UNIVERSITY COURIER.
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sifies such a statement. "Whatever is is right" few hold in theory and more in practice.
If, then, things are sadly out of joint, it is ever man's duty to seek the reason and the remedy. Some refer the former to the transgression of Adam. They say that man is totally depraved—that there is no good in him. Perhaps this theory is as good as any. But the idea that men want to do wrong, that they will do wrong when they know it will injure them and that they will not do right when they know it is for their own good is an insult to any man and a reproach to Almighty God, his creator. Instead of desiring to do wrong their constant wail is "show us the truth."
There can be little doubt that all or nearly all our calamities are due to the trangression of law. It follows, then, since suffering is the result of wrong-doing and the latter the result of ignorance that ignorance is the prime cause of all unhappiness. Ignorance and superstition. These have filled the world with tears and blood and woe. They have stretched men on the rack, broken them on the wheel, burned them at the stake. The laws of health have been ignorantly transgressed and mind and body have become the prey of disease. I venture the opinion that most crimes are done through ignorance—not ignorance of a general assertion that certain acts are wrong, but ignorance of any real scientific reason for believing them so.
Many evils have been relegated to the shades of oblivion. The world is better off to-day than ever before. A force is at work that has accomplished so much in the past that the future is radiant with promise. It found man a savage. It leaves him a Newton or a Humbolt, In the development and elevation of the human family Science stands first and foremost. By science, I mean the discovery and application of the eternal, unchangeable laws of mind and matter-the laws of our being. In proportion as these are apprehended and applied will the condition of men be bettered.
To enumerate all that this power has done for the race is impossible. But under its beneficent influence wars are beginning to cease, slavery has been abolished, woman placed on an equality with man, disease throttled in his lair, life lengthened and death robbed of its victims. In the department of medicine alone, a single discovery has alleviated the sum of human misery beyond the power of tongue to tell or pen to picture. Faust and Gutenberg, through the invention of printing, have done more for the race than did ever priest or potentate. Watt gave us the steam engine. Morse the telegraph and Whitney the cotton-gin. Let their names be sounded by the gathered hosts of earth and heaven. They have wrought nobly. They have done much to banish the evils that would engulf us. Greece and Rome and Egypt had their civilization. From their mountain peaks they looked down on all that had gone before. We have climbed higher than they, but there are greater heights beyond. When we shall have ascended the most lofty we shall witness the dawn of a millenial day.
The night of ignorance and superstition is disappearing before the light of reason and intelligence. Kings and priests may claim to be Gods, but no one will do them reverence. Men are beginning to think for themselves. When we consider what has been accomplished in the last two hundred years, when we remember that life means progress, how can we escape the conclusion that a brighter day is coming? Are the names of those
you love dearer than life slandered and maligned by the tongue of hate and jealousy? Do foul-mouthed, brazen-faced men and women force their filthy language on the ear? Do most things seem to go wrong? As sure as progress is written in every line of history, as sure as truth will ultimately prevail, a day will come when these things will be righted.
Am I unwise in expecting great things for future generations? Some say that a Millenium will never come. These fear that we would all be idlers in such a state, and hence that it would be worse than the present. Like the Prisoner of Chillon they leave their chains with a sigh. The optimist and pessimist would keep us forever in the "slough of despond." But I believe the world is improving. I believe it will continue to improve until a millennial brightness shall dawn upon the earth. Our grand business is to hasten it on, to discover and crystallize truth, handing it down to succeeding generations.
The curse of ignorance must be overcome; we must educate. We now have special schools in theology where young men can study at little cost. But why not have schools in geology, medicine and the like where our youth can investigate truth with as little expense to themselves? We need preachers of the gospel, but also preachers of science. I would not cast a slur on the ministry, I would not scoff at religion, but I firmly believe that a physician who masters disease, or a statesman who frames just laws benefits men as much as our best preachers. Give us more and better schools. Dig down to the everlasting rock of truth and on a broad and unyielding foundation build for time and eternity. Give every man and woman the best possible education.
But schools are not the only means of dispelling ignorance. There are the press, the telegraph, the railroad. These scatter truth on wings of the wind. Thus the ends of the earth are brought together. Go into the heart of Mexico. Behold her degraded condition. She has been bowed down for centuries. But a brighter day is dawning on that childish people. They are progressing. And though much is said against rail-roads, I do not hesitate to assert that those leading into their borders will do more to elevate and christianize that people in the next twenty years than the priests of Rome have done in the last three hundred.
A better time is coming. A time when suffering shall cease. A time when all will live happily and fall, when fall they must, like ripened fruit in the autumn of its existence. The ear of progress rolls on. Scientists, con- continue your investigations. In the discovery of truth you are adding to the general weal. You are lighting up the world. Darkness begins to disappear. Yes, day dawns in the east. Broad bands of light shoot athwart the heavens. The sun is risen. Slowly, it mounts higher and higher. It has reached the zenith. The world is redeemed. The angelic throng strike their harps and ten thousand times ten thousand voices, filling earth and heaven, chant in sweetest melody, "Peace on earth, good will to men."
TWO NATIONAL WINDOWES.
BY MISS A. MURPHY-NORMAL DEPARTMENT.
Of all the many feelings which throng the soul of man, not one is so common, so mysterious, so painfully