ORIGIN OF LIFE. 27 
to the advent upon it, in the remote past, of a “moss- 
grown fragment from the ruins of another world.” Sir 
William Thomson’s hypothesis seems strangely im- 
probable in itself, though it has, in comparison with 
the views of other distinguished authorities, the some- 
what rare merit of being not inconsistent with his 
notions concerning the experiments of to-day. He 
does not reject the supernatural in the past, whilst 
resorting to it for the present—he resorts to it in the 
present and in the past alike, and curiously evades 
altogether the real problem as to the Origin of Life. 
Since so little—or rather nothing—is said by Pro- 
fessor Huxley in support of his supposition that 
living matter does not originate in the present day, 
even though the process of origination is so closely 
akin to that of growth, and though the process of 
growth is taking place at every moment of our lives, 
in every region of the globe, and under the most 
varied conditions—amidst tropical heat and icy cold- 
ness, on mountain-tops and deep down in almost un- 
fathomable ocean-beds,—it seems only reasonable to 
suppose that he must have been influenced by some 
strong prepossessions. And so far as one can gather 
from his Presidential Address before the British As- 
sociation, from which I have already quoted, he does 
appear to have been powerfully biased by theoretical 
considerations. One of these we shall now consider. 
