12 THE WORLD MACHINE 



vast that there is scarce any branch of physical science into 

 which it has not reached, and from which it has not drawn 

 facts of greater or less import in the make-up of the composite 

 sketch. Of any recent volume dealing at once broadly and 

 in detail with the materials for a cosmical theory, beyond doubt 

 the most notable is the text-book of cosmical physics from the 

 pen of Arrhenius. It may be that in this original and stimu- 

 lative work we see for the first time in its entirety the cycle of 

 the cosmic machine. 



In a larger sense we may now perceive that the development 

 of a science of the earth and sun and stars, like human de- 

 velopment in general, is an integral part of that vast scheme 

 of evolution, of unfolding and becoming, which pervades the 

 world. If life be universal, and of this we may little doubt, 

 this growth of the race mind is a constant incident of the cosmic 

 process. Doubtless in aeons past other races upon infinitely 

 distant planets have pursued the same difficult and devious 

 way towards the light ; doubtless in aeons to come, when by 

 the chance collision with some dark sun or huge swarm of 

 meteorites our little earth and the system of which it is a part 

 has been resolved again into chaos, the same process will be 

 endlessly repeated within other systems possibly yet unborn. 



But for the here and now this development has been a 

 human process, and in some sense forms the fairest possession 

 of stumbling, groping humanity. It has been in especial the 

 work of a small number of singularly gifted, intensely curious 

 minds. Each of these facts had to be thought out, intently 

 and sometimes painfully, by some particular brain or group. 

 " Behind the fossil shell," says Taine, " there was an animal, 

 and behind the library document there was a man." No part 

 of our human growth is of profounder interest or of larger 

 import for the future. 



In this it presents an inspiring contrast to the empty babble 

 of wars and dynasties, of conquests and crusades, that passes 

 ordinarily for history. The reading of the accustomed tales 

 as a boyish pursuit is affected with an undivided charm. But 

 he who in after years, when the boyish love of stirring tales of 

 war and conquest and the pictured deeds of heroism has some- 

 what passed, dips again into these predilections of his youth, 

 turns the chequered pages with other feelings. Let him lose 



