Q UITE frankly, my point of view is that of a
scientist--an astronomer. In brief, this means two things.
First, because I am a scientist, I am apt to see human life as
a chain of causes and effects; the life of to-morrow will be
what we make it to-day; as we sow, so shall we reap. Second,
because I am an astronomer, I am apt to see the problems of
to-day set against a background of time in which the whole of
human history shrinks to the twinkling of an eye, and to think
of these problems specially in relation to man's past history
on earth.

Our ancestors of a century ago read their origins in the
Book of Genesis, with 4004 B.C. printed in the margin against
the account of the creation. To-day we trace our origins back
to a far greater antiquity. We believe that the earth is merely
a tiny fragment of the sun, which got splashed off, almost by
accident, something like 2,000 million years ago. For hun-
dreds of millions of years it remained uninhabited until at last
life arrived, and after passing through many forms--proto-
zoa, fishes, reptiles, mammals--culminated in man. The up-
ward ascent was a devious one; life, it seems, followed many

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