OP Till' IM I///.V i 7/"\ 439 



therein: thence t<> the rocks which hound tin- Nile valley, 

 and which teem with organic remains. Thus in his o\\ u 

 clear way he caused the idea of the world's age to expand 

 itself indefinitely before the minds of bis audience, and 

 ho contrasted this with the age usually assigned to the, 

 world. During bis discourse he M-eiued to be swimming 

 against a stream, he manifestly thought that he was oppos- 

 ing a general conviction, lie expected resistance in the 

 subsequent discussion; so did I. Hut it was all a mistake; 

 there was no adverse current, no opposing conviction, no 

 mre; merely here and Inert; a half-humorous, but 

 unsuccessful attempt to entangle him in bis talk. The 

 d with all that had been said regarding tin; 

 antiquity of the earth and of its life. They had, ii 

 known it all long ago, and they tallied the lecturer for 

 coming among them with so stale a story. It was quite 

 plain that thi> large body of clergymen, w bo were, I should 

 Baj . to be ranked among the finest samples of their class, 

 had entirely given up the ancient landmarks, and trans- 

 ported the conception of life's origin to an indefinitely 

 distant past. 



This leads us to the gist of our present inquiry, which 

 is this: D'-es life belong to what we call matter, or is it 

 an independent principle inserted into matter at some 

 suitable epoch say when the physical conditions became 

 such as to permit of the development of life? Let us put 

 the question with the reverence due to a faith and culture 

 in which we all were cradled, and which are the undeniable 

 historic antecedents of our present enlightenment. I say, 

 !! 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 mol- 

 ten period, does not signify much; and if we revert to the 

 nebulous condition, it is because the probability 

 really on its side. Our question is this: Did creative 

 energy pause until the nebulous matter had cond- 

 until the earth had been detached, until the solar lire had 

 sofar withdrawn from the earth's vicinity as to permit a 

 cru.-t to gather round the planet;' Did it wait until the 

 air was isolated; until the- formed; until evapora- 



tion. Condensation and tin- lie-.-.-nl of rain had he- 



