s a reverse distribution. Apparently, the
universally-co-existent forces of attraction and repulsion, which, as
we have seen, necessitate rhythm in all minor changes throughout the
Universe, also necessitate rhythm in the totality of its
changes--produce now an immeasurable period during which the
attractive forces predominating, cause universal concentration, and
then an immeasurable period during which the repulsive forces
predominating, cause universal diffusion--alternate eras of Evolution
and Dissolution. _And thus there is suggested the conception of a
past during which there have been successive Evolutions analogous to
that which is now going on; a future during which successive other
Evolutions may go on--ever the same in principle but never the same in
concrete result_."

That is it--the most we know--alternate eras of evolution and
dissolution. In the past there have been other evolutions similar to
that one in which we live, and in the future there may be other similar
evolutions--that is all. The principle of all these evolutions remains,
but the concrete results are never twice alike. Man was not; he was; and
again he will not be. In eternity which is beyond our comprehension, the
particular evolution of that solar satellite we call the "Earth" occupied
but a slight fraction of time. And of that fraction of time man occupies
but a small portion. All the whole human drift, from the first ape-man
to the last savant, is but a phantom, a flash of light and a flutter of
movement across the infinite face of the starry night.

When the thermometer drops, man ceases--with all his lusts and wrestlings
and achievements; with all his race-adventures and race-tragedies; and
with all his red killings, billions upon billions of human lives
multiplied by as many billions more. This is the last word of Science,
unless there be some further, unguessed word which Science will some day
find and utter. In the meantime it sees no farther than the starry void,
where the "fleeting systems lapse like foam." Of what ledger-account is
the tiny life of man in a vastness where stars snuff out like candles and
great suns blaze for a time-tick of eternity and are gone?

And for us who live, no worse can happen than has happened to the
earliest drifts of man, marked to-day by ruined cities of forgotten
civilisation--ruined cities, which, on excavation, are found to rest on
ruins of earlier