HORIZON LINES 



procession go on just the same without him? No 

 doubt of it. He is only an incident, and maybe an 

 accident — a lucky throw of the dice. 



V. IS THERE DESIGN IN NATURE? 



We cannot put to Nature the direct questions we 

 put to ourselves. Namable purposes and designs rule 

 our lives. Not so with the All. I told Father Good- 

 man the other day, much to his bewilderment, that 

 I did not think the air was made for us to breathe, 

 nor the water for us to drink, nor food for us to eat. 

 We breathe and drink and eat because our organiza- 

 tion is adjusted to these things. The shoe is made 

 over the last, not the last to fit the shoe. The organi- 

 zation is fitted, or fits itself, to its environment. Na- 

 ture is first, man is afterwards. Is the notch in the 

 mountain made for the road to go through? Is the 

 land-locked harbor made to protect our shipping? 

 Would it not be as true to say that the wind was 

 made to fill the ship's sails, as that air was made to 

 fill our lungs? In dealing with this question of design 

 many persons get the cart before the horse. 



Of course there is purpose or design in living 

 things in a sense that there is not in the non-living. 

 Every part of a living organization is purposeful. 

 There is purpose in our lungs, our hearts, our kid- 

 neys, in short in every part of our bodies. There is 

 purpose in the varnish on leaves, in the down and 

 resin on buds, in the wings and hooks of seeds, in the 



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