IDEA
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IDEA
the people of the State of Idaho, grateful to Almighty
God for our freedom, etc.". The constitution guar-
antees the free exercise of religion, and that no one
.shall be molested in per.son or property on account of
his mode of worship. Bigamy and polygamy are
prohibited in the state; the legislature is advised:
"The first concern of good government is the virtue
and sobriety of the people and the purity of the home,
the legislature should further all wise and well di-
rected efforts for the furtherance of temperance and
morality." Sunday is established by law as a day of
rest, and practically all business is prohibited on that
day; this law is generally well observed even in the
mining, irrigation, and railway construction camps.
Legal Oaths, etc. — The oath of office for all officers created under the laws of the state ends with the words "so help me God". Witnesses in all courts are sworn by an oath ending "so help me God". Affirmation is permitted, also swearing according to the peculiar form of the witness's religion. The use of profane language is punishable by fine and imprisonment. A chaplain is appointed by each branch of the legislature, and each day's session is opened with prayer. Legal holidays include all Sun- days, Christmas Day, and days appointed by the President of the United States or the governor for a public fast, feast, or holiday. A clergyman is pro- hibited from testifying as to any confession or state- ment made in the course of religious ministrations. Keligious corporations sole can be formed, the dura- tion of such corporations being unlimited, by a bishop or other clergyman in whom title to church property vests; rights are given to hold, sell, and rent real property, to contract, to borrow money and issue bonds, without limitation as to amount.
Exemption. — C'hurches, chapels, and other build- ings used for religious worship, together with the necessary land, furniture, and equipment, are exempt from taxation, as are also all schools, cemeteries, and hospital property not used for profit. All able- bodied males between eighteen and forty-five are liable to military duties except in time of peace, when those with conscientious scruples against bearing arms are exempt. A priest or minister of any de- nomination is exempt from jury duty.
Marriage and Divorce. — Marriage is a civil con- tract which may be solemnized by any justice, judge, governor, mayor, minister or priest; no form is re- quired, but a licence must be procured from the county recorder. The divorce laws are not strict, and many decrees are obtained, for the most part in default of the defendant. The causes for divorce are adultery, wilful desertion, neglect to provide if con- tinued for a year, habitual intemperance, insanity, conviction of felony, and extreme cruelty; for the last cause divorces are frequently granted on account of the infliction of grievous mental suffering. Buna fide residence must be shown for only six months before the court takes jurisdiction; large discretion is vested in the trial courts, but they are generally favourably inclined to the granting of divorces.
Charitable ORGANizATif)NS.— C'haritable organi- zations may incorporate under the laws providing for corporations not organized for profit, and may holtl such real estate as may be necessary to carry out their purposes. Bequests and devises to such insti- tutions are not valid, except when made by will and executed more than thirty days before the death of the testator, and cannot exceed one -third of the decedent's property when he leaves lineal descend- ants.
Sale of Liquor. — Liquor is sold under city, county, and .state licences; county commissioners and city and town councils may refuse licences, local option being thus practically given to the people. In 1909 a local option bill was passed by the legis- lature, but as yet no attempt has been made to test
its provisions. The agricultural communities will no
doubt exclude saloons and hquor selling, but the min-
ing and lumbering communities will permit the sale
of liquor under licence and certain regulations.
Prisons and Reformatories. — 'ithe state peni- tentiary with 200 inmates is located at Boise; the Idaho industrial school with 70 inmates is located at St. Anthony; each county has a jail for persons awaiting trial and for punishment of misdemeanours. The industrial school is for the detention of juvenile delinquents and vagrant children between the ages of 8 and 18 years; the inmates are taught useful and honest occupations and trades. In 1909 an appro- priation of .$20,000 was made, and a similar amount raised by citizens for the construction of a building for the Children's Home Finding Society, the object of which is to keep abandoned, neglected, and orpnan children and those of pauper parentage, until proper homes can be seciired for them (see Boise, Dio- cese of).
Bancroft, History of Wafihington, Idaho and Montana (San Francisco, 1890); Constitution, ficfised Codes and Session Laws of Idaho (Boise, 1892 and 1009): (iouLDER, Renunisrcnces of a Pioneer (Boise. 1909): Report of Idaho Commissionrr of Immi- ffration, Labor and Statislies (Boise, 190.N); Eu.iott, History of Idaho Territory (San Francisco, 1884); Twelfth Census of the United Slates Reports (Washington. 1902).
Jess Hawley.
Idea (Lat. idea, forma, species; Gk. IS^a, elSos, from ISeiv, to see; Fr. idi'e; Cier. Bild; Begriff). — Probably to no other philosophical term have there been attached so many different shades of meaning as to the word idea. Yet what this word signifies is of much importance. Its sense in the minds of some philosophers is the key to their entire system. But from Descartes onwards u.sage has become confused and inconstant. Locke, in particular, ruined the term altogether in English philosophical literature, where it has ceased to possess any recognized definite mean- ing. He tells us himself at the beginning of his "Es- say on the Human Understanding" that in this treatise "the word Idea stands for whatever is the object of the understanding when a man thinks. I have used it to express whatever is meant by phan- tasm, notion, species, or whatever it is which the mind can be employed about when thinking." In fact, with him it denotes, indifferently, a sensation, a per- ception, an image of the imagination, a concept of the intellect, an emotional fecHng, and .sometimes the external material object which is perceived or imagined.
History of the Term. — The word was originally Greek, but passed without change into Latin. It seems first to have meant form, shape, or appearance, whence, by an easy transition, it acquired the conno- tation of nature, or kind. It was equivalent to tlSos, of which it is merely the feminine, but Plato's partial- ity for this form of the term and its adoption by the Stoics secured its ultimate triumph over the mascu- line. Indeed it was Plato who won for the term idea the prominent position in the history of philoso- phy that it retained for so many centuries. With him the word idea, contrary to the modern acceptance, meant something that was primarily and emphatically objective, something outside of our minds. It is the universal archetypal essence in which all the in- dividuals coming undera universal concept participate. By sensuous perception we obtain, according to Plato, an imperfect knowledge of individual objects; by our general concepts, or notions, we reach a higher knowl- edge of the idea of these objects. But what is the character of the idea itself? What is its relation to the individual object? And what is its relation to the author or originator of the individual things? The Platonic doctrine of ideas is very involved and ob- scure. Moreover, the difficulty is further compli- cated by the facts that the account of the idea given by Plato in different works is not the same, that the
