Hesperian Student
tf
VvVirEitsiTi or .r:tt.i.sjt.i.
Vol. IX.
Lincoln, Nbh., Junk 15. 1880.
No. 8.
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GIVE you joy oh sous ol men,
b llint Trulli is altogether whole.
sumo" is PlAlo's greeting to the age; an
a yo imbued with the spirit ol'irulli; when
the air is t'uli of a scepticism tliat rests
not till transformed into belief; wliou the
philosopher docs not, as of old, put out
his cy os, that lie may know, but creates
for himself now eyes, with which lie
reads lite secrets of the universe.
The inductive method 1ms madu sci
ence the genius ol the age. It is the leav
en that has given lite Mi modern thought,
the torch that has carried light and order
where all was darkness and confusion.
.Man no longer all'euls humility in his i
Sillily Ol U1U UIUVUIBI,, Mill lUglUMS II I3 II
matter ol cxhiluialion that he finds himself
in a woild ol mastery, but aspires to see
through the eaitli, to touch the stars and
to discourse with all life. Science opens
to his muni a boundless Held of activity;
lor her stores are inexhaustable. and lile
ia vastly riehei Irom the treasures mi ml
exorcises lrom stubborn facts when
touched by me plulosopheis stone of
thought. bounce lour-hcs our life at
every point, and with a magic hand
iraiisfoims the lorces of the universe into
Tin., ....... t.,uo ..'i .'-l! i - U-' t..."-;v
laliou, ami puiiosophy is imtuied with its
spiru; all ihouglit ol ihe j)ast, metaphys
ics, theology, llterulllie and art ale ovel
shadowed by this uiodein Titan. Man's
mission is to generalize, to resisi particu
lars; to sec the past with the eyes ol the
picaent, and the present with the eyes of
the past. The age is steeped in a science
winch is changing man's conception of
the woild and his destiny, and that has
tilled him with a fanaticism for veracity
such as the world has never before seen.
The science ol the day sas, "Why
trouhle ourselves about mailers, of
which, however importanl, we do know
nothing and can know nothing?" Shall
all speculation then be sacrificed to bare
empiricism. The difficulties of meia
physics lie at the root ol all science, says
G. II. Lewes. That metaphysics has
been barren, heretofore, is only too evi
dent, but it is not loi science to llx arbi
trarily the limits of knowledge. Give to
metaphysics a beating heart by infusing
into it some of this new life which ani
mates all thought of the day and, in
searching lor the unknown that is yet
know able, we shall be vastly better, braver,
and more Industrious, than if we dispaired
of all knowing.
To-day all thought is i ejected that does
not bear ihe seal of this rulei of the
times, yet science forgets that, with all
her knowing, she has ollon gone no far
ther than the old philosophers, who
sought within for a theory of the uni
verso. There is coining to be such an
unquestioning faith in all that science
proclaims, that we are in danger ol leuv
ing our thinking to be done by a few spec
ialisis in science, and of losing the bene
lils ol a healthy doubt. "What has science
done for man to deseive such confidence?
She has freed him in one direction only to
imprison him In another; she has placed
the intellect in insurrection against the
heart, and, while giving him continually
a higher, nobler, and more porlect view
of life lends to crush him under the iu.
taliiy of physical forces. Hut Fate lias
been called impenetrated causes; should
not science then iu her successful pene
Iralion of causes free man from the pris
on house of necessity? No, man in the
height ( hi? powur limls M nisei f bound
by inexorable law; and will only cease to
be under paralyzed subjection to nature
when, in viewing her. he adds to the tele
scope of the intellect the spccterscopc of
the heart.
The divorce between the understanding
and the heart has given birth to a marked
uncertainly in the thought and actions of
men. A Cromwell is not born iu an age
when doubtiugs and perplexities weaken
and unnerve man. In a time when the
subtlest and most universal problems
are met by so many daring theories, opin
Ions and beliefs are loo transient to be
crystallized into action; and that oscilla
tion which all progress demands, marks
this as eminently a progressive age. Yet
when the time comes for prompt and de
cisivcaclion, will this halting between
two opinions produce men equal to the
exigencies of tno limes?
What answer does science give to the
sphynx-like questions, What am I,Whenco
111111, Whl tlicr am I going? What ques
tions we have learned to ask! Yet
though wc have penetrated into the inner
most chambers of the pyramid of the past
no answering hieroglyphic meets the eye
'Nor can bullied seers impart the secret
of earth's laboring heart." Microscope,
crucible, telescope are alike silent in tno
nm-i'iiri' of this -iid wr'J'mr on the wall.
