ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



pose; every living thing shows something for which 

 we have no name but intelligence. Organization 

 demands an organizing principle. There is purpose 

 in the wings of a bird, the legs of an animal, the 

 fins of a fish, but where is there purpose in the orbs, 

 in the comets, in the meteors? Or, to come down to 

 the earth, where is there purpose in the mountains, 

 in the stratified rocks, in the ocean, or in the air 

 currents? 



In a living body there are organs which function; 

 in a non-living, there are parts which act and are 

 acted upon. To see mind in all is the task — to see 

 in gravity, in cohesion, in chemical affinity, in disso- 

 lution, anything at work akin to ourselves. We see 

 irrefragable law; we see the sequence of cause and 

 effect; we see the weather system work itself out — 

 evaporation, condensation, precipitation, resulting 

 in clouds, rainfall, springs, streams, lakes, and seas; 

 we see the never-failing succession of the seasons; we 

 see the law of the conservation of force; but do all 

 these things imply the same intelligence, though 

 unconscious, which we see in the sitting bird, or in 

 the growing plant or tree? Is the cosmic order akin 

 to the vital order? Of course mechanics and chemis- 

 try are one the universe over; atoms and molecules 

 are atoms and molecules; but where does mind end, 

 and law begin? Or, is it all law, or all mind, accord- 

 ing to our point of view? The moral order, which is 

 man's order, we know has its limits, but I am try- 



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