ON A GIANT STAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16, 20 January 1926, Page 11

ON A GIANT STAR.

SOVEREIGN WOULD WEIGH TON. , SIR OLIVER LODGE'S HOPE. AN ETERNAL NOW. On the recently discovered star known as the Companion of Sirius. the force of gravity was so tremendous that a match would weigh half a hundredweight and a sovereign would weigh a ton. Tii is statement was made by Sir Oliver Lodge in delivering tiie Hu\lry lecture at the Charing Cross Medical School recently, in which be discussed with great lucidity the theories oi evolution. Sir Oliver referred to the "Monkey Trial" in Tennessee, and -aid tiiat the mistake of the fundamentalists wa- that they thought they had an infallible guide. Infallibility had not been granted to man. The documents on which the orthodox pinned their faith were full >>: misstatement* and errors made inhumanity in the past, bur ) hey were human documents full of inspiration. "My thesis. declared "si;- Oliver, "i« that there is no essential opposition between creation and evolution. < In - ithe method of the other. They are not two processes. bill on- gradual one. The Ether Theory. Si;- Oliver first postulated t'-ic undifferentiated. all-c.\tcn-ive substance, the raw material out of vhicli everything, according to hi- theory. is cnipo.-cd — the et her of spa 1 , i Every scion.l tic- sun was con-uining I four million tons 0 it- substance to j make energy. On how long 'hat would go en depended ; the liabitability of the earth and ie ' future of the human race. j "'lt will lake 1 "in.nun.Poll. yearfor the sun to lose one per cent of its I substance." he added, with a laugh. I "Following these ideas to their logical .conclusion." he continued, "i; would seem that the universe i- a vital and gi in-: I concern, must have bad a beginning and | will have an end. i "The beginning. so far as we can trac-> lit. was t.ie formation of nebulae two hundred million years ago. "The end "ill apparently be th 1 disappearance of matter and the existence once more ether filled with the perpetual remnants of radiation. "Are we right to follow out the course of evolution a- a process in time": I would urge that creation is a continuous process. We are faced not with a succession, bur an eternal now. '"All things last for ever if what I have been saying is true." lie concluded, "hut while physical things | a if_ by cyclical change, spiritual tilings can advance through higher and higher stages toward* perfection.