2 The Law of Evolution : is it General ? [January, 
astronomers have shown, compel us to the old dodtrines 
of eternal existence or of mechanical contradl-work. 
But between the vital and the astronomical lies a very im- 
portant region, to which, in the opinion of many men of 
Science, the dodtrines of Evolution are inapplicable. We 
refer to the region of chemical phenomena. If this vast 
and important sphere shows no signs of the operations of 
Evolution, — still more if it gives proof of their absence, — 
then we have to do not with any universal principle, but 
with a possibly exceptional agency. We shall have no 
a priori right for assuming its presence and intervention 
where not fully demonstrated. 
We turn first to the so-called chemical elements, and ask 
what is their origin ? Have they been developed, as we 
suppose animal and vegetable species to have been, from a 
few kinds of primordial matter, or even from one kind only ? 
Have they existed from all eternity as the raw materials of 
the universe, capable of being associated chemically into 
compounds and mechanically into aggregates, varying in 
bulk and importance from the dust-grain to the star ? Or 
have they been called into existence independently of each 
other, whether by some external power — self-conscious or 
otherwise — or by some unknown impulse inherent in matter ? 
To none of these questions does Science return a definite 
answer ; she offers us probabilities, indeed, but not certain- 
ties. The physicist is able to tell us that suns and earths, 
as such, cannot have existed for ever ; they have had a be- 
ginning, and must have an end. The universe, think some, 
is one huge grave-yard for dead stars. But all this throws 
no light upon the origin of the chemical elements. Certain 
metals, gases, and the like exist in the Sun, in Sirius, or in 
Vega ; but this does not tell us whether the same particles 
of matter first sprang into existence with the orbs they help 
to constitute, or whether they have previously been present 
in stars now no longer in existence. The chemist tells us 
that neither by the aid of the spe(5troscope nor yet by the 
analysis of meteoric stones which arrive from the depths of 
space can he find indications of any other kinds of matter 
than the sixty odd elements which are met with in our own 
planet. But this conclusion, however interesting in itself, 
is of no diredt use for our present purpose. Assuming it is 
proved that the whole universe is built up of these sixty, 
we must pronounce that assumption equally consistent with 
the hypothesis of eternal existence, of special origin (crea- 
tion in a mechanical sense), or of evolution. 
The decomposition of any of the supposed elements and 
