Dyer D. Lum Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Dyer D. Lum, “The Science of Social Relations” (1890)

February 25, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur

By the law of the Three Stages, so elaborately set forth by Auguste Comte, we are told that every science, each branch of knowledge, passes through three different theoretical conditions; the theological, or mythical; the metaphysical, or speculative; and the positive or scientific. “Hence,” said Comte, “arises three philosophies, or general systems of conceptions on the aggregate of phenomena, each of which excludes the other. The first is the necessary point of departure of the human understanding; and the third is its fixed, or definite, state; the second is merely a state of transition.”

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Short Sequels to “Looking Backward”

February 23, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

With nerves unstrung by that horrent nightmare, which had replunged me into the cruel vortex of nineteenth century antagonism and brutality, I cast around for some method of restoring my usual equanimity. An excursion into the country would, it appeared to me, serve the double purpose of acting as a nervous sedative, and of enabling me to realize something of the conditions of rural life in this year 2000 A. D.

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Dyer D. Lum in “The Evolution” (1877–1878)

September 24, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] ORDER AND PROGRESS. Now that the majesty of the law has been vindicated, proprietary rights protected, and “order reigns in Warsaw,” it is quite in the line of duty to indulge in reflections on the anomalous state of affairs through which we have recently passed. I would at the outset insist most strenuously upon the proposition that society involves reciprocal relations. The modern or scientific conception of society is no longer that of a mere aggregation of individuals, who, by their legislation, determine the nature and character of the community, but […]

Dyer D. Lum, “The Two Paths” (1890)

September 24, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] THE TWO PATHS. BY DYER D. LUM. Progress has no meaning outside of social relations. Nature records but changes in terms of evolution or devolution; man’s adaptation to environments is physical. Progress is the record of change in social relations — a province wrested from nature, transforming brute into human. The veneering may be thin on some, but the thickness of the human laying over the brute is the expression of progress. Our ancestors were retrospective; our golden age lies before us. When the ancient Hebrew asked the angel why the […]

Dyer D. Lum, “Why I Am a Social Revolutionist” (1890)

June 8, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] WHY I AM A SOCIAL REVOLUTIONIST. BY DYER D. LUM Before answering the inquiry propounded to me, it were well to first define terms. In one sense whoever desires a radical change in our social conditions, who advocates principles at utter variance with those now maintaining, may be said to be a Social Revolutionist; in this sense the Quakers were religious revolutionists. But the accepted meaning of the term does not embrace revolution and evolution as identical words, but ascribes to the former active resistance by overt acts to the powers that be. It is […]

Dyer D. Lum, “To Hell with Her” (1891)

April 5, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third] “To Hell With Her.” I know a woman (in the profane, rather than in the sacred sense of that verb). She was born in far Norseland, and the bloom on her cheeks vied with the aurora borealis, the one dazzling young fishermen by day as the other did by night. Radiant in beauty and health, an eidelweiss on the bleak snow-covered scenery, the natural instincts which burn even in polar regions had their way: she married early. She gave birth to six children. She is now thirty and in this land of liberty. Free, or a deserted wife to […]

Dyer D. Lum in the “Boston Investigator”

April 4, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third] To A. C. Middleton:—I have read your communication in the Investigator of the 13th inst., requesting information about Meslier, other than that given by Voltaire, and will relate what has fallen in my reach. Naigeon, in his “Ancient and Modern Philosophy,” under the head “Meslier,” after giving a brief account of his life and an extract from his “Testament,” blames Voltaire for not publishing the whole of Meslier’s work. Your remark, that “this extract is Deistical,” refers only to the first part of his work. The second part, that Naigeon accused Voltaire of suppressing, was Atheistical. “Nobody had ever […]

Dyer D. Lum on the Verge (1877-1878)

April 4, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third_last] I’ve been back at work on archiving the works of Dyer D. Lum, this time focusing primarily on his poems, but one thing always seems to lead to another. In the process, I found two essays, a short note, a long review essay and a poem by Lum in a periodical called The Evolution. Comte’s positivism seems to have been one of the interests of the contributors, who included Modern Times resident Henry Edger, and, indeed, we find Lum himself preaching the positivist gospel himself. Even more than Edger, however, his reading of Comte seems ready to become an […]

Dyer D. Lum, “Four Epochs” (1889)

December 3, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 10px”] THE POETRY OF DYER D. LUM [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 10px 0 10px”] FOUR EPOCHS. I.—THEOCRATIC. The reign of terror is the reign of gods, When fear sits regnant upon conscience’s throne, When trembling manhood kneels as mute as stone, When warrior chieftains cringe ‘neath priestly rods, When valor earns rewards in churchyard sods, When but one law to statecraft’s art is known (To gods are given full action o’er their own), And life grows dark when’er the pontiff nods. For god hath spoken! who will dare gainsay The awful words that […]

“Voltairine De Cleyre at Greensburg” (1893)

August 11, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

For the Boston Investigator. VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE AT GREENSBURG. Mr. Editor:—In the little city of Greensburg, some thirty miles east of Pittsburgh, there are a few brave, strong souls who are making war on God and his adjutants with a zeal which only those who have a principle at heart can do. About a month ago your subscriber, being invited to deliver a lecture under the auspices of their union, found herself shaking hands with the ungodly trinity of officers one April night, after a long day’s ride though the perpetual wonder of the Alleghany mountains. Very sad, gray-brown, sorrowful […]