IS NATURE CRUEL?
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sm,—With reference to your correspondent's letter in your issue of May 4th, entitled, "Is Nature Cruel ? " she seems to raise one or two debatable points.
If Man is a part of Nature, not something contrasted with Nature (and it is surely difficult to hold any other view which is consonant with the teaching of Evolution), how can he "rise above" the processes of Nature ? Are they not inherent in him ? Is he not bound by her laws in the same way as is any other living creature ? Miss Ward seems to assume that Man is dissociated from Nature, for she refers to him as " imitating " her processes. Any attempt on Man's part to dissociate himself from Nature's laws brings only harm in its train.
This tastelessness, or " cruelty" of Nature Ands its counter- part in human nature in that element of violence with which government, legislation, and social reform have always had to reckon. It is difficult to see how far two thousand years of "ethical and spiritual progress" have eradicated this element of violence from among mankind ; ten years ago we had just emerged from a display of human violence on a grand scale.
We might even ask whether too persistent an attempt to "rise above" the processes of Nature has not been responsible for many of the ills which at present harass Western civilization.
Should we not frankly acknowledge that it is by endeavouring to work in harmony with the processes of Nature that spiritual and physical serenity is attained ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
_ AILWYN BEST.
Ashton Rathbone Hall, fillet Road, Liverpool.
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