Class JEILias: 
 
 Rook J s- 
 CopigM 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOStT. 
 


4 
 
 
 COPYRIGHT 1914 
 
 BY 
 J. F. INGRAHAM, Sr. 
 
 ©CI.A397753 
 
 71, 
 
Seedling Philosophy 
 
 Ingraham's Philosophy 
 
 What is right we all should know, 
 It will help our fight for life, 
 
 In snares and snarls we struggle through 
 In this hard and bitter strife. 
 
 It helps to tell the right at sight, 
 
 For use or truth alone, 
 For truth will always hold its weight, 
 
 Which philosophy calls its own. 
 
Go Gbose TObo TCtoulo Gbink 
 
 In offering this little book, with its freight to 
 people, I hope it will be received, as a book containing 
 some few interesting facts not generally known, and 
 if the writer can start two people to thinking, he will 
 be satisfied. Of course the talk will seem strange to 
 some, but then, it is true reason, and true philosophy, 
 almost unknown. 
 
 In reading this small work, the writer hopes, that 
 the reader will investigate what is printed here, by, and 
 with common reason. I mean the art of comparing, 
 not by any kind of isms, opinions, belief, or any kind 
 of dogmas, now so prevalent, for we have had enough 
 of thinks. Streets are full of them, and beliefs are a 
 drug on our brain markets. Let us go below belief, 
 and get near truth, as taught by reason. 
 
 It does not matter one's belief, learned or un- 
 learned, measure the subjects in this book with na- 
 ture, by reason. If you cannot reason, learn, it is 
 easy, very easy. But in justice to yourself, the world's 
 opinion and the writer, dig the virtue out of these 
 subjects by the pick of reason. The only things that 
 will do it on this earth, and the truth will come, pure 
 and simple. I have handled these subjects, just as T 
 have found them. Except space, fire and building of 
 the earth of which I know nothing about, nor claim 
 to, would admire, and if one notes anything worthy 
 of thought herein, write or see me. I would be pleased 
 to reason or explain anything 1 have written about. 
 At least ask me questions by letter or in person. The 
 earth is welcome to do so. 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
 APR 2 I9f5 
 
Seedling Philosophy 
 
 Truth Measured With Fiction 
 
 Product of Over Fifty Years' Study 
 Useless Words Eliminated 
 
 Over Th'rty Biological Explanations With Seventy Philosophical 
 Reasonings 
 
 The Origin of Life Dug From the Bottom of Nature 
 Concentrated to Memory 
 
 In Reason's Way As In Nature's 
 [Fourth Book] 
 
 BELIEFS, ISMS AND THINKS, CORRECTED OR 
 EXPLAINED, AS YOU WILL 
 
 BY 
 J. F. INGRAHAM, Senior 
 
 PEABODY, MASS., 1914 
 
Space 
 
 What we call space, appears to be expanded force, 
 that is, matter in its original state with no form as we 
 know form. 
 
 What I mean by force is matter in the form of 
 gases. That is, the smallest known condition of matter 
 
 Mixed uniformly with the^e gases is a subtle ele- 
 ment we call fire, the builder and destroyer of solid 
 bodies, and is present in about everything known on 
 our earth. In fact, all real stars appear to be glowing 
 balls of fire. Fire in any form to us means motion. By 
 rubbing your hands you start the animal heat on fire in 
 a weak form. 
 
 Of the origin of fire and the gases I have no 
 opinion. Yet, some of good repute say that fire is an 
 animal and the quickest one known. You may smile at 
 this, but study it before you adopt an opinion. 
 
 What appears to us to be a solid body at some 
 time was gas, floating in space, so fine we could look 
 through it as through glass. But how was it gathered 
 into a solid? I have but one opinion, that is, by comets 
 rushing through space gathering dust to build a body 
 like our earth or sun. 
 
 Fire appears to be the one power that keeps our 
 earth rushing through space; also, it seems to be the 
 mainspring of all life. Remove heat and all life ceases 
 as we know life. 
 
 Of the theory that heat and cold are the same 
 thing? That is, that part in motion we call heat, and 
 that part near still we call cold. Time perhaps will in- 
 
Seedlings 
 
 form us. 
 
 Fire seems to enter between the atoms of matter 
 and press them apart. It does not seem to destroy any 
 part of matter, but eats and grows on attraction and 
 repulsion that holds matter together. It will make 
 separate metal unite in a solid body. Fire does not 
 seem to die as a tree, it simply goes to rest. Motion 
 will arouse it to active life. 
 
 Fire, cold and distance are the three builders of 
 bodies. Melt some metal and you only change its 
 form. Then remove the heat, you have the metal just 
 the same. To burn a tree is different. You have a few 
 ashes. Apply fire to these, and you will reduce them to 
 dust. Fire we cannot see, nor can we handle it. It will 
 mix with gases and solid forms or vapor, hence explo- 
 sions. I opine matter always Avas, though not in the 
 form we see it. 'Tis changing, always changing, into 
 form and out of form. 
 
 Iftumbers 
 
 Numbers are the most positive thing in nature. 
 They describe quantities. Pathagrious thought they 
 were part of godhead, and a Complete number was 
 three. That is a beginning, middle and ending. Num- 
 bers are positive, never more, never less. Never a 
 change. You say three men. Just so many, never 
 more nor less. Three is an immortal number that is 
 never lost in any number of figures. Multiply it by any 
 number, the result added remains three. Example: 
 
Seedlings 1 1 
 
 Say three times seven are twenty-one ; two and one are 
 three. So it is with any other number, results always 
 three. So measured by others it is immortal, as you 
 cannot lose it. 
 
 Cbree (Sreat powers 
 
 Among the great powers that predominate, three 
 appeal to us — attraction, repulsion and harmony. At- 
 traction holds our society together, for without attrac- 
 tion cities, nations could not live. Just think of any 
 thing without attraction and you will understand. 
 Form of no kind or shape could exist without at- 
 traction. 
 
 iRules 
 
 In nature there is no law, for nature knows no 
 law. Everything changes and is guided by distance, 
 chance and conditions. Law is distinctly human, 
 made by humanity to protect weak humanity. 
 
 Living as we do, laws are necessary to protect us 
 from each other. We have written laws and unwritten 
 laws. If nature was run by law, there would be things 
 made alike. But they are far from that. You cannot 
 find in nature two things just alike. No two blades of 
 grass, no two leaves, no two stones, no two stars, no 
 two men or women, no two days, years or anything 
 made or governed by nature are alike. 
 
Seedlings 
 
 Law brings everything to a level. And so it is 
 everyone who steals is punished according to law. You 
 can change law, but not its administration. Now in na- 
 ture there appear to be certain habits that are chang- 
 ing" all the time. Things grow similar but not alike, and 
 appear to me to hinge on time, chance and condition. 
 
 Ignorance of our surroundings show. I happen 
 to be out without an umbrella and it rains. I get wet 
 and catch cold and die. Now I was ignorant of the 
 chance of conditions in my surroundings, hence death. 
 Yet no law was the cause of my death. Now a law 
 would have it rain on certain times. Knowing that, I 
 would have carried an umbrella and not got wet and 
 died. Our nature comes from the earth, so do our 
 bodies, and it naturally follows, we are governed by 
 the same rules that govern earthly matter. There can 
 be no law in nature, for every second she is changing. 
 It is just the same as time. There is no time unless we 
 make it. It is all a mistake when you hear people talk- 
 ing about the laws of nature, for there is no law as we 
 know law in nature. 
 
 attraction 
 
 Our earth and her sister planets are held in their 
 positions by what scientists term attraction and repul- 
 sion, though it is not known what either are. And 
 perhaps it is just as well, as they appear to remain in a 
 balance. But reason teaches they are either advanc- 
 ing or retreating from each other all the time. 
 
Seedlings 
 
 Balance 
 
 Vegetation and animals live on a balance. All 
 forms great or small do the same. So, if the heat be- 
 comes too great, we die. If the cold becomes too 
 strong, we die. And between the two extremes we 
 live, so to speak, on a balance. And all things, stars, 
 planets, all kinds of life exist the same, except space, 
 time and matter. 
 
 (Srowtb 
 
 All animals grow by the evaporation of water 
 --trees from their roots, animals from- their middle. 
 Plant life evaporates nearly sixteen hundred pounds ot 
 water to one pound of solid plant, animals from twenty 
 to fifty to every pound gained in bodily weight. This 
 is near the average. Of course, different animals and 
 different trees and plant life require more or less. 
 
 2)eatb 
 
 When animals die, the changes we see are four — 
 absence of heat and breath, the blood leaves the sur- 
 face and the body itself becomes still. Our five senses 
 do not recognize any matter leaving the body. It be- 
 
1 4 Seedlings 
 
 comes cold, rigid. And as far as we know, the body is 
 as perfect after death as before in all its working parts. 
 All it requires for life is heat. The gray matter we talk 
 so much about being the seat of intelligence is still in 
 the head. And just as soon as life has left, the body 
 itself begins to decompose into its composite parts. All 
 knowledge, as far as we know, dies with this gray mat- 
 ter. Knowledge, body, heat, breath, brains and form 
 disappear. That is death. 
 
 Brains 
 
 Brains of animals, in the concrete, are the same, 
 and work on the same general principle. In the head 
 of the average person there are from three to five mil- 
 lion cells, or nearly that many. Each one will receive 
 a picture, perhaps one-ten thousandth of an inch in 
 diameter. Yet each picture is perfect in itself and 
 stands ready to show itself to the nerve that brought 
 the picture to it. If the nerve is vigorous and cell in 
 proper condition, a picture will sometimes remain a 
 whole lifetime, to be called up at will. This is termed 
 memory. On the other hand, if the nerve acts slow, cell 
 is hardened for lack of food or other causes, why, the 
 picture will be light. Hence poor memory will follow, 
 for you cannot recall the picture easily. As a rule, you 
 can judge a person's knowledge by his memory. 
 
 I have not received one little bit of proof that an} 
 part of knowledge leaves any body before or aftei 
 death. So far as I have been able to learn, the cells 
 
Seedlings 1 5 
 
 with their pictures, from what knowledge is, seem tc 
 die with the body. If there is anything that is not mat 
 ter, that can receive an information and retain it, why 
 1 never heard of it, never saw any proof of it, therefore 
 I do not know it. And I think those who do believe 
 that belief is all they have for proof. Do not forget, be 
 lief is a substitute for truth. Now, if the above is true 
 how do we know each other hereafter? 
 
 ©rigin of Gbougbt 
 
 Thought is the product of brain pictures, use r ^ 
 one with another. So it follows, the more brain pic 
 tures, the more thought to grapple with the problems 
 of life. And so we say, such a one has more brain? 
 than some others, meaning that more pictures stick in 
 his head. 
 
 ]form 
 
 Form and time are the only things made by the 
 animal world, in fact, the only known things made by 
 any power. Matter is here, always has been here. 
 And the builders of form, as we see it, are cold, heat, 
 attraction, harmony, time or distance They also de- 
 stroy form. No power, according to our five senses, 
 can make something out of nothing. It is contrary to 
 
1 6 Seedlings 
 
 what we learn and human reason In relation to form, 
 it always seems strange where forms go when they 
 leave the living world, so numerous, humanity could 
 not conceive. They continue to stream along, no two 
 alike, only a look that is similar. And stranger still, 
 one never came back. 
 
 GbinlunG 
 
 Thinking is as simple as breathing. Suppose you 
 have an apple, the kind you like. You begin to say to 
 yourself — and you may be in bed, your eyes shut, still 
 you see the apple — now if I had two more, I could have 
 a pie. And if I had, I would have one to eat raw. This 
 is thinking, and by so doing you have made three 
 new pictures. So by the sight of the first apple, you 
 have added two more and a pie, making three — three 
 new pictures in your head. Yet you never saw the pie, 
 because it was not made. How can you see the pie? 
 Simple enough. The pictures of other pies were in 
 your head. You have only to look at them with some 
 of your senses, the eye that first saw the apple and the 
 picture of taste you got while eating other pies, prior 
 to this time. So how easy to think. As a rule a person 
 will be biased towards anything that has its pictures in 
 his head. By a complete and subtle use of these pic- 
 tures, and the will of our five senses in comparing, we 
 can make many pictures of things to be. Of course, 
 they will be limited according to the amount of 
 thought you have. Some are grotesque and unreason- 
 
Seedlings 1 7 
 
 able, and some will be just what you want. In a 
 word, picture is knowledge, and I may add knowledge 
 is power. Power is a superiority over others who have 
 less. 
 
 TReason 
 
 Reason is a detective, a forerunner, that is hunting 
 for the best way to avoid mistakes, and seek the best 
 way to go to gratify our passion and fill our ambition. 
 Reason is the only pathfinder we have that is safe to 
 follow. Reason is the art of comparing what will fol- 
 low in the future, by the trend of the past and looks of 
 the present. You can reason on belief for a base or 
 supposition, as well as a truth, and sometimes reat li 
 good results. To reason well is to possess the best gift 
 in the power of nature to bestow, for with reason you 
 can do all things possible. Without, you are the same 
 as a tree, for all animals reason some. 
 
 The best way to reason is to drop all isms and be- 
 liefs. Use almost everything you know that is truth. 
 Example : Get two rods of iron, one two, the other one 
 foot long, the same size around. Now show the two 
 rods to a person, and tell him the short rod weighs past 
 two pounds. Ask him how much he thinks the long 
 one weighs. He will reason this way. The rods are 
 about the same size around, same density. One rod one 
 foot long weighs two pounds, the long one should 
 weigh as much again, would be the answer. This is 
 reasoning, pure and simple, and should be applied to 
 everything we do. It is the only guess we have for the 
 
Seedlings 
 
 future. Again, those who make it a practice to reason 
 things before they act, have better success than they 
 who do not. By all means learn to reason. It will give 
 you some light on the darkest problems of life. And 
 all you have to do is to practice it to become an expert. 
 Do'it. 
 
 ffaitb 
 
 A dark subtle fellow, born of belief, whose grand- 
 father was ignorance. The pleasing effect we feel is 
 why we use him. He is a handy tool sometimes. 
 Faith governed by reason has Avorked wonderful 
 things. I think faith and belief belong in the same 
 class. They generally use belief for past, faith for 
 future. To me the game is not worth the powder. Use 
 them as one, and they are one. Faith occupies the 
 place of truth in future, while truth in reality belongs 
 to the past. For a thing to be a truth must be past or 
 present, while faith is used chiefly in theology, where 
 about all is supposition. It is there that faith and its 
 father, belief, flourish, and both from ignorance. 
 
 Belief 
 
 Belief of itself is a common substitute for a fact. 
 When we do not know a thing is true, we believe. Be- 
 lief is one of the greatest factors in our mental life. Be- 
 lief in time, to a believer, will become a fact. Hence so 
 
Seedlings 1 9 
 
 many mistakes. We do not question its benefits. It is 
 a great blessing to us when used right, and a terrible 
 enemy when not. It must be reasonable proof. It 
 promotes our welfare and gives us courage. We would 
 not build or make anything of any note without its 
 help, but woe to the one that leans on it without reason. 
 And blessed is the one that gets it straight, with rea- 
 son as a companion, for they will prosper. Most all 
 our troubles arise in its wrong use. There are three 
 common habits of getting on with it — belief without 
 reason, drifting, belief with reason. The last named 
 means success. Hang on to it and you will surely 
 prosper. 
 
 Xove 
 
 Love or desire seems to be the mainspring of all 
 our doing, and is the base of all animal movement all 
 over the earth. And I think it is a part of all things 
 that have brains. It surely is the governing power of 
 all. Its control is so absolute and despotic, there is no 
 appeal. No power is known that has so complete a 
 control over animal existence as love or desire. It is 
 the cause of most, or a large part, of our woe. It is the 
 mother of our pleasure, father of our hopes, and the 
 shortening of our lives. It is the cause of all our 
 building, all our science and everything that we value. 
 It is an immense power and completely dominates us. 
 We do not sense it any more than when we breathe. 
 When one loses the love of life, he is of no use to the 
 people. The only bridle for love is reason, and it sel- 
 
20 Seedlings 
 
 dom is used, alas. 
 
 I would define it as the essence of pleasure. Some 
 animals' love is intense. Weal or woe, it yields to no 
 known power but to repulsion and death. The cause 
 of pleasure is the want of some like chemical in our 
 system. Would like to converse with any person on 
 this subject. 
 
 ibope 
 
 The cable that pulls us to the future. Hope in 
 itself is waiting. Something new to come, in reality 
 longing for a change with new conditions. And it is a 
 comfort to think of it. Many people would die were it 
 not for hope. It is the only attribute of the human 
 that sticks to them. All others fade. It is our mental 
 saviour. We build on it, bank on it, trade on it and as 
 far as I can see, were it not so, our civilization would 
 cease. What salt is to meat and fish, hope is to our 
 mental food. We hang to it with a grip that only the 
 loss of reason or death can break. Yet it is a brother 
 of faith and cousin of belief. Faith came from igno- 
 rance, a stupendous large family. Hope, a balm to our 
 mistakes, to think we can try again. It heals our men- 
 tal wounds. What a poor lump of flesh a person would 
 be without it. The best thing about it is that it is in 
 perfect harmony with nature, for nature is naught but 
 a big mass ot changes. Hope admonishes us to wait 
 for them, and they never come alike, only similar, it is 
 a truth when I tell you, foster hope, encourage it every 
 
Seedlings 
 
 way you can. It is salt on tne ground of human 
 thought. It is closely related to time, for time or dis- 
 tance is the food on which hope thrives, the best at- 
 tribute we possess. Stick to it. 
 
