The herald., 1895-05-07
On Cranks, Dreamers and Other
Crazy Persons
BRILLIANT, STRONG, WITTY
Cranks, Old and New, We're Disposed OF,
Then the Dreamers
Many Clever, Original Thoughts and Beautiful
Sentiments Were Presented in
r1ost interesting Manner

people in the city, were attracted to Unity
church last evening for Rabbi Voorsan-
gers lecture on Cranks, Dreamers and
Other Crazy Persons.
William Pridham presided and intro
duccd the speaker. The lecture, which
was brilliant and logical, full OF witty
turns, yet most virile and extremely in
teresting, was in substance as follows:
The word crank is perhaps oftener on
the lips of the people than any other. 1t
has become associated with mental
persstency or pertinacity that makes an
individual inaccessible to conviction. The
word has run the gauntlet of pathological
transmutation, and as a matter Of fact
the term has, in the common parlance of
the police become associated with class
of persons whose striking peculiarities
indicate to the inexperienced gaze some
mental disorder.
The common experience of society has
set up certain standard of mentality
as we'll as of fashion, and he who, in his
external department departs from the
one CT the other, or both, is usually in
vested with degree Of popularity that
leaves his sound faculties the subject of
debate. 1t is not necessary to argue that
popular opinion is fashioned by prejudice
or by a disagreeable first impression.
rather than by a real knowledge of facts.
In fact. if modern psychologists are
to be believed. this big world consists
of monomaniacs, and we have the agree
able satisfaction of believing or not that
we are all to more or less degree cranks.
1t is not my purpose to speak OF the
cranks OF modern society. There are
enough of them, harmless monomaniacs
Ij.:. Ear,
strutting about in the protective garment
of mental invalids; the former gives
amusement to the mob, the latter i'm
poses for pecuniary gain upon the
credulity of the masses. You have doubt
less met the man who has projected an
air ship, or who can square the circle, the
man who has discovered a demonstration
for an automatic truth. or discovered the
seat of all diseases. or who advises the
president how to govern the United
States.
You know of that other class of poor
individuals whose one idea operates un-
consciously on their temperament, or
who in the persistency OF lntirmity be
come assassins or destroyers of property;
the class to ich belongs q Ravallac. a
Corday. or Guiteau. Then there is the
religious crank, who knows the Bible by
heart, and who, selecting, some phase of
religious Interpretation, becomes cen
WINGED that the destiny of the world CEN
ters in the acceptance OF his doctrine.
The charity crank, who is imbued with
the advocacy of certain need in the
community, and those others who are
cranks in the close investigation of GER
tain scientific phenomena.
Supposing now that a mans peculiar
doctrine suffer deterioration simply be-
cause it cuts deep in accepted and con-
servative truth. Supposng a man is
simply one of the thousand factors of a
~. I,tN I
years after-is he a crank? That is the
class of cranks intend to discuss. Not
the poor maniacs who excite compassion.
but the thinkers. who, in their own time
and generation, were deemed half.witted
peculiar, extraordinary. but whom time
and history have vindicated. OF such
cranks the world has had many. In their
own time they were deemed cranks. low
many of that kind are there IN our own
day, whose ideas will be vindicated by
future generations?
Man may be ajthinking creature. but the
thought is part of himself. 1t is the
thought of his generation, or it is the ex-
perience he has inherited from the past.
Only few-a very few-look beyond the
veil that hides the future and discover
the life that is to pulsate in the arteries
OF coming races. Just as little as a pro-
phet is honored in his own country, is
sage honored in his own time. When we
speculate on the to-be. when we dare
to hold up 10 public vision and thought
new principles that are apt to disturb the
status quo of complacent society. when
we unearth mysterious treasures in the
mine of human thought, we are apt to
meet not only opposition, but contempt
uous doubt and ridicule.
There is tinge of old pagan cpicur-
eanism in all ranks OF society. Wnat
is the use of cudgeling our brains to un-
derstand new thoughts and principles
what boots it to know many things of
which in our daily experience we have
waters of existence and live in perpetual
unrest caused by the absorption of new
thoughts? So reasons the happy world
the thoughtless world, that respects its
institutions and believes them strong,
firm and perpetual. All! What number
of cranks the ages have produced. But
for them truth would have remained an
infant in swaddling clothes. They were
the IN en- whose minds grasped the effects
and forced the world to recognize them.
The man whom you doubt and believe
not, and who persists in his idea. you
deem crank, yet you have witnessed an
entire world laugh at thinking man.
only to afterwards fall at his feet to hail
him master. Abraham was probably
deemed cralk by his Syrian kinsmen.
They had N insane asylum, SO they
drove him ouNtf the country as danger
that this crank has given an after world
the holiest object of its worship. the loft
lest theme of its philosophical contempla-
tion--the unity!
AS Abraham was crank in his day
and generation. so was Pythagoras; but
his wisdom was greater than his pecul-
iarities. and the funny things he taught
that were laughed at in his time were
reverenced and glorified by future gener-
ations. Aside from being an immortal
pioneer in the true science of astronomy,
he was what is called today vegetarian,
and he believed in the TRANSMIT grafton of
souls. in which belief there are two or
three millions of,our own contemporaries,
who are also cranks.
The Greeks had many cranks which
afforded much amusement to the populace.
Greek is dead; its sculputred monuments
are in ruins, but the thoughts of its
cranks are part of human wisdom. You
have all heard of that crank Dogenes,
who lived in tub, bu. who held that too
much luxury and too many comforts de-
graded manhood which in time i'm
piled decadence of citizenship and that
the la ter exposed the state to the in
roads of tits enemies. Pretty sound doc
trine for a crank.
Bacon was Il crank-not the great Sir
Francis. who is charged with having
written some of the Shakespearean
plays by that other crank, Ignatius
Donnely whom. also, the future may
have to vindicate. 1t is Roger Bacon,
the poor friar. who was the greatest
I, ,;r