in  strikes  and  other  social  disturbances,  for  a 
suppression  of  discontent  by  force  will  prove  only  a 
temporary  expediency,  and  on  the  other  hand  the 
struggling  parties  must  be  educated  to  the  full  con- 
sciousness of  their  responsibilities.  They  must  under- 
stand that  the  ethics  of  social  struggle  demands  a  strict 
obedience  to  the  law.  As  soon  as  they  resort  to  vio- 
lence they  will  have  to  suffer  violence  themselves. 
"All  they  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  with  the 
sword  "  (Matth.  xxvi,  52).  No  strike  has  as  yet  been 
successful  through  intimidation,  destruction  of  prop- 
erty, or  rioting.  Illegal  acts  can  only  ruin  the  party 
for  whose  benefit  deluded  zealots  commit  them.  What 
we  need  is  evolution,  not  revolution. 

The  solution  of  the  labor  problem  as  it  is  to-day 
can  end  neither  in  the  abolition  nor  in  the  nationali- 
sation of  capital,  but  must  seek  its  increase  and  wide 
distribution.  He  who  lives  from  hand  to  mouth  must 
acquire  foresight,  he  must  learn  to  save  and  imitate 
the  capitalist  in  his  thrift  and  circumspection  ;  in  a 
word,  he  must  also  become  a  capitalist. 

The  more  capital  our  laborers  acquire,  the  better 
wages  can  they  exact,  and  the  more  prosperous  will  be 
the  whole  state  of  society  ;  for  a  laboring  class  which  is 
possessed  of  means  not  only  will  be  better  educated 
but  can  afford  to  be  independent.  It  need  no  longer 
solicit  the  patronage  of  capital. 

When  the  laborer  is  destitute  capital  engages  labor 
at  the  lowest  price  a  laborer  can  afford  to  accept ;  how- 
ever, where  the  laborer  is  himself  a  capitalist  he  can 
exact  the  highest  price  capital  can  afford  to  pay.  And 
let  me  add,  in  the  degree  that  the  laborer  partakes  of 
the  risks  and  sorrows  of  capital,  he  will  become  more 
conservative  ;  his  judgment  will  be  maturer  and  he  will 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


421 1 


know  what  he  can  reasonably  demand  of  capital.  Nor 
is  there  any  doubt  that  under  the  more  favorable  con- 
ditions of  a  larger  stock  of  capitalised  wealth,  all  his 
reasonable  demands  will  be  granted. 

Thus  we  conclude  with  the  paradoxical  proposi- 
tions that  our  capitalists  in  order  to  prosper  must  re- 
main laborers,  while  our  laborers  for  their  own  wel- 
fare must  become  capitalists. 

Let  us  not  look  for  a  millennium  on  earth,  but  let 
us  hope  for  progress.  This  life  is  intrinsically  a  world 
of  labor,  and  the  laborer  is  he  who  builds  the  future. 
Labor  consists  of  toil,  drudgery,  and  privations  of  all 
kinds,  yet  it  is  the  essence  of  all  that  is  great,  noble, 
and  elevating.   As  the  word  of  the  Psalmist  expresses  it : 

"The  days  of  our  life  are  threescore  years  and  ten  ;  and  if  by 
reason  of  strength  they  be  fourscore  years,  yet  is  their  strength 
labor  and  sorrow." 

P.  C. 

BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN. 


BY     NOBUTA     KISHIMOTO,     M.  A. 


IV.   PRESENT  CONDITION. 

Although  Japanese  Buddhism  is  divided  into  many 
sects,  yet  these  sects  agree  in  many  points.  I  have 
said  above  that  there  are  three  systems  of  religion  and 
morality  in  Japan:  Shintoism,  Confucianism,  and  Bud- 
dhism, living  together  on  friendly  terms,  helping  one 
another  and  supplying  one  another's  insufficiency. 
Shintoism  in  itself  has  at  least  ten  different  sects, 
while  there  are  two  broad  divisions  among  the  scholars 
of  Chinese  philosophy.  As  to  Buddhism,  there  are 
ten  (or,  twelve)  sects  in  existence  which  in  turn  are 
subdivided  into  more  than  thirty  minor  sects. 

One  might  suppose  that  if  there  are  so  many  sects 
and  subsects  among  the  Buddhists,  there  must  be 
some  narrow  sectarian  spirit  among  them.  Yes,  there 
is  some  such  spirit ;  and  yet  as  in  the  case  of  the  dif- 
ferent systems  of  religion  and  morality,  so  also  among 
the  different  sects  of  one  system,  the  relation  is  more 
friendly  and  pleasant  than  one  is  apt  to  suppose.  Most 
Buddhists  admit  that  Buddha  taught  all  sorts  of  teach- 
ing according  to  the  needs  of  the  special  case  and  the 
degree  of  intelligence  of  his  hearers.  He  is  said  to 
have  preached  both  the  Hinayana  and  Mahayana  doc- 
trines, both  the  temporary  and  permanent  doctrines, 
both  the  sudden  and  gradual  doctrines,  both  the  ex- 
pedient and  true  doctrines,  and  finally  both  the  esoteric 
and  exoteric  doctrines.  It  is  natural,  of  course,  for 
the  followers  of  each  sect  to  regard  their  own  sect  as 
superior  to  the  rest,  but  the  majority  of  the  Japanese 
Buddhists  admit  the  peculiar  excellence  of  each  and 
all  of  these  different  sects. 

It  is  important  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  followers 
of  Buddhism,  in  Japan,  as  elsewhere,  are  divided  into 
two  great  classes,  the  clergy  and  the  laity  or  the  spe- 


cial believers  and  the  ordinary  believers.  By  the  clergy 
I  mean  priests,  monks,  and  nuns,  who  forsake  this 
world  and  its  pleasures  to  devote  their  lives  and  their 
all  to  the  study  and  promulgation  of  Buddhism.  By 
the  laity  I  mean  the  ordinary  men  and  women  who 
live  ordinary  lives  and  pursue  ordinary  occupations, 
yet  who  believe  in  Buddhism  and  seek  to  be  saved. 
The  clergy,  as  a  rule,  adhere  more  strictly  to  the  teach- 
ings of  their  own  respective  sects  and  call  themselves 
by  the  name  of  the  sects  to  which  they  belong.  But 
among  the  lay  members  this  line  of  demarcation,  al- 
though there  is  such  a  line,  is  very  faint  and  very  ir- 
regular. It  is  true  that  every  family  in  Japan  used  to 
have  its  own  sect,  as  the  sect  of  my  father's  family 
was  the  Jodo  sect.  It  is  true,  also,  that  in  certain  dis- 
tricts certain  sects  are  more  predominant  than  other 
sects.  But  it  is  also  true  that  many  a  temple  of  one 
sect  is  crowded  by  the  believers  of  the  different  sects, 
while  the  temples  of  the  different  sects  are  visited  by 
one  and  the  same  pilgrim. 

Now  let  us  investigate  some  important  features  of 
Japanese  Buddhism,  which  are  common  to  all  the 
sects  and  also  common  to  both  the  clergy  and  the 
laity. 

All  these  sects  agree  not  only  in  tracing  the  funda- 
mental origin  of  their  teaching  and  thought  to  Bud- 
dha, but  also  in  not  being  atheistic.  This  double 
agreement  is  remarkable,  for,  as  far  as  we  know  from 
the  Pali  or  Southern  Scriptures,  which  are  generally 
regarded  as  purer  and  older  than  the  Northern  ones, 
Buddha  did  not  admit  the  existence  of  God,  neither 
did  he  attempt  to  explain  the  origin  of  the  universe. 
In  Malunka  sutta  we  have  the  following  story,  which 
Spence  Hardy  gives  in  his  Manual  of  Buddhism. 
"When  Malunka  asked  the  Buddha  whether  the  ex- 
istence of  the  world  is  eternal  or  not  eternal,  he  made 
him  no  reply;  but  the  reason  of  this  was,  that  it  was 
considered  by  the  teacher  as  an  inquiry  that  tended 
to  no  profit."  Thus  not  only  the  primary  origin  of  the 
universe  was  left  unsolved  by  Buddha,  but  the  general 
tenor  of  his  whole  teaching  is  against  theism,  the  doc- 
trine that  affirms  the  existence  of  One  Permanent  and 
Personal  Cause  of  the  universe.  The  salvation  taught 
by  Buddha  is  well  described  by  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  in 
the  following  words  :  "Salvation  merely  by  self-con- 
trol and  love,  without  any  of  the  rites,  any  of  the  cere- 
monies, any  of  the  charms,  any  of  the  priestly  powers, 
any  of  the  gods,  in  which  men  love  to  trust."  Such 
seems  to  have  been  the  original  teaching  of  Buddha, 
assuming  the  Pali  Scriptures  to  be  the  faithful  record 
of  his  teachings. 

Now,  all  the  Japanese  Buddhist  sects  trace  their 
origin  to  Buddha  and  call  themselves  Buddhist  sects, 
but  none  of  them  is  as  atheistic  as  this  original  teach- 
ing of  Buddha.     Instead  of  being  atheistic,  some  of 


4212 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


them  are  pantheistic,  while  others  may  almost  be  called 
theistic.  Most  of  them  assert  that  all  living  beings 
have  the  "nature  of  Buddha"  and  hence  they  can  at- 
tain Buddhahood — the  calm  and  happy  state  of  En- 
lightenment— either  in  this  life  or  in  a  future  one.  As 
this  "  nature  of  Buddha  "  is  regarded  to  be  everywhere 
and  within  reach  of  every  living  being,  and  as  it  is,  in 
one  sense,  not  substantially  different  from  that  imma- 
nent principle  of  life  or  energy  which  pervades  the 
universe,  all  those  sects  which  hold  this  view  may  be 
called  pantheistic.  Some  sects  assert  the  existence  of 
an  all-wise  and  all  compassionate,  as  well  as  eternal 
and  permanent.  Being  called  Amitabha  Buddha,  whose 
special  residing  place  is  the  "  Pure  Land  in  the  West." 
As  far  as  I  can  see,  this  conception  of  Amitabha  is  not 
much  different  from  the  Christian  idea  of  God  who  is 
said  to  be  in  heaven.  If  the  latter  can  be  called  the- 
istic, I  see  no  reason  why  the  former  should  not  be 
called  theistic.  Anyway,  all  the  Japanese  Buddhist 
sects  differ  from  the  original  teaching  of  Buddha  in 
their  not  being  atheistic. 

In  the  second  place,  all  these  sects  agree  in  the 
belief  in  the  transmigration  of  the  soul.  I  say  the 
"transmigration  of  the  soul,"  and  not  simply  "trans- 
migration," because  not  only  the  conception  of  trans- 
migration is  impossible  without  something  to  trans- 
migrate, but  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  most,  I  might  say 
all,  Japanese  Buddhists  admit  the  existence  of  the  soul 
as  well  as  its  transmigration.  As  to  the  question  What 
becomes  of  individual  souls  when  freed  from  trans- 
migration, some  difference  of  opinion  exists.  Some 
seem  to  think  that  then  the  consciousness  of  individual 
souls  as  separate  entities  ceases  because  of  their  en- 
lightenment, that  the  separate  existences  are  illusions, 
everything  being  Buddha  and  Buddha  being  every- 
thing. Others  take  a  less  subtle  point  of  view  and 
claim  that  all  souls  will  continue  as  such,  each  enjoy- 
ing the  eternal  and  pure  happiness  in  Paradise.  But 
both  of  these  schools  unite  in  the  teaching  that,  as  long 
as  there  is  necessity  for  transmigration,  so  long  the  in- 
dividual souls  will  continue  to  exist  as  such. 

It  is  universally  admitted,  even  by  the  Western 
Buddhist  scholars,  that  Buddha  taught  the  doctrine  of 
transmigration.  But  did  Buddha  admit  the  existence 
of  the  soul  capable  of  transmigration  ?  The  Western 
scholars  tell  us  that  the  doctrine  of  atman,  i.  e.,  of 
soul  or  self,  was  regarded  by  Buddha,  together  with 
sensuality,  heresy,  and  belief  in  the  efScacy  of  rites 
and  ceremonies,  as  the  four  things  which  cause  birth, 
pain,  decay,  and  death, — the  "four  miseries."  Ac- 
cording to  them,  Buddha  denied  the  reality  of  the  im- 
mortal soul  or  self,  as  well  as  the  reality  of  God  and  the 
universe.  If  so,  what  transmigrates?  Transmigration 
is  admitted,  but  there  seems  to  be  nothing  left  to  trans- 
migrate.     How  can  we  reconcile  this  inconsistency? 


Some  Japanese  Buddhists  are  of  opinion  that  in 
one  sense  Buddha  denied  the  reality  of  the  soul,  but 
in  another  sense  admitted  its  reality.  He  denied  the 
reality  of  the  phenomenal  or  conscious  soul,  but  he 
did  not  deny  the  reality  of  the  noumenal  or  real  soul. 
These  scholars  seem  to  admit  that  there  exist  certain 
forms  of  activity,  which  lie  in  man  behind  what  we 
call  his  conscious  soul,  and  which  only  under  certain 
conditions  emerge  above  the  horizon  of  consciousness; 
that  this  activity  is  subject  to  both  subjective  and  ob- 
jective influences,  so  that  habits  and  tendencies  can 
be  formed  in  it ;  that  it  is  indestructible  and  is  des- 
tined by  a  mysterious  law  of  transmigration  to  pass 
through  different  lives  and  generations.  In  this  way 
the  above  inconsistency  is  reconciled.  '  The  fact  of 
transmigration  is  accounted  for  by  the  indestructibility 
of  these  forms  of  activity,  while  the  denial  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  "atman,  soul,  or  self,"  can  be  explained 
by  this,  that  Buddha  denied  only  the  existence  of  the 
phenomenal  soul,  the  "noumenal  soul"  being  left  un- 
touched. Even  Dr.  Rhys  Davids,  when  he  says  that 
"the  'grasping  state  of  mind'  causes  the  new  being 
(not,  of  course,  a  new  soul,  but  a  new  set  of  skandhas, 
a  new  body  with  mental  tendencies  and  capabilities)" 
seems  to  admit  the  transmigration  of  some  "mental 
tendencies  and  capabilities,"  if  not  the  soul  itself. 

In  the  third  place,  all  our  Buddhist  sects  agree  in 
the  adoption  of  the  doctrine  of  karma.  Whatever  be 
the  origin  and  nature  of  the  doctrine  of  transmigra- 
tion, it  has  always  been  very  influential  among  the 
Buddhists,  because  it  explains  the  apparently  unjust 
distribution  of  happiness  and  misery  here  on  this  earth. 
The  word  karma  literally  means  "doing,"  or  "deed," 
but  it  is  generally  understood  to  mean  rather  the  "re- 
sult or  fruit  of  doing  or  deed,"  than  "doing  or  deed" 
itself.  The  essence  of  the  doctrine  of  karma  is  well 
expressed  by  the  sentence  :  "Whatever  a  man  sowetli, 
that  also  shall  he  reap."  You  may  die  and  your  body 
may  decay;  the  result  of  your  deeds,  either  good  or 
bad,  does  not  die.  Sooner  or  later  you  have  to  reap 
the  fruit  thereof.  Thus  if  you  are  in  a  miserable  con- 
dition in  this  life  and  yet  cannot  suspect  any  cause  of 
your  own  for  that  condition,  Buddha  will  tell  you  that 
"you  are  reaping  the  effect  of  your  evil  deeds  in  your 
past  lives,  for  although  your  consciousness  may  cease 
and  your  body  may  decay,  yet  your  actions,  words, 
and  thoughts  will  live  and  work  out  their  full  effect 
either  to  the  pleasant  or  the  bitter  end  in  this  and  in 
coming  lives,  till  an  end  is  set  to  all  by  the  attainment 
of  Nirvana. 

In  the  fourth  place,  all  the  Japanese  Buddhist  sects 
agree  in  the  adoption  of  the  doctrine  of  Nirvdna,  al- 
though as  to  the  exact  meaning  and  condition  repre- 
sented by  this  word  they  differ  among  themselves, 
while  they  also  differ   more  or  less  as  to  the  exact  na- 


TME    OF»EN    COUR'T. 


4213 


ture  of  the  original  teaching  of  the  founder  of  their 
religion.  What  Buddha  meant  by  Nirvana  is  not  the 
question  I  propose  to  investigate.  Whether  he  meant 
by  Nirvana  the  complete  annihilation  of  the  body  and 
the  soul,  or  only  the  "  extinction  of  that  sinful,  grasp- 
ing condition  of  mind  and  heart,"  is  immaterial  here. 
The  Japanese  Buddhists  are  widely  different  in  their 
understanding  of  the  nature  of  the  state  indicated  by 
the  word  Nirvana.  Some  sects  identify  Nirvana  with 
the  Western  paradise,  and  with  them  to  enter  Nir- 
vana means  to  enter  into  this  happy  and  eternal  life 
of  the  Pure  Land  where  death  and  sorrow  are  un- 
known. Other  sects  understand  Nirvana  to  mean  a 
calm  and  blessed  state  of  enlightenment,  free  from  ail 
sorts  of  evils  and  disturbances.  This  state  of  enlight- 
enment can  be  entered  into  here  on  this  earth,  for  it  is 
the  result  of  discipline  and  contemplation.  Thus  with 
the  Japanese  Buddhists,  Nirvana  does  not  necessarily 
mean  the  annihilation  even  of  the  body,  for  many  of 
the  pleasures  of  the  Western  paradise  are  of  a  physi- 
cal nature.  Far  less  does  it  mean  the  annihilation  of 
the  soul.  Nirvana  is  universally  represented  as  the 
blessed  state  of  existence,  in  which  there  is  no  birth 
nor  death.  It  is  also  regarded  as  of  eternal  duration. 
It  may  begin  here  on  this  earth,  but  it  will  continue 
eternally  on  the  other  shore  of  the  sea  of  sorrow  and 
death.  If  there  is  any  idea  of  annihilation  contained 
in  the  doctrine  of  Nirvana,  as  it  is  understood  by  our 
Buddhists,  it  is  found  in  the  annihilation  of  evil 
thoughts,  evil  desires,  and  evil  passions.  These  must 
be  destroyed,  for  without  their  destruction  the  attain- 
ment of  the  state  of  enlightenment  is  impossible.  Thus 
even  here  the  distinction  is  clear.  We  annihilate  evil 
passions  in  order  to  attain  Nirvana,  and  hence  this 
Nirvana  must  be  something  positive  and  not  a  mere 
negation. 

In  the  fifth  and  last  place,  all  the  Japanese  Bud- 
dhist sects  are  unanimous  in  being  ultimately  optimis- 
tic in  spirit  and  in  teaching.  At  present,  whenever 
one  hears  the  word  pessimism  pronounced,  his  asso- 
ciations will  soon  carry  him  either  to  Schopenhauer  or 
to  Buddha.  The  former  represents  the  modern  pes- 
simism, the  latter  represents  the  ancient  pessimism. 
The  one  was  born  in  Europe,  and  the  other  in  Asia. 
The  one  taught  his  pessimism  in  the  midst  of  the 
Christian  civilisation,  while  the  other  preached  his 
pessimism  among  heathen  ascetics  and  idolators.  How 
much  is  common  between  these  two  systems,  or  how 
much  pessimism  was  really  contained  in  the  Buddhism 
of  Buddha,  does  not  concern  us  here.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  Buddha  was  so  deeply  impressed  with  the 
impermanence  and  misery  of  human  life,  that  he  is 
reported  finally  to  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that 
existence  itself  is  an  evil,  and  that  an  end  must  be  put 
to  our  own  existence.      Here  lies  the  fundamental  pes- 


simism of  the  teaching  of  Buddha.  He  thought  that 
our  life  is  full  of  sorrow  and  suffering  ;  that  desires 
are  the  cause  of  the  origin  and  continuation  of  life  ; 
that  these  desires  must  be  annihilated  in  order  to  put 
an  end  to  both  our  life  and  its  misery;  that  to  annihi- 
late our  desires  we  must  practise  "eight  virtues  ";  and 
that  to  practise  these  virtues  and  thus  to  attain  Nir- 
vana the  best  way  is  to  renounce  this  world  and  to 
join  the  Order. 

In  Japan,  as  well  as  in  China,  Buddhism  is  not 
so  absolutely  pessimistic.  Indeed,  it  becomes  more 
and  more  optimistic  as  it  journeys  further  and  further 
from  its  native  soil.  The  Buddhism  of  China  is,  gen- 
erally speaking,  more  optimistic  than  that  of  Buddha 
himself,  and  again,  the  Buddhism  of  Japan  is  more 
optimistic  than  that  of  China.  Theoretically,  most 
Japanese  Buddhist  sects  hold  a  pessimistic  view  of 
the  present  world,  but  practically  the  monks  and 
priests  of  these  sects  are  in  many  respects  made  opti- 
mistic by  the  healthy  and  cheerful  influences  of  the 
Japanese  social  life.  Many  sects  declare  that  even  in 
this  life,  even  with  this  material  body  born  of  parents, 
one  can  attain  the  state  of  happiness  and  enlighten- 
ment. Buddhism  is  much  more  optimistic  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  present  world  in  Japan  than  anywhere  else. 


CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA. 

BY    HUDOR    GENONE. 
THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  GOLDEN  BOWL. 

There  was  a  certain  rich  man  which  had  a  great 
household  and  many  servants  ; 

And  he  was  old  and  well  stricken  in  years,  and  he 
had  an  only  son  in  whom  his  soul  delighted. 

Whom  he  kept  under  governors  till  the  time  should 
come  when  he  was  of  full  age. 

And  the  lad  grew  and  waxed  strong,  for  he  ate 
simple  food  convenient  for  him,  even  bread  and  the 
milk  of  kine  and  goats. 

And  the  lad  had  a  wooden  bowl  from  which  he 
ate,  fashioned  like  unto  them  his  father's  servants 
used. 

But  it  came  to  pass  that  his  father  made  a  feast ; 
and  while  the  guests  dined,  the  lad  looked  in  upon 
them  as  they  sat  at  meat ; 

And  he  saw  and  beheld  that  every  one  had  a  golden 
bowl  and  did  eat  therefrom. 

And  the  lad  was  grieved  and  said  unto  his  father. 
Give  me,  I  pray  thee,  likewise  a  golden  bowl  that  I 
be  not  ashamed. 

And  his  father  took  the  wooden  bowl  and  called 
an  artificer,  and  the  artificer  did  gild  the  bowl. 

And  the  lad  did  eat  from  the  gilded  bowl  and  was 
content,  and  became  puffed  up  because  of  the  bowl. 

Then  the  tutor  said  unto  him,  Why  art  thou  puffed 


9 


\^^ 


4214 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


up?  And  he  showed  him  a  bowl  of  gold,  and  let  the 
lad  take  it  in  the  one  hand,  and  his  own  gilded  bowl 
in  the  other. 

Then  said  the  lad,  My  father  hath  deceived  me. 
And  he  ran  and  told  his  father  how  he  had  weighed 
the  bowls  in  his  hands,  and  his  own  was  wanting  ; 

Again  his  father  sent  to  the  artificer  ;  and  the  ar- 
tificer took  the  wooden  bowl  and  in  it  he  put  a  lump 
of  lead,  and  did  gild  it  yet  again. 

And  the  lad  took  the  bowl  that  was  gilded  and  re- 
joiced in  that  he  found  it  heavy  ; 

And  he  was  puffed  up  yet  the  more,  and  did  say 
unto  the  servants  and  the  tutor  that  he  was  the  heir, 
and  boasted  exceedingly. 

That  same  day  was  another  feast  made ;  and  the 
lad  said  unto  his  father.  Bid  me,  1  pray  thee,  to  the 
feast,  for  I  have  a  golden  bowl  even  as  thy  guests 
which  are  bidden. 

And  his  father  did  as  the  lad  desired  ; 

And  the  feast  was  made,  and  every  guest  at  the 
feast  ate,  every  one  out  of  his  own  golden  bowl. 

Now  when  they  had  done  eating  the  priest  came 
in,  saying,  Give  now  thine  offerings  unto  the  Lord, 
every  man  his  own  offering. 

Then  every  man  gave  his  offering  unto  the  priest, 
yea,  every  man  his  own  golden  bowl. 

And  the  priest  took  the  bowls,  beginning  at  the  first 
unto  the  last,  from  every  man  his  own  bowl. 

And  as  he  took  the  bowls  he  said  unto  him  whose 
offering  it  was.  Is  this  thine  offering? 

And  the  guest,  each  in  his  own  order,  answered 
and  said.  It  is  mine  offering. 

And  the  priest  spoke  again,  saying.  Is  this  thine 
offering  which  thou  hast  made  worthy  for  an  offering 
unto  the  Lord  ? 

Then  every  guest  answered,  each  in  his  own  order. 
It  is  worthy.  Test  it,  I  pray  thee,  whether  or  not  it 
be  worthy  for  an  offering  unto  the  Lord. 

And  the  priest  took  the  offerings  of  gold  and  tried 
them  ;  for  every  man  his  own  offering  ;  and  every  of- 
fering was  found  worthy. 

And  when  he  came  unto  the  lad  he  said  also  unto 
him,  Is  this  thine  offering  ?    ■ 

And  the  lad  answered  and  said  unto  the  priest,  It 
is  mine  offering. 

And  again  the  priest  said  unto  him.  Is  this  thine 
offering  which  thou  hast  made  worthy  for  an  offering 
unto  the  Lord  ? 

Then  the  lad  answered,  It  is  worthy. 

And  the  priest  was  wroth,  and  said,  Sayest  thou 
not  unto  me,  test  it,  whether  or  not  it  be  worthy  for 
an  offering  unto  the  Lord  ? 

And  while  the  lad  was  dumb  before  him,  the  priest 
tried  the  bowl,  and  it  brake  in  pieces  like  a  potter's 
vessel,  and  the  leaden  weight  fell  out. 


And  the  lad  was  shamed  before  them  all,  and  he 
went  out  and  wept  bitterly. 

But  while  he  was  yet  weeping  his  father  came  unto 
him.  And  he  called  together  the  servants  and  the 
tutor,  and  said  unto  them, 

Bring  unto  this  my  son  another  bowl  of  wood  and 
let  him  eat  therefrom  until  the  time  that  he  shall  be 
of  full  age. 

And  unto  the  lad  he  saith,  Now  seest  thou  my  son 
thy  folly  and  thine  haste.  Tarry  yet  awhile  under  thy 
governors. 

Thou  didst  think  in  thy  heart  that  I  dealt  not  aright 
thee,  and  didst  say  with  thy  lips  that  I  deceived  thee. 

Yet  was  it  in  love  that  I  tempted  thee  and  tried 
thee,  and  showed  thee  both  the  false  and  the  true. 

And  the  lad  cried  unto  his  father,  saying,  O  father, 
I  have  sinned  in  that  I  have  desired  to  be  that  which 
I  was  not.  Father,  forgive  me,  for  I  knew  not  what  I 
did. 

NOTES. 

The  Labor  Day  address  published  in  the  present  number  of 
The  Open  Court  was  delivered,  on  September  i,  at  the  camp  of 
the  Spiritualistic  Association  of  Lake  Brady,  Ohio,  upon  the  in- 
vitation of  its  president,  Capt.  Benjamin  F.  Lee.  The  editor  of 
The  Open  Cous-t  enjoyed  on  this  occasion  a  visit  at  one  of  the 
headquarters  of  spiritualism,  where  he  became  acquainted  not 
only  with  several  leaders  of  the  movement  but  also  with  their  cus- 
toms, modes  of  thought,  and  aspirations.  He  has  seen  much  that 
was  new  to  him,  the  report  of  which  would  prove  very  interesting. 
But  the  subject  is  too  great  to  be  disposed  of  without  entering 
deeper  into  several  intricate  problems,  and  venturing  more  boldly 
into  an  investigation  of  facts.  This  is  sufficient  reason  to  drop 
the  task  at  present,  as  there  is  plenty  of  other  urgent  work,  which, 
being  begun  and  half  completed,  cannot  be  dropped.  At  some 
distant  future,  when  more  at  leisure  and  better  equipped  with  a 
more  complete  information,  we  hope  to  be  able  to  deal  with  the 
new  problem  that  has  been  presented  to  us. 

THE  OPEN   COURT 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  36T. 

LABOR  DAY.     Editor 4207 

BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN.     IV.    Its  Present  Condition.    No- 

BUTA  KiSHIMOTO 42II 

CHAPTERS    FROM    THE    NEW   APOCRYPHA.     The 

Parable  of  the  Golden  Bowl.     Hudor  Genone 4213 

NOTES 4214 


S    i 


The  Open  Court. 


A   WEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  368.    (Vol.  V111.-37.)  CHICAGO,   SEPTEMBER   13,    1894. 

Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. — Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


ACHILLES  AND  THE  TORTOISE. 

BY  PAUL  R.    SHIPMAN. 

Zeno's  famous  argument  against  the  possibility  of 
motion  has  given  the  logicians  a  good  deal  of  trouble. 
Archbishop  Whately,  one  of  the  most  sagacious  of 
them,  is  severe  on  Aldrich  for  supposing  that  he  ex- 
posed the  fallacy  by  showing  the  impossibility  of  the 
conclusion  as  a  fact,  yet  the  Archbishop  himself  does 
less  than  this,  saying,  indeed,  that  an  attempt  to  ex- 
hibit the  pretended  demonstration  in  the  syllogistic 
form  will  "evince  the  utter  want  of  connexion  between 
the  premises  and  the  conclusion,"  but,  unfortunately, 
omitting  any  attempt  to  exhibit  it  in  that  form.  Sir 
William  Hamilton  thinks,  as  Brown  thought,  that  the 
argument  of  Zeno  is  unanswerable  ;  while  John  Stuart 
Mill,  who  not  unpardonably  smiles  at  Hamilton  for 
thinking  thus,  undertakes  to  put  his  finger  on  the  fal- 
lacy, and,  in  my  opinion,  misses  it.  And  so  it  has 
gone,  from  Aristotle  to  Bain  ;  and  the  end  is  not  yet. 

The  argument  is  thus  stated  by  Mill:  "If  Achilles 
starts  a  thousand  yards  behind  the  tortoise,  and  runs 
a  hundred  times  as  fast,  still,  while  Achilles  runs  those 
thousand  yards,  the  tortoise  will  have  got  on  ten.; 
while  Aohilles  runs  those  ten,  the  tortoise  will  have 
run  a  tenth  of  a  yard  ;  and,  as  this  process  may  be 
continued  to  infinity,  Achilles  will  never  overtake  the 
tortoise."  Of  which  Mill,  following  up  the  intimation 
of  Hobbes,  offers  this  refutation:  "It  assumes,  of 
course,  the  infinite  divisibility  of  space.  But  we  have 
no  need  to  entangle  ourselves  in  the  metaphysical  dis- 
cussion whether  this  assumption  is  warrantable.  Let 
it  be  granted  or  not,  the  argument  always  remains  a 
fallacy.  For  it  assumes  that  to  pass  through  an  infi- 
nitely divisible  space  requires  an  infinite  time.  But 
the  infinite  divisibility  of  space  means  the  infinite  di- 
visibility of  finite  space  ;  and  it  is  only  infinite  space 
which  cannot  be  passed  over  in  less  than  infinite  time. 
What  the  argument  proves  is  that  to  pass  over  infi- 
nitely divisible  space  requires  an  infinitely  divisible 
time  ;  but  an  infinitely  divisible  time  may  itself  be 
finite;  the  smallest  finite  time  is  infinitely  divisible  ; 
the  argument,  therefore,  is  consistent  with  the  tor- 
toise's being  overtaken  in  the  smallest  finite  time.  It 
is  a  sophism  of  the  type  Ignoratio  Eleiichi,  or,  as  Arch- 
bishop Whately  terms  it.   Irrelevant  Conclusion  ;  an 


argument  which  proves  a  different  proposition  from 
that  which  it  pretends  to  prove,  the  difference  of  mean- 
ing being  disguised  by  similarity  of  language."  In 
this  solution,  it  appears  to  me,  there  are  two  flaws. 

The  argument  of  Zeno,  I  think,  does  not  assume, 
as  Mill  supposes,  that  "to  pass  through  an  infinitely 
divisible  space  requires  an  infinite  time, "  but  that  "to 
pass  through  an  infinitely  divisible  space"  is  succes- 
sively to  divide  it  ad  infinitum  ;  of  which  assumption, 
wherein  the  fallacy  really  lies,  the  former  proposition 
is  a  consequence.  The  possible  divisions  of  infinitely 
divisible  space,  no  matter  how  minute  it  may  be,  are 
of  course  infinitely  numeraus,  and,  if  actualised  one 
after  another,  would  of  course  require  infinite  time; 
and  the  vice  of  Zeno's  argument  consists  in  assuming 
that  they  are  so  actualised  in  motion.  This  assump- 
tion the  logicians  seem  to  have  overlooked. 

Mill,  in  closing  his  statement  of  the  argument,  it 
should  be  noted,  refers  to  the  progressive  subdivision 
of  the  distance  as  a  process  that  "may  be  continued 
to  infinity."  This  process,  be  it  observed,  is  not  divisi- 
bility, which  is  a  potentiality  in  lieu  of  a  process,  but 
division — division  such  as  is  expressed  in  the  terms  of 
the  argument — division  actual  and  determinate.  That 
Achilles  does  not  execute  such  division,  and  the  tor- 
toise cannot,  is  of  course  nothing  against  this  con- 
struction, as  the  argument,  materially,  is  absurd 
throughout,  the  very  proposition  it  is  employed  to 
prove  being  a  contradiction.  What  is  to  the  purpose, 
however,  and  what  should  be  taken  as  decisive,  is  that 
if  the  argument  does  not  contemplate  this  division  it 
does  not  contemplate  any  division,  and,  consequently, 
proceeds  without  a  process  at  all  ;  which  is  contrary 
to  its  express  terms,  as  well  as  to  reason.  Further- 
more, if  Mill  is  correct  in  representing  the  argument 
as  assuming  bluntly  that  to  pass  through  a  finite  space 
requires  an  infinite  time,  Zeno  stands  convicted  of  the 
asinine  procedure  of  openly  begging  his  own  question; 
but  the  father  of  dialecticians,  whatever  he  may  have 
been,  was  not  an  ass.  The  accepted  construction  of 
his  argument  is  inadmissible.  The  process,  then,  is 
none  other  than  divisibility  actualised — actual  division, 
which  he  confounds,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
with  mere  divisibility.  And  would  not  the  continua- 
tion of  this  process  or  of  any  other  to  infinity  require 


42i6 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


infinite  time?  And  does  not  the  whole  argument  hinge, 
all  but  obtrusively,  on  the  assumption  that  motion  in- 
volves this  selfsame  continuation?  It  appears  strange 
that  Mill,  in  using  the  'suggestive  words  above-cited, 
should  not  only  not  have  perceived  that  the  fallacy 
lies  in  this  assumption,  instead  of  in  the  proposition 
flowing  from  it,  but  have  failed  to  perceive  even  the 
assumption. 

"It  is  only  infinite  space  which  cannot  be  passed 
over  in  less  than  infinite  time,"  he  says.  That  is  the 
question,  as  Zeno  would  have  been  swift  to  answer. 
It  depends,  speaking  dialectically,  on  the  route  tra- 
versed, and  the  mode  of  traversing  it.  If  finite  space 
is  passed  over  by  way  of  the  infinitesimals  at  the  bot- 
tom of  it,  and  by  means  of  reducing  it  to  these  through 
an  infinite  series  of  actual  divisions,  the  minutest  part 
of  space,  obviously,  cannot  be  passed  over  in  less  than 
infinite  time  ;  and  the  argument  assumes  that  space  is 
passed  over  by  this  identical  process.  In  this  assump- 
tion, I  repeat,  lies  the  fallacy,  and  not  in  the  inference 
(legitimately  drawn  from  it)  that  "to  pass  through  an 
infinitely  divisible  space  requires  an  infinite  time."  In 
other  words,  the  fallacy  lies  not,  as  Hobbes  hinted, 
and  as  Mill  insists,  in  confounding  the  infinitely  divis- 
ible with  the  infinitely  extended,  but  in  confounding 
the  infinitely  divisible  with  the  infinitely  divided,  and 
in  capping  this  confusion  with  the  assumption  that  to 
move  is  infinitely  to  divide  seriatim — in  confounding 
potential  division  with  actual  division  serially,  and 
assuming  that  whatever  moves  performs  this  actual 
division  to  infinity;  from  which  jumble  of  affirmations, 
presenting  "confusion  worse  confounded,"  it  follows 
of  necessity,  maugre  the  coil,  that  to  pass  over  the 
smallest  space  requires  infinite  time. 

"An  infinitely  divisible  time  may  itself  be  finite," 
says  Mill.  True  :  but  the  time  required  to  convert  in- 
finite divisibility  into  an  infinite  succession  of  actual 
divisions  is  infinite  ;  and  the  argument  assumes  that 
such  conversion,  as  respects  both  time  and  space, 
takes  place  in  motion.  "An  unlimited  number  of  sub- 
divisions may  be  made  of  that  which  is  itself  limited," 
Mill  has  said  in  another  notice  of  this  fallacy.  True, 
a"^ain  :  but  actually  to  make  them  requires  unlimited 
duration  ;  and  the  argument  assumes  that  in  motion 
they  are  actually  made.  Manifestly,  if  passing  over  a 
given  space  is  infinitely  subdividing  it,  the  passage 
cannot  be  made  in  less  than  infinite  time. 

The  distinction  between  an  assumption  and  an  in- 
ference from  one  is  nice,  but  real,  and  exacts  observ- 
ance under  penalty  of  thinking  falsely  ;  for  nice  dis- 
tinctions, unlike  "  nice  customs,"  do  not  "curt'sy  to 
great  kings."  Had  Mill's  refutation  been  proposed  to 
Zeno,  the  inventor  of  dialectics  might  have  replied  : 
"What  you  call  an  assumption  is  not  an  assumption, 
but  the  conclusion  regularly  deduced  from  my  premises, 


both  of  which  have  escaped  your  analysis,  and  neither 
of  which  have  you  denied.  Besides,  your  major  pre- 
mise is  simply  a  denial  of  my  conclusion.  Whether 
or  not  finite  space  can  be  passed  over  in  less  than  in- 
finite time  is  the  question  ;  and  you  beg  it.  Your 
imagined  refutation,  consequently,  leaves  my  argu- 
ment not  merely  unscathed,  but  untouched  ;  nay,  your 
refutation  is  itself  a  transparent  fallacy."  And  the  re- 
ply, I  conceive,  would  have  been  triumphant.  Mill's 
refutation  is  in  fact  exposed  to  precisely  the  same  sort 
of  criticism  that  Whately  visits  on  the  refutation  of 
Aldrich  ;  it  does  not  unearth  the  fallacy.  It  only  floun- 
ders amid  the  bewildering  absurdity  of  the  conclusion. 

As  Mill  fails  to  detect  the  seat  oi  the  fallacy,  one 
can  hardly  be  surprised  that  he  mistakes  the  nature  of 
it.  "What  the  argument  proves,"  he  says,  "  is  that 
to  pass  over  infinitely  divisible  space  requires  an  in- 
finitely divisible  time,"  adding  :  "It  is  a  sophism  of 
the  type  Ignoratio  Elcnchi,  or,  as  Archbishop  Whately 
terms  it.  Irrelevant  Conclusion."  The  argument,  as 
postulating  first  of  all  the  infinite  divisibility  of  matter, 
implies  that  "to  pass  over  infinitely  divisible  space  re- 
quires infinitely  divisible  time,"  but  does  not /r^nr  it ; 
so  far  from  proving  even  an  irrelevant  conclusion,  it 
proves  nothing,  for  the  reason  that  one  of  the  premises 
is  false.      The  argument  is  materially  incorrect. 

Exhibited  in  its  full  development,  and  in  the  typ- 
ical form,  it  stands  thus  : 

Whatever  is  infinitely  repeated  calls  for  infinite 
time  ; 

To  pass  over  any  assignable  space  is  infinitely  to 
repeat  the  division  of  it  : 

Therefore,  to  pass  over  any  assignable  space  calls 
for  infinite  time,  and  not  only  will  Achilles  never  over- 
take the  tortoise,  but  neither  Achilles  nor  the  tortoise 
can  stir,  motion  being  impossible  in  less  than  infinite 
time. 

The  argument  is  formally  correct  \  the  conclusion 
follows  necessarily  from  the  premises.  The  fallacy, 
such  being  the  case,  is  not  formal  at  all.  It  is  exra- 
logical,  strictly  interpreting  the  sphere  of  logic.  The 
minor  premise,  though  formally  correct,  is  materially 
false,  assuming  that  a  body  in  moving  from  one  posi- 
tion to  another  actualises  consecutively  the  infinite 
divisibility  of  the  distance,  which  is  to  assume  that  a 
body  in  moving  does  not  move  ;  in  short,  tlie  premise 
substitutes  for  the  simple  idea  of  motion  as  change  of 
place  a  self-contradictor^'  figment,  corresponding  to  no 
objective  reality,  and  incapable  of  mental  representa- 
tion. The  conclusion  is  not  irrelevant,  but  absurd  ; 
and  is  absurd  only  because  the  minor  premise  is.  That 
premise  interprets  motion  as  consisting  in  repeating 
infinitely  the  division  of  finite  space  ;  but,  since  divi- 
sion without  repetition  presupposes  motion,  this  defi- 
nition of  motion  implies  that  motion  exists  independ- 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4217 


ently  of  itself.  Hence,  the  definition  is  a  contradic- 
tion, and  the  premise  collapses.  It  is  not  motion,  as 
Sir  William  Hamilton  fancied,  that  involves  a  contra- 
diction, but  Zeno's  arbitrary  definition  of  it. 

The  fallacy,  accordingly,  is  purely  material,  and, 
as  such,  resolves  itself  into  a  question  of  fact,  in  which 
the  fallacious  premise,  we  have  seen,  taking  motion  to 
be  the  infinite  subdivision  of  finite  space,  contradicts 
itself,  as  well  as  the  acknowledged  evidence  of  con- 
sciousness in  the  simplest  and  most  direct  form — the 
form  wherein  the  authority  of  consciousness  is  received 
as  definitive  by  every  sane  mind  ;  so  that  after  all  the 
refutation  of  Diogenes  the  Cynic,  when  he  got  up  and 
walked  before  the  eyes  of  Zeno,  left  nothing  to  be  de- 
sired, except  a  technical  analysis,  which  those  who 
sneer  at  his  disdainful  omission  of  it  have  not  sup- 
plied. Diogenes,  like  Dr.  Johnson  in  the  case  of 
Berkele}''s  argument  against  matter,  exploded  the  con- 
clusion, though  he  did  not  stay  to  track  it  back  to  its 
source  in  the  premises  ;  the  Cynic,  like  Ursa  Major, 
contemptuously  left  that  to  the  professional  logicians. 
But  whoever  would  refute  Berkeley  or  Zeno,  and  im- 
agines he  can  dispense,  in  the  one  case  with  the  argu- 
metitum  baculinum,  or  in  the  other  with  the  argunientuin 
a?n/)ulatum,  will  presently  find  he  has  reckond  without 
his  host.  In  both  cases  the  indefeasible  reality  con- 
trols the  situation. 

The  truth  is,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  (and  this, 
too,  the  logicians  seem  to  have  overlooked,)  the  an- 
swlsr  to  Zeno  is  substantially  an  affair  of  common 
sense.  The  trouble  is,  in  place  of  unravelling  formal 
subtleties,  to  disentangle  the  fact  from  the  figment  as- 
serted in  the  minor  premise  ;  and  that  has  to  be  done 
outside  the  strict  province  of  logic.  But,  as  already 
shown,  it  is  easily  done.  The  infinite  cUvisibiliiy  of  the 
finite  is  one  thing,  the  infinite  dii<isio)i  of  the  finite  in 
regular  order  is  another  thing  ;  the  former  is  potential 
infinity,  the  latter,  which  Zeno  assumes  to  be  the  pro- 
cess of  motion,  and  with  which  he  confounds  the  for- 
mer, is  actual  infinity,  or  would  be,  were  it  actual  in- 
deed. At  the  first  touch  of  this  distinction  the  figment 
in  the  minor  premise  falls  to  nothing.  The  fact  is  the 
possibility  of  division  continued  to  infinity  ;  of  which 
the  figment  asserts  the  actuality,  and  calls  it  motion, 
whereas  it  is  not  actual,  and,  if  it  were,  would  not  be 
motion.  The  thing  is  essentially  a  piece  of  dialectical 
child's  play — a  logical  make-believe.  Zeno,  as  it  were, 
calls  out  to  his  pupils  :  "  Come,  let  us  play  Sinnetliing 
is  Nothing — I  will  say  '  Motion  is  not  motion,'  and 
you  say  'Behold,  there  is  no  motion.'"  "With  all 
our  hearts, "  they  gayly  respond.  And  thereupon  we 
have,  cunningly  feigned,  the  Achillean  paradox,  which, 
to  the  reproach  of  the  human  mind,  has  puzzled  sev- 
enty generations  of  experts.  Certainly,  Zeno  as  a 
logical  prestidigitator  is  an  incomparable  success. 


The  argument,  then,  is  faultless  in  form,  but  void 
of  substance,  the  only  objection  to  it  being  that  there 
is  nothing  in  it.  It  begins  and  ends  in  zero.  The 
fallacy  is  not,  therefore,  as  Mill  would  have  it,  a 
"logical  quadruped,"  the  most  frequent  of  formal  fal- 
lacies, but  what  might  be  called  not  unaptly  a  logical 
ghost;  for,  logically,  as  I  have  said,  the  argument  is 
perfect — that  is  to  say,  perfect  in  logical  form.  It  is 
a  phantom  of  reason — a  dialectical  apparition.  The 
mill  is  all  right,  to  change  the  metaphor;  if  the  grist 
is  not,  it  is  because  cockle  instead  of  wheat  has  been 
put  into  the  hopper. 

But  all  this,  if  just,  it  may  be  said,  is  paying  inor- 
dinate attention  to  a  trifle  ;  which  I  will  not  gainsay, 
though  the  long  line  of  illustrious  thinkers  who  have 
deemed  the  sophism  not  beneath  their  serious  notice 
might  suggest  a  mitigation  of  this  view.  The  paradox, 
as  it  has  been  called  not  too  accurately,  is  something 
of  a  puzzle,  without  doubt;  yet  how  it  has  come  to 
nonplus  so  many  of  the  first  logicians  of  every  age  may 
well  seem  to  plain  people  a  greater  one. 


A  TALE  WITH  A  MORAL. 


Pandu,  a  wealthy  jeweller  of  the  Brahman  caste, 
was  travelling  with  a  servant  in  a  carriage  on  some 
lucrative  business  to  Varanasi,'  and  overtaking  on  his 
way  a  monk  of  venerable  appearance  who  was  walking 
in  the  same  direction,  he  thought  to  himself:  "This 
shramana'Mooks  noble  and  saintly.  Companionship 
with  good  men  brings  luck  ;  should  he  also  be  going 
to  Varanasi,  I  will  invite  him  to  ride  with  me  in  my 
carriage."  Having  saluted  the  shramana  he  told  him 
whither  he  was  driving  and  at  what  inn  he  intended 
to  stay  in  Varanasi.  Learning  that  the  shramana,  whose 
name  was  Narada,  also  was  travelling  to  Varanasi,  he 
asked  him  to  accept  a  seat  in  his  carriage.  "  I  am 
obliged  to  you  for  your  kindness,"  said  the  shramana 
to  the  Brahman,  for  I  am  quite  worn  out  by  the  long 
journey.  Having  no  possessions  in  this  world,  I  can- 
not repay  you  in  money;  but  it  may  happen  that  I  can 
reward  you  with  some  spiritual  treasure  out  of  the 
wealth  of  the  information  I  have  received  while  fol- 
lowing Shakyamuni,  the  Blessed  One,  the  Great  Bud- 
dha, the  Teacher  of  mankind." 

Both  travelled  together  in  the  carriage  and  Pandu 
listened  with  pleasure  to  the  instructive  discourse  of 
Narada.  After  about  an  hour's  journey,  they  came  lo 
a  place  where  the  road  had  become  almost  impassable 
by  a  washout  caused  by  a  recent  rain,  and  a  farmer's 
cart  with  a  broken  wheel  prevented  further  progress. 
Devala,  the  owner  of  the  cart,  was  on  his  way  to  Va- 


-  Shramana 


inskrit  {BarSiiiisl 
L  Buddbist  monk. 


42i8 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


ranasi  to  sell  his  rice,  and  was  anxious  to  reach  the 
town  before  the  dawn  of  the  next  morning.  If  he  was 
delayed  a  day  or  two  longer,  the  rice  merchants  might 
have  left  town  or  bought  all  the  stock  they  needed. 

When  the  jeweller  saw  that  he  could  not  proceed 
on  his  way  unless  the  farmer's  cart  was  removed,  he 
began  to  grow  angry  and  ordered  Mahaduta,  his  slave, 
to  push  the  cart  aside,  so  that  his  carriage  could  pass 
by.  The  farmer  remonstrated  because  it  being  so  near 
the  slope  of  the  road,  it  would  jeopardise  his  cargo; 
but  the  Brahman  would  not  listen  to  the  farmer  and 
bade  his  servant  overturn  the  rice  cart  and  push  it 
aside.  Mahaduta,  an  unusually  strong  man  who  seemed 
to  take  delight  in  the  injury  of  others,  obeyed  before 
the  shramana  could  interfere.  When  Pandu  was  about 
to  continue  his  travel  the  shramana  jumped  out  of  the 
carriage  and  said:  "Excuse  me,  sir,  for  leaving  you 
here.  I  am  under  obligations  for  your  kindness  in 
giving  me  an  hour's  ride  in  your  carriage.  I  was  tired 
when  you  picked  me  up  on  the  road,  but  now  thanks 
to  your  courtesy,  I  am  rested,  and  recognising  in  this 
farmer  an  incarnation  of  one  of  your  ancestors  I  can- 
not repay  your  kindness  better  than  by  assisting  him 
in  his  troubles." 

The  Brahman  looked  at  the  shramana  in  amaze- 
ment:  "That  farmer,  you  say,  is  an  incarnation  of 
one  of  my  ancestors  ?     That  is  impossible. " 

"I  know,"  replied  the  shramana,  "that  you  are 
not  aware  of  the  numerous  important  relations  which 
tie  your  fate  to  that  of  the  farmer.  But  the  blind  man 
cannot  be  expected  to  see  ;  so  I  regret  that  you  do 
harm  to  yourself  and  I  shall  try  to  protect  you  against 
the  wounds  which  you  are  about  to  inflict  ypon  your- 
self." 

The  wealthy  merchant  was  not  accustomed  to  be 
reprimanded,  and  feeling  that  the  words  of  the  shra- 
mana, although  uttered  with  great  kindness,  contained 
a  stinging  reproach,  bade  his  servant  drive  on  without 
further  delay. 

The  shramana  saluted  Devala,  the  farmer,  and  be- 
gan to  help  him  repair  his  cart  and  load  up  the  rice, 
part  of  which  had  been  thrown  out.  The  work  pro- 
ceeded quickly  and  Devala  thought  :  "  This  shramana 
must  be  a  holy  man  ;  invisible  devas  seem  to  assist 
him.  I  will  ask  him  how  I  deserved  the  ill  treatment 
at  the  hands  of  the  proud  Brahman."  And  he  said  : 
"Venerable  sir,  can  you  tell  me  why  I  suffer  an  injus- 
tice from  a  man  to  whom  I  have  never  done  any  harm?" 
And  the  shramana  said  :  "  My  dear  friend,  you  do  not 
suffer  an  injustice,  but  only  receive  in  your  present 
state  of  existence  the  same  treatment  which  you  visited 
upon  the  jeweller  in  a  former  life,  and  if  I  am  not  mis- 
taken in  reading  the  thoughts  of  your  mind,  I  should 
say  that  you  would,  even  to-day,  have  done  the  same 
unto  the  jeweller  if  he  had  been  in  yo\ir  place,  and  if 


you  had  had  such  a  strong  slave  at  your  command  as 
he  has,  able  to  deal  with  you  at  his  pleasure." 

The  farmer  confessed  that  if  he  had  had  the  power, 
he  would  have  felt  little  compunction  in  treating  an- 
other man  who  had  happened  to  impede  his  way  as 
he  had  been  treated  by  the  Brahman,  but  thinking  of 
the  retribution  attendant  upon  unkind  deeds,  he  re- 
solved to  be  more  considerate  in  the  future  with  his 
fellow-beings. 

The  rice  was  loaded  and  both  travelled  on  to  Va- 
ranabi,  when  all  of  a  sudden  the  horse  jumped  aside. 
"A  snake,  a  snake!"  shouted  the  farmer.  But  the 
shramana  looked  closely  at  the  object  at  which  the 
horse  shuddered,  jumped  out  of  the  cart  and  saw  that 
it  was  a  purse  full  of  gold,  and  the  idea  struck  him  : 
"  No  one  else  but  the  wealthy  jeweller  can  have  lost 
this  purse."  He  took  the  purse  and  handing  it  to  the 
farmer  said  :  "Take  this  purse  and  when  you  come  to 
Varanasi  drive  up  to  the  inn  which  I  shall  point  out  to 
you;  ask  for  Pandu,  the  Brahman,  and  deliver  the  purse. 
He  will  excuse  himself  for  the  rudeness  with  which 
he  treated  you,  but  tell  him  that  you  have  forgiven 
him  and  wish  him  success  in  all  his  undertakings. 
For,  let  me  tell  you,  the  more  successful  he  is,  the 
better  you  will  prosper  ;  your  fate  depends  in  many 
respects  upon  his  fate.  Should  the  jeweller  demand 
any  explanation,  send  him  to  the  vihara  where  he  shall 
find  me  ready  to  assist  him  with  advice  in  case  he  may 
feel  the  need  of  it." 

Pandu  in  the  meantime  arrived  at  Varanasi  and 
met  Mallika,  his  business-friend,  a  rich  banker.  "I 
am  a  ruined  man,"  said  Mallika,  "and  can  do  no  busi- 
ness with  you,  unless  I  can  buy  a  cart  of  the  best  rice 
for  the  king's  table.  There  is  a  rival  banker  in  Vara- 
nasi who  learning  that  I  had  made  a  contract  with  the 
royal  treasurer  to  deliver  the  rice  to-morrow  morning, 
and  being  desirous  to  bring  about  my  destruction,  has 
bought  up  all  the  rice  in  Varanasi.  The  royal  treasurer 
must  have  received  a  bribe,  for  he  will  not  release  me 
from  my  contract  and  to-morrow  I  shall  be  a  ruined 
man  unless  Krishna  will  send  an  angel  from  heaven  to 
help  me. " 

While  Mallika  was  still  lamenting  the  poverty  to 
which  his  rival  would  reduce  him,  Pandu  missed  his 
purse.  Searching  his  carriage  without  being  able  to 
find  it,  he  suspected  his  slave  Mahaduta  ;  and  calling 
the  police  accused  him  of  theft,  and  had  him  bound 
and  cruelly  tortured  to  extort  a  confession.  The  slave 
in  his  agonies  cried  :  "  I  am  innocent,  let  me  go,  for  I 
cannot  stand  this  pain  ;  I  am  quite  innocent  at  least 
of  this  crime,  and  suffer  now  for  other  sins.  O,  that 
I  could  beg  the  farmer's  pardon  whom,  for  the  sake  of 
my  master,  I  wronged  without  any  cause!  This  tor- 
ture, I  believe,  is  a  punishment  for  my  rudeness." 
While  the  police  officer  was  still  applying  the  lash 


THE    OPEN     OOURT. 


4219 


to  the  back  of  the  slave,  the  farmer  arrived  at  the  inn, 
and,  to  the  great  astonishment  of  all  concerned,  de- 
livered the  purse.  The  slave  was  at  once  released 
from  the  hands  of  his  torturer.  But  being  dissatisfied 
with  his  master,  he  secretly  left  and  joined  a  band  of 
robbers  in  the  mountains,  who  made  him  their  chief 
on  account  of  his  great  strength  and  courage.  When 
Mallika  heard  that  the  farmer  had  the  best  rice  to 
sell,  fit  for  delivery  to  the  royal  table,  he  bought  at 
once  the  whole  car-load  for  treble  the  price  that  the 
farmer  had  ever  received,  and  Pandu,  glad  at  heart  to 
have  his  money  restored,  hastened  at  once  to  the  vi- 
hara  to  receive  further  explanations  from  Narada,  the 
shramana. 

Narada  said  :  "I  might  give  thee  an  explanation, 
but  knowing  that  thou  art  unable  to  understand  a 
spiritual  truth,  I  prefer  to  remain  silent.  However,  I 
shall  give  thee  some  advice :  Treat  every  man  whom 
thou  meetest  as  thy  own  self ;  serve  him  as  thou 
wouldst  demand  to  be  served  thyself  ;  for  thus  thou 
shalt  sow  a  sowing  of  good  deeds,  the  rich  harvest  of 
which  thou  wilt  not  fail  to  reap." 

"Give  me,  O  shramana,  the  explanation,"  said  the 
jeweller,  "and  I  shall  thereby  be  better  able  to  follow 
your  advice." 

The  shramana  said  :  "Listen  then,  I  will  give  you 
the  key  to  the  mystery.  If  you  do  not  understand  it, 
have  faith  in  what  I  say.  Self  is  an  illusion,  and  he 
whose  mind  is  bent  upon  following  self,  follows  an 
jg/i/s  fatiius  which  leads  him  into  the  quagmire  of  sin. 
The  illusion  of  self  is  the  veil  of  Maya  that  blinds  your 
eyes  and  prevents  you  from  recognising  the  close  re- 
lations that  obtain  between  yourself  and  your  fellows, 
and  from  tracing  the  identity  of  your  self  in  the  souls 
of  other  beings.  Ignorance  is  the  source  of  sin.  There 
are  few  who  know  the  truth.  Let  this  motto  be  your 
talisman  ; 

'He  who  hurts  others  injures  himself. 

'  He  who  helps  others  advances  his  own  interests. 

'  Let  the  delusion  of  self  disappear  from  your  mind. 
And  you  will  naturally  walk  in  the  path  of  truth. 

'To  him  whose  vision  is  dimmed  by  the  veil  of 
Maya,  the  spiritual  world  appears  to  be  cut  up  into 
innumerable  selves.  Thus  he  will  be  puzzled  in  many 
ways  concerning  the  transmigration  of  soul-life,  and 
will  be  incapable  of  understanding  the  import  of  an  all- 
comprehensive  kindness  toward  all  living  beings.'  " 

The  jeweller  replied:  "  Your  words,  O  venerable 
sir,  have  a  deep  significance  and  I  shall  bear  them  in 
mind.  I  extended  a  small  kindness  which  caused  me 
no  expense  whatever  to  a  poor  shramana  on  my  way 
to  Varanasi,  and  lo  I  how  propitious  has  been  the  re- 
sult !  I  am  deeply  in  your  debt,  for  without  you  I 
should  not  only  have  lost  my  purse,  but  would  have 
been  prevented  from  doing  business  in  Varanasi  which 


greatly  increased  my  wealth,  while  if  it  had  been  left 
undone  it  might  have  reduced  me  to  a  state  of  wretched 
poverty.  In  addition,  your  thoughtfulness  and  the 
arrival  of  the  farmer's  rice-cart  preserved  the  prosper- 
ity of  my  friend  Mallika,  the  banker.  If  all  men  saw 
the  truth  of  your  maxims,  how  much  better  the  world 
would  be,  how  greatly  evils  would  be  lessened,  and 
public  welfare  enhanced  !  As  I  am  anxious  to  let  the 
truth  of  Buddha  be  understood,  I  shall  found  a  vihara 
at  my  native  place,  Kaushambi,  and  invite  you  to  visit 
me  so  that  I  may  dedicate  the  place  to  the  brother- 
hood of  Buddha's  disciples." 

Years  passed  on  and  Pandu's  vihara  at  Kaushambi 
became  a  place  in  which  wise  shramanas  used  to  stay 
and  it  was  renowned  as  a  centre  of  enlightenment  for 
the  people  of  the  town. 

At  that  time  the  king  of  a  neighboring  country  had 
heard  of  the  beauty  of  Pandu's  jewelry,  and  he  sent 
his  treasurer  to  order  a  royal  diadem  wrought  in  pure 
gold  and  set  with  the  most  precious  stones  of  India. 
When  Pandu  had  finished  the  work,  he  started  for  the 
residence  of  the  king,  and.  as  he  expected  to  transact 
other  profitable  business,  took  with  him  a  great  store 
of  gold  pieces.  The  caravan  carrying  his  goods  was 
protected  by  a  strong  escort  of  armed  men,  but  when 
they  reached  the  mountains  they  were  attacked  by  a 
band  of  robbers  lead  by  Mahaduta,  who  beat  them 
and  took  away  all  the  jewelry  and  the  gold,  and  Pandu 
escaped  with  great  difficulty.  This  misfortune  was  a 
blow  to  Pandu's  prosperity,  and  as  he  suffered  some 
other  severe  losses,  his  wealth  was  much  reduced. 

Pandu  was  much  distressed,  but  he  bore  his  mis- 
fortunes without  complaint,  thinking  to  himself:  "I 
have  deserved  these  losses  for  the  sins  committed  in 
my  past  existence.  In  my  younger  years  I  was  very- 
hard  on  other  people  ;  when  I  now  reap  the  harvest  of 
my  evil  deeds  I  have  no  cause  for  complaint."  As  he 
had  grown  in  kindliness  toward  all  beings,  his  misfor- 
tunes only  served  to  purify  his  heart ;  and  his  chief 
regret,  when  thinking  of  his  reduced  means,  was  that 
he  had  become  unable  to  do  good  and  to  help  his 
friends  in  the  vihara  to  spread  the  truths  of  religion. 

Again  years  passed  on  and  it  happened  that  Pan- 
thaka,  a  young  shramana  and  a  disciple  of  Narada,  was 
travelling  through  the  mountains  of  Kaushambi,  and 
he  fell  among  the  robbers  in  the  mountains.  As  he 
had  nothing  in  his  possession,  the  robber-chief  beat 
him  severely  and  let  him  go.  On  the  next  morning 
Panthaka,  while  pursuing  his  way  through  the  woods, 
heard  a  noise  as  of  quarrelling  and  fighting  men,  and 
going  to  the  place  he  saw  a  number  of  robbers,  all  of 
them  in  a  great  rage,  and  in  their  midst  stood  Maha- 
duta, their  chief  ;  and  the  chief  was  desperately  fight- 
ing them,  like  a  lion  surrounded  by  hounds,  and  he 
slew  several  of  his  aggressors  with  formidable  blows, 


4220 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


but  there  were  too  many  against  one  !  at  last  he  suc- 
cumbed and  fell  to  the  ground  as  if  dead,  covered 
with  fatal  wounds.  As  soon  as  the  robbers  had  left 
the  place  the  young  shramana  approached  to  see 
whether  he  could  be  of  any  assistance  to  the  wounded 
men.  He  found  that  all  the  robbers  were  dead,  and 
there  was  only  a  little  life  left  in  the  chief.  He  at 
once  went  down  to  the  little  brooklet  which  was  mur- 
muring near  by,  fetched  fresh  water  in  his  bowl  and 
brought  it  to  the  dying  man.  Mahaduta  opened  his 
eyes  and,  gnashing  his  teeth,  said  :  "  Where  are  those 
ungrateful  dogs  whom  I  have  led  to  victory  and  suc- 
cess? Without  me  as  their  chief  they  will  soon  perish 
like  jackals  hunted  down  by  skilful  hunters." 

"Do  not  think  of  your  comrades,  the  companions 
of  your  sinful  life,"  said  Panthaka,  "but  think  of  your 
soul  and  accept  in  the  last  moment  the  chance  of  sal- 
vation that  is  offered  you.  Here  is  water  to  drink, 
and  let  me  dress  your  wounds  ;  perhaps -I  may  save 
your  life." 

"Alas  !  alas  !  "  replied  Mahaduta,  are  you  not  the 
man  whom  I  beat  but  yesterday  and  now  you  come  to 
my  assistance,  to  assuage  my  pain  ?  You  bring  me 
fresh  water  to  quench  my  thirst,  and  try  to  save  my 
life  !  It  is  useless,  honorable  sir,  I  am  a  doomed  man. 
The  churls  have  wounded  me  unto  death— the  un- 
grateful cowards  !  They  have  dealt  me  the  blows 
which  I  taught  them." 

"You  reap  what  you  have  sown  ;  "  continued  the 
shramana,  "had  you  taught  your  comrades  acts  of 
kindness,  you  would  have  received  from  them  acts  of 
kindness,  but  having  taught  them  the  lesson  of  slaugh- 
ter, it  is  but  your  own  deed  that  you  are  slain  by  their 
hands." 

"True,  very  true,"  said  the  robber  chief,  my  fate 
is  well  deserved  ;  but  how  sad  is  my  lot,  that  I  must 
reap  the  full  harvest  of  all  my  evil  deeds  in  future 
existences  !  Advise  me,  O  holy  sir,  what  I  can  do  to 
lighten  the  sins  of  my  life  which  oppress  me  like  a 
great  rock  placed  upon  my  breast,  taking  away  the 
breath  of  my  lungs." 

Said  Panthaka:  "Root  out  your  sinful  desires; 
destroy  all  evil  passions,  and  fill  your  soul  with  kind- 
ness toward  all  your  fellow  beings." 

The  robber  chief  said:  "I  have  done  much  evil 
and  no  good.  How  can  I  extricate  myself  from  the 
net  of  sorrow  which  I  have  woven  out  of  the  evil  de- 
sires of  my  own  heart?  My  Karma  will  lead  me  to 
hell  and  I  shall  never  be  able  to  walk  on  the  path  of 
salvation." 

Said  the  shramana  :  "Indeed  your  Karma  will  in 
its  future  incarnations  reap  the  seeds  of  evil  that  you 
have  sown.  There  is  no  escape  for  an  evil  doer  from 
the  consequences  of  his  own  actions.  But  there  is  no 
cause  for  despair.   The  man  who  is  converted  and  has 


rooted  out  the  illusion  of  self  with  all  its  lusts  and  sin- 
ful desires  will  be  a  source  of  blessing  to  himself  and 
others. 

"As  an  illustration  I  will  tell  j'ou  the  story  of  the 
great  robber  Kandata  who  died  without  repentance 
and  was  reborn  as  a  demon  in  hell  where  he  suffered 
for  his  evil  deeds  the  most  terrible  agonies  and  pains. 
He  had  been  in  hell  several  kalpas  and  was  unable  to 
rise  out  of  his  wretched  condition  when  Buddha  ap- 
peared upon  earth  and  attained  to  the  blessed  state  of 
enlightenment.  At  that  memorable  moment  a  ray  of 
light  fell  down  into  hell  quickening  all  the  demons 
with  life  and  hope,  and  the  robber  Kandata  cried  aloud : 
'O  blessed  Buddha,  have  mercy  upon  me!  I  suffer 
greatly  and  although  I  have  done  evil,  I  am  anxious 
to  walk  in  the  noble  path  of  righteousness.  But  I  can- 
not extricate  myself  from  the  net  of  sorrow.  Help  me, 
O  Lord  ;  have  mercy  on  me  !'  Now  it  is  the  law  of 
Karma  that  evil  deeds  lead  to  destruction,  for  absolute 
evil  is  so  bad  that  it  cannot  exist.  Absolute  evil  in- 
volves impossibility  of  existence.  But  good  deeds 
lead  to  life.  Thus  there  is  a  final  end  of  every  deed 
that  is  done,  but  there  is  no  end  in  the  development 
of  good  deeds.  The  least  act  of  goodness  bears  fruits 
containing  new  seeds  of  goodness  and  they  continue 
to  grow,  they  nourish  the  soul  in  its  weary  transmi- 
grations until  it  reaches  the  final  deliverance  from  all 
evil  in  Nirvana.  When  Buddha,  the  Lord,  heard  the 
prayer  of  the  demon  suffering  in  hell,  he  sent  down  a 
spider  on  a  cobweb  and  the  spider  said  :  '  Take  hold 
of  the  web  and  climb  up.'  When  the  spider  had  again 
disappeared  out  of  sight,  Kandata  made  great  efforts 
to  climb  up  and  he  succeeded.  The  web  was  so  strong 
that  it  held,  and  he  ascended  higher  and  higher.  Sud- 
denly he  felt  the  thread  trembling  and  shaking,  for 
behind  him  other  fellow  sufferers  of  his  were  beginning 
to  climb  up.  Kandata  became  frightened.  He  saw 
the  thinness  of  the  web,  and  observed  that  it  was  elas- 
tic, for  under  the  increased  weight  it  stretched  out; 
yet  it  still  seemed  strong  enough  to  carry  him.  Kan- 
data had  heretofore  only  looked  up  ;  he  now  looked 
down  and  saw  following  close  upon  his  heels,  also 
climbing  up  on  the  cobweb  a  numberless  mob  of  the 
denizens  of  hell.  How  can  this  thin  thread  bear  the 
weight  of  all,  he  thought  to  himself,  and  seized  with 
fear  he  shouted  loudly  :  '  Let  go  the  cobweb.  It  is 
mine  ! '  At  once  the  cobweb  broke  and  Kandata  fell 
back  into  hell. 

"The  illusion  of  self  was  still  upon  Kandata.  He 
did  not  know  the  miraculous  power  of  a  sincere  long- 
ing to  rise  upwards  and  enter  the  noble  path  of  right- 
eousness. It  is  thin  like  a  cobweb  but  it  will  carry 
millions  of  people,  and  the  more  there  are  that  climb 
it,  the  easier  will  be  the  efforts  of  every  one  of  them. 
But  as  soon  as  in  a  man's  heart  the  idea  arises  :  'This 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


422t 


is  mine  ;  let  the  bliss  of  righteousness  be  mine  alone 
and  let  no  one  else  partake  of  it,'  the  thread  breaks, 
and  you  fall  back  into  your  old  condition  of  selfhood, 
for  selfhood  is  damnation  and  truth  is  bliss.  What  is 
hell  ?  It  is  nothing  but  egotism,  and  Nirvana  is  a  life 
of  righteousness." 

"  Let  me  take  hold  of  a  spiderweb, "  said  the  dying 
robber  chief,  when  the  shramana  had  finished  his 
story,  "and  I  shall  pull  myself  up  out  of  the  depth  of 
hell." 

Mahaduta  la)'  for  a  while  quiet  to  collect  his 
thoughts.      Then  he  continued  : 

"Listen,  honorable  sir,  I  will  make  a  confession  : 
I  was  the  servant  of  Pandu,  the  jeweller  of  Kaushambi, 
but  when  he  unjustly  had  me  tortured  I  ran  away  and 
became  a  chief  of  robbers.  Some  time  ago  when  I 
heard  through  my  spies  that  he  was  passing  through 
the  mountains  I  succeeded  in  robbing  him  of  a  great 
part  of  his  wealth.  Will  you  now  go  to  him  and  tell 
him  that  I  have  forgiven  him  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart  the  injury  which  he  has  unjustly  inflicted  upon 
me,  and  ask  him,  too,  to  pardon  me  for  having  robbed 
him.  While  I  stayed  with  him  his  heart  was  as  hard 
as  stone,  and  I  learned  to  imitate  the  selfishness  of 
his  character.  I  have  heard  that  he  has  become  be- 
nevolent and  is  now  pointed  out  as  an  example  of 
goodness  and  justice.  I  do  not  wish  to  remain  in  his 
debt.  Therefore  inform  him  that  I  have  kept  the  gold 
crown,  which  he  wrought  for  the  king,  and  all  his 
treasures,  and  have  hidden  them  in  a  cave  near  b}'. 
There  were  only  two  of  the  robbers  under  my  com- 
mand who  knew  of  it,  and  both  are  now  dead.  Let 
Pandu  take  a  number  of  armed  men  and  come  to  the 
place  and  take  back  the  property  of  which  I  have  de- 
prived him." 

Then  Mahaduta  described  the  situation  of  the  cave 
and  died  in  the  arms  of  Panthaka. 

As  soon  as  Panthaka,  the  young  shramana,  had 
reached  Kaushambi,  he  went  to  the  jeweller  and  gave 
him  a  full  account  of  his  recent  adventure  in  the  for- 
est. And  Pandu  went  with  an  escort  of  armed  men 
and  secured  the  treasures  which  the  robber- chief  had 
concealed  in  the  cave;  and  they  buried  the  robber- 
chief  and  his  slain  comrades  with  all  honors,  and  Pan- 
thaka spoke  at  the  grave,  discoursing  on  the  words  of 
Buddha: 

"By  one's  self  evil  is  done  ;  by  one's  self  one  suf- 
fers. 

"By  one's  self  evil  is  left  undone  ;  by  one's  self  one 
is  purified. 

"  Purity  and  impurity  belong  to  one's  self  ;  no  one 
can  purify  another. 

"You  yourself  must  make  an  effort.  The  Buddhas 
are  only  preachers. 

"Our  karma,"  the  shramana  said,  "  is  not  the  work 


of  ishvara,  or  Brahma,  or  Indra,  or  of  any  one  of  the 
gods.  Our  karma  is  the  product  of  our  own  actions. 
My  action  is  the  womb  that  bears  me  ;  it  is  the  inheri- 
tance which  devolves  upon  me  ;  it  is  the  curse  of  my 
misdeeds  and  the  blessing  of  my  righteousness.  My 
action  is  the  resource  by  which  alone  I  can  work  out 
my  salvation." 

Pandu  carried  all  his  treasures  back  to  Kaushambi, 
and,  using  with  discretion  the  wealth  thus  unexpect- 
edly regained,  he  became  richer  and  more  powerful 
than  he  had  ever  been  before,  and  when  he  was  dying 
at  an  advanced  age  he  had  all  his  sons  and  daughters 
and  grandchildren  gathered  round  him  and  said  unto 
them  : 

"My  dear  children,  do  not  blame  others  for  your 
lack  of  success.  Seek  the  cause  of  your  ills  in  your- 
self. Unless  you  are  blinded  by  vanity  you  will  find 
it,  and  having  found  it  you  will  see  the  way  out  of  it. 
The  remedy  of  your  ills,  too,  lies  in  yourself.  Let 
never  your  mental  eye  be  covered  by  the  veil  of  Maya, 
and  remember  the  words  which  have  proved  a  talis- 
man in  my  life  : 

"He  who  hurts  others  injures  himself. 

"  He  who  helps  others  advances  his  own  interests. 

"  Let  the  illusion  of  self  disappear. 

"And  you  will  naturally  walk  in  the  path  of  truth." 

p.  c. 


APHORISMS. 

BY    HUDOR    GENONE. 

It  is  not  so  very  meritorious  for  a  hen  to  be  anx- 
ious about  her  own  brood.  But  when  you  hear  a  hen 
cackling  with  joy  over  an  egg  laid  by  her  neighbor 
you  may  be  sure  that  hen  is  not  far  from  righteous- 
ness. 

* 

*  * 

If  you   cannot   forgive   yourself,  even  God  cannot 

forgive  you. 

* 

*  * 

But   if  you   cease   trying  to   excuse  yourself,  and 
blame  yourself  and  set  to  redeeming  yourself,  be  sure 
that  God  can  and  will  redeem  you. 
* 

Conscience    is    always    in   executive   session   with 

closed  doors. 

* 

The  spirit  of  man  is  free  to  execute  laws  already 
enacted.  But  in  his  nominations  to  action  he  is  bound 
to  act  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  senatorial 
reason. 

* 

*  * 

If  you  see  a  man  truly  godly,  never  you  mind  how 
he  got  or  keeps  his  godliness. 

* 

*  * 

Some  trees  you  can  tell  from  the  seed  ;  some  from 


\^ 


-vS^ 


4222  THE     OPEN     COURT. 

bark   and  leaves  ;  but,  after  all,  the   best   and   surest  So  it  is  in  life.      It  is  the  field  of  trial  and  test  of 

way  is  by  tasting  the  fruit.  taste.      Good  and  evil.  Heaven  and  Hell  are   matters 

*  *          *                         '  of  taste.      You  have  the  things  to  choose,  and  choice 
A  little  mi.xture  of  superstition  may  be  essential  to  jg  free.      Shall  it  be  leeks  or  lilies,  rue  or  roses? 

some  people's  religion,  as  the  pure  gold  would   be  of 

no  use  as  coin  without  alloy.  "^^  ^  STAR. 

^  BY  J.    ARTHUR  EDGERTON. 

*  ,                    ....        ^     J          J  Star,  that  gleamest  through  the  nieht,  sbore  within  the  spatial  sea ; 
It  IS  unfortunate  to  be  too  original  going  Godward,  <,.      .1,  .  u         »  i     u  .  t  v,  .        m  k 

o  D        o  gj^j.    jjjgj  burnest  on  my  soul  what  I  am,  what  would  be  ; 

because  few  will  understand  that  your  face  is  set  that  i^i^^j  ;„  j^e  far-off  space; 

way.      And  yet  it  is  better  if  you  must  be  original  to  Cradle  of  some  happy  race  ; 

keep    natural  ;    better   to    be    saved  without    precedent  I  would  reach  thee.      Something  in  me  yearneth  unto  thee, 

than  damned  by  example.  Planet,  on  thy  sister  world,  glowing  with  thee  round  the  sun, 

^  *  :(;  I  am  but  an  insect  living  for  a  day  and  am  done  ; 

Consistency  and  obstinacy  resemble  each  other  be-  Yet  I  feel  in  me  a  soul, 

cause  they  are  twins,  but  they  are  not  all  alike  in  their  Striving  to  thee  as  a  goal ; 

Striving  to  all  things  of  beauty — to  the  central  One. 

dispositions. 

*  We  see  darkly;  grope  in  feeling  to  a  truth  we  cannot  see  ; 
An  obstinate  man  is  one  who  is  firm  in  the  wrong  ;  We  strive  upward  and  yearn  blindly,  as  ray  soul  unto  thee ; 

,       ■       ,     ^-       .      ■      .-I        ■    ■,.  We  strive  upward  through  the  night, 

a  firm  man  one  who  IS  obstinate  in  the  right.  ^  ,    v,. 

Upward  to  a  little  light, 

*  *  Yearning  to  the  higher,  better — in  Infinity. 
The  chemical  formulae  for  acetic  ether  and  butyric  

acid  are  identical ;  no   analysis   can  tell  one  from  the  NOTES. 

other.       Put  the  ether  to  your  nose,  and  the  odor  says  Mr.  Theodore  Stanton   has  been  engaged  in  Paris  during  the 

,  ,        ,        ,,       1  -i     ii  -J       -11  i   11  last  year  in  preparing  a  series  of  lectures  on  the  Third  French  Re- 

plain  as  words — "Apples,"    while  the  acid  will  tell  you  -!       ,,.-,,■        ■,  .    .      ..    w         ■    c.  .    ti  ■ 

f^°-'"  _  ^i^       '  -^  public,  which  are  to  be  delivered  before  the  Wisconsin  State  Uni- 

"I  am  rancid  butter."  versity.     while   in   Madison,    Mr.   Stanton   will   be   the  guest  of 

*  *  President  Adams. 

Dominie  Hopewell  always  looked  on  the  sunny  side  ,,,-iu  i     at  \u    -a    ,■        .  ■        1  r  v,-      ■ 

r  J  ■>  Dr.  Wilhelm  Meyer,  the  Berlin  astronomer,  is  publishing  in 

of  things.      One  of  his  parishioners  having  been  ac-  ^^,„,„,,^  ,„,  ^  ^,,j^.  ^  ^g^ie-.  of  lectures,  the  data  of  which  he  col- 

CUSed    of    throwing   potatoes    at    his    aged    mother,  he  lected  during  his  sojourn  here  last  year,  on  some  of  the  striking 

said     "Well     that  was  wrong,  of   course,  but  perhaps  physiographical    features    of  our   country.      Their    title    is   /^us 

after  all  the  potatoes  were  very  mealy."  lV»mier/an<i  c/ern^uen  Well.     The  lectures  were  delivered  before 

^  the  Urania   Sodely  of  Berlin,  and   are  presented  in  the  form  of 

*  *  •     J       1  •    1  itinerary  sketches.     They  close  with  the  August   number  olHiiii- 

I  have  no  sympathy  with  that  class  of  mind  which  „,^./„^^  j,^^^     ^g^^jj^ .  ^  ^^^^^x.) 

dogmatises  about  the  Unknown.      If  a  man  tells  me  

.  ^,        ,        ■,,       J  r      T-i  •  TTi  The  Report  of  the  Celebration  of  Ihe  SixtUlh  Birlhdav  of  Prof . 

there  IS  a  Flapdoodle,  I  never  reply.  There  IS  no  Flap-  ^     .  lj     ,  ,   f- ,  v  .1        uv  u  a         ,  ■ 

t-  r  ji  c  Ernst  Haetkel,  Fehruarv  ij,  iSg4,  recently  published,   contains  a 

doodle.      How  do  I  know  there  may  not  be  one  ?   The  beautiful  photogravure  of  the  marble  bust  of  Haeckel  presented  on 

Universe  is  a  big  place.  this  occasion  and  now  permanently  stationed  in  the  Jena  Zoologi- 

Still  I  should   like   to   know   what  a  Flapdoodle   is.  cal  Institute.      For  persons  who  would  wish   to  see  more  of  the 

*  charming  personality  of  Professor  Haeckel  than  can  be  got  from 

...  ,      \  J  ^  lU      -ji-        a  his  purely  scientific  works,  this  report  containing  the  addresses  of 

As  the  toiling  plant  produces  the  idling  flower,  so  ,,    K  ■     ,  .,         ,      ,,  c -d    t  u      1   1       fv,  v,- 

.  the  friends,  pupils,  and   colleagues  of  Professor  Haeckel,  with  bis 

labor  is  mother  to  leisure.  replies,  will  be  indispensable   and  full   of  interest. 

*  *  = 

Always   pay  for    goods    or    services.      Gratuitous  Tr"TJT7       OPP^NI       (^OTIRT" 
benefactions  are  inevitably  in   the  end  the  most  ex-        ll-Li-^       KJ  L    L^  L\        K^^J  KJ  l^  L 

"THE   MONON,"  324  DEARBORN   STREET. 

pensive. 

*  *        *                                                 CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 
In  a  multitude  of  counsellors  there  is  safety;  but  

E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher.  DR.  PAUL  CARUS,   Editor. 

with  many  masters  is  great  peril.  . 

*  TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

*  *  J  $2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

I  should  hke  to  reduce  the  sects  to  a  common  de-  

nominator;,  for  in  that  way  only  can  they  be  added  CONTENTS  OF  NO.  368. 

one  to  another  in  brotherly  love.  ACHILLES  AND  THE  TORTOISE.    Paul  R.  Shipman.  4215 

*  ^  K.ARMA.     A  Tale  with  a  Moral.     Editor 4217 

If  you  see  any  one  in  a  field   culling  leeks  and  rue  APHORISMS.    Hudor  Genone 4221 

when   he   might  be  plucking  lilies  and  roses,  you  say  NOTES 4222 

there  is  something  wrong  with  his  taste.  POETRY,     To  a  Star.     J.  Arthur  Edgerton 4222 


47 


The  Open  Court. 


A   WEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  369.    {V0L.v111.-38.)  CHICAGO,  SEPTEMBER  20,   1894. 


)  Two  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  10  Author  and  Publisher. 


AN  OPEN  LETTER  TO  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  OPEN 
COURT. 

BY  C.    H.    REEVE. 

Your  efforts  to  establish  the  fact  of  the  existence 
of  a  human  soul,  and  that  it  is  immortal,  have  been 
observed  by  me  with  a  good  deal  of  interest  and  care; 
keeping  myself  free  from  the  influence  of  any  pre  con- 
ceived ideas  or  opinions  on  the  subject,  as  far  as  that 
is  possible,  and  making  a  sincere  effort  to  find  the  ele- 
ments and  evidences  of  truth.  (Mr.  Genone's  intro- 
duction to  his  article  on  "  Spook  Mice,"  discussing 
"beliefs,"  comes  in  point  here;  and  I  wonder  if  he 
would  say  that  one  can  free  himself  from  the  influence 
of  preconceptions  taken  for  beliefs,  or  would  claim  that 
he  cannot.) 

As  I  understand  you,  while  the  physical  organism 
is  dissolved, — disappears, — its  constituents  going  back 
through  natural  processes  to  the  original  elaments 
composing  it, — combined  in  other  forms  and  existing 
in  new  conditions, — the  intelligence  it  has  developed 
and  the  individuality  that  intelligence  has  created, 
continue  to  exist ;  and  become  a  part  of  the  factors 
making  up  that  part  of  the  universe  which  belong  to 
and  with  the  earth  and  the  outgrowths  of  the  earth, 
one  of  which  is  humanity  with  its  animisms  and  spir- 
itisms. That  is,  our  individuality  is  impressed  upon 
our  time  and  generation,  and  as  a  factor  helps  to  form 
and  develop  the  growing  individuality  of  others  ;  we 
live  in  those  who  come  after  and  so  continue  to  live, 
being  thus  immortal. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  learn  that  you  claim  that 
we  retain  and  have  individual  consciousness  and  can 
recognise  those  we  have  known  in  life.  It  has  seemed 
to  me  as  if  you  evaded  that  question,  or  desired  to 
avoid  it,  and  so  far  only  assert  that  we  continue  to  live 
in  the  future  as  having  been  part  of  the  past.  There 
could  be  no  future  only  as  the  past  creates  it.  Or 
better  say,  perhaps,  the  ever-present  created  by  the 
past  makes  the  present  of  those  to  come  future  as  to 
us.  That  our  existence  now  develops  an  individuality 
which  will  become  a  part  of  that  future,  as  the  past 
has  become  a  part  of  us,  and  thus  we  become  immor- 
tal. That  individuality  is  the  soul.  It  is  the  out- 
growth of  our  mentality  as  developed  in  the  physical 
organism.      The  latter  is  annihilated  as  an  organism. 


and  the  soul  lives  on  among  the  factors  creating  the 
future. 

I  may  be  a  long  way  from  a  true  conception  of 
your  position,  and  it  is  hard  to  define  ;  but  this  is  the 
substance  of  your  philosophy,  as  I  understand  it. 
Hence,  the  individual  in  the  future  can  clasp  hands 
with  the  individual  of  the  past  with  whom  he  may  be 
in  sympathy,  as  we  do  with  Shakespeare,  or  Plato,  or 
Aristotle,  or  Homer,  whose  souls  are  a  part  of  us. 

This  you  call  religion,  the  religion  of  science  (as 
relating  to  soul),  teaching  that  the  higher  and  more 
perfect  the  individuality,  the  more  spiritual  and  per- 
fect the  soul.  That  this  is  what  Christ  called  "the 
kingdom  of  heaven,"  and  said  to  his  disciples,  "itip' 
within  you."  '  »^ 

It  is  this  philosophy,  I  understand,  that  Dr.  Robert 
Lewins  attacks.  I  have  found  its  reconciliation  with 
the  ideas  of  a  God  (in  any  form  or  embodiment),  a 
soul,  a  future  existence  in  anyway,  very  difficult;  and 
as  yet  I  am  not  able  to  form  any  connexion  between 
the  ideas  of  God,  soul,  and  immortality,  and  this 
theory. 

If  we  take  this  view,  when  we  start  out  in  search 
of  the  truth  we  are  handicappe(S»by  the  immortality  of 
the  souls  that  have  preceded  us.  (We  are,  of  course, 
burthened  by  the  conditions  made  by  our  predecessors, 
but  that  is  not  the  idea  of  a  soul.)  More  or  less  they 
constitute  a  part  of  us,  and  only  as  our  own  peculiari- 
ties drive  or  permit  us  to  think  and  act  in  directions 
other  than  they  did,  do  we  make  progress  toward  a 
higher  spirituality,  or,  drift  towards  a  lower  level.  A 
thought  once  lodged  in  the  mind  grows,  generating 
new  thoughts.  In  this,  Plato  lives  in  us;  and  ferti- 
lised by  new  facts,  Plato's  thoughts  in  us,  with  new 
impressions  and  thoughts  coming  to  us,  in  time  de- 
velops into  science. 

To  make  myself  understood,  we  are,  first,  a  physi- 
cal organism  merffly.  The  character  of  that  organism 
is  dependent  on  parentage  and  the  environments  of 
the  parents  after  conception  until  birth,  and  that  again 
is  made  up  of  the  outgrowths  in  the  shape  of  immortal 
souls  that  have  once  come  from  former  organisms  and 

created  the  conditions  that  made  up  the  organfsms 

physical   and   mental — and   the   environments   of  our 
parents;  these  parents  gave  birth  to  our  organisms, 


4224 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


the  mental  within  and  A  part  of  the  physical.  I'here- 
after,  environment  makes  impressions  on  the  physio- 
mental  organism,  and  in  time  comes  knowledge  and 
consciousness.  With  these  come  impulses  and  opin- 
ions. Last,  impressions  and  impulses  made  and 
prompted  by  knowledge,  induces  us  to  regard  the 
opinions  as  being  sustained  by  evidence,  and  the  opin- 
ions become  belief.    So  weighted  we  begin  the  search. 

The  impressions  that  fan  be  made  to  create  knowl- 
edge, consciousness,  and  impulses,  will  depend  wholly 
on  the  character  of  the  physical  organism  ;  and  the 
impressions  that  w///  be  made  depend  on  the  environ- 
ments. Out  of  it  all,  in  the  course  of  time,  comes  what 
we  call  mind.  We  have  a  sort  of  dual  existence,  a 
physical  and  mental,  and  arising  out  of  both  a  spiritual. 
Inseparably  intermingled  are  physical  pain  and  mental 
suffering,  physical  enjoyment  and  mental  delights,  a 
sense  of  life,  a  longing  for  more,  a  fear  of  death  ;  just 
in  propertion  as  we  are  constituted,  have  knowledge, 
and  can  be  impressed  ;  a  mere  animal  life  or  a  higher 
spiritual  life  ;  a  longing  for  mere  creature  comforts,  or 
for  something  "to  satisfy  the  soul" — as  we  express  it, 
a  higher  life. 

From  the  lowest  to  the  highest  animal  organism 
each  will  try  to  preserve  its  life  and  escape  death.  It 
has  no  knowledge  of  any  other  life;  but  with  man 
there  is  a  constant  longing  for  perpetual  life,  and  with 
that  longing  has  come  a  belief  that  he  is  immortal ; 
and  though  his  body  dies  here,  he  will  continue  to  live 
somewhere  as  a  conscious  being.  There  has  come, 
also,  a  belief  in  a  Supreme  and  Infinite  Being,  to  whom 
man  is  accountable.  Out  of  it  all  has  come  the  idea 
of  an  immortal  soul,  which  is  this  conscious  being  of 
ours,  that  is  to  exist  and  is  immortal. 

With  the  current  of  years,  the  acquisition  of  knowl- 
edge, the  impulses  following  impressions,  the  thoughts, 
feelings,  aspirations,  and  mental  outgrowths  of  it  all 
in  the  different  individuals,  under  their  differing  or- 
ganisms and  environments,  has  finally  come  existing 
conditions,  including  the  physical,  mental,  intellectual, 
moral,  social,  political;  and  all  within  them  that  make 
up,  attend  on,  and  relate  to,  individual  life. 

With  Dr.  Lewins,  Mr.  Russell,  General  Trumbull, 
yourself,  and  others,  we  start  out  to  find  the  truth 
about  this  idea  of  immortality  of  life  and  the  existence 
of  this  soul ;  each  and  all  longing  to  live,  here  or  else- 
where, each  impressed  more  or  less  with  the  thoughts 
that  have  preceded  him  in  others,  each  possessing 
such  knowledge  as  has  come  to  him,  each  limited  to  a 
special  field  of  observation  and  conception,  and  each 
moving  in  the  search  in  such  directions  as  his  opin- 
ions prompt,  and  accepting  such  things  as  appear  to 
him  a* truth  as  evidence,  and  on  that  evidence  form- 
ing— for  the  time — a  belief ;  and,  willy-nilly,  that  be- 
lief prompting  and  directing  further  search  ;  opinion 


and  belief  changing  as  more  knowledge  and  more  seem- 
ing truths  come  to  him. 

Science  makes  what  is  believed  to  be  a  demonstra- 
tion, and  sets  a  torch  in  the  darkness  to  guide  the 
searchers.  In  the  next  decade  science  finds  the  torch 
is  not  in  the  right  place  and  moves  it  to  another  place, 
directed  by  a  new  demonstration — as  is  thought.  More 
or  less  truth  is  discovered  as  to  physical  forces  with 
each  demonstration,  but  the  object  of  the  search  still 
remains  the  unknown  and  unknowable.  Finally,  "the 
religion  of  science"  is  formulated  and  promulgated  to 
take  the  place  of  the  religion  of  faith  and  uncertainty, 
and  the  effort  is  made  to  demonstrate  it — for  without 
demonstration  it  is  not  science.  The  outcome  of  the 
demonstration  is  that,  the  organisms  in  which  life  is 
developed  and  exists,  without  which  it  does  not  and 
cannot  exist,  are  dissolved — annihilated — cease  to  ex- 
ist, and  all  evidence  of  continuing  life  or  conscious- 
ness disappears  and  is  never  heard  of  again.  A  living, 
intelligent,  intellectual  individuality — soulful  if  you 
like — has  passed  out  and  as  an  entity  disappeared.  It 
left  impressions  on  those  who  continue  to  live,  and  as 
to  some  they  make  or  preserve  a  record  of  what  it  was 
and  what  it  did,  and  that  record  continues  to  impress 
living  individualities,  and  will  impress  others  to  come 
and  yet  unborn  ;  and  the  impulses  created  by  those 
impressions  so  operate  as  to  change  those  individuals 
physically  and  mentally  from  what  they  would — other- 
wise— have  been  ;  and  thus,  the  impress  the  dead 
made  in  their  time  continues  to  live. 

All  this  is  equally  true  of  the  most  insignificant  and 
unknown,  of  whom  no  record  is  made,  as  well  as  of 
the  most  illustrious,  of  whom  records  are  made  and 
preserved,  in  proportion  to  their  field  of  action;  and 
the  former  constitute  the  great  mass.  But  how  does 
this  demonstrate  that  they  still  live  or  have  a  cbnscious 
existence?  That  there  is  what  we  call  God,  and  that 
we  are  a  part  of  the  All  with  this  God,  whatever  may 
be  His  form,  attributes,  or  essentials.  How  does  it 
show  that  there  is  an  eritity — or  that  which  may  (and 
must)  be  thought  of  as  an  entity — called  a  soul,  which 
still  lives  and  can  take  cognizance  of  anything?  Or, 
if  it  cannot  take  cognizance — individually — how  can  it 
be  a  soul ?' 

Here  we  are,  longing  to  live.  Casting  about  look- 
ing for  evidence  of  immortality  for  any  part,  in  any 
form,  anywhere,  building  up  within  ourselves  hope 
and  more  or  less  faith,  according  to  our  mentality,  nur- 
ture, teaching,  and  environments.  Perhaps  not  over 
one  thousand  in  one  million  understand  the  teach- 
ings of  science.      A  large  majorit}'  are  governed  in  be- 

1  Soul  must  be  at  least  a  conscious  energy.  Human  thought  can  compre- 
hend nothing  without  the  idea  of  entity  and  form.  If  the  recent  suggestion 
that  matter  and  energy  are  one— energy  is  milter  in  motion,  and  matter  energy 
at  rest— has  any  foundation  in  fact,  it  harmonises  my  assertion  with  truth.  In 
your  book  on  the  soul  you  give  memory  form  in  the  cortex  of  the  brain. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4225 


lief  by  the  evidence  of  the  five  senses  only,  and  an  un- 
defined hope  and  fear  the  exercise  of  those  senses 
brings  ;  and  every  one  living  is  in  more  or  less  dread 
of  death,  and  more  or  less  hope — or  desire — of  a  life 
hereafter,  in  spite  of  any  belief  or  in  consonance  with 
one.  Can  this  idea  of  yours  of  the  soul  and  its  immor- 
tality satisfy  this  longing  to  live?  Can  it  exert  such 
influence  on  the  animal  life  and  impulses  as  will  give 
moral  direction  to  the  impulses  following  knowledge — 
which  alone  brings  moral  sense — little  or  much?  (All 
human  life  is  animal  life — all  other  life  being  an  out- 
growth inseparable  from  it.)  Can  humanity  be  made 
to  comprehend  it  and  rest  content  upon  it  ? 

Is  it  a  religion  at  all?  Is  it  not  true  that,  a  religion 
is  based  and  dependent  on  a  belief  in  the  existence  of 
God?  A  supreme  Being  who  takes  charge  of  man  and 
makes  final  disposition  of  mankind  ?  That,  it  is  the 
idea  each  believer  in  a  God  has  of  Him,  and  his  own 
opinions — prompted  by  his  mentality  and  knowledge 
— of  his  relations  to  God  ;  of  his  obligations  and  duties 
in  life  in  view  of  the  final  disposition  that  may  be  made 
of  him  by  God  ?  And  has  man  any  other  incentive  or 
motive  in  having  a  religion,  except  a  hope  of  better- 
ment or  fear  of  being  made  worse  in  condition  in  that 
disposition  ? 

All  men  recognise  good  and  evil — or  benefit  and 
injury.  There  is  thought  and  action  that  will  better 
our  conditions  or  make  them  worse.  Any  belief  that 
will  prompt  the  former  and  suppress  the  latter  is  a 
good  belief  ;  and  the  greater  the  force  it  will  exert  in 
this  direction  the  greater  the  good  and  the  purer  the 
belief.  Is  it  not  true  that  men  are  held  in  check  as  to 
evil,  or  use  licence  in  the  direction  of  evil,  in  propor- 
tion to  their  belief  as  to  accountability  hereafter,  and 
their  belief  in  an  overruling  power  that  will  finally 
make  recompense  according  to  good  or  evil  ?  I  speak 
of  the  common  mass  of  mankind.  If  so,  is  this  fact 
not  the  first  and  most  important  thing  to  be  consid- 
ered when  attempting  to  create  a  foundation  on  which 
all  can  safely  stand  to  uphold  a  religion,  whether  you 
call  it  a  religion  of  science,  or  by  an}'  other  name? 

Is  it  not  true  that  one  cannot  control  his  belief? 
With  your  organism  and  knowledge  you  must  believe 
as  you  do,  until  cut  loose  by  some  new  knowledge — 
however  obtained.  With  other  knowledge  or  more 
knowledge  your  belief  would  vary.  So  of  other  men- 
talities. Suppose,  with  mine  I  cannot  conceive  of  a 
God  or  find  any  evidence  to  found  a  belief  in  one  on  ; 
can  I  conceive  of  a  soul  or  its  immortality  ?  With 
more  or  less,  or  other  knowledge  I  could  not  believe 
as  I  do  now,  and  perforce  would  have  some  other  be- 
lief. 

Jesus  Christ  started  out  to  reform  the  religious  be- 
lief of  his  Jewish  brethren.  Setting  aside  whatever 
claims  he  made  for  himself,  his  doctrine  was  simple  in 


the  extreme,  and  devoid  of  superstitions  or  the  super- 
natural. So  with  the  teachings  of  Paul.  The  whole 
doctrine  of  reformation  was  in  a  nutshell.  What  should 
be  accounted  to  a  man  for  righteousness  was  so  simple 
a  child  could  understand  it.  What  should  be  counted 
to  the  Jews  for  righteousness  was  more  complicated, 
and  requires  some  knowledge  of  Jewish  laws  and  cus- 
toms of  the  time,  to  full)'  understand  ;  butthroughout, 
Christ  kept  his  disciples  separate  from  the  rest  of  man- 
kind, and  many  lessons  to  them  were  not  addressed  to 
or  intended  for  the  rest  of  the  people.  He  came  to 
the  Jews  only;  and  forbade  his  disciples,  when  he  sent 
them  out,  to  go  in  any  way  of  the  Gentiles  or  into  any 
city  of  Samaria  (an  ostracised  people),  but  only  to  the 
lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel. 

According  to  Matthew,  the  apostles  were  to  make 
disciples  of  all  nations.  To  Mark,  to  preach  the  Gospel 
to  every  creature  (or  the  whole  creation,  per  the  New 
Version).  To  Luke,  repentance  and  remission  of  sins 
should  be  preached  to  all  nations,  beginning  at  Jeru- 
salem. All  things  written  in  the  Law  of  Moses,  the 
Prophets,  and  Psalms,  concerning  him,  must  be  ful- 
filled.     Sin  was  non-observance  of  the  Jewish  laws. 

His  mission  was  to  Jews  only,  and  the  records  must 
be  read  with  this  in  view.  But  his  was  a  scientific  re- 
ligion (not  a  religion  of  science),  because  it  was  a 
practical  religion,  based  on  existing  facts  and  condi- 
tions. A  mule  could  not  practise  it  without  being  a 
better  mule.  It  was  all  summed  up  in  his  declaration, 
"the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  you."  So  it  is 
within  every  man  ;  and  there  can  be  no  other  kingdom 
of  heaven,  and  no  moral  practices  higher  than  those 
he  advocated. 

It  is  wholly  immaterial  on  what  a  religion  or  church 
claims  to  be  founded  ;  there  can  be  no  rule  to  guide  a 
man  that  is  above  his  comprehension,  and  there  can 
be  no  man  so  simple  as  to  not  comprehend  Christ's 
rule,  unless  he  be  non  cariipos. 

On  this  subject  of  God  and  immortality,  what  rea- 
soning can  there  be  other  than  the  purely  deductive, 
from  assuiiied  ■premises,  to  prove  the  existence  of  God, 
a  soul,  or  immortality?  What  smg\e  fact  can  be  taken 
as  a  premise,  or  what  induction,  is  possible?  And  un- 
less induction  and  deduction  can  both  be  used,  what 
is  it  but  speculation,  and  of  what  avail  is  it  to  try  to 
enter  a  domain  of  the  unknowable  and  incomprehen- 
sible to  lay  a  foundation  for  a  "religion  of  science"? 

Interesting  it  is  to  talk  about  it,  but  is  it  not  specu- 
lation only,  and  like  wandering  in  a  fog,  searching  for 
something  that  has  not  been  lost  ?  Your  scientific  con- 
clusions will  be  analysed  by  each  reader  from  his  own 
point  of  view,  as  by  Dr.  Lewins  and  Mr.  Russell,  and 
the  ideas  of  each  as  to  God,  soul,  and  immortality, 
and  religion,  will  be  just  what  his  mentality  and 
knowledge  will   make   intelligible   and   /lannonioiis  to 


4226 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


him.  What  is  not  harmonious  will  be  rejected.  Un- 
like science,  which  compels  acceptance  because  there 
is  demonstration,  demonstration  is  impossible,  and  ac- 
ceptance depends  wholly  on  harmony  of  thought. 

Belief  in  a  rational  personal  God,  who  governs  by 
unchangeable  laws,  such  as  we  see  in  the  operations 
of  natural  force,  in  the  conservation  of  forces,  and  the 
maintenance  of  equilibrium  ;  and  belief  in  immortal 
existence,  in  some  conscious  form,  say  what  Paul  calls 
"a  spiritual  body";  and  belief  that  none  can  attain  to 
that  existence  except  such  as  live  lives  of  purity  here, 
would  be  a  religion  that  would  tend  to  check  evil  im- 
pulses and  acts  and  encourage  good  ones  in  the  major- 
ity of  men  ;  per  contra,  a  belief  in  the  annihilation  of 
those  living  impure  lives — among  all  who  are  not 
highly  intellectual  and  of  moral  tendencies — which 
must  attend  unbelievers  in  a  God,  would  tend  to  oper- 
ate as  licence,  and  they  would  indulge  in  vices,  be- 
lieving that  "death  ends  all." 

Such  a  belief  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  a 
"First  Great  Cause,  least  understood,"  nor  in  any 
way  degrading  as  a  superstition.  Superstition  is  a 
necessary  attendant  on  human  consciousness,  result- 
ing from  sensory  evidence  of  Nature's  forces  and  more 
or  less  ignorance  of  their  origin  and  causes,  and  no 
one  is  free  from  it,  in  some  form.  As  we  are  divested 
of  such  as  we  have  by  the  deductions  of  science,  oth- 
ers come  in  their  places.  Witchcraft,  astrology,  spir- 
itism, etc.,  never  had  more  believers  than  exist  now, 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  highest  civilisation. 

It  is  an  incontrovertible  fact  that  mankind  at  large 
will  have  a  God  if  they  have  to  make  one  of  things 
material.  He  must  be  a  personal  God,  must  live  some- 
where, and  must  have  dealings  with  men  in  some  man- 
ner, with  power  to  injure  and  to  benefit.  And  the  God 
of  each  will  be  just  such  a  one  as  best  harmonises  with 
his  own  ideas,  the  ideas  being  the  outgrowth  of  his 
mentality  and  environment.  If  they  do  not  believe  in 
one,  they  long  to,  stand  in  doubt,  and  more  or  less 
fear  of  one.  Even  such  minds  as  yours  seek  a  God  of 
some  kind,  as  is  evidenced  by  your  searches  for  soul, 
immortality,  and  cause.  A  few  here  and  there  will  be 
exceptions  and  will  be  incapable  of  forming  or  con- 
ceiving of  a  God  ;  but  the  great  mass  must  have  one. 
And  it  will  be  so,  so  long  as  human  nature  is  emo- 
tional. 

The  effort  to  recognise  the  operations  of  natural 
force  in  connexion  with  the  existence  of  any  kind  of  a 
God,  and  demonstrating  his  existence  by  evidence 
cognisable  by  our  finite  minds,  may  be  a  worthy  one 
but  will  be  a  lost  one  all  the  same.  But  the  influence 
of  a  plausible  theory  in  that  direction  will  tend  to  a 
higher  level  among  many,  to  better  preservation  of 
social  order,  and  afford  anchorage  for  many  who  would 
drift  otherwise. 


The  question  really  is,  whether  a  religion  of  science 
separate  from  a  belief  in  a  personal  God  is  possible. 
(Winchell,  Dawson,  and  others  sought  to  reconcile 
science  and  biblical  myths,  and  orthodoxy,  with  about 
as  much  success  as  theologians  reconcile  theology,  re- 
ligion, and  Christianity,  by  a  literal  rendering  of  the 
Scriptures  as  the  word  of  God  through  inspired  wri- 
ters.) 

Can  the  minds  of  the  greater  number  of  the  peo- 
ples be  divested  of  belief  in  such  a  God  ?  And  if  that 
can  be  done  will  not  a  belief  in  annihilation  take  its 
place  and  bring  with  it  such  licence  as  will  tend  to  the 
destruction  of  social  order  in  all  who  are  not  highly 
intellectual  with  moral  impulses? 


THE  GOD  OF  ATHEISM  AND  THE  IMMORTALITY 
THAT  OBTAINS  IN  THE  NEGATION  OF 
THE  EGO-ENTITY. 
Having  just  returned  home  from  a  vacation  trip,  I 
find  my  hands  full  of  work,  and  behind  a  heap  of  unread 
manuscripts  the  sight  of  a  number  of  valiant  knights 
of  thought  looms  up, 'all  in  arms  against  me.  There 
is  Dr.  Lewins  who,  in  a  private  communication  and 
in  The  Agnostic  Journal,  takes  me  to  task  for  speaking 
of  immortality  and  God ;  there  is  Professor  Cook  who 
in  the  Ironclad  Age  also  protests  against  the  usage  of 
the  word  God  ;  there  is  Mr.  Thurtell  who  in  The  Ag- 
nost/c/o/nnal  grumbles  at  me  for  not  making  peace  with 
agnosticism  and  objects  to  the  expression  "  We  Chris- 
tians"; and  at  last  Mr.  Reeve  sends  me  for  my  per- 
usal a  long  letter,  very  kind  and  appreciative  but  crit- 
ical. Well,  I  am  ready  for  the  fray.  Every  criticism 
that  is  to  the  point  is  to  my  mind  a  debt  which  I  have 
to  pay,  and,  as  I  do  not  wish  to  leave  my  debts  unpaid, 
I  propose  to  settle  the  bill  at  once.  I  shall  begin  to- 
day with  Mr.  Reeve's  criticism  which  will  afford  suffi- 
cient occasion  for  a  reply  to  Dr.  Lewins  and  Professor 
Cook. 

Mr.  Reeve,  after  giving  a  resume  of  the  psychology 
of  the  Religion  of  Science  as  editorially  propounded 
in  The  Open  Court,  says  ; 

"  I  am  not  able  to  form  any  conaexioQ  between  the  ideas  of 
God,  soul,  and  immortality,  and  this  theory." 

Mr.  Reeve  correctly  understands  the  proposition 
that  "the  soul  lives  on  among  the  factors  creating 
the  future,"  but  fails  to  see  that  the  ideas  soul, 
God,  and  immortality  have  changed  their  meaning. 
The  old  God-conception  and  the  old  belief  in  an  ego- 
soul  and  its  future  residence  in  a  Utopian  heaven  are 
indeed  irreconcilable  with  our  position,  which  we  claim 
to  be  a  scientific  formulation  of  facts  as  facts  are.  We 
agree  with  Mr.  Reeve  that  the  existence  of  a  God- 
individual  and  a  soul-entity  can  only  be  proved  from 
"assumed  premises"  and  there  are  no  facts  that  bear 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4227 


witness  in  their  favor.  But  while  we  have  always  re- 
pudiated anthropotheism  as  obviously  erroneous  and 
untenable,  we  have  at  the  same  time  endeavored  to 
show  that  it  contains  the  seed  for  a  nobler  and  higher 
God-conception.  And  in  the  same  way  the  dualistic 
assumption  of  a  ghost  soul, — according  to  which  the 
ego-entity,  this  illusion  of  the  activity  of  our  conscious- 
ness, is  supposed  to  be  an  independent  being  consist- 
ing of  some  metaphysical  or  otherwise  m3'sterious  sub- 
stance,— is  after  all  and  in  spite  of  its  many  absurdities 
a  poetic  allegory  that  contains  a  great  truth.  For  what 
Mr.  Reeve  says  is  true  : 

"Pel haps  not  over  one  thousand  in  one  million  understand 
the  teachings  of  science." 

Allegories  are  indispensable  at  a  certain  stage  of 
the  spiritual  evolution  of  man,  and  he  who  would  reach 
the  masses  must  speak  in  parables  and  proverbs. 

Mr.  Reeve  asks  : 

"Can  this  idea  of  yours,  of  the  soul  and  immortality,  satisfy 
our  longing  to  live  ?  .  .  . 

"Is  it  not  true  that  men  are  held  in  check  as  to  evil  ...  in 
proportion  to  their  belief  as  to  accountability  hereafter  ? 

"  Is  it  a  religion  at  all  ?  Is  it  not  true  that  a  religion  is  based 
and  dependent  on  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  God." 

We  say.  It  is  true  that  there  cannot  be  a  religion 
without  God,  if  God  means  as  we  define  the  word 
the  "authority  of  moral  conduct."  But  our  God — 
our  authority  of  moral  conduct — is  as  much  higher 
than  any  God- individual,  as  the  Truth  is  higher  than 
any  individual  thinker,  even  he  who  diligently  searches 
for  the  truth  and  having  found  some  important  parcels 
of  it  preaches  the  truth.  But  he  whose  God  is  a  great 
Truth-fabricator,  whose  God  is  a  demiurge,  making 
universes  as  a  watchmaker  makes  watches,  a  big  world- 
monarch  and  universal  autocrat,  is  under  the  illusion 
of  a  gross  superstition.  The  denial  of  a  demiurge,  how- 
ever, is  not  a  denial  of  the  authority  of  moral  conduct. 

