St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-12-12

er-century-have you any idea of its
virulence and scopeq Nothing is equal
to it excepting rum and like rum it is
still a gigantic evil. Last year three
million vicious publications were seized,
six wagon loads from a single firm
2100 lbs. of prints, lists of 100000 post
office addresses, to which the stuff was
destined through the mails. Besides
the purely vicious, there is that which
is infidel, with keen, often effective
stabs at the public faith also the sen
sational, all about love and murder,
wild savages, pirates, black-legs, usual
ly displayed on all the news-counters
Saturday night, furnishing-what sort
Of mental food for Sabbath day? Supt.
Jones of Randall's Island, reckons that
this merely sensational reading brings
two-thirds of his boys to the House of
Refuge.
Now for the first time a stream of
purer quality is turned into the channel
OF popular favor. Juvenile literature
has just reached in our country a cheap-
ness, abundance, variety, excellence,
never known before in the world. ST.
NICHOLAS has no peer in the English Ian
guage, norprobably any language. Paris
cannot do without it, and hereafter it
Will appear in French. The first num-
Der OF Harpers Young Folks, is out this
very month, with a mission "to fight
the devil of pernicious literature on his
own ground, with his own weapons y
Magazines, pamphlets, papers; illus
trated, secular, religious, of every grade,
shape, style, price, are in circulation by
hundreds OF thousands of copies every
where. 81 was pained," says Wayland
Hoyt last summer, "to find among the
far-Off ranches of the Yellowstone, the
low literature of New York, but delight
ed also to see there the publications OF
the American Tract Society, attractive
good and cheap" Good and thank
worthy. Notice how the purely
secular papers are opening their col,
umns to religious matter; the S. S
Lesson in the family weeklies; abstracts
of Sunday sermons in Monday newspa,
pers; in one secular journal I've read
this year editorials on various sermons
in another (the prominently political
New York Iribune) leading article OIL
Good Friday, April IL, upon the death
of Jesus in its relation to the worlds
progress.
Science. Not only can religion and
politics appear in each others company
but of late religion and science are un-
each other better. A little
sparring back ard forth was not strange
at all for when science waxed bold and
put the question, what is spirit 4? who
ever saw or proved God religion re-
torted sharply, what is this "matter''
you talk about, and who ever saw or
proved mOlecule? To-day it is gen.
orally granted that commonest terms or
facts in science are beyond any precise
analysis, e. G. substance, atom, motion,
law, causation, instinct, the passage
from chemistry to consciousness lust
as on the other hand the great facts of
religion defy solution, e. g. Divine eter-
nifty, human freedom, temptation, he
reditary suffering, sin, Judgment, retri-
button. A significant thing
occurred at the annual session of the
British Scientific Association on the
24th of Aug. last. Representing the
church, the Archbishop of York ad-
dressed the association saying that to
science belonged the wonders of the
universe, to religion the showing to
each man that he was not lost in it or
forgotten by the Creator of all. Canon
Tristram in the evening maintained
that the religious theory of design and
the scientific doctrine of evolution were
not antagOnistic, and in like wise spoke
others of the clergy of England. On
the other hand President Altman in his
opening address stated plainly as the
position OF science now that "the phys
ical basis of life cannot be the basis of
action"-in other words
mind has an origin entirely distinct
from matter; our hopes and fears, affec-
lions, faith and will are not founded in
This is a clear sound from
what has been considered for years past
doubtful quarter. Quite as clear are
he recent statements of Prof. Tyndall
physical considerations do not
cad to the final explanation of all that
We feel and know: "the burden of NV
writing in this connection is as much a
recognition of the lUedkneSS of science
rs an assertion of its strength: and
more of like import in the FOrtnightlv
Review. Notice also the genial confess
sion of Mr.. Bronson Alcott at the SYM
postum in Andover Seminary last
month and the remark of Prof. GULL
yer, "science is deliberately dethroning
is atom, transcendentalism is solidify-
ng its dreams into definable theism.n
Science is becoming practical in it's
aims and results. The people are re-
,eiving its benefits. There is not only
1 science of eclipses, of strange gases.
)f queer fossilized nondescripts. but a
science of the furrow, of the shop. of
5he weather: of government, com
nerce, street-cleaning: of raising cab
oages and keeping chickens. Our So
;ial Science Association took up at Sa-
'atOga such topics as these: Common
suffrage in school elections. Adultera-
ion of food. Yellow fever. Life pro-
.ection in use of machinery. Tenement
houses. College libraries. Patent
avs. Village sewerage. Care of poor
md vicious children, ETC., etc. Scien-
'itic principles as applied to every day
lfe is a notable feature of to-day; it is
lot ldealIsm, poetry, romance, but hard.
PROSE. What, said Mr.. Sanborn at Sa-
atOga, can be more prosaic business
han inspecting entries and drains of
houses, condition of sewers
md water pipes, rent of dirty rooms,
;Ost of pauper relief, etc. Let me cali
your attention to the fact that we of
his village have profited immensely
n this very direction. 1t was through
he popular agitation of these questions
hat we discovered people in our midst
o be dying when they might just as
we'll live: and since putting practical
cience in the shape of water pines.
ewers, etc., into our dwellings, undeI
'ur streets, we bave had steady de-
,rease in mortality here for ~ wears.
Population has become more dense. but
he death rate has fallen off so per cent:
food and thankwortby. Tho daoth