NATURAL SELECTION AND ETHICS. 57 



Much of the misery of the world due to the belief 

 that Nature will somehow make an exception in our 

 favor. That she will somehow ease up on her laws 

 when she comes to our case. Belief that Nature can 

 or ought to interfere in the interest of easy living. 



But the forces of Nature and laws of Nature each one 

 its own justice, and no other. Nature no respecter of 

 persons. How could she be ? Moral indifference of 

 Nature. How could Nature be morally other than in- 

 different ? Moral indifference of multiplication table. 

 Nature's laws differ from multiplication table in be- 

 ing more complex, not more variable. Two times two 

 equals four the world over. But we count that ten 

 thousand dollars at compound interest should yield 

 more for a good cause than a bad one. So it will in 

 the long run ; not through the multiplication table, 

 but through human reaction. 



Bad men think that they can trick a complex law ; 

 good men that they can bend it to help them. Both 

 are deceived. A varying multiplication table : de- 

 struction of science. Varying law : the destruction of 

 the universe. 



" If God should wink at a single act of injustice the 

 whole universe would shrivel like a cast-off snake- 

 skin." 



Laws of Nature best, else they would not be. A 

 broken law would be a discarded universe. 



Ruskin on the " Pathetic Fallacy." Basis of poetry. 

 Superstition grows out of poetry taken literally by the 

 unpoetic. Illustrations: 



"They brought her home across the foam 

 The creeping, crawling, cruel foam." 



