THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Sara Bard FieM Wood 
 
FIRST 
 
 PRINCIPLES. 
 
 BY 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "SOCIAL STATICS," "THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY," "ESSAYS: 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 1, 8, AKD 5 BOND 8TEEET. 
 
 1888. 
 
ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 18(54, by 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 GIFT 
 
/ w ^ 
 
 19*? 
 
 PREFACE TO THE FOFBTH EDITION. 
 
 To the first edition of this work there should have been 
 prefixed a definite indication of its origin ; and the mis- 
 apprehensions that have arisen in the absence of such 
 indication, ought before now to have shown me the need 
 for supplying it. 
 
 Though reference was made in a note on the first page 
 of the original preface, to certain Essays entitled " Progress : 
 its Law and Cause," and " Transcendental Physiology," as 
 containing generalizations which were to be elaborated in 
 the " System of Philosophy " there set forth in programme, 
 yet the dates of these Essays were not given ; nor was there 
 any indication of their cardinal importance as containing, 
 in a brief form, the general Theory of Evolution. No clear 
 evidence to the contrary standing in the way, there has 
 been very generally uttered and accepted the belief that 
 this work, and the works following it, originated after, 
 and resulted from, the special doctrine contained in Mr. 
 Darwin's Origin of Species. 
 
 The Essay on " Progress : its Law and Cause," coextensive 
 in the theory it contains with Chapters XY., XVI., XVII., 
 and XX. in Part II. of this work, was first published in the 
 Westminster Review for April, 1857; and the Essay in 
 which is briefly set forth the general truth elaborated in 
 Chapter XIX., originally appeared, under the title of " The 
 Ultimate Laws of Physiology," in the National Review for 
 
 911 
 
ii PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 October, 1857. Further, I may point out that in the first 
 edition of The Principles of Psychology, published in July, 
 1855, mental phenomena are interpreted entirely from the 
 evolution point of view ; and the words used in the titles of 
 sundry chapters, imply the presence, at that date, of ideas 
 more widely applied in the Essays just named. As the first 
 edition of The Origin of Species did not make its appearance 
 till October, 1859, it is manifest that the theory set forth ip 
 this work and its successors, had an origin independent of, 
 and prior to, that which is commonly assumed to have ini- 
 tiated it. 
 
 The distinctness of origin might, indeed, have been in^ 
 f erred from the work itself, which deals with Evolution 
 at large Inorganic, Organic, and Super-organic in terms 
 of Matter and Motion ; and touches but briefly on those 
 particular processes so luminously exhibited by Mr. Dar- 
 win. In 159 only (p. 447), when illustrating the law 
 of " The Multiplication of Effects," as universally dis- 
 played, have I had occasion to refer to the doctrine set 
 forth in the Origin of Species: pointing out that the 
 general cause I had previously assigned for the produc- 
 tion of divergent varieties of organisms, would not suffice 
 to account for all the facts without that special cause 
 disclosed by Mr. Darwin. The absence of this passage 
 would, of course, leave a serious gap in the general argu- 
 ment ; but the remainder of the work would stand exactly 
 as it now does. 
 
 I do not make this explanation in the belief that the 
 prevailing misapprehension will thereby soon be rectified ; 
 for I am conscious that, once having become current, 
 wrong beliefs of this kind long persist all disproofs not- 
 withstanding. Nevertheless, I yield to the suggestion 
 that unless I state the facts as they stand, I shall continue 
 to countenance the misapprehension, and cannot expect i 1 
 to cease. 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOUKTH EDITION. li 4 
 
 With the exception of unimportant changes in one of 
 the notes, and some typographical corrections, the text of 
 this edition is identical with that of the last. I have, 
 however, added an Appendix dealing with certain criti- 
 cisms that have been passed upon the general formula of 
 Evolution, and upon the , philosophical doctrine which 
 precedes it. 
 
 May, 1880. 
 
PEEFAOE 
 
 TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 THE present volume is the first of a series designed to un 
 fold the principles of a new philosophy. It is divided into two 
 parts : the aim of the first being to determine the true sphere 
 of all rational investigation, and of the second, to elucidate 
 those fundamental and universal principles which science has 
 established within that sphere, and which are to constitute the 
 basis of the system. The scheme of truth developed in these 
 First Principles is complete in itself, and has its independent 
 value ; but it is designed by the author to serve for guidance 
 and verification in the construction of the succeeding and larger 
 portions of his philosophic plan. 
 
 Having presented in his introductory volume so much of 
 the general principles of Physics as is essential to the develop- 
 ment of his method, Mr. Spencer enters upon the subject of 
 Organic nature. The second work of the series is to be the 
 Principles of Biology a systematic statement of the facts and 
 laws which constitute the Science of Life. It is not to be an 
 encyclopedic and exhaustive treatise upon this vast subject, 
 but such a compendious presentation of its data and general 
 principles as shall interpret the method of nature, afford a 
 clear understanding of the questions involved, and prepare foi 
 further inquiries. This work is now published in quarterly 
 numbers, of from 80 to 96 pages. Four of these parts have 
 already appeared, and some idea of the course and character 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 of the discussion may be formed by observing the titles to the 
 chapters, which are as follows : 
 
 PART FIRST : I. Organic Matter ; II. The Actions of Forces 
 on Organic Matter ; III. The Reactions of Organic Matter on 
 Forces ; IV. Proximate Definition of Life ; V. The Correspond- 
 ence between Life and its Circumstances; VI. The Degree 
 of Life varies with the Degree of Correspondence; VII. 
 Scope of Biology. PART SECOND : I. Growth ; II. Develop- 
 ment ; III. Function ; IV. Waste and Repair ; V. Adaptation ; 
 VL Individuality; VII. Genesis; VIII. Heredity; IX. Varia- 
 tion ; X. Genesis, Heredity, and Variation ; XI. Classification ; 
 XII. Distribution. 
 
 The Principles of Biology will be followed by the Princi- 
 ples of Psychology ; that is, Mr. Spencer will pass from the 
 consideration of Life to the study of Mind. This subject will 
 be regarded in the light of the great truths of Biology pre- 
 viously established ; the connections of life and mind will be 
 traced ; the evolution of the intellectual faculties in their due 
 succession, and in correspondence with the conditions of the 
 environment, will be unfolded, and the whole subject of mind 
 will be treated, not by the narrow metaphysical methods, but 
 in its broadest aspect, as a phase of nature's order which can 
 only be comprehended in the light of her universal plan. 
 
 The fourth work of the series is Sociology, or the science 
 of human relations. As a multitude is but an assemblage of 
 units, and as the characteristics of a multitude result from the 
 properties of its units, so social phenomena are consequences 
 of the natures of individual men. Biology and Psychology 
 are the two great keys to the knowledge of human nature ; 
 and hence from these Mr. Spencer naturally passes to the sub- 
 ject of Social Science. The growth of society, the conditions 
 of its intellectual and moral progress, the development of its 
 various activities and organizations, will be here described, and 
 a statement made of those principles which are essential to 
 the successful regulation of social affairs. 
 
 Lastly, in Part Fifth, Mr. Spencer proposes to consider the 
 Principles of Morality. The truths furnished by Biology, Psy- 
 chology, and Sociology will be here brought to bear, to deter- 
 
PREPACK. Vll 
 
 mine correct rules of human action, the principles of private 
 and public justice, and to form a true theory of right living. 
 
 The reader will obtain a more just idea of the extent and pro- 
 portions of Mr. Spencer's philosophic plan, by consulting his 
 prospectus at the close of the volume. It will be seen to 
 embrace a wide range of topics, but in the present work, and 
 in his profound and original volumes on the "Principles of 
 Psychology " and " Social Statics," as also throughout his 
 numerous Essays and Discussions, we discover that he has 
 already traversed almost the entire field, while to elaborate the 
 whole into one connected and organized philosophical scheme, 
 is a work well suited to his bold and comprehensive genius. 
 With a metaphysical acuteness equalled only by his immense 
 grasp of the results of physical science alike remarkable 
 for his profound analysis, constructive ability, and power of 
 lucid and forcible statement, Mr. Spencer has rare endow- 
 ments for the task he has undertaken, and can hardly fail to 
 embody in his system the largest scientific and philosophical 
 tendencies of the age. 
 
 As the present volume is a working out of universal prin- 
 ciples to be subsequently applied, it is probably of a more ab- 
 stract character than will be the subsequent works of the 
 series. The discussions strike down to the profoundest basis 
 of human thought, and involve the deepest questions upon 
 which the intellect of man has entered. Those unaccustomed 
 to close metaphysical reasoning, may therefore find parts of 
 the argument not easy to follow, although it is here pre- 
 sented with a distinctness and a vigor to be found perhaps in no 
 other author. Still, the chief portions of the book may be read 
 by all with ease and pleasure, while no one can fail to be re- 
 paid for the persistent effort that may be required to master 
 Lhe entire argument. All who have sufiicient earnestness 
 of nature to take interest in those transcendent questions 
 \vhich are now occupying the most advanced minds of the age, 
 will find them here considered with unsurpassed clearness, 
 originality, and power. 
 
 The invigorating influence of philosophical studies upon 
 the mind, and their consequent educational value, have been 
 
VI 1 1 PREFACE. 
 
 loiig recognized. In this point of view the system here pre 
 sented has high claims upon the young men of our country, 
 embodying as it does the latest and largest results of positive 
 science ; organizing its facts and principles upon a natural meth- 
 od, which places them most perfectly in command of memory ; 
 and converging all its lines of inquiry to the end of a high prac- 
 tical beneficence, the unfolding of those laws of nature and 
 human nature which determine personal welfare and the social 
 polity. Earnest and reverent in temper, cautious in statement, 
 severely logical and yet presenting his views in a transparent 
 and attractive style which combines the precision of science 
 with many of the graces of lighter composition, it is believed 
 that the thorough study of Spencer's philosophical scheme would 
 combine, in an unrivalled degree, those prime requisites of the 
 highest education, a knowledge of the truths which it is most 
 important for man to know, and that salutary discipline of the 
 mental faculties which results from their systematic acquisition. 
 We say the young men of our country, for if we are not 
 mistaken, it is here that Mr. Spencer is to find his largest 
 and fittest audience. There is something in the bold hand- 
 ling of his questions, in his earnest and fearless appeal to first 
 principles, and in the practical availability of his conclusions, 
 which is eminently suited to the genius of our people. It has 
 been so in a marked sense with his work on Education, and there 
 is no reason why it should not be so in an equal degree with his 
 other writings. They betray a profound sympathy with the 
 best spirit of our institutions, and that noble aspiration for the 
 welfare and improvement of society which can hardly fail to 
 commend them to the more liberal and enlightened portions 
 of the American public. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 WHEN the First Edition of this work was published, I sup- 
 posed that the general theory set forth in its Second Part, 
 was presented in something like a finished form ; but sub- 
 sequent thought led me to further developments of much 
 importance, and disclosed the fact that the component 
 parts of the theory had been wrongly put together. 
 Even in the absence of a more special reason, I had decided 
 that, on the completion of the Principles of Biology, it would 
 be proper to suspend for a few months the series I am 
 issuing, that I might make the required re-organization. 
 And when the time had arrived, there had arisen a more 
 special reason, which forbade hesitation. Translations into 
 the French and Russian languages were about to be made 
 had, in fact, been commenced ; and had I deferred the 
 re-organization the work would have been reproduced with 
 all its original imperfections. This will be a sufficient 
 explanation to those who have complained of the delay in 
 the issue of the Principles of Psychology. 
 
 The First Part remains almost untouched: two verbal 
 alterations only, on pp. 43 and 99, having been made to 
 prevent misconceptions. Part II., however, is wholly 
 transformed. Its first chapter, on "Laws in General," is 
 omitted, with a view to the inclusion of it in one of the 
 latter volumes of the series. Two minor chapters disappear. 
 Most of the rest are transposed, in groups or singly. 
 And there are nine new chapters embodying the further 
 developments, and serving to combine the pre-existing 
 chapters into a changed whole. The following scheme in 
 
X PKEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 which the new chapters are marked by italics, will give an 
 idea of the transformation 
 
 FIRST EDITION. 
 
 ji* i 3 IJJt ~\3 CH Or &T* 
 
 Tlie Law of Evolution. 
 The Law of Evolution (continued). 
 of Evolution .- 
 
 Space, Time, Matter, Motion, and 
 
 Force. 
 
 The Indestructibility of Matter. 
 The Continuity of Motion. 
 The Persistence of Force. 
 
 The Correlation and Equivalence 
 
 of Forces. 
 
 The Direction of Motion. 
 The Rhythm of Motion. 
 
 Tie Conditions essential te 
 
 The Instability of the Homo- 
 geneous. 
 
 The Multiplication of Effects. 
 Differentiation and Integration. 
 Equilibration. 
 
 Summary and Conclusion. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Philosophy Defined. 
 Tlie Data of Philosophy. 
 
 Space, Time, Matter, Motion, 
 and Force. 
 
 The Indestructibility of Matter 
 
 The Continuity of Motion. 
 
 The Persistence of Force. 
 
 The Persistence of Relation* 
 among Forces. 
 
 The Transformation and Equi- 
 valence of Forces. 
 
 The Direction of Motion. 
 
 The Rhythm of Motion. 
 
 Recapitulation, Criticism, and 
 Recommencement 
 
 Evolution and Dissolution. 
 
 Simple and Comp und Evolution 
 TheLaw of Evolution. 
 The Law of Evolution 
 
 (continued). \ w itlTad- 
 
 The Law of Evolution I ditions. 
 
 (continued). .) 
 
 The Law of Evolution (con- 
 eluded). 
 
 The Interpretation of Evolution. 
 
 The Instability of the Homo- 
 geneous. 
 
 The Multiplication of Effects. 
 
 Segregation. 
 
 Equilibration. 
 
 Dissolution. 
 
 Summary and Conclusion (Re- 
 written). 
 
 \ Re-ar- 
 1 ranged 
 
 Of course throughout this re-organized Second Part 
 the numbers of the sections have been changed 
 
FUEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 XI 
 
 and hence those who possess the Principles of Bioloyy, in 
 which many references are made to passages in First Prin- 
 ciples, would be inconvenienced by the want of corre- 
 spondence between the numbers of the sections in the ori- 
 ginal edition and in the new edition, were they without any 
 means of identifying the sections as now numbered. 
 The annexed list, showing which section answers to which 
 in the two editions, will meet the requirement : 
 
 First Second 
 Edit Edit. 
 
 First Second 
 Edit. Edit. 
 
 First Second 
 Mir,. Edit. 
 
 First Second 
 Edit Edit 
 
 First Second 
 Edit Edit 
 
 43 119 
 
 
 "107 
 
 72 58 
 
 92 81 
 
 121 161 
 
 44 117 
 
 
 108 
 
 73 59 
 
 93 82 
 
 122 162 
 
 45 118 
 
 
 109 
 
 74 60 
 
 94 83 
 
 123 163 
 
 46 120 
 
 
 110 
 
 75 61 
 
 95 84 
 
 124 164 
 
 47 121 
 
 56< 
 
 111 
 
 76 62 
 
 96 85 
 
 125 165 
 
 48 122 
 
 
 112 
 
 77 66 
 
 97 86 
 
 126 166 
 
 49 123 
 
 
 113 
 
 78 67 
 
 98 87 
 
 127 167 
 
 50 124 
 
 
 114 
 
 79 68 
 
 99 88 
 
 128 168 
 
 51 125 
 
 
 115 
 
 80 69 
 
 109 149 
 
 129 109 
 
 52 126 
 
 61 " 46 
 
 81 70 
 
 110 150 
 
 130 170 
 
 53 128 
 
 62 47 
 
 82 71 
 
 111 151 
 
 131 171 
 
 54 129 
 
 63 48 
 
 83 72 
 
 112 152 
 
 132 172 
 
 
 r !3<) 
 
 64 49 
 
 84 73 
 
 113 153 
 
 133 173 
 
 
 131 
 
 65 50 
 
 85 74 
 
 114 154 
 
 134 174 
 
 
 132 
 
 66 52 
 
 86 75 
 
 115 155 
 
 135 175 
 
 ** f 
 
 133 
 
 67 53 
 
 87 76 
 
 116 156 
 
 136 176 
 
 O5" 
 
 134 
 135 
 
 68 54 
 69 55 
 
 88 77 
 89 78 
 
 117 157 
 
 118 158 
 
 1S7I 177 
 Io7 ll83 
 
 
 136 
 
 70 56 
 
 90 79 
 
 119 159 
 
 144 193 
 
 
 137 
 
 71 57 
 
 91 80 
 
 120 160 
 
 145 194 
 
 The original stereotype plates have been used wherever 
 it was possible; and hence the exact correspondence be- 
 tween the two editions in many places, even where adjacent 
 pages are altered. 
 
 London, November, 1867 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THIS volume is the lirsL of a series described in a prospecttti 
 originally distributed in March, 18(30. Of that prospectus, 
 the annexed is a reprint. 
 
 A SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 MR. HERBERT SPENCER proposes to issue in periodical parts a 
 connected series of works which he has for several years been 
 preparing. Some conception of the general aim and scope of 
 this series may be gathered from the following Programme. 
 
 FJEST PRINCIPLES. 
 
 PART I. THE UNKNOWABLE. Carrying a step further the doctrine 
 put into shape by Hamilton and Mansel ; pointing out the various direc- 
 tions in which Science leads to the same conclusions ; and showing 
 that in this united belief in an Absolute that transcends not only human 
 knowledge but human conception, lies the only possible reconciliation 
 of Science and Religion. 
 
 PART II. LAWS OF THE KNOWABLE. A statement of the ultimate 
 principles discernible throughout all manifestations of the Absolute 
 those highest generalizations now being disclosed by Science which are 
 severally true not of one class of phenomena but of all classes of pheno- 
 mena ; and which are thus the keys to all classes of phenomena.* 
 
 * One of these generalizations is that currently known as "the Conservation oi 
 Force ; " a second may be gathered from a published essay on " Progress : its Law 
 ind Cause ; " a third is indicated in a paper on " Transcendental Physiology ; " 
 and there are several others. 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 [In logical order should here come the application of these First FHnfi- 
 pies to Inorganic Nature. But this great division it is proposed to pass 
 over : partly because, even without it, the scheme is too extensive ; and 
 partly because the interpretation of Organic Nature after the proposed 
 method, is of more immediate importance. The second work of the series 
 will therefore be] 
 
 THE PKINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PART I. THE DATA OF BIOLOGY. Including those general truths of 
 Physics and Chemistry with which rational Biology must set out. 
 
 II. THE INDUCTIONS OF BIOLOGY. A statement of the leading gener- 
 alizations which Naturalists, Physiologists, and Comparative Anatomists, 
 have established. 
 
 III. THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE. Concerning the speculation com- 
 monly known as " The Development Hypothesis " its a priori and <l 
 posteriori evidences. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 IV. MORPHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT. Pointing out the relations that 
 are everywhere traceable between organic forms and the average of the 
 various forces to which they are subject ; and seeking in the cumulative 
 effects of such forces a theory of the forms. 
 
 V. PHYSIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT. The progressive differentiation of 
 functions similarly traced ; and similarly interpreted as consequent upon 
 the exposure of different parts of organisms to different sets of conditions. 
 
 VI. THE LAWS OF MULTIPLICATION. Generalizations respecting the 
 rates of reproduction of the various classes of plants and animals; fol- 
 lowed by an attempt to show the dependence of these variations upon 
 certain necessary causes.* 
 
 * The ideas to be developed in the second volume of the Principles of Biology 
 the writer has already briefly expressed in sundry Review- Articles. Part IV. 
 will work out a doctrine suggested in a paper on " The Laws of Organic Form,'* 
 published in the Medico- Chirurgical Review for January, 1859. The germ of Part 
 V. is contained in the essay on " Transcendental Physiology : " See Essays, pp. 
 280-90. And in Part VI. will be unfolded certain views crudely expressed in a 
 ' Theory of Population," published 111 the Westminster Review for April 1862 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PART I. THE DATA OF PSYCHOLOGY. Treating of the general con- 
 riexions of Mind and Life and their relations to other modes of the 
 Unknowable. 
 
 II. THE INDUCTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY. A digest of such generaliza- 
 '.ons respecting mental phenomena as have already been empirically 
 established. 
 
 III. GENERAL SYNTHESIS. A republication, with additional chapters, 
 of the same part in the already-published Principles of PsycJwlogy. 
 
 IV. SPECIAL SYNTHESIS. A republication, with extensive revisions 
 and additions, of the same part, &c. &c. 
 
 V. PHYSICAL SYNTHESIS. An attempt to show the manner in which 
 the succession of states of consciousness conforms to a certain funda- 
 mental law of nervous action that follows from the First Principles laid 
 down at the outset. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 VI. SPECIAL ANALYSIS. As at present published, but further elabor 
 ated by some additional chapters. 
 
 VII. GENERAL ANALYSIS. As at present published, with several 
 explanations and additions. 
 
 VIII. COROLLARIES. Consisting in part cf a number of derivative 
 principles which form a necessary introduction to Sociology.* 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PART I. THE DATA OF SOCIOLOGY. A statement of the several sets 
 of factors entering into social phenomena human ideas and feelings 
 considered in their necessary order of evolution ; surrounding natural 
 conditions ; and those ever complicating conditions to which Society 
 itself gives origin. 
 
 II. THE INDUCTIONS OF SOCIOLOGY. General facts, structural and 
 functional, as gathered from a survey of Societies and their changes : in 
 
 * Respecting the several additions to be made to the Principles of Psychology, 
 it seems needful only to say that Part V. is the unwritten division named in the 
 preface to that work a division of which the germ is contained in a note on page 
 644, and of which the scope has since been more definitely stated in a paper in 
 the Medico- Chirurgical Review for Jan. 1859. 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 [In logical order s7iould here come the application of these First 
 pies to Inorganic Nature. But this great division it is proposed to pass 
 over : partly because, even without it, the scheme is too extensive ; and 
 partly because the interpretation of Organic Nature after the proposed 
 method, is of more immediate importance. The second work of the series 
 will therefore be ] 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PART I. THE DATA OF BIOLOGY. Including those general truths o! 
 Physics and Chemistry with which rational Biology must set out. 
 
 II. THE INDUCTIONS OF BIOLOGY. A statement of the leading gener- 
 alizations which Naturalists, Physiologists, and Comparative Anatomists, 
 have established. 
 
 III. THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE. Concerning the speculation com- 
 monly known as " The Development Hypothesis " its a priori and d 
 posteriori evidences. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 IV. MORPHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT. Pointing out the relations that 
 are everywhere traceable between organic forms and the average of the 
 various forces to which they are subject ; and seeking in the cumulative 
 effects of such forces a theory of the forms. 
 
 V. PHYSIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT. The progressive differentiation of 
 functions similarly traced ; and similarly interpreted as consequent upon 
 the exposure of different parts of organisms to different sets of conditions. 
 
 VI. THE LAWS OF MULTIPLICATION. Generalizations respecting the 
 rates of reproduction of the various classes of plants and animals ,- fol- 
 lowed by an attempt to show the dependence of these variations upon 
 certain necessary causes.* 
 
 * The ideas to be developed in the second volume of the Principles of Biology 
 the writer has already briefly expressed in sundry Review- Articles. Part IV. 
 will work out a doctrine suggested in a paper on " The Laws of Organic Form," 
 published in the Medico- Chirurgical Review for January, 1859. The germ of Part 
 V. is contained in the essay on " Transcendental Physiology : " See Essays, pp. 
 280-90. And in Part VI. will be unfolded certain views crudely expressed in a 
 'Theory of Population," published 111 the Westminster Review for April 1852 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PART I. THE DATA OF PSYCHOLOGY. Treating of the general con- 
 riexions of Mind and Life and their relations to other modes of the 
 Unknowable. 
 
 II. THE INDUCTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY. A digest of such generalize 
 '.ons respecting mental phenomena as have already been empifically 
 established. 
 
 III. GENERAL SYNTHESIS. A republication, with additional chapters, 
 of the same part in the already-published Principles of PsycJwlogy. 
 
 IV. SPECIAL SYNTHESIS. A republication, with extensive revisions 
 and additions, of the same part, &c. &c. 
 
 V. PHYSICAL SYNTHESIS. An attempt to show the manner in which 
 the succession of states of consciousness conforms to a certain funda- 
 mental law of nervous action that follows from the First Principles laid 
 down at the outset. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 VI. SPECIAL ANALYSIS. As at present published, but further elabor 
 ated by some additional chapters. 
 
 VII. GENERAL ANALYSIS. As at present published, with several 
 explanations and additions. 
 
 VIII. COROLLARIES. Consisting in part cf a number of derivative 
 principles which form a necessary introduction to Sociology.* 
 
 THE PEINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PART I. THE DATA OF SOCIOLOGY. A statement of the several sets 
 of factors entering into social phenomena human ideas and feelings 
 considered in their necessary order of evolution ; surrounding natural 
 conditions ; and those ever complicating conditions to which Society 
 itself gives origin. 
 
 II. THE INDUCTIONS OF SOCIOLOGY. General facts, structural and 
 functional, as gathered from a survey of Societies and their changes : in 
 
 * Respecting the several additions to be made to the Principles of PsycJwlogy, 
 it seems needful only to say that Part V. is the unwritten division named in the 
 preface to that work a division of which the germ is contained in a note on page 
 544, and of which the scope has since heen more definitely stated in a paper in 
 the Aledico-Chirurgical Review for Jan. 1859. 
 
KV1 PREFACE. 
 
 uther words, the empirical generalizations that are arrived at by conor 
 paring different societies, and successive phases of the same society. 
 
 III. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. The evolution of governments, gene- 
 ral and local, as determined by natural causes ; their several types and 
 metamorphoses ; their increasing complexity and specialization ; and the 
 progressive limitation of their functions. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 IV. ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION. Tracing the differentiation of 
 religious government from secular ; its successive complications and the 
 multiplication of sects ; the growth and continued modification of re- 
 ligious ideas, as caused by advancing knowledge and changing moral 
 character ; and the gradual reconciliation of these ideas with the truths 
 of abstract science. 
 
 V. CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION. The natural history of that third 
 kind of government which, having a common root with the others, and 
 slowly becoming separate from and supplementary to them, serves to 
 regulate the minor actions of life. 
 
 VI. INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION. The development of productive and 
 distributive agencies, considered, like the foregoing, in its necessary 
 causes : comprehending not only the progressive division of labour, and 
 the increasing complexity of each industrial agency, but also the suc- 
 cessive forms of industrial government as passing through like phases 
 with political government. 
 
 VOL. Ill 
 
 VII. LINGUAL PROGRESS. The evolution of Languages regarded ai 
 a psychological process determined by social conditions. 
 
 VIII. INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS. Treated from the same point of 
 view : including the growth of classifications ; the evolution of science 
 out of common knowledge ; the advance from qualitive to quantative 
 prevision, from the indefinite to the definite, and from the concrete to 
 the abstract. 
 
 IX. ESTHETIC PROGRESS. The Fine Arts similarly dealt with: 
 tracing their gradual differentiation from primitive institutions and from 
 each other ; then* increasing varieties of development ; and their ad- 
 vance in reality of expression and superiority of aim. 
 
 X. MORAL PROGRESS. Exhibiting the genesis of the slow emotional 
 modifications which human nature undergoes in its adaptation to th 
 social state. 
 
PREFACE. XVli 
 
 XI. THE CONSENSUS. Treating of the necessary interdependence of 
 structures and of functions in each type of society, and in the successive 
 phases of social development.* 
 
 THE PKIXCIPLES OF MOEALITY. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PART I. THE DATA OF MORALITY. Generalizations furnished by 
 Biology, Psychology and Sociology, which underlie a true theory 01 
 right living : in other words, the elements of that equilibrium between 
 constitution and conditions of existence, which is at once the moral 
 ideal and the limit towards which we are progressing. 
 
 II. THE INDUCTIONS OF MORALITY. Those empirically-established 
 rules of human action which are registered as essential laws by all 
 civilized nations : that is to say the generalizations of expediency. 
 
 III. PERSONAL MORALS. The principles of private conduct physical, 
 intellectual, moral and religious that follow from the conditions to 
 complete individual life : or, what is the same thing those modes of 
 private action which must result from the eventual equilibration of in- 
 ternal desires and external needs. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 IV. JUSTICE. The mutual limitations of men's actions necessitated 
 by their co-existence as units of a society limitations, the perfect 
 observance of which constitutes that state of equilibrium forming the 
 goal of political progress. 
 
 V. NEGATIVE BENEFICENCE. Those secondary limitations, similarly 
 necessitated, which, though less important and not cognizable by law, 
 are yet requisite to prevent mutual destruction of happiness in various 
 indirect ways : in other words those minor self-restraints dictated by 
 what may be called passive sympathy. 
 
 * Of this treatise on Sociology a few small fragment may be found in already- 
 published essays. Some of the ideas to be developed in Part II. are indicated in 
 an article on " The Social Organism," contained in the last number of the West- 
 minster Review ; those which Part V. will work out, may be gathered from the 
 first half of a paper written some years since on "Manners and Fashion ;" of Part 
 VIII. the germs are contained in an article on the " Genesis of Science ;" two 
 papers on " The Origin and Function of Music" and. " The Philosophy of Style," 
 contain some ideas to be embodied in Part IX. ; and from a criticism of Mr. Bain's 
 work on " The Emotions and the Will," in the last number of the Medico-Chirur* 
 aical Review, the central idea to be developed in Part X. may be inferred. 
 
PliEFACE. 
 
 VI. POSITIVE BENEFICENCE. Comprehending all modes of conduct, 
 dictated by active sympathy, which imply pleasure in giving pleasure- 
 modes of conduct that social adaptation has induced and must render 
 ever more general ; and which, in becoming universal, must fill to the 
 full the possible measure of human happiness.* 
 
 In anticipation of the obvious criticism that the scheme here 
 sketched out is too extensive, it may be remarked that an ex- 
 haustive treatment of each topic is not intended ; but simply the 
 establishment of principles, with such illustrations as are needed 
 to make their bearings fully understood. It may also be pointed 
 out that, besides minor fragments, one large division {The Princi- 
 ples of Psychology) is already, in great part, executed. And a 
 further reply is, that impossible though it may prove to execute 
 the whole, yet nothing can be said against an attempt to set forth 
 the First Principles and to carry their applications as far as cir. 
 cumstances permit. 
 
 The price per Number to be half-a-crown ; that is to say, the 
 four Numbers yearly issued to be severally delivered, post free, 
 to all annual subscribers of Ten Shillings, 
 
 Part IV. of the Principles of Morality will be co-extensive (though not iden- 
 tical) with the first half of the writer's Social Statict, 
 
 This Programme I have thought well to reprint for two 
 reasons: the one being that readers may, from time to 
 time, be able to ascertain what topics are next to be dealt 
 with ; the other being that an outline of the scheme may 
 remain, in case it should never be completed. 
 
 The successive instalments of which this volume consists, 
 were issued to the subscribers at the following dates : Part 
 I. (pp. 180) in October, 1860 ; Part II. (pp. 81176) in 
 January, 1861 ; Part III. (pp. 177256) in April, 1861 : 
 Part IV. (pp. 257334) in October, 1861 ; Part V. (pp. 
 335416) in March, 1862; and Part VI. (pp. 417504) 
 in June, 1862.* 
 
 London, June 6<A, 1862. 
 
 * These dates and pagings of the divisions as originally issued, of coursa 
 do not apply to the volume as it now stands, beyond page 123. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. THE UNKNOWABLE. 
 
 CHAP. FAGI 
 
 I. RELIGION AND SCIENCE ... ... ... ... 
 
 II. ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS ... 25 
 
 IJT. ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS 47 
 
 IV. THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE 68 
 
 V. THE RECONCILIATION 98 
 
 
 PART II. THE KNOWABLE. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. PHILOSOPHY DEFINED 127 
 
 II. THE DATA OF PHILOSOPHY 135 
 
 III. SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE ... 158 
 
 IV. THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER 172 
 
 V. THE CONTINUITY OF MOTION 180 
 
 VI. THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE 185 
 
 VII. THE PERSISTENCE OF RELATIONS AMONG FORCES ... 193 
 
 ?III. THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES 197 
 
 IX. THE DIRECTION OF MOTION 222 
 
 X. THE RHYTHM OF MOTION 250 
 
 XI. RECAPITULATION, CRITICISM, AND RECOMMENCEMENT 272 
 
 XII. EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION ... 278 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 
 XLII. SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION ... ... 287 
 
 XIV. THE LAW OF EVOLUTION 307 
 
 XV. THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED 329 
 
 XVI. THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED 361 
 
 XVII. THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONCLUDED 381 
 
 Vm. THE INTERPRETATION OF EVOLUTION ... ... 397 
 
 XIX. THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS ... ... 401 
 
 XX. THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS 431 
 
 XXI. SEGREGATION 459 
 
 XXII. EQUILIBRATION ... ... ... ... ... 483 
 
 XXIII. DISSOLUTION , 518 
 
 XXTV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ... ... ... 538 
 
PART L 
 
 THE UNKNOWABLE. 
 

 
CHAPTER L 
 
 
 
 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 1. WE too often forget that not only is there " a soul of 
 goodness in things evil," but very generally also, a soul of 
 truth in things erroneous. While many admit the abstract 
 probability that a falsity has usually a nucleus of reality, few 
 bear this abstract probability in mind, when passing judg- 
 ment on the opinions of others. A belief that is finall} 
 proved to be grossly at variance with fact, is cast aside with 
 indignation or contempt ; and in the heat of antagonism 
 scarcely any one inquires what there was in this belief which 
 commended it to men's minds. Yet there must have been 
 something. And there is reason to suspect that this some- 
 thing was its correspondence with certain of their experiences : 
 an extremely limited or vague correspondence perhaps ; lv.it 
 still, a correspondence. Even the absurdest report may iii 
 nearly every instance be traced to an actual occurrence ; and 
 had there been no such actual occurrence, this preposterous 
 misrepresentation of it would never have existed. Though 
 the distorted or magnified image transmitted to us through 
 the refracting medium of rumour, is utterly unlike the reality ; 
 yet in the absence of the reality there would have been no 
 distorted or magnified image. And thus it is with human 
 beliefs in general. Entirely wrong as they may appear, the 
 implication is that they germinated out of actual experiences 
 originally contained, and perhaps still contain, some small 
 amount of verity, 
 
RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 
 More especially may we safely assume this, in the case of 
 beliefs that have long existed and are widely diffused ; and 
 most of all so, in the case of beliefs that are perennial and 
 nearly or quite universal. The presumption that any current 
 opinion is not wholly false, gains in strength according to the 
 number of its adherents. Admitting, as we must, that life is 
 impossible unless through a certain agreement between in- 
 ternal convictions and external circumstances ; admitting 
 therefore that the probabilities are always in favour of the 
 truth, or at least the partial truth, of a conviction ; we must 
 admit that the convictions entertained by many minds in 
 common are the most likely to have some foundation. The 
 elimination of individual errors of thought, must give to 
 the resulting judgment a certain additional value. It 
 may indeed be urged that many widely-spread beliefs 
 are received on authority ; that those entertaining them 
 make no attempts at verification ; and hence it may be in- 
 ferred that the multitude of adherents adds but little to the 
 probability of a belief. But this is not true. For a belief 
 which gains extensive reception without critical examination, 
 is thereby proved to have a general congruity with the various 
 other beliefs of those who receive it ; and in so far as these 
 various other beliefs are based upon personal observation and 
 judgment, they give an indirect warrant to one with which 
 they harmonize. It may be that this warrant is of small 
 value ; but still it is of some value. 
 
 Could we reach definite views on this matter, they would 
 be extremely useful to us. It is important that we should, if 
 possible, form something like a general theory of current 
 opinions ; so that we may neither over-estimate nor under- 
 estimate their worth. Arriving at correct judgments on dis- 
 puted questions, much depends on the attitude of mind we 
 preserve while listening to, or taking part in, the controversy ; 
 and for the preservation of a right attitude, it is needful that 
 we should learn how true, and yet how untrue, are average 
 human beliefs. On the one hand, we must keep free from 
 
RELIGION AND SCIENCE. j 
 
 that bias in favour of received ideas which expresses itself in 
 such dogmas as " What every one says must be true," or 
 " The voice of the people is the voice of God." On the other 
 hand, the fact disclosed by a survey of the past, that majorities 
 have usually been wrong, must not blind us to the comple- 
 mentary fact, that majorities have usually not been entirely 
 ftTong. And the avoidance of these extremes being a pre- 
 roquisite to catholic thinking, we shall do well to provide 
 ourselves with a safe-guard against them, by making a valua- 
 tion of opinions in the abstract. To this end we must con- 
 template the kind of relation that ordinarily subsists between 
 opinions and facts. Let us do so with one of those beliefs 
 which under various forms has prevailed among all nations in 
 all times. 
 
 2. The earliest traditions represent rulers as gods or 
 demigods. By their subjects, primitive kings were regarded 
 as superhuman in origin, and superhuman in power. They 
 possessed divine titles ; received obeisances like those made 
 before the altars of deities ; and were in some cases actually 
 worshipped. If there needs proof that the divine and half- 
 divine characters originally ascribed to monarchs were 
 ascribed literally, we have it in the fact that there are still 
 existing savage races, among whom it is held that the chiefs 
 and their kindred are of celestial origin, or, as elsewhere, that 
 only the chiefs have souls. And of course along with beliefs 
 of this kind, there existed a belief in the unlimited power of 
 the ruler over his subjects an absolute possession of them, 
 extending even to the taking of their lives at will : as even 
 still in Fiji, where a victim stands unbound to be killed at the 
 K-ord of his chief ; himself declaring, " whatever the king says 
 must be done." 
 
 In times and among races somewhat less barbarous, wo find 
 these beliefs a little modified. The monarch, instead of being 
 literally thought god or demigod, is conceived to be a man 
 having divine authority, with perhaps more or less of divine 
 
B RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 nature. He retains however, as in the East to the present 
 day, titles expressing his heavenly descent or relationships ; 
 and is still saluted in forms and words as humble as those ad- 
 dressed to the Deity. While the lives and properties of his 
 people, if not practically so completely at his mercy, are still 
 in theory supposed to be his. 
 
 Later in the progress of civilization, as during the middle 
 ages in Europe, the current opinions respecting the relation- 
 ship of rulers and ruled are further changed. For the theory 
 of divine origin, there is substituted that of divine right. No 
 longer god or demigod, or even god-descended, the king is 
 now regarded as simply God's vice-gerent. The obeisances 
 made to him are not so extreme in their humility ; and his 
 sacred titles lose much of their meaning. Moreover his 
 authority ceases to be unlimited. Subjects deny his right to 
 dispose at will of their lives and properties ; and yield alle- 
 giance only in the shape of obedience to his commands. 
 
 With advancing political opinion has come still greater 
 restriction of imperial power. Belief in the supernatural 
 character of the ruler, long ago repudiated by ourselves for 
 example, has left behind it nothing more than the popular 
 tendency to ascribe unusual goodness, wisdom, and beauty to 
 the monarch. Loyalty, which originally meant implicit sub- 
 mission to the king's will, now means a merely nominal pro- 
 fession of subordination, and the fulfilment of certain forms of 
 respect. Our political practice, and our political theory, alike 
 utterly reject those regal prerogatives which once passed un- 
 questioned. By deposing some, and putting others in their 
 places, we have not only denied the divine rights of certain 
 men to rule ; but we have denied that they have any rights 
 beyond those originating in the assent of the nation. Though 
 our forms of speech and our state- documents still assert the 
 subjection of the citizens to the ruler, our actual beliefs and 
 our daily proceedings implicitly assert the contrary. We 
 obey no laws save those of our own making. We have entirely 
 divested the monarch of legislative power; and should im- 
 
RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 7 
 
 mediately rebel against his or her exercise of such power, 
 even in matters of the smallest concern. In brief, the abo- 
 riginal doctrine is all but extinct among us. 
 
 Nor has the rejection of primitive political beliefs, resulted 
 only in transferring the authority of an autocrat to a repre- 
 sentative body. The views entertained respecting govern- 
 ments in general, of whatever % form, are now widely different 
 from those once entertained. Whether popular or despotic, 
 governments were in ancient times supposed to have unlimited 
 authority over their subjects. Individuals existed for the 
 benefit of the State ; not the State for the benefit of in- 
 dividuals. In our days, however, not only has the national will 
 been in many cases substituted for the will of the king ; but 
 the exercise of this national will has been restricted to a much 
 smaller sphere. In England, for instance, though there has 
 been established no definite theory setting bounds to govern- 
 mental authority ; yet, in practice, sundry bounds have been 
 set to it which are tacitly recognized by all. There is no 
 organic law formally declaring that the legislature may not 
 freely dispose of the citizens' lives, as early kings did when 
 they sacrificed hecatombs of victims ; but were it possible for 
 our legislature to attempt such a thing, its own destruction 
 would be the consequence, rather than the destruction of 
 citizens. How entirely we have established the personal 
 liberties of the subject against the invasions of State-power, 
 would be quickly demonstrated, were it proposed by Act of 
 Parliament forcibly to take possession of the nation, or of any 
 class, and turn its services to public ends ; as the services of 
 the people were turned by primitive rulers. And should any 
 i ' atesman suggest a re-distribution of property such as was 
 sometimes made in ancient democratic communities, he would 
 be met by a thousand-ton gued denial of imperial power over 
 indh idual possessions. Not only in our day have these funda- 
 mental claims of the citizen been thus made good against the 
 State, but sundry minor claims likewise. Ages ago, laws 
 regulating dress and mode of living fell into disuse; an 6 
 
RELIGION AND SCIENCE 
 
 any attempt to revive them would prove the current opinion 
 to be, that such matters lie beyond the sphere of legal control. 
 For some centuries we have been asserting in practice, and 
 have now established in theory, the right of every man to 
 choose his own religious beliefs, instead of receiving such 
 beliefs on State-authority. Within the last few generations 
 we have inaugurated complete liberty of speech, in spite of all 
 legislative attempts to suppress or limit it. And still more 
 recently we have claimed and finally obtained under a few 
 exceptional restrictions, freedom to trade with whomsoever we 
 please. Thus our political beliefs are widely different from 
 ancient ones, not only as to the proper depositary of power to 
 be exercised over a nation, but also as to the extent of that 
 power. 
 
 Not even here has the change ended. Besides the average 
 opinions which we have just described as current among 
 ourselves, there exists a less widely- diffused opinion going 
 still further in the same direction. There are to be found 
 men who contend that the sphere of government should be 
 narrowed even more than it is in England. The modern 
 doctrine that the State exists for the benefit of citizens, which 
 has now in a great measure supplanted the ancient doctrine 
 that the citizens exist for the benefit of the State, they would 
 push to its logical results. They hold that the freedom of the 
 individual, limited only by the like freedom of other individ- 
 uals, is sacred ; and that the legislature cannot equitably put 
 further restrictions upon it, either by forbidding any actions 
 which the law of equal freedom permits, or taking away any 
 property save that required to pay the cost of enforcing this 
 law itself. They assert that the sole function of the State is 
 the protection of persons against each other, and against a 
 foreign foe. They urge that as, throughout civilization, the 
 manifest 'tendency has been continually to extend the liberties 
 of the subject, and restrict the functions of the State, there is 
 reason to believe that the ultimate political condition must bo 
 one in which personal freedom is the greatest possible aud 
 
RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 9 
 
 governmental power the least possible : that, namely, in which 
 the freedom of each has no limit but the like freedom of all ; 
 while the sole governmental duty is the maintenance of thii 
 limit. 
 
 Here then in different times and places we find concerning 
 the origin, authority, and functions of government, a great 
 variety of opinions opinions of which the leading genera 
 above indicated subdivide into countless species. What now 
 must be said about the truth or falsity of these opinions? 
 Save among a few barbarous tribes the notion that a monarch 
 is a god or demigod is regarded throughout the world as an 
 absurdity almost passing the bounds of human credulity. 
 In but few places does there survive a vague notion that the 
 ruler possesses any supernatural attributes. Most civilized 
 communities, which still admit the divine right of govern- 
 ments, have long since repudiated the divine right of kings. 
 Elsewhere the belief that there is anything sacred in legis- 
 lative regulations is dying out : laws are coming to be con- 
 sidered as conventional only. While the extreme school 
 holds that governments have neither intrinsic author- 
 ity, nor can have authority given to them by convention ; 
 but can possess authority only as the administrators of those 
 moral principles deducible from the conditions essential to 
 social life. Of these various beliefs, with their innumerable 
 modifications, must we then say that some one alone is 
 wholly right and all the rest wholly wrong ; or must we say 
 that each of them contains truth more or less completely 
 disguised by errors ? The latter alternative is the one which 
 analysis will force upon us. Ridiculous as they may severally 
 appear to those not educated under them, every one of these 
 doctrines has for its vital element the recognition of an 
 unquestionable fact. Directly or by implication, each of 
 them insists on a certain subordination of individual actions 
 to social requirements. There are wide differences as to the 
 power to which this subordination is due ; there are wide 
 differences as to the motive for this subordination ; there are 
 
10 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 
 wide differences as to its extent ; but that there must be some 
 subordination all are agreed. From the oldest and rudest 
 idea of allegiance, down to the most advanced political theory 
 of our own day, there is on this point complete unanimity. 
 Though, between the savage who conceives his life arid 
 property to be at the absolute disposal of his chief, and the 
 anarchist who denies the right of any government, autocratic 
 or democratic, to trench upon his individual freedom, there 
 seems at first sight an entire and irreconcileable antagonism ; 
 yet ultimate analysis discloses in them this fundamental com- 
 munity of opinion ; that there are limits which individual 
 actions may not transgress limits which the one regards as 
 originating in the king's will, and which the other regards as 
 deducible from the equal claims of fellow-citizens. 
 
 It may perhaps at first sight seem that we here reach a 
 very unimportant conclusion ; namely, that a certain tacit 
 assumption is equally implied in all these conflicting political 
 creeds an assumption which is indeed of self-evident 
 validity. The question, however, is not the value or novelty 
 of the particular truth in this case arrived at. My aim has 
 been to exhibit the more general truth, which we are apt to 
 overlook, that between the most opposite beliefs there is 
 usually something in common, something taken for granted 
 by each ; and that this something, if not to be set down 
 as an unquestionable verity, may yet be considered to 
 have the highest degree of probability. A postulate which, 
 like the one above instanced, is not consciously asserted but 
 unconsciously involved ; and which is unconsciously involved 
 not by one man or body of men, but by numerous bodies of 
 men who diverge in countless ways and degrees in the rest of 
 their beliefs ; has a warrant far transcending any that can be 
 usually shown, And when, as in this case, the postulate is 
 abstract is not based on some one concrete experience 
 common to all mankind, but implies an induction from a 
 great variety of experiences, we may say that it rank? next in 
 certainty to the postulates of exact science. 
 
RELIGION AND SCIENCE. U 
 
 Do we not thus arrive at a generalization which may habit- 
 ually guide us when seeking for the soul of truth in things 
 erroneous ? While the foregoing illustration brings clearly 
 home the fact, that in opinions seeming to be absolutely and 
 supremely wrong something right is yet to be found ; it also 
 indicates the method we should pursue in seeking the some- 
 thing right. This method is to compare all opinions of the 
 same genus; to set aside as more or less discrediting one 
 another those various special and concrete elements in which 
 such opinions disagree ; to observe what remains after the 
 discordant constituents have been eliminated ; and to find 
 for this remaining constituent that abstract expression which 
 holds true throughout its divergent modifications. 
 
 3. A candid acceptance of this general principle and an 
 adoption of the course it indicates, will greatly aid us in deal- 
 ing with those chronic antagonisms by which men are 
 divided. Applying it not only to current ideas with which 
 we are personally unconcerned, but also to our own ideas and 
 those of our opponents, we shall be led to form far more 
 correct judgments. We shall be ever ready to suspect that 
 the convictions we entertain are not wholly right, and that 
 the adverse convictions are not wholly wrong. On the one 
 hand we shall not, in common with the great mass of the 
 unthinking, let our beliefs be determined by the mere accident 
 of birth in a particular age on a particular part of the Earth's 
 surface ; and, on the other hand, we shall be saved from that 
 error of entire and contemptuous negation, which is fallen 
 into by most who take up an attitude of independent criticism. 
 
 Of all antagonisms of belief, the oldest, the widest, the most 
 profound and the most important, is that between Religion 
 and Science. It commenced when the recognition of the 
 simplest uniformities in surrounding things, set a limit to 
 the once universal superstition. It shows itself everywhere 
 throughout the domain of human knowledge : affecting men's 
 interpietations alike of the simplest mechanical accidents and 
 
12 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 
 of the most complicated events in the histories of nations, 
 It has its roots deep down in the diverse habits of thought of 
 different orders of minds. And the conflicting conceptions of 
 nature and life which these diverse habits of thought severally 
 generate, influence for good or ill the tone of feeling and the 
 daily conduct. 
 
 An unceasing battle of opinion like this which has been 
 carried on throughout all ages under the banners of Religion 
 and Science, has of course generated an animosity fatal to a 
 just estimate of either party by the other. On a larger scale, 
 and more intensely than any other controversy, has it illus- 
 trated that perennially significant fable concerning the knights 
 who fought about the colour of a shield of which neither 
 looked at more than one face. Each combatant seeing clearly 
 his own aspect of the question, has charged his opponent 
 with stupidity or dishonesty in not seeing the same aspect of 
 it ; while each has wanted the candour to go over to his 
 opponent's side and find out how it was that he saw every- 
 thing so differently. 
 
 Happily the times display an increasing catholicity of feel- 
 ing, which we shall do well in carrying as far as our, natures 
 permit. In proportion as we love truth more and victory 
 less, we shall become anxious to know what it is which leadb 
 our opponents to think as they do. We shall begin to suspect 
 that the pertinacity of belief exhibited by them must result 
 from a perception of something we have not perceived. And 
 we shall aim to supplement the portion of truth we have 
 found with the portion found by them. Making a more 
 rational estimate of human authority, we shall avoid alike the 
 extremes of undue submission and undue rebellion shall not 
 regard some men's judgments as wholly good and others as 
 wholly bad ; but shall rather lean to the more defensible 
 position that none are completely right and none are com- 
 pletely wrong. 
 
 Preserving, as far as may be, this impartial attitude, let us 
 then contemplate the two sides of this great controversy. 
 
RKT.TOTON ANT) SCIENCE. 
 
 Keeping guarvl against the bias of education and shutting out 
 the whisperings of sectarian feeling, let us consider what are 
 tne d priori probabilities in favour of each party. 
 
 4. When duly realized, the general principle above 
 illustrated must lead us to anticipate that the diverse forma 
 of religious belief which have existed and which still exist, 
 have all a basis in some ultimate fact. Judging by analogy 
 the implication is, not that any one of them is altogether 
 right ; but that in each there is something right more or It^is 
 disguised by other things wrong. It may be that the soul of 
 truth contained in erroneous creeds is very unlike most, if not 
 all, of its several embodiments ; and indeed, if, as we have good 
 reason to expect, it is much more abstract than any of them, 
 its unlikeness necessarily follows. But however different 
 from its concrete expressions, some essential verity must be 
 looked for. To suppose that these multiform conceptions 
 should be one and all absolutely groundless, discredits too 
 profoundly that average human intelligence from which all 
 our individual intelligences are inherited. 
 
 This most general reason we shall find enforced by other 
 more special ones. To the presumption that a number of 
 diverse beliefs of the same class have some common founda- 
 tion in fact, must in this case be added a further presumption 
 derived from the omnipresence of the beliefs. Religious ideas 
 of one kind or other are almost universal. Admitting that 
 in many places there are tribes who have no theory of crea- 
 tion, no word for a deity, no propitiatory acts, no idea of an- 
 other life admitting that only when a certain phase of intel- 
 ligence is reached.do the most rudimentary of such theories 
 make their appearance; the implication is practically the 
 same. Grant that among all races who have passed a 
 certain stage of intellectual development there are found 
 vague notions concerning the origin and hidden na- 
 ture of surrounding things ; and there arises the infer- 
 ence that such notions are necessary products of pro- 
 gressing intelligence. Their endless variety serves but 
 
[4 KEL10ION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 
 to ntrengthen this conclusion : showing as it does a more or 
 less independent genesis showing how, in different places 
 and times, like conditions have led to similar trains of 
 thought, ending in analogous results. That these countless 
 different, and yet allied, phenomena presented by all religions 
 are accidental or factitious, is an untenable supposition. A 
 candid examination of the evidence quite negatives the doc- 
 irine maintained by some, that creeds are priestly inventions. 
 ICven as a mere question of probabilities it cannot rationally 
 be concluded that in every society, past and present, savage 
 and civilized, certain members of the community have com- 
 bined to delude the rest, in ways so analogous. To any who 
 may allege that some primitive fiction was devised by some 
 primitive priesthood, before yet mankind had diverged from 
 a common centre, a reply is furnished by philology ; for 
 philology proves the dispersion of mankind to have com 
 inenced before there existed a language sufficiently organized 
 to express religious ideas. Moreover, were it otherwise Enable, 
 the hypothesis of artificial origin fails to account for the facts. 
 It does not explain why, under all changes of form, certain 
 elements of religious belief remain constant. It does not 
 show us how it happens that while adverse criticism has from 
 age to age gone on destroying particular theological dogmas, 
 it has not destroyed the fundamental conception underlying 
 these dogmas. It leaves us without any solution of the strik- 
 ing circumstance that when, from the absurdities and cor- 
 ruptions accumulated around them, national creeds have 
 fallen into general discredit, ending in indifferentism or 
 positive denial, there has always by and by arisen a re-asser- 
 tion of them : if not the same in form, -still the same in 
 essence. Thus the universality of religious ideas, their in- 
 dependent evolution among different primitive races, and 
 their great vitality, unite in showing that their source must 
 be deep-seated instead of superficial. In other words, we 
 lire obliged to admit that if not supernaturally derived as 
 
RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 15 
 
 the majority contend, they must be derived out of human 
 experiences, slowly accumulated and organized. 
 
 Should it be asserted that religious ideas are products of 
 the religious sentiment, which, to satisfy itself, prompts 
 imaginations that it afterwards projects into the external 
 world, and by and by mistakes for realities ; the problem is 
 not solved, but only removed further back. Whether the 
 wish is father to the thought, or whether sentiment and idee 
 have a common genesis, there equally arises the question 
 Whence comes the sentiment ? That it is a constituent in 
 man's nature is implied by the hypothesis ; and cannot in- 
 deed be denied by those who prefer other hypotheses. And 
 if the religious sentiment, displayed habitually by the majority 
 of mankind, and occasionally aroused even in those seemingly 
 devoid of it, must be classed among human emotions, we 
 cannot rationally ignore it. We are bound to ask its origin 
 and its function. Here is an attribute which, to say the least, 
 has had an enormous influence which has played a con- 
 spicuous part throughout the entire past as far back as 
 history records, and is at present the life of numerous insti- 
 tutions, the stimulus to perpetual controversies, and the 
 prompter of countless daily actions. Any Theory of Things 
 which takes no account of this attribute, must, then, be ex- 
 tremely defective. If with no other view, still as a question 
 in philosophy, we are called on to say what this attribute 
 means ; and we cannot decline the task without confessing 
 our philosophy to be incompetent. 
 
 Two suppositions only are open to us : the one that the 
 feeling which responds to religious ideas resulted, along with 
 all other human faculties, from an act of special creation ; the 
 other that it, in common with the rest, arose by a process of 
 evolution. If we adopt the first of these alternatives, uni- 
 versally accepted by our ancestors and by the immense 
 majority of our contemporaries, the matter is at once settled : 
 aian is directly endowed with the religious feeling by a 
 
16 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 creator; and to that creator it designedly responds. If we 
 adopt the second alternative, then we are met by the questions 
 What are the circumstances to which the genesis of the re- 
 ligious feeling is due ? and What is its office ? We are bound 
 to entertain these questions ; and we are bound to find 
 answers to them. Considering all faculties, as we must on 
 this supposition, to result from accumulated modifications 
 caused by the intercourse of the organism with its environ- 
 ment, we are obliged to admit that there exist in the environ- 
 ment certain phenomena or conditions which have determined 
 the growth of the feeling in question ; and so are obliged to 
 admit that it is as normal as any other faculty. Add to 
 which that as, on the hypothesis of a development of lower 
 forms into higher, the end towards which the progressive 
 changes directly or indirectly tend, must be adaptation to 
 the requirements of existence; we are also forced to infer 
 that this feeling is in some way conducive to human welfare. 
 Thus both alternatives contain the same ultimate implication. 
 We must conclude that the religious sentiment is either di- 
 rectly created, or is created by the slow action of natural 
 causes ; and whichever of these conclusions we adopt, requires 
 us to treat the religious sentiment with respect. 
 
 One other consideration should not be overlooked a con- 
 sideration which students of Science more especially need to 
 have pointed out. Occupied as such are with established truths, 
 and accustomed to regard things not already known as things 
 to be hereafter discovered, they are liable to forget that in- 
 formation, however extensive it may become, can never satisfy 
 inquiry. Positive knowledge does not, and never can, fill 
 the whole region of possible thought. At the uttermost 
 reach of discovery there arises, and must ever arise, the ques- 
 tionWhat lies beyond ? As it is impossible to think of a 
 limit to space so as to exclude the idea of space lying outside 
 that limit ; so we cannot conceive of any explanation profound 
 enough to exclude the question What is the explanation of 
 that explanation ? Regarding Science as a gradually increas- 
 
 
RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 17 
 
 ing sphere, we may say that every addition to its surface 
 does but bring it into wider contact with surrounding nescience. 
 There must ever remain therefore two antithetical modes of 
 mental action. Throughout all future time, as now, the 
 human mind may occupy itself, not only with ascertained 
 phenomena and their relations, but also with that un- 
 ascertained something which phenomena and their rela- 
 tions imply. Hence if knowledge cannot monopolize 
 consciousness if it mugt always continue possible for the 
 mind to dwell upon that which transcends knowledge ; then 
 there can never cease to be a place for something of the 
 nature of Religion ; since Religion under all its forms is dis- 
 tinguished from everything else in this, that its subject 
 matter is that which passes the sphere of experience. 
 
 Thus, however untenable may be any or all the existing 
 religious creeds, however gross the absurdities associated with 
 them, however irrational the arguments set forth in their de- 
 fence, we must not ignore the verity which in all likelihood 
 lies hidden within them. The general probability that widely- 
 spread beliefs are not absolutely baseless, is in this case en- 
 forced by a further probability due to the omnipresence of 
 the beliefs. In the existence of a religious sentiment, what- 
 ever be its origin, we have a second evidence of great signifi- 
 cance. And as in that nescience which must ever remain the 
 antithesis to science, there is a sphere for the exercise of this 
 aentiment, we find a third general fact of like implication. 
 We may be sure therefore that religions, though even no^ie 
 of them be actually true, are yet all adumbrations of a truth. 
 
 5. As, to the religious, it will seem absurd to set forth 
 any justification for Religion ; so, to the scientific, will it seem 
 absurd to defend Science. Yet to do the list is certainly as 
 needful as to do the first. If there exists a class who, in 
 contempt of its follies and disgust at its corruptions, have 
 eontracted towards Religion a repugnance which makes the n 
 overlook the fundamental verity contained in it ; so, too, is 
 
J8 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 there a class offended to such a degree by the destructive 
 criticisms men of science make on the religious tenets they 
 regard as essential, that they have acquired a strong prejudice 
 against Science in general. They are not prepared with any 
 avowed reasons for their dislike. They have simply a re- 
 membrance of the rude shakes which Science has given to 
 many of their cherished convictions, and a suspicion that it 
 may perhaps eventually uproot all they regard as sacred ; and 
 hence it produces in them a certain inarticulate dread. 
 
 What is Science ? To see the absurdity of the prejudice 
 against it, we need only remark that Science is simply a 
 higher development of common knowledge ; and that if 
 Science is repudiated, all knowledge must be repudiated 
 along with it. The extremest bigot will not suspect any 
 harm in the observation that the sun rises earlier and sets 
 later in the summer than in the winter ; but will rather 
 consider such an observation as a useful aid in fulfilling the 
 duties of life. Well, Astronomy is an organized body of 
 similar observations, made with greater nicety, extended to a 
 larger number of objects, and so analyzed as to disclose the 
 real arrangements of the heavens, and to dispel our false con- 
 ceptions of them. That iron will rust in water, that wood 
 will burn, that long kept viands become putrid, the most 
 timid sectarian will teach without alarm, as things useful to 
 be known. But these are chemical truths : Chemistry is a 
 systematized collection of such facts, ascertained with pre- 
 cision, and so classified and generalized as to enable us to say 
 with certainty, concerning each simple or compound substance, 
 what change will occur in it under given conditions. And 
 thus is it with all the sciences. They severally germinate 
 out of the experiences of daily life ; insensibly as they grow 
 they draw in remoter, more numerous, and more complex 
 experiences ; and among these, they ascertain laws of de- 
 pendence like those which make up our knowledge of the 
 most familiar objects. Nowhere is it possible to draw a line 
 and say here Science begins. And as it is the function of 
 
RELIGION AK1 SCIENCE. 1(4 
 
 common observation to serve for the guidance of conduct ; so, 
 too, is the guidance of conduct the office of the most recondite 
 and abstract inquiries of Science. Through the countless in* 
 dustrial processes and the various modes of locomotion which 
 it has given to US, Physics regulates more completely our social 
 life than does his acquaintance with the properties of sur- 
 rounding bodies regulate the life of the savage. Anatomy 
 and Physiology, through their effects on the practice of medi- 
 cine and hygiene, modify our actions almost as much as does 
 our acquaintance with the evils and benefits which common 
 environing agencies may produce on our bodies. All Science 
 is prevision ; and all prevision ultimately aids us in greater or. 
 less degree to achieve the good and avoid the bad. As 
 certainly as the perception of an object lying in our path 
 warns us against stumbling over it ; so certainly do those 
 more complicated and subtle perceptions which constitute 
 Science, warn us against stumbling over intervening obstacles 
 in the pursuit of our distant ends. Thus being one in origin 
 and function, the simplest forms of cognition and the most 
 complex must be dealt with alike. We are bound in con- 
 sistency to receive the widest knowledge which our faculties 
 can reach, or to reject along with it that narrow knowledge 
 possessed by all. There is no logical alternative between 
 accepting our intelligence in its entirety, or repudiating even 
 that lowest intelligence which we possess in common with 
 brutes. 
 
 To ask the question which more immediately concerns our 
 argument whether Science is substantially true ? is much 
 like asking whether the sun gives light. And it is because 
 they are conscious how undeniably valid are most of its proposi- 
 tions, that the theological party regard Science with so much 
 secret alarm. They know that during the two thousand 
 years of its growth, some of its larger divisions mathe- 
 matics, physics, astronomy have been subject to the ri- 
 gorous criticism of successive generations ; and have notwith- 
 standing become ever more firmly established. They know 
 
< RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 that, unlike many of their own doctrines, which were once 
 universally received but have age by age been more 
 frequently called in question, the doctrines of Science, at first 
 confined to a few scattered inquirers, have been slowly grow- 
 ing into gbneral acceptance, and are now in great part ad- 
 mitted as beyond dispute. They know that men of science 
 throughout the world subject each other's results to the most 
 searching examination ; and that error is mercilessly exposed 
 and rejected as soon as discovered. And, finally, they know 
 that still more conclusive testimony is to be found in the 
 daily verification of scientific predictions, and in the never- 
 ceasing triumphs of those arts which Science guides. 
 
 To regard with alienation that which has such high 
 credentials is a folly. Though in the tone which many of 
 the scientific adopt towards them, the defenders of Religion 
 may find some excuse for this alienation; yet the excuse is a 
 very insufficient one. On the side of Science, as on their own 
 side, they must admit that short- comings in the advocates do 
 not tell essentially against that which is advocated. Science 
 must be judged by itself : and so judged, only the most per- 
 verted intellect can fail to see that it is worthy of all reverence. 
 Be there or be there not any other revelation, we have a 
 veritable revelation in. Science a continuous disclosure, 
 through the intelligence with which we are endowed, of the 
 established order of the Universe. This disclosure it is the 
 duty of every one to verify as far as in him lies ; and having 
 verified, "to receive with all humilitv. 
 
 6. On both sides of this great controversy, then, truth 
 must exist. An unbiassed consideration of its general aspects 
 forces us to conclude that Religion, everywhere present as a 
 weft running through the warp of human history, expresses 
 some eternal fact ; while it is almost a truism to say of Science 
 that it is an organised mass of facts, ever growing, and ever 
 being more completely purified from errors. And if both 
 have bases in the reality of things, then between them there 
 
RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 21 
 
 must be a fundamental harmony. It is an incredible hypo, 
 thesis that there are two orders of truth, in absolute and ever- 
 lasting opposition. Only on some Manichean theory, which 
 among ourselves no one dares openly avow however much his 
 beliefs may be tainted by it, is such a supposition even con 
 eeivable. That Religion is divine and Science diabolical, is a 
 proposition which, though implied in many a clerical declama- 
 tion, not the most vehement fanatic can bring himself dis- 
 tinctly to assert. And whoever does not assert this, must 
 admit that under their seeming antagonism lies hidden an 
 entire agreement. 
 
 Each side, therefore, has to recognize the claims of the other 
 as standing for truths that are not to be ignored. He who 
 contemplates the Universe from the religious point of view, 
 must learn to see that this which we call Science is one con- 
 stituent of the great whole ; and as such ought to be regarded 
 with a sentiment like that which the remainder excites. 
 While he who contemplates the universe from the scientific 
 point of view, must learn to see that this which we call Reli- 
 gion is similarly a constituent of the great whole ; and being 
 such, must be treated as a subject of science with no more 
 prejudice than any other reality. It behoves each party to 
 strive to understand the other, with the conviction that the 
 other has something worthy to be understood ; and with the 
 conviction that when mutually recognized this something 
 will be the basis of a complete reconciliation. 
 
 How to find this something how to reconcile them, thus 
 becomes the problem which we should perseveringly try to 
 solve. Not to reconcile them in any makeshift way not to 
 find one of those compromises we hear from time to time 
 proposed, which their proposers must secretly feel are arti- 
 ficial and temporary ; but to arrive at the terms of a real am 
 permanent peace between them. The thing we have to seek 
 out, is that ultimate truth which both will avow with abso- 
 lute sincerity with not the remotest mental reservation. 
 There shall be no concession no yielding on either side of 
 
22 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 something that will by and by be reasserted ; but the common 
 ground on which they meet shall be one which each will 
 maintain for itself. We have to discover some fundamental 
 verity which Religion will assert, with all possible emphasis, 
 in the absence of Science ; and which Science, with all possible 
 emphasis, will assert in the absence of Religion some funda- 
 mental verity in the defence of which each will find the 
 other its ally. 
 
 Or, changing the point of view, our aim must be to co- 
 ordinate the seemingly opposed convictions which Religion 
 and Science embody. From the coalescence of antagonist 
 ideas, each containing its portion of truth, there always arisea 
 a higher development. As in Geology when the igneous and 
 aqueous hypotheses were united, a rapid advance took place ; 
 as in Biology we are beginning to progress through the 
 fusion of the' doctrine of types with the doctrine of adapta- 
 tions; as in Psychology the arrested growth recommences 
 now that the disciples of Kant and those-of Locke have both 
 their views recognized in the theory that organized ex- 
 periences produce forms of thought ; as in Sociology, now that 
 it is beginning to assume a positive character, we find a recog- 
 nition of both the party of progress and the party of order, as 
 each holding a truth which forms a needful complement to 
 that held by the other ; so must it be on a grander scale with 
 Religion and Science. Here too we must look for a conception 
 which combines the conclusions of both ; and here too we may 
 expect important results from their combination. To un- 
 derstand how Science and Religion express opposite sides of 
 the same fact the one its near or visible side, and the other 
 its remote or invisible side this it is which we must attempt ; 
 and to achieve this must profoundly modify our general 
 Theory of Things. 
 
 Already in the foregoing pages the method of seeking such 
 a reconciliation has been vaguely foreshadowed. Before pro* 
 ceeding further, however, it will be well to treat the question 
 of method more definitely. To find that truth in which 
 
RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 23 
 
 Religion and Science coalesce, we must know in what di- 
 rection to look for it, and what kind of truth it is likely 
 to be. 
 
 7. We have found a priori reason for believing that in 
 all religions, even the rudest, there lies hidden a fundamental 
 verity. "We have inferred that this fundamental verity ie 
 that element common to all religions, which remains after 
 their discordant peculiarities have been mutually cancelled 
 And we have further inferred that this element is almost 
 certain to be more abstract than any current religious 
 doctrine. Now it is manifest that only in some highly 
 abstract proposition, can Religion and Science find a common 
 ground. Neither such dogmas as those of the trinitarian and 
 Unitarian, nor any such idea as that of propitiation, common 
 though it may be to all religions, can serve as the desired 
 basis of agreement ; for Science cannot recognize beliefs like 
 these : they lie beyond its sphere. Hence we see not only 
 that, judging by analogy, the essential truth contained in 
 Religion is that most abstract element pervading all its forms ; 
 but also that this most abstract element is the only one in 
 which Religion is likely to agree with Science. 
 
