The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1855-06-07

PROGRESS AND BfcoTRY.

81 -
The following extract from lecture Of
Prof. Joseph D. Friend Of the Metropolitan
Medical College has great deal Of force in
| it,
The past is full of error. Man has been
seeking in every direction and availing HIM
self of all the means within his reach TO en-
large the sphere of his khowledge-to bring
forth from the great store house of art and
nature, things new and valuable. Amid the
rubbish Of the past there has been gathered
up many gem of priceless worth, which
win grow brighter and brighter as the
shadows of time lengthen. But the iron
hand of precedent has grasped many false
and hurtful thing, garnered from every de-
partment of philosophy and science and art,
and with its giant force has borne It trium-
|'phantly along through succeeding ages, and
to day holds it up to our gaze and bids us
behold and wonder and approve. But man
kind have learned hatprsesdent is often but
another name for error, and refuse to pay
slayish homage to its claims.
God has endowed every soul with men
tai activity. If it lie not dormant and un-
used, progress must be the result of its exer-
else. The mind cannot always feed upon
what il knows. 1t must have other mental
aliment. 1t has desires which must be sat
lsfed; hopes which seek fruition; aspirings
which lead it upward to the attainment of
high purposes-the accomplishment of no.
bic ends, Could the results of mental ac-
! tiyity be daguerreotyped and exhibited at a
single view, we should see more distinctly
the evidences of progress. We shouldleam
by studying the picture, that many of the
errors to whichmen cling to this hour,with
| zeal and pertinacity, are but the stepping
stones over which mankind have necessarily
passed in the attainment oftruth. Our pride
| might here find something to chasien and
subdue its vauntings; and the great Diana to
which we have bowed and worshipped,
might be found to be sIghtless and soul
less image. The noble temple which the
hahds of our predecessors have for ages
been employed in rearing, and which their
| successors and followers have been indus
triously engaged in adorning and strength
ening, might be seen, in the language of
Rush, TO be roofess at the top and cracked
in the foundation. Systems and theoifes
which we have learned to reverence and re-
spect, might be seen stripped of every ele-
ment adapted to insprethe one or command
the other. The reformer might here learn
TO distrust somewhat the correctness of his
own dogrnas; and while he receives with
enthusiasm the doctrines that 30 to make up
the sum and basis of his system Of practice,
let him guard against sitting down with
satisfied and contented air, as if nothing
more were TO be learned, no greater victo-
ries TO be achieved While you believe that
! the fundamentals on which your structure
/ rests, are truths in harmony with the laws
of life and the teachings of nature; while
the experience of the past serves to fortify
and strengthen your convictions of its supe-
riority over other methods and other systems,
twill serve us TO remember that the same
law of progress applies here as elsewhere
ii you would not rust you must work. De-
pend not on past successes alone as a capital
that will always yield you the respect and
confidence of an intelligent and discerning
public.
! l used TO wonder when I was very
| young, what the Jews stoned Stephen
TO death for--and afterward, when came to
learn something of history, why men were
burned and butchered and racked and tortur-
ed for thinking different kinds of thoughts
1 from those who murdered them why such
| good men as Harvey were persecuted and
I scoffed at and exiled. What crime Jenner
was guilty of that led his contemporaries to
treat him like malefactor; and in latter
times, whose house Thompson had set on
\ FIRE, that he should be loaded with chains
and cast into prison, along with other crimi-
| mails and disturbers of the peace used to
wonder, iftruth were invincible in euery en-
4 counter with error, why error mouth should
so often shut by padlocks, and her arms COM
passed with chains, instead of giving her a
fair free field in which to spread herself
and be vanquished The day of dungeons
and inquisitorial prosecutions is past But
the spirit that saw and proclaimed their ne
cessiiy, still lives, and shows itself in thou
sand petty annoyances and displays Of os-
tentation and arrogant assumptions.
Fearful Mortality.