BIRTH OF STARS AND LIVING THINGS. 367 



gradual formation of our earth, it follows with metaphysical 

 necessity that she must likewise perish; as a something 

 having a beginning and not likewise an end would add to 

 the time of being in the universe, and in consequence 

 annul its infinity. It can only remain a constant and 

 absolute whole in virtue of a perpetual alternation of birth 

 and dissolution among its individual component parts. A 

 gradation in respect of comparative maturity is unquestion- 

 ably observable among the members of our solar system." 

 Strauss, and many more, have fancied that they could dis- 

 cern something like an analogy between the changes in the 

 members of the planetary system and the changes in the 

 members of the only living world known to us; and they 

 have misled the judgment by applying the same terms to 

 absolutely distinct phenomena. The birth of a living thing, 

 its arrival at maturity, its dissolution, mean actual pheno- 

 mena familiar enough, but the same terms applied to the 

 tenants of the universe not only become mere metaphors, 

 but can only be used if the meaning is changed. Poeti- 

 cally we may speak of the birth of a planet, but scientifi- 

 cally the use of such a phrase is inadmissible. Between 

 the two kinds of birth, the birth of a planet and the birth 

 of a living thing, there is indeed nothing whatever in com- 

 mon, save the letters which make the word, and its sound. 

 All this must Strauss have known ; but it is admitted that 

 at the time he wrote the paragraph I have quoted, his 

 system was not complete. He halted on his way for he 

 was by no means sure at that time that the living world 

 was not separated from the non-living, as heaven was sup- 

 posed to be separated from the earth. It is the new 

 scientific discoveries of the last few years that have enabled 



