ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



nor the result of design, as we use these words in our 

 daily lives. These words apply to parts and frag- 

 ments of which our lives are made up. They do not 

 help us in dealing with the whole. We share in the 

 life of the universe; we are a part of it, and what 

 keeps it going keeps us going. What set evolution on 

 foot and evolved the organic from the inorganic is 

 the parent of us all. It is not we that are immortal; 

 it is life, and the universe. We pass like shadows, but 

 the sun remains — for a season. We say of a thing, 

 or an event, that it came by chance, when we see no 

 will like unto our own directing it; at the same time 

 we know that the laws of matter and force control 

 everything. Not a sparrow falls to the ground with- 

 out their immutable decrees. In the same sense the 

 hairs of our heads are numbered. 



When we discuss or describe the universe in terms 

 of experience, we are dealing in half-truths. We can- 

 not describe a sphere in terms of angles and right 

 lines; no more can we describe or interpret the All in 

 terms of our own experience. 



If it were Chance, or Darwin's Natural Selection, 

 or orthogenesis, or whatever it was, that brought 

 me and all other forms of life here, that gave me my 

 mind and body, that put my two eyes and my two 

 ears just where they are of most service to me, and 

 my two arms and hands, and my two legs and 

 feet, and all my internal organs, my double circu- 

 lation, my heart to pump the blood and keep the 



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