ORGANIC EVOLUTION 35 



nebulas evolving, there was no break in the continuity 

 of the evolution, from that first beginning to the present 

 time; that the elements of the inorganic, which are 

 now known to be in the organic, came together at some 

 favorable epoch of such evolution, and formed a living 

 organism, as naturally, as they did in the nebula, to 

 form the globes of the universe. This theory is more 

 plausible than that the germ spores of life float through 

 space and fall upon globes everywhere, to develop into 

 organisms. 



GERMS ETERNAL. There was either the above de- 

 scribed origin of life spores, or they are as eternal 

 as matter. In the latter supposition they had no origin. 

 It may be that when the atoms of the nebula come 

 together in certain chemical combinations they become 

 compound physiological units, in which the peculiar 

 form of matter and motion called life, or the "vital 

 impetus" is potential. But either theory of life is not 

 supported by sensory proof, and it is therefore unprofit- 

 able to pursue it. What is apparent to the senses is the 

 following: It seems the organism is a medium only 

 which nature adopts for the continuity of life. The 

 principal thing is this continuity. The successive forms 

 are the momentary vehicles to carry on the invisible 

 flux of life, from generation to generation. The germ 

 cells carry the potentiality of variation, heredity, and 

 all human action. Nothing is visible in them under 

 the microscope, which would convey to the observer any 

 prophecy of their imminence, power and importance. 

 There is no microscopical form of future species, or 

 individuals; nor is there the registration, in letters of 

 fire, of the biology of all past life, which they carry in 

 their tiny biophers, with which they are going to endow 

 the future organisms, into which they will develop. 



