Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1901-03-29

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CANTON. SOUTH DAKOTA.
The Conditions Of Death.
Concerning the great change which
We call death, the common lot OF all,
the demi mysterious vale which love
tries 90 painfully to penetrate. very
rensrkable diversity Of views con.
tinues to prevail. The Western Roman
CathoHc Church still breaches, the i'm
nortahty, not only Of the soul; but
also of the body; the Protestant
churches teach the immortality Of the
som under physical conditions which
are not defined; the 6wedenborgians
and the spiritualists maintain that the
spiritual life is . continuance Of the
present one under what may be called
ethereal or etheric conditions. and the
Christian Scientists declare that huanan
life is wholly spiritual phenomenon
the actual conditions before and after
death being practically the same.
It 10 Of much interest, therefore, to
note the very remarkable changes
which have recently taken place in the
views of science concerning tIis pro-
blem of all problems. It seems not un-
likely, from the signs of the present,
that science, with it's calm and cool
/ method, will very shortly harmonize
all these varying views and set at rest
all controversy over this question for a
long time to come.
The wavs of agnostic infidelity, the
scientific "reign of terror" as the old
Duke of Argyll called it,, began to form
about 1870. The announcement Of
Darwin's discovery, the descent Of man,
found religion unprepared with the
scientific weapons necessary to van
lquish a new and unexpected enemy,
land agnosticism won battle after battle
in the reviews with that braggart and
swaggering insolence which always
makes for converts among the mob.
More important still, the sciences oi
Mental Physiology and Psychology
Immediately succumbed to the new
philosophy, and the Immortality Of the
soul, for quite ten years, seemed likely
to go the way of the material heaven
and the material hell, which had been
abandoned as concepts Of the Christian
faith. III.
This was due to the school of mental
'physiologists represented by Ribot,
Maudsley and Hammond. who, In their
different ways. made streaaous efforts
70 prove that Consciousness, Memory
and Will were purely vital processes,
\ were results Of vital aetisn and
though this was for the reader to see-
could not possibly have any existence
Independently Of the body which bad
generated and developed them. All
this. with tho Darwinisn Theory for q
background, was for time very con.
|wincing.
Its results were visible in tie writ
ling Of Huxley in England ed the
lectures Of Ingersoll in this coautry.
4 It affected the tone Of the press to Z
n very marked degree, and made deep
! public impression. both in England and
4 America, which still continues to exist
at the present time.
Another miner hut important result
Was the fact that all the graduates Of
the great medical universities of Eu.
rope through this period were agnos,
tics. The old school doctors did their
best. and left the result with Provi.
dence. The new school did their bes,
and left the result with the vitality Of
the patient
This state Of affairs endured, roughly
speaking. for about twenty years, till
1890. The natural reaction then set in
and it quickly became manifest that
the zeal Of new converts to . truth that
had not been digested had carried
thinkers to IN extreme which wa
illogical and absurd; psychology quick.
ly reverted to the position Of Professor
James, of Harvard, that the psychical
processes could mot possibly be ex.
pressed in terms of matter and that the
soul must certainly be Disseminated
from the vital principle governing the
body.
Then came Wundt with the theory,
admirably, presented and sustained.
that the psychical life is not the result
of the physical organization, but the
physical organism 10 itself psychical
creation. This was IN .intirely new
aspect Of the Dsrwinian philosophy and
was strenously fought BY the materi-
alists. +. .s,.S
They were in q bad IL not hopeless
dilemma, however. Man had been ex.
isting on earth for certainly one hund-
red years, if not very much longer.
During that time he had not altered
structurally, 80 far az could be seen.