Raison D’être

You see, children were the--the raison d’être in this country.

In all species the number of births is at first exaggerated, for all, the obscure, the nameless, the most destructive, our pests as well as our most precious helpers, have their utility and their part to play in the general scheme of life, a raison d'être in the eternal renewal of things, which is without reference to the vexatious or beneficent quality of their behaviour to us.