Where did Life Begin f 7 



which under known laws would indicate what 

 portion of the earth's surface first became, by 

 temperature, climate, and other concurrent 

 conditions, habitable for life ? Can any rea- 

 sonable, probable, and still existing cause be 

 discovered occurring in the very centre of 

 such first habitable portion which would have 

 dispersed all vegetal and animal life and 

 sent it in equal distribution through all the 

 seas and over all the great continents as rap- 

 idly as such other portions of the earth be- 

 came by temperature, climate, and other con- 

 ditions ready to receive and maintain it ? Is 

 there any one locality answering to these 

 conditions, and yet of which it may be said, 

 in a grander and truer sense than it was said 

 of Rome, that all roads lead to and from it ; 

 not only highways diverging to every part 

 of the world, but with vehicles upon them ; 

 seed-wagons running constantly in the direc- 

 tion of the most favorable distribution and to 

 the remotest parts of the earth ? Any local- 

 ity so related to the topography of the whole 

 earth as to render such extensive movements 

 of plants and animals from it in all conceiva- 