 Cbarit? 
 
 One of the sweetest thoughts we have, though 
 apparently not understood, and much abused in 
 thought, words and acts. A charitable act is in reality 
 lending with no promise of payment. 
 
 The idea of giving with the thought of never get- 
 ting a return is all moonshine. Nature does not do 
 things that way. I cannot find anything in nature that 
 suggests such a thing, but, indeed, just the opposite. 
 Nature demands and receives a full return. To give 
 something for nothing is not done in nature or 
 anywhere else, so call it by its right name. It pleases 
 you to give, just as it pleases you to do something 
 else. Charity as taught and generally understood (I at 
 least have got that impression) meant the giving of a 
 thing with the hope of no return. Yet there was this 
 belief attached that sometime, somewhere and some- 
 how the act was placed to your credit by someone, 
 and would be paid in full with interest by someone 
 sometime. Charity as taught in our creation is not 
 found, yet taught as coming from the godhead. The 
 prize for an act I don't know, or how many charitable 
 acts mean eternal life. A very simple trade hugged to 
 the heart by a majority of people and repudiated by 
 others. I have not a breath of proof that God made 
 
22 Seedlings 
 
 any such trade with anyone on this earth. And reader, 
 do not forget that philosophy looks with a cold eye on 
 everything in hunting for cause, or how a thing is 
 done. 
 
 Now if there were no poor people in the world, 
 there would be no need of charity. Get the poor people 
 out and charity could not exist. To me and my philoso- 
 phy it would be much easier to get rid of the poor than 
 to get eternal life, to become a god and live forever. 
 Great plan. Even then one pleases self, and pleasing 
 self is charity. You know pleasing self is selfishness, 
 and it is self first, last and always. To get rid of 
 charity, let the state feed the poor with what they earn, 
 and not allow others to take under. 
 
 £rutb 
 
 Truth in thought is what iron is to our age. A 
 solid thing as it were. The worth it bestows on people 
 is immense, and results in the greatest good. Use the 
 truth. It is the best way to live. It promotes courage, 
 friendship, confidence, self-respect, an honorable com- 
 munity, and is the most solid thing of humanity that 
 I know, the base of human virtues. Truth was and is, 
 yet has no future. Truth changes with conditions thai 
 surround us. It never changes of itself. It is a mark, 
 a tool and capital, and always acceptable to the world 
 Deep in the brain of all humanity it is honored above 
 most other virtues. 
 
 'Tis the one thing we know, use and depend on. 
 A truth may be truth today, but not tomorrow. Truth 
 
 
Seedlings 2 3 
 
 is a thing as it is, the opposite to a lie. It is a habit to 
 tell the truth. Once acquired, it generally sticks 
 through life. There is not much to a man beyond his 
 word, that is, all his honor in a word. A man who does 
 not regard his promise a personal honor is of no use to 
 a community. He is a child. You cannot depend on 
 him. His talk is near childish prattle. No one believes 
 him. My philosophy teaches me to tell the truth, or a 
 blunt no, you will not tell. It will pay you a hundred 
 fold through life. Try it. It will cost you nothing but 
 a little will power, and notice how quick the people will 
 notice it, no matter your condition in life, be it gutter 
 or palace. Your word passes for its face value. The 
 best thing to practice in life, tell the truth and be hon- 
 ored. One truth is worth ten thousand lies in any mar- 
 ket. 
 
 %ucfc 
 
 An early riser and lives in the future. It is a 
 thing we know very little about beyond imagination. 
 That some appear to be naturally more prosperous 
 than others is true, but that is no evidence of the cause, 
 for some are more handsome, stronger, taller, larger, 
 have better health than others. This is not luck. I call 
 it chance, for I do not know the reason why people are 
 so. Things sometimes go one way, that is what some 
 call good luck. When the other way, bad luck. When 
 we say luck, we mean something we do not under- 
 stand, and so say luck. Reason teaches that there can 
 be no effect without a cause, and cause comes first. 
 
24 Seedlings 
 
 Therefore luck must have a cause. Good or bad, we sec 
 no cause beoynd this earth for either. 
 
 I know of three things that produce all kinds ot 
 forms — heat, cold and time. These three cause all 
 changes and conditions, and of course they must father 
 and mother luck. It seems to me, if the conditions are 
 right, luck will come most one way. Yet like many 
 things, it is as we think. Knowing the darkness that 
 surrounds luck, I would not hug it too tightly. You 
 might get stung. Luck stays with those who make 
 fewest mistakes. 
 
 H %te 
 
 A lie is supposed to be bad, tb : > opposite to truth, 
 which is- a good. The first is telling a story as it is not. 
 Truth is telling a thing as it is. Law holds the motive 
 to govern the story, as a lie to save life is not a lie. 
 There are good lies and bad lies. Good lies help some- 
 one. Bad lies injure someone. You can safely say a 
 good lie has a good intent, a bad lie a bad intent. We 
 cannot build a strong house with rotten lumber, nor a 
 solid base on sand. Therefore tell the truth. There is a 
 solidity about the truth teller we all heartily respect, 
 for we do not know when a lier is telling the truth. A 
 known lier is never trusted. And every man, woman 
 and child who reads this, I say to them — tell the truth. 
 Do as you say. Make your word good, for it is all that 
 you have got, and you will be both trusted and re- 
 spected. Do it for your friends, your kindred, the 
 
Seedlings 25 
 
 world and yourself. There is nothing that will stick by 
 you in adversity as the name of telling the truth Take 
 a truth anywhere you find it. If it does you no good, it 
 will somebody. 
 
 Ibealtb 
 
 Health is the most important thing in this life. 
 No one can be happy without it. So if your health is 
 not good, all things on this earth become twisted. 
 Health should always be in your mind. To have much 
 joy, make health your object. Far better is good health 
 with poor surroundings than 9;ood surroundings and 
 poor health with the best of everything. 
 
 And don't forget, an ordinary head with a good 
 blood supply is much better than a big head half 
 starved. The first means lots of joy, while the latter 
 means hell. The two are so fa r apart they cannot be 
 compared. The composition of human bodies is not the 
 same. What will starve one will fatten others. Alkali 
 is food for some, others want acid or are quite neutral 
 or bitter. While the same ground will grow all kinds 
 of food, one kind of food will not grow two people the 
 same. So a person should watch and determine them- 
 selves the particular food they thrive on. To eat too 
 much breeds germs, too little, some part is starving. 
 Everyone should be a student in the selection of food, 
 and not always follow the taste. Ever keep eyes, ears 
 and reason on the alert. Such is the price of health. Go 
 at it yourself. Do not depend on doctors or other peo- 
 
26 Seedlings 
 
 pie. What suits their bodies might poison yours. If 
 you watch you will soon learn the kind of food that 
 agrees with your makeup. 
 
 As a rule, any food that will leave the stomach in 
 time for the next meal, allowing from five to six hours 
 between meals, is usually the right kind. If it does 
 not, do not eat it again. That kind of food that leaves 
 you with a good appetite for the next is good, all things 
 being right, and you alone can tell. Let people talk, 
 ^ou want health. Never mind cold and hot drinks. 
 Stick to that which sticks to von. People who eat for 
 taste only, as a rule get taste only, and in a few years 
 they will begin to fade. Then their health breaks, joy 
 is gone. Their hell on earth begins. Everything they 
 meet is out of joint. It is a sour pleasure they see in 
 fun. The brain gets warped. They get twisted, fool- 
 ish, discontented, and so become a fossil. They con- 
 tinue to exist, but they are onlv half there. Health is 
 the first thing people should try and get. It is the 
 foundation of life, as a rock is the foundation of a 
 building. People are very careful what they feed their 
 hens, horses, cows, dogs and cats on, but appear very 
 indifferent to the growing of their bodies and the 
 bodies of their children. This is all a mistake — a care- 
 less mistake. So many lose their teeth, sight and health 
 before maturity. Do not ha\ e it so. Change it. Do it 
 now. Do not put it off. 
 
 To be happy is the one great aim and end of 
 human life. Our thoughts, actions, words, deeds con- 
 centrate in this most desirable condition. To be happy 
 is the opposite to pain. The greatest promise given 
 by all the gods in their religions from, at all times 
 
Seedlings 2 7 
 
 on this earth is joy, pleasure, happiness. Born with a 
 trail body, all our struggles are to get away from pain, 
 and its results, unhappiness. Now pleasure depends 
 on the body, the mind, the liver, and that is the reason 
 why so many are unhappy. People do not seem to un- 
 derstand why so many are unhappy. They try most 
 everything to get rid of it, yet somehow slip by the 
 right thing. Now the one thing they slip by is this — 
 and impress it on your mind — knowledge that joy 
 comes from the inside of their own bodies. Now the 
 meaning of pleasure is harmonv. When your body and 
 your surroundings are in unison, then you are happy. 
 Or in other words, not to want anything, or not to 
 fear anything — that is, want a commodity, or fear evil, 
 is near happiness. There is an anticipating happiness, 
 meaning to occupy the mind, make pictures, and so for- 
 get the pain of mind or body. Here then you see 
 trouble comes mostly from the head. There is one 
 general remedy for trouble. Choose for your pleasure 
 a thing that if pressed too far will hurt only yourself, 
 and no one else. Then when you get hurt your friends 
 will pity you, and pity is a salve to trouble, and first 
 step towards help. But good health, looking on the 
 bright side, is a long way towards it, too. 
 
 Now let me tell you a new truth apparently not 
 generally known. You can be happy by practice if you 
 can hang on long enough. Acquire the simple habit of 
 thinking of little funny things. You will in time 
 change your disposition, just as you learn to love 
 other things. Seek harmless amusement. It will soon 
 grow stronger than your trouble. Keep at it. Hard 
 work at first, but after the first three or six months, it 
 
28 Seedlings 
 
 will come easy. And do not forget this, that you 
 cannot have joy without trouble. But work it so your 
 balance will be on joy's side. Now dig in. Don't be 
 careless and neglect it. You will miss it if you do. 
 
 flrienfce 
 
 The next best to health on earth. Plan to make 
 friends. Work for them. Use any and all means that 
 are honest and honorable to get them. You will never 
 regret it. I do not mean friends you buy with money, 
 but with good sensible acts of kindness. Friends 
 bought with money are open to the highest bidder. AYe 
 know you cannot get something for nothing, and so 
 you cannot get friends without work. It is said kind be- 
 gets kind. So if you think kindly, talk kindly, aet kind- 
 ly, do kind things, the same as a rule will return in 
 the shape of friends. I. mean reputable people, and not 
 from road birds, whose friendship you buy for a song. 
 If you loan money, you receive money in return. It is 
 payment. You loan friendship, friendship should re- 
 turn. Friends are so many eyes in the back of your 
 head. One word behind your back often will help you 
 in different ways. They are the blue birds of life. Life 
 is not worth living without them. It is safe to trust a 
 friend before gold or wealth of any kind, yes, before 
 everything but good health. To a friend you tell your 
 hopes, fears, sorrows and loves. They are the third 
 best thing to possess in this world. For your own sake 
 try and make friends — an honest trade. 
 
Seedlings fV 
 
 (Soofc 
 
 Good is a result, for there are as many goods as 
 there are people. Some will thrive on a good that will 
 kill others. Shakespeare explained good when he said, 
 "There is not anything good or bad, but thinking 
 makes it so." What we call good is something we like, 
 and a good today is bad tomorrow. Thoughts of 
 themselves are neither good nor bad, but results deter- 
 mine. Many things we call good and bad alternate one 
 to the other, just as they suit. 
 
 Some use religion and go insane. Others use it 
 and are happy. The love of money in some spoils 
 them. Others seem to improA r e by its use. If you 
 would do good, do something someone likes, for the 
 act may be ever so good, yet not accepted as such, and 
 so a good intent is turned into a bad one. There are 
 certain cardinal goods, such as to have pure air to 
 breathe, water to drink, rest. They are in the con- 
 crete. But the goods in life, that we struggle so hard 
 for, are in the abstract. Hunt them out and be happy. 
 But do not set before those behind you, what you dis- 
 like in those before you. 
 
 Baft or j£vtl 
 
 Bad or evil is another result and the opposite to 
 good in the end. Though the same in nature, they 
 trend to an opposite end with people, but their relation 
 
30 Seedlings 
 
 to humanity is only known by results. Of course I do 
 not include death. A farmer is getting his hay. A rain 
 storm destroys it. This the farmer would call bad, or 
 bad luek. Yet the same rain on another farm saved the 
 farmer's corn crop. Now here was a rain both good 
 and bad in results. So you see that a thing is neither 
 good nor bad, except by result?. If a thing happens 
 right, and it pleases us, it is good. If it comes wrong, 
 displeases us, it is bad. In other words, when a thing 
 is good, it is not bad, though bad when not good. 
 When you say that was a bad thing to happen, un- 
 known to yourself, you mean good to some, and bad to 
 others. We use terms and names not knowing always 
 what they mean. In common talk you are safe to say 
 there is neither good nor bad, for good today is bad to- 
 morrow. Alternate the two, seems about right. 
 
 wieaitb 
 
 Wealth is a large amount of value in various 
 forms, generally of commodities that we use in life or 
 their measure. Wealth to a person does not mean 
 health, long life or happiness. Yet from time unknown 
 people have seemed to think that to get wealth was and 
 is the highest aim and end of human greatness. And 
 the one who gathers wealth is entitled to the respect 
 and honor by those who do not get it. Now the 
 mere fact of getting wealth beyond a good and inde- 
 pendent living does not entitle a person to more re- 
 spect, but should act directly opposite, because wealth 
 
Seedlings 
 
 becomes a menace to health and the life of our race, 
 and the greatest corrupter of human virtues known on 
 earth. The strength of ancient nations in science, art, 
 virtue and fighting power was at its best when the na- 
 tions were young and poor, but as they grew rit h 
 they declined. Ease and sluggishness replaced activ- 
 ity and love of freedom. And so it is with a strong, 
 healthy people. As they grow in wealth, they decrease 
 in number and strength. 
 
 Men grow effeminate and think more of a shiny 
 boots, and ease, than energy or work, hard work. I 
 mean muscle work, which keeps the body strong and 
 healthy, and nothing else will do it. Therefore I 
 deprecate the love of great wealth and think more of 
 active sports, which are not a menace to our race. It 
 appears to me, that the wealth of one true friend is of 
 more worth than the wealth of a town. Anyway, do 
 not sell your friend for a dollar. Things enough to 
 think about. Think of your family. It seems to me 
 every well balanced man should have a family. Think 
 of transmitting your blood and form to the future. Just 
 as the tree, the flower, the fish do. It seems to be the 
 climax of all vegetable and animal life ; and not think 
 of imaginary stuff we call value, then solely die with 
 the dry rot. 'Tis an unreasonable sight to see a strong 
 man, or woman, set up one of these little possessions, 
 god like, to follow through life, and I say here, 'tis 
 surely unjust to do such a thing. All we do on this 
 earth anyway is to eat and reproduce, but 'tis the fash- 
 ion now to eat and dress, that's all. To hell with such 
 a principle, a monumental, colossal disgrace to our in- 
 telligence. Wealth leads to human decay and dissim- 
 
32 Seedlings 
 
 ulation. To perdition with it. The end of our people 
 is here told. Cursed with a system that destroys 
 health, pleasure, long life, killing blood and form tor 
 sake of wealth. 
 
 deception 
 
 Is lying by action, and is neither good nor bad of itself 
 but just as used in conjunction with motive, as a rule, 
 deceiving is injurious to some one's character. 'Tis 
 as destructive to a solid man as fire is to dry paper. If 
 you once get the name of deceiving, every one will hold 
 you at arm's length. No one is willing to trust you. 
 To deceive an enemy is considered smart, right and 
 good, but to deceive a common person, you would be 
 thought a scoundrel. The best way is not to deceive 
 any one, but fight an open battle, for if you win, great 
 is your honor for fighting fair. The average person 
 will respect you, for most people dislike a sneak. No- 
 bleness of manhood despises a fraud wherever found for 
 the lowest in the land is a sneak ; a fraud is about the 
 same. Deceiving is really a lie. You say a thing , and 
 act the opposite. A highway man will rob you. You 
 expect nothing else, but he does not add a lie to the 
 theft. Deceiving should be avoided in little things 
 first, for they lead to greater ones before a person 
 knows it. Little bits build mountains. To lead the 
 best life, deceive no one in anything ever so simple, for 
 you know the beginning, but not the ending. So put 
 your foot down and do not begin. The world never 
 
Seedlings 33 
 
 yet respected a deceiver. I know 'tis a part of our lives 
 to make people believe what we are not. We put the 
 best we have forward to be seen, which appears to be 
 right, yet it is deceiving. It is little deception, pleasing 
 deception, also it will soon be a big deception ; then we 
 are gone. Many and many bright, brilliant people have 
 been ruined and despised by getting the odium of de- 
 ceit attached to them. In my life I have found it the 
 best every time, to act openly in about everything I 
 have done. I have been at my ease, nothing to cover 
 up. 
 
