USE OF THE IMA GIN A TION. 439 



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 audience, and 

 he contrasted this with the age usually assigned to the 

 world. During his discourse he seemed to be swimming 

 against a stream, he manifestly thought that he was oppos- 

 ing 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 conviction, no 

 resistance; merely here and there a half-humorous, 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, indeed, 

 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 tlie 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 

 suitable epoch say when the physical conditions became 

 such as to permit of the development of life? Let us put 

 the question with the reverence due to a faith and culture 

 in which we all were cradled, and which are the undeniable 

 historic antecedents of our present enlightenment. I say, 

 let us put the question reverently, but let us also put it 

 clearly and definitely. There are the strongest grounds 

 for believing that during a certain period of its history 

 the earth was not, nor was it fit to be, the theater of life. 

 Whether this was ever a nebulous period, or merely a mol- 

 ten period, does not signify much; and if we revert to the 

 nebulous condition, it is because the probabilities are 

 really on its side. Our question is this: Did creative 

 energy pause until the nebulous matter had condensed, 

 until the earth had been detached, until the solar fire had 

 sofar withdrawn from the earth's vicinity as to permit a 

 crust to gather round the planet? Did it wait until the 

 air was isolated; until the seas were formed: until evapora- 

 tion, condensation and the descent of rain had be- 



