Chapter 2

"Two months after this he died peacefully. One of his strongest peculiarities was his passionate love for flowers, and during his illness he repeatedly commended the care of his flowers to his friends. He had the window opened frequently, so he could gaze once more on the out-door scenes he loved so well. Almost his last words were: 'Nature, pure, vigorous Nature!'"

JOHN FITCH, the inventor of steamboats, was even less fortunate than Froebel. No patron took him by the hand, and although his invention was successfully demonstrated at Philadelphia in 1787, by a small steamboat, the trial being witnessed by the members of the convention that formed the Federal constitution, he could not obtain sufficient co-operation to introduce the invention, and finally left his boat to rot on the shores of the Hudson and returned to his home at Bardstown, Ky., where he died in 1798. The unsuccessful struggles of Fitch make a melancholy history. In his last appeal he used this language: "But why those earnest solicitations to disturb my nightly repose, and fill me with the most excruciating anxieties; and why not act the part for myself, and retire under the shady elms on the fair banks of the Ohio, and eat my coarse but sweet bread of industry and content, and when I have done, to have my body laid in the soft, warm, and loamy soil of the banks, with my name inscribed on a neighboring poplar, that future generations when traversing the mighty waters of the West, _in the manner that I have pointed out_, may find my grassy turf."

IN the lives of Pythagoras, Copernicus, Galileo, Ericson, Bruno, Harvey, Kepler, Newton, Hunter, Gall, Young, Froebel, Gray, Fitch, Stephenson, and _many_ others, we learn that he who assails the Gibraltar of conservative and authoritative ignorance must expect to conduct a very long siege, to maintain a resolute battle, and perhaps to die in his camp, leaving to his posterity to receive the predestined surrender of the citadels of Falsehood and Darkness, for the eternal law of the universe declares that all darkness shall disappear, and Light and Peace shall cover the earth, as they already fill the souls of the lovers of wisdom.

SOCIAL CONDITIONS.

UNDERGRADUATE EXPENSES AT HARVARD.--A physician has written me to know what the annual expense is for an undergraduate at Harvard College. The inquiry is made that he (the querist) may know somewhere near what it will cost to send his son to that institution. Thinking that others of the _Journal's_ readers might like to know what a literary (or liberal) education costs at a first-class college, I have looked up the present cost, and by comparing it with my own, thirty-five years ago, I find that expense has increased from year to year, until now it requires about $550 to $600 annually to cover tuition, room-rent, board, and common running expenses. A boy might squeeze through for $400 a year, but he would have to pinch and be niggardly, if not mean. The $550 or $600 would not cover vacation expenses and society dues, therefore the larger sum ought to be reckoned as the cost annually for a Harvard undergraduate at the present time. And upon inquiry, I find that about the same amount of money is required by an undergraduate of Yale. Board in New Haven is the same in price as in Cambridge. For the four years' course, then, there should be provision for $2,500. Rich students spend a $1000 or more each year, but they do not embrace ten per cent. of the classes. The average student when I was in Harvard expended $350 to $400 a year--a cost which did not cover vacation expenses and society matters. I will venture the remark that as high an order of scholarship can be obtained at "Western" colleges as in Harvard or Yale; and that the expense of student life would not be two-thirds as much. Why, then, take the extravagant course? The _name_ and _fame_ of an institution count for something. A recently founded college may not live long; it has to be tested by time before _prestige_ can be attained. Universities have to be endowed before they can command the best talent of the world in teachers. The fees obtained from students will not pay the expenses of a first-class literary institution.

Lastly, an education of a high order does not insure success in life, but, other things being equal, the man of learning has the best chance to win in the race we are running.--_Eclectic Medical Journal_.

EUROPEAN WAGES.--Senator Frye said in a public address in Boston: "I say from all my observations made there, and they were made as carefully as I could make them, and in all honesty of purpose, there is only one country in Europe that comes within half of our wages, and that is England, and the rest are not one-third, and some not within one-quarter, of our wages."

INDIA AS A WHEAT PRODUCER.--"Consul-General Bonham says she is a dangerous competitor of the United States. The report of Consul-General Bonham at Calcutta, British India, treats at length of the wheat interests of that country. The area devoted to wheat in 1886 was about 27,500,000 acres, and the total yield 289,000,000 bushels. As compared with the wheat of the Pacific coast, the Indian wheat is inferior, but when exported to Europe it is mixed and ground with wheat of a superior quality, by which process a fair marketable grade of flour is obtained. The method of cultivating the soil is in the main the same as it was centuries ago, and there seems to be great difficulty in inducing the farmer to invest in modern agricultural implements, and yet, with all the simple and primitive methods, the Indian farmers can, in the opinion of the Consul-General, successfully compete with those of the United States in the production of wheat. This is due to the fact that the Indian farmer's outfit represents a capital of not more than $40 or $50, and his hired help works, feeds, and clothes himself on about $2.50 a month. The export of wheat from British India has increased from 300,000 cwt. in 1868, to 21,000,000 cwt. in 1886, and the increase of 1886 over 1885 amounts to about 5,000,000 cwt.

