ife is good. Every man in his heart knows that there is goodness and
wholeness in the rain, in the wind, the soil, the sea, the glory of
sunrise, in the trees, and in the sustenance that we derive from the
planet. When we grasp the significance of this situation, we shall
forever supplant the religion of fear with a religion of consent.

We are so accustomed to these essentials--to the rain, the wind, the
soil, the sea, the sunrise, the trees, the sustenance--that we may not
include them in the categories of the good things, and we endeavor to
satisfy ourselves with many small and trivial and exotic gratifications;
and when these gratifications fail or pall, we find ourselves helpless
and resourceless. The joy of sound sleep, the relish of a sufficient
meal of plain and wholesome food, the desire to do a good day's work and
the recompense when at night we are tired from the doing of it, the
exhilaration of fresh air, the exercise of the natural powers, the
mastery of a situation or a problem,--these and many others like them
are fundamental satisfactions, beyond all pampering and all toys, and
they are of the essence of goodness. I think we should teach all
children how good are the common necessities, and how very good are the
things that are made in the beginning.

_It is kindly_

We hear much about man being at the mercy of nature, and the literalist
will contend that there can be no holy relation under such conditions.
But so is man at the mercy of God.

It is a blasphemous practice that speaks of the hostility of the earth,
as if the earth were full of menaces and cataclysms. The old fear of
nature, that peopled the earth and sky with imps and demons, and that
gave a future state to Satan, yet possesses the minds of men, only that
we may have ceased to personify and to demonize our fears, although we
still persistently contrast what we call the evil and the good. Still do
we attempt to propitiate and appease the adversaries. Still do we carry
the ban of the early philosophy that assumed materials and "the flesh"
to be evil, and that found a way of escape only in renunciation and
asceticism.

Nature cannot be antagonistic to man, seeing that man is a product of
nature. We should find vast joy in the fellowship, something like the
joy of Pan. We should feel the relief when we no longer apologize for
the creator because of the things that are made.

It is true that there are devastations of flood and fir