The  key  to  Mr.  Reeve's  miscomprehension  is  found 
in  the  footnote  on  page  4224,  where  he  says  : 

"  Soul  must  be  at  least  a  conscious  energy.  Human  thought 
can  comprehend  nothing  without  the  idea  of  entity  and  form." 

Soul,  like  matter,  is  an  abstract,  denoting  certain 
facts  of  reality,  and  there  are,  indeed,  things  which  are 
neither  energy,  nor  matter,  nor  form.  Take  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  "logic."  Is  it  matter?  No  !  Is  it  en- 
ergy? No  !  Is  it  form  ?  No  !  The  word  when  uttered 
presupposes  material  organs  which  cause  a  very  spe- 
cific kind  of  air- vibration.  The  utterance  consumes  a 
certain  amount  of  energy,  and  the  pronounced  word 
consists  in  a  peculiar  kind  of  air  vibrations.  But  an 
analysis  of  matter,  energy,  and  form  will  show  no  trace 
of  the  meaning  of  the  word.  The  meaning  of  a  word 
is  its  soul. 

What  is  this  meaning  of  words?  Is  it  a  non-entity 
because  it  is  not  a  concrete  and  material  thing  ?    Is  it 


a  mere  shadow  and  an  illusion  ?  Is  it  a  ghost  made  of 
that  airy  nothing  of  which  dreams  are  built?  This  ap- 
parent nothing,  this  seeming  fata  morgana  and  ignis 
fatiius,  the  significance  of  language,  is  the  most  im- 
portant reality  in  the  whole  universe.  It  is  the  light 
of  the  world,  the  guide  to  truth,  and  the  saviour  from 
the  evils  of  sin  and  ignorance. 

While  we  deny  that  the  meaning  of  words  is  either 
a  substance,  or  an  entity,  or  an  energy,  conscious  or 
unconscious,  we  insist  on  its  being  the  most  moment- 
ous and  most  potent  reality  in  the  world. 

Words  and  combinations  of  words  are  very  simple 
things :  they  are  certain  sound-forms  denoting  objects 
or  qualities  of  objects,  or  sentiments,  or  aspirations  to 
accomplish  this  or  that  plan,  or  ideas,  fancies,  and 
hopes.  But  if  you  consider  the  life  that  is  in  them,  if 
you  weigh  in  your  mind  what  they  accomplish  and 
what  potent  things  they  are,  you  will  be  incHned  to  at- 
tribute to  them  very  mysterious  qualities.  Words  have 
meanings  because  there  is  an  objective  world  to  which 
they  refer,  otherwise  they  would  be  as  sounding  brass 
or  tinkling  cymbal ;  and  words  possess  an  individual- 
ity and  an  immortality  as  much  so  as  a  human  soul. 
As  much  so,  for  indeed  a  human  soul  is  woven  of  the 
same  airy  nothingness — or,  let  me  rather  say,  apparent 
nothingness, — of  the  same  immateriality  as  the  mean- 
ing of  words.  The  human  soul  is  as  little  mysterious 
and  just  as  wonderful  as  words ;  in  truth,  language 
is  a  part  of  the  human  soul,  and  certainly  it  forms  not 
the  least  important  of  its  departments. 

A  sentence  is  spoken  and  disappears  like  an  air- 
bubble  that  bursts,  but  the  meaning  of  the  sentence 
remains.  The  sound  of  the  sentence  is  written  upon 
the  folds  of  the  brain  of  a  man  and  there  it  stays  as  a 
living  memory,  ready  for  revival  whenever  wanted  and 
conveying  a  definite  information  concerning  some  par- 
ticular part  of  the  objective  world  of  facts  that  sur- 
rounds us.  The  man  who  uttered  the  sentence  dies 
and  the  man  who  heard  it  dies  too  \  but  if  it  be  of  any 
consequence,  it  has  been  repeated  and  perhaps  written 
down  ;  it  will  be  embodied  in  books,  and  it  lives  in 
many  thousand  brains  the  immortal  spirit-life  of  souls. 

Words  have  souls,  and  books  have  souls,  and  books, 
indeed,  contain  the  most  valuable  essence  of  human 
souls.  Hear  what  Milton  says  in  his  brave  defence  of 
the  liberty  of  the  Press  inade  in  his  "Areopagitica  " 
concerning  the  life  and  immortality  of  books  : 

"As  good  almost  kill  a  man  as  kill  a  good  book  :  who  kills  a 
man,  kills  a  reasonable  creature,  God's  image  ;  but  he  who  de- 
stroys a  good  book,  kills  reason  itself,  kills  the  image  of  God,  as 
it  were,  in  the  eye.  Many  a  man  lives  a  burthen  to  the  earth  ; 
but  a  good  book  is  the  precious  life  blood  of  a  master-spirit,  em- 
balmed and  treasured  up  on  purpose  to  a  life  beyond  life.  It  is 
true  no  age  can  restore  a  life  whereof,  perhaps,  there  is  no  great 
loss ;  and  revolutions  of  ages  do  not  oft  recover  the  loss  of  a  re- 
jected truth,  for  want  of  which  whole  nations  fare  worse.     We 


4228 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


should  be  wary,  therefore,  what  persecution  we  raise  against  the 
living  labors  of  public  men  ; — how  we  spill  that  seasoned  life  of 
man,  preserved  and  stored  up  in  books  ;  since  we  see  a  kind  of 
homiciae  may  be  thus  committed,  sometimes  a  martyrdom  ;  and, 
if  it  extend  to  the  whole  impression,  a  kind  of  massacre,  whereof 
the  execution  ends  not  in  the  slaying  of  an  elemental  life,  but 
strikes  at  the  ethereal  and  fifth  essence,  the  breath  of  reason  itself, 
— slnys  an  immortalily  rather  t/ian  a  lift'." 

Dr.  Lewins  sends  us  No.  360  of  The  Open  Court 
with  his  marginal  notes.  He  comments  on  the  pas- 
sage "we  cannot  accept  Dr.  Lewins's  conclusion  of 
the  annihilation  of  the  soul  in  death"  : 

"  It  is  true  all  the  same." 

He  adds  in  another  place  : 

"  Dr.  Cams  and  his  journal  are  only  half-hearted  monists. " 

As  to  funerals  "Dr.  Lewins  would  advise  that 
silence  should  prevail  at  a  grave,  open  or  closed," 
(this  serves  as  a  note  to  page  4157,  first  column,  last 
paragraph  but  one,)  and  he  sums  up  his  opinion  of  the 
whole  article  on  immortality  as  follows  : 

"A  fine  study,  yet  illusory.  The  finest  things  can  always  be 
said  on  the  wrong  side." 

Dr.  Lewins  protests  against  our  view  of  immortal- 
ity;  because  he  argues  like  a  materialist.  To  him 
that  apparent  nothingness,  the  soul  of  a  word,  is  a 
non-entity,  to  us  it  is  of  paramount  importance.  Dr. 
Lewins  would  say  that  if  a  copy  of  a  book  were  burned 
before  our  eyes  that  the  book  is  utterly  destroyed. 
We  would  say,  one  copy  of  the  book  is  gone,  but  the 
book  itself,  the  soul  of  the  book,  that  which  is  the 
most  important  part  of  the  book,  is  not  gone.  It  can 
be  resurrected  in  new  editions  of  the  book. 

Suppose  that  a  tyrant  in  Sicily  had  collected  all  the 
manuscripts  of  the  Pythagorean  theorem  and  had  or- 
dered them  to  be  burnt,  or  that  he  had  burned  Pytha- 
goras too,  at  the  stake,  would  he  thereby  have  destroyed 
the  theorem  itself  ?  He  would  have  hindered  its  propa- 
gation for  a  long  time  ;  but  sword  and  fire  can  as  little 
touch  an  idea  as  a  chemist  can  by  a  chemical  analysis 
of  paper  and  ink  distill  the  ideas  out  of  a  book  in  his 
crucible.  Ideas  that  are  true  are  immortal  and  man's 
aspiration  must  be  to  build  his  soul  up  of  truth. 

This  view  of  the  soul  is  unorthodox  if  orthodoxy 
depends  upon  the  assent  of  the  dogmatologists  of  the 
Church  ;  but  they  are  more  orthodox  than  one  is  in- 
clined to  believe,  if  we  regard  the  Bible  as  the  stand- 
ard of  orthodoxy. 

Man's  essential  being  is  not  his  bodily  existence 
but  his  spirit.      Says  Jesus  (John  vi,  63)  : 

"  It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth  ;  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing. " 

And  while  saying  this,  he  must  have  read  in  the 
faces  of  his  disciples  the  question,  "  What  is  spirit  and 
the  life  of  spirit  ?  "  for  Jesus  continues  : 

"The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit  and  they 
are  life." 


Can  the  theory  of  the  non-existence  of  an  ego-entity 
be  expressed  in  plainer  terms?  "Spirit,"  Jesus  says, 
"is  not  a  metaphysical  being,  but  the  words  that  I 
speak." 

And  on  another  occasion,  in  reply  to  the  tempta- 
tion of  Satan,  Jesus  is  reported  to  have  quoted  the 
scriptural  sentence  from  Deuteronomy  viii,  3  : 

"Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone  but  by  every  T('<;;rf  that 
proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God." — Matth.  iv,  4. 

Words  are  the  food  of  the  soul,  and  of  words  souls 
build  themselves  up  ;  indeed  the  rational  part  of  the 
soul  consists  of  and  is  embodied  in  words.  This  is  for- 
cibly expressed  in  the  Christian  doctrine  that  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Saviour,  is  the  Word.  When  John  speaks 
of  Christ  as  being  the  Word,  it  is  understood  that  he 
means  the  truth,  viz.,  that  word  which  represents  the 
real  condition  of  things,  for  of  the  true  word  alone  it 
can  be  said,  that  it  is  eternal  and  divine,  without  be- 
ginning and  end. 

The  essence  of  Christian  ethics  is  to  crucify  our  in- 
dividual, and  by  many  people  so  highly  cherished,  ego- 
entity,  and  let  it  die,  but  to  renew  our  being  by  re- 
ceiving Christ  as  the  essential  part  of  our  soul.  If  we — 
viz.,  our  original  individuality — be  dead,  and  Christ 
alone  live  in  us,  what  is  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  but  an  immortality  of  the  Logos, 
of  Christ,  of  the  truth? 

Mr.  Reeve  thinks  that  : 

"We  are  handicapped  by  the  immortality  of  the  souls  that 
have  preceded  us,"  and  "are  burthened  by  the  conditions  made 
by  our  predecessors." 

It  is  a  puzzle  to  him  how  we  can  be  a  soul  and  how 
our  soul  can  be  the  dwelling  place  of  so  many  other 
souls  who  continue  to  live  in  us.  The  briefest  answer 
is  given  in  the  little  story  "Karma,"  which  appeared 
of  late  in  The  Open  Court.   The  Buddhist  Narada  says  : 

"To  him  whose  vision  is  dimmed  by  the  veil  of  Maya,  the 
spiritual  world  appears  to  be  cut  up  into  innumerable  selves.  Thus 
he  will  be  puzzled  in  many  ways  concerning  the  transmigration  of 
soul-lite,  and  will  be  incapable  of  understanding  the  import  of  an 
all-comprehensive  kindness  toward  all  living  beings." 

Dr.  Lewins  finds  a  champion  of  his  views  in  Prof. 
J.  H.  Cook,  who  says  in  an  article  addressed  to  the 
editor  of  The  Open  Court  and  published  in  The  Iron- 
clad Age  : 

"Neither  science,  progress,  nor  humanity  need  'the  super 
personal  God  of  science.' 

"Tome  a  God  of  science  or  anything  else,  and  the  immor- 
tality of  each  personal  form,  or  ego,  are  unthinkable  and  impos- 
sible, or  else  I  am  too  stupid  and  ignorant  to  comprehend  or  un- 
derstand nature's  plan  of  evolution." 

That  feature  of  the  world  which  makes  it  possible 
that  souls  can  originate,  that  sense  impressions  can 
become  representative  of  things,  that  sotmd  symbols 
can   acquire  significance   and   thus  be   changed   into 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4229 


words,  that  language  can  describe  and  classify  the 
facts  of  experience,  that  rational  beings  originate  with 
ideals  of  progress  and  morality  with  higli  aspiration 
and  noble  sentiments,  we  call  God. 

Is  this  God  a  person?  No  !  God  is  more  than  a 
person  ;  God  is  the  creator  of  persons.  God  is  that 
which  makes  personality  possible.  Is  God  a  sub- 
stance? No  !  But  God  is  more  than  substance.  God 
is  that  which  moves  in  all  substance  according  to  what 
naturalists  call  natural  law.  Is  God  natural  law?  No  ! 
God  is  not  the  natural  law  as  formulated  by  naturalists, 
but  the  formulas  of  the  naturalists,  commonly  called 
natural  laws,  describe  parcels  and  special  aspects  of 
God's  being. 

God,  like  the  meaning  of  words  which  are  the  rev- 
elation of  God,  is  of  too  subtle  a  nature  to  be  localised 
here  or  there,  or  to  be  found  by  an  analysis  of  matter, 
or  energy,  or  the  forms  of  things.  Yet  is  God  the  all- 
important  reality  of  the  world,  for  he  is  in  matter,  he 
moves  in  energy,  he  reveals  his  presence  in  the  changes 
of  form,  and  he  is  the  significance  of  the  world. 

It  is  natural  that  people  who  still  cling  to  anthropo- 
theism  (which  is  the  belief  that  God  is  an  individual 
being  and  an  ego-entity  as  man  appears  to  himself) 
should  look  upon  this  purified  God-conception  as 
atheism.  And  it  is  atheism  if  atheism  means  the  de- 
nial of  an  individual  God-being.  But  let  me  add  that 
anthropotheism  is  after  all  a  childish  view  of  God, 
which  degrades  God  and  presses  God  down  to  the 
rank  of  a  creature,  albeit  very  great  and  all-powerful. 
If  there  were  a  man-like  God-being,  a  great  ego-deity, 
and  individual  cosmic  consciousness,  would  not  the 
God  of  atheism,  who  is  the  unalterable  order  in  all 
existent  realities  and  the  eternal  law  in  nature's  tran- 
sient phenomena,  be  superior  to  the  God  of  anthropo- 
theists? 

The  God-problem  can  be  put  into  a  nut-shell,  as 
follows : 

If  you  can  prove  to  me  that  2  X  2  =4  is  true  be- 
cause the  individual  God  of  a  cosmic  ego-conscious- 
ness made  it  so,  I  shall  bow  my  knee  to  the  Baal  of 
anthropotheism.  I  call  him  Baal,  for  it  is  a  heathen 
notion,  and  all  who  worship  him  are  pagans. 

Should  you  however  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
2x2=4  is  intrinsically  true  and  must  be  true,  that 
no  God  and  no  vicar  of  God  could  alter  it,  I  see  no 
escape  from  denying  at  least  the  divinity  of  any  indi- 
vidual God  whose  existence  we  may  assume. 

From  our  standpoint  the  statement  2  X  2  :=4  is  a 
parcel  description  of  the  being  of  God  himself;  and  so 
every  truth,  be  it  relevant  or  comparatively  irrelevant, 
is  a  revelation  of  God  :  every  scientific  truth  is  a  gen- 
eral formula  describing  some  feature  of  reality  which 
abides;  and  the  totality  of  all  truths — which,  as  we  trust, 
forms  a  harmonious  whole  without  contradictions  or 


discrepancies,  in  one  word,  Truth — is  the  Christian 
logos  or  the  revelation  of  God  in  man. 

We  trust  that  any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to 
base  his  religion  upon  the  facts  of  experience  will  find 
that  the  God  of  atheism,  or  as  we  better  had  say,  the 
God  of  science,  is  a  reality  and  he  after  all  is  alone 
God  and  there  is  no  God  beside  Him. 

We  say  further,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Reeve,  the  belief  in 
a  hereafter  is  a  very  powerful  spring  of  action  and  we 
wish  men,  therefore,  to  understand  the  true  nature  of 
their  hereafter,  which  is  not  in  a  Utopian  heaven  and 
hell,  but  takes  place  here  in  this  world  of  ours  ;  it  is 
not  a  vague  dream  of  doubtful  certainty,  but  a  reality 
and  a  scientific  truth. 

And  finally  we  say  that  our  conception  of  immor- 
tality will  satisfy  the  longings  of  every  one  who  seeks 
his  soul  not  in  his  bodily  existence  but  in  the  ideas 
and  aspirations  of  which  it  consists,  of  every  one  who 
identifies  his  self  with  truth  and  makes  the  cause  of 
truth  his  own. 

Science  is  not  so  unstable  as  Mr.  Reeve  attempts 
to  make  us  believe.      He  says  : 

"Science  makes  what  is  believed  to  be  a  demonstration,  and 
sets  a  torch  in  the  darkness  to  guide  the  searchers.  In  the  next 
decade  science  finds  the  torch  is  not  in  the  right  place  and  moves 
it  to  another  place,  directed  by  a  new  demonstration — as  is 
thought." 

Any  one  familiar  with  the  history  of  science  knows 
that  the  evolution  of  science  marks  a  steady  advance. 
Apparent  reversions  of  statements,  formerly  held  to  be 
scientifically  true  if  they  were  truly  scientific  state- 
ments and  not  mere  theories,  or  hypotheses,  are  only 
corrections,  improvements,  and  further  advances.  Sci- 
ence is  not  a  vain  and  senseless  groping  about  after 
the  unknowable,'  but  an  investigation  of  the  data  of 
experience  and  a  constant  adding  to  and  clarifying  of  the 
knowledge  already  gained,  having  always  in  prospect 
the  inexhaustible  material  of  an  illimited  world,  so  that 
the  more  we  know  the  more  problems  rise  before  us 
and  we  become  conscious  of  how  much — infinitely 
much — will  always  remain  unknown.  But  the  greatest 
amount  of  the  unknown  does  not  render  the  actual 
knowledge  we  possess  worthless.  We  might  on  the 
same  reason  argue  that  the  few  acres  which  a  farmer 
owns  have  no  value  because  there  is  so  much  more 
land  which  he  does  not  possess  and  never  will  be  able 
to  buy.  The  actual  knowledge  we  have,  if  it  be  real 
knowledge  and  not  mere  imaginings,  little  though  it 
be,  is  of  great  importance  to  us  ;  and  the  more  knowl- 
edge we  acquire,  the  better  shall  we  be  able  not  only 
to  make  steady  advances  in  practical  life,  but  also  to 
free  our  minds  from  the  bondage  of  superstition,  and 
make  our  souls  a  habitation  of  the  truth.  p.  c. 

1  We  have  no  room  here  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  idea  of  a  "  First 
{^reat  cause,  least  understood,"  but  refer  the  reader  to  the  Priiner  of  Philoso- 
phy, pp.  146-14-. 


.UXQX  ^T.  ^'SS 


4230 


THK     OPEN     COURT. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE  NAMES  OF  THE  DISCIPLES  OF  TRUTH. 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Open  Court: 

In  your  reply  to  Mr.  Alfred  W.  Martin's  plea  for  pure  unsec- 
tarianism,  you  state  that  "the  truth  is  one,  but  the  names  which 
the  disciples  of  truth  may  choose  ;o  be  known  by  are  many." 
Will  you  please  state  what  you  mean  by  a  disciple  of  truth  ?  Do 
you  mean  to  infer  that  all  the  diversified  schools  of  religion  are 
presided  over  by  teachers  of  truth  ?  If  "the  truth  is  one,"  how 
can  its  disciples  logically  and  consistently  call  themselves  by  any 
other  name  ? 

Can  a  learner  in  the  school  of  mathematics  logically  call  him- 
self after  the  name  of  uis  teacher  ?  Is  not  a  learner  justified  only 
in  naming  himself  after  his  master,  or  teacher  when  a  problem  is 
unsolved  and  different  opinions  are  taught  in  regard  to  it  by  dif- 
ferent teachers  ? 

You  think  that  "people  have  a  right  to  call  themselves  Chris- 
tians." How  can  people  logically  and  consislantly  call  themselves 
Christians  when  they  do  not  know  what  Christianity  is  ? 

You  state  "that  the  great  mass  of  Buddhists  are  much  more 
superstitious  than  the  worst  Roman  Catholic  saint  worshippers. 
But  shall  we  on  that  account  forbid  those  few  Buddhists  whose 
views  are  purified  and  elevated  to  call  themselves  Buddhists  ?"  If 
they  are  following  the  teachings  of  Buddha,  no  ;  but  if  they  are 
professing  to  follow  him  and  do  not  know  what  his  doctrine  is, 
yes.  We  of  the  assembly  of  science  cannot  truthfully  allow  such 
duplicity.  The  man  who  follows  the  teachings  of  science  must 
"call  a  spade  a  spade."  You  seem  to  infer  that  people  of  all  de- 
nominations can  enter  the  assembly,  or  church  of  science  ? 

Such  an  organisation  is  utterly  impossible.  When  a  man 
enters  the  temple  of  truth  he  must  leave  superstition  at  the  door 
or  else  he  will  not  be  at  home  when  he  gets  inside.  In  such  a 
temple  the  truth  is  one  and  the  names  that  the  disciple  of  truth 
will  choose  to  be  known  by  will  be  one.  As  Unitarianism  stands 
in  its  relation  to  Universalism,  and  the  latter  to  orthodoxy,  in  the 
order  of  evolution,  so  must  the  church  of  science  stand  separately 
from  them  all.  It  is  the  order  of  nature  for  "birds  of  a  feather  to 
flock  together."  John  Maddock. 

[Names  are  not  as  definite  as  Mr.  Maddock  seems  to  think. 
I  see  a  child's  toy  in  the  garden  which  may  be  used  either  for 
digging  or  shovelling:  one  calls  it  "a  spade"  and  another  "a 
shovel."  People  as  a  rule  stick  to  the  names  that  they  are  accus- 
tomed to  using,  somewhat  about  as  they  are  in  the  habit  of  preferring 
their  mother  tongues,  and  I  do  not  intend  to  interfere  with  them. 
I  have  no  inclination  to  quarrel  about  names.  If  the  abolition  of 
the  name  of  his  religion  helps  a  man  to  reform  his  religion,  let 
him  drop  the  name  and  adopt  another  name.  I  have  no  objec- 
tion. But  unless  his  mind  be  changed  too,  it  will  be  of  no  avail. 
However,  if  a  man's  religious  conception  be  reformed,  I  maintain, 
that  he  may  still  retain  the  old  name,  and  supposing  he  adopts  a 
new  name,  it  is  a  matter  of  little  consequence. — Ed.] 


NOTES. 

Hermann  Ludwig  Ferdinand  von  Helmholtz,  the  eminent 
German  scientist,  died  at  Berlin  on  September  8.  He  was  born 
on  August  21,  1821.  At  seventeen  he  entered  the  Berlin  Royal 
Military  Institute  where  in  1S42  he  took  the  degree  of  M.  D.,  and 
thereupon  was  immediately  made  assistant  physician  at  the  Cha- 
rite  Hospital  in  Berlin  (not,  as  the  Xalioii  has  it,  "attached  to  the 
service  of  charity").  In  1847,  he  published  his  famous  memoir  on 
the  Conservation  of  Force — a  doctrine,  which,  though  anticipated 
and  previously  asserted  by  other  inquirers,  is  still  largely  asso- 
ciated with  Helmholtz's  name,  especially  in  the  domain  of  electri- 


city. (This  essay  may  now  be  had,  with  the  author's  latest  notes, 
in  Ostwald's  Reprints  of  the  Classics  of  the  Exact  Sciences,  H.  En- 
gelmann,  Leipsic,  1889;  price,  20  cents.)  Successively  professor 
at  Konigsberg,  Bonn,  Heidelberg,  and  Berlin  (here  for  the  first 
time  Professor  of  Physics)  Helmholtz's  subsequent  activity  was 
almost  wholly  taken  up  with  the  relations  of  the  physical  with  the 
physiological  world.  He  enriched  almost  every  branch  of  this 
subject,  and  has  put  his  chief  results  in  two,great  works,  the  Sen- 
sations of  Sound  and  the  Handbook  of  Physiological  Optics.  He  also 
busied  himself  with  the  foundations  of  geometry,  and  published, 
it  seems,  independently,  papers  which  re-discovered  the  results  of 
Riemann  and  the  rest.  He  worked  at  the  theory  of  vortex  motion, 
and  the  results  of  his  researches  have  been  employed  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  kinetic  theory  of  matter.  In  electricity,  too,  he 
did  much.  From  him  started  the  impulse  to  Hertz's  researches, 
of  which  work  he  himself  gives  us  a  brief  account  in  the  preface 
which  he  wrote  for  Hertz's  Mechanics,  just  published.  His  pro- 
ductiveness seemed  incredible.  Of  nearly  all  his  researches,  how- 
ever, he  has  given  us  brief  popular  resumes,  now  accessible  in 
English  dress  (two  volumes)  under  the  title.  Popular  Lectures  on 
Scientific  Subjects,  in  which  the  general  reader  will  find  Professor 
Helmholtz's  views  clearly  portrayed. 

We  are  pleased  to  see  that  the  United  Slates  Department  of 
Agriculture  has  published  a  brief  pamphlet  by  Mr  Edward  At- 
kinson on  Suggestions  Regarding  the  Cooking  of  Food,  with  intro- 
ductory remarks  regarding  the  nutritive  value  of  food  materials  by 
Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richard.  The  pamphlet  deserves  the  attention  of 
every  householder.  Mr.  Atkinson's  ideas  were  discussed  four  years 
ago  in  The  Open  Court  (No  161)  by  General  Trumbull  in  a  review 
of  Mr    Atkinson's  Aladdin  Oven. 


In  the  Rleiimir  of  John  Le  Conte,  by  his  brother  Prof.  Joseph 
Le  Conte,  we  have  a  delightful  appreciation  of  one  of  the  first  and 
most  deeply  regretted  of  American  scientists.  John  Le  Conte 
comes  of  a  distinguished  family  and  is  a  fine  e.xample  of  the  hered- 
ity of  high  talents  and  noble  character.  This  .l/e"///('!';- should  be 
widely  read.     (National  Academy,  jVpril,  1S94.) 

THE  OPEN   COURT 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN    STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  En 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  369. 

AN  OPEN  LETTER  TO  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  OPEN 

COURT.     C.  H.  Reeve 4223 

THE  GOD  OF  ATHEISM  AND  THE  IMMORTALITY 
THAT  OBTAINS  IN  THE  NEGATION  OF  THE 
EGO  ENTITY.     Editor 4226 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

The  Names  of  the  Disciples  of  Truth.     John  Maddock. 
[With  Editorial  Remarks.] 4230 

NOTES 4230 


47 


The  Open  Court. 


A  WEEKLY  JOUKNAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  370.    (Vol.  V111.-39.)         CHICAGO,  SEPTEMBER  27,   il 


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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


THE  SURPRISE  PARTY. 


BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 


Now  it  happened  that  a  certain  man  had  an  in- 
firmit}'. 

The  same  was  grievous  and  vexed  liim  sore,  albeit 
he  kept  it  upon  his  wife. 

For  the  woman  was  one  desirous  of  change,  yea, 
even  a  gadabout. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  the  man  and  his  wife  gave 
up  their  flat  in  the  city  aud  went  to  Hve  in  Montclair, 
which  is  in  Jersey,  over  against  the  Oranges. 

And  soon  after  the}'  had  come  thereto,  to-wit,  about 
the  space  of  a  week  after  they  moved  in. 

Behold,  the  man  was  alone  in  his  front  yard  about 
the  going  down  of  the  sun. 

And  a  stranger  appeared  unto  him,  even  at  the 
gate,  and  did  say  unto  him,  This  is  Mr.  Johnes,  I  pre- 
sume ? 

And  the  man  answered  and  said,  I  am  he.  Behold 
thine  hand  man,  what  wilt  thou  ? 

Then  said  the  stranger,  I  am  the  Rev.  P.  Pr}',  and 
have  recently  settled  in  this  place. 

And  Johnes  answered  and  said  unto  him.  Verily 
am  I  rejoiced  at  this  saying  of  thine,  that  thou  hast 
settled  ; 

For,  of  a  truth  there  be  few  that  settle,  else  had  I 
been  a  rich  man  before  now,  and  that  keeps  me  poor 
for  I  am  honest. 

Then  said  the  minister,  Thou  mistakest  my  mean- 
ing, for  better  had  I  said,  I  have  been  called. 

And  Johnes  said.  Show  thine  hand,  peradventure 
it  be  full,  for  I  have  only  one  little  pair. 

Behold  they  be  twins,  and  are  even  now  in  the 
house,  and  they  be  daisies. 

Nay,  saith  the  clergj'man,  the  daisies  may  I  be- 
hold later.  Now  as  to  thyself,  hast  tliou  experienced 
a  change? 

Johnes  answered  straightway.  Verily  I  have  that, 
and  a  change  for  the  worse. 

Then  said  the  clergyman.  How  can  this  thing  be? 
Is  there  no  benison  on  this  thine  house? 

And  again  Johnes  saith,  I  know  not  how  that  may 
be  about  a  benison,  but  verily  there  ought  to  be  a  new 
roof,  for  the  one  that  now  is  leaketh. 


Then  the  clergyman  heaved  a  sigh  and  saith,  One 
thing  thou  lackest. 

And  Johnes  answered,  Right  thou  art,  it  is  a  sewer. 

Then  would  the  holy  man  have  gone  away,  carry- 
ing few,  if  any  sheaves  with  him  ; 

But  Johnes,  who  was  after  a  fashion  worldly  minded, 
spake  unto  him,  saying  : 

Tarry  yet  a  while,  for  I  have  somewhat  to  say 
unto  thee.  Thou  hast  piped  unto  me  and  I  have  not 
danced  perhaps,  but  verily  have  I  answered  thee  as 
the  spirit  moved  me,  truthfully. 

Do  now,  I  pray  thee,  tell  me  certain  things,  for  I 
marvel  greatl}'  and  I  would  not  disquiet  myself  in 
vain. 

Hast  thou,  O  ni}'  friend,  ever  had  the  measles? 

And  the  clergyman-  answered  and  said.  Verily  I 
fail  to  see  the  relevancy  of  this  thy  question  ;  but  I  did 
have  the  measles  in  my  youth. 

And  Johnes  saith.  How  many  measles  didst  thou 
have  in  th\'  youth  ? 

And  the  clergyman  saith,  Mr.  Johnes,  thou  art  im- 
pertinent. 

But  Johnes  answered,  saying.  That  may  well  be, 
seeing  thou  didst  set  the  example  th3'self. 

Yet  another  question,  I  pray  thee :  Where  didst 
thou  get  thy  cheek,  for  I  perceive  that  it  is  large? 

Then  was  the  clergyman  wroth  and  saith  unto 
Johnes,  Thou  art  a  son  of  Belial,  and  gat  him  strait- 
wa}'  to  the  gate. 

And  he  skipped  and  danced  with  wrath,  yea,  like 
unto  a  bubble  on  a  hot  stove. 

And  Johnes  went  into  his  house  justified,  albeit  he 
had  not  gotten  all  the  information  he  wanted  ; 

Neither  about  the  number  of  tlie  measles  the  clergj'- 
man  had  in  his  youth. 

Neither  as  to  where  he  procured  his  cheek. 

And  lo  '  while  the  clergyman  did  skip  and  dance 

Satan  perceived  him  afar  off,  and  saith  in  his  heart, 
Why,  how  is  this  that  the  servant  of  the  Lord  skipp- 
eth  and  danceth  ? 

And  when  he  drew  nigh  he  listened  from  behind  a 
hedge  and  he  heard  the  minister  communing  with  him- 
self. 

And  what  he  said  was  like  unto  swear  words,  yea, 


4232 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


verily  a  blue  streak  thereof,  albeit  he  was  praising  the 
Lord  that  he  was  not  like  unto  Johnes. 

Then  Satan  saith,  Oh,  ho  !  oh,  ho  !  But  the  clergy- 
man seemeth  to  be  on  my  side  after  all. 

And  Satan  rejoiced  greatly,  and,  having  heard 
J  ohnes's  name  mentioned,  thought  he  would  drop  in 
on  him  unawares. 

And  Satan  did  so  ;  and  it  was  eventide,  and  the 
supper  table  was  set,  and  there  Johnes  sat  with  his 
wife  over  against  him. 

And  the  kids  (them  that  were  daisies)  sat  on  either 
hand  and  they  all  did  eat  pancakes. 

And  Mrs.  Johnes  asked  her  husband  concerning 
the  servant  of  the  Lord,  and  as  to  what  he  wanted. 

Then  Johnes  smiled,  and  lifted  up  his  voice  and 
saith.  He  was  a  saucy  fellow  and  a  puffed  up. 

And  he  came  unto  me  not  to  seek  and  save  that 
which  was  lost,  nor  yet  to  minister  unto  me  or  thee  ; 

But  because  he  snuffed  the  collection  plate. 

Yet  do  I  cherish  no  enmity  against  him,  but  rather 
pity  him  because  of  the  infirmity  he  hath. 

And  when  Satan  heard  what  had  been  said,  and 
saw  into  Johnes's  heart,  -and  perceived  how  much 
better  it  was  than  the  ministers, 

He  was  vexed  and  chagrined,  and  he  said  unto 
himself,  Gosh  !   How  mixed  things  be  in  this  world! 

Verily,  but  it  is  difficult  to  tell  t'other  from  which  ; 
for  I  could  have  declared  that  Johnes  was  my  dis- 
ciple. 

Then  Satan  gat  him  away  quickly  from  Montclair, 
yea,  even  unto  Hell. 

(Which,  by  the  way,  was  not  so  very  far.) 

And  later  on  concluded   to  drop  in  upon  the  Lord. 

So  he  crossed  the  gulf  and  rang  at  the  door  of 
Heaven  and  a  seraph  came. 

And  the  Lord  was  in  and  came  down  into  the  front 
room  and  talked  with  Satan, 

Very  sociably  and  about  the  weather,  which  Satan 
said  was  milder  his  way. 

And  one  thing  led  to  another  till  Satan  said,  O 
Lord,  but  I  have  an  excellent  idea. 

And  the  Lord  smiled  and  said.  Some  of  thy  ideas 
are  excellent.  I  would  I  had  thy  perseverance.  But 
what  is  this  particular  idea? 

Then  saith  Satan,  My  ideas  are  not  generally  par- 
ticular, (whereat  the  Lord  smiled  again,)  but  such  as 
I  have  give  I  thee. 

And  then  he  went  on  in  his  plausible  and  amusing 
way,  telling  about  Johnes  and  the  parson. 

And  when  he  had  gotten  through  he  saith.  Now  see 
here,  O  Lord,  isn't  it  about  time  this  thing  stopped? 

Would  it  not  be  more  comfortable  both  for  thee 
and  for  me  if  we  could  tell  our  disciples  apart  easier  ? 

Lo  !  now  this  is  my  idea  :  that  we  agree  upon  a 
non-partisan  board  ; 


And  they  shall  have  a  civil  service  examination  at 
once,  without  waiting  for  the  judgment  day.  It  would 
save  us  both  a  great  deal  of  trouble  and  expense  ; 

What  sayest  thou  ? 

Then  the  Lord  smiled  once  more  and  answering, 
saith  : 

It  is  kind  of  thee,  Satan,  to  come  so  far  out  of  thy 
way  to  propose  this  unto  me ; 

But,  then,  thou  seest,  it  is  the  kind  I  don't  like. 
For  I  know  my  sheep. 

And,  (which  is  vastly  more  important  for  the  sheep,) 
I  am  known  of  mine. 

The  fact  is,  Satan,  that  judgment  day  is  going  to 
be  a  surprise  party. 

Abstractly,  no  doubt,  that  idea  of  a  non-partisan 
board  is  excellent  from  thy  point  of  view. 

But  from  mine  own  it  is  quite  otherwise.  It  would 
not  be  a  square  deal  ; 

For  verily  when  good  and  evil  go  into  partnership 
it  is  evil  that  getteth  the  best  of  it , 

And  I  desire  to  find  out  who  are  really  mj'  disciples, 
by  trying  them  with  temptations  and  letting  them  try 
me  by  their  own  free  choice. 

This  logic  ought  to  have  been  convincing  to  Sa- 
tan, and  perhaps  it  was. 

But  who  is  there  lets  logic  stand  in  the  way  of  his 
wishes?  Not  the  Evil  One,  of  a  truth. 

For  he  was  persistent  and  saith  again  :  O  Lord,  if 
so  be  thou  and  I  cannot  agree  upon  a  policy  of  con- 
ciliation, 

How  would  it  do  to  take  a  vote  of  the  inhabiters  of 
the  earth, — take  the  sense  of  the  populace,  so  to 
speak  ? 

Then  the  Lord  answering,  saith  unto  Satan,  Thou 
triflest,  Satan,  for  the  populace  have  no  sense  : 

But  some  of  them  have  big  warm  hearts,  and  that 
is  the  sort  I  want  for  angels. 

Then  Satain  murmured  that  he  supposed  he  would 
have  to  wait. 

But  verily  thy  day  of  judgment,  O  Lord,  saith  he, 
will  indeed  be  a  surprise  party. 

And  when  he  had  thus  spoken,  Satan  said  good 
evening,  and  hung  his  tail,  and  went  forth  unto  his 
own  place  sore  discomfited. 


BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN. 


BY     NOEUTA     KISHIMOTO,     M.  A. 
V.    THE  ZEN  AND  THE  SHIN  SECTS. 

Having  pointed  out  the  principal  features  in  which 
all  the  "twelve  recognised  sects"  of  Japanese  Bud- 
dhism are  unanimous,  I  will  now  explain  some  of  the 
differences.  But,  as  it  would  lead  us  too  far  to  inves- 
tigate the  characteristics  of  all  these  sects,  let  us  pick 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4233 


out  the  two  extreme  ones  and  be  satisfied  with  investi- 
gating and  contrasting  their  peculiarities. 

The  two  extreme  sects  are  the  Zen  sect  and  the 
Shin  sect. 

The  Zc-n  sect,  which  is  the  most  ascetic  and  most 
contemplative  of  all  the  twelve  sects  of  Japanese  Bud- 
dhism, was  not  introduced  to  Japan  till  the  close  of 
the  twelfth  century,  A.  D.  But  the  sect  itself  is  traced 
to  the  early  part  of  the  sixth  century,  when  Bodhi- 
dharma  came  from  India  to  China,  where  he  became 
the  founder  of  the  esoteric  Buddhism.  The  teaching 
of  this  sect  is  called  esoteric,  because  this  sect  rejects 
book-instruction  and  teaches  to  look  inward  into  one's 
own  heart.  The  "transmission  from  the  heart  to  the 
heart"  is  its  essential  doctrine,  and  the  only  way  open 
for  this  transmission  is  by  contemplation.  Hence  the 
name  of  this  sect,  namely,  Zen,  which  stands  for  the 
Sanskrit  Dhyana  and  means  contemplation.  The 
founder,  Bodhidharma,  is  said  to  have  sat  down  cross- 
legged  in  meditation,  with  his  face  toward  a  wall,  for 
nine  years.  Thus  this  sect  is  in  contrast  to  all  other 
sects  which  adhere  to  books,  traditions,  and  outward 
acts  as  essential  to  the  attainment  of  Nirvana.  "  To 
become  Buddha,"  to  borrow  the  words  of  a  writer, 
"the  mind  only  needs  to  be  freed  from  every  one  of 
its  affections,  not  to  love  or  hate,  covet,  rejoice,  or 
fear.  To  do  or  aim  at  doing  what  is  virtuous  or  what 
is  vicious  is  to  leave  the  heart  and  go  out  into  the 
visible  tangible  world.  It  is  to  become  entangled  in 
the  metempsychosis  in  the  one  case,  and  much  trouble 
and  vexation  in  the  other.  The  other  method  is  in 
the  mind ;  it  is  the  mind  itself.  The  fountain  of 
knowledge  is  the  pure,  bright,  self- enlightening  mind. 
The  method  taught  by  all  the  Buddhas  is  no  other 
than  this.  Let  the  mind  do  nothing,  aim  at  nothing, 
hold  fast  to  nothing  :  that  is  Buddha.  Then  there 
will  be  no  difference  between  living  in  the  world  and 
entering  the  Nirvana.  Then  human  nature,  the  mind, 
Buddha,  and  the  doctrine  he  taught,  all  become  iden- 
tical." Such  is  the  spirit  of  this  sect  of  contempla- 
tion. 

The  Shin  sect,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  most  secu- 
lar and  most  easy-going  of  all  our  Buddhist  sects.  The 
name  Shin  means  "  true,"  and  the  full  title  of  the  sect 
reads,  "The  True  Sect  of  the  Pure  Land."  In  Japan 
there  are  at  present  four  sects  which  are  of  the  "  Pure 
Land"  type,  that  is,  the  sects  which  teach  that  if  one 
"repeats  the  sacred  name  of  Amitabha  Buddha  with 
a  whole  heart"  he  will  gain  the  good  effect  of  being 
born  in  the  Pure  Land  after  death.  Of  these  four,  the 
Shin  sect  goes  to  the  utmost  extreme  in  emphasising 
this  teaching.  The  Shin  sect  was  originated  in  Japan 
during  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  its 
foundation  is  the  belief  in  the  "Other  Power  of  the 
Original  Prayer  of  Amitabha  Buddha."     This  "Orig- 


inal Prayer"  is  this:  "If  any  of  living  beings  of  the 
ten  regions,  who  have  believed  in  me  with  true 
thoughts  and  desire  to  be  born  in  my  land  and  have 
even  to  ten  times  repeated  my  name,  should  not  be 
born  there,  then  may  I  not  obtain  the  perfect  knowl- 
edge." With  this  prayer  Buddha  practised  good  deeds 
during  many  kalpas,  intending  to  bring  his  stock  of 
merits  to  fulness  for  the  deliverance  of  all  living  be- 
ings. Therefore,  if  one  believe  in  the  vicarious  power 
of  this  "Original  Prayer,"  and  repeat  the  name  of 
Amitabha  Buddha,  he  will  be  born  in  the  Pure  Land 
and  enjoy  perfect  happiness.  If  one  believe  this  and 
practise  this,  that  is  all  that  is  required.  This  belief 
and  this  practice  will  naturally  work  out  one's  salva- 
tion, and  hence  there  is  no  further  use  of  any  artificial 
devices,  such  as  "becoming  homeless  and  freeing 
one's  self  from  worldly  desires."  Hence  even  the 
priests  and  monks  are  allowed  in  this  sect  to  drink 
liquors,  to  eat  fish  and  flesh,  and  to  marry,  just  as  the 
ordinary  laymen  do,  while  all  these  acts  are  generally 
prohibited  in  all  the  other  sects  of  Japanese  Bud- 
dhism. 

These  two  extremes  of  Japanese  Buddhism,  al- 
though they  agree  in  certain  points,  as  was  above 
stated,  do  yet  differ  in  many  points  from  each  other. 
To  note  some  of  the  main  differences  :  the  Zen  sect  is 
essentially  atheistic,  or  I  might  say  pantheistic  in  its 
teaching,  while  the  Shin  sect  is  almost  theisiic.  The 
former  does  not  admit  the  existence  of  anything  ex- 
cept the  self-enlightening  mind — the  contemplator. 
There  is  no  personal  God  who  is  apart  and  distinct  from 
the  contemplator;  there  is  no  external  world  which  is 
not  the  result  of  our  delusion.  On  the  contrary,  the 
Shin  sect  regards  Amitabha  Buddha  not  only  as  the 
all-merciful  Saviour,  but  also,  practically,  as  the  all- 
present  God.  Thus  Amitabha  Buddha  of  the  Shin 
sect  plays  the  double  part  of  God  the  Father  and  of 
the  Son,  Christ,  of  Christian  theolog)'. 

The  Zen  sect  is  idealistic  in  its  conception  of  salva- 
tion, while  the  Shin  sect  is  realistic.  According  to 
the  latter,  salvation  means  the  actual  transfer  of  those 
who  believe  in  Amitabha  Buddha  from  this  world  of 
pain  and  suffering  to  that  "Pure  Land,"  where  they 
will  enjoy  eternal  happiness,  living  together  with  Bud- 
dha and  his  saints.  Just  as  this  world  is  real,  so  is 
this  "Pure  Land"  real  to  the  believers  of  this  sect. 
But  according  to  the  Zen  sect,  even  the  present  world 
has  no  real  existence,  and,  if  so,  how  much  reality  can 
the  future  world  claim  for  itself  ?  There  can  be  no 
salvation  apart  from  the  enlightenment,  the  emptiness 
and  tranquillity  of  the  mind,  according  to  this  sect. 

As  these  two  sects  are  different  in  their  conception 
of  salvation,  so  they  are  different  as  to  the  means  of 
salvation.  The  Zen-sect  teaches  "self-help"  as  the 
only  means  of  salvation,  while   the  Shin-sect  empha- 


4234 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


sises  "others'-help  "  as  the  universal  way  of  salvation. 
Faith,  says  the  latter,  is  the  means  of  salvation  ;  while 
the  former  says,  meditation  is  the  means  of  salvation. 
"If  one  believes  in  Amitabha  Buddha,"  teaches  the 
Shin-sect,"  and  is  devoted  enough  to  repeat  his  name, 
he  will  never  lose  his  salvation."  Thus  a  man  is  saved 
by  a  power  not  of  his  own,  that  is  to  say,  by  "others' 
help."  The  Zen-sect,  on  the  contrary,  teaches  that  as 
salvation  consists  in  enlightenment  and  as  the  enlight- 
enment cannot  be  passed  over  from  one  to  another 
like  merchandise,  every  one  must  work  out  his  own 
salvation  by  discipline  and  meditation.  Here,  salva- 
tion is  by  one's  own  power,  that  is,  by  "self-help." 

As  the  teaching  of  these  two  sects  is  different  in 
these  cardinal  points,  so  the  f('/idi/ct  of  their  monks 
and  priests  is  quite  different,  one  from  the  other. 
Those  of  the  Shin- sect  are  secular  or  optimistic,  while 
those  of  the  Zen-sect  are  ascetic  ax  pessimistic.  In  the 
one  case,  as  the  power  of  faith  and  the  power  of  the 
"Original  Prayer"  are  strong  enough  to  bring  about 
one's  salvation,  naturally  there  is  not  much  use  in  hard 
discipline  and  austere  life.  In  the  other  case,  as  the 
enlightenment  is  the  ultimate  end  of  existence,  the 
life  of  its  monks  and  priests  is  a  life  of  retirement, 
celibacy,  poverty,  tranquillity,  uprightness,  self  morti- 
fication, and  meditation. 

Finally,  as  the  natural  result  of  such  a  hard  life  in 
the  one  case  and  an  easy  life  in  the  other,  the  adher- 
ents of  these  two  sects  divide  themselves  into  two  dis- 
tinct classes.  Generally  speaking,  the  adherents  of 
the  Zen-sect  are  more  scholarly,  at  least  better  edu- 
cated, than  those  of  the  Shin-sect,  who  are  more  ig- 
norant. Probably  this  distinction  is  more  true  among 
the  clergy  of  these  two  sects  than  among  their  lay- 
believers.  Among  the  lay-believers  of  the  different 
sects,  as  we  saw  above,  there  are  not  so  many  differ- 
ences either  in  belief  or  in  practice,  as  there  are  among 
the  clergy  of  the  different  sects,  although  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Zen-sect  is  very  strong  among  the  edu- 
cated and  reflecting  classes  of  the  laity  in  general. 

These  are  the  main  differences,  as  far  as  I  can  see, 
between  these  two  extremes  of  Japanese  Buddhism — 
the  Zen-sect  representing  the  negative  or  ascetic  Pole 
and  the  Shin-sect  the  positive  or  secular  Pole.  Be- 
tween these  two  extremes  there  are  many  sects  of  in- 
termediate nature,  some  tending  more  towards  the 
Zen-sects,  while  the  majority  tend  towards  the  Shin- 
sect. 

WORDS  AND  THEIR  MEANING. 

A  REPLY  TO  MR.  ELLIS  THURTELL. 

In  an  article  on  the  Parliariient  of  Religions  en- 
titled "The  Dawn  of  a  New  Religious  Era,"  which 
appeared  in  Tlic  Forum  (reprinted  in  an  appendix  to 


The  Monist,  Vol.  IV,  No.  3)  I   said  with  reference  to 
some  strictures  made  on  Mohammed's  religion  : 

"Dr.  Washburn's  quotation  from  the  Koran  reminds  us  of 
similar  passages  in  the  New  Testament  ;  the  old  orthodoxy  of  the 
Moslems,  however,  is  giving  way  to  broader  views.  Tout  coiitim 
t/u-z  U021S  ! 

"  Prof.  Minas  Tcheras,  an  Armenian  Christian,  when  sketch- 
ing the  history  of  the  Armenian  Church,  said  sarcastically  that 
real  Mohammedanism  was  quite  different  from  the  Islam  repre- 
sented by  Mr.  Webb.  This  may  be  true,  but  Mr.  Webb  might 
return  the  compliment  and  say  that  true  Christianity  as  it  showed 
itself  in  deeds  such  as  the  Crusades,  is  quite  different  from  that 
ideal  which  its  admirers  claim  it  to  be.  Similar  objections,  that 
the  policy  of  Christian  nations  showed  very  little  the  love  and 
meekness  of  Jesus,  were  indeed  made  by  Mr.  Hirai,  a  Buddhist  of 
Japan.  We  Christians  have  reason  enough  to  be  charitable  in 
judging  others." 

The  two  words  IVe  Christians  in  the  last  sentence 
have  proved  a  great  stumbling  block  to  Mr.  Thurtell, 
who  considers  them  as  a  "sop"  to  the  Christian  church, 
implicating  me  in  hypocrisy.  Mr.  Thurtell  criticised 
the  expression  again  and  again  ;  I  explained  the  pas- 
sage, but  he  would  not  be  comforted  ;  and  in  a  late 
number  of  The  Agnostic  Journal  he  recurs  to  it  a  third 
time.  The  passage  and  the  whole  article  in  which  it  ap- 
pears are  such  that  I  consider  myself  beyond  reproach. 
I  purpose!}' include  myself  under  the  category  of  what 
Mr.  Hirai  called  Christians,  for,  to  be  fair,  I  am  as 
much  guilty  as  our  Baptist  minister  or  any  other  or- 
thodox Christian  of  the  wrongs  which  the  Christian 
powers  have,  inflicted  upon  Japan,  and  b}'  thus  in- 
cluding myself  I  made  the  acknowledgment  more  im- 
pressive. 

I  must  add  that  I  have  never,  so  long  as  I  have 
stood  before  the  public  as  an  author  and  editor,  used 
the  expression  "we  Christians,"  and  it  is  not  my  habit 
to  classify  myself  among  Christians.  Nevertheless, 
I  do  not  intend  to  forego  the  right  of  calling  myself  a 
Christian,  or  a  Buddhist,  or  a  pagan  ;  a  Kantian,  an 
anti  Kantian  or  anything  else.  The  notion  of  issuing 
injunctions  against  the  use  of  names  and  words  is  a 
very  popular  one,  but  it  is  an  assumption  of  authority 
which  is  totally  unjustified. 

Mr.  Alfred  W.  Martin  of  Tacoma,  Washington,  in 
a  spirit  of  sincerity  and  with  an  enthusiastic  love  of 
truth,  protests  (in  No.  363  of  Tlie  Open  Court)  against 
the  use  of  any  sectarian  name,  Christian,  Buddhist,  or 
Mohammedan  ;  and  I  grant  that  it  is  his  duty  to  drop 
the  name  which  appears  to  him  inappropriate,  but  I 
cannot  grant  him  or  any  one  else  the  right  of  forbidding 
others  the  use  of  any  name,  if  according  to  his  defini- 
tion of  the  name  the  bearers  are  not  entitled  to  its 
use.  Everybody  can  define  the  term  Christian  or 
Buddhist  as  he  pleases,  but  he  goes  too  far  if  he  makes 
a  matter  of  conscience  of  his  own  definition. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4235 


Mr.  Thurtell  says,  "Christian  means  one  who  be- 
lieves in  supernaturaHsm."  Is  that  so  ?  Well,  I  know 
that  many  of  those  who  call  themselves  "orthodox 
Christians "  are,  as  a  rule,  addicted  to  that  world- 
conception  which  most  appropriately  is  called  "dual- 
istic  supernaturalism."  But  why  generalise  ?  There 
are  many  millions  of  Christians  who  scarcely  know 
what  supernaturalism  means  and  whose  Christianity 
consists  in  following  the  moral  injunctions  of  Christ. 
Many  Christians,  for  instance  Professor  Turner  of 
Jacksonville,  111.,  reject  supernaturalism  and  in  con- 
scious opposition  to  Churchianity  proclaim  Christianity 
to  be  an  acceptance  of  the  simple  Christ  word  and  a 
living  in  accord  with  Christ's  ethics. 

The  word  Christian  has  changed  its  meaning  in 
every  century.  The  first  Christians  called  themselves 
"disciples"  and  they  were  one  community  among 
many  other  similar  communities  by  no  means  limited 
to  the  Essenes  in  Palestine,  all  of  which  called  them- 
selves "disciples."  The  disciples  in  Antioch  were 
nicknamed  by  the  pagan  population  "  Christians,"  and 
this  nickname  came  to  be  adopted  for  all  the  disciples 
of  Jesus.  The  original  Christianity,  viz.,  the  faith  of 
the  "disciples  "  who  gathered  round  Jesus  in  Galilee, 
consisted  in  the  hope  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was 
near  at  hand  and  that  it  would  come  by  repentance, 
or  rather  by  a  /^leravoia,  a  renewal  and  radical  change 
of  our  soul.  The  platform  of  the  disciples  of  Jerusa- 
lem was  communism  carried  to  its  extreme,  a  policy 
which  proved  very  disastrous,  for  the  relief  of  the  poor 
was  only  temporary,  and  the  well-to-do  members  of  the 
Church  were  hopelessly  ruined  ;  so  that  we  need  not 
wonder  at  the  complete  disappearance  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  among  the  Jews. 

The  meaning  of  the  name  Christian  was  fixed  by 
St.  Paul  as  that  of  a  member  of  the  Church,  as  he 
founded  it  among  the  gentiles,  and,  according  to  his 
definition,  we  should  have  to  define  a  Christian  as  a 
believer  in  the  resurrected  Jesus.  This  of  course  does 
not  exclude  that  at  the  time  of  Paul  there  were  many 
Christians  who  called  themselves  Christians  without 
believing  in  the  bodily  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  as 
we  read  in  I  Cor.,  xv,  12  : 

"How  say  some  among  you  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of 
the  dead  ? " 

The  very  zeal  with  which  Paul  emphasises  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  belief  in  Christ's  resurrection  proves  that 
the  faction  of  Christians  who  rejected  it  was  not  incon- 
siderable. 

The  apostle's  notion  of  the  resurrection  is  of  a 
double  nature,  for  he  first  believes  in  the  resurrection 
of  Christ's  body  and  then  again  and  again  emphasises 
the  resurrection  of  Christ's  soul  n/  the  souls  of  tlic 
C/iristians.      In  the  epistle  to  the  Colossians  he  says  : 

"  Ye  are  dead  and  your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  Ciod.  .  .  . 


"Mortify  therefore  your  members  ....  put  off  all  these: 
anger,  wrath,  malice  ....  and  have  put  on  the  new  man — viz., 
Christ — which  is  renewed  in  knowledge  after  the  image  of  him 
that  created  him." 

The  word  knowledge  reminds  us  of  the  Buddhist 
term  "enlightenment."  In  the  second  epistle  to  the 
Corinthians  v,  17,  we  read  : 

"If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature." 
And  in  the  epistle  to  the  Galations  Paul  says  : 

"I  am  crucified  with  Christ:  nevertheless  I  live:  yet  not  I, 
but  Christ  liveth  in  me." 

Thus  a  spiritual  conception  of  Christ's  resurrection 
and  a  gross  materialistic  belief  in  the  revivification  of 
the  dead  body  of  Jesus  are  strangely  mixed  in  the 
apostle's  imagination. 

Christianity  changed  again  when  some  Neo-Pla- 
tonists  became  impressed  with  the  new  religion,  and 
the  author  of  the  fourth  Gospel  very  philosophically 
defined  the  essence  of  Christ  as  "the  Logos,"  or  "the 
word."  To  Christians  of  his  stamp  Christianity  meant 
a  belief  in  the  incarnation  of  the  world-reason,  which 
revealing  itself  in  all  great  teachers  of  mankind,  had 
reached  its  climax  in  Jesus.  Philo  has  written  a  book 
to  prove  that  Moses  was  an  incarnation  of  the  Logos  ; 
and  now  a  Christian  came  and  wrote  the  fourth  Gos- 
pel, generally  called  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  John, 
to  prove  that  this  same  Logos  who  was  in  the  begin- 
ning, who  was  with  God,  and  who  was  God  himself, 
had,  at  last,  appeared  in  the  flesh  in  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth. This  was  the  fulfilment — n\i]pwj-ia.  While  Paul 
emphasised  man's  need  of  faith,  this  class  of  Christians 
sought  salvation  by  knowledge.  While  Paul  speaks 
of  belief  and  believing  (jtiariz  and  TriGrevsiy),  the 
fourth  Gospel  begins  to  speak  of  knowledge  and  know- 
ing {yvcoffis  and  ysyvcoffxsiv),  making  knowledge  the 
main  condition  of  right-doing.   Jesus  says,  John  xii,  17: 

"  If  ye  know  these  things,  happy  are  ye  if  ye  do  them  " 

Christianity  was  a  different  thing  with  almost  every 
great  teacher  who  arose,  with  the  patriarchs  and  the 
fathers.  To  the  most  important  Roman  father,  St. 
Augustine,  Christianity  was  by  no  means  only  a  belief 
in  Jesus  as  the  world-saviour  :  to  him  it  was  universal 
religion  ;  it  existed  among  the  ancients  and  was  not 
absent  at  the  beginning  of  the  human  race.  But  since 
Christ  came  in  the  flesh,  St.  Augustine  says,  it  has 
become  customary  to  call  this  true  religion,  which  ex- 
isted before,  "Christian."^ 

It  would  lead  us  too  far  to  trace  all  the  changes  of 
the  name  Christian.  This  much  is  certain,  that  the 
view  of  a  Christian  of  today  resembles  that  of  a  mem- 
ber of  the  first  church  at  Jerusalem  as  much  as  a  phys- 
icist's conception  of  gravity  resembles   his  notion  of 

I  Ipse  res  qua;  nunc  Christiana  religio  nunciipatur.  erat  apud  antiques  nee 
defuit  ab  initio  generis  humani,  quonsque  ipse  Cliristus  veniret  in  carne.  undo 
vera  religio  qua)  jam  erat,  coepit  appellari  Christiana. — Retr.  i,  13. 


4236 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


falling  bodies  when  he  was  a  baby.  There  is  a  histori- 
cal connexion  among  all  the  stages  through  which 
Christianity  has  passed,  there  are  no  sudden  changes, 
nevertheless  there  are  changes,  and  many  of  them  are 
radical  and'  even  reversals  of  what  at  other  times  was 
regarded  as  its  most  fundamental  teachings. 

Christianity  is  a  living  power  still,  and  our  Chris- 
tian institutions  contain,  in  spite  of  the  dead  lull  that 
obtains  at  present,  great  potentialities. 

Christianity  is  a  historical  movement,  which,  be- 
ginning with  Jesus  Christ,  attempted  in  the  first  cen- 
turies after  its  appearance  to  gather  in  its  stream  all 
the  rivulets  of  kindred  aspirations.  It  comprised  many 
narrow  and  many  broad  minds.  With  the  attainment 
of  secular  power,  the  principle  of  narrowness  reached 
ascendancy  in  the  Christian  church.  Nevertheless, 
we  witness  again  and  again  powerful  endeavors  after 
a  larger  and  even  after  a  cosmical  latitudinarianism. 
Who  can  predict  the  future  of  Christianity  ?  Will  our 
churches  rot  away  in  their  bigotry  and  paganism  ? 
Will  they  always  remain  in  the  bondage  of  a  belief  in 
the  letter  and  remain  dead  to  the  spirit  ?  Will  Chris- 
tians systematically  shut  out  the  light  of  the  sole  reli- 
gious revelation  we  have — rational  inquiry  and  science? 
Who  can  tell?  Certain  it  is,  that  the  Christianity  of 
the  twentieth  century  will  be  different  from  a  belief  in 
the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  or  a  blind  acceptance  of 
Westminster  confession.  The  Bible  criticism,  the 
historical  research,  the  philosophical  and  scientific 
studies  of  so  many  faithful  and  truth-loving  Christian 
scholars  have  not  been  in  vain;  they  have  already 
borne  fruit  here  and  there  in  the  closet  of  the  devout 
student,  but  the  great  harvest  day  has  not  as  yet  come. 
I  cherish  the  confidence  that  come  it  will  and  come  it 
must. 

If  there  are  men, — and  I  know  some  of  them  per- 
sonally; most  of  them  belong  to  the  Unitarian  church, 
but  some  others  belong  to  very  orthodox  churches,  in 
America  and  also  abroad, — who  believe  in  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  future,  calling  themselves  "Christians" 
because  they  labor  for  leavening  the  whole  dough  with 
purer,  truer,  and  more  noble  ideals, — who  can  blame 
them  ?  Who  dares  to  take  them  to  task  or  reproach 
them  for  hypocrisy? 

* 
*  * 

I  do  not,  as  a  rule,  call  myself  a  Christian.  The 
passage  which  gave  offence  to  Mr.  Thurtell  is  the  first 
in  which  I  used  the  phrase  "we  Christians,"  and  I  am 
not  anxious  to  join  a  church  or  have  myself  classified 
as  a  Christian.  Nevertheless,  I  reserve  to  myself  the 
liberty  of  calling  myself  what  I  please,  for  I  have  as 
good  a  title  to  the  name  Christian,  if  not  a  better  one, 
than  the  Pope  at  Rome. 

As  my  Christianity  is  not  the  primitive  hope  of  the 


first  disciples,  nor  the  dream  of  mediaeval  dualism, 
but  the  broadened  faith  of  the  church  of  the  future, 
the  judge  that  will  decide  my  case  is  neither  the  his- 
torian who  digs  up  the  roots  of  Christianity  from  the 
dead  past,  nor  the  present  authorities  of  our  ecclesias- 
tical institutions,  but  the  better  educated  posterity 
which  have  learned  to  recognise  the  religious  import 
of  the  light  of  science. 

Who  has  a  right  to  call  himself  this  or  that?  Can 
I  call  myself  a  Kantian  ?  Certainly  !  I  have  sat  at 
Kant's  feet  as  his  disciple.  T  learned  from  him.  His 
modes  of  thought  are  impressed  upon  my  mind  and 
form  part  of  myself.  Kant's  philosophising  has,  to  a 
great  extent,  become  part  of  myself,  and  this  gives  me 
a  title  to  calling  myself  a  Kantian.  Nevertheless, 
while  I  have  adopted  many  of  Kant's  modes  of  philoso- 
phising, I  have  not  adopted  the  results  of  his  argu- 
ments. I  reject  the  main  doctrines  of  his  philosophy, 
his  apriorism  and  transcendental  idealism.  In  this 
sense  I  am  an  anti-Kantian,  and  am  fully  entitled  to 
label  myself  as  such. 

As  to  Christianity,  the  case  is  similar.  The  teach- 
ings of  the  Christ  of  the  Gospel  became  part  of  my 
soul  while  I  was  still  a  little  child.  Many  of  his  most 
beautiful  injunctions  were  taught  me  at  such  an  early 
time  as  lies  beyond  the  pale  of  my  recollection,  and 
the  sentiment  of  Christ's  ethics  has  become  and  is  still 
the  most  constituent  foundation  of  my  moral  life. 
Have  I  not  as  good  a  title  to  the  name  Christian  as  any 
other  Christian  ?  If  I  do  not  call  mj^self  a  Christian, 
for  reasons  which  I  need  not  explain  here,  I  can  truly 
say  that  I  am  a  Christian,  and  I  hope  that  those  who 
censure  me  for  once  having  used  the  expression  "we 
Christians"  are  "Christians"  in  the  same  sense. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  call  myself  an  "  infidel  "  among 
people  who  understand  by  "infidelity"  a  disbelief  in 
Christian  dogmas.  I  did  so  of  late  in  the  presence  of 
a  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Nor 
would  I  hesitate  to  call  myself  a  pagan  among  people 
who  identify  paganism  and  humanitarianism  as  de- 
veloped by  the  ancient  Greeks.  But  I  would  be  apt 
to  call  attention  to  the  infidelity  of  the  so-called  faith- 
ful to  the  ideals  of  him  whom  they  worship  as  their 
Master,  and  I  would  point  out  their  paganism,  which, 
in  a  certain  sense,  is  not  much  higher  than  the  idolatry 
of  fetish-worshippers. 

In  a  certain  sense  I  am  a  Buddhist,  for  I  adopt  the 
main  doctrines  of  Buddha  as  to  the  non-existence  of 
the  atman  or  ego- soul,  and  the  irrationality  of  the  be- 
lief in  a  creation  of  the  world  by  a  big  ego-deity  out  of 
nothing.  Should  these  subjects  be  discussed,  and  I 
were  asked  whether  I  am  a  Buddhist,  I  would  say, 
"Yes,  I  am  a  Buddhist  ;  I  side  with  Buddha  and  re- 
ject the  dogmas  of  the  Christian  church. "  Should, 
however,    on    another    occasion,    the    question    arise 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4237 


whether  I  belonged  to  one  of  the  Buddhist  sects,  I 
would  have  to  answer,  "  No  !   I  am  not  a  Buddhist !  " 

One  of  the  delegates  at  the  World's  Parliament  of 
Religions,  Christopher  Jibarra,  the  \'enerable  Archi- 
mandite  of  the  Apostolic  and  Patriarchal  Throne  of 
the  Orthodox  Church  in  Syria,  was  a  Christian  and  a 
Mohammedan,  and  he  attempted  to  prove  to  us  that 
he  could  consistently  be  both  at  the  same  time. 
Whether  his  logic  is  sound  depends  upon  what  he  con- 
siders as  essential  in  both  religions. 

No  controversy  is  so  sterile  and  profitless  as  a 
quarrel  about  words,  and  I  would  not  have  gone  thus 
far  into  detail,  were  not  the  question.  What  do  we 
mean  by  classifying  ourselves  as  Christians,  Kantians, 
Germans,  Englishmen,  Americans,  Unitarians,  infidels, 
etc.?  of  importance.  A  man  who  calls  himself  a 
Christian,  means  that  some  Christian  ideas  or  aspira- 
tions, which  he  considers  of  great  moment,  have  be- 
come embodied  in  his  soul  as  a  part  and  parcel  of  his 
being.  Thus  a  man  may  consistently  be  a  Christian 
and  also  an  Englishman  or  an  American.  Nay,  he  may 
be  a  Christian  and  a  Buddhist  and  a  Kantian  at  the 
same  time. 

Names  are  labels,  and  it  so  happens  that  many 
different  things  are  labeled  under  the  same  name.  It 
is  not  the  label  which  makes  a  thing  such  or  such,  but 
the  substance,  and  while  the  employment  of  labels 
affords  a  great  help  in  classifying  the  various  brands, 
we  must  not  attach  to  the  labels  too  much  importance. 
Labels  are  lies  when  used  to  deceive,  but  otherwise 
labelling  is  a  mere  matter  of  expediency,  and  when 
a  name  is  properly  defined  and  illustrated  by  sam- 
ples, so  as  to  be  unmistakable,  we  must  allow  the 
conflict  of  contradictory  definitions  to  be  decided  in 
a  struggle  for  existence.    • 

AGNOSTICISM. 

By  agnosticism  I  understand  that  world- conception 
which  considers  the  fundamental  problems  of  philoso- 
phy as  intrinsically  insolvable.  This  philosophy  is 
ver}'  prevalent  at  present  and  exercises,  in  my  opinion, 
a  blighting  influence  upon  our  generation.  In  the 
editorial  article,  "The  Message  of  Monism  to  the 
World  "  {^The  Moiiist,  Vol.  IV,  No.  4,  p.  547),  1  said  : 

' '  The  natural  consequence  otitis  that  the  children  of  our  time 
have  become  shallO'V  and  exhibit  a  lamentable  lack  o£  character, 
which  appears  in  the  methods  of  education,  in  the  productions  of 
art,  in  the  religion  of  our  churches,  and  in  the  principles  of  moral 
conduct." 

My  reviewer,  Mr.  Thurtell,  says  : 

•' T/ie  Mo'iis/'s  e&hor,  however,  still  stands  committed  to  an 
attitude  of  uncompromising  hostility  towards  agnosticism.  This 
comes  out  strongly  in  his  second  contribution,  '  The  Message  of 
Monism  to  the  World.'  " 

Having  quoted  several  passages  he  continues  : 

"And,  upon  my  word,  it  is  enough  to  take  one's  breath  away 


to  read  the  words  italicised,  and  to  remember  that  they  spring 
from  the  pen  of  a  Freethinker  who  has  already  sacrificed  bis  cock 
to  .Esculapius  in  the  phrase,  '  We  Christians.'  " 

By  agnosticism  I  mean  what  the  name  denotes,  that 
which  it  has  been  characterised  as  in  Mr.  Spencer's 
Firs/  Principles,  and  by  the  inventor  of  the  term,  Pro- 
fessor Huxley,  who  declare  that  the  solution  of  cer- 
tain very  important  problems  is  intrinsically  impos- 
sible. I  stated  in  the  article  that  "I  am  myself  an 
adherent  of  the  agnosticism  of  modesty,  which  remains 
conscious  of  how  little  we  know,"  and  that  "  I  ob- 
ject only  to  the  agnosticism  of  arrogance,  whose  de- 
votees dogmatically  declare,  'We  do  not  know,  and 
thus  no  one  can  know.'  "  Nor  have  I  any  objection  to 
the  agnosticism  of  Mr.  Stewart  Ross,  who  published 
in  the  Agnostic  Journal,  p.  89,  the  following  passage 
of  a  letter  of  mine  to  him.      He  says  : 

"  Dr.  Paul  Carus  defines  our  agnosticism  with  commendable 
penetration  when,  in  a  private  letter,  he  writes:  'You  seem  to 
mean  by  agnosticism  the  insufiiciency  of  the  present  knowledge, 
and  try  to  extend  the  compass  of  man's  soul  by  all  means  at  our 
disposal,  including  the  mystic  realm  of  our  hopes,  fears,  and,  also, 
the  subconscious  yearnings  of  our  heart.  I  have  never  found  you 
denying  the  possibility  of  knowledge  in  any  sphere  of  existence  ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  trying  to  anticipate  future  knowledge.'  " 

With  all  these  very  plain  finger-posts,  Mr.  Thurtell 
should  have  been  able  to  understand  my  meaning.  I 
mean  that  the  now  so  popular  philosophy  which,  as  a 
matter  of  principle,  teaches  the  intrinsic  impossibility 
of  knowledge  on  all  vital  questions,  including  the  reli- 
gious problems  of  God,  soul,  and  immortality,  exer- 
cises a  most  pernicious  influence. 

Let  us  not  haggle  about  words;  let  us  discuss  the 
substance  of  the  proposition.  If  Mr.  Thurtell  can  prove 
that  I  am  wrong,  I  shall  be  glad  to  listen  to  his  criti- 
cism and  profit  by  it. 

h   PERSONAL  REMARK. 

In  concluding  these  remarks  I  have  to  thank  Mr. 
Thurtell  for  his  careful  and,  aside  from  these  two 
points,  very  appreciative  review  of  my  article.  I  know 
that  his  criticism  comes  from  a  sincere  heart,  and  his 
objection  to  the  term  "Christian"  springs  from  an 
uncompromising  love  of  truth.  He  writes  in  a  letter 
to  the  Agnostic  Journal : 

"  I  only  wish  I  could  follow  Dr.  Carus's  easy-going  example 
in  the  matter.  I  can  emphatically  assure  him  that  it  would  be 
very  much  to  the  advantage  of  my  position  in  this  English  village 
could  I  do  so." 

I  can  sympathise  with  Mr.  Thurtell;  but  I  wish  he 
could  follow  my  example  without  sacrificing  his  opinion. 
Years  ago,  when  my  position  at  the  Royal  Corps  of 
Cadets  at  Dresden  was  made  dependent  upon  my 
keeping  quiet  on  matters  of  religion,  I  preferred  to  re- 
sign. But  now  I  am  at  liberty,  and  having  criticised 
without   reserve   the   many  errors  of  dogmatic  Chris- 


SEP  28  1894 


4238 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


tianity,  I  need  not  fear  being  accused  of  hypocrisj' 
when  at  tlie  same  time  I  call  attention  to  the  noble 
sides  of  Christianity.  I  suffered  years  ago  for  being,  as 
I  was  called,  an  "infidel,"  and  as  I  have  now  nothing 
to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain,  I  trust  that  I  can  afford 
to  be  impartial.  There  is  no  sense  in  attempting  to 
destroy  Christianity  ;  our  aim  must  be  to  develop  it, 
and  lead  it  on  the  path  of  progress  to  truth. 

There  is  no  creature  which  does  not  carry  in  itself 
especially  in  the  beginning  of  its  career — the  poten- 
tiality of  at  last  developing  a  rational  soul,  and  there 
is  no  religion  but  it  may  develop  into  a  religion  of 
truth.      Says  Mr.  Thurtell  : 

"In  the  third  section  of  his  exposition  Dr.  Carus  assures  us 
that  'science  is  a  religious  re',  elation ';  that  '  Monism  does  not  ad- 
vocate a  revolution  in  religion,  but  a  reform,'  and  much  besides 
in  a  similar  strain.  Yet  Virgil's  '  Timeo  Danaos  et  dona  ferentes' 
will  surely  hauut  the  far-sighted  theologian's  mind  as  he  reads 
this  article.  For  the  '  message '  can  scarcely  prove  other  than  a 
mandate  for  unconditional  surrender." 

This  is  quite  true.  We  can  coinpromise  on  names 
and  on  many  more  things,  but  we  cannot  compromise 
as  soon  as  truth  is  at  stake.  Nevertheless,  let  us  make 
it  easy  to  our  brothers  who  are  lagging  behind  to  reach 
the  truth,  and  let  us  show  them  the  truth  as  they  are 
able  to  understand  it.  Let  us  follow  the  example  of  the 
reformer  as  described  by  Isaiah,  who  says  : 

"A  bruised  reed  shall  he  not  break,  and  the  smoking  /iax 
shall  he  not  quench  :  he  shall  bring  forth   judgment  unto  truth." 


AUNT  HANNAH  ON  THE  RELIGION  OF  HER  CHILD- 
HOOD. 

BY  MINNIE  ANDREWS  SNELL. 

In  th'  days  'ats  past  an'  gone — 

Days  of  pantalettes  an'  play, 
When  th'  six  days  work  wuz  dun, 

An'  th'  bath  wuz  taken — say, 
Do  you  know  I  'member  best  " 

Of  all  those  times,  th'  meetin's — well — 
Th'  weary  tenthlys — an'  th'  rest, 

Mostly  car'way  seeds  an'  hell. 

On  th'  Sabbath,  t'  th'  sound 

Of  th'  bells  ajanglin'  loud. 
We  could  mostly  then  be  found 

Filin'  inter  church — a  crowd 
Of  starched  an'  long-faced  girls  an'  boys 

Marshals d  in  our  Sunday  best, 
Treadin'  soft  t'  make  no  noise, 

Knowin'  'twas  th'  day  of  rest. 

Th'ough  th'  windows  came  th'  scent 

Of  th'  grass  an'  laylocks  sweet, 
An'  th'  green  elm's  branches  bent 

An'  nodded — tell  th'  little  feet 
Ached  t'  leave  th'  weary  place. 

An'  th'  high  pew  seemed  a  cell. 
An'  th'  preacher's  solemn  face 

With  my  eyelids  rose  an'  fell. 


Then  I  'member,  when  instead 

Of  th'  "  ninthly"  an'  th'  hum 
Of  th'  bees,  my  little  head 

Sleepy  bobbed  an'  dreams  'ud  come  ; 
An'  some  hand  'ud  slyly  give 

Country  treat  of  pungent  smell  : 
Th'ough  years  th'  mingled  mem'ries  live 

Of  car'way  seeds  an'  hell. 

An'  tho'  we're  wiser  far  to  day 

Than  when  we  shrank  in  fear  of  flames  ; 
An'  tho'  we've  gained  in  many  a  way. 

An'  call  things  by  sci'ntific  names, 
I  'member  still  th'  joy  an'  fear — 

Th'  preacher's  words,  like  solemn  knell- 
Th'  seedlin'  sweet — a  mem'ry  dear 

Of  car'way  seeds  an'  hell. 


BOOK  REVIEWS. 

John  Brovvn  and  His  Men  ;  With  Some  Account  of  the  Roads 
They  Travelled  to  Reach  Harper's  Ferry.     By  Richard  J. 
Ilinlon.      New  York,  London,  and  Toronto  :   Funk  &  Wag 
nails  Co.      1894.     Pp.,  752.     Price,  $1.50. 
This  volume  of  the  series  on   "American  Reformers"  is  ex- 
tremely rich  in  sketches  from  life  of  the  heroes  of  the  tragedy  of 
Harper's  Ferry.     A  lively  description  of  that  event  and  its  conse- 
quences occupies  more  than  half  the  volume,  but  not  to  the  ex- 
clu'iion  of  much  interesting  and  new  information  about  the  earlier 
life  of  John  Brown  and  his  brave  followers,      The  plea  offered  in 
excuse   for   the   Pottawattomie   massacre  is   especially  worthy   of 
careful  consideration  ;  and  so  is  that  presented  in  vindication  of 
Forbes  from  the  charge  of  treachery.     Cook's  memory,  also,  is  re- 
deemed from  much  injustice  by  the  publication  of  his  alleged  con- 
fession in  the  Appendix.      There,  too,  may  be  found  many  impor- 
tant letters  and  papers  by  John  Brown,  for  instance,  his  "  Decla- 
ration of  Liberty." 

THE  OPEN   COURT 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN   STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher, 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION; 

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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  370. 

THE  SURPRISE  PARTY.     Hudor  Genone 4231 

BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN.    V.   The  Zen  and  the  Shin  Sects. 

NOEUTA    KiSHIMOTO 4232 

WORDS  AND  THEIR   MEANING.     A  Reply  to  Mr.  Ellis 

Thuitell.     Editor 4234 

POETRY. 

Aunt  Hannah  on  the  Religion  of  her  Childhood.      Min- 
nie Andrews  Snell 423S 

BOOK  REVIEWS 4238 


The  Open  Court. 


A  -MTEEKLY  JOURNAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  371.     (Vol.  VIII.— 40.) 


CHICAGO,  OCTOBER  4,   1894. 


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THE  BARRIERS  OF  PERSONALITY. 

BY  GEORGE  M.    Mc  CRIE. 

M.  Th.  Ridot,  in  his  psychological  memoirs,  classes 
as  an  illusion  the  old  idea  of  an  ego-entity  at  the  foun- 
dation of  our  psychical  activities.  In  that  new  psy- 
chology, wherein  so  much  that  is  novel  is  disclosed, 
the  purely  limitary  ego  cannot  be  found.  And  this 
because  the  province  of  the  ego  has  been  infinitely  ex- 
tended, so  as  to  include  the  totalitj'of  ideas,  pleasures, 
and  pains  of  which  we  are  the  continual  subject. 

Some  thinkers  go  even  farther  at  this  stage  of  the 
philosophic  path.  With  them,  not  only  is  the  ego  the* 
mood  of  the  moment,  the  passing  emotion — it  is  also, 
as  it  were,  the  stimulus,  the  veritable  object,  which 
rouses  into  activity  all  the  host  of  subjective  feelings 
which  make  up  the  /  of  human  existence.  In  this 
view,  between  objective  world  and  subjective  specta- 
tor, no  dividing  line  is  discoverable;  the  world  of  the 
objective,  and  I  who  move  in  it  as  subject,  are  sepa- 
rated by  no  ascertainable  division. 

But,  however  far  we  may  travel  on  this  road,  what- 
ever our  conclusions  in  the  above  respects  may  be,  it 
is  to  be  remembered  that  these  and  similar  conclu- 
sions— which  may  appear  strange,  and  even  untrue,  to 
those  who  have  not  minutely  studied  the  questions  at 
issue — in  no  way  touch  the  true  barriers  of  personality. 
On  the  contrary,  they  define  and  confirm  them.  For, 
however  extended  my  ego-personality  may  become, 
however  enlarged  its  view,  until  it  includes,  not  only 
all  my  moods  and  phases  of  being,  but  also  all  of  which 
I  am  cognisant — my  individual  and  proper  personality  it 
still  remains,  unconfused  and  unconfounded  with  the 
personality  of  any  other  being.  Across  the  "insuper- 
able threshold  "  of  self  none  can  ever  pass.  In  the 
old  words — none  of  us  "can  by  any  means  redeem  his 
brother;  nor  give  to  God  a  ransom  for  him."  "The 
heart  knoweth  his  own  bitterness  ;  and  a  stranger  doth 
not  intermeddle  with  his  joy." 

The  individual  is  the  true  unit.  It  cannot  be  other- 
wise, if  only  we  think  of  the  matter  rightly.  Neither 
in  experience,  nor  in  any  reasonable  system  of  thought, 
has  this  self-testimony  of  consciousness  been  conclu- 
sively assailed.  To  avow  scepticism  regarding  it  is 
but  indirectly  to  affirm  its  truth.     The  /  of  conscious- 


ness, whatever  its  nature  or  limits  may  be,  is  inex- 
pugnable. 

Monism,  consistent  monism,  accordingly,  does  not 
deny  but  asserts  this  essential  individuality.  Only 
in  this  way  can  the  two  cardinal  truths  be  preserved, 
of  the  strict  unity  of  the  cosmos  on  the  one  hand,  and 
of  the  individuality  of  the  subjective  organism  on  the 
other,  when  it  is  recognised  that  each  individual  fasli- 
ions  his  own  surroundings  and  makes  or  mars  his  own 
fortunes,  irrespective  of  any  external  or  supernatural 
decree.  "Self  is  the  lord  of  self— who  else  should  be 
the  lord?"  When  the  late  Prof.  T.  H.  Green  walked 
with  his  students  on  the  river- bank  at  Oxford  he  was 
accustomed  to  ask  them,  on  coming  to  one  of  the 
bridges,  how  many  bridges  there  were  before  them. 
"One,"  would  be  the  reply.  "Oh,  no,"  was  his 
rejoinder,  "as  many  bridges  as  there  are  spectators, 
as  many  bridges  as  there  are  brains  to  fashion  them  !  " 
And  this,  which  doubtless  seemed  a  hard  saying  to  his 
followers  at  the  time,  was  the  soberest  truth  after  all, 
scientifically  and  philosophically.  The  Professor,  de- 
spite some  ultra-refinements  in  his  thought  system, 
was  essentially  a  monist.  True  dualism,  in  the  same 
circumstances,  would  have  consisted  in  postulating 
one  veritable  objective  bridge,  of  which  the  individual 
subjective  impressions  were  so  many  copies. 

The  individualism  which  lies  at  the  root  of  all  true 
monism  is  the  surest  barrier  against  every  form  of  an- 
thropomorphism, against  the  idea  of  a  Deity  sitting 
outside  the  universe  he  has  constructed  and  seeing  it 
go.  Old  fashioned  philosophy  sets  out  with  the  idea, 
ready-made,  that  there  are  three  main  objects  of  in- 
quiry— God,  Man,  and  the  World;  and  this  really  un- 
philosophical  prepossession  once  started  with,  the  way 
of  error  is  easy.  The  monist  of  to  day,  on  the  other 
hand,  finds  God  and  the  world  in  the  "inner  infinite  " 
of  his  own  breast.  The  kingdom  of  heaven,  as  Christ 
himself  expressly  declares,  is  not  here,  or  there,  but 
"within  us. " 

Monistic  individualism  sets  man  on  his  own  feet 
and  enjoins  him.to  work  out  his  own  salvation,  unaided 
by  any  priestly  mediation,  undeterred  by  any  priestly 
malediction.  Of  all  the  perverse  ideas  that  ever  pos- 
sessed the  mind  and  heart  of  man,  surely  the  fiction  of 
sacerdotal  intervention  and  sacramental  efficacy  is  the 


4240 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


most  malign.  But  it  utterly  disappears,  like  the 
shadow  of  some  evil  dream,  when  it  is  realised  that 
man's  potentialities  are  at  his  own  disposal,  and  that 
his  career  is  his  own  to  make,  for  good  or  for  evil. 
The  lines  of  Omar  Khayyam  finely  emphasise  the 
truth  that  self  is  at  once  its  own  recompense  and  its 
own  retribution  : 

"  I  sent  my  soul  into  the  invisible, 
Some  lesson  of  that  after-lite  to  spell ; 
And  by  and  by  my  soul  returned  to  me, 
And  answered  ■!  myself  am  heaven  and  hell:  " 

Individualism  is  ever  stronger  than  collectivism. 
Any  social  scheme  which  consults  the  interests  of  the 
group,  at  the  expense  of  the  unit,  which  composes  it 
and  without  which  it  would  not  exist,  is  foredoomed 
to  failure.  Marcus  Aurelius,  indeed,  has  said  that 
"what  is  good  for  the  swarm  cannot  be  bad  for  the 
bee";  but  that  is  beginning  at  the  wrong  end.  In  so- 
cial reform  we  must  begin,  not  with  the  group,  which 
has  no  locus  apart  from  its  component  elements,  but 
with  the  unit.  To  revert  to  our  first  illustration,  when 
the  bee  is  as  it  ought  to  be,  in  all  its  several  relation- 
ships, the  swarm  may  be  trusted  to  look  after  the 
things  of  itself.  As  Shakespeare  puts  it,  trueness  to 
one's  self  involves,  necessarily,  a  corresponding  true- 
ness in  all  the  relations  of  life. 

Comte's  idol  of  humanity  was  the  apotheosis  of  the 
swarm — and  the  deification  of  the  ghosts  of  all  past 
and  dead  swarms.  What  a  ghastly  dream  !  So,  under 
the  Juggernaut  car  of  socialism,  all  individual  life 
would  be  trampled  out  of  human  semblance.  No  mo- 
tive for  exertion,  no  supreme  ideal  can  touch  or 
quicken,  which  does  not  come  hot  from  the  individual 
heart.  All  effort,  to  be  worthy  of  the  name,  must  be 
from  the  self  outwards.  Every  heroic  and  valiant 
deed  which  history  records  sprang,  like  Minerva  from 
the  head  of  Jove,  from  the  burning  resolve  of  one 
man.  The  intense  energy  of  a  Paul,  a  Luther,  a  Sa- 
vonarola, simply  refuses  primarily  to  arise  in  a  horde 
or  band  of  men.  The  collective  genius  of  a  corpora- 
tion, the  joint  energy  of  a  council,  refuses  to  be  trans- 
lated into  any  equivalent  whatsoever.  In  such  a  con- 
course of  minds  there  is  no  height  of  instinctive  wis- 
dom, no  divination,  no  prophetic  burden ;  there  is 
only  the  dull  average  of  the  individual  minds  which 
compose  it. 

'■'Je  mourrai  scitl,"  said  Pascal,  and  the  saying  is 
typical  of  that  "aloneness"  of  the  individual  life  which 
is  always  more  or  less  present  to  minds  of  the  highest 
calibre.  For  immortality,  in  whatever  light  we  may 
view  it, — an  immortality  to  come,  or  that  "larger 
hope"  of  the  "immortality  that  now  is," — would  be  a 
mockery,  a  contradiction  in  terms,  if  it  were  not  for 
the  ineffaceable  lines  of  personality,  lines  which  may 
not  be  broken,  and  which  may  scarcely  fade  : 


"  Thou  yet  shall  leave  thine  own  enduring  token, 
For  earth  is  not  as  though  thou  ne'er  hadst  been," 

was  not  spoken  of  the  society,  or  of  the  community, 
but  of  the  individual  soul.  Whatever  we  may  think 
of  immortality,  it  must  alwa3'S  be  of  an  immortality 
strictly  personal  and  individual,  or  of  none  at  all.  The 
beatific  vision  of  St.  Paul  was  only  the  natural  and 
assured  sequel  of  individual  life  here,  a  continuance 
of  individual  existence  in  Him,  in  whom,  to  use  his 
sublime  words,  "we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our 
being." 

Tennyson,  in  his  "  In  Memoriam,"  attempts,  in  the 
last  recess  of  thought,  to  get  beyond  this  individual 
immortality.      He  seeks,  in  the  hereafter, — 

"  Upon  the  last  and  sharpest  height 
Before  the  spirits  fade  away ; 
Some  landing-place  to  clasp  and  say — 
•  Farewell,  we  lose  ourselves  in  light  ! '  " 

But  such  an  absorption,  for  such  it  would  be,  of 
the  individual  in  the  All  is  a  pantheistic  dream,  and, 
from  the  Christian  standpoint,  untrue.  Whatever  our 
views  on  these  subjects  may  be,  we  shall  always  be 
thinking  logically  and  correctly  in  asserting  that,  if 
anything  be  permanent,  individuality  is  permanent. 
All  other  immortality  is  but  a  multiple  of  this  primary 
unit. 

THE  MEANING  OF  "SELF." 
Mr.  George  M.  McCrie  is  a  zealous  apostle  of 
Dr.  Robert  Lewins's  philosophj'  of  Solipsism,  the  basic 
principle  of  which  has  been  tersely  expressed  in  the 
sentence,  "things  are  thinks.'''^ 

Solipsism,  the  theory  that  all  is  self,  is  a  monism 
which  maintains  the  identity  of  the  cosmos  and  the 
individuality  of  the  subjective  organism  ;  and  in  this 
sense  Mr.  McCrie  speaks  of  "the  barriers  of  person- 
ality." 

There  is  a  truth  in  the  doctrine  of  solipsism  which 
cannot  be  denied,  for  it  has  only  to  be  understood  to 
be  recognised  as  a  truth.  The  tree  at  which  I  now 
look  is  at  this  moment  myself.  All  sensations,  the 
prick  of  the  pin  not  less  than  the  light-impression  of  a 
distant  star,  are  myself ;  they  are  the  elements  of  my 
soul.  They  are  substance  of  my  substance  and  life  of 
my  life.  And  the  ideas. which  have  been  distilled  out 
of  these  sense-elements,  my  notions  of  the  nature  of 
things,  of  their  interrelations,  their  import  and  useful- 
ness, my  ideals,  demons  and  gods,  all  these  are  pro- 
ducts of  the  activity  of  my  self.  Spider-like  I  spin 
them  out  of  my  own  being.  The)',  too,  are  parts  of 
myself  ;  but  they  are  self- wrought.  I  am  their  creator 
and  begetter.  As  we  read  in  the  Dhammapada,  one 
of  the  most  sacred  books  of  Buddhism,  "Self  is  the 
lord  of  self  —who  else  should  be  the  lord?" 

This  is  the  truth  of  solipsism  which  we  do  not  deny 


1  See  Dr.  Robert  Lewins 
ThcMonhl.  Vol.  IV,  No.  2. 


cle,  ■■  The  Uniiy  of  Thought  and  Thing,"  in 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4241 


and  which  we  gladly  recognise  before  criticising  the 
onesidedness  of  its  doctrines.  This  is  the  truth,  but  it 
is  one  side  only  of  the  truth,  and  we  must  look  at  the 
other  side,  too. 

What  does  "self  "  mean?  Let  us  beware  of  the  use 
of  words  to  which  different  people  attach  different 
meanings.  Self  in  this  respect  is  a  most  dangerous 
word.  Let  us  define  its  various  meanings  and  let  us 
distinguish  them. 

The  etymology  of  "sc/f"  (German  sc/b,  Gothic 
silba)  is  reported  in  our  dictionaries  to  be  doubtful ; 
they  agree,  however,  that  the  first  part  contains  the 
reflex  si',  a  root  which  appears  also  in  same,  while  the 
last  part,  i.  e.  !f,  on  the  authority  of  Khtgc,  is  said  to 
possibly  mean  "lord"  or  "master,"  the  improbabilitj' 
of  which  (for  the  word  sill',  "possession,"  is  Old  Irish) 
Kliigc  seems  to  feel  himself,  for  he  adds  in  parenthesis, 
as  if  trying  to  justify  his  bold  conjecture  :  "  Thus  San- 
skrit patis,  'lord,'  is  etymologically  the  same  as  the 
Lithuanian /(z/j,  'self.'"  The  most  obvious  explana- 
tion, it  appears  to  me,  would  be  the  derivation  of  the 
//from  life  (German  Lebeii,  "to  live,"  and  Leib,  "liv- 
ing body,"  compare  the  Gothic  bilsibari);  and  this  ex- 
planation is  so  simple  that  I  wonder  why  Kluge  did 
not  mention  it,  for  it  cannot  have  escaped  him  ;  there 
may  be  some  objection  to  it  unknown  to  me.  At  any 
rate  the  word  "self"  is  used  in  the  sense  of  the  ety- 
mology from  se  and  life ;  for  in  this  all  are  agreed  that 
it  means  "this  same  organism,  or  the  person  of  whom 
we  speak." 

Now,  Mr.  McCrie  maintains  "the  strict  unity  of 
the  cosmos  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the  individuality 
of  the  subjective  organism  on  the  other,"  and  declares 
that  "across  the  'insuperable  threshold'  of  self  none 
can  ever  pass."  Strange,  however,  that  while,  accord- 
ing to  the  doctrine  of  solipsism,  nothing  exists  except 
self,  which  is  my  soul,  m}'  soul  being  my  bodily  organ- 
ism. Dr.  Lewins  denies  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
and  insists  upon  its  final  annihilation  in  death.  If  the 
All  be  identified  with  self,  or,  in  other  words,  if  we 
choose  to  call  the  sum- total  of  all  that  exists  "self," 
how  can  we  escape  the  conclusion  that  there  is  no  real 
death  ;  that  death  is  onl}'  an  illusion,  and  that  self 
must  persist  after  death,  for  it  is  the  All,  and  as  such 
it  is  as  indestructible  as  matter  and  energy. 

The  trouble  with  the  word  "self"  is  that  it  is  used 
in  various  meanings,  and  being  a  term  of  extraordi- 
nar}'  significance  in  philosophy,  religion,  ethics,  and 
practical  life,  people  regard  their  definition  as  a  mat- 
ter of  faith  ;  they  do  not  consider  it  calmly  and  quietly, 
but  when  confronted  with  disagreeing  opinions  grow 
excited  and  are  unable  to  discuss  the  subject  on  ac- 
count of  their  very  zeal,  which,  sincere  though  it  is, 
beclouds  their  minds  and  does  not  allow  them  to  un- 
derstand themselves, 


Self  means  our  personality  :  thus  far,  as  we  have 
seen,  all  are  agreed  ;  but  what  is  our  personality  ? 

Our  personality  has  originated  from  sensations. 
Sensations,  our  experience  teaches  us,  are  commotions 
of  what  we  call  our  body,  which  is  an  extremely  com- 
plicated and  differentiated  system  of  living  substance. 
When  we  say,  "animal  living  substance  is  sentient," 
we  mean  that  every  sensation  felt  is  the  subjectively 
perceived  condition  of  what  objectively  is,  or  might 
be  seen  to  be,  a  motion  ;  which  motion  may  be  due  to 
an  internal  change  or  to  an  external  impression. 

The  simplest  living  substances  of  which  we  know 
are  those  indifferentiated  specks  of  sentient  matter 
called  araoebas,  and  scientists  have  spent  a  good  deal 
of  time  and  trouble  in  observing  these  mj'sterious  crea- 
tures, which  are  representatives  of  the  most  primitive 
animal  life. 

All  living  substance  is  exposed  to  contact  with  its 
surroundings.  There  is  water,  there  is  the  air,  there 
are  objects  of  various  description.  The  impressions 
which  they  make  upon  sentient  substance  we  call  in  a 
broad  term  "experience."  Moreover,  living  substance 
itself  is  in  a  constant  change.  It  absorbs  the  oxygen 
of  the  surrounding  medium  in  which  it  lives,  and  re- 
moves the  waste  product  of  the  oxidation.  It  assimi- 
lates other  materials  and  discards  what  it  cannot  re- 
tain. Every  impression  causes  a  commotion,  and 
every  commotion  leaves  a  permanent  trace.  The  com- 
motion, we  assume,  is  felt,  the  feeling  being  exactly 
analogous  to  the  form  of  the  commotion,  and  its  trace 
is  a  disposition  to  reproduce  that  feeling.  The  trace 
preserves  in  the  living  substance  some  of  the  essential 
features  of  the  commotion,  and  when  the  trace  is  again 
excited  by  an  irritation,  of  whatever  kind  it  may  be, 
the  feeling  experienced  at  the  time  of  the  original  com- 
motion is  revived,  although,  it  may  be  granted,  weaker 
and  dimmer.  We  observe  that  living  substance  shrinks 
from  impressions  which  exercise  a  directly  disturbing 
influence  upon  >its  structures,  thus  causing  pain,  and 
that  it  seeks  those  which  gratify  its  wants,  thus  afford- 
ing pleasure.  How  can  these  facts  be  otherwise  inter- 
preted than  by  the  assumption  of  memory,  which  finds 
its  obvious  explanation  in  an  endurance  of  the  traces 
of  former  impressions? 

According  to  the  theory  of  evolution  we  assume 
that  the  beginning  of  the  existence  of  our  soul  dates 
back  to  the  first  appearance  of  life  upon  earth.  Every 
experience  remains,  every  reaction  leaves  a  vestige 
that  is  preserved  and  thus  the  form  of  life  is  more  and 
more  differentiated.  The  chicken  that  develops  in  the 
egg  is,  to  explain  the  secret  in  a  word,  the  product  of 
memory.  Its  ancestors  have  received  innumerable 
sense-impressions  and  reacted  upon  them  in  special 
ways.  The  entirety  of  the  various  memory  traces 
■\vhich,  in  addition,  by  a  selection  of  the  fittest  yariciT 


4242 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


tions  have  developed  into  organs,  constitute  a  system 
of  organised  structures,  called  the  body  of  the  creature 
which,  when  the  shell  breaks,  creeps  out  ready  made. 
The  eye  of  the  newly  hatched  chick  with  all  that  be- 
longs to  the  eye  presupposes  that  its  ancestors  exer- 
cised the  function  of  seeing.  Their  seeing  is  here  re- 
vived and  their  exertions  are  resurrected  in  a  living 
presence. 

In  the  same  way  man  is  born  into  the  world  as  the 
product  of  the  memory  of  his  past :  but  in  addition  to 
the  inherited  structures  of  his  existence,  his  personal- 
ity receives  the  benefit  of  instruction  by  example  as 
well  as  by  education.  The  baby  imbibes  the  ideas  of 
his  parents,  teachers,  and  companions  ;  and  all  the 
traces  received  in  his  impressible  mind  are  embodied 
as  living  parts  of  his  personality. 

Whosoever  you  may  be,  my  dear  reader,  do  not  be 
oblivious  of  the  fact  that  your  soul  consists  of  the 
quintessence  of  many  other  souls  who  continue  to  live 
in  you  although  their  lives  may  have  reached  that  con- 
summation which  we  call  death — so  much  dreaded  by 
pusillanimous  minds.  What  you  call  your  self  is  the 
temporarily  individualised  presence  of  innumerable 
noble  yearnings  and  immortal  aspirations.  Give  up  the 
conceit  of  a  separate  selfhood  which  flatters  your  vanity 
and  sets  you  in  a  false  position.  Learn  to  comprehend 
the  duties  which  the  recognition  of  the  nature  of  your 
being  in  its  relation  to  your  ancestors  and  to  posterity 
imposes  upon  you.  This  wider  conception  of  self  is 
not  only  truer,  it  is  also  nobler,  more  aspiring  and 
comforting.  It  liberates  the  individual  from  the  nar- 
rowness of  selfhood.  You  are  the  product  of  the  past 
and  you  owe  all  you  are  to  the  past — nay,  you  are  the 
past  itself  as  it  is  changed  into  the  present.  And  the 
future  will  be  your  work  ;  you  are  responsible  for  it ; 
nay,  more  than  that :  you  will  reap  what  you  sow,  for 
as  you  now  are  the  past  in  its  present  incarnation,  so 
you  will  also  be  the  future  that,  according  to  your 
deeds,  grows  from  the  present.  We  bwild  up  our  own 
souls  and  have  to  create  our  own  immortality. 

Such  in  brief  are  the  facts,  and  we  have  now  only 
to  agree  about  the  meaning  of  the  name  "self." 

Shall  we  call  "self"  the  original  impressions  with 
all  they  can  mean  ?  If  we  understand  by  a  ray  of  light 
the  ether-vibration — viz.,  the  objective  process — and 
also  the  physiological  commotion  together  with  its 
sensations,  viz.,  the  subjective  product  of  the  process, 
we  can  truly  say  that  this  is  reality  and  there  is  nothing 
beyond.  Self  in  that  case  is  identical  with  the  cosmos 
so  far  as  the  cosmos  has  impressed  itself  upon  a  sen- 
tient creature,  and  is,  as  it  were,  reflected  in  its  soul. 

Shall  we  call  "self"  the  total  organism  in  its  tem- 
porary individual  shape,  the  material  of  which  it  con- 
sists at  a  given  time,  its  muscles  and  nerves,  its  heart- 
beats and  longings,  and  its  thoughts?     This  self  cer- 


tainly is  a  heap  of  attributes  which  are  subject  to  a 
constant  change.  It  will  be  dissolved  and  its  elements 
will  enter  new  combinations.  The  substance  will  as- 
sume new  forms  and  its  thoughts,  too,  will  be  trans- 
ferred to  other  minds  where  they  will  be  thought  again 
and  prove,  if  they  be  erroneous,  a  curse,  and  if  they  be 
true,  a  source  of  illimited  blessings. 

Shall  we  call  "self"  that,  which,  according  to  our 
notion,  is  the  essential  part  of  this  organic  system  of 
matter,  feelings,  thoughts,  and  aspirations?  Are  there 
lower  parts  of  self  and  higher  parts  of  self?  And  are 
there  perhaps  also  true  and  false,  good  and  bad,  healthy 
and  diseased  elements  in  our  self.  Does  not  this  or- 
ganism of  ours  often  contain  elements  that  are  foreign 
to  its  normal  and  natural  constitution?  Are  the  bacilli 
a  part  of  the  organism,  are  they  ingredients  of  the  self, 
or  are  they  intruders  which  are  in  conflict  with  the 
true  self  ?  If  we  thus  distinguish  in  the  organism  itself 
foreign  elements  and  hostile  factors  which  cannot  prop- 
erly be  called  parts  of  the  self,  we  must  of  course  dis- 
tinguish between  self  and  not-self  and  can  no  longer, 
as  Dr.  Lewins  proposes  to  do,  identify  self  and  the  All. 

There  is  another  conception  of  "self,"  but  I  omit 
it  here  because  Dr.  Lewins  and  Mr.  McCrie  presum- 
ably agree  with  me  that  it  is  an  illusion.  It  is  the  as- 
sumption of  a  metaphysical  self  which  is  supposed  to 
be  a  being  independent  of  the  elements  that  constitute 
the  self.  It  is  the  unity  of  a  self  conceived  as  an  en- 
tity. ^  The  assumption  of  a  metaph}'sical  self  involves 
us  in  so  manj"  contradictions  that  its  conception  has 
been  given  up.  A  few  isolated  thinkers  only  still  ad- 
here to  it,  because,  so  it  seems,  they  find  comfort  in 
the  idea  of  considering  the  essence  of  the  soul  as  in- 
trinsically mysterious. 

In  practical  life  the  word  "  self  "  is  frequently  used 
in  contrast  to  all  that  which  is  not  self,  be  it  society  or 
the  world  at  large,  including  its  various  existences  and 
its  ordinances. 

If  we  agree  on  the  facts,  the  definition  of  words  is 
a  mere  matter  of  convenience,  and  I  cannot  say  that 
Dr.  Lewins's  and  Mr.  McCrie's  terminology  appeals 
to  me  as  being  useful.  On  the  contrary,  it  confounds 
all  issues  and  is  liable  to  distort  our  comprehension  of 
facts. 

The  ver}' title  of  Mr.  McCrie's  article  is  misleading. 
He  speaks  of  the  barriers  of  personality,  while  in  fact, 
there  are  no  barriers  to  personality.  He  says  "  across 
the  '  insuperable  threshold  '  of  self  none  can  ever  pass;" 
this  statement  denies  the  occurrence  of  one  of  the  most 

II  always  understood  Dr.  Lewins  to  deny  the  reality  of  a  metaphysical 
self,  which  is  nothing  but  a  hypostatisation  of  the  unity  of  a  personality  ;  but 
there  are  a  few  remarks  in  Mr.  McCrie's  article  which  make  me  doubtful.  Im- 
mortality truly  must  be  "  personal  and  individual  "  as  Mr.  McCrie  says,  for 
every  preservation  of  soul  is  the  preservation  of  some  special,  i.  e.  individual, 
and  definite  soul-structure.  But  the  unity  of  a  personality  in  its  isolated  sep- 
arateness  such  as  a  man's  self  and  bodily  organism  appears  in  the  ego-con- 
sciousness has  nothing  to  do  with  it. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4243 


undeniable  facts — that  of  growth.  As  a  matter  of  daily 
experience,  every  one  of  us,  with  a  few  rare  excep- 
tions, is  constantly  enlarging  his  self  by  new  expe- 
riences. Evolution  and  progress  mean  nothing  if  they 
are  not  a  crossing  of  the  present  threshold  of  our  per 
sonalities  and  physical,  mental,  and  moral  growth  of 
self.  It  is  true  that  every  growth  is  an  addition  to  self 
and  every  crossing  is  a  conquest.  The  new  territory 
at  once  becomes  the  domain  of  self.  In  that  sense,  of 
course,  self  can  never  transcend  its  own  existence. 
But  if  that  is  meant,  how  can  solipsism  deny  the  exist- 
ence of  anj'thing  that  is  not-self?  Did  the  newly  con- 
quered territory  rise  into  being  out  of  the  realms  of 
non-existence  ? 

Our  self,  as  a  separate  limited  being,  the  barriers 
of  which  cage  us  in  like  prisoners,  does  not  exist.  Says 
Dr.  Lewins  in  a  letter  to  the  Agnostic  Jourua!  with 
reference  to  Goethe's  rhapsody  on  nature  : 

"All  difficulties  are  got  rid  of  by  solipsismal  Selfism,  in  which 
what  Goethe  says  of  '  nature  holds  good — viz.,  that  we  are  '  unable 
to  step  out  of  her ' — an  assertion  that  Goethe,  Dr.  Carus,  and  the 
editor  of  this  journal  fail  more  or  less  completely  to  realise ;  as  is 
the  case  also  with  Kant.  For  it  really  means  '  out  of  the  Self,  or 
ego' — as  Miss  Naden  writes  of  '  Nature '  in  her  German  poem  Das 
Ideal: 

'  Doch  was  bist  Du,  als  nur  das  Wiederhallen 
Vom  alten  Seelenklang? '  " 

This  same  Dr.  Lewins  who  quotes  Miss  Naden's 
beautiful  verse  denies  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  It 
appears  that  he  "fails  more  or  less  completely  to  un- 
derstand "Miss  Naden,  for  Miss  Naden  arrays  herself 
on  our  side,  not  on  the  side  of  Dr.  Lewins's  solipsism, 
when  she  explains  our  self  to  be  "the  re-echoing  of 
former  soul-utterances." 

If  self  alone  were  existent,  the  world  of  self,  its 
sense-woven  images,  its  ideas  and  aspirations  would 
be  meaningless.  They  would  be  dreams,  and  the 
question  whether  an  idea  is  true  or  false  would  be  a 
matter  of  no  concern.  True  would  be  what  suits  the 
self,  false  what  the  self  abhors.  Of  course,  the  ultimate 
criterion  of  truth  lies  in  the  agreement  of  all  experi- 
ences among  themselves,  and  thus  every  self  carries  in 
itself  the  touchstone  of  truth  ;  but  it  is  not  the  sub- 
jective element  of -self  which  affords  the  ultimate  test, 
but  the  objective  element,  that  feature  of  our  experi- 
ences which  is  the  same  in  the  experiences  of  other 
selves,  the  formal  elemert  of  existence  which,  when 
systematical!}^  formulated,  appears  in  our  thoughts  as 
reason. 

Mr.  McCrie  quotes  approvingly  Prof.  T.  H.  Green's 
opinion  that  there  are  as  many  bridges  as  there  are 
persons  looking  at  the  bridge ;  but  is  this  not  a  conun- 
drum, which,  if  the  real  state  of  things  were  not  quite 
plain,  would  throw  the  whole  world  of  thought  into 
confusion  ?  Let  me  ask  Professor  Green  what  he  un- 
derstands by  a  bridge,  the  sense-image  which  appears 


in  the  eye  and  which  is  seen  to  he  at  a  certain  distance 
outside  of  the  person's  body,  or  that  objective  some- 
thing, the  presence  of  which  is  indicated  in  the  vision 
of  the  bridge.  There  are — as  a  matter  of  course — as 
many  bridge-images  as  there  are  persons  looking  at 
the  bridge,  but  as  to  the  thing  itself,  there  is  but  one 
bridge,  and  any  one  who  denies  it  tries  to  mystify  him- 
self and  others. 

Self,  in  the  sense  of  the  soul-structures  which  domi- 
nate our  organism  as  the  regulative  element  of  our 
personality,  is  the  noblest  conception  of  self,  and  we 
may  call  it  our  true  self.  This  self  can  be  made  im- 
mortal ;  it  can  be  transferred  into  other  selves  and  can, 
to  adopt  the  simile  of  Miss  Naden,  echo  in  the  future 
life  of  mankind  through  all  the  ages  to  come. 

The  self,  in  the  sense  of  such  soul-structures  as  de- 
pict faithfully  the  cosmos,  cannot  be  identified  with 
the  All,  but  must  be  conceived  as  a  part  of  the  All. 
The  very  nature  of  self  as  a  true  representation  of 
reality  presupposes  the  existence  of  something  beyond, 
and  upon  the  correctness  of  the  representation  de- 
pends the  intrinsic  worth  of  self. 

The  self  in  the  sense  of  an  isolated  existence  which 
has  to  live  in  loneliness  and  to  die  in  loneliness  (a  hor- 
rible idea  !),  a  mystical  soul-monad  or  an  ego  entity  is 
an  illusion,  but  the  true  self  is  the  embodiment  of 
truth,  the  incarnation  of  the  Logos  that  pervades  all 
existence,  as  that  feature  which  we  may  call  world- 
reason  or  the  harmony  of  facts,  it  is  the  saviour  from 
error  and  evil  ;  it  is  the  lord  ;  indeed,  it  must  be  the 
lord.  Who  else  shall  be  the  lord?  The  true  self  is 
the  appearance  of  the  moral  law  in  the  flesh.  It  is  the 
revelation  of  God.  p.  c. 


BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN. 


BV     NOBUTA     KISHIMOTO,     M. 


