The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-01-09
Daily Ea9le
NJ. NJ. MURDOCH. Editor.
TIME AND BRYAN.

Mr. Bryan has delivered himself of an
other speech, or. more properly, he has
been delivered of the old one again. L:
this thing to go on forever? When We
say forever, we mean for all time tC
come, sometimes referred TO as the flu
ture, and again, but enormously, as
eternity. The past seems to contain Nc
lesson for Mr.. Bryan. He seems to be
expecting that Time will vindicate his
wisdom. Time is an uncertain quantity
and is prolific only of disappointment.
Bryan expects that Time viii right his
wrongs Time will more likely pickle
1hat expectation in Bryan Of tears.
Speaking of Time recalls the fact that
some STUART Alec, his name may have
been Adam, we ara only certain that ii
wasn't Bryan, and that it was away
back before Time had got fairly started,
summed UP all he knew in the observa-
ton: ''Tempus F'ugit." Later, one Shake
speare pla giar;Zed the gratuitous soph-
ism of the obscure philosopher of anti
guilty by declaring that Time and tide
never known to do anything else. Time
is said to make footprints, 10 run an
hour glass; 10 annihilate space; that IL
has a tooth and also a Scythe; that II
u-ocrastinates and turns backward; mat
it is hollow, beguiling, transporting anu
the like; that it is noiseless, and we
know not what all; but 1t won't prove TO
be the receptacle of MI. Bryans propo-
sitions. The orator from the Platte has
had his chance. and Time has been call
ell, on him. He would do better to agree
with Messrs. Adam and Shakespeare,
the gentlemen quoted as assuming 10
know so much about Time, past, pres
emf and future. In ignoring his failure
in Time past. and counting on the sure
ness of future Time, lie Will get left.
Mr.. Bryan wants to know, you know,
where is that prosperous Time, with It's
great CHUNKS of returned confidence,
promised by the Republican party.
With as much warrant we might ask
Mr.. Bryan, in turn, If Time flies, where
to. and whence? and then nail the IN
terrogatory by the declaration that there
is NO past OF future considered as alb
stract Time. If eternity consists of all
Time past and all Time to come, and
there is nothing of either, which there Is
not, then the Omniscient present Is
eternity. All Mr.. Bryan has to do With
is the Now. 1t is the Everlasting Now.
It never had a beginning and never Will
have an ending. Nobody can have any
thing to do with Time that is past, for
there is no such thing in existence, nor
with Time To come, for as yet there is
no such thing. Having disposed of the
past and present, we come back to the
Everlasting Now, with which Mr.. Bry-
an must deal if he stays in the game.
The first thing for him to comprehend
is that Time doesn't cover the space OF
a minute 1t is encompassed in
single swing Of the pendulum. The last
swing of that pendulum is not, and the
next swing may never be. His Now is
but the tick and took of the clock. The
tick being gone is nothing, the took not
having arrived, may never be anything.
Times infinite magnitude Is en-
braceG by the Everlasting Now, and is
only known, comprehended and felt be-
tween the tick and the took. SO Time
neither flies nor vindicates. ''Tempus'
doesn't "Fugit." 1t simply fingers
around playing the Now, which Now Is
everlastingly on hand. for everybody
and everywhere. 1t only remains for
Mr. Bryan to prove that his Now is Nit,
and further show what there would
have been if there hadn't been any