Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-15
PHILOSOPHIC REFLECTIONS.

| WRITTEN FOB THE DISPATCH BY 4 CoUyrRY
PARsoN.J
THE doctrine of the survival Of the fttest In
fact. The works of nature demonstrate the
truth Of such proposition. True it is, the
demonstration is often the work of time. but it
is none the lesSa verify. The frail trees of the
forest succumb to the onslaught of the tempest
while the sturdy ones stand the blast. In every
age of the world, and in every country from
time immemorial the question has been put.
where shall we get the statesmen, the war
riors and the orators like unto those that
garland the world with glory to-dayrn God
has always answered these questions by filing
emergencies as necessities arise. Out of an
apparently chaotic mass of embryotlc material
have been evolved men to fill the empty inches
of the world. There is no probability thar the
author of material and spiritual things will
lose His cunning.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN was not q man of the
most refined tastes of aesthetic culture. His
philosophy was the outcome of sturdy man.
hood that gained its maturity amid the work.
shops of nature Artiiciality and effeminacv
were non-essential to the success of his mission
The elements were SO mingled in the man that
the problem of human slavery, in Its outward
form, at least, was solved. The great alchemist
SO mixed the constituent parts of his character
that the divine prescription eradicated the dis
ease.
AND yet reflection suggests that Lincoln was
only an atom of great whole. He was but one
tree in the forest. Seward and Grant, and the
thousands who took up arms for their country
in its time of danger. were just as necessary in
their varied spheres as was Lincoln. 1t is little
less than folly to speculate or look upon future
necessities with pessimistic eyes, when the past
has been so fruitful in men for emergencies.
Futurity is always pregnant.
THE colored problem. so-called, is a bugaboo
that alarms goodly portion of our citizens and
our statesmen are scratching their craniums
for solution. Some where in Gods universe
there is a method and man. The method is
in the mind of the Almighty. and the mans
mother may be rocking him to sleep in home
made cradle to the music of the trees that
sing around lonely log cabin in the woods or
amid the unfamiliar ravines of the Rocky
Mountains.
WHAT an age of progress we are living In.
Hygiene is increasing the length of human
life, electricity is abolishing distance, or rob-
bling it of its influence. Over-cautious men
tell Us the world is moving too fast; man is
presuming too much; he is handling the forces
Of rature too fippantly. In isolated cases this
may be true, but as a fact Of broad accepta-
bility 1t has no existence. The wheels of
material progress have always been fabricated
with human blood. Strangel Yes, that must
be admitted, but over all the doctrine of the
survival of the fittest remains a fact. Fair
weather never made a good sailor peace a
good soldier. The existence of danger in gen.
Grated power Is never proved without disaster.
The death of one man from the touch of the
electric wire may save a hundred other lives.
The explosion of q six-horse power boiler may
save a thousand lives on board steamship.
EQUILIBRIUM is only maintained In the man.
ner indicated. 1t is well to weigh probabilities
in the scales Of past experience. to anticipate
possibilities from present environment, but
there Is no need for oyer-anxious solicitude
about the future. The fading rays of the past
are sufficient TO illuminate the pathway of the
future far enough ahead to avoid irreparable i
disaster. The Southern question, the alien
problem, the supply of men of brain and Drawn
to meet coming emergencies are all in the hands
of power of iilimitable magnitude. 1t is as
true as truth can be, There is divinity shapes
our ends, rough hew them how we will"