The Llano colonist. [volume] (Llano, Calif.) 191?-1937, 1922-10-21
Prejudiced Ignorance is
Chief Obstacle to Progress

ton and freedom and faith. No cha
racter is produced in any other way.
just as no flower or fruit is produced in
any other way. than by the silent life
giving forces of the sun. 1t is only
by very slow steps that men come to
see and believe this which is the only
and the eternal truth, this was the CEN
trail teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. The
law of the spirit of life working in the
atmosphere of freedom, by the inspir-
alton Of faith and love. says Prof. Fred
erick Meakin of Harvard in Function,
Feeling and Conduct:
Abstract conceptions are derived
primarily from the material Of percep-
ton. For the formation of such con-
ceptions language is essential and since
the thot Of man is articulate, the main
cxemplification of the rational consci-
ousness, including the formation of
moral cancepts. is to be sought for in
the operations of the human mind.
Thought, which is inarticulate, wants
more than the means of expression.
1t wants the power of analysis and all
so that power for constructive activity
which depends for its materials on the
result of analysis. Hence, the extreme
simplicity of brute intelligence as com
pared with that of man. The gap be-
TWEEN the two is wide. But it were rash
to assert that no developmental pro-
cess can span it. Reason, the capacity
for inferential thought, being implicit
in perception, must exist in elemental
form far below the level of human in
telligence. and must be assumed to de-
velop with the development of the con-
sciuos life and with the increasing sup
Iply of matter to which it can be appli-
ed. 1t is a capacity which grows.
"A certain practical knowledge is
acquired from day to day as we live
and choose and act. and this knowledge
tho unsystematized or unscientific in
form, is of great value in the conduct
of life, and much may be learned in
lifetime. But the individual does not
begin with blank sheet (his heredity
should not be forgotten) or depend on
his experience alone: he has the ira
dition of the race behind him. And as
every disciplined mind starts with this
tradition, and tends thru its influence
to correct or modify or enlarge the ira
dition, many, stock of wisdom is cumu-
lative. We may hope that the world as
it grows older will grow little wiser.
And with the increase of wisdom we
may hope, too, for increase of happi-
ness. Happiness, as product of acti-
vities not exhausted in the amassing
of means but effectively directed to
the accomplishment of valid and ulti-
mate ends, is as yet rare. We are for
the most part engaged in the pursuit
of provisional aims: our energy is ex-
pended in merely averting calamity, or
in the animal occupation of saving our
selves alive"
''The principle Of conscious choice
remains the same whatever our posi-
ton as between the poles of choice,
we are engaged in them for
pleasure or mainly employed in effort
to avoid or mollify pain. And the law
of life generalized from this principle |
remains the same. 1t determines only
the direction of our efforts and requires
no more of us than to make the best of
such conditions as we find. Whether we
lie under the frown of sullen fate
or bask in fortunes smile, melioratoin |
is its watchword: to mitigate evil, for
evil to substitute good, for good to find
a better good. But good is relative
always to some functional demand, and
is good because it satisfies this de
mand."
The cooperative ideal and practice
at NewIlano is a common sense PROPOSE
ton, that has been practically demon
strated and should commend itself to
all endowed with reason and sound
sentiment,