ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



in the Garden of Eden. The childish plan of salva- 

 tion of our fathers is as good as any other so long as 

 it holds men up to higher standards of life and of 

 thought; but the day is fast passing when it can do 

 this; natural standards must in the end as surely 

 prevail in religion as in our daily lives. 



The nature that we see about us is enough for all 

 forms of life except man; why should he flatter him- 

 self that his appearance and life demand something 

 extra, some miracle, something mysterious and in- 

 comprehensible? Why not invest the gods we have 

 and know with the extra power demanded, rather 

 than appeal to gods we know not? How the fire 

 warms us, how our food nourishes us, how we sprang 

 from a microscopic germ and grew to be the men we 

 are, are miracles enough. Every living thing is a 

 miracle as wonderful as the Immaculate Conception 

 or the Incarnation, but of a different order. If I 

 knew how the meat and bread which the poet eats is 

 turned into poetry, or how the pond-lily weaves its 

 satin and gold out of the muck and slime of the 

 creek-bottom, I should possess a secret that would 

 make me cease to wonder at the so-called "mira- 

 cles." In the face of the marvels we hourly see about 

 us in living Nature, why should we look afar off and 

 invent marvels of a new order? Why should we in- 

 vent impossible problems, and then invent impossi- 

 ble explanations of them? 



The nature gods we know; we live in daily and 



258 



