The religions of the orient have endeavored through the centuries to identify in precise terms the chief end of human life. It is what the philosophers call the summum bonum of life, the highest good. While the philosophers have written volumes in identifying the highest good, the Eastern religions have had a knack for succinctness, providing answers in neat packages of but a few words.
To Plato the summum bonum was justice, but it takes him hundreds of pages to say it, and then only vaguely. To Aristotle it was happiness, but one finds that our only after reading extensively in his writings. Even the Christian writers lack clarity and preciseness in identifying the chief end of human life. To Augustine it was the will of God and to Thomas Acquinas it was love, as it is with most modern theologians; but they all weary us with their dissertations on what these terms mean.
Not so with the orientals. They are willing to settle for a few words as to man's purpose in this world. They even prefer pithy summaries that defy obscurity. There is Buddhism's Eightfold Path, which sums up man's duties in a mere eight words. To Confucius, however, to use eight words in describing man's chief end was to be loquacious. He insisted that but one word is needed, and that was reciprocity. The Hindus struck the golden mean and settled for four words in identifying man's chief end.
The Four Ends of Man as enunciated by the Hindus should be of interest to every editor, for they seem to have special application to the man who serves in the marketplace of ideas. The four ends are ditty, success, pleasure, and emancipation. Any editor worthy of the name is both a pilgrim and an adventurer. He is a pilgrim in that he must be a stranger to all factions. He may pass through the various camps, but he must not pitch his tent. He may be a friend to all, but he is owned by none. And he is an adventurer in that he pioneers in the world of ideas, which he must do even when the journey is risky and foreboding. As a pilgrim needs a staff and an adventurer a compass, so the editor needs the likes of which the Hindus call the Four Ends.
The demands of duty have weighed heavily on many an editor.
He must not ask himself whether the stuff he edits will be accepted