The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1910-12-08

of the mind of man. Philosophy has
been defined to be "the contemplation
of death" This means in effect that
the best thoughts of the greatest
thinkers were upon this subject. The
poet Burns has called it "the poor
mans friend" yet rich and poor, pow
erful and lowly, prince and pauper, eX-
pcrience alike its dread pangs and
pass from scenes of earth. Byron
that restless, untamed spirit whose
whole life was a stormy pilgrimage
said when the end came, ! must sleep
now," and Hamlet the brain weary
Dane was afraid of the sleep of death
because of the dreams that might
come. Napoleon after facing the war
spirit of all Europe represented by
its grandest armies and touching
elbows with death on a hundred bat
tletields paid the penalty which time
claims from humanity, alone and
protected from danger, on the isle
of st Helena. And our own McKin-
ley met death through an assassin's
bullet while on a mission of peace
Thus it has come to all through every
age from the earliest to the present,
and We in our turn must meet the
"pallid messenger with the inverted
torch" and respond to his beckoning
TO depart When or how we do not
know-only this, that the time will
come.
If science had demonstrated the
reason of our being, or the course Of
our passage hereafter, or if learning
or revealed and accepted knowledge
made certain the answer to the ques-
tions which suggest themselves in
each active mind on these subjects
then the meeting would be devoid
OF the mystery and uncertainty of its
results. They have not done So,
born in an age in which civilization
has reached the acme of its develop
ment. Education, religion, morality,
patriotism and all their resulting in
fuencos have reached a higher plane
and serve to put us of this generation
on a higher level than was reached
even by the Greeks in their golden
age, or than was dreamed of by Moore
in constructing the imaginery of his
Utopia.
And all of that progress together
with all of the advancement in every
line of mental, moral and physical
effort, not only since that time but
during all the 5000 years Of recorded
time are ours today, with only the
burden to us of reading them-Of
examining the records. We are in
trrth "tho heirs of all the ages and
it is ours to benefit by the learning
and the experience of each. All the
lands of earth have been discovered
and explored, and all the treasures
which it contains have been brought
forth for the comfort and convenience
of its people. And not to earth
alone has man confined his search
for knowledge, But the stars are
named and charted-the elements of
air and earth and water have been
separated and studied all the forces
of nature have been made subserv-
lent to the uses and the demands of
our time and even the human body
has been dssected and examined un-
til whatever Of mystery it formerly
contained has been discovered and
explained and recorded in books.
The discovery of these facts and the
demonstration of these truths have
entailed effort and sacrifice even to
the giving of human life itself, and
We as the proud possessors of the
means of all of this knowledge may
we'll feel that no former period in
all the worlds history can compare
even in small way with ours in the
position which it had attained or the
advantages which it possessed.
Yet here today We are considering
life and its ending with the same
measure of uncertainty and the same
degree of mystery that marked the
thoughts of our forefathers on the
subject. We go back through the dim,
dusty corridors of the centuries and
standing side by side with the pa
triarchs of each even to the first we
ask them that q, old question, IF
man die sh' live again." Is
there a lane end the tomb in
which our . ace shall be contin-
ued or doe cry life, even the
grandest ani noblest, end with
death? And each in turn will answer
that not science nor discovery, nor
philosophy have been able to solve
the problem nor has civilization Who'll
ly agreed upon even theory which
might take the place of fact; but
each will add to his answer that the
greatest and best and noblest lives
Of each generation have been lived
n the first belief that there is here.
after, that life and death are not the
be-all and the end-all of eXictence-
that there has been in each race, in
every century and under every sun,
a belief, a faith in a supreme power
in a God who rules not earth alone
but the other planets as well and who