ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



had to make a primitive man and even teach him to 

 use a hoe, before He, the Omnipotent One, could 

 grow a patch of potatoes." The wild potato, he im- 

 plied, like the wild grape, the wild apple, the wild 

 melon, was the work of God before he had man to 

 help him; now, with man's help, we have all the im- 

 proved varieties of potatoes and fruits. We have 

 heard a good deal about the cooperation of man 

 with God, and as a concrete example this potato- 

 growing partnership is very interesting. How far 

 from our habitual attitude of mind is the thought 

 that the Higher Powers concern themselves about 

 our potatoes or our turnips or our pumpkin crop, or 

 have any part or lot in it! Emerson in his Journal 

 expresses another view: " One would think that God 

 made fig-trees and dates, grapes and olives, but the 

 Devil made Baldwin apples and pound pears, cher- 

 ries and whortle berries, Indian corn and Irish pota- 

 toes." 



Sir Thomas Browne called Nature the art of God. 

 Viewed in this light we get a new conception of Na- 

 ture, the artistic conception. We do not ask: Is it 

 good or bad, for us or against us? we are intent on 

 its symbolical or ideal character. Through it God 

 expresses himself as the artist does, be he painter, 

 poet, or musician, through his work, blending the 

 various elements — the light and shade, the good 

 and the bad, the positive and the negative — into a 

 vital, harmonious whole. Creation becomes a pic- 



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