Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1895-07-18


around them almost every moment of thci
lives.
And, in fact, this is the most stupcn.
dous wonder in human life. In spite of all
arguments to the contrary urged in differ
ent times by different schools in spite OF
the inability OF reason to penetrate the
veil of mystery which will ever hang be.
tween the scnsuous ana the supcrscnsuous
worlds, man is thoroughly persuaded that
he cannot die.
We may study all our lives, and in the
end fail TO bring the problem of life and
death to tho plano OF rational GcmOnstra
ton, Affirmative or negative. We may talk
or write, preach or teach for or against The
pcrmancncy or sporadicity of human exist.
ence as much as we like; we may become
violent partisans of this side or that we
may invent names by the hundreds, each
moro intricate than its predecessor, and
lull ourselves in momcntary rest under
the dclusion of our having solved the prob
lem once for al--nay, we may cling with
all our powers toanv one of the curious re-.
liCious supcrstitions or the far more dis.
gushing scientific supcrstitons-in the
end we find ourselves playing an eternal
Eamo in the bowling alley of reason and
raising intellectual pin after pin, only to
be knocked over again and again
But behind all this mental strain and
torture, not infrcqucntly productive OF
moro dangerous games than mere play,
stands n fact unchallcngcd and unchal
leugcablc-thc fact. the wonder, which the
Mahabharata points out as the inability Of
our mind to conceive our own annihila
ton.
Even to imarino my own humiliation
will have to stand by and look on as u wit.
ness
Now bororo trving m understand what
this curious phenomenon means we want
to note that ruon this ono fact thc whole
world is standing. The ucrinancrce of the
cxtrrnnl world is inevitably Joined To the
,or,norcnco nf +bc internal and bovcvn,
,l,u.ihlo. any cory of tho univcrsc ,nav
.oo,, ,vLicb dorios Tho rcrn,uorco of ,ha
one and asserts that of the other the very
thcorist will find that in Iii, own mcchan.
ism not one conscious action is possible
without the pcrmancncc OF both the inter
nal and the external worlds being one OF
the factors in the motive cause. Although
10 is perfectly true that when the human
mind transccndS its own limitations il
finds the dualitv reduced TO an indiyisible
unity. on this side of the unconditional
the whole objective world-that is to say,
the world we KNOWS and can be alone
known to us as existing for the subject,
and therefore before we would be able to
conceive the humiliation of the subject we
are bound to conceive the humiliation OF
she object.
80 far it is plain enough. But now
comes the difficulty. Icannot think of NV.
self ordinarily as ANYTHING else but "a body.
Nv idea Of INV own pcrmancncc include.
my idea of myself as "A BODY. But the body
ia obviously ilnpcr1narcnt ms i, the whole
of nature n constantly vanishing quantity.
Where tLrn. i this DermnnonceY
There il one moro wonderful phenomenon
connected with our lives. without which
"who will be ablc to live. who will DO able
to enjoy life "A momcntY" idea of free
dom.
This is tbo lido, that e,,,idoc ovcrv foot
eton of ours ,u,l,ns orr ,novcmon+s nnesi
blc dctnrmipns our rnIotions to coch otbo,
my is tho vc~,, warn and yoof in th,
f,bric of human iirr Tntcllcctuol l,no,yI
cdrc trims to drive If inch nv inch from if.
territory most after most is snntchpd AVA,
from IRIS domains and each strn i mad,
fast and iron hound with the railroodinp
of cnuse and ,frect Rut H. lourhs ,t nj
our ottcmnts and Ia if Icons from abov,
all this massive pile of law and causatio1
with which wctricd to smother if TO death
How can if be otherwise The limited al
WAYS requires n hiuhcr generalization q
the unlimited TO explain itself. The bount
can only be cxplaincd by the free. tn,
caused hy the uncauscd
But again the same difficulty is ais,
/ here. What is free? The BODY. or even tn,
/ mind? 1t is apparent to all that thoy ar,
as much bound by law as ANYTHING else il
the universe.
Now the problem resolves itself into thi
dilemma: Either the whole universe is
/ mass of never ccaSing change and nothin!
more irrcvocably bound by the law o
causati0n, not one particle having unit,
/ of itself, yet is curiously producing an ir
radicablc dcluSion of pcrmancncc and free
dom, or there is in us and in the univcrs
something which is permanent and free
and that the basial constitutional belle
| of the human mind is not dcluson.
1t is the duty of science to explain fact
by bringing them to Il higher gcncraliza
ton. Any explanation, therefore, tina
wants to destroy, first, u part of the fact
given to lie explained in order to fit itsol
to the remainder is not science, whatcvc
else it may be.
Now, any explanation that wants t
overlook the fact of this persistent and al
necessary idea of freedom commits tn
above mentioned mistake of DENYING
portion of the fact in order to explain tn
rest. and is therefore wrong.
The ONLY other alternative possible. then
is to acknowledge, in harmony with on
nature, that there is something in us whic
is free and permanent.