The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1873-06-21

petition to the contrary. To You, aftel
this protracted session, will say but 9
word. will not caution you to avoid
youthful indiscretions, for l feel tha'
you ought to have passed that Pc
riod. The training which you have
had, and the peculiar expe
rience which belongs to College
life ought to have put you beyond the
privilege Of apology for such iollles'
aud l do not expect you to claim it
You ought to feel that you 60 forth
from us as men, furnished with power
OF self control and wisdom Of exper.
ieDce !grea;er than years OF emplrica,
blunderng can give to the uneducated
| do not, therefore, detain you 'oi
any such puerile warning; but there it
another danger to which young men
distinguished by your advantages, are
liable, and it is with reference to this
that l shall detain you for word. 1t
is a common impression with respect to
young men fresh from college and
elated with college honors, that they
are apt to be afflicted with arrogance
and seli-conceit, that they assume to
themselves superior wisdom, which
seems to say, II am Sir Oracle. and
when l ope my mouth let no dog bark" "
Now, it is against this arrogance, this
vanity OF dogmatism that | wish to
caution you, both agains: the folly OF
exhibiting it in your conduct, and
against its power and iDf1uel ce, as you
may meet it in the bearing and assump-
tions of others. 1t is An ugly feature
in any one, especially 30 in the young.
The evil is both Of the head and Of
the heart. Narrow distractions or broad
unanalyzed generalizations. these are
the intellectual causes OF dogmatism f.;
evil passions, uncharitableness, sell
coDceit. These are the moral causes OF
dogmatisn. The remedy for both, 80
far as they can be remedied. and that
Of course is only partially, is in
a broad, full, all sided, manly cul-
ture. Undue the mind in nothing but
language and forms OF logic, distinc-
tions OF words, categorles of thought
and Imagination of theories, and you
breed q school Of sophlsts, Aristotlisn
or scholastic, according as you admit
more or less the regulating light Of ex-
perience; fix its gaze alone on the phe-
uomena. with no apprehension Of law;
upon effects, with no search for causes;
aud you breed q brood Of empires
Again; uuduly abandon faculties to the
control OF the feelings, the fancy and
Inauguration, and you generate mystics,
children OF blind superstition, who BEE
men as trees walking, and grope about
in world but halt realized, grasping
it's shadows.
Still further; let the training be
thoroughly scientific-but confined to
physics-!et it be inductve and logical
broadly based on observation and ex
penence-skillful in the judgment OF
premises and the use OF proofs. till you
reach the grand development
Of q Huxley or Tyndsll
and yet you have only
physicist, perhaps materialist. The
supersensuous world OF spirit has never
been brought within the field view OF
their telescopes, or microscopes or
spectroscopes, and because it is not so
known and upon Paurs authority can
not be so known, they are ready to
deny that there is such world at
all. Good christians are sometimes
startled at the dogmatism OF scientists
about spiritual things, telling what
they see and cannot see through their
glasses, what they read and cannot
read in the rocks. Do they forget that it
is of the very nature Of spirit not to be
seen in telescope? One would think
that these dogmatists imagined the
spirit to be subject to physical analysis,
and had passed through a prism; it
should yield spectrum and report it's
composition. But when a man has shut
himself up to the examination OF the
physical world alone, and to only such
phenomena and methods OF investiga-
tion as belong to it, what else can we
expect of him2 One who ia color
blind canuot discern colors, and one
that is spiritually blind cannot discern
spiritual things. 1t should not be as
tonishing, therefore, when physicist
like DR.. Tyndall, who has be-
come famous by finding out 80
many things about atmospheric dust,
and sound vibrations and light undu-
lations, and who can lecture eIoquently
AMI illustrate so lumnously about
them. should, nevertheless, make him.
self in a manner ridiculous before the
judgment OF the common-sense OF man
kind by supporting that the efficacy OF
prayer is to be tested by physical ex-
perments. Had the religious side OF
DR.. Tyndall's nature been duly culti-
waited, he could never have fallen into
this folly. 1t is not sufficient to edu-
cate tie intellect alone, even though
you cultivate in due proportion all Its
faculties. "The tincture Of the will"
must be Of divine light.
Hues, as from heaven, must rest on
all our seeing. The heart must be
made good, for out OF it proceed the
worst points OF dogmatsm. Neglect
the paeslOns, give tHem uuofiuieu ilee-
dom and the nature will run into
shameless profigacy, degrading de-
bauchery, bestial licentiousness, and
society become lava bed OF entrenched
violence, scheming treachery and lurk-
ing for hood. Allow the will to become
law unto itself, to make thought and
action slaves unto it's vanity, and By
idolatrous self exaltatioD, put itseif in
the place OF God and say: There
shall be none other Gods beside me-"
aud you nurse the demon OF dogmat-
tism that will create q solitude If Deces-
sary. that the iron rule Of its tyranny
may have peace. This education OF
the hear, must begin at the 6reside, it
must be furnished its first lessons in
the typical sacrifices that father and
49,, To-, Joilv n MN tha Ia m, ilv altoy