 Similarly if we begin at the other end, and inquire what 
 scientific truth can unite Science and Religion. It is at once 
 manifest that Religion can take no cognizance of special 
 scientific doctrines ; any more than Science can take cogni- 
 zance of special religious doctrines. The truth which Science 
 asserts and Religion indorses cannot be one furnished by 
 mathematics ; nor can it be a physical truth ; nor can it be a 
 truth in chemistry ; it cannot be a truth belonging to any 
 particular science. No generalization of the phenomena oi 
 Bpace, of time, of matter, or of force, can become a Religious 
 conception. Such a conception, if it anywhere exists in 
 Science, must be more general than any of these must be 
 one underlying all of them. If there be a fact which 
 Science recognizes in common with Religion, it must be that 
 
24 RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 
 fact from which the several branches of Science diverge, aa 
 from their common root. 
 
 Assuming then, that since these two great realities are 
 constituents of the same mind, and respond to different aspects 
 of the same Universe, there must be a fundamental harmony 
 between them ; we see good reason to conclude that the most 
 abstract truth contained in Religion and the most abstract 
 truth contained in Science must be the one in which the two 
 coalesce. The largest fact to be found within our mental 
 range must be the one of which we are in search. Uniting 
 these positive and negative poles of human thought, it must 
 be the ultimate fact in our intelligence. 
 
 8. Before proceeding in the search for this common 
 datum let me bespeak a little patience. The next three 
 chapters, setting out from different points and converging to 
 the same conclusion, will be comparatively unattractive. 
 Students of philosophy will find in them much that is more 
 or less familiar ; and to most of those who are unacquainted 
 with the literature of modern metaphysics, they may prove 
 somewhat difficult to follow. 
 
 Our argument however cannot dispense with these chap- 
 ters ; and the greatness of the question at issue justifies even 
 a heavier tax on the reader's attention. The matter is one 
 which concerns each and all of us more than any other matter 
 whatever. Though it affects us little in a direct way, the view 
 we arrive at must indirectly affect us in all our relations must 
 determine our conception of the Universe, of Life, of Human 
 Nature must influence our ideas of right and wrong, and so 
 modify our conduct. To reach that point of view from which 
 the seeming discordance of Religion and Science disappears, 
 and the two merge into one, must cause a revolution of 
 thought fruitful in beneficial consequences, and must surely 
 be worth an effort. 
 
 Here ending preliminaries, let us now address ourselves to 
 this all -important inquiry. 
 
CHAPTER It. 
 
 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 9. WHEN, on the sea-shore, we note how the hulls of 
 distant vessels are hidden below the horizon, and how, of still 
 remoter vessels, only the uppermost sails are visible, we 
 realize with tolerable clearness the slight curvature of that 
 portion of the sea's surface which lies before us. But when 
 we seek in imagination to follow out this curved surface as it 
 actually exists, slowly bending round until all its meridians 
 meet in a point eight thousand miles below our feet, we find 
 ourselves utterly baffled. We cannot conceive in its real 
 form and magnitude even that small segment of our globe 
 which extends a hundred miles on every side of us ; much 
 less the globe as a whole. The piece of rock on which we 
 stand can be mentally represented with something like com- 
 pleteness : we find ourselves able to think of its top, its sides, 
 and its under surface at the same time ; or so nearly at the 
 same time that they seem all present in consciousness together; 
 and so we can form what we call a conception of the rock. 
 But to do the like with the Earth we find impossible. If 
 even to imagine the antipodes as at that distant place in 
 space which it actually occupies, is beyond our power ; much 
 more beyond our power must it be at the same time to 
 imagine all other remote points on the Earth's surface as 
 in their actual places. Yet we habitually speak as though 
 we had an idea of the Earth as though we could think of it 
 in the same way that we think of minor objects. 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS 1UEASL 
 
 
 What conception, then, do we form of it ? the reader may 
 ask. That its name calls up in us some state of consciousness 
 is unquestionable ; and if this state of consciousness is not a 
 conception, properly so called, what is it ? The answer seems 
 to be this : We have learnt by indirect methods that the 
 Earth is a sphere ; we have formed models approximately 
 representing its shape and the distribution of its parts ; 
 generally when the Earth is referred to, we either think of an 
 indefinitely extended mass beneath our feet, or else, leaving 
 out the actual Earth, we think of a body like a terrestrial 
 globe ; but when we seek to imagine the Earth as it really is, 
 we join these two ideas as well as we can such perception as 
 our eyes give us of the Earth's surface we couple with the 
 conception of a sphere. And thus we form of the Earth, not 
 a conception properly so called, but only a symbolic concep- 
 tion. * 
 
 A large proportion of our conceptions, including all those 
 of much generality, are of this order. Great magnitudes, 
 great durations, great numbers, are none of them actually 
 conceived, but are all of them conceived more or less symbol- 
 ically ; and so, too, are all those classes of objects of which we 
 predicate some common fact. When mention is made of any 
 individual man, a tolerably complete idea of him is formed. 
 If the family he belongs to be spoken of, probably but a part 
 of it will be represented in thought : under the necessity of 
 attending to that which is said about the family, we realize in 
 imagination only its most important or familiar members, 
 and pass over the rest with a nascent consciousness which we 
 know could, .if requisite, be made complete. Should some- 
 thing be remarked of the class, say farmers, to which this 
 family belongs, we neither enumerate in thought all the indi- 
 viduals contained in the class, nor believe that we could do so 
 if required ; but we are content with taking some few samples 
 
 * Those who may have before met with this term, will perceive that it is hew 
 nsod in quite a different &ense. 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 27 
 
 of it, and remembering that these could be indefinitely mul- 
 tiplied. Supposing the subject of which something is predi- 
 cated be Englishmen, the answering state of consciousness is 
 a still more inadequate representative of the reality. Yet 
 more remote is the likeness of the thought to the thing, if 
 reference be made to Europeans or to human beings. And 
 when we come to propositions concerning the mammalia, or 
 concerning the whole of the vertebrata, or concerning animals 
 in general, or concerning all organic beings, the unlikeness of 
 our conceptions to the objects named reaches its extreme. 
 Throughout which series of instances we see, that as the 
 number of objects grouped together in thought increases, the 
 concept, formed of a few typical samples joined with the 
 notion of multiplicity, becomes more and more a mere symbol ; 
 not only because it gradually ceases to represent the size of 
 the group, but also because as the group grows more hetero- 
 geneous, the typical samples thought of are less like the 
 average objects which the group contains. 
 
 This formation of symbolic conceptions, which inevitably 
 arises as we pass from small and concrete objects to large and 
 to discrete ones, is mostly a very useful, and indeed necessary, 
 process. When, instead of things whose attributes can be 
 tolerably well united in a single state of consciousness, we 
 have to deal with things whose attributes are too vast or 
 numerous to be so united, we must either drop in thought 
 part of their attributes, or else not think of them at all 
 either form a more or less symbolic conception, or no concep- 
 tion. We must predicate nothing of objects too great or too 
 multitudinous to be mentally represented ; or we must make 
 our predications by the help of extremely inadequate repre- 
 sentations of such objects mere symbols of them. 
 
 But while by this process alone we are enabled to form 
 general propositions, and so to reach general conclusions, we are 
 by this process perpetually led into danger, and very often 
 into error. We habitually mistake our symbolic conceptions 
 for real ones ; and so are betrayed into countless false infer- 
 
28 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS*. 
 
 ences. Not only is it that in proportion as the concept we 
 form of any thing or class of things, misrepresents the reality, 
 we are apt to be wrong in any assertion we make respecting 
 the reality ; but it is that we are led to suppose we have truly 
 conceived a great variety of things which we have conceived 
 only in this fictitious way ; and further to confound with 
 these certain things which cannot be conceived in any way. 
 Eow almost unavoidably we fall into this error it will be 
 needful here to observe. 
 
 From objects readily representable in their totality, to those 
 of which we cannot form even an approximate representation, 
 there is an insensible transition. Between a pebble and the 
 entire Earth a series of magnitudes might be introduced, each 
 of which differed from the adjacent ones so slightly that it 
 would be impossible to say at what point in the series our 
 conceptions of them became inadequate. Similarly, there is 
 a gradual progression from those groups of a few individuals 
 which we can think of as groups with tolerable completeness, 
 to those larger and larger groups of which we can form 
 nothing like true ideas. Whence it is manifest that we pass 
 from actual conceptions to symbolic ones by infinitesimal 
 steps. Note next that we are led to deal with our symbolic 
 conceptions as though they were actual ones, not only because 
 we cannot clearly separate the two, but also because, in the 
 great majority of cases, the first serve our purposes nearly or 
 quite as well as the last are simply the abbreviated signs 
 we substitute for those more elaborate signs which are our 
 equivalents for real objects. Those very imperfect represent- 
 ations of ordinary things which we habitually make in thinking, 
 we know can be developed into adequate ones if needful. Those 
 concepts of larger magnitudes and more extensive classes 
 *vhich we cannot make adequate, we still find can be verified 
 by some indirect process of measurement or enumeration. 
 And even in the case of such an utterly inconceivable object 
 as the Solar System, we yet, through the fulfilment of pre- 
 dictions founded on our symbolic conception of it, gain the 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 20 
 
 conviction that this symbolic conception stands for an actual 
 existence, and, in a sense, truly expresses certain of its 
 constituent relations. Thus our symbolic conceptions being 
 in the majority of cases capable of development into complete 
 ones, and in most other cases serving as steps to conclusions 
 which are proved valid by their correspondence with observa- 
 tion, we acquire a confirmed habit of dealing with them as 
 true conceptions as real representations of actualities. 
 Learning by long experience that they can, if needful, be 
 verified, we are led habitually to accept them without verifi- 
 cation. And thus we open the door to some which profess 
 to stand for known things, but which really stand for things 
 that cannot be known in any way. 
 
 To sum up, we must say of conceptions in general, that 
 they are complete only when the attributes of the object 
 conceived are of such number and kind that they can be 
 represented in consciousness so nearly at the same time as to 
 seem all present together ; that as the objects conceived 
 become larger and more complex, some of the attributes first 
 thought of fade from consciousness before the rest have been 
 represented, and the conception thus becomes imperfect ; that 
 when the size, complexity, or discreteness of the object 
 conceived becomes very great, only a small portion of its 
 attributes can be thought of at once, and the conception 
 formed of it thus becomes so inadequate as to be a mere sym- 
 bol ; that nevertheless such symbolic conceptions, which are 
 indispensable in general thinking, are legitimate, provided 
 that by some cumulative or indirect process of thought, or by 
 the fulfilment of predictions based on them, we can assure 
 ourselves that they stand for actualities ; but that when our 
 symbolic conceptions are such that no cumulative or indirect 
 processes of thought can enable us to ascertain that there are 
 corresponding actualities, nor any predictions be made whose 
 fulfilment can prove this, then they are altogether vicious and 
 illusive, and in no way distinguishable from pure fictions. 
 
30 ULTIMATE EELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 10. And now to consider the bearings of this general 
 truth on our immediate topic Ultimate Religious Ideas. 
 
 To the mind as it develops in speculative power, the 
 problem of the Universe suggests itself. What is it? and 
 whence comes it ? are questions that press for solution, whec, 
 from time to time, the imagination rises above daily triviali 
 ties. To fill the vacuum of thought, any theory that is 
 proposed seems better than none. And in the absence of 
 others, any theory that is proposed easily gains a footing and 
 afterwards maintains its ground : partly from the readiness of 
 mankind to accept proximate explanations ; partly from the 
 authority which soon accumulates round such explanations 
 when given. 
 
 A critical examination, however, will prove not only that 
 no current hypothesis is tenable, but also that no tenable 
 hypothesis can be framed. 
 
 11. Respecting the origin of the Universe three verbally 
 intelligible suppositions may be made. We may assert that it 
 is self-existent ; or that it is self-created ; or that it is created 
 by an external agency. Which of these suppositions is most 
 credible it is not needful here to inquire. The deeper ques- 
 tion, into which this finally merges, is, whether any one of 
 them is even conceivable in the true sense of the word. Let 
 us successively test them. 
 
 When we speak of a man as self-supporting, of an appa- 
 ratus as self-acting, or of a tree as self-developed, our ex- 
 pressions, however inexact, stand for things that can be 
 realized in thought with tolerable completeness. Our con- 
 ception of the self-development of a tree is doubtless 
 symbolic. But though we cannot really represent in con- 
 sciousness the entire series of complex changes through which 
 the tree passes, yet we can thus represent the leading features 
 of the series ; and general experience teaches us that by long 
 continued observation we could gain the power to realize in 
 thought a series of changes more fully representing the actual 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDF.A*. 31 
 
 series : that is, we know that our symbolic conception of self- 
 development can 'be expanded into something like a real 
 conception ; and that it expresses, however inaccurately, an 
 actual process in nature. But when we speak of self- exist- 
 ence, and, helped by the above analogies, form some vague sym- 
 bolic conception of it, we delude ourselves in supposing that 
 this symbolic conception is of the same order as the others. On 
 joining the word self to the word existence, the force of 
 association makes us believe we have a thought like that 
 suggested by the compound word self-acting. An endeavour 
 to expand this symbolic conception, however, will undeceive 
 us. In the first place, it is clear that by self-existence 
 
 we especially mean, an existence independent of any other 
 not produced by any other : the assertion of self-existence is 
 simply an indirect denial of creation. In thus excluding the 
 idea of any antecedent cause, we necessarily exclude the idea 
 of a beginning ; for to admit the idea of a beginning to 
 admit that there was a time when the existence had not com- 
 menced is to admit that its commencement was determined 
 by something, or was caused ; which is a contradiction. Self- 
 existence, therefore, necessarily means existence without a 
 beginning ; and to form a conception of self-existence is to 
 form a conception of existence without a beginning. Now by 
 no mental effort can we do this. To conceive existence 
 through infinite past- time, implies the conception of infinite 
 past-time, which is an impossibility. To this let us add, 
 
 that even were self-existence conceivable, it would not in any 
 sense be an explanation of the Universe. No one will say 
 that the existence of an object at the present moment is 
 made easier to understand by the discovery that it existed an 
 hour ago, or a day ago, or a year ago ; and if its existence 
 now is not made in the least degree more comprehensible by 
 its existence during some previous finite period of time, then 
 no accumulation of such finite periods, even could we extend 
 them to an infinite period, would make it more comprehensible. 
 Thus the Atheistic theory ia not only absolutely unthinkable, 
 
62 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 but, even if it were thinkable, would not be a solution. The 
 assertion that the Universe is self-existent does not really carry 
 us a step beyond the cognition of its present existence ; and 
 BO leaves us with a mere re-statement of the mystery. 
 
 The hypothesis of self-creation, which practically amounts 
 to what is called Pantheism, is similarly incapable of being 
 represented in thought. Certain phenomena, such as the 
 precipitation of invisible vapour into cloud, aid us in forming 
 a symbolic conception of a self-evolved Universe ; and there 
 are not wanting indications in the heavens, and on the earth, 
 which help us to render this conception tolerably definite. 
 But while the succession of phases through which the 
 Universe has passed in reaching its present form, may 
 perhaps be comprehended as in a sense self-determined ; yet 
 the impossibility of expanding our symbolic conception of self- 
 creation into a real conception, remains as complete as ever. 
 Really to conceive self-creation, is to conceive potential 
 existence passing into actual existence by some inherent 
 necessity ; which we cannot do. We cannot form 
 
 any idea of a potential existence of the universe, as dis- 
 tinguished from its actual existence. If represented in 
 thought at all, potential existence must be represented as 
 something, that is as an actual existence , to suppose that it 
 can be represented as nothing, involves two absurdities 
 that nothing is more than a negation, and can be positively 
 represented in thought; and that onff nothing is distinguished 
 from all other nothings by its power to develope into some- 
 thing. Nor is this all. We have no state of conscious- 
 ness answering to the words an inherent necessity by which 
 potential existence became actual existence. To render then} 
 into thought, existence, having for an indefinite period re* 
 mained in one form, must be conceived as passing without 
 any external or additional impulse, intc another form ; and 
 this involves the idea of a change without a cause a thing 
 of which no idea is possible. Thus the terms of this hypo- 
 thesis do not stand for real thoughts ; but merely suggest the 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 3d 
 
 vaguest symbols incapable of any interpretation. More- 
 
 over, even were it true that potential existence is conceivable 
 as a different thing from actual existence; and that the transi- 
 tion from the one to the other can be mentally realized as a 
 self-determined change ; we should still be no forwarder : the 
 problem would simply be removed a step back. For whence 
 the potential existence? This would just as much require 
 accounting for as actual existence ; and just the same difficul- 
 ties would meet us. Respecting the origin of such a latent 
 power, no other suppositions could be made than those above 
 named self-existence, self-creation, creation by external 
 agency. The self-existence of a potential universe is no 
 more conceivable than we have found the self-existence of the 
 actual universe to be. The self-creation of such a potential 
 universe would involve over again the difficulties here 
 stated would imply behind this potential universe a more 
 remote potentiality ; and so on in an infinite series, leaving 
 us at last no forwarder than at first. While to assign as the 
 source of this potential universe an external agency, would be 
 to introduce the notion of a potential universe for no purpose 
 whatever. 
 
 There remains to be examined the commonly-received or 
 theistic hypothesis creation by external agency. Alike in 
 the rudest creeds and in the cosmogony long current among 
 ourselves, it is assumed that the genesis of the Heavens and 
 the Earth is effected somewhat after the manner in which a 
 workman shapes a piece of furniture. And this assumption 
 is made not by theologians only, but by the immense majority 
 of philosophers, past and present. Equally in the writings of 
 Plato, and in those of not a few living men of science, we* 
 find it taken for granted that there is an analogy between the 
 process of creation and the process of manufacture. Now 
 
 in the first place, not only is this conception one that cannot 
 by any cumulative process of thought, or the fulfilment of 
 predictions based on it, be shown to answer to anything 
 actual ; and not only is it that in the absence of all evidence 
 
34 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 respecting the process of creation, we have no proof of eorre 
 spondence even between this limited conception and some 
 limited portion of the fact ; but it is that the conception 
 is not even consistent with itself cannot be realized in 
 thought, when all its assumptions are granted. Though it is 
 true that the proceedings of a human artificer may vaguely 
 symbolize to us a method after which the Universe might be 
 shaped, yet they do not help us to comprehend the real 
 mystery; namely, the origin of the material of which the 
 Universe consists. The artizan does not make the iron, wood, 
 or stone, he uses ; but merely fashions and combines them. 
 If we suppose suns, and planets, and satellites, and all they 
 contain to have been similarly formed by a " Great Artificer," 
 we suppose merely that certain pre-existing elements were 
 thus put into their present arrangement. But whence the 
 pre-existing elements ? The comparison helps us not in the 
 least to understand that ; and unless it helps us to understand 
 that, it is worthless. The production of matter out of nothing 
 is the real mystery, which neither this simile nor any other 
 enables us to conceive ; and a simile which does not enable us 
 to conceive this, may just as well be dispensed with. Still 
 
 more manifest does the insufficiency of this theory of creation 
 become, when we turn from material objects to that which 
 contains them when instead of matter we contemplate space. 
 Did there exist nothing but an immeasurable void, explanation 
 would be needed as much as now. There would still arise the 
 question how came it so ? If the theory of creation by ex- 
 ternal agency were an adequate one, it would supply an 
 answer ; and its answer would be space was made in the same 
 manner that matter was made. But the impossibility of con- 
 ceiving this is so manifest, that no one dares to assert it. For 
 if space was created, it must have been previously non-existent. 
 The non-existence of space cannot, however, by any mental 
 effort be imagined. It is one of the most familiar truths that 
 the idea of space as surrounding us on all sides, is not for a mo- 
 ment to be got rid of not only are we compelled to think of 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 35 
 
 space as now everywhere present, but we are unable to con- 
 ceive its absence either in the past or the future. And if the 
 non-existence of space is absolutely inconceivable, then, neces- 
 tarily, its creation is absolutely inconceivable. Lastly, 
 
 even supposing that the genesis of the Universe could really 
 be represented in thought as the result of an external agency, 
 the mystery would be as great as ever ; for there would still 
 arise the question how came there to be an external agency ? 
 To account for this only the same three hypotheses are possible 
 self-existence, self-creation, and creation by external agency. 
 Of these the last is useless : it commits us to an infinite series 
 of such agencies, and even then leaves us where we were. By 
 the second we are practically involved in the same predica- 
 ment ; since, as already shown, self-creation implies an infinite 
 series of potential existences. We are obliged therefore to fall 
 back upon the first, which is the one commonly accepted and 
 commonly supposed to be satisfactory. Those who cannot 
 conceive a self-existent universe ; and who therefore assume 
 a creator as the source of the universe ; take for granted that 
 they can conceive a self-existent creator. The mystery 
 which they recognize in this great fact surrounding them on 
 every side, they transfer to an alleged source of this great 
 fact ; and then suppose that they have solved the mystery. 
 But they delude themselves. As was proved at the outset of 
 the argument, self-existence is rigorously inconceivable ; and 
 this holds true whatever be the nature of the object of which 
 it is predicated. Whoever agrees that the atheistic hypo- 
 thesis is untenable because it involves the impossible idea of 
 self-existence^ must perforce admit that the theistic hypo- 
 thesis is untenable if it contains the same impossible idea. 
 
 Thus these three different suppositions respecting the origin 
 of things, verbally intelligible though they are, and severally 
 seeming to their respective adherents quite rational, turn out, 
 when critically examined, to be literally unthinkable. It is 
 not a question of probability, or credibility, but of conceiv- 
 ability. Experiment proves that the elements of these hypo- 
 
36 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 
 theses cannot even be put together in consciousness ; and 
 we can entertain them only as we entertain such pseud-ideas 
 as a square fluid and a moral substance only by abstaining 
 from the endeavour to render them into actual thoughts. 
 Or, reverting to our original mode of statement, we may say 
 that they severally 'involve symbolic conceptions of the illegiti- 
 mate and illusive kind. Differing so widely as they seem to 
 do, the atheistic, the pantheistic, and the theistic hypotheses 
 contain the same ultimate element. It is impossible to avoid 
 making the assumption of self-existence somewhere; and 
 whether that assumption be made nakedly, or under compli- 
 cated disguises, it is equally vicious, equally unthinkable. Be 
 it a fragment of matter, or some fancied potential form of 
 matter, or some more remote and still less imaginable cause, 
 our conception of its self-existence can be formed only by 
 joining with it the notion of unlimited duration through past 
 time. And as unlimited duration is inconceivable, all those 
 formal ideas into which it enters are inconceivable ; and indeed, 
 if such an expression is allowable, are the more inconceivable 
 in proportion as the other elements of the ideas are indefinite. 
 So that in fact, impossible as it is to think of the actual uni- 
 verse as self-existing, we do but multiply impossibilities of 
 thought by every attempt we make to explain its existence. 
 
 12. If from the origin of the Universe we turn to its 
 nature, the like insurmountable difficulties rise up before us 
 on all sides or rather, the same difficulties under new aspects. 
 We find ourselves on the one hand obliged to make- certain 
 assumptions ; and yet on the other hand we find these assump- 
 tions cannot be represented in thought. 
 
 When we inquire what is the meaning of the various effects 
 produced upon our senses when we ask how there come to 
 be in our consciousness impressions of sounds, of colours, of 
 tastes, and of those various attributes which we ascribe to 
 bodies ; we are compelled to regard them as the effects of 
 some cause. We may stop short in the belief that this cause 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 37 
 
 is what we cull matter. Or we may conclude, as some do, that 
 matter is only a certain mode of manifestation of spirit ; 
 which is therefore the true cause. Or, regarding matter and 
 spirit as proximate agencies, we may attribute all the changes 
 wrought in our consciousness to immediate divine power. 
 But be the cause we assign what it may, we are obliged to 
 suppose some cause. And we are not only obliged to suppose 
 gome cause, but also a first cause. The matter, or spirit, or 
 whatever we assume to be the agent producing on us these 
 various impressions, must either be the first cause of them or 
 not. If it is the first cause, the conclusion is reached. If it 
 is not the first cause, then by implication there must be a 
 cause behind it ; which thus becomes the real cause of the 
 effect. Manifestly, however complicated the assumptions, the 
 same conclusion must inevitably be reached. We cannot 
 think at all about the impressions which the external world 
 produces on us, without thinking of them as caused ; and we 
 cannot carry out an inquiry concerning their causation, with- 
 out inevitably committing ourselves to the hypothesis of a 
 First Cause. 
 
 But now if we go a step further, and ask what is the nature 
 of this First Cause, we are driven by an inexorable logic to 
 certain further conclusions. Is the First Cause finite or in- 
 finite ? If we say finite we involve ourselves in a dilemma. 
 To think of the First Cause as finite, is to think of it as 
 limited. To think of it as limited, necessarily implies a con- 
 ception of something beyond its limits : it is absolutely im- 
 possible to conceive a thing as bounded without conceiving a 
 region surrounding its boundaries. What now must we say of 
 this region ? If the First Cause is limited, and there conse- 
 quently lies something outside of it, this something must have 
 no First Cause must be uncaused. But if we admit that there 
 can be something uncaused, there is no reason to assume a cause 
 tor anything. If beyond that finite region over which the First 
 Cause extends, there lies a region, which we are compelled to 
 regard as infinite, over which it does not extend if we admit 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 that there is an infinite uncaused surrounding the finite caused; 
 we tacitly abandon the hypothesis of causation altogether. Thus 
 it is impossible to consider the First Cause as finite. And if 
 it cannot be finite it must be infinite. 
 
 Another inference concerning the First Cause is equally 
 unavoidable. It must be independent. If it is dependent it 
 cannot be the First Cause ; for that must be the First 
 Cause on which it depends. It is not enough to say that it is 
 partially independent; since this implies some necessity which 
 determines its partial dependence, and this necessity, be it 
 what it may, must be a higher cause, or the true First Cause, 
 which is a contradiction. But to think of the First Cause as 
 totally independent, is to think of it as that which exists in 
 the absence of all other existence ; seeing that if the presence 
 of any other existence is necessary, it must be partially de- 
 pendent on that other existence, and so cannot be the First 
 Cau&e. Not only however must the First Cause be a form of 
 being which has no necessary relation to any other form of 
 being, but it can have no necessary relation within itself. 
 There can be nothing in it which determines change, and yet 
 nothing which prevents change. For if it contains something 
 which imposes such necessities or restraints, this something 
 must be a cause higher than the First Cause, which is absurd. 
 Thus the First Cause must be in every sense perfect, complete, 
 total : including within itself all power, and transcending all 
 law. Or to use the established word, it must be absolute. 
 
 Here the^ -especting the nature of the Universe, we seem 
 committed to certain unavoidable conclusions. The objects 
 and actions surrounding us, not less than the phenomena of 
 our own consciousness, compel us to ask a cause ; in our search 
 for a cause, we discover no resting place until we arrive at the 
 hypothesis of a First Cause ; and we have no alternative but 
 to regard this First Cause as Infinite and Absolute. These 
 are inferences forced upon us by arguments from which there 
 appears no escape. It is hardly needful however to show 
 those who have followed thus far, how illusive are these 
 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 39 
 
 reasonings and their results. But that it wouid tax the 
 reader's patience to no purpose, it might easily be proved 
 that the materials of which the argument is built, equally 
 with the conclusions based on them, are merely symbolic con- 
 ceptions of the illegitimate order. Instead, however, of re- 
 peating the disproof used above, it will be desirable to pursue 
 another method ; showing the fallacy of these conclusions by 
 disclosing their mutual contractictions. 
 
 Here I cannot do better than avail myself of the demonstra- 
 tion which Mr Mansel, carrying out in detail the doctrine of 
 Sir William Hamilton, has given in his " Limits of Religious 
 Thought." And I gladly do this, not only because feis mode 
 of presentation cannot be improved, but also because, writing 
 as he does in defence of the current Theology, his reasonings 
 will be the more acceptable to the majority of readers. 
 
 13. Having given preliminary definitions of the First 
 Cause, of the Infinite, and of the Absolute, Mr Mansel says : 
 
 "But these three conceptions, the Cause, the Absolute, the 
 Infinite, all equally indispensable, do they not imply contra- 
 diction to each other, when viewed in conjunction, as attributes 
 of one and the same Being ? A Cause cannot, as such, be 
 absolute : the Absolute cannot, as such, be a cause. The'cause, 
 as such, exists only in relation to its effect : the cause is a 
 cause of the effect ; the effect is an effect of the cause.^ On 
 the other hand, the conception of the Absolute implies a possi- 
 ble existence out of all relation. We attempt to escape from 
 this apparent contradiction, by introducing the idea of succes- 
 sion in time. The Absolute exists first by itself, and after- 
 wards becomes a Cause. But here we are checked by the 
 third conception, that of the Infinite. How can the Infinite 
 become that which it was not from the first ? If Causation is 
 a possible mode of existence, that which exists without causing 
 is not infinite ; that which becomes a cause has passed beyond 
 its former limits." * * * 
 
 " Supposing the Absolute to become a cause, it will follow 
 
40 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 
 that it operates by means of freewill and consciousness. For 
 a necessary cause cannot be conceived as absolute and infinite. 
 If necessitated by something beyond itself, it is thereby limit- 
 ed by a superior power ; and if necessitated by itself, it has in 
 its own nature a necessary relation to its effect. The act of 
 causation must therefore be voluntary ; and volition is only 
 possible in a conscious being. But consciousness again is 
 only conceivable as a relation. There must be a conscious 
 subject, and an object of which he is conscious. The subject 
 is a subject to the object ; the object is an object to the sub- 
 ject ; and neither can exist by itself as the absolute. This 
 difficulty; again, may be for the moment evaded, by distin- 
 guishing between the absolute as related to another and the 
 absolute as related to itself. The Absolute, it may be said, 
 may possibly be conscious, provided it is only conscious of it- 
 self. But this alternative is, in ultimate analysis, no less self- 
 destructive than the other. For the object of consciousness, 
 whether a mode of the subject's existence or not, is either 
 created in and by the act of consciousness, or has an existence 
 independent of it. In the former case, the object depends 
 upon the subject, and the subject alone is the true absolute. 
 In the latter case, the subject depends upon the object, and 
 the object alone is the true absolute. Or if we attempt a third 
 hypothesis, and maintain that each exists independently of the 
 othe^ we have no absolute at all, but only a pair of relatives ; 
 for coexistence, whether in consciousness or not, is itself a 
 relation." 
 
 " The corollary from this reasoning is obvious. Not only 
 is the Absolute, as conceived, incapable of a necessary relation 
 to anything else; but it is also incapable of containing, by 
 the constitution of its own nature, an essential relation with- 
 in itself ; as a whole, for instance, composed of parts, or as a 
 substance consisting of attributes, or as a conscious subject 
 m antithesis to an object. For if there is in the absolute any 
 principle of unity, distinct from the mere accumulation of 
 parts or attributes, this principle alone is the true absolute. 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 41 
 
 If, on the other hand, there is no such principle, then there is 
 no absolute at all, but only a plurality of relatives. The 
 almost unanimous voice of philosophy, in pronouncing that 
 the absolute is both one and simple, must be accepted as the 
 voice of reason also, so far as reason has any voice in the 
 matter. But this absolute unity, as indifferent and contain- 
 ing no attributes, can neither be distinguished from the multi- 
 plicity of finite beings by any characteristic feature, nor be 
 identified with them in their multiplicity. Thus we are land- 
 ed in an inextricable dilemma. The Absolute cannot be con- 
 ceived as conscious, neither can it be conceived as unconscious : 
 it cannot be conceived as complex, neither can it be conceived 
 as simple : it cannot be conceived by difference, neither can it 
 be conceived by the absence of difference : it cannot be iden- 
 tified with the universe, neither can it be distinguished from 
 it. The One and the Many, regarded as the beginning of 
 existence, are thus alike incomprehensible." 
 
 " The fundamental conceptions of Rational Theology being 
 thus self- destructive, we may naturally expect to find the same 
 antagonism manifested in their special applications. * * * 
 How, for example, can Infinite Power be able to do all things, 
 and yet Infinite Goodness be unable to do evil ? How can In- 
 finite Justice exact the utmost penalty for every sin, and yet 
 Infinite Mercy pardon the sinner ? How can Infinite Wisdom 
 know all that is to come, and yet Infinite Freedom be at liberty 
 to do or to forbear ? How is the existence of Evil compatible 
 with that of an infinitely perfect Being ; for if he wills it, he 
 is not infinitely good ; and if he wills it not, his will is 
 th warted and his sphere of action limited ? " * * * 
 
 " Let us, however, suppose for an instant that these difficul- 
 ties are surmounted, and the existence of the Absolute securely 
 established on the testimony of reason. Still we have not 
 succeeded in reconciling this idea with that of a Cause : we 
 have done nothing towards explaining how the absolute can 
 give rise to the relative, the infinite to the finite. If the con- 
 dition of causal activity is a higher state than that of qui- 
 
*^ ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 escence, the Absolute, whether acting voluntarily or involun* 
 tarily, has passed from a condition of comparative imperfection 
 to one of comparative perfection ; and therefore was not 
 originally perfect. If the state of activity is an inferior state 
 to that of quiescence, the Absolute, in becoming a cause, has 
 lost its original perfection. There remains only the supposi- 
 tion that the two states are equal, and the act of creation one of 
 complete indifference. But this supposition annihilates the 
 unity of the absolute, or it annihilates itself. If the act of 
 creation is real, and yet indifferent, we must admit the possi- 
 bility of two conceptions of the absolute, the one as productive, 
 the other as non-productive. If the act is not real, the sup- 
 position itself vanishes." * * * 
 
 " Again, how can the relative be conceived as coming into 
 being ? If it is a distinct reality from the absolute, it must be 
 conceived as passing from non-existence into existence. But 
 to conceive an object as non-existent, is again a self-contradic- 
 tion ; for that which is conceived exists, as an object of thought, 
 in and by that conception. We may abstain from thinking of 
 an object at all ; but, if we think of it, we cannot but think of 
 it as existing. It is possible at one time not to think of an 
 object at all, and at another to think of it as already in being ; 
 but to think of it in the act of becoming, in the progress from 
 not being into being, is to think that which, in the very 
 thought, annihilates itself." * * * 
 
 " To sum up briefly this portion of my argument. The 
 conception of the Absolute and Infinite, from whatever side we 
 view it, appears encompassed with contradictions. There is 
 a contradiction in supposing such an object to exist, whether 
 alone or in conjunction with others ; and there is a contradic- 
 tion in supposing it not to exist. There is a contradiction in 
 conceiving it as one ; and there is a contradiction in conceiv- 
 ing it as many. There is a contradiction in conceiving it as 
 personal ; and there is a contradiction in conceiving it as im- 
 personal. It cannot, without contradiction, be represented as 
 active ; nor, without equal contradiction, be represented as 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 43 
 
 Uiactive. It cannot be conceived as the sum of all existence ; 
 nor yet can it be conceived as a part only of that sum." 
 
 14. And now what is the bearing of these results on the 
 question before us ? Our examination of Ultimate Keligious 
 Ideas has been carried on with the view of making manifest 
 some fundamental verity contained in them. Thus far how- 
 ever wo have arrived at negative conclusions only. Criti- 
 cising the essential conceptions involved in the different 
 orders of beliefs, we find no one of them to be logically 
 defensible. Passing over the consideration of credibility, and 
 confining ourselves to that of conceivability, we see that 
 Atheism, Pantheism, and Theism, when rigorously analysed, 
 severally prove to be absolutely unthinkable. Instead of 
 disclosing a fundamental verity existing in each, our invest- 
 igation seems rather to have shown that there is no fund- 
 amental verity contained in any. To carry away this 
 conclusion, however, would be a fatal error; as we shall 
 shortly see. 
 
 Leaving out the accompanying moral code, which is in all 
 cases a supplementary growth, a religious creed is definable 
 as a theory of original causation. By the lowest savages 
 the genesis of things is not inquired about : anomaloirs ap- 
 pearances alone raise the question of agency. But be it in 
 the primitive Ghost-theory which assumes a human person- 
 ality behind each unusual phenomenon ; be it hi Polytheism, 
 in which these personalities are partially generalized ; be it 
 in Monotheism, in which they are wholly generalized ; or be 
 it in Pantheism, in which the generalized personality becomes 
 one with the phenomena; we equally find an hypothesis 
 which is supposed to render the Universe comprehensible. 
 JSTay, even that which is commonly regarded as the negation 
 of all Religion even positive Atheism, comes within the 
 definition; for it, too, in asserting the self-existence of Space, 
 Matter, and Motion, which it regards as adequate causes of 
 every appearance, propounds an d priori theory from which 
 
14 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 it holds the facts to be deducible. Now every theory tacitly 
 asserts two things : firstly, that there is something to be 
 explained ; secondly, that such and such is the explanation 
 Hence, however widely different speculators may disagree in 
 the solutions they give of the same problem ; yet by implica- 
 tion they agree that there is a problem to be solved. Here 
 then is an element which all creeds have in common. Reli- 
 gions diametrically opposed in their overt dogmas, are 
 yet perfectly at one in the tacit conviction that the exist- 
 ence of the world with all it contains and all which surrounds 
 it, is a mystery ever pressing for interpretation. On this 
 point, if on no other, there is entire unanimity. 
 
 Thus we come within sight of that which we seek. In the 
 last chapter, reasons were given for inferring that human 
 beliefs in general, and especially the perennial ones, contain, 
 under whatever disguises of error, some soul of truth ; and 
 here we have arrived at a truth underlying even the grossest 
 superstitions. We saw further that this soul of truth was 
 most likely to be some constituent common to conflicting 
 opinions of the same order ; and here we have a constituent 
 which may be claimed alike by all religions. It was pointed 
 out that this soul of truth would almost certainly be more 
 abstract than any of the beliefs involving it ; and the truth 
 we have arrived at is one exceeding in abstractness the most 
 abstract religious doctrines. In every respect, therefore, our 
 conclusion answers to the requirements. It has all the 
 characteristics which we inferred must belong to that funda- 
 mental verity expressed by religions in general. 
 
 That this is the vital element in all religions is further 
 proved by the fact, that it is the element which not only survives 
 every change, but grows more distinct the more highly the 
 religion is developed. Aboriginal creeds, though pervaded 
 by the idea of personal agencies which are usually unseen, 
 yet conceive these agencies under perfectly concrete and 
 ordinary forms class them with the visible agencies of men 
 and animals ; and so hide a vague perception of mystery ill 
 
ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 45 
 
 disguises as unmysterious as possible. The Polytheistic con- 
 ceptions in their advanced phases, represent the presiding 
 personalities in greatly idealized shapes, existing in a remote 
 region, working in subtle ways, and communicating with men 
 by omens or through inspired persons ; that is, the ultimate 
 causes of things are regarded as less familiar and compre- 
 hensible. The growth of a Monotheistic faith, accompanied 
 as it is by a denial of those beliefs in which the divine nature 
 is assimilated to the human in all its lower propensities, shows 
 us a further step in the same direction ; and however imper- 
 fectly this higher faith is at first realized, we yet see in altars 
 " to the unknown and unknowable God," and in the worship 
 of a God that cannot by any searching be found out, that 
 there is a clearer recognition of the inscrutableness of creation. 
 Further developments of theology, ending in such assertions 
 as that " a God understood would be no God at all," and " to 
 think that God is, as we can think him to be, is blasphemy," 
 exhibit this recognition still more distinctly ; and it pervades 
 all the cultivated theology of the present day. Thus while 
 other constituents of religious creeds one by one drop away, 
 this remains and grows even more manifest ; and so is shown 
 to be the essential constituent. 
 
 Nor does the evidence end here. Not only is the omni- 
 presence of something which passes comprehension, that most 
 abstract belief which is common to all religions, which be- 
 comes the more distinct in proportion as they develope, and 
 which remains after their discordant elements have been 
 mutually cancelled ; but it is that belief which the most un- 
 sparing criticism of each leaves unquestionable or rather 
 makes ever clearer. It has nothing to fear from the most 
 inexorable logic ; but on the contrary is a belief which tho 
 most inexorable logic shows to be more profoundly true than 
 any religion supposes. For every religion, setting out though 
 it does with the tacit assertion of a mystery, forthwith pro- 
 ceeds to give some solution of this mystery ; and so asserts 
 that it is not a mystery passing human comprehension. But 
 
iiO ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 an examination of the solutions they severally propound, 
 shows them to be uniformly invalid. The analysis of every 
 possible hypothesis proves, not simply that no hypothesis is 
 sufficient, but that no hypothesis is even thinkable. And 
 thus the mystery which all religions recognize, turns out to 
 be a far more transcendent mystery than any of them suspect 
 not a relative, but an absolute mystery. 
 
 Here, then, is an ultimate religious truth of the highest 
 possible certainty a truth in which religions in general are 
 at one with each other, and with a philosophy antagonistic 
 to their special dogmas. And this truth, respecting which 
 there is a latent agreement among all mankind from the 
 fetish- worshipper to the most stoical critic of human creeds, 
 must be the one we seek. If Heligion and Science are to be 
 reconciled, the basis of reconciliation must be this deepest, 
 widest, and most certain of all facts that the Power which 
 fche Universe manifests to us is utterly inscrutable. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 15. WHAT are Space and Time ? Two hypotheses are 
 current respecting them : the one that they are objective, and 
 the other that they are subjective the one that they are 
 external to, and independent of, ourselves, the other thai 
 they are internal, and appertain to our own consciousness, 
 Let us see what becomes of these hypotheses under analysis. 
 
 To say that Space and Time exist objectively, is to say that 
 they are entities. The assertion that they are non-entities is 
 self-destructive : non-entities are non-existences; and to allege 
 that non-existences exist objectively, is a contradiction in 
 terms. Moreover, to deny that Space and Time are things, 
 and so by implication to call them nothings, involves the 
 absurdity that there are two kinds of nothing. Neither can 
 they be regarded as attributes of some entity ; seeing, not 
 only that it is impossible really to conceive any entity of 
 which they are attributes, but seeing further that we cannot 
 think of them as disappearing, even if everything else disap- 
 peared ; whereas attributes necessarily disappear along with 
 the entities they belong to. Thus as Space and Time cannot 
 be either non-entities, nor the attributes of entities, we have 
 no choice but consider them as entities. But while, on 
 
 the hypothesis of their objectivity, Space and Time must be 
 classed as things, we find, on experiment, that to represent 
 them in thought as things is impossible. To be conceived 
 at all, a thing must be conceived as having attributes. "We 
 
48 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 can distinguish, something from nothing, only by the power 
 which the something has to act on our consciousness; the 
 several affections it produces on our consciousness (or else the 
 hypothetical causes of them), we attribute to it, and call 
 its attributes ; and the absence of these attributes is the 
 absence of the terms in which the something is conceived, 
 and involves the absence of a conception. What now are the 
 attributes of Space ? The only one which it is possible for a 
 moment to think of as belonging to it, is that of extension ; 
 and to credit it with this implies a confusion of thought. 
 For extension and Space are convertible terms : by extension, 
 as we ascribe it to surrounding objects, we mean occupancy 
 of Space ; and thus to say that Space is extended, is to say 
 that Space occupies Space. How we are similarly unable 
 to assign any attribute to Time, scarcely needs pointing 
 out. Nor are Time and Space unthinkable as entities 
 
 only from the absence of attributes ; there is another peculi- 
 arity, familiar to readers of metaphysics, which equally ex- 
 cludes them from the category. All entities which we actually 
 know as such, are limited ; and even if we suppose ourselves 
 either to know or to be able to conceive some unlimited 
 entity, we of necessity in so classing it positively separate it 
 from the class of limited entities. But of Space and Time 
 we cannot assert either limitation or the absence of limitation. 
 We find ourselves totally unable to form any mental image of 
 unbounded Space ; and yet totally unable to imagine bounds 
 beyond which there is no Space. Similarly at the other 
 extreme : it is impossible to think of a limit to the divisi- 
 bility of Space ; yet equally impossible to tuink of its infinite 
 , divisibility. And, without stating them, it will be seen that we 
 labour under like impotencies in respect to Time. Thus 
 
 we cannot conceive Space and Time as entities, and are 
 equally disabled from conceiving them as either the attributes 
 of entities or as non-entities. We are compelled to think oi 
 them as existing ; and yet cannot bring them within those 
 conditions under which existences are represented in though b, 
 
ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 49 
 
 Shall we then take refuge in the Kantian doctrine ? shall 
 we say that Space and Time are forms of the intellect, " A 
 priori laws or conditions of the conscious mind " ? To do thia 
 is to escape from great difficulties by rushing into greater. 
 The proposition with which Kant's philosophy sets out, 
 verbally intelligible though it is, cannot by any effort be 
 rendered into thought cannot be interpreted into an idea 
 properly so called, but stands merely for a pseud-idea. In 
 
 the first place, to assert that Space and Time, as we are con- 
 scious of them, are subjective conditions, is by implication 
 to assert that they are not objective realities : if the Space 
 and Time present to our minds belong to the ego, then of 
 neccessity they do not belong to the non-ego. Now it is abso 
 lutely impossible to think this. The very fact on which 
 Kant bases his hypothesis namely that our consciousness of 
 Space and Time cannot be suppressed testifies as much ; for 
 that consciousness of Space and Time which we cannot rid 
 ourselves of, is the consciousness of them as existing ob- 
 jectively. It is useless to reply that such an inability must 
 inevitably result if they are subjective forms. The question 
 here is What does consciousness directly testify ? And the 
 direct testimony of consciousness is, that Time and Space are 
 not within but without the mind ; and so absolutely independ- 
 ent of it that they cannot be conceived to become non-existent 
 even were the mind to become non-existent. Besides 
 
 being positively unthinkable in what it tacitly denies, 
 the theory of Kant is equally unthinkable in what it openly 
 affirms. It is not simply that we cannot combine the thought 
 of Space with the thought of our own personality, and con- 
 template the one as a property of the other though our 
 inability to do this would prove the inconceivableness of the 
 hypothesis but it is that the hypothesis carries in itself the 
 proof of its own inconceivableness. For if Space and Time 
 are forms of thought, they can never be thought of; since it 
 is impossible for anything to be at once the form of thought 
 and the matter of thought That Space and Time are ob 
 4 
 
&0 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 jects of consciousness, Kant emphatically asserts by saying 
 tliat it is impossible to suppress the consciousness of them. 
 How then, if they are objects of consciousness, can they at the 
 same time be conditions of consciousness ? If Space and Time 
 are the conditions under which we think, then when we think 
 of Space and Time themselves, our thoughts must be uncon- 
 ditioned ; and if there can thus be unconditioned thoughts, 
 what becomes of the theory ? 
 
 It results therefore that Space and Time are wholly in- 
 comprehensible. The immediate knowledge which we seem 
 to have of them, proves, when examined, to be total ignor- 
 ance. While our belief in their objective reality is in- 
 surmountable, we are unable to give any rational account 
 of it. And to posit the alternative belief (possible to state 
 but impossible to realize) is merely to multiply irrationali- 
 ties. 
 
 16. Were it not for the necessities of the argument, it 
 would be inexcusable to occupy the reader's attention with 
 the threadbare, and yet unended, controversy respecting the 
 divisibility of matter. Matter is either infinitely divisible or 
 it is not : no third possibility can be named. Which of the 
 alternatives shall we accept ? If we say that Matter is in- 
 finitely divisible, we commit ourselves to a supposition not 
 realizable in thought. We can bisect and re-bisect a body, 
 and continually repeating the act until we reduce its parts to 
 a size no longer physically divisible, may then mentally con- 
 tinue the process without limit. To do this, however, is not 
 really to conceive the infinite divisibility of matter, but to foi-m 
 a symbolic conception incapable of expansion into a real one, 
 and not admitting of other verification. Keally to conceive 
 the infinite divisibility of matter, is mentally to follow out the 
 divisions to infinity ; and to do this would require infinite 
 time. On the other hand, to assert that matter is not 
 infinitely divisible, is to assert that it is reducible to parts 
 which no conceivable power can divide ; and this verbal 
 
ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 51 
 
 apposition can no more be represented in thought than the 
 other. For each of such ultimate parts, did they exist, must 
 have an under and an upper surface, a right and a left side, 
 like any larger fragment. Now it is impossible to imagine 
 its sides so near that no plane of section can be conceived be* 
 tween them; and however great be the assumed force of 
 tohesion, it is impossible to shut out the idea of a greater 
 force capable of overcoming it. So that to human intelli- 
 gence the one hypothesis is no more acceptable than the 
 other ; and yet the conclusion that one or other must agree 
 with the fact, seems to human intelligence unavoidable. 
 
 Again, leaving this insoluble question, let us ask whether 
 substance has, in reality, anything like that extended solidity 
 which it presents to our consciousness. The portion of space 
 occupied by a piece of metal, seems to eyes and fingers per- 
 fectly filled: we perceive a homogeneous, resisting mass, 
 without any breach of continuity. Shall we then say that 
 Matter is as actually solid as it appears ? Shall we say that 
 whether it consists of an infinitely ^divisible element or of 
 ultimate units incapable of further division, its parts are 
 everywhere in actual contact ? To assert as much entangles 
 us in insuperable difficulties. Were Matter thus absolutely 
 solid, it would be, what it is not absolutely incompressible ; 
 since compressibility, implying the nearer approach of con- 
 stituent parts, is not thinkable unless there is unoccupied 
 space between the parts. Nor is this all. It is an estab- 
 lished mechanical truth, that if a body, moving at a given 
 velocity, strikes an equal body at rest in such wise that the 
 two move on together, their joint velocity will be but half 
 that of the striking body. Now it is a law of which the 
 negation is inconceivable, that in passing from any one 
 degree of magnitude to any other, all intermediate degrees 
 must be passed through. Or, in the case before us, a body 
 moving at velocity 4, cannot, by collision, be reduced to 
 velocity 2, without passing through all velocities between 4 
 and 2. But were Matter truly solid were its units abso 
 
62 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 lutely incompressible and in absolute contact this " law of 
 continuity," as it is called, m>uld be broken in every case 
 of collision. For when, of two such units, one moving at 
 velocity 4 strikes another at rest, the striking unit must have 
 its velocity 4 instantaneously reduced to velocity 2; must 
 pass from velocity 4 to velocity 2 without any lapse of time, 
 and without passing through intermediate velocities ; must be 
 moving with velocities 4 and 2 at the same instant, which is 
 impossible. 
 
 The supposition that Matter is absolutely solid being 
 untenable, there presents itself the Newtonian supposition, 
 that it consists of solid atoms not in contact but acting on 
 each other by attractive and repulsive forces, varying with 
 the distances. To assume this, however, merely shifts the 
 difficulty : the problem is simply transferred from the aggre- 
 gated masses of matter to these hypothetical atoms. For 
 granting that Matter, as we perceive it, is made up of such dense 
 extended units surrounded by atmospheres of force, the 
 question still arises What is the constitution of these units ? 
 "We have no alternative but to regard each of them as a 
 small piece of matter. Looked at through a mental micro- 
 scope, each becomes a mass of substance such as we have just 
 been contemplating. Exactly the same inquiries may be 
 made respecting the parts of which each atom consists ; while 
 exactly the same difficulties stand in the way of every answer. 
 And manifestly, even were the hypothetical atom assumed to 
 consist of still minuter ones, the difficulty would re-appear at 
 the next step ; nor could it be got rid of even by an infinite 
 series of such assumptions. 
 
 Boscovich's conception yet remains to us. Seeing that 
 Matter could not, as Leibnitz suggested, be composed of un- 
 extended monads (since the juxta-position of an infinity of 
 points having no extension, could not produce that extension 
 which matter possesses) ; and perceiving objections to the 
 view entertained by Newton ; Boscovich proposed an inter- 
 mediate theory, uniting, as he considered, the advantages of 
 
ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 63 
 
 both and avoiding their difficulties. His theory is, that the 
 constituents of Matter are centres of force points without 
 dimensions, which attract and repel each other in suchwise aa 
 to be kept at specific distances apart. And he argues, ma- 
 thematically, that the forces possessed by such centres might 
 so vary with the distances, that under given conditions the 
 aentres would remain in stable equilibrium with definite 
 interspaces ; and yet, under other conditions, would maintain 
 larger or smaller interspaces. This speculation however, 
 ingeniously as it is elaborated, and eluding though it does 
 various difficulties, posits a proposition which cannot by any 
 effort be represented in thought : it escapes all the inconceiv- 
 abilities above indicated, by merging them in the one 
 inconceivability with which it sets out. A centre of force 
 absolutely without extension is unthinkable : answering to 
 these words we can form nothing more than a symbolic con- 
 ception of the illegitimate order. The idea of resistance 
 cannot be separated in thought from the idea of an extended 
 body which offers resistance. To suppose that central forces 
 can reside in points not infinitesimally small but occupying 
 no space whatever points having position only, with nothing 
 to mark their position points in no respect distinguishable 
 from the surrounding points that are not centres of force ; to 
 suppose this, is utterly beyond human power. 
 
 Here it may possibly be said, that though all hypotheses 
 respecting the constitution of Matter commit us to inconceiv- 
 able conclusions when logically developed, yet we have 
 reason to think that one of them corresponds with the fact. 
 Though the conception of Matter as consisting of dense indi- 
 visible units, is symbolic and incapable of being completely 
 thought out, it may yet be supposed to find indirect verifica- 
 tion in the truths of chemistry. These, it is argued, necessi- 
 tate the belief that Matter consists of particles of specific 
 weights, and therefore of specific sizes. The general law of 
 definite proportions seems impossible on any other condition 
 than the existence of ultimate atoms ; and though the com- 
 
64 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 bining weights of the respective elements are termed by 
 chemists their " equivalents," for the purpose of avoiding a 
 questionable assumption, we are unable to think of the combina- 
 tion of such definite weights, without supposing it to take 
 place between definite numbers of definite particles. And 
 thus it would appear that the Newtonian view is at any rate 
 preferable to that of Boscovich. A disciple of Bosco- 
 
 vich, however, may reply that his master's theory is in- 
 volved in that of Newton; and cannot indeed be escaped. 
 " What," he may ask, " is it that holds together the parts 
 of these ultimate atoms?" "A cohesive force," his oppo- 
 nent must answer. "And what," he may continue, "is it 
 that holds together the parts of any fragments into 
 which, by sufiicient force, an ultimate atom might be 
 broken?" Again the answer must be a cohesive force. 
 " And what," he may still ask, " if the ultimate atom were, 
 as we can imagine it to be, reduced to parts as small in pro- 
 portion to it, as it is in proportion to a tangible mass of 
 matter what must give each part the ability to sustain itself, 
 and to occupy space ? " Still there is no answer but a cohe- 
 sive force. Carry the process in thought as far as we may, 
 until the extension of the parts is less than can be imagined, 
 we still cannot escape the admission of forces by which the 
 extension is upheld; and we can find no limit until we 
 arrive at the conception of centres of -force without any 
 extension. 
 
 Matter then, in its ultimate nature, is as absolutely incom- 
 prehensible as Space and Time. Frame what suppositions we 
 may, we find on tracing out their implications that they leave 
 us nothing but a choice between opposite absurdities. 
 
 17. A body impelled by the hand is clearly perceived to 
 move, and to move in a definite direction : there seems at first 
 eight no possibility of doubting that its motion is real, or that 
 it is towards a given point. Yet it is easy to show that we 
 not only may be, but usually are, quite wrong in both these 
 
ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 55 
 
 judgments. Here, for instance, is a ship which, for simpli- 
 city's sake, we will suppose to be anchored at the equatoi 
 with her head to the West. When the captain walks from 
 stem to stern, in what direction does he move ? East is the 
 obvious answer an answer which for the moment may pasi 
 without criticism. But now the anchor is heaved, and the 
 vessel sails to the West with a velocity equal to that at which 
 the captain walks. In what direction does he now move 
 when he goes from stem to stern ? You cannot say East, for 
 the vessel is carrying him as fast towards the West as ho 
 walks to the East ; and you cannot say West for the converse 
 reason. In respect to surrounding space he is stationary ; 
 though to all on board the ship he seems to be moving. But 
 now are we quite sure of this conclusion? Is he really station- 
 ary ? When we take into account the Earth's motion round 
 its axis, we find that instead of being stationary he is travel- 
 ling at the rate of 1000 miles per hour to the East ; so that 
 neither the perception of one who looks at him, nor the infer- 
 ence of one who allows foi the ship's motion, is anything like 
 the truth. ISTor indeed, on further consideration, shall we find 
 this revised conclusion to be much better. For we have for- 
 gotten to allow for the Earth's motion in its orbit. * This 
 being some 68,000 miles per hour, it follows that, assuming 
 the time to be midday, he is moving, not at the rate of 1000 
 miles per hour to the East, but at the rate of 67,000 miles per 
 hour to the West. Nay, not even now have we discovered 
 the true rate and the true direction of his movement. With 
 the Earth's progress in its orbit, we have to join that of the 
 whole Solar system towards the constellation Hercules ; and 
 when we do this, we perceive that he is moving neither East 
 nor West, but in a line inclined to the plane of the Ecliptic, 
 and at a velocity greater or less 'according to the time of the 
 year) than that above named. To which let us add, that 
 were the dynamic arrangements of our sidereal system fully 
 known to us, we should probably discover the direction and 
 rate of his actual movement to differ considerably even from 
 
56 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 
 these. .How illusive are our ideas of Motion, is thus made 
 
 sufficiently manifest. That which seems moving proves to be 
 stationary ; that which seems stationary proves to be moving; 
 while that which we conclude to be going rapidly in one 
 direction, turns out to be going much more rapidly in the 
 opposite direction. And so we are taught that what we are 
 conscious of is not the real motion of any object, either in its 
 rate or direction ; but merely its motion as measured from an 
 assigned position either the position we ourselves occupy or 
 some other. Yet in this very process of concluding that the 
 motions we perceive are not the real motions, we tacitly 
 assume that there are real motions. In revising our success- 
 ive judgments concerning a body's course or velocity, we take 
 for granted that there is an actual course and an actual 
 velocity we take for granted that there are fixed points in 
 space with respect to which all motions are absolute ; and we 
 find it impossible to rid ourselves of this idea. Nevertheless, 
 absolute motion cannot even be imagined, much less known. 
 Motion as taking place apart from those limitations of space 
 which we habitually associate with it, is totally unthinkable. 
 For motion is change of place ; but in unlimited space, change 
 of place is inconceivable, because place itself is inconceivable. 
 Place can be conceived only by reference to other places; and 
 in the absence of objects dispersed through space, a place 
 could be conceived only in relation to the limits of space ; 
 whence it follows that in unlimited space, place cannot be 
 conceived all places must be equidistant from boundaries 
 that do not exist. Thus while we are obliged to think that 
 there is an absolute motion, we find absolute motion incom- 
 prehensible. 
 
 Another insuperable difficulty presents itself when wo 
 contemplate the transfer of Motion. Habit blinds us to the 
 marvelousness of this phenomenon. Familiar with the fact 
 from childhood, we see nothing remarkable in the ability of a 
 moving thing to generate movement in a thing that ia 
 stationary. It is, however, impossible to understand it. In 
 
Tl/riMATK SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 57 
 
 what respect does a body after impact differ from itself before 
 impact ? What is tliis added to it winch does not sensibly 
 affect any of its properties and yet enables it to traverse 
 space ? Here is an object at rest and here is the same object 
 moving. In the one state it has no tendency to change its 
 place ; but in the other it is obliged at each instant to assume 
 a new position. What is it which will for ever go on pro- 
 ducing this effect without being exhausted ? and how does it 
 dwell in the object? The motion you say has been com- 
 municated. But how ? What has been communicated ? 
 The striking body has not transferred a thing to the body 
 struck; and it is equally out of the question to say that it 
 has transferred an attribute. What then has it transferred ? 
 Once more there is the old puzzle concerning the connexion 
 between Motion and E/est. We daily witness the gradual 
 retardation and final stoppage of things projected from the 
 hand or otherwise impelled ; and we equally often witness 
 the change from Rest to Motion produced by the application 
 of force. But truly to represent these transitions in thought, 
 we find impossible. For a breach of the law of continuity 
 seems necessarily involved; and yet no breach of it is con- 
 ceivable. A body travelling at a given velocity cannot be 
 brought to a state of rest, or no velocity, without passing 
 through all intermediate velocities. At first sight nothing 
 seems easier than to imagine it doing this. It is quite possi- 
 ble to think of its motion as diminishing insensibly until 
 it becomes infinitesimal ; and many will think equally possi- 
 ble to pass in thought from infinitesimal motion to no 
 motion. But this is an error. Mentally follow out the 
 decreasing velocity as- long as you please, and there still 
 remains some velocity. Halve and again halve the rate of 
 movement for ever, yet movement still exists ; and the small- 
 est movement is separated by an impassable gap from no 
 movement. As something, however minute, is infinitely 
 great in comparison with nothing ; so is even the least con- 
 ceivable motion, infinite as compared with rest. The 
 
58 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 converse perplexities attendant on the transition from Rest to 
 Motion, need not be specified. These, equally with the forego- 
 ing, show us that though we are obliged to think of such 
 changes as actually occurring, their occurrence cannot be 
 realized. 
 
 Thus neither when considered in connexion with Space, 
 nor when considered in connexion with Matter, nor when 
 considered in connexion with Rest, do we find that Motion is 
 truly cognizable. All efforts to understand its essential 
 nature do but bring us to alternative impossibilities of 
 thought. 
 
 18. On lifting a chair, the force exerted we regard as 
 equal to that antagonistic force called the weight of the 
 chair ; and we cannot think of these as equal without think- 
 ing of them as like in kind ; since equality is conceivable only 
 between things that are connatural. The axiom that action 
 and reaction are equal and in opposite directions, commonly 
 exemplified by this very instance of muscular effort versus 
 weight, cannot be mentally realized on any other condition. 
 Yet, contrariwise, it is incredible that the force as existing in 
 the chair really resembles the force as present to our minds. 
 It scarcely needs to point out that the weight of the chair 
 produces in us various feelings according as we support it by a 
 single finger, or the whole hand, or the leg ; and hence 
 to argue that as it cannot be like all these sensations there is 
 no reason to believe it like any. It suffices to remark that 
 since the force as known to us is an affection of consciousness, 
 we cannot conceive the force existing in the chair under the 
 same form without endowing the chair with consciousness. 
 So that it is absurd to think of Force as in itself like our 
 sensation of it, and yet necessary so to think of it if we 
 realize it in consciousness at all. 
 
 How, again, can we understand the connexion between 
 Force and Matter ? Matter is known to us only through its 
 manifestations of Force ; our ultimate test of Matter is the 
 
ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 ability to resist: abstract its resistance and there remain** 
 nothing but empty extension. Yet, on the other hand, resist* 
 ance is equally unthinkable apart from Matter apart from 
 something extended. Not only, as pointed out some pages 
 back, are centres of force devoid of extension unimaginable ; 
 but, as an inevitable corollary, we cannot imagine either 
 extended or unextended centres of force to attract and repel 
 other such centres at a distance, without the intermediation 
 of some kind of matter. We have here to remark, what 
 could not without anticipation be remarked when treating of 
 Matter, that the hypothesis of Newton, equally with that of 
 Boscovich, is open to the charge that it supposes one thing to 
 act upon another through a space which is absolutely empty 
 a supposition which cannot be represented in thought. 
 This charge is indeed met by the introduction of a hypotheti- 
 cal fluid existing between the atoms or centres. But the 
 problem is not thus solved : it is simply shifted, and re-appears 
 when the constitution of this fluid is inquired into. How 
 
 impossible it is to elude the difficulty presented by the transfei 
 of Force through space, is best seen in the case of astronomical 
 forces. The Sun acts upon us in such way as to produce the 
 sensations of light and heat; and we have ascertained that 
 between the cause as existing in the Sun, and the effect as 
 experienced on the Earth, a lapse of about eight minutes 
 occurs : whence unavoidably result in us, the conceptions of 
 both a force and a motion. So that for the assumption of a 
 luminiferous ether, there is the defence, not only that the 
 exercise of force through 95,000,000 of miles of absolute 
 vacuum is inconceivable, but also that it is impossible to con- 
 ceive motion in the absence of something moved. Similarly 
 in the case of gravitation. Newton described himself as 
 unable to think that the attraction of one body for another at 
 a distance, could be exerted in the absence of an intervening 
 medium. But now let us ask how much the forwarder we 
 are if an intervening medium be assumed. This ether whose 
 undulations according to the received hypothesis constitute 
 
60 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 heat and light, and which is the vehicle of gravitation how 
 is it constituted ? We must regard it, in the way that phy- 
 sicists do regard it, as composed of atoms which attract and 
 repel each other infinitesimal it may be in comparison witk 
 those of ordinary matter, but still atoms. And remembering 
 that this ether is imponderable, we are obliged to conclude 
 that the ratio between the interspaces of these atoms and the 
 atoms themselves, is incommensurably greater than the like 
 ratio in ponderable matter ; else the densities could not bo 
 incommensurable. Instead then of a direct action by the Sun 
 upon the Earth without anything intervening, we have to 
 conceive the Sun's action propagated through a medium 
 whose molecules are probably as small relatively to their inter- 
 spaces as are the Sun and Earth compared with the space 
 between them : we have to conceive these infinitesimal mole- 
 cules acting on each other through absolutely vacant spaces 
 which are immense in comparison with their own dimensions. 
 How is this conception easier than the other ? We still have 
 mentally to represent a body as acting where it is not, and in 
 the absence of anything by which its action may be transfer- 
 red ; and what matters it whether this takes place on a large 
 or a small scale ? We see therefore that the exercise of 
 
 Force is altogether unintelligible. We cannot imagine it 
 except through the instrumentality of something having 
 extension ; and yet when we have assumed this something, 
 we find the perplexity is not got rid of but only postponed. 
 We are obliged to conclude that matter, whether ponderable 
 or imponderable, and whether aggregated or in its hypotheti - 
 cal units, acts upon matter through absolutely vacant space ; 
 and yet this conclusion is positively unthinkable. 
 
 Yet another difiiculty of conception, converse in nature 
 but equally insurmountable, must be added. If, on the 
 one hand, we cannot in thought see matter acting upon 
 matter through a vast interval of space which is absolutely 
 void ; on the other hand, that the gravitation of one particle 
 of matter towards another, and towards all other s, should 
 
 
ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 61 
 
 be absolutely the same whether the intervening space is 
 filled with matter or not, is incomprehensible. I lift from 
 the ground, and continue to hold, a pound weight. Now^ 
 into the vacancy between it and the ground, is in- 
 troduced a mass of matter of any kind whatever, in any 
 state whatever hot or cold, liquid or solid, transparent OP 
 opaque, light or dense ; and the gravitation of the weight 
 is entirely unaffected. The whole Earth, as well as each 
 individual of the infinity of particles composing the 
 Earth, acts on the pound in absolutely the same way, 
 whatever intervenes, or if nothing intervenes. Through 
 eight thousand miles of the Earth's substance, each mole- 
 cule at the antipodes affects each molecule of the weight 
 I hold, in utter indifference to the fulness or emptiness 
 of the space between them. So that each portion of matter 
 in its dealings with remote portions, treats all intervening 
 portions as though they did not exist ; and yet, at the same 
 time it recognizes their existence with scrupulous exactness 
 in its direct dealings with them. We have to regard gravi- 
 tation as a force to which everything in the Universe is 
 at once perfectly opaque in respect of itself and perfectly 
 transparent in respect of other things. 
 
 While then it is impossible to form any idea of Force 
 in itself, it is equally impossible to comprehend its mode 
 of exercise. 
 
 19. Turning now from the outer to the inner world, let 
 us contemplate, not the agencies to which we ascribe our 
 subjective modifications, but the subjective modifications 
 themselves. These constitute a series. Difficult as we find 
 it distinctly to separate and individualize them, it is neverthe- 
 less beyond question that our states of consciousness occur in 
 succession. 
 
 Is this chain of states of consciousness infinite or finite ? 
 We cannot say infinite ; not only because we have indirectly 
 reached the conclusion that there was a period when it com.' 
 
ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 menced, but also because all infinity is inconceivable an 
 infinite series included. We cannot say finite ; for we have 
 no knowledge of either of its ends. Go back in memory as 
 far as we may, we are wholly unable to identify our first 
 states of consciousness: the perspective of our thoughts 
 vanishes in a dim obscurity where we can make out nothing. 
 Similarly at the other extreme. We have no immediate 
 knowledge of a termination to the series at a future time ; and 
 we cannot really lay hold of that temporary termination of 
 the series reached at the present moment. For the state of 
 consciousness recognized by us as our last, is not truly our 
 last. That any mental affection may be contemplated as one 
 of the series, it must be remembered represented in thought, 
 not presented. The truly last state of consciousness is that 
 which is passing in the very act of contemplating a state 
 just past that in which we are thinking of the one before as 
 the last. So that the proximate end of the chain eludes us, 
 as well as the remote end. 
 
 " But," it may be said, " though we cannot directly know 
 consciousness to be finite in duration, because neither of its 
 limits can be actually reached ; yet we can very well conceive 
 it to be so." No : not even this is true. In the first place, 
 we cannot conceive the terminations of that consciousness 
 which alone we really know our own any more than wo 
 can perceive its terminations. For in truth the two acts are 
 here one. In either case such terminations must be, as above 
 said, not presented in thought, but represented ; and they 
 must be represented as in the act of occurring. Now to 
 represent the termination of consciousness as occurring 
 in ourselves, is to think of ourselves as contemplating the 
 cessation of the last state of consciousness ; and this implies 
 a supposed continuance of consciousness after its last 
 state, which is absurd. In the second place, if we regard 
 the matter objectively if we study the phenomena as 
 occurring in others, or in the abstract, we are equally foiled. 
 Consciousness implies perpetual change and the perpetual 
 
 
ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. DO 
 
 establishment of relations between its successive phases. To 
 be known at all, any mental affection must be known as such or 
 such as like these foregoing ones or unlike those : if it is not 
 thought of in connexion with others not distinguished or 
 identified by comparison with others, it is not recognized is 
 not a state of consciousness at all. A last state of conscious- 
 ness, then, like any other, can exist only through a percep- 
 tion of its relations to previous states. But such perception of 
 its relations must constitute a state later than the last, which 
 is a contradiction. Or to put the difficulty in another form : 
 If ceaseless change of state is the condition on which alone 
 consciousness exists, then when the supposed last state 
 has been reached by the completion of the preceding change, 
 change has ceased ; therefore consciousness has ceased ; there- 
 fore the supposed last state is not a state of consciousness at 
 all ; therefore there can be no last state of consciousness. In 
 short, the perplexity is like that presented by the relations of 
 Motion and Rest. As we found it was impossible really to 
 conceive Rest becoming Motfon or Motion becoming Rest ; so 
 here we find it is impossible really to conceive either the 
 beginning or the ending of those changes which constitute 
 consciousness. 
 