 XauQbter 
 
 IB 
 
 There is one thing in human life, in my opinion, 
 that should be taught to our children. That is laugh- 
 ter. We leave it to chance, which is not right, it is of 
 too much value to neglect. It is opposite to anger and 
 the promoter of harmony, the foster mother of health, 
 pleasure, and long life. One of the best gifts of nature, 
 a sustainer of peace, builder of friendship. A substan- 
 tial stimulant for digestion, puts beef on your bones, 
 muscle in your legs and arms, it leads to comfort in 
 every way. Gives a sunny face, somberness flees be- 
 fore it, as dew before the sun. It is a school lesson, it 
 should be practiced everywhere, by everybody. There 
 is no act known, that has the value to build the body, 
 and keep it built, it is a diamond of life, sunshine of 
 thought. Priceless as a commodity it does its work 
 smooth and oily. Think of it, no anger, no quarrel, no 
 bitterness, all is pleasant, and above all, it is the main- 
 
34 Seedlings 
 
 stay of harmony. It is a fact, I tell you the truth. 
 Smile, laugh and grow healthy. I know only one 
 thing I would rather possess ; that is health. Laughing 
 is a part of happiness, but we don't recognize it. Is 
 there anything more pleasant than to meet a laugh- 
 ing face? God deliver me from a sour one. 
 
 Do IRiQbt 
 
 Do right. Oh, yes, do right, but what is right? 
 Right in foreign countries is not right here. You 
 cannot buy it, borrow it, beg it, or steal it, you must 
 make it. Right is a product of the human brain, yet 
 all right is not what one thinks it is. Each person has 
 a right of his own. One person's right might not 
 be right to another. To illustrate : Different people 
 select different colors, and it is their right, yet these 
 colors will not suit another person, and let me say 
 here, there are as many rights as people in the world, 
 as the right to go to bed at eight, nine or ten o'clock, 
 and a thousand like things. 
 
 And so it is, you c'hoose blue, red, green or yellow. 
 No power on earth is superior in your selections, and in 
 any and every other thing, your choice is supreme, and 
 is right. The other side is altogether different. You 
 have no right to press your choice on another person, 
 or expect anybody to accept your choice. I know of no 
 base, for a just law that can or will force you to ac- 
 cept another's choice, yet there are just laws that will 
 compel you to give sixteen ounces, instead of fifteen for 
 a pound. Now this law is right, and based on equity. 
 
Seedlings 35 
 
 You should be willing to receive what you give. This 
 brings us to the fact that it is right to obey laws you 
 live under, even if they are bad laws, or leave the place. 
 The choice is your right. Philosophy teaches that there 
 is no better way, between man and man, than the 
 golden rule. I know of no other rule its superior. It 
 is right, and should be a base between men. When 
 you trade with one, you must determine yourself what 
 is right. It is reasonable to suppose in trade you want 
 the big end, and you know if you get it, he cannot. 
 Now what will you do, take the big end, and not do 
 right, or say to yourself, guess I'll do about what's 
 right, I will split with him. So your ends are alike. 
 You have not made so much money, but you have done 
 right. Why ? You would have him do it to you, and 
 that is right. There can be no other. For this reason, 
 you and he are equal, as you stand before the laws 
 of men. This is not nature. She makes men very un- 
 equal. Do right for its sake, and never be sorry. 
 
 IDirtue 
 
 Virtue is a bloom of worth. It shines by its own 
 intrinsic value. With a radiance excelled by no 
 other attribute of our civilization, honored by all, de- 
 nounced by none, and aped by everybody on earth. It 
 stands a lone star, shining with a luster so high. All 
 try to have it shine on them. Virtue in a nutshell is 
 obeying our laws, criminal, civil and social. Virtue is 
 based on the control of our passions ; to possess it is a 
 
36 Seedlings 
 
 long step toward happiness, and as the saying is, he is a 
 virtuous man, and so practices virtue for himself as 
 well as for others. Virtue has no price. You cannot 
 lend, borrow, buy, sell, steal or exchange it. It is not 
 a prolific thing in nature. Fraud and liars use it for a 
 cloak. Dig into their claim, the goods are not there. 
 I know of no other virtue than obeying the law. If the 
 reader doubts, the writer would be pleased to discuss 
 it. It is the truth we want, and not talk. 
 
 3uetice 
 
 Differs from right in this way, right belongs to your 
 body in choice of directing, while justice is divided be- 
 tween you and the world. You cannot mistake. Right 
 is yours to think and choose ; while only half of justice 
 is yours, the other half belongs to whom you talk and 
 trade with, hence the saying, deal justly between man 
 and man. That is justice. If in a horse race, one jockey 
 is lighter, he must put on weight so all the horses will 
 carry the same load ; that is justice to all horses in the 
 race. Justice as we know it does not exist in nature. 
 It is an invention purely human, for human benefits, 
 and its base is to protect the weak. Justice was made 
 for ourselves and not for animals, and our laws are so 
 based, yet the sense of justice so pervades us that to 
 see a large beast abuse a small one, our sympathy 
 goes out to the under dog. Still our natures are so 
 unreasonable that a refined lady will look at a big cat 
 torture a little mouse for an hour, with not one wink 
 o* compassion, and the cat ten times as large at that. 
 
Seedlings 3 7 
 
 This, you see, is not in line with our shouts of justice. 
 Here you can see that justice stands for humanity, for 
 this same lady would not see a big child abuse a small 
 one one minute without protest. Such is our one-sided 
 make-up. Now to get justice we put up out biggest 
 and best struggle, from cradle to grave. It is reason- 
 able a heavy stone will crush a small one and a strong 
 animal kill the weak ; that is nature's way. Civiliza- 
 tion says no, the strong of our age shall not injure the 
 weak, that all have the same right to live. Here, then, 
 is where we get justice again, for the large body gets 
 justice from its bulk, the weak and small by law. So 
 by weighing between the two to make them equal we 
 get justice. Now, nature has it that might is just, 
 and we know of no greater power, so of a necessity 
 Ave must say nature is just. These two acts, law and 
 nature, are supposed to be just, yet opposed to each 
 other, and agreeable to theology. Godfathers, both. I 
 cannot reconcile these things, the first or last is all 
 wrong, for we cannot have two wrongs or two goods 
 in these two acts, when opposed. 
 
 Some say that justice is blind, and well they may, 
 for ignorance is the cause of that saying. It is a plain 
 fact that people do not understand justice as they 
 should, or it would not get the name of being blind. 
 Justice is more abused in all countries than any other 
 attribute of humanity, and it is all for the want of us- 
 ing reason, for if people would only reason more on 
 justice, they would be wealthier, healthier, longer 
 lived, happier, with a peace of mind mat would give 
 their face a charming glow of tranquility with justice. 
 They would be willing to face anybody, anywhere, 
 
38 Seedlings 
 
 any time, under any circumstances, and with pride 
 turn down the leaves of their past life to the public 
 gaze. My advice is to study it, read it, think it over, 
 walk with it, sleep with it, eat with it, for you cannot 
 know it too well. My philosophy compels me to 
 make a brother of it, and it has been a true friend to 
 me. Often have I thought what trouble people would 
 save by practicing justice, the sorrow it would save. 
 
 The reader will excuse so much on this subject 
 for it is vital to human happiness, and allow me to add 
 if a man was marooned on an island there would be no 
 such a thing as justice, because there is no one to deal 
 justly or unjustly with, but everything would be right 
 whatever he did. I speak to show the reader the dif- 
 ference between justice and right. The coming of jus- 
 tice reasons this way : First a sense of pain, then sym- 
 pathy, then sentiment, then justice 
 
 Reader, make it a study, you will never regret it, 
 instead be proud. You will give justice, demand jus- 
 tice, live a just life and be happy, the aim and end of 
 all people's struggles Labor, love, hope, happiness, 
 justice produce them all, and more. 
 
 Beaut? 
 
 There are as many beauties on the earth as 
 there are colors, things and acts, for everything has 
 
 A beauty of its own, as the rose, tree, pig. horsv 
 cat, house, but don't forget, this beauty exists in com 
 parison only. If there were only one of its kind, then 
 
Seedlings 39 
 
 there would be no beauty because there would be no 
 choice, hence no beauty. The base of beauty is not 
 being familiar with a thing; beauty is the most danger 
 ous attribute of the human family, for it can wound at 
 fifty yards, — I mean without touching, — just looking 
 or hearing. So you see beauty can make you love, 
 without familiarity. We enslave ourselves by just 
 looking, stronger than most of nature's ways. Beauty 
 is not a constant thing, and so does not wear well. Its 
 lustre dims with acquaintance. Still the love of beauty 
 is through our brain, as water in plants. It's a tramp, 
 a regular drifter and leads to more suicides, murders 
 and heart breaks than most anything else. At first the 
 young in late youth seem to think beauty covers, or at 
 least, possesses virtue, but it is not always at home, 
 instead, deception, the woe of love. Would you have 
 pleasure, would you be happy, you should drop beauty 
 in its tracks, ignore it, eye it with an eye of ice ; if you 
 can do this there are hopes that some day you will be 
 a free man. You have overcome that before which 
 some of the greatest brains have crumbled into wrong. 
 Beauty, while so lovable, is really the grave of most 
 of our actions and efforts. Take advice, cut it out, 
 bury it, sit on it, get it behind you somehow r , or in the 
 end it will get you. It's a will-o'-the-wisp, St. Elmo's 
 fire, a shadow that leads to anywhere, and perhaps 
 your ruin. 
 
 When men run against it, men or beauty go 
 down, generally men. The best beauty in life is to 
 use, not to look at, as an axe is a beautiful thing to cut 
 wcod ; a spade is a beautiful thing to dig ground with, 
 and so on, but beautv without usefulness is a house 
 
40 Seedlings 
 
 without a door, boots without soles. 
 
 I love beautiful things so much I find it exceed- 
 ingly hard to weigh their worth in life. It's true our 
 cells of beauty must be fed, but not at the expense of 
 the body; it would not be wise to do so, for beauty 
 lasts for a short time, while the body lasts for years. 
 Look at a beautiful sunset, the gorgeous colored tints, 
 watch how quickly they fade ; such is beauty in life. 
 Trouble, somehow or other, seems to have a mortgage 
 on it, for where you find great beauty keep your eyes 
 open, his satanic hoof is near ; look for his track. Hap- 
 piness and beauty are not brothers. 
 
 £ime 
 
 ffl 
 
 Was there ever a thing in such demand as time? 
 Time practically does not exist only as made. It has 
 no more beginning or ending than space. What we 
 call time is our make, and means distance. We say 
 hours, days, months, years. Yes, we say that, but 
 mean the earth has travelled so far through space. We 
 start a clock, a pendulum, an hour glass ; when we 
 stop them they traveled so far ; we mark it and call it 
 time. The distance between starting and stopping is 
 time, because distance in space has no start, neither 
 has it a finish. Time is not past, but present. There 
 is no future time until we make it. The sun rises and 
 sets. The earth has gone so far we mark it time. We 
 call all this time when it is not, but distance in space. 
 Time is a wonderful thing. It grows all things, builds 
 all things, destroys all things. Time is our goal, our 
 
Seedlings 4 1 
 
 capital, father of hope, glory of the wise, cradle of 
 prosperity, hell of the guilty, father of conditions and 
 chance Joy and sorrow follow its lead. 
 
 The wilderness of life through which we stray 
 with the simple thoughts of a child, and the strangest 
 thing about time is we long to see it go, glad when it 
 has passed, knowing- at the time that its passing has- 
 tens the end of our form. It seems the best way 
 would be to live on present time and not anticipate. 
 That is the reason why time is a burden to some peo- 
 ple. I say to these people, do not let your body pas- 
 sions control or bias your brain. We all would do 
 better if we trusted our head more than we do. Time 
 passes and never comes back. Like our forms, it is 
 lost in dark eternal oblivion. Listen to reason, do 
 it, for the highest possible condition for humanity. 
 You have it now ; before you know, it is gone ; it is to 
 be, it was, yet does not exist. Use it. 
 
 Courteous 
 
 To be courteous is a great help to one's fortune. 
 It is the art of being agreeable. Some are so born, to 
 be pleasing to everyone and sour to none. It is easy 
 to acquire it ; for the sake of success try it. A sour 
 face means troubled thoughts, pleasing to no one, 
 while pleasant thoughts mean smiling face and agree- 
 able to all. That is about its size and the right way 
 to put it. Watch closely and in eight people out of ten 
 you can tell the nature of thoughts that are filling their 
 head, by the expression on their faces. Oh, yes, the 
 
42 Seedlings 
 
 face is the brains' looking glass you may say of the 
 whole animal kingdom. Here let me say that the 
 major part of acts that occur in life are good or 
 bad, and are just what you think they are, so do not 
 let little things disturb you. It twists your thoughts 
 and screws your face out of shape and then you are 
 apt to look ugly and be discourteous. How pleasant 
 it is to meet a courteous person, and how disturbing 
 to meet a person sour and acidly. Try and be agree- 
 able. You will like it in a little while, for it brings im- 
 mense returns without effort on your part. Now I 
 want you to try it for just one year, for its own sake, 
 your friends' sake, your social sake, and for your own 
 general benefit, your pleasure, in fact it is good for 
 the community, and you will soon learn to hug your- 
 self, besides everybody else. 
 
 HttQer 
 
 Promotes a very destructful conditon of the brain and 
 lew people's health can stand a fit of anger often. It 
 apparently disrupts circulation, digestion and equilib- 
 rium of a person, and turns a mild tempered man into 
 a beast. Take three people, one drunk, one crazy and 
 one angry ; they are just alike. They do things that 
 are unreasonable and hardly sane. Anger is the op- 
 posite to laughter, for it disturbs thought, muscle ac- 
 tion, when in complete control of a body. It causes 
 decay of the body cells to set in. Notice h w one 
 trembles after an anger fit. Anger is opposite to har- 
 mony ; that soothes two bodies together, while anger is 
 
Seedlings 43 
 
 nature's way to disrupt a body, for if continued, apo- 
 plexy would follow. Anger has turned a cow's milk 
 to poison and killed her calf. It is a mark of good 
 breeding to control one's anger and in a measure you 
 must learn to subdue it ; if not, you are in no condition 
 to control or lead others. Now stop and think a mo- 
 ment and look back on your trail and see the many 
 wrongs you have done, through anger. One feels 
 ashamed when he thinks of it. Worst of all you un- 
 dermine your health and lose friends. It should be 
 one of the first things taught children, to control their 
 anger. I do not mean excitement, for excitement is as 
 necessary for health as good food, for if people did 1 not 
 have excitement they would become careless, indolent, 
 lazy ; then a sleepy sense of monotony would enter 
 our lives and we would soon begin to degenerate. Oh, 
 yes, we want lots of excitement, but no anger. All 
 things change. Everything is built by changes. We 
 people are built out of earth, therefore we need 
 changes. A strong wind is as good for the crops as 
 the calm, so it is that excitement is our wind, sun- 
 shine our calm. 
 
 Cyclone is anger. A good healthy, stirring breeze 
 is what we want, so do not forget that motion is life, 
 stillness is death, and danger a human rattlesnake, a 
 curse of curses, murder of joy. 
 
 £be Education 
 
 Of youth is and should be one of the most important 
 duties of life ; that is, give children proper training for 
 
44 Seedlings 
 
 the battle of life, and we all know they need all their 
 parents can give them, if judged by the showing that 
 some of them make. Here let me say that it is a big 
 and fatal mistake for any one to think they can collect 
 Knowledge in a child's head when there is nothing to 
 receive or hold it. Now that is the mistake nearly all 
 people I know make in this great country. Of course, 
 great knowledge is almost sublime ; so is great health, 
 great science of any kind, but it is only the few that 
 are able to hold a science, while many seem to think 
 the only perquisite for a person's fortune is an ed- 
 ucation, when in reality it is an actual hindrance, for 
 most all children sap the growth of their bodies to get 
 a few facts into their head and facts seldom used in 
 life at that, so when they mature their health, strength 
 and physical endurance are so weak they do not have 
 the ambiton to use what they have learned, neither 
 can they develop the original strength of the brain ; 
 they have not enough energy left to do it, and they go 
 through life doing next to nothing, and in fact, still 
 worse, they do not reproduce, so weakened are they 
 from the brain pressure in youth. So to me, this kind 
 of education carried by the present sentiment is an 
 absolute curse to our blood. Now follow me a mo- 
 ment. If our hens do not reproduce, we chop their 
 heads off; if our cows do not reproduce the butcher 
 gets them ; if our apple trees do not bear fruit, they 
 get the axe ; if our business doesn't pay, we cut it out, 
 and so with everything we handle, except our blood, 
 and it apparently matters not our health. 
 
 The child at five years old must go to school, yet 
 five out of ten have not enough liver to build their 
 
Seedlings 45 
 
 body, let alone extra brain work, but to school they 
 must go just the same. You hear not one word about 
 their nerves, muscle or energy, or general growth of 
 the body, the most needed in life. This is a mistake, 
 but then they graduated all right. Alas, the children. 
 What does graduation do towards sustaining the wear 
 and tear of life? Nothing, absolutely nothing, but in- 
 stead give them health, with some learning, and they 
 would bless their parents in after life. 
 
 Ah ! But we are a selfish lot. Another dark fea- 
 ture is, many of our children are not wanted at birth. 
 They come by accident. Now some will say, I would 
 not read such a book with such stuff in it as this. He 
 is either a wind-bag or caught a bug, to write the 
 above, but I tell you the truth. In my study of phil- 
 osophy the above opened and grew like daylight in 
 the morn, and more, I defy the wise to deny it if they 
 can. Come parents, for God's sake, if not for your 
 ^ake, for the sake of your children's pleasure, give 
 them a fighting chance to live. It is a mis- 
 take people do not see this in the true 
 light before children grow up. They enter 
 This school plan is destroying the best mental and 
 physical blood on the earth today or ever was. I mean 
 the blood of the Puritans. It seems to be done through 
 habit, the strongest of our senses. Give the children 
 a show to live and enjoy life. Give them body and 
 brain, and do not forget, it is a very few who can have 
 both. Of the two the body is the best, for with health 
 they can enjoy the best part of earth. Without health, 
 life is naught but hell. 
 
