The coinage of the standard silver dollar was first authorized by Act of April 2, 1792. Its weight was to be 416 grains standard silver; fineness, 892.4; which was equivalent to 3714 grains of fine silver, with 4434 grains of pure copper alloy. This weight was changed by act of January 18, 1837, to 4121⁄2 grains, and fineness changed to 900, thus preserving the same amount of pure silver as before. By act of February 12, 1873, the coinage was discontinued. The total number of silver dollars coined from 1792 to 1873 was 8,045,838. The act of 1873 provided for the coinage of the "trade dollar," of weight 420 grains, and an act passed in June, 1874, ordered that all silver coins should only be "legal tender at their nominal value for amounts not exceedIng $5." The effect of these acts was the "demonetization" of silver, of which so much has been said. Feb. 28, 1878, the coinage of the standard dollar of 4121⁄2 grains was revived by act of Congress: $2,000,000 per month was ordered coined, and the coins were made legal tender for all debts, public and private. From February, 1878, to Nov. 1, 1885, 213,257,594 of these standard dollars were coined under the above act. Standard Time. What is known as the "new standard time" was adopted by agreement by all the principal railroads of the United States at 12 o'clock, noon, on Nov. 18, 1883. The system divides the contiment into five longitudinal belts, and fixes a meridian of time for each belt. These meridians are fifteen degrees of longitude, corresponding to one hour of time, apart. Eastern Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia use the the 60th meridian; the Canadas, New England, the Middle States, Virginia and the Carolinas use the 75th meridian, which is that of Philadelphia; the States of the Mississippi Valley, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, and westward, including Texas, Kansas, and the larger part of Nebraska and Dakota, use the 90th meridian, which is that of New Orleans. The Territories to the western border of Arizona and Montana go by the time of the 105th meridian, which is that of Denver; and the Pacific States employ the 120th meridian. The time divisions are known as intercolonial time, eastern time, central time, mountain time and Pacific time. A traveler pass ing from one time belt to another will find his watch an hour too fast or too slow, according to the direction in which he is going. All points in any time division using the time of the meridian must set their time-pieces faster or slower than the time indicated by the sun, according as their position is east or west of the line. This change of system reduced the time standards used by the railroads from fifty-three to five, a great convenience to the railroads and the traveling public. The suggestion leading to the adoption of this new system originated with Professor Abbe, of the Signal Bureau at Washington. [424] Much is said nowadays about theosophy, which is really but another name for mysticism. It is not a philosophy, for it will have nothing to do with pholosophical methods: it might be called a religion, though it has never had a following large enough to make a very strong impression on the world's religious history. The name is from the Greek word theosophia-divine wisdom-and the object of theosophical study is professedly to understand the nature of divine things. It differs, however, from both philosophy and theology even when these have the same object of investigation. For, in seeking to learn the divine nature and attributes, philosophy employs the methods and principles of natural reasoning; theology uses these, adding to them certain principles derived from revelation. Theosophy, on the other hand, professes to exclude all reasoning processes as imperfect, and to derive its knowledge from direct communication with God himself. It does not, therefore, accept the truths of recorded revelation as immutable, but as subject to modification by later direct and personal revelations. The theosophical idea has had followers from the earliest times. Since the Christian era we may class among theosophists such sects as Neo-Platonists, the Hesychasts of the Greek Church, the Mystics of mediæval times, and, in later times, the disciples of Paracelsus, Thalhauser, Bohme, Swedenborg, and others. Recently a small sect has arisen, which has taken the name of Theosophists. Its leader was an English gentleman who had become fascinated with the doctrine of Buddhism. Taking a few of his followers to India, they have been prosecuting their studies there, certain individuals attracting considerable attention by a claim to miraculous powers. It need hardly be said that the revelations they have claimed to receive have been, thus far, without element of benefit to the human race. The Evolution Theory. The evolution or development theory declares the universe as it now exists to be the result of a long series of changes, which were so far related to each other as to form a series of growths analogous to the evolving of the parts of a growing organism. Herbert Spencer defines evolution as a progress from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, from general to special, from the simple to the complex elements of life, and it is believed that this process can be traced in the formation of worlds in space, in the multiplication of types and species among animals and plants, in the origin and changes of languages and literature and the arts, and also in all the changes of human institutions and society. Asserting the general fact of progress in nature, the evolution theory shows that the method of this progress has been (1) by the multiplication of organs and functions; (2) ac cording to a defined unity of plan, although with (3) the intervention of transitional forms, and (4) with modifications dependent upon surrounding conditions. Ancient writers occasionally seemed to have a glimmering knowledge of the fact of progress in nature, but as a theory "evolution" belongs to the enlightenment of the nineteenth century. Leibnitz, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, first uttered the opinion that the earth was once in a fluid condition, and Kant, about the middle of the eighteenth century, definitely propounded the nebular hypothesis, which was enlarged as a theory by the Herschels. The first writer to