________________
THE MEMOIRS OF A CAT
there was a purpose in biological cvolution, and it was the creation of man after the image of God, Mars would be to-day inhabited by a race of huruan beings. Since it is not, the doctrine of puri ose falls to the ground with ail the philusophical efforts of Bergson or Lloyd Morgan.
The knowledge regardling the habitability of Venus is still misty as the planet itself. The Greciw goddess of beauty keeps l?er charm hidden Lekind a tantalis: veil of mystery. Astronomcrs Dve len lured to pull aside the veil only to be baffled. However, their curiosity has so far been rewarded with some informations which indicate that the mysterious member of the solar family is only approaching the physico-chemical stage in which the apocarance of life may be a possibility. But here again it runains to be ascertaincd whether the possible organic evolution on Venus will go to the extent of producing man. Anyhow, from whatever is known, it can be deduced that the appearance of mankind is not a necessary outcome of organic evolution, cven on those few bits of burncd-out ashes which tend to be soiled by the excrcscence of matter called life.
On the top of this knowledge of nodern astronomy, so very disconcerting for human vanity, now it is further known that plancts themselves are rarities in the cosmic scheme. They do not result as a rule from the process of physical evolution. The solar system most probably is the only system
95
