EDITORIAL 



6i 



have ever seen. The ground was coveretl 

 with snow ; snowflakes were faUing thick 

 and fast ; the valley, hills, and evergreen 

 trees together formed a vision like a 

 vision of Paradise. I have seldom seen 

 anything more beautiful than that view 

 from the window of the Emerson School 

 in Sanford, Maine. My eyes were de- 

 vouring the distant hills, while my ears 

 were assailed by the speaker. Here is 

 the substance of what he said : 



"Some of you teachers may at times, 

 especially in the winter, feel that Maine 

 is a dreary region, and that your lot has 

 fallen to you in unpleasant places. But 

 Maine is really better than you think. I 

 know a lady who recently left her native 

 Maine and went to Los Angeles. She 

 wrote charming letters about the wonder- 

 ful flowers, and trees that were so beau- 

 tiful through the entire winter, but she 

 said, T cannot like Los Angeles with all 

 its beauty quite as I like Maine, because 

 my friends are in Maine and they make 

 me feel that Maine is the hest place on 

 earth.' " 



Oh, what a proof! It throws up the 

 whole question. It is presumable that for 

 those who have known both places from 

 childhood there are friends in both places. 

 On that point odds are even. The ques- 

 tion under consideration was whether 

 Maine is the more enjoyable place of resi- 

 dence, or as good as Los Angeles. The 

 questions have as much relevancy to each 

 other as has the robin pulling earthworms 

 to the comparative beauty of the oak tree 

 and the lily of the valley. 



Much more might have been said of 

 the wonderful kaleidoscopic beauty of 

 Maine as compared with the somewhat 

 monotonous scenery of Los Angeles ! Is 

 there a son or a daughter of New Eng- 

 land that would change the beautiful 

 winter snow for a place where one never 

 sees the miracle of the snow? Who 

 would change that for a land in which 

 there is no burst of spring? That refer- 

 ence to the friends cancels the whole 

 question, and makes the logician throw u'^ 

 his hands in despair at the attempt to 

 prove the intrinsic beauty of Maine in 

 comparison with that of Los Angeles. 



ANOTHER PUZZLE IN ARGUMENT. 



In the April number of "The Ladies' 

 Home Journal" is a full page editorial 

 essav with elaborate mvtholos:ical illus- 



trations, entitled "The Immortality in 

 Our Hands." Many readers undoubtedly 

 have been delighted at first impression by 

 the full page, illustrated treatment of a 

 subject so vital to every human being. 

 The author asks, "What is Immortality?" 

 He then proceeds to sum up the principal 

 qualities in two para,graphs : 



"To know that you have received from 

 your father and mother, and from the 

 fathers and mothers of their fathers and 

 mothers before them, a foundation of 

 body and character and personality — 

 good, bad, indifferent, all in one : 



"To take the many qualities thus passed 

 down to you, qualities doubly precious 

 because of their very source, and to com- 

 bine them with the heritance of one who 

 is nobler and finer and dearer to you 

 than anyone else, passing them on, mol- 

 ten and welded into a greater metal, to 

 sons and daughters of your own." 



He then outlines other features of the 

 giving to sons and daughters of the 

 best that lies within^ one's self, — likeness 

 of the parent, of the mind, of experiences 

 in suft'ering and in joy, of ideals, and of 

 standards that have influenced. 



The writer concludes that this is "the 

 one Immortality unselfish enough and 

 noble enough and himian enough to have 

 been ordained for the finite comprehen- 

 sion of mortal kind by the infinite wis- 

 dom of a loving God." 



If all that that editorial writer outlines 

 is Immortality, then there is no Immor- 

 tality. There is only Heredity. He has 

 used all the arguments of annihilation, 

 and has there put the whole of the main 

 question. He has offered a so-called proof 

 that disproves — an argument that does 

 not argue — and has proved that there is 

 no Immortality. 



He should have concluded as a kind of 

 benediction to his reader, with the epi- 

 taph that an atheist requested his relatives 

 to carve oni his tombstone, "I was. I 

 loved, I am not." 



If what that editorial writer has out- 

 lined is Immortality, then a rooster is 

 immortal when his head is chopped off 

 and his body used in a potpie. He has 

 given all his characteristics to the suc- 

 ceeding cockerels of the farmyard. If 

 what he has outlined is immortal then 

 horses, cattle, trees, and plants are im- 

 mortal, because they have transferred 

 their characteristics to their descendants. 

 Perhaps in a certain sense they are im- 

 mortal. Perhaps there was a modicum 



