COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



shall never know. But whether the mystery be 

 forever insoluble or not, it can in no wise be re- 

 garded as a solitary mystery. It is equally mys- 

 terious that starch or sugar or alcohol should 

 manifest properties not displayed by their ele- 

 ments, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon, when un- 

 combined. It is equally mysterious that a silvery 

 metal and a suffocating gas should by their union 

 become transformed into table-salt. Yet, how- 

 ever mysterious, the fact remains that one result 

 of every chemical synthesis is the manifestation 

 of a new set of properties. The case of living 

 matter or protoplasm is in no wise exceptional. 

 In view of these considerations, it may be held 

 that the evolution of living things is a not im- 

 probable concomitant of the cooling down of 

 any planetary body which contains upon its sur- 

 face the chemical constituents of living matter. 

 It may perhaps turn out that we can no more 

 reproduce in the laboratory the precise groups 

 of conditions under which living matter was first 

 evolved than we can obtain direct testimony 

 as to the language and civilization of our pre- 

 historic ancestors. But, just as it is conceded to 

 be possible, by reasoning upon established phi- 

 lological principles, to obtain some trustworthy 

 results as to the speech and culture of the pre- 

 historic Aryans" so it must be admitted that, by 

 reasoning upon known facts in physical science, 

 we may get some glimpse of the circumstances 

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