THE FAR-AWAY BATTLE.--In the quiet home the sounds of the far-away strife are not heard. The war of the cannon is determining the destiny of empires, but it is unheard in the cottage. The myriad sounds of commerce in the city do not disturb the quiet of that home. Its quiet life attracts no attention. But there is something in that home more important than war or commerce or king-craft--something that concerns human welfare more profoundly. In that quiet home, a human life is developing; a human soul preparing for its life work--a work that will change the destiny of coming generations. In many quiet homes such a work is in progress, determining a nation's future. All important movements are quiet and obscure in their origin. As the magnificent forest was slowly and obscurely germinated in darkness, in the seeds from which it sprung, so are the great discoveries in science and philosophy matured in quietness and obscurity. The thinker hears afar the sound of strife and the agitation of parties warring for power. He knows the follies and errors that agitate mankind, but he is withheld from entering the strife, for he has a more important work to accomplish--a work for the future. It is to such work that the JOURNAL OF MAN is devoted; laying the foundation of that philosophy in which future thinkers shall find the principles of social reorganization. It does not join in the strife of contending parties, nor does it recognize any existing party as entirely free from error. It gives its care to new and growing truths, knowing that, as Carlyle says, "The weak thing weaker than a child becomes strong one day if it be a true thing." HOW NOT TO DO IT.--The Seybert commission having made a splendid failure to find interesting and valuable facts where other investigators have succeeded, their blundering ignorance is now assisted by newspaper mendacity. The _New York Times_, of Aug. 22, concludes an extremely stupid article on this subject, by the following paragraph, which, if the writer gave any indications of intelligence, would be set down as a pure specimen of mendacity, but is more probably a specimen of indolent ignorance: "If Spiritualists could furnish one clearly-proved case of a spirit from the other world, seen and tested by those now living on the earth, there would be some sense and reason in their claims to be heard; but until they do, the great mass of intelligent people will refuse to listen, and rightly, too." There must be an immense mass of the same kind of lazy ignorance in the community, when such stuff is tolerated in a newspaper. The contents of daily newspapers show that they expect more patronage from the debased and ignorant classes than from the intelligent and honorable.