TOUCHES OF NATURE 43 



but a tiresome and endless repetition of the old 

 ones, — a world perpetually stocked with Newtons 

 and Shakespeares ! 



We say Nature knows best, and has adapted this 

 or that to our wants or to our constitution, — sound 

 to the ear, light and color to the eye, etc. ; but she 

 has not done any such thing, but has adapted man 

 to these things. The physical cosmos is the mould, 

 and man is the molten metal that is poured into 

 it. The light fashioned the eye, the laws of sound 

 made the ear; in fact man is the outcome of Nature 

 and not the reverse. Creatures that live forever in 

 the dark have no eyes; and would not any one of 

 our senses perish and be shed, as it were, in a world 

 where it could not be used 1 



II 

 It is well to let down our metropolitan pride a 

 little. Man thinks himself at the top, and that the 

 immense display and prodigality of Nature are for 

 him. But they are no more for him than they are 

 for the birds and beasts, and he is no more at the 

 top than they are. He appeared upon the stage 

 when the play had advanced to a certain point, and 

 he will disappear from the stage when the play has 

 reached another point, and the great drama go on 

 without him. The geological ages, the convulsions 

 and parturition throes of the globe, were to bring 

 him forth no more than the beetles. Is not all this 

 wealth of the seasons, these solar and sidereal in- 

 fluences, this depth and vitality and internal fire. 



