Accepting the Universe

Part 1

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

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ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE

ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE

ESSAYS IN NATURALISM

JOHN BURROUGHS

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY JOHN BURROUGHS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

...And heard great argument About it and about: but evermore Came out by the same door wherein I went. THE RUBÁIYÁT

PREFACE

A wheel may have many spokes, but can have but one hub. So I may say of this volume of mine that there are many themes and chapter-headings, but there is but one central thought into which they all converge, and that is that the universe is good, and that it is our rare good fortune to form a part of it. As this collection of essays does not aim to be a systematic treatise on any one theme, but rather a series of sallies, excursions, into the world of semi-philosophical speculation, there is inevitably much repetition; there may even be some contradiction. But I have concluded to let them stand, as I find myself an interested spectator of the workings of my own mind when, in following different roads, it arrives at the same truth. As all roads lead to Rome, so in the realm in which my mind works in this volume, all roads lead to the conclusion that this is the best possible world, and these people in it are the best possible people.

The heart of Nature is sound. I feel toward the great Mother somewhat as a man does who takes out a policy in an insurance company: he believes the company is solvent and will meet its obligations. I look upon the universe as solvent and worthy of trust. In other words this is a book of radical optimism. It might be described as an attempt to justify the ways of God to man on natural grounds.

My reader need hardly be told that theological grounds do not count with me. I want nothing less than a faith founded upon a rock, faith in the constitution of things. The various man-made creeds are fictitious, like the constellations--Orion, Cassiopeia’s Chair, the Big Dipper; the only thing real in them is the stars, and the only thing real in the creeds is the soul’s aspiration toward the Infinite. This abides, though creeds and dogmas change or vanish.

Empedocles says:

“O, wretched he whose care Is shadowy speculation on the gods.”

But is not speculation better than indifference? Curiosity about the gods may lead to a better acquaintance with them. I feel that each of these chapters might be called an altar to the Unknown God.

JOHN BURROUGHS

CONTENTS

I. SHALL WE ACCEPT THE UNIVERSE? 3

II. MANIFOLD NATURE 19

III. EACH FOR ITS OWN SAKE 30

IV. THE UNIVERSAL BENEFICENCE 54

V. THE GOOD DEVILS 73

VI. THE NATURAL PROVIDENCE 90

VII. THE FAITH OF A NATURALIST 112

Part 2

VIII. A FALLACY MADE IN GERMANY 134

IX. THE PRICE OF DEVELOPMENT 138

X. TOOTH AND CLAW 158

XI. MEN AND TREES 173

XII. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 193

XIII. HORIZON LINES:

I. THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 203

II. THE LIVING AND NON-LIVING WORLDS 205

III. THE ORGANIZING TENDENCY 207

IV. SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM 211

V. IS THERE DESIGN IN NATURE? 219

VI. OUR IMPARTIAL MOTHER 225

VII. BAFFLING TRUTHS 226

VIII. SENSE CONTRADICTIONS 230

IX. MAN A PART OF NATURE 233

X. THE FITTEST TO SURVIVE 237

XI. THE POWER OF CHOICE 238

XII. ILLUSIONS 239

XIII. IS NATURE SUICIDAL? 242

XIV. THE PERSISTENCE OF ENERGY 245

XIV. SOUNDINGS:

I. THE GREAT MYSTERY 253

II. THE NATURAL ORDER 257

III. LOGIC AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 261

IV. A CHIP FROM THE OLD BLOCK 265

V. A PERSONAL GOD 266

VI. THE ETERNAL 270

VII. AN IMPARTIAL DEITY 275

Part 3

VIII. FINITE AND INFINITE 278

IX. THE INSOLUBLE 280

X. PAYING THE DEBT 282

XI. DEATH 288

XII. HEAVEN AND EARTH 293

XIII. THINKING AND ACTING 296

XIV. THE TIDE OF LIFE 304

XV. FAITH FOUNDED UPON A ROCK 309

XV. THE POET OF THE COSMOS 316

The frontispiece, showing Mr. Burroughs at his woodpile at Riverby, is from a photograph taken in 1920 by Mr. HERBERT S. ARDELL

ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE

SHALL WE ACCEPT THE UNIVERSE?

