52 THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



its structure destroyed, and its individuality 

 discharged for ever. 



After having: been educated to ignore half 

 the facts of existence and abandon all the hopes, 

 it is possible people might be persuaded to 

 believe that all the phenomena of life and of 

 man are fully accounted for by physics and the 

 doctrine of the conversion of force. But by a 

 special course of instruction only could the mind 

 be prepared for the acceptance of the view that 

 the construction of the most elaborate organism, 

 the marvellous acts performed by it, the ca- 

 pricious vacillations of the lowest human will, as 

 well as the grandest creations of the most perfect 

 human intellect, are but indications of the quiver- 

 ing oscillations of a force wave, the varying 

 intensity of which is determined by the ever- 

 changing conditions occasioned by its own 

 eternal undulation. But inaccurate generaliza- 

 tion and vague assertion have been carried still 

 further. It is gravely contended by some that 

 our part of the universe is undergoing degrada- 

 tion which must progress, and that, in conse- 

 quence, life on our globe will ere long cease. 

 The fire of the Sun, the great preparer of our 

 food(!), as well as the builder of our tissues, is, 



