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diff --git a/78230-0.txt b/78230-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e4869f --- /dev/null +++ b/78230-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8093 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78230 *** + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + A subscript is denoted by _{x}, for example H_{2}O. + + Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book. + + + + + ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE + + [Illustration: (Frontispiece; the author)] + + + + + ACCEPTING + THE UNIVERSE + + _ESSAYS IN NATURALISM_ + + BY + + JOHN BURROUGHS + + + [Illustration: (colophon)] + + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + The Riverside Press Cambridge + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY JOHN BURROUGHS + + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + + + + ..._And heard great argument + About it and about: but evermore + Came out by the same door wherein I went._ + THE RUBÁIYÁT + + + + +PREFACE + + +A wheel may have many spokes, but can have but one hub. So I +may say of this volume of mine that there are many themes and +chapter-headings, but there is but one central thought into which +they all converge, and that is that the universe is good, and that +it is our rare good fortune to form a part of it. As this collection +of essays does not aim to be a systematic treatise on any one theme, +but rather a series of sallies, excursions, into the world of +semi-philosophical speculation, there is inevitably much repetition; +there may even be some contradiction. But I have concluded to let +them stand, as I find myself an interested spectator of the workings +of my own mind when, in following different roads, it arrives at +the same truth. As all roads lead to Rome, so in the realm in which +my mind works in this volume, all roads lead to the conclusion that +this is the best possible world, and these people in it are the best +possible people. + +The heart of Nature is sound. I feel toward the great Mother somewhat +as a man does who takes out a policy in an insurance company: he +believes the company is solvent and will meet its obligations. I +look upon the universe as solvent and worthy of trust. In other +words this is a book of radical optimism. It might be described as an +attempt to justify the ways of God to man on natural grounds. + +My reader need hardly be told that theological grounds do not count +with me. I want nothing less than a faith founded upon a rock, +faith in the constitution of things. The various man-made creeds +are fictitious, like the constellations--Orion, Cassiopeia’s Chair, +the Big Dipper; the only thing real in them is the stars, and the +only thing real in the creeds is the soul’s aspiration toward the +Infinite. This abides, though creeds and dogmas change or vanish. + +Empedocles says: + + “O, wretched he whose care + Is shadowy speculation on the gods.” + +But is not speculation better than indifference? Curiosity about the +gods may lead to a better acquaintance with them. I feel that each of +these chapters might be called an altar to the Unknown God. + + JOHN BURROUGHS + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. SHALL WE ACCEPT THE UNIVERSE? 3 + + II. MANIFOLD NATURE 19 + + III. EACH FOR ITS OWN SAKE 30 + + IV. THE UNIVERSAL BENEFICENCE 54 + + V. THE GOOD DEVILS 73 + + VI. THE NATURAL PROVIDENCE 90 + + VII. THE FAITH OF A NATURALIST 112 + + VIII. A FALLACY MADE IN GERMANY 134 + + IX. THE PRICE OF DEVELOPMENT 138 + + X. TOOTH AND CLAW 158 + + XI. MEN AND TREES 173 + + XII. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 193 + + XIII. HORIZON LINES: + + I. THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 203 + + II. THE LIVING AND NON-LIVING WORLDS 205 + + III. THE ORGANIZING TENDENCY 207 + + IV. SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM 211 + + V. IS THERE DESIGN IN NATURE? 219 + + VI. OUR IMPARTIAL MOTHER 225 + + VII. BAFFLING TRUTHS 226 + + VIII. SENSE CONTRADICTIONS 230 + + IX. MAN A PART OF NATURE 233 + + X. THE FITTEST TO SURVIVE 237 + + XI. THE POWER OF CHOICE 238 + + XII. ILLUSIONS 239 + + XIII. IS NATURE SUICIDAL? 242 + + XIV. THE PERSISTENCE OF ENERGY 245 + + XIV. SOUNDINGS: + + I. THE GREAT MYSTERY 253 + + II. THE NATURAL ORDER 257 + + III. LOGIC AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 261 + + IV. A CHIP FROM THE OLD BLOCK 265 + + V. A PERSONAL GOD 266 + + VI. THE ETERNAL 270 + + VII. AN IMPARTIAL DEITY 275 + + VIII. FINITE AND INFINITE 278 + + IX. THE INSOLUBLE 280 + + X. PAYING THE DEBT 282 + + XI. DEATH 288 + + XII. HEAVEN AND EARTH 293 + + XIII. THINKING AND ACTING 296 + + XIV. THE TIDE OF LIFE 304 + + XV. FAITH FOUNDED UPON A ROCK 309 + + XV. THE POET OF THE COSMOS 316 + + _The frontispiece, showing Mr. Burroughs at his woodpile at + Riverby, is from a photograph taken in 1920 by_ Mr. HERBERT + S. ARDELL + + + + +ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE + + + + +I + +SHALL WE ACCEPT THE UNIVERSE? + + +I + +It is reported of Margaret Fuller that she said she accepted the +universe. “Gad, she’d better!” retorted Carlyle. Carlyle himself +did not accept the universe in a very whole-hearted manner. Looking +up at the midnight stars, he exclaimed: “A sad spectacle! If they +be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly; if they be na +inhabited, what a waste of space!” + +It ought not to be a hard thing to accept the universe, since it +appears to be a fixture, and we have no choice in the matter; but +I have found it worth while to look the gift in the mouth, and +convince myself that it is really worth accepting. It were a pity to +go through life with a suspicion in one’s mind that it might have +been a better universe, and that some wrong has been done us because +we have no freedom of choice in the matter. The thought would add a +tinge of bitterness to all our days. And so, after living more than +four score years in the world, and pondering long and intently upon +the many problems which life and nature present, I have come, like +Margaret Fuller, to accept the universe, have come frankly to accept +that first verdict pronounced upon creation, namely, that it is very +good--good in its sum total up to this astronomic date, whatever +phases it may at times present that lead us to a contrary conclusion. + +Not that cold and hunger, war and pestilence, tornadoes and +earthquakes, are good in a positive sense, but that these and kindred +things are vastly overbalanced by the forces and agencies that make +for our well-being,--that “work together for good,”--the sunshine, +the cooling breezes, the fertile soil, the stability of land and sea, +the gentle currents, the equipoise of the forces of the earth, air, +and water, the order and security of our solar system, and, in the +human realm, the good-will and fellowship that are finally bound to +prevail among men and nations. + +In remote geologic ages, before the advent of man, when the earth’s +crust was less stable, when the air was yet loaded with poisonous +gases, when terrible and monstrous animal forms held high carnival in +the sea and upon the land, it was not in the same sense good--good +for beings constructed as we are now. In future astronomic time, when +the earth’s air and water and warmth shall have disappeared--a time +which science predicts--and all life upon the globe fails, again +it will not be good. But in our geologic, biologic, and astronomic +age, notwithstanding the fact that cold and suffering, war and +pestilence, cyclones and earthquakes, still occur upon the relatively +tiny ball that carries us through the vast sidereal spaces, good is +greatly in the ascendancy. The voyage is not all calm and sunshine, +but it is safe, and the dangers from collision and shipwreck are very +remote. It is a vast and lonely sea over which we are journeying, +no other ships hail us and bid us Godspeed, no messages, wireless +or other, may reach us from other shores, or other seas; forces and +influences do play upon us from all parts of the empyrean, but, so +far as we are aware, no living thing on other spheres takes note of +our going or our coming. + +In our practical lives we are compelled to separate good from +evil--the one being that which favors our well-being, and the other +that which antagonizes it; but, viewed as a whole, the universe is +all good; it is an infinite complex of compensations out of which +worlds and systems of worlds, and all which they hold, have emerged, +and are emerging, and will emerge. This is not the language of the +heart or of the emotions--our anthropomorphism cries out against +it--but it is the language of serene, impartial reason. It is good +for us occasionally to get outside the sphere of our personal life +and view things as they are in and of themselves. A great demand +is made upon our faith--faith in the absolute trustworthiness of +human reason, and in the final beneficence of the forces that rule +this universe. Not to solve the mysteries, but to see that they are +insoluble, and to rest content in that conclusion, is the task we set +ourselves here. + +Evidently the tide of life is still at the flood on this planet; its +checks and counter-currents arise inevitably in a universe whose +forces are always, and always must be, in unstable equilibrium. + +The love of the Eternal for mankind, and for all other forms of +life, is not a parental love--not the love of the mother for her +child, or of the father for his son; it is more like the love which a +general has for his army; he is to lead that army through hardships, +through struggles, through sufferings, and through death, but he is +leading it to victory. Many will perish that others may live; the +battle is being won daily. Evolution has triumphed. It has been a +long and desperate battle, but here we are and we find life sweet. +The antagonistic forces which have been overcome have become sources +of power. The vast army of living forms moving down the geologic +ages has been made strong through the trials and obstacles it has +surmounted, till now we behold it in the fullness of its power with +man at its head. + + +II + +There is a paragraph in Emerson’s Journal on Providence, written when +he was twenty-one, which is as broad and as wise and as heterodox as +anything he ever wrote. The Providence he depicts is the Providence +I see in Nature: + +“Providence supports, but does not spoil its children. We are +called sons, not darlings, of the Deity. There is ever good in +store for those who love it; knowledge for those who seek it; and +if we do evil, we suffer the consequences of evil. Throughout the +administration of the world there is the same aspect of stern +kindness; of good against your will; good against your good; ten +thousand channels of active beneficence, but all flowing with the +same regard to general, not particular profit.... And to such an +extent is this great statute policy of God carried, that many, nay, +most, of the great blessings of humanity require cycles of a thousand +years to bring them to their height.” + +A remarkable statement to be made in 1824, in New England, and by +a fledgling preacher of the orthodox faith and the descendant of a +long line of orthodox clergymen. It is as broad and as impartial +as science, and yet makes a strong imaginative appeal. Good at the +heart of Nature is the purport of it, not the patent-right good of +the creeds, but good, free to all who love it, a “stern kindness,” +and no partial, personal, vacillating Providence whose ear is open +only to the password of some sect or cult, or organization--“good +against your good,” your copyrighted good, your personal, selfish +good (unless it is in line with equal good to others), the broad, +universal beneficence of Nature which brought us here and keeps +us here, and showers its good upon us as long as we keep in right +relations with it; but which goes its appointed way regardless of the +sore needs of warring nations or the desperate straits of struggling +men. That is the Providence that lasts, that does not change its +mind, that is not indulgent, that does not take sides, that is +without variableness or shadow of turning. Suppose the law of gravity +were changeable, or the law of chemical reactions, or the nature of +fire, or air, or water, or cohesion? Gravity never sleeps nor varies, +yet see bodies rise, see others fall, see the strong master of the +weak, see the waters flow and the ground stay. The laws of fluids are +fixed, but see the variety of their behavior, the forms in which they +crystallize, their solvent power, their stability or instability, +their capacity to absorb or conduct heat--flux and change everywhere +amid fixity and law. Nature is infinitely variable, which opens the +door to all forms of life; her goings and comings are on such a large +scale, like the rains, the dews, the sunlight, that all creatures +get an equal benefit. She sows her seed with such a generous hand +that enough of them are bound to fall upon fertile places. Such as +are very limited in range, like those of the swamp plants, are yet +cast forth upon the wind so liberally that sooner or later some of +them fall upon conditions suitable to them. Nature will cover a whole +township with her wind-sown seeds in order to be sure that she hits +the small swamp in one corner of it. + +A stream of energy, not described by the adjective “inexhaustible,” +bears the universe along, and all forms of life, man with the rest, +take their chances amid its currents and its maelstroms. The good +Providence shows itself in the power of adaptation which all forms +of life possess. Some forms of sea-weed or sea-grass grow where the +waves pound the shore incessantly. How many frail marine creatures +are wrecked upon the shore, but how many more are not wrecked! How +many ships go down in the sea, but how many more are wafted safely +over it! + +The Providence in Nature seems intent only on playing the game, +irrespective of the stakes, which to us seem so important. Whatever +the issue, Nature is the winner. She cannot lose. Her beneficence is +wholesale. Her myriad forms of life are constantly passing through +“the curtain of fire” of her inorganic forces, and the casualties are +great, but the majority get through. The assault goes on and will +ever go on. It is like a stream of water that is whole and individual +at every point, but fixed and stable at no point. To play the game, +to keep the currents going--from the depths of sidereal space to the +shallow pool by the roadside; from the rise and fall of nations, to +the brief hour of the minute summer insects, the one overarching +purpose seems to be to give free rein to life, to play one form +against another, to build up and tear down, to gather together and to +scatter--no rest, no end, nothing final--rocks decaying to build more +rocks, worlds destroyed to build more worlds, nations disintegrating +to build more nations, organisms perishing to feed more organisms, +life playing into the hands of death everywhere, and death playing +into the hands of life, sea and land interchanging, tropic and arctic +meeting and mingling, day and night, winter and summer chasing each +other over the earth--what a spectacle of change, what a drama never +completed! Vast worlds and systems in fiery flux; one little corner +of the cosmos teeming with life, vast areas of it, like Saturn and +Jupiter, dead and barren through untold millions of years; collisions +and disruptions in the heavens, tornadoes and earthquakes and wars +and pestilence upon the earth--surely it all sounds worse than it is, +for we are all here to see and contemplate the great spectacle; it +sounds worse than it is to us because we are a part of the outcome +of all these raging and conflicting forces. Whatever has failed, we +have succeeded, and the beneficent forces are still coming our way. +As I write these lines I see my neighbor and his boys gathering the +hay from the meadows and building it into a great stack beside their +glutted barns. I see a chipmunk carrying stores to his den, I see +butterflies dancing by on painted wings, I see and hear the happy +birds, and the August sun beams his best upon all the land. + +The greatest of human achievements and the most precious is that +of the great creative artist. In words, in color, in sounds, in +forms, man comes nearest to emulating the Creative Energy itself. +It seems as if the pleasure and the purpose of the Creative Energy +were endless invention--to strike out new forms, to vary perpetually +the pattern. She presents myriads of forms, myriads of types, +inexhaustible variety in air, earth, water, ten thousand ways to +achieve the same end, a prodigality of means that bewilders the mind; +her aim to produce something new and different, an endless variety +of forms that fly, that swim, that creep, in the sea, in the air, +on the earth, in the fields, in the woods, on the shore. How many +ways Nature has of scattering her seeds, how many types of wings, of +hooks, of springs! In some she offers a wage to bird or quadruped in +the shape of fruit, others she forcibly attaches to the passer-by. In +all times and places there is a riot of invention. + + +III + +Are we not men enough to face things as they are? Must we be cosseted +a little? Can we not be weaned from the old theological pap? Can we +not rest content in the general beneficence of Nature’s Providence? +Must you and I have a special hold upon the great Mother’s apron +strings? + +I see the Nature Providence going its impartial way. I see drought +and flood, heat and cold, war and pestilence, defeat and death, +besetting man at all times, in all lands. I see hostile germs in +the air he breathes, in the water he drinks, in the soil he tills. +I see the elemental forces as indifferent toward him as toward +ants and fleas. I see pain and disease and defeat and failure +dogging his footsteps. I see the righteous defeated and the ungodly +triumphant--this and much more I see; and yet I behold through the +immense biological vista behind us the race of man slowly--oh, so +slowly!--emerging from its brute or semi-human ancestry into the +full estate of man, from blind instinct and savage passion into +the light of reason and moral consciousness. I behold the great +scheme of evolution unfolding despite all the delays and waste and +failures, and the higher forms appearing upon the scene. I see +on an immense scale, and as clearly as in a demonstration in a +laboratory, that good comes out of evil; that the impartiality of +the Nature Providence is best; that we are made strong by what we +overcome; that man is man because he is as free to do evil as to do +good; that life is as free to develop hostile forms as to develop +friendly; that power waits upon him who earns it; that disease, +wars, the unloosened, devastating elemental forces, have each and +all played their part in developing and hardening man and giving +him the heroic fiber. The good would have no tang, no edge, no +cutting quality without evil to oppose it. Life would be tasteless +or insipid, without pain and struggle and disappointment. Behold +what the fiery furnace does for the metals--welding or blending or +separating or purifying them, and behold the hell of contending and +destructive forces out of which the earth came, and again behold +the grinding and eroding forces, the storms and earthquakes and +eruptions and disintegrations that have made it the green inhabitable +world that now sustains us! No, the universal processes do not need +disinfecting; the laws of the winds, the rains, the sunlight do not +need rectifying. “I do not want the constellations any nearer,” says +Whitman. I do not want the natural Providence any more attentive. The +celestial laws are here underfoot and our treading upon them does +not obliterate or vulgarize them. Chemistry is incorruptible and +immortal, it is the handmaid of God; the yeast works in the elements +of our bread of life while we sleep; the stars send their influences, +the earth renews itself, the brooding heaven gathers us under its +wings, and all is well with us if we have the heroic hearts to see it. + +In the curve of the moon’s or of the planets’ disks, all broken or +irregular lines of the surface are lost to the eye--the wholeness of +the sphere form subordinates and obliterates them all: so all the +failures and cross-purposes and disharmonies in nature and life do +not suffice to break or mar the vast general beneficence; the flowing +universal good is obvious above all. + +So long as we think of the Eternal in terms of our experience--of +the knowledge of concrete things and beings which life discloses to +us--we are involved in contradictions. The ancients visualized their +gods and goddesses--Jove, Apollo, Minerva, Juno, and all the others. +Shall we do this for the Eternal and endow it with personality? Into +what absurdities this leads us! The unspeakable, the unseeable, the +unthinkable, the inscrutable, and yet the most obvious fact that life +yields to us! Nearer and more vital than our own bodies, than our own +parents, and yet eluding our grasp; vehemently denied, passionately +accepted, scoffed, praised, feared, worshiped, giving rise to deism, +atheism, pantheism, to idolatry, to persecution, to martyrdom, the +great Reality in which we live and move and have our being, and yet +for that very reason, because it is a part of us, or rather we are +a part of it, are we unable to define it or seize it as a reality +apart from ourselves. Our denial proves it; just as we use gravity +to overcome gravity, so we use God to deny God. Just as pure light +is of no color, but split up makes all the colors that we see, so +God divided and reflected makes all the half-gods we worship in +life. Green and blue and red and orange are not in the objects that +reflect them, but are an experience of the eye. We might with our +tongues deny the air, but our spoken words prove it. We cannot lift +ourselves over the fence by our own waistbands; no more can we by +searching find God, because He is not an object that has place and +form and limitations. He is the fact of the fact, the life of the +life, the soul of the soul, the incomprehensible, the sum of all +contradictions, the unit of all diversity; he who knows Him, knows +Him not; he who is without Him, is full of Him; turn your back upon +Him, then turn your back upon gravity, upon air, upon light. He +cannot be seen, but by Him all seeing comes. He cannot be heard, yet +by Him all hearing comes. He is not a being, yet apart from Him there +is no being--there is no apart from Him. We contradict ourselves when +we deny Him; it is ourselves we deny, and equally do we contradict +ourselves when we accept Him; it is something apart from ourselves +which we accept. + +When half-gods go, says Emerson, the gods arrive. But half-gods +never go; we can house and entertain no other. What can we do with +the Infinite, the Eternal? We can only deal with things in time +and space--things that can be numbered and measured. What can we +do with the infinitely little, the infinitely great? All our gods +are half-gods made in our own image. No surer does the wax take the +imprint of the seal than does the Infinite take the imprint of our +finite minds. We create a Creator, we rule a Ruler, we invent a +heaven and hell; they are laws of our own being, seen externally. + +How, then, shall we adjust our lives to the conception of a +universal, non-human, non-finite, algebraic God? They adjust +themselves. Do your work, deal justly, love rightness, make the most +of yourself, cherish the good, the beautiful, the true, practice the +Christian and the heathen virtues of soberness, meekness, reverence, +charity, unselfishness, justice, mercy, singleness of purpose; obey +the commandments, the Golden Rule, imbue your spirit with the wisdom +of all ages, for thus is the moral order of the world upheld. + +The moral order and the intellectual order go hand in hand. Upon one +rests our relation to our fellows, upon the other rests our relation +to the cosmos. + +We must know, and we must love; we must do, and we must enjoy; we +must warm judgment with feeling, and illume conscience with reason. + +Admit, if we must, that we are in the grip of a merciless power, +that outside of our own kind there is nothing that shows us mercy +or consideration, that the Nature of which we form a part goes her +own way regardless of us; yet let us keep in mind that the very fact +that we are here and find life good is proof that the mercilessness +of Nature has not been inconsistent with our permanent well-being. +The fact that flowers bloom and fruit and grains ripen, that the +sun shines, that the rain falls, that food nourishes us, that love +warms us, that evolution has brought us thus far on our way, that +our line of descent has survived all the hazards of the geologic +ages, all point to the fact that we are on the winning side, that +our well-being is secured in the constitution of things. For all +the cataclysms and disruptions, the globe has ripened on the great +sidereal tree, and has become the fit abode of its myriad forms of +life. Though we may be run down and crushed by the great terrestrial +forces about us, just as we may be run down and crushed in the +street, yet these forces play a part in the activities that sustain +us; without them we should not be here to suffer at their hands. + +Our life depends from moment to moment upon the air we breathe, yet +its winds and tempests may destroy us; it depends from day to day +upon the water we drink, yet its floods may sweep us away. We walk +and climb and work and move mountains by gravity, and yet gravity may +break every bone in our bodies. We spread our sails to the winds and +they become our faithful servitors, yet the winds may drive us into +the jaws of the breakers. How are our lives bound up and identified +with the merciless forces that surround us! Out of the heart of fate +comes our freedom; out of the reign of death comes our life; out of +the sea of impersonal energy come our personalities; out of the rocks +comes the soil that sustains us; out of the fiery nebulæ came the +earth with its apple-blossoms and its murmuring streams; out of the +earth came man. If the cosmic forces were not merciless, if they did +not go their own way, if they made exceptions for you and me, if in +them there _were_ variableness and even a shadow of turning, the vast +inevitable beneficence of Nature would vanish, and the caprice and +uncertainty of man take its place. If the sun were to stand still for +Joshua to conquer his enemies, there would be no further need for it +to resume its journey. What I am trying to get rid of is the pitying +and meddling Providence which our feeble faith and half-knowledge +have enthroned above us. We need stronger meat than the old theology +affords us. We need to contemplate the ways of a Providence that has +not been subsidized; we need encouragement in our attitude of heroic +courage and faith toward an impersonal universe; we need to have +our petty anthropomorphic views of things shaken up and hung out in +the wind to air. The universe is not a schoolroom on the Montessori +lines, nor a benevolent institution run on the most modern improved +plan. It is a work-a-day field where we learn from hard knocks, and +where the harvest, not too sure, waits upon our own right arm. + + + + +II + +MANIFOLD NATURE + + +Few persons, I fancy, ever spend much time in thinking seriously of +this vast, ever-present reality which we call Nature; what our true +relations to it are, what its relations are to what we call God, or +what God’s relations are to it; whether God and Nature are two or +one--God and Nature, or only Nature, or only God. + +When we identify Nature with God we are at once in sore straits +because Nature has a terrible side to her, but the moment we separate +God from Nature we are still more embarrassed. We create a hiatus +which we must find something to fill. We must invent a Devil upon +whom to saddle the evil that everywhere dogs the footsteps of the +good. So we have both a God and a Devil, or two gods, on our hands +contending with each other. Even our good friends in the churches +talk glibly of the God of Nature, or Nature’s God, little heeding the +terrible black depths that lie under their words. + +The Nature that the poets sing and that nature-writers exploit is +far from being the whole story. When we think of Nature as meaning +only birds and flowers and summer breezes and murmuring streams, we +have only touched the hem of her garment--a garment that clothes +the whole world with the terrific and the destructive, as well as +with the beautiful and the beneficent. Yet her fairer forms and +gentler influences are undoubtedly the expression of those forces and +conditions that go hand in hand with the things that make for our +development and well-being. + +Probably not till flowers bloomed and birds sang was the earth ripe +for man. Not till the bow appeared on the retreating storm-cloud +was anything like human life possible. Of savage, elemental Nature, +black in tempest and earthquake, hideous in war and pestilence, our +poets and nature-students make little, while devout souls seem to +experience a cosmic chill when they think of these things. + +The majority of persons, I fancy, when they consider seriously the +problem, look upon Nature as a sort of connecting link between man +and some higher power, neither wholly good nor wholly bad; divine +in some aspects, diabolical in others; ministering to our bodies, +but hampering and obstructing our souls. They see her a goddess one +hour, and a fury the next; destroying life as freely as she gives it; +arming one form to devour another; crushing or destroying the fairest +as soon as the ugliest; limited in her scope and powers, and not +complete in herself, but demanding the existence of something above +and beyond herself. + +Under the influence of Christianity man has taken himself out of the +category of natural things, both in his origin and in his destiny. +Such a gulf separates him from all other creatures, and his mastery +over them is so complete that he looks upon himself as exceptional, +and as belonging to another order. Nature is only his stepmother, +and treats him with the harshness and indifference that often +characterize that relation. + +When Wordsworth declared himself a worshiper of Nature, was he +thinking of Nature as a whole, or only of an abridged and expurgated +Nature--Nature in her milder and more beneficent aspects? Was it not +the Westmoreland Nature of which he was a worshiper?--a sweet rural +Nature, with grassy fells and murmuring streams and bird-haunted +solitudes? What would have been his emotion in the desert, in the +arctic snows, or in the pestilential forests and jungles of the +tropics? Very likely, just what the emotion of most of us would be--a +feeling that here are the savage and forbidding and hostile aspects +of Nature against which we need to be on our guard. That creative eye +and ear to which Wordsworth refers is what mainly distinguishes the +attitude of the modern poet toward Nature from the ancient. Sympathy +is always creative--“thanks to the human heart by which we live.” + +The Wordsworthian Nature was of the subjective order; he found it +in his own heart, in his dreams by his own fireside, in moments of +soul dilation on his Westmoreland hills, when the meanest flowers +that blow could bring to him “thoughts that do often lie too deep for +tears.” + +The Nature that to Wordsworth never betrays us, and to Milton was +“wise and frugal,” is a humanized, man-made Nature. The Nature we +know and wrest our living from, and try to drive sharp bargains +with, is of quite a different order. It is no more constant than +inconstant, no more wise and frugal than foolish and dissipated; it +is not human at all, but unhuman. + +When we infuse into it our own idealism, or recreate it in our +own image, then we have the Nature of the poets, the Nature that +consciously ministers to us and makes the world beautiful for our +sake. + +When in his first book, “Nature,” Emerson says that the aspect of +Nature is devout, like the figure of Jesus when he stands with bended +head and hands folded upon the breast, we see what a subjective and +humanized Nature, a Nature of his own creation, he is considering. +His book is not an interpretation of Nature, but an interpretation +of his own soul. It is not Nature which stands in an attitude of +devotion with bowed head, but Emerson’s own spirit in the presence +of Nature, or of what he reads into Nature. Yet the Emerson soul +is a part of Nature--a peculiar manifestation of its qualities and +possibilities, developed through centuries of the interaction of man +upon man, through culture, books, religion, meditation. + +“The ruin or the blank that we see when we look at Nature,” he says, +“is in our own eye.” Is it not equally true that the harmony and +perfection that we see are in our own eye also? In fact, are not +all the qualities and attributes which we ascribe to Nature equally +the creation of our own minds? The beauty, the sublimity, the power +of Nature are experiences of the beholder. The drudge in the fields +does not experience them, but the poet, the thinker, the seer, +does. Nature becomes very real to us when we come to deal with her +practically, when we seek her for specific ends, when we go to her to +get our living. But when we go to her in the spirit of disinterested +science, the desert, the volcano, the path of the cyclone, are full +of the same old meanings, the playground of the same old elements +and forces. Nature is what we make her. In his Journal Emerson for a +moment sees Nature as she is: “Nature is a swamp, on whose purlieus +we see prismatic dew-drops, but her interiors are terrific.” + +Man is the only creature that turns upon Nature and judges her; he +turns upon his own body and mind and judges them; he judges the work +of his own hands; he is critical toward all things that surround him; +he brings this faculty of judgment into the world. + +Emerson refers to “the great Nature in which we rest as the earth +lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere.” The earth lies in the soft +arms of the atmosphere in the same sense that it lies in the soft +arms of its own grasses and flowers; the atmosphere is an appendage +of the earth. If the earth literally lies in anything, it is in the +soft arms of the all-pervasive ether. Emerson’s statement is the +inevitable poetizing of Nature in which we all indulge. We make soft +arms for our thoughts to lie in, and peaceful paths for our feet to +walk in, whatever the literal truth may be. This is the way of art, +of poetry, of religion. The way of science and of practical life is +a different way. The soft arms become hard with purpose, and rest +and contemplation give place to intense activity. I would not have +the poet change his way; Nature as reflected in his mind soothes and +charms us; it takes on hues from that light which never was on sea +or land. But we cannot dispense with the way of science, which makes +paths and highways for us through the wilderness of impersonal laws +and forces that surge and roar around us. One gives us beauty and one +gives us power; one brings a weapon to the hand, the other brings +solace to the spirit. + +When Bryant identifies God with tempests and thunderbolts, with +“whirlwinds that uproot the woods and drown the villages,” or with +the tidal wave that overwhelms the cities, “with the wrath of the +mad, unchained elements”--“tremendous tokens of thy power”--does +he make God more lovable or desirable? Well may he say, “From +these sterner aspects of thy face, spare me and mine.” By way of +contrast let me recall that when an earthquake shook California, +John Muir cheered himself and friends by saying it was only Mother +Earth trotting her children fondly upon her knee! If we identify +God with all of Nature, this wrathful Hebrew Jehovah of Bryant is a +legitimate conception. There are times when the aerial forces behave +like a raving maniac bent upon the destruction of the world--the +insensate powers run amuck upon all living things. This is not the +God we habitually love and worship, but it is a God from whom there +is no escape. As the result of the inevitable action of the natural +irrational or unrational forces, tempests and earthquakes and tidal +waves do not disturb us; but as the will and purpose of an Almighty +Being, Creator of heaven and earth, they give all pious souls a +fearful shake-up. We take refuge in such phrases as “the inscrutable +ways of God,” or “the mysteries of Providence,” a Providence whose +ways are assuredly “past finding out.” + +Our State Commissioner of Education, Dr. Finley, in an agricultural +address on “Potatoes and Boys,” showed God coöperating with the +farmer in a way that amused me. “The Almighty,” the Commissioner +said, “can make, unaided of man, potatoes, but only small potatoes, +and of acrid taste. He had to make a primitive man and even teach +him to use a hoe, before He, the Omnipotent One, could grow a patch +of potatoes.” The wild potato, he implied, like the wild grape, the +wild apple, the wild melon, was the work of God before he had man to +help him; now, with man’s help, we have all the improved varieties of +potatoes and fruits. We have heard a good deal about the coöperation +of man with God, and as a concrete example this potato-growing +partnership is very interesting. How far from our habitual attitude +of mind is the thought that the Higher Powers concern themselves +about our potatoes or our turnips or our pumpkin crop, or have any +part or lot in it! Emerson in his Journal expresses another view: +“One would think that God made fig-trees and dates, grapes and +olives, but the Devil made Baldwin apples and pound pears, cherries +and whortle berries, Indian corn and Irish potatoes.” + +Sir Thomas Browne called Nature the art of God. Viewed in this light +we get a new conception of Nature, the artistic conception. We do not +ask: Is it good or bad, for us or against us? we are intent on its +symbolical or ideal character. Through it God expresses himself as +the artist does, be he painter, poet, or musician, through his work, +blending the various elements--the light and shade, the good and the +bad, the positive and the negative--into a vital, harmonious whole. +Creation becomes a picture, or a drama, or a symphony, in which +all life plays its part, in which all scenes and conditions, all +elemental processes and displays, play their part and unite to make +a vast artistic whole. The contradictions in life, the high lights, +the deep shadows, the imperfections, the neutral spaces, are but the +devices of the artist to enhance the total effect of his work. In +ethics and religion we ask of a thing: “Is it good?” In philosophy: +“Is it true?” In science: “Is it a fact, and verifiable?” But in art +we ask: “Is it beautiful?” or “Is it a real creation?” “Is it one +with the vital and flowing currents of the world?” + +The artist alone is the creator among men; he is disinterested; he +has no purpose but to rival Nature; he subordinates the parts to +the whole; he illustrates the divine law of indirections. The bald, +literal truth is not for him, but the illusive, the suggestive, the +ideal truth. He does not ask what life or Nature are for, or are they +good or bad, but he interprets them in terms of the relation of their +parts, he reads them in the light of his own soul. He knows there +is no picture without shadows, no music without discords, no growth +without decay. The artist has “no axe to grind”; to him all is right +with the world, however out of joint it may be in our self-seeking +lives. Art is synthetic, and puts a soul under the ribs of Death. +Science is a straight line, but Art is symbolized by the curve. + +To regard Nature, therefore, as the art of God, is to see it complete +in itself; all the disharmonies vanish, all our perplexing problems +are solved. The earth and the heavens are not for our private good +alone, but for all other things. Opposites are blended. Good and +bad are relative; heaven and hell are light and shade in the same +picture. Our happiness or our misery are secondary; they are the +pigments on the painter’s palette. The beauty of Nature is its +harmony with our constitution; its terror emphasizes our weakness. + +Where does the great artist get his laws of art but from his insight +into the spirit and method of Nature? They are reflected in his own +heart; the act of creation repeats itself in his own handiwork. The +true artist has no secondary aims--not to teach or to preach, nor +to praise nor condemn; but to portray, and to show us, through the +particular, the road to the universal. + +Eckermann reports Goethe as saying to him that “Nature’s intentions +are always good”; but if questioned, Goethe would hardly have +maintained that the clouds, the winds, the streams, the tides, +gravity, cohesion, and so on, have intentions of any sort, much less +intentions directed to us or away from us. Even the wisest among +us thus make man the aim and object of Nature. We impose our own +psychology upon the very rock and trees. + +Goethe always read into Nature his own human traits; always when he +speaks of her he speaks as an artist and poet. He says to Eckermann +that Nature “is always true, always serious, always severe; she is +always right, and the errors and faults are always those of man. The +man who is incapable of appreciating her, she despises; and only to +the apt, the pure, the true, does she resign herself and reveal her +secrets. The understanding will not reach her; man must be capable +of elevating himself to the highest Reason to come into that contact +with the Divinity which manifests in the primitive phenomena which +dwell behind them and from which they proceed. The divinity works +in the living, not in the dead; in the becoming and changing, not +in the become and the fixed. Therefore, reason, with its tendency +toward the divine, has only to do with the becoming, the living; but +understanding has to do with the become, the already fixed, that +it may make use of it.” In this last we see the germ of Bergson’s +philosophy. The divinity that dwells behind phenomena, and from which +they proceed, is the attempt of the human mind to find the end of +that which has no end, the law of causation. + + + + +III + +EACH FOR ITS OWN SAKE + + “Proud man exclaims, ‘See all things for my use!’ + ‘See all for mine,’ replies the pampered goose.” + + +And the pampered goose was right: all things are just as much for her +use as for man’s, while there are reasonable doubts whether things +were created for the especial use of either. + +Man, like the goose, appropriates what suits him, but is slow to +realize the fact that what suits him, or is fitted to his use, +depends upon his own powers of adaptation. We can say that he suits +it, rather than that it suits him. He has lungs because there is air, +and eyes because there are certain vibrations in the ether. In short, +nature is the primary fact, and the forms and organs of life the +secondary fact. + +Goethe said to Eckermann that he followed Kant in looking upon each +creature as existing for its own sake. He could not believe, he said, +that the cork-trees grow merely that we might stop our bottles, and, +he might have added, that rubber-trees grow that we might have rubber +overshoes. The lady in a public audience who once asked me what flies +are for, evidently thought that God had made a mistake in creating +that which annoyed her. I was pleased with a remark of John Muir’s +in his Sierra book about the poison-ivy: “Like most other things +not apparently useful to man,” he says, “it has few friends, and the +blind question, ‘Why was it made?’ goes on and on with never a guess +that first of all it might have been made for itself.” Coming from +the mouth of a Scotch Presbyterian, this is heretical doctrine. Muir +had evidently forgotten his early training. + +It is possible for man to make use of poison-ivy; in fact it is used +in medicine; but who shall dare to say that it was made for that? +Flies and poison ivy and all other noxious and harmful things are +each and all for their own sakes. They were not made in the sense +that we make things. They have come to be what we now find them +through the action and interaction of a thousand complex influences. +Each has found its place in the scheme of living things, and each +acts directly or indirectly upon other forms--is of use to them, +or the reverse. Ten thousand things are of use to man, and as many +more of no use to him, but to measure all things by his standard of +utility is childish, or to ask what mosquitoes and rattlesnakes are +for, with an implied impeachment of Nature if they are not of service +to man, is an idle question. The water and the air are indispensable +to life, but these things are older than life. Life is adapted to +them, and not they to it. + +The body is full of fluids because earth and air are full of water. +From our standpoint man is at the head of animate nature, but the +rest of creation is no more exclusively for him than for the least +of living things. The good of the world is for whatever or whoever +can use it. Houseflies are undoubtedly the enemy of the human race; +so are mosquitoes, so are venomous snakes, so are many forms of +bacteria, and a thousand other things. Our egotism prompts us to ask, +“Why is evil in the world, anyhow?” But our evil may be the good of +some other creature. Our defeat means the triumph of our enemy. It +is through this conflict of good and evil, or of things that are for +us with things that are against us, that species are developed and +perpetuated. + +What kind of a world would it be without what we call evil, without +hindrances? To the farmer drought, flood, tornadoes, untimely frosts +are evils which he thinks he could well dispense with, but so far +as they make a greater struggle necessary, so far as they lead to +more self-denial, greater forethought, and so on, they are good in +disguise. Hardy, virile characters, like tough timber, in oaks, are +developed by unfriendly and opposing forces. Intemperance, greed, +cheating, lying, war, are evils in the social and business world; +but they teach us the value of their opposites. We react from them. +It is a child’s question to ask, for example, “Would the world not +have been better had there never been any war?” because, since +mankind is what it is, wars are inevitable. The absence of wars, as +of intemperance, greed, cheating, implies a different mankind, and a +different mankind implies a different system of things. + +The problem of evil is the problem of life; no evil, no life. The +world is thus made. Nature is not half good and half bad; she is +wholly good, or wholly bad, according to our relation to her. Fire +and flood are bad when they master us, and good when we master and +control them. Great good has come out of war, and great evil. The +evil always tends to drop out or be obliterated, as the path of +cyclones and earthquakes tend to be overgrown and forgotten. Burned +cities often rise from their ashes to new life. The effects of evil +are finally obliterated; malignant forces have their day, benignant +forces go on forever. The world of life, let me repeat, would not be +here were not the balance of the account of good and evil on the side +of the good, or if good did not come out of evil. + +Life is recuperative; if it falls down, it picks itself up again. +If a state is devastated by war, in time the cities and towns are +rebuilt, and the ranks of peace and industry refilled, though the +growth and civilization of that country may have had a terrible +set-back, and the whole progress of the race be retarded. Evil +perishes. The terrible World War, set going by Germany, has depleted +the wealth, the life, the well-being of the whole European world, but +as the scars it made upon the landscape will in time be effaced, +so its effect upon the life of the states and communities will fade +and be a memory only. Still the evils it entailed are none the less +deplorable. Its heritage of hate, of devastated homes, of depleted +treasures, will long continue. + +Life, then, in all its forms is for its own sake. It is an end in +itself. Many things are inimical to us, and we are equally inimical +to many things. We lay the whole of Nature under contribution so far +as we can, and we curb and defeat her hostile forces so far as we +can, but the world was no more made for man than it was made for mice +and midges. When we see how irrespective of us the natural forces go +their way, that we can ride them and guide them only as we do wild +horses--by being quicker and more masterful than they are--when we +know that they will tread us down with the same indifference that +we tread down the grass and the weeds, the facts should temper and +modify our egotism. When we look into the depths of merely our own +solar system, and see vast globes like Jupiter and Saturn, so much +older and greater than our little earth, and not yet the abode of any +form of life, and probably not within millions of years of such a +state, how casual and insignificant man seems! How far from being the +end and object of creation! + +Doubtless there are numberless worlds and whole systems of worlds in +the depths of sidereal space upon which life has never appeared, and +numberless other worlds and systems upon which it has had its day +and gone out forever. Life is but an incident in the total scheme of +things. + +To ask what this or that is for, with reference to ourselves, and +to conclude that some one or something has blundered if it is not +of positive use to us, is, let me repeat, to see and to think as +a child. We know what the hooks on the burdock and the stick-seed +are for, and what the wings on the maple and the ash-seed are for, +but do we know what the stings on the nettle, or the spines on +the blackberry or on the thorn-apple tree are for? The cattle eat +the nettle, the birds eat the berries, and the wild creatures eat +the thorn-apple. How could their seeds get sown if the prickles +and thorns defended them against wild life? Spines and thorns +seem expressive of moods or conditions in Nature, and to be quite +independent of use, as we understand the term. + +Nature’s ways are so unlike our ways! Her system of economics would +soon bring us to bankruptcy. She has no rival, no competitor, no +single end in view, no more need to store up wealth than to scatter +it. One form gains what another form loses. Humanly speaking, she is +always trying to defeat herself. The potato-bug, if left alone, would +exterminate the potato and so exterminate itself; the currant-worm +would exterminate the currant; the forest worms would exterminate +the forests, did not parasites appear and check these ravages. +Nature trumps her own trick; she scuttles her own ship; she mines +her own defenses; she poisons her own fountains; she sows tares in +her own wheat; and yet she wins, because she is the All. The tares +are hers, the parasites are hers, the devastating storms and floods +are hers, the earthquakes and volcanoes are hers, disease and death +are hers, as well as youth and health. The cancer that eats into a +man’s vitals--what keeps it going but Nature’s forces and fluids? +The bacteria that flourish in our bodies and bring the scourges of +typhoid fever, diphtheria, tuberculosis, are all hers, and a part +of her system of things. A malignant tumor is as much an expression +of Providence as is a baby or a flower. Nature cuts the ground from +under her own feet; she saws off the limb upon which she is perched, +but if she falls, she alights in her own lap. + +In walking through a blighted potato-field this morning, I said, +“Here is one form of vegetable life destroying another form and +bringing loss and discontent to the farmer’s heart.” What purpose in +the economy of Nature is served by this blight? Who or what is the +gainer? After the minute organisms that prey upon the potato-vines +have done their work, they too perish, so that two forms of life are +blotted out. What was it all for? Why is this tragedy of one form of +life bringing to naught other forms, which we witness on every hand, +in vegetable and animal life, and in human history, being constantly +enacted? The question, put in this way, is a purely human one; it +is applying to the vast scheme of creation purely human standards. +We instinctively ask the why and the wherefore of things, and in +our practical lives try to avoid letting one hand defeat the other +as Nature does in the above incident. We guard one form of life +against another hostile form. Our aim is to make things pull together +for our own advantage. We seek to check the ravages of the tent +caterpillar, the forest worms, the gypsy moth, the potato-beetle, +and the invisible enemies that rot our grapes and mar our apples, as +well as the germs that sow fatal diseases in our midst. But not so +Nature. She does not take sides. As I have said, she has no special +and limited aims. The stakes are hers, whoever wins. One condition of +the season favors the growth of the potato-vines; another condition +favors the development of the fungus that destroys them. Nature is +just as much on the side of the rat as on the side of the cat; she +arms each to defeat the other, and the fittest survives. She has not +given the rabbit strength or ferocity, but she has given her speed +and a sleepless eye and great fecundity, and her enemies do not cut +her off. + +The struggle and competition of life go on everywhere. But life is +not all a struggle; it is unity and coöperation as well. The trees of +the forest protect one another; one form of life profits by another +form. + +In the whole drama of organic nature we find waste and prodigality. +Our economics are set at naught by the power that works to no +special ends, but to all ends, and finds its account in the tumor +that eats up the man, as much as in the man himself, in the fungi +that destroy the potato crop, or the chestnut-trees, as truly as in +these things themselves. Yet behold what specialization and what +development has taken place in spite of these cross-purposes, this +chaos of conflicting interests! Out of discord has come harmony; out +of conflict has come peace; out of death has come life; out of the +reptile has come the bird; out of the beast has come man; out of +the savage has come the moral conscience; out of the tribe has come +the nation; out of tyranny has come democracy. It is the waste, the +delays, the pain, the price to be paid, that appall us. + +We must regard creation as a whole, as the evolution of worlds and +systems, and not concentrate our attention upon man and his ways, or +upon the earth--so small a part of our solar system. + +Our benevolent institutions are not types of the universe; our idea +of fatherhood does not fit the Eternal. + +Our fathers had a complete and consistent explanation of the +problem of evil that so perplexes us. They invented or postulated +two opposing and contending principles in the world--one divine, +the other diabolical. One they named God, the other, Satan. Their +conception of God would not allow them to saddle all the evil and +misery of the world upon him; they had to look for a scapegoat, and +they found him in the Devil. One is just as necessary to a consistent +cosmogony as the other. If we must have an all-wise, all-merciful, +all-powerful, all-loving God--the author of all good and the +contemner of all evil--we must also have a god of the opposite type, +the great mischief-maker and enemy of human happiness--the author of +war, pestilence, famine, disease, and of all that hinders and defeats +the reign of the perfect good. Without the conception of the Devil, +we are forced to the conclusion, either that God is not omnipotent, +or that he is responsible for all the sin and suffering in the world. +If you make man this Devil, then who made man? + +Wrestle with the problem as we may, we are impaled on one or the +other horn of the dilemma. Our traditional God is more cruel and more +indifferent to human suffering than any tyrant that ever gloated over +human blood and agony, or else he is fearfully limited in his power +for good. + +With a Devil at our disposal to whom we can impute the evils of life, +the situation clears up, and God emerges, shorn of his omnipotence, +it is true, but still the symbol of goodness and love. + +In our day the Devil has lost his prestige and is much discredited. +As a power in men’s minds his reign is over, and hell, his +headquarters, no longer casts its lurid light upon human life. + +In an equal measure the old Hebraic conception of God as a +much-magnified man, the king and ruler of heaven and earth, with +heaven as his throne, has gone out. God is now little more than a +name for that tendency or power in the universe which makes for +righteousness, and which has brought evolution thus far on its course. + +To account for the world as we find it, we are compelled to look +upon it as the inevitable result of the