 It seems children should not begin to attend 
 school before at least ten or twelve, and some fifteen 
 
46 Seedlings 
 
 years of age, and some not at all. It is healthy people 
 we want, not sLk ones. Let the body grow first, then 
 you have something to build on, a foundation for 
 schooling. Look it over. See if I tell near truth. If 
 you find I do not, then denounce this little book as a 
 fraud and lie, but do not do it on sentiment. Ascertain 
 first by looking at the people, comparing them with our 
 ancestry, who first settled our country — strong, able, 
 mentally, physically, with courage of lions. Ah, they 
 were the men and women who sensed no fear except of 
 God. Now why have such become defunct? Why this 
 growing small and weak? There is a reason. Do the 
 people desire it and hunt for it? No, there is no proof 
 it is so. But to find the cause, just glance at the air- 
 tight houses, some with double windows, to keep out 
 the air; compounded foods on our tables, and brain 
 grinding lessons of the schoolroom, and the sending of 
 infants to school. You will soon see why we are be- 
 coming defunct, dying off the earth. I say it is down- 
 right cruel for such blood to drift out. But if the peo- 
 ple are so careless as to let themselves drift out, why 
 talk is useless. Though I say, and can prove, it is a 
 false and pernicious philosophy that teaches people 
 from the earth, or anything that causes a people to de- 
 cay, or drift out, is wrong and should be changed. 
 
 Wlb? 2>o mae live? 
 
 The question seems singular and light, but I tell 
 you it is pertinent and weighty, with a solid reason 
 underlying it. Many will say it is the will of God. 
 
Seedlings 47 
 
 Others, we were made to live. Still others that nature 
 implanted a love of life, and yet another, it is habit. 
 And so it is, I hear many reasons why we live, but not 
 the right one. I can find but one true reasonable rea- 
 son why we live — that is, pleasure. It is pleasure to 
 hunt for happiness, find it or not. And apparently all 
 animals live for the same reason. Heat enough, we die. 
 Cold enough, we die. Too much food, we die. Not 
 enough, we die. Enough, we live. Now in everything 
 I find the same. Therefore using this for the principle 
 in reasoning, I conclude too much of anything kills, not 
 enough kills. Just enough means life. Now to the 
 question. Too much sorrow, a person dies. I see every 
 man, woman and child hunting for things that please 
 them. So do all animals seek pleasure. Truly you would 
 naturally say we seek pleasure among the bad or op- 
 posite. And in seeking for pleasure or good things, 
 you would say we are living to hunt for pleasure, be- 
 cause we are doing what we desire, the same as 
 pleasure. Now of course were it not for the bad or sor- 
 row, there would be no pleasure, but just a monotony, 
 as a tree or stone. And here comes the balance be- 
 tween good and bad. Enough bad, I mean suicide. Too 
 much good means imbecility. And balance between 
 the two means common life as we live. Then mix good 
 and bad or things we love with a little more good than 
 bad, people flourish. Reverse it, a little more bad than 
 good, people languish, decay and die. And it is so with 
 all nature. What I mean by good is any and every 
 thing that is agreeable to our passions, and supports 
 and builds our bodies So everything not agreeable to 
 us is bad. Reader, reason this out, and prove it right 
 
48 Seedlings 
 
 or wrong. If right, tell your neighbor. I say we live 
 for pleasure. This reasoning to me is proof. I do not 
 live for the sake of trouble I can find. Instead I try to 
 avoid everything bad. And remember everything has 
 an opposite, also to measure one by the other. If you 
 will do this in your hunt for pleasure you will get more 
 joy than any other way. Now what I mean is this. If 
 you are told to believe, compare it with unbelief. So 
 with everything else. 
 
 Sentiment 
 
 Now let us think about the strongest thing known 
 that governs us. I mean sentiment, and it is the second 
 power on this earth that we fear. The first is death. 
 Sentiment is a condition not generally understood, yet 
 more powerful than any other thing made by human 
 nature It is sometimes caused by a shock, or a rapid 
 growth of likes and dislikes, or some startling event, 
 anger, pity, remosre, or a sense of shame, or gallant 
 act. And it matters not whether it is just or unjust, 
 there goes a subtle thought running through people's 
 heads that a majority do not always know, yet assent 
 to. That is sentiment, and is more times wrong than 
 right. People grow on a general plan. And strange, 
 yet true, no two grow alike in body, brain, thought, 
 action or likes. Still, there is a trend together, such as 
 love, habit, fighting, and most of the good attributes, 
 which is the father of sentiment. Sentiment reminds 
 me of a flock of birds. One will start, then the whole 
 flock will rise, for no apparent cause or habit. So will 
 
Seedlings 49 
 
 sentiment start and run over a whole community. In 
 our heads there are some cells with half toned pictures. 
 Now something is said or done by someone, and it 
 agrees with these half pictures. So without stopping 
 to consider or reason it out, we say yes, it looks to me 
 that way, and so we act. That is sentiment, though if 
 we took time to look the thing over, it might appear 
 altogether dieffrent, and so change our opinion or 
 sentiment. The reader can easily see how the thing is 
 if he will stop and think it over. He will see we are 
 all led by our opinion. I mean, of course, about things 
 we do not know and have to guess at. So sentiment is 
 a great factor in why we live. In sentiment, sympathy 
 we agree, and live hand in hand with our surroundings. 
 It is true we fear death. We fear to leave our friends. 
 We fear the leap to the unknown, for none return. But 
 pleasure is the base on which we live, and that base is 
 supported by sentiment, habit, love and fear. It is a 
 good thing and right thing to live, not only for self, but 
 for others. For by making others happy, its shadow 
 must fall a little on you. 
 
 flDemor? 
 to 
 
 The most useful thing in our education. Everyone 
 should cultivate it, should learn how to cultivate it, 
 and not leave it to chance. With a few variations, life 
 repeats itself. Then suppose you should remember 
 half what you read. Why, you would be an encyclo- 
 pedia or a living fountain of knowledge in a short time. 
 And what a storehouse of facts to draw from. You 
 
5 Seedlings 
 
 would be cock along the walk when you crowed. You 
 would be invulnerable. Your chances of success would 
 be as two to one with the average. There are many 
 ways to improve your memory. I will n?me a few. 
 Never study after eating hearty. Sleep with a low 
 head. Do not read much. Repeat at night the doings 
 of the day. Do it every day. Eat food that agrees 
 with you. Do not eat food that makes you sleepy. Do 
 not commit much to memory. Above all avoid consti- 
 pation. Learn to look slowly at anything. If your 
 memory is very bad, get the habit of writing down 
 what you want to remember. Spend at least eight 
 hours in bed. When you want to rest, lie down. Do 
 not sit down, it will not rest the head. A person's 
 ability is generally estimated by the memry. So if 
 you hear said so and so has a bad memory, you can say 
 to yourself, his knowledge is not very extensive. No 
 doubt they learned lots, but have forgotten it. And 
 they are just as if they had never learned anything. 
 But I say to man, woman and child, improve your 
 memory if you can. There is no trait in the human 
 character of more use in daily life, in business or any- 
 thing else on this earth. And it seems to me parents 
 make a great mistake in not teaching it to their chil- 
 dren, and it is a mystery to me that thoughtful men do 
 not advocate teaching it in our schools, instead of 
 many things that are taught of no value whatever to a 
 child in after life. I think parents do not give children 
 a fair show in life by letting the teaching of memory 
 slip by, and trusting to chance, or possibly to the 
 child's health. In the factory, on the street, on every 
 corner we see its value. 
 
Seedlings 5 1 
 
 fHMnfc 
 
 What is the human mind? Philosophers, sages, 
 thinkers and learned men have asked, but none have 
 answered. It is a great question, but I think I have 
 evidence enough to form an opinion. First let us rea- 
 son. Mind appears to change. It seems to be gov- 
 erned in part by the conditions that surround it. Ex- 
 cept in extreme cases, where life is in danger, I notice 
 persons pleasant at night, garrulous in the morning. 
 The body appears the same. That is, we can tell no 
 change in it. Yet a change has taken place in the 
 mind during the night. Facts have not changed, but 
 the trend of the mind. I see no reason for it. Can find 
 no reason, save the mind records the condition of the 
 body. Now if this is true, that the body changes the 
 mind, it must have a material influence on it. And if 
 a material change has trend to govern it, twisting it, 
 as the pictures in the brain flicker, from the twisting 
 and trembling of the cells and nerves. This brings the 
 thought that the human mind is made up of the flash- 
 ing of pictures in the brain, or, say reflection of the 
 brain, as substance reflects a cloud of pictures, inter- 
 mingled with one or two more prominent than others. 
 This is mind, so called. Some say, I have a mind to do 
 so and so, yet do not do it, and why? The pictures in 
 their cells have changed by outside influence or the 
 pressure inside has increased or diminished. Hence 
 the change. Yet the heat of the body remains the 
 same. No proof of either. Then I reason the pictures 
 remain the same, and the mind or will power remain 
 
52 Seedlings 
 
 the same. For will power, I think, is the steady shine 
 of the central picture that first started the mind on that 
 one particular trend. Therefore it seems the mind is 
 made and changed at the will of the pictures that com- 
 pose our learning, and is no more a fixture of the 
 body than the pictures are. So the mind is but a re- 
 flection of a multitude of pictures. Let us reason fur- 
 ther. You plant a seed, which is matter. The growth 
 is matter. Try anything else. The results will be mat- 
 ter. You only get matter from matter by changing its 
 form, but you have the matter just the same. And so 
 I reason, matter produces matter. And the mind must 
 be matter, because matter produced it, supports it, de- 
 stroys it. Notice a child growing. As it learns, the 
 mind grows in proportion. In other words the mind 
 grows just as fast as the body grows in knowledge, no 
 faster. As a rule the body stops growing and grows 
 old while the mind is still growing. And I infer it 
 grows as long as pictures continue to be received in the 
 brain. You know how easy it is to forget. You know 
 how easy to have the mind wandering. Well indiges- 
 tion will do the first, drunkenness the last. Rum and 
 other things will shake the cells so that a steady 1 pic- 
 ture will not show. So the mind gets twisted and 
 shaky. Now if the mind was anything but matter, or 
 its production, rum would not affect it. I would ad- 
 mire to reason out this with anyone interested to get at 
 the truth or falsity of my showing. Readers, consider 
 this an invitation to reason this out. And while the 
 heat of body remains the same, the circulation of the 
 blood changes. Hence the change of mind. 
 
Seedlings 53 
 
 WBbat Us Xife? 
 
 In all ages of the world this has been a stumbling 
 block for human kind. Still we know it is material, be- 
 cause it moves matter. Yet philosophers, sages, 
 learned men and all thinkers have spent their lives try- 
 ing to find what life is. Now instead of looking at it as 
 it is, they hunted the planets and all over the earth, 
 chemistry, botany and all things they thought would 
 give any light on the subject, but all remained dark. 
 They did not and do not seem to think that the same 
 thing and way that causes a tree or animal to grow, 
 started our life. Guff, you say. Let us get down near 
 the bottom of this mystery, puzzled on so long. All 
 scientists agree that life is in matter or is matter. And 
 also that all things that remain still are dead, as a dead 
 tree, dead horse. Then to get life, we must have mo- 
 tion. To get motion as we know it, we must have 
 power. To get the power we must have the conditions 
 right. And the conditions as I reason them are these: 
 Go to a running brook of soft water in a sheltered spot. 
 Deposite a handful of decayed limbs and branches of a 
 tree. Lay them three or four inches thick, and where 
 the sun shines part of the day at least. In two or three 
 weeks or more there will come on the sticks, the lower 
 ones that the water washes, a green fungus. Put under 
 a good glass and this fungus turns out to be a minute 
 forest, each tree perfect. Now the act of the water 
 caused the growth by passing up through the obstruc- 
 tion. And life is the act of water passing through, or 
 what some call evaporation. Of course, the water con- 
 
5 4 Seedlings 
 
 tains the material that is left on the obstructing 
 branches, and in time it will grow a large piece. I have 
 seen it a foot square, and two inches thick. So the act 
 of the water going through is growth and life. Not the 
 water, nor the sticks, nor sun, but the motion of the 
 water passing up through is life. If you should put 
 them all together in winter without evaporation, there 
 is no growth. But to start life or growth, just start 
 evaporation. Life begins then and there. So then life 
 is water, sun, air and streaner. Growth is the same. 
 Now stop and think. You will find that animals grow 
 from the middle, trees from the roots. That is, water 
 taken inthe stomach evaporates all over the body, and 
 out through the pores. And the roots of a tree suck 
 water from the ground, which goes up through the 
 trunk, and out through the leaves. So in growth we 
 should say animals grow from the middle, and trees, 
 shrubbery and grasses from one end. There is no 
 spark of life needed, for the act of evaporation is life. 
 The sun heats the leaf. The leaf heats the water in 
 the leaf and the water passes off in vapor. That creates 
 the vacuum in the tree, and that vacuum pulls the 
 water into the roots. Such is the growth of trees. Peo- 
 ple take water in the stomach. The heat of the body' ex- 
 pands it, and it passes out through the pores. And 
 when that stops growth and life are done. Growth and 
 life are one and the same. Through man's cowardice, 
 egotism and the pleasure of living forever, he from 
 earliest life, has attached a something to life in the 
 shape of a foreign substance, for the spark of life. It 
 gave a great power to the priesthood over the people. 
 And thev fostered it, for it brought a iroocl living- and 
 
Seedlings 5 5 
 
 easy life. But it is all moonshine. Just look at it as it 
 is. Let the conditions be right, and all vegetable and 
 animal life will not grow without the evaporation of 
 water. I defy the world to disprove it. Stones grow 
 from adhesion, and metals grow from heat or under 
 great pressure. I know all theologians will shout a big 
 no, with derision. But I do not mind that. It is only 
 hot air mixed with what they have been taught. 
 What I want is to have some one disprove with the use 
 of reason, and not belief, that the growth of animals is 
 caused by anything else than by the evaporation of 
 water, conditions being equal or nearly equal. I have 
 tried to make my meaning plain. If not, come and 
 reason with me. All are welcome. 
 
 Xifces an& Dislikes 
 
 ffl 
 
 As a rule, a person's likes and dislikes are a key to 
 their makeup. Likes and dislikes may come through 
 habit or be born so, it maters not which. By them 
 you can get one's trend. I will give a few examples. 
 Some are very risky, and if things are propitious, they 
 are apt to go to extremes. Some are fond of acids, two 
 to one, they like sour food. When you see a person 
 who admires to see a thing done quick, look at that one 
 as a kind of a rusher. They are not, as a rule, thinkers. 
 The people who like pale, sad colors are generally 
 thoughtful ones. But if brilliant colors are their like, 
 look for people bright and active and impulsive. A 
 person who is a great talker seldom thinks a thing out. 
 A person who believes small things, will great. If you 
 
56 Seedlings 
 
 see a person who loves long stories, they are apt to be 
 crowded to the wall. It pays to watch people. People 
 are about all alike in this, and there is no harm in it. It 
 injures no one. Still, much good. It teaches you to 
 keep your eyes ever on the alert, so no one can get 
 behind you. It also gives the watcher a broad view of 
 humanity. With practice one grows so proficient that 
 he can almost anticipate the doing of some people, 
 and sometimes helps in the great battle. I think the 
 greatest study, or one of them, is humanity, for if you 
 properly understand it, you can almost have your own 
 way. That means wealth and pleasure, without rob- 
 bing, stealing or cheating, not a stranger nowadays. 
 
