LEAF AND TENDRIL 



tuitous and unrelated, but have their root in the 

 constitution of things; There is nothing on or in 

 the earth that is not of the earth ; it is all latent or 

 patent in the cosmic process. 



11 



Strange how men have speculated about the ori- 

 gin of evil, and built themselves cages in which to 

 bruise their own wings. Evil has been regarded as 

 something as positive as light, or heat, or any tangi- 

 ble object. Our moral and religious nature has so 

 regarded it, but the reason sees that evil is only 

 the shadow of good, and is as inevitable as good 

 is inevitable. Life has its positive and its negative 

 sides. Its positive side is health and growth and 

 enjoyment, its negative side is disease and decay 

 and suffering. All that favors the former is good, 

 all that leads to the latter is bad, relatively bad. 

 Disease is only another form of life. The germs 

 that are pulling us down and destroying us in ty- 

 phoid fever or cholera are healthy and thriving if 

 we are not. What is good for them is bad for us. 

 Life preys upon life everywhere, and the devoured 

 is the victim of evil. We live and move and have 

 our being submerged in an ocean of germs, myriads 

 of them for us and myriads of them against us on 

 occasion ; one kind building up, another kind pull- 

 ing down, and, as it were, redistributing the type. 

 Life as we know it could not go on without both 

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