ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



in right lines, but only in curved lines; there is no 

 beginning nor ending; there is only eternal progres- 

 sion; and this is a condition of things that throws 

 our mental adjustments all out of gear. The prob- 

 lem of God, the problem of creation, the problem of 

 future life, throw our mental adjustments out of 

 gear in the same way. 



There is order and harmony in our own solar sys- 

 tem and doubtless in countless others in the im- 

 mensity of space, but the cosmos as a whole does 

 not seem to present this harmony, as collisions actu- 

 ally occur. Astronomers tell us that the units of the 

 starry hosts are moving in all directions and that 

 collisions are inevitable, though at such vast inter- 

 vals, owing to the inconceivable spaces, that human 

 time can take no note of them. A billion of our years, 

 like a billion of our miles, count for but little in the 

 infinitudes of the universe. 



When we try to think that the universe had a 

 creator, that there was a time when it did not exist, 

 that it was called into being by a power apart from 

 itself, do we not fall down completely? We can, of 

 course, think in arbitrary terms; our imaginations 

 are equal to almost any feat (Lewis Carroll's was 

 equal to "Alice in Wonderland"; Dante's was equal 

 to making the world shudder over his pictures of the 

 inferno) : but the understanding has to have solid 

 ground to go upon, and where is the solid ground 

 in our idea of creation? We are off the sphere, alone 



232 