 3u&gc b? Hcts 
 
 Acts are a reflection of the mind, always barring b 
 few, who love to play foxy. But deceiving never paid 
 It is a curse to anyone who uses it. Its fruits never 
 paid a mill of interest. Suppose you have a bird. You 
 see a strange cat gently approaching it. Instantly you 
 are suspicious. Why? Because the manner of the cat 
 shows its mind in relation to the bird. It gives you the 
 impression that the cat likes birds to eat. You have 
 heard this before about cats. You have ako heard how 
 slippery some people are. Therefore if fou see a man 
 trying to get behind you, why the act is unhealthy, and 
 yon think of being robbed, and you are justified in so 
 thinking. If a person steals from you, he will from 
 others. The act of a person stealing one cent shows 
 
Seedlings 5 7 
 
 he would steal a hundred, a thousand, or anything 
 else, conditions being right. A person bringing a story 
 to you, will carry one from you. The dog who brings 
 a bone, shows a desire to carry one. You will watch 
 him. My philosophy teaches me to watch people's 
 acts and ses their turn of minds. If you do, you get the 
 habit of ignoring little acts. You make a mistake sure. 
 And don't forget that they who make the fewest mis- 
 takes are most successful in what they undertake. As 
 a rule persons act their thoughts and the attitude 
 they assume in relation to a thing. You must analyze 
 and follow the trend, to meet them if you would win. 
 My experience has shown of those who read this not 
 over one in a thousand will profit by it. Too bad. 
 
 mwm 
 
 Character 
 
 ffl 
 
 Character is the mental part of a person exposed 
 to the public, the same as our clothes. Be they good or 
 bad, they look straight at it. If it is good, it obeys the 
 law. If it is bad, it breaks law. So doing either deter- 
 mines one's character. Character is made by what 
 you say and do, and everybody makes character. Mak- 
 ing character requires hundreds of acts, while not 
 stunning the sense of propriety or giving the impres- 
 sion that you are not just what you seem to be. To 
 illustrate — not attending to business, loafing in public 
 places, coarse or vulgar talk, not keeping good hours 
 are a small few that deprecate in the eyes of the public 
 and hurt a person's character. Character is the picture 
 you show to the people, and is made out of acts, atti- 
 
58 Seedlings 
 
 tudes, talk and general behavior. Sometimes a word, 
 a smile, asong or an associate has hurt one's character 
 that would require years to eradicate. Even a sus- 
 picion has done it. A good character is a very great 
 help towards getting along, and a long, long step 
 towards happiness. Character should be founded on 
 actual worth, which means good, moral acts to every- 
 body and everything. Moral means kind and just acts, 
 mild attitude to all the animal kingdom. Gentle, not 
 fierce here and kind there, but the whole trend of one's 
 conduct should be pleasing, courteous and never bor- 
 ish. Every nation is known by its flag, piratical and 
 civil. And so every person is known by his character. 
 It is the flag of the man, his royal ensign, known by all 
 his friends. As his flag, it represents his social life and 
 his amount of manhood with his humanity and jus- 
 tice. Oh, yea, a man's character is his flag all right, 
 and everybody does or does not respect it according to 
 its worth. How nice it is to reflect on your friends 
 some of the lustre of your flag, besides transmitting 
 honor to your relatives. Let it be said he is a man of 
 worth, sterling worth, and unblemished character. Do 
 not forget you are just what people think of you. Just 
 that, nothing more. And also it is just as easy to be a 
 gentleman as a gutter snipe. The first, honor, health 
 and pleasure. The second, suspicion, want and dis- 
 honor to friends and relatives. They are so far apart, 
 they are not comparable, opposed to each other as fire 
 is to water. The old axiom, he carries his flag on his 
 arm. I hope the reader has one to be proud of. Long 
 may it wave. 
 
 
Seedlings 59 
 
 facial SiQtts 
 
 Ee sure and watch all faces on the earth. Study 
 them. Thoughts flicker on them. Even wild animals 
 for some cause, watch the face of everything. Truly 
 speaking, a person's face should be our chief study. 
 Ninety men out of a hundred show their thoughts in 
 their faces. A twitching of the lips, pallor round the 
 mouth, quick and decisive movement, quiver of the 
 eyelids, pupil of the eye swelling, bird-like breathing, 
 jerking of the head, hard expression of the mouth, 
 uneasy body movement, tight shutting of the mouth, 
 dry lips, red face, a stern manner, the voice grows hard, 
 are a few of the signs in the face and manner that go 
 to show what is taking place in the brain, or what a 
 person is thinking about. With close study one can 
 acquire a sharpness for understanding these signs that 
 i:> astonishing, and can read the average person as a 
 book, when not in repose. Though not taught in our 
 academies, the philosophy of motion should be learned 
 by all. It is a language in itself, and is seldom wrong, 
 because it is the muscles telling in a mute manner what 
 the mind is doing, plans being formed. You have no 
 other way of guessing what they are, so study them. 
 Also the art of controlling the facial expression. It is 
 the greatest known art. I never saw a person who 
 could do it, though some are born way up in the art, 
 but few have adopted it. A person who can do it is a 
 wonder. It is a dividing sign between ignorance and 
 intelligence, savage beast and intelligent man. It 
 shows the superiority of knowledge, when measured 
 
60 Seedlings 
 
 with ignorance. The finest and hardest known thing 
 that is possible to do. Study, study, study. The rhymer 
 says. 
 
 Attempt the end 
 
 And never stand in doubt. 
 
 Few things there are 
 
 That time will not find out. 
 
 Cover the expression of your face somehow. Oh, 
 the telltale is a wonder to master. 
 
 Acting ZTbouQbte 
 
 What one thinks, admires, loves makes the man, 
 woman or child. Unknown, many people act their 
 thoughts and never reason them, in fact do a thing 
 unconsciously. Let some people enter a curio hall 
 and you will see them separate and go different ways. 
 Each will go his way of thinking, and by observing 
 them, six times out of ten you can tell their thoughts, 
 what they are thinking about. Now an act is done 
 twice — first in the head, then with muscles. It does 
 seem we ought to think with care, and care what we 
 think about. Do not let your thoughts run on loose 
 things, for sometime when the conditions are right 
 you will do or say a foolish thing that will embarrass 
 or make you feel silly. Think of good things, honor- 
 able things, things that if you happen to forget your- 
 self, will bring no disgrace. Do not allow your mind to 
 bear long on one subject. Change to some other one. 
 Then when you come back to the subject they will be 
 
Seedlings o ' 
 
 rested, so you will see new points and understand 
 much easier. But above all, do not allow yourself to 
 think of self. Think of something else. If you don't, 
 von vvill soon grow egotistical and become a stink to 
 everyone and cause a laugh behind your back. Then 
 you will become a bore disliked by all. Let your mind 
 run on larger things than your surroundings. And 
 remember thoughts first, then acts. The two make 
 character by acting thoughts. 
 
 ©tie's XKHorJ) 
 
 He gave me his word. How simple to do it. Yet 
 simple as it is, it is the foundation of manhood. On 
 his word a man of honor or a liar. Of a truth I may 
 say, all there is to a man is his word. Just a few cells 
 of albumen collected together. That's all. His word, 
 if he keeps it, changes these cells into a superior being, 
 a man of honor. A man may be as wise as ten philoso- 
 phers, and bravery itself, cute and cunning, with 
 charity, sympathy, beauty, health, wealth. All these he 
 may have, but if he does not keep his word and prom- 
 ise, he is all rot. He is no good as a man. He is just 
 a stone, a stick, a cipher, a savage, a man without true 
 character. Who would trust him? Those who know 
 him would not. His word ignored behind backs, he 
 is Mr. Nobody by those who know him. But the man 
 who keeps his word and promise is honored, respected, 
 though homely in person, poor in purse. Thinking 
 people court his friendship, and he is looked on as rock 
 of truth against whose flinty word the liars go down to 
 
62 Seedlings 
 
 grief and compassion. A man of his word is the salt 
 of the earth, for he protects our social laws and custom, 
 and is the very essence of our civilization. The true 
 meaning of our philosophy is a thing as it is, in other 
 words truth. And true manhood should represent the 
 same. Tie to it. Live with it, and die with it. A man's 
 word should be as good as his bond. You hear his 
 neighbors say behind his back, he is a solid man. You 
 can believe and trust him. What he says is iaw, for lie 
 says what he means, means what he says. You can 
 bank on him. He is a man clear through. His bond 
 and word are alike, good as gold. 
 
 Now just a word more, and let me call your atten- 
 tion to this fact, and do not neglect it. And that is, 
 keep your word in little things, 'the small things yju 
 say make good. It is small things heaped together 
 make big ones. A grain of sand is not large, but 
 enough of them make a seashore. It is just what you 
 say in small things starts a habit (strongest thing in 
 life) that grows on you. And though you do not se_.se 
 its growth until the habit of keeping your word be- 
 comes stronger than your five senses. And before you 
 realize it, you become a superior man. It is the one 
 thing in man we can rely on. Try it. It will repay a 
 hundred per cent. And readers, it will build your 
 courage. In time you will grow braver, and n^ver a 
 sneak. I do not think I put it too strong when I say it 
 is a man's glory, honor, household, business, living, 
 happiness, town, state and nation. There is not a 
 thing more honorable, nor substantial, nor good, nor 
 noble than the man who stands behind his word. All 
 honor to him, may futurity say of him, and no greater 
 
Seedlings 63 
 
 thing can be said : His word was greater than his love 
 for that tinsel named money. This is my philosophy in 
 a word. 
 
 trouble 
 
 Is a bad egg, at least so called. Yet trouble is as good 
 as anything else. It is the measure of ease or joy. You 
 could not have a good egg, if there were no bad ones, 
 nor bad ones if there were no g'ood ones, for if all eggs 
 were bad there would be no good ones. That is just 
 the way with trouble and pleasure. You could not 
 have one without the other, for if it was all trouble 
 there would not be any pleasure, nor any pleasure with- 
 out trouble. Therefore one is just as good as the 
 other. Now, another step, and say, trouble is good 
 when not bad, and good is a trouble when not good. 
 Now we have said about all there is about it. All other 
 talk is only proof and explanations. Now my philoso- 
 phy is this way. Suppose there was a man who got 
 everything he wanted, it would follow- he would have 
 no trouble, and another man did not get the help he 
 wanted, then it follows, the last man gets lots of 
 trouble. Now the result of this reasoning is this. 
 That not getting all he wants creates to him trouble. 
 So it would seem that a man should have his wants 
 consist of a few things ; the fewer the better, for that 
 would mean less trouble, but lying behind this want 
 of ours is our five senses and habits which father our 
 wants, so you can see we make at least three-quarter of 
 our troubles, which we call bad, while gratifying our 
 
64 Seedlings 
 
 passions we call good. 
 
 Now let us reason a little on this. Suppose a stray- 
 dog entered a man's house and created no end of trou- 
 ble, chasing the cat, upsetting the chairs, so it took the 
 whole family to get him out, and they finely got rid of 
 him. Now suppose that same dog goes to another 
 man's house, gets in and begins to play with the chil- 
 dren. The father came home and said it was lucky for 
 a strange dog to come to the house. So they fed him 
 and kept him and were happy with him. Now by this 
 it was just as the people thought. Here is a thing 
 that caused trouble and joy, while the dog of itself 
 was neither good nor bad, yet produced both trouble to 
 one, joy to the other. The first family made their own 
 trouble. Had they liked the clog, no trouble. Now 
 barring a few exceptions, everything in life is the 
 same, and so I say we make most of our trouble and 
 joy also. Therefore, if we think a thing is trouble, it 
 is ; if a pleasure, it is. As I said before, our desires not 
 gratified is trouble, so make them few or make up your 
 mind to this, that most everything that happens (some 
 believe all) is for the best, and be happy. 
 
 <5oo& Untellect 
 
 When the term intellect is used it means many 
 things. I presume to mention a few. It means a cer- 
 tain person has a clear, quick way in their heads of 
 understanding anything new. They can grasp it 
 quicker than another person. It means a person with 
 a fair knowledge that is analogous to this something 
 
Seedlings 65 
 
 new, and it means a deeper, stronger, more lasting 
 picture collection in the brain. It means a good flow 
 of good blood to the head. It means a more sensitive 
 and healthy bunch of nerves and other things, among 
 them a wholesome digestion. It is a big thing to be 
 what is called apt. Some say quick witted. It is good 
 capital to have, for it is with you all the time, and al- 
 ways ready for use. You can increase your intellect 
 the same as most other things by practice. It is well 
 known it grows nearly perfect, and I have proof that 
 it does. Improve your memory by reciting at night 
 doings of the day. Do not read much. Let what you 
 read be facts. Much reading mixes the memory by a 
 deep impression of pictures in the brain cells. So if you 
 read much, it makes impressions that are light and 
 soon fade out. What we all want is good, clear, ac- 
 curate pictures that will stick. Hence you will have 
 good memory, good intellect, see things clearly and 
 quickly. And use what knowledge you have. To be 
 called apt is a recommendation very valuable. Then 
 folks cannot call you a dogan, or pea head. Practice 
 will do it. 
 
 2)o We (Set Gbe fiDoet ©ut ©f Xife? 
 
 It is a fact we all try, but do we do it. What I 
 mean is, do we squeeze all the pleasure out of things 
 that come our way, for we live for pleasure only. Let 
 us reason a little about it, but do not forget there are 
 many sides to this question, and I think I have the 
 biggest side down to rock. Suppose two men, A and 
 
66 Seedlings 
 
 B, enter an orchard with baskets to pick some apples 
 tor home use. Soon they approach a fine looking tree 
 loaded with fruit. A looks at them and says, "These 
 are good enough for me," and begins to fill his basket. 
 B says, 4 'I will look further," and so wanders to an- 
 other tree more to his liking, and fills his basket. On 
 their way home they began to argue who had the best 
 apples. They uncovered their baskets and the result 
 was this. A had a good lot of russets ; B had a splen- 
 did lot of King apples, worth considerably more than 
 A's. Now, would it not be fair to say B had the best 
 of the apple hunt? I think it would. Now, by this 
 simple example I have described human life just as it 
 is. We all start in youth to hunt for pleasure ; our or- 
 chard is the whole world and at the close of life we 
 return home with our baskets, which is our fortune, 
 and what have we got? We have spent all our lives 
 hunting the sweet apples of contentment. If I should 
 judge by what I have seen, not much, because none of 
 us seem willing, nor do we uncover our baskets, but 
 if we did uncover, what do you suppose would be seen? 
 The first peep you would see the white bony skeleton 
 of hope, a few wizened aspirations, some dried wishes, 
 a whole bundle of disappointments. This is about the 
 result in the hunt for the sw r eet apple of joy, and it is 
 an exception to find anything else in the average bas- 
 ket of life at its close, though some seem to be experts 
 on lemons. This is the average life as I have found it. 
 Now this doesn't seem just right. We all hunt for pleas- 
 ure in our own way. Do we get it? If v T e do, we 
 hide it, and I notice few seem ready to uncover, or do 
 uncover, and so I think it will be safe to say B got the 
 
Seedlings 67 
 
 best of the apple hunt. Now why is it so few get it? 
 There are reasons ; my philosophy reasons, the princi- 
 pal course is we do not conform to the conditions that 
 surround us while on the hunt ; we do not get half the 
 good out of things that come our way. Remember 
 the old saying, when in Rome, do as Romans do. All 
 conditions have good in them for some one. The 
 trouble seems to be that we have not sufficient 
 knowledge to extract the good that is in them ; this 
 external want of something we have not got, but see 
 elsewhere, is one of the reasons that suck our condi- 
 tions dryer. This greed that we are cursed with, get 
 more than some one else, is never satisfied. Why not 
 say to yourself, I guess I will wring all the good out 
 of present conditions, they won't last long; they are 
 always changing, and so be ready for the next when 
 they come, for old ones never come back, only seem- 
 ingly so. Why not with reason hunt for the best 
 things in the conditons that are yours, for every man 
 at times has them, instead of thinking of things that 
 will perhaps never come, as you picture them? Are 
 you unsuccessful? Then try the way I speak of. You 
 cannot fail to get more of the good things than any 
 other. You at least get the best of what nature offers 
 you and that is a step forward in getting the most out 
 of life. It means more than goods; it means getting 
 friends and holding them as such. The making of 
 friends is without doubt the greatest achievement you 
 meet in this life, though I stay with nature and place 
 health first. My humble opinion of this subject is 
 this : Whoever can buy, beg, borrow, steal, or coerce 
 the greatest number of hours to pleasure gets the most 
 
68 Seedlings 
 
 out of life. 1 mean the kind of fun one enjoys in his 
 own way and it matters not what it is, or how it is, so 
 long as it does not interfere with the happiness of any- 
 one else. My philosophy teaches that none but honest 
 pleasure can make true happiness that endures to the 
 end of life. My advice is harmonize yourself with your 
 surroundings or cut them out. What I mean by all this 
 talk is this: You and I love candy; we have two 
 sticks the same size; we sit down to eat and enjoy 
 them. I chew my stick down in five minutes, while 
 you suck yours ten. Now I claim this, that you spent 
 twice the time eating yours and got twice the pleas- 
 ure, because I only got five minutes and you ten, 
 therefore it should be our aim to follow it through life. 
 You will be successful beyond imagination. Do not 
 att:mpt to bull or force nature; if you do you're a 
 b eaten man from the first. You can oil, coax and co- 
 erce, but not beat her. Prolong a joy you like, do not 
 cut it short. 
 
 Sleep 
 
 Appears to be a very important part of our lives. I 
 know of no one thing that will refresh our body like a 
 good sleep. Time should be divided this way: Infant 
 six-eighths; youth one-half; maturity one-third time 
 in sleep. Sleep by all evidence that I can find was ac- 
 quired by habbit. Way back to the period when the 
 progenitors of the human race did not have rich store- 
 houses of grain and beef, aye, before they dropped 
 the cocoanut to crack the shell, food was limited and 
 
Seedlings o9 
 
 hard to get at times, and it is perfectly reasonable 
 when they did get it they simply gorged themselves, 
 so the mass of food in their stomachs absorbed most 
 of their blood as it does now, and the brain, for the 
 want of food, took a rest. We now call it sleep. Fish 
 cannot sleep ; they have no eyelids. Snakes sleep 
 eight days, after a good feed. A hearty meal makes 
 most people drowsy, stupid and tired. Why ? Because 
 it requires so much of the blood to digest it the body 
 does not get enough to run it, hence a tired feeling. 
 
 You hear some say their muscles feel tired; this is 
 a mistake. Muscles of the body are about all alike, 
 and never tire of themselves; it is the brain that goes 
 tired. Here is the proof. Your heart starts at birth 
 and goes until you die, and is but a common muscle. 
 Why not tire? I reason this way: It has the use of 
 all the blood in the body and so plenty to eat; not so 
 the poor brain. It is located at the top of the body 
 and does not get as much as it ought to keep up a 
 normal activity, hence sleep. So you see. the heart 
 never rests on sleep, if it did, we would cease to live. 
 
