NATURE S GOOD: A CONVERSATION 35 



not because it is cut off and exists in isolation, nor 

 yet because we may, pragmatically, cut off and 

 cultivate certain values which have no existence be 

 yond it ; but because it is good that things should 

 be known in their own characters. And this view 

 carries with it a precious result : to know things as 

 they are is to know them as culminating in con 

 sciousness ; it is to know that the universe genuinely 

 achieves and maintains its own self-manifestation. 



A final word as to the bearing of this view upon 

 Grimes s position. To conceive of human history 

 as a scene of struggle of classes for domination, a 

 struggle caused by love of power or greed for gain, 

 is the very mythology of the emotions. What we 

 call history is largely non-human, but so far as it 

 is human, it is dominated by intelligence: history 

 is _the^history^ of iacj^asing jcoinsciousness. Not 

 that intelligence is actually sovereign in life, but 

 that at least it is sovereign over stupidity, error, 

 and ignorance. The acknowledgment of things as 

 they are that is the causal source of every step 

 in progress. Our present system of industry is not 

 the product of greed or tyrannic lust of power, 

 but of physical science giving the mastery over the 

 mechanism of Nature s energy. If the existing 

 system is ever displaced, it will be displaced not 

 by good intentions and vague sentiments, but by a 

 more extensive insight into Nature s secrets. 



Modern sentimentalism is revolted at the frank 



