Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-01-01
VOICES OF THE PRESS.
The Mystery.
(Boston Journal.)

I;alvs mighty tragedy stuns the
Imagination: il appalls alike reason
and superstition. and arouseS Doth IN
the orthodox and the heterodoX 4 be-
wilderment of fear and pity. Inc
wholesale slaughter and colossal wreck
unparalleled, it appears. III modern
times. force humanity to pause beside
the awful ruin and face the everlast-
ing mystery of God and life and death,
OF nature and beneticence. or Of re-
morseless chance Was the fall of G
sparrow watched in Calahria that day
when & hundred thousand beings. per-
haps more anc their homes. their tenn
pies and their marts We're swallowed
in a hideous CONFUSION of Mother
Earth" Through wears to come. men
will dispute over the gigantic catastro
phe which has appalled, mankind. But
there is little likelihood that any con-
considerable body of opinion Will as
sert that the indescribable calamity
was visitation of divine VenSenCe
upon a sinful land. What IS
known is that populations have been
effaced, and their belongings and the
fruits of centuries of human toll torn
in a second to ShredS and ground to
powder; that every ambition and hope
all piety and reverence and love were
IN the twinking Of an eye Knocked and
Frustrated IN Il cataclysm inconceiva-
hle. And yet above al rises the mys-
terry of faith. great as the mystery of
life and death and terrible cataStro-
phe.
In the great scheme of things, how
stood those hundred thousand lives
and all that historic wonder of human
toll? Who shall answer this save to
the satisfaction of his own soul? Twas
bat tie other day Mont Pelee destroy
ed its tens OF thousands. And nov
Calab2 ia and Sicily are graves They
We're, and are. and long Will be. IN
chanting spots OF earth Through the
ages men have loved them for their
beauty and romance. Nature is ca
rcssing there, she woos. And. having
Wooed, she kills. Yet man. enraptur
ed BY her loneliness lives on there,
lluggng even the volcanoes, tillme
their fertile slopes. ana swarming over
the zones where the earth-crust has
often slipped and often will slip again.
cngultng myriads in its nav. As
man disturts the ant-hills, so nature
in some ATTITUDES. oVerwneims the nab
itat of man., demolishes his affairs,
smears his fireside With blood and in
Il fash. strikes out all sign and trace
of all that he has wrought in a thou |
sand years.
The horror of it defies words the
mystery of it battles thought: ii is |
unprecedented by speculation. Why is |
man thus smitten on the planet which,
cut Of the mystery. he has been sent
to inhabit? What is he expected to
learn from these deadly paroxysms ?
Must he abandon the lovely regions
W here the earth is known to be inhrln
Of habit: 1t is not altogether his fault
that he is there Where shall he go?
Who shall undertake his tranSporta-
tior? And how In the midst of life in
his enchanting lands. he is in earth
quake and peril. Is science to draw
boundaries and to say: Within these
YOU shall live only at your own risk.
What shall these millions OF humans
do. N"suviuS, Aetna and Strotnboli
may belch again, and the foundations
of southern ltaly-yeS, and Of -Ameri-
ca $ Pacific coast-may slide and
wreck unprecedented destruction. Yet
men are likely to take their chances
as Of Old. unaW ed by these quick tel
rors. ana unwarned by the lessons Of
cid time. Still the mystery remains
Man. careless as he always is, cruel as
he often is, does not. and does not
wish to, destroy populations IN an in
slant and 1fface their civilization
Man is no longer a ~creature OF re-
venge. nor does he now believe IN
M - Az Il.
faces the ancient mystery: What is the
relation of human life to the world IN
which it has its being? OF what ac-
count IS it that, quicker that a thought
It is sacrificed in legions by a cause
which 1t has no roWe" % prevent"
There is the age-long problem: What.
Why. Whence, Where
And Yet. behold the nations, IL their
faith, and hope. and indomitable spirit.
Fastening to the rescue Of an afflicted
land. If the mystery of mans life is
great is it greater than the mystery
ot his faith"