Madam How and Lady Why; or, First lessons in earth lore for children . in the Illustrated ZondonNews: and it has puzzled you and made you want to know why God killed all those people—mothers among them, too, and little children ? Alas, my dear child! who am I that I shouldanswer you that? Have you done wrong in asking me ? No, my dearchild; no. You liave asked me because you are ahuman being and a child of God, and not merely acleverer sort of animal, an ape who can read and writeand cast accounts. Therefore it is that you cannotbe content, and ought not to be content, with askinghow t
Madam How and Lady Why; or, First lessons in earth lore for children . in the Illustrated ZondonNews: and it has puzzled you and made you want to know why God killed all those people—mothers among them, too, and little children ? Alas, my dear child! who am I that I shouldanswer you that? Have you done wrong in asking me ? No, my dearchild; no. You liave asked me because you are ahuman being and a child of God, and not merely acleverer sort of animal, an ape who can read and writeand cast accounts. Therefore it is that you cannotbe content, and ought not to be content, with askinghow things happen, but must go on to ask why. Youcannot be content with knowing the causes of things;and if you knew all the natural science that ever wasor ever will be known to men, that would not satisfyyou; for it would only tell you the causes of things,while your souls want to know the reasons of thingsbesides; and though I may not be able to tell you thereasons of things, or show you aught but a tiny glimpsehere and there of that which I called the other day the. OHAP. II EARTHQUAKES 29 glory of Lady Why, yet I believe that somehow,somewhen, somewhere, you will learn something of thereason of things. For that thirst to know why wasput into the hearts of little children by God Himself;and I believe that God would never have given themthat thirst if He had not meant to satisfy it. There—^you do not understand me. I trust thatyou win understand me some day. Meanwhile, Ithink—I only say I think—you know I told you howhumble we must be whenever we speak of Lady Why—that we may guess at something like a good reasonfor the terrible earthquakes in South America. I donot wish to be hard upon poor people in great afflic-tion : but I cannot help thinking that they have beendoing for hundreds of years past something very likewhat the Bible calls tempting God—staking theirproperty and their lives upon the chances of no earth-quakes coming, while they ought to have known thatan
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