TIME AND CHANGE 



vast and everlasting the world is, which was geons 

 before we were, and will be other seons after we are 

 gone, yea, after the whole race of man is gone. 

 Natural knowledge takes the conceit out of us, and 

 is the sure antidote to all our petty anthropomorphic 

 views of the universe. 



I was struck by this passage in one of the recently 

 published letters of Saint-Gaudens: "The principal 

 thought in my life is that we are on a planet going 

 no one knows where, probably to something higher 

 (on the Darwinian principle of evolution); that, 

 whatever it is, the passage is terribly sad and tragic, 

 and to bear up at times against what seems to be the 

 Great Power that is over us, the practice of love, 

 charity, and courage are the great things." 



The " Great Power'* that is over us does seem un- 

 mindful of us as individuals, if it does not seem 

 positively against us, as Saint-Gaudens seemed to 

 think it was. 



Surely the ways of the Eternal are not as our 

 ways. Our standards of prudence, of economy, of 

 usefulness, of waste, of delay, of failure — how far 

 off they seem from the scale upon which the uni- 

 verse is managed or deports itself! If the earth 

 should be blown to pieces to-day, and all life in- 

 stantly blotted out, would it not be just like what 

 we know of the cosmic prodigality and indifference? 



268 



