A BIRD OF PASSAGE 



nebula, and the frigid and consolidated globe, there 

 is a brief span, ranging over about one hundred and 

 twenty degrees of temperature, where life appears 

 and organic evolution takes place. Compared with 

 the whole scale of temperature, from absolute zero 

 to the white heat of the hottest stars, it is about a 

 hand's-breadth compared to a mile. 



Life processes cease, but chemical and mechanical 

 processes go on forever. Life is as fugitive and un- 

 certain as the bow in the clouds, and, like the bow 

 in the clouds, is confined to a limited range of con- 

 ditions. Like the bow, also, it is a perpetual crea- 

 tion, a constant becoming, and its source is not in 

 the matter through which it is manifested, though 

 inseparable from it. The material substance of life, 

 like the rain-drops, is in perpetual flux and change; 

 it hangs always on the verge of dissolution and 

 vanishes when the material conditions fail, to be re- 

 newed again when they return. We know, do we 

 not? that life is as literally dependent upon the sun 

 as is the rainbow, and equally dependent upon the 

 material elements; but whether the physical condi- 

 tions sum up the whole truth about it, as they do 

 with the bow, is the insoluble question. Science 

 says "Yes," but our philosophy and our religion say 

 "No." The poets and the prophets say "No," and 

 our hopes and aspirations say " No." 



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