VI.   THE  INFLUENCE  OF  BUDDHISM  ON  THE  PEOPLE. 

Buddhism,  on  the  one  hand,  destroyed  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  the  cheerful  temperament  of  the  Jap- 
anese people,  while  on  the  other  hand,  it.  deepened 
their  thought  and  meditation.  As  we  have  seen  in  a 
preceding  article,  our  early  ancestors,  before  they 
came  in  contact  with  Buddhism,  seem  to  have  been 
very  optimistic,  fond  of  feasts  and  merry-making,  and 
enjoying  this  earthly  life  to  its  utmost  extent.  They 
lived  mainly  in  the  present.  Thej'  did  not  think  about 
the  past,  while  the  fear  of  the  future  was  not  yet 
strong.  Their  religion  was  to  live  happily  with  gods 
and  men  in  this  present  life.  What  they  called  sins 
were  mostly  what  we  now  call  ceremonial  sins,  sin 
being  almost  always  identified  with  some  sort  of  phys- 
ical uncleanness.  Even  at  present  the  Japanese  are  re- 
garded as  physically  the  most  clean  of  all  the  peoples 
of  the  world.      WHien   Buddhism   came,  it  taught  the 


4244 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


sinfulness  of  passions,  called  attention  to  the  evils  and 
sorrows  of  the  present  life,  and  also  set  people  a  think- 
ing about  the  existence  both  of  the  past  and  the  future  *> 
life. 

Optimism  tends  to  be  shallow  and  superficial,  while 
pessimism  tends  to  be  deep  and  thoroughgoing.  Thus 
Buddhism  changed  the  buoyant  disposition  of  the  early 
Japanese  temperament  into  the  contemplative  mood 
we  have  now.  This,  in  one  sense,  may  be  called  one 
of  the  bad  effects  of  Buddhism,  but  from  another  point 
of  view  this  is  one  of  its  good  effects.  Men  cannot 
always  be  satisfied  with  a  cheap  and  wholesale  opti- 
mism. Progress  is  impossible  with  such  optimism, 
either  in  science  or  in  art.  Then,  the  deepening  of 
the  national  temperament  is  one  of  the  good  effects  of 
Buddhism,  and  this  effect  is  particularly  recognisable 
in  the  general  tone  of  the  Japanese  literature. 

Further,  it  is  often  said  against  Buddhism  that 
monks  and  priests  are  idle  and  unprofitable  members 
of  the  community,  like  drones  living  on  the  industry 
of  others.  This,  in  one  sense,  is  true.  But  we  must 
remember  that  if  Buddhism  introduced  into  Japan  cer- 
tain numbers  of  these  "drones  of  society,"  it  also  in- 
troduced various  arts,  such  as  painting,  sculpture,  and 
architecture.  These  were  the  necessary  accompani- 
ments, so  to  speak,  of  Buddhism.  Most  of  the  famous 
paintings,  sculptures,  and  buildings  of  the  present 
Japan  are  religious,  but  principally  Buddljistic.  More- 
over, the  Buddhist  monks  and  priests  were  not  alto- 
gether idle  and  unprofitable.  It  is  true  that  they  were 
living  on  the  gifts  of  the  believers.  But  the  Christian 
pastors,  too,  live  on  the  gifts  of  the  Christians,  just 
as  much  as  the  Buddhist  clergy  do,  yet  no  one  calls 
them  idle  and  unprofitable.  Apart  from  their  moral 
and  religious  functions,  it  was  mostly  the  monks  who, 
in  their  pilgrimages  or  in  search  of  quiet  spots,  built 
roads  and  spanned  bridges,  thus  making  travelling  and 
communication  easy.  It  was  often  the  monks  who 
encouraged  the  "people  in  the  cultivation  of  the  arts  of 
peace  and  life.  Often  they  themselves  led  the  people  in 
the  transformation  of  the  waste  land  into  the  fertile  rice- 
iields.  Thus,  at  least  in  Japan,  the  Buddhist  clergy  can- 
not be  denounced  as  altogether  idle  and  unprofitable. 

It  is  said  that  Buddhism  does  not  do  justice  to 
women,  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  a  remarkable  fact 
that  Buddhism  works  against  class-distinctions.  It  is 
generally  admitted  that  Buddha  had  in  view  the  male 
alone,  at  least  when  he  first  established  his  Order. 
According  to  original  Buddhism,  marriage  is  evil  and 
there  are  two  reasons  for  it.  First,  marriage  means 
pleasure  or  satisfaction  of  desire,  and  as  such  it  tends 
to  indulgence.  Secondly,  it  is  the  source  of  existence, 
the  source  of  the  "four  miseries,"  birth,  sickness,  old 
age,  and  death.  As  women  beguile  men  and  lead  them 
to  indulgence  and  liell,  they  are  regarded  as  more  sin- 


ful than  men.  "Women  are  sinful,"  is  the  prevailing 
belief  among  the  Japanese  women  themselves.  But 
as  Buddhism  recognises  no  distinction  of  castes  or 
classes  anywhere,  it  is  one  of  the  strong  equalising 
factors  of  societ)^  All  monks  are  on  the  same  foot- 
ing ;  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  family  from  which 
one  comes  has  no  influence  in  the  Order.  If  any- 
thing distinguishes  one  monk  from  another,  it  is  his 
virtue  and  wisdom.  Worldly  distinctions  have  noth- 
ing to  do  within  the  gates  of  the  monastery.  Not  only 
within,  but  also  w'ithout  those  gates,  the  influences 
of  this  strict  teaching  of  equality  was  felt  indirecth' 
and  yet  quite  powerfully.  As  in  India,  so  in  our  feu- 
dal times,  the  separation  between  the  castes  or  classes 
of  the  people  was  sharp  and  rigid.  Confucianism 
favored  this  distinction,  but  Buddhism  was  against  it, 
both  in  theory  and  in  practice.  It  allowed  anybody 
from  any  class  to  join  the  Order.  It  denounced  worldly 
fame  and  prosperity  as  both  illusive  and  delusive. 

There  are  many  instances  in  our  history  of  priests 
and  monks  wielding  worldly  power  and  causing  trouble 
in  the  politics  of  Japan.  Unable  to  enter  here  into 
any  detail  I  will  quote  two  examples  only.  Towards 
the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  an  able  and  wise 
ex-Emperor  is  said  to  have  declared  almost  in  a  des- 
perate tone,  "There  is  nothing  I  cannot  do  just  as  I 
wish,  except  three  things,  which  are  beyond  my  power, 
the  eyes  of  dice,  the  flood  of  the  Kamo  river,  and  the 
monks  of  the  monasteries."  During  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  centur)',  that  is,  towards  the  close  of  the 
"  age  of  wars,"  when  the  great  General  Nobunaga 
tried  to  pacify  and  consolidate  the  whole  country  of 
Japan,  he  found  that  the  political  influence  of  a  party 
of  the  wealthy  and  worldly  clergy  was  a  great  obstacle. 
This  induced  him,  on  one  hand,  to  introduce  Catholic 
Christianity  and  to  break  down  the  monasteries  which 
were  transformed  into  fortresses.  These  two  facts  may 
suffice  to  indicate  how  much  political  troubles  were 
caused  by  the  priesthood.  But  at  the  same  time  we 
must  remember  that  it  was  this  same  Buddhist  priest- 
hood that  preserved  the  learning  and  literature  of  the 
nation  during  the  more  than  four  hundred  years  of  our 
disorderly  and  almost  anarchical  "age  of  wars."  In 
those  times  all  the  soldiers  and  knights  were  occupied 
solely  with  their  battles  and  intrigues,  and  the  com- 
mon people  were  partly  too  ignorant,  partly  did  not 
enjoy  the  necessary  ease  and  leisure.  Thus  the  priests 
and  monks,  most  of  whom  were  free  from  all  warlike 
professions  and  whose  monasteries  were  situated  in 
comparatively  safe  and  quiet  places,  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  study  of  philosophy  and  literature,  and 
this  service  of  the  Buddhist  Orders  to  the  Japanese  civ- 
ilisation ought  to  be  properly  recognised. 

We  have  to  add  that  in  certain  circles  the  Bud- 
dhist monks  and  priests  are  despised  instead  of  being 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4245 


respected.  When  a  boy  is  very  naughty,  the  worst 
and  commonest  threat  on  the  part  of  the  parents  is  to 
tell  him,  "If  you  do  not  improve,  I  will  make  of  you 
a  monk." 

There  are  several  reasons  for  this  disrespect  of  the 
Japanese  people  towards  the  Buddhist  clerg)',  the  most 
important  ones  are  as  follows  :  As  a  rule,  the  great 
mass  of  the  Buddhist  clergy  is  supplied  either  by 
those  boys  who  have  nobody  to  help  them,  or  by  those 
boys  who  are  too  unruly  to  be  kept  at  home  in  the 
family.  To  become  a  monk  means  not  only  to  forsake 
the  pleasures  of  the  world,  but  also  it  means  to  be 
thrown  out  of  society.  Hence  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances nobody  likes  to  become  a  monk  or  to  send  his 
children  to  a  monastery.  Thus  the  monks  recruit 
themselves  mostlj'  from  the  lower  classes,  even  crim- 
inals often  being  pardoned  on  the  condition  of  becom- 
ing monks.  Another  reason  is  that  while  monks  and 
priests  are  expected  to  be  abstinent  from  intoxicating 
drinks  and  from  eating  fish,  flesh,  and  vegetables  with 
strong  flavor,  such  as  onion,  leek,  garlic,  and  the  like, 
they  are  often  accused  of  indulging  in  them.  The)' 
are  expected  to  abstain  from  all  sorts  of  vices  and  im- 
purities, but  many  of  them  commit  deeds  of  which 
laymen  would  be  ashamed.  Even  supposing  they  are 
not  more  immoral  than  la}'men,  they  being  monks  and 
priests  are  for  every  fault  doubly  to  blame,  and  if  really 
more  immoral,  how  much  more  !  The  phrases  "fish- 
smelling  monks"  and  "Doctors'  intemperance  and 
monks'  immorality  "  are  proverbial. 

Notwithstanding  these  charges,  we  must  admit  the 
healthy  influence  of  the  Buddhist  teachings  of  an  earn- 
est moral  discipline  and  of  universal  charity.  As  to 
moral  discipline,  the  educated  people  try  to  lead  right- 
eous lives  in  order  to  attain  to  wisdom  and  enlighten- 
ment, while  the  illiterate  are  anxious  to  escape  the 
corporal  punishment  in  the  numberless  hells.  As  to 
universal  charity,  the  present  Japanese  owe  a  great 
deal  to  Buddhism.  Temples  and  monasteries  are  asy- 
lums not  only  for  men  but  also  for  birds  and  animals. 
Priests  have  often  been  the  means  of  rescuing  the 
lives  of  men  doomed  to  death.  Buddhism  taught  us 
to  be  kind  and  merciful  to  men,  to  animals  and  even 
to  plants.  Alms  were  freely  and  generously  given  not 
only  to  monks  but  also  to  beggars,  and  our  charity  has 
been  carried  to  such  an  extreme  that  there  are  many 
beggars  in  Japan  at  present. 

The  love  of  flowers  and  sense  for  beauty  among 
the  Japanese  cannot  be  said  to  have  originated  with 
Buddhism  ;  it  is  inborn  in  the  race.  Yet  there  is  no 
question  that  Buddhism  elevated  and  refined  our  taste. 
In  a  word.  Buddhism,  while  it  pessimised  the  general 
tone  of  the  Japanese  mind,  has  also  softened  it  and 
baptised  it  with  the  deep  inspiring  spirit  of  humani- 
tarianism  and  love. 


SCIENCE  AND  REFORM. 

NORTHLAND  VISITORS. 

The  result  of  the  Mongolian  war  once  more  illustrates  the 
meaning  of  Horace  Walpole's  remark  that  the  Temple  of  Victory 
ought  to  be  erected  in  a  grove  of  Norway  pines.  For  the  last  three 
thousand  years  the  history  of  international  contests  has  been  a 
chronicle  of  wars  ending  with  the  victory  of  northern  nations  over 
their  southern  neighbors.  Persia  conquering  Egypt,  but  van- 
quished by  Greece,  Gree;e  by  Rome,  Rome  by  the  iron-fisted  bar- 
barians of  the  Hercinian  forest,  Turkey  by  Russia,  South-Spanish 
Moors  by  North-Spanish  Goths,  North  Italian  Savoy  absorbing 
its  southern  neighbors,  Prussia  bullying  Austria  and  finally  at- 
taining the  hegemony  of  the  German  Empire,  the  same  experience 
in  a  hundred  variations,  and  curiously  confirmed  by  the  apparent 
exception  of  the  South  American  war,  where  Chili,  a  high-latitude 
nation,  overpowered  her  northern  neighbors  in  a  fair  trial  of 
strength.  Is  frost  an  indispensable  factor  of  phjsical  vigor  ?  The 
study  of  biological  evidences  would  hardly  seem  to  justify  that 
conclusion.  In  the  frosty  latitudes  of  both  continents  the  giant 
cats  of  the  tropics  are  represented  only  by  the  dwarfs  of  the  feline 
species.  North  of  the  thirtieth  parallel  the  ox-killing  boa  shrinks 
to  the  size  of  a  mouse  ki'ling  blacksnake,  the  tapirs  and  elephants 
are  stunted  into  wild  hogs,  as  the  condors  into  carrion  crows,  and 
palms  into  grasses.  Our  next  relatives,  the  frugivorous  apes  of  the 
equatorial  regions,  would  perish  in  a  snow-storm,  and  their  few 
northern  congeners,  the  Gibraltar  macaque  and  the  Me.;ican 
marmoset  barely  exceed  the  size  of  a  squirrel.  Nor  can  we  doubt 
that  a  winterless  climate  is  perfectly  compatible  with  the  maximum 
physical  strength  of  our  species.  Sesostiis,  who  conquered  "all 
Asia"  to  the  northern  limits  of  the  Scythian  steppes  and  Europe 
to  the  valley  of  the  Danube,  can  hardly  have  commanded  a  nation 
of  weaklings.  Milo  of  Crotona  would  probably  have  floored  the 
champions  of  the  Visigoths  and  Teutons  as  easily  as  he  stunned  or 
killed  his  Thrasian  rivals.  The  water-drinking  'longshoremen  of 
the  Turkish  seaports  are  the  stoutest  bipeds  of  the  modern  world, 
and  the  key  to  the  mystery  of  Norman  conquests  can  be  found  in 
the  circumstance  that  frost  is  an  antidote  and  enables  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  colder  la;itudes  to  indulge,  with  comparative  impunity, 
in  all  sorts  of  dietetic  vices  that  have  palsied  the  sinews  of  their 
southern  neighbors. 

A  CONSISTENT  LIFE. 

The  career  of  Hermann  von  Helmholtz  was  a  practical  an- 
tithesis of  that  of  thousands  of  mystics,  who  only  two  hundred 
years  ago  devoted  a  life-time  to  the  pursuit  of  hyperphysical  phan- 
toms and  were  haunted  by  spooks  like  Spanish  horses  by  gadflies. 
Professor  Helmholtz  was  not  a  specialist  in  the  narrow-minded 
sense  of  the  word  and  did  not  permit  his  manifiold  scientific  labors 
to  interfere  with  social  duties  and  sanitary  recreations,  but  he  ig- 
nored supernaturalism  as  persistently  as  St,  Gregory  Thaumaturgus 
ignored  the  domain  of  physical  science.  With  all  his  freedom 
from  party  bias  he  could  be  drawn  into  political  controversies,  but 
the  moment  the  conversation  turned  on  dogmatic  questions  he  be- 
came silent  or  changed  the  topic  with  a  frown  of  contemptuous  im- 
patience, and  in  all  his  voluminous  writings  there  is  not  the  slight- 
est allusion  to  the  established  creed  of  his  native  land. 
FIRE-STORMS. 

There  is  a  story  of  a  Pennsylvania  Quaker  who,  in  the  mild 
manner  of  his  sect,  remonstrated  with  the  teamsters  of  a  petro- 
leum camp  for  spilling  a  hogshead  of  coal-oil  on  his  hay-field. 
"The  day  of  judgment,  friends,"  said  he,  "may  come  suddenly, 
in  spite  of  all  our  prayers,  but  there  is,  for  all  that,  no  sense  in 
promoting  the  conflagration  to  this  extent."  The  settlers  of  our 
northwestern  lumber  States  could  not  have  come  nearer  to  a  com- 
plete success,  if  they  had  taken  a  contract  to  prepare  fuel  for  the 
flames  of  the  Dies  /me.     For  hundreds  of  miles  along  the  tracks 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


of  the  Minnesota  and  Michigan  railways  the  woods  are  littered 
with  piles  of  dry  brushwood  and  resinous  chips,  which  under  the 
glare  of  the  midsummer  sun  become  almost  as  combustible  as  gun- 
cotton.  To  illustrate  that  fact,  let  any  one  dry  an  armful  of  pine 
brush  or  search  his  garret  for  the  remnants  of  last  year's  Christ- 
mas tree  and  cram  a  dozen  of  the  withered  twigs  into  his  chimney 
grate.  Ten  to  one  that  the  next  minute  he  will  hear  the  alarm- 
bells  of  the  fire  department :  the  flames  having  shot  up  over  the 
roof  like  the  eruption  of  a  volcano.  By  a  very  moderate  estimate 
a  billion  tons  of  such  fuel  are  scattered  over  our  northern  lumber 
States,  and  no  eleventh-hour  precaution  can  prevent  the  peril  of  an 
occasional  conflagration.  A  camp-fire  started  by  prowling  tramps, 
or  the  spark  of  a  locomotive,  may  ignite  a  pile  of  the  parched 
brushwood,  and  a  mere  breath  of  wind  will  suffice  to  fan  the  first 
blaze  into  all-devouring  flames.  The  vacuum  created  by  the  ris- 
ing of  the  heated  air  is  filled  by  whirlwinds,  and  with  an  unlim- 
ited supply  of  fuel  the  conflagration  may  spread  on  the  wings  of  a 
tornado,  like  that  which  a  week  ago  out-raced  the  express-train  of 
the  Minnesota  Northern  railway.  In  the  extensive  government 
forests  of  Northern  Europe,  tragedies  of  that  sort  are  obviated  by 
the  careful  removal  of  dead  brushwood,  as  well  as  by  the  isolation 
system  which  surrounds  a  lumber-camp  with  a  circle  of  incom- 
bustible leaf-trees.  The  demand  for  the  enforcement  of  similar 
precautions  has  been  silenced  by  bribes,  but  the  laws  of  nature 
cannot  be  circumvented  in  that  manner,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few 
decades  of  similar  improvidence  the  forest  region  of  our  northern 
border  States  may  become  as  barren  as  the  treeless  hills  of  the 
Missouri  Bad  Lands. 

TELL-TALE  PHOTOGRAPHS. 
Some  of  our  metropolitan  banks  use  "  Kodaks,"  operated  by 
a  hidden  expert,  while  handling  the  checks  of  suspicious  customers; 
but  a  correspondent  of  the  Scientifn-  American  describes  a  still 
more  ingenious  use  of  photography  for  the  detection  of  crime.  In 
the  course  of  transit  between  New  York  and  Louisiana,  a  package 
of  bank- notes  had  been  rifled  of  its  contents,  and  one  of  the  broken 
seals  had  been  melted  by  the  application  of  a  smoking  candle  and 
re-sealed  by  thumb-pressure.  With  a  view  of  identifying  the 
thief,  Mr.  Carvalho,  the  detective  of  the  responsible  express  com- 
pany, took  wax-impressions  of  the  thumbs  of  all  the  officials 
through  whose  hands  the  consignment  could  possibly  have  passed. 
These  impressions  were  then  photographed  on  an  enlarged  scale,  and 
one  of  them  clearly  agreed  with  the  seal  manual  of  a  messenger 
who  had  evidently  failed  to  study  the  possibilities  of  the  Bertillon 
system. 

CIRCUS  ECHOES. 
The  idea  of  making  history  a  mere  date  register  of  corona- 
tions and  battles  was  quite  foreign  to  the  writers  of  antiquity — 
viz.,  the  chatty  chronicles  of  Livy  and  Suetonius,— but  originated 
in  the  mediaeval  convent- schools,  whose  teachers  could  not  afford 
to  divul°e  details  about  the  joyous  public  life  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
They  might  interlard  their  chronological  lectures  with  allusions 
to  the  inhum?nities  of  a  despotic  Csesar  but  carefully  abstained 
from  mentioning  his  munificence  in  the  endowment  of  public 
pleasure  resorts,  lest  their  pupils,  like  young  Hazlitt,  should  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  those  old  heathens  must  have  had  more  fun 
in  a  fortnight  than  a  modern  tithe-paying  Christian  in  fourteen 
years.  F-  L.  Oswald. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

Small  Talk  Alwtil  Business,  by  A.  E.  Rice,  is  a  little  book  of 
sixty  pages  full  of  good  common-sense  advice  for  business  people. 
There  are  about  seventy  points  discussed,  such  as  "Avoiding 
Speculation,"  "How  to  Win  Credit,"  "Women  Holding  Prop- 
erty," "Teaching  Wives  the  Ways  of  Business,"  "  Teaching  Chil- 
dren the  Ways   of  Business,"    "Giving  and  Taking  Receipts," 


"  Examining  Real  Estate  Titles,"  "How  to  Send  Away  Money," 
"  Trifling  With  Signature,"  "Being  Careful  of  Strangers,"  etc., 
all  subjects  being  treated  in  a  concise  and  practical  way.  (Fre- 
mont, Ohio  :  Fremont  Publishing  Co  1892.  Price,  paper,  40 
cents;  cloth,  75  cents.) 

AHASUt-RUS. 

BY  VOLTAIRINE  DE  CLEVRE. 

Pale,  ghostly  Vision  from  the  coffined  years. 

Planting  the  cross  with  thy  world  wandering  feet. 
Stern  Watcher  through  the  centuries'  storm  and  beat, 

In  those  sad  eyes,  between  those  grooves  of  tears, 
Those  eyes  like  caves  where  sunlight  never  dwells 
And  stars  but  dimly  shine,  stand  sentinels 

That  watch  with  patient  hope,  through  weary  days. 
That  somewhere,  sometime.  He  indeed  may  "come," 

And  thou  at  last  find  thee  a  resting-place. 
Blast-driven  leaf  of  Man,  within  the  tomb. 

Aye,  they  have  cursed  thee  with  the  bitter  curse. 
And  driven  thee  with  scourges  o'er  the  world  ; 
Tyrants  have  crushed  thee.  Ignorance  has  hurled 

Its  black  anathema  ; — but  Death's  pale  hearse 
That  bore  them  graveward,  passed  thee  silently. 
And  vainly  didst  thou  stretch  thy  hands  and  cry  : 

"Take  me  instead";  not  yet  for  thee  the  time. 
Not  yet — not  yet ;   thy  bruised  and  mangled  limbs 

Must  still  drag  on,  still  feed  the  Vulture,  Crime, 
With  bleeding  flesh,  till  rust  its  steel  beak  dims. 

Aye,  "till  He  come," — He — Freedom,  Justice,  and  Peace, 
Till  then  shalt  thou  cry  warning  through  the  earth, 
Unheeding  pain,  untouched  by  death  and  birth. 

Proclaiming  "Woe,  woe,  woe,"  till  men  shall  cease 
To  seek  for  Christ  within  the  senseless  skies. 
And,  joyous,  find   Him  in  each  others'  eyes. 

Then  shall  be  builded  such  a  tomb  for  thee 
Shall  beggar  kings  as  diamonds  outshine  dew  ! 

The  Universal  Heart  of  Man  shall  be 
The  sacred  urn  of  "the  accursed  Jew." 

THE  OPEN   COURT 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  371. 

THE    BARRIERS    OF    PERSONALITY.      George    M. 

McCrie 4239 

THE  MEANING  OF  "SELF."     Editor 4240 

BUDDHISM  IN  JAPAN.    VI.  The  Influence  of  Buddhism 

on  the  People.     Nobuta  Kishimoto 4243 

SCIENCE  AND  REFORM.  Northland  Visitors.  A  Con- 
sistent Life.  Fire-storms.  Tell-tale  Photographs.  Circus 
Echoes.     F.  L.  Oswald 4245 

BOOK  NOTICES 4246 

POETRY. 

Ahasuerus.     Voltairine  de  Clevre 4246 


The  Open  Court. 


A  WEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  372.     (Vol.  VIII.— 41.) 


CHICAGO,  OCTOBER  11,   li 


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ON    THE    FUNDAMENTAL    CONCEPTS    OF  ELECTRO- 
STATICS   (QUANTITY,   POTENTIAL, 
CAPACITY,  ETC.).i 

BY    PROF.     ERNST    MACH. 

The  task  has  been  assigned  me  to  develop  before 
you  in  a  popular  manner  the  fundamental  quantitative 
concepts  of  electrostatics — "quantity  of  electricity," 
"potential,"  "capacity',"  and  so  forth.  It  would  not 
be  difficult,  even  within  the  brief  limits  of  an  hour,  to 
delight  the  eye  with  hosts  of  beautiful  experiments  and 
to  fill  the  imagination  with  many  varied  conceptions. 
But  we  should,  in  such  a  case,  be  still  far  from  a  lucid 
and  easy  grasp  of  the  phenomena.  The  means  would 
still  fail  us  for  reproducing  the  facts  accurately  in 
thought — a  procedure  which  for  the  theoretical  and 
practical  man  is  of  equal  importance.  These  means 
are  the  meirical  coticepts  of  electricity. 

As  long  as  the  pursuit  of  the  facts  of  a  given  pro- 
vince of  phenomena  is  in  the  hands  of  a  few  isolated 
investigators,  as  long  as  every  experiment  can  be  easily 
repeated,  the  fixing  of  the  collected  facts  by  provisional 
description  is  ordinarily  sufficient.  But  the  case  is 
altered  when  the  whole  world  must  make  use  of  the 
results  reached  by  many,  as  happens  when  the  sci- 
ence acquires  broader  foundations  and  scope,  and 
particularly  so  when  it  begins  to  supply  intellectual 
nourishment  to  an  important  branch  of  the  practical 
arts,  and  to  draw  from  that  province  in  return  stupen- 
dous empirical  results.  Then  the  facts  must  be  so 
described  that  individuals  in  all  places  and  at  all  times 
can,  from  a  few  easily  obtained  elements,  put  the  facts 
accurately  together  in  thought,  and  reproduce  them 
from  the  description.  This  is  done  with  the  help  of 
the  metrical  concepts  and  the  international  measures. 

The  work  which  was  begun  in  this  direction  in  the 
period  of  the  purely  scientific  development  of  the  sci- 
ence, especially  by  Coulomb  (1784),  Gauss  (1833),  and 
Weber  (1833),  was  powerfully  stimulated  by  the  re- 
quirements of  the  great  technical  undertakings  mani- 
fested since  the  laying  of  the  first  transatlantic  cable, 
and  brought  to  a  brilliant  conclusion  by  the  labors  of 
the  British  Association,  1861,  and  of  the  Paris  Con- 


gress, 1881,  chiefly  through  the  exertions  of  Sir  Wil- 
liam Thomson. 

It  is  plain,  that  in  the  time  allotted  to  me  I  cannot 
conduct  you  over  all  the  long  and  tortuous  paths  which 
the  science  has  actually  pursued,  that  it  will  not  be 
possible  at  every  step  to  remind  you  of  all  the  little 
precautions  for  the  avoidance  of  error  which  the  early 
steps  have  taught  us.  On  the  contrary,  I  must  make 
shift  with  the  simplest  and  rudest  tools.  I  shall  con- 
duct you  by  the  shortest  paths  from  the  facts  to  the 
ideas,  in  doing  which,  of  course,  it  will  not  be  possible 
to  anticipate  all  the  stray  and  chance  ideas  which  may 
and  must  arise  from  prospects  into  the  by- paths  which 
we  leave  untrodden. 

*  * 

Here  are  two  small,  light  bodies  of  equal  size, 
freely  suspended  (Fig.  i),  which  we  "electrify"  either 


o 


o 


o, 


Q 


by  friction  with  a  third  body  or  by  contact  with  a  body 
already  electrified.  At  once  a  repulsive  force  is  set 
up  which  drives  the  two  bodies  away  from  each  other 
in  opposition  to  the  action  of  gravity.  This  force  could 
accomplish  anew  the  same  mechanical  work  which 
was  expended  to  produce  it.' 

Coulomb,  now,  by  means  of  delicate  experiments 
with  the  torsion-balance,  satisfied  himself  that  if  the 
bodies  in  question,  say  at  a  distance  of  two  centime- 
tres, repelled  each  other  with  the  same  force  with 
which  a  milligramme  weight  strives  to  fall  to  the 
ground,  at  half  that  distance,  or  at  one  centimetre, 
they  would  repel  each  other  with  the  force  of  four 
milligrammes,  and  at  double  that  distance,  or  at  four 
centimetres,  they  would  repel  each  other  with  the  force 


lA  lecture  de 
on  September  4, 


1  If  the  two  bodi. 
upon  each  other. 


J  oppositely  electrified  they  would  exert  attractions 


4248 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


of  only  one-fourth  of  a  milligramme.  He  found  that 
the  electrical  force  acts  inversely  as  the  square  of  the 
distance. 

Let  us  imagine,  now,  that  we  had  some  means  of 
measuring  electrical  repulsion  by  weights,  a  means 
which  would  be  supplied,  for  example,  by  our  electri- 
cal pendulums;  then  we  could  make  the  following  ob- 
servation. 

The  body  A  (Fig.  2)  is  repelled  by  the  body  K  at 
a  distance  of  two  centimetres  with  a  force  of  one  milli- 
gramme. If  we  touch  A,  noWf  with  an  equal  bod}'  B, 
the  half  of  this  force  of  repulsion  will  pass  to  the  body 
B ;  both  A  and  B,  now,  at  a  distance  of  two  centi- 
metres from  K,  are  repelled  only  with  the  force  of  one- 
half  a  milligramme.  But  both  together  are  repelled 
still  with  the  force  of  one  milligramme.  Hence,  the 
division  of  electfical force  among  bodies  in  contact  is  a 
fact.  It  is  a  useful,  but  by  no  means  a  necessary  sup- 
plement to  this  fact,  to  imagine  an  electrical  fluid 
present  in  the  body  A,  with  the  quantity  of  which  the 
electrical  force  varies,  and  half  of  which  flows  over  to 
B.  For,  in  the  place  of  the  new  physical  picture, 
thus,  an  old,  familiar  one  is  substituted,  which  moves 
spontaneously  in  its  wonted  courses. 

Adhering  to  this  idea,  we  define  the  unit  of  electri- 
cal quantity,  according  to  the  now  almost  universally 
adopted  centimetre-gramme-second  (C.  G.  S.)  system, 
as  that  quantity  which  at  a  distance  of  one  centi- 
metre repels  an  equal  quantity  with  unit  of  force,  that 
is,  with  a  force  which  in  one  second  would  impart  to 
a  mass  of  one  gramme  a  velocity  increment  of  a  centi- 
metre. As  a  gramme  mass  acquires  through  the  action 
of  gravity  a  velocity-increment  of  about  981  centi- 
metres in  a  second,  accordingly,  a  gramme  is  attracted 
to  the  earth  with  981,  or,  in  round  numbers,  1000  units 
of  force  of  the  centimetre- gramme- second  system, 
while  a  milligramme-weight  would  strive  to  fall  to  the 
earth  with  approximately  the  unit  force  of  this  system. 

We  may  easily  obtain  by  this  means  a  clear  idea  of 
what  the  unit  quantity  of  electricity  is.  Two  small 
bodies,  K,  weighing  each  a  gramme,  are  hung  up  by 
vertical  threads,  five  metres  in  length  and  almost 
weightless,  so  as  to  touch  each  other.  If  the  two  bodies 
be  equally  electrified  and  move  apart  upon  electrilica- 
tion  to  a  distance  of  one  centimetre,  their  charge  is  ap- 
proximately equivalent  to  the  electrostatic  unit  of  elec- 
tric quantity,  for  the  repulsion  then  holds  in  equilib- 
rium a  gravitational  force-component  of  approximately 
one  milligramme,  which  strives  to  bring  the  bodies  to- 
gether. 

Vertically  beneath  a  small  sphere  suspended  from 
the  equilibrated  beam  of  a  balance  a  second  sphere  is 
placed  at  a  distance  of  a  centimetre.  If  both  be  equally 
electrified  the  sphere  suspended  from  the  balance  will 
apparently  be  rendered  lighter  by  the  repulsion.    If  by 


adding  a  weight  of  one  milligramme  equilibrium  be 
restored,  each  of  the  spheres  contains  in  round  num- 
bers the  electrostatic  unit  of  electrical  quantity. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  same  electrical  bodies 
exert  at  different  distances  different  forces  upon  one 
another,  exception  might  be  taken  to  the  measure  of 
quantity  here  developed.  What  kind  of  a  quantity  is 
that  which  now  weighs  more,  and  now  weigiis  less,  so 
to  speak  ?  But  this  apparent  deviation  from  the 
method  of  determination  commonly  ^sed  in  practical 
life,  that  by  weight,  is,  closely  considered,  an  agree- 
ment. On  a  high  mountain  a  heavy  mass  also  is  less 
powerfully  attracted  to  the  earth  than  at  the  level  of 
the  sea,  and  if  it  is  permitted  us  in  our  determinations 
to  neglect  the  consideration  of  level,  it  is  only  because 
the  comparison  of  a  body  with  fixed  conventional 
weights  is  invariably  effected  at  the  same  level.  In 
fact,  if  v/e  were  to  make  one  of  the  two  weights  equi- 
librated on  our  balance  approach  sensibly  to  the  centre 
of  the  earth,  by  suspending  it  from  a  very  long  thread, 
as  Prof,  von  Jolly  of  Munich  suggested,  we  should 
make  the  gravity  of  that  weight,  its  heaviness,  propor- 
tionately greater. 

Let  us  picture  to  ourselves,  now,  two  different 
electrical  fluids,  a  positive  and  a  negative  fluid,  of  such 
nature  that  the  particles  of  the  one  attract  the  particles 
of  the  other  according  to  the  law  of  the  inverse  squares, 
but  the  particles  of  the  same  fluid  repel  each  other  by 
the  same  law  ;  in  non  electrical  bodies  let  us  imagine 
the  two  fluids  uniformly  distributed  in  equal  quanti- 
ties, in  electric  bodies  one  of  the  two  in  excess;  in 
conductors,  further,  let  us  imagine  the  fluids  mobile, 
in  non-conductors  immobile  ;  having  formed  such  pic- 
tures, we  possess  the  conception  which  Coulomb  de- 
veloped and  to  which  he  gave  mathematical  precision. 
We  have  only  to  give  this  conception  free  play  in  our 
minds  and  we  shall  see  as  in  a  clear  picture  the  fluid 
particles,  say  of  a  positively  charged  conductor,  reced- 
ing from  one  another  as  far  as  they  can,  all  making 
for  the  surface  of  the  conductor  and  there  seeking  out 
the  prominent  parts  and  points  until  the  greatest  pos- 
sible amount  of  work  has  been  performed.  On  in- 
creasing the  size  of  the  surface,  we  see  a  dispersion, 
on  decreasing  its  size  we  see  a  condensation  of  the  par- 
ticles. In  a  second,  non  electrified  conductor  brought 
into  the  vicinitj'  of  the  first,  we  see  the  two  fluids  im- 
mediately separate,  the  positive  collecting  itself  on  the 
remote  and  the  negative  on  the  adjacent  side  of  its 
surface.  In  the  fact  that  this  conception  reproduces, 
lucidly  and  spontaneously,  all  the  data  which  arduous 
research  onl)'  slowly  and  graduall}'  discovered,  is  con- 
tained its  advantage  and  scientific  value.  With  this, 
too,  its  value  is  exhausted.  We  must  not  seek  in  na- 
ture for  the  two  hypothetical  fluids  which  we  have 
added  as  simple  mental  adjuncts,  if  we  would  not  go 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4249 


astray.  Coulomb's  view  may  be  replaced  by  a  totally 
different  one,  for  example,  by  that  of  Faraday,  and  the 
most  proper  course  is  always,  after  a  general  survej' 
is  obtained,  to  go  back  to  the  actual  facts,  to  the  elec- 
trical forces. 

We  will  now  make  ourselves  familiar  with  the  con- 
cept of  electrical  quantity,  and  with  the  method  of 
measuring  or  estimating  it.  Imagine  a  common  Ley- 
den  jar  (Fig.  3),  the  inner  and  outer  coatings  of  which 
are  connected  together  by  means  of  two  common  me- 
tallic knobs  placed  about  a  centimetre  apart.  If  the 
inside  coating  be  charged  with  the  quantity  of  electri- 
city +  q,  on  the  outer  coating  a  distribution  of  the 
electricities  will  take  place.  A  positive  quantity  almost 
equal'  to  the  quantity  -f  q  flows  off  to  the  earth,  while 
a  corresponding  quantity  — q  is  still  left  on  the  outer 
coating.  The  knobs  of  the  jar  receive  their  portion  of 
these  quantities  and  vi'hen  the  quantity  q  is  sufficiently 
great  a  rupture  of  the  insulating  air  between  the  knobs, 
accompanied  with  the  self-discharge  of  the  jar,  takes 


place.  For  any  given  distance  and  size  of  the  knobs, 
a  charge  of  a  definite  electric  quantity  q  is  always  ne- 
cessary for  the  spontaneous  discharge  of  the  jar. 

Let  us  insulate,  now,  the  outer  coating  of  a  Lane's 
unit  jar  L,  the  jar  just  described,  and  put  in  connex- 
ion with  it  the  inner  coating  of  a  jar  /^exteriorly  con- 
nected with  the  earth  (Fig.  4).  Every  time  that  L  is 
charged  with  -\-q,  a.  like  quantity  -|-  4'  is  collected  on 
the  inner  coating  of  F,  and  the  spontaneous  discharge 
of  the  jar  Z,  which  is  now  again  empty,  takes  place. 
The  number  of  the  discharges  of  the  jar  L  furnishes 
us,  thus,  with  a  measure  of  the  quantity  collected  in 
the  jar  F,  and  if  after  i,  2,  3,  .  .  .  spontaneous  dis- 
charges of  L  the  jar  F  \%  discharged,  it  is  evident  that 
the  charge  of  F  has  been  proportionately  augmented. 

Let  us  supply  now,  to  effect  the  spontaneous  dis 
charge,  the  jar  F  with  knobs  of  the  same  size  and 
at  the  same  distance  apart  as  those  of  the  jar  L  (Fig. 
5).  If  we  find,  then,  that  five  discharges  of  the  unit 
jar  take  place  before  one  spontaneous  discharge  of  the 
jar  F  occurs,  plainly  the  jar  F,  for  equal  distances  be- 


IThe  quantity  which  flows  ot 
equal  to  the  quantity  q  only  if  tiie 
passed  by  the  outer  coating- 


point  of  fact  less 
-  coating  of  the  jai 


q.     It  would  be 
:  wholly  encom- 


tween  the  knobs  of  the  two  jars,  equal  striking  dis- 
tances, is  able  to  hold  five  times  the  quantity  of  elec- 
tricity that  L  can,  that  is,  has  five  times  the  capacilv 
ofZ.i 

We  will  now  replace  the  unit  jar  L,  with  which  we 
measure  electricity,  so  to  speak,  into  the  jar  F,  by  a 
Franklin's  pane,  consisting  of  two  parallel  flat  metal 
plates  (Fig.  6),  separated  only  by  air.  If  here,  for 
example,  thirty  spontaneous  discharges  of  the  pane  are 
sufficient  to  fill  the  jar,  ten  dis- 
charges will  be  found  sufficient 
if  the  air-space  between  the  two  Q  O-i 
plates  be  filled  with  a  cake  of 
sulphur.  Hence,  the  capacity  1> 
of  a  Franklin's  pane  of  sulphur 
is  about  three  times  greater  than 
that  of  one  of  the  same  shape  ^ 

and  size  made  of  air,  or,  as  it  is 

the  custom  to  say,  the  specific  inductive  capacity  of 
sulphur  (that  of  air  being  taken  as  the  unit)  is  about 
3.^  We  are  here  arrived  at  a  very  simple  fact,  which 
shows  us  clearly  the  significance  of  the  number  called 
dielectric  constant,  or  specific  inductive  capacity,  the 
knowledge  of  which  is  so  important  for  the  theory  of 
submarine  cables. 

Let  us  consider  a  jar  A,  which  is  charged  with  a 
certain  quantity  of  electricity.      We  can  discharge  the 


\  +? 


jar  directly.      Bu-t  we   can   also  discharge  the  jar  A 
(■Fig.  7)  partly  into  a  jar  B,  by  connecting  the  two 


1  Rigorously,  of 
L  is  discharged 


tin; 


t  correct.  I 
leously  with  the  ele 
jar  F,  on  the  other  hand,  is  always  discharged  ! 
coaling  of  the  jar  L.  Hence,  if  we  call  the  cap 
machine  E,  that  of  the  unit  jar  L,  that  of  the  ou 
the  principal  j=3r  F,  ihen  this  equation  would  exi 


!rst,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the 
strode  of  the  machine.  The 
uiultaneouj^ly  with  the  outer 
icily  of  the  electrode  of  the 
re  ati;if?  ni  L,  A,  and  that  of 
t  for  the  example  in  the  lext : 


(i^+^)/(/.  +  £)=5.    A  cause  of  further  departure  from  absolute  exactness  is 
the  residual  charge. 

-  Making  allowance  for  the  corrections  indicated  in  tlie  preceding  foot- 
note, I  have  obtained  for  the  dielectric  constant  of  sulphur  the  number  3  2, 


h  agrees  practi( 
the  highest  att 
;s  of  the  conder 
ratio  of  the  capacitii 
fact,  however,  the  e: 


pl 


ally  with  the  resul 
linable  precision  0 
ser  first  wholly  in  : 
s  is  to  correspond  1 
ror  which  arises  fri 


that  ( 


ctly  fills  the  space  beiwe 


;  obtained  by  more  delicate  methods, 
e  should  by  rights  immerse  the  two 
r  and  then  wholly  in  sulphur,  if  the 
I  the  dielectric  constant.  In  point  of 
in  inserting  simply  a  plate  of  sulphur 
vo  plates,  is  of  no  consequence. 


4250 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


outer  coatings  with  each  other.  In  this  operation  a 
portion  of  the  quantity  of  electricity  passes,  accompa- 
nied by  sparks,  into  the  jar  B,  and  we  now  find  both 
jars  charged. 

It  may  be  shown  as  follows  that  the  conception  of 
a  constant  quantity  of  electricity  can  be  regarded  as 
the  expression  of  a  pure  fact.  Picture  to  yourself  any 
sort  of  electrical  conductor  (Fig.  8)  ;  cut  it  up  into  a 
large  number  of  small  pieces,  and  place  these  pieces  by 
means  of  an  insulated  rod  at  a  distance  of  one  centi- 
metre from  an  electrical  body  which  acts  with  unit  of 
force  on  an  equal  and  like-constituted  body  at  the 
same  distance.  Take  the  sum  of  the  forces  which 
this  last  body  exerts  on  the  single  pieces  of  the  con- 


^mssi 


ductor.  The  sum  of  these  forces  will  be  the  quantity 
of  electricity  on  the  whole  conductor.  It  remains  the 
same,  whether  we  change  the  form  and  the  size  of  the 
conductor,  or  whether  we  bring  it  near  or  move  it 
away  from  a  second  electrical  conductor,  so  long  as  we 
keep  it  insulated,  that  is,  do  not  discharge  it. 

A  basis  of  reality  for  the  notion  of  electric  quan- 
tity seems  also  to  present  itself  from  another  quar- 
ter. If  a  current,  that  is,  in  the  usual  view,  a  definite 
quantity  of  electricity  per  second,  is  sent  through  a 
column  of  acidulated  water  ;  in  the  direction  of  the 
positive  stream,  hydrogen,  but  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion, oxygen  is  liberated  at  the  extremities  of  the  col- 
umn. For  a  given  quantity  of  electricity  a  given  quan- 
tity of  oxygen  appears.  You  may  picture  the  column 
of  water  as  a  column  of  hydrogen  and  a  column  of 
oxygen,  fitted  into  each  other,  and  may  say  the  electric 
current  is  a  chemical  current  and  vice  ve?-sa.  Although 
this  notion  is  more  difficult  to  adhere  to  in  the  field  of 
statical  electricity  and  with  non-decomposable  conduc- 
tors, its  further  development  is  by  no  means  hopeless. 

The  concept  quantity  of  electricity,  thus,  is  not  so 
aerial  as  might  appear,  but  is  able  to  conduct  us  with 
certainty  through  a  multitude  of  varied  phenomena, 
and  is  suggested  to  us  by  the  facts  in  almost  palpable 
form.  We  can  collect  electrical  force  in  a  body,  meas- 
ure it  out  with  one  body  into  another,  carry  it  over 
from  one  body  into  another,  just  as  we  can  collect  a 
liquid  in  a  vessel,  measure  it  out  with  one  vessel  into 
another,  or  pour  it  from  one  into  another. 

For  the  analysis  of  mechanical  phenomena,  a  metri- 
cal notion,  derived  from  experience,  and   bearing  the 


designation  work,  has  proved  itself  useful.  A  machine 
can  be  set  in  motion  only  when  the  forces  acting  on  it 
can  perform  work. 

Let  us  consider,  for  example,  a  wheel  and  axle 
(Fig.  9)  having  the  radii  i  and  2  metres,  loaded  re- 
spectively with  the  weights  2  and  i  kilogrammes.  On 
turning  the  wheel  and  axle,  the  i  kilogramme-weight, 
let  us  say,  sinks  two  metres,  while  the  2  kilogramme- 
weight  rises  one  metre.      On  both  sides  the  product 

I  X  2  ^  2  X  I- 
is  equal.  So  long  as  this  is  so,  the  wheel  and  axle  will 
not  move  of  itself.  But  if  we  take  such  loads,  or  so 
change  the  radii  of  the  wheels,  that  this  product  (Kgr. 
X  metre)  on  displacement  is  in  excess  on  one  side, 
that  side  will  sink.  As  we  see,  this  product  is  charac- 
teristic for  mechanical  events,  and  for  this  reason  has 
been  invested  with  a  special  name,  -work. 

In  all  mechanical  processes,  and  as  all  physical 
processes  present  a  mechanical  side,  in  all  physical 
processes,  work  plays  a  determinative  part.  Electrical 
forces,  also,  produce  only  changes  in  which  work  is  per- 
formed. To  the  extent  that  forces  come  into  play  in 
electrical  phenomena,  electrical  phenomena,  be  they 
what  they  may,  extend  into  the  domain  of  mechanics 
and  are  subject  to  the 
laws  which  hold  in  this 
domain.  The  univer- 
sally adopted  measure 
of  work,  then,  is  the  pro- 
duct of  the  force  into  the 
distance  through  which 
it  acts,  and  in  the  C.  G.  S. 
system,  the  unit  of  work 
is  the  action  through  one 
centimetre  of  a  force 
which  would  impart  in 
one  second  to  a  gramme- 
mass  a  velocity  -  incre- 
ment of  one  centimetre,  ^^^'  ' 
that  is,  in  round  numbers,  the  action  through  a  centi- 
metre of  a  pressure  equal  to  the  weight  of  a  milli- 
gramme. From  a  positively  charged  bod}',  electricity, 
yielding  to  the  force  of  repulsion  and  performing  work, 
flows  off  to  the  earth,  providing  conducting  connexions 
exist.  To  a  negatively  charged  body,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  earth  under  the  same  circumstances  gives 
off  positive  electricity.  The  electrical  work  possible 
in  the  interaction  of  a  body  with  the  earth,  character- 
ises the  electrical  condition  of  that  body.  We  will  call 
the  work  which  must  be  expended  on  the  unit  quantity 
of  positive  electricity  to  raise  it  from  the  earth  to  the 
body  K  the  potential  of  the  body  K.  * 

1  As  this  definition  in  its  simple  form  is  apt  to  give  rise  to  misunderstand- 
ings, elucidations  ^re  usually  added  to  it.    It  is  clear  that  we  cannot  lift  a 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4251 


We  ascribe  to  the  body  K  in  the  C.  G.  S.  system 
the  potential  +  i>  if  we  must  expend  the  unit  of  work 
to  raise  the  positive  electrostatic  unit  of  electric  quan- 
tity from  the  earth  to  that  body;  the  potential  — i,  if 
we  gain  in  this  procedure  the  unit  of  work  ;  the  poten- 
tial 0,  if  no  work  at  all  is  performed  in  the  operation. 

The  different  parts  of  one  and  the  same  electrical 
conductor  in  electrical  equilibrium  have  the  same  po- 
tential, for  otherwise  the  electricity  would  perform 
work  and  move  about  upon  the  conductor,  and  equili- 
brium would  not  have  existed.  Different  conductors  of 
equal  potential,  put  in  connexion  with  one  another,  do 
not  exchange  electricity  any  more  than  bodies  of  equal 
temperature  in  contact  exchange  heat,  or  in  connected 
vessels,  in  which  the  same  pressures  exist,  liquids 
flow  from  one  vessel  to  the  other.  Exchange  of  elec- 
tricity takes  place  only  between  conductors  of  different 
potentials,  but  in  conductors  of  given  form  and  posi- 
tion a  definite  difference  of  potential  is  necessary  for 
a  spark,  that  has  to  pierce  the  insulated  air,  to  pass 
between  them.      '  Ixo  be  concluded.] 


"ACHILLES  AND  THE  TORTOISE." 

BY  R.  N.  FOSTER. 

In  The  Open  Court  of  September  13  appears  a 
closely  reasoned  article  on  the  above-named  topic, 
which  has  long  been  a  source  of  puzzling  interest  to 
students  of  physics  and  metaphysics.  If  the  virtue  of  a 
puzzle  lies  in  its  provoking  many  to  try  for  its  solution, 
this  puzzle  of  Zeno  is  of  supreme  virtue.  The  names 
of  the  great  thinkers,  who  from  Aristotle  to  Mill,  have 
discussed  this  problem  (a  few  of  whom  are  mentioned 
in  Mr.  Shipman's  article),  are  sufficient  evidence  on 
this  point. 

I  aim  not  to  disprove  what  Mr.  Shipman  has  writ- 
ten, but  to  show  that  there  are  other  methods  than 
his  wherebj'  a  solution  is  possible. 

Let  me  say  first  that  there  is  no  fallacy  in  the 
statement  (nor  any  "metaphysics"  either)  that  Achil- 
les cannot  overtake  the  tortoise  on  the  terms  governing 
the  race. 

And  secondly,  that  there  is  equally  no  fallacy  in 
saying  that  Achilles  can  overtake  the  tortoise. 

Both  statements  are  simply  and  demonstrably  true, 
and  require  but  a  moderate  amount  of  "ciphering"  to 
exhibit  the  fact. 

And  finally,  for  I  wish  to  state  all  the  conclusions 
first,  that  my  reader  may  see  the  goal  and  follow  me 
to  it  with  clear  sight  and  open  eye, — finally,  Zeno  does 

quantity  of  electricity  to  A",  without  changing  tlie  distribution  on  A' and  the 
potential  on  K.  Hence,  the  charges  on  K  must  be  conceived  as  fixed,  and  so 
small  a  quantity  raised  that  no  appreciable  change  is  produced  by  it.  Talking 
the  woTk  thus  expended  as  many  times  as  the  small  quantity  in  question  is 
contained  in  the  unit  of  quantity,  we  shall  obtain  the  potential.  The  poten- 
tial of  a  body  /fmay  be  briefly  and  precisely  deBned  as  follows:  If  we  expend 
the  element  of  work  dU-'lo  raise  the  element  of  positive  quantity  rf^  from  the 
earth  to  the  conductor,  the  potential  of  a  conductor  /i'will  be  given  by  K  = 
dWIdQ. 


not  disprove  the  possibility  of  motion  by  his  example, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  establishes  it,  having  first  as- 
sumed it,  and  then  grounded  all  his  argument  upon  it. 

I  will  ask  the  reader  to  sum  up  in  brief  terms  the 
three  points  to  be  made  evident  in  this  paper  : 

I.    Zeno  was  right.      II.   Zeno  was  wrong.      III. 
Zeno  proved  nothing  in  either  case. 

To  make  it  very  easy,  let  us  demand  that  Achilles 
shall  run  two  miles  an  hour,  and  the  tortoise  one,  and 
that  the  tortoise  shall  have  one  mile  the  start.  Now 
the  terms  of  the  race  are  wonderfully  important — they 
are  the  very  essence  of  the  problem — and  they  are  as 
follows  :  When  Achilles  has  run  the  first  mile,  he  is 
where  the  tortoise  was  when  both  commenced  to  run  ; 
right  at  this  point,  I,  the  judge,  am  to  decide  the  re- 
sult. Well,  Achilles'  is  now  half  a  mile  behind  the 
tortoise.  I  mark  the  position  of  both,  without  inter- 
rupting the  race,  which  goes  merrily  on.  When  Achil- 
les has  run  this  half  mile  that  he  lacked  at  the  first 
marking,  the  tortoise  is  a  quarter  of  a  mile  ahead. 
When  Achilles  gains  this  quarter  mile,  the  tortoise  is 
one-eighth  of  a  mile  ahead,  and  the  judge  scores  again. 
And  so  on.  The  tortoise  at  every  score  is  to  be  found 
just  half  as  far  ahead  as  he  was  at  the  preceding  score. 
But  Achilles  has  not  overtaken  him. 

And  why? 

Because  Achilles  has  not  run  long  enough.  That 
is  the  whole  mystery.  And  by  the  implied  terms  of  the 
race,  implied  in  the  method  or  rule  of  scoring  arbitra- 
rily imposed,  he  will  not  be  allowed  to  run  long  enough 
to  cover  the  original  and  the  acquired  distance  be- 
tween him  and  his  competitor.  He  is  scored  against 
first  when  he  has  run  one  mile  in  one-half  an  hour  ; 
next,  when  he  has  run  a  half-mile  in  a  quarter  of  an 
hour ;  then  when  he  has  run  a  quarter-mile  in  one 
eighth  of  an  hour,  and  then  when  he  has  run  an  eighth 
of  a  mile  in  one-sixteenth  of  an  hour;  and  so  on.  It 
is  evident  that  Achilles  is  beaten.  He  is  at  length  re- 
duced to  gaining  an  infinitesimal  space  in  an  infinites- 
imal time — which  words,  we  may  say,  are  an  effort  to 
express  the  inexpressible — but  he  is  never  permitted 
to  run  two  miles  or  to  stay  an  hour  on  the  track. 

For  the  minute  distances  added  diminish  by  this 
law  that  they  must  always  leave  half  the  distance  un- 
done. The  sum  of  such  distances  always  approach 
to  unity,  but  never  can  reach  it.  Achilles  was  beaten 
at  the  first  score,  just  as  truly  as  at  the  last.  He  was 
beaten  by  the  terms  of  the  race  in  plain  figures  before 
he  started.      Therefore ,  Zeno  ivas  right. 

But  now,  let  us  permit  Achilles  and  the  tortoise  to 
run  for  an  hour — for  just  one  plain  sixty  minutes — and 
then  see  what  will  happen.  Inasmuch  as  Achilles  runs 
two  miles  in  that  hour,  and  the  tortoise  one  mile  ;  and 
inasmuch  as  the  tortoise  had  one  mile  the  start  of 
Achilles,  it   is  obvious  that  at  the   exact  end  of  one 


4252 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


hour  Achilles  will  have  run  two  miles,  and  the  tortoise 
one  mile,  which  added  to  his  mile  of  advantage,  will 
give  him  two  miles  also.  Therefore  he  and  Achilles 
will  be  exactly  abreast.  Achilles  will  have  overtaken 
the  tortoise.      And  Zcno  was  wrong. 

If  Zeno  meant  to  affirm  that  no  one  body  in  motion 
could  ever  overtake  another  body  moving  at  a  slower 
rate,  but  having  a  definite  "start"  (however  small), 
both  bodies  to  move  along  the  same  path,  no  one  need 
hesitate  to  contradict  him  flatly.  Only  by  "keeping 
the  score"  according  to  the  method  above  outlined 
can  such  an  affirmation  be  sustained. 

If  we  allow  the  tortoise  only  an  infinitesimal  advan- 
tage, and  allow  Achilles  to  run  a  billion  times  as  fast 
as  the  tortoise,  still  the  latter  will  win.  Forgetting 
the  terms  of  the  race,  this  looks  like  a  proof  that  mo- 
tion is  impossible,  even  the  smallest.  But  the  fallacy 
is  shown  above. 

It  will  also  be  clear  from  what  has  been  said  that 
the  difficulty  of  the  problem  does  not  arise  from  any 
latent  conflict  in  its  terms  between  the  potential  and 
the  actual,  or  between  the  finite  and  the  infinite  ;  or 
between  the  physical  and  the  metaphysical.  The  terms 
involved  are  all  finite  and  actual  and  physical.  It  is  a 
plain  question  of  division  and  addition.  The  trick  is 
so  to  divide  the  number  one  into  a  diminishing  and 
regular  series  of  factors  that  the  whole  number  shall 
never  be  reached  by  adding  these  factors  together 
again.  This  is  done  at  once  by  requiring  that  the 
series  shall  be  \,  \,  \,  ■^-^,  and  so  on — not  ad  infinitum, 
for  no  infinitum  can  be  reached  in  this  way,  but  so  long 
as  you  can  keep  it  up  without  exhaustion.  In  fact  the 
condition  is  made  at  the  outset,  in  set  terms,  that  the 
number  shall  not  be  exhausted  at  any  term  of  the  pro- 
cess, but  that  some  definite  fraction  of  the  remainder 
shall  always  be  left.  Zeno's  pregnant  apothegm,  that 
to  say  a  thing  once  is  to  say  it  forever,  is  numerically 
exhibited  in  such  a  series.  To  fail  in  the  first  divi- 
sion, say  from  the  half  to  the  quarter,  is  to  fail  in  the 
next  and  for  ever. 

On  no  other  conditions  is  it  true  that  Achilles  can- 
not overtake  the  tortoise. 

He  is  tricked  out  of  the  tinn-  necessary  to  accom- 
plish the  feat,  and  that  is  all  the  mystery  there  is  in  it. 

We  may  be  permitted  to  vary  the  puzzle.  A  grocer 
says  to  his  man,  "John  empty  that  barrel  of  sugar," 
John  dumps  it  forthwith,  and  the  command  is  fulfilled. 
But  now  if  the  grocer  had  said,  "John,  empty  that 
barrel  by  first  throwing  out  one  half,  then  half  of  the 
remaining  half,  then  half  of  the  remainder  again,  and 
always  only  half  of  the  remainder  ;  it  is  clear  that  John 
will  nevei-  empty  the  barrel.  The  imposed  conditions 
render  the  feat  impossible. 

Now  this  does  not  prove  the  impossibility  of  emp- 
tying barrels  ;  neither  does  Zeno's  case  prove  either 


the  possibility  or  the  impossibility  of  motion.  This  is 
our  third  proposition.  * 

There  is  a  parallel  paradox  in  the  saying  that  since 
a  body  cannot  move  where  it  is,  and  cannot  move 
where  it  is  not,  therefore  it  cannot  move  at  all.  The 
fallacy  here  is  grounded  in  an  oversight.  Everybody 
knows  that  the  premises  are  somehow  true,  and  equally 
well  that  the  conclusion  is  false.  But  everybody  does 
not  notice  that  a  body  in  motion  does  not  move  either 
where  it  is  or  where  it  is  not,  but  that  it  is  in  a  state 
of  change,  the  change  consisting  in  the  very  act  of 
going //-^;«  where  it  is,  and  to  where  it  is  not.  In  other 
words,  motion  is  not  rest.  It  is  only  during  rest  that 
a  body  exists  where  it  is.  Motion  means  the  cessation 
of  this  rest. 

But  this  is  a  digression.  The  question  remains. 
Has  Zeno  proved  the  possibility  of  motion,  or  its  im- 
possibility, by  his  paradox,  or  by  any  other  process  of 
thinking?  He  has  not.  He  has  assumed  motion  and 
all  of  its  implications — velocity,  direction,  time,  and 
space — and  has  shown  us  that  a  man  running  two 
miles  an  hour  cannot  make  two  miles  in  less  than  an 
hour.     And  that  is  all  that  the  example  proves. 

But  now,  is  there  no  significance  whatever  in  the 
argument  ?  Is  there  no  meaning  in  the  problem — no 
use  in  the  solution  of  it — no  ground  from  which  it 
legitimately  arises  ? 

The  race  between  Achilles  and  the  tortoise  may  in- 
deed be  no  more  than  a  skilfully  devised  13- 14-15 
puzzle  in  value. 

But  the  problem  involved,  Is  Motion  Possible  ? 
has  a  very  substantial  ground,  deep  meaning,  and  very 
serious  consequences. 

So  far  as  we  know,  Zeno  himself  did  not  apprehend 
clearly,  nor  did  any  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  the 
true  ground  of  the  question.  But  he  felt  the  pressure 
of  the  problem,  nevertheless,  when  confronted  by  some 
of  the  implications  of  motion. 

So  long  as  those  philosophers  were  content  to  ac- 
cept naively  the  physical  conception  of  space  and 
time,-  or  a  conception  grounded  in  plain  physics,  so 
long  all  was  harmony  in  their  thought-world.  But 
when  the  effort  was  made  to  determine  more  exactly 
and  clearly  the  nature  of  space  and  time,  and  when 
some  of  the  metaphysical  aspects  thereof  intruded 
themselves,  the  skies  grew  cloudy.  It  was  the  unde- 
veloped metaphysics  of  space  and  time  that  made  the 
Greek  conception  of  them  unsatisfactory,  unclear,  and 
troubled.  This  throws  doubt  on  all  our  conceptions 
of  motion,  as  that  which  can  only  occur  through  space 
and  during  time.  What  Zeno  and  his  immediate  suc- 
cessors thought  about  these  matters,  we  have  no  means 
of  knowing ;  but  that  the  very  doubt  of  the  possibility 
of  either  motion  or  change  of  any  kind  could  possibly 
arise  in   the  Greek  mind,  reveals  the  presence  of  a 


J 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4253 


metaphysical  upheaval  more  or  less  complete.  Other- 
wise no  such  doubt  is  possible. 

How  did  such  a  question  arise,  and  what  is  the  es- 
sence of  it? 

It  arises  from  the  necessity  imposed  upon  thought 
of  thinking  itself  and  its  objects  over  and  over  again, 
always  with  the  intent  of  attaining  to  clearer  and  com- 
pleter knowledge.  The  process  invariably  uncovers 
defects  in  primary  conceptions,  and  introduces  a  con- 
flict between  these  and  their  inevitable  successors. 
Thus  arises  the  question  :  Now  what  is  the  essence 
of  it? 

The  essence  of  it  is,  What  is  the  true  nature  of 
space  and  time? 

Is  space  a  void,  a  mere  emptiness,  a  nothing? 

Is  it  a  material  substance? 

Is  it,  our  own  capacity  of  thinking,  an  outer  void  ? 

Many  more  such  questions  can  be  asked,  but  these 
must  suffice  for  the  present  purpose. 

But  it  is  manifest  that  if  we  answer  these  questions 
in  one  way,  physical  motion,  as  ordinarily  conceived, 
is  the  real  truth  of  nature.  While  if  we  answer  them 
in  another  way,  such  conception  is  founded  on  an  illu- 
sion, not  unlike  that  which  leads  us  to  say  that  the  sun 
rises  and  sets,  when  we  know  that  it  does  not ;  and  the 
truth  of  nature  is  all  changed  in  a  twinkling.  Nature 
appears  indeed  to  our  senses  as  a  multitude  of  objects 
moving  through  spaces  and  during  times. 

But  this  is  only  phenomenon  —  appearing.  To 
thought  it  cannot  be  so  in  very  truth.  To  thought  no 
such  movement  is  possible — at  least  not  without  an 
interpretation.  This  may  indeed  be  such  a  world  as 
it  appears  to  be  on  first  impression,  a  world  of  material 
objects  in  motion  through  space  and  during  time.  But 
the  question  is  possible.  May  it  not  be  a  power,  no 
less  genuine  and  real,  such  that  it  appears  through  our 
sense-consciousness  so  to  move?  In  this  latter  case, 
crude  physical  motion  becomes  a  mere  phenomenon, 
and  if  taken  for  the  genuine  truth,  an  illusion.  Motion 
in  this  case  is  not  physical,  but  metaphysical.  The 
consequences  are  of  the  gravest  kind.  Zeno's  problem 
is  full  of  meaning. 


SCIENCE  A  RELIGIOUS  REVELATION. 

Richard  T.  Ely,  known  as  the  author  of  Socialism 
and  Social  Reform,  begins  an  article  on  the  "Funda- 
mental Beliefs  in  His  Social  Philosophy,"  published 
in  the  present  number  of  The  Forum  with  these  para- 
graphs : 

"A  scientific  person  dislikes  creeds.  Science  is  not  religious 
revelation  but  a  progressive  unfolding  of  truth.  When  I  am  asked, 
'  What  is  your  social  creed  ? '  I  naturally  reply,  '  I  have  no  creed. ' 
When  the  editor  of  The  Forum  asks  me  for  an" article  on  my  creed, 
I  am  obliged  to  answer  that  I  have  none.  What  have  I  to  do  with 
a  creed  in  economics  or,  more  strictly  speaking,  general  sociology? 
For  it  is  in  reality  a  sociological  creed  that  is  wanted. 


"Yet  more  mature  thought  reveals  to  the  man  of  science  that 
he  may  after  all  go  too  far  in  his  opposition  to  a  statement  of  his 
opinions.  As  the  result  of  his  studies,  and,  in  a  case  like  the 
present,  also  of  his  experiences  in  life,  he  may  have  reached  cer- 
tain conclusions  of  value  to  others.  There  may  be  no  impropriety 
in  a  statement  of  these  conclusions  provided  it  is  understood  that 
he  reserves  the  right  to  change  his  opinions  if  longer  inve.stigation 
and  riper  experience  reveal  mistakes." 

The  adherents  of  all  religions,  without  exception, 
believe  that  their  confession  of  faith  is  the  best  formu- 
lation of  truth  obtainable  ;  and  we  may  safely  define 
the  religion  of  a  man  as  his  aspiration  of  living  in 
agreement  with  his  conception  of  truth.  The  idea 
of  a  creed  which  by  its  devotees  is  not  identified  with 
the  truth  is  an  absurdity.  If,  then,  science  is  as  Pro- 
fessor Ely  says,  "  a  progressive  unfolding  of  truth," 
science  necessarily  is  a  religious  revelation,  and  if 
there  are  people  who  deny  the  religious  character  of 
science,  they  can  do  it  solely  on  the  ground  that  sci- 
ence is  not  supposed  to  be  capable  of  unfolding  the 
truth  and  that  truth  must  be  attained  through  other 
channels,  such  as  intuition,  ecstatic  visions,  or  extra 
and  contra- natural  revelations. 

Professor  Ely  says  :  "A  scientific  person  dislikes 
creeds."  Good.  But  is  there  any  religious  or  irreli- 
gious person  who  regards  the  acceptance  of  a  creed  as 
a  religion  ?  If  there  are  they  are  wrong.  There  are 
people  who  think,  that  because  most  religions  have 
creeds,  all  religions  must  have  creeds.  But  obviously, 
the  religion  of  Buddha  in  its  purest  form  has  no  creed. 
Buddha  in  his  dying  hour  enjoins  his  disciples  not  to 
follow  the  authority  of  any  one,  not  even  of  himself,  the 
master,  but  to  exert  themselves  to  find  the  truth  by 
their  own  experience.  Can  we  call  the  doctrines  of 
Buddha  a  creed?  But  even  if  all  the  religions  in  ex- 
istence were  creeds,  creed  cannot  be  considered  an 
essential  element  in  religion.  Creeds,  ceremonies,  and 
modes  of  worship  are  the  husks  only  of  religion,  the 
kernel  which  they  cover  is  man's  hunger  after  truth 
and  righteousness.  If  there  are  no  creedless  religions, 
the  duty  devolves  upon  us  to  create  one. 

All  truth  is  sacred.  He  who  trusts  in  truth  and 
regards  truth  as  the  saviour  that  alone  can  afford  en- 
during salvation  ;  he  who  endeavors  to  find  the  truth 
with  the  best,  most  rigorous  and  painstaking  means  at 
his  disposal — and  the  best  means  for  accuracy  and  re- 
liability that  are  at  the  disposal  of  mankind  are  com- 
monly comprehended  under  the  name  of  science — he 
who  is  fearless  in  accepting  the  truth  and  not  ashamed 
of  changing  his  opinion  whenever  weighty  arguments 
convince  him  of  error  ;  he  who  leads  a  life  of  truth  and 
remains  faithful  to  the  noblest  of  his  convictions,  is 
(whether  he  adopts  the  name  or  not)  an  adherent  of 
the  Religion  of  Science. 

Science,  i.  e.,  the  mere  search  for  knowledge  and 
the  knowledge  acquired,  is  not  as  yet  religion,  but  be- 


-ts. 


V 


52* 


\*^ 


.^ 


4254 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


ing  a  gradual  unfoldment  of  truth  (unfoldment  is  but 
another  word  for  revelation),  science  can-^or,  better, 
must — enter  into  our  religious  conviction  as  one  of 
its  most  important  elements.  In  fact,  all  religions  are 
constantly  being  purified  by  the  wholesome  influence  of 
science.  Science  must  be  the  regulator  of  those  of  our 
ideas  and  principles — or  maxims  —  which  ultimately 
determine  all  our  actions.  It  must  be  recognised  as  the 
basis  of  the  moral  development  of  our  lives — in  a  word, 
science  must  become  a  religious  factor. 

He  who  understands  the  signs  of  the  times  can  see 
the  straws  in  the  wind  which  indicate  the  direction  of 
religious  progress.  We  can,  visibly  to  our  eyes  and 
audibly  to  our  ears,  observe  in  all  our  churches,  and 
especially  in  the  most  orthodox  ones,  a  broadening  of 
the  spirit  of  toleration  and  a  mental  growth  affording 
more  breadth  and  a  greater  depth  to  our  religious 
sympathies.  The  old  prejudices  are  giving  way  to  a 
better  comprehension  ;  the  narrowest  minds  are  strug- 
gling to  free  themselves  from  their  sectarianism,  and  a 
latitudinarian  conception,  far  from  being  repudiated 
or  denounced,  as  formerly  it  was,  has  become  the  com- 
mon ideal  of  all  denominations. 

Having  abandoned  the  old  metaphysical  specula- 
tions, and  having  discovered  the  hollowness  of  onto- 
logical  systems,  many  scientists  are  inclined  to  surren- 
der philosophy  as  a  hopeless  task  and  a  futile  chase 
after  an  ignis  fatuiis.  In  the  same  way,  having  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  creeds  are  unverifiable  and  even 
irrational  assumptions,  many  honest  searchers  for 
truth  reject  religion  as  a  vagary  of  the  human  mind. 
But  both  are  mistaken.  The  vagaries  of  the  past  ren- 
der neither  philosophy  nor  religion  impracticable. 
What  we  need  in  philosophy  is  a  philosophy  of  science. 
What  we  need  in  religion  is  a  religion  of  science. 

The  philosophy  of  science  abstains  from  building 
ontological  air-castles,  but  attempts  to  construct  a 
world-conception  on  the  basis  of  the  truths  established 
by  science.'  And  the  religion  of  science  proposes  to 
regard  science  not  only  as  a  but  as  the  religious  reve- 
lation. Science — I  mean  genuine  science  and  not  the 
vagaries  of  sundry  scientists — is  holy,  and  the  voice  of 
science  is  divine.  If  God  ever  spoke  to  man,  science 
is  the  fiery  bush ;  and  if  there  is  any  light  by  which 
man  can  hope  to  illumine  his  path  so  as  to  make  firm 
steps,  it  is  the  light  of  science. 

Let  us,  therefore,  make  religion  scientific  and  sci- 
ence religious.  Let  us,  on  the  one  hand,  imbue  reli- 
gion with  the  spirit  of  science,  with  its  rigorous  criti- 
cism, strict  exactness,  and  stern  devotion  to  truth  ; 
and  on  the  other  hand,  let  us  open  our  eyes  to  the 
moral  and  religious  importance  of  the  results  of  scien- 

1  For  an  exposition  of  the  details  of  this  view,  especially  as  to  how  the 
philosophy  of  science  has  to  derive  the  principles  of  scientific  inquiry  from 
the  facts  of  experience,  without  forgetting  the  difference  between  menial 
operations  and  sense-impressions,  see  my  Primer  0/ Philosophy. 


tific  inquiry.      The  ultimate  aim  of  science  is  to  reveal 
to  man  the  religion  of  truth. 

Rituals  and  symbols,  nay,  the  very  names  of  reli- 
gious denominations,  may  vary  according  to  historical 
tradition,  taste,  and  individual  opinion,  but  the  essence 
of  religion  can  only  be  one,  and  must  remain  one  and 
the  same  among  all  nations,  in  all  climes,  and  under 
all  conditions.  The  sooner  mankind  recognises  what 
this  essence  of  religion  is,  the  better  it  will  be  for  hu- 
man welfare,  progress,  and  international  relations. 
The  realisation  of  the  religious  ideal  alone  will  bring 
glory  to  God  in  the  highest  and  peace  on  earth  towards 
the  men  of  good-will. 

THE  TRYST. 

BY  CHARLES  ALVA  LANE. 

Of  old  time  Grief  met  Joy  beside  the  sea. 
Where  day  ebbed  off  in  sunset's  foamy  light : 
Joy  westward  wending,  fleeing  from  the  night  ; 
Grief  forward  faring,  wan  and  wearily. 
Toward  the  glooming  east  of  memory, 
"O,  doleful  sister  !  "  quoth  the  radiant  sprite, 
"Are  we  no  more  to  meet  in  dark  or  bright, 
While  all  the  seasons  live  that  are  to  be  ? " 

"  Yea,  where  the  Poet  dreams  be  place  of  tryst 

To  mix  our  loves  whom  fate  doth  part,"  she  said  ; 
"  So  shall  my  tears,  by  thy  effulgence  kissed. 
Be  kindled  into  rainbows  'round  his  head. 
Till  through  the  song  ambiguous  beauty  wiles 
To  sighing  ecstasies  and  yearning  smiles," 

NOTES. 

The  famous  passage  quoted  at  the  end  of  the  editorial  article 
runs,  in  the  King  James  translation  of  the  Bible  :  "  Glory  to  God 
in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good-will  toward  men."  This 
verson  is  based  upon  the  following  reading  : 

"  A^^«  iv  h^pinToit;  ^eCi  Ka).  k-rrl  )i/q  e'ff)//i'//j  h'  a-&phi7roiQ  ebihKia." 
Another  version,  however,  which  omits  the  comma  and  reads 
einhKlai;  is  among  scholars  considered  as  more  probably  correct 
and  has  been  adopted  in  the  Cambridge  edition  of  the  Greek  text 
(published  by  Macmillan  &  Co  )  so  that  the  latter  part  of  the  sen- 
tence would  have  to  be  translated  "And  peace  upon  earth  towards 
the  men  of  good-will  " — or  literally  "in  the  men  of  good-will." 

THE  OPEN   COURT 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN   STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 

E    C.  HEGELER,  Publisher.  DR^PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 

TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION; 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO,  3T2. 

ON  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  CONCEPTS  OF  ELEC- 
TROSTATICS (QUANTITY,  POTENTIAL,  CAPA- 
CITY,  ETC.)     Prof.  Ernst  Mach 4247 

"ACHILLES  AND  THE  TORTOISE."     R.  N.  Flster.   4251 

SCIENCE  A  RELIGIOUS  REVELATION.     Editor....  4253 

POETRY. 

The  Tryst.     Charles  Alva  Lane 4254 

NOTES 4254 


4-  r 


The  Open  Court. 


A  VyEEKLY  JOUENAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  373.     (Vol.  VIII.— 42. 


CHICAGO,  OCTOBER  18,  1894. 


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ON    THE    FUNDAMENTAL    CONCEPTS    OF  ELECTRO- 
STATICS   (QUANTITY,  POTENTIAL, 
CAPACITY,  ETC.).^ 
by  i'rof.   ernst  mach. 
[concluded.] 

On  being  connected,  every  two  conductors  assume 
at  once  the  same  potential.  With  this  the  means 
is  given  of  determining  the  potential  of  a  conductor 
through  the  agency  of  a  second  conductor  especially 
adapted  to  this  purpose  called  an  electrometer,  just  as 
we  determine  the  temperature  of  a  body  with  a  ther- 
mometer. The  values  of  the  potentials  of  bodies  ob- 
tained in  this  way  simplify  vastly  our  analysis  of  their 
electrical  behavior,  as  will  be  evident  from  what  has 
been  said. 

Think  of  a  positivelj'  charged  conductor.  Double 
all  the  electrical  forces  exerted  by  this  conductor  on  a 
point  charged  with  unit  quantity,  that  is,  double  the 
quantity  at  each  point,  or  what  is  the  same  thing, 
double  the  total  charge.  Plainly,  equilibrium  still  sub- 
sists. But  carry,  now,  the  positive  electrostatic  unit 
towards  the  conductor.  Everywhere  we  shall  have  to 
overcome  double  the  force  of  repulsion  we  did  before, 
everywhere  we  shall  have  to  expend  double  the  work. 
By  doubling  the  charge  of  the  conductor  a  double  po- 
tential has  been  produced.  Charge  and  potential  go 
hand  in  hand,  are  proportional.  Consequently,  call- 
ing the  total  quantity  of  electricity  of  a  conductor  Q 
and  its  potential  /',  we  can  write  :  Q^  C  F,  where  C 
stands  for  a  constant,  the  import  of  which  will  be  un- 
derstood simply  from  noting  that  C=  Q/F.  ^  But  the 
division  of  a  number  representing  the  units  of  quan- 
tity of  a  conductor  by  the  number  representing  its 
units  of  potential  tells  us  the  quantity  which  falls  to 
the  share  of  the  unit  of  potential.  Now  the  number 
C  here  we  call  the  capacity  of  a  conductor,  and  have 
substituted,  thus,  in  the  place  of  the  old  relative  de- 
termination of  capacity,  an  absolute  determination.'^ 

nternalional  Electrical  Exhibition,  in  Vienna. 


d  for  the  usual  fractional 
jr  in  tlie  numerator  or  de- 


1  A  lecture  delivered  at  the  Int 
on  September  4,  1SS3. 

2  In  this  article  the  sclldus  or 
sign  of  division.  Where  plus  01 
nominator,  brackets  or  a  vinculum  Is  used. —  Tr. 

■3  A  sort  of  agreement  exists  between  the  notions  of  thermal  and  electrical 
capacity,  but  the  difference  between  the  two  ideas  also  should  be  carefully 
kept  in  mind.  The  thermal  capacity  of  a  body  depends  solely  upon  that  body 
itself.  The  electrical  capacity  of  a  body  A"  is  influenced  by  all  bodies  in  its 
vicinity,  inasmuch  as  the  charge  of  these  bodies  is  able  to  alter  the  potential 


In  simple  cases  the  connexion  between  charge,  po- 
tential, and  capacity  may  be  easily  ascertained.  Our 
conductor,  let  us  say,  is  a  sphere  of  radius  r,  hung  up 
free  in  a  large  body  of  air.  There  being  no  other  con- 
ductors in  the  vicinity,  the  charge  g  will  then  distribute 
itself  uniformly  upon  the  surface  of  the  sphere,  and 
simple  geometrical  considerations  yield  for  its  poten- 
tial the  expression  y=///r.  Hence,  ^/F=r;  that  is, 
the  capacity  of  a  sphere  is  measured  by  its  radius,  and 
in  the  C.  G.  S.  system  in  centimetres. '^  It  is  clear 
also,  since  a  potential  is  a  quantity  divided  by  a  length, 
that  a  quantity  divided  by  a  potential  must  be  a  length. 

Imagine  (Fig.  10)  a  jar  composed  of  two  concen- 
tric conductive  spherical  shells  of  the  radii  ;•  and  ;-^, 
having  only  air  between  them.  Connecting  the  out- 
side sphere  with  the  earth,  and  charging  the  inside 
sphere  by  means  of  a  thin,  insulated  wire  passing 
through  the  first,  with  the  quantity  Q,  we  shall  have 
J^=r.(/--^ — f')/(r^  r)  Q,  and  for  the  capacity  in  this  case 
(r J  ;■)/(/•  J  —  !■),  or,  to  take 
a  specific  example,  if  r=i6 
and  r^^=iq,  a  capacity  of 
approximately  loo  centi- 
metres. 

We  shall  now  use  these 
simple  cases  for  illustrat- 
ing the  principle  by  which 
capacity  and  potential  are 
determined.  First,  it  is 
clear  that  we  can  use  the 
jar  composed  of  concentric  spheres  with  its  known  ca- 
pacity as  our  unit  jar  and  by  means  of  this  ascertain, 
in  the  manner  above  laid  down,  the  capacity  of  any 
given  jar  F.  We  find,  for  example,  that  37  discharges 
of  this  unit  jar  of  the  capacity  100,  just  charges  the 
jar  investigated  at  the  same  striking  distance,  that  is, 

of  K.  To  give,  therefore,  an  unequivocal  significance  to  the  notion  of  the  ca- 
pacity (C)  of  a  body  A'  Cis  defined  as  the  relation  Q  /  K  for  the  body  A' in  a 
certain  given  position  of  all  neighboring  bodies,  and  during  connexion  of  all 
neighboring  conductors  with  the  earth.  In  practice  the  situation  is  much 
simpler.  The  capacity,  for  example,  of  a  jar,  the  inner  coating  of  which  is 
almost  enveloped  by  its  outer  coating,  communicating  with  the  ground,  is  not 
sensibly  aflected  by  charged  or  uncharged  adjacent  conductors. 

1  These  formula:  easily  follow  from  Newton's  theorem  that  a  homogeneous 
spherical  shell,  whose  elements  obey  the  law  of  the  inverse  squares,  exerts  no 
force  whatever  on  points  within  it  but  acts  on  points  without  as  If  the  whole 
mass  were  concentrated  at  its  centre.  The  formula  nest  adduced  also  flow 
from  this  proposition. 


4256 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


at  the  same  potential.  Hence,  the  capacity  of  the  jar 
investigated  is  3700  centimetres.  The  large  battery 
of  the  Prague  physical  laboratory,  which  consists  of 
sixteen  such  jars,  all  of  nearly  equal  size,  has  a  capa- 
city, therefore,  of  something  like  50,000  centimetres, 
or  the  capacity  of  a  sphere,  a  kilometre  in  diameter, 
freely  suspended  in  atmospheric  space.  This  remark 
distinctly  shows  us  the  great  superiority  which  I^eyden 
jars  possess  for  the  storage  of  electricity  as  compared 
with  common  conductors.  In  fact,  as  Faraday  pointed 
out,  jars  differ  from  simple  conductors  mainly  by  their 
great  capacity. 

For  determining  potential,  imagine  the  inner  coat- 
ing of  a  jar  F,  the  outer  coating  of  which  communi- 
cates with  the  ground,  connected  bj'  a  long,  thin  wire 
with  a  conductive  sphere  K  placed  free  in  a  large  at- 
mospheric space,  compared  with  whose  dimensions 
the  radius  of  the  sphere  vanishes.-  (Fig.  11.)  The 
jar  and  the  sphere  assume  at  once  the  same  potential. 
But  on  the  surface  of  the  sphere,  if  that  be  sufficiently 
far  removed  from  all  other  conductors,  a  uniform  layer 
of  electricity  will  be  found.      If  the  sphere,  having  the 


radius  ;-,  contains  the  charge  q,  its  potential  is  V^q/r. 
If  the  upper  half  of  the  sphere  be  severed  from  the 
lower  half  and  equilibrated  on  a  balance  with  one  of 
whose  beams  it  is  connected  by  silk  threads,  the  upper 
half  will  be  repelled  from  the  lower  half  with  the  force 
/'=^2y8;-2— :  1  ;,'3  This  repulsion  F  may  be  counter- 
balanced by  additional  weights  placed  on  the  beam- 
end,  and  so  ascertained.     The  potential  is  then  /';= 

V  Wf.  1 

That  the  potential  is  proportional  to  the  square 
root  of  the  force  is  not  difficult  to  see.  A  doubling  or 
trebling  of  the  potential  means  that  the  charge  of  all 
the  parts  is  doubled  or  trebled  ;  hence  their  combined 
power  of  repulsion  quadrupled  or  nonupled. 

IThe  energy  of  a  sphere  of  radius  r  charged  with  the  quantity  q  is 
Yi  (?2  />).  If  the  radius  increase  the  amount  rf  r  a  loss  of  energy  occurs,  and 
the  work  done  is  J^2((?2/ rSji/r.  Letting/ denote  the  uniform  electrical  pres- 
sure on  unit  of  surface  of  the  sphere,  the  worli  done  is  also  4r2ir/<i'r.  Hence 
/  =  (i/8r2  7r)(72/7-2).  Subjected  to  the  same  superficial  pressure  on  all  sides, 
say  in  a  fluid,  our  half  sphere  would  be  an  equilibrium.  Hence  we  must  make 
the  pressure/  act  on  the  surface  of  the  great  circle  to  obtain  the  effect  on  the 
balance,  which  is  r2  n-/  =  !a(?2/7-2)  =  /a  f'^. 


Let  us  consider  a  special  case.  I  wish  to  produce 
the  potential  40  on  the  sphere.  What  additional  weight 
must  I  give  to  the  half  sphere  in  grammes  that  the 
force  of  repulsion  shall  maintain  the  balance  in  exact 
equilibrium?  As  a  gramme  weight  is  approximately 
equivalent  to  1000  units  of  force,  we  have  only  the 
following  simple  example  to  work  out  :  40  X  40  =  8  X 
1000.  A",  where  x  stands  for  the  number  of  grammes. 
In  round  numbers  we  get  a-  =  0.  2  gramme.  I  charge 
the  jar.  The  balance  is  deflected  ;  I  have  reached, 
or  rather  passed,  the  potential  40,  and  you  see  when  I 
discharge  the  jar  the  associated  spark.  ^ 

The  striking  distance  between  the  knobs  of  a  ma- 
chine increases  with  the  difference  of  the  potential, 
although  not  proportionately  to  that  difference.  The 
striking  distance  increases  faster  than  the  potential 
difference.  For  a  distance  between  the  knobs  of  one 
centimetre  on  this  machine  the  difference  of  potential 
is  no.  It  can  easily  be  increased  tenfold.  Of  the 
tremendous  differences  of  potential  which  occur  in 
nature  some  idea  may  be  obtained  from  the  fact  that 
the  striking  distances  of  lightning  in  thunder-storms 
is  counted  by  miles.  The  differences  of  potential  in 
galvanic  batteries  are  considerably  smaller  than  those 
of  our  machine,  for  it  takes  fully  one  hundred  elements 
to  give  a  spark  of  microscopic  striking  distance. 

* 
*  * 

We  shall  now  employ  the  ideas  reached  to  shed 
some  light  upon  another  important  relation  between 
electrical  and  mechanical  phenomena.  We  shall  in- 
vestigate what  is  the  potential  energy,  or  the  store  of 
ivork,  contained  in  a  charged  conductor,  for  example, 
in  a  jar. 

If  we  bring  a  quantity  of  electricity  up  to  a  con- 
ductor, or,  to  speak  less  pictorially,  if  we  generate  by 
work  electrical  force  in  a  conductor,  this  force  is  able 
to  produce  anew  the  work  by  which  it  was  generated. 
How  great,  now,  is  the  energy  or  capacity  for  work  of 
a  conductor  of  known  charge  Q  and  known  poten- 
tial r? 

Imagine  the  given  charge  Q  divided  into  very  small 
parts  q,  q^,  q^-  ■  ■  ■,  and  these  little  parts  successively 
carried  up  to  the  conductor.  The  first  very  small 
quantity  q  is  brought  up  without  any  appreciable  work 
and  produces  by  its  presence  a  small  potential  /',.  To 
bring  up  the  second  quantity,  accordingly,  we  must  do 
the  work  q,  J',,  and  similarly  for  the  quantities  which 
follow  the  work  q,,V,,,  q,,,y,,,,  and  so  forth.  Now, 
as  the  potential  rises  proportionately  to  the  quantities 


1  The  arrangement  desci  ibed  is  for  several  reasons  not  fitted  for  the  actual 
measurement  of  potential.  Thomson's  absolute  electrometer  is  based  upon 
an  ingenious  modification  of  the  electrical  balance  of  Harris  and  Volta.  Of 
two  large  plane  parallel  plates,  one  communicates  with  the  earth,  while  the 
other  is  brought  to  the  potential  to  be  measured.  A  small  movable  superficial 
portion  y  of  this  last  hangs  from  the  balance  for  the  determination  of  the 
attraction  P.  The  distance  of  the  plates  from  each  other  being  D  we  get  K= 
D^inPI/. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4257 


added  until  the  value  V  is  reached,  we  have,  agree- 
ably to  the  graphical  representation  of  Fig.  12,  for  the 
totat  work  performed, 

which  corresponds  to  the  total  energy  of  the  charged 
conductor.  Using  the  equation  Q=CJ'',  where  C 
stands  for  capacity,  we  also  have, 

fr=^cr-',  or  w=Qy2C. 

It  will  be  helpful,  perhaps,  to  elucidate  this  idea 
by  an  analogy  from  the  province  of  mechanics.  If  we 
pump  a  quantity  of  liquid,  Q,  gradually  into  a  cylin- 
drical vessel  (Fig.  13),  the  level  of  the  liquid  in  the 
vessel  will  gradually  rise.  The  more  we  have  pumped 
in,  the  greater  the  pressure  we  must  overcome,  or  the 
higher  the  level  to  which  we  must  lift  the  liquid.  The 
stored  up  work  is  again  rendered  available  when  the 
heavy  liquid  Q,  which  reaches  up  to  the  level  /i,  flovi's 
out.  This  work  fj^  corresponds  to  the  fall  of  the  whole 
liquid  weight  Q,  through  the  distance  /i/2  or  through 
the  altitude  of  its  centre  of  gravity.     We  have 


Further,  since    Q^KIi,  or  since   the  weight  of   the 

liquid  and  the  height  h  are  propoitional,  we  get  also 

W^^Kh-"-  and  fF=  Q'-j^K. 

As  a  special  case  let  us  consider  our  jar.  Its  ca- 
pacity is  C^  3700,  its  potential  /'=::=  no;  accordingly, 
its  quantity  Q=^  CFr=  407,000  electrostatic  units  and 
its  energy  irF  =  J  (2  F=  22,385,000  C.  G.  S.  units  of 
work. 

The  unit  of  work  of  the  C.  G.  S.  system  is  not  readily 
appreciable  by  the  senses,  nor  does  it  well  admit  of 
representation,  as  we  are  accustomed  to  work  with 
weights.  Let  us  adopt,  therefore,  as  our  unit  of  work 
the  gramme-centimetre,  or  the  gravitational  pressure 
of  a  gramme- weight  through  the  distance  of  a  centi- 
metre, which  in  round  numbers  is  1000  times  greater 
than  the  unit  assumed  above  ;  in  this  case,  our  numer- 
ical result  will  be  approximately  1000  times  smaller. 
Again,  if  we  pass,  as  more  familiar  in  practice,  to  the 
kilogramme-metre  as  our  unit  of  work,  our  unit,  the 
distance  being  increased  a  hundred  fold,  and  the  weight 
a  thousand  fold,  will  be  100,000  times  larger.  The 
numerical  result  expressing  the  work  done  is  in  this 
case  100,000  times  less,  being  in  round  numbers  0.22 
kilograaime-metre,    We  cfin  obtain  a  clear  idea  of  (he 


work  done  here  by  letting  a  kilogramme-weight  fall  22 
centimetres. 

This  amount  of  work,  accordingly,  is  performed  on 
the  charging  of  the  jar,  and  on  its  discharge  appears 
again,  according  to  the  circumstances,  partly  as  sound, 
partly  as  a  mechanical  disruption  of  insulators,  partly 
as  light  and  heat,  and  so  forth. 

The  large  battery  of  the  Prague  physical  labora- 
tory, with  its  sixteen  jars  charged  to  equal  potentials, 
furnishes,  although  the  effect  of  the  discharge  is  im- 
posing, a  total  amount  of  work  of  only  three  kilo- 
gramme-metres. 

*  * 

In  the  development  of  the  ideas  above  laid  down 
we  are  not  restricted  to  the  method  there  pursued  ;  in 
fact,  that  method  was  selected  only  as  one  especially 
fitted  to  familiarise  us  with  the  phenomena.  On  the 
contrary,  the  connexion  of  the  physical  processes  is  so 
multifarious  that  we  can  come  at  the  same  event  from 
very  different  directions.  Particularly  are  electrical 
phenomena  connected  with  all  other  physical  events  ; 
and  so  intimate  is  this  connexion  that  we  might  justly 
call  the  study  of  electricity  the  theory  of  the  general 
connexion  of  physical  processes. 

With  respect  to  the  principle  of  the  conservation 
of  energy  which  unites  electrical  with  mechanical  phe- 
nomena, I  should  like  to  point  out  briefly  two  ways  of 
following  up  the  study  of  this  connexion. 

A  few  years  ago  Professor  Rosetti,  taking  an  in- 
fluence machine,  which  he  set  in  motion  by  means  of 
weights  alternately  in  the  electrical  and  non-electrical 
condition  with  the  same  velocities,  determined  the 
mechanical  work  expended  in  the  two  cases  and  was 
thus  enabled,  after  deducting  the  work  of  friction,  to 
ascertain  the  mechanical  work  consumed  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  electricity. 

I  myself  have  made  this  experiment  in  a  modified, 
and,  as  I  think,  more  advantageous  form.  Instead 
of  determining  the  work  of  friction  by  special  trial,  I 
arranged  my  apparatus  so  that  it  was  eliminated  of  it- 
self in  the  measurement  and  could  accordingly  be  neg- 
lected. The  so-called  fixed  disk  of  the  machine,  the 
axis  of  which  is  placed  vertically,  is  suspended  some- 
what like  a  chandelier  by  three  vertical  threads  of 
equal  lengths  /  at  a  distance  r  from  the  axis.  Only 
when  the  machine  is  excited  does  this  fixed  disk,  which 
represents  a  Prony's  brake,  receive,  through  its  recip- 
rocal action  with  the  rotating  disk,  a  deflexion  a  and  a 
moment  of  torsion  which  is  expressed  by  D  ^{Pr^ /l)a, 
where  i' is  the  weight  of  the  disk.^  The  angle  a  is 
determined  by  a  mirror  set  in  the  disk.  The  work  ex- 
pended in  n  rotations  is  given  by  innD. 

iThis  moment  of  torsion  needs  a  supplementary  correction,  on  account  of 
the  electric  attraction  of  the  excited  disks.  This  is  accomplished  by  changing 
the  weight  of  the  disk  by  means  of  additional  weight?  and  by  making  a  second 
reading  of  the  angles  of  deflexiqn. 


4258 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


If  we  close  the  machine,  as  Rosetti  did,  we  obtain 
a  continuous  current  which  has  all  the  properties  of  a 
very  weak  galvanic  current,  for  example,  it  produces  a 
deflexion  in  a  multiplier  which  we  interpose,  and  so 
forth.  We  can  directly  ascertain  now  the  mechanical 
work  expended  in  the  maintenance  of  this  current. 

If  we  charge  a  jar  by  means  of  a  machine,  the  en- 
ergy of  the  jar  employed  in  the  production  of  sparks, 
iji  the  disruption  of  the  insulators,  etc.,  corresponds 
to  a  part  only  of  the  mechanical  work  expended,  a 
second  part  of  it  being  consumed  in  the  arc  which 
forms  the  circuit.  This  machine,  with  the  interposed 
jar,  affords  in  miniature  a  picture  of  the  transference 
of  force,  or  more  properly  of  work.  And  in  fact  nearly 
the  same  laws  hold  here  for  the  economical  coefficient 
as  obtain  for  large  dynamo-machines. ' 

Another  means  of  investigating  electrical  energy  is 
by  its  transformation  into  heat.  A  long  time  ago 
(1838),  before  the  mechanical  theory  of  heat  had  at- 
tained its  present  popularity,  Riess  performed  expe- 
riments in  this  field  with  the 
help  of  his  electrical  air-ther- 
mometer or  thermo- electro- 
meter. 

If  the  discharge  be  con- 
ducted through  a  fine  wire 
passing  through  the  globe  of 
the  air-thermometer,  a  devel- 
opment of  heat  is  observed 
proportional  to  the  expression 
above -discussed  IV=i  Q  J". 
Although  the  total  energy  has 
not  yet  been  transformed 
into  measurable  heat  by  this 
means,  inasmuch  as  a  portion 
is  left  behind  in  the  spark  in  the  air  outside  the  ther- 
mometer, still  everything  tends  to  show  that  the  total 
heat  developed  in  all  p^irts  of  the  conductor  and  along 
all  the  paths  of  discharge  is  the  equivalent  of  the  work 

It  is  not  important  here  whether  the  electrical  en- 
ergy is  transformed  all  at  once  or  partly,  by  degrees. 
For  example,  if  of  two  equal  jars  one  is  charged  with 
the  quantity  ^  at  the  potential  /'the  energy  present 
is  i  QV.   If  the  first  jar  be  discharged  into  the  second, 

1  The  jar  in  our  experiment  acts  like  an  accumulator,  being  charged  by  a 
dynamo  machine.  The  relation  which  obtains  between  the  expended  and  the 
available  work  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  simple  exposition.  A 
HoUz  machine  //(Fig.  14)  is  charging  a  unit  jar  /.,  which  after  n  discharges 
of  quantity  ?  and  potential  v,  charges  the  jar  F  vi\ih  the  quantity  Q  at  the  po- 
tential K  The  energy  of  the  unit  jar  discharges  is  lost  and  that  of  the  jar  F 
alone  is  left.  Hence  the  ratio  of  the  available  work  to  the  total  work  ex- 
pended is 

If,  now,  we  interpose  no  unit  jar,  still  the  parts  of  the  machine  and  the  wires 
of  conduction  are  themselves  virtually  such  unit  jars  and  the  formula  still 
subsists  V/  V  -\-  S^'i  in  which  ^v  represents  the  sum  of  all  the  successively  in- 
troduced differences  of  potential  in  the  circuit  of  connexion. 


/',  since  the  capacity  is  now  doubled,  falls  to  V/2. 
Accordingly,  the  energy  1  (??' remains,  while  i^Fis 
transformed  in  the  spark  of  discharge  into  heat.  The 
remainder,  however,  is  equally  distributed  between 
the  two  jars  so  that  each  on  discharge  is  still  able  to 
transform  J  Q  F  into  heat. 

We  have  here  discussed  electricity  in  the  limited 
phenomenal  form  in  which  it  was  known  to  the  in- 
quirers before  Volta,  and  which  has  been  called,  per- 
haps not  very  felicitously,  "statical  electricity."  It  is 
evident,  however,  that  the  nature  of  electricity  is  every- 
where one  and  the  same  ;  that  a  substantial  difference 
between  statical  and  galvanic  electricity  does  not  exist. 
Only  the  quantitative  circumstances  in  the  two  pro- 
vinces are  so  widely  different  that  totally  new  aspects 
of  phenomena  may  appear  in  the  second,  for  example, 
magnetic  effects,  which  in  the  first  remained  unnoticed, 
whilst,  iifce  versa,  in  the  second  field  statical  attraction 
and  repulsions  are  almost  wholly  absent.  As  a  fact, 
we  can  easily  show  the  magnetic  effect  of  the  current 
of  discharge  of  an  influence  machine  on  the  galvano- 
scope  although  we  could  hardly  have  made  the  orig- 
inal discovery  of  the  magnetic  effects  with  this  cur- 
rent. The  statical,  distant  action  of  the  wire  poles  of 
a  galvanic  element  also  would  hardly  have  been  no- 
ticed had  not  the  phenomenon  been  known  from  a 
different  quarter  in  a  striking  form. 

If  we  wished  to  characterise  the  two  fields  in  their 
chief  and  most  general  features,  we  should  say  that  in 
the  first,  high  potentials  and  small  quantities  come 
into  play,  in  the  second  small  potentials  and  large 
quantities.  A  jar  which  is  discharging  and  a  galvanic 
element  deport  themselves  somewhat  like  an  air-gun 
and  the  bellows  of  an  organ.  The  first  gives  forth 
suddenly  under  a  very  high  pressure  a  small  quantity 
of  air  ;  the  latter  liberates  gradually  under  a  very  slight 
pressure  a  large  quantity  of  air. 

In  point  of  principle,  too,  nothing  prevents  our  re- 
taining the  electrostatical  units  in  the  domain  of  gal- 
vanic electricity  and  in  measuring,  for  example,  the 
strength  of  a  current  by  the  number  of  electrostatic 
units  which  flow  per  second  through  its  cross-section; 
but  this  would  be  in  a  double  aspect  impractical.  In 
the  first  place,  we  should  totally  neglect  the  magnetic 
facilities  for  measurement  so  conveniently  offered  by 
the  current,  and  substitute  for  this  easy  means  a  method 
which  can  be  applied  only  with  difficulty  and  is  not 
capable  of  great  exactness.  In  the  second  place  our 
units  would  be  much  too  small,  and  we  should  find 
ourselves  in  the  predicament  of  the  astronomer  who 
attempted  to  measure  celestial  distances  in  metres  in- 
stead of  in  radii  of  the  earth  and  the  earth's  orbit  ;  for 
the  current  which  by  the  magnetic  C.  G.  S.  standard 
represents  the   unit,    would  require  a   flow    of  some 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4259 


30,000,000,000  electrostatic  units  per  second  through 
its  cross-section.  Accordingly,  different  units  must 
be  adopted  here.  The  development  of  this  point,  how- 
ever, lies  beyond  my  present  task. 


IMMORTALITY    AND    THE    BUDDHIST    SOUL- 
CONCEPTION. 

We  have  published  of  late  several  articles  on  Bud- 
hism,  among  them  contributions  of  Japanese  Bud- 
dhists. Also  the  present  number  of  The  Mom's/  which 
has  just  appeared,  contains  an  exposition  of  the  sim- 
ilarities that  obtain  between  Buddhism  and  Chris- 
tianity. The  article  presents  a  number  of  quota- 
tions from  the  sacred  books  of  the  Buddhists  and 
draws  a  lesson  from  their  agreement  with  the  Chris- 
tian Gospels.  The  sympathy  we  have  with  Buddhism 
is  based  upon  an  important  agreement  which  is  the 
denial  of  the  existence  of  the  atman,  or  the  self  of  the 
soul,  and  the  emphasis  placed  upon  the  indestructi- 
bility of  the  karma.  The  law  of  cause  and  effect,  ac- 
cording to  the  Abidharma  or  Buddhist  philosophy,  is 
irrefragable  not  only  in  the  physical  but  also  in  the 
moral  world.  Every  evil  deed  has  its  evil  effects, 
every  good  deed  has  its  good  consequences  and  neither 
upon  earth  nor  in  heaven  or  hell  can  we  escape  from 
reaping  what  we  have  sown.  Death  is  the  solution  of 
our  present  existence,  but  our  karma,  consisting  of  the 
deeds  done  by  us,  continues,  and  this  our  karma,  that 
continues,  is  our  very  soul,  this  our  karma  is  the  spir- 
itual essence  of  our  being,  it  is  we  ourselves. 

For  us  Western  people  who  are  products  of  a  Chris- 
tian civilisation,  trained  in  the  schools  of  Christian 
education,  Christian  dogmatics,  and  Christian  modes 
of  thought,  it  is  very  hard  to  understand  that  a  denial 
of  the  existence  of  a  hypothetical  ego-soul  is  not  a  de- 
nial of  the  actual  soul  ;  and  we  are  always  confronted 
with  the  complaint  that  this  anti-metaphysical  psy- 
chology is  a  poorly  disguised  nihilism  and  a  desolate 
resignation  of  all  our  hopes  and  cherished  ideals  of  a 
life  beyond  the  grave.  Mrs.  Alice  Bodington  gave  ex- 
pression to  this  sentiment  in  a  very  sympathetic  ar- 
ticle which  appeared  some  time  ago  in  The  Open  Court 
together  with  an  editorial  reply.  She  said  of  those 
who  offer  her  an  immortality  of  the  soul  which  is  not 
at  the  same  time  an  ego-immortality  : 

' '  For  the  '  palpitating  deathlessness '  of  the  immortality  prom 
ised  by  religion,  they  bid  us  be  satisfied  with  the  excellent  effect 
our  good  words  and  actions  are  likely  to  have  on  future  genera- 
tions. ...  To  me  this  is  not  immortality,  nor  anything  remotely 
like  immortality." 

We  fully  understand  that  Mrs.  Bodington  is  not 
satisfied  with  an  immortality,  not  of  the  soul,  but  only 
of  the  effects  of  our  good  words  and  actions.  This 
prospect  might  be  unsatisfactory  to  Buddhists  also. 
However,  Mrs.  Bodington  should   remember  that  not 


merely  the  effects,  but  our  good  words  and  actions 
themselves  continue  to  exist,  and  she  should  know 
that  our  words  and  actions  are  our  soul.  As  soon  as 
we  learn  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  soul,  as  soon 
as  we  find  that  our  words  and  actions  are  the  essence 
of  our  being,  and  that  there  is  no  ego-entity  that  does 
the  speaking  of  our  words,  or  does  the  doing  of  our 
acts,  we  shall  see  at  once  that  not  merely  the  effects  of 
our  soul  continues,  but  our  soul  itself. 

The  current  misconception  of  Buddhism  has  orig- 
inated in  the  same  way  that  Mrs.  Bodington's  pes- 
simistic attitude  toward  the  apparently  negative  re- 
sults of  modern  science  has.  Some  Brahman  philoso- 
phers had  declared  that  the  soul  is  the  atman,  the  self, 
or  the  ego,  which  was  represented  as  a  certain  meta- 
physical and  mysterious  entity.  Not  the  eye  sees,  they 
said,  but  the  seer  in  the  eye  ;  not  the  nose  smells,  but 
the  smeller  in  the  nose  ;  not  the  thoughts  think,  but 
the  thinker  in  the  thoughts,  etc.  And  who  is  the  seer, 
the  smeller,  the  thinker?  It  is  the  self,  the  atman, 
that  something  which  says  "I,"  the  ego. 

Now  Buddha  came  and  said:  "This  atman  is  a 
fiction;  it  does  not  exist;  there  is  no  self. "  At  the 
same  time  he  preached  the  four  noble  truths  and  the 
eightfold  path  of  righteousness,  rejecting  ceremonial 
rites,  sacrifices,  miracles,  and  the  reliance  on  external 
help  from  God  or  gods.  When  Buddha  found  enlight- 
enment, he  met  on  his  way  to  Benares,  Upaka,  who 
was  "  struck  with  his  appearance  and  asked  him  what 
religion  it  was  that  made  him  so  glad  and  yet  so  calm. " 
Buddha  tells  him  that  he  had  overcome  ignorance  and 
error  and  had  freed  himself  from  all  desires.  To  the 
question  whither  he  was  going,  Buddha  replied  in  a 
four-lined  stanza  : 

■'  I  am  now  going  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  righteousness  ; 
For  this  purpose  I  am  going  to  the  city  of  Benares, 
To  give  light  to  those  enshrouded  in  darkness 
And  to  open  the  gate  of  Immortality  10  men." 

It  has  given  our  Pali  scholars  and  other  investiga- 
tors a  great  deal  of  trouble  to  understand  why  Buddha, 
who  teaches  the  non-existence  of  the  atman,  the  self, 
or  the  ego, — so  often  identified  with  the  soul  and  even 
called  the  soul, — at  the  same  time  upholds  the  doctrine 
of  immortality.  The  Buddhist  canon  is  very  clear  and 
definite  in  its  explanations  of  the  non-existence  of  an 
atman  ;  but  the  immortality  of  "  mind  "  is  not  only  not 
denied,  but  staunchly  maintained. 

Buddhism  is  generally  supposed  to  be  pessimism 
and  nihilism  ;  it  is  often  described  as  a  religion  of  utter 
desolation,  but  it  is  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  ;  and 
the  Buddhist  blessings  and  glorifications  of  Nirvana 
stand  in  strong  contrast  to  such  misinterpretations. 
Yet  it  appears  to  me  natural  that  men  who  have  not 
as  yet  freed  themselves  from  the  illusion  of  self,  whose 
religious  ideal  is  a  faith  in  the  preservation  of  self 
and  the  hope  of  a  future  gratification  of  selfishness, 


4260 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


cannot  understand  the  grandeur  of  Buddhism  and  the 
bliss  of  the  Buddhist  Nirvana,  which  is  not  annihilation, 
but  attainment  of  the  Truth  ;  no  gloomy  self-mortifica- 
tion, or  despondent  self-surrender,  but  simply  a  deliv- 
erance from  error  :  it  is  a  comprehension  of  the  world 
as  the  world  actually  is  ;  a  comprehension  of  the  law 
of  action,  i.  e.,  of  the  rigidity  of  the  law  of  causality 
and  retribution,  declaring  that  what  a  man  sows,  that 
he  will  reap.  In  a  word,  it  is  the  comprehension  of 
truth,  and  above  all,  it  is  the  establishment  of  such 
habits  as  will  insure  a  moral  conduct  in  agreement 
with  truth  ;  therefore  Buddha  teaches  that  the  way  to 
Nirvana  is  the  practice  of  righteousness  in  views, 
words,  and  deeds.  This  is  not  death,  but  life  ;  not 
annihilation,  but  preservation  ;  not  destruction,  but 
immortality. 

Mrs.  Bodington  might  reply  that  our  idiosyncrasies 
are  different  ;  that  she  agrees  with  us  as  to  facts  and 
that  our  disagreement  has  reference  only  to  our  atti- 
tude toward  facts,  for  she  is  well  acquainted  with  our 
view  of  immortality,  and  is  dissatisfied  with  it  only  be- 
cause it  is  not  that  kind  of  ego-immortality  for  which 
she  longs.  I  would  say  that  this  longing  for  the  ego- 
immortality  is  just  what  Buddha  calls  "clinging"  or 
"cleaving";  so  long  as  we  cling  to  the  phantom  of 
the  atman  or  self,  we  shall  never  find  satisfaction  or 
peace  of  mind. 

Idiosyncrasies  of  the  mind,  and  attitudes  toward 
facts,  are  also  a  matter  of  truth  or  untruth,  of  illusion 
or  correct  comprehension. 

Which,  now,  is  the  correct  view  of  life  ?  That 
which  makes  us  dejected  and  melancholy,  so  as  to 
unfit  us  for  life  and  the  troubles  of  life,  or  that  which 
gives  us  satisfaction  and  peace  of  mind,  so  that  we 
joyously  and  energetically  grapple  with  the  difificulties 
of  existence,  not  looking  for  external  help  either  in  re- 
ligious ceremonies  or  supernatural  interference,  but 
relying  upon  our  own  energy,  which  is  to  be  regulated 
by  a  clear  grasping  of  the  truth. 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  Dr.  Robert  Lewins,  and 
with  him  many  of  those  who  call  themselves  freethink- 
ers or  materialists,  declare  that  death  ends  all,  is  not 
their  denial  of  immortality  still  a  clinging  to  the  illu- 
sion of  self?  If  the  soul  is  no  self-entity,  how  can 
there  be  a  death  of  the  soul?  Death  is  simply  a  disso- 
lution of  our  organisation  and  a  discontinuance  of  an 
individual  life  representing  a  more  or  less  valuable 
combination  of  soul-activity,  but  it  is  no  annihilation 
of  man's  karma.  If  the  essence  of  the  soul  is  our 
karma,  and  if  our  karma  is  indestructible,  how  can  the 
soul  be  destroyed  in  death? 

