THE HISTOKY OF LIFE 167 



Amidst all these changes, as the earth lost what is 

 called temperature, it became in a condition fit for the 

 existence of organic life, life sprang, as we call it, spon- 

 taneously into existence. But what is the origin of 

 this so-called vegetable and animal Life? A certain 

 species of atomic matter able to attract and combine 

 with other molecular matter, giving out the poten- 

 tialities of matter, and we have the form of the first- 

 organism in this stupendous creation of the past, of 

 the present, and of the future. The molecules come 

 together by their mutual attractions, and we have 

 what is called Protoplasm the basis of organic life. 

 Then the simple organic cell with its nucleus and its 



oyster-like shells cropping out of the sides of the cliffs, and the 

 fossils lying 011 the shore fossil wood, etc. ; and as we near Shanklin 

 we find masses of hardened clay casts of fossils. 'At Whitecliff Bay, 

 the east of the island, the strata become vertical layers of rock 

 composed almost wholly of fossils are seen rising from the shore up 

 to the top of the cliff. Walking at the base of the cliff towards 

 Bembridge, we walk upon a nearly horizontal layer of a species of 

 small oyster. The formation of the island shows that it has been 

 the result of a great upheaval or series of upheavals, as if some 

 giant had taken an iron bar, placed it beneath the island and forced 

 up the mass, bending up and breaking the chalk formation, making 

 the charming downs which pass through the centre of the island 

 and cap the south of it. So powerful has been the pressure that 

 the flints are broken into minute fragments. Now the point to be 

 observed is this : here are masses of formations, layer after layer, 

 being destroyed by the destructive influences at work, and cast into 

 the sea. The geological history is being obliterated for ever. 

 Although this defect in the strata of the past makes all calculation 

 of time impossible, yet the gaps are often filled up elsewhere. All we 

 can do is to assign a life period to the fossil remains, a time for 

 upheaval and the various alterations of the earth's crust, and then 

 we may estimate a minimum reco-rd of the world's history, and a 

 minimum only. To our minds the world's history has a record of 

 eternity. 



