The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-01-09


entirely impossible that this course couli
have been broken even a second in al
that time, for if it had the results woult
have been impossible.
In twilight of imagination We can sur
mise something beyond our own chain o.
life. mighty course of events was nee
essary to develop the first CELL TO devel
op at all that which we know now a.
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 formation wa.
a revolutionary achievement of the first
rank This first life manifested itself ir
a form that was, doubtless. the best
adapted to the temperature OF the eartl
at that thine. But the conditions that
| led to that formation Of the first life
must themselves have developed much
| earlier And. before that, the earth prob
| ably was red-hot like the sun today. We
cannot conceive that the protoplasn
| known TO us, and of which the animal
and vegetable cells consists today. could
| have lived in that fre-period. Yet its
origin must absolutely have been in that
! time.
| The whole beginning of time primeval
| thus becomes part of our chain. Now it
may be that the glowing earth was a
piece of the sun, left behind by it as a
ring when the sun shrank. and finally
whirled together into a sphere Hence our
story of life may lead us back into the
sun itself. And the sun was a part of the
primeval mists from which the systems of
the Milky Way. and thence into the in
finity of the cosmos
l think, then that when we look clearly
at those things of the past we approach
the matter OF the world-end in 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 treach-
erous shock of the fragmenting Of such
a fixed star into pieces that became plan
cts; il has withstood the formation Of an
earth out of a fiery mass; on that slowly
cooling globe il has created one wondrous
share after another, from the first cell 70
man.
Now we hear that in further millions
OF yea-s-we can say billions with perfect
truth-certain new alterations of this
planetary system WI become facts
changes which. sooner or later. VIII take
The earth-star back 10 the sun again. or
viii take away from it the light and heat
Of that sun. Now wh.c snail ,ye ask?
I think that it is in no petty. small
i-is no
be the end Of that final progress OF de-
velopment? Nay Let us ask further:
What new. wonderful links will be fitted
into the immortal 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
20 dream-to dream ahead for millions
Of years.
NOT DEATH, But GREATER LIFE.
II I may dream. can see two ways IN
which the human genius can not only
survive the Threatening future. but can
actually make 1t 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 in1material
and meaningless to H. The very fact OF
4 decrease in the eartb's speed or les
SEEMING Of the suns heat might give HIM
the impulse that VIII make him dare To
steer out into the universe. The separate
fnteliigences Of the various planets may
COnceivably cooperate. And IN the end
man would leave this sinking ship of tire
Ia q g~Es
on wondrous machines. man speeds to
distant. happier stars-Perhaps to that
red double star Alpha in the Constellation
Of the CeGtaur. which u only four bf-
lions Of miles away from US.
There is another solution somewhat
more difficult OF apprehension
Suppose this outward picture OF human
it were wiped out some Gay
The earth has rolled into the sun and
a new gaseous sphere has been formed.
But in its development there appear Won
derful provisions. Matter after wander
ins for billions Of years through human
brains in billions OF generations Of think
ng creatures, has changed
Is the matter tnst has wandered through
the brain OF a Shakespeare Or a Goethe
he same n its izne-rzost properties a. Il
VAS or IS i, something else.
The chemist says The proportions u
weight % atoms ~ iron aas 81 forth are
But The weight az the atoms
N rax block of maTtls may be exactly
he same ss IN the Venus Of Milo IL there
20 differeacer
Iusagine. then that through a kid u
World-bequest certain things had beea
made easier sor ihss new gaseous Sorli- T
hen the chain q evolution vouid have
been saved after ell sn ascending exact +
} as II has Seen saved IN or animal ard .
9egesabie world through simple inherit
.nse x gusiitiss snd properties
The outward form q humanity couid .
ilsspps2r shen 81 any selar draft furnace
- quietly IS Tire body % any single
human dissppezrs II the furnace CT the
,reEnatoE.. ard yet the srest evolutionary /