12 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



the soil, (jeneral evaporation is out of the 

 question. As an absorbent of air (to e.r- 

 plain the latter'* disappearance) ocean x trans- 

 formed into snowfl&Tces are certainly not a de- 

 ficient substitute for rock Jioirsoer-er rolcanic 

 and porous. The "xmokc" in the Jiollotrx, sup- 

 posed to be volcanic f nines, ix snou'-xtonnx 

 produced from the thau'-irater that periodic- 

 all!/ irinx itx iray (njainst all oddx into the an- 

 cient pools. But snoir ix not rapor, and eren 

 rapor mic/ht e.rixt in considerable quantity be- 

 fore becoming detectable front tJiix dixtance. 



Natinv's processes are all cyclical except in the 

 case most important of all, world-building. Nebulae 

 change into stars, and stars into dark, dead cinders that 

 encmnher space. 



Stars are the dynamos -whereby (/rarity, 

 one sort of encrf/y, is, under the establixhed 

 physical lair of convertibility, continuonx!y 

 transmuted into heat. Whenercr the star be- 

 comes so larf/e that the heat aenerated by it 

 exceeds the radiatiny power, the body explodcx. 

 and passex back anain into nebula, tfcientistx 

 call such a catastrophe a new star, instead of 

 the neic nebula that it really is. /fence the title 

 7 hare choxen : FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA. The 

 life span of a planetary system! The ultimate 

 plnjsical cycle within the cornprehenxion of 

 finite man! The last round short of Infinity 

 itself! 



