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them in their course. Such smaller planets they convert 

 into satellites and moons, and with the solar electricity 

 derived from these satellites they support upon their 

 surface the flora which in turn supplies the solar stream 

 of oxo-hydrogen. In this way they preserve their cosmic 

 function in supplying the fires of the sun with needed 

 gas. But the more perfect a planet becomes the more 

 heat it contains within itself, and the time at last comes, 

 when, developed to the necessary extent, it passes from 

 its sun and begins an independent life in space. The 

 fixed stars of both our hemispheres present such instan- 

 ces of independent life, to which our planets themselves 

 are tending. 



New life creates new vital functions, new joys, new 

 conditions; and then, passing through these charms of 

 vitality it reaches death. We see it in our own human 

 life. We are born, we are bred up, we pass through 

 childhood, with its subordination to elders, we attain 

 full age and independence, we marry, we produce 

 our like, and then we die, returning to the ele- 

 ments from which we were formed and leaving the 

 world's stage to a new generation which repeats our own 

 experience. This is the universal course of all natural 

 life, its fundamental principle; all moral dogmas which 

 contradict this, being false to the foundations of cosmic 

 life, are brushed aside by that life in its course, as 

 worthless rubbish. And indeed one must confess that 

 human fantasy is inordinately and incomparably rich in 

 its nonsensical aberrations. But of that I will speak 

 when I come to consider the laws of human morality. 

 "' Let us glance now at the cosmic life of the planetary 

 kingdom. The little asteroid, only just freed from its 

 solar shell, flies out into space charged with the element 

 of oxo- hydrogen itself still full of the parental fire; and 

 here in space the cosmic gases begin their work upon 

 it. In order to render it a useful member of the cosmic 

 family it must be cooled down, but cooling it must 

 yet preserve sufficient heat to keep alive its vital 



