St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-04-23
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY MEMO"
(Copyrighted.)

Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMo."
(copyrghted)
III were to question each reader there
would be very diverse answers as to
what constitutes the greatest power in
the world. Electricity, steam, dynamite,
volcanic eruptions, would all doubtless
be prime favorites. But name greater
than these-an idea. Ideas are silent but
their power no rending flash OF lightning
ever EQUALS. To speak OF material things
even: the house you inhabit, the clothes
YOU wear, the prepared food you eat, the
monuments YOU admire, are nothing but
ideas materialized. Far back in the ages
some poor shiveling savage added a
riyen piece of wood to the front side of
his cave as an extra protection. Another
of these forgotten benetactors found FIRE
and conserved it by ideas that held it in
subsection, so that it no longer destroyed,
but warmed, cheered and heightened his
DAYS. Then again one OF these ancestors
of ours thought how to add strength to
his arm by means OF club at the end of
it. And since ideas are orderly-much as
stairs by which we cimb-the higher one
possible because the lower one has been
passed, so these early discoveries are the
actual precursors of the home comforts
we enjoy and the machinery that puts
puny man above all powers of nature
organic or inorganic. The old methods
may pass away, both of protecting our
selves from the incemency Of the weather
and of entering into conflict with oppos-
ing forces but the new methods are SIM
ply built upon the old that have served
their purpose and led to higher things.
Rut when we come to ideas that are
not merely material but mental and splr-
itual, the power to turn and change and
reform is even more remarkable and won
derful in its silence and its might. The
government to which you owe allegiance.
the peace and orderliness of life, the spir-
itual impulses that sway us are all the
outcome of ideas that have taken their
origin like some mighty stream in an OBJ
scure and hidden spot that leads on to
growth as it flows. Take the idea of
God, for instance-when the savage saw
the power OF the wind and the waterand
the seasons his idea was that they were
living beings who could be pleased orirri-
tated, and he named them variously and
worshiped them. But gradually grew
up the conception in the national mind,
of power over and above these material
signs of power and that was worshiped
as the God over all other Gods. Yet
while the tribe or the nation remained
stationary God was for it alone aud not
for other peoples. Each nation pre-
empted to itself the right and control o
the true God or Gods. For long agestht
thought OF the Fatherhood Of God ano
the brotherhood of man did not so mucl
as dawn upon the human mind-no
even the Hebrew mind. But when fierc
wars, followed by peaceful administra
lions broke down the walls of partition
between nations, the idea gradually be
gan to grow among thoughtful mind
that it was possible for nations to co
operate with one another and this yer,
tendency to cooperate paved the way 10
the prevalence OF the All-Father idea tina
now entered the human mind. And nov
is sweeping through the heart of tn
world the feeling that God and his reve
lation is in some measure found amon
all peoples and all religions. What fur
ther ideas are yet to be regarding tb
length, the breadth, the height of God
nature of mercy and tender interest, n
man can tell. But this we know, tn
human mind is growing broader, and tn
human heart is warming into brotherl
ness in our day; we also know that 70
and are living now, and it is ours t
live, think, and act broadly as becomet
the dawn of new century.
Again look at our government. W
strive here for the maximum OF libert
and the minimum of restraint upon tn
individual. but it would be absolut
fooishness to assert that the breadth {
our constitution is all due to the clea
vision and emancipated minds of til
founders of the republic. Rather let II
acknowledge that the ideas they ha
were simply an orderly development
from thoughts that had been stirrin
human hearts for ages under all sorts {
diverse conditions - back to Magn
Charta, back to Alfred the Great, bac
to Charemange, back to Caesar, back t
Homer, back to Moses, and even to pr
historic imagings and aspirations.
How thrilling to recognize the powt
OF thought and our share in it. Whe
first we come to realize that we have a
identity of our own we eagerly seek OF
other peoples ideas and take them
ourselves as part of our mental an