THE FAITH OF A NATURALIST 



least force in heaven or earth turns aside for him, or 

 makes any exception to him; in short, how all forms 

 of life are perpetually ground between the upper 

 and the nether millstones of the contending and 

 clashing natural material forces, I ask myself: "Is 

 there nothing, then, under the sun, or beyond the 

 sun, that has a stake in our well-being? Is life purely 

 a game of chance, and is it all luck that we are here 

 in a world so richly endowed to meet all our require- 

 ments?" Serene Reason answers: "No, it is not luck 

 as in a lottery. It is the good fortune of the whole. It 

 was inherent in the constitution of the whole, and it 

 continues because of its adaptability; life is here be- 

 cause it fits itself into the scheme of things; it is 

 flexible and compromising." We find the world 

 good to be in because we are adapted to it, and not 

 it to us. The vegetable growth upon the rocks 

 where the sea is forever pounding is a type of life; 

 the waves favor its development. Life takes advan- 

 tage of turbulence as well as of quietude, of drought 

 as well as of floods, of deserts as well as of marshes, 

 of the sea-bottom as well as of the mountain-tops. 

 Both animal and vegetable life trim their sails to 

 the forces that beat upon them. The image of the 

 sail is a good one. Life avails itself of the half -con- 

 trary winds; it captures and imprisons their push 

 in its sails; by yielding a little, it makes headway 

 in the teeth of the gale; it gives and takes; without 

 struggle, without opposition, life would not be life. 



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