ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



burst its shell or case. The corn struggles to lift itself 

 up after the storm has beaten it down; effort, effort, 

 everywhere in the organic world. Says Whitman: 



" Urge and urge and urge, 

 Always the procreant urge of the world." 



IV 



Every few years we have an ice-storm or a snow- 

 storm that breaks down and disfigures the trees. 

 Some trees suffer much more than others. The 

 storm goes its way; the laws of physical force pre- 

 vail; the great world of mechanical forces is let loose 

 upon the small world of vital forces; occasionally a 

 tree is so crushed that it never entirely recovers; 

 but after many years the woods and groves have 

 repaired the damages and taken on their wonted 

 thrifty appearance. The evil was only temporary; 

 the world of trees has suffered no permanent set- 

 back. But had the trees been conscious beings, what 

 a deal of suffering they would have experienced ! An 

 analogous visitation to human communities entails 

 a heritage of misery, but in time it too is forgotten 

 and its scars healed. Fire, blood, war, epidemics, 

 earthquakes, are such visitations, but the race sur- 

 vives them and reaps good from them. 



We say that Nature cares nothing for the individ- 

 ual, but only for the race or the species. The whole 

 organic world is at war with the inorganic, and as in 

 human wars the individuals are sacrificed that the 



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