ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



selves to escape, endure, modify, or ward off the 

 destructive and non-human forces that beset our 

 way. We draw our strength from the Nature that 

 seems and is so regardless of us; our health and 

 wholeness are its gifts. The biologic ages, with all 

 their carnival of huge and monstrous forms, had our 

 well-being at heart. The evils and dangers that be- 

 set our way have been outmatched by the good and 

 the helpful. The deep-sea fish would burst and die if 

 brought to the surface; the surface life would be 

 crushed and killed in the deep sea. Life adapts itself 

 to its environment; hard conditions make it hard. 

 "Winds, floods, inclement seasons, have driven it 

 around the earth; the severer the cold, the thicker 

 the fur; compensations always abound. If Nature is 

 not all-wise and all-merciful from our human point 

 of view, she has placed us in a world where our own 

 wisdom and mercy can be developed; she has sent 

 us to a school in which we learn to see her own 

 shortcomings and imperfections, and to profit by 

 them. 



The unreasoning, unforeseeing animals suffer 

 more from the accidents of nature — drought, 

 flood, lightning — than man does; but man suffers 

 more from evils of his own making — war, greed, 

 intemperance, pestilence — so that the develop- 

 ment in both lines goes on, and life is still at the 

 flood. 



Good and evil are inseparable. We cannot have 



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