It  seems  to  me  that  as  surely  as  every  mathemati- 
cian will  come  to  the  same  conclusions  regarding  the 
properties  of  geometrical  triangles,  circles,  and  other 
figures,  sQ  every  thinking  man,  if  he  is  but  calm  and 


frees  his  mind  from  all  fancies  and  gratuitous  as- 
sumptions will  arrive  at  the  same  conclusion  of  the 
non-existence  of  an  ego-soul,  an  illusion  which  pre- 
vents us  from  recognising  the  true  nature  of  our  actual 
soul,  its  preexistence  ere  we  were  born,  and  its  con- 
tinuance beyond  the  grave. 

In  my  own  development  I  have  passed  through  the 
same  pessimistic  attitude  which  has  been  set  forth  in 
its  grand  pathos  by  Mrs.  Bodington,  and  trust  that  I 
do  not  say  too  much  in  declaring  that  I  understand 
her  ailments  and  complaints  in  their  full  depth  and 
significance.  I  have,  however,  surrendered  pessimism 
without  denying  those  facts  upon  which  pessimists  like 
Schopenhauer  base  their  dreary  conception  of  life,  and 
have  supplanted  it  by  what  I  call  meliorism ;  and  I 
must  confess  that  I  have  been  confirmed  in  the  posi- 
tion I  have  taken,  since  I  had  the  good  fortune  of 
knowing  Mr.  Hegeler.  Being  a  man  of  practical  life, 
he  would  not  be  satisfied  with  stones  when  he  needed 
bread.  Formerly,  I  was  often  inclined  to  believe  that 
such  views  as  I  propounded  in  my  booklet,  Monisiri 
and  Meliorism,  were  for  the  few  and  select  only,  that 
they  were  impractical  and  not  adapted  to  the  needs  of 
men  who  stand  in  actual  life.  My  acquaintance  with 
Mr.  Hegeler  has  cured   me  for  good  of  these  doubts. 

The  truths  which  we  preach  are  simple  enough,  and 
yet  they  are  hard  to  understand.  But  they  are  hard 
to  understand- only  to  those  who  have  not  as  yet  freed 
themselves  from  the  illusion  of  self. 

We  do  not  mean  to  say  that  we  are  Buddhistic,  or 
that  we  endorse  either  the  Northern  or  Southern  Bud- 
dhism in  all  its  tenets  and  excrescences,  which  are 
many.  We  simply  state  our  agreement  on  this  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  the  anatman  or  non-existence  of  a 
metaphysical  ego-entity  as  the  basis  of  a  correct  con- 
ception of  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

This  view  is  incompatible  with  all  dualistic  reli- 
gions, and  overthrows  what  they  so  often  and  erro- 
neously consider  the  corner-stone  of  religious  faith. 
But  this  view,  which  abolishes  the  illusion  of  self,  is 
after  all  the  only  true  religion;  it  is  monistic  and  in 
agreement  with  science.  Moreover,  far  from  being  a 
sad  truth,  its  recognition  is  the  main  and  indispensa- 
ble condition  of  peace  of  mind,  and  of  that  bliss  which 
cannot  be  found  in  the  restlessness  of  those  whose 
ethical  ideal  is  the  greatest  possible  amount  of  pleas- 
ure. 

This  conception  of  the  soul  has  conquered  death  ; 
for  we  now  understand  that  death  does  not  touch  the 
soul ;  that  the  soul  continues  wherever  the  actions  and 
deeds  of  which  the  soul  consists,  are  present. 

We  read  in  the  "Mahavagga,"  I,  11,  2,  that  when 
Mara,  the  Evil  One,  the  deity  of  sin  and  death,  ap- 
proached Buddha  with  words  of  spite  and  threat,  Bud- 
dha replies  ; 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4261 


"I  am  delivered  from  all  fetters,  human  and  divine.  I  am 
delivered  from  the  strong  fetters.  Thou  art  struck  down,  O 
Death." 

Let  US  conclude  with  another  quotation  from  the 
same  book,  which  sets  the  religious  assurance  of  the 
Buddhist  doctrine  in  a  clear  light.  When  Buddha 
sends  out  his  disciples  to  preach  the  doctrine  he  says : 

' '  Go  ye  now,  O  disciples,  and  wander  for  the  gain  of  the  many, 
for  the  welfare  of  the  mariy,  out  of  compassion  for  the  world,  for 
the  good,  for  the  gain,  and  for  the  welfare  of  gods  and  men.  Let 
not  two  of  you  go  the  same  way.  Preach,  O  disciples,  the  doc- 
trine which  is  glorious  in  the  beginning,  glorious  in  the  middle, 
glorious  at  the  end,  in  the  spirit  and  in  the  letter:  proclaim  a 
consummate,  perfect,  and  pure  life  of  holiness.  There  are  beings 
whose  mental  eyes  are  covered  by  scarcely  any  dust,  but  if  the 
doctrine  is  not  preached  to  them,  they  cannot  attain  salvation. 
They  will  understand  the  doctrine."  p.  c. 


IN  MEMORY  OF  M.  M.  TRUMBULL. 

BY  SAMUEL  P.    PUTNAM. 
Read  at  Memorial  Meeting,  Chicago,  October  7.  1894. 
A  soldier  born,  thy  spirit  welcomed  e'er 
The  stir  of  battle,  be  it  in  the  smoke 
Of  cannon  and  the  bayonet's  glistening  surge. 
The  swirl  and  thunder  of  ensanguined  hosts. 
Where  ghastly  death  confronts  the  victor's  path  ; 
Or  realms  of  thought  with  fields  more  stormful  far. 
Where  vaster  forces  meet  in  mightier  strife, 
Where  pen  more  luminous  than  shining  blade, 
The  flame  electric  drops  which  moves  a  world, 
And  crowns  a  truth,  or  blasts  a  giant  lie  ; 
In  this  thou  wast  a  knight  exultant,  too, 
And  ever  iu  the  front  with  beaming  brow  ; 
Thy  mind  as  dauntless  as  the  unsheathed  sword 
That  flings  its  splendor  in  the  forward  fray. 

Thy  aim  was  high,  not  for  to-day's  applause  ; 
Not  for  the  truth  of  yesterday's  renown  ; 
But  for  the  truth  beyond  the  beaten  path  ; 
The  untried  truth  that  only  lofty  souls 
Behold  and  welcome  on  the  distant  heights. 
Thou  wast  a  dreamer  and  a  toiler,  too, 
Thy  mind  was  in  the  future's  golden  days  ; 
The  gates  of  paradise  to  thy  far  view 
Were  open  wide — the  goal  of  martyr's  fire. 
The  poet's  song  and  hero's  restless  march, 
The  bright  enchantment  that  adorns  the  earth 
With  constant  hues  of  beauty  and  delight. 
And  yet  thou  wast  in  touch  with  common  life. 
And  hand  in  hand  with  those  who  strike  the  spark 
Of  earnest  action  from  surroundings  grim  ; 
The  comrade  of  the  weary  slave  wast  thou  ; 
The  bold  defender  of  defeated  right  ; 
The  guard  of  liberty  when  Judas-hands 
Would  clothe  its  loveliness  with  gilded  chains  ; 
Thine  eye  was  clear  to  see  great  nature's  law. 
Above  the  hoary  precedents  of  wrong  ; 
And  as  our  starry  flag  thou  didst  defend 
Within  the  bloody  ranks  of  fateful  war  ; 
So  wouldst  make  that  flag  the  pennon  bright 
Of  justice  to  all  lands  and  coming  time. 

Thy  work  is  done ;  true  to  the  line  was  all ; 
No  wavering  in  thought  or  deed  or  word 


From  freedom's  call,  to  which  thy  soul  ttas  pledged ; 

Sweet  fortune  thine  that  in  the  rayless  grave 

Illustrious  ends  the  task  thou  aim'st  to  do  ; 

So  can  we  honor  thee  without  regret; 

No  flaw  upon  the  diamond  of  thy  fame  ; 

Thy  life  is  crystalled  now  in  death's  white  grace. 

To  its  supreme  effulgence,  starred  sublime 

Upon  the  firmament,  whose  thousand  orbs 

Through  ages'  depths  illume  our  life  to-day. 

The  fruit  of  thy  brave  toil  shall  yet  appear  ; 
Thy  spirit's  flower  shall  bloom  in  years  afar  ; 
The  glory  of  thy  dream  shall  not  be  lost, 
For  it  is  burning  in  a  million  hearts — 
The  reign  of  justice  on  the  happy  earth — 
The  peace  of  liberty  in  every  land — 
The  grandeur  of  the  truth  in  every  brain — 
The  melody  of  love  in  every  breast — 
While  grand  and  beautiful  shall  be  the  way 
Of  fair  humanity;  the  heights  attained 
Where  wisdom  shines  ;  and  o'er  the  laden  plain 
Shall  glow  the  feet  of  labor,  bowed  no  more 
But  throned  and  glorious  in  its  native  wealth  ; 
And  science,  genius,  music,  art,  romance. 
Shall  be  the  melting  links  that  clasp  the  world 
In  bright  fraternity  and  equal  good. 

Thy  harvest-home  is  reached  ;  our  path  beams  on 
To  this  great  goal  ;  we  do  not  strive  in  vain  ; 
For  as  thy  virtues  shine  upon  our  eyes, 
So  shall  all  virtues  shine  through  coming  years; 
So  shall  all  deeds  flow  in  one  mighty  stream  ; 
The  onward  stream  of  human  power  and  joy. 

Unceasing  is  the  struggle  of  mankind  ; 
The  gain  to  day  is  but  the  vantage  point 
Of  grander  progress  on  to-morrow's  field  ; 
No  rest  is  there  save  as  one  rests  like  thee 
In  the  crowned  glory  of  heroic  death. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

A  BUDDHIST  ON  THE  LAW  OF  KARMA. 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Open  Court : 

I  am  sure  you  will  do  justice  in  your  forthcoming  work  to  the 
profoundly  philosophical  subjects.  Karma  and  Nirvana.  Mr. 
Julian  K.  Smyth,  in  the  Keio  Church  Review,  in  his  essay  on 
"  Christianity  and  Orientalism,"  failing  to  grasp  the  law  of  Karma, 
confounds  it  with  the  pernicious  doctrine  of  falalism,  which  Bud- 
dha condemned  along  with  materialism  and  teleological  dualism. 
The  law  of  Karma  is  based  on  the  cyclic  law  of  cause  and  effect. 
This  law  of  Karma  has  no  beginning  and  no  end,  and  it  is  classi- 
fied as  follows  : 

Karma  whose  results  are  forthwith  shown. 

Karma  that  has  no  energy  to  work  out  in  this  life. 

Katma  that  is  sure  to  work  out  in  any  one  of  the  many  lives. 

Latent  Karma  that  lies  in  wait  to  work  out  when  opportunity 
occurs.     There  is  not  one  who  is  not  free  from  this  Karma. 

Powerful  Karma  that  gives  no  opportunity  for  lesser  or  ordi- 
nary Karma  to  work  out. 

Effectual  Karma,  which  works  out  according  to  the  prepon- 
derating influence  one  has  over  the  other,  either  good  or  bad. 

Potential  Karma  of  the  dying  individual  ready  to  come  into 
activity  before  any  other  Karma. 

Karma  that  works  out  at  birth  only. 


V2> 


^ft^ 


4262 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


Dynamic  Karma,  either  good  or  bad,  that  works  out  in  suc- 
cessive births,  according  to  its  nature. 

Karma,  either  good  or  bad,  which  has  a  counter  influence  on 
the  other. 

Effectual  Karma  that  does  not  allow  the  weaker  Karma  to 
operate  on. 

An  individual  latent  Karma,  either  good  or  bad,  which  is 
dynamic,  and  having  the  force  of  weakening  all  the  rest. 

Study  of  Abhidharma,  the  psychology  of  Buddhism,  is  abso- 
lutely necessary,  without  which  the  philosophy  of  Buddhism  is 
difficult  to  be  realised.  All  the  great  exponents  of  Buddhism  in 
the  past  were  converted  thereto  by  the  profoundness  of  its  psy- 
chology. 

The  study  of  Pali  is  very  important  to  know  the  doctrines  of 
Buddhism.  H.  Dharmapala. 

Calcutta,  July  23,  1894. 


NOTES. 

On  Sunday  evening,  October  7,  memorial  services  were  held 
by  the  American  Secular  Union,  at  Fort  Dearborn  Hall,  Chicago, 
in  honor  of  the  late  Gen.  M,  M.  Trumbull.  Addresses  were  made 
by  Mr.  Clarence  S.  Darrow,  Dr.  Juliet  H.  Severance,  Lillie  D. 
White  for  Lizzie  M.  Holmes,  Shirlie  Woodman,  Mrs.  Sarah  Ames, 
and  Mrs.  M.  A.  Freeman.  Letters  were  read  from  Judge  C.  B. 
Waite  and  Dr.  Paul  Carus,  both  of  whom  were  unable  to  attend, 
and  an  original  poem  written  for  the  occasion,  and  published  in 
this  number  of  The  Open  Coutl,  was  recited  by  Mr.  Samuel  P. 
Putnam.  The  family  of  Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull  were  among  the 
audience,  which  was  large  and  representative.  The  exercises  were 
in  every  way  worthy  of  the  occasion. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

Marriage  and  Divorce.  The  Effect  of  Each  on  Personal  Status 
and  Property  Rights,  with  a  Consideration  of  FratiditUnt  Divorces 
and  the  Ethics  of  Divorce.  By  Henry  C.  Whitney.  (Philadelphia: 
John  E.  Potter  &  Co.  Pp.  377. )  A  work  written  for  popular  and 
professional  use.  It  gives  a  history  of  the  institutions  of  marriage 
and  divorce  and  a  summary  of  the  laws  of  marriage  and  divorce 
in  all  countries.  The  author  writes  sensibly  on  his  subject,  but 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  divorce-practitioner.  He  regards 
divorce  as  a  salutary  institution  in  the  altered  conditions  of  modern 
society,  contending  that  "  the  field  for  the  labors  of  the  reformer 
is  the  social  world  ;  let  the  causes  for  divorce  be  abridged  and  di- 
vorce as  an  effect  will  be  abridged  also."  He  demands  an  honor- 
able place  for  divorce  practice  in  the  profession,  and  adds  a  chap- 
ter on  the  ethical  aspects  of  the  subject. 

Theodor  Parker  in  seinem  Leeen  und  Wirken.  Dargestellt 
von  .l/fred  Altherr,  Pfarrer  zu  St.  Leonbard  in  Basel.  Mit 
Parker's  Bildniss.     St.  Gallen  :  Th.  Wirth  &  Co.     1894. 

This  is  a  thoroughly  appreciative  and  genial  life  of  the  great 
Teacher  whose  influence  is  still  living  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of 
a  second  generation  and  spreading  continually  in  other  lands  than 
his  own. 

The  materials  for  his  biography  are  fortunately  ample  and 
were  gathered  up  soon  after  his  death  by  his  friend  John  Weiss, 
who  had  intimate  personal  acquaintance  with  him  and  his  work. 
This  somewhat  hasty  and  ill-arranged  volume  is  a  precious  store 
house  of  material,  and  it  was  followed  some  years  later  by  the 
memoir  of  O.  B.  Frothingham  whose  dispassionate  judgment  and 
admirable  literary  skill  brought  this  and  some  new-found  material 
into  more  symmetric  form. 

Various  other  friends  have  contributed  their  reminiscences  of 
this  rich  and  varied  life,  and  his  own  letters  and  diaries  have  been 
freely  used,  and  now  we  are  indebted  to  a  German  for  weaving 


them  all  into  a  harmonious  picture  which  gives  us  not  only  the 
heart  and  soul  of  the  man,  but  also  an  impartial  estimate  of  his  re- 
lation to  his  time  and  the  work  which  he  did  for  the  world. 

Reading  it  in  the  slightly  difficult  medium  of  a  foreign  lan- 
guage, but  one  with  which  he  was  so  familiar  and  in  whose  litera- 
ture he  found  so  much  of  his  thought,  I  felt  as  the  artist  does  when 
he  holds  his  picture  before  a  mirror,  and  the  slight  change  of  rela- 
tion shows  him  its  beauties  and  its  faults  more  vividly  than  be- 
fore. So  freshly  has  the  image  of  my  friend  come  back  to  me 
that  I  have  sometimes  wondered  if  I  have  read  all  this  in  Weiss's 
or  Frothingham's  pages  before, 

To  the  young  German  public  who  sincerely  wish  to  study  the 
American  life  and  thought  of  which  Theodore  Parker  was  the  best 
exponent  in  the  generation  that  is  passing  away  this  book  is  an 
immense  help.  Some  modifications  may  have  been  made  in  our 
metaphysics  and  theology,  for  science  and  criticism  have  made 
great  advances  in  the  thirty-four  years  since  his  death,  but  his 
religion  is  unchanged  ;  it  is  the  spirit  that  carried  us  through  the 
great  crucial  struggle  of  the  sixties,  and  it  is  the  same  religion  that 
must  take  us  safely  through  the  difficulties  which  now  lie  around 
us.  The  Fatherhood  of  God,  the  Brotherhoc  d  of  Man,  the  Im- 
mortality of  the  Soul,  and,  in  this  world.  Truth,  Justice,  and 
Righteousness  unflinchingly  applied  to  every  relation  of  life,  are 
all  that  we  need  to  guide  us  on  our  difficult  way. 

To  be  baptised  into  the  faith  of  Theodore  Parker  is  to  be 
strengthened  for  the  great  moral  conflict  which  is  our  present 
duty,  and  in  which  every  young  man  will  find  him  an  inspiration 
and  a  leader. 

We  rejoice  that  we  can  clasp  hands  with  those  across  the 
ocean  who  are  doing  such  honor  to  his  memory,  and  who  are  so 
bravely  carrying  forward  his  work.  E.  D.  c. 

THE  OPEN   COURT 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  373. 

ON  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  CONCEPTS  OF  ELEC- 
TROSTATICS (QUANTITY,  POTENTIAL,  CAPA- 
CITY, ETC.)     (Concluded.)     Prof.  Ernst  Mack 4255 

IMMORTALITY  AND  THE  BUDDHIST  SOUL-CON- 
CEPTION,    Editor 4259 

POETRY. 

In  Memory  of  M.  M.  Trumbull.     Samuel  P,  Putna.m  .   4261 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

A  Buddhist  on  the  Law  of  Karma.     H.  Dharmapala  .  .   4261 

NOTES 4262 

BOOK  NOTICES 42^2 


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THE  ECONOMICAL  CHARACTER  OF  PHYSICAL 
RESEARCH. 

BY  PROF.  ERNST  MACH.' 

When  the  human  mind,  with  its  limited  powers, 
attempts  to  mirror  in  itself  the  rich  life  of  the  world, 
of  which  it  is  itself  only  a  small  part,  and  which  it  can 
never  hope  to  exhaust,  it  has  every  reason  for  proceed- 
ing economically.  Hence  that  tendency,  expressed  in 
the  philosophy  of  all  times,  to  compass  by  a  few  or- 
ganic thoughts  the  fundamental  features  of  reality. 
"Life  understands  not  death,  nor  death  life."  So 
spake  an  old  Chinese  philosopher.  Yet  in  his  un- 
ceasing desire  to  diminish  the  boundaries  of  the  in- 
comprehensible, man  has  always  been  engaged  in  at- 
tempts to  understand  death  by  life  and  life  by  death. 

Among  the  ancient  civilised  peoples,  nature  was 
filled  with  demons  and  spirits  having  the  feelings  and 
desires  of  men.  In  all  essential  features,  this  animistic 
view  of  nature,  as  Tylor^  has  aptly  termed  it,  is  shared 
in  common  by  the  fetish-worshipper  of  modern  Africa 
and  the  most  advanced  nations  of  antiquity.  As  a 
theory  of  the  world  it  has  never  completely  disap- 
peared. The  monotheism  of  the  Christians  never  fully 
overcame  it,  no  more  than  did  that  of  the  Jews.  In 
the  belief  in  witchcraft  and  in  the  superstitions  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  the  centuries  of 
the  rise  of  natural  science,  it  assumed  frightful  path- 
ological dimensions.  Whilst  Stevinus,  Kepler,  and 
Galileo  were  slowly  rearing  the  fabric  of  modern  phys- 
ical science,  a  cruel  and  relentless  war  was  waged 
with  firebrand  and  rack  against  the  devils  that  glowered 
from  every  corner.  To-day  even,  apart  from  all  sur- 
vivals of  that  period,  apart  from  the  traces  of  fetish- 
ism which  still  inhere  in  our  physical  concepts,-^  those 
very  ideas  still  covertly  lurk  in  the  practices  of  modern 
spiritualism. 

By  the  side  of  this  animistic  conception  of  the 
world,  we  meet  from  time  to  time,  in  different  forms, 
from  Democritus  to  the  present  day,  another  view, 
which  likewise  claims  exclusive  competency  to  com- 
prehend  the   universe.      This  view  may  be  character- 

lAn  address  delivered  before  the  anniversary  meeting  of  the  Imperial 
Academy  of  Sciences,  at  Vienna,  May  25,  1882.    Translated  by  iik()k. 
i  Primitive  Culture. 
;i  Tyler,  loc  rit. 


ised  as  the  physico-mechanical  view  of  the  world.  To- 
day, that  view  holds,  indisputably,  the  first  place  in  the 
thoughts  of  men,  and  determines  the  ideals  and  the 
character  of  our  times.  The  coming  of  the  mind  of 
man  into  the  full  consciousness  of  its  powers,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  was  a  period  of  genuine  disillu- 
sionment. It  produced  the  splendid  precedent  of  a  life 
really  worthy  of  man,  competent  to  overcome  the  old 
barbarism  in  the  practical  fields  of  life  ;  it  created  the 
Critique  of  Pure  Reason,  which  banished  into  the  realm 
of  shadows  the  sham-ideas  of  the  old  metaphysics  ;  it 
pressed  into  the  hands  of  the  mechanical  philosophy 
the  reins  which  it  now  holds. 

The  oft-quoted  words  of  the  great  Laplace,'  which 
I  will  now  give,  have  the  ring  of  a  jubilant  toast  to 
the  scientific  achievements  of  the  eighteenth  century : 
"A  mind  to  which  were  given  for  a  single  instant  all 
the  forces  of  nature  and  the  mutual  positions  of  all  its 
masses,  if  it  were  otherwise  powerful  enough  to  sub- 
ject these  problems  to  analysis,  could  grasp,  with  a 
single  formula,  the  motions  of  the  largest  masses  as 
well  as  of  the  smallest  atoms  ;  nothing  would  be  un- 
certain for  it ;  the  future  and  the  past  would  lie  re- 
vealed before  its  eyes."  In  writing  these  words,  La- 
place, as  we  know,  had  also  in  mind  the  atoms  of  the 
brain.  That  idea  has  been  expressed  more  forcibly 
still  by  some  of  his  followers,  and  it  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  Laplace's  ideal  is  substantially  that  of  the 
great  majority  of  modern  scientists. 

Gladly  do  we  accord  to  the  creator  of  the  Meca- 
tiique  celeste  the  sense  of  lofty  pleasure  awakened  in 
him  by  the  great  success  of  the  Enlightenment,  to 
which  we  too  owe  our  intellectual  freedom.  But  to- 
day, with  minds  undisturbed  and  before  new  tasks,  it 
becomes  physical  science  to  secure  itself  against  self- 
deception  by  a  careful  study  of  its  character,  so  that 
it  can  pursue  with  greater  sureness  its  true  objects. 
If  I  step,  therefore,  beyond  the  narrow  confines  of  my 
specialty  in  this  discussion,  to  trespass  on  friendly 
neighboring  domains,  I  may  plead  in  my  excuse  that 
the  subject-matter  of  knowledge  is  common  to  all  do- 
mains of  research,  and  fixed,  sharp  lines  of  demarca- 
tion cannot  be  drawn. 

\  Essai  pkilosophique  sur  ies  probability.     6th  Ed.  Paris,   1840,  p.  4.     The 
necessary  consideration  of  the  initial  velocities  is  lacking  in  this  formulation. 


4264 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


The  belief  in  occult  magic  powers  of  nature  has 
gradually  died  away,  but  in  its  place  a  new  belief  has 
arisen,  the  belief  in  the  magical  power  of  science. 
Science  throws  her  treasures,  not  like  a  capricious 
fairy  into  the  laps  of  a  favored  few,  but  into  the  laps 
of  all  humanity,  with  a  lavish  extravagance  that  no 
legend  ever  dreamt  of  !  Not  without  apparent  justice, 
therefore,  do  her  distant  admirers  impute  to  her  the 
power  of  opening  up  unfathomable  abysses  of  nature, 
to  which  the  senses  cannot  penetrate.  Yet  she  who 
came  to  bring  light  into  the  world,  can  well  dispense 
with  the  darkness  of  mystery,  and  with  pompous  show, 
which  she  needs  neither  for  the  justification  of  her 
aims  nor  for  the  adornment  of  her  plain  achievements. 

The  homely  beginnings  of  science  will  best  reveal 
to  us  its  simple,  unchangeable  character.  Man  ac- 
quires his  first  knowledge  of  nature  half-consciously 
and  automatically,  from  an  instinctive  habit  of  mimick- 
ing and  forecasting  facts  in  thought,  of  supplementing 
sluggish  experience  with  the  swift  wings  of  thought, 
at  first  only  for  his  material  welfare.  When  he  hears 
a  noise  in  the  underbrush  he  constructs  there,  just  as 
the  animal  does,  the  enemy  which  he  fears  ;  when  he 
sees  a  certain  rind  he  forms  mentally  the  image  of  the 
fruit  which  he  is  in  search  of  ;  just  as  we  mentally  as- 
sociate a  certain  kind  of  matter  with  a  certain  line  in 
the  spectrum  or  an  electric  spark  with  the  friction  of  a 
piece  of  glass.  A  knowledge  of  causality  in  this  form 
certainly  reaches  far  below  the  level  of  Schopenhauer's 
pet  dog,  to  whom  it  was  ascribed.  It  probably  exists 
in  the  whole  animal  world,  and  confirms  that  great 
thinker's  statement  regarding  the  will  which  created 
the  intellect  for  its  purposes.  These  primitive  psych- 
ical functions  are  rooted  in  the  economy  of  our  organ- 
ism not  less  firmly  than  are  motion  and  digestion. 
Who  would  deny  that  we  feel  in  them,  too,  the  ele- 
mental power  of  a  long  practised  logical  and  physio- 
logical activity,  bequeathed  to  us  as  an  heirloom  from 
our  forefathers? 

Such  primitive  acts  of  knowledge  constitute  to-day 
the  solidest  foundation  of  scientific  thought.  Our  in- 
stinctive knowledge,  as  we  shall  briefly  call  it,  by  vir- 
tue of  the  conviction  that  we  have  consciously  and 
intentionally  contributed  nothing  to  its  formation,  con- 
fronts us  with  an  authority  and  logical  power  which 
consciously  acquired  knowledge  even  from  familiar 
sources  and  of  easily  tested  fallibility  can  never  possess. 
All  so-called  axioms  are  such  instinctive  knowledge. 
Not  consciously  gained  knowledge  alone,  but  powerful 
intellectual  instinct,  joined  with  vast  conceptive  powers, 
constitute  the  great  inquirer.  The  greatest  advances 
of  science  have  always  consisted  in  some  successful 
formulation,  in  clear,abstract,  and  communicable  terms, 
of  what  was  instinctively  known  long  before,  and  of 
thus  making  it  the  permanent  property  of  humanity. 


By  Newton's  principle  of  the  equality  of  pressure  and 
counterpressure,  whose  truth  all  before  him  had  felt, but 
which  no  predecessor  had  abstractly  formulated,  me- 
chanics was  placed  by  a  single  stroke  on  a  higher  level. 
Our  statement  might  also  be  historically  justified  by 
examples  from  the  scientific  labors  of  Stevinus,  S. 
Carnot,  Faraday,  J.  R.  Mayer,  and  others. 

All  this,  however,  is  merely  the  soil  from  which 
science  starts.  The  first  real  beginnings  of  science 
appear  in  society,  particularly  in  the  manual  arts, 
where  the  necessity  for  the  communication  of  experi- 
ence arises.  Here,  where  some  new  discovery  is  to 
be  described  and  related,  the  compulsion  is  first  felt  of 
clearly  defining  in  consciousness  the  important  and 
essential  features  of  that  discovery,  as  many  writers 
can  testify.  The  aim  of  instruction  is  simply  the  sav- 
ing of  experience ;  the  labor  of  one  man  is  made  to 
take  the  place  of  that  of  many. 

The  most  wonderful  economy  of  communication  is 
found  in  language.  Words  are  comparable  to  type, 
which  spare  the  repetition  of  written  signs  and  thus 
serve  a  multitude  of  purposes  ;  or  to  the  few  sounds 
of  which  our  numberless  different  words  are  composed. 
Language,  with  its  helpmate,  conceptual  thought,  by 
fixing  the  essential  and  rejecting  the  unessential,  con- 
structs its  rigid  pictures  of  the  fluid  world  on  the  plan 
of  a  mosaic,  at  a  sacrifice  of  exactness  and  fidelity  but 
with  a  saving  of  tools  and  labor.  Like  a  piano-player 
with  previously  prepared  sounds,  a  speaker  excites  in 
his  listener  thoughts  previously  prepared,  but  fitting 
many  cases,  which  respond  to  the  speaker's  summons 
with  alacrity  and  little  effort. 

The  principles  which  a  prominent  political  econom- 
ist, E.  Hermann,*  has  formulated  for  the  economy  of 
the  industrial  arts,  are  also  applicable  to  the  ideas  of 
common  life  and  of  science.  The  economy  of  language 
is  augmented,  of  course,  in  the  terminology  of  science. 
With  respect  to  the  economy  of  written  intercourse 
there  is  scarcely  a  doubt  that  science  itself  will  realise 
that  grand  old  dream  of  the  philosophers  of  a  Univer- 
sal Real  Character.  That  time  is  not  far  distant.  Our 
numerical  characters,  the  symbols  of  mathematical 
analysis,  chemical  symbols,  and  musical  notes,  which 
might  easily  be  supplemented  by  a  system  of  color- 
signs,  together  with  some  phonetic  alphabets  now  in 
use,  are  all  beginnings  in  this  direction.  The  logical 
extension  of  what  we  have,  joined  with  a  use  of  the 
ideas  which  the  Chinese  ideography  furnishes  us,  will 
render  the  special  invention  and  promulgation  of  a 
Universal  Character  wholly  superfluous. 

The  communication  of  scientific  knowledge  always 
involves  description,  that  is,  a  mimetic  reproduction 
of  facts  in  thought,  the  object  of  which  is  to  replace 
and  save  the  trouble  of  new  experience.     Again,  to 

1  Principien  der  IVirtlischaftslehrc,  Vienna,  1873, 


XHE     OPEN     COURT. 


4265 


save  the  labor  of  instruction  and  of  acquisition,  con- 
cise, abridged  description  is  sought.  This  is  really  all 
that  natural  laws  are.  Knowing  the  value  of  the  ac- 
celeration of  gravity,  and  Galileo's  laws  of  descent,  we 
possess  simple  and  compendious  directions  for  repro- 
ducing in  thought  all  possible  motions  of  falling  bod- 
ies. A  formula  of  this  kind  is  a  complete  substitute 
for  a  full  table  of  motions  of  descent,  because  by  means 
of  the  formula  the  data  of  such  a  table  can  be  easily 
constructed  at  a  moment's  notice  without  the  least 
burdening  of  the  memory. 

No  human  mind  could  comprehend  all  the  individ- 
ual cases  of  refraction.  But  knowing  the  index  of  re- 
fraction for  the  two  media  presented,  and  the  familiar 
law  of  the  sines,  we  can  easily  reproduce  or  fill  out  in 
thought  every  conceivable  case  of  refraction.  The  ad- 
vantage here  consists  in  the  disburdening  of  the  mem- 
ory; an  end  immensely  furthered  by  the  written  preser- 
vation of  the  natural  constants.  More  than  this  com- 
prehensive and  condensed  report  about  facts  is  not 
contained  in  a  natural  law  of  this  sort.  In  reality,  the 
law  always  contains  less  than  the  fact  itself,  because  it 
does  not  reproduce  the  fact  as  a  whole  but  only  in 
that  aspect  of  it  which  is  important  for  us,  the  rest  be- 
ing either  intentionally  or  from  necessity  omitted. 
Natural  laws  may  be  likened  to  intellectual  type  of  a 
higher  order,  partly  movable,  partly  stereotyped,  which 
last  on  new  editions  of  experience  may  become  down- 
right impediments. 

When  we  look  over  a  province  of  facts  for  the  first 
time,  it  appears  to  us  diversified,  irregular,  confused, 
full  of  contradictions.  We  first  succeed  in  grasping 
only  single  facts,  unrelated  with  the  others.  The 
province,  as  we  are  wont  to  say,  is  not  clear.  By  and 
by  we  discover  the  simple,  permanent  elements  of  the 
mosaic,  out  of  which  we  can  mentally  construct  the 
whole  province.  When  we  have  reached  a  point  where 
we  can  discover  everywhere  the  same  facts,  we  no 
longer  feel  lost  in  this  province  ;  we  comprehend  it 
without  effort ;  it  is  explained  for  us. 

Let  me  illustrate  this  by  an  example.  As  soon  as 
we  have  grasped  the  fact  of  the  rectilinear  propagation 
of  light,  the  regular  course  of  our  thoughts  stumbles 
at  the  phenomena  of  refraction  and  diffraction.  As  soon 
as  we  have  cleared  matters  up  by  our  index  of  refrac- 
tion we  discover  that  a  special  index  is  necessary  for 
each  color.  Soon  after  we  have  accustomed  ourselves 
to  the  fact  that  light  added  to  light  increases  its  in- 
tensity, we  suddenly  come  across  a  case  of  total  dark- 
ness produced  by  this  cause.  Ultimately,  however, 
we  see  everywhere  in  the  overwhelming  multifarious- 
ness of  optical  phenomena  the  fact  of  the  spatial  and 
temporal  periodicity  of  light,  with  its  velocity  of  propa- 
gation dependent  on  the  medium  and  the  period.  This 
tendency  of  obtaining   a  survey  of  a  given  province 


with  the  least  expenditure  of  thought,  and  of  repre- 
senting all  its  facts  by  some  one  single  mental  process, 
may  be  justly  termed  an  economical  one. 

The  greatest  perfection  of  mental  economy  is  at- 
tained in  that  science  which  has  reached  the  highest 
formal  development,  and  which  is  widely  employed  in 
physical  inquiry,  namely,  in  mathematics.  Strange 
as  it  may  sound,  the  power  of  mathematics  rests  upon 
its  evasion  of  all  unnecessary  thought  and  on  its  won- 
derful saving  of  mental  operations.  Even  those  ar- 
rangement-signs which  we  call  numbers  are  a  system 
of  marvellous  simplicity  and  economy.  When  we  em- 
ploy the  multiplication-table  in  multiplying  numbers 
of  several  places,  and  so  use  the  results  of  old  opera- 
tions of  counting  instead  of  performing  the  whole  of 
each  operation  anew  ;  when  we  consult  our  table  of 
logarithms,  replacing  and  saving  thus  new  calcula- 
tions by  old  ones  already  performed;  when  we  employ 
determinants  instead  of  always  beginning  afresh  the 
solution  of  a  system  of  equations ;  when  we  resolve 
new  integral  expressions  into  familiar  old  integrals ;  we 
see  in  this  simply  the  feeble  glimmerings  of  the  intel- 
lectual activity  of  a  Lagrange  or  a  Cauchy,  who,  with 
the  keen  discernment  of  a  great  mihtary  commander, 
substituted  for  new  operations  whole  hosts  of  old  ones. 
No  one  will  dispute  me  when  I  say  that  the  most  ele- 
mentary as  well  as  the  highest  mathematics  are  eco- 
nomically-ordered experiences  of  counting,  put  informs 
ready  for  use. 

In  algebra  we  perform,  as  far  as  possible,  all  nu- 
merical operations  which  are  identical  in  form  once 
for  all,  so  that  only  a  remnant  of  work  is  left  for  the 
individual  case.  The  use  of  the  signs  of  algebra  and 
analysis,  which  are  merely  symbols  of  operations  to 
be  performed,  is  due  to  the  observation  that  we  can 
materially  disburden  the  mind  in  this  way  and  spare 
its  powers  for  more  important  and  more  difficult  du- 
ties, by  imposing  all  mechanical  operations  upon  the 
hand.  One  result  of  this  method,  which  attests  its 
economical  character,  is  the  construction  of  calculating 
machines.  The  mathematician  Babbage,  the  inventor 
of  the  difference-engine,  was  probably  the  first  who 
clearly  perceived  this  fact,  and  he  touched  upon  it, 
although  only  cursorily,  in  his  work.  The  Eeonotnv  of 
Manufactures  ami  Machinery. 

The  student  of  mathematics  often  finds  it  hard  to 
throw  off  the  uncomfortable  feeling  that  his  science,  in 
the  person  of  his  pencil,  surpasses  him  in  intelligence, 
— an  impression  which  the  great  Euler  confessed  he 
often  could  not  get  rid  of.  This  feeling  finds  a  sort  of 
justification  when  we  reflect  that  the  majority  of  the 
ideas  we  deal  with  were  conceived  by  others,  often 
centuries  ago.  In  great  measure  it  is  really  the  intelli- 
gence of  other  people  that  confronts  us  in  science. 
The  moment  we  look  at  matters  in  this  light,  the  un- 


4266 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


canniness  and  magical  character  of  our  impressions 
are  dispelled,  especially  when  we  remember  that  we 
can  think  over  again  at  will  any  one  of  those  alien 
thoughts. 

*  * 

Physics  is  experience,  arranged  in  economical  or- 
der. By  this  order  not  only  is  a  broad  and  comprehen- 
sive view  of  what  we  have  rendered  possible,  but  also 
the  defects  and  the  needful  alterations  are  made  mani- 
fest, exactly  as  in  a  well-kept  household.  Physics 
shares  with  mathematics  the  advantages  of  succinct 
description  and  of  brief,  compendious  definition,  which 
precludes  confusion,  even  in  ideas  where,  with  no  ap- 
parent burdening  of  the  brain,  hosts  of  others  are  con- 
tained. Of  these  ideas  the  rich  contents  can  be  pro- 
duced at  any  moment  and  displayed  in  their  full  per- 
ceptual light.  Think  of  the  swarm  of  well-ordered  no- 
tions pent  up  in  the  idea  of  the  potential.  Is  it  wonder- 
ful that  ideas  containing  so  much  finished  labor  should 
be  easy  to  work  with? 

Our  first  knowledge,  thus,  is  a  product  of  the 
economy  of  self-preservation.  By  communication,  the 
experience  of  many  persons,  individually  acquired  at 
first,  is  collected  in  one.  The  communication  of 
knowledge  and  the  necessity  which  every  one  feels  of 
managing  his  stock  of  experience  with  the  least  expen- 
diture of  thought,  compel  us  to  put  our  knowledge  in 
economical  forms.  But  here  we  have  a  clue  which 
strips  science  of  all  its  mystery,  and  shows  us  what  its 
power  really  is.  With  respect  to  specific  results  it 
yields  us  nothing  that  we  could  not  reach  in  a  suffi- 
ciently long  time  without  methods.  There  is  no  prob- 
lem in  all  mathematics  that  cannot  be  solved  by  direct 
counting.  But  with  the  present  implements  of  mathe- 
matics many  operations  of  counting  can  be  performed 
in  a  few  minutes  which  without  mathematical  methods 
would  take  a  lifetime.  Just  as  a  single  human  being, 
restricted  wholly  to  the  fruits  of  his  own  labor,  could 
never  amass  a  fortune,  but  on  the  contrary  the  accumu- 
lation of  the  labor  of  many  men  in  the  hands  of  one  is 
the  foundation  of  wealth  and  power,  so,  also,  no  knowl- 
edge worthy  of  the  name  can  be  gathered  up  in  a 
single  human  mind  limited  to  the  span  of  a  human  life 
and  gifted  only  with  finite  powers,  except  by  the  most 
exquisite  economy  of  thought  and  by  the  careful 
amassment  of  the  economically  ordered  experience  of 
thousands  of  co-workers.  What  strikes  us  here  as  the 
fruits  of  sorcery  are  simply  the  rewards  of  excellent 
housekeeping,  as  are  the  like  results  in  civil  life.  But 
the  business  of  science  has  this  advantage  over  every 
other  enterprise,  that  from  its  amassment  of  wealth  no 
one  suffers  the  least  loss.  This,  too,  is  its  blessing, 
its  freeing  and  saving  power. 

Ito   be  CONCLUDKD.I 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  A  HUMORIST. 

WiLHELM  BuscH,  the  famous  author  of  Max  und 
Moriiz  and  other  witty  booklets,  published  a  few  years 
ago  a  little  volume  called  Eduard's  Traum,  which  de- 
serves our  attention  for  its  humor  and  satirical  criti- 
cisms not  less  than  for  the  truths  it  contains.  It  shows 
that  its  author,  the  man  of  jokes,  is  at  the  same  time 
a  thinker  ;  he  is  a  master  of  fun,  but  he  is  also  a  phi- 
losopher and  it  will  not  only  be  interesting  to  know  the 
philosophy  of  a  humorist,  but  we  shall  also  enjoy  the 
dress  in  which  he  clothes  his  thought  and  the  way  in 
which  he  presents  his  views. 

The  plot  of  the  little  narrative  is  simple  enough. 
It  is  a  dream,  and  in  this  dream  the  author  presents 
to  the  reader  a  number  of  philosophical  problems 
which  he  either  solves  in  an  aphoristic  way,  or,  having 
touched  upon  them,  passes  by  to  other  problems.  He 
concludes  his  booklet  with  the  remark  "A  book  is  not 
"an  organ  with  which  the  organ-grinder  mercilessly 
"tortures  our  ears.  A  book  is  even  more  unobtrusive 
"than  the  picture  on  the  wall,  which  still  looks  down 
"with  a  certain  desire  to  be  noticed.  A  book  when  it 
"lies  before  us  shut,  is  a  bound,  sleeping,  and  harm- 
"  less  animalcule  which  hurts  no  one.  He  who  does 
"not  rouse  it,  at  him  it  does  not  yawn.  Him  who 
"does  not  put  his  nose  between  its  jaws  it  will  not 
"bite." 

Let  us  look  into  the  book,  and  I  will  read  in  a  free 
translation  a  few  passages  which  appear  to  me  note- 
worthy ;  and  if  my  readers  understand  German  I  ad- 
vise them  to  send  for  the  original.  The  perusal  of 
these  eighty-five  pages  will  fully  repay  the  time  spent 
on  them.  The  book  is  worth  having  in  one's  library 
and  its  place  is  among  the  philosophers. 

Wilhelm  Busch's  story  is  as  follows  : 

It  is  bedtime.  Edward  is  still  up.  His  little  boy, 
Emil,  is  in  bed.  Elise,  his  wife,  bids  him  good-night 
and  retires.  But  Edward,  in  complacent  rumination, 
still  loiters  on  the  limits  of  the  inconceivable.  He 
yawns,  throws  away  the  stump  of  his  cigar,  takes  the 
last  swallow  of  his  evening-drink  (for  we  must  suppose 
him  to  be  a  Bavarian)  and  decides  to  retire  too.  Hav- 
ing stared  awhile  into  the  light  of  the  candle  he  blows 
it  out  and  goes  to  bed.  Before  his  eye  the  image  of 
the  fiame  still  remains,  and  he  begins  to  contemplate 
it  attentively.  Then  he  experiences  a  feeling  as  if  his 
spirit,  his  soul,  or  whatever  you  may  call  it,  began  to 
shrink.  His  ego  became  smaller  and  smaller ;  first 
like  a  potato,  then  like  a  pill,  then  like  a  pin's  head, 
then  still  smaller,  and  at  last  it  was  a  point.  But  he  was 
a  thinking-point  and  active  he  was  too,  moving  about 
in  all  directions,  making  his  demand  of  time  and  space 
quite  en  passant  as  a  by-product.  In  this  shape  he 
makes  several  excursions. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4267 


I.     THE  WORLD  OF  PURE  FORMS. 

Edward  describes  his  journey  into  the  land  of 
mathematics  as  follows  : 

"With  telegraphic  swiftness  of  thought  I  switched 
directly  through  the  wall  and  found  myself  in  friendly 
surroundings.  It  was  the  domain  of  numbers  where  a 
pretty  little  arithmetical  township  lay. 

"  Strange  !  in  a  dream  flourishes  even  have  life. 

"  Morning  dawned.  Several  peasants  in  the  fields 
were  husbanding  their  multiplications  at  an  early  hour. 
These  people  live  and  multiply  honestly  ;  they  do  not 
prosper  greatly  but  they  are  frugal. 

"More  pretentious  are  the  officials  of  the  town. 
The)'  were  talking  about  a  certion  nought  which  had 
blocked  the  way  of  many  an  honest  fellow,  and  when 
one  had  advanced  who,  as  they  thought,  had  not  de- 
served it,  then  certainly,  it  was  rumored,  that  as  sure 
as  twice  two  is  four,  the  old  intriguing  nought  was  be- 
hind him.  In  the  fashionable  quarter  the  gentry  live 
who  can  trace  their  lineage  to  the  oldest  primers.  A 
certain  Mr.  X  is  the  most  looked  for  person  of  all.  But 
he  makes  himself  so  rare  that  almost  daily  there  are  a 
thousand  fools  who  ask  for  him,  before  a  wise  man  can 
point  him  out.  Other  algebraical  numbers  are  very 
impertinent.  Two  fellows  whom  I  met  in  the  park- 
promenade  introduced  themselves  to  me  twice  ;  first  as 
Mr.  A  and  Mr.  B  ;  then  again  as  Mr.  B  and  Mr.  A  ; 
and  they  asked  me  conceitedly  whether  it  wasn't  all 
the  S3jm.&,  iox  A^  B=B -^  A.  ' 'Tis  all  the  same  to 
me,'  I  said  courteously,  although  I  knew  that  the  propo- 
sition in  one  respect  had  a  hitch.  But  even  in  a  dream 
we  allow  such  little  inaccuracies  arising  from  politeness 
to  pass  unchallenged. 

"I  went  to  the  market  where  the  concrete  numbers 
conducted  their  business.  Suddenly  a  sausage  came 
running  in  hot  haste,  and  its  price  was  marked  ninety- 
three  cents.  Seventeen  young  tailors  came  after  her 
with  open  shears  and  open  mouths  trying  to  catch  her. 
'We  have  paid  our  money,'  they  shouted,  'and  now 
snipsnap  we  will  divide.'  'That  won't  do,'  gasped 
the  sausage,  which  perspired  fatty  drops  in  her  agony, 
for  the  tailors  had  already  pricked  her  with  their  shears 
and  had  made  thirty-four  holes.  At  this  moment  an 
expert  accountant  came.  He  wore  yellow  pants,  forty- 
five  cents  a  yard,  a  hired  evening  dress,  an  unpaid-for 
stove-pipe  hat ;  he  made  a  false  equation  and  brought 
the  sausage  on  his  side  ;  but  the  tailors  did  not  like 
the  joke.  They  cut  off  the  tails  of  his  evening  dress, 
ripped  the  buttons  from  his  pants,  and  had  he  not 
speedily  withdrawn,  leaving  the  sausage  behind,  they 
would  have  dissevered  him.  Before  they  could  again 
attack  the  sausage,  the  wife  of  the  butcher,  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty-seven  pounds  living  weight,  appeared 
and  caused  great  consternation,  for,  she  said,  she 
had  seen  no  money,  and  to  give  up  ninety-three  cents 


for  nothing  was  against  her  human  shortage.  At  once 
all  the  clattering  shears  were  turned  against  the  round 
sum  of  the  buxom  butcher's  wife,  and  the  tumult  was 
great.  The  crowd  was  swelled  by  fifty  salted  herrings, 
two  score  and  ten  eggs,  three  dozen  cheeses,  one  bottle 
of  whiskey,  three-quarters  of  a  pound  of  dish-butter, 
six  pounds  of  cooking  butter,  fifteen  ounces  of  snuff, 
and  numerous  dittos.  Endangered  by  the  points  of 
the  shears  the  butcher's  wife  retreated.  She  stepped 
into  the  three-quarters  of  a  pound  of  dish-butter,  fell 
down  upon  the  six  pounds  of  cooking-butter,  and  while 
falling  she  drew  into  either  of  the  holes  of  her  nose 
two  ounces  of  snuff,  began  to  sneeze,  in  consequence 
whereof  she  made  a  somersault,  squeezing  three 
cheeses,  and  breaking  the  bottle  of  whiskey.  When 
she  alighted  on  the  ground  her  heavy  heels  smashed 
two  herrings  so  that  both  their  poor  souls  fled  out  of 
their  salted  bodies.  But  when  the  complication  was  at 
its  height,  the  crowd  dispersed,  for  a  new  and  superior 
magnitude,  the  town  police,  appeared  upon  the  scene. 
The  tailors  made  themselves  as  thin  as  they  could,  and 
the  butcher's  wife  raised  the  sausage  in  her  right  hand, 
exclaiming:  'There  is  no  justice  left  in  the  town; 
that's  what  Isay. '  But  the  town-police  understood 
his  duty,  noted  down  the  two  herrings  who  had  lost 
their  souls,  kept  the  cheeses,  the  b.utter,  and  the  glass 
splinters  in  his  head,  added  the  woman  and  the  sau- 
sage, put  them  in  brackets,  transported  them  to  the 
town-scales,  where  one  was  found  too  heavy  and  the 
other  one  too  light,  and  subtraction  was  inevitable. 
The  sausage  was  subtracted  for  the  exchequer.  The 
remainder  for  contempt  of  court  was  three  times  three 
crosswise  cancelled  in  ink,  and  the  brave  town-police- 
man on  the  very  same  day  was,  by  the  infinitely  great 
mayor  of  the  town,  raised  to  the  third  power.  There 
were  before  the  treasurer  several  other  cases  attended 
to  with  the  same  promptitude." 

The  town  contains  beautiful  parks  and  orchards  full 
of  golden  percentages,  and  the  dividends  go  up  and 
down  on  paper  ladders.  Some  of  them  were  seen 
dropping  to  the  ground,  and  they  stroked  their  bruised 
parts  and  limped  drearily  home. 

There  is  also  enough  grief  and  misery  displayed  on 
all  corners  of  the  streets.  One  can  see  fractured  num- 
bers, swollen  numerators  who  carry  small  denominators 
upon  their  backs.  How  pitiful  they  look!  "But," 
adds  Edward,  "I  remained  cool.  I  had  no  money  with 
me,  and  if  I  had  had  some  I  would  not  have  given  them 
anything.  I  had  changed  my  character.  For  wher- 
ever there  is  need  of  it  I  do  not  mind  a  few  pennies  ; 
that  you  know,  my  friends. " 

Edward  now  came  among  the  points,  a  buoyant 
people  who  were  just  practising  sharp-shooting.  "The 
smaller  these  folks,"  he  tells  us,  "  the  greater  is  their 
pleasure.      They  were   crawling    and    squirming    like 


4268 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


merry  infusoria  in  an  old  barrel  of  rain-water.  Like 
mosquitoes,  the  thinking-points  were  dancing  with 
their  beloved  little  ideas,  and  I  myself  engaged  one, 
and  waltzed  a  few  times  round.  Still  nimbler  and 
windier  in  the  terpsichorean  art  than  they  were  the 
purely  mathematical  points,  but  they  were  so  bash- 
ful that  they  became  smaller  and  smaller  the  more 
one  looked  at  them.  One  of  them  disappeared  en- 
tirely when  I  looked  at  him  very  closely.  Queer  fel- 
lows, this  sort  of  points.  Old  Brennecke,  my  mathe- 
matical professor,  used  to  say  :  '  Whoever  cannot  think 
a  point  is  simply  too  lazy.'  I  have  often  since  tried, 
but  just  when  I  think  I  have  it,  I  have — nothing.  And 
we  have  the  same  experience  with  all  things  ;  as  soon 
as  we  look  at  them  more  closely,  when  we  are  about  to 
seize  them  with  the  tenderest  comprehension,  they  se- 
cretly withdraw  into  the  corner  of  the  incomprehensi- 
ble and  disappear  without  leaving  anything  behind, 
like  the  enchanted  rabbit  whom  the  hunter  can  never 
hit.  There  were  also  some  critical  points  making  mis- 
chievous faces  and  impeding  every  one  wherever  they 
went.  One  of  them,  an  impudent  fellow,  stepped  upon 
the  train  of  a  beautiful,  young  idea  and  at  the  same 
time  upon  the  corn  of  her  partner,  the  thinking-point ; 
this  insolent  behavior  interrupted  all  his  arguments, 
and  he  began  to  scream.  That  was  the  signal  for  a 
lively  scandal,  for  all  the  points  of  dispute  and  the 
points  of  honor  interfered,  to  the  delight  of  all  pres- 
ent." 

Continuing  his  journey,  Edward  came  to  the  atoms, 
who  were  just  beginning  a  square  dance.  With  great 
assurance  they  danced  their  complex  molecular  figures, 
and  when  they  were  through,  all  had  grown  pretty 
warm.  They  are  not  quite  so  stupid  as  one  is  inclined 
to  believe,  and  are  quite  interesting,  as  well  as  inter- 
ested themselves,  for  tender  love-affairs  are  not  rare 
among  them.  One  of  their  ladies  appeared  to  me  fa 
miliar.  I  must  have  seen  her,  and,  really!  I  remem- 
ber, at  Leibnitz's!  It  was  the  old  monad,  and  she  had 
grown  quite  young  again.  She  approached  me,  shook 
hands,  and  held  me  with  her  unsubstantial  affinities, 
and  pressed  a  kiss  upon  my  lips,  saying  :  '  My  dear 
friend,  let  us  be  eternally  united.'  But  I  was  repul- 
sive. With  great  rapidity  I  shot  through  the  roof  and 
hastened  away  to  distant  spheres.  When  I  looked 
round  I  was  not  quite  alone,  for  right  near  I  heard  a 
cough.  It  was  the  mathematical  point  whom  I  had 
tried  to  look  at,  and  he  said  :  'At  home  I  cannot  get 
on ;  now  I'll  see  what  I  can  do  in  the  geometrical 
plane.'  " 

The  geometrical  plane  lay  before  our  romantic  trav- 
eller in  the  splendor  of  the  sinking  evening  sun.  No 
tree,  no  bush,  no  chimney  loomed  up.  All  was  flat  as 
a  pan-cake  ;  nay,  a  thousand  tiroes  flatter.  And  they 
were  standing  at   the  entrance  to  an  industrious  city 


which  lay  flat  on  its  side.  The  door  through  which 
they  passed  had  only  breadth,  no  height.  "  It  was  so 
low,"  says  Edward,  "  that  my  pate  was  grazed,  and 
even  my  tiny  companion  could  just  pass  through.  He 
got  an  appointment  that  very  same  evening  with  an 
able  geometer  who  took  him  at  once  into  his  drawing- 
pen  in  order  to  transfer  him  to  the  place  of  his  future 
activity.  I  wished  him  all  success,  but  I  myself  went 
to  the  hotel,  where  the  waiter  appeared  as  a  straight 
mathematical  line.  Nothing  could  be  more  slender, 
and  I  thought  of  what  my  little  nephew,  Peter,  once 
said.  'Uncle  Edward,'  he  said,  'a  ghost  must  be  real 
slim  for  one  doesn't  see  it  at  all.' 

"How  ridiculously  thin  such  a  mathematical  line 
is  !  In  the  room  next  to  me  there  were  thirty  in  one 
bed,  which  was  not  broader  than  a  cigar-case,  and  yet 
there  was  plenty  of  space  left.  At  first  they  were  quar- 
relling, for  there  was  a  Pole  among  them  who  suffered 
from  nightmares  and  was  very  restless  until  he  was 
nailed  tight  by  two  points  ;  then  he  became  quiet.  I 
tried  to  pronounce  his  name,  Chr — rrr — rrrr,  but  at  that 
moment  I  heard  a  voice  saying,  'Edward,  do  not  snore. ' 
It  was  the  voice  of  my  wife,  I  awoke  for  a  moment  but 
soon  fell  asleep  again." 

When  Edward,  in  his  dream,  awoke  the  next  morn- 
ing in  the  geometrical  plane,  he  found  that  everybody 
had  to  crawl  about  on  his  stomach.  High  and  low  are 
difficult  to  distinguish  at  first  sight,  and  if  one  has 
cause  to  be  polite  one  must  look  out  with  great  cir- 
cumspection, for  as  there  is  no  height  there  are  no 
shadows,  and  everybody,  even  the  most  square  fellow 
of  great  contents  appears  as  a  simple  line.  The  ab- 
sence of  shadow  makes  photography  impossible,  and 
the  people  of  this  city  have  to  forego  the  ornament 
of  pictures  in  their  rooms.  But  they  do  as  well  as 
they  can.  They  call  in  the  carpenter,  they  measure 
their  friends,  and  make  a  proportional  figure  in  the 
album,  noting  the  real  square  contents  together  with 
the  year  and  date,  and  the  memorial  is  ready.  Some 
of  the  inhabitants  told  me  that  a  few  postmen  had  be- 
come so  thin  by  constantly  crawling  on  their  stomachs 
that  in  their  old  age  they  were  only  half  as  thin  as  pos- 
sible. This  seemed  to  me  remarkable  on  account  of 
congruence,  for  if  the  report  was  correct  an  actual 
congruence  of  equal  figures  which  appeared  to  me  at 
this  highly  depressed  locality  impossible,  did  not  seem 
to  be  excluded  under  all  circumstances.  I  inquired 
for  the  congruence  office,  an  institution  which  is  sim- 
ilar to  the  county  clerk's  office  where  marriage  licences 
are  given.  As  no  one  could  give  me  any  information. 
I  went  to  the  mayor  and  was  told  "We  have  no  such 
nonsense  ;  any  one  anxious  for  such  experience,  espe- 
cially if  it  be  a  case  of  symmetrical  congruence,  must 
please  go  to  the  third  dimension." 

"As  the  atmosphere  in  the  mayor's  office  was  very 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4269 


close  I  bade  him  good-bye  and  went  through  the  ceihng 
into  tri-dimensional  space  where  stereometric  hberty 
prevails  and  where  spatially  sympathetic  couples  have 
the  licence  of  marriage  relations.  But  even  here  no 
exceptions  were  allowed.  I  just  saw  two  spherical  tri- 
angles, one  the  exact  reflected  image  of  the  other. 
They  returned  in  tears  from  the  congruence  office 
where  they  had  been  refused.  There  was  a  pair  of  in- 
finitely delicate  gloves,  one  left  one  and  one  right  one. 
He,  the  groomsman,  and  she  the  bridesmaid,  comfort- 
ing the  unfortunate  couple,  saying  that  they  were  in 
the  same  predicament  and  if  there  was  no  other  hope 
the}'  could  after  all  elope  into  the  fourth  dimension 
where  nothing  is  impossible.  '  Alas  ! '  sighed  the 
bride,  'who  knows  what  the  fourth  dimension  is  like?' 
One  might  have  pitied  the  poor  people  but  we  must 
not  be  too  quick  with  our  sympathy,  for  the  inhabi- 
tants of  this  unsubstantial  country  are  hollow,  sun  and 
moon  shine  through  them,  and  any  one  who  stands 
behind  them  can  count  easily  the  buttons  of  their  vests 
in  front.  They  look  through  one  another,  and  yet  these 
people  who  have  as  little  contents  as  a  cleaned-out 
sparrow's  egg,  talk  about  the  noble  aspirations  of  their 
souls  and  address  one  in  the  most  refined  phraseology. 
I  got  sick  of  this  conceited  world  of  empty  figures  and 
hurried  away.  When  about  to  leave  I  was  addressed 
in  a  deep,  sonorous  bass  by  a  gentleman  who  was  so 
round  and  thick  that  he  almost  took  up  the  whole 
space  of  the  exit.  It  was  my  former  companion,  the 
mathematical-point.  By  a  clever  turn  in  the  plane  he 
had  become  a  circle,  and  on  emigrating  into  tri- 
dimensional space  he  had,  by  another  turn,  developed 
into  a  sphere.  He  was  now  on  his  way  to  a  spiritualistic 
medium  for  materialisation,  intending  to  go  as  a  globe 
to  a  high- school.  The  unimportant  little  fellow  had 
become  a  regular  snob  who  began  to  treat  me  conde- 
scendingly. That  was  too  much  for  me.  I  did  not 
mean  to  suffer  it  from  a  puffed-up  point,  for  such  are 
all  these  people.  I  turned  and  went  through  the  wall 
where  I  supposed  that  the  complete  world  of  reality 
la}',  but  even  this  was  only  in  parts."  p.  c. 

[TO  BE  CONTINUED.] 


ERECT  VISION. 

BY  GUSTAV  GLASER. 


A  GOOD  deal  has  been  written  about  this  problem  of 
Erect  Vision,  i.  e.,  about  the  question  how  it  can  be 
explained  that  we  see  objects  in  an  upright  position 
when  the  image  on  the  retina  shows  the  object  re- 
versed. 

Professor  Mach  in  his  article,  "Facts  and  Mental 
Symbols,"  published  in  The  Mortis/  (January,  1892), 
offers  the  following  explanation:  "  The  light-sensa- 
tions of  the  separate  spots  on  the  retina  are  connected 
with  sensations  and  locality  from   the  very  beginning. 


and  we  name  the  places  that  correspond  to  the  parts 
down,  up." 

This  explanation  seems  to  presuppose  that  there 
actually  exists  a  difference  between  the  directions  of 
the  motions  of  our  hands  and  the  position  of  the  image 
on  the  retina,  though  the  difference  is  not  actually 
present  in  consciousness,  because  upward  motions 
have  become  definitely  associated  with  downward  po- 
sition of  the  image,  and  vice  versa. 

The  explanation  given  by  Johannes  Miiller,  though 
not  paying  attention  to  all  sides  of  the  problem,  ap- 
pears to  me  more  satisfactory  as  far  as  it  goes.  It  is 
as  follows:  "In  accordance  with  the  laws  of  optics, 
the  images  are  depicted  on  the  retina  in  an  inverted 
position  as  regards  the  objects.  .  .  .  The  question  now 
arises  whether  we  really  see  the  images,  as  they  are, 
inverted,  or  erect  as  in  the  object  itself.  Since  the 
image  and  the  affected  parts  of  the  retina  mean  the 
same  thing,  the  question  physiologically  expressed  is 
this  :  Are  the  particles  of  the  retina  perceived  in  vision 
in  their  natural  relation  to  the  body?  The  view  which 
I  take  of  the  question,  and  which  I  propounded  in  my 
work  or.  the  Physiology  of  Vision,  is  that  even  if  we  do 
see  objects  inverted,  the  only  proof  we  can  possibly 
have  of  it  is  that-  afforded  by  the  study  of  the  laws  of 
optics ;  and  that  if  everything  is  seen  inverted,  the 
relative  position  of  the  object  of  course  remains  un- 
changed. .  .  .  Even  the  position  of  our  hand  while 
used  in  touch  is  seen  inverted.  The  position  in  which 
we  see  objects  we  call,  therefore,  the  erect   position." 

This  explanation  is  clear  and  satisfactory,  but,  as 
that  of  Professor  Mach,  it  presupposes  that  the  posi- 
tion of  the  image  on  our  retina  is  different  from  the 
position  in  which  we  actually  see  things,  and  this,  in 
my  opinion,  is  not  the  case.  I  think  it  can  be  easily 
proved  from  a  psychological  standpoint  that  the  image 
on  the  retina  has  exactly  the  position  in  which  we  see 
things,  i.  e.,  that  it  is  what  we  call  erect. 

From  optical  experiments  we  learn  that  objects 
projected  upon  some  surface  by  means  of  a  convex 
lense,  such  as  that  of  our  eye,  will  be  inverted.  Con- 
sequently all  the  objects  that  are  projected  upon  my 
retina  are  inverted  ;  but  instead  of  saying  that  they  are 
erect  outside  of  us,  and  are  upside  down  (from  our 
point  of  view)  on  the  retina,  we  must  assume  that  just 
the  opposite  is  the  case. 

If  I  see  an  inverted  picture  upon  the  retina  of  an 
excised  eye,  this  picture  in  reality,  therefore,  must 
have  just  the  opposite  position,  i.  e.,  it  must  be  erect 
upon  that  retina,  and  therefore  exactly  as  we  see  objects. 
In  reality  all  objects  may  have  a  reversed  position  as 
compared  with  our  idea  of  them,  but  the  picture  on 
the  retina  has  just  the  position  that  we  call  erect. 

[The  problem  of  Erect  Vision  does  not  appear  to  us  as  diffi- 
cult as  many  writers  would  make  us  believe.     Considering  the 


^ 


,6^^ 


4270 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


mecbanism  of  our  organ  of  sight,  it  is  obvious  that  when  we  look 
down  upon  the  ground  at  the  foot  of  a  tree,  the  fixed  point  will 
appear  in  the  upper  part  of  the  eye,  while  when  we  look  up  to  the 
top  of  the  tree  the  fixed  point  will  lie  in  a  lower  part  of  the  eye, 
and  the  whole  picture  of  the  tree  upon  the  retina  will  be  inverted. 
Now  the  problem  of  erect  vision  may  be  stated  in  the  question, 
How  can  the  inverted  picture  of  the  tree  appear  erect  before  me  ? 
But  he  who  proposes  this  question  forgets  that  sight  does  not  con- 
sist of  a  sensation  in  the  retina  alone,  but  of  a  very  complex  pro 
cess  comprising  also  the  sensations  of  the  adjustment  of  the  mus- 
cles of  the  eye  and  a  co-operation  of  the  memory  of  innumerable 
other  experiences,  especially  of  the  tactual  sense,  by  the  help  of 
which  the  retina-picture  is  interpreted.  When  the  foot  of  a  tree  is 
fixed,  it  is  not  a  single  spot  of  the  upper  part  of  the  retina  which  is 
seen,  but  together  with  it  a  direction  downwards  is  perceived. 
Again,  when  the  top  of  a  tree  is  fixed,  it  is  not  an  isolated  spot  in 
the  lower  part  of  the  retina  which  is  seen,  but  in  connexion  with 
this  sensation  a  number  of  muscles  round  the  eye  and  perhaps 
also  in  the  neck  are  felt  to  be  innervated,  which  mark  the  line  of 
vision  to  be  turned  upwards.  In  the  former  case  as  well  as  in  the 
latter  the  judgment  is  made  unconsciously,  and  there  is  no  choice 
but  to  see  the  inverted  picture  erect.  The  problem  accordingly, 
so  it  seems  to  us,  arises  simply  by  limiting  our  attention  to  the 
retina,  and  the  problem  disappears  as  soon  as  we  take  into  con- 
sideration the  functions  of  all  the  auxiliary  organs  of  vision,  espe- 
cially of  the  muscles  of  the  eye. — Ed.] 

CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE  MEANING  OF  "  CHRISTIANITY." 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Open  Court: 

Permit  me  to  correct  an  accidental  misrepresentation  of  my 
thought  concerning  the  meaning  of  Christianity,  which  appeared 
in  your  issue  of  September  27.  In  my  second  contribution  to 
The  Open  Court  I  took  special  pains  to  say  that  I  should  be  ashamed 
to  define  Christianity  myself  and  that  I  utterly  repudiate  the  dog- 
matism which  sets  up  its  own  definition  of  Christianity  and  then 
demands  that  the  world  shall  accept  it.  Neither  you  nor  I  can 
define  a  religion.  The  Christian  Church,  Christian  tradition  and 
history,  the  New  Testament,  these  alone  can  define  Christianity. 
And  all  these  unite  in  defining  Christianity  as  the  religion  which 
regards  Jesus  as  the  Zen/ and  Master  of  mankind,  the  ultimate 
authority,  to  go  beyond  which  is  to  cease  to  be  a  Christian.  So- 
called  "  Liberal  Christianity"  ignores  the  essential eXame.'ni  which 
permits  the  use  of  the  Christian  name  because  it  sets  reason  above 
all  other  lords  and  masters,  even  the  Lordship  of  Jesus  tho'  still  re- 
taining nominal  acceptance  thereof  in  its  National  Conference  Con- 
stitution. Everybody  cannot  define  the  term  Buddhist  or  Chris- 
tian as  he  pleases  ;  at  least  he  should  not  because  he  has  no  right 
to.  I  drop  the  name  Christian  because  I  do  not  accept  the  au- 
thoritative definition  of  it.  He  who  believes  in  unsectarianism  and 
in  the  lordship  of  universal  human  reason  governed  by  experience 
occupies  a  position  obviously  antithetical  to  that  represented  by 
Christianity  and  he  should  therefore  discard  the  name.  But  this 
by  no  means  involves  rejection  of  the  spiritual  ideals  to  which 
Jesus  gave  expression  and  which  are  sometimes  designated  Chris- 
tianity by  indiscriminating  persons.  Alfred  W.  Martin. 

NOTES. 

The  Annual  Congress  of  the  American  Secular  Union  and 
Freethought  Federation  of  America  will  be  held  at  Madison  Hall, 
146  Madison  street,  Chicago,  October,  26,  27,  and  28,  1894  The 
demand  of  the  Union  is,  that  "not  only  in  the  Constitutions  of 
the  United  States  and  of  the  several  States,  but  also  in  the  prac- 
tical administration  of  the  same,  no  privilege  or  advantage  shall 


be  conceded  to  Christianity  or  any  other  special  religion,  and 
whatever  changes  shall  prove  necessary  to  this  end  shall  be  con- 
sistently, unflinchingly  and  promptly  made."  The  programme  is 
an  attractive  one,  and  will  include  many  well-known  speakers. 
All  are  invited. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


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ment to  "Poole's  Index  to  Periodical  Literature"  and  to  the  A.  L. 
A.  Index  to  general  literature.  The  work  upon  this  volume  seems  to 
be  accurate  and  complete  ;  for  the  library  and  for  the  searcher  in 
periodical  literature  it  will  be  indispensable.  It  contains  an  "  In- 
dex to  Periodicals"  and  an  "  Index  to  General  Literature,"  an  "Au- 
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Publishers'  Weekly,  28  Elm  St.) 


Tlie  American  Mathematical  Monthly,  now  in  its  first  year,  is 
edited  by  B.  F.  Finkel  and  J.  M.  Colaw,  and  published  at  Kidder, 
Missouri,  by  the  Chubbuck  Brothers.  In  the  first  five  or  six  num- 
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"  Non-Euclidean  Geometry."  The  chief  space  of  the  magazine  is 
devoted  to  the  solutions  of  problems  usually  involving  no  ques- 
tions of  principle  and  in  some  cases  very  trivial.  The  July  num- 
ber prints  without  comments  (which  perhaps  after  all  was  the 
best)  Mr.  Edward  J.  Goodwin's  "Solution  of  the  Quadrature  of 
the  Circle. "  As  Mr.  Goodwin's  solution  is  nearly  eighteen  hundred 
years  old,  and  so  has  not  even  the  merit  of  novelty,  it  is  difficult 
to  understand  how  a  serious  journal  could  be  brought  to  publish 
it  ;  if  on  the  ground  of  humor,  we  will  say  that  that  is  an  intellec- 
tual quality  to  which  Mr.  Goodwin's  solution  cannot  aspire. 

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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  374. 

THE     ECONOMICAL    CHARACTER    OF    PHYSICAL 

RESEARCH.     Prof.  Ernst  Mach 4263 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  A  HUMORIST.     Editor 4266 

ERECT    VISION      [With  Editorial  Comment.]     Gustav 

Glaser 4269 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

The  Meaning  of  "  Christianity."     Alfred  W.  Martin.  4250 

NOTES    4270 

BOOK  NOTICES 4270 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "WTEEKLY  JOUENAL 


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THE  ECONOMICAL  CHARACTER  OF  PHYSICAL 
RESEARCH. 

BY  PROF.  ERNST  MACH.l 
[concluded.] 

The  recognition  of  the  economical  character  of 
science  will  now  help  us,  perhaps,  to  understand  bet- 
ter certain  physical  notions. 

Those  elements  of  an  event  which  we  call  "cause 
and  effect  "  are  certain  salient  features  of  it,  which  are 
important  for  its  mental  reproduction.  Their  impor- 
tance wanes  and  the  attention  is  transferred  to  fresh 
characters  the  moment  the  event  or  experience  in 
question  becomes  familiar.  If  the  connexion  of  such 
features  strikes  us  as  a  necessary  one,  it  is  simply  be- 
cause the  interpolation  of  certain  intermediate  links 
with  which  we  are  very  familiar,  and  which  possess, 
therefore,  higher  authority  for  us,  is  often  attended 
with  success  in  our  explanations.  That  ready  experience 
fixed  in  the  mosaic  of  the  mind  with  which  we  meet 
new  events,  Kant  calls  an  innate  concept  of  the  under- 
standing (  Verstandesbcgriff^. 

The  grandest  principles  of  physics,  resolved  into 
their  elements,  differ  in  no  wise  from  the  descriptive 
principles  of  the  natural  historian.  The  question, 
"Why?"  which  is  always  appropriate  where  the  ex- 
planation of  a  contradiction  is  concerned,  like  all  proper 
habitudes  of  thought,  can  overreach  itself  and  be  asked 
where  nothing  remains  to  be  understood. 

Suppose  we  attributed  to  nature  the  property  of 
producing  like  effects  in  like  circumstances  ;  just  these 
like  circumstances  we  should  not  know  how  to  find. 
Nature  exists  once  only.  Our  schematic  mental  imita- 
tion alone  produces  like  events.  Only  in  the  mind, 
therefore,  does  the  mutual  dependence  of  certain  fea- 
tures exist. 

All  our  efforts  to  mirror  the  world  in  thought  would 
be  futile  if  we  found  nothing  permanent  in  the  varied 
changes  of  things.  It  is  this  that  impels  us  to  form  the 
notion  of  substance,  the  source  of  which  is  not  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  modern  ideas  relative  to  the  con- 
servation of  energy.  The  history  of  physics  furnishes 
numerous  examples  of  this  impulse  in  almost  all  fields, 

1  An  address  delivered  before  the  anniversary  meeting  of  the  Imperial 
Academy  of  Sciences,  at  Vienna,  May  25,  1882.    Translated  by  iiKpK. 


and  pretty  examples  of  it  may  be  traced  back  to  the 
nursery.  "  Where  does  the  light  go  to  when  it  is  put 
out?  "  asks  the  child.  The  sudden  shrivelling  up  of  a 
hydrogen  balloon  is  inexplicable  to  a  child;  it  looks 
everywhere  for  the  large  body  which  was  just  there 
but  is  now  gone. 

Where  does  heat  come  from  ?  Where  does  heat 
go  to  ?  Such  childish  questions  in  the  mouths  of  ma- 
ture men  shape  the  character  of  a  century. 

In  mentally  separating  a  body  from  the  changeable 
environment  in  which  it  moves,  what  we  really  do  is 
simply  to  extricate  one  group  of  sensations  with  which 
our  thoughts  are  busied  and  which  is  of  relatively 
greater  stability  than  others,  from  the  stream  of  all 
sensations.  Absolutely  unalterable  this  group  is  not. 
Now  this,  now  that  member  of  it  appears  and  disap- 
pears, or  is  altered.  In  its  full  identity  it  never  re- 
curs. Yet  the  sum  of  its  constant  elements  as  compared 
with  the  sum  of  its  changeable  ones,  especially  if  we 
consider  the  continuous  character  of  the  transition,  is 
always  so  great  that  for  the  purpose  in  hand  the  former 
usually  appear  sufficient  to  determine  the  body's  iden- 
tity. But  because  we  can  separate  from  the  group 
every  single  member  without  the  body's  ceasing  to  be 
for  us  the  same,  we  are  easily  led  to  believe  that  after 
abstracting  all  the  members  something  additional 
still  remains.  It  thus  comes  to  pass  that  we  form 
the  notion  of  a  substance  distinct  from  its  attributes, 
of  a  thing-in-itself,  whilst  our  sensations  are  regarded 
merely  as  symbols  or  indications  of  the  properties  of 
this  thing-in-itself.  But  it  would  be  much  better  to 
say  that  bodies  or  things  are  compendious  mental  sym- 
bols for  groups  of  sensations — symbols  that  do  not  ex- 
ist outside  of  thought.  Thus,  the  merchant  regards 
the  labels  of  his  boxes  merely  as  indexes  of  their  con- 
tents, and  not  the  contrary.  He  invests  their  con- 
tents, not  their  labels,  with  real  value.  The  same 
economy  which  induces  us  to  analyse  a  group  and  to 
establish  special  signs  for  its  component  parts,  parts 
which  also  go  to  make  up  other  groups,  may  likewise 
induce  us  to  mark  out  by  some  single  symbol  a  whole 
group. 

On  the  old  Egyptian  monuments  we  see  objects 
represented  which  do  not  reproduce  a  single  visual 
impression,  but  are  composed  of  various  impressions. 


4272 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  heads  and  the  legs  of  the  figures  appear  in  pro- 
file, the  head-dress  and  the  breast  are  seen  from  the 
front,  and  so  on.  We  have  here,  so  to  speak,  a  mean 
view  of  the  objects,  in  forming  which  the  sculptor  has 
retained  what  he  deemed  essential,  and  neglected  what 
he  thought  indifferent.  We  have  living  exemplifica- 
tions of  the  processes  put  into  stone  on  the  walls  of 
these  old  temples,  in  the  drawings  of  our  children,  and 
we  also  observe  a  faithful  analogue  of  them  in  the  for- 
mation of  ideas  in  our  own  minds.  Only  in  virtue  of 
some  such  facility  of  view  as  that  indicated,  are  we 
allowed  to  speak  of  a  body.  When  we  speak  of  a  cube 
with  trimmed  corners — a  figure  which  is  not  a  cube — 
we  do  so  from  a  natural  instinct  of  economy,  which 
prefers  to  add  to  an  old  familiar  conception  a  correc- 
tion instead  of  forming  an  entirely  new  one.  This  is 
the  process  of  all  judgment. 

The  crude  notion  of  "body"  can  no  more  stand 
the  test  of  analysis  than  can  the  art  of  the  Egyptians 
or  that  of  our  little  children.  The  physicist  who  sees 
a  body  flexed,  stretched,  melted,  and  vaporised,  cuts 
up  this  body  into  smaller  permanent  parts ;  the  chem- 
ist splits  it  up  into  elements.  Yet  even  an  element  is 
not  unalterable.  Take  sodium.  When  warmed,  the 
white,  silvery  mass  becomes  a  liquid,  which,  when  the 
heat  is  increased  and  the  air  shut  out,  is  transformed 
into  a  violet  vapor,  and  on  the  heat  being  still  more 
increased  glows  with  a  yellow  light.  If  the  name  so- 
dium is  still  retained,  it  is  because  of  the  continuous 
character  of  the  transitions  and  from  a  necessary  in- 
stinct of  economy.  By  condensing  the  vapor,  the 
white  metal  may  be  made  to  reappear.  Indeed,  even 
after  the  metal  is  thrown  into  water  and  has  passed 
into  sodium  hydroxide,  the  vanished  properties  may 
by  skilful  treatment  still  be  made  to  appear  ;  just  as  a 
moving  body  which  has  passed  behind  a  column  and 
is  lost  to  view  for  a  moment  may  make  its  appearance 
after  a  time.  It  is  unquestionably  very  convenient 
always  to  have  ready  the  name  and  thought  for  a 
group  of  properties  wherever  that  group  by  any  possi- 
bility can  appear.  But  more  than  a  compendious  eco- 
nomical symbol  for  these  phenomena,  that  name  and 
thought  is  not.  It  would  be  a  mere  empty  word  for 
one  in  whom  it  did  not  awaken  a  large  group  of  well- 
ordered  sense-impressions.  And  the  same  is  true  of 
the  molecules  and  atoms  into  which  the  chemical  ele- 
ment is  still  further  analysed. 

True,  it  is  customary  to  regard  the  conservation  of 
weight,  or,  more  precisely,  the  conservation  of  mass, 
as  a  direct  proof  of  the  constancy  of  matter.  But  this 
proof  is  dissolved,  when  we  go  to  the  bottom  of  it, 
into  such  a  multitude  of  instrumental  and  intellectual 
operations,  that  in  a  sense  it  will  be  found  to  consti- 
tute simply  an  equation  which  our  ideas  in  imitating 
facts  have  to  satisfy.     That  obscure,  mysterious  lump 


which  we  involuntarily  add  in  thought,  we  seek  for  in 
vain  outside  the  mind. 

It  is  always,  thus,  the  crude  notion  of  substance 
that  is  slipping  unnoticed  into  science,  proving  itself 
constantly  insufficient,  and  ever  under  the  necessity  of 
being  reduced  to  smaller  and  smaller  world-particles. 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  lower  stage  is  not  rendered 
indispensable  by  the  higher  which  is  built  upon  it,  no 
more  than  the  simplest  mode  of  locomotion,  walking, 
is  rendered  superfluous  by  the  most  elaborate  means  of 
transportation.  Body,  as  a  compound  of  light  and 
touch  sensations,  knit  together  by  sensations  of  space, 
must  be  as  familiar  to  the  physicist  who  seeks  it,  as  to 
the  animal  who  hunts  its  prey.  But  the  student  of  the 
theory  of  knowledge,  like  the  geologist  and  the  astron- 
omer, must  be  permitted  to  reason  back  from  the  forms 
which  are  created  before  his  eyes  to  others  which  he 
finds  ready  made  for  him. 

All  physical  ideas  and  principles  are  succinct  di- 
rections, frequently  involving  subordinate  directions, 
for  the  employment  of  economically  classified  expe- 
riences, ready  for  use.  Their  conciseness,  as  also  the 
fact  that  their  contents  are  rarely  exhibited  in  full, 
often  invests  them  with  the  semblance  of  independent 
existence.  Poetical  myths  regarding  such  ideas, — for 
example,  that  of  Time,  the  producer  and  devourer  of 
all  things, — do  not  concern  us  here.  We  need  only 
remind  the  reader  that  even  Newton  speaks  of  an  ab- 
solute time  independent  of  all  phenomena  and  of  an 
absolute  space — views  which  even  Kant  did  not  shake 
off,  and  which  are  often  seriously  entertained  to-day. 
For  the  natural  inquirer,  determinations  of  time  are 
merely  abbreviated  statements  of  the  dependence  of 
one  event  upon  another,  and  nothing  more.  When 
we  say  the  acceleration  of  a  freely  falling  body  is  9-810 
metres  per  second,  we  mean  the  velocity  of  the  body 
with  respect  to  the  centre  of  the  earth  is  9-810  metres 
greater  when  the  earth  has  performed  an  additional 
86400th  part  of  its  rotation — a  fact  which  itself  can  be 
determined  only  by  the  earth's  relation  to  other  heav- 
enly bodies.  Again,  in  velocity  is  contained  simply  a 
relation  of  the  position  of  a  body  to  the  position  of 
the  earth.'  Instead  of  referring  events  to  the  earth 
we  may  refer  them  to  a  clock,  or  even  to  our  internal 
sensation  of  time.  Now,  because  all  are  connected, 
and  each  may  be  made  the  measure  of  the  rest,  the  il 
lusion  easily  arises  that  time  has  significance  inde- 
pendently of  all." 

The  aim  of  research  is  the  discovery  of  the  equa- 

1  It  is  clear  from  this  that  all  so-called  elementary  (drfferential)  laws  in- 
volve a  relation  to  the  Whole. 

2  If  it  be  objected,  that  in  the  case  of  perturbations  of  the  velocity  of  rota- 
tion of  the  earth,  we  could  be  sensible  of  such  perturbations,  and  being  obliged 
to  have  some  measure  of  time,  we  should  resort  to  the  period  of  vibration  of 
the  waves  of  sodium  light,— all  that  this  would  show  is  that  for  practical  rea- 
sons we  should  select  that  event  which  best  served  us  as  the  simplest  common 
measure  of  the  others. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4273 


tions  which  subsist  between  the  elements  of  phenom- 
ena. The  equation  of  an  ellipse  expresses  the  universal 
conceivable  relation  between  its  co-ordinates,  of  which 
only  the  real  values  have  geometrical  significance. 
Similarly,  the  equations  between  the  elements  of  phe- 
nomena express  a  universal,  mathematically  conceiv- 
able relation.  Here,  however,  for  many  values  only 
certain  directions  of  change  are  physically  admissible. 
As  in  the  ellipse  only  certain  values  satisfying  the 
equation  are  realised,  so  in  the  physical  world  only 
certain  changes  of  value  occur.  Bodies  are  always  ac- 
celerated towards  the  earth.  Differences  of  tempera- 
ture, left  to  themselves,  always  grow  less  ;  and  so  on. 
Similarly,  with  respect  to  space,  mathematical  and 
physiological  researches  have  shown  that  the  space  of 
experience  is  simply  an  actual  case  of  many  conceiv- 
able cases,  about  whose  peculiar  properties  experience 
alone  can  instruct  us.  The  elucidation  which  this  idea 
diffuses  cannot  be  questioned,  despite  the  absurd  uses 
to  which  it  has  been  put. 

Let  us  endeavor  now  to  summarise  the  results  of 
our  survey.  In  the  economical  schematism  of  science 
lie  both  its  strength  and  its  weakness.  Facts  are  al- 
ways represented  at  a  sacrifice  of  completeness  and 
never  with  greater  precision  than  fits  the  needs  of  the 
moment.  The  incongruence  between  thought  and  ex- 
perience, therefore,  will  continue  to  subsist  as  long  as 
the  two  pursue  their  course  by  the  side  of  each  other  ; 
but  it  will  be  continually  diminished. 

In  reality,  the  point  involved  is  always  the  com- 
pletion of  some  partial  experience  ;  the  derivation  of 
one  portion  of  a  phenomenon  from  some  other.  In 
this  act  our  ideas  must  be  based  directly  upon  sensa- 
tions. We  call  this  rpeasuring.^  The  condition  of 
science,  both  in  its  origin  and  in  its  application,  is  a 
great  relative  stability  of  our  environment.  What  it 
teaches  us  is  interdependence.  Absolute  forecasts, 
therefore,  have  no  significance  in  science.  With  great 
changes  in  celestial  space  we  should  lose  our  co  ordi- 
nate systems  of  space  and  time. 

When  a  geometer  wishes  to  understand  the  form  of 
a  curve,  he  first  resolves  it  into  small  rectilinear  ele- 
ments. In  doing  this,  however,  he  is  fully  aware  that 
these  elements  are  only  provisional  and  arbitrary  de- 
vices for  comprehending  in  parts  what  he  cannot  com- 
prehend as  a  whole.  When  the  law  of  the  curve  is 
found  he  no  longer  thinks  of  its  elements.  Similarly, 
it  would  not  become  physical  science  to  see  in  its  self- 
created,  changeable,  economical  tools,  molecules  and 
atoms,  realities  behind  phenomena,  forgetful  of  the 
lately  acquired  sapience  of  her  older  sister,  philosophy, 
in  substituting  a  mechanical  mythology  for  the  old 
animistic  or  metaphysical  scheme,  and  thus  creating 

1  Measurement,  in  fact,  is  the  definition  of  one  phenomenon  by  another 
(standard)  pbenomenon. 


no  end  of  suppositious  problems.  The  atom  must  re- 
main a  tool  for  representing  phenomena,  like  the 
functions  of  mathematics.  Gradually,  however,  as 
the  intellect,  by  contact  with  its  subject-matter,  grows 
in  discipline,  physical  science  will  give  up  its  mosaic 
play  with  stones  and  will  seek  out  the  boundaries  and 
forms  of  the  bed  in  which  the  living  stream  of  phe- 
nomena flows.  The  goal  which  it  has  set  itself  is  the 
simplest  and  jnost  economical  a.hstra.ct  expression  of  facts. 

* 
*  * 

The  question  now  remains,  whether  the  same 
method  of  research  which  till  now  we  have  tacitly  re- 
stricted to  physics,  is  also  applicable  in  the  psychical 
domain.  This  question  will  appear  superfluous  to  the 
physical  inquirer.  Our  physical  and  psychical  views 
spring  in  exactly  the  same  manner  from  instinctive 
knowledge.  We  read  the  thoughts  of  men  in  their 
acts  and  facial  expressions  without  knowing  how. 
Just  as  we  predict  the  behavior  of  a  magnetic  needle 
placed  near  a  current  by  imagining  Ampere's  swim- 
mer in  the  current,  similarly  we  predict  in  thought  the 
acts  and  behavior  of  men  by  assuming  sensations,  feel- 
ings, and  wills  similar  to  our  own  connected  with  their 
bodies.  What  we  here  instinctively  perform  would 
appear  to  us  as  one  of  the  subtlest  achievements  of 
science,  far  outstripping  in  significance  and  ingenuity 
Ampere's  rule  of  the  swimmer,  were  it  not  that  every 
child  unconsciously  accomplished  it.  The  question 
simply  is,  therefore,  to  grasp  scientifically,  that  is,  by 
conceptional  thought,  what  we  are  already  familiar 
with  from  other  sources.  And  here  much  is  to  be 
accomplished.  A  long  sequence  of  facts  is  to  be  dis- 
played between  the  physics  of  expression  and  move- 
ment and  feeling  and  thought. 

We  hear  the  question,  "  But  how  is  it  possible  to 
explain  feeling  by  the  motions  of  the  atoms  of  the 
brain  ?  "  Certainly  this  will  never  be  done,  no  more 
than  light  or  heat  will  ever  be  deduced  from  the  law 
of  refraction.  We  need  not  deplore,  therefore,  the 
lack  of  ingenious  solutions  of  this  question.  The  prob- 
lem is  not  a  problem.  A  child  looking  over  the  walls 
of  a  city  or  of  a  fort  into  the  moat  below  sees  with 
astonishment  living  people  in  it,  and  not  knowing  of 
the  portal  which  connects  the  wall  with  the  moat,  can- 
not understand  how  they  could  have  got  down  from 
the  high  ramparts.  So  it  is  with  the  notions  of  phys- 
ics. We  cannot  climb  up  into  the  province  of  psychol- 
ogy by  the  ladder  of  our  abstractions,  but  we  can  climb 
down  into  it. 

Let  us  look  at  the  matter  without  bias.  The  world 
consists  of  colors,  sounds,  temperatures,  pressures, 
spaces,  times,  and  so  forth,  which  now  we  shall  not 
call  sensations,  nor  phenomena,  because  in  either  term 
an  arbitrary,  one-sided  theory  is  embodied,  but  simply 
elements.      The   fixing   of   the  flux  of   these  elements. 


4274 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


whether  mediately  or  immediately,  is  the  real  aim  of 
physical  research.  As  long  as,  neglecting  our  own 
body,  we  employ  ourselves  with  the  interdependence 
of  those  groups  of  elements  which,  including  men  and 
animals,  make  up  foreign  bodies,  we  are  physicists. 
For  example,  we  investigate  the  change  of  the  red 
color  of  a  body  as  produced  by  a  change  of  illumina- 
tion. But  the  moment  we  consider  the  special  in- 
fluence on  the  red  of  the  elements  constituting  our 
body,  outlined  by  the  well-known  perspective  with 
head  invisible,  we  are  at  work  in  the  domain  of  physi- 
ological psychology.  We  close  our  eyes,  and  the  red 
together  with  the  whole  visible  world  disappears. 
There  exists,  thus,  in  the  perspective  field  of  every  sense 
a  portion  which  exercises  on  all  the  rest  a  different 
and  more  powerful  influence  than  the  rest  upon  one 
another.  With  this,  however,  all  is  said.  In  the  light 
of  this  remark,  we  call  all  elements,  in  so  far  as  we  re- 
gard them  as  dependent  on  this  special  part  (our  body), 
sensations.  That  the  world  is  our  ^ensation,  in  this 
sense,  cannot  be  questioned.  But  to  make  a  system 
of  conduct  out  of  this  provisional  conception,  and  to 
abide  its  slaves,  is  as  unnecessary  for  us  as  would  be 
a  similar  course  for  a  mathematician  who,  in  varying  a 
series  of  variables  of  a  function  which  were  previously 
assumed  to  be  constant,  or  in  interchanging  the  inde- 
pendent variables,  finds  his  method  to  be  the  source 
of  some  very  surprising  ideas  for  him.' 

If  we  look  at  the  matter  in  this  unbiassed  light  it 
will  appear  indubitable  that  the  method  of  physiologi- 
cal psychology  is  none  other  than  that  of  physics  ; 
what  is  more,  that  this  science  is  a  part  of  physics. 
Its  subject-matter  is  not  different  from  that  of  phys- 
ics. It  will  unquestionably  determine  the  relations 
the  sensations  bear  to  the  physics  of  our  body.  We 
have  already  learned  from  a  member  of  this  academy 
(Hering)  that  in  all  probability  a  sixfold  manifoldness 
of  the  chemical  processes  of  the  visual  substance  cor- 
responds to  the  sixfold  manifoldness  of  color-sensation, 
and  a  threefold  manifoldness  of  the  physiological  pro- 
cesses to  the  threefold  manifoldness  of  space-sensa- 
tions. The  paths  of  reflex  actions  and  of  the  will  are 
followed  up  and  disclosed  ;  it  is  ascertained  what  re- 
gion of  the  brain  subserves  the  function  of  speech, 
what  region  the  function  of  locomotion,  etc.  That 
which  still  clings  to  our  body,  namely,  our  thoughts, 
will,  when  those  investigations  are  finished,  present  no 
difficulties   new   in  principle.      When  experience  has 


1 1  have  represented  the  point  of  view  here  taken  for  more  than  thirty 
years  and  developed  it  in  various  writings  {Erkaltung  der  Arbeit,  1872  ;  The 
Forms  0/  Liquids,  1872  [7'*f  Open  Court,  No.  333I  ;  Bcioegvngscmf/induttgen. 
1875).  The  idea,  though  known  to  philosophers,  is  unfamiliar  to  the  majority 
of  physicists.  It  is  a  matter  of  deep  regret  to  me.  therefore,  that  the  title  and 
author  of  a  small  tract  which  accorded  with  my  views  in  numerous  details 
and  which  I  remember  having  caught  a  glance  of  in  a  very  busy  period  (1879- 
1880),  have  so  completely  disappeared  from  my  memory  that  all  efforts  to  ob- 
tain a  clue  to  them  have  hitherto  been  fruitless. 


once  clearly  exhibited  these  facts  and  science  has 
marshalled  them  in  economic  and  perspicuous  order, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  we  shall  understand  them.  For 
other  "  understanding  "  than  a  mental  mastery  of  facts 
never  existed.  Science  does  not  create  facts  from  facts, 
but  simply  orders  known  facts. 

Let  us  look,  now,  a  little  more  closely  into  the  modes 
of  research  of  physiological  psychology.  We  have  a 
very  clear  idea  of  how  a  body  moves  in  the  space  en- 
compassing it.  With  our  optical  field  of  sight  we  are 
very  familiar.  But  we  are  unable  to  state,  as  a  rule, 
how  we  have  come  by  an  idea,  from  what  corner  of 
our  intellectual  field  of  sight  it  has  entered,  or  by  what 
region  the  impulse  to  a  motion  is  sent  forth.  More- 
over,, we  shall  never  get  acquainted  with  this  mental 
field  of  view  from  self-observation  alone.  Self-obser- 
vation, in  conjunction  with  physiological  research, 
which  seeks  out  physical  connexions,  can  put  this  field 
of  vision  in  a  clear  light  before  us,  and  will  thus  first 
really  reveal  to  us  our  inner  man. 

Primarily,  natural  science,  or  physics,  in  its  widest 
sense,  makes  us  acquainted  with  only  the  firmest  con- 
nexions of  groups  of  elements.  Provisorily,  we  may 
not  bestow  too  much  attention  on  the  single  constitu- 
ents of  those  groups,  if  we  are  desirous  of  retaining  a 
comprehensible  whole.  Instead  of  equations  between 
the  primitive  variables,  physics  gives  us,  as  much  the 
easiest  course,  equations  between  functions  of  those 
variables.  Physiological  psychology  teaches  us  how 
to  separate  the  visible,  the  tangible,  and  the  audible 
from  bodies — a  labor  which  is  subsequently  richly  re- 
quited, as  the  division  of  the  subjects  of  physics  well 
shows.  Physiology  further  analyses  the  visible  into 
light  and  space  sensations  ;  the  first  into  colors,  the 
last  also  into  their  component  parts  ;  it  resolves  noises 
into  sounds,  these  into  tones,  and  so  on.  Unquestion- 
ably this  analysis  can  be  carried  much  further  than  it 
has  been.  It  will  be  possible  in  the  end  to  exhibit  the 
common  elements  at  the  basis  of  very  abstract  but 
definite  logical  acts  of  like  form, — elements  which  the 
acute  jurist  and  mathematician,  as  it  were,  feels  out, 
with  absolute  certainty,  where  the  uninitiated  hears 
only  empty  words.  Physiology,  in  a  word,  will  reveal 
to  us  the  true  real  elements  of  the  world.  Physiological 
psychology  bears  to  physics  in  its  widest  sense  a  rela- 
tion similar  to  that  which  chemistry  bears  to  physics 
in  its  narrowest  sense.  But  far  greater  than  the  mu- 
tual support  of  physics  and  chemistry  will  be  that 
which  natural  science  and  psychology  will  render  each 
other.  And  the  results  which  shall  spring  from  this 
union  will,  in  all  likelihood,  far  outstrip  those  of  the 
modern  mechanical  physics. 

What  those  ideas  are  with  which  we  shall  compre- 
hend the  world  when  the  closed  circuit  of  physical  and 
psychological  facts  shall  lie  complete  before  us,  (that 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4275 


circuit  of  which  we  see  now  only  two  disjoined  parts,) 
cannot  be  foreseen  at  the  outset  of  the  work.  The 
men  will  be  found  who  will  recognise  the  right  and 
will  have  the  courage,  instead  of  wandering  in  the 
intricate  paths  of  logical  and  historical  accident,  to 
enter  on  the  straight  ways  to  the  heights  from  which 
the  mighty  stream  of  facts  can  be  surveyed.  Whether 
the  notion  which  we  now  call  matter  will  continue  to 
have  a  scientific  significance  beyond  the  crude  pur- 
poses of  common  life,  we  do  not  know.  But  we  cer- 
tainly shall  wonder  how  colors  and  tones  which  were 
such  innermost  parts  of  us  could  suddenly  get  lost  in 
our  physical  world  of  atoms  ;  how  we  could  be  sud- 
denly surprised  that  something  which  outside  us  sim- 
ply clicked  and  beat,  in  our  heads  should  make  light 
and  music;  and  how  we  could  ask  whether  matter  can 
feel,  that  is  to  say,  whether  a  mental  symbol  for  a 
group  of  sensations  can  feel? 

We  cannot  mark  out  in  hard  and  fast  lines  the 
science  of  the  future,  but  we  can  foresee  that  the  rigid 
walls  which  now  divide  man  from  the  world  will  grad- 
ually disappear  ;  that  human  beings  will  not  only  con- 
front each  other,  but  also  the  entire  organic  and  so- 
called  lifeless  world,  with  less  selfishness  and  with  live- 
lier sympathy.  Just  such  a  presentiment  as  this  per- 
haps possessed  the  great  Chinese  philosopher  Licius 
some  two  thousand  years  ago  when,  pointing  to  a  heap 
of  mouldering  human  bones,  he  said  to  his  scholars  in 
the  rigid,  lapidary  style  of  his  tongue:  "These  and  I 
alone  have  the  knowledge  that  we  neither  live  nor  are 
dead."  . 

THE  STRIKE  OF  THE  HORSES. 

Articles  as  clear,  keen,  and  elucidative  as  Prof. 
Ernst  Mach's  exposition  of  "The  Economical  Char- 
acter of  Physical  Research  "  in  the  last  and  the  pres- 
ent number  of  The  Open  Court  are  rare.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  our  readers  greatly  enjoy  the  classical  sim- 
plicity of  his  style,  for  we  justly  count  our  honored 
contributor  with  Kirchhoff,  Helmholtz,  Thomson,  Max- 
well, and  Tyndall  among  the  foremost  scientists  of  the 
world.  The  comparison  made  by  Professor  Mach  be- 
tween science  and  business  is  very  suggestive  and  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  analogies  are  perhaps  greater  than 
they  may  appear  at  first  sight.      Professor  Mach  says  : 

"  Just  as  a  single  human  being,  restricted  wholly  to  the  fruits 
of  bis  own  labor,  could  never  amass  a  fortune,  but  on  the  contrary 
the  accumulation  of  the  labor  of  many  men  in  the  hands  of  one  is 
the  foundation  of  wealth  and  power,  so,  also,  no  knowledge  worthy 
of  the  name  can  be  gathered  up  in  a  single  human  mind  limited  to 
the  span  of  a  human  life  and  gifted  only  with  finite  powers,  except 
by  the  most  exquisite  economy  of  thought  and  by  the  careful 
amassment  of  the  economically  ordered  experience  of  thousands  of 
co-workers.  What  strikes  us  here  as  the  fruits  of  sorcery  are  sim- 
ply the  rewards  of  excellent  housekeeping,  as  are  the  like  results 
in  civil  life.  But  the  business  of  science  has  this  advantage  over 
every  other  enterprise,  that  from  Us  amassment  of  wealth  no  one 


suffers  the  least  loss.   This,  too,  is  its  blessing,  its  freeing  and  sav- 
ing power." 

I  am  not  sufficiently  familiar  with  Professor  Mach's 
views  on  social  and  economical  questions  to  say  whether 
his  words  are  intended  to  mean  only  what  they  imply, 
viz.,  that  the  "rewards  of  housekeeping  in  business 
are  an  amassment  of  wealth  by  which  somebody  suf- 
fers a  loss."  If  this  is  Professor  Mach's  view  I  re- 
spectfully venture  to  differ  from  him.  The  economy 
established  by  our  business  methods  is  as  much  a  gain 
all  round  as  the  economy  of  thought  produced  by  sci- 
ence, and  the  blessing  that  rests  on  science  finds  its 
main  realisation  in  its  practical  application  to  actual 
life. 

Take  as  an  instance  any  great  business-establish- 
ment with  which  you  happen  to  be  acquainted.  The 
economy  which  a  wholesale  business  introduces  is  a 
benefit  to  all  concerned  in  that  business,  to  the  laborers 
of  all  kinds,  to  the  employers  of  labor,  and  to  those 
who  buy  the  goods.  The  prosperity  of  a  great  and 
economically  conducted  business  may  be  a  misfortune 
to  competitors  who  can  no  longer  compete  with  it,  but 
we  cannot  in  such  a  case  speak  of  a  loss.  Economy 
in  business,  by  organising  the  industry  of  many  men 
so  as  to  render  them  more  productive,  is  a  genuine 
gain,  as  much  so  as  the  economy  of  thought  in  science, 
and  there  is  nowhere  a  loss. 

We  make  this  statement,  fully  conscious  of  the 
fact  that  it  contradicts  a  favorite  superstition  of  the 
times  according  to  which  we  have  much  poverty  be- 
cause we  have  much  wealth.  The  proposition  is  made  : 
Reduce  the  wealth  of  our  great  money  kings  and  you 
will  abolish  the  misery  of  our  paupers.  The  tramp 
and  the  millionaire,  the  hut  and  the  palace,  the  slave 
and  the  power- wielding  lord  are  coupled  together  as 
if  one  were  the  cause  of  the  other,  as  if  riches  could 
be  produced  only  by  making  some  one  destitute,  and 
power  could  rise  into  existence  only  by  enslaving  some- 
body. This  view  is  wrong  and  the  sooner  we  under- 
stand how  deeply  wrong  it  is,  the  quicker  the  eyes 
will  be  opened  of  both  the  lordly  suppressors  of  their 
fellow-men  and  the  slavery-scenting  haters  of  power 
and  wealth.  A  correct  view  of  the  solidarity  of  all 
members  of  society  will  ensure  a  wholesome  evolution 
of  a  freer  and  nobler  mankind  ;  it  will  bring  peace  on 
earth  among  those  who  now  imagine  that  their  in- 
terests are  at  variance  and  hope  to  improve  their  con- 
ditions by  destroying  the  very  means  by  which  man- 
kind has,  with  great  trouble,  worked  its  way  up  from 
barbarism  to  a  higher  civilisation. 

When  saying  that  no  economical  organisation  of 
labor  entails  any  loss  upon  any  member  of  society,  we 
neither  say  that  there  are  not  business  enterprises 
which  underpay  their  laborers,  nor  would  we  begrudge 
the  laborer  the  right  of   contending  for  higher  wages. 


42/6 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


On  the  contrary,  we  regard  it  as  every  one's  duty  to 
aspire  for  the  improvement  of  the  material  conditions  of 
his  life  by  all  the  legal  and  rationally  approved  means 
at  his  disposal.  Experience  teaches  that  the  civilisa- 
tion of  a  country  where  laborers  receive  the  highest 
pay  is  most  advanced,  and  high  wages,  so  long  as  they 
do  not  endanger  the  existence  of  a  business,  are  more 
an  advantage  than  a  disadvantage.  And  the  rule  is, 
a  high  average  of  wages  in  a  country  indicates  the 
presence  of  much  wealth  in  the  hands  of  capitalists. 
Every  successful  strike  increases  the  amassment  of 
wealth  in  few  hands. 

What  is  the  consequence  of  a  strike  or  any  other 
movement  that  succeeds  in  securing  for  a  certain  class 
of  laborers  higher  wages  ?  It  involves  a  reduction  of  the 
number  of  both  the  laborers  and  employers  in  that  line 
of  industry,  and  would,  if  carried  to  the  extreme,  ex- 
terminate the  whole  business. 

The  economical  law  will  perhaps  be  clearer  if  stated 
in  its  generality  and  elucidated  by  an  example  taken 
from  the  fable-land  of  animals  acting  like  men. 

The  horses  struck  and  contended  that  they  received 
no  payment  for  all  their  work  generously  given  to  man- 
kind for  the  mere  sustenance  of  their  lives.  The  jus- 
tice of  their  claim  was  obvious,  and  their  right  to 
strike,  since  animals  had  acquired  speech  and  the  privi- 
lege of  meeting  in  free  assembly,  could  no  longer  be 
doubted.  The  claim  of  the  horses  consisted  in  demand- 
ing a  dollar  a  day  for  every  horse.  They  succeeded 
and  all  their  demands  were  granted. 

What  was  the  consequence  of  this  successful  strike  ? 
All  the  horses  whose  labor  brought  less  returns  than 
the  value  of  their  food  plus  one  dollar  per  day  were 
discharged,  and  many  livery-stables  went  out  of  ex- 
istence. Inventors  of  machinery  were  greatly  bene- 
fited, for  steam-engines  began  more  and  more  to  re- 
place the  power  of  living  horses.  It  was  a  sad  sight 
to  see  the  horses  that  had  been  dismissed,  for  they 
were  doomed  to  a  slow  perdition;  the  higher  condi- 
tion of  horsehood  actually  served  to  starve  out  a  large 
class  of  horses  who  were  unable  to  reach  the  standard 
the  horses  had  fixed  upon  as  the  price  of  horsehood. 

Those  horses,  however,  who  survived  the  change 
had  reason  to  be  satisfied  ;  both  the  luxury  and  the 
labor  horses  were  a  choice  breed  and,  although  their 
lot  was  no  easier  than  before,  they  had  acquired  a  share, 
or  at  least  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  a  share,  in  the 
wealth  of  the  earth. 

Now  do  you  think  that  the  employers  of  horses 
who  had  managed  to  continue  in  business  were  dis- 
satisfied with  the  new  conditions?  By  no  means. 
Their  business  was  to  a  great  extent  of  such  a  kind 
that  the  public  could  not  do  without  horse-help. 
Hence  it  had  been  increased  by  the  failure  of  many 
weak  competitors,  and  the  returns,  too,  had  become 


proportionally  greater,  for  they  charged  higher  prices. 
Instead  of  one  dollar  per  horse  more  in  return  to  pay 
their  employer,  they  had  about  two  and  sometimes 
even  two  and  a  half  or  three  dollars.  The  reason  was 
that  such  horse  employers  as  made  only  one  dollar,  or 
scarcely  one  dollar  per  horse  capita,  could  not  stand 
the  bad  times  which  now  and  then  swept  over  the 
country.  They  could  just  manage  to  pull  through  in 
good  times  and  went  to  the  wall  on  the  appearance  of 
the  slightest  social  or  financial  disturbance. 

High  wages  are  as  much  a  check  upon  an  industry 
as  a  high  duty,  and  there  is  an  ascertainable  highest 
and  lowest  margin.  The  lowest  margin  is  such  wages 
as  will  barely  keep  the  laborer  and  his  family  alive  ; 
the  highest  margin  is  that  which,  if  it  were  raised  one 
cent,  would  shut  down  the  factory  on  the  first  symp- 
tom of  a  financial  crisis. 

High  duties  sometimes  tax  commodities  out  of  ex- 
istence. Take  for  instance  small  beer.  Americans 
who  never  visited  Europe  do  not  know  what  "small 
beer"  means,  because  such  a  thing  does  not  exist  here, 
but  if  they  go  to  Europe  they  will  find  that  cinfaches 
Bier,  a  kind  of  temperance  beer,  for  it  contains  no 
alcoholic  ingredients,  is  a  very  refreshing  beverage, 
and  is  much  used  in  the  household  to  make  an  ice- 
cold  beer-soup  in  summer,  which  would  be  very  deli- 
cious during  the  hot  season  of  our  climate.  Why  is 
"small  beer"  not  brewed  in  America?  Simply  because 
we  have  all  over  the  United  States  a  tax  on  all  kinds 
of  beers,  and  this  tax  taxes  the  cheap  beers  out  of  ex- 
istence. No  one  would  pay  five  cents  for  a  pint  of 
small  beer,  and  otherwise  the  brewing  does  not  pay; 
no  brewer  could  afford  to  pay  the  tax  on  small  beer, 
and  our  big  brewers,  who  pay  the  beer-tax,  do  not  care, 
for  they  find  more  profit  in  brewing  lager  beer. 

When  we  maintain  that  the  economy  of  a  well  con- 
ducted business  is  under  all  circumstances  a  gain  and 
involves  no  direct  loss  to  any  one  (for  otherwise  the 
employee  would  not  agree  to  work  for  his  employer'), 
we  understand  by  business,  genuine  enterprises  of 
service  to  mankind,  and  exclude  all  such  establish- 
ments which,  like  gambling-houses,  are  based  upon 
immoral  principles.  That  there  are  many  business 
transactions  in  which  the  gain  of  one  is  the  exact 
equivalent  of  the  loss  of  some  one  else  cannot  be  de- 
nied ;  but  the  existence  of  frauds  in  business  does  not 
disprove  the  truth  that  all  economical  organisations  of 
labor  in  iildustrial  enterprises,  all  trade  and  commerce 
if  it  is  the  right  kind,  is  of  mutual  benefit,  and  pure 
gain  without  any  loss.  Fraudulent  business  methods 
only  cause  a  loss  to  one  party,  and  the  same  is  true 
of  the  economy  of  thought,  which  has  been  found  to 
be  the  lasting  boon  of  scientific  work.  The  results  of 
science,  too,  can  be  misused  for  criminal  purposes; 
and  how  often  one  scientist  succeeds  in  getting  for 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4277 


himself  the  glory  of  a  discovery  which  belongs  to  one 
of  his  fellow-workers  1  Stealing  is  neither  impossible 
nor  unknown  in  the  intellectual  realm  of  science,  the 
arts,  and  the  belles-lettres.  There  are  acquisitions  of 
scientific  renown  which  entail  a  loss  on  some  one  else 
to  whom  the  reward  of  a  general  recognition  rightfully 
belongs.  And  very  often  personal  jealousies  keep  one 
influential  man,  who  has  the  public  ear,  from  acknowl- 
edging the  truth  of  a  discovery,  which  is  thus  many 
years  belated,  and  so  an  invaluable  amount  of  impor- 
tant knowledge  destroyed  before  it  can  be  properly 
tested  and  utilised. 