clashing and interaction of +purely natural forces resulting in both so-called good and evil; that +is, in what is favorable to life, and in what is against life. But +as life is adaptive and assimilative, it slowly turns the evil into +good, of course at the expense of delays and waste and suffering, and +thus development becomes possible, and man, after untold millions of +years, appears. + +When we look forth upon the universe, what do we see? When we look +upon the non-living world, we see a mere welter and chaos of material +forces--a conflict of chemical and physical principles seeking a +stable equilibrium--water running, winds blowing, mountains decaying, +stars and systems whirling, suns waning or waxing, nebulæ condensing, +vast orbs colliding, and all issuing in a certain order and system +under the rule of purely mechanical and mathematical laws. The +stellar universe is a vast machine, amenable to the measurements and +calculations of the astronomers. The eclipses all occur exactly on +time, and the planets revolve in their orbits without the untruth, as +Whitman says, of a single second. The disorder and disruptions which +occur are inside of vast fundamental laws. Our mountains and seas are +shaken by earthquakes, and the earth’s surface is swept by cyclones +and the seashores are devastated by tidal waves, yet these things are +only phases of the effort toward a fixed equilibrium. The earth’s +surface as we now behold it, the distribution of land and water, +of mountain and plain, the procession of the seasons, our whole +weather system, the friendly and the unfriendly forces, are all the +outcome of this clash and stress of the physical forces, which make a +paradise of some places and the opposite of others. + +When we look upon the living world as revealed in the geologic +record, we still see a kind of welter and chaos, but we also see +the advent of new principles not entirely subject to mechanical +and mathematical laws. Life goes its way and takes liberties with +its physical environment. Living bodies change and develop as the +non-living do not. The various organic forms “rise on stepping-stones +of their dead selves,” and incalculably slow transformations of lower +forms into higher take place, but not without appalling delays and +waste and suffering. Chemical and mechanical laws are still in full +force, but they appear to be in the service of a new principle; an +organizing tendency of a new kind is at work in the world; chance and +necessity seem to play a less conspicuous part. Yet there is nothing +that meets our idea of justice, or mercy, or economy of effort. + +For millions upon millions of years the earth swarmed with low, all +but brainless creatures. The monsters of sea and land that appeared +in the middle period were huge and terrible in body and limb, but +very small in capacity of brain. Huge ganglions, or knots of nervous +tissue, in different parts of their bodies seem to have served as +a substitute for a centralized brain and a complex nervous system. +The brontosaurus, seventy feet long, with a body weighing many +tons, had a brain not much larger than a man’s double fists. Brains +as yet played a very subordinate part in the world. Reptiles and +half-reptiles possessed the earth. The age of mammals was as yet only +hinted at. But after long geologic ages, mammals came to the front, +holding the precious possibility of man, and reptiles were relegated +to the rear. The animal brain increased, wit began to get the better +of brute force, and the small and feeble ancestors of man appeared in +the biological drama. They were like small and timid supernumeraries +skulking or hiding on the wings of the stage. Lemurs and monkeys +appeared long before there were any signs of the anthropoid apes, and +the anthropoid apes were in evidence long before the first rude man +appeared. + +In all the vast stretch of geologic and biologic time, do we see any +evidence of the active existence of the God and the Devil of our +fathers? Not unless we identify them with the material forces that +then ruled and shaped the world, and these forces, by any other name, +are of the same impersonal, impartial, unforgiving character as is +disclosed in our dealings with them to-day. + +When we turn to the higher forms of organic life, especially to +man and his history, what do we see? We still behold the same +trial-and-error method, the same cruelty, waste, delays, and +suffering that we behold in the lower forms. We see progress, we see +the growth of ethical principles, we see man’s increasing mastery +over the forces of nature and over himself, but in the competition +of races and nations, the race is still to the swift and the battle +to the strong. We see a high standard of individual morality +contending with a low standard of international morality. We still +see civilized nations looking upon treaties as “scraps of paper”; +we see them regarding their neighbors as rivals and enemies; we see +millions of men that have not the shadow of a grievance against one +another, fiercely trying to slay one another, and praying to the +same God for victory. We see the nefarious doctrine that physical +might makes moral right written in lines of blood and fire across +the face of whole kingdoms; we see the legitimate competitions of +peace and industry turned into the strife of armed conquest; we see +a small and peaceful nation trampled underfoot by a big nation bent +upon plunder and conquest; we see hatred toward a kindred nation +glorified, and the murder of innocent women and children and other +non-combatants adopted as a fixed policy; in fact, we see all the +vast resources of science and of modern civilization wedded to the +spirit of the Hun, and turned loose in a war for world-dominion. +The results of eighteen centuries of Christian culture come off the +German nation like a whitewash in this craze and fury of the military +spirit; the German people stand revealed as at heart unmitigated +barbarians, wonderfully efficient, but wonderfully inhuman. If we +appeal to the supernatural to account for things, we certainly +need a Devil, if not several of them, to account for the temper of +the German mind during the late war. No wonder the good people are +losing faith, and are shocked and dismayed at the thought that their +all-loving, omnipotent God permits these things. + +Down the whole course of history we see no other powers at work than +those that are about us. Good is in the ascendancy everywhere, or +soon will be; evil dies out; the wicked cease from troubling; the +amelioration of mankind goes on; and no God or Devil hinders or +favors. + +Nature is both God and Devil, and natural law is supreme in +the world. The moral consciousness of man,--all our dreams of +perfection, of immortality, of the good, the beautiful, the true, all +our veneration and our religious aspirations,--this is Nature, too. + +Man is a part of the universe; all that we call good in him, and all +that we call bad, are a part of the universe. The God he worships is +his own shadow cast upon the heavens, and the Devil he fears is his +own shadow likewise. The divine is the human, magnified and exalted; +the Satanic is the human, magnified and debased. + +We find God in Nature by projecting ourselves there; we find him in +the course of history by reading our own ideals into human events; +we find him in our daily lives by listening to the whisperings of +our own inherited and acquired consciences, and by dwelling upon the +fatality that rules our lives. + +We had nothing to do with our appearance here in this world, or +with the form our bodies take, or with our temperaments, and, only +in a degree, with our dispositions. Some power other than ourselves +brought us here and maintains us here for a period, as it brought +here and maintains all other forms of life; but, I repeat, that +power is inseparable from the physical and chemical forces, and goes +its way whether we prosper or perish. Yet it is more positive than +negative, more for us than against us, else we should not be here. + +Where does man get his ethical standards? Where does he get his +eyes, his ears, his heart? He gets them where he got his life--from +natural sources. He gets them whence he got his sense of art, of +beauty, of harmony. There are no moral standards in Nature apart from +man, but as man is a part of Nature, so are these, and all other +standards. So are all religions, arts, literatures, philosophies, +heroisms, self-denials, as well as all idolatries, superstitions, +sorceries, cruelties, wrongs, failures, a part of Nature. + +Is the big-brained man of to-day any less a part of Nature than the +low-browed, long-jawed man of Pliocene times? + +The humanization of God leads us into many difficulties. If He is a +personal being with attributes and emotions like our own, then we +are forced to the conclusion that He is no better than we are--that +He has our faults as well as our virtues, our cruelty as well as +our love. He is a party to all the wrongs and crimes and suffering +that darken the earth; He permits wars and pestilence and famine +and earthquakes and tornadoes, and all the consuming and agonizing +diseases that flesh is heir to. He is an infinite man with infinite +powers for good and evil. + +In the long drama of animal evolution there has evidently been as +much suffering as pleasure, and of the drama of human history the +same may be said: pain, failure, delay, injustice, to all of which +our humanized God has been a party. No wonder our fathers struggled +over the problem of the ways of God to man. As soon as they put +themselves in his place, they felt the need of some grounds upon +which to justify his dealings with the beings He had created. But +they searched, and their descendants still search, in vain. If we see +God as a man, no matter how mighty, He is still guilty of what few +finite men would be guilty. What men would be guilty of permitting +the sin and misery that fill the world at this, or any other, time? + +The Nature God neither sends calamities nor wills them--they are an +inevitable part of the growth and development of things; they are +eddies in the stream of forces. What we call evil is evil only from +our point of view; evil is a human word and not the word of the +Infinite. If the world were something made by a Maker external to +it, then it were pertinent to ask, Why not make it a better world? +Why not leave out pain and sin and all other phases of evil? But +the world is not something made, and it did not have a Maker, as +we use those words. The universe _is_, and always has been, “from +everlasting to everlasting,” and man is a part of it, and his life +is subject to the same vicissitudes as the rest of creation. Man has +come into this sense of right and wrong, of justice and mercy, of +truth and falsehood, of good and evil, as necessary conditions of +his development, but those things are not absolute; they pertain to +him alone. The physical forces break out of their natural bounds +and run riot for a season; the human forces do the same thing and +give rise to various excesses. The crimes and misdemeanors of man +are exceptional as the outbreaks in nature are exceptional. They +relate man to nature and show how the same plan runs through both. A +world with storm and the warring and violence of the elements left +out would be a radically different world--an impossible world. And a +world of man, a Quaker world, is equally impossible. + +If some being of infinite wisdom and love had made the world and made +man to live in it, we could ask him some embarrassing questions; +but, let me repeat, the world was not made, it is only a link in a +chain of cosmic events, and it is not for man any more than for any +other creature. Each must “work out his own salvation, with fear and +trembling.” + +Introduce design into nature and you humanize it and get into +difficulties at once. It is above design. We have no language in +which to speak the ultimate truth, no language in which to describe +the character and the doings of the Infinite. The ways of the +Infinite are not only past finding out, they are unspeakable by +reason of our finite relations to them. We cannot arraign the Nature +God. It does not design, nor make, nor govern, nor employ means to +ends, as do the man-made gods. It _is_. All things are a part of +its infinite complexity. Nature rests forever in itself. It neither +fails nor succeeds. In itself it is neither good nor evil, neither +divine nor devilish; it is all things to all men, because they are +all things to it. It is neither one nor many; it is the Infinite. In +these vain attempts to define or describe the indefinable I have no +language but that of the finite, no language but that of our limited +or circumscribed relation to the world of concrete and fragmentary +things. Hence I am constantly like the plains ranger caught by his +own lasso, or the angler caught by his own hook. + +Emerson said that in trying to define the Eternal we need a language +that differs from our everyday speech as much as algebra differs +from arithmetic. Outside of the physical organism there is neither +pleasure nor pain, good nor bad, light nor dark, sound nor silence, +heat nor cold, big nor little, hard nor soft; all these things are +but words in which we describe our sensations. When there is no ear, +there is no sound, but only motion in the air; when there is no eye, +there is no light or color, but only motion in the ether; when there +are no nerves, there is no heat or cold, but only motion, more or +less, in the molecules of matter. Degrees and differences belong to +the region of our finite minds. In trying to define or state the +Infinite, we are off the sphere, outside the realm of experience, and +our words have no meaning. + +It is the circular or orbicular character of creation that baffles +us. We cannot fit the sphere into the triangles and parallelograms +of the terms of our experience. We cannot square the circle of +Infinity. The terms “love,” “anger,” “mercy,” “fatherhood,” do not +apply to God any more than “over” or “under,” or “beginning” or +“end,” apply to the sphere. In regard to God, the language of science +and mathematics is one with the language of worship and ecstasy. + +I find I have never been burdened by a sense of my duty to God. +My duty to my fellow-men and to myself is plain enough, but the +word is not adequate to express any relation I may hold to the +Eternal. Do I owe any duty to gravity without which I could not +move or lift my hand, or any duty to the sunshine or to the rains +and the winds? Instinctively, unconsciously, for the most part we +obey the law of gravity, and instinctively we adjust ourselves to +all the natural forces, not from a sense of duty, but from a sense +of self-preservation. These things are a part of our lives and not +something to which we hold only a casual and precarious or external +relation. My relation to the Eternal is not that of an inferior to +a superior, or of a beneficiary to his benefactor, or of a subject +to his king. It is that of the leaf to the branch, of the fruit to +the tree, of the babe in the womb to its mother. It is a vital and +an inevitable relation. It cannot be broken. It is not a matter of +will or choice. We are embosomed in the Eternal Beneficence, whether +we desire it or not. Those good persons who go through life looking +upon the Eternal as a power external to themselves, saluting him as +the soldier salutes his officer, are not as truly religious as they +think they are. The old conception of an external God, the supreme +ruler of the universe, with whom Moses talked and walked and even +saw the hinder parts of, is out of date in our time. Still the +overarching thought of the Infinite and the Eternal, in whom we live +and move and have our being, must at times awaken in the minds of all +of us, and lend dignity and sobriety to our lives. + +But the other world fades as this world brightens. Science has made +this world so interesting and wonderful, and our minds find such +scope in it for the exercise of all their powers, that thoughts of +another world are becoming foreign to us. We shall never exhaust the +beauties and the wonders and the possibilities of this. To feel at +home on this planet, and that it is, with all its drawbacks, the best +possible world, I look upon as the supreme felicity of life. + +When we look at it in its mere physical and chemical aspects, its +play of forces, tangible and intangible, its reservoir of energy, +its “journeying of atoms,” its radiating electrons, its magnetic +currents, its transmutations and cycles of change, its hidden but +potent activities, its streaming auroras, its changing seasons, its +myriad forms of life, and a thousand other things--all make it a +unique and most desirable habitation. + +When we consider it in its astronomical aspects as a celestial body +floating in the luminiferous ether as in a sea, held in leash by the +sun, and as sensitive to its changes as the poplar leaf to the wind, +vast beyond our power to visualize, yet only a grain of sand on the +shores of the Infinite, an evening or a morning star to the beings on +other planets, if there are such, mottled with shining seas or green +and white continents and canopied with many-hued cloud draperies, and +existing in closest intimacies with the wonders and the potencies of +the sidereal heavens--a veritable fruit on the vast sidereal tree of +life--when we realize all this, and more, can we conceive of a more +desirable or a better-founded and better-furnished world? The voyage +we make upon it may be a long one; if we claim the century of life +which Nature seems to have allotted us on conditions, we shall travel +about thirty-six billions of miles in our annual voyages around the +sun, and how many more millions with the sun around his sun, we know +not. A world made of the common stuff of the universe, a handful of +the dust of the cosmos, yet thrilling with life, producing the race +of man, evolving the brain of Plato, of Aristotle, of Bacon, the soul +of Emerson, of Whitman, the heart of Christ--a heavenly abode surely. +Let us try to make amends for depreciating it, for spurning it, for +surrendering it to the Devil, and for turning from it in search of a +better. + +Our religion is at fault, our saints have betrayed us, our +theologians have blackened and defaced our earthly temple, and +swapped it off for cloud mansions in the Land of Nowhere. The heavens +embrace us always; the far-off is here, close at hand; the ground +under your door-stone is a part of the morning star. If we could only +pull ourselves up out of our absorption in trivial affairs, out of +the petty turmoil of our practical lives, and see ourselves and our +world in perspective and as a part of the celestial order, we could +cease to weep and wail over our prosaic existence. + +The astronomic view of our world, and the Darwinian view of our lives +must go together. As one came out of the whirling, fiery nebulæ, so +the other came out of the struggling, slowly evolving, biological +world of the unicellular life of the old seas. + +Biologic time sets its seal upon one, and cosmic time upon the other. +Dignity and beauty and meaning are given to our lives when we see far +enough and wide enough, when we see the forces that minister to us, +and the natural order of which we form a part. + + + + +IV + +THE UNIVERSAL BENEFICENCE + + +That bodies rise in the air does not disprove gravity; on the +contrary, it proves it. The pull of gravity never lets go of the +bullet from the gun; no matter how high or how far it goes, down it +comes, sometime, somewhere. + +There is no force when there is nothing to resist force. The force +of the chemical reaction in the gun on the explosion of the powder +is hurled back by the mass and resistance of the gun, and sends the +bullet high or far, but does not for a second break its hold upon +it. Smoke rises because the air falls; clouds float because of the +greater weight of something beneath them. The river flows because its +banks do not. + +The goodness of nature is the universal fact, like gravity, and its +evils and enmities and hindrances only prove the law. + +The waters of the globe seek their level, seek to reach a haven +of everlasting repose; but behold how that purpose is forever +frustrated, and the currents never cease. It is as if the creeks and +rivers never reached the sea; they are traveling that way forever; +it is as if the great ocean currents and submarine Amazons and +Mississippis were seeking an escape which they never find; their +quest is ever renewed. Nature is Nature because her work is never +complete; her journey is never ended; the fixity and equilibrium +which her elements appear to seek, is ever deferred; life can +appear and go on only in a changing, unstable world, and it is +this flux and mutability of things that bring all our woe, and all +our joy as well. If winds did not blow, and bodies fall, and fire +consume, and floods overpower, if the equilibrium of things were not +perpetually broken,--which opens the door to all our troubles and +disasters,--where should we find the conditions of our life? + +Life has appeared in an unstable world, and is conditioned upon this +instability. Fixity means death. It is in the line of organic effort +that living forms appear; it is in an imperfect world that we strive +for the perfection that we never reach. Blessed be the fact that our +capacity for life, for happiness, is always greater than the day +yields. Satiety checks effort. + +The Nature Providence is stern and even cruel in some of its dealings +with us, but not in all, else we should run away from home. It is +genial and friendly in the genial season--in a June meadow, in a +field of ripening grain, in an orchard bending with fruit, in the +cattle on a thousand hills, in the shade of the friendly trees, in +the bubbling springs, in the paths by the green fields and by still +waters, and in ten thousand other aspects of its manifold works. +It is not friendly in the tropical jungles, nor amid the snows and +blizzards of the polar regions, but upon four fifths of the surface +of the globe it may be said to be friendly or neutral. Man is armed +to face its hostile aspects and to turn its very wrath to account. +If God maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, so man maketh the +wrath of God to serve him, as when he subdues and controls Nature’s +destructive forces, tames the lightning and harnesses Niagara. He has +not bound the cyclone yet, nor warmed himself by the volcano, nor +moved mountains from his path with the earthquake, but he may do it +yet. He is fast drawing the fangs of contagious diseases, thus adding +to his length of days. + +The Nature Providence working in man and through him has made the +world more fit for man’s abode. + +Action and reaction are the steps by which life ascends. Nature acts +upon man and man reacts upon nature. The labor the farmer puts into +the soil comes back to him with interest, and enables him to labor +more. The capital of life grows in that way; action and reaction; up +we go. + +“Are God and Nature then at strife?” asks Tennyson, baffled and +unsettled by what he sees about him. There is strife in the living +world, the struggle of existence. In the non-living, there is +collision, disruption, overthrow. The apparent strife between the two +worlds is an effort toward adjustment on the part of the living--to +master and utilize the non-living. The inorganic goes its way under +the leash of physical laws, heedless of the organic. Myriads of +living things are crushed and destroyed by the ruthless onward +flow of the non-living. There is life in the world because life is +plastic and persistent and adaptive, and perpetually escapes from +the blind forces that would destroy it--the winds, the floods, the +frost, the heat, gravity, earthquakes, chemical reactions, and so on. +Every living thing runs the gantlet of the insensate mechanical and +chemical forces. But this is not strife in our human sense; it is the +discipline of nature. No living thing could begin or continue without +these forces which at times are so hostile. Like faithful gardeners +preparing the seed-beds, they prepared the earth for the abode of man +and all other living forms. They made the soil, they bring the rains, +they begat the winds, they prearranged all the conditions of life; +but life itself is a mystery, the great mystery, super-mechanical, +super-chemical, dependent upon these forces, but not begotten by +them. They are its servants. + +The struggle in the world of living forms is a condition of +development, growing things are made strong by the force of the +obstacles they overcome. + +From our limited human point of view there are phases of creation +that make it look like a game between intelligent contending forces, +or as if one god tried to undo the work of another god, or at +least to mar and hinder his work--some mischievous and malignant +spirit that sows tares amid the wheat, that retards development, +that invents parasites, that produces the malformed, that scatters +the germs of disease. How much at heart Nature seems to have the +production and well-being of offspring, yet what failures there are! +in the human realm the deformed, the monstrous, the idiotic. It seems +as if all things in heaven and earth had a stake in a perfect baby +and in its growth and development. A land swarming with beautiful and +happy children should make the very stars rejoice. Motherhood itself +is a beautiful and divine symbol, yet what perils attend it! In many +cases mother and child sink into the same grave. Then along comes +some malignant spirit and sows the germs of infantile paralysis, +and great numbers of children perish, and still greater numbers are +crippled and deformed for life. What a miscarriage of nature is that! +What a calamity, and unmitigated evil! + +When an insect stings a leaf or plant-stalk and the plant forthwith +builds a cradle and nursery for the young of the insect, that is one +form of life using another form; or when a parasitical bird, such as +the European cuckoo, or our cowbird, lays its egg in the nest of +another bird, that is the same thing--life is still triumphant. But +when the germs of a contagious disease--tuberculosis, diphtheria, +scarlet fever--invade the human system and finally result in its +destruction, then dissolution is triumphant; all this delicately +and elaborately organized matter comes to naught. In this we see +the failure of the tendency or impulsion in matter which results +in organization--the mystery and the miracle of vitality, as +Tyndall called it, and the triumph of the contrary impulse or +disorganization, unless we regard the destructive and death-dealing +germs themselves as a triumph of organization, which, from the +scientific point of view, they surely are. Then we have Nature +playing one hand against the other. From our point of view it is like +pulling down a temple and reducing the bricks and stones to dust for +the use of ants. But who shall say that Nature is not just as careful +of the ant as of the man?--which is, of course, a distasteful bit of +news to the man. + +When one thinks of the myriads of minute living organisms that +pervade and make up his own body, of their struggles and activities, +their antagonisms and coöperations, their victories and defeats,--the +cells coöperating and building up the organs, the organs coöperating +and building up the body, the phagocytes policing the blood and +destroying the invading germs, the intestinal flora contending +with one another for the possession of the soil, the ferments, +the enzymes,--when one thinks of all this and more, and how little +aware the man is of all this strife and effort and activity within +him,--how he himself, body and mind, is the result of it all,--one +has a dim vision of all our strife and effort in this world as a part +of the vital movements of a vast system of things, or of a Being that +is no more cognizant of our wars and struggles and triumphs than we +are of the histories of the little people that keep up the functional +integrity of our own systems. + +Man can himself make short work of the ants unless he encounters +their devouring hosts in a tropical jungle, in which case they may +make short work of him. He can often slay with his antiseptics the +disease-germs that are destroying him, but not always; the balance +of nature is often on their side. Whichever triumphs, Nature wins, +because all are parts of her system. The capital invested is hers +alone. Man thinks a part of it is his, because he forgets that he too +is a part of Nature, and that whatever is his, is hers. + +How are we to reconcile the obvious facts of evolution, namely, that +throughout the biological ages there has been an impulse in Nature +steadily working toward the development of man, with the still more +obvious fact that Nature cares no more for the individual man than +she does for the individual of any other species? She will drown +him, starve him, freeze him, crush him, as quickly as she will any +other form of life. Is the account balanced by the fact that she +has given him the wit and the power to avoid these calamities in a +larger measure than she has given them to any other creature? That +is the way the great mystery works. Every creature is exposed to the +hazards of its kind, but within its reach are always the benefits +and advantages of its kind, and these latter have steadily kept in +the lead. The evolutionary impulse toward the horse, toward the +dog, toward the bird, has apparently been as jealously guarded and +promoted as the impulse toward man. Man in his own conceit is at the +head of the animal kingdom, and the whole creation is for him, though +there are other animals that surpass him in strength, speed, and +endurance. But he alone masters and makes servants of the inorganic +forces, and thus rules the world below him. + +I set out to say that the beneficent force or Providence that brought +us here has had to struggle with the non-beneficent in inert matter, +and, at times, with what looks like the deliberately malignant in +living matter; micro-organisms everywhere lying in wait for tangible +bodies and reducing them back to the original dust out of which they +came--the work of one god being held up or wrecked by another god. In +the vegetable kingdom are blights and scabs and many forms of fungous +diseases; in the animal are hostile bacteria and parasites working +without and within. Little wonder our fathers had to invent a Devil, +or a hierarchy of good and evil spirits contending with one another, +to explain the enigmas of life! But that the good spirits have +prevailed over their enemies, that the Natural Providence has been on +our side, is, as I have pointed out, proved by the fact that we are +actually here, and that life is good to us. + +The evil of the world is seen to be ingrained in the nature of +things, and it has been a spur to development. All the great human +evils have been disciplinary. There is always a surplusage, rarely +just enough and no more. The gods of life rarely make a clean, neat +job of it; there are needless pains, needless wastes, needless +failures, needless delays. The good of war--the fortitude, the +self-denial, the heroism--we cannot separate from the evil; the good +of avarice or greed--industry, thrift, foresight--we cannot separate +from the evil. The wealth-gatherers keep the currents going, they +subdue the wilderness, they reclaim the deserts, they develop the +earth’s resources, they extend the boundaries of civilization, but +the evils that follow in their train are many and great. Yet how are +we to have the one without the other? Disease is also a kind of trial +by battle; it weeds out the weak, the physically unfit, and hardens +and toughens the race. + +The Natural Providence does not study economy, it is not in business +with rivals and competitors; bankruptcy is not one of its dangers, +it can always meet its obligations; all the goods and all the gold +and silver in the universe belong to it. Its methods are too vast +and complex for our ideas of prudence and economy. We cannot deal +with the whole, but only with its parts. There are no lines and +boundaries to the sphere, and no well-defined cleavage between the +good and the evil in nature and in life. The broad margin of needless +misery and waste in the life of a man as of a nation is a part of +the inexactitude and indifference that pervades the whole of nature. +From the point of view of the Natural Providence it does not matter, +the result is sure; but from our point of view--victims of cyclones, +earthquakes, wars, famines, pestilence as we are--it matters a great +deal. The streams and rivers throughout the land are bearers of many +blessings; the evils they bring are minor and are soon forgotten. + +The whole living world is so interrelated and interdependent, and +hinges so completely upon the non-living, that our analysis and +interpretation of it must of necessity be very imperfect. But the +creative energy works to no specific ends, or rather it works to all +ends. As every point on the surface of the globe is equally on the +top at all times, so the whole system of living nature balances on +any given object. I saw a book of poems recently, called “The Road +to Everywhere”--vague as Nature herself. All her roads are roads to +everywhere. They may lead you to your own garden, or to the North +Pole, or to the fixed stars, or may end where they began. + +Nature is a great traveler, but she never gets away from home; +she takes all her possessions along with her, and her course is +without direction, and without beginning or end. The most startling +contradiction you can make expresses her best. She is the sum of all +opposites, the success of all failures, the good of all evil. + +When we think we have cut out Nature, we have only substituted +another phase; when our balloon mounts in spite of gravity, it is +still gravity that makes it mount; when we clear the soil of its +natural growth and plant our own crop, Nature is still our gardener; +we have only placed other seeds of her own in her hands. When we +have improved upon her, we have only prevailed upon her to second +our efforts; we get ahead of her by following out the hints she +gives us; when we trump her trick, it is with her own cards. When we +fancy we assist Nature, as we say that we do with our drugs, it is +she who gives the efficiency to the drugs. We may fancy that the sun +is in the heavens solely to give light and warmth to the planets, +which it surely does, but behold, what a mere fraction of the light +and heat of the sun is intercepted by the slender girdle of worlds +that surround it! The rays go out equally in all directions, they +penetrate all space. The sun, with reference to its light and heat, +is at the center of an infinite hollow sphere, and not one millionth +part of its rays falls upon the worlds that circle around it. This +is typical of Nature’s bounty. The thought and solicitude of the +creative energy is directed to me and you personally in the same +wholesale way. The planets of our system are lighted and warmed +as effectually as if the sun shone for them alone, and man is the +beneficiary of the heavens as completely as if indeed the whole +creation were directed especially to him. Here is another point: the +night and darkness in nature are local and limited; the universe is +flooded with light; the black shadows themselves are born of the +light. Though astronomers tell us that sidereal space is strewn with +dead worlds and extinct suns, give time enough and they will all be +quickened and rekindled. Light and life are the positive facts in +nature, darkness and death the negative. + +When we single out man and fix our attention upon him as the sole end +of creation, and judge the whole by his partial standards, man-- + + “Who trusted God was love indeed + And love Creation’s final law-- + Though Nature, red in tooth and claw + With ravine, shrieked against his creed”-- + +when we do this, all is confusion and contradiction. Love _is_ +“creation’s final law,” but not the love of the mother for her +child, or even of the bird for its young, but the love of the eye for +the light, of the flower for the sun, the love of the plants for the +rain and the dew, the love of man for his kind, and of the dog for +his kind. Attraction, affiliation, assimilation--like unto like is +the rule of life. + +The organism fits itself to its environment; the Providence in Nature +enables it to do so. The light is not fitted to the eye; the light +creates the eye; the vibrations in the air create the ear. God, or +the Eternal, is love because He brooded man into being, and all other +forms of life that support man. He made the heavens and the earth for +man’s good, by making man a part of them and able to avail himself of +their bounty. But when we look forth into the universe, and expect to +see something like human care and affection in the operation of the +great elemental laws and forces, we are bound to be shocked. It is +not there, and well that it is not. A universe run on the principles +of human economy, human charity, and partiality would be a failure. +It is our human weakness that yearns for this. It is our earthly +father that has begotten in us our conception of a heavenly father. +But then this very conception and desire is a part of nature--springs +from the Eternal, and is in that sense authentic. We cannot separate +ourselves from nature, or from the Eternal, any more than we can jump +off the planet. It is only the conception of a human or man-made God +that men rebel against. Thus comes in the discord that Tennyson sees +and feels. He is looking for a human providence in nature. Wisdom, +love, mercy, justice, are human attributes. We call them divine, and +it is well, but they do not exist outside of man. Man is himself the +only God, and he was evolved from nature. The divine and the godlike +are therefore in nature; yes, in conjunction with what we call the +demoniacal--love twined with enmity, the good a partner with the bad. + + “I bring to life, I bring to death; + The spirit does but mean the breath.” + +Plagues and famines and wars are fortuitous and not a part of the +regular order like health, or growth, or development. They are +accidents of nature. The cloud-burst that sends the creek out of +its banks is an accident in the same sense; it is an exceptional +occurrence. If the fountains of nature were not full enough and +permanent enough to stand such drains, or if the tendency in nature +to a certain order and moderation were less marked, life would +disappear from the globe. Nature’s capital of life is invested in ten +thousand enterprises and the risks are many, but if the gains did not +exceed the losses, if more seeds did not fall upon fertile places +than upon barren, if more babies did not survive than perish, what +would become of us? In our human schemes we aim to cut out losses, +waste, delays and failure, and arraign the Eternal when it does +not follow the same methods. But so far as I can see all that the +Eternal aims at in the vast business of the universe is to keep the +capital unimpaired and live on the income. The inroads which storms, +pestilence, earthquakes make upon it are soon made good and some +interest does accrue. Life does advance. + +In the course of the biologic ages there has been a great loss in +species, apparently without any loss in the development impulse. New +species appear as the old disappear. Nature’s investment in mere size +and brute strength was doubtless a good one under the conditions, but +she gradually changed it and began to lay the emphasis upon size of +brain and complexity of nervous system, just as man in his material +civilization has passed from the simple to the complex, from the +go-cart to the automobile, from the signal fires to telegraph and +telephone. The failures and shortcomings of the Eternal, as well as +the progress of its work, are analogous to those of man. Indeed, God +is no more a god than man is. He evinces the same methods, the same +mixture of good and evil, the same progress from the simple to the +complex, the same survival of the fittest. We exalt and magnify our +little human attributes and name it God; we magnify and intensify our +bad traits and call it the Devil. One is as real as the other. Both +are real to the imagination of man, but Nature knows them not, except +so far as she knows them in and through man. + +On a midsummer day, calm, clear, warm, the leaves shining, the grain +and grass ripening, the waters sparkling, the birds singing, we see +and feel the beneficence of Nature. How good it all is! What a joy +to be alive! If the day were to end in a fury of wind and storm, +breaking the trees, unroofing the houses, and destroying the crops, +we should be seeing the opposite side of Nature, what we call the +malevolent side. Fair days now and then have such endings, but they +are the exception; living nature survives them and soon forgets +them. Their scars may long remain, but they finally disappear. Total +nature is overpoweringly on the side of life. But for all this, when +we talk about the fatherhood of God, his loving solicitude, we talk +in parables. There is not even the shadow of analogy between the +wholesale bounty of Nature and the care and providence of a human +father. Striding through the universe goes the Eternal, crushed +worlds on one hand and worlds being created on the other: no special +act of love or mercy or guidance, but a providence like the rains, +the sunshine, the seasons. + +When we say hard things about Nature--accuse her of cruelty, of +savagery, of indifference--we fall short of our proper filial respect +toward her. She is the mother of us all; neither an indulgent mother, +nor a cruel stepmother. In many respects the gifts she has lavished +upon us only make her own poverty the more conspicuous. Where she +got the gift of reason which she has bestowed upon man, together +with the sense of justice and of mercy, the moral consciousness, +the æsthetic perceptions, the capacity for learning her secrets and +mastering her forces, are puzzling questions. We may say that man +achieved these things himself; but who or what made him capable of +achieving them, what made him man, and out of the same elements that +his dog or his horse is made? + +Nature does not reason; she has no moral consciousness; she does not +economize her resources; she is not efficient, she is wasteful and +dilatory, and spends with one hand what she saves with the other. +She is blind; her method is the hit-and-miss method of a man who +fights in the dark. She hits her mark, not because she aims at it, +but because she shoots in all directions. She fills the air with her +bullets. She wants to plant in yonder marsh her cat-tail flag, or +her purple loosestrife, and she trusts her seeds to every wind that +blows, and to the foot of every bird that visits her marshes, no +matter which way they are going. And in time her marsh gets planted. +The pollen from her trees and plants drifts in clouds in order that +one minute grain of it may find the pistil that is waiting for it +somewhere in the next wood or field. She trusts her nuts to every +vagabond jay or crow or squirrel that comes along, in hopes that +some of them will be dropped or hidden and thus get planted. She +trims her trees, and thins her forests, or reforests her lands, +in the most roundabout, dilatory, and inefficient manner. No plan, +no system, no economy of effort or of material; and yet she “gets +there,” because she is not limited as to time or resources. She is in +business with unlimited capital and unlimited opportunities; she has +no competitors; her stockholders are all of one mind, and all roads +lead to her markets. The winds, the streams, the rains, the snows, +fire, flood, tornado, earthquake, are all her servitors. She does not +stick for the best end of the bargain, the gain is hers whoever wins. + +But behold how she has endowed man to improve upon all her slack +and roundabout methods! She enables him to cheat, and mislead, and +circumvent her. He steals her secrets, he tames her very lightnings, +he forces her hand on a hundred occasions; he turns her rivers, he +levels her hills, he obliterates her marshes, he makes her deserts +bloom as the rose; he measures her atoms and surveys and weighs her +orbs; he reads her history in the rocks, he finds out her ways in +the heavens. He discovers the most completely hidden thing in the +universe, the ether, and he has learned how to use it for his own +purposes; his wireless telegraphy turns it into a news highway; above +the seas, over the mountains, and across continents, it carries his +messages. + +In man Nature has evolved the human from the unhuman; she has evolved +justice and mercy from rapine and cruelty; she has evolved the civic +from the domestic, the state from the tribe. She has evolved the +Briton and the Frenchman from rude prehistoric man. She has not yet +got rid of the Hun in the German, but she is fast getting rid of the +German in her overseas Germanic stock. The bleaching process goes on +apace. + +Man sees where Nature is blind; he takes a straight cut where +she goes far around. In him she has added reason to her impulse, +conscience to her blind forces, self-denial to her self-indulgence, +the power of choice to her iron necessity. How well she has done by +man, man alone knows. How much he is dependent upon her, he alone +knows; how completely he is a part of her, he alone knows. We may +call man an insurgent in her world, as an English scientist does, but +he is her insurgent; she inspires him to insurrection, and she puts +his weapons in his hands. His cause is her cause, and his victories +are her victories. + +Only by personifying Nature in this way, and standing apart from her +and regarding her objectively, can we contrast her methods and her +spirit with our own. The mother she has been to us becomes apparent. +In spite of all her shortcomings and delays and roundabout methods, +here we are, and here we wish to remain. + + + + +V + +THE GOOD DEVILS + + +I + +This is not an essay on the optimism of a moralist, but on the +optimism of a naturalist. + +On the whole and in the long run, as I am never tired of asserting, +Nature is good. The universe has not miscarried. The celestial laws, +as Whitman says, do not need to be worked over and rectified. It is +good to be here, and it must be equally good to go hence. With all +the terrible things in Nature, and all the cruel and wicked things in +history, the world is good; life is good, and the Devil himself plays +a good part. + +When Emerson in his Journal says, “It is very odd that Nature should +be so unscrupulous. She is no saint,” one wonders just what he means. +Does he expect gravity, or fire, or flood, or wind, or tide to have +scruples? Should the cat have scruples about dining off the mouse +or the bird, or the wolf about making a meal of the lamb? or the +plants and trees have scruples about running their roots into one +another’s preserves, or cutting off one another’s rain or sunshine? +If our cowbird had the human conscience, we should expect her to have +scruples about laying her egg in the nest of another bird and thus +shirking the labors and cares of parenthood, and we should expect +the jays and crows to have scruples about eating up the eggs and +young of their feathered neighbors, if they, too, were endowed with +conscience. But none of them are troubled in this way, for the simple +reason that they are not human beings. They live below the plane of +man’s moral conscience. Chemistry and the elementary forces have no +scruples. Powder or dynamite will blow up its maker as soon as it +will any one else. The rain does not scruple to spoil the farmer’s +hay, or the floods to wash away his house and destroy its inmates. + +We are childish when we marvel at the unscrupulousness of Nature. +Emerson often appealed to the nature of things. It is in the nature +of things that they should be what we name unscrupulous; certainly +Nature “is no saint,” and it is well for us that she is not. If we +identify Nature with what we call God, as many do, then I am saying +that it is well for us that the Eternal is “no saint.” I suspect +that if the drama of life which has been enacted upon the globe, +and is still being enacted, had been modeled upon the principle of +sainthood, you and I would not now be here. More’s the pity, you may +say, but there is no pity in Nature. + + +II + +Is Nature then of the Devil? If we choose to name it so,--if we +choose to revert to the conception of an earlier age,--yes, Nature, +as we see her from our limited human point of view, is more or less +of the Devil--half god and half demon, we may say; divine in some of +her manifestations and diabolical in others, divine when she favors +us and diabolical when she is against us. But what we do not so +readily see is that in the long run the Devil is on our side also, +that he is the divine wearing a mask. The Devil is the absence of +something; he is a negative quantity that stimulates the positive and +sets and keeps the currents going. Our breathing is the result of a +perpetual tendency to a vacuum in our lungs; the growth of our bodies +is the result of a coöperation and agreement between the integrating +and disintegrating forces. + +We control the Devil and make him our friend when we control most of +the forces of nature--the fire, the wind, the waters, electricity, +magnetism, gravity, chemical affinity, and so on. If our hold +upon them slips, they destroy us. If we are not watchful in our +laboratories, the same chemistry that builds up our bodies will blow +our bodies to atoms. The tornado, the earthquake, the volcano, the +thunderbolt, have all helped to make the earth what we behold it. The +floods have helped, the avalanches have helped, frost and wind and +snow, tropic heat and arctic cold, have helped. These devils are the +hod-carriers that serve the divine mason--the mixers and builders, +the plowers and the planters, the levelers and the engineer. Hence, I +say: “Good Devil, be thou my friend; you give me power, you sharpen +my wits, you make a man of me.” + +This is the tangible, physical Devil; the intangible, moral Devil is +not so easily dealt with. It is not so easy to turn the spirit of +crime, intemperance, cruelty, war, superstition, greed, and so on to +our advantage. Yet there also is power going to waste or misdirected. +There is a light under the feet of these things also. Trade, out of +which has come greed, has opened up and humanized the world; war has +often grafted a superior stock upon an inferior. + +“It was for Beauty that the world was made.” Emerson quotes this +verse from Ben Jonson and says that it is better than any single line +of Tennyson’s “In Memoriam.” Only the poet is allowed to make such +extravagant statements. We cannot in soberness and truth say that +the world was made for any particular end. It is out of a certain +harmony of the elements that we arose and our sense of beauty was +developed, but the world exists for as many ends as we have power to +conceive. Order, harmony, rhythm, compensation, equilibrium, circles, +spheres, are fundamental in nature. Music, which is beauty to the +ear, hath power over inert matter. In the Mammoth Cave the very rocks +will sing if you speak to them in the right key. How steel filings +on a metal surface will dance and arrange themselves in symmetrical +groups under the influence of musical chords! Harmony is at the heart +of nature, but, in the music of creation, disharmony plays a part +also. The world is not all beautiful unless seen as a whole; all its +discords are harmonized in the curve of the sphere. Emerson’s own +line, “Beauty is its own excuse for being,” is better and truer than +the one he quotes from Ben Jonson. + +When saying that in the music of creation disharmony plays a part +also, I do not mean to imply that this is not also true in human +music. The dissonances are just as much a part of great music as +are the harmonies. What would the operas of Wagner be without the +tremendous dissonances? That is what makes Wagner one of the greatest +in music; he sees things whole, just as Whitman does in his art--sees +that “all are but parts of one stupendous whole,” and that the merely +pretty in music, in poetry, in any art, as in nature, is only one +little phase of it, only an arc of the great circle. + + +III + +What trouble we get into when we identify God with Nature! and what +trouble we get into when we refuse to identify the two! In the first +case we reach the unity that the mind craves, but it is a unity made +up of those antagonisms which revolt us. In the second case it is a +duality that leaves half of the world to the Devil. + +We select what we call the divine and stand confused and abashed +before the residue. We must either change our notion about the power +we call God and make it all-inclusive, embracing evil as well as +good, or else we must change our notion about Nature and see no evil +in her. God and Nature are one. If they are two, who or what is the +second? + +How can we fail to see that all the shaded part of the picture is +necessary to the picture--that all high lights would not make a +picture, but only a daub; and that all that we call good would not +make a world in which men could live and develop? Life goes on under +conditions more or less antagonistic. The antagonism gives the power; +the friction develops electricity. The vices and crimes and follies +and excesses of society are the riot and overflow of the virtues. The +pride of the rich, the tyranny of power, the lust of gain, the riot +of sensuality, are all a little too much of a good thing--a little +too much heat or light or rain or frost or snow or food or drink. +There can be no perversions till there is something good to pervert, +no counterfeits till there is first the genuine article. + +The currents of wild life get out of their banks and we have, for +example, a plague of locusts or moths or forest worms, but the +natural check surely comes. The military spirit of Germany, which +springs from a laudable devotion to the state and to the good of +all, got out of its banks and brought on the World War, but the flood +has subsided and will probably be so dyked that it can never get out +again. It will find its outlet in the arts of peace. + + +IV + +The so-called laws of Nature were not designed and decreed as our +human laws are. There is no great lawgiver. Her laws are a sequence +of events and activities; this sequence has worked itself out through +countless ages. Nothing in the universe was designed in the human +sense: it was not first a thought in some one’s mind, then to become +an act or a contrivance. This concept does not express the mystery of +creation. There is a constant becoming; there was no beginning, there +can be no ending. There is perpetual change and revolution, perpetual +transfer and promotion, but nothing that can be explained in terms +of our human experience and achievement. The world and all it holds +were created as the flower is created in the spring, as the snowflake +is created in the winter, as the cloud is created in the summer sky. +Man was created as the chick is created in the egg. Man has had a +long day of creation; he has been becoming man since the first dawn +of life in the old Palæozoic seas. His horse and his dog have been +becoming what we behold them through all the geologic ages. This +view does not leave the Eternal out of the universe; it puts Him in +it so that He cannot be got out. It makes Him immanent in it at all +points; it makes Nature transcend human reason and human speech. As +long as we think of God as a kind of superman external to nature, we +can deny Him and cut Him out, but when we identify ourselves and all +things else with Him, there is no escaping Him. We ourselves are a +phase or a fraction of Him. When we select or screen out what we name +the good, the fair, the divine, and call that God, what are we to do +with the residue? Call it the Devil? The Devil, too, then is a part +of the Eternal Good. I want no emasculated universe. I want the fiber +and virility and pungency and power and heat and drive which all that +we call bad gives it. + +Our mission is to tame and elevate and direct the elements and forces +without weakening them. Thence comes our power. A perfect world would +not be one without sin or suffering or struggle or failure. There +can be no perfect world. But there can be one more and more livable, +more and more in harmony with those laws that promote our well-being. +Approximations, approximations--that is our success, and never +complete fulfillment! When we say that God is the All, we must have +the courage of our convictions and not flinch at the consequences. +He is all that we call bad as well as all that we call good. What we +call good is _our_ good, and not absolute good. There is no absolute +good any more than there is absolute heat or cold or height or depth. + +We work our way through the