Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-06-30

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lence. 1t packs away sunlight in the cham
bers Of the coal. but lets il out to lap up
great cities with confagratiou, and leaves
men crying and homeless. 1t tempts the
seed with sunshine and dew, but it mildews
the wheat and lodges the bladed corn.
But man stand on . different plane All
things else have been made for him, and to
come extent he controls them. He alone has
intelligent choice. He not only feels and
moves, he thinks and wills. He can adapt
means to ends. OF two courses of conduct
he can choose the one or the other, with ref
erence either to immediate or remoter good
He can succumb to ms met or appetite and
be a brute, or trample both and be a god
He can live only for the Jay, like the butter
fly. or for eternity like Plato and Apollo.
He is fastened to no orbit Is are the stars,
and limited to no career a. is the brute; he
has time TO work in. and eternity to work
TOR. Withal be is so capricious As to be
puzzle to himself. He does to-day what he
despises tomorrow, and chases with out
stretched hands ro-morrow the bauble he
threw away to-day while the truth, which in
one age he rejects and persecutes, in the
next shines apparent before him, indispen-
sable like as the sun. Il 1t surprising. then.
that the acts Of this free, volitioned capricious
being should long have been deemed the SOL
itary exception to the Law of order. II was
reserved for the nineteenth century and for
Auguste Comte TO conceive and develop the
luminous idea that there was a law and regu-
lar sequence in the history of opinion and the
development of society: and that if man the
individual. comparing brief periods of time
seems unstable as water. man the aggregate
comparing longer periods, moves acts and
even thinks in we'll defined lines of develop
ment the laws of which under wider in
duction may sometime be as accurately
mapped out as the laws of light, heat or fall
ing bodies. Indeed the seeming capricious-
ness and disorder which marks the ways of
man is only counterpart of that which we
have already seen in nature. The cyclone.
the earthquake, the avalanche, the plague,
are as unaccountable as they are baleful, and
smite without plan as without warning. Now
they are scattered broadcast over a hemis-
phere, now heaped in accumulated ruin on a
single district; now separated by wide inter-
walls of prosperity; now trampling one on
another like phrenzied men that flee from
falling walls. Thus to the unphilosophic
mind nature spreads out scene of boundless
and unmitigated disorder. Even Stuart Mill
in his posthumous essays on religion makes
this the climax of his terrific arraignment
OF nature. 10 borrow his words
Even the love OF order which
is thought to be following of
the ways OF nature Is in fact contradiction
OF them All which people are accustomed
to deprecate as 'disorder and its conse-
quences Is precisely counterpart OF natures
ways. Anarchy ana the keign OF Terror are
overwhelmed III injustice, ruin and death by
a hurricane and pestfience That this is
the surface view few will deny. and it is only
when deeply considered that nature offers the
spectacle we have contemplated of a universe
set in order If then the anarchy of nature
resolved itself into law, and all discord was
harmony not understood, why might it not
be the same with mind. Thus Comte.
applying his brilliant and philosophic genius
to the history of the human mind read there
an orderly progress and growth from the day
when it first CROPPED after wider knowledge,
an inrant crying In TIA" night, Till now when
1t plays unabashed with the Titan forces OF
nature, and knocks loudly at the doors of the
Infinite
Is all deveiopment,in nature life, mind,
and society, thus constant, or 1t is rhythmic,
recurrent, oscillating, yet progressive.
A mountain side seen from distance and
In front, SEEING regular AMI unbroken slope;
In reality Il rises by thousand fascinating
ascents ana decents ana dfscouraging stretches
OF iesei: a snip steers Tor distant port,
but 1t VIII be by series OF tackings. Light
travels from the sun earthward, not IN d.
rect line but by fluctuations. The advanc-
ing tue Is maze up OF waves each OF whch
advances anu recedes, with an alternating
rhythm OF It's own' ana the highest point
touched oy one may long marx the limit OF
ADVANCE pu' ny ana ny IL VIII oe o'eriappeu
and swept from sight oy successor; ret all
Tue "hiie' III res, OF IN ADVANCE. 'he uue Is
coming In. ouch Is the movement Oh m'nd'
AZ once rytn'ii anu progressive VICE. IN
deed ny ms FAMOUS cyehc 'heory gave 20
the minds eve Ihn,h out ae"ea
nothngness BACK 10 nothtngness; not the
progressive rnythm or the t'ue, put me I'M
potent r's''s a"" s'"~i"e vi wave lar ou'a '
sea, IN,
me purpose o, ."is examination VIII oe 10
suggest ana orieny Illustrate the Pr'nc'pie
una. .he progress Oh nature i'Ie, mlhu ana
society mas not oeeh s'ea,,y anu unif'errup'eu'
ou' ny irres"'a' p'op"'s'ons' WIN ih'er'ais
OF rest anu even ,e'rosreSs'ou' .ha' IL moves
not coh.'nuousiy ou, ny unuu'a'ions' 'na' II
a'rec' AZ ALL IL oniy as an imaginary mean
between Two ieai ana ever shi1uhg
extremes Vi osc"ia'io"' Thai you cahho'
'y youi manu- on az any
poin' l'iu,ne'e.'iy anu n"u ieniu.ou' WIN
AN unres''hg ADVANCE .ha' therefore nai's OF
breaks Ut reuoeresslons ho' oniy 10 ho' u'e-
P'o'e a" ,'
ment, out DO not even mar It's plah' oelng
put phases OF lutte no'eu III" Oh hieh'ai as
wei as physicai movement VIZ - progress
sien by rythmc aiternatlohs ana periods, ike
the tides.
We shall examine the evidences OF the e3-
lstence OF SUCH law -
First; In the anaiogies OF nature ana i,ie;
Second: In the actioh OF the lhdi'iduai
mind.
Imrd In the movement OF society
But not only Is the mihn rhy'hmcas star
IN Its general oroit OF grown. out III !s
movement along that oroit u oners oeaut'-
d