 Hence, while we are unable either to believe or to conceive 
 that the duration of consciousness is infinite, we are equally 
 unable either to know it as finite, or to conceive it as finite. 
 
 20. Nor do we meet with any greater success when, in- 
 stead of the extent of consciousness, we consider its substance. 
 The question What is this that thinks ? admits of no better 
 solution than the question to which we have just found none 
 but inconceivable answers. 
 
 The existence of each individual as known to himself, has 
 been always held by mankind at large, the most incontro- 
 vertible of truths, To say " I am as sure of it as I am sure 
 that I exist," is, in common speech, the most emphatic ex- 
 pression of certainty. And this fact of personal existence^ 
 
ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 testified to by the universal consciousness of men, has been 
 made the basis of sundry philosophies ; whence may be drawn 
 the inference, that it is held by thinkers, as well as by the 
 vulgar, to be beyond all facts unquestionable. 
 
 Belief in the reality of self, is, indeed, a belief which no 
 hypothesis enables us to escape. What shall we say of these 
 successive impressions and ideas which constitute conscious- 
 ness ? Shall we say that they are the affections of something 
 called mind, which, as being the subject of them, is the real 
 ego ? If we say this, we manifestly imply that the ego is an 
 entity. Shall we assert that these impressions and ideas are not 
 the mere superficial changes wrought on some thinking sub- 
 stance, but are themselves the very body of this substance 
 are severally the modified forms which it from moment to 
 moment assumes ? This hypothesis, equally with the fore- 
 going, implies that the individual exists as a permanent and 
 distinct being ; since modifications necessarily involve some- 
 thing modified. Shall we then betake ourselves to the sceptic's 
 position, and argue that we know nothing more than our im- 
 pressions and ideas themselves that these are to us the only 
 existences ; and that the personality said to underlie them is a 
 mere fiction ? We do not even thus escape ; since this pro- 
 position, verbally intelligible but really unthinkable, itself 
 makes the assumption which it professes to repudiate. For 
 how can consciousness be wholly resolved into impressions and 
 ideas, when an impression of necessity implies something im- 
 pressed ? Or again, how can the sceptic who has decomposed 
 his consciousness into impressions and ideas, explain the fact 
 (hat he considers them as his impressions and ideas ? Or 
 once more, if, as he must, he admits that he has an impression 
 of his personal existence, what warrant can he show for re- 
 jecting this impression as unreal while he accepts all his other 
 impressions as real ? Unless he can give satisfactory answers 
 to these queries, which he cannot, he must abandon his con- 
 clusions ; and must admit the reality of the individual mind. 
 
 But now, unavoidable as is this belief established though 
 
ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. fi 
 
 it is not only by the assent of mankind at large, endorsed by 
 divers pnilosophers, but by the suicide of the sceptical argu- 
 ment it is yet a belief admitting of no justification by reason : 
 nay, indeed, it is a belief which reason, when pressed for a 
 distinct answer, rejects. One of the most recent writers who 
 has touched upon this question Mr Mansel does indeed 
 contend that in the consciousness of self, we have a piece of 
 real knowledge. The validity of immediate intuition he 
 holds in this case unquestionable : remarking that " let 
 system-makers say what they will, the unsophisticated sense 
 of mankind refuses to acknowledge that mind is but a bundle 
 of states of consciousness, as matter is (possibly) a bundle of 
 sensible qualities." On which position the obvious comment 
 is, that it does not seem altogether a consistent one for a 
 Kantist, who pays but small respect to " the unsophisticated 
 Bense of mankind" when it testifies to the objectivity of space. 
 Passing over this, however, it may readily be shown that a 
 cognition of self, properly so called, is absolutely negatived 
 by the laws of thought. The fundamental condition to all 
 consciousness, emphatically insisted upon by Mr Mansel in 
 common with Sir William Hamilton and others, is the ^anti- 
 thesis of subject and object. And on this " primitive dualism 
 of consciousness," " from which the explanations of philosophy 
 must take their start," Mr Mansel founds his refutation of the 
 German absolutists. But now, what is the corollary from this 
 doctrine, as bearing on the consciousness of self? The mental 
 act in which self is known, implies, like every other mental 
 act, a perceiving subject and a perceived object. If, then, the 
 object perceived is self, what is the subject that perceives ? or 
 if it is the true self which thinks, what other self can it be 
 that is thought of ? Clearly, a true cognition of self implies 
 a state in which the knowing and the known are one in 
 which subject and object are identified ; and this Mr Mansel 
 rightly holds to be the annihilation of both. 
 
 So that the personality of which each is conscious, and of 
 which the existence is to each a fact beyond all others the most 
 
66 
 
 ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 certain, is yet a thing which cannot truly be known at all : 
 knowledge of it is forbidden by the very nature of thought. 
 
 21. Ultimate Scientific Ideas, then, are all representative 
 of realities that cannot be comprehended. After no matter 
 how great a progress in the colligation of facts and the estab- 
 lishment of generalizations ever wider and wider after the 
 merging of limited and derivative truths in truths that are 
 larger and deeper has been carried no matter how far ; the 
 fundamental truth remains as much beyond reach as ever. The 
 explanation of that which is explicable, does but bring out 
 into greater clearness the inexplicableness of that which re- 
 mains behind. Alike in the external and the internal worlds, 
 the man of science sees himself in the midst of perpetual changes 
 of which he can discover neither the beginning nor the end. 
 If, tracing back the evolution of things, he allows himself to 
 entertain the hypothesis that the Universe once existed in a 
 diffused form, he finds it utterly impossible to conceive how 
 this came to be so ; and equally, if he speculates on the 
 future, he can assign no limit to the grand succession of phe- 
 nomena ever unfolding themselves before him. In like 
 manner if he looks inward, he perceives that both ends of the 
 thread of consciousness are beyond his grasp; nay, even 
 beyond his power to think of as having existed or as existing 
 in time to come. When, again, he turns from the succession of 
 phenomena, external or internal, to their intrinsic nature, he 
 is just as much at fault. Supposing him in every case able to 
 resolve the appearances, properties, and movements of things, 
 into manifestations of Force in Space and Time ; he still finds 
 that Force, Space, and Time pass all understanding. Simi- 
 larly, though the analysis of mental actions may finally bring 
 him down to sensations, as the original materials out of which 
 all thought is woven, yet he is little forwarder ; for he can 
 give no account either of sensations themselves or of that 
 something which is conscious of sensations. Objective and 
 ubjective things he thus ascertains to be alike inscrutable in 
 
ULTIMATE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS. 
 
 their substance and genesis. In all directions his investiga- 
 tions eventually bring him face to face with an insoluble 
 enigma ; and he ever more clearly perceives it to be an insoluble 
 enigma. He learns at once the greatness and the littleness of 
 the human intellect its power in dealing with all that comes 
 within the range of experience ; its impotence in dealing 
 with all that transcends experience. He realizes with a 
 special vividness the utter incomprehensibleness of the simplest 
 fact, considered in itself. He, more than any other, truly 
 know* that in its ultimate essence nothing can be known* 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TUB RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 22. THE same conclusion is thus arrived at, from which- 
 ever point we set out. If, respecting the origin and nature 
 of things, we make some assumption, we find that through an 
 inexorable logic it inevitably commits us to alternative impos- 
 sibilities of thought ; and this holds true of every assumption 
 that can be imagined. If, contrariwise, we make no assump- 
 tion, but set out from the sensible properties of surrounding 
 objects, and, ascertaining their special laws of dependence, go 
 on to merge these in laws more and more general, until we 
 bring them all under some most general laws ; we still find our- 
 selves as far as ever from knowing what it is which manifests 
 these properties to us : clearly as we seem to know it, our 
 apparent knowledge proves on examination to be utterly irre- 
 concilable with itself. Ultimate religious ideas and ultimate 
 scientific ideas, alike turn out to be merely symbols of the 
 actual, not cognitions of it. 
 
 The conviction, so reached, that human intelligence is 
 incapable of absolute knowledge, is one that has been slowly 
 gaining ground as civiliz tion has advanced. Each new 
 ontological theory, from time to time propounded in lieu of 
 previous ones shown to be untenable, has been followed by a 
 new criticism leading to a new scepticism. All possible con- 
 ceptions have been one by one tried and found wanting ; and 
 
THE REIjVTlVn7 OF ALL KNOWLEDGE ^9 
 
 so the entire field of speculation has been gradually exhausted 
 without positive result: the only result arrived at being 
 the negative one above stated that the reality existing 
 behind all appearances is, and must ever be, unknown. To 
 this conclusion almost every thinker of note has subscribed. 
 " With the exception," says Sir William Hamilton, "of a few 
 late Absolutist theorisers in Germany, this is, perhaps, the 
 truth of all others most harmoniously re-echoed by every 
 philosopher of every school." And among these he names 
 Protagoras, Aristotle, St. Augustin, Boethius, Averroes, 
 Albertus Magnus, Gerson, Leo Hebrseus, Melancthon, Sca- 
 liger, Francis Piccolomini, Giordano Bruno, Campanella, 
 Bacon, Spinoza, Newton, Kant. 
 
 It yet remains to point out how this belief may be estab- 
 lished rationally, as well as empirically. Not only is it that, 
 as in the earlier thinkers above named, a vague perception of 
 the inscrutableness of things in themselves results from dis- 
 covering the illusiveness of sense-impressions ; and not only 
 is it that, as shown in the foregoing chapters, definite experi- 
 ments evolve alternative impossibilities of thought out of 
 every ultimate conception we can frame ; but it is that the 
 relativity of our knowledge is demonstrable analytically. 
 The induction drawn from general and special experiences, 
 may be confirmed by a deduction from the nature of our 
 intelligence. Two ways of reaching such a deduction exist. 
 Proof that our cognitions are not, and never can be, absolute, 
 is obtainable by analyzing either the product of thought, or 
 the process of thought. Let us analyze each. 
 
 23. If, when walking through the fields some day in 
 September, you hear a rustle a few yards in advance, and 
 on observing the ditch-side where it occurs, see the herbage 
 agitated, you will probably turn towards the spot to learn by 
 what this sound and motion are produced. As you approach 
 there flutters into the ditch, a partridge; on seeing which 
 
70 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 your curiosity is satisfied you have what you call an 
 ation of the appearances. The explanation, mark, amounts 
 fco this ; that whereas throughout life you have had countless 
 experiences of disturbance among small stationary bodies, 
 accompanying the movement of other bodies among them, 
 and have generalized the relation between such disturbances 
 and such movements, you consider this particular disturbance 
 explained, on finding it to present, an instance of the like 
 relation. Suppose you catch the partridge ; and, wish- 
 
 ing to ascertain why it did not escape, examine it, and find 
 at one spot, a slight trace of blood upon its feathers. You 
 now understand, as you say, what has disabled the partridge. 
 It has been wounded by a sportsman adds another case to 
 the many cases already seen by you, of birds being killed or 
 injured by the shot discharged at them from fowling- pieces. 
 And in assimilating this case to other such cases, consists 
 your understanding of it. But now, on consideration, a 
 
 difficulty suggests itself. Only a single shot has struck the 
 partridge, and that not in a vital place : the wings are unin- 
 jured, as are also those muscles which move them ; and the 
 creature proves by its struggles that it has abundant strength. 
 Why then, you inquire of yourself, does it not fly ? Occasion 
 favouring, you put the question to an anatomist, who fur- 
 nishes you with a solution. He points out that this solitary 
 shot has passed close to the place at which the nerve supplying 
 the wing-muscles of one side, diverges from the spine ; and that 
 a slight injury to this nerve, extending even to the rupture of 
 a few fibres, may, by preventing a perfect co-ordination in the 
 actions of the two wings, destroy the power of flight. You are 
 no longer puzzled. But what has happened? what has 
 changed your state from one of perplexity to one of compre- 
 hension ? Simply the disclosure of a class of previously 
 known cases, along with which you can include this case. 
 The connexion between lesions of the nervous system and 
 paralysis of limbs has been already many times brought 
 
THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 71 
 
 under your notice ; and you here find a relation of cause and 
 effect that is essentially similar. 
 
 Let us suppose you are led on to make further inquiries 
 concerning organic actions, which, conspicuous and remarkable 
 as they are, you had not before cared to understand. How 
 is respiration effected ? you ask why does air periodically 
 lush into the lungs ? The answer is that in the higher verte- 
 brata, as in ourselves, influx of air is caused by an enlarge- 
 ment of the thoracic cavity, due, partly to depression of the 
 diaphragm, partly to elevation of the ribs. But how does 
 elevation of the ribs enlarge the cavity? In reply the 
 anatomist shows you that the plane of each pair of ribs 
 makes an acute angle with the spine ; that this angle widens 
 when the moveable ends of the ribs are raised ; and he makes 
 you realize the consequent dilatation of the cavity, by point- 
 ing out how the area of a parallelogram increases as its angles 
 approach to right angles you understand this special fact 
 when you see it to be an instance of a general geometrical 
 fact. There still arises, however, the question why does the 
 air rush into this* enlarged cavity ? To which comes the 
 answer that, when the thoracic cavity is enlarged, the* con- 
 tained air, partially relieved from pressure, expands, and so loses 
 some of its resisting power ; that hence it opposes to the pres- 
 sure of the external air a less pressure ; and that as air, like 
 every other fluid, presses equally in all directions, motion must 
 result along any line in which the resistance is less than 
 elsewhere; whence follows an inward current. And this 
 interpretation you recognize as one, when a few facts of like 
 kind, exhibited more plainly in a visible fluid such as water, 
 are cited in illustration. Again, when it was pointed out 
 
 that the limbs are compound levers acting in essentially the 
 same way as levers of iron or wood, you might consider your- 
 self as having obtained a partial rationale of animal move- 
 ments. The contraction of a muscle, seeming before utterly 
 unaccountable, would seem less unaccountable were you shown 
 
72 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 how, by a galvanic current, a series of soft iron magnets could 
 be made to shorten itself, through, the attraction of each 
 magnet for its neighbours : an alleged analogy which 
 especially answers the purpose of our argument ; since, 
 whether real or fancied, it equally illustrates the mental 
 illumination that results on finding a class of cases within 
 which a particular case may possibly be included. And it 
 may be further noted how, in the instance here named, an ad- 
 ditional feeling of comprehension arises on remembering that 
 the influence conveyed through the nerves to the muscles, is, 
 though not ^positively electric, yet a form of force nearly 
 allied to the electric. Similarly when you learn that 
 
 animal heat arises from chemical combination, and so is 
 evolved as heat is evolved in other chemical combinations 
 when you learn that the absorption of nutrient fluids through 
 the coats of the intestines, is an instance of osmotic action 
 when you learn that the changes undergone by food during 
 digestion, are like changes artificially producible in the labora- 
 tory ; you regard yourself as knowing something about the 
 natures of these phenomena. 
 
 Observe now what we have been doing. Turning to the 
 general question, let us note where these successive interpret- 
 ations have carried us. We began with quite special and 
 concrete facts. In explaining each, and afterwards explain- 
 ing the more general facts of which they are instances, we 
 have got down to certain highly general facts: to a geome- 
 trical principle or property of space, to a simple law of me- 
 chanical action, to a law of fluid equilibrium to truths in 
 physics, in chemistry, in thermology, in electricity. The 
 particular phenomena with which we set out, have been 
 merged in larger and larger groups of phenomena ; and as 
 they have been so merged, we have arrived at solutions that 
 we consider profound in proportion as this process has been 
 carried far. Still deeper explanations are simply further 
 steps in the same direction. When, for instance, it is asked 
 
THK RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 78 
 
 Hrhy the law of action of the lever is what it is, or why fluid 
 equilibrium and fluid motion exhibit the relations which they 
 do, the answer furnished by mathematicians consists in the 
 disclosure of the principle of virtual velocities a principle 
 holding true alike in fluids and solids a principle under 
 wrhich the others are comprehended. And similarly, the in- 
 sight obtained into the phenomena of chemical combination, 
 heat, electricity, &c., implies that a rationale of them, when 
 found, will be the exposition of some highly general fact re- 
 specting the constitution of matter, of which chemical, 
 electrical, and thermal facts, are merely different mani- 
 festations. 
 
 Is this process limited or unlimited ? Can we go on foi 
 ever explaining classes of facts by including them in larger 
 classes ; or must we eventually come to a largest class ? The 
 supposition that the process is unlimited, were any one ab- 
 surd enough to espouse it, would still imply that an ultimate 
 explanation could not be reached ; since infinite time would 
 be required to reach it. While the unavoidable conclusion 
 that it is limited (proved not only by the finite sphere of 
 observation open to us, but also by the diminution in the 
 number of generalizations that necessarily accompanies in- 
 crease of their breadth) equally implies that the ultimate 
 fact cannot be understood. For if the successively deeper in- 
 terpretations of nature which constitute advancing knowledge, 
 are merely successive inclusions of special truths in general 
 truths, and of general truths in truths still more general ; it 
 obviously follows that the most general truth, not admitting 
 of inclusion in any other, does no admit of interpretation. 
 Manifestly, as the most general cognition at which we arrive 
 jannot be reduced to a more general one, it cannot be under- 
 stood. Of necessity, therefore, explanation must eventually 
 bring us down to the inexplicable. The deepest truth which 
 we can get at, must be unaccountable. Comprehension must 
 become something other than comprehension, before the ulti- 
 mate fact can be comprehended. 
 
74 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 
 24. The inference which we thus find forced upon ua 
 when we analyze the product of thought, as exhibited ob- 
 jectively in scientific generalizations, is equally forced upon us 
 by an analysis of the process of thought, as exhibited sub- 
 jectively in consciousness. The demonstration of the neces- 
 sarily relative character of our knowledge, as deduced from 
 the nature of intelligence, has been brought to its most 
 definite shape by Sir William Hamilton. I cannot here do 
 better than extract from his essay on the " Philosophy of 
 the Unconditioned," the passage containing the substance of 
 his doctrine. 
 
 " The mind can conceive," he argues, " and consequently 
 can know, only the limited, and the conditionally limited. The 
 unconditionally unlimited, or the Infinite, the uncondition- 
 ally limited, or the Absolute, cannot positively be construed to 
 the mind ; they can be conceived, only by a thinking away 
 from, or abstraction of, those very conditions under which 
 thought itself is realized ; consequently, the notion of the 
 Unconditioned is only negative, negative of the conceivable 
 itself. For example, on the one hand we can positively conceive, 
 neither an absolute whole, that is, a whole so great, that wo 
 cannot also conceive it as a relative part of a still greater 
 whole ; nor an absolute part, that is, a part so small, that we 
 cannot also conceive it as a relative whole, divisible into smaller 
 parts. On the other hand, we cannot positively represent, or 
 realize, or construe to the mind (as here understanding and 
 imagination coincide), an infinite whole, for this could only 
 be done by the infinite synthesis in thought of finite wholes, 
 which would itself require an infinite time for its accomplish- 
 ment ; nor, for the same reason, can we follow out in thought 
 an infinite divisibility of parts. The result is the same, 
 whether we apply the process to limitation in space, in time, 
 or in degree. The unconditional negation, and the uncondi- 
 tional affirmation of limitation ; in other words, the infinite 
 and absolute, properly so called, are thus equally inconceiv- 
 able to us. 
 
THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 75 
 
 " Afl the conditionally limited (which we may briefly call 
 the conditioned) is thus the only possible object of knowledge 
 and of positive thought thought necessarily supposes condi- 
 tions. To think is to condition; and conditional limitation is 
 the fundamental law of the possibility of thought. For, as 
 the greyhound cannot outstrip his shadow, nor (by a more 
 appropriate simile) the eagle outsoar the atmosphere in which 
 he floats, and by which alone he may be supported ; so tho 
 mind cannot transcend that sphere of limitation, within and 
 through which exclusively the possibility of thought is 
 realized. Thought is only of the conditioned ; because, as we 
 have said, to think is simply to condition. The absolute is 
 conceived merely by a negation of conceivability ; and all 
 that we know, is only known as 
 
 ' won from the void and formless infinite* 
 
 How, indeed, it could ever be doubted that thought is only of 
 the conditioned, may well be deemed a matter of theprofoundest 
 admiration. Thought cannot transcend consciousness ; con- 
 sciousness is only possible under the antithesis of a subject 
 and object of thought, known only in correlation, and mutually 
 limiting each other ; while, independently of this, all that we 
 know either of subject or object, either of mind or matter, is 
 only a knowledge in each of the particular, of the plural, of 
 the different, of the modified, of the phaenomenal. "We admit 
 that the consequence of this doctrine is, that philosophy, it 
 viewed as more than a science of the conditioned, is impossi- 
 ble. Departing from the particular, we admit, that we can 
 never, in our highest generalizations, rise above the finite ; 
 that our knowledge, whether of mind or matter, can be 
 nothing more than a knowledge of the relative manifestations 
 of an existence, which in itself it is our highest wisdom to 
 recognize as beyond the reach of philosophy, -in the language 
 of St Austin, * cognoscendo ignorari, et ignorando cognosci.' 
 " The conditioned is the mean between two extremes, two 
 
T6 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 mconditionates, exclusive of each other, neither of which can 
 be conceived as possible, but of which, on the principles of con- 
 tradiction and excluded middle, one must be admitted as 
 necessary. On this opinion, therefore, reason is shown to 
 be weak, but not deceitful. The mind is not represented as 
 conceiving two propositions subversive of each other, as 
 equally possible ; but only, as unable to understand as possi- 
 ble, either of two extremes ; one of which, however, on 
 the ground of their mutual repugnance, it is compelled 
 to recognize as true. "We are thus taught the salutary 
 lesson, that the capacity of thought is not to be constituted 
 into the measure of existence ; and are warned from recogniz- 
 ing the domain of our knowledge as necessarily co-extensive 
 with the horizon of our faith. And by a wonderful revelation, 
 we are thus, in the very consciousness of our inability to 
 conceive aught above the relative and finite, inspired with a 
 belief in the existence of something unconditioned beyond the 
 sphere of all comprehensible reality." 
 
 Clear and conclusive as this statement of the case appears 
 when carefully studied, it is expressed in so abstract a 
 manner as to be not very intelligible to the general reader. 
 A more popular presentation of it, with illustrative applica- 
 tions, as given by Mr Mansel in his " Limits of Religious 
 Thought," will make it more fully understood. The follow- 
 ing extracts, which I take the liberty of making from his 
 pages, will suffice. 
 
 " The very conception of consciousness, in whatever mode 
 it may be manifested, necessarily implies distinction between 
 one object and another. To be conscious, we must be conscious 
 af something ; and that something can only be known, a? 
 that which it is, by being distinguished from that which it is 
 not, But distinction is necessarily limitation ; for, if one 
 object is to be distinguished from another, it must possess 
 some form of existence which the other has not, or it must 
 not possess some form which the other has. But it is obvious 
 
THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 77 
 
 the Infinite cannot be distinguished, as such, from the Finite, 
 by the absence of any quality which the Finite possesses ; for 
 such absence would be a limitation. Nor yet can it be dis- 
 tinguished by the presence of an attribute which the Finite 
 has not ; for, as no finite part can be a constituent of an 
 infinite whole, this differential characteristic must itself be 
 infinite ; and must at the same time have nothing in common 
 urith the finite. We are thus thrown back upon our former- 
 impossibility ; for this second infinite will be distinguished 
 from the finite by the absence of qualities which the latter 
 possesses. A consciousness of the Infinite as such thus neces- 
 sarily involves a self-contradiction ; for it implies the recogni- 
 tion, by limitation and difference, of that which can only bo 
 given as unlimited and indifferent. * * * 
 
 " This contradiction, which is utterly inexplicable on the 
 supposition that the infinite is a positive object of human 
 thought, is at once accounted for, when it is regarded as the 
 mere negation of thought. If all thought is limitation ; if 
 whatever we conceive is, by the very act of conception, 
 regarded as finite, the infinite, from a human point of. view, 
 is merely a name for the absence of those conditions under 
 which thought is possible. To speak of a Conception of the 
 Infinite is, therefore, at once to affirm those conditions and to 
 deny them. The contradiction, which we discover in such a 
 conception, is only that which we have ourselves placed there, 
 by tacitly assuming the conceivability of the inconceivable. 
 The condition of consciousness is distinction ; and condition 
 of distinction is limitation. We can have no consciousness of 
 Being in general which is not some Being in particular : a 
 thing, in consciousness, is one thing out of many. In assum- 
 ing the possibility of an infinite object of consciousness, I 
 assume, therefore, that it is at the same time limited and 
 unlimited ; actually something, without which it could not 
 be an object of consciousness, and actually nothing, without 
 which it could not be infinite. * * * 
 
 " A second characteristic of Consciousness is, that it is only 
 
78 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 possible in the form, of a relation. There must be a Subject, 
 or person conscious, and an Object, or thing of which he is 
 conscious. There can be no consciousness without the 
 union of these two factors ; and, in that union, each exists 
 only as it is related to the other. The subject is a subject, 
 only in so far as it is conscious of an object : the object is an 
 object, only in so far as it is apprehended by a subject : and 
 the destruction of either is the destruction of consciousness 
 itself. It is thus manifest that a consciousness of the Abso- 
 lute is equally self-contradictory with that of the Infinite. 
 To be conscious of the Absolute as such, we must know that 
 an object, which is given in relation to our consciousness, is 
 identical with one which exists in its own nature, out of all 
 relation to consciousness. But to know this identity, we 
 must be able to compare the two together ; and such a com- 
 parison is itself a contradiction. We are in fact required to 
 compare that of which we are conscious with that of which 
 we are not conscious ; the comparison itself being an act of 
 consciousness, and only possible through the consciousness of 
 both its objects. It is thus manifest that, even if we could 
 be conscious of the absolute, we could not possibly know that 
 it is the absolute : and, as we can be conscious of an object as 
 such, only by knowing it to be what it is, this is equivalent 
 to an admission that we cannot be conscious of the absolute 
 at all. As an object of consciousness, every thing is neces- 
 sarily relative ; and what a thing may be out of consciousness, 
 no mode of consciousness can tell us. 
 
 " This contradiction, again, admits of the same explanation 
 as the former. Our whole notion of existence is necessarily 
 relative ; for it is existence as conceived by us. But Existence, 
 is we conceive it, is but a name for the several ways in which 
 jbjocts are presented to our consciousness, a general term, 
 embracing a variety of relations. The Absolute, on the other 
 hand, is a term expressing no object of thought, but only a 
 denial of the relation by which thought is constituted. To 
 assume absolute existence as an object of thought, is thus to 
 
THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 79 
 
 suppose a relation existing when the related terms exist no 
 longer. An object of thought exists, as such, in and through 
 its relation to a thinker ; while the Absolute, as such, is inde- 
 pendent of all relation. The Conception of the Absolute thus 
 implies at the same time the presence and absence of the re- 
 lation by which thought is constituted ; and our various en- 
 deavours to represent it are only so many modified forms of 
 the contradiction involved in our original assumption. Here, 
 too, the contradiction is one which we ourselves have made. 
 It does not imply that the Absolute cannot exist ; but it im- 
 plies, most certainly, that we cannot conceive it as existing." 
 Here let me point out how the same general inference may 
 be evolved from another fundamental condition of thought, 
 omitted by Sir "W. Hamilton, and not supplied by Mr Man- 
 sel ; a condition which, under its obverse aspect, we have al- 
 ready contemplated in the last section. Every complete act 
 of consciousness, besides distinction and relation, also implies 
 likeness. Before it can become an idea, or constitute a piece 
 of knowledge, a mental state must not only be known as 
 separate in kind from certain foregoing states to which it is 
 known as related by succession ; but it must further be known 
 as of the same kind with certain other foregoing states. 
 That organization of changes which constitutes thinking, in- 
 volves continuous integration as well as continuous differenti- 
 ation. Were each new affection of the mind perceived 
 simply as an affection in some way contrasted with the 
 preceding ones were there but a chain of impressions, each 
 of which as it arose was merely distinguished from its prede- 
 cessors ; consciousness would be an utter chaos. To produce 
 that orderly consciousness which we call intelligence, there 
 requires the assimilation of each impression to others, 
 that occurred earlier in the series. Both the successive 
 mental states, and the successive relations which they bear to 
 each other, must be classified ; and classification involves not 
 only a parting of the unlike, but also a binding together of 
 the like. In brief, a true cognition is possible only through 
 
U THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 an accompanying recognition. Should it be objected 
 
 that if so, there cannot be a first cognition, and hence there 
 can be no cognition ; the reply is, that cognition proper arises 
 gradually that during the first stage of incipient intelligence, 
 before the feelings produced by intercourse with the outer world 
 have been put into order, there are no cognitions, strictly so 
 called; and that, as every infant shows us, these slowly- 
 emerge out of the confusion of unfolding consciousness as 
 fast as the experiences are arranged into groups as fast as 
 the most frequently repeated sensations, and their relations to 
 each other, become familiar enough to admit of their recog- 
 nition as such or such, whenever they recur. Should it be 
 further objected that if cognition pre-supposes recognition, 
 there can be no cognition, even by an adult, of an object 
 never before seen ; there is still the sufficient answer that in 
 so far as it is not assimilated to previously-seen objects, it is 
 not known, and that it is known in so far as it is assimilated 
 to them. Of this paradox the interpretation is, that an object" 
 is classifiable in various ways, with various degrees of com- 
 pleteness. An animal hitherto unknown (mark the word), 
 though not referable to any established species or genus, is 
 yet recognized as belonging to one of the larger divisions 
 mammals, birds, reptiles, or fishes ; or should it be so 
 momalous that its alliance with any of these is not determin- 
 able, it may yet be classed as vertebrate or invertebrate ; or if 
 it be one of those organisms of which it is doubtful whether 
 the animal or vegetal characteristics predominate, it is still 
 known as a living body ; even should it be questioned 
 whether it is organic, it remains beyond question that it is a 
 material object, and it is cognized by being recognized as 
 such. Whence it is manifest that a thing is perfectly known 
 only when it is in all respects like certain things previously 
 observed ; that in proportion to the number of respects in 
 which it is unlike them, is the extent to which it is unknown ; 
 and that hence when it has absolutely no attribute in commoD 
 
THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 81 
 
 with anything else, it must be absolutely beyond the bounds 
 of knowledge. 
 
 Observe the corollary which here concerns us. A cogni- 
 tion of the Real, as distinguished from the Phenomenal, must, 
 if it exists, conform to this law of cognition in general. The 
 First Cause, The Infinite, the Absolute, to be known at all, 
 must be classed. To be positively thought of, it must be 
 thought of as such or such as of this or that kind. Can it 
 be like in kind to anything of which we have sensible 
 experience ? Obviously not. Between the creating and the 
 created, there must be a distinction transcending any of the 
 distinctions existing between different divisions of the created. 
 That which is uncaused cannot be assimilated to that which 
 is caused : the two being, in the very naming, antithetically 
 opposed. The Infinite cannot be grouped along with some- 
 thing that is finite ; since, in being so grouped, it must bo 
 regarded as not-infinite. It is impossible to put the Abso- 
 lute in the same category with anything relative, so long aa 
 the Absolute is defined as that of which no necessary relation 
 can be predicated. Is it then that the Actual, though un- 
 thinkable by classification with the Apparent, is thinkable by 
 classification with itself ? This supposition is equally absurd 
 with the other. It implies the plurality of the First Cause, 
 the Infinite, the Absolute ; and this implication is self-contra- 
 dictory. There cannot be more than one First Cause ; seeing 
 that the existence of more than one would involve the existence 
 of something necessitating more than one, which something 
 would be the true First Cause. How self-destructive is tho 
 assumption of two or more Infinites, is manifest on remember- 
 ing that such Infinites, by limiting each other, would become 
 finite. And similarly, an Absolute which existed not alone 
 but along with other Absolutes, would no longer be an abso- 
 lute but a relative. The Unconditioned therefore, as classable 
 neither with any form of the conditioned nor with any other 
 Unconditioned, cannot be classed at all. And to admit that 
 it cannot be known as of such or such kind, is to admit that 
 it is unknowable. 
 
gg THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 Thus, from the very nature of thought, the relativity of our 
 knowledge is inferable in three several ways. As we find by 
 analyzing it, and as we see it objectively displayed in every 
 proposition, a thought involves relation, difference, likeness. 
 Whatever does not present each of these does not admit of 
 cognition. And hence we may say that the Unconditioned, as 
 presenting none of them, is trebly unthinkable. 
 
 25. From yet another point of view we may discern the 
 same great truth. . If, instead of examining our intellectual 
 powers directly as exhibited in the act of thought, or indirectly 
 as exhibited in thought when expressed by words, we look at 
 the connexion between the mind and the world, a like conclu- 
 sion is forced upon us. In the very definition of Life, when 
 reduced to its most abstract shape, this ultimate implication 
 becomes visible. 
 
 All vital actions, considered not separately but in their 
 ensemble, have for their final purpose the balancing of certain 
 outer processes by certain inner processes. There are unceasing 
 external forces tending to bring the matter of which organic 
 bodies consist, into that state of stable equilibrium displayed 
 by inorganic bodies; there are internal forces by which 
 this tendency is constantly antagonized; and the perpetual 
 changes which constitute Life, may be regarded as incidental 
 to the maintenance of the antagonism. To preserve the 
 erect posture, for instance, we see that certain weights have 
 to be neutralized by certain strains : each limb or other organ, 
 gravitating to the Earth and pulling down the parts to which 
 it is attached, has to be preserved in position by the tension 
 of sundry muscles ; or in other words, the group of forces 
 which would if allowed bring the body to the ground, has to 
 be counterbalanced by another group of forces. Again, to 
 keep up the temperature at a particular point, the external 
 process of radiation and absorption of heat by the surround- 
 ing medium, must be met by a corresponding internal process 
 of chemical combination, whereby more heat may be evolved ; 
 to which add, that if from atmospheric changes the losi 
 
THE RELATIVITY OP ALL KNOWLEDGE. 83 
 
 becomes greater or less, the production must become greater or 
 less. And similarly throughout the organic actions in general. 
 When we contemplate the lower kinds of life, we see that 
 the correspondences thus maintained are direct and simple ; 
 as in a plant, the vitality of which mainly consists in osmotic 
 and chemical actions responding to the co-existence of light, 
 heat, water, and carbonic acid around it. But in animals, and 
 especially in the higher orders of them, the correspondences 
 become extremely complex. Materials for growth and 
 repair not being, like those which plants require, everywhere 
 present, but being widely dispersed and under special forms, 
 have to be found, to be secured, and to be reduced to a fit state 
 for assimilation. Hence the need for locomotion ; hence the need 
 for the senses ; hence the need for prehensile and destructive 
 appliances ; hence the need for an elaborate digestive appa- 
 ratus. Observe, however, that these successive complications 
 are essentially nothing but aids to the maintenance of the 
 organic balance in its integrity, in opposition to those physical, 
 chemical, and other agencies which tend to overturn it. And 
 observe, moreover, that while these successive complications 
 subserve this fundamental adaptation of inner to outer actions, 
 they are themselves nothing else but further adaptations of 
 inner to outer actions. For what are those movements by 
 which a predatory creature pursues its prey, or by which its 
 prey seeks to escape, but certain changes in the organism 
 fitted to meet certain changes in its environment ? "What is 
 that compound operation which constitutes the perception of 
 a piece of food, but a particular correlation of nervous modifi- 
 cations, answering to a particular correlation of physical pro- 
 perties ? What is that process by which food when swallowed 
 is reduced to a fit form for assimilation, but a set of mechanical 
 and chemical actions responding to the mechanical and 
 chemical actions which distinguish the food ? Whence 
 it becomes manifest, that while Life in its simplest form is the 
 correspondence of certain inner physico-chemical actions with 
 certain outer physico-chemical actions, each advance to a higher 
 
B4 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 form of Life consists in a better preservation of this primary 
 correspondence by the establishment of other correspondences. 
 Divesting this conception of all superfluities and reducing ' 
 it to its most abstract shape, we see that Life is definable as 
 the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external 
 relations. And when we so define it, we discover that the 
 physical and the psychial life are equally comprehended by 
 the definition. We perceive that this which we call Intelli- 
 gence, shows itself when the external relations to which the 
 internal ones are adjusted, begin to be numerous, complex, and 
 remote in time or space ; that every advance in Intelligence 
 essentially consists in the establishment of more varied, more 
 complete, and more involved adjustments ; and that even the 
 highest achievements of science are resolvable into mental rela- 
 tions of co-existence and sequence, so co-ordinated as exactly to 
 tally with certain relations of co-existence and sequence that 
 occur externally. A caterpillar, wandering at random and at 
 length finding its way on to a plant having a certain odour, 
 begins to eat has inside of it an organic relation between 
 a particular impression and a particular set of actions, answer- 
 ing to the relation outside of it, between scent and nutriment. 
 The sparrow, guided by the more complex correlation of impres- 
 sions which the colour, form, and movements of the caterpillar 
 gave it ; and guided also by other correlations which measure 
 the position and distance of the caterpillar ; adjusts certain 
 oorrelated muscular movements in such way as to seize the 
 caterpillar. Through a much greater distance in space is the 
 hawk, holering above, affected by the relations of shape and 
 motion which the sparrow presents ; and the much more com- 
 plicated and prolonged series of related nervous and muscular 
 changes, gone through in correspondence with the sparrow's 
 changing relations of position, finally succeed when they are 
 precisely adjusted to these changing relations. In the fowler, 
 experience has established a relation between the appearance 
 and flight of a hawk and the destruction of other birds, includ 
 ing game ; there is also in him an established relation between 
 
THE RELATIVITY OP ALL KNOWLEDGE. 85 
 
 those visual impressions answering to a certain distance in 
 space, and the range of his gun ; and he has learned, too, 
 by frequent observation, what relations of position the 
 sights must bear to a point somewhat in advance of the fly- 
 ing bird, before he can fire with success. Similarly if we 
 go back to the manufacture of the gun. By relations of co- 
 existence between colour, density, and place in the earth, a 
 particular mineral is known as one which yields iron ; and 
 the obtainment of iron from it, results when certain correlated 
 acts of ours, are adjusted to certain correlated affinities dis- 
 played by ironstone, coal, and lime, at a high temperature. If 
 we descend yet a step further, and ask a chemist to explain the 
 explosion of gunpowder,' or apply to a mathematician for a 
 theory of projectiles, we still find that special or general rela- 
 tions of co-existence and sequence between properties, mo- 
 tions, spaces &c., are all they can teach us. And lastly, let it be 
 noted that what we call truth, guiding us to successful action 
 and the consequent maintenance of life, is simply the accurate 
 correspondence of subjective to objective relations ; while error, 
 leading to failure and therefore towards death, is the absence 
 of such accurate correspondence. 
 
 If, then, Life in all its manifestations, inclusive of Intelli- 
 gence in its highest forms, consists in the continuous adjust- 
 ment of internal relations to external relations, the necessarily 
 relative character of our knowledge becomes obvious. The 
 simplest' cognition being the establishment of some connexion 
 between subjective states, answering to some connexion be- 
 tween objective agencies ; and each successively more complex 
 cognition being the establishment of some more involved con- 
 nexion of such states, answering to some more involved con- 
 nexion of such agencies ; it is clear that the process, no matter 
 how far it be carried, can never bring within the reach of Intel- 
 ligence, either the states themselves or the agencies themselves. 
 Ascertaining which things occur along with which, and what 
 things follow what, supposing it to be pursued exhaustively, 
 must still leave us with co-existences and sequences only. If 
 
S6 TUB RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 every act of knowing is the formation of a relation in consci- 
 ousness parallel to a relation in the environment, then the re- 
 lativity of knowledge is self- evident becomes indeed a truism. 
 Thinking being relationing, no thought can ever express more 
 than relations. 
 
 And here let us not omit to mark how that to which our 
 intelligence is confined, is that with which alone our intelli- 
 gence is concerned. The knowledge within our reach, is the 
 only knowledge that can be of service to us. This mainten- 
 ance of a correspondence between internal actions and exter- 
 nal actions, which both constitutes our life at each moment 
 and is the means whereby life is continued through subsequent 
 moments, merely requires that the agencies acting upon us 
 shall be known in their co-existences and sequences, and not 
 that they shall be known in themselves. If x and y are two 
 uniformly connected properties in some outer object, while a 
 and b are the effects they produce in our consciousness ; and 
 if while the property x produces in us the indifferent mental 
 state a, the property y produces in us the painful mental state 
 b (answering to a physical injury) ; then, all that is requisite 
 for our guidance, is, that x being the uniform accompaniment 
 of y externally, a shall be the uniform accompaniment of b in- 
 ternally ; so that when, by the presence of x, a is produced in 
 consciousness, b, or rather the idea of b, shall follow it, and 
 excite the motions by which the effect of y may be escaped. 
 The sole need is that a and b and the relation between them, 
 shall always answer to x and y and the relation between them. 
 It matters nothing to us if a and b are like x and y or not. 
 Could they be exactly identical with them, we should not be 
 one whit the better off; and their total dissimilarity is no 
 disadvantage to us. 
 
 Deep down then in the very nature of Life, the relativity 
 of our knowledge is discernible. The analysis of vital actions 
 in general, leads not only to the conclusion that things in them- 
 selves cannot be known to us ; but also to the conclusion that 
 knowledge of them, were it possible, would be useless. 
 
THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 87 
 
 26. There still remains the final question What must 
 we say concerning that which transcends knowledge ? Are 
 we to rest wholly in the consciousness of phenomena ? is the 
 result of inquiry to exclude utterly from our minds everything 
 but the relative ? or must we also believe in something beyond 
 the relative ? 
 
 The answer of pure logic is held to be, that by the limits 
 of our intelligence we are rigorously confined within the re- 
 lative ; and that anything transcending the relative can bo 
 thought of only as a pure negation, or as a non-existence. 
 " The absolute is conceived merely by a negation of conceiva- 
 bility," writes Sir William Hamilton. "The Absolute and 
 the Infinite" says Mr Mansel, " are thus, like the Inconceiv- 
 able and the Imperceptible, names indicating, not an object of 
 thought or of consciousness at all, but the mere absence of the 
 conditions under which consciousness is possible." From each 
 of which extracts may be deduced the conclusion, that since 
 reason cannot warrant us in affirming the positive existence 
 of what is cogni/able only as a negation, we cannot rationally 
 affirm the positive existence of anything beyond phenomena. 
 
 Unavoidablo as this conclusion seems, it involves, I think, 
 a grave error. If the premiss be granted, the inference must 
 doubtless be admitted ; but the premiss, in the form presented 
 by Sir William Hamilton and Mr Mansel, is not strictly true. 
 Though, in the foregoing pages, the arguments used by these 
 writers to show that the Absolute is unknowable, have been 
 approvingly quoted ; and though these arguments have been 
 enforced by others equally thoroughgoing ; yet there remains 
 to be stated a qualification, which saves us from that scepti- 
 cism otherwise necessitated. It is not to be denied that so 
 long as we confine ourselves to the purely logical aspect of the 
 question, the propositions quoted above must be accepted in 
 their entirety ; but when we contemplate its more general, or 
 psychological, aspect, we find that these propositions are im- 
 perfect statements of the truth : omitting, or rather excluding, 
 as they do, an all-important fact. To speak specifically : 
 
88 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 Besides that definite consciousness of which Logic formulates 
 the laws, there is also an indefinite consciousness which cannot 
 be formulated. Besides complete thoughts, and besides the 
 thoughts which though incomplete admit of completion, there 
 are thoughts which it is impossible to complete ; and yet which 
 are still real, in the sense that they are normal affections of 
 the intellect. 
 
 Observe in the first place, that every one of the arguments 
 by which the relativity of our knowledge is demonstrated, 
 distinctly postulates the positive existence of something be- 
 yond the relative. To say that we cannot know the Absolute, 
 is, by implication, to affirm that there is an Absolute. In the 
 very denial of our power to learn what the Absolute is, there 
 lies hidden the assumption that it is ; and the making of 
 this assumption proves that the Absolute has been present 
 to the mind, not as a nothing, but as a something. Similarly 
 with every step in the reasoning by which this doctrine is 
 upheld. The Noumenon, everywhere named as the antithesis 
 of the Phenomenon, is throughout necessarily thought of as 
 an actuality. It is rigorously impossible to conceive that our 
 knowledge is a knowledge of Appearances only, without at the 
 same time conceiving a Reality of which they are appearances ; 
 for appearance without reality is unthinkable. Strike out 
 from the argument the terms Unconditioned, Infinite, Absolute, 
 with their equivalents, and in place of them write, " negation 
 of conceivability," or " absence of the conditions under which 
 consciousness is possible," and you find that the argument 
 becomes nonsense. Truly to realize in thought any one of the 
 propositions of which the argument consists, the Unconditioned 
 must be represented as positive and not negative. How then can 
 it be a legitimate conclusion from the argument, that our con- 
 sciousness of it is negative ? An argument, the very construc- 
 tion of which assigns to a certain term a certain meaning, 
 but which ends in showing that this term has no such mean- 
 ing, is simply an elaborate suicide. Clearly, then, the very 
 demonstration that a definite consciousness of the Absolute 
 
TUB RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 89 
 
 is impossible to us, unavoidably presupposes an indefinite con- 
 sciousness of it. 
 
 Perhaps the best way of showing that by the necessary 
 conditions of thought, we are obliged to form a positive though 
 vague consciousness of this which transcends distinct con- 
 sciousness, is to analyze our conception of the antithesis 
 between Relative and Absolute. It is a doctrine called in 
 question by none, that such antinomies of thought as Whole 
 and Part, Equal and Unequal, Singular and Plural, are 
 necessarily conceived as correlatives : the conception of a part 
 is impossible without the conception of a whole ; there can 
 be no idea of equality without one of inequality. And it is 
 admitted that in the same manner, the Relative is itself con- 
 ceivable as such, only by opposition to the Irrelative or Abso* 
 lute. Sir William Hamilton however, in his trenchant 
 
 (and in most parts unanswerable) criticism on Cousin, contends, 
 in conformity with his position above stated, that one of 
 these correlatives is nothing whatever beyond the negation of 
 the other. " Correlatives "he says " certainly suggest each 
 other, but correlatives may, or may not, be equally real and 
 positive. In thought contradictories necessarily imply each 
 other, for the knowledge of contradictories is one. But the 
 reality of one contradictory, so far from guaranteeing the reality 
 of the other, is nothing else than its negation. Thus every 
 positive notion (the concept of a thing by what it is) suggests 
 a negative notion (the concept of a thing by what it is not) ; 
 and the highest positive notion, the notion of the conceivable, 
 is not without its corresponding negative in the notion of the 
 inconceivable. But though these mutually suggest each 
 other, the positive alone is real ; the negative is only an ab* 
 straction of the other, and in the highest generality, even an 
 abstraction of thought itself." Now the assertion 
 
 that of such contradictories " the negative is only an abstrac- 
 tion of the other" "is nothing else than its negation," is 
 not true. In such correlatives as Equal and Unequal, it is 
 obvious enough that the negative concept contains something 
 
90 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 besides the negation of the positive one; for the things of 
 which equality is denied are not abolished from consciousness 
 by the denial. And the fact overlooked by Sir "William 
 Hamilton, is, that the like holds even with those correlatives 
 of which the negative is inconceivable, in the strict sense of 
 the word. Take for example the Limited and the Unlimited. 
 Our notion of the Limited is composed, firstly of a conscious- 
 ness of some kind of being, and secondly of a consciousness of 
 the limits under which it is known. In the antithetical notion 
 of the Unlimited, the consciousness of limits is abolished ; but 
 not the consciousness of some kind of being. It is quite true 
 that in the absence of conceived limits, this consciousness ceases 
 to be a concept properly so called ; but it is none the less true 
 that it remains as a mode of consciousness. If, in such cases, 
 the negative contradictory were, as alleged, " nothing else " 
 than the negation of the other, and therefore a mere nonen- 
 tity, then it would clearly follow that negative contradictories 
 could be used interchangeably: the Unlimited might be 
 thought of as antithetical to the Divisible ; and the Indivisible 
 as antithetical to the Limited. While the fact that they 
 cannot be so used, proves that in consciousness the Unlimited 
 and the Indivisible are qualitatively distinct, and therefore 
 positive or real ; since distinction cannot exist between 
 nothings. The error, (very naturally fallen into by philo- 
 sophers intent on demonstrating the limits and conditions 
 of consciousness,) consists in assuming that consciousness con- 
 tains nothing but limits and conditions ; to the entire neglect 
 of that which is limited and conditioned. It is forgotten 
 that there is something which alike forms the raw material 
 >f definite thought and remains after the definiteness which 
 thinking gave to it has been destroyed. Now all 
 
 tliis applies by change of terms to the last and highest of 
 these antinomies that between the Relative and the Non- 
 relative. "We are conscious of the Relative as existence under 
 conditions and limits ; it is impossible that these conditions 
 and limits can be thought of apart from something to which 
 
THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 01 
 
 tliey give the form ; the abstraction of these conditions and 
 limits, is, by the hypothesis, the abstraction of them only ; con- 
 sequently there must be a residuary consciousness of some- 
 thing which filled up their outlines ; and this indefinite some- 
 thing constitutes our consciousness of the Non-relative or 
 Absolute. Impossible though it is to give to this conscious- 
 ness any qualitative or quantitative expression whatever, it is 
 not the less certain that it remains with us as a positive and 
 indestructible element of thought. 
 
 Still more manifest will this truth become when it is ob- 
 served that our conception of the Relative itself disappears, if 
 our conception of the Absolute is a pure negation. It is ad- 
 mitted, or rather it is contended, by the writers I have quoted 
 above, that contradictories can be known only in relation to 
 each other that Equality, for instance, is unthinkable apart 
 from its correlative Inequality ; and that thus the Relative can 
 itself be conceived only by opposition to the Non-relative. It 
 is aL?o admitted, or rather contended, that the consciousness of 
 a relation implies a consciousness of both the related members. 
 If we are required to conceive the relation between the Re- 
 lative and Non-relative without being conscious of both, " we 
 are in fact" (to quote the words of Mr Mansel differently 
 applied) " required to compare that of which we are conscious 
 with that of which we are not conscious ; the comparison 
 itself being an act of consciousness, and only possible through 
 the consciousness of both its objects." What then becomes 
 of the assertion that " the Absolute is conceived merely by a 
 negation of conceivability," or as " the mere absence of the 
 conditions under which consciousness is possible ? " If the Non- 
 relative or Absolute, is present in thought only as a mere 
 negation, then the relation between it and the Relative be- 
 comes unthinkable, because one of the terms of the relation is 
 absent from consciousness. And if this relation is unthink- 
 able, then is the Relative itself unthinkable, for want of it- 
 antithesis : whence results the disappearance of all thought 
 wliatever. 
 
92 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 Let me here point out that both Sir Wm Hamilton and 
 Mr Mansel, do, in other places, distinctly imply that our 
 consciousness of the Absolute, indefinite though it is, is 
 positive and not negative. The very passage already quoted 
 from Sir Wm Hamilton, in which he asserts that "the 
 absolute is conceived merely by a negation of conceivability," 
 itself ends with the remark that, " by a wonderful revelation,, 
 we are thus, in the very consciousness of our inability to con- 
 ceive aught above the relative and finite, inspired with a 
 belief in the existence of something unconditioned beyond 
 the sphere of all comprehensible reality." The last of 
 these assertions practically admits that which the other 
 denies. By the laws of thought as Sir "Wm Hamilton has 
 interpreted them, he finds himself forced to the conclusion 
 that our consciousness of the Absolute is a pure negation. 
 He nevertheless finds that there does exist in consciousness 
 an irresistible conviction of the real "existence of some- 
 thing unconditioned/' And he gets over the inconsistency 
 by speaking of this conviction as " a wonderful revelation " 
 " a belief " with which we are " inspired : " thus apparently 
 hinting that it is supernaturally at variance with the laws of 
 thought. Mr Mansel is betrayed into a like inconsistency. 
 When he says that " we are compelled, by the constitution of 
 our minds, to believe in the existence of an Absolute and In- 
 finite Being, a belief which appears forced upon us, as the 
 complement of our consciousness of the relative and the 
 finite ; " he clearly says by implication that this conscious- 
 ness is positive, and not negative. He tacitly admits that 
 we are obliged to regard the Absolute as something more 
 than a negation that our consciousness of it is not " the 
 mere absence of the conditions under which consciousness is 
 possible." 
 
 The supreme importance of this question must be my 
 apology for taxing the reader's attention a little further, in 
 the hope of clearing up the remaining difficulties. The ne- 
 cessarily positive character of our consciousness of the Unoon- 
 
THE RELATIVITY O' ALL KNOWLEDGE. 93 
 
 ditioned, which, as we have seen, follows from an ultimate 
 law of thought, will be better understood on contemplating 
 the process of thought. 
 
 One of the arguments used to prove the relativity of 
 our knowledge, is, that we cannot conceive Space or Time as 
 either limited or unlimited. It is pointed out that when we 
 imagine a limit, there simultaneously arises the consciousness 
 of a space or time existing beyond the limit. This remoter 
 space or time, though not contemplated as definite, is yet con- 
 templated as real. Though we do not form of it a conception 
 proper, since we do not bring it within bounds, there is yet in 
 our minds the unshaped material of a conception. Similarly 
 with our consciousness of Cause. "We are no more able to 
 form a circumscribed idea of Cause, than of Space or Time ; 
 and we are consequently obliged to think of the Cause which 
 transcends the limits of our thought as positive though inde- 
 finite. Just in the same manner that on conceiving any 
 bounded space, there arises a nascent consciousness of space 
 outside the bounds ; so, when we think of any definite cause, 
 there arises a nascent consciousness of a cause behind it : and 
 in the one case as in the other, this nascent consciousness is 
 in substance like that which suggests it, though without form. 
 The momentum of thought inevitably carries us beyond con- 
 ditioned existence to unconditioned existence ; and this ever 
 persists in us as the body of a thought to which we can give 
 no shape. 
 
 Hence our firm belief in objective reality a belief which 
 metaphysical criticisms cannot for a moment shake. When 
 we are taught that a piece of matter, regarded by us as exist- 
 ing externally, cannot be really known, but that we can 
 know only certain impressions produced on us, we are yet, by 
 the relativity of our thought, compelled to think of these in 
 relation to a positive cause the notion of a real existence 
 which generated these impressions becomes nascent. If it be 
 proved to us that every notion of a real existence which we 
 can frame, is utterly inconsistent with itself that matter. 
 
84 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 however conceived by us, cannot be matter as it actually is, 
 our conception, though transfigured, is not destroyed: there 
 remains the sense of reality, dissociated as far as possible from 
 those special forms under which it was before represented in 
 thought. Though Philosophy condemns successively each 
 attempted conception of the Absolute though it proves to us 
 that the Absolute is not this, nor that, nor that though in 
 obedience to it we negative, one after another, each idea as it 
 arises ; yet, as we cannot expel the entire contents of consci- 
 ousness, there ever remains behind an element which passes 
 into new shapes. The continual negation of each particu- 
 lar form and limit, simply results in the more or less com- 
 plete abstraction of all forms and limits ; and so ends in an 
 indefinite consciousness of the unformed and unlimited. 
 
 And here we come face to face with the ultimate diffi- 
 culty How can there possibly be constituted a consciousness 
 of the unformed and unlimited, when, by its very nature, con- 
 sciousness is possible only under forms and limits ?. If every 
 consciousness of existence is a consciousness of existence as 
 conditioned, then how, after the negation of conditions, can 
 there be any residuum ?. Though not directly withdrawn by 
 the withdrawal of its conditions, must not the raw material of 
 consciousness be withdrawn by implication ?. Must it not van- 
 ish when the conditions of its existence vanish ? That 
 there must be a solution of this difficulty is manifest ; since 
 even those who would put it, do, as already shown, admit 
 that we have some such consciousness ; and the solution ap- 
 pears to be that above shadowed forth. Such consciousness 
 is not, and cannot be, constituted by any single mental act ; 
 but is the product of many mental acts. In each concept there 
 is an element which persists. It is alike impossible for this 
 element to be absent from consciousness, and for it to be pre- 
 sent in consciousness alone : either alternative involves un- 
 consciousness the one from the want of the substance ; the 
 other from the want of the form. But the persistence of this 
 element under successive conditions, necessitates a sense of it aa 
 
THB RELATIVITY OF, ALL KNOWLEDGE. 95 
 
 distinguished from the conditions, and independent of them. 
 The sense of a something that is conditioned in every thought, 
 cannot be got rid of, because the something cannot be got rid of. 
 How then must the sense of this something be constituted ? 
 Evidently by combining successive concepts deprived of their 
 limits and conditions. We form this indefinite thought, as 
 we form many of our definite thoughts, by the coalescence of 
 a series of thoughts. Let me illustrate this. A large 
 
 complex object, having attributes too numerous to be repre- 
 sented at once, is yet tolerably well conceived by the union of 
 several representations, each standing for part of its attributes. 
 On thinking of a piano, there first rises in imagination its 
 visual appearance, to which are instantly added (though by 
 separate mental acts) the ideas of its remote side and of its 
 solid substance. A complete conception, however, involves the 
 strings, the hammers, the dampers, the pedals ; and while 
 successively adding these to the conception, the attributes first 
 thought of lapse more or less completely out of consciousness. 
 Nevertheless, the whole group constitutes a representation of 
 the piano. Now as in this case we form a definite concept of 
 a special existence, by imposing limits and conditions in suc- 
 cessive acts ; so, in the converse case, by taking away the 
 limits and conditions in successive acts, we form an indefinite 
 notion of general existence. By fusing a series of states of 
 consciousness, in each of which, as it arises, the limitations 
 and conditions are abolished, there is produced a consciousness 
 of something unconditioned. To speak more rigor- 
 
 ously : this consciousness is not the abstract of any one 
 group of thoughts, ideas, or conceptions ; but it is the abstract 
 of all thoughts, ideas, or conceptions. That which is common, 
 to them all, and cannot be got rid of, is what we predicate by 
 the word existence. Dissociated as this becomes from each of 
 its modes by the perpetual change of those modes, it remains 
 as an indefinite consciousness of something constant under 
 all modes of being apart from its appearances. The dis- 
 tinction we feel between special and general existence*, is the 
 
96 THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 distinction between that which is changeable in us, and that 
 which is unchangeable. The contrast between the Absolute 
 and the Relative in our minds, is really the contrast between 
 that mental element which exists absolutely, and those which 
 exist relatively. 
 
 By its very nature, therefore, this ultimate mental element 
 is at once necessarily indefinite and necessarily indestructible. 
 Our consciousness of the unconditioned being literally the un- 
 conditioned consciousness, or raw material of thought to which 
 in thinking we give definite forms, it follows that an ever-pre- 
 sent sense of real existence is the very basis of our intelligence. 
 As we can in successive mental acts get rid of all particular 
 conditions and replace them by others, but cannot get rid of 
 that undifferentiated substance of consciousness which is con- 
 ditioned anew in every thought ; there ever remains with us 
 a sense of that which exists persistently and independently of 
 conditions. At the same time that by the laws of thought 
 we are rigorously prevented from forming a conception of abr 
 solute existence ; we are by the laws of thought equally pre- 
 vented from ridding ourselves of the consciousness of absolute 
 existence : this consciousness being, as we here see, the obverse 
 of our self-consciousness. And since the only possible mea- 
 sure of relative validity among our beliefs, is the degree of 
 their persistence in opposition to the efforts made to change 
 them, it follows that this which persists at all times, under all 
 circumstances, and cannot cease until consciousness ceases, has 
 the highest validity of any. 
 
 To sum up this somewhat too elaborate argument : - "We 
 have seen how in the very assertion that all our knowledge, 
 properly so called, is Relative, there is involved the assertion 
 that there exists a Non-relative. We have seen how, in each 
 step of the argument by which this doctrine is established, 
 the same assumption is made. We have seen how, from the 
 very necessity of thinking in relations, it follows that the 
 Relative is itself inconceivable, except as related to a real 
 Non-relative. We have seen that unless a real Non-relative 
 
THE RELATIVITY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. 97 
 
 or Absolute be postulated, the Relative itself becomes abso- 
 lute ; and so brings the argument to a contradiction. And on 
 contemplating the process of thought, we have equally seen 
 how impossible it is to get rid of the consciousness of an 
 actuality lying behind appearances ; and how, from this im- 
 possibility, results our indestructible belief in that actuality, 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 27. THUS do all lines of argument converge to the same 
 conclusion. The inference reached a priori, in the last chapter, 
 confirms the inferences which, in the two preceding chapters, 
 were reached a posteriori. Those imbecilities of the under- 
 standing that disclose themselves when we try to answer the 
 highest questions of objective science, subjective science proves 
 to be necessitated by the laws of that understanding. We not 
 only learn by the frustration of all our efforts, that the reality 
 underlying appearances is totally and for ever inconceivable 
 by us ; but we also learn why, from the very nature of our 
 intelligence, it must be so. Finally we discover that this 
 Cvinclusion, which, in its unqualified form, seems opposed to 
 the instinctive convictions of mankind, falls into harmony 
 with them when the missing qualification is supplied. 
 Though the Absolute cannot in any manner or degree be 
 known, in the strict sense of knowing, yet we find that its po- 
 sitive existence is a necessary datum of consciousness ; that so 
 long as consciousness continues, we cannot for an instant rid 
 it of this datum ; and that thus the belief which this datum 
 constitutes, has a higher warrant than any other whatever. 
 
 Here then is that basis of agreement we set out to seek. 
 This conclusion which objective science illustrates, and sub- 
 jective science shows to be unavoidable, this conclusion 
 which, while it in the main expresses the doctrine of the Eng- 
 
THE RECONCILIATION. ycj 
 
 lish school of philosophy, recognizes also a soul of truth in the 
 doctrine of the antagonist German school this conclusion 
 which brings the results of speculation into harmony with those 
 of common sense ; is also the conclusion which reconciles Reli- 
 gion with Science. Common Sense asserts the existence of a 
 reality ; Objective Science proves that this reality cannot bo 
 what we think it ; Subjective Science shows why we cannot 
 think of it as it is, and yet are compelled to think of it as ex- 
 isting ; and in this assertion of a Reality utterly inscrutable 
 in nature, Religion finds an assertion essentially coinciding 
 with her own. We are obliged to regard every phenomenon 
 as a manifestation of some Power by which we are acted upon; 
 though Omnipresence is unthinkable, yet, as experience dis- 
 closes no bounds to the diffusion of phenomena, we are unable 
 to think of limits to the presence of this Power ; while the 
 criticisms of Science teach us that this Power is Incompre- 
 hensible. And this consciousness of an Incomprehensible 
 Power, called Omnipresent from inability to assign its limits, 
 is just that consciousness on which Religion dwells. 
 
 To understand fully how real is the reconciliation thus 
 reached, it will be needful to look at the respective attitudes 
 that Religion and Science have all along maintained towards 
 this conclusion. We must observe how, all along, the imper- 
 fections of each have been undergoing correction by the other; 
 and how the final out-come of their mutual criticisms, can be 
 nothing else than an entire agreement on this deepest and 
 widest of all truths. 
 
 28. In Religion let us recognize the high merit that from 
 the beginning it has dimly discerned the ultimate verity, and 
 has never ceased to insist upon it. In its earliest and crudest 
 forms it manifested, however vaguely and inconsistently, an 
 intuition forming the germ of this highest belief in which all 
 philosophies finally unite. The consciousness of a mystery 
 is traceable in the rudest fetishism. Each higher religious 
 creed, rejecting those definite and simple interpretations of 
 
100 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 Nature previously given, has become more religious by doing 
 this. As the quite concrete and conceivable agencies alleged 
 aa the causes of things, have been replaced by agencies less 
 concrete and conceivable, the element of mystery has of ne- 
 cessity become more predominant. Through all its successive 
 phases the disappearance of those positive dogmas by which 
 fiie mystery was made unmysterious, has formed the essential 
 change delineated in religious history. And so Religion has 
 ever been approximating towards that complete recognition of 
 this mystery which is its goal. 
 
 For its essentially valid belief, Religion has constantly done 
 battle. Gross as were the disguises under which it first 
 espoused this belief, and cherishing this belief, though it still 
 is, under disfiguring vestments, it has never ceased to main- 
 tain and defend it. It has everywhere established and pro- 
 pagated one or other modification of the doctrine that all things 
 are manifestations of a Power that transcends our knowledge. 
 Though from age to age, Science has continually defeated it 
 wherever they have come in collision, and has obliged it to 
 relinquish one or more of its positions ; it has still held the 
 remaining ones with undiminished tenacity. No exposure of 
 the logical inconsistency of its conclusions no proof that each 
 of its particular dogmas was absurd, has been able to weaken 
 its allegiance to that ultimate verity for which it stands. 
 After criticism has abolished all its arguments and reduced it 
 to silence, there has still remained with it the indestructible 
 consciousness of a truth which, however faulty the mode in 
 which it had been expressed, was yet a truth beyond cavil. 
 To this conviction its adherence has been substantially sincere. 
 And for the guardianship and diffusion of it, Humanity has 
 ever been, and must ever be, its debtor. 
 
 But while from the beginning, Religion has had the all- 
 essential office of preventing men from being wholly absorbed 
 in the relative or immediate, and of awakening them to a con- 
 sciousness of something beyond it, this office has been but very 
 imperfectly discharged. Religion has ever been more or less 
 
THE RECONCILIATION. 101 
 
 irreligious; and it continues to be partially irreligious even 
 now. In the first place, as implied above, it has all 
 
 along professed to have some knowledge of that which tran- 
 scends knowledge ; and has so contradicted its own teachings. 
 While with one breath it has asserted that the Cause of aD 
 things passes understanding, it has, with the next breath, 
 asserted that the Cause of all things possesses such or such 
 attributes can be in so far understood. In the se- 
 
 cond place, while in great part sincere in its fealty to the great 
 truth it has had to uphold, it has often been insincere, and 
 consequently irreligious, in maintaining the untenable doc- 
 trines by which it has obscured this great truth. Each as- 
 sertion respecting the nature, acts, or motives of that Power 
 which the Universe manifests to us, has been repeatedly called 
 in question, and proved to be inconsistent with itself, or with 
 accompanying assertions. Yet each of them has been age 
 after age insisted on, in spite of a secret consciousness that it 
 would not bear examination. Just as though unaware that 
 its central position was impregnable, Religion has obstinate- 
 ly held every outpost long after it was obviously indefen- 
 sible. And this naturally introduces us to the third and 
 most serious form of irreligion which Religion has displayed ; 
 namely, an imperfect belief in that which it especially professes 
 to believe. How truly its central position is impregnable, Re- 
 ligion has never adequately realized. In the devoutest faith 
 as we habitually see it, there lies hidden an innermost core of 
 scepticism ; and it is this scepticism which causes that dread 
 of inquiry displayed by Religion when face to face with Science. 
 Obliged to abandon one by one the superstitions it once ten* 
 aciously held, and daily finding its cherished beliefs more and 
 more shaken, Religion shows a secret fear that all things may 
 8-ome day be explained ; and thus itself betrays a lurking 
 doubt whether that Incomprehensible Cause of which it is 
 conscious, is really incomprehensible. 
 
 Of Religion then, we must always remember, that amid its 
 many errors and corruptions it has asserted and diffused a 
 
102 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 supreme verity. From the first, the recognition of this supreme 
 verity, in however imperfect a manner, has been its vital ele- 
 ment ; and its various defects, once extreme but gradually dimin- 
 ishing, have been so many failures to recognize in full that which 
 it recognized in part. The truly religious element of Religion 
 has always been good ; that which has proved untenable in 
 doctrine and vicious in practice, has been its irreligious ele- 
 ment ; and from this it has been ever undergoing purification. 
 
 29. And now observe that all along, the agent which has 
 effected the purification has been Science. We habitually 
 overlook the fact that this has been one of its functions. 
 Religion ignores its immense debt to Science ; and Science is 
 scarcely at all conscious how much Religion owes it. Yet it 
 is demonstrable that every step by which Religion has pro- 
 gressed from its first low conception to the comparatively 
 high one it has now reached, Science has helped it, or rather 
 forced it, to take ; and that even now, Science is urging fur- 
 ther steps in the same direction. 
 
 Using the word Science in its true sense, as comprehending all 
 positive and definite knowledge of the order existing among 
 surrounding phenomena, it becomes manifest that from the 
 outset, the discovery of an established order has modified that 
 conception of disorder, or undetermined order, which under- 
 lies every superstition. As fast as experience proves that 
 certain familiar changes always happen in the same sequence, 
 there begins to fade from the mind the conception of a special 
 personality to whose variable will they were before ascribed. 
 And when, step by step, accumulating observations do the like 
 with the less familiar changes, a similar modification of 
 belief takes place with respect to them. 
 
