GOD AND NATURE 165 



oiently to meet the astounding disclosures of mod- 

 ern science. It is easier to say there is no God. The 

 universe is so Mwhuman, that is, it goes its way 

 with so little thought of man. He is but an incident, 

 not an end. We must adjust our notions to the dis- 

 covery that things are not shaped to him, but that 

 he is shaped to them. The air was not made for 

 his lungs, but he has lungs because there is air ; the 

 light was not created for his eye, but he has eyes be- 

 cause there is light. All the forces of nature are 

 going their own way ; man avails himself of them, 

 or catches a ride as best he can. If he keeps his seat 

 he prospers ; if he misses his hold and falls he is 

 crushed. Mankind used to think that the dews and 

 rains were sent for their benefit, and the church stUl 

 encourages this idea by praying for rain in times of 

 drought, but the notion is nearly dissipated. To 

 such a mind as Cardinal Newman the spectacle of 

 the world caused a similar moral shiver and doubt 

 to that which crossed the mind of the little Scotch 

 boy when he looked out upon the wild pass in the 

 mountains. He does not see God there ; he says it 

 is like looking into a mirror and not seeing his own 

 face. And the proofs that are drawn from without, 

 from the facts of human society and the course of his- 

 tory, do not warm and enlighten him, do not take away 

 the winter of his unbelief ; and the inference he draws 

 is that either there is no God, or else that man is 

 alienated from him, — " the human race is implicated 

 in some terrible aboriginal calamity" (The Fall of 

 Man). But the natural philosopher must discard 



