THE INORGANIC WORLD 29 



Ether and force appear to constitute his primary 

 " Substance ". 



With regard to the origin of evolution in ether, 

 Haeckel thus describes the process : " This universal 

 movement of substance in space takes the form of an 

 eternal cycle or of a periodical process of evolution. 



" The phases of this evolution consist in a periodic 

 change of consistency, of which the first outcome is the 

 primary division into mass [matter?] and ether — the 

 ergonomy of ponderable and imponderable matter. 



" This division is effected by a progressive condensa- 

 tion of matter as the formation of countless infinitesimal 

 ' centres of condensation,' in which the inherent primitive 

 properties of substance — feeling and inclination — are the 

 active causes." ^ Of course this theory of a homogeneous 

 ether forming local thickenings by some spontaneous 

 " feeling and inclination " at certain " centres of conden- 

 sation " is an hypothesis without a shadow of even a hint 

 of a proof, much less explanation how they came about. 

 When condensation is going on physicists call it gravity ; 

 but what sets up a centre of attraction, as in our sun, is 

 not known. And there we must leave these speculations 

 as involving at present insoluble problems. 



Haeckel does not seem to have heard of vortex- 

 rings in ether as the origin of matter ; about which 

 something will be said below, as well as of the very latest 

 hypothesis of the present year (1903). Two great 

 questions, therefore, arise at once. How had the in- 

 organic universe, to which our earth belongs, a beginning 

 in time and space ; and how did Life appear upon this 

 earth ? 



What has modern science got to say, first, as to the 



1 op. cit., p. 248, 



