IS NATURE CRUEL?
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I should like to endorse the view expressed by E. C. Oppenheim as to the need for distinguishing between the
cruelties of Nature so-called—and the cruelties of man. Those who hold forth on the cruelties of Nature as sufficient reason for opposing humane crusades scarcely ever seem to realize the implications of their argument. Carried to its logical conclusion, it would mean the negation of all ethical restraint and the cessation of all spiritual progress. They ask, in effect, " why let the ape and tiger die," or endeavour to " move upward working out the brute " ? They do not mean this, of course, consciously, but they are too illogical, and too much embedded in the prejudices and habits in which they have been reared, to perceive that it is precisely by rising above and not by imitating the processes of Nature that man has become what he now is.
The Spectator will add to our indebtedness if it can bring this elementary truth home to all who plead for the status quo ante when urged to move a step further towards the goal which has been indicated as the destiny of man.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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