172 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



Substitute for the mocking fiend in tliat picture a calm, 

 strong angel, who is playing for love, as we say, and 

 would rather lose than win — and I should accept it as 

 an image of human life." ' 



This is a marvellous illustration, and in general as 

 true as it is beautiful and grand. But that " calm, 

 strong angel who is playing for love, as we say, and 

 would rather lose than win," is certainly a very strange 

 antagonist. Is it, after all, possible that our clear-eyed 

 scientific man has altogether misunderstood the game ? 

 Is not the " calm, strong angel " more probably our 

 partner ? Certainly very many things point that way. 

 And who are our antagonists ? Look within yourself 

 and you will always find at least a pair ready to take 

 a hand against you, to say nothing of the possibilities 

 of environment. " Hex regis rebellis." Our partner is 

 trying by every method, except perhaps by "talking 

 across the board," to teach us the laws and methods of 

 this great game. And calls and signals are always al- 

 lowable. The game is not finished in one hand ; he 

 gives ns a second and third, and repeats the signals, and 

 never misleads. Only when we carelessly or obstinate- 

 ly refuse to learn, and wilfully lose the game beyond 

 all hope, does he leave us to meet our losses as best 

 we may. 



Let us carry the illustration a step farther. Who 

 knows that the game was, or could be, at first taught 

 without talking across the board ? I can find nothing 

 in science to compel such a belief, many things render 

 it improbable. Grant a personality in environment to 

 which personality in man is to conform and gain like- 

 ness. Environment can act on the digestive and mus- 



1 Hnxley ; Lay Sermons and Addresses, p. 31. 