There  is  a  superstition  prevalent  in  absolute  mon- 
archies that  the  power  of  king  or  emperor  is  built 
upon  the  serfdom  of  his  subjects,  and  therefore  sover- 
eign rulers  are  in  the  habit  of  jealously  guarding  the 
burdensome  privileges  of  their  autocracy.  The  fact  is, 
that  if  the  kings  of  England  had  been  and  had  remained 
autocrats,  England  would  have  remained  an  unimpor- 
tant little  island, like  Corsica, or  Madagascar,or  Borneo; 
and  if  the  Czar  of  Russia  were  the  sovereign  of  a  free 
nation,  which  could  freely  develop  all  its  latent  possi- 
bilities, the  chief  of  a  nation  like  the  English  nation, 
he  would,  with  the  enormous  territory  of  his  empire,  be 
ten  times  more  powerful  as  the  leader  of  the  destinies 
of  a  ten  times  more  civilised  people.  The  English 
kings  certainly  did  not  lose  in  power  when  they  sur- 
rendered those  of  their  privileges  which  were  a  check 
upon  the  free  development  of  their  subjects. 

True  power  is  not  built  upon  the  necks  of  slaves, 
but  is  the  result  of  the  free  coalition  of  free  men. 

One  of  the  first  conditions  of  progress  is  the  recog- 
nition of  the  laws  of  social  economy.  There  can  be 
no  question  about  the  right  of  all  people  to  secure  for 
themselves  the  best  possible  conditions;  but  violence 
and  the  destruction  of  wealth  are  not  the  right  means 
to  secure  these  rights  for  manual  labor.  The  methods 
preached  by  many  labor-agitators  would  frequently 
bring  about,  if  carried  into  effect,  quite  different  results 
from  those  expected  or  promised.  And  capitalists, 
too,  are  mistaken  when  they  imagine  they  can  prosper 
only  so  long  as  they  keep  their  employees  in  a  state  of 
wretched  poverty. 

Let  every  one  fight  for  his  rights  by  all  legal 
means,  especially  strikes,  with  careful  abstention  from 
violence  or  threats  of  violence  ;  but  let  us  at  the  same 
time  understand  that  under  normal  conditions  the 
prosperity  of  one,  far  from  being  a  loss  to  others,  con- 
tributes to  the  welfare  of  all.  p.  c. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

A  LETTER  FROM  JAPAN. 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Open  Court  : 

You  kindly  inquire  as  to  the  cause  of  my  hurrying  home  so 
suddenly.     My  coming  home  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  war  now 


going  on  between  Japan  and  China.  I  am  not  in  dar^ger  of  being 
drafted  in  any  near  future,  although  I  should  be  only  too  glad  to 
serve  the  army  if  such  a  crisis  comes. 

You  also  ask  me  to  state  impartially  something  about  the  pres- 
ent war.  I  am  willing  to  do  so,  but  as  your  letter  came  to  me 
after  such  a  long  delay  I  think  it  is  almost  too  late  for  me  to  say 
anything  of  interest.  Let  me  simply  tell  you  that  the  war  is 
growing  in  its  dimensions  almost  every  minute.  We  shall  not  be 
satisfied  at  all  until  we  come  to  Pekin  either  to  beat  or  to  be 
beaten.  You  know  all  about  the  victories  of  Japan  both  on  land 
and  on  water.  We  do  not  mean,  however,  to  fight  tor  the  sake  of 
fighting.  Neither  do  we  mean  to  glory  in  our  victory  or  in  our 
conquest.  Our  motive  is  nobler.  We  intend  to  help  Corea  in 
its  struggle  for  independence  and  civilisation,  and  to  wake  up 
China  from  its  long  dream  of  ignorance  and  darkness.  We  strug- 
gle not  merely  for  our  own  sake,  but  for  the  real  good  of  China 
and  of  Eastern  Asia  as  a  whole  This  is  our  ambition  in  this  pres- 
ent war. 

The  attitude  of  Japan  towards  its  neighbor  China  in  the  pres- 
ent war  is  in  many  respects  similar  to  that  of  the  United  States  to 
Japan  some  fifty  years  ago,  when  Commodore  Perry  visited  Japan. 
We  mean  to  play  the  part  of  the  United  States  of  that  time,  while 
China  wittingly  or  unwittingly  is  playing  the  part  of  Japan  of  that 
time. 

You  know  the  cause  of  this  present  war.  There  is  no  injus- 
tice or  wrong  on  our  part.  "Justice"  is  our  motto,  and  "civili- 
sation "  is  our  object.  We  do  not  like  war,  but  we  could  not  evade 
it.  However,  from  another  point  of  view  we  may  say  that  this 
war  is  probably  the  best  chance  for  us  Japanese  to  show  the 
strength  of  civilisation  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  although  it  is  a  very 
expensive  way  of  doing  so. 

I  wish  you  could  see  some,  at  least,  of  the  patriotic  demon- 
strations which  are  found  all  over  the  country.  The  whole  Japa- 
nese nation  is  as  if  on  fire.  Almost  every  soldier — nay,  every  com- 
mon person — is  willing  to  go  to  war  for  his  country,  and  for  its 
righteous  cause  ;  indeed,  he  is  willing  to  die.  Such  is  our  national 
feeling  about  the  present  war.  Nobuta  Kishimoto. 


ALWAYS   ONE. 

(Translated  from  the  German  of  Goethe.) 
Life  I  never  can  divide. 

Inner  and  outer  together  you  see. 
Whole  to  all  I  must  abide. 

Otherwise  I  cannot  be. 
Always  I  have  only  writ 

What  I  feel  and  mean  to  say. 
Thus,  my  friends,  although  I  split. 

Yet  remain  I  one  alway. 

BOOK  NOTICES. 

Ueber  die  Ursachen  der  Bfitzsch/a^e  in  Bdiime.  By  Dimitrie 
Jonesco.  (Stuttgart  ;  E.  Koch.  1892.  Pp.  62.)  According  to 
this  investigation,  all  kinds  of  trees  are  liable  to  be  struck  by  light- 
ning at  high  electrical  tensions  ;  oleous  trees  are  safe  against  light- 
ning in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  oil  which  they  contain  ;  but 
both  oleous  and  amylaceous  trees  when  poor  in  oil  are  sought  out 
by  the  lightning  ;  the  aqueous  contents  of  trees  play  no  essential 
part ;  dead  limbs  increase  the  liability  of  being  struck  ;  bark  and 
foliage  do  not  alter  the  electrical  conductive  capacity  of  trees  ; 
and  finally,  the  character  of  the  soil  stands  in  no  direct  connexion 
with  the  frequency  of  accidents. — Notiz  iiher  eine  einfache  Methode, 
ttin  dietectrische  Fliissigkeiten  auf  ilir  Leitungsvermogen  ztt  unter- 
suchen.  By  K.  R.  Koch.  (Leipsic  :  J.  A.  Earth.  1893.  Pp.  3.) 
The  result  of  this  research  is,  that  the  cause  of  the  conductivity  of 


\ 


\^ 


oh 


4278 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


dielectric  liquids  is  impurities  of  the  substance  ;  for  example,  ben- 
zol when  very  pure  is  apparently  a  complete  and  perfect  insulator 
of  electricity. — Ueber  kiinstliche  Gletscher.  By  K.  R.  Koch.  (Leip- 
sic  :  J.  A.  Earth.  1894.  Pp.  8.)  This  communication  contains 
directions  and  diagrams  for  making  models  of  glaciers  ;  by  means 
of  viscous  liquids  the  chief  phenomena  of  glacier  motion  can  be 
reproduced  with  interesting  and  instructive  results. — Ethiwlogisclie 
MilUilungen  mis  Ungani.  This  is  a  magazine  of  folklore  for 
Hungary  and  the  related  countries,  and  has  been  in  existence  three 
years,  being  edited  and  published  by  Dr.  Anton  Herrmann.  Much 
of  its  space  is  devoted  to  gypsy-lore.  (Budapest,  I.,  Szent-Gyorgy- 
utcza.  2.) — In  this  connexion  it  may  be  mentioned  for  the  benefit 
of  lovers  and  students  of  folklore  that  an  Internntiotial  Dic/ionaiy 
of  Cotiteniporaneous  Folklorisis  is  to  be  published  by  subscription 
in  Paris  (G.  Colombier,  4  Rue  Cassette)  under  the  direction  of 
Prof.  M.  Henry  Carnoy.  It  will  contain  biographies  of  all  the 
notable  folklorists  of  the  world  with  their  portraits,  addresses,  and 
a  list  of  their  works.  According  to  the  prospectus  any  person  who 
has  thirty-five  francs  can  obtain  a  notice,  accompanied  with  his 
photograph,  in  this  dictionary.  Undoubtedly,  it  will  be  a  bulky 
volume,  and  as  a  directory  of  folklorists  will  have  its  value. — 
Cosmopolis  Revista  Universal,  a  magazine  first  issued  in  May,  1894, 
and  purporting  to  be  the  universal  review  of  the  Spanish  Main, 
published  at  Caracas,  Venezuela,  ("  Imprenta  Bolivar,"  Oeste  4, 
No.  4).  In  the  opening  article  of  the  first  number,  the  editors  dis- 
cuss the  mission  of  the  magazine  from  a  patriotic  and  humanistic 
point  of  view.  In  the  second  article  Pedro  Cesar  Dominici  treats 
of  modern  neurosis  and  of  the  decadents.  There  is  a  review  of 
M.  Julien  Leclercq's  "Six  Masters,"  two  poems,  and  the  first  in- 
stallment of  Daudet's  "  Tartarin  of  Tarascon."  The  authors  of 
the  articles  are  from  the  Northern  South  American  States,  from 
Cuba,  and  from  the  Central  American  States. 


The  American  University  and  the  American  Man.  The  Second 
Commencement  Address  at  the  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University. 
By  George  Elliot  Howard.  (Palo  Alto,  California.  1893.)  Pro- 
fessor Howard  reviews  the  rise  of  the  new  humanism  and  con- 
siders its  effects  upon  the  culture  of  to  day.  The  ideal  springing 
from  this  movement  is  "  a  spiritual  utilitarianism  whose  creed  is 
social  perfection."  Professor  Howard  justly  rates  the  utility  of 
knowledge  very  high,  and  sees  in  the  practical  emphasis  which 
Americans  lay  upon  it  one  of  the  best  of  the  national  tendencies. 
This  tendency  is  incorporated  in  the  practical  character  of  our 
universities,  which  in  a  short  time  will  place  them  much  higher  as 
institutions  of  education  than  the  lop-sided  systems  of  Europe. 
The  new  American  university  will  secure  a  harmonious  develop- 
ment of  the  mind  and  the  character.  Its  function  is  to  fit  men  to 
meet  the  grave  social  problems  of  the  present ;  "  to  direct  self- 
conscious  society  in  the  dual  task  of  self-regeneration  and  self- 
development."  In  the  present  tendency  of  American  education- 
ists to  imitate  slavishly  the  institutions  of  Europe,  Professor  How- 
ard's plea  is  very  timely. — Can  Organic  Life  Exist  in  the  Platielary 
System  Outside  of  the  Earth?  By  C.  A.  Stetefeldt.  (Astronomical 
Society  of  the  Pacific.)  Mr.  Stetefeldt  tries  to  show  from  a  con- 
sideration of  the  physiography  and  meteorology  of  the  bodies  of 
the  planetary  system  that  organic  life  cannot  exist  outside  the 
earth.  The  conclusion  from  the  data  which  he  cites  would  be 
that  organic  life  like  that  on  the  earth  does  not  now  exist  on  the 
planets.  Mr.  Stetefeldt  admires  "the  inductive  acumen  of  the 
theologians  who  considered  the  earth  the  most  important  of  the 
planets,  and  the  centre  of  creation.  Although  their  opinions  were 
not  based  upon  scientific  facts,  they  arrived  at  the  truth,  never- 
theless."   

Instructors  and  professional  educationists  will  derive  profit 
from  an  examination   of  the  Programme  des  cours  of  the  Brussels 


Institut  des  Hautes  Etudes  of  the  Ecole  Libre  D' Enseignement  Su- 
perieur.  This  institution  aims  to  give  an  education  distinct  from 
the  traditional  professional  courses,  and  more  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  the  times.     The  faculty  includes  many  eminent  names. 

THE  MONIST 

A  QUARTERLY  MAGAZINE 


Dr.  Paul  Carus. 


Associates: 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.   V,    NO.    I : 

Ought  the  United  States  Senate  to  Be  Abolished? 

PROF.  H.  VON  HOLST 1 

On  the  Principle  of  the  Conservation  of  Energy. 

PROF.  ERNST  MACH 22 

On  the  Nature  of  Motion. 

MAJOR  J.  W.  POWELL      - 55 

Buddhism  and  Christianity. 

EDITOR     -----  -  -  -  65 

On  the  Nature  of  Thought. 

THOMAS  WHITTAKER   -------    104 

Literary  Correspondence. 
France. 

LUCIEN  ARREAT         -------  1,0 

Criticisms  and  Discussions. 
Tlie  Life  of  Issa. 

EDITOR 116 

Book  Reviews. — Periodicals 

Price,   socts. ;  Yearly,  $2.00. 


CHICAGO 

THE   OPEN   COURT  PUBLISHING  CO. 

THE  OPEN   COURT 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

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DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Ed 


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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  375. 

THE    ECONOMICAL    CHARACTER    OF    PHYSICAL 

RESEARCH.     (Concluded.)     Prof.  Ernst  Mach 4271 

THE  STRIKE  OF  THE   HORSES.     Editor 4275 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

A  Letter  from  Japan.     Nobuta  Kishimoto 4277 

POETRY. 

Always  One.     By  Goethe.     (Translated  by  P.  C.) 4277 

BOOK  NOTICES 4277 


The  Open  Court. 


A  VSTEEKLY  JOURNAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  376.   (Vol.  V111.-45.)  CHICAGO,  NOVEMBER  8,   1894. 


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THE  PILGRIMAGE  OF  ANTHONY  FROUDE. 

BY  MONCURE  D.   CONWAY. 
I. 

James  Anthony  Fkoude  was  not  only  the  ablest 
historian  of  England,  but  himself  a  historic  figure.  He 
was  the  last  author  who  had  the  distinction  of  having 
one  of  his  books  formally  burned  at  Oxford,  the  first 
to  avail  himself  of  the  law  allowing  clergymen  to  free 
themselves  entirely  from  holy  orders,  and  he  lived  to 
be  appointed  (1892)  Professor  of  History  in  the  Uni- 
versity where  his  book  was  burned.  He  was  appointed 
too  by  a  Tory  prime  minister.  It  took  just  forty-four 
years  for  the  angry  Nemesis  of  Oxford  faith  to  be  thus 
finally  extinguished  by  the  Nemesis  of  English  rational- 
ism. According  to  a  contemporary  authority  ( The 
Prospective  Review,  Vol.  V.,  p.  163),  the  Nemesis  of 
Faith,  published  in  1848,  was  "solemnly"  burned  in 
the  Public  Hall  of  Exeter  College  (of  which  Froude 
was  a  Fellow)  by  the  Senior  Tutor,  who  made  a  fu- 
neral speech  over  it.  Mr.  Froude  was  too  modest  a 
man  to  call  attention  to  picturesque  points  in  his  per- 
sonal history,  and  their  significance  has  escaped  atten- 
tion because  his  intellectual  progress  has  been  too  in- 
dividual and  too  scholarly  to  excite  public  discussion. 
Flutes  are  drowned  by  drum-beats,  as  Sadi  says  ;  and 
in  religion  the  air  is  always  resonant  with  drums.  I 
have  even  now  been  reading  obituary  notices  which 
ignore  the  spiritual  career  of  Froude,  and  speak  of  him 
as  a  mere  layman.  Seventeen  years  ago,  when  the 
third  series  of  his  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects  was 
under  review,  I  received  a  note  from  Froude  on  an- 
other matter,  at  the  close  of  which  he  says  : 

"  M)'  little  volume  of  historical  essays  has  sold  very 
well,  and  has  now  come  out  in  a  cheaper  form.  No 
one,  however,  seems  to  have  caught  what  I  meant 
either  by  '  Divers  Cassar '  or  by  the  '  Sea  Studies. '  One 
must  not  count  on  any  exertion  of  intellect  on  the  part 
of  one's  readers.  They  must  be  told  straight  out  what 
one  intends,  or  they  miss  the  point — though  as  plain 
as  the  conclusion  of  a  syllogism. " 

The  two  essays  named  in  the  note,  taken  in  con- 
junction with  that  on  "  Lucian  "  in  the  same  volume, 
represent  as  trenchant  and  comprehensive  an  account 
of  the  natural  history  of  Christianity,  and  its  evolution 
out  of  so-called  paganism,  as  was  ever  condensed  into 


a  hundred  pages.  Nor  is  there  the  slightest  veil  on 
the  scholar's  thought  as  the  temple-veil  of  supernatu- 
ralism  shrivels  away  at  his  touch.  Only  his  touch  is 
sympathetic,  generous,  delicate.  And  as  there  are 
freethinkers  who  can  never  receive  a  kind  word  from 
an  orthodox  man  without  setting  him  down  as  a  secret 
unbeliever,  so  there  are  orthodox  people  who  can  never 
hear  a  respectful  word  from  a  freethinker  without  re- 
garding him  as  a  disguised  believer.  "I  could  never 
attack  Christianity,"  Froude  once  said  to  me;  "I 
would  as  soon  think  of  demanding  extermination  of 
the  horse.  The  thing  is  here, — bred  for  certain  work, 
and  doing  it  in  a  fashion.  Were  the  horse  set  up  to 
be  worshipped  as  a  sacred  animal,  scientific  explana- 
tions would  become  necessary.  So  with  any  institu- 
tion. So  with  Christianity."  I  remember  these  forcible 
words,  and  that  afterwards  Froude  argued  that  as 
Christianity  had  been  fashioned  and  refashioned  again 
and  again,  it  might  be  adapted  to  new  needs,  could 
there  be  produced  spirits  finely  touched  for  such  fine 
issues.  "As  for  the  superstitions  investing  Christian- 
ity, they  inevitably  moulder,  and  hardly  concern  us  so 
much  as  the  growing  superstitions  which  fancy  them- 
selves reasonable  and  progressive." 

I  conclude  this  first  paper  with  two  remarkable 
passages  from  The  Nemesis  of  Faith,  a  book  now  rare, 
to  which  probably  few  of  your  readers  have  access. 
It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  was  written  forty- 
four  years  ago,  when  the  comparative  study  of  reli- 
gions was  in  its  infancy. 

"  People  canvass  up  and  down  the  value  and  utility 
of  Christianity,  and  none  of  them  seem  to  see  that  it 
was  the  common  channel  towards  which  all  the  great 
streams  of  thought  in  the  Old  World  were  tending, 
and  that  in  some  form  or  other  when  they  came  to 
unite  it  must  have  been.  That  it  crystallised  round  a 
particular  person  may  have  been  an  accident ;  but  in 
its  essence,  as  soon  as  the  widening  intercourse  of  the 
nations  forced  the  Jewish  mind  into  contact  with  the 
Indian  and  the  Persian  and  the  Grecian,  such  a  reli- 
gion was  absolutely  inevitable. 

"  It  was  the  development  of  Judaism  in  being  the 
fulfilment  of  the  sacrificial  theory,  and  the  last  and 
purest  conception  of  a  personal  God  lying  close  above 
the  world,  watching,  guiding,    directing,    interfering. 


4280 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


Its  object  was  no  longer  the  narrow  one  of  the  tem- 
poral interests  of  a  small  people.  The  chrysalis  had 
burst  its  shell,  and  the  presiding  care  extended  to  all 
mankind,  caring  not  now  for  bodies  only  but  for  souls. 
It  was  the  development  of  Parseeism  in  settling  finally 
the  vast  question  of  the  double  principle,  the  position 
of  the  evil  spirit,  his  history,  and  the  method  of  his 
defeat ;  while  Zoroaster's  doctrine  of  a  future  state 
was  now  for  the  first  time  explained  and  justified  ;  and 
his  invisible  world  of  angels  and  spirits,  and  the  hier- 
archies of  the  seven  heavens,  were  brought  in  subjec- 
tion to  the  same  one  God  of  the  Jews. 

"  It  was  the  development  of  the  speculative  Greek 
philosophy  of  the  school  of  Plato,  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  Spirit,  and  the  mysterious  Trinit)',  the  sy  Mat  nav, 
the  word  or  intellect  becoming  active  in  the  primal 
Being ;  while,  lastly,  the  Hindu  doctrine  of  the  incar- 
nation is  the  uniting  element  in  which  the  other  three 
combine,  and  which  interpenetrates  them  with  an  aw- 
ful majest}',  which  singly  they  had  not  known. 

"So  these  four  streams  uniting  formed  into  an 
enormous  system,  comprehending  all  which  each  was 
seeking  for,  and  bringing  it  all  down  home,  close  to 
earth,  human,  direct,  and  tangible,  and  supplying  man- 
kind with  full  measure  of  that  spiritual  support  with 
which  only  minds  most  highl}'  disciplined  can  afford 
to  dispense." 

The  other  passage — I  condense  it  with  reluctance — 
can  hardly  be  matched  in  literature  for  refined  elo- 
quence. It  is  from  a  letter  written  by  a  young  clergy- 
man, troubled  by  sceptical  doubts,  to  his  friend  : 

"  There  is  a  village  in  the  wood,  two  or  three  miles 
from  here — there  was  an  abbey  there  once.  But  there 
is  nothing  left  of  the  abbey  but  its  crumbling  walls, 
and  it  serves  only  for  a  burying-ground  and  for  senti- 
mental .picnic  parties.  I  was  there  to-day;  I  sat  there 
a  long  time,  I  do  not  know  how  long — I  was  not  con- 
scious of  the  place.  I  was  listening  to  what  it  was 
saying  to  me.  I  will  write  it  down  and  look  at  it,  and 
3'ou  shall  look  at  it  :  an  odd  enough  subject  for  a 
Christian  ruin  to  choose — it  began  to  talk  about  pa- 
ganism. 'Do  you  know  what  paganism  means?'  it 
said.  Pagani,  pagans,  the  old  country  villagers.  In 
all  history  there  is  no  more  touching  word  than  that 
one  of  Pagan.  In  the  great  cities,  where  men  gather 
in  their  crowds  and  the  work  of  the  world  is  done,  and 
the  fate  of  the  world  is  determined,  there  it  is  that  the 
ideas  of  succeeding  eras  breed  and  grow  and  gather 
form  and  power,  and  grave  out  the  moulds  for  the 
stamp  of  after  ages.  There  it  was,  in  those  old  Roman 
times,  that  the  new  faith  rose  in  its  strength,  with  its 
churches,  its  lecture-rooms,  its  societies.  It  threw 
down  the  gorgeous  temples,  it  burnt  their  carved  cedar 
work,  it  defiled  the  altars  and  scattered  the  ashes  to 
the   winds.      The   statues   were    sanctified    and    made 


the  images  of  saints,  the  augurs'  colleges  were  rudely 
violated,  and  they  who  were  still  faithful  were  offered 
up  as  martyrs  or  scattered  as  wanderers  over  the  face 
of  the  earth,  and  the  old  gods  were  expelled  from  their 
old  dominion — the  divinity  of  nature  before  the  divinity 
of  man.  .  .  .  'And  now  look  at  me,'  the  old  ruin  said  ; 
'  centuries  have  rolled  away,  the  young  conqueror  is 
decrepit  now  ;  dying,  as  the  old  faith  died,  in  the 
scenes  where  that  faith  first  died  ;  and  lingering  where 
it  lingered.  The  same  sad,  sweet  scene  is  acting  over 
again.  I  was  the  college  of  the  priests,  and  they  are 
gone,  and  I  am  but  a  dead  ruin,  where  the  dead  bury 
their  dead.  The  village  church  is  outliving  me  for  a 
few  more  generations  ;  there  still  ring,  Sunday  after 
Sunday,  its  old  reverend  bells,  and  there  come  still  the 
simple  peasants  in  their  simple  dresses — pastor  and 
flock  still  with  the  old  belief  ;  there  beneath  its  walls 
and  ruins  they  still  gather  down  into  the  dust,  fathers 
and  children  sleeping  there  together,  waiting  for  im- 
mortality; wives  and  husbands  resting  side  by  side  in 
fond  hope  that  they  shall  wake  and  link  again  the  love- 
chain  which  death  has  broken  ;  so  simple,  so  reverend, 
so  beautiful !  Yet  is  not  that,  too,  all  passing  away,  away 
beyond  recall?  The  old  monks  are  dead.  The  hermit- 
saints  and  hallowed  relics  are  dust  and  ashes  now. 
The  fairies  dance  no  more  around  the  charmed  forest 
ring.  They  are  gone,  gone  even  here.  The  creed 
still  seems  to  stand  ;  but  the  creed  is  dead  in  the 
thoughts  of  mankind.  Its  roots  are  cut  away,  down 
where  alone  it  can  gather  strength  for  life,  and  other 
forms  are  rising  there  ;  and  once  again,  and  more  and 
more,  as  day  passes  after  day,  the  aged  faith  of  aged 
centuries  will  be  exiled  as  the  old  was  to  the  simple 
inhabitants  of  those  simple  places.  Once,  once  for 
all,  if  you  would  save  your  heart  from  breaking,  learn 
this  lesson — once  for  all  you  must  cease,  in  this  world, 
to  believe  in  the  eternity  of  any  creed  or  form  at  all. 
Whatever  grows  in  time  is  a  child  of  time,  and  is  born 
and  lives,  and  dies  at  its  appointed  day  like  our- 
selves. .  .  .  Life  is  change  ;  to  cease  to  change  is  to 
cease  to  live  ;  yet  if  you  may  shed  a  tear  beside  the 
death-bed  of  an  old  friend,  let  not  your  heart  be  silent 
on  the  dissolving  of  a  faith.'  " 


HOLMES'S  ANTI-DOGMAS. 

EY  DR.    FELI.X  L.   OSWALD. 

A  FEW  months  ago  the  freethinkers  of  the  semi- 
French  city  of  Barcelona  arranged  a  festival  to  cele- 
brate the  news  from  a  little  town  in  western  Aragon, 
where  a  gang  of  ruffians  had  attacked  a  supposed  witch 
and  dragged  her  about  in  a  sack,  till  they  were  routed 
by  the  alcalde  with  a  posse  of  local  rationalists. 

"What  a  sign  of  the  times,"  said  the  orator  of  the 
symposium,  "  and  what  a  step  of  progress  since  the 
days  when  that  mob  would  have  been  headed  by  a  pro- 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4281 


cession  of  mata-bruxas," — official  witch-hunters  with 
their  inquisitorial  experts  and  faggot-contractors. 

In  a  similar  manner  the  American  Liberals  of  the 
last  fifty  years  ought  to  have  appreciated  the  physical 
and  moral  survival  of  the  wizard  Holmes.  The  inata- 
bnixas  of  the  American  Inquisition,  it  is  true,  were  on 
his  track  for  a  while  ;  and  some  of  his  heresies  have 
neither  been  forgotten  nor  forgiven  ;  but  what  a  stride 
of  progress  since  the  time  when  Unitarians  were 
thought  unfit  to  practise  law  or  medicine,  and  when 
the  bigots  who  released  Thomas  Campanella,  after 
spraining  a  few  of  his  joints,  would  probably  have 
burnt  Holmes  for  attacking  their  centre-dogma  and 
exposing  the  roots  of  their  delusions. 

Nor  is  it  probable  tliat  the  physicians  of  the  six- 
teenth century  would  have  protested  against  a  sentence 
of  that  kind.  Holmes's  reform-theories  were  not  lim- 
ited to  educational  topics,  and  the  keenest  shafts  of 
his  wit  were  about  evenly  distributed  between  the  re- 
ligion of  John  Calvin,  the  abuse  of  drugs,  and  the  vice 
of  moral  cowardice,  alias,  the  conventional  silence 
about  the  absurdities  of  a  dominant  creed. 

"Far  better,"  he  says,  "to  be  a  bonnet  rouge,  a  red 
cap  of  the  barricades,  my  friends,  than  to  be  a  con- 
servatist,  if  conservatism  makes  it  our  duty  to  let  all 
the  drains  of  thought  choke  up  and  keep  the  soul's 
windows  down,  to  shut  out  the  sun  and  the  breezes, 
till  the  soul  sickens  with  moral  typhus  and  we  begin  to 
snore  in  its  coma  or  rave  in  its  delirium.  ..." 

"Or,  is  it  not  true  that  Truth  gets  well  if  she  is 
run  over  by  a  locomotive,  while  Error  dies  of  lockjaw 
if  she  scratches  her  finger?  I  never  heard  of  a  mathe- 
matician being  alarmed  for  the  safety  of  a  demonstrated 
proposition,  and  I  think  that  the  dread  of  discussion 
generally  implies  feebleness  of  inward  conviction." 

"Suppose,"  says  his  Professor,  in  quizzing  an  ad- 
versary on  the  dogma  of  total  depravity,  "suppose 
the  Medical  Society  should  refuse  to  give  us  an  ano- 
dyne or  set  a  broken  limb,  until  we  had  signed  our  be- 
lief in  a  certain  number  of  propositions,  of  which,  we 
will  say,  this  is  the  first :  (i)  'All  men's  teeth  are  nat- 
urally in  a  state  of  total  decay,  and  therefore  no  man 
can  bite  until  every  one  of  them  is  extracted  and  a 
new  set  inserted,  according  to  the  principles  of  den- 
tistry adopted  by  this  Society.'  Of  course,  those  doc- 
tors would  have  a  right  to  say  we  shan't  have  any  rhu- 
barb if  we  don't  sign  these  articles  .  .  .,  but  then  to  ask 
a  fellow  not  to  discuss  their  propositions  before  he 
signs  them  is  what  I  should  call  boiling  it  down  a  lit- 
tle too  strong." 

Like  Frederick  Schiller,  Holmes  pleads  his  religion 
as  an  excuse  for  his  aversion  to  sham  creeds.  "  The 
main-spring  of  the  world's  onward  religious  move- 
ment," he  says,  "is  not  in  the  Church.  ...  It  is  the 
people  that  makes  the  clerg}',  and  not  the  clergy  that 


makes  the  people.  There  never  was  a  guild  of  dealers 
or  a  company  of  craftsmen  that  did  not  need  sharp 
looking  after." 

"You  may  think  me  little  better  than  a  heathen," 
says  he,  in  parrying  the  attack  of  another  critic,  "but 
let  me  ask  you,  which  seems  to  you  nearest  heaven : 
Socrates  drinking  his  hemlock,  Regulus  going  back 
to  the  enemy's  camp,  or  that  old  New  England  divine, 
sitting  comfortably  in  his  study  and  chuckling  over  his 
conceit  of  a  poor  old  woman  who  had  been  burned  to 
death  in  his  own  town,  going  'roaring  out  of  one  fire 
into  another "...  or  the  Rev.  Mr.  Calvin  and  his  as- 
sociates, who  burned  my  distinguished  scientific  brother 
with  green  faggots?  "...  The  dogmas  of  such  people 
about  the  Father  of  Mankind  and  his  creatures  are  of 
no  more  account  in  my  opinion  than  those  of  a  coun- 
cil of  Aztecs." 

Moritz  Carriere,  in  his  Doctrines  of  tlie  Reformation, 
ventures  a  similar  remark,  but  would  hardly  have 
risked  the  following  impeachment  of  contemporary 
bigots:  "In  our  lunatic  asylums, "  says  the  Beacon 
Street  philosopher,  "we  frequently  see  persons  sent 
there  in  consequence  of  what  are  called  religious  men- 
tal disturbances.  I  confess  that  I  think  better  of  them 
than  of  many  who  hold  the  same  opinions  and  keep 
their  wits  and  appear  to  enjoy  life  very  well,  outside 
of  the  asj'lums.  Any  decent  person  ought  to  go  mad 
if  he  really  holds  such  opinions.  It  is  very  much  to 
his  discredit,  in  every  point  of  view,  if  he  does  not. 
Anything  that  is  brutal,  cruel,  and  makes  life  hopeless 
for  most  of  mankind,  and  perhaps  for  whole  races, — 
anything  that  assumes  tlie  necessity  of  exterminating  in- 
stincts which  ivere  given  to  be  regulated,  if  received,  ought 
to  produce  insanity  in  every  -well-regulated  mind.  I  am 
very  much  ashamed  of  some  people  for  retaining  their 
reason,  when  they  ought  to  know  perfectly  well,  that 
if  they  were  not  the  most  stupid  or  most  selfish  of  hu- 
man beings  they  would  become  non-compotes  at  once." 

That  the  perpetrator  of  those  diatribes  escaped  the 
penalty  of  social  ostracism  would  be  a  mystery  even 
to  a  community  of  liberals,  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact 
that  Holmes  reserved  his  protests  for  a  period  when 
his  reputation  and  popularity  had  already  been  firmly 
established,  and  that  in  New  England  that  period 
moreover  coincided  with  a  revival  of  the  intellectual 
reform  set  in  motion  by  the  writings  of  Franklin  and 
Paine.  That  movement  continued  long  enough  to 
alarm  the  obscurantists  for  the  safety  of  their  own 
strongholds,  and  deter  them  from  the  risk  of  increas- 
ing the  odium  of  their  polemics  by  a  persistent  cru- 
sade against  a  favorite  of  the  English-reading  nations. 
"It  amuses  me,"  he  says,  "to  look  back  at  some  of 
the  attacks  provoked  by  my  controversial  essays. 
Opinions  which  do  not  excite  the  faintest  show  of  tem- 
per at  this  time  from    those  who  do  not  accept  them, 


4282 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


were  treated  as  if  they  were  the  utterances  of  a  nihilis- 
tic incendiary."     {^The  Professor,  Preface  of  1882.) 

"Some  persons,"  he  adds,  "may  even  now  take 
offence  at  certain  expressions  of  my  opinions  ;  but  a 
day  may  come  when  they  will  be  thought  too  timid 
and  conservative  for  intelligent  readers." 

His  views  on  the  Nemesis  of  Faith  differed,  indeed, 
widely  from  those  of  his  friend  Froude.  "  Do  you  ask 
what  plague  has  fallen  on  the  practitioners  of  theol- 
ogy? "he  says,  after  pointing  out  the  disintegrating 
tendency  of  Homeopathy,  in  its  effect  upon  the  old- 
school  theories  of  medicine.  "  I  will  tell  you,  then, 
ft  is  Spiritualism.  While  some  are  crying  out  against 
it  as  a  delusion  of  the  Devil,  and  some  are  laughing  at 
it  as  an  hysteric  folly,  and  some  are  getting  angry  with 
it  as  a  mere  trick  of  interested  or  mischievous  persons. 
Spiritualism  is  quietly  undermining  the  traditional 
ideas  of  the  future  state  which  have  been  and  are  still 
accepted, — not  merely  in  those  who  believe  in  it,  but 
in  the  general  sentiment  of  the  community  to  a  larger 
extent  than  most  good  people  seem  to  be  aware  of.  It 
needn't  be  ^rue,  to  do  this,  any  more  than  Homeo- 
pathy need,  to  do  its  work.  The  Spiritualists  have 
some  pretty  strong  instincts  to  pry  over,  which  no 
doubt  have  been  roughly  handled  by  theologians  at 
different  times.  And  the  Nemesis  of  the  pulpit  comes 
in  a  shape  it  little  thought  of.  You  cannot  have  peo- 
ple of  cultivation,  of  pure  character,  large-hearted  wo- 
men, grave  judges,  men  of  science,  shrewd  business- 
men, professing  to  be  in  communication  with  the  spirit 
world  and  keeping  up  constant  intercourse  with  it, 
without  it  gradually  reacting  on  the  whole  conception 
of  that  other  life.  ..." 

".  .  .  .  In  point  of  fact,  it  is  one  of  the  many  re- 
sults of  Spiritualism  to  make  the  permanent  destiny  of 
the  race  a  matter  of  common  reflexion  and  discourse, 
and  a  vehicle  for  the  prevailing  disbelief  in  the  Middle- 
Age  doctrines  on  the  subject  ....  a  subject  that  in- 
volves all  we  have  and  all  we  hope,  not  merely  for  our- 
selves, but  for  the  dear  people  whom  we  love  best, — 
noble  men,  pure  and  lovely  women,  ingenuous  chil- 
dren— about  the  destiny  of  nine  tenths  of  whom  3'ou 
know  the  opinions  that  would  have  been  taught  by 
those  old  man-roasting,  woman-strangling  dogma- 
tists." 

Holmes's  doxy,  however,  had  a  positive  as  well  as 
negative  mission.  "  The  great  end  of  existence, "  he 
says,  "  is  to  harmonise  man  with  the  established  order  of 
things" — one  of  the  best  extant  summaries  of  the  reli- 
gion of  nature.  "Do  you  think  there  is  a  chance  of  a 
future  existence? "  asked  one  of  his  New  England 
friends.  "  I  hope  so,"  said  Holmes,  and  his  private 
speculations  on  that  point  appear  to  have  varied  from 
agnosticism  to  a  kind  of  vague  and  poetic  pantheism. 
"In  the  hearts  of  many  men  and  women,  and  let  me 


add  children,  there  is  a  foreboding  that  there  is  a 
Great  Secret  waiting  for  them,"  says  he  in  his  essay  on 
the  metaphysics  of  love  {The  Professor,  p.  177),  "a 
secret  of  which  they  get  hints  now  and  then,  perhaps 
oftener  in  early  than  in  later  years.  These  hints  come 
sometimes  in  dreams,  sometimes  in  sudden,  startling 
flashes, — second  wakings,  as  it  were, — a  waking  out  of 
the  waking  state  which  last  is  very  apt  to  be  a  half- 
sleep.  I  have  many  times  stopped  short  and  held  my 
breath,  and  felt  the  blood  leaving  my  cheeks,  in  one 
of  those  sudden  clairvoyant  flashes.  Of  course,  I  can- 
not tell  what  kind  of  a  secret  this  is,  but  I  think  of  it 
as  a  disclosure  of  certain  relations  of  our  personal 
being  to  time  and  space,  to  other  intelligences,  to  the 
procession  of  events,  and  to  their  First  Great  Cause. 
The  revelations  of  this  secret  are  broken  up,  as  it  were, 
into  fragments,  but  are  never  written  out  for  most  of 
us  as  a  complete  sentence,  in  this  life.  I  do  not  think 
it  could  be  ;  for  I  am  disposed  to  consider  our  belief 
about  such  a  possible  disclosure  rather  as  a  kind  of  a 
premonition  of  an  enlargement  of  our  faculties  in  some 
future  state  of  existence.  .  .  .  Glimpses  of  it  are  now 
and  then  revealed  in  the  face  of  a  beautiful  woman, 
but  not  in  the  words  of  Love.  The  Secret,  I  mean, 
lies  deeper  than  Love.  Some,  I  think, — Wordsworth, 
for  instance, — spell  out  a  portion  of  it  from  certain 
beautiful  natural  objects,  landscapes,  flowers,  and 
others.  I  could  mention  several  poems  that  have 
shadowy  hints  which  seem  to  me  to  come  near  the  re- 
gion where  I  think  it  lies." 

Had  Holmes  read  Goethe's  "Ganymede,"  or  did 
his  allusions  circumscribe  a  hint  that  there  are  higher 
ideals  of  ethics  than  the  worship  of  sorrow?  "  Cheer- 
fulness," he  says,  "is  something  more  than  a  virtue, 
it  is  a  duty  which  the  human  soul  owes  to  its  physical 
yoke-fellow."  "Of  our  duties  to  the  Head  physician 
of  this  vast  planetary  ambulance  which  we  call  Earth, 
I  need  say  little,"  he  tells  the  graduates  of  his  Harvard 
class;  "we  read  the  Creator  chiefly  through  his  crea- 
tures. If  performed  in  the  right  spirit  there  is  no 
higher  worship  than  the  unpurchased  service  of  the 
medical  priesthood.  The  sick  man's  faltered  blessing 
reaches  heaven  through  the  battered  roof  of  a  hovel 
before  the  Te  Deum  that  reverberates  through  vast 
cathedrals." 

For  a  Fellow  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Societ}', 
and  Harvard  Professor  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology, 
his  remarks  on  the  fallacies  of  the  orthodox  drug-school 
are  surprisingly  candid.  "We 'cannot  yet  dispense 
with  opium,"  he  says,  "nor  with  the  vapors  that  work 
the  miracle  of  aneesthesia,  but  if  the  whole  of  our  ma- 
teria medica,  with  the  exceptions  named,  could  be  flung 
to  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  it  would  be  all  the'  better  for 
mankind — and  all  the  worse  for  the  fishes."  {Currents 
and  Counter  Currents,  p.  39.) 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4283 


"Look  at  medicine,"  says  his  Professor,  "big 
wigs,  gold-headed  canes,  Latin  prescriptions,  shops 
full  of  abominations,  recipes  a  yard  long,  '  curing ' 
patients  as  a  sailor  brings  a  wind  by  whistling,  selling 
lies  at  a  guinea  a  piece, — a  routine,  in  short,  of  giving 
unfortunate  sick  people  a  mess  of  things  either  too 
odious  to  swallow  or  too  acrid  to  hold." 

His  pamphlet  on  Homeopathy  aud  Its  Kindred  De- 
lusions, provoked  a  storm  of  controversy  almost  unpar- 
alleled in  the  history  of  medical  literature,  but  his  chief 
objection  to  the  S3'stem  of  Hahnemann  was,  after  all, 
a  misgiving  that  it  would  keep  alive  the  popular  be- 
lief in  the  necessity  of  drug-remedies  and  thus  prove  a 
barrier  to  the  progress  of  hygienic  reform. 

Holmes's  views  on  the  temperance  problem  were 
at  first  those  of  the  "mild  stimulant  school  "  of  his 
European  colleagues,  but  further  reflexion  made  him 
recognise  the  progressive  tendency  of  the  alcohol  habit, 
and  his  ultimate  verdict  on  the  doctrine  of  Anacreon 
was  nearly  e.xpressed  in  his  parody  of  a  Bacchanalian 
ode  : 

"  Come,  fill  a  fresh  bumper, — for  why  should  we  go 

While  the  nectar  (logwood)  still  reddens  our  cups  as  they  flow! 

The  pitrple-liued  clusters  (half-ripened  apples)  their  life-dews  have  bled. 

How  sweet  is  the  breath  (taste)  of  the  fragrance  they  shed  {sugar  of  lead) 

For  summers  last  roses  (rank  poison)  lie  hid  in  the  wines, 

That  were  garnered  by  jnaidens  who  laughed  through  the  vines  (stable-boys 

smoking  long  nines). 
Then  a  smile  (scowl)  and  z  glass  (howl)  and  a  toast  fscoff)  and  a  c/teer  (sneer) 
For  all  the  good  wine,  and  lue've  some  of  it  here  (strychnine  and  whiskey,  and 

ratsbane  and  beer) 
In  cellar,  in  pantry,  in  attic,  and  hall. 
Long  live  the  gay  servant  that  laughs  for  us  all  (Down,  down,  with   the   tyrant 

that  ruins  us  all)." 

"The  sun  does  not  look  quite  as  bright  as  for- 
merly," wrote  the  genial  octogenarian  a  few  years  ago, 
"and  my  resources  of  comfort  are  getting  more  and 
more  limited  to  the  '  warmth  within  that  comes  from 
cold  without';  still  I  cannot  say  that  I  long  for  the 
night  which  I  have  never  feared,  and  like  that  para- 
lytic French  philosopher,mentioned  by  Edmond  About, 
I  shall  have  no  objection,  par  pure  citriosite,  to  tarry  a 
little  longer,  and  wait  for  the  next  surprise  of  this  age 
of  wondrous  inventions." 

Holmes's  sombre  moods,  indeed,  never  bordered 
on  pessimism.  Among  the  discords  of  a  moral  chaos 
he  had  tried  to  achieve  self-salvation  by  conformity  to 
the  religion  of  science,  and  to  the  very  end  of  his  long 
life  the  successful  solution  of  that  problem  was  attested 
by  the  enjoyment  of  almost  perfect  health,  and  the  still 
rarer  blessing  of  a  harmonious  mind. 


ON  THE    PRINCIPLE    OF  COMPARISON    IN    PHYSICS.' 

BY  PROF.    ERNST  MACH. 

Twenty  years  ago  when  Kirchhoff  defined  the  ob- 
ject of  mechanics  as  the  "description,  in  complete  and 
very  simple  terms,  of  the  motions  which  occur  in  na- 

arf  Associa- 


lAn  address  delivered  before  the  Get 
n  of  Naturalists  and  Physicians,  at  Vi< 


al  Session  of  the  Ge 
la,  Sept.  24,  1894. 


ture,"  he  produced  a  peculiar  effect  by  the  statement. 
Fourteen  years  subsequently,  Boltzmann,  in  the  life- 
like picture  which  he  drew  of  the  great  inquirer,  could 
still  speak  of  the  universal  astonishment  at  this  novel 
method  of  treating  mechanics,  and  we  meet  with  epis- 
temological  treatises  to-day,  which  plainly  show  how 
difficult  is  the  acceptance  of  this  point  of  view.  A 
modest  and  small  band  of  inquirers  there  were,  how- 
ever, to  whom  Kirchhoff's  few  words  were  tidings  of  a 
welcome  and  powerful  ally  in  the  epistemological  field. 
Now,  how  does  it  happen  that  we  yield  our  assent 
so  reluctantly  to  the  philosophical  opinion  of  an  in- 
quirer for  whose  scientific  achievements  we  have  only 
unqualified  praise  ?  One  reason  probably  is  that  few  in- 
quirers can  find  time  and  leisure,  amid  the  exacting 
employments  demanded  for  the  acquisition  of  new 
knowledge,  to  inquire  closely  into  that  tremendous 
psychical  process  by  which  science  is  formed.  Further, 
it  is  inevitable  that  much  should  be  put  into  Kirchhoff's 
lapidary  words  that  they  were  not  originally  intended 
to  convey,  and  that  much  should  be  found  wanting  in 
them  that  had  always  been  regarded  as  an  essential 
element  of  scientific  knowledge.  What  can  mere  de- 
scription accomplish  ?  What  has  become  of  explana- 
tion, of  our  insight  into  the  causal  connexion  of  things  ? 

* 
*  * 

Permit  me,  for  a  moment,  to  contemplate  not  the 
results  of  science,  but  the  mode  of  its  growth,  in  a 
frank  and  unbiassed  manner.  We  know  of  only  one 
source  of  immediate  revelation  of  scientific  facts — our 
senses.  Restricted  to  this  source  alone,  thrown  wholly 
upon  our  own  resources,  obliged  to  start  always  anew, 
what  could  the  isolated  individual  accomplish  ?  Of  a 
stock  of  knowledge  so  acquired  the  science  of  a  dis- 
tant negro  hamlet  in  darkest  Africa  could  hardly  give 
us  a  sufficiently  humiliating  conception.  For  there 
that  veritable  miracle  of  thought-transference  has  al- 
ready begun  its  work,  compared  with  which  the  mir- 
acles of  the  spiritualists  are  rank  monstrosities — eom- 
munieation  by  language.  Reflect,  too,  that  by  means 
of  the  magical  characters  which  our  libraries  contain 
we  can  raise  the  spirits  of  the  "the  sovereign  dead  of 
old"  from  Faraday  to  Galileo  and  Archimedes,  through 
ages  of  time — spirits  who  do  not  dismiss  us  with  am- 
biguous and  derisive  oracles,  but  tell  us  the  best  they 
know;  then  shall  we  feel  what  a  stupendous  and  in- 
dispensable factor  in  the  formation  of  science  eom- 
munieaticn  is.  Not  the  dim,  half-conscious  surmises 
of  the  acute  observer  of  nature  or  critic  of  humanity 
belong  to  science,  but  only  that  which  they  possess 
clearly  enough  to  eommunicate  to  others. 

But  how,  now,  do  we  go  about  this  communication 
of  a  newly  acquired  experience,  of  a  newly  observed 
fact?  As  the  different  calls  and  battle-cries  of  gre- 
garious  animals  are   unconsciously  formed   signs   for 


4284 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


a  common  observation  or  action,  irrespective  of  the 
causes  which  produce  such  action — a  fact  that  already 
involves  the  germ  of  the  concept ;  so  also  the  words 
of  human  language,  which  is  only  more  highly  spe- 
cialised, are  names  or  signs  for  universally  known 
facts,  which  all  can  observe  or  have  observed.  If  the 
mental  representation,  accordingly,  follows  the  new 
fact  at  once  anA  fassively,  then  that  new  fact  must,  of 
itself,  be  immediately  constituted  and  represented  in 
thought  by  facts  already  universally  known  and  com- 
monly observed.  Memory  is  always  ready  to  put  for- 
ward for  comparisoti  known  facts  which  resemble  the 
new  event,  or  agree  with  it  in  certain  features,  and 
so  renders  possible  that  elementary  internal  judgment 
which  the  mature  and  definitively  formulated  judgment 
soon  follows. 

Comparison,  as  the  fundamental  condition  of  com- 
munication, is  the  most  powerful  inner  vital  element 
of  science.  The  zoologist  sees  in  the  bones  of  the 
wing-membranes  of  bats,  fingers  ;  he  compares  the 
bones  of  the  cranium  with  the  vertebrae,  the  embryos 
of  different  organisms  with  one  another,  and  the  dif- 
ferent stages  of  development  of  the  same  organism 
with  one  another.  The  geographer  sees  in  Lake  Garda 
a  fjord,  in  the  Sea  of  Aral  a  lake  in  process  of  drying 
up.  The  philologist  compares  different  languages  with 
one  another,  and  the  formations  of  the  same  language 
as  well.  If  it  is  not  customary  to  speak  of  compara- 
tive physics  in  the  same  sense  that  we  speak  of  com- 
parative anatomy,  the  reason  is  that  in  a  science  of 
such  great  experimental  activity  the  attention  is  turned 
away  too  much  from  the  contemplative  element.  But 
like  all  other  sciences,  physics  lives  and  grows  by 
comparison. 

*  * 

The  manner  in  which  the  result  of  the  comparison 
finds  expression  in  the  communication,  varies  of  course 
very  much.  When  we  say  that  the  colors  of  the  spec- 
trum are  red,  yellow,  green,  blue,  and  violet,  the  des- 
ignations employed  may  possibly  have  been  derived 
from  the  technology  of  tattooing,  or  they  may  subse- 
quently have  acquired  the  significance  of  standing  for 
the  colors  of  the  rose,  the  lemon,  the  leaf,  the  corn- 
flower, and  the  violet.  From  the  frequent  repetition 
of  such  comparisons,  however,  made  under  the  most 
manifold  circumstances,  the  inconstant  features,  as 
compared  with  the  permanent  congruent  features,  get 
so  obliterated  that  the  latter  acquire  a  fixed  significance 
independent  of  every  object  and  connexion,  or  take  on 
as  we  say  an  abstract  or  conceptual  import.  No  one 
thinks  at  the  word  "  red  "  of  any  other  agreement  with 
the  rose  than  that  of  color,  or  at  the  word  "  straight" 
of  any  other  property  of  a  stretched  cord  than  the 
sameness  of  direction.  Just  so,  too,  numbers,  orig- 
inally the  names  of  the  fingers  of  the  hands  and  feet. 


from  being  used  as  arrangement-signs  for  all  kinds  of 
objects,  were  lifted  to  the  plane  of  abstract  concepts. 
A  verbal  report  (communication)  of  a  fact  that  uses 
only  these  purely  abstract  implements,  we  shall  call  in 
this  essay  a  direct  description. 

The  direct  description  of  a  fact  of  considerable  ex- 
tent is  an  irksome  task,  even  where  the  requisite  no- 
tions are  already  completely  developed.  What  a  sim- 
plification it  involves  if  we  can  say,  the  fact  A  now 
considered  comports  itself,  not  in  one,  but  in  many  or 
in  all  its  features,  like  an  old  and  well-known  fact  B. 
The  moon  comports  itself  like  a  heavy  body  does  with 
respect  to  the  earth  ;  light  like  a  wave-motion  or  an 
electric  vibration ;  a  magnet,  as  if  it  were  laden  with 
gravitating  fluids,  and  so  on.  We  call  such  a  descrip- 
tion, in  which  we  appeal,  as  it  were,  to  a  description 
already  and  elsewhere  formulated,  or  perhaps  still  to 
be  precisely  formulated,  an  indirect  description.  We 
are  at  liberty  to  supplement  this  description,  gradually, 
by  direct  description,  to  correct  it,  or  to  replace  it  alto- 
gether. We  see,  thus,  without  difficulty,  that  what  is 
called  a  theory  or  a  theoretical  idea,  falls  under  the 
category  of  what  is  here  termed  indirect  description. 

* 
*  * 

What,  now,  is  a  theoretical  idea  ?  Whence  do  we 
get  it?  What  does  it  accomplish  for  us?  Why  does  it 
occupy  a  higher  place  in  our  judgment  than  the  mere 
holding  fast  to  a  fact  or  an  observation?  Here,  too, 
memory  and  comparison  alone  are  in  play.  But  in- 
stead of  a  single  feature  of  resemblance  culled  from 
memory,  in  this  case  a  great  system  of  resemblances 
confronts  us,  a  well-known  physiognomy,  by  means  of 
which  the  new  fact  is  immediately  transformed  into  an 
old  acquaintance.  Besides,  it  is  in  the  power  of  the 
idea  to  offer  us  more  than  we  actually  see  in  the  new 
fact,  at  the  first  moment;  it  can  extend  the  fact,  and 
enrich  it  with  features  which  we  are  at  first  induced  to 
seek  from  such  suggestions,  and  which  are  often  ac- 
tually found.  It  is  this  rapidity  in  extending  knowl- 
edge that  gives  to  theory  a  preference  over  simple  ob- 
servation. But  that  preference  is  wholly  quantitative. 
Qualitatively,  and  in  real  essential  points,  theory  dif- 
fers from  observation  neither  in  the  mode  of  its  origin 
nor  in  its  last  results. 

The  adoption  of  a  theory,  however,  always  involves 
a  danger.  For  a  theory  puts  in  the  place  of  a  fact  A 
in  thought,  always  a  different,  but  simpler  and  more 
familiar  fact  B,  which  in  some  relations  can  mentally 
represent  A,  but  for  the  very  reason  that  it  is  differ- 
ent, in  other  relations  cannot  represent  it.  If  now,  as 
may  readily  happen,  sufficient  care  is  not  exercised, 
the  most  fruitful  theory  may,  in  special  circumstances, 
become  an  outright  obstacle  to  inquiry.  Thus,  the 
emission-theory  of  light,  in  accustoming  the  physicist 
to  think  of  the  projectile  path  of  the  "light-particles  " 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4285 


as  an  undifferentiated  straight-line,  demonstrably  im- 
peded the  discovery  of  the  periodicity  of  light.  By 
putting  in  the  place  of  light  the  more  familiar  phe- 
nomena of  sound,  Huygens  renders  light  in  many  of 
its  features  a  familiar  event,  but  with  respect  to  polari- 
sation, which  lacks  the  longitudinal  waves  with  which 
alone  he  was  acquainted,  it  had  for  him  a  doubly 
strange  aspect.  He  is  unable  thus  to  grasp  in  abstract 
thought  the  fact  of  polarisation,  which  is  before  his 
eyes,  whilst  Newton,  merely  by  adapting  to  the  obser- 
vation his  thoughts,  and  putting  this  question,  "Aii- 
non  radiorum  liiminis  diversa  sunt  latera  ? ' '  abstractly 
grasped  polarisation,  that  is,  directly  described  it,  a 
century  before  Malus.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 
agreement  of  the  fact  with  the  idea  theoretically  repre- 
senting it,  extends  further  than  its  inventor  originally 
anticipated,  then  we  may  be  led  by  it  to  unexpected 
discoveries,  of  which  conical  refraction,  circular  po- 
larisation by  total  reflexion,  Hertz's  waves  offer  readj' 
examples,  in  contrast  to  the  illustrations  given  above. 

Our  insight  into  the  conditions  indicated  will  be 
improved,  perhaps,  by  contemplating  the  development 
of  some  theory  or  other  more  in  detail.  Let  us  con- 
sider a  magnetised  bar  of  steel  by  the  side  of  a  second 
unmagnetised  bar,  in  all  other  respects  the  same.  The 
second  bar  gives  no  indication  of  the  presence  of  iron- 
filings  ;  the  first  attracts  them.  Also,  when  the  iron- 
filings  are  absent,  we  must  think  of  the  magnetised 
bar  as  in  a  different  condition  from  that  of  the  unmag- 
netised. For,  that  the  mere  presence  of  the  iron-filings 
does  not  induce  the  phenomenon  of  attraction  is  proved 
by  the  second  unmagnetised  bar.  The  ingenuous  man, 
who  finds  in  his  will,  as  his  most  familiar  source  of 
power,  the  best  facilities  for  comparison,  conceives  a 
species  of  spirit  in  the  magnet.  The  behavior  of  a 
warm  body  or  of  an  electrified  body  suggests  similar 
ideas.  This  is  the  point  of  view  of  the  oldest  theory, 
fetishism,  which  the  inquirers  of  the  early  Middle 
Ages  had  not  yet  overcome,  and  which  in  its  last  ves- 
tiges, in  the  conception  of  forces,  still  flourishes  in 
modern  physics.  We  see,  thus,  the  dramatic  element 
need  not  be  absent  in  a  scientific  description,  any  more 
than  in  a  thrilling  novel. 

If,  on  subsequent  examination,  it  be  observed  that 
a  cold  body,  in  contact  with  a  hot  body,  warms  itself, 
so  to  speak,  at  the  expense  of  the  hot  body;  further, 
that  when  the  substances  are  the  same,  the  cold  body, 
which,  let  us  say,  has  twice  the  mass  of  the  other, 
gains  only  half  the  number  of  degrees  of  temperature 
that  the  other  loses,  a  wholly  new  impression  arises. 
The  demoniac  character  of  the  event  vanishes,  for  the 
supposed  spirit  acts  not  by  caprice,  but  according  to 
fixed  laws.  In  its  place,  however,  instinctively  the 
notion  of  a  substance  is  substituted,  part  of  which  flows 
over  from  the  one  body  to  the  other,   but  the  total 


amount  of  which,  representable  by  the  sum  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  masses  into  the  respective  changes  of 
temperature,  remains  constant.  Black  was  the  first  to 
be  powerfully  struck  with  this  resemblance  of  thermal 
processes  to  the  motion  of  a  substance,  and  under  its 
guidance  discovered  the  specific  heat,  the  heat  of  fu- 
sion, and  the  heat  of  vaporisation  of  bodies.  Gaining 
strength  and  fixity,  however,  from  these  successes, 
this  notion  of  substance  subsequently  stood  in  the  way 
of  scientific  advancement.  It  blinded  the  eyes  of  the 
successors  of  Black,  and  prevented  them  from  seeing 
the  manifest  fact,  which  every  savage  knows,  that  heat 
is  produced  by  friction.  Fruitful  as  that  notion  was 
for  Black,  helpful  as  it  still  is  to  the  learner  to-day  in 
Black's  special  field,  permanent  and  universal  validity 
as  a  theory  it  could  never  acquire.  But  what  is  essen- 
tial, conceptually,  in  it,  viz.,  the  constancy  of  the  pro- 
duct-sum above  mentioned,  retains  its  value  and  may 
be  regarded  as  a  direct  description  of  Black's  facts. 

It  stands  to  reason  that  those  theories  which  push 
themselves  forward  unsought,  instinctively,  and  wholly 
of  their  own  accord,  should  have  the  greatest  power, 
should  carry  our  thoughts  most  with  them,  and  exhibit 
the  staunchest  powers  of  self-preservation.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  may  also  be  observed  that  when  criti- 
cally scrutinised  such  theories  are  extremely  apt  to 
lose  their  cogency.  We  are  constantly  busied  with 
"substance,"  its  modes  of  action  have  stamped  them- 
selves indelibly  upon  our  thoughts,  our  vividest  and 
clearest  reminiscences  are  associated  with  it.  It  should 
cause  us  no  surprise,  therefore,  that  Robert  Mayer  and 
Joule,  who  gave  the  final  blow  to  Black's  substantial 
conception  of  heat,  should  have  re-introduced  the 
same  notion  of  substance  in  a  more  abstract  and  modi- 
fied form  and  as  applying  to  a  much  more  extensive 
field. 

Here,  too,  the  psychological  circumstances  which 
impart  to  the  new  conception  its  power,  lie  clearly  be- 
fore us.  By  the  unusual  redness  of  the  venous  blood 
in  tropical  climates  Mayer's  attention  is  directed  to 
the  lessened  expenditure  of  internal  heat  and  to  the 
proportionately  lessened  consumption  of  material  by  the 
human  body  in  those  climates.  But  as  every  effort  of 
the  human  organism,  including  its  mechanical  work, 
is  connected  with  the  consumption  of  material,  and  as 
work  by  friction  can  engender  heat,  therefore  heat  and 
work  appear  in  kind  equivalent,  and  between  them  a 
proportional  relation  must  subsist.  Not  every  qanti- 
tative  relation,  but  the  appropriately  calculated  sum  of 
the  two,  as  connected  with  a  proportionate  consump- 
tion of  material,  appears  substantial. 

By  exactly  similar  considerations,  relative  to  the 
economy  of  the  galvanic  element.  Joule  arrived  at  his 
view ;  he   found  experimentally  that  the  sum  of  the 


4286 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


heat  evolved  in  the  circuit,  of  the  heat  consumed  in  the 
combustion  of  the  gas  developed,  of  the  electro-mag- 
netic work  of  the  current,  properly  calculated, — in  short, 
the  sum  of  all  the  effects  of  the  battery, — is  connected 
with  a  proportionate  consumption  of  zinc.  Accordingly, 
this  sum  itself  has  a  substantial  character. 

Mayer  was  so  absorbed  with  the  view  attained, 
that  the  indestructibility  of  force,  in  our  phraseology 
work,  appeared  to  him  <? /;-/ti/7  evident.  "The  crea- 
tion and  annihilation  of  a  force,"  he  says,  "lies  with- 
out the  province  of  human  thought  and  power."  Joule 
expressed  himself  to  a  similar  effect  :  "  It  is  manifestly 
absurd  to  suppose  that  the  powers  with  which  God 
has  endowed  matter  can  be  destroyed."  Strange  to 
say,  on  the  basis  of  such  utterances,  not  Joule,  but 
Mayer,  was  stamped  as  a  metaphysician.  We  may 
be  sure,  however,  that  both  men  were  merely  giving 
expression,  and  that  half-unconsciously,  to  a  powerful 
formal  need  of  the  new  simple  view,  and  that  both 
would  have  been  extremely  surprised  if  it  had  been 
proposed  to  them  that  their  principle  should  be  sub- 
mitted to  a  philosophical  congress  or  ecclesiastical 
synod  for  a  decision  upon  its  validity.  But  with  all 
agreements,  the  attitude  of  these  two  men,  in  other 
respects,  was  totally  different.  Whilst  Mayer  repre- 
sented this  formal  need  with  all  the  stupendous  in- 
stinctive force  of  genius,  we  might  say  almost  with  the 
ardor  of  fanaticism,  yet  was  withal  not  wanting  in  the 
conceptive  ability  to  compute,  prior  to  all  other  in- 
quirers, the  mechanical  equivalent  of  heat  from  old 
physical  constants  long  known  and  at  the  disposal  of 
all,  and  so  to  set  up  for  the  new  doctrine  a  programme 
embracing  all  physics  and  physiology ;  Joule,  on  the 
other  hand,  applied  himself  to  the  exact  verification  of 
the  doctrine  by  beautifully  conceived  and  masterfully 
executed  experiments,  extending  over  all  departments 
of  physics.  Soon  Helmholtz  too  attacked  the  problem, 
in  a  totally  independent  and  characteristic  manner. 
After  the  professional  virtuosity  with  which  this  phys- 
icist grasped  and  disposed  of  all  the  points  unsettled 
by  Mayer's  programme  and  more  besides,  what  espe- 
cially strikes  us  is  the  consummate  critical  lucidity  of 
this  young  man  of  twenty-six  years.  In  his  exposition 
is  wanting  that  vehemence  and  impetuosity  which 
marked  Mayer's.  The  principle  of  the  conservation 
of  energy  is  no  self-evident  or  a  priori  proposition  for 
him.  What  follows,  on  the  assumption  that  that  prop- 
osition obtains  ?  In  this  hypothetical  form,  he  subju- 
gates his  matter. 

I  must  confess,  I  have  always  marvelled  at  the 
esthetic  and  ethical  taste  of  many  of  our  contempo- 
raries who  have  managed  to  fabricate  out  of  this  rela- 
tion of  things,  odious  national  and  personal  questions, 
instead  of  praising  the  good  fortune  that  made  several 
such  men  work  together  and  of  rejoicing  at   the  in- 


structive diversity  and  idiosyncrasies  of  great  minds  so 
fraught  with  rich  consequences  for  us. 

We  know  that  still  another  theoretical  conception 
played  a  part  in  the  development  of  the  principle  of 
energy,  which  Mayer  held  aloof  from,  namely,  the  con- 
ception that  heat,  as  also  the  other  physical  processes, 
are  due  to  motion.  But  once  the  principle  of  energy 
has  been  reached,  these  auxiliary  and  transitional  the- 
ories discharge  no  essential  function,  and  we  may  re- 
gard the  principle,  like  that  which  Black  gave,  as  a 
contribution  to  the  direct  description  of  a  widely  ex- 
tended domain  of  facts. 

It  would  appear  from  such  considerations  not  only 
advisable,  but  even  necessary,  with  all  due  recogni- 
tion of  the  helpfulness  of  theoretic  ideas  in  research, 
yet  gradually,  as  the  new  facts  grow  familiar,  to  sub- 
stitute for  indirect  description  direct  description,  which 
contains  nothing  that  is  unessential  and  restricts  itself 
absolutely  to  the  abstract  apprehension  of  facts.  We 
might  almost  say,  that  the  descriptive  sciences,  so 
called  with  a  tincture  of  condescension,  have,  in  re- 
spect of  scientific  character,  outstripped  the  physical 
expositions  lately  in  vogue.  Of  course,  a  virtue  has 
been  made  of  necessity  here. 

[to  be  concluded.] 

JUST   PUBLISHED: 

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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  376. 

THE  PILGRIMAGE  OF  ANTHONY  FROUDE.     Mon- 

CURE  D.  Conway 4279 

HOLMES'S   ANTI-DOGMAS.     Dr.  Felix  L.  Oswald.  . .   4280 
ON  THE  PRINCIPLE   OF  COMPARISON    IN    PHYS- 
ICS.    Prof.  Ernst  Mach 4283 


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THE  PILGRIMAGE  OF  ANTHONY  FROUDE. 

BV  MONCURE  D.    CONWAY. 
II. 

In  one  of  Froude's  works  {A  Fortnight  in  Kerry) 
Froude  alludes  to  my  visit  to  him  in  that  remote  cor- 
ner of  Ireland.  "  Fresh  from  Gravelotte,"  as  he  says, 
and  haunted  still  by  that  field  where  I  had  to  pick  my 
way  lest  I  should  tread  upon  the  mangled  bodies  of 
men,  that  week  was  passed  as  if  in  some  happy  Ava- 
lon.  The  horrors  faded  as  if  into  a  faintly  remembered 
nightmare.  My  host  had  taken  for  the  summer  the 
beautiful  old  residence  of  Lord  Lansdowne  near  Ken- 
mare,  a  region  rich  in  legend  and  antiquities.  We 
visited  prehistoric  mounds  and  stones,  rehearsed  an- 
cient Celtic  lore,  listened  to  the  "  keening  "  of  peasants 
at  a  funeral,  visited  a  sacred  pool  whose  islet  is  said 
to  float  from  one  side  to  another,  and  saw  the  pilgrims 
waiting  to  be  healed  when  their  Bethesda  should  be  so 
supernaturally  stirred.  In  some  of  Froude's  writings 
there  are  indications  of  something  like  a  personal  re- 
sentment against  Catholicism,  which  had  devoured  his 
beloved  Newman,  but  in  that  Irish  Arcadia,  where  the 
old  church  was  in  its  historical  place,  and  still  repre- 
sented all  that  was  poetic  in  the  folk,  nothing  could 
exceed  his  tenderness  towards  the  humble  believers 
around  him.  And  he  was  everywhere  met,  by  priest 
and  people,  with  a  friendliness  which  responded  to 
his  neighborly  kindness.  (Less  than  two  years  later, 
when  he  lectured  in  America,  the  Irish  here  were  rag- 
ing around  him  as  an  enemy  of  Ireland  !)  Mr.  Froude 
was  indeed  one  of  the  most  charming  of  men,  person- 
ally; in  presence,  handsome  and  dignified,  he  was  also 
gracious,  cordial,  always  more  thoughtful  of  others 
than  himself.  I  worked  for  him  many  years,  when  he 
edited  Fraser's  Magazine,  and  although  our  intimacy 
was  terminated  b}'  complications  connected  with  his 
publication  of  the  Carlyle  papers,  the  previous  friend- 
ship of  eighteen  years  enabled  me  to  detach  the  real 
man  from  the  great  mistake  of  his  life.  Nothing  could 
have  persuaded  him  to  print  the  items  in  Carlyle's  pa- 
pers which  so  involved  and  troubled  living  persons 
had  he  realised  the  situation,  and  he  was  too  much 
hurried  by  publishers  eager  to  meet  a  hungry  public 
to  digest  the  materials  thoroughly.    He  suffered  griev- 


ously from  all  this,  and  was  prematurely  aged.  When 
I  saw  him  at  the  grave  of  Tennyson  in  Westminster 
Abbey  (he  was  one  of  the  pall-bearers)  he  appeared  to 
me  but  the  wreck  of  his  former  self,  though  he  was 
not  yet  seventy.  His  lectures  at  Oxford  were,  how- 
ever, making  a  fine  impression,  and  those  on  ' '  Eras- 
mus," just  published,  show  that  he  had  lost  no  fibre 
of  intellectual  force. 

But  to  return.  While  rambling  and  yachting  with 
Froude  in  Ireland  I  submitted  to  him  a  scheme  I  had 
formed  for  a  reprint  of  the  religious  romances  which 
grew  directly  or  indirectly  out  of  what  is  historically 
known  as  the  "Oxford  Movement."  The  series  was 
to  begin  with  Newman's  "  Callista  ;  a  Tale  of  the  Third 
Century,"  and  perhaps  include  Cardinal  Wiseman's 
"Fabiola."  More  important  revivals  would  be  John 
Sterling's  "Arthur  Coningsby,"  and  his  other  novel, 
"  The  Onyx  Ring,"  in  which  Goethe  and  Carlyle  figure 
as  characters.  "Oakfield,"  which  Mrs.  Lowell  quoted 
much  in  her  "Seed-Grain,"  Maurice's  "Eustace  Con- 
way,"  Charles  Kingsley's  "Yeast,"  Smith's  "Thorn- 
dale,"  might  be  comprised.  But  the  most  important 
of  the  series  would  be  Froude's  "Shadows  of  the 
Clouds,"  and  "  The  Nemesis  of  Faith."  Froude  en- 
tered into  my  plan  warmly,  and  would  have  assisted 
me  in  it,  but  it  failed  because  no  publisher  could  be 
found  to  take  any  interest  in  it.  Ten  years  later,  when 
Froude's  "  Bunyan  "  appeared,  in  the  "English  Men 
of  Letters  "  series,  I  could  not  help  reflecting  on  the 
spiritual  torpor  of  a  world  which  is  still  more  interested 
in  the  Pilgrim's  Progress  of  an  extinct  dogmatic  era, 
than  in  the  progress  of  the  living  pilgrims  of  the  living 
age,  definitely  traceable  in  the  works  just  named. 

Shadows  of  the  Clouds  (by  "  Zota ")  appeared  in 
18:1.7,  Froude  being  in  his  twenty-ninth  year,  and  for 
more  than  five  years  a  Fellow  of  Exeter  College,  Oxford. 
This  work,  long  out  of  print  and  found  in  few  libraries, 
were  it  now  republished,  would  surely  find  many  eager 
readers  for  its  literary  excellence  alone.  Indeed  it  is 
little  occupied  with  theological  matters,  though  it  in- 
cidentally deals  with  moral  and  philosophical  prob- 
lems. The  book  contains  two  tales,  —  "The  Spirit's 
Trials  "  and  ' '  The  Lieutenant's  Daughter. "  In  the  first 
of  these  a  graphic  description  is  given  of  the  trials  of 
a  boy  at  an  English  public  school.     "For  one  year,  at 


4288 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


least,  to  all  boys,  and  to  some  for  ever}'  year,  the  life 
was  as  hard,  and  the  treatment  as  barbarous,  as  that  of 
the  negroes  in  Virginia.  What  it  may  be  now,  I  do  not 
know  :  I  am  speaking  of  what  it  was  fifteen  years  ago." 
The  school  portrayed  was  the  Westminster  School, 
of  sixty  years  ago,  and  the  unhappy  effects  of  its 
whole  system  on  a  boy,  "Edward  Fowler,"  are  traced 
with  consummate  skill.  The  author  affirms  that  every 
boy  will  presently  deserve  the  treatment  he  receives. 
Edward  sinks  in  character,  and  is  brought  into  dis- 
grace with  his  father  and  family.  He  recovers  heart 
under  a  private  tutor,  and  enters  the  University.  But 
past  dissipations  have  to  be  paid  for :  the  list  of  debts 
cannot  be  suppressed,  and  the  youth's  father  turns 
against  him.  He  had  become  betrothed  to  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  sadly  inflexible  clergyman, — a  vigorously  drawn 
character, — who  will  not  have  a  son-in-law  with  esca- 
pades in  his  past.  The  engagement  broken,  the  youth 
is  precipitated  into  fresh  dissipations.  He  rises  again 
when  he  "begins  to  trust  himself  and  not  circum- 
stances." 

This  story  caused  considerable  flutter,  both  at 
Westminster  School  and  at  Oxford.  The  revelations 
made  concerning  both  were  disturbing,  all  the  more 
because  the  young  author  regarded  things  from  a  se- 
vere moral  standpoint.  He  is  not  indulgent  to  vice, 
but  remorseless  in  tracking  it  to  its  sources  in  bad  dis- 
cipline and  evil  methods  of  education.  The  Masters 
winced,  and  though  they  may  have  kept  a  sharper  e)'e 
on  the  morals  of  their  colleges,  they  kept  a  sharper 
one  on  Froude,  who  was  soon  discovered  under  his 
pseudonym,  "Zota."  The  theologians  were  induced 
to  do  the  like  by  the  delicate,  if  not  dangerous,  prob- 
lem raised  by  the  second  story, —  "The  Lieutenant's 
Daughter."  This  is  introduced  in  a  dream,  which  in 
realistic  impressiveness  anticipates  Du  Maurier's  Peter 
Ibbetson.  The  tale  has  two  endings  :  in  one  the  daughter 
becomes  a  virtuous  and  happy  wife,  in  the  other  the 
same  woman  becomes  a  fallen  and  miserable  outcast. 
These  diverse  events  resultfrom  a  few  years  more  or 
less  duration  of  her  father's  life.  It  is  a  tale  of  the 
influence  of  circumstance  on  character  ;  partly  also  an 
illustration  of  the  fact  that  moral  failure  is  largely  due 
to  ignorance  and  inexperience  of  the  world.  Satan 
and  hereditary  depravity  had  already  ceased  to  be  a 
part  of  Froude's  ethical  system  ;  nor  was  the  blood  of 
Jesus  in  his  category  of  cleansing  forces.  At  this  time 
Froude  was  a  devout  reader  of  Emerson  and  Carlyle, 
but  their  influence  is  hardly  visible  in  his  early  writings, 
which  are  remarkably  original.  It  became  evident  that 
a  thinker  was  let  loose  in  Oxford.  The  atmosphere  of 
the  Universit}'  was  already  sultry  with  suspicion,  when, 
in  the  following  year,  appeared  The  Nemesis  of  Faith. 
But  I  must  reserve  further  comment  on  this  for  a  final 
article, 


ON  THE    PRINCIPLE    OF  COMPARISON    IN    PHYSICS.i 

BV   PROF.    ERNST   MACH. 

We  must  admit,  that  it  is  not  in  our  power  to  de- 
scribe directly  every  fact,  on  the  moment.  Indeed, 
we  should  succumb  in  utter  despair  if  the  whole  wealth 
of  facts  which  we  come  step  by  step  to  know,  were 
presented  to  us  all  at  once.  Happily,  only  detached 
and  unusual  features  first  strike  us,  and  such  we  bring 
nearer  to  ourselves  by  comparison  with  every-day 
events.  Here  the  notions  of  the  common  speech  are 
first  developed.  The  comparisons  then  grow  more 
manifold  and  numerous,  the  fields  of  facts  compared 
more  extensive,  the  concepts  that  make  direct  descrip- 
tion possible,  proportionately  more  general  and  more 
abstract. 

First  we  become  familiar  with  the  motion  of  freely 
falling  bodies.  The  concepts  of  force,  mass,  and  work 
are  then  carried  over,  with  appropriate  modifications, 
to  the  phenomena  of  electricitj'  and  magnetism.  A 
stream  of  water  is  said  to  have  suggested  to  Fourier 
the  first  distinct  picture  of  currents  of  heat.  A  special 
case  of  vibrations  of  strings  investigated  by  Taylor, 
cleared  up  for  him  a  special  case  of  the  conduction  of 
heat.  Much  in  the  same  way  that  Daniel  Bernoulli 
and  Euler  constructed  the  most  diverse  forms  of  vi- 
brations of  strings  from  Taj'lor's  cases,  so  Fourier  con- 
structs out  of  simple  cases  of  conduction  the  most 
multifarious  motions  of  heat;  and  that  method  has 
e'xtended  itself  over  the  whole  of  physics.  Ohm  forms 
his  conception  of  the  electric  current  in  imitation  of 
Fourier's.  The  latter,  also,  adopts  Fick's  theory  of 
diffusion.  In  an  analogous  manner  a  conception  of 
the  magnetic  current  is  developed.  All  sorts  of  sta- 
tionary currents  are  thus  made  to  exhibit  common 
features,  and  even  the  condition  of  complete  equilib- 
rium in  an  extended  medium  shares  these  features 
with  the  dynamical  condition  of  equilibrium  of  a  sta- 
tionary current.  Things  as  remote  as  the  magnetic 
lines  of  force  of  an  electric  current  and  the  stream- 
lines of  a  frictionless  liquid  vortex  enter  in  this  way 
into  a  peculiar  relationship  of  similarity.  The  con- 
cept of  potential,  originally  enunciated  for  a  re- 
stricted province,  acquires  a  wide-reaching  applica- 
bility. Things  as  dissimilar  as  pressure,  temperature, 
and  electromotive  force,  now  show  points  of  agree- 
ment in  relation  to  ideas  derived  by  definite  methods 
from  that  concept:  viz.,  fall  of  pressure,  fall  of  tem- 
perature, fall  of  potential,  as  also  with  the  further  no- 
tions of  liquid,  thermal,  and  electric  strength  of  cur- 
rent. That  relationship  between  systems  of  ideas  in 
which  the  dissimilarity  of  every  two  homologous  con- 
cepts, as  well  as  the  agreement  in  the  logical  relations 

lAn  address  delivered  before  the  General  Session  of  the  German  Associa- 
tion of  Naturalists  and  Physicians,  at  Vienna,  Sept.  24,  1S94. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4289 


of  every  two  homologous  pairs  of  concepts,  is  clearly 
brought  to  light,  is  called  an  analogy.  It  is  an  effective 
means  of  mastering  heterogeneous  fields  of  facts  in 
unitary  comprehension.  The  path  is  plainly  shown  in 
which  a  universal  physical  phenomenology  embracing  all 
domains,  will  be  developed. 

In  the  process  described  we  attain  for  the  first  time 
to  what  is  indispensable  in  the  direct  description  of 
broad  fields  of  fact — the  wide-reaching  abstract  concept. 
And  now  I  must  put  a  question  smacking  of  the  school- 
master, but  unavoidable  :  What  is  a  concept  ?  Is  it  a 
hazy  representation,  admitting  withal  of  mental  visu- 
alisation? No.  Mental  visualisation  accompanies  it 
only  in  the  simplest  cases,  and  then  merely  as  an  ad- 
junct. Think,  for  example,  of  the  "  coefficient  of  self- 
induction,"  and  seek  for  its  visualised  mental  image. 
Or  is,  perhaps,  the  concept  a  mere  word  ?  The  adop- 
tion of  this  forlorn  idea,  which  has  been  actually  pro- 
posed not  long  since  in  reputed  quarters,  would  only 
throw  us  back  a  thousand  years  into  the  deepest  scho- 
lasticism.     We  must  therefore  reject  it. 

The  solution  is  not  far  to  seek.  We  must  not  think 
that  sensation  is  a  purely  passive  process.  The  lowest 
organisms  respond  to  it  with  a  simple  reflex  motion, 
by  engulfing  the  prey  which  approaches  them.  In 
higher  organisms  the  centripetal  stimulus  encounters 
in  the  nervous  system  obstacles  and  aids  which  modify 
the  centrifugal  process.  In  still  higher  organisms, 
where  prej'  is  pursued  and  examined,  the  process  in 
question  may  go  through  extensive  paths  of  circular 
motions  before  it  comes  to  rest.  Our  own  life,  too,  is 
enacted  in  such  processes;  all  that  we  call  science 
may  be  regarded  as  parts,  or  middle  terms,  of  such 
activity. 

It  will  not  surprise  us  now  if  I  say  :  the  definition 
of  a  concept,  and,  when  it  is  very  familiar,  even  its 
name,  is  an  impulse  to  some  accurately  determined, 
often  complicated,  critical,  comparative,  or  construc- 
tive activity,  the  usually  sense-perceptive  result  of 
which  is  a  term  or  member  of  the  concept's  scope.  It 
matters  not  whether  the  concept  draws  the  attention 
only  to  one  certain  sense  (as  sight)  or  to  a  phase  of  a 
sense  (as  color,  form),  or  is  the  starting  point  of  a 
complicated  action;  nor  whether  the  activity  in  ques- 
tion (chemical,  anatomical,  and  mathematical  opera- 
tions) is  muscular  or  technical,  or  performed  wholly 
in  the  imagination,  or  only  intimated.  The  concept  is 
to  the  physicist  what  a  musical  note  is  to  a  piano- 
player.  A  trained  physicist  or  mathematician  reads  a 
memoir  like  a  musician  reads  a  score.  But  just  as  the 
piano-player  must  first  learn  to  move  his  fingers  singly 
and  collectively,  before  he  can  follow  his  notes  with- 
out effort,  so  the  physicist  or  mathematician  must  go 
through  a  long  apprenticeship  before  he  gains  con- 
trol, so  to  speak,  of  the  manifold  delicate  innervations 


of  his  muscles  and  imagination.  Think  of  how  fre 
quently  the  beginner  in  physics  or  mathematics  per- 
forms more,  or  less,  than  is  required,  or  of  how  fre- 
quently he  conceives  things  differentl}'  from  what  they 
are  !  But  if,  after  having  had  sufficient  discipline,  he 
lights  upon  the  phrase  "coefficient  of  self-induction," 
he  knows  immediately  what  that  term  requires  of  him. 
Long  and  thoroughly  practised  actions,  which  have 
their  origin  in  the  necessity  of  comparing  and  repre- 
senting facts  by  other  facts,  are  thus  the  very  kernel 
of  concepts.  In  fact,  positive  and  philosophical  phi- 
lology both  claim  to  have  established  that  all  roots 
represent  concepts  and  stood  originally  for  muscular 
activities  alone.  The  slow  assent  of  physicists  to 
Kirchhoff's  dictum  now  becomes  intelligible.  They 
best  could  feel  the  vast  amount  of  individual  labor, 
theory,  and  skill  required  before  the  ideal  of  direct 
description  could  be  realised. 

* 
*  * 

Suppose,  now,  the  ideal  of  a  given  province  of 
facts  is  reached.  Does  description  accomplish  all  that 
the  inquirer  can  ask  ?  In  my  opinion,  it  does.  Descrip- 
tion is  a  building  up  of  facts  in  thought,  and  this  build- 
ing up  is,  in  the  experimental  sciences,  often  the  con- 
dition of  true  representation.  For  the  physicist,  to 
take  a  special  case,  the  metrical  units  are  the  building- 
stones,  the  concepts  the  directions  for  building,  and 
the  facts  the  result  of  the  building.  Our  mental 
imagery  is  almost  a  complete  substitute  for  the  fact, 
and  by  means  of  it  we  can  ascertain  all  the  fact's  prop- 
erties. We  do  not  know  that  worst  which  we  our- 
selves have  made. 

People  require  of  science  that  it  should  prophesy, 
and  Hertz  uses  that  expression  in  his  posthumous 
Mechanics.  But,  natural  as  it  is,  the  expression  is  too 
narrow.  The  geologist  and  the  paleontologist,  at  times 
the  astronomer,  and  always  the  historian  and  the  phil- 
ologist, prophesy,  so  to  speak,  hackzvards.  The  descrip- 
tive sciences,  like  geometry  and  mathematics,  prophesy 
neither  forward  or  backwards,  but  seek  from  given 
conditions  the  conditioned.  Let  us  say  rather  :  Sci- 
ence conipletcs  in  thought  facts  that  arc  onlv  partlv  gii'en. 
This  is  rendered  possible  by  description,  for  descrip- 
tion presupposes  the  interdependence  of  the  descrip- 
tive elements  :   otherwise  nothing  would  be  described. 

It  is  said,  description  leaves  the  sense  of  causality 
unsatisfied.  In  fact,  many  imagine  they  understand 
motions  better  when  they  picture  to  themselves  the 
pulling  forces ;  and  yet  the  accelerations,  the  facts, 
accomplish  more,  without  superfluous  additions.  I 
hope  that  the  science  of  the  future  will  discard  the 
idea  of  cause  and  effect,  as  being  formally  obscure  ; 
and  in  my  feeling  that  these  ideas  contain  a  strong 
tincture  of  fetishism,  I  am  certainlj'  not  alone.  The 
more  proper  course  is,  to  regard  the  abstract  detcrrnina^ 


4290 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


tivc  elements  of  a  fad  as  interdepeniieti/,  in  a  purely  logi- 
cal way,  as  the  mathematician  or  geometer  does. 
True,  by  comparison  with  the  will,  forces  are  brought 
nearer  to  our  feeling ;  but  it  may  be  that  ultimately  the 
will  itself  will  be  made  clearer  by  comparison  with  the 
accelerations  of  masses. 

If  we  are  asked,  candidly,  when  is  a  fact  clear  to 
us,  we  must  say  "when  we  can  reproduce  it  by  very 
simple  and  very  familiar  intellectual  operations,  such 
as  the  construction  of  accelerations,  or  the  geometri- 
cal summations  of  accelerations,  and  so  forth."  The 
requirement  of  simplicity  is  of  course  to  the  expert 
a  different  matter  from  what  it  is  to  the  novice.  For 
the  first,  description  by  a  system  of  differential  equa- 
tions is  sufficient ;  for  the  second,  a  gradual  construc- 
tion out  of  elementary  laws  is  requisite.  The  first 
discerns  at  once  the  connexion  of  the  two  expositions. 
Of  course,  it  is  not  disputed  that  the  artistic  value  of 
materially  equivalent  descriptions  may  not  be  different. 

Most  difficult  is  it  to  persuade  strangers  that  the 
great  universal  laws  of  physics,  such  as  apply  indis- 
criminately to  material,  electrical,  magnetic,  and  other 
systems,  are  not  essentially  different  from  descriptions. 
As  compared  with  many  sciences,  physics  occupies  in 
this  respect  a  position  of.  vantage  that  is  easily  ex- 
plained. Take,  for  example,  anatomy.  As  the  anato- 
mist in  his  quest  for  agreements  and  differences  in 
animals  ascends  to  ever  higher  and  higher  classifica- 
tions, the  individual  facts  that  represent  the  ultimate 
terms  of  the  system,  are  still  so  different  that  they 
must  be  singly  noted.  Think,  for  example,  of  the  com- 
mon marks  of  the  Vertebrates,  of  the  class-characters 
of  Mammals  and  Birds  on  the  one  hand  and  of  Fishes 
on  the  other,  of  the  double  circulation  of  the  blood  on 
the  one  hand  and  of  the  single  on  the  other.  In  the 
end,  always  isalatcil  facts  remain,  which  show  only  a 
sliglit  likeness  to  one  another. 

A  science  still  more  closely  allied  to  physics,  chem- 
istry, is  often  in  the  same  strait.  The  abrupt  change 
of  the  qualitative  properties,  in  all  likelihood  condi- 
tioned by  the  slight  stability  of  the  intermediate  states, 
the  remote  resemblance  of  the  co  ordinated  facts  of 
chemistry  render  the  treatment  of  its  data  difficult. 
Pairs  of  bodies  of  different  qualitative  properties  unite 
in  different  mass-ratios  ;  but  no  connexion  between 
the  first  and  the  last  is  to  be  noted,  at  first. 

Physics,  on  the  other  hand,  reveals  to  us  wide  do- 
mains of  ipialitatively  homogeneous  facts,  differing  from 
one  another  only  in  the  number  of  equal  parts  into 
which  their  representative  marks  are  divisible,  that  is, 
differing  only  quantitatively.  Even  where  we  have  to 
deal  with  qualities  (colors  and  sounds),  quantitative 
characters  of  those  qualities  are  at  our  disposal.  Here 
the  classification  is  so  simple  a  task  that  it  rarely  im- 
presses us  as  such,  whilst  in  infinitely  fine  gradations,  in 


a  continuum  of  facts,  our  number-system  is  ready  before- 
hand to  follow  as  far  as  we  wish  to  go.  The  co-ordinated 
facts  are  here  extremely  similar  and  very  closely  af- 
fined, as  are  also  their  descriptions  which  consist  in 
the  determination  of  the  numerical  measures  of  one 
given  set  of  characters  from  those  of  a  different  set  by 
means  of  familiar  mathematical  operations — methods 
of  derivation.  Thus,  the  common  characteristics  of 
all  descriptions  can  be  found  here  ;  and  with  them  a 
succinct,  comprehensive  description,  or  a  rule  for  the 
construction  of  all  single  descriptions,  is  assigned, — 
and  this  we  call  law.  Well-known  examples  are  the 
formulae  for  freely  falling  bodies,  for  projectiles,  for 
central  motion,  and  so  forth.  If  physics  apparently 
accomplishes  more  by  its  methods  than  other  sciences, 
we  must  remember  that  in  a  sense  it  has  presented  to 
it  much  simpler  problems. 

The  remaining  sciences,  whose  facts  also  present  a 
physical  side,  need  not  be  envious  of  physics  for  this 
superiority  ;  for  all  its  acquisitions  ultimately  redound 
to  their  benefit  as  well.  But  also  in  other  ways  this 
mutual  help  shall  and  must  change.  Chemistr}'  has 
advanced  very  far  in  making  the  methods  of  phj'sics 
her  own.  Apart  from  older  attempts,  the  periodical 
series  of  Meyer  and  Mendelejeff  are  a  brilliant  and 
adequate  means  of  producing  an  easily  surveyed  sys- 
tem of  facts,  which  by  gradually  becoming  complete, 
will  take  the  place  almost  of  a  continuum  of  facts. 
Further,  by  the  study  of  solutions,  of  dissociation,  in 
fact  generally  of  phenomena  which  present  a  contin- 
uum of  cases,  the  methods  of  thermodynamics  have 
found  entrance  into  chemistry.  Similarly  we  may  hope 
that,  at  some  future  day,  a  mathematician,  letting  the 
fact-continuum  of  embryology  play  before  his  mind, 
which  the  palaeontologists  of  the  future  will  supposedly 
fiave  enriched  with  more  intermediate  and  derivative 
forms  between  Saurian  and  Bird  than  the  isolated 
Pterodactyl,  Archaeopteryx,  Ichthyornis,  and  so  forth, 
which  we  now  have — that  such  a  mathematician  shall 
transform,  by  the  variation  of  a  few  parameters,  as  in 
a  dissolving  view,  one  form  into  another,  just  as  we 
transform  one  conic  section  into  another. 

Reverting  now  to  Kirchhoff's  words,  we  can  come 
to  some  agreement  regarding  their  import.  Nothing 
can  be  built  without  building-stones,  mortar,  scaffold- 
ing, and  a  builder's  skill.  Yet  certainly  the  wish  is 
well  founded,  which  will  show  the  complete  structure 
to  posterity  in  its  finished  form,  bereft  of  unsightly 
scaffolding.  It  is  the  pure  logical  and  aesthetic  sense 
of  the  mathematician  that  speaks  out  of  Kirchhoff's 
words.  Modern  expositions  of  physics  aspire  after  his 
ideal ;  that,  too,  is  intelligible.  But  it  would  be  a 
poor  didactic  trick,  for  one  whose  business  it  was  to 
train  architects,  to  say  :  "  Here  is  a  stately  edifice;  if 
thou  wouldst  really  build,  go  thou  and  do  likewise. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4291 


The  barriers  between  the  special  sciences,  which 
make  division  of  work  and  concentration  possible,  but 
which  after  all  affect  us  as  cold  and  conventional 
restrictions,  will  gradually  disappear.  Bridge  upon 
bridge  is  thrown  over  the  gaps.  Contents  and  meth- 
ods, even  of  the  remotest  branches,  are  compared. 
When  the  Congress  of  Natural  Scientists  shall  meet  a 
hundred  years  hence,  we  may  expect  that  they  will 
represent  a  unity  in  a  higher  sense  than  is  possible  to- 
day, not  in  sentiment  and  aim  alone,  but  in  method 
also.  In  the  meantime,  this  great  change  will  be 
helped  by  our  keeping  constantly  before  our  minds  the 
fact  of  the  intrinsic  relationship  of  all  research,  which 
Kirchhoff  characterised  with  such  classical  simplicity. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  A  HUMORIST. 

[continued.] 
11.     EXISTENCES  THAT  ARE  IN  PART. 

Having  accompanied  Wilhelm  Busch's  sagacious 
dreamer  through  the  land  of  pure  forms,  let  us  follow 
him  now  into  a  more  real  realm  ;  but  here  still  he  finds 
existence  in  parts  only. 

Edward  first  visits  the  community  of  heads.  These 
live  in  nests  in  a  high  mediaeval  place,  having  behind 
their  ears  wings  which  are  an  appropriate  adaptation  of 
their  neck  muscles.  Some  sit  around  marshes  ;  they 
are  the  water-heads.  They  blink  drowsily  with  their 
eyes  and  let  the  sun  shine  into  their  mouths.  Then, 
there  are  the  head-strong  who  possess  the  vanity  of 
their  own  opinion  in  spite  of  argument,  wrangling  and 
quarrelling  in  the  air.  Almost  every  one  of  them  had 
bruises,  black  and  blue.  They  live  on  wind  and  earn 
their  living  as  stump-orators  and  singers  in  dime-mu- 
seums. 

Lower  down,  on  a  mountain-range,  hands  were  liv- 
ing as  scribblers,  scrubbers,  stocking-knitters,  stringed- 
instrument  musicians,  and  other  trades.  The  feet  are 
at  home  in  the  valley. 

Leaving  the  land  of  separate  limbs  our  tramping 
dreamer  visits  a  village  and  describes  its  still  life. 
There  were  three  merry  flies  swarming  over  a  pond, 
three  joyous  little  fish  caught  them.  A  moment  later 
three  ducks  came  along  ;  each  duck  snatched  a  fish  and 
swallowed  it.  The  farmer's  good-natured  wife  appeared 
in  the  door  of  the  house  and  enticed  the  three  ducks 
with  a  few  crumbs  of  bread  into  the  kitchen.  Then 
she  seized  them  and  cut  off  their  throats,  but  being 
hasty  she  cut  her  finger  at  the  same  time.  The  hatchet 
was  rusty  and  the  finger  began  to  swell.  There  were 
symptoms  of  blood  poisoning  ;  the  doctor  came.  He 
understood  the  case.  He  cut  off  her  finger,  but  it 
wouldn't  do  ;  he  cut  off  her  arm,  but  it  wouldn't  do  ; 
he  cut  off  her  head,  but  it  wouldn't  do  ;  he  cut  off  her 
waist,  but  it  wouldn't  do ;  he  cut  off  her  knees,  but  it 
wouldn't  do  ;   and  when  he  came  to  her  sensitive  corns 


a  shriek  was  heard  and  she  was  dead.  The  farmer 
would  not  be  comforted  for  the  doctor's  fee  was  $53.75. 
The  doctor  put  the  honorarium  into  his  pocket-book 
and  the  farmer  sighed.  The  doctor  put  the  pocket- 
book  into  his  pocket  and  the  'farmer  fainted  upon  a 
chair,  staring  into  emptiness.  The  doctor  was  a  man 
of  the  world.  Slowly  he  rode  away,  nor  began  he  to 
trot  until  he  was  out  of  sight.  He  was  wholly  unaware 
that  his  pocket  had  a  hole  in  it.  The  disconsolate 
widower  went  to  the  pig-pen  and  looked  at  the  pigs. 
There  were  thirteen  of  them,  each  worth  Si  1.25.  His 
tears  began  to  dry  and  when  he  came  out  again  he  had 
become  a  new  man. 

Edward  now  left  the  farm  house  and  went  to  one 
of  the  neighbors.  It  was  the  uncle  of  the  farmer. 
Having  just  returned  with  an  unsteady  walk  from  a 
long  sitting  at  the  inn  he  entered  the  room  where  his 
numerous  family  expected  him  with  dread.  The  old 
man  threw  his  hat  upon  the  ground  and  shouted  ' '  He 
who  takes  that  hat  up  will  be  thrashed  ;  he  who  lets 
it  lie,  will  be  thrashed,  too."  He  was  a  very  reliable 
man  and  he  kept  his  word. 

Having  witnessed  this  sad  spectacle,  the  pensive 
traveller  sighs  and  says  :  "Alas  !  my  dear  reader,  how 
often  does  fate  throw  before  us  his  tragic  hat,  and 
whatever  we  do  we  shall  have  trouble." 

Continuing  the  stor3'  of  his  travel,  our  dreamer 
finds  himself  confronted  by  a  philosopher  whose  great- 
ness consists  in  creating  problems  where  there  are 
none.  Edward  says:  "I  went  to  the  neighboring 
farm.  An  old  thinking  man  stood  in  the  cow-stable 
which  he  had  just  cleaned,  and  he  closed  the  barn- 
shutters.  'Strange, 'he  said,  resting  his  chin  upon  the 
dung-fork.  'Strange,  very  strange  !  Indeed,  extraor- 
dinary! If  I  close  the  barn-shutters  it  grows  dark  !  " 
And  so  he  stood  for  a  long  time  and  thought  and 
thought.  As  if  there  were  not  worries  enough  in  the 
world  without  that !  And  it  was  very  dark  in  his  mind 
and  also  in  the  cow-stable. 

In  another  farm-house  our  all-observing  dreamer 
finds  the  delicate  little  daughter  of  the  farmer  sitting 
at  the  piano.  There  is  a  knock  at  the  door.  "Is 
j'our  father  at  home?  "  asks  the  man  who  buys  sheep. 
"No,  sir,"  she  replied,  in  a  lady-like  way,  "papa 
hauls  dung."  What  a  pleasant  instance  of  increasing 
culture,  which  still  has  something  of  the  strong  odor 
of  the  soil  from  which  it  grew  ! 

We  pass  over  a  number  of  pictures  of  Edward's 
dream,  which  show  us  an  incendiary  firing  his  barn  ; 
several  topers,  one  of  whom  paj's  the  bill  with  counter- 
feit money;  a  broom-maker,  who  finds  the  doctor's 
pocket-book,  and,  having  hidden  it  in  his  boot,  meets 
the  doctor,  who  returns  on  his  horse  in  full  speed. 
"Did  you  find  something?"  asked  the  doctor.  "No, 
sir,"  the  broom-maker  says,  with  composure,  and  while 


4292 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  doctor  hastens  on,  thinks  to  himself,  "that  will  be 
a  lesson  to  him."  In  this  way  a  wise  man  had  given 
to  an  inexperienced  fellow  a  valuable  lesson  without 
bringing  him  into  the  painful  situation  of  expressing 
his  thanks — a  good  deed,  which  is  the  more  remark- 
able as  he  never  bragged  of  it. 

Wherever  Edward  goes  he  finds  the  world  interest- 
ing, not  less  so  than  the  cultured  farmer  who  met  him 
on  the  way,  and  had  just  been  looking  at  his  potatoes, 
which  were  doing  splendidly.  The  sun  shone  through 
his  transparent  ears,  and  he  was  happy,  shouting  in 
ecstasy:  "  O,  how  beautiful  is  the  world,  how  beau- 
tiful !  " 

After  some  other  excursions,  Edward  visited  the 
temple  of  science.  There  he  saw  the  high-minded  in- 
vestigators sitting  among  their  microscopes,  retorts, 
and  guinea-pigs.  Considering  the  use,  the  enhance- 
ment, and  all  the  other  advantages  which  mankind 
owes  them,  and  also  their  own  well-deserved  pride,  be 
left  their  sanctum  with  suppressed  reverence.  But  he 
overheard  a  critic — for  flies  are  everywhere — say  to 
another  critic  who  passed  him  :  "There  are  numbers 
in  their  heads,  and  bacilli  in  their  hearts.  They  grind 
everything  to  powder — God,  spirit,  and  Shakespeare, 
and  then  the  broom-guard,  those  sages  who  sweep  to- 
gether the  offal  from  the  back-doors  of  centuries." — 
Here  the  critic  interrupted  himself  and  exclaimed  : 
"  Do  you  see  that  milk-cart?  The  billy-goat  that  draws 
it  looks  as  proud  as  if  he  had  produced  the  milk  him- 
self." 

In  the  art-museum  the  old  artists  had  been  newly 
varnished.  Among  the  new  artists  were  the  naturalists, 
one  of  whom  protested  that  he  preferred  one  natural 
peasant-girl  standing  knee-deep  in  the.mud  to  eleven 
thousand  embalmed  princesses  dancing  upon  wires. 
"Nature,"  he  began  to  sing,  "  nothing  but  naturrrre  !  " 
The  other  naturalists  fell  in  and  Edward  joined  the 
chorus.      "  Naturrre,"  he  sang  "Naturrre?" 

Here  the  dreamer  was  poked  again  by  his  wife  who 
said  :    "Dear  me,  Edward  !   How  terribly  you  snore  !" 

Edward  did  not  allow  his  dream  to  be  disturbed. 
He  saw  at  the  art-museum  an  old  ruffian  who  looked 
at  the  pictures  and  was  morally  disgusted  with  them. 
His  name  is  The-man-with-the-dirty-spectacles,  for  the 
dirt  that  he  finds  he  brings  with  him. 

In  the  world  of  politics  Edward  observed  that  Bis- 
marck had  just  left  the  driver's  box  and  resigned  the 
reins  of  the  world.  Surely  that  would  create  a  commo- 
tion !  But  no,  the  world  is  like  a  pot  of  porridge.  If  you 
take  the  spoon  out,  and  were  it  the  largest,  the  whole 
business  will  close  up  again,  and  be  as  if  nothing  had 
happened. 

While  still  moved  in  thought  Edward  grew  desir- 
ous, after  having  seen  so  many  marvellous  and  glo- 
rious things,  to  see  once  a  really  good  man.      He  said 


to  himself:  "I  am  not  especially  anxious  to  see  him, 
but  it  is  only  for  the  sake  of  ccrtnpleteness. " 

Now  our  dreamer  was  told  that  there  was  a  kind 
philanthropist  whose  possessions  weighed  upon  him 
like  a  burden,  and  distributing  them  was  his  greatest 
pleasure.      Edward  went  to  see  him. 

The  philanthropist  had  just  gathered  up  from  the 
street  five  tramps.  "  Brethren,  "he  said,  mildly,  "make 
j'ourselves  at  home.  We  will  all  be  equal."  The 
tramps  were  satisfied.  They  ate  together,  they  drank 
together,  they  smoked  together,  and  thej'  decided  that 
on  the  next  morning  they  would  shine  their  boots  to- 
gether. The  case  was  so  remarkable  that  Edward 
stayed  imtil  the  next  morning.  On  the  next  morning 
the  six  gentlemen  met  at  the  breakfast- table,  and  when 
the  philanthropist  saw  his  five  brethren  decently 
dressed  in  good  clothes  like  himself  a  tear  was  in  his 
eye,  and,  shaking  hands  with  them,  he  expressed  his 
joy  that  every  one  was  now  satisfied.  Then  one  of 
them,  formerly  a  mason,  cleared  his  throat  and  said  : 
"Well,  that  is  so  ;  however,  as  you,  my  brother,  have 
had  so  much  more  spare  time  for  being  satisfied  than 
we,  it  would  be  but  reasonable  that  we  should  now 
have  a  correspondingly  better  time  than  you."  The 
philanthropist  was  a  just  man,  and  another  tear  came 
to  his  eye.  He  nodded  his  consent.  So  everybody  took 
his  mocha,  except  the  philanthropist  ;  everj'bod)'  took 
a  cognac,  except  the  philanthropist ;  everybody  smoked 
his  Havana,  except  the  philanthropist ;  and  after  break- 
fast no  one  shined  the  shoes  except  the  philanthropist. 
When  he  now  saw  his  five  brethren  better  dressed  than 
himself,  a  third  tear  stood  in  his  eye,  and,  embracing 
them,  he  expressed  his  joy  that  at  last  everybody  was 
satisfied.  But  the  mason  again  cleared  his  throat  and 
said  :  That  may  be  so,  but  he  should  now  step  under  the 
window,  for  they  wanted  to  spit  on  his  head  and  see 
whether  their  brother  was  still  proud.  The  philan- 
thropist had  a  fourth  tear  in  his  eye,  and  he  declined. 
When  his  five  brethren  observed  that  he  objected,  they 
seized  him  by  the  collar  of  his  coat  and  made  him 
"walk  proudly"  as  they  called  it.  They  carried  him 
down  into  the  hall,  whipped  him  one,  two,  three  times, 
still  keeping  him  suspended,  and  at  three  threw  him 
out  of  the  door  of  his  house  into  the  yard  where  he 
frightened  a  cow  ;  and  while  the  poor  fellow  was  lying 
in  the  mud,  the  four  tears  which  had  gathered  in  his 
eyes  broke  out  at  once  and  he  began  to  swear.  What 
a  disappointment  to  Edward  who  now  clearly-  recog- 
nised that  at  bottom  the  philanthropist  was  no  really 
good  man.  He  who  wants  to  follow  equality  through 
thick  and  thin  must  have  high  boots. 

But  Edward  after  all  did  not  in  his  dream  give  up 
finding  a  good  man.  He  followed  a  collector  who  had 
in  his  hands  a  list  of  names,  into  a  stately  residence. 
The  owner  gave   him  a  quarter  for  foreign   missions 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4293 


and  a  dime  for  home  missions,  and  having  done  so, 
when  the  collector  had  left,  fell  into  a  dreaming,  say- 
ing, "I  am  too  good,  I  am  much  too  good."  So  much 
was  he  overcome  with  the  almost  punishable  kindness 
of  his  heart. 

Now  Edward  was  satisfied.      He  had  seen  a  good 
man,  a  man  who  was  even  more  than  good. 

Having  taken  a  trip  into  vacuity  in  order  to  see 
whether  the  world  had  an  end  or  not,  and  having  re- 
turned along  the  heavenly  axis  at  the  polar  star,  the 
restless  wanderer  returned  to  our  little  earth  and  came 
to  a  place  where  everybody  was  in  a  state  of  indolent 
happiness.  The  people  had  invented  great  burning- 
glasses  to  collect  sun-heat  sufficient  for  all  the  machin- 
ery, stoves,  lamps,  and  kitchens  that  were  needed  in  the 
country,  and  in  addition  enough  power  for  purposes  of 
amusement  and  everybody  was  taken  care  of  by  the 
national  administration.  There  were  no  thieves,  for 
there  was  no  need  of  stealing.  And  if  somebody  on 
account  of  weakness  of  mind  took  some  such  thing  as 
a  cigar  from  his  neighbor  he  was  treated  in  an  asjdum 
and  cured  by  kindness  and  benevolent  treatment.  All 
troubles  were  done  away  with,  death  alone  could  not 
be  banished.  "That  is  all  very  fine,"  thought  Ed- 
ward, "but  are  not  the  stupid  people  envious  when 
comparing  themselves  with  clever  folks,  and  the  ugly 
with  the  beautiful?  " — "Well,"  replied  one  of  the  peo- 
ple, "  formerly  it  was  bad  enough  and  we  had  much 
trouble.  But  now  all  that  is  past  since  the  competi- 
tion gland  has  been  discovered."  Then  he  described 
that  this  injurious  organ  has  its  seat  deep  in  the  brain 
behind  the  ear,  and  its  extirpation  is  obligatory.  The 
success  justifies  the  method.  There  was  not  envy,  no 
pride,  no  ambition  ;  and  the  good  Lord  and  the  ten 
commandments  had  become  redundant.  It  was  only 
a  pity  that  all  laughter  had  ceased.  True,  there  were 
laughing-clubs,  but  the  laughter  which  they  practised 
was  wooden  and  hypocritical,  it  was  not  natural.  The 
genuine  joy  in  manifesting  our  abilities  which  make  us 
strong  to  endure  competition  could  not  obtain  under 
these  well-regulated  conditions.  There  was  a  certain 
soft  monotony  which  it  appears  even  the  inhabitants 
of  this  country  could  appreciate  only  with  difficulty, 
for  on  almost  every  tree  of  their  fine  parks  some  one 
hung  who  had  grown  sick  of  life.  The  people,  to  be 
sure  walked  through  the  parks  and  did  not  mind,  but 
Edward  could  not  stand  it.  He  left  and  went  to  a 
philosopher. 

In  the  next  episode  of  Edward's  dream-experiences 
Wilhelm  Busch  ridicules  the  mechanical  world- con- 
ception which  reduces  all  processes  of  the  world  to 
matter  and  motion,  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  in  senti- 
ments, thoughts,  and  in  ideal  aspirations  the  material 
and  mechanical  aspect  of  an  event  is  its  most  unessen- 
tial feature.      Ideas  cannot  be  explained  by,  or  classi- 


fied under,  the  categories  of  matter  and  motion.  And 
Busch  is  right,  for  in  the  spiritual  world  another  and 
more  subtle  element  enters,  which,  although  it  appears 
to  a  materialistic  conception  as  non-existent,  is  after 
all  the  most  important  reality  of  life. 

