The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1845-05-23
ron THE OTTAWA PREE TRADER.
The InAucnCc of Speculative PhiIosoph!

vi Eubosofhys
1t is not uncommon for professional
men as well as labbrers, in their zeal for
immediate utility, TO sneer at the specua-
tive theorst as only vaporiug forth some
fanciful notions in which the community
can have no possible interest, and which
Can exert no permanent good.
We fancy that there is something grand
and glorious in the bold achievements
and triumphs of the Notwithstanding
divine in "lhe earthquake voice of victo-
ry." We admire the busting politician
and pretending statesman; we look up
with reverence to our popular instructors
as oracIes Of wisdom but when we trace
the line OF moral causes, we find that in
such men are not the wellsprings of our
knowledge, but that they are far above
and distant from them, and that they drink
only the lurbid waters Of the descending
stream.
Should we trace that river that adorns
and ferliizes our valley to its spring
head, we should find it gushing forth
sparkling bright and pure from the side OF
the towering mountain which is obscured
IN the clouds and distance.
We must look beyond the external ma
chinery of action, and observe the thou
sand secre, springs by whose unos,enta-
,ious agency the united and regular move
ment of the whole is originated and
preserved.
Search through the records of the past.
Who have been the intellectual giants that
have achieved the glorious conquest Of
mind-tla, have labored most powerfully
in rearing the fabric of knowledge-havo
given the first impulse To all moral revo'
lutiOns-urged society onward-iirs, rails
ed the voice against oppressive ,imc-ho'
nnred institutions. and whose works We
still consider the proud monuments Of re
Mus! Not the warriors-ior they did not
stoop to original, Iahored thought; and
while they destroyed only the external in
s,i,u,ions of society, they did nothing I,
create by the Internal. Like the storm
and the whrlwind, which, their work o
ruin done, leave nature to re.anlmaie he
forms.-Not the egsa,ors-for they hav,
only culled their principles Of policy ant
law from the works of those who hav,
wrought them from the massive ore in til,
deep mine. Notthe popular instructors
they have derived their nnblest materials
from the great storehouses of knowledge
and prepared Them for The common mind
serving as retailers Of the intellectual mer
chandize, or as reacctors only of the grea
luminafy. Not the practical men-fo
they, engaged in the rapid circles am
whirling vortex of active labor, have ha
no time to discover reconcile truths, am
blindly and unwiuingly have drunk iron
the reservoirs which others had built ant
filled. But they have been those men q
inquisi,ive minds aid philosophic re
search, whose lives, far from the gidd
whirl of action, were consecrated +
thought and the pursuit Of truth who, b.
bold inquiries-by energetic, independer
reasoning, gave rise to discussion, and sc
cre.ly prepared the magazine Of explc
sion. fired the train, and laid the might
fabric Of ancient prejulices and time-ha
lowed institutions in ruins, ere the drow.
ing or revealing guardians were aware {
danger.
The general maxims. opinions, an
principles current in society, are frs, pr
in circulation by a few master spirit,
They are moulded, modified, and sImpl
fed by the next order Of minds, and hal