[73] In Literature and Dogma. See p. 21 of the R. P. A. Reprint.
[74] See p. 183 of The Hibbert Journal, October, 1905.
[75] Compounds of cyanogen have a close resemblance to living matter. As cyanogen is only produced at an intense heat, it is surmised that the living substance may have been produced once and for all when the earth was incandescent.
[76] P. 387 of The Independent Review, December, 1904.
APPENDIX
Chapter I.
P. [5], lines 12–14.—The Copernican system was gradually accepted, and so were the discoveries which followed up to fifty years ago.
Copernicus’s book, The Revolution of the Celestial Bodies, was printed a few days before his death, in 1543. The system was condemned by a decree of Pope Paul V., in 1616, which was not revoked till 1818 by Pius VII. The great Kepler (d. 1630) was an astrologer as well as astronomer, and thought the stars were guided by angels. While his mind had a strong grasp of positive scientific truth, it also had an irresistible tendency towards mystical speculation. In those days Science and Religion were easily reconciled. It was fortunate for Newton that he made his discovery of the law of gravitation in a rather more enlightened age and country, otherwise he would inevitably have shared the terrible fate of Giordano Bruno at the hands of the Church’s emissaries.