 While this process seems to those who effect, and those 
 \vho undergo it, an anti-religious one, it is really the reverse. 
 Instead of the specific comprehensible agency before assigned, 
 there is substituted a less specific and less comprehensible 
 agency ; and though this, standing in opposition to the pre- 
 
THE RECONCILIATION. 103 
 
 nous one, cannot at first call forth the same feeling, yet, a 
 being less comprehensible, it must eventually call forth this 
 feeling more fully. Take an instance. Of old the Sun 
 
 was regarded as the chariot of a god, drawn by horses. How 
 far the idea thus grossly expressed, was idealized, we need not 
 inquire. It suffices to remark that this accounting for the 
 apparent motion of the Sun by an agency like certain visible 
 terrestrial agencies, reduced a daily wonder to the level of the 
 commonest intellect. When, many centuries after, Kepler dis- 
 covered that the planets moved round the Sun in ellipses and 
 described equal areas in equal times, he concluded that in 
 each planet there must exist a spirit to guide its movements. 
 Here we see that with the progress of Science, there had dis- 
 appeared the idea of a gross mechanical traction, such as was 
 first assigned in the case of the Sun ; but that while for this 
 there was substituted an indefinite and less-easily conceivable 
 force, it was still thought needful to assume a special personal 
 agent as a cause of the regular irregularity of motion. When, 
 finally, it was proved that these planetary revolutions with 
 all their variations and disturbances, conformed to one uni- 
 versal law when the presiding spirits which Kepler con- 
 ceived were set aside, and the force of gravitation put in their 
 place ; the change was really the abolition of an imaginable 
 agency, and the substitution of an unimaginable one. For 
 though the law of gravitation is within our mental grasp, it 
 is impossible to realize in thought the force of gravitation. 
 Newton himself confessed the force of gravitation to be in- 
 comprehensible without the intermediation of an ether ; and, 
 as we have already seen, ( 18,) the assumption of an ether 
 does not in the least help us. Thus it is with 
 
 Science in general. Its progress in grouping particular 
 relations of phenomena under laws, and these special laws 
 under laws more and more general, is of necessity a pro- 
 gress to causes that are more and more abstract. And 
 causes more and more abstract, are of necessity causes less 
 and less conceivable; since the formation of an abstract 
 
104 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 conception involves the dropping of certain concrete elements 
 of thought. Hence the most abstract conception, to which 
 Science is ever slowly approaching, is one that merges into 
 the inconceivable or unthinkable, by the dropping of all con- 
 crete elements of thought. And so is justified the assertion, 
 that the beliefs which Science has forced upon Religion, have 
 been intrinsically more religious than those which they sup- 
 planted. 
 
 Science however, like Religion, has but very incompletely 
 fulfilled its office. As R/eligion has fallen short of its function 
 in so far as it has been irreligious ; so has Science fallen short 
 of its function in so far as it has been unscientific. Let us 
 note the several parallelisms. In its earlier stages, 
 
 Science, while it began to teach the constant relations of 
 phenomena, and so discredited the belief in separate per- 
 sonalities as the causes of them, itself substituted the belief 
 in causal agencies which, if not personal, were yet concrete. 
 When certain facts were said to show " Nature's abhorrence 
 of a vacuum/' when the properties of gold were explained as 
 due to some entity called " aureity," and when the phenomena 
 of life were attributed to " a vital principle ; " there was set 
 up a mode of interpreting the facts, which, while antagonistic 
 to the religious mode, because assigning other agencies, was 
 ttlso unscientific, because it professed to know that about 
 which nothing was known. Having abandoned these meta- 
 physical agencies having seen that they were not inde- 
 pendent existences, but merely special combinations of general 
 causes, Science has more recently ascribed extensive groups 
 of phenomena to electricity, chemical affinity, and other like 
 general powers. But in speaking of these as ultimate and 
 independent entities, Science has preserved substantially 
 the same attitude as before. Accounting thus for all phe- 
 nomena, those of Life and Thought included, it has not only 
 maintained its seeming antagonism to Religion, by alleging 
 agencies of a radically unlike kind ; but, in so far as it has 
 tacitly assumed a knowledge of these agencies, it has continued 
 
THE RECONCILIATION. 105 
 
 unscientific. At the present time, however, the most advanced 
 men of science are abandoning these later conceptions, as 
 their predecessors abandoned the earlier ones. Magnetism, 
 heat, light &c., which were awhile since spoken of as so 
 many distinct imponderables, physicists are now beginning 
 to regard as different modes of manifestation of some one 
 universal force ; and in so doing are ceasing to think of 
 this force as comprehensible. In each phase of its 
 
 progress, Science has thus stopped short with superficial 
 solutions has unscientifically neglected to ask what was 
 the nature of the agents it so familiarly invoked. Though 
 in each succeeding phase it has gone a little deeper, and 
 merged its supposed agents in more general and abstract 
 ones, it has still, as before, rested content with these as 
 if they were ascertained realities. And this, which has 
 all along been the unscientific characteristic of Science, has 
 all along been a part cause of its conflict with Religion. 
 
 30. We see then that from the first, the faults of both 
 Religion and Science have been the faults of imperfect de- 
 velopment.. Originally a mere rudiment, each has been 
 growing into a more complete form ; the vice of each has in 
 all times been its incompleteness ; the disagreements between 
 them have throughout been nothing more than the con- 
 sequences of their incompleteness ; and as they reach theii 
 final forms, they come into entire harmony. 
 
 The progress of intelligence has throughout been dual. 
 Though it has not seemed so to those who made it, every step 
 in advance has been a step towards both the natural and the 
 supernatural. The better interpretation of each phenomenon 
 has been, on the one hand, the rejection of a cause that was 
 relatively conceivable in its nature but unknown in the order 
 of its actions, and, on the other hand, the adoption of a cause 
 that was known in the order of its actions but relatively in- 
 conceivable in its nature. The first advance out of universal 
 fetishism, manifestly involved the conception of agencies lesa 
 
106 THE RECONCILIATION 
 
 assimilable to the familiar agencies of men and animals, and 
 therefore less understood ; while, at the same time, such newly- 
 conceived agencies in so far as they were distinguished by 
 their uniform effects, were better understood than those they 
 replaced. All subsequent advances display the same double 
 result. Every deeper and more general power arrived at as 
 a cause of phenomena, has been at once less comprehensible 
 than the special ones it superseded, in the sense of being less 
 definitely representable in thought ; while it has been more 
 comprehensible in the sense that its actions have been more 
 completely predicable. The progress has thus been as much 
 towards the establishment of a positively unknown as towards 
 the establishment of a positively known. Though as know- 
 ledge approaches its culmination, every unaccountable and 
 seemingly supernatural fact, is brought into the category of 
 facts that are accountable or natural ; yet, at the same time, 
 all accountable or natural facts are proved to be in their ulti- 
 mate genesis unaccountable and supernatural. And so there 
 arise two antithetical states of mind, answering to the op- 
 posite sides of that existence about which we think. While 
 our consciousness of Nature under the one aspect constitutes 
 Science, our consciousness of it under the other aspect con- 
 stitutes Religion. 
 
 Otherwise contemplating the facts, we may say that Reli- 
 gion and Science have been undergoing a slow differentiation ; 
 and that their ceaseless conflicts have been due to the imper- 
 fect separation of their spheres and functions. Religion has, 
 from the first, struggled to unite more or less science with its 
 nescience ; Science has, from the first, kept hold of more or 
 less nescience as though it were a part of science. Each has 
 been obliged gradually to relinquish that territory which it 
 wrongly claimed, while it has gained from the other that to which 
 It had a right ; and the antagonism between them has bet-a 
 an inevitable accompaniment of this process. A more specific 
 statement will make this clear. Religion, though at 
 
 the outset it asserted a mystery, also made numerous definite 
 
THE RECONCILIATION. 107 
 
 assertions respecting this mystery professed to know its na- 
 ture in the minutest detail , and in so far as it claimed posi- 
 tive knowledge, it trespassed upon the province of Science. 
 From the times of early mythologies, when such intimate ac- 
 quaintance with the mystery was alleged, down to our own 
 days, when but a few abstract and vague propositions are 
 maintained, Religion has been compelled by Science to give 
 up one after another of its dogmas of those assumed cogni- 
 tions which it could not substantiate. In the mean time, 
 Science substituted for the personalities to which Religion 
 ascribed phenomena, certain metaphysical entities; and in 
 doing this it trespassed on the province of Religion ; since it 
 classed among the things which it comprehended, certain 
 forms of the incomprehensible. Partly by the criticisms of 
 Religion, which has occasionally called in question its assump- 
 tions, and partly as a consequence of spontaneous growth, 
 Science has been obliged to abandon these attempts to include 
 within the boundaries of knowledge that which cannot be 
 known ; and has so yielded up to Religion that which of 
 right belonged to it. So long as this process of 
 
 differentiation is incomplete, more or less of antagonism 
 must continue. Gradually as the limits of possible cognition 
 are established, the causes of conflict will diminish. And 
 a permanent peace will be reached when Science becomes 
 fully convinced that its explanations are proximate and re- 
 lative; while Religion becomes fully convinced that the 
 mystery it contemplates is ultimate and absolute. 
 
 Religion and Science are therefore necessary correlatives. 
 As already hinted, they stand respectively for those two anti- 
 thetical modes of consciousness which cannot exist asunder. 
 A known cannot be thought of apart from an unknown ; nor 
 can an unknown be thought of apart from a known. And by 
 consequence neither can become more distinct without giving 
 greater distinctness to the other. To carry further a meta- 
 phor before used, they are the positive and negative poles of 
 
L08 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 thought ; of which neither can gain in intensity without in 
 creasing the intensity of the other. 
 
 31. Thus the consciousness of an Inscrutable Power mani- 
 fested to us through all phenomena, has been growing ever 
 clearer ; and must eventually be freed from its imperfections. 
 The certainty that on the one hand such a Power exists, while 
 on the other hand its nature transcends intuition and is be- 
 yond imagination, is the certainty towards which intelligence 
 has from the first been progressing. To this conclusion 
 Science inevitably arrives as it reaches its confines ; while to 
 this conclusion Religion is irresistibly driven by criticism. 
 And satisfying as it does the demands of the most rigorous 
 logic at the same time that it gives the religious sentiment 
 the widest possible sphere of action, it is the conclusion we 
 are bound te accept without reserve or qualification. 
 
 Some do indeed allege that though the Ultimate Cause of 
 things cannot really be thought of by us as having specified 
 attributes, it is yet incumbent upon us to assert these attri- 
 butes. Though the forms of our consciousness are such that 
 the Absolute cannot in any manner or degree be brought 
 within them, we are nevertheless told that we must represent 
 the Absolute to ourselves under these forms. As writes Mr 
 Mansel, in the work from which I have already quoted largely 
 " It is our duty, then, to think of God as personal ; and it 
 is our duty to believe that He is infinite." 
 
 That this is not the conclusion here adopted, needs hardly 
 be said. If there be any meaning in the foregoing argu- 
 ments, duty requires us neither to affirm nor deny personality. 
 Our duty is to submit ourselves with all humility to the 
 established limits of our intelligence ; and not perversely to 
 rebel against them. Let those who can, believe that there is 
 eternal war set between our intellectual faculties and our mo- 
 ral obligations. I for one, admit no such radical vice in the 
 constitution of things. 
 
THE RECONCILIATION. 109 
 
 This which to most will seem an essentially irreligious po- 
 sition, is an essentially religious one nay is the religious one, 
 to which, as already shown, all others are but approximations. 
 In the estimate it implies of the Ultimate Cause, it does not 
 fall short of the alternative position, but exceeds it. Those 
 who espouse this alternative position, make the erroneous as- 
 sumption that the choice is between personality and some- 
 tiling lower than personality ; whereas the choice is rather 
 between personality and something higher. Is it not just 
 possible that there is a mode of being as much transcending 
 Intelligence and Will, as these transcend mechanical motion ? 
 It is true that we are totally unable to conceive any such 
 higher mode of being. But this is not a reason for question- 
 ing its existence ; it is rather the reverse. Have we not seen 
 how utterly incompetent our minds are to form even an ap- 
 proach to a conception of that which underlies all phe- 
 nomena ? Is it not proved that this incompetency is the incom- 
 petency of the Conditioned to grasp the Unconditioned ? Does 
 it not follow that the Ultimate Cause cannot in any respect be 
 conceived by us because it is in every respect greater than can 
 be conceived ? And may we not therefore rightly refrain 
 from assigning to it any attributes whatever, on the ground 
 that such attributes, derived as they must be from our own 
 natures, are not elevations but degradations ? Indeed it seems 
 somewhat strange that men should suppose the highest wor- 
 ship to lie in assimilating the object of their worship to them- 
 selves. Not in asserting a transcendant difference, but in as- 
 serting a certain likeness, consists the element of their creed 
 which they think essential. It is true that from the time 
 when the rudest savages imagined the causes of all things to 
 be creatures of flesh and blood like themselves, down to our 
 own time, the degree of assumed likeness has been diminishing. 
 But though a bodily form and substance similar to that of man, 
 has long since ceased, among cultivated races, to be a literally- 
 conceived attribute of the Ultimate Cause though the grosser 
 human desires have been also rejected as unfit elements of the 
 
110 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 
 conception though there is some hesitation in ascribing even 
 the higher human feelings, save in greatly idealized shapes ; 
 yet it is still thought not only proper, but imperative, to 
 ascribe the most abstract qualities of our nature. To think of 
 the Creative Power as in all respects anthropomorphous, is now 
 considered impious by men who yet hold themselves bound to 
 think of the Creative Power as in some respects anthropomor- 
 phous ; and who do not see that the one proceeding is but an 
 evanescent form of the other. And then, most marvellous of 
 all, this course is persisted in even by those who contend that 
 we are wholly unable to frame any conception whatever of 
 the Creative Power. After it has been shown that every sup- 
 position respecting the genesis of the Universe commits us to 
 alternative impossibilities of thought after it has been 
 shown that each attempt to conceive real existence ends in an 
 intellectual suicide after it has been shown why, by the very 
 constitution of our minds, we are eternally debarred from 
 thinking of the Absolute ; it is still asserted that we ought 
 to think of the Absolute thus and thus. In all imaginable 
 ways we find thrust upon us the truth, that we are not per- 
 mitted to know nay are not even permitted to conceive 
 that Reality which is behind the veil of Appearance; and 
 yet it is said to be our duty to believe (and in so far to con- 
 ceive) that this Reality exists in a certain defined manner. 
 Shall we call this reverence ? or shall we call it the reverse ? 
 Volumes might be written upon the impiety of the pious. 
 Through the printed and spoken thoughts of religious teachers, 
 may almost everywhere be traced a professed familiarity with 
 the ultimate mystery of things, which, to say the least of it, 
 seems anything but congruous with the accompanying expres- 
 sions of humility. And surprisingly enough, those tenets which 
 most clearly display this familiarity, are those insisted upon 
 as forming the vital elements of religious belief. The attitude 
 thus assumed, can be fitly represented only by further develop- 
 ing a simile long current in theological controversi'js the 
 simile of the watch If for a moment we made the grotesque 
 
THE RECONCILIATION. ill 
 
 supposition that the tickings and other movements of a watch 
 constituted a kind of consciousness ; and that a watch po sessed 
 of such a consciousness, insisted on regarding the watchmaker's 
 actions as determined like its own by springs and escapements ; 
 we should simply complete a parallel of which religious 
 teachers think much. And were we to suppose that a watch 
 not only formulated the cause of its existence in these 
 mechanical terms, but held that watches were bound out of 
 reverence so to formulate this cause, and even vituperated, as 
 atheistic watches, any that did not venture so to formulate it ; 
 we should merely illustrate the presumption of theologians by 
 carrying their own argument a step further. A few 
 
 extracts will bring home to the reader the justice of this 
 comparison. We are told, for example, by one of high 
 repute among religious thinkers, that the Universe is "the 
 manifestation and abode of a Free Mind, like our own ; em- 
 bodying His personal thought in its adjustments, realizing 
 His own ideal in its phenomena, just as we express our inner 
 faculty and character through the natural language of an ex- 
 ternal life. In this view, we interpret Nature by Humanity ; 
 we find the key to her aspects in such purposes and affections 
 as our own consciousness enables us to conceive ; we look 
 everywhere for physical signals of an ever-living Will ; and 
 decipher the universe as the autobiography of an Infinite 
 Spirit, repeating itself in miniature within our Finite Spirit." 
 The same writer goes still further. He not only thus parallels 
 the assimilation of the watchmaker to the watch, he not only 
 thinks the created can " decipher " " the autobiography " of 
 the Creating ; but he asserts that the necessary limits of the 
 one are necessary limits of the other. The primary qualities 
 of bodies, he says, " belong eternally to the material datum ob- 
 jective to God " and control his acts ; while the secondary 
 ones are " products of pure Inventive Reason and Determining 
 Will" constitute "the realm of Divine originality." * * * 
 " While on this Secondary field His Mind and ours are thus 
 contrasted, they meet in resemblance again upon the Primary; 
 
112 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 for the evolutions of deductive Reason there is but one track 
 possible to all intelligences ; no mcnun arbitrium can inter- 
 change the false and true, or make more than one geometry> 
 one scheme of pure Physics, for all worlds ; and the Omnipo- 
 tent Architect Himself, in realizing the Kosmical conception, 
 in shaping the orbits out of immensity and determining seasons 
 out of eternity, could but follow the laws of curvature, mea- 
 sure and proportion." That is to say, the Ultimate Cause is like 
 a human mechanic, not only as "shaping" the "material datum 
 objective to " Him, but also as being obliged to conform to 
 the necessary properties of that datum." Nor is this all. 
 There follows some account of "the Divine psychology," to 
 the extent of saying that " we learn. " " the character of God 
 the order of affections in Him " from " the distribution of 
 authority in the hierarchy of our impulses." In other words, 
 it is alleged that the Ultimate Cause has desires that are to be 
 classed as higher and lower like our own.* Every 
 
 one has heard of the king who wished he had been present at 
 the creation of the world, that he might have given good ad- 
 vice. He was humble however compared with those who pro- 
 fess to understand not only the relation of the Creating to the 
 created, but also how the Creating is constituted. And yet 
 this transcendent audacity, which claims to penetrate the 
 secrets of the Power manifested to us through all existence 
 nay even to stand behind that Power and note the conditions 
 to its action this it is which passes current as piety ! May 
 we not without hesitation affirm that a sincere recognition of 
 the truth that our own and all other existence is a mystery 
 absolutely and for ever beyond our comprehension, contains 
 more of true religion than all the dogmatic theology ever 
 written r 
 
 Meanwhile let us recognize whatever of permanent good 
 there is in these persistent attempts to frame conceptions of 
 that which cannot be conceived. From the beginning it has 
 
 * These extracts are from an article entitled "Nature and God," published in 
 the National Review for October, 1860. 
 
THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 been only through the successive failures of such conceptions 
 to satisfy the mind, that higher and higher ones have been 
 gradually reached ; and doubtless, the conceptions now current 
 are indispensable as transitional modes of thought. Even 
 more than this may be willingly conceded. It is possible, 
 nay probable, that under their most abstract forms, ideas of 
 this order will always continue to occupy the background of 
 our consciousness. Very likely there will ever remain a need 
 to give shape to that indefinite sense of an Ultimate Existence, 
 which forms the basis of our intelligence. We shall always 
 be under the necessity of contemplating it as some mode of be- 
 ing ; that is of representing it to ourselves in some form of 
 thought, however vague. And we shall not err in doing thifi 
 so long as we treat every notion we thus frame as merely a 
 symbol, utterly without resemblance to that for which it 
 stands. Perhaps the constant formation of such symbols and 
 constant rejection of them as inadequate, may be hereafter, 
 as it has hitherto been, a means of discipline. Perpetually to 
 construct ideas requiring the utmost stretch of our faculties, 
 and perpetually to find that such ideas must be abandoned as 
 futile imaginations, may realize to us more fully than any other 
 course, the greatness of that which we vainly strive to grasp. 
 Such efforts and failures may serve to maintain in our minds 
 a due sense of the incommensurable difference between the 
 Conditioned and the Unconditioned. By continually seeking 
 to know and being continually thrown back with a deepened 
 conviction of the impossibility of knowing, we may keep alive 
 the consciousness that it is alike our highest wisdom and our 
 highest duty to regard that through which all things exist as 
 The Unknowable. 
 
 32. An immense majority will refuse with more or less of 
 indignation, a belief seeming to them so shadowy and indefinite. 
 Having always embodied the Ultimate Cause so far as was 
 needful to its mental realization, they must necessarily resent 
 the substitution of an Ultimate Cause which cannot be men- 
 
114 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 tally realized at all. " You offer us," they say, " an unthink- 
 able abstraction in place of a Being towards whom we may 
 entertain definite feelings. Though we are told that the Ab- 
 solute is real, yet since we are not allowed to conceive it, it 
 might as well be a pure negation. Instead of a Power which 
 we can regard as having some sympathy with us, you would 
 have us contemplate a Power to which no emotion whatever 
 can be ascribed. And so we are to be deprived of the very 
 substance of our faith." 
 
 This kind of protest of necessity accompanies every change 
 from a lower creed to a higher. The belief in a community 
 of nature between himself and the object of his worship, has 
 always been to man a satisfactory one ; and he has always 
 accepted with reluctance those successively less concrete con- 
 ceptions which have been forced upon him. Doubtless, in all 
 times and places, it has consoled the barbarian to think of his 
 deities as so exactly like himself in nature, that they could be 
 bribed by offerings of food ; and the assurance that deities 
 could not be so propitiated, must have been repugnant, be- 
 cause it deprived him of an easy method of gaining super- 
 natural protection. To the Greeks it was manifestly a source 
 of comfort that on occasions of difficulty they could obtain, 
 through oracles, the advice of their gods, nay, might even 
 get the personal aid of their gods in battle ; and it was pro- 
 bably a very genuine anger which they visited upon philo- 
 sophers who called in question these gross ideas of their my- 
 thology. A religion which teaches the Hindoo that it is 
 impossible to purchase eternal happiness by placing himself 
 under the wheel of Juggernaut, can scarcely fail to seem a 
 cruel one to him ; since it deprives him of the pleasurable 
 consciousness that he can at will exchange miseries for joys. 
 Nor is it less clear that to our Catholic ancestors, the beliefs 
 that crimes could be compounded for by the building of 
 churches, that their own punishments and those of their re- 
 latives could be abridged by the saying of masses, and that 
 divine aid or forgiveness might be gained through the inter- 
 
THE RECONCILIATION. lift 
 
 cession of saints, were highly solacing ones ; and that Pro- 
 testantism, in substituting the conception of a God so com- 
 paratively unlike ourselves as not to be influenced by such 
 methods, must have appeared to them hard and cold. 
 Naturally, therefore, we must expect a further step in the 
 same direction to meet with a similar resistance from outraged 
 sentiments. No mental revolution can be accomplished 
 
 without more or less of laceration. Be it a change of habit or 
 a change of conviction, it must, if the habit or conviction be 
 strong, do violence to some of the feelings ; and these must 
 of course oppose it. For long- experienced, and therefore 
 definite, sources of satisfaction, have to be substituted sources 
 of satisfaction that have not been experienced, and are 
 therefore indefinite. That which is relatively well known 
 and real, has to be given up for that which is relatively 
 unknown and ideal. And of course such an exchange cannot 
 be made without a conflict involving pain. Espe- 
 
 cially then must there arise a strong antagonism to 
 any alteration in so deep and vital a conception as that 
 with which we are here dealing. Underlying, as this 
 conception does, all others, a modification of it threatens to 
 reduce the superstructure to ruins. Or to change the 
 metaphor being the root with which are connected our 
 ideas of goodness, rectitude, or duty, it appears impossible 
 that it should be transformed without causing these to 
 wither away and die. The whole higher part of the nature 
 almost of necessity takes up arms against a change which, by 
 destroying the established associations of thought, seems 
 to eradicate morality. 
 
 This is by no means all that has to be said for such pro- 
 tests. There is a much deeper meaning in them. They do 
 not simply express the natural repugnance to a revolution of 
 belief, here made specially intense by the vital importance of 
 the belief to be revolutionized ; but they also express an 
 instinctive adhesion to a belief that is in one sense the best 
 the best for those who thus cling to it, though not ab- 
 
116 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 
 stractedly the best. For here let me remark that 
 
 what were above spoken of as the imperfections of Religion, 
 at first great but gradually diminishing, have been imperfec- 
 tions only as measured by an absolute standard ; and not as 
 measured by a relative one. Speaking generally, the religion 
 current in each age and among each people, has been as 
 near an approximation to the truth as it was then and there 
 possible for men to receive : the more or less concrete forms 
 in which it has embodied the truth, have simply been the 
 means of making thinkable what would otherwise have been 
 unthinkable ; and so have for the time being served to 
 increase its impressiveness. If we consider the con- 
 
 ditions of the case, we shall find this to be an unavoidable 
 conclusion. During each stage of evolution, men must think 
 in such terms of thought as they possess. While all the 
 conspicuous changes of which they can observe the origins, 
 have men and animals as antecedents, they are unable to 
 think of antecedents in general under any other shapes ; and 
 hence creative agencies are of necessity conceived by them 
 in these shapes. If during this phase, these concrete con- 
 ceptions were taken from them, and the attempt made to 
 give them comparatively abstract conceptions, the result 
 would be to leave their minds with none at all ; since the 
 substituted ones could not be mentally represented. Simi- 
 larly with every successive stage of religious belief, down to 
 the last. Though, as accumulating experiences slowly mo- 
 dify the earliest ideas of causal personalities, there grow up 
 more general and vague ideas of them ; yet these cannot be 
 at once replaced by others still more general and vague 
 Further experiences must supply the needful further abstrac- 
 tions, before the mental void left by the destruction of such 
 inferior ideas can be filled by ideas of a superior order. And 
 at the present time, the refusal to abandon a relatively concrete 
 notion for a relatively abstract one, implies the inability to 
 frame the relatively abstract one ; and so proves that the 
 change would be premature and injurious. Still 
 
THE RECONCILIATION 117 
 
 more clearly shall we see the injuriousness of any such 
 premature change, on observing that the effects of a belief 
 upon conduct must be diminished in proportion as the vivid- 
 ness with which it is realized becomes less. Evils and 
 benefits akin to those which the savage has personally felt, 
 or learned from those who have felt them, are the only evils 
 and benefits he can understand ; and these must be looked 
 for as coming in ways like those of which he has had ex- 
 perience. His deities must be imagined to have like mo- 
 tives and passions and methods with the beings around him ; 
 for motives and passions and methods of a higher character, 
 being unknown to him, and in great measure unthinkable by 
 him, cannot be so realized in thought as to influence his 
 deeds. During every phase of civilization, the actions of 
 the Unseen Reality, as well as the resulting rewards and 
 punishments, being conceivable only in such forms as ex- 
 perience furnishes, to supplant them by higher ones before 
 wider experiences have made higher ones conceivable, is to 
 set up vague and uninfluential motives for definite and in- 
 fluential ones. Even now, for the great mass of men, 
 unable through lack of culture to trace out with due clear- 
 ness those good and bad consequences which conduct brings 
 round through the established order of the Unknowable, it is 
 needful that there should be vividly depicted future torments 
 and future joys pains and pleasures of a definite kind, produced 
 in a manner direct and simple enough to be clearly ima- 
 gined. Nay still more must be conceded. Few if any 
 are as yet fitted wholly to dispense with such conceptions as are 
 current. The highest abstractions take so great a mental power 
 to realize with any vividness, and are so inoperative upon con- 
 duct unless they are vividly realized, that their regulative ef- 
 fects must for a long period to come be appreciable on but a 
 small minority. To see clearly how a right or wrong act 
 generates consequences, internal and external, that go on 
 branching out more widely as years progress, requires a rare 
 power of analysis. To mentally represent even a single series 
 
118 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 of these consequences, as it stretches out into the remote future, 
 requires an equally rare power of imagination. And to esti- 
 mate these consequences in their totality, ever multiplying in 
 number while diminishing in intensity, requires a grasp of 
 thought possessed by none. Yet it is only by such analysis, 
 such imagination, and such grasp, that conduct can be right- 
 ly guided in the absence of all other control : only so can ul- 
 timate rewards and penalties be made to outweigh proximate 
 pains and pleasures. Indeed, were it not that throughout the 
 progress of the race, men's experiences of the effects of conduct 
 have been slowly generalized into principles were it not that 
 these principles have been from generation to generation in- 
 sisted on by parents, upheld by public opinion, sanctified by re- 
 ligion, and enforced by threats of eternal damnation for dis- 
 obedience were it not that under these potent influences, 
 habits have been modified, and the feelings proper to them 
 made innate were it not, in short, that we have been 
 rendered in a considerable degree organically moral ; it is 
 certain that disastrous results would ensue from the removal 
 of those strong and distinct motives which the current belief 
 supplies. Even as it is, those who relinquish the faith in 
 which they have been brought up, for this most abstract faith 
 in which Science and Religion unite, may not uncommonly 
 fail to act up to their convictions. Left to their organic mor- 
 ality, enforced only by general reasonings imperfectly wrought 
 out and difficult to keep before the mind, their defects of 
 nature will often come out more strongly than they would 
 have done under their previous creed. The substituted creed 
 can become adequately operative only when it becomes, like 
 the present one, an element in early education, and has the 
 support of a strong social sanction. Nor will men be quite 
 ready for it until, through the continuance of a disciplme 
 *vhich has already partially moulded them to the conditions 
 of social existence, they are completely moulded to those 
 conditions. 
 
 We must therefore recognize the resistance to a change of 
 
 
THE RECONCILIATION. 119 
 
 theological opinion, as in great measure salutary. It is not 
 simply that strong and deep-rooted feelings are necessarily 
 excited to antagonism it is not simply that the highest moral 
 sentiments join in the condemnation of a change which seems 
 to undermine their authority ; but it is that a real adaptation 
 exists between an established belief and the natures of those 
 who defend it ; and that the tenacity of the defence measures 
 the completeness of the adaptation. Forms of religion, like forms 
 of government, must be fit for those who live under them ; and 
 in the one case as in the other, that form which is fittest is that 
 for which there is an instinctive preference. As certainly as a 
 barbarous race needs a harsh terrestrial rule, and habitually 
 shows attachment to a despotism capable of the necessary 
 rigour ; so certainly does such a race need a belief in a celes- 
 tial rule that is similarly harsh, and habitually shows attach- 
 ment to such a belief. And just in the same way that the sud- 
 den substitution of free institutions for tyrannical ones, is sure 
 to be followed by a reaction ; so, if a creed full of dreadful 
 ideal penalties is all at once replaced by one presenting ideal 
 penalties that are comparatively gentle, there will inevitably 
 be a return to some modification of the old belief. The 
 
 parallelism holds yet further. During those early stages in 
 which there is an extreme incongruity between the relatively 
 best and the absolutely best, both political and religious changes, 
 when at rare intervals they occur, are necessarily violent ; and 
 necessarily entail violent retrogressions. But as the incongruity 
 between that which is and that which should be, diminishes, the 
 changes become more moderate, and are succeeded by more mo- 
 derate retrogressions ; until, as these movements and counter- 
 movements decrease in amount and increase in frequency, 
 they merge into an almost continuous growth. That adhesion 
 to old institutions and beliefs, which, in primitive societies, 
 opposes an iron barrier to any advance, and which, after the 
 barrier has been at length burst through, brings back the in- 
 stitutions and beliefs from that too-forward position to which 
 the momentum of change had carried them, and so helps to 
 
120 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 re-adapt social conditions to the popular character this adhe- 
 sion to old institution and beliefs, eventually becomes the con- 
 stant check by which the constant advance is prevented from 
 being too rapid. This holds true of religious creeds and forms, 
 as of civil ones. And so we learn that theological conserva- 
 tism, like political conservatism, has an all-important function. 
 
 33. That spirit of toleration which is so marked a charac- 
 teristic of modern times, and is daily growing more conspicu- 
 ous, has thus a far deeper meaning than is supposed. What 
 we commonly regard simply as a due respect for the right of 
 private judgment, is really a necessary condition to the bal- 
 ancing of the progressive and conservative tendencies is a 
 means of maintaining the adaptation between men's beliefs 
 and their natures. It is therefore a spirit to be fostered ; and 
 it is a spirit which the catholic thinker, who perceives the func- 
 tions of these various conflicting creeds, should above all other 
 men display. Doubtless whoever feels the greatness 
 
 of the error to which his fellows cling and the greatness of the 
 truth which they reject, will find it hard to show a due pa- 
 tience. It is hard for him to listen calmly to the futile argu- 
 ments used in support of irrational doctrines, and to the mis- 
 representation of antagonist doctrines. It is hard for him to 
 bear the manifestation of that pride of ignorance which so far 
 exceeds the pride of science. Naturally enough such a one 
 will be indignant when charged with irreligion because he 
 declines to accept the carpenter-theory of creation as the most 
 worthy one. He may think it needless as it is difficult, to con- 
 ceal his repugnance to a creed which tacitly ascribes to The 
 Unknowable a love of adulation such as would be despised in 
 ' a human being. Convinced as he is that all punishment, as 
 we see it wrought out in the order of nature, is but a disguised 
 beneficence, there will perhaps escape from him an angry con- 
 demnation of the belief that punishment is a divine vengeance, 
 and that divine vengeance is eternal. He may be tempted to 
 show his contempt when he is told that actions instigated by 
 
THE KECONC1LIATION. 12] 
 
 an unselfish, sympathy or by a pure love of rectitude, are 
 intrinsically sinful ; and that conduct is truly good only 
 when it is due to a faith whose openly-professed motive is 
 other- worldliness. But he must restrain such feelings. Though 
 he may be unable to do this during the excitement of contro- 
 versy, or when otherwise brought face to face with current 
 superstitions, he must yet qualify his antagonism in calmer 
 moments; so that his mature judgment and resulting conduct 
 may be without bias. 
 
 To this end let him ever bear in mind three cardinal 
 facts two of them already dwelt upon, and one still to be 
 pointed out. The first is that with which we set 
 
 out ; namely the existence of a fundamental verity under 
 all forms of religion, however degraded. In each of them 
 there is a soul of truth. Through the gross body of dogmas 
 traditions and rites which contain it, it is always visible 
 dimly or clearly as the case may be. This it is which gives 
 vitality even to the rudest creed ; this it is which survives 
 every modification ; and this it is which we must not forget 
 when condemning the forms under which it is present- 
 ed. The second of these cardinal facts, set forth at 
 length in the foregoing section, is, that while those concrete 
 elements in which each creed embodies this soul of truth, 
 are bad as measured by an absolute standard, they are good 
 as measured by a relative standard. Though from higher 
 perceptions they hide the abstract verity within them ; yet 
 to lower perceptions they render this verity more appreciable 
 than it would otherwise be. They serve to make real and 
 influential over men, that which would else be unreal and unin- 
 fluential. Or we may call them the protective envelopes, 
 without which the contained truth would die. The 
 remaining cardinal fact is, that these various beliefs are 
 parts of the constituted order of things ; and not accidental 
 but necessary parts. Seeing how one or other of them is 
 everywhere present ; is of perennial growth ; and when 
 out down, redevelopes in a form but slightly modified ; we 
 7 
 
122 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 cannot avoid the inference that they are needful accompani- 
 ments of human life, severally fitted to the societies in 
 which they are indigenous. From the highest point of 
 view, we must recognize them as elements in that great 
 evolution of which the beginning and end are beyond o*ir 
 knowledge or conception as modes of manifestation of The 
 Unknowable ; and as having this for their warrant. 
 
 Our toleration therefore should be the widest possible. Or 
 rather, we should aim at something beyond toleration, as com- 
 monly understood. In dealing with alien beliefs, our endea- 
 vour must be, not simply to refrain from injustice of word or 
 deed ; but also to do justice by an open recognition of positive 
 worth. We must qualify our disagreement with as much as 
 may be of sympathy. 
 
 34. These admissions will perhaps be held to imply, that 
 the current theology should be passively accepted ; or, at any 
 rate, should not be actively opposed. " Why," it may be 
 asked, " if all creeds have an average fitness to their times and 
 places, should we not rest content with that to which we are 
 born? If the established belief contains an essential truth 
 if the forms under which it presents this truth, though 
 intrinsically bad, are extrinsically good if the abolition of 
 these forms would be at present detrimental to the great ma- 
 jority nay, if there are scarcely any to whom the ultimate 
 and most abstract belief can furnish an adequate rule of life ; 
 surely it is wrong, for the present at least, to propagate this 
 ultimate and most abstract belief." 
 
 The reply is, that though existing religious ideas and in- 
 stitutions have an average adaptation to the characters of the 
 people who live under them ; yet, as these characters are ever 
 changing, the adaptation is ever becoming imperfect ; and the 
 ideas and institutions need remodelling with a frequency pro- 
 portionate to the rapidity of the change. Hence, while it is 
 requisite that free play should be given to conservative thought 
 and action, progressive thought and action must also have free 
 
THE RECONCILIATION. 123 
 
 play. Without the agency of both, there cannot be those con- 
 tinual re- adaptations which orderly progress demands. 
 
 Whoever hesitates to utter that which he thinks the high- 
 est truth, lest it should be too much in advance of the time, 
 may reassure himself by looking at his acts from an imper- 
 sonal point of view. Let him duly realize the fact that opin- 
 ion is the agency through which character adapts external 
 arrangements to itself that his opinion rightly forms part of 
 this agency is a unit of force, constituting, with other such 
 units, the general power which works out social changes ; and 
 he will perceive that he may properly give full utterance to 
 his innermost conviction : leaving it to produce what effect it 
 may. It is not for nothing that he has in him these sympa- 
 thies with some principles and repugnance to others. He, 
 with all his capacities, and aspirations, and beliefs, is not an 
 accident, but a product of the time. He must remember that 
 while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the fu- 
 ture ; and that his thoughts are as children born to him, 
 which he may not carelessly let die. lie., like every other 
 man, may properly consider himself as one of the myriad 
 agencies through whom works the Unknown Cause ; and 
 when the Unknown Cause produces in him a certain belief, 
 he is thereby authorized to profess and act out that belief. 
 For, to render in their highest sense the words of the poet 
 
 Nature is made better by no mean, 
 
 But nature makes that mean : over that art 
 Which you say adds to nature, is an art 
 That nature makes. 
 
 Not as adventitious therefore will the wise man regard the 
 faith which is in him. The highest truth he sees he will 
 fearlessly utter ; knowing that, let what may come of it, he is 
 thus playing his right part in the world knowing that if he 
 can effect the change he aims at well : if not well also , 
 though not #0 well 
 

PART IL 
 
 TEE KNOWABLB. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 PHILOSOPHY DEFINED. 
 
 35. AFTER concluding that we cannot know the ulti- 
 mate nature of that which is manifested to us, there arise 
 the questions What is it that we know ? In what sense 
 do we know it ? And in what consists our highest knowledge 
 of it ? Having repudiated as impossible the Philosophy 
 which professes to formulate Being as distinguished from 
 Appearance, it becomes needful to say what Philosophy 
 truly is not simply to specify its limits, but to specify its 
 character within those limits. Given a certain sphere as the 
 sphere to which human intelligence is restricted, and there 
 remains to define the peculiar product of human- intelli- 
 gence which may still be called Philosophy. 
 
 In doing this, we may advantageously avail ourselves of 
 the method followed at the outset, of separating from con- 
 ceptions that are partially or mainly erroneous, the element 
 of truth they contain. As in the chapter on " Religion and 
 Science," it was inferred that religious beliefs, wrong as 
 they might individually be in their particular forms, never- 
 theless probably each contained an essential verity, and that 
 this was most likely common to them all ; so in this place it 
 is to be inferred that past and present beliefs respecting the 
 nature of Philosophy, are none of them wholly false, and 
 that that in which they are true is that in which they agree. 
 We have here, then, to do what was done there " to com- 
 pare all opinions of the same genus ; to set aside as more or 
 
iU8 PHILOSOPHY DEFINED. 
 
 less discrediting one another those various special and con- 
 crete elements in which, such opinions disagree ; to observe 
 what remains after the discordant constituents have been 
 eliminated ; and to find for this remaining constituent that 
 abstract expression which holds true throughout its diver- 
 gent modifications.'" 
 
 36. Earlier speculations being passed over, we see 
 that among the Greeks, before there had arisen any notion 
 of Philosophy in general, apart from particular forms of 
 Philosophy, the particular forms of it from which the 
 general notion was to arise, were hypotheses respecting 
 some universal principle that constituted the essence of all 
 concrete kinds of being. To the question " What is that 
 invariable existence of which these are variable states ?" 
 there were sundry answers Water, Air, Fire. A class 
 of hypotheses of this all-embracing character having been 
 propounded, it became possible for Pythagoras to conceive 
 of Philosophy in the abstract, as knowledge the most remote 
 from practical ends ; and to define it as " knowledge of im- 
 material and eternal things : " " the cause of the material 
 existence of things/' being, in his view, Number. There- 
 after, we find continued a pursuit of Philosophy as some 
 ultimate interpretation of the Universe, assumed to be pos- 
 sible, whether actually reached in any case or not. And in 
 the course of this pursuit, various such ultimate interpreta- 
 tions were given as that " One is the beginning of all 
 things ;" that " the One is God ; that " the One is Finite ;" 
 that " the One is Infinite ; yi that " Intelligence is the govern- 
 ing principle of things ; " and so on. From all which it is 
 plain that the knowledge supposed to constitute Philosophy, 
 differed from other knowledge in its transcendent, exhaustive 
 character. In the subsequent course of speculation, 
 
 after the Sceptics had shaken men's faith in their powers of 
 reaching such transcendent knowledge, there grew up a, 
 much-restricted conception of Philosophy. Under Socrates, 
 
FHHOSOPHY DEFINED. 129 
 
 and still more under the Stoics, Philosophy became littlo 
 else than the doctrine of right living. Its subject-matter 
 was practically cut down to the proper ruling of conduct, 
 public and private. Not indeed that the proper ruling of 
 conduct, as conceived by sundry of the later Greek thinkers 
 to constitute subject-matter of Philosophy, answered to what 
 was popularly understood by the proper ruling of conduct. 
 The injunctions of Zeno were not of the same class as those 
 which guided men from early times downwards, in their 
 daily observances, sacrifices, customs, all having more or 
 less of religious sanction ; but they were principles of action 
 enunciated without reference to times, or persons, or special 
 cases. What, then, was the constant element in 
 
 these unlike ideas of Philosophy held by the ancients ? 
 Clearly the character in which this last idea agrees with tho 
 first, is that within its sphere of inquiry, Philosophy seeks for 
 wide and deep truths, as distinguished from the multitudi- 
 nous detailed truths which the surfaces of things and actions 
 present. 
 
 By comparing the conceptions of Philosophy that have 
 been current in modern times, we get a like result. The 
 disciples of Schelling, Fichte, and their kindred, join the 
 Hegelian in ridiculing the so-called Philosophy which has 
 usurped the title in England. Not without reason, they 
 laugh on reading of " Philosophical instruments ;" and would 
 deny that any one of the papers in the Philosophical Trans* 
 actions has the least claim to come under such a title. Retali- 
 ating on their critics, the English may, and most of them do, 
 reject as absurd the imagined Philosophy of the German 
 schools. As consciousness cannot be transcended, they hold 
 that whether consciousness does or does not vouch for the 
 existence of something beyond itself, it at any rate cannot 
 comprehend that something; and that hence, in so far as any 
 Philosophy professes to be an Ontology, it is false. These 
 two views cancel one another over large parts of their 
 areas. The English criticism on the Germans, cuts off fron* 
 
180 PHILOSOPHY DEFINED. 
 
 Philosophy all that is regarded as absolute knowledge. 
 The German criticism on the English tacitly implies that if 
 Philosophy is limited to the relative, it is at any rate not 
 concerned with those aspects of the relative which are em- 
 bodied in mathematical formulae, in accounts of physical 
 researches, in chemical analyses, or in descriptions of species 
 and reports of physiological experiments. Now 
 
 what has the too-wide German conception in common with 
 the conception general among English men of science; 
 which, narrow and crude as it is, is not so narrow and crude 
 as their misuse of the word philosophical indicates ? The two 
 have this in common, that neither Germans nor English apply 
 the word to unsystematized knowledge to knowledge quite 
 uncoordinated with other knowledge. Even the most limited 
 specialist would not describe as philosophical, an essay which, 
 dealing wholly with details, manifested no perception of the 
 bearings of those details on wider truths. 
 
 The vague idea thus raised of that in which the various 
 conceptions of Philosophy agree, may be rendered more defi- 
 nite by comparing what has been known in England as 
 Natural Philosophy with that development of it called Posi- 
 tive Philosophy. Though, as M. Comte admits, the two 
 consist of knowledge essentially the same in kind ; yet, by 
 having put this kind of knowledge into a more coherent 
 form, he has given it more of that character to which the 
 term philosophical is applied. "Without expressing any 
 opinion respecting the truth of his co-ordination, it must be 
 conceded that by the fact of its co-ordination, the body of 
 knowledge organized by him has a better claim to the title 
 Philosophy, than has the comparatively-unorganized body of 
 knowledge named Natural Philosophy. 
 
 If subdivisions of Philosophy, or more special forms of it, 
 be contrasted with one another, or with the whole, the same 
 implication comes out. Moral Philosophy and Political 
 Philosophy, agree with Philosophy at large in the compre- 
 hensiveness of their reasonings and conclusions. Though 
 
PHILOSOPHY DEFINED. 131 
 
 nuder the head of Moral Philosophy, we treat of human ac- 
 tions as right or wrong, we do not include special directions 
 for behaviour in the nursery, at table, or on the exchange ; 
 and though Political Philosophy has for its topic the conduct 
 of men in their public relations, it does not concern itself 
 with modes of voting or details of administration. Both of 
 these sections of Philosophy contemplate particular instances, 
 only as illustrating truths of wide application. 
 
 37. Thus every one of these conceptions implies the 
 belief in a possible way of knowing things more completely 
 than they are known through simple experiences, mechani- 
 cally accumulated in memory or heaped up in cyclopaedias. 
 Though in the extent of the sphere which they have sup- 
 posed Philosophy to fill, men have differed and still differ 
 very widely; yet there is a real if unavowed agreement 
 among them in signifying by this title a knowledge which 
 transcends ordinary knowledge. That which remains as the 
 common element in these conceptions of Philosophy, after 
 the elimination of their discordant elements, is knowledge 
 of the highest degree of generality. We see this tacitly 
 asserted by the simultaneous inclusion of God, Nature, and 
 Man, within its scope ; or still more distinctly by the divi- 
 sion of Philosophy as a whole into Theological, Physical, 
 Ethical, &c. For that which characterizes the genus oi 
 which these are species, must be something more general 
 than that which distinguishes any one species. 
 
 What must be the specific shape here given to this con- 
 ception ? The range of intelligence we find to be limited to 
 the relative. Though persistently conscious of a Power 
 manifested to us, we have abandoned as futile the attempt 
 to learn anything respecting the nature of that Power ; and 
 so have shut out Philosophy from much of the domain sup- 
 posed to belong to it. The domain left is that occupied by 
 Science. Science concerns itself with the co-existences and 
 sequences among phenomena ; grouping these at first into 
 
(32 PHILOSOPHY DEFINED. 
 
 generalizations of a simple or low order, and rising gradually 
 to higher and more extended generalizations. But if so, 
 where remains any subject-matter for Philosophy ? 
 
 The reply is Philosophy may still properly be the title 
 retained for knowledge of the highest generality. Science 
 means merely the family of the Sciences stands for nothing 
 more than the sum of knowledge formed of their contribu- 
 tions ; and ignores the knowledge constituted by the fusion 
 of all these contributions into a whole. As usage has de- 
 fined it, Science consists of truths existing more or less 
 separated ; and does not recognize these truths as entirely 
 integrated. An illustration will make the difference clear. 
 
 If we ascribe the flow of a river to the same force which 
 causes the fall of a stone, we make a statement, true as far 
 as it goes, that belongs to a certain division of Science. If, 
 in further explanation of a movement produced by gravita- 
 tion in a direction almost horizontal, we cite the law that 
 fluids subject to mechanical forces exert re-active forces 
 which are equal in all directions, we formulate a wider 
 fact, containing the scientific interpretation of many other 
 phenomena; as those presented by the fountain, the hy- 
 draulic press, the steam-engine, the air-pump. And when 
 this proposition, extending only to the dynamics of fluids, 
 is merged in a proposition of general dynamics, comprehend- 
 ing the laws of movement of solids as well as of fluids, 
 there is reached a yethigher truth; but still a truth that cornea 
 wholly within the realm of Science. Again, look- 
 
 ing around at Birds and Mammals, suppose we say that air- 
 breathing animals are hot-blooded ; and that then, remem- 
 bering how Eeptiles, which also breathe air, are not much 
 warmer than their media, we say, more truly, that animals 
 (bulks being equal) have temperatures proportionate to the 
 quantities of air they breathe; and that then, calling to 
 mind certain large fish which maintain a heat considerably 
 above that of the water they swim in, we further correct 
 the generalization by saying that the temperature varies as 
 
PHILOSOPHY DEFINED. 133 
 
 the rate of oxygenation of the blood ; and that then, modify, 
 ing the statement to meet other criticisms, we finally assert 
 the relation to be between the amount of heat and the 
 amount of molecular change supposing we do all this, we 
 eta-te scientific truths that are successively wider and more 
 complete, but truths which, to the last, remain purely scien- 
 tific. Once more if, guided by mercantile ex- 
 periences, we reach the conclusion that prices rise when the 
 demand exceeds the supply; and that commodities flow 
 from places where they are abundant to places where they 
 are scarce ; and that the industries of different localities are 
 determined in their kinds mainly by the facilities which the 
 localities afford for them ; and if, studying these generaliza- 
 tions of political economy, we trace them all to the truth 
 that each man seeks satisfaction for his desires in ways 
 costing the smallest efforts such social phenomena being 
 resultants of individual actions so guided ; we are still deal- 
 ing with the propositions of Science only. 
 
 And now how is Philosophy constituted? It is constituted 
 by carrying a stage further the process indicated. So long 
 as these truths are known only apart and regarded as inde- 
 pendent, even the most general of them cannot without 
 laxity of speech be called philosophical. But when, having 
 been severally reduced to a simple mechanical axiom, a 
 principle of molecular physics, and a law of social action, 
 they are contemplated together as corollaries of some ulti- 
 mate truth, then we rise to the kind of knowledge that 
 constitutes Philosophy proper. 
 
 The truths of Philosophy thus bear the same relation to 
 the highest scientific truths, that each of these bears 
 to lower scientific truths. As each widest generalization 
 of Science comprehends and consolidates the narrower gene- 
 ralizations of its own division; so the generalizations of 
 Philosophy comprehend and consolidate) the widest gene- 
 ralizations of Science. It is therefore a knowledge the ex- 
 treme opposite in kind to that which experience first accu- 
 
134 PHILOSOPHY DEFINED. 
 
 mulates. It is the final product of that process which 
 begins with a mere colligation of crude observations, goes 
 on establishing propositions that are broader and more 
 separated from particular cases, and ends in universal pro- 
 positions. Or to bring the definition to its simplest and 
 clearest form : Knowledge of the lowest kind is un-unified 
 knowledge ; Science is partially -unified knowledge ; Philo- 
 sophy is completely -unified knowledge. 
 
 38. Such, at least, is the meaning we must here give to 
 the word Philosophy, if we employ it at all. In so defining 
 it, we accept that which is common to the various concep- 
 tions of it current among both ancients and moderns re- 
 jecting those elements in which these conceptions disagree, 
 or exceed the possible range of intelligence. In short, we 
 are simply giving precision to that application of the word 
 which is gradually establishing itself. 
 
 Two forms of Philosophy, as thus understood, may bo 
 distinguished and dealt with separately. On the one hand, 
 the things contemplated may be the universal truths : all 
 particular truths referred to being used simply for proof or 
 elucidation of these universal truths. On the other hand, 
 setting out with the universal truths as granted, the things 
 contemplated may be the particular truths as interpreted by 
 them. In both cases we deal with the universal truths; 
 but in the one case they are passive and in the other case 
 active in the one case they form the products of exploration 
 and in the other case the instruments of exploration. These 
 divisions we may appropriately call General Philosophy and 
 Special Philosophy respectively. 
 
 The remainder of this volume will be devoted to General 
 Philosophy. Special Philosophy, divided into parts deter- 
 mined by the natures of the phenomena treated; will be the 
 subject-matter of subsequent volumes. 
 
CHAPTER H. 
 
 THE DATA OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 39. Every thought involves a whole system of thoughts; 
 and ceases to exist if severed from its various correlatives. 
 As we cannot isolate a single organ of a living body, and 
 deal with it as though it had a life independent of the rest ; 
 so, from the organized structure of our cognitions, we can- 
 not cut out one, and proceed as though it had survived the 
 separation. The development of formless protoplasm into 
 an embryo, is a specialization of parts, the distinctness of 
 which increases only as fast as their combination increases 
 each becomes a distinguishable organ only on condition 
 that it is bound up with others, which have simul- 
 taneously become distinguishable organs; and, similarly, 
 from the unformed material of consciousness, a developed 
 intelligence can arise only by a process which, in making 
 thoughts defined also makes them mutually dependent 
 establishes among them certain vital connections the de- 
 struction of which causes instant death of the thoughts. 
 Overlooking this all-important truth, however, speculators 
 have habitually set out with some professedly-simple datum 
 or data ; have supposed themselves to assume nothing 
 beyond this datum or these data ; and have thereupon pro- 
 ceeded to prove or disprove propositions which were, by im- 
 plication, already unconsciously asserted along with that 
 which was consciously asserted. 
 
 This reasoning in a circle has resulted from the misuse of 
 
136 THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 words : not that misuse commonly enlarged upon not the 
 misapplication or change of meaning whence so much error 
 arises ; but a more radical and less obvious misuse. Only 
 that thought which is directly indicated by each word has 
 been contemplated ; while numerous thoughts indirectly 
 indicated have been left out of consideration. Because a 
 spoken or written word can be detached from all others, it 
 has been inadvertently assumed that the thing signified by 
 a word can be detached from the things signified by all 
 other words. Though more-deeply hidden, the mistake is 
 of the same order as that made by the Greeks, who were 
 continually led astray by the belief in some community of 
 nature between the symbol and that which it symbolized. 
 For though here community of nature is not assumed to the 
 same extent as of old, it is assumed to this extent, that 
 because the symbol is separable from all other symbols, and 
 can be contemplated as having an independent existence, 
 so the thought symbolized may be thus separated and thus 
 contemplated. How profoundly this error vitiates 
 
 the conclusions of one who makes it, we shall quickly see on 
 taking a case. The sceptical metaphysician, wishing his 
 reasonings to be as rigorous as possible, says to himself 
 " I will take for granted only this one thing." What now 
 are the tacit assumptions inseparable from his avowed as- 
 sumption ? The resolve itself indirectly asserts that there is 
 some other thing, or are some other things, which he might 
 assume ; for it is impossible to think of unity without think- 
 ing of a correlative duality or multiplicity. In the very act, 
 therefore, of restricting himself, he takes in much that is 
 professedly left out. Again, before proceeding he must give 
 a definition of that which he assumes. Is nothing unex- 
 pressed involved in the thought of a thing as defined? 
 There is the thought of something excluded by the definition 
 there is, as before, the thought of other existence. But 
 there is much more. Defining a thing, or setting a limit to 
 it, implies the thought of a limit; and limit cannot be 
 
TUB DATA OF PHILOSOPHY. 137 
 
 thought of apart from some notion of quantity extensive, 
 protensive, or intensive. Further, definition is impossible 
 unless there enters into it the thought of difference ; and 
 difference, besides being unthinkable without having two 
 things that differ, implies the existence of other differences 
 than the one recognized ; since otherwise there can be no 
 general conception of difference. Nor is this all. As before 
 pointed out ( 24) all thought involves the consciousness of 
 likeness : the one thing avowedly postulated cannot be 
 known absolutely as one thing, but can be known only as of 
 such or such kind only as classed with other things in 
 virtue of some common attribute. Thus along with the 
 single avowed datum, we have surreptitiously brought in a 
 number of una vowed data existence other than that alleged, 
 quantity, number, limit, difference, likeness, class, attribute, 
 Saying nothing of the many more which an exhaustive 
 analysis would disclose, we have in these unacknowledged 
 postulates, the outlines of a general theory ; and that theory 
 can be neither proved nor disproved by the metaphysician's 
 argument. Insist that his symbol shall be interpreted at 
 every step into its full meaning, with all the complementary 
 thoughts implied by that meaning, and you find already 
 taken for granted in the premises that which in the conclu- 
 sion is asserted or denied. 
 
 In what way, then, must Philosophy set out ? The 
 developed intelligence is framed upon certain organized 
 and consolidated conceptions of which it cannot divest 
 itself; and which it can no more stir without using than 
 fche body can stir without help of its limbs. In what way, 
 then, is it possible for intelligence, striving after Philosophy, 
 to give any account of these conceptions, and to show either 
 their validity or their invalidity? There is but one way. 
 Those of them which are vital, or cannot be severed from 
 the rest without mental dissolution, must be assumed as 
 true provisionally. The fundamental intuitions that are 
 essential to the process of thinking, must be temporarily 
 
138 THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 accepted as unquestionable : leaving the assumption of their 
 unquestionableness to be justified by the results. 
 
 40. How is it to be justified by the results ? As any 
 other assumption is justified by ascertaining that all the 
 conclusions Reducible from it, correspond with the facts as 
 directly observed by showing the agreement between the 
 experiences it leads us to anticipate, and the actual ex- 
 periences. There is no mode of establishing the validity of 
 any belief, except that of showing its entire congruity with 
 all other beliefs. If we suppose that a mass which has a 
 certain colour and lustre is the substance called gold, how 
 do we proceed to prove the hypothesis that it is gold ? We 
 represent to ourselves certain other impressions which gold 
 produces on us, and then observe whether, under the appro- 
 priate conditions, this particular mass produces on us such 
 impressions. We remember, as we say, that gold has a high 
 specific gravity; and if, on poising this substance on the 
 finger, we find that its weight is great considering its bulk, 
 we take the correspondence between the represented im- 
 pression and the presented impression as further evidence 
 that the substance is gold. In response to a demand for 
 more proof, we compare certain other ideal and real effects . 
 Knowing that gold, unlike most metals, is insoluble in 
 nitric acid, we imagine to ourselves a drop of nitric acid 
 placed on the surface of this yellow, glittering, heavy sub- 
 stance, without causing corrosion ; and when, after so plac- 
 ing a drop of nitric acid, no effervescence or other chang'e 
 follows, we hold this agreement between the anticipation 
 and the experience to be an additional reason for thinking 
 that the substance is gold. And if, similarly, the great 
 malleability possessed by gold we find to be paralleled by 
 the great malleability of this substance; if, like gold, it 
 fuses at about 2,000 deg.; crystallizes in octahedrons; is dis- 
 solved by selenic acid ; and, under all conditions, does what 
 gold does under such conditions ; the conviction that it ia 
 
THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 139 
 
 gold reaches what we regard as the highest certainty we 
 know it to be gold in the fullest sense of knowing. For, 
 as we here see, our whole knowledge of gold consists in 
 nothing more than the consciousness of a definite set of im- 
 pressions, standing in definite relations, disclosed under 
 definite conditions; and if, in a present experience, the 
 impressions, relations, and conditions, perfectly correspond 
 with those in past experiences, the cognition has all the 
 validity of which it is capable. So that, generalizing the 
 statement, hypotheses, down even to those simple ones 
 which we make from moment to moment in our acts of re- 
 cognition, are verified when entire congruity is found to 
 exist between the states of consciousness constituting them, 
 and certain other states of consciousness given in percep- 
 tion, or reflection, or both ; and no other knowledge is pos- 
 sible for us than that which consists of the consciousness of 
 such congruities and their correlative incongruities. 
 
 Hence Philosophy, compelled to make those fundamental 
 assumptions without which thought is impossible, has to 
 justify them by showing their congruity with all other dicta 
 of consciousness. Debarred as we are from everything 
 beyond the relative, truth, raised to its highest form, can be 
 for us nothing more than perfect agreement, throughout the 
 whole range of our experience, between those representa- 
 tions of things which we distinguish as ideal and those presen- 
 tations of things which we distinguish as real. If, by discover- 
 ing a proposition to be untrue, we mean nothing more than 
 discovering a difference between a thing expected and a 
 thing perceived; then a body of conclusions in which no 
 such difference anywhere occurs, must be what we mean by 
 an entirely true body of conclusions. 
 
 And here, indeed, it becomes also obvious that, setting 
 out with these fundamental intuitions provisionally assumed 
 to be true that is, provisionally assumed to be congruous 
 with all other dicta of consciousness the process of proving 
 or disproving the congruity becomes the business of Philo* 
 
140 THE DATA OF PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Bophy ; and the complete establisliment of tlie congmity 
 becomes the same thing as the complete unification of know- 
 ledge in which Philosophy reaches its goal. 
 
 41. What is this datum, or rather, what are these data, 
 which Philosophy cannot do without? Clearly one pri- 
 mordial datum is involved in the foregoing statement. 
 Already by implication we have assumed, and must for ever 
 continue to assume, that congruities and incongruities 
 exist, and are cognizable by us. We cannot avoid accept- 
 ing as true the verdict of consciousness that some mani- 
 festations are like one another and some are unlike one 
 another. Unless consciousness be a competent judge of the 
 likeness and unlikeness of its states, there can never be 
 established that congruity throughout the whole of our 
 cognitions which constitutes Philosophy; nor can there ever 
 be established that incongruity by which only any hypo- 
 thesis, philosophical or other, can be shown erroneous. 
 
 The impossibility of moving towards either conviction or 
 scepticism without postulating thus much, we shall see even 
 more vividly on observing how every step in reasoning pos- 
 tulates thus much, over and over again. To say that all 
 things of a certain class are characterized by a certain attri- 
 bute, is to say that all things known as like in those various 
 attributes connoted by their common name, are also like in 
 having the particular attribute specified. To say that some 
 object of immediate attention belongs to this class, is to say 
 that it is like all the others in the various attributes con- 
 noted by their common name. To say that this object pos- 
 sesses the particular attribute specified, is to say that it is 
 like the others in this respect also. While, contrariwise, the 
 assertion that the attribute thus inferred to be possessed by 
 it, is not possessed, implies the assertion that in place of one 
 of the alleged likenesses there exists an unlikeness. Neither 
 affirmation nor denial, therefore, of any deliverance of reason, 
 or any element of such deliverance, is possible without ao- 
 
THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 141 
 
 cepting the dictum of consciousness that certain of its states 
 are like or unlike. Whence, besides seeing that the unified 
 knowledge constituting a completed Philosophy, is a know- 
 ledge composed of parts that are universally congruous ; and 
 besides seeing that it is the business of Philosophy to esta- 
 blish their universal congruity; we also see that every act of 
 the process by which this universal congruity is to be esta- 
 blished, down even to the components of every inference 
 and every observation, consists in the establishment of con- 
 gruity. 
 
 Consequently, the assumption that a congruity or an in- 
 congruity exists when consciousness testifies to it, is an in- 
 evitable assumption. It is useless to say, as Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton does, that ' ' consciousness is to be presumed trustworthy 
 until proved mendacious/ 7 It cannot be proved mendacious 
 in this, its primordial act 5 since, as we see, proof involves a 
 repeated acceptance of this primordial act. Nay more, the 
 very thing supposed to be proved cannot be expressed with- 
 out recognizing this primordial act as valid ; since unless we 
 accept the verdict of consciousness that they differ, menda- 
 city and trustworthiness become identical. Process and 
 product of reasoning both disappear in the absence of this 
 assumption. 
 
 It may, indeed, be often shown that what, after careless 
 comparison, were supposed to be like states of consciousness, 
 are really unlike ; or that what were carelessly supposed to 
 be unlike, are really like. But how is this shown ? Simply 
 by a more careful comparison, mediately or immediately 
 made. And what does acceptance of the revised conclusion 
 imply ? Simply that a deliberate verdict of consciousness is 
 preferable to a rash one ; or, to speak more definitely that 
 a consciousness of likeness or difference which survives 
 critical examination must be accepted in place of one that 
 does not survive the very survival being itself the accept- 
 ance. 
 
 And here we get to the bottom of the matter. The 
 
112 THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 permanence of a consciousness of likeness or difference, 
 is our ultimate warrant for asserting the existence of like- 
 ness or difference j and, in fact, we mean by the existence of 
 likeness or difference, nothing more than the permanent con- 
 sciousness of it. To say that a given congruity or incon- 
 gruity exists, is simply our way of saying that we invariably 
 have a consciousness of it along with a consciousness of the 
 compared things. We knoV nothing more of existence than 
 a continued manifestation. 
 
 42. But Philosophy requires for its datum some substan- 
 tive proposition. To recognize as unquestionable a certain 
 fundamental process of thought, is not enough : we must 
 recognize as unquestionable some fundamental product of 
 thought, reached by this process. If Philosophy is com- 
 pletely-unified knowledge if the unification of knowledge 
 is to be effected only by showing that some ultimate propo- 
 sition includes and consolidates all the results of experience ; 
 then, clearly, this ultimate proposition which has to be 
 proved congruous with all others, must express a piece of 
 knowledge, and not the validity of an act of knowing. 
 Having assumed the trustworthiness of consciousness, we 
 have also to assume as trustworthy some deliverance of con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 What must this be ? Must it not be one affirming the 
 widest and most profound distinction which things present ? 
 Must it not be a statement of congruities and incongruities 
 more general than any other ? An ultimate principle that 
 is to unify all experience, must be co-extensive with all ex- 
 perience cannot be concerned with experience of one order 
 or several orders, but must be concerned with universal ex- 
 perience. That which Philosophy takes as its datum, must 
 be an assertion of some likeness and difference to which 
 all other likenesses and differences are secondary. If know- 
 ing is classifying, or grouping the like and separating the 
 unlike ; and if the unification of knowledge proceeds by 
 
THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 143 
 
 arranging the smaller classes of like experiences witliin tlie 
 larger, and these witliin the still larger ; then, the proposi- 
 tion by which knowledge is unified, must be one specifying 
 the antithesis between two ultimate classes of experiences, in 
 which all others merge. 
 
 Let us now consider what these classes are. In drawing 
 the distinction between them, we cannot avoid using words 
 that have indirect implications wider than their direct mean- 
 ings we cannot avoid arousing thoughts that imply the 
 very distinction which it is the object of the analysis to 
 establish. Keeping this fact in mind, we can do no more 
 than ignore the connotations of the words, and attend only 
 to the things they avowedly denote. 
 
 43. Setting out from the conclusion lately reached, 
 that all things known to us are manifestations of the Un- 
 knowable ; and suppressing, so far as we may, every hypo- 
 thesis respecting the something which underlies one or other 
 order of these manifestations ; we find that the manifesta- 
 tions, considered simply as such, are divisible into two great 
 classes, called by some impressions and ideas. The implica- 
 tions of these words are apt to vitiate the reasonings of those 
 who use the words ; and though it may be possible to use 
 them only with reference to the differential characteristics 
 they are meant to indicate, it is best to avoid the risk of 
 making unacknowledged assumptions. The term sensation, 
 too, commonly used as the equivalent of impression, implies 
 certain psychological theories tacitly, if not openly, postu- 
 lates a sensitive organism and something acting upon it; 
 and can scarcely be employed without bringing these postu- 
 lates into the thoughts and embodying them in the in- 
 ferences. Similarly, the phrase state of consciousness, as 
 signifying either an impression or an idea, is objectionable. 
 As we cannot think of a state without thinking of something 
 of which it is a state, and which is capable of different 
 states, there is involved a foregone conclusion an un- 
 
144: THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 developed system of metaphysics. Here, accepting the in* 
 evitable implication that the manifestations imply some- 
 thing manifested, our aim must be to avoid any further 
 implications. Though we cannot exclude further implica- 
 tions from our thoughts, and cannot carry on our argument 
 without tacit recognitions of them, we can at any rate refuse 
 to recognize them in the terms with which we set out. We 
 may do this most effectually by classing the manifestations 
 as vivid and faint respectively. Let us consider what are 
 the several distinctions that exist between these. 
 
 And first a few words on this most conspicuous distinction 
 which these antithetical names imply. Manifestations that 
 occur under the conditions called those of perception (and 
 the conditions so called we must here, as much as possible, 
 separate from all hypotheses, and regard simply as them- 
 selves a certain group of manifestations) are ordinarily far 
 .more distinct than those which occur under the conditions 
 known as those of reflection, or memory, or imagination, or 
 ideation. These vivid manifestations do, indeed, sometimes 
 differ but little from the faint ones. When nearly dark we 
 may be unable to decide whether a certain manifestation 
 belongs to the vivid order or the faint order whether, as 
 we say, we really see something or fancy we see it. In like 
 manner, between a very feeble sound and the imagination of 
 a sound, it is occasionally difficult to discriminate. But 
 these exceptional cases are extremely rare in comparison 
 with the enormous mass of cases in which, from instant to 
 instant, the vivid manifestations distinguish themselves un- 
 mistakeably from the faint. Conversely, it also 
 
 now and then happens (though under conditions which we 
 significantly distinguish as abnormal) that manifestations of 
 the faint order become so strong as to be mistaken for those 
 of the vivid order. Idea A sights and sounds are in the in- 
 sane so much intensified as to be classed with real sights 
 and sounds ideal and real being here supposed to imply no 
 other contrast than that which we are considering. These 
 
THE DATA OF PHILOSOPHY. 145 
 
 cases of illusion, as we call them, bear, however, so small a 
 ratio to the great mass of cases, that we may safely neglect 
 them, and say that the relative faintness of these manifesta- 
 tions of the second order is so marked, that we are never in 
 doubt as to their distinctness from those of the first order. 
 Or if we recognize the exceptional occurrence of doubt, the 
 recognition serves but to introduce the significant fact that 
 we have other means of determining to which order a parti- 
 cular manifestation belongs, when the test of comparative 
 vividness fails us. 
 
