Astronomers have wrested many secrets from the stars, but never
the secret of whether life exists anywhere in the universe except on this earth. Sir James Jeans in his broadcast talk on Tuesday admitted that, observing that " some strange accident was responsible for life on the earth, and that such an accident might never again occur in the history of our solar system, or even of the universe. On the other hand, he thought it perfectly possible that Venus might be repeating the history of the earth, and in course of immeasurable time might develop the higher forms of life. Enthusiastic laymen still cherish the idea of communicating with imagined beings on Mars, but I fancy no astronomer of note would claim that there is decisive evidence of life there. Yet the conception of life on this alone of the myriad discovered stars is almost too stupendous to be grasped.
Previous page
