280 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



In the division of labour, no consumer should object 

 to pay such a price as will permit the producer to live 

 in comfort, contentment, and happiness. But to put 

 the matter upon a permanent basis, with the enormous 

 complexities existing, is a work which must engage the 

 best minds. It is a practical matter which will come, 

 and only come, when man sees his true position in the 

 universe, and knows that his prosperity and happiness 

 are subordinate to the natural laws, for they are the 

 laws of that sum of natural powers THE OMNIPOTENT. 



There are those who think that the forces of Nature 

 are blind, and that there is no design in Nature. 

 This is probably a great fundamental error. Anyone 

 who sees the processes Nature adopts, and the gradual 

 perfecting of the Human being, which has been effected 

 by such misery, that it is impossible for any individual 

 to grasp the mental and physical suffering man has 

 passed through 1 anyone, we repeat, who considers 

 the phenomena now going on can but come to one 

 conclusion : it is an orderly march in Nature towards 



1895, p. 224.) If millionaires were to leave their fortunes for pull- 

 ing down the miserable dwellings of the poor and erecting healthy 

 dwellings, so that human beings could only be developed under 

 healthy conditions, what monuments of greatness would they erect ! 

 Is it not better than leaving their wealth for their relations to 

 spend on women, wine and dissipation their physical and moral 

 ruin? 



1 The student who would wish to partially grasp these sufferings 

 of the past cannot do better than read that most interesting work, 

 " The Martyrdom of Man," by Winwood Reade (Kegan Paul, Trench, 

 Triibner & Co.), and a little-known but most valuable work, "' The 

 Law of Civilization and Decay," by Brooks Adams (Swan Sonnen- 

 schein & Co.). The latter work shows the causes of much suffering, 

 especially in relation to that great factor in human happiness or 

 misery, the currency. 



