Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-10-27

if Mr.. Haskins did mean to say that
sound is but perception, yet, with
all Difference to him as an able scien-
t1st, we cannot accept that as con-
elusive proof. We bow with i'm
plicit faith to experimental science,
to bare facts, but scicntific theories
are not infallible. Here the Doc
tors disagree, and opinion has free
scope.
Concerning Heat, several authors
are quoted to prove that it is but a
''mode of motion" This may be
true, but | cannot sec how it helps
'idealism. If there is motion there
must be something to move. If there
is heat, there surely must be some
object which is hot. Says he SPEC
TRoscoPE, "without sensitive nerves
to respond to adaptive undula-
tons, less in number than those
which produce light, no heat could
exist" In reply to this, I will cite
he case of the drunkard, who fell
asleep at his lime kiln. He was
found with his limbs scorched and
charfed, yet, in the dead stupor of
intoNication he had felt nothing.
Here there were no sensitive nerves.
yet the heat had been present, and
had done its deadly work all the
same. Sensitive nerves are measures
OF heat, they are sentinels. When
the heat is too great and threatens
the tissues, these nerves lift up their
warning voice, their protest of pain.
Here the voice was silent, and the
man slept on, while the heat gnaw-
ed at his flesh. To say that the
nerves are measures Of heat, pre-
supposes that there is heat to meas.
ure, and that, whether measured or
not, there is still heat. Our clocks
measure time. Yet, demolish all
the clocks in tie land, and time will
march on as before.
One word more concerning cheat
as mode of motion" Let it be
remembered that | do not dispute
this. We know that heat is often
produced by friction. But without
actual bodies or particles of bodies
in forcible contact, there can be no
friction. Many a camp fire has been
lighted with flint and steel; but take
these away, and where is the ignit-
ing spark. Strike nothing against
nothing while the world stands, and
there is neither friction nor heal.
Our idealist takes similar posi-
ton with regard to other perceptions.
''Without eyes," she asserts, no light
or color the wide earth round.
Do light and color depend upon
the eye? or do objects really radiate
light Or reflect it in such fashion as
to produce color? Common sense
says that the sun is bright, that the
sky is blue, that the storm cloud is
black. Idealism says it is call in
your eye" Which shall we believe !?
To call up our former witness
the Ignorant day laborer; he will
understand what is meant by the
real, when you ask him if the OBJ
Jects he sees are real things, and not
mere appearances. Ask him of the
lmmutable, and, if he gets your
meaning, he will point you to God.
AS to change, decay and death, he
will say that for these to take place
there must be something to change,
decay and die. I appealed to him in
the first place, because untutored
common sense often goes straight to
the mark, where cultivated reason
founders through seas of sophistry
and then perhaps misses it after all.
It will be seen that the point, and
the only point, which l am trying
to make, is this: That the world,
and the things therein, are real ex-
istences and not mere ideas; that
sound, heat, light, color and odor
would still be, if all hearing, touch,
sight and smell were stricken out of
existence. If I do not make this.
NO1Iot If NAV f,a e.. 1,,I-