The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-11-04
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forced to smile and whose victims COM
mand our pity. We pity the ignorance
which causes the Hindoo woman to
throw herself under the car of Jugger-
naut, which causes the Turkish woman
to believe it a sacrilege to expose her
face, which causes the John Chinaman
to believe his own land the only fit place
for his burial, and which causes even the
stupid Englishman to see death and dis
aster in comets and shooting stars. We
call this excessive dread, this ignorant
worship, superstition, and we hesitate
not to pronounce it irrational. This
explanation of the phenomenon is incOn-
sistent with the universally accepted
doctrine that man is rational being and
betrays on our part lack of research,
and lack of research must necessarily
initiate strongly in favor of the falsity
of doctrine. To assert that man has
the power of drawing conclusions, and
then to say that his beliefs are the result
of allowing that faculty to slumber, is to
say that these superstitious beliefs were
part of his original endowment; it
sounds like contradiction in terms, and
would seem to justify one in asking for
proof that those who make such asser-
tons know that those bathed in super
stition have the faculty of reason at all.
The purpose of this paper will be to
show, as far as the limits of few pages
will permit, that these superstitious
beliefs are not without good cause, that
they are the products of the human
reason, that the error lies with us who
have ascribed their continuance to the
stubborness or hopeless stolidity of those
who entertain them. The teacher who
would enter the schoolroom and, through
a deplorable ignorance of the laws of
mental development, endeavor to fill the
minds OF his eager little friends with
general principles without first bringing
to their notice the facts upon which those
principles rest, would fluid himself throw
ing chaff against the wind, and if he
would not richly merit the everlasting
condemnation of the young minds that
would be stunted and depressed by his
treatment, he would in any event be en-
titled to no very conspicuous place in
the treasure houses of their memory. But
he would be less culpable than those who
condemn superstitious people who do
not give ready assent to principles they
have never been able to see developed.
Such persons forget how slow has been
their own progress under favorable cir
cumstances; they ignore the significance
to be attached to twenty centuries of
civilization; they are blind to the truth
that the facts in these superstitious be-
liefs are the rounds of the ladder by
which they have assembled to positions
from which they can make clear the past,
explain the present, and prophesy the
future. Poor, deluded, conceited peo-
pie, having attained the topmost round,
"they turn their gaze and seem to scorn
the base degrees by which they did
ascend"
All opinions are evolved. Through
the senses the light breaks in on the
previously darkened chamber of the
mind Thus furnished reason works out
our knowledge and no conclusion is
reached but through its power. Then
man is a rational being and all his knowl-
edge is the product of reason.
But reasoning is of two kinds. The
first may be denominated natural reason
ing. the second may be styled reasoning
from general principles. The former
operates when observation is limited and
reflection necessarily almost dormant.
The latter prevails when masses of facts
have been generalized and the reflective
powers necessarily more active. Among
the uncultured and savage the power of
the mind goes forth mostly in observation
and scarcely at all in reflection. And just
as the reflective powers are dormant so are
the facts at reasons command limited.
And as the facts are limited are its powers
impaired, are its conclusions liable to be
eventually proved untrue. But though
facts may be limited and reflection slug
gish, reason is ever awake, ready to mold
opinions out of the material on hand,
ready to deduce conclusions that may
cause years of mental servitude or GEN.
turtles of intellectual freedom and
happiness.
General principles are to be arrived at
only after the observation of multitudes
of particulars. But primitive man, who
was the progenitor of those beliefs which
habit and custom perpetuate, had a
limited sphere of observation, had no
durable records, and no adequate lam
qua ge to convey all his experiences.
But explanations he must have had, and
with such facts as he possessed there |
were certain conclusions inevitably forced |
upon him.
Believing as savages do, that nearly |
every moving thing is animated by soul
passed into it, may be from some remote
man; knowing nothing of natural laws,
is it any wonder that, with their scanty
they come to such ridiculous
conclusions? Knowing nothing of the
principles of evaporation ought it to
excite our wonder if they accuse the gods
of drinking up unseen the water on the
earth? Not knowing of the force of
hydrostatic pressure, can the savage be
blamed if, on hearing the loud report of