THE UNIVERSAL BENEFICENCE 



of existence. In the non-living, there is collision, dis- 

 ruption, overthrow. The apparent strife between 

 the two worlds is an effort toward adjustment on 

 the part of the living — to master and utilize the 

 non-living. The inorganic goes its way under the 

 leash of physical laws, heedless of the organic. Myr- 

 iads of living things are crushed and destroyed by 

 the ruthless onward flow of the non-living. There is 

 life in the world because life is plastic and persistent 

 and adaptive, and perpetually escapes from the 

 blind forces that would destroy it — the winds, the 

 floods, the frost, the heat, gravity, earthquakes, 

 chemical reactions, and so on. Every living thing 

 runs the gantlet of the insensate mechanical and 

 chemical forces. But this is not strife in our human 

 sense; it is the discipline of nature. No living thing 

 could begin or continue without these forces which 

 at times are so hostile. Like faithful gardeners pre- 

 paring the seed-beds, they prepared the earth for 

 the abode of man and all other living forms. They 

 made the soil, they bring the rains, they begat the 

 winds, they prearranged all the conditions of life; 

 but life itself is a mystery, the great mystery, super- 

 mechanical, super-chemical, dependent upon these 

 forces, but not begotten by them. They are its 

 servants. 



The struggle in the world of living forms is a con- 

 dition of development, growing ' things are made 

 strong by the force of the obstacles they overcome. 



57 



