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margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} + +.x-ebookmaker hr.chap {width: 0%; display: none;} + + +/* for inserting info from TN and Errata changes */ +.corr { + text-decoration: none; + border-bottom: thin dashed blue;} + +.x-ebookmaker .corr { + text-decoration: none; + border-bottom: none;} + + +/* for different code on screen versus handhelds */ +.screenonly { display: block; } +.handonly { display: none; } + +.x-ebookmaker .screenonly { display: none; } +.x-ebookmaker .handonly { display: block; } + + +/* for non-image large letter dropcaps */ +p.drop-cap {text-indent: -.3em;} + +p.drop-cap:first-letter { + float: left; + margin: 0.1em 0.2em 0em 0em; + font-size: 280%; + line-height:0.7em; + clear: both;} + +.x-ebookmaker-3 p.drop-cap:first-letter { + margin: 0.1em 0.2em 0em 0.1em;} + +.x-ebookmaker-2 p.drop-cap {text-indent: 0em;} + +.x-ebookmaker-2 p.drop-cap:first-letter { + float: none; + margin: 0; + font-size: 100%;} + + +/* for tables */ +table {margin: 1.5em auto 1.5em auto;} + +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } + +td {padding: .2em .3em 0 .3em;} +th {font-weight: normal; font-size: 80%; padding: .4em;} + +.tdl {text-align: left; padding-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1em;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} + +.wd90 {width: 90%;} + + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + color: #A9A9A9; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: .5em;} + + +/* blockquote (/# #/) */ +blockquote {margin: 1.5em 5% 1.5em 5%;} + +.blockquot { margin: 1.5em 15% 1.5em 20%; text-align: justify;} +.blockquot p {padding-left: 1em; text-indent: 0em;} + + +/* general placement and presentation */ +.right {text-align: right; margin-right: 1em;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.antiqua {font-family: Blackletter, Fraktur, Textur, "Olde English Mt", "Olde English", Diploma, England, Gothic, serif;} + + +/* Images */ +img {border: none; + max-width: 100%; + height: auto;} + +img.w100 {width: 100%; padding-top: 1em;} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%;} + + +/* Poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry {display: inline-block; font-size: 85%} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} +.poetry .indentq {text-indent: -3.5em;} + +/* large inline blocks don't split well on paged devices */ +.x-ebookmaker .poetry {display: block; margin-left: 4.5em;} + + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif;} + +.transnote p {text-indent: 0em;} + + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3.0em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2.0em;} +.poetry .indent6 {text-indent: 0.0em;} +.poetry .indent12 {text-indent: 3.0em;} +.poetry .indent24 {text-indent: 9.0em;} +.poetry .indent37 {text-indent: 15.5em;} + + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowp75 {width: 75%;} +.illowe9 {width: 9em;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78230 ***</div> + + +<div class="transnote"> +<p><strong>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE</strong></p> + +<p class="handonly">New original cover art included with this eBook is +granted to the public domain.</p> + +<p>Some minor changes to the text are noted at the <a href="#TN">end of the book.</a> +<span class="screenonly">These are indicated by a <ins class="corr">dashed blue</ins> underline.</span></p> +</div> + + +<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="cover" style="max-width: 50em;"> + <img class="w100" title="Original cover" src="images/orig-cover.jpg" alt="Original cover"> +</figure> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<h1> +ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE +</h1> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="frontispiece" style="max-width: 50.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/frontispiece.jpg" alt="Old photograph of the author chopping wood."> +</figure> + + +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<p class="p2 pfs240"> +ACCEPTING<br> +THE UNIVERSE</p> + +<p class="pfs150"><i>ESSAYS IN NATURALISM</i></p> +<p class="p2 pfs120">BY</p> +<p class="pfs150">JOHN BURROUGHS</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowe9" id="colophon"> + <img class="p4 w100" src="images/colophon.jpg" alt="colophon"> +</figure> + +<p class="p6 pfs90">BOSTON AND NEW YORK</p> +<p class="pfs120">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</p> +<p class="pfs100 antiqua">The Riverside Press Cambridge</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<p class="p6 p6b pfs70">COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY JOHN BURROUGHS<br> +<br> +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<div class="p6 p6b poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indent12 fs120">...<i>And heard great argument</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0 fs120"><i>About it and about: but evermore</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0 fs120"><i>Came out by the same door wherein I went.</i></div> + <div class="verse indent37 fs100">THE RUBÁIYÁT</div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE"> + PREFACE + </h2> + + +<p class="drop-cap">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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[viii]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Empedocles says:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“O, wretched he whose care</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is shadowy speculation on the gods.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p class="right"> + <span class="smcap">John Burroughs</span> +</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS"> + CONTENTS + </h2> + +<table class="autotable wd90"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +I. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#I">Shall we Accept the Universe?</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +3 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +II. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#II">Manifold Nature</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +19 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +III. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#III">Each for its Own Sake</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +30 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +IV. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#IV">The Universal Beneficence</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +54 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +V. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#V">The Good Devils</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +73 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +VI. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#VI">The Natural Providence</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +90 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +VII. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#VII">The Faith of a Naturalist</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +112 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +VIII. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#VIII">A Fallacy made in Germany</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +134 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +IX. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#IX">The Price of Development</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +138 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +X. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#X">Tooth and Claw</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +158 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +XI. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#XI">Men and Trees</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +173 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +XII. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#XII">The Problem of Evil</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +193 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +XIII. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#XIII">Horizon Lines:</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +I. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#I_8">THE ORIGIN OF LIFE</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +203 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +II. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#II_8">THE LIVING AND NON-LIVING WORLDS</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +205 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +III. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#III_8">THE ORGANIZING TENDENCY</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +207 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +IV. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#IV_8">SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +211 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +V. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#V_8">IS THERE DESIGN IN NATURE?</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +219 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +VI. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#VI_8">OUR IMPARTIAL MOTHER</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +225 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +VII. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#VII_8">BAFFLING TRUTHS</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +226 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +VIII. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#VIII_8">SENSE CONTRADICTIONS</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +230 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +IX. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#IX_8">MAN A PART OF NATURE</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +233 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +X. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#X_8">THE FITTEST TO SURVIVE</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +237 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"><span class="pagenum" id="x">[x]</span> +XI. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#XI_8">THE POWER OF CHOICE</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +238 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +XII. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#XII_8">ILLUSIONS</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +239 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +XIII. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#XIII_8">IS NATURE SUICIDAL?</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +242 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +XIV. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#XIV_8">THE PERSISTENCE OF ENERGY</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +245 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +XIV. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#XIV">Soundings:</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +I. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#I_9">THE GREAT MYSTERY</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +253 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +II. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#II_9">THE NATURAL ORDER</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +257 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +III. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#III_9">LOGIC AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +261 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +IV. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#IV_9">A CHIP FROM THE OLD BLOCK</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +265 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +V. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#V_9">A PERSONAL GOD</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +266 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +VI. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#VI_9">THE ETERNAL</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +270 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +VII. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#VII_9">AN IMPARTIAL DEITY</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +275 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +VIII. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#VIII_9">FINITE AND INFINITE</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +278 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +IX. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#IX_9">THE INSOLUBLE</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +280 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +X. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#X_9">PAYING THE DEBT</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +282 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +XI. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#XI_9">DEATH</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +288 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +XII. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#XII_9">HEAVEN AND EARTH</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +293 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +XIII. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#XIII_9">THINKING AND ACTING</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +296 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +XIV. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#XIV_9">THE TIDE OF LIFE</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +304 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr fs80"> +XV. +</td> +<td class="tdl fs80"> +<a href="#XV_9">FAITH FOUNDED UPON A ROCK</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +309 +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> +XV. +</td> +<td class="tdl smcap" colspan="2"> +<a href="#XV">The Poet of the Cosmos</a> +</td> +<td class="tdr"> +316 +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<i>The frontispiece, showing Mr. Burroughs at +his woodpile at Riverby, is from a photograph +taken in 1920 by</i> Mr. <span class="smcap">Herbert S. Ardell</span> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + + <p class="p6 p6b pfs120"> + ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE + </p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="I"> + I + <br> + <span class="fs80">SHALL WE ACCEPT THE UNIVERSE?</span> + </h2> + + +<h3 id="I_2">I</h3> + +<p class="drop-cap">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!”</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="II_2"> + II +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>he ever wrote. The Providence he depicts is +the Providence I see in Nature:</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>with her wind-sown seeds in order to be +sure that she hits the small swamp in one corner +of it.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>butterflies dancing by on painted wings, I see and +hear the happy birds, and the August sun beams +his best upon all the land.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="III_2"> + III +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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? +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>Must you and I have a special hold upon the +great Mother’s apron strings?