Edward  entered  the  philosopher's  study  and  was 
courteously  received.  Three  parrots  were  swinging 
on  perches.  The  philosopher  wore  a  red  cap  with  a 
green  feather,  a  gown  of  mole-skin,  pants  of  stag 
leather,  and  slippers  of  crocodile  skin.  He  had  sev- 
eral remarkable  curiosities  in  his  collection  which  he 
was  kind  enough  to  show.  The  three  parrots  swung 
themselves  on  perches  in  his  study  and  repeated  every 
word  he  said.  First,  the  philosopher  began,  look  at 
this  automatic  piece  of  art.  It  was  a  crane  standing 
in  a  dish  full  of  water  containing  an  eel.  The  philoso- 
pher wound  the  mechanism  and  the  crane  bowed  down, 
caught  the  eel,  lifted  him  up  and  swallowed  him. 
While  still  standing  in  thought  as  if  satisfied,  the  eel 
glided  out  at  the  next  moment  from  behind,  and  again 
with  unfailing  certainty  the  long-billed  bird  caught 
him,  swallowed  him,  and  waited  for  further  conse- 
quences. The  eel  returned  to  the  water  by  the  same 
way  to  be  devoured  again  in  the  same  fashion,  and  thus 
the  circle  continued.  "This,"  said  the  master,  "is 
the  circuition  of  things. " 

The  philosopher  now  took  an  insignificant  looking 
utensil  from  his  cabinet.  It  was  a  blowing-mill.  He 
dusted  it  and  said  with  importance  :  "This,  my  friend, 
is  the  thing-in-itself  which  before  me  no  one  has  un- 
derstood." He  pressed  a  button  and  the  mill  began  to 
fan,  producing  upon  Edward  a  pleasant  feeling  as  if 
some  one  was  tickhng  him  behind  his  ears.  The  phi- 
losopher pressed  the  button  a  second  time  and  a  pal- 
atable dinner  appeared.  He  pressed  a  third  time  and 
an  agreeable  odor  arose.  He  pressed  a  fourth  time 
and  fine  music  was  heard  ;  a  fifth  time  and  fire-works 
began  to  play.  "Thus,"  the  polite  host  explained, 
"everything  that  happens  between  us  and  the  things 
is  nothing  but  motion,  now  quicker,  now  slower,  now 
in  a  medium  of  ether,  now  of  air  which  may  be  thicker 
or  thinner." 

"  But  how  is  it  with  thoughts?  "  Edward  asked  the 
master.  "It  is  the  same  with  thoughts,"  replied  he. 
"  You  will  see  at  once."  He  put  his  blowing-mill  away 
and  handed  me  a  wind-mill.  It  was  small  and  built 
after  the  pattern  of  those  little  instruments  which  are 
fastened  to  cherry-trees  in  order  to  keep  the  sparrows 
away,  only  smaller,  and  with  wings  of  paper.  Placing 
this  mill  before  me  he  said  :  "Well,  my  friend,  now 
think  deftly."  Edward  began  to  think  and  thought  as 
much  as  he  could,  and  the  more  sturdily  he  thought 
the  brisker  the  paper  wings  of  the  mill  turned  round 
and  they  clattered  so  that  even  an  old  experienced 
sparrow  would  not  have  dared  to  approach.      "The 


4294 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


GO 


\Q 


more  wind  the  more  noise,"  said  the  sage  explain- 
ingly. 

"But  the  joys  and  the  pains  of  our  heart,"  the  in- 
quisitive visitor  retorted,  "are  they  nothing  but  motion 
also?"  "  Certainly,"  the  wise  man  said,  "  only  they 
turn  in  the  screw  fashion."  Then  he  took  from  his 
shelf  a  dainty  holder  in  which  horizontally  a  corkscrew 
lay,  that  could  be  turned  by  a  crank.  "Well?  "  queried 
Edward,  expectantly.  "Sit  down  here,"  said  the  phi- 
losopher, considerately;  "I  notice  your  constitution  is 
a  little  abnormal.  Take  a  seat  here,  this  is  a  chair  of 
higher  sensitiveness." 

It  was  a  softly  upholstered  easy-chair,  and  the  mas- 
ter approached  his  visitor  with  his  screw,  turning  it 
forward.  What  a  painful  sentiment  pierced  his  inner- 
most being.  He  felt  like  screaming  aloud.  It  was 
as  if  his  old  great-aunt  had  died.  "Pain  is  positive," 
said  the  master,  but  now  we  will  turn  the  screw  back- 
wards." The  pain  disappeared,  and  an  unexpected 
happiness  streamed  through  Edward's  whole  system. 
It  was  as  if  the  good  deceased  aunt  had  left  him  a  for- 
tune of  half  a  million.  "Joy  is  negative,"  explained  the 
philosopher,  and  returned  the  soul-screw  to  its  former 
place. 

Not  to  exhaust  the  patience  of  his  host,  Edward 
thought  it  time  to  take  his  leave.  But  the  philosopher 
said:  "One  more  thing,"  and  conducted  him  to  his 
desk.  There,  in  a  big  glass  of  alcohol,  he  produced  a 
strange  creature-,  which  had  great  similarity  to  a  rotten 
pumpkin,  with  a  few  fibres  which  looked  like  undevel- 
oped limbs.  "This,"  said  the  sage,  "is  man  as  he 
was  a  thousand  million  years  ago,  before  he  degener- 
ated into  amphioxus  lanccolatus,  from  whom  we  have 
started  up  again,  so  that  we  can  hope  in  the  next  fu- 
ture to  attain  to  something  extraordinary."  "Beauti- 
ful he  is  not,"  Edward  said,  disappointedly.  "But 
clever,"  replied  the  sage  ;  "  I  have  searched  his  head. 
Those  doubtful  distinctions  of  here  and  there,  of  to-day 
and  the  day  after  to-morrow,  which  involve  us  into  so 
many  difficulties,  did  not  exist  at  that  time.  The  ques- 
tion whether  twice  two  is  four  and  everything  else  re- 
mained undecided,  and  as  to  the  principles  of  geom- 
etry, I  can  assure  you  that  in  those  days  the  crookedest 
line  was  the  shortest  path  between  two  points." 

Here  the  philosopher  paused  in  order  to  leave  his 
guest  time  to  express  his  admiration,  and  to  propose 
further  questions. 

"My  honored  sir,"  Edward  said,  "may  I  ask  an- 
other little  question?"  He  nodded  kindly.  "  What  do 
you  think  of  ethics?  What  must  man  do  so  that  he 
may  prosper  once  for  all?" 

Without  hesitation  the  sage  opened  a  drawer,  took 
out  a  flute,  put  it  to  his  nose,  closed  the  mouth,  and, 
blowing  up  his  cheeks,  began  to  play  as  adroitly  as  a 
skilled  canary-bird,  that  had  received  the  first  prize  at 


the  World's  Fair.  "Understand  me?  Are  you  con- 
vinced?" he  asked,  when  stopping.  "Not  quite,"  Ed- 
ward said.      Then  the  philosopher  began  to  sing : 

"  Upon  the  man  who  does  refuse, 

Treedle  dee  ! 
Our  logic,  and  rejects  our  views, 

Treedle  dee  ! 
We  turn  our  back  to  slink  away, 
And  mind  not  what  he  think  or  say, 

Treedledit  !  " 

Having  finished  his  song,  he  blew  the  flute  again, 
turning  his  head  complacently  now  to  this,  now  to  that 
side.  At  last  he  stopped  abruptly,  replaced  the  flute 
in  the  drawer,  and  turned  his  back  upon  Edward. 
Without  taking  further  notice  of  his  visitor,  the  philos- 
opher wrapped  his  gown  tightly  around  him,  and, 
crouching  down  on  the  floor,  he  crowed  like  an  old 
Cochin-China  rooster,  and  disappeared  in  the  next 
room.      The  parrots  crowed  also. 

Edward  for  a  moment  stood  aghast  and  then  left 
the  philosopher's  study  in  great  haste.  p.  c. 

[to  be  concluded.] 

BOOK  NOTICES. 

The  Cciiliiry  Magazine  for  November  begins  a  series  of  articles 
on  the  Life  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  by  Prof.  William  M.  Sloane, 
based  upon  a  study  of  the  original  sources,  and  containing  much 
that  is  new.  After  the  fashion  of  Tlie  Century,  it  is  profusely  il- 
lustrated, and,  so  far  as  Mr.  Sloane's  studies  have  appeared,  noth- 
ing of  interest  is  forgotten.  We  may  add,  for  those  who  do  not 
know  Prof,  Sloane,  that  he  is  especially  fitted  for  writing  a  life 
of  Napoleon,  as  long  sojourns  in  France  have  ijiade  him  familiar 
with  his  subject  and  enabled  him  to  ransack  all  the  archives  con- 
taining documents  bearing  on  the  history  of  the  great  Corsican. 
Born  in  Richmond,  Ohio,  in  1850,  and  a  graduate  of  Columbia 
College,  in  1S68,  he  taught  Latin  for  some  time  in  the  Newell  In- 
stitute at  Pittsburgh  where  his  father  was  pastor  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church.  He  studied  in  Berlin  and  Leipsic,  where  in  1876 
he  took  his  doctor's  degree.  In  Berlin  he  was  for  a  time  attached 
to  the  American  legation  as  private  secretary  to  Mr.  Bancroft, 
who  was  then  writing  the  tenth  volume  of  the  History  of  the 
United  States,  and  from  whose  experience  '.n  historical  studies  the 
young  secretary  had  ample  occasion  to  profit.  In  1SS3  Mr.  Sloane 
took  the  chair  of  Professor  of  the  Philosophy  of  History  at  Prince- 
ton, and  has  since  visited  France  several  times  in  the  interest  of 
his  Napoleonic  researches.  We  may  expect  that  the  present  series 
of  articles  will  be  the  most  impartial,  the  most  reliable,  and  mobt 
interesting  of  all  biographies  of  the  great  Corsican, 

THE    OPEN    COURT. 

32+  DE.'iRBORN   STREET. 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS.  POST  OFFICE  DRAWER  F. 

E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher.  DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor 

TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  377. 

THE    PILGRIMAGE    OF   ANTHONY    FROUDE.     II. 

MONCURE  D.    CONWAV 4287 

ON  THE  PRINCIPLE    OF  COMPARISON    IN    PHYS- 
ICS.    (Concluded.)     Prof.  Ernst  Mach 4288 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  A  HUMORIST.  II.  Editor.  4291 
BOOK  NOTICES ■ 4294 


The  Open  Court. 


A  "MTEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  378.   (Vol.  V111.-47.)  CHICAGO,  NOVEMBER  22,   li 


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I  Single  Copies,  5  Cents. 


Copyright  bv  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.— Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


ON  THE  RELATIVE  EDUCATIONAL  WORTH   OF  THE 

CLASSICS  AND  THE  MATHEMATICO-PHYSICAL 

SCIENCES  IN  COLLEGES  AND  HIGH 

SCHOOLS.i 

BY    PROF.    ERNST    MACH. 

Perhaps  the  most  fantastic  proposition  that  Mau- 
pertuis,-  the  renowned  president  of  the  Berhn  Acad- 
emy, ever  recommended  for  the  approval  of  his  con- 
temporaries was  that  of  founding  a  city  in  which,  to 
instruct  and  discipline  young  students,  only  Latin 
should  be  spoken.  Maupertuis's  Latin  city  remained 
an  idle  wish.  But  for  centuries  Latin  and  Greek  in- 
stitutions exist  in  which  our  children  spend  a  goodly 
portion  of  their  days,  and  whose  atmosphere  constantly 
envelops  them,  even  when  without  their  walls. 

For  centuries  instuction  in  the  ancient  languages  has 
been  zealously  cultivated.  For  centuries  its  necessity 
has  been  alternately  championed  and  contested.  More 
strongly  than  ever  are  authoritative  voices  now  raised 
against  the  preponderance  of  instruction  in  the  classics 
and  in  favor  of  an  education  more  suited  to  the  needs 
of  the  time,  especially  for  a  more  generous  treatment 
of  mathematics  and  the  natural  sciences. 

In  accepting  your  invitation  to  speak  here  on  the 
relative  educational  worth  of  the  classical  and  the 
mathematico-physical  sciences  in  colleges  and  high 
schools,  I  found  my  justification  in  the  duty  and  the 
necessity  laid  upon  every  teacher  of  forming  from  his 
own  experiences  an  opinion  upon  this  important  ques- 
tion, as  partly  also  in  the  special  circumstance  that  I 
was  personally  under  the  influence  of  school-life  for 
only  a  short  time  in  my  youth,  just  previous  to  my 
entering  the  university,  and  had,  therefore,  ample  op- 
portunity to  observe  the  effects  of  widely  different 
methods  upon  my  own  person. 

Passing,  now,  to  a  review  of  the  arguments  which 
the  advocates  of  instruction  in  the  classics  advance, 
and  of  what  the  adherents  of  instruction  in  the  physi- 
cal sciences  in  their  turn  adduce,  we  find  ourselves  in 
rather  a  perplexing  position  with  respect  to  the  argu- 
ments of  the  first  named.  For  these  have  been  differ- 
ent at  different  times,  and  they  are  even  now  of  a  very 
multifarious  character,  as  must  be  where  men  advance, 

1  An  address  delivered  before  the  Congress  of  Delegates  of  the  German 
Realschulmannervereins,  at  Dortmund,  April  16,  1886. 

2  Maupertuis,  CEuvres,  Dresden,  1752,  p.  339. 


in  favor  of  an  institution  that  exists  and  which  they  are 
determined  to  retain  at  any  cost,  everything  they  can 
possibly  think  of.  We  shall  find  here  much  that  has 
evidently  been  brought  forward  only  to  impress  the 
minds  of  the  ignorant;  much,  too,  that  was  advanced 
in  good  faith  and  which  is  not  whollj'  without  founda- 
tion. We  shall  get  a  fair  idea  of  the  reasoning  employed 
by  considering,  first,  the  arguments  that  have  grown 
out  of  the  historical  circumstances  connected  with  the 
original  introduction  of  the  classics,  and,  lastly,  those 
which  were  subsequently  adduced  as  accidental  after- 
thoughts. 

* 
*  * 

Instruction  in  Latin,  as  Paulsen  ^  has  minutely 
shown,  was  introduced  by  the  Roman  Church  along 
with  Christianity.  With  the  Latin  language  were  also 
transmitted  the  scant  and  meagre  remnants  of  ancient 
science.  Whoever  wished  to  acquire  this  ancient  edu- 
cation, then  the  only  one  worthy  of  the  name,  for  him 
the  Latin  language  was  the  only  and  indispensable 
means;  such  a  person  had  to  learn  Latin  to  rank 
among  educated  people. 

The  wide-spread  influence  of  the  Roman  Church 
wrought  many  and  various  results.  Among  those  for 
which  all  are  glad,  we  may  safely  count  the  establish- 
ment of  a  sort  of  uniformity  among  the  nations  and  of  a 
regular  international  intercourse  by  means  of  the  Latin 
language,  which  did  much  to  unite  the  nations  in  the 
common  work  of  civilisation,  carried  on  from  the  fif- 
teenth to  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Latin  language 
was  thus  long  the  language  of  scholars,  and  instruc- 
tion in  Latin  the  road  to  a  liberal  education — a  shib- 
boleth still  employed,  though  long  inappropriate. 

For  scholars  as  a  class,  it  is  to  be  regretted,  per- 
haps, that  Latin  has  ceased  to  be  the  medium  of  inter- 
national communication.  But  the  attributing  of  the 
loss  of  this  function  by  the  Latin  language  to  its  inca- 
pacity to  accommodate  itself  to  the  numerous  new 
ideas  and  conceptions  which  have  arisen  in  the  course 
of  the  development  of  science  is,  in  my  opinion,  wholly 
erroneous.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  modern 
scientist  who  had  enriched  science  with  as  many  new 
ideas  as  Newton  has,  yet  Newton  knew  how  to  ex- 
press those  ideas  very  correctly  and  precisely  in  the 

IF.  Paulsen,  Geschichte  des gelehrten  CJnterrichts^  Leipsic,  1885. 


4296 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Latin  language.  If  this  view  were  correct,  it  would 
also  hold  true  of  every  living  language.  Originally 
every  language  has  to  adapt  itself  to  new  ideas. 

It  is  far  more  likely  that  Latin  was  displaced  as 
the  literary  vehicle  of  science  by  the  influence  of  the 
nobility.  By  their  desire  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  litera- 
ture and  science,  through  a  less  irksome  medium  than 
Latin,  the  nobility  performed  for  the  people  at  large 
an  undeniable  service.  For  the  days  were  now  past 
when  acquaintance  with  the  language  and  literature  of 
science  was  restricted  to  a  caste,  and  in  this  step,  per- 
haps, was  made  the  most  important  advance  of  modern 
times.  To-day,  when  international  intercourse  is  firmly 
established  in  spite  of  the  many  languages  employed, 
no  one  would  think  of  reintroducing  Latin. ^ 

The  facility  with  which  the  ancient  languages  lend 
themselves  to  the  expression  of  new  ideas  is  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  the  great  majority  of  our  scientific 
ideas,  as  survivals  of  this  period  of  Latin  intercourse, 
bear  Latin  and  Greek  designations,  while  in  great 
measure  scientific  ideas  are  even  now  invested  with 
names  from  these  sources.  But  to  deduce  from  the 
existence  and  use  of  such  terms  the  necessity  of  still 
learning  Latin  and  Greek  on  the  part  of  all  who  em- 
■  ploy  them  is  carrying  the  conclusion  too  far.  All  terms, 
appropriate  and  inappropriate, — and  there  are  a  large 
number  of  inappropriate  and  monstrous  combinations 
in  science, — rest  on  convention.  The  essential  thing 
is,  that  people  should  associate  with  the  sign  the  pre- 
cise idea  that  is  designated  by  it.  It  matters  little 
whether  a  person  can  correctly  derive  the  words  tele- 
graph, tangent,  ellipse,  evolute,  etc.,  if  the  correct  idea 
is  present  in  his  mind  when  he  uses  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  matter  how  well  he  may  know  their  ety- 
mology, his  knowledge  will  be  of  little  use  to  him  if 
the  correct  idea  is  absent.  Ask  the  average  and  fairly 
educated  classical  scholar  to  translate  a  few  lines  for 
you  from  Newton's  Principia,  or  from  Huygens's  Ho- 
rologiutn,  and  you  will  discover  at  once  what  an  ex- 
tremely subordinate  role  the  mere  knowledge  of  lan- 
guage plays  in  such  things.  Without  its  associated 
thought  a  word  remains  a  mere  sound.  The  fashion  of 
employing  Greek  and  Latin  designations — for  it  can 
be  termed  nothing  else — has  a  natural  root  in  history; 
it  is  impossible  for  the  practice  to  disappear  suddenly, 
but  it  has  fallen  of  late  considerably  into  disuse.  The 
terms  gas,  ohm,  Ampere,  7wlt,  etc.,  are  in  international 
use,  but  they  are  not  Latin  or  Greek.  Only  the  per- 
son who  rates  the  unessential  and  accidental  husk 
higher  than  its  contents,  can  speak  of  the  necessity  of 
learning  Latin  or  Greek  for  such  reasons,  to  say  noth- 

1  There  is  a  peculiar  irony  of  fate  in  tlie  fact  that  while  Leibnitz  was  cast- 
ing about  for  a  new  means  of  universal  linguistic  intercourse,  the  Latin  Ian 
guage  which  still  subserved  this  purpose  the  best  of  all,  was  dropping  more 
and  more  out  of  use,  and  that  Leibnitz  himself  contributed  not  the  least  to 
this  result. 


ing  of  spending  eight  or  ten  years  on  the  task.  Will 
not  a  dictionary  supply  in  a  few  seconds  all  the  in- 
formation we  wish  on  such  subjects?^ 

* 

*  * 

It  is  indisputable  that  our  modern  civilisation  took 
up  the  threads  of  the  ancient  civilisation,  that  at 
many  points  it  begins  where  the  latter  left  off,  and 
that  centuries  ago  the  remains  of  the  ancient  culture 
were  the  only  culture  existing  in  Europe.  Then,  of 
course,  a  classical  education  really  was  the  liberal  edu- 
cation, the  higher  education,  the  ideal  education,  for 
it  was  the  sole  education.  But  when  the  same  claim 
is  now  raised  in  behalf  of  a  classical  education,  it  must 
be  uncompromisingly  contested  as  bereft  of  all  foun- 
dation. For  our  civilisation  has  gradually  attained 
its  independence  ;  it  has  lifted  itself  far  above  the  an- 
cient civilisation,  and  has  entered  generally  new  direc- 
tions of  progress.  Its  note,  its  characteristic  feature, 
is  the  enlightenment  that  has  come  from  the  great 
mathematical  and  physical  researches  of  the  last  cen- 
turies, and  which  has  permeated  not  only  the  prac- 
tical arts  and  industries  but  is  also  gradually  finding 
its  way  into  all  fields  of  thought,  Including  philosophy 
and  history,  sociology  and  linguistics.  Those  traces 
of  ancient  views  that  are  still  discoverable  in  philoso- 
phy, law,  art,  and  science,  operate  more  as  hindrances 
than  helps,  and  will  not  long  stand  before  the  devel- 
opment of  independent  and  more  natural  views. 

It  ill  becomes  classical  scholars,  therefore,  to  re- 
gard themselves,  at  this  day,  as  the  educated  class 
par  excellence,  to  cbndemn  as  uneducated  all  persons 
who  do  not  understand  Latin  and  Greek,  to  complain 
that  with  such  people  profitable  conversations  are  not 
to  be  carried  on,  etc.  The  most  delectable  stories 
have  got  into  circulation,  illustrative  of  the  defective 
education  of  scientists  and  engineers.  A  renowned 
inquirer,  for  example,  is  said  to  have  once  announced 
his  intention  of  holding  a  free  course  of  university  lec- 
tures, with  the  word  "frustra";  an  engineer  who  spent 
his  leisure  hours  in  collecting  insects  is  said  to  have 
declared  that  he  was  studying  "etymology."  It  is 
true,  incidents  of  this  character  make   us  shudder  or 


lAs  a  rule,  the  human  bra 
things  which  might  be  more  cc 
where  they  could  be  found  at 
from  Diisseldorf,  Judge  Hartwi 

"A  host  of  words  exist  whit 
"ployed  with  perfect  correctne 
"the  good  luck  to  be  taught  tin 
"  •  dynasty.'.  .  .  The  child  leart 
"speech,  or  even  as  parts  of 
"'father,'  'mother,'  'bread,'  ' 
"  mology  of  these  Anglo-Saxon 
"  industry  of  the  Grimm's  and  c 


glimm 

erings  of  light  upon  the 

Besidi 

is,  do  not  thousands  0 

every 

moment  hosts  of  words 

know; 

'     Very  few  of  them  th: 

diclioi 

laries,  although  they  1( 

ancier 

It  languages  for  the  sak 

in  is  too  much,  and  wrongly,  burdened  with 
inveniently  and  accurately  preserved  in  books 
a  moment's  notice.     In  a  recent  letter  to  nie 

:h  are  out  and  out  Latin  or  Greek,  yet  are  em- 
ss  by  people  of  good  education  who  never  had 
i  ancient  languaf;es.  For  example,  words  like 
is  such  words  as  parts  of  the  common  stock  of 
his  mother-tongue,  just  as  he  does  the  words 
milk.'  Does  the  ordinary  mortal  know  the  ety- 
words  ?  Did  it  not  require  the  most  incredible 
)ther  Teutonic  philologists  to  throw  the  merest 
origin  and  growth  of  our  own  mother-tongue  ? 
f  people  of  so-called  classical  education  use 
of  foreign  origin  whose  derivation  they  do  not 
nk  it  worth  while  to  look  up  such  words  in  the 
ve  to  maintain  that  people  should  study  the 
2  of  etymology  alone." 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4297 


smile,  according  to  our  mood  or  temperament.  But 
we  must  admit,  the  next  moment,  that,  in  giving  way 
to  such  feelings  we  have  merely  succumbed  to  a  child- 
ish prejudice.  A  lack  of  tact  but  certainly  no  lack  of 
education  is  displayed  in  the  use  of  such  half- under- 
stood expressions.  Every  candid  person  will  confess 
that  there  are  many  branches  of  knowledge  about  which 
he  had  better  be  silent.  We  shall  not  be  so  unchari- 
table as  to  turn  the  tables  and  discuss  the  impression 
that  classical  scholars  might  make  on  a  scientist  or 
engineer,  in  speaking  of  science.  Possibly  many  ludi- 
crous stories  might  be  told  of  them,  and  of  far  more 
serious  import,  which  should  fully  compensate  for  the 
blunders  of  the  other  party. 

The  mutual  severity  of  judgment  which  we  have 
here  come  upon,  may  also  forcibly  bring  home  to  us 
how  really  scarce  a  true  liberal  culture  is.  We  may 
detect  in  this  mutual  attitude,  too,  something  of  that 
narrow,  mediaeval  arrogance  of  caste,  where  a  man 
began,  according  to  the  special  point  of  view  of  the 
speaker,  with  the  scholar,  the  soldier,  or  the  nobleman. 
Little  sense  or  appreciation  is  to  be  found  in  it  for  the 
connnon  task  of  humanity,  little  feeling  for  the  need  of 
mutual  assistance  in  the  great  work  of  civilisation, 
little  breadth  of  mind,  little  truly  liberal  culture. 

A  knowledge  of  Latin,  and  partly,  also,  a  knowl- 
edge of  Greek,  is  still  a  necessity  for  the  members  of 
a  few  professions  by  nature  more  or  less  directly  con- 
cerned with  the  civilisations  of  antiquity,  as  for  law- 
yers, theologians,  philologists,  historians,  and  gen- 
erally for  a  small  number  of  persons,  among  whom 
from  time  to  time  I  count  myself,  who  are  compelled 
to  seek  for  information  in  the  Latin  literature  of  the 
centuries  just  past.^  But  that  all  young  persons  in 
search  of  a  higher  education  should  pursue  for  this 
reason  Latin  and  Greek  to  such  excess  ;  that  persons 
intending  to  become  physicians  and  scientists  should 
come  to  the  universities  defectively  educated,  or  even 
miseducated  ;  and  that  they  should  be  compelled  to 
come  only  from  schools  that  do  not  supply  them  with 
the  proper  preparatory  knowledge  is  going  a  little  bit 
too  far. 

*  * 

After  the  conditions  which  had  given  to  the  study 
of  Latin  and  Greek  their  high  import  had  ceased  to 
exist,  the  traditional  curriculum,  naturally,  was  re- 
tained. Then,  the  different  effects  of  this  method  of 
education,  good  and  bad,  which  no  one  had  thought  of 
at  its  introduction,  were  realised  and  noted.     As  nat- 


1  Standing  remote  from  the  legal  profession  I  should  not  have  ventured  to 
declare  that  the  study  of  Greek  was  not  necessary  for  the  jurists ;  yet  this 
view  was  taken  in  the  debate  that  followed  this  lecture  by  professional  jurists 
of  high  standing.  According  to  this  opinion,  the  preparatory  education  ob- 
tained in  the  German  Realgymnasium  would  also  be  sufficient  for  the  future 
jurists  and  insufficient  only  for  theologians  and  philologists.  [In  England  and 
America  not  only  is  Greek  not  necessary,  but  the  law-Latin  is  so  peculiar  that 
even  persons  of  ^i»o</ classical  education  cannot  understand  it. —  'fr.\ 


ural,  too,  was  it  that  those  who  had  strong  interests 
in  the  preservation  of  these  studies,  from  knowing  no 
others  or  from  living  by  them,  or  for  still  other  rea- 
sons, should  emphasise  the  good  results  of  such  in- 
struction. They  pointed  to  the  good  effects  as  if  they 
had  been  consciously  aimed  at  by  the  method  and  could 
be  attained  only  through  its  agency. 

One  real  benefit  that  students  might  derive  from 
a  rightly  conducted  course  in  the  classics  would  be 
the  opening  up  of  the  rich  literary  treasures  of  an- 
tiquity, and  intimacy  with  the  conceptions  and  views 
of  the  world  held  by  two  advanced  nations.  A  person 
who  has  read  and  understood  the  Greek  and  Roman 
authors  has  felt  and  experienced  more  than  one  who  is 
restricted  to  the  impressions  of  the  present.  He  sees 
how  men  placed  in  different  circumstances  judge  quite 
differently  of  the  same  things  from  what  we  do  to-day. 
His  own  judgments  will  be  rendered  thus  more  inde- 
pendent. Again,  the  Greek  and  Latin  authors  are  indis- 
putably a  rich  fountain  of  recreation,  of  enlightenment, 
and  of  intellectual  pleasure  after  the  day's  toil,  and 
the  individual,  not  less  than  civilised  humanity  gen- 
erally, will  remain  grateful  to  them  for  all  time.  Who 
does  not  recall  with  pleasure  the  wanderings  of  Ulys- 
ses, who  does  not  listen  joyfully  to  the  simple  narra- 
tives of  Herodotus,  who  would  ever  repent  of  having 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Plato's  Dialogues,  or  of 
having  tasted  Lucian's  divine  humor?  Who  would 
give  up  the  glances  he  has  obtained  into  the  private 
life  of  antiquity  from  Cicero's  letters,  from  Plautus  or 
Terence?  To  whom  are  not  the  portraits  of  Suetonius 
undying  reminiscences?  Who,  in  fact,  would  throw 
away  any  knowledge  he  had  once  gained  ? 

Yet  people  who  draw  from  these  sources  only,  who 
know  only  this  culture,  have  surely  no  right  to  dog- 
matise about  the  value  of  some  other  culture.  As  ob- 
jects of  research  for  individuals,  this  literature  is  ex- 
trem.ely  valuable,  but  it  is  a  different  question  whether 
it  is  equally  valuable  as  the  almost  exclusive  means  of 
education  of  our  youth. 

Do  not  other  nations  and  other  literatures  exist 
from  which  we  ought  to  learn  ?  Is  not  nature  herself 
our  first  school-mistress?  Are  our  highest  models  al- 
ways to  be  the  Greeks,  with  their  narrow  provinciality 
of  mind,  that  divided  the  world  into  "  Greeks  and  bar- 
barians," with  their  superstitions,  with  their  eternal 
questionings  of  oracles?  Aristotle  with  his  incapacity 
to  learn  from  facts,  with  his  word-science ;  Plato  with 
his  heavy,  sesquipedalian  dialogues,  with  his  barren,  at 
times  childish,   dialectics — are  they  unsurpassable  ? ' 

1  In  emphasising  here  the  weak  sides  of  the  writings  of  Plato  and  Aristotle, 
brought  to  my  attention  while  reading  them  in  German  translations,  I,  of 
course,  have  no  intention  of  underrating  the  great  merits  and  the  high  his- 
torical importance  of  these  two  men.  Their  importance  must  not  be  meas- 
ured by  the  fact  that  our  speculative  philosophy  still  moves  to  a  great  extent 
in  their  paths  of  thought.  The  more  probable  conclusion  is  that  this  branch 
has  made  very  little  progress  in  the  last  two  thousand  years.    Natural  science 


4298 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  Romans  with  their  apathy,  their  pompous  exter- 
nahty,  set  off  by  fulsome  and  bombastic  phrases,  with 
their  narrow-minded,  philistine  philosophy,  with  their 
insane  sensuality,  with  their  cruel  and  bestial  indul- 
gence in  animal  and  man  baiting,  with  their  outrageous 
maltreatment  and  plundering  of  their  subjects — are 
they  patterns  worthy  of  imitation  ?  Or  shall,  perhaps, 
our  science  edify  itself  with  the  works  of  Pliny  who 
cites  midwives  as  authorities  and  himself  stands  on 
their  point  of  view? 

Besides,  if  an  acquaintance  with  the  ancient  world 
really  were  attained,  we  might  come  to  some  settle- 
ment with  the  advocates  of  classical  education.  But  it 
is  words  and  forms,  and  forms  and  words  only,  that 
are  supplied  to  our  youth  ;  and  even  collateral  sub- 
jects are  forced  into  the  strait-jacket  of  the  same 
rigid  method  and  made  a  science  of  words,  sheer  feats 
of  mechanical  memory.  Really,  we  feel  ourselves  set 
back  a  thousand  years  into  the  dull  cloister-cells  of  the 
Middle  Ages. 

[to  be  continued.] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  A  HUMORIST. 

[CONCLUDED.] 

III.    THE  DOMAIN  OF  MORAL  ASPIRATIONS. 

Having  escaped  from  the  philosopher's  study,  Ed- 
ward entered  in  his  dream  another  world.  He  found 
himself  in  a  pleasant  valley,  the  roads  fringed  with 
fruit-trees,  and  saw  at  a  distance  mountains  rising 
higher  and  higher,  finally  to  disappear  in  the  clouds. 
The  broad  highroad  was  crowded  with  many  merry 
people,  all  travelling  in  the  same  direction.  One  only 
ran  back.  He  looked  wretched,  was  covered  with 
bruises,  and  ill  at  ease.  He  jumped  over  the  fences 
and  ditches  without  looking  behind  him.  "Tommy has 
gone  crazy,"  said  the  people,  laughing,  and  went  on. 

Edward  soon  noticed  whither  the  people  went. 
Where  the  highroad  approached  the  rocks,  near  a  dark 
tunnel,  there  stood  an  inn  called  "The  Cloven  Hoof," 
an  old  spacious  mansion  newly  furnished,  and  for  ages 
very  popular  as  a  pleasure-resort.  The  host,  a  jovial 
fellow,  limped  slightly.  People  say  that  in  his  youth 
he  had  been  in  a  brawl  in  which  he  got  the  worst  of  it. 
His  seven  daughters,  who  were  jokingly  called  the 
"Seven  Deadly  Sins,"  contributed  greatly  to  increase 
their  father's  business.  From  the  porch  they  threw 
kisses  to  the  arriving  guests.  In  the  basement  he  saw 
the  cook  standing  in  the  kitchen, — an  old,  wrinkled  hag, 
the  grandmother  of  mine  host,  the  landlord.  All  the 
guests  at  the  inn  were  extremely  merry.  There  was 
music  and  dancing,  and  no  one  thought  of  going  home. 
Among  the  guests  Edward  found  many  old  acquain- 
tances. As  is  usual  in  dreams,  he  was  not  at  all  as- 
tonished ;  but  there  was  one  thing  he  could  not  make 

also  was  implicated  for  centuries  in  the  meshes  of  the  Aristotf.lian  thought, 
and  owes  its  rise  rpainly  to  having  thrown  off  those  fetters, 


out ;  he  saw  the  really  good  man  who  had  contributed 
his  share  to  the  collection  for  foreign  and  home  mis- 
sions sitting  in  a  corner,  together  with  one  of  the 
daughters  of  the  host,  drinking  champagne.  At  mid- 
night the  hotel  'bus  came  to  the  rear  door.  Its  color 
was  black,  and  it  had  silver  trimmings.  It  was  not 
arranged  for  sitting,  but  for  lying  ;  and  was  not  opened 
behind,  but  above.  It  did  not  bring  newcomers,  but 
took  them  away.  The  driver,  with  his  black  coat, 
looked  much  pleased,  but  he  was  pale  and  thin,  like 
Hunger  personified.  Shouting  to  the  horses  ' '  get  up, " 
he  drove  into  the  tunnel.  But  the  dance  went  on  as 
before. 

As  the  morning  dawned  our  pilgrim  in  dreamland 
approached  the  mountains  and  came  into  the  com- 
pany of  four  travellers.  They  were  called  "The  Four 
Good  Intentions."  The  name  of  the  first  was  "  I  Had 
Better,"  of  the  second  "Shouldn't  I,"  of  the  third 
"However,"  and  of  the  fourth  "Never  Mind."  Mr. 
I-Had-Better  had  a  red  nose;  Mr.  Shouldn't-I  had  a 
round  belly;  Mr.  However  had  big  black  spectacles; 
and  Mr.  Never-Mind  was  a  sleek  little  fellow,  who 
knew  best  himself  how  pleasant  he  was.  They  in- 
quired about  Edward's  affairs  and  his  name,  where- 
upon he  said  : 

"  I  come  from  naught, 
I  am  full  of  thought, 
I'm  not  easily  caught; 
But  my  name  I  won't  tell  you." 

"  Then  we'll  call  you  Spirlifix,"  pleasantly  shouted 
Mr.  Never-Mind.  The  three  others  laughed  so  heartily 
that  Mr.  I-Had-Better's  nose  became  blue,  three  but- 
tons of  Mr.  Shouldn't-I's  vest  sprang  off,  and  Mr. 
However's  spectacles  became  hazy  with  tears  of  laugh- 
ter. Edward  was  not  very  much  pleased  with  the  joke 
and  ilew  about  three  yards  above  the  compan}'.  In 
humorous  chats  they  walked  on,  and  the  sun  rose 
higher.  Mr.  Shouldn't-I  took  off  his  coat  and  hanging 
it  on  his  stick  carried  it  over  his  shoulder.  Mr.  Never- 
Mind  began  to  whistle,  Mr.  I-Had-Better  said  "Move 
slowly,  for  I  've  got  a  blister  on  my  heel,"  and  Mr. 
However  observed  "It  is  sultry.  We  may  have  a  thun- 
der storm." 

When  the  sun  rose  still  higher  Mr.  I-Had-Better 
stood  still,  took  out  a  bottle  and  said,  "What  do  you 
think  of  this  ?  "  Mr.  Shouldn't-I  took  out. a  big  sau- 
sage, saying:  "What  do  you  think  of  that?"  Mr. 
However  stopped  also,  beginning  slowly,  "  If  we  are 
only  not — "  but  before  he  could  finish,  Mr.  Never- 
Mind  took  out  his  knife,  and  shouting  :  "Come  old 
blade,"  proposed  to  cut  the  sausage.  Then  they  looked 
for  a  cool  place,  sat  down  and  took  lunch.  Edward 
seated  himself  upon  a  withered  branch  and  looked  at 
them.  "Spirlifix,  come  down,"  shouted  the  good- 
natured  Shouldn't-I,  showing  his  sausage,  and  I-Had- 
Better  offered  the  bottle.    "Thank  you,"  said  Edward, 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4299 


for  he  felt  above  these  triviahties.  After  a  while  the 
four  travellers  continued  their  march,  and  the  sun 
shone  down  almost  perpendicularly.  Their  steps  be- 
came slow  and  their  talk  discontinued.  First,  Mr. 
I-Had-Better  remained  behind.  He  sat  down  under  a 
big  tree,  took  off  his  shoe  and  rubbed  his  foot  with  tal- 
low ;  then  Mr.  Shouldn't-I  stopped  too  and  sat  down 
to  rest  behind  another  tree.  But  their  comrades  did 
not  notice  the  absence  of  the  two.  They  came  to  a 
place  where  they  could  look  down  into  the  valle)',  and 
they  saw  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  the  jovial  estab- 
lishment from  which  they  had  started  in  the  morning. 
The  sound  of  pleasant  music  came  up  to  them  and 
Mr.  Never-Mind  stood  still,  took  out  his  opera-glass, 
and  when  he  became  aware  of  the  many  pretty  girls 
sitting  in  the  garden  he  went  to  the  slope  and  slid 
down.  Mr.  I-Had-Better  saw  where  Mr.  Never-Mind 
had  started  for  and  also  began  to  slide  down.  Mr. 
Shouldn't-I  was  at  once  inclined  to  do  the  same  and 
followed  him.  Thus  Mr.  However,  who  was  deep  in 
thought  and  did  not  notice  the  absence  of  his  col- 
leagues, continued  his  march  alone.  "Boys,"  he  be- 
gan, "the  more  I  consider  it,  the  more  I  find  that  our 
project  is  a  very  doubtful  enterprise,  what  do  you 
think?  "  Turning  round  he  saw  no  one  and  said,  "My 
spectacles  are  hazy,  I  have  perspired."  And  having 
wiped  his  glasses  he  at  last  discovered  his  colleagues 
sliding  down  hill.  Mr.  However  was  always  given  to 
reflexion,  but  as  soon  as  he  had  made  up  his  mind  his 
decision  was  firm.  So  it  was  now;  he  went  down  hill 
too  and  arrived  at  the  end  quicker  than  his  comrades. 

Our  dreamer  in  the  meantime  continued  on  his 
wa}'.  Before  him  walked  a  pedlar  carrying  a  wicker- 
basket  full  of  glassware.  He  was  very  careful,  and 
passing  the  stump  of  a  tree  placed  the  basket  on  it. 
Relieved  of  his  burden,  he  sat  down  in  the  grass  to 
rest.  "Alas,"  he  sighed,  "  how  troublesome  is  life." 
Suddenly  a  gust  of  wind  came  and  blew  the  basket 
to  the  ground,  so  that  all  the  glass  broke.  "Woe  upon 
me!"  said  the  pedlar,  "I  have  scarcely  uttered  a 
word  of  complaint  and  this  accident  happens  !  "  He 
was  very  much  crestfallen  and  went  to  the  sandy  slope, 
placed  himself  in  the  empty  basket,  used  his  stick  as 
a  rudder  and  slid  down  hill.  There  he  met  the  four 
Good  Intentions  and  was  merrily  welcomed  by  them. 
He  must  have  been  an  old  acquaintance  of  theirs.  The 
music  just  played  a  splendid  JxyZ-Jiflttrr/  and  the  fun  was 
great. 

Continuing  his  upward  journey  the  migratory 
dreamer  came  among  the  rocks  and  found  in  a  cave, 
tied  to  his  seat,  with  his  back  turned  towards  the  light 
and  his  face  towards  the  wall  that  unfortunate  man  of 
whom  Plato  tells  us  ;  he  has  by  this  time  been  reborn 
ten  thousand  times  and  yet  knows  nothing  of  the  things 
which  pass  by  at  the  entrance  of  his  cave,  recognising 


only  the  shadows  which  they  throw  at  the  wall.  Ed- 
ward stood  still  a  few  seconds  at  the  opening  of  the 
cave.  The  Platonist  thought  it  was  a  black  fly-speck 
at  the  wall  and  greeted  his  visitor  as  such,  who  left 
him  with  a  smile. 

As  our  hero  approached  the  next  corner  of  the  rocks 
he  heard  a  noise  similar  to  that  which  the  cook  makes 
when  pounding  meat.  Commg  near  he  saw  a  man  who 
was  whipping  his  naked  back  mercilessly.  "What  do 
you  do,  good  friend?"  Edward  asked.  "  Life  is  a  blun- 
der," the  man  said,  busily  continuing  his  work,  "I 
scourge  it." 

Edward  went  higher  and  arrived  in  a  desert  place 
where  he  saw  a  bald-headed  man  looking  fixedly  at 
one  and  the  same  spot.  "  What  do  you  do,  old  boy?  " 
Edward  asked  him.  ' '  Life  is  an  error, "  the  bald-headed 
man  said,  "I  think  it  away."  He  had  thought  away 
all  his  hair  and  continued  to  think. 

Again  our  dreaming  wanderer  went  higher  and 
reached  a  hermitage  where,  on  a  mossy  stone  a  hoary 
hermit  sat  motionless,  without  stirring  a  limb.  "What 
do  you  do,  my  friend?"  Edward  asked.  "Life  is  a 
sin,"  said  the  hermit,  "  I  do  penance  for  it ;  "  and  he 
continued  to  sit  quietly. 

Rising  higher  and  higher  Edward  came  to  a  green, 
flowery  meadow  in  the  middle  of  which  rose  a  mighty 
castle.  It  had  neither  windows  nor  embrasures  nor 
chimneys,  but  only  one  firmly  locked  gate  with  a  draw- 
bridge. It  appeared  to  be  built  of  smooth  steel,  so 
that  no  one,  not  even  the  hero  of  this  story,  although 
he  was  a  mere  point,  and  a  dreaming  point,  too,  could 
enter.  Edward  made  several  attempts  to  penetrate 
through  the  walls  of  the  castle,  but  in  vain.  It  was  a 
painful  sensation  to  him,  for  either  the  liberty  of  unim- 
peded motion  which  he  had  always  imagined  he  pos- 
sessed had  noticeably  disappeared,  or  there  must  be 
things  which  were  too  strong  for  him. 

Edward  addressed  himself  to  an  old  forester  who 
stood  at  the  edge  of  the  woods,  but  he  seemed  deaf 
for  he  placed  his  hand  behind  his  ear  and  began  to 
draw  the  smoke  from  his  pipe  with  greater  vigor  than 
before.  "  Old  graybeard,"  said  Edward,  "  can  you  not 
tell  me  what  that  castle  is  good  for?"  "Little  imp,"  he 
replied,  "  I  also  belong  to  those  who  do  not  know,  but 
my  grandfather  told  me  often  that  he  didn't  know 
either,  and  as  to  his  grandfather  he  had  told  my  grand- 
father that  its  existence  was  beyond  recollection,  and 
people  supposed  a  secret  tunnel  to  exist  between  the 
castle  on  the  mountain  and  the  inn  down  in  the  valley." 
"What,"  thought  our  dreamer,  "little  imp  he  calls 
me?"  Edward  turned  his  back  upon  the  old  chap  and 
looked  at  the  castle.  In  the  moat  a  number  of  little 
pitch-black  devils  were  sporting.  The}'  were  trying  to 
catch  butterflies  with  nets,  and  when  they  had  caught 
one  they  fastened  him  with  pins.    Now  the  gate  of  the 


4300 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


castle  opened  and  a  long  procession  of  rosy  babies 
thronged  out  over  the  bridge  to  the  meadow.  They 
began  to  play  merrily,  and  the  little  devils  mixed  them- 
selves up  with  the  children,  teasing  them  and  wrangling 
with  them.  But  the  color  of  the  little  devils  rubbed  off, 
and  the  children  looked  as  if  they  had  been  playing  Old 
Maid.  Upon  the  trees  which  stood  round  the  meadow 
there  were  numerous  stork-nests,  and  in  every  nest 
stood  a  stork  upon  one  leg  thoughtfully  observing  the 
children's  games.  Suddenly  all  of  them  flew  down 
upon  the  meadow,  every  one  took  a  little  boy  or  little 
girl  in  his  bill,  and  away  they  went  high  above  the 
woods.  The  children  screamed,  but  the  little  devils 
made  somersaults  and  shouted  merrily : 

"  stork,  thou  red-legged  twister, 
Bring  us  a  little  sister. 
Stork,  fly  to  my  mother. 
Bring  us  a  little  brother." 

The  narrow  pathway  which  led  up  to  this  place 
turned  to  the  left  into  the  forest,  and  our  wanderer 
came  to  a  torrent  which  roared  down  the  hill.  Thick 
thorns  obstructed  Edward's  view  and  when  he  had 
worked  through  the  thistles  he  saw  before  him  another 
country  and  a  path  leading  still  higher  and  higher. 
The  path  was  very  narrow,  and  a  few  quiet  pilgrims, 
every  one  patiently  carrying  his  burden,  were  walking 
thereon.  ' '  Move  slowly,  my  friend,  and  take  me  along, " 
said  Edward  to  one  of  them.  He  viewed  the  speaker 
with  a  compassionate  look  and  said  :  "Poor  stranger, 
thou  hast  no  heart." 

Edward  was  amazed  even  in  his  dream,  and  he 
paused.  He  followed  the  pilgrims  with  his  eyes  as 
they  modestly  continued  their  journey.  They  passed 
over  the  torrent  on  a  plank  serving  as  a  bridge.  On 
the  other  bank  there  was  a  wall  with  a  narrow  door. 
The  pilgrims  entered,  and  the  door  shut  upon  them. 
Our  little  adventurer  tried  to  get  in,  but  the  door  had 
no  key-hole,  and  the  wall  to  the  right  and  to  the  left 
appeared  impenetrable.  He  rose  up  and  looked  above 
the  wall,  and  there  he  saw  a  glcjrious  temple  city  built 
of  precious  stones  and  illumined  by  a  transcendent 
light,  much  more  beautiful  than  sunshine.  He  tried 
to  fly  over  the  wall,  but  a  strong  shock  repelled  him. 
Beyond  the  first  wall  there  was  a  second  wall — one 
which  he  had  not  noticed— infinitely  higher  and  of  the 
purest  transparent  crystal.  He  buzzed  for  a  while  up 
and  down,  like  a  fly  at  a  window-pane,  until  he  fell 
down  exhausted.  Suddenly  a  shadow  passed  over  him 
and  when  he  looked  back,  one  of  the  little  black  devils 
whom  he  had  seen  on  the  meadow  stood  before  him. 
"What  are  you  doing  here,  you  rascal?"  the  ugly 
creature  shouted,  and  opened  his  grinning  mouth  so 
far  that  Edward  began  to  perspire  with  fright,  and  he 
stammered,  "  I  am  not  so  bad."  "What  do  you  say?  " 
replied  the  black  fellow.  "  I  will  catch  you,"  and  he 
put  out  his  long,  red  tongue,  raised  his  butterfly  net, 


and  tried  to  catch  poor  Edward,  who  speedily  has- 
tened away.  He  went  up  high  into  the  air  ;  the  devil 
followed.  He  flew  in  zigzag  lines  ;  the  devil  always 
after  him.  He  ran  round  a  tree  several  hundred  times  ; 
the  devil  was  close  at  his  heels,  and  would  certainly 
have  caught  him,  had  he  not  happened  to  see  a  big 
giant  with  his  eyes  shut  and  his  mouth  open,  a  stately 
fellow,  who  lay  asleep,  and  Edward  thought,  "I  must 
know  this  big  man."  Dead  with  fright  and  in  the  last 
moment  of  emergency,  our  dreamer's  pursued  soul 
jumped  into  the  giant's  open  mouth  and  escaped  into 
a  kind  of  attic  with  two  windows. 

We  let  Edward  finish  the  story  of  his  dream  in  his 
own  words:  "The  morning  was  dawning.  There 
were  pictures  on  the  walls  which  were  not  very  faith- 
ful portrayals  of  what  they  represented.  The  hand  of 
the  clock  pointed  to  half-past  six.  The  room  was  not 
yet  put  in  order.  An  odor  of  coffee  came  to  me.  I 
went  down  stairs  and  opened  the  door — there  was  a 
dimly  lighted  reception-room  with  red  curtains.  Upon 
a  little  golden  throne  sat  the  most  beautiful  of  women, 
a  portrait  of  my  wife,  Elise.  She  smiled,  opened  her 
lips,  and  said:  'Edward,  get  up  ;  coffee  is  ready.'  I 
awoke.  My  good  Elise,  with  our  little  Emil  in  her 
arms,  stood  before  my  bed.  I  had  recovered  my  heart 
and  that  of  Elise,  and  that  of  our  little  Emil,  too.  All 
jesting  aside,  my  friends,  if  one  only  has  a  heart  he 
will  feel  and  confess  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart  that 
'he  is  no  good.'     All  else  will  take  care  of  itself." 

p.  c. 


THE  PILGRIMAGE  OF  ANTHONY  FROUDE. 

BY  MONCURE  D.    CONWAY. 
III. 

"Mankind  triumph  of  a  sudden?"  asks  Robert 
Browning:  and  answers:  "  The  work  should  be  one 
of  ages,  if  performed  equally  and  thoroughly  ;  and  a 
man  can  but  do  a  man's  portion.  The  last  of  each 
series  of  workmen  sums  up  in  himself  all  predecessors. 
We  just  see  Charlemagne,  Hildebrand,  in  composite 
work  they  end  and  name." 

In  estimating  the  tremendous  spiritual  revolution 
which  the  European  and  American  mind  has  under- 
gone during  the  two  generations  ending  with  the  graves 
of  its  leaders,  we  are  now  able  to  recognise  the  com- 
posite work  of  the  greatest  of  those  leaders.  In  Eng- 
land three  armies  are  discoverable  behind  the  com- 
manders in  a  triangular  war, — Coleridge,  Carlyle,  and 
(Cardinal)  Newman.  The  fiery  battle  was  between 
Carlyle  and  Newman.  Both  compelled  the  cultured 
youth  to  flee  the  comfortable  Church  as  a  City  of  De- 
struction, but  one  urged  them  to  seek  the  Celestial 
City  at  Rome,  the  other  drawing  them  to  a  Pantheistic 
Universe.  Meanwhile  Coleridge  endeavored  to  per- 
suade the  young  men  that  they  could  remain  in  the 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4301 


Church  and  translate  its  creeds  and  formulas  into  Car- 
lyle's  transcendental  ideas,  or  into  any  visions  that  at- 
tracted them.  Coleridge's  "Moonshine,"  as  Carlyle 
called  it,  had  a  charm  of  its  own.  Those  who  have 
not  been  trained  to  the  clerical  profession  may  fancj' 
that  the  only  thing  which  holds  clergymen  in  a  church 
after  their  faith  is  shaken  is  the  loaves  and  fishes ;  but 
they  are  mistaken  ;  there  must  be  considered  the  long- 
ing of  the  cultured  spirit  to  bear  its  fruit,  and  the  fear- 
ful desert  into  which  that  soul  passes  which  has  given 
all  its  seed-time,  its  years  of  preparation,  only  to  learn 
that  all  have  been  wasted  on  clouds,  where  no  harvest 
can  be  reaped.  Carlyle  has  said,  in  his  Life  of  Sterling, 
hard  things  about  the  Coleridgeans,  but  I  once  heard 
him  describe  their  last  apostle,  Frederic  D.  Maurice, 
as  "  the  most  devout-minded  man  in  England."  How- 
ever, the  most  intellectual  youths  could  not  undergo 
the  new  baptism  of  sprinkled  moonshine,  and  for  a 
time  it  looked  as  if  Newman  would  conquer.  Froude 
was  one  of  his  charmed  captives,  and  his  first  literary 
work  was  assistance  to  Newman  in  Tlie  Lives  of  tlie 
Eiiglisii  Saints.  But  one  day,  as  I  have  heard,  the 
Doctor's  keen  eye  discovered  at  the  close  of  a  biogra- 
phj'  by  Froude,  "  This  is  all  that  is  known  of  this  emi- 
nent Saint,  and  considerably  more." 

In  a  preface  to  the  second  edition  of  The  A^emesis 
of  Fait/i  (1849)  Froude  found  it  necessary  to  deny  a 
report  that  the  book  was  autobiographical.  His  friends 
knew,  of  course,  that  there  had  been  nothing  in  his 
career,  always  quiet  and  unadventurous,  like  the  inci- 
dents related  of  the  hero  ;  but  they  also  knew  that  in 
its  episode,  "Confessions  of  a  Sceptic,"  the  author 
had  traced  his  own  pilgrimage  from  Newman  to  Car- 
lyle.     I  quote  a  striking  passage  : 

"I  believe  no  young  man  ever  heard  him  [New 
man]  preach  without  fancying  that  some  one  had  been 
betraying  his  own  history,  and  the  sermon  was  aimed 
especially  at  him.  It  was  likely  that,  while  he  had 
possession  so  complete  of  what  we  did  know  of  our- 
selves, we  should  take  his  word  for  what  we  did  not ; 
and  while  he  could  explain  us,  let  him  explain  the  rest 
for  us.  But  it  is  a  problem  heavier  than  has  been  yet 
laid  on  theologians,  to  make  what  the  world  has  now 
grown  into  square  with  the  theory  of  Catholicism.  And 
presently,  as  we  began  to  leave  the  nest,  and,  though 
under  his  eye,  to  fly  out  and  look  about  for  ourselves, 
some  of  us  began  to  find  it  so.  .  .  .  He  was  not  the 
onl)'  greatly  gifted  man  in  England.  I  think  he  was 
one  of  two.  Another  eye,  deep-piercing  as  his,  and 
with  a  no  less  wide  horizon,  was  looking  out  across 
the  same  perplexed  scene,  and  asking  his  heart,  too, 
what  God  would  tell  him  of  it.  Newman  grew  up  in 
Oxford,  in  lectures,  and  college  chapels,  and  school 
divinity;  Mr.  Carlyle,  in  the  Scotch  Highlands,  and 
the  poetry  of  Goethe.  ...  It  was  brought  home  to  me 


that  two  men  may  be  as  sincere,  as  earnest,  as  faithful, 
as  uncompromising,  and  yet  hold  opinions  as  far  asun- 
der as  the  poles.  .  .  .  This  conviction  is  the  most  peri- 
lous' crisis  of  our  lives  ;  for  myself  it  threw  me  at  once 
on  my  own  responsibility,  and  obhged  me  to  look  for 
myself  at  what  men  said,  instead  of  simply  accepting 
all  because  they  said  it." 

In  the  story,  the  Nemesis — or  Vengeance — of  Faith 
is  tragically  illustrated  in  the  career  of  Rev.  Markham 
Sutherland.  He  had  temporarily  silenced  his  doubts 
in  order  to  go  on  with  his  ministry,  but  the  doubts 
afterwards  flamed  out,  and  he  left  his  charge  to  travel 
in  Italy.  Wandering  there,  homeless  and  aimless,  he 
meets  and  falls  in  love  with  his  ideal  woman,  who  falls 
in  love  with  him.  Unfortunately,  she  is  married.  The 
moral  recoil  and  grief  bring  him  to  the  verge  of  sui- 
cide ;  the  poison  is  dashed  from  his  hand  by  an  old 
Oxford  friend,  who  suddenly  appears.  This  friend, 
who  has  become  a  Catholic,  hears  the  sorrowful  story 
and  points  the  miserable  youth  to  another  kind  of  sui- 
cide :  he  enters  a  monastery. 

In  one  of  the  first  conversations  I  ever  had  with 
Froude,  he  said  :  "  Carlyle  is  incomparably  the  great- 
est genius  I  have  ever  seen. "  I  have  a  note  of  his 
words,  and  of  conversation  with  Carlyle  the  same  even- 
ing. It  became  evident  to  me  that  Froude's  career  as 
a  historian  had  been  mainly  determined  by  Carlyle. 
Froude's  genius  was  that  of  an  imaginative  writer  ;  and 
such  men  are  but  too  easily  captured  by  the  bow  and 
spear  of  a  great  and  striking  personality.  As  Father 
Newman  had  set  young  Froude  to  writing  lives  of  the 
saints,  Carlyle  set  him  on  History.  Carlyle  could  never 
quite  forgive  Shakespeare  for  writing  plays  instead  of 
history,  and  he  now  and  then  upbraided  Tennyson  to 
his  face  for  writing  in  rhyme  instead  of  prose.  I  am  cer- 
tain that  if  it  had  not  been  for  Carlyle,  Froude  would 
have  continued  his  philosophical  romances,  and  I  be- 
lieve he  would  have  enriched  English  literature  with 
imaginative  works  of  unique  character.  But  a  genius 
of  such  force  could  not  be  entirely  altered  even  by  so 
strong  a  spirit  as  Carlyle.  It  would  not  be  just  to  say 
that  Froude  went  on  writing  romance  and  calling  it 
history  and  biography;  but  it  appears  to  me  true  that 
the  chief  charm  of  his  History  of  England  is  the  imagi- 
native fire  playing  through  it.  His  Henry  VIII.,  Mary 
Stuart,  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  other  personages,  are 
largely  his  own  creations,  and  live  before  us  because 
transfused  with  the  life-blood  of  Froude's  brain.  And 
if  my  belief  in  Carlyle's  perverting  influence  be  true,  it 
may  be  regarded  as  a  kind  of  posthumous  "  Nemesis  " 
that  he  himself  (Carlyle)  should  have  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  a  biographer  so  imaginative.  In  his  Life  of 
Carlyle,  Froude  certainly  meant  to  tell  the  whole  truth, 
but  he  could  not  resist  a  picturesque  situation,  or  a 
dramatic  surprise ;  he  was  overpowered  hy  his  imagi- 


4302 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


native  art ;  and  the  result  is  that  most  of  those  who 
knew  Carlyle  and  his  wife  intimately  feel  that  the  world 
generally  does  not  yet  know  the  real  man  and  woman. 
A  true,  critical,  and  impartial  Life  of  Carlyle  remains 
still  the  desideratum  of  modern  English  biography. 
And  I  will  venture  to  add  my  conviction  that  a  true 
critical  History  of  England  also  remains  a  desidera- 
tum, although  Froude's  work  is  the  most  important 
contribution  to  it,  and  presents  a  mass  of  painstaking 
research,  as  well  as  bold  criticisms,  whose  value  has 
not  been  diminished  by  the  microscopic  cavils  of  his 
conventional  prosecutors. 

The  original  and  individual  genius  of  Froude, 
though,  from  the  cause  above  indicated,  it  never,  as  I 
think,  reached  full  fruitage,  gains  its  fullest  expression 
in  his  volumes  entitled  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects. 
Several  of  these,  as  he  told  me,  were  begun  in  his  youth 
and  revised  and  amplified  in  mature  life.  They  display 
every  variety  of  ability,  and  the  subtle  play  of  his  fine 
imagination  pervades  every  page. 

Froude  had  a  great  deal  of  humor  and  extraordi- 
nary powers  of  conversation.  In  the  course  of  his  vast 
reading  in  ecclesiastical  history  he  had  made  personal 
acquaintance,  as  it  were,  with  striking  figures  unknown 
to  general  history,  and  portrayed  them  vividly  in  quaint 
anecdotes.  I  have  heard  him  repeat  the  very  exhorta- 
tions of  monks  going  about  England,  hawking,  so  to 
say,  St.  Thomas^  Becket,  to  induce  the  people  to 
patronise  him  in  preference  to  other  saints.  "A  poor 
Christian  had  his  eyes  torn  out,  and  he  called  on  all 
the  saints,  on  the  Holy  Virgin,  in  vain  ;  but  when  he 
called  on  the  blessed  St.  Thomas  there  came  into  his 
sockets  two  things  like  green  peas  :  one  grew  to  a  good 
eye,  the  other  remained  like  a  pea,  but  he  saw  fairly 
well."  Froude  impressed  me  as  Renan  and  Strauss 
did,  in  conversation,  as  a  thorough  sceptic.  Some- 
times agnostic,  sometimes  theistic,  positive  only  in 
his  negations.  He  repeatedly  declared  that  Spinoza 
seemed  to  him  to  have  said  the  last  word  in  his  Ethics 
concerning  unknowable  things.  He  believed  that 
"otherworldliness"  was  arresting  civilisation,  and  that 
the  belief  in  personal  immortality  must  more  and  more 
become  dim.  "Perhaps  instead  of  all  individuals  be- 
ing immortal,  it  may  be  that  each  family  is  ultimately 
developed  and  summed  up  in  some  immortal  being." 
(So  he  would  talk  half  seriously.)  "May  we  not  be  de- 
luded by  mechanical  progress  ?  The  old  problems  re- 
turn. We  appear  to  be  on  a  spiral  stair,  and  come 
round  and  round  again  to  the  same  notions  and  super- 
stitions, though  we  give  them  a  finer  expression,  being 
a  little  higher  in  externals."  "In  reading  Lucian,  I 
often  feel  as  if  he  were  dealing  with  essentially  the 
same  religious  conditions  as  those  which  surround  us. 
He  was  not  so  much  troubled  about  old  superstitions 
as  about  the  new  and  growing  ones. "   ' '  Can  you  tell  me 


a  single  precept  of  Christ  which  could  be  strictly,- with- 
out any  qualification,  followed  practically  in  society  to- 
day? "  "We  are  very  tolerant  just  now,  but  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  certain  dogmas  will  long  be  tolerated.  Fancj'  a 
preacher  getting  six  months' for  frightening  little  chil- 
dren with  the  Devil  and  hell-fire  !  "  In  illustration,  if  I 
remember  rightly,  of  the  inability  of  the  flocks  to  un- 
derstand their  shepherds,  he  related  a  story  of  the  late 
Bishop  Bloomfield,  preaching  in  a  rural  district  on 
"The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart,  there  is  no  God." 
After  the  sermon  the  bishop,  riding  away,  joined  a 
farmer,  and  asked  him  what  he  thought  of  the  sermon. 
"It  were  a  very  able  sermon,  Mr.  Bishop,"  said  the 
farmer;  "but  I  couldn't  agree  with  your  lordship,  be- 
cause I  believe  there  be  a  God. "  He  much  loved  Emer- 
son, and  by  his  desire  I  wrote  many  articles  in  Fraser 
about  Emerson.  He  thought  there  were  "  ten  readers 
of  Emerson  in  England  for  one  reader  of  Carlyle." 
"As  compared  with  other  eminent  men  whom  I  have 
known,  there  is  this  peculiarity  about  Carlyle  :  he  does 
not  merely  impress  me  as  saying  what  he  believes  true, 
but  what  is  true." 

Every  week  I  had  a  walk  with  Froude,  often  it  was 
to  Kew  Gardens,  for  he  had  a  great  love  for  distant 
developments  of  nature.  One  day  we  observed  the 
just  perishing  blossom  of  a  century  plant  {Agave  Avic- 
ricana),  and  Froude  humorously  philosophised  on  it  a 
little.  "  That  American  plant,  shooting  up  so  many 
feet  into  the  air,  thought  it  was  making  great  progress, 
but  it  was  only  coming  to  nothing.  It  will  have  to 
begin  again  after  a  hundred  years,  and,  untaught  bj' 
this  forgotten  bit  of  its  history,  shoot  aloft  again, — 
perhaps  again  to  wither.  How  much  so-called  pro- 
gress is  like  that !  " 

THE  OPEN   COURT 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  3T8. 

ON  THE  RELATIVE  EDUCATIONAL  WORTH  OF 
THE  CLASSICS  AND  THE  MATHEMATICO- 
PHYSICAL  SCIENCES  IN  COLLEGES  AND 
HIGH  SCHOOLS.     Prof.  Ernst  Mack 4295 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  A  HUMORIST.     (Concluded.) 

Editor 4298 

THE   PILGRIMAGE   OF   ANTHONY   FROUDE.     III. 

MoNCURE  D.  Conway 43°° 


The  Open  Court. 


A  WEEKLY  JOUENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  379.   (Vol.  V111.-4S.)  CHICAGO,  NOVEMBER  29,   1894. 


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STRIKES,  LOCAL  AND  SYMPATHETIC. 


BY    G.    KOERNER. 


I  CANNOT  help  believing  that  on  some  days  during 
the  strikes  Chicago  was  nearly  in  a  situation,  where 
at  least  for  a  short  period  it  might  have  become  the 
scene  of  riots  and  outrages,  such  as  happened  at  Paris 
under  the  reign  of  the  communists  and  anarchists  in 
March,  1871.  A  few  men  commit  an  unlawful  act. 
A  chance  shot,  no  one  knows  by  whom  fired,  may  kill 
a  bystander,  perhaps  a  woman.  The  cry  of  deliberate 
murder  is  started.  Vengeance  is  invoked.  The  crowd 
increases.  It  soon  becomes  a  mob.  Agitators  fan  the 
flames.  It  comes  to  a  conflict  with  the  police  or  the 
militia.  They  may  be  overpowered.  The  lives  and 
the  property  of  the  citizens  may  be  at  the  mercy  of  the 
infuriated  mob.  This  is  the  time  for  the  scum  and 
dregs,  which  every  large  city  contains,  to  emerge  from 
their  dens  to  revel  in  theft,  arson,  destruction  of  prop- 
erty and  murder. 

Undoubtedly  our  government  is  strong  enough  to 
put  down  such  a  rising,  amounting  to  an  insurrection. 
It  has  crushed  a  rebellion  of  such  magnitude  as  the 
world  had  never  witnessed  before  in  a  four  years  civil 
war.  It  would  have  made  short  work  of  the  Chicago 
riots.  But  as  the  State  and  federal  help  came  some- 
what tardily,  lives  have  been  lost,  property  to  the 
amount  of  many  nlillions  directly  and  indiftctly  de- 
stroyed. 

The  cause  of  all  this  ever  to  be  regretted  commo- 
tion was  a  strike  of  workingmen  engaged  by  a  private 
corporation,  in  which  really  no  one  had  any  interest 
except  the  corporation  and  its  employees.  If,  from 
representation  by  the  laborers,  bj'  sensational  articles 
of  the  press,  it  was  asserted  that  justice  and  equity  was 
on  the  side  of  the  strikers,  it  was  but  natural  that  the 
public  took  some  interest  in  this  local  contest,  but  it 
was  purely  a  sentimental  one.  That  a  certain  trades 
union  should  have  ordered  a  general  strike,  or,  rather, 
a  boycott,  on  nearly  all  the  railroads  in  the  country 
that  used  the  articles  manufactured  by  the  corporation 
in  question,  merely  on  account  of  the  good  feeling  for 
the  local  strikers,  was  not  only,  considering  the  de- 
pression of  business  at  the  time,  an  insane  but  a  crim- 
inal act. 


Before  I  go  farther  however,  I  may  be  permitted  to 
speak  of  the  nature  of  strikes  and  lock-outs  historically, 
as  I  wish  to  draw  a  distinction  between  strikes  and 
strikes,  holding  some  to  be  justifiable,  others  unwar- 
ranted and  wholly  illegal. 

There  is  really  no  substantial  difference  between 
strikes  and  lock-outs.  A  strike  has  been  defined  a 
suspension  of  work  resulting  from  a  dispute  originating 
in  some  demand  of  the  employed  ;  a  lock-out  in  some 
demand  of  the  employer.  It  is  really  only  a  question 
as  to  who  takes  the  initiative  in  the  stopping  of  the 
works. 

Strikes,  it  has  been  asserted,  were  as  old  as  the 
known  history  of  the  world.  Justice  Brown,  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  a  highly  inter- 
esting address  "On  the  Distribution  of  Property,"  de- 
livered before  the  American  Bar  Association  at  Mil- 
waukee, August  31,  1893,  mentions  the  exodus  of  the 
Israelites  from  Egypt  as  having  been  a  protest  against 
the  oppression  of  capital,  and  to  have  possessed  the 
substantial  characteristics  of  a  modern  strike.  If  we 
refer  to  the  Book  of  Exodus  in  the  Old  Testament  one 
would  rather  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  a  ques- 
tion of  emigration.  Certainly  the  Jews,  since  they  had 
settled  first  in  Egypt  with  the  full  consent  and  encour- 
agement of  the  rulers  of  the  country,  had  become  quite 
unpopular,  had  been  reduced  into  a  sort  of  slavery 
(peonage,  perhaps),  and  were  employed  to  perform 
hard  and  menial  work.  Moses  and  Aaron  being  com- 
missioned by  the  Lord,  as  they  believed,  made  strenu- 
ous and  repeated  efforts  to  get  permission  for  the  Jew- 
ish people  to  emigrate,  but  did  not  succeed.  Finally, 
by  the  Lord  Jehovah  punishing  with  various  sorts  of 
plagues  the  people  of  Egypt,  they  were  allowed  to  de- 
part. Another  and  perhaps  a  stronger  motive  for  their 
emigration  was  the  wish  to  go  to  the  land  of  Canaan,  the 
former  abode  of  Abraham  and  Jacob.  They  carried 
the  embalmed  body  of  Abraham  along  with  them. 

Justice  Brown  also  speaks  of  the  removal  of  the 
plebeians  to  the  sacred  mount,  driven  through  despair 
the  oppression  of  the  Patricians.  It  seems,  however,  by 
not  to  have  been  a  question  of  wages  so  much  as  one 
of  general  oppression.  There  existed  most  cruel  laws 
against  people  in  debt,  in  consequence  of  which  all  the 
property,   the  person,   and  even  the  children   of   the 


4304 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


debtor,  when  strict  payment  was  not  made,  were  given 
over  to  the  creditors  to  do  with  them  as  they  pleased. 

Interest  was  excessively  high.  Another  cause  of 
discontent  was  the  failure  of  a  fair  distribution  of  the 
lands  which  the  Roman  armies  had  conquered  from 
the  surrounding  Latin  tribes,  and  of  which  armies  the 
plebeians  formed  by  far  the  greatest  part.  Such  dis- 
tribution had  been  promised  to  induce  them  to  enlist. 
There  was  at  the  time  of  which  Livy  speaks  a  war 
threatening  with  the  Volsks,  a  very  warlike  people, 
and  the  plebeians  refused  to  fall  in  line  and  seceded  to 
the  Mens  Sacer. 

Upon  certain  concessions  being  made,  such  as  en- 
larging the  authority  of  the  tribunes  of  the  people  and 
others  relating  to  civil  rights,  the  plebeians  returned  to 
Rome.  This  movement  comes  nearer  to  a  strike  than 
the  Exodus,  but  it  was  rather  in  the  nature  of  a  seces- 
sion, for  in  all  probability  the  plebeians  would  have 
attempted  to  organise  a  separate  State. 

Mr.  U.  M.  Rose,  of  the  Chicago  bar,  at  the  same 
meeting  of  the  American  Bar  Association,  read  a  most 
admirable  paper  on  strikes  and  trusts.  He  quotes  from 
Livy  Lib.  IX,  chapter  30,  of  a  real  strike,  occurring  at 
Rome  310  years  before  Christ,  as  being  the  first  his- 
torical account  of  a  strike  on  record.  The  guild  of 
flute-players,  to  whom  belonged  the  privilege  of  playing 
at  the  public  sacrifices,  had  been  prohibited  by  the 
last  censors  from  holding  their  repasts  in  the  temple 
of  Jupiter,  went  off  in  a  body  to  Tibur,  so  that  no  one 
was  left  to  play  at  the  sacrifices.  The  religious  ten- 
dency of  this  affair  gave  great  uneasiness  to  the  Sen- 
ate, and  they  sent  envoys  to  Tibur,  requesting  the 
authorities  to  send  the  players  back  to  Rome.  The 
Tiburians  tried  hard  to  persuade  them  to  return,  but 
their  efforts  were  unsuccessful.  Finally  they  got  rid 
of  them  by  a  very  comical  ruse,  making  the  players  at 
a  feast  drunk  to  insensibility  and  packing  them  off  to 
Rome  ;  a  thing  easily  to  be  done,  remarks  Livy,  with 
that  class  of  people.  Upon  their  original  demands 
being  complied  with  by  the  Senate,  they  stayed  at 
Rome,  enjoying  their  privileges  up  to  the  time  Livy 
wrote  his  histories. 

We  are  also  indebted  to  Mr.  Rose  for  a  quotation 
from  Cons.  12,  Codex  Lib.  VII,  Tit.  x,  being  a  highly 
interesting  ordinance  in  the  reign  of  Zeno,  474  A.  D. 
It  is  directed  against  strikers  and  also  against  trades 
unions,  and  threatened  them  with  very  heavy  penal- 
ties. It  is  too  long  to  be  cited  here,  but  the  occasion 
for  this  rescript,  as  set  out  in  it,  is  strikingly  similar 
with  late  occurrences  in  our  country. 

There  was  a  real  strike  however  anterior  to  that  of 
the  flute-players,  which  is  not  noticed  by  Mr.  Rose,  the 
strike  of  the  Athenian  married  women,  who,  believing 
themselves  neglected  and  oppressed  by  their  husbands, 
organised  a  strike,  of  which  the  high-spirited,  naughty, 


cynical  Aristophanes  gives  us  such  a  ludicrous  account 
in  his  farce,  Lysistrata.  That  strike  turned  out  like  a 
vast  majority  of  strikes  since — a  dead  failure. 

Considering  the  system  of  slavery  pervading  the 
ancient  world,  what  we  call  strikes,  lock-outs, >  and 
boycotts  could  hardly  occur  to  any  extent.  Slaves, 
when  too  heavily  oppressed,  and  when  they  found  men 
to  organise  and  lead  them,  rose  up  in  insurrection, 
and  bloody  and  cruel  slave-wars  made  Carthage  as  well 
as  Rome  tremble  for  their  existence. 

It  is  to  the  middle  ages  and  up  to  recent  times  that 
strikes  and  boycotts,  the  latter  called  "revilings"  in 
English  and  "Verrufserklai-utigen"  in  Germany,  became 
very  common.  The  juridical  records  of  Great  Britain 
and  of  the  continent  of  Europe  abound  with  laws 
directed  against  these  efforts  of  the  laboring  classes  to 
escape  oppression  and  to  better  their  condition.  Were 
all  these  laws,  ordinances,  and  rescripts  collected,  they 
would  fill  volumes.  As  a  general  thing,  all  combined 
movements  of  workingmen  of  every  class,  trying  to 
obtain  relief  from  their  employers,  were  considered  as 
conspiracies  and  highly  punished,  even  where  no  vio- 
lence was  committed,  for  in  that  case  the  strikers  fell 
under  the  general  criminal  law  of  the  land,  were  in- 
dicted for  murder,  manslaughter,  riot,  or  insurrection. 
In  some  few  of  these  penal  statutes  strikes  were  not 
denounced  as  unlawful,  if  not  attended  with  threats  or 
violence,  but  up  to  the  present  century,  and  even  up 
to  more  recent  times,  they  were  generally  considered 
unlawful  without  exception.  Some  of  these  ancient 
statutes  threatened  severe  punishment  to  persons  con- 
victed of  participating  in  strikes,  such  as  cutting  off 
their  ears  ;  in  some  places  in  Germany  the  punishment 
provided  was  death,  often  actually  inflicted,  as  we 
learn  from  old  chronicles. 

In  former  ages  life  was  held  of  much  less  value 
than  now.  Punishments  were  cruel  and  inhuman. 
That  they  showed  little  mercy  to  s'trikers  and  boycot- 
ters  sprung  from  their  holding  that  a  successful  strike 
could  not  possibly  be  without  breach  of  the  public 
peace,  and  without  acts  of  violence,  a  view  which  even 
now  finds  some  advocates. 

Strikes  without  violence  have  now  by  custom,  legal 
decisions,  and  even  statutes,  been  made  lawful,  but  I 
presume  that  this  legality  does  not  attach  to  all  kinds 
of  strikes,  but  only  to  local  ones.  Even  before  the 
recent  disastrous  strikes,  which  almost  brought  us  to 
the  verge  of  civil  war,  what  were  called  sympathetic 
strikes  were  frequently  deprecated,  as  being  most  dan- 
gerous and  destructive  to  the  welfare  of  the  common- 
wealth. The  great  coal-strike  early  in  the  spring,  not 
being  confined  to  localities  only,  had  the  most  deplor- 
able consequences^  Not  only  have  perhaps  a  hundred 
thousand  miners  lost  their  wages,  but  they  have  been 
thrown  into  idleness,  making  them  dependent  on  the 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4305 


charity  of  their  neighbors.  The  demorahsing  effect  of 
such  a  situation  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  Coal 
being  an  indispensable  article  for  manufactories,  and 
for  transportation  by  rail  and  steamboat,  the  whole 
business  of  the  country  was  interrupted.  Thousands 
of  other  workmen  were  thrown  out  of  employment. 
Not  to  speak  of  many  acts  of  violence  and  even  mur- 
der connected  with  this  coal-strike. 

And  here  I  may  mention  quite  a  curious  and  re- 
markable fact  to  which  Mr.  Jos.  D.  Weeks^  in  his  re- 
port to  the  Census  Bureau,  has  called  public  atten- 
tion. Alluding,  as  I  believe,  more  particularly  to  the 
great  strike  at  Pittsburg  against  the  Pennsylvania  Cen- 
tral, he  expresses  himself  as  follows  : 

"Of  the  utter  folly  of  many  strikes  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
They  have  been  doomed  to  defeat  from  their  inception.  They 
have  been  undertaken  in  defiance  of  all  economic  laws,  in  ignorance 
of  the  real  condition  of  the  country  and  without  just  cause.  They 
have  wasted  capital  and  decreased  the  wealth  of  the  country. 
They  have  brought  hunger,  misery,  death  ;  have  broken  up  homes, 
and  driven  men  and  women  and  little  children  into  the  very  shadow  of 
death;  and  yet  men,  knowing  that  all  these  possibilities  are  before 
them,  will  deliberately  enter  upon  strikes,  will  cheerfully  bear  all 
these  privations,  and,  what  is  more  remarkable  still,  in  many  in- 
stances, the  wives  of  the  strikers,  upon  whom  the  misery  falls  with 
the  most  crushing  force,  will  be  the  most  determined  in  this  resolu- 
tion. ' ' 

After  the  Pullman  strike  and  its  dreadful  conse- 
quences, the  public  voice  was  raised  loudly  against 
sympathetic  strikes.  With  few  exceptions,  the  entire 
press  of  the  country  condemned  them.  Judges  on  the 
bench,  in  their  charges,  denounced  them.  So  did  pub- 
lic speakers  and  State  officials. 

But  I  have  in  vain  looked  for  a  suggestion  of  a 
remedy  for  this  crying  evil.  I  have  certainly  a  very 
kind  feeling  for  the  hard  laboring  classes.  Strikes,  I 
deem  it,  are  not  wholly  wrong,  and  in  the  language  of 
the  report  of  Mr.  Weeks,  already  mentioned  : 

"Even  unsuccessful  strikes  are  in  many  ways  advantageous  to 
the  strikers.  Labor  has  to  fight  for  every  advantage  it  has  gained, 
and  though  it  is  often  defeated  in  its  struggles  that  are  called 
strikes,  it  has  not  only  learned  in  these  contests  how  better  to  wage 
future  battles,  but  it  has  so  impressed  employers  with  its  strength 
that  it  has  made  them  shy  of  encountering  antagonists  constantly 
growing  more  formidable." 

Now,  is  there  no  remedj'  against  these  sympathetic 
or  sentimental  strikes,  so  deleterious  to  the  whole  com- 
munity, including  the  working  classes  themselves  ? 
After  a  somewhat  careful  examination  of  existing  laws 
and  constitutional  provisions  I  have  come  to  a  conclu- 
sion, which  with  great  diffidence  and  as  a  mere  sug- 
gestion I  venture  to  bring  to  public  notice. 

All  strikes  under  the  ancient  common  law  of  Eng- 
land, until  a  comparatively  recent  time,  were  consid- 
ered as  conspiracies,  and  strikers*  were  punished  as 
such.  Even  in  the  United  States  not  very  many  years 
ago  the  same  doctrine  was  held.     But  I  do  strongly 


insist  that  there  should  be  a  distinction  drawn  between 
/oca/  and  sympathetic  strikes.  If,  for  instance,  say  in  a 
coal  district,  disputes  arise  between  coal  operators 
and  miners,  and  the  latter  strike,  let  the  matter  be 
settled  between  them  without  any  interference  on  the 
part  of  legal  authorities.  The  strike  will  finally  end 
by  arbitration  or  submission  by  one  side  or  the  other. 
Only  where  violence  is  committed  or  threatened  let 
the  law  have  its  course. 

In  cases,  however,  where  no  trouble  whatever  ex- 
ists in  the  district,  or  in  any  other  place  where  a  rela- 
tionship exists  between  employers  and  employees,  and 
no  complaint  has  been  made  as  to  wages  or  other  deal- 
ings, a  strike  arising  from  orders  issued  by  leaders  of 
trades  unions  or  similar  associations  a  thousand  miles 
off  and  admitted  by  the  strikers  themselves,  who  obey 
those  orders,  to  be  a  sympathetic  strike,  should  be  for- 
bidden by  /aw  even  if  no  acts  of  vio/ence  arc  committed. 

Who  has  not  heard  during  the  recent  strikes  many 
strikers  assert  that  they  were  very  anxious  to  work  at 
the  wages  they  got,  but  that  they  were  afraid  of  their 
lives  and  limbs  if  they  did  not  stay  out.  In  such  cases 
it  seems  to  me  strikers  should  be  held  individua//y  re- 
sponsible, particularly  those  who  as  walking  delegates 
intrude  into  other  localities  where  there  is  no  trouble. 
Civil  actions  against  strikers  for  damages  would  be  of 
no  avail,  nor  could  they,  by  law,  be  compelled  to  work, 
if  they  are  unwilling  to  do  so.  But  the  law  ought  to 
declare  sympathetic  strikes  a  public  offence  and  the 
strikers  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  to  be  punished  by 
fine  or  imprisonment  upon  conviction  before  any  com- 
petent court.  No  State's  attorney  would  have  the 
least  trouble  in  proving  a  strike  to  be  a  sympathetic 
one,  as  the  cases  are  generally  manifest  and  admitted 
openly  by  the  persons  concerned. 

To  bring  about  this  remedial  relief  in  many  States 
perhaps  legislative  action  will  be  required.  As  the 
legislatures  of  a  great  majority  of  the  States  are  about 
to  assemble,  it  is  very  desirable  that  the  subject  of 
that  kind  of  strikes  should  be  considered  and  discussed. 
If  laws,  such  as  here  suggested,  could  be  passed,  such 
calamities  as  our  country  has  suffered  this  summer 
might  be  prevented,  which  certainly  would  be  a  con- 
summation devoutly  to  be  wished. 


LABOR'S  CLAIMS  AND  METHODS. 

BY    VICTOR    YARROS. 

The  recent  labor  disturbances  have  demonstrated 
two  things  :  first,  that  labor,  although  profoundly  dis- 
satisfied with  its  place  and  status  in  the  present  indus- 
trial order,  has  the  vaguest  and  most  nebulous  ideas 
regarding  the  changes  that  it  would  introduce  with  the 
view  of  securing  greater  independence  and  comfort. 
The  labor  leaders,  when  forced  to  definite  statements, 
generallyhint  at  collectivism  or  State  socialism.   Among 


43o6 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


the  provisional  remedies  that  some  of  them  suggest 
compulsory  arbitration  is  perhaps  the  most  prominent, 
but  it  is  clear  that  arbitrators  would  be  at  sea  in  the 
absence  of  any  guiding  principles  determining  the  rela- 
tions between  capital  and  labor.  Still,  the  want  of  a 
constructive  platform  does  not  operate  as  a  bar  to  re- 
bellious demonstrations  against  the  prevailing  arrange- 
ments. Though  it  does  not  know  even  approximately 
what  it  wants,  labor  is  emphatic  in  telling  us  what  it 
does  not  want.  And  here  we  come  to  the  second  thing 
which  recent  events  have  established  beyond  perad- 
venture, — namely,  that  labor  claims  the  right  to  ex- 
press its  condemnation  of  the  present  industrial  rela- 
tions in  certain  ways  which  not  only  the  public  at  large, 
but  many  of  our  leading  thinkers  and  publicists  as 
well,  regard  as  reprehensible,  anti-social,  and  subver- 
sive of  all  law  and  justice. ^ 

The  methods  employed  by  organised  labor  in  con- 
troversies with  employers  are  well  known  :  they  com- 
prise strikes,  boycotts,  tie-ups,  and  threats.  Violence 
has  not  infrequently  been  resorted  to,  but  nobody  has 
ever  claimed  the  right  to  use  violence,  and  hence  no 
discussion  is  needful  upon  this  point.  Violence  may 
be  instigated  by  despair,  but  it  is  not  soberly  suggested 
as  a  legitimate  means  of  warfare  by  any  representative 
of  labor. 

Now  the  public  and  the  thinkers  who  condemn  the 
methods  just  specified  reveal  a  strange  confusion  of 
mind  and  an  inability  to  draw  proper  corollaries  from 
clear  and  established  principles.  Labor  is  right.  The 
methods  it  employs  are  entirely  legitimate,  and,  far 
from  threatening  the  total  destruction  of  society  and 
order,  labor,  in  asserting  its  right  to  employ  those 
methods,  upholds  the  first  principles  of  social  life  and 
is  entitled  to  the  warm  support  and  sympathy  of  all 
justice-loving  and  fair-minded  men. 

Let  us  briefly  analyse  labor's  claims  from  the  stand- 
point of  justice  and  equal  liberty.  We  need  postulate 
nothing  but  the  right  of  each  to  do  anything  that  is 
not  incompatible  with  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  same 
freedom  by  all  others.  As  believers  in  free  contract, 
let  us  inquire  where  labor's  right  to  make  its  own  terms 
ends. 

Has  a  workman  the  right  to  strike — to  leave  the 
service  of  his  employer  ?  Even  legalism  now  fully 
recognises  this  right,  the  only  limitation  prescribed  by 
it  being  such  as  the  common  law  'and  common  sense 
abundantly  justify.  This  qualification  is  well  stated 
in  a  New  York  newspaper  thus  : 

"An  engineer  may  lawfully  leave  the  service  of  a  railroad  com- 
pany, but  if  he  choose  to  leave  at  a  time  when  the  abandonment  of 

1  Dr.  von  Hoist,  in  the  Journal  of  Political  Economy,  recently  endeavored 
to  prove  that  the  claims  and  methods  of  such  labor  leaders  as  Mr.  Debs,  Mr. 
Gompers,  and  Mr.  Sovereign  are  essentially  revolutionary  and  incompatible 
with  orderly  government.  He  accuses  organised  labor  o£  having  "  unfurled 
the  banner  of  anarchy." 


his  post  would  lead  to  a  fatal  collision,  he  would  be  extremely  lia- 
ble to  indictment  for  murder.  So  a  hod-carrier  is  at  liberty  to 
strike  for  higher  wages  if  he  likes,  by  giving  up  his  present  job  ; 
but  he  must  not  give  it  up  when  he  has  a  hodful  of  bricks  on  a 
ladder  high  above  the  sidewalk,  and  let  the  bricks  come  tumbling 
down  on  the  heads  of  the  people  who  happen  to  be  underneath." 

Where  the  law  is  nebulous  and  confused  is  in  the 
matter  of  "a  conspiracy  to  strike."  May  a  large  num- 
ber of  men  combine  or  conspire  to  strike  with  the  ob- 
ject of  injuring  the  employer  by  this  cessation  of  work 
and  thereby  forcing  him  to  grant  certain  demands? 
The  recent  decision  of  the  Federal  Court  of  Appeals  is 
doubtless  a  gratifying  advance  upon  the  notions  of 
Judge  Jenkins,  but  it  certainly  leaves  much  to  be  de- 
sired. It  is  lawful,  under  this  ruling,  to  so  quit  service 
as  to  cripple  property  or  hinder  operations,  but  it  is. 
not  lawful  to  combine  and  conspire  to  quit  service 
with  the  object  of  crippling  any  property.  In  other 
words  :  a  thousand  employees  come  together,  confer, 
discuss  grievances,  and  resolve  to  strike  ;  this  is  legal, 
despite  their  full  knowledge  that  injury  to  the  employer 
will  result  from  their  sudden  cessation  of  work  (since 
they  may  select  a  time  when  the  employer  can  least 
afford  to  interrupt  production).  The  employees  are 
simply  asserting  a  fundamental  right ;  the  injury  to  the 
employer  is  incidental  and  one  which  they  need  not 
trouble  themselves  about.  But  suppose  a  thousand 
employees  come  together  and  say  :  "Let  us  strike  in 
order  to  cripple  the  property  of  our  employer  ;"  is  that  - 
legal?  The  only  difference  between  the  two  cases  is 
that  in  the  latter  there  is  an  intent  to  injure.  If  the 
Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  were  logical,  it  would  draw  no 
distinction  between  the  two  cases  and  hold  them  both 
legal.  Interpreters  differ  about  the  real  significance 
of  the  decision,  but  there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the 
verdict  of  morals,  of  justice.  It  is  perfectly  proper  and 
moral  to  "so  quit  service  as  to  cripple  property  " //-(j- 
vided  the  property  is  crippled  by  the  quitting  and  not  by 
violence  or  threats  of  violence.  Whether  the  would-be 
strikers  conspire  to  injure  their  employer  or  not,  is 
wholly  immaterial ;  the  question  is — ho7v  do  they  pro- 
pose to  injure  him?  If  by  doing  something  in  itself 
wrong, — violence,  threats,  etc., — then  they  are  guilty 
of  invasive  conduct.  If,  however,  the  injury  is  to  be 
the  result  of  acts  which  they  have  an  unquestionable 
right  to  perform,  such  as  quitting  work,  it  does  not 
make  it  a  crime  for  them  to  commit  the  act  to  avow  an 
intention  to  inflict  injury  by  this  innocent  act. 

With  regard  to  strikes,  then,  the  view  here  con- 
tended for  is  that  bodies  of  men  may  conspire  to  quit 
service  with  the  intent  to  cripple  property  by  such  quit- 
ting. It  is  not  criminal  to  injure,  or  to  conspire  to  in- 
jure, anybody;  it  is  only  criminal  to  injure,  and  to  con- 
spire to  injure,  in  certain  2vays, — in  ways  involving  vio- 
lence and  threats  of  violence. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4307 


What  is  true  of  strikes  generally,  is  manifestly  true 
of  "sympathetic  strikes"  in  particular.  Such  strikes 
may  not  be  wise,  but  they  are  not  immoral.  A  man 
has  as  much  right  to  strike  out  of  sympathy  with  an- 
other man  as  he  has  out  of  egoistic  motives. 

But  how  about  the  morality  of  boycotting?  Is  it 
right  for  a  man  or  a  body  of  men  to  boycott,  and  to 
persuade  others  to  boycott,  a  certain  employer  or  com- 
bination of  employers?  The  law  is  not  clear  on  the 
subject,  and  many  American  editors  and  ministers  have 
denounced  the  boycott  as  a  vicious  foreignism  scarcely 
less  revolting  than  bomb-throwing.  This,  however, 
is  a  blunder  due  to  ignorance  of  the  nature  of  invasion. 
Boycotting  means  refusing  to  deal  or  associate  with  a 
given  individual.  Now  it  is  not  an  aggression  for  a 
man  to  decline  to  buy  his  provisions  of  this  or  that 
dealer  ;  he  cannot  be  stopped  by  the  ignored  dealer 
and  called  upon  to  give  his  reasons  for  preferring  to 
do  business  with  another  dealer.  A  man  has  a  right 
to  choose  his  dealers,  friends,  and  acquaintances,  and 
to  be  governed  by  mere  whims  in  his  choice.  It  is  not 
unjust  for  a  workman,  or  a  body  of  workmen,  to  say 
to  a  merchant  or  manufacturer:  "You  employ  non- 
union men  ;  we  want  all  labor  to  be  organised,  and  we 
want  you  to  help  us  in  this.  If  you  refuse,  we  shall 
withdraw  out  favor,  our  patronage,  from  you  (for  it  ts 
a  favor),  and  confer  it  on  j'our  competitors  who  are 
more  friendly  to  us."  Such  a  course  is  not  invasive, 
invasion  being  active  interference  with  another's  right- 
ful activity,  and  boycotting  being  essentially  passive. 
Moreover,  the  would-be  boycotters  may  publish  ap- 
peals and  attempt  to  induce,  by  argument  and  persua- 
sion, their  sympathisers  throughout  the  country  to 
join  them  in  boycotting  their  opponent,  and  the  per- 
sons appealed  to  may  respond  favorably  and  join  in 
the  boycott.  None  of  these  different  classes  of  persons 
are  guilty  of  aggression.  What  they  do  they  have  a 
right  to  do ;  what  they  refuse  to  do,  they  are  under  no 
obligation  to  do.  In  short,  all  peaceable  boycotting 
is  moral  and  should  be  legal.  It  is  legal  under  the 
English  law,  since  the  passage  of  the  act  which  pro- 
vides that  nothing  which  is  not  criminal  when  done  by 
one  man,  shall  be  deemed  criminal  when  performed 
by  a  combination  of  men.  The  American  law  on  the 
subject  is  not  settled,  but  to  deny  the  legitimacy  of 
peaceable  boycotting  is  to  traverse  the  fundamental 
principles  of  free  society. 

When,  therefore,  the  American  Railway  Union,  out 
of  sympathy  with  strikers,  instituted  a  boycott  of  Pull- 
man cars,  and  appealed  to  all  organised  labor  to  sup- 
port it,  no  wrong,  no  aggression,  was  committed.  The 
aggression  was  in  the  violence  used  to  compel  boycott- 
ing. 

But  are  "tie-ups"  invasive?  Is  it  right  for  the 
organised  bodies  of  labor  throughout  the  country  to 


inaugurate  a  "general  strike  "  as  a  means  of  enforcing 
certain  demands?  It  is,  unquestionably.  If  striking 
is  not  criminal,  the  agreement  of  a  million  or  more 
men  to  strike  together  on  a  certain  day,  cannot  possi- 
bly be  criminal.  True,  a  general  strike  or  tie-up  means 
industrial  paralysis,  complete  social  stagnation,  but 
this  result  is  incidental  to  an  assertion  of  an  inalien- 
able right, — the  right  to  free  contract  and  free  indus- 
try,— and  hence,  paradoxical  and  revolutionary  as  may 
be  the  sound  of  the  phrase,  it  is  nevertheless  absolutely 
and  strictly  true  that  organised  labor  has  a  perfect 
right  to  "paralyse  all  industry  and  commerce," — great 
as  may  be  the  suffering  entailed  upon  the  innocent 
public, — by  such  a  general  tie-up  as  labor  leaders  have 
been  threatening.  The  workmen  as  workmen  are  not 
under  any  obligation  to  consider  the  interests  of  third 
parties.  They  deal  with  their  employers,  and  they 
have  the  right  to  fix  their  own  terms, — the  price  of 
their  services.  If  the  employers  refuse  to  pay  the  price 
demanded,  the  workmen  may  decline  the  offer  of  em- 
ployment. To  say  that  they  must  continue  in  the  em- 
ployment because  a  general  strike  causes  great  hard- 
ship to  the  public,  is  logically  to  imply  that  even  if 
employers  decline  to  pay  any  wages  at  all,  the  work- 
men may  not  quit  their  employment.  What  may  seem 
an  injury  to  the  public  is  really,  and,  in  the  long  run, 
a  great  advantage  to  it,  for  the  maintenance  of  free- 
dom is  the  supreme  need  and  task. 

When  labor  threatens  to  paral3'se  society  and  in- 
dustry,- it  does  not  necessarily  threaten  to  commit  a 
crime.  The  how,  the  question  of  the  method  and  man- 
ner, is  the  all-important  one.  How  does  labor  propose 
to  carry  out  its  threat?  If  by  violence,  direct  coercion, 
then  it  contemplates  crime,  and  should  be  suppressed ; 
but  if  it  restricts  itself  to  passive  means,  to  cessation 
of  work  and  boycotting,  government  may  not  right- 
fully interfere.  Whether  the  threats  and  acts  of  labor 
are  invasive  or  not,  depends,  not  on  the  results  of  the 
acts,  but  on  the  methods  employed.  Injury  is  no  test 
of  aggression,  since  injury  frequently  follows  acts  of 
undoubted  legitimacy'. 

We  thus  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  organised 
workmen  have  a  perfect  right  to  strike,  boycott, 
"tie-up"  industries,  and  even  paralyse  all  commerce 
and  production,  provided  they  do  not  resort  to  violence 
and  trespass  upon  person  or  property.  "Hardship 
to  the  public  "  does  not  justify  the  State's  interference  ; 
orders  restraining  peaceable  strikes  or  boycotts  are 
violations  of  fundamental  rights. 

It  may  be  said  that  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  par- 
alyse industry  by  peaceable  strikes.  That,  however, 
is  a  different  question.  The  right  to  make  the  attempt 
is  what  has  been  argued. 

Some  writers  condemn  labor  organisations  on  the 
ground  that  the)'   are  trusts  and   conspiracies   main- 


43o8 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


tained  for  the  purpose  of  enhancing  prices  and  con- 
trolling production.  For  those  who  favor  the  prohi- 
bition of  capitalists'  trusts  and  combinations,  it  is  logi- 
cal to  insist  upon  legislative  measures  against  labor 
trusts.  But  from  the  standpoint  of  the  principles  here 
defended,  all  legislation  against  any  trusts  and  com- 
binations of  capital  or  labor  is  indefensible  and  im- 
moral. Competition  is  not  a  duty,  but  a  right.  Capi- 
talists are  no  more  obliged,  ethically,  to  compete  among 
themselves  than  laborers  are.  Both  capitalists  and 
laborers  have  the  right  to  combine  and  fix  prices, 
amount  of  production,  etc.  The  outcry  against  trusts 
is  based  on  notions  inconsistent  with  industrial  free- 
dom. All  that  the  public  can  demand  is  a  condition 
under  which  competition  is  possible  for  those  who  de- 
sire to  compete.  That  is  to  say,  legislation  must  not 
establish' any  monopolies  and  "protect"  any  special 
class  from  the  influence  of  competition.  A  free  field 
once  secured,  the  contending  parties  may  come  to- 
gether and  agree  to  work  in  harmony. 

A  great  deal  of  evil  doubtless  results  from  the  opera- 
tion of  existing  trusts  and  combinations,  but  the  remedy 
is  to  be  found, not  in  the  suppression  of  the  trusts  by  law, 
but  in  the  abolition  of  those  conditions  which  arm  the 
trusts  with  power  which  they  should  not  possess  and 
which  they  could  not  possess  under  freedom  of  com- 
petition. It  is  protection  by  special  legislation  that 
makes  the  trusts  so  dangerous  and  powerful.  In  the 
principle  of  the  trust  there  is  nothing  inherently  mis- 
chievous. Capital  has  a  perfect  right  to  organise,  lock- 
out, tie-up,  and  paralyse  all  labor  by  suspending  ope- 
rations ;  the  capitalists  are  not  in  duty  bound  to  employ 
labor  or  to  supply  the  public  with  wares.  Labor  has 
the  right  to  combine,  boycott,  tie-up,  and  paralyse 
capital  by  refusing  to  work,  since  it  is  not  obliged  to 
sell  itself  to  capital  or  to  take  care  of  the  public.  But 
neither  has  the  right  to  use  force  and  to  violate  equal 
liberty,  and  neither  is  entitled  to  special  privileges  and 
monopolies.  If  the  State  wishes  to  enforce  equality 
of  freedom,  let  it  refrain  from  interfering  with  conduct 
not  inconsistent  with  equal  freedom,  and  from  enacting 
positive  legislation  which,  by  its  injustice,  breeds  ag- 
gression and  war. 

ON  THE  RELATIVE  EDUCATIONAL  WORTH   OF  THE 

CLASSICS  AND  THE  MATHEMATICO-PHYSICAL 

SCIENCES  IN  COLLEGES  AND  HIGH 

SCHOOLS. 

BY   PROF.    ERNST    MACH. 
II. 

Of  the  lamentable  conditions  produced  by  the  com- 
mon method  of  teaching  the  classics,  we  spoke  in  the 
preceding  article. 

This  must  be  changed.  It  is  possible  to  get  ac- 
quainted with  the  views  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  by 
a  shorter  road  than  by  the  intellect  deadening  process 


of  eight  or  ten  years  of  declining,  conjugating,  analys- 
ing, and  extemporisation.  There  are  to-day  plenty  of 
educated  persons  who  have  acquired  through  good 
translations  vivider,  clearer,  and  more  just  views  of 
classical  antiquity  than  the  graduates  of  our  gymna- 
siums and  colleges.^ 

For  us  moderns,  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans  are 
simply  two  objects  of  archaeological  and  historical  re- 
search like  all  others.  If  we  put  them  before  our 
youth  in  fresh  and  living  pictures,  and  not  merely  in 
words  and  syllables,  the  effect  will  be  assured.  We 
derive  a  totally  different  enjoyment  from  the  Greeks 
when  we  approach  them  after  a  study  of  the  results 
of  modern  research  in  the  history  of  civilisation.  We 
read  many  a  chapter  of  Herodotus  differently  when  we 
attack  his  works  equipped  with  a  knowledge  of  natural 
science,  and  with  information  about  the  stone  age  and 
the  lake-dwellers.  What  our  classical  institutions /;-^- 
tetid  to  give  can  and  actually  will  be  given  to  our  youth 
with  much  more  fruitful  results  by  competent  historical 
instruction,  which  must  supply,  not  names  and  num- 
bers alone,  nor  the  mere  history  of  dynasties  and  wars, 
but  be  in  every  sense  of  the  word  a  true  history  of 
civilisation. 

The  view  still  widely  prevails  that  all  "higher, 
ideal  culture,"  all  extension  of  our  view  of  the  world, 
is  acquired  by  philological  and  in  a  lesser  degree  by 
historical  studies  ;  still,  that  the  mathematics  and  nat- 
tural  sciences  should  not  be  neglected  on  account  of 
their  usefulness.  This  is  an  opinion  to  which  I  must 
refuse  my  assent.  It  were  strange  if  man  could  learn 
more,  could  draw  more  intellectual  nourishment,  from 
the  shards  of  a  few  old  broken  jugs,  from  inscribed 
stones,  or  yellow  parchments,  than  from  all  the  rest 
of  nature.  True,  man  is  man's  first  concern,  but  he 
is  not  his  sole  concern. 

In  ceasing  to  regard  man  as  the  centre  of  the  world  ; 
in  discovering  that  the  earth  is  a  top  whirled  about 
the  sun,  which  speeds  off  with  it  into  infinite  space; 
in  finding  that  in  the  fixed  stars  the  same  elements 
exist  as  on  earth  ;  in  meeting  everywhere  the  same 
processes  of  which  the  life  of  man  is  merely  a  vanish- 
ingly  small  part — in  such  things,  too,  is  a  widening  of 
our  view  of  the  world,  and  edification,  and  poetry. 
There  are  here  perhaps  grander  and  more  significant 
facts  than  the  bellowing  of  the  wounded  Aries,  or  the 
charming  island  of  Calypso,  or  the  ocean-stream  en- 
girdling the  earth.  He  only  should  speak  of  the  rela- 
tive value  of  these  two  domains  of  thought,  of  their 
poetry,  who  knows  both. 

The  "utility"  of  physical  science  is,  in  a  measure, 

1 1  would  not  for  a  moment  contend  that  we  derive  exactly  the  same  profit 
from  a  Greek  author  by  reading  him  in  a  translation  instead  of  in  the  orig- 
inal ;  but  the  ditference,  the  excess  of  Rain  in  the  second  case,  appears  to  me, 
and  probably  will  to  most  men  who  are  not  professional  philologists,  to  be 
too  dearly  bought  with  the  expenditure  of  eight  years  of  valuable  time. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4309 


merely  a  collateral  product  of  that  flight  of  the  intellect 
which  produced  science.  No  one,  however,  should 
underrate  the  utility  of  science  who  has  shared  in  the 
realisation  by  modern  industrial  art  of  the  Oriental 
world  of  fables,  much  less  one  upon  whom  those  treas- 
ures have  been  poured,  as  it  were,  from  the  fourth  di- 
mension, without  his  aid  or  understanding. 

Nor  may  we  believe  that  science  is  useful  only  to 
the  practical  man.  Its  influence  permeates  all  our  af- 
fairs, our  whole  life;  everywhere  its  ideas  are  decisive. 
How  differently  will  the  jurist,  the  legislator,  or  the  po- 
litical economist  think,  who  knows,  for  example,  that 
a  square  mile  of  the  most  fertile  land  can  support  with 
the  solar  heat  annually  consumed  only  a  definite  num- 
ber of  human  beings,  which  no  art  or  science  can  in- 
crease. Many  economical  theories,  which  open  new 
air-paths  of  progress,  air-paths  in  the  literal  sense  of 
the  word,  would  be  made  impossible  by  such  knowl- 
edge. 

The  eulogists  of  classical  education  love  to  empha- 
sise the  cultivation  of  taste  which  comes  from  employ- 
ment with  the  ancient  models.  I  candidly  confess 
that  there  is  something  absolutely  revolting  in  this  to 
me.  To  form  taste,  then,  our  youths  must  sacrifice 
ten  years  of  their  life  !  Luxury  takes  precedence  over 
necessity.  Have  the  future  generations,  in  the  face 
of  the  difficult  problems,  the  great  social  questions, 
which  they  must  meet,  and  that  with  strengthened 
mind  and  heart,  no  more  important  duties  to  fulfil  than 
these  ? 

But  let  us  assume  that  this  end  were  desirable. 
Can  taste  be  formed  by  rules  and  precepts?  Do  not 
ideals  of  beauty  change  ?  Is  it  not  a  stupendous  ab- 
surdity to  force  one's  self  artificially  to  admire  things 
which,  with  all  their  historical  interest,  with  all  their 
beauty  in  individual  points,  are  for  the  most  part 
foreign  to  the  rest  of  our  thoughts  and  feelings,  pro- 
vided we  have  such  of  our  own.  A  nation  that  is 
truly  such,  has  its  own  taste  and  will  not  go  to  others 
for  it.  And  every  individual  perfect  man  has  his  own 
taste.' 

And  what,  after  all,  does  this  cultivation  of  taste 
consist  in  ?  In  the  acquisition  of  the  personal  literary 
style  of  a  few  select  authors  !  What  should  we  think 
of   a  people   that  would  force   its  youth   a   thousand 

1"  The  temptation,"  Judge  Hartwich  writes,  "to  regard  the  'taste  '  of  the 
"  ancients  as  so  lofty  and  unsurpassable  appears  to  me  to  have  its  chief  origin 
"in  the  fact  that  the  ancients  were  unexcelled  in  the  representation  of  the 
"nude.  First,  by  their  unremitting  care  of  the  human  body  they  produced 
"splendid  models;  and  secondly,  in  their  gymnasiums  and  in  their  athletic 
"  games  they  had  these  models  constantly  before  their  eyes.  No  wonder,  then, 
"  that  their  statues  still  excite  our  admiration  !  For  the  form,  the  ideal  of  the 
"  human  body  has  not  changed  in  the  course  of  the  centuries.  But  with  intel- 
"  lectual  matters  it  is  totally  different ;  they  change  from  century  to  century, 
"nay,  from  decennium  to  decennium.  It  is  very  natural  now,  that  people 
"  should  unconsciously  apply  what  is  thus  so  easily  seen,  namely,  the  works  of 
"  sculpture,  as  a  universal  criterion  of  the  highly  developed  tastes  of  the  an- 
"  cients — a  fallacy  against  which  people  cannot,  in  my  judgment,  be  too  strongly 
"  warned." 


years  from  now,  by  years  of  practice,  to  master  the 
tortuous  or  bombastic  style  of  some  successful  lawyer 
or  poHtician  of  to-day?  Should  we  not  justly  accuse 
them  of  a  woful  lack  of  taste  ? 

The  evil  effects  of  this  imagined  cultivation  of  the 
taste  find  expression  often  enough.  The  young  savant 
who  regards  the  composition  of  a  scientific  essay  as  a 
rhetorical  exercise  instead  of  a  simple  and  unadorned 
presentation  of  the  facts  and  the  truth,  still  sits  uncon- 
sciously on  the  school-bench,  and  still  unwittingly  rep- 
resents the  point  of  view  of  the  Romans,  by  whom  the 
elaboration  of  speeches  was  regarded  as  a  serious  sci- 
entific (!)  employment. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  underrate  the  value  of  the  de- 
velopment of  the  instinct  of  speech  and  of  the  increased 
comprehension  of  our  own  language  which  comes  from 
philological  studies.  By  the  study  of  a  foreign  lan- 
guage, especially  of  one  which  differs  widely  from  ours, 
the  signs  and  forms  of  words  are  first  clearly  distin- 
guished from  the  thoughts  which  they  express.  Words 
of  the  closest  possible  correspondence  indifferent  lan- 
guages never  coincide  absolutely  with  the  ideas  they 
stand  for,  but  place  in  relief  slightly  different  aspects 
of  the  same  thing,  and  by  the  study  of  language  the 
attention  is  directed  to  these  shades  of  difference.  But 
it  would  be  far  from  admissible  to  contend  that  the 
study  of  Latin  and  Greek  is  the  most  fruitful  and  nat- 
ural, let  alone  the  only,  means  of  attaining  this  end. 
Any  one  who  will  give  himself  the  pleasure  of  a  few 
hours'  companionship  with  a  Chinese  grammar ;  who 
will  seek  to  make  clear  to  himself  the  mode  of  speech 
and  thought  of  a  people  who  never  advanced  as  far  as 
the  analysis  of  articulate  sounds,  but  stopped  at  the 
analysis  of  syllables,  to  whom  our  alphabetical  char- 
acters, therefore,  are  an  inexplicable  puzzle,  and  who 
express  all  their  rich  and  profound  thoughts  by  means 
of  a  few  syllables  with  variable  emphasis  and  position, 
— such  a  person,  perhaps,  will  acquire  new,  and  ex- 
tremely elucidative  ideas  upon  the  relation  of  lan- 
guage and  thought.  But  should  our  children,  there- 
fore, study  Chinese  ?  Certainly  not.  No  more,  then, 
should  they  be  burdened  with  Latin,  at  least  in  the 
measure  they  are. 

