7 i 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Yet the modifications of opinion which appear to be demanded, on the 

 ground of fact as well as on the ground of reason, will necessitate very 

 considerable and almost revolutionary changes in the accepted code of 

 biological doctrines. 



An examination of the facts of science generally and of various 

 every-day phenomena teaches us, according to the Evolutionist, that 

 matter of different kinds, situated as it is and has been, gradually 

 tends within certain limits to become more and more complex in its 

 internal and external constitution. Coupling this conclusion with 

 various astronomical data, with geological data, and with facts de- 

 rived from the study of the past forms of Life upon our globe, the 

 Evolutionist essays to penetrate through the long vista of by-gone 

 ages, till he may rest his speculative gaze upon a vast rotating nebu- 

 lar mass of gaseous matter, of comparatively simple though unknown 

 constitution, from which he supposes our Universe to have been 

 slowly evolved. Without futile questionings as to the explanation or 

 cause of the existence of the nebula, without speculation as to what 

 simpler or more complex matter may have immediately preceded it, it 

 is obvious that we may for our own convenience take up its imagi- 

 nary existence at any stage. Though we must be free to admit that in 

 concentrating our attention upon this nebular stage, or upon any 

 other, we arbitrarily break into a mysterious cycle of existence whose 

 Cause is to us unfathomable. It is needless for my purpose, however, 

 to attempt to concentrate the reader's attention upon a period so re- 

 mote in the history of our Universe. The primordial nebula, as it 

 cooled and condensed, acquired a more rapid axial rotation : masses 

 were gradually thrown off from its circumference, and these in their 

 turn condensed into rotating spheroids, which continued to circulate 

 round the parent mass in elliptical orbits. Assuming, then, with the 

 Evolutionist, that our own planet had a past history of this kind, we must 

 also assume that it gradually changed from a gaseous to a fluid state 

 before beginning to solidify by the formation of a superficial crust — a 

 crust which gradually thickened as the fervent heat of it and of the 

 fluid nucleus abated by heat-radiations into space. Until this stage 

 of the Earth's history had been far advanced, no Living Things could 

 have existed upon its surface. " Hence," as Sir William Thomson 

 said, 1 "when the Earth was first fit for life there were no living 

 things on it. There were rocks, solid and disintegrated, water, air all 

 round, warmed and illuminated by a brilliant sun, ready to become a 

 garden." Living things must, however, have appeared upon its sur- 

 face at some very remote epoch, since their remains are to be found 

 far down in the rocks which at present constitute its crust. But how, 

 it must be asked, is the first appearance of living matter upon the 

 earth to be accounted for ? 



We should not needlessly invoke an abnormal act of Creative 



1 Inaugural Address at Meeting of British Association, Nature, August 3, 1871, p. 269. 



