X 



TOOTH AND CLAW 



i 



TO deny that Nature is cruel, in the strict sense 

 of the term, were, to the majority of persons, 

 like denying that blood is red, or that fire will burn. 

 We use the term "cruel" loosely, and interpret the 

 ways of Nature in terms of our own psychology. 



If we are torn by thorns or stung by nettles or 

 bitten by snakes or suffer from frost-bites or sun- 

 stroke, we accuse Nature of cruelty, always assum- 

 ing, in our conceit, that we are the lords of creation, 

 and that things were made especially for us. We 

 have no venomous snake that will bite us except in 

 self-defense, nor any bee that will sting us except on 

 the same grounds. 



Even Darwin, in a letter to his friend Hooker, re- 

 fers to the "clumsy, wasteful, blundering, slow, and 

 horribly cruel works of Nature," thus treating the 

 All-Mother with scant respect. 



Amiel cannot say, as he does say, that "Nature is 

 unjust and shameless, without probity and without 

 faith," unless he makes her over into man or invests 

 her with the human consciousness. Even the good 

 Emerson accuses Nature of being unscrupulous. 

 Did the Concord philosopher expect storms and 



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