Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1880-08-03

"FHE UTILITY OF DOUBT"-W
have received copy of the Monro
(Michigan) Commercial giving an &C
count of the commencement exercise
on 18th ult., of the Monroe michigan
Union school. The graduating class con
sistedof five ladies and six young gen
tlemen, among the latter of whom wa
Mr.. Willis Baldwin, brother of DR.
N. Baldwin of this city, whose oratior
on the occasion, on 1.-THE utility O
doubt" is thus reported by the Monro,
Commercial:
"The higher faculties of the intellect
have been divided into the functions o
apprehension, judgment, and reason
ing; and as the intellect has been di.
vided into these various branches, sc
the process of reasoning itself can be
separated into its several elements OF
| doubt, reflection, and comparison.
Hence, as the mind is incomplete with
out the reasoning power, SO the reason
ing power, in turn. is incomplete with.
| out doubt, which, we thus find, is in
Idispensable to every well regulated
mind. Doubt is so interviewer with
reason and free thought that its absence
destroys the force of either of the others
For how can man, who does not give
his doubt full weight, reason correctly :?
Or how can his thoughts be free and un-
trammeled whose very mind itself is
held i'm the relentless grasp of a power
foreign to himself and opposed to his
well being? For that fear which deters
a man from doubling upon any subject
is remnant of that superstition which
once enveloped the world in misery,
and renders his mental powers as truly
helpless as though nature herself had
blighted them; fer but clog the minu-
TEST part of that intricate machinery of
the brain and it retards the working of
the whole. What difference is it to the
prisoner whether the shackles encircle
his wrist or surround his waist, whether
the iron band be welded upon his ankle
or clasped about his neck, he is as Sc
curely held by the members of his body
as by the body itself! So the mind, if
it is chained in any of its parts, is not
free but is confined in servitude more
debasing than any form Of physical
slavery that ever existed. Give me a
thought that 1 must not question, an
asserted truth that dare not doubt;
substance which may not taste, and
all my intellect turns to that thought,
my reason cries out against that truth,
and my appetite demands that forbid
den fruit with an almost uncomfortable
desire. There is something in man
which grasps at that which is denied
him, which suspects what he cannot
see; and if he crushes that desire or
stiffes that suspicion, he sets limit to
tho q Y no N cinn Of his wind Tall rno If
you will, that others have proved or
disproved an assertion; that others
have performed the work for me. I am
myself. Others cannot reason for me,
think for me, or do the simplest thing
for me that requires a moment of
thought. If allow it, am not my
self any longer, I lose my individuality
and my will is absorbed in the will of
him who thinks for me. There are
things which every one has to learn,
and will learn only by personal expe-
rience, There are lessons which failures
and mishaps alone can teach us; and
he who expects that the advice of others
will preserve him from falling, finds
that he only avoids the dangers of
Scylla to break on the threatening rocks
of Charybdis. First to doubt, then in
quire, and then discover, has been the
order of all improvement; for until
doubt arose there was no improvement.
AS long as man rests in quiet content
with his own opinions, as long as he
considers the knowledge that he already
possesses as perfect, he will not. he can
not. in that frame of mind, strive to in
crease it; and then he necessarily retro
gades, for knowledge is not an inert
substance which will remain where it is
placed, but it 10 subtle active principle,
never stationary but ever advancing or
receding. Doubt is invaribly found in
every human being; this alone should
convince us that it has its own missions
to perform, and should teach the hope
lessness of trying to suppress it; for it
is one of natures forces, firm and i'm
movable as the rocky foundation which
undarlies the aufface of Our glOhen