UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



hornets and bumblebees live to sting another day; 

 why should this cruel fate attend only the honey- 

 bee? Why should the drone fertilize the queen at 

 the cost of his own life? Where is the gain to the 

 swarm? Where does natural selection come in? 



When we begin to ask the whys and the where- 

 fores of Nature's doings, our human standards soon 

 fail us. No plummet can sound these depths. Why 

 does one species often destroy another, or why a 

 parasite exterminate its host and thus exterminate 

 itself? 



There are no rational checks in Nature — all is 

 left to chance; and the scheme works because Na- 

 ture has all power and all time. There is no other, 

 no rival. The All can go its own way; to play the 

 game, to win and lose — the stakes are Nature's 

 in any event. 



Our little plans and wants are specific, individ- 

 ual, but our activities are hemmed in by general 

 laws which work to no special end. We row and 

 steam against the currents and against the winds; 

 we check or thwart or control the natural forces: 

 this is life as opposed to gravity; but life could not 

 oppose gravity without the aid of gravity. Thus 

 are we a part of that from which we seek to detach 

 ourselves, and are kept going by the force we seek 

 to overcome. 



