' ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



one another for the possession of the soil, the fer- 

 ments, the enzymes, — when one thinks of all this 

 and more, and how little aware the man is of all 

 this strife and effort and activity within him, — 

 how he himself, body and mind, is the result of it 

 all, — one has a dim vision of all our strife and effort 

 in this world as a part of the vital movements of a 

 vast system of things, or of a Being that is no more 

 cognizant of our wars and struggles and triumphs 

 than we are of the histories of the little people that 

 keep up the functional integrity of our own systems. 



Man can himself make short work of the ants 

 unless he encounters their devouring hosts in a 

 tropical jungle, in which case they may make 

 short work of him. He can often slay with his an- 

 tiseptics the disease germs that are destroying him, 

 but not always; the balance of nature is often on 

 their side. Whichever triumphs, Nature wins, be- 

 cause all are parts of her system. The capital in- 

 vested is hers alone. Man thinks a part of it is 

 his, because he forgets that he too is a part of 

 Nature, and that whatever is his, is hers. 



How are we to reconcile the obvious facts of 

 evolution, namely, that throughout the biological 

 ages there has been an impulse in Nature steadily 

 working toward the development of man, with the 

 still more obvious fact that Nature cares no more 

 for the individual man than she does for the in- 

 dividual of any other species ? She will drown him, 



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