6 Where did Life Begin? 



together with all the secondary and remote 

 effects caused thereby. And in speaking of 

 the first appearance of life it matters not, to 

 my mind, whether it was a creation, a develop- 

 ment, or a transplantation ; whether it was a 

 lichen on the rock or a monad in the sea ; a 

 single solitary primordial cell, or one molecule 

 of plasmic matter anywhere. This inquiry is 

 not for the causes, methods, character, or 

 extent of first life ; it is simply and only con- 

 cerning its probable prinnts locus. 



If we are so fortunate as to discover where 

 life beo^an on the earth, it will be safe enouo-h 

 to rest upon the assumption that much, if not 

 all, of the present life on the globe is its le- 

 gitimate result and outcome. 



I. 



Are there, then, any data, any accepted facts 

 touching the condition of our orlobe antece- 

 dent to the advent of plants and animals 

 which would enable us to compare and con- 

 trast its past with its present condition, and 