 Now and then a man crops up who can do without 
 sleep. He is well balanced, with enough blood to run 
 both head and stomach, without starving any part of 
 the body. All facts point to no sleep to the progeni- 
 tors of primitive man, and the fact of a hearty meal, 
 pulling the blood from the brain, not only of human 
 beings, but all animals that sleep, to me is proof that 
 sleep is artificial, and was contractd by habit. It is 
 not original. Another reason is the habit of walking 
 erect ; means a dead lift of blood to the head on an 
 average of fourteen inches vertical. Scientists tell us 
 
70 Seedlings 
 
 that in sleep and rest a person should recline in a hor- 
 izontal position, with the head not elevated above the 
 bod}', so blood will flow to the head by natural gravi- 
 tation and not by muscular exaggeration to force it 
 there. By my reasoning I can see the cause of so 
 much nervousness, by sleeping with the head high. 
 The brains and nerves of the head do not get enough 
 to eat and are half starved, and so are weak and shaky, 
 and seldom well, and I am thus convinced that to be 
 healthy a person should cut out the pillow. I have 
 done so for over thirty years. I also sleep on a hard 
 bed that holds the body straight, not bent as a bow. 
 Try it, it will repay you ; it will not cost much. 
 
 IRature's WHa^s 
 
 From childhood to manhood. I have heard it talked 
 and referred to and extolled in every form. How much 
 better nature's way was, as compared with the human 
 way of doing things. Now I fail to see in crude na- 
 ture a superior form of government than is shown by 
 the superior human being. Sympathy and justice are 
 not found in nature, nor one ounce of pity, except 
 parents' love for their young. Everything bows to 
 might and so we say in nature might is right, but Ave 
 clo find all the fine points of our civilization in nature 
 lacking, what we call humanity for instance. Why 
 the most unreasonable and wanton cold blooded cru- 
 elty you will see most everywhere if one cares to look 
 for it. but if any one claims that the making and en- 
 forcing of human laws are simply the lner part of na- 
 
Seedlings 7 1 
 
 tnre extended, I have nothing more to say only this, I 
 do not wish people to refer to good old nature in a 
 sympathetic or judicial way, for naught but cruelty 
 and injustice are found in nature. As proof of this, 
 watch a cat ill use a mouse, and you will soon be con- 
 vinced. It is well known big fish eat little ones, sim- 
 ply because they are able. All through nature you 
 find no law, no humanity, no sympathy, no justice, no 
 protection of the weak, nothing but the cold relentless 
 might is right, interlaced with the most horrible cold 
 blooded and wanting acts of cruelty. This is nature 
 as I have found it in seventy-two years of life. Try a 
 natural way on its merits. 
 
 Wo 1Rot la? IPour Ibeao ©n £be Block 
 
 My philosophy does not reason out any great gain 
 by laying one's neck on the block, but if some great 
 power had put a premium on human suffering it 
 would be different. I fail to find any such thing in 
 this world, therefore I see no great virtue in it. I reason 
 that the primitive strong man was arrogant and that 
 humility w r as not considered a cardinal virtue ; while I 
 do not agree that a man should carry his ability on his 
 sleeve, I do think a person should have courage 
 enough to stand up and back his convictions. I ad- 
 mire modesty, but when it smothers a person's ability 
 it has ceased to be a virtue or respected. I have never 
 yet learned wherein the gods condemned anyone hav- 
 ing hope and assurance in their hear] that they would 
 be successful in anv undertaking:. To succeed one 
 
72 Seedlings 
 
 must have confidence in one's self as a rule. There are 
 times when success comes by accident, which I do not 
 include in this reasoning. Many times over-confidence 
 causes failure, but modesty, lack of confidence, humil- 
 ity are the mainsprings of people not trying to start, 
 and of no success, if they do start. 
 
 Therefore I do not take any timber in anything 
 that will hold a person back. Tell us what you can 
 do and do it ; not with what we call gall, but in a de- 
 termined, resolute manner, but do not become a mar- 
 tyr, it does no good; many good things have been lost 
 by doing it. 
 
 £ahe Care ©f £be Bo&? 
 
 The world believes in taking cold, so do I, but the 
 world does not guess at the cause nor what you get 
 when you get cold. Now science has taught me that 
 the air in which we live is full of animals. When they 
 enter our bodies, we say that we have caught cold. 
 Now to keep animals confined you must feed them. 
 When I was young, I remember others that were 
 young with me, we would eat from one to two pounds 
 with liquids, three times a day and would have a cold 
 somewhere in the body about all the time. When I 
 turned forty for a certain reason I cut it down to one- 
 half or three-quarter pounds to each meal three times 
 a day, and the colds left me. I have not had a bad 
 cold since ; am now over seventy ; health better than 
 when forty. Can you explain it? Possibly not, but I 
 think I can. The truth of it is, and I fear it is the 
 
Seedlings 73 
 
 same with the most of the people, that we eat more 
 than our system can assimilate, so that probably a 
 quarter enters our bodies as dead wood and the bug 
 we call a cold enters our bodies to feed on it. When 
 the bug: eats it all up, it leaves the body and 1 we get 
 better of our cold, so called ; in other words, we all 
 overeat, either in quantity, quality or kind, and con- 
 not digest it, so we have a surplus left in our systems, 
 that is food for the cold germ, fever germ, and most of 
 our sickness. You say you do not believe. Good. 
 L.et me prove it by just one example. You know, for 
 almost every one knows, that by injecting what is 
 known as kind pock, ^ou make people immune from 
 the smallpocks, Why? Because the kind pock eats 
 the food in the body; smallpocks live on; when the 
 smallpocks comes the germs can find no kind of food 
 to live on and cannot stay in the body and so get out 
 It is agreed by all savants today that fevers are small 
 animals' and so must be fed ; it is plain then that no 
 food, no fever. 
 
 Now I will tell you one of my pet ideas, so keep 
 your shirt on and ice your head. In my opinion, ev- 
 erything on the earth, around the earth, in the earth, 
 including rocks, ground, trees, fire, water, are not but 
 different kinds of animals in different stages of exist- 
 ence. The very cells of our bodv are of themselves 
 separate and distinct animals and do not die when lite 
 leaves the body ; they continue to live three or four 
 days, so while helping to form a part of our body they 
 ?re in reality an animal, yet live on our blood, just as 
 kind pock, smallpock, fevers, and most other diseases 
 do. If your body contains no surplus, unassimilated 
 
74 Seedlings 
 
 food, you can expose yourself to cold, heat and water, 
 and get no cold or anything else. I have experiment- 
 ed for thirty years and ever found it the same. By eat- 
 ing too hearty meals I will catch cold. I mean more 
 food than I ought to eat. Rheumatism is a sickness 
 that yields only to starving the patient. I know we 
 are all starved for want of the right kind of food, We, 
 as a rule, eat food that is good to the taste, and not for 
 bone, muscle or nerves. 
 
 i£nv? 
 
 Envy is a bird of all climes and all conditions in 
 life. It is a resident of most all heads, learned and un- 
 learned, and it as miserable a pauper as human head 
 ever grew. There are two kinds of envy — good and 
 bad. I reason this way. It is good to envy one's vir- 
 tue, or health or good temperament and such like, for 
 one will be likely to imitate them. I call that good 
 envy, and the kind that is good for all mankind. It at 
 least seems so to me. But what I style as bad envy is 
 a ruffian to the manor born, and about as sore a worm 
 as ever gnawed a person's brain. It is a thought that 
 is never satiated, but always gnawing. If they see 
 a new hat, or coat, or dress on most anybody, they be- 
 gin in their mind to think, oh, my ! how proud some- 
 body is, how stuck up we feel, and they seem to like 
 such thoughts, and a lot of other stuff similar. Now 
 this is all wrong. Such thoughts do not belong in a 
 square person's head, and why? Let me tell. If they 
 happen to see a person lame, or deformed or one 
 
Seedlings 75 
 
 whose lace is contorted, they do not envy them. Oh, 
 no. But instead they will say, ain't that something 
 awful. Now just see what a one-sided people we are. 
 Because a person is homely, they do not like him. 
 Yet did they ever think that the same power that made 
 these people made them? I doubt if they did. That 
 shows they are one sided, what I call a biased person. 
 Do they know chance, time and conditions gave 
 the neAv hat, new dress new coat as well as the deformed 
 body the homely face? Shame on anybody to be so 
 unmindful of truth, and of their surroundings. It is 
 one of the most unjust, unfair things to be found in the 
 world, and the lowest trait of the human family. A 
 new hat is to be proud of, why not? Pride is one of the 
 springs that drive man, woman and child ahead. What 
 would we be without it? Merely a cipher. The thought 
 to excel is the noblest attribute of mankind. It has 
 built the things we have, and continues to build. The 
 love to excel is not wrong, but envy is. Why, do you 
 say? Because the small, pinched intellect of those who 
 use the bad side of envy, would, if they could, retard 
 the using of that which was fairly and squarely earned 
 by pride and thrift, an honest ambition. And why is 
 that you ask? Because it benefits everybody and not 
 the envyist. A very unhealthy crew are they who use 
 envy as stuffing for a very small head. 
 
 Should I be asked to define envy, I would say it is 
 a verbal acknowledgment of inferiority, of their power 
 to get new and good things, or, wrong ambition, 
 caused as a rule by ignorance, in fighting the battle of 
 life. I reason as before said. The sight of new clothes 
 should arouse an honest ambition to get the same or 
 
76 Seedlings 
 
 excel them. That is the way nations, states, cities, 
 towns and families are built. Envy will turn the 
 sweetest nature sour, bitter as wormwood, creates 
 angry thoughts, makes trouble with neighbors. There 
 is absolutely no philosophy in the black part of it. Be 
 a true human. Raise yourself above it, and cut it out. 
 
 fBMstafcee 
 
 Mistakes are as natural as it is to breathe. Every- 
 body makes mistakes. But the thinking persons do 
 three things with a mistake — that is, learn by it, sel- 
 dom repeat, never forget. They succeed. A mistake 
 does not set the energetic to weeping or cast them 
 down. If you want a fire to burn, persecute it by 
 agitating it, such as blowing air on or through it. So 
 with whatever you want to do, agitate it. It will never 
 grow if it is business by lying still, and the time spent 
 in mourning over it should be used in hunting a rem- 
 edy. There is a little rhyme old as the hills but golden, 
 and one I have tried to follow. 
 
 If you try and don't succeed, 
 
 Try, try again. 
 Time will bring you your reward, 
 
 Try, try again. 
 
 I think it best to try and forget them. Life is 
 naught but a bundle of mistakes, and cannot be any- 
 thing else, as no one knows the future, nor ever will. 
 For the good today is bad tomorrow. And the bad to- 
 day is good tomorrow, and such is the way of life. But 
 
Seedlings 77 
 
 they who extract good wisdom from their mistakes as 
 a rule are successful. Success means you have your 
 way, and your way is many times wrong for your hap- 
 piness. For it is that, and that only, you want your 
 way. Mistakes are the result of ignorance, so it rea- 
 sons, and more knowledge, fewer mistakes. But 
 never mind the mistakes. Pitch right in as though you 
 had not made a mistake. You will succeed. Say better 
 luck next time. 
 
 IDanit? 
 
 As I understand, is real dishonesty. I suppose 
 there is more vanity used than any other attribute we 
 possess. It is used morning, night and all day ; in house, 
 store, factory and street, by every one, rich and poor. 
 And there are times when its use is good. Vanity is so 
 prevalent and common, it is seldom noticed or spoken 
 of. Now let us see what it is made of. You have a 
 gold washed watch, and you pull it to the time. Your 
 friends standing round remark the watch, and some 
 exclaim, what a nice gold watch that is. You hear the 
 remarks but say not a word, leaving them to under- 
 stand that is is a good gold watch. That is vanity, 
 pure and simple, and you are vain enough to let them 
 go off with the opinion that you have a gold watch. So 
 you deceived them. Deception is dishonesty. Or in 
 other words, you did not have the goods, and your 
 silence made you a fraud. That is the way I reason 
 out vanity. And everything else of like nature is the 
 same. Oh, how common, and never noticed. But if 
 
78 Seedlings 
 
 your watch is gold, and you come honestly by it, why 
 then it is only an honest exhibition of your thrift, so is 
 very honorable. It is not vanity to think you are an- 
 other's equal. If you did not, there would be no racing 
 or games or sports. Your real worth shown is not 
 vain, or vanity. It is our love for things why we get 
 them. It is our ambition to show them. That is honest, 
 honorable and should be promoted, instead of con- 
 demned. 
 
 Hre Eartb Hn& flDan flDaptefc? 
 
 sa 
 
 In my opinion, no. He seems to be a misfit all 
 around. It may be he has not lived long enough to 
 gcit used to it. I know he grew from it and lives on 
 what it produces, but he is not in sympathy with it ; 
 at least, it so seems to me. Now let us reason. Barr- 
 ing a few islands in the ocean, there is no land suitable 
 to live on. He must build shelter or freeze or roast, 
 soak with rain or buried in snow. The land does not 
 produce the kind of food, either in quantity or quality 
 of itself, without man's help to sustain us. He must 
 plow, fertilize, plant, cross the seed, and many more 
 things, and then get scarcely enough ; in some places 
 not enough food. Many times what he plants does 
 not grow. I am told not rain enough, or too much 
 rain, or frost, or cold ground, or bugs and worms, and 
 sometimes farmers tell they do not know the reason 
 some crops do not grow. At the same time, in by- 
 lanes, along roadsides, in waste places, poor land, in 
 fact, land that's of no earthlv use, what we call weeds. 
 
Seedlings 79 
 
 grow naturally luxuriantly ; not only without man's 
 care, but to do his best, can hardly keep them down, 
 but, but what? Why, we can't eat them, can't live on 
 them; peculiar isn't it? You will hear learned men 
 using rich oratory in extolling the bounty of the earth 
 and its fullness thereof, but I fail to see where man 
 gets it, and that causes him to be a misfit, pure and 
 simple. If we should enter a strange wood, in a 
 strange country, ripe berries and fruit would be scat- 
 tered around, yet if we eat them it is at the risk of 
 being poisoned. Now when a man is born and grows 
 big enough to tell wants, then for the first time he will 
 see that he is out of joint with what he sees around 
 him, or the whole earth. About all things that he 
 wants to wear, to eat, some one else owns. "Hands 
 off!" they shout. If he crosses a field, "Back," they 
 scream, "Get off my grass !" Even good water he has 
 to buy. Then again, his liberty is about all taken 
 from him. It rains, so he can't stay out doors ; snow 
 drives him to shelter; from the efforts of frost he has 
 to get artificial heat; the blazing sun strikes him dead ; 
 lightning paralyzes him ; he does not know the best 
 kind of food to eat to keep in health ; he must be very 
 careful or he will catch cold or some kind of sickness 
 and if he does, he doesn't know nor can he find any 
 one that does know what will cure him. He is as 
 helpless as any animal on the earth at birth, or more 
 so, at which time he is a trap for numerous ills. He 
 has to learn to creep, to walk, to talk and to eat; he 
 has to commit enough stuff to memory to drive an 
 adult crazy. At the same time he is surrounded with 
 customs, rules, laws and sentiments ; he is naturally 
 
80 Seedlings 
 
 weaker than big carnivorous animals of his own 
 weight at his best. He is seldom sure of anything, 
 for things are changing all the time ; he even cannot 
 scratch his own back, nor see a thing as it is; his ears 
 are deceptive, his taste delusive ; he cannot bank on 
 his touch ; he is not built in proportion, for he cannot 
 pick up as small a thing as his eye can see ; he cannot 
 live on the highest or lowest land, he must select his 
 land to live on, if he would promote his health. Sup- 
 pose a man built a car to run on a track, then made a 
 track all twisted, bent and three inches too wide for 
 the car. When you saw it, what would you think? 
 What would you say ? There is only one thing I think 
 you could say, and that is, the car and track are not in 
 svmpathy ; they do not harmonize. They are a mis- 
 fit, and you would say right, the car does not fit the 
 track or the track does not fit the car. Either is cor- 
 rect and true. Now this is just the way with mankind 
 and this earth — they don't fit each other ; never were 
 intended to, and I doubt very much if they ever will, 
 and the reason is evident. The eternal change the earth 
 is going through, mankind is way ahead of her, espe- 
 cially in one thing sure. Nature kills her weaklings 
 and humanity protects them, so you see in nature it 
 is the survival of the fittest. Now from this it is evi- 
 dent man has improved on nature, if protecting the 
 weak is an improvement, and I think it is. Of course 
 the earth and nature, as some put it, are one and the 
 same thing (perhaps they are), father and mother to 
 all, yet it is disputed by some that it is best to protect 
 our weaklings. 
 
 Now from all I have said in this article I think I 
 
Seedlings 8 1 
 
 am justified by the rule of truth in saying man on this 
 earth is a side issue, a misfit, a come-by-chance. Earth, 
 was not made for him nor him for the earth. In armed 
 neutrality they exist together. 
 
 mnorr? 
 
