ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



dence is general and not special. The conditions are 

 not too easy, the struggle has made men of us. The 

 bitter has tempered the sweet. Evil has put us on 

 our guard and keeps us so. We pay for what we get. 



in 



That wise old Roman, Marcus Aurelius, says, 

 "Nothing is evil which is according to nature." At 

 that moment he is thinking especially of death 

 which, when it comes in the course of nature, is not 

 an evil, unless life itself is also an evil. After the 

 lamp of life is burned out, death is not an evil, 

 rather is it a good. But premature death, death by 

 accident or disease, before a man has done his work 

 or used up his capital of vitality, is an evil. Disease 

 itself is an evil, but if we lived according to nature 

 there would be no disease; we should die the natural, 

 painless death of old age. Of course there is no such 

 thing as absolute evil or absolute good. Evil is that 

 which is against our well-being, and good is that 

 which promotes it. We always postulate the exist- 

 ence of life when we speak of good and evil. Ex- 

 cesses in nature are evil to us because they bring 

 destruction and death in their train. They are dis- 

 harmonies in the scheme of things, because they 

 frustrate and bring to naught. The war which Mar- 

 cus Aurelius was waging when he wrote those pas- 

 sages was an evil in itself, though good might come 

 out of it. 



120 



