Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-04

known from the known.
Nothing can hinder him from seeing In
this act of man development only one act
of a development that includes the whole
universe The evolution of man has a cos
mic significance.
Throughout the whole immensely of time
there must have flowed an unbroken course
of events, only one part of which was the
development Of ourselves. It is entirely
impossible that this course could have been
broken even a second in all that time. for
if 1t had the results would have been i'm
possible.
In twilight of imagination we can sur.
mise something beyond our own chain or
life. A mighty course of events was neces-
at all that which we know now as life
We do not know what life really Is
Perhaps its elements and properties are
properties of cosmic matter ITSELF
At any rate, the first cell formation was
an evolutionary achievement of the first
rank. This first life manifested itself in
form that was, doubtless. the best adapted
to the temperature Of the earth at that
time. But the conditions that led to that
formation of the first life must them
selves have developed much earlier. And,
before that. the earth probably was red
hot like the sun today. We cannot con-
ceive at the protoplasm known to US,
and of which the animal and vegetable
cell consists today. could have lived In that
fire period. Yet its origin must absolutely
have been in that time
The whole beginning of time primeval
thus becomes part of our chain. Now 1t
may be that the glowing earth was piece
of the sun. left behind by it as ring when
the sun shrank and finally whirled togeth-
er into sphere Hence our story of life
may lead US back into the sun itself. AND
the sun was part of the primeval mists
from which the systems of the milky way
sprang. So we look back to our home In
the milky way, and thence into the inf1nity
of the cosmos.
think, then, that when we look clearly
OF in0S Of ho WI
the matter of the world-end in a manner
quite different from that which is usual to
humanity
That chain of development that led to
humanity has withstood the enormous
changes that made fixed stars out of the
etheric mist; it has withstood the tremen-
dous shock of the fragmenting of such
fixed star into pieces that became planets;
it has withstood the formation of an earth
out of fiery mass; on that slowly cooling
globe it has created one wondrous shape
after another, from the first cell to man.
Now we hear that in further millions of
years-we can say billions with perfect
truth-certain new alterations of this plan
etary system will become facts-changes
which. sooner or later, will take the earth
star back to the sun again. or will take
away from it the light and heat of that
sun. Now what shall we ask?
think that it Is in no petty. small spirit
that may ask: Is this. then. to be the
end of that final progress of development?
Nay. Let US ask further: What new. won
derful links will be fitted into the immor-
tai chain with the new, vast change of the
planets?
That we can put this question is in itself
one Of the most important achievements of
philosophy To seek the answer means to
dream-to dream ahead for billions OF
years.
Not Death, but Greater Life.
If 1 may dream, can see two ways in
which the human genius can not only sur
vive the threatening future, but can &C.
tually make it further instrument in the
progress toward perfection.
The mind of man may develop itself SO
enormously in those billions Of years that
space and distance shall be immaterial and
meaningless to it. The very fact of de-
crease in the earth's speed or lessening
of the suns heat might give him the i'm
pulse that will make him dare to steer out
into the universe. The separate intelli-
gences of the various planets may conceiv-
ably cooperate. And in the end man would
leave this sinking ship Of the planet-sys-
tenn. Darling swiftly as light on wOndrous
machines. man speeds to distant, hap
pier stars perhaps to that red double star
Alpha in the constellation of the Centaur
which Is only four billions of miles away
from us.
There is another solution somewhat more
difficult Of apprehension.
Suppose this outward picture of humanity
were wiped out some day.
The earth has rolled into the sun and a
new gaseous sphere has been formed. But.
in it's new development there appear won
derful provisions. Matter. after wandering
for billions of years through human brains
in billions of generations of thinking crea-
lures has changed!
Is the matter that has wandered through
the brain of a Shakespeare or a Gothic the
same in it's innermost properties as 1t was?
Or is 1t something else?
The chemist says: The proportions OF
weight Of atoms of iron and forth
unchanging." But the weight of the atoms
in raw block of marble may be exactly
the same as in the Venus of Milo. Is there
no difference?
Imagine, then. that through a kind of
world -bequest certain things had been made
easier for this new gaseous world. Then
the chain of evolution would have been
saved after all In ascending, exactly as it
has been saved in our animal and vegetable
world through simple inheritance of quail
tiles and properties.
The outward form of humanity could dis
appear then in any solar draft furnace as
quietly as the body of any single human
disappears in the furnace Of the crematOry,
and yet the great evolutionary chain would
be saved.
Whoever feels in himself the power for
progress. for aspiring work. may feel as
sured: In him still weaves the mighty loom
that began its wool in Milky Ways and
Sirius suns and that will lead us farther,
though earths crack and suns sink into
night. Here burns the true world-power
of our individuality. So long as it does
not believe in final end of the world, so
long none can be.
"Ah. yes" sighed Mr.. Higgintop, laying
down his morning paper; bad news travels
fast"
"Abner." sharply interrupted his wife.