</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>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 <em>were</em> 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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="II"> + II + <br> + <span class="fs80">MANIFOLD NATURE</span> + </h2> + + +<p class="drop-cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Under the influence of Christianity man has +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>Westmoreland hills, when the meanest flowers that +blow could bring to him “thoughts that do often lie +too deep for tears.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>the interaction of man upon man, through culture, +books, religion, meditation.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Emerson refers to “the great Nature in which we +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>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.”</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>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.”</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>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?”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Goethe always read into Nature his own human +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="III"> + III + <br> + <span class="fs80">EACH FOR ITS OWN SAKE</span> + </h2> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Proud man exclaims, ‘See all things for my use!’</div> + <div class="verse indent0">‘See all for mine,’ replies the pampered goose.”</div> + </div> +</div> + + +<p class="drop-cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The body is full of fluids because earth and air are +full of water. From our standpoint man is at the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>greed, cheating, implies a different +mankind, and a different mankind implies a different +system of things.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>Doubtless there are numberless worlds and whole +systems of worlds in the depths of sidereal space +upon which life has never appeared, and numberless +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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? +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Our benevolent institutions are not types of the +universe; our idea of fatherhood does not fit the +Eternal.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In our day the Devil has lost his prestige and is +much discredited. As a power in men’s minds his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>reign is over, and hell, his headquarters, no longer +casts its lurid light upon human life.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Nature is both God and Devil, and natural law is +supreme in the world. The moral consciousness of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Where does man get his ethical standards? Where +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>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.</p> + +<p>Is the big-brained man of to-day any less a part of +Nature than the low-browed, long-jawed man of +Pliocene times?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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 <em>is</em>, 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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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 <em>is</em>. All things are +a part of its infinite complexity. Nature rests forever +in itself. It neither fails nor succeeds. In itself +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It is the circular or orbicular character of creation +that baffles us. We cannot fit the sphere into the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>a thousand other things—all make it a unique and +most desirable habitation.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span>for surrendering it to the Devil, and for turning +from it in search of a better.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IV"> + IV + <br> + <span class="fs80">THE UNIVERSAL BENEFICENCE</span> + </h2> + + +<p class="drop-cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The goodness of nature is the universal fact, like +gravity, and its evils and enmities and hindrances +only prove the law.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>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.</p> + +<p>The Nature Providence working in man and +through him has made the world more fit for man’s +abode.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span></p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Natural Providence does not study economy, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Who trusted God was love indeed</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And love Creation’s final law—</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Though Nature, red in tooth and claw</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With ravine, shrieked against his creed”—</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">when we do this, all is confusion and contradiction. +Love <em>is</em> “creation’s final law,” but not the love of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>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.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“I bring to life, I bring to death;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The spirit does but mean the breath.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In man Nature has evolved the human from the +unhuman; she has evolved justice and mercy from +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="V"> + V + <br> + <span class="fs80">THE GOOD DEVILS</span> + </h2> + + +<h3 id="I_2a">I</h3> + +<p class="drop-cap">This is not an essay on the optimism of a moralist, +but on the optimism of a naturalist.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="II_2a"> + II +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">Is Nature then of the Devil? If we choose to name +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="III_2a"> + III +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>us. In the second case it is a duality that leaves +half of the world to the Devil.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="IV_2a"> + IV +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <em>our</em> good, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>and not absolute good. There is no absolute good +any more than there is absolute heat or cold or +height or depth.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="V_2a"> + V +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<em>our</em> 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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="VI_2a"> + VI +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">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.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + + +<h3 id="VII_2a"> + VII +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>Hunger is or may become an evil destroying life, +but does it not imply the opposite condition of good—food, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In a world without the gravity which so often +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VI"> + VI + <br> + <span class="fs80">THE NATURAL PROVIDENCE</span> + </h2> + + +<h3 id="I_3">I</h3> + +<p class="drop-cap">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The moral and intellectual worlds present the +same contradictions or limitations—the same +relatively of what we call truth.