The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-02-07
CHAPTER XIV.


Here is a Revolutionary assertion,
one of the epic and epochaI observa-
tons of the human intellect:
Among all the strange things that
men have forgotten the most univer-
sal and catastrophe lapse of memory
is that by which they have forgotten
that they are living on star"
Gilbert K. Chesterton is the noisy
depot into which this thought, like a
great train from a long journey;
stopped and discharged its passengers.
I assert that the enunciation of the
ma nificent truth contained in those
lines Is an event greater than the in
vention of the printing press or the
steam engine. The time win come
when the primary test OF mans in
tellect viii be his ability to cisualize
that immense and Intoxicating fact.
Would you not feel different If you.
as you read these words, were in the
cabin OF the yacht of the king OF Eng
land journevtng to India? Would you
not feel different as you read these
words IL instead of being on such a
paltry thing as the yacht of the king
Of England you were on safe ball
large. hospital, beautiful, mysterious,
poised, or rising, or falling forever in
genial space. a space of which no
mind can form conception. batting,
wonderful, divinei II you were trans
ported to the planet Mars and found
that II contained cities, rivers, oceans,
peaches. and lovely beings who gave
you astonishing emotions when yosl
touched the face OF one OF them with
your own face, and you looked up in
the sky after dusk through a tele-
scope and saw 8 bright star which
you knew to be the planet Earth
when you returned to Tallahassee and
sat in q rocking chair on the porch
with Governor Gffchfist, and looked in
the sky and saw glittering star that
you knew was the planet Mars. would
you not feel different when you went
to bed that night, lost in the adven-
turous feeling of this Gigantic Lark in
Space and Time on the back of a
glow worm? Just think that it is
quite possible that in the next ten
minutes the Pyramids by the Nile and
building in Tallahassee might disap-
buildin gin Tallahassee might disap-
pear in gas because of collision with
another STAR Is 1t any matter for
establishment that we are at heart
poetical beings? That here it is not
insane to believe that there Is a Per-
son whom we have none of US ever
unknown way created all OF this. and
came on earth in the form of q young
Jew and through human eyes looked
Sn the glory OF the world He in an
other plane had made? say that
until one gets hold Of the simple COM
uacnplace fact, taught school children
in the drst pages Of their physical
geography. that all o. this SNUG and
hum drum world is q star. floating like
an immortal soap bubble in space. one
Is not at for high ONCE, one is not
At for service in the legislature. or the
pulpit, Or the bench. or at the bar, or
elsewhere. Surely this aphasia is
catastrophe, Surely this sad lapse
Of memory is tragic. For If you be-
iieve you are sw1nes you act like a
swine. If you believe you are q son
Of God You act ike son Of God. If
YOU helieve you are g passenger on
the yacht OF the king Of England. you
act like q passenger on the king
vessel. If YOU believe you are 4
spirit living behind inscrutabie eyes on
star flashing from the mystery OF
birth to the brother mystery OF death,
you VIII conduct yourself like such a