148 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



the portals of a passing misery to the goal of a lasting 

 happiness, I should rank them just as high as 

 the plague bacillus. Now what are the facts ? 

 The volcanic and earthquake areas of the world are 

 all well known. Where an earthquake occurs to-day 

 it has occurred before. Where the destructive 

 molten stream pours over a country and devastates 

 its vineyards, it is but repeating to-day what it has 

 done many times before in the history of Man. Yet 

 no sooner has one eruption of Vesuvius calmed than 

 upon its lava crust, still aglow beneath, new vineyards 

 are planted. Is it beneficent or is it malign to 

 harass and eliminate silly people who will deliberately 

 return to the paths where they must know destruction 

 lies in wait ? When a great city has been destroyed 

 by earthquakes in an earthquake region, and men 

 yet build their hopes and lay down upon its rifted 

 surface their material possessions, is it the fault of 

 Nature or the folly of men if these hopes are dis- 

 appointed and these possessions are destroyed in one 

 short minute ? 



It is cruel, no doubt, to our sentimental ideas, 

 that at the fiat of sentimentalists and to the tune of 

 wailing voices earthquakes and volcanoes will 

 not cease to hold possession of the areas where, by 

 their permanence in the past, it has been 

 indicated long ago that they have come to stay. 

 But while they thus ruthlessly destroy the foolish 

 races who are not wise enough to profit by experience, 

 have they not in some small measure aided in the 

 evolution of an intelligent and courageous race of 



