Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1893-12-08
THE UNIVERSE.
oeees Wsssda. Oass and AGaa Fro0 the
9sasaPsias - Evelatlon.

oehes Wsslda. Oass a~d Man Fro0 sho
Ssasaps,st - Evolution.
Are there other worlds: The answer
must TO yes. Tac deductions OF science
demand It Enthusiastically. 1t may be dit.
ficult ov impossible to determine inst
what particular orbs are hafo able or in
habited or to what plane their animated
structures may have advanced in the
creative scale. but "a the universe eter-
nally was, since this succession ct world
development and dccadence has been in
eternal operation, the conclusion Il ire
sistible that there never has been a time
there was not an infinity Of spheres in
habitcd. Are We then to conclude that
every orb in the skies is the abode Of life:
Certainly not; NOR can we conclude
that they arc all l,abitable. for that mat
ter.
We must disabuse our minds Of the
idea that the universe is solely run to
accommodate our little Garth and its
fighting bipcd known rs man-that the
universe is simply n stage on which he
lnay sickcn the gods with his bombastic
exploits.
Man, wherever he presents himself,
must I've simply n response to conditions
that invita- him, and he is en- amazingly
long time in responding. Nothing Is
clearer in mathematics than is this fact
in anthropology. Long after the carth's
crust was cool, after ages of aqueous
and igneOus warfare. when Vegetation
was exuberant and hinge animals dis
ported themselves in the great marshes
and lagOOns, no man was present.
Volcanic Niagaras Of molten matter
shot from the casth's interior, painting
in awful grandeur the nocturnal skies
with reflected CONGREGATIONS. the noun
tEins commenced to wrinkle. and still
there was no man. The cooling contin-
ued. the crust thickened, cataclysms
ground the rock into drift: the terrors Of
. the convulsive storms g-ow wider and
wider apart, and still there was no hui
manity to grace the scene. Huge and
uncouth life was that, savage and coarse;
hoarse cries Of savagery, and night was
hideOus with s:nguinary uproar, but no
mammalia yet stood erect.
From some other world man may have
gazed ut the earth through his glass and
speculate As we do when we gaze on
Mars. and thus, while hundreds Of gen.
crations may have observed. they looked
on a sphere where the elimination Of
the creative process in human evolution
had not yet taken place.
But man finally came. He stood up,
but he was 4 picture. Behold yet his
congeneric brethren in Africa aud parts
of ,Asia-suspicious heels, suspicious
hands! Jaw, face, eyes, brain. general
contour, all these were lessons, but ig-
norance, if not altogether bliss, had to
be eliminated. as slowly through the
ages did he journey up. Ills crude brain
DEVELOPED with his ceaseless planning 20
c,rcumvent his lower conSeners struS-
Cling for existence. Organ after organ
was developed. asnew impressions forced
themselves. until finally he began 20
have vague idea Of most rustic pro.
priety and dim conception Of a crude
rr.lsctabilisy.
such. on the earth. has been mans
genesis. On other worlds his career
must I've analogous to this. II, then, we
would know auSht Of man elsewhere we
must be able to trace his pedigree here.
Knowing the slow stages involved in
terrestrial development rs regards the
evolutions Of the spheres, VIC may know
approximately ut least its animal de-
velopment. ...-.
But true knowledge, like true charity,
must begin ut home. This world is the
key with which we must unlock the
problems Of the stellar worlds.-Pitts-
burg Dispatch.