M. Marchand's determinations from the Pic du Midi, for instance, indicated a probable coincidence between the solar equatorial plane and the axis of the light;[117] and Dr. Max Wolf succeeded, in 1889, in getting a photographic impression which, though partial and imperfect, tended to corroborate Marchand's inference.[118] Again, on November 16, 1904, when the cone showed a remarkable lustre, it was distinctly perceived at Königstuhl to sheer off and separate from the ecliptic as it mounted the sky. Now, however, that a beginning has been made in photographing this enigmatical tenant of the sphere (the feat has been performed at Flagstaff as well as at Heidelberg), we may confidently expect a speedy reconcilement of inconsistent statements regarding its whereabouts. Until then we cannot venture to assert that it is in actual reality what it appears to be, a nebulous survival. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 109: Ligondès, quoted by l'Abbé Moreux, _Le Problème Solaire_, p. 67.] [Footnote 110: Moreux, _Le Problème Solaire_, p. 133; Ledger, _Nineteenth Century_, March, 1905.] [Footnote 111: Humboldt, _Cosmos_, vol. iv., p. 563 (Otté's translation); Maunder, _Journal of the British Astronomical Association_, vol. viii., p. 174; Max Wolf, _Königstuhl Report_ for 1904.] [Footnote 112: _Paris Memoirs_, 1731, quoted by R. Wolf, _Geschichte der Astronomie_, p. 695.] [Footnote 113: _Popular Astronomy_, vol. i., p. 337.] [Footnote 114: Nijland, _Astr. Nach._, No. 4,008.] [Footnote 115: _Astrophysical Journal_, vol. xxii., p. 209.] [Footnote 116: _Comptes Rendus_, 1905, No. 6; _Nature_, February 23, 1905.] [Footnote 117: _Comptes Rendus_, tom. cxxi., p. 1134.] [Footnote 118: _Sitzungsberichte_, Munich, Bd. XXX., p. 197.] CHAPTER XVI LIFE AS THE OUTCOME The making of worlds, we are assured, was not purposeless, and its most obvious purpose to our minds is the preparation of suitable abodes for organic life. No other seems of comparable importance; no other, indeed, comes within the full grasp of our apprehensive intelligence. Yet its limitations must not be forgotten. The human standpoint is not the only one from which the sum of things may be surveyed; and although we be unable to quit it, we can still admit that the view obtainable from it is probably not all-embracing. We only know with certainty that the end which appears to us supreme has, in one case, been successfully attained; how far it was sought to be compassed elsewhere must always remain a matter of speculation.