EDITORIAL 177 



As the spore pushes down against the radiance of the defendant 

 sun, one of whose planets, near enough to it to keep duly warm, 

 is to be seeded for a new life kingdom, a planet just at the right 

 spot must be hit upon. Luck must here stand the spore in good 

 stead, for the chances are not the best. If the planets of the chosen 

 sun circle round it cross-ways, in any but the minutest degree, 

 they will never be in the center-to-center line of the spore's path, 

 for, as we have seen, the spore must keep true to line or the back- 

 ward push of the light pressure in front, striking aslant, will turn 

 the spore off. There is a chance indeed that a spore will get down 

 to just the right point and then be turned off just so as to strike 

 a planet that is off line, but it is not a chance to stake much on. 

 To have any fair chance of getting home to a planet while the spore 

 keeps straight on toward the repellent sun, under the superior 

 inertia it got from the sun it left, the planet must circle round the 

 sun in a path that cuts this line. 



And then, too, the planet must be there at just the right time. 

 The spore must no doubt cross the spot in the wink of an eye, or 

 less, and the new world must be there on exact time if it is to be 

 seeded. It is not unfair that it should be made to be there on 

 time as its part of the stunt, for the spore has come far to do its 

 part. 



Now if all has gone well thus far there is only the landing left. 

 If the spore was pushed out from the old sun too fast, it may plunge 

 so swiftly into the air of the new world as to strike fire and burn 

 or brown itself fatally. But if pushed out just right at the start 

 and pushed back just right on the road, it may land with little 

 more than the speed forced by the pull of the new earth, a matter 

 of a few miles a second, it may be. 



When the speed of the spore is stopped and it floats in the 

 outer air of the new earth it may perchance from being too hot 

 come quickly to be too cold and the change from warmth to chill 

 may try its salamandrine powers before it sinks to the warm air 

 low down or to the ground in which it is to grow. 



The luck of the spore must stay by it a little farther in its 

 lighting. All may be lost if it falls on polar snow, or mountain 

 peak, or desert plain, or perchance in the ocean midst, if it is not 



