The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1868-11-26

ae;shboshood. The eentleman Who 0pposed
him viii psrcsivs thss fhy rHsvssiex fas''
- 80 +
Assss spasss~alssss -nS. ..
We have seen how iaslsscaivs aad anivsr-
81 il sAs bslisf 10 he sspssuaAassl. The
old pasaoism proved itself BY The orsclss Of
III deitieS; the later christianity Vas atsssted
bv volumes Of legends. You tell the CHILD
Of God, and i, he's NO difficulty in believing
il il only a. he gets older ,hat bs besina to
doubt When the world VAS young Il had NO
difficulty in believing that millions Of spirit.
nal creatures walk the earth. The universal
belief Of I'll the Ancients, the concurrent tes-
umopy Of multiplied scores Of christian To-
sepds, svarisus bst snaDimoss Witnesses,
aehryuisss, asssoleGsrs, sesrs, philosopher,
priests, the mass Of the people, and individu'
81 experiences, attested an infinite variety o.
sapsrnsaursl phenomena, common to every
people md I'll ases
Here science eaters the arena. II neits
ap;rite in cruciblss, and reduces gods By
chenicsl processes. Gensrations OF men
had had mo- doubt that there we're spirits 10
mines-svil sp,ri,s, too, for they had killed
missy ne. outright. Thsrs = - sssliss hew
many o. these spirit tsnants Of mines o'r
Humphrey Dsvy killed on when hs lighted
his safety lamp. A. any rate there vas one
whole class Of spirits Who had haunted the
world from its beginning, driven into old
night and nonentisy By the lighting Of ; lamp.
And they were Just - firmly bslisved in .
suy other class Of spirits. So were witches
There were thousasds Of Witnesses, there VS.
an act Of Parliament under Queen Bess, and
! pondsroue volume Of Kiag James, and sol
emn decisions Of church couacils, al prov
:ns-if testimony il favor Of Ne supsrnatu-
nj be worth auything-thst witches we're
fixed fact, There were thoussnds OF good
man ard women that would have sworn to
the proof Of witches. Il i strange the
o.ths Of those thousands Of coed men and
women wnuldn't make any Impression on
vou and mo. w would insist upon not be
lievine in the witches And there are NO
witnesses for them now. There we're for
merly ,housanda Of Witnesses 10 prove VI.
real and respectable existence Of ghosts
i Nov there is seldom witness, and the race
threatens to becoue extinct. There were
| formerly hundreds OF witnesses TO prove that
there we're fairies, and now there cannot
single witness be found. Those little folk
that were 90 palpabie to tie vision Of Mac
beth, have eli persisted. There we're thou
sands Of GOOD men and women who would
have sworn to the fact Of the medieval mira
cles. Strange, that you and me will no
credit thousand Of truthful witnesses. Bu
We utterly refuse the credit. II you want t
see what mass Of supernatural facts scienc'
has Get aside, read the elder Dlsraeli
aDreams at the Dawn of Philosophy,
o. the powerful sketches Of Draper
in his sIntellectual Development OF Europe.
!, The latter says d the close OF his review
belief IN the Supernatural. Can tho read
4 or Of the proceeding paragraphs hers pans
!. wi,hou. demanding Of himsslf the value 9
human testimony? All these dslusion
). which occupied shs minds Of our fors-fA'her'
), and from which not even the powerful IN
iearnsd we're free, have totally paassd awaJ
They have vanished With the night 70 vhic
Al they appertained, yet they. wers The dsias'oa
. OF fifteen hundred years. In their suppol
r might be prodacsd greater mass Of hnma
J. tes,imsny thas probably could b brought
), bear on Any Other matter Of belief in the ef
ID tire history OF man; and yet, in the nin'
= teenth century, W have come to the cor 81,
= sion that the whole, from the beginning
the end, was deception"
II can safely be ga ! that modern scisne
" utsrly rejects the Supernatural. We pr
Of sum. We viii be doing Mr.. Curtis no inju
'ir ncs IL We assume il ~ his belief that ther
i, no such thing - the eupernatural-ths
e, there is no such thing ~ angel or spirit
"a the universe. He speaks for modern seisnc
= and in favor Of its conclusions can be urge
that il skepticism has always been justified
liz ,kepticisn has secured to the world .
that 10 valuable in the knowledge ofto-da
T. II found fairies, witches, spirits, ghosts, m
n dieval saints With ssper-haman powers,
b strongly believed ia, and With - much b.
O. man testimony 70 prove their existence,
., Of any kind Of spiritual existence whateve
it And it. has convinced every ono that Il
- fairies, witches, ghosts and the rest, have
20 ex,stence--thas the belief in then vas d
- lpsion.
no On the other hand, despite the skspticis
y Of science, ~ do not believe that human
~ will ever BE- robbed Of it, belief in the spir
., nal. We believe with Locke that It is %
90 sitimately the subject Of human belief -
% lief in the natural and physical. Wiser th
- the skepticism Of science is Robert D.
" Owen, when be collects all the authentic
Is ted phenomena Of the Supernatural in .
~ ages, not to make theory or creed out
u.s. them, but to bide the time Yhen in their o,
e. fullness they shall make plain their o,
y meaning Among these authenticated ph
nomsna ars facts which the principles
known uaasral scisnes do not explain, Z
which no aaosat q skspsicisa ca dispro,
70 What will yca d With thsss facts! Ia /
er. swssise Inst - viii mako - ssd Of ths
~ random sAosehts sbost H. sapsenataral.
~ Dupsrsatural phsI cinema, are ~ possit
Of = nslural phsnooesA Dat al 49, =
ID. bess thosght IA - The fbrner, hes, when
- a1plaaaaios has hssa loaad fos i, prov
~ 10 Be- The latter. Thsre has beea no exp
aty aaaies Of Ne so-callsd supernatural, =
Or by sssses. aad i has isvasiahly fou
nd those sxplanaaioes in satarsl lASs q
IN caasss. All experience thsa should pros
- y assume tAas any phsnonens, Viii
~ appears to b npespsts1l will sltinai1
- I.->.> - ~AAnAl In al - !.