</p> + +<p>Nature’s ways—which with me is the same as saying +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="II_3"> + II +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>The consistent exponent of variation cannot go +into partnership with supernaturalism. Grant that +the organic split off from the inorganic by insensible +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="III_3"> + III +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">As far as I have got, or ever hope to get, toward +solving the problem of the universe is to see clearly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>in the planting of many oaks and chestnuts and +beeches.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>If Nature aspires toward what we call the good in +man, does she not equally aspire toward what we +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="IV_3"> + IV +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span></p> + + +<h3 id="V_3"> + V +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span>away, and the new gods of law and order, who deal +justly if mercilessly, take their places.</p> + +<p>“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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indent0">“I have positively appeared. That is enough.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span></p> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VII"> + VII + <br> + <span class="fs80">THE FAITH OF A NATURALIST</span> + </h2> + +<h3 id="I_4">I</h3> + +<p class="drop-cap">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span></p> + +<p>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.”</p> + + +<h3 id="II_4"> + II +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span>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.</p> + +<p>The God of sunshine and of storms speaks a less +equivocal language than the God of revelation.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="III_4"> + III +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Good and evil are inseparable. We cannot have +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container p2b"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Urge and urge and urge,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Always the procreant urge of the world.”</div> + </div> +</div> + + +<h3 id="IV_4"> + IV +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span>army, the whole, may live; so in the strife and competition +of nature, the separate units fall that the +mass may prosper.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span>parasite, probably a species of ichneumon-fly, +was on hand to curtail the dangerous excess.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="VIII"> + VIII + <br> + <span class="fs80">A FALLACY MADE IN GERMANY</span> + </h2> + + +<p class="drop-cap">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.</p> + +<p>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="IX"> + IX + <br> + <span class="fs80">THE PRICE OF DEVELOPMENT</span> + </h2> + + +<h3 id="I_5">I</h3> + +<p class="drop-cap">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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The moral sense of mankind is now the dominant +fact in human history; the rule of might has been +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="II_5"> + II +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span>conjecture, and pack the germ with many possibilities, +each one depending for its development upon +chance occurrence or conditions.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span>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.</p> + +<p>The natural competition, or the struggle for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span>the late James J. Hill make the poor poorer? Such +men add enormously to the wealth of the nation.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="III_5"> + III +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span>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 <i lang="la">quid pro +quo</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>As man’s moral consciousness has developed, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="IV_5"> + IV +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="X"> + X + <br> + <span class="fs80">TOOTH AND CLAW</span> + </h2> + + +<h3 id="I_6">I</h3> + +<p class="drop-cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The whole truth of this matter of the cruelty of +Nature may be put in a nutshell: Nature as seen in +animal life is <em>sanguinary</em>, but only man is <em>cruel</em>. +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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span></p> + +<p>Nature kills, but does not torture. The biological +laws are neither human nor inhuman; they are <em>un</em>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="II_6"> + II +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span>the hawks; the little fishes that are the food of the +big fishes swarm in the sea.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Nature has made the wild creatures fearful of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span>yet one sees scores of these animals to one weasel or +mink.</p> + +<p>How our domestic animals would suffer if they +had the gift of ideation and knew what awaited +them! Pope anticipated me when he wrote:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had he thy reason could he skip and play?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Pleased to the last he crops the flowery food,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="XI"> + XI + <br> + <span class="fs80">MEN AND TREES</span> + </h2> + + +<p class="drop-cap">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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span>The conifers are more clannish than the deciduous +trees.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Races rise and fall,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nations come and go;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Time doth gently cover all</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With violets and with snow.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span>lost its value, or in the height of our powers, or in +the decrepitude of old age: which shall it be?</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span>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 <ins class="corr" id="tn-182" title="Transcriber’s Note—Original text: 'Java man of Du Bois'"> +Dubois</ins>, have it? Did our ancestral +forms still lower down have it? Do babies have it? +Do idiots and half-witted persons have it?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In these later centuries mankind has steadily +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Conventionally religious persons shrink from +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="XII"> + XII + <br> + <span class="fs80">THE PROBLEM OF EVIL</span> + </h2> + + +<h3 id="I_7">I</h3> + +<p class="drop-cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>What a troublesome time the good orthodox +brethren have with their God! He does, or permits +such terrible things. Only yesterday He sent a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span>World War shattered this conception in thousands +of minds, and left them without any faith at all!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Blight and struggle, frost and drought, weed out +the weaklings and beget a hardier race.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The most aggressive and warlike nation upon the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="II_7"> + II +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span>or if wild horses ever have crib-bite. Disease, as we +know it, is a product of civilization.