The Upper and the Nether Millstones
'They say that Gord made everything for some useful purpose,' remarked Harlow, reverting to the original subject, 'but I should like to know what the hell's the use of sich things as bugs and fleas and the like.'
'To teach people to keep theirselves clean, of course,' said Slyme.
'That's a very funny subject, ain't it?' continued Harlow, ignoring Slyme's answer. 'They say as all diseases is caused by little insects. If Gord 'adn't made no cancer germs or consumption microbes there wouldn't be no cancer or consumption.'
'That's one of the proofs that there isn't an individual God,' said Owen. 'If we were to believe that the Universe and everything that lives was deliberately designed and created by God, then we must also believe that He made the disease germs you are speaking of for the purpose of torturing His other creatures.'
'You can't tell me a bloody yarn like that,' interposed Crass roughly. 'There's a Ruler over us, mate, and so you're likely to find out.'
'If Gord didn't create the world, 'ow did it come 'ere?' demanded Slyme.
'I know no more about that than you do,' replied Owen. 'That is—I know nothing. The only difference between us is that you think you know. You think you know that God made the universe, how long it took Him to do it, why He made it, how long it's been in existence, and how it will finally pass away. You also imagine you know that we shall live after we're dead, where we shall go, and the kind of existence we shall have. In fact, in the excess of your "humility" you think you know all about it. But really you know no more of these things than any other human being does; that is, you know nothing.'
'That's only your opinion,' said Slyme.
'If we care to take the trouble to learn,' Owen went on, 'we can know a little of how the universe has grown and changed; but of the beginning we know nothing.'
'That's just my opinion, matey,' observed Philpot; 'it's just a bloody mystery, and that's all about it.'
'I don't pretend to 'ave no 'ead knowledge,' said Slyme, 'but 'ead knowledge won't save a man's soul: it's 'eart knowledge as does that. I knows in my 'eart as my sins is all hun-
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