We can hardly look anywhere in Nature without having the conviction grow
in the mind that there are more or less superfluous things on this spot of
the universe where our lot is cast, however it may be in Mars, Venus,
Saturn, or any other of the Greek-named planets or any heavenly
constellations with or without names. Just at this particular season of
the year, the presence of weeds in the garden or on the farm raises a
colossal doubt as to the fact of any wisdom guiding the divine voice when,
in a majestic sweep of its omnipotent power on the third day of the drama
of creation, it called into being the grass, the herb, the tree and
whatsoever bears leaf or blade or flower. To those who have to pull the
weeds out of the ground they are a curse of the first magnitude, and how a
creator, who had common sense, could take pride in making such vegetable
abortions as weeds we cannot comprehend. The most worthless things in
Nature are the most prolific. Chickweed will cover an acre while clover is
considering where it is best to go into business, and every pesky, nasty
little weed will live and laugh when the queenly corn droops its head in
the sun, and the beet and turnip cannot get nourishment enough to keep
them alive.
It is just the same in the animal world. An immense quantity of useless
beings go about on two and four legs or on none at all. The only excuse
for the snake is that he was made to eat the toad; for the toad, that he
was made to eat insects; for the insects—well, nobody has yet made a
wholesome excuse for their existence, anyway. It looks as though one being
in Nature was made simply to kill another being, and the last-made being,
man, is the supreme killer of the whole lot. Take the whole range of wild
beasts, and find, if you can, aught but malice in their creation, if they
were created. No plague ever destroyed hyenas and jackals. No one ever
found a sick rattlesnake or an invalid hornet. The fittest survive? The
fittest for what? To worry man, to make life miserable. Mosquitoes, wasps,
fleas, reptiles and wild beasts, poisonous vines and shrubs, noxious
blossoms whose perfume is the kiss of death, weeds that push and crowd
decent plants until they die in utter despair—these are the sturdiest
triumphs of the creative art. We cannot help wishing that the Lord-God had
not rested on the seventh day, but instead, had gone around and destroyed
about seven-eighths of what he had created. We might then have had quite a
decent world to live in.
Man builds a home for her he loves, he plants beside it all that will make
it beautiful to the eyes of his wife. He works and brings what is fair to
adorn it, and makes every room a casket to hold the jewel of love. He
looks at his home with pride, and feels that it is “the dearest spot on
earth,” a refuge safe and secure. The cyclone comes and in a moment all is
swept away. Man cannot trust the God of the winds.
There is no more terrible calamity that afflicts our globe at the present
time than an earthquake. It comes without warning, by day or night, when
man is at his place of business or when he is at rest. There is no way of
preventing it, no way of preparing for it. It may wait a hundred, a
thousand, years before it works its deadly ruin. But when it comes, havoc
is left. An earthquake may be good for the earth, but it is almighty
discouraging to the people that live on it. It may seek a beneficent end,
but it goes to work in a cruel manner to accomplish it. Human life counts
no more than the life of rats when an earthquake gets started. This
infernal visitor does not seek a spot where its malevolence can be wrecked
upon the rocks and hills. Oftener it goes to the thickly populated city or
town and topples over houses and swallows up dwellings, with men, women
and children. Does God send the earthquake? If he does, where is the
evidence of his love for man? If He does not, who does?
It is pretty tough business to try to reconcile Nature with the idea of
God’s watchful care over man. If the winds did not turn to hurricanes; if
the sunshine did not make drought; if the rain never became a flood; if
the sea never grew angry and sunk the ship; if the clouds always dissolved
in gentle rain or in dew; if there were no wild beasts; no venomous
snakes; no poisonous vines or flowers; if there were only what is bright
and fair and good on earth and nothing that was dark and cold and
repulsive, we might believe that a heavenly father had made the earth for
a dwelling-place for man. But as it is, we have to think as well of Nature
as possible and dodge her lightning, run from her water-spouts, keep out
of the way of cyclones and shift for ourselves while here. What follows
nobody knows. It may be better for us beyond this life; we hope it is no
worse. And it may be only sleep, sleep with no dreams and no awakening. We
should dislike to die on this side of the grave with the fear that we
should come out on the other only to meet a hurricane in the teeth, or
find an earthquake had been put under us to give us a shaking up the first
thing on that “shining shore,” or to be caught in a furious torrent that
poured down the sides of some heavenly mountain. Earth is a pretty good
place when the conditions are all favorable, but if we are to have another
life it ought to be a better one or else we should be saved the trouble of
dying.
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The feet of progress have always been shod by doubt.
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A true man will not join anything that in any way abridges his freedom or
robs him of his rights.