Page:Essays and phantasies by James Thomson.djvu/73

 while the means of Mother Earth do not increase in proportion, she must age after age starve and half-starve more and more of us; and thus in a few thousand years, if she and we exist so long (and unless, of course, these my beneficent proposals be carried out), she will prove to us the stingiest old hag ever known. And looking beyond our own frigate the earth (of whose tender, the moon, I could say a good deal), and regarding our little fleet of the Solar System, we find that there is an absurd and perilous want of communication between the various vessels; that we not only cannot pass or signal to any of the others, but in fact know next to nothing of them, and absolutely nothing of their crews; so that in case of a threatened attack by corsair comet or shooting star we could concert no plan of common defence or evasion. Moreover, it is very doubtful whether the fleet is in a good position in the Sea of Space; and whether our flag-ship the Sun, who leads us cruising whithersoever he likes, is taking a judicious course for a prosperous voyage, or is but hurrying on recklessly, and likely to lead us to "eternal smash" among breakers; for not only are we never consulted as to the course, but we are never told anything about it when it has been settled, and so go drifting on for ever in a most ignominiously blindfolded fashion. And I might go farther still, and note many things in the universe beyond our system which probably need improvement or abolition; but I really have not spare time just now. I can only add a few short notes on things requiring amendment in the relation of Nature to Man. She treats our intelligence with profound disdain, never giving us the slightest trustworthy hint of her origin, character, business, processes, objects, and final causes, if indeed she really has any final causes or cause. She manifestly carries on her large business (whatever it really is) without any special care for our convenience or profit, being wont to ignore us with our