Rensselaer Union, Volume 12, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1879 — EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT. [ARTICLE]

EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

Originality. There rnnnelh an nheietit wall be* twie.i England ami called by the highlander*, “The Devil’* Wall.” It was built by the ancient Homan commander*, as a defence against the Piets and Scots. It lias long since crumbled into decay and the wild ivy covers its fallen columns, bat the natives regarding its niassive masonry as a supernatural work, gather up its fragments t<J this dajy, and mingle its mortar with thvir walls, believing that the evil spirit will cause their work to stand as long as did the Homan wall. There is a lesson in this story of the Scots as deep as can be woven of the tissue of truth, gathered from the warp and woof of human knowledge. There are Homan walls in the intellectual World, fallen and dismantled, yet ignorance looking up with characteristic superstition and confidence, gathers up 1 their fragments, and hugging the.delusion that all that great men used was true, it passes it di\rti indorsed with their common acceptance. “What is truth?” said jesting Fi'atc, and hastened away without a reply. Truth is said to be that which is t-rowed, that is trusted, or believed. But are there not many things disbe lieved that are nevertheless tin**? Truth and our accepted belief regarding it arc often far apart. But man is endowed, with reason and powers of judgment to point out the truth, vs. fallacy of tilings. In knowledge and intellectual attainments, we are the heirs of all an tiquity. But should we be content with our legacy and make no surlier acquisitions? llow often does the student accept, withoutr ques Honing, any and everything which hVs been; sanctionel by previous scholars? We should reverence antiquity for the riches and grand enrol its productions, remarkable, for its demonstrations proven fas ciuating in its mystical suggestions, but tiie mind should be wary in its acceptance of anything thing averse to its common judge inent. There is said to be, now, but little originality among men. A thousand years before Christ, Solomon aaid: “There is no new thing under the sun,’’meaning may haps, that knowledge and learning were transmitted from their fathers. But whether this is the true con' struction of this Hebrew philoso pher’s saying, or not, we cannot tell. Perhaps, after all, the learning since acquired has been only a com billing of previously ascertained propeitics and powers. Let us deduce an example to examine this philosophy. Let us take the dis covery of Neptune. Has anything new been brought into existence i.i the intellectual world by . its discovery? Long before Gallieo turned his telescope thither, men had a conception of substance,'of brightness, of size of motion, of distance, and all the properties and relations pertaining to its discovery and . laws, but combining this previous knowledge of things and places and centering it there astronomers call it Neptune. Look closely at tile logic of the above example. But we must believe that there is such a thing as originality, even in this day. He was au original thinker and searcher after truth, who drew with his shepherd’s crook, a circle iu the sand, and reasoning from intuitive truths and kiioVn properties, in geometrical demonstrations, solved the properties of the vibrating peudulum; even a Pascal on the hills of Auvergne.. You are a discoverer of truth, an original investigator, if you combine known properties or things and form a new creation, or, out of the inherent wisdom you possess, you demonstrate the existence or properties of some substance, or entity. Remembering,;that in the acquisi tion of knowledge there should be no accepted Pythagoras, with his “Ipse dixit,” no Aristotle with his infallible syllogism, no Bacon, with bis Dictum of Philosophy, but questioning each and everything presented, we should train the mind to analyze every statement it meets, and rejecting the useless, and retaining the applicable, carry it up into the storehoQ.se of memory. Let us accept what we find to be true, whether it comes from the ,inouth of the pldiosop’ier or falls trom the lips of the fool, remembering the verse: “Seize npc_ .ruth wherever His found Amidst / u friends amidst you foes. On chrlt;. '!. or on hc-itheo ground, TheCowcr’s divine v.hcre *ere it groiri" ' W* L. Makekvkr.

, Of all evils prevalehi ’amo.ng young men, We know of none mure ' blighting n its moral effects than to »q>cak lightly of the virtues of a woman. Nor Is there anything iu which young men are so thorough ly mistaken as in the low estimate they form of the integrity of women. Not of their own mothers and sisters, but of others, who, they forget ars somebody else’s mothers and sisters. As a rule, no •person who surrenders to this debasing habit is to be trusted with au enterprise requiring integrity of character. Plain words should be spoken on the subject, for the evil is a general one and deep rooted. If young men are sometime* thrown into the society of thoughtless and depraved women, they have no more right to measure all other women by what they bcc of those, than they have to estimate the character of honest and respectable citizens by ihe developments of crime in our police courts. Let our young men remember that their chief happiness in life depends on their faith in women. No worldly wisdom, no misanthropic philosophy, no generalization can weaken truth. It stands like the record-of itself—for it is nothing less than this—and skduld put au everlasting seal upon lips that arc wont to speak lightly of women.— Brook uton Reporter.

