202 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



because" we all confidently believe that there are at 

 it, and have been from time immemorial, 

 many worlds of life besides our own, we must 

 : it as probable in the highest degree that 

 there are countless seed-bearing meteoric stones 

 moving about through space. If at the present 

 instant no life existed upon this Earth, one such 

 stone falling upon it might, by what we blindly 

 call natural causes, lead to its becoming covered 

 with vegetation. I am fully conscious of the many 

 scientific objections which may be urged against 

 this hypothesis, but I believe them to be all answer- 

 able. I have already taxed your patience too 

 !y to allow me to think of discussing any of 

 them on the present occasion. The hypothesis that 

 [some] life [has actually] originated on this Earth 

 through moss-grown fragments from the ruins of 

 another world may seem wild and visionary ; all 

 I maintain is that it is not unscientific, [and cannot 

 rightly 1>e said to be improbable.] 



I-'rom the Earth stocked with such vegetation as 

 it could receive mcteorically, to the Earth teeming 

 with all the endless variety of plants and animals 



