MODERN CONCEPTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE. 77 
one by one, life is handed on from parent to offspring in such a 
way that we might expect it to continue in an unbroken 
succession for all future eternity, provided the prevailing 
physical conditions are not destructive to it. But the present 
order of things, which is the only guide of science, points, as we 
have seen, to a future time when the energy of the universe 
will be no longer capable of further transformations, and 
without such transformations living organisms cannot continue 
to exist. Thus a time will come when there will be no longer 
any living organisms on the earth. The present order of things 
does not, however, suggest that the universe will not continue as 
a mass of inanimate matter after the death of the last organism. 
What happens to its life when an organism dies, is a question 
to which physical or chemical science has so far given no 
answer, for the sufficient reason that life evades the measurement 
and analysis of those sciences. 
§ 16. Man and the Universe—A survey of the universe 
would be incomplete without an examination of the surveying 
instrument itself. That instrument is the human race, which 
has been so created and developed that it is able to make 
scientific observations and from them to discover laws obeyed 
by the universe. It is worth while to notice how those laws 
have been recognized. They have been established by experi- 
ment, and modern science, flushed with success, is steadily 
pressing its claims for more money and better opportunities for 
research in the hope of establishing further laws. But if we 
were to inquire why some man had made certain experiments 
or made certain calculations, the answer would often be that he 
had had an inspiration. The man is, however, conscious that 
it is the opening of his eyes which is the new thing, and not 
the fact or principle which he has perceived. The inspiration 
comes suddenly, like a flash of light, and makes an abrupt 
change in his inteliectual conceptions. But no conclusions 
could be drawn from experiments unless it be admitted that 
some of the conditions can be varied in an arbitrary manner, 
and this amounts to a declaration of the power of free-will on 
our part. Thus, if we stroke a steel needle with a magnet, the 
needle becomes magnetized, but if the act of stroking was 
inevitable we could not decide whether the magnetism of the 
needle was directly due to the action of the magnet or whether 
other causes were involved. The power of free-will is of great 
significance, for the effects of a single act of free-will extend 
through the whole of space, and will last as long as the present 
order continues. Thus the voluntary motion of a man’s hand 
