Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-11-23


be a globe and by sailing directly west
he would reach the shores of d new
land.
Lowell, in his poem Oh Columbus.
describes this wonderful power and
process, which opens up the way to
every undiscovered country:
Here am l, for what end God knows. not I:
Westward still points the inexoTable soul;
Here am with no friend out the sad sea,
The beating heart of this great enterprise,
Which, without me would stifen in swift death;
This have mused or, since mine eye could first
Among the stars distinguish and with joy
Rest on that God fed PhHros of the north,
on some blue prOmOntory of heaven lighted
That juts far out into the upper sea;
To this one hope my heart hath cluug for years,
so was | lifted up by my great design"
This great design was the result of
bis mGsing. the unknown unseen
land had become a fact-a reality in
his mind, he was as certain of it's
existence as if he saw it with his
bodily eye.
And so we find every truth there is
in this way. The thoughtful man is
not governed by his senses, he does
not limit his faith to the facts he
ledge is real to him which is the result
of his own reasoning. He does not say,
L cannot know that man is immortal.
his death, that is the language of the
man who has not begun to think In
stead of that he asks. would the death
Of man be reasonable? Is the eX-
tinctiOn Of man consistent with his
development? Would not his death
destroy all the meaning Of his life.
~, nI
Would it not be positively cruel to
annihilate life which has developed
Snch a capacity for enjoyment? This
is how the rational man deals with the
problem Of Immortality, to him it
man should have ideals of a paradise
which does not exist. This is the
method of reason and every man who
has attained rational life must use it,
If we have cast away external author
ity and assert the rights Of reason we
must be consistent, we must refuse to
allow our senses to rule us. reason
must determine what is true, the laws
and activities of the mind must reveal
the truth to us. If we cannot find
anything in the intellectual life Of
man to indicate that he is immortal
/
live as an animal and die like one also.
Let US look into the mind and care
fully watch What goes on there.
What do | know? Am | shut up to
the present moment and do [ see
nothing more than the fact just now
before me? A little reflection will
enable us to answer these questions
We know that we live large part of
our time in anticipatiOn-the mind
has the habit of projecting it's
thoughts into the future, no visible
barriers hinder or limit its movements;
the mind passes from one fact to
anOther-from yesterday to tomorrow
from the past to the future; it can go
back to the condition of the world in
primitive times and can dream Of what
1t may be thousand years hence.
What man knows today will be past
knowledge tomorrow, he has left be-
hind what he discovered yesterday
and has gone to explore the unknown.
This is fact in psychology process
seen by all who study the workings of
the mind. And what truth do we
learn from this process? the truth Of
mans movement toward the infinite
Beyond every limit" says Max Null
Ter 1--WE must always take it for
granted that there is something else:
the reason why we cannot conceive an
absolute limit is because we never
perceive one, if We perceive a square.
the ONLY way we can perceive it is by
perceiving the space beyond it," 1t
is in the very nature of knowledge you
see to lead us on to the infinite
Herbert Spencer understood this when
he said, the idea of the infinite is the
presuppOsitiOn Of all knowledge" "
There is anineXhauStable source which
makes our increase in knowledge
pOsSible: our advancement is by the
attraction of larger idea, and in that
there is present with us an infinite
wisdom: in this way the known and
the unkOnwn are linked together in
our life: the known is the basis upon
which the unknown rests. What [
now experience leads me to expect
other experiences. Our best thoughts
and feelings are prospective, they Sug-
geSt HmitleSS resources within our
reach. We are never satisfied. Our
knowledge is never complete and this
is because Of the presence Of this inf
mite element in man, ever leading him
farther on into the boundless realms
where the divine purpose is seen.
Every spirit" says Emerson "builds
itself house and beyond its world a
heaven" that is the expansion of
mans life-the natural outcome of his
growing knowledge, every increase
enlarges his smind-giyeS him greater
idea, his little world OF matter grows
larger, its cOarSeneSS is transformed by
being made the servant of intelligence,
from mere sensations he rises to re-
flectiOn-tO thought, the real world is
that Of law and order, he behOlds a
purpose OF wisdom in it-a purpose
which stretches into the eternities.
Our knowledge has no ending: no
Interpretation is final: we must seek
fuller light. and in this way we are led
on from stage to stage. one limit after
another is removed, gate after gate is
opened until we learn there are no
impossible barriers to the seeking
mind.
And all this is possible because of
that principle of unity of which |
spoke in the last lecture. If the fu-
ture and unknown were separate from
the present and the known there
would be an impossible gulf and agn0S-
ticism would be inevitable, but this
relation of all parts Of the universe
makes it possible to move out of our
limitations and &C. wherever we may
desire. 1t was because Of this unity
of worlds that Columbus could make
his discovery. Lowell tells Us in a
few words why he broke away from
the limitations Of his native land and
braved the difficulties and perils of a
VOYAGE over uutrdVeled seas: it was
his world-seeking heart, that was the