The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-04-17
Evolutionary Science.


by many to be fast revolutionizing theology.
It is also displacing, here and there. many
traditional beliefs and illusions of a pOetical
nature. We love truth for its own sake,
and look upon things as they are. Eyes
are the windows of the soul, and it is pos
sble to take peep through a window as
we'll as out of one. Every step in the pro-
gresson of existence changes our position
with respect to things about us. We often
meet men who bitterly oppose us in any
new theory. and strike us blows that leave
an inward bruse forever; but we must make
allowance for the mind matured in contact
with the old ways of the world. Rules that
may be applied with wonderful precision
for the embellishing of natural phenomena
are impotent in their dealing with that
most Interchangeable phenomenon, human
heart. When the spirit of investigation gets
control of a man, it seems to awaken the
noblest part OF his being. This Investigate
ing science, when one begins to have the
true state of affairs dawn upon nim, creates
feeling something akin to the feelings of
a person accused of crime; he has a rank
ling in his heart. or a great heart trouble
and apprehensiOns more like physical pain
than one would suppose. 1t has its long,
dreary, gnawing phases. The nations that
learned of liberty from men like Descartes.
were led to question everything. Only
creative power renovated society and car
ried it through the distractions of the past.
Luther said to his cOuntrymen, Don't put
out the candle till the day breaks" We
H. III, old
dreamy Incidence. The active powers of
the mind should be brought forward in po-
litical science. Science. as it breaks the
chains of WORKOUT doctrines, started with
sentiment of revenge against the ecclesiaS-
tical terror which for centuries has seQues-
tered the minds rights OF inquiry. We
should take up with zeal every question in
science, political and moral. Free thought
should pay homage to the majesty of nature.
investigate the origin of species, analyze
the air we breathe, map the sky, explore
the ocean and measure the earth. We
should preach the truth and speak the
truth. but we should not attempt to force it
upon any one. He that has truth forced on
his side may burn his adversary at the stake
Our teachings should be the raising of the
veil which divides the past from the
present; the churches should not
teach theology alone but methods for the
right use of reason and science. Wherever
a country has cJung to it's superstition its
commerce has been turned into other chan
nels, it's manufactures and its progress re-
tarded. AS an illustration. the thirty years
effort to restore the old supersttiOns that
once swayed the middle classes of Germany
transformed large districts of its cultivated
country into wilderness and brought death
and misery to millions, and the thirty years
effort to bring this about brought all these
mSfOrtuneS upon the people.
Doubt and debate are the only safety
valves of freedom. All that is human must
retrOgrade if it does not advance AS a
torrent of living water flowed from the rock
smitten by Moses in the desert. so from the
touch of liberty has come an industrial evO-
luton full of prosperity and promise. Ev-
OlutiOn has certainly shown itself since
there was a WOrld-certainly ever since
Israel came out of Egypt, and the house of
jacob from among strange people.
Franklin wrenched the thunderbOlt from
the clouds. and this idea was of nature to
pass easily into the common mind. He
never detracted from any one. he did not
diSdain glory, and he knew how to pardon
envy. Franklin was constantly trying to
impress the science of evolution and cleo
tricity upon the mind Of the people of his
time.
Cannot we learn lesson in evolution by
studying the moon which accompanies our
globe increasingly in it's annual revolutions
as if drawn toward it by an inseparable
bond of sympathy. but when human science
alone has furnished us with such facts as
enable us to penetrate as far as we have
into the mysteries of the moons structure
and physical condition? Science has higher
aim than to treat such subjects as fanciful;
it attacks the great problems which nature
is constantly placing before our minds
when attempting to penetrate into the Sc
crets of the eternal laws. Science enables
us to draw upon the living springs of nat
ural laws: she initiateS nS into tho nroat