62 
A POSSIBLE ORIGIN OF ORGANIC LIFE. 
its place is in tlie organic or the inorganic series. Can we 
discover among the past epochs of which science reads the 
histories any one in which these two lines could probably 
have converged ? What special characteristics must we look 
for in such an epoch ? 
In order to answer this question, we must consider, What 
is the fundamental difference between the organic and the 
inorganic ? What is required to make the organic diverge 
from the inorganic ? Their most fundamental difference lies 
in the fact that in an organism energy is more concentrated 
than it is in a crystal. In some sense the organic is to the 
inorganic as electricity to magnetism. The energy is more 
intense, the action more rapid and violent. When heat is 
communicated to an iron rod the molecules begin to move in 
a comparatively slow and feeble manner. As more of the 
lieat-energy is concentrated in the iron some of these move¬ 
ments become more rapid. The iron glows with a red light. 
Then, as a larger number of the more rapid vibrations are set 
up, these mix with the slower ones and produce yellow light, 
and as still swifter and more violent vibrations are added by 
the concentrating energy the yellow gives place to white. If 
now this mixture of vibration-waves is analysed by the prism, 
the violet and the red diverge from a common point, and at 
a short distance the two rays are as far apart and as distinct 
in character as the organic and the inorganic kingdoms, and 
a mind which could recognise their differences without 
knowing anything of their origin might very well doubt 
whether one could have arisen from the other without a 
miracle. Yet these differences are due simply to the more 
concentrated condition of the energy in the one than in the 
other. 
Now if we trace the creation of this world according to 
the very probable nebular hypothesis, we see that as the 
nebulous matter condensed, energy became more concen¬ 
trated. This process continued until the ring became 
detached from the central mass, and until the ring itself 
became agglomerated into one glowing sphere. There was 
a period when the concentration of the energy reached a 
maximum, and a later period when dissipation became more 
rapid than concentration, and the active energy began to 
decline. Is it not possible that at the epoch of maximum 
energy such form was given to some material molecules, as 
differentiated their groupings and internal motions as much 
from the groupings and internal motions of others, 
as the violet ray is differentiated from the red ? That a 
force-wave was established which has rolled on through the 
