SCIENCE AND RELIGION 219 



and the man build themselves up into their 

 respective structures? What must we say of the 

 life, minute, multitudinous, degraded, which, cov- 

 ering the ocean-floor, occupies by far the larger 

 part of the Earth's area; and which yet, growing 

 and decaying in utter darkness, presents hundreds 

 of species of a single type? Or, when we think 

 of the myriads of years of the Earth's past, during 

 which have arisen and passed away low forms 

 of creatures, small and great, which murdering 

 and being murdered, have gradually evolved, 

 how shall we answer the question: To what end? 

 Ascending to wider problems, in which way are 

 we to interpret the lifelessness of the greater 

 celestial masses, the giant planets, and the 

 Sun; in proportion to which the habitable planets 

 are mere nothings? If we pass from these rela- 

 tively near bodies to the thirty millions of remote 

 suns and solar systems, where shall we find a 

 reason for all this apparently unconscious exist- 

 ence, infinite in amount compared with the exist- 

 ence which is conscious a waste Universe as 

 it seems? Then behind these mysteries lies the 

 all-embracing mystery whence this universal 

 transformation which has gone on unceasingly 

 throughout a past eternity and will go on unceas- 

 ingly throughout a future eternity? And along 

 with this rises the paralysing thought: What if, 

 of all that is thus incomprehensible to us, there 



