208 Life on the Earth, its Origin and Succession* 



tive in the problem of the origin of life, and one who has entered on 

 this charmed path, will seldom leave it without reluctance. Vain and 

 ill-judged as are some of these attempts, they ought perhaps not to be 

 visited with the heavy condemnation which sometimes has been heaped 

 upon them. Men may have mistaken views about the diluvial catas- 

 trophe ; false conceptions regarding electricity as the agent of impart- 

 ing life ; wrong notions about the nature of atoms, and yet not reason, at 

 least intentionally, as ' atheists,' denying the incessant watchfulness of 

 God over the arrangements which he has appointed. It is hard to believe 

 this of any serious thinker, even of Lucretius, however strongly he may 

 contend for the regular operation of natural laws, in opposition to the 

 capricious meddling of those monstrous personifications of human pas- 

 sions, which were accepted for deity by the ' too superstitious ' men of 

 Athens and Rome. Erroneous opinions have but their day, and are, 

 perhaps less mischievous, than the indolence which acquiesces in dull 

 and incurious conformity with whatever may reign for the moment. 

 Truth, or what appears such to human reason, operating on real facts 

 and just inferences, this is the end of scientific research: while we seek 

 it, let us not be too much troubled if some run in courses wide of our 

 own, and ask questions we think not likely to be answered. If we do 

 not ourselves believe the origin of created life to be discoverable by a 

 creature limited to the observation of sensible phenomena, why should 

 we restrain the enterprise of those who, vainly striving after something 

 that is unattainable or fabulous, may yet win much that is accessible, 

 valuable and real ? 



'' According to most of the hypotheses we have been considering, the 

 forms, structures and habits of life, which we now circumscribe by 

 specific characters, however distinct these may seem to be, are only 

 constant for this moment, slowly varying through this period, as they 

 have varied in preceding periods, possibly then at a greater rate than 

 now. The forms that now are have had a long series of progenitors, 

 gradually changing from the earliest times ; many of the earlier races 

 of a great common stock having died out, while others came into view ; 

 the whole theatre of life always full of action, but the actors continually 

 changing, however slow the process of change. 



" But, as already observed, the evidence of most value for deciding 

 the probability of such a progressive change in the forms of life is to be 

 furnished by geology. That it does not furnish good evidence in favour 

 of gradual and indefinite change is perhaps generally allowed ; but that 

 it does furnish evidence of interrupted and limited change, and that 

 the changes mark steps of progress, is a prevalent opinion. It is fbe 

 opinion of Mr. Darwin, that if the record of life in the fossiliferous strata 

 were complete, those changes which now appear interrupted and sudden 

 would be found to have been continuous, and the progress by steps 

 would become an inclined plane of easy ascent. This incompleteness 

 he assumes to be enormous ; so much so that the traces of whole periods 

 of immense duration, including the first period, are lost ; what we pos- 

 sess being merely fragments of the record, which indeed never was 



