FATALISM OR FREEDOM 



pantheon. These and others spin the 

 threads of our destinies and weave the 

 patterns of our personahties. Their con- 

 trol is real. Our problem is as to its na- 

 ture and method of operation. 



These fates are not independent and 

 all-powerful deities. They are organized 

 in hierarchies and all are subservient to a 

 larger power which we call nature, with 

 whose laws they must conform, for all of 

 them are natural processes. The funda- 

 mental law of cause-and-effect no one of 

 them can disregard or disrupt by a super- 

 natural intervention. There are no epi- 

 phenomena, or parallel phenomena, or 

 other pseudophenomena in this pantheon 

 of nature. 



In the normal course of events these 

 fates that rule our destinies are benevo- 

 lent lesser deities who work together 

 quite harmoniously, resulting in sane and 

 ordered lives. So long as this is the case 

 we need not meddle with them. They are 

 modest folk and serve us well even though 

 we do not even know their names. But 

 if for any reason one or another of these, 

 our benevolent elves, is out of tune with 

 the others, is enfeebled by hereditary de- 

 fect, by disease, by abuse, or by disuse, 



[10] 



