Connecticut western news., 1877-04-27
The Philosopher of To-Day.


 If there is any one conviction which the the teachings of professors. parsons and periodicals are calculated to indellibly i'm press upon our minds; it is that we are liv- ing in philosophical age.
 There is scarcely town in the Union in which any little fidgety fend, who has nothing better to do, may not get up some species of philosophical society. If you have but an atlas, set of somebodA's en cyclopedla, and Can look at the moon through telescope, you may conclude yourself philosopher; if you are in posses sion of galvanic battery, and occasionally administer to your friends an electric shock, or should you wear electric discs in your boots, you are philosopher; should you be the fortunate owner of thermome- ter, barometer, hygrometer. hydrometer chronicle the clouds, and, aud, in the role of local "Old Probabilities" tell your neighbors once a week which way the wind blows. then, too. you are a philosopher if your library Is ornamented with fossils and cobble-stones, and you have cabinet tiled with pickled snakes, black beetles and army crabs, you are philosopher; if you roam about the fields and explore the swamps and ditches. picking up leontodon taraxacum, ranunculus bulbosus, symplo- carpus f&tidus. and mosquito bites, you art philosopher; if you try mortal experi- ments on cats, and kill mice with an air pump, you are philosopher; if you spend one or two evenings each week in the com pany ot extremely ''blue" ladies of no un. certain age, but conversing in very uncer- tain German. still worse French, and in- compret ensible Italian, you are 8 philoso- pher; and 1t you will meet and squabble over free-love, spiritualism, and other 'isms, with squad of pale-faced. lono haired, fish-eyed creatures, that cstbartlc periodical Hu.'s Crucible, will proclaim you philosopher-which is equivalent to the achievement of immortality, if you are inoinerent who l. married or who is mur- oered, what government otlci.l or bank president has been detected in ''irregulari- ties, or whose pastor has succumbed to the lusts ot the flesh, you are a s,oic philoso . pher; If you denounce the religion of req son-which is the religion of uature-haunl Moody and Sankey's holy Eippodrome, and pharlsalcaily shout ''vain repetitions," to- tally unmindful of the injunction, "When thou praYest enter into thy closet and shut tue oooF' etc., you are moral philoso- pner; 1t you snarl at everybody and every. tnlng' and can sour milk by looking at it., you are c nlc philosopher; if you have s ancy for fish flesh and fowl, and like vepi- son and trout better than the bio Lewisian diet os baked beans and Graham bread, you are an epicurean philosopher. In short, we yeriiy believe that the difficulty now is to avoid being philosopher; the whole na- ton. from the President to the scayenger. IS philosophical; we cannot open our ears put wisdom must come in-we cannot open our mouths but wisdom must go out. Ev- erything IS conducted and constructed on philosophical principals-canon. corsets and cremation, buggies, beds and burglar les-so that we are fairly forced to be philosophers, whether We will or not
 Philosophy is now made easy to the meanest capacities, and perhaps the mean CT ;he capacity the easier are philosophical attachments: for one of the chief hlndrun- ces to philosophy ancienty was that there was too high an intellectual aspiripk-a compass of mind that embraced enquiries far beyond it's power to answer.
 Knowledge we would have as free as air, but care must be taken lest it's diffusion prove only it's dispersion-a mere scatter ing of to the four winds heaven. Even with much information there may be very little wisdom. Solomon is conceded to have carried very level head in spite Of his cOncubines, and is therefore good au- thoIity in such matters. He expressly rec ommends us to Get Knowledge" and therefore must have been friendly to it's diff fusion; but it is evident that he considered knowl dge and wisdom as by no mes ns the Same thing; for to the foregoing he adds. With all thy getting get understanding. ,, -Puck.