20 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 
deduce an evolution of simpler forms to more 
complex, and their deductions are equally valid; we 
must accept the inorganic evolution. Organic 
evolution is measured by millions of years ; inorganic 
evolution is measured probably in billions” (p. 212). 
The next question that presents itself is as to the 
relation between these two processes of evolution, 
and especially as to the starting-point of the latter 
process—that of organic evolution. 
Let us look at the question first from a broad 
point of view. We have seen that there is a 
community of nature between the earth and all the 
infinite myriads of stars; that the same chemical 
elements in varying number are to be found 
existing in them as are to be met with on this 
earth; and that such elements are, as it would 
seem, gradually being evolved in the stars, under 
the influence of all-pervading natural laws, as the 
process of cooling goes on. We have, further, 
every reason for believing that space is peopled 
by myriads of planets which are to us wholly 
invisible—by bodies, that is, which, like our earth, 
have been thrown off from other suns. 
We _ know that in the far-remote past when the 
surface of our earth cooled down, when oceans and 
an atmosphere had come into existence, chemical 
changes must have progressed, and that at last a new 
kind of synthesis must have taken place—a synthesis 
resulting in the formation of what we call “ living 
matter.” Men of science no longer doubt that a 
natural birth of living matter must have occurred in 
