The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-06-29
Bill Nye's Philosophical Reflections.

L
| We find that no apology is due from
us to Hon. William &. LIE Due, the
| great promoter of the cold tea vine.
/ After years of study and attention to
| the agricultural department, he has sue
| ceeded at last in growing tea at the
| south, and we look back upon the cruel
words we have said of him from time to
| time with unay ailing regret. 1t is true
| that his efforts to graft the doughnut on
| the pie plant were a failure. He did not
| succeed, either, in crossing the yegeta-
bic oyster with the cove oyster so rs to
make hardy bivalve that would grow
in a northern latitude; but his tea move
is said to be u grand triumph. While
we may have spoken lightly of his en-
terprises, we had the utmost respect for
him, personally, and although we never
believed that the horse-rake could be
bred up to a high moral plane, we still
admitted the scholarly mind of Mr. lie
Due and his wonderful genius as a
statesman. All men are more or less
prone to make themselves ridiculous in
the eyes of the world, but they should
not despair They should not allow
their keen sense of propriety and i'm
propriety 30 intrude upon them, nor
should they become discouraged be-
cause the public may jeer at their enter
prises and boot at their schemes.
Nature may frown upon the idea of
producing a new and desirable domes-
tic animal by the crossing of the cash
mere goat and the hydraulic ram, and
yet she may smile pleasantly upon the
propagation of iced tea. The two ideas
are widely segregated and the same
principles do not prevail in the one case
that might in the other The world
moves and civilization advances as the
result of progression in new channels,
and things which may at first be sneered
at may at last be looked upon as ma
tional blessings. These movements
must be gradual and made by easy de-
grees, not suddenly and in violation of
known natural laws. In this way phil
osophical sequences or logical scoops
are attained and humanity benefited. If
we attempt to domestieate the battering
ram and make a pet of him we fail, but
if we make the domestic pump tributary
to the new-miIch COW, we thus largely
increase the product of the COW without
injury, and nature is not insulted.
Again, if we try to trace the origin of
man downward to the brute creation
through the monkey-wrench family, we
find ourselves adrift on mighty sea of
uncertainty; but if we desire to restrain
a setting hen from Matching out GRO
quet mallet, we know by experience that
we should tie red flannel rag around
her tail and thus. by an interruption of
her course of study. turn her attention
TO the duties which deyolye upon her.
All these things are successes or fall
ures, according TO their degree of adj
herence to known theorem, and men
are philosophers or iackasses in proper
ton rs they adhere to the internal
elamoring of what is known SIS horse
sense, or on the contrary to vague
yearning after home in the insane asy-
Ium.
When Mr.. lie Due began in praeti-
cal way to promote the growth of
plant, and left off trying to kin the
army worm, by rigid orders from II
war department, he at once laid hos
upon victory, and we are not going to
deny him the glory he has worked SO
hard to attain. boomerang.