mazes and contradictions of +things--contradictions from our point of view--as best we can, +eliminating the bad and cleaving unto the good, but the total scheme +of things, the reconciliations and compensations and final results, +we can never grasp. We cannot abate our war upon evil, because we +have our well-being on these terms, but evil is indirectly the father +of good. + + +V + +All religious and ethical systems grow out of our egoism. We plant +ourselves in the middle of the universe and say it is all for us. +We make gods in our own image, we invent a heaven for the good and +a hell for the wicked, and seek to keep down the brute within us +by a system of rewards and punishments. We improve our minds and +souls as we improve the fields; we make them more fair and fertile, +but we do not eliminate Nature; with her own weapons we improve our +relations to her--we promote _our_ good, but we are still Nature’s; +the harvest we reap is still Nature’s. Our improvements upon her are +mere removal of obstructions from the rill that gushes perennially +from her prolific earth. We improve her fruits, her flowers, her +animals--that is, make them more serviceable to us--by means of the +hold we have upon her methods. We add nothing; we utilize what she +has placed within our reach. All of which means that we are Nature’s, +and that our knowing it and thinking of it cannot make the slightest +difference. Our fate is inevitable. There is no escape. Whose else +could we be? We cannot get off the sphere; if we could, we should +still be a part of the All. Our elaborate schemes to appropriate or +propitiate the Eternal, to stand well with Him, to gain heaven and +avoid hell, are devices of cunning Nature to spur us on the road +of development. (How easily one falls into the language of extreme +anthropomorphism!) The beautiful myth of the Garden of Eden and the +fall of man is full of meaning. Surely it was a good devil that put +man in the way of knowing good from evil, and led to his expulsion +from a state of innocent impotence. + +Nature’s dealings with man and with the other forms of life are on +the same plan as her dealings with the earth as a whole. The drainage +system of the globe is by no means perfect; there are marshes and +stagnant waters in every country, but how small comparatively the +area they cover! The rains and snows give birth to pure springs in +all lands, which unite to form the creeks, which, again, unite to +form the rivers, which flow into the lakes and seas, giving back to +the great bodies of water what the sun and the winds took from them, +and thus keeping the vital currents of the globe in ceaseless motion. +The same may be said of the weather system of the globe; it is not +perfect everywhere--too much rain here, too much sun there, too hot +in some parts, too cold in others, but on the whole favoring life and +development. + +We think we could improve the weather. So we might for our special +purposes at times--when it rains and we have hay down, or a crop to +put in, or a picnic in view; but it is better on the whole that we +adapt ourselves to the weather than that the weather be adapted to +the special needs of each of us. The Lord would be pretty sure to get +mixed up if He tried the latter plan. + +A general and not a special Providence is our salvation. Good and +evil mixed make life, as cloud and sun in due proportions make the +best climate. + + +VI + +War is a scourge like fire, the whirlwind, the earthquake, when +viewed in the light of a particular time and people, but good may +come from it after the lapse of ages. It strengthens and consolidates +and develops the heroic virtues. Yet what a legacy of suffering and +death go with it! But to invoke war is like invoking the pestilence, +the tornado, the earthquake. The guilt of the German military staff +in bringing on the World War is of the blackest dye. It may be a +good to man, but it is a terrible evil to men. We cannot afford to +play Providence; we must not play with Jove’s thunderbolts. War +cannot come to any people unless somebody (or some body of men) wills +it, and to will an aggressive war is a crime. No matter if the recent +war puts a final end to war, the gods will not credit us with the +good that flows from our act over and above our purpose and will. + +All the good that comes from war comes from struggle, self-denial, +heroism; and all courses of action that develop these traits are +substitutes for war. The farm, the mining-camp, engineering, +exploration, are substitutes. The best war material is recruited +from these fields. The man who can guide the plowshare can wield +the sword; the man who can face the grizzly and the lion can face +the cannon and the torpedo. War develops no new virtues; it helps +rejuvenate the old; obedience, team-work, system, organization and +so on are achievements of an industrial age. In history most wrongs +are finally righted and the balance is fairly kept, but this is not +by the will and purpose of the actors, but by the remedial forces of +nature and life. + +The guilt falls the same upon the greed and lust of power, even if +the gods finally reap a harvest that man’s iniquities have sown. He +maketh the wicked to praise Him, but the wicked are to get no credit. +Here is where our moral standards diverge from those of the natural +universal. Our moral standards apply to us alone; they are special +and limited. The gods know them not. The rain falls alike upon the +just and upon the unjust. The poet says, “I judge not as the judge +judges, but as the sunlight falling around a helpless thing.” This +is the voice of the natural universal. When we judge as the judge +judges, we condemn strife and war and all such uncharity, we execute +or imprison criminals, we found asylums and hospitals and other +charitable organizations; when we judge as Nature or the poet judges, +we say to the fallen one: + + “Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you, + Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves + to rustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and + rustle for you.” + +The All brings mercy out of cruelty, love out of hatred, life out of +death, but man’s orbit is so small that he cannot harmonize these +contradictions. The curve of the universal laws does not bring him +round till generations have passed. To keep on traveling east till +you approach your point of departure from the west, you must have the +round globe to travel on. An empire would not avail. + + +VII + +Good and evil are strangely mixed in this world, and probably in all +other worlds. What is evil to one creature is often good to another. +It is an evil to the vireo or to the warbler when the cowbird lays +its egg in the nest of one of these birds, but it is a good to the +cowbird. It relieves her of all maternal cares, and provides her +young with a devoted nurse and stepmother, but the young warblers or +vireos are likely to perish. All parasites live at the expense of +some other form of life, and are to that extent evils to these forms; +but Nature is just as much interested in one form as in the other; an +ill wind to one blows good to another, and thus the balance is kept. + +A world without evil would be an impossible world--as impossible as +mechanical motion without friction or as sunlight without shadow. The +two worlds, the organic and the inorganic, constantly interact. The +former draws all its elements and its power from the latter, which is +passive to it, and goes its way in the inexorable round of physical +laws, irrespective of it. Viewed as a whole, the evils of life +inhere in its elements and conditions. Air, water, fire, soil, give +us our strength and our growth; they also destroy us if we fail to +keep right relations to them. We cannot walk or lift a hand without +gravity; and yet, give gravity a chance, and it crushes us, the +floods drown us, fire consumes us! Could we have life on any other +terms; could God himself annul these conditions? + +Hunger is or may become an evil destroying life, but does it not +imply the opposite condition of good--food, an appetite, power of +assimilation in the organism? Disease is an evil to the living body +it attacks, but it does not attack a dead body and it often educates +the body to resist disease. It is a war which may leave the victor +more capable than he was before. + +Robert Ingersoll conceived of an improvement in creation--“make +health contagious instead of disease.” But this is to trifle with +words. In a certain sense health is contagious. But physical +health, like peace of mind, is a condition, and must come from +harmony within, while a contagious disease is conveyed by a living +micro-organism, and is truly catching, and to change or reverse all +this would be to destroy the conditions of life itself. To postulate +a world in which two and two would make five, or in which a straight +line is not the shortest distance between two points, is to take the +road to the insane asylum. Evil is positive only in the sense that +shadow or darkness is positive, or that cold is positive. It is a +greater or lesser degree of negation. + +In society and in the state we seek to curb or to correct or to +eliminate Nature’s errors, and in doing so often fall into other +errors and cross-purposes. Yet to fight what we call evil, and +promote what we call good, is the supreme duty of all men. Physical +evil the doctors and natural philosophers warn us against; moral +evil, which is a much more intangible thing, our ethical teachers +point out to us; mental evil, ignorance, superstition, false +judgment, and so on, the schools and colleges help us to avoid; +religious evil, economic evil, political evil, all have their +safeguards and guides. + +Why could not a world have been made in which there was no evil? In +asking such a question we misapprehend the nature of the world; we +are thinking of something made and a maker external to it; we are +trying the universe by the standards of our human experience. The +world was not made, man was not created in any sense paralleled by +our human experience with tangible bodies. The world and all there is +in it is the result of evolution, or an endless process of creation, +an everlasting becoming, in which the nature of things beyond which +we can take no step plays the principal part. A world on any other +terms would not be the world to which we are adjusted, and out of +whose conflicting forces our lives came. + +There will be times when the light will blind the eye; other times +when the darkness will heal and restore it; when the heat will burn +the hand, when the food will poison the stomach, when the friend +will weary you, when home is a prison, when books are a bore. +Our relations to things make them good or bad: our momentary and +accidental relations may make the good things bad, but our permanent +natural relations make the good good, the bad bad. + +In a world without the gravity which so often crushes us, we could +not walk or lift the hand; without the friction which so often +impedes us, our train and vehicles would not move; without the water +that could so easily drown us, the currents of our bodies would dry +up; without the germs that so often make war upon us, we should soon +cease to be. Both friendly and hostile are the powers that surround +us,--or, rather, is the power that surrounds us, for it is one and +not two,--friendly when we are in the relation to it demanded and +provided for by our constitution, and unfriendly when we are in false +relation to it. To know this true relation from the false is a part +of the discipline of life. + +I know this is not the end of the story; there are more questions to +be asked. We want a solution of the last solution, but this can never +come. Final questions return forever to themselves; they baffle us, +constituted as our minds are; they are circles and not lines. + + + + +VI + +THE NATURAL PROVIDENCE + + +I + +What unthinking people call design in nature is simply the reflection +of our inevitable anthropomorphism. Whatever they can use, they +think was designed for that purpose--the air to breathe, the water +to drink, the soil to plant. It is as if they thought the notch in +the mountains was made for the road to pass over, or the bays and +harbor for the use of cities and shipping. But in inorganic nature +the foot is made to fit the shoe and not the reverse. We are cast in +the mould of the environment. If the black cap of the nuthatch which +comes to the maple-tree in front of my window and feeds on the suet +I place there were a human thinking-cap, the bird would see design +in the regular renewal of that bit of suet; he would say, “Some one +or something puts that there for me”; but he helps himself and asks +no questions. The mystery does not trouble him. Why should not I, +poor mortal, feel the same about these blessings and conveniences +around me of which I hourly partake, and which seem so providential? +Why do not I, with my thinking-cap, infer that some one or something +is thinking about me and my well-being? The mass of mankind does +draw this inference, and it is well for them to do so. But the case +of the bird is different. The bit of suet that I feed on is not so +conspicuously something extra, something added to the tree; it is +a part of the tree; it is inseparable from it. I am compelled, as +it were, to distil it out of the tree, so that instead of being the +act of a special providence, it is the inevitable benefaction of the +general providence of nature. What the old maple holds for me is +maple-sugar, but it was not put there for me; it is there just the +same, whether I want it or not; it is a part of the economy of the +tree; it is a factor in its own growth; the tree is not thinking of +me (pardon the term), but of itself. Of course this does not make my +debt to it, and my grounds for thankfulness, any the less real, but +it takes it out of the category of events such as that which brings +the suet to the nuthatch. The Natural Providence is not intermittent, +it is perennial; but it takes no thought of me or you. It is life +that is flexible and adaptive, and not matter and force. “We do +not,” says Renan, “remark in the universe any sign of deliberate and +thoughtful action. We may affirm that no action of this sort has +existed for millions of centuries.” I think we may affirm more than +that--we may affirm that it never existed. Some vestige of the old +theology still clung to Renan’s mind--there was a day of creation in +which God set the universe going, and then left it to run itself; +the same vestige clung to Darwin’s mind and led him to say that in +the beginning God must have created a few species of animals and +vegetables and then left them to develop and populate the world. + +Says Renan, “When a chemist arranges an experiment that is to last +for years, everything which takes place in his retort is regulated by +the laws of absolute unconsciousness; which does not mean that a will +has not intervened at the beginning of the experiment, and that it +will not intervene at the end.” There was no beginning nor will there +be any ending to the experiment of creation; the will is as truly +there in the behavior of the molecules at one time as at another. The +effect of Renan’s priestly training and associations clings to him +like a birthmark. + +In discussing these questions our plumb-line does not touch bottom, +because there is no bottom. “In the infinite,” says Renan with deeper +insight, “negations vanish, contradictions are merged”; in other +words, opposites are true. Where I stand on the surface of the sphere +is the center of that surface, but that does not prevent the point +where you stand being the center also. Every point is a center, and +the sky is overhead at one place as at another; opposites are true. + +The moral and intellectual worlds present the same contradictions or +limitations--the same relatively of what we call truth. + +Nature’s ways--which with me is the same as saying God’s ways--are +so different from ours; “no deliberate and thoughtful action,” +as Renan puts it, no economy of time or material, no short cuts, +no cutting-out of non-essentials, no definite plan, no specific +ends, few straight lines or right angles; her streams loiter and +curve, her forces are unbridled; no loss or gain; her accounts +always balance; the loss at one point, or with one form, is a gain +with some other--all of which is the same as saying that there is +nothing artificial in Nature. All is Natural, all is subject to +the hit-and-miss method. The way Nature trims her trees, plants +her forests, sows her gardens, is typical of the whole process of +the cosmos. God is no better than man because man is a part of +God. From our human point of view he is guilty of our excesses and +shortcomings. Time does not count, pain does not count, waste does +not count. The wonder is that the forests all get planted by this +method, the pines in their places, the spruces in theirs, the oaks +and maples in theirs; and the trees get trimmed in due time, now and +then, it is true, by a very wasteful method. A tree doctor could +save and prolong the lives of many of them. The small fountains and +streams all find their way to larger streams, and these to still +larger, and these to lakes or to the sea, and the drainage system +of the continents works itself out with engineering exactitude. +The decay of the rocks and the formation of the soil come about in +due time, but not in man’s time. In all the grand processes and +transformations of nature the element of time enters on such a scale +as to dwarf all human efforts. + + +II + +When we say of a thing or an event that it was a chance happening, +we do not mean that it was not determined by the laws of matter +and force, but we mean it was not the result of the human will, or +of anything like it; it was not planned or designed by conscious +intelligence. Chance in this sense plays a very large part in +nature and in life. Though the result of irrefragable laws, the +whole non-living world about us shows no purpose or forethought +in our human sense. For instance, we are compelled to regard the +main features of the earth as matters of chance, the distribution +of land and water, of islands and continents, of rivers, lakes, +seas, mountains and plains, valleys and hills, the shapes of the +continents; that there is more land in the northern hemisphere than +in the southern, more land at the South Pole than at the North, +is a matter of chance. The serpentine course of a stream through +an alluvial plain, a stream two yards wide, winding and ox-bowing +precisely as does the Mississippi, is a matter of chance. The whole +geography of a country, in fact, is purely a matter of chance, and +not the result of anything like human forethought. The planets +themselves--that Jupiter is large and Mercury small; that Saturn +has rings; that Jupiter has seven moons; that the Earth has one; +that other planets have none; that some of the planets are in a +condition to sustain life as we know it, for example, Venus, Earth, +and probably Mars; that some revolve in more elliptical orbits than +others; that Mercury and Venus apparently always keep the same side +toward the sun--all these things are matters of chance. It is easy to +say, as did our fathers, that God designed it thus and so, but how +are we to think of an omnipotent and omniscient Being as planning +such wholesale destruction of his own works as occurs in the cosmic +catastrophes which the astronomers now and then witness in the +sidereal universe, or even as occur on the earth, when earthquakes +and volcanoes devastate fair lands or engulf the islands of the sea? +Why should such a Being design a desert, or invent a tornado, or +ordain that some portion of the earth’s surface should have almost +perpetual rain and another portion almost perpetual drought? In +Hawaii I saw islands that were green and fertile on one end from +daily showers, while the other end, ten miles away, was a rough +barren rock, from the entire absence of showers. Were the trade winds +designed to bring the vapors of the sea to the tropic lands? + +In following this line of thought we, of course, soon get where no +step can be taken. Is the universe itself a chance happening? Such +a proposition is unthinkable, because something out of nothing is +unthinkable. Our experience in this world develops our conceptions of +time and space, and to set bounds to either is an impossible task. We +say the cosmos must always have existed, and there we stop. We have +no faculties to deal with the great ultimate problems. + +We are no better off when we turn to the world of living things. Here +we see design, particular means adapted to specific ends. Shall we +say that a bird or a bee or a flower is a chance happening, as is the +rainbow or the sunset cloud or a pearl or a precious stone? Is man +himself a chance happening? Here we are stuck and cannot lift our +feet. The mystery and the miracle of vitality, as Tyndall called it, +is before us. Here is the long, hard road of evolution, the push and +the unfolding of life through countless ages, something more than +the mechanical and the accidental, though these have played a part; +something less than specific plan and purpose, though we seem to +catch dim outlines of these. + +Spontaneous variations, original adaptations, a never-failing primal +push toward higher and more complex forms--how can we, how shall we, +read the riddle of it all? How shall we account for man on purely +naturalistic grounds? + +The consistent exponent of variation cannot go into partnership with +supernaturalism. Grant that the organic split off from the inorganic +by insensible degrees, yet we are bound to ask what made it split +off at all?--and how it was that the first unicellular life contained +the promise and the potency of all the life of to-day? Such questions +take us into deep waters where our plummet-line finds no bottom. It +suits my reason better to say there is no solution than to accept a +solution which itself needs solution, and still leaves us where we +began. + +The adjustment of non-living bodies to each other seems a simple +matter, but in considering the adaptations of living bodies to one +another, and to their environment, we are confronted with a much +harder problem. Life is an active principle, not in the sense that +gravity and chemical reactions are active principles, but in a +quite different sense. Gravity and chemical reactions are always +the same, inflexible and uncompromising; but life is ever variable +and adaptive; it will take half a loaf if it cannot get a whole +one. Gravity answers yea and nay. Life says, “Probably; we will see +about it; we will try again to-morrow.” The oak-leaf will become an +oak-ball to accommodate an insect that wants a cradle and a nursery +for its young; it will develop one kind of a nursery for one insect +and another kind for a different insect. + + +III + +As far as I have got, or ever hope to get, toward solving the problem +of the universe is to see clearly that it is insoluble. One can +arrive only at negative conclusions; he comes to see that the problem +cannot be dealt with in terms of our human experience and knowledge. +But what other terms have we? Our knowledge does not qualify us in +any degree to deal with the Infinite. The sphere has no handle to +take hold of, and the Infinite baffles the mind in the same way. +Measured by our human standards, it is a series of contradictions. +The method of Nature is a haphazard method, yet behold the final +order and completeness! How many of her seeds she trusts to the winds +and the waters, and her fertilizing pollens and germs also! And the +winds and the waters do her errands, with many failures, of course, +but they hit the mark often enough to serve her purpose. She provides +lavishly enough to afford her failures. + +When we venture upon the winds and the waters with our crafts, we aim +to control them, and we reach our havens only when we do control them. + +What is there in the method of Nature that answers to the human +will in such matters? Nothing that I can see; yet her boats and her +balloons reach their havens--not all of them, but enough of them +for her purpose. Yet when we apply the word “purpose” or “design” +to Nature, to the Infinite, we are describing her in terms of the +finite, and thus fall into contradictions. Still, the wings and +balloons and hooks and springs in the vegetable world are for a +specific purpose--to scatter the seed far from the parent plant. +Every part and organ and movement of a living body serves a purpose +to that organism. The mountain lily looks straight up to the sky; the +meadow lily looks down to the earth; undoubtedly each flower finds +its advantage in its own attitude, but what that advantage is, I know +not. If Nature planned and invented as man does, she would attain +to mere unity and simplicity. It is her blind, prodigal, haphazard +methods that result in her endless diversity. When she got a good +wing for the seed of a tree, such as that of the maple, she would, +if merely efficient, give this to the seeds of other similar trees; +but she gives a different wing to the ash, to the linden, to the elm, +the pine, and the hemlock, while to some she gives no wings at all. +The nut-bearing trees, such as the oaks, the beeches, the walnuts, +and the hickories, have no wings, except such as are afforded them +by the birds and beasts that feed upon them and carry them away. +And here again Nature has a purpose in the edible nut which tempts +some creatures to carry it away. If all the nuts were devoured, the +whole tribe of nut-bearing trees would in time be exterminated, and +Nature’s end defeated. But in a world of conflicting forces like +ours, chance plays an important part; many of the nuts get scattered, +and not all devoured. The hoarding-up propensities of certain birds +and squirrels result in the planting of many oaks and chestnuts and +beeches. + +The inherent tendency to variation in organic life, together with +Nature’s hit-and-miss method, account for her endless variety on the +same plane, as it were, as that of her many devices for disseminating +her seeds. One plan of hook or barb serves as well as another,--that +of bidens as well as that of hound’s-tongue,--yet each has a pattern +of its own. The same may be said of the leaves of the trees: their +function is to expose the juices of the tree to the chemical action +of light and air; yet behold what an endless variety in their shape, +size, and structure! This is the way of the Infinite--to multiply +endlessly, to give a free rein to the physical forces and let them +struggle with one another for the stable equilibrium to which they +never, as a whole, attain; to give the same free rein to the organic +forces and let their various forms struggle with one another for the +unstable equilibrium which is the secret of their life. + +The many contingencies that wait upon the circuit of the physical +forces and determine the various forms of organic matter--rocks, +sand, soil, gravel, mountain, plain--all shifting and changing +endlessly--wait upon the circuit of the organic forces and turn the +life-impulse into myriad channels, and people the earth with myriads +of living forms, each accidental from our limited point of view, +while all are determined by irrefragable laws. The contradictions in +such statements are obvious and are inevitable when the finite tries +to measure or describe the ways of the Infinite. + +The waters of the globe are forever seeking the repose of a dead +level, but when they attain it, if they ever do, the world will be +dead. Behold what a career they have in their circuit from the sea +to the clouds and back to the earth in the ministering rains, and +then to the sea again through the streams and rivers! The mantling +snow with its exquisite crystals, the grinding and transporting +glaciers, the placid or plowing and turbulent rivers, the sparkling +and refreshing streams, the cooling and renewing dews, the softening +and protecting vapors, wait upon this circuit of the waters through +the agency of the sun, from the sea, through the sky and land, back +to the sea again. Yes, and all the myriad forms of life also. This +circuit of the waters drives and sustains all the vital machinery of +the globe. + +Why and how the sun and the rain bring the rose and the violet, the +peach and the plum, the wheat and the rye, and the boys and the +girls, out of the same elements and conditions that they bring the +thistles and the tares, the thorn and the scrub, the fang and the +sting, the monkey and the reptile, is the insoluble mystery. + +If Nature aspires toward what we call the good in man, does she not +equally aspire toward what we call the bad in thorns and weeds and +reptiles? May we not say that good is our good, and bad is our bad, +and that there is, and can be, no absolute good and no absolute bad, +any more than there can be an absolute up or an absolute down? + +How haphazard, how fortuitous and uncalculated is all this business +of the multiplication of the human race! What freaks, what failures, +what monstrosities, what empty vessels, what deformed limbs, +what defective brains, what perverted instincts! It is as if in +the counsels of the Eternal it had been decided to set going an +evolutionary impulse that should inevitably result in man, and then +leave him to fail or flourish just as the ten thousand contingencies +of the maelstrom of conflicting earth forces should decide, so +that whether a man become a cripple or an athlete, a fool or a +philosopher, a satyr or a god, is largely a matter of chance. Yet the +human brain has steadily grown in size, human mastery over nature has +steadily increased, and chance has, upon the whole, brought more good +to man than evil. Optimism is a final trait of the Eternal. + +And the taking-off of man, how haphazard, how fortuitous it all is! +His years shall be threescore and ten; but how few, comparatively, +reach that age, how few live out half their days! Disease, accident, +stupidity, superstition, cut him off at all ages--in infancy, in +childhood, in youth, in manhood; his whole life is a part of the +flux and uncertainty of things. No god watches over him aside from +himself and his kind, no atom or molecule is partial to him, gravity +crushes him, fire burns him, the floods drown him as readily as +they do vipers and vermin. He takes his chances, he gains, and he +loses, but Nature treats him with the same impartiality that she +treats the rest of her creatures. He runs the same gantlet of the +hostile physical forces, he pays the same price for his development; +but his greater capacity for development--to whom or what does he +owe that? If we follow Darwin we shall say natural selection, and +natural selection is just as good a god as any other. No matter what +we call it, if it brought man to the head of creation and put all +things (nearly all) under his feet, it is god enough for anybody. +At the heart of it there is still a mystery we cannot grasp. The +ways of Nature about us are no less divine because they are near and +familiar. The illusion of the rare and the remote, science dispels. +Of course we are still trying to describe the Infinite in terms of +the finite. + + +IV + +We are so attached to our kind, and so dependent upon them, that +most persons feel homeless and orphaned in a universe where no +suggestion of sympathy and interest akin to our own comes to us from +the great void. A providence of impersonal forces, the broadcast, +indiscriminate benefits of nature, kind deeds where no thought of +kindness is, well-being as the result of immutable law--all such +ideas chill and disquiet us, until we have inured ourselves to them. +We love to fancy that we see friendly hands and hear friendly voices +in nature. It is easy to make ourselves believe that the rains, the +warmth, the fruitful seasons, are sent by some Being for our especial +benefit. The thought that we are adapted to nature and not nature +made or modified to suit us, is distasteful to us. It rubs us the +wrong way. We have long been taught to believe that there is air +because we have lungs, and water because we need it to drink, and +light because we need it to see. Science takes this conceit out of +us. The light begat the eye, and the air begat the lungs. + +In the universe, as science reveals it to us, sensitive souls +experience the cosmic chill; in the universe as our inevitable +anthropomorphism shapes it for us, we experience the human glow. The +same anthropomorphism has in the past peopled the woods and fields +and streams and winds with good and evil spirits, and filled the +world with cruel and debasing superstitions; but in our day we have +got rid of all of this; we have abolished all gods but one. This one +we still fear, and bow down before, and seek to propitiate--not with +offerings and sacrifices, but with good Sunday clothes and creeds +and pew-rents and praise and incense and surplices and ceremonies. +What Brocken shadows our intense personalism casts upon nature! +We see the gigantic outlines of our own forms, and mistake them +for a veritable god. But as we ourselves are a part of nature, so +this humanizing tendency of ours is also a part of nature, a part +of human nature--not valid and independent, like the chemical and +physical forces, but as valid and real as our dreams, our ideas, +our aspirations. All the gods and divinities and spirits with which +man has peopled the heavens and the earth are a part of Nature as +she manifests herself in our subjective selves. So there we are, on +a trail that ends where it began. We condemn one phase of nature +through another phase of nature that is active in our own minds. How +shall we escape this self-contradiction? As we check or control the +gravity without us by the power of the gravity in our own bodies, so +our intelligence must sit in judgment on phases of the same Universal +Intelligence manifested in outward nature. + +It is this recognition of an intelligence in nature akin to our own +that gives rise to our anthropomorphism. We recognize in the living +world about us the use of specific means to specific ends, and this +we call intelligence. It differs from our own in that it is not +selective and intensive in the same way. It does not take short cuts; +it does not aim at human efficiency; it does not cut out waste and +delay and pain. It is the method of trial and error. It hits its +mark because it hits all marks. Species succeed because the tide +that bears them on is a universal tide. It is not a river, but an +ocean current. Nature progresses, but not as man does by discarding +one form and adapting a higher. She discards nothing; she keeps all +her old forms and ways and out of them evolves the higher; she keeps +the fish’s fin, while she perfects the bird’s wing; she preserves the +invertebrate, while she fashions the vertebrate; she achieves man, +while she preserves the monkey. She gropes her way like a blind man, +but she arrives because all goals are hers. Perceptive intelligence +she has given in varying degrees to all creatures, but reasoning +intelligence she has given to man alone. I say “given,” after our +human manner of speaking, when I mean “achieve.” There is no giving +in Nature--there is effort and development. There is interchange and +interaction, but no free gifts. Things are bought with a price. The +price of the mind of man--who can estimate what it has been through +the biological and geological ages?--a price which his long line +of antecedent forms has paid in struggle and suffering and death. +The little that has been added to the size of his brain since the +Piltdown man and the Neanderthal man--what effort and pain has not +that cost? We pay for what we get, or our forbears paid for it. They +paid for the size of our brains, and we pay for our progress in +knowledge. + + +V + +The term “religion” is an equivocal and much-abused word, but I am +convinced that no man’s life is complete without some kind of an +emotional experience that may be called religious. Not necessarily +so much a definite creed or belief as an attraction and aspiration +toward the Infinite, or a feeling of awe and reverence inspired +by the contemplation of this wonderful and mysterious universe, +something to lift a man above purely selfish and material ends, and +open his soul to influences from the highest heavens of thought. + +Religion in some form is as natural to man as are eating and +sleeping. The mysteries of life and the wonder and terror of the +world in which he finds himself, arouse emotions of awe and fear +and worship in him as soon as his powers of reflection are born. In +man’s early history religion, philosophy, and literature are one. +He worships before he investigates; he builds temples before he +builds schoolhouses or civic halls. He is, of course, superstitious +long before he is scientific; he trembles before the supernatural +long before he has mastered the natural. The mind of early man was +synthetic as our emotions always are; it lumped things, it did not +differentiate and classify. The material progress of the race has +kept pace with man’s power of analysis--the power to separate one +thing from another, to resolve things into their component parts +and recombine them to serve his own purposes. He gets water power, +steam power, electric power, by separating a part from the whole and +placing his machinery where they tend to unite again. + +Science tends more and more to reveal to us the unity that underlies +the diversity of nature. We must have diversity in our practical +lives; we must seize Nature by many handles. But our intellectual +lives demand unity, demand simplicity amid all this complexity. Our +religious lives demand the same. Amid all the diversity of creeds +and sects we are coming more and more to see that religion is one, +that verbal differences and ceremonies are unimportant, and that +the fundamental agreements are alone significant. Religion as a key +or passport to some other world has had its day; as a mere set of +statements or dogmas about the Infinite mystery it has had its day. +Science makes us more and more at home in this world, and is coming +more and more, to the intuitional mind, to have a religious value. +Science kills credulity and superstition, but to the well-balanced +mind it enhances the feeling of wonder, of veneration, and of kinship +which we feel in the presence of the marvelous universe. It quiets +our fears and apprehensions, it pours oil upon the troubled waters +of our lives, and reconciles us to the world as it is. The old +fickle and jealous gods begotten by our fears and morbid consciences +fall away, and the new gods of law and order, who deal justly if +mercilessly, take their places. + +“The mind of the universe which we share,” is a phrase of +Thoreau’s--a large and sane idea which shines like a star amid his +many firefly conceits and paradoxes. The physical life of each of us +is a part or rill of the universal life about us, as surely as every +ounce of our strength is a part of gravity. With equal certainty, +and under the same law, our mental lives flow from the fountain of +universal mind, the cosmic intelligence which guides the rootlets of +the smallest plant as it searches the soil for the elements it needs, +and the most minute insect in availing itself of the things it needs. +It is this primal current of life, the two different phases of which +we see in our bodies and in our minds, that continues after our own +special embodiments of it have ceased; in it is the real immortality. +The universal mind does not die, the universal life does not go out. +The jewel that trembles in the dewdrop, the rain that lends itself +to the painting of the prismatic colors of the bow in the clouds, +pass away, but their fountainhead in the sea does not pass away. The +waters may make the wonderful circuit through the clouds, the air, +the earth, and the cells and veins of living things, any number of +times--now a globule of vapor in the sky, now a starlike crystal +in the snow, now the painted mist of a waterfall, then the limpid +current of a mountain brook--and still the sea remains unchanged. +And though the life and mentality of the globe passes daily and is +daily renewed, the primal source of those things is as abounding as +ever. It is not you and I that are immortal; it is Creative Energy, +of which we are a part. Our immortality is swallowed up in this. + +The poets, the prophets, the martyrs, the heroes, the saints--where +are they? Each was but a jewel in the dew, the rain, the +snowflake--throbbing, burning, flashing with color for a brief time +and then vanishing, adorning the world for a moment and then caught +away into the great abyss. “O spendthrift Nature!” our hearts cry +out; but Nature’s spending is only the ceaseless merging of one +form into another without diminution of her material or blurring +of her types. Flowers bloom and flowers fade, the seasons come and +the seasons go, men are born and men die, the world mourns for its +saints and heroes, its poets and saviors, but Nature remains and is +as young and spontaneous and inexhaustible as ever. Where is the +comfort in all this to you and to me? There is none, save the comfort +or satisfaction of knowing things as they are. We shall feel more at +ease in Zion when we learn to distinguish substance from shadow, and +to grasp the true significance of the world of which we form a part. +In the end each of us will have had his day, and can say as Whitman +does, + + “I have positively appeared. That is enough.” + +In us or through us the Primal Mind will have contemplated and +enjoyed its own works and will continue to do so as long as human +life endures on this planet. It will have achieved the miracle of the +Incarnation, and have tasted the sweet and the bitter, the victories +and the defeats of evolution. The legend of the birth and life of +Jesus is but this ever-present naturalism written large with parable +and miracle on the pages of our religious history. In the lives of +each of us the supreme reality comes down to earth and takes on the +human form and suffers all the struggles and pains and humiliations +of mortal, finite life. Even the Christian theory of the vicarious +atonement is not without its basis of naturalism. Men, through +disease and ignorance and half knowledge, store up an experience that +saves future generations from suffering and failure. We win victories +for our descendants, and bring the kingdom nearer for them by the +devils and evil spirits we overcome. + + + + +VII + +THE FAITH OF A NATURALIST + + +I + +To say that man is as good as God would to most persons seem like +blasphemy; but to say that man is as good as Nature would disturb +no one. Man is a part of Nature, or a phase of Nature, and shares +in what we call her imperfections. But what is Nature a part of, +or a phase of?--and what or who is its author? Is it not true that +this earth which is so familiar to us is as good as yonder morning +or evening star and made of the same stuff?--just as much in the +heavens, just as truly a celestial abode as it is? Venus seems to us +like a great jewel in the crown of night or morning. From Venus the +earth would seem like a still larger jewel. The heavens seem afar off +and free from all stains and impurities of earth; we lift our eyes +and our hearts to them as to the face of the Eternal, but our science +reveals no body or place there so suitable for human abode and human +happiness as this earth. In fact, this planet is the only desirable +heaven of which we have any clue. Innumerable other worlds exist in +the abysses of space which may be the abodes of beings superior, and +of beings inferior, to ourselves. We place our gods afar off so as +to dehumanize them, never suspecting that when we do so we discount +their divinity. The more human we are,--remembering that to err is +human,--the nearer God we are. Of course good and bad are human +concepts and are a verdict upon created things as they stand related +to us, promoting or hindering our well-being. In the councils of the +Eternal there is apparently no such distinction. + +Man is not only as good as God; some men are a good deal better, +that is, from our point of view; they attain a degree of excellence +of which there is no hint in nature--moral excellence. It is +not until we treat man as a part of nature--as a product of the +earth as literally as are the trees--that we can reconcile these +contradictions. If we could build up a composite man out of all +the peoples of the earth, including even the Prussians, he would +represent fairly well the God in nature. + +Communing with God is communing with our own hearts, our own best +selves, not with something foreign and accidental. Saints and +devotees have gone into the wilderness to find God; of course they +took God with them, and the silence and detachment enabled them to +hear the still, small voice of their own souls, as one hears the +ticking of his own watch in the stillness of the night. We are not +cut off, we are not isolated points; the great currents flow through +us and over us and around us, and unite us to the whole of nature. +Moses saw God in the burning bush, saw him with the eyes of early +man whose divinities were clothed in the extraordinary, the fearful, +or the terrible; we see him in the meanest weed that grows, and hear +him in the gentle murmur of our own heart’s blood. The language of +devotion and religious conviction is only the language of soberness +and truth written large and aflame with emotion. + +Man goes away from home searching for the gods he carries with him +always. Man can know and feel and love only man. There is a deal of +sound psychology in the new religion called Christian Science--in +that part which emphasizes the power of the mind over the body, +and the fact that the world is largely what we make it, that evil +is only the shadow of good--old truths reburnished. This helps us +to understand the hold it has taken upon such a large number of +admirable persons. Good and evil are relative terms, but evil is only +the shadow of good. Disease is a reality, but not in the same sense +that health is a reality. Positive and negative electricity are both +facts, but positive and negative good belong to a different order. +Christian Science will not keep the distemper out of the house if +the sewer-gas gets in; inoculation will do more to prevent typhoid +and diphtheria than “declaring the truth” or saying your prayers or +counting your beads. In its therapeutical value experimental science +is the only safe guide in dealing with human corporal ailments. + +We need not fear alienation from God. I feed Him when I feed a +beggar. I serve Him when I serve my neighbor. I love Him when I love +my friend. I praise Him when I praise the wise and good of any race +or time. I shun Him when I shun the leper. I forgive Him when I +forgive my enemies. I wound Him when I wound a human being. I forget +Him when I forget my duty to others. If I am cruel or unjust or +resentful or envious or inhospitable toward any man, woman, or child, +I am guilty of all these things toward God: “Inasmuch as ye have done +it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto +me.” + + +II + +I am persuaded that a man without religion falls short of the proper +human ideal. Religion, as I use the term, is a spiritual flowering, +and the man who has it not is like a plant that never blooms. The +mind that does not open and unfold its religious sensibilities in the +sunshine of this infinite and spiritual universe, is to be pitied. +Men of science do well enough with no other religion than the love +of truth, for this is indirectly a love of God. The astronomer, the +geologist, the biologist, tracing the footsteps of the Creative +Energy throughout the universe--what need has he of any formal, +patent-right religion? Were not Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, and Lyell, +and all other seekers and verifiers of natural truth among the most +truly religious of men? Any of these men would have gone to hell for +the truth--not the truth of creeds and rituals, but the truth as it +exists in the councils of the Eternal and as it is written in the +laws of matter and of life. + +For my part I had a thousand times rather have Huxley’s religion than +that of the bishops who sought to discredit him, or Bruno’s than that +of the church that burnt him. The religion of a man that has no other +aim than his own personal safety from some real or imaginary future +calamity, is of the selfish, ignoble kind. + +Amid the decay of creeds, love of nature has high religious +value. This has saved many persons in this world--saved them from +mammon-worship, and from the frivolity and insincerity of the crowd. +It has made their lives placid and sweet. It has given them an +inexhaustible field for inquiry, for enjoyment, for the exercise +of all their powers, and in the end has not left them soured and +dissatisfied. It has made them contented and at home wherever they +are in nature--in the house not made with hands. This house is +their church, and the rocks and the hills are the altars, and the +creed is written in the leaves of the trees and in the flowers of +the field and in the sands of the shore. A new creed every day and +new preachers, and holy days all the week through. Every walk to +the woods is a religious rite, every bath in the stream is a saving +ordinance. Communion service is at all hours, and the bread and wine +are from the heart and marrow of Mother Earth. There are no heretics +in Nature’s church; all are believers, all are communicants. The +beauty of natural religion is that you have it all the time; you do +not have to seek it afar off in myths and legends, in catacombs, in +garbled texts, in miracles of dead saints or wine-bibbing friars. +It is of to-day; it is now and here; it is everywhere. The crickets +chirp it, the birds sing it, the breezes chant it, the thunder +proclaims it, the streams murmur it, the unaffected man lives it. +Its incense rises from the plowed fields, it is on the morning +breeze, it is in the forest breath and in the spray of the wave. The +frosts write it in exquisite characters, the dews impearl it, and +the rainbow paints it on the cloud. It is not an insurance policy +underwritten by a bishop or a priest; it is not even a faith; it is a +love, an enthusiasm, a consecration to natural truth. + +The God of sunshine and of storms speaks a less equivocal language +than the God of revelation. + +Our fathers had their religion and their fathers had theirs, but +they were not ours, and could not be in those days and under those +conditions. But their religions lifted them above themselves; they +healed their wounds; they consoled them for many of the failures +and disappointments of this world; they developed character; they +tempered the steel in their nature. How childish to us seems the plan +of salvation, as our fathers found it in the fervid and, I freely +say, inspired utterances of Saint Paul! But it saved them, it built +character, it made life serious, it was an heroic creed which has +lost credence in our more knowing and more frivolous age. We see how +impossible it is, but we do not see the great natural truths upon +which it rests. + +A man is not saved by the truth of the things he believes, but by the +truth of his belief--its sincerity, its harmony with his character. +The absurdities of the popular religions do not matter; what matters +is the lukewarm belief, the empty forms, the shallow conceptions of +life and duty. We are prone to think that if the creed is false, the +religion is false. Religion is an emotion, an inspiration, a feeling +of the Infinite, and may have its root in any creed or in no creed. +What can be more unphilosophical than the doctrines of the Christian +Scientists? Yet Christian Science is a good practical religion. +It makes people cheerful, happy, and helpful--yes, and helps make +them healthy too. Its keynote is love, and love holds the universe +together. Any creed that ennobles character and opens a door or a +window upon the deeper meanings of this marvelous universe is good +enough to live by, and good enough to die by. The Japanese-Chinese +religion of ancestor worship, sincerely and devoutly held, is better +than the veneer of much of our fashionable well-dressed religion. + +Guided by appearances alone, how surely we should come to look upon +the sun as a mere appendage of the earth!