The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-06-29
FREEDOM OE THOUGHT.
Tho Far-Reaching and Immense Power
of Our Most Secret Thoughts.

enslave man, it can have no direct
power over his thoughts. His actions
may be restrained, his speech may be,
fettered, his body may be chained, his;
life itself may be taken away, but his
thoughts no one can interfere with.
They remain his own. and, except with
his will, no one can ever guess what.
they are. But does this absence of di-.
rect power insure true freedom of
thought? 1t may at first sight seem to,
do so, but deeper insight into the.
nature of thought will show that it is,
itself subject to many influences and
conditions. Associations, circum-.
stances, education, climate, race, occu-~
patton, hopes, fears, emotions--all
exert an indirect but powerful pres
sure upon thought; so powerful that if
in one sense it is always free. in an
other sense it is always controlled. If
no one else can claim authority over
our thought, neither may we exercise,
an absolute and immediate dominion
over it. Is freedom of thought, then,
a mere name-a sound without mean
ing? Not so. Real freedom of any
kind involves not only the absence Of
| artificial restraint, but the presence
of influences favorable to growth =
and development. The infant left.
without care is not free; it
has no choice but to perish. The
body can be enslaved by govt or par
alysis as surely as by prisons and
chains; both prevent the healthful
exercise which IS its life. Even indo--
lence and self-indulgence may prove
equal tyrants. 1t is only where
wholesome and active life secures for
| the body that varied motion and other
salutary conditions needful to its best,
development that we can say the free.
dom of the body is secured. So the
| freedom which thought needs is not
merely the absence of any personal
compulsory force, but the presence of
favorable influences, which shall enable,
it to grow in strength and to yerform
its functions in the most perfect man
ner. Our thoughts should be the.
| guides of our whole lives; their
province is to discover truth and to.
reject error, to sift the just from the.
unjust, the pure from the impure, the,
better from the worse, and SO to apply
them as to improve character and life.
How important, then, it becomes that.
we should foster those conditions and
influences that will enable thought to
perform, without hindrance, so essen
tial a work! One very strong pres
| sure that bears upon thought to pre-,
vent its freedom and restrain it's
growth is that of fancied personal in
terest. We say faucied, because the
real interest of the individual is bound
up in the healthful advancement of his
thought. But it is not uncommon for
people to imagine that their happiness.
lies in an opposite direction. They
fear the censure of their party, or the.
frown of fashionable circle, or the.
loss of favor or patronage, if they fol-
low out some train of thought to its,
logical conclusions. Or they see that
if they accept its issues it will require of
them certain sacrifices, which they are.
not prepared to make. Thus they stiAe4
or abandon thoughts that seem danger
Gus, and remain on what they sup
pose to be safe ground, forgetting that.
| there is no mental safety where free
dom of thought is banished. Then
there are also prejudices and antip--
athies, and even sympathies, to guard
against. 1t is impossible fully to esti--
mate how much our thinking is gov.
erned by our feeling. We love one per-
son and refuse to see any defect in,
him. We dislike another, and his de-
fects are so patent to us that we see no
virtues. So with the parties we spouse
and those we oppose. Our tendency
| is to esteem the ideas and doings of
the one as all right and those of the
other as all wrong. In general it may
be said that the desire to establish as.
true some particular conclusion. or
some special set of ideas, is stronger
element in the investigation than the.
desire to find out what really is true.
| Now the desires and the emotions are.
valuable parts of our nature and deserve
full recognition, but when they tyran-
nize over the thoughts and prevent
their free action they exceed their do
main and ought to be controlled. 1t.
should be a habit of the mind to pause.
frequently and inquire why we think
thus and so; for the motives to thought.
are as numerous and as varied as the
motives to action, and form as good a
test of it's character. Perhaps few
duties are more difficult than this. yet.
few are more essential to the cause of
justice and truth. Could we correctly
estimate the immense power of our
most secret thoughts, their influence.
upon speech and action, upon charac-
ter and life, upon self and others, We.
should esteem it one of our most sacred
obligations to keep them pure and
! clean, free from the domination of sup
posed self-interest or desire, passion or
emotion, strong to discover truth and
right, wherever they lie, and to accept.
their conclusion wherever they may
lead. -Philadelphia Ledger.