126. I cannot see the evidence which would warrant the belief that Life originated solely in one microscopic lump of protoplasm on one single point of our earth’s surface; on the contrary, it is more probable that from innumerable and separate points of this teeming earth, myriads of protoplast sprang into existence, _whenever_ and _wherever_ the conditions of the formation of organized substance were present. It is probable that this has been incessantly going on, and that every day new protoplasts appear, struggle for existence, and serve as food for more highly organized rivals; but whether an evolution of the lower forms is, or is not, still going on, there can be no reluctance on the part of every believer in Evolution to admit that when organized substance was first evolved, it was evolved at many points. If this be so, the community observable in organized substance, wherever found, may as often be due to the fact of a common elementary composition as to the fact of inheritance. If this be so, we have a simple explanation both of the fundamental resemblances which link all organisms together, and of the characteristic diversities which separate them into kingdoms, classes, and orders. The resemblances are many, and close, because the forms evolved had a similar elementary composition, and their stages of evolution were determined by similar conditions. The diversities are many, because the forms evolved had from the first some diversities in elementary composition, and their stages of evolution were determined under conditions which, though similar in general, have varied in particulars. Indeed, there is no other ground for the resemblances and differences among organic beings than the similarities and dissimilarities in their Substance and History; and, whether the similarities are due to blood-relationship, or to other causes, the results are the same. There is something seductive in the supposition that Life radiated from a single centre in ever-increasing circles, its forms becoming more and more various as they came under more various conditions, until at last the whole earth was crowded with diversified existences. “From one cell to myriads of complex organisms, through countless æons of development,” is a formula of speculative grandeur, but I cannot bring myself to accept it; and I think that a lingering influence of the tradition of a “creative fiat” may be traced in its conception. May we not rather assume that the earth at the dawn of Life was a vast germinal membrane, every slightly diversified point producing its own vital form; and these myriads upon myriads of forms--all alike and all unlike--urged by the indwelling tendencies of development, struggled with each other for existence, many failing, many victorious, the victors carrying their tents into the camping ground of the vanquished. The point raised is the immense improbability of organized substance having been evolved only in one