It  is  a  beautiful  achievement  to  reproduce  a  Latin 
thought  in  a  modern  language  with  the  maximum  fidel- 
ity of  meaning  and  expression  —  for  the  translator. 
Moreover,  we  shall  be  very  grateful  to  the  translator 
for  his  performance.  But  to  demand  this  feat  of  every 
educated  man,  without  consideration  of  the  sacrifice  of 
time  and  labor  which  it  entails,  is  unreasonable.  And 
for  this  very  reason,  as  classical  teachers  admit,  that 
ideal  is  never  perfectly  attained,  except  in  rare  cases 
with  scholars  possessed  of  special  talents  and  great 
industry.  Without  slurring,  therefore,  the  high  im- 
portance of  the  study  of  the  ancient  languages  as  a 


rxO 


\^ 


O^ 


4310 


THE     OFEN     COURT. 


profession,  we  may  still  feel  sure  that  the  instinct  for 
speech  which  is  part  of  every  liberal  education  can,  and 
must,be  acquired  in  a  different  way.  Should  we,  indeed, 
be  forever  lost  if  the  Greeks  had  not  lived  before  us  ? 

The  fact  is,  we  must  carry  our  demands  further 
than  the  representatives  of  classical  philology.  We 
must  ask  of  every  educated  man  a  fair  scientific  con- 
ception of  the  nature  and  value  of  language,  of  the 
formation  of  language,  of  the  alteration  of  the  mean- 
ing of  roots,  of  the  degeneration  of  fixed  forms  of 
speech  to  grammatical  forms,  in  brief,  of  all  the  main 
results  of  modern  comparative  philology.  We  should 
judge  that  this  were  attainable  by  a  careful  study  of 
our  mother  tongue  and  of  the  languages  next  allied  to 
it,  and  subsequently  of  the  more  ancient  tongues  from 
which  the  former  are  derived.  If  any  one  object  that 
this  is  too  difficult  and  entails  too  much  labor,  I  should 
advise  such  a  person  to  place  side  by  side  an  English, 
Dutch,  Danish,  Swedish,  and  German  Bible,  and  to 
compare  a  few  lines  of  them ;  he  would  be  amazed  at 
the  multitude  of  suggestions  that  offer  themselves.* 
In  fact,  I  believe  that  a  really  progressive,  fruitful,  ra- 
tional, and  instructive  study  of  languages  can  be  con- 
ducted only  on  this  plan.  Many  of  my  audience  will 
remember,  perhaps,  the  bright  and  encouraging  effect, 
like  that  of  a  ray  pi  sunlight  on  a  gloomy  day,  which 
the  meagre  and  furtive  remarks  on  comparative  phi- 
lology in  Curtius's  Greek  grammar  wrought  in  that 
barren  and  lifeless  desert  of  verbal  quibbles. 

The  principal  result  obtained  by  the  present  method 
of  studying  the  ancient  languages  is  that  which  comes 
from  the  student's  employment  with  their  complicated 
grammars.  It  consists  in  the  sharpening  of  the  atten- 
tion and  in  the  exercise  of  the  judgment  by  the  prac- 
tice of  subsuming  special  cases  under  general  rules, 
and  of  distinguishing  between  different  cases.  Ob- 
viously, the  same  result  may  be  reached  by  many 
other  methods ;  for  example,  by  difficult  games  of 
cards.  Every  science,  the  mathematics  and  the  physi- 
cal sciences  included,  accomplish  as  much,  if  not 
more,  in  this  disciplining  of  the  judgment.  In  addi- 
tion, the  matter  treated  by  those  sciences  has  a  much 
higher  intrinsic  interest  for  young  people,  and  so  en- 
gages spontaneously  their  attention;  while  on  the 
other  hand  they  are  elucidative  and  useful  in  other  di- 
rections in  which   grammar  can   accomplish  nothing. 

1  English  :  "In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth, 
"  And  the  earth  was  without  form  and  void  ;  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face 
"  of  the  deep.  And  the  spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters."— 
Dutch:  "In  het  begin  schiep  God  den  hemel  en  de  aarde.  De  aarde  nu  was 
"  woest  en  ledig,  en  duisternis  was  op  den  afgrond  ;  en  de  Geest  Gods  zwefde 
"op  de  wateren."— Danish  :  "  I  Begyndelsen  skabte  Gud  Himmelen  og  Jor- 
"den.  Og  Jorden  var  ode  og  torn,  og  der  var  morkt  ovenover  Afgrunden,  og 
"Guds  Aand  svoevede  ovenoverVandene."— Swedish:  "I  begynnelsen  ska- 
"  pade  Gud  Himmel  och  Jord.  Och  Jorden  war  tide  och  torn,  och  miSrker  war 
"  p:l  djupet,  och  Gods  Ande  sw;-ifde  ofwer  wattnet."— German  ;  "Am  Anfang 
"  schut  Gott  Himmel  und  Erde.  Und  die  Erde  war  wiist  und  leer,  und  es  war 
"  finster  auf  der  Tiete  ;  und  der  Geist  Gottes  schwebte  auf  dem  Wasser." 


Who  cares,  so  far  as  the  matter  of  it  is  concerned, 
whether  we  say  hominuni  or  hominorum  in  the  genitive 
plural,  interesting  as  the  fact  may  be  for  the  philolo- 
gist ?  And  who  would  dispute  that  the  intellectual 
necessity  of  causal  insight  is  awakened  not  by  gram- 
mar but  by  the  natural  sciences  ? 

It  is  not  our  intention,  therefore,  to  gainsay  in  the 
least  the  good  influence  which  the  study  of  Latin  and 
Greek  grammar  also  exercises  on  the  sharpening  of  the 
judgment.  In  so  far  as  the  study  of  words  as  such 
must  greatly  promote  lucidity  and  accuracy  of  ex- 
pression, in  so  far  as  Latin  and  Greek  are  not  yet 
wholly  indispensable  to  many  branches  of  knowledge, 
we  willingly  concede  to  them  a  place  in  our  schools, 
but  would  demand  that  the  disproportionate  amount  of 
time  allotted  to  them,  wrongly  withdrawn  from  other 
useful  studies,  should  be  considerably  curtailed.  That 
in  the  end  Latin  and  Greek  will  not  be  employed  as 
the  universal  means  of  education,  we  are  fully  con- 
vinced. They  will  be  relegated  to  the  closet  of  the 
scholar  or  professional  philologist,  and  gradually  make 
way  for  the  modern  languages  and  the  modern  science 
of  language. 

Long  ago  Locke  reduced  to  their  proper  limits  the 
exaggerated  notions  which  obtained  of  the  close  con- 
nexion of  thought  and  speech,  of  logic  and  grammar, 
and  recent  investigators  have  established  on  still  surer 
foundations  his  views.  How  little  a  complicated  gram- 
mar is  necessary  for  expressing  delicate  shades  of 
thought  is  demonstrated  by  the  Italians  and  French, 
who,  although  they  have  almost  totally  discarded  the 
grammatical  redundancies  of  the  Romans,  are  yet  not 
surpassed  by  the  latter  in  accuracy  of  thought,  and 
whose  poetical,  but  especially  whose  scientific  litera- 
ture, as  no  one  will  dispute,  can  bear  favorable  com- 
parison with  the  Romans. 

THE  OPEN   COURT 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  379. 

STRIKES,  LOCAL  AND  SYMPATHETIC.    G.  Koerner.  4303 

LABOR'S  CLAIMS  AND  METHODS.     Victor  Yarros.  4305 

ON    THE   RELATIVE   EDUCATIONAL   WORTH    OF 

THE     CLASSICS     AND     THE     MATHEMATICO- 

PHYSICAL     SCIENCES     IN     COLLEGES     AND 

HIGH  SCHOOLS.     II.     Prof.  Ernst  Mach 4308 


The  Open  Court. 


A   WEEKLY  JOURNAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  380.   (Vol.  vin.-49  )  CHICAGO,  DECEMBER  6,   1894. 


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ON  THE    RELATIVE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF    THE 

CLASSICS  AND  THE  MATHEMATICO-PHYSICAL 

SCIENCES  IN  COLLEGES  AND  HIGH 

SCHOOLS. 

by  prof.  ernst  mach. 
[concluded.] 

While  considering  the  study  of  languages  we  threw 
a  few  side  glances  on  mathematics  and  the  natural  sci- 
ences. Let  us  now  inquire  whether  these,  as  branches 
of  study,  cannot  accomplish  much  that  is  to  be  attained 
in  no  other  way.  I  shall  meet  with  no  contradiction 
when  I  say  that  without  at  least  an  elementary  mathe- 
matical and  scientific  education  a  man  remains  a  total 
stranger  in  the  world  in  which  he  lives,  a  stranger  in 
the  civilisation  of  the  time  that  bears  him.  Whatever 
he  meets  in  nature,  or  in  the  industrial  world,  either 
does  not  appeal  to  him  at  all,  from  his  having  neither 
eye  nor  ear  for  it,  or  it  speaks  to  him  in  a  totally  unin- 
telligible language. 

A  real  understanding  of  the  world  and  its  civilisa- 
tion, however,  is  not  the  only  result  of  the  study  of 
mathematics  and  the  physical  sciences.  Much  more 
essential  for  the  preparatory  school  is  the /('//«(?/ cul- 
tivation which  comes  from  these  studies,  the  strength- 
ening of  the  reason  and  the  judgment,  the  exercise 
of  the  imagination.  Mathematics,  physics,  chemistry, 
and  the  so-called  descriptive  sciences  are  so  much 
alike  in  this  respect,  that,  excepting  a  few  points,  we 
need  not  separate  them  in  our  discussion. 

Logical  sequence  and  continuity  of  ideas,  so  neces- 
sary for  fruitful  thought,  are  the  results /ar  excellence  of 
mathematics  ;  the  ability  to  follow  facts  with  thoughts, 
that  is,  to  observe  or  collect  experiences,  is  chiefly  de 
veloped  by  the  natural  sciences.  Whether  we  notice 
that  the  sides  and  the  angles  of  a  triangle  are  connected 
in  a  definite  way,  that  an  equilateral  triangle  possesses 
certain  definite  properties  of  symmetry,  or  whether  we 
notice  the  deflexion  of  a  magnetic  needle  by  an  elec- 
tric current,  the  dissolution  of  zinc  in  diluted  sulphuric 
acid,  whether  we  remark  that  the  wings  of  a  butterfly 
are  slightly  colored  on  the  under,  and  the  fore-wings 
of  the  moth  on  the  upper,  surface  :  indiscriminately 
here  we  proceed  from  observations,  from  individual 
acts  of  immediate  intuitive  knowledge.  The  field  of 
observations  is  more  restricted  and  lies  closer  at  hand 


in  mathematics  ;  it  is  more  varied  and  broader  but 
more  difficult  to  compass  in  the  natural  sciences.  The 
essential  thing,  however,  is  for  the  student  to  learn  to 
make  observations  in  all  these  fields.  The  philosophi- 
cal question  whether  our  acts  of  knowledge  in  mathe- 
matics are  of  a  special  kind  is  here  of  no  importance 
for  us.  It  is  true,  of  course,  that  the  observation  can 
be  practised  by  languages  also.  But  no  one,  surely, 
will  dispute,  that  the  concrete,  living  pictures  pre- 
sented in  the  fields  just  mentioned  possess  different 
and  more  powerful  attractions  for  the  mind  of  the 
3'outh  than  the  abstract  and  hazy  figures  which  lan- 
guage offers,  and  on  which  the  attention  is  certainly  not 
so  spontaneously  bestowed,  nor  with  such  good  re- 
sults.' 

Observation  having  revealed  the  different  proper- 
ties of  a  given  geometrical  or  physical  object,  it  is  dis- 
covered that  in  many  cases  these  properties  depend  in 
some  way  upon  one  another.  This  interdependence 
of  properties  (say  that  of  equal  sides  and  equal  angles 
at' the  base  of  a  triangle,  the  relation  of  pressure  to 
motion,)  is  nowhere  so  distinctly  marked,  nowhere  is 
the  necessity  and  permanency  of  the  interdependence 
so  plainly  noticeable,  as  in  the  fields  mentioned. 
Hence  the  continuity  and  logical  consequence  of  the 
ideas  which  we  acquire  in  those  fields.  The  relative 
simplicity  and  perspicuity  of  geometrical  and  phys- 
ical relations  supply  here  the  conditions  of  natural  and 
easy  progress.  Relations  of  equal  simplicity  are  not 
met  with  in  the  fields  which  the  study  of  language 
opens  up.  Many  of  you,  doubtless,  have  often  won- 
dered at  the  little  respect  for  the  notions  of  cause  and 
effect  and  their  connexion  that  is  sometimes  found 
among  professed  representatives  of  the  classical  stud- 
ies. The  explanation  is  probably  to  be  sought  in  the 
fact  that  the  analogous  relation  of  motive  and  action 
familiar  to  them  from  their  studies,  presents  nothing 
like  the  clear  simplicity  and  determinateness  that  the 
relation  of  cause  and  effect  does. 

That  perfect  mental  grasp  of  all  possible  cases, 
that  economical  order  and  organic  union  of  the  thoughts 
which  comes  from  it,  which  has  grown  for  every  one 
who  has   ever  tasted  it   a  permanent  need  which  he 

1  Compare  Herzen's  excellent  remarks,  De  I'enseignemeitt  sccondaire  dans 
a  Suisse  romnnde.     Lausanne,  1886. 


43i: 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


seeks  to  satisfy  in  every  new  field,  can  be  developed 
only  by  employment  with  the  relative  simplicity  of 
mathematical  and  scientific  investigations. 

When  a  set  of  facts  comes  into  apparent  conflict 
with  another  set  of  facts,  and  a  problem  is  presented, 
its  solution  ordinarily  consists  in  a  more  refined  dis- 
tinction or  in  a  more  extended  view  of  the  facts,  as 
may  be  aptly  illustrated  by  Newton's  solution  of  the 
problem  of  dispersion.  When  a  new  mathematical  or 
scientific  fact  is  deinonstrated,  or  explained,  such  demon- 
stration rests  again  simply  upon  showing  the  connex- 
ion of  the  new  fact  with  the  facts  already  known  ;  for 
example,  that  the  radius  of  a  circle  can  be  laid  off  as 
chord  exactly  six  times  in  the  circle  is  explained  or 
proved  by  dividing  the  regular  hexagon  inscribed  in 
the  circle  into  equilateral  triangles.  That  the  quantity 
of  heat  developed  in  a  second  in  a  wire  conveying  an 
electric  current  is  quadrupled  on  the  doubling  of  the 
strength  of  the  current,  we  explain  from  the  doubling  of 
the  fall  of  the  potential  due  to  the  doubling  of  the 
current's  intensity,  as  also  from  the  doubling  of  the 
quantity  flowing  through,  in  a  word,  from  the  quad- 
rupling of  the  work  done.  In  point  of  principle,  ex- 
planation and  direct  proof  do  not  differ  much. 

He  who  solves  scientifically  a  geometrical,  phys- 
ical, or  technical  problem,  easily  remarks  that  his 
procedure  is  a  methodical  7nental  quest,  rendered  pos- 
sible by  the  economical  order  of  the  province — a  sim- 
plified purposeful  quest  as  contrasted  with  unmethod- 
ical, unscientific  guess  work.  The  geometer,  for  ex- 
ample, who  has  to  construct  a  circle  touching  two  given 
straight  lines,  casts  his  eye  over  the  relations  of  sym- 
metry of  the  desired  construction,  and  seeks  the  centre 
of  his  circle  solely  in  the  line  of  symmetry  of  the  two 
straight  lines.  The  person  who  wants  a  triangle  of 
which  two  angles  and  the  sum  of  the  sides  are  given, 
grasps  in  his  mind  the  determinateness  of  the  form  of 
this  triangle  and  restricts  his  search  for  it  to  a  certain 
group  of  triangles  of  the  same  form.  Under  very  dif- 
ferent circumstances,  therefore,  the  simplicity,  the  in- 
tellectual perviousness,  of  the  subject-matter  of  mathe- 
matics and  natural  science  is  felt,  and  promotes  both 
the  discipline  and  self-confidence  of  the  reason. 

Unquestionably,  much  more  will  be  attained  by  in- 
struction in  the  mathematics  and  the  natural  sciences 
than  now  is,  when  more  natural  methods  are  adopted. 
One  point  of  importance  here  is  that  young  students 
should  not  be  spoiled  by  premature  abstraction,  but 
should  be  made  acquainted  with  their  material  from 
living  pictures  of  it  before  they  are- made  to  work  with 
it  by  purely  ratiocinative  methods.  A  good  stock  of 
geometrical  experience  could  be  obtained,  for  exam- 
ple, from  geometrical  drawing  and  from  the  practical 
construction  of  models.  In  the  place  of  the  unfruitful 
method   of  Euclid,  which   is   only  fit  for  special,  re- 


stricted uses,  a  broader  and  more  conscious  method 
must  be  adopted,  as  Hankel  has  pointed  out.^  Then, 
if,  on  reviewing  geometry,  and  after  it  presents  no 
substantial  difficulties,  the  more  general  points  of  view, 
the  principles  of  scientific  method  are  placed  in  relief 
and  brought  to  consciousness,  as  Von  Nagel,-  J.  K. 
Becker,^  Mann,*  and  others  have  well  done,  fruit- 
ful results  will  be  surely  attained.  In  the  same  way, 
the  subject-matter  of  the  natural  sciences  should  be 
made  familiar  by  pictures  and  experiment  before  a 
profounder  and  reasoned  grasp  of  these  subjects  is 
attempted.  Here  the  emphasis  of  the  more  general 
points  of  view  is  to  be  postponed. 

Before  my  present  audience  it  would  be  superfluous 
for  me  to  contend  further  that  mathematics  and  nat- 
ural science  are  justified  constituents  of  a  sound  edu- 
cation,— a  claim  that  even  philologists,  after  some 
resistance,  have  conceded.  Here  I  may  count  upon 
assent  when  I  say  that  mathematics  and  the  natural 
sciences  pursued  alone  as  means  of  instruction  yield  a 
richer  education  in  matter  and  form,  a  more  general 
education,  an  education  better  adapted  to  the  needs 
and  spirit  of  the  time, — than  the  philological  branches 
pursued  alone  would  yield. 

But  how  shall  this  idea  be  realised  in  the  curricula 
of  our  intermediate  educational  institutions?  It  is  un- 
questionable in  my  mind  that  the  German  Realschulen 
and  Rea/gynniasiefi,  where  the  exclusive  classical  course 
is  for  the  most  part  replaced  by  mathematics,  science, 
and  modern  languages,  give  the  average  man  a  more 
timely  education  than  the  gymnasium  proper,  although 
they  are  not  yet  regarded  as  fit  preparatory  schools  for 
future  theologians  and  professional  philologists.  The 
German  gymnasiums  are  too  one-sided.  With  these 
the  first  changes  are  to  be  made  ;  of  these  alone  we 
shall  speak  here.  Possibly  a  single  preparatory  school, 
suitably  planned,  might  serve  all  purposes. 

Shall  we,  then,  in  our  gymnasiums  fill  out  the  hours 
of  study  which  stand  at  our  disposal,  or  are  still  to  be 
wrested  from  the  classicists,  with  as  great  and  as  va- 
ried a  quantity  of  mathematical  and  scientific  matter 
as  possible?  Expect  no  such  propositions  from  me. 
No  one  will  suggest  such  a  course  who  has  himself 
been  actively  engaged  in  scientific  thought.  Thoughts 
can  be  awakened  and  fructified  as  a  field  is  fructified 
by  sunshine  and  rain.  But  thoughts  cannot  be  jug- 
gled out  and  worried  out  by  heaping  up  materials  and 
the  hours  of  instruction,  nor  by  any  sort  of  precepts  r 
they  must  grow  naturally  of  their  own  free  accord. 
Furthermore,  thoughts  cannot  be  accumulated  beyond 
a  certain  limit  in  a  single  head,  any  more  than  the  pro- 
duce of  a  field  can  be  increased  beyond  all  limits. 

1  Geschichte  tfc7-  Mathemaiik,  Leipsic,  1874. 

2  Ccometrische  Analyse,  Ulm,  1886. 

JUn  his  text-books  of  elementary  mathematics. 

■I  Abkandtvngen  aus  dcm  Gebiete  iter  Matkematik,  Wiirzburg.  1883. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4313 


I  believe  that  the  amount  of  matter  necessary  for  a 
useful  education,  such  as  should  be  offered  to  all  the 
pupils  of  a  preparatory  school,  is  very  small.  If  I  had 
the  requisite  influence,  I  should,  in  all  composure, 
and  with  the  conviction  of  doing  what  was  best,  first 
greatly  curtail  in  the  lower  classes  the  amount  of  mat- 
ter in  both  the  classical  and  the  scientific  courses  ;  I 
should  cut  down  considerably  the  number  of  the  school 
hours  and  the  work  done  outside  the  school.  I  am 
not  with  many  teachers  of  opinion  that  ten  hours  work 
a  da}'  for  a  child  is  not  too  much.  I  am  convinced 
that  the  mature  men  who  offer  this  advice  so  lightly 
are  themselves  unable  to  give  their  attention  success- 
fully for  as  long  a  time  to  any  subject  that  is  new  to 
them,  (for  example,  to  elementary  mathematics  or 
physics,)  and  I  would  ask  every  one  who  thinks  the 
contrary  to  make  the  experiment  upon  himself.  Learn- 
ing and  teaching  are  not  routine  office-work  that  can 
be  kept  up  mechanically  for  any  length  of  time.  But 
even  such  work  tires  in  the  end.  If  our  young  men 
are  not  to  enter  the  universities  with  blunted  and  im- 
poverished minds,  if  they  are  not  to  leave  in  the  prep- 
aratory schools  their  vital  energy,  which  they  should 
there  gather,  great  changes  must  be  made.  Waiving 
the  injurious  effects  of  overwork  upon  the  body,  the 
consequences  of  it  for  the  mind  seem  to  me  really 
dreadful. 

I  know  nothing  more  terrible  than  the  poor  crea- 
tures who  have  learned  too  much.  Instead  of  that 
sound  powerful  judgment  which  would  probably  have 
grown  up  if  they  had  learned  nothing,  their  thoughts 
creep  timidly  and  hypnotically  after  words,  principles, 
and  formulae,  constantly  by  the  same  paths.  What 
they  have  acquired  is  a  spider's  web  of  thoughts  too 
weak  to  furnish  sure  supports,  but  complicated  enough 
to  produce  confusion. 

But  how  shall  better  methods  of  mathematical  and 
scientific  education  be  combined  with  the  decrease  of 
the  subject  matter  of  instruction  ?  I  think,  by  aban- 
doning systematic  instruction  altogether,  at  least  in  so 
far  as  that  is  required  of  all  3'oung  pupils.  I  see  no 
necessity  whatever  that  the  graduates  of  our  high 
schools  and  preparatory  schools  should  be  little  phi- 
lologists, and  at  the  same  time  little  mathematicians, 
physicists,  and  botanists  ;  in  fact,  I  do  not  see  the  pos- 
sibility of  such  a  result.  I  see  in  the  endeavor  to  at- 
tain this  result,  in  which  every  instructor  seeks  for  his 
own  branch  a  place  apart  from  the  others,  the  main 
mistake  of  our  whole  system.  I  should  be  satisfied  if 
every  young  student  could  come  into  living  contact 
with  and  pursue  to  their  ultimate  logical  consequences 
merely  a  few  mathematical  or  scientific  discoveries. 
Such  instruction  would  be  mainly  and  naturally  asso- 
ciated with  selections  from  the  great  scientific  classics. 
A  few  powerful   and  lucid  ideas  could   be  thus  made 


to  take  root  in  the  mind  and  be  thoroughly  worked 
out.  This  accomplished,  our  youth  would  make  a 
different  showing  from  what  they  do  to-day.i 

With  John  Karl  Becker  I  am  of  opinion  that  the 
the  utility  and  amount  for  individuals  of  every  study 
should  be  precisely  determined.  All  that  exceeds  this 
amount  should  be  unconditionally  banished  from  the 
lower  classes.  With  respect  to  mathematics,  Becker,-' 
in  my  judgment,  has  admirably  solved  this  question. 

With  respect  to  the  upper  classes  the  demand  as- 
sumes a  different  form.  Here  also  the  amount  of  mat- 
ter obHgatory  on  all  pupils  ought  not  to  exceed  a  cer- 
tain limit.  But  in  the  great  mass  of  knowledge  that  a 
young  man  must  acquire  to-day  for  his  profession  it  is 
no  longer  just  that  ten  years  of  his  youth  should  be 
wasted  with  mere  preludes.  The  upper  classes  should 
supply  a  truly  useful  preparation  for  the  professions, 
and  should  not  be  modelled  upon  the  wants  merely  of 
future  lawyers,  ministers,  and  philologists.  Again,  it 
would  be  both  foolish  and  impossible  to  attempt  to 
prepare  the  same  person  properly  for  all  the  different 
professions.  In  such  case  the  function  of  the  schools 
would  be,  as  Lichtenburg  feared,  simply  to  select  the 
persons  best  fitted  for  being  drilled,  whilst  precisely  the 
finest  special  talents,  which  do  not  submit  to  indis- 
criminate discipline,  would  be  excluded  from  the  con- 
test. Hence,  a  certain  amount  of  liberty  in  the  choice 
of  studies  must  be  introduced  in  the  upper  classes,  by 
means  of  which  it  will  be  free  for  every  one  who  is  clear 
about  the  choice  of  his  profession  to  devote  his  chief 
attention  either  to  the  study  of  the  philologico-histor- 
ical  or  to  that  of  the  mathematico  scientific  branches. 
Then  the  matter  now  treated  could  be  retained,  and  in 
some  branches,  perhaps,  judiciously  extended,-'  without 
burdening  the  scholar  with  many  branches  or  increas- 
ing the  number  of  the  hours  of  study.  With  more 
homogeneous  work  the  student's  capacity  for  work  in- 
creases, one  part  of  his  labor  supporting  the  other 
instead  of  obstructing  it.  If,  however,  a  young  man 
should  subsequently  choose  a  different  profession,  then 
it  is  his  business  to  make  up  what  he  has  lost.  No 
harm  certainly  will  come  to  society  from  this  change, 
nor  could  it  be  regarded  as  a  misfortune  if  philologists 

1  My  idea  here  is  an  appropriate  selection  of  readings  from  Galileo.  Huy_ 
gens,  Newton,  etc.  The  choice  is  so  easily  made  that  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion of  difficulties.  The  contents  would  be  discussed  with  the  students,  and 
the  original  experiments  performed  with  them.  Those  scholars  alone  should 
receive  this  instruction  in  tlie  upper  classes  who  did  not  look  forward  to  sys- 
tematical instruction  in  the  physical  sciences.  I  do  not  make  this  proposition 
of  reform  here  for  the  first  time.  1  have  no  doubt,  moreover,  that  such  radical 
changes  will  only  be  slowly  introduced. 

2  Die  Mathematik  ah  l^hrgegenstand  des  Gymnasiums,  Berlin,  1883. 

■■!  Wrong  as  it  is  to  burden  future  physicians  and  scientists  with  Greek  for 
the  sake  of  the  theologians  and  philologists,  it  would  be  just  as  wrong  to  com- 
pel theologians  and  philologists,  on  account  cf  the  physicians,  to  study  such 
subjects  as  analytical  geometry.  Moreover,  I  cannot  believe  that  ignorance 
of  analytical  geometry  would  be  a  serious  hindrance  to  a  physician  that  was 
otherwise  well  versed  in  quantitative  thought.  No  special  advantage  generally 
is  observable  in  the  graduates  of  the  Austrian  gymnasiums,  all  of  whom  have 
studied  analytical  geometry.     [Refers  to  an  a  sertion  of  Dubois-Reymond] 


4314 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


and  lawjers  with  mathematical  educations  or  ph}'sical 
scientists  with  classical  educations  should  now  and 
then  appear. 

The  view  is  now  wide-spread  that  a  Latin  and 
Greek  education  no  longer  meets  the  general  wants  of 
the  times,  that  a  more  opportune,  a  more  "liberal" 
education  exists.  The  phrase,  "a  liberal  education," 
has  been  greatly  misused.  A  truly  liberal  education  is 
unquestionably  very  rare.  The  scliools  can  hardly  offer 
such  ;  at  best  they  can  only  bring  home  to  the  student 
the  necessity  of  it.  It  is,  then,  his  business  to  acquire, 
as  best  he  can,  a  more  or  less  liberal  education.  It 
would  be  very  difficult,  too,  at  any  one  time  to  give  a 
definition  of  a  "  liberal  "  education  which  would  satisfy 
every  one,  still  more  difficult  to  give  one  which  would 
last  for  a  hundred  years.  The  educational  ideal,  in 
fact,  is  greatly  different.  To  one,  a  knowledge  of 
classical  antiquity  appears  not  too  dearly  bought  "with 
early  death."  We  have  no  objection  to  this  person, 
or  to  those  who  think  like  him,  pursuing  their  ideal 
after  their  own  fashion.  But  we  may  certainly  protest 
strongly  against  the  realisation  of  such  ideals  on  our 
own  children.  Another,  Plato,  for  example,  puts  men 
ignorant  of  geometry  on  the  same  level  with  animals.  • 
If  such  narrow  views  had  the  magical  powers  of  the 
sorceress  Circe,  many  a  man  who  perhaps  justly 
thought  himself  well  educated  would  become  con- 
scious of  a  not  very  flattering  transformation  of  him- 
self. Let  us  seek,  therefore,  in  our  educational  sys- 
tem to  meet  the  wants  of  the  present,  and  not  estab- 
lish prejudices  for  the  future. 

But  how  does  it  come,  we  must  ask,  that  institu- 
tions so  antiquated  as  the  German  gymnasiums  could 
subsist  so  long  in  opposition  to  public  opinion?  The 
answer  is  simple.  The  schools  were  first  organised  by 
the  Church  ;  since  the  Reformation  they  have  been  in 
the  hands  of  the  State.  On  so  large  a  scale,  the  plan 
presents  many  advantages.  Means  can  be  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  education  such  as  no  private  source,  at 
least  in  Europe,  could  furnish.  Work  can  be  con- 
ducted upon  the  same  plan  in  many  schools,  and  so 
experiments  made  of  extensive  scope  which  would  be 
otherwise  impossible.  A  single  man  with  influence 
and  ideas  can  under  such  circumstances  do  great 
things  for  the  promotion  of  education. 

But  the  matter  has  also  its  reverse  aspect.  The 
party  in  power  works  for  its  own  interests,- uses  the 
schools  for  its  special  purposes.  Educational  compe 
tition  is  excluded,  for  all  successful  attempts  at  im- 
provement are  impossible  unless  undertaken  or  per- 
mitted by  the  State.  By  the  uniformity  of  the  people's 
education,  a  prejudice  once  in  vogue  is  permanently 

1  Compare  M.  Cantor,  Gescliichte  der  Mathemiitik.  Leipsic,  iSSo,  Vol.  I,  p. 


established.  The  highest  intelligences,  the  strongest 
wills  cannot  overthrow  it  suddenly.  In  fact,  as  every- 
thi/ig  is  adapted  to  the  view  in  question,  a  sudden 
change  would  be  physically  impossible.  The  two 
classes  which  virtually  hold  the  reins  of  power  in  the 
State,  the  jurists  and  theologians,  know  only  the  one- 
sided, predominantly  classical  culture  which  they  have 
acquired  in  the  State  schools,  and  would  have  this  cul- 
ture alone  valued.  Others  accept  this  opinion  from 
credulity;  others,  underestimating  their  true  worth  for 
society,  bow  before  the  power  of  the  prevalent  opin- 
ion ;  others,  again,  affect  the  opinion  of  the  ruling 
classes  even  against  their  better  judgment,  so  as  to 
abide  with  the  latter  on  the  same  plane  of  respect.  I 
will  make  no  charges,  but  I  must  confess  that  the  de- 
portment of  medical  men  with  respect  to  the  question 
of  the  qualification  of  graduates  of  your  Realschulen 
has  frequently  made  that  impression  upon  me.  Let 
us  remember,  finally,  that  an  influential  statesman, 
even  within  the  boundaries  which  the  law  and  public 
opinion  set  him,  can  do  serious  harm  to  the  cause 
of  education  by  considering  his  own  one-sided  views 
infallible,  and  in  enforcing  them  recklessly  and  incon- 
siderately— which  not  only  can  happen,  but  has,  re- 
peatedly happened. 1  The  monopoly  of  education  by 
the  State-  thus  assumes  in  our  eyes  a  somewhat  differ- 
ent aspect.  And  to  revert  to  the  question  above  asked, 
there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  German  gym- 
nasiums in  their  present  form  would  have  ceased  to 
exist  long  ago  if  the  State  had  not  supported  them. 

All  this  must  be  changed.  But  the  change  will 
not  be  made  of  itself,  nor  without  our  energetic  inter- 
ference, and  it  will  be  made  slowly.  But  the  path  is 
marked  out  for  us,  the  will  of  the  people  must  acquire 
and  exert  upon  our  school  legislation  a  greater  and 
more  powerful  influence.  Furthermore,  the  questions 
at  issue  must  be  publicly  and  candidly  discussed  that 
the  views  of  the  people  may  be  clarified.  All  who  feel 
the  insufficiency  of  the  existing  regime  must  combine 
into  a  powerful  organisation  that  their  views  may 
acquire  impressiveness  and  the  opinions  of  the  indi- 
vidual not  die  away  unheard. 

I  recently  read,  gentlemen,  in  an  excellent  book  of 
travels,  that  the  Chinese  speak  with  unwillingness  of 
politics.  Conversations  of  this  sort  are  usually  cut 
short  with  the  remark  that  they  may  bother  about  such 
things  whose  business  it  is  and  who  are  paid  for  it. 
Now  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  not  only  the  business  of 
the  State,  but  a  very  serious  concern  of  all  of  us,  how 
our  children  shall  be  educated  .in  the  public  schools 
at  our  cost. 

1  Compare  Paulsen,  I.  c,  pp.  607,  688. 

2  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Americans  will  jealously  ^uard  their  schools  and 
utiiversities  from  the  influence  of  the  State, 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4315 


PRE-EXISTENCE  AND  IMMORTALITY. 

Mr.  Louis  Prang  of  Boston,  well  known  to  every 
American  that  is  a  lover  of  art  and  art-instruction, 
writes  with  reference  to  the  article  "Immortality  and 
the  Buddhist  Soul-Conception,"  as  follows  : 

"  Its  (viz.,  the  soul's)  pre-e.\istence  ere  we  were  born  ?  This 
is  a  stumbling-block  to  my  comprehension  of  one  of  the  attributes 
of  my  "  karma."  If  we  consider  karma  the  effluence  of  the  life  of 
man.  it  becomes  his  creation— I  create  my  soul,  my  karma,  the  im- 
mortal part  of  ray  existence,  how  then  can  my  karma  have  had  ex- 
istence before  I  was  born  ?  I  have  tried  hard  to  understand  your 
reasoning  asset  forth  in  the  article  "  Immortality  and  the  Buddhist 
Soul-Conception,"  but  so  far  without  success,  as  you  see  from  my 
above  remarks. 

"Karma  and  its  immortality  appear  to  me  clear  enough  and 
agree  fully  with  my  way  of  thinking,  but  thai prc-cxislouc  (except 
looking  at  it  in  a  broader  sense  as  the  soul  of  all  creation  and  there- 
fore an  integral  part  of  the  atoms  of  our  organism)  remains  to  me  a 
puzzle. — Again,  a  philosophy  of  life  which  is  so  very  difficult  to 
understand,  as  H.  Dharmapala  represents  it  to  be,  must  be  at  fault 
somewhere,  it  can  never  lift  up  the  masses  of  mankind,  it  will  remain 
a  dead  letter  to  them,  as  it  seems  to  have  been  the  case  in  the  East. 
Your  monism  and  meliorism  has  the  advantage,  therefore,  over 
Buddhism." 

Let  us  analyse  our  soul,  and  by  so  doing  we  shall 
learn  to  understand  both  its  pre-existence  and  its  im- 
mortality. We  take  it  for  granted  here  that  we  can  all 
agree  on  the  definition  of  soul  as  the  sum  of  man's  sen- 
sations, sentiments,  thoughts,  and  volitions  as  they 
manifest  themselves  in  his  organism. 

What  is  a  sensation?  It  is  a  feeling  of  a  peculiar 
kind  indicating  the  presence  of  a  correspondent  irrita- 
tion as  its  cause.  Hardness  or  a  feeling  of  forcible 
resistance  indicates  that  our  touch  is  confronted  with 
a  strongly  cohesive  body.  A  color-sensation  reveals 
to  us  the  figure  of  a  distant  object  from  which  light  is 
reflected  in  a  special  way.  Ph5^siology  teaches  us  that 
our  sensations,  which  are  feelings  especially  adapted 
to  their  various  irritations,  depend  upon  the  organs  of 
sense,  and  the  organs  of  sense  have  been  moulded  in 
a  long  process  of  evolution.  The  moner  is  a  mere 
speck  of  sentient  substance  ;  it  possesses  neither  ej^es 
nor  ears.  Leaving  aside  the  chemical  complexity  of 
living  matter,  all  its  parts  are  homogeneous.  But  by 
and  by  a  division  of  labor  takes  place.  The  region 
of  the  skin  that  lies  in  the  direction  in  which  the  little 
creature  moves,  becomes  especially  sensitive  to  light, 
a  fact  which  is  recognised  by  the  development  of  pig- 
ment spots  doing  the  service  of  primitive  eyes.  In  the 
course  of  a  further  evolution,  the  pigment  spots  of  the 
skin  recede  as  if  seeking  for  protection,  and  soon  the 
small  depression  thus  formed  is  covered  by  a  watery 
fluid  which  by  and  by  assumes  the  shape  of  a  lense. 
It  would  lead  us  too  far  here  to  go  over  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  formation  of  the  eye  or  the  other  senses, 
and  it  would  take  a  specialist  to  do  it  well.  Suffice  it 
to  say,  that  the  various  forms  of  our  sense-organs  are 


the  continued  function  of  the  sense-activities  of  our 
ancestors  ;  they  are  such  as  they  are  by  virtue  of  the 
memory  of  living  substance  ;  and  memory  is  but  another 
name  for  the  immortality  of  feelings. 

The  physiological  aspect  of  memory  is  the  preser- 
vation of  form.  Every  sense- impression  and  also  every 
reaction  of  sentient  substance  leaves  a  trace,  which, 
when  irritated,  revives  its  correspondent  feeling.  The 
form  of  this  trace  is  preserved  in  the  flux  of  matter ; 
an  amoeba,  a  moner,  or  a  cell  grows,  and  when  it  di- 
vides there  are  two  individuals  of  the  same  form.  The 
transmission  of  the  sum-total  of  functions  as  they  take 
place  in  complex  organisms  through  the  vehicle  of 
germs  is  still  shrouded  in  mystery,  but  there  is  no  rea- 
son to  doubt  the  theory  that  heredity  is  merely  a  pecu- 
liarly complex  preservation  of  traces  ;  and  all  organisa- 
tion is  due  to  the  memory  of  living  substance. 

Now  let  us  ask,  What  are  thoughts  and  volitions  ? 
They  are  particularly  important  soul-structures,  for 
they  are  peculiar  to  man  and  form  the  determinants  of 
all  his  activity.  A  thought  is  a  combination  of  senti- 
ments expressed  in  word-symbols.  Every  sensation 
has  a  meaning  and  words  denote  abstracts  of  sensa- 
tions, or  subsume  the  meanings  of  many  similar  sensa- 
tions in  classes.  Thoughts  are  transferred  by  the  trans- 
mission of  those  thought-symbols  or  words,  which,  by 
the  designation  of  the  same  thing,  have  acquired  the 
same  meaning.  Volitions  are  impulses  the  aims  of 
which  appear  clearly  represented  in  ideas,  and  will  is 
a  reaction  adapted  to  ends  through  the  instrumentality 
of  thought  :   it  is  purposive  motion. 

After  these  preparatory  remarks  we  can  proceed  to 
analyse  our  soul  and  shall  find  that  it  is  a  combination 
of  innumerable  elements  partly  inherited  from  former 
generations  at  the  start  of  our  life,  partly  acquired  by 
experience  and  education. 

Our  soul  is  not  the  ego  feeling,  which  finds  ex- 
pression in  the  sentiment  :  "It  is  I  who  think."  The 
ego-notion  is  only  one  soul-structure  among  many  oth- 
ers ;  and  it  is  of  importance  only  in  so  far  as  it  occu- 
pies a  central  position.  The  ego-feeling  is  in  itself 
an  empty  thing.  It  is  the  same  in  kings  and  beggars, 
in  sages  and  fools,  in  judges  and  criminals.  The 
diversity  of  the  various  egos  is  constituted  by  the 
character  of  those  other  soul-structures  with  whom  in 
each  mind  it  is  connected.  The  various  functional 
sense-organs  and  those  other  soul-structures  which 
constitute  our  sentiments,  thoughts,  and  volitions  are 
what  Buddhists  call  saniskaras.  They  have  developed 
gradually  in  a  slow  process  of  evolution  and  they  are, 
so  to  say,  the  substance  of  our  soul.  If  soul  means  a 
metaphysical  agent  behind  our  psychic  activity,  Bud- 
dha denies  the  existence  of  the  soul.  Buddha  was  the 
first  anti- metaphysician  and  positivist  of  whom  we 
know.      But  if  soul  means  these  real  facts  of  glowing 


43>6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


life  of  which  we  are  conscious,  our  longings,  aspira- 
tions, our  knowledge,  our  hates  and  loves,  our  ideas 
and  ideals,  Buddha  tells  us  that  they  existed  before 
we  were  born,  and  that  they  will  not  cease  to  exist 
after  death.  They  have  been  transmitted  to  us  by  in- 
heritance and  education  and  we  in  our  turn  transmit 
them  with  every  act  we  do  and  with  every  word  we 
say.  Our  present  life  is  one  link  only  in  an  infinite 
chain  of  life  ;  and  our  soul,  viz.,  these  peculiar  forms 
of  meaning-freighted  symbols,  of  soul-structures,  is  the 
reincarnation  of  former  lives  ;  our  soul  is  a  resume  of 
the  deeds  done  by  all  our  ancestors  ;  it  is  the  result  of 
our  karma  done,  in  previous  existences ;  and  we  are 
the  continuation  of  our  ancestors  as  much  as  every  one 
of  to-day  is  the  continuation  of  his  own  self  of  yester- 
day and  of  all  the  days  and  years  before  yesterday. 

That  we  are  the  physical  continuation  of  our  physi- 
cal parents  is  obvious  enough,  because  we  see  the 
material  continuity;  but  we  are  also  the  continuation 
of  the  mental  and  moral  life  of  our  spiritual  parents. 
When  Gautama  Siddhartha  had  become  Buddha,  he 
remained  the  physical  son  of  Shuddhodana,  but  he  be- 
came the  inheritor  of  the  wisdom  of  his  teachers  and 
of  all  those  men  from  whom  he  had  learned.  Buddha 
visited  his  father,  and  was  reproached  by  him  far  beg- 
ging: 

"  '  Oh,  Maharaja,'  was  the  reply,  '  this  is  the  custom  of  all  our 
race.' 

The  king  said  :  "  '  But  we  are  descended  from  an  illustrious 
race  of  warriors,  and  not  one  of   them  has  ever  begged   his  bread.' 

■'  'You  and  your  family,'  answered  Gautama,  'may  claim  de- 
scent from  kings ;  my  descent  is  from  the  prophets  (Buddhas)  of 
old,  and  they,  begging  their  food,  have  always  lived  on  alms.  But, 
my  father,  when  a  man  has  found  a  hidden  treasure,  it  is  his  duty 
first  to  preseiit  his  father  with  the  most  precious  of  the  jewels  ; ' 
and  he  accordingly  addressed  his  father  on  the  cardinal  tenet  of  his 
doctrine." 

Buddha  claims  descent  from  the  prophets  of  old. 
Their  aspirations  have  impressed  him  and  continue  in 
his  mind.  In  the  same  way,  Newton  is  the  intellectual 
son  of  Copernicus  and  Kepler,  and  Laplace  is  the 
scion  of  Newton.  Or,  to  express  the  same  truth  in 
other  words  :  the  soul  of  Copernicus  continues  to  live 
in  Kepler,  Newton,  and  Laplace.  Furthermore,  the 
soul  of  all  these  scientists  resides  in  every  one  of  us  to 
the  extent  that  our  minds  have  received  by  study  or  in- 
struction the  gist  of  their  works.  Their  karma  is  their 
soul,  and  their  soul  is  a  living  presence  in  mankind. 
They  did  not  die,  and  as  long  as  life  lasts  on  earth  they 
cannot  die. 

In  analysing  our  soul  we  find  that  it  is  a  gathering 
of  living  sentiments  and  thoughts  which  existed  long 
before  we  were  born.  We  are  the  trysting-place  of 
many  souls.  And  this  expression  is  no  mere  allegory, 
but  a  literal  truth. 

Our  present  individuality  is  like  a  new  and  perhaps 


a  revised  edition  of  an  old  book.  You  cannot  say  that 
the  book  as  such  began  to  exist  when  it  came  from  the 
press.  That  which  makes  the  book,  its  essence  and 
its  soul,  existed  before  and  has  been  re-embodied  in 
the  second  edition. 

Even  the  first  editions  of  books  are  not  creations 
out  of  nothing.  They  are  either  combinations  of 
thoughts  which  existed  before,  or,  at  best,  if  they  are 
what  we  commonly  call  original,  bring  older  problems 
and  inquiries  to  a  certain  consummation. 

It  is  pleasant  to  think  that  among  the  inhabitants 
of  our  souls  there  are  many  Montagues  and  Capulets 
who  fought  one  another  in  bitter  hatred  during  their 
lives  in  the  flesh.  Now  they  meet  peacefully  in  their 
later  incarnation  in  one  and  the  same  mind,  and  per- 
haps they  were  not  until  now  capable  of  reconciliation. 
The  little  contentions  of  merely  personal  consequence 
dimmed  their  comprehension  and  the  veil  of  Maya  was 
upon  their  eyes.  Now,  since  all  these  trivialities  have 
been  buried  in  the  grave,  their  hatred  has  passed  away, 
their  souls  have  been  purified,  and  their  spiteful  hos- 
tility has  changed  into  friendly  contrast. 

The  main  difficulty  in  understanding  the  nature  of 
the  life  of  the  soul,  its  past  history  and  future  desti- 
nies, is  the  materialism  of  our  views.  A  man  naturally 
attributes  reality  to  the  material  feature  only,  not  to 
the  formal  and  spiritual.  We  look  upon  ourselves  as 
a  congregation  of  material  atoms,  while  in  fact  we  are 
the  soul  that  in  this  concourse  of  atoms  is  formed. 
The  atoms  are  an  indifferent  accident.  Any  other 
atoms  of  the  same  kind  would  do  as  well,  and,  indeed, 
the  atoms  which  support  our  nervous  life  are  swiftly 
and  constantly  changing.  Every  new  moment  of  con- 
sciousness presupposes  new  oxygen,  and  there  is  not 
one  moment  in  which  the  flame  of  life  feeds  upon  the 
same  material. 

The  nature  of  man's  being  does  not  depend  upon 
the  food  he  eats,  but  upon  the  impressions  which, 
through  the  sense-organs,  are  made  upon  his  mind. 
Evolution  is  possible  only  because  the  souls  of  our 
forefathers  survive  and  every  generation  adds  a  share 
to  the  rich  inheritance  of  the  past.  We  existed  in  our 
physical  and  spiritual  ancestors,  and  according  to  the 
exertions  we  make  add  to  the  intellectual  wealth  which 
we  bequeath  to  future  generations.  The  bread  of  the 
soul  is  the  experiences  we  make  in  life,  and  especially 
the  words  of  the  wise,  which  implant  new  soul-struc- 
tures into  our  spiritual  being.  Every  example,  which 
by  words  or  deeds  you  set  to  your  children,  and  to 
your  friends,  and  also  to  your  enemies,  is  a  transmis- 
sion of  soul,  and  it  continues  to  exercise  its  effects  ;  it 
is  not  lost  forever,  nor  jvrit  into  water,  but  remains  a 
factor  in  the  soul-life  of  your  fellows.  Your  soul  is 
like  a  seal  that  has  been  impressed  into  you  in  order 
to  be  imprinted   by  your  conduct  into  the  hearts  of 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4317 


others,  thus  to  be  dupHcated  and  triplicated  and  re- 
produced again  and  again,  so  that  when  you  die  your 
soul  will  live  according  to  your  deeds. 

So  long  as  we  are  unable  to  recognise  the  pre- 
existence  and  continuance  after  death  of  our  soul,  we 
are  still  under  the  illusion  of  self ;  we  still  conceive  the 
soul  as  a  concrete  entity,  and  have  not  as  yet  freed 
our  mind  from  the  metaphysics  of  a  materialistic  con- 
ception of  the  soul.  That  kind  of  a  soul  whose  anni- 
hilation we  believe  we  see  in  death,  does  not  exist  ; 
while  the  true  soul,  the  reality  of  our  spiritual  life  is 
not  touched  by  death.  Both  views  are  due  to  the 
same  erroneous  ego-soul  conception,  the  Christian 
dogma  that  every  soul  has  been  created  out  of  nothing, 
and  that  it  is  to  continue  to  live  after  death  as  a  dis- 
tinct soul- entity,  and  also  the  contention  of  unbelievers 
who  claim  that  the  soul  is  utterly  annihilated  in  death 
and  wiped  out  of  existence.  The  Christian  bigot  and 
the  infidel  have  more  in  common  than  they  are  aware  of. 

A  correct  conception  of  the  soul  and  its  immortal- 
ity will  make  us  sober  in  the  vanity  fair  of  the  world 
that  surrounds  us ;  it  will  elevate  our  aspirations  and 
chasten  the  yearnings  of  our  hearts  ;  it  will  teach  us  to 
live  more  wisely  and  more  morallj' ;  and  practical  ap- 
plicability is  always  a  good  test  of  truth. 

Let  us  remember  in  the  days  of  our  j'outh  that  our 
deeds  do  not  die,  but  that  the}'  will  stay  with  us  as 
good  angels  or  evil  demons.  Suppose,  for  instance,  a 
youth  has  studied  mathematics  and  civil  engineering 
at  college  ;  will  not  the  knowledge  of  his  studies  remain 
with  him  for  life?  The  drudgery  of  study  is  transient 
but  its  usefulness  is  permanent.  Suppose  another,  or 
even  perhaps  the  same  youth,  indulges  in  emasculating 
pleasures,  every  act  of  indulgence  contributes  to  form- 
ing bad  habits,  and  these  habits,  too,  are  a  permanent 
presence  in  the  soul  of  a  man.  They  continue,  and  the 
destiny  of  a  man  is  in  the  main  the  product  of  his  good 
and  evil  deeds,  of  his  wise  and  foolish  acts,  of  his  com- 
missions and  omissions.  But  this  is  not  all  !  When 
a  man  dies  his  actions,  in  their  minute  individuality, 
continue  to  influence  the  life  of  the  race.  His  person- 
ality in  all  its  characteristic  features  is,  according  to 
the  deeds  done  by  him,  preserved  in  the  minds  of  other 
men.  His  soul  remains  an  indelible  factor  in  the  souls 
of  the  following  generations.  Our  ancestors  are  dead 
in  the  flesh  only,  they  continue  to  live  and  their  dwell- 
ing-place is  right  here  in  our  souls. 


SCIENCE  AND  REFORM. 


shifts  of  the  latter  kind.  "Our  love  of  spirits,"  says  Prof  W.  T. 
Freeman,  in  a  contribution  to  the  last  number  of  The  Cfutleinnii' s 
Magnziiie,  "may  simply  be  a  hereditary  ancestral  habit.  T/ie 
lo'a'dr  (renlinis,  as  far  as  I  know,  nroer  refrain  from  alcohol  in  ex- 
less  if  tliey  (an  get  it.  Monkeys  are  peculiarly  fond  of  arrack  ami 
such  stuff."  The  two  last  paragraphs  of  that  statement  form,  all 
in  all,  about  the  most  glaring  instance  of  an  arguinenluin  ad  igno- 
rantiam  found  in  the  controversial  literature  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  So  far  from  exercising  an  irresistible  attraction  on  the 
lower  animals  of  our  planet,  alcohol  is  dreaded  as  an  elixir  of 
death  even  by  creatures  that  feed  on  poison  plants  and  substances 
in  a  state  of  far-gone  decay.  There  are  caterpillars  that  subsist 
on  poppy-leaves,  and  maggots  that  revel  in  superannuated  Lim- 
burger  ;  but  alcohol  in  all  its  more  concentrated  forms,  repels  the 
most  unfastidious  of  parasites,  so  much  so,  indeed,  that  proof- 
spirits  can  be  used  as  a  reliable  antiseptic,  to  protect  organic  sub- 
stances against  the  microbes  that  mediate  the  process  of  decompo- 
sition. A  panful  of  alcohol  could  be  safely  exposed  in  the  midst 
of  a  tropical  forest  ;  no  bird  or  reptile  would  touch  it ;  wasps 
would  approach  it  only  to  turn  away  with  an  angry  hum  ;  four- 
footed  animals  would  shrink  with  horror  from  the  mere  scent  of 
•.he  virulent  liquid.  The  story  that  monkeys  can  be  captured  with 
alcoholic  baits  has  been  traced  to  the  fact  that  they  can  be  fud- 
dled with  a  mixture  of  rum  and  syrup,  provided  that  the  saccha- 
rine elements  predominate  sufficiently  to  disguise  the  taste  of  the 
intoxicant.  Pure  rum  would  not  attract  them  any  more  than  un- 
mixed strychnine  would  lure  a  wolf  to  destruction.  To  while 
away  the  tedium  of  a  long  voyage,  sailors  often  teach  a  pet  mon- 
key to  drink  grog,  but  succeed  only  by  methods  similar  to  those 
that  have  turned  hundreds  of  slum-youngsters  into  topers  :  they 
force  the  struggling  teetotaler  to  swallow  dram  after  dram,  till  the 
daily  repetition  of  the  dose  at  last  begets  an  abnormal  appetite. 
In  the  same  way  young  apes  can  be  afflicted  with  a  passion  for 
cigars,  and  Prof.  W.  T.  Freeman  might  just  as  well  try  to  defend 
the  nicotine  habit  by  assuring  the  readers  of  the  Magazine  that 
"all  the  lower  animals  will  smoke  to  excess  whenever  they  can 
get  hold  of  a  pipe." 

mOLOGICAL  CURIOSA. 
In  the  great  government  game  preserve  of  Byalistock,  Russia, 
several  hundred  head  of  Urus  cattle  have  been  saved  from  extinc- 
tion, and  on  more  than  one  occasion  have  contracted  family- 
alliances  with  their  bovine  relatives  on  the  neighboring  hill-pas- 
tures ;  but  the  attempts  to  perpetuate  the  resulting  breed  of  hy- 
brids have  always  failed.  Now  Capt.  Charles  Goodnight,  of 
Aroyas  Station,  in  northwestern  Texas,  reports  the  same  expe- 
rience with  his  bison-pets.  Since  1878  the  Captain  has  raised 
young  buffaloes  and  tried  to  cross  them  with  various  breeds  of 
domestic  cattle,  long-horned  Mexican  bulls  and  "  muley, "  or  horn- 
less, cows.  A  great  variety  of  curious  connecting  links  of  the  two 
species  has  been  the  result  of  these  experiments  ;  but  not  in  a 
single  case  has  the  owner  of  the  ranch  succeeded  in  multiplying  an 
isolated  herd  of  his  half  bisons.  Now,  what  can  be  the  meaning 
of  these  manifold  evidences  of  Nature's  disinclination  to  the  per- 
petuation of  hybrids  ?  Does  it  not  suggest  a  conjecture  that  the 
distinct  currents  of  race- tendencies,  even  in  apparently  allied  spe- 
cies, have  been  worn  very  deep  in  the  course  of  a  stupendous  series 
of  ages  ?  The  six  thousand  years  of  the  Mosaic  Genesis  may  be  a 
more  eggregious  underestimate  than  the  geologist  of  the  Dean 
Buckland  type  are  as  yet  inclined  to  admit. 


A  DESPERATE  EXPEDIENT. 


It  is  always  an  ominous  sign  for  the  prospects  of  a  doctrine, 
if  its  exponents  have  to  resort  to  sophistry,  or  that  still  riskier  ex- 
pedient— an  argument  founded  on  entirely  spurious  premises.  The 
apologists  of  alcoholic  stimulants  seem  to  have  been  reduced  to 


ORIENTAL  REALISM. 

The  Leland  Stanford  University  of  the  West  continues  to 

establish    new   professorships   of    defunct    Oriental    languages  — 

cuneiform  text-books  and  all.     The  more  than  princely  liberality 

of  the  founder  may  justify  such  luxuries  ;  but  it  could  do  no  harm 


IP 


oA.. 


4308 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


to  add  a  chair  o£  Japanese  language  and  literature.  Unless  the 
signs  of  the  times  are  quite  misleading,  the  day  is  near  when  the 
business  men  of  the  Pacific  Coast  will  find  a  knowledge  of  that 
idiom  quite  as  useful  as  a  proficiency  in  the  speech  of  their  Span- 
ish-American neighbors. 

CONGRATULATIONS  IN  DISGUISE. 

According  to  a  cablegram  of  the  Associated  Press,  the  He- 
brews of  the  Russian  Empire  have  assured  the  new  Czar  that  they 
"  deeply  share  his  sorrow  at  the  untimely  decease  of  bis  august 
predecessor."  That  message  may  have  emanated  from  a  syndicate 
of  traders  who  were  obliged  to  fall  in  line  with  other  corporations, 
but  from  any  other  point  of  view  a  lament  of  the  sheep  over  the 
fate  of  a  slain  wolf  could  not  be  much  more  astonishing.  Since 
the  death  of  Cardinal  Ximenes  the  followers  of  Moses  never  had  a 
deadlier  enemy,  and  the  exultation  of  their  sudden  deliverance 
may  really  have  prompted  the  wish  to  conciliate  the  good  will  of 
their  new  ruler  at  any  price. 

ROSEBERV'S  PEACE-OFFERING. 

The  panegyric  of  the  Prime-Minister  of  Great  Britain  is,  in- 
deed, much  less  pardonable.  "Alexander  the  Third,"  he  said, 
"has  consistently  preserved  the  peace,  and  therefore  deserves 
greater  homage  than  a  Csesar  or  a  Napoleon."  Ever  since  his  ac- 
knowledgment of  a  fondness  for  race-horses  the  enlightened  Pre- 
mier may  have  felt  the  need  of  a  peace-offering  on  the  altar  of 
British  bigotry,  but  the  only  fit  reply  to  his  apocoloeynlhesis  would 
have  been  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau's  remark  that  "though  the  wars 
of  republics  may  be  calamiious,  they  are  far  less  insupportable 
than  the  peace  of  certain  tyrants."  The  Gods  of  History  have, 
indeed,  made  more  than  one  worthless  ruler  the  instrument  of 
their  beneficent  purposes,  but  the  deification  of  a  brainless  and 
heartless  despot  should  surely  require  a  better  foundation  than  the 
circumstance  that  the  persecution  of  his  own  subjects  left  him  no 
leisure  for  foreign  wars.  The  victims  of  his  remorseless  bigotry 
can  be  counted  only  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  and  the  travellers 
over  the  frozen  plains  of  Poland  witnessed  scenes  more  horrible 
than  those  of  the  West  Indian  Sierras  where  Las  Casas  found 
scores  of  fugitive  plantation-slaves  prostrate  and  silent,  or  moan- 
ingfaintly:  "Hunger!  hunger!"  It  might  be  seriously  questioned 
if  all  the  wars  of  Napoleon  and  Caesar  taken  together  caused  half  as 
much  uncompensated  and  unremitting  misery  as  the  "  peace  "  of 
Alexander  the  Third. 

A  QUESTION  OF  CANDOR. 

Max  O  Rell,  in  his  witty  comparison  of  "French  and  English 
Immorality,"  holds  that  the  superior  merit  of  British  moralists 
versus  French  sinners  is  founded  chiefly  on  the  fact  that  they 
have  learned  to  guzzle  their  toddies  more  inaudibly,  and  concludes 
that  at  bottom  no  nation  is  very  much  better  than  its  neighbors, 
but  "differs  merely  in  its  way  of  showing  its  virtues  and  hiding 
its  vices."  He  might  have  added  that  the  difference  between  an- 
cient and  modern  civilisation  could  be  summed  up  almost  in  ilie 
same  words. 

TEMPTINC;   FORTUNE. 

One  of  the  contributors  to  the  recent  revival  of  Napoleon- 
worship  notices  the  curious  fact  that  in  all  the  endless  series  of  his 
table-talks  the  exile  of  Saint  Helena  avoided  every  allusion  to  the 
career  of  Frederic  the  Great.  He  may  have  dreaded  the  compari  ■ 
son  of  results  :  The  conqueror  of  Silesia,  with  all  his  self-reliance, 
resembled  the  prudent  gamester  that  retires  with  his  winning,  in- 
stead of  doublirg  and  doubling  his  stakes  in  reliance  on  the  con- 
stant favor  of  Fortune. 

JUVENTUS    MUNDI  RELICS. 

The  press-correspondents  who  ha\e  visited  Livadia  at  the 
south  end  of  the  Crimean  coast-range  vie  in  rapturous  descrip- 
tions of  the  scenic  contrasts:  the  towering  peaks,   the  Arcadian 


foothills,  bathed  by  a  blue  summei  sea  ;  the  picturesque  location 
of  Grand-Duke  Constantine's  summer-palace  in  a  grove  of  majestic 
old  oak-trees — the  haunt  of  countless  birds,  even  at  this  late  season 
of  the  year.  Yet  that  oak-grove  is  only  a  poor,  last  relic  of  the 
magnificent  sy/vaiiia  that  once  clothed  the  Mediterranean  with  all 
its  bays  and  branch  basins,  and  which  a  few  degrees  south  of  the 
Crimea  must  have  come  very  near  realising  our  ideal  of  an  earthly 
paradise.  As  compared  with  their  own  glorious  peninsula,  the 
Crimea  seemed  so  unattractive  to  the  ancient  Greeks  that  they 
shunned  it  as  an  hyperborean  wilderness,  and  the  exiled  poet  Ovid 
died  of  homesickness  at  Tomi,  on  the  shore  of  the  Black  Sea. 

Felix  L.  Oswald. 


NOTES. 

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berton,  N.  C,  they  can  make  a  merry  Christmas  for  the  freedmen. 

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JUST  PUBLISHED: 

The  Gospel   of   Buddha 

ACCORDING  TO  OLD  RECORDS  TOLD  P.V 

PAUL  CARUS. 

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CONTENTS  OF  NO.  380. 

ON  THE  RELATIVE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF 
THE  CLASSICS  AND  THE  MATHEMATICO- 
PHYSICAL  SCIENCES  IN  COLLEGES  AND 
HIGH  SCHOOLS.     (Concluded  )     Prof.  Ernst  Macii  4311 

PRE-EXISTENCE  AND  IMMORTALITY.     Editor.,..   4315 

SCIENCE  AND  REFORM.  A  Desperate  Expedient.  Bio- 
logical Curiosa.  Oriental  Realism.  Congratulations  in 
Disguise.  Rosebery's  Peace- Offering.  A  Question  of 
Candor.  Tempting  Fortune.  Juventus  Mundi  Relics. 
Felix  L.  Oswald 4317 

NOTES 4318 


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PRESBYTER  JOHN. 

BY  M.   D.   CONWAY. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  last  chapter  of  the  fourth 
Gospel  did  not  belong  to  the  original  composition,  but  at 
what  time  it  was  added  is  not  known.  Near  the  close 
of  this  chapter  it  is  related  that  Peter,  looking  at  the 
disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,  asked,  "Lord,  what  of 
this  man  ?  "  Jesus  is  reported  as  answering  :  "If  I  will 
that  he  tarry  till  I  come  what  is  that  to  thee  ?  Follow 
thou  me."  It  is  added,  "This  saying  therefore  went 
forth  among  the  brethren  that  that  disciple  should  not 
die."  The  writer  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  Jesus 
did  not  exactly  so  say,  but  he  does  not  deny  that  the 
"beloved"  disciple  was  still  living.  It  is  a  remarkable 
fact  that  the  name  of  this  disciple  nowhere  occurs  in 
the  Gospel  it  labels.  The  compiler  leaves  us  to  iden- 
tify "the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved"  for  ourselves. 
I  say  compiler,  for  there  are  indications  that  different 
compositions  between  A.  D.  120-150  were  fused  to- 
gether by  one  hand  into  the  fourth  Gospel  before  the 
twenty-first  chapter  was  added.  This  compiler,  who- 
ever he  was, — it  is  a  pity  there  is  no  clue  to  him, — 
was  a  Philonian  enthusiast,  whose  aim  was  to  detach 
the  new  religion  from  local  and  Jewish  Messianism 
and  give  it  a  philosophical,  mystical,  and  spiritual 
character.  It  will  be  noted  that  throughout  there  is 
a  desire  to  exalt  the  "beloved  disciple,"  without  nam- 
ing him ;  indeed,  but  for  this  particular  Gospel  it 
might  be  supposed  that  if  Jesus  had  any  favorite 
among  his  disciples  it  was  Peter,  to  whom  he  is  said 
to  have  given  the  keys  of  heaven.  But  here  we  learn 
of  a  disciple  who  leaned  on  his  breast  at  supper,  and 
to  whom,  while  dying,  he  confided  his  mother,  whose 
son  he  was  to  become.  Another  significant  detail  is 
the  contrast  suggested  between  the  Beloved  and  the 
Traitor,  into  whom,  according  to  this  one  narrative, 
Satan  enters  at  the  moment  when  the  other  is  leaning 
on  Jesus's  breast  at  supper.  Thus  this  unnamed  Be- 
loved Disciple,  promoted  to  be  the  adopted  son  of 
Mary  in  the  place  of  her  departed  son,  becomes  the 
Divine  in  opposition  to  the  adopted  son  of  Satan,  Ju- 
das. John  and  Judas  become  spiritualised  as  Light 
and  Darkness,  miniature  Christ  and  Antichrist,  and  in 
later  centuries  they  both  reappear  in  variants  of  the 
Wandering  Jew  legend.      For  there  was  in  Christian 


mythology  a  holy  undying  one  as  well  as  an  accursed 
eternal  wanderer. 

I  will  now  venture  a  hypothesis  concerning  the 
fourth  Gospel.  For  a  generation  or  two  before  and 
after  the  movement  of  John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  in 
Jerusalem,  and  of  Philo  in  Alexandria,  it  had  become 
a  literary  trick  of  religious  controversialists  to  pretend 
the  discovery  of  one  or  another  ancient  book,  written 
by  some  famous  worthy  of  their  race,  and  containing 
testimonies  to  their  views.  This  fashion  was  set  in 
the  book  of  Daniel,  which  was  followed  by  books 
ascribed  to  Enoch,  Elias,  and  Solomon.  Enoch  and 
Elias  were  supposed,  like  John,  to  have  never  died. 
(Much  in  the  same  way  Joe  Smith  pretended  discov- 
ery of  the  book  of  Mormon,  an  eternal  wanderer,  who 
had  found  his  way  into  the  New  World,  and  awaited 
the  arrival  of  the  whites  here,  and  "the  fulness  of 
time"  for  his  revelation.)  Now  my  hypothesis  is  that 
the  compiler  of  the  fourth  Gospel  meant  to  avail  him- 
self of  the  widespread  rumor  and  superstition  that 
"that  disciple  should  not  die"  to  give  authenticity  to 
his  Gospel.  But  he  utilised  it  only  to  a  prudent  ex- 
tent. Had  he  pronounced  the  Beloved  Disciple  by 
name  to  be  John  and  declared  that  he  was  still  living, 
some  might  have  investigated  the  matter  and  proved 
the  time  and  place  of  John's  death.  But  by  not  nam- 
ing John,  and  by  saying  that  the  Beloved  had  "testi- 
fied of  these  things,"  he  safely  implied  only  that  John 
had  lived  to  a  great  age  and  had  transmitted  through 
some  younger  follower  the  most  authentic  account  of 
Jesus  and  his  teachings.  It  was  using  the  myth  of 
John's  survival  as  that  of  Enoch's  survival  had  been 
used  before  the  birth  of  Jesus.  The  writer  was  thus 
able  to  pretend  he  had  obtained  through  the  aged  John 
the  sanction  of  Jesus  for  his  Alexandrian  Christian 
philosophy. 

The  legend  that  St.  John  never  died  gave  birth  to 
another  and  a  mythical  John,  called  the  "aged  John  " 
— Presbyter  John.  In  mediaeval  belief,  however.  Pres- 
byter (i.  e.  aged)  John  resumed  his  earthly  immortal- 
ity as  "Prester  John."  And  it  is  a  striking  illustra- 
tion of  the  tremendous  power  of  a  fiction  that  this 
forgotten  superstition  of  an  undying  John  not  only 
moulded  the  Christian  consciousness  of  the  world  but 
had   much   to  do  with  the  world's  exploration.      The 


4320 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


saying  that  "went  forth  among  the  brethren,  that  that 
disciple  should  not  die,"  led  to  the  rumor  of  the  Be- 
loved slumbering  at  Ephesus,  evoked  him  thence  to 
inspire  a  Gospel,  and  created  an  imaginary  successor 
in  Presbyter  John,  who,  as  a  fabulous  Prester  John, 
fascinated  the  mediaeval  imagination,  and  probably  led 
to  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus.  Prester 
John  was  supposed,  by  reason  of  his  supernatural 
longevity  and  sanctity,  to  have  become  monarch  of 
the  larger  part  of  the  world  (the  unknown  part);  and 
so  strong  was  this  belief  that  in  the  thirteenth  century 
some  ingenious  romancer,  in  unconscious  imitation  of 
the  writer  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  wrote  a  letter  purport- 
ing to  be  from  Presbyter  John,  which  was  addressed 
to  various  crowned  heads  and  to  the  Pope  (Alexander 
III.).  The  following  extracts  from  the  letter  will  con- 
vey an  idea  of  the  mental  condition  of  the  European 
upper  classes  to  which  it  appealed.  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  writer  is  learned  and  astute  enough  to  discard 
the  popular  appellation  "  Prester  "  John,  "Presbyter" 
being  more  impressive  to  the  Pope. 

"I,  Presbyter  Johannes,  the  Lord  of  Lords,  sur- 
pass all  under  heaven  in  virtue,  in  riches,  and  in 
power ;  seventy-two  kings  pay  us  tribute.  In  the 
three  Indies  our  Magnificence  rules.  Our  land  streams 
with  honey,  and  is  overflowing  with  milk.  In  one  re- 
gion grows  no  poisonous  herb,  no  scorpion  exists,  nor 
does  any  serpent  glide  in  the  grass,  nor  any  animal 
that  injures  any  one.  The  river  Indus,  encircling 
paradise,  spreads  its  arms  in  manifold  windings  through 
the  provinces.  Here  are  found  emeralds,  sapphires, 
carbuncles,  topazes,  chrysolites,  onyxes,  beryls,  sar- 
dius,  and  other  precious  stones.  Here  grows  the  plant 
Arsidos,  which,  worn  by  any  one,  protects  him  from 
evil  spirits.  At  the  foot  of  Mount  Olympus  bubbles 
up  a  spring  .  .  .  three  days'  journey  from  paradise :  if 
any  one  tastes  thrice  of  this  fountain,  he  will  from 
that  day  feel  no  fatigue,  and  so  long  as  he  lives  will 
be  as  a  man  of  thirty  years.  Here  we  found  the  small 
stones  called  Nudiosi,  which,  borne  about  the  body, 
prevent  the  sight  from  waxing  feeble,  and  restore 
sight  when  lost.  ...  In  a  certain  plain  is  a  fountain 
which  purges  Christians  of  all  transgressions.  With 
us  no  one  lies  ...  no  vice  is  tolerated.  .  .  .  Over  the 
gable  of  our  palace  are  two  golden  apples,  in  each  two 
carbuncles,  so  that  the  gold  may  shine  by  day  and  the 
carbuncles  by  night.  Before  our  palace  stands  a  mir- 
ror :  we  look  therein  and  behold  all  that  is  taking 
place  in  every  region  subject  to  our  sceptre." 

I  have  quoted  from  this  thirteenth  century  hoax 
the  passages  most  likely  to  interest  readers  of  Tlie 
Open  Court,  but  it  was  the  account  of  gorgeous  treas- 
ures which  most  attracted  (he  adventurers  of  that 
time.  When  Columbus  reached  the  West  Indies 
(whose  very  name  is  a  relic  of  "the  three  Indies"  of 


the  above  letter)  he  cared  little  for  the  land  or  natives, 
but  searched  long  for  a  mighty  prince  on  a  golden 
throne,  who  may  be  easily  identified  as  Presbyter 
John. 


THE  ABSOLUTE. 


BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 


Some  who  call  themselves  atheists  deny  the  exist- 
ence of  an  ultimate  authority  of  conduct,  and,  consid- 
ered as  a  bodily  being,  they  are  right. 

But  such  people  when  they  do  a  sum  in  mental 
arithmetic  admit  the  incorporeal  existence  of  mathe- 
matics. When  they  analyse  a  substance  they  are  con- 
senting to  the  great  fact  of  an  overruling  chemistry. 

Mathematics  and  chemistry  are  spirits  to  be  pro- 
pitiated, if  you  choose,  by  sums  and  equations,  ana- 
lyses and  syntheses,  and  "worshipped"  by  diligence 
and  devotion,  with  faith  in  the  spirit  of  principles, 
works  in  the  process,  and  thanksgiving  for  results. 

The  sophistry,  commonly  called  a  paradox,  con- 
tained in  the  fable  of  Achilles  and  the  tortoise,  and  in 
the  cissoid  of  Diodes  and  the  asymptote  seems  to  me 
transparent  enough.  The  endeavor  to  solve  it  ra- 
tionally is  like  trying  to  see  with  the  ears  or  taste  with 
the  eyes. 

The  answer  is  true  mathematically, — the  result  can 
never  be.  In  that  case  the  solution  is  a  function  of 
relation.  The  answer  is  also  true  physically, — the  re- 
sult must  be.  In  that  case  the  solution  is  a  function 
of  action. 

Superficially  action  seems  a  form  of  relation  ;  but 
it  is  really  radically  different.  Relation  is  static  ;  ac- 
tion dynamic.  Relation  is  the  constancy  of  rest,  or 
the  variant  of  motion  ;  but  action  is  that  which  changes 
relation,  which  moves  or  arrests  movement. 

The  "spirit"  of  relation  is  accuracy,  justice  or 
right.  The  "spirit  "  of  action  is  power,  whether  force 
or  energy,  or  forces  or  energies. 

But  besides  these  two  "spirits"  Relation  and  Ac- 
tion, which  are  basic,  ultimate,  and  unconditioned  in 
their  originality  in  the  universe,  is  a  third — the  "spirit" 
of  Volition,  which  is  quite  self-evidently  neither  rela- 
tion nor  action  ;  but  that  which  impels  to  change  of 
relation,  and  which  whatever  its  form  is  essentially 
motive  or  will. 

I.  Relation  is  that  which  is  ; 
Its  God  is  I  AM. 

II.  Action  is  that  which  does  ; 
Its  God  is  I  MAKE. 

III.  Volition  is  that  which  wills  ; 
Its  God  is  I  LOVE. 

These  three  are  the  primal  triad  of  principle  ;  self- 
existing,  without  creator  or  destroyer,  without  father 
or  mother,  or  beginning  of  days  or  end  of  life. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4321 


IV.  And  these  three  are  one,  for  this  trinity  of 
principle  is  essential  to  unity  of  being. 

V.  This  Being  is  spirit,  and  this  spirit  is  God. 
This  category,  which  has  the  audacity  to  claim  for 

itself  infallibility,  may  be  confounded  with  that  of  Spi- 
noza or  the  speculative  rhapsody  of  Swedenborg  ;  but 
after  all  only  Aristotle  and  Kant  approximated  to  the 
scientific  category,  and  even  they  only  approximated. 

These,  and  all  other  thinkers  of  whose  thoughts 
the  writer  is  aware,  have  seen  visions  and  dreamed 
dreams.  They  have  seen  the  seven  hued  bow  of  truth 
clearly  as  it  appears,  but  of  the  reality  back  of  appear- 
ances, the  simple  science  of  ultimate  certainty, — noth- 
ing. 

Having  now  the  three  ultimate  principles  and  being 
satisfied  that  they  are  axiomatic  we  are  prepared  to 
deduce  by  processes  as  rigorously  logical  as  those  of 
geometry,  problems,  and  theorems  with  their  corollaries 
in  the  domain  of  the  science  of  religion. 

VI.  The  Union  of  Relation  and  Action  produces 
Law. 

VII.  The  Union  of  perfect  relation,  which  is  Jus- 
tice, with  perfect  action,  which  is  Power,  produces 
perfect  Law,  which  is  Wisdom. 

VIII.  The  Union  of  Relation  and  Volition  produces 
Character. 

IX.  The  Union  of  perfect  Relation — Justice,  with 
perfect  Volition — Love,  produces  perfect  Character — 
Equity. 

X.  The  Union  of  Volition  and  Action  produces 
Nature. 

XI.  The  Union  of  Love  and  Power,  perfect  forms 
of  Volition  and  Action,  produces  Life,  the  perfect  form 
of  Nature. 

.-/I  2  ^  X 


3, 


The  above  diagram  of  the  asymptote  may  serve  to 
illustrate  nature  in  its  threefold  departments.  First, 
the  Right  line,  A  X,  inflexible,  fixed,  rigid,  implaca- 
able,  having  a  perceptible  location  at  A  where  we  per- 
ceive, or  conceivable  where  we  conceive,  and  being 
prolonged  in  theory  to  X,  supposed  to  be  infinitely 
distant,  representing  RELATION.  Second,  the  curve 
£  X,  so  related  to  the  right  line  as  to  continually  ap- 
proach it  and  become  tangent  at  the  infinite  distance  X. 

As  this  line  changes  its  direction  and  therefore  re- 
lation to  the  line  A  X  at  every  point,  it  represents  with 
accuracy  ACTION.  Third,  that  region,  which  is 
neither  rigid  being,  nor  continuous  change, — the  re- 
gion of  "  spirit,"  of  the  infinite,  of  VOLITION,  is  rep- 


resented by  the  continuous  effort  to  reconcile  Relation 
and  action  ;  the  constant  progression  of  evolution. 

This  is  the  region  of  the  science  of  religion,  the 
region  of  the  paradox,  where  the  inconceivable  is  as 
certain  as  the  inevitable  ;  where  loss  is  not  failure,  but 
success,  where,  like  Columbus,  we  sail  west,  confident 
of  finding  there  our  orient. 

Politics,  economics,  ethics,  all  these  and  more  are 
practical  departments  of  this  realm.  These  are  reli- 
gion's industrial  arts,  which  can  only  be  carried  to 
perfection  when  the  truth  upon  which  they  must  be 
based  to  make  them  effectual  is  recognised  as  science. 

Faith  in  axioms  is  the  foundation  of  exact  science. 
CreduHty  no  longer  imposes  upon  thought ;  science 
does  not  profess  beliefs,  it  states  facts. 

That  which  in  ourselves  we  recognise  as  conscious- 
ness is  a  function  of  the  three  absolute  existences.  We 
combine  in  our  individual  unity  the  trinity  of  relation 
in  our  being,  of  action  in  our  energies,  and  of  volition 
in  the  motives  that  move  us. 

When  I  discern  an  eternal  principle  for  each  tem- 
poral incident ;  when  I  see  the  accuracy  with  which 
all  the  phases  and  forms  of  nature  perform  their  tasks  ; 
when  I  see  how  immeasurably  more  intelligent  the 
"atom"  is  than  I,  the  conclusion  is  irresistible  that 
the  universe  is  endowed  with  more  than  intelligence. 

That  consciousness  which  is  fulfilled  in  all  living 
cannot  fail  with  life  itself.  There  may  be  no  a  God  ; 
but  there  is  God,  and  that  Being  is  more  than  con- 
scious.    He  is  consciousness  self. 


THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  BUDDHISM  INTO  JAPAN. 
The  Rt.  Rev.  Shaku  Soyen  of  Japan  sent  us  a 
short  time  ago  a  tastefully  bound  book,  entitled  Ifis- 
tory  of  the  Empire  of^  Japan,  compiled  and  translated 
for  the  Imperial  Japanese  Commission  of  the  World's 
Columbian  Exposition,  Chicago,  U.  S.  A.,  1893.  The 
book  is  perhaps  the  only  source  of  Japanese  history 
that  is  accessible  to  those  not  versed  in  Japanese  and 
Chinese  literature.  It  contains  nine  chapters,  com- 
piled by  various  Japanese  scholars  and  translated  into 
English  by  Captain  Brindley,  editor  of  the  Japan  Mail. 
The  volume  contains  a  map  of  Japan,  several  photo- 
gravures of  Japanese  views,  reproductions  of  ancient 
pictures  of  Japanese  emperors  and  reformers,  designs 
of  historically  important  buildings,  and  various  colored 
prints  showing  the  life  and  customs,  of  the  country. 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  there  is  neither  an  index  nor 
a  table  of  dates  in  which  a  reader  whose  time  is  lim- 
ited might  find  some  preliminary  information,  and  even 
the  Table  of  Contents  is  insufficiently  arranged.  Thus 
it  reminds  us  of  European  books,  which  one  has  to 
read  through  in  order  to  find  the  various  items  of  in- 
terest. The  reader  must  supply  the  missing  table  of 
dates  in  order  to  reduce  the  rich   chaotic  material  to 


432: 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


order.  We  hope  that  soon  some  Japanese  historian 
will  fill  these  deficiencies. 

The  history  of  Japan  is  very  interesting  on  account 
of  the  many  parallels  which  it  affords  with  the  history 
of  Europe  ;  there  is  this  difference  only  that  there  were 
comparatively  more  prominent  women  in  Japan,  who, 
like  Queen  Bess,  have  accomplished  great  things  for 
their  country.  The  Japanese  liad  their  mediaeval  times 
and  feudal  institutions.  The  introduction  of  Buddhism 
brought  to  them  a  higher  civilisation  from  Cliina,  as 
much  as  Christianity  introduced  to  the  barbarians  of 
the  North  the  civilisation  of  Rome.  The  universality 
of  Buddhism  widened  the  intellectual  horizon  of  the 
people,  and  it  conquered  their  minds,  partly  by  its 
noble  morality  and  partly  through  the  sword,  which 
some  of  its  adherents  were  ready  to  use.  The  imperial 
power,  although  nominally  always  supreme,  was  rap- 
idly overshadowed,  first,  by  powerful  aristocratic  fami- 
lies and  then  by  military  leaders.  To  the  former, 
Japan  owes  the  development  of  a  refined  civilisation, 
of  luxuries,  of  the  arts  and  literature ;  to  the  latter,  a 
feudal  system  of  lieges  and  vassals,  quite  similar  to 
the  feudal  system  of  Europe.  Japan  had  her  major 
domos  as  much  as  the  Franconians  at  the  time  of  the 
father  of  Charlemagne.  There  were  ex-emperors  and 
counter-emperors,  civil  war  between  the  nobles,  inter- 
necine strife  between  brothers  and  cousins,  not  unlike 
the  War  of  the  Roses  in  England.  And  the  historical 
outcome  of  these  institutions  lasted  in  some  shape  or 
other  until  recent  times,  when  it  was  abolished  by  the 
present  emperor,  who  opened  the  country  to  Western 
civilisation.  Japan  enjoys  now  a  constitutional  gov- 
ernment similar  to  the  governments  of  Europe,  and 
has  adopted  Western  principles  for  its  State  adminis- 
tration, education,  and  the  judiciary.  Religious  lib- 
erty has  been  proclaimed,  and  modern  inventions  are 
utilised  to  an  astonishingly  great  extent. 

We  recapitulate  here  that  episode  in  the  history  of 
Japan,  which  is  likely  to  be  most  interesting  to  our 
readers,  "the  introduction  of  Buddhism  into  Japan." 
It  certainly  is  the  most  important  fact  in  the  evolution 
of  the  nation,  as  it  has  not  less  influenced  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Japanese  than  the  introduction  of  Christian- 
ity has  moulded  the  European  civilisation. 

The  history  of  Japan  begins  with  the  Emperor 
Jimmu,  660  to  585  B.  C.  He  inherited  from  olden 
times  the  three  insignia  of  sovereignty,  the  jewel,  the 
mirror,  and  the  sword.  Fearing  that  they  might  be 
lost  or  defiled,  he  had  facsimiles  made  for  common 
use  in  the  throne-room,  while  the  original  insignia 
were  deposited  in  a  shrine  at  Cassanui  in  Yamato, 
where  one  of  the  imperial  princesses  was  intrusted 
with  the  duty  of  guarding  them.  Subsequently  the 
sacred  objects  were  removed  to  the  shrine  of  Isa, 
where  the  jewel  and  the  mirror  exist  still.    The  sword, 


however,  was  transferred  to  the  shrine  at  Atsuta  in 
Owari,  where  it  still  exists.  The  imitated  sword  was 
lost  during  the  civil  wars  by  one  of  the  emperors  who, 
while  pursued  by  his  enemies,  was  shipwrecked  and 
drowned.  Jimmu  conquered  the  barbarians  of  the 
North  and  the  South,  and  is  still  remembered  by  his 
people  as  "the  first  country-pacifying  emperor." 

Japan  remained  in  a  very  primitive  state  until  an 
expedition  to  conquer  Corea  was  undertaken  by  Em- 
peror Chuai.  The  immediate  cause  of  it  was  that  the 
Coreans  had  assisted  the  Tsukushi  rebels.  The  Em- 
peror died,  but  his  widow,  the  Empress  Jingo,  kept 
her  husband's  death  secret  and  accomplished  the  con- 
quest of  Corea.  She  remained  regent  of  Japan  after 
her  husband's  death  from  201  to  270  A.  D.  Corea  hav- 
ing been  subject,  prior  to  its  conquest  by  the  Empress 
Jingo,  to  the  Chinese,  and  having  been  in  contact  with 
them  for  a  long  time,  the  Coreans  were  quite  familiar 
with  Chinese  literature,  and  as  communication  between 
Corea  and  Japan  increased,  many  Coreans  settled  in 
Japan,  where  they  became  useful  as  instructors  in  vari- 
ous trades  and  in  writing.  Japanese  annals  attribute 
the  beginning  of  Japanese  literature  to  this  period  ; 
and  we  are  informed  that  in  218  A.  D.  a  celebrated 
scholar  called  Achicki  visited  Japan  and  was  appointed 
by  the  Emperor  Ojin  tutor  to  his  son  Wakairatsuko.' 

At  the  suggestion  of  Achicki,  another  learned  man, 
named  Wani,  was  invited  to  settle  in  Japan  ;  and  Wani, 
it  is  said,  brought  with  him  blacksmiths,  weavers,  and 
brewers,  as  well  as  ten  copies  of  Lon-yii  (the  book  of 
arguments)  and  one  copy  of  Chientsa-wen  (the  book 
of  the  thousand  characters).  Under  Wani's  instruc- 
tion the  imperial  prince  acquired  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  these  Chinese  classics,  and  this  is  the  first  in- 
stance on  record  of  teaching  Chinese  literature  in  Ja- 
pan. 

The  next  great  event,  arising  from  Japan's  connex- 
ion with  Corea,  was  the  introduction  of  Buddhism  un- 
der the  reign  of  Emperor  Keitai,  507-531  A.D.  There 
came  to  Japan  from  the  State  of  Southern  Lian  in 
China  a  man  named  Sumatah,  who  settled  in  the 
province  of  Yamato,  and,  being  a  profound  believer  in 
Buddha,  propagated  the  doctrines  of  Buddhism.  But 
the  people  regarded  Buddha  as  a  foreign  God,  and  no 
one  embraced  the  new  religion. 

In  the  year  555  A.  D.  the  King  of  Kudara  in  Corea 
sent  an  image  of  Buddha  and  a  copy  of  the  Buddhist 
Sutras  to  Japan  with  the  message  that  the  religion  of 
Buddha  excelled  all  other  religious  beliefs,  and  that 
boundless  blessing  in  this  world  as  in  the  next  was  in- 

1  According  to  page  31,  the  Empress  Kogo  (on  page  80  called  Empress 
Jingo)  reigned,  as  stated  on  page  41,  sixty-nine  years,  after  which  time  Ojin, 
her  soil,  succeeded  to  the  throne.  Here,  on  page  43,  we  are  told  that  Ojin  was 
emperor  in  the  year  21S  A.  D.  We  have  no  means  of  deciding  which  statement 
is  the  most  trustworthy.  Similar  contradictions,  especially  in  dates,  occur  in 
oilier  parts  of  the  book.  Frequently  empresses  are  called  emperors,  which 
appears  to  be  a  misprint  or  mistake  of  the  translator. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4323 


sured  to  his  disciples.  Much  impressed  by  this  mes- 
sage and  the  gifts  accompanying  it,  the  Emperor  was 
disposed  to  worship  the  image,  but  before  doing  so  he 
summoned  his  ministers  to  debate  the  advisability  of 
the  step.  Soga-no-iname,  the  prime  minister,  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  as  all  western  nations  wor- 
shipped Buddha  there  was  no  reason  why  Japan  alone 
should  reject  his  doctrine  ;  but  other  ministers  of  State 
opposed  him,  saying,  that  the  Japanese  had  from  the 
most  ancient  times  worshipped  celestial  and  terrestial 
deities  and  that  if  reverence  were  paid  to  an  alien 
deity  the  wrath  of  the  gods  of  the  land  might  be  pro- 
voked. The  Emperor  approved  of  the  latter  view, 
but  it  seems  that  a  dim  idea  of  the  importance  of 
Buddhism  had  seized  his  mind,  for  he  gave  the  image 
of  Buddha  to  Iname  with  the  permission  to  worship  it 
by  way  of  trial.  Iname  was  greatly  pleased  with  the  be- 
hest, and  at  once  converted  his  residence  into  a  temple. 

Unfortunately  the  empire  was  soon  afterwards  vis- 
ited by  a  pestilence  which  swept  away  a  number  of  the 
people,  and  as  the  State  ministers  represented  to  the 
sovereign  that  this  was  an  obvious  punishment  inflicted 
by  heaven,  the  temple  was  burned  and  the  image  of 
Buddha  thrown  into  the  water  of  the  canal  in  Naniwa. 

The  Emperor,  however,  did  not  altogether  aban- 
don his  preference  for  the  worship  of  Buddha,  and 
Iname  sent  secretly  to  Corea  for  another  image.  His 
son  Soga-no-umako  who  succeeded  his  father  Iname 
as  prime  minister,  again  built  temples  and  pagodas 
dedicated  to  Buddha.  But  again  a  pestilence  visited 
the  country  and  the  sons  of  the  old  State  ministers 
again  averred  that  the  pestilence  must  be  attributed 
to  the  worship  of  Buddha  by  the  Soga  family,  the  fam- 
ily of  the  prime  minister.  An  imperial  rescript  was  is- 
sued prohibiting  the  worship  of  Buddha.  All  the  tem- 
ples and  pagodas  dedicated  to  the  foreign  god  were 
burned,  and  the  images  were  again  thrown  into  the 
canal  of  Naniwa.  But  the  remedy  proved  useless; 
the  people's  sufferings  were  not  relieved,  and  in  addi- 
tion to  the  old  trouble  a  plague  of  boils  ensued,  the 
pains  of  which  resembled  that  of  burning,  and  so  old 
and  young  alike  came  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were 
now  the  victims  of  a  punishment  for  burning  the  shrines 
of  Buddha.  Buddhism  apparently  had  already  taken 
a  powerful  hold  upon  the  popular  imagination. 

Soga-no-umako  applied  for  and  received  permis- 
sion to  worship  Buddha  with  his  own  family;  and  the 
Emperor  Yomei,  on  ascending  the  throne,  suffered  so 
much  from  bodily  infirmity  that  the  idea  of  worship- 
ping Buddha  occurred  to  him.  He  found  so  many 
adherents  of  the  new  creed  among  his  ministers  that 
they  could  easily  induce  him  to  suppress  all  opposition 
with  the  sword.  Nakotomi  Katsumi,  a  leader  of  the 
anti-Buddhist  party,  was  killed,  while  Prince  Shotoku 
together  with  Soga-no-umako  attacked  and  conquered 


the  anti-Buddhist  party  and  deprived  them  of  their  in- 
fluence. 

Under  the  reign  of  the  Empress  Suiko  (191-629 
A.  D.),  the  spread  of  Buddhism  was  much  encouraged 
by  the  court.  The  crown  prince,  the  princess  of  the 
blood,  and  ministers  of  State  had  images  of  Buddha 
made.  In  the  year  607  A.  D.  the  Empress  Suiko  sent 
to  China  where  the  Sui  dynasty  was  reigning,  to  ob- 
tain copies  of  the  Sutras,  and  this  was  the  commence- 
ment of  the  intercourse  with  China. 

The  preamble  of  the  dispatch  sent  on  that  occasion 
from  the  empress  of  Japan  to  the  sovereign  of  China 
was  couched  in  the  following  words  :  "The  Sovereign 
of  the  Empire  of  the  Rising  Sun  to  the  Sovereign  of 
the  Empire  of  the  Setting  Sun,  sends  greeting."  And 
there  is  scarcely  a  doubt  that  this  was  the  origin  of  the 
country's  being  called  Nipon  (Japan),  which  means 
"land  of  the  rising  sun." 

Buddhism  now  began  to  flourish  greatly,  and  for 
the  purpose  of  superintendence  the  offices  of  Sojo 
(archbishop)  and  Sozu  (bishop)  were  established.  In 
the  year  627  A.  D.  there  were  forty-two  temples,  eight 
hundred  and  sixteen  priests,  and  five  hundred  and 
sixty-nine  nuns  in  Japan.  And  as  Buddhism  spread, 
the  Confucian  philosophy  grew  by  its  side. 

Buddhism  wrought  a  complete  change  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  nation.  A  greater  charity  and  benevo- 
lence had  seized  the  minds  of  the  Emperor,  of  the 
powerful,  and  of  the  rich.  It  is  said  that  the  erudite 
Emperor  Nintoku  dwelt  for  three  years  in  a  dilapi- 
dated palace  in  order  that  his  people  might  have  re- 
lief from  taxation  and  might  know  the  love  his  learn- 
ing had  taught  him.  The  prosperity  of  the  nation, 
his  Majesty  said,  was  his  own  prosperity  ;  therefore, 
the  poverty  of  his  people  must  also  be  his  own. 

Before  the  introduction  of  Buddhism  "the  peo- 
ple's conception  of  religion  had  been  of  a  most  rudi- 
mentary character.!  They  merely  believed  that  the 
gods  must  be  revered,  relied  on,  and  feared.  In  their 
simple  faith,  they  attributed  every  happy  or  unhappy 
event,  every  fortunate  or  unfortunate  incident,  to  the 
volition  of  the  deities ;  to  whom,  therefore,  they  of- 
fered sacrifices  that  evil  might  be  averted.  Thus  we 
find  it  recorded  that  when  the  Emperer  Sujin  wor- 
shipped the  gods,  a  pestilence  prevailing  throughout 
the  land  disappeared  and  health  was  restored  to  the 
people.  The  Emperor  Chuai,  again,  failing  to  comply 
with  the  mandate  of  heaven,  died  suddenly,  whereas 
the  Empress  Jingo,  obeying  it,  achieved  the  conquest 
of  Corea.  In  a  word,  the  men  of  olden  time  believed 
that  the  world  was  governed  by  deities  wielding  super- 
natural powers,  and  that  everything,  whether  good  or 
evil,  emanated  from  them.  This  faith  inspired  the 
worship  that  heaven  received.      It  was  believed,  also, 

1  Quoted  literally  from  the  History  of  Japan,  pp.  57-59. 


4324 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


that  the  gods  resembled  men  in  appearance  and  con- 
ducted themselves  like  human  beings  ;  out  of  which 
faith  grew  the  firmly  entertained  conception  that  some 
men  were  scions  of  the  deities,  and  that  the  deities 
themselves  were  of  various  species.  In  the  highest 
rank  stood  the  Celestial  and  Terrestial  Gods  ;  in  the 
lowest,  certain  wild  animals  and  venomous  snakes, 
which  were  also  propitiated  by  worship.  The  term 
Kami  (god)  had  many  significations.  The  hair  of  the 
head  was  called  kami,  as  was  also  the  upper  part  of 
any  object.  In  later  times,  the  governors  of  provinces 
received  the  same  appellation,  and  the  government  it- 
self was  designated  ''Okanii."  In  brief,  the  word  was 
employed  to  signify  anything  above  or  superior.  When 
the  Emperor  Jimmu  reigned,  no  distinction  existed 
between  gods  and  men  ;  nor  did  the  national  concep- 
tion of  a  deity  undergo  any  material  change  after  the 
introduction  of  the  Confucian  philosophy,  the  tenets 
of  which  offered  no  contradiction  to  the  ancient  idea. 
But,  although  the  leading  doctrine  of  Buddha — as,  for 
example,  '  Thou  shalt  do  no  evil  thing,'  or  .'thou  shalt 
do  only  that  which  is  good' — marked  no  departure 
from  the  teachings  of  Confucius,  Buddhism  told  of  a 
past  and  of  a  future  ;  announced  the  doctrine  that  vir- 
tue should  be  rewarded  and  vice  punished  in  a  future 
state;  and  taught  that  Buddha  was  the  Supreme  Be- 
ing, and  that  whosoever  had  faith  in  him  should  re- 
ceive unlimited  blessings  at  his  hands.  All  this  dif- 
fered radically  from  the  pristine  creed  of  the  Japanese. 
They  had  hitherto  held  that  above  all,  and  to  be  rev- 
erenced and  feared  exclusively,  were  the  deities  and 
the  sovereign.  The  ruler  being  regarded  as  an  incar- 
nate god,  his  commands  had  received  the  implicit 
obedience  due  to  the  mandates  of  heaven.  But  when 
the  creed  of  Buddha  came,  the  sovereign,  hitherto  the 
object  of  his  subjects'  worship,  began  himself  to  wor- 
ship the  Supreme  Being.  Nevertheless,  so  deeply 
had  the  old  reverential  awe  of  the  deities  struck  its 
roots  into  the  heart  of  the  people,  that  on  the  first  ap- 
pearance of  a  pestilence  they  counted  it  a  punishment 
of  the  gods  of  the  land,  destroyed  the  images  of  Bud- 
dha, and  burned  the  places  consecrated  to  his  worship. 
But  with  fuller  knowledge  of  the  Buddhist  doctrines, 
came  a  growing  disposition  to  embrace  them.  Only  a 
few  years  after  the  rejection  of  the  foreign  faith  on  ac- 
count of  a  pestilence,  we  find  the  Emperor  Bidatsu 
interpreting  the  sickness  of  Uraako  as  a  sign  that  the 
worship  of  Buddha  must  be  permitted  to  that  minis- 
ter, and  after  the  lapse  of  another  brief  interval,  we 
have  the  people  themselves  inferring  that  a  plague  of 
boils  had  been  ordained  by  the  Buddha.  The  Em- 
peror Yomei  was  a  devout  Buddhist,  and  in  his  reign 
Prince  Shotoku,  among  the  princes  of  the  blood,  and 
Soga-no-Umako,  among  the  ministers  of  the  crown, 
were  conspicuous  devotees  of  the  faith,  while  Mono- 


nobe  Moriya,  Nakatomi  Katsumi,  and  other  anti-Bud- 
dhist leaders,  met  with  violent  deaths.  Ignorant  folks, 
observing  that  the  sovereign  himself,  as  well  as  his 
chief  ministers,  believed  in  Buddhism,  and  seeing  the 
golden  images  of  Buddha,  the  imposing  structures 
where  they  were  enshrined,  the  gorgeous  parapher- 
nalia of  the  temples,  and  the  solemnity  of  the  rites 
performed  there,  were  awed  into  faith  ;  while  the  cul- 
tured classes  were  gradually  won  over  by  study  of  the 
profound  and  convincing  doctrines  of  the  creed.  .  .  . 

"The  progress  of  the  imported  creed  was  mater- 
ially hastened  by  a  rescript  which  the  Emperor  Suiko 
issued,  inculcating  its  propagandism.  Prince  Shotoku 
also  contributed  to  the  movement,  for,  in  604  A.  D.,  he 
compiled  a  constitution  of  seventeen  articles,  based  on 
the  doctrines  of  Confucianism  and  Buddhism.  This 
was  the  first  written  law  in  Japan,  but  it  differed  from 
the  laws  promulgated  in  subsequent  ages,  inasmuch  as 
instructions  as  well  as  prohibitions  were  embodied  in 
its  text";  in  other  words,  they  were  rather  religious 
injunctions  than  legal  ordinances. 

The  introduction  of  Buddhism,  and  the  relations 
established  thereby  with  China,  gave  a  powerful  im- 
pulse to  the  civilisation  of  Japan.  Chinese  keramists 
started  the  idea  of  art  pottery.  Swords  were  forged 
with  great  skill.  After  the  conquest  of  Corea,  many 
workers  in  metal  were  imported  into  Japan,  and  iron 
articles  of  large  size  began  to  be  manufactured.  With 
the  demand  for  the  Buddhist  images,  the  goldsmith's 
craft  made  rapid  progress.  Tanners  emigrated  to  Co- 
rea during  the  reign  of  Ninken.  They  settled  in  the 
province  of  Yamato,  and  dressed  hides  of  all  kinds. 
Later  on,  Chinese  tanners  introduced  the  art  of  mak- 
ing saddles  and  various  other  articles  of  leather.  The 
manufacture  of  paper,  ink,  whetstones,  and  dies  was 
taught  by  a  Corean  priest,  in  the  reign  of  the  Empress 
Suiko.  For  the  embellishment  of  Buddhist  worship. 
Prince  Shotoku  encouraged  also  the  teaching  of  for- 
eign music.  Painting  was  taught  by  Chinese  artists, 
who  arrived  under  the  reign  of  Emperor  Yuryaku. 
Most  of  them  devoted  themselves  to  religious  subjects, 
and  Buddhist  piety  gave  a  powerful  encouragement  to 
their  art.  The  Empress  Suiko  sent~  young  men  to 
China  to  study  medicine,  and  since  that  time  Chinese 
therapeutics  was  generally  practised  in  Japan.  We 
read  on  page  75  of  The  History  of  Japan : 

"A  notable  factor  in  the  development  of  material 
prosperity  at  that  epoch  was  the  extraordinary  ability 
of  the  priests.  Many  of  them  made  voyages  to  China 
to  study  the  arts  and  sciences  of  that  empire,  and  on 
their  return  to  Japan  travelled  up  and  down  the  land, 
opening  regions  hitherto  left  barren,  building  temples, 
repairing  and  extending  roads,  bridging  rivers,  estab- 
lishing ferries,  digging  ponds,  canals,  and  wells,  en- 
couraging navigation,  and  contributing  not  less  to  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4325 


material  civilisation  of  the  country  than  to  the  moral 
improvement  of  the  people.  It  may  be  truly  said  that 
the  spread  of  Buddhism  was  synchronous  with  the  rise 
of  art  and  science.  Carpenters,  from  the  practice  ac- 
quired in  building  temples,  learned  how  to  construct 
large  edifices;  sculptors  and  metallurgists  became 
skilful  by  casting  and  graving  idols  of  gold  and  bronze; 
painting,  decorative  weaving,  the  ornamentation  of 
utensils,  and  the  illumination  of  missals  owe  their  ex- 
pert pursuit  to  the  patronage  of  Buddhism  ;  the  first 
real  impetus  given  to  the  potter's  art  is  associated  with 
the  name  of  a  priest ;  in  short,  almost  every  branch  of 
industrial  and  artistical  development  owes  something 
to  the  influence  of  the  creed." 

It  is  natural,  however,  that  the  priest  often  made 
a  wrong  use  of  the  devotion  of  the  people.  Of  the 
Engi  era  (901-922  A.  D.)  we  read  that  they  became 
inflated  by  the  reverence  received.  The  temples  came 
into  possession  of  extensive  estates,  disputes  arose 
among  the  sects,  and  military  forces  were  maintained 
at  some  of  the  monasteries,  for  both  aggressive  and 
defensive  warfare.  When  the  Lord  High  Abbot  of  a 
temple  was  appointed  by  the  Court,  it  became  custom- 
ary that,  if  priests,  according  to  their  right,  objected, 
they  came  clad  in  armor,  with  bows  and  spears,  to  the 
palace  to  present  their  grievance.  They  developed 
such  independence  that  they  did  not  shrink  from  re- 
sorting to  violence — a  conduct  which  caused  the  Em- 
peror Shirakawa  grave  anxiety,  for  he  was  unable  to 
check  their  lawlessness.  On  one  occasion,  lamenting 
the  arbitrary  conduct  of  the  clergy,  the  emperor  said : 
"There  are  three  things  in  my  empire  which  do  not 
obey  me  ;  the  waters  of  the  Kamo  river,  the  dice  of  the 
Sugoroku  players,  and  the  priests  of  Buddha." 

W'e  know  of  the  same  or  very  similar  incidents  of 
high  and  low  ecclesiastic  warriors  in  our  own  history 
of  the  Middle  Ages. 

During  the  Nara  epoch  many  glyptic  artists  were 
famous  for  their  skill  in  sculpturing  idols  ;  lacquerers 
and  sword- smiths  carried  their  industries  far  beyond 
ancient  standards  of  achievement.  We  read  in  Tlie 
History  of  Japan  : 

"It  is  further  worthy  of  note  that  the  methods 
of  manufacturing  glass  and  soap  were  known  in  the 
eighth  century.  Nara  and  its  temples,  remaining  out- 
side the  range  of  battles  and  the  reach  of  conflagra- 
tions, have  escaped  the  destruction  that  periodically 
overtook  other  imperial  capitals,  so  that  those  who 
visit  the  place  to-day  can  see  objects  of  art  in  daily 
use  more  than  a  thousand  years  old. 

"  Simultaneously  with  the  progress  thus  made  in 
art  and  industry,  learning  received  a  great  impetus. 
The  Emperor  Tenchi  was  the  first  to  appoint  officials 
charged  with  educational  functions,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  provisions  of  the  Taihoryo  or  reform-legisla- 


tion, promulgated  in  his  time,  a  university  was  estab- 
lished in  Kyoto,  as  well  as  public  schools  in  the  vari- 
ous localities  throughout  the  provinces." 

As  the  old  deities  of  the  country  still  exercised  a 
great  influence  upon  the  minds  of  the  people,  attempts 
were  made  to  conciliate  Buddhism  with  the  belief  in 
the  popular  gods.  "  In  earlier  days,  Ryoben,  Gyoki, 
and  other  priests  had  preached  the  identity  of  the 
Shinto  deities  and  the  Buddhist  god.  Saicho  and  Ku- 
kai  pushed  this  doctrine  still  further.  They  taught 
that  the  Hotoke  was  the  one  and  only  divine  being, 
and  that  all  the  Kami  were  manifestations  of  him.  On 
that  basis  they  established  a  new  doctrine  called  Shinto, 
or  the  way  of  the  deity,  the  tenets  of  which  mingled 
Shintoism  and  Buddhism  inextricably.  In  consequence 
of  the  spread  of  this  doctrine,  it  became  a  not  uncom- 
mon occurrence  to  find  Buddhist  relics  in  a  Shinto 
shrine,  or  a  Shinto  idol  in  a  Buddhist  temple,  while 
the  names  of  the  Shinto  deities  {Kami )  were  confused 
with  Buddhist  titles." 

One  of  the  greatest  effects,  however,  of  the  rise  of 
the  new  civilisation  was  the  political  reorganisation  of 
the  Empire,  involving  the  administrations,  and  the  po- 
litical and  social  conditions  of  the  whole  country.  It 
is  known  as  "The  Taikwa  Reformation"  which  was 
elaborated  by  Prince  Naka-no-oye.  It  abolished  the 
old  primitive  methods  of  administering  the  country  by 
local  chiefs  or  head  men  and  established  a  regular  gov- 
ernment distributing  the  various  functions  between 
the  ministers  of  the  left  and  the  right  and  the  minis- 
ters of  the  interior  and  the  eight  administrative  depart- 
ments, which  are  :  (i)  the  department  of  records  ;  (2) 
of  ceremonies;  (3)  of  administration;  (4)  of  home 
affairs ;  (5)  of  military  affairs  ;  (6)  of  justice  ;  (7)  of 
finance  ;  and  (8)  of  the  imperial  household.  A  cen- 
sus was  introduced,  agrarian  measures  were  taken  to 
enhance  agriculture,  boxes  were  set  up  at  various 
places  wherein  the  people  were  invited  to  deposit 
statements  of  grievances  from  which  they  suffered, 
and  it  was  provided  that  a  man  who  desired  to  bring 
a  complaint  speedily  to  the  notice  of  the  authorities 
should  ring  a  bell  hung  up  in  a  public  building.  As 
the  officials  were  selected  by  merit,  abolishing  the 
system  of  hereditary  succession,  noble  families  were 
deprived  of  many  privileges  ;  still  the  aristocracy  was 
benefited  by  the  conservatism  of  custom.  The  Taikwa 
Reform  remained  the  basis  of  the  Japanese  constitu- 
tion, although  later  centuries  were  marked  by  the  rise 
of  several  powerful  families,  the  Funjiwara  family,  the 
Minimoto  clan,  the  Tiara  family,  the  Hojo  family  and 
others,  who  frequently  succeeded  again  in  making  of- 
fices hereditary,  and  in  playing  the  role  of  major- 
dotnos."     (See  page  no.) 

We  conclude  our  sketch  with  a  brief  notice  of  the 
progress  made  at  that  period  in  writing,  which  proves 


DliC 


1894 


4326 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


that  the  Japanese  were  not  mere  disciples  of  the  Chi- 
nese but  original  thinkers  and  independent  inventors. 

The  ideographic  system  of  the  Chinese  proved 
insufficient  for  the  exact  expression  of  the  Japanese 
language.  Thus  a  syllabic  script  was  invented,  the 
inanvfl-gana  in  which  Chinese  characters  were  used  as 
phonetic  sounds,  and  as  it  took  much  time  and  labor 
to  write  Chinese  characters,  the  original  ideographs 
were  abbreviated  by  KibinoMakibi  (who  lived  at  the 
Nara-epoch)  so  as  to  leave  only  a  skeleton  or  the  so- 
called  radical  of  the  sign.  The  syllables,  thus  obtained, 
reduced  the  elements  of  the  Japanese  script  to  fort)'- 
seven,  by  which  fifty  sounds  could  be  represented. 
"Thenceforth,  instead  of  the  pain  of  committing  to 
memory  thousands  of  ideographs,  and  employing  them 
with  no  little  toil,  it  became  possible  to  record  the 
most  complex  thoughts  by  the  aid  of  fifty  simple  syl- 
lables. Nevertheless,  since  the  nation  had  come  to 
regard  Chinese  literature  as  the  classics  of  learning, 
scholars  were  still  compelled  to  use  Chinese  ideographs 
and  to  follow  Chinese  rules  of  composition,  so  that  the 
cursive  forms  of  the  Chinese  characters  remained  the 
recognised  script  of  educated  men.^  In  the  Heian 
Epoch,  when  the  great  prelate  Kobo-daishi  composed 
for  mnemonic  purposes,  the  rhyming  syllabary  {ii-oJia- 
nta)  called  Imayo,  the  forms  of  the  simplified  charac- 
ters may  be  considered  as  having  finally  crystallised 
into  the  syllabary  known  as  the  Hira  kaiia."  And  this 
script  is  still  in  use. 

