Norfolk High School - Milestone Yearbook (Norfolk, NE)

Page 28 text:

24 THE MILESTONE. which he influenced the whole subsequent course of human thought, may he stated under three heads: Subject. Method and Doctrine, lie was the first to proclaim that the proper study for man is Man, human nature and human duties. Socrates continued incessantly discussing human affairs, investigating what is piety; what is impiety; what is the honorable and the base; what is the just and the unjust? Men that knew these matters, he accounted as good and honorable; men that were ignorant of them, he associated with slaves. In this way Socrates set the people to thinking and by making them think they were being educated. In 399 B. C. an indictment was laid against Socrates, accusing him: First, of not worshiping the same gods which the city worshiped. Second, of introducing new divinities of his own; and third, of corrupting the youth. The penalty for which was death. There were three peculiarities which distinguished Socrates First, his long life passed in contented poverty and in public teachings. Second, his strong religious persuasion or belief that he was acting under missions and signs from the gods, of which he believed himself frequently the subject. Third, his great intellectual originality, both of subject and of method, and his power of forcing and stirring germs of inquiry in others. To hear of any man, especially of so illustrious a man as Socrates, being condemned to death on such accusations as that of heresy and alleged corruption of youth inspires, at the present day, a sen i-ment of indignant reprobation, the force of which I have no desire to enfeeble. The fact stands eternally recorded as one of the thousands of misdeeds of intolerance, both religious and political. As we trace the growth of science and philosophy our thoughts naturally turn to Galileo, the creator of experimental science, lb was the first to place before the people the following contributions of physical science: The relation between space and time in case of falling bodies; the three laws of motion; that air has weight; the invention of the telescope, and many various and noble discoveries with which he enriched science. Encircled by the lustre of these sublime discoveries he wrote and published the expositions of his opinions. Hardly had these been issued when the book was given over to the iurisdictiction of the Ecclesiastical Court, the Pope having been led to believe that he had satirized him in his productions under the title of “Simplicity.” As one who is careless about scientific truth, he resolved to punish Galileo. the audacious philosopher, and he was summoned before the Court of Inquisition to answer to the charge of heresy. After a long wearisome trial, the judge condemned Galileo to an indefinite term of imprisonment and he, like many other great and noble men was allowed to die in poverty. At the opening of the Uevolu-tionary War there were many eminent and wealthy men, who. for the love of liberty, willingly sacrificed their wealth, political preferment and life itself. We speak in admiration of gallant heroes such as Putnam, Green and Washington. We admire the excellent . motives which animate such noble characters as Franklin, LaFayette and Warren. lint, of all the great men of the

Page 27 text:

THE MILESTONE. a:t and animal life proceed after the same forms and steps from age to age. The germ in the tiny seed, which is dropped in the soil and nourished by the moisture that falls from tlie sky or rises from the earth, soon bursts tin walls of its prison cell, and obeying the law which commands it to seek the light, pushes aside and overturns lumps of earth many times its own size and weight. The bee follows by instinct only natural laws when it builds its cells iu hexagonal form and in its store of honey has brought together chemical elements that blend in a harmony of sweetness. The stone beds of the world are formed and modified in certain ways which are the same now as they were countless ages ago. Even the weather has its own methods. Day and night succeed each other every twenty-four hours; the seasons never change their order. Kepler’s laws relating to the shape and orbits of tin planets, and Newton’s laws of motion wherein he contends that a body set in motion will continue to move forever iu a straight line unless another force is applied, and that the planets lose none of their original velocity but move with the same speed which they received at the beginning, are as operative today as they have ever been. The planets rush round one sun encircled by their moons, on tin4 same orbits in the same times and with the same causes of acceleration and retardation as of old. Even comets, erratic as may seem their orbits and periods of appearance, are governed by the same fixed law which regulates the movement of all the solar systems. That very law which molds a tear And bids it trickle from its source, That law holds the earth a sphere And guides the planets in their course.” So beyond our own solar system, in the ten thousand other systems, in which our fixed stars are central blazing suns, it is still the same law law everywhere. The contemplation of those laws which govern every atom of the universe must bring to the mind thoughts of their infinite author. “The laws of nature are the thoughts of God,” and we. the creatures of God’s wisdom and bounty, should learn from those laws to more deeply reverence Him who has numbered the very hairs of our head and Who, though infinite, market!) even the sparrow’s fall. The World’s Ingratitude to Living Genius. CHARLES A. MADSEN. All that mankind knows of invention and discovery, all that civilization boasts of science and philosophy: all that we enjoy of music, poetry and art, and all that we know of political economy, we owe to Genius to Genius, that God given power that lifts a man out of his narrowed sphere and makes him the brightest star in the constellation of God’s cieation. Time, place and action may with pains lie wrought, Bnt Genius must 1m horn, and can never 1m taught.” So it was with Socrates. The genius, which graced him at his birth, made him one of the most intellectual lights of the world’s history. The intellectual characteristics of Socrates, through

Page 29 text:

THE MILESTONE. Revolutionary Period, no one stands out more nobly or more imposing than the self sacrificing character of Robert Morris. And the fate of no man appeals more to our sympathy than the fate of this great financier of the Revolution. Nor is there a more forcible illustration of the nation’s ingratitude to its benefactors than our nation’s neglect of him in his old age, in sickness and want More than once he rescued Congress from a seemingly fatal crisis, by borrowing money on his personal credit. The $1,600,000, which enabled Washington to carry out his last campaign against Cornwallis was raised by the sacrifice of Morris. Without his timely assistance the army would have disbanded, British arms would have been successful and our liberty and our independence crushed forever. At the close of the war Morris had nothing, having advanced all his wealth to the government in the cause of liberty. In return for all this the government induced him to take as payment a large tract of land, uncultivated and covered with thick timber. The land was not worth one half the money that the government had received from him, and as the notes which he had issued became due, he was not able to meet them. And thus the man that saved the nation from bankruptcy and British rule died in a debtor’s prison. The world has ever been full of ingratitude hut we regret that this one dark blot has been allowed to soil the pages of a nation’s history, otherwise so pure and white. Lessons of Life. CARROLL POWERS. There are thoughts, events and 25 circumstances in the life of every one that mould and develop his character. Early in life these lessons begin and yet w hen youth has faded into age, each still sees where improvements might have been made, where lessons might have been learned. Sitting at the knee of bis mother, gazing into her loving face, the child hears from her lips truths that wield a lasting influence on his life. Moulded in the yielding clay of youth are pure thoughts, high standards and noble aims. Happy is he if impressions thus received be not marred by contact with the world but hardened by the sun of maturer age into the unyielding rocks of a manly character. Youth is a fertile soil and seeds dropped over its surface if left unharmed spring into strong and vigorous growth. All honor then to mothers, guarding with the care which only love can give, the virgin soil of each young life. Fortunate are they who early in life learn the lessons of honor, purity and truth. With growth in years, the capacity of observation1 and depth of understanding expand and open as a thirsty bud drinking in the dew and sunshine. Then each for himself, must learn and apply life’s lessons. A varying panorama stretches before his eyes from which to draw and incorporate in the developement of life’s fabric, lessons small and great. Nothing is so insignificant, nothing so great which may not hold some nidden meaning. To him who in the love of nature holds communion w ith her visible forms, she speaks a varied language. In its many modes and guises, there opens up a world of truth, truths that are simple'and truths so great that the comprehension is