ORIGINATION OF LIVING BEINGS. 67 



on the nature of the methods we are to pursue and 

 which only can lead to success, I must now turn to the 

 consideration of our knowledge of the nature of the 

 processes which have resulted in the present condition 

 of organic nature. 



Here, let me say at once, lest some of you misun- 

 derstand me, that I have extremely little to report. 

 The question of how the present condition of organic 

 nature came about, resolves itself into two questions. 

 The first is : How has organic or living matter com- 

 menced its existence ? And the second is : How has it 

 been perpetuated ? On the second question I shall 

 have more to say hereafter. But on the first one, what 

 I now have to say will be for the most part of a nega- 

 tive character. 



If you consider what kind of evidence we can have 

 upon this matter, it will resolve itself into two kinds. 

 We may have historical evidence and we may have ex- 

 perimental evidence. It is, for example, conceivable, 

 that inasmuch as the hardened mud which forms a 

 considerable portion of the thickness of the earth's 

 crust contains faithful records of the past forms of life, 

 and inasmuch as these differ more and more as we go 

 further down, — it is possible and conceivable that we 

 might come to some particular bed or stratum which 

 should contain the remains of those creatures with 

 which organic life began upon the earth. And if we 

 did so, and if such forms of organic life were pre- 

 servable, we should have what I would call historical 

 evidence of the mode in which organic life began upon 

 this planet. Many persons will tell you, and indeed 

 you will find it stated in many works on geology, that 

 this has been done, and that we really possess such a 