 Worry is an unsettled condition of body and mind. 
 People do not have much sympathy for those who wor- 
 ry. I think it as much a sickness as some fevers and 
 far more reaching in results. The cause is a temporary 
 lassitude of that which feeds the cells of the brain and 
 governs what is termed the nerves. A_ person that is 
 careless does not allow little things to bother. There 
 are those who do not notice little things, and don't 
 worry. Worrying is terrible to get fastened on a per- 
 son. It sometimes robs them of half their governing 
 power, and, ofttimes of the whole. Its working is 
 something awful. To some people it destroys all their 
 happiness so to speak, disgusts their best friends. Peo- 
 ple dislike to be in their company. Everything they do 
 goes wrong. They talk in a garrulous, snappish, man- 
 ner. They are not pleased with anything, find fault 
 with all, no matter how big or little. Of all curses to 
 fall on a person, few are worse. It is about even with 
 anger. It poisons the blood just the same, yet were 
 people disposed they could lessen its bite considerably. 
 Begin at its start. They could rub off its sharp cor- 
 ners. The trouble starts in the stomach, as a rule, as 
 most other troubles do. A person should look there 
 for first help. Look well to your food. Be sure and eat 
 
82 Seed! 
 
 ings 
 
 food that will not stop long in the stomach. Food that 
 stays long there causes one to feel sour, garrulous, 
 nervous, out of sorts so called. The trouble is carried 
 to the brain like rum drunkenness, and so we are 
 trouble drunk. That is, we are not normal. Now let 
 us look at the brain end. At the first sign, begin to 
 fight it by turning it round, by forgetting it, by acquir- 
 ing the habit of singing, joking, light talk, light read- 
 ing. Change occupation. Go where you will hear 
 laughing, funny stories, and all things of a light and 
 pleasant nature. Check it when it first starts. The 
 strangest part of it is, we worry about things and their 
 results that never happen, and the half is in the future 
 at that, and still do not remember that it never 
 comes round, as our worry sees it. Some have lots of 
 trouble in their mind, but it about all ends there. 
 They sometimes enlarge a little obstacle until it ends 
 in a mountain or their death, and so some go on with 
 worry, some little things or other, making themselves 
 sick and soring friends and all others who come near 
 them. I say cut it out. Kill it. Then bury it. I 
 know it is easy to write this, but I have seen it done. 
 For what has been done, can be done again, condi- 
 tions being suitable. I have tried it, done it, and I 
 know. Yet it is up to you who worry, and it is just as 
 you say. If you would rather it, than to make an effort 
 to kill it. None can help you. Just a word more. If 
 you continue to worry, keep your eye on the bughouse. 
 Many land there through worriment. Philosophy 
 teaches how to control every bit of it. Also about all of 
 our trouble. If a boy stole an apple some would worry 
 a month over it. Some not a minute. To not worry is 
 
Seedlings 83 
 
 heaven. To worry is hell. Take your choice. You 
 can doctor. 
 
 %uiun> 
 
 Luxury has been the curse of all men since his- 
 tory was written. It first attacks the individual, 
 then the people. It then reaches the government. 
 It is to human beings what the dry rot is to the 
 ship ; the decay is slow at first, but sure in the end. 
 Luxury unfits a man for hard toil ; by becoming 
 effeminate, his muscles grow soft, he recoils from ex- 
 ertion, business is a burden, pleasure and fat is his 
 desire. He does not reproduce as a rule, and cares 
 naught for those who do. When he dies his blood 
 leaves the earth. It has been ordained by nature that 
 men's bodies should undergo toil to make them strong 
 enduring. Like the oak, tough. But luxury is just 
 opposite. Its trend is to weaken, and it does it. Oh, 
 we love it, but if you love health, long life, happiness, 
 with vigor, posterity, do not allow it to get fastened 
 on you. It is a habit that is sure to destroy you, 
 your future and your blood. Luxury and idleness are 
 brothers, they kill men with pleasure, strange though 
 true. Pleasure is what we all are seeking. Luxury, it 
 not only prevents aims in life, but is the first step 
 towards destroying human life. It is the working 
 people who multiply, not people who live in luxury. 
 They fade and die. Workers fill their places. They too 
 grow fond of luxury, and then die, and so it goes from 
 poor to rich. Do not adopt it on your life. 
 
84 Seedlings 
 
 flDarriage 
 
 ffl 
 
 Marriage is one of the most perplexing things in 
 life. It is one of the three great corners we turn, that 
 is : birth, marriage and death. It is more important to 
 our happiness than birth or death, for the whole of our 
 middle intelligent life depends on it, for weal or woe. 
 So, if a person mates properly, life is a heaven. If not, 
 it is a hell, till death releases. I do not know of any 
 one spot, in one's whole life, where more caution can 
 be used to better advantage than selecting a mate. Yet, 
 it seems to me that little or no caution or judgment is 
 ever used. 
 
 It appears to me that there are weighty reasons 
 underlying these mock marriages, so to speak. I will 
 name a tew of the paramount ones. First, some people 
 do not seem to understand what is required of them 
 to live a happy, married life. Second, ill health. 
 Third, passion. No patience in treatment of husband 
 or wife in their simple and childlike actions towards 
 each other. 
 
 Another thing of which there is no allowance 
 made, is change. It is known to all that younger folks 
 change as they grow old. That is most of them do. 
 Some are mild in youth, rough when old. Some rough 
 in youth, mild when old. Some mild, clear through. 
 Some rough, clear through. Some rotten, clear 
 through. Some of both sexes have not wisdom 
 enough to live an honorable married life. I mean 
 there is no sense of harmony in them which 
 is absolutely necessary to married happiness ; they 
 do not study harmonv, nor do they understand it-; 
 
Seedlings 85 
 
 relation to marriage, and do not care to. While some 
 people rasp along through life in a way, I could not, 
 and call it a happy life. After fifty-one years of or- 
 dinary married life it is my opinion that there is one 
 great factor in selecting a mate, that is, look for one 
 that will not sell their word for a dollar. I mean man 
 or woman, whose word is a law to them. So they will 
 not break it. Such a person is safe to tie to. You 
 can depend on them. When a person marries, they 
 agree to stick to the one they marry by all the laws of 
 God and man, and a man or woman who regards 
 their word of honor, or, who thinks their word repre- 
 sents them, will not break it. Therefore the main 
 thing is selecting a mate, man or woman, is, will they 
 keep their word, or near to it, for if they will break 
 their word in one thing, they will in another. You 
 cannot depend on them. They should never marry. 
 This getting married by catch as catch can, has 
 proven a bad business, so to speak, a failure. 
 
 No wonder there are so many unhappy mar- 
 riages. People must not forget that about all young 
 folks change as they grow old, in looks, mind, likes, 
 dislikes and acts. So there must be something to 
 take their place, or there will be a void. One or both 
 lose interest in each other, then carelessness, want 
 something new, then try to get apart. 
 
 Do IRot Coerce H Cbilfc 
 
 Do not try to get a true story from a child by 
 sternness, brow beating, fear, or savage force. If you 
 
86 Seedlings 
 
 do, nine times out of ten, you're left. To get a child to 
 tell all the lies it knows and don't know, attack it in 
 the above three ways, and you will get all the equiv- 
 ocation, evasions and contortions in the hook, but 
 talk easy with it and you have it. The child is parent 
 to the adult. The average adult will deny every- 
 thing for which they should not be blamed, for it is 
 human nature. Yet I have seen people abuse their 
 children for the same thing they themselves had done. 
 They forget the child does not reason much, nor does 
 the child understand, like themselves, so as a rule igno- 
 rance is the cause of this misrule over children, and 
 lower animals. Alas for the animals. Of course there 
 are extreme cases, but they are few. Another thing, it 
 brutalize the person, as well as the child to use brute 
 force. Teach children as you would be taught in 
 their condition. It seems to me the best way is to get 
 a child's confidence and respect and you own it. Be 
 kind to them in their troubles, and don't forget their 
 troubles are as much to them as our own are to us. 
 Another thing and do not forget it, children are the 
 same as colts, and grow one end at a time. So the 
 parent should watch their children and see whether 
 the head or body grows the fastest, and govern a child 
 accordingly. I was a boy once. My memory is good. 
 I don't forget the injustice heaped upon me. 
 
 IReliQion 
 
 With which I have no quarrel. There are in the 
 city of New York, three hundred and fifty-six different 
 
Seedlings 8 7 
 
 choose from. So a choice should be indeed easy. Each 
 one claims theirs is the truest, and most acceptable 
 to God. Ee that as it may, to me religion is good, 
 when not bad, bad when not good, the same as most 
 everything else; it is founded on a substitute for 
 truth, belief, so one can swing around and round in 
 selecting. Some seem better than others, in being- 
 more liberal so called, but like everything else, based 
 on belief. It is easy to shift, which some people often 
 do. To some people religion is a great benefit, be- 
 cause they get much pleasure from it. They at least 
 appear to, if judged by their acting. Others it ruins. 
 Some it drives to the bug house. Some it makes fools 
 of, and some become mere cyphers. Some use it as a 
 tool, others as a cloak. Some do not use it at all. 
 Some say it is false, others it's true. Some say it came 
 from God, others from mankind. But it is no matter 
 where from, they all agree in one thing, and that is, 
 it is based on belief, simple belief. Some claim that 
 Christ said : Whosoever believe that I am the son 
 of God shall be saved. Who belie veth not shall be 
 damned. This then is the base of belief. Now it seems 
 to me that every person should be at liberty to use it 
 or not, just as they think. To me, no one is the keeper 
 of another's soul (that is if they have one). My phil- 
 osophy teaches me that every human being accounts 
 to God, and God only, and not to any man, men, 
 church, ism, belief, sect, or cult, and it all lays with 
 each and every person, for it is no other person's busi- 
 ness whether I save my soul or lose it ; to me this is 
 settled. As a rule men and women believe the path 
 they were taught, and it matters not how unreason- 
 
88 Seedlings 
 
 able it is ; whether against or with nature, they believe 
 just the same. I will give just one illustration. Taken 
 for granted, God fathers all living people. Now what 
 would you think of a man who had a large family, 
 and taught every child a different belief, so it made 
 them quarrel and hate each other, while each thought 
 they were selected to become a God by living for- 
 ever. While at the same time their brothers and sis- 
 ters were going to be burned and destroyed. Just 
 think of it. While many people tell me God is more 
 merciful than a human parent, think of that too. Do 
 try and reconcile these stories. I suppose every- 
 thing on this earth has its use, so has religion. It 
 may help some people obey the law of the land, but to 
 those who think for themselves, a dead man's belief 
 is of no account beyond its truth. I have the greatest 
 respect for dead men, or should say for their efforts. 
 They did the best they could under the conditions of 
 their time. Just the same, the driver of an ox team 
 did the best he could, but, was he in it with the rail- 
 road, or sailing ships, with steam ships. Progress. 
 
 Ibow Hll Hnimals 2)ie 
 
 Decay starts just as things begin to look common. 
 The animal grows tired of looking at the same old 
 things. The brain and fine senses cease to be inter- 
 ested with surroundings, so they begin to cease their 
 activity. 
 
 The brain wearing of old things, does not flicker 
 fast from one thought to another, and of course does 
 
Seedlings 89 
 
 not require so much nutrition. 
 
 If the brain does not move so fast, it does not eat 
 so much, and does not evaporate so much water, and 
 that means that the skin's surface begins to harden 
 for lack of water, to bring nutriment to keep the sur- 
 face of the skin alive. So decay begins. 
 
 With a skin dying by reduced evaporation, the 
 blood is thrown back on the blood makers ; now the 
 blood builds, the body and removes it. But when it 
 becomes congested the blood makers reduce their out- 
 put, and the whole body begins to decay. 
 
 The blood carries the componant parts of the 
 body, by floating in water, and carries nutriment to 
 every part of the system. The skin strains the blood, 
 lets the water go, and when perspiring through the 
 pores of the skin, leaving the blood for growth and 
 repair. Such is life and growth. So it is, stop evap- 
 oration, growth ceases, disolution will soon follow. 
 All animals go through this stage before death inter- 
 venes. 
 
 Motion help along life, because motion is life, so to 
 speak. 
 
 Civilisation 
 
 Civilization has not struck us very hard as yet. 
 We cannot grow under its mild influence, when seen 
 in, and around our streets, instruments of torture, 
 scientifically manufactured, gold mounted and dis- 
 played as ornaments. Shame on such civilization. I 
 mean the common whip. The whip is made and used 
 
90 Seedlings 
 
 to torture the brain of a horse. It is a disgrace for 
 people to claim they are civilized, when they allow 
 such a thing to be done. Savages love torture, glory 
 in it. Civilization means doing away with causing 
 pain. More, you will see the most refined ladies in 
 the land with whips in their hands, torturing as a sav- 
 age does, and if the educated and refined do it, what 
 must be the result with the careless drivers? Alas 
 the horse. What needless torture the brain of some 
 horses have to undergo, and can speak no word to 
 tell it. But that is not all. The mean way it is used 
 is worse than savage. Blinders are put on a horse 
 so he cannot see the cruel, underhanded cutting below. 
 We call ourselves civilized. Just listen to the cry 
 against prize fighting. Two men of their own free 
 will stand up and strike each other until one is tired 
 out, and they do it for money. Then we all shout, 
 oh, how brutal, for causing each other pain. Brutal 
 enough, I admit, but nothing compared with the bru- 
 tality showered on a poor dumb horse. We call our- 
 selves human. What is humanity? Is there such? 
 Without kind treatment toward dumb animals, I 
 doubt it. Civilized? Say galvanized, much more 
 appropriate. No not until such savage, slavish, de- 
 grading things as whips are abolished, and the despic- 
 able thing called blinders. My philosophy teaches 
 me, you will know a civilized man by his kindness to 
 animals. The other is veneer. The whip under all 
 circumstances is symbolical of brutality, savagery and 
 ignorance. Thanks to the society with a long name, 
 for the good it has done towards civilization. They 
 have my respect and support. Big may it grow. 
 
Seedl 
 
 mgs 
 
 Summary 
 
 I will sum up in condensed form, for life is too 
 short to read useless words. Too much is quickly for- 
 gotten, so you lose the facts, and your time, and do not 
 gain a thing. Will call your attention to the fact that 
 in this little book I haA^e endeavored to drop every use- 
 less word, so the reading will appear a little strange to 
 the average reader. 
 
 The power that governs all creation is a balance. 
 
 Next and opposite is the destroying power unbal- 
 anced. 
 
 To be happy — want nothing, fear nothing or get 
 lost in work. 
 
 Greatest human riches — Friends. 
 
 Your greatest enemy — Idleness. 
 
 The best wealth at birth, health ; at maturity, 
 knowledge ; at death, insensibilty. 
 
 The greatest prize to labor for — Wisdom. 
 
 A grievous want — what nature withheld, and man 
 apes. 
 
 We have seven senses : Seeing, feeling, tasting, 
 hearing and smelling, to keep our body straight, and 
 two for pleasure, love and habit. Of these seven, habit 
 is the strongest. The last two come and go. 
 
 Matter is condensed gases, like water is con- 
 densed steam. 
 
92 Seedlings 
 
 Where gases originated, I have no opinion. 
 There is not a thing created but form and time. 
 
 Nothing is destroyed but form and time, which 
 never come back. 
 
 Everything seems to be moving. Stillness doesn't 
 exist. 
 
 Conditions, time and chance father form. 
 
 The average human pa sion is to lord it and 
 change it. 
 
 To get beauty, eliminate familiarity. 
 
 Bravery, the cell in head that governs heart is 
 strong. 
 
 Cowardice, the cell in head that governs heart is 
 weak. 
 
 Love fathers jealousy. No love, no jealousy. 
 
 Leaders of fashion do not dress in fashion. 
 
 The leader of a gang does not fraternize with 
 them. 
 
 Most people dress for others to look at. 
 
 Put perfume on a pig and man alike. They cannot 
 be distinguished apart in a dark room. 
 
 Do not bank on belief. It will trip you if you do. 
 
 Never accept belief as proof. Belief is the absence 
 of truth. 
 
 There is not anything good or bad in itself. 
 
 Do not quarrel with a friend for a dollar or money. 
 
 Never tell a story about anyone without proof. 
 
Seedlings 93 
 
 The spark of life is the real act of passing water 
 through a strainer. 
 
 Love is extreme want. 
 
 Hatred, don't want. Opposite to love. 
 
 Inventions increase the length of our lives by 
 giving us more time and we do more. 
 
 Truth dies with the object that caused its life. 
 
 Do not teach imagination to our children, because 
 imagination, like mistakes, has ignorance for a base. 
 
 Teach children all the facts you can, for facts are 
 things as they are. They have a tendency to stick to 
 the one who learns them. It is facts, not lies, we want. 
 
 The more truth, the less unhappiness. 
 
 Dress no more than half the time for others to 
 look at, the other half to please yourself. 
 
 To be real mean, want everything you see. 
 
 To be generous, divide your last bite with a friend. 
 
 To be good without temptation is the same as a 
 steel ax without a tempter. 
 
 Hunt for the opposite of everything, that is, things 
 we know, for everything has an opposite or couldn't 
 exist. 
 
 To be brave, one must be careless. The greatest 
 bravery on earth is to risk pleasure or life. 
 
 If you want to be happy, get lost in something. 
 Try to do anything that is honest and honorable. 
 Spring straight at it, mind and body, and before you 
 know it, your unhappiness will disappear. 
 
94 Seedlings 
 
 We are living a life as near a sham as we can get. 
 If you see a person on the street, they are not real. 
 Their clothes cover every defect of the body. Their 
 heels make them an inch taller than they really are. 
 
