66 The Bible of Nature 



but *'a slight residual effect" as chemical affinity 

 or gravitation with which we attempt to carry on 

 the work of the world. These atoms, congrega- 

 ting in their turn as nebulae and under the slight 

 residual force of gravitation, condense into blazing 

 suns. The suns decay in their temperature and 

 become ever more and more complex in their 

 constitution as the atoms lock themselves, develop- 

 ing up into the molecules of matter to form a world. 

 We see the molecules growing ever more and more 

 complex as the world grows colder until we attain 

 to organic compounds. We see these organic 

 compounds united to form living beings and we 

 see these living beings developing into countless 

 forms, and, after aeons of time, evolving into a 

 dominant race, which is us." 



This rather takes one's breath away, and of 

 course the clear-headed author's use of the words 

 "we see" is highly metaphorical. In this case 

 seeing means believing. An outsider can hardly 

 refrain from suspecting that the evolutionary 

 physicists tend to be a little impetuous, perhaps 

 even metaphysical. Is there not a tendency to 

 make a demiurge of the ether, which, after all, is 

 but a necessary hypothesis ? It seems a little un- 

 certain whether it is "some mysterious form of 

 non-matter," as is generally believed, or whether 

 it may not be the lightest and simplest of the ele- 

 ments, as Mendeleeff suggested. Just as Berkeley 