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Our sacred books and traditions tell us of one God +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“Truly all that we know of good and duty proceeds +from Nature; but, none the less so, all that +we know of evil.”</p> + +<p>“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? +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Not for all thy power, furled or unfurled,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">For all thy temples to thy glory built,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Would I assume the ignominious guilt</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of having made such men in such a world.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“There was never any more inception than there is now,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor any more youth or age than there is now,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And will never be any more perfection than there is now,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.”</div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="XIII"> + XIII + <br> + <span class="fs80">HORIZON LINES</span> + </h2> + + +<h3 id="I_8">I. THE ORIGIN OF LIFE</h3> + +<p class="drop-cap">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 <em>living</em> 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 <em>living</em> +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.</p> + +<p>“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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span>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 <em>new</em> 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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + + +<h3 id="II_8"> + II. THE LIVING AND NON-LIVING WORLDS +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="III_8"> + III. THE ORGANIZING TENDENCY +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span>own ignorance, consumed by his own evil passions, +yet making steady progress toward the position +which he now holds in the animal kingdom.</p> + + +<h3 id="IV_8"> + IV. SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In Professor Loeb’s mechanistic conception of life +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span>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 <i lang="la">Deus</i>.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Many scientific men are so shy of teleology that +they tend to the other extreme and land in a world +of chance.</p> + +<p>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 <i lang="la">Deus</i>.</p> + +<p>We cannot affirm that we are the result of chance, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span>the <em>n</em>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.</p> + +<p>In many respects the manlike God falls below his +human prototype, being more cruel than any human +being dares to be.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="V_8"> + V. IS THERE DESIGN IN NATURE? +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span>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.</p> + +<p>Yet how can puny man interpret the universe or +say aught of it in terms of his mundane experiences?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span></p> + + +<h3 id="VI_8"> + VI. OUR IMPARTIAL MOTHER +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + + +<h3 id="VII_8"> + VII. BAFFLING TRUTHS +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="VIII_8"> + VIII. SENSE CONTRADICTIONS +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span>in space, face to face with the Infinite, and we have +no language in which to express ourselves.</p> + + +<h3 id="IX_8"> + IX. MAN A PART OF NATURE +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Nature is all-inclusive. We cannot draw a circle +around that circle. We have so long been wont to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span></p> + + +<h3 id="X_8"> + X. THE FITTEST TO SURVIVE +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="XI_8"> + XI. THE POWER OF CHOICE +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="XII_8"> + XII. ILLUSIONS +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">In his “Conduct of Life” Emerson has an essay on +“Illusions” in which he describes the semblance to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span>health or friends or climate, as real, but of another +kind.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="XIII_8"> + XIII. IS NATURE SUICIDAL? +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span>their down-seed balloons or parachutes at once. +In the Far North the willow and birch are mere +running vines, but they achieve fruit.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + + +<h3 id="XIV_8"> + XIV. THE PERSISTENCE OF ENERGY +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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? +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span>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.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="XIV"> + XIV + <br> + SOUNDINGS + </h2> + + +<h3 id="I_9">I. THE GREAT MYSTERY</h3> + +<p class="drop-cap">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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span>our feet in accepting the explanation and interpretation +which any of the formal religious systems, +old or new, place upon it? I think not.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="II_9"> + II. THE NATURAL ORDER +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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<sub>2</sub>O.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>The nature gods we know; we live in daily and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="III_9"> + III. LOGIC AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span>His creed is a passport to an entirely different world.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span>any man to see and feel the wonders and the mysteries +and the heavenly character of this world.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="IV_9"> + IV. A CHIP FROM THE OLD BLOCK +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + + +<h3 id="V_9"> + V. A PERSONAL GOD +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span>The man up above must keep his skirts clean, +and to admit of this the man down below must be +the scapegoat.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="VI_9"> + VI. THE ETERNAL +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="VII_9"> + VII. AN IMPARTIAL DEITY +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span>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.</p> + +<p>Nature does not love us any more than she hates +us; she goes her way, indifferent.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="VIII_9"> + VIII. FINITE AND INFINITE +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>When we say that there is no God, we only mean +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="IX_9"> + IX. THE INSOLUBLE +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="X_9"> + X. PAYING THE DEBT +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span></p> + +<p>One of our younger poets, John Russell McCarthy, +has had the courage to say:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">“that we must look for life</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hereafter, not by one and one,—your soul</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Alone among the souls of other men,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Drifting and staying, a thing apart forever—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But we must see when all at last is counted</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the great sum is made, how one by one</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We have returned to Her, the Mother of All,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The bit of soul-stuff that She loaned us.