Disquisition by Scripps, E.W., Rambling thinking, January 4, 1921

              :Miramar,
January
Fourth
1921
A man does w.ha.t he wants to do.
All man are alike in this.
Man is a curious animal. He wants to know the ''what'* and the "why't
and the "wherefore". Whatever he observes becomes the si.1bject of' his thoughts.
A man observes himself more than anything else. He observes hi~elf
dOing something; no matter what: he is curious he does it.
He reasons upon the subject; he tries to e:rplain to himself the motive or cause
of the act .he has observed,,, If he is not over-curious any explanation he
makes to himself, any possible cause of' his action he may hit upon, is satisf'act-ory
to him.
ThEl1l he thinks he blOWS he what he did" There is not, probably,
one chance in a million that the cause that he thinks was the cause of his
action was the real cause of his action. In all probability his action was
the result of a complex of causes. Every man 1s the heir to all the ages,
prehistoric ages, of the ages that went before man was man9 of all the ages,
ages that preceded even the existence of the solar system of which this world
is a part -- probably the ages that went before there existed any Of the bodies
that are now the oOlIl'panions in spaoe of the world in the solar system of' which
the world is a part.
Through his inheritanoe every man is a micro-multitude in himself of
the elements not only of every present living human being but all of the htlll'lan
beings that ever existed on earth and perhaIls, and probably, all the livi.ng
10
Ohio University Libraries, E.W. Scripps Papers, MSS 117, Series 4, http://bit.ly/scripps_mss117