 Manifestations of the vivid order precede, in our experi- 
 ence, those of the faint order; or, in the terms quoted 
 above, the idea is an imperfect and feeble repetition of the 
 original impression. To put the facts in historical sequence 
 there is first a presented manifestation of the vivid order, 
 and then, afterwards, there may come a represented manifes- 
 tation that is like it except in being much less distinct. 
 Besides the universal experience that after having those 
 vivid manifestations which we call particular places and 
 persons and things, we can have those faint manifestations 
 which we call recollections of the places, persons, and things, 
 but cannot have these previously ; and besides the universal 
 experience that before tasting certain substances and smell- 
 ing certain perfumes we are without the faint manifestations 
 known as ideas of their tastes and smells ; we have also the 
 fact that where certain orders of the vivid manifestations 
 are shut out (as the visible from the blind and the audible 
 from the deal) tho corresponding faint manifestations 
 never come into existence. It is true that in 
 
 some cases the faint manifestations precede the vivid. 
 What we call a conception of a machine may presently be 
 followed by a vivid manifestation matching it a so-called 
 actual machine. But in the first place this occurrence of the 
 vivid manifestation after the faint, has no analogy with the 
 occurrence of the faint after the vivid its sequence is not 
 spontaneous like that of the idea after Uie impression. And 
 
146 THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 in the second place, though a faint manifestation of this 
 kind may occur before the vivid one answering to it, yet its 
 component parts may not. Without the foregoing vivid 
 manifestations of wheels and bars and cranks, the inventor 
 could have no faint manifestation of his new machine. Thus, 
 the occurrence of the faint manifestations is made possible 
 by the previous occurrence of the vivid. They are distin- 
 guished from one another as independent and dependent. 
 
 These two orders of manifestations form concurrent 
 series ; or rather let us call them, not series, which implies 
 linear arrangements, but heterogeneous streams or pro- 
 cessions. These run side by side; each now broadening 
 and now narrowing, each now threatening to obliterate its 
 neighbour, and now in turn threatened with obliteration, 
 but neither ever quite excluding the other from their 
 common channel. Let us watch the mutual actions of the 
 two currents. During what we call our states of 
 
 activity, the vivid manifestations predominate. We simul- 
 taneously receive many and varied presentations a crowd 
 of visual impressions, sounds more or less numerous, resist- 
 ances, tastes, odours, &c. ; some groups of them changing, 
 and others temporarily fixed, but altering as we move ; and 
 when we compare in its breadth and massiveness this 
 heterogeneous combination of vivid manifestations with the 
 concurrent combination of faint manifestations, these last 
 sink into relative insignificance. They never wholly dis- 
 appear however. Always along with the vivid manifesta- 
 tions, even in their greatest obtrusiveness, analysis discloses 
 a thread of thoughts and interpretations constituted of the 
 faint manifestations. Or if it be contended that the occur- 
 rence of a deafening explosion or an intense pain may for a 
 moment exclude every idea, it must yet be admitted that 
 such breach of continuity can never be immediately known 
 as occurring; since the act of knowing is impossible in 
 the absence of ideas. On the oilier hand, after 
 
 certain vivid manifestations wliich we call the acts of 
 
THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 147 
 
 closing the eyes and adjusting ourselves so as to enfeeble 
 the vivid manifestations of pressure, sound, &c., the mani- 
 festations of the faint order become relatively predominant. 
 The ever-varying heterogeneous current of them, no longer 
 obscured by the vivid current, grows more distinct, and 
 seems almost to exclude the vivid current. But while what 
 we call consciousness continues, the current of vivid mani- 
 festations, however small the dimensions to which it is 
 reduced, still continues : pressure and touch do not wholly 
 disappear. It is only on lapsing into the unconsciousness 
 termed sleep, that manifestations of the vivid order cease 
 to be distinguishable as such, and those of the faint order 
 come to be mistaken for them. And even of this we remain 
 unaware till the recurrence of manifestations of the vivid 
 order on awaking : we can never infer that manifestations 
 of the vivid order have been absent, until they are again 
 present ; and can therefore never directly know them lo bo 
 absent. Thus, of the two concurrent compound 
 
 series of manifestations, each preserves its continuity. 
 As they flow side by side, each trenches on the other, 
 but there never comes a moment at which it can be said 
 that the one has, then and there, broken through the other. 
 Besides this longitudinal cohesion there is a lateral cohe- 
 sion, both of the vivid to the vivid and of the faint to thn 
 faint. The components of the vivid series are bound to- 
 gether by ties of co-existence as well as by ties of succes- 
 sion ; and the components of the faint series are similarly 
 bound together. Between the degrees of union in the two 
 cases there are, however, marked and very significant 
 differences. Let us observe them. Over an area 
 
 occupying part of the so-called field of view, lights and 
 shades and colours and outlines constitute a group to 
 which, as the signs of an object, we give a certain name ; 
 and while they continue present, these united vivid manifes- 
 tations remain inseparable. So, too, is it with co-existing 
 groups of manifestations : each persists as a special com- 
 
148 THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 bination ; and most of them preserve unchanging relations 
 with those around. Such of them as do not such of them 
 as are capable of what we call independent movements, 
 nevertheless show us a constant connexion between certain 
 of the manifestations they include, along with a variable 
 connexion of others. And though after certain vivid mani- 
 festations known as a change in the conditions of percep- 
 tion, there is a change in the proportions among the vivid 
 manifestations constituting any group, their cohesion con- 
 tinues we do not succeed in detaching one or more of 
 them from the rest. Turning to the faint mani- 
 
 festations, we see that while there are lateral cohesions 
 among them, these are much less extensive, and in most 
 cases are by no means so rigorous. After closing my eyes, 
 I can represent an object now standing in a certain place, 
 as standing in some other place, or as absent. While I 
 look ,t a blue vase, I cannot separate the vivid manifes- 
 tation of blueness from the vivid manifestation of a parti- 
 cular shape; but, in the absence of these vivid manifesta- 
 tions, I can separate the faint manifestation of the shape 
 from the faint manifestation of blueness, and replace the last 
 by a faint manifestation of redness. It is so throughout : 
 the faint manifestations cling together to a certain extent, 
 but nevertheless most of them may be re-arranged with 
 facility. Indeed none of the individual faint manifestations 
 cohere in the same indissoluble way as do the individual 
 vivid manifestations. Though along with a faint manifesta- 
 tion of pressure there is always some faint manifestation of 
 extension, yet no particular faint manifestation of extension 
 is bound up with a particular faint manifestation of pres- 
 sure. So that whereas in the vivid order the indi- 
 vidual manifestations cohere indissolubly, usually in largo 
 groups, in the faint order the individual manifestations none 
 of them cohere indissolubly, and are most of them loosely 
 aggregated: the only indissoluble cohesions among them 
 being between certain of their generic forms. 
 
THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 While the components of each current cohtre with one 
 another, they do not cohere at all strongly with those of 
 the other current. Or, more correctly, we may say that the 
 vivid current habitually flows on quite undisturbed by the 
 faint current; and that the faint current, though often 
 largely determined by the vivid, and always to some extent 
 carried with it, may yet maintain a substantial independence, 
 letting the vivid current slide by. We will glance at the 
 interactions of the two. The successive faint 
 
 manifestations constituting thought, fail to modify in tho 
 slightest degree the vivid manifestations that present them- 
 selves. Omitting a quite peculiar class of exceptions, here- 
 after to be dealt with, the vivid manifestations, fixed and 
 changing, are not directly affected by the faint. Those 
 which I distinguish as components of a landscape, as 
 surgings of the sea, as whistlings of the wind, as move- 
 ments of vehicles and people, are absolutely uninfluenced 
 by the accompanying faint manifestations which I distin- 
 guish as my ideas. On the other hand, the 
 current of faint manifestations is always somewhat per- 
 turbed by the vivid. Frequently it consists mainly of faint 
 manifestations which cling to the vivid ones, and are carried 
 with them as they pass memories and suggestions as we 
 call them, which, joined with the vivid manifestations pro- 
 ducing them, form almost the whole body of the manifesta- 
 tions. At other times, when, as we say, absorbed in 
 thought, the disturbance of the faint current is but super- 
 ficial. The vivid manifestations drag after them such few 
 faint manifestations only as constitute recognitions of them : 
 to each impression adhere certain ideas which make up 
 the interpretation of it as such or such. But there mean- 
 while flows on a main stream of faint manifestations whollv 
 unrelated to the vivid manifestations what we call a 
 reverie, perhaps, or it may be a process of reasoning. And 
 occasionally, during the state known as absence of mind, 
 this current of faint manifestations so far predominates that 
 
150 THE DATA OF rniLOSOFHT. 
 
 the vivid current scarcely affects it at all. Hence, 
 
 these concurrent series of manifestations, each coherent with 
 itself longitudinally and laterally, have but a partial cohe- 
 rence with one another. The vivid series is quite unmoved 
 by its passing neighbour; and though the faint series is 
 always to some extent moved by the adjacent vivid series, 
 and is often carried bodily along with the vivid series, it 
 may nevertheless become in great measure separate. 
 
 Yet another all-important differential characteristic has to 
 be specified. The conditions under which these respective 
 orders of manifestations occur, are different ; and the con- 
 ditions of occurrence of each order belong to itself. When- 
 ever the immediate antecedents of vivid manifestations are 
 traceable, they prove to be other vivid manifestations ; and 
 though we cannot say that the antecedents of the faint 
 manifestations always lie wholly among themselves, yet the 
 essential ones lie wholly among themselves. These state- 
 ments will need a good deal of explanation. Ob- 
 viously, changes among any of the vivid manifestations wo 
 are contemplating the motions and sounds and alterations 
 of appearance, in what we call surrounding objects are 
 either changes that follow certain vivid manifestations, or 
 changes of which the antecedents are unapparent. Some of 
 the vivid manifestations, however, occur only under certain 
 conditions that seem to be of another order. Those which 
 we know as colours and visible forms presuppose open eyes. 
 But what is the opening of the eyes, translated into the 
 terms we are here using ? Literally it is an occurrence of 
 certain vivid manifestations. The preliminary idea of open- 
 ing the eyes does, indeed, consist of faint manifestations, but 
 the act of opening them consists of vivid manifestations. 
 And the like is still more conspicuously the case with those 
 movements of the eyes and the head which are followed by 
 new groups of vivid manifestations. Similarly with the 
 antecedents to the vivid manifestations which we distinguish 
 us those of touch and pressure. All the changeable ones have 
 
THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 151 
 
 for their conditions of occurrence certain vivid manifesta- 
 tions which we know as sensations of muscular tension. It 
 is true that the conditions to these conditions are manifesta- 
 tions of the faint order those ideas of muscular actions 
 which precede muscular actions. And we are here intro- 
 duced to a complication arising from the fact that what is 
 called the body, is present to us as a set of vivid manifesta- 
 tions connected with the faint manifestations in a special 
 way a way such that in it alone certain vivid manifesta- 
 tions are capable of being produced by faint manifestations. 
 There must be named, too, the kindred exception furnished 
 by the emotions an exception which, however, serves to 
 enforce the general proposition. For while it is true that 
 the emotions are to be considered as a certain kind of vivid 
 manifestations, and are yet capable of being produced by 
 the faint manifestations we call ideas ; it is also true' that 
 because the conditions to their occurrence thus exist among 
 the faint manifestations, we class them as belonging to the 
 same general aggregate as the faint manifestations do not 
 class them with such other vivid manifestations as colours, 
 sounds, pressures, smells, &c. But omitting these peculiar 
 vivid manifestations which we know as muscular tensions 
 and emotions, and which we habitually class apart, we may 
 say of all the rest, that the conditions to their exist- 
 ence as vivid manifestations are manifestations belonging 
 to their own class. In the parallel current we 
 
 find a parallel truth. Though many manifestations of the 
 faint order are partly caused by manifestations of the vivid 
 order, which call up memories as we say, and suggest in- 
 ferences; yet these results mainly depend on certain antece- 
 dents belonging to the faint order. A cloud drifts across 
 the sun, and may or may not produce an effect on the cur- 
 rent of ideas : the inference that it is about to rain may 
 arise, or there may be a persistence in the previous train of 
 thought a difference obviously determined by conditions 
 wnong the thoughts. Again, such power as a vivid mank 
 
152 THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 festation has of causing certain faint manifestations to arise, 
 depends on the pre-existence of certain appropriate faini 
 manifestations. If I have never heard a curlew, the cry 
 which an unseen one makes, fails to produce an idea of the 
 bird And we have but to remember what various trains of 
 reflection are aroused by the same sight, to see how essen- 
 tially the occurrence of each faint manifestation depends o& 
 its relations to other faint manifestations that have gon& 
 before or that co-exist. 
 
 Here we are introduced, lastly, to one of the most striking, 
 and perhaps the most important, of the differences between 
 those two orders of manifestations a difference continuous 
 with that just pointed out, but one which may with advan- 
 tage be separately insisted upon. The conditions of occur- 
 rence are not distinguished solely by the fact that each set, 
 when identifiable, belongs to its own order of manifestations; 
 but they are further distinguished in a very significant way. 
 Manifestations of the faint order have traceable antece- 
 dents; can be made to occur by establishing their condi- 
 tions of occurrence ; and can be suppressed by establishing 
 other conditions. But manifestations of the vivid order 
 continually occur without previous presentation of their 
 antecedents ; and in many cases they persist or cease, under 
 either known or unknown conditions, in such way as to 
 show that their conditions are wholly beyond control. 
 The impression distinguished as a flash of lightning, breaks 
 across the current of our thoughts, absolutely without 
 notice. The sounds from a band that strikes up in the 
 street or from a crash of china in the next room, are not 
 connected with any of the previously-present manifesta- 
 tions, either of the faint or of the vivid order. Often 
 these vivid manifestations, arising unexpectedly, persist in 
 thrusting themselves across the current of the faint ones ; 
 which not only cannot directly affect them, but cannot 
 oven indirectly affect them. A wound produced by a 
 violent blow from behind, is a vivid manifestation the con* 
 
THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 153 
 
 ditions of occurrence of which were neither among the fainfc 
 nor among the vivid manifestations ; and the conditions to 
 the persistence of which are bound up with the vivid mani- 
 festations in some unmanifested way. So that whereas in 
 the faint order, the conditions of occurrence are always 
 among the pre-existing or co-existing manifestations; in 
 the vivid order, the conditions of occurrence are often not 
 present. 
 
 Thus we find many salient characters in which manifesta- 
 tions of the one order are like one another, and unlike those 
 of the other order. Let us briefly re-enumerate these salient 
 characters. Manifestations of the one order are vivid and 
 those of the other are faint. Those of the one order are 
 originals, while those of the other order are copies. The 
 first form with one another a scries, or heterogeneous current, 
 that is never broken; and the second also form with one 
 another a parallel series or current that is never broken : or, to 
 speak strictly, no breakage of either is ever directly known. 
 Those of the first order cohere with one another, not only 
 longitudinally but also transversely ; as do also those of tho 
 second order with one another. Between manifestations of 
 the first order the cohesions, both longitudinal and trans- 
 verse, are indissoluble; but between manifestations of the 
 second order, these cohesions are most of them dissoluble 
 with case. While the members of each series or current are 
 so coherent with one another that the current cannot be 
 broken, the two currents, running side by side as they do, 
 have but little coherence the great body of the vivid 
 current is absolutely unmodifiable by the faint, and the faint 
 may become almost separate from the vivid. The conditions 
 under which manifestations of either order occur, themselves 
 belong to that order ; but whereas in the faint order, the 
 conditions are always present, in the vivid order the condi- 
 tions are often not present, but lie somewhere outside of the 
 series. Seven separate characters, then, mark off these two 
 orders of manifestations from one another. 
 
154 THE DATA OF PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 44. What is tlie meaning of this ? The foregoing 
 analysis was commenced in the belief that the proposition 
 postulated by Philosophy, must affirm some ultimate classes 
 of likenesses and unlikenesses, in which all other classes 
 merge ; and here we have found that all manifestations of 
 the Unknowable are divisible into two such classes. "What 
 is the division equivalent to ? 
 
 Obviously it corresponds to the division between object 
 and subject. This profoundest of distinctions among the 
 manifestations of the Unknowable, we recognize by grouping 
 them into self and not-self. These faint manifestations, 
 forming a continuous whole differing from the other in the 
 quantity, quality, cohesion, and conditions of existence of 
 its parts, we call the ego ; and these vivid manifestations, 
 indissolubly bound together in relatively-immense masses, 
 and having independent conditions of existence, we call the 
 non-ego. Or rather, more truly each order of manifesta- 
 tions carries with it the irresistible implication of some 
 power that manifests itself; and by the words ego and non- 
 ego respectively, we mean the power that manifests itself in 
 the faint forms, and the power that manifests itself in the 
 vivid forms. 
 
 As we here see, these consolidated conceptions thus anti- 
 thetically named, do not originate in some inscrutable way ; 
 but they have for their explanation the ultimate law of 
 thought that is beyond appeal. The persistent conscious- 
 ness of likeness or difference, is one which, by its very per- 
 sistence, makes itself accepted ; and one which transcends 
 scepticism, since without it even doubt becomes impossible. 
 And the primordial division of self from not-self, is a cumu- 
 lative result of persistent consciousnesses of likenesses and 
 differences among manifestations. Indeed, thought exist* 
 only through that kind of act which leads us, from moment 
 to moment, to refer certain manifestations to the one class 
 with which they have so many common attributes, and 
 others to the other class with which they have common 
 
THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 355 
 
 nttributes equally numerous. And the myriad-fold repeti- 
 tion of these classings, bringing about the myriad-fold asso- 
 ciations of each manifestation with those of its own class*, 
 brings about this union among the members of each class, 
 and this disunion of the two classes. 
 
 Strictly speaking, this segregation of the manifestations 
 and coalescence of them into two distinct wholes, is in 
 great part spontaneous, and precedes all deliberate judg- 
 ments ; though it is endorsed by such judgments when they 
 come to be made. For the manifestations of each order 
 have not simply that kind of union implied by grouping 
 them as individual objects of the same class; but, as we 
 have seen, they have the much more intimate union implied 
 by actual cohesion. This cohesive union exhibits itself 
 before any conscious acts of classing take place. So that, in 
 truth, these two contrasted orders of manifestations are 
 substantially self-separated and self-consolidated. The 
 members of each, by clinging to one another and parting 
 from their opposites, themselves form these united wholes 
 constituting object and subject. It is this self-union which 
 gives to these wholes formed of them, their individualities 
 as wholes, and that separateness from each other which 
 transcends judgment; and judgment merely aids the pre- 
 determined segregation by assigning to their respective 
 classes, such manifestations as have not distinctly united 
 themselves with the rest of their kind. 
 
 One further perpetually-repeated act of judgment there is, 
 indeed, which strengthens this fundamental antithesis, and 
 gives a vast extension to one term of it. We continually 
 learn that while the conditions of occurrence of faint mani- 
 festations are always to be found, the conditions of, oc- 
 currence of vivid manifestations are often not to be found. 
 We also continually learn that vivid manifestations which 
 nave no perceivable antecedents among the vivid manifesta- 
 tions, are like certain preceding ones which had perceivable 
 antecedents among the vivid manifestations. Joining these 
 
15(3 THE DATA OP PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 two experiences together, there results the irresistible con- 
 ception that some vivid manifestations have conditions of 
 occurrence existing out of the current of vivid manifesta- 
 tions existing as potential vivid manifestations capable of 
 becoming actual. And so we are made vaguely conscious 
 of an indefinitely-extended region of power or being, not 
 merely separate from the current of faint manifestations 
 constituting the ego, but lying beyond the current of vivid 
 manifestations constituting the immediately-present portion 
 of the non-ego. 
 
 45. In a very imperfect way, passing over objections 
 and omitting needful explanations, I have thus, in the 
 narrow space that could properly be devoted to it, indicated 
 the essential nature and justification of that primordial pro- 
 position which Philosophy requires as a datum. I might, 
 indeed, safely have assumed this ultimate truth; which 
 Common Sense asserts, which every step in Science takes for 
 granted, and which no metaphysician ever for a moment 
 succeeded in expelling from consciousness. Setting out 
 with the postulate that the manifestations of the Unknowable 
 fall into the two separate aggregates constituting the world 
 of consciousness and the world beyond consciousness, I might 
 have let the justification of this postulate depend on its 
 subsequently-proved congruity with every result of experi- 
 ence, direct and indirect. But as all that follows proceeds 
 upon this postulate, it seemed desirable briefly to indicate 
 its warrant, with the view of shutting out criticisms that 
 might else be made. It seemed desirable to show that this 
 fundamental cognition is neither, as the idealist asserts, an 
 illusion, nor as the sceptic thinks, of doubtful worth, nor as is 
 held by the natural realist, an inexplicable intuition; but 
 that it is a legitimate deliverance of consciousness elaborat- 
 ing its materials after the laws of its normal action. While, 
 in order of time, the establishment of this distinction precedes 
 all reasoning ; and while, running through our mental 
 
THE DATA OF PHILOSOPHY. 157 
 
 structure as it does, we are debarred from reasoning about 
 it without taking for granted its existence ; analysis never- 
 theless enables us to justify the assertion of its existence, by 
 showing that it is also the outcome of a classification based 
 on accumulated likenesses and accumulated differences. In 
 other words Reasoning, which is itself but a formation of 
 cohesions among manifestations, here strengthens, by the 
 cohesions it forms, the cohesions which it finds already 
 existing. 
 
 So much, then, for the data of Philosophy. In common 
 with Religion, Philosophy assumes the primordial implica- 
 tion of consciousness, which, as we saw in the last part, ha 
 the deepest of all foundations. It assumes the validity of a 
 certain primordial process of consciousness, without which 
 inference is impossible, and without which there cannot 
 even be either affirmation or denial. And it assumes the 
 validity of a certain primordial product of consciousness, 
 which though it originates in an earlier process, is also, in 
 one sense, a product of this process, since by this process 
 it is tested and stamped as genuine. In brief, our postu- 
 lates are : an Unknowable Power ; the existence of know- 
 able likenesses and differences among the manifestations of 
 that Power; and a resulting segregation of the manifes- 
 tations into those of subject and object. 
 
 Before proceeding with the substantial business of Philo- 
 sophy the complete unification of the knowledge partially 
 unified by Science, a further preliminary is needed. The 
 manifestations of the Unknowable, separated into the two 
 divisions of self and not-self, are re-divisible into certain 
 most general forms, the reality of which Science, as well as 
 Common Sense, from moment to moment assumes. In the 
 chapter on " Ultimate Scientific Ideas," it was shown that 
 we know nothing of these forms, considered in themselves. 
 As, nevertheless, we must continue to use the words signify- 
 mg them, it is needful to say what interpretations are to bo 
 put on these words. 
 
CHAPTER IIL 
 8PACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 
 
 46. THAT sceptical state of mind which the criticisms of 
 Philosophy usually produce, is, in great measure, caused by 
 the misinterpretation of words. A sense of universal illusion 
 ordinarily follows the reading of metaphysics ; and is strong 
 in proportion as the argument has appeared conclusive. This 
 sense of universal illusion would probably never have arisen, 
 had the terms used been always rightly construed. Unfor- 
 tunately, these terms have by association acquired meanings 
 that are quite different from those given to them in philoso- 
 phical discussions ; and the ordinary meanings being un- 
 avoidably suggested, there results more or less of that dream- 
 like idealism which is so incongruous with our instinctive 
 convictions. The word phenomenon and its equivalent word 
 appearance, are in great part to blame for this. In ordinary 
 speech, these are uniformly employed in reference to visual 
 perceptions. Habit, almost, if not quite, disables us from 
 thinking of appearance except as something seen ; and though 
 phenomenon has a more generalized meaning, yet we can- 
 not rid it of associations with appearance, which is its verbal 
 equivalent. When, therefore, Philosophy proves that our 
 knowledge of the external world can be but phenomenal 
 when it concludes that the things of which we are conscious 
 are appearances ; it inevitably arouses in us the notion of an 
 illusiveness like that to which our visual perceptions are so 
 liable in comparison with our tactual perceptions. Good pio 
 
SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 159 
 
 tures show us that the aspects of things may be very nearly 
 simulated by colours on canvass. The looking-glass still more 
 distinctly proves how deceptive is sight when unverified by 
 touch. And the frequent cases in which we misinterpret the 
 impressions made on our eyes, and think we see something 
 which we do not see, further shake our faith in vision. So 
 that the implication of uncertainty has infected the very word 
 appearance. Hence, Philosophy, by giving it an extended 
 meaning, leads us to think of all our senses as deceiving us in 
 the same way that the eyes do ; and so makes us feel ourselves 
 floating in a world of phantasms. Had phenomenon and ap- 
 pearance no such misleading associations, little, if any, of this 
 mental confusion would result. Or did we in place of them 
 use the term effect, which is equally applicable to all impres- 
 sions produced on consciousness through any of the senses, 
 and which carries with it in thought the necessary correla- 
 tive cause, with which it is equally real, we should be in little 
 danger of falling into the insanities of idealism. 
 
 Such danger as there might still remain, would disappear 
 on making a further verbal correction. At present, the con- 
 fusion resulting from the above misinterpretation, is made 
 greater by an antithetical misinterpretation. We increase 
 the seeming unreality of that phenomenal existence which 
 we can alone know, by contrasting it with a noumenal exist- 
 ence which we imagine would, if we could know it, be more 
 truly real to us. But we delude ourselves with a verbal fic- 
 tion. What is the meaning of the word real ? Thia 
 is the question which underlies every metaphysical inquiry ; 
 and the neglect of it is the remaining cause of the chronic 
 antagonisms of metaphysicians. In the interpretation put on 
 the word real, the discussions of philosophy retain one ele- 
 ment of the vulgar conception of things, while they reject all 
 its other elements ; and create confusion by the inconsistency. 
 The peasant, on contemplating an object, does not regard 
 fhat which he contemplates as something in himself, but be- 
 lieves the thing of which he is conscious to be the externa 1 
 
160 SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FOKCE. 
 
 
 object imagines that Ms consciousness extends to the very 
 place where the object lies : to him the appearance and the 
 reality are one and the same thing. The metaphysician, 
 however, is convinced that consciousness cannot embrace the 
 reality, but only the appearance of it ; and so he transfers the 
 appearance into consciousness and leaves the reality outside. 
 This reality left outside of consciousness, he continues to 
 think of much in the same way as the ignorant man thinks 
 of the appearance. Though the reality is asserted to be out 
 of consciousness, yet the realness ascribed to it is constantly 
 spoken of as though it were a knowledge possessed apart from 
 consciousness. It seems to be forgotten that the conception of 
 reality can be nothing more than some mode of consciousness; 
 and that the question to be considered is What is the rela- 
 tion between this mode and other modes ? 
 
 By reality we mean persistence in consciousness: a per- 
 sistence that is either unconditional, as our consciousness of 
 space, or that is conditional, as our consciousness of a body 
 while grasping it. The real, as we conceive it, is distinguished 
 solely by the test of persistence ; for by this test we separate 
 it from what we call the unreal. Between a person standing 
 before us, and the idea of such a person, we discriminate by 
 our ability to expel the idea from consciousness, and our in- 
 ability, while looking at him, to expel the person from con- 
 sciousness. And when in doubt as to the validity or illusive- 
 ness of some impression made upon us in the dusk, we settle 
 the matter by observing whether the impression persists on 
 closer observation ; and we predicate reality if the persistence 
 is complete. How truly persistence is what we mean 
 
 by reality, is shown in the fact that when, after criticism has 
 proved that the real as we are conscious of it is not the ob- 
 jectively real, the indefinite notion which we form of the ob- 
 jectively real, is of something which persists absolutely, under 
 all changes of mode, form, or appearance. And the fact that 
 we cannot form even an indefinite notion of the absolutely 
 real, except as the absolutely persistent, clearly implies that 
 
SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 161 
 
 persistence is our ultimate test of the real as present to con- 
 eciousness. 
 
 Reality then, as we think it, being nothing more than 
 persistence in consciousness, the result must be the same to 
 us whether that which we perceive be the Unknowable 
 itself, or an effect invariably wrought on us by the Unknow- 
 able. If, under constant conditions furnished by our con- 
 stitutions, some Power of which the nature is beyond 
 conception, always produces some mode of consciousness 
 if this mode of consciousness is as persistent as would be 
 this Power were it in consciousness ; the reality will be to 
 consciousness as complete in the one case as in the other. 
 Were Unconditioned Being itself present in thought, it 
 could but bo persistent ; and if, instead, there is present 
 Being conditioned by the forms of thought, but no less 
 persistent, it must be to us no less real. 
 
 Hence there may be drawn these conclusions : First, that 
 we have an indefinite consciousness of an absolute reality 
 transcending relations, which is produced by the absolute 
 persistence in us of something which survives all changes of 
 relation. Second, that we have a definite consciousness of 
 relative reality, which unceasingly persists in us under one 
 or other of its forms, and under each form so long as the con- 
 ditions of presentation are fulfilled ; and that the relative 
 reality, being thus continuously persistent in us, is as real to 
 us as would be the absolute reality could it be immediately 
 known. Third, that thought being possible only under rela- 
 tion, the relative reality can be conceived as such only in con- 
 nexion with an absolute reality ; and the connexion between 
 the two being absolutely persistent in our consciousness, is 
 real in the same sense as the terms it unites are real. 
 
 Thus then we may resume, with entire confidence, those 
 realistic conceptions which philosophy at first sight seems to 
 dissipate. Though reality under the forms of our conscious- 
 ness, is but a conditioned effect of the absolute reality, yet 
 this conditioned effect standing in indissoluble relation with 
 its unconditioned cause, and being equally persistent, with it 
 
162 SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FOKCE. 
 
 
 60 long as the conditions persist, is, to the consciousness sup- 
 plying those conditions, equally real. The persistent impres- 
 sions being the persistent results of a persistent cause, are for 
 practical purposes the same to us as the cause itself ; and may 
 be habitually dealt with as its equivalents. Somewhat in the 
 same way that our visual perceptions, though merely symbols 
 found to be the equivalents of tactual perceptions, are yet so 
 identified with those tactual perceptions that we actually ap- 
 pear to see the solidity and hardness which we do but infer, 
 and thus conceive as objects what are only the signs of objects ; 
 so, on a higher stage, do we deal with these relative realities 
 as though they were absolutes instead of effects of the abso- 
 lute. And we may legitimately continue so to deal with them 
 as long as the conclusions to which they help us are understood 
 as relative realities and not absolute ones. 
 
 This general conclusion it now remains to interpret speci 
 fically, in its application to each of our ultimate scientific 
 ideas. 
 
 47. * We think in relations. This is truly the form of 
 all thought ; and if there are any other forms, they must be 
 derived from this. We have seen (Chap. iii. Part I.) that 
 the several ultimate modes of being canno't be known or con- 
 ceived as they exist in themselves ; that is, out of relation to 
 our consciousness. We have seen, by analyzing the pro- 
 duct of thought, ( 23,) that it always consists of relations ; 
 and cannot include anything beyond the most general of these. 
 On analyzing the process of thought, we found that cogni- 
 tion of the Absolute was impossible, because it presented 
 neither relation, nor its elements difference and likeness. 
 Further, we found that not only Intelligence but Life itself, 
 consists in the establishment of internal relations in corre- 
 spondence with external relations. And lastly, it was shown 
 
 * For the psychological conclusions briefly set forth in this and the three sec- 
 tions following it, the justification will be found in the writer's Principles of 
 Psychology. 
 
SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 163 
 
 that though by the relativity of our thought we are eternally 
 debarred from knowing or conceiving Absolute Being ; yet 
 that this very relativity of our thought, necessitates that vague 
 consciousness of Absolute Being which no mental effort can 
 suppress. That relation is the universal form of thought, is 
 thus a truth which all kinds of demonstration unite in 
 proving. 
 
 By the trauscendentalists, certain other phenomena of con- 
 sciousness are regarded as forms of thought. Presuming 
 that relation would be admitted by them to be a universal 
 mental form, they would class with it two others as also uni- 
 versal. Were their hypothesis otherwise tenable however, it 
 .must still be rejected if such alleged further forms are inter- 
 pretable as generated by the primary form. If we think in 
 relations, and if relations have certain universal forms, it is 
 manifest that such universal forms of relations will become 
 universal forms of our consciousness. And if these further 
 universal forms are thus explicable, it is superfluous, and 
 therefore unphilosophical, to assign them an independent 
 origin. Now relations are of two orders relations 
 
 of sequence, and relations of co- existence ; of which the one 
 is original and the other derivative. The relation of sequence 
 is given in every change of consciousness. The relation of 
 co-existence, which cannot be originally given in a conscious- 
 ness of which the states are serial, becomes distinguished only 
 when it is found that certain relations of sequence have their 
 terms presented in consciousness in either order with equal 
 facility; while the others are presented only in one order. 
 Relations of which the terms are not reversible, become re- 
 cognized as sequences proper ; while relations of which, the 
 terms occur indifferently in both directions, become recog- 
 nized as co- existences. Endless experiences, which from 
 moment to moment present both orders of these relations, 
 render the distinction between them perfectly definite ; 
 and at the same time generate an abstract conception of 
 each. The abstract of all sequences is Time. The abstract 
 
it>4) SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCK. 
 
 of all co-existences is Space. From the fact that in thought, 
 Time is inseparable from sequence, and Space from co-exist- 
 ence, we do not here infer that Time and Space are original 
 conditions of consciousness under which sequences and co- 
 existences are known ; but we infer that our conceptions of 
 Time and Space are generated, as other abstracts are gener- 
 ated from other concretes : the only difference being, that 
 the organization of experiences has, in these cases, been going 
 on throughout the entire evolution of intelligence. 
 
 This synthesis is confirmed by analysis. Our consciousness 
 of Space is a consciousness of co-existent positions. Any lim- 
 ited portion of space can be conceived only by representing its 
 limits as co-existing in certain relative positions ; and each of 
 its imagined boundaries, be it line or plane, can be thought of 
 in no other way than as made up of co-existent positions in 
 close proximity. And since a position is not an entity since 
 the congeries of positions which constitute any conceived por- 
 tion of space, and mark its bounds, are not sensible existences ; 
 it follows that the co-existent positions which make up our 
 consciousness of Space, are not co-existences in the full sense 
 of the word (which implies realities as their terms), but are the 
 blank forms of co- existences, left behind when the realities are 
 absent ; that is, are the abstracts of co-existences. The 
 experiences out of which, during the evolution of intel- 
 ligence, this abstract of all co- existences has been generated, 
 are experiences of individual positions as ascertained by touch ; 
 and each of such experiences involves the resistance of an ob- 
 ject touched, and the muscular tension which measures this 
 resistance. By countless unlike muscular adjustments, involving 
 unlike muscular tensions, different resisting positions are dis- 
 closed ; and these, as they can be experienced in one order as 
 readily as another, we regard as co-existing. But since, un- 
 der other circumstances, the same muscular adjustments do 
 not produce contact with resisting positions, there result the 
 same states of consciousness, minus the resistances blank 
 forms of co-existence from which the co-existent objects before 
 
SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. Iti5 
 
 experienced are absent And from a building up of these, too 
 elaborate to be here detailed, results that abstract of all rela- 
 tions of co-existence which we call Space. It remains 
 only to point out, as a thing which we rnudt not forget, that 
 the experiences from which the consciousness of Space arises, 
 arc experiences of force. A certain correlation of the muscu- 
 lar forces we ourselves exercise, is the index of each position 
 as originally disclosed to us ; and the resistance which makes 
 us aware of something existing in that position, is an equi- 
 valent of tke pressure we consciously exert. Thus, experiences 
 of forces variously correlated, are those from which our con- 
 sciousness of Space is abstracted. 
 
 That which we know as Space being thus shown, alike by 
 its genesis and definition, to be purely relative, what are we 
 to say of that which causes it ? Is there an absolute Space 
 which relative Space in some sort represents ? Is Space in it- 
 self a form or condition of absolute existence, producing in 
 our minds a corresponding form or condition of relative exist- 
 ence ? These are unanswerable questions. Our conception 
 of Space is produced by some mode of the Unknowable ; and 
 the complete unchangeableness of our conception of it simply 
 implies a complete uniformity in the effects wrought by this 
 mode of the Unknowable upon us. But therefore to call it a 
 necessary mode of the Unknowable, is illegitimate. All we 
 can assert is, that Space is a relative reality ; that our consci- 
 ousness of this unchanging relative reality implies an absolute 
 renlity equally unchanging in so far as we are concerned ; 
 and that the relative reality may be unhesitatingly accepted 
 in thought as a valid basis for our reasonings ; which, when 
 rightly carried on, will bring us to truths that have a like 
 relative reality the only truths which concern us or can 
 possibly be known to us. 
 
 Concerning Time, relative and absolute, a parallel argu- 
 ment leads to parallel conclusions. These are too obvious to 
 need specifying in detail. 
 
160 SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 
 
 48, Our conception of Matter, reduced to its simplest shape 
 Is that of co-existent positions that offer resistance ; as con. 
 trasted with our conception of Space, in which the co- existent 
 positions offer no resistance. "We think of Body as bounded 
 by surfaces that resist ; and as made up throughout of parts 
 that resist. Mentally abstract the co-existent resistances, and 
 the consciousness of Body disappears ; leaving behind it the 
 consciousness of Space. And since the group of co-existing 
 resistent positions constituting a portion of matter, is uniform- 
 ly capable of giving us impressions of resistance in combina- 
 tion with various muscular adjustments, according as we 
 touch its near, its remote, its right, or its left side ; it results 
 that as different muscular adjustments habitually indicate dif- 
 ferent co-existences, we are obliged to conceive every portion 
 of matter as containing more than one resistent position that 
 is, as occupying Space. Hence the necessity we are under of 
 representing to ourselves the ultimate elements of Mattel as 
 being at once extended and resistent : this being the univer- 
 sal form of our sensible experiences of Matter, becomes the 
 form which our conception of it cannot transcend, however 
 minute the fragments which imaginary subdivisions pro- 
 duce. Of these two inseparable elements, the resist- 
 ance is primary, and the extension secondary. Occupied ex- 
 tension, or Body, being distinguished in consciousness from 
 unoccupied extension, or Space, by its resistance, this attribute 
 must clearly have precedence in the genesis of the idea. Such a 
 conclusion is, indeed, an obvious corollary from that at which 
 we arrived in the foregoing section. If, as was there contend- 
 ed, our consciousness of Space is a product of accumulated ex- 
 periences, partly our own but chiefly ancestral if, as was 
 pointed out, the experiences from which our consciousness of 
 Space is abstracted, can be received only through impressioiis 
 of resistance made upon the organism ; the necessary inference 
 is, that experiences of resistance being those from which the 
 conception of Space is generated, the resistance-attribute of 
 Matter must be regarded as primordial and the space-attribute 
 
SPACE, TIME, MATTEK, MOTION, AND FORCE. 167 
 
 as denVative. Whence it becomes manifest that, our 
 
 experience of force, is that out of which the idea of Matter is 
 built. Matter as opposing our muscular energies, being im- 
 mediately present to consciousness in terms of force ; and its 
 occupancy of Space being known by an abstract of experiences 
 originally given in terms of force ; it follows that forces, 
 standing in certain correlations, form the whole content of 
 our idea of Matter. 
 
 Such being our cognition of the relative reality, what are 
 we to say of the absolute reality ? We can only say that it 
 is some mode of the Unknowable, related to the Matter we 
 know, as cause to effect. The relativity of our cognition of 
 Matter is shown alike by the above analysis, and by the con- 
 tradictions which are evolved when we deal with the cogni- 
 tion as an absolute one ( 16). But, as we have lately seen, 
 though known to us only under relation, Matter is as real in 
 the true sense of that word, as it would be could we know it 
 out of relation ; and further, the relative reality which we 
 know as Matter, is necessarily represented to the mind as 
 standing in a persistent or real relation to the absolute real- 
 ity. We may therefore deliver ourselves over with- 
 out hesitation, to those terms of thought which experience has 
 organized in us. We need not in our physical, chemical, 
 or other researches, refrain from dealing with Matter as made 
 up of extended and resistent atoms ; for this conception, ne- 
 cessarily resulting from our experiences of Matter, is not less 
 legitimate than the conception of aggregate masses as extend- 
 ed and resistent. The atomic hypothesis, as well as the kindred 
 hypothesis of an all-pervading ether consisting of molecules, is 
 simply a necessary development of those universal forms which 
 the actions of the Unknowable have wrought in us. The con- 
 clusions logically worked out by the aid of these hypotheses, are 
 sure to be in harmony with all others which these same forms 
 involve, and will have^a relative truth that is equally complete. 
 
 49. The concept ion of Motion as presented or represented 
 

 168 SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 
 
 in the developed consciousness, involves the conceptions of 
 Space, of Time, and of Matter. A something that moves ; a 
 series of positions occupied in succession ; and a group of co- 
 existent positions united in thought with the successive ones 
 these are the constituents of the idea. And since, as we 
 have seen, these are severally elaborated from experiences of 
 force as given in certain correlations, it follows that from a 
 further synthesis of such experiences, the idea of Motion is 
 also elaborated. A certain other element in the idea, which 
 is in truth its fundamental element, (namely, the necessity 
 which the moving body is under to go on changing its posi- 
 tion), results immediately from the earliest experiences of force. 
 Movements of different parts of the organism in relation to 
 each other, are the first presented in consciousness. These, 
 produced by the action of the muscles, necessitate reactions 
 upon consciousness in the shape of sensations of muscular ten 
 sion. Consequently, each stretching-out or drawing-in of a 
 limb, is originally known as a series of muscular tensions, 
 varying in intensity as the position of the limb changes. And 
 this rudimentary consciousness of Motion, consisting of serial 
 impressions of force, becomes inseparably united with the 
 consciousness of Space and Time as fast as these are abstract- 
 ed from further impressions of force. Or rather, out of this 
 primitive conception of Motion, the adult conception of it i& 
 developed simultaneously with the development of the con- 
 ceptions of Space and Time : all three being evolved from the 
 more multiplied and varied impressions of muscular tension 
 and objective resistance. Motion, as we know it, is thus trace- 
 able, in common with the other ultimate scientific ideas, to ex- 
 periences of force. 
 
 That this relative reality answers to some absolute reality, 
 it is needful only for form's sake to assert. What has been 
 said above, respecting the Unknown Cause which produces in 
 us the effects called Matter, Space, and .Time, will apply, on 
 simply changing the terms, to Motion. 
 
SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 169 
 
 50. We come down then finally to Force, as the ultimate 
 of ultimates. Though Space, Time, Matter, and Motion, are 
 apparently all necessary data of intelligence, yet a psychologi- 
 cal analysis (here indicated only in rude outline) shows us 
 that these are either built up of, or abstracted from, experi- 
 ences of Force. Matter and Motion, as we know them, are 
 differently conditioned manifestations of Force. Space and 
 Time, as we know them, are disclosed along with these differ- 
 ent manifestations of Force as the conditions under which 
 they are presented. Matter and Motion are concretes built 
 up from the contents of various mental relations ; while Space 
 and Time are abstracts of the forms of these various rela- 
 tions. Deeper down than these, however, are the primordial 
 experiences of Force, which, as occurring in consciousness 
 in different combinations, supply at once the materials 
 whence the forms of relations are generalized, and the re- 
 lated objects built up. A single impression of force is 
 manifestly receivable by a sentient being devoid of mental 
 forms : grant but sensibility, with no established power of 
 thought, and a force producing some nervous change, will 
 still be presentable at the supposed seat of sensation. Though 
 no single impression of force so received, could itself produce 
 consciousness (which implies relations between different states), 
 yet a multiplication of such impressions, differing in kind 
 and degree, would give the materials for the establish- 
 ment of relations, that is, of thought. And if such rela- 
 tions differed in their forms as well as in their contents, 
 the impressions of such forms would be organized simultane- 
 ously with the impressions they contained. Thus all other 
 modes of consciousness are derivable from experiences of 
 Force ; but experiences of Force are not derivable from any- 
 thing else. Indeed, it needs but to remember that conscious- 
 ness consists of changes, to see that the ultimate datum of con- 
 sciousness must be that of which change. is the manifestation ; 
 and that thus the force by which we ourselves produce change*, 
 9 
 
170 SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 
 
 and which serves to symbolize the cause of changes in general, 
 is the final disclosure of analysis. 
 
 It is a truism to say that the nature of this undecomposable 
 element of our knowledge is inscrutable. If, to use an algebraic 
 illustration, we represent Matter, Motion, and Force, by the 
 gymbols x, y, and z ; then, we may ascertain the values of x 
 and y in terms of s / but the value of z can never be found : z 
 is the unknown quantity which must for ever remain unknown ; 
 for the obvious reason that there is nothing in which its value 
 can be expressed. It is within the possible reach of our in- 
 telligence to go on simplifying the equations of all phenomena, 
 until the complex symbols which formulate them are reduced 
 to certain functions of this ultimate symbol ; but when we 
 have done this, we have reached that limit which eternally 
 divides science from nescience. 
 
 That this undecomposable mode of consciousness into 
 which all other modes may be decomposed, cannot be itself 
 the Power manifested to us through phenomena, has been 
 already proved ( 18). WQ saw that to assume an identity 
 of nature between the cause of changes as it absolutely exists, 
 and that cause of change of which we are conscious in ouj- own 
 muscular efforts, betrays us into alternative impossibilities of 
 thought. Force, as we know it, can be regarded only as a 
 certain conditioned effect of the Unconditioned Cause as the 
 relative reality indicating to us an Absolute Reality by which 
 it is immediately produced. And here, indeed, we see even 
 more clearly than before, how inevitable is that transfigured 
 realism to which sceptical criticism finally brings us round. 
 Getting rid of all complications, and contemplating pure 
 Force, we are irresistibly compelled by the relativity of our 
 thought, to vaguely conceive some unknown force as the 
 correlative of the known force. Noumenon and phenome- 
 non are here presented in their primordial relation as 
 two sides of the same change, of which we are obliged 
 to regard the last as no less real than the first-. 
 
SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, AND FORCE. 171 
 
 51. In closing this exposition of the derivative data 
 needed by Philosophy as the unifier of Science, we may 
 properly glance at their relations to the primordial data, set 
 forth in the last chapter. 
 
 Ar> Unknown Cause of the known effects which we call 
 phenomena, likenesses and differences among these known 
 effects, and a segregation of the effects into subject and 
 object these are the postulates without which we cannot 
 think. Within each of the segregated masses of manifesta- 
 tions, there are likenesses and differences involving se- 
 condary segregations, which have also become indispensable 
 postulates. The vivid manifestations constituting the non- 
 c(jo do not simply cohere, but their cohesions have certain 
 invariable modes ; and among the faint manifestations con- 
 stituting the ego, which are products of the vivid, there 
 exist corresponding modes of cohesion. These modes of co- 
 hesion under which manifestations are invariably presented, 
 and therefore invariably represented, we call, when contem- 
 plated apart, Space and Time, and when contemplated along 
 with the manifestations themselves, Matter and Motion. 
 The ultimate natures of these modes are as unknown as is 
 the ultimate nature of that which is manifested. But just 
 the same warrant which we have for asserting that subject 
 and object coexist, we have for asserting that the vivid 
 manifestations we call objective, exist under certain constant 
 conditions, that are symbolized by these constant conditions 
 among the manifestations we call subjective. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 
 
 52. Not because the truth is unfamiliar, is it needful 
 here to say something concerning the indestructibility of 
 Matter ; but partly because the symmetry of our argument 
 demands the enunciation of this truth, and partly because 
 the evidence on which it is accepted requires examination. 
 Could it be shown, or could it with any rationality be even 
 supposed, that Matter, either in its aggregates or in its 
 units, ever became non-existent, there would be need either 
 to ascertain under what conditions it became non-existent, 
 or else to confess that Science and Philosophy are impos- 
 sible. For if, instead of having to deal with fixed quantities 
 and weights, we had to deal with quantities and weights 
 which were apt, wholly or in part, to be annihilated, there 
 would be introduced an incalculable element, fatal to all 
 positive conclusions. Clearly, therefore, the proposition 
 that matter is indestructible must be deliberately con- 
 sidered. 
 
 So far from being admitted as a self-evident truth, this 
 would, in primitive times, have been rejected as a self-evident 
 error, There was once universally current, a notion that things 
 could vanish into absolute nothing, or arise out of absolute 
 nothing. If we analyze early superstitions, or that faith in 
 magic which was general in later times and even still sur- 
 vives among the uncultured, we find one of its postulates to 
 be, that by some potent spell Matter can be called out of non- 
 entity, and can be made non-existent. If men did not believe 
 
THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 173 
 
 this in the strict sense of the word (which would imply 
 that the process of creation or annihilation was clearly repre- 
 sented in consciousness), they still believed that they believed 
 it; and how nearly, in their confused thoughts, the one was 
 equivalent to the other, is shown by their conduct. Nor, in- 
 deed, have dark ages and inferior minds alone betrayed this 
 belief. The current theology, in its teachings respecting the 
 beginning and end of the world, is clearly pervaded by it ; 
 and it may be even questioned whether Shakespeare, in his 
 poetical anticipation of a time when all things shall disap- 
 pear and " leave not a wrack behind/' was not under its in- 
 fluence. The gradual accumulation of experiences, 
 however, and still more the organization of experiences, has 
 tended slowly to reverse this conviction ; until now, the doc- 
 trine that Matter is indestructible has become a common- 
 place. All the apparent proofs that something can come out 
 of nothing, a wider knowledge has one by one cancelled. The 
 comet that is suddenly discovered in the heavens and nightly 
 waxes larger, is proved not to be a newly-created body, but a 
 body that was until, lately beyond the range of vision. The 
 cloud which in the course of a few minutes forms in the sky, 
 consists not of substance that has just begun to be, but of 
 Bubstance that previously existed in a more diffused aud 
 transparent form. And similarly with a crystal or precipi- 
 tate in relation to the fluid depositing it. Conversely, the 
 seeming annihilations of Matter turn out, on closer observa- 
 tion, to be only changes of state. It is found ^that the 
 evaporated water, though it has become invisible, may be 
 brought by condensation to its original shape. The dis- 
 charged fowling-piece gives evidence that though the 
 gunpowder has disappeared, there have appeared in place 
 of it certain gases, which, in assuming a larger volume, 
 have caused the explosion. Not, however, until 
 the rise of quantitative chemistry, could the conclusion 
 suggested by such experiences be harmonized with all thtj 
 facts. When, having ascertained not only the coinbiua- 
 
174 THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 
 
 fcions formed By various substances, but also the proportions 
 in which they combine, chemists were enabled to account 
 for the matter that had made its appearance or become in- 
 visible, scepticism was dissipated. And of the general con- 
 clusion thus reached, the exact analyses daily made, in whicb 
 the same portion of matter is pursued through numerous 
 disguises and finally separated, furnish never-ceasing con- 
 firmations. 
 
 Such has become the effect of this specific evidence, joined 
 tc that general evidence which the continued existence of 
 familiar objects unceasingly gives us, that the Indestructi- 
 bility of Matter is now held by many to be a truth of which 
 the negation is inconceivable. 
 
 53. This last fact naturally raises the question, whether 
 we have any higher warrant for this fundamental belief than 
 the warrant of conscious induction. Before showing that 
 we have a higher warrant, some explanations are needful. 
 
 The consciousness of logical necessity, is the consciousness 
 that a certain conclusion is implicitly contained in certain 
 premises explicitly stated. If, contrasting a young child 
 and an adult, we see that this consciousness of logical 
 necessity, absent from the one is present in the other, we 
 are taught that there is a growing up to the recognition of 
 certain necessary truths, merely by the unfolding of the 
 inherited intellectual forms and faculties. 
 
 To state the case more specifically: Before a truth 
 can be known as necessary, two conditions must be fulfilled. 
 There must be a mental structure capable of grasping the 
 terms of the proposition and the relation alleged between 
 hem ; and there must be such definite and deliberate 
 mental representation of these terms, as makes possible a 
 clear consciousness of this relation. Non-fulfilment of either 
 condition may cause non-recognition of the necessity of the 
 truth. Let us take cases. 
 
 The savage who cannot count the fingers on one hand, 
 
THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OP MATTER. 175 
 
 can frame no definite thought answering to the statement 
 that 7 and 5 are 12 ; still less can he frame the conscious- 
 ness that no other total is possible. 
 
 The boy adding up figures inattentively, says to himself 
 that 7 and 5 are 11 ; and may repeatedly bring out a wrong 
 result by repeatedly making this error. 
 
 Neither the non-recognition of the truth that 7 and 5 
 are 12, which in the savage results from undeveloped mental 
 structure, nor the assertion, due to the boy's careless mental 
 action, that they make 1 1, leads us to doubt the necessity of 
 the relation between these two separately-existing numbers 
 and the sum they make when existing together. Nor does 
 failure from either cause to apprehend the necessity of this 
 relation, make us hesitate to say that when its terms are 
 distinctly represented in thought, its necessity will be seen ; 
 and that, apart from any multiplied experiences, this neces- 
 sity becomes cognizable when structures and functions 
 are so far developed that groups of 7 and 5 and 12 can be 
 intellectually grasped. 
 
 Manifestly, then, there is a recognition of necessary 
 truths, as such, which accompanies mental evolution. Along 
 with acquirement of more complex faculty and more vivid 
 imagination, there comes a power of perceiving to be neces- 
 sary truths, what were before not recognized as truths at all. 
 And there are ascending gradations in these recognitions. 
 A boy who has intelligence enough to see that things 
 which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another, 
 may be unable to see that ratios which are severally equal 
 to certain other ratios that are unequal to each other, are 
 themselves unequal ; though to a more-developed mind this 
 last axiom is no less obviously necessary than the first. 
 
 All this which holds of logical and mathematical truths, 
 holds, with change of terms, of physical truths. There are 
 necessary truths in Physics for the apprehension of which, 
 also, a developed and disciplined intelligence is required ; 
 and before" such intelligence arises, not only may there be 
 
176 THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY Of MATTEK. 
 
 failure to apprehend the necessity of them, but there may 
 be vague beliefs in their contraries. ' Up to comparatively- 
 recent times, all mankind were in this state of incapacity 
 with respect to physical axioms ; and the mass of mankind 
 are so still. Various popular notions betray inability to 
 form clear ideas of forces and their relations, or careless- 
 ness in thinking, or both. Effects are expected without 
 causes of fit kinds ; or effects extremely disproportionate to 
 causes are looked for ; or causes are supposed to end without 
 effects.* But though many are incapable of grasping phy- 
 sical axioms, it no more follows that physical axioms are 
 not knowable a priori by a developed intelligence, than it 
 follows that logical relations are not necessary, because un- 
 developed intellects cannot perceive their necessity. 
 
 It is thus with the notions which have been current 
 respecting the creation and annihilation of Matter. In the 
 first place, there has been an habitual confounding of two 
 radically-different things disappearance of Matter from 
 that place where it was lately perceived, and passage of 
 Matter from existence into non-existence. Only when there 
 is reached a power of discrimination beyond that possessed 
 by the uncultured, is there an avoidance of the confusion 
 between vanishing from the range of perception, and 
 vanishing out of space altogether ; and until this confusion 
 is avoided, the belief that Matter can be annihilated readily 
 obtains currency. In the second place, the currency of this 
 belief continues so long as there is not such power of intro- 
 
 * I knew a lady who contended that a dress folded up tightly, weighed 
 more than when loosely folded up ; and who, under this belief, had 
 her trunks made large that she might diminish the charge for freight ! 
 Another whom I know, ascribes the feeling of lightness which accompanies 
 vigour, to actual decrease of weight ; believes that by stepping gently, she 
 can press less upon the ground ; and, when cross-questioned, asserts that, 
 if placed in scales, she can make herself lighter by an act of will ! Various 
 popular notions betray like states of mind show, in the undisciplined, such 
 inability to form ideas of forces and their relations, or such randomness in 
 thinking, or both, as incapacitates them for grasping physical axioms, and 
 makes them harbour numerous delusions respecting physical actions. 
 
rHE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OP MATTER. 177 
 
 spection that it can be seen what happens when the attempt 
 is made to annihilate Matter in thought. But when, during 
 mental evolution, the vague ideas arising in a nervous 
 structure imperfectly organized, are replaced by the clear 
 ideas arising in a definite nervous structure; this definite 
 structure, moulded by experience into correspondence with 
 external phenomena, makes necessary in thought the rela- 
 tions answering to absolute uniformities in things. Hence, 
 among others, the conception of the Indestructibility of 
 Matter. 
 
 For careful self -analysis shows this to be a datum of 
 consciousness. Conceive the space before you to be cleared 
 of all bodies save one. Now imagine the remaining one not 
 to be removed from its place, but to lapse into nothing 
 while standing in that place. You fail. The space which 
 was solid you cannot conceive becoming empty, save by 
 transfer of that which made it solid. What 
 
 is termed the ultimate incompressibility of Matter, is an 
 admitted law of thought. However small the bulk to 
 which we conceive a piece of matter reduced, it is impos- 
 sible to conceive it reduced into nothing. While we can 
 represent to ourselves the parts of the matter as approxi- 
 mated, we cannot represent to ourselves the quantity of 
 matter as made less. To do this would be to imagine some 
 of the constituent parts compressed into nothing; which 
 is no more possible than to imagine compression of the 
 whole into nothing. Our inability to conceive 
 
 Matter becoming non-existent, is immediately consequent 
 on the nature of thought. Thought consists in the establish- 
 ment of relations. There can be no relation established, 
 and therefore no thought framed, when one of the related 
 terms is absent from consciousness. Hence it is impossible 
 to think of something becoming nothing, for the same 
 reason that it is impossible to think of nothing becoming 
 something the reason, namely, that nothing cannot become 
 an object of consciousness. The annihilation of Matter 
 
178 THE INDESTEUCTIBILITY OF MATTER. 
 
 is unthinkable for the same reason that the creation of 
 Matter is unthinkable. 
 
 It must be added that no experimental verification of the 
 truth that Matter is indestructible, is possible without a 
 tacit assumption of it. For all such verification implies 
 weighing, and weighing implies that the matter forming 
 the weight remains the same. In other words, the proof 
 that certain matter dealt with in certain ways is unchanged 
 in quantity, depends on the assumption that other matter, 
 otherwise dealt with, is unchanged in quantity. 
 
 54. That, however, which it most concerns us here 
 to observe, is the nature of the perceptions by which the 
 permanence of Matter is perpetually illustrated to us. 
 These perceptions, under all their forms, amount simply to 
 this that the force which a given quantity of matter exer- 
 cises, remains always the same. This is the proof on which 
 common sense and exact science alike rely. When, 
 
 for example, an object known to have existed years since is 
 said to exist still, by one who yesterday saw it, his assertion 
 amounts to this that an object which in past time 
 wrought on his consciousness a certain group of changes, 
 still exists, because a like group of changes has been again 
 wrought on his consciousness : the continuance of the power 
 thus to impress him, he holds to prove the continuance of 
 the object. Even more clearly do we see that force is our 
 ultimate measure of Matter, in those cases where the shape 
 of the Matter has been changed. A piece of gold given to 
 an artizan to be worked into an ornament, and which when 
 brought back appears to be less, is placed in the scales ; 
 and if it balances a much smaller weight than it did in its 
 rough state, we infer that much has been lost either in 
 manipulation or by direct abstraction. Here the obvious 
 postulate is, that the quantity of Matter is finally de 
 terminable by the quantity of gravitative force it mani- 
 fests. And this is the kind of evidence on which 
 
THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OP MATTER. 179 
 
 Science bases its alleged induction that Matter is in- 
 destructible. Whenever a piece of substance lately visible 
 and tangible, has been reduced to an invisible, intangible 
 state, but is proved by the weight of the gas into which 
 it has been transformed to be still existing; the assump- 
 tion is that, though otherwise insensible to us, the amount 
 of matter is the same if it still tends towards the Earth 
 with the same force. Similarly, every case in which the 
 weight of an element present in combination is inferred 
 Erom the known weight of another element which it 
 neutralizes, is a case in which the quantity of matter is 
 expressed in terms of the quantity of chemical force it 
 exerts ; and in which this specific chemical force is assumed 
 to be the correlative of a specific gravitative force. 
 
 Thus, then, by the Indestructibility of Matter, we really 
 mean the indestructibility of the force with which Matter 
 affects us. As we become conscious of Matter only through 
 that resistance which it opposes to our muscular energy, so 
 do we become conscious of the permanence of Matter only 
 through the permanence of this resistance; either as im- 
 mediately or as mediately proved to us. And this truth is 
 made manifest not only by analysis of the a posteriori 
 cognition, but equally so by analysis of the a priori one.* 
 
 * Lest he should not have observed it, the reader must be warned that the 
 terms " a priori truth " and " necessary truth," as used in this work, are to be 
 interpreted not in the old sense, as implying cognitions wholly independent 
 of experiences, but as implying cognitions that have been rendered organic 
 by immense accumulations of experiences, received partly by the individual, 
 but mainly by all ancestral individuals whose nervous systems he inherits. On 
 referring to the Principles of Psychology ( 426 433), it will be seen that 
 tae warrant alleged for one of these irreversible ultimate convictions is that, 
 on the hypothesis of Evolution, it represents an immeasurably-greater accumu- 
 lation of experiences than can be acquired fcy any single individual. 
 

 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CONTINUITY OF MOTION. 
 
 55. ANOTHER general truth of the same order with the 
 foregoing, must here be specified. Like the Indestructibility 
 of Matter, the Continuity of Motion, or, more strictly, of 
 that something which has Motion for one of its sensible 
 forms, is a proposition on the truth of which depends the 
 possibility of exact Science, and therefore of a Philosophy 
 which unifies the results of exact Science. Motions, visible 
 and invisible, of masses and of molecules, form the larger 
 half of the phenomena to be interpreted ; and if such 
 motions might either proceed from nothing or lapse into 
 nothing, there could be no scientific interpretation of them. 
 
 This second fundamental truth, like the first, is by no 
 means self-evident to primitive men or to the uncultured 
 among ourselves. Contrariwise, to undeveloped minds the 
 opposite seems self-evident. The facts that a stone thrown 
 up soon loses its ascending motion, and that after the blow 
 its fall gives to the Earth, it remains quiescent, apparently 
 prove that the principle of activity* which the stone mani- 
 fested may disappear absolutely. Accepting, without criti- 
 ,cism, the dicta of unaided perception, to the effect that 
 adjacent objects put in motion soon return to rest, all men 
 once believed, and most believe still, that motion can pass 
 into nothing; and ordinarily does so pass. But 
 
 the establishment of certain facts having an opposite impli- 
 
 * Throughout this Chapter I use this phrase, not with any metaphysical 
 meaning, but merely to avoid foregone conclusions. 
 
THE CONTINUITY OP MOTION. 181 
 
 Cation, led to inquiries which have gradually proved these 
 appearances to be illusive. The discovery that the planets 
 revolve round the Sun with undiminishing speed, raised 
 the suspicion that a moving body, when not interfered with, 
 will go on for ever without change of velocity ; and sug- 
 gested the question whether bodies which lose their motion, 
 do not at the same time communicate as much motion to 
 other bodies. It was a familiar fact that a stone would 
 glide further over a smooth surface, such as ice, presenting 
 no small objects to which it could part with its motion by 
 collision, than over a surface strewn with such small objects ; 
 and that a projectile would travel a far greater distance 
 through a rare medium like air, than through a dense 
 medium like water. Thus the primitive notion that moving 
 bodies had an inherent tendency to lose their motion and 
 finally stop & notion of which the Greeks did not get rid, 
 but which lasted till the time of Galileo began to give way. 
 It was further shaken by such experiments as those of 
 Hooke, which proved that the spinning of a top continues 
 long in proportion as it is prevented from communicating 
 motion to surrounding matter. 
 
 To explain specifically how modern physicists interpret 
 all disappearances and diminutions of visible motion, would 
 require more knowledge than I possess and more space than 
 I can spare. Here it must suffice to state, generally, that 
 the molar motion which disappears when a bell is struck by 
 its clapper, reappears in the bell's vibrations and in the 
 waves of air they produce ; that when a moving mass is 
 stopped by coming against a mass that is immoveable, the 
 motion which does not reappear in sound reappears as mole- 
 cular motion ; and that, similarly, when bodies rub against 
 one another, the motion lost by friction is gained in the 
 motion of molecules. But one aspect of this general truth, 
 as it is displayed to us in the motions of masses, we must 
 carefully contemplate ; for otherwise the doctrine of the 
 Continuity of Motion will be entirely misapprehended. 
 
182 THE CONTINUITY OF MOTION. 
 
 56. As expressed by Newton, the first law of motion ia 
 that "every body must persevere in its state of rest, or of 
 uniform motion in a straight line, unless it be compelled to 
 change that state by forces impressed upon it." 
 
 With this truth may be associated the truth that a body 
 describing a circular orbit round a centre which detains it 
 by a tractive force, moves in that orbit with undiminished 
 velocity. 
 
 The first of these abstract truths is never realized in the 
 concrete, and the second of them is but approximately 
 realized. Uniform motion in a straight line, implies the 
 absence of a resisting medium ; and it further implies the 
 absence of forces, gravitative or other, exercised by neigh- 
 bouring masses : conditions never fulfilled. So, too, the 
 maintenance of a circular orbit by any celestial body, im- 
 plies both that there are no perturbing bodies, and that there 
 is a certain exact adjustment between its velocity and the 
 tractive force of its primary : neither requirement ever 
 being conformed to. In all actual orbits, sensibly elliptical 
 as they are, the velocity is sensibly variable. And along 
 with great eccentricity there goes great variation. 
 
 To the case of celestial bodies which, moving in eccentric 
 orbits, display at one time little motion and at another 
 much motion, may be joined the case of the pendulum. 
 With speed now increasing and now decreasing, the pen- 
 dulum alternates between extremes at which motion ceases. 
 
 How shall we so conceive these allied phenomena as to 
 express rightly the truth common to them ? The first law 
 of motion, nowhere literally fulfilled, is yet, in a sense, 
 implied by these facts which seem at variance with it. 
 Though in a circular orbit the direction of the motion ia 
 continually being changed, yet the velocity remains un- 
 changed. Though in an elliptical orbit there is now 
 acceleration and now retardation, yet the average speed ia 
 constant through successive revolutions. Though the pen- 
 dulum comes to a momentary rest at the end of each 
 
THE CONTINUITY OF MuTJON. 183 
 
 swing, and then begins a reverse motion ; yet the oscilla- 
 tion, considered as a whole, is continuous : friction and 
 atmospheric resistance being absent, this alternation of 
 states will go on for ever. 
 
 What, then, do these cases show us in common ? That 
 which vision familiarizes us with in Motion, and that which 
 has thus been made the dominant element in our conception 
 of Motion, is not the element of which we can allege con- 
 tinuity. If we regard Motion simply as change of place ; 
 then the pendulum shows us both that the rate of this 
 change may vary from instant to instant, and that, ceasing 
 at intervals, it may be afresh initiated. 
 
 But if what we may call the translation-element in Motion 
 is not continuous, what is continuous ? If, watching like 
 Galileo a swinging chandelier, we observe, not its iso- 
 chronism, but the recurring reversal of its swing, we are 
 impressed with the fact that though, at the end of each 
 swing, the translation through space ceases, yet there is 
 something which does not cease ; for the translation recom- 
 mences in the opposite direction. And on remembering 
 that when a violent push was given to the chandelier it 
 described a larger arc, and was a longer time before the 
 resistance of the air destroyed its oscillations, we are 
 shown that what continues to exist during these oscilla- 
 tions is some correlative of the muscular effort which put 
 the chandelier in motion. The truth forced on our attention 
 by these facts and inferences, is that translation through 
 space is not itself an existence ; and that hence the cessation 
 of Motion, considered simply as translation, is not the cessa- 
 tion of an existence, but is the cessation of a certain sign of 
 jn existence a sign occurring under certain conditions. 
 
 Still there remains a difficulty. If that element in the 
 chandelier's motion of which alone we can allege continuity, 
 is the correlative of the muscular effort which moved the 
 chandelier, what becomes of this element at either extreme 
 of the oscillation ? Arrest the chandelier in the middle of 
 
184 THE CONTINUITY OF MOTION. 
 
 
 its swing, and it gives a blow to the hand exhibits some 
 principle of activity such as muscular effort can give. But 
 touch it at either turning point, and it displays no such 
 principle of activity. This has disappeared just as much 
 as the translation through space has disappeared. How, 
 fchen, can it be alleged that though the Motion through 
 space is not continuous, the principle of activity implied 
 by the Motion is continuous ? 
 
