And there is this further difference, that, strewn about
the intermediate space between the gigantic spheres, is a mass of
cosmic dust--minute grains, or large blocks, or shoals consisting
of myriads of pieces, or immeasurable clouds of fine gas--that
seems to be the rubbish left over after the making of worlds, or
the material gathering for the making of other worlds.
This is the universe that the nineteenth century discovered and
the twentieth century is interpreting. Before we come to tell the
fortunes of our little earth we have to see how matter is
gathered into these stupendous globes of fire, how they come
sometimes to have smaller bodies circling round them on which
living things may appear, how they supply the heat and light and
electricity that the living things need, and how the story of
life on a planet is but a fragment of a larger story. We have to
study the birth and death of worlds, perhaps the most impressive
of all the studies that modern science offers us. Indeed, if we
would read the whole story of evolution, there is an earlier
chapter even than this; the latest chapter to be opened by
science, the first to be read.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41