Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1876-02-26

] sOihh thSAslJJ NOW uchtluk LEcAEuIhu
aud with vertical and slanting rays II
begins to illumiDe world. RailfJsd5
| pintif Z telegraph, commerce, havt
| spread the secret Of national rC9ress
and prestige and power from Prussia
| and Austris, snd England and the
/ United States, to far-off Syria and Bar.
barry a I'd Turkey aud Japan, and these
semi civiliZ nations have established
systems OF common.schools, maintained
a. public express, aud bid fair soon t.
leave US in the resr OF educational pro-
| gress. All over the United s atas. bul
especially ia the more advanced States
| OF New England, and the young
I'd great west public schoe!s are The
| objects OF munificeDt Eorefnmental aid
and support. the fact seems to be re-
eoguiz that the substIatum of national
ersatGess Is sn enlightened c;tiEsnehip,
| the cohesive prInoipie OF national
strength and stability is an educated
/ average mind in it's people. Following
| this theory, the doctrine that the State
| has right to tax its citizens to MAIN
| tain q scheme OF general public eiucs-
! ton has become too strong for any
theory OF State sovereignty, or democ-
| racy, to prevail against it. Breaking
| through the cobwebs of constitutional
| tntricaCy, with the tlsdge-hammer OF
common sense, the plan, the over
whelmiug argument that ''the ends of
the natiob'r life and glory justify the
means" has settled the question, and
the cause OF publiD-schOol instruction Is
about to triumph. We look confident.
ly for q law OF compulsory education,
and bewail the cruel edict OF time that
will shut out from oar vision the SUBJ
lime results C. its working upon suufra-
items that soon will supply our places.
If the nations VI the earth could stand
uG III line Ia the exact order OF their
relative enlightment, believe that Ger
many would head the line; then Noti!d
follo1 England, Frsnae, the United
States and thence on down, ending with
Africa; and this line would represent
also their order Of power and glory. A
line OF the Htates of the Union con-
stTucted upon the same plan would place
those States which have bestowed most
upon their public school syctem in the
same order OF advance, and if the stu.
dent OF history should call up the na.
tons that have persisted in all the lanse
OF past time, they, toe, wCild stand in
the same Or1er-the Egyptians, Jews,
UTecians and Romansleadiug the march
OF the nations Of antiquity. If it were
possible, with the precision of mathe-
NAUTICAL truth, to su In up all causes that
have acted within the range Of human
thought aud all results that have enter
ed permanently into the being; the
structure shd the boundless amphfica-
lions OF what we call the world in which
We live, and il then, from out all the
vast COMPOUND Of cause and effect could
be eliminated with mathemaiic certain
ty, the resl potential agents that have
lived and acted through all changes, and
still survive to work on and work out
the final solution OF the problem Of the
universe, 30 far as this world enters into
it and with the ca1sative power discov-
ersd-then OHt OF chaos of results
those that survive a5 fixed, accom-
piished, aud part Of sutl me scheme
Iriumphantly worked out, could be
named, located, defined and compre-
hended. l believe that two little words
-"mindn and "mstter''-Would foFmu-
late the grand problem; and these, in
their reciprocal, ever-varyipg and adj
vancing com binations, would point with
prophetic finger to the far-0ff and sub
lime destiny that lies hid in the misty
depths and breadIhs OF an infinite fu-
ture. Then, IL there be cause and there
be effect, mind must antedste matter as
the czuse, and miEd must act upon mat
ter, moulding, modifying and develop.
ing in endless and ever. changing ampli-
hcation. Thus far We may venture from
the shores of the finite on the bottom
less and boundless ocean Of the infinite;
thus upward on puny wings we may as
cend toward the empyresu Of the etar-
nal, the iufi0ite, the great unknown.
But this theory, contemL title as it may
be, and preeumptuous IS it ia as applied
to first CAUSES fsr back o., beyond and
above the utmost limit of human
though, becomes tangible, tenabie, and
to degree demonstrate, when applied
to secondary csusee, such as come up in
the roll OF human events and mundane
history. 1t would be q most fruitful
theme for poet to depict the world to-
day as it would be il that subtle COM
pound OF mind and matter, man, had
never lived and acted in it's history; or,
to approach my idea 3 little nearer, if
men had been only animals; if mind
had played no part in earth's history.
II through the roll CT the ages past we
may trace a sustained exercise of con-
trolling power that has made its mark,
has erected its standards, has founded
its monuments all along the march OF
time, and this power has been mind,
then mind steps forward for recognition,
and In all that lies beiore US must be
recognized as a controlling factor in the
unsolved problem Of Iuturity. Ii in the
long catalogue of human achievements,
which have brought the world to what
it is now, we may recognize the human
l.,
wrought these results, then we must
look t. mind to fashion, to mould, 10
develop and control the worlds coming
history too. Aud then, coming still
nearer, If mind be the power, all par
vading and sTong, that still moves the
world, then that scheme Of progress
which recognizes its msjestic potency,
its sublime mission is merely based upon
a theory that comes up to the advance
OF truth and fills the requirements
of it's sublime teachings. No
scientist nor philosopher has ever
yet found in the atoms a potential
ity that fills the measure of causstion
in its lengths, b-eadths aad nights; nor
yet have found for the atOms, nor for
their organized combinations, q mould
ing, formative, a vitalizing, and sus-
tanning agency-at once ante, intro, seG-
per ard SubtrG-itself purely material or
atomic. They admit the presence and
power Of mind; they admit il, because
in man, but the whence, the how, and
the stretch of IFS possibilities they do not
attempt to determine; they leave the
field clear for au undisputed claim for
mind that ii a1tedates all. permeates
through all, sustsins, vitsliZes, and con-
trolls ali, itself an attribute Of God, itself
the God in us. With all the support
that Tyndajl ard Darwin have given to
theories Of evolution, nr theories atomic,
they have failed utterly to connect mind
with any so-called organized product of
chance or evolution. Mind sill stands
apart, defying in its subtitle workings, its
undiscovered origin, its Immortality,
any analysis that alchemy, or chemis-
try, Or physics, or geology, or ma.hemat-
les, or history can offer. Yet livi g
through all, acting in all, surviving all, 1t
weaves on the wool of the ages, the SOW
ereign power, under @ I'd, OF the universe.
Who can deny that there may be Gre
alive power in mind; that mind may
be that potential energy in and around
the atoms Of Pro- Tyndell, which
"gives promise of every form Of life?"
II spirits move tables and chairs (which
l do not be,isve), or il any other intangi-
bic and immaterial power that exeIts