UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 
whence he sprang — where was that? If we could 
trace it back to the unicellular life of Cambrian 
times, could we find its beginning then? 
All these questions about the beginning of things 
return forever into themselves; and their final 
solution baffles us. 
Ix. EVOLUTION 
We are apt to think the book of evolution closed, 
the tale finished. But can it be true? The evolution 
or transformation of the earth’s surface certainly is 
not finished, and never can be finished. As long as 
the rains continue to fall, and the seasons to change, 
and vegetation to grow, the land surface of the 
globe must continue to alter. As long as the secu- 
lar cooling of the earth goes on, the crust must 
continue to fold and in places to be lifted up. Geol- 
ogy shows us that millions of years ago it was vastly 
different from what we now behold it. How will it 
be as many millions of years hence? How different, 
too, was the animal life of the globe during the past 
geologic periods from the animal life of to-day! Will 
it not differ as much from that of to-day millions of 
years hence? The changes and transformations will 
doubtless be slower in the future than in the past, 
because the globe is older, life is older, the physical 
forces are less riotous, life is less gross and turbulent; 
still, radical changes must slowly appear. J cannot 
believe that the race of man has run its evolutionary 
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