(52 THE BIOCOSHOS PRELIMINARY. 



years at least are its due. Thus the heat- 

 scale of life, after having lasted so long, is to 

 vanish from the globe according to present 

 science, which in this way sees the thermal 

 principle slowly failing, and makes the Dia- 

 cosmos bring on the death of the Biocosmos. 

 Here it should be added that the other Dia- 

 cosmical radiants, Light and Electricity, are 

 quite as necessary to Life as is Heat. In 

 their case, too, vital action lies between too- 

 much and too-little. There is a light-scale of 

 Life, and an electric scale of Life; in both 

 these cases also comes up the question of the 

 final extinction of Earth-life with the waning 

 of the Sun. The problem likewise presents 

 itself in regard to other solar systems. For 

 instance, does the same heat-scale of life pre- 

 vail in the supposed planetary retinue of 

 Sirius, or of Arcturus? We may be curious 

 enough about our nearest stellar neighbor, 

 Alpha Centauri, to ask whether it has in its 

 train a planet corresponding to our Earth 

 with a similar Order of Life (Biocosmos)? 

 Unanswerable are all such questions, but they 

 help illustrate the limits of our terrestrial 

 Life, which, like the Life of the individual, 

 has its period of birth, bloom, and cessation, 

 according to the present Diacosmical trend 

 of science. Still we cannot help interrogat- 



