LEAF AND TENDRIL 



cancer that is slowly eating a man up — it too is the 

 result of a vital process just as much as is the life 

 it is destroying. Contagion, infection, pestilence, 

 illustrate the laws of life. One thing devours or 

 destroys another — the parasite destroys its host, 

 the rust destroys the wheat or the oats, the vermin 

 destroy the poultry, and so forth; still the game of 

 life goes on, and the best wins, if not to-day, then 

 to-morrow, or in ten thousand years. Li the mean- 

 time, struggle, pain, defeat, death, come in; we 

 suffer, we sorrow, we appeal to the gods. But the 

 gods smile and keep aloof, and the world goes blun- 

 dering on because there are no other conditions 

 of progress. Evil follows good as its shadow; it 

 is inseparable from the constitution of things. It 

 shades the picture, it affords the contrast, it gives 

 the impetus. The good, the better, the best — 

 these are defined to us, and made to entice us by 

 their opposites. We never fully attain them be- 

 cause our standards rise as we rise; what satisfied 

 us yesterday will not satisfy us to-day. Peace, 

 satisfaction, true repose, come only through effort, 

 and then not for long. I love to recall Whitman's 

 words, and to think how true they are both for 

 nations and for individuals : — 



" Now understand me well — 

 It is provided in the essence of things, that from any fruition of 

 success, no matter what, shall come forth something to 

 make a greater struggle necessary." 



248 



