270 THE UNIVERSE 



This shows the unity of matter and life. Where- 

 ever there is matter there is electric energy and 

 life-force, which evolves infinite grades of life-forms. 

 Prof. Buchner asserts that " spectrum analysis has 

 brought about the highly important conviction 

 of the unity of what is to us the visible universe." 

 And Prof. Shaler of Harvard declares, "the unity 

 of life is the greatest discovery of the nineteenth 

 century." The infinite diversity in nature first 

 fixed the attention of investigators ; now its infinite 

 unity is the marvel which excites their wonder and 

 admiration. Now the unity of matter, force and 

 physical life are accepted by the ablest thinkers. 



This all tends to prove the inhabitability of all 

 suns and worlds. Prof. Huxley put himself on rec- 

 ord as believing in intelligent organic life in other 

 worlds, in the following vigorous language : " Look- 

 ing at the matter from the most rigidly scientific 

 point of view, the assumption that amid the myriads 

 of worlds scattered through endless space there 

 can be no intelligence as much greater than man's 

 as his is greater than a black beetle's, is not merely 

 baseless but impertinent. Without stepping beyond 

 the analogy of that which is known, it is easy to 

 people the cosmos with entities in ascending scale, 

 until we reach something practicably indistinguish- 

 able from omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience. 



"If our intelligence can in some matters surely 

 reproduce the past of thousands of years ago, and 

 anticipate the future thousands of years hence, it 

 is clearly within the limit of possibility that some 

 greater intellect even of the same order may be 

 able to mirror the whole of the past and future." 



This is a masterly statement that demolishes 



