23 SELECTED LETTERS In the absence of any information beyond relatively narrow limits, the only reasonable adult assumption is that the space-time continuum represents a fixed & basic condition. It is all there is, has been, or will be anywhere. It is the primal essence of reality. It is fundamental entity, infinite & eternal, whose patterned rearrangements are an integral part of its properties, & of which the visible universe & human life are a negligible quasi-atom casually spawned for an instant & soon to be as though they had never been. But probably life as a basic principle is not peculiar to this part of space-though we might not recognise many of its other forms as being life at all.