360 Edwin B. Frost 



ments by the millions? I see no answer but the fact that there 

 are not, so far as terrestrial or celestial chemistry can yet ascertain. 

 In a century's progress in chemistry, the number of elements 

 detected and differentiated is less than one hundred ; and the out- 

 look, as I, without any technical knowledge, understand it, is 

 toward a decrease rather than an increase of the number of ele- 

 ments. And it is just those very elements with which we are most 

 closely associated in our bodies and in our surroundings that par- 

 ticularly abound in the far reaches of space : hydrogen is present, 

 less than half a dozen stars excepted, in every star and gaseous 

 nebula in the heavens; oxygen, nitrogen, silicon, carbon, magne- 

 sium, sodium — the most familiar elements of our atmosphere and 

 the earth's crust — are conspicuous in the spectra of stars, both 

 early and late in the course of stellar evolution. Helium, so re- 

 cently discovered in the earth, after being known to astronomers 

 as present in the sun for the quarter of a century previously, also 

 plays an especially important part in the chemistry of one of 

 the most interesting types of stars, being the chief characteristic 

 of the stars of the Orion type. There is one form of hydrogen 

 which chemists have not yet produced in the laboratory, although 

 the keen analysis of Professor E. C. Pickering established its 

 existence in a few special stars a decade ago. Nebulum, too, will 

 presumably be found within the earth, perhaps occluded in some 

 crystals yet to be found into which it may have been absorbed 

 (like helium) ages ago. 



This consideration of the homogeneity of the universe offers 

 us some genuine consolation, when we have been depressed by 

 reflections on the immensity of the universe and the utter insigni- 

 ficance of our earth, or our solar system. We may proudly remem- 

 ber that, nevertheless, in quality, which is perhaps a far more 

 essential matter, we share in the choicest of the whole universe. 

 It is a tempting speculation to infer that, if matter does not differ 

 widely in quality in the universe, mind, too, in its relation to 

 matter, is not subject to an extensive range. No logical person 

 can believe that the conditions for the mutual existence of mind 

 and matter solely exist on this particular planet of this particular 

 star, which we call the sun. Hence we could guess that the sen- 

 tient beings on other spheres of space would not differ so utterly 

 from ourselves. But such speculations can scarcely ever be sub- 

 ject to the test of experiment or observation, and may not be 

 soberly pursued further. 



