Part 2 (1/2)
As I watched this fly in its labor, this thought came to me: Is the fly unlike the human being in its desire to live? Is it afraid of death and of the mystery of dissolution? Has it, too, all the agony of fear of pa.s.sing to the ”Great Beyond”? Has it, too, an imaginary G.o.d in the form of a Big Fly? And is it also afraid of that G.o.d's supposed wrath?
If the fly's desire to live is so great, what interest does it have in life?
Does it love? Does it derive happiness when it is able to labor to make happy its fly Juliet?
Does it want to live because it is ambitious and is trying to excel other flies?
Does it really think to better its species and solve the problem of its kind?
Is there a fly family to mourn its death?
While watching that fly and asking myself these questions, I was convinced of the following _truths_:
That the force that we call life is the same that animates the fly. That it, too, has control of its muscles and nerves in the same proportion as we have control of ours. That it, too, possesses the five senses and adds to its tiny brain more intelligence through its experiences. Within the movements and actions of that fly was wrapped up the secret of ”Whence did I come, and whither am I going?”
As I released my attention from that fly, I muttered to myself: ”The more I look at insects, the more I think I am one.”
For what purpose do _we_ arise in the morning, fill our stomachs with food, till the fields, and perform labor in exchange for nourishment, in the evening fall into a sleep from exertion, arise the next day, and perform the same routine, day in and day out, week in and week out, year in and year out, and at the age and in the heyday of physical development seek an outlet in the opposite s.e.x for the strongest impulse that Nature has implanted in us?
This impulse forces us to commit rape and murder, robbery and a.s.sault, and to violate every principle of honor that man has tried to establish for the betterment and advancement of the race.
With the dissipation of this mighty s.e.x force, we subside and decline into weakness and decay, only to pa.s.s into death and oblivion.
What a fearful, wasted effort is this life!
IV
The system of nourishment that Nature has imposed upon the world is not only stupid and malicious, but also of a cannibalistic character.
We, as frail human beings, are horrified and shocked to think that our ancestors trafficked in and delighted in eating the flesh of their race, and even to-day we are making a strenuous effort to discourage the barbarous custom of killing animals to eat their flesh, yet it seems a dictate of Nature that forces us to uphold that custom. Just think of it! Nourishment and life-sustaining forces are derived from eating the cooked flesh of a dead animal, the unborn fowl, the bowels of the lamb, and the eggs of the fis.h.!.+
Can you imagine the wildness of life in such a jungle of cannibalism? No wonder the savage instinct is so deeply implanted in us.
To get a fair idea of the food we eat to sustain life and to please and satisfy our palates, we need but take a casual glance at any of our modern butcher shops. Although to-day you will not see human limbs on display and for sale, as they were years ago, you will be impressed with the following morsels put there to tempt your appet.i.te: In our modern butcher shops you will find pigs' feet, calves' brains, ox tongues, b.r.e.a.s.t.s and legs of lamb, chicken livers, dogs ground to bits and sold as sausages, live and dead fish of all kinds and varieties and innumerable other portions of animal flesh.
Fortunately we have got beyond the point where we eat the entrails of these animals, although we use their hoofs to make glue, their bones for powder, and we string our delicate musical instruments with their vitals.
The things we consume, in turn consume the living forms that they capture and subdue.
The lion, the tiger and the leopard will devour us more quickly, and with less ceremony and with more delight, than we devour other animals.
We, being ”civilized,” boil the animal's flesh and season it with weeds that Nature allows to grow, to give it zest and flavor, while our wilder brothers eat us in the raw, natural manner, only removing our civilized clothes.
Really, if getting nearer to G.o.d is getting back to Nature, the beasts of the fields have an advantage over us. And we know to-day that even the living things in the vegetable kingdom suffer alike from the fearful tortures and penalties of the world. They follow almost the identical routine of life that we follow. Birth, life, reproduction, and death are their lot as well as ours; so that, if man were only to practice the idealism of his cramped and feeble brain he would starve to death!
V
If the world is the result of an established plan, as some say, it must be the conception of a hideous monster whose three cardinal principles are Disease, Despair and Death. But this much we can say: Though G.o.d created us a savage, fortunately man is civilizing Nature's brute and is making him a Man.