The Irish standard., 1897-01-23
Brann Gives Some Of the Po-
liticaf Economists a Piece 90
of His rlind.
The Less a rlan Knows the rlore
Anxious He is to Enligl1t-
en- the World.
When The People Ask for Dump
lings They Do not Want an
~ = 80
Essay OH Digestion.

The following extract is taken from
Brann's Iconoclast:
eve are beset with problems. The
characteristic symbol of the age is the
question mark. Our patron saint is the
sphinx" % :.
These be not the words of "Vocal Will
lie," "Pitchfork Tillman" or Anarchist
Altgeld;" but the lines with which Rev.
George Hodges, dean of the Theological
School, Cambridge, opens series OF pro-
found lectures on the tendencies Of the
times I have not read all the deans
discourses; but the statement made by
careful reviewer that he 'disavows any
intention of speaking with authority
on these intricate questions, makes me
! eager to do so. I always feel i'll at ease
in the presence of Omniscience-long to
sneak out and commune with mere NOR
tails who are not altogether infaAible.
That is why I avoid those reformers
who know it all, the puryeyors of pana-
ceas--those who propose to remodel our
entire social system and drag the indus
trial millennium in by the ears. I am
purblind crepuscular animal, and cannot
stand the glare Of that great white
light which beats upon the thrones of
those sociological demi-gods who con-
slider a reiuvenescence of Golden Age,
"a warke it VS. as easie to be doone
I AS tvs to saye, JACKIE! robys on
/ have noticed that the closer man
examines those complex social questions
with which we are confronted that the
more brain-power he brings to bear upon
them the less inclined he is to speak ex
cathedra. 1t is usually the fellows who
absorb their information from the pre-
scription department of a political party,
and the feculent vomitings of partisan
press, who are most eager to relieve the
Almighty of his occupation and assume
control of the universe. These are the
Magi who point the way from the dark
valley of Doubt to the sunny mountains
of Gertrude to men who have labored
long and earnestly to familiarize them
selves with every phase of the social
contract; who have striven with all
their strength to trace each effect to it's
efficient cause To the ne'er-do-well, the
street-corner psilologist and other empty
gab-traps and chronic failures it is easy
enough to say, physician, heal thyself;"
but there is another class we'll nigh an
noisy and equally ignorant, with which
it is more difficult to deal. / refer to
those who have accumulated more or
less cash by trading in tape and tripe,
selling soap and sad-irons, harvesting
hoop poles or planting hogs, loaning
money at usurious interest or sitting on
their hunkers while others built towns
and cities around their realty holdings.
They are too much addicted to saving
the world by the science of definition.
resembling those who "by geometric
scale do take measure Of pots of ale"
They give us long disquisitions on the
claw of rent" the !.'law of interest" the
s'origin and use of money! ETC.; all OF
which is very curious and entertaining
for those who have time for it, but is
emphatically that philosophy which
bakes no bread. When first informed Of
the existence of the claw of interest" ,"
the world must have felt as did Moliere's
NJ. Jourdain, who was surprised to learn
from his professor of languages that he
'had been talking prose all his live with
out knowing it." Taking the social ma
chine apart simply to name It's COM
ponent parts were much like analyzing
an apple that the schoolboy may know
what he is eating. What the latter wants
is to have pointed out to him the path
to the orchard that he may fill his pod"
with fall pippins. The people ask for
dumplings and are given an essay on
digestion. knowledge is power say
the old copy-books; but that depends.
The knowledge that labor is the creator
of all wealth has enabled no slave of
toll. to help himself out, Of the hole.
When TennysOn declared that "knoWl-
edge. comes, but wisdom fingers" :" he
must have been contemplating theseco2
nomic metaphysicians. But perhapsI
do the professors Of political economy an
injustice. When man Of mediocre
mind is seized with tervenf desire to
know God he joins church, gets relig-
ion, a becomes phrenetic defender of
some foolish faith. and sis ready 70 per-.
s,,eeente those N 30 hold q ppini Ions;