A REJOINDER 147 



and the evolution of races to which life is a gleeful 

 struggle, its vigorous exercise a joy, and death 

 merely a passing incident. 



This restatement of my conception of Nature 

 brings us next to Miss Wodehouse's gentle and subtle 

 sarcasm, when she says " that this best possible 

 of all worlds includes earthquakes, butcher-birds, 

 keas, the typhoid bacillus, and the tsetse fly. We 

 accept as benign all processes in which these factors 

 are concerned. Studying animal societies, we find that 

 mortal combats between jealous wooers, and the 

 careful nursing by ants of the larvae of beetles which 

 will presently devour the baby ants, and the exter- 

 mination of cattle by the bite of an insect, are all 

 natural and therefore admirable events. The moral 

 for us would seem to be that we should make haste 

 to remove such flagrant interferences with Nature 

 as are found in the main drainage system and the 

 organisation of the metropolitan police. Acceptance 

 of destiny is found purest in that mother who refuses 

 to alter her child's environment to defeat scarlet 

 fever or concussion of the brain." This seems to 

 be a terrible indictment. In reality it is only meta- 

 physical war paint. A little biological washing 

 and it comes off. 



Let us take the earthquake first, and, uninvited 

 by our critic, let us also add volcanoes. Miss Wode- 

 house appears to believe they are evil things, even 

 though they be natural. Let us see how far they 

 may not be also regarded as implements of good. 

 Personally, as beneficent agents working through 



