Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-02-25

stone that storms are grown IN
America that pestilence is SIMPLY
question Of baccilli, we should stu
do well TO ask ourselves occasionally
whether our knowledge is an absolutely
unmixed gain, and whether, in the pro-
cess OF acquiring it, certain grsces and
sustainments OF the human spirit have
not disappeared. 1t is not impossible,
indeed. that a little closer study of these
same meteorites may ultimately be found
10 Weld something like a rebuke to the
pride OF modern knowledge. One dis
tinguished man OF science told us some
years ago that it was by means OF me
teorites that the germs of life were
originally conveyed to our planet, when
as vet it was in the inorganic stages,
from orbs already peopied with living
organisms. Another eminent scientific
man, Mr.. Norman Lockyer, has more
recently preached the theory that to the
action OF mcteoritcs is due not life only
in this planet, but the planet itself and
the whole solar system to which 1t be-
longs.
Hurrying blindly through space, me-
tcoric masses collide and SILVER into
whirling orbs which, acquiring heat,
light. and sphericiiy from their motion
and revolution. have gradually cooled
down into the the still slowly hardening
heavenly bodies which are ct present
performing their periodical orbit round
the sun. II Is impossible not to feel i'm
pressed by these stupendous theories,
and equally impossible TO be satisfied
with them. 4 meteorite runs up against
another meteorite in space, and they
fy TO pieces. Immediately the whole
planetary system-Mercury, Venus,
the earth, Mars, and so forth
spring into being, and-there you
are Again, another meieorite, con-
veying life germs, drops upon one
Of these dead uninhabited bodies.
Life is communicated to it, and again
there YOU are Yet still, as IN the we'll
known instance of the stage coach acct
dent. impairment curiosity will press the
question, Where are you? Or, If that
question is deemed to be sufficiently
answered by the theories Themselves, the
further inquiry, Whence came you ? IS
much more difficult to answer. The life
conveying meteorites have yet to account
tothe scientific detective forthe life-germs
found IN their possession" The " in
formation which he has received "
has carried him no further than the bare
fact of possession, and the possessor
steadily refuses to surrender the secret.
So. again. with Mr. Norman Lockyer's
hvpothesis-or, as we may for conye-
nience call it, il the phrase be not con
siderod irrevereut, the theory OF
smithcreens. What started the meteO-
rites is a question as unanswerable as
the query, What sprinkled them with the
germs of life? A pagan would have
made short work enough Of both
Inquiries. Re would have met
each of them with the reply
that the author of those motions and the
giyer Of that life WAS Zeus, the father OF
the immortal gods. Him, it is true, the
modern man of science has dethroned,
and in many instances has persuaded
himself that il IS not necessary 10 I'LL the
deposed monarchs place. In tins, how
ever, the student very frequently differs
from him, and, in spite Of his teachers
assuring him that the whole thing has
been explained, he continues to feel the
absence Of Zeus, or of some substitute
for him, in the explanation of the world
Of being, as a rather serious want.