ALL 'S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD 



kinds. Without the germs of fermentation, for 

 instance, what would happen to the world ? With- 

 out the germs that break down animal and vege- 

 table tissue and redistribute the elements of which 

 they are composed — the germs of death — how 

 long could life go on ? 



A fever tortures and burns my flesh because the 

 body fights against the germs that would destroy 

 it. It is one form of hfe struggling with another 

 form. A festering pool in the fields or woods con- 

 ceals chemical processes that all favor life. 



Life is the result of a certain balance between 

 what we call good and evil forces. Destroy that 

 balance, that harmonious adjustment, and death 

 or disease follows. We imperil it when we eat too 

 much, or drink too much, or work too hard, or 

 sleep too little, or exclude the air and sunlight 

 from our houses. A pestilence is just as much an 

 evidence of the health and soundness of nature as 

 is immunity from it, only it is the health of forces 

 that for reasons antagonize our health. We have 

 let the enemy encamp and intrench in our midst 

 while we slumbered. If we had life on easier terms 

 than eternal vigilance, what would it be worth ? If 

 we want to escape blow-flies and mosquitoes and 

 the contagion of this or that, let us go to the Arctic 

 or Antarctic regions, where death reigns perpetual. 



Struggle is the condition of evolution, and evo- 

 lution is the road all life has traveled. Moral evil 

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