ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



thinkable, because something out of nothing is un- 

 thinkable. Our experience in this world develops our 

 conceptions of time and space, and to set bounds to 

 either is an impossible task. We say the cosmos 

 must always have existed, and there we stop. We 

 have no faculties to deal with the great ultimate 

 problems. 



We are no better off when we turn to the world of 

 living things. Here we see design, particular means 

 adapted to specific ends. Shall we say that a bird or 

 a bee or a flower is a chance happening, as is the 

 rainbow or the sunset cloud or a pearl or a precious 

 stone? Is man himself a chance happening? Here we 

 are stuck and cannot lift our feet. The mystery and 

 the miracle of vitality, as Tyndall called it, is before 

 us. Here is the long, hard road of evolution, the push 

 and the unfolding of life through countless ages, 

 something more than the mechanical and the acci- 

 dental, though these have played a part; something 

 less than specific plan and purpose, though we seem 

 to catch dim outlines of these. 



Spontaneous variations, original adaptations, a 

 never-failing primal push toward higher and more 

 complex forms — how can we, how shall we, read 

 the riddle of it all? How shall we account for man on 

 purely naturalistic grounds? 



The consistent exponent of variation cannot go 

 into partnership with supernaturalism. Grant that 

 the organic split off from the inorganic by insensible 



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