Note 3 — INTRODUCTION
Reading edition
If nature abhors a vacuum, she also abhors stagnation. Is there not reason behind all this action and reaction, these cycles and short-time changes which her observers note? May it not well be that the ever-swinging pendulum has a stir-up function to perform and that the miniature daily catastrophies of life are the things which keep it wholesome and sweet?
“The old order changeth yielding place to the new. And God fulfils Himself in many ways Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.” —Tennyson, Alfred, The Passing of Arthur.