CHAPTER II 



WHAT WE UNDERSTAND BY NATURE 



In the following pages I shall submit for 

 the reader's consideration convictions which 

 have been impressed on my mind from the 

 practical study of nature — observations in the 

 field. 



First, however, it may be weU to consider 

 what we understand by nature. The word is 

 derived from the Latin : natus, bom ; there- 

 fore, nature has a prior cause — a parent. But 

 when we consider that nature is the sum of all 

 things visible, and much which, though in- 

 visible to normal sight, is in other ways per- 

 ceptible, we come to the inevitable conclusion 

 that what stands in loco parentis to nature is 

 the First Cause, and this brings us to a con- 

 templation of the Absolute — ^the Absolute 

 Infinite Mind which is at the back of, and 

 reflects through, all nature. 



As the differential wheels of a clock are 

 accurately fashioned and intermeshed to en- 

 sure perfect time-keeping and regularity of 



