The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-16
THE N0NPAREJL MAN

T6E MVMfAkEJl MAN
How the WheeIerian Philosophy Proves
Man to Be cipherIess Cipher with the
Rimless Rim Knocked Off-The s'Auto-
biography Of the Ego,'' Which IL Easily
Shown Up to Be NothingIess Noth-
ing, Not Even Conscious of Its Own
Nescience.
A cipher with the rim knocked off, one
Charles kirkland Wheeler, has issued a
little volume called 1.-THE Autobiography
of the / or Ego; or the Metaphysics of
an Interloper and Inposter, Himself in
the Role of Confessor." If we seem to
speak harshly of Mr.. Wheeler when we
refer to him as a zero with the rim re-
moved, it is not we who do this Mr..
Wheeler in his book removes his own rim
and glories in it. This rimless condi-
ton on the part Of the zeroesque au
thor is disclosed in the first chapter,
which is entitled MY Awareness of My
SELF and is nothing less than an at
tempt to wipe out the existence of the
human race.
The Berkeleyan philosophy cast doubt
on the reality OF the external world from
which it has never recovered, but the
Wheelerian metaphysics goes step fur
ther than the Berkeleyan and casts a
doubt on the existence Of man himself.
'.The present work is in effect" says the
author, "a disserta ton to show that the
ego, as referring to the subject, as dis
tinguished from the object, is not; which
is to say that I am not that you, the
reader, are not self-conscious, nor even
conscious, yet that we are SO sure that
we are; that only the thinker-which is
not you nor lis conscious, and not even
he Cor it) is self-conscious; to show. in a
word, that, that we are conscious and
Iself-conscious is all illusion and even
all delusion. except as we reason our
selves into a knowledge Of the illusion as
only the illusion that it isl
Some old philosophical duck back in
the obscurities Of the past once thought
that he proved his existence by the
phrase. "Cogito, ego sum-" II think,
therefore I am Mr.. Wheeler seems to i'm
prove on this by a "Cogito. sed non sum-"
Il reason. but I am not" Hence Mr..
Wheeler does not exist.
Then, confound his non existent pic
ture, what is he getting out a book for?
Since we are not, we refuse to buy it,
Anyone who removes our nice, comfort
able rim in that way can hardly expect us
to go down into our pocketess pocket and
fish up our coinless coin for the proof1ess
proof that we are ourselves an itless It.
Go to!
and may flood the body with sunlight as
advertised but after it gets thru flooding
the same old causes that made the trouble
before remain and will continue in oper-
alton. The better way to get light in
the body is given in the old recipe, eff
thine eye be single, thy whole body shall
be full of light
! Little Mary "Barriette," is dividing
the opinion of dramatic critics in New
York. On the one hand. we are informed
the play is the best comedy in recent
years, IAN exquisite little masterpiece
of potent interest to free and sensitive
minds" Especially is the first act "a
delicious fantasy on the passion Of moth
! erhood." ga positive idyl'' This same
/ delicious fantasy and positive idyl''
is, to believe another, only "tawdry sem
timentalism,' the whole play is sac
charine to safety, an unspeakable crea-
! ton ''al mOonshine and tears AS be-
tween Barrie and Ibsen, give us p play
where the ceiling falls on the comedian,
where the f1eshy lady gets caught between
the elevator and the floor and where
! nearly everybody gets slapped with a bed
i STAT Something doing there!
The sea of Azof is drying up This is
where the sea lays over the United States
senate. ----....
Peary says that the beauty of pole sehas-
ing Is that it is full of the pleasures of
anticipation unmarried by the disappoint-
ments of realization. Lieutenant Peary
ought to have come into his life the great
joy of chasing a street car and just miss
ing it.
Here is story so good that we steal i,
outright. DR.. Henry Van Dyke has a
daughter Dorothy who has just arrived al
f1,o for 1,<1J
father came to her one evening and said
See here, Dorothy, I don't like young
Freshman's coming here SO much. Next
time he makes you a visit just give him
the cold shoulder But, papa, he is a
vegetarian answered the unabashed
! Dorothy
The Brooklyn Eagle recently hunted
up Gottfried Westernacher, the new
bridge commissioner. The Eagle says that
/ Gottfried confesses that he doesn't know
much about bridges, for his business is
in weinstube. in Vihelmsperg. But
the commissioner is good man and he
weighs 300 pounds.
The thoughtless person desireth to see
the feshy man take the slippery place on
the unsanded sidewalk. but the wise man
foreseeth the jolt and holdeth fast to the
i fence.
| A few rough riders could jump those
/ Colombian mountains and eat up the Co.
| lombian army before it had a chance to
! be stepped on by a panic among the
| comm1ssary mule corps
YES said the wise doctor as he looked
over the pale lady, "You are suffering
from boudoritis. I mean you ought to
camp a while out of doors in the pine
woods" The pale thing resented this, but
after thinking it over. she decided that
perhaps her life was trif1e artificial so
she went up to her room and threw out of
! the window bottles of hair tonic, tooth
paste, mouth wash. cold cream, vaseine,
camphor ice, compound glycerine cream,
lait virginia., freckle lotion, liquid face
powder, almond meal lip salve. seafoam.
toilet powder, perspiration powder, smell
ling salts, aromatic vinegar, milk of al
monds, depilatory, pomade philicom, BAN
doline, complexion waters and ten diff
| ferent kinds of perfumes.
And yet those were the effects and not
the cause of her state Of health. STILL she
is some better now. "A. J. r.
LoWLY END OF A FAMOUS SHIP