HIT-AND-MISS METHOD OF NATURE 



whole life of the globe does. Such delays, such 

 waste, such blind groping, such hit-and-miss efforts, 

 such apparent indifference on the part of Nature as 

 to which combatant succeeds; life preying upon life, 

 form devouring form, species after species becoming 

 extinct, internecine war on every hand, clashing 

 forces, clashing interests from one end of creation to 

 the other; turmoil, defeat, failure, death, every- 

 where; the very elemental forces pitted against one 

 another, frost and heat, fluid and solid, growth 

 and decay struggling for the mastery, the earth 

 building up, the air and the rains pulling down, 

 yet out of this chaos and strife has come the flower, 

 has come the grass, has come the bird, has come man, 

 has come the "apple-blossomed earth" as we know 

 it. Underneath and through all some kind of law 

 and order has prevailed, something like will and 

 purpose seem to have been at work. 



Would creation have been a failure had man not 

 appeared? From our point of view it certainly 

 would, but how about the point of view of the All? 

 The All is not to be tried by our standards. We can- 

 not measure it or corner it with a question. Man did 

 appear, and he seems the net outcome of the animal 

 life of the globe; he has taken possession of it all as 

 no other animal has or can; he masters the forces, he 

 penetrates its secrets, he understands its mechan- 

 isms, he traces its laws, he grasps its meanings, he 

 uses its treasures. All other animals are as stocks 

 89 



