The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-08-11


Arthur Brisbane, editor of the New
York American, the highest paid edi-
tor in the United States because he
is supposed to be the best, in recent
issue of his paper attempts to an
swer the old, old, but ever new ques-
ton, 'eWhat Are We Here For?"
His answer is appended hereto:
A reader who thinks and looks at
life earnestly-the kind of readers
worth haying-sends this:
IT wonder if you would answer
these questions:
"'What are we here for?
EDO you consider spirit and
thought as identical, or is thought the
outcome of spirit united with mat
ter? Yours sincerely,
READER"
The first question, What are we
here for?" is offered to our readers
for discussion today. The other ques-
ton will be reserved for future dis
cussion.
Is there a man or woman among
the many who see this editorial into
whose mind this question has never
come?
1t fills the minds and the con-
sciences of men, and may be looked
at in many different ways.
A man may say to himself as an in
dividual, What am here for? What
is my particular task? What are my
special duties and possibilities?
Or man may look at the question
from a wider standpoint and ask:
For what purpose is the human
race put here?"
Men are all brothers, although a
majority are not yet civilized enough
to know that. Men are undoubtedly
as much alike, seen from the heights
of Justice and knowledge, as so
many grains of sand or drops of va
ter.
Men were put here as a race to full
fill duties as a race, to live and
achieve together There can be no
doubt of that. And the biggest ques-
ton that men have to answer, the
question that the Greek philosophers
studied thirty centuries ago, that the
Asiatics studied and abandoned long
before them, is this:
Why is the human race here; what
should it do; what can it do?
The question will be answered one
day, and the answer will come be-
cause men forever discuss the great
problem.
To see any question clearly you
must go far away from it and study
the picture as though you had no
place in it.
Suppose that you were a superior
being on another planet, looking at
this earth with its rivers, mountains,
flowers, trees, beautiful green fields
and about fifteen hundred million hui
man being scattered over it.
The earth would look to you like a
great garden in need of cultivation,
and you would look on the little mi
croscopic, two-legged creatures as
gardeners. If anyone asked you,
.swhy are the little human beings put
on that planet?" you would probably
answer:
God owns the planet His pride is
in that beautiful round earth. He
has put the little men there to cult
yate it, drain the marshes, irrigate
the deserts, wipe out the jungles and
finally make glorious and beautiful
park of the whole earth.
81 marvel at his patience with
these little human beings that fight
each other and rob and cheat each
other and waste their time instead of
working at the great round garden
confided to their care"
That would be the view of Illnk-
ing being. Away from this earth,
Such being would say that we hui
man beings are here to beautify the
earth and improve it, and that as the
microbes in the cheese give the
cheese its flavor. so we microbes are
here to give this earth it's beauty.
That would seem reasonable from
our feeble human point of view
If you went down to Mr.. Wander
bits magnificent place at Biltmore,
or to the estate of some English duke,
and saw hundreds or even thousands
of human beings working at the
lawns, the walks, the flower beds and
the greenhouses, you would not hesi-
tate for a minute to answer the ques-
tion, "Why are those men there?"
You would say, They are there, of
course, because the man that owns
the great gardens wants the gardens