The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-07-20
Has No Confidence in Regulation
by Law, Of Human Sentiment.
EDUCATION NEEDED.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox Says
Science Cannot Replace Love
Anymore Than Electricity Can
Supplant Sunlight.


do I believe that science will do away
with sentiment as a basis of love and
marriage?
ut was thought at one time by many
that science would do away with poetry.
that it was the enemy of the imagination.
We know that it is not true. We know
that it goes hand in hand with magma
ton. We know that it is in the high de-
gree poetic, and that the old ideas once
considered so beautiful are stale.
Compare Keppler's laws with the old
Greek idea that the planets were pushed
by angels. The more we know, the more
beauty and poetry we find. Ignorance is
not the mother of the poetic or the artis-
tic. So some people imagine that science
will do away with sentiment. In my
judgment science will not only increase
sentiment, but sense.
70 "A person will be attracted to another
for a thousand reasons; and what person
is attracted to another may,
and in some degree will, depend upon the
intellectual, artistic and ethical develop
ment of each.
1.-The handsomest girl in Zululand might
not be attractive to Herbert Spencer, and
the fairest girl in England might not be
brave. This does not prove that there is
any lack of sentiment. Men are influence
ed according to their capacity, their tenn
permanent and knowledge.
Some men fall in love with a small
waist, an arched instep or curly hair
without the slightest regard to mind or
muscle. This we call sentiment.
NOW, educate such men, develop their
brains, enlarge their intellectual horizon,
health and then they may fall in love
with women because they are developed
grandly in body and mind. The senti-
ment is still there, still controls, but back
of the sentiment is science.
Sentiment can never be destroyed, and
love will forever rule in the human race.
Thousands, millions of people, fear
that science will destroy not only poetry,
not only sentiment, but religion. This
fear is idiotic. science will destroy sup
erstition, but it will not injure true re-
ligion. Science is the foundation of real
religion. Science teaches US the conse-
quences of actions. the right and duties of
all. ..-.
''On1y those who live on the labor of the
ignorant are the enemies of science; real
love and real religion are in no danger
from science. The more we know, the
safer all good things
do I think that the marriage of sickly
and the diseased ought to be prevented
by law?
ST have not much confidence in law, in
law that know can be carried out. The
poor the sickly, the diseased, as long as
they are ignorant, will marry and help
fill the world with wretchedness and
want.
1--WE must rely on education instead of
legislation.
1--WE must teach the consequences of
such actions. We must show the siclkly
and diseased what their children will be.
We must preach the gospel of the body.
I believe the time will come when the
public thought will be great and grand
that it will be looked upon as Infamous
to perpetuate disease, to leave a legacy
of agony.
81 believe the time will come when men
will refuse to fill the future with con-
sumption and insanity. Yes, we will
study ourselves. We will understand the
conditions of health and then we will say
We are under obligation to put flags
of health in the cheeks of our children.
Even if I should get to heaven and
have a harp I know that I could not bear
to see my descendants still on the earth
diseased deformed, crazed. all suffering
the penalties of my ignorance.
Let US have more science and more
sentiment; more knowledge and more con-
science, more liberty, and more love-"
MRS. wILcox's VIEWS.
This is the scientific age.
Not the priest, nor the poet, nor the
monarch, nor even the millionaire, pos
sesses such hold upon the mind of this
world as the scientist. breathless null
titude awaits each development of science
and where of old a new discovery was de-
rided by all save the advanced few, it is
now instantly applauded by all save the
stupid the ignorant.
Science is, indeed, entitled to our re-
spectful homage and our thanks. 1t has
done much for the world. 1t will do much
more in the next century. 1t has blund-
cred, too, and been needlessly cruel many
times. 1t has been egotistica1 and intol-
Grant of all things save itself. Many of
the scientific discoveries, which it claims
as it's own, and records as established
facts today, were made many years pre-
viously by spiritually wise beings, upon
whom science heaped ridicule and sneered
down into the ranks of religious fana-
tics.
But every year science and religion
are coming closer. The time will be when
they shall meet face to face and merge
into one. 1t will be a great day for hui
mainly when this union takes place, as
it surely will.
Meantime, it is sad thing for human
ity when mistaken individuals undertake
to substitute science for love in marriage.
We are hearing a great deal lately about
common-sense marriages. Sentiment is,
by the advanced mind, considered out of
date. We are told that love in marriage
is 'unscientific' and societies are being
formed for the supposed bettering of the
human species, wherein sexual attrac-
ton and emotional affection are disap>
proved of. as incentives to marriage. Hus-
bands and wives are to be selected by