17S MI;. (JI.AHSTONK AND GENESIS y 



tin- period at which life originated, or will assert 

 than tin- extreme probability that such 

 \\as a long way antecedent to any traces <>f 

 life at present known ? What physical geologist 

 will affirm that he knows when dry land began t<> 

 exist, or will say more than that it was probably 

 very much earlier than any extant direct evidence 

 of terrestrial conditions indicates ? 



I think I know pretty well the answers which 

 the authorities quoted by Mr. Gladstone would 

 give to these questions; but I leave it to them t<> 

 give them if they think fit. 



If I ventured to speculate on the matter at all, 

 I should say it is by no means certain that sea is 

 older than dry land, inasmuch as a solid terrestrial 

 surface may very well have existed before the 

 earth was cool enough to allow of the existence <>t 

 fluid water. And, in this case, dry land may 

 have existed before the sea. As to the first 

 appearance of life, the whole argument of anally, 

 whatever it may be worth in such a case, is in 

 favour of the absence of living beings until IOHL; 

 after the hot water seas had constituted them- 

 selves ; and of the subsequent appearance of 

 aquatic before terrestrial forms of life. J>ut 

 Ahether these "protoplasts" would, if we could 

 nine them, be reckoned among the lowest 

 microscopic algae, or fungi; or among those doubt- 

 ful organisms which lie in the debatable land 

 between animals and plants, is, in my judgment, 



