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City;

Boston, Modern Athens, Literary Emporium, City of Notions and Hub of the
Universe;

Brooklyn, City of Churches;

Buffalo, Queen of the Lakes;

Burlington (Iowa), Orchard City;

Charleston, Palmetto City;

Chicago, Prairie, or Garden City;

Cincinnati, Queen of the West and Porkopolis;

Cleveland, Forest City;

Denver, City of the Plains;

Detroit, City of the Straits;

Hartford, Insurance City;

Indianapolis, Railroad City;

Keokuk, Gate City;

Lafayette, Star City;

Leavenworth, Cottonwood City;

Louisville, Falls City;

Lowell, Spindle City;

McGregor, Pocket City;

Madison, Lake City;

Milwaukee, Cream City;

Nashville, Rock City;

New Haven, Elm City;

New Orleans, Crescent City;

New York, Empire City, Commercial Emporium, Gotham, and Metropolis of
America;

Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love, City of Penn, Quaker City, and
Centennial City;

Pittsburgh, Iron City and Smoky City;

Portland (Me.), Hill City;

Providence, Roger Williams' City, and Perry Davis' Pain Killer;

Raleigh, Oak City;

Richmond, (Va.), Cockade City;

Richmond (Ind.), Quaker City of the West;

Rochester, Aqueduct City;

Salt Lake City, Mormon City;

San Francisco, Golden Gate;

Savannah, Forest City of the South;

Sheboygan, Evergreen City;

St. Louis, Mound City;

St. Paul, North Star City;

Vicksburg, Key City;

Washington, City of Magnificent Distances, and Federal City.

THEOSOPHY.

Much is said nowadays about theosophy, which is really but another name
for mysticism. It is not a philosophy, for it will have nothing to do
with philosophical methods; it might be called a religion, though it has
never had a following large enough to make a very strong impression on
the world's religious history. The name is from the Greek word
theosophia--divine wisdom--and the object of theosophical study is
professedly to understand the nature of divine things. It differs,
however, from both philosophy and theology even when these have the same
object of investigation. For, in seeking to learn the divine nature and
attributes, philosophy employs the methods and principles of natural
reasoning; theology uses these, adding to them certain principles
derived from revelation. Theosophy, on the other hand, professes to
exclude all reasoning processes as imperfect, and to derive its
knowledge from direct communication with God himself. It does not,
therefore, accept the truths of recorded revelation as immutable, but as
subject to modification by later and personal revelations. The
theosophical idea has had followers from the earliest times. Since the
Christian era we may class among theosophists such sects as
Neo-Platonists, the Hesychasts of the Greek Church, the Mystics of
mediaeval times, and, in later times, the disciples of Paracelsus,
Thalhauser, Bohme, Swedenborg and others. Recently a small sect has
arisen, which has taken the name of Theosophists. Its leader was an
English gentleman who had become fascinated with the doctrine of
Buddhism. Taking a few of his followers to India, they have been
prosecuting their studies there, certain individuals attracting
considerable attention by a claim to miraculous powers. It need hardly
be said that the revelations they have claimed to receive have been,
thus far, without element of benefit to the human race.

THE EVOLUTION THEORY.

The evolution or development theory declares the universe as it now
exists to be the result of a long series of changes which were so far
related to each other as to form a series of growths analogous to the
evolving of the parts of a growing organism. Herbert Spencer defines
evolution as a progress from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, from
general to special, from the simple to the complex elements of life, and
it is believed that this process can be traced in the formation of
worlds in space, in the multiplication of types and species among
animals and plants, in the origin and changes of languages and
literature and the arts, and also in all the changes of human
institutions and society. Asserting the general fact of progress in
nature, the evolution theory shows that the method of this progress has
been (1) by the multiplication of organs and functions; (2) according to
a defined unity of plan, although with (3) intervention of

The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing / A Manual of Ready Reference