ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



In the whole drama of organic nature we find 

 waste and prodigality. Our economics are set at 

 naught by the power that works to no special ends, 

 but to all ends, and finds its account in the tumor 

 that eats up the man, as much as in the man him- 

 self, in the fungi that destroy the potato crop, or the 

 chestnut-trees, as truly as in these things them- 

 selves. Yet behold what specialization and what 

 development has taken place in spite of these cross- 

 purposes, this chaos of conflicting interests ! Out of 

 discord has come harmony; out of conflict has come 

 peace; out of death has come life; out of the reptile 

 has come the bird; out of the beast has come man; 

 out of the savage has come the moral conscience; 

 out of the tribe has come the nation; out of tyranny 

 has come democracy. It is the waste, the delays, the 

 pain, the price to be paid, that appall us. 



We must regard creation as a whole, as the evo- 

 lution of worlds and systems, and not concentrate 

 our attention upon man and his ways, or upon the 

 earth — so small a part of our solar system. 



Our benevolent institutions are not types of the 

 universe; our idea of fatherhood does not fit the 

 Eternal. 



Our fathers had a complete and consistent ex- 

 planation of the problem of evil that so perplexes us. 

 They invented or postulated two opposing and con- 

 tending principles in the world — one divine, the 

 other diabolical. One they named God, the other, 



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