ORIGIN OF LIFE. 31 
then he can see now—however much this may fall 
short of his declared expectation. 
Thus it would appear that a consistent belief in the 
Evolution Hypothesis almost necessarily carries with 
it a belief in the continuance of the process of Arche- 
biosis from the remote epoch when living matter first 
; appeared upon this earth down to the present time. 
The Evolutionist teaches us that living matter is not 
in its essence different from other kinds of matter, 
and that it originally came into being, like the 
\various forms of mineral and crystalline matter, by 
the operation of mere natural causes. As Professor 
Huxley says:—* “Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and 
nitrogen are all lifeless bodies. Of these carbon and 
oxygen unite in certain proportions and under certain 
conditions to give rise to carbonic acid; hydrogen 
and oxygen produce water; nitrogen and hydrogen 
give rise to ammonia. These new compounds, like 
the elementary bodies of which they are composed, 
are lifeless). But when they are brought together 
under certain conditions, they'give rise to the still 
more complex body, protoplasm; and this proto- 
plasm exhibits the phenomena of life” Again we 
know that the properties and chemical tendencies of 
compounds and elementary substances are the same 
* Fortnightly Review, Feb. 1869. 
