Institution of the Order of Nature 17 



would be if, under heavens constantly overclouded, 

 as Jupiter's must be, it had forever remained igno- 

 rant-of the stars. Do you think that in such a world 

 we should be what we are? I know well that under this 

 sombre vault we should have been deprived of the 

 light of the sun, necessary to organisms like those 

 which inhabit the earth. But if you please, we shall 

 assume that these clouds are phosphorescent and emit 

 a soft and constant light. Since we are making hy- 

 potheses, another will cost no more. Well! I repeat 

 my question : Do you think that in such a world we 

 should be what we are? The stars send us not only 

 that visible and gross light which strikes our bodily 

 eyes, but from them also comes to us a light far more 

 subtle, which illuminates our minds." 



Poincare's point is that "without the lessons of the 

 stars, under heavens perpetually overclouded," man 

 would have been slow to attain to a knowledge of 

 Laws of Nature, from which there is no escape and 

 with which there is no possible compromise. Perhaps 

 there might have been no science if man had not ob- 

 served the stars. It looks as if Nature were Nature 

 for a purpose. 



The third thought is one to which we must return 

 at a later stage in the argument. If the solar system 

 emerged from a spiral nebula, and if living creatures 

 are children of sunlit watery earth, and air, and if 

 man is the crown of creation, how well-conceived, 

 humanly speaking, must the institution of the Order 

 of Nature have been ! 



