Stillwater, Minnesota May 2, 1901 Mental Cultivation.

Third Paper.

FROM would-be philosophers who want the fruits of philosophy without giving any attention to the well from which they spring, come all the baleful blunders that have made philosophy a term of reproach in the world. Epicureans, anarchism, slavery, free-love and atheism, are all perversions of philosophy, due to attempts to use the mind before developing it. Mental activity is too frequently mistaken for mental usefulness, whereas it is one of the commonest of human faults. There is a pestilent notion to use one’s mine is praiseworthy, no matter what the purpose of result may be, as long as the user does not pass the boundary lines fixed by the police (as I did).

IN DEFENSE OF THE TRUSTS Paper read before the Chautauqua

BISHOP Godfrey Goodman, in a sermon entitled “The Fall of Man,” preached during the reign of James I, laments the difficulty of knowing what wealth is—in view of the changes that have taken place int eh realm—and sighs for the good old times when, “if a man’s stock of a few beasts were his own, and he lived out of debt and paid his rent duly and quarterly, he was considered a very rich and surficient man.”

“But it would seem,” continues the bishop, “that since the dissolution of the abbeys all wealth is flown to the towns. The husbandman sits at rack rent; he fights with distracted forces and knows not how to raise the price of the market…Someway this all sounds familiar. Inject a few adjectives, such as “damnable,” and say something about (continues with contemporary examples from 1901).