ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



destroying millions of dollars worth of tim- 

 ber) there comes "a frost, a chilling frost," 

 and a fungus frDin one knows not where at- 

 tacks the beetle and wipes all his battalions 

 out of existence. Or, again, a parasitical 

 insect bores down through the bark which 

 covers the beetle dormitories, and eats the 

 dreaming baby beetles as nonchalantly as the 

 human race eat oysters. 



We are thus once more confronted by the 

 same old interrogations which the universe 

 levels against man wherever his research 

 may lead him. Why is there a destructive 

 force made to lie in wait for every beautiful 

 thing in the universe, from the smallest 

 flower that blooms to the noble pine ignobly 

 slain by beetles? 



Why indeed, unless it be to evoke from 

 man as it always has done something 

 mightier than any destructive force about 

 him. For nature, like the good teacher she 

 is, puts in her mammoth textbook of the uni- 

 verse not only a million problems, but along- 

 side of each set of them one or more ex- 

 amples to show how the problems may be 



146 



