Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-06-30
AT BoVDOIN.
Address 4 Hon. 0. D. Baker Before tie
Alumni.
an Development In Nature, Lite
naind and Society, Rhythmic ana
Periodic


non Of nature takes place in obedience To a
pre- established and inyariable order and not
at inc caprlce Of pleased or angry god. is
concepuon so refined that it fellow ships only
WIN nign civilization and grea. powers Of
anaiySs TO the ancients the fat earth. the
CIRCUIT pnons ocean and all the embracing air
were she but the dwelling place of mystery
anu uae sport 81 antagonisiic and unreasoning
soas. lsarth must be propitiated by gifts
ny 70 refuse her fruits in their seasons else
"hsht and miidew, drought and storm would
n'ihg 70 naught the labors of the husbandman
ny the frown or favor of Neptune the waves
roughened or grew calm, and he whipped the
"ihhs irom their storm caves to minister to
me whims of his malice; while Juno and
venus, wife and mistress Of Jove, embroiled
olympus itself with their strife over the fate
OF the pious EDeas.
Inc noon and stars as they whirled through
space, we're supposed driven by unseen powers
OF else as fixed in spheres of solid but trans
parent crystal turning forever round the
stationary earth. When Jove the thunderer
KNIT hs brows the sky wrapped itself with
blackness, and with noise as of chariots
and honsemen the storm spirit walked abroad
Comets bla, ed across the sky, eclipse ate up
the g'ory of the sun, stars quit their spheres
and vent out in mid air like candles too
quickly snuffed, all only to portend calamity
to the sons of men. The pestiIence that
walketh in darkness, the war that wasteth at
MONDAY, and the famine that hungereth, but
Is not satisfied, were all vsitations of a god
that waited to be appeased.
| The commonest events of life required the
presence, or were explained on the theory
of, the supernatural. The rosy hours I'M
barre the gates of the morning, Ph9bus
guided the chariot of day, Hesperus, the
love star, foretold the sweet coming of night
Satyn and Dryads, Nymphs and Sylvan
Faws sported in the woodland beside the
waters; Bacchus in person led the revels of
the vineyard; Priapus was god of the orchard
and the gar len, while every fountain. grove
and river had its peculiar deity, and with
equal reverence En-, as bore from smoking
| Troy the aged Anchses and the household
gods. Luc,na presided over birth; Mars
trained the growing youth in arms; Apollo
nourished him with poetry and the arts
Mercury gave nimble and persuasive speech;
! Diana held up the mirror of chastity Miner
va held out the apples of WISDOM Venus
wooed to languor and to love while over all,
superior to Jove himself at the foot of
| Plutos ebony throne sat the solemn sister
! Fateswith the distaff, the spindle and the
shears spinning in silence and mystery the
! thread of life; and death itself must wait
! till Atropos applied the fatal shears.
| At death Charon with his skiff and freight of
shadows, waited to ferry the souls across the
Styx Of the pale realms of the dead and there
among the unsubstantial and fitting forms
were the legion that attended the living man
/ Care and Sorrow and Disease, meagre Want,
sulen Remorse, thirsty Fever, scowling Hate,
and muttering Revenge, Fear that starts at
its own voice and jealousy making of "trifies
| | CHR as air confirmation strong as proofs of
holy writ" Only after long probation is the
vcxed shade admitted to the bland air and
immortal bloom of the Elysian fields.
Such was the ancient conception of the
universe the sky abewillering mass of lights
of different briliancy, moved about from place
To place MS lanterns are carried in the dim
heights of bclfry; some constant some
waxing and waning in periods. some at rest.
some in motion nature cOngeries of dis
| joiuted phenomena. coming none knew
whence or how, moving none knew whittier.
intricate capricious, orderless. The first
step towards scientific knowledge was
taken when men passed from the
anomalies, to observe the uniformities,
of nature. The u trained mind is moved by
the irregularly vast. as the earthquake, the
volcano, the con ct, the meteor. The trained
mind is moved by the regularly vast; as
systems of stars held together by the single
| law of gravitation.
! Phenomena now began to be grouped and
classified Like effects were referred to
like causes Certain sequences of events
were observed to be iuvariable, and the
number aud variety of these were constantly
ext i'm" A patient study of nature re-
vel a., real harmony underlying apparent
dis 4. and unity in the midst of diversity.
Coz Dieus established the fixity of the earth
an,' e revolution of the sun. Calico and
Ty, Brahe reinforced him by their power
full MUS. keplcr discovered the laws of
pls, AIRY motion. Newton unified the whole
by re great principle of gravitation, and
ast ,lomy was forever freed from super
stit OF and fixed on the basis of law. HALEY
pro- ID the parabola of the comets, and
those wandering flames were added to the
conquests of law. Dalton conceived the law
of definite multiple and equivalent proper
tons and chemistry has since stood side by
side with astronomy. The famous worthless
of Descartes led the way to Herschel, Kant,
La Place and the nebular hypothesis This
WAS the precursor of modern evolution and
then for the first time was conceived the
vra I'd possibility of a universe evolved from
matter and force by the operation of law
which is but the EXPIRE ssion of the Divine Will
The subsection of one science to law sug-
Qested and made easier the subsection of the
next. If there was a law for the plants
why not for the comets and meteOrs? If
there could be universology for the heavens
why not a geology for the earth. If the
nrrepts of the sea could be tracked and
,retold why not the currents of the air, the
ind, weather, storms? If there is an
rider of development in rocks and hills
shy not in plants and trees? If in the
mineral and vegetable, why not in the
.nimal world?
Then knowledge advanced Nature opened
o science as the violet to spring, and Fetis-
cbism and Polytheism were displaced by the
conce ption of u majestic and universal order
creating. fashioning, disposing, UNFOLDING all
by mmutable laws. But the empire OF law
was as yet thought limited to nature. her
forces were constant and inc xhaustible. The
untold ages that had passed had neither les
sened nor augmented the sum total of their
energies Their form shifted, their quantity
ne,er. With the same amount of force to
york with nature has ever the same substance,
r,atter. TO work on. Above all nature does
M thinking. II has no WILL no choice. IL
Joes the work of another, and does it &C.
coriing TO his law. The stone, the flower
nave no voliton. They have but one thing
10 do, and they do that till they die. The
animal can change its place and within limits
ia state If uncomfortable in one position
il can change. If tired of the sun it seeks
the shade, if hungry it eats; if exhausted,
sleeps; If hot it stands in the brook. But
this it doe5, not from intelligent choice. bu,
oyeru ,tering instinct. 1t sees and hears and
feels, b 1t il does not think or choose. The
stone is hard. the flower sweet, the
Tree tapers. the sun shines, the COW grazes
: the kitten plays, not because they will do so,
hut because they cannot help it. They are
IN the han,ls of master and have no power
70 do otherwise. But the region of the un-
drinking and nonvoiifioned seemed to mark
/ ,he natural hounds OF law. as mountain chains
The bounds of countries. The very nature
~ law seems thus to circumscribe its own
aominon Like nature, law neither thinks
: mr. spares, and acts by necessity, not from
= ch,ice. Ii is hard, relentless, inexorsble a
A fa,e. 1t visits without mercy the conse'
. ouences of disobedience and wrong doing
prospects no place or person. 1t visits ne