6o FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



are inexact because the human mind can never grasp all 

 their data. The combined effort of all men, the flower 

 of the altruism of the ages, which we call science has 

 made only a beginning in such study. But, however in- 

 complete our realization of the laws of life, we may be 

 sure that they are never broken. Each law is the ex- 

 pression of the best possible way in which causes and 

 results can be linked. It is the necessary sequence of 

 events, therefore the best sequence, if we may imagine 

 for a moment that the human words " good " and " bad " 

 are applicable to world processes. The laws of Nature 

 are not executors of human justice. Each one has its 

 own operation and no other. Each represents its own 

 tendency toward cosmic order. A law in this sense can 

 not be " broken." " If God should wink at a single act 

 of injustice," says the Arab proverb, " the whole uni- 

 verse would shrivel up like a cast-off snake skin." If 

 God should wink at any violated law the universe would 

 vanish. 



Not long ago, in an examination in a theological 

 seminary, the question was asked of the candidates for 

 the ministry, " Is it right to pray for a change of sea- 

 son ?" The candidates thought that it was not, for the 

 relations which produce winter and summer are fixed in 

 the structure of the solar system and can not be altered 

 for man's pleasure or man's need. "Is it right to pray 

 for rain ? " The candidates generally thought that it 

 was, because the conditions of rain are so unstable that 

 a little change in one way or another would bring 

 rain or fair weather. It is proper to ask for such a 

 change, as it does not concern the economy of the 

 universe. 



The third question was : " When the signal service 

 of the United States is well established, so that weather 

 conditions are perfectly known, will it then be right to 



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