1 86 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



It seems to me that astronomers are not free to admit 

 the existence of a class of meteors intermediate to those 

 already considered. There are meteors which bear 

 strongly-marked traces of having been ejected from 

 other suns than ours ; and, on the other hand, there are 

 meteors which would seem not to have as yet formed 

 part of any large orb in space. But we have abundant 

 reasons for questioning whether any meteors are frag- 

 ments of worlds which have once been the abode of 

 life ; while assuredly we seem entitled to reject de- 

 cisively the theory that such fragments could bear the 

 seeds of life to other worlds. The great mystery of the 

 origin of life upon our own earth has not yet been 

 solved, nor has a path towards its solution been dis- 

 covered ; and even if the strange hypothesis we have 

 been considering had appeared admissible, the mystery 

 of the origin of life in the universe would have re- 

 mained as inscrutable as ever. The great problem 

 which is at present engaging the attention of biolo- 

 gists the question whether all the forms of life now 

 existing on the earth have been developed from a few 

 simple forms, or even one would in fact be replaced 

 by this infinitely more stupendous problem, the question 

 whether all the forms of life existing in all the worlds 

 throughout space have had their origin in some primal 

 form existing at an infinitely remote epoch. And one 

 circumstance, which to some extent gives countenance 

 to the hypothesis of development, even to the mind of 

 those who desire to form the noblest conceptions of the 

 nature of the Deity, is wanting from this amazing ex- 



