ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



universal beneficence of Nature which brought us 

 here and keeps us here, and showers its good upon 

 us as long as we keep in right relations with it; but 

 which goes its appointed way regardless of the sore 

 needs of warring nations or the desperate straits of 

 struggling men. That is the Providence that lasts, 

 that does not change its mind, that is not indulgent, 

 that does not take sides, that is without variable- 

 ness or shadow of turning. Suppose the law of 

 gravity were changeable, or the law of chemical re- 

 actions, or the nature of fire, or air, or water, or 

 cohesion? Gravity never sleeps nor varies, yet see 

 bodies rise, see others fall, see the strong master of 

 the weak, see the waters flow and the ground stay. 

 The laws of fluids are fixed, but see the variety of 

 their behavior, the forms in which they crystallize, 

 their solvent power, their stability or instability, 

 their capacity to absorb or conduct heat — flux 

 and change everywhere amid fixity and law. Nature 

 is infinitely variable, which opens the door to all 

 forms of life; her goings and comings are on such a 

 large scale, like the rains, the dews, the sunlight, that 

 all creatures get an equal benefit. She sows her seed 

 with such a generous hand that enough of them 

 are bound to fall upon fertile places. Such as are 

 very limited in range, like those of the swamp plants, 

 are yet cast forth upon the wind so liberally that 

 sooner or later some of them fall upon conditions 

 suitable to them. Nature will cover a whole town- 



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