4 Where did Life Begin? 



This condition of thinors would indicate the 

 possibiHty at least that life upon the earth had 

 in the main commenced in some favored area, 

 and travelled thence far and wide over the 

 surface of the o'lobe, driven out bv chano-es of 

 environment, lessening in effect the favorable 

 conditions of its development in the place of 

 its beginning, and ever beckoned on by more 

 favorable conditions in adjacent districts. As 

 there are no plants and no animals, with the 

 exception of man, and possibly his compan- 

 ion the dog, and his pest the rat, that can 

 thrive in most latitudes where any life is pos- 

 sible, so it is very evident that plants and 

 animals, as we now^ see them, could not have 

 made their advent upon the earth universally 

 or simultaneously. Every geological fact con- 

 tradicts both suppositions. Besides, to allege 

 either is to claim, first, that all parts of the 

 earth became habitable, for some form of life, 

 at the same time, which is scarcely possible ; 

 and, secondly, such an allegation would do 

 away with the main question of distribution, 

 render superfluous most means of movement, 

 and make it sheer nonsense to talk about the 