suggest the transmutation of species among animals was Buffon, about 1750, and other writers followed out the idea. The eccentric Lord Monboddo was the first to suggest the possible descent of man from the ape, about 1774. In 1813 Dr. W. C. Wells first proposed to apply the principle of natural selection to the natural history of man, and in 1822 Professor Herbert first asserted the probable transmutation of species of plants. In 1844 a book appeared called "Vestiges of Creation," which, though evidently not written by a scientific student, yet attracted great attention by its bold and ingenious theories. The authorship of this book was never revealed until after the death of Robert Chambers, a few years since, it became known that this publisher, whom no one would ever have suspected of holding such hetorodox theories, had actually written it. But the two great apostles of the evolution theory were Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. The latter began his great work, the "First Principles of Philosophy," showing the application of evolution in the facts of life, in 1852. In 1859 appeared Darwin's "Origin of Species." The hypothesis of the latter was that different species originated in spontaneous variation, and the survival of the fittest through natural selection and the struggle for existence. This theory was further elaborated and applied by Spencer, Darwin, Huxley, and other writers in Europe and America, and though to-day by no means all the ideas upheld by these early advocates of the theory are still accepted, evolution as a principle is now acknowledged by nearly all scientists. It is taken to be an established fact in nature, a valid induction from man's knowledge of natural order. The Mind Cure. The mind cure, otherwise known in its various subdivisions as metaphysics, Christian science, mental science, etc., is a species of delusion quite popular at the present time. Every era of the world has cherished similar delusions, for the mass of the human race, even in what are considered the educated classes, are so unfamiliar with the processes of exact reasoning that they fall a ready prey to quacks of all kinds. The fundamental idea of the mind cure system is that there is no such thing as sickness. Disease, says one of their apostles, is an error of the mind, the result of fear. Fear is only faith inverted and perverted. God, who is all good Himself, and who made everything good, cannot have been the author of any disease. As disease, therefore, is not a creation, it has no existence, and when the healer has succeeded in impressing this fact upon the mind of the patient, the cure is effected. It is curious to note into what utter absurdities the need for consistency carries these apostles. Poisons, they say, would be quite harmless if the fear of them was removed, but we have yet to find the "mental science" teacher who will undertake to prove this by herself taking liberal doses of aconite and strychnine. The illnesses of children are explained by the hypothesis of hereditary fear. The majority of the teachers of this new faith are women, many of whom, no doubt, are sincere in their belief; but it may be safely stated that the men engaged as the so-called physicians of the new practice are, with few exceptions, unprincipled quacks, who have gone into the business for the money they can make by duping the ignorant. As far as there is any truth underlying the vagaries of mind cures, and their boasts of remarkable cases of healing, it may be admitted that the mind has much influence over the body. This fact has been recognized by intelligent physicians for centuries. And that the peculiar modern type of nervous diseases, which are so largely caused by excessive stimulus of the nerves and the imagination, should be amenable to cure through the imagination, is not strange. It will be noted that this mental cure has effected its miracles mainly among women, where it has the emotional temperament to work on, and almost wholly in the ranks of the wealthy and well-to-do, where there is little or no impoverishment of the system by insufficient food and excessive toil to hinder its effects. We have not heard, nor are we likely to hear, of an epidemic disease checked by the mind cure, or of the healing of acute affections or organic troubles through its agency. Nor do we hear of its seeking to carry its message of healing into the houses of the suffering poor in large cities, where hunger, exposure and foul airs open wide the door to fevers and all deadly diseases, nor yet into hospitals for contagious or incurable affections. In the presence of such realities it would prove, as its votaries probably understand, a too-painful mockery. Intelligently analyzed, therefore, this new revelation amounts to nothing more than a quite striking proof of the remarkable influence of the mind over the nervous system. Beyond this, the craze, in attempting to disprove the existence of disease, and to show that poisons do not kill, is simply running against the plain and inevitable facts of life, and can safely be left to perish through its own rashness. 427 There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries.-Shakespeare. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes- The quality of mercy is not strain'd; It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, What are monuments of bravery Where no public virtues bloom? What avail, in lands of slavery, Trophied temples, arch and tomb?—Campbell. Virtue alone outbuilds the pyramids; Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall.--Young. Not to him who rashly dares. Is the victor's garland sure.—Whittier. A trinity there seems of principles, Which represent and rule created life- The love of self, our fellows, and our God.--Bailey. Hark, his hands the lyre explore! Thoughts that breathe and words that burn.-Gray. I hold it truth with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things.-Tennyson. Think'st thou existence doth depend on time? Man but dives in death; Dives from the sun in fairer day to rise. The grave his subterranean road to bliss.-Young. There is no death! What seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life Elysian, Whose portal we call death.-Longfellow. Know, then, thyself; presume not God to scan; Lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; |