( 69 ) 2 8 3 



say when the physical conditions become such as to 

 permit of the development of life ? Let us put the 

 question with all the reverence due to a faith and cul- 

 ture in which we all were cradled a faith and culture, 

 moreover, 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 molten period, 

 does not much matter ; 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 so far with- 

 drawn from the earth's" vicinity as to permit a crust to 

 gather round a planet ? Did it wait until the air was is- 

 olated, until the seas were formed, until evaporation, 

 condensation, and the descent of rain had begun, until 

 the eroding forces of the atmosphere had weathered and 

 decomposed the molten rocks so as to form soils, until 

 the sun's rays had become so tempered by distance and 

 by waste as to be chemically fit for the decompositions 

 necessary to vegetable life ? Having waited through 

 those aeons until the proper conditions had set in, did 

 it send the fiat forth, " Let life be !" ? These questions 

 define a hypothesis not without its difficulties, but the 

 dignity of which was demonstrated by the nobleness of 

 the men whom it sustained. 



Modern scientific thought is called upon to decide be- 

 tween this hypothesis and another ; and public thought 



