Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1872-10-11

| your joys, 1Or SlHCo you poescsS 50 llLtlS
mattsr and appear to be all soul, you
must, doubtless pass your whole time
in thought and love; the true life OF
spirits"
A very frank philosopher replied, that
with the exception of mere few, and
those few held of little account by the
masses, all the rest of the world consisted
of an -assemblage of fools, malefactors,
and idiots.
"We have more matter than is requi-
site to do a great deal of mischief" said
he, if one only has the will. AT this
present moment there are a hundred
thousand fools of our species who wear
helmets, engaged in killing or rather
numbering a hundred thousand others
vino, wear turbans. Almost all through
the world the same thing is going on,
and has been going on from time i'm
memorial"
The Sirian frowned and asked what
could be the cause of such horrible
quarrels among such pitiful little people.
Cali about bit of dirt no bigger than
your fnger-nail, = answered the philoso-
gpaer. $50 80 - ~s ..s@
s'Not one of these thousands of men
who are cutting one another's throats, "
bit of ground he is fighting for 1t is
only whether it shall belong to one man
whom they call Sultan, or to another they
call q can't tell Why Caesar. Neither of
these men has ever seen, or ever will see
the bit of land the fighting is about, and
scarcely one of those who are. mutually
cutting each others throats on their be-
half has ever seen either of the men for
II Al Al, -, 4,
"Wetcheslp' cried Micromega, indig-
nantly, "It is hardly possible to imagine
madness so furions and malicious. ]
should be doing just action were to
go and crush out the whole ants nest OF
puny murderers with three steps of my
foot" p
i srDo not give yourself the trouble, "said
the philosopher. "They annihilate
when they Go not draw the sword, fam
inc. oyerwork and intemperance carry
them off nearly as fast. It is not they
who should be punished, but these seden-
tary savages who sit in luxurious pal
aces, who, during an after dinner lounge,
will order the massacre of million OF
their kind, and then be driven to church
in state to give solemn thanks to Heaven
for it," c 1t.A
The traveller was moved with pity for
the tiny race. Said he to the philoso-
pliers:
"Since, then, you belong to the small
number of wise men who do not appar-
emily earn your bread by killing each
other, pray tell me how you occupy your
timer"
Answered one: "We dissect flies
we measure lines-we calculate figures
We are perfectly agreed upon two or
three points which we understand, and
we are eternally dlsputing about two or
three thousand which we do not under
stand"
1t seemed like some strange dream to
the Sirian and the Saturnian to listen to
the doings of these thinking insects.
Chow far do you reckon it from
Sirius to the star Castor?" asked Micro
mega
They answered, all together: "Thirty-
three and half degrees!'
"And how far from here to the
moon?" er1-
"About thirty diameters of. the earth,
in round numbers"
"What is the weight of your atmos-
phere?"
Here he thought to puzzle the little
people; but they answered, readily
enough, it was about nine hundred times
less than the weight of a like volume of
water, and ninety thousand times less
than that of standard gold. At this the
Saturnian dwarf was SO astonished that
he was inclined to take for sorcerers the
very beings to whom, not quarter of
an hour before, he had denied the pos
session of souls.
Micromega said: "Since you are SO
well acquainted with what is beyond
you, doubtless you. are no less well
informed as to that which is
within. Tell me what.is your soul,
and how you account for the for
nation of ideas?"
They began to speak altogether, as be-
fore, but this time no two of them were
agreed. One quoted Aristotle, another
referred to Descartes; this one spoke of
Malebranche, that of Leibnitz, the other
of Locke. Presently an old Descartian
philosopher made himself heard above
the rest. Said he:
'sThe soul is an intelligence. The rea-
son of it's being, is because it is. This is
what Aristotle expressly states, page six
hundred and thirty three, Louvre edition. y
He quoted the passage.
i
giant.
.7f"Nor IL answered the philosophic
mite.
"Then pray why do you quote Greek?"
Because" answered the philosopher,
nothing can be more appropriate than
to speak of subject of which one knows
nothing in a language of which one un-
derstands still less"
Another philosopher said: "The soul
is spirit which, previous to its birth, is
acquainted with the whole system of
metaphysics, but on being born is obliged
to 90 to school to relearn that which it
once knew very well, but can never know
any more" .,..lq /
fsIt profits nothing" said Micromega,
s'to have been so wise before birth only
to grow up into man whose only sign of
wisdom is his beard But what do you
mean by spirit?" k
''Why do you ask?' said the debater;
"How can any one tell what spirit Isl?
We only know it is not matter"
"But do you know what matter is?"
"Certainly. For instance, this stone is
of a gray color, it has certain form, it
has its three dimensions, it is weighty and
divisible.
ssVery good" answered the Sirian;
s'this object which you say appears to be
divisible, weighty, and SO on-will you
ten me what it iss You are acquainted
with some of its qualities, but the ground
of the thing-the thing itself-do you
know what that is ?"
''No," said ne.
"Then you do not know even what
matter is. ~ FF
IMicromeda, addressing himself to an
other sage seated upon his thumb, asked
what he thought his soul was, and what
was its purpose.
Malebranche, s'for God does all in me