XIII 



HORIZON LINES 



I. THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



IN dealing with fundamental questions like the 

 origin of life, how prone our natural philosophers 

 are to assume the existence of that which they set 

 out to prove. Thus Pfliigler assumes living protein 

 in the shape of a cyanogen radical, and assumes 

 that this radical possesses a large amount of inter- 

 nal energy, and thus "introduces into the living 

 matter energetic internal motion." As cyanogen 

 and its compounds arise only in incandescent 

 heat, he concludes that life is derived from fire, 

 that its germ was in the earth when it was still an 

 incandescent ball. 



"As soon as oxides can be there," says Moore, 

 "oxides appear." "When temperature admits of 

 carbonates, then carbonates are forthwith formed." 

 But are oxides and carbonates mere fortuitous 

 compounds — just chance hits? Moore helps him- 

 self out by formulating what he calls the "Law of 

 Complexity," a law that holds throughout all space. 

 But is the law, again, fortuitous? Is it not rather 

 organized intelligence? "Atoms, molecules, colloids, 

 and living organisms arise as a result of the opera- 

 tion of this law." Allen says, "Life arose at the 



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