UNDER THE MAPLES 



are. Wliat else can we call them? When a new 

 star suddenly appears in the heavens, or an old one 

 blazes up, and from a star of the tenth magnitude 

 becomes one of the first, and then slowly grows 

 dim again, there has been a celestial catastrophe, 

 an astronomic accident on a cosmic scale. Had 

 such things occurred frequently enough, would not 

 the whole solar system have been finally wrecked, 

 or could it even have begun .^ For the dishar- 

 monies in Nature we must look to the world of the 

 living things, but even here the defeats and failures 

 are the exception — else there would be no living 

 world. Organic evolution reaches its goal despite 

 the delays and suffering and its devious course. 

 The inland stream finds its way to the sea at last, 

 though its course double and redouble upon itself 

 scores of times, and it travels ten miles to advance 

 one. A drought that destroys animal and vege- 

 table life, or a flood that sweeps it away, or a 

 thunderbolt that shatters a living tree, are all dis- 

 harmonies of Nature. In fact, one may say that 

 disease, pestilence, famine, tornadoes, wars, and 

 all forms of what we call evil are disharmonies, be- 

 cause their tendency is to defeat the orderly de- 

 velopment of life. 



The disharmonies in Nature in both the living 

 and the non-living worlds tend to correct them- 

 selves. When Nature cannot make both ends meet, 

 she diminishes her girth. If there is not food enough 



192 



