74 



LECTURES AND ESS A YS 



handiwork found therein : thence to the 

 rocks which bound the Nile valley, and 

 which teem with organic remains. Thus 

 in his own clear way he caused the idea 

 of the world's age to expand itself indefi- 

 nitely before the minds of his audience, 

 and he contrasted this with the age 

 usually assigned to the world. During 

 his discourse he seemed to be swimming 

 against a stream ; he manifestly thought 

 that he was opposing a general convic- 

 tion. He expected resistance in the 

 subsequent discussion; so did I. But 

 it was all a mistake ; there was no 

 adverse current, no opposing conviction, 

 no resistance ; merely here and there a 

 half-humorous but unsuccessful attempt 

 to entangle him in his talk. The meeting 

 agreed with all that had. been said 

 regarding the antiquity of the earth and 

 of its life. They had, indeed, known it 

 all long ago, and they rallied the lecturer 

 for coming among them with so stale a 

 story. It was quite plain that this large 

 body of clergymen, who were, I should 

 say, 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 : Does life belong 

 to what we call matter, or is it an inde- 

 pendent principle inserted into matter 

 \t 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, let 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 

 theatre of life. Whether this was ever a 

 nebulous period, or merely a molten 

 period, does not signify much ; and if 

 we revert to the nebulous condition, it 

 is because the probabilities are really on 



its side. Our question is this : Did 

 creative energy pause until the nebulous 

 matter had condensed, until the earth 

 had been detached, until the solar fire 

 had so far withdrawn from the earth's 

 vicinity as to permit a crust to gather 

 round the planet ? Did it wait until the 

 air was isolated ; until the seas were 

 formed; until evaporation, condensation, 

 and the descent of rain had begun ; until 

 the eroding forces of the atmosphere 

 had weathered and decomposed the 

 molten rocks so as to form soils ; until 

 the sun's rays had become so tempered 

 by distance, and by waste, as to be 

 chemically fit for the decomposition 

 necessary to vegetable life ? Having 

 waited through these aeons until the 

 proper conditions had set in, did it send 

 the fiat forth, "Let there be Life!"? 

 These questions define a hypothesis not 

 without its difficulties, but the dignity of 

 which in relation to the world's know- 

 ledge was demonstrated by the nobleness 

 of the men whom it sustained. 



Modern scientific thought is called 

 upon to decide between this hypothesis 

 and another ; and public thought gene- 

 rally will afterwards be called upon to 

 do the same. But, however the convic- 

 tions of individuals here and there may 

 be influenced, the process must be slow 

 and secular which commends the hypo- 

 thesis of Natural Evolution to the public 

 mind. For what are the core and essence 

 of this hypothesis ? Strip it naked, and 

 you stand face to face with the notion 

 that not alone the more ignoble forms of 

 animalcular or animal life, not alone the 

 nobler forms of the horse and lion, not 

 alone the exquisite and wonderful mecha- 

 nism of the human body, but that the 

 human mind itself emotion, intellect, 

 will, and all their phenomena were once 

 latent in a fiery cloud. Surely the mere 

 statement of such a notion is more than 

 a refutation. Bat the hypothesis would 

 probably go even farther than this. 

 Many who hold it would probably 

 assent to the position that, at the present 

 moment, all our philosophy, all our 

 poetry, all our science, and all our art 