 Unquestionably the facts show that the principle of 
 activity continues to exist under some form. When not 
 perceptible it must be latent. How is it latent ? A clue 
 to the answer is gained on observing that though the 
 chandelier when seized at the turning point of its swing, 
 gives no impact in the direction of its late movement, it 
 forthwith begins to pull in the opposite direction ; and 
 on observing, further, that its pull is great when the 
 swing has been made extensive by a violent push. Hence 
 the loss of visible activity at the highest point of the 
 upward motion, is accompanied by the production of an 
 invisible activity which generates the subsequent motion 
 downward^. To conceive this latent activity gained as 
 an existence equal to the perceptible activity lost, is not 
 easy ; but we may help ourselves so to conceive it by con- 
 sidering cases of another class. 
 
 57. When one who pushes against a door that has stuck 
 fast, produces by great effort no motion, but eventually by 
 a little greater effort bursts the door open, swinging it back 
 against the wall and tumbling headlong into the room; he 
 has evidence that a certain muscular strain which did not 
 produce translation of matter through space, was yet equiva- 
 lent to a certain amount of such translation. Again, when 
 a railway-porter gradually stops a detached carriage by 
 pulling at the buffer, he shews us that (supposing friction, 
 etc., absent) the slowly-diminished motion of the carriage 
 over a certain space, is the equivalent of the constant back- 
 
THE CONTINUITY OP MOTION. 185 
 
 ward strain put upon the carriage while it is travelling 
 through that space. Carrying with us the conception 
 thus reached, we will now consider a case which makes 
 it more definite. 
 
 When used as a plaything by boys, a ball fastened to 
 the end of an india-rubber string yields a clear idea of 
 the correlation between perceptible activity and latent ac- 
 tivity. If, retaining one end of the string, a boy throws tho 
 ball from him horizontally, its motion is resisted by the 
 increasing strain on the string; and the string, stretched 
 more and more as the ball recedes, presently brings it to 
 rest. Where now exists the principle of activity which 
 the moving ball displayed ? It exists in the strained thread 
 of india-rubber. Under what form of changed mole- 
 cular state it exists we need not ask. It suffices that the 
 string is the seat of a tension generated by the motion of the 
 ball, and equivalent to it. When the ball has been arrested, 
 the stretched string begins to generate in it an opposite mo- 
 tion ; and continues to accelerate that motion until the ball 
 comes back to the point at which the stretching of the 
 string commenced a point at which, but for loss by atmos- 
 pheric resistance and molecular redistribution, its velocity 
 would be equal to the original velocity. Here the truth that 
 the principle of activity, alternating between visible and 
 invisible modes, does not cease to exist when the translation 
 through space ceases to exist, is readily comprehensible ; 
 and it becomes easy to understand the corollary that at each 
 point in the path of the ball, the quantity of its perceptible 
 activity, plus the quantity which is latent in the stretched 
 string, yield a constant sum. 
 
 Aided by this illustration we can, in a general way, con 
 ceive what happens between bodies connected with one 
 another, not by a stretched string, but by a traction exer- 
 cised through what seems empty space. It matters not 
 to our general conception that the intensity of this trac- 
 tion varies in a totally -different manner: decreasing as 
 
185 THE CONTINUITY OP MOTION. 
 
 the square of the distance increases, but being prac 
 tically constant for terrestrial distances. These differences 
 being recognized, there is nevertheless to be recognized 
 a truth common to both cases. The weight of some- 
 thing held in the hand shows that there exists between 
 one body in space and another, a strain : this downward 
 pull, ascribed to gravity, affects the hand as it might be 
 affected by a stretched elastic string. Hence, when a body 
 projected upwards and gradually retarded by gravity, finally 
 stops, we must regard the principle of activity manifested 
 during its upward motion but disappearing at its turning- 
 point, as having become latent in the strain between it and 
 the Earth a strain of which the quantity is to be con- 
 ceived as the product of its intensity and the distance 
 through which it acts. Carrying a step further our illus- 
 tration of the stretched string, will elucidate this. To 
 simulate the action of gravity at terrestrial distances, let 
 us imagine that when the attached moving body has 
 stretched the elastic string to its limit, say at the distance 
 of ten feet, a second like string could instantly be tied to 
 the end of the first and to the body, which, continuing 
 its course, stretched this second string to an equal length, 
 and so on with a succession of such strings, till the body 
 was arrested. Then, manifestly, the quantity of the prin- 
 ciple of activity which the moving body had displayed, 
 but which has now become latent in the series of stretched 
 strings, is measured by the number of such strings simi- 
 larly stretched the number of feet through which this 
 constant strain has been encountered, and over which it 
 still extends. Now though we cannot conceive the tractive 
 force of gravity to be exercised in a like way though 
 the gravitative action, utterly unknown in nature, is pro- 
 bably a resultant of actions pervading the ethereal medium; 
 yet the above analogy suggests the belief that the prin- 
 ciple of activity in a moving body arrested by gravity, 
 has not ceased to exist, but has become so much imper- 
 
THE CONTINUITY OP MOTION. 187 
 
 eeptible or latent activity in the medium occupying space, 
 and that when the body falls, this is re-transformed into 
 its equivalent of perceptible activity. If we conceive the 
 process at all, we must conceive it thus : otherwise, we have 
 to conceive that a power is changed into a space -relation, 
 and this is inconceivable. 
 
 Here., then, is the solution of the difficulty. The space- 
 element of Motion is not in itself a thing. Change of position 
 is not an existence, but the manifestation of an existence. 
 This existence may cease to display itself as translation ; but 
 it can do so only by displaying itself as strain. And this 
 principle of activity, now shown by translation, now by 
 strain, and often by the two together, is alone that which 
 in Motion we can call continuous. 
 
 58. What is this principle of activity? Vision gives 
 us no idea of it. If 'by a mirror we cast the image of 
 an illuminated object on to a dark wall, and then suddenly 
 changing the attitude of the mirror, make the reflected 
 image pass from side to side, the image, if recognized as 
 such, does not raise the thought that there is present in it 
 a principle of activity. Before we can conceive the presence 
 of this, we must regard the impression yielded through 
 our eyes as symbolizing something tangible something 
 which offers resistance. Hence the principle of activity 
 as known by sight, is inferential : visible translation sug- 
 gests by association the presence of a principle of activity 
 which would be appreciable by our skin and muscles did 
 we lay hold of the body. Evidently, then, this principle 
 of activity which Motion shows us, is the objective corre- 
 late of our subjective sense of effort. By pushing and pull- 
 ing, we get feelings which, generalized and abstracted, yield 
 our ideas of resistance and tension. Now displayed by 
 changing position and now by unchanging strain, this prin- 
 ciple of activity is ultimately conceived by us under tho 
 single form of its equivalent muscular effort. So that the 
 
. 
 
 188 THE CONTINUITY OP MOTION. 
 
 continuity of Motion, as well as the indestructibility of 
 Matter, is really known to us in terms of Force. 
 
 59. And now we reach the essential truth to be here 
 especially noted. All proofs of the Continuity of Motion 
 involve the postulate that the quantity of force is constant. 
 Observe what results when we analyze the reasonings by 
 which the Continuity of Motion, as here understood, is shown. 
 
 A particular planet can be identified only by its constant 
 power to affect our visual organs in a special way. Fur- 
 ther, such planet has not been seen to move by the astro- 
 nomical observer ; but its motion is inferred from a com- 
 parison of its present position with the position it before 
 occupied. If rigorously examined, this comparison proves 
 to be a comparison between the different impressions pro- 
 duced on him by the different adjustments of his observing 
 instruments. And, manifestly, the* validity of all the in- 
 ferences drawn from these likenesses and unlikenesses, 
 depends on the truth of the assumption that these masses 
 of matter, celestial and terrestrial, will continue to affect 
 his senses in exactly the same ways under the same con- 
 ditions; and that no changes in their powers of affecting 
 him can have arisen without force having been expended 
 in working those changes. Going a step further 
 
 back, it turns out that difference in the adjustment of his * 
 observing instrument, and by implication in the planet, is 
 meaningless until shown to correspond with a certain calcu- 
 lated position which the planet must occupy, supposing that 
 no motion has been lost. And if, finally, we examine the 
 implied calculation, we find that it takes into acccunt 
 those accelerations and retardations which ellipticity of the 
 orbit involves, as well as those variations of velocity caused 
 by adjacent planets we find, that is, that the motion is 
 concluded to be indestructible not from the uniform velo- 
 city of the planet, but from the constant quantity of motion 
 exhibited when allowance is made for the motion communi- 
 
THE CONTINDITY OF MOTION. 189 
 
 cated to, or received from, other celestial bodies. And 
 when we ask how this communicated motion is estimated, 
 we discover that the estimate is based on certain laws of 
 force ; which laws, one and all, embody the postulate that 
 force cannot be destroyed. Without the axiom that action 
 and re-action are equal and opposite, astronomy could not 
 make its exact predictions. 
 
 Similarly with the a priori conclusion that Motion is con- 
 tinuous. That which defies suppression in thought, is really 
 the force which the motion indicates. We can imagine 
 retardation to result from the action of external bodies. 
 But to imagine this, is not possible without imagining 
 abstraction of the force implied by the motion. We are 
 obliged to conceive this force as impressed in the shape of 
 reaction on the bodies that cause the arrest. And the 
 motion communicated to them, we are compelled to re- 
 gard, not as directly communicated, but as a product of 
 the communicated force. We can mentally diminish the 
 velocity or space-element of motion, by diffusing the mo- 
 mentum or force-element over a larger mass of matter; 
 but the quantity of this force-element, which we regard as 
 the cause of the motion, is unchangeable in thought.* 
 
 * It is needful to state that this exposition differs in its point of view from 
 the expositions ordinarily given ; and that some of the words employed, such 
 as strain, have somewhat larger implications. Unable to learn anything 
 about the nature of Force, physicists have, of late years, formulated ulti- 
 mate physical truths in such ways as often tacitly to exclude the conscious- 
 ness of Force : conceiving cause, as Hume proposed, in terms of antecedence 
 and sequence only. " Potential energy," for example, is defined as consti- 
 tuted by such relations in space as permit masses to generate in one another 
 certain motions, but as being in itself nothing. While this mode of con- 
 ceiving the phenomena suffices for physical inquiries, it does not suffice for 
 the purposes of philosophy. After referring to the Principles of Psychology % 
 j 347350, the reader will understand what I mean by saying that since 
 our ideas of Body, Space, Motion, are derived from our ideas of muscular 
 tension, which are the ultimate symbols into which all our other mental 
 symbols are interpretable, to formulate phenomena in the proximate terms of 
 Body, Space, Motion, while discharging from the concepts the consciousness 
 of Force, is to acknowledge the superstructure while ignoring the foundation. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE.* 
 
 60. IN the foregoing two chapters, manifestations of 
 force of two fundamentally-different classes have been dealt 
 with the force by which matter demonstrates itself to us 
 as existing, and the force by which it demonstrates itself 
 to us a~s acting. 
 
 Body is distinguishable from space by its power of affect- 
 ing our senses, and, in the last resort, by its opposition to 
 our efforts. We can conceive of body only by joining in 
 thought extension and resistance : take away resistance, and 
 there remains only space. In what way this force which 
 produces space-occupancy is conditioned we do not know. 
 
 * Some explanation of this title seems needful. In the text itself are given 
 the reasons for using the word "force" instead of the word " energy j" 
 and here I must say why I think "persistence " preferable to " conserva- 
 tion." Some two years ago (this was written in 1861) I expressed to my 
 friend Prof. Huxley, my dissatisfaction with the (then) current expression 
 " Conservation of Force : " assigning as reasons, first, that the word "con- 
 servation " implies a conserver and an act of conserving ; and, second, that 
 it does not imply the existence of the force before the particular manifesta- 
 tion of it which is contemplated. And I may now add, as a further fault, 
 the tacit assumption that, without some act of conservation, force would 
 disappear All these implications are at variance with the conception to bo 
 conveyed. In place cf "conservation" Prof. Haxley suggested persistence. 
 This meets most of the objections , and though it may be urged against it 
 that it does not directly imply pre-existence of the force at any time 
 manifested, yet no other word less faulty in this respect can be found. In 
 the absence of a word specially coiaed for the purpose, it seems the beat } 
 and as such I adopt it. 
 
THE PERSISTENCE OP FORCE. 191 
 
 The mode of force which is revealed to us only by opposi- 
 tion to our own powers, may be in essence the same with 
 the mode of force which reveals itself by the changes it 
 initiates in our consciousness. That the space a body 
 occupies is in part determined by the degree of that activity 
 possessed by its molecules which we call heat, is a familiar 
 truth. Moreover, we know that such molecular re-arrange- 
 ment as occurs in the change of water into ice, is accom- 
 panied by an evolution of force which may burst the 
 containing vessel and give motion to the fragments. 
 Nevertheless, the forms of our experience oblige us to 
 distinguish between two modes of force ; the one not a 
 worker of change and the other a worker of change, actual 
 or potential. The first of these the space-occupying kind 
 of force has no specific name. 
 
 For the second kind of force, distinguishable as that by 
 which change is either being caused or will be caused if 
 counterbalancing forces are overcome, the specific name 
 now accepted is te Energy ." That which in the last chapter 
 was spoken of as perceptible activity, is called by physicists, 
 " actual energy " ; and that which was called latent activity, 
 is called " potential energy." While including the mode 
 of activity shown in molar motion, Energy includes also 
 the several modes of activity into which molar motion is 
 transformable heat, light, etc. It is the common name for 
 the power shown alike in the movements of masses and 
 in the movements of molecules. To our perceptions this 
 second "kind of force differs from the first kind as being 
 not intrinsic but extrinsic. 
 
 In aggregated matter as presented to sight and touch, 
 this antithesis is, as above implied, much obscured. Espe- 
 cially in a compound substance, both the potential energy 
 locked up in the chemically-combined molecules, and the 
 actual energy made perceptible to us as heat, complicate 
 the manifestations of intrinsic force by the manifestations 
 of extrinsic force. But the antithesis here partially hidden, 
 
192 THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE. 
 
 is clearly seen on reducing the data to their lowest terms 
 a unit of matter, or atom, and its motion. The force by 
 which it exists is passive but independent ; while the force 
 by which it moves is active but dependent on its past 
 and present relations to other atoms. These two cannot 
 be identified in our thoughts. For as it is impossible to 
 think of motion without something that moves; so it is 
 impossible to think of energy without something possess- 
 ing the energy. 
 
 While recognizing this fundamental distinction between 
 that intrinsic force by which body manifests itself as 
 occupying space, and that extrinsic force distinguished as 
 energy ; I here treat of them together as being alike per- 
 sistent. And I thus treat of them together partly for the 
 reason that, in our consciousness of them, there is the same 
 essential element. The sense of effort is our subjective 
 symbol for objective force in general, passive and active. 
 Power of neutralizing that which we know as our own 
 muscular strain, is the ultimate element in our idea of body 
 as distinguished from space ; and any energy which we can 
 give to body, or receive from it, is thought of as equal to a 
 certaio amount of muscular strain. The two conscious- 
 nesses differ essentially in this, that the feeling of effort 
 comm >n to the two is in the last case joined with conscious- 
 ness cf change of position, but in the first case is not.* 
 
 There is, however, a further and more important reason 
 
 * In respect to the fundamental distinction here made between the space- 
 occupying kind of force, and the kind of force shown by various modes of 
 activity, I am, as in the last chapter, at issue with some of my scientific 
 friends. They do not admit that the conception of force is involved in the 
 conception of a unit of matter. From the psychological point of view, how- 
 ever, Matter, in all its properties, is the unknown cause of the sensations it 
 produces in us ; of which the one which remains when all the others are 
 absent, is resistance to our efforts a resistance we are obliged to symbolist 
 as the equivalent of the muscular force it opposes. In imagining a unit 01 
 matter we may not ignore this symbol, by which alone a unit of matter car 
 be figured in thought as an existence. It is not allowable to speak aa 
 though there remained a aonception of an existence when that conception 
 
THE PERSISTENCE OP FORCE. 192 a 
 
 for here dealing with the truth that Force under each of 
 these forms persists. We have to examine its warrant. 
 
 61. At the risk of trying the reader's patience, we must 
 reconsider the reasoning through which the indestructibility 
 of Matter and the continuity of Motion are established, that 
 we may see how impossible it is to arrive by parallel 
 reasoning at the Persistence of Force. 
 
 In all three cases the question is one of quantity : does 
 the Matter, or Motion, or Force, ever diminish in quantity? 
 Quantitative science implies measurement ; and measure- 
 ment implies a unit of measure. The units of measure 
 from which all others of any exactness are derived, are units 
 of linear extension. Our units of linear extension are the 
 lengths of masses of matter, or the spaces between marks 
 made on the masses \ and we assume these lengths, or these 
 spaces between marks, to remain unchanged while the 
 temperature is unchanged. From the standard-measure 
 preserved at Westminster, are derived the measures for 
 trigonometrical surveys, for geodesy, the measurement of 
 terrestrial arcs, and the calculations of astronomical dis- 
 tances, dimensions, etc., and therefore for Astronomy at 
 large. Were these units of length, original and derived, 
 irregularly variable, there could be no celestial dynamics ; 
 nor any of that verification yielded by it of the constancy 
 of the celestial masses or of their energies. Hence, per- 
 sistence of the space-occupying species of force cannot 
 be proved; for the reason that it is tacitly assumed in 
 every experiment or observation by which it is proposed 
 to prove it. The like holds of the force distin- 
 
 guished as energy. The endeavour to establish this by 
 
 measurement, takes for granted both the persistence of the 
 
 
 
 has been eviscerated deprived of the element of thought by whirh it is 
 distinguished from empty space. Divest the conceived unit of matter of the 
 objective correlate to our subjective sense of effort, and the entire fabric of 
 physical conceptions disappears. 
 U 
 
1926 THE PERSISTENCE OF FOKCE. 
 
 
 intrinsic force by which body manifests itself as existing 
 and the persistence of the extrinsic force by which 
 body acts. For it is from these equal units of linear 
 extension, through the medium of the equal-armed 
 lever or scales, that we derive our equal units of weight, 
 or gravitative force; and only by means of these can we 
 make those quantitative comparisons by which the truths of 
 exact science are reached. Throughout the investigations 
 leading the chemist to the conclusion that of the carbon 
 which has disappeared during combustion, no portion has 
 been lost, what is his repeatedly-assigned proof? That 
 afforded by the scales. In what terms is the verdict of the 
 scales given ? In grains in units of weight in units of 
 gravitative force. And what is the total content of the 
 verdict ? That as many units of gravitative force as the 
 carbon exhibited at first, it exhibits still. The validity of the 
 inference, then, depends entirely upon ilie constancy of the 
 units of force. If the force with which the portion of metal 
 called a grain -weight, tends towards the Earth, has varied, 
 the inference that matter is indestructible is vicious. 
 Everything turns on the truth of the assumption that the 
 gravitation of the weights is persistent; and of this no 
 proof is assigned, or can be assigned. In the 
 
 reasonings of the astronomer there is a like implication; 
 from which we may draw the like conclusion. No problem 
 in celestial physics can be sqlved without the assumption of 
 some unit of force. This unit need not be, like a pound or 
 a ton, one of which we can take direct cognizance. It is 
 requisite only that the mutual attraction which some two of 
 the bodies concerned exercise at a given distance, should be 
 taken as one ; so that the other attractions with which the 
 problem deals, may be expressed in terms of this one. Such 
 unit being assumed, the motions which the respective 
 masses will generate in each other in a given time, are 
 calculated ; and compounding these with the motions they 
 already have, their places at the end of that time are pro- 
 
THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE. 192*3 
 
 dieted. The prediction is verified by observation. From 
 this, either of two inferences may be drawn. Assuming 
 the masses to be unchanged, their energies, actual and poten- 
 tial, may be proved to be undiminished ; or assuming their 
 energies to be undiminished, the masses may be proved un. 
 changed. But the validity of one or other inference, de- 
 pends wholly on the truth of the assumption that the unit 
 of force is unchanged. Let it be supposed that the gravi- 
 tation of the two bodies towards each other at the given 
 distance, has varied, and the conclusions drawn are no longer 
 true. Nor is it only in their concrete data that 
 
 the reasonings of terrestrial and celestial physics assume the 
 Persistence of Force. The equality of action and reaction 
 is taken for granted from beginning to end of either argu- 
 ment ; and to assert that action and reaction are equal 
 and opposite, is to assert that Force is persistent. The 
 allegation really amounts to this, that there cannot be 
 an isolated force beginning and ending in nothing; but 
 that any force manifested, implies an equal antecedent force 
 from which it is derived, and against which it is a reaction. 
 We might indeed be certain, even in the absence of any 
 such analysis as the foregoing, that there must exist some 
 principle which, as being the basis of science, cannot be 
 established by science. All reasoned-out conclusions what- 
 ever must rest on some postulate. As before shown ( 2-3), 
 we cannot go on merging derivative truths in those wider 
 and wider truths from which they are derived, without 
 reaching at last a widest truth which can be merged in no 
 other, or derived from no other. And whoever contem- 
 plates the relation in which it stands to the truths of science 
 in general, will see that this truth transcending demonstra- 
 tion is the Persistence of Force, 
 
 612. But now what is the force of which we predi- 
 cate persistence ? It is not the force we are immediately 
 conscious of in our own muscular efforts; for this does 
 
I92d THE PERSISTENCE OF FOKCE. 
 
 not persist. As soon as an outstretched limb is relaxed, 
 the sense of tension disappears. True, we assert that in the 
 stone thrown or in the weight lifted, is exhibited the effect 
 of this muscular tension; and that the force which has 
 ceased to be present in our consciousness, exists elsewhere. 
 But it does not exist elsewhere under any form cognizable 
 by us. In 18 we saw that though, on raising an object 
 from the ground, we are obliged to think of its down- 
 ward pull as equal and opposite to our upward pull ; and 
 though it is impossible to represent these as equal without 
 representing them as like in kind ; yet, since their likeness 
 in kind would imply in the object a sensation of muscular 
 tension, which cannot be ascribed to it, we are compelled to 
 admit that force as it exists out of our consciousness, is not 
 force as we know it. Hence the force of which we assert 
 persistence is that Absolute Force of which we are indefi- 
 nitely conscious as the necessary correlate of the force we 
 know. By the Persistence of Force, we really mean the 
 persistence of some Cause which transcends our know- 
 ledge and conception. In asserting it we assert an Uncon- 
 ditioned Reality, without beginning or end. 
 
 Thus, quite unexpectedly, we come down once more to 
 that ultimate truth in which, as we saw, Religion and 
 Science coalesce. On examining the data underlying a 
 rational Theory of Things, we find them all at last re- 
 solvable into that datum without which consciousness was 
 shown to be impossible the continued existence of an Un- 
 knowable as the necessary correlative of the Knowable. 
 
 The sole truth which transcends experience by underlying 
 it, is thus the Persistence of Force. This being the basis 
 of experience, must be the basis of any scientific organiza 
 tion of experiences. To this an ultimate analysis brings 
 us down ; and on this a rational synthesis must build up. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PERSISTENCE OF RELATIONS AMONG- FORCES. 
 
 63. The first deduction to be drawn from the ultimate 
 universal truth that force persists, is that the re- 
 lations among forces persist. Supposing a given mani- 
 festation of force, under a given form and given condi- 
 tions, be either preceded by or succeeded by some other 
 manifestation, it must, in all cases where the form and 
 conditions are the same, be preceded by or succeeded by 
 such other manifestation. Every antecedent mode of the 
 Unknowable must have an invariable connexion, quantitative 
 and qualitative, with that mode of the Unknowable which 
 we call its consequent. 
 
 For to say otherwise is to deny the persistence of force. 
 If in any two cases there is exact likeness not only between 
 those most conspicuous antecedents which we distinguish 
 as the causes, but also between those accompanying antece- 
 dents which we call the conditions, we cannot affirm that 
 the effects will differ, without affirming either that some 
 force has come into existence or that some force has ceased 
 to exist. If the cooperative forces in the one case are 
 equal to those in the other, each to each, in distribution and 
 amount ; then it is impossible to conceive the product of 
 their joint action in the one case as unlike that in the other, 
 without conceiving one or more of the forces to have in- 
 creased or diminished in quantity ; and this is conceiving 
 that force is not persistent. 
 
194 THE PERSISTENCE OP RELATIONS AMONG FORCES. 
 
 
 To impress the truth here enunciated under its most 
 abstract form, some illustrations will be desirable. 
 
 64. Let two equal bullets be projected with equal 
 forces ; then, in equal times, equal distances must be tra- 
 velled by them. The assertion that one of them will describe 
 an assigned space sooner than the other, though their 
 initial momenta were alike and they have been equally 
 resisted (for if they are unequally resisted the antecedents 
 differ) is an assertion that equal quantities of force have not 
 done equal amounts of work j and this cannot be thought with- 
 out thinking that some force has disappeared into nothing or 
 arisen out of nothing. Assume, further, that during 
 
 its flight, one of them has been drawn by the Earth a certain 
 number of inches out of its original line of movement ; then 
 the other, which has moved the same distance in the same 
 time, must have fallen just as far towards the Earth. 
 No other result can be imagined without imagining 
 that equal attractions acting for equal times, have pro- 
 duced unequal effects; which involves the inconceivable 
 proposition that some action has been created or anni- 
 hilated. Again, one of the bullets having pene- 
 trated the target to a certain depth, penetration by 
 the other bullet to a smaller depth, unless caused by 
 altered shape of the bullet or greater local density in the 
 target, cannot be mentally represented. Such a modifica- 
 tion of the consequents without modification of the ante- 
 cedents, is thinkable only through the impossible thought 
 that something has become nothing or nothing has become 
 something. 
 
 It is thus not with sequences only, but also with simul- 
 taneous changes and permanent co-existences. Given 
 charges of powder alike in quantity and quality, fired from 
 barrels of the same structure, and propelling bullets of 
 equal weights, sizes, and forms, similarly rammed down; 
 and it is a necessary inference that the concomitant actions 
 
TIIE PERSISTENCE OF RELATIONS AMONG FORCES. 195 
 
 which make up the explosion, will bear to one another like 
 relations of quantity and quality in the two cases. The pro- 
 portions among the different products of combustion will bo 
 equal. The several amounts of force taken up in giving 
 momentum to the bullet, heat to the gases, and sound on 
 their escape, will preserve the same ratios. The quantities 
 of light and smoke in the one case will be what they are in 
 the other ; and the two recoils will be alike. For no dif- 
 ference of proportion, or no difference of relation, among these 
 concurrent phenomena can be imagined as arising, without 
 imagining such difference of proportion or relation as arising 
 uncaused as arising by the creation or annihilation of 
 force. 
 
 That which here holds between two cases must hold 
 among any number of cases ; and that which here holds 
 between antecedents and consequents that are comparatively 
 simple, must hold however involved the antecedents become 
 and however involved the consequents become. 
 
 65. Thus what we call uniformity of law, resolvable as 
 we find it into the persistence of relations among forces, is 
 an immediate corollary from the persistence of force. The 
 general conclusion that there exist constant connexions 
 among phenomena, ordinarily regarded as an inductive 
 conclusion only, is really a conclusion deducible from the 
 ultimate datum of consciousness. Though, in saying this, we 
 seem to be illegitimately inferring that what is true of 
 the ego is also true of the non-ego ; yet here this inference is 
 legitimate. For that which we thus predicate as holding in 
 common of ego and non-ego, is that which they have in 
 common as being both existences. The assertion of an exist- 
 ence beyond consciousness, is itself an assertion that there is 
 something beyond consciousness which persists ; for persist- 
 ence is nothing more than continued existence, and existence 
 cannot be thought of as other than continued. And w<> 
 cannot assert persistence of this something beyond conscioup 
 
196 THE PERSISTENCE OP RELATIONS AMONG FORCES. 
 
 ness, without asserting that the relations among its mani. 
 festations are persistent. 
 
 That uniformity of law thus follows inevitably from the 
 persistence of force, will become more and more clear as we 
 advance. The next chapter will indirectly supply abundant 
 illustrations of it. 
 
CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 
 
 66 WHEN, to the unaided senses, Science began to add 
 supplementary senses in the shape of measuring instruments, 
 men began to perceive various phenomena which eyes and 
 Angers could not distinguish. Of known forms of force, 
 minuter manifestations became appreciable ; and forms of 
 force before unknown were rendered cognizable and measure- 
 able. Where forces had apparently ended in nothing, and 
 had been carelessly supposed to have actually done so, instru- 
 mental observation proved that effects had in every instance 
 been produced : the forces reappearing in new shapes. 
 Hence there has at length arisen the inquiry whether the 
 force displayed in each surrounding change, does not in the 
 act of expenditure undergo metamorphosis into an equivalent 
 amount of some other force or forces. And to this inquiry 
 experiment is giving an affirmative answer, which becomes 
 daily more decisive. Meyer, Joule, Grove and Helmholtz 
 are more than any others to be credited with the clear enunci- 
 ation of this doctrine. Let us glance at the evidence on 
 which it rests. 
 
 Motion, wherever we can directly trace its genesis, we find 
 to pre-exist as some other mode of force. Our own volun- 
 tary acts have always certain sensations of museilar 
 tension as their antecedents. When, as in letting fall a re- 
 laxed limb, we are conscious of a bodily movement requiring 
 no effort, the explanation is that the effort was exerted in 
 
1U8 THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 
 
 
 raising the limb to the position whence it fell. In this case, 
 as in the case of an inanimate body descending to the Earth, 
 the force accumulated by the downward motion is just equal 
 to the force previously expended in the act of eleva- 
 tion. Conversely, Motion that is arrested produces, 
 under different circumstances, heat, electricity, magnetism, 
 light. From the warming of the hands by rubbing them 
 together, up to the ignition of a railway-brake by intense 
 friction from the lighting of detonating powder by percus- 
 sion, up to the setting on fire a block of wood by a few blows 
 from a steam-hammer ; we have abundant instances in which 
 heat arises as Motion ceases. It is uniformly found, that the 
 heat generated is great in proportion as the Motion lost is 
 great ; and that to diminish the arrest of motion, by di- 
 minishing the friction, is to diminish the quantity of heat 
 evolved. The production of electricity by Motion is illus- 
 trated equally in the boy's experiment with rubbed sealing- 
 wax, in the common electrical machine, and in the apparatus 
 for exciting electricity by the escape of steam. Wherever 
 there is friction between heterogeneous bodies, electrical dis- 
 turbance is one of the consequences. Magnetism may result 
 from Motion either immediately, as through percussion on 
 iron, or mediately as through electric currents previously 
 generated by Motion. And similarly, Motion may create 
 light; either directly, as in the minute incandescent frag- 
 ments struck off by violent collisions, or indirectly, as 
 through the electric spark. " Lastly, Motion may be again 
 reproduced by the forces which have emanated from Motion ; 
 thus, the divergence of the electrometer, the revolution of 
 the electrical wheel, the deflection of the magnetic needle, 
 are, when resulting from frictional electricity, palpable move- 
 ments reproduced by the intermediate modes of force, which, 
 have themselves been originated by motion." 
 
 That mode of force which we distinguish as Heat, is now 
 generally regarded by physicists as molecular motion not 
 motion as displayed in the changed relations of sensible 
 
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 199 
 
 masses to each other, but as occurring among the units of 
 which such sensible masses consist. If we cease to think of 
 Heat as that particular sensation given to us by bodies in 
 certain conditions, and consider the phenomena otherwise 
 presented by these bodies, we find that motion, either in 
 them or in surrounding bodies, or in both, is all that 
 we have evidence of. With one or two exceptions which are 
 obstacles to every theory of Heat, heated bodies expand ; and 
 expansion can be interpreted only as a movement of the units 
 of a mass in relation to each other. That so-called radia- 
 tion through which anything of higher temperature than 
 things around it, communicates Heat to them, is clearly a 
 species of motion. Moreover, the evidence afforded by the 
 thermometer that Heat thus diffuses itself, is simply a move- 
 ment caused in the mercurial column. And that the molecular 
 motion which we call Heat, may be transformed into visible 
 motion, familiar proof is given by the steam-engine ; in 
 which " the piston and all its concomitant masses of matter 
 are moved by the molecular dilatation of the vapour of 
 water." Where Heat is absorbed without apparent 
 
 result, modern inquiries show that decided though unob- 
 trusive changes are produced : as on glass, the molecular 
 state of which is so far changed by heat, that a polarized ray 
 of light passing through it becomes visible, which it does not 
 do when the glass is cold ; or as on polished metallic surfaces, 
 which are so far changed in structure by thermal radiations 
 from objects very close to them, as to retain permanent im- 
 pressions of such objects. The transformation of Heat into 
 electricity, occurs when dissimilar metals touching each other 
 are heated at the point of contact : electric currents being so 
 induced. Solid, incombustible matter introduced into heated 
 gas, as lime into the oxy-hydrogen flame, becomes incande- 
 scent ; and so exhibits the conversion of Heat into light. 
 The production of magnetism by Heat, if it cannot be proved 
 to take place directly, may be proved to take place indirectly 
 through the medium of electricity. And through the same 
 
00 THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 
 
 medium may be established the correlation of Heat and 
 chemical affinity a correlation which is indeed implied by 
 the marked influence that Heat exercises on chemical com- 
 position and decomposition. 
 
 The transformations of Electricity into other modes of 
 force, are still more clearly demonstrable. Produced by the 
 motion of heterogeneous bodies in contact, Electricity, through 
 attractions and repulsions, will immediately reproduce motion 
 in neighbouring bodies. Now a current of Electricity gener- 
 ates magnetism in a bar of soft iron ; and now the rotation 
 of a permanent magnet generates currents of Electricity. 
 Here we have a battery in which from the play of chemical 
 affinities an electric current results ; and there, in the 
 adjacent cell, we have an electric current effecting chemical 
 decomposition. In the conducting wire we witness the 
 transformation of Electricity into heat ; while in electric 
 sparks and in the voltaic arc we see light produced. Atomic 
 arrangement, too, is changed by Electricity : as instance 
 the transfer of matter from pole to pole of a battery ; the 
 fractures caused by the disruptive discharge ; the formation 
 of crystals under the influence of electric currents. And 
 whether, conversely, Electricity be or be not directly gener- 
 ated by re- arrangement of the atoms of matter, it is at any 
 rate indirectly so generated through the intermediation of 
 magnetism. 
 
 How from Magnetism the other physical forces result, 
 must be next briefly noted briefly, because in each succes- 
 sive case the illustrations become in great part the obverse 
 forms of those before given. That Magnetism produces 
 motion is the ordinary evidence we have of its existence. In 
 the magneto-electric machine we see a rotating magnet 
 evolving electricity. And the electricity so evolved may 
 immediately after exhibit itself as heat, light, or chemical 
 affinity. Faraday's discovery of the effect of Magnetism on 
 polarized light, as well as the discovery that change of mag- 
 netic state is accompanied by heat, po>nt to further like con* 
 
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 201 
 
 nexions. Lastly, various experiments show that the mag- 
 netization of a body alters its internal structure ; and that 
 conversely, the alteration of its internal structure, as by 
 mechanical strain, alters its magnetic condition. 
 
 Improbable as it seemed, it is now proved that from Light 
 also may proceed the like variety of agencies. The solar rays 
 change the atomic arrangements of particular crystals. 
 Certain mixed gases, which do not otherwise combine, com- 
 bine in the sunshine. In some compounds Light pro- 
 duces decomposition. Since the inquiries of photographers 
 have drawn attention to the subject, it has been shown that 
 " a vast number of substances, both elementary and com- 
 pound, are notably affected by this agent, even those ap- 
 parently the most unalterable in character, such as metals." 
 And when a daguerreotype plate is connected with a proper 
 apparatus " we get chemical action on the plate, electricity 
 circulating through the wires, magnetism in the coil, heat in 
 the helix, and motion in the needles." 
 
 The genesis of all other modes of force from Chemical 
 Action, scarcely needs pointing out. The ordinary accom- 
 paniment of chemical combination is heat ; and when the 
 affinities are intense, light also is, under fit conditions, pro- 
 duced. Chemical changes involving alteration of bulk, cause 
 motion, both in the combining elements and in adjacent 
 masses of matter : witness the propulsion of a bullet by the 
 explosion of gun-powder. In the galvanic battery we see 
 electricity resulting from chemical composition and decom- 
 position. While through the medium of this electricity, 
 Chemical Action produces magnetism. 
 
 These facts, the larger part of which are culled from Mr. 
 Grove's work on " The Correlation of Physical Forces," show 
 us that each force is transformable, directly or indirectly, 
 into the others. In every change Force undergoes meta- 
 morphosis ; and from the new form or forms it assumes, may 
 subsequently result either the previous one or any of the 
 rest, in endless variety of order and combination. It is 
 
202 THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 
 
 further becoming manifest that the physical forces stand not 
 simply in qualitative correlations with each other, but also in 
 quantitative correlations. Besides proving that one mode of 
 force may be transformed into another mode, experiments 
 illustrate the truth that from a definite amount of one, defi- 
 nite amounts of others always arise. Ordinarily it is in- 
 deed difficult to show this ; since it mostly happens that the 
 transformation of any force is not into some one of the rest 
 but into several of them : the proportions being determined 
 by the ever-varying conditions. But in certain cases, posi- 
 tive results have been reached. Mr. Joule has ascertained 
 that the fall of 772 Ibs. through one foot, will raise the 
 temperature of a pound of water one degree of Fahrenheit. 
 The investigations of Dulong, Petit and Neumann, have 
 proved a relation in amount between the affinities of combin- 
 ing bodies and the heat evolved during their combination. Be- 
 tween chemical action and voltaic electricity, a quantitative 
 connexion has also been established : Faraday's experiments 
 implying that a specific measure of electricity is disengaged 
 by a given measure of chemical action. The well- determined 
 relations between the quantities of heat generated and water 
 turned into steam, or still better the known expansion pro- 
 duced in steam by each additional degree of heat, may be 
 cited in further evidence. Whence it is no longer doubted 
 that among the several forms which force assumes, the 
 quantitative relations are fixed. The conclusion tacitly 
 agreed on by physicists, is, not only that the physical forces 
 undergo metamorphoses, but that a certain amount of each is 
 the constant equivalent of certain amounts of the others. 
 
 5 67. Everywhere throughout the Cosmos this truth must 
 ,jj variably hold. Every successive change, or group of 
 changes, going on in it, must be due to forces affiliable on 
 the like or unlike forces previously existing ; while from the 
 forces exhibited in such change or changes must be derived 
 others more or less transformed. And besides recognizing 
 
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES, 203 
 
 this necessary linking of the forces at any time manifested, 
 fvith those preceding and succeeding them, we must 
 recognize the amounts of these forces as determinate as 
 necessarily producing such and such quantities of results, 
 and as necessarily limited to those quantities. 
 
 That unification of knowledge which is the business of 
 Philosophy, is but little furthered by the establishment of 
 this truth under its general form. We must trace it out 
 under its leading special forms. Changes, and the accom- 
 panying transformations of forces, are everywhere in pro- 
 gress, from the movements of stars to the currents of our 
 thoughts; and to comprehend, in any adequate way, the 
 meaning of the great fact that forces, unceasingly metamor- 
 phosed, are nowhere increased or decreased, it is requisite 
 for us to contemplate the various orders of changes going on 
 around, for the purpose of ascertaining whence arise the 
 forces they imply and what becomes of these forces. Of 
 course if answerable at all, these questions can be answered 
 only in the rudest way. We cannot hope to establish 
 equivalence among the successive manifestations of force. 
 The most we can hope is to establish a qualitative correla- 
 tion that is indefinitely quantitative quantitative to the 
 extent of involving something like a due proportion between 
 causes and effects. 
 
 Let us, with the view of trying to do this, consider in 
 succession the several classes of phenomena which the several 
 concrete sciences deal with. 
 
 68. The antecedents ofthoso forces which our Solar 
 System displays, belong to a past of which we can never have 
 anything but inferential knowledge ; and at present we cannot 
 be said to have even this. Numerous and strong as are the 
 reasons for believing the Nebular Hypothesis, we cannot yet 
 regard it as more than an hypothesis. If, however, we 
 assume that the matter composing the Solar System once 
 existed in a diffused state, we have, in the gravitation of its 
 
204 THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 
 
 
 parts, a force adequate to produce the motions now going 
 on. 
 
 Masses of precipitated nebulous matter, moving towards 
 their common centre of gravity through the resisting medium 
 from which they were precipitated, will inevitably cause a 
 general rotation, increasing in rapidity as the concentration 
 progresses. So far as the evidence carries us, we perceive 
 some quantitative relation between the motions so generated 
 and the gravitative forces expended in generating them. 
 The planets formed from that matter which has travelled the 
 shortest distance towards the common centre of gravity, 
 have the smallest velocities. Doubtless this is explicable on 
 the teleological hypothesis ; since it is a condition to equi- 
 librium. But without insisting that this is beside the ques- 
 tion, it will suffice to point out that the like cannot be said 
 of the planetary rotations. No such final cause can be 
 assigned for the rapid axial movement of Jupiter and Saturn, 
 or the slow axial movement of Mercury. If, however, in 
 pursuance of the doctrine of transformation, we look for the 
 antecedents of these gyrations which all planets exhibit, the 
 nebular hypothesis furnishes us with antecedents which bear 
 manifest quantitative relations to the motions displayed. 
 For the planets that turn on their axes with extreme 
 rapidity, are those having great masses and large orbits 
 those, that is, of which the once diffused elements moved to 
 their centres of gravity through immense spaces, and so 
 acquired high velocities. While, conversely, the planets 
 which rotate with the smallest velocities, are those formed 
 out of the smallest nebulous rings a relation still better 
 shown by satellites. 
 
 " But what/' it may be asked, " has in such case become 
 of all that motion which brought about the aggregation oi 
 this diffused matter into solid bodies ? " The answer is that 
 it has been radiated in the form of heat and light ; and this 
 answer the evidence, so far as it goes, confirms. Geologists 
 conclude that the heat of the Earth's still molten nucleus is 
 
ttfE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 205 
 
 bat a remnant of the heat which once made molten the 
 entire Earth. The mountainous surfaces of the Moon and 
 of Venus (which alone are near enough to be scrutinized), 
 indicating, as they do, crusts that have, like our own, been 
 corrugated by contraction, imply that these bodies too have 
 undergone refrigeration. Lastly, we have in the Sun a still- 
 continued production of this heat and light, which must 
 result from the arrest of diffused matter moving towards a 
 common centre of gravity. Here also, as before, a 
 
 quantitative relation is traceable. Among the bodies which 
 make up the Solar System, those containing comparatively 
 small amounts of matter whose centripetal motion has been 
 destroyed, have already lost nearly all the produced heat : a 
 result which their relatively larger surfaces have facilitated. 
 But the Sun, a thousand times as great in mass as the 
 largest planet, and having therefore to give off an enormously 
 greater quantity of heat and light due to arrest of moving 
 matter, is still radiating with great intensity. 
 
 $ 65. If we inquire the origin of those forces which have 
 wrought the surface of our planet into its present shape, we 
 find them traceable to the primordial source just assigned. 
 Assuming the solar system to have arisen as above supposed, 
 then geologic changes are either direct or indirect results 
 of the unexpended heat caused by nebular condensation. 
 These changes are commonly divided into igneous and 
 aqueous heads under which we may most conveniently 
 consider them. 
 
 All those periodic disturbances which we call earthquakes, 
 all those elevations and subsidences which they severally 
 produce, all those accumulated effects of many such eleva- 
 tions and subsidences exhibited in ocean-basins, islands, con- 
 tinents, table-lands, mountain -chains, and all those forma- 
 tions which are distinguished as volcanic, geologists now 
 regard as modifi cations of the Earth's crust produced by the 
 -molten matter occupying its interior. However 
 
206 THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 
 
 able may be the details of M. Elie de Beaumont's theory, 
 there is good reason to accept the general proposition that 
 the disruptions and variations of level which take place at 
 intervals on the terrestrial surface, are due to the progressive 
 collapse of the Earth's solid envelope upon its cooling and 
 contracting nucleus. Even supposing that volcanic erup- 
 tions, extrusions of igneous rock, and upheaved mountain- 
 chains, could be otherwise satisfactorily accounted for, which 
 they cannot ; it would be impossible otherwise to account for 
 those wide-spread elevations and depressions whence conti- 
 nents and oceans result. The conclusion to be drawn is, 
 then, that the forces displayed in these so-called igneous 
 changes, are derived positively or negatively from the unex- 
 pended heat of the Earth's interior. Such phenomena as tho 
 fusion or agglutination of sedimentary deposits, the warming 
 of springs, the sublimation of metals into the fissures where 
 we find them as ores, may be regarded as positive results of 
 this residuary heat ; while fractures of strata and alterations 
 of level are its negative results, since they ensue on its escape. 
 The original cause of all these effects is still, however, as it 
 has been from the first, the gravitating movement of the 
 Earth's matter towards the Earth's centre ; seeing that to 
 this is due both the internal heat itself and the collapse 
 which takes place as it is radiated into space. 
 
 When we inquire under what forms previously existed the 
 force which works out the geological changes classed as 
 aqueous, the answer is less obvious. The efiects of rain, of 
 rivers, of winds, of waves, of marine currents, do not mani- 
 festly proceed from one general source. Anatysis, neverthe- 
 less, proves to us that they have a common genesis. If we 
 ask, Whence comes the power of the river-current, bearing 
 sediment down to the sea ? the reply is, The gravitation of 
 water throughout the tract which this river drains. If we 
 ask, How came the water to be dispersed over this tract ? the 
 reply is, It fell in the shape of rain. If we ask, How came 
 the rain to be in that position whence it fell ? the reply is* 
 
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 207 
 
 The vapour from which it was condensed was drifted there 
 by the winds. If we ask, How came this vapour to be at 
 that elevation ? the reply is, It was raised by evaporation. 
 And if we ask, What force thus raised it ? the reply is, 
 The sun's heat. Just that amount of gravitative force which 
 the sun's heat overcame in raising the atoms of water, is 
 given out again in the fall of those atoms to the same level, 
 tlence the denudations effected by rain and rivers, during 
 the descent of this condensed vapour to the level of the sea, 
 are indirectly due to the sun's heat. Similarly with the 
 winds that transport the vapours hither and thither. Con- 
 sequent as atmospheric currents are on differences of tempera- 
 ture (either general, as between the equatorial and polar 
 regions, or special as between tracts of the Earth's surface of 
 unlike physical characters) all such currents are due to that 
 source from which the varying quantities of heat proceed. 
 And if the winds thus originate, so too do the waves raised 
 by them on the sea's surface. Whence it follows that what- 
 ever changes waves produce the wearing away of shores, 
 the breaking down of rocks into shingle, sand, and mud 
 are also traceable to the solar rays as their primary cause. 
 The same may be said of ocean-currents. Generated as the 
 larger ones are by the excess of heat which the ocean in 
 tropical climates continually acquires from the Sun; and 
 generated as the smaller ones are by minor local differences 
 in the quantities of solar heat absorbed ; it follows that the 
 distribution of sediment and other geological processes which 
 these marine currents effect, are affiliable upon the force 
 which the sun radiates. The only aqueous agency otherwise 
 originating is that of the tides an agency which, equally with 
 the others, is traceable to unexpended astronomical motion. 
 But making allowance for the changes which this works, we 
 reach the conclusion that the slow wearing down of conti- 
 nents and gradual filling up of seas, by rain, rivers, winds, 
 waves, and ocean- streams, are the indirect effects of solar 
 heat. 
 
l'U8 THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 
 
 Thus the inference forced on us by the doctrine of trans, 
 formation, that the forces which have moulded and re- 
 moulded the Earth's crust must have pre-existed under some 
 other shape, presents no difficulty if nebular genesis be 
 granted ; since this pre-supposes certain forces that are both 
 adequate to the results, and cannot be expended without pro- 
 ducing the results. "We see that while the geological changes 
 -classed as igneous, arise from the still-progressing motion of 
 the Earth's substance to its centre of gravity; the antagonistic 
 changes classed as aqueous, arise fix>m the still-progressing 
 motion of the Sun's substance towards its centre of gravity 
 a motion which, transformed into heat and radiated to us, is 
 here re-transformed, directly into motions of the gaseous and 
 liquid matters on the Earth's surface, and indirectly into 
 motions of the solid matters. 
 
 70. That the forces exhibited in vital actions, vegetal 
 and animal, are similarly derived, is so obvious a deduction 
 from the facts of organic chemistry, that it will meet with 
 ready acceptance from readers acquainted with these facts. 
 Let us note first the physiological generalizations ; and then 
 the generalizations which they necessitate. 
 
 Plant-life is all directly or indirectly dependent on the 
 heat and light of the sun directly dependent in the im- 
 mense majority of plants, and indirectly dependent in plants 
 which, as the fungi, nourish in the dark : since these, growing 
 as they do at the expense of decaying organic matter, medi- 
 ately draw their forces from the same original source. Each 
 plant owes the carbon and hydrogen of which it mainly -con- 
 sists, to the carbonic acid and water contained in the surround- 
 ing air and earth. The carbonic acid and water must, how- 
 ever, be decomposed before their carbon and hydrogen can 
 be assimilated. To overcome the powerful affinities which 
 nold their elements together, requires the expenditure of 
 force; and this force is supplied by the Sun. In what 
 manner the decomposition is effected we do not know. But 
 
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 20'J 
 
 we know that when, under fit conditions, plants are exposed 
 to the Sun's rays, they give off oxygen and accumulate carbon 
 and hydrogen. In darkness this process ceases. It ceases 
 too when the quantities of light and heat received are greatly 
 reduced, as in winter. Conversely, it is active when the light 
 and heat are great, as in summer. And the like relation is 
 saen in the fact that while plant-life is luxuriant in the 
 tropics, it diminishes in temperate regions, and disappears as 
 we approach the poles. Thus the irresistible inference is, 
 that the forces by which plants abstract the materials of their 
 tissues from surrounding inorganic compounds the forces by 
 which they grow and carry on their functions, are forces that 
 previously existed as solar radiations. 
 
 That animal life is immediately or mediately dependent on 
 vegetal life is a familiar truth ; and that, in the main, the 
 processes of animal life are opposite to those of vegetal life is a 
 truth long current among men of science. Chemically con- 
 sidered, vegetal life is chiefly a process of de-oxidation, and 
 animal life chiefly a process of oxidation : chiefly, we must 
 say, because in so far as plants are expenders of force for the 
 purposes of organization, they are oxidizers (as is shown by 
 the exhalation of carbonic acid during the night) ; and ani- 
 mals, in some of their minor processes, are probably de-oxi- 
 dizers. But with this qualification, the general truth is 
 that while the plant, decomposing carbonic acid and water 
 and liberating oxygen, builds up the detained carbon and 
 hydrogen (along with a little nitrogen and small quanti- 
 ties of other elements elsewhere obtained) into branches, 
 leaves, and seeds ; the animal, consuming these branches, 
 leaves, and seeds, and absorbing oxygen, recomposes car- 
 bonic acid and water, together with certain nitrogenous 
 compounds in minor amounts. And while the decom- 
 position effected by the plant, is at the expense of cer- 
 tain forces emanating from the sun, which are employed 
 in overcoming the affinities of carbon and hydrogen for the 
 oxygen united with them ; the re- composition effected by the 
 
210 THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 
 
 animal, is at the profit of these forces, which are liberated 
 during the combination of such elements. Thus the move- 
 ments, internal and external, of the animal, are re- appear- 
 ances in new forms of a power absorbed by the plant under 
 the shape of light and heat. Just as, in the manner 
 above explained, the solar forces expended in raising vapour 
 from the sea's surface, are given out again in the fall of rain 
 and rivers to the same level, and in the accompanying trans- 
 fer of solid matters ; so, the solar forces that in the plant 
 raised certain chemical elements to a condition of unstable 
 equilibrium, are given out again in the actions of the animal 
 during the fall of these elements to a condition of stable 
 equilibrium. 
 
 Besides thus tracing a qualitative correlation between these 
 two great orders of organic activity, as well as between both 
 of them and inorganic agencies, we may rudely trace a 
 quantitative correlation. Where vegetal life is abundant, we 
 usually find abundant animal life ; and as we advance from 
 torrid to temperate and frigid climates, the two decrease to- 
 gether. Speaking generally, the animals of each class reach 
 a larger size in regions where vegetation is abundant, than 
 in those where it is sparse. And further, there is a tolerably 
 apparent connexion between the quantity of energy which 
 each species of animal expends, and the quantity of force 
 which the nutriment it absorbs gives out during oxidation. 
 
 Certain phenomena of development in both plants and 
 animals, illustrate still more directly the ultimate truth 
 enunciated. Pursuing the suggestion made by Mr. Grove, 
 in the first edition of his work on the " Correlation of the 
 Physical Forces," that a connexion probably exists between 
 the forces classed as vital and those classed as physical, 
 Dr. Carpenter has pointed out that such a connexion is 
 clearly exhibited during incubation. The transformation of 
 the unorganized contents of an egg into the organized chick, 
 is altogether a question of heat : withhold heat and the process 
 does not commence ; supply heat and it goes on while the 
 
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP PORChS. 211 
 
 temperature is maintained, but ceases when the egg is allowed 
 to cool. The developmental changes can be completed only 
 Dy keeping the temperature with tolerable constancy at a 
 definite height for a definite time ; that is only by supply- 
 ing a definite quantity of heat. In the metamorphoses of 
 insects we may discern parallel facts. Experiments show 
 not only that the hatching of their eggs is determined by 
 temperature, but e^o that the evolution of the pupa into the 
 imago* is similarly determined ; and may be immensely ac- 
 celerated or retarded according as heat is artificially supplied 
 or withheld. It will suffice just to add that the germination of 
 plants presents like relations of cause and effect relations so 
 similar that detail is superfluous. 
 
 Thus then the various changes exhibited to us by tho 
 organic creation, whether considered as a whole, or in its two 
 great divisions, or in its individual members, conform, so far 
 as we can ascertain, to the general principle. Where, as in 
 the transformation of an egg into a chick, we can investigate 
 the phenomena apart from all complications, we find that the 
 force manifested in the process of organisation, involves 
 expenditure of a pre-existing force. Where it is not, as 
 in the egg or the chrysalis, merely the change of a fixed 
 quantity of matter into a new shape, but where, as in the 
 growing plant or animal, we have an incorporation of matter 
 existing outside, there is still a pre-existing external force 
 at the cost of which this incorporation is effected. And 
 where, as in the higher division of organisms, there re- 
 main over and above the forces expended in organization, 
 certain surplus forces expended in movement, these too are 
 indirectly derived from this same pre-existing external force. 
 
 71. Even after all that has been said in the foregoing 
 part of this work, many will be alarmed by the assertion, 
 that the forces which we distinguish as mental, come within 
 the same generalization. Yet there is no alternative but to 
 make this assertion : the facts which justify, or rather which 
 
212 THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 
 
 necessitate it, being abundant and conspicuous. They fall 
 into the following groups. 
 
 All impressions from moment to moment made on our 
 organs of sense, stand in direct correlation with physical 
 forces existing externally. The modes of consciousness called 
 pressure, motion, sound, light, heat, are effects produced in 
 iis by agencies which, as otherwise expended, crush or fracture 
 pieces of matter, generate vibrations in surrounding objects, 
 cause chemical combinations, and reduce substances from a 
 solid to a liquid form. Hence if we regard the changes of 
 relative position, of aggregation, or of chemical state, thus 
 arising, as being transformed manifestations of the agencies 
 from which they arise ; so must we regard the sensations 
 which such agencies produce in us, as new forms of the forces 
 producing them. Any hesitation to admit that, be- 
 
 tween the physical forces and the sensations there exists a 
 correlation like that between the physical forces themselves, 
 must disappear on remembering how the one correlation, like 
 the other, is not qualitative only but quantitative. Masses 
 of matter which, by scales or dynamometer, are shown to 
 differ greatly in weight, differ as greatly in the feelings of 
 pressure they produce on our bodies. In arresting moving 
 objects, the strains we are conscious of are proportionate to 
 the momenta of such objects as otherwise measured. Under 
 like conditions the impressions of sounds given to us by 
 vibrating strings, bells, or columns of air, are found to vary 
 in strength with the amount of force applied. Fluids or 
 pnlids proved to be markedly contrasted in temperature by 
 the different degrees of expansion they produce in the 
 mercurial column, produce in us correspondingly different 
 degrees of the sensation of heat. And similarly unlike in- 
 tensities in our impressions of light, answer to unlike effects 
 as measured by photometers. 
 
 Besides the correlation and equivalence between external 
 physical forces, and the mental forces generated by them in 
 us under the form of sensations, there is a correlation and 
 
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 213 
 
 equivalence between sensations and those physical forces 
 which, in the shape of bodily actions, result from them. The 
 feelings we distinguish as light, heat, sound, odour, taste, 
 pressure, &c., do not die away without immediate results ; 
 but are invariably followed by other manifestations of force. 
 In addition to the excitements of secreting organs, that are 
 in soine cases traceable, there arises a contraction of the in- 
 voluntary muscles, or of the voluntary muscles, or of both. 
 Sensations increase the action of the heart slightly when 
 they are slight ; markedly when they are marked ; and recent 
 physiological inquiries imply not only that contraction of the 
 heart is excited by every sensation, but also that the muscular 
 fibres throughout the whole vascular system, are at the same 
 time more or less contracted. The respiratory muscles, too, 
 are stimulated into greater activity by sensations. The rate 
 of breathing is visibly and audibly augmented both by plea- 
 surable and painful impressions on the nerves, when these 
 reach any intensity. It has even of late been shown that 
 inspiration becomes more frequent on transition from dark- 
 ness into sunshine, a residt probably due to the increased 
 amount of direct and indirect nervous stimulation involved. 
 When the quantity of sensation is great, it generates con- 
 tractions of the voluntary muscles, as well as of the involun- 
 tary ones Unusual excitement of the nerves of touch, as by 
 tickling, is followed by almost incontrollable movements of 
 the limbs. Violent pains cause violent struggles. The 
 start that succeeds a loud sound, the wry face produced by 
 the taste of anything extremely disagreeable, the jerk with 
 which the hand or foot is snatched out of water that is very 
 hot, are instances of the transformation of feeling into 
 motion ; and in these cases, as in all others, it is manifest 
 that the quantity of bodily action is proportionate to the 
 quantity of sensation. Even where from pride there is a 
 suppression of the screams and groans expressive of great 
 pain (also indirect results of muscular contraction), we may 
 etill see in the clenching of the hands, the knitting of the 
 11 
 
214 THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 
 
 brows, and the setting of the teeth, that the bodily actions 
 developed are as great, though less obtrusive in their re- 
 sults. If we take emotions instead of sensations, we 
 find the correlation and equivalence equally manifest. Not 
 only are the modes of consciousness directly produced in us 
 by physical forces, re-transformable into physical forces under 
 the form of muscular motions and the changes they initiate ; 
 but the like is true of those modes of consciousness which are 
 not directly produced in us by the physical forces. Emotions 
 of moderate intensity, like sensations of moderate intensity, 
 generate little beyond excitement of the heart and vascular 
 system, joined sometimes with increased action of glandular 
 organs. But as the emotions rise in strength, the muscles of 
 the face, body, and limbs, begin to move. Of examples may 
 be mentioned the frowns, dilated nostrils, and stampings of 
 anger ; the contracted brows, and wrung hands, of grief ; the 
 smiles and leaps of joy ; and the frantic struggles of terror or 
 despair. Passing over certain apparent, but only apparent, 
 exceptions, we see that whatever be the kind of emotion, 
 there is a manifest relation between its amount, and the 
 amount of muscular action induced : alike from the erect 
 carriage and elastic step of exhilaration, up to the dancings 
 of immense delight, and from the fidgettiness of impatience 
 up to the almost convulsive movements accompanying great 
 mental agony. To these several orders of evidence 
 must be joined the further one, that between our feelings and 
 those voluntary motions into which they are transformed, 
 there comes the sensation of muscular tension, standing in 
 manifest correlation with both a correlation that is dis- 
 tinctly quantitative : the sense of strain varying, other 
 things equal, directly as the quantity of momentum 
 generated. 
 
 "But how/ it may be askei, "can we interpret by the 
 law of correlation the genesis of those thoughts and feelings 
 which, instead of following external ctimuli, arise spontaneous- 
 ly ? Between the indignation caused by an insult, and the 
 
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 215 
 
 loud sounds or violent acts that follow, the alleged connexion 
 may hold ; but whence come the crowd of ideas and the mass 
 of feelings that expend themselves in these demonstrations ? 
 They are clearly not equivalents of the sensations produced 
 by the words on the ears ; for the same words otherwise 
 arranged, would not have caused them. The thing said 
 bears to the mental action it excites, much the same relation 
 that the pulling of a trigger bears to the subsequent explo- 
 sion does not produce the power, but merely liberates it. 
 Whence then arises this immense amount of nervous energy 
 which a whisper or a glance may call forth?" The 
 
 reply is, that the immediate correlates of these and other such 
 modes of consciousness, are not to be found in the agencies 
 acting on us externally, but in certain internal agencies. 
 The forces called vital, which we have seen to be correlates 
 of the forces called physical, are the immediate sources of 
 these thoughts and feelings ; and are expended in producing 
 them. The proofs of this are various. Here are some of 
 them. It is a conspicuous fact that mental action is 
 
 contingent on the presence of a certain nervous apparatus ; 
 and that, greatly obscured as it is by numerous and involved 
 conditions, a general relation may be traced between the size 
 of this apparatus and the quantity of mental action as measur- 
 ed by its results. Further, this apparatus has a particular 
 chemical constitution on which its activity depends ; ar,<l 
 there is one element in it between the amount of which and 
 the amount of function performed, there is an ascertained 
 connexion : the proportion of phosphorus present in the brain 
 being the smallest in infancy, old age and idiotcy, and the 
 greatest during the prime of life. Note next, that 
 
 the evolution of thought and emotion varies, other things 
 equal, with the supply of blood to the brain. On the one 
 hand, a cessation of the cerebral circulation, from arrest of 
 the heart's action, immediately entails unconsciousness. On 
 the other hand, excess of cerebral circulation (unless it is 
 such as to cause undue pressure) results in an excitement 
 
216 THE TBANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FOKCES. 
 
 rising finally to delirium. Not the quantity only, 
 
 but also the condition of the hlood passing through the 
 nervous system, influences the mental manifestations. The 
 arterial currents must be duly aerated, to produce the normal 
 amount of cerebration. At the one extreme, we find that 11 
 the blood is not allowed to exchange its carbonic acid for 
 oxygen, there results asphyxia, with its accompanying stop- 
 page of ideas and feelings. While at the other extreme, we 
 find thai? by the inspiration of nitrous oxide, there is pro- 
 duced an excessive, and indeed irrepressible, nervous ac- 
 tivity. Besides the connexion between the develop- 
 ment of the mental forces and the presence of sufficient 
 oxygen in the cerebral arteries, there is a kindred connexion 
 between the development of the mental forces and the pre- 
 sence in the cerebral arteries of certain other elements. 
 There must be supplied special materials for the nutrition of 
 the nervous centres, as well as for their oxidation. And how 
 what we may call the quantity of consciousness, is, other things 
 equal, determined by the constituents of the blood, is unmis- 
 takeably seen in the exaltation that follows when certain 
 chemical compounds, as alcohol and the vegeto- alkalies, are 
 added to it. The gentle exhilaration which tea and coffee 
 create, is familiar to all ; and though the gorgeous imagina- 
 tions and intense feelings of happiness produced by opium 
 and hashish, have been experienced by few, (in this country 
 at least,) the testimony of those who have experienced them 
 is sufficiently conclusive. Yet another proof that the 
 genesis of the mental energies is immediately dependent on 
 chemical change, is afforded by the fact, that the effete pro- 
 ducts separated from the blood by the kidneys, vary in cha- 
 racter with the amount of cerebral action. Excessive activity 
 of mind is habitually accompanied by the excretion of an un- 
 usual quantity of the alkaline phosphates. Conditions of 
 abnormal nervous excitement bring on analogous effects. 
 And the " peculiar odour of the insane/' implying as it does 
 morbid products in the perspiration, shows a connexion be- 
 
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OF FORCES. 217 
 
 fcween insanity and a special composition of the circulating 
 fluids a composition which, whether regarded as cause or 
 consequence, equally implies correlation of the mental and 
 the physical forces. Lastly we have to note that this 
 
 correlation too, is, so far as we can trace it, quantitative. 
 Provided the conditions to nervous action are not infringed 
 on. and the concomitants are the same, there is a tolerably 
 constant ratio between the amounts of the antecedents and 
 consequents. Within the implied limits, nervous stimulants 
 and anaesthetics produce effects on the thoughts and feel- 
 ings, proportionate to the quantities administered. And 
 conversely, where the thoughts and feelings form the initial 
 term of the relation, the degree of reaction on the bodily 
 energies is great, in proportion as they are great : reaching 
 in extreme cases a total prostration of physique. 
 
 Yarious classes of facts thus unite to prove that the law of 
 metamorphosis, which holds among the physical forces, 
 holds equally between them and the mental forces. 
 Those modes of the Unknowable which we call mo- 
 tion, heat, light, chemical affinity, &c., are alike trans- 
 formable into each, other, and into those modes of the 
 Unknowable which we distinguish as sensation, emotion, 
 thought : these, in their turns, being directly or indirectly 
 re- transformable into the original shapes. That no idea or 
 feeling arises, save as a result of some physical force expended 
 in producing it, is fast becoming a common place of science ; 
 and whoever duly weighs the evidence will see, that nothing 
 but an overwhelming bias in favour of a pre-conceived 
 theory, can explain its non-acceptance. How this 
 
 metamorphosis takes place how a force existing as motion, 
 heat, or light, can become a mode of consciousness how it is 
 possible for aerial vibrations to generate the sensation we call 
 sound, or for the forces liberated by chemical changes in the 
 brain to give rise to emotion these are mysteries* which it is 
 impossible to fathom. But they are not profounder mysteries 
 than the transformations of the physical forces into each other. 
 
218 THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 
 
 They are not more completely beyond our comprehension 
 than the natures of Mind and Matter. They have simply the 
 same insolubility as all other ultimate questions. We can 
 learn nothing more than that here is one of the uniformities 
 in the order of phenomena. 
 
 72. If the general law of transformation and equivalence 
 holds of the forces we class as vital and mental, it must hold 
 alsc of those which we class as social. Whatever takes place, 
 in a society is due to organic or inorganic agencies, or to 
 a combination of the two results either from the undirected 
 physical forces around, from these physical forces as directed 
 by men, or from the forces of the men themselves. No 
 change can occur in its organization, its modes of activity, or 
 the effects it produces on the face of the Earth, but what 
 proceeds, mediately or immediately, from these. Let us con- 
 sider first the correlation between the phenomena which 
 societies display, and the vital phenomena. 
 
 Social power and life varies, other things equal, with the 
 population. Though different races, differing widely in their 
 fitness for combination, show us that the forces manifested in 
 a society are not necessarily proportionate to the number of 
 people ; yet we see that under given conditions, the forces 
 manifested are confined within the limits which the number 
 of people imposes. A small society, no matter how superior 
 the character of its members, cannot exhibit the same 
 quantity of social action as a large one. The production and 
 distribution of commodities must be on a comparatively small 
 scale. A multitudinous press, a prolific literature, or a 
 massive political agitation, is not possible. And there can 
 be but a small total of results in the shape of art-products 
 and scientific discoveries. The correlation of the 
 
 social with the physical forces through the intermediation of 
 the vital ones, is, however, most clearly shown in the different 
 amounts of activity displayed by the same society according 
 as its members are supplied with different amounts of force 
 
 
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 219 
 
 from the external world. In the effects of good and bad 
 harvests, we yearly see this relation illustrated. A greatly 
 deficient yield of wheat is soon followed by a diminution of 
 business. Factories are worked half-time, or close entirely ; 
 railway traffic falls ; retailers find their sales much lessened ; 
 house-building is almost suspended ; and if the scarcity 
 rises to famine, a thinning of the population still more 
 diminishes the industrial vivacity. Conversely, an unusually 
 abundant harvest, occurring under conditions not otherwise 
 unfavourable, both excites the old producing and distributing 
 agencies and sets up new ones. The surplus social energy 
 finds vent in speculative enterprises. Capital seeking in- 
 vestment carries out inventions that have been lying unutil- 
 ized. Labour is expended in opening new channels of com- 
 munication. There is increased encouragement to those who 
 furnish the luxuries of life and minister to the aesthetic 
 faculties. There are more marriages, and a greater rate of 
 increase in population. Thus the social organism grows 
 larger, more complex, and more active. When, as 
 
 happens with most civilized nations, the whole of the ma- 
 terials for subsistence are not drawn from the area inhabited, 
 but are partly imported, the people are still supported by 
 certain harvests elsewhere grown at the expense of certain 
 physical forces. Our own cotton-spinners and weavers supply 
 the most conspicuous instance of a section in one nation liv- 
 ing, in great part, on imported commodities, purchased by the 
 labour they expend on other imported commodities. But 
 though the social activities of Lancashire are due chiefly to 
 materials not drawn from our own soil, they are none the less 
 evolved from physical forces elsewhere stored up in fit forms 
 and then brought here. 
 
