4 THE KIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



which arise from the combination of a few (about 

 seventy) elements that are incapable of further 

 analysis ; some of them play a most important part 

 in every branch of life. It has been shown that one 

 of these elements — carbon — is the remarkable sub- 

 stance that effects the endless variety of organic 

 syntheses, and thus may be considered " the chemical 

 basis of life." However, all the particular advances 

 of physics and chemistry yield in theoretical impor- 

 tance to the discovery of the great law which brings 

 them to one common focus, the " Law of Sub- 

 stance." As this fundamental cosmic law establishes 

 the eternal persistence of matter and force, their 

 unvarying constancy throughout the entire universe, 

 it has become the pole-star that guides our Monistic 

 Philosophy through the mighty labyrinth to a solution 

 of the world-problem. 



Since we intend to make a general survey of the 

 actual condition of our knowledge of nature and its 

 progress during the present century in the following 

 chapters, we shall delay no longer with the review of 

 its particular branches. We would only mention one 

 important advance, which was contemporary with the 

 discovery of the law of substance, and which supple- 

 ments it — the establishment of the theory of evolu- 

 tion. It is true that there were philosophers who 

 spoke of the evolution of things a thousand years ago ; 

 but the recognition that such a law dominates the 

 entire universe, and that the world is nothing else than 

 an eternal " evolution of substance," is a fruit of the 

 nineteenth century. It was not until the second half 

 of this century that it attained to perfect clearness 

 and a universal application. The immortal merit of 

 establishing the doctrine on an empirical basis, and 



