Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1908-07-10
LIFE SPONTANEOUS.
u 10 the Inevitable Outcome OF she
COOLING of q Globe.

On Far "a we have evidence, life Is an
inevitable outcome of the cooling OF
globe. provided that globe Is SUFFICIENT
" large for life did not reach this
earth from without. No fanciful mete-
orite bore IT the seeds which have since
snrouted and overrun its surface. Me-
teorites gave it life, indeed, but in the
more fundamental way in which all
natures processes are done, by supply
ing If with matter only from which by
evolution life arose. OF this We are
absolutely certain from the fact that
while meteors were falling upon 1t In
any numbers they were forming Its
mass. the full heat Of which had not
vet been evolved by their impact and
subsequent condensation. The heat
that thence ensued was excessive,
many fold greater than suficed to iill
any germs that might have come to II
housed in the meteorites themselves.
Thus the action due the meteorites
after they came must have annihilated
any organic possibilities they may have
brought with them. Those arriving
after the heat had wanea enough to
make survival possible found life a.:
ready started, since pretoplasm formed
the moment cooling permitted of 1t.
The proof that life was hero spon1
taneously evolved appears at every
stage in it's history not only In its ORR
gin, but at every step Of its progress
upward where marked departure nes
ours from Its previous course, 1t and
The environment are observed to have
changed together. Two short parallel
columns, the one showing the changes
that have occurred in the habitat, the
other those supervening in the habitat,
will make this not simply clear, but
striking. AS effective as the we'll
known deadly parallel Of pratorical ut
terances, this life giving one reaches
The same certainty through the proba:
bilities disclosed,
Occasion Of this vital paralielism oc.
ours at the very start. Indeed, we
may 60 back of this and note agree
ment before the start, for until the
conditions were such as could support
life no life appeared. This is the first
coincidence. Another follows on its
heels with the dawn both Of conditions
fit for some existence and Of that ex-
istence itself The waters were It's
birthplace. No other portion of the
surface could then have offered 1t a
home, aud nowhere except In the sen
is 1t then found.
The silnultaneity Of each new birth
and each new cradle crops up again
when a new field arose by the making
of the land. AS soon as this was suit
able plants appeared to take possession
of 1t and from that time on neglected
more and more the sea.
The fourth parallel Is found ia the
significant fact that the edible plants
and the plant eaters made their debut
on the scene together in miocene times,
the world having got along without
both before that epoch. This entry
hand In hand, so to speak, De Lap
parent, the great French geoogist, does
not hesitate to link logically and to re-
gard the one as the necessary compile
ment Of the other. II this were not the
ease, there Ia certainly no reason why
they should appear at the same instant
of time. Food evOkes its eater In fact
as definitely as in phraseology.
The last of this procession of cOinci-
dences, man, came on the globe at the
time when the cooling Of the globe rem
dered his own extension possible at
the least expense to himself, His brain
allowed him to take advantage of con-
ditions less intrlnsically favorable than
other animals could endure. His mind
clothed his body and gave him fire, and
with these two products he sailed
forth into a world where antagonists
were chiefly climatic, with which he
was fitted to cope.
Thus all along the line we perceive
that life and its domicile arose togeth=
err. The second Is necessary to the
first, and the first is always sufficient
to the occasion. The coincidence OF
the possibility and It's seizure, of the
posse and the esse, seems to be a gen.
eral principle Of evolution. Endless
variation is constantly in progress, and
this variation takes advantage of any
opportunity so soon as 1t occurs. Life
but waits in the wings of existence for
its cue to enter the scene the moment
the stage is set.-ProfessOr Lowell In
Captt,ru MoOoyipo