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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (May 5, 1884)
MITjra!liFBWri?lZmaBaMMBMMMMaBMMMBMMMMMMiMMirM THE HESPERIAN STUDENT. tially the same. History, Political Economy and Natural History are passing through the transitory stage; men are only beginning to see that race move ments have their causes as well as planetary ones, that the story of the life of the world in not merely a list of happenings nor a series of fragmentary miracles. These and the science of mind are still cellecting and classifying facts, and wild theories are rife as they must always be until the true principle s light up the dark places. In the end however they must range them selves, in so far as they claim to be exact sciences with the other branches, as departments only in the all in clusive mathematics. In that time the true synthetic philosophy can be constructed; ascending regularly from the simple axioms to the most complex truths. gin gtutlmtti' gray ooh, THE INNOVATIONS OFSOIENOE. Tho present is characterized by a professed reverence fnr intellectual nttniiimont mid achievements. Never before hnvc men striven so d illigently after knowledge a knowledge now within the reach of nil. In every department of humnn thought, the spirit of the age indicates a strong tendency t nvard the exact and the actual. In ages past, men sought for the ideal; in this, they aro straining every ncarvo in their efforts to discover the real that which p, not that which seems to be. With pitiless hand, they are tearing down the false idols of the past; but like true builders, they are erecting the more enduiing monu ments of reality. This spirit of realism finds its mos potent ally and probably, its inspiring cause in Science the search for the actual in nature. The innovations of modern science on other modes of thought and study in the last century havo been made with a startling rapidity unsurpassed in history. The mind can scarcely grasp the magnitude of the changes wrought in this short lime. No longer arc the Roger Bacons regarded simply us magicians and sorcerers; nor aro the Newtons and Galileos thought of as impious, and persecuted because they dared to investigate the mysteries of nature nor are chemists looked upon as stu dents of the Black Ait and in league with Satan. Scien tists are not now, ob in times past, sepcrated from the masses, by the impassible gulf of ignorance and super stition. On the contrary, they owe much of their sues cess to the sympathy and encouiagcmcnt of an enlight ened people. In the history of science, religion has played an im portant part. Ever ready to lake up arms against any new train af thought, which shows a disposition to ques tion her. doctrines, religion haR steadily and systematical ly opposed the onward march of science. It was un ops position detrimental to religion and science alike, for it made the defendants of each more conservative in their views and materially retarded the progress of modern liberal thought. Despite this hostility, however, the Ohristain doctrine of the brotherhood of man has fostered ! he growth of science, ami, indeed, paradoxical as the state ment seems, modern science owes its origin to Christi anity. Science, on the other hand, has critically and impar tially examined the doctrines of religion, and throwing abide- ns unworthy of belief those that could not stand t he test, separating the true form the false, has purified our fa I tli and transformed it from a blind ignorant and super stitious worship of the supernatural to a tiling of reason involving the highest faculties of tlio human mind. Is it not gratfying to see that form amidst the ruins of ancient institutions our religion alone still stands firmer than ever, stripped only of those parts which are of human contrivanco? Science has, indeed, added demonstration aud proof to the truths of Christianity, and fixed mora firmly its hold on the minds of men. Most of our greatest scientists aro devout Christians, and their works abound in such pas sages as that in which Agassiz declares the animal king dom to be "a thought of a Supremo Intelligence manifes ted in a material reality." Science has also opened a new flold for literature. Atone time literature seemed about to die a natural death from inanition, because of the poverty of thought. Poetry had become but the repetition of old ideas in n new dress. Imagination, the source from which the poet draws his inspiration, had been so often called up on for thoughts and fancies that nothing new remained. As Emorson soys, "The originals are not original." There is imitation, model, suggestion to theveryjarch angels, if we knew their history;" Drydcn, too, aptly ex presses this fact when he somewhere says of the modern poets; "You may track them in the snows of the ancients." The deeds and marvels of which the ancient poet3 sang, have ceased to find a place even in prosn. Science has made an epic poem no longer possible; for the circumstances which creatid them have long since been left behind. The heroes of the Iliad would rank witii the common soldiers of a modern army; and tho heroes of the Oddcssv, not po high as an ordinary sailor. Poetry is characterized by i pcaroh for the ideal and science in its progress, hiisjrcveiiled so many diverse aud bo fore undreamed otydireclions for speculation, tha' it will ever bo impossible to fill completely the realm of tho unknown a fruitful source of the ideal. Science, too, lias caused a revolution in the domains f history. Until recently referring all great changes to individuals orspcoinl providences, many historians havo degraded their works into mere books of hero worship. Science, however, has applied tho laws of evolution even to history, and shown that the progress of society is due not to the actions of individuals, but to the gradual de velopment of natural laws. Science has, "indeed, opened a wider range of though. As more and more of tho vast domain of nature is disclosed to our view, we must receive such new thoughts and fuel lugs as cannot fail to stimulate literature to a better truer and nobler growth. The establishment of so many hcicntiflc institutes and the introduction of scientific studies into our schools and colleges, indicates ,that in education, also the study of nature has had its influence. Tho tide of intellectual effort sets so strongly in tho direction of science, that its presence can no longer be ignored. The days of tho old scholastic system which so long held sway over the J.