MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



that, while we may imagine any of these possibilities, 

 we cannot establish one more than another, though 

 it is easy, as has been done in the case of the horse 

 and other animals, to forge a chain of derivation by 

 putting together arbitrarily such links as we may 

 select. 1 



In closing this part of our discussion, it is well to 

 observe that we should not be misled in a subject of 

 this kind by vague and general assertions. It is easy 

 to affirm that the lowest animals and the lowest 

 plants are but protoplasm, which is only another 

 name for the chemical compound albumen, and that 

 if we can conceive this to originate from the inorganic 

 union of its elements, we shall have a low form of 

 life from which we can deduce all the higher forms of 

 vital action. In making such affirmation we must 

 take for granted several things, none of which we can 

 yet prove: (i) That vital force is merely a modifi 

 cation of some of the forces acting on unorganised 

 matter. (2) That such force can be spontaneously origi 

 nated from other forces without the previous existence 

 of organisation. (3) That, being originated, it has the 

 power to form albumen and other organic com 

 pounds. Or, if we prefer another alternative, we may 

 take the following : (i) That albuminous matter can 

 be produced by the union of its chemical elements 

 without life or organisation. (2) That, being so pro- 



1 See Story of the Earth and Chain of Life in Geological Times &amp;gt; by 

 ihe Author. 



