82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by the finest and most delicate instrumental adjuncts and physical testings, with which 

 we are acquainted. Of this primary something appearing as a flocculent mass or nebu- 

 losity floating in space all that we can now say is, that it appears to be hydrogen or 

 some other closely allied substance. Further curdled, or condensed to a degree sufficient to 

 permit its light to be subjected to spectrum analysis, the presence of many of the terrestrial 

 elements as oxygen, magnesium, iron, carbon, silicon, sulphur, and the like is revealed 

 to us, apparently associated with the hydrogen in the form of infinitely fine dust; and -the 

 evidence and reasoning are to the effect that, from the further and continued condensation 

 and chemical action of this gas and cosmical dust, the condensed nebula, nebulous suns, 

 other suns, planets, and all other forms of associated matter with which we are acquainted, 

 have originated. Like a true scientist, Prof. Lockyer stops here, and does not attempt to 

 go beyond the legitimate scope of scientific observation and deduction. He indeed assumes 

 that this primary matter is endowed with motion, and that the force of gravitation is also 

 present and potential ; because it is impossible to conceive of the existence of matter in 

 space free from these qualities. He does not raise the question how the hydrogen, the in- 

 finitely fine dust, the qualities of motion and the force of gravitation originated ; and the 

 problem of original creation, although removed further back as it were, remains as inscrut- 

 able and unanswerable as ever. Nay, more than this, he does not raise the most interesting 

 and startling theme of speculation suggested by this revelation of stellar and matter evo- 

 lution, which is this: Of this primal form of matter the beginning of the history of 

 cosmical evolution one of two things must be true. Either associated with this dust and 

 gas from the beginning were the germs of all the vital and mental energy that have since 

 manifested themselves in connection with matter, or they were not. If the affirmative is 

 true, then vital and mental energy, or what we may term life, was associated with inorganic 

 matter in an active or latent state from the beginning. If the negative is the case, 

 then the vital and mental forces or germs have been subsequently introduced or imparted 

 from without. And if so, when and where was the bridge by which matter, life, and spirit 

 were brought into association constructed ? There must have been a time and place in 

 cosmical history ! A time and place in the process of evolution ! If cosmical dust and 

 associated hydrogen, in condensing into nebula and suns, are subjected to heat of a greater 

 degree of intensity than anything within the range of^human experience, as all astronomers 

 seem to be agreed, it is certain that nothing organic could have existed concurrently; and 

 there is, therefore, hardly a shadow of evidence that inorganic matter, especially after 

 having been subjected to incandescence, could ever have originated even protoplasm, by 

 mere association of atoms. The evidence would therefore seem to be strongly adverse to 

 the idea of any original association of the vital principle with matter. Editor.] 



-- 



SOME LESSONS FROM BARBARISM. 



Br ELAINE GOODALE. 



IN the course of several years' conscientious effort to civilize 

 those barbarians within our borders the American Indians I 

 have been unwillingly impressed by the fact that barbarism offers 

 several points of evident superiority to our civilization. It is well 

 known that whole tribes of Indians indeed, all of them to some 

 extent have been demoralized and degraded by contact with the 

 lowest whites, and are no longer fair types of the barbarian. 

 A few others have been transformed by schools and lands in 

 severalty into commonplace farming communities, with no very 

 striking features of their own. Let us consider briefly the pe- 