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For we must live at last a part of Her—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For we shall be forever as one with Her.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[285]</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[286]</span>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>There is wisdom as well as wit in the epitaph in +dialogue which a clever Greek Byzantine composed +for Pyrrho:</p> + +<p>“Art thou dead, Pyrrho?”</p> + +<p>“I do not know.”</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[287]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[288]</span>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. “<i lang="la">Avida nunquam desinere mortalitas.</i>” +“Men must endure their going hence, even as +their coming hither—ripeness is all.”</p> + + +<h3 id="XI_9"> + XI. DEATH +</h3> + + +<p class="p1 pfs80">I</p> + +<p class="noindent">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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[289]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[290]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[291]</span>of a body as at absolute rest, but can we conceive of +it going so fast that it could not go faster?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<p class="p1 pfs80">II</p> + +<p class="noindent">“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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[292]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>Did anything begin <i lang="la">de novo</i>, 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 <em>I</em> 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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[293]</span>human beings who have lived upon the earth; but +is form, pattern, personality, separable from the +material that composes it?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="XII_9"> + XII. HEAVEN AND EARTH +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[294]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Underneath the divine soil,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Overhead the sun.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[295]</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[296]</span>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indent24">“It is the stars,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The stars above us, govern our conditions;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Else one self mate and make could not beget</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such different issues.”</div> + </div> +</div> + + +<h3 id="XIII_9"> + XIII. THINKING AND ACTING +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[297]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I may be the duplicate of my father, or of my +grandfather; every one of my traits may be inherited; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[298]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[299]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[300]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[301]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[302]</span>naturalism do not satisfy the moral and religious +nature.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[303]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[304]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="XIV_9"> + XIV. THE TIDE OF LIFE +</h3> + +<p class="noindent">We cannot find God by thinking. Thinking starts +us on an endless quest. We can find neither end nor +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[305]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[306]</span>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[307]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Man is the most adaptive of all creatures; he is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[308]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[309]</span>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.</p> + + +<h3 id="XV_9"> + XV. FAITH FOUNDED UPON A ROCK +</h3> + + +<p class="p1 pfs80">I</p> + +<p class="noindent">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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[310]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[311]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[312]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[313]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[314]</span></p> + + +<p class="p1 pfs80">II</p> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[315]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[316]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="XV"> + XV + <br> + <span class="fs80">THE POET OF THE COSMOS</span> + </h2> + + +<p class="drop-cap">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.</p> + +<p>In his lines called “Kosmos” he describes himself:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Who includes diversity, and is Nature,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">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,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who has not look’d forth from the windows, the eyes, for nothing, or whose brain held audience with messengers for nothing,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who contains believers and disbelievers, who is the most majestic lover,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who holds duly his or her triune proportion of realism, spiritualism, and of the esthetic, or intellectual,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who, having consider’d the body, finds all its organs and parts good,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who, out of the theory of the earth, and of his or her body, understands by subtle analogies all other theories,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The theory of a city, a poem, and of the large politics of these States;</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[317]</span> + <div class="verse indent0">Who believes not only in our globe with its sun and moon, but in other globes with their suns and moons,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who, constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a day but for all time, sees races, eras, dates, generations,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The past, the future, dwelling there, like space, inseparable together.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">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.</div> +<hr class="tb"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[318]</span></p> + <div class="verse indentq">“Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid and liquid,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For none more than you are the present and the past,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For none more than you is immortality.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>My studies of nature and of the universe help me +to understand Whitman much more than does my +reading of literature itself.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“This day before dawn I ascended the hill and look’d at the crowded heaven,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And I said to my spirit, <em>When we become the enfolders of those orbs, and the pleasure and knowledge of everything in them, shall we be filled and satisfied then?</em></div> + <div class="verse indent0">And my spirit said, <em>No, we but level that lift to pass and continue beyond.