all
the contradictions in our philosophy.

In considering this problem of the mystery of living things, I have had
a good deal of trouble in trying to make my inborn idealism go hand in
hand with my inborn naturalism; but I am not certain that there is any
real break or contradiction between them, only a surface one, and that
deeper down the strata still unite them. Life seems beyond the capacity
of inorganic nature to produce; and yet here is life in its myriad
forms, here is the body and mind of man, and here is the world of
inanimate matter out of which all living beings arise, and into which
they sooner or later return; and we must either introduce a new
principle to account for it all, or else hold to the idea that what is
is natural--a legitimate outcome of the universal laws and processes
that have been operating through all time. This last is the point of
view of the present chapter,--the point of view of naturalism; not
strictly the scientific view which aims to explain all life phenomena in
terms of exact experimental science, but the larger, freer view of the
open-air naturalist and literary philosopher. I cannot get rid of, or
hold in abeyance, my inevitable idealism, if I would; neither can I do
violence to my equally inevitable naturalism, but may I not hope to make
the face of my naturalism beam with the light of the ideal--the light
that never was in the physico-chemical order, and never can be there?

II

The naturalist cannot get away from the natural order, and he sees man,
and all other forms of life, as an integral part of it--the order, which
in inert matter is automatic and fateful, and which in living matter is
prophetic and indeterminate; the course of one down the geologic ages,
seeking only a mechanical repose, being marked by collisions and
disruptions; the other in its course down the biologic ages seeking a
vital and unstable repose, being marked by pain, failure, carnage,
extinction, and ceaseless struggle with the physical order upon which it
depends. Man has taken his chances in the clash of blind matter, and in
the warfare of living forms. He has been the pet of no god, the favorite
of no power on earth or in heaven. He is one of the fruits of the great
cosmic tree, and is subject to the same hazards and failures as the
fruit of all other trees. The frosts may nip him in the bud, the storms
beat him down, foes of earth and air prey upon him, and hostile
influences from all sides i