50 x Scientific Sophisms. 



" philosophic faith " on this subject, has 

 answered this question with his characteristic 

 clearness of enunciation : 



"If it were given me to look beyond the 

 abyss of geologically recorded time to the still 

 more remote period when the earth was passing 

 through physical and chemical conditions, which 

 it can no more see again than a man can recall 

 his infancy, I should expect to be a witness of 

 the evolution of living protoplasm from not 

 living matter." l 



To the same effect, and not less articulately, 

 Professor Tyndall : 



" The problem before us is, at all events, 

 capable of definite statement. We have on the 

 one hand strong grounds for concluding that- 

 the earth was once a molten mass. We now 

 find it not only swathed by an atmosphere and 

 covered by a sea, but also crowded with living 

 things. The question is, how were they intro- 

 duced ? The conclusion of science, 

 which recognises unbroken causal connection 

 between the past and the present, would un- 

 doubtedly be that the molten earth contained 

 within it the elements of life, which grouped 

 themselves into their present forms as the planet 

 cooled. The difficulty and reluctance encoun- 



1 " Critiques and Addresses." Macmillan, 1 873, p. 239. 



