“After the solid igneous rock gradually became pulverized, the wind, rain, tide, flood and current had to carry this pulverized igneous rock, or sand, into the lowest ocean and river beds, where the process of forming _sedimentary_ (deposited by water), _fossiliferous_, _stratified_ rock began. “Here we can clearly see, then, how the remains of perished plants and animals have been imbedded from time to time in this slowly forming sedimentary rock. The fossils of the lower strata are the simplest; those nearest the surface, or the most recently formed, the most complex. The modern wrecked steamer will be a fossil of the future, the same as the entombed skeleton of antiquity, or the imbedded canoe of primitive man, are fossils of the present. The fossils, then, are one of the strongest proofs of evolution. They indicate a slow but gradual development of plant and animal life; and as time passes, both here and on Mars, more and more new links, which bind all things into a grand whole, imperceptible gradations of development, are being discovered. “Such, then, are some of the most conspicuous signs which undoubtedly suggested and strengthened, at every step of advance, the evolution theory; and also correspondingly weakened and discredited the ‘special creation’ theory.” “I have never before taken any stock in evolution,” said Rev. Dudley, “but I must acknowledge that the testimonies cited by you are very strong; we see them daily transpiring before our eyes right here on earth. But allow me to ask you, Mr. Midith, what is your theory of the fathomless abyss of the starry heavens? I think that part of the question is not so easily handled as that which treats of the formation of a planet’s crust.” “I have so far considered evolution only as affecting the Marsian and earth’s crusts, and the organic beings living upon them. I endeavored to make the elucidation as clear as possible by beginning at the nearest, simplest and most conspicuous evidences. But let us bear in mind that our earth and Mars are only little nooks, insignificant motes as compared with the visible universe. We are convinced now that evolution holds good in the formation and dissolution of heavenly bodies as well as in the formation of planets’ crusts, and in the development of organic beings. The planets with their attendant moons are little solar systems, so to speak, with their moons revolving around them, which were detached from the planets millions of ages ago. Saturn has eight moons and an unbroken ring. The sun has planets revolving around him, the same as the moons revolve around the planets, and our whole solar system revolves around a center with incredible velocity. From moon to planet, from planet to sun, from sun to Galaxy we may travel in our imagination and rest on the ultimate axiom--the ‘persistence of force.’