The Frankfort roundabout. [volume] (Frankfort, Ky.) 1882-1908, 1899-01-14

Il
| Devils.
Col. IngersolPs attempts at positive
practical theorizing are sague and
rather unsuccessful. Invited tC
discuss practically social question
by one Of the most influential
reviews In the country, he writes:
"The intelligent of this world seek
the well-being of themselves and
Others. They know that happiness
Is the only good, and this they seek
to obtain. To live In accordance
with the conditions of well-being is
moral In the highest degree"
What Is happiness How is it OBJ
tanned? What are the conditions Of
weIl-being? Gibbon, for example,
weighing Il worlds experience, con.
siders that lax divorce laws, betray
aud foster social depravity. Col.
IngersOll on the contrary considers
the condition OF well-being al =
vanced when marriage becomes u
private, conditional, contract between
man and woman.
But it is In his eulogies on science
that he is most heroically free from
the trammels of experience or of
logical Il priori deductions:
Science" he writes, "seeks to give
food, shelter, raiment, education and
liberty to the human race. 1t wei.
comes every fact and every truth.
II has furnished a foundation to
morals, philosophy for the guidance
of men. 1t reforms through art,
music, and the drama. 1t does not
ask to be protected by law"
This declaration appears simply a
straining for effect at the expense of
scientific exactness and verify. If
Col. Ingersoll accepts ordinary
nomenclature he must regard science
as register of physical sensations
and deductions drawn from them.
Science is purely abstract, as imper-
sonal and impassive as the great
laws 1t registers. 1t no
more gives food and shelter to the
human race than the laws of gravity,
for their own pleasure or profit, mark
time or grind corn.
The application of scientific prin-
ciples by human interest or philan-
thropy undoubtedly bestow great
practical benefits. When ambi-
ion or malice happen to be the
they are quite as efficient
N the construction of gatling guns,
machines or subtle poisons.
Any physician will tell US that
GEOLOGY is much nearer an exact
cience than hygiene. While war
has become daily more mechanical :
md chemical, The offensive Is in
advance of the defensive.
The resistance, Tell and HOfer. !
Wallace and our own Marion offered
o oppression would to-day be scien-
ideally impossible. Batteries pointed
With the telescope annihilates bat
aliOns. A handful of chemicals can
end into fragments the arched
strength of steel or granite. The
,cean rolls menace to second-rate
naval powers. So much for the
philanthropy or even conservatism
If science.
Science no more furnishes
for morals" than a Co
ordination of optical observations
reates the optic nerve or lightwaves.
t has as little to do with Emusic, art
md the drama" AS with morals. 1t
imply recognizes and defines the
forms through which pas
ions, aspirations and the artistic
ense seeks expression. Did the
ules of grammar inspire the genius
# Shakespeare, the elOquence of
Pitt?
Listening to Chopin's funeral
march, where "the intensity OF
mystic hope, the devout appeal to
uperhuman pity, infinite mercy,
Tread Justice, reSOunds and trembleS
With Irresistible vibrations" few, we
imagine, feel inclined to cares the
'ianO, still less to investigate sound
waves at the moment.
A true scientist must "welcOlne
very fact and every TRUTH" but
true scientists are as
are as consistent Christians. The
controversies of the mid
lie ages were scarcely inferior In
itterness to the religious.
1t has even been limited that
terary antagonism, more than
inspired Calvin to inyesti-
ate the murder Of Servetus. 1t was
dentists. not priests, who denounced