96 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



There is no doubt, in the minds of many investigators, 

 that the earliest form of life on the globe was 

 spontaneous, although now life forms appear to arise 

 only from the germ cell of a previous form. Yet there 

 are naturalists, Haeckel and Bastian, for instance, who 

 think there are still spontaneous minute organisms 

 appearing at the bottom of the oceans. There is little 

 doubt, but that organisms arose from inorganic sub- 

 stance, as heretofore stated. Of this, there is little 

 direct proof. But the fact that all organisms, so far 

 analyzed, have shown no constituent elements, except 

 the inorganic, is very strong evidence. The experi- 

 ments of Professors Loeb and J. B. Burke in the 

 chemical laboratory, lead strongly to the same con- 

 clusion. Yet, it is doubtful if ever real life forms will 

 be produced by the chemistry of the laboratory. We 

 know at the present time, that a thousand eggs, or seeds 

 are formed that do not germinate and grow, for every 

 one that develops and lives. So it was, in the beginning 

 of life. All the incipient beginnings, of any life forms 

 may have died out, for a very long period, before all 

 the conditions became just right for growth into 

 matured forms. And, of course, there arose simultane- 

 ously, with the forms, the conditions, that is, the means 

 of their sustentation. It could not be otherwise. But 

 the simultaneity may not have been exact, with the 

 edible plants, and the plant eaters. It is altogether 

 likely that it was more of a co-incidence without any 

 special design, that is, in the Miocene epoch, there were 

 the plants, and the animal forms that devoured them. 

 When a naturalist landed on the island of Madagascar 

 he found a certain plant, with a flower, which required 

 for its fertilization an insect with a bill six inches long, 

 and he at once said, there must be such an insect. So 



