THE BREATH OF LIFE 



rid of, or hold in abeyance, my inevitable idealism, 

 if I would; neither can I do violence to my equally 

 inevitable naturalism, but may I not hope to make 

 the face of my naturalism beam with the light of the 

 ideal — the light that never was in the physico- 

 chemical order, and never can be there? 



ii 



The naturalist cannot get away from the natural 

 order, and he sees man, and all other forms of life, 

 as an integral part of it — the order, which in inert 

 matter is automatic and fateful, and which in liv- 

 ing matter is prophetic and indeterminate; the 

 course of one down the geologic ages, seeking only 

 a mechanical repose, being marked by collisions 

 and disruptions; the other in its course down the 

 biologic ages seeking a vital and unstable repose, 

 being marked by pain, failure, carnage, extinction, 

 and ceaseless struggle with the physical order upon 

 which it depends. Man has taken his chances in 

 the clash of blind matter, and in the warfare of 

 living forms. He has been the pet of no god, the 

 favorite of no power on earth or in heaven. He is 

 one of the fruits of the great cosmic tree, and is sub- 

 ject to the same hazards and failures as the fruit of 

 all other trees. The frosts may nip him in the bud, 

 the storms beat him down, foes of earth and air 

 prey upon him, and hostile influences from all sides 

 impede or mar him. The very forces that uphold 



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