138 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



remarkable man. Three or four hundred clergymen were 

 present at the lecture. The orator began with the civiliza- 

 tion of Egypt in the time of Joseph; pointing out the 

 very perfect organization of the kingdom, and the posses- 

 sion of chariots, in one of which Joseph rode, as proving 

 a long antecedent period of civilization. He then passed 

 on to the mud of the Nile, its rate of augmentation, its 

 present thickness, and the remains of human handiwork 

 found therein; thence to the rocks which bound the Nile 

 valley, and which teem with organic remains. Thus in 

 his own clear way he caused the idea of the world's age 

 to expand itself indefinitely before the minds of his audi- 

 ence, and he contrasted this with the age usually assigned 

 to the world. During his discourse he seemed to be swim- 

 ming against a stream, he manifestly thought that he was 

 opposing a general conviction. He expected resistance in 

 the subsequent discussion; so did I. But it was all a 

 mistake; there was no adverse current, no opposing con- 

 viction, no resistance; merely here and there a half -humor- 

 ous but unsuccessful attempt to entangle him in his talk. 

 The meeting agreed with all that had been said regarding 

 the antiquity of the earth and of its life. They had, in- 

 deed, known it all long ago, and they rallied the lecturer 

 for coming among them with so stale a story. It was quite 

 plain that this large body of clergymen, who were, I should 

 say, to be ranked among the finest samples of their class, 

 had entirely given up the ancient landmarks, and trans- 

 ported the conception of life's origin to an indefinitely 

 distant past. 



This leads us to the gist of our present inquiry, which 

 is this : Does life belong to what we call matter, or is it 

 an independent principle inserted into matter at some suit- 



