CHOICE AND CHANCE. dl 
If we add sulphuric acid to zinc the hydrogen does not all pass off at once; 
the process which follows requires “me for its completion. So it is with the good 
leaven in society. The individualsare not all changed at once; those who chance 
to be most favorably situated are first changed. The whole process requires time, 
and in the meantime, urged on by our necessities, we have taken the responsibility 
of hanging some individuals, just as we kill obnoxious wolves and bears. So 
that for the present, notwithstanding all our efforts to better the condition of the 
poor, a large number of them will never have the opportunity to learn the instincts 
of gentlemen, and their senses will remain so blunted that they will not be able to 
realize, as we can realize, the utter wretchedness of their situation—a situation 
into which they are born, and from which, experience shows, the greater part of 
them cannot escape, even when they chance to possess the desire to escape. The 
misery of their condition is made yet deeper by the successful struggles of stronger 
and better men after ¢hezr ideals of happiness. 
It is difficult to see how an all-wise and an all-powerful Creator could have 
been the author of so much misery. But the other hypothesis that there has 
.been no creation, that the universe is but the sporting-ground of irresponsible 
force, and that finite intelligence has been self-evolved from inanimate matter, 
seems equally incredible. In whatever way we view the matter this difficulty 
seems to me logically insurmountable, and I do not wonder that in the great poem 
of Milton, he describes the fallen spirits as deeply engaged in a hopeless contro- 
versy upon 
“« Fixed fate, free-will foreknowledge absolute, 
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost.”’ 
. —Book II. (560-561.) 
Happily for the business of life the irrepressible love and admiration of 
humanity for the pure and good saves rational men from practical error, or from 
rebelling against the eternal law, in which science and faith agree that although 
time and chance happen to all, yet that whatsoever a man soweth that shall he 
also reap; and in this fact that we believe that we shall be held responsible, the 
feeling of responsibility appears to find, at once, its explanation and its justification. 
An insect which produces a species of India rubber has been recently dis- 
covered in the district of Yucatan, Central America, by an American explorer. 
It is called meen, and belongs to the Coccus family; feeds on the mango tree, 
and swarms in these regions. It is of considerable size, yellowish brown in 
color, and emits a peculiar oily odor. The body of the insect contains a large 
proportion of grease which is highly prized by the natives for applying to the 
_ skin, on account of its medicinal properties. When exposed to a great heat the 
lighter oils of the grease volatilize, leaving a tough wax, which resembles shellac, 
and may be used for making varnish or lacquer. When burned, this wax, it is 
said, produces a thick semi-fluid mass, like a solution of India rubber. 