 If we ask whence come these physical forces from which, 
 through the intermediation of .the vital forces, the social 
 forces arise, the reply is of course as heretofore the solar 
 radiations. Based as the life of a society is on animal and 
 vegetal products ; and dependent as these animal and vegetal 
 
220 THE TKANSFOKMA HON AND EQUIVALENCE OF KHiCES. 
 
 products are on the light and heat of the sun ; it follows that 
 the changes going on in societies are effects of forces having 
 a common origin with those which produce all the other 
 orders of changes that have been analyzed. Not only is the 
 force expended by the horse harnessed to the plough, and by 
 the labourer guiding it, derived from the same reservoir 
 as is the force of the falling cataract and the roaring hurri- 
 cane ; but to this same reservoir are eventually traceable those 
 subtler and more complex manifestations of force which 
 humanity, as socially embodied, evolves. The assertion is a 
 startling one, and by many will be thought ludicrous ; but it 
 is an unavoidable deduction which cannot here be passed over. 
 Of the physical forces that are directly transformed into 
 social ones, the like is to be said. Currents of air and water, 
 which before the use of steam were the only agencies brought 
 in aid of muscular effort for the performance of industrial 
 processes, are, as we have seen, generated by the heat of the 
 sun. And the inanimate power that now, to so vast an 
 extent, supplements human labour, is similarly derived. The 
 late George Stephenson was one of. the first to recognize the 
 fact that the force impelling his locomotive, originally eman- 
 ated from the sun. Step by step we go back from the mo- 
 tion of the piston to the evaporation of the water ; thence to 
 the heat evolved during the oxidation of coal ; thence to the 
 assimilation of carbon by the plants of w T hose imbedded re- 
 mains coal consists ; thence to the carbonic acid from which 
 their carbon was obtained ; and thence to the rays of light 
 that de-oxidized this carbonic acid. Solar forces millions of 
 years ago expended on the Earth's vegetation, and since 
 locked up beneath its surface, now smelt the metals required 
 *or our machines, turn the lathes by which the machines are 
 shaped, work them when put together, and distribute the 
 fabrics they produce. And in so far as economy of labour 
 makes possible the support of a larger population ; gives a 
 surplus of human power that would else be absorbed in 
 manual occupations ; and it facilitates the development of 
 
THE TRANSFORMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 221 
 
 higher kinds of activity ; it "is clear that these social forces 
 which are directly correlated with physical forces aneientb 
 derived from the sun, are only less important than those 
 whose correlates are the vital forces recently derived from it. 
 
 73. Regarded as an induction, the doctrine set forth in 
 this chapter will most likely be met by a demurrer. Many 
 who admit that among physical phenomena at least, trans- 
 formation of forces is now established, will probably say that 
 inquiry has not yet gone far enough to enable us to predicate 
 equivalence. And in recpect of the forces classed as vital, 
 mental, and social, the evidence assigned, however little to be 
 explained away, they will consider by no means conclusive 
 even of transformation, much less of equivalence. 
 
 To those who think thus, it must now however be pointed 
 out, that the universal truth above illustrated under its various 
 aspects, is a necessary corollary from the persistence of force. 
 Setting out with the proposition that force can neither come 
 into existence, nor cease to exist, the several foregoing 
 general conclusions inevitably follow. Each manifestation of 
 force can be interpreted only as the effect of some antecedent 
 force : no matter whether it be an inorganic action, an 
 animal movement, a thought, or a feeling. Either this must 
 be conceded, or else it must be asserted that our successive 
 states of consciousness are self-created. Either mental 
 energies, as well as bodily ones, are quantitatively correlated 
 to certain energies expended in their production, and to 
 certain other energies which they initiate ; or else nothing 
 must become something and something must become nothing 
 The alternatives are, to deny the persistence of force, or to 
 admit that every physical and psychial change is generated 
 by certain antecedent forces, and that from given amounts of 
 such forces neither more nor less of such physical and psychial 
 changes can result. And since the persistence of force, being a 
 datum of consciousness, cannot be denied, its unavoidable corol- 
 lary must be accepted. This corollary cannot indeed be 
 

 222 THE TKANSFOEMATION AND EQUIVALENCE OP FORCES. 
 
 made more certain by accumulating illustrations. The truth AS 
 arrived at deductively, cannot be inductively confirmed. For 
 every one of such facts as those above detailed, is established 
 only through the indirect assumption of that persistence of 
 force, from which it really follows as a direct consequence. 
 The most exact proof of correlation and equivalence which it 
 is possible to reach by experimental inquiry, is that based on 
 measurement of the forces expended and the forces produced. 
 But, as was shown in the last chapter, any such process of 
 measurement implies the use of some unit of force which is 
 assumed to remain constant ; and for this assumption there 
 can be no warrant but that it is a corollary from the persist- 
 ence of force. How then can any reasoning based on this 
 corollary, prove the equally direct corollary that when a given 
 quantity of force ceases to exist under one form, an equal 
 quantity must come into existence under some other form or 
 forms? Clearly the a priori truth expressed in this last 
 corollary, cannot be more firmly established by any a pos- 
 teriori proofs which the first corollary helps us to. 
 
 " What then," it may be asked, " is the use of these investi- 
 gations by which transformation and equivalence of forces is 
 sought to be established as an inductive truth? Surely it 
 will not be alleged that they are useless. Yet if the corre- 
 lation cannot be made more certain by them than it is already, 
 does not their uselessness necessarily follow ?" No. They are 
 of value as disclosing the many particular implications which 
 the general truth does not specify. They are of value as 
 teaching us how much of one mode of force is the equivalent 
 of so much of another mode. They are of value as determin- 
 ing under what conditions each metamorphosis occurs. And 
 they are of value as leading us to inquire in what shape 
 the remnant of force has escaped, when the apparent results 
 are not equivalent to the cause. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 74. THE Absolute Cause of changes, no matter what may 
 be their special natures, is not less incomprehensible in respect 
 of the unity or duality of its action, than in all other respects. 
 We cannot decide between the alternative suppositions, that 
 phenomena are due to the variously- conditioned workings of a 
 single force, and that they are due to the conflict of two forces. 
 Whether, as some contend, everything is explicable on the 
 hypothesis of universal pressure, whence what we call tension 
 results differentially from inequalities of pressure in opposite 
 directions ; or whether, as might be with equal propriety con- 
 tended, things are to be explained on the hypothesis of uni- 
 versal tension, from which pressure is a differential result ; or 
 whether, as most physicists hold, pressure and tension every- 
 where co-exist ; are questions which it is impossible to settle. 
 Each of these three suppositions makes the facts comprehen- 
 sible, only by postulating an inconceivability. To assume a 
 universal pressure, confessedly requires us to assume an 
 infinite plenum an unlimited space full of something which 
 is everywhere pressed by something beyond ; and this 
 assumption cannot be mentally realized. That universal 
 tension is the immediate agency to which phenomena are 
 due, is an idea open to a parallel and equally fatal objection. 
 And however verbally intelligible may be the proposition that 
 pressure and tension everywhere co-exist, yet we cannot truly 
 
224 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 represent to ourselves one ultimate unit of matter as drawing 
 another while resisting it. 
 
 Nevertheless, this last belief is one which we are compelled 
 to entertain. Matter cannot be conceived except as mani- 
 festing forces of attraction and repulsion. Body is dis- 
 tinguished in our consciousness from Space, by its opposition 
 to our muscular energies ; and this opposition we feel under 
 the twofold form of a cohesion that hinders our efforts to 
 rend, and a resistance that hinders our efforts to compress. 
 Without resistance there can be merely empty extension. 
 Without cohesion there can be no resistance. Probably this 
 conception of antagonistic forces, is originally derived from 
 the antagonism of our flexor and extensor muscles. But be 
 this as it may, we are obliged to think of all objects as made 
 up of parts that attract and repel each other ; since this is the 
 form of our experience of all objects. 
 
 By a higher abstraction results the conception of attractive 
 and repulsive forces pervading space. We cannot dissociate 
 force from occupied extension, or occupied extension from 
 force ; because we have never an immediate consciousness of 
 either in the absence of the other. Nevertheless, we have 
 abundant proof that force is exercised through what ap- 
 pears to our senses a vacuity. Mentally to represent this 
 exercise, we are hence obliged to fill the apparent vacuity 
 with a species of matter an etherial medium. The consti- 
 tution we assign to this etherial medium, however, like the 
 constitution we assign to solid substance, is necessarily an 
 abstract of the impressions received from tangible bodies. 
 The opposition to pressure which a tangible body offers to us, 
 is not shown in one direction only, but in all directions ; and 
 BO likewise is its tenacity. Suppose countless lines radiating 
 from its centre on every side, and it resists along each of these 
 lines and coheres along each of these lines. Hence the 
 constitution of those ultimate units through the instrumen- 
 tality of which phenomena are interpreted. Be they atoms 
 of ponderable matter or molecules of ether, the properties wo 
 
THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 225 
 
 conceive them to possess are nothing else than these per- 
 ceptible properties idealized. Centres of force attracting and 
 repelling each other in all directions, are simply insensible 
 portions of matter having the endowments common to sensi- 
 ble portions of matter endowments of which we cannot by 
 any mental effort divest them. In brief, they are the in- 
 variable elements of the conception of matter, abstracted from 
 its variable elements size, form, quality, &c. And so to 
 interpret manifestations of force which cannot be tactually 
 experienced, we use the terms of thought supplied by our 
 tactual experiences ; and this for the sufficient reason that we 
 must use these or none. 
 
 After all that has been before shown, and after the hint 
 given above, it needs scarcely be said that these universally 
 co-existent forces of attraction and repulsion, must not be 
 taken as realities, but as our symbols of the reality. They 
 are the forms under which the workings of the Unknowable 
 are cognizable by us modes of the Unconditioned as pre- 
 sented under the conditions of our consciousness. But while 
 knowing that the ideas thus generated in us are not absolutely 
 true, we may unreservedly surrender ourselves to them as re- 
 latively true ; and may proceed to evolve a series of deduc- 
 tions having a like relative truth. 
 
 75. From universally co- existent forces of attraction and 
 repulsion, there result certain laws of direction of all move- 
 ment. Where attractive forces alone are concerned, or 
 rather are alone appreciable, movement takes place in the di- 
 rection of their resultant ; which may, in a sense, be called the 
 line of greatest traction. "Where repulsive forces alone are 
 concerned, or rather are alone appreciable, movement takes 
 place along their resultant ; which is usually known as the line 
 of least resistance. And where both attractive and repulsive 
 forces are concerned, or are appreciable, movement takes 
 place along the resultant of all the tractions and resistances. 
 Strictly speaking, this last is the sole law ; since, by the 
 
226 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION 
 
 hypothesis, both, forces are everywhere in action. But 
 very frequently the one kind of force is so immensely in 
 excess that the effect of the other kind may be left out of 
 consideration. Practically we may say that a body falling 
 to the Earth, follows the line of greatest traction ; since, 
 though the resistance of the air must, if the body be irregular, 
 cause some divergence from this line, (quite perceptible with 
 feathers and leaves,) yet ordinarily the divergence is so slight 
 that we may omit it. In the same manner, though the course 
 taken by the steam from an exploding boiler, differs somewhat 
 from that which it would take were gravitation out of the ques- 
 tion ; yet, as gravitation affects its course infinitesimally, we are 
 justified in asserting that the escaping steam follows the line of 
 least resistance. Motion then, we may say, always follows the 
 line of greatest traction, or the line of least resistance, or the 
 resultant of the two : bearing in mind that though the last is 
 alone strictly true, the others are in many cases sufficiently 
 near the truth for practical purposes. 
 
 Movement set up in any direction is itself a cause of further 
 movement in that direction, since it is the embodiment of a 
 surplus force in that direction. This holds equally with the 
 transit of matter through space, the transit of matter through 
 matter, and the transit through matter of any kind of vibra- 
 tion. In the case of matter moving through space, this prin- 
 ciple is expressed in the law of inertia a law on which the 
 calculations of physical astronomy are wholly based. In the 
 case of matter moving through matter, we trace the same 
 truth under the familiar experience that any breach made by 
 one solid through another, or any channel formed by a fluid 
 through a solid, becomes a route along which, other things 
 equal, subsequent movements of like nature take place. And 
 in the case of motion passing through matter under the form 
 of an impulse communicated from part to part, the facts of 
 magnetization go to show that the establishment of undula- 
 tions along certain lines, determines their continuance along 
 those lines. 
 
THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 227 
 
 It further follows from the conditions, that the direction of 
 movement can rarely if ever be perfectly straight. For 
 matter in motion to pursue continuously the exact line in 
 which it sets out, the forces of attraction and repulsion 
 must be symmetrically disposed around its path ; and the 
 chances against this are infinitely great. The impossibility 
 of making an absolutely true edge to a bar of metal the 
 fact that all which can be done by the best mechanical ap- 
 pliances, is to reduce the irregularities of such an edge to 
 amounts that cannot be perceived without magnifiers suffi- 
 ciently exemplifies how, in consequence of the unsymmetrical 
 distribution of forces around the line of movement, the move- 
 ment is rendered more or less indirect. It may be 
 well to add that in proportion as the forces at work are 
 numerous and varied, the curve a moving body describes is 
 necessarily complex : witness the contrast between the flight 
 of an arrow and the gyrations of a stick tossed about by 
 breakers. 
 
 As a step towards unification of knowledge we have now 
 to trace these general laws throughout the various orders of 
 changes which the Cosmos exhibits. We ha veto note how every 
 motion takes place along the line of greatest traction, of least 
 resistance, or of their resultant ; how the setting up of motion 
 along a certain line, becomes a cause of its continuance along 
 that line ; how, nevertheless, change of relations to external 
 forces, always renders this line indirect ; and how the degree 
 of its indirectness increases with every addition to the number 
 of influences at work. 
 
 76. If we assume the first stage in nebular condensation 
 to be the precipitation into flocculi of denser matter previously 
 diffused through a rarer medium, (a supposition both physi- 
 cally justified, and in harmony with certain astronomical ob- 
 servations,) we shall find that nebular motion is interpretable 
 in pursuance of the above general laws. Each portion of such 
 vapour-like matter must begin to move towards the common 
 
228 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 
 centre of gravity. The tractive forces which would of them- 
 selves carry it in a straight line to the centre of gravity, are 
 opposed by the resistant forces of the medium through 
 which it is drawn. The direction of movement must be the 
 resultant of these a resultant which, in consequence of the 
 unsymmetrical form of the flocculus, must be a curve directed, 
 not to the centre of gravity, but towards one side of it. And 
 it may be readily shown that in an aggregation of such floc- 
 culi, severally thus moving, there must, by composition of 
 forces, eventually result a rotation of the whole nebula in one 
 direction. 
 
 Merely noting this hypothetical illustration for the purpose 
 of showing how the law applies to the case of nebular evolu- 
 tion, supposing it to have taken place, let us pass to the phe- 
 nomena of the Solar System as now exhibited. Here the 
 general principles above set forth are every instant exempli- 
 fied. Each planet and satellite has a momentum which 
 would, if acting alone, carry it forward in the direction it is 
 at any instant pursuing. This momentum hence acts as a 
 resistance to motion in any other direction. Each planet and 
 satellite, however, is drawn by a force which, if unopposed, 
 would take it in a straight line towards its primary. And the 
 resultant of these two forces is that curve which it describes 
 a curve manifestly consequent on the unsymmetrical distribu- 
 tion of the forces around its path. This path, when more 
 closely examined, supplies us with further illustrations. For 
 it is not an exact circle or ellipse ; which it would be were the 
 tangential and centripetal forces the only ones concerned. 
 Adjacent members of the Solar System, ever varying in their 
 relative positions, cause what we call perturbations ; that is, 
 slight divergences in various directions from that circle or 
 ellipse which the two chief forces would produce. These per- 
 turbations severally show us in minor degrees, how the line of 
 movement is the resultant of all the forces engaged ; and how 
 this line becomes more complicated in proportion as the 
 forces are multiplied. If instead of the motions of th 
 
THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 229 
 
 plunets and satellites as wholes, we consider tbe motions of 
 their parts, we meet with comparatively complex illustrations. 
 Every portion of the Earth's substance in its daily rotation, 
 describes a curve which is in the main a resultant of that 
 resistance which checks its nearer approach to the centre of 
 grayity, that momentum which would carry it offat a tangent, 
 and those forces of gravitation and cohesion which keep it 
 from being so carried off. If this axial motion be compounded 
 with the orbital motion, the course of each part is seen to be 
 a much more involved one. And we find it to have a still 
 greater complication on taking into account that lunar attrac- 
 tion which mainly produces the tides and the precession of 
 the equinoxes. 
 
 77. We come next to terrestrial changes : present ones 
 as observed, and past ones as inferred by geologists. Let us 
 set out with the hourly-occurring alterations in the Earth's 
 atmosphere ; descend to the slower alterations in progress on 
 its surface ; and then to the still slower ones going on beneath. 
 
 Masses of air, absorbing heat from surfaces warmed by the 
 sun, expand, and so lessen the weight of the atmospheric 
 columns of which they are parts. Hence they offer to adjacent 
 atmospheric columns, diminished lateral resistance; and these, 
 moving in the directions of the diminished resistance, displace 
 the expanded air ; while this, pursuing an upward course, dis- 
 plays a motion along that line in which there is least pressure. 
 When again, by the ascent of such heated masses from ex- 
 tended areas like the torrid zone, there is produced at the 
 upper surface of the atmosphere, a protuberance beyond the 
 limits of equilibrium when the air forming this protuber- 
 ance begins to overflow laterally towards the poles ; it docs 
 so because, while the tractive force of the Earth is nearly the 
 same, the lateral resistance is greatly diminished. And 
 throughout the course of each current thus generated, as well 
 as throughout the course of each counter-current flowing in- 
 to the vacuum that is left, the direction is always the resultant 
 
<S30 THE DIRECTION OP MOTION. 
 
 of the Earth's tractive force and the resistance offered by the 
 surrounding masses of air : modified only by conflict with 
 other currents similarly determined, and by collision with 
 prominences on the Earth's crust. The movements 
 
 of water, in both its gaseous and liquid states, furnish further 
 examples. In conformity with the mechanical theory of heat, 
 it may be shown that evaporation is the escape of particles of 
 water in the direction of least resistance ; and that as the re- 
 sistance (which is due to the pressure of the water diffused in 
 a gaseous state) diminishes, the evaporation increases. Con- 
 versely, that rushing together of particles called condensation, 
 which takes place when any portion of atmospheric vapour 
 has its temperature much lowered, may be interpreted as a 
 diminution of the mutual pressure among the condensing 
 particles, while the pressure of surrounding particles remains 
 the same ; and so is a motion taking place in the direction of 
 lessened resistance. In the course followed by the resulting 
 rain-drops, we have one of the simplest instances of the joint 
 effect of the two antagonist forces. The Earth's attraction, 
 and the resistance of atmospheric currents ever varying in 
 direction and intensity, give as their resultants, lines which 
 incline to the horizon in countless different degrees and under- 
 go perpetual variations. More clearly still is the law exem- 
 plified by these same rain-drops when they reach the ground. 
 In the course they take while trickling over its surface, in 
 every rill, in every larger stream, and in every river, we see 
 them descending as straight as the antagonism of surround- 
 ing objects permits. From moment to moment, the motion 
 of water towards the Earth's centre is opposed by the solid 
 matter around and under it ; and from moment to moment 
 its route is the resultant of the lines of greatest traction and 
 least resistance. So far from a cascade furnishing, as it seems 
 to do, an exception, it furnishes but another illustration. For 
 though all solid obstacles to a vertical fall of the water are 
 removed, yet the water's horizontal momentum is an obstacle ; 
 and the parabola in which the stream leaps from the pro- 
 
THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 231 
 
 footing ledge, is generated by the combined gravitation and 
 momentum. It may be well just to draw attention 
 
 to the degree of complexity here produced in the line of 
 movement by the variety of forces at work. In atmospheric 
 currents, and still more clearly in water- courses (to which 
 might be added ocean -streams), the route followed is too com- 
 plex to be defined, save as a curve of three dimensions with 
 an ever varying equation. 
 
 The Earth's solid crust undergoes changes that supply an- 
 other group of illustrations. The denudation of lands and 
 the depositing of the removed sediment in new strata at the 
 bottoms of seas and lakes, is a process throughout which mo- 
 tion is obviously determined in the same way as is that of the 
 water effecting the transport. Again, though we have no 
 direct inductive proof that the forces classed as igneous, ex- 
 pend themselves along lines of least resistance ; yet what little 
 we know of them is in harmony with the belief that they do 
 so. Earthquakes continually revisit the same localities, and 
 special tracts undergo for long periods together successive 
 elevations or subsidences, facts which imply that already- 
 fractured portions of the Earth's crust are those most prone 
 to yield under the pressure caused by further contractions. 
 The distribution of volcanoes along certain lines, as well as 
 the frequent recurrence of eruptions from the same vents, 
 are facts of like meaning. 
 
 78. That organic growth takes place in the direction of 
 least resistance, is a proposition that has been set forth and 
 illustrated by Mr. James Hinton, in the Medico- Chirurgical 
 Review for October, 1858. After detailing a few of the early 
 observations which led him to this generalization, he for- 
 mulates it thus : 
 
 " Organic form is the result of motion." 
 " Motion takes the direction of least resistance." 
 " Therefore organic form is the result of motioD in the 
 direction of least resistance." 
 
232 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 After an elucidation and defence of this position, Mr. 
 Hinton proceeds to interpret, in conformity with it, sun- 
 dry phenomena of development. Speaking of plants he 
 says : 
 
 " The formation of the root furnishes a beautiful illustra- 
 tion of the law of least resistance, for it grows by insinuating 
 itself, cell by cell, through the interstices of the soil ; it is by 
 Buch minute additions that it increases, winding and twisting 
 whithersoever the obstacles it meets in its path determine, and 
 growing there most, where the nutritive materials are added 
 to it most abundantly. As we look on the roots of a mighty 
 tree, it appears to us as if they had forced themselves with 
 giant violence into the solid earth. But it is not so ; they 
 were led on gently, cell added to cell, softly as the dews de- 
 scended, and the loosened earth made way. Once formed, in- 
 deed, they expand with an enormous power, but the spongy 
 condition of the growing radicles utterly forbids the supposi- 
 tion that they are forced into the earth. Is it not probable, 
 indeed, that the enlargement of the roots already formed may 
 crack the surrounding soil, and help to make the interstices 
 into which the new rootlets grow ? " * 
 
 " Throughout almost the whole of organic nature the spiral 
 form is more or less distinctly marked. Now, motion under 
 resistance takes a spiral direction, as may be seen by the mo- 
 tion of a body rising or falling through water. A bubble 
 rising rapidly in water describes a spiral closely resembling 
 a corkscrew, and a body of moderate specific gravity dropped 
 into water may be seen to fall in a curved direction, the 
 spiral tendency of which may be distinctly observed 
 In this prevailing spiral form of organic 
 bodies, therefore, it appears to me, that there is presented a 
 strong prima facie case for the view I have maintained. 
 * * * The spiral form of the branches of many 
 trees is very apparent, and the universally spiral arrangement 
 of the leaves around the stem of plants needs only to be referred 
 to. * * * The heart commences as a spiral turn, 
 
 
THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 2o'J 
 
 and in its perfect form a manifest spiral may be traced through 
 the left ventricle, right ventricle, right auricle, left auricle 
 and appendix. And what is the spiral turn in which the 
 heart commences hut a necessary result of the lengthening, 
 under a limit, of the cellular mass of which it then con- 
 sists?" * * * 
 
 "Every one must have noticed the peculiar curling up of 
 i he young leaves of the common fern. The appearance is as 
 if the leaf were rolled up, hut in truth this form is merely a 
 phenomenon of growth. The curvature results from the in- 
 crease of the leaf, it is only another form of the wrinkling up, 
 or turning at right angles by extension under limit." 
 
 " The rolling up or imbrication of the petals in many flower- 
 buds is a similar thing ; at an early period the small petals 
 may be seen lying side by side, afterwards growing within the 
 capsule, they become folded round one another." 
 
 " If a flower-bud be opened at a sufficiently early period, 
 the stamens will be found as if moulded in the cavity between 
 the pistil and the corolla, which cavity the anthers exactly 
 fill ; the stalks lengthen at an after period. I have noticed 
 also in a few instances, that in those flowers in which the 
 petals are imbricated, or twisted together, the pistil is taper- 
 ing as growing up between the petals ; in some flowers which 
 have the petals so arranged in the bud as to form a dome (as 
 the hawthorn; e. g.), the pistil is flattened at the apex, and 
 in the bud occupies a space precisely limited by the stamens 
 below, and the enclosing petals above and at the sides. I 
 have not, however, satisfied myself that this holds good in all 
 ^ases." 
 
 Without endorsing all Mr. Hinton's illustrations, to 
 some of which exception might be taken, his conclusion 
 may be accepted as a large instalment of the truth. It is, 
 however, to be remarked, that in the case of organic growth, 
 as in all other cases, the line of movement is in strictness 
 the resultant of tractive and resistant forces; and that 
 the tractive forces here form so considerable an element 
 
234 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 that the formula is scarcely complete without them. The 
 shapes of plants are manifestly modified hy gravitation : 
 the direction of each branch is not what it would have been 
 were the tractive force of the Earth absent ; and every flower 
 and leaf is somewhat altered in the course of development by 
 the weight of its parts. Though in animals such effects are 
 less conspicuous, yet the instances in which flexible organs 
 have their directions in great measure determined by gravity, 
 justify the assertion that throughout the whole organism the 
 forms of parts must be affected by this force. 
 
 The organic movements which constitute growth, are not, 
 however, the only organic movements to be interpreted. 
 There are also those which constitute function. And through- 
 out these the same general principles are discernible. That 
 the vessels along which blood, lymph, bile, and all the 
 secretions, find their ways, are channels of least resistance, 
 is a fact almost too conspicuous to be named as an illustration. 
 Less conspicuous, however, is the truth, that the currents set- 
 ting along these vessels are affected by the tractive force of 
 the Earth : witness varicose veins ; witness the relief to an 
 inflamed part obtained by raising it ; witness the congestion 
 of head and face produced by stooping. And in the fact that 
 dropsy in the legs gets greater by day and decreases at night, 
 while, conversely, that cedematous fullness under the eyes 
 common in debility, grows worse during the hours of reclin- 
 ing and decreases after getting up, shows us how the trans- 
 udation of fluid through the walls of the capillaries, varies ac- 
 cording as change of position changes the effect of gravity in 
 different parts of the body. 
 
 It may be well in passing just to note the bearing of tho 
 principle on the development of species. From a dynamic 
 point oPview, " natural selection n implies structural changes 
 along lines of least resistance. The multiplication of any kind 
 of plant or animal in localities that are favourable to it, is a 
 growth where the antagonistic forces are less than elsewhere. 
 And the preservation of varieties that succeed better than 
 
THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 235 
 
 allies in coping with, surrounding conditions, is the continu- 
 ance of vital movement in those directions where the obstacles 
 to it are most eluded. 
 
 79. Throughout the phenomena of mind the law enunci- 
 ated is not so readily established. In a large part of them, 
 ts those of thought and emotion, there is no perceptible move- 
 ment. Even in sensation and volition, which show us in one 
 part of the body an effect produced by a force applied to an- 
 other part, the intermediate movement is inferential rather 
 than visible. Such indeed are the difficulties that it is not 
 possible here to do more than briefly indicate the proofs which 
 might be given did space permit. 
 
 Supposing the various forces throughout an organism to be 
 previously in equilibrium, then any part which becomes the 
 seat of a further force, added or liberated, must be one from 
 which the force, being resisted by smaller forces around, will 
 initiate motion towards some other part of the organism. If 
 elsewhere in the organism there is a point at which force is 
 being expended, and which so is becoming minus a force which 
 it before had, instead of plus a force which it before had not, 
 and thus is made a point at which the re-action against sur- 
 rounding forces is diminished ; then, manifestly, a motion tak- 
 ing place between the first and the last of these points is a 
 motion along the line of least resistance. Now a sensation 
 implies a force added to, or evolved in, that part of the organ- 
 ism which is its seat ; while a mechanical movement implies 
 an expenditure or loss of force in that part of the organism 
 which is its seat. Hence if, as we find to be the fact, motion is 
 habitually propagated from those parts of an organism to which 
 the external world adds forces in the shape of nervous impres- 
 ions, to those parts of an organism which react on the external 
 world through muscular contractions, it is simply a fulfil- 
 ment of the law above enunciated. From this general 
 conclusion we may pass to a more special one. When there 
 is anything in the circumstances of an animal's life, involving 
 
236 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 
 that a sensation in one particular place is habitually followed 
 by a contraction in another particular place when there- is 
 thus a frequently-repeated motion through the organism be- 
 tween these places ; what must be the result as respects the 
 line along which the motions take place ? Restoration of equi- 
 librium between the points at which the forces have been 
 increased and decreased, must take place through some chan- 
 nel. If this channel is affected by the discharge if the 
 obstructive action of the tissues traversed, involves any 
 reaction upon them, deducting from their obstructive 
 power ; then a subsequent motion between these two points 
 will meet with less resistance along this channel than the pre- 
 vious motion met with; and will consequently take this 
 channel still more decidedly. If so, every repetition will still 
 further dimmish the resistance offered by this route; and 
 hence will gradually be formed between the two a permanent 
 line of communication, differing greatly from the surrounding 
 tissue in respect of the ease with which force traverses it. We 
 see, therefore, that if between a particular impression and a 
 particular motion associated with it, there is established a 
 connexion producing what is called reflex action, the law that 
 motion follows the line of least resistance, and that, if the 
 conditions remain constant, resistance in any direction is dimin- 
 ished by motion occurring in that direction, supplies an expla- 
 nation. Without further details it will be manifest that 
 a like interpretation may be given to the succession of all 
 other nervous changes. If in the surrounding world there 
 are objects, attributes, or actions, that usually occur together, 
 the effects severally produced by them in the organism will be- 
 come so connected by those repetitions which we call experience, 
 that they also will occur together. In proportion to the fre* 
 quency with which any external connexion of phenomena Is 
 experienced, will be the strength of the answering internal con- 
 nexion of nervous states. Thus there will arise all degrees of 
 cohesion among nervous states, as there are all degrees of com- 
 monness among the surrounding co-existences and sequences 
 
THE DIRECTION OP MOTION. 237 
 
 that generate them : whence must result a general correspond- 
 ence between associated ideas and associated actions in the 
 environment.* 
 
 The relation between emotions and actions may be similarly 
 construed. As a first illustration let us observe what happens 
 with emotions that are undirected by volitions. These, like 
 feelings in general, expend themselves in generating organic 
 changes, and chiefly in muscular contractions. As was 
 pointed out in the last chapter, there result movements of 
 the involuntary and voluntary muscles, that are great in pro- 
 portion as the emotions are strong. It remains here to be 
 pointed out, however, that the order in which these muscles 
 are affected is explicable only on the principle above set forth. 
 Thus, a pleasurable or painful state of mind of but slight 
 intensity, does little more than increase the pulsations of the 
 heart. Why ? For the reason that the relation between 
 nervous excitement and vascular contraction, being common 
 to every genus and species of feeling, is the one of most 
 frequent repetition ; that hence the nervous connexion is, in 
 the way above shown, the one which offers the least resistance 
 to a discharge ; and is therefore the one along which a feeble 
 force produces motion. A sentiment or passion that is some- 
 what stronger, affects not only the heart but the muscles of 
 the face, and especially those around the mouth. Here the 
 like explanation applies ; since these muscles, being both com- 
 paratively small, and, for purposes of speech, perpetually 
 used, offer less resistance than other voluntary muscles 
 to the nervo-motor force. By a further increase of emotion 
 the respiratory and vocal muscles become perceptibly excited. 
 Finally, under strong passion, the muscles in general of the 
 trunk and limbs are violently contracted. Without saying 
 that the facts can be thus interpreted in all their details (a 
 
 This paragraph is a re-statement, somewhat amplified, of an idea set fortn in 
 the Medico- Chirurgical Review for January, 1859 (pp. 189 and 190) ; and con- 
 tains the germ of the intended fifth part of the Principles of Psychology, which 
 was withheld for the reasons given in the preface to that work 
 
 12 
 
238 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 
 task requiring data impossible to obtain) it may be safely said 
 that the order of excitation is from muscles that are small and 
 frequently acted on, to those which are larger and less fre- 
 quently acted on. The single instance of laughter, which is 
 an undirected discharge of feeling that affects first the 
 muscles round the mouth, then those of the vocal and respir- 
 a f ory apparatus, then those of the limbs, and then those of 
 the spine;* suffices to show that when no special route is 
 opened for it, a force evolved in the nervous centres produces 
 motion along channels which offer the least resistance, and if 
 it is too great to escape by these, produces motion along 
 channels offering successively greater resistance. 
 
 Probably it will be thought impossible to extend this 
 reasoning so as to include volitions. Yet we are not without 
 evidence that the transition from special desires to special 
 muscular acts, conforms to the same principle. It may be 
 shown that the mental antecedents of a voluntary movement, 
 are antecedents which temporarily make the line along which 
 this movement takes place, the line of least resistance. For 
 a volition, suggested as it necessarily is by some previous 
 thought connected with it by associations that determine the 
 transition, is itself a representation of the movements that are 
 willed, and of their sequences. But to represent in conscious- 
 ness certain of our own movements, is partially to arouse the 
 sensations accompanying such movements, inclusive of those 
 of muscular tension is partially to excite the appropriate 
 motor-nerves and all the other nerves implicated. That is to 
 say, the volition is itself an incipient discharge along a line 
 which previous experiences have rendered a line of least re- 
 sistance. And the passing of volition into action is simply a 
 completion of the discharge. 
 
 One corollary from this must be noted before proceeding ; 
 namely, that the particular set of muscular movements bj 
 which any object of desire is reached, are movements imply- 
 
 * For details see a paper on " The Physiology of Laughter," published ii 
 Afacmtflati's Magazine for March 1860. 
 
THB DIRECTION OF MOTION. 239 
 
 ing the smallest total of forces to be overcome. As each feel- 
 ing generates motion along the line of least resistance, it is 
 tolerably clear that a group of feelings, constituting a more 
 or less complex desire, will generate motion along a series of 
 lines of least resistance. That is to say, the desired end will 
 be achieved with the smallest expenditure of effort. Should 
 it be objected that through want of knowledge or want of 
 skill, a man often pursues the more laborious of two courses, 
 and so overcomes a larger total of opposing forces than was 
 necessary ; the reply is, that relatively to his mental state the 
 course he takes is that which presents the fewest difficulties. 
 Though there is another which in the abstract is easier, yet 
 his ignorance of it, or inability to adopt it, is, physically con- 
 sidered, the existence of an insuperable obstacle to the dis- 
 charge of his energies in that direction. Experience obtained 
 by himself, or communicated by others, has not established 
 in him such channels of nervous communication as are re- 
 quired to make this better course the course of least re- 
 sistance to him. 
 
 80. As in individual animals, inclusive of man, motion 
 follows lines of least resistance, it is to be inferred that among 
 aggregations of men, the like will hold good. The changes 
 in a society, being due to the joint actions of its members, the 
 courses of such changes will be determined as are those of all 
 other changes wrought by composition of forces. 
 
 Thus when we contemplate a society as an organism, and 
 observe the direction of its growth, we find this direction to 
 be that in which the average of opposing forces is the least. 
 Its units have energies to be expended in self-maintenance 
 and reproduction. These energies are met by various 
 environing energies that are antagonistic to them those of 
 geological origin, those of climate, of wild animals, of other 
 human races with whom they are at enmity or in competi- 
 tion. And the tracts the society spreads over, are those in 
 which there is the smallest total antagonism. Or, reducing 
 
240 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 the matter to its ultimate terms, we may say that these social 
 units have jointly and severally to preserve themselves and 
 their offspring from those inorganic and organic forces which 
 are ever tending to destroy them (either indirectly by oxi- 
 dation and by undue abstraction of heat, or directly by bodily 
 mutilation) ; that these forces are either counteracted by 
 others which are available in the shape of food, clothing, 
 habitations, and appliances of defence, or are, as far as may 
 be, eluded ; and that population spreads in whichever di- 
 rections there is the readiest escape from these forces, or the 
 least exertion in obtaining the materials for resisting them, 
 or both. For these reasons it happens that fertile 
 
 valleys where water and vegetal produce abound, are early 
 peopled. Sea-shores, too, supplying a large amount of easily- 
 gathered food, are lines along which mankind have common- 
 ly spread. The general fact that, so far as we can judge from 
 the traces left by them, large societies first appeared in those 
 tropical regions where the fruits of the earth are obtainable 
 with comparatively little exertion, and where the cost of 
 maintaining bodily heat is but slight, is a fact of like mean- 
 ing. And to these instances may be added the allied one 
 daily furnished by emigration ; which we see going on to- 
 wards countries presenting the fewest obstacles to the 
 self-preservation of individuals, and therefore to national 
 growth. Similarly with that resistance to the move- 
 
 ments of a society which neighbouring societies offer. Each 
 of the tribes or nations inhabiting any region, increases in 
 numbers until it outgrows its means of subsistence. In each 
 there is thus a force ever pressing outwards on to adjacent 
 areas a force antagonized by like forces in the tribes or 
 nations occupying those areas. And the ever-recurring wars 
 that result the conquests of weaker tribes or nations, and 
 the over-running of their territories by the victors, are 
 instances of social movements taking place in the directions 
 of least resistance. Nor do the conquered peoples, when 
 they escape extermination or enslavement, fail to show us 
 
THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 241 
 
 movements that are similarly determined. For migrating as 
 they do to less fertile regions taking refuge in deserts or 
 among mountains moving in a direction where the re- 
 sistance to social growth is comparatively great ; they still do 
 this only under an excess of pressure in all other directions : 
 the physical obstacles to self-preservation they encounter, 
 being really less than the obstacles offered by the enemies 
 from whom they fly. 
 
 Internal social movements may also be thus interpreted. 
 Localities naturally fitted for producing particular commodi- 
 ties that is, localities in which such commodities are got at 
 the least cost of force that is, localities in which the desires 
 for these commodities meet with the least resistance ; become 
 localities especially devoted to the obtainment of these com- 
 modities. Where soil and climate render wheat a profitable 
 crop, or a crop from which the greatest amount of life- sustain- 
 ing power is gained by a given quantity of effort, the growth 
 of wheat becomes the dominant industry. Where wheat can- 
 not be economically produced, oats, or rye, or maize, or rice, 
 or potatoes, is the agricultural staple. Along sea-shores men 
 support themselves with least effort by catching fish ; and 
 hence choose fishing as an occupation. And in places that 
 are rich in coal or metallic ores, the population, finding that 
 labour devoted to the raising of these materials brings a 
 larger return of food and clothing than when otherwise di- 
 rected, becomes a population of miners. This last 
 instance introduces us to the phenomena of exchange ; which 
 equally illustrate the general law. For the practice of 
 barter begins as soon as it facilitates the fulfilment of men's 
 desires, by diminishing the exertion needed to reach the ob- 
 jects of those desires. When instead of growing his own 
 corn, weaving his own cloth, sewing his own shoes, each man 
 began to confine himself to farming, or weaving, or shoemak- 
 ing ; it was because each found it more laborious to make 
 everything he wanted, than to make a great quantity of one 
 thing and barter the surplus for the rest : by exchange, each 
 
242 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 procured the necessaries of life without encountering so mucfi 
 resistance. Moreover, in deciding what commodity to pro- 
 duce, each citizen was, as he is at the present day, guided in 
 the same manner. For besides those local conditions which 
 determine whole sections of a society towards the industries 
 easiest for them, there are also individual conditions and indi- 
 vidual aptitudes which to each citizen render certain occupa- 
 tions preferable ; and in choosing those forms of activity 
 which their special circumstances and faculties dictate, 
 these social units are severally moving towards the objects 
 of their desires in the directions which present to them the 
 fewest obstacles. The process of transfer which com- 
 
 merce pre-supposes, supplies another series of examples. So 
 long as the forces to be overcome in procuring any necessary 
 of life in the district where it is consumed, are less than the 
 forces to be overcome in procuring it from an adjacent dis- 
 trict, exchange does not take place. But when the adjacent 
 district produces it with an economy that is not out-balanced 
 by cost of transit when the distance is so small and the 
 route so easy that the labour of conveyance plus the labour 
 of production is less than the labour of production in the con- 
 suming district, transfer commences. Movement in the di- 
 rection of least resistance is also seen in the establishment of 
 the channels along which intercourse takes place. At the 
 outset, when goods are carried on the backs of men and 
 horses, the paths chosen are those which combine shortness 
 with levelness and freedom from obstacles those which are 
 achieved with the smallest exertion. And in the subsequent 
 formation of each highway, the course taken is that which 
 deviates horizontally from a straight line so far only as is 
 needful to avoid vertical deviations entailing greater labour 
 in draught. The smallest total of obstructive forces deter- 
 mines the route, ev^n in seemingly exceptional cases ; as 
 where a detour is made to avoid the opposition of a land- 
 owner. All subsequent improvements, ending in macada- 
 mized roads, canals, and railways, which reduce the an- 
 
THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 248 
 
 tagonism of friction and gravity to a minimum, exemplify 
 the same truth. After there comes to be a choice of roads 
 between one point and another, we still see that the ' road 
 chosen is that along which the cost of transit is the least : 
 cost being the measure of resistance. Even where, time being 
 a consideration, the more expensive route is followed, it is so 
 because the loss of time involves loss of force. When, 
 
 division of labour having been carried to a considerable ex- 
 tent and means of communication made easy, there arises a 
 marked localization of industries, the relative growths of the 
 populations devoted to them may be interpreted on the same 
 principle. The influx of people to each industrial centre, as 
 well as the rate of multiplication of those already inhabiting 
 it, is determined by the payment for labour ; that is by tLe 
 quantity of commodities which a given amount of effort will 
 obtain. To say that artisans flock to places where, in conse- 
 quence of facilities for production, an extra proportion of pro- 
 duce can be given in the shape of wages ; is to say that they 
 flock to places where there are the smallest obstacles to the 
 support of themselves and families. Hence, the rapid in- 
 crease of number which occurs in such places, is really a 
 social growth at points where the opposing forces are the 
 least. 
 
 Nor is the law less clearly to be traced in those functional 
 changes daily going on. The flow of capital into businesses 
 yielding the largest returns ; the buying in the cheapest 
 market and selling in the dearest ; the introduction of more 
 economical modes of manufacture ; the development of better 
 agencies for distribution ; and all those variations in the 
 currents of trade that are noted in our newspapers and tele- 
 grams from hour to hour ; exhibit movement taking place in 
 directions where it is met by the smallest total of opposing 
 forces. For if we analyze each of these changes if instead 
 of interest on capital we read surplus of products which re- 
 mains after maintenance of labourers ; if we so interpret 
 large interest or large surplus to imply labour expended with 
 
244 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 
 the greatest results ; and if labour expended with the greatest 
 results means muscular action so directed as to evade ob- 
 stacles as far as possible ; we see that all these commercial 
 phenomena are complicated motions set up along lines of 
 least resistance. 
 
 Objections of two opposite kinds will perhaps be made to 
 these sociological applications of the law. By some it may 
 be said that the term force as here used, is used metaphori- 
 cally that to speak of men as impelled in certain directions 
 by certain desires, is a figure of speech and not the statement 
 of a physical fact. The reply is, that the foregoing illustra- 
 tions are to be interpreted literally, and that the processes de- 
 scribed are physical ones. The pressure of hunger is an 
 actual force a sensation implying some state of nervous ten- 
 sion ; and the muscular action which the sensation prompts 
 is really a discharge of it in the shape of bodily motion a 
 discharge which, on analyzing the mental acts involved, will 
 be found to follow lines of least resistance. Hence the 
 motions of a society whose members are impelled by this or 
 any other desire, are actually, and not metaphorically, to be 
 understood in the manner shown. An opposite ob- 
 
 jection may possibly be, that the several illustrations given 
 are elaborated truisms ; and that the law of direction of mo- 
 tion being once recognized, the fact that social movements, 
 in common with all others, must conform to it, follows inevit- 
 ably. To this it may be rejoined, that a mere abstract asser- 
 tion that social movements must do this, would carry no con- 
 viction to the majority ; and that it is needful to show how 
 they do it. For social phenomena to be unified with pheno- 
 mena of simpler kinds, it is requisite that such generaliza- 
 tions as those of political economy shall be reduced to equi- 
 valent propositions expressed in terms of force and motion. 
 Social movements of these various orders severally conform 
 to the two derivative principles named at the outset. In the 
 first place we may observe how, once set up in given di- 
 rections, such movements, like all others, tend to continue in 
 
THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 245 
 
 these directions. A commercial mania or panic, a current 
 of commodities, a social custom, a political agitation, or a 
 popular delusion, maintains its course for a long time after its 
 original source has ceased ; and requires antagonistic forces 
 to arrest it. In the second place it is to be noted that in 
 proportion to the complexity of social forces is the tortuous- 
 uess of social movements. The involved series of muscular 
 contractions gone through by the artizan, that he may get 
 fche wherewithal to buy a loaf lying at the baker's next door, 
 show us how extreme becomes the indirectness of motion 
 when the agencies at work become very numerous a truth 
 still better illustrated by the more public social actions ; as 
 those which end in bringing a successful man of business, 
 towards the close of his life, into parliament. 
 
 81. And now of the general truth set forth in this 
 chapter, as of that dealt with in the last, let us ask what is 
 our ultimate evidence ? Must we accept it simply as an em- 
 pirical generalization ? or may it be established as a corollary 
 from a still deeper truth ? The reader will anticipate the 
 answer. We shall find it deducible from that datum of 
 consciousness which underlies all science. 
 
 Suppose several tractive forces, variously directed, to be act- 
 ing on a given body. By what is known among mathema- 
 ticians as the composition of forces, there may be found for 
 any two of these, a single force of such amount and direction 
 as to produce on the body an exactly equal effect. If in the 
 direction of each of them there be drawn a straight line, 
 and if the lengths of these two straight lines be made pro- 
 portionate to the amounts of the forces ; and if from the end 
 of each line there be drawn a line parallel to the other, so 
 as to complete a parallelogram ; then the diagonal of this 
 parallelogram represents the amount and direction of a force 
 that is equivalent to the two. Such a resultant force, as it is 
 called, may be found for any pair of forces throughout the 
 group. Similarly, for any pair of such resultants a single 
 
246 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 resultant may be found. And by repeating this course, all of 
 them may be reduced to two. If these two are equal and 
 opposite that is, if there is no line of greatest traction, 
 motion does not take place. If they are opposite but not 
 equal, motion takes place in the direction of the greater. 
 And if they are neither equal nor opposite, motion takes 
 place in the direction of their resultant. For in either of 
 these cases there is an unantagonized force in one direction. 
 And this residuary force that is not neutralized by an oppos- 
 ing one, must move the body in the direction in which it is 
 acting. To assert the contrary is to assert that a force can 
 be expended without effect without generating an equiva- 
 lent force ; and by so implying that force can cease to exist, 
 this involves a denial of the persistence of force. It 
 
 needs scarcely be added that if in place of tractions we take 
 resistances, the argument equally holds ; and that it holds also 
 where both tractions and resistances are concerned. Thus 
 the law that motion follows the line of greatest traction, or 
 the line of least resistance, or the resultant of the two, is a 
 necessary deduction from that primordial truth which tran- 
 scends proof. 
 
 Reduce the proposition to its simplest form, and it becomes 
 still more obviously consequent on the persistence of force. 
 Suppose two weights suspended over a pulley or from the ends 
 of an equal-armed lever ; or better still suppose two men 
 pulling against each other. In such cases we say that the 
 heavier weight will descend, and that the stronger man 
 will draw the weaker towards him. But now, if we are asked 
 how we know which is the heavier weight or the stronger 
 man ; we can only reply that it is the one producing motion 
 in the direction of its pull. Our only evidence of excess of 
 force is the movement it produces. But if of two opposing 
 tractions we can know one as greater than the other only by 
 the motion it generates in its own direction, then the assertion 
 that motion occurs in the direction of greatest traction is a 
 truism. When, going a step further back, we seek a warrant 
 
THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 247 
 
 
 
 for the assumption that of the two conflicting forces, that is 
 the greater which produces motion in its own direction, we 
 find no other than the consciousness that such part of the 
 greater force as is unneutralized by the lesser, must produce 
 its effect the consciousness that this residuary force cannot 
 disappear, but must manifest itself in some equivalent change 
 the consciousness that force is persistent. Here too, 
 
 as before, it may be remarked that no amount of varied illus- 
 trations, like those of which this chapter mainly consists, can 
 give greater certainty to the conclusion thus immediately 
 drawn from the ultimate datum of consciousness. For in all 
 cases, as in the simple ones just given, we can identify the 
 greatest force only by the resulting motion. It is impossible 
 for us ever to get evidence of the occurrence of motion in any 
 other direction than that of the greatest force ; since our 
 measure of relative greatness among forces is their relative 
 power of generating motion. And clearly, while the compara- 
 tive greatness of forces is thus determined, no multiplication 
 of instances can add certainty to a law of direction of move- 
 ment which follows immediately from the persistence of force. 
 From this same primordial truth, too, may be deduced the 
 principle that motion once set up along any line, becomes it- 
 self a cause of subsequent motion along that line. The me- 
 chanical axiom that, if left to itself, matter moving in any di- 
 rection will continue in that directio with undiminished 
 velocity, is but an indirect assertion of the persistence of 
 force ; since it is an assertion that the force manifested in 
 the transfer of a body along a certain length of a certain 
 line in a certain time, cannot disappear without producing 
 some equal manifestation a manifestation which, in the ab- 
 sence of conflicting forces, must be a further transfer in the 
 same direction at the same velocity. In the case of 
 
 matter traversing matter the like inference is necessitated. 
 Here indeed the actions are much more complicated.. A liquid 
 that follows a certain channel through or over a solid, as water 
 along the Earth's surface, loses part of its motion in the shape 
 
248 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 
 
 of heat, through friction and collision with the matters form* 
 ing its bed. A further amount of its motion may be absorbed 
 in overcoming forces which it liberates ; as when it loosens a 
 mass which falls into, and blocks up, its channel. But after 
 these deductions by transformation into other modes of force, 
 any further deduction from the motion of the water is at the 
 expense of a reaction on the channel, which by so much di- 
 minishes its obstructive power : such reaction being shown in 
 the motion acquired by the detached portions which are car- 
 ried away. The cutting out of river-courses is a perpetual 
 illustration of this truth. Still more involved is the 
 
 case of motion passing through matter by impulse from part 
 to part ; as a nervous discharge through animal tissue. Some 
 chemical change may be wrought along the route traversed, 
 which may render it less fit than before for conveying a current. 
 Or the motion may itself be in part metamorphosed into some 
 obstructive form of force ; as in metals, the conducting power 
 of which is, for the time, decreased by the heat which the 
 passage of electricity itself generates. The real question is, 
 however, what structural modification, if any, is produced 
 throughout the matter traversed, apart from incidental dis- 
 turbing forces apart from everything but the necessary re- 
 sistance of the matter : that, namely, which results from the 
 inertia of its units. If we confine our attention to that 
 part of the motion wjiich, escaping transformation, continues 
 its course, then it is a corollary from the persistence of 
 force that as much of this remaining motion as is taken 
 up in changing the positions of the units, must leave these by 
 so much less able to obstruct subsequent motion in the same 
 direction. 
 
 Thus in all the changes heretofore and at present displayed 
 by the Solar System ; in all those that have gone on and are 
 still going on in the Earth'fc crust ; in all processes of organic 
 development and function ; in all mental actions and the 
 effects they work on the body ; and in all modifications of 
 structure and activity in societies ; the implied movements are 
 
THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 249 
 
 of necessity determined in the manner above set forth. 
 Wherever we see motion, its direction must be that of the 
 greatest force. Wherever we see the greatest force to be 
 acting in a given direction, in that direction motion must 
 ensue. These are not truths holding only of one class, or of 
 some classes, of phenomena; but they are among those 
 universal truths by which our knowledge of phenomena in 
 general is unified* 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 
 
 8i. WHEN the pennant of a vessel lying becalmed first 
 uhows the coming breeze, it does so by gentle undulations 
 that travel from its fixed to its free end. Presently the sails 
 begin to flap ; and their blows against the mast increase in 
 rapidity as the breeze rises. Even when, being fully bellied 
 out, they are in great part steadied by the strain of the yards 
 and cordage, their free edges tremble with each stronger 
 gust. And should there come a gale, the jar that is felt on 
 laying hold of the shrouds shows that the rigging vibrates ; 
 while the rush and whistle of the wind prove that in it, also, 
 rapid undulations are generated. Ashore the conflict between 
 the current of air and the things it meets results in a like 
 rhythmical action. The leaves all shiver in the blast ; each 
 branch oscillates ; and every exposed tree sways to and fro. 
 The blades of grass and dried bents in the meadows, and still 
 better the stalks in the neighbouring corn-fields, exhibit the 
 same rising and falling movement. Nor do the more stable 
 objects fail to do the like, though in a less manifest fashion ; 
 as witness the shudder that may be felt throughout a house 
 during the paroxysms of a violent storm. Streams of 
 
 water produce in opposing objects the same general effects as 
 do streams of air. Submerged weeds growing in the middle 
 of a brook, undulate from end to end. Branches brought 
 down by the last flood, and left entangled at the bottom 
 
THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 251 
 
 where the current is rapid, are thrown into a state of up and 
 down movement that is slow or quick in proportion as they 
 are large or small ; and where, as in great rivers like the 
 Mississippi, whole trees are thus held, the name " sawyers," 
 by which they are locally known, sufficiently describes the 
 rhythm produced in them. Note again the effect of the 
 antagonism between the current and its channel. In shallow 
 places, where the action of the bottom on the water flowing 
 over it is visible, we see a ripple produced a series of undula- 
 tions. And if we study the action and re-action going on 
 between the moving fluid and its banks, we still find the 
 principle illustrated, though in a different way. For in every 
 rivulet, as in the mapped-out course of every great river, the 
 bends of the stream from side to side throughout its tortuous 
 course constitute a lateral undulation an undulation so in- 
 evitable that even an artificially straightened channel is 
 eventually changed into a serpentine one. Analogous phe- 
 nomena may be observed whore the water is stationary and 
 the solid matter moving. A stick drawn laterally through 
 the water with much force, proves by the throb which it 
 communicates to the hand that it is in a state of vibration. 
 Even where the moving body is massive, it only requires that 
 great force should be applied to get a sensible effect of like 
 kind : instance the screw of a screw- steamer, which instead 
 of a smooth rotation falls into a rapid rhythm that sends a 
 tremor through the whole vessel. The sound which 
 
 results when a bow is drawn over a violin-string, shows us 
 vibrations produced by the movement of a solid over a solid. 
 In lathes and planing machines, the attempt to take off a 
 thick shaving causes a violent jar of the whole apparatus, and 
 the production of a series of waves on the iron or wood that 
 is cut. Every boy in scraping his slate-pencil finds it 
 scarcely possible to help making a ridged surface. If you 
 roll a ball along the ground or over the ice, there is always 
 more or less up and down movement a movement that is 
 visible while the velocity is considerable, but becomes too 
 
252 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 
 
 small and rapid to be seen by the unaided eye as the velocity 
 diminishes. However smooth the rails, and however per- 
 fectly built the carriages, a railway- train inevitably gets into 
 oscillations, both lateral and vertical. Even where moving 
 matter is suddenly arrested by collision, the law is still illus- 
 trated ; for both the body striking and the body struck are 
 made to tremble ; and trembling is rhythmical movement. 
 Little as we habitually observe it, it is yet certain that the 
 impulses our actions impress from moment to moment on 
 surrounding objects, are propagated through them in vibra- 
 tions. It needs but to look through a telescope of high 
 power, to be convinced that each pulsation of the heart gives 
 a jar to the whole room. If we pass to motions of 
 
 another order those namely which take place in the etherial 
 medium we still find the same thing. Every fresh dis- 
 covery confirms the hypothesis that light consists of undula- 
 tions. The rays of heat, too, are now found to have a like 
 fundamental nature : their undulations differing from those 
 of light only in their comparative lengths. Nor do the move- 
 ments of electricity fail to furnish us with an illustration ; 
 though one of a different order. The northern aurora may 
 often be observed to pulsate with waves of greater brightness ; 
 and the electric discharge through a vacuum shows us by its 
 stratified appearance that the current is not uniform, but 
 comes in gushes of greater and lesser intensity. Should 
 
 it be said that at any rate there are some motions, as those of 
 projectiles, which are not rhythmical, the reply is, that the 
 exception is apparent only ; and that these motions would be 
 rhythmical if they were not interrupted. It is common to 
 assert that the trajectory of a cannon ball is a parabola ; and 
 it is true that (omitting atmospheric resistance) the curve de- 
 scribed differs so slightly from a parabola that it may practi- 
 cally be regarded as one. But, strictly speaking, it is a por- 
 tion of an extremely eccentric ellipse, having the Earth's 
 centre of gravity for its remoter focus ; and but for its arrest 
 by the substance of the Earth, the cannon ball would travel 
 
THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 253 
 
 round that focus and return to the point whence it started ; 
 again to repeat this slow rhythm. ' Indeed, while seeming at 
 first sight to do the reverse, the discharge of a cannon 
 furnishes one of the best illustrations of the principle enunci- 
 ated. The explosion produces violent undulations in the 
 surrounding air. The whizz of the shot, as it flies towards 
 its mark, is due to another series of atmospheric undulations. 
 And the movement to and from the Earth's centre, which the 
 cannon ball is beginning to perform, being checked by solid 
 matter, is transformed into a rhythm of another order ; 
 namely, the vibration which the blow sends through neigh- 
 bouring bodies.* 
 
 Rhythm is very generally not simple but compound. 
 There are usually at work various forces, causing undulations 
 differing in rapidity ; and hence it continually happens that 
 besides the primary rhythms there are secondary rhythms, 
 produced by the periodic coincidence and antagonism of the 
 primary ones. Double, triple, and even quadruple rhythms, 
 are thus generated. One of the simplest instances is afforded 
 by what in acoustics are known as " beats : " recurring inter- 
 vals of sound and silence which are perceived when two notes 
 of nearly the same pitch are struck together ; and which are 
 due to the alternate correspondence and antagonism of the 
 atmospheric waves. In like manner the various phenomena 
 due to what is called interference of light, severally result 
 from the periodic agreement and disagreement of etherial 
 undulations undulations which, by alternately intensi- 
 fying and neutralizing each other, produce intervals of 
 increased and diminished light. On the sea-shore may be 
 noted sundry instances of compound rhythm. We have 
 that of the tides, in which the daily rise and fall under- 
 goes a fortnightly increase and decrease, due to the alter- 
 nate coincidence and antagonism of the solar and lunar 
 
 After having for some years supposed myself alone in the belief that all mo- 
 tion is rhythmical, I discovered that my friend Professor Tyndall also held thii 
 doctrine. 
 
254 mE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 
 
 attractions. We have again that which is perpetually 
 furnished by the surface of the sea : every large wave bear- 
 ing smaller ones on its sides, and these still smaller ones ; 
 with the result that each flake of foam, along with the por- 
 tion of water bearing it, undergoes minor ascents and descents 
 of several orders while it is being raised and lowered by the 
 greater billows. A quite different and very interesting 
 example of compound rhythm, occurs in the little rills which, 
 at low tide, run over the sand out of the shingle banks above. 
 Where the channel of one of these is narrow, and the stream 
 runs strongly, the sand at the bottom is raised into a series 
 of ridges corresponding to the ripple of the water. On 
 watching for a short time, it will be seen that these ridges 
 are being raised higher and the ripple growing stronger ; 
 until at length, the action becoming violent, the whole series 
 of ridges is suddenly swept away, the stream runs smoothly, 
 and the process commences afresh. Instances of still more 
 complex rhythms might be added ; but they will come more 
 appropriately in connexion with the several kinds of cosmicaJ 
 changes, hereafter to be dealt with. 
 
 From the ensemble of the facts as above set forth, it will be 
 seen that rhythm results wherever there is a conflict of forces 
 not in equilibrium. If the antagonist forces at any point are 
 balanced, there is rest ; and in the absence of motion there 
 can of course be no rhythm. But if instead of a balance 
 there is an excess of force in one direction if, as necessarily 
 follows, motion is set up in that direction ; then for that 
 motion to continue uniformly in that direction, it is requisite 
 that the moving matter should, notwithstanding its unceasing 
 change of place, present unchanging relations to the sources 
 of force by which its motion is produced and opposed. This 
 however is impossible. Every further transfer through space 
 must alter the ratio between the forces concerned must in- 
 crease or decrease the predominance of one force over the 
 other must prevent uniformity of movement. And if the 
 movement cannot be uniform, then, in the absence of accelera- 
 
THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 255 
 
 tion or retardation continued through infinite time and space, 
 (results which cannot be conceived) the only alternative is 
 rhythm. 
 
 A secondary conclusion must not be omitted. In the last 
 chapter we saw that motion is never absolutely rectilinear ; 
 and here it remains to be added that, as a consequence, rhythm 
 is necessarily incomplete. A truly rectilinear rhythm can 
 arise only when the opposing forces are in exactly the same 
 line ; and the probabilities against this are infinitely great. 
 To generate a perfectly circular rhythm, the two forces con- 
 cerned must be exactly at right angles to each other, and 
 must have exactly a certain ratio ; and against this the pro- 
 babilities are likewise infinitely great. All other proportions 
 and directions of the two forces will produce an ellipse of 
 greater or less eccentricity. And when, as indeed always 
 happens, above two forces are engaged, the curve described 
 must be more complex ; and cannot exactly repeat itself. So 
 that in fact throughout nature, this action and re- action of 
 forces never brings about a complete return to a previous 
 state. Where the movement is much involved, and especially 
 where it is that of some aggregate whose units are partially 
 independent, anything like a regular curve is no longer 
 traceable ; we see nothing more than a general oscillation. 
 And on the completion of any periodic movement, the degree 
 in which the state arrived at differs from the state de- 
 parted from, is usually marked in proportion as the influences 
 at work are numerous. 
 
 83. That spiral arrangement so general among the more 
 diffused nebulae an arrangement which must be assumed by 
 matter moving towards a centre of gravity through a resist- 
 ing medium shows us the progressive establishment of 
 revolution, and therefore of rhythm, in those remote spaces 
 which the nebulae occupy. Double stars, moving round com- 
 mon centres of gravity in periods some of which are now 
 ascertained, exhibit settled rhythmical actions in distant parta 
 
THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 
 
 of our siderial system. And another fact which, though of a 
 different order, has a like general significance, is furnished by 
 variable stars stars which alternately brighten and fade. 
 
 The periodicities of the planets, satellities, and comets, are 
 so familiar that it would be inexcusable to name them, were 
 it not needful here to point out that they are so many grand 
 illustrations of this general law of movement. But besides 
 the revolutions of these bodies in their orbits (all more or less 
 excentric) and their rotations on their axes, the Solar System 
 presents us with various rhythms of a less manifest and more 
 complex kind. In each planet and satellite there is the revo- 
 lution of the nodes a slow change in the position of the 
 orbit-plane, which after completing itself commences afresh. 
 There is the gradual alteration in the length of the axis 
 major of the orbit; and also of its excentricity : both of 
 which are rhythmical alike in the sense that they alternate 
 between maxima and minima, and in the sense that the pro- 
 gress from one extreme to the other is not uniform, but is 
 made with fluctuating velocity. Then, too, there is the revo- 
 lution of the line of apsides, which in course of time moves 
 round the heavens not regularly, but through complex 
 oscillations. And further we have variations in the directions 
 of the planetary axes that known as nutation, and that 
 larger gyration which, in the case of the Earth, causes the 
 precession of the equinoxes. These rhythms, already 
 
 more or less compound, are compounded with each other. 
 Such an instance as the secular acceleration and retardation 
 of the moon, consequent on the varying excentricity of the 
 Earth's orbit, is one of the simplest. Another, having more 
 important consequences, results from the changing direction 
 of the axes of rotation in planets whose orbits are decidedly 
 excentric. Every planet, during a certain long period, pre- 
 sents more of its northern than of its southern hemisphere to 
 the sun at the time of its nearest approach to him ; and then 
 again, during a like period, presents more of its southern 
 hemisphere than of its northern a recurring coincidence 
 
THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 
 
 which, though causing in some planets no sensible alteration* 
 of climate, involves in the case of the Earth an epoch of 
 21,000 years, during which each hemisphere goes through a 
 cycle of temperate seasons, and seasons that are extreme in 
 their heat and cold. Nor is this all. There is even a varia- 
 tion of this variation. For the summers and winters of the 
 whole Earth become more or less strongly contrasted, as the 
 excentricity of its orbit increases and decreases. Hence 
 during increase of the excentricity, the epochs of moderately 
 contrasted seasons and epochs of strongly contrasted seasons, 
 through which alternately each hemisphere passes, must grow 
 more and more different in the degrees of their contrasts ; 
 and contrariwise during decrease of the excentricity. So 
 that in the quantity of light and heat which any portion of 
 the Earth receives from the sun, there goes on a quadruple 
 rhythm : that of day and night ; that of summer and win- 
 ter ; that due to the changing position of the axis at perihe- 
 lion and aphelion, taking 21,000 years to complete ; and that 
 involved by the variation of the orbit's excentricity, gone 
 through in millions of years. 
 
 84. Those terrestrial processes whose dependence on the 
 solar heat is direct, of course exhibit a rhythm that corre- 
 sponds to the periodically changing amount of heat which 
 each part of the Earth receives. The simplest, though the 
 least obtrusive, instance is supplied by the magnetic variations. 
 In these there is a diurnal increase and decrease, an annual 
 increase and decrease, and a decennial increase and decrease ; 
 the latter answering to a period during which the solar spots 
 become alternately abundant and scarce : besides which known 
 variations there are probably others corresponding with the 
 astronomical cycles just described. More obvious examples 
 are furnished by the movements of the ocean and the atmo- 
 sphere. Marine currents from the equator to the poles above, 
 and from the poles to the equator beneath, show us an un- 
 oeasing backward and forward motion throughout this vrifit 
 
258 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 
 
 mass of water a motion varying in amount according to the 
 seasons, and compounded with smaller like motions of local 
 origin. The similarly-caused general currents in the air, have 
 similar annual variations similarly modified. Irregular as 
 they are in detail, we still see in the monsoons and other tropi- 
 cal atmospheric disturbances, or even in our own equinoctial 
 gales and spring east winds, a periodicity sufficiently decid- 
 ed. Again, we have an alternation of times during 
 which evaporation predominates with times during which con- 
 densation predominates : shown in the tropics by strongly 
 marked rainy seasons and seasons of drought, and in the 
 temperate zones by corresponding changes of which the pe- 
 riodicity, though less definite, is still traceable. The diffusion 
 and precipitation of water, besides the slow alternations 
 answering to different parts of the year, furnish us with ex- 
 amples of rhythm of a more rapid kind. During wet 
 weather, lasting, let us say, over some weeks, the tendency 
 fo condense, though greater than the tendency to evaporate, 
 does not show itself in continuous rain ; but the period is 
 made up of rainy days and days that are wholly or partially 
 fair. Nor is it in this rude alternation only that the law is 
 manifested. During any day throughout this wet weather a 
 minor rhythm is traceable ; and especially so when the ten 
 dencies to evaporate and to condense are nearly balanced. 
 Among mountains this minor rhythm and its causes may be 
 studied to great advantage. Moist winds, which do not pre- 
 cipitate their contained water in passing over the compara- 
 tively warm lowlands, lose so much heat when they reach 
 the cold mountain peaks, that condensation rapidly takes 
 place. Water, however, in passing from the gaseous to the 
 fluid state, gives out a considerable amount of heat ; and 
 hence the resulting clouds are warmer than the air that pre- 
 cipitates them, and much warmer than the high rocky sur- 
 faces round which they fold themselves. Hence in the 
 course of the storm, these high rocky surfaces are raised in 
 jemporature, partly by radiation from the enwrapping cloucU 
 
THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. g.^Q 
 
 partly by contact of the falling rain-drops. Giving off more 
 heat than before, they no longer lower so greatly the temper- 
 ature of the air passing over them ; and so cease to precipi- 
 tate its contained water. The clouds break ; the sky begins 
 to clear ; and a gleam of sunshine promises that the day is 
 going to be fine. But the sinull supply of heat which the 
 cold mountain's sides have received, is soon lost : especially 
 when the dispersion of the clouds permits free radiation into 
 space. Very soon, therefore, these elevated surfaces, becom- 
 ing as cold as at first, (or perhaps even colder in virtue of tho 
 evaporation set up,) begin again to condense the vapour in 
 the air above ; and there comes another storm, followed by 
 the same effects as before. In lowland regions this action 
 and reaction is usually less conspicuous, because the contrast 
 of temperatures is less marked. Even here, however, it may 
 be traced ; and that not only on showery days, but on days 
 of continuous rain ; for in these we do not see uniformity : 
 always there are fits of harder and gentler rain that are pro- 
 bably caused as above explained. 
 
 Of course these meteorologic rhythms involve something 
 corresponding to them in the changes wrought by wind and 
 water on the Earth's surface. Variations in the quantities of 
 sediment brought down by rivers that rise and fall with the 
 seasons, must cause variations in the resulting strata alter- 
 nations of colour or quality in the successive laminae. Beds 
 formed from the detritus of shores worn down and carried 
 away by the waves, must similarly show periodic differences 
 answering to the periodic winds of the locality. In so far as 
 frost influences the rate of denudation, its recurrence is a 
 factor in the rhythm of sedimentary deposits. And the 
 geological changes produced by glaciers and icebergs must 
 similarly have their alternating periods of greater and less 
 intensity. 
 
