Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-09-06
SCIENTISTS IN Session
Interesting Meeting Con-
venes at Saratoga.

Dr. KingsbuTy Delivers the Opening
Address and Talks on Tho Reign
of the Law"-Do Those in Great
Battles Know Anything Of the
Fight as a Whole?
Saratoga, N. Y, Sept. 4.-The gen
eral meeting of the American Social
Science association convened at eight
o'clock last evening in the Town Hall
courtroom. The opening address was
made by the president, +. j. Kings
bury, LII. D., of Waterbury, Conn.
The subject was THE Reign of Law"
Or. Kingsbury's paper opened with d
description Of a battle in Tolstoi's S
novel; War and Peace" where Is
pointed out graphically that the most
of those engaged in great battle,
even commanders of regiments, bat
teries, brigades and army corps, know
nothing of the battle as whole They
see only what is being enacted in their
presence.
1t is theirs not to reason why.
Theirs but to do and die"
To hold a position. assault a line, or
ordered elsewhere. In the end they
are surprised to learn that a little
thing, apparently of no moment at the
time, was the turning point. and they
find themselves heroes without know
Ing 1t. This key to the whole was In
the mind OF the general whose orders
they had obeyed. To a fair extent,
this has been our conception of the
battle of life. 1t was the Hebrew eth
les that came to US with our religion,
but generally a reign of law has been
interpused between us and Providence.
The rationalism of the west has super
scded the fatalism of the east, and
man has been made to feel that his
destiny is In his own hands-that he
must work out his own salvation;
that he has all the responsibilities of
OmntECicnce without the power The
myth Of the Sphinx, one of the oldest
In literary history contains the lesson
that no divine power interferes TO
save men from the consequences of
their own follies, even In ignorantly
violating natures laws, but a reign
of law" ineXorably condemns them to
pay the penalty
Further on, DIR. Kingsbury alluded
to the great cities of the ancient orient
Babylon, Nineveh, Baalbec Jerusa-
lem and even ROme-and drew from
their history. decadence and ruin the
Inference that they persisted largely
from the ignorance or neglect by their
rulers and populace of the laws of
health by which they were environed
and from the fact that they had no
internal redemption agencies to recup-
crate them when assailed by foreign
enemies. Unlike the Paris Of this CEN
tury, they had no enlightened citizens
who could rebuild and reinWgorate
their city after having been three
times held by a foreign cunuueror.
Take" said DR., Isingsbury, the
case of our own civil war Can any
body to-day tell how 1t might have
been aVerted. We can see the mighty
stretch by which our nation has ad-
vauced since peace resumed her sway.
Yet, we are as much In the dark as
ever as to how we may avert future
interneolne troubles. Finally, is our
system of the conduct of life radically
wrong, or do we come back from
whence we started working out the
divine purposes which are best for us,
under the declarations of the poet
There is a divinity that shapes our
ends, rough hew them as we may No
proper institution viii make a decent
government, without a law-abiding
Iaw-fearing people back of it,"
The annual report of General Secre.
tary Frank b. Sanborn, of Concord
Mass, was then read.