THE BREATH OF LIFE 



or waste, or failure, and that are dependent upon 

 the infinitely slow ripening and amelioration of both 

 cosmic and terrestrial conditions. 



We do not get rid of God by any such dictum, but 

 we get rid of the anthropomorphic views which we 

 have so long been wont to read into the processes of 

 nature. We dehumanize the universe, but we do not 

 render it the less grand and mysterious. Professor 

 Moore points out to us how life came to a cooling 

 planet as soon as the temperature became low 

 enough for certain chemical combinations to ap- 

 pear. There must first be oxides and saline com- 

 pounds, there must be carbonates of calcium and 

 magnesium, and the like. As the temperature falls, 

 more and more complex compounds, such as life 

 requires, appear; till, in due time, carbon dioxide 

 and water are at hand, and life can make a start. 

 At the white heat of some of the fixed stars, the 

 primary chemical elements are not yet evolved; but 

 more and more elements appear, and more and 

 more complex compounds are formed as the cooling 

 process progresses. 



"This note cannot be too strongly sounded, that 

 as matter is allowed capacity for assuming complex 

 forms, those complex forms appear. As soon as ox- 

 ides can be there, oxides appear; when temperature 

 admits of carbonates, then carbonates are forthwith 

 formed. These are experiments which any chemist 

 can to-day repeat in a crucible. And on a cooling 



112 