--as much so as is the moon. +How near it seems at sunrise and sunset, and as if these phenomena +directly involved the sun, extending to it and modifying its light +and heat! We do not realize that these are merely terrestrial +phenomena, and that the sun, so to speak, knows them not. + +Viewed from the sun the earth is a mere speck in the sky, and the +amount of the total light and heat from the sun that is received on +the earth is so small that the mind can hardly grasp it. Yet for all +practical purposes the sun shines for us alone. Our relation to it +could not be any more direct and sustaining if it were created for +that purpose. It is immanent in the life of the globe. It is the +source of all our energy and therefore of our life. Its bounties are +universal. The other planets find it is their sun also. It is as +special and private to them as to us. We think the sun paints the bow +on the cloud, but the bow follows from the laws of optics. The sun +knows it not. + +It is the same with what we call God. His bounty is of the same +universal, impersonal kind, and yet for all practical purposes it +exists especially for us, it is immanent every moment in our lives. +There is no special Providence. Nature sends the rain upon the just +and the unjust, upon the sea as upon the land. We are here and +find life good because Providence is general and not special. The +conditions are not too easy, the struggle has made men of us. The +bitter has tempered the sweet. Evil has put us on our guard and keeps +us so. We pay for what we get. + + +III + +That wise old Roman, Marcus Aurelius, says, “Nothing is evil which +is according to nature.” At that moment he is thinking especially of +death which, when it comes in the course of nature, is not an evil, +unless life itself is also an evil. After the lamp of life is burned +out, death is not an evil, rather is it a good. But premature death, +death by accident or disease, before a man has done his work or used +up his capital of vitality, is an evil. Disease itself is an evil, +but if we lived according to nature there would be no disease; we +should die the natural, painless death of old age. Of course there +is no such thing as absolute evil or absolute good. Evil is that +which is against our well-being, and good is that which promotes +it. We always postulate the existence of life when we speak of good +and evil. Excesses in nature are evil to us because they bring +destruction and death in their train. They are disharmonies in the +scheme of things, because they frustrate and bring to naught. The war +which Marcus Aurelius was waging when he wrote those passages was an +evil in itself, though good might come out of it. + +Everything in organic nature--trees, grasses, flowers, insects, +fishes, mammals--is beset by evil of some kind. The natural order +is good because it brought us here and keeps us here, but evil has +always dogged our footsteps. Leaf-blight is an evil to the tree, +smallpox is an evil to man, frost is an evil to the insects, flood an +evil to the fishes. + +Moral evil--hatred, envy, greed, lying, cruelty, cheating--is of +another order. These vices have no existence below the human sphere. +We call them evils because they are disharmonies; they are inimical +to the highest standard of human happiness and well-being. They make +a man less a man, they work discord and develop needless friction. +Sand in the engine of your car and water in the gasoline are evils, +and malice and jealousy and selfishness in your heart are analogous +evils. + +In our day we read the problem of Nature and God in a new light, the +light of science, or of emancipated human reason, and the old myths +mean little to us. We accept Nature as we find it, and do not crave +the intervention of a God that sits behind and is superior to it. The +self-activity of the cosmos suffices. We accept the tornadoes and +earthquakes and world wars, and do not lose faith. We arm ourselves +against them as best we can. We accept the bounty of the rain, the +sunshine, the soil, the changing seasons, and the vast armory of +non-living forces, and from them equip or teach ourselves to escape, +endure, modify, or ward off the destructive and non-human forces that +beset our way. We draw our strength from the Nature that seems and +is so regardless of us; our health and wholeness are its gifts. The +biologic ages, with all their carnival of huge and monstrous forms, +had our well-being at heart. The evils and dangers that beset our +way have been outmatched by the good and the helpful. The deep-sea +fish would burst and die if brought to the surface; the surface life +would be crushed and killed in the deep sea. Life adapts itself +to its environment; hard conditions make it hard. Winds, floods, +inclement seasons, have driven it around the earth; the severer the +cold, the thicker the fur; compensations always abound. If Nature +is not all-wise and all-merciful from our human point of view, she +has placed us in a world where our own wisdom and mercy can be +developed; she has sent us to a school in which we learn to see her +own shortcomings and imperfections, and to profit by them. + +The unreasoning, unforeseeing animals suffer more from the accidents +of nature--drought, flood, lightning--than man does; but man suffers +more from evils of his own making--war, greed, intemperance, +pestilence--so that the development in both lines goes on, and life +is still at the flood. + +Good and evil are inseparable. We cannot have light without shade, +or warmth without cold, or life without death, or development without +struggle. The struggle for life, of which Darwinism makes so much, +is only the struggle of the chick to get out of the shell, or of +the flower to burst its bud, or of the root to penetrate the soil. +It is not the struggle of battle and hate--the justification of war +and usurpation--it is for the most part a beneficent struggle with +the environment, in which the fittest of the individual units of a +species survive, but in which the strong and the feeble, the great +and the small of species alike survive. The lamb survives with the +lion, the wren with the eagle, the Esquimo with the European--all +manner of small and delicate forms survive with the great and robust. +One species of carnivora, or of rodents, or herbivora, does not, as +a rule, exterminate another species. It is true that species prey +upon species, that cats eat mice, that hawks eat smaller birds, and +that man slays and eats the domestic animals. Probably man alone +has exterminated species. But outside of man’s doings all the rest +belongs to Nature’s system of checks and balances, and bears no +analogy to human or inhuman wars and conquests. + +Life struggles with matter, the tree struggles with the wind and with +other trees. Man struggles with gravity, cold, wet, heat, and all the +forces that hinder him. The tiniest plant that grows has to force its +root down into the soil; earlier than that it has to burst its shell +or case. The corn struggles to lift itself up after the storm has +beaten it down; effort, effort, everywhere in the organic world. Says +Whitman: + + “Urge and urge and urge, + Always the procreant urge of the world.” + + +IV + +Every few years we have an ice-storm or a snowstorm that breaks down +and disfigures the trees. Some trees suffer much more than others. +The storm goes its way; the laws of physical force prevail; the great +world of mechanical forces is let loose upon the small world of vital +forces; occasionally a tree is so crushed that it never entirely +recovers; but after many years the woods and groves have repaired +the damages and taken on their wonted thrifty appearance. The evil +was only temporary; the world of trees has suffered no permanent +set-back. But had the trees been conscious beings, what a deal of +suffering they would have experienced! An analogous visitation to +human communities entails a heritage of misery, but in time it too +is forgotten and its scars healed. Fire, blood, war, epidemics, +earthquakes, are such visitations, but the race survives them and +reaps good from them. + +We say that Nature cares nothing for the individual, but only for +the race or the species. The whole organic world is at war with the +inorganic, and as in human wars the individuals are sacrificed that +the army, the whole, may live; so in the strife and competition of +nature, the separate units fall that the mass may prosper. + +It is probably true that in the course of the biological history of +the earth, whole species have been rendered extinct by parasites, +or by changing outward conditions. But this has been the exception, +and not the rule. The chestnut blight now seems to threaten the very +existence of this species of tree in this country, but I think the +chances are that this fungus will meet with some natural check. + +In early summer comes the June drop of apples. The trees start with +more fruit than they can carry, and if they are in vigorous health, +they will drop the surplus. It is a striking illustration of Nature’s +methods. The tree does its own thinning. But if not at the top of its +condition, it fails to do this. It takes health and strength simply +to let go; only a living tree drops its fruit or its leaves; only a +growing man drops his outgrown opinions. + +If we put ourselves in the place of the dropped apples, we must look +upon our fate as unmixed evil. If we put ourselves in the place of +the tree and of the apples that remain on it, the June drop would +appear an unmixed good--finer fruit, and a healthier, longer-lived +tree results. Nature does not work so much to specific as to +universal ends. The individual may go, but the type must remain. The +ranks may be decimated, but the army and its cause must triumph. +Life in all its forms is a warfare only in the sense that it is a +struggle with its outward conditions, in which, other things being +equal, the strongest force prevails. Small and weak forms prevail +also, because the competing forms are small and weak, or because +at the feast of life there is a place for the small and weak also. +But lion against lion, man against man, mouse against mouse, the +strongest will, in the end, be the victor. + +Man’s effort is to save waste, to reduce friction, to take short +cuts, to make smooth the way, to seize the advantage, to economize +time, but the physical forces know none of these things. + +Go into the woods and behold the evil the trees have to contend +with--all typical of the evil we have to contend with--too crowded +in places, one tree crushing another by its fall, specimens on every +hand whose term of life might be lengthened by a little wise surgery; +borers, blight, disease, insect pests, storm, wreckage, thunderbolt +scars, or destruction--evil in a hundred forms besetting every tree, +and sooner or later leaving its mark. A few escape--oaks, maples, +pines, elms--and reach a greater age than the others, but they fail +at last, and when they have rounded out their green century, or ten +centuries, and go down in a gale, or in the stillness of a summer +night, how often younger trees are marred or crushed by their fall! +But come back after many long years, and their places are filled, and +all the scars are healed. The new generation of trees is feeding +upon the accumulations of the old. Evil is turned to good. The +destruction of the cyclone, the ravages of fire, the wreckage of the +ice-storm, are all obliterated and the forest-spirit is rank and full +again. + +There is no wholesale exemption from this rule of waste and struggle +in this world, nor probably in any other. We have life on these +terms. The organic world develops under pressure from within and from +without. Rain brings the perils of rain, fire brings the perils of +fire, power brings the perils of power. The great laws go our way, +but they will break us or rend us if we fail to keep step with them. +Unmixed good is a dream; unmixed happiness is a dream; perfection is +a dream; heaven and hell are both dreams of our mixed and struggling +lives, the one the outcome of our aspirations for the good, the other +the outcome of our fear of evil. + +The trees in the woods, the plants in the fields encounter hostile +forces the year through; storms crash or overthrow them; visible +and invisible enemies prey upon them; yet are the fields clothed +in verdure and the hills and plains mantled with superb forests. +Nature’s haphazard planting and sowing and her wasteful weeding +and trimming do not result in failure as these methods do with us. +A failure of hers with one form or species results in the success +of some other form. All successes are hers. Allow time enough and +the forest returns in the path of the tornado, but maybe with other +species of trees. The birds and squirrels plant oaks and chestnuts +amid the pines and the winds plant pines amid the oaks and chestnuts. +The robins and the cedar-birds sow the red cedar broadcast over the +landscape, and plant the Virginia creeper and the poison-ivy by +every stub and fence-post. The poison-ivy is a triumph of Nature +as truly as is the grapevine or the morning-glory. All are hers. +Man specializes; he selects this or that, selects the wheat and +rejects the tares; but Nature generalizes; she has the artist’s +disinterestedness; all is good; all are parts of her scheme. She +nourishes the foul-smelling cat-brier as carefully as she does the +rose. Each creature, with man at the head, says, “The world is mine; +it was created for me.” Evidently it was created for all, at least +all forms are at home here. Nature’s system of checks and balances +preserves her working equilibrium. If a species of forest worm +under some exceptionally favoring conditions gets such a start that +it threatens to destroy our beech and maple forests, presently a +parasite, stimulated by this turn in its favor, appears and restores +the balance. For two or three seasons the beech-woods in my native +town were ravaged by some kind of worm or beetle; in midsummer the +sunlight came into them as if the roof had been taken off; later +they swarmed with white millers. But the scourge was suddenly +checked--some parasite, probably a species of ichneumon-fly, was on +hand to curtail the dangerous excess. + +I am only trying to say that after we have painted Nature as black +as the case will allow, after we have depicted her as a savage +beast, a devastating storm, a scorching desert, a consuming fire, an +all-engulfing earthquake, or as war, pestilence, famine, we have only +depicted her from our limited human point of view. But even from that +point of view the favoring conditions of life are so many, living +bodies are so adaptive, the lift of the evolutionary impulse is so +unconquerable, the elemental laws and forces are so overwhelmingly on +our side, that our position in the universe is still an enviable one. +“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” Slain, I shall nourish +some other form of life, and the books will still balance--not my +books, but the vast ledgers of the Eternal. + +In the old times we accounted for creation in the simple terms of the +Hebrew Scriptures--“In the beginning God created the heaven and the +earth.” We even saw no discrepancy in the tradition that creation +took place in the spring. But when we attempt to account for creation +in the terms of science or naturalism, the problem is far from being +so simple. We have not so tangible a point from which to start. It is +as if we were trying to find the end or the beginning of the circle. +Round and round we go, caught in the endless and beginningless +currents of the Creative Energy; no fixity or finality anywhere; +rest and motion, great and small, up and down, heat and cold, good +and evil, near and far, only relative; cause and effect merging and +losing themselves in each other; life and death perpetually playing +into each other’s hands; interior within interior; depth beneath +depth; height above height; the tangible thrilled and vibrating with +the intangible; the material in bonds to the non-material; invisible, +impalpable forces streaming around us and through us; perpetual +change and transformation on every hand; every day a day of creation, +every night a revelation of unspeakable grandeur; suns and systems +forming in the cyclones of stardust; the whole starry host of heaven +flowing like a meadow brook, but where, or whence, who can tell? The +center everywhere, the circumference nowhere; pain and pleasure, +good and evil, inextricably mixed; the fall of man a daily and +hourly occurrence; the redemption of man, the same! Heaven or hell +waiting by every doorstep, boundless, beginningless, unspeakable, +immeasurable--what wonder that we seek a short cut through this +wilderness and appeal to the supernatural? + +When I look forth upon the world and see how, regardless of man and +his well-being, the operations of Nature go on--how the winds and +the storms wreck him or destroy him, how the drought or the floods +bring to naught his industries, how not the least force in heaven or +earth turns aside for him, or makes any exception to him; in short, +how all forms of life are perpetually ground between the upper and +the nether millstones of the contending and clashing natural material +forces, I ask myself: “Is there nothing, then, under the sun, or +beyond the sun, that has a stake in our well-being? Is life purely +a game of chance, and is it all luck that we are here in a world so +richly endowed to meet all our requirements?” Serene Reason answers: +“No, it is not luck as in a lottery. It is the good fortune of the +whole. It was inherent in the constitution of the whole, and it +continues because of its adaptability; life is here because it fits +itself into the scheme of things; it is flexible and compromising.” +We find the world good to be in because we are adapted to it, and +not it to us. The vegetable growth upon the rocks where the sea is +forever pounding is a type of life; the waves favor its development. +Life takes advantage of turbulence as well as of quietude, of drought +as well as of floods, of deserts as well as of marshes, of the +sea-bottom as well as of the mountain-tops. Both animal and vegetable +life trim their sails to the forces that beat upon them. The image +of the sail is a good one. Life avails itself of the half-contrary +winds; it captures and imprisons their push in its sails; by yielding +a little, it makes headway in the teeth of the gale; it gives and +takes; without struggle, without opposition, life would not be life. +The sands of the shore do not struggle with the waves, nor the waves +with the sands; the buffeting ends where it began. But trees struggle +with the wind, fish struggle with the flood, man struggles with his +environment; all draw energy from the forces that oppose them. Life +gains as it spends; its waste is an investment. Not so with purely +material bodies. They are like the clock, they must be perpetually +wound from without. A living body is a clock, perpetually self-wound +from within. + +The faith and composure of the naturalist or naturist are proof +against the worst that Nature can do. He sees the cosmic forces only; +he sees nothing directly mindful of man, but man himself; he sees the +intelligence and beneficence of the universe flowering in man; he +sees life as a mysterious issue of the warring element; he sees human +consciousness and our sense of right and wrong, of truth and justice, +as arising in the evolutionary sequence, and turning and sitting in +judgment upon all things; he sees that there can be no life without +pain and death; that there can be no harmony without discord; that +opposites go hand in hand; that good and evil are inextricably +mingled; that the sun and blue sky are still there behind the clouds, +unmindful of them; that all is right with the world if we extend our +vision deep enough; that the ways of Nature are the ways of God if we +do not make God in our own image, and make our comfort and well-being +the prime object of Nature. Our comfort and well-being are provided +for in the constitution of the world, but we may say that they are +not guaranteed; they are contingent upon many things, but the chances +are upon our side. He that would save his life shall lose it--lose +it in forgetting that the universe is not a close corporation, or a +patented article, and that it exists for other ends than our own. But +he who can lose his life in the larger life of the whole shall save +it in a deeper, truer sense. + + + + +VIII + +A FALLACY MADE IN GERMANY + + +During the Great War the question was asked, “Do the inexorable laws +of evolution apply to human beings as they apply to the lower animals +and to plants?” Most assuredly they do, but with a difference. Man +is as certainly one of the results of the evolutionary process as is +the horse or the dog, the tree or the plant. We are as certain of +his animal origin as we can well be of anything in the biological +history of the globe. But the inference which has so often been +drawn from this fact--namely, that man’s development involves the +same factors, and is along parallel lines--is a fallacy. That the +supremacy of might, which has ruled, and still rules in nature below +man, justifies the rule of might in human communities in our day, is +an invention of perverted human ambition. + +As Nature rules by the law of might, and as man is a part of Nature, +why is he not under the same rule? The answer is that man is an +exceptional creature; that while he is a part of the animal kingdom, +he is a new kind of animal; and while he is the outcome of evolution, +like the rest, new factors which are not operative in the orders +below him have played a leading part in his later development. +These factors are his reason, which gives him a sense of the true +and the false, and his conscience, which gives him a sense of right +and wrong. These faculties subordinate the rule of might to the +rule of right. They have resulted in the establishment of standards +of conduct for individuals, for communities, and for organized +governments that do not exist among the lower animal orders, and only +in a very limited sense in the lower human orders. + +There is no question of right and wrong among the plants of the +field, or the trees of the forest, or the birds of the air, or the +beasts of the earth--only the question of power to survive; might in +the sense of power of adaptation settles the question. + +Since the dawn of history man’s moral and intellectual faculties have +come more and more to the fore, the moral standards always lagging +a little behind the intellectual and the æsthetic standards. Among +nearly all the more advanced ancient races the concepts of justice, +of mercy, and of fair dealing were dull and sluggish in comparison +with their intellectual acumen and their artistic achievements. The +Greeks would lie and steal and set on foot piratical expeditions +against their neighbors, while yet they produced such men as +Aristotle and Plato, and such artists as Phidias and Praxiteles. + +In our day the whole civilized world was shocked and alarmed by +the moral lapse of a great people ranking among the highest in +intelligence and material efficiency, suddenly preaching and +practicing the doctrine of might over right which prevails in the +orders below man. The German philosophers brazenly justified their +nation’s course in their aggressive war, with all its attendant +horrors, by an appeal to the Darwinian doctrines of the struggle for +existence, and the consequent survival of the fittest, doctrines +which play such a prominent part in biological evolution. The nation +suddenly slumped into a barbarism worse than that of their ancestral +Huns. The Hun was again triumphant, gloating over the prospect of the +rich plunder and the orgies of wine and lust that awaited him in new +fields of conquest. It was a spectacle to make the Genius of Humanity +veil her face and weep tears of blood. + +All that was noble and precious in international relations; standards +of conduct that it had taken long generations to achieve; the peace +and good-will of the world; coöperation in scientific fields, and in +endeavors toward human betterment--all went by the board before the +Teutonic debauch of greed and lust for blood and conquest. + +Seriously to discuss in our day the question of the rule of might +over right--that force is the arbiter of justice in human relations, +except when it is invoked to chastise the offender--seems a waste +of time. On how low a plane must a people live whose leaders appeal +to the way of the tiger with his prey, or of the boa constrictor +with his victim, in establishing relations with other peoples! This +ferocious appeal of kaiserism to predatory nature--to “Nature red in +tooth and claw”--in order to set itself right before the conscience +of mankind, is as fatuous as it is fallacious. If we could reckon +without the sense of right and wrong, which has a survival value as +real as any form of physical might or power of adaptation, especially +with the later civilized nations (except Germany), a different face +would be put upon the question. But we cannot. The floodtide of world +democracy and humanity is setting too strongly in that direction, +and we can only hope and pray that misguided Germany may in the new +generation be caught up and borne forward to new greatness and world +usefulness, on the bosom of the same tide. + + + + +IX + +THE PRICE OF DEVELOPMENT + + +I + +The biological law of the supremacy of the strong over the weak, of +the fit over the less fit, which prevails throughout the world of +living things, gives us pause when it is applied to human history +and to the relations of man with man. Yet it is true that the price +of development is the struggle for life. The road of evolution is an +uphill road. When struggle ceases, progress ceases, and evolution +becomes devolution. Our strength is the strength of the obstacles we +overcome. The living machine, contrary to the non-living, gains power +from the friction it begets. + +When we open the book of the biological history of the globe, we +find, to begin with, no force but that which we call brute force, +no justice but power, no crime but weakness, no law but the law of +battle. The victory is to the strong and the race to the swift. And +it is well. It is on this plan, as I have so often said, that the +life of the globe has come to what we behold it. Man has come to his +present estate, the trees in the forest, the grasses and flowers of +the field, the birds in the air, the fishes in the sea, have each +and all attained their present stage of development through the +operation of this law of natural competition, and the survival of +the fittest. Though marked by what we call cruelty and injustice, +in the totality of its operations it is a beneficent law. If it +were not so, how could the world of living things have attained its +present development? If it were a malevolent law, would not life +have suffered shipwreck long ago? The world of living things and of +non-living still merits the primal approval--“Behold, it is very +good!” Not your good, nor my good, but a general good, the good of +all. Nature’s scheme, if we may say she has a scheme, embraces the +totality of things, and that the totality of things is good who but +a born pessimist, a radically negative nature, can deny? Mixed good +undoubtedly it is, but is there, or can there be, any other good in +the universe? Good forever freeing itself from the non-good, or from +the fetters of evil--good to eat, to drink, to behold, to live by, to +die by--good for the body, good for the mind, good for the soul, good +in time, and good in eternity? + +From solar systems to atoms and molecules, the greater bodies, the +greater forces, prevail over the lesser, and yet flowers bloom, and +life is sweet, sweet for the minor forms as well as for the major. + +Inert matter knows only the laws of force. In the world of living +matter, up to a certain point, the same rule prevails. In the fields +and woods the more vigorous plants and trees run out the less +vigorous. In the dryer meadows in my section of the Catskills the +orange hawkweed completely crowds out the meadow grasses; it plants +itself on every square inch of the surface, and every four or five +years the farmer has to intervene with his plow to turn the battle in +favor of the grass again. In the gardens, unless the gardener take a +hand in the game, the weeds choke down or smother all his vegetables. +The weeds are rank with original sin and they easily supplant our +pampered and cultivated cereals and legumes. + +In the animal world there are few exceptions to the rule of the +supremacy of power. There is no question of right or wrong, of mercy +or cruelty. It is not cruel or unjust for the bird to catch the +insect, or for the cat to catch the bird, or for the lion to devour +the lamb, or for the big fishes to eat up the little fishes. It is +the rule of nature, and never a question of right or wrong. + +Biological laws are as remorseless as physical laws. The course of +animal evolution through the geologic ages is everywhere marked by +the triumph of new and superior forms over the old and inferior +forms. Among the lower races of man, our remote savage ancestors, +might ruled. The strong and prolific tribes supplanted those that +were less so, and, among the nations, up to our own day, the rule of +natural competition, or survival of the fittest, has held full sway. +Those nations which are dominant are so by virtue of their superior +qualities, physical, moral, or intellectual. It is not a question of +might except in so far as this question is linked with the question +of moral and intellectual superiority. + +Is there, then, no such thing as equity, justice, fair play in the +world? Shall I seize my neighbor’s farm and despoil him of his goods +and chattels because I am stronger than he? Shall one state invade +and despoil another, or seize its territory, because it is stronger +and considers itself more fit to survive? + +The rule of might, as I have said, prevails throughout the world +of matter and of life below man, and long prevailed in pre-human +and human history. But the old law of nature has been limited and +qualified by a new law which has come into the world and which is +just as truly a biological law in its application to man as was the +old law of might. I refer to the law of man’s moral nature, the +source of right, justice, mercy. The progress of the race and of +the nations is coming more and more to depend upon the observance +of this law. Without it there is no organization, no coöperation, +no commerce, no government. Without it anarchy would rule, and our +civilization would crumble and society disintegrate. + +The moral sense of mankind is now the dominant fact in human history; +the rule of might has been superseded by the rule of right. It is +this sense in the civilized world that has revolted so overwhelmingly +against the Prussian military power in precipitating the World War; +and this conscience will probably be so developed and intensified by +the useless waste and cruelty of the war that such a calamity will +never again befall the world. Those nations will become the most +powerful that are the most just, the most humane, that develop in the +highest degree a world conscience, and realize the most intensely +that the nations all belong to one family, in which the good and +evil of one are the good and evil of all. What can the progress of +civilization mean but the progress of international comity, sympathy, +coöperation, fair-dealing; in fact, the fullest recognition of +the validity of the ethical laws to which we hold individuals and +communities amenable? + +History is full of violence, cruelty, injustice, and the triumph +of the strong over the weak, wherein the end seemed to justify the +means; yet never since the world began did physical might alone make +moral right. The sheriff and the hangman have made the doctrine +unpopular among individuals--the ethical sense of mankind will in +time make it equally unpopular among nations. + +Nature is not moral; primitive biological laws are not moral; +they are unmoral. There is no moral law until it is born of human +intercourse; then it becomes more and more a biological law, more +and more prominent in social and national progress. The law of the +jungle begins and ends in the jungle; when we translate it into human +affairs, we must take the cruelty of the jungle out of it, and read +it in terms of beneficent competition. Man is the jungle humanized; +the fangs and claws are drawn, and the stealthy spring gives place to +open and fair competition. + + +II + +In the Darwinian struggle for existence there is first the struggle +with environment, or with the non-living forces--heat, cold, storm, +wind, flood; the organic always at war with the inorganic out of +which its power comes. The fateful physical and mechanical forces go +their way regardless of the life that surrounds them and which draws +its energy from them. Gravity would pull down every tree and shrub +and every animal that walks or flies. The wind and the storm would +flatten down the flowers and grasses and grains like a steam roller, +and often succeeds in doing so. See the timothy and wheat and corn +struggle to lift themselves again. Behold how the trees grip the +rocks and soil, and brace themselves against the wind! This struggle +is, of course, not a conscious one. Apart from the original push of +life, it can all be explained in terms of physics and chemistry. The +bio-chemist will tell you why the plant leans toward the light, +and why it rights itself when pressed down; but why or how matter +organizes itself into the various living forms is a question before +which natural philosophy is dumb. Neither chemistry nor physics +can give us the secret of life. The ingenious devices to secure +cross-fertilization among certain plants, devices for scattering the +seed among others,--the hooks, the wings, the springs,--to me all +seem to imply intelligence, not apart from, but inherent in, the +things themselves. Power of adaptation--to take advantage of wind +and flood, of solid and fluid--is one of the mysterious attributes +of life. And yet we know that vegetable life takes advantage of +these things not, as we do, by forethought and invention, but by a +mysterious inherent impulse. + +How the bee and the bird battle with the wind, the fish with the +waves and the rapids, the fur-bearers with the cold and the snow! +how all living creatures struggle to escape or resist the dissolving +power of the natural forces! + +The ever-present instinct of fear in all wild creatures and in +children, and the quickness with which it can be aroused in all +persons, throw light upon the crueler aspects of this struggle for +existence which is common to all forms of animal life. Had life never +been beset with perils, we should have been strangers to the emotion +of fear, as would all other creatures. Even the fly that alights on +my paper as I write fears my hand. It is ever on guard against its +natural enemies. This is the proof of the universal struggle. Among +the lower forms the struggle or competition of the fleet with the +slow, the cunning with the stupid, the sharp-eyed, the sharp-eared, +and the keen of scent with those less so; of the miscellaneous +feeders with the more specialized feeders; and, among mankind, +the competition of men of purpose, of foresight, of judgment, of +experience, of probity, and of other personal resources, with men +who are deficient in these things; and, among nations and peoples, +the inevitable competition of those who cherish the highest national +ideals, the best-organized governments, the best race inheritance, +the most natural resources, and so on, with the less fortunate +in these respects--all this struggle and competition, I say, is +beneficent and on the road to progress. + +Myriads of different types of animal and vegetable life fit into the +scheme of organic nature without conflict or hindrance, but when +there is conflict, the strong prevail. The small and the gigantic, +the feeble and the mighty, the timid and the bold, the frail and the +robust--birds, insects, mice, squirrels, cattle--exist in the same +landscape and all prosper. Only when there is rivalry do the feeble +go to the wall, which means only that their numbers are kept down. +The cats do not exterminate the mice and rats, nor do the hawks and +owls exterminate the other birds; they are a natural check on their +undue increase. Nature’s checks and balances are all important. When +species subsist upon species, as weasels upon rodents and hawks upon +other birds, there seems to be some law that keeps the bloodthirsty +in check. Why should there be so few weasels, since they appear as +prolific as their victims? Why so few pigeon hawks, since the hawks +have no natural enemies, while the trees swarm with finches and +robins? + +The conflicting interests in Nature sooner or later adjust +themselves; her checks and balances bring about her equilibrium. In +vegetation rivalries and antagonisms bring about adaptations. The +mosses and the ferns and the tender wood plants grow beneath the oaks +and the pines and are favored by the shade and protection which the +latter afford them. The farmer’s seeding of grass and clover takes +better under the shade of the oats than it would upon the naked +ground. In Africa some species of flesh-eaters live upon the leavings +of larger and stronger species, and in the tropics certain birds +become benefactors of the cattle by preying upon the insects that +pester them. Fabre tells of certain insect hosts that blindly favor +the parasites that destroy them. The scheme has worked itself out +that way and Nature is satisfied. Victim or victor, host or parasite, +it is all one to her. Life goes on, and all forms of it are hers. + +It is easy to see why the wild plants run out the cultivated +ones--the latter are the result of artificial selection. No favor +has been shown the wild ones, and hence only the most vigorous have +survived. The cultivated plants always have a greater burden to bear +than the wild ones, and man helps them to bear it, or, rather, he +saddles it upon them. The cultivated races of man have burdens to +bear also, much greater than the savage tribes, but this is more than +made up to them by their superior brain power, which brain power +again has come about in the struggle for existence. Wild tribes have +also been under the discipline of natural selection, but by reason of +some obscure factors of race or climate or geography they have not +profited as have the European and Asiatic races. Their moral natures +are more rudimentary. + +Doubtless some obscure or unknown factors in the original germ-cells, +far back in biological times, caused the divergence and splitting-up +of animal forms, and gave to one an impulse that carried it higher +in the scale of development than its fellows, just as the same thing +happens in human families in our own times. Why some creatures are +higher and some are lower, why some eventuated in the bird and some +in toad and frog and snake and lizard, is one of the mysteries. In +seeking the explanation of these things on natural grounds we are +compelled to resort to the fertile expedient of conjecture, and +pack the germ with many possibilities, each one depending for its +development upon chance occurrence or conditions. + +Besides this struggle with the environment there is the struggle +of individuals and of species with one another--of oak with oak, +of beech with beech, of plant with its kind, for the moisture and +nutriment in the soil; of robin with robin for insects and fruit, of +fox with fox for mice and rabbits, and of lion with lion for antelope +and zebra. I say “struggle,” but it is rarely struggle in the sense +of strife or battle, but in the sense of natural competition--the +victory is to the most lucky and the most vigorous--the sharpest eye, +the quickest ear, the most nimble foot; and those most favored by +fortune win. + +Under the law of variation some individuals have a fuller endowment +of vital energy than others; under a severe strain and trial of +whatever kind the favored ones will survive, while the others perish. +Some men, some animals, can endure more hardships than others; under +the same conditions all will not starve or freeze or fall exhausted +by the wayside at the same time. In the vegetable world the same +inequality in the gift of life exists, though not in the same degree. +Some seeds will lie dormant in the soil longer than others of the +same kind, and some kinds longer than others. Some seeds will not +sprout after the second year, but a few may sprout after the third +or even the fourth year. The stream of life is not of uniform depth +and fullness; it is shallow in some places, and deep in others, as +regards both species and individuals. In the natural competition +which goes on all around us, the strongest, the fittest, win in the +game, not necessarily by violence, but because, apart from the rôle +played by chance, they carry more pounds of vital pressure. Not all +acorns become oaks, probably not one in thousands; not all bird’s +eggs become birds; occasionally one egg in the nest does not hatch, +probably because of some defect in fertilization. Some nests are +torn out of the trees by storms, or are robbed by crows or jays or +squirrels; they were not well hidden. A large percentage of nests on +the ground is destroyed by night prowlers or by day prowlers; chance +again plays a great part here. Only a small fraction of the spawn +of fishes hatches, and a still smaller percentage of the hatched +ever reaches maturity. Fortune, good or bad, plays a great part +with all forms of life. The acorn that becomes an oak owes much to +chance--chance of position and soil, and chance of the vicissitudes +of the woods and fields. Falling trees or branches, or the foot of a +passing animal, may crush or deform it, or a squirrel or a raccoon +devour it. Barring these accidents, it owes, or may owe, not a little +to its inherent vitality--to its real oakhood. + +The natural competition, or the struggle for existence among +mankind, is of similar character, though on the whole less +fortuitous. Coöperation, knowledge, altruism, have done much to +eliminate the element of chance. An acorn becomes an oak where ten +thousand other acorns fail, mainly by luck, while the child becomes +the man mainly through the care and nurture of his parents and of the +community in which he lives, but he reaches a position of power and +prominence largely through his inherent capabilities. Fortune plays a +part here also, as it did with Lincoln and Lee and Grant, but these +men all had the native endowment upon which Fortune could build. + +In the natural competition that goes on in every town and city, the +success of one man over another is not, as a rule, the result of +violence or wrong; men of high purpose and character in business and +professional life add to the positive wealth and well-being of all; +they often lift the whole community to a higher and better standard +of living; the unfit profit by the achievements of the fit. The men +who have added to the wealth and well-being of this country could +be counted by the thousands. It is also true that the men who have +accumulated their millions at the expense of others, by fraud and +chicanery, or have diverted the earnings of others into their own +coffers, could be counted by the thousands. It is this class of men +who make the poor poorer. But did the achievements of such men as +the late James J. Hill make the poor poorer? Such men add enormously +to the wealth of the nation. + +With all its discounts and set-backs, the natural struggle for +existence has carried the whole race forward. Even business +competition may be entirely beneficent. Two men open shops or houses +in similar lines in the same town and one outstrips the other. +Maybe his location is the better; one side of a street may be more +favorable to success than the other side. Maybe he is more affable +in manner, more thorough in his methods, more accommodating, more +fair-minded, of sounder judgment--in fact, the better man in a +beneficent sense. + +On a broad view, throughout any country, this will be found to be +true: success in business, in the professions, on the farm, in the +manufactory, comes to those who deserve it. It cannot be otherwise. +The world is thus made. Among the nations the same rule holds. +England has earned all the power she has got. She is endowed with +the gift of empire. Solid merit alone tells in the long run, as well +among nations as among individual men. The worth of France rests upon +solid qualities. The worth of Germany is inherent in the character +of her people. That she has run to Krupp guns and Kaiserism during +these later generations, and has coveted the land and the gold of her +neighbors, is one of those human calamities analogous to tornadoes +and earthquakes. + +In the course of modern history, race supplants race, not so much by +force of arms as by force of brain. The Europeans know how to utilize +the natural forces and make the stars fight on their side. So far as +they have done it by wars of conquest, they have violated the great +moral law and the law of natural competition. All wars of conquest by +civilized nations are wicked wars. They are becoming more and more +odious to mankind, and are bound to become still more so, till they +cease entirely. A century ago the conduct of Germany in the recent +war would have shocked mankind far less than it has to-day. A century +hence such an exhibition of the rule of the jungle among civilized +peoples will be impossible. If Germany could ever come to be the +dominant power in Europe, it would be through the law of natural +competition. Her superior efficiency in the arts of peace, could +alone give her the victory. It would have given her the victory in +her own age had she been contented with its slow but sure operation. + + +III + +The question of right and wrong must have emerged, so as to become a +factor in the evolution of human society, very slowly--how slowly, +we can never know. But it did emerge, and is still emerging more and +more; first probably in the dealing of man with man, then in the +dealing of families with other families. In the dealing of tribes +with tribes in prehistoric times, the question of right and wrong +played probably little or no part; might alone settled matters. In +what we call the pagan world, among the early Egyptians, Hebrews, +Greeks, and Romans, the law of might in the dealings of one nation +with another prevailed, and up to our own time the standard of +international morality has been, and still is, far below the standard +among individuals and neighborhood communities. Even in the United +States there is a crying want of public conscience. The people are +preyed upon by men they elect to serve them. The men or corporations +that take pleasure and satisfaction in serving the public well and +reasonably, or in giving a _quid pro quo_, are rare. Men who are +blameless in their personal dealings with one another will, when +formed into a board of directors or trustees, rob railroads, and +squander money not their own. Capitalists will band together to rob +the state through the construction of sham highways or flimsy public +buildings. A public conscience is among all peoples of slow growth, +and an international conscience is still slower. What part has it +played in the history of Europe? Surely a very minor part. The Golden +Rule has been turned into an iron rule of might over right times +without number, by all the nations recently engaged in war. + +As man’s moral consciousness has developed, the question of right +and wrong has, of course, come more and more to the front; his +relations to his fellows, his sense of justice, of truth, of fair +dealing, have occupied him more and more. His savage instincts have +been held more and more in check. The coöperation and sympathy and +good-will which have brought about his present civilization would +have been possible on no other terms. Without a sense of justice, of +love of truth, of ideal right, where should we have been to-day? The +fittest to survive among mankind were those races that had the moral +consciousness most fully developed. This gave a might which led to a +permanent supremacy--a beneficent might. A malevolent might is one +that is founded upon superior brute or material strength alone. The +law of the jungle or of the tornado or of the avalanche, introduced +into human affairs and unchecked by the law of man’s moral nature, +leads to wars of conquest, as it did to the World War. + + +IV + +The expounders of the benefits of war write and speak about it as +if it were some system of hygiene or medicine or gymnastic training +that a people could practice in and of themselves; whereas wars of +conquest do not begin and end at home. There are two parties to such +a war. If it is a benefit to the victors, what is it to the defeated? +I am speaking, of course, of material benefits. The benefits that +come from heroism and self-denial are of another order. If the lamb +inside the lion is a benefit to the lion, what is it to the lamb? +If Germany reaped advantage by her invasion of Belgium, what did +Belgium reap? But the fate of the other party is the last question +that would ever occur to the Prussian military mind. If the doctrine +of frightfulness began and ended at home, the world could not object. +Because burned cities in modern times rise from their ashes in new +beauty and power, shall we therefore seek to rejuvenate our cities +by applying a match to them? Cities rise from their ashes because of +their stored-up wealth and because of the arteries of commerce and +industry that flow through them. Fire does not rejuvenate a dead tree +nor a dead city, nor does war rejuvenate a people who are in a state +of mortal ripening. It did not rejuvenate Rome in ancient times, nor +Spain in modern times, and it does not appear to be rejuvenating +Mexico very fast, nor any of the South American republics. All +depends upon the stock you are trying to rejuvenate. + +Lord Roberts is quoted as saying, just before his death, that war is +necessary and salutary, and that it is the only national tonic that +can be prescribed when peace begets degeneracy in an over-civilized +people. He looked upon Germany as the greatest friend of the Allies +when she declared war against them. But could there be any better +proof that peace had not begotten degeneracy in England or France or +Russia than the promptness with which these countries took up the +challenge of Prussian militarism, and the fortitude and self-denial +with which they gave it blow for blow? + +Under the smiling face of peace, when the demand is made, the +heroic element is always found to be slumbering. Every day, in the +industrial and scientific fields, men prove themselves the same +heroes that they do on the field of battle, and they prove it without +the excitement and stimulus that war gives; and women prove it in +times of peace and times of war. + +The gospel of war as a national tonic in our time is a delusion and +a snare. Are we to get up a war offhand because we think the nations +need that kind of medicine? Blood-letting is a strange remedy for +the depleted condition to which Lord Roberts refers. War sets up the +victorious nation, but how about the defeated one? Have the defeats +of Spain in the past two or three hundred years set her up? Have the +defeats of Turkey redounded to her glory and power? Little doubt that +this World War will bear fruit, but it will be a kind of fruit the +combatant did not seek or expect. + +The conclusion, then, that I arrive at is that a new rule of conduct +for nations as for individuals, a new biological law, has come into +being through man’s moral nature, his sense of right and wrong. +There is no question of right or of wrong in the world of living +things below man, and we can persuade ourselves that there is only by +putting ourselves in the place of the struggling animal forces. And +there is no question of right and of wrong in the human world till +man’s consciousness of this difference has begun to dawn. In our day +this consciousness is sufficiently developed to become the ruling +factor in the conduct of national and international affairs, and must +very soon put an end to all armed human conflicts. In saying this +I am not exploiting a theory; I am trying to state an indisputable +scientific fact. + + + + +X + +TOOTH AND CLAW + + +I + +To deny that Nature is cruel, in the strict sense of the term, were, +to the majority of persons, like denying that blood is red, or that +fire will burn. We use the term “cruel” loosely, and interpret the +ways of Nature in terms of our own psychology. + +If we are torn by thorns or stung by nettles or bitten by snakes or +suffer from frost-bites or sun-stroke, we accuse Nature of cruelty, +always assuming, in our conceit, that we are the lords of creation, +and that things were made especially for us. We have no venomous +snake that will bite us except in self-defense, nor any bee that will +sting us except on the same grounds. + +Even Darwin, in a letter to his friend Hooker, refers to the “clumsy, +wasteful, blundering, slow, and horribly cruel works of Nature,” thus +treating the All-Mother with scant respect. + +Amiel cannot say, as he does say, that “Nature is unjust and +shameless, without probity and without faith,” unless he makes her +over into man or invests her with the human consciousness. Even the +good Emerson accuses Nature of being unscrupulous. Did the Concord +philosopher expect storms and frost and blight and thunderbolts +to have scruples? Did he expect thorns and nettles and fleas and +potato-bugs and grasshoppers and disease-germs to consider their ways? + +A well-known philosopher and writer, Professor Jacks, of Manchester +College, Oxford, in writing upon “Our Common Foe,” takes it for +granted at the outset that Nature is cruel, and, moreover, that she +is as cruel as the Germans showed themselves to be in the cruelest +of all wars. “There is a cruelty in Nature,” he says, “and it has +been reserved for our age to realize how immense is its range and +how appalling its effects”; we realize it, he says, when we read +the story of Germany’s treatment of her prisoners, the story of +her submarines, and her conduct toward unoffending non-combatants +generally. + +What worse thing could be said about Nature than that she is as bad +as the Germans? It almost makes us suspect treachery and death in +her summer breezes and her sunshine. Dr. Jacks seeks to justify his +charge by averring that man is a part of Nature and that in him are +summarized her good and her evil qualities. Of course, in a certain +sense this is true. But in seeking to solve the problems of his life, +man separates himself from the rest of Nature and holds himself +amenable to standards of conduct that he does not apply to the orders +below him. He regards himself as a superior being. He is a part of +Nature, but of an emancipated and regenerated Nature. He is one +with the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air only in his +purely animal aspects. As a moral and spiritual being with a sense of +truth and justice, of mercy and forgiveness, he stands on a higher +plane. He cannot justify his conduct by an appeal to brute nature or +to biological laws. His sins are more scarlet and his virtues more +divine than those of his unmoral and unreasoning brute neighbors. His +consciousness of right and wrong is the touchstone by which all his +deeds are to be tried. + +Tennyson’s agonizing line “Nature red in tooth and claw” tends, +especially in the days of world-wide human carnage, to make one see +the whole animal kingdom with blood-dripping claws and jaws. But it +is not so. At its worst this “tooth and claw” business applies only +to a fraction of wild life. The vast army of the seed-eaters, the +plant-eaters, the fruit-eaters, upon which the flesh-eaters subsist, +and which they help keep in check, is greatly in the ascendancy. + +The whole truth of this matter of the cruelty of Nature may be put +in a nutshell: Nature as seen in animal life is _sanguinary_, but +only man is _cruel_. Only man deliberately and intentionally inflicts +pain; only man tortures his victims, and takes pleasure in their +agony. No other creature goes out of its way to inflict suffering; no +other creature acts from the motive of cruelty or the will to give +pain. + +Nature kills, but does not torture. The biological laws are neither +human nor inhuman; they are _un_human. If in following the rule that +might makes right, the Germans sought justification by an appeal to +biological laws, they fell below the beasts of the fields, because +they are moral beings, and know good from evil. + +Biological laws are not concerned about the moral law. Not till +we reach man’s moral nature does this law have any validity; then +it becomes a biological law, because it has survival value. Could +the race of man ever have developed as we now see it without +the conceptions of right and justice and the spirit of mutual +helpfulness? As time passes, other things being equal, the most +righteous and humanitarian nation will be the most powerful and the +most progressive. The great strength of the Allied cause in the World +War was that it was founded upon an ideal conception of international +justice and comity. President Wilson set this forth in such wonderful +completeness that it will shine in our political firmament for all +time like a star of the first magnitude. And the weakness of the +German cause was that it was based upon the spirit and the aims of +the pirate and the highwayman. + +When we speak of Nature’s cruelty we are obsessed with the idea that +blood and death necessarily mean cruelty, whereas cruelty, as I have +said, means an intentional infliction of pain or suffering. Is the +surgeon cruel when he performs an operation? Do our own carnivorous +habits imply cruelty? The slaughter-house is not a pleasant object +to contemplate; the sight of blood disturbs most of us; its sight +and smell excite even the unreasoning brutes. But it is the wanton +shedding of blood that reacts unfavorably upon ourselves, and makes +us indifferent to the suffering which blood so often implies. Life is +a wonderful and precious gift, and we do not like to see it wantonly +destroyed. + +Professor Jacks speaks of “the hot, foul breath of Nature’s cruelty,” +a sentence mild enough when applied to the Germans, but not justified +when applied to universal Nature. We can hardly accuse the laws of +matter and force of being cruel when they destroy us; if they were +not true to themselves, what permanence would there be to life or +to anything else? Fire and flood, the earthquake and the tornado, +cause pain and death, gravity will crush us as soon as sustain us, +but these forces are not cruel, because there is no will to inflict +suffering; they are a part of the system of things upon which our +life and well-being depend. + +Nature, in the action of her mechanical and chemical forces as they +go their way about us, is, as I have so often said, apparently as +indifferent to man as to all other forms of life, but, to speak in +the same terms of our human experience, something must have been +solicitous about man or he would not be here in a world so well +suited to his development and well-being. In the conflict of forces +he has had to take his chances with other forms of life, but his +powers of adaptation and invention far surpass those of all other +creatures. Not an atom, not a pebble, will turn aside to save him +from destruction. Unrelenting and unpitying Nature is the school in +which his powers have been developed, and for him to call Nature +“cruel” in her treatment of him is for a child to upbraid the parent +whose guidance and discipline foster and safeguard the coming man. +Could man have become man on any other terms? + +Love is creation’s final law, though Tennyson seems to doubt +it when he sees Nature “red in tooth and claw.” But tooth and +claw do not necessarily imply cruelty, since the cruelest of all +animals--man--has them not; they imply the dependence of one form +of life upon another form, and are associated in our minds with +that most heinous of all crimes, murder. It is Nature’s seeming +indifference to life which causes us to charge her with cruelty. Our +minds can take in but a fraction of the total scheme of things, and +what we do take in we make a personal application of to ourselves. We +humanize when we should generalize. + +The Germans willfully turned their backs upon the natural biological +law of righteousness or rightness, and their punishment has been +swift and adequate. They made a religion of cruelty, as man alone +has exhibited it, and cultivated the will to destroy and defame till +mankind, with one accord, bestowed upon them their ancestral name, +the Huns. They went forth to burn and pillage and murder, and, so +far as lay in their power, to destroy the very earth of the peoples +they sought to conquer. They summoned to their aid all the diabolical +forces of which chemistry is capable, and if they could have +controlled the seismic and meteorological forces as well, who doubts +that they would have made a desert, blackened with fire and torn by +earthquakes, where dwell the nations that opposed them? + +The spirit they showed in the World War, and the nefarious crimes of +which they were guilty, make it a serious question whether or not +they should not be forever cast out from the family of civilized +nations; whether, indeed, they