, 1880-04-26
Phantasms Of the Brain.

The ancients believed that at the
point where mans rule and power over
the forces of the world ended, there
destiny began and if a ship was
wrecked at sea, or if country was
devastated by an epidemic, as such ca
tastrophes were clearly not brought
about by mans wishes or desires, they
thought that they could only be caused
by some mysterious superhuman power
who meddled with. and ruled over,
human affairs.
We cannot certainly be surprised
that such should have been the views
and opinions of persons who were ig-
norant of the fact that storm or an cpl
demic is but natural effect resulting
from natural causes, and that their oc-
currence is governed by laws as certain
aud invariable as that of gravitation.
In country where there were supposed
to be gods of the sea and gods of the
woods, rulers of the wind and deities
of the river, there manifestly was but
little room in which mans free will
could assert itself. But now, since we
know that we have in truth only to
contend with natural forces, and those,
too, of constant and uniform char
acter, we can, by studying their laws,
render them subservient to our wishes,
and make them become our ministers,
instead of allowing them to be our
masters.
The electric current which, in the
form OF lightning, was once the fiery
sword of ancient deity, has now become
the willing messenger of man, and car
ries his commands to the uttermost
parts of the earth. Thus one of the
most marvellous and fearful instruments
of destiny, as it appeared to the inhab-
itants of Rome and Athens some twenty
centuries ago, has in these later days
lost much OF its terrible character and
to the great disgust of Jupiter and the
other lords of Olympus, little Mr.. Dill
letante, at his scientific seances, can give
you as much lightning as you wish.
The fancy and Imagination are more
powerful and less subject to the die
tates of reason in the night than they
are in the daytime the land of dark
ness may be considered as their proper
and natural habitat and like the bats,
they are most busy when the sun has
left us.
Ignorance is land of darkness, and
when mortals had not the rem otest idea
of what was the cause or nature of an
eclipse, and when they knew " less than
nothing" about electricity, it is hardly
matter to be wondered at that, as
knowledge had omitted to furnish the
universe for them with facts and reali-
ties, they allowed imagination to sup
ply the deficiency with the first tictions
and fancies that presented themselves.
The world was to them a ta6uLG rasa,
and they wrote upon it whatever they
thought it.
Besides these two causes of fatalism,
namely, the existence of evil and the
transcendent power and vastness of the
universe as compared with man, there
is third to which We may here refer,
and that is the existence, or seeming
existence, in the world of what we are
pleased to call "chance." Strictly
speaking, there is no such thing as
chance" for nothing takes place with
out there being some cause of its oc-
currence, although in many cases that
case may, owing to its remoteness or
minuteness, be concealed from our
view. Nevertheless. whenever an event
happens, of the cause of which they
are entirely ignorant, men are wont to
assume that it has come to pass withou.
being caused at all !; or, as they term it,
by chance