ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



colors of flowers and of animals, in fact, in every- 

 thing that makes for the well-being of living things. 

 But not in the same sense is there purpose in the 

 wind, the rain, the snow, the tides, the heat, the 

 cold, the rocks, the soil, the fountains. Animate na- 

 ture struggles; inanimate nature passively submits. 

 Dead matter forever seeks an equilibrium; living 

 matter forever struggles against an equilibrium. 

 The waters separate the clay and the sand and the 

 pebbles from the soil and deposit each in its own 

 place; but it is not a struggle or an effort; it is me- 

 chanical adjustment. It is not an effort for certain 

 liquids to form crystals, or for certain elements to 

 combine with certain other elements and form new 

 compounds, but it is an effort for a tree to resist the 

 wind, to lift up tons of water and minerals against 

 gravity, to force its roots through the soil or grip 

 the rock, and it is an effort for the mother to bear 

 and nurse her young. For anything to live and grow, 

 effort is needful; not commonly a painful effort, but 

 a joyous one. 



So, when we ask, Is there design in Nature? we 

 must make clear what part or phase of Nature we 

 refer to. Can we say that the cosmos as a whole 

 shows any design in our human sense of the word? I 

 think not. The Eternal has no purpose that our lan- 

 guage can compass. There can be neither center nor 

 circumference to the Infinite. The distribution of 

 kind and water on the globe cannot be the result of 



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