 Life seems to be a game of crow, bluff, blunder 
 and deception. It seems to be a matter of indifference 
 whether we have the goods or not, simply to make 
 people think so seems all sufficient. By watching peo- 
 ple, I have learned few things in life are real. Yet 
 some live a tolerable life. People live so from baby- 
 hood, and that makes it come natural to them. As the 
 savage in Africa, with an old dilapidated silk hat on 
 his head and naked body. He seems to think he is 
 dressed and will strut around as a London swell, feel- 
 ing just as proud. And the reason? He grew up that 
 way. Still I am sure it is not just as well, sup- 
 posing we do no material injury to someone. For it is 
 not what w r e think that harms, but rather what we say 
 and do, that causes trouble. If people act out their 
 thoughts, it must release them some and so save many 
 from the bug house, but what gets my goat is why 
 people do so much different in life than what they 
 were taught, that is in so many things. To me it is a 
 puzzler. 
 
 Revenge to justice is what brass is to gold. 
 
 A man cannot be just without dishonest thoughts. 
 
 Things are just what we think they are, so we 
 make everything in thinking but matter. 
 
 A fool, when out allows the brute that is in them 
 to master, and allow anger to govern. 
 
Seedlings 95 
 
 Revenge is supposed to represent justice, btu it 
 is a poor substitute. 
 
 Principles should die a natural death when they 
 conflict with human benefits. 
 
 The brave ones are those who least fear to lose 
 what they love most. 
 
 Our civilization is made out of hundreds of facts, 
 beliefs, thoughts, words, ways, deeds and imagination. 
 To change one is to change the combinations of our 
 individualism, becomes habit, trends the body politic 
 another way. 
 
 With few exceptions our civilization is opposed 
 to nature as it is. 
 
 It is said that all things possible come to those 
 who wait. 
 
 Those who force acts breed trouble, destroy jus- 
 tice, and justice would die a natural death. Truth is 
 a foster parent to a lie, for without a lie there would 
 be no truth. 
 
 If there w T as no night there would be no day. 
 
 Bad is a good sometimes ; one cannot live without 
 the other. 
 
 Men have proved themselves fools, for they can- 
 not make a worm, yet have made hundreds of gods of 
 various kinds, and continue to make them. 
 
 To be happy work, work, work at something. 
 
 Never teach a philosophy that is not applicable 
 to the whole people. 
 
96 Seedlings 
 
 As a rule, do not say a thing is true, unless proven 
 by your five senses. 
 
 Be ready to prove what you say, or remain silent. 
 
 I find no evidence that man was made for the 
 earth. Nor was the earth made for man; they do not 
 fit each other. Man has to conform to conditions 
 given him by the earth ; the earth is seldom in touch 
 with humanity, unless humanity wills it so. 
 
 One of the greatest mistakes in our civilization 
 has been the eternal fear of things that do not exist, 
 nor never did, such as magic. 
 
 You cannot make wealth by laws, just control it. 
 Neither can laws create value, only measure it. True 
 value is one's desire to possess a thing that is the only 
 value on earth or ever was. 
 
 Fairy stories have been a great blessing on this 
 earth. 
 
 We cannot get what we want in any other way 
 than by solid work. 
 
 There is no power in law to drive pulleys. 
 
 No law can cure us if sick ; it can help prevent it. 
 
 Life on this earth today is a game of bluff ; in 
 politics, commerce, philosophy, religion, actions and 
 dress. 
 
 One wrong step means a fall of many feet. 
 Law cannot make men equal ; some eat more than 
 others ; nor think alike, nor act alike. 
 
 Law cannot prevent acts, only punish the actor. 
 
Seedlings 9 7 
 
 Contentment in trying to get pleasure out of 
 something you meet in life, so doing is pleasure food. 
 
 Never condemn a person on hearsay, it is a fool's 
 say. 
 
 Never eat before you earn it. 
 
 Never spend your money before you get it. 
 
 Never think ill of a person; they are just as they 
 were made. They do as you do. the best they can, for 
 every one does their best, nothing less, and 
 
 If we all do our best, what better can we do. 
 
 We all hunt for the one and same thing in our 
 own way, how many find it (pleasure) ? 
 
 Attend to your own business, if you do not you 
 make trouble. 
 
 Religion is good, if it causes you to be happy. 
 
 It is better to hunt for good, even though you can- 
 not find it, if it gives contentment. 
 
 Human laws are crude because they only admon- 
 ish, direct and punish, and do not reward. 
 
 It is a bad light when the devil holds the candle. 
 
 True philosophy gives every man on earth a right 
 to advance his interest, but not at the destruction of his 
 brothers. 
 
 It is also true philosophy, that what a man earns is 
 his, not one quarter of it. 
 
 The earth and everything else is changing every 
 hour. People canno stand still, but change also. 
 
98 Seedlings 
 
 It is impossible to improve or advance without 
 changes. Man changes from babyhood to hanhood, to 
 nothing, a mere shadow. Like a snowflake, falling in 
 water, it flickers the fraction of a second, then gone. 
 
 If human society is perfect, why make new laws? 
 
 It is humanity's misfortune, that the earth's gov- 
 ernments grew from certain laws. These laws are the 
 product of sentiment, sentiment the product of relig- 
 ion, religion the product of belief, belief the product of 
 ignorance. 
 
 Philosophy must change to get a thing as it is, for 
 most things I have known from boyhood have 
 changed. 
 
 Therefore my philosophy is : Every new thing 
 must have a different reason. Example, sixty years 
 past doctors bled fevers. They had their reasons. Now 
 they do not bleed to cure fevers, and have weighty rea- 
 sons. Philosophy means a thing as it is. So philoso- 
 phy on bleeding has changed, so now we have a new 
 one on the same old subject. 
 
 Losers are not always in the wrong. 
 
 Chew your food, so eat to live. 
 
 Some know how to live in youth. Some in middle 
 life. Some in old age. Some never. 
 
 As life grows long, time grows short. 
 
 Do not practice knavery. Its ghost will not 
 down. 
 
 I do not know effect without a cause. 
 
Seedlings 99 
 
 Keep bowels open, head cool, feet warm — Health. 
 
 Have good company, or lay down. 
 
 To be virtuous, obey the law. 
 
 Friends are the bluebirds of the human spring. 
 
 Keep a thing seven years, if no good, destroy it. 
 
 It's wit to steal, but wisdom not to. 
 
 They who break a small law, will a large one. 
 
 They that marry for money become slaves. 
 
 As a rule, those who lend money lose friends. 
 
 A person to live long must live right. 
 
 There are ten good intentions made, two are kept. 
 
 There is not a thing on this earth that costs so 
 little and pays such a gigantic interest, as pleasing 
 words, true words, good words, words of praise, and 
 young people have a fortune in their mouth, but do 
 not know it. Like the ox, they know not their 
 strength. 
 
 One of the greatest values to get is good advice or 
 good counsel. Price, it has none. 
 
 Fortune follows the brave always. 
 
 Fate paunches and fossils heed. 
 
 The best knowledge is learned from experience. 
 
 When you see an effect, hunt for the cause. 
 
 Get a reason if you can for everything. 
 
 Doubt everything till proved. 
 
 Do not give your opinion, without request. 
 
100 Seedlings 
 
 Never think little of one, because they are poor. 
 
 And never go back on a friend. 
 
 For the love of your friends do not practice de- 
 ception. 
 
 Watch little things, they lead to great ones. 
 
 If you see a fault in a person, and are wise, you 
 will not do the same thing. 
 
 If a horse by chance kicked you, you would not 
 be considered wise to let the same horse, in the same 
 place, and in the same way, kick you again. 
 
 There are three ways in getting on with people, 
 do all the bending, or half the bending, or break. 
 
 Beauty of disposition shines more than beauty 
 of face. 
 
 Lead a quiet life, you will live longer. 
 
 It is true philosophy to say history repeats itself. 
 
 The greatest comfort in life, a good wife. 
 
 A person without reason is seldom any good to 
 their friends, or the world. 
 
 In doing anything, always do your best. 
 
 Always obey the laws under which you live. 
 
 Respect a child as a grown person, for they are 
 both alike, except in time. 
 
 Never be biased by good clothes. 
 
 Hold every strange person at arm's length, no 
 matter how they look, talk, walk or act. 
 
 Never say a thing is bad, it is only misplaced. 
 
Seedlings 
 
 Never deny any person the right to pursue hap- 
 piness in their own way, except they hurt some one. 
 
 Never deny the right of free thought to any one 
 for you demand it yourself. 
 
 Always try to be equal to everybody, in good- 
 ness. 
 
 Never be put out because a person does not see 
 a thing as you do, it is not nature to see things alike. 
 
 To be superior to your surroundings lend you? 
 last labor to a friend. 
 
 Politeness fathers half the lies of the earth, yet 
 half of human success has been and can be won by po- 
 liteness. It bears the same relation between man and 
 man that grease does to the hotbox of an axletree. It 
 is also the bluebird of human pleasure. Use polite- 
 ness in addressing ; truth in answering. It has won 
 fortunes and seldom loses one. It is a good stock in 
 trade and pays a fabulous interest. 
 
 In life go slow, for a slow, sure horse is better 
 than a thoroughbred if tricky. 
 
 Watch all kinds of scheming, but do not scheme. 
 
 When a person puts a price on their word, they 
 are going back ; will soon become defunct in honor. 
 
 To be virtuous fight against the habits of nature. 
 
 No person can be better than their principles, 
 sometimes not so good. 
 
 A person is no better than they act. 
 
 True words make a hard argument. 
 
1 02 Seedlings 
 
 Compliments go to them, as a rule, who least de- 
 serve them. 
 
 I have proof of evolution ; will give one ; from a 
 tad pole to a frog. 
 
 I can see no way that a spirit can retain knowl- 
 edge away from the body. The spirit knows just what 
 the body has learned; it does not know anything of 
 itself; it is considered not matter, therefore matter 
 cannot impress it, and if you cannot impress it it can- 
 not retain knowledge. This is reason, pure and sim- 
 ple, and not belief. Belief is as elastic as rubber. 
 
 Using this kind of reason, and not belief, I cannot 
 see any way for a spirit to exist but through the power 
 of imagination, which, of itself, is very faulty, and not 
 considered proof of anything. The soul T consider the 
 same as a spirit, for I can see no difference between 
 them, relying on the description given me by my 
 books on theology and talks with divines. 
 
 People who eat right, eat to live ; those who do 
 not, eat like a hog, to die. 
 
 When you eat, chew, chew, chew, until food is 
 paste. 
 
 Young work, fat old age. 
 
 Those who give are blessed with friends. 
 
 Modesty and beauty are lovable. 
 
 Everything not understood is hitched on God. 
 
 Few things are too hard for a ready mind. 
 
 To make friends, get enemies. 
 
Seedlings 1 03 
 
 It seems to me there is more talk to hide our 
 thoughts than to explain them. 
 
 Never give up an undertaking, though the heav- 
 ens fall. 
 
 There is great power in appearance. 
 
 You usually look the way you feel. 
 
 Always be equal or above your surroundings. 
 
 Never act the wind-bag or sneak. 
 
 You can feel any way you will. 
 
 Never act a cypher or sucker. 
 
 Dress your mind as well as body. Feel proud, act 
 proud, but not egotistical. 
 
 At no age does man cease to act the fool some- 
 times. 
 
 Sleep when your five senses carry no pictures that 
 are true to your brain cells. 
 
 What one thinks becomes a part of the thinker. 
 
 Every act reacts on the actor. 
 
 To watch a person act is the same as to read their 
 history. 
 
 Education is a tool and we all should be experts 
 in its use. 
 
 Why do we die, is there a true reason for it? It 
 is because the pores of the skin die. 
 
 My life has taught me that a still tongue makes a 
 wise head ; still a shut mouth catches no flies. 
 
04 Seedlings 
 
 Most people seem to think their children are born 
 to be Clays, Websters or some great person and so 
 cram them with schooling. All a mistake, and for this 
 one great paramount reason, nine-tenths of children, 
 so jammed, lose their energy in the school room and 
 when they mature there is no energy left to fight the 
 battle of life, the fire and gimp is gone from their 
 bodies, so they cannot make use of the knowledge they 
 learned at school, so they get honor and that is all. 
 Think of it. Look. Children who grew up in the 
 schoolroom and those who did not, note the difference 
 between them. I can do no more than tell you, but in 
 God's name, give them a chance to fight for life and 
 when you are an angel, they will bless you for it. As 
 a rule, you cannot treat them too kindly or justly. 
 
Seedlings 1 05 
 
 Us flDiflbi IRiflbt? 
 
 After careful search and long, long hunt for the 
 truth or falsity of that old saying I find it a true phil- 
 osophical fact. People use it cheaply in speaking of 
 brute force. Meaning one brute having strength to 
 overcome another does not make it right, and yet, na- 
 ture made it so, and nature is nearly right. I at least 
 think so, and so does nature where we come from. She 
 is our father, mother, and all. Turn to humanity, and 
 how is it; why people are so unjust, unreasonable, un- 
 fair and one sided, that they have to make laws to pro- 
 tect the weak ones of their own families. But to do 
 that, they must get the major part of the sentiment of 
 their community, which is the strongest part of said 
 community; in other words, might. It governs them 
 and is right. Now then here we have it. Might is 
 right, because the greatest power predominates. The 
 majority is right, and the majority is might. It is right 
 for a cat to kill a mouse, here again might is right. 
 Why? Because mice are troublesome. Yet, if the 
 mouse was able, it could kill the cat. Here again 
 might is right. Just stop and think, in your own way ; 
 things that happen ten to one come from the strong 
 side. Now change he conditions. Let a robber rob 
 you by force, i is not right, because you are injured. 
 Yet the robber had a right to possess his strength, but 
 no right to use it that way. All nature is governed by 
 might and nearly all acts done in the world sifted 
 down, good bad and indifferent, might is at the bot- 
 tom. So, if a man is able to commit an act, the law 
 determines good or bad. 
 
1 06 Seedlings 
 
 Xtt>ext$ 
 
 ffl 
 
 I know it is dear to a woman's heart to keep birds 
 in captivity and pet them, bnt is it just right? Can it be 
 right to deprive any animal of its liberty? Does the 
 example promote good results? Does it inculcate the 
 principle of liberty (so dear to the Americin heart) in 
 the heads of our children? Is it in keeping with the 
 way we would be treated? Is it not opposite to the 
 American idea of freedom? Is it in accord with 
 the highest development of the intelligent human? 
 Does it agree with nature? Doe ^ it correspond with 
 any rule of God or man? Does it not outrage the law 
 that produced it? Is it not the same as knocking a 
 man down with one hand and pulling him on his feet 
 with the other hand? I think so, and so it is with the 
 bird. Steal its liberty with one hand, pet it with the 
 other. Oh ! consistency what a gem when found. Yet 
 the women of our land apparently ignore all the rules, 
 customs of nature and knowledge. Just for this faddi h, 
 childish habit, and call it pleasure. The Romans did it, 
 and we call them brutal, little more than half civ- 
 ilized. The same with otner nations, we call them bru- 
 tal. I am a crude, unlettered man, but I have not the 
 heart to do it. It seems to me the time will come when 
 the caging and chaining of animals will go by its true 
 name ; semi-savagery wil lbe applied to all those peo- 
 ple who do it. You show no kindness by petting an 
 animal after robbing it of its liberty, 'tis ironical cr 
 platonic friendship. 
 
Seedlings 107 
 
 Urin&neee 
 
 ffl 
 
 The shadow of kindness should be about every 
 man, woman and child. Name a thing about a person 
 if you can, that is more respected, more honored or 
 more loved than kindness. Name an attribute of a 
 person that is longer remembered or gives more pleas- 
 ure than kindness. It is bluebirds of spring to the 
 weary; a salve to the wounded heart. It is food, 
 strength, hope, encouragement, contentment, energy 
 to the exhausted human. It is everything in one ; its 
 power is immense. We do not begin to realize how far 
 reaching it is in doing good. I do not mean a half 
 starved imitation, but that kind that we all love to re- 
 ceive, the same should give. It is as near divine as any- 
 thing on the earth, and why don't we all practice it? I 
 know of but one reason : Carelessness. Yet it is the 
 first towards making friends. And friends are better 
 than all else. What will tame a savage heart quicker? 
 What will cool a man's anger better? What will tie an 
 animal's love stronger than kindness? What better 
 recommendation can you give, than say they are kind 
 people? How quick then confidence will spring. The 
 most timid animal on earth can be taught to love you 
 by kindness. I don't know of anything its equal, or 
 near it. Give me my choice of the fourteen attributes 
 of humanity to select from. I would choose kindness 
 and lose the thirteen. Reader ! hark to what I say : 
 Let this find a lodgment in your brain, and keep it 
 there. Practice kindness to children, to men and 
 women, to all animals on the earth; it does not matter 
 
Seedlings 1 08 
 
 the size. Yes, to the worm. Kindness to all. Let 
 everybody say of you, you are a kind person. Oh ! 
 how easy would be life. How happy we would all be. 
 The sting of anger would be gone. The sore hearts 
 would decrease. Revenge would be robbed of its bit- 
 terness. The wormwood of brutal treatment would be 
 sugar coated ike a bitter pill. Oh- yes ! Listen to the 
 dictates of loving kindness and be happy. Kindness is 
 the most fruitful shrub that ever sprung from the hu- 
 man head and bears the sweetest fruit. May it in- 
 crease and smother trouble, and bless all people on the 
 earth, is the wish of the writer. Only practice it and it 
 will. I never knew it to fail. I define it this way : 
 Truth, pleasure, charity, honor, justice, friendship, 
 love and protection, all together, kindness. 
 


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