should not be completely wiped off the +map as a nation, and their power for further evil forever destroyed. + +“There is no place in the world of the future,” says Dr. Jacks, “for +a people whose policy is tainted by the instinct for cruelty.” + +If Nature were as cruel as the Germans are, if the same lust for +blood and suffering had run in her veins, if she had, in the same +spirit of riot and wantonness, destroyed her own creatures and laid +waste her own provinces, would you or I, or any one else, have been +here to pass judgment upon her doings? + +There is blood and death in the jungle, but no lust of pain; but +in the German prisons, and in the path of Germany’s armies, there +was the deliberate infliction of suffering and agony for their own +sakes, so that for generations to come the name of Germany will stand +for all that is selfish, cruel, unchivalrous, ignoble, insulting, +and bestial in human history. The Prussian officer spat in the face +of his prisoners of a like rank, and followed this with insulting +epithets and blows, seeking in every way to bring them down to his +own bestial level. The Prussian nurse brought to a wounded British +soldier the glass of water he begged for, held it close to his face +then poured it on the ground, handing him the empty glass. + + +II + +Nature has an anæsthetic of her own which she uses in taking life. +The carnivorous animals inflict far less pain than appearances would +seem to indicate. Tooth and claw usually overwhelm by a sudden blow, +and sudden blows benumb and paralyze. Violence in this light is the +handmaiden of Mercy. If the surgeon could perform his operations in +the same sudden and violent manner, an anæsthetic would rarely be +needed. Livingstone was conscious of but little pain when in the jaws +of a lion, and its prey no doubt feels as little. The human criminal, +electrocuted or hung or beheaded, probably experiences but little +physical suffering. Any one whose life has been suddenly imperiled by +a railway or a runaway accident knows how blessed is the blankness +which comes over his mind at the most critical moment; the suddenness +and intensity of his alarm blots out consciousness, and he retains no +memory of just what happened. The soldier in battle may be seriously +or fatally wounded and not be aware of it till some time afterward. +A crushing or tearing blow disrupts the machinery of sensation. It +is only when we put ourselves in the place of the mouse with which +the cat is playing that we pity it; it does not experience the agony +we should feel under like conditions; it is usually unwounded; it +does not know what awaits it and its comparative freedom of movement +soothes its alarm. + +Dr. Jacks speaks of the bloody work of the struggle for existence, +but the struggle for existence is largely a bloodless struggle of +adaptation. Through it, every creature sooner or later finds its +place, finds where it fits into the scheme of things. Through it +the mouse finds its place, and the lion its, and man has found his. +Living bodies are not ready-made, so to speak, like the parts of +machinery; they are constantly in the making, and their making is a +process of transformation. The horse, as we know him, was millions of +years in the making; so was the elephant; so was man; so was every +other form of life. The struggle for existence as a whole is cruel +only so far as all discipline and all insensible modifications +and adaptations under the pressure of environment are cruel; it is +good in the guise of evil; it is the stern beneficence of impartial +law. The greater the power of adaptation, the more fit is the +animal or plant to survive, and this power of adaptation is mainly +what distinguishes living bodies from non-living. Inanimate bodies +tend to adjust themselves to one another through mechanical laws; +animate bodies tend to adapt themselves to one another and to their +environment through vital law. + +The struggle for existence is for the most part a struggle with +inanimate nature--with climate, soil, wind, flood. A peaceful +struggle is going on all around us at all times, among men as among +animals and plants: a struggle to live, to compel Nature to yield +us the things needed for our lives. It is not often competition--an +effort to win what another must lose; it is an effort to seize and +appropriate the elements that all may have on equal terms, by the +exercise of strength, industry, wit, prudence. Life is predaceous +only to a limited extent. In the wilds, in the jungle, one form +devours another form, but nature compensates. A fuller measure of +life is given to those forms that are the prey of other forms; +they are more prolific. The rats and mice are vastly more prolific +than the weasels or the owls that feed upon them; the rabbits have +ten young to one of their enemy, the fox; the lesser birds greatly +outnumber the hawks; the little fishes that are the food of the big +fishes swarm in the sea. + +Probably no species is ever exterminated by its natural enemies. +These enemies only keep it in check. The birds keep the insects +from ruining vegetation, which is the source of all food. Slay all +the lions in Africa, and probably the struggle for existence of the +antelope tribe would soon be harder than it is now. Hence the animals +of prey are a good gift even to the animals they prey upon. The +plus of the breeding instinct of the latter would in time result in +overpopulation and in famine. + +The things that are preyed upon are more joyous and contented than +their enemies. The carnivorous animals are solitary and morose; the +birds of prey are the same. The chipmunk seems to have a much better +time than the weasel, the bluebird than the owl that lines its nest +with blue feathers. One might envy the song sparrow, or the vesper +sparrow, or the robin, but never the shrike nor the sharp-skinned +hawk that pursues them. The eagle is a grand bird, but evidently the +lark is much the happier. The jay devours the eggs and the young of +the smaller birds, but these birds greatly outstrip him in the race +of life. The murderers evidently have less joy in their lives than +the murdered. The crow rarely sheds blood, and, compared with the +hawk, he is a happy-all-the-year-round vagabond. + +Nature has made the wild creatures fearful of their natural enemies, +and has endowed them with means to escape them; then she has equipped +these enemies with weapons and instincts to defeat this (her own) +purpose. She plays one hand against another. Wild life is divided +into two warring camps, and, as in our own wars, new devices for +defense on the one hand are met with new devices of attack on the +other. The little night rodents have big and sharp eyes, but the owl +that preys upon them has big and sharp eyes also, and his flight is +as silent as a shadow. You see, Nature is impartial; she has the +good of all creatures at heart. If it is good for the hawk to eat +the bird, it is good for the bird to be equipped with swift wings +and sharp eyes to evade the hawk. A little more advantage on either +side and the game would be blocked--the birds would fail or the hawks +would starve. As it is, “the race is to the swift and the battle to +the strong.” Nature keeps the balance. Action and reaction are equal. +The skunk and the porcupine have little or no fear; neither have they +much wit. Their weapons of defense are nearly always ready, and that +of the porcupine acts automatically; that of the skunk is a little +more deliberate and inflicts less pain, but gives great discomfort +and discomfiture. + +Nature keeps one form in check with another form, and thus, like +a wise capitalist, distributes her investments so that the income +is constant. If she put her funds all in mice and birds, the cats +and owls would soon starve; if she put them all in woodchucks, the +pastures and meadows would soon fail the herds. And this reminds me +how man often disturbs the balance of nature; the clearing-up and +the cultivation of the land have held in check the natural enemies +of the woodchucks--foxes and owls--at the same time that they have +greatly increased the woodchuck’s sources of food-supply, so that in +some sections these rodents have become a real pest to the farmer. +The same changed conditions appreciably favor the meadow mice, and +they, too, seem to be on the increase. But this increase again may +stimulate the increase of the mice-hunting hawks, and thus the +balance be maintained. Herein lies the danger of introducing new +forms of wild life in a country--their natural enemies are not always +on hand to check them. The mongoose has overrun Jamaica and has not +yet found an adequate natural enemy. Introduced into this country, it +would be an incalculable calamity, though in time it would doubtless +meet with a natural check. Our weasels, related to the mongoose, are +prolific, and seem to have few natural enemies, and yet they do not +unduly increase; it seems as if some unknown hand must stay them. +They prey upon all the smaller rodents and find them easy victims, +yet these rodents are vastly more numerous than the blood-suckers. I +often see marks upon the snow where the muskrat and the rabbit have +fallen before them, and yet one sees scores of these animals to one +weasel or mink. + +How our domestic animals would suffer if they had the gift of +ideation and knew what awaited them! Pope anticipated me when he +wrote: + + “The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, + Had he thy reason could he skip and play? + + “Pleased to the last he crops the flowery food, + And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.” + +If the horse only knew his own strength, and knew that he had +“rights,” would there not soon be a horse rebellion? Would the swine +and the cattle fatten in their pens and stalls if they knew what is +before them? Animals suffer no mental anguish either over the past +or concerning the future; they live in the present moment; no future +looms before them, no past haunts their memories. Their pain is +brief, their joy is unconscious; they live to feed and breed; they +slay without penalties, and they are slain without remorse; they find +their place and live their day, and Mother Nature reaps the harvest. + +Would we have a world without struggle or pain or friction of any +kind? Good means ease, leisure, security; but it means something +more: it means achievement, victory, the overcoming of evil, the +development of power, the making of the world a better place to live +in, and much more. Is Nature a tyrant because we have to earn our +living? Because we have to plow and plant and hoe? Because flood and +fire will destroy us, and the winds rack us, if we loose our grip? +We have life on these terms; they are the conditions that beget and +sustain life. A world void of evil, as we use the word, would be a +world void of good also, a negative world. Without death there can be +no life; without struggle there can be no power. + + + + +XI + +MEN AND TREES + + +I do not see that Nature is any more solicitous about the well-being +of man than she is, say, about the well-being of trees. She is +solicitous about the well-being of all life, so far as the conditions +of life favor its development and continuance--men and trees alike. +But all have to run the gantlet of some form of hostile forces--the +trees one kind, man another. What I mean is that evil in some form +waits upon all--hindrances, accidents, defeat, failure, death. + +The trees and the forests have their enemies and accidents and +set-backs, and men and communities of men have analogous evils. +Trees are attacked by worms, blight, tornadoes, lightning, and +men are attacked by pestilence, famine, wars, and all manner of +diseases. Every tree struggles to stand upright; it is the easiest +and only normal position. Men aspire to uprightness of thought and +conduct, but a thousand accidental conditions prevent most of them +from attaining it. One tree in falling is likely to bring down, +or to mutilate, other trees, as the moral or business downfall of +a strong man in a community is quite sure to bring evil to many +others around him. Trees struggle with one another for moisture +and sustenance from the soil, and for a place in the sun, as men +do in the community, and the most lucky, or the most fit, survive. +Nature plans for a perfect tree as she plans for a perfect man, but +both tree and man have to take their chances with hostile forces +and conditions amid which their lot falls, so that an absolutely +perfect oak or elm or pine is about as rare as a perfect man. Of +course Nature has endowed man with mental and spiritual powers which +she has not bestowed upon trees. These powers give man an advantage +over trees, but not the same advantage over men--his own kind of +tree--because his fellows are similarly endowed. His struggle with +his own kind is as inevitable as the struggle of trees with their +kind, with this advantage in favor of the trees: theirs is always a +peaceful competition, it never takes the form of destructive wars. +Trees of opposite kinds will draw away from one another; a pine will +draw away from a maple or an oak, not, I suppose, because of any +natural antagonism, but because it is less mobile and its tender but +more rigid branches cannot stand the buffetings of the more mobile +and flexible deciduous trees. Pine loves to associate with pine, +and spruce with spruce. The spirit, the atmosphere of a pine or a +hemlock forest, how different from that of a beech or a maple! Most +trees tend to associate themselves together in large bodies, as did +primitive man, and civilized man, too, for that matter. The conifers +are more clannish than the deciduous trees. + +Are not a generation of leaves and a generation of men subject to +about the same laws of chance? The baby leaves have their enemies +in insects that devour them, in blight that withers them, in frost +that cuts them short, and when they are matured, how the winds buffet +them (Nature doesn’t temper the wind to the tender leaf), how the +gales lash them, how the hail riddles them! If they had powers of +thought, what a struggling, agitated, unstable world they would think +themselves born into! When a summer tempest strikes a maple- or an +oak-tree, the strain and stress of the foliage is almost painful to +witness. Yet when the tempest subsides, hardly a leaf is torn or +detached, and when autumn comes, the ranks of the vast army of the +leaves are but little thinned, and the great majority of leaves ripen +and fall to the ground unscathed. They have come through the campaign +of life and have experienced many ups and downs, and yet, on the +whole, they have each had an active and useful life. The leaf-rollers +have made their nests in a few of certain kinds of them, the +leaf-cutters have made holes in certain other kinds, the gall insects +have made their nurseries at the expense of still other kinds; but +all these things amount to a small fraction of the whole. When a +plague of forest worms comes and strips the maples or the beeches, +or a plague of elm-beetles strips the elms, and the invasion of +a foreign deadly fungus kills all the chestnuts, these calamities +are paralleled by the plagues that in past times have swept away +large numbers of human beings and depopulated whole countries, or by +epidemic diseases, such as infantile paralysis, that now and then +rage over widespread areas. + +Go and sit down in our mixed beech, maple, birch, and oak woods and +witness the varying fortunes of the trees. How many of them have had +misfortunes of one kind or another! How few, if any, have reached +their ideal! How many are diseased or dying at the top or decaying +at the root! Some have been mutilated by the fall of other trees. +Youth and age meet and mingle. Some trees in their teens, as it +were, are very thrifty; others are old and decrepit. In fact, the +fortunes of the individual trees are much like those of men and women +in a human community--struggle, competition, defeat, decay, and +death on all sides. All, or nearly all, the evils that afflict men +have their counterpart in the evils that afflict the trees of the +forest. When some species of forest worm threatens the destruction +of our beech or maple forests some other form of insect-life steps +in and puts an end to their increase, and the plague vanishes. The +gypsy and the brown-tailed moths which have so ravished the groves +and forests of the Eastern States will doubtless in time be held in +check by their natural enemies. The plague of tent caterpillars that +got such headway in New York State that it threatened to become a +public calamity was effectually checked by the cold and rain of the +May of 1917. Not one tent caterpillar have I seen during the past +three years. The plague of currant-worms was checked in the same +way. Sooner or later any excess is sure to be corrected. But so far +as we can see, such things as the chestnut blight and hickory blight +must rage like a fire till they have spent themselves and there +are no more chestnut- or hickory-trees to be destroyed. Throughout +the course of the biological history of the globe, both plants +and animals have dropped out in some such way, and new forms come +in--come in through the slow action of the evolutionary impulse. + +The Providence I see at work in the case of the trees does not differ +at all from the Providence I see at work in the case of men. It is +one and the same, and that one is as I have so often said, wholesale, +indiscriminating, regardless of individuals, regardless of waste, +delays, pain, suffering, failure, yet insuring success on a universal +scale, the scale of centuries and geologic periods. Our standards of +time compared with Nature’s standards are like our interplanetary +spaces compared with the inconceivable abysses of the sidereal +heavens--minutes compared to centuries. Our little family of planets +moves round the fireside of our little sun--a small chimney-corner in +the vast out-of-doors of astronomic space, where suns and systems +and whole universes of worlds drift like bubbles on the sea. Give +Nature time enough, and the world of to-day, or of any day, becomes +an entire stranger to you. Orion will no longer stalk across the +winter skies, the pole-star will no longer guide your ships, if, +indeed, there remains any ocean for your ships to sail upon. + +The Natural Providence is not concerned about you and me. In +comparison it is concerned only about our race, and not lastingly +concerned about that, since races, too, shall go. + + “Races rise and fall, + Nations come and go; + Time doth gently cover all + With violets and with snow.” + +As I sit here under an old heavy-topped apple-tree on a hot midsummer +day, a yellow leaf lets go its hold upon the branch over my head and +comes softly down upon the open book I am reading. It is a perfect +leaf, but it has had its day. The huge family of leaves of which it +was a member are still rank and green and active in sustaining the +life of the tree, but this one has dropped out of the leafy ranks. +There are a few small dark spots upon it, which, I see with my pocket +glass, are fungus growths, or else some germ disease of apple-tree +leaves, perhaps, like pneumonia, or diphtheria, or tuberculosis among +men. One leaf out of ten thousand has fallen. Was Fate cruel to it? +From the point of view of the leaf, yes--could a leaf have a point +of view; from the point of view of Nature, no. The tree has leaves +enough left to manufacture the needed chlorophyl, and that satisfies +the law. If all the leaves were blighted, or were swept off by insect +enemies, or stripped by hail and storm, that were a calamity to the +tree. But one leaf, though all the myriad forces of Nature went to +its production, though it is a marvel of delicate structure and +function, though the sun’s rays have beaten upon it and used it, and +been kind to it, though evolution worked for untold ages to bring its +kind to perfection--what matters it? It will go back into the soil +and the air from which it came, and contribute its mite to another +crop of leaves, and maybe it has rendered the molecules of carbon and +hydrogen and oxygen of which it is composed more ready and willing to +enter into other living combinations. And the fungus germs that have +preyed upon it, they, too, have had their period of activity, and +have justified themselves. Nature thus pits one form against another, +and her great drama of life and death goes on. Are her stakes more in +the one than in the other, since she favors both? Yes, she has more +at stake in health than in disease. If disease always triumphed, all +life would go out. Of course, in the sum total of things, the life +of this old tree counts for but little, but if it failed to bear +apples, its chief end would be defeated. Evil is limited; it is a +minor counter-current, but it is just as real as the good; it is a +phase of the good; we have evil because we first have good. Both are +relative terms. We are prone to speak of good and evil as if they +were something absolute, like gravity or chemical affinity. But are +they any more absolute than heat and cold, or than big and little? +What pleases us, and is conducive to our well-being, we call good, +and its opposite we call evil. We are not to make our wants and +dislikes, our pleasures and our pain, the measure of the universe, as +we do mathematics and physics. We can think of things in terms of art +and literature, of beauty or ugliness, or in terms of morality and +religion, or we may think of them in terms of science and of exact +knowledge. When we say they are good or bad, we are thinking of them +in terms of morals or of religion; when we say they are beautiful or +ugly, we are describing them in terms of æsthetics; when we say they +are true or false, real or delusive, we are talking of them in terms +of science. + +This sere and prematurely ripened leaf appeals to my literary and +imaginative faculties through its beauty and its symbolic character; +it appeals to my understanding, my love of accurate knowledge, by +reason of the blight that caused its fall. + +Our going out of the world seems equally fortuitous and haphazard in +infancy, youth, middle life, old age; before we have fairly lived, or +after life has lost its value, or in the height of our powers, or in +the decrepitude of old age: which shall it be? + +The naturist sees all life as a whole. Man is not an exception, +but part of the total scheme. The life principle is the same in +him as in all else below him--the principle that organizes matter +into countless new forms; that crosses and uses the mechanical and +chemical forces, and begets numberless new compounds; that develops +organs and functions, and separates the living world so sharply from +the non-living. In the weed, the tree, and in man, the principle is +the same. What has set up this organizing power and so impressed it +that it goes on from lower to higher forms, and unfolds the whole +drama of evolution through the geologic ages, is the mystery of +mysteries. To solve this mystery, mankind invented God and acts +of creation. But a God apart from Nature is to me unthinkable, +and science finds no beginning of anything. It finds change, +transformation, only. When or where did man begin? Where does the +circle begin? Self-beginning--who can think of that? Can we think +of a stick with only one end? We can think of a motion as beginning +and ending, but not of substance as beginning and ending. When the +metabolism of the body ceases, death comes. Do we think of life, +or the organizing principle, as then leaving the body? It ceases, +but does it leave the body in any other sense than that the flame +leaves the candle when it is blown out? And is this any different +in the case of man than it is in the case of a tree or a dog? We +postulate what we call a soul in man, which we deny to all other +forms of life--an independent entity which separates from the body +and lives after it. But we run into difficulties the moment we do so. +In the biologic history of man, when and where did the soul appear? +Did the men of the old Stone Age, of whom Professor Osborn writes +so graphically and convincingly, have it? Did the Piltdown man, the +Neanderthal man, the Java man of Dubois, have it? Did our ancestral +forms still lower down have it? Do babies have it? Do idiots and +half-witted persons have it? + +All we can claim for man above the lower orders is higher +intelligence, greater brain power, the power of reflection, and +the logical process. His dog has perceptive intelligence, but not +reflective; animals act from inherited impulse; man from impulse, +thought, ideation. Man’s instinctive impulses are guided or +restrained by thought; his emotions--anger, love--wait upon thought; +his migratory instinct waits as that of the lower animals does not. +But when this extra power began, who can say? It had no beginning, +it dawned by insensible degrees, as do all things in Nature. We have +only to heighten our conception of Nature and matter to see the +difficulties vanish--and the stigma of materialism loses its terrors. + +In these later centuries mankind has steadily grown bolder and +bolder in dealing with its deities and its devils. A few heroic +spirits have always questioned the truth of the popular creeds, but +in our day a very large majority question or even deny them. Fear of +the wrath above or the wrath below has fled. Men are fast coming to +see that devotion to the truth is the essence of true religion, and +that the worst form of irreligion is the acceptance of creeds and +forms without examining them, or upon the sole authority of some book +or sect. The truth-loving man is the God-loving man. We no longer +talk of God-fearing men--this negative attitude has given place to +the positive attitude of love and enjoyment. The wrath of God no +longer makes us tremble. The swift and sure vengeance of violated +law, both in the physical world without us and the physiological +world within us, we understand and appreciate, but the fury and +revenge of the offended gods no longer disturb our dreams. Nature +has no mercy, is no respecter of persons, is one to the just and +the unjust. Only the moral nature of man knows right from wrong; +only the reason of man knows truth from falsehood. When or how man +got this moral and intellectual nature is a question upon which +men themselves will never agree. Did it come from without or from +within--through evolution or revelation? The naturalist or naturist +is bound to believe that it came from within through the long +process of evolution. Whatever favored man’s development became a +biological law and had survival value. Without some degree of right +conduct and fair dealing--some degree of perception of the true and +the false--the race of man could never have attained its present +high position in the scale of animate nature. Through some inherent +impulse or tendency in matter, man arose out of the earth, climbing +through the many lowly forms to his full estate of a rational being. +It has been a long and toilsome and painful journey. But here we are, +and when we look back through the geologic vistas we are incredulous +that we came that road. We incline to the short cut through the +Garden. But the study of the ways of Nature as we see them in all +living things opens our eyes to the truth of evolution. Of course the +great puzzle and mystery is, Who or what stamped upon matter this +organizing and developing impulse and caused the first unicellular +life in the old Azoic or Palæozoic seas to branch and grow and +increase in complexity till it gave birth to all the myriad living +forms, high and low, that now fill the earth? But here again I am +using the language of half-truth--the language of our experience, +which makes us think of some external agent as stamping an impulse +upon matter. If we say the impulse was always there, that it is +inseparable from matter and the laws of matter, just as creation is +without beginning and end, center or circumference, we come no nearer +speaking the unspeakable. But it seems to me we do, in a measure, +satisfy the reason; we make it see or realize its own limitations; +reason guides reason. + +The infinite knows neither time nor space, neither extension nor +duration; it knows only the here and the now. It does not wait for +time to pass or for eternity to begin. Eternity is now. Man, and all +that has arisen out of him, is a part of universal nature. Are we not +held to the sphere? Can we disturb it in its orbit? Can we banish +one atom from it or add one atom to it? We are a fragment of it, its +laws pervade our minds, and we cannot get away from the necessity of +putting our thoughts and emotions in the terms of our experience as +dwellers upon this astronomic globe. We may fancy that we get away +from it in moments of abstract thought, but we do not; we do not get +away from ourselves any more than we can outrun our shadow. We can +let our imaginations course with the spheres that circle through +the abysmal depths of space, but we can put our emotions only in +the words that we have invented to describe our experiences in this +little three-dimensional corner of creation. If our terms were formed +from our experiences amid the spheres, we might be able to give some +hint of the Infinite. We might learn how to describe our sensations +when emancipated from the standards and limitations of the world in +which we live. + +Conventionally religious persons shrink from having their spiritual +life discussed in terms of psychology, because psychology smacks of +science and science acts like a blight upon religion. It dispels +mystery and lets the light of day--the garish, irreligious day--into +the twilight or the darkness of religious emotion. We do not want +our relation to the spiritual world explained in terms of our common +knowledge--such is our hankering after the unknown, the mysterious, +the transcendent. + +One side of our nature fears the Infinite, and we experience a +chill when the methods of this world obtrude themselves there. We +have convinced ourselves that the part of our inner life which we +call the soul is something more sacred and mysterious and nearer +to the Infinite than our ordinary faculties. What victims we are +of words! What is the value of this feeling, and how did it arise? +Our appreciation of the beautiful, in art and nature, is equally +extra and transcends our practical faculties. Man’s belief in +another world--an ideal world of the absolute good--is, of course, +the result of his strong reaction from the pain, the struggle, the +incompleteness of this world. Evolution is a hard road to travel. +Being born is evidently not a pleasant experience for the baby, and +in this world man is constantly struggling through new experiences +into a higher and larger life. His measure of happiness is never +full and he looks for compensation in another and better world. +He does not see that there can be no better world--that pain and +struggle and disappointment are necessary for his development, and +that to long for a state in which these things do not exist is like +the stream longing for a dead equilibrium. All power and all growth +come from a break in the repose of the physical forces. There is +no power in a uniform temperature, nor in water at a dead level. +Mechanical power comes down an incline, vital power is a lift on +an up-grade--all growing things struggle upward; the vegetable and +animal world lift the earth elements up against gravity into an +unstable equilibrium. Mechanical things run down the scale toward a +stable equilibrium. + +Our life goes on by virtue of some principle or force in matter that +tends constantly to break up the stable into the unstable, to force +the elements into new chemical combinations. Our machines dissipate +energy in doing work; the living body conserves energy in the same +process. It grows strong by the obstacles it overcomes, up to the +limits of its powers. The clock runs down, the energy we put into it +in winding it up is dissipated; but the growth of a living body is +a winding-up process, a drawing-in and a storing-up process. In the +wood and coal we burn is stored up the heat of the sun. In burning +them and driving machinery by means of the heat developed, the energy +is dissipated. In manual labor the human body dissipates energy +also, and it is the same solar energy that the engine dissipates, +and it does it in the same mechanical way; and it is constantly +replenished from without through the food consumed. But the human +or living engine stokes itself. It is a clock that winds itself up, +a gun that loads and points itself. Because the living body in its +final analysis turns out to be a machine as absolutely dependent upon +mechanical and chemical principles as any other machine, there are +those who see no radical difference between the mechanical and the +vital. + +I conclude that it is equally up-grade from the vital or +physiological to the psychical. How the two connect we can never +know, but that the thinking man dissipates energy there is no doubt. +The body and the soul are one in a way past our finding out. When +we discuss these things in terms of metaphysics, we launch upon a +boundless sea and reach no real port. + +When we project ourselves into Nature out of which we came, or when +we see ourselves there objectively,--our virtues, our aspirations, +our vices, and our wickedness,--we sow the seeds of our religion. We +grow a crop of gods and of devils, and heaven and hell become fixed +realities to us. So do we make the world in which we live, and it in +turn makes us. So does the divine in us keep pace with the divine we +see in Nature. So does the beauty of our own characters grow as we +see beauty in the character of others. So do our love, faith, hope, +charity, develop and augment as we see these things in the world +about us. The universe is thus constituted, and that is all we can +say about it. + +That right, human right, in the end and on a large scale, prevails, I +believe to be true; the right that in long periods of time means, or +rather secures, the well-being of the race--the greatest good to the +greatest number. + +In discussing the final problems of the universe, we are attempting +to describe the Infinite in terms of the finite--an impossible +task. We think and speak of God as a person, because our experience +gives us no other terms in which to conceive Him except in terms +of personality. He sees, hears, plans, governs, creates, loves, +suffers, is angry, we say,--in fact, has all human attributes and +characteristics vastly magnified. He is an omnipotent and omnipresent +man. He is the creator and organizer and director of the universe, +and hence is responsible for everything in it, the evil as well +as the good. Our attitude toward Him is that of a subject toward +his sovereign, or toward a supreme judge. We must praise, exalt, +supplicate, propitiate Him. There is lying upon my table a recent +volume of sermons by an English divine called “The Justification of +God”--his justification in the face of the terrible World War which +he might have prevented. Thus, just as soon as we conceive of God in +terms of our human nature, these baffling problems thrust themselves +upon us. We must seek some grounds upon which we can excuse or +vindicate or justify this supreme man for permitting the terrible +happenings which darken the world. As this is not an easy task, men +say in their hearts, and often with their lips: “There is no God.” +Better no God than a being who would permit the sin and suffering we +see daily all about us, and that history reveals to us. + +The only alternative I see is to conceive of God in terms of +universal Nature--a nature God in whom we really live and move and +have our being, with whom our relation is as intimate and constant +as that of the babe in its mother’s womb, or the apple upon the +bough. This is the God that science and reason reveal to us--the God +we touch with our hands, see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and +from whom there is no escape--a God whom we serve and please by works +and not by words, whose worship is deeds, and whose justification +is in adjusting ourselves to his laws and availing ourselves of his +bounty, a God who is indeed from everlasting to everlasting. Of +course in the light of the old theology this is no God at all. It was +to emancipate us from the rule of this God that the old conceptions +of a being above and far removed from Nature were formulated. Nature +is carnal and unholy. Our theory compels us to say to matter and +the laws of matter, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” We struggle and +suffer in this debasing world for a season, and then escape from +it to a higher and better one. In all the dark, prescientific ages +during our own era--dark in regard to man’s real relation to the +universe in which he finds himself, but often luminous with flashes +of insight into the nature of man himself--these conceptions ruled +man’s religious aspirations. In our own times they still largely +rule in various modified forms. The old theological dogmas are more +or less discredited, but a religion founded upon science makes +little headway with the average man. We are shaping our practical +lives--our business, our social, our economical relations, more and +more according to scientific deductions. We seek more and more a +scientific or naturalistic basis for our rules of conduct, for our +altruism, for our charitable organizations, for our whole ethical +system. Any principle that squares with natural law is indeed founded +upon a rock. The stars in their courses fight for the cause that is +founded upon natural right, which in human relations does not mean +the right of the strong to trample upon the weak, but the right of +all to their full measure of free development. + +Right and wrong are, of course, finite terms, and apply only in the +human sphere. Universal Nature, as it appears among non-living bodies +and forces, knows neither right nor wrong; it knows only might. +As it appears among the orders below man, it knows neither right +nor wrong. Physics and chemistry have no consciousness; neither +have beasts or bacteria; but man has, and this fact will in time +determine the whole course of human history. Naturalism makes for +righteousness, or right-mindedness, as surely as it makes for health +and longevity. + + + + +XII + +THE PROBLEM OF EVIL + + +I + +How has the problem of evil tried men’s souls! How have their +gods failed to live up to the character they have given them! How +have they confused our moral standards! The trouble lies in a +misconception of the nature of evil, and in a false idea of the +universe itself. + +There is no problem of evil until we have made or imagined an +unnatural and impossible world. When we have enthroned in the +universe a powerful man-made God who is the embodiment of all we +call good and the contemner of all we call evil, then we have our +insoluble problem. To help ourselves out we invent another being who +is the embodiment of all we call evil and enthrone him in regions +below. Upon him we saddle the evil, and thus we try to run the +universe with these two antagonistic principles yoked together, and +no end of confusion in our religious ideas results. + +The moment we postulate an all-loving, all-merciful, all-wise, and +just being to rule the affairs of this world, and place him in such +intimate relations with it that not a sparrow falls to the ground +without his will and cognizance, then, indeed, are we in troubled +waters and have lost our reckoning. We cannot excuse such being on +the ground that his ways are inscrutable and past finding out. A +creator who sends into the world the malformed, the half-witted, the +bestial, the naturally depraved, and then holds them to high ethical +standards, is condemned by the ideals which he has implanted within +us. + +Now the naturalist has no such trouble. He sees that good and evil +are only relative terms; that they both grow on the same tree; that +we should not know good were there no evil; that there would be no +development were there not what we call evil. Pain and suffering +are inseparable from the human lot. They are a part of the price +we pay for our place in the world. All struggle we look upon as +evil. Disease, failure, death are looked upon as evil, but they +are conditions of our lives. Through sickness we learn the laws +of health. The lower animals have no such troubles--no sickness, +intemperance, or war or avarice. They know without reason how to +live, but man has reason, and the joy of its exercise and the peril +of its failure. Are we not all willing to pay the price?--to take it +on these terms rather than to change places with the brutes? + +What a troublesome time the good orthodox brethren have with their +God! He does, or permits such terrible things. Only yesterday He sent +a cyclone through the State of Illinois that killed hundreds of +innocent persons, and destroyed hundreds of peaceful homes, wiping +out at one blow the results of long years of human labor. A few years +ago He sent or permitted the scourge of infantile paralysis that +desolated tens of thousands of homes and left a trail of thousands +of crippled and enfeebled children. Again He sent or permitted the +influenza to sweep over the land, claiming more victims than did +the Great War; and so on. How our fathers, rocked in the cradle of +the old creeds, wrestled with this problem! How could a paternal +and all-loving God do these things? The naturalist reads nature +differently. His god is no better than Nature. In fact, his god and +Nature are one and inseparable. Nature goes her way and her ways are +not our ways. We take our chances in the clash and war of physical +forces. They have developed us and made us what we are. + +It was only a few years ago that the President of the United States +asked all good people to assemble in their respective places of +worship and pray to God to stop the tornado of war and crime that +was then devastating Europe. Is it possible to conceive of a being +anywhere in the universe, with power to stop such a world calamity, +who would complacently look on and wait till the sufferers could +unite in a petition to him? What a false man-made god such a +conception holds up to us! No wonder the World War shattered this +conception in thousands of minds, and left them without any faith at +all! + +Rogers said in regard to evil that Sir John Mackintosh and Malthus +and another philosopher whose name has escaped me, all agreed that +the attributes of the deity must be in some respects limited, else +there would be no sin and misery in the world. + +We use the words “good” and “evil” in a narrow, personal sense. To +the farmer the frost that blights his crops is an evil, but not to +the squirrels who are waiting for the nuts to fall, or to the man who +suffers from hay fever. Rain is a blessing, but how easily it becomes +a curse! A cold wet spring cuts off the insect pests, but delays the +plowing and planting. It is hard on the insectivorous birds, but the +plants and trees profit. The grasshoppers that eat up the farmer’s +pasturage make good provender for his flock of turkeys. + +Blight and struggle, frost and drought, weed out the weaklings and +beget a hardier race. + +Moral evil--intemperance, avarice, war, lying, cheating--are on +another plane. They are peculiar to man. Nature below him knows them +not. But as they are against nature, they perpetually tend to correct +themselves. The business world has learned that honesty is the best +policy. Cheating is unpopular because, in the long run, it does not +pay. + +The most aggressive and warlike nation upon the globe has at last +got its eyes open to the evils of militarism, and has bought its +emancipation at a heavy price. Tyranny and oppression are finally +doomed by the nature of man. Nature’s ways are roundabout, and often +regardless of cost. The chaos and waste and suffering in Europe +to-day are in keeping with her spendthrift methods. She knows that +the most turbulent and muddy stream will clear itself and quiet down. +The track of the cyclone through the forest will in time entirely +disappear. Evil perishes, the good increases more and more. God is +not so bad as we paint him, and we have no need of a devil. All is +good. Gravity would glue our feet to the ground and we have to defeat +it every time we lift a foot, and yet how could we walk or work +without gravity? The bad, or the evil, dogs one’s footsteps, but it +teaches us circumspection, and to beware of dangerous paths. + +How easy to put one’s finger on this or that and say, “Here are +positive evils!”--all diseases, smallpox, infantile paralysis, +influenza, and so on--but they are only remote contingencies, and, +on the whole, most of us find life good. There are good germs and +there are bad germs, but the good vastly predominate. And the bad +germs are only bad from our point of view. Our doors and windows let +in the cold or the heat, as the case may be. We have them on these +conditions. Fruits and grains nourish us, but they may injure us also. + +In 1916 my naturalist’s faith prompted me to write thus of the World +War: Two world forces are at death grips in this war. In terms of +government it is autocracy against democracy; in terms of biology it +is the unfit against the fit; in terms of man’s moral nature it is +might against right. Whatever triumph Prussian aggressiveness and +ruthlessness may meet with, they must in time meet with defeat, else +Evolution has miscarried, and its latest and highest product, man’s +moral nature, is, in its survival value, but dust and ashes. + + +II + +There is positive good and there is negative good. We may say of +health that it is a positive good, and of sickness that it is a +negative good, because it reveals to us the conditions of health. +In disease the body is struggling to regain its health--to recover +and retain its normal condition. Its well-being is the result of a +certain balance between contending forces. What we call the hostile +forces appear only as the result of wrong living. The lower animals +have none of our distempers because they live according to nature. +Cattle do not get rheumatism by lying upon the wet, cold ground, nor +pneumonia from exposure to cold and storm. In the freedom of the +fields and woods it is quite certain that they would never become +infected with tuberculosis. I doubt if the wild dog or the wolf ever +have dog distemper, or if wild horses ever have crib-bite. Disease, +as we know it, is a product of civilization. + +Death, of course, is not an evil when it comes in the regular +course of nature; it is an evil when it comes prematurely. The +various social evils tend to correct themselves. Moral evils--lying, +cheating, selfishness, uncharitableness--also tend to correct +themselves. Righteousness exalteth a nation because righteousness +has great survival value. The unrighteousness of Germany caused her +final downfall. In an earlier age, when ethical standards were lower, +she might have succeeded in dominating Europe. Our susceptibility to +pain is not an evil inasmuch as it safeguards us against a thousand +dangers. What I would say in a score of ways is that there is no evil +in the human world not of our own making. Plagues and famines are +always the result of human folly or short-sightedness. Filth breeds +disease. Typhoid fever is a filth disease and is preventable. There +is no god to blame for our distempers. Nature’s hands are clean. The +wind is never tempered to the shorn lamb, in spite of the proverb, +but the shorn lamb has not been fleeced by Nature. A heavy snowfall +is an evil in towns and cities, but a good thing for the country. +It enables the meadow mice to girdle the apple-trees, but it is a +coverlid that greatly profits the meadows themselves. It is therefore +good to both mice and meadows. + +Our greatest philosopher, William James, had a wide grasp of +fundamental questions, but it seems to me that he did not fully grasp +the problem of evil; he saw the universe as a dual universe, two +principles, good and evil, struggling with each other. He seemed to +look upon good and evil as positive entities in themselves, whereas +naturalism sees in them only names which we give to our experiences +with objects and conditions in this world. What favors us, as I have +so often said, we call good, and what antagonizes we call evil; +but absolute good and absolute evil do not exist, any more than do +absolute up and down; or absolute near and far. The absolute admits +of no degrees, but there are all degrees of good and bad. Some +hostile germs are worse than others, and some friendly germs are +better than others. Again I say, we live in a world of relativity. + +Naturalism does not see two immeasurable realities, God and Nature, +it sees only one, that all is Nature or all is God, just as you +prefer. + +James was fond of quoting Walt Whitman, but he does not see, as +Whitman did, that there is no evil, or, if there is, that it is +just as necessary as the so-called good. From James’s point of view +Nature is a harlot to whom we owe no allegiance, and another world is +demanded to correct and compensate the failures and disappointments +of this. + +Our sacred books and traditions tell us of one God who made the +heaven and the earth, and who on looking upon them said that they +were very good. Here is where the trouble begins--a Creator apart +from the universe who looks upon and approves the work of his hands. +This is the early, childish view of mankind. As Bergson says, when we +apply to the universe our idea of a maker and a thing made, trouble +begins. The universe was not made; it is, and always has been. God is +Nature, and Nature is God. If this is pantheism, then we are in good +company, for Goethe said that as a philosopher he was a pantheist. +Even the atheist has a god of his own. He knows that there is +something back of him greater than he is. + +Most persons are pantheists without knowing it. Ask any of the +good orthodox folk what God is, and they will say that He is a +spirit. Ask them where He is, and they will answer, He is here, +there, everywhere, in you and in me. And this is pantheism--all +god--cosmotheism. + +“Truly all that we know of good and duty proceeds from Nature; but, +none the less so, all that we know of evil.” + +“If there be a divine spirit of the universe, Nature, such as we +know her, cannot possibly be its ultimate word to man,” says James. +But does he not see that this term “divine spirit” is born of man’s +narrowness and partiality; that Nature is all of one stuff, divine +or diabolical, just as we elect? He says that the naturalistic +superstition, the worship of God in nature, has begun to lose its +hold upon the educated mind; that the first step toward getting into +healthy relations with the universe is the act of rebellion against +the God of nature. + +Poor James Thomson, the British poet whose pessimism, perhaps, caused +him to commit suicide, whom our James loves to quote, hurled his +scorn at a fiction of his own brain when he wrote: + + “Not for all thy power, furled or unfurled, + For all thy temples to thy glory built, + Would I assume the ignominious guilt + Of having made such men in such a world.” + +The whole value of philosophy is to help us to a rational view of the +universe, and when it fails to do this, it falls short of fulfilling +its proper function. The contradictions of which James speaks do not +disturb the naturalist at all. Nature would not be Nature without +these contradictions; they do not disturb the unity of Nature. + +Empedocles taught that “there is no real creation or annihilation +in the universal round of things, but an eternal mixing--due to the +two eternal powers, Love and Hate--of one world-stuff in its sum +unalterable and eternal.” And Whitman’s large lines mean the same +thing: + + “There was never any more inception than there is now, + Nor any more youth or age than there is now, + And will never be any more perfection than there is now, + Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.” + + + + +XIII + +HORIZON LINES + + +I. THE ORIGIN OF LIFE + +In dealing with fundamental questions like the origin of life, how +prone our natural philosophers are to assume the existence of that +which they set out to prove. Thus Pflügler assumes _living_ protein +in the shape of a cyanogen radical, and assumes that this radical +possesses a large amount of internal energy, and thus “introduces +into the _living_ matter energetic internal motion.” As cyanogen and +its compounds arise only in incandescent heat, he concludes that life +is derived from fire, that its germ was in the earth when it was +still an incandescent ball. + +“As soon as oxides can be there,” says Moore, “oxides appear.” +“When temperature admits of carbonates, then carbonates are +forthwith formed.” But are oxides and carbonates mere fortuitous +compounds--just chance hits? Moore helps himself out by formulating +what he calls the “Law of Complexity,” a law that holds throughout +all space. But is the law, again, fortuitous? Is it not rather +organized intelligence? “Atoms, molecules, colloids, and living +organisms arise as a result of the operation of this law.” Allen +says, “Life arose at the period when the physical conditions of the +earth came to be nearly what they are at present.” Of course. But is +not this begging the question? We do not know life apart from these +conditions; hence we assume that the conditions beget the life. + +What is life anyhow? May we not say that it is a new motion in +matter? It does not introduce a new chemistry, or a new physics, but +it uses these to new ends. New and unstable compounds arise. Solar +energy, says Allen, acting on various carbon and nitrogen compounds, +would set up various anabolic and catabolic reactions which resulted +in life--life of a very humble and rudimentary form, but life. + +Troland gets life from the enzymes, but how does he get his enzymes? +He assumes that at some moment in the earth’s history a small amount +of a certain autocatalytic enzyme--a self-created enzyme--suddenly +appeared at a definite time and place within the yet warm ocean +waters which contained in solution various substances reacting very +slowly to produce an oily liquid immiscible with water. Troland +postulates the auto- or self-catalytic character of the initial +enzyme, which is virtually postulating the life-impulse itself. + +Osborn, in his work on the “Origin and Evolution of Life,” also +virtually starts by assuming that which he sets out to prove. +He suggests that the initial step in the origin of life was the +coördinating and bringing together of the then primordial elements +of water, nitrates, and carbon dioxide, “which so far as we know had +never been in combined action before.” Was their coming together +a blind, fortuitous affair? Osborn assumes that these elements +were gradually bound by a _new_ form of mutual attraction “out of +which arose a new form of unity in the cosmos, an organic unity or +organism. It was an application of energy new to the cosmos. In fact +it was life.” “When the earth had in the course of its physical +evolution become adapted as the abode of life, living substances came +into being.” By their own independent action, or by what? + +In trying to account for happenings on the earth’s surface, we follow +the chain of cause and effect. But when we try to explain origins, we +are dealing with a chain which has only one end. + +Picted, a Swiss scientist, concluded that because all chemical action +of the kind which goes on in living things is annihilated at one +hundred degrees below zero Centigrade, therefore chemical action and +life are one. But chemical action is as old as the earth. Is life as +old? + + +II. THE LIVING AND NON-LIVING WORLDS + +I fancy I am not alone in having difficulty in uniting the two +worlds--the living and the non-living--and in seeing them under +the same law. In the one I see something like mind and purpose; +every living thing shows something for which we have no name but +intelligence. Organization demands an organizing principle. There is +purpose in the wings of a bird, the legs of an animal, the fins of a +fish, but where is there purpose in the orbs, in the comets, in the +meteors? Or, to come down to the earth, where is there purpose in +the mountains, in the stratified rocks, in the ocean, or in the air +currents? + +In a living body there are organs which function; in a non-living, +there are parts which act and are acted upon. To see mind in all is +the task--to see in gravity, in cohesion, in chemical affinity, in +dissolution, anything at work akin to ourselves. We see irrefragable +law; we see the sequence of cause and effect; we see the weather +system work itself out--evaporation, condensation, precipitation, +resulting in clouds, rainfall, springs, streams, lakes, and seas; we +see the never-failing succession of the seasons; we see the law of +the conservation of force; but do all these things imply the same +intelligence, though unconscious, which we see in the sitting bird, +or in the growing plant or tree? Is the cosmic order akin to the +vital order? Of course mechanics and chemistry are one the universe +over; atoms and molecules are atoms and molecules; but where does +mind end, and law begin? Or, is it all law, or all mind, according +to our point of view? The moral order, which is man’s order, we +know has its limits, but I am trying to see if the rational order +is coexistent with nature. The unity we seek we may find in the old +conception of God, but this saddles all the turmoil and disorder and +evil of the world upon an all-wise, all-good Being. + +Shall we adopt the idea of a primal mind as distinct from the human +mind, as the poets do? I grasp at anything that will help me see that +I am akin to the farthest star, in my mind as in my body. I cannot +think of a dual or a divided universe. I want to see myself as strung +upon the same thread as all the rest of nature. + +In organic evolution I see the workings of the creative impulse--or +growth, as opposed to mere accretion or accumulation. In the light +of the same law does one not see worlds and suns potential in the +spiral nebulæ? Science helps us to see the evolution of the chemical +elements, or to follow up this defining and differentiating process. +Could we fly to the uttermost parts of the heavens, we should find +the Cosmic Mind there before us. + + +III. THE ORGANIZING TENDENCY + +Is it possible to think of any ingenious contrivance in nature as +the result of chance, or of the fortuitous clashing and jostling of +the elements? Living things are full of these ingenious contrivances +which serve a definite end and keep life going. In the inorganic +world there are no such contrivances; there is not the simplest bit +of machinery--parts adjusted to parts, and the whole adjusted to +some specific end. In all the clashing and jostling of bodies and +forces through all the astronomic and geologic ages, not so much as +the simplest mechanical device--a coiled spring or a carpenter’s +hammer--has been struck out, and never can be. It is true that there +are certain static conditions of matter that suggest design--natural +bridges, natural obelisks, rude architectural and monumental +structures, and human profiles on the rocks; but these are not the +result of a constructive process, of a building-up, but the result +of degradation: the erosive forces carve them out in obedience to +the laws of matter and energy. We easily see how it all came about; +and we can guide these forces so that they will repeat the process. +But we do not see how the living body, with all its marvelous +adjustments and coördinations, came about, and we cannot manipulate +matter so as to produce the simplest living thing. Darwinians +profess to see in natural selection--which is simply a name for an +eliminating or sifting process--the explanation of even man himself. +But the elimination of the weaker forms, which has gone on for whole +geologic ages--for example, in the Grand Cañon of the Colorado--has +not resulted in so much as one perfect, four-square foundation, or +one perfect flying arch. Natural selection is not a creative, but a +purely mechanical, process. We involuntarily personify it, and think +of it as involving will and power of choice; think of it as selecting +this and that, as a man does when he weeds his garden or selects his +seeds, or breeds his animals. But it is not positive at all. It is +negative--a dropping-out process. + +Chance, or chance selection, works alike in the organic and the +inorganic realms, but it develops no new forms in the inorganic, +because there is no principle of development, no organizing push. +But in organized matter there is, in and behind all this organizing, +a developing principle or tendency; the living force is striving +toward other forms; in other words, development occurs because there +is something to develop. An acorn develops, but a quartz pebble only +changes. + +The living body is placed in a world of non-living bodies and forces, +and it takes its chances; it develops only by their aid; if warmth +and moisture are withheld, it ceases to develop; or, if warmth and +moisture are in excess, it ceases to develop; its well-being is +insured when it rides the inorganic forces, and is not ridden by +them. It is subject to the law of chance of the world in which it is +placed, but that law of chance does not explain its origin or its +development as it does that of the non-living forms. + +That it is all the result of design or purpose of an all-wise Being, +working his will upon matter, is equally unthinkable. Yet if it +is the result of chance, then the world of mind and soul is only +a phase of mechanics and chemistry. In that case the head of a +Paul or a Homer is no greater wonder than a volcanic bomb, having +essentially the same origin. If we regard it as the work of design, +we are compelled to saddle all the sin and misery, all the delays and +failures and wastes of the geologic ages, upon Infinite Wisdom and +Goodness, together with all the famine and pestilence and carnage and +miscarriages of history. + +For untold millions of years the earth was given up to low, +groveling, all but brainless, bestial forms, devouring and devoured; +for other untold millions it was the scene of a carnival of terrible +dragon-like monsters--in the sea, on the earth, and in the air--a +tragedy of monstrous forms enacted upon an unstable stage that rose +and sank or was overwhelmed by fire and flood. For other long ages +it was the scene of ape-like creatures struggling to be man, living +in caves, contending with savage beasts, hirsute, forbidding, living +by tooth and claw and muscular strength more than by wit, followed +by the long historical period during which man appeared and has +fought his way to his present stage of development, through blood +and carnage and suffering and misdirected activities, dogged by all +the evil and destructive passions, obstructed and thwarted, cut +off by plagues and wars, engulfed by earthquakes, devoured by fire +and flood, blinded by his own ignorance, consumed by his own evil +passions, yet making steady progress toward the position which he now +holds in the animal kingdom. + + +IV. SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM + +The bogey of teleology frightens a good many honest scientific minds. +To recognize anything akin to intelligence in nature, or to believe +that a universal mind is immanent in, or a part of, the cosmos, is +looked upon as disloyalty to the scientific spirit. + +Lamarck’s idea of an indwelling directing principle in organic +evolution discredited him with Darwin, and with the leading +biologists since his time. Yet Darwin said he could not look upon the +universe as the result of chance. But he faltered before the other +alternative--that any will or design lay back of it. + +It is unfortunate that these words connote things purely human, and +to that extent are likely to lead us astray. But are not all our +terms human, even the word “astray” itself? Can we have any other? +Emerson says that anything may be affirmed or denied of the Infinite, +and that God can be hinted only in signs and symbols. In trying to +describe time, we need a new language that differs as much from our +ordinary speech as algebra differs from arithmetic. The circle and +sphere are the only complete types of Infinity. + +In Professor Loeb’s mechanistic conception of life there is no hint +of mind or soul; all is matter and force. All the mechanists and +energists and materialists unconsciously endow their matter and force +with creative power, thus elevating them to the rank of a _Deus_. + +Science knows no mysteries; it knows only insoluble problems and +comparatively few of them. But may not one see mysteries in nature +without being a mystic? Physical facts may be inexplicable, but we +do not call them mysteries. The birth and development of the cell is +wonderful, but can we say that it is mysterious? Does not mystery +imply something occult and unknowable? Is a biologist or evolutionist +to be charged with mysticism because he refuses to admit that the +development of species is all a matter of chance? If he believes, +for instance, that the horse as we know him was inevitable in that +small beast of Eocene times, the eohippus, is he to be charged with +a teleological taint? Or if we speak of the predestined course of +evolution are we unfaithful to the true scientific spirit? Is not the +acorn predestined to become an oak? Does growth imply a mysterious +guiding force or principle? The little brown house wren that fusses +and chatters here around its box on my porch has come all the way +from Central America. Did something guide it? Life is full of this +kind of guidance. Not much of nature can be explained by addition and +subtraction; not much of it can be explained by mere mechanics, or +physics; not much of it can be explained by the doctrine of chance. +There are reasons behind reasons. You may give good physiological +reasons why the heart beats, why the liver secretes bile, why the +digestive processes go on and our food nourishes us, but can you find +the mind by dissecting the brain or connect mind with matter? + +Mysticism belongs to the sphere of our religious emotions, and when +we read natural phenomena through these emotions we are mystical. +We cannot say that the course of evolution has been directed, and +we cannot say it goes by chance. The changes of the seasons are not +directed; the circuit of the waters from the earth, through the sea +to the clouds and back to the earth, is not directed; the orbs in +their courses are not directed; the sap in the trees, the blood in +our veins, are not directed; neither are these things by chance. “An +inward perfecting principle” is the divinity that shapes the ends of +all organisms. + +Many scientific men are so shy of teleology that they tend to the +other extreme and land in a world of chance. + +Now, if man and all the other forms of life are the result of chance, +then Chance is a very good god and should be written with a capital. +No matter what we call the power out of which the universe flows, or +with which it is identified, it is a veritable _Deus_. + +We cannot affirm that we are the result of chance, nor the result +of design, as we use these words in our daily lives. These words +apply to parts and fragments of which our lives are made up. They +do not help us in dealing with the whole. We share in the life of +the universe; we are a part of it, and what keeps it going keeps us +going. What set evolution on foot and evolved the organic from the +inorganic is the parent of us all. It is not we that are immortal; +it is life, and the universe. We pass like shadows, but the sun +remains--for a season. We say of a thing, or an event, that it came +by chance, when we see no will like unto our own directing it; at +the same time we know that the laws of matter and force control +everything. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without their immutable +decrees. In the same sense the hairs of our heads are numbered. + +When we discuss or describe the universe in terms of experience, we +are dealing in half-truths. We cannot describe a sphere in terms of +angles and right lines; no more can we describe or interpret the All +in terms of our own experience. + +If it were Chance, or Darwin’s Natural Selection, or orthogenesis, or +whatever it was, that brought me and all other forms of life here, +that gave me my mind and body, that put my two eyes and my two ears +just where they are of most service to me, and my two arms and hands, +and my two legs and feet, and all my internal organs, my double +circulation, my heart to pump the blood and keep the vital machinery +going, my secretions and my excretions, my lungs to lay hold of the +air and purify the blood, my liver and kidneys to eliminate the +poisons and effete matter, my marvelous digestive system to furnish +the fuel that generates the physical power, and, more than all +these things, that looked after my germ in the old Cambrian seas +and brought it safely down through the hazards of the long road +of evolution and developed it and made me a man, and gave me the +capacity to contemplate and enjoy this amazing universe--the power or +the blind force or the law of chance, I say, that could do all this +is god enough for me. I want no other. + +Do we expect to see the Natural Providence at work as we see man at +work? Nature works from the inside. In the human sphere there is a +maker and a thing made. Not so in the universe. Things are in their +place without being made. Our concepts of the beginning and the end +do not apply to them. The words “chance” and “design” are born of our +limited knowledge. + +That man or an ant or a leaf or a flower could result from the +haphazard jostling together of the molecules of matter, or the units +of force, is unthinkable. Could one get an intelligent sentence, or +one’s own name, by putting the letters of the printer’s type in a +hat and shaking them up till the crack of doom?--an old and trite +comparison, but it seems to state the case fairly. And yet, how can +a naturalist fall back upon teleology? Is not Nature sufficient unto +herself? Must we inject our own little methods and makeshifts into +the ways of the Eternal? We might as well try to walk off the sphere +as try to compass this problem in the terms of our own experience. +The inscrutable, the unthinkable, the unknowable, confront us on all +sides. + +So far as I can see the Creative Energy in nature has no plan nor +end. Plans are the ways of the finite, not of the Infinite. Man alone +has plans and ends. The Infinite cannot be defined or interpreted in +terms of our human lives. It transcends all speech. To name any one +thing as the purpose and end of creation is like naming the end of a +sphere, or the direction of a circle. All bodies with which we deal +on the earth have an upper and an under side, but the earth itself is +all top side; there is no under side, though the orbs in the heavens, +to our eye, have a lowest point or bottom side. Every tangible body +with which we deal rests upon some other body, but the orbs float in +vacuity. The irregular solid bodies with which we deal have three +dimensions--length, breadth, and thickness--but, properly speaking, +the sphere has none of these; it has only mass. + +When we discuss or attempt to describe what we call God, or what I +call the Eternal, in terms of man, as the theologians do, something +within us rises up and says, No. A magnified man, or a man raised +to the _n_th power, is not God; he is still man. I fancy that with +most men the denial of a God means simply this: there is no God who +can be described in the terms usually employed. One is an atheist +because he cannot accept a God made in man’s image. It belittles the +Mystery. Our belief in God is so radical that we reject half-gods. +The fatherhood of God means no more than the manhood of God, or the +governorship, or the judgeship, of God. + +In many respects the manlike God falls below his human prototype, +being more cruel than any human being dares to be. + +No, we cannot measure the Infinite Mystery with our foot-rule. +Boundless space is the negation of space. We can say that there is +no space in the sense that we can say that there is no God. There is +no motion unless there is something at rest; there is no Infinite +Good unless there is Infinite Evil. Hence we have invented a hell to +balance heaven, a Devil to offset God. + +The universe is a reality, though we cannot define it. Life goes +on, though we cannot account for it. Boundless space exists, though +words fail us in the attempt to fathom it. The earth has its center, +though we do not know whether we should be standing on our heads or +our heels were we to reach it. Heavenly bodies do collide, though we +cannot visualize the collision. Our language fails us when we come to +the ultimate questions. + +That this is the best possible world, humanly speaking, I have no +doubt, yet sin and misery are on every hand. Sin and misery are +terms of our own which simply express some of the conditions of our +development. They are like the terms “up” and “down,” “east” and +“west,” and “near” and “far”; they are relative. Nature knows no good +and no bad; all is good; that is, all favors development. The rivers +reach the sea, no matter what the obstacles in the way. The seasons +come and go, no matter how delayed. + +Nature’s ends, so far as we can name them, are wholesale--to keep the +game going, to heap the measure, to play one hand against the other. +She is more solicitous about the race than about the individual. The +wreck of worlds or suns in sidereal space matters little; there are +infinite worlds and suns left. What would really matter would be +failure of celestial mechanics. The eclipse of the sun and the moon +occurring exactly on time, “without the untruth of a single second,” +tells how perfectly the great machine runs. The eclipse itself is an +accident, but a harmless one; it is not a necessity in the movements +of our system. + +If man is the end of things, as we would fain believe, then why +was he so long a-coming? Why will he as surely disappear from the +earth? Why has he not come to other planets in our system? When he +disappears from our solar system, will not the great procession go +on just the same without him? No doubt of it. He is only an incident, +and maybe an accident--a lucky throw of the dice. + + +V. IS THERE DESIGN IN NATURE? + +We cannot put to Nature the direct questions we put to ourselves. +Namable purposes and designs rule our lives. Not so with the All. I +told Father Goodman the other day, much to his bewilderment, that I +did not think the air was made for us to breathe, nor the water for +us to drink, nor food for us to eat. We breathe and drink and eat +because our organization is adjusted to these things. The shoe is +made over the last, not the last to fit the shoe. The organization +is fitted, or fits itself, to its environment. Nature is first, man +is afterwards. Is the notch in the mountain made for the road to go +through? Is the land-locked harbor made to protect our shipping? +Would it not be as true to say that the wind was made to fill the +ship’s sails, as that air was made to fill our lungs? In dealing with +this question of design many persons get the cart before the horse. + +Of course there is purpose or design in living things in a sense that +there is not in the non-living. Every part of a living organization +is purposeful. There is purpose in our lungs, our hearts, our +kidneys, in short in every part of our bodies. There is purpose in +the varnish on leaves, in the down and resin on buds, in the wings +and hooks of seeds, in the colors of flowers and of animals, in +fact, in everything that makes for the well-being of living things. +But not in the same sense is there purpose in the wind, the rain, +the snow, the tides, the heat, the cold, the rocks, the soil, the +fountains. Animate nature struggles; inanimate nature passively +submits. Dead matter forever seeks an equilibrium; living matter +forever struggles against an equilibrium. The waters separate the +clay and the sand and the pebbles from the soil and deposit each +in its own place; but it is not a struggle or an effort; it is +mechanical adjustment. It is not an effort for certain liquids to +form crystals, or for certain elements to combine with certain other +elements and form new compounds, but it is an effort for a tree +to resist the wind, to lift up tons of water and minerals against +gravity, to force its roots through the soil or grip the rock, and it +is an effort for the mother to bear and nurse her young. For anything +to live and grow, effort is needful; not commonly a painful effort, +but a joyous one. + +So, when we ask, Is there design in Nature? we must make clear what +part or phase of Nature we refer to. Can we say that the cosmos as +a whole shows any design in our human sense of the word? I think +not. The Eternal has no purpose that our language can compass. +There can be neither center nor circumference to the Infinite. The +distribution of land and water on the globe cannot be the result of +design any more than can the shapes of the hills and mountains, or +Saturn’s rings, or Jupiter’s moons. The circular forms and orbits +of the universe must be the result of the laws of matter and force +that prevail in celestial mechanics; this is not a final solution of +the riddle, but is as near as we can come to it. One question stands +on another question, and that on another, and so on, and the bottom +question we can never reach and formulate. The earth rests on nothing +and floats as lightly as a feather. All matter is probably only a +phase of the ether, but the ether defies all proof and all negation. + +How quickly we get where no step can be taken! We cannot step off +the planet, though we may step off from every object on its surface. +There is no heat in sunlight till it reaches the earth; heat is an +experience of our bodies, and beings on the remotest planets, if +there are any, may and must receive adequate heat, and beings on +Mercury and Venus no more. Terrestrial physics and celestial physics +must be the same, and yet celestial mechanics find no place on the +surface of our planet. The laws of the cosmos bring to naught our +mundane conceptions. Where are up and down, east and west, over +and under, out in sidereal space? We balk at perpetual motion, yet +in the heavens, and in the interior of matter, behold perpetual +motion! Behold motion without friction and energy without waste or +dissipation! On the earth every visible body rests on some other +body, everything has a beginning and an end, but where is the +beginning or the ending of the cosmos? Where, then, in this quest do +we touch bottom? Nowhere. There is no bottom. Only measurable, finite +things have bottoms and bounds. The immeasurable, the Infinite, is +over us and under us, and our lives are like sparks against the +night. But, just as we live in the heavens and do not know it, so we +live and move and have our being in the Eternal. It is not afar off; +it is here; we are a part of it, and as inseparable from it as from +gravity. + +We are not like beings who have moved into a house, made and +furnished and provisioned in anticipation of our coming. We are +creatures born in a house, or amid an environment to which we +must slowly and more or less painfully fit ourselves. We are the +consequent, not the antecedent. In a different world we should have +been differently constituted. In a bigger world no doubt our bodies +would have been bigger and our strength greater; with less or with +more oxygen in the air, no doubt our lungs would have been different. +With less light no doubt our eyes would have been larger, and with +more light they would probably have been smaller. We do not feel +the pressure of the atmosphere, but make the pressure more or less, +and we are at once disturbed. The deep-sea fishes fairly explode +when brought to the surface, and no doubt the surface fishes would +be crushed in the deep sea bottoms. Just as we adjust our flying +machines to the tenuity of the air, and our oversea and undersea +boats to the density and weight of the water, so Nature adjusts her +organisms to their environment. + +Man avails himself of all possible aids. His voluntary conquests of +nature are many and are constantly increasing, but his involuntary +dependencies upon her are many also. He did not launch himself into +this world, and he did not give his body, with all its wonderful +organs and powers, the shape it has, or elect to breathe or see or +hear or breed or eat or sleep. Something else determined all these +things for him. What is that something else? Our fathers called it +God; we call it Nature, because we live in a scientific and not in a +theological age. We are pantheistic and not theistic. Our gods are +everywhere, in everything created. Our minds are no longer hampered +by the idea of a maker and a thing made, a ruler or a governor and a +thing ruled or governed. The unity of Nature and God is a conception +fostered by science. We are compelled to adjust our minds to the idea +of a causeless universe, to a universe without beginning and without +ending, without a maker or a designer. + +Our conception of cause and effect, or beginning and ending, +applies only on the surface of the earth; where currents and +counter-currents, action and reaction and interaction, are in +perpetual see-saw; where every body rests upon some other body, and +every cause has its antecedent cause; where we can live only by +dealing with parts and fragments, and by separating one thing from +another. The astronomic laws and conditions, or our conceptions of +them, are thrown into confusion the moment we try to apply them in +our practical mundane lives. In vain we try to abolish friction +and achieve perpetual motion, but the heavenly bodies move without +friction, and move forever and ever. Motion is the prime condition +of the universe. It is the condition or necessity we are under in +this world, on the surface of this planet, that sets us on the +quest of final causes and gives rise to our conceptions of the made +and the maker, the good and the bad, the end and the beginning. We +cannot say that we are watched over by the gods--our personification +of the universal mind that pervades nature--nor that we are not +watched over by them, because that were to use the language of our +surface existence. All we can say is that we are a part of the +cosmos, fragments of the total scheme of things, and share its laws +and conditions, and that the more perfectly we adjust the nature +within us to the nature without us, the better we fare. With the +Infinite there is no time and no space, only an everlasting here, an +everlasting now. + +Yet how can puny man interpret the universe or say aught of it in +terms of his mundane experiences? + + +VI. OUR IMPARTIAL MOTHER + +The laws and processes of Nature which to us are so beneficent, and +which seem made for our especial benefit, were in full operation +before life as we know it had become established. In fact, the +fatherhood and motherhood of Nature are all thoughts of our own, +inventions of our necessities. The paternity of gravitation and the +maternity of frost and snow are in no respect different. We are +the chance children--chance from our limited point of view--of an +impersonal, unhuman, universal mother. We may say, humanly speaking, +that Nature takes forethought of her children, but not afterthought. +She provides that they shall actually appear in due time in this +universe of conflicting and struggling forces, then lets them shift +for themselves. They are born on the firing-line, in the field of +perpetual war, and none escape unscathed. Indeed, they are moulded +and adjusted and equipped by the very conditions in which the peril +of their destruction lies. Gravity crushes them, and gravity gives +them their powers. Fire consumes them, and water drowns them, and yet +out of these things they came. + +It is as if some god had planned the universe as a vast plant for +the production of the myriad forms of life, each in its own place +and season. In our little corner of it at a given hour of the great +geologic clock one form appears, or many forms; at another hour +other forms emerge, till man himself emerges as the culmination of a +long line of lowly forms, many vestiges of which still cling to him. +But the world is no more for man than for the mice and vermin that +pester him. It is for all. + +The mystery back of all--what shall we say of it? And the good and +the evil that are so inextricably blended with it--what of them? + + +VII. BAFFLING TRUTHS + +The grand movements of Nature, both in the heavens and in the earth, +are on such a scale of time and distance that without the aid of +science we could get little or no hint of them. Immeasurably slow +and slight they are, according to our standards. The stars are +fixed points in the sky to our unaided vision. Throughout the whole +historic period they have shown little or no change in their relative +positions, though they are moving in varying directions at the rate +of many miles a second. Come back in a thousand years and there is +no change; in thirty or forty thousand years, and changes of place +might be barely perceptible to an unaided eye. Not till hundreds +of thousands of years would Orion, or the Big Dipper, have become +noticeably distorted, and probably not till millions of years would +the heavens present combinations of stars forming new constellations. +The Pole Star will after millions of years probably drift far from +its present position, and the Milky Way be found in another part of +the heavens. When viewed from the extreme points in space one hundred +and eighty millions of miles apart which the earth’s orbit around the +sun gives us, the fixed stars remain fixed, they show little or no +parallax. To touch but the skirts of the Infinite exhausts our powers. + +The geological changes upon the surface of this earth--mere +mustard-seed in space that it is--are on such a scale of time that +only an unfaltering scientific faith can take them in. The mountains +and the valleys seem eternal, but to the eye of the geologist they +are as flitting as the summer clouds. Look upon a Catskill landscape +with its long, flowing mountain-lines curving over summits three or +four thousand feet high, and its deep, broad, cradle-like valleys +checkered with fertile farms and homesteads, and try to think of it +as all the work of the slow and gentle rains and snows--geologic +time stroking them almost as gently as a mother caresses her baby. +Tried by human standards we live in a stable universe; change stops +with the hills and the stars; but, tried by geologic and astronomic +standards, it is as unsubstantial as the snows of winter or the dews +of summer. Perpetual flux and transition mark even the stars in their +courses. Astronomers calculate the weight of the earth in terms of +its own tons, something like six sextillion tons, but in and of +itself it weighs nothing; its weight is the pull of some other body, +in itself pound balances pound; it is only by detachment from it +that bodies have weight. As we approach the center, a pound would +be less and less; halfway down it would weigh eight ounces only; at +the center weight would disappear, the pull of matter on all sides +would be equal, there would no longer be up or down. Gravitation is +not a demon at the center of the earth, pulling all things toward +him; it is a force in every atom, pulling and being pulled in every +direction. Seek the center of the pulling, and all power vanishes. + +The globe is on such a scale of size with reference to our lives and +powers that by no effort of the imagination can we adjust ourselves +to the contradictions presented. It is not by experience, nor by +living and acting, that we know it as a sphere, but by thinking and +speculating. Even if we travel round it, we get no other impression +than that it is an endless plain. We find no under side; it is all +top side. The practical inferences we draw from looking at the moon +are all contradicted by our experiences here. The lower limb of the +moon is not lower, as we should find if we were to go there, and the +under side of the earth is also the upper side. + +Our astronomy is sound, but our actual life gives us no clue to its +truths. Only when we turn philosophers do we know the tremendous +voyage we are making, and then we only know it abstractly. We never +can know it concretely. The swift turning of the planet under our +feet, and its enormous speed in its orbit around the sun, are not +revealed to our sense as motion, but as changes from night to day +and from one season to another. Slow, soft, still, the moon and the +sun rise and drift across the heavens, and the impassive earth seems +like a ship becalmed. No hint at all of the more than rifle-bullet +speed through space. It is all too big for us. The celestial machine +is no machine at all to our senses, but its vast movements go on as +gently and as easily as the falling of the dew or the blooming of the +flowers, and almost as unconsciously to us as the circulation of the +blood in our hearts. + +We are in the heavens and are a part of the great astronomical whirl +and procession, and know it not. It is symbolical of our lives +generally. We do not realize that we are a part of Nature till we +begin to think about it. Our lives proceed as if we were two--man +and Nature--two great antagonistic or contrary facts, but the two +are one; there is only Nature. We can draw circle within circle, and +circle around circle, but we cannot circumscribe Nature. That is the +fact over all. + +As struggling human beings we diverge from one another, oppose one +another, defeat one another. All our differences and antagonisms +arise from our need of action and of living. The lesson of the sphere +is hard to learn, hard to state. Our powers of detachment are hardly +equal to it. Our lives are rounded by the great astronomic curves. +The contradictions which the intellect reveals, the unthinkable +mysteries that surround us, the heavens over us, the earth under us +always--the relativity of all things--thus does thought set us adrift +on a shoreless sea. + + +VIII. SENSE CONTRADICTIONS + +Bergson says that we are in trouble the moment we think of a creator +and a thing created; in other words, the moment we apply to the +universe as a whole the concepts which our practical lives yield us. +The only alternative I see is to think of the universe as uncreated, +which, I confess, does not make the problem much easier. I try to +help myself out by saying that our concepts are formed in a world +in which we deal with parts and fragments, lines and angles on the +surface of a sphere, and not with the sphere as a whole. Our senses +do not reveal the earth to us as a globe, but as a boundless plain +with no under side; we find no limits, and if we continue our search +long enough, we come back to the place from which we set out, but +from the opposite direction. + +When we try to think in terms of spheres and solar systems, our +everyday concepts avail us very little; in fact, they set us down +wrong-end up. We look at the moon or the sun and we say, Surely if +we were at the South Pole of either of these bodies, we should be as +truly on the under side of it as the fly is when it alights at the +South Pole of the globe in our study. We should be in a position +opposite to that which we should occupy at the North Pole. That every +point on the surface of a cosmic sphere should be on top, or rather +that there should be no top, and no bottom; that these concepts +should be abolished; that if two inhabited globes should come in +collision, each would seem to the people upon the other to be falling +down out of the heavens upon them; that out in sidereal space not +even the Huns could drop bombs, or send up balloons, because there +would be no up and no down--when we grasp these facts, I say, we are +at the end of our tether; we not only do not know “where we are at,” +but we find there is no “at.” Our minds can deal with the cosmos +only in an abstract or mathematical way. As a concrete fact even our +little earth is too much for us. Not merely too big, it contradicts +all our experience. If we could build a sphere a mile through, or +ten miles or a hundred miles, or ten thousand miles through, could +we stand upon it at the South Pole? When we think of the daily +revolutions of the earth upon its axis, we are compelled to think of +it as turning over, because it brings the sun above us by day and +beneath us by night, and hence the puzzle to the unlettered mind as +to why the lakes and ponds do not all spill out. + +Among the heavenly bodies other laws prevail; there is motion without +friction or dissipation of energy; there is no body at rest; there +is no motion in right lines, but only in curved lines; there is no +beginning nor ending; there is only eternal progression; and this is +a condition of things that throws our mental adjustments all out of +gear. The problem of God, the problem of creation, the problem of +future life, throw our mental adjustments out of gear in the same way. + +There is order and harmony in our own solar system and doubtless in +countless others in the immensity of space, but the cosmos as a whole +does not seem to present this harmony, as collisions actually occur. +Astronomers tell us that the units of the starry hosts are moving in +all directions and that collisions are inevitable, though at such +vast intervals, owing to the inconceivable spaces, that human time +can take no note of them. A billion of our years, like a billion of +our miles, count for but little in the infinitudes of the universe. + +When we try to think that the universe had a creator, that there +was a time when it did not exist, that it was called into being by +a power apart from itself, do we not fall down completely? We can, +of course, think in arbitrary terms; our imaginations are equal to +almost any feat (Lewis Carroll’s was equal to “Alice in Wonderland”; +Dante’s was equal to making the world shudder over his pictures of +the inferno): but the understanding has to have solid ground to go +upon, and where is the solid ground in our idea of creation? We are +off the sphere, alone in space, face to face with the Infinite, and +we have no language in which to express ourselves. + + +IX. MAN A PART OF NATURE + +We habitually think or speak of ourselves as something apart from +Nature, as belonging to some higher order of reality, when, in fact, +we are as much a part of the total scheme of things as are the trees +and the beasts of the field. True, we are separated from them by a +gulf, but the gulf has been bridged, and bridged by Nature, and both +sides are equally her territory. + +Nature is the one supreme reality, the sum total of the visible +and invisible bodies and forces that surround us, out of which we +came and of which we form a part. Nature is all things to all men, +because she is the larger fact, and holds an infinite diversity in an +all-embracing unity. + +When we come to look upon man in this light, when we see his whole +civilization and all his achievements upon the earth--his science, +his philosophy, his art, his religion, yea, his follies and crimes +and superstitions, his wars and hatreds, as well as his heroism and +devotion--as parts of Nature, as expressions of the same total cosmic +energy as are all things else, we have gained an astronomic point of +view; we see things in orbic completeness. + +Nature is all-inclusive. We cannot draw a circle around that circle. +We have so long been wont to solve our riddles by invoking the +supernatural that the habit has become ingrained. We can only do +as Carlyle did, feed our minds with words and fall back upon the +natural-supernatural. + +Our attitudes toward Nature differ as widely as do our occupations, +our characters, and our temperaments. There is the direct, practical +attitude of the farmer, the miner, the engineer, the sailor, the +sportsman, the traveler, and the explorer; there is the gay and +holiday attitude of the camper-out and the picnicker; there is the +sympathetic and appreciative attitude of the nature-lover; there is +the imaginative and creative attitude of the artist and the poet; +there is the more or less rapt and mystical attitude of the religious +enthusiast; there is the inquisitive and experimental attitude of the +man of science; and there is the meditative and speculative attitude +of the philosopher. + +We almost invariably personify Nature and read our own traits and +limitations into her. We say she is wise or she is foolish; she +is cruel or she is kind; she fails or she succeeds. The early +philosophers said that Nature abhorred a vacuum. Darwin says that +she “tells us in the most emphatic manner that she abhors perpetual +self-fertilization.” There are times when the most rigid man of +science humanizes Nature in this way. We look upon ourselves as +taking liberties with her; we discipline her and train her in the +ways she should go for our good; we pit her forces against one +another. Her flowers, her birds, her sunsets, her rainbows, her +waterfalls, her mountain lakes, her ocean-shores, her midnight skies, +at times move us and lift us above ourselves. On the other hand, +there are times when we frown upon her, or despitefully use her and +call her hard names. When her storms or her frosts or her blights or +her droughts or her insect hordes destroy our crops, or lay waste our +forests or sweep away our buildings or kill our cattle or inundate +our towns and villages, we instinctively look upon her as our enemy, +and, so far as we are able, arm ourselves against her. Emerson +speaks of Nature as that “terrific or beneficent force.” It is both. +Indeed, we may use a stronger adjective and say that at times it is a +malevolent force. + +We ascribe all our human qualities and traits to Nature. Indeed, we +can hardly speak of her without personifying her. As we are a part of +her, how can we fail to see our own traits in her? At least, how else +can we interpret her except in terms of our own being? Early man did +this entirely. All the natural forces and appearances took on his own +image, and were for or against him. When we seek to interpret Nature +we still do it in the terms of literature, of poetry. We humanize +her, which means, of course, that we interpret ourselves. Nature +reflects the spirit we bring to her. She is gay, somber, beautiful, +winsome, repellent, wise or foolish, just in the degree in which we +ourselves are capable of these emotions or possess these qualities. +She is terrifying because we have a capacity for terror. She is +soothing when we are in a mood to be soothed. She is sublime only so +far as we have the capacity to experience this emotion. + +It is our reactions to Nature that give rise to the qualities we +ascribe to her. The music of the æolian harp is not in the wind; its +origin is the reaction of the harp to the wind, but it is not music +until it reaches the human ear. The colors of the landscape are not +in the rocks and trees and waters, but in the experiences of the eye +when the vibrations of ether which we call light are reflected back +to it from these objects. + +We create the world in which we live. I love Nature, but Nature does +not love me. Love is an emotion which rocks and clouds do not feel. +Nature loves me in my fellow beings. The breezes caress me, the +morning refreshes me, the rain on the roof soothes me--that is, when +I am in a mood to be caressed and refreshed and soothed. The main +matter is the part I play in these things. All is directed to me and +you because we are adjusted to all. No more is the kite or the sail +adjusted to the wind, the water-wheel to the falling water, than are +we adjusted to outward Nature. She is the primary and everlasting +fact; we, as living beings, are the secondary and temporary facts. + + +X. THE FITTEST TO SURVIVE + +The survival of the fittest does not mean the survival of the best +from the human point of view. The lower orders of humanity are better +fitted to survive than the higher orders--hardier, more prolific, +having a fuller measure of life. The cultivated plants--wheat, corn, +rye, barley, oats--are less fitted to survive than what we call +weeds. The latter can shift for themselves, but the former cannot. + +We lament the decay of the native Anglo-Saxon stock in this country, +and the increase of the races from southern Europe and from the +Orient. They stand our pitiless sunlight better than do the +descendants of our Puritan ancestors. From our point of view this +rule of natural selection will not result in a superior race, but in +an inferior; not in better men, but in better animals. Character and +intellect win in those fields where character and intellect tell, but +where muscle and brawn and vitality tell more they fail. + +The Japanese have great power of survival; they are hardy, prolific +and pushing. The Germans also have great survival power, greater +than the French; they are more prolific, more materialistic, nearer +the brutes; they are not handicapped with much soul. They are +morally blind, but intellectually clever. Their moral blindness and +insensibility have resulted in their downfall. Great Britain leads +the European nations because she is not only hardy and prolific, but +she also has the gift of empire; she builds upon law and order; she +establishes justice and fair play. + +In the Darwinian sense the Jews are the fittest to survive of all the +races of man. They are prolific and grasping; they will always get +what belongs to them, and a little more; they are bound to possess +the earth. The only drawback I see is that they do not take kindly to +the soil. Trade alone will not give a nation the supremacy. + + +XI. THE POWER OF CHOICE + +Think how we come into the world, what an important thing it is to +each of us and to the world, and yet how fortuitous and haphazard it +all is, and what precautions are often taken to prevent our coming! + +See the deformed, the half-witted, the low-browed, the degenerate, +that come. The great army of the common, the few capable of higher +and finer things. Nature apparently finds her account in one class +the same as in the other, in Pat as well as in Paul, in the inferior +races as well as in the higher. + +In our manufacturing affairs we aim to turn out the best article +possible--the best shoe, the best hat, the best gun, the best book; +but Nature makes no such effort in the case of man, though she does +in the case of the lower orders. Probably every individual bird or +bug or four-footed beast in a state of nature is perfect of its +kind, that is, suited to its place in the scheme of organic life. But +how different with man! It is the price he pays for his freedom, his +power of choice. The birds and the beasts have no power of choice, +they are entirely in the hands of Nature. They are all moulded to one +pattern. + +The advantage that comes to man from his power of choice is greater +variation, hence greater progress. He crosses or reverses or turns +aside the laws of Nature, or bends them to his will, and for this +privilege he pays the price of idiocy, deformity, and the vast mass +of commonplace humanity. His gain is now and then men of exceptional +ability, geniuses, who lead the race forward. We know that every +improved breed of chicken or sheep or swine will come true, but we +do not know in anything like the same degree of certainty that the +Emersons and the Lincolns and the Tennysons will repeat and continue +the type. Cultivated fruit relapses in the seed, and cultivated +persons often do the same. + +On the other hand, rude and ordinary humanity now and then far +transcends itself in its offspring, just as the new and choice apple +or peach or plum has its humble origin in a seedling. + + +XII. ILLUSIONS + +In his “Conduct of Life” Emerson has an essay on “Illusions” in which +he describes the semblance to midnight skies paved with stars which +the guide produces in the Mammoth Cave by hiding himself and throwing +the rays of his torch athwart the ceiling set thick with transparent +rock crystals. The effect is quite startling. For the moment it is +hard to resist the conviction that you are actually looking upon the +cloudless sky at night. But in reality is not the noonday sky just as +much of an illusion, except that there are no mimic stars? The blue +dome overhead is an illusion. There is no dome there. The sky is a +mere apparition. It is not a body or a reality as it seems to be; +it is mere empty space, though it has the effect upon us of a vast +blue dome. How genial and inviting it looks when we see it peeping +through the clouds, and how glorious when we see it swept free from +clouds! Its purity, its serenity, its elevated character, move us to +regard it as the abode of superior beings. The telescope dispels our +illusions; the sky is not a transparent realm, but only an extension +of earthly conditions. Heaven, the abode of the blest, takes its name +from this negation of vacancy. Our notions of a personal God are +similar illusions. God is as real as the sky is, and no more so, even +though in our devout moods we lift our eyes heavenward and identify +him with this comforting illusion. + +All our life illusions brood over us. The night is only a shadow--the +negation of light; and yet it plays a part in our lives as real as +that of health or friends or climate, as real, but of another kind. + +Time itself is an illusion. The future does not exist nor the past; +yet how are our lives influenced by the memory of the one and our +anticipations of the other! + +The world is, indeed, full of illusion. We fancy that luminous +bodies shoot out rays of light such as we appear to see when we look +at them. We see beams and scintillations when we look at the stars +and the sun; but is it not all a trick of the eye? The light from a +luminous body goes out in all directions, not in separated rays, but +as vibrations in the ether. When we throw a stone into a still pool +of water a wave motion is set up which spreads in concentric circles. +But the vibrations called “light,” considered as a whole, assume the +form of a sphere; they go from the luminous body to every point of +a hollow sphere. We see a star as a bright point in the sky, but if +the universe were full of eyes, every eye could see that star; its +light goes to every point of the hollow sphere of Infinity. But no +more than does the light of the candle in your hand, or the lamp on +your table go to Infinity, if unobstructed. Stars which cannot be +seen by the most powerful telescope must yet radiate their light into +infinite space. Is that light lost? Modern science seems to hold to +the view that in the ether of space no rays of light can ever be +lost. What becomes of them? It is certain that a wavelet in a lake +can be lost if the lake is large enough. It soon dies out. It becomes +dissipated. Energy cannot be destroyed, but it can be scattered or +turned into heat or light or electricity, and the waves that break +and die upon the beach, no matter how cold they are, give up their +energy as heat. They must raise the temperature some fraction of a +degree. + + +XIII. IS NATURE SUICIDAL? + +Emerson never committed himself to a belief in immortality as usually +understood--continued existence in another world; but he was always +on the lookout for hints and suggestions to spur his lagging faith on +the subject. He read Martial and praised his literary faculty. He is +the true writer, he said, a chemical and not a mechanical mixture: +“Martial suggests again, as every purely literary book does, the +immortality. We see we are wiser than we were: we are older. Can +Nature afford to lose such improvements? Is Nature a suicide?” The +same questions I have heard Whitman ask, questions asked probably by +thoughtful men in all ages. + +But are not such questions prompted by our own petty economies? We +must save what we have gained. Not so Nature. Gain and loss with her +are one. All is hers. She has infinite time, and infinite abundance. +How can she afford so many dead worlds and burnt-out suns scattered +throughout sidereal space, like boulders in a New England field? How +can she afford to wait millions of years before life comes to the +superior planets, if it ever comes? What economy is that which strews +the way of evolution with untold numbers of extinct species? What +economy is that which makes one species prey upon another?