SOUNDINGS 



forces knows us not. We may divert them and bend 

 them to our will, but they heed us not; they de- 

 stroy us the moment we lose control. 



Nature does not love us any more than she hates 

 us; she goes her way, indifferent. 



The best we can say about it all is that Nature, 

 or the Natural Providence, is too big for us to 

 grasp; that in these seas we can find no soundings. 

 But we are here, the world is beautiful, life is 

 worth living, love always pays; Nature serves us 

 when we know how to use her; when we plant and 

 sow wisely God will send the increase. Friendly or 

 unfriendly, of God or of the Devil, the physical 

 forces have ministered to us. More things have 

 been for us than have been against us; more winds 

 have blown our barks into safe harbors than have 

 dashed us upon the rocks. There are more re- 

 freshing showers than devastating tornadoes; more 

 sunshine than forked lightning; more fertile land 

 upon the earth than parched deserts; a broader 

 belt of genial climates than of frigid zones. Thorns 

 and spines and nettles are the exception in vege- 

 tation; stings and venomous fangs are the excep- 

 tion in animal life. Hawks can catch the smaller 

 birds, yet there are vastly more small birds than 

 hawks. The weasel can catch the rabbit and the 

 squirrel and the rat, yet there are ten-fold, fifty-fold, 

 more of these rodents than there are weasels. The 

 carnivorous beasts of the plains and of the jungle do 



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