Year: 1871

A strange title do you say? What new


disease is this! Not by any means a new
disease, dear reader, but one astonishingly


prevalent. The number of men whose


minds are weaker and smaller at forty or


t1ty than when they were twenty five is


legion. Their bodies are sleek and plump.
their purses, many of them are fat; both
have been well nourished: but their minds
are in feeble, emaciated condition, un-
able to cope with the great questions of
this preclninently advancing age.


Engage them in covcrsation upon any
topic involving much grasp of thought !;
PROFOUND to them any one Of the great
problems of vital Importance to the human
race; you shall see how their minds shrink
from effort they are incapable of perform
ing; and how they fall back upon the sup.
ports of old superstition and prejudice,
and there find rest from the labor such
questions involve. This general mental
enaciatiOn is one reason reforms move so
slowly. The best and strongest minds arc
tngging at the mysteries of nature, and ex-
W:ndiny their energies in physical re-
also graphing with problems of social
construction, political economy, and NOR
ais, but as their teachings arc directed
mainly to the mentally emaciatcd, they
make but little hcadway i'll correcting ex-
isting evils Men, in the hot pursuit of
wealth, which is the most absorbing of
present human aims, neglect systematic
thought, feed their minds upon little else
than the sloppy pabulum of sensational
daily papers, and become mentally starved.
How few there are that can safely think
for themselves upon any subject not i'm
mediatcly relating to their profession or
callingl What millions might he count
ed, who might far better shut their eyes
and accept without thought the conclu-
sions of such men rs Mill and Spencer,
than even attempt to reach conclusion or
form a definite opinion from their own
thinking!


Talk with men engaged IN professions
which imply greater breadth of thought
than orlinary business occupations, and
how often YOU will hear the admission,
that their l,1bits of thought have untitled
them for correct thinking upon topics
which require systematic thought, and
strictly logical method! Ask nine out of
amy ten, selected at random, what is their
religious belief? Gnd you will find that
they either have none, or that they accept
a creed they cannot comprehend or cX-
plain. If they vote at general elections,
they are guided by hastily formed opinions,
for which tn y have never sought good
and sufficient reason. Somebody's plausl-
bic speech, or some half conceived princi-
Pile OF right or wrong, is enough t0 intlu-
cncc their action; and 40 they give their
minds the rest they crave, and trust to luck
that it viii. all come right in the end. Many
are going on through life, similarly trusting
that their future will all come out right
hoping that it will-which they call hav-
lng faith, and when they suppose them
selves t" he trusting in God, they are
simply trusting in luck.


Ifenre it follows that sccts and crccds
multiply, cf,rla'ans prosper in politics, re-
ligion and medicine, and false rtrnchcrs only
find it necessary to assert, with show of
authority and with stimulation Of knowl
edge, to win numerous disciples.