ORGANIC EVOLUTION — PHYSICAL 7 



cooling surface of the globe, but that all types knowu 

 to us have arisen by a process of gradual evolution 

 from pre-existing types, and that this process of evolu- 

 tion has generally been in an upward direction from 

 the low to the high, from the small to the great, from 

 the simple to the complex. Pushed to its logical 

 conclusion the theory teaches yet more ; it teaches, as 

 the only hypothesis scientifically tenable, that life 

 originally arose by a process of evolution from that 

 which was non-living ; that under conditions of which 

 we are ignorant, of moisture, or of heat, light, electricity, 

 or other of the protean forms of energy, non-living 

 chemical compounds did in the beginning of life over- 

 pass the border space which divides the non-living from 

 the living, and become living beings.'^ The lowest 

 living beings, or rather those highest chemical com- 

 pounds which first display signs, however slight, of 

 what is called life, if any such now exist on earth, 

 probably exist in masses so minute and so little 

 differentiated from mere chemical compounds, as to be 

 beyond all devisable means of observation. Eegarding 

 them therefore there is no evidence to offer, but as 

 regards the evolution of higher life from lower life, the 

 evidence is so vast and so decisive that it is impossible 

 to avoid coming to the conclusion that Darwin, Huxley, 

 and even Haeckel did not over-scrutinize insufficient 

 evidence, but that Dr. Moxon under-scrutinized over- 

 whelming evidence, that, in fact, he adopted the device 

 familiar to theologians and dear to them, of abusing 

 evidence instead of examining it. 



But quite apart from all evidence that evolution has 

 occurred, the conditions of life are such that Ave may 



1 This is of course the theory of spontaneous generation, 

 which is popularly supposed to be quite exploded. What is 

 exploded is that such highly organized beings as the infusorians 

 arose spontaneously. 