--which +undoes with one hand what she achieves with the other? Nature was +millions of years in bringing man out of the earth,--the end and +flower of her whole scheme from our point of view,--and probably +in far less time he will have disappeared from the earth. How can +she afford it? “Is Nature suicidal?” She certainly is, tried by +our standards. Not that she is less than we, but so inconceivably +more. She plays the game for her own amusement. She evaporates the +rivers and the seas, confident that the water will come back again. +She keeps the currents going; the ebb and flow never cease. Night +and day, life and death, go hand in hand. Her “improvements” are +improvements for a day, an hour, a moment--like snowflakes on the +river--“a moment white, then gone forever.” They are crystals that +perish, flowers that fall. Nature knows no exhaustion; she can repeat +the process continuously. Only the unlimited is inexhaustible. The +infinite goes on forever. Our economics pale in the face of Nature’s +prodigalities. A race like the Greeks perishes, and Nature’s treasury +is still full. Every spring in our climate the marvel of leaf and +flower is repeated in the plants and forests, and every fall the work +is undone. The great, the noble, the heroic, youth, age, manhood, +womanhood, fail and disappear, and still the game goes on. The rivers +drain the hills and mountains, and still they never run dry. Spring +and summer do not exhaust the fertility of Nature. The rivers carry +the soil into the sea, but they do not carry it off the globe. We +cannot defertilize the earth. What the seas lose, the clouds gain; +what the clouds lose, the earth gains; what the hills lose, the sea +gains; and so the circle is complete. + +Nature has her own economies that answer to our own. In the use of +means to an end, as in the living world, there must be economy of +time, of space, of power; there must be adjustments, compensations, +and so on. In the tropics vegetation takes its time. No hurry; the +heat does not fail. In the temperate zone there is less time, and +the pace of vegetation is faster. In the frigid zone it is faster +still, the time is brief; there is no prodigality of leaf and stalk +and flower; hurry up is the cry. The stalk is short, the flowering is +brief, the goal is the seed which must be matured. In our climate, +if a plant gets a later start, or is cut down and compelled to bloom +again,--for example, the burdock,--how it hastens, how it pushes out +its seed-vessels from the main stalk! The late fall dandelions do not +indulge in long stalks; they bloom close to the ground and develop +their down-seed balloons or parachutes at once. In the Far North the +willow and birch are mere running vines, but they achieve fruit. + +The economy of living nature is the basis of our economy; we improve +upon it, we take a short cut, we save time and save power. We trim +our trees, we remove obstructions, we fertilize, we graft, we sow +and plant. Nature is prodigal of her spawn and pollen to offset the +element of chance that enters into the action of the winds and the +waves. + +The wild creatures have their instinctive economies and ways of +getting on in the world. They prepare for the winter; they provide +for their young; they practice the arts of concealment; they are +wise for their own good; they do not commit suicide. The plants have +their economies, and the insects have theirs, but when we talk of +the economy of Nature, we are beyond soundings. Nature cannot spend +more than she earns; her ledgers always balance; her capital cannot +be impaired. There is no waste, in our sense, in the universe. Can +you destroy magnetism by pulverizing the magnet? Would electricity be +quenched if no storm-cloud ever again appeared in the sky? + + +XIV. THE PERSISTENCE OF ENERGY + +Is it not reassuring to know that we cannot get out of the +universe--that whatever is real about us cannot be destroyed, but can +only suffer change? All the elements that enter into my body must +persist; they always have persisted through all the vicissitudes of +astronomic and geologic time. We are as sure of that as we are sure +of anything, and we are sure that they will continue in some form +to exist. We believe it without proof. Our scientific faith carries +us over this gulf--our faith in the oneness and integrity of the +universe. Is there anything real, in the same sense, in what we call +our minds or souls? Huxley was convinced that consciousness was as +real as matter and energy, and must persist like them--persist in +other persons who follow us; but how about our individual selves? +And how about consciousness when the race of man becomes extinct? +We can only take refuge in the thought that consciousness will +dawn and continue in other worlds through all time, or rather +endless time, since the all of a thing implies limits. Equally to +make consciousness coeval with matter and energy, we must think +of it as having existed in other worlds throughout an endless and +beginningless past. But my consciousness and your consciousness +are bound up with certain combinations of matter which we know are +unstable--in fact, are the result, in a sense, of their instability, +their ceaseless change. + +In the final change, which we call death, what happens to +consciousness? When we try to think of it in terms of our actual +experience with tangible bodies, we think of it as gone out, +non-existent, as truly so as is the flame of the candle when we blow +it out, or as is the star form of the snowflake when it is melted. +Does it help us any to think of the soul, or consciousness, in terms +of the imponderable bodies--light, electricity, radio-activity? +Do all these wireless messages that go forth into the air, go on +forever? Do these impulses reach the farthest stars, and still +persist? Do our thoughts persist upon the ether? Here, in this room, +here in this air that you may inclose with your two hands, are +vibrating wireless messages from far and near, though we are not +able to detect them. Here also the ether may be tremulous with the +thoughts of our friends on the other side of the globe, yes, and with +the thoughts of our friends who have ceased to live, as we know life. +The ether of space may still be vibrating with the thoughts of Plato +and Aristotle, of Moses and Solomon. + +Do we impress ourselves momentarily upon the ether around us, +and is this what the mediums and the clairvoyants recover? Is +the persistence of our thoughts upon the ether the secret of the +mind-reader’s art, and of all the marvelous things disclosed by +psychic research? Is this the only immortality, the immortality of +the endless persistence of vibrations from our brains? Or must we +think of our personalities as disembodied and drifting about as +separate entities in the great Nowhere? + +Though a dreamer and an idealist, I am only truly interested in a +natural explanation of things--an explanation that is in harmony with +our experiences in this world. The so-called supernatural explanation +does not interest me at all. We cannot grasp it and bring it to the +test of reason and experience. It is like a bridge with one or more +spans missing--only faith can carry us over, and faith that has +nothing to stand upon cannot really carry us over. It travels in a +circle, and leaves us where it found us. + +Energy is certainly one of the realities of the cosmos, though we may +not be able to form a concept of it as we do of matter. We cannot +visualize it. We know it only through its effects upon tangible +bodies. Why may there not be a principle of life or vitality as +real as is energy--another form of energy which we can know only +through its effects upon matter; inseparably bound up with matter as +energy is; not with all matter, but with a limited amount of matter, +as is magnetism--a peculiar form of force or energy, dependent +for its manifestations upon well-defined conditions and reaching +its highest manifestations in the mind or consciousness of man. +Spirit, as we name it, is only a word which stands for no verifiable +reality--something separable from matter and independent of it. +What victims we are of words! When we get a name for a thing we are +persuaded the thing exists. The vital process is inseparable from +the physical processes; it supplements or controls them, but is more +than they are. Life is not a spirit, but a form of energy potential +in matter, and developed and active when the conditions are right. +A living body is moved by a new force just as truly as a piece of +magnetized steel is moved by a new force, or as truly as a new force +streams through the telegraph-wires--a transformation of other +forces, and behaving in a new way, and producing new results. There +is nothing new under the sun; all are made of one stuff; but there +are endless transformations and permutations of this one stuff, and +one of them is the phenomenon of life, or vitality. + +Electricity is not matter, but it is the most unmistakable and +ubiquitous form of energy known to us. The human mind is a phenomenon +of matter; how related to the electro-magnetic world we know not, but +undoubtedly in some way bound up with it. + +To discuss the soul or attempt to interpret it in terms of these +mundane forces will, of course, offend the so-called spiritualists. +So long have we been taught to look upon the soul as belonging to +another world, another order of things from that of the body. Whitman +says that soul and body are one, and leaves his puzzled reader to +solve the riddle as best he can. Heaven and earth are one in the same +sense--there is nothing alien or irreconcilable between them. The +flower and its stalk, the perfume and the root, are one in the same +sense. The mind resides in the gray matter of the brain, and depends +upon the food we eat as truly as does the body. + +When we discuss these questions in terms of our religious training +we reach far different conclusions, or, rather, we start with far +different conclusions; but how can we relate these conclusions to the +concrete facts as we know them? + +There is enough that is verifiable in clairvoyance and mind-reading +and mental healing to convince us that we are immersed in a world +of subtle forces that ordinarily we wot not of; that in some way a +process of give and take between us and these things is constantly +going on, and that our relation to them is at least one form or +suggestion of our immortality. We are a part of the wave of energy +that sweeps through the cosmos, as truly as the drops of the sea hold +and convey the tidal impulse. We know, or think we know, the sources +of this tidal impulse, but the attraction between earth and moon and +sun is reciprocal--a give-and-take process--and is only a phase of +the sum total (if the Infinite can be said to have a sum total) of +the energy of the cosmos. + +The magnet and magnetism are one. If you melt or pulverize the +magnet, you dissipate, but do not destroy the magnetism. The clouds +come and go; now we see them, and then there is only blue sky where +they were. Change, but not destruction. When the thunder-cloud +disperses, where are its terrible bolts? Withdrawn, probably, or +redistributed into the inmost recesses of matter or of the ether. The +energy of the human brain and body cannot be destroyed by death, only +changed. If consciousness is a force, then it, too, must persist. It +seems, in some way, the equivalent of the force of the body, at least +one of its phenomena. But is it anything more than the analogue of +the light which the electric spark emits, and which is light only +to the eye? Consciousness is such only to itself; it cannot be seen +or felt or known by other consciousnesses. What we know about the +consciousnesses of others, we know through our own. + +In the presence of the death of our friends no doubt this is a +cheerless and depressing kind of philosophy, but in the pursuit of +truth, if we are sincere, we do not seek to administer to, or to warm +and cheer our human affections. Our seriousness will be measured +by the extent to which we put all these things behind us. Heroic +self-denial finds a field here as well as in the struggles of life. +We do not want to cheer ourselves with illusions, no matter how +welcome they are. “All’s right with the world.” The laws of life and +death are as they should be. The laws of matter and force are as they +should be; and if death ends my consciousness, still is death good. +I have had life on those terms, and somewhere, somehow, the course +of nature is justified. I shall not be imprisoned in that grave where +you are to bury my body. I shall be diffused in great Nature, in the +soil, in the air, in the sunshine, in the hearts of those who love +me, in all the living and flowing currents of the world, though I may +never again in my entirety be embodied in a single human being. My +elements and my forces go back into the original sources out of which +they came, and these sources are perennial in this vast, wonderful, +divine cosmos. + + + + +XIV + +SOUNDINGS + + +I. THE GREAT MYSTERY + +No man in his senses can fail to grant the reality of the Great +Mystery, the inscrutable and unspeakable Something which lies back of +us and works in and through us, the vast Cosmic Energy of which we +and all forms of life are manifestations, and in which we live and +move and have our being, call it physical energy or psychic power, or +what you will. + +We are not here by our wills; we do not have our eyes and ears, +and the other wonderful mechanisms of our bodies, and all our +varied instincts and capacities and aspirations of our own will and +invention. We have little or nothing to do with the functioning of +our various bodily organs, scarcely more than we have to do with the +color of our eyes, our innate dispositions, and our mental aptitudes. +In something not of us, at least not subject to our wills and +wishes, is to be sought the explanation of our appearance, and that +of all other forms of life, in this world. In other words, we are +an integral part of a system of things which transcends our powers +and baffles our understanding. After we have granted all this, can +we still feel the solid ground beneath our feet in accepting the +explanation and interpretation which any of the formal religious +systems, old or new, place upon it? I think not. + +In the presence of the midnight skies, of the creative and +destructive cosmic processes constantly going on in the awful depths +of the sidereal space, of suns and systems coming in and going out +like blooming and fading flowers, in the presence of the geological +and biological histories of the globe, or of the histories of the +different nations and races of the globe, does not most of our +Christian mythology seem utterly childish? + +How strange that we should crave a creed or a belief that goes +outside of our experimental knowledge; that is independent of it, +not subject to its tests and limitations; something afar off and +irrational and inexplicable, and beyond the reach of time and change! +Who is the philosopher who said that we are guided by our common +sense in everything but our religious beliefs? + +We can taste and see and touch and smell and eat and drink and +measure and accumulate and organize and assimilate scientific +knowledge; it gives us a place whereon to stand our Archimedean lever +with which we can move the world and the whole sidereal system of +worlds. But with our so-called theological knowledge, and with much +of our metaphysical knowledge, it is like trying to move with a lever +the mountain upon which one stands. + +Furthermore, grant that the religious sense of mankind is real, one +of the most real things in life,--so real and valuable that the +life, the literature, and the art which have it not seem shallow +and ephemeral,--a living sense of the Infinite Mystery in which we +are embosomed and our constant relation to it,--grant this, I say, +and yet our creeds and systems of salvation do not minister to it. +They are too legal; they know and explain too much. With them the +administration of the universe is as simple and judicial as a police +court, save that in human courts of justice there is no deputed sin +or atonement. This is a gratuitous, manufactured mystery of the +theologians, as are the Trinity and the saving grace of rites and +ceremonies. + +Science has real mysteries. Catalysis is one. How or why the presence +of one body should cause two other bodies to unite chemically without +parting with an atom of their own substance--as in several cases in +industrial chemistry--is certainly a mystery. On the strength of such +and similar facts in chemistry, shall we image or invent a whole +category of mysteries which are beyond the reach of verification? + +What mystery hovers about all chemical reactions! What a miracle +that two invisible gases, such as oxygen and hydrogen, should, when +chemically united, produce a body so utterly unlike either as is +water! The turning of water into wine is as nothing in comparison, +but even that feat we want to see done if we are to believe it. + +What a mystery shrouds the whole subject of electricity and +electro-magnetism! A sort of disembodied force, working its will upon +matter and yet subject to none of the laws of matter. Spirit?--but a +spirit we can evoke at will, and make to do our bidding, to run our +errands, a spirit more friendly than unfriendly. How prone the common +mind is to think that because a thing is mysterious it must be true! + +As I have already emphasized, as man is a part of Nature, so are all +his creeds and myths, his religions and his philosophies, a part of +Nature. What validity does that give them? What support is lent to +our creed by the fact that it has been slowly evolved out of the +religious experiences of the centuries? Our sense of truth is also +an evolution, and varies from age to age. That a thing is a part +of Nature does not settle its value. Shadows are a part of Nature; +puff-balls, fungi, marsh-gas, disease-germs, and a thousand other +undesirable things are a part of Nature. + +Although the various religious systems of mankind must have their +natural history, I regard them only as so many diverse attempts to +clothe the spirit against the cosmic chill of the vast, unhoused, +unsanctified, immeasurable out-of-doors of the universe. This they +do in varying degrees, and will continue to do, some appealing to +one type of mind, or--shall we say?--one stage of development, some +to another. The philosopher looks on and smiles, or pities, and is +content. + + +II. THE NATURAL ORDER + +Even great thinkers like Mr. Balfour recoil from naturalism and +cheerfully embrace supernaturalism. Mr. Balfour finds the key to the +fundamental problems of life in the miracle of the Incarnation. He +injects into the natural order a theological concept, and the riddle +of man’s life is solved. To the naturalist such a conclusion is as +impossible as to hope to quench his thirst with the symbols, H_{2}O. + +We may say every man born of woman is an incarnation of the +Infinite spirit, and the hyperbole may stand, but to affirm that +one particular man in the historic period was an incarnation in an +entirely other and more significant sense, is to read magic into +matters of common sense. It is an imaginary solution. It is an appeal +from the natural to the non-natural. It is offering an artificial +solution to a natural problem. One might as well attribute a failure +of the crops to one of the political parties, or an epidemic of +disease to an historical document. The doctrine of the Incarnation +is as far outside the realm of natural law as is magic, and to see +in this the master key to creation is like ascribing all the sin +and misery of the world to Adam’s transgression in the Garden of +Eden. The childish plan of salvation of our fathers is as good as +any other so long as it holds men up to higher standards of life and +of thought; but the day is fast passing when it can do this; natural +standards must in the end as surely prevail in religion as in our +daily lives. + +The nature that we see about us is enough for all forms of life +except man; why should he flatter himself that his appearance and +life demand something extra, some miracle, something mysterious and +incomprehensible? Why not invest the gods we have and know with the +extra power demanded, rather than appeal to gods we know not? How +the fire warms us, how our food nourishes us, how we sprang from a +microscopic germ and grew to be the men we are, are miracles enough. +Every living thing is a miracle as wonderful as the Immaculate +Conception or the Incarnation, but of a different order. If I knew +how the meat and bread which the poet eats is turned into poetry, +or how the pond-lily weaves its satin and gold out of the muck and +slime of the creek-bottom, I should possess a secret that would make +me cease to wonder at the so-called “miracles.” In the face of the +marvels we hourly see about us in living Nature, why should we look +afar off and invent marvels of a new order? Why should we invent +impossible problems, and then invent impossible explanations of them? + +The nature gods we know; we live in daily and hourly converse with +them; we see and know that we are dependent upon them every moment +of our lives. These gods--air, water, fire, earth--and the greater +gods whose eyes blink to us in the midnight skies, why not credit +them with the gifts that we ascribe to the imaginary gods of the +supernatural? + +The more we search into the ways of Nature, the more wonderful and +potent we find them to be. It may be that if we could penetrate to +the true inwardness of matter, we should find the key to the mystery +of the soul and the master key to all our problems. But we feel that +we must look afar off, we must have recourse to the strange and the +miraculous. How the impossible does attract us! Even the fantastic +may be made the basis of a religious cult. In Florida, in a remote, +secluded place we found a religious sect, embracing men and women +of culture and refinement, who upheld the social and civic virtues +and cultivated the industrial arts, yet who deemed it essential for +their soul’s salvation to disbelieve all our popular astronomy, and +hold to the idea that, instead of living on the outside of a globe, +we live inside of a hollow sphere, and that the sun, moon, and stars +are appendages of this sphere, and not at all what we ordinarily take +them to be. The expounders of this faith are not at all disturbed by +such facts as a ship at sea dropping below the horizon, or an eclipse +of the moon showing the shadow of a round body falling upon it. +Such appearances only confirm their theory. These Florida fanatics +defy common sense and the exact demonstrations of science. Our +supernaturalists superinduce another order above and around the order +we call “natural,” and in a theological concept, the Incarnation, +link the two together. That they are linked at any other point is not +claimed. In the age of miracles they were linked at many points and +on many occasions. Any saint could link them together at will, and +reverse or hold up the processes of the natural order and substitute +those of the supernatural. + +Such events as miracles come very easy to the mind imbued with the +old theological concepts. Why should not this omnipotent being who +made and rules the world and all that it holds, and who has a scheme +of his own to carry out with regard to man, step in at any time and +annul natural law or link it up with the supernatural? Belief in the +theory of such a being cuts many knots, while it ties others that +defy all our wits. + +Life is so great a mystery that we need not invent others. We have +the proof of life always, what proof have we of the Incarnation? We +know what destroys life, what favors it, what conserves it, but we +do not know its origin. We know something about the stars, and we +know the constellations are only imaginary groupings. The historical +events upon which our creeds are founded are of the same character. +The Trinity is a constellation. The miraculous birth of Christ is a +constellation. The fixed stars of man’s moral nature and religious +aspirations are alone real. All the mythologies built upon them are +as fanciful as Orion and the Big Dipper. All the various religions of +the world, with all their supernatural features, are a part of the +natural history of man’s religious instincts. Man’s craving for the +supernatural is as natural as our discounting of the present moment, +and no more significant. The natural becomes trite and commonplace +to us and we take refuge in an imaginary world above and beyond it. +The understanding becomes sated, and we long for something we cannot +understand. + + +III. LOGIC AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS + +Of late years I am often moved to say to myself: “Why kick the old +theology after it is dead?”--as I have often been tempted to do. +It is almost like spurning the bodies of one’s father and mother. +The old creeds may be outworn, but they have fathered and mothered +us all. They have served and saved untold generations of men. +Christianity, mythical and irrational as much of it is, has yet been +the salvation of the world for nineteen centuries. Of course it has +been a source of evil as well as of good, as all religions are, but +the good has greatly predominated. In fact, it is the bed-rock upon +which our civilization is founded. It has saved men in this world by +inspiring them with the desire to be worthy of a better and future +world. + +We are saved, I often say, not so much by the truth of what we +believe, as by the truth of our belief, by its genuineness, its power +over our imaginations, its hold upon our character, its fostering +of an incentive to right conduct and noble deeds. Whether it be +Catholicism or Calvinism or Methodism or Quakerism or Christian +Science or the Japanese ancestor worship or Buddhism, if it holds us +to higher ideals and gives sobriety and sincerity to our lives, that +is its true function. + +In fact, any religion is good which supplies a man or a people with +a workable theory of the universe. In practical matters, in dealing +with real facts and forces, man is compelled to be logical or he +comes to grief--he must keep fire and powder apart. But in his +religion and speculations he is bound by no such necessity; he is +free to indulge the wildest dreams. + +Man does not expect fire or flood or frost or wind or rain to favor +him. He does not put fluids in leaky vessels, nor a leaky roof +over his head, nor plant his house on a foundation of sand. His +carpenter’s level does not lie, nor his plumb-line make a mistake. +But in his religion he may be as capricious and fantastic as he +pleases; he has a free hand; he may even flog his gods if they +displease him, and it is all the same. His creed is a passport to an +entirely different world. + +The religious sect which I visited in Florida, which held that we +live upon the inside of a hollow sphere, treated our astronomy with +scorn, yet seemed to live sober, sane lives, and to do honest work. +But if they carried out the theory of the hollow sphere in practice, +in their navigation, in their clocks and sun-dials, or in anything +else, how quickly they would come to grief! + +Christianity is a workable hypothesis; it solves the problem of +life to vast numbers of persons; but how irrational and puerile its +philosophy, founded upon the myth of the fall of Adam in the Garden +of Eden! Destroy this myth and you have cut off the tap-root of +Christianity. But do we not know, in the light of evolution, that +man’s course has been upward and not downward, that his “fall” was, +in fact, development into a higher state of being? + +Thinking men must find some sort of a solution of the problems of the +universe, and feeling men and women must have some tangible, concrete +thing that in a measure satisfies their emotional natures. The human +heart cannot live on cold philosophical abstractions. The ceremonies +and observances and rituals of the Church give one something he can +see and feel. For my own part I do not need this sort of thing. Every +day is a Sabbath day to me. All pure water is holy water, and this +earth is a celestial abode. It has not entered into the mind of any +man to see and feel the wonders and the mysteries and the heavenly +character of this world. + +All religions look away from the earth to some fairer and better +abode, quite oblivious of the fact that heaven, wherever we find it, +will be of our own making. If we do not find it here, we shall not +find it anywhere. But the great mass of struggling, toiling, human +kind must be comforted and encouraged by the prospect of emancipation +from the grossness and suffering of this world. Goethe acutely said +to let those who could not have literature or art or science, have +religion. + +Think of the many sturdy, God-fearing, church-going, simple folk one +has known in his youth--how impossible their creeds, but how worthy +their lives! It requires the heroic fiber to accept the creed of +Calvinism; it is a proposition that tries a man’s mettle. The current +generation is too frivolous and empty to be impressed by it; not +one in a thousand is man enough to accept it. The movies suit them +better. But what granite stuff went to the making of our Pilgrim +fathers! + +Cease all Christian effort, all organized Christian charities, all +Christian enterprises in the fields of education, social betterment, +sanitation, amelioration of the masses, and our civilization would +suffer. Then why rail at the old creeds, I say again. They prepared +the way for science, and for the religion of nature. Carlyle said +to Emerson on that memorable day in 1833 when the two sat down in +their walk over the Scottish hills, “Christ died on the tree: that +built Dunscore kirk yonder: that brought you and me together.” The +old creeds nursed heroic, God-fearing and God-loving men. True, they +sometimes disguised the wolf in sheep’s clothing also, but that is +the fault of human nature. + +Let us be as faithful to our day and generation as our fathers were +to theirs. Wendell Phillips said that to be as good as our fathers +were, we must be a good deal better. Shall we rail at our Puritan +ancestors for the hardness of their creeds? Although the Pauline plan +of salvation seems childish to us, it seemed the foundation of the +universe for our fathers. To clinch a nail you need something hard, +and the Calvinistic creed has clinched the resolution of many a man. + + +IV. A CHIP FROM THE OLD BLOCK + +It makes me more charitable toward my neighbor’s creed, childish +though I think it is, to remember that it came out of his life, +or out of the life around him, as truly as did my own. We cannot +separate man, and all that revolves around him, from the totality +of things. There is no depravity or cruelty or perversion in the +world that is not fed by the life of the world. The war that has +depopulated and devastated Europe is just as legitimate a part +of total Nature as were all the fruits of the ages of peace and +prosperity. Everything in the woods is a part of the woods, and bears +their stamp; everything in the sea is a part of the sea. The tumor, +the ulcer, and the disease, are a part of our bodies, and are fed by +its vitality. In our practical lives we are compelled to separate +a part from the whole, to accept this and reject that, but when we +essay to comprehend the whole we must see that all are but parts, and +that our philosophy is lame if it does not see that the so-called +good and the so-called bad are fruit of the same tree. + +We are prone to separate ourselves from the rest of Nature and to +claim for ourselves much that we deny to all other animals, such as +the existence of the soul, and its immortality. But we are all of +one stuff. Out of the earth has come a creature that has changed the +surface of the earth over vast areas; that has changed the course of +rivers, and the face of continents; that has harnessed the forces of +the earth and turned them against themselves. How the earth elements +came to organize themselves into this creature--here we can take no +step! + + +V. A PERSONAL GOD + +I once heard an Irish laborer refer solemnly, with an upward lift +of the head, to the man up above. He did not refer to the man down +below, but no doubt might have done so had occasion required. If we +have one, we must have the other to keep the balance. The man up +above must keep his skirts clean, and to admit of this the man down +below must be the scapegoat. + +How long has the belief in the reality of these two manlike beings, +the one all good, the other all evil, ruled in the minds and hearts +of men! The old Hebrew prophets were drunk with the idea of a manlike +Jehovah. A terrible man they made of him--a cruel, despotic ruler, +wreaking his vengeance on his enemies, exacting an eye for an eye +and a tooth for a tooth, a lover of righteousness, but a vengeful, +jealous, angry God. And the man down below was his fit counterpart, +blocking and marring or defeating the plans of the man up above. +These conceptions go with the infancy of the human reason. + +So many phases of our religious belief are the result of imperfect +knowledge and false conceptions of the world in which we live! They +come down to us from an earlier time, when the earth was regarded as +the center of the universe, all other bodies revolving around it. Man +lifted his eyes and his hands to heaven in an appeal to the heavenly +powers. + +It seems as if the religious sense of the mass of mankind was, by +the operation of some psychological law, forced to externize and +visualize, yes, and humanize, the object upon which its interest +centers. Orthodox religion, while proclaiming that God is a spirit, +that He is everywhere, that He fills all nature, that not a sparrow +falls to the ground without his notice, and that heaven is not a +place, but a state of mind, yet makes its God a personal being, +endowed with our human attributes, with likes and dislikes, sorely +tried by our sins and weaknesses; nearer us sometimes than at others, +present everywhere, yet abiding in one particular place called +heaven--these and many other childish and contradictory things. + +That keen, clear-minded man, Cardinal Newman, regarded God under the +image of a maker, detached absolutely like any human workman from +the work of his hand. He is the Eternal King, absolutely distinct +from the world as being its center,--“Upholder, Governor, and +Sovereign Lord.” “He created all things out of nothing, and preserves +them every moment, and could destroy them as He made them.” “He is +separated from them by an abyss, and is incommunicable in all his +attributes.” This being is always described and interpreted in terms +of man, or of our own finite human nature, reflecting in his outlines +human history, human political and social institutions, and the aims +and objects of concrete human beings. He does not hesitate to relate +this God to “every movement which has convulsed and refashioned the +surface of the earth,” and hence to make him responsible for the +death and destruction and misery which have attended earthquakes and +have set back the tide of human progress. Of course every noxious +insect, every noxious plant and beast and death-dealing germ is from +Him also. “Wars when just” are from Him also. Who or what are they +from when they are not just, the great Cardinal does not say. Can +both sides be just? Into such absurdities does the conception of a +manlike God lead us. + +The modern scientific mind, quite as imaginative--if not more so--as +the typical theological mind, never gets mired in such contradictions +or tangled up in such childish anthropomorphism. Such confusion +arises out of the habit of mind which sees the whole creation +directed to man; his good is its one object and aim, and when his +good suffers, something has miscarried. The cruel and destructive +things in nature can only be accounted for on the theory that some +aboriginal calamity, like the fall of man, had visited the world +before God took charge of things. + +The naturalist sees this as the best possible world, sees that Nature +is not an indulgent stepmother, but a strict disciplinarian; that +the good and well-being of all is her aim; that suffering and defeat +are relative; that God’s ways to man are not justified in a day or a +week, or in this place or that, but require ages and continents to +come to their full fruition. The good and the evil that will come +out of the terrible World War will not all be apparent this year, or +next, but only in the perspective of history--in the sum total of +human progress of the ages. Such a view is a slap in the face of our +egotism which demands instant returns, and which makes the individual +supreme. + +With Nature, as I have so often said, our standards of good and +evil apply to us alone, and they change with the changing years. +The naturalist sees that pain and delay and defeat are the price +of development; that the world is imperfect, and man is imperfect, +because growth and development are the law of nature; that there is +always a higher level, and always will be, which we realize only when +we look back. A perfect world, as we use the term, would mean the end +of all development. + + +VI. THE ETERNAL + +How much is in a name! When we call the power back of all God, +it smells of creeds and systems, of superstition, intolerance, +persecution; but when we call it Nature, it smells of spring and +summer, of green fields and blooming groves, of birds and flowers and +sky and stars. I admit that it smells of tornadoes and earthquakes, +of jungles and wildernesses, of disease and death, too, but these +things make it all the more real to us. + +The word “God” has so long stood for the conception of a being who +sits apart from Nature, who shapes and rules it as its maker and +governor. It is part of the conception of a dual or plural universe, +God and Nature. This offends my sense of the oneness of creation. +It seems to me that there is no other adequate solution of the total +problem of life and Nature than what is called “pantheism,” which +identifies mind and matter, finite and Infinite, and sees in all +these diverse manifestations one absolute being. As Emerson truly +says, pantheism does not belittle God, it magnifies him. God becomes +the one and only ultimate fact that fills the universe and from which +we can no more be estranged than we can be estranged from gravitation. + +The moment we seek to interpret the Eternal in terms of our own +psychology, we get into trouble. We cannot measure the Infinite by +the standards of the finite. Our economies, our methods, our aims are +not those of Nature. God, in the sense in which I use the term, does +not plan and design and adapt means to ends as does man. God is no +more the maker than He is the thing made. How natural for us to think +that the air was made for us to breathe, the water for us to drink, +the light for us to see, and the earth for us to inhabit! But these +things are older than we are. I have seen a pumpkin growing in the +fence and fitting exactly into the niche amid the rails, but was not +the fence there before it was? + +There is design in Nature, but not in the sense that there is design +in human affairs and contrivances. There is no designer. There are +living machines, but no machinist. Things grow. Evolution is a vital +process. Man’s course is a right line, Nature’s is a circle. Man +aims to cut out the waste, the pain, the failures. How does Nature +trim her trees or renew her forests or weed her gardens? Only by a +survival of the fittest or the luckiest. Every branch that dies and +decays and falls from the tree does so at the risk of the health +and well-being of the whole tree. Often the decayed branch leaves a +hole that in time causes the death of the tree. See how evenly the +pine and spruce and hemlock and oak forests get planted by Nature’s +haphazard method, but think of the time involved! But what is time +to the Eternal? Man cuts out the time and gets his forest quickly. +He trims his wood and avoids the danger of delays and decaying wood. +He selects such plants for his garden as he desires, and avoids the +dangers of the struggle to survive. He takes the side of the weak +against the strong, but Nature favors only the strong. + +The rain falls upon the just and the unjust. The weather goes its way +irrespective of you and me. Storm, tempest, frost, drought, sunshine, +are no respecters of persons. The seasons came and went before man +appeared, just as they do now. The Eternal never takes sides as +man takes sides, but because it does not, should we lose faith? +The Eternal takes sides as the sun takes sides, and not otherwise. +The light shines for all. Providence is a universal beneficence. +The clouds go their way. The beneficence is seen in the slow +amelioration of meteoric conditions through countless æons, till the +cloud and the bow appeared, and with them conditions favorable to +life. The impartial rains are oblivious to our human needs, but, as I +so often say, they are on the side of life. They are on the side of +development. They made the sublime drama of evolution possible. + +The weather favored us æons before we were born, because it favored +life. Therefore, when we say that the Eternal is neither for us nor +against us, we mean in our special human sense. He is on the side of +the righteous only when the righteous live according to the rule of +Nature or rightness, or in harmony with the eternal order. And he is +against the unrighteous when they transgress this order. In vain do +we pray for victory on the eve of battle, except in so far as prayer +puts courage into our hearts. Victory is for him who marshals the +physical and moral forces the most skillfully. The victory is from +the Eternal whoever wins, because it is the fruit of the order which +It established, or, rather, which It is. + +As we cannot get away from Nature, we cannot get away from the +Eternal. He sticketh closer than a brother, closer than the blood in +our own hearts, not always to bless and to cheer, often to hinder +and depress. Not all ease and joy is life; it is as often struggle, +tears, defeat. + +Not by placing God afar off in the heavens--a supersensuous, +supermundane, supernatural being--do we make the problem easier. +Not till we bring Him down to earth and incarnate Him (the old myth +of Christ again), and identify Him with everything without us and +within--not till God becomes man--do we see a light under the feet of +Fate; not till then do we see love and fatherhood and brotherhood and +sacrifice and humility and beneficence and altruism in Nature. When +we see man as a part of Nature, we see him as a part of God. + +In humanity alone do we see the face of justice, of mercy, of +charity, of forgiveness, of reverence, of renunciation--human +virtues, they, too, come out of the heart of Nature. If this is a +hard gospel, still it is tangible, real, livable. We cannot live +other than on familiar terms with Nature. In her we see the sources +of our power, our help, our health. We know the conditions of our +well-being. We know the price we have to pay for each blessing. Our +reason, our intelligence, we come by honestly and inevitably. Their +fountainhead is in Nature. + +Amid the agony and turmoil of war we need not lose faith. We know +that Nature is still Nature. If disease and pestilence and famine +rage, we know that there are weapons with which to fight them. We +know that order comes out of chaos, that life comes out of death. We +have neither to curse our gods nor to praise them, neither to do +penance nor to offer burnt offerings, but only to take and use wisely +the gifts they bestow. + + +VII. AN IMPARTIAL DEITY + +What difficulties and contradictions we fall into the moment we +identify Nature with God, and what equal or greater difficulties we +fall into if we refuse to identify Nature with God! True it is that +in the former case we bring God very near and make him very real; we +see and feel our direct and continuous dependence upon Him--indeed, +that we are a part of Him; that every breath we draw, and every +thought we think, and every pound of energy we put forth is in and +through Him; and that we can no more wander or escape from Him than +we can escape gravity or chemical affinity. There are no skeptics or +atheists in regard to Nature. It alone exists and goes on forever. +But here comes the pinch! God as Nature is not only the author of the +good, He is the author of what we call evil also; He is as many-sided +as Nature is. The savage and merciless aspects of Nature are of +Him also; He is in the jungles of Africa, as well as in the walks +of culture and refinement; in the destroying tornado as well as in +the gentle summer breeze; in the overwhelming floods as well as in +the morning dews. He is as much the author of disease as He is of +health; of war, pestilence, famine, as He is of peace, plenty, and +the progress of the world. He is in the trenches and the slaughter +of the contending armies as truly as in the most peaceful and pious +family or social circle in the world. The asphyxiating gases are his, +and the bursting bombs, no less than the breaking hearts and the +prayerful souls at home. The comets that come like apparitions in the +heavens, and then are gone, and the stars that shine steadfastly, +are all a part of the same scheme. The dragons and monsters that +possessed the earth and the fruits thereof for millions of years in +geologic time were the work of that divinity which shapes our ends +to-day. + +We separate ourselves from Nature and flatter ourselves that we +belong to another and higher order; that we alone are of divine +origin, and not involved in the fate of the rest of Creation; but +we are fragments of the same granite that forms the foundation of +the earth. “I am stuccoed with birds and quadrupeds all over,” +says Whitman. The reptile was our ancestor; we were cradled in the +old seas; we are kin to the worm and the mollusk; we derive from +creeping, swimming, noisome things, from the slime and mud of the +old sea bottoms, from the cosmic dust and the solar radiations. Why +should we put on superior airs when not one atom of matter will turn +aside for us, not one law of physics cease to operate to save us from +destruction? The vast army of elemental forces knows us not. We may +divert them and bend them to our will, but they heed us not; they +destroy us the moment we lose control. + +Nature does not love us any more than she hates us; she goes her way, +indifferent. + +The best we can say about it all is that Nature, or the Natural +Providence, is too big for us to grasp; that in these seas we can +find no soundings. But we are here, the world is beautiful, life is +worth living, love always pays; Nature serves us when we know how to +use her; when we plant and sow wisely God will send the increase. +Friendly or unfriendly, of God or of the Devil, the physical forces +have ministered to us. More things have been for us than have been +against us; more winds have blown our barks into safe harbors than +have dashed us upon the rocks. There are more refreshing showers +than devastating tornadoes; more sunshine than forked lightning; +more fertile land upon the earth than parched deserts; a broader +belt of genial climates than of frigid zones. Thorns and spines +and nettles are the exception in vegetation; stings and venomous +fangs are the exception in animal life. Hawks can catch the smaller +birds, yet there are vastly more small birds than hawks. The weasel +can catch the rabbit and the squirrel and the rat, yet there are +ten-fold, fifty-fold, more of these rodents than there are weasels. +The carnivorous beasts of the plains and of the jungle do not +exterminate the herbivorous; there is more good than evil everywhere; +more peace than war; more kindness than cruelty. The God of Nature +goes his way, but his way is our way; we have arisen out of Nature; +as it is, the chances of life have been in our favor; the stream +makes its own channel; the waters find their way to the sea; they +do not all stagnate on the way. Some of the seed which the winds +sow falls upon barren places, but not the most of it. Some men are +born criminals or cripples or malformed, but not the majority. The +creatures preyed upon always vastly outnumber the creatures that prey +upon them. And in truth, in the whole realm of Nature more things +wait upon man than war upon him. + + +VIII. FINITE AND INFINITE + +The unnamable, the unthinkable, the omnipotent, the omnipresent, +we cannot discuss or define in terms of our humanity. The moment +we try to do so we are involved in contradictions, just as we are +when we try to define the sphere in terms of the plane. The sphere +has no length, it has no breadth, it has no thickness, in the sense +that bodies upon its surface have. It has no weight, and it has no +beginning and no end, and we may say that its motion is eternal rest; +yet rest implies motion, and motion implies rest. + +When we say that there is no God, we only mean that there is no +being that we can define or conceive of in terms of man. Nothing in +the finite can help us in dealing with the infinite. The Infinite, +the Omnipotent, the Omnipresent, cannot be a being without sharing +the limitations of being, or without being subject to the bounds +of time and space. If God is everywhere, He is nowhere; if He is +all-powerful, his power has no contrary, and hence ceases to exist. +One after another the human and personal attributes we ascribe to Him +disappear when we try to conceive of Him in terms of the infinite. +The infinite is equivalent to negation. There are no terms in which +we can define the ether; it is the negative of all things that have +length and breadth and thickness, or motion or rest or substance, or +friction or cohesion, or place or power. An infinite being is as much +a contradiction of terms as a square or plane sphere would be. If +God is a person, with human-like attributes and emotions,--though we +call them divine,--it is legitimate to ask, Where is He? where was He +before the solar systems took form? where will He be after they have +again become formless? + +Our inevitable anthropomorphism prefigures the Infinite as superman; +He is man magnified to infinity. He is the supreme king or ruler of +the universe. We dream of seeing Him face to face; He has eyes, ears, +hands, feet, and the emotions of love, anger, pity, and the like. Man +thus imposes his own form upon the power that is and upholds the +cosmos. He carves it into his own image, and then seeks to propitiate +it and influence it as He Himself is propitiated and influenced. +Praise is sweet to it, honor is sweet, revenge is sweet, because +these things are sweet to man. + +When we call this force Nature, we bring it near to us and can see +and feel our direct relation to it. We are bone of its bone and +flesh of its flesh. We see its impersonal or unpersonal character. +We get light on the vexed problem of good and evil which is such an +insoluble enigma to the theologians. + +Nature embraces all; she fathers and mothers all; has no +partialities, knows no exceptions, no miracles, no deputied +atonements, no evil apart from the good and no good apart from the +evil, no life without death and no death without life. + + +IX. THE INSOLUBLE + +What desperate efforts mankind has made to shape this vast, blind, +unconscionable power we call Nature into an image of a God that would +satisfy our moral and spiritual wants and aspirations! Where did men +get their standards of such a God? They have evidently been slowly +evolved through the friction of man with man. They have possessed +survival value. Love, truth, justice, mercy, have contributed to +the fullness of life and to length of days. One may adopt Biblical +language and say that righteousness endureth forever. The triumph +of the wicked is only for a season; it may be a long season, it +may embrace whole periods of human history, and entail measureless +suffering on the human race, but change and retribution surely +come. The way of man’s moral and material progress is like the +stream that now hurries, now tarries, is now disrupted and noisy in +rapids and falls, now sluggish and almost stagnant in long level +reaches, but which does go forward and reach its goal at last. But +is there not some predetermined bent toward righteousness,--not of +the ecclesiastical sort, but of the scientific sort,--toward the +relations of man with man, that results in the greatest good to the +greatest number,--a bent inherent in the nature of things? Would +evolution have taken the road toward man and all the other forms of +life blindly, accidentally? Would it have started at all had there +not been some initial impulse, or some thought, somewhere, of all +that was to follow? + +The doctrine of design does not meet the problem; the doctrine of +chance does not meet it. Design in our human world means a designer. +What, then, does it mean in the non-human world? There can be no +design in such a world, because the human mind is not present. There +can be no chance, because a chance jumbling and collision of the +primordial elements could not result in the organized matter that is +life, any more than a thousand of brick dumped upon the ground can +take the form of a house. The brick and mortar demand an architect, +and organized matter demands an organizing principle. Whence its +source? There we are where no further step can be taken. What about +the divine mind? But that is jumping the whole question. If you place +your God here, I shall ask him some embarrassing questions, such as, +Where did you come from? Where have you been all these æons? Why are +you so wasteful and dilatory in your methods? Why have you made the +world so full of misery? Or, I might ask the question a little boy +asked his father: “Why did God make Satan?” The problem, it seems to +me, is quite as embarrassing to us mortals with a God as without one. +It is just as hard to account for a God as to account for the initial +impulse. In both cases we have in our hands a rope with only one end. +In trying to find the other end, we only get ourselves hopelessly +tied up. + + +X. PAYING THE DEBT + +In my youth I often heard the old people speak of death as “paying +the debt of Nature”--“He has paid the debt.” Life puts us in debt to +Nature--the earth, the air, the water--for the elements of our bodies +and the powers of our minds, and the time inevitably comes when we +must settle the account. That we are going to have something left +over--that we have only to pay the debt of the body, and not of the +mind--is one of the dreams that it is hard for most persons to give +up. Will not then the universal mind that pervades Nature claim its +own also? Can you and I hope to remain detached from it forever? Is +that a consummation devoutly to be wished? + +Be assured that no particle of soul or body can be lost. But +processes may cease; the flame of the lamp may go out, and the sum +total of force and matter remain the same. When a blade of grass +dies, a process has ended, and as mysterious a process as went on in +Cæsar’s brain and body. And when all life on the earth and in our +universe ceases, if it ever does, the problem would remain just as +puzzling, if we can fancy ourselves still here to puzzle over it. We +are links in an endless cycle of change in which we cannot separate +the material from what we call the spiritual. + +The water in our bodies to-day may have flashed as a dewdrop +yesterday, or lent itself to the splendor of the sunrise or sunset, +or played a part in the bow in the clouds. To-morrow it may be +whirling in the vortex of a tornado, or helping to quench the +life of a drowning man, or glistening in the frost figures on the +window-pane. The movements of the brain molecules in which the +phenomena of thought and consciousness are so mysteriously involved, +they, too, are links in the cycle of change. + +One of our younger poets, John Russell McCarthy, has had the courage +to say: + + “that we must look for life + Hereafter, not by one and one,--your soul + Alone among the souls of other men, + Drifting and staying, a thing apart forever-- + But we must see when all at last is counted + And the great sum is made, how one by one + We have returned to Her, the Mother of All,-- + The bit of soul-stuff that She loaned us. + + For we must live at last a part of Her-- + For we shall be forever as one with Her.” + +The reverent old people to whom I just referred paid the debt long +ago, and the day of reckoning for some of us cannot be far off. After +the account is closed who or what has profited by the transaction? We +are prone to put such questions to Nature, but they are irrelevant. +The universe is not run for profit, as we use the term. So far as we +can see, it is run just to satisfy the æsthetic and creative feeling +of the Eternal. When the sidereal systems in space run down, they are +wound up again, and suns and planets are started anew. The great game +never comes to an end; in fact, it is unthinkable that it should ever +have begun, except as the flowers begin in spring, or as a man begins +when he is born. Antecedents! Antecedents!