Conservative , 13
as feeling. This feeling rises into some
thing higher when the Psycho distin
guishes the content of this feeling from
that of other feelings , and forms for
itself a mental imago as an objective ex
pression of it and towards which it as
sumes a free attitude.
"When the religious instinct or urgency
is arrested at the stage of more feeling ,
the devotee does not recognize the crea
tive energy , the nous , the idea , the
word , the Divine Spirit , God as personal.
To him God is an immediate manifesta
tion of matter , hostile to his freedom
and intelligence a fetish. The feeling
in rising from itself ns feeling to a men
tal image of the object of feeling is not
destroyed. It persists.
If the mind is held back from the act
of forming mental representations , and
continually redissolves them into feeling
for fear of aiithropomorphising the con
ception of the Divine Being , one will at
tain no purer idea of Him ; but will
rather destroy all attributes of personal
ity in his conception of the absolute and
leave an empty abstraction like the
Brahm of the Hindoo.
One rises out of the stage of represen
tation , of images when ho begins to
think. Reflection , thinking distin
guishes that in the content of the relig
ion of imagination which is necessary
and universal. For the imagination the
necessity of its pictures is a hidden
assumption. The thinking activity re
cognizes the contradiction between the
- sensuous limited form of the representa
tions and the essential nature of the con
tent , and also the contradictions between
the conceptions themselves with respect
to each other.
In attempting to discover the contents
of these religious images the mind rises
to true concrete insight. Thought first
made the images created by the imagi
nation as a scaffold to stand on. . With
out them it cannot begin at all.
They who reject the imaginative stage
of religious culture are not able to rise
to a concrete doctrine of God as a di
vine , human person such as Christianity
reveals , but make him to be a being
with the negation of all the attributes
which characterize a creator , because
such a being transcends everything finite ,
and everything thinkable is finite.
On the plain of insight there are three
stages of religious thought ; the abstract ,
the reflective and the speculative.
The abstract sets forth the doctrines
as dogmas. The reflective busies itself
over the mutual relations of the dogmas
and the proofs of their necessity. This
leads to skepticism. The speculative
thinking sees the logical necessity of
self-activity , self-movement , self-deter
mination in. the absolute and therefore
of concrete attributes such as belong tea
a creator. This is a conscious return to
the creative energy of the evolutionist
the absolute reason the Divine Spirit
This seemr to be che process of connect-
ng the self with the infinite , of bringing
one's self into unity with the infinite.
In the light of this discussion the
iccessity for the school as a distinct and
separate institution from the other great
primary institutions and its function
should bo clear. The school in the widest
sense may be taken as including all edu
cational and cultural agencies. Hence
; here is family education , the education
of polite society , industrial , political and
religious education. The child or youth
acquires habitudes and capacities for
social action by direct contact with
: iia environment. These acquisitions
gained by direct contact with social in
stitutions may be called spontaneous
education. It forms a large part of
everyone's education.
The civilization of today rests upon a
body of languages , sciences , fine and
useful arts which are the growth of cen
turies of social evolution ; hence the
necessity for the school in its narrower
and technical sense as an institution
furnishing a time and a place where the
social pre-natal work , so to speak , of or
ganizing in the brain and nervous sys
tem those capacities and habitudes
which will equip him. on his social birth
into the institutions of industry , politics
and religion to successfully engage in
the struggle for existence.
In the school he is to master these
subjects tools of civilization which lie
at the basis of social progress and hence
of personal development. Not only this
but ho must be made conscious of the
ideal aims and purposes of the institu
tion of the family , the industrial society ,
the political state , and the church that
ho may become both ethical and religi
ous , in the language of Aristotle , "That
ho may not only live , but live nobly. "
Only by this insight can ho bo touched
with the divine fire which lights him to
the infinite.
There is no good
vhy the
public treasury in
the state of Nebraska should bo depleted
each year two thousand dollars for the
purpose of running a state fair.
If the farmers and manufacturers of
Nebraska deem it advantageous to have
a state fair each year , they have a right
to hold one at their own expense. But
there is no excuse for a law which puts
the hand of the state board of agricul
ture into the popular pocket for the pur
pose of talcing out , each year , enough
tax-lovied , tax-gathered cash to pay the
expenses of the board and its officers for
running a state fair.
More than twenty years ago the editor
of THE CONSERVATIVE served as presi
dent of the state board of agriculture.
While acting in that capacity ho de
clined to take the state appropriation foi
the board of agriculture. To the Hon
orable Eugene Munn , then a member of
the legislature from Otoe county , he ad
dressed a letter protesting against the
* . .
appropriation. It was not made. The
state fair was a success financially and
in every desirable way. But never since
that time has the state board of agricul
ture failed to seek and secure and con"
sumo its annual stipend of two thousand
dollars from the state. In the last
twenty years that stipend makes an ag
gregation of more than sixty thousand
dollars. No such appropriation is needed.
No such appropriation should bo made.
If there is not demand for a state fair in
sufficient force to pay the expenses of a
state fair Nebraska ought not to indulge
in a state fair. Things undemanded arc
valueless.
There is among the statutes of Ne
braska one which provides for an annual
allowance of five
POTTVPV tMTlfC .
COUM lAiicb.
hundred dollars by
the commissioners in each county for _
the purpose of holding a county fair. * "
The ninety-eight organized counties of
the commonwealth availing themselves '
of this lax , unwise and extravagant leg
islation may squander in horse-trots
about fifty thousand dollars annually.
In the lost twenty years these expendi
tures which are wholly unnecessary have
added about one million of dollars to the
taxation of Nebraska.
The legislature of Nebraska should
abolish all subsidies to the state board of
agriculture and to
SUBSIDIES. oounty ngricul.
tural societies. If these laws are not ,
repealed it is a duty of tax payers to sue
out injunctions and permanently , under
order of the courts , put an end to this
waste of public money.
"It has boon wisely said , " says the
Congregationalist of Boston , "that some
of the profound sayings of the Sermon
on the Mount await their entire explan
ation and fulfillment until the kingdom
of God , about which they were spoken ,
shall bo fully established on earth or in
heaven. A similar thought may be true
of other words of Scripture. It is sug
gested by the remark of a lady , writing
as to her mother , who had suddenly
been taken from her : 'I am trying to
rejoice with her , and so forget my own
loss. ' Wo think of Paul's familiar in
junction as belonging only to our life
hero ; but why should it not become our
duty and privilege to rejoice with those
who have finished their pilgrimage
through this evil world and entered their
Master's joy 'glad also with exceeding
joy ? ' Would it not turn our sorrow into
joy if wo thus tried to sympathize with
the supreme happiness of those whom
in our half-selfish grief we would like
to bring back to earth ? It would surely
give a broader , grander meaning to
many precepts and promises if we ex
tended their scope from the narrow
world around us to the wonderful world
just beyond our ken a world already
the abode of so many wo have known
and a world , too , which is soon to bo
ours. "
