ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



then the world of mind and soul is only a phase of 

 mechanics and chemistry. In that case the head of a 

 Paul or a Homer is no greater wonder than a vol- 

 canic bomb, having essentially the same origin. If 

 we regard it as the work of design, we are compelled 

 to saddle all the sin and misery, all the delays and 

 failures and wastes of the geologic ages, upon In- 

 finite Wisdom and Goodness, together with all the 

 famine and pestilence and carnage and miscarriages 

 of history. 



For untold millions of years the earth was given 

 up to low, groveling, all but brainless, bestial forms, 

 devouring and devoured; for other untold millions 

 it was the scene of a carnival of terrible dragon-like 

 monsters — in the sea, on the earth, and in the air 

 — a tragedy of monstrous forms enacted upon an 

 unstable stage that rose and sank or was over- 

 whelmed by fire and flood. For other long ages it 

 was the scene of ape-like creatures struggling to be 

 man, living in caves, contending with savage beasts, 

 hirsute, forbidding, living by tooth and claw and 

 muscular strength more than by wit, followed by the 

 long historical period during which man appeared 

 and has fought his way to his present stage of de- 

 velopment, through blood and carnage and suffering 

 and misdirected activities, dogged by all the evil 

 and destructive passions, obstructed and thwarted, 

 cut off by plagues and wars, engulfed by earth- 

 quakes, devoured by fire and flood, blinded by his 



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