A SUNDAY IN CHEYNE ROW 249 



things to right themselves, to adjust themselves to 

 their own proper standards; the conservative force 

 of Nature, the checks and balances by which her 

 own order and succession is maintained; the Dar- 

 winian principle, according to which the organic 

 life of the globe has been evolved, the higher and 

 more complex forms mounting from the lower, the 

 true palingenesia, the principle or power, name it 

 Fate, name it Necessity, name it God, or what you 

 will, which finally lifts a people, a race, an age, 

 and even a community above the reach of choice, of 

 accident, of individual will, into the region of gen- 

 eral laAV. So littld is life what we make it, after 

 all; so little is the course of history, the destiny of 

 nations, the result of any man's purpose, or direc- 

 tion, or will, so great is Fate, so insignificant is 

 man ! The human body is made up of a vast con- 

 geries or association of minute cells, each with its 

 own proper work and function, at which it toils 

 incessantly night and day, and thinks of nothing 

 beyond. The shape, the size, the color of the 

 body, its degree of health and strength, etc., no 

 cell or series of cells decides these points; a law 

 above and beyond the cell determines them. The 

 final destiny and summing up of a nation is, per- 

 haps, as little within the conscious will and purpose 

 of the individual citizens. When you come to 

 large masses, to long periods, the law of nature 

 steps in. The day is hot or the day is cold, the 

 spring is late or the spring is early ; but the incli- 

 nation of the earth's axis makes the winter and 



