Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1878-11-14


false metaphysics. In modern times
Locke was its real father, as there was
but a geometric line between his doc
trine that the human intellect Is primari.
ly but as IA sheet of blank paper" and
that ''the senses at first LET in particular
ideas and furnish The empiy cubnd, and
the doctrine that moral ideas enter tho
soul only through the same avenues.
This close and indissoluble connection
between the metaphysics of man OF
on age and the morals that will succeed
should not I've overlooked. The man
who i'm the dead quiet OF his study and
shut in from the busy, noisy world, Is
deeply pondering questions OF flatonlc
or Hegelian Philosophy may appear to
your practical men rs mere dreamer
and completely dead to the world. But
after awhile the refined speculations OF
that secthing brain will boil
over and will permeate and
assimilate to themselves the poll
tics and morals OF ages to
come, and will trickle and perco.
late down 10 the very lowest stratum OF
the social life. Thus has done the phil
osophy Of Locke. Not 80 great phil
osopher 10y hall as Plato or Hegel, he
has yet embedded himself deeper into
the psychology and morals OF humanity
than Plato or llegel has ever reached !;
and there is not one OF all the great
modern Utilitarians-and many OF them
are great--from Hartley and Hume
down 10 the two Mills, in the current OF
whose system are not clearly distinguish
able Lockean waters. And just here is
one of the chief objections to the system,
that il is the correlate and indeed the
direct offspring of philosophy that is
purely sensational or cxperlentiai, that
ignores the facts OF consciousness, that
results in bald materialism, that obiit-
crates moral freedom and accountability,
and that saps the foundation oi AL
yirtuous and Cody living" But |
cannot dwell longer on this point. sui
flee il to say that our author sums up
his charges against this system thus:
!. "By deriving thought from mere
sensation, 10y deducing the one from the
many, instead Of the many from the
one, and thus reducing the mind toa mere
blank impressibility, tconiounds the rs
sential distinction between necessary
and contingent truth, and renders all
science impossiblc.
.. "By confounding causation with
sequence it pulls up philosophy by the
roots, disembowels theology Of all sub
stance. and freezes the breath OF all nat
ural picty.
3 "In thr realm oi the fine arts, Tor
the harmonies and congruities Of etcr-
nal reason il substitutes the arbitrary
associations oi ephemeral fashion, local
habit, and individual conceit.
1. "ln the all-important science oi hui
man iic, il degradcs morality from a
manifestation oi true expression, pure
emotion, and lofty purpose, into a low
consideration, and slippery calcula-
ton oi external consequences.
There can he no doubt that
this il the system oi moral phil
osophy that is most prevalent to-
day. Our age is very materialistlr;
AMI utlitarianism largely dominates the
spheres nj business, OF politics ami oi
commerce. j, is ttilitarlanism, too, III
its crasscst form, ior the ruling qucs-
,iun oi the hour is not will it produce
the greatest happiness Ia the greatest
NUMBER" hut Twill il pay In dollars and
ccnts?" Ii is the system, too, which
our Young men are being pcrsistcntly
taught and the spirit oi which We are
most largely imbibing; and We believe
that while il has been numbering among
its adhercnts and propagators many
| good and true men its tendency Is evil
to the community, the state, and the IN.
dividual. And as preventive and
antidotc tn merchant, politician, and
| Young man alike We would recommend
| the serious and earnest study ol
BIackie's FmT Phnss of Morals. Assuch
| il may operate more effectively than
even more profound and systematic
| treatise. -.
| should like To call attention
also 10 our author as phiio-
sophie poet, but this article is already
too long. Suffice il to say that his
Wisc Mea Of Grccct is u series OF Dialogues
In dramatic form, expounding the phll'
osophies oi ten Of ancient Greecc's most
prominent thinkers Aud in this the
| reader will find that Blackic has not only
proved himself poet ot no mean
| merit, but has also cyinccd very cor
rect and full mastery oi those old wor'
| thirs. He has been Ia these ten men
| what lucretius was tO Democritus, al
what modern poet would he Matthew
Arnold might undertake it, were hc t'
translate into pentameter some oi TIA,
more prominent ideas Of Darwin, iiux
lev, Carpenter and McCosh. And In
this department also he has done las
work well. To me there Is scarcely an,
more fascinating reading anywhere thar
his Xenophanes or Anaxagoras. And
in these times when MatcrialisIn is 81
prevalent and our young men are beinI
So eagerly pressed aud many OF them
fear are being moulded by the teaching
that thought is motion OF mat
ter" and that at death thu power tina
throbbed in brain and heart vii
with the brain and heart dissolve
10 dust or "be absorbed in the tniyer
SAL" and when men who eyince neithe
the faith nor the works OF Socrates ar
paraiing themselves rs Socrateian Phi
iosophers-I feel that cannot make
more fitting close to this article than b.
n quotation from our authors SIc6dte,
The Language will he recognized as tina
of the grand old moralist himself
"There Is one cause 10 all the things thai he,
Eternal Mind and herein lies ih. key
To solve thy doubts. good simmtas sense ma
| neveT,s
| Or mako nr mar what stands above all sensr.
And high above all dissolution throncd.
| Lives the grcat Thought that mouids The work
and types
All thIpgs that be- All ~oul fcinats before
| IN. touch OF death and lives because W I've
n. n, essential nature. t}pd oauDot
Himself destroy nor will the image blot
II IIis own reason In hlgh reasoning man
This Is iay faith. and In this faith die.
j. G.; 4,
State Railroad Convention
CoLvNBus, Q., November l3.-At th
morning session Of the Convention
Railroad Commissioners, narOluiio
vas adopted appointing a committee
CONSIDER the true status Of railroad c'
porations In the body polite and rcpo
the result Of their investigation % q