Circuit Court the third Monday in this month. Charley Clifton has rented Rev. 11. B. Milter’s farm. ‘•Dick’' Howe makes a good secretary of the temperance society Jolm Watts thinks of going to Colorado for the beuefit of his health. J. C. Bridge, dealer in musical merchandise, w as iu town last Monday. 11. A. Barkley purchased a fine Western Cottage organ of Orwin la.-t week. John B. Hurley is at home again, having been discharged fiom the Insane Asylum. Moses Tuteur will set up keeping iu the Iru Yeoman property on Front street. Mr. Biggs, of Keener township, is lying very low of disease of the heart and dropsy. James Paine has returned to Barkley township from Medaryville, Pulaski county. Six hundred dollars worth of clothek is what T. M. Jones, the tailor, sold during September. Huy stacks and corn iiclda suffer at ilu hands of dishonest movers who pass through this county. S. O. Duvall and family, of Moinence,' 111., are visiting friends in Rensselaer this week. Will Sears is clerking in W. J. luies’ drug store. Will is au accomplished pill roller. Richard Fielder, of Barkley township, contemplates moving, west the present autumn. Alfred Thompson’s residence, it is said, will bo larger than any residence in Lafayette or Logansport. Oil'last Saturday, Mrs. Rebecca Hopkins, mother of Cash Hopkins, slipped and fell, receiving injuries of a very serious nature. Among other attractive featuns of the Fak next week will be a pigeou shootings match. No extra charge to witness the sport. Geo. Adair, of Barkley township, is making a large amount of sorghum molasses for the dilectation of the youthful palates of that vicinity. Parm Wright has stationed a “bull purp” in his corn crib. The man who takes his corn, does not re*ad The Union. Look out for a man carrying his hand in a sling. Wm. Branson of Newton township has gone west. For further particulars inquire otWin. Bringle, Sam Yeoman, Willey & Sigler and others.

Shooting at glass balls near the "artesian well affords fine amusement for those wlio own or can borrow a shot gun. They are preparing for the shooting tournament during the fair. •It is reported that Mr. J. I. Pur enpile, formerly a resident of tl is place, bnt later of Monticello, will return to Rensselaer to go into business. Alice, tliird daughter of David Brooke, of Newton township, died very suddenly last Monday morning. Her death was very unexpected to her friends. She waß •about fifteen year* old. Get ready for the fair next week and spend at least a short time in seeing tbe sights, talking with your neighbors aod enjoying a season of relaxation from Life’s hard work. A part of the fence in front of Smith’s school house in Barkley township has been stolen. Perhaps somd free schools wished to letdown the- bats to a good education.

fi,o is to build u Mtrmm pvug»- ivyl froni tin- mouth ef'tUe Ft! Joe river to i'ljmouth, Ird.ar.a, wiiore n will connect wall the Indianapolis. Peru and Chicago r*owd. A large committee of-wealthy men in the north past of the slate ha® been appointed to work the enterprise up.—[lndianapolis Journal. 1 —Articles of association of the KSt&iland and Lafayette railroad—a short line running from Kentlan J, in Newton county, to a point : on tho C., L. and C. road between Earl Park and Raub—were filed yesterday with the Secretary of State. The capital stock ia $25,000, and the president of the board of dircciora is J. S. Hutch.—[lndianapolis Journal. -—There if some talk of building -a fourrail track on the Dea Moines and Ames division of the Chicago and Northwestern railway. This is done by placing a rail on each side of those now laid, the extra rails forming a standard gauge track. By this means a narrow gauge engine could haul a train of wide gauge and narrow gauge cars, or a broad gauge engine do the same thing. —[lndianapolis Journal. —There Is on exhibition at Peck’s store the largest pumpkin ever grown inHhis section ot the country. It measures about 5 feet in circumference and weighs about 36 pounds. The tame was grown by Luko Ford and presented to D. W. Peck, who after keeping it on exhibition for a few days, will remove it to bis dwelling, have a door cut in it and use it for a coal house during the coming winter.—[Remington Reporter. —Negotiations are pending looking to the purchase of the partially completed Plymouth, Kankakee and Pacitic road by the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago railway management. Before the panic struck this country the road was graded but ne iron laid. Tho organiration which commenced this work is still in existence. The line is quite an important one, being about 190 miles in length, and running through a country which is sad ly in need of railntad facilities, and if completed would doubtless boa valuable feeder to tho P., F. W. and O road.—[lndianapolis Journal. —We are promised, something oat of the usual way for Rensselaer on next Thursday evening by the local musical talent. Mrs. LuJd Hopkins and Miss Mary Ralph are preparing, with the assistance of a number of young people, and will on that occasion present to the public several choice operettas, comic an 1 sentimental, musical pantomimes and duets. The writer was permitted to witness a rehearsal of this entertainment and can assure tbe public that it -will t-e something exceedingly rare. The opera is a new feature in public entertainments for this place, und being of a very high order of nmnsement, this first attempt to present it to the local public should receive libera! support. The proceeds ore for the benefit of the ladies’ degree in Masonry,