TIME AND CHANGE 
vast and everlasting the world is, which was ons 
before we were, and will be other zeons after we are 
gone, yea, after the whole race of man is gone. 
Natural knowledge takes the conceit out of us, and 
is the sure antidote to all our petty anthropomorphic 
views of the universe. 
Vv 
I was struck by this passage in one of the recently 
published letters of Saint-Gaudens: “The principal 
thought in my life is that we are on a planet going 
no one knows where, probably to something higher 
(on the Darwinian principle of evolution); that, 
whatever it is, the passage is terribly sad and tragic, 
and to bear up at times against what seems to be the 
Great Power that is over us, the practice of love, 
charity, and courage are the great things.” 
The “Great Power” that is over us does seem un- 
mindful of us as individuals, if it does not seem 
positively against us, as Saint-Gaudens seemed to 
think it was. 
Surely the ways of the Eternal are not as our 
ways. Our standards of prudence, of economy, of 
usefulness, of waste, of delay, of failure — how far 
off they seem from the scale upon which the uni- 
verse is managed or deports itself! If the earth 
should be blown to pieces to-day, and all life in- 
stantly blotted out, would it not be just like what 
we know of the cosmic prodigality and indifference? 
268 
