The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1882-07-07

new Cells differing more or less. In
the struggle for existence the strongest
and best survive and by natural Sc &C.
tion these better forms choose eacI
other and unite in producing some
thing better still. But over all this
law reigns. Tyndall says we behold
law everywhere but nothing elsc.'
There Is always harmony with the ell.
vironments, the survival of the fittest
But the very greatest possible discord
conceivable would be evointed intelli
gences that could not comprehend each
other and who should discover that
there is no such thing as universal
truth, and that what they have called
the universe may have no real exis.
tence at all. There is no scientific
ground whatever for such supposition
1t Is a sheer gratuitous hypothesis
which those alone can receive who dc
not examine il, or are deficient in the
logical judgement called common sense
And yet there are those who look upon
this as science and upon those who dc
not bow down to 1t as unscientific!
| Nnr d4es esu0stiUiont nuu S0llu
ground in any true theory of the rela-
tivity of knowledge.
| No one can, and no one need deny
that knowledge comes from the relation
OF the knowing mind to the known oh.
ject. In the whole sphere of sense per-
ccption this is evidently true. The eye
is related to the light and through that
to the object seen. If the organ be
diseased the knowledge of the object
attained may be quite incorrect or OBJ
scure. And so of all our senses they
are related to objects, and if diseased
may deceive us. But observation,
repetition, experience, correct the cr-
rors and human knowledge, always
imperfect, becomes purer, clearer,
more comprehensive as it advances .
1t is puerile position that because man
is finite and liable to certain errors he
is incapable of knowing eternal, uni
versal truth. That he makes slow and
painful progress does not prove that he
makes no progress at all. that he las
not even starting point, and that all
his labor is only subjective deception.
And it should be noticed that agnos-
tioiorn ocnetentiy aud boldly UNCi.icapS
its own boundaries in the treatment of
questions at issue.
1t makes hypothesis of q self devel-
opel universe asking no aid from q
creator. 1t makes upon this hypothc-
sis another that tho universe is so de-
veloped that no such thing as real I'M
iversal truth common to all intelligence
can be known. And then in the name
of science it demands that we should
accept this hypothesisof u hypo,hes is as
unqueslioned truth! No agnOsticism is.
allowed there! All who do not thus re-
ceive it, but hold to all Ineligible uni
verse, are denounced as "unscicntific"
as miracle mongers" and "theologic fos-
sils."
This self assumption, by the agnos-
tics of the scientific moihod and spirit
as belonging exclusively to themselves,
is often put forth most Extensively i'm
one of our.professedly scientific journals
called the Popular Science Monthly.
1t has all the sodium Meologium" of
the dark ages.
A teacher of atheism, it is perhaps
good taste nor the good sense 10 con-
ceal tho bitterness of its hate and scorn.
But we will now consider whether
agnosticism on It's other wing has any
better foundation to stand upon. There |
are those who deny the validity cfl
human knowledge who still admit the
necessity of believing in Creator, and |
sre even in some sort Christians.
Now If there be Creator, if there be
in any form or manner an intelligence
At the origin of things, it is inconceiv-
able that he should contradict himself
in the whole plan of creation. 1t is in
that the infinite intelligence
should have universe in which differ
,1t orders OF Intelligent beings should
have no common knowledge, no UNI
Tersal, Interchangeable eternal truth as a
common bond of communion with Him
md with one another.
An Intelligent universe, without uni
De contradiction. 1t would no longer
'e universe, but chaos. lfone could
rayel far enough in IL he would meet
with endless contradictions and confu.
ions. Even the ideas of time and
pace, OF right and wrong, and the
lxiomatic principles of mathematics
would fail him.
Agnosticism, then, is u hypothesis
Without any evidence to support it. 1t
8 contradictory to every theory of the
Universe. 1t is arrogant, but unseien-
ific. IL processes skeptieism, but in
accepting absurdities il has the credu-
ity of childhood.
In Oppositio n to it we claim all intel
iglble universe, a glorious, all-wise,
nfinite Creator, and intelligent beings
whose prerogative it is to know-to
know truth as eternal, moral distinc-
ions as unchangeable, and the unity of
aw as all pervasive.
This necessity OF interchangeable ctcr-
ial truth in the universe led Ralph
Waldo Emerson, pantheistic as he was,
o reject with energy every material
site theory and to assert mans immor-
ality and knowledge of absolute truth.
"Lifo invests itself with inevitable
conditions which the nnwise seek to
lodge, which one aud another brags
hat he does not know, that they do not
ouch him; but the brag is on his lips,
he conditions are In his soul. IL he
scapes them in one part, they attack
lin in another more vital part. Ii he
las escaped them in form and in appear
nee, 1t is because he has resisted his
ife and fled from himself, and the retri-
'ution is SO much DEATH"
And again he says very beautifully:
i have heard that death takes us away
rom Ill things, not from good. | have
Ieard that when we pronounce the
Iame OF man we pronounce the belief
i Immortality. All great natures de-
ight in stability; all great men find
ternity affirmed in the very promise Of ,
heir faculties. Life is not long enough
or art, not long enough for friendship. ,
he evidence from intellect is as valid !
8 the evidence from love. The being
hat can share thought and feeling so
ublime as confidence in truth is no
Mushroom. Our dissatisfaction with ,
ny other solution Is the blazing evil ,
ence of Immortality" And not only !
i'd he claim Immortality and truth in !