Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-10-20
by the score, who say they once studied
botany, but have forgotten it.

One wonders what they were begun for.
Forgotten it--how could they? 1
they ever got an idea, with all the
world everytime they looked at it ap.
pealing to them to put their idea in
practice, how could they resist our ap
peal ? Why do people begin to live a
little in such great department and
then die out ?-When it is a good
deal easier to live than to die. It GER
tainly cannot cost as much pain to sat-
isfy ones curiosity as to cruelty it
The highestjoy of travelling is compar-
alive botanizing. Yet most people
even after they have. as they say, stud
led botany, in travelling sum up all
their sensations as they come in con-
tact with unfamiliar plants by saying
that they look new.
Out OF the practice of just two prin-
ciples you can make yourself new
life as you come in contact with Ma
ture-these principles are observation
and classification. One thing quite
annoying to thoughtful mind , is the
blind following which two or three
British scientists have secured for
their scientific views. It is not the
tozloactny that one objects to, but it is
the blind following. There is as much
supersttiouS reference for a few scien
t!fc theorists to-day as ever there was
for the priesthood 10 the dark ages,
and it has precisely the same foun-
dation-absolute ignorance of the mat
ters upon which assertion is made.
Most people only throw of one super
stltlon to take on another The pow
er Of the priesthood has gone over
board, but the reverence for authority
in science to-day is just as abject as it
ever was in religion; simply because
people follow their scientific file leader
without themselves being capable Of
passing judgment on the rudiments Of
matters treated. If we follow anybody
let US do it because we know we are
| right, not because he says Sc.
Just now their is a great deal of at
tention given to Mr. Darwin's theory
of the origin of species To have COM
| prehenslon of this matter is not at all
beyond the range of the capacities of
| any young man or woman. [ think
any one can see the force Of that theory
who has knowledge Of botany enough
to know what the rose or the sunf0w-
er family means, or Of natural history
to know what the carnivorous family
of animals signifies. The comprehen-
sion of a very few simple relationships
and distinctions would lay the whole
matter before you And why should
you not have an ambition to under
stand of yourselves the merits of con-
troversy on which the most intelligent
minds are exercising thought!
| can conceive Of nothing more de-
lightful to grow old upon, than two or
three or more languages. Why could
not an old maid add to the joys Of
her knitting work and her cat, or an
| old bachelor to the comfort Of his pipe
and MS dog, the grammar of a new
language? The pathological instinct is
one that increases in acuteness and
strength with age. 1t is quite true
that in the struggle to get into po-
sition in life, We can with difficulty
carry along the languages with which
we started in our youth But let us
not rust out as we grow old. The
quiet evening OF age as it draws on.
will give us some chances for improve
ment We have not had in the hustle of
our career. But while life lasts we
want to keep something always ahead
to have something new before Us to
take up. IF we ever had any aspira-
tons for scholarship, why should age
make us surrender them? Philosophy
is department in which we can keep
perpetually young. IF what Ma
Mueller makes Goethe say is true,
that he who knows only one language
knows none" we ought to have an in-
SEPARATION to get one language by tn
ala OF the side-IlEntS which other Ian
guages can throw upon it.
Philosophy! Philosophy Please
not to die before you work out into
Philosophy. Listen not then to your
own Incidence, nor to the ignorant
criticisms Of two or three over-much
praised physical scientists. Philoso-
ply may be troubled sea, but ''Bate
no jot of heart or hope, but still bear
up and steer right onward"
Once on its waters you can no more
quit it than a sailor can quit the deep.
"How charming is divine Philosophy!
Not harsh and Grabbed, as dull fools sup
pose,
But musical as Appollo's lutte,
And perpetual feast of nectared sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns."
Ali" said Mr.. Choate, going home
with his volume Of metaphysics, "Here
We nave meat" I can give yop no bet
ter direction to working out into this
realm than bv telling YOU to read