SHALL WE ACCEPT THE UNIVERSE? 



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IT is reported of Margaret Fuller that she said 

 she accepted the universe. " Gad, she'd better!" 

 retorted Carlyle. Carlyle himself did not accept 

 the universe in a very whole-hearted manner. Look- 

 ing up at the midnight stars, he exclaimed: "A sad 

 spectacle! If they be inhabited, what a scope for 

 misery and folly; if they be na inhabited, what a 

 waste of space!" 



It ought not to be a hard thing to accept the 

 universe, since it appears to be a fixture, and we 

 have no choice in the matter; but I have found it 

 worth while to look the gift in the mouth, and con- 

 vince myself that it is really worth accepting. It 

 were a pity to go through life with a suspicion in 

 one's mind that it might have been a better uni- 

 verse, and that some wrong has been done us be- 

 cause we have no freedom of choice in the matter. 

 The thought would add a tinge of bitterness to all 

 our days. And so, after living more than four score 

 years in the world, and pondering long and intently 

 upon the many problems which life and nature 

 present, I have come, like Margaret Fuller, to 



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