Smyrna times., 1884-01-09
Where did Life Begin ?"
BY REV. DAVID COLE, d. d.

"0l Vi our CITY, formerly Secretary OF
state. 1t is issued by the Scribners
and is mechanically attractive.
The title of the book does not sug.
gest its subject of inquiry, though it
might be difficult to find another equal
~ snort form of words that would i'm
prove 1t. The author valves the uues-
tlon whether life is creation or a de-
Velopment. Every one sees that life
exists. The inquiry of the book is not
Whence did it Gomez" but "Wbern
on earth did it first appear" Was if
at the poles, or at the equator, or at
some intermediate point? And if we
can ind out where it first appeared
now was it thence diffused over the
earthT The whole argument is con-
nned to the flora and fauna. a mere
line or two at the close being given to
the life of man. To this last I shall
refer further on.
10 put the argument in a popular
form, 1T is this. The earth was, for an
indefinitely long period, a molten mass.
NO lie, OF which we have any knowl-
edge, could have sustained its heat
Life never could have appeared upon
1t, until, in its process of cooling. if
came down to temperature which life
could endure. At the moment when if
reached this point of reduction as to its
neat, the flora and fauna appeared
Cooling set in of course from the poles.
and has ever since been moving from
them southwark or northward toward
The equator. 1t would have been very
rapid If there had been no external in
huence at work to retard the effect
produced by the constantly progress
ing radiation of heat. No sooner would
the point of reduction from extreme
heat at which life is possible have been
reached, than the temperature would
nave passed below this point, and life
would again have been as impossible
TOR the cold as it had previously been
Tor the heat. But the rapidity of this
process was, from time to time. so re-
tarded by the compensation of solar
neat, as to maintain upon each parallel
III the process of cooling, a period of
adaptation to life sufficiently long for
llfe's healthful and vigorous develop
ment. After time, however, notwith- |
standing Its all sufficient lingering, this
period would give way, and its depart-
ure would leave upon the parallel a
cold which would radically change the
character of, or stint, or DESTROY the
life it had not driven away.
The theory of Mr.. Scribner, then. is
that the life found on the land and in
The seas of our planet first appeared at
the poles, and moved from these south-
ward and northward to the equator
The form of the earth, he thinks. Sis
Iains his theory. The corrugatiou of
us surface is not prominently eastcrly
ana westerly, but northerly and south
9rly. 10 easterly and westerly migra-
ions, this corrugation presents in
'uperable obstacles, but to nortberlv
md southerly movements it affords
he most favorable conditions. And in
he fact that the flora and fauna of
'otn hemlspheres, Notwithstanding the
Inference of their hemisphere features
o much resemble each other, he finds
urther confirmation of his view. Life
on the land around the
North Pole, driven or lured southwark
time by Increasing cold or the need
Il food, would pass down along all the
nerldlans into America, Europe and
Asia alike. And, though under differ
mt conditions, it would assume differ ,
Ut notifications on the different sides ,
the globe, it would yet retain enough
a common character to betrav the +
ommonness Of its origin. In the nro-
ess OF the migratory movement. manv ,
wing tribes of flora and fauna perish ,
4
q, many others, being too feeble or !
ldolent to move with the rest, became ,
United and inferior, while others still. r
behind, developed, through G
superior vitality, a growing hardness.
BOX on physical developments that G
specially fitted them to endure the +
rlgors of the Arctic climate. a
nd were the leaders of the hardy d
loes now found within the frigid zone. c
Ir. Scribner informs us that all this f.
as been going on-that it is not specu- q
tion, but fact. b
IL Is the passage-see pages 81 and O
i'm which the author Cautiously II
lggests that the ancestry of man NAV c
ave been some animal with a thumb. O
Id that this ancestry may have shared T
le Arctic home in which he supposes d
e hora and fauna first appeared. 1 a
y cautiously suggests" for Mr.. v
'rlbner speaks of this as "a vague b
I'd very deductive supposition, for m
nlch nothing is claimed beyond pos ii
oiilty or bare probability" My mind ii
volts at this. The Bible does not NJ
ave the question of the ancestry of g,
an or the question when human life f
ST appeared on the earth, an open 81
lestlon at all. 1t directly states that fl
% formed man physically, men a,
lily and spiritually perfect. And it n,
Gates him at the very outset ON the r
nks of the Euphrates. And it holds n,
m to the vicinity of this starting es
int down to the dispersion at Babel oo
e hundred years after the flood. II e,
I only gives no reason for supposing sb
at the human race is more than ~
out 5000 years old, but on the con- on
Try, affords the most positive proof q,
1t its age is not far from this. am no
llged to accept all sensible and prov w
positions that underlie the claims of Q!
olutionists. There has been, and is. Al
constantly progressing evolution in f,
conditions of the fora and fauna. va
the conditions of the physical earth 70,
even in the conditions of the en-
man race, since their respective ex- av
ences began. But any theories that vi,
zee the origin either of plant or m,
lmal life fo maffar ~, ,.,o4k -,