14 EVOLUTION AND THE 
occurrence of Archebiosis, both in space and in time, 
since he does not reject the possibility of its occur- 
rence in our own day. Granting “that the formation 
of organic matter and the evolution of life in its 
lowest forms may go on under existing cosmical con- 
ditions,” he believes it “more likely that the formation 
of such matter and of such forms took place at a 
time when the heat of the earth’s surface was falling 
through those ranges of temperature at which the 
higher organic compounds are unstable.” But con. 
clusions which we are only able to infer from the 
writings of Mr. Spencer have been distinctly enun- 
ciated by Mr. G. H. Lewes. In a criticism of the 
“Darwinian Hypotheses,” he very forcibly pointed 
out that it is quite compatible with the hypothesis 
cf evolution to admit a variety of starting points for 
the formation of living matter, and he consequently 
laid down in principle a very important extension of 
the Darwinian doctrine, in its application to higher 
organisms. He said:* “Although observation re- 
veals that the bond of kinship does really unite many 
divergent forms, and the principle of Descent with 
Natural Selection will account for many of the re- 
semblances and differences, there is at present no 
warrant for assuming that all resemblances and 
* Fortnightly Review, 1868. 
