136 THE NATURE OF NATURE 



drawing conclusions regarding the character of 

 Nature as a whole from what we saw of her mani- 

 festations in the life of the forest, we came to the 

 conclusion that she was not so hard and repellent 

 as she assuredly would be to us if her guiding 

 principle of action were the survival of the fittest. 

 We inferred, rather, from our observations of her 

 in the forest that she was actuated by an aspiration to- 

 wards what we ourselves hold to be of most worth and 

 value. We were therefore not disillusioned by closer 

 familiarity with her, but more closely drawn towards 

 her, and therefore prepared to see more Beauty in 

 her. Now we have to review Nature as a whole — 

 that is, in the Starry World as well as on this 

 Earth — and see if the same conclusions hold good, 

 and if we are therefore justified in loving Nature, 

 or if we should view her with suspicion and distrust, 

 hold ourselves aloof from her, and cultivate a stoic 

 courage in face of a Power whose character we 

 must cordially dislike. 



There are men who hold that the appearance 

 of life and love on this Earth is a mere flash in 

 the pan and comes about by pure chance. They 

 believe that life will be extinguished in a twinkling 

 as we collide with some other star, or will simply 

 flicker out again as the Sun's heat dies down and 

 the Earth becomes cold. If this view be correct, 

 then that impression of the reliability and 

 kindliness of Nature which we formed when con- 

 templating the stars in the desert would be a false 

 impression ; our feelings of friendship with Nature 

 would at once freeze up and our vision of Beauty 

 vanish like a wraith. 



