The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1906-10-26


OF the world. The one thing that
every man knows with the conviction
OF absolute certainty is the fact OF
his own existence. II the self is not
known, nothing can be. Yet no one
ever with the eye Of sense saw him
self thinking or willing or feeling.
But he has as much confidence in
his selt-perceptiOns as in his sense
! perceptions. Faith in our intultions
OF nature, Of man and OF God, is the
. condition OF physical science. psyche
/ logical science and the science OF
religion.
Without faith in sense-impressisns
we become idealists Without faith
I in self-impress!Ons we become ag-
/ nostics Without faith in religious
Impressions we become materiallsts.
/ Faith Is impossible without evidence,
/ and as sound and valid evidence is
! needed for our faith In God as for
! our faith in the world But the evil
/ dence faith demands is not such as
/ the reason presents, but such as the
/ lntuitions present
Nature, man and God, the three
terms which represent the entire sum
/ Of reality, must each be taken at the
! outset on faith based on the evidence
/ Of sense-intution, self-intuition and
religious intuition. Physical science
is the knowledge Of nature; but be-
fore the intelligence can make use Of
the cOgnitions Of sense out of which
TO form 1t, nature itself must be ac-
cepted by faith We must believe
that God is before we can ever use
the intuitiOns of Him to make theo-
| logical science.
I &c "a 4
Which bids eternal truth be present
fact"
In denying the existence Of God 10
begin with. we close the door Of the
spirit through which God manifests
Himself. If we start out with the
understanding that there is no God,
religious perceDtions are strangled in
their very birth. OF course, We can
have no perceptions Of God if we mu-
tilate the noblest part Of our nature
by putting ont the eyes Of the relig-
iOus s"nsa. We have il within our
power TO destroy our physical senses.
We can plug up our ears and shut
the windows OF vision and close all
the doors through which the outside
world imDresseS us. But one foolish
enough 70 destroy his physical senses
would be dOubly stupid if he imag-
ined afterward that he had more
commerce with reality than those
who kept open all the gateways OF
the body and soul.
Haeckel says that human nature
which eXalts itself into an image of
God has no more value
for the universe at large than an ant
or the fly Of summers day"
Unless the knowledge man gets OF
himself and the world and God by
the reaction of intelligence on per-
ceptiOus is valid and trustworthy,
Haeckel is right; man is not Of more
value than the ant, or the fly of a
summers day. He is not of as much
value as the bee, or the beaver, or
the tailor bird; for they are all art
lists without the trouble Of learning
how to be, while he is left to accumu-
late knowledge as best he can by the
use OF his faculties They know at
the beginning what 1t has taken him
thousands of years to find out, and
even now the bee surpasses him in
the application of the principles Of
mathematics.
If what man knows, or thinks he
knows, Of the world and himself and
God is illusion, then the lower ami
mails have the advantage of him. The
knowledge built into their bodies
does correspond with the facts with
which they have 10 deal. They are
not disappointed and deceived The
flock of wild geese from the Northern
lakes have always found the South
they felt in their blood was there.
The beaver has always found the
mud responsive to his tail, and the
wood of the tree no harder than his
teeth could cut. But, If the cogni-
rion5 of man do not correspond 10
things, but are hallucinations, phan-
tasW2l forms of his own conscious
ness, then the bears and tigers and
beavers and bees and ants and gnats
have the advantage of him. Human
beings who have exalted themselves,
rs Haeckel says, into images of God,
are the greatest fools, and the only
fools. on earth. The universe puts
a higher value on genuine flat-footed
tigers, who find as they roam on all
tOurS the jungles matching their
every want and ant cipating their
every item of constitutional knowl-
edge. than upon the so-Called lords OF
creation, who have only climbed to
the top of animated existence i'm their
cONCeit They are like a company OF
plain labOrers, imagining themselves
TO be King Georges, and, instead OF
occupying thro" IS. as they think they
do, they are perched upon stools in
the different rooms OF an insane asy-
lum. 1t were better to be good
healthy tiger in the tall cane of the
swamp any time than 10 be a crazy.
salf-iunated, self-conceited descend
,,,t ,f NJor,, yt,ppfrnu a in tha
high places Of existence. IL were bet
ter to be a real COW, grazing in the
meadow. than an unreal human
hiued. walking with his head full Of
Gelusions in a paradise Of fools