276 From Matter to Man. 



fish in the ocean, too, the heavenly bodies are ever 

 moving, though perhaps less arbitrarily ; and, like fish, 

 if we concede them polarity, they can also to a certain 

 extent avoid one another. 



Fish, however, are not immortal, neither are asters ; 

 the " grim reaper " comes indiscriminately to both ; 

 thus fish, big and small, die from internal disintegrating 

 causes, decompose into their original elements — as 

 carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, etc., or air, water, and soil — 

 and complete their cycle of universal existence by as- 

 similating with various food products, which in turn 

 probably help in the upbuilding of other fishes. 



Small fish, in crossing the track of larger fish, and 

 unable to escape, are swallowed, digested, and assimi- 

 lated, eventually repeating of necessity the preceding 

 disintegrating phases, for in all organisms the cycle 

 of material existence is invariable— -from elements to 

 elements. 



So far as is known, similar transitoriness character- 

 ises the heavenly bodies. Biela's comet showed how 

 an aster could become internally disintegrated and 

 as utterly dissipated as a human organism ; while the 

 passage of meteors in regular orbits probably indicates 

 a planetary cemetery towards which all travel sooner 

 or later. 



Grouping all the facts together, along with the 

 hypothesis of the volcanic origin of comets and 

 meteors, we obtain data for sketching a plausible 

 theory of our own solar and planetary evolution, as 

 well as that of other suns and solar systems. 