</em>”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Is there not more than astronomy in these passages?</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“I open my scuttle at night and see the far-sprinkled systems,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And all I can see multiplied as high as I can cypher edges but the rim of the farther system.</div> + <div class="p1 verse indent0">Wider and wider they spread, expanding, always expanding,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Outward and outward and forever outward.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[319]</span> + <div class="verse indent0">My sun has his sun and round him obediently wheels,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He joins with his partners a group of superior circuit,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And greater sets follow, making specks of the greatest inside them.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Again he says:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“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.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>He is filled with “the great thoughts of space and +eternity,” and common things assume new meanings +in his eyes:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“I lie abstracted and hear the meanings of things and the reason of things.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They are so beautiful I nudge myself to listen.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“I swear there can be no greatness or power that does not emulate those of the earth.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There can be no theory of any account unless it corroborates the theory of the earth.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No politics, song, religion, behavior, or what not, is of account, unless it compare with the amplitude of the earth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Unless it face the exactness, vitality, impartiality, rectitude of the earth.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>We all see in Whitman, as we see in Nature, what +we bring the means of seeing. Readers of him are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[320]</span>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.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Nothing out of place is good, nothing in its place is bad.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indent0">“I permit to speak at every hazard Nature without check, with original energy.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[321]</span></p> + +<p class="noindent">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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[322]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[323]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[324]</span>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“I tramp a perpetual journey,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My signs are a rain-proof coat, good shoes, and a staff cut from the woods.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I have no chair, no church, no philosophy,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I lead no man to a dinner table, library, or exchange,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My left hand hooking you round the waist,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents and the public road,</div> + <div class="verse p1 indent0">Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You must travel it for yourself.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[325]</span>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.</p> + +<p>Whitman wrote large the law of artistic productions +which he sought to follow:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“All must have reference to the ensemble of the world, and the compact truth of the world;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There shall be no subject too pronounced—all works shall illustrate the divine law of indirections.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What do you suppose creation is?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What do you suppose will satisfy the Soul, except to walk free, and own no superior?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What do you suppose I would intimate to you in a hundred ways, but that man or woman is as good as God?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And that there is no God any more divine than Yourself?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And that that is what the oldest and newest myths finally mean?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And that you or any one must approach creations through such laws?”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[326]</span></p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“I feel the globe itself swift swimming through space.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I will confront the shows of day and night,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I will see if I am to be less real than they are.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>He would have his songs tally “earth’s soil, trees, +winds, waves.”</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Can your performance face the open fields and the seaside?”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">he demands of those who would create the art of +America.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote class="fs85"> +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[327]</span>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!</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i lang="fr">insouciance</i> of Nature. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">[328]</span>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:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indent2">“these shows of the day and night,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I will know if I am to be less than they are.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>He will not be outfaced by irrational things:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“I will see if I have no meanings, while the houses and ships have meanings,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I will see if the fishes and birds are to be enough for themselves, and I not to be enough for myself.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I match my spirit against yours, you orbs, growths, mountains, brutes.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Copious as you are, I absorb you all in myself, and become the master myself.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<p class="p4 pfs90">THE END</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p class="p6 pfs90 antiqua">The Riverside Press</p> +<p class="pfs70">CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS</p> +<p class="p6b pfs70">U . S . A</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<div class="p4 transnote"> +<a id="TN"></a> +<p><strong>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE</strong></p> + +<p>Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been +corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within +the text and consultation of external sources.</p> + +<p>Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, +when a predominant preference was found in the original book.</p> + +<p>Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, +and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.</p> + +<p><a href="#tn-182">Pg 182</a>: ‘Java man of Du Bois’ replaced by ‘Java man of Dubois’.</p> +</div> + + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78230 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |