Personification of Nature 455 



"Purpose in Nature 



One writer speaks of the "numberless devices nature 

 has evolved for furthering the success of her children." " It 

 is the fate of a great majority of the creatures to fall victim 

 to other animals to whom they serve as food," he writes. 

 From this we might conclude that nature has concocted many 

 devices by which she assists her favored children in escaping 

 the relentless persecution for which she has so admirably 

 equipped others. Again, " Nature is full of devices by which 

 those who have proved their original endowment by winning 

 out in the struggle shall hand on this endowment to a subse- 

 quent generation. In other words, nature is anxious that 

 they shall successfully mate." 



In a more ambitious book for advanced students, we 

 are informed that " The extreme care with which the cell 

 mechanism partitions the chromatic material in each suc- 

 cessive cell division is in itself an adequate testimony of the 

 fundamental importance of this material." No doubt the 

 chromatic material is very important; but the testimony 

 presented is hardly adequate. The chemist's law of multiple 

 proportions shows quite as much regarding each of the ele- 

 mentary substances. The " extreme care " with which nature 

 attaches to a given quantity of sodium precisely so much 

 chlorine — no more and no less — is adequate testimony of 

 her excellent management, at once generous and frugal! 

 This would be considered nonsense and utterly futile from 

 the point of view of finding out just what happens within 

 the substance of the world. 



The habit of personifying the " forces " and " princi- 

 ples " comes early and is broken with difficulty if at all. 

 Now the evolutionary viewpoint has not rid us entirely of 

 this habit. It has, however, made more and more men and 

 women aware of the danger of adhering to the thought forms 

 involving personified entities, where the intention is to find 

 out how things work. It makes us disclaim advance knowl- 

 edge of God's purpose, or nature's purpose. We fimd it 



