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♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[Jan. 30, 1885. 



"imself into the River Euripus, because he could not under- 

 stand its Ebb and Flow, by the same Logic he might at liis 

 first Entrance on Philosophy have destroyed himself, and 

 we may fairly doubt, in which of the Elements he ought to 

 have perished. 



After Aristotle's Fate amidst the Waves of Euripus, a 

 new Eace of Peripatetics started up, even worse than their 

 Founder, who handed their Philosophy to after-Ages in so 

 thick an Obscurity, that it has preserved it from the Satire 

 and Ridicule of all Mankind, as understood by very few. 

 Some there are to be found, who spend their Time amidst the 

 Rubbish which these Commentators have filled the World 

 with, and pore more than once on thei-e God-like Treasures 

 of Learning, and stick to them to no other purpose, 

 unless to shew the "World the vast Pains they take to be 

 deceived. Can there be a more pleasant Sight than to see 

 these wise Champions wrangling with each other 1 The 

 one armed with Propositions and Syllogisms, attacks his 

 Antagonist in the same Armour : Both Bell weathers grow 

 angry, and storm, fond of a Victory, which is worth but a 

 Trifle, when obtained : Each, with all his Might, darts out 

 his Barbarisms at the other, they entangle themselves in 

 their Follies, and as neither knows how to extricate him- 

 self, they sound to a Retreat, and when all the Ammunition 

 is spent on both Sides, they think fit to keep Silence. 



Thus far. Gentlemen, and no farther, launches out the 

 ancient Philosophy : Let us therefore sentence for ever 

 this Troop of Commentators, to be tied up in Chains and 

 Libraries, Food only for Moths and Worms, and there let 

 them quietly grow Old, free from the Sight of any Reader. 



' THE BEGINNING OF LIFE.* 



By Richaed A. Proctor. 



MBAILLY, the French astronomer (who perished on 

 • the Ecatibld in the French Revolution), wrote a 

 book on the Atlantis of Plato, in which he strove to show 

 that science had had its origin in higli latitudes, if not 

 actually round the North Pole. Of course he was unaVjle 

 to find the slightest evidence of any old system of astro- 

 nomy in which the various relations corresponded to a pole- 

 star nearly overhead. (What singular conditions would 

 exiot, by the way, at a North Polar observatory ! At such 

 a station the ordinary form of telescope, with its vertical 

 and horizontal axes, would be an equatorial, simply because 

 the vertical axis would be directed towards the pole of the 

 heavens.) All Bailly could attempt to show was that 

 the astronomical records of old times seem to retain traces 

 of a system of astronomy belonging to a higher lati- 

 tude than any passing througli the Assyrian, Egyptian 

 and Indian regions to which the origin of astronomy has 

 usually been assigned. He showed some evidence in favour 

 of latitude 50° north as having been that to which early 

 astronomy belonged, though the evidence (as I have shown 

 in appendix A, to my treatise on "Saturn and its System ") 

 was not nearly so decisive as he supposed. Now, if it can 

 be shown that astronomy, which later had its chief schools 

 in latitudes considerabl) south of .50°, had formerly thriven 

 in that higher latitude, Bailly's main contention — that the 

 progress of civilisation had been southward — would have 

 been strongly confirmed. Traced back from 30° north to 

 40° and to 50° north, science and civilisation could be 

 followed, independently of actual evidence, further north 

 still, until at length the old Atlantis might in imagination 



* From the Xcw Yorlc Trilune, hnt corrected, extended, sud illus- 

 rated for Kxowlkpue. 



be set around the North Pole itself This would suggest 

 to our modern students of the past, who go beyond the 

 origin of civilisation to the origin of life itself, that all life 

 came from the North Pole. 



But if the North Polar regions early presented conditions 

 suitable for the beginning of life upon this earth, it would 

 seem reasonable to conclude that the South Polar regions 

 would have been equally favourable for the first forms of 

 life. In an interesting and suggestive letter in the Tribune 

 of Friday, November 28, the Southern Polar regions ai-e 

 spoken of as originally more suitable than the Northern 

 for life's commencement. The writer of that letter (" Tavt 

 Sigma ") conceives that life had begun round the South 

 Pole, and progressed some distance toward the equator, 

 before life began round the North Pole. "Tau Sigma ' 

 bases this opinion on the actually existent relation 

 between the position of the earth's axis and the direc- 

 tion of the line of apses — as astronomers pleasingly term 

 the major axis of the earth's orbit. His words on this point 

 are these : " If the relative position of the earth to the sun 

 at the beginning of organic life on this planet was about the 

 same as it is now (and we have no astronomical indications to 

 the contrary) either the first suitable temperature, and con- 

 sequently the first vegetable and animal life on the earth, 

 occurred at or near the poles ; " and later, " in this inquiry 

 it must be taken into consideration, among other things, that 

 the South Pole at the time of its midsummer in the earth's 

 perihelion, is some three million miles nearer the sun than 

 the North Pole at the time of its midsummer in the earth's 

 aphelion." So far as can be judged, his whole argument i< 

 based on this consideration, and falls to the ground if this 

 consideration is rejected. 



In an able editorial article in the same number of the 

 Tribune which contained " Tau Sigma's " letter, it was 

 pointed out that this view " may not be generally conceded 

 in the scientific world," nay, that "it is a scientific fact 

 that the earth's perihelion is changing with the lapse of 

 ages, and it is not entirely safe to ass'ime that its relative 

 position to the sun is the same today as it was when the 

 beginning of organi.sed life occurred. ' 



These remarks are only open to exception as implying 

 that there may be some doubt respecting the validity of 

 "Tau Sigma's" position in this respect. As a matter of 

 fact, astronomy would not only be unwilling to concede 

 " Tau Sigma's" view, but would emphatically reject it It 

 is not only a scientific fact that the earth's perihelion is 

 changing with the lapse of ages, but absolutely certain that 

 the relation now existing between tha apses and the solstic-es 

 has been reversed and re-reversed several times since life 

 began upon the earth. 



Not to use technical expressions, the earth is now nearest 

 the sun a few days after the midwinter of the northern 

 hemisphere, which of course is the mid-ummer of the 

 southern hemisphere. Thus, whereas the effect of varying 

 distance from the sun partially corrects the effects of 

 varying solar elevation with us in the North, these effects 

 are intensified for the inhabitants of the southern hemi- 

 sphere. We draw nearer by 1,500,000 miles to the central 

 fire in midwinter, and recede as many miles from the fire 

 in midsummer, the entire range of distance being about 

 3,000,000 miles ; in the southern hemisphere they draw- 

 nearer to the fire in summer and recede from it in the 

 winter. But this only for a while. In a few tens of 

 thousands of years, which, in problems relating to the genesis 

 of life are only as seconds, our northern hemisphere will 

 behave as the southern hemisphere does now, and vice versa. 

 Not only so, but the range of distance, on which " Tau 

 Sigma's" case in like manner dejjends, undergoes great 

 variations. It has been many tirr.f-; in the pa^t, and will 



