6/6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ence of the sun. However it may have been at one period of the his- 

 tory of the earth, when its internal temperature may have been of a 

 nature to favor the development of organic life without the sun's aid, 

 by the earth becoming itself a sort of sun, it may at least be now 

 affirmed that the solar radiations are the sole condition of vital exist- 

 ence on the globe. This fact is so apparent that even savages have 

 generally recognized it, and science has scarcely been able to qualify 

 the popular conception. By the aid of the sun's heat and light the 

 various forms of vegetable and animal life have been evolved. By the 

 same influence, year by year, the buds, and flowers, and leaves, unfold 

 to the elements, and renew their conditions of growth and reproduc- 

 tion. By means of it the waters of the globe are in part converted 

 into vapor and gas, in which state alone they are adapted to the sup- 

 ply' of organic beings. By its influence the various organic bodies on 

 the surface of the earth are finally disintegrated, and the materials for 

 new forms and new beings are dissipated into the gaseous form, for 

 recomposition and i-eutilization. By the same influence the waters of 

 the globe are prevented from solidifying, and made the abode of mill- 

 ions of organic beings. In a word, it is the influence of the sun which 

 alone renders our planet a habitable globe. 



But what is the nature of this great and wonderful influence as 

 expressed in the terms of the redistribution of matter? However 

 paradoxical it may seem, it is nevertheless true that the great life- 

 creating and life-sustaining force of the sun is cosmologically a disin- 

 tegrating force, a force of dissolution. Indeed, the solar and sidereal 

 radiations are the only examples which the whole universe presents to 

 us of such a force. It seems strange enough to be comj^elled to as- 

 cribe all the phenomena which have been embodied in the term or- 

 ganic evolution to the action of a force which is the precise opposite 

 of evolution, and which ultimately accomplishes the dissolution of 

 every such aggregate. Yet it is only because the sun is in a state in 

 which its matter is being integrated, and its motion radiated into 

 space, that our earth is capable of producing the forms of organic life. 

 It is only because a portion of this motion, ejected from the sun, is in- 

 tercepted and absorbed by the earth, by which a portion of its own 

 matter is disintegrated, and its own course of evolution is in so far 

 arrested that the presence of the beings peopling it has been made 

 possible. It is only through cosmical dissolution that organic evolu- 

 tion can go on. 



Is life, then, a process of dissolution? Is organic evolution a mis- 

 nomer ? Are the imfolding of the bud, the branching of the tree, the 

 hatching of the Qg^^., the differentiation of the animal are these but so 

 many steps which concentrated matter is taking toward its final disin- 

 tegration ? Is development the antithesis of evolution? To all these 

 questions a negative answer may, I think, be given. But we have 

 gone far enough to perceive that some broad distinction exists between 



