IS NATURE CRUEL? 403 



ment of the life of the Cambrian period from the earliest one- 

 celled animals. 



We find, then, that the whole syj^tcm of lifc-chn'elopmcnt is 

 that of the lower providing food for th(^ hi^lur in ever-expand- 

 ing circles of organic existence. That system has succeeded 

 marvelh)usly, even gloriously, inasmuch as it has produced, as 

 its final outcome, Max, the one being who can ai)preciate the 

 infinite variety and beauty of the life-world, the one being who 

 can utilise in any adequate manner the myriad products of its 

 mechanics and its chemistry. Now, whatever view we may 

 take of the universe of matter, of life, and of mind, this suc- 

 cessful outcome is a proof that it is the only i)racticable metlnjd, 

 the only method that could succeed. Uor if we assume (with 

 the monists) that it has been throughout the outcome of the 

 blind forces of nature — of '^ the rush of atoms and the clash 

 of w^orlds " — then, as they themselves admit, being the out- 

 come of a past eternity of trial and error, it could not have 

 been otherwise. If, on the other hand, it is, as 1 urge, the 

 foreordained method of a supreme mind, then it must with 

 equal certainty be the hest, and almost certainly the onJn 

 method, that could have subsisted through the immeasurable 

 ages and could have then produced a being capable, in some 

 degree, of comprehending and appreciating it. For that is 

 surely the glory and distinction of man — that he is continually 

 and steadily advancing in the Txnowledge of the vastness and 

 mvstery of the universe in which he lives: and how anv stu- 

 dent of any part of that universe can declare, as so numy do, 

 that there is only a difference of degree between himself and 

 the rest of the animal-world, — that, in Tlaeckel's forcible 

 words, '" Our own human nature sinks to the level of a ]dacental 

 mammal, which has no more value for tlie universe at large 

 than the ant, the fly of a summer's day, the microscopic infu- 

 sorium, or the smallest baeillu>^." — i< altoo;other beyond mv 

 comprehension.^ 



1 See The Riddle of the Universe, chap. xiii. (p. 87, col. 1). 



