Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1908-07-03


analysed and described, and takes up
her home anew in that which is still
mysterious. No man prays at an
oracle whose utterances are reduced
to system, nor continues long his
habits of devotion when their effect is
fully explained by psychological laws.
In vain they bid us call an "act of
God " that which is perfectly under
stood. If God thunders by law, the
thunder is not his voice, as the old
time children of the forest heard it.
The dryads no longer fill the recesses
of the wood we know the woods too
well. The nymphs departed from the
waterfalls when men grew bold to
explore them. The divine is ever in
the unknown and mysterious, upon
which the common hands of investiga-
ton have not yet been laid. Faith is
the pioneer that pushes out into the
regions of mystery, and brings back
vague and marvellous reports, which
challenge inquiry and form new sub
jects for investigation.
Men at one time worshiped fire.
How marvellous the flame flashing
from the sky, at places belching from
the earth, tearing up great trees, con-
Stunning the grass Of the far-stretching
plains With awe and wonder the
early peoples sought to receive good at
the hand of fire, and to save them
selves from harm at its hands they
designated men to care for it, to pre-
pare their offerings to it, and to pro-
pitiate it. Thus they learned to con-
troll the fire and use it, and when the
fire became their servant, they sought
another god. Worship led to knowl-
edge religion advanced civilization.
In the great plain of Babylonia,
where the circle of the earth is so vast
and the inhabitants but as grasshoppers,
men worshiped the stars, believing
that the heavenly bodies controlled
the destinies of individuals and nations.
They studied the movements of sun
and moon, and the laws of planetary
motion, in religious longing to attain
good and assert the rule of the spirit,
and from that study, with its religious
motive, the sciences of mathematics
and astronomy came into being.
In primitive times, when tribes of
hunters or herdsmen roamed the
forests and plains, they thought Of their
clan as the descendants of particular
deity, who would avenge upon the
tribe wrong committed by any men,
Der of it. Thus arose the very idea
of public right. In its earliest stages
law is all intermingled with religious
concepts and usages. Faith laid the
foundation of the temple of justice.
Through long centuries the priests
were the only physicians. The super
fetal observer points to the horrors of
priestly magic in the attempted cure
of disease, and the superstitions that
plague US still because OF the confusion
of physical healing with religious faith.
More carefully studied and more Justly
observed, the science of medicine had
its beginning in the crude attempts of
religious men to deliver humanity from
its enemies. The impulse was reli-
gious; in religion medicine had its
birth.
Chemistry betrays its religious origin
in the superstitions of alchemy.
Sculpture was at one time piety, music
was worship, all art was devotion to
the gods. Religion has been the
mother of beauty and the resourceful
pioneer of progress. In his heroic en-
deavor to conquer the world, in his
resolution to attain good despite all
powers Of evil, man has reduced to
law one after another the provinces of
information to which his attention has
been attracted, pressed ever farther
back the borders of the unknown,
made himself continuously master of
new arts, victor in new fields.
They are vigorous and independent
children whom religion rears, and they
refuse to abide under the surveillance