NA'TURE AND MAN 91 



scious self." Above all let us always seek her last ruling and 

 interpretation of her laws. 



When all has been said there remains much for man to do. 

 Many of her methods can be improved. There is much which 

 must be opposed or curbed. If the desert is to blossom as 

 the rose, many thorns and briers must be uprooted from the 

 soil. We must also remember that she is continually stimu- 

 lating our growth in strength by compelling us to wrestle 

 with or against her; and the game is often rough. 



We must understand her and her ways; and without sym- 

 pathy understanding is impossible. We may learn to marvel 

 at her beauty, even if we cannot always and altogether admire 

 her character. We can appreciate Nature only as we know 

 and understand ourselves; and most of us are too busy or 

 idle to devote much time to the study of either. Somehow we 

 must live and get on with her for, to mis-quote Hiawatha: 



^' Though he bend her, he obeys her. 

 Though he draw her, yet he follows." 



We have said that good and bad in man lie in alternating 

 layers or streaks; there is much good in the worst, too much 

 of bad in the best. This is partly due to the presence of out- 

 worn tendencies which ought to have been outgrown, partly 

 to lack of health and vigor, partly to weakness and ignorance, 

 partly to sheer perversity and original or acquired sin. 



Much of it springs from a still deeper root. Man is an ex- 

 ceedingly complex being. He is like a craftsman who has so 

 many tools that most of them grow rusty and dull for lack of 

 use. 



We will take only one illustration as sample. Our mind 

 manifests itself in intelligence, feeling and will. In the 

 healthy mind these are all highly and symmetrically developed, 

 but this is a rare case. We find cold-blooded intellectualists, 

 who feel little and accomplish less. Some of them are " see- 

 ing cripples." We find weak, " sentimentalists," oil-films on 

 shallow pools; also obstinately self-willed people of narrow 



