PHYSICAL EVILS AND "INIDEALITY" 337 



in dissipating intense heat, and as a preventive against 

 the evils of a stagnant atmosphere, ' those currents of air 

 which administer in various modes as well to the luxury 

 and comfort of man, as to his most important wants '. 

 But in his description he alludes as much to the destruc- 

 tive effects of wind as to its benefit, and to the existence 

 of ' stagnant air producing [?] horrible effects, as goitre in 

 Switzerland ' ; ^ while of hurricanes he can only say, ' but 

 on some occasions we have immediate demonstration of 

 their remedying a greater evil [than the destruction of 

 life and property which hurricanes cause] ; viz., dissipating 

 swarms of ants in the island of Grenada ! ' It may be 

 questioned whether the latter is really a greater evil than 

 the destruction of hundreds of human beings ! Again, 

 of Swiss valleys, all he can say is, ' We may well be 

 thankful that our lot has not been cast in certain regions 

 of the earth, in those Alpine valleys, for instance, whose 

 scarcely human inhabitants attest the dreadful conse- 

 quences of a confined atmosphere '. He seems to forget 

 that if God be the Author of Nature, He must have 

 arranged the ' stagnant air as much as the hurricane '. 



" But what do we infer from all this — and much more 

 might be added as to the atmosphere being charged with 

 pathogenic microbes, etc. — but that the physical adjust- 

 ment of man to the atmosphere is anything but abso- 

 lutely satisfactory?" 



Now, an Atheist or modern Rationalist might easily 

 appeal to Dr. Kidd's descriptions, and tauntingly ask : 

 " Is this the work of your beneficent God ? " 



Moreover, if we consider man's adjustments to ex- 

 ternal conditions, everything else besides the atmosphere 

 furnishes similar, so-called " evils ". 



^ So common is this complaint among women, that a girl who had 

 not one used to be ridiculed by her companions ! 



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