INORGANIC EVOLUTION. 213 



hottest to coldest finds an ever-increasing complexity in the 

 so-called elements which they contain. 



They both deduce an evolution of simpler forms to more 

 complex, and their deductions are equally valid. We 

 accept the organic evolution; we must accept the inorganic 

 evolution. Organic evolution is measured by millions of 

 years; inorganic evolution is measured, probably, in billions. 

 This need not affright us for we have seen ample demon- 

 stration in this book that with God there is neither great nor 

 small in size, nor long nor short in either distance or time. 



But are the organic and inorganic evolutions parallel proc- 

 esses, or does one follow upon the heels of the other ? 

 We conceive of inorganic evolution as the existence first of 

 the atoms of the dissociated simplest elements followed by 

 the appearance of the atoms of the elements more and 

 more complex as the temperature diminishes. From our 

 knowledge of every-day chemistry we can easily see that 

 the stellar bodies comprising these atoms would eventually 

 sink to a temperature so low that the atoms of the elements 

 formed could associate into the molecules of compounds, 

 and that the complexity of these compounds would con- 

 tinually increase until, at about the temperature of the 

 earth, we should find, as to-day, that they existed in tens 

 of thousands. But where does life come in? 



The great law of continuity forbids us to assume that 

 life suddenly made its appearance out of nothing, and tells 

 us that we must look for the element of life in the very 

 elements of matter, for the potentiality of life should exist 

 in every atom. 



The biologists and geologists tell us that life originated 

 in the sea. If that is the case, then the constituents of 

 living bodies should be the constituents of the sea-water 

 and the air above it. 