-,, ' . V - . to. .
l ne positive piuiosopiier uoes noi seeiv an
interpretation but affects indifference to
these questions, and, recognizing the law
less curiosity ol much of modern science,
aims to d.rect all thought towards the
erection of an altar to Humanity, lie re-
jeets all theology and metaphysics, as
having outlived their uselulness, but the
termination of his philosophy is in a the
ology and metaphysics. Positive philoso
phy, as a protest against the destructive
tendency of the age may serve to
check its one sided development, but as a
destroyer of all the past it will fail lo find
a response in the hearts of men. The
lime indeed calls for some constructive
effort that shall reconcile conduct with be
lief, but it is not sufficient to build it
ubon one man's conception of the needs
of humanity.
Science- attacks the conservative in
thought, and that irreconcilable conflict
bctwfgm the existing and the ideal con
tinties with accumulated energy. But the
new soon grows old, and the revolutionist
is revolutionized, while all the vast theor
ies remain only as examples of higher
generalizations. "Keep your mind open
to the truth" is the motto of science;
but scientists grow old and age is always
averse to the new. Who then shall deter
mine truth, the groat past or the ambit
ious pi cent? That mind is the greatest,
that can the most happily conbine the two,
as the springtime .idds to the oak Willi its
thousand years of giowlh new buds and
blossoms. Science does not make a bigo
ted man less bigoted unless he can be able
to !-co the truth with its accompanying
falsehood lor man ever sees but half
truths excopt in the perspective of years.
Mind has deserted the altars of form
and sacrifices to the mechanical deity of
the age. Ihe Corliss engine usurps the
Laocoon; The Origin of Species is sup.
plunling Jlomer Iliad; the microscope
and scapel replace the palette and chisel ;
(lie poet mourns that "Philosophy would
clip an angel's wings." All hail! to the
spirit of inquiry that freed man from
servile admiration of a few groat minds of
the past and opened to him a perennial
spring of life and beauty; but wo I to that
spirit thai forgets, as Emerson says, that
ihe human hfim is of more account than
peering into micrusoopes, nnu is grcatci
than can be measured t the pompous
figures of the astronomer. Joy to the en
chantress; that dclivcis man from the tyr
any of nature but awaj with that philoso
sophy that would imprison him in an icy
materialism. The minds of Homer and
Noivton meet at the summit and the grand
truths in science surpass in beauty all
that man can create in 'he imagination, so
that one fully alive to ibis beauty need
not lose nil human sympathy by gazing
into the heavens, or by companionship
with dry bones, but will' say with Senaca,
"I count all that is human as part of my
self;" so the poet may well sing:
"In frpltc of nil tliat time Ik bringing
Trenanro of .truth and miracle of art,
Beauty nndlovo will keep the poot aiuglnc
And Ming bhiill Hvo -thoscloiicoof tlio hcarl.'
Comparative science is the magnetic
current, that binds together the past and
the present. Greek, Koman, Hindoo,
Teuton become united in a common
brotherhood for comparative science
has discovered the lost genealogy of Ihe
European races; jproud Roman ami a
Miotic Greek no longer engross the atti
tion of mankind. This new slar en'
logued in the firmament of mind has c
verted mere idle curiosity of past insl
llonu Ijiij ijolde zeal for Mm whv i
wnercloro ol then' exisieiicc, anu Ifision
cal investigation is no longer a patch
work of rude guesses and false theories
To resist the deductions of the compaii
tivc method is to shut from the mind
the grandest and broadest viows ui
life and the universe. Why array mere o
pinion against the strongest of internal e
idenco; evidence that exalts and ennobles
our ideas of man and nature, and that fills
us with toleration, charity and sympathy
for every movement of mankind towards
truth, whethi'r it be that of a Buddha in
the historic East or a Socralcs in the cul
lured West.
Cailylo has said, "The poorest day
among us is the inllux ol two eternities."
To-day carries the fruits of the past in its
bosom and contains the germs of the fu
ture. Science lias elevated this present to
an eminence, such us no present has evei
before known, and has made of this a con
ceited age; yet lliej tell us "that the mass
of creatures and qualitiesare still hidden
waiting like the enchanted princess for a
human deliverer. ' Will science continue
lo be this deliverei ? The specialist is
doomed to solilaiy confinement with one
absorbing thought, hence truth becomes
distorted.and science is exposed to dangers
from within. Again, she has been charged
with hating the i ame of love and moral
purpose, and, in so tar as Mils is true, sci
ence will fail and decline, as has all
thought that neglected any part of man's
nature
Give ear, oh scionco! lo Plato when he
says, "God inventod sight, that, on survey,
ing the ciicles ol intelligence in the hoav
ens, we might employ those of our own
minds, aim by imitating the uniform rev
olutions of divinity, set aright our own
wanderings and blunders." Pursue, then,
thy wondrous course oh scionco! Free
man from the fatality of ignorance; teach
him the swcot humanities; fill his life
with noble and still nobler aims and reveal
to him more and more of that holy trini
ty matter, mind and spirit. E. P
,