"The Consul-General says that some of his predecessors have claimed that the United States has nothing to fear from India as a competitor in the production of wheat. In this view he does not concur, and believes that to-day India is second only to the United States in wheat-growing. Furthermore, wheat-growing in India is yet in its infancy, and its further development depends principally upon the means of transportation to the sea-board. He fears that with the cheap native labor of India and the constantly growing facilities for transportation, the United States will find her a formidable competitor as a producer of wheat."

INCREASE OF INSANITY.--I have repeatedly referred to the increase of insanity and crime under our heartless system of education. It is illustrated by every collection of statistics. The increase between 1872 and 1885 was, in Maine, with five per cent. increase in population, in ten years, 23 per cent. increase in insanity. In New Hampshire, 13 per cent. in population, 55 in insanity. In these two States insanity increases four times as fast as population. In Massachusetts, population 33 per cent., insanity 91 per cent. In Rhode Island, population 40 per cent., insanity 94 per cent. In Connecticut, population 23 per cent., insanity 194 per cent. The total number of insane in New England has increased from 4,033, in 1872, to 7,232, in 1885,--an increase of 3,199 in 13 years. Such are the estimates prepared from official reports by E. P. Augur, of Middletown, Conn. Is it possible by the repetition of such statements as these to rouse the torpid conscience of the leaders of public opinion to the necessity of a NEW EDUCATION?

TEMPERANCE.--According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the annual consumption of liquors per capita in the United States, from 1840 to 1886, shows a reduction in the consumption of distilled spirits to less than one-half of the average between 1840 and 1870. The most marked decrease was between 1870 and 1872. The consumption of wine has averaged, from 1840 to 1870, about one-eighth as much--since 1870, from 30 to 40 per cent. as much, but the consumption of malt liquors, which in 1840 and 1850 was little over half that of spirits, has rapidly risen until, in 1886, it was nine times as great, the number of gallons per capita being of spirits, 1.24; wines, 0.38; malt liquors, 11.18. The total consumption of liquors of all sorts has risen from 4.17 gallons per capita in 1840, to 12.62 in 1886. The consumption of malt liquors per capita has increased fifty per cent. in the last seven years.

The tax collected on whiskey for 1886-87 was $3,262,945 less than for the previous year, and the tax on beer was $2,245,456 more than for the previous year.

"Chevalier Max Proskowetz de Proskow Marstorn states that in Austria inebriety is increasing everywhere on a dangerous scale. The consumption of alcohol (taken as at 10 per cent.) was 6.7 litres a head in a population of 39,000,000; but in some districts 15-1/2 litres was the average (4-1/2 litres go to a gallon). In all Austro-Hungary there was an increase of nearly 4,000,000 florins in the cost of alcohol in 1884-85 over 1883-84. In 1885 there were 195,665 different places (stations, gin-shops, and subordinate retails) where liquors were sold. In districts where the most spirits are used there were fewer fit recruits."

FLAMBOYANT ANIMALISM.--In Boston, which sometimes calls itself our American Athens, the highest truths of psychic science are daily neglected by the more influential classes, while races, games, and pugilism occupy the largest space in the daily papers, and a leading daily boasts of its more perfect descriptive and statistical record of all base-ballism as a strong claim to public support.

The pugilist Sullivan is the hero of Boston; he received a splendid ovation in the Boston Theatre, with the mayor and other dignitaries to honor him, and a belt covered with gold and diamonds, worth $8,000, was presented, besides a large cash benefit. His departure for England was honored like that of a prince by accompanying boats, booming cannon, and tooting whistles, and he is said to swing a $2000 cane presented by his admirers. How far have we risen in eighteen centuries above the barbarism of Rome? There is no heathen country to-day that worships pugilism. Perhaps when the saloon is abolished, we may take another step forward in civilization. London has rivalled Boston, giving Sullivan a popular reception by crowds which blocked up the principal streets.

TRANSCENDENTAL HASH

The _Winsted (Conn.) Press_ published an article on Buddhism in America which is interesting as a specimen of the rosy-tinted fog of some intellectual atmospheres, and the singular jumble of crude thought in this country. As an intellectual hash it may interest the curious. The following is the article:

BUDDHISM IN AMERICA.

