TRUTH OUT OF ERROR.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4629, 5 November 1883, Page 2

TRUTH OUT OF ERROR.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) **■ Sib,—"What do you Think"' is a strange fellow—" Truth out of-Error " to wit. What do I think ? Well, sir, I think, as several others thought who were present among the critics on the remarkable occasion alluded to by your "correspondent, that old C. failed to prove hii point. I was present, having been drawn by the singular nature of the subject to be discussed, and wondered who could have proposed such a subject for discus* sion by such an assemblage of frog critics. I wondered also what in the world the writer and critics would make out of such •an unearthly subject as that of "Truth.' 1 Good gracious! thought I to r myself, where on earth will the writers find truth in these days? Old W. made sure he had found- it; and seemed to have taken ajl the critics by surprise, for no one ventured to contradict him—not even theologicalß. The fact is; old JW. trod upon ground that is too hot for most people rof these prevaricating daya— theologians as well as others ; so he took the wind out of the sails of all the critics put together. However true it- may be, old W., I fear, will never get the cosy people of this world to believe in his general break up of present kingdoms and churches. But when old ■C, with ~ his broad, open, intelligent Scotch countenance, ventured to tell the august assem* blage that "Error was the parent of all truth : the chaos from which all truth is evolved," the critics opened their eyes with bewildered astonishment, and dipped their troubled heads, as if disappointed in a love speculation; and well they might, for whoever can crack such a nut as that must have better teeth than frog critics. Well, let us see. : Suppose I illustrate -a little: nothiag like illustration to make a dark subject luminous.; _(lst.) What is error? I take: it to be Tallacy, failure, vice, guilt. These derivations from the word error I will illustrate one by one, when I flatter myself it will be clearly :;that truth or perfect! in comes not out of any of them. Fallacy: Illustrated by our railway system. Where is the perfection in that system ? Collisions are continually occurring ; blundering of one kind on another are the order of the day; whebls are breaking, boilers are bursting, from one error or another people get killed or crippled, invention after invention succeed each other in order to prevent these mishaps, but it is useless ; it is all fallacy. Perfection or troth comes not out of the error, and never will. Failare: Illustrated by bank breaking and commercial crises. I need say but very little here; thousands upon thousands have suffered from these to their sorrow, and yet on they come again, and at this very time there promises to be all over the earth a bigger crisis, a more tremendous smash up in these concerns, than ever there was previously; it is now just beginning. It is all failure, and no one can see truth or perfection come out of the errors of failure. Vice: Illustrated by robbery, plunder, and so forth. Does imprison* ment and punishment prevent these ? Does the robber turn over a new leaf, leave his vices and .learn truthP he not rather get hardened in his errors, and go from bad to worse continually./ Truth evolved from vice, never ! Guilt: illustrated by the incendiary, the jfire raiser, and the dynamiter— we all know these are on the increase, and no law seems to be able to prevent such things. It is not truth that -is" evolved from such guilty wretches as these monsters are) The proposition - advanced by the second essayist must hare been intended as a V goak " to dntjr out the critics on purpose to have soa»« fun at their expense: but it did not succeed, while S. who no doubt considers himselt the best of the lot, spoke the truth when he declared that pure truth would be found nowhere on: this earth. The fact is, error, the result of ignorance - or something worse, is the parent of ever? evil on this troubled earth, religious, or otherwise. Error is especially the parent of superstition and all its bad consequences. Is it possible that trmh can be evolved from such a chaos ? Never!-—I am, &c, \ .' ; r;

A "MtrxirAt." Cbitic.