Omaha daily bee., 1889-09-01

wrought as best he could in solitude and
want. He knew the day would come.
He lived to be rewarded for his toll, to
see most of the laws repealed that had
made outcasts of the. noblest, the wsest
and the best. He lived to see the fore
most preachers of the world attack the
sacred creeds. He lived to see the
sciences released from superstition
clutch. He lived to see the orthodox
theologian take his place, with the pro-
fessor OF the black arty the fortune teller
and astrologer. He lived to see the best
and greatest of the world accept his
thought; to see the theologians displac-
ed by the great and true priests of ma
ture, by Humbolt and Darwin, by Hux-
ley ana Haeckel. Within the narrow
compass of his life the world was
changed. The railway, the steamship,
the telegraph made all nations neigh
bors; countless Inventions have made
the luxures of the past the necessities
of to-day. Life has been-enriched and
man ennobled. The geologist has read
the records of frost and flame, - of wind
and rain; the astronomer has told the
story of the stars; the biologist has
sought the germ of life, and in every
department of knowledge the
torch Of SCIENCE sheds Its sacred
light. The ancient creeds have
grown absurd; the miracles are
small and mean; the inspired book is
filled with fables told TO please child
ish world, and the dogma of eternal
pain now shocks the heart and brain.
He lived to SEGA monument unveiled
to Bruno in the city of Rome-to Gior-
dano Bruno, that great man who 2S9
years ago suffered death by fire from
having proclaimed the truths that since
have filled the world with Joy. He lived
to see the victim of the church victor;
lived to see his memory hOnored by a
nation freed from papal chains. He
worked knowing what the end must be !,
expecting little while he lived; but he
knew that every fact in the wide uni
verse was on his side. He knew that
truth can wait, and so he worked pa
a philosopher and the heart Of child.
MAN OF COMMON SENSE.
"Horace Seaver was man of COM
4, mon sense. By that 1 mean one who
knows the law of average. He denied
| the Bible, not on account of what has
been discovered in astronomy, or the
| length of time it took to form the delta
| of the Nile. But he compared the
| things he found in the inspired book
with what he knew. He knew that an
tiquity added nothing to probability
that lapse of time can never take
the place of cause, and that
the dust can never gather thick
enough upon mistakes to made them
equal with the truth. He knew that
the old by no possibility could have
been more wonderful than the new,
and that the present is a perpetual
| torch by which we know the past. To
him all miracles are mistakes, whose
parents were cunning and credulity.
He knew that mircles were not, be-
cause they were not. He believed in
the sublime, unbroken and eternal
marches OF causes and effects, denying
chaos of chance and the caprice OF
power. He testified the past by the
now, and judged of all the men and
graces OF the world by those he knew.
He believed IN religion of free thought
and good deed, of character, of SINGER
ity, OF honest endeavor, OF cheerful
hope, OF sympathy, and above all in the
religion of love and liberty, in re-
ligion OF every day, for the world In
which we live, for the present; the re-
ligion OF roofs and raiment, Of food, OF
intelligence, OF intellectual hospitality:
the religion that gives health and hap
piness, freedom aud content. In the
religion OF work, in the ceremonies OF
honest labor, he lived for this world;
il there be another he will live for that