Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-10-10

tuIGC bhOuohAA w AAS1 We w INV uhACA-
stand.n
1t seemed like some strange dream to
| the Sirian and the Saturnian to listen to
the doings of these thinking insects.
"How far do you reckon it from
Sirius to the star Castor?" asked Micro
mega.
They answered, all together: "Thirty-
three and half degreesr'
"And how far from here to the
moon?"
"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 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 Desc artes; 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:
"The soul is an intelligence. The rea-
son O. its being, is because it is. This is
what Aristotle expressly states, page six
hundred and thirty three, Louvre edition. F"
He quoted the passage.
81 don't understand Greek" said the
giant.
"Nor l." 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 go to school to relearn that which it
once knew very well, but can never know
any more"
"It profits nothing" said Micromega,
'to have been so wise before birth only
to grow up into man whose only sign of
wisdom is his beard lBut what do you
mean by spirit?"
"Why do you ask?' said the debater;
"How can any one tell what spirit is?
We only know it is not matter"
''But do you know what matter is?"
Certainly. For instance, this stone is
of gray color, it has a certain form, it
has its three dimensions, it is weighty and
divisible.
every good" answered the Sirian;
''this object which you say appears to be
divisible, weighty, and so on-will you
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"
Micromeda, addressing himself to an
other sage seated upon his thumb, asked
what he thought his soul was, and what
was its purpose.
"Nothing at ALL" said the disciple of
Malebranche, "for God does all in me
and for me and through me. 1t is He
does everything with which I am con
cerned."
"Scarce worth while, then, to be-" OBJ.
served the Sirian. "And you, my friend, u
turning to an exponent of Leibnitz, "what
say yyuyo you| ,, , +, o,,,,,-or0s .H, tho hand
that points the hours while my body
strikes them; or, if you like, the SOU
Gates; or, better, my soul is the mirror OF
the universe, and my body is its frame
hope I make myself sufficiently
clear"
Then spake disciple of Locke. Fol
my part | do not know how think, but
I know that I never derive impressions
except through the medium of my senses
[ do not dispute that there may be imma
terial and intelligent substances, but il
seems to me impossible for thought to bt
communicated to matter. / reverence thu
Great Eternal Power. 1t is not for me tt
set bounds to it. / affirm nothing, bu
am content to believe there are many
things possible to supreme intelligence
which it would be impossible for me t.
understand"
The giant smiled, yet he thought thi
one not the least wise of all the philoso
pliers. The dwarf would have embraced
the speaker had not his extreme dis
proportion of size prevented such
cordial manifestation. Unfortunately,
little fellow in square cap pushed him
J self forward, and begged to dissen
from the opinions expressed by tn
other philosophical anImalcula. I'll
said he knew all about the soul an,
all about the universe. He said
was Esource of unspeakable com
) fort to him to feel land here he looked tn
two celestial visitants deliberately up an,
down from top to toe) that they and thei
T worlds, their suns, and stars, and might,
systems, had all been created expressl
l for the good of mankindi
, At this the two travellers became cor
: vulsed with that inextinguishable laugh
ter which, according to Homer, is an en-
t joyment belonging exclusively to the gods
e They shook with it to that extent that tn
vessel tumbled off the Sirian's palm an
n fell into his pocket. The two good folks
= after much cropping about, found tn
ship, and replacing the little mites o
n board set it afloat again. In bidding thel
!" farewell, Micromega spoke very kindly
e notwithstanding he was not little vexe
s to find beings so infinitely little pulled u
n with conceit so infinitely great. r
y promised to write book of philosoph
# for their instruction and guidance, assu
e ing them they should therein see the sui
u OF philosophy and the substance OF
y wisdom.
E. In due course this volume found i
II way to Paris, to the Academy of Science
but when the good old secretary opent
: it he found nothing but book col
e pletely blank!
% The ninth census gives the followi1
II information relative to the iron indust
y of the United States, for the year endil
June, 1870: Pig iron, 3S6 establishment
id 574 blast furnaces with a daily capaci
te of 1857 tons melted metaD employil
N 1854 hands, producing 2,052, ,S21 tons
n pig, of the value of $50, GAO. 49S Bloma
~ forges, 50, employing $500 hands, pl
~ duciRg 110S0S tons of blooms, of IL
n value of So, 2,765, ,623. Foundries, 2,6.
IL employing 51,297 hands, and protuci
c, to the value of 800, ,837, ,21S. Forges, II
OF employing 1861 hands, and producing