ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



same methods. But so far as I can see all that the 

 Eternal aims at in the vast business of the universe 

 is to keep the capital unimpaired and live on the in- 

 come. The inroads which storms, pestilence, earth- 

 quakes make upon it are soon made good and some 

 interest does accrue. Life does advance. 



In the course of the biologic ages there has been a 

 great loss in species, apparently without any loss in 

 the development impulse. New species appear as 

 the old disappear. Nature's investment in mere 

 size and brute strength was doubtless a good one 

 under the conditions, but she gradually changed it 

 and began to lay the emphasis upon size of brain 

 and complexity of nervous system, just as man in 

 his material civilization has passed from the simple 

 to the complex, from the go-cart to the automobile, 

 from the signal fires to telegraph and telephone. 

 The failures and shortcomings of the Eternal, as 

 well as the progress of its work, are analogous to 

 those of man. Indeed, God is no more a god than 

 man is. He evinces the same methods, the same 

 mixture of good and evil, the same progress from 

 the simple to the complex, the same survival of 

 the fittest. We exalt and magnify our little human 

 attributes and name it God ; we magnify and in- 

 tensify our bad traits and call it the Devil. One 

 is as real as the other. Both are real to the imagi- 

 nation of man, but Nature knows them not, except 

 so far as she knows them in and through man. 



68 



