Intervention of JMan 269 



therefore are as much works of the art of man as the frames and 

 glass-houses in which some of them are raised. That the 'state 

 of art' thus created in the state of nature by man, is sustained 

 by and dependent on him, would at once become apparent if 

 the watchful supervision of the gardener were withdrawn, and 

 the antagonistic influences of the general cosmic process were 

 no longer sedulously warded off, or couuteracted." 



He proceeds to describe how, under such circum- 

 stances, the artificial barriers would decay, and the 

 delicate inhabitants of the garden would perish under 

 the assatilts of animal and vegetable foes. External 

 forces w^ould reassert themselves and wild nature would 

 resume its sway. While, in a sense, he had strenuously 

 advocated the unity of all nature, he found in it two 

 rivals : the artificial products of sentient man and the 

 forces and products of wild nature. These two he be- 

 lieved to be in inevitable opposition and to represent 

 the good and the evil forces of the world. 



In the dim ages of the past, the forces that have gone 

 to the making of man have been part of the cosmic 

 process. In the endless and wonderful series of kaleid- 

 oscopic changes by which, under the operation of natural 

 laws, the body, habits, and the character of man have 

 been elaborated slowly from the natal dust, there is the 

 widest field for the operation of the most acute intellig- 

 ence to study and trace the stages in the process. But 

 if intellectual delight in studying the process be left out 

 of account, a serious question at once appears. In the 

 higher stages of evolution the cosmic forces, ceasing to 

 act merely on insentient matter, have operated on sen- 

 tient beings, and in so doing have given rise to the 

 mystery of pain and suffering. When the less fit of 

 chemical combinations or even of the lower forms of 

 life perished in the struggle, we ma}^ regard the process 



