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the spread of science among the masses. I would urge them to see that 
the science so spread is true science, and not a series of vain theories 
enforced by mere dogmatism, which, I must plainly say, is the case in regard 
to a great many of the elementary science- books I have lately read — books 
which, I confess, go entirely beyond my comprehension ; for, even in 
sciences of which I know the most, I often find myself at a loss to follow 
my shilling volume. 
Dr. Rae, F.R.S. (a Visitor). — I am afraid that this subject is quite beyond 
me. I have thought of it for many years, and wish I were able to speak 
as fully and clearly as I should like to do, the sentiments I entertain. I 
have studied nature a good deal, but have read very few books. I have 
heard it argued, and have myself thought it probable, that life did not begin 
at one centre — in one part of the world, — and I wish it to be understood 
that in speaking of nature I do not wish to introduce the name of the Deity. 
How life began is a question that has puzzled every one ; but I think it 
must have begun in a very simple and natural way. We may assume that 
the world must have arrived at a fitness for the introduction of life when it 
reached the stage at which it could support life, such as we know it to be ; and 
it may also be assumed that one portion of the earth became so fitted sooner 
than another, but it does not follow that life spread from that particular 
beginning all over the world. I think it very easy to suppose that, when 
certain parts of the globe became fitted for the reception and support of living 
things, in those portions of the earth life commenced. I do not pretend to 
go into the question, whence or how it sprang. Let us take the different 
forms of life we have in Australia, both in the animal and vegetable king- 
doms, and consider whether they have been evolved from some other kind of 
life. Everything there in the shape of organised life is different from that 
which we find elsewhere. The trees and plants are of different forms from 
those belonging to other parts of the world. To my mind it is much more 
simple to suppose that the life found there began in that pa,rt of the globe. 
Be it remembered that, in putting forward this view, I do so most humbly, 
and not at all as asserting that I am in the right, but merely for the purpose 
of expressing my own thoughts on the subject. I ask, therefore, is it not 
much more simple to suppose that in these places, where the differences are 
so great in the various forms of life, there may have been a commencement of 
life ? I may state that I have gone from the Arctic region, leaving plants of 
certain species growing there. I have afterwards found myself among the 
Rocky Mountains, at an altitude of 7,000 or 8,000 feet. Had I been con- 
veyed to those mountains blindfold, I might have thought that I had been 
transported back to the Arctic zone, because, in both places there were the 
same forms of life, although the two parts of the world are thousands of miles 
asunder. Which, I ask, is the simpler proposition — that the plants were 
carried from one place to the other, or that in each case they began to grow 
because the temperature and other conditions were suited to their existence ? 
Is it not more easy to suppose that, the climate of the Rocky Mountains 
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