While sectarian Christianity is, at great expense, with much ado, making a few hundred converts in Asia among the ignorant, Buddhism is spreading rapidly in the United States, and is reaching our most intelligent people, without any propaganda of missionaries or force. There are already thousands of Buddhists in this country, and their number is augmenting more rapidly perhaps than that of any other faith, but of these probably comparatively few know that they are following the Buddhistic lines of thought and have adopted the principles of Buddhistic faith. Theosophy, mental science (sometimes called "Christian science"), esoteric Christianity and Buddhistic metaphysics are, we believe, substantially one and the same thing, and we may also include their intimate relative, known here as Modern Spiritualism, the difference between them being no greater than that which invariably arises from different interpretations of the same idea by different individuals under differing environment. To compare these differences with the differences of the Protestant sects would be exalting the sects, for sectarian Christianity is hardly worthy of association with the exalted teachings of Buddha, the theosophists, and the finer conceptions of our modern metaphysicians and Spiritualists, yet we make the comparison for the sake of illustration.

Counting the philosophical modern Spiritualists we may say that the number of people in this country who, without knowing it, perhaps, are reasoning themselves into acceptance of Buddhistic teachings, may be placed in the hundreds of thousands. A modified, spiritualized, and improved form of Buddhism is, we suppose, likely to unite the liberalized minds of this country (normal Christians and Infidels alike) into a common and highly intellectual and spiritual faith, opposed to which will be the less advanced people under the leadership of the Roman Catholic church, representing the temporal power of Christian priestcraft and the mythological superstitions which have attached themselves to the precepts and teachings of the Christ man of 1800 years ago.

Certainly no intelligent observer can look out upon the tremendous upheaval of religious thought which is now taking place in this country, without seeing that a new era has dawned in the spiritual life of the American people and foreseeing a readjustment of religious lines on a more elevated, less dogmatic and less antagonistic plane. We have been passing through the very same experiences that preceded a downfall of the polytheistic mythology, followed by the new era of Christian mythology in one part of the world and Buddhistic mythology in another. Jesus and Buddha both came to deliver exalted teachings which would lift the world out of bondage to an older faith and its more cruel superstitions and the corruptions of priestcraft and gross ceremonials; both were reformers of substantially the same abuses; both suffered for humanity, both lived humble and inspired lives, both were interpreters of the same truths to different peoples, both were good men, and both have come down to us with their greatness exaggerated by their followers beyond anything they claimed for themselves, while the personal existence of each is shrouded in the same mystery and covered with the same doubt. That these two men did exist as men we may well believe, but that as personages they were incarnated on earth is a matter of small importance compared with the consequences which have followed their supposed embodiment.

The decline of faith in the old theology and the silent acceptance of new ideas by the church people of America, the rapid spread of infidelity and aggressive agnosticism, and the hold which Modern Spiritualism under various disguises now has upon the people, premise tremendous changes, and indicate a new era of spiritual thought--an era of better and sweeter life for mankind we trust.

Men and women who think alike will act together when prejudices born of old names, partisan rivalries and personal animosities are outgrown. A new philosophy with a new name, made up of the old truths with new refinements and elaborations, will unite the liberal-minded in a fraternity of thought based on a better understanding of spiritual truths, and clearer comprehension of the importance to humanity, of liberty, justice and love.

This new religion, if we mistake not the signs of the times, will or does partake largely of theosophic and Buddhistic metaphysics and is not, therefore, to be despised by our best thinkers. Buddhism corrupted by Brahmic theocracy--as Christianity by Mosaic rites, by papistic theology and sectarian piety--has come to us as a morbid asceticism or worse, delighting in self-inflicted individual tortures and revelling in unthinkable contradictions. This conception of it is probably false and due more to deficiencies of language and unreceptive habit of metaphysical thought than to perversity of ideas. A system of highest ethics, and a religion without a personal God, Buddhism deifies the soul of man and exalts the individual through countless experiences of physical embodiment into a position of apparently infinite wisdom--a condition beyond phenomenal existence and of course indescribable. It neither annihilates life in nirvana nor admits immortal existence as we understand existence--i.e., in a perpetually objective form of some sort. It is better in some respects, though older, than Christism. Buddhas and Christs alike, we are taught, are only men sent from celestial congress to direct their fellow men into higher paths leading to incomprehensible perfections, and they are not more "gods" than other men, save in their greater experience.

