THE GOOD DEVILS 



those of the natural universal. Our moral standards 

 apply to us alone; they are special and limited. The 

 gods know them not. The rain falls alike upon the 

 just and upon the unjust. The poet says, " I 

 judge not as the judge judges, but as the sunlight 

 falling around a helpless thing." This is the voice 

 of the natural universal. When we judge as the 

 judge judges, we condemn strife and war and all 

 such uncharity, we execute or imprison criminals, we 

 found asylums and hospitals and other charitable 

 organizations; when we judge as Nature or the poet 

 judges, we say to the fallen one: 



"Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you, 



Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves to 



rustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and rustle 



for you." 



The All brings mercy out of cruelty, love out of 

 hatred, life out of death, but man's orbit is so small 

 that he cannot harmonize these contradictions. The 

 curve of the universal laws does not bring him 

 round till generations have passed. To keep on 

 traveling east till you approach your point of de- 

 parture from the west, you must have the round 

 globe to travel on. An empire would not avail. 



VII 



Good and evil are strangely mixed in this world, 

 and probably in all other worlds. What is evil to 

 one creature is often good to another. It is an evil 



85 



