314 CONCLUSION 



(7) Concerning the time that may have been needed for the 

 evolution of all the forms of life that have ever appeared upon 

 the Earth. 



This great accumulation of evidence in favour of the new views, 

 in harmony as it is with the writer's actual observations and 

 experiments, is still further strengthened by the fact that the new 

 view does not (as the old view does) postulate any inexplicable 

 departure from the uniformity of natural phenomena. It assumes 

 that the forces of nature and material properties have ever 

 remained the same, and that new births of living matter have ever 

 been taking place on the surface of the earth since the time when 

 such processes first became possible. 



Having arrived at such a conclusion our thoughts may not 

 unnaturally wander away beyond the bounds of our own solar 

 system — to the universe at large, with its inconceivable hosts of 

 stars and nebulas : that is, of systems like our own with their 

 planets and satellites, and of other such systems in all stages of 

 evolution. And the question of the existence of " Life in the Uni- 

 verse," beyond the pale of our small planet, cannot fail to suggest 

 itself as one of absorbing interest. This problem has recently 

 been considered (" Harper's Magazine ") by Simon Newcomb, one 

 of America's most famous astronomers. From facts stated, he feels 

 justified in coming to the conclusion that " the number of worlds 

 which, so far as we know, may be inhabited are to be counted by 

 thousands and perhaps by millions." In arriving at such a con- 

 clusion he, of course, assumes, as in scientific predictions generally, 

 the uniformity of natural phenomena. Looking to the countless 

 hosts of stars and their related planets, he says : " In a number 

 of bodies so vast we should expect every variety of conditions as 

 regards temperature and surroundings," so that, if we suppose " the 

 special conditions which prevail on our planet are necessary to the 

 highest forms of life, we still have reason to believe that these 

 same conditions prevail on thousands of other worlds." This con- 

 clusion is quite compatible with the views expressed in this work. 



As I have endeavoured to show, there are good reasons for the 

 conviction that the same Forces which are now in action within 

 and around us, have been and are constantly operative throughout 

 the whole universe — everywhere producing the most uniform and 

 complex results which combine in testifying to the existence of 

 one supreme and all-pervading Power of which these results are 

 the phenomenal manifestations. 



