GOD AND KATUKE 171 



that we dare not, cannot, name any end or purpose 

 for which it exists. It is because it is. If man 

 exists on other worlds, or if he does not exist, it is 

 all the same. The superior and the inferior planets 

 may run their course and life not appear upon them. 

 It is just like the prodigality, the indifference of 

 Nature. If the conditions are favorable man will 

 appear; if not, not. They are no more there for 

 his sake than yonder river is there for the sake of 

 the fishes, or yonder clay bank for the sake of the 

 brickmakers. Space is no doubt strewn with dead 

 worlds and dead suns as thickly as youder field with 

 dead boulders, and with worlds upon which only the 

 rudiments of life can ever develop, too hot or too 

 cold. Our own earth must have been millions of 

 years without man, and it will again be millions 

 without him. He is the insect of a summer hour. 

 The scheme of the universe is too big for us to 

 grasp — so big that it is no scheme at all. The 

 infinite — what is that ? Is it equal to absolute 

 negation ? It is when we have such thoughts that 

 all notions of a God disappear and one says in his 

 heart, " There is no God." Any God we can con- 

 ceive of is inadequate. The universe is no more a 

 temple than it is a brothel or a library. The Cos- 

 mos knows no God — it is super deus. In the light 

 of the nebular hypothesis how one wilts ! How 

 vain all your striving and ambition. The proudest 

 records of earth must perish like autumn leaves. 



