28 THE CREED OF SCIENCE, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL. 



fires of the sun. We long to learn something of our 

 origin. If the evolution hypothesis be correct, even this 

 unsatisfied yearning must have come to us across the 

 ages which separate the unconscious primeval mist from 

 the consciousness of to-day." * 



And to this we can only say that a serious attempt 

 to substantiate the proposition, and to show how even 

 the human species, to say nothing of its philosophy and 

 art, or of its Platos and Shakespeares, was potential in 

 the cosmic vapour, would involve the construction of a 

 new system of metaphysics a feat which would present 

 very exceptional difficulties to any one who, like Pro- 

 fessor Tyndall, accepts the law of natural selection, with 

 its admitted play of boundless contingency, as the most 

 fundamental shaping agency in the evolution of organized 

 beings. 



But it is just possible that we misunderstand Pro- 

 fessor Tyndall when we suppose him to imply that Plato, 

 Shakespeare, and Raphael were potential in the original 

 " fiery cloud." What he says is that they " are potential 

 in the fires of the sun." Does he here mean that when 

 the sun is cooled sufficiently, life as on earth will result ? 

 It would be a bold prophecy. Or only that if the sun 

 cooled, and if all other conditions be supposed alike, 

 there would be a like result ? It might be ; but if any 

 difference be allowed, it is safer not to affirm details; 

 since, even on the earth, the Shakespeares and Platos 

 have not yet appeared in whole continents. But perhaps 

 he only means that thought is potential in the sun's fires 

 because, through a series of transformations, it can be 

 referred back to the sun's energy as source, f And if so, 



* Fragments of Physical Science : " On the Scientific Use of the 

 Imagination," p. 163. 



f The latter is certainly one of Professor Tyndall's meanings ; 

 see Fragments of Physical Science : " On Vitality," pp. 437, 441. 



