ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



to the vireo or to the warbler when the cowbird lays 

 its egg in the nest of one of these birds, but it is a 

 good to the cowbird. It relieves her of all maternal 

 cares, and provides her young with a devoted 

 nurse and stepmother, but the young warblers or 

 vireos are likely to perish. All parasites live at the 

 expense of some other form of life, and are to that 

 extent evils to these forms ; but Nature is just as 

 much interested in one form as in the other; an ill 

 wind to one blows good to another, and thus the 

 balance is kept. 



A world without evil would be an impossible 

 world — as impossible as mechanical motion with- 

 out friction or as sunlight without shadow. The two 

 worlds, the organic and the inorganic, constantly 

 interact. The former draws all its elements and its 

 power from the latter, which is passive to it, and 

 goes its way in the inexorable round of physical 

 laws, irrespective of it. Viewed as a whole, the evils 

 of life inhere in its elements and conditions. Air, 

 water, fire, soil, give us our strength and our growth; 

 they also destroy us if we fail to keep right rela- 

 tions to them. We cannot walk or lift a hand 

 without gravity; and yet, give gravity a chance, 

 and it crushes us, the floods drown us, fire consumes 

 us! Could we have life on any other terms; could 

 God himself annul these conditions? 



Hunger is or may become an evil destroying life, 

 but does it not imply the opposite condition of good 



86 