It is reported of Margaret Fuller that she said she accepted the universe. “Gad, she’d better!” retorted Carlyle. Carlyle himself did not accept the universe in a very whole-hearted manner. Looking up at the midnight stars, he exclaimed: “A sad spectacle! If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly; if they be na inhabited, what a waste of space!”

It ought not to be a hard thing to accept the universe, since it appears to be a fixture, and we have no choice in the matter; but I have found it worth while to look the gift in the mouth, and convince myself that it is really worth accepting. It were a pity to go through life with a suspicion in one’s mind that it might have been a better universe, and that some wrong has been done us because we have no freedom of choice in the matter. The thought would add a tinge of bitterness to all our days. And so, after living more than four score years in the world, and pondering long and intently upon the many problems which life and nature present, I have come, like Margaret Fuller, to accept the universe, have come frankly to accept that first verdict pronounced upon creation, namely, that it is very good--good in its sum total up to this astronomic date, whatever phases it may at times present that lead us to a contrary conclusion.

Not that cold and hunger, war and pestilence, tornadoes and earthquakes, are good in a positive sense, but that these and kindred things are vastly overbalanced by the forces and agencies that make for our well-being,--that “work together for good,”--the sunshine, the cooling breezes, the fertile soil, the stability of land and sea, the gentle currents, the equipoise of the forces of the earth, air, and water, the order and security of our solar system, and, in the human realm, the good-will and fellowship that are finally bound to prevail among men and nations.

In remote geologic ages, before the advent of man, when the earth’s crust was less stable, when the air was yet loaded with poisonous gases, when terrible and monstrous animal forms held high carnival in the sea and upon the land, it was not in the same sense good--good for beings constructed as we are now. In future astronomic time, when the earth’s air and water and warmth shall have disappeared--a time which science predicts--and all life upon the globe fails, again it will not be good. But in our geologic, biologic, and astronomic age, notwithstanding the fact that cold and suffering, war and pestilence, cyclones and earthquakes, still occur upon the relatively tiny ball that carries us through the vast sidereal spaces, good is greatly in the ascendancy. The voyage is not all calm and sunshine, but it is safe, and the dangers from collision and shipwreck are very remote. It is a vast and lonely sea over which we are journeying, no other ships hail us and bid us Godspeed, no messages, wireless or other, may reach us from other shores, or other seas; forces and influences do play upon us from all parts of the empyrean, but, so far as we are aware, no living thing on other spheres takes note of our going or our coming.

In our practical lives we are compelled to separate good from evil--the one being that which favors our well-being, and the other that which antagonizes it; but, viewed as a whole, the universe is all good; it is an infinite complex of compensations out of which worlds and systems of worlds, and all which they hold, have emerged, and are emerging, and will emerge. This is not the language of the heart or of the emotions--our anthropomorphism cries out against it--but it is the language of serene, impartial reason. It is good for us occasionally to get outside the sphere of our personal life and view things as they are in and of themselves. A great demand is made upon our faith--faith in the absolute trustworthiness of human reason, and in the final beneficence of the forces that rule this universe. Not to solve the mysteries, but to see that they are insoluble, and to rest content in that conclusion, is the task we set ourselves here.

Evidently the tide of life is still at the flood on this planet; its checks and counter-currents arise inevitably in a universe whose forces are always, and always must be, in unstable equilibrium.

The love of the Eternal for mankind, and for all other forms of life, is not a parental love--not the love of the mother for her child, or of the father for his son; it is more like the love which a general has for his army; he is to lead that army through hardships, through struggles, through sufferings, and through death, but he is leading it to victory. Many will perish that others may live; the battle is being won daily. Evolution has triumphed. It has been a long and desperate battle, but here we are and we find life sweet. The antagonistic forces which have been overcome have become sources of power. The vast army of living forms moving down the geologic ages has been made strong through the trials and obstacles it has surmounted, till now we behold it in the fullness of its power with man at its head.

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