SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY 139 



can be discussed, and we pass insidiously from 

 Science to Metaphysics. It is in the criticism of 

 these hypothetical constructions, which avowedly 

 go beyond verifiable science, that philosophical 

 criticism is of great value. Let us say a little, then, 

 in regard to two or three of the problems before 

 which Science and Philosophy meet. 



ORIGIN OF LIVING CREATURES UPON THE 

 EARTH. In the volume on EVOLUTION in this 

 Library, there is a brief discussion of this old- 

 standing problem, to the solution of which we 

 do not seem to be coming any nearer. We know 

 that the hot Earth must have been tenantless, 

 that until it cooled and consolidated it was quite 

 unfit to be a home of life. But we do not know 

 how living organisms began to be upon the earth. 



Did germs of life come to our earth embosomed 

 in meteorites from elsewhere, or had they their 

 cradle here the offspring of inorganic evolution? 

 We do not know. May it have been, as Pfliiger 

 and Verworn have suggested, that the cyanogen 

 radical (CN) was the starting-point of the pro- 

 teid molecule which is an essential constituent of 

 the physical basis of life? We cannot discuss the 

 matter, but we must remember (1) that although 

 the synthetic chemist can do wonders in build- 

 ing up complex things from simple things he has 

 not yet come near the artificial synthesis of pro- 

 teids; (2) that we are at a loss to suggest what 



