The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1917-06-08

I have got me fountain pen. have
always disliked the device, but my old
stub had to go. / burned it In the
fireplace. The ink keep under lock
and key. shall see If cannot put
stop to these lies that are being writ
ten about me. And l have other plans.
1t is not true that I have recanted. l
still believe that l live in a mechanical
universe. 1t has not been proved 9TH
erwise to me, for all that have peered
over his shoulder and read his mali
cious statement to the contrary. He
gives me credit for no less than aver
age stupidity. He thinks 1 think he
is real. How silly. I know he-is
nothing more.
There are such things as hallucina-
tons. Even as looked over his shout
der and read, I knew that this was
such q thing. If I were only well 1t
would be interesting. All my life I
have wanted to experience such phe-
And now it has come to me.
shall make the most Of it. What Is
1t can make something
where there is nothing. How can any
thing be something where there Is
How can anything be some
thing and nothing at the same time?
leave 1t for the metaphysicians to
ponder. I know better. No schOlastics
for me. This is real world and ev-
erythfng in it is real. What is not real
is not. Therefore he is not. Yet he
tries to fool me into believing that he
is-when all the time I know he has
no existence outside of my own brain
cells.
saw him today, seated at the desk,
writing 1t gave me quite a shock, be-
cause 1 had thought he was quite dis
PEELED. Nevertheless, on looking stead
lily, found that he was not there-the
old familiar trick Of the brain. have
dwelt too long on what has happened.
I am becoming morbid, and my old in
digestion is limiting and muttering.
shall take exercise. Each day I shall
walk for two hours.
It is impossible. I cannot exercise.
Each time 1 return from my walk, he
Is sitting in my chair at my desk. 1t
grows more difficult to drive him away.
It is my chair. Upon this insist. 1t
was his, but he is dead, and it is no
longer his. How can one be fooled by
the phantoms of his own imagining |!
There is nothing real in his apparition.
[ know it. l am firmly grounded with
my fifty years of study. The dead are
dead.
And yet, explain one thing. Today,
before going for my walk, 1 carefully
put the fountain pen in my pocket be-
fore leaving the room. I remember it
distinctly. / looked at the clock at the
time. 1t was 1920. Yet on my return
here was the pen lying on the desk.
Someone had been using it. There
was very little ink left. 1 wish he
would not write so much. 1t is discon-
,erting.
There is one thing upon which jim
md I were not quite agreed. He be-
ieved in the eternity of the forms of
:hings. Therefore, there entered in i'm
the consequent belief in i'm
mortality and all the other notions of
he metaphysical philosophers. I had
title patience with him in this. Pains
have traced to him the evo-
ution of his belief in the eternity
forms, showing him how it has arisen
,ut of his early infatuation with logic
md mathematics. Of course, from
hat warped, squirting, abstract view
point, it is very easy to believe in the
eternity of forms.
1 laughed at the unseen world. Only
The real was real, 1 contended, and
what one could not perceive, was not,
could not be. 1 believed in a mechan-
cal universe. Chemistry and physics
explained everything. "Can no being
De?" he demanded in reply. I said
that his question was but the major
premise of fallacious Christian Sci
ance syllOgism. Oh, believe me, l knew
my logic, too. But he was very stub
born. l never had any patience with
philosophic idealists.
Once I made to him my confession of
faith. 1t was simple, brief, unanswer-
able. Even as I write it now, I know
t is unanswerable. Here it is. 1 told
him: II assert, with Hobbies, that it
S impossible to separate thought from
natter that thinks. I assert, with Ba-
ION, that all human understanding
arises from the world of sensations.
I assert, with Locke, that all human
IDEAS are due to the functions of the
senses. assert, with Kant, the me-
origin of the universe, and
hat creation Is natural and histori-
,al process. 1 assert, with Laplace,
hat there is no need Of the hypothesis
If a creator. And, finally, I assert, be-
cause of all the foregoing, that form
S ephemeral. Form passes. There
,ore we pass"
I repeat, it was unanswerable. Yet
lid he answer with Paley's notorious
,allacy of the watch. Also, he talked
lbout radium, and all but asserted that
he very existence Of matter had been
exploded by these later-day laboratory
researches. 1t was childish. I had
lot dreamed he could be so immature.
How could one argue with such a