ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



forces, the broadcast, indiscriminate benefits of na- 

 ture, kind deeds where no thought of kindness is, 

 well-being as the result of immutable law — all such 

 ideas chill and disquiet us, until we have inured our- 

 selves to them. We love to fancy that we see friendly 

 hands and hear friendly voices in nature. It is easy 

 to make ourselves believe that the rains, the 

 warmth, the fruitful seasons, are sent by some Be- 

 ing for our especial benefit. The thought that we are 

 adapted to nature and not nature made or modified 

 to suit us, is distasteful to us. It rubs us the wrong 

 way. We have long been taught to believe that 

 there is air because we have lungs, and water be- 

 cause we need it to drink, and light because we 

 need it to see. Science takes this conceit out of us. 

 The light begat the eye, and the air begat the lungs. 

 In the universe, as science reveals it to us, sensi- 

 tive souls experience the cosmic chill; in the uni- 

 verse as our inevitable anthropomorphism shapes it 

 for us, we experience the human glow. The same 

 anthropomorphism has in the past peopled the 

 woods and fields and streams and winds with good 

 and evil spirits, and filled the world with cruel and 

 debasing superstitions; but in our day we have got 

 rid of all of this; we have abolished all gods but one. 

 This one we still fear, and bow down before, and 

 seek to propitiate — not with offerings and sacri- 

 fices, but with good Sunday clothes and creeds and 

 pew-rents and praise and incense and surplices and 



104 