 There is evidence also that modifications in the Earth's 
 crust due to igneous action have a certain periodicity. Vol- 
 canic eruptions are not continuous but intermittent, and as 
 
260 
 
 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION 
 
 far as the data enable us to judge, have a certain average 
 rate of recurrence ; which rate of recurrence is complicated 
 by rising into epochs of greater activity and falling into 
 epochs of comparative quiescence. So too is it with earth 
 quakes and the elevations or depressions caused by them. Ai 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, the alternation of strata gives 
 decisive proof of successive sinkings of the surface, that 
 have taken place at tolerably equal intervals. Everywhere, 
 in the extensive groups of conformable strata that imply 
 small subsidences recurring with a certain average frequency, 
 we see a rhytbm in the action and reaction between the 
 Earth's crust and its molten contents a rhythm compounded 
 with those slower ones shown in the termination of groups of 
 strata, and the commencement of other groups not con- 
 formable to them. There is even reason for suspect- 
 ing a geological periodicity that is immensely slower and far 
 wider in its effects ; namely, an alternation of those vast up- 
 heavals and submergencies by which continents are produced 
 where there were oceans, and oceans where there were conti- 
 nents. For supposing, as we may fairly do, that the Earth's 
 crust is throughout of tolerably equal thickness, it is manifest 
 that such portions of it as become most depressed below the 
 average level, must have their inner surfaces most exposed 
 to the currents of molten matter circulating within, and will 
 therefore undergo a larger amount of what may be called 
 igneous denudation ; while, conversely, the withdrawal of the 
 inner surfaces from these currents where the Earth's crust is 
 most elevated, will cause a tnickemng more or less compens- 
 ating the aqueous denudation going on externally. Hence 
 those depressed areas over which the deepest oceans lie, being 
 gradually thinned beneath and not covered by much sedi- 
 mentary deposit above, will become areas of least resistance, 
 and will then begin to yield to the upward pressure of the 
 Earth's contents ; whence will result, throughout such areas, 
 long continued elevations, ceasing only when the reverse state 
 of things has been brought about. Whether this speculation 
 
THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 261 
 
 be well or ill founded, does not however affect the general 
 conclusion. Apart from it we have sufficient evidence that 
 geologic processes are rhythmical. 
 
 85. Perhaps nowhere are the illustrations of rhythm 
 so numerous and so manifest as among the phenomena of life. 
 Plants do not, indeed, usually show us any decided periodi- 
 cities, save those determined by day and night and by tho 
 seasons. But in animals we have a great variety of move- 
 ments in which the alternation of opposite extremes goes on 
 with all degrees of rapidity. The swallowing of food is 
 effected by a wave of constriction passing along the oesopha- 
 gus ; its digestion is accompanied by a muscular action of the 
 stomach that is also undulatory ; and the peristaltic motion of 
 the intestines is of like nature. The blood obtained from this 
 food is propelled not in a uniform current but in pulses ; and 
 it is aerated by lungs that alternately contract and expand. All 
 locomotion results from oscillating movements : even where it 
 is apparently continuous, as in many minute forms, the mi- 
 croscope proves the vibration of cilia to be the agency by 
 which the creature is moved smoothly forwards. 
 
 Primary rhythms of the organic actions are compounded 
 with secondary ones of longer duration. These various 
 modes of activity have their recurring periods of increase and 
 decrease. We see this in the periodic need for food, and in the 
 periodic need for repose. Each meal induces a more rapid 
 rhythmic action of the digestive organs; the pulsation of 
 the heart is accelerated ; and the inspirations become more 
 frequent. During sleep, on the contrary, these several 
 movements slacken. So that in the course of the twenty- 
 four hours, those small undulations of which the different 
 kinds of organic action are constituted, undergo one long 
 wave of increase and decrease, complicated with several 
 minor waves. Experiments have shown that there 
 
 are still slower rises and falls of functional activity. 
 Waste and assimilation are not balanced by every meal, but 
 13 
 
262 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 
 
 one or other maintains for some time a slight excess ; BO that 
 a person in ordinary health is found to undergo an increase 
 and decrease of weight during recurring intervals of tolerable 
 equality. Besides these regular periods there are still longei 
 and comparatively irregular ones ; namely, those alternations 
 of greater and less vigour, which even healthy people expe- 
 rience. So inevitable are these oscillations that even men in 
 training cannot be kept stationary at their highest power, but 
 when they have reached it begin to retrograde. Fur- 
 
 ther evidence of rhythm in the vital movements is fur- 
 nished by invalids. Sundry disorders are named from the 
 intermittent character of their symptoms. Even where the 
 periodicity is not very marked, it is mostly traceable. Patients 
 rarely if ever get uniformly worse ; and convalescents have 
 usually their days of partial relapse or of less decided ad- 
 vance. 
 
 Aggregates of living creatures illustrate the general truth 
 in other ways. If each species of organism be regarded as a 
 whole, it displays two kinds of rhythm. Life as it exists in 
 all the members of such species, is an extremely complex kind 
 of movement, more or less distinct from the kinds of move- 
 ment which constitute life in other species. In each indi- 
 vidual of the species, this extremely complex kind of move- 
 ment begins, rises to its climax, declines, and ceases in 
 death. And every successive generation thus exhibits a wave 
 of that peculiar activity characterizing the species as a 
 whole. The other form of rhythm is to be traced in 
 
 that variation of number which each tribe of animals and 
 plants is ever undergoing. Throughout the unceasing con- 
 flict between the tendency of a species to increase and the 
 antagonistic tendencies, there is never an equilibrium : one 
 always predominates. In the case even of a cultivated plant 
 or domesticated animal, where artificial means are used to 
 maintain the supply at a uniform level, we still see that osciL 
 lations of abundance and scarcity cannot be avoided. And 
 among the creatures uncared for by man, such oscillations 
 
RHYTHM OF MOTION. 263 
 
 are usually more marked. After a race of organisms has 
 been greatly thinned by enemies or lack of food, its surviving 
 members become more favourably circumstanced than usual. 
 During the decline in their numbers their food has grown 
 relatively more abundant ; while their enemies have diminish- 
 ed from want of prey. The conditions thus remain for 
 some time favourable to their increase ; and they multiply 
 rapidly. By and by their food is rendered relatively scarce, 
 at the same time that their enemies have become more 
 numerous ; and the destroying influences being thus in excess, 
 their number begins to diminish again. Yet one 
 
 more rhythm, extremely slow in its action, may be traced in 
 the phenomena of Life, contemplated under their most general 
 aspect. The researches of palaeontologists show that there 
 have been going on, during the vast period of which our sedi- 
 mentary rocks bear record, successive changes of organic 
 forms. Species have appeared, become abundant, and then 
 disappeared. Genera, at first constituted of but few species, 
 have for a time gone on growing more multiform ; and then 
 have begun to decline in the number of their subdivisions : 
 leaving at last but one or two representatives, or none at all. 
 During longer epochs whole orders have thus arisen, culmin- 
 ated, and dwindled away. And even those wider divisions con- 
 taining many orders have similarly undergone a gradual rise, 
 a high tide, and a long- continued ebb. The stalked Crinoidea, 
 for example, which, during the carboniferous epoch, became 
 abundant, have almost disappeared : only a single species 
 being extant. Once a large family of molluscs, the Brachio- 
 poda have now become rare. The shelled Cephalopods, at 
 one time dominant among the inhabitants of the ocean, both in 
 number of forms and of individuals, are in our day nearly 
 extinct. And after an " age of reptiles," there has come an 
 age in which reptiles have been in great measure supplanted 
 by mammals. Whether these vast rises and falls uf different 
 kinds of life ever undergo anything approaching to repetitions, 
 (which they may possibly do in correspondence with thow? 
 
264 
 
 THE BHYTHM OF MOTION. 
 
 vast cycles of elevation and subsidence that produce continents 
 and oceans,) it is sufficiently clear that Life on the Earth has 
 not progressed uniformly, but in immense undulations. 
 
 86. It is not manifest that the changes of consciousness 
 are in any sense rhythmical. Yet here, too, analysis proves 
 both that the mental state existing at any moment is not 
 uniform, but is decomposable into rapid oscillations ; and also 
 that mental states pass through longer intervals of increasing 
 and decreasing intensity. 
 
 Though while attending to any single sensation, or any 
 group of related sensations constituting the consciousness oi 
 an object, we seem to remain for the time in a persistent and 
 homogeneous condition of mind, a careful self-examination 
 shows that this apparently unbroken mental state is in truth 
 traversed by a number of minor states, in which various other 
 sensations and perceptions are rapidly presented and disappear. 
 From the admitted fact that thinking consists in the establish- 
 ment of relations, it is a necessary corollary that the main- 
 tenance of consciousness in any one state to the entire exclu- 
 sion of other states, would be a cessation of thought, that is, of 
 consciousness. So that any seemingly continuous feeling, say 
 of pressure, really consists of portions of that feeling perpetu- 
 ally recurring after the momentary intrusion of other feelings 
 and ideas quick thoughts concerning the place where it is 
 felt, the external object producing it, its consequences, and 
 other things suggested by association. Thus there is going 
 on an extremely rapid departure from, and return to, that par- 
 ticular mental state which we regard as persistent. Besides 
 the evidence of rhythm in consciousness which direct analysis 
 thus affords, we may gather further evidence from the corre- 
 lation between feeling and movement. Sensations and emotions 
 expend themselves in producing muscular contractions. If a 
 sensation or emotion were strictly continuous, there would be a 
 continuous discharge along those motor nerves acted upon. But 
 so far as experiments with artificial stimuli enable us to judge, 
 a continuous discharge along the nerve leading to a muscle, 
 
THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 265 
 
 does not contract it : a broken discharge is required a rapid 
 succession of shocks. Hence muscular contraction pre- supposes 
 that rhythmic state of consciousness which direct observation 
 discloses. A much more conspicuous rhythm, having 
 
 longer waves, is seen during the outflow of emotion into 
 daDcing, poetry, and music. The current of mental energy 
 that shows itself in these modes of bodily action, is not con- 
 tinuous, but falls into a succession of pulses. The measure of 
 a dance is produced by the alternation of strong muscular 
 contractions with weaker ones ; and, save in measures of the 
 simplest order such as are found among barbarians and 
 children, this alternation is compounded with longer rises and 
 falls in the degree of muscular excitement. Poetry is a form of 
 speech which results when the emphasis is regularly recurrent ; 
 that is, when the muscular effort of pronunciation has de- 
 finite periods of greater and less intensity periods that are 
 complicated with others of like nature answering to the suc- 
 cessive verses. Music, in still more various ways, exemplifies 
 the law. There are the recurring bars, in each of which there 
 is a primary and a secondary beat. There is the alternate 
 increase and decrease of muscular strain, implied by the 
 ascents and descents to the higher and lower notes as- 
 cents and descents composed of smaller waves, breaking the 
 rises and falls of the larger ones, in a mode peculiar to each 
 melody. And then we have, further, the alternation of piano 
 and forte passages. That these several kinds of rhythm, 
 characterizing aesthetic expression, are not, in the common 
 sense of the word, artificial, but are intenser forms of an un- 
 dulatory movement habitually generated by feeling in its 
 bodily discharge, is shown by the fact that they are all trace- 
 able in ordinary speech ; which in every sentence has its 
 primary and secondary emphases, and its cadence containing 
 a chief rise and fall complicated with subordinate rises 
 and falls ; and which is accompanied by a more or less 
 oscillatory action of the limbs when the emotion is 
 great. Still longer undulations may be observed by 
 
 every one, in himsolf and in others, on occasions of extreme 
 
266 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 
 
 pleasure or extreme pain. Note, in the first place, that pain 
 having its origin in bodily disorder, is nearly always percep- 
 tibly rhythmical. During hours in which it never actually 
 neases, it has its variations of intensity fits or paroxysms ; and 
 then after these hours of suffering there usually come hours 
 of comparative ease. Moral pain has the like smaller and 
 larger waves. One possessed by intense grief does not utter 
 continuous moans, or shed tears with an equable rapidity ; 
 but these signs of passion come in recurring bursts. Then 
 after a time during which such stronger and weaker waves 
 of emotion alternate, there comes a calm a time of compara- 
 tive deadness ; to which again succeeds another interval, 
 when dull sorrow rises afresh into acute anguish, with its 
 series of paroxysms. Similarly in great delight, especially as 
 manifested by children who have its display less under control, 
 there are visible variations jn the intensity of feeling shown 
 fits of laughter and dancing about, separated by pauses in 
 which smiles, and other slight manifestations of pleasure, 
 suffice to discharge the lessened excitement. Nor are 
 
 there wanting evidences of mental undulations greater in 
 length than any of these undulations which take weeks, 01 
 months, or years, to complete themselves. We continually 
 hear of moods which recur at intervals. Yery many persons 
 have their epochs of vivacity and depression. There are periods 
 of industry following periods of idleness ; and times at which 
 particular subjects or tastes are cultivated with zeal, alternat- 
 ing with times at which they are neglected. Respecting 
 which slow oscillations, the only qualification to be made is, 
 that being affected by numerous influences, they are com- 
 paratively irregular. 
 
 87. In nomadic societies the changes of place, deter 
 mined as they usually are by exhaustion or failure of the 
 supply of food, are periodic ; and in many cases show a 
 recurrence answering to the seasons. Each tribe that has 
 oecome in some degree fixed in its locality, goes on increasing, 
 
THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 26? 
 
 till trader the pressures of unsatisfied desires, there results 
 migration of some part of it to a new region a process repeat- 
 ed at intervals. From such excesses of population, and such 
 successive waves of migration, come conflicts with other 
 tribes ; which are also increasing and tending to diffuse 
 themselves. This antagonism, like all others, results not in an 
 uniform motion, but in an intermittent one. "War, exhaus- 
 tion, recoil peace, prosperity, and renewed aggression : see 
 here the alternation more or less discernible in the military 
 activities of both savage and civilized nations. And irregular 
 as is this rhythm, it is not more so than the different sizes 
 of the societies, and the extremely involved causes of varia- 
 tion in their strengths, would lead us to anticipate. 
 
 Passing from external to internal changes, we meet with 
 this backward and forward movement under many forms. In 
 the currents of commerce it is especially conspicuous. 
 Exchange during early times is almost wholly carried on at 
 fairs, held at long intervals in the chief centres of population. 
 The flux and reflux of people and commodities which each of 
 these exhibits, becomes more frequent as national develop- 
 ment leads to greater social activity. The more rapid rhythm 
 of weekly markets begins to supersede the slow rhythm of 
 fairs. And eventually the process of exchange becomes afc 
 certain places so active, as to bring about daily meetings of 
 buyers and sellers a daily wave of accumulation and dis- 
 tribution of cotton, or corn, or capital. If from* 
 exchange we turn to production and consumption, we see 
 undulations, much longer indeed in their periods, but almost 
 equally obvious. Supply and demand are never completely 
 adapted to each other ; but each of them from time to time 
 in excess, leads presently to an excess of the other. Farmers 
 who have one season produced wheat very abundantly, are 
 disgusted with the consequent low price ; and next season, 
 sowing a much smaller quantity, bring to market a deficient 
 crop; whence follows a converse effect. Consumption 
 undergoes parallel undulations that need not be specified 
 
268 THE PHYTI1M OF MOTION. 
 
 
 The balancing of supplies between different districts, too, 
 entails analogous oscillations. A place at which some neces- 
 sary of life is scarce, becomes a place to which currents of it 
 are set up from other places where it is relatively abundant ; 
 and these currents from all sides lead to a wave of accumula- 
 tion where they meet a glut : whence follows a recoil a 
 partial return of the currents. But the undulatory 
 
 character of these actions is perhaps best seen in the rises and 
 falls of prices. These, given in numerical measures which 
 may be tabulated and reduced to diagrams, show us in the 
 clearest manner how commercial movements are compounded 
 of oscillations of various magnitudes. The price of consols or 
 the price of wheat, as thus represented, is seen to undergo 
 vast ascents and descents whose highest and lowest points are 
 reached only in the course of years. These largest waves of 
 variation are broken by others extending over periods of 
 perhaps many months. On these again come others having 
 a week or two's duration. And were the changes marked in 
 greater detail, we should have the smaller undulations that 
 take place each day, and the still smaller ones which brokers 
 telegraph from hour to hour. The whole outline would show 
 a complication like that of a vast ocean-swell, on whose sur- 
 face there rise large billows, which themselves bear waves of 
 moderate size, covered by wavelets, that are roughened by a 
 minute ripple. Similar diagramatic representations of births, 
 marriages, and deaths, of disease, of crime, of pauperism, 
 exhibit involved conflicts of rhythmical motions throughout 
 society under these several aspects. 
 
 There are like characteristics in social changes of a more 
 complex kind. Both in England and among continental 
 nations, the action and reaction of political progress have 
 come to be generally recognized. Religion, besides its occa- 
 sional revivals of smaller magnitude, has its long periods of 
 exaltation and depression generations of belief and self-mor- 
 tification, following generations of indifference and laxity. 
 There are poetical epochs, and epochs in which the sense of the 
 
THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 269 
 
 beautiful seems almost dormant. Philosophy, after having 
 been awhile predominant, lapses for a long season into neglect ; 
 and then again slowly revives. Each science has its eras of 
 deductive reasoning, and its eras when attention is chiefly 
 directed to collecting and colligating facts. And how in such 
 minor but more obtrusive phenomena as those of fashion, 
 there are ever going on oscillations from one extreme to the 
 other, is a trite observation. 
 
 As may be foreseen, social rhythms well illustrate the 
 irregularity that results from combination of many causes. 
 Where the variations are those of one simple element in na- 
 tional life, as the supply of a particular commodity, we do in- 
 deed witness a return, after many involved movements, to a 
 previous condition the price may become what it was before : 
 implying a like relative abundance. But where the action is 
 one into which many factors enter, there is never a recur- 
 rence of exactly the same state. A political reaction never 
 brings round just the old form of things. The rationalism 
 of the present day differs widely from the rationalism of the 
 last century. And though fashion from time to time revives 
 extinct types of dress, these always re-appear with decided 
 modifications. 
 
 88. The universality of this principle suggests a question 
 like that raised in foregoing cases. Rhythm being manifested 
 in all forms of movement, we have reason to suspect that it 
 is determined by some primordial condition to action in 
 general. The tacit implication is that it is deducible from 
 the persistence of force. This we shall find to be the fact. 
 
 When the prong of a tuning-fork is pulled on one side by 
 the finger, a certain extra tension is produced among its co- 
 hering particles ; which resist any force that draws them out 
 of their state of equilibrium. As much force as the finger 
 exerts in pulling the prong aside, so much opposing force is 
 brought into play among the cohering particles. Hence, 
 when the prong is liberated, it is urged back by a force equal 
 
270 THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 
 
 to that used in deflecting it. When, therefore, the prong 
 reaches its original position, the force impressed on it during 
 its recoil, has generated in it a corresponding amount of mo- 
 mentum an amount of momentum nearly equivalent, that 
 is, to the force originally impressed (nearly, we must say, 
 because a certain portion has gone in communicating motion 
 to the air, and a certain other portion has been transformed 
 into heat). This momentum carries the prong beyond the 
 position of rest, nearly as far as it was originally drawn in 
 the reverse direction ; until at length, being gradually used 
 up in producing an opposing tension among the particles, it 
 is all lost. The opposing tension into which the expended 
 momentum has been transformed, then generates a second re- 
 coil ; and so on continually the vibration eventually ceasing 
 only because at each movement a certain amount of force 
 goes ia creating atmospheric and etnerial undulations. 
 JNow it needs but to contemplate this repeated action and re- 
 action, to see that it is, like every action and reaction, a 
 consequence of the persistence of force. The force exerted 
 by the finger in bending the prong cannot disappear. 
 Under what form then does it exist ? It exists under the 
 form of that cohesive tension which it has generated among 
 the -par tides. This cohesive tension cannot cease without an 
 equivalent result. What is its equivalent result ? The 
 momentum generated in the prong while being carried back 
 to its position of rest. This momentum too what becomes 
 of it ? It must either continue as momentum, or produce 
 some correlative force of equal amount. It cannot continue 
 as momentum, since change of place is resisted by the cohe- 
 sion of the parts ; and thus it gradually disappears by being 
 transformed into tension among these parts. This is re- 
 transformed into the equivalent momentum ; and so on con- 
 tinuously. If instead of motion that is directly anta- 
 gonized by the cohesion of matter, we consider motion through 
 space, the same truth presents itself under another form. 
 Though here no opposing force seems at work, and therefore 
 
THE RHYTHM OF MOTION. 271 
 
 no cause of rhythm is apparent, yet its own accumulated 
 momentum must eventually carry the moving body beyond 
 the body attracting it ; and so must become a force at vari- 
 ance with that which generated it. From this conflict, 
 rhythm necessarily results as in the foregoing case. The 
 force embodied as momentum in a given direction, cannot be 
 lestroyed ; and if it eventually disappears, it re-appears ir 
 die reaction on the retarding body ; which begins afresh to 
 draw the now arrested mass back from its aphelion. The 
 only conditions under which there could be absence of rhythm 
 the only conditions, that is, under which there could be a 
 continuous motion through space in the same straight line 
 for ever, would be the existence of an infinity void of every- 
 thing but the moving body. And neither of these conditions 
 can be represented in thought. Infinity is inconceivable ; 
 and so also is a motion which never had a commencement in 
 some pre-existing source of power. 
 
 Thus, then, rhythm is a necessary characteristic of all 
 motion. Given the co-existence everywhere of antagonist 
 forces a postulate which, as we have seen, is necessitated 
 by the form of our experience and rhythm is an inevitable 
 corollary from the persistence of force. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 RECAPITULATION, CRITICISM, AND RECOMMENCEMENT. 
 
 89. Let us pause awhile to consider how far the con- 
 tents of the foregoing chapters go towards forming a body 
 of knowledge such as was defined at the outset as constitut- 
 ing Philosophy. 
 
 In respect of its generality, the proposition enunciated 
 and exemplified in each chapter, is of the required kind 13 
 a proposition transcending those class-limits which Science, 
 as currently understood, recognizes. " The Indestructibility 
 of Matter " is a truth not belonging to mechanics more than 
 to chemistry, a truth assumed alike by molecular physics 
 and the physics that deals with sensible masses, a truth 
 which the astronomer and the biologist equally take for 
 granted. Not merely do those divisions of Science which 
 deal with the movements of celestial and terrestrial bodies 
 postulate " The Continuity of Motion," but it is no less pos- 
 tulated in the physicist's investigations into the phenomena 
 of light and heat, and is tacitly, if not avowedly, implied in 
 the generalizations of the higher sciences. So, too, " Tho 
 Persistence of Force," involved in each of the preceding 
 propositions, is co-extensive with them, as is also its corollary, 
 " The Persistence of Relations among Forces." These are 
 not truths of a high generality, but they are universal 
 truths. Passing to the deductions drawn from 
 
 them, wo pee the same thine. That force is transformable. 
 
RECAPITULATION, CRITICISM, AND RECOMMENCEMENT. 278 
 
 ftnd tliat between its correlates there exist quantitative equi- 
 valences, are ultimate facts not to be classed with those of me- 
 chanics, or thermology, or electricity, or magnetism; but they 
 are illustrated throughout phenomena of every order, up to 
 those of mind and society. Similarly, the law that motion foL 
 lows the line of least resistance or the line of greatest traction 
 or the resultant of the two, we found to be an all-pervading 
 law -, conformed to alike by each planet in its orbit, and by 
 the moving matters, aerial, liquid, and solid, on its surface 
 conformed to no less by every organic movement and 
 process than by every inorganic movement and process. 
 And so likewise, in the chapter just closed, it has been 
 shown that rhythm is exhibited universally, from the slow 
 gyrations of double stars down to the inconceivably rapid 
 oscillations of molecules from such terrestrial changes as 
 those of recurrent glacial epochs and gradually alternating 
 elevations and subsidences, down to those of the winds and 
 tides and waves ; and is no less conspicuous in the functions 
 of living organisms, from the pulsations of the heart up to 
 the paroxysms of the emotions. 
 
 Thus these truths have the character which constitutes 
 them parts of Philosophy, properly so called. They are 
 truths which unify concrete phenomena belonging to all 
 divisions of Nature ; and so must be components of that 
 complete, coherent conception of things which Philosophy 
 seeks. 
 
 90. But now what parts do these truths play in forming 
 such a conception ? Does any one of them singly convey 
 an idea of the Cosmos : meaning by this word the totality 
 of the manifestations of the Unknowable ? Do all of them 
 taken together yield us an adequate idea of this kind ? Do 
 they even when thought of in combination compose any- 
 thing like such an idea ? To each of these questions the 
 answer must be No. 
 
 Neither these truths nor any other such truths, separately 
 
274 RECAPITULATION, CRITICISM, AND RECOMMENCEMENT. 
 
 or jointly, constitute that integrated knowledge in which 
 only Philosophy finds its goal. It has been supposed by 
 one thinker that when Science has succeeded in reducing all 
 more complex laws to some most simple law, as of molecular 
 action, knowledge will have reached its limit. Another 
 authority has tacitly asserted that all minor facts are so 
 merged in the major fact that the force everywhere in 
 action is nowhere lost, that to express this is to express 
 i( the constitution of the universe." But either conclusion 
 implies a misapprehension of the problem. 
 
 For these are all analytical truths, and no analytical truth 
 no number of analytical truths, will make up that syn- 
 thesis of thought which alone can be an interpretation of 
 the synthesis of things. The decomposition of phenomena 
 into their elements, is but a preparation for understanding 
 phenomena in their state of composition, as actually mani- 
 fested. To have ascertained the laws of the factors is not 
 at all to have ascertained the laws of their co-operation. 
 The question is, not how any factor, Matter or Motion or 
 Force, behaves by itself, or under some imagined simple 
 conditions ; nor is it even how one factor behaves under the 
 complicated conditions of actual existence. The thing to 
 be expressed is the joint product of the factors under all its 
 various aspects. Only when we can formulate the total 
 process, have we gained that knowledge of it which Philo- 
 sophy aspires to. A clear comprehension of this matter is 
 important enough to justify some further exposition. 
 
 91. Suppose a chemist, a geologist, and a biologist, 
 have given the deepest explanations furnished by their 
 respective sciences, of the processes going on in a burning 
 candle, in a region changed by earthquake, and in a grow- 
 ing plant. To the assertion that their explanations are not 
 the deepest possible, they will probably rejoin "What 
 would you have ? What remains to be said of combustion 
 when light and heat and the dissipation of substance havo 
 
RECAPITULATION, CRITICISM, AND RECOMMENCEMENT. 275 
 
 all been traced down to the liberation of molecular motion 
 as their common cause ? When all the actions accompany- 
 ing an earthquake are explained as consequent upon the 
 slow loss of the Earth's internal heat, how is it possible to 
 go lower ? When the influence of light on the oscillations 
 of molecules has been proved to account for vegetal growth, 
 what is the imaginable further rationale ? You ask for a 
 synthesis. You say that knowledge does not end in the 
 resolution of phenomena into the actions of certain factors, 
 each conforming to ascertained laws ; but that the laws of 
 the factors having been ascertained, there comes the chief 
 problem to show how from their joint action result the 
 phenomena in all their complexity. Well, do not the above 
 interpretations satisfy this requirement ? Do we not, start- 
 ing with the molecular motions of the elements concerned 
 in combustion, build up synthetically an explanation of the 
 light, and the heat, and the produced gases, and the move- 
 ments of the produced gases ? Do we not, setting out 
 from the still-continued radiation of its heat, construct by 
 synthesis a clear conception of the Earth's nucleus as con- 
 tracting, its crust as collapsing, as becoming shaken and 
 fissured and contorted and burst through by lava ? And 
 is it not the same with the chemical changes and accumula- 
 tion of matter in the growing plant ? " 
 
 To all which the reply is, that the ultimate interpretation 
 to be reached by Philosophy, is a universal synthesis com- 
 prehending and consolidating such special syntheses. Tho 
 synthetic explanations which Science gives, even up to 
 the most general, are more or less independent of one 
 another. Though they may have like elements in them, 
 they are not united by the likeness of their essential 
 structures. Is it to be supposed that in the burning candle, 
 in the quaking Earth, and in the organism that is increas- 
 ing, the processes as wholes aro unrelated to one another ? 
 If it is admitted that each of the factors concerned always 
 operates in conformity to a law, is it to be concluded that 
 
276 RECAPITULATION, CRITICISM, AND RECOMMENCEMENT. 
 
 their co-operation conforms to no law? These various 
 changes, artificial and natural, organic and inorganic, which 
 for convenience sake we distinguish, are not from the 
 highest point of view to be distinguished ; for they are all 
 changes going on in the same Cosmos, and forming parts of 
 one vast transformation. The play of forces is essentially 
 the same in principle throughout the whole region explored 
 by our intelligence ; and though, varying infinitely in their 
 proportions and combinations, they work out results every- 
 where more or less different, and often seeming to have no 
 kinship, yet there cannot but be among these results a 
 fundamental community. The question to be answered is 
 what is the common element in the : histories of all con- 
 crete processes ? 
 
 92. To resume, then, we have now to seek a law of 
 composition of phenomena, co-extensive with those laws of 
 their components set forth in the foregoing chapters. 
 Having seen that matter is indestructible, motion con- 
 tinuous, and force persistent having seen that forces are 
 everywhere undergoing transformation, and that motion, al- 
 ways following the line of least resistance, is invariably 
 rhythmic, it remains to discover the similarly-invariable 
 formula expressing the combined consequences of the actions 
 thus separately formulated. 
 
 What must be the general character of such a formula? 
 It must be one that specifies the course of the changes 
 undergone by both the matter and the motion. Every 
 transformation implies re-arrangement of component parts; 
 and a definition of it, while saying what has happened to the 
 sensible or insensible portions of substance concerned, must 
 also say what has happened to the movements, sensible or 
 insensible, which the re-arrangement of parts implies. Fur- 
 ther, unless the transformation always goes on in the same 
 way and at the same rate, the formula must specify the con- 
 ditions under which it commences, ceases, and is reversed. 
 
RECAPITULATION, CRITICISM, AND RECOMMENCEMENT. 277 
 
 The law we seek, therefore, must "be the law of th& con- 
 tinuous redistribution of matter and motion. Absolute rest 
 and permanence do not exist. Every object, no less than 
 the aggregate of all objects, undergoes from instant to 
 instant some alteration of state. Gradually or quickly it is 
 receiving motion or losing motion, while some or all of its 
 parts are simultaneously changing their relations to one 
 another. And the question to be answered is What 
 dynamic principle, true of the metamorphosis as a whole 
 and in its details, expresses these ever-changing relations ? 
 
 This chapter has served its purpose if it has indicated the 
 nature of the ultimate problem. The discussion on which 
 we are now to enter, may fitly open with a new presentation 
 of this problem, carrying with it the clear implication that a 
 Philosophy, rightly so-called, can come into existence only 
 by solving the problem. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 
 
 93. AN entire history of anything must include its ap- 
 pearance out of the imperceptible and its disappearance into 
 the imperceptible. Be it a single object or the whole uni- 
 verse, any account which begins with it in a concrete form, 
 or leaves off with it in a concrete form, is incomplete ; since 
 there remains an era of its knowable existence undescribed 
 and unexplained. Admitting, or rather asserting, that 
 knowledge is limited to the phenomenal, we have, by impli- 
 cation, asserted that the sphere of knowledge is co-extensive 
 with the phenomenal co- extensive with all modes of the Un- 
 knowable that can affect consciousness. Hence, wherever 
 we now find Being so conditioned as to act on our senses, 
 there arise the questions how came it thus conditioned ? 
 and how will it cease to be thus conditioned? Unless on the 
 assumption that it acquired a sensible form at the moment 
 of perception, and lost its sensible form the moment after 
 perception, it must have had an antecedent existence under 
 this sensible form, and will have a subsequent existence 
 under this sensible form. These preceding and succeeding 
 existences under sensible forms, are possible subjects of 
 knowledge ; and knowledge has obviously not reached its 
 limits until it has united the past, present, and future 
 histories into a whole. 
 
 The sayings and doings of daily life imply more or less 
 
EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 279 
 
 Bnch knowledge, actual or potential, of states which have 
 gone before and of states which will come after; and, 
 indeed, the greater part of our knowledge involves these 
 elements. Knowing any man personally, implies having be- 
 fore seen him under a shape much the same as his present 
 shape ; and knowing him simply as a man, implies the in- 
 ferred antecedent states of infancy, childhood, and youth. 
 Though the man's future is not known specifically, it is 
 known generally : the facts that he will die and that his 
 body will decay, are- facts which complete in outline the 
 changes to be hereafter gone through by him. So with all 
 the objects around. The pre-existence under concrete forma 
 of the woollens, silks, and cottons we wear, we can trace 
 uome distance back. We are certain that our furniture 
 consists of matter which was aggregated by trees within 
 these few generations. Even of the stones composing the 
 walls of the house, we are able to say that years or centuries 
 ago, they formed parts of some stratum imbedded in the 
 earth. Moreover, respecting the hereafter of the wearable 
 fabrics, the furniture, and the walls, we can assert thus 
 much, that they are all in process of decay, and in 
 periods of various lengths will lose their present coherent 
 shapes. This general information which all men 
 
 gain concerning the past and future careers of surround- 
 ing things, Science has extended, and continues unceas- 
 ingly to extend. To the biography of the individual 
 man, it adds an intra-uterine biography beginning with him 
 as a microscopic germ; and it follows out his ultimate 
 changes until it finds his body resolved into the gaseous 
 products of decomposition. Not stopping short at the 
 sheep's back and the caterpillar's cocoon, it identifies in 
 wool and silk the nitrogenous matters absorbed by the 
 sheep and the caterpillar from plants. The substance 
 of a plant's leaves, in common with the wood from which 
 furniture is made, it again traces back to the vegetal assi* 
 milation of gases from the air and of certain minerals from 
 
280 EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 
 
 the soil. And inquiring whence came the stratum of stone 
 that was quarried to build the house, it finds that this was 
 once a loose sediment deposited in an estuary or on the sea 
 bottom. 
 
 If, then, the past and the future of each object, is a 
 sphere of possible knowledge ; and if intellectual progress 
 consists largely, if not mainly, in widening our acquaint- 
 ance with this past and this future ; it is obvious that we 
 have not acquired all the information within the grasp of 
 our intelligence until we can, in some. way or other, express 
 the whole past and the whole future of each object and the 
 aggregate of objects. Usually able, as we are, to say of any 
 visible tangible thing how it came to have its present shape 
 and consistence ; we are fully possessed with the conviction 
 that, setting out abruptly as we do with some substance 
 which already had a concrete form, our history is incom- 
 plete : the thing had a history preceding the state with 
 which we started. Hence our Theory of Things, considered 
 individually or in their totality, is confessedly imperfect so 
 long as any past or future portions of their sensible exist- 
 ences are unaccounted for. 
 
 May it not be inferred that Philosophy has to formulate 
 this passage from the imperceptible into the perceptible, and 
 again from the perceptible into the imperceptible ? Is it not 
 clear that this general law of the redistribution of matter 
 and motion, which we lately saw is required to unify the 
 various kinds of changes,, must also be one that unifies the 
 successive changes which sensible existences, separately and 
 together, pass through ? Only by some formula combining 
 these characters can knowledge be reduced to a coherent 
 whole. 
 
 94. Already in the foregoing paragraphs the outline of 
 such a formula is foreshadowed. Already in recognizing the 
 fact that Science, tracing back the genealogies of various 
 objects, finds their components were once in. diffused states, 
 
EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 281 
 
 and pursuing their histories forwards, finds diflused states 
 will be again assumed by them, we have recognized the fact 
 that the formula must be one comprehending the two oppo- 
 site processes of concentration and diffusion. And already 
 in thus describing the general nature of the formula, we 
 have approached a specific expression of it. The change 
 from a diffused, imperceptible state, to a concentrated, per- 
 ceptible state, is an integration of matter and concomitant 
 dissipation of motion ; and the change from a concentrated, 
 perceptible state, to a diffused, imperceptible state, is an 
 absorption of motion and concomitant disintegration of 
 matter. These are truisms. Constituent parts cannot 
 aggregate without losing some of their relative motion ; and 
 they cannot separate without more relative motion being 
 given to them. We are not concerned here with any motion 
 which the components of a mass have with respect to other 
 masses : we are concerned only with the motion they have 
 with respect to one another. Confining our attention to this 
 internal motion, and to the matter possessing it, the axiom 
 which we have to recognize is that a progressing consolida- 
 tion involves a decrease of internal motion; and that in- 
 crease of internal motion involves a progressing unconsoli- 
 dation. 
 
 When taken together, the two opposite processes thus 
 formulated constitute the history of every sensible existence, 
 under its simplest form. Loss of motion and consequent 
 integration, eventually followed by gain of motion and con- 
 sequent disintegration see here a statement comprehensive 
 of the entire series of changes passed through : comprehen- 
 sive in an extremely general way, as any statement which 
 holds of sensible existences at large must be ; but still, 
 comprehensive in the sense that all the changes gone 
 through fall within it. This will probably be thought too 
 sweeping an assertion ; but we shall quickly find it justified. 
 
 95. For here we have to note the further all-importanl 
 
282 EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 
 
 fact, that every change undergone by every sensible exist- 
 ence, is a change in one or other of these two opposite 
 directions. Apparently an aggregate which has passed out 
 of some originally discrete state into a concrete state, there- 
 after remains for an indefinite period without undergoing 
 further integration, and without beginning to disintegrate. 
 But this is untrue All things are growing or decaying, 
 accumulating matter or wearing away, integrating or disin- 
 tegrating. All things are varying in their temperatures, 
 contracting or expanding, integrating or disintegrating. 
 Both the quantity of matter contained in an aggregate, and 
 the quantity of motion contained in it, increase or decrease; 
 and increase or decrease of either is an advance towards 
 greater diffusion or greater concentration. Continued losses 
 or gains of substance, however slow, imply ultimate disap- 
 pearance or indefinite enlargement ; and losses or gains of 
 the insensible motion we call heat, will, if continued, pro- 
 duce complete integration or complete disintegration. The 
 sun's rays falling on a cold mass, augmenting the molecular 
 motions throughout it, and causing it to occupy more space, 
 are beginning a process which if carried far will disintegrate 
 the mass into liquid, and if carried farther will disintegrate 
 the liquid into gas ; and the diminution of bulk which a 
 volume of gas undergoes as it parts with some of its mole- 
 cular motion, is a diminution which, if the loss of molecular 
 motion proceeds, will presently be followed by liquefaction 
 and eventually by solidification. And since there is no such 
 thing as an absolutely constant temperature, the necessary 
 inference is that every aggregate is at every moment pro- 
 gressing towards either greater concentration or greater 
 diffusion. 
 
 Not only does all change consisting in the addition or sub- 
 traction of matter come under this head; and not only does 
 this head include all change called thermal expansion or 
 contraction; but it is also, in a general way, comprehensive 
 of all change distinguished as transposition. Every internal 
 
EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 283 
 
 redistribution which leaves the component molecules or 
 the constituent portions of a mass differently placed with 
 respect to one another, is sure to be at the same time a 
 progress towards integration or towards disintegration is 
 sure to have altered in some degree the total space occupied. 
 For when the parts have been moved relatively to one 
 another, the chances are infinity to one that their average 
 distances from the common centre of the aggregate are no 
 longer the same. Hence whatever be the special character 
 of the redistribution be it that of superficial accretion or 
 detachment, be it that of general expansion or contraction, 
 be it that of re-arrangement, it is always an advance in 
 integration or disintegration. It is always this, though it 
 may at the same time be something further. 
 
 96. A general idea of these universal actions under 
 their simplest aspects having been obtained, we may now 
 consider them under certain relatively complex aspects. 
 Changes towards greater concentration or greater diffusion, 
 nearly always proceed after a manner much more involved 
 than that above described. Thus far we have supposed one 
 or other of the two opposite processes to go on alone we 
 have supposed an aggregate to be either losing motion and 
 integrating or gaining motion and disintegrating. But 
 though it is true that every change furthers one or other of 
 these processes, it is not true that either process is ever 
 wholly unqualified by the other. For each aggregate is at 
 all times both gaining motion and losing motion. 
 
 Every mass from a grain of sand to a planet, radiates heat 
 to other masses, and absorbs heat radiated by other masses; 
 and in so far as it does the one it becomes integrated, while 
 in so far as it does the other it becomes disintegrated. 
 Ordinarily in inorganic objects this double process works 
 but unobtrusive effects. Only in a few cases, among which 
 that of a cloud is the most familiar, does the conflict 
 produce rapid and marked transformations. One of these 
 
284 EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 
 
 
 floating bodies of vapour expands and dissipates, if the 
 amount of molecular motion it receives from the Sun and 
 Earth, exceeds that which it loses by radiation into space and 
 towards adjacent surfaces; while, contrariwise, if, drifting 
 over cold mountain tops, it radiates to them much more 
 heat than it receives, the loss of molecular motion is followed 
 by increasing integration of the vapour, ending in the 
 aggregation of it into liquid and the fall of rain. Here, as 
 elsewhere, the integration or the disintegration is a differ- 
 ential result. 
 
 In living aggregates, and more especially those classed as 
 animals, these conflicting processes go on with great activity 
 under several forms. There is not merely what we may call 
 the passive integration of matter, that results in inanimate 
 objects from simple molecular attractions ; but there is an 
 active integration of it under the form of food. In addition to 
 that passive superficial disintegration which inanimate ob- 
 jocts suffer from external agents, animals produce in them- 
 selves active internal disintegration, by absorbing such 
 agents into their substance. While, like inorganic aggre- 
 gates, they passively give off and receive motion, they are 
 also active absorbers of motion latent in food, and active ex- 
 penders of that motion. But notwithstanding this compli- 
 cation of the two processes, and the immense exaltation of 
 the conflict between them, it remains true that there is 
 always a differential progress towards either integration or 
 disintegration. During the earlier part of the cycle of 
 changes, the integration predominates there goes on what 
 we call growth. The middle part of the cycle is usually 
 characterized, not by equilibrium between the integrating 
 and disintegrating processes, but by alternate excesses of 
 them. And the cycle closes with a period in which the dis- 
 integration, beginning to predominate, eventually puts a 
 stop to integration, and undoes what integration had origi- 
 nally done. At no moment are assimilation and waste so 
 balanced that no increase or decrease of mass is going on. 
 
EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 285 
 
 Even in cases where one part is growing while other parts 
 are dwindling, and even in cases where different parts are 
 differently exposed to external sources of motion so that 
 some are expanding while others are contracting, the truth 
 still holds. For the chances are infinity to one against 
 these opposite changes balancing one another; and if they 
 do not balance one another, the aggregate as a whole is 
 integrating or disintegrating. 
 
 Everywhere and to the last, therefore, the change at any 
 moment going on forms a part of one or other of the two 
 processes. While the general history of every aggregate is 
 definable as a change from a diffused imperceptible state to 
 a concentrated perceptible state, and again to a diffused im- 
 perceptible state; every detail of the history is definable as 
 a part of either the one change or the other. This, then, 
 must be that universal law of redistribution of matter and 
 motion, which serves at once to unify the seemingly diverse 
 groups of changes, as well as the entire course of each group. 
 
 97. The processes thus everywhere in antagonism, and 
 everywhere gaining now a temporary and now a more or less 
 permanent triumph the one over the other, we call Evolution 
 and Dissolution. Evolution under its simplest and most 
 general aspect is the integration of matter and concomitant 
 dissipation of motion ; while Dissolution is the absorption of 
 motion and concominant disintegration of matter. 
 
 These titles are by no means all that is desirable; or 
 rather we may say that while the last answers its purpose 
 tolerably well, the first is open to grave objections. Evolu- 
 tion has other meanings, some of which are incongruous 
 with, and some even directly opposed to, the meaning here 
 given to it. The evolution of a gas is literally an absorp- 
 tion of motion and disintegration of matter, which is exactly 
 the reverse of that which we here call Evolution is that 
 which we here call Dissolution. As ordinarily understood, 
 to evolve is to unfold, to open and expand, to throw out, to 
 14 
 
286 EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 
 
 emit; whereas as we understand it, the act of evolving, 
 though it implies increase of a concrete aggregate, and in 
 so far an expansion of it, implies that its component matter 
 has passed from a more diffused to a more concentrated 
 state has contracted. The antithetical word Involution 
 would much more truly express the nature of the process ; 
 and would, indeed, describe better the secondary characters 
 of the process which we shall have to deal with presently. 
 We are obliged, however, notwithstanding the liabilities to 
 confusion that must result from these unlike and even con- 
 tradictory meanings, to use Evolution as antithetical to Dis- 
 solution. The word is now so widely recognized as signify- 
 ing, not, indeed, the general process above described, but 
 sundry of the most conspicuous varieties of it, and certain of 
 its secondary but most remarkable accompaniments, that we 
 cannot now substitute another word. All we can do is 
 carefully to define the interpretation to be given to it. 
 
 While, then, we shall by Dissolution everywhere mean the 
 process tacitly implied by its ordinary meaning the ab- 
 sorption of motion and disintegration of matter ; we shall 
 everywhere mean by Evolution, the process which is always 
 an integration of matter and dissipation of motion, but 
 which, as we shall now see, is in most cases much more 
 fchanthJa. 
 
CHAPTER XTTL 
 
 SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 
 
 93. Where the only forces at work are those directly 
 tending to produce aggregation or diffusion, the whole his- 
 tory of an aggregate will comprise no more than the ap- 
 proaches of its components towards their common centre 
 and their recessions from their common centre. The process 
 of Evolution, including nothing beyond what was described 
 at the outset of the last chapter, will be simple. 
 
 Again, in cases where the forces which cause movements 
 towards a common centre are greatly in excess of all other 
 forces, any changes additional to those constituting aggre- 
 gation will be comparatively insignificant there will be 
 integration scarcely at all modified by further kinds of re 
 distribution. 
 
 Or if, because of the smallness of the mass to be integrated, 
 or because of the little motion the mass receives from with- 
 out in return for the motion it loses, the integration proceeds 
 rapidly; there will similarly be wrought but insignificant 
 effects on the integrating mass by incident forces, even 
 though these are considerable. 
 
 But when, conversely, the integration is but slow; either 
 because the quantity of motion contained in the aggregate 
 is relatively great; or because, though the quantity of 
 motion which each part possesses is not relatively great, the 
 large size of the aggregate prevents easy dissipation of the 
 motioiv; or because, though motion is rapidly lost more 
 
288 SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 
 
 motion is rapidly received; then, other forces will cause 
 in the aggregate appreciable modifications. Along with the 
 change constituting integration, there will take place sup- 
 plementary changes. The Evolution, instead of being 
 simple, will be compound. 
 
 The several propositions thus briefly enunciated require 
 some explanation. 
 
 99. So long as a body moves freely through space, 
 every force that acts on it produces an equivalent in the 
 shape of some change in its motion. No matter how high 
 its velocity, the slightest lateral traction or resistance causes 
 it to deviate from its line of movement causes it to move 
 towards the new source of traction or away from the new 
 source of resistance, just as much as it would do had it no 
 other motion. And the effect of the perturbing influence 
 goes on accumulating in the ratio of the squares of the times 
 during which its action continues uniform. This same body, 
 however, will, if it is united in certain ways with other 
 bodies, cease to be moveable by small incident forces. 
 When it is held last by gravitation or cohesion, these 
 small incident forces, instead of giving it some relative 
 motion through space, are otherwise dissipated. 
 
 What here holds of masses, holds, in a qualified way, of 
 the sensible parts of masses, and of molecules. As the 
 sensible parts of a mass, and the molecules of a mass, are, 
 by virtue of their aggregation, not perfectly free, it is not 
 true of each of them, as of a body moving through space, 
 that every incident force produces an equivalent change of 
 position : part of the force goes in working other changes. 
 But in proportion as the parts or the molecules are feebly 
 bound together, incident forces effect marked re-arrange- 
 ments among them. At the one extreme, where the 
 integration is so slight that the parts, sensible or insensible, 
 are almost independent, they are almost completely amen- 
 able to every additional action; an.d along witli the con* 
 
SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 289 
 
 eentration going on there go on other re-distributlous. 
 Contrariwise, where the parts have approached within such 
 small distances that what we call the attraction of cohesion 
 is great, additional actions, unless intense, cease to have 
 much power to cause secondary re-arrangements. The 
 firmly-united parts no longer readily change their relative 
 positions in obedience to small perturbing influences ; but 
 each small perturbing influence usually does little or nothing 
 more than temporarily modify the insensible molecular 
 motions. 
 
 How may we best express this difference in the most 
 general terms ? An aggregate that is widely diffused, or but 
 little integrated, is an aggregate that contains a large quantity 
 of motion actual or potential or both. An aggregate that 
 has become completely integrated or dense, is one that con- 
 tains comparatively little motion : most of the motion its 
 parts once had has been lost during the integration that has 
 rendered it dense. Hence, other things equal, in propor- 
 tion to the quantity of motion which an aggregate contains 
 will be the quantity of secondary change in the arrangement 
 of its parts that accompanies the primary change in their 
 arrangement. Hence also, other things equal, in proportion to 
 the time during which the internal motion is retained, will be 
 the quantity of this secondary re- distribution that accompanies 
 the primary re-distribution. It matters not how these con- 
 ditions are fulfilled. Whether the internal motion continues 
 great because the components are of a kind that will not 
 readily aggregate, or because surrounding conditions pre- 
 vent them from parting with their motion, or because the 
 loss of their motion is impeded by the size of the aggregate 
 they form, or because they directly or indirectly obtain 
 more motion in place of that which they lose ; it through- 
 out remains true that much retained internal motion must 
 render secondary re-distributions facile, and that long re- 
 tention of it must make possible an accumulation of such 
 secondary re-distributions. Conversely, the uon-fulfilmeut of 
 
290 SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 
 
 these conditions, however caused, entails opposite results. 
 Be it that the components of the aggregate have special 
 aptitudes to integrate quickly, or be it that the smallness of 
 the aggregate formed of them permits the easy escape of 
 their motion, or be it that they receive little or no motion 
 in exchange for that which they part with ; it alike holds 
 that but little secondary re-distribution can accompany the 
 primary re-distribution constituting their integration. 
 
 These abstract propositions will not be fully understood 
 without illustrations. Let us, before studying simple and 
 compound Evolution as thus determined, contemplate a few 
 cases in which the quantity of internal motion is artificially 
 changed, and note the effects on the re-arrangement of 
 parts. 
 
 100. "We may fitly begin with a familiar experience, 
 introducing the general principle under a rude but easily 
 comprehensible form. When a vessel has been filled to the 
 brim with loose fragments, shaking the vessel causes them 
 to settle down into less space, so that more may be put in. 
 And when among the fragments there are some of much 
 greater specific gravity than the rest, these, in the course of 
 a prolonged shaking, find their way to the bottom. What 
 now is the meaning of such results, when expressed in 
 general terms ? We have a group of units acted on by an 
 incident force the attraction of the Earth. So long as 
 these units are not agitated, this incident force produces no 
 changes in their relative positions ; agitate them, and im- 
 mediately their loose arrangement passes into a more com- 
 pact arrangement. Again, so long as they are not agitated, 
 the incident force cannot separate the heavier units from the 
 lighter; agitate them, and immediately the heavier units 
 begin to segregate. Mechanical disturbances of 
 
 more minute kinds, acting on the parts of much denser ag- 
 gregates, produce analogous effects. A piece of iron which, 
 when it leaves the workshop, is fibrous in structure, be- 
 
flMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 
 
 comes crystalline if exposed to a perpetual jar. The polar 
 forces mutually exercised by the atoms, fail to change the 
 disorderly arrangement into an orderly arrangement while 
 the atoms are relatively quiescent ; but these forces succeed 
 in re-arranging them when the atoms are kept in a state oi 
 intestine agitation. Similarly, the fact that a bar of steel 
 suspended in the magnetic meridian and repeatedly struck, 
 becomes magnetized, is ascribed to a re-arrangement of par- 
 ticles that is produced by the magnetic force of the Earth 
 when vibrations are propagated through them, but is not 
 otherwise produced. Now imperfectly as these 
 
 cases parallel the mass of those we are considering, they 
 nevertheless serve roughly to illustrate the effect which 
 adding to the quantity of motion an aggregate contains, has 
 in facilitating re-arrangement of its parts. 
 
 More fully illustrative are the instances in which, by arti- 
 ficially adding to or subtracting from that molecular motion 
 which we call its heat, we give an aggregate increased or 
 diminished facility of re-arranging its molecules. The pro- 
 cess of tempering steel or annealing glass, shows us that 
 internal re-distribution is aided by insensible vibrations, as 
 we have just seen it to be by sensible vibrations. When 
 some molten glass is dropped into water, and when its out- 
 side is thus, by sudden solidification, prevented from par- 
 taking in thatcon traction which the subsequent cooling of 
 the inside tends to produce; the units are left in such a 
 state of tension, that the mass flies into fragments if a small 
 portion of it be broken off. But if this mass be kept for a 
 day or two at a considerable heat, though a heat not suffi- 
 cient to alter its form or produce any sensible diminution of 
 hardness, this extreme brittleness disappears : the com- 
 ponent particles being thrown into greater agitation, the 
 tensile forces are enabled to re-arrange them into a state of 
 equilibrium. Much more conspicuously do we see 
 
 the effect of the insensible motion called heat, where the 
 re-arrangement of parts taking place is that of visible segre- 
 
292 SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 
 
 
 gaticn. An instance is furnished by the subsidence of fine 
 precipitates. These sink down very slowly from solutions 
 that are cold ; while warm solutions deposit them with com -> 
 parative rapidity. That is to say, exalting the molecular 
 oscillation throughout the mass, allows the suspended 
 particles to separate more readily from the "particles of 
 fluid. The influence of heat on chemical changes 
 
 is so familiar, that examples are scarcely needed. Be the 
 substances concerned gaseous, liquid, or solid, it equally holds 
 that their chemical unions and disunions are aided by rise 
 of temperature. Affinities which do not suffice to effect the 
 re-arrangement of mixed units that are in a state of feeble 
 agitation, suffice to effect it when the agitation is raised to a 
 certain point. And so long as this molecular motion is not 
 great enough to prevent those chemical cohesions which the 
 affinities tend to produce, increase of it gives increased faci- 
 lity of chemical re-arrangement. 
 
 Another class of facts may be adduced which, though not 
 apparently, are really illustrative of the same general truth. 
 Other things equal, the liquid form of matter implies a 
 greater quantity of contained motion than the solid form- 
 the liquidity is itself a consequence of such greater quantity. 
 Hence, an aggregate made up partly of liquid matter and 
 partly of solid matter, contains a greater quantity of motion 
 than one which, otherwise like it, is made up wholly of 
 solid matter. It is inferable, then, that a liquid-solid 
 aggregate, or, as we commonly call it, a plastic aggregate, 
 will admit of internal redistribution with comparative faci- 
 lity ; and the inference is verified by experience. A magma 
 of unlike substances ground up with water, while it con- 
 tinues thin allows a settlement of its heavier components a 
 separation of them from the lighter. As the water evapo- 
 rates this separation is impeded, and ceases when the 
 magma becomes very thick. But even when it has reached 
 the semi-solid state in which gravitation fails to cause 
 further segregation of its mixed components, other forces 
 
HIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 283 
 
 may still continue to produce segregation : witness the fact 
 to which attention was first drawn by Mr. Babbage, that 
 when the pasty mixture of ground flints and kaolin, pre- 
 pared for the manufacture of porcelain, is kept some time, 
 it becomes gritty and unfit for use, in consequence of the 
 particles of silica separating themselves from the rest, and 
 uniting together in grains; or witness the fact known to 
 every housewife, that m long-kept currant-jelly the sugar 
 takes the shape of imbedded crystals. 
 
 No matter then under what form the motion contained by 
 an aggregate exists be it mere mechanical agitation, or the 
 mechanical vibrations such as produce sound, be it mole- 
 cular motion absorbed from without, or the constitutional 
 molecular motion of some component liquid, the same truth 
 holds throughout. Incident forces work secondary re-distri- 
 butions easily when the contained motion is large in quan- 
 tity ; and work them with increasing difficulty as the con- 
 tained motion diminishes. 
 
 101. Yet another class of facts that fall within the 
 same generalization, little as they seem related to it, must 
 be indicated before proceeding. They are those presented 
 by certain contrasts in chemical stability. Speaking gene- 
 rally, stable compounds contain comparatively little mole- 
 cular motion ; and in proportion as the contained molecular 
 motion is great the instability is great. 
 
 The common and marked illustration of this to be first 
 named, is that chemical stability decreases as temperature 
 increases. Compounds of which the elements are strongly 
 united and compounds of which the elements are feebly 
 united, are alike in this, that raising their heats or increasing 
 the quantities of their contained molecular motion, dimi- 
 nishes the strengths of the unions of their elements ; and by 
 continually adding to the quantity of contained molecular 
 motion, a point is in each case reached at which the 
 Chemical union is destroyed. That is to say, the re-distriba- 
 
294 SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 
 
 tion of matter which constitutes simple chemical decompo- 
 sition, is easy in proportion as the quantity of contained 
 motion is great. The like holds with double de- 
 
 compositions. Two compounds, A B and C D, mingled 
 together and kept at a low temperature, may severally 
 remain unchanged the cross affinities between their com- 
 ponents may fail to cause re-distribution. Increase the heat 
 of the mixture, or add to the molecular motion throughout 
 it, and re-distribution takes place ; ending in the formation 
 of the compounds, A C and JB D. 
 
 Another chemical truth having a like implication, is 
 that chemical elements which, as they ordinarily exist, 
 contain much motion, have combinations less stable than 
 those of which the elements, as they ordinarily exist, contain 
 little motion. The gaseous form of matter implies a rela- 
 tively large amount of molecular motion; while the solid 
 form implies a relatively small amount of molecular motion. 
 What are the characters of their respective compounds? 
 The compounds which the permanent gases form with one 
 another, cannot resist high temperatures : most of them are 
 easily decomposed by heat; and at a red heat, even the 
 stronger ones yield up their components. On the other 
 hand, the chemical unions between elements that are solid 
 except at very high temperatures, are extremely stable. In 
 many, if not indeed in most, cases, such combined elements 
 are not separable by any heat we can produce. 
 
 There is, again, the relation, which appears to have a 
 kindred meaning, between instability and amount of com- 
 position. " In general, the molecular heat of a compound 
 increases with the degree of complexity/* With increase of 
 complexity there also goes increased facility of deconiposio 
 tion. Whence it follows that molecules which contain, 
 much motion in virtue of their complexity, are those of 
 which the components are most readily re-distributed. This 
 holds not only of the complexity resulting from the union of 
 several unlike elements ; but it holds also of the complexity 
 
SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 205 
 
 resulting from the union of the same elements in higher 
 multiples. Matter has two solid states, distinguished as 
 crystalloid and colloid ; of which the first is due to union of 
 the individual atoms or molecules, and the second to the 
 union of groups of such individual atoms or molecules ; and 
 of which the first is stable and the second unstable. 
 
 But the most striking and conclusive illustration is fur- 
 nished by the combinations into which nitrogen enters. 
 These have the two characters of being specially unstable 
 and of containing specially great quantities of motion. A 
 recently-ascertained peculiarity of nitrogen, is, that instead 
 of giving out heat when it combines with other elements, it 
 absorbs heat. That is to say, besides carrying with it into 
 the liquid or solid compound it forms, the motion which 
 previously constituted it a gas, it takes up additional 
 motion ; and where the other element with which it unites 
 is gaseous, the molecular motion proper to this, also, is 
 locked up in the compound. Now these nitrogen-com- 
 pounds are unusually prone to decomposition ; and the de- 
 compositions of many of them take place with extreme 
 violence. All our explosive substances are nitrogenous 
 the most terribly destructive of them all, chloride of nitro- 
 gen, being one which contains the immense quantity of 
 motion proper to its component gases, plus a certain further 
 quantity of motion. 
 
 Clearly these general chemical truths, are parts of the 
 more general physical truth we are tracing out. We see 
 in them that what holds of sensible aggregates, holds also 
 of the insensible aggregates we call molecules. Like the 
 aggregates formed of them, these ultimate aggregates be- 
 come more or less integrated according as they lose or gain 
 motion ; and like them also, according as they contain much 
 or little motion, they are liable to undergo secondary re-dis- 
 tributions of parts along with the primary re-distribution. 
 
 102. And now having got this general principle clearly 
 
298 SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 
 
 into view, let us go on to observe how, in conformity with 
 it, Evolution becomes, according to the conditions, either 
 simple or compound. 
 
 If a little sal-ammoniac, or other volatile solid, be heated, 
 ifc is disintegrated by the absorbed molecular motion, and 
 rises in gas. "When the gas so produced, coming in con- 
 tact with a cold surface, loses its excess of molecular motion, 
 integration takes place the substance assumes the form of 
 crystals. This is a case of simple evolution. The process 
 of concentration of matter and dissipation of motion does 
 not here proceed in a gradual manner does not pass 
 through stages occupying considerable periods; but the 
 molecular motion which reduced it to the gaseous state 
 being dissipated, the matter passes suddenly to a com- 
 pletely solid state. The result is that along with this 
 primary re- distribution there go on no appreciable secondary 
 re-distributions. Substantially the same thing holds with 
 crystals deposited from solutions. Loss of that molecular 
 motion which, down to a certain point, keeps the molecules 
 from uniting, and sudden solidification when the loss goes 
 below that point, occur here as before ; and here as before, 
 the absence of a period during which the molecules are 
 partially free and gradually losing their freedom, is accom- 
 panied by the absence of supplementary re-arrangements. 
 
 Mark, conversely, what happens when the concentration 
 is slow. A gaseous mass losing its heat, and undergoing a 
 consequent decrease of bulk, is not subject only to this 
 change which brings its parts nearer to their common 
 centre, but also to many simultaneous changes. The great 
 quantity of molecular motion contained in it, giving, as we 
 have seen that it must, great molecular mobility, renders 
 every part sensitive to every incident force ; and, as a result^ 
 its parts have various motions besides that implied by their 
 progressing integration. Indeed these secondary motions 
 which we know as currents, are so important and conspicuous 
 as quite to subordinate the primary motion. Sup- 
 
SIMPLE AXD COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 297 
 
 pose that presently, the loss of molecular motion lias reached 
 that point at which the gaseous state can no longer be 
 maintained, and condensation follows. Under their more 
 closely-united form, the parts of the aggregate display, 
 to a considerable degree, the same phenomena as before. 
 The molecular motion and accompanying molecular mobility 
 implied by the liquid state, permit easy re-arrangement; 
 and hence, along with further contraction of volume, con- 
 sequent on further loss of motion, there go on rapid and 
 marked changes in the relative positions of parts local 
 streams produced by slight disturbing forces. But 
 
 now, assuming the substance to be formed of molecules that 
 have not those peculiarities leading to the sudden inte- 
 gration which we call crystallization, what happens as the 
 molecular motion further decreases ? The liquid thickens 
 its parts cease to be relatively moveable among one 
 another with ease ; and the transpositions caused by feeble 
 incident forces become comparatively slow. Little by little 
 the currents are stopped, but the mass still continues modi- 
 fiable by stronger incident forces. Gravitation makes it 
 bend or spread out when not supported on all sides ; and it 
 may easily be indented. As it cools, however, it continues 
 to grow stiffer as we say less capable of having its parts 
 changed in their relative positions. And eventually, 
 further loss of heat rendering it quite hard, its parts are 
 no longer appreciably re-arrangeable by any save violent 
 actions. 
 
 Among inorganic aggregates, then, secondary re-distribu- 
 tions accompany the primary re-distribution, throughout the 
 whole process of concentration, where this is gradual. 
 During the gaseous and liquid stages, the secondary re-dis 
 tributions, rapid and extensive as they are, leave no traces- 
 the molecular mobility being such as to negative the fixed 
 arrangement of parts we call structure. On approaching 
 solidity we arrive at a condition called plastic, in which re- 
 distributions can still be made, though much less easily; 
 
298 SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 
 
 
 and in which, being changeable less easily, they Lare a 
 certain persistence a persistence which can, however, be- 
 come decided, only where further solidification stops further 
 re-distribution. 
 
 Here we see, in the first place, what are the conditions 
 under which Evolution instead of being simple becomes 
 compound, while we see, in the second place, how the com- 
 pounding of it can be carried far only under conditions 
 more special than any hitherto contemplated ; since, on the 
 one hand, a large amount of secondary re-distribution is pos- 
 sible only where there is a great quantity of contained 
 motion, and, on the other hand, these re-distributions can 
 have permanence only where the contained motion has be- 
 come small opposing conditions which seem to negative 
 any large amount of permanent secondary re-distribution. 
 
 103. And now we are in a position to observe how these 
 apparently contradictory conditions are reconciled; and 
 how, by the reconciliation of them, permanent secondary re- 
 distributions immense in extent are made possible. We 
 shall appreciate the distinctive peculiarity of the aggregates 
 classed as organic, in which Evolution becomes so highly 
 compounded ; and shall see that this peculiarity consists in 
 the combination of matter into a form embodying an enor- 
 mous amount of motion at the same time* that it has a great 
 degree of concentration. 
 
 For notwithstanding its semi-solid consistence, organic 
 matter contains molecular motion locked up in each of the 
 ways above contemplated separately. Let us note its several 
 constitutional traits. Three out of its four chief 
 
 components are gaseous ; and in their uncombined states the 
 gases united in it have so much molecular motion that they 
 are incondensible. Hence as the characters of elements, 
 though disguised, cannot be absolutely lost in combinations, 
 it is to be inferred that the protein-molecule concentrates a 
 comparatively large amount of motion in a small space, 
 
SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 299 
 
 And since many equivalents of these gaseous elements unite 
 in one of these protein-molecules, there must be in it a large 
 quantity of relative motion in addition to that which the 
 ultimate atoms possess. Moreover, organic matter 
 
 has the peculiarity that its molecules are aggregated 
 into the colloid and not into the crystalloid arrangement ; 
 forming, as is supposed, clusters of clusters which have 
 movements in relation to one another. Here, then, 
 is a further mode in which molecular motion is in- 
 cluded. Yet again, these compounds of which 
 the essential parts of organisms are built, are nitro- 
 genous ; and we have lately seen it to be a peculiarity of 
 nitrogenous compounds, that instead of giving out heat 
 during their formation they absorb heat. To all the mole- 
 cular motion possessed by gaseous nitrogen, is added more 
 motion ; and the whole is concentrated in solid pro- 
 tein. Organic aggregates are very generally dis- 
 tinguished, too, by having much insensible motion in a 
 free state the motion we call heat. Though in many cases 
 the quantity of this contained insensible motion is incon- 
 siderable, in other cases a temperature greatly above that 
 of the environment is constantly maintained. Once 
 more, there is the still larger quantity of motion embodied by 
 the water that permeates organic matter. It is this which, 
 giving to the water its high molecular mobility, gives 
 mobility to the organic molecules partially suspended in it ; 
 and preserves that plastic condition which so greatly facili- 
 tates re-distribution. 
 
 From these several statements, no adequate idea can be 
 formed of the extent to which living organic substance is 
 thus distinguished from other substances having like sen- 
 sible forms of aggregation. But some approximation to such 
 an idea may be obtained by contrasting the bulk occupied 
 by this substance, with the bulk which its constituents would 
 occupy if uncombined. An accurate comparison cannot be 
 made in the present state of science. What expansion would 
 
300 SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUT10H. 
 
 occur if the constituents of the nitrogenous compounds could 
 be divorced without the addition of motion from without, is 
 too complex a question to be answered. But respecting 
 the constituents of that which forms some four-fifths of the 
 total weight of an ordinary animal its water a tolerably 
 definite answer can be given. Were the oxygen and hydro- 
 gen of water to lose their affinities, and were no molecular 
 motion supplied to them beyond that contained in water 
 at blood-heat, they would assume a volume twenty times that 
 of the water.* Whether protein under like conditions would 
 expand in a greater or a less degree, must remain an open 
 question ; but remembering the gaseous nature of three out 
 of its four chief components,, remembering the above- 
 named peculiarity of nitrogenous compounds, remembering 
 the high multiples and the colloidal form, we may con- 
 clude that the expansion would be great. We shall not 
 be far wrong, therefore, in saying that the elements of the 
 human body if suddenly disengaged from one another, 
 would occupy a score times the space they do : the move- 
 ments of their atoms would compel this wide diffusion. 
 Thas the essential characteristic of living organic matter, 
 is that it unites this large quantity of contained motion with 
 a degree of cohesion that permits temporary fixity of ar- 
 rangement. 
 
 104. Further proofs that the secondary re-distributions 
 which make Evolution compound, depend for their possibility 
 on the reconciliation of these conflicting conditions, are 
 yielded by comparisons of organic aggregates with one 
 another. Besides seeing that organic aggregates differ from 
 other aggregates, alike in the quantity of motion they con- 
 tain and the amount of re-arrangement of parts that accom- 
 panies their progressive integration; we shall see that among 
 
 * I am indebted for this result to Dr. Frankland, who has been good enougli 
 to have the calculation made for me. 
 
SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 30! 
 
 c aggregates themselves, differences in the quantities 
 of contained motion are accompanied by differences in the 
 amounts of re-distribution. 
 
 The contrasts among organisms in chemical composition 
 yield us the first illustration. Animals are distinguished 
 from plants by their far greater amounts of structure, as well 
 as by the far greater rapidity with which changes of struc- 
 ture go on in them; and in comparison with plants, animals 
 are at the same time conspicuous for containing immensely 
 larger proportions of those highly-compounded nitrogenous 
 molecules in which so much motion is locked up. So, too, is 
 it with the contrasts between the different parts of each 
 animal. Though certain nitrogenous parts, as cartilage, are 
 inert, yet the parts