The University daily. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 18??-????, 1890-06-12
The Ocean Of Truth.
il 9. REYNOLDS.

Some one has said in the world
there is nothing great but man. IN
man there is nothing great hut
mind Taking mind to mean rea
SOD that some one might have said
there is nothing great in mind bur
its search after truth. In this quesI
tionlies mans happiness
The positive and persistent unsat-
isfed desire to know is as much d
part of mans existence as is his de-
sire for food. To learn is to live.
The intellect without food win just
as surely destroy itself as will the
body without food.
To employ reason to discover the
great truths of God. of nature and
of man is to give it a task which is
only completed in eternity.
This natural and legitimate pur-
suit of the truth. imposes Il duty
whose mandate is as stern as the
laws of nature: whithersoever the
search leads, the philosopher must
not falter or turn back.
Isaac Newton might have said i
/ have reached the summit of hu-
man knowledge, / tread where newer
man trod before From this pima
Gle / catch a glimpse of the sunny
shores of truth and the glittering
spires of the city of knowledge flash
before my enraptured vision. But
n6ssaeh ecstafic self gretalst'en falls
from his lips.
\ Three fourths of all that is. written
to-day on the psychological or super
natural is mere theorizine and some
of it the most absurd speculation.
Herbert Spencer after writing FIVE
thousand pages Of what he knows,
has come to the conclusion that he
knows nothing niha agnosco.
That there is such thing as rev.
elation the distinguished agnostic
bitterly denies, for that would be to
place the God of superstition on a
throne raised higher than the gor-
geous seat Of sovereign reason. How
often is it true the daring mariner
trusting to the chart of reason TO
guide him through the misty chan
nels of the ministerial, has been
driven into the seething vortex of
skepticism.
In the natural sciences the known
seems greater in extent than the I'M
known. but does the discovered equal
the undiscovered. A moments re-.
Election forcestthe answer-no. The
scientist asks the question what
but he does not answer it.
Physical science and Metaphysics
do not embrace the whole of the
movable. Other waters beat against
our shores and invite yea compel a
voyage over their dark wave. Press
and pulpit, soldier and statesmen,
prison and parlor, brains and Drawn
must engage in the mighty work Of
reducing our social chaos to order
and harmony. How to paeify labor,
how to be just to capital, how to
treat the liquor traffic, what to do
with the negro, how to adjust duties
and political social and problems
are yet unsolved.
He cannot stand still: though he
make no progress he must move. Ed
dies have motion as well as currents.
A warning voice goes up. Keep out
Of the eddies. Get in the current Or
discover new channel. Drive. do
not drift.
/ This is the reward. Why should
we tremble2 It is with voice of
exultation, with breast swelling with
the pride of manhood. with tears Of
JOY dimming the eye and choking
the utterance, the. whole soul thrill
ed with the glorious prospect, trnst-
ing in God, reason and revelation we
sail forth on the Ocean of Truth that
lies undiscovered before Us.