24 OEGANIC EVOLUTION 



is irresistible. In the following pages we shall see 

 that there is much more evidence for the theory of 

 organic evolution than may conveniently be set forth 

 at this stage in our study. 



CHAPTER III 



THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE » 



In any logical discussion ot organic evolution, how- 

 ever brief, one cannot omit consideration of a 

 question with which few evolutionists have con- 

 cerned themselves, and of which remarkably little 

 is heard in biological controversy at the present 

 time. This is the question of the origin of life, 

 the evolution of living from not-living matter. It 

 was permissible in 1859 for Darwin to postulate a 

 " few simple forms," and then to show their poten- 

 tialities ; but in a present survey of the whole 

 problem we must ask ourselves whence these 

 forms, however few or simple, were derived. 



Curiously enough, there is here a difficulty which 

 presents itself only to the man of science. The 

 plain man finds no difficulty in believing that when 

 bread or cheese or old boots are left in a damp, 

 dark spot, living things are developed from them ; 

 and, if this be so, there can be no dispute about 

 the evolution of life from the lifeless. But the 

 overwhelming majority of biologists repudiate this 

 belief in " spontaneous generation," declare it to be 



1 In the Pall Mall Magazine for June 1905 I have treated this 

 question at greater length than is possible here. 



