640 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



countless multitudes born in each age), the wider may 

 be the divergence of form presented by the ultimate 

 outgrowths of any two of them, or of outgrowths of 

 similar rank produced from trees which have developed 

 during different ages — especially when the assemblages 

 of organisms, constituting one of these ideal trees, has 

 lived under the influence of any unusual sets of telluric 

 conditions. 



How long or when the particular ^ tree of life,' from 

 one of the branches of which man was developed, 

 appeared upon the earth, it is utterly impossible to say. 

 The ^vertebrate' grade of organization may have been 

 many times attained by ultimate branches of different 

 <^ trees of life.' 



But physical, chemical, and biological phenomena all 

 compel us to believe that law and order universally 

 prevail, even amidst occurrences which, on account of 

 the complexity of their relations, may seem to have 

 been the result of chance or accident. And equally 

 good reasons also exist for the conviction that the 

 same Forces which are now in action within and 

 around us_, have been and are constantly operative 

 throughout the whole universe — everywhere producing 

 the most beautiful and complex results, whose mutual 

 alliance and inter-relations seem to combine in testi- 

 fying to the existence of one supreme and all-per- 

 vading Power of which these results are the phenomenal 

 manifestations. 



