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TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



less forms of vegetation rising from the earth, and then returning to it; a sun vivifying 

 one and perhaps more planets with its heat ; an infinitude of chemical changes going on 

 around us ; countless stars moving through space with velocities which transcend all our 

 conceptions. To all appearance these operations have been going on for millions of ages 

 past, and may continue for millions of ages to come. As the thinking man contemplates 

 them, he is led irresistibly to the conclusion that they do not go on at random, but that 

 they were joined by connecting links, or are in some way the product of knowable causes. 

 * * * * Each state of things is the effect of the state which immediately precedes 

 it, and the cause of that which immediately follows it. The course of nature is thus 

 considered as an endless chain, of which the work of science consists in making out the 

 forms of the links, and the modes in which they are connected." 



The powers and forces of an immaterial cause are inscrutable, so 

 cannot be known and no results can be foretold, while material causes can 

 be observed and results accurately foreseen. If we find that not one vital 

 phenomenon occurs in nature except under certain observable physical 

 conditions, then it should logically follov/ that material forces are the 

 cause of all motions of life in the exceeding variety of vegetable and 

 animal forms; and further, that material causes originated the first forms 

 of life as well as sustain and perpetuate existing forms. 



The nebular hypothesis of the origin of worlds, and hence of our 

 Earth, most clearly explained in Prof Newcomb's new work on astronomy, 

 is quite generally accepted by educated and scientific men. Assuming it 

 to be true, then the matter of which our Earth is formed was once a 

 "nebula" of fire mist, and, so far as science can determine, one element. 

 It required the action of physical agencies during inconceivable ages to 

 evolve the great variety of elements which science now demonstrates to 

 exist. Geology, chemistry, molecular and mechanical action, in fact all 

 the natural sciences, aid in explaining the modes of the changes during 

 the formative ages of the Earth. After water originated by the union of 

 gases and a humid atmosphere surrounded the Earth, then the lowest 

 forms of life appeared in the primeval warm sea. 



I fully agree with Judge Lanphere's able criticism that all life, both 

 vegetable and animal, have a similar origin, and that the forces sustaining 

 the motions of life in the vegetable world are very similar to, or identical 

 with, those sustaining and constructing all animal forms. 



The order in which both forms of life appeared on the Earth and 

 the exact correspondence of different forms to different geological epochs 

 is so essential to my argument that I present here a syllabus of the points 

 from standard scientific authorities : 



