MEN AND TREES 



matter, "Get thee behind me, Satan." We struggle 

 and suffer in this debasing world for a season, and 

 then escape from it to a higher and better one. In 

 all the dark, prescientific ages during our own era 

 — dark in regard to man's real relation to the 

 universe in which he finds himself, but often lumi- 

 nous with flashes of insight into the nature of man 

 himself — these conceptions ruled man's religious 

 aspirations. In our own times they still largely rule 

 in various modified forms. The old theological 

 dogmas are more or less discredited, but a religion 

 founded upon science makes little headway with 

 the average man. We are shaping our practical 

 lives — our business, our social, our economical 

 relations, more and more according to scientific 

 deductions. We seek more and more a scientific or 

 naturalistic basis for our rules of conduct, for our 

 altruism, for our charitable organizations, for our 

 whole ethical system. Any principle that squares 

 with natural law is indeed founded upon a rock. 

 The stars in their courses fight for the cause that is 

 founded upon natural right, which in human rela- 

 tions does not mean the right of the strong to 

 trample upon the weak, but the right of all to their 

 full measure of free development. 



Right and wrong are, of course, finite terms, and 

 apply only in the human sphere. Universal Nature, 

 as it appears among non-living bodies and forces, 

 knows neither right nor wrong; it knows only 



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