We  have  to  add  that  "  O-no-Yasu  maro,  by  com- 
mand of  the  Empress  Gemmyo,  compiled  in  712  A.  D. 
a  history  of  the  empire  from  the  earliest  days  to  the 
reign  of  Suiko.  This  work  was  called  the  Kojiki.  A 
year  later,  the  various  provinces  received  Imperial  in- 
structions to  prepare  geographical  accounts,  each  of  it- 
self, and  these  were  collated  into  the  Fudoki.  During 
the  next  reign,  the  Empress  Gensho  continued  this 
literary  effort  by  causing  Prince  Toneri  and  others  to 
compile  the  Nihon  Slioki,  comprising  a  historical  nar- 
rative from  the  beginning  of  the  empire  to  the  reign 
of  Jito.  In  these  works,  the  Kojiki  and  the  Ni/ioi? 
Skoki,  the  most  ancient  traditions  of  the  country  are  to 
be  found.  Shortly  afterwards,  six  national  histories 
were  successively  undertaken,  the  compilation  of  which 
continued  down  to  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Daigo. 
All  these  older  books  were  written  in  Chinese  ideo- 
graphs." The  Japanese  language  in  Japanese  writings 
began  to  flourish  in  the  Nara  epoch  and  the  literature 
of  this  golden  age  has  been  collected  in  a  great  work 
called  the  Manyoshu  which  contains  many  gems  of 
simple  but  genuine  poetry.  p.  C. 

1  We  need  scarcely  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  Chinese  writing  being  an 
ideographic  script  can  be  written  and  read  by  people  who  do  not  know  the 
Chinese  language.  The  Japanese  and  Chinese  languages  are  very  difterent, 
but  a  greatpartof  Japanese  literature,  even  to  day.  is  written  in  Chinese  script. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

"WE  CHRISTIANS." 

To  (Jie  Edilor  of  The  Open  Court: 

I  cannot  but  be  gratified  by  the  consi<3eration  you  have  given 
(in  your  issue  of  September  27)  to  my  remarks  upon  your  "We 
Christians." 

I  am  most  interested  in  your  subtle  and  ingenious  defence  of 
the  /■'oniiii  phrase.  But  while  appreciating  the  careful  explana- 
tion of  your  view,  and  taking  it  as  a  practical  closure  of  the  con- 
troversy, permit  me  to  say  that  I  am  not  convinced. 

Indeed  this  sentence — "I  have  as  good  a  title  to  the  name 
Christian  if  not  a  better  one,  than  the  Pope  of  Rome, "  would  seem 
to  show  that  our  difference  of  opinion  is  really  fundamental  ;  and 
that  no  successful  persuasion  upon  either  side  is  possible. 

As  to  Agnosticism — here  perhaps  the  difference  is  one  rather 
of  "words"  than  "meaning."  You  indeed  write  as  if  by  using 
the  words  God,  Soul,  Immortality,  with  the  same  familiarity  as 
the  words  Man,  Mind,  Mortality,  you  could  acquire  something 
like  the  same  knowledge  of  their  significance.  But  after  all  this 
cannot  be  your  IhoiigJit. 

And  I  find  that  when  it  comes  to  serviceable  information  on 
these  high  themes,  each  of  us,  not  being  supernaturally  informed 
by  revelation,  is  in  precisely  the  same  boat  of  blankest  ignorance. 
The  only  distinction  lies  in  the  different  recognition  of  this  ig- 
norance. It  does  seem  to  me  that  every  thoughtful  Theist,  Pan- 
entheist,  or  Atheist  must  be  to  a  large  extent  .A.gnostic  too. 

For  your  very  kind  "personal  remark"  accept.  Sir,  my  sin- 
cerely sympathetic  thanks.  Ellis  Thurtell. 


JUST   PUBLISHED: 

The  Gospel   of   Buddha 

ACCORDlNr,  TO  OLD  RECORDS  TOLD  EV 

PAUL  CARUS. 

With  Table  of  References  and  Parallels,  Glossary,  and  com- 
plete Index.      Pages,  xvi,  275,      Elegantly  bound,  gilt  top      Price, 

$1.50. 

The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company 

THE  OPEN   COURT 

"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN   STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Pub 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  381. 

PRESBYTER  JOHN.     Moncure  D.  Conway 4319 

THE  ABSOLUTE.     HunoR  Genone 4320 

THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  BUDDHISM  INTO  JAPAN. 

EDITOR 4321 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

"We  Christians."     Ellis  Thurtell 432C 


The  Open  Court. 


A  ■MT'EEKLY  JOTJENAL 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  382.   (voL.v111.-51.)  CHICAGO,  DECEMBER  20,  1894. 


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A  STORY  OF  KISSES. 

BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 

The  merit  of  Christianity  as  a  system,  and  the  value 
of  "behef "  as  a  factor,  consists,  not  in  any  creed  or 
intellectual  equivalent  for  feeling,  but  in  the  feeling 
itself. 

"Faith  "  is  either  a  function  of  fact,  or  it  is  of  folly, 
when  manifestly  it  is  not  faith  at  all,  but  credulit}' — a 
vastly  different  matter. 

The  real  faith  is  not  dependent  at  all  upon  that 
symbol  or  form  of  statement  which  produces  it.  The 
value  of  the  message  has  no  necessary  connexion  with 
the  moral  merit  of  the  messenger. 

Christianity  is  the  power  it  is,  and  has  been,  and 
will  continue  to  be,  because  it  more  nearly  expresses 
abstract  truth  than  any  other  expression  known  to 
mankind.  It  is  capable,  by  the  beauty  and  pathos  of 
its  sublime  myth,  of  attracting  more  minds  than  the 
myths  of  all  other  theologies  combined. 

It  may  not  be  literally  true,  but  so  marvellous  is 
the  fascination  of  the  story  that  even  those  who  might 
be  disposed  to  discredit  it,  if  they  allowed  themselves 
to  think,  will  deliberately  decline  investigation,  fearful 
that  their  ideal  might  be  shattered. 

The  ideal  may  be  a  mirage  in  life's  desert;  but 
never  yet  was  there  a  mirage  without  a  reality  some- 
where beyond  the  visible  horizon. 

Faith  is  feeling  focussed.  It  is  a  complete  subor- 
dination of  sense  to  a  higher,  completer,  universal  sen- 
timent, in  whose  actual  presence  emotion  becomes  the 
equivalent  of  knowledge,  where  all  things  are  made 
new. 

This,  in  substance,  was  what  I  had  to  say  in  reply 
to  a  request  for  my  opinion  as  to  the  truth  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion. 

A  large  party,  chiefly  composed  of  young  people, 
had  gathered  in  the  library  at  Stone,  a  country-seat  on 
the  Hudson,  for  the  holidays,  and,  as  such  matters 
happen,  the  conversation  had  taken  an  accustomed 
turn.  It  came  about  naturally  enough,  though  in  a 
rather  peculiar  way :  one  of  the  guests  was  a  Captain 
Clay  Havisham,  recently  retired  on  account  of  wounds 
received  in  action  with  the  Indians.  Mrs.  Andres's 
cook  was  a  colored  woman,  and  in  her  younger  days 
had  been  a  slave  in  the  Havisham  family,  somewhere 


in  Kentucky.  When  "Aunty"  found  that  her  "young 
massa"  was  in  the  house,  she,  of  course,  wanted  to 
see  him. 

The  Captain's  recollections  of  the  old  woman,  who 
had  been  his  nurse  in  childhood,  were  very  vivid.  He 
begged  that  she  might  be  sent  for.  Mrs.  Andros  called 
a  servant,  and  a  few  moments  after  Chloe  appeared  in 
the  great  front  hall,  fat,  shaking  all  over  "like  a  bowl 
full  of  jelly,"  and  her  broad  black  face  beaming  with 
joy. 

Whether  the  Captain's  unfeigned  affection  made 
him  forgetful,  or  that  he  was  too  proud  to  seem  to  hide 
his  real  feelings,  at  all  events  he  left  the  sliding  doors 
wide  open,  and  in  full  view  of  us  all  threw  his  arms 
around  Aunt  Chloe,  and  kissed  her  on  the  cheek. 

That  was  all  we  witnessed  of  the  interview.  Mrs. 
Andros  rose  and  softly  closed  the  doors  ;  but  what  we 
had  seen  was  quite  enough  for  comment  of  one  sort  or 
another  among  the  guests.  They  were  too  high- bred 
to  make  these  offensively  or  very  openly,  but  I  over- 
heard one  young  woman — a  Miss  Rotherhythe,  from 
Boston — remark  in  a  whisper:  "Strange,  what  an 
effect  heredity  and  early  education  have  upon  certain 
minds";  while  my  cousin,  Nanny  Andros,  said,  in 
plainer  terms  and  a  trifle  louder,  that  "it  was  just  dis- 
gusting— I  don't  see  how  he  could  possibly  do  it." 

My  aunt,  Mrs.  Andros,  tactfully  and  quietly  turned 
the  current  of  thought  into  a  different  channel,  and,  so 
diverted,  the  stream  broadened  out  into  the  full  tide 
of  discussion. 

Among  so  large  a  number,  of  course,  there  were 
many  shades  of  opinion.  One  of  the  men  was  "  agnos- 
tic," another  advocated  the  "higher  criticism,"  while 
Miss  Rotherhythe,  with  a  free  flow  of  language  and  not 
a  little  ability,  upheld  the  cause  of  what  she  consid- 
ered "orthodoxy,"  or  what  she  called  the  brotherhood 
of  man. 

This  sort  of  thing  is  amusing  to  me,  and  yet  there 
is  a  sadness  about  it.  Inquiry  and  argument  and  opin- 
ion are  all  so  entirely  futile  on  the  lines  that  the  whole 
world  seems  united  in  holding  as  the  only  possible 
method  of  approaching  truth. 

Almost  all  had  something  to  say;  but  Maggie  Chal- 
loner,  a  sweet,  pretty  girl,  daughter,  by  the  way,  of 
the  agnostic  gentleman,  sat  quietly,  with  her  little  sis- 


4328 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


ter  Mary  in  her  arms,  both  listening,  but  never  saying 
a  word. 

"Come  now,  Maggie,"  said  Cousin  Nan,  viva- 
ciously; "you  are  such  a  pious  little  thing,  you  ought 
to  know  more  than  the  rest  of  us;  haven't  you  any- 
thing to  say?  " 

Miss  Challoner  smiled  and  shook  her  head.  "No," 
she  answered,  "I  have  nothing  to  say.  I  have  no 
views  at  all,  only — I  try  always  to  receive  Christ  as  a 
httle  child." 

In  the  silence  that  followed  the  door  opened,  Cap- 
tain Havisham  came  in,  and  in  a  moment  the  library 
"buzzed  and  banged  and  clacked"  again. 

It  was  at  this  point  that  I  was  challenged,  with  the 
result  I  have  given,  —  a  result  which  gave  rise  to  not  a 
little  further  discussion  :  Mr.  Challoner  trying  to  draw 
me  into  an  argument,  while  Miss  Rotherhythe  was 
very  severe  in  her  condemnation  of  my  use  of  the  word 
"myth,"  which  she  characterised  as  "positively  in- 
fidel." 

I  hardly  like  to  use  the  expression  "pearls  before 
swine,"  or  to  seem  to  say,  "Stand  aside  !  I  am  clev- 
erer than  thou  ";  but  I  must  confess  it  was  solely  with 
a  feeling  of  the  hopelessness  of  words  in  such  a  com- 
pany that  I  said  no  more. 

Finding  that  I  refused  to  "give  up  my  fort  of  si- 
lence to  a  woman,"  Miss  Rotherhythe  turned  her  at- 
tention to  Captain  Havisham. 

"What  do  I  think?  Well,  I  can  hardly  say  that  I 
have  thought  much  on  the  subject  either  way."  Was 
he  a  Christian?  Well,  yes,  he  thought  he  was;  not  a 
member  of  any  church,  but  he  attended  services ; 
"more,"  said  he,  frankly,  "because  my  mother  likes 
to  have  me  than  for  any  especial  fancy  of  my  own.  I 
think  religion  is, — well,  just  love;   that's  about  it." 

The  Captain  spoke  hesitatingly  and  with  a  sort  of 
indifference,  as  if  the  subject  were  either  beyond  him, 
or  had  little  interest  to  him.  He  seemed  to  be  almost 
dull.      But  a  remark  of  Mr.  Challoner  drew  him  out. 

"What  do  I  think,"  said  he,  brightening  instantly, 
"what  do  I  think  of  the  doctrine  that  all  things  are 
made  new?  Why,  that's  true.  I  know  it's  true  be- 
cause something  happened  to  me  once." 

The  Captain  stopped  suddenly,  blushing  like  a  girl. 

"Oh  !  you  must  tell  us  what  it  was." 

"  A  story.     Is  it  a  story  ?  " 

"No,"  said  the  Captain,  "I  won't  call  it  a  story, 
and  it  isn't  much  to  tell.  This  is  how  it  was  :  I  was 
in  the  Indian  country  when  the  Nez  Percys  went  off 
the  reservation,  on  the  war  path  as  they  say. 

"I  was  sent  with  orders  for  Colonel  Swigert  of  the 
1 2th  Colored  Cavalry.  Swigert's  command  was  on  the 
head  waters  of  Little  Butte  river,  a  couple  of  hundred 
miles  off.  My  chief  could  spare  but  one  squadron. 
When  we  started  there  were  just  thirty-two — all  told. 


I  was  the  only  commissioned  officer  along  ;  but  O'Tool, 
my  first  sergeant,  was  an  old  Indian  fighter.  Besides, 
we  didn't  expect  to  run  across  any  hostiles  ;  we  felt 
sure  they  were  further  down  the  valley.  We  did  run 
across  'em,  for  all  that — hundreds  on  their  ponies,  all 
rigged  out  in  feathers  and  war  paint,  yelling  and 
whooping.  There  was  only  one  thing  to  do.  We  rode 
for  the  timber,  and  there  made  a  stand — cut  trees  and 
piled  rocks.  This  made  a  fair  enough  fort  ;  but,  to 
show  how  hot  the  firing  was,  by  night  they  had  killed 
the  last  of  the  horses,  though  this  didn't  matter  so 
much  ; — we  used  their  bodies  to  help  make  a  breast- 
work. 

"They  kept  us  there  for  two  whole  days,  charging 
up  the  hill  every  now  and  then,  and  we  firing  back 
with  our  repeating  carbines. 

"This  was  my  first  brush  with  the  reds.  I  asked 
O'Tool  what  he  thought ;  whether  we  were  likely  to 
pull  through,  and  when  he  said  we'd  be  in  kingdom 
come  inside  of  forty-eight  hours,  and  Gray  Wolf,  the 
Arapahoe  scout,  thought  so  too,  I  may  as  well  own  up 
to  being  scared.  But,  scared  or  not,  I  loaded  and 
emptied  m)'  Remington  just  the  same.  That's  one 
merit  to  West  Point  :  it  trains  a  man  not  to  feel  afraid, 
or,  if  he  is  afraid,  not  to  show  it.  It  comes  to  about 
the  same  thing. 

"Well,  so  it  went.  Two  whole  days  those  red  devils 
kept  it  up.  By  the  second  night  hardly  one  wasn't 
hit,  some  badly,  and  a  dozen  either  killed  or  out  of  the 
fight. 

"The  worst  of  it  was  our  canteens  were  empty. 
We  had  enough  to  eat,  but  for  nearly  two  whole  days 
not  a  drop  of  water.  Besides  that,  hardly  one  of  us  had 
any  sleep.  The  first  night  we  had  a  little  rest  now 
and  then,  but  this  second  the  reds  kept  at  it  right 
along. 

"They  knew  we  must  be  getting  short  of  ammuni- 
tion and  pretty  well  used  up.  It  wasn't  light  yet,  but 
the  moon  was  nearly  full  when  they  charged  again. 
This  time  Gray  Wolf  gave  up.  He  wouldn't  touch 
his  piece,  but  sat  on  the  ground, — wrapped  his  blanket 
about  him,  and  sat  there,  rocking  back  and  forth,  and 
singing  his  death  song. 

"I  kicked  and  cursed  him  for  a  coward  ;  but  he 
wouldn't  budge.  The  savages  swarmed  up  the  slope, 
and  I  thought,  sure  enough,  our  time  had  come.  It 
gets  to  be  a  bit  creepy,  you  know,  when  you  begin  to 
think  about  keeping  a  charge  of  your  revolver  for  your 
own  brains. 

"That  was  what  we  did, — O'Tool  and  I, — agreed 
to  shoot  one  another  rather  than  fall  alive  into  the 
hands  of  the  reds.  The  last  survivors  did  that  in  the 
Fetterman  affair,  why  not  we? 

"  But,  when  we  had  given  up  all  hope,  not  a  hun- 
dred rounds  left,  just  before  morning   the  firing  and 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4329 


yells  let  up  for  a  minute,  and  then,  way  down  off  the 
valley,  we  heard  a  bugle  ;  only  two  or  three  notes,  but 
that  was  enough. 

"  Every  man  went  wild  at  once  and  shouted,  'hur- 
rah !  hurrah  !  '  with  all  their  might. 

"  'Blow  your  horn,  Wentz,'  said  I  to  our  little 
Dutch  bugler  ;  '  blow  all  you're  worth.  Let 'em  know 
we're  alive.' 

"  The  little  chap  had  been  shot  in  the  thigh,  so  he 
couldn't  get  on  his  feet,  but  he  was  pluck  clear  through. 
He  grabbed  his  bugle,  puffed  his  cheeks  and  rolled 
over  on  his  back.      My!  how  he  did  blow. 

"Back  came  'toot,  toot,  tooty  te  toot,'  and  a  min- 
ute or  two  after  we  caught  sight  of  a  guidon  flutter- 
ing, and  the  sun,  just  creeping  up,  on  the  sabres. 

"  The  reds  were  quick,  Jove,  but  it  was  fun  to  see 
the  devils  scrambling  for  their  ponies.  We  laughed 
till  the  tears  ran  down  our  cheeks — laughed  and  cried 
together. 

"  Swigert's  troops  charged  the  reds,  but  troop  M, 
Scott  Moran's  troop  of  the  12th  Colored  Cavalry,  rode 
right  up  the  slope.  Glad  ?  talk  about  being  glad.  By 
Jove,  if  you  ever  saw  glad  men  we  were  that. 

"O'Tool,  who  always  said  he  hated  niggers,  just 
made  for  the  first  trooper  that  climbed  over, — a  big, 
black,  grimy,  grinning  Congo  buck,  and  hugged  and 
kissed  him,  blubbering  like  a  baby.  The  rest  all  did 
the  same, — I  among  'em.  There  was  Scott  Moran, 
classmate  of  mine  at  the  academy  ;  why,  when  he  took 
a  commission  in  a  black  regiment  I  thought  he'd  dis- 
graced himself. 

"I  didn't  think  so  when  he  rode  up  the  hill  that 
morning,  and  I  never  have  thought  so  since.  I  tell 
you  there's  nothing  like  a  thing  of  that  kind  to  knock 
prejudice  out  of  a  man. 

"That's  what  I  mean  by  all  things  being  made 
new.  I've  heard  people  talk  about  the  brotherhood  of 
man,  but  I've  felt  it." 


'WHY  LIVE  A  MORAL  LIFE?" 


•RATIONALIST"  SYMPOSIUM. 


BY  AMOS  WATERS. 


True  morality  is  only  possible  when  conduct  is 
based  on  cultivated  intelligence.  Matthew  Arnold  said 
conduct  was  three  fourths  of  human  life — we  may  al- 
low to  conscience  the  other  fourth,  which  in  truth  is 
the  greater  part.  When  the  soul  of  man  has  wrestled 
in  the  wilderness  with  the  everlasting  fF/^j'  of  all  exist- 
ence, and  emerges  into  the  crowded  avenues  of  human 
duty,  with  perfect  understanding  deliberately  choosing 
the  straight  and  narrow  path  of  holy  rectitude,  con- 
duct transcends  the  policy  of  manners  and  soars  into 
the  shining  region  of  morality. 


Morality  accounts  for  the  yesterday,  and  provides 
for  the  morrow.  If  retrospect  entail  repentance,  the 
future  demands  atonement.  Herein  Christianity  was 
eloquently  right — as,  in  truth,  were  all  the  profoundest 
religions.  The  yesterday  of  rehgious  science  is  as  full 
and  vivid,  and  the  morrow  thereof  as  prolonged  and 
actual,  as  the  yesterday  and  the  morrow  of  supernat- 
ural religion.  But  the  problem,  "  Why  Live  a  Moral 
Life  ?  "  demands  of  the  monist,  the  agnostic,  or  the 
philosophers  who  inelegantly  label  themselves  "  Ra- 
tionalists ":  IV/iy  care  to  account  for  yesterday  or  to  adorn 
the  morroiv?  In  the  extremely  opportune  symposium 
importantly  featuring' the  Agnostic  Annual  for  1895, 
this  problem  is,  more  or  less,  competently  handled  by 
a  group  of,  more  or  less,  eminent  gentlemen  content 
to  bear  that  banner  of  strange  device  named  "  Ration- 
alism." 

The  unique  variety  of  opinion  in  this  Symposium  is 
editorially  charitable,  but  suspiciously  vagrant  in  prox- 
imity to  burlesque — if  by  "Rationalism"  any  definite 
temper  of  modern  thought  be  intended.  For  example, 
Dr.  Alfred  Momerie — an  elegant  heretic  of  charming 
courage  in  the  worldly  Church  of  England — almost 
cynically  confesses  his  incapacity  for  imagination  with- 
out reward,  i.  e.,  for  accepting  the  sovereign  compul- 
sion of  nobility,  usefulness,  self-denial,  and  enthusiastic 
service,  (in  a  single  word,  the  necessity  of  duty,)  apart 
from  the  serenely  ignoble  satisfaction  of  pleasing  God, 
and  being  immortally  comfortable  hereafter.  He  thinks 
pessimism  and  sensuality  inevitable — goodness  unrea- 
sonable and  quixotically  weak — and  "  everything  in 
the  last  resort  vanity,"  unless  there  be  a  future  life. 
Meaning  thereby,  mark  you,  not  the  immortality  loftily 
and  inspiringly  proclaimed  by  the  editor  of  T/ic  Open 
Court,  — the  immortality  born  of  the  wedded  compact 
of  purified  religion  and  spiritualised  science, — but  the 
grossly  enticing  immortality  that  spells  individual 
"pleasure,"  and  writes  the  stupendously  selfish  prom- 
ise in  dazzling  letters  across  the  deep  vaults  of  night. 
Most  fatally  and  mischievously,  this  speculator  in  post- 
mortem scrip  balances  choice  between  two  pleasurable 
impulsions  :  between  conscious  self-gratulation  beyond 
the  grave,  and — to  the  shame  of  "Rationalism  "  be  it 
written — self-indulgence  in  the  "certainties"  of  this 
life.  Dr.  Momerie  disastrously  confounds  morality  by 
identifying  sin  and  pleasure — the  vicious  mistake  of 
most  theologians.  The  certainties  of  our  human  life 
are  not  the  caprices  of  sin,  but  precious  opportunities 
of  opposing  the  best  love  within  us  to  the  basest  temp- 
tations around  us — for  making  some  desert  spot  glow 
with  ripened  fruit  to  faltering  wayfarers — for  commun- 
ing with  the  grand  historic  life  of  divine  humanity, 
and  adding  at  least  one  heroic  note  to  its  noblest  har- 
monies. To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Momerie — cynical  coquette 
with  "Rationalism" — maybe  commended  the  words 


4330 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


of  one  greater  than  he — words  that  will  be  immortal 
prose  when  he  and  his  generation  have  passed  away  : 

"  It  is  only  a  poor  sort  of  happiness  that  could  ever  come  by 
caring  much  about  our  own  narrow  pleasures.  We  can  only  have 
the  highest  happiness,  such  as  goes  along  with  being  a  great  man, 
by  having  wide  thoughts  and  much  feeling  for  the  rest  of  the  world, 
as  well  as  ourselves  ;  and  this  sort  of  happiness  often  brings  so 
much  pain  with  it,  that  we  can  only  tell  it  from  pain  by  its  being 
what  we  would  choose  before  everything  else,  because  our  own 
souls  see  it  is  good.  There  are  so  many  things  wrong  and  difficult 
in  the  world,  that  no  man  can  be  great — he  can  hardly  keep  him- 
self from  wickedness — unless  he  gives  up  thinking  much  about 
pleasures  or  rewards,  and  gets  strength  to  endure  what  is  hard  and 
painful.  .  .  .  And  so  ...  if  you  mean  to  act  nobly  and  seek  to  know 
the  best  things  God  has  put  within  the  reach  of  men,  you  must 
learn  to  fix  your  mind  on  that  end,  and  not  on  what  will  happen  to 
you  because  of  it.  And  remember,  if  you  were  to  choose  some- 
thing lower,  and  make  it  the  rule  of  your  life  to  seek  your  own 
pleasure  and  escape  from  what  is  disagreeable,  calamity  might  come 
just  the  same  ;  and  it  would  be  calamity  falling  on  a  base  mind, 
which  is  the  one  form  of  selfishness  that  has  no  balm  in  it,  and 
that  may  well  make  a  man  say,  —  'It  would  have  been  better  for 
me  if  I  had  never  been  born.'  " — George  Eliot's  Koiim/a. 

Why  live  a  moral  life  ?  Even  "Spiritualism"  is  in- 
spired to  answer  the  demand  in  the  name  of  "  Ration- 
alism "  by  grace  of  Dr.  A.  R.  Wallace,  whose  discus- 
sion is  sufficiently  and  commonly  sensible,  but  lacking 
the  one  thing  needful — i.  e. ,  the  positive  genius  of 
ethical  instruction.  Dr.  Wallace  writes  of  the  "Spir- 
itualist": 

"He  dreads  to  give  way  to  passion,  or  to  falsehood,  to  selfish- 
ness, or  to  a  life  of  mere  luxurious  enjoyment  physically,  because 
he  knows  that  the  natural  and  inevitable  consequences  of  such  a 
life  are  future  misery.  He  will  be  deterred  from  crime  by  the 
knowledge  that  its  unforeseen  consequences  may  cause  him  ages  of 
remorse." 

This  answer  for  "  Spiritualism  "  is  the  abject  an- 
swer of  calculating  commercialism,  ingeniously  alert 
against  the  dangers  of  moral  bankruptcy  in  the  crystal 
cities  of  celestial  fortune,  beyond  the  sunset  and  sound 
of  evening  bell.  "Spiritualism  "  thus  answers  for  it- 
self, but  Dr.  Wallace  obligingly  suggests  the  answer 
of  "  Rationalism  ": 

"The  general  answer  I  would  now  give  to  the  question,  'Why 
live  a  moral  life  ? '  from  the  purely  rationalistic  point  of  view,  is — 
first,  that  we  shall  thereby  generally  secure  the  good  opinion  of  the 
world  at  large,  and  more  especially  of  the  society  among  which  we 
live ;  and  that  this  good  opinion  counts  for  much,  both  as  a  factor 
in  our  happiness  and  in  our  material  success.  Secondly,  that,  in 
the  long  run,  morality  pays  best  ;  that  it  conduces  to  health,  to 
peace  of  mind,  to  social  advancement;  and,  at  the  same  time, 
avoids  all  those  risks  to  which  immoral  conduct,  especially  if  it 
goes  so  far  as  criminality,  renders  us  liable." 

If  this  be  the  final  word  of  "Rationalism" — the 
annunciation  of  a  protagonist  to  wistful  pilgrims — then 
should  we  long  anew  for  the  authentic  thunders  of  the 
olden  gods.  "  The  good  opinion  of  the  world  at  large," 
forsooth — what  cared  the  martyrs  and  redeemers  of 
humanity  for  the  "good  opinion  of  the  world"?  Over 
the  stormy  seas  of  heroic  record  there  are  names  that 


shine  like  brilliant  stars,  and  burn  like  stars  the  brighter, 
the  darker  the  night  they  crown.  And  remembering 
Jesus,  and  Savonarola,  and  Bruno,  and  many  another, 
we  are  shamed  by  the  timorous  counsels  of  a  modern 
day — the  butterfly  flittings  toward  the  "good  opinion 
of  the  world."  Nay,  more,  in  every  epoch  of  disinte- 
gration public  opinion  was  ever  the  cataract  that  roared 
toward  the  brink  and  plunged  into  abyssmal  ruin. 
' '  Morality  pays  best  "  ? — but  it  is  precisely  the  profit- 
able success  that  often  submerges  the  soul  in  damna- 
tion. The  morality  of  truth-speaking  does  not  always 
"pay  best."  The  cult  of  the  jumping  cat  "pays" 
better.  In  politics,  honesty  is  the  flouted  policy — it 
"pays"  better  to  bend  the  supple  knee  and  slide  with 
the  multitude.  In  art,  and  in  literature,  the  morality 
that  is  eloquent  for  ideals  and  opulent  with  valiant  in- 
spirations, often  asks  for  bread  in  vain  and  falls  into  a 
neglected  grave.  Servility  to  popular  idols  "pays" 
better.  In  religion,  the  morality  of  impassioned  sin- 
cerity is  sometimes  stoned  or  crucified — the  crowd  re- 
turns to  worship  what  it  spurned,  but  the  dead  mar- 
tyr is  incurious  to  the  homage  of  praying  hands.  And 
so  in  science,  and  so  in  all  or  almost  all  communal  in- 
tricacies of  moral  effort — the  godward  road  is  remin- 
iscent of  gibbeted  bones,  and  blood,  and  lonely  tears, 
and,  to  accept  the  lowest  level  of  argument,  if  you  base 
the  desire  for  morality  on  the  promise  of  personal  gain 
and  popularit}',  you  stifle  every  hope  of  reform  and 
bribe  the  individual  conscience  to  lethargy  or  reasoned 
treachery. 

The  famous  "Author  of  Supernatural  Religion  "  also 
asserts  the  theory  of  enlightened  selfishness,  but  for- 
tunately asserts  it  as  the  beginning,  and  not  the  final 
basis  of  goodness.  In  the  love  of  approbation,  he  re- 
motely perceives  the  genesis  of  the  altruistic  senti- 
ment— he  traces  the  highest  moralitj'  from  embryonic 
self-esteem,  to  "an  almost  instinctive  preference  for 
what  is  noble  and  refined  ....  and  an  almost  equally 
instinctive  aversion  to  what  is  base  and  degraded." 
We  have,  he  worthily  insists,  "come  to  love  'good- 
ness '  for  its  own  sake,  just  as  we  love  beauty  of  line 
and  color,  independent  of  an)'  idea  of  utility.  We  have 
attained  a  natural  and  instinctive  preference  for  what 
is  good  and  noble  in  conduct,  irrespective  of  self-in- 
terest, just  as  we  have  risen  to  an  instinctive  appre- 
ciation of  fine  music  and  delicate  perfume."  And  he 
voices  the  primordial  sorrow  of  the  race,  when  he  crys- 
tallises the  pathos  and  the  passion  of  it  in  one  sentence 
of  lurid  lament : 

"  We  have  eaten,  to  some  purpose,  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  and  realised  the  truth  that,  finally,  the 
one  is  sweet  and  the  other  bitter." 

Is  not  this  the  truth  of  all  ages  for  the  race? — even 
as,  also,  of  individuals  who  reproduce  the  tragic  fable 
of  Eden,  and  the  spiritual  evolution  beyond  the  flam- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4331 


ing  sword  in  the  span  of  their  own  travail?  Where- 
fore, this  strenuous  iconoclast  renounces  his  scepti- 
cism, and  ardentl}' believes  that  "a  moral  life,  with- 
out much  conscious  debate,  will  generally  be  led,  and 
must  be  led,  in  accordance  with  principles  of  universal 
application."  And  James  Allanson  Picton  coincides 
with  the  view  that,  in  the  best  conduct,  "there  is  no 
consciousness  of  motive  at  all."  Mr.  Picton  is  a  phi- 
losopher who  "went  into  materialism  and  came  out  at 
the  other  end,"  and  almost  lost  his  philosophy  in  the 
bad  company  and  late  hours  of  the  British  House  of 
Commons  ;  and  there  are  echoes  of  parochialism  in 
his  section  of  the  S3'mposium.  We  shudder  with  comic 
dismay  when  he  finds  ethical  illustrations  in  trade 
unionism  and  strikes.  But  his  vindicated  sanction  for 
rationalist  moralit)'  is  supremel}'  excellent.  There  is 
hell  enough  in  a  guilty  conscience,  and  heaven  enough 
in  sincerity  and  truth,  to  inspire  loyalty  to  character — 
devotion  to  the  infinite  whole  of  which  man  is  a  fra- 
ternal fraction.  So  he  opines  :  and  Ludwig  Biichner, 
Leslie  Stephen,  Max  Miiller,  F.  J.  Gould,  and  others, 
ring  the  changes  of  this  fascinating  Symposium  in  sim- 
ilar chimes.  But  in  the  picturesque  variety  of  conclu- 
sion, we  recognise  the  impossibility  of  conceiving  out- 
side the  churches,  any  one  sanction  of  universal  appeal 
— and,  if  the  sanction  be  difficult  to  harmonise,  the 
standard  is  necessarilj'  liable  to  anarchic  specula- 
tion. 

"  It  is  pusillanimity  which  produces  squinting  views 
of  morality,"'  and  it  is  precisely  the  pusillanimous  as- 
pect of  mentality  that  inspires  mankind  to  misgiving, 
and  kindles  the  smouldering  fear  into  a  blaze  of  bril- 
liant discussion,  such  as  the  Symposium  under  review. 
We  project  our  own  terrors  into  the  order  of  nature  ; 
forgetting  that  our  feeble  theories  cannot  affect  the 
reign  of  the  moral  law  that  demands  conformity  as  per- 
emptorily as  do  the  irresistible  forces  we  name  ph3's- 
ical.  To  break  one  law  of  nature  is  impossible  ;  to 
blindly  ignore  one  is  to  be  broken  on  the  wheel.  The 
impulses  of  the  moral  law  include  reaction  ;  an  epoch 
of  sensual  madness  is  succeeded  by  another  of  fanatical 
austerity  ;  an  individual  season  of  swinish  indulgence 
is  followed  by  another  of  wintry  regret,  or  frenzied  re- 
pentance ;  unless  the  psycho-physical  providences  of 
natural  law  efface  the  erring  organism.  In  the  Asclc- 
piad  iox  December,  1893,  Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson  indi- 
vidualised a  pregnantly  suggestive  theory  of  mental 
science,  of  which  more  is  likely  to  be  heard.  To  briefly 
summarise  :  Each  man  has  two  brains  in  his  skull,  so 
distinct  and  separate  that  two  different  men  might  own 
them.  The  duality  of  the  human  mind  is  made  up  oi 
good  and  evil  ;  none  of  these  twin-brains  are  exactly 
balanced  ;   the   good  brain  or  the  evil  brain  may  pre- 

IHomilies  of  Science,  by  Dr.  Paul  Carus,  p.  275. 


dominate  ;  the  evil  brain  may  be  worn  by  excitement 
and  the  impressions  of  the  good  brain  rise  victorious  ; 
or  a  strong  and  earnest  external  nature  may  arrest  the 
action  of  the  evil  brain,  compel  or  inspire  it  to  obe- 
dience, and  arouse  the  activities  of  the  good  brain. 
Literally  and  physically,  the  subject  is  "born  again" 
by  an  exact  scientific  process  ;  he  is  converted  to  good- 
ness— although  this  process  may  be  applied  in  the  aid 
of  the  grossest  superstition.  Sudden  changes  of  char- 
acter, may  be  due  to  oscillations  in  the  domination  of 
one  half  of  the  head  over  the  other — or  change  may 
be  impossible  in  that  one  of  the  brains  has  half  gone 
to  water. 

Now,  the  twin-brain  theory  was  originally  pro- 
pounded b}'  Sir  Henry  Holland,  and  afterwards  advo- 
cated by  Dr.  Brown-Sequard,  but  these  applied  the 
theory  to  phenomena  of  dual  consciousness  and  re- 
sponsibility. A  mass  of  vividly  interesting  observa- 
tions have  accumulated  around  the  theory  during  the 
last  twenty  years,  all  complicating  the  problem  of 
moral  responsibility  and  reminding  us  of  Huxley's 
illustration  of  "the  prince-bishop,  who  swore  as  a 
prince  and  not  as  a  bishop.  'But,  your  highness,  if 
the  prince  is  damned,  what  will  become  of  the  bishop?' 
said  the  peasant."  If,  however,  the  exposition  of  Dr. 
B.  W.  Richardson  be  entirely  provable,  it  marks  a 
most  hopeful  advance  of  moral  science  toward  the  sal- 
vation of  the  race.  The  pygmies  of  mere  propriety 
have  masqueraded  morality  as  a  shrew,  to  insult  the 
graves  of  dead  genius  ;  the  greatness  of  Goethe  and 
BjTon  and  many  another  of  the  immortals  has  been 
detracted  by  dung-hill  dancers.  This  is  a  phase  of 
that  "pusillanimity"  in  ethics,  protested  against  by 
Dr.  Carus  in  his  incidental  rebuke  of  the  censors  of 
Goethe.  Such  ignoble  feuds  would  be  shamed,  and 
the  historic  vision  enlarged  and  liberalised — nay,  more, 
living  truants  from  convention  might  be  restored,  if 
the  physiological  and  the  psychological  evidences  agree 
in  the  provisions  of  the  two-brain  theory  of  good  and 
evil. 

Wherefore,  "Why  live  a  moral  life?"  seems  ob- 
vious in  affirmative  answer,  whether  or  not  there  was 
ever  a  yesterday,  whether  or  not  there  will  ever  be  a 
morrow,  whether  there  be  one  God  or  no  God,  three 
Gods  or  thirty  thousand.  Each  individual  will  dis- 
cover an  idiosyncratic  attraction  for  obedience  to  the 
absolute  sovereignty  of  the  moral  law  ;  many  individ- 
uals will  differ  in  the  interpretation  of  intricate  emer- 
gencies ;  death  and  sorrow  and  the  shadows  of  the 
night  will  eternally  haunt  the  pilgrims  of  time;  but 
the  wisdom  gathered  from  the  ages  gone  by  is  imper- 
ishable;— and  in  the  light  of  that  wisdom  the  soul  of 
man  will  be  constrained  toward  goodness  because  it  is 
duty.. 


4332 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


HAPPINESS. 

BY  MATTIE  MINER-IU'CASLIN. 

Starting  upon  the  path  of  life — 

The  path  where  all  must  onward  press, 

A  youth  pursued  with  eager  steps 

A  snow-white  dove  called  Happiness. 

He  ever  and  anon  would  stretch 

His  hand  to  grasp  its  plumage  bright, 

But  still  it  would  elude  his  touch, 
And  seemed  to  mock  him  in  its  flight. 

The  morn  is  changing  into  noon. 

His  raven  locks  are  streaked  with  grey 

The  eventide  is  coming  soon, 

And  now  the  white  dove  seems  to  say  : 

"  Night  comes  apace,  when  morn  shall  rise 

Upon  another  day  so  fair. 
My  home  will  be  in  Paradise  ; 

Hast  thou  a  pass  to  enter  there  ? " 

Just  then  a  beggar  caught  his  skirt 
In  supplication,  and  he  turned 

And  saw  the  man  was  lame  and  blind. 
His  heart  in  tender  pity  yearned. 

He  fed  the  beggar  from  his  store. 
And  as  the  tottering  footsteps  led 

He  looked  aloft,  and  there  behold. 

The  white  bird  fluttered  round  his  head ! 

He  ceased  to  think  about  the  dove 
And  paused  to  let  the  cripple  rest. 

Just  as  he  did  this  deed  of  love 

The  white  dove  nestled  in  his  breast. 

It  thrilled  him  with  a  sudden  joy. 
And  lo  !  he  saw  before  his  eyes 

The  beggar  to  an  angel  changed 
Within  the  gate  of  Paradise. 

Pursued  for  sake  of  self  alone 
True  happiness  must  ever  flee 

But  Love  will  give  thee  back  thy  own — 
Thy  guest  and  bosom-friend  'twill  be. 


SCIENCE  AND  REFORM. 


COUNT  LESSEPS. 
Political  and  educational  reform  never  had  a  truer  friend 
than  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps.  The  "great  engineer,"  as  American 
papers  persist  in  calling  him,  was  a  diplomat  by  education,  and 
would  have  been  awarded  the  highest  prizes  of  the  political  arena, 
if  his  bold  protests  against  the  autocratic  policy  of  Louis  Napo- 
leon, and  the  consequent  hostility  of  the  imperial  government, 
had  not  impeded  his  professional  progress.  The  Suez  canal  was 
only  one  of  the  numberless  projects  suggested  by  the  wide  range 
of  his  miscellaneous  studies.  He  published  several  pamphlets  on 
the  plan  of  obviating  the  necessity  of  direct  taxation  by  means  of 
government  land-reservations,  the  revenue  to  be  applied  to  the 
municipal  expenses  of  each  community.  In  order  to  shorten  the 
service  of  conscripts,  he  proposed  to  drill  schoolboys  in  the  rudi- 
ments of  military  education,  and  never  ceased  to  urge  the  advan- 
tages of  competitive  athletics,  as  distinct  from  the  compulsory 
contortion  work  of  college  gymnasiums.  He  also  projected  a  uni- 
versal language,  to  be  "combined  from  the  shortest  terms  and 
simplest  grammatical  forms  of  each  idiom."     His  personal  com- 


plicity in  the  Panama  frauds  has  never  been  proved,  and,  indeed, 
never  been  seriously  insinuated,  beyond  the  charge  of  carelessness 
in  trusting  the  management  of  the  funds  to  unscrupulous  specula- 
tors ;  and  the  real  cause  of  his  transient  unpopularity  is  well 
known  to  have  been  his  refusal  to  join  in  the  howls  of  Anti-Prus- 
sian faction.  He  had  no  objection  to  raise  the  military  organisa- 
tion of  France  to  the  maximum  of  efflciency,  but  maintained  that 
the  worst  enemies  of  French  prestige  were  not  to  be  sought  be- 
yond the  Rhine,  but  beyond  the  English  channel.  To  the  pre- 
destined failure  of  current  political  intrigues  he  also  attributed 
the  recent  revival  of  Napoleon-worship.  "  Seeing  nothing,"  he 
said,  "but  imbecility  in  gorgeous  uniforms  all  around,  the  vision 
of  the  victor  of  Marengo  in  his  gray  battle-cloak  naturally  rises 
before  their  eyes."  His  verdict  on  the  prospects  of  the  Anti- 
Anarchist  crusade  was  equally  pertinent.  "I  foresee  a  better 
cure, "  he  said  ;  "  those  gentlemen  and  their  Communistic  friends 
will  before  long  get  a  chance  to  try  their  theories  in  practice,  and 
the  world  will  not  be  apt  to  forget  the  results  of  the  experiment." 
He  celebrated  his  eighty-seventh  birthday  in  the  enjoyment  of  all 
his  mental  and  physical  faculties,  and  the  subsequent  decline  of 
his  health  is  less  due  to  the  effects  of  old  age  than  to  the  sorrow  of 
enforced  silence.  Heinrich  Heine  defined  the  French  Revolution 
as  "an  attempt  to  realise  the  ideal  of  equality,  if  not  of  liberty,  by 
lopping  off  a  few  hundred  thousand  heads  that  insisted  on  rising 
above  the  average  level, "  but  the  study  of  such  moral  and  physical 
giants  as  Chamisso  and  Count  Lesseps  suggests  an  occasional 
doubt  in  the  benefit  of  the  specific, — at  least,  from  Thomas  Car- 
lyle's  point  of  view  that,  ' '  aristocracy  being  unavoidable,  we  might 
as  well  try  to  secure  the  supremacy  of  genuine  aristocrats."  Count 
Lesseps,  as  a  surviving  representative  of  an  almost  extinct  type  of 
French  patriots,  justifies  a  conjecture  that  for  the  true  interests  of 
their  country,  some  of  the  heads,  sacrificed  to  the  equalisation 
plan,  ought  to  have  been  abolished  in  a  less  radical  manner. 

UNIVERSAL  L.ANGUAGE. 
The  Lesseps  project  of  constructing  a  world's  speech  from  the 
shortest  terms  of  every  ancient  and  modern  language  seems  never 
to  have  passed  the  outline  stage  of  its  development,  but  would 
almost  undoubtedly  have  been  found  an  improvement  on  the  Vola- 
pUk  nightmare  of  Parson  Schleyer.  The  sudden  collapse  of  the 
Schleyer  fad  has  been  ascribed  to  the  capriciousness  of  a  novelty- 
loving  public,  but  its  temporary  success  was  really  a  much  more 
astonishing  proof  of  that  caprice.  As  a  world-language  the  chimera 
of  the  Swiss  village  pastor  really  combined  all  possible  objections  ; 
agglutinative,  unwieldy,  and  cacophonous  to  a  preposterous  de- 
gree, and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  time  wasted  on  the  study  of 
the  unpronounceable  conglomerations  will  tend  to  prejudice  the 
public  against  such  better  attempts  at  the  solution  of  the  problem 
as  time  and  ingenuity  will  sooner  or  later  be  sure  to  evolve.  The 
principle  of  the  Lesseps  plan  will  be  a  chief  recommendation  of 
a  universally  acceptable  language  and  has  certainly  not  been 
realised  in  any  existing  idiom — the  monosyllables  of  the  Chinese 
vernacular,  with  its  involved  syntax,  being  only  an  apparent  ex- 
ception. English  comes  a  little  nearer  to  the  realisation  of  the 
ideal,  but  the  adoption  of  the  French  and  Spanish  sc  in  the  place 
of  the  Saxon  /liiiise/f  vioa\A  be  as  sensible  as  the  substitution  of  the 
Saxon  loo  for  the  Spanish  deniasiado. 

FORESTS  AND  CLIMATE. 
The  meteorological  records  of  the  last  ten  years  have,  on  the 
whole,  confirmed  the  belief  that  the  climate  of  North  America  is 
"undergoing  a  change  similar  to  that  effected  in  Europe  by  the  de- 
struction of  the  ancient  woodlands  which  once  covered  the  conti- 
nent from  Calabria  to  the  Baltic.  Our  summers  are  getting  dryer, 
and  our  winters  warmer  and  rainier.  There  was  a  time  when 
Italy,  Spain,  and  Greece  could  dispense  with  irrigation,  while  the 


THE     OPEN     COLTRX. 


4333 


rigors  of  a  long  winter  made  northern  Germany  fit  only  for  bears 
and  the  hardiest  barbarians.  All  the  old  settlers  of  our  southern 
Alleghanies  agree  that  hard  frosts  are  getting  much  rarer  than 
formerly,  when  rivers,  which  now  freeze  only  along  the  shore- 
cliffs,  were  bridged,  year  after  year,  by  solid  ice  ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  stock-farmers  on  the  lowlands  complain  that  their  sum- 
mer rains  hardly  suffice  to  fill  the  artificial  ponds  of  pastures  which 
once  were  watered  by  perennial  springs. 

SANITARY  LEGISLATION. 
Herbert  Spencer,  in  Ws  Principles  of  Human  Happiness  pro- 
poses to  limit  the  jurisdiction  of  our  health-bureaus  to  unmitigated 
evils  and  to  nuisances  affecting  the  comfort  alike  of  the  willing 
and  unwilling,  such  as  smoking  factories  that  poison  the  air,  which 
ought  to  be  freely  enjoyed  by  the  poorest  of  our  fellow-citizens. 
If  those  fellow-men  choose  to  pen  themselves  up  in  foul  tenements 
he  would  leave  them  to  bear  the  consequences  of  their  folly.  The 
philosopher  choked  by  the  fumes  of  a  fat-rendering  establishment 
across  the  way,  does  not  suffer  by  his  own  fault :  he  has  an  un- 
alienable claim  to  the  common  blessing  of  fresh  air  and  a  conre- 
quent  right  to  sue  his  pestiferous  neighbors  for  damages.  But 
could  that  same  principle  not  be  applied  to  the  superfluous  noises 
which  make  existence  a  burden  to  thousands  of  city-dwellers  ? 
Men,  with  the  exception  of  janitors  and  Second  Adventists,  have 
a  right  to  the  enjoyment  of  a  night's  rest  and  might  justly  sue  the 
abettors  of  steam-whistle  serenades  and  "  t.venty-four-hour  fac- 
tories." In  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  there  are  districts  where  hundreds 
of  families  could  attest  that  their  children  sit  up  in  bed  at  night 
and  cry,  being  awakened  again  and  again  by  a  rolling-mill  clatter 
which  one  witness  describes  as  a  "rumpus  worse  than  the  Devil 
tumbling  down  a  tin-roof. "  James  Pay n  speaks  about  a  Parisian 
association  of  self-helpers  who  mitigate  another  midnight  griev- 
ance after  a  manner  of  their  own,  hundreds  of  barking  curs  hav- 
ing been  found  dead,  after  their  owners  had  been  warned  by  a 
brief  note  :  "  Your  dog,  Sir,  is  a  nuisance,  and  unless  you  contrive 
to  keep  him  quiet,  I  sentence  him  to  death,"  Crowing  roosters, 
that  cannot  distinguish  moonlight  from  dawn,  are  not  much  better, 
and  in  the  absence  of  legal  resources,  a  lover  of  sound  sleep  would 
often  be  justified  in  perpetrating  a  practical  parody  on  the  Socratic 
advice  of  sacrificing  a  cock  to  jEsculapius. 

ANOTHER  FROST-CURE. 
The  value  of  cold  air  as  a  remedy  is  getting  more  and  more 
generally  recognised.  Ice- air  hospitals  for  the  cure  of  yellow  fever 
are  springing  up  all  over  Spanish  America,  and  Prof.  Charles 
Podet,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Academy  of  Medicine,  describes 
a  whole  system  of  "  Frigo-Therapeutics."  He  proposes  to  cure 
catarrhs  by  the  application  of  ice-air  currents  to  the  spine,  and 
states  that  "having  experimented  with  dogs,  he  found  that  on 
being  exposed  to  a  low  temperature  they  became  ravenously  hun- 
gry. Being  himself  a  sufferer  from  digestive  troubles,  he  had  for- 
gotten what  it  is  to  have  an  appetite,  so  he  descended  into  a  re- 
frigerating tank,  the  temperature  being  many  degrees  below  zero. 
He  was  wrapped  in  a  thick  pelisse  and  other  warm  clothes.  After 
four  minutes  he  began  to  feel  hungry.  In  eight  minutes  he  came 
out  of  the  tank  with  a  painfully  keen  appetite.  Several  such  ex- 
periments were  made,  and  all  meals  that  he  took  after  a  short  stay 
in  the  refrigerator  agreed  with  him.  He  found  his  dyspepsia  cured 
after  the  tenth  descent." 

THE  LAST  STRAW. 
The  perils  of  a  small  disappointment,  superadded  to  a  long 
series  of  similar  provocations,  was  strikingly  illustrated  by  a  re- 
cent suicide,  in  consequence  of  the  apparent  heartlessness  of  a  rail- 
way-official, who  had  merely  tried  to  enforce,  or  at  least  to  explain, 
a  perfectly  equitable  business-regulation.  A  victim  of  the  Okla- 
homa boom  returned  from  the  Far  West  to  the  neighborhood  of 


his  former  home  in  western  Ohio,  and  being  unable  to  find  work 
in  any  of  the  midway  cities,  concluded  to  economise  his  small 
means  by  walking  a  large  part  of  the  distance.  His  household 
goods,  though  sent  by  freight,  had  thus  got  ahead  of  him,  and 
among  the  mail  awaiting  him  at  the  terminus  of  his  trip  he  found 
a  freight-bill  exceeding  his  available  assets  by  at  least  ten  dollars. 
It  took  him  nearly  a  week  to  borrow  half  that  amount,  and  rather 
than  relinquish  his  claim  to  the  cargo  he  sold  an  old  watch  and 
some  articles  of  wearing  apparel.  The  clerks  in  charge  of  the 
depot,  however,  informed  him  that  there  was  another  hitch  in  the 
programme  :  His  household  goods  having  been  side-tracked  nearly 
a  month  in  the  freight-yard,  the  western  railway  company  would 
charge  a  compensation  for  the  four  weeks'  use  of  their  freight-car. 
The  extra  charges  amounted  to  only  four  dollars,  but  the  owner  of 
the  freight  at  once  faced  about,  invested  a  quarter  in  a  coil  of  rope 
and  hung  himself  in  a  neighboring  hilltop  thicket. 

MOB  VERDICTS. 
The  authority  of  Judge  Lynch— after  all  the  last  court  of  ap- 
peal— has  often  been  shamefully  abused  for  partisan  purposes  ; 
but  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  legal  decisions  of  a  mass-meeting 
are  rarely  altogether  wrong.  The  high-handed  acts  of  our  west- 
ern regulators  were  mostly  due  to  the  inadequacy  of  the  regular 
legal  establishments,  but  even  in  an  over-governed  country  like 
continental  Europe  the  Vox  popiili  now  and  then  assumes  jurisdic- 
tion in  the  trial  of  an  offender  not  amenable  to  the  administrators 
of  the  ordinary  laws.  Ever  since  that  lancet  episode  in  the  sick- 
room of  the  Czar,  the  American  press  reiterated  the  assertion 
that  the  alleged  sufferer  from  Bright's  disease  was  really  dying  a 
victim  of  medical  malpractice.  Few  Russian  papers  would  have 
risked  even  an  allusion  to  these  charges,  but  among  other  items  of 
legitimate  news  they  soon  after  reported  the  fact  that,  on  receipt 
of  the  telegram  from  Livadia,  announcing  the  death  of  the  Czar, 
a  mob  had  wrecked  the  Moscow  residence  of  Court-physician 
Zacharin.  Felix  L.  Oswald. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

The  Migration  of  Symbols.  By  the  Cotml  Goblet  d'Ahiella, 
Hibbert  Lecturer  in  1891.  (Westminster  :  A.  Constable  & 
Co.  1894.  Pp.  303.) 
This  is  a  translation  of  a  French  book,  which  was  published 
under  a  similar  title  at  Paris  in  1892.  The  author  is  called  "the 
greatest  living  authority"  on  this  subject  by  the  writer  of  the  In- 
troduction, Sir  George  Birdwood  ;  and  those  who  have  read  'J'he 
Contemporary  Evolution  of  Religious  Thought  will  expect  to  be 
deeply  interested  by  this  handsomely  printed  and  abundantly  il- 
lustrated volume.  We  are  told,  for  instance,  that  the  three-legged 
emblem  of  the  Isle  of  Man  was  borrowed  from  Sicily,  where  it 
represented  the  form  of  the  island  much  more  accurately,  and  also 
that  it  was  first  used  as  a  solar  emblem  in  Lycia.  The  two  sym- 
bols which  receive  most  attention  are  the  winged  globe  and  that 
form  of  the  cross  which  has  its  ends  bent  back  at  right  angles,  and 
is  called  the  gammaJion  or  s-oastika.  The  former  symbol  is  said 
to  show  the  influence  of  Egypt  and  Babylon,  while  the  latter  is 
characteristic  of  the  Aryan  civilisation  which  was  predominant  in 
Greece,  but  which  left  this  trace  of  its  presence  iu  India,  Scandi- 
navia, and  all  the  intervening  iands.  Thus  the  old  world  may  be 
divided  into  two  zones,  each  of  which  had  its  own  peculiar  sign. 
Migration  of  symbols  has  taken  place  continually  ;  and  it  has  us- 
ually been  accompanied  by  change  of  meaning.  Thus  the  cross 
was  used  in  ancient  Peru,  to  denote  that  meeting  of  the  winds 
which  brought  rain  ;  but  this  seems  more  likely  to  be  a  case  of  in- 
dependent use  than  of  migration.  F.  M.  H. 


Professor  C.  Lloyd  Morgan,  Principal  of  University  College, 
Bristol  England,  and  by  all  odds  the  most  philosophical  of  con- 


4334 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


temporaneous  English  biologists,  has  just  published  in  the  Contem- 
porary Science  Series  An  Introduction  to  Comparative  Psydwlogy. 
(London:  Walter  Scott.  New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  Pp., 
337.  Price,  $1.25.)  We  expect  to  give  a  detailed  review  of  this 
work  in  The  Moiiist,  and  shall  only  mention  here  that  as  an  intro- 
duction to  the  study  of  general  psychology  it  is  unequalled.  Pro- 
fessor Morgan  has  now  in  the  press  a  second  work,  entitled  Psy- 
cJiology  for  Teachers.  He  is  also  at  work  editing  the  second  part 
of  Mr.  Romanes's  Dar-ivin  and  After  Darwin,  which  was  delayed 
by  the  illness  and  death  of  the  last-named  distinguished  biologist. 


on  Vivisection,  or,  rather,  against  Vivisection,  is  appended  to  the 
book,  together  with  a  bibliography  of  the  subject. 

Roberts  Bros. ,  of  Boston,  publish  a  ' '  tale  of  the  life  to  come ' ' 
under  the  title  of  The  IVedding  Garment  (246  pages,  price  $1.00), 
by  Louis  Pendleton.  The  "  tale"  is  excessively  anthropomorphic, 
and  not  very  powerfully  conceived.  The  author's  conception  of 
the  future  life  is  derived  from  Swedenborg. 

THE  MONIST 


Students  of  political  science  will  be  interested  in  the  Series  of 
Constitutions  novi  issued  by  The  American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science  (Philadelphia,  Station  B).  They  come  as  supple- 
ments to  the  Annals  of  the  Academy,  the  latest  being  The  Consti- 
tution of  the  Kingdom  of  Italy,  translated  and  supplied  with  an  In- 
troduction and  Notes  by  Dr.  S.  M.  Lindsay  and  Dr.  L.  S.  Rowe 
(pages,  44).  The  Constitutions  of  Mexico,  Colombia,  France,  and 
Prussia,  have  also  appeared.  The  prices  of  the  books  range  from 
thirty-five  to  fifty  cents.  We  should  also  not  omit  to  notice,  in 
this  connexion,  A  History  of  Political  Economy  by  Gustav  Cohn, 
Professor  in  Gottingen,  translated  by  Dr.  Joseph  Adna  Hill,  (142 
pages,  published  by  the  same  society)  which  in  brief  compass  gives 
an  excellent  sketch  of  the  history  of  economic  science.  Altogether, 
the  Academy  has  undertaken  a  valuable  work  in  this  series  of  sup- 
plements.   

B.  Westermann  &  Co.  (Lemcke  and  Buechner),  812  Broad- 
way, New  York,  have  just  issued  a  Catalogue  Raisonne  of  German 
literature,  having  for  its  subtitle,  "Hints  for  Selecting  the  Ger- 
man Library  of  a  Man  of  Culture."  Mr.  Lemcke  has  supplied  a 
short  preface  to  the  Catalogue,  emphasising  the  value  of  German 
literature  and  the  necessity  of  its  study.  The  editions  catalogued 
range  from  the  cheapest  to  the  dearest  ;  nor  are  the  best  English 
translations  omitted.  "Many  a  German,"  says  Mr.  Lemcke, 
"could  find  no  better  means  for  fully  comprehending  obscure 
"passages  in  'Faust, 'for  instance,  than  by  comparing  B.  Taylor's 
"English  version  with  the  original,  or  in  Shakespeare,  than  by 
"  keeping  Schlegel's  German  rendering  at  hand." 


In  the  New  Jerusalem  in  the  World's  Religious  Congress  of 
iSqj  (Chicago,  Western  New-Church  Union  ;  pages  454  ;  price 
$2.00),  the  Rev.  L.  P.  Mercer  has  thrown  together  a  number  of 
reports  and  addresses  showing  the  part  which  (he  faith  of  the  New 
Jerusalem  took  in  the  World's  Parliament  of  Religions.  It  would 
seem,  from  Mr.  Bonney's  account  of  the  genesis  of  the  Congress 
that  its  inception  and  execution  were  due  exclusively  to  Sweden- 
borgian  influences.  The  articles  and  addresses  discuss  every  phase 
of  Swedenborgianism,  and  the  book  is  eminently  well  fitted  to  give 
the  reader  a  just  view  of  the  tendency  of  the  New-Church  princi- 
ples and  doctrines.  

Dr.  George  Bruce  Halsted's  latest  performance  in  his  chosen 
field  is  a  translation,  purporting  to  be  from  the  Russian,  of  Prof. 
A.  Vasiliev's  commemorative  address  on  NicoUi  Ivanovich  Loba- 
chevsky,  delivered  at  Kasan  on  October  22,  1893.  Professor  Vasi- 
liev's address  is  a  competent  and  exceedingly  interesting  review  of 
the  great  Russian  mathematician's  achievements,  life,  and  charac- 
ter, and  Professor  Halsted  has  put  it  into  very  readable  English. 
(The  Neomon  :  2407  Guadalupe  Street,  Austin,  Texas.) 


Animal  Rights  Considered  in  Relation  to  Social  Progress,  is  the 
title  of  Mr.  Henry  S  Salt's  newest  work,  published  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Humanitarian  League.  (Macmillan  &  Co.  Pages, 
176.  Price,  75  cents.)  The  author  seeks  "  to  set  the  principle  of 
animals' rights  on  a  consistent  and  intelligible  footing."    An  essay 


A  QUARTERLY  MAGAZINE 


■  Dr.  Paul  Car 


C  EDWARD  C.  Heg 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.    V,    NO.    2: 

Longevity  and  Death.     (A  Posthumous  Essay.) 

GEORGE  J.  ROMANES -    161 

To  Be  Alive,  What  Is  It  ? 

DR.  EDMUND  MONTGOMERY       -----  ,66 

The  Advancement  of  Ethics. 

DR.  FRANCIS  E.  ABBOT-  -  -  -  -  -  -     192 

Ought  the  United  States  Senate  to  Be  Reformed? 

MONCURE  D.  CONWAY        -  -  -  -  -  223 

The  Natural  Storage  of  Energy. 

LESTER  F.  WARD  --------    247 

Christian  Missions:  A  Triangular  Debate,  Before  the  Nineteentli  Cen- 
tury Club  of  New  York. 
THE  RIGHT  REV.  BISHOP  J.  M.  THOBURN    -  -  -  264 

VIRCHAND  R.  GANDHI 268 

DR.  PAUL  CARUS         - 274 

Discussions  :  Mind  Not  a  Storage  of  Energy.     In  Reply  to  Mr.  Lester  F. 
Ward. 
EDITOR 2S2 

Book  Reviews.— Periodicals. 

Appendix  :  De  Rerum  Natura.     Translated  from  the  German  by  Charles  Alva 
Lane. 

Price,   jocts.;  Yearly,  $2.00. 

CHICAGO 

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THE  OPEN   COURT 

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DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION: 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  382. 

A  STORY  OF  KISSES.     Hudor  Genone 4327 

"WHY  LIVE  A  MORAL  LIFE  ?  "  A  "  Rationalist "  Sym- 
posium.    Amos  Waters 4329 

POETRY. 

Happiness.     Mattie  Miner-McCaslin 4332 

SCIENCE  AND  REFORM.  Count  Lesseps.  Universal 
Language.  Forests  and  Climate,  Sanitary  Legislation. 
Another  Frost-Cure.  The  Last  Straw,  Mob  Verdicts. 
Felix  L.  Oswald 4332 

BOOK  NOTICES 4333 


1 


The  Open  Court. 


A  WEEKLY  JOUENAL 


DEVOTED  TO  THE  RELIGION  OF  SCIENCE. 


No.  383.   (Vol.  V111.-52.)  CHICAGO,  DECEMBER  27,   li 


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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. — Reprints  are  permitted  only  on  condition  of  giving  full  credit  to  Author  and  Publisher. 


IMMORTALITY. 

BY  MAJOR  J.   W.   POWELL. 

SONG. 

The  strange  dissolving  view  of  yore 
Is  myth  transformed  to  modern  lore  ; 
As  fades  the  error  from  the  screen, 
Emblazoned  truth  in  place  is  seen. 

Time  works  a  change  the  wide  world  o'er  : 
What  was,  what  is,  will  be  no  more ; 
The  living  grow  from  day  to  day, 
The  dead  depart  with  swift  decay. 

One  generation  plays  its  part, 
Another  gains  a  defter  art. 
And  every  hour  with  strife  is  passed, 
And  thus  some  change  is  wrought  at  last. 

And  change  with  change,  although  minute, 

A  transformation  constitute  ; 

So  new  creation  comes  with  time. 

In  metamorphosis  sublime. 

HEREDITY. 

How  small  the  record  of  primal  man  ! 
His  bones  are  found  beneath  the  sands  and  clays. 
Entombed  by  storms  and  buried  deep  by  floods; 
But  life-informing  lineaments  are  gone; 
Forever  lost  the  frown  that  awed  the  race, 
And  ne'er  is  seen  his  smile-illumined  face. 

But  primal  man  is  made  immortal  here ; 
Heredity  is  life  eterne  on  earth. 
As  father  lives  in  son,  so  life  goes  on 
From  generations  past  to  those  that  come  ; 
And  elder  man  still  lives  in  younger  time. 
And  still  shall  live  to  reach  the  future  clime. 

LABOR. 

The  works  of  primal  man  are  scattered  wide 

In  uncared  desolation  o'er  the  world — 

On  hill-top,  where  the  flinty  ridge  is  ploughed. 

In  valley,  where  the  kine  crop  grasses  sweet, 

In  shingle  on  the  shore  of  fossil  lake. 

Or  buried  deep  on  marge  of  ancient  sea. 

Or  under  lava  floods  on  mountain  lea. 


Not  thus  his  arts,  for  they  live  on  through  time. 
By  secular  development  to  change 
And  be  improved  by  husbandry  of  mind, 
Until  industrial  fruits  shall  bless  mankind. 

With  welfare  gained  man  never  is  content, 

But  seeks  prosperity  on  every  hand  ; 

For  more  and  more  he  makes  invention  deft, 

Innumerable  plans  for  store  of  food. 

Devices  many  for-superior  dress, 

A  thousand  thousand  wise  designs  for  home, 

A  million  million  schemes  for  sweeter  health, 

Contriving  ever  for  increase  of  wealth. 

Ofttimes  for  wealth  he  seeks  a  shorter  road 
Than  industry  of  honest  toil  and  thought. 
Inheriting  the  strategem  of  beast, 
By  which  prehuman  life  its  progress  made 
Obedient  to  law  of  primal  time — 
The  first  vicarious  atonement  strange. 
When  many  many  died  that  one  might  live — 
The  crawling  serpent's  high  prerogative. 

PLEASURE. 

The  sports  in  which  primeval  man  engaged 
Are  lost  from  page  of  human  history: 
The  lion's  whelp  disports  on  verdant  lea  ; 
The  wild  bird  sings  from  tent  of  poplar  leaf  ; 
The  cricket  chirps  its  mirth  from  lily  home. 
And  all  of  nature's  songs  yet  fill  the  air 
With  voice  multisonous  of  pleasure  world  ; 
But  man  alone  has  lost  primeval  joys, 
And  babe  is  pleased  with  artificial  toys. 

The  babe  in  mother's  lap,  with  hands  and  feet 
As  soft  and  pink  as  petals  of  the  rose, 
Inherits  more  activity  than  need. 
And  pummels  space  and  kicks  vacuity — 
The  primal  pleasure,  boon  of  all  the  race 
And  germ  of  every  joy  and  every  grace 
That  bourgeons  on  as  generations  pass, 
A  boon  of  pleasure  for  the  lad  and  lass. 

With  pleasure  gained  man  never  is  content. 
But  sweeter  pleasure  seeks  as  moments  pass, 
Inventing  ever  some  new  joy  of  life 


4336 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


And  choosing  best  by  wise  experience 

As  pleasure  comes  adown  the  stream  of  time, 

Alluring  longing  man  in  every  clime. 

Ofttime  his  choice  of  pleasure  is  unwise  : 
White  hly  joy  black  ash  in  eager  grasp ; 
The  serpent's  folly  when  the  fakir  charms ; 
The  debauchee's  embraced  in  shameless  arms. 

LANGUAGE. 

The  earliest  names  of  mountain,  hill,  and  vale, 

Of  river  roUing  swift,  and  placid  lake. 

Are  tongued  by  none  and  graved  on  no  man's  chart : 

The  harsh  primordial  epithets  of  hate. 

And  words  of  sweet  endearment — all  are  lost. 

The  kissing  air  bears  not  the  primal  speech 

To  ears  that  listen  unto  tongues  that  teach. 

Perchance  a  language  formed  with  every  tribe. 

Wherever  men  were  scattered  wide  o'er  earth — 

Articulations  helped  by  gesture  signs. 

From  these,  by  long  development  of  time, 

The  higher  tongues  have  sprung,  to  give  mankind 

Exchange  of  thoughts  expressing  hopes  and  fears  ; 

And  primal  speech  still  lives,  transformed  by  years. 

With  skilful  speech  man  never  is  content. 

For  clear  expression  strives  forevermore. 

By  demonstrating  word  to  fix  his  thought. 

By  imitative  word  to  make  it  clear. 

By  holophrastic  form  to  gain  belief. 

By  analogic  form  to  hold  the  mind, 

By  speech  organic  making  plain  his  theme, 

Inventing  ever  better  forms  and  words — 

For  wise  men  gems,  for  fools  but  glinting  surds. 

Ofttimes  the  quest  for  deft  expression  fails, 
And  halting  speech  ill  serves  the  eager  mind  ; 
Or  words  that  come  are  empty  forms  of  thought, 
Or  serve  to  hide  the  truth  or  publish  lie  ; 
But  words  of  truth  may  live,  of  error  die. 

JUSTICE. 

The  social  bonds  that  held  the  primal  man 

Are  now  unknown  to  men  of  higher  life  ; 

His  forms  and  plans  of  government  are  lost, 

His  wisest  laws  of  custom  all  are  flown, — 

No  parchment  records  found,  no  glyphs  on  stone. 

And  yet  his  institutions  still  remain. 
Transformed  to  meet  the  needs  of  wiser  men ; 
By  many  a  change,  in  struggle  hard  for  right. 
The  unknown  germs  of  early  social  life 
Have  lived  again  through  generations  vast, 
Till  lowly  forms  have  grown  to  giant  trees. 
Whose  richer  fruitage  blesses  all  mankind 


With  wider,  gentler  bonds,  and  sweeter  peace. 
And  greater  justice,  that  shall  still  increase. 

With  justice  gained  man  never  is  content. 

And  thus  the  forms  of  government  are  changed. 

Enactment  ever  crowded  by  repeal. 

New  rulers  chosen  for  imperial  throne. 

New  principles  announced  from  judgment  seat 

And  peoples  all  convulsed  for  longed  reform, 

Or  plunged  in  wars  of  desolating  storm. 

Ofttimes  his  choice  of  ruler  is  unwise  ; 

The  council-hall  becomes  the  school  of  wrong, 

The  sceptre  mighty  wand  of  tyranny. 

The  robe  of  justice  cloak  of  filthy  greed. 

From  which  men  vainly  struggle  to  be  freed. 

CULTURE. 

The  thoughts  of  early  man  are  now  unknown  ; 

In  all  the  tomes  of  world  no  page  is  his. 

The  grand  phenomena  of  arching  heaven. 

The  wondrous  scenes  of  widespread  earth  and  sea, 

The  pleasure  sweet  and  bitter  pain  of  life — 

As  these  are  known  to  day  so  were  they  then, 

But  all  in  psychic  terms  of  simple  men. 

And  yet  his  thoughts  live  on  to  later  time. 

As  mind  has  grown  the  thoughts  have  been  enlarge 

Revolving  oft  in  human  soul  through  life, 

In  grand  endeavor  yet  to  reach  the  truth, 

Repeated  o'er  by  streams  of  countless  men. 

And  changing  e'er  with  mind's  expanding  view, 

Till  errors  eld  have  grown  to  science  new. 

With  knowledge  gained  man  never  is  content : 
Nor  wold,  nor  mount,  nor  gorge,  nor  icy  field. 
Nor  depths  of  sea,  nor  heights  of  starry  sky. 
Can  daunt  his  courage  in  this  high  emprise. 
Or  sate  the  vision  of  his  longing  eyes. 
But  evermore  of  truth  invents  new  store 
And  seeks  the  proof  that  multiplies  his  lore. 

Ofttimes  his  eager  search  is  made  in  vain. 
For  boon  of  truth  invents  an  error's  bane. 
His  dear  philosophy  but  crumbling  thought ; 
His  fondest  proof  of  baseless  tissue  wrought. 

SONG. 

Law  is  the  guide  for  human  race. 
History  marks  the  progress  won. 
Changing  for  e'er  in  time  and  space. 
Staunch  to  the  rule  as  central  sun. 

Law  is  supreme  in  every  case. 

Storm  from  the  north  or  south  may  blow. 

Never  to  turn  from  way  a  trace; 

On  to  the  goal  mankind  must  go. 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4337 


Law  is  the  firm  and  lasting  base. 
Centuries  fraught  with  wild  mischance, 
Failing  to  swerve  from  path  of  grace, 
Join  in  the  march  with  gleaming  lance. 

ADAPTATION. 

Each  man  is  heir  to  deeds  of  all  his  race  ; 
He  is  what  generations  long  have  wrought. 
His  life  by  fate  inexorably  cast 
To  ancient  norm  of  teeming  beings  past. 

Environment  of  universe  his  home. 

Whose  sledges  everlasting  battle  wage, 

And  on  the  anvil  of  the  past  he  lies 

While  blows  against  his  plastic  form  are  hurled, 

In  adaptation  wrought  by  beating  world. 

In  crowds  he  comes  to  land  on  hither  shore, 
A  bourne  of  sand  and  wild  unfriendly  rock. 
Where  fittest  may  survive,  unfittest  yield, 
Consigned  by  changeless  law  to  die  the  death 
And  render  into  fate  the  fleeting  breath. 

EFFORT. 

Thus  primal  man  was  cast  on  shore  of  time 
With  heritage  of  life  from  lowly  beast 
And  hostile  land  and  law  to  meet  his  need, 
Afid  ne'er  a  hand  to  help  or  voice  to  speed. 

And  yet,  with  self-activity  endowed. 

He  faced  unfriendly  world  with  hope  and  joy. 

And  raised  his  soul  above  the  rock  of  past, 

The  present  made  obedient  to  will, 

And  when  the  heavens  frowned  with  angry  gale 

He  caught  its  murky  form  to  fill  his  sail. 

With  high  endeavor  filled  he  faced  the  task  ; 

On  brutal  past  he  built  a  higher  life  ; 

The  rock  was  but  foundation  laid  in  earth, — 

Each  generation  claimed  a  higher  birth, 

No  longer  yielded  he  obedience, 

A  docile  slave,  to  all  external  force. 

But  met  the  force  with  force  and  won  the  fight. 

And  turned  the  deed  of  wrong  to  deed  of  right. 

And  when  environment  was  found  unkind. 
Anew  he  wrought  it  into  kinder  shape  : 
Of  skin  of  savage  lion  made  a  robe  ; 
Of  burly  buffalo  a  joyful  feast ; 
A  dreary  wold  transformed  to  garden  fair ; 
From  ledge  of  rock  he  wrought  an  ingleside ; 
Of  marbled  blocks  a  temple  reared  to  God; 
On  rolling  ocean  sailed  his  palace  boat ; 
And,. growing  bold,  he  caught  the  levin  light. 
To  bear  glad  tidings  through  the  gloomy  night. 


And  gazing  out  on  world  of  bitter  war. 
For  food  competing,  fierce  and  foul  of  deed, 
By  deft  invention  learned  to  lead  them  all 
And  make  himself  the  fittest  soul  to  live 
Beyond  competing  tribes  of  lower  life. 
Emancipate  from  all  the  brutal  strife. 


And  now,  a  freedman  from  the  law  of  beast. 
With  galling  bonds  dirempt  by  psychic  blow, 
The  mighty  struggle  for  existence  won 
And  toil  of  effort  yoked  to  levin  force. 
He  turns  his  energies  to  culture's  realm, 
With  better  world  in  sight  to  star  his  helm. 

With  retrospect  of  aeons  now  endowed. 
Creation's  history  before  him  spread 
And  laws  of  universe  aflame  in  truth. 
He  turns  the  search-light  of  the  past  ahead 
And  plans  his  way  among  the  coming  years. 
While  all  eternity  in  now  appears. 

Life's  struggle  won  and  all  life's  pleasure  gained, 

A  beatific  vision  fills  his  soul. 

Of  self  immersed  in  immortality  ; 

While  through  the  wilderness  he  builds  the  ways. 

Transforming  desert  drear  to  Eden  fair, 

But  more  himself  transforms  from  brute  to  sage, 

In  change  from  primal  time  to  future  age. 

Man  now  relies  upon  the  newer  law. 
And  presses  on  the  five  highways  of  life  : 
By  road  of  labor  reaches  welfare  good  ; 
By  road  of  pleasure  wins  the  fonder  joy ; 
By  road  of  speech  expresses  defter  thought ; 
By  road  of  justice  gains  the  greater  help  ; 
By  road  of  culture  knows  the  wiser  deed  : 
And  thus  by  purpose  comes  the  future  meed. 


Deeds  of  primeval  man  all  are  forgot ; 
Tongues  of  the  wilderness  share  in  the  lot ; 
Thoughts  of  the  primal  mind  vanish  for  aye  ; 
All  are  entombed  from  primordial  day. 

Nay,  not  entombed,  but  implanted  in  time  ; 
Bourgeoning  germs  for  the  orchards'  sublime  ; 
Growing  in  vast  generations  untold. 
Ever  as  richer  fruits  deftly  unfold. 

Life  in  a  vision  prophetic  appears, 
Wonderful  change  rolling  on  through  the  years  : 
Being  as  ever  Becoming  eterne; 
Ever  Becoming  as  Being  supern. 


4338 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  NEW  APOCRYPHA. 


BY  HUDOR  GENONE. 


THE  TRUTH. 

Pilate  saith  unto  Jesus,  Art  thou  a  king? 
Jesus  answered,  If  I  be  a  king,  my  kingdom  is  not 
of  this  world. 

To  this  end  came  I  into  the  world  that  I  should 
bear  witness  unto  the  truth. 

Pilate  saith  unto  him.  What  is  truth  ? 

Jesus,  answering,  saith  unto  Pilate,  It  is  light  that 
shineth  in  darkness,  but  the  darkness  comprehendeth 
it  not. 

For  as  light  answereth  unto  light,  as  the  sparkle  in 
the  dewdrop  unto  the  sun,  even  so  is  that  which  is 
true  unto  the  truth. 

For  he  that  is  of  the  light  receiveth  Hght,  and  he 
that  is  true  receiveth  the  truth. 

Whosoever  hath  the  truth  hath  it  unto  himself  and 
not  unto  another. 

For  behold,  he  giveth  and  another  taketh,  yet  noth- 
ing is  lost,  for  he  that  giveth  receiveth  more  abun- 
dantly for  his  giving. 

Marvel  not  if  the  world  deceive  you,  yet  the  truth 
cannot  deceive  you. 

The  truth  offereth  bonds  and  it  giveth  freedom  ;  it 
offereth  weariness  and  giveth  rest ;  it  offereth  sorrow 
and  giveth  joy;  it  offereth  death  and  giveth  life. 

Whatsoever  giveth  life  the  same  is  life. 

Whatsoever  maketh  true  the  same  is  true. 

Many  shall  come  in  the  name  of  Truth,  and  men 
shall  say,  Lp  Truth  is  here,  or  lo  it  is  there. 

If  they  say,  It  is  in  the  market-place,  go  ye  unto 
the  mountains  ;  but  verily  I  say  unto  you,  ye  shall 
seek  and  shall  not  find  : 

For  it  is  neither  in  the  mountain  nor  in  the  market- 
place ;  it  is  neither  here  nor  there  ;  it  is  neither  far 
nor  near;  it  is  neither  high  nor  low  ;  it  is  neither  great 
nor  small. 

With  truth  there  is  neither  time  nor  place,  but  all 
times  and  places. 

It  is  not  in  the  act,  but  in  the  end  ;  it  is  not  in  the 
end,  but  in  the  path  ;  it  is  not  in  the  path,  but  in  the 
aim. 

But  if  thou  sayest.  It  is  in  the  aim,  beware  lest  the 
thought  of  thy  heart  deceive  thee. 

For  if  the  aim  be  not  true,  the  path  will  not  be 
true.  And  unless  the  path  be  true  there  can  be  no 
truth  in  the  aim  of  a  man — aim  he  never  so  wisely. 

Neither  say  ye,  If  the  truth  be  in  the  end,  the  act 
profiteth  nothing  ;  for  verily  the  act  sanctifieth  the 
end,  and  if  the  act  be  true  the  end  justifieth  the  act. 

For  out  of  the  good  treasure  of  the  heart  man  seek- 
eth  the  good  ;  and  surely  goodness  shall  follow  him 
all  the  days  of  his  life. 


As  the  light  shineth  from  the  east  even  unto  the 
west,  so  shall  the  coming  of  Truth  be. 

For  the  trumpet  shall  sound  and  the  true  shall  be 
raised  incorruptible,  and  ye  shall  be  changed. 

But  though  the  trumpet  sound,  the  truth  is  not  in 
the  sound.  Though  the  angel  speaketh,  the  truth  is 
not  in  his  words. 

If  ye  be  true,  seek  the  truth,  and  ye  shall  surely 
find  it ;  for  if  the  truth  be  in  you  ye  shall  find  it  every- 
where. 

It  is  a  diamond  out  of  the  dunghill,  and  a  pearl  out 
of  the  mire. 

Peradventure  ye  shall  ask  of  me  which  man  among 
you  is  most  religious?  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  it  is  the 
vile  person  who  yet  sinneth  not. 

And  that  man  is  bravest  who  feareth  most,  and  yet 
standeth  fast. 

He  is  most  chaste  who  is  most  passionate  ;  and  he 
hath  most  charity  who  giveth  while  yet  he  is  tempted 
to  keep. 

Marvel  not  that  I  say  unto  you,  ye  cannot  serve 
Truth  and  Evil,  God  and  Mammon. 

For  verily  I  say  unto  you,  Satan  is  the  god  of  the 
flesh  and  of  the  lusts  thereof  ;  but  God  is  the  God  of 
Spirit. 

And  no  man  knoweth  the  spirit  of  a  man  save  God 
only,  and  him  to  whom  the  spirit  hath  been  revealed. 

Knowest  thou  not,  O  Pilate,  how  I  gave  wine  unto 
the  company  at  the  marriage-feast  in  Cana? 

And  yet  I  say  unto  all.  No  drunkard  shall  enter  into 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

For  there  shall  be  wine  so  long  as  the  world  en- 
dureth. 

Verily  I  say  unto  you  that  ye  obey  the  law  given 
upon  Sinai  unto  our  father  Moses.  Remember  the 
Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy. 

But  I  say  also  that  it  is  lawful  to  do  good  upon  the 
Sabbath  day,  for  man  is  lord  also  of  the  Sabbath. 

For  there  shall  be  Sabbaths  so  long  as  the  world 
endureth. 

Again  I  say  unto  them  that  be  servants  that  they 
serve  not  with  eye-service  nor  with  lip-service. 

And  to  the  masters  I  say  that  they  hold  not  back 
by  fraud  the  hire  of  them  that  reap  down  their  fields, 
but  forbear  threatening. 

For  masters  there  shall  be  and  servants  so  long  as 
the  world  endureth. 

Again  I  say,  marriage  is  honorable;  but  woe  unto 
him  who  is  an  adulterer. 

For  marriage  shall  be  so  long  as  the  world  en- 
dureth. 

Till  God  shall  restore  all  things  unto  himself,  when^ 
he  shall  put  down  all  rule  and  all  authority  and  power 
even  by  the  Spirit  of  Power. 

For  God  is  that  Spirit,  even  the  Spirit  of  Truth, 


THE     OPEN     COURT. 


4339 


which  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  be  ;  which  cannot  lie  ; 
which  cannot  change,  but  is  the  same  yesterday,  to- 
day, and  forever. 

Nothing  of  itself  is  false;  nothing  of  itself  is  com- 
mon or  unclean.  What  the  truth  cleanseth  that  call 
not  thou  common. 

And  God  cleanseth  not  the  outward  things,  but  the 
spirit  within  you,  as  ye  yourselves  will,  that  ye  may 
become  like  unto  His  own  glorious  spirit. 

According  to  the  working  of  that  power  whereby 
he  is  able  to  subdue  all  things  unto  himself. 

And  I  bear  witness  unto  the  truth,  and  I  am  the 
truth,  and  as  I  am  so  may  ye  be  also. 

For  every  one  that  is  of  the  truth  heareth  my  voice 
and  believeth. 

And  he  that  believeth  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet 
shall  he  live. 

And  he  that  believeth  loveth  ;  and  he  that  loveth 
shall  live. 

For  he  that  hath  love-hateth  no  more ;  and  he  that 
knoweth  the  truth  feareth  no  more,  neither  dieth  any 
more  ;  for  death  hath  no  more  dominion  over  him. 


THE  FUTURE  OF  ISLAM.' 


BY  MAULVl  AZi'z-UD-Di'n  AHMAD,   OF  LUCKNOW,    HINDUSTAN. 

W/ia/  is  Islam  ?  Muhammad's  religion  by  its  fol- 
lowers is  called  al-Isldm,  which  means  entire  surrender 
of  the  will  of  man  to  God.  It  is  the  only  religion  in 
the  world  which  is  not  named  after  its  founder.  To 
the  adherents  of  Islam  the  word  Muhammadanism  is 
offensive. 

The  substance  of  Islam  is  found  in  the  Quran, 
which  implies  a  Reader.  Muhammad  taught  the  Header 
piecemeal  to  his  disciples  who  about  twenty-two  years 
after  his  death  compiled  it  into  a  volume  and  accepted 
it  as  the  inspired  and  infallible  word  of  God.  The  in- 
spiration of  the  Quran  is  entirely  verbatim  and  not 
ideal.  The  Bible,  according  to  the  Christian  belief, 
is  composed  of  both  and  indeed  the  third  element,  the 
additional,  but  the  book  of  Islam  is  believed  to  be  the 
dictation  of  the  eternal  Word  by  the  angel  Jibril  (Ga- 
briel) to  Muhammad.  The  Prophet  was  only  the  in- 
strument, as  the  tongue  or  pen  is  to  the  thinker. 
Practically  the  Bible  of  the  Muhammadans  is  also  di- 
vided in  three  portions,  the  Qurdn,  the  ideas  or  tradi- 
tions of  Muhammad  and  his  successors,  and  the  addi- 
tions by  the  Lawyers  of  Islam.  Islam  is  not  an  idol 
but  its  vita  is  capable  of  growth  and  development. 

The  founder  of  Islam  was  Muhammad,  son  of  Ab- 
dulla.  Christians  often  misspell  the  name  of  the  Ara- 
bian Prophet.  In  Arabic  it  is  spelled  with  four  con- 
sonants "M/«md,"  the  second  m  is  doubled,  d  is  pro- 


;  the  vowels  as  in  Italian  or  as  the  italicised  vowels  of  the  fol- 
lowing words  :  aidr,  in,  mach/ne,  pwll,  rale.  These  are  the  only  vocables  in 
the  classical  Arabic. 


nounced  not  as  in  English  but  as  in  Italian  or  any 
other  European  language,  h  has  the  power  of  four, 
"h's  "  as  uttered  in  he — deep  from  the  throat.  This 
/;  is  in  none  of  the  non-semitic  or  non-hamitic  lan- 
guages, and  can  be  learned  only  from  one  able  to  utter 
it.  First  syllable  Mu  is  of  the  same  kind  as  in  tnoon, 
only  shorter;  both  "  a's  "  are  uttered  as  in  America. 
Most  of  his  followers  pronounce  the  name  Mohammad, 
giving  to  o  the  sound  in  polite  and  uttering  h  as  in 
English  hat.  Turks  named  Mu//ammad  and  A/?mad 
out  of  respect  to  their  Prophet  prefer  to  spell  it  in 
English  Muhammed  or  Ahmed. 

A//mad  is  the  name  under  which  Mu/zammad  claimed 
that  Jesus  Christ  foretold  his  coming — "And  remember 
when  Jesus,  the  son  of  Mary,  said,  '  O  children  of  Is- 
rael !  of  a  truth  I  am  a  God's  Apostle  to  you  to  con- 
firm the  law  which  was  given  before  me,  and  to  an- 
nounce an  apostle  that  shall  come  after  me,  whose 
name  shall  be  Ahmad.'" — Quran,  Ixi,  6.  Mu/mmmad 
signifies  praised  or  glorified  one.  Muhammad  main- 
tained that  Jesus  Christ  had  promised  according  to 
John  xvi,  7,  Periclj-tos  {nspiH\vroz=^ khm.z.&)  and  not 

Paracle'tos    (;rap<a'KA/;T05'=  advocate    or    helper): 

"Nevertheless  I  tell  you  the  truth  ;  it  is  expedient  for 
you  that  I  go  away  :  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Com- 
forter will  not  come  unto  you  ;  but  if  I  go,  I  will  send 
him  unto  you."  Sir  William  Muir  thinks  that  in  some 
imperfect  Arabic  translation  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John 
the  word  parakletos  may  have  been  translated  Ahmad 
or  praised.      i^Life  of  Mahomet,  Vol.  I,  17.) 

The  character  of  Muhammad  is  thus  described  by 
his  widow  A'yisha  to  her  questioning  friends:  "He 
was  a  man  just  as  yourselves  ;  he  laughed  often  and 
smiled  much." 

"  But  how  would  he  occupy  himself  at  home  ?"  the 
questioners  ask. 

"Even  as  any  of  you  occupy  yourselves.  He  would 
mend  his  clothes,  and  cobble  his  shoes.  He  used  to 
help  me  in  my  household  duties  ;  but  what  he  did 
oftenest  was  to  sew.  If  he  had  the  choice  between 
two  matters,  he  would  choose  the  easiest  so  that  no 
sin  accrued  therefrom.  He  never  took  revenge  ex- 
cepting when  the  honor  of  God  was  concerned.  When 
angry  with  any  person  he  would  say,  'What  hath 
taken  such  a  one  that  he  should  soil  his  forehead  in 
the  mud  ! ' 

"His  humility  was  shown  by  his  riding  upon  asses, 
by  accepting  the  invitation  of  his  slaves,  and  when 
mounted,  by  his  taking  another  behind  him.  He  would 
say  :  '  I  sit  at  meals  as  a  servant  doth,  and  I  eat  like  a 
servant ';  and  he  would  sit  as  one  that  was  always  ready 
to  rise.  He  discouraged  (supererogatory)  fasting,  and 
works  of  mortification.  When  seated  with  his  follow- 
ers, he  would  remain  long  silent  at  a  time.  In  the 
Mosque  at  Madina  they  used  to  repeat  pieces  of  poetry. 


4340 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


and  tell  stories  regarding  the  incidents  that  occurred 
in  the  'days  of  ignorance,'  and  laugh;  and  Muham- 
mad listening  to  them,  would  smile  at  what  they  said. 

"  Muhammad  hated  nothing  more  than  lying  ;  and 
whenever  he  knew  that  any  of  his  followers  had  erred 
in  this  respect,  he  would  hold  himself  aloof  from  them 
until  he  was  assured  of  their  repentance." 

His  speech.  "He  did  not  speak  rapidly,  running 
his  words  into  one  another,  but  enunciated  each  sylla- 
ble distinctly,  so  that  what  he  said  was  imprinted  in 
the  memory  of  every  one  who  heard  him.  When  at 
public  prayers,  it  might  be  known  from  a  distance  that 
he  was  reading  by  the  motion  of  his  beard.  He  never 
read  in  a  singing  or  a  chanting  style  ;  but  he  would 
draw  out  his  voice,  resting  at  certain  places.  Thus, 
in  the  prefatory  of  a  Sura,  he  would  pause  after  bismil- 
lahi,  after  ar-Ra\\man,  and  again  after  ar-Ra\).ini." 

His  gait.  "  He  used  to  walk  so  rapidly  that  the 
people  half  ran  behind  him,  and  could  hardly  keep  up 
with  him." 

His  habits  in  eating.  "He  never  ate  reclining,  for 
Gabriel  had  told  him  that  such  was  the  manner  of 
kings ;  nor  had  he  ever  two  men  to  walk  behind  him. 
He  used  to  eat  with  his  thumb  and  his  two  forefingers  ; 
and  when  he  had  done,  he  would  lick  them,  beginning 
with  the  middle  one.  When  offered  by  Gabriel  the 
valley  of  Makka  full  of  gold,  he  preferred  to  forego  it ; 
saying  that  when  he  was  hungry  he  would  come  before 
the  Lord  lowly,  and  when  full  with  praise." 

His  moderation.  "A  servant-maid  being  once  long 
in  returning  from  an  errand,  Muhammad  was  annoyed 
and  said :  '  If  it  were  not  for  the  law  of  retaliation,  I 
should  have  punished  you  with  this  toothpick!  '  " 

Outlines  of  Muhammad's  life.  Muhammad  was  born 
at  Makka  on  August  20th,  570  A.  D.  He  was  the  post- 
humous son  of  Abdulla  by  his  wife  A'mina.  He  be- 
longed to  the  family  of  Hashim,  the  noblest  section  of 
the  Arabian  tribe  of  Quraish,  said  to  be  directly  de- 
scended from  Ishmael,  son  of  patriarch  Abraham.  The 
father  of  Abdulla  was  Abdul  Muttalib,  who  held  the 
high  office  of  custodian  of  the  Arabian  temple  Ka'ba. 
Immediately  upon  his  birth  his  mother,  A'mina,  sent 
a  special  messenger  to  inform  Abdul  Muttalib  of  the 
news.  The  messenger  reached  the  chief  as  he  sat 
within  the  sacred  enclosure  of  the  Ka'ba,  in  company 
with  his  son  and  principal  men,  and  he  arose  with  joy 
and  went  to  the  house  of  A'mina.  He  then  took  the 
child  in  his  arms,  and  went  to  the  Ka'ba,  and  gave 
thanks  to  God.  The  Quraish  tribe  begged  the  grand- 
father to  name  the  child  after  some  member  of  the 
family,  but  Abdul  Muttalib  said,  "I  desire  that  the 
God  who  has  created  the  child  on  earth  may  be  glori- 
fied in  heaven,"  and  he  called  him  Muhammad,  "the 
praised  one." 

When   Muhammad  had   reached   the  twenty-fifth 


year,  he  entered  the  service  of  Khadija,  a  rich  widow 
of  Makka  whom  he  married  soon  afterward,  and  though 
she  was  fifteen  years  older  than  himself  yet  all  the  days 
of  her  life  he  remained  a  faithful  monogamist.  She 
died  in  December  of  619  A.  D.,  aged  sixty-five.  From 
her  daughter  Fatima,  who  married  Ali,  Muhammad's 
cousin,  are  descended  that  posterity  of  Saiyads  who 
claim  the  privilege  of  wearing  the  sacred  green  color. 
After  Khadija's  death  Muhammad  married  ten  women. 

Muhammad  was  taught  in  Makka  to  worship  as 
many  idols  as  there  are  days  in  the  lunar  year.  When 
approaching  his  fortieth  year  his  mind  was  much  en- 
gaged in  contemplation  and  reflexion.  The  idolatry 
and  moral  debasement  of  his  people  pressed  heavily 
upon  him,  and  the  dim  and  imperfect  shadow,  of  Ju- 
daism and  Christianity  excited  doubts  without  satisfy- 
ing them,  and  his  mind  was  perplexed  with  uncertainty 
as  to  what  was  the  true  religion. 

A'yisha  relates:  "The  first  revelation  which  the 
Prophet  of  God  received  were  in  true  dreams.  He 
never  dreamed  but  it  came  to  pass  as  regularly  as  the 
dawn  of  day.  After  this  the  Prophet  went  into  retire- 
ment, and  he  used  to  seclude  himself  in  a  cave  in 
Mount  Hira  and  worship  there  day  and  night.  He 
would,  whenever  he  wished,  return  to  his  family  at 
Makka,  and  then  go  back  again,  taking  with  him  the 
necessaries  of  life.  Thus  he  continued  to  return  to 
Khadija  from  time  to  time,  until  one  day  the  revela- 
tion came  down  to  him,  and  the  angel  came  down  to 
him  and  said,  'Read';  but  the  Prophet  said,  'I  am 
not  a  reader.'  And  the  Prophet  related  that  the  angel 
took  hold  of  him  and  squeezed  him  as  much  as  he 
could  bear,  and  then  said  again,  'Read';  and  the 
Prophet  said,  'I  am  not  a  reader. '  Then  the  angel 
took  hold  of  him  a  second  time  and  squeezed  him  as 
much  as  he  could  bear,  and  then  let  him  go,  and  said, 
'Read';  then  the  Prophet  said,  'I  am  not  a  reader.' 
Then  the  angel  again  seized  the  Prophet,  and  squeezed 
him,  and  said  : 
"  'Read  thou   in  the  name  of  thy  Lord  who  created; 

Created  man  out  of  clots  of  blood : 

Read  thou  !    For  thy  Lord  is  the  most  beneficent. 

Who  hath  taught  the  use  of  pen  ; 

Hath  taught  man  that  which  he  knoweth  not.'  " 

Every  Muhammadan  child,  before  he  can  become 
a  member  of  a  school,  must  undergo  the  initiation 
ceremony,  which  consists  in  the  youngster's  repetition 
of  the  above  angelic  lesson  and  afterwards  sweetmeat 
is  distributed  amongst  those  present. 

On  the  20th  of  June,  622  A.  D.,  Muhammad  fled 
for  his  life  from  Makka  to  Madina.  The  day  of  his 
flight,  or  hijra,  marks  the  Muhammadan  era,  or  He- 
gira  :   A.  H. 

In  A.  H.  6,  Muhammad  conceived  the  idea  of  ad- 
dressing foreign  sovereigns  and  princes,  and  of  invit- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4341 


ing  them  to  embrace  Islam,    Here  is  his  letter  to  Em- 
peror Heraclius  : 

"In  the  name  of  God,  the  Compassionate,  the 
Merciful,  Muhammad,  who  is  the  servant  of  God,  and 
His  Apostle,  to  Haraql,  the  Qaisar  of  Rum.  Peace  be 
on  whoever  has  gone  on  the  straight  road.  After  this 
1  say.  Verily,  I  call  you  to  Islam.  Embrace  Islam, 
and  God  will  reward  you  twofold.  If  you  turn  away 
from  the  offer  of  Islam,  then  on  you  be  the  sins  of 
the  people.  O  people  of  the  Book  [i.  e.  Christians], 
come  towards  a  creed  which  is  fit  both  for  us  and  for 
you.  It  is  this,  to  worship  none  but  God,  and  not  to 
associate  anything  with  God,  and  not  to  call  others 
God.  Therefore,  O  ye  people  of  the  Book,  if  ye  re- 
fuse, beware  !  We  are  Muslims,  and  our  religion  is 
Islam." 

He  also  wrote  to  the  Shah  of  Persia,  who  tore  his 
letter.  On  hearing  the  fate  of  his  letter,  Muhammad 
said:  "Even  so  shall  his  kingdom  be  scattered  to 
pieces."  The  king  of  Abyssinia  received  the  message 
with  honor,  and  the  governor  of  Egypt  sent  a  polite 
reply  and  two  beautiful  Coptic  girls,  one  of  whom  the 
Prophet  gave  to  the  poet  Hasan  and  the  other  he  kept 
for  himself.  When  she  gave  birth  to  Ibrahim,  a  son, 
he  gave  her  liberty  and  the  position  of  a  wife.  And 
this  has  become  a  precedent  for  all  Muhammadans. 

After  Muhammad  had  nominally  subjugated  Ara- 
bia, in  his  last  days  rebels  and  apostates  disturbed  his 
peace.  By  far  the  most  powerful  of  these  was  Musai- 
lima,  who  wrote  Muhammad  the  following  letter  : 

"  Musailima,  the  Prophet  of  God,  to  Muhammad, 
the  Prophet  of  God.  Peace  be  to  you.  I  am  your 
associate.  Let  the  exercise  of  authority  be  divided 
between  us.  Half  the  earth  is  mine,  and  half  belongs 
to  the  Quraish.  But  the  Quraish  are  a  greedy  people, 
and  will  not  be  satisfied  with  a  fair  division." 

Muhammad's  reply  to  the  above:  "Muhammad, 
the  Prophet  of  God,  to  Musailima,  the  liar.  Peace  be 
on  those  who  follow  the  straight  road.  The  earth  is 
the  God's,  and  He  giveth  it  to  whom  He  will.  Those 
only  prosper  who  fear  the  Lord." 

Muhammad's  career  was  closed  on  Monday,  the 
8th  of  June,  A.  D.,  632.  His  dying  words  were, 
"Lord  grant  me  pardon,  and  join  me  to  the  com- 
panionship on  high  ! "  Then  at  intervals:  "Eternity 
in  Paradise  !  Pardon  !  Yes,  the  blessed  companionship 
on  high  ! " 

Constitution  of  Islam.  Al-Islam  is  divided  into 
"Faith"  and  "Practice."  Faith  consists  in  the  ac- 
ceptance of  six  articles  of  belief  : 

1.  The  unity  of  God. 

2.  The  angels. 

3.  The  inspired  books. 

4.  The  inspired  prophets. 

5.  The  day  of  judgment. 


6.   The  decrees  of  God. 

Practical  religion  consists  in  the  observance  of  : 

1.  The  recital  of  the  Creed:  "There  is  no  deity 
but  God,  and   Muhammad  is  the  messenger  of  God." 

2.  The  five  stated  periods  of  prayer. 

3.  The  thirty  or  twenty-nine  days'  fast  in  the  month 
of  Ramazan. 

4.  The  payment  of  the  legal  alms. 

5.  The  pilgrimage  to  Makka. 

A  belief  in  these  six  articles  of  faith,  and  the  ob- 
servance of  these  five  practical  duties  constitute  Islam. 
He  who  thus  believes  and  acts  is  called  a  Miimin  or 
"believer";  but  he  who  rejects  any  article  of  faith  or 
practice  is  a  Kafir  or  "unbeliever." 

Tlie  Present  State  of  Islam.  At  first  Islam  spread 
itself  rapidly  with  the  Arabian  political  extension.  At 
present  its  success  amongst  the  Polynesians,  Malays, 
Mongolians,  Indians,  Africans,  and  Europeans  is  due 
almost  exclusively  to  its  inherent  virtues.  Islam  is 
separable  from  Muhammad  as  Christianity  is  not  from 
Christ.  In  Christendom  more  Christians  are  converted 
to  Islam  than  Musalmans  become  Christians.  Again, 
in  purely  Islam  lands  no  Muslim  may  change  his  reli- 
gion. In  heathen  lands  or  neutral  grounds  where  two 
faiths  are  rivals  Christianity  sadly  fails. 

What  is  Christianity?  Christianity  contains  all  that 
is  good  in  all  religions  and  adds  to  that  the  personality 
and  peculiar  teachings  of  Christ ;  namely,  that  salva- 
tion is  through  faith  in  Jesus'  sacrifice  on  Calvary  and 
in  the  doctrine  "Love  your  enemies." 

The  failure  of  Christianity  to  add  heathen  nations 
to  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  through  the  half-hearted- 
ness  of  the  Christians,  who  neglect  alike  to  love  friends, 
neighbors,  and  enemies.  From  the  self-love  on  the 
part  of  Christians  is  the  eminent  danger  to  the  religion 
of  Christ.  Money  is  collected  for  the  love  of  Christ 
and  heathen,  and  nearly  all  of  it  is  squandered  on 
people  that  neither  love  nor  understand  the  heathen. 
Christians  who  boast  of  doing  so  much  for  the  heathen, 
when  they  see  one  at  home  seldom  show  him  Christian 
charity.  In  America  the  aborigines,  the  negroes,  and 
the  Mongolians  are  treated  with  unchristian  preju- 
dice, which  is  unknown  amongst  the  followers  of  Is- 
lam. England,  too,  cares  not  for  heathen  at  home 
unless  they  be  rich.  Of  the  310  Indian  gentlemen  in 
England  not  one  studies  theology.  Christianity  as 
professed  and  practised  by  the  missionaries,  socially 
degrades  a  convert  who  is  outcasted  without  finding 
brotherhood  amongst  those  who  induced  him  to  accept 
Christianity.  The  missionary  is  ever  an  alien,  and 
never  equal  socially  with  the  convert.  In  the  mission 
field  he  keeps  the  convert  subordinate  with  the  energy 
worthy  of  a  Hindu  Brahmin.  If  a  convert  happens 
to  visit  Europe  or  America,  as  a  rule,  the  missiona- 
ries' influence  is  ever  arrayed   against  him,   for  it   is 


^0 


# 


SF 


4342 


THE    OPEN     COURT. 


feared  that  the  convert's  reports  or  his  answers  to 
friends  in  America  and  Europe  may  not  tally  with  the 
reports  of  the  missionaries.  Converts  may  not  qualify 
themselves  as  missionaries,  and  if  they  do  in  vain  may 
they  ask  for  an  appointment  from  any  missionary  so- 
ciety. 

The  future  of  Islam  is  insured  by  the  humanity  or 
kindness  of  its  followers  towards  one  another.  Col- 
leges are  open  to  all.  No  caste,  no  distinction  of  race. 
One  God,  one  people.  There  is  more  self-sacrifice 
and  less  paper  boast  with  the  propagation  of  Islam 
than  of  Christianity.  In  England  Englishmen  repre- 
sent and  spread  Islam,  and  at  the  Religious  Parlia- 
ment not  an  alien,  but  an  American  of  Americans, 
represented  Islam.  Progress  of  Christianity  will  be 
retarded  until  Christians  do  likewise. 


MARRIAGE  SERVICES  REVISED. 

Since  it  frequently  happens  that  unchurched  people  are  at  a 
loss  how  to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony  in  a  dignified  and  ap- 
propriate way,  so  as  to  preserve  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the 
traditional  formulas  without  retaining  expressions  which  impli- 
citly contain  a  concession  to  dogmas  no  longer  believefl,  we  pro- 
pose wording  the  service  as  follows  : 

Dearly  beloved,  we  are  gathered  together  here  in  the  face  of 
this  company,  to  join  together  this  man  and  this  woman  in  holy 
matrimony  ;  which  is  not  by  any  to  be  entered  into  unadvisedly 
or  lightly  ;  but  reverently,  discreetly,  advisedly,  soberly,  and  con- 
scious of  the  great  responsibility  that  it  implies.  Into  this  holy 
estate  these  two  persons  present  come  now  to  be  joined.  If  any 
man  can  show  just  cause  why  they  may  not  lawfully  be  joined  to 


Then  shall  the  minister  speak  unto  the  company  : 

This  is  an  institution  ordained  in  the  very  laws  of  our  being, 
for  the  welfare  of  mankind.  To  be  true,  this  outward  ceremony 
must  be  but  a  symbol  of  that  which  is  inner  and  real, — a  sacred 
union  of  hearts.  There  must  be  a  consecration  of  each  to  other, 
and  of  both  to  the  noblest  ends  of  life. 

Believing  that  in  such  a  spirit  as  this  and  with  such  a  purpose 
you  are  here  to  be  wedded  to  each  other,  come  now,  change  rings, 
and  join  your  right  hands. 

Marriage  is  no  mere  private  affair  which  concerns  the  bride 
and  the  groom  only ;  it  is  a  social  act  and  it  is  sacred  for  it  in- 
volves all  who  are  near  and  dear  to  both  of  them — nay,  it  involves 
all  mankind,  of  the  present  and  past,  and,  above  all,  of  the  future. 
Therefore,  remember  that  we  stand  here  in  the  sight  of  the  noblest 
ideals  and  the  tenderest  relations  of  humanity  ;  and  we  sanctify 
the  intentions  of  these  two  loving  hearts  in  the  name  of  that  omni- 
potence in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being. 

Forasmuch  as  M.  and  N.  have  consented  together  in  holy 
wedlock,  and  have  witnessed  the  same  publicly  before  this  com- 
pany, and  thereto  have  given  and  pledged  their  troth,  each  to  the 
other,  and  have  declared  the  same  by  giving  and  receiving  a  ring, 
and  by  joining  hands  ;  I  pronounce  that  they  are  husband  and  wife. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


A  New  Bible  and  Its  Neio  Uses,  by  Joseph  Henry  Crooker, 
(Boston,  George  H.  Ellis,  1893,  pages,  286,)  is  a  popular  resume 
of  the  facts  and  reasons  that  have  led  to  the  rehabilitation  of  the 
Bible  as  a  literally  inspired  document  and  absolute  religious  au- 
thority, with  a  discussion  of  its  possible  uses  as  a  new  spiritual 
power.  The  book  will  be  helpful  to  the  general  reader  unfamiliar 
with  the  subject  and  to  beginners.  With  Mr.  Crocker's  criticisms 
much  reverence  and  piety  are  mingled. 


gether,  let  him  now  speak,  or  else  hereafter  forever  hold  his  peace.  I      I — I     l-H  11   V^  |-H     [\^  (       C     )   I     J     rv      I 


{Addr. 


ng  the  couple.) 


I  require  and  charge  you  both,  that  if  either  of  you  know  of 
any  impediment,  why  ye  may  not  be  lawfully  joined  together  in 
matrimony,  ye  do  now  confess  it.  For  be  ye  well  assured,  that  if 
any  persons  are  joined  together  otherwise  than  as  the  law  of  our 
institutions  doth  allow,  their  marriage  is  illegal. 
(Addressing  the  groom.) 

M.,  wilt  thou  have  this  woman  to  thy  wedded  wife,  to  live  to- 
gether in  the  holy  estate  of  matrimony  ?  Wilt  thou  love  her, 
-honor,  and  keep  her  in  sickness  and  in  health  ;  and,  be  faithful 
unto  her,  so  long  as  ye  both  shall  live  ? 

(The  groom  shall  answer  :   "I  will.") 
(Addressing  the  bride.) 

N.,  wilt  thou  have  this  man  to  thy  wedded  husband,  to  live 
together  in  the  holy  estate  of  matrimony  ?  Wilt  thou  cherish  and 
care  for  him,  love,  honor,  and  keep  him  in  sickness  and  in  health  ; 
and  be  faithful  unto  him,  so  long  as  ye  both  shall  live  ? 

The  bride  shall  answer  :   "  I  will." 

The  groom  says  : 

I,  M.,  take  thee,  N.,  to  my  wedded  wife,  to  have  and  to  hold 
from  this  day  forward,  for  better,  for  worse,  for  richer,  for  poorer, 
in  sickness  and  in  health,  to  love  and  to  cherish,  till  death  us  do 
part  ;  and  thereto  I  plight  thee  my  troth. 

The  bride  says : 

I,  N.,  take  thee,  M.,  to  my  wedded  husband,  to  have  and  to 
hold  from  this  day  forward,  for  better,  for  worse,  for  richer,  for 
poorer,  in  sickness  and  in  health,  to  love  and  to  cherish,  till  death 
us  do  part ;  and  thereto  I  give  thee  my  troth. 


"THE  MONON,"  324  DEARBORN  STREET. 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  Post  Office  Drawer  F. 


E.  C.  HEGELER,  Publisher. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS,  Editor. 


TERMS  THROUGHOUT  THE  POSTAL  UNION; 

$2.00  PER  YEAR.  $1.00  FOR  SIX  MONTHS. 


N.  B.  Binding  Cases  for  single  yearly  volumes  of  The  Open  Court  will 
be  supplied  on  order.    Price,  75  cents  each, 

CONTENTS  OF  NO.  383. 

IMMORTALITY.     Major  J.  W.  Powell 4335 

CHAPTERS    FROM    THE    NEW   APOCRYPHA.     The 

Truth.     HuDOR  Genone 4338 

THE  FUTURE  OF  ISLAM.     M.  Aziz-ud-d(n  Ahmad...  4339 

MARRIAGE  SERVICES  REVISED.     Editor 4342 

BOOK  NOTICES 4342 


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