THE UNIVERSAL BENEFICENCE 



man-made God that men rebel against. Thus comes 

 in the discord that Tennyson sees and feels. He is 

 looking for a human providence in nature. Wisdom, 

 love, mercy, justice, are human attributes. We call 

 them divine, and it is well, but they do not exist 

 outside of man. Man is himself the only God, and 

 he was evolved from nature. The divine and the 

 godlike are therefore in nature; yes, in conjunction 

 with what we call the demoniacal — love twined 

 with enmity, the good a partner with the bad. 



"I bring to life, I bring to death; 

 The spirit does but mean the breath." 



Plagues and famines and wars are fortuitous and 

 not a part of the regular order like health, or growth, 

 or development. They are accidents of nature. The 

 cloud-burst that sends the creek out of its banks is 

 an accident in the same sense; it is an exceptional 

 occurrence. If the fountains of nature were not full 

 enough and permanent enough to stand such drains, 

 or if the tendency in nature to a certain order and 

 moderation were less marked, life would disappear 

 from the globe. Nature's capital of life is invested in 

 ten thousand enterprises and the risks are many, but 

 if the gains did not exceed the losses, if more seeds 

 did not fall upon fertile places than upon barren, 

 if more babies did not survive than perish, what 

 would become of us? In our human schemes we aim 

 to cut out losses, waste, delays and failure, and 

 arraign the Eternal when it does not follow the 



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