THE BREATH OF LIFE 



and hardening; he sees the waters appear, the air 

 and the soil appear, he sees the clouds begin to form 

 and the rain to fall, he sees living things appear in 

 the waters, then upon the land, and in the air; he 

 sees the two forms of life arise, the vegetable and 

 the animal, the latter standing upon the former; he 

 sees more and more complex forms of both vege- 

 table and animal arise and cover the earth. They all 

 appear in the course of the geologic ages on the sur- 

 face of the earth; they arise out of it; they are a part 

 of it; they come naturally; no hand reaches down 

 from heaven and places them there; they are not an 

 addendum; they are not a sudden creation; they 

 are an evolution; they were potential in the earth 

 before they arose out of it. The earth ripened, her 

 crust mellowed, and thickened, her airs softened 

 and cleared, her waters were purified, and in due 

 time her finer fruits were evolved, and, last of all, 

 man arose. It was all one process. There was no 

 miracle, no first day of creation; all were days of 

 creation. Brooded by the sun, the earth hatched her 

 offspring; the promise and the potency of all terres- 

 trial life was in the earth herself; her womb was fer- 

 tile from the first. All that we call the spiritual, the 

 divine, the celestial, were hers, because man is hers. 

 Our religions and our philosophies and our litera- 

 tures are hers; man is a part of the whole system of 

 things; he is not an alien, nor an accident, nor an 

 interloper; he is here as the rains, the dews, the 

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