LIFE: ITS ORIGIN AND NATURE 
THE EVOLUTION OF MATTER 
One of the greatest achievements of the mind 
of man is assuredly its ability to ascertain with 
almost mathematical exactitude the chemical 
composition of stars (or suns) many millions of 
miles distant from us in space. No human 
being has ever left the surface of our earth, to 
explore these heavenly bodies so distant from 
us in space that it takes tens of thousands of 
years for their light to reach us, traveling at 
the rate of 186,000 miles a second, nor will man 
ever be enabled to do so during his physical 
life. The light which left the surface of one 
of these heavenly bodies may reach us years 
after the body itself has “exploded” or gone out 
of existence; but it would appear to us still to 
be resident in space. By means of a tiny pencil 
of light, it is possible to ascertain the precise 
chemical constituents of any distant star, by 
means of spectrum analysis. Certain dark lines 
which appear at specific intervals on the light 
spectrum (after the latter has been broken up 
into its seven primary colors, by passing it 
through a prism) tell us the nature of the 
chemical elements constituting that star. Each 
chemical element is represented by a particular 
arrangement of the dark lines, and no two ele¬ 
ments are alike in this peculiarity. Any in¬ 
candescent body, composed of various chemical 
elements is, therefore, represented by the varied 
groupings of the lines thrown on the screen; 
and by studying these lines, the chemical ele- 
