Evolution : The Quest of Truth 1 77 



lieve that all the organic world has come from 

 one starting point, and that every living thing 

 is the result of the ever-continuous modifica- 

 tion of the life-stem. 



We are willing to believe more than this, so 

 far as the evidence may take us ; to believe, in 

 short, that the visible universe has taken its 

 present form as the result of physical forces of 

 which, in their lesser expressions, we may have 

 common knowledge. Worlds, like men, grow 

 old and die. The marks of senility may even 

 now be apparent in this earth of ours, which 

 seems to us so young. With the receding and 

 absorption of the waters, great areas have be- 

 come deserts perhaps the beginning of that 

 great decline which must end in death. The 

 moon seems to have run its span of life, and 

 there is evidence that Mars is now far advanced 

 upon that arid course which leads its inhabit- 

 ants onward to extinction. It is conceivable 

 that the planets will fall again into a central 

 mass and thence again shoot forth to begin a 

 new creation. We do not know whether this 

 cosmos that we see is the first or the millionth ! 



