28 The Universe and Life 



greatest interest: a fact of capital importance. But 

 for its full significance, we must make certain other 

 inquiries concerning the appearance of life. Is the 

 later appearance of life, including its inner and outer 

 phenomena, a mere logical or computational outcome 

 of the conditions that preceded it, as the operation of 

 a machine is a consequence of the way the machine is 

 formed.^ Science, says Conan Doyle, has made the 

 universe "a mere clockwork mechanical wonder swing- 

 ing in a vast vacuum." Is this true of biological 

 science.^ The operation of the machine can be com- 

 puted and predicted beforehand from a knowledge of 

 its structure. Is this true of the appearance of life.^ Is 

 the development of life the mere operation of a ma- 

 chine, computable and predictable, from knowledge 

 of the machine before life appeared.^ 



Put more precisely, the question is as follows : The 

 materials of the solar or stellar systems at certain early 

 periods included none of the phenomena of life ; cer- 

 tainly none of the phenomena characteristic of the 

 higher forms of life. But what has happened since 

 shows that these materials were indeed such as could 

 and did give rise to the outer and inner phenomena of 

 life, after certain changes and recombinations had 

 occurred. Our question is: From the existence and 

 properties of the fiery mist of those early periods, 

 could the later appearance of life be predicted by 

 means of reasoning and computation .f^ Or, in the ap- 

 pearance and development of life, has something 

 fundamentally new appeared; something that could 



