New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-07-15


asylum by his sons with, as we understand,
but little hope of speedy cure. In any other
case it were a most meddlesOme and ungracOus
task to look too closely into the cause OF such
premature mental death as this; but Mr.. Owen
has within the last three years voluntarily
placed before the public not only the facts of
his life but close study of his opinions, be-
iefs. intellectual growth, and feelinSs-evcn
to those early love affairs which few men care
to bare for popular inspection. lie has been,
too, the earnest exponent OF certain system
of belief, and eagerly invited attention to the
effects of that system on his Own mental and
spiritual condition. 1t seems but just. therefore,
that we should follow these effects to their
conclusion when that conclusion is forced upon
us in so sudden and lamentable shape.
Robert Dale Owens father was free
thinker (in the larger sense OF the wOrdD, and
his mother Il strict, devOut Presbyterian. The
creed of the mother soon lOOsed its hold on
the son but the principles nc imbibed from
her remained, and became, perhaps uhcon-
sciOusly on his part the motive forces OF his
lfe-the stern fidelity to truth at whatever
cost the gentle charity, kindly habit of speech
and thought, and religious instinct. AS the
son of Il man Intellectually stronger than HIM
self. he fell naturally into his fathers grooves
of thought and work. joined in the experiment
ut NcwHarmOny, was co-worker with
Fanny Wright in her radical and deistical
teaching; but whatever impress he has made
upon his time in politics OF in literature was
made by force of his Inheritance from his
mother However men might differ with
his opinions or smile at his logic, per-
fI,a al
manded profound respect for his integrity
and clean-minded sincerity. The literary work
which Mr.. Owen has done was strongly
marked by his personal character, and would
have been far more weighty and effective II
he had been either a believer or unbeliever
in the Christian religion But the strong
religious nature which he had iIherted
according to his own showing from one
parent, baked by the influence of the other
of its natural expression in faith in Christ,
turned to faith in mediums, tipping tables
and the like-a system which, however pleasant
as a supplement to a fixed religious creed, Is
but slight anchor to fix eternal hopes upon
Mr.. Owen, with his avOwed anxiety to find
such an anchor. and his kindly, womanish faith
in human nature was an easy prey to skillful
swindlers, and became the most prominent dupe,
as we all remember, last Winter, of tho wrctched
trance mediums, Holmes and his wife, and their
puppet Katie King. Few men with Mr.. Owens
intense feminine scf-cOnsciOusncss would have
had the moral courage to avOw his error, as
he did, and voluntarily become a subject of
public ridicule. The modification and disap-
pointment were great and bitter, and while the
poor tlcksters have gone on their way unpun-
ished, the good old man whom they victimized
has sunk into depth lower than death. 1t is
not long since he offered his spiritual expert
ence as a beacon to the world, little thinking
it would serve to warn them only of treachcr
ous shadows, on which his own life would suf-
fer shipwreck so terrible.
Should reason return to him, cannot but
believe that a man whose doubts have been
more honest than the faith of many men, will
yet be given firmer ground on which to build
his faith in the 4fe to come than the tlimsy
tricks of vulgar charlatans. He has always
been a man of singularly sweet, and pure,
and lovable character, and that such recovery
may yet be in store for him will be the
earnest prayer of thousands who utterly re-
VOTED from his peculiar opinions and had lit
tie sympathy with the most prominent fea-
lures of the work of his life