IN THE BEGINNING 63 



impossible. We may suppose that some small planet or 

 large moon of a planet may have been violently shattered, 

 and fragments, bearing germs of life, shot out into space. 

 Could the germs survive the terrible cold (about-2oo C) of 

 space? There are, of course, microbes that thrive in ice- 

 cream and in arctic seas ; but the cold of space is a different 

 matter. Intense refrigeration is regarded to-day as one of 

 the best methods of killing germs. However, doubt is 

 raised whether these germs from another world might not 

 survive. Then the fragment would enter our atmosphere 

 at a terrific speed, attracted by the earth. It would be 

 raised to incandescence at its surface (a shooting star) by 

 the friction, and probably shattered. Nevertheless, there 

 are students who think it is not impossible for simple germs 

 to survive the adventurous voyage. But the theory is a 

 fantastic possibility, a la Jules Verne, at the most. It casts 

 the responsibility of explaining life on the biologists of 

 another planet. There is no need whatever to do this. 



Another conjecture is that life may be itself a simple and 

 eternal form of energy, like electricity. This has some 

 resemblance to the theory of Sir Oliver Lodge in terms, 

 but it is substantially different in the sequel. It does not in 

 the least lend itself to the notion of the persistence of the 

 higher and more complex life-forms the immortality of the 

 soul. However, like the preceding, it is merely a desperate 

 attempt to get away indirectly from a problem that it regards 

 as insuperable. Above all, it is entirely excluded by the 

 considerations we have seen. The living particle is not a 

 piece of ordinary matter with a peculiar form of energy 



