They have a very
pretentious line of reasoning, which I may summarise thus. Life appeared
on earth not less than three hundred thousand years ago. First of all
our planet hung in the form of vapour, and drifted with millions of
other similar clouds through space; then the vapour became liquid; then
the globular form was assumed, and the flying ball began to rotate round
the great attracting body. We cannot tell how living forms first came on
earth; for they could not arise by spontaneous generation, in spite of
all that Dr. Bastian may say. Of the coming of life we can say
nothing--rather an odd admission, by-the-way, for gentlemen who are so
sure of most things--but we know that some low organism did appear--and
there is an end of that matter. No two organisms can possibly be exactly
alike; and the process of differentiation began in the very shrine. The
centuries passed, and living organisms became more and more complex; the
slowly-cooling ball of the earth was covered with greenery, but no
flower was to be seen. Then insects were attracted by brightly-coloured
leaves; then flowers and insects acted and reacted on each other. But
there is no need to trace every mark on the scale. It is enough to say
that infinitely-diversified forms of life branched off from central
stocks, and the process of variation went on steadily.
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