ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



as He is of peace, plenty, and the progress of the 

 world. He is in the trenches and the slaughter of 

 the contending armies as truly as in the most 

 peaceful and pious family or social circle in the 

 world. The asphyxiating gases are his, and the 

 bursting bombs, no less than the breaking hearts 

 and the prayerful souls at home. The comets that 

 come like apparitions in the heavens, and then are 

 gone, and the stars that shine steadfastly, are all a 

 part of the same scheme. The dragons and monsters 

 that possessed the earth and the fruits thereof for 

 millions of years in geologic time were the work 

 of that divinity which shapes our ends to-day. 



We separate ourselves from Nature and flatter 

 ourselves that we belong to another and higher 

 order; that we alone are of divine origin, and not 

 involved in the fate of the rest of Creation; but we 

 are fragments of the same granite that forms the 

 foundation of the earth. "I am stuccoed with birds 

 and quadrupeds all over," says Whitman. The 

 reptile was our ancestor; we were cradled in the 

 old seas; we are kin to the worm and the mollusk; 

 we derive from creeping, swimming, noisome 

 things, from the slime and mud of the old sea 

 bottoms, from the cosmic dust and the solar 

 radiations. Why should we put on superior airs 

 when not one atom of matter will turn aside for 

 us, not one law of physics cease to operate to save 

 us from destruction? The vast army of elemental 



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