TIME AND CHANGE 



of the water of a stream, yet what is left flows on 

 and keeps up the continuity and identity of the 

 stream; dip your cup into it here, and you will not 

 get precisely the same water you would have got 

 had none of it been diverted or used far back in its 

 course — you get the water that was allowed to 

 flow by. 



Had there been no loss of life by war and pesti- 

 lence and accidents of various kinds, the different 

 countries would have been occupied by quite other 

 men and women than those that fill them to-day. 

 The course of life in every neighborhood is changed 

 by what seem like accidental causes, as when a fam- 

 ily is practically wiped out by some accident or dread 

 disease. This brings new people on the scene. The 

 farm or the business falls into other hands, and new 

 social relations spring up, new men and women are 

 brought together or the old ones driven apart, mar- 

 riage is hastened or retarded, opportunities for fam- 

 ily life are made or unmade, and fewer children, or 

 more children, as the case may be, are the result. 

 The issue of some battle hundreds or thousands of 

 years ago m^y have played a part in your life and 

 mine to-day — other races, other individuals of the 

 race, would have been thrown together had the issue 

 been different, and other families started, so that 

 some one else would have been here in our stead. 



But the question of hazard to the race of man in 

 geologic time is quite a different one. Here our fate 



234 



