TRUTH OUT OF ERROR.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4628, 3 November 1883, Page 2

TRUTH OUT OF ERROR.

(To tho Editor of the i vening Star.) From errors slain we truths unfold, And from their d.UBt win mental gold.

Sir,—On a time in a small township not a hundred miles distant from one of the provincial centres of population in New Zealand, it chanced that a number of critics assembled to discuss the important subject of "Truth." It happened that a number were sot apart to advance their views upon the above topic, so that the critics might have a variety of pegs whereon to hang their mental hats, and were thus enabled to display their intellectual and logical acumen. Among other propositions advanced, there was one which appeared to me very much as if it bad a lie very deeply, cut by Old Nick in its forehead, looking more like a shape sprung from the abyss than a farm of light. It was this : " Error is the parent of all acquired truth, the chaos from which all truth is evolved." I must con fess I was startled, and could not forbear mentally exclaiming, " Avaunt ye, avaunt ye." Imagine my surprise when some of the critics assented to the aforesaid diabolical utterance. I began to think there was something under the surface of this assertion, and that now the nut would be cracked and the mystery revealed. Alas! no revelation followed their acquiescence. I puzzled some time over the question. To me it was a perfect hedgehog—a nut bristling with spears gyrate. I could neither crack it wi?4 teeth

or crush it with heel. Sorely perplexed , I demanded a solution. ''What, have you not yet slain and hurled into the abyss that sphinx? Has not the light-splendor gleaming in and around your error chaos burnt into its very heart, and from its ashes evolved for you another—eternal truth ? See yon flower gem rejoicing in the life heat of the sun ! As surely by the life-giving influences of the sun it sprang from the cold, damp earth, so .surely all truth you have acquired roseput of error." " I perceive it not. Pray be good enough to yet further reveal." "I presume," he replied, " you will admit ignorance, is the soil in which error exists; that all men come into the world in utter ignorance of truth. Hence, every man is a chaos of error, over which brood powerful influences in the shape of parent) teacher, and every-day surroundings, slowly evolving truth from error. Yet so extensive is this chaos that few if any have' been able to transform it as a whole into ligbt.order, truth. You will concede that all of us have been in error when believing we were pursuing the lines of truth, and persuaded we would arrive at truthful conclusions, yet vexation and disaster have resulted. Carefully examining every inch of ground we had traversed the chaotic element | upon which we were wrecked becomes apparent. We look into its, eyes, and as we gaze, truth springs up,consumingerror,:; becoming to us a living, eternal verity. The will«o'ithe-wisp evaporates, and in its place a safe and abiding light establishes itself. " Some men," he continued, " are in a great- measure. j mentally and morally chaotic. Doubtless from collision they become acquainted - with error; doubtless also, some grains of truth have been extracted,? yet the truth so extracted (being of such a limited character) is unable to completely vanquish error. Truth thereby becomes emasculated, and in large degree impeded, in its onward, triumphant march."— Thinking tbat this explanation may be of equal service to some others as well as myself. I send it for publication, if you please,in your journal.—l am, &c. 'j '\ ■ "■_'::r What do you .think ?