Lyceum

Article #138 - Pocopson Literary Asociation

 

         Decbr 5th 1850

 

Which would benefit society the most in general to support Pocopson Literary association or to

establish a school for the cultivation of music

            This question at our last meeting was refer[r]ed to me to answer. The difficulty of the

answer did not appear so great at the time as it does upon coming to answer it, and it is so from

Article #137 - Year 1850

 

Answer to the Question; to what half of the 19th century does the year 1850 belong?

 

The first fifty years being the first half of the 19th century,

it is evident that the year 1850 belongs to that half.

 

[But the author, A. Darlington, goes on to say the Chinese have a different method of computing time, according to which 1850 would be in the latter half of the 19th century. He concludes, though, that the opening statement is correct.]

 

Article #136 - Man

 

[The anonymous author explains the functions of the heart and stomach. His or her conclusion follows.]

 

Article #135 - Education

 

For the Journal

 

Why

 

There is something innate in the mind of man that causes him whenever he observes any phenomenon instantly to utter if not audibly this laconic interrogation; Why or Wherefore is it so? This inquiring spirit contemporary with his nature, is the channel through which all intellectual acquirements are obtained.

 

Article #134 - Temperance

 

[A fragment,”to be read by Frank Darlington,”  promoting education and

opposing drunkenness. This is page 9 of a larger paper.]

Article #133 - Nature

 

A ramble in Autumn

 

[L. A. Vernon, the author, recounts a fantasy when a walk through autumn woods brought thoughts of mortality: “The nestling leaves in their falling taught me the important lesson of the shortness of life and the certainty of death.”]

 

Article #132 - Journal

 

What is the cause of the water being higher on the West side of the Isthmus of Darien [Panama] than on the East?

 

[The responder first questions whether this is true or a trick question, and then admits he doesn’t know the answer.]

 

Article #131 -Panama east/west water levels

 

What is the cause of the water being higher on the West side of the Isthmus of Darien [Panama] than on the East?

 

[The responder first questions whether this is true or a trick question, and then admits he doesn’t know the answer.]

 

Article #130 - Phrenology

 

Why should the circulation of the

American Phrenological Journal be increased

 

            Because of the good it is doing I would answer.

 

[The unnamed author praises the work of O. S. and L. N Fowler, phrenologists, who have “placed in our hands a Compass if we but use it understandingly that will enable us to steer the

Bark of life with safety into the haven of rest.”]

 

Article #129 - Capital Punishment

 

Question: It is queried, “Ought Capital punishment to be abolished.”

 

            To this interrogation, Reason, Justice, Inspiration, written and living, All the gifts or properties of the mind, whose tendency is to conduct the Earthly probationer towards the polar

Star of Truth, the revelations of duty are thine --All the angelic feelings, or arch-angelic quali-

fications of the Soul, whose province is to enlarge, amplify and refine the same, after the sublime

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