The Bismarck Tribune

THE MYSTERY OF LIFE

From the time when people lived in caves, there have always been certain men who chose to cut loose from all divine writings and revelations and seek, for themselves, the secret of the origin and purpose of life.

Their searchings have added a good deal to the sum total of human knowledge, to be sure. But the plain, matter of fact explanation they seek has always eluded them.

Now comes Professor C. Lovatt Evans, one of England's foremost scientists, to announce that the mystery of life's origin and purpose will never be solved by any scientist. Always, he says, there will remain an ultimate riddle that no laboratory worker can answer.

Perhaps this is because people, after all, aren't really matter of fact or commonplace at all.

Study your fellow man in the mass, day by day, and you may see nothing extraordinary about him. He is, at times, quite mean and blind and selfish and ignorant and cowardly. You are almost persuaded that there is no trace of divinity in him—that he is, after all, only an animated clod.

Then, if you look closely, you begin to see things.

You see, beside the ignoble qualities, strange capacities for sacrifice, endurance, courage, fidelity, hope.

You see a mother in the slums, starving herself to provide a little extra food for the child.

You see an underpaid factory drudge working his life away so that people who depend on him may live.

You see a man with a vision giving up riches and honor in order to make the world a better place for men and women who are not yet born.

You see men fighting poverty, sickness and hunger in order to pursue some glimpse of truth.

You see men weaving songs and snaring beauty in a net of words while cities go down in flames about their ears.

And, now and then, you hear battle trumpets and see flags waving, and thousands upon thousands of men step up, without hesitation, to die at someone else's bidding, in the vague hope that somehow the world will be made a bit better thereby.

Will you keep on looking, then, for a matter of fact explanation? You will not—not if you are wise. You will recognize, instead, a great mystery, made radiant by distant flames.