Theosophy is to Buddhism what Modern Spiritualism is to Christianity--an acceptance of fundamental truths and rejection of priestly ceremonials; an adoption of the spirit and denial of the letter; an application of principles and ideas to real life and claiming not only to have new light but to be ever progressive. It is highly and intensely spiritual, and develops in some most marvellous powers over natural forces. Its spirituality, however, does not leave the earth untouched and mortal needs unrecognized. It is an advance movement in the East, bringing substance and actuality to much that in Buddhism is but vaporous ideality and bewildering prefiguration. It claims that intervening land or water is no barrier to close personal association of its brotherhood, and that they are confined to no land or clime. Here in America it has followers who walk by its light, we are told, without knowing it, and many students trying to encompass the mysteries of the occult science, which claims only to be like other science, the fruit of study and discovery, giving mastery over subtle forces of nature which physical scientists fail to recognize. Its ethics are the highest conceivable, and the individual existence of the soul apart from the body a matter of commonest demonstration among the adepts.

Mental science so closely resembles theosophy, as we understand it, that we hardly know the difference, save that of immaturity. It is theosophy in its infancy, adapted to the status of American thought in the psychological direction. Confined though it is at present chiefly to the curing of the sick it is by no means admitted that this is the limit or more than the beginning of its adaptation to human needs. It is spending in this country with amazing rapidity, and though yet a child is certain to bring about a great change in the ideas of many regarding mind, its power over and priority to matter. So far as its students devote their attention to other than such comprehension of its postulates as is necessary to become healers, they are Buddhistic in thought and expression, and some even accept a modified theory of metempsychosis known as reincarnation. Still they reject the philosophy of Spiritualism respecting spirit life, and appear to be all at sea as regards the immediate future of the individual. In their utterances on this they are more Buddhist than Christian, as in other respects. They doubt or deny individual existence of the soul. The Spiritualist believes that his soul will have for all time a body of some sort, spiritual or physical, and his spirit-world and life are filled with very human occupations, thoughts and desires, carried on amid familiar scenery in a very substantial and earth-like manner. He believes in progress eternal, and the possibility of final mergement of his individual self into the All-Self is so remote as to give him no concern. But the mental scientist, as near as we can express his notion, rejects the idea of spiritual embodiment, regards his personality as purely mortal and his soul one with indivisible God, now and forever. Personality is not an attribute of his soul; spirit or astral body he does not understand as ever existing to preserve individuality after physical dissolution--in this differing as much from the theosophist as from the Spiritualist.

When these modernized Buddhists, Spiritualists and Christians, and liberal thinkers, generally, unite--as they easily may, for they have now no irreconcilable disagreement--they will form a powerful body of thinking and progressive religionists. And their religion will be a better Buddhism than Buddha taught, a broader Christianity than Christ revealed, a deeper Spiritual philosophy than Swedenborg or Davis heralded. Of course we welcome the opening day and its new light and promise, for the old theologies are wearisome emptiness and humbug, and the new isms cold and repellant or insufficient in their testimony. We do not expect that a new church will arise and a new sectarianism follow. But a new conception of life, its origin, purpose and destiny may come to lift the people of America out of the old religious rut. And in consequence the old depressing question, "Is life worth living?" answered once by Buddha's No, may be answered anew by Humanity's Yes.

* * * * *

The observations of this writer refer more to certain progressive and restless classes in this Northeastern region than to the United States generally. The churches are not diminishing in the number of their members, but steadily gaining in numbers and also in liberality. The new religion and philosophy of the future will be luminous, scientific and philanthropic--not a conglomeration of vague speculations. True, reverential religion is not a dreamy or speculative impulse, but an earnest love of mankind and of duty, which does not waste itself in unprofitable speculations, but eagerly pursues the positive knowledge of this life and the next, which gives practical wisdom and diffuses happiness. All systems of religion talk about love and recommend it, but their followers seldom realize it in their lives. The religion of the future will _realize_ it. Apropos to this subject, Col. Van Horn, of the _Kansas City Journal_, says:

"And as another result of missionary work, there are now in the United States, in England and on the continent, missionaries of Buddhism sent by the schools of the East, to convert us to the philosophy of Gautama. This may sound startling to the general reader, but it is not only a fact, but they have made converts and are making them with a rapidity that is remarkable, making more from us than we are from them. And they are from the very best and brightest intellects among us--not the illiterate, but the most cultured of the educated classes. It will not do to suppress this fact in the discussion--for this is an age when facts must be looked in the face."

JUST CRITICISM.

The intellectual editor of the _Kansas City Journal_ has made some very philosophic remarks on the materialistic philosophy of fashionable Scientists, which with some abridgment are here presented: