Universal ideas

       Given the long existence of we humans on the earth, new ideas are often more rehashes of old ideas.

            Here's a passage from an almost century old book by Theodore Roosevelt (USA President from 1901 to 1909) that provides an example.  By the way, the book is entitled Through the Brazilian Wilderness.

                        Here's the passage:

                                    There must be absolute religious liberty, for tyranny and intolerance are as abhorrent in matters intellectual and spiritual as in matters political and material; and more and more we must all realize that conduct is of infinitely greater importance than dogma. But no democracy can afford to overlook the vital importance of the ethical and spiritual, the truly religious, element in life; and in practice the average good man grows clearly to understand this, and to express the need in concrete form by saying that no community can make much headway if it does not contain both a church and a school.

                        Now the book is more a trip report, with lots of zoology and observations. It is probably not for most readers. It even has words in it that are passé these days. But it is the ideas that count, and got my attention that have me choosing to share some of them with others, who can make up their own mind.

                        And for those who enjoy reading about ways of life in remote parts of the world in the early nineteen teens, it is a nifty book, too.