32 INORGANIC EVOLUTION. 



One more thought is forced upon us. The vast period, billions 

 on billions of years perhaps, which the inorganic evolution of the 

 Solar System required, was but a necessary preparation for the 

 organic evolution which followed so soon as our Earth became 

 cool enough to allow of the formation of highly complex chemical 

 compounds and fitted for the appearance of life. And organic 

 evolution, which probably took many millions of years, was a 

 necessary antecedent to and attained its highest development in 

 the advent of Man. And when we survey, as well as we can, the 

 various bodies of the universe, we note that the condition of 

 most of them is very different from the state of our own Sun, and 

 that there can only be comparatively very few of the stars at all 

 fitted to have planets suitaljle for the abode of life circling round 

 them. And the number of worlds where organisms of a highly 

 specialized and complex character could be developed must be 

 still more limited. So that although, on the one hand, the 

 tendency of modern discoveries is to accentuate the insignificance 

 of man, yet on the other hand there is much that seems to 

 enhance his relative importance. We are told in the Book of 

 Grenesis that though man was formed of the dust of the earth 

 he was also made in the image of the Deity. 



I trust that you will pardon the many imperfections and 

 shortcomings of this brief sketch of some of the most recent 

 attempts to raise a corner of the veil which enshrouds the 

 mystery of mysteries, the great Enigma of the Universe. 



Let us remember, in the words of the poet : 

 " Our little systems have their day, 



They have their day and cease to be ; 



They are but broken lights of Thee, 



And Thou, Lord, art more than they." 



Trans. Hertfordshire Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. XIII, Part 1, February, 1907. 



