New-York tribune., 1921-05-29

Humanity has inhabited this planet for MT
lions, not merely thousands, of years past VI
all these millions of years myths and LEGENDS
record only the latest moment. This IDEA may
seem. Professor Soddy admits, a fanc1ful one
But he recommends it to those who STUDY
ancient nythologies and the origins Of human
beliefs
When we stop to consider that the power by
which we live and move and have our being IS
none other than that which drives on the stars
in their courses and maintains their splendors
over the long epochs Of cosmical time when
we consider that science can take this power
wherever it is found-in fuel, waterfall or
sunshine-and can use it to do the work Of
men. we can gain some insight into the nature
of the ancient goods" "A simple people, who
confused power with deity, like the ancient
Greeks or primitive Vikings, would have seen,
explains our authority, Gin this control Of the
powers of nature the act Of a god and, from
their point of view, it truly is the most godhke
achievement man has ever accomplished
The ancient problems Of $Sthe philosopher
stone" and the efforts of the alchemlsts TO
transnute baser metals into gold are also
viewed in a new light. Whether these ideas
are the inventions of charlatans, as is COM
monty supposed, whether they are the
distorted, parrot-ike repetitions Of the wisdom
Of lost Atlantis, the well-informed would
now dare not say. To-day modern science
sees in the power tc effect the transmutatlon
OF elements the power to prolong the physical
welfare Of the community for long periods. Il
The achievements of science and civiliza-
ton in the last one hundred years or so
strike Professor Soddy as "a sudden forward
leap apparently unconnected with and GER
tainIy not eliminating necessarily out Of the
periodic ebb and flow of human fortune.
1t is the work of a mere handful Of
men" This fact inspires Professor Soddys
optimism for the future of humanity; but 1t
also throws new light on the past-the unend-
ing, unexplored past Nothing but the mos
sublime egosnl," he exclaims, "the uncon-
scious constitutional disability of the natural
man to conceive Of universe not revolving
around himself, can make it appear improb-
able that what occurred so suddenly and
mysteriously in the last few centuries OF
recorded history may not have occurred be
fore not once, but perhaps many times dur
ing the vastly longer period Of which no
record has yet been interpreted 1t is only
right to consider the possibility that the
n,and exercised over nature in the twentieth
century may have been attained, possibly ex-
ceeded, previously"
Whatever view we take of the rigmaroe
cf the alchemical charlatans of the Middle
Ages, the fact remains that those new scient,
lists of radium and radioactivity would ascribe
t. the problem Of the ultimate constitution OF
matter and the practical achievement of the
problem of the transnlutation of the elements
an importance and significance that cannot
but be fattering to the instincts of the human
mind, over which these problems have for
long exerted such powerful fascination.
The physical impossibility' Of one era be-
comes the commonplace of the next No
theory can claim universal application II
is of necessity partial, Professor Soddy quail
fes, and bounded on all sides by the unknown
and the unexplored. But radium teaches US
that we are held back only by our OWL
ignorance complacency in the growing
conquest over nature.
Radum is unique among the elements, not
because it is lowered with any exceptional
potentiaities or because it contains any alb
normal store of internal energy which other
elements do not possess, but simply and solely
because it is changing comparatively rapidly,
while the elements hitherto known are chang
ing AIIpSICSHGlDlg- Inc LTu0E view, VIC
read, is that this one element has clothed with
its oeon dignity the tghoIe empire of common
matter
THE aspect which matter has presented to
in the past is but consummate disguise
concealing latent energies and hidden aetivi-
ties beneath a hitherto mpenetrable mask
The ultra-material potentialities Of radiun
are the common possession of all that worlc
to which in our ignorance we used to refer a,
mere inanimate matter. This is the weight
lest lesson the existence of radium has taugh
us. This internal store of energy we
learned of for the first time in connection witt
radium is possessed to greater or less degree
by all elements in common, and is part ant
parcel of their internal structure"
The curtain of the twentieth century, b,
these discoveries, has thus been rung up upol
a mighty transformation scene. Our centur,
has "opened" with the transformation of tn
most fundamental and permanent of the ex
istences which physical science has in the pas
recognized To-day this transformation ha
extended beyond physical science and trans