--always. We cannot apply +our standards of loss and gain to the dealings of the Eternal with +us. “That I have positively appeared,” says Whitman, “that is enough.” + +Each of us is an incarnation of the universal mind, as is every beast +of the field and jungle, and every fowl of the air, and every insect +that creeps and flies; and we can only look upon creation as an end +in itself. To ask what the great spectacle is for, is to betray our +tradesman habit of mind. Man is a link in an endless chain of being. +If we ask what he is for, the old answer of the catechism is as good +as any--“To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” In other words, to +make the most of his life and strive for the highest happiness, which +is knowledge and appreciation of the universal. Coleridge says we +glorify God when we work for the well-being of mankind. + +How quite impossible it is for us to adjust our minds to the thought +of death--to the thought of the absolute negation of life! When we +torment ourselves about death, about the coldness and darkness of the +grave, about being cut off from all the warm and happy currents of +life that flow about us, we are unconsciously thinking of ourselves +as still living, or as conscious of the gloom and negation that +await us. Thus, when Huxley wrote to a friend (John Morley) that the +thought of extinction disturbed him more and more as he neared the +end of life, he fell into this common fallacy, or contradiction. “It +flashes across me,” he writes, “at all sorts of times with a sort of +horror that in 1900 I shall probably know no more of what is going on +than I did in 1800. I had sooner be in hell, a good deal--” as if he +expected to lie awake nights in his grave lamenting his sad fate and +saying to himself, “I had sooner be in hell,” where also he expected +he would be conscious of his improved condition! + +What possible difference could it make to him if he did not know +any more in 1900 than he did in 1800? Did he expect to enjoy his +knowledge in 1900? If not, why worry about it? What he was really +lamenting was that he did not know then and there what he might +know if he lived till 1900. He knew that human knowledge was making +tremendous strides, and the thought that he should not share in its +advancement chilled him. + +It is all very human, but very childish. We may to-day dread some +task or ordeal that we are to face to-morrow, because to-morrow we +expect to be alive, but shall we shrink from the to-morrow of death +on the same grounds? + +There is wisdom as well as wit in the epitaph in dialogue which a +clever Greek Byzantine composed for Pyrrho: + +“Art thou dead, Pyrrho?” + +“I do not know.” + +If we put the same question to our own dead, if they could answer, +they would say, “We do not know.” If they knew, would not that be +proof that they were not dead? May we not answer Huxley that if +consciousness is extinguished with life, he is not going to lie +awake nights in his grave worrying about it? There is comfort in the +thought that if there is no immortality, we shall not know it. + +Rereading that wise and delightful old Frenchman, Montaigne, I find +that more than three hundred years ago he was of the same mind that +I am in this matter: “Why should we fear a thing whose being lost +cannot be lamented?” “To lament that we shall not be alive a hundred +years hence is the same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a +hundred years ago.” + +An avaricious man might worry if he knew he would have no more money +on the next Christmas than he had on the last, unless his physician +had assured him that he could not be alive on the next Christmas. +Then, if he worried, it would be on account of his heirs. But one’s +heirs cannot inherit his wisdom; it dies with him. + +Death is such an extraordinary, such an unspeakable event that we +cannot think of ourselves as non-existent. When you try to see +yourself in your own coffin, or standing beside your own grave, it +is still as a living man that you thus behold yourself. It is, of +course, as living men and women that we are disturbed over thoughts +of the grave. The future is just as secure for us all as is the past. +A moment between two eternities is life; a spark that draws a brief +line upon the darkness and is gone. The spark has its antecedent +condition in the wood and coal and the processes of combustion +from which it sprang, and it has its subsequent conditions in the +invisible gases into which it has vanished, but as a point of heat +and light, it exists no more. Our wise attitude toward death is, I +think, to forget or ignore it entirely. We shall not know it when it +overtakes us. “_Avida nunquam desinere mortalitas._” “Men must endure +their going hence, even as their coming hither--ripeness is all.” + + +XI. DEATH + + +I + +In death the elements of the body are not changed--oxygen is still +oxygen, carbon still carbon. What has happened, then? Can it be +explained by saying that a process has been reversed? Does it bear +any true analogy to the redistribution of type after the printer +has set it up and printed his book? The type is the same, but the +relation of all the units has been changed. The printer has arranged +them so that collectively they expressed to him certain meanings or +ideas. These ideas did not exist in the type, but in the order of +its arrangement. In one order or combination the letters meant one +thing; in another order or combination they expressed quite another. +The same type will spell dog or God. When redistributed and returned +to the different fonts, the letters express nothing but themselves. +If this is a true analogy, then, in the case of the living book, man, +what stands for the compositor and printer? We can only call the +compositor the organizing impulse; but whence this impulse, and whose +idea is it trying to express? The redistribution of the elements of +the body is done through the activity of other forms of life--the +micro-organisms--those minute forms reduce the body to its original +elements. As we thus have life at the end of the life of an organism, +do we also have life at the beginning of the organism? Ancestral life +certainly, or the primordial germ; but is there a living principle +back of and before all? Does the logic of the situation force us to +the belief in an original Creator? The human mind is so constituted +that in some form or under definite concepts, we have to postulate a +first or primal Cause; we have to think of a beginning; but is there +any beginning to a circle, or any center to the surface of a sphere? +There may be no beginning or no limit in time or space to the cosmos. +This is unthinkable to us in our present state. Yet in making that +statement I am thinking of the unthinkable. We can deal only with +parts of Nature; as a whole it is beyond our power to grasp. All +bodies on the earth’s surface unsupported fall; this is our universal +experience. All moving bodies come to a standstill unless power from +without is constantly supplied. Perpetual motion is impossible, but +the earth and the other planets are unsupported, and their motion is +perpetual. Or we may say that they fall forever toward the sun and +never reach it, and that the sun falls forever toward some other +sun or system and never reaches it. The laws of force and matter as +we contend with them in our experiences are inoperative in sidereal +space; there is motion without friction, energy without waste, +dissipation without exhaustion. Neither upper nor under, neither +falling nor rising, neither end nor beginning. Cause and effect, +rest and motion, are one. The self-activity of the universe quite +transcends our experiences; the self-maintenance of living bodies +is far beyond our reach; any end to the chain of causal sequence is +quite unthinkable to us. Our minds are made in that way. They are +fashioned in the school of cause and effect. + +Nothing can get out of the universe because there is no out to the +universe. Can that which has no ending have a beginning? Can that +which has no circumference have a center? Can we think of anything +so hot that it could not be hotter? Or so small that it could not +be smaller? Or so big that it could not be bigger? No, because our +minds have been schooled in this comparative method. Our sense shows +us a world of degrees. We can think of absolute darkness, but not +of absolute light. In the Mammoth Cave you may realize absolute +darkness; but even on the sun itself would you experience absolute +light? We seem to be able to find an end to the negative, but not to +the positive. We can think of a body as at absolute rest, but can we +conceive of it going so fast that it could not go faster? + +Death is our consciousness of a peculiar change in matter, just as +life is our consciousness of the opposite change--one destructive, +the other constructive. The constituents of the body remain +unchanged, but a peculiar activity set up among the particles, +by what, we know not, is instituted in life and ceases in death. +An organism is made up of organs, all working together, but each +subordinated to the whole. The whole, this concerted action, may +cease, and the individual dies, as we say, and yet the minute +subdivisions, the cells, may be alive. Certain ferments in the body +may go on for some time after the life of the man has gone out. And +living cells may go on multiplying endlessly without producing an +organized being. + + +II + +“It is all right,” said Walt Whitman to me as I was leaving his +death-bed and hearing his voice for the last time--“It is all right.” +Of course it was all right, and it will be all right when each and +all of us fall into the last eternal sleep. Else it would not be. +Our being here is all right, is it not? “Friendly and faithful,” +says Whitman, “are the arms that have helped me,” and friendly and +faithful must be the arms that bear us away. If it was good to come, +it will be good to go--good in the large, cosmic sense, good in that +it is in keeping with the spirit of the All. Not the good of our +brief personal successes and triumphs, but good as evolution is good, +as the processes of growth and decay are good. If life is good, death +must be equally good, as each waits upon the other. From what point +of view can we say that death is not all right? Certainly not from +the point of view of this universe. Archimedes could have moved the +world had he had some other world upon which to place his lever, and +we must have some other universe to plant our feet upon to condemn +death. + +As I have already said, we look upon death as an evil because we look +upon it from the happy fields of life, and see ourselves as alive in +our graves and lamenting that we are shut off from all the light and +love and movement of the world. Does our prenatal state seem an evil? + +Did anything begin _de novo_, when we came into being? Not the +elements of our bodies surely; they were as old as the cosmos; not +the germ of our minds and souls; they were as old as the human +race and older--old as the first dawn of life. Is it the _I_ that +is new?--that which makes you you and me me? And that is probably +nothing more than a new distribution and arrangement of the physical +and psychical elements and forces of which and by which we are made. +The pattern of our personality is new; each of us differs somewhat +from all the myriads of human beings who have lived upon the earth; +but is form, pattern, personality, separable from the material that +composes it? + +It may be cheerfully admitted that when we look at the question in +this light, we are whistling to keep our courage up. What of it? The +band plays to keep the courage of the soldiers up when they go into +battle, and what are we but soldiers fighting the good fight of truth +against error, of courage against fear, of the heroic against the +pusillanimous? The whole is greater than any of its parts. Nature is +more than man. We must learn to efface ourselves. The soul knows no +rewards or punishments. If it be heroic to sacrifice life in this +world, it may be equally heroic to sacrifice life in any other world, +so that we prove ourselves worthy of the gods. + + +XII. HEAVEN AND EARTH + +Truly things are not what they seem. When we put heaven and earth +far apart, we think as children. Heaven and earth are pretty close +together. The shortest arm can reach from one to the other. When we +go to heaven we shall not have far to travel, and I dare say the +other place is quite as near, and, if reports be true, the road is +broader and easier to travel. What children we are in such matters! +The wisest men have the language of ignorance and superstition +imposed upon them. How difficult it is not to think of the heavens up +there as a reality, something above us and superior to us, a finer +world, nearer God, lighted by the stars, the abode of spirits, the +source of all good, our final celestial home. Did not Elijah ascend +into heaven? Did not Paul have heavenly visions? Have not the saints +in all ages turned their faces and lifted imploring hands to heaven? +How these things have burnt themselves into our minds! We cannot +escape them. + +In our floods of religious emotion we instinctively look away from +the earth. The mystery, the immensity, the purity of the heavens +above us make us turn our faces thitherward, and as naturally make us +turn downward when we consider the source of evil. The poor old earth +which has mothered us and nursed us we treat with scant respect. Our +awe and veneration we reserve for the worlds we know not of. Our +senses sell us out. The mud on our shoes disenchants us. It is only +Whitman with his cosmic consciousness that can closely relate the +heavens and the earth: + + “Underneath the divine soil, + Overhead the sun.” + +To most of us the morning stars that once sang together are of +another stuff. The music of the spheres must be vastly different from +the roar and grind of our old rusty and outworn planet. So we turn +to the heavens, the abode of purity and light. So do we discount and +black-list the earth where we have to pay in struggle and pain the +price of our development. Think you we should not have to pay the +same price in any other world worth living in? + +Emerson in his Journal quotes his brother Charles as saying long ago +that “the nap was worn off the earth”; it was become threadbare, like +an outworn garment. Probably it seems so to each of us as time goes +on. In places in Europe the nap must be very short at this time. But +the nap will come again, even on those shell-swept regions, after +Nature has had her way. Nature grows old in geologic or in cosmic +time; the mountains decay, the waters recede; but in man’s time the +earth is endowed with perennial youth. + +Science strips us of our illusions and delusions; it strips us of +most of the garments in which the spirit of man has sought in all +ages to clothe itself against the chill of an impersonal universe; +it takes down the protecting roof of the heavens above us and shows +us an unspeakable void strewn with suns and worlds beyond numbers +to compute, but nowhere any signs of the blessed abode to which our +religious aspirations have pointed. + +It is interesting, in this connection, to note the attitude of the +old writers, such as Cornaro, the Italian, toward the heavens. They +evidently look upon the heavens as outside of Nature. In speculating +as to why it is that some persons have so little vitality, Cornaro +reckons the influence of the heavens may be one cause. He says he +never could persuade himself to believe that Nature, being the mother +of all, could be so ungenerous to any of her children; hence it must +be some hostile influence from above. Similar notions seem to have +been held in Shakespeare’s time: + + “It is the stars, + The stars above us, govern our conditions; + Else one self mate and make could not beget + Such different issues.” + + +XIII. THINKING AND ACTING + +It is true we do not, as a rule, act without thinking, or without +some sort of psychic process, but thinking and acting are radically +different. Or, we may say that the practical reason is alone +concerned in action, and the abstract intellect in general reasoning. +When we come to act, we know that we are free to choose between two +or more objects or courses; when we think or reason abstractly, we +know the will is not free. Every act has its antecedent cause. But +we are practically free because we feel no restraint or compulsion. +We feel responsible for our acts. We do not blame our red-haired +father, or our grandfather of Irish blood, for our hasty temper; we +feel that this is our very selves. What we call moral responsibility +rests upon this sense of freedom. We are not aware of the fatality +that binds us, any more than we are of the weight of the atmosphere +that presses upon us so tremendously. At the court of absolute +reason we see what puppets and automata we are, but at the court of +practical justice we see and feel that we are free to do right as we +see the right. The contradictions which Balfour sees, in his chapter +on “Naturalism and Ethics,” between the results of practical life and +of abstract reasoning is of a kind which one sees everywhere in the +universe. The circle is a perpetual contradiction. How can a line go +in all directions?--and in no direction? In our practical lives there +is an upper and an under, an up and a down, but away from the earth, +or considering the earth as a whole, there is no such thing. + +Righteous indignation at the misconduct of others, or +self-condemnation, repentance, remorse, are reasonable feelings +because we actually feel them. We have no choice in the matter. To +whatever conclusion abstract reason leads us in regard to them, it +does not affect our practical conduct, because our conduct is founded +upon the sense of freedom. We are here to act, to do, and not to +reason abstractly. This is the tree of the forbidden fruit. When we +eat of it we know things that may stand in the way of our practical +living. Balfour should see that we are determinists or naturists when +we reason, but free agents when we act, and that there is no getting +away from the contradiction. + +I may be the duplicate of my father, or of my grandfather; every one +of my traits may be inherited; but that does not prevent me from +feeling that they are my own; they are vital in me as they were in +him, and I feel responsible for my own acts just as he did for his, +though I could not act otherwise. I could not, but I did not know it. +I thought I could act as I pleased. + +The world which philosophy reveals to us is vastly different from +the world practical life reveals. We are sure that light and sound +are real entities, but philosophy tells us that one is the sensation +which vibrations in the ether, set going by the sun, make upon the +optic nerve, and that sound is the sensation which vibrations in +the air make upon the auditory nerve. When we know this we do not +change our action in reference to them--they are still just as real +to our senses as ever they were. The moral law is not discredited +or overthrown when we discover through the abstract reason that +fate, or necessity, rules our lives. We made the moral law and we +try to live up to it. We do not always succeed. All trees aim at the +vertical position; it is the position which gravity imposes upon +them; but owing to various accidents and conditions the trees are +not all plumb. How free they seem to grow at almost any angle with +the plane of the earth’s surface! How they run out their branches +horizontally in defiance of the gravity that rules them and lift up +in their trunks and leaves tons of water and other minerals against +the pull of gravity! How free they seem, how they bend to the wind +that would overthrow them, how various they are in form and habit of +growth, in the shape of their leaves, the kinds of their fruits, the +character of their roots! Yet science shows us how the unalterable +physical laws rule them. They lean toward the light and the free air +in obedience to physical and chemical laws. And yet, no doubt, if +the trees were conscious of themselves, as we are, every oak-tree +would say, “I feel free to be an oak,” and every pine-tree and beech +and willow and maple would feel a like freedom. The Irishman feels +no compulsion or necessity in being an Irishman, nor the Frenchman +in being a Frenchman. All life is held in the leash of physical and +chemical laws, and yet knows it not. + +We feel that there is beauty in nature; when we reflect, we know +that the feeling for beauty is an emotion of our own minds, and +not a quality of outward things. Scenes radically different awaken +the emotion in us, or may awaken it in one and not in another +(see Emerson’s ecstasy on a bare moor). The world is what we make +it, and duty is what we make it, and the ugly is what we make it. +Putrefaction, repulsive to us, is to science a beautiful chemical +process. Odors that are offensive to us are evidently agreeable to +the dog. Sounds which please us seem to disturb him. The absolute +is outside of life. If the orbs of the heavens were conscious, they +would doubtless feel free to go where they do go; it would be their +choice; it would pain them to do otherwise. The comet rushes toward +the sun with joy; the music of the spheres is the expression of their +freedom and contentment. Can you help winking when the flashlight +goes off, or when a missile passes near your eyes? Our voluntary +actions are equally based upon physical laws. + +Balfour, in his “Foundation of Belief,” talks about the beauty of +holiness, the beauty of sanctity, but these things are beautiful +only to a certain type of mind. The time will come when they will +not be looked upon as beautiful or desirable. These conceptions +grew when men lived for another world, when this world stood to +them as the sum of evil. Men then saw nothing holy or divine on +earth except the denying of earth. That state of mind has largely +passed. Holy men have had their day. We see now that this world is +a celestial body, and that all our conceptions of heavenly abodes +are untenable. For my part the most lovable and admirable men and +women I have known had no savor of sanctity. They were wise, kind, +helpful, loving, living with zest the life of every day, intent on +making their earthly lives square with what is generally accepted +as right conduct, and therefore comfortably indifferent to what the +theologians are so concerned about--salvation after death, and the +securing of their “mansions in the skies.” Martyrdom bravely faced +excites our admiration, all heroic acts are beautiful and admirable, +and there are good naturalistic reasons why this should be so. But +our religious history has begotten a whole brood of ideas that must +gradually fade and go out, and our standards will more and more be +those of this world. + +Mr. Balfour would hardly deny that the organ with which we do our +thinking and reasoning and form our deductions, the organ which +is the seat of our emotions of the beautiful and of religious +aspirations, is a mass of gray and white matter, and that all these +things are the result of certain molecular changes or movements in +the fluids or solids of the brain substance; in other words, that +there is a physical and physiological basis to all our mental and +emotional life. Does this material side in any way discredit these +faculties and feelings? Does not all that we call the spiritual +adhere in the material? Can we find that inner world, or any clue to +it, by dissecting the brain? Has it, therefore, any reality except in +our imagination? Prove that it exists apart from or independent of +the body, and there is no more to be said. + +But what I wanted most to say is that the reason of things, or final +explanation of things seems to take the poetry and romance out of +them. Reduce religion or æsthetics or art to terms of psychology, and +they no longer appeal to the emotions or stimulate the imagination. +Naturalism is true--reason can reach no other conclusion--but the +truths of naturalism do not satisfy the moral and religious nature. + +The heart is a big, strong, self-acting, muscular pump, but when +we lay our hand upon the heart and refer our emotions, our love, +our aspirations, to it, we idealize it, we do not then think of its +physical function and character. By this act we are still deferring +to the ancient and outworn belief that in this region resides the +soul--the part of man that loves and hates and hopes and fears. + +The brain is the temple of the mind or the vestibule of the spiritual +world, but we can explain it only in terms of anatomy, physiology, +and physics which darken and chill our sensibilities. + +Things and movements come about through natural processes, not +through supernatural ones, but when we state these processes in the +only terms in which they can be stated, the religious soul feels +hurt and orphaned. All our religious or theological explanations of +things discredit matter and the material world, discredit Nature and +all her processes. Evolution is anti-religious; that man is of animal +origin is still a hard doctrine to the old-fashioned theologian. Why +is it not equally a hard doctrine to him that we were ever babies +or embryos, carried about and associated with the viscera of our +mothers’ bodies? We have got to exalt the natural, the material, and +free our minds from the illusions of the old theologies before we can +see the truth and beauty of naturalism. The sacred, the celestial, +the divine, the holy, all are terms that date from a prescientific +age, before man’s relation to the universe was understood. They are +significant only in reference to another world and another life of an +entirely different order. + +The eternal, immutable moral law to which Balfour refers, what is +it? Who instituted it? Is it other than the law of right and wrong +which mankind is coming more and more clearly to see, and more and +more fully to value in the course of evolution? You may set the +seal of some hypothetical, supernatural power upon it, but what +about supernatural powers in a universe governed by natural laws? +The religious enthusiasm of the race, the saints, the devotees, the +so-called holy ones, have doubtless had their value; they have helped +lubricate the grinding machinery of life; but their day is at an end. +We must invest our fund of love, our veneration, our heroism, our +martyrdom in this world, and not look to the next. + +That Nature is irrational, unhuman, no one can deny, not because she +is less, but because she is more; she is above reason, above man. +Our reason calls Nature irrational because the reason is a special +faculty, and is limited; it takes in the arc, so to speak, but +not the full circle. Nature is irrational, not because she is not +suffused with mind, but because she does not count the cost, because +our economies do not fit her especial scheme. Life is synonymous +with intelligence; all organic nature shows the working of the primal +mind--the adaptation of means to specific ends, and the steady +improvement from lower to higher. + +What we think, when trying to render an account to the reason of +the enigma of life, often has little relation to what we do, as +practical, struggling beings. We are free to think in all directions, +free to move in but few. Our thoughts are like the vapors that drift +with the winds, or that expand equally in all directions. Our actual +lives are like the waters that must flow in definite channels, +and turn some wheel or irrigate some tract of land, or quench +some creature’s thirst. That naturalism, with minds which take an +interest in it, should result in low standards of life, or in any +form of disorder or failure, I do not believe. Only clear, strong, +truth-loving spirits can accept this explanation of things. Much more +mentality is demanded than is demanded by the old conceptions. Hence +one has to face the terrible realities and discipline the spirit to +accept them. In the old views, in supernaturalism, all this is done +for one by the Church and one is a member of a personally conducted +party to heaven. + + +XIV. THE TIDE OF LIFE + +We cannot find God by thinking. Thinking starts us on an endless +quest. We can find neither end nor beginning to the sequence of +cause and effect. It is a circle that ends and begins forever in +itself. Men find what they call God in action, in experience, because +in these practical dealings with the forces of this world they are +under the law of cause and effect. They find beginnings and endings, +they find an upper and an under side, they find a lower and a higher, +a greater and a smaller: but in thought all things are relative. Some +wise man has said that if there were no God, we should have to invent +one--invent one if we wish to explain the world in the terms of human +experience. Thinking turns the world topsy-turvy. + +Our religious natures are still Ptolemaic. The heavens still revolve +around us. We do not with the eye of the flesh see ourselves in this +world as on a sphere--on a celestial body floating in space; we see +ourselves as on an endless plain over and under which the heavenly +bodies pass. It is only with the eye of the mind that we see things +in their true relation and see that there is no up and no down, no +under and no over, apart from the earth, and no God who rules as +a ruler rules. We do not gain the tremendous facts of astronomy +through our everyday experience; our search after scientific truth +reveals them to us. Through this inquiry we see the grand voyage we +are making among the stars, and see that the heavens are not a realm +apart from us, the abode of superior beings, but are our veritable +habitat; that our earth is a celestial body among myriads of others, +and that when we solemnly lift our eyes heavenward, we are lifting +them to other worlds made of the same stuff as our own. Our religious +emotions and aspirations lead us to look away from the earth and +to imagine finer and fairer realms, but disinterested science does +not humor our illusions; it brings us back to earth again, back +to the heaven we despise. Hence the trouble the narrow religious +nature has with science. It experiences a cold shudder before its +revelations and will none of it. It will have beginnings and endings, +boundaries and limitations, heavenly and earthly, and will read the +impersonal laws of the universe in terms of our personal human needs +and relations. It sets up a judge and ruler of creation modeled on +our human plan, and then to get out of the dilemma in which it finds +itself, with all the sin and misery and injustice of the world which +it finds upon its hands, and which omnipotent love and mercy could +never tolerate, dopes itself with theological casuistry that seeks +to justify the ways of God to man. It is a world-old problem. The +only way I see out of it is by purging our minds of the old dogmas +and boldly facing the reality as science shows it to us. Religion +as the world has so long used the term--that human mixture of fear, +reverence, superstition, and selfish desire--has had its day. We +may still marvel and love and admire and rejoice, but let us fear +and plead and tremble no more. There is nothing to be afraid of +worse than ourselves, and nothing to implore and propitiate farther +removed from us than the rain and the sunshine. In the end all things +work together for our good--not always for the good of to-day, or +of to-morrow, or for this man or that man, but for the good of all, +for the good which evolution brings in its train. Evolution brings +what we call evil also, but evil is a term of our human experience, +and the Infinite, the Eternal, knows it not. What is evil to one +creature in the struggle for life we have seen to be good to another, +and often what our religious fears recoil from, science sees as +the beneficent operation of law. In Nature nothing is unclean; her +chemistry meets and appropriates all, even when we flee or faint. Our +physical well-being forces upon us the conception of the clean and +the unclean, but in the processes of the Nature that sustains us both +are one. + +We are adjustable creatures. We are neither sugar nor salt, neither +round nor square, neither iron nor lead; we yield and we resist, +we melt and we freeze. We are as adjustable and as adaptive as the +leaves of the forest. The firmly woven texture of the leaf, its +mobile stem, the flexible branch to which it clings, make it secure +against the ordinary vicissitudes to which it is subject. + +Man is the most adaptive of all creatures; he is as local as the +turtle, and as cosmopolitan as the eagle. All climes, all conditions +of wet and dry, of plain and mountain, of sea and shore, of island +and continent, are his. His home is the world. Lately he has +conquered the air with forces of the earth. Will he yet conquer the +ether with forces of the air? Already the ether conveys his messages, +but no mechanical contrivance of his can yet lay hands upon it. + +Let me again say that by the Natural Providence I mean the general +beneficence of Nature, the blind, undiscriminating, uncalculating, +inevitable beneficence which brought us here and keeps us here, +and makes it good for us to be alive, despite the vicissitudes and +the occasional apparently lesser phases of malevolence to which we +are subject. The changing seasons, the fertile soils, the rains, +the dews, the snows, the blue skies, the green earth, the flowing +streams, the gentle winds, in fact all the conditions that make life +possible and permanent, are expressions of this beneficence. The +whole movement of evolution, with all its dark and forbidding phases, +is an expression of it. Allow time enough and the turbid stream +flows itself clear, and the stream of evolution is fast losing, has +lost, most of its terrible and repellent features. At its flood, in +earlier geologic times, one may say that its waters were charged +with the elements of huge, uncouth, and terrible forms which have +been mostly eliminated; the current has cleared and purified as +it advanced; the dragons and monsters have nearly disappeared; the +reptiles have receded and left the fowl and birds; the saurians are +gone, and in their stead we have the more comely and useful forms +of mammalian life. From our human point of view--and we can have +no other--creation has refined. The tide of life is still like a +river that has its noisome and unlovely margins, but how has it +cleared and sweetened since Permian and Jurassic times! The scale +of animal life has changed, less bone and muscle and more nerve and +brains, less emphasis laid upon size and more upon wit. Only in +the insect world are the dragons and monsters, and the carnival of +blood and slaughter, repeated. In the shade of a summer tree, or in +a clover-field, one may see minute creatures pursuing or devouring +one another which, if enough times magnified, would rival any of the +dragons of the prime. + + +XV. FAITH FOUNDED UPON A ROCK + + +I + +Probably that overwhelming calamity, the World War, set more good +people adrift upon the sea of religious doubt and skepticism than all +the accumulated evils of the past ten centuries. Men were everywhere +outspoken in their want of faith in the Providence in which they +had so long trusted. I heard of an English clergyman who declared +that if the Germans won in the war he would never open his Bible +again. Another English parson, with the thought of the war weighing +upon him, published a volume of discourses which he called “The +Justification of God.” But judging from my own experiences with the +book, the lay mind will find the grounds for justification as hard a +riddle to read as the original one. + +Only a faith founded upon the rock of natural law can weather such a +storm as the world passed through in the Great War, but unfortunately +such a faith is possible to comparatively few--the faith that the +universe is radically good and beneficent, and that the evils of life +grow upon the same tree with the good, and that the fruits called +evil bear only a small proportion to those called good. Persons who +do not read the book of nature as a whole, who do not try their +faith by the records of the rocks and the everlasting stars, who +are oblivious to the great law of evolution which has worked out +the salvation of man and of all living things, through good and ill +report, through delays and sufferings and agonies incalculable, but +the issues of which have been unfailing, who do not see the natural +universal order working in the fiery ordeal through which all nations +during the historic period have passed, who have not learned that +the calamities of men and of peoples are not the result of the wrath +of some offended divinity, but the ups and downs in the long, hard +road of human development, and that, in the nature of things, justice +is meted out to all men--if not in a day, then in a year, or in a +thousand years; if not to the individual, then to his family, or to +his race--those who take no account of all these things soon lose +their reckoning in times like ours. + +Every good deed, every noble thought, counts in the counsels of the +Eternal. Every bad deed, every ignoble thought, counts also. But the +stream tends to purify itself; the world is thus made; evil is real, +but short-lived; the remedial forces of life and nature burn it up or +convert it into good. Our fertile landscapes are the result of the +wear and tear of geologic ages; fire, flood, tornadoes, earthquakes, +volcanoes, have all had a share in shaping them. Decay and death have +fed the sources of life. Our own history as a people and the history +of the European countries exhibit a like contrast and mingling of +good and evil. We are too personal in our estimates, too limited in +our perspectives; thoughts of our own comforts and private aims are +too much with us. We must give Providence the advantage of a wiser +perspective. + +The thoughtful mind, capable of viewing these things on a bigger +scale, does not need a world calamity to reveal the unsatisfactory +character of the reigning gods. The daily course of events does +that. Infantile paralysis, for example, with its long train of the +crippled, unoffending children, or a man being slowly eaten up with +cancer, or a mother losing her life in trying to save her child from +flood and fire, and scores of other similar things, show what a thin +veneer our theology puts upon ugly facts. + +Our ecclesiastical faith must be housed in churches and kept warm +by vestments. The moment we take it out into the open and expose it +to unroofed and unwarmed universal nature, it is bound to suffer +from the cosmic chill. For my part, I do not have to take my +faith in out of the wet and the cold. It is an open-air faith, an +all-the-year-round faith; neither killing frosts nor killing heats +disturb it; not tornadoes nor earthquakes nor wars nor pestilence nor +famine make me doubt for one moment that the universe is sound and +good. The forces which brought us here and provided so lavishly for +our sustenance and enjoyment; that gave us our bodies and our minds; +that endowed us with such powers; that surrounded us with such beauty +and sublimity; that brought us safely through the long and hazardous +journey of evolution; that gave us the summer sun, the midnight +skies, and the revolving seasons; that gave human love and fellowship +and coöperation, childhood, motherhood, and fatherhood, and the sense +of justice and mercy, are beneficent and permanent forces. They are +directed to me personally because they are directed to all that live; +they are the cause of the living, the essence and the sum of all +life of the globe. I do not mind if you call them terrestrial forces; +the terrestrial and the celestial are one. I do not mind if you call +them material forces; the material and the spiritual are inseparable. +I do not mind if you call this view the infidelity (or atheism) of +science; science, too, is divine; all knowledge is knowledge of God. + +I have never taken shelter in any form of ecclesiasticism. I +have never tried to clothe myself in the delusive garments of a +superstitious age. I have never pinned my faith to a man-made God, +however venerable. I have inured my mind to the open air of the +universe, to things as they are, to the dealings of a Power that +exacts an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; a power that deals +on the square. Those apparent outlaws of the heavens, the comets, do +not disturb the naturist; sidereal space strewn with dead worlds and +burnt-out suns do not disturb him; the spectacle of the great planets +rolling through space void of life for untold millions of years, does +not disturb him; and if life should never come to them, and should +ultimately disappear from the earth, he would not lose faith; he +could behold Europe drenched with the blood of a needless, wicked war +and not lose faith; he could see civilization retarded and the unjust +cause triumph, and still know that the Creative Energy has our good +at heart and always will have it. + + +II + +The demand of our day is for a scientific religion--an attitude of +mind toward creation begotten by knowledge, in which fear, personal +hopes, individual good, and the so-called “other world,” play little +part. Virtuous actions, upright conduct, heroic character, the +practice of the Golden Rule, are seen to be their own reward, and +the security of the future is in well-doing and well-being in the +present. This is not religion in the old ecclesiastical sense, but +in the new scientific sense; a religion that moves us to fight vice, +crime, war, intemperance, for self-preservation and in brotherly +love, and not in obedience to theological dogma or the command of a +God; a religion that opens our eyes to the wonder and beauty of the +world, and that makes us at home in this world. The old religion is a +tree that has borne its fruit. It is dying at the top; it is feeble +at the root. It no longer touches men’s lives as of old. The great +things that are done to-day are not done in the name of religion, but +in the name of science, of humanity, of civilization. The brotherhood +that has force and meaning is no longer a sectarian brotherhood; it +is larger than all the churches combined. + +The naturist must see all things in the light of his experiences in +this world. He experiences no miracles; he sees the cosmic energy as +no respecter of persons; he sees the rains falling alike upon the +just and the unjust; he sees the vast, impartial, undiscriminating +movements of Nature all about him; he learns that the land cannot +sustain life without the fertilizing rains, yet he beholds the clouds +pouring out their bounty into the sea just as freely as upon the +land; he beholds the inorganic crushing the organic all about him, +and yet he knows that the latter is nothing without the former. + +If God and the universal cosmic forces are one, how surely is God +on both sides in all struggles, all causes, all wars, righteous and +unrighteous! We behold warring nations praying to the same God for +victory; we see this same God now apparently favoring one side, +now the other, and we are bewildered. Our theology takes us beyond +soundings. But the naturist is not bewildered; he can read the riddle +and reconcile the contradictions. Napoleon (if it was Napoleon) +was right when he said that God was on the side of the heaviest +artillery--the more power, the more God. + +This may be a hard, chilling gospel; it is like going naked into the +storm; but how can we deny it? Can we refuse to face it? + + + + +XV + +THE POET OF THE COSMOS + + +The world has had but one poet of the cosmos, and that was Whitman. +His mind, his sympathies, sweep through a wider orbit than those of +any other. I am bold enough to say frankly that I look upon him as +the greatest personality--not the greatest intellect, but the most +symbolical man, the greatest incarnation of mind, heart, and soul, +fused and fired by the poetic spirit--that has appeared in the world +during the Christian era. + +In his lines called “Kosmos” he describes himself: + + “Who includes diversity, and is Nature, + Who is the amplitude of the earth, and the coarseness and + sexuality of the earth, and the great charity of the + earth, and the equilibrium also, + Who has not look’d forth from the windows, the eyes, for + nothing, or whose brain held audience with messengers + for nothing, + Who contains believers and disbelievers, who is the most + majestic lover, + Who holds duly his or her triune proportion of realism, + spiritualism, and of the esthetic, or intellectual, + Who, having consider’d the body, finds all its organs and + parts good, + Who, out of the theory of the earth, and of his or her body, + understands by subtle analogies all other theories, + The theory of a city, a poem, and of the large politics of + these States; + Who believes not only in our globe with its sun and moon, but + in other globes with their suns and moons, + Who, constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a day + but for all time, sees races, eras, dates, generations, + The past, the future, dwelling there, like space, inseparable + together.” + +Let me say at once that, whatever else “Leaves of Grass” may +be, it is not poetry as the world uses that term. It is an +inspired utterance, but it does not fall under any of the usual +classifications of poetry. Lovers of Whitman no more go to him for +poetry than they go to the ocean for the pretty shells and pebbles on +the beach. They go to him for contact with his spirit; to be braced +and refreshed by his attitude toward life and the universe; for his +robust faith, his world-wide sympathies, for the breadth of his +outlook, and the wisdom of his utterances. + +Whitman is first and last a seer and a philosopher, but his +philosophy is incarnated in a man; it is fluid and alive; it breathes +and talks, and loves and breeds; it nurses the sick and wounded +soldiers in the hospitals; it makes him the friend and brother of all +types of humanity, of the outcast woman not less than of the man or +woman of perfect blood: + + “Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you. + Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves + to rustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and + rustle for you. + * * * * * + “Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid + and liquid, + You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky, + For none more than you are the present and the past, + For none more than you is immortality.” + +My studies of nature and of the universe help me to understand +Whitman much more than does my reading of literature itself. + +Whitman is rapt and thrilled when he looks up to the midnight sky. +His very style is orbicular and concentric. The scientific aspects +of astronomy do not engage him for a moment, any more than they did +the old Hebrew prophets; his science becomes human emotion. He is the +human soul matching itself against the starry hosts, coping with them +and absorbing them: + + “This day before dawn I ascended the hill and look’d at the + crowded heaven, + And I said to my spirit, _When we become the enfolders of those + orbs, and the pleasure and knowledge of everything in + them, shall we be filled and satisfied then?_ + And my spirit said, _No, we but level that lift to pass and + continue beyond._” + +Is there not more than astronomy in these passages? + + “I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled systems, + And all I can see multiplied as high as I can cypher edges but + the rim of the farther system. + Wider and wider they spread, expanding, always expanding, + Outward and outward and forever outward. + My sun has his sun and round him obediently wheels, + He joins with his partners a group of superior circuit, + And greater sets follow, making specks of the greatest inside + them.” + +Again he says: + + “It is no small matter, this round and delicious globe, moving + so exactly in its orbit for ever and ever, without one + jolt, or the untruth of a single second.” + +He is filled with “the great thoughts of space and eternity,” and +common things assume new meanings in his eyes: + + “I lie abstracted and hear the meanings of things and the + reason of things. + They are so beautiful I nudge myself to listen.” + +Who before Whitman ever drew his poetic, his æsthetic, and ethical +standards from the earth, from the sexuality, from the impartiality +of the earth, or his laws for creations from the earth? Only the +wisest readers are prepared for their unliterary flavor: + + “I swear there can be no greatness or power that does not + emulate those of the earth. + There can be no theory of any account unless it corroborates + the theory of the earth. + No politics, song, religion, behavior, or what not, is of + account, unless it compare with the amplitude of the earth, + Unless it face the exactness, vitality, impartiality, rectitude + of the earth.” + +We all see in Whitman, as we see in Nature, what we bring the means +of seeing. Readers of him are likely to see their own limitations +for the limitations of Whitman. It is as if we thought that the +length of our sounding-line was the measure of the ocean’s depth. It +may be so, but it is not always so. A man of strict moral and ethical +ideas, according to conventional standards, will find Whitman rank +with original sin. Is not Nature rank with the same form of evil? +Whitman did not shrink from natural tests. Naturalism was the essence +of his religion. + + “Nothing out of place is good, nothing in its place is bad.” + +But the good in Nature is vastly more than the evil, else you and I +would not be here, and the good in Whitman is vastly more than the +evil, or he would have been forgotten long ago. + +Evil, as we use the term, attends all great things. Evil--some man’s +evil--comes out of the sunshine, the rains, the protecting snows. One +of our poets objects to Whitman’s saying that evil is just as perfect +as good. Whitman does not say it is just as desirable, but just as +perfect. Are not these things we call evil perfect--snakes, nettles, +thorns, volcanoes, earthquakes? Is not a fungus as perfect as a +rose?--a toad as perfect as a bird? Each obeys its own law. The germs +of typhoid fever and of pneumonia are just as perfect as the germs +that favor us. Whitman said: + + “I permit to speak at every hazard Nature without check, with + original energy.” + +The hazards are great, but the stakes are great also. Readers who +cannot stand an utterance of this sort should go to Pollock’s “Course +of Time,” or Young’s “Night Thoughts,” or Dr. Holland’s “Bitter +Sweet.” + +Whitman bares his mind and soul to us as he bares his body. There are +no masks or disguises. His inmost heart is as nude as his anatomy. +Nothing is dressed up. No fashionable tailoring at all. There is +nowhere the air of the studied, the elaborated. When other poets +stand before the mirror, Whitman looks off at the landscape, or goes +and bathes and admires himself. Or, to vary the image, when other +poets distill perfumes, Whitman aims to give us the fresh breath +of the unhoused air. In this respect he stands alone among modern +English-speaking poets. He is the air of the hills and the shore, and +not of a flower garden, or of a June meadow, or of parlors. That is +what disappoints people. He aims at beauty no more than a wood or a +river or a lake or a jungle does. His aim is to tally Nature. + +It was my rare good fortune to know this quiet, sympathetic, tolerant +man for more than thirty years, and to walk or saunter with him at +all seasons and hours. Often at night he would stop and gaze long +and silently at the stars, and then resume his walk. He was an +easy-going, lethargic man--nothing strenuous about him, never in a +hurry, never disturbed or excited, always in good humor, cleanly, +clad in gray, with a fresh, florid complexion, large, broad, soft +hands, blue-gray eyes, gray-haired and gray-bearded. He was fond +of children and old people. What a contrast were his placid and +easy-going ways to the astronomic sweep and power of his poems, his +spirit darting its solar rays to the utmost bounds of the universe. +When I was with him I did not feel his mighty intellect, I felt most +his humanity, his primitive sympathy, the depth and intensity of his +new democratic character, perhaps also that in him which led Thoreau +to say that he suggested something a little more than human. + +Whitman’s attitude toward Nature stands out in contrast to that of +all other poets, ancient or modern. It was not that of the poet who +draws his themes from Nature, or makes much of the gentler and fairer +forms of wood and field, spring and summer, shore and mountain, as +has been so largely the custom of poets from Virgil down. Take all +the Nature lyrics and idyls out of English and American poetry, +and how have you impoverished it, how many names would suffer! Nor +does Whitman’s attitude in any degree conform to the worshipful +attitude of Wordsworth and so many other poets since his time. He +did not humanize Nature or read himself into it; he did not adorn +it as a divinity; he did not see through it as through a veil to +spiritual realities beyond, as Emerson so often does; he did not +gather bouquets, nor distill the wild perfumes in his pages; he did +not fill the lap of earth with treasures not her own--all functions +of true poetry, we must admit, and associated with great names. Yet +he made more of Nature than any other poet has done; he saw deeper +meanings in her for purposes of both art and life; but it was Nature +as a whole--not the parts, not the exceptional phases, but the total +scheme and unfolding of things. + +He sings more in terms of personality, of democracy, of nationalism, +of sex, of immortality, of comradeship; more of the general, the +continuous, the world-wide; more of wholes and less of parts, +more of man and less of men. His religion takes no account of +sects and creeds, but arises from the contemplation of the soul, +of the Eternal, of the universe. We do not get the solace and the +companionship with rural nature in Whitman that we get in the modern +nature poets. With them we admire the “violet by a mossy stone,” +or the pretty shell on the seashore; with Whitman we saunter on +the hills, or inhale the salt air of the seashore, or our minds +open under the spread of the midnight skies--always the large, +the elemental, the processional, the modern. The scholarly, the +elaborated, the polished, the architectural, the Tennysonian perfume +and technique, the Wordsworthian sweet rusticity and affiliation with +fells and groves, the Emersonian mysticism and charm of the wild and +the sequestered, were not for him or in him; nor the epic grandeur of +Milton, the dramatic power of Shakespeare, nor, usually, the lyric +thrill of many of the minor poets. You embark on an endless quest +with Whitman; not on a picnic, nor a “day off,” but a day-by-day and +a night-by-night journey through the universe: + + “I tramp a perpetual journey, + My signs are a rain-proof coat, good shoes, and a staff cut + from the woods. + No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair, + I have no chair, no church, no philosophy, + I lead no man to a dinner table, library, or exchange, + But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll, + My left hand hooking you round the waist, + My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents and the + public road, + + Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you, + You must travel it for yourself.” + +He who can bring to Whitman’s rugged and flowing lines anything like +the sympathy and insight that beget them, will know what I mean. Our +modern nature poets are holiday flower-gatherers beside this inspired +astronomer, geologist, and biologist, all in one, sauntering the +streets, loitering on the beach, roaming the mountains, or rapt and +silent under the midnight skies. When, now, in my old age, I open his +pages again and read the “Song of the Open Road,” “Crossing Brooklyn +Ferry,” “The Song of the Broad-Axe,” “This Compost,” “Walt Whitman,” +“Great are the Myths,” “Laws for Creation,” and scores of others, I +seem to be present at the creation of worlds. I am in touch with +primal energies. I am borne along by a tide of life and power that +has no parallel elsewhere in literature. It is not so much mind as it +is personality, not so much art as it is Nature, not so much poetry +as it is the earth, the sky. Oh, the large, free handling, the naked +grandeur, the elemental sympathy, the forthrightness, and the power! +Not beauty alone, but meanings, unities, profundities; not merely the +bow in the clouds, but the clouds also, and the sky, and the orbs +beyond the clouds. A personal, sympathetic, interpretive attitude +toward the whole of Nature, claiming it all for body and mind, +drawing out its spiritual and æsthetic values, forging his laws for +creation from it, trying his own work by its standards, and seeking +to emulate its sanity, its impartiality, and its charity. + +Whitman wrote large the law of artistic productions which he sought +to follow: + + “All must have reference to the ensemble of the world, and the + compact truth of the world; + There shall be no subject too pronounced--all works shall + illustrate the divine law of indirections. + What do you suppose creation is? + What do you suppose will satisfy the Soul, except to walk free, + and own no superior? + What do you suppose I would intimate to you in a hundred ways, + but that man or woman is as good as God? + And that there is no God any more divine than Yourself? + And that that is what the oldest and newest myths finally mean? + And that you or any one must approach creations through such + laws?” + +Whitman’s standards are always those of Nature and of life. Emerson +hung his verses in the wind--a good thing to get the chaff out of +poetry or wheat. Whitman brings his, and all art, to the test of the +natural, universal standards. He read his songs in the open air to +bring them to the test of real things; he emulated the pride of the +level he planted his house by. Always is his eye on the orbs, and on +the earth as a whole: + + “I feel the globe itself swift swimming through space. + I will confront the shows of day and night, + I will see if I am to be less real than they are.” + +He would have his songs tally “earth’s soil, trees, winds, waves.” + + “Can your performance face the open fields and the seaside?” + +he demands of those who would create the art of America. + +His poems abound in natural images and objects, but there is rarely a +trace of the method and spirit of the so-called nature poets, some of +whom bedeck Nature with jewelry and finery till we do not know her. + +In one of his nature jottings, written in 1878 at his country retreat +not far from Camden, New Jersey, he speaks thus of the emotional +aspects and influences of Nature: + + I too, like the rest, feel these modern tendencies (from all + the prevailing intellections, literature, and poems) to turn + everything to pathos, ennui, morbidity, dissatisfaction, death. + Yet how clear it is to me that those are not the born results, + influences of Nature at all, but of our own distorted, sick, or + silly souls. Here amid this wide, free scene, how healthy, how + joyous, how clean and vigorous and sweet! + +I do not wonder that Whitman gave such a shock to the reading public +sixty years ago. This return, in a sense, to aboriginal Nature, +this sudden plunge into the great ocean of primal energies, this +discarding of all ornamentation and studied external effects of +polish and elaboration, gave the readers of poetry a chill from which +they are not yet wholly recovered. The fireside, the library corner, +the seat in the garden, the nook in the woods: each and all have +their charm and their healing power, but do not look for them in Walt +Whitman. Rather expect the mountain-tops, the surf-drenched beach, +and the open prairies. A poet of the cosmos, fortified and emboldened +by the tremendous discoveries and deductions of modern science, he +takes the whole of Nature for his province and dominates it, is at +home with it, affiliates with it through his towering personality and +almost superhuman breadth of sympathy. + +The egotism of Whitman was like the force of gravity, like the poise +of the earth, the centrality of the orbs. Nothing could disturb it, +no burden was too great for it to bear. He seemed always to have in +mind the self-control and the _insouciance_ of Nature. He would fain +try himself by the self-balanced orbs. His imagination was fired by +the undemonstrative earth; he would be as regardless of observation +as it was. He was moved by the unsophisticated freshness of Nature. +He saw that the elemental laws never apologized; he would emulate the +level he planted his house by: + + “these shows of the day and night, + I will know if I am to be less than they are.” + +He will not be outfaced by irrational things: + + “I will see if I have no meanings, while the houses and ships + have meanings, + I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for + themselves, and I not to be enough for myself. + I match my spirit against yours, you orbs, growths, mountains, + brutes. + Copious as you are, I absorb you all in myself, and become the + master myself.” + +It is these cosmic and natural-universal standards to which Whitman +appeals, that mark him off from all other poets or bards who have +yet appeared, and which, I hope, justify me in singling him out and +giving him a place in this volume. + + + THE END + + + + + The Riverside Press + CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS + U . S . A + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE + + Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been + corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within + the text and consultation of external sources. + + Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, + when a predominant preference was found in the original book. + + Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, + and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. + + Pg 182: ‘Java man of Du Bois’ replaced by ‘Java man of Dubois’. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78230 *** |