UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



The supernatural? Then let us name it the natural- 

 supernatural, as Carlyle did? Let us annex all the 

 territory that adjoins us; let us put a circle around 

 every reality we can conceive of, and regard the 

 universe as one, and not as two or three. Carlyle's 

 idea of the natural-supernatural still permitted him 

 to look upon nature as the " Time- vesture of God, 

 which reveals him to the wise, and hides him from 

 the foolish"; but the notion of vesture or clothes 

 suggests an arbitrary and artificial relation which is 

 more in consonance with theology than with science 

 or with life. Goethe's expression "the living gar- 

 ment of God " is less misleading, but Pope's familiar 

 couplet, — 



" All are but parts of one stupendous whole. 

 Whose body Nature is, and God, the soul," — 



is the least objectionable of all, as this restores the 

 vital unity which must exist. 



If Nature be half God and half demon, it is all the 

 more easy to believe that man arose out of her, since 

 these terms fitly describe him also. We say that 

 the fountain cannot rise above its source, but surely 

 the source is usually above the fountain, and if we 

 choose to conceive of this God-nature as much above 

 man, there is still room for a broad ground of rela- 

 tionship between them. Nature is cruel and blun- 

 dering and irrational, and does not the present world- 

 war exhibit man as her legitimate offspring? How 

 the gods on Olympus must smile and chuckle and 



134 



