The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1879-03-20
I" The Bondage Of Error. -
BY r. F. F.

| 1u0 oOnutbS0 O1 LIIO1s
| BY r. F. F.
Progression is the surest product o.
the lapse of time. Credited theories ol
one age constitute the rejected myths
of a Subsequent age. Yet cycled years
and centuries cross the common path
way of humanity only to see mankind
| unreclaimed from the Bondage of En-
rOr.
In this respect the fact presents some
strange inconsistencies, many appar-
ent anomalies. Our scientists are proud
to herald the incontrovertible estab-
lishment of the supremacy of mind
over matter. But they have only added
the beauty of melody to the key note
long since given. When given and ac-
knowledged, the world heard with a
rejecting sneer those very principles,
though taught in the incipiency of q
philosophy which we now regard as
the basis of civilized society. Then
we ask, why the horrors of the dark
ages, the reign of terror and the In
QUESTION. Because the nominal SUI
perior became the virtual inferior.
Minds trampled and crushed by feet
acknowledged as erring; myriads of
human souls plunged into seas of blood
by hands recognizing the sublime
truth that they ought to be led, this is
the error, redemption from the bondage
of which, is the true mission of man.
Pope has declared that whatever is,
Is right" Too plainly then have we
been taught that either there is no er
ror, or error is right. From these
premises two deductions follow either
because there is no error, the lives of
rectify many, many wrongs, are errors.
Strange inconsistency! or we must
cling to right; error is right, therefore
we must cling to error. But the days
of dreamy poetry have passed. We are
asking for our inheritance. In Pope's
time there was an unmeasured fact as
a legacy, though people, Intoxicated
with poetic visions, attempted either
to see no error or to hide that too plain
ly seen.
But men will not always refuse to
believe that which they do not wish to
believe. Thus there are times when
errors bondage is broken by an almost
unseen cause. Unexpressed opinions
and the convictions of intuition will
rend the chains of superstition. So
we find the human mind passing in
cessantly back and forth from good to
evil, recovering itself when almost
lost, slipping where apparently firm
est. But revolutions move with slow
pace, for in the language of Guiyot,
Providence moves through time as
the gods of Homer through space-it
makes a step and ages have rolled
away" So generations almost content
were ushered into and out of existence,
while bards like Pope sang the futility
of action. But if we could stop with
the immobility of man, we could tear
from the volumes of history many
pages written in reddest characters.
While the bondage of the error of an
lhaOC1NO "ChCdA SA1AAuhOOu WOu1u OC
CALLING, the bondage from which men
have struggled to be free is more gall
ing. And why? We justly laud the
of our own age. We eun-
justly depreciate those of ages dead, for
getting that we have added but little to
the knowledge bequeathed to us. Not
the actual but the general absence of
knowledge have been the cause of
bondage, Instead of the onward flow
of the flood tide of Science and Philos-
ophy, the human mind has interposed
itself, a mighty barrier, like the rock
on the shore, which, with thus far
aud no farther" sends back in foam
the wave at its foot.
There is proof of this, In the dim
of history, Confucius wrote;
Ignorance is the night of the MUD,
but night without moon or stars"
While Europe was smotherlng in the
dark ages, Plato, jim his teachings, said
to contain the germ of modern philos-
ophy, declared. 1t is better to be un-
born than untaught, for ignorance is
the root of misfortune" And Goethe,
from out the binding darkness of su-
perstition, cried, "Give me light, more
light" Thus inactivity is the smallest
factor of bondage. But that exertion
which struggles to oppress all mental
exertion is the greatest error of the
world, from the bondage of which we
are not wholly escaped.
The Eden of humanity has been
placed far back in the past or away in
the distant future. So while the con-
mourns the fast ebbing "peace
on earth," the revolutionist recklessly
tramples cherished opinions to make
easy the advent of his Utopia. Thus
the error of building without design
and destroying without purpose is so
firmly rooted that the perpetuity of its
is almost a surety. For what
purpose did Peter the Hermit infiame
the peasant mind of Europe? To re-
cover from the infidel Jerusalem and
the Holy of Holes. But Jerusalem
has been seven times sacked and the
Holy of Holes subjucted to the cruelty
of savages; from her minarets Haunted
to-day the crescent, tomorrow the
cross, and while hordes of barbarians
murdered the deluded crusader, he
meekly resigned himseifsaying, 'Slay
On, God will know his own" Was
there design in the crusades? There
was, but it was imaginary, not actual.
The real Jerusalem to be recovered was
not single city but the whole world
the real Holy of Holes, not an unoc-
cupied apartment in a Jewish temple,
but the human mind.
Yet these promptings of honest con-
viction are the feeble expression of the
of man. We know his
history is record of brutality. But
what apology is there to be offered
L e.