THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 63 



distinguish its different kinds or modes of manifesta 

 tion. 



All these things space, time, matter, ether, 

 energy are to us inscrutable in their origin, and 

 incapable of annihilation, yet in our power to deal 

 with, according to certain laws which we have ascer 

 tained, and, no doubt, capable of endless changes 

 and interactions as yet beyond our ken. Those that 

 we do know constitute the subject matter of the vast 

 and complicated sciences of physics and chemistry. 



All this must have been present in the world, and 

 as perfectly and regularly arranged as it is now, be 

 fore there could be life. We may even say that all 

 this must have been fully perfected, so as to admit of 

 no farther improvement or change, before the origin 

 of life. This is overlooked by those who unthink 

 ingly tell us that we must believe in the evolution of 

 the physical world, whether we believe in that cf life 

 or not. The development, in so far as the physical 

 world is concerned, consisted in the arrangement and 

 determination of matter and energy in such a manner 

 as to fit the world for being the abode of life. 



A vaporous world, a mere cloud or nebula of fire 

 mist, a liquid incandescent world, a world with a 

 hardened crust and a vaporous atmosphere, a world 

 with a universal ocean covering its surface, a world 

 with land and water, mountain and valley all these 

 may have existed (probably did exist) for untold ages 

 before the origin of life. We know that in the earlier 



