174 On the Campus 



Come eat ! Come eat ! What a wondrously fine world is 

 this ! How perfect its adaptations ; it was no doubt made 

 expressly for robins; the earth-worms writhe and crawl 

 for us; for us the cherry-tree glows in summer scarlet, 

 and the blackberry spreads its harvest; I will hie me to 

 the summit of yonder waving elm, built to protect me, 

 stretching its leafy arms to hide my nest I will hie me 

 to its summit and will sing and sing and sing ! ' ' 



The robin reasons well; he reasons, you may notice, 

 exactly as do men; as men have done through all the 

 centuries; it must be well. Nay rather; he reasons as 

 have reasoned the more thoughtful of mankind : ' ' Plato, 

 thou reasonest well." And yet, we who look upon the 

 situation from without may easily perceive the robin's 

 limitations. Possibly the earth-worm exists for his own 

 sake after all; and the cherry-tree a word from the 

 farmer not only spoils all this the robin's specious argu- 

 ment but may even silence forever that early morning 

 song. Where then is all our harmony, our beauteous 

 adaption to purpose, and plan of this created world? 

 Alas for robins and for men, it lies far deeper; we are 

 just now beginning in our later thoughts to see something 

 of the trend and purpose of it ; to find it more profound 

 than all our learning, wiser than all human thought. 

 The trouble in these things is with men as with robins; 

 the view is not wide enough; research goes not far 

 enough ; we follow our little lines and think them ended 

 when we lose ikem\ we light our little lamps and catch 

 their glimmering reflections on the world about us, but 

 forget that only infinity can comprehend infinity; that 

 only an infinite ocean can return the light of perfect, to 

 say nothing of absolute truth. 



