Editorials from the Hearst NewspapersBrisbane, Arthur
Philosophy
Editorials from the Hearst Newspapers
Brisbane, Arthur
Editorials; Essays
You realize the power and beauty of law, as our governor and
sustainer. You see that laws of little men reach out two
thousand miles into the sea. You think of the laws of the
universe that stretch across the immeasurable distances of time
and space, protecting ALL, and insuring ultimate fulfilment
of the destinies of all the worlds.
As those fishermen of the Azores work safely, under full
protection, in their little lost corner of the great ocean, so
we, in our little world, our little insignificant corner of
space, work out our tiny problems safely under the splendid
protection of Divine Law and wisdom sent to us from some far- off
point of which we know nothing.
The light of the rising sun brings out from shore many other
small boats, each with its load of men who wave their arms to the
steamship and cheer against the sound of the waves and wind. To
them that ship is like the fast express that passes the country
railroad station, or the comet that whirls round our sun and off
again.
Those fishermen feel that THEY are the REAL world; the steamship
and outside creation are only half imagined, interesting
phenomena. You look down from the deck and the fishermen seem
unreal little ornaments of your European excursion. And so the
two sets of human beings go their ways--to each nothing is
important, save that which each is doing.
There are great planets and suns that roll past us across this
cosmic ocean of ether. Our pathetic little round earth looks to
them as that fishing-boat of the Azores looks to you. And WE
think of those great interstellar travellers as the fisherman in
his little boat thinks of the ocean liner--the great star to us
is merely an interesting feature of OUR sky. And we actually
wonder whether there is any thought on that big, distant sun; any
intelligence on the vast ship that ploughs the ocean of limitless
space. ----
The high ridge of volcanic peaks and the others near it are made
fertile and green by soil gradually developed through the
centuries by seeds brought across the ocean by winds and birds.
The tops of the mountains are black lava. Lakes of black water
fill some of the quiet craters. Only, here and there, the rising
sulphur smoke from rocky fissures tells of heat and power
smouldering.
The last great eruption of the volcanoes occurred a little more
than two hundred years ago--so the inhabitants laugh if you speak
of danger. They forget that two hundred years in the earth's
life is as two minutes in the life of a man--and that what a man
did two minutes since he may do again.
Fences are built across the fields of thin soil that cover the
lava. Each inch of that land thrown up by fire "belongs" to some
man. White houses stand at the edges of deep lava canyons
running from the mountain tops to the sea's edge canyons made by
pouring lava or by the splitting of the mountains under fearful
pressure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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