The sun is the source of all terrestrial energy, but the different forms that energy takes—­in the plant, in the animal, in the brain of man—­this type of mind is bound to ask questions about that.  Gravity pulls matter down; life lifts it up; chemical forces pull it to pieces; vital forces draw it together and organize it; the winds and the waters dissolve and scatter it; vegetation recaptures and integrates it and gives it new qualities.  At every turn, minds like that of Sir Oliver Lodge are compelled to think of life as a principle or force doing something with matter.  The physico-chemical forces will not do in the hands of man what they do in the hands of Nature.  Such minds, therefore, feel justified in thinking that something which we call “the hands of Nature,” plays a part—­some principle or force which the hands of man do not hold.

VI

A BIRD OF PASSAGE

I

There is one phase of the much-discussed question of the nature and origin of life which, so far as I know, has not been considered either by those who hold a brief for the physico-chemical view or by those who stand for some form of vitalism or idealism.  I refer to the small part that life plays in the total scheme of things.  The great cosmic machine would go on just as well without it.  Its relation to the whole appears to be little different from that of a man to the train in which he journeys.  Life rides on the mechanical and chemical forces, but it does not seem to be a part of them, nor identical with them, because they were before it, and will continue after it is gone.

The everlasting, all-inclusive thing in this universe seems to be inert matter with the energy it holds; while the slight, flitting, casual thing seems to be living matter.  The inorganic is from all eternity to all eternity; it is distributed throughout all space and endures through all time, while the organic is, in comparison, only of the here and the now; it was not here yesterday, and it may not be here to-morrow; it comes and goes.  Life is like a bird of passage which alights and tarries for a time and is gone, and the places where it perched and nested and led forth its brood know it no more.  Apparently it flits from world to world as the great cosmic spring comes to each, and departs as the cosmic winter returns to each.  It is a visitor, a migrant, a frail, timid thing, which waits upon the seasons and flees from the coming tempests and vicissitudes.

How casual, uncertain, and inconsequential the vital order seems in our own solar system—­a mere incident or by-product in its cosmic evolution!  Astronomy sounds the depths of space, and sees only mechanical and chemical forces at work there.  It is almost certain that only a small fraction of the planetary surfaces is the abode of life.  On the earth alone, of all the great family of planets