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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1876)
L-Miit,m0ltimMt1gt. 18 Editor's Chair. vcstigUos liis own being, tlic more often will bo heard, "I am not what I am." For this there is no apology. No man can render an excuse for absolute igno rance, .when the world all around him is striving and swarming for education. Do we believe there is a being above in! Call it God, First Cause. Absolute, The Unlimited, Unthinkable, The Imper. ceptible or what wo will, the very fact of belief in His existence is proof that He io our Creator. If He has created us, He has given us means premises, for finding out both our relations and the nature of our growth. To say that we have not such premises, from "vliich wo may draw con elusions respecting our advancement, would be either to say t lint wo cannot ef fect in any maimer at our own pleasure the states of our own existence, or to charge Ilim with creating intelligent be. ings, whoc intelligence has no object upon which it may apply an effort. For as long as wo can, at our own will, bring about a change in our psychical states, we have a choice, and upon this choice our improvement depends. And, further, the operation of intelligence means, to a certain extent, freedom to act toward it. self or sonic other object, which implies n choice, which is drawing a conclusion, which always depends on premise. Therefore wo have tho elements of our own welfare always before us, and upon our choice depends our salvation or our condemnation. Wo arc led thence to en quire, what are these elements or promt. fics? and what are the conclusions that we may draw from them respecting our own development. And when we say "devel opment, " let it not be construed in any narrow sense, for only an eternal sense will satisfy tho requirements of tho term. Wo are compelled, then, to reject any Utilitarian view concerning our progress, and accept such only as look out to, and qualify our beings as immortals. In tho first placo wo nro conscious of existence. And from tho very fact of our existence wo know not only that we have a Creator (for we know also that wo exist independently of our will) but we know that there are other things around us. For who could ascertain whether ho existed or not if there were no objects or beings around him? Hut to know is only the perception of relations. Therefore what ever wo know, we know It only by tho re. lations which it sustains toward our own individuol eyo, or to something else pre. vlously known. Wo know others then on ly as they arc like or unlike ourselves. By comparing these witli our own Individ uality we perceive tho relations they sua. tain toward each other. By comparing a third oject witli the relation which two bodies suMain to each other, we obtain a tertiary relation, and so on indefinitely. Sulllcicnt to say that the farther we pro ceed, the more wo lose sight of the prima, ry relation, which nevertheless can al ways be obtained by retracing our steps. We see then that all knowledge is simply a combination of relations. But to know is a psychical state. This slate depends for its quality upon the object known, hence where and how the know ing is car ried on. Therefore every psychical stato comprehends at least a single relation. These relations all point back to primary relations, and are therefore dependent and connected. So there is always a counec lion between what we are thinking of at any one time and tho very first thought that entered our minds in infancy. This lengthy chain takes many varied direc tions; still it is always connected, and if a single link is misUng there would be no iniluence from one seetion upon another, because-there would be no existing rela tions, and hence 1 here would bu no memo ry beyond tho severed link. This condition of things continues U3 long as we continue to know, and henco must reach to deatli or a state of insanity. It is plain ttiat if a poison becomes insane, so that he cannot know, the relations nro broken, yet connect at that point at which he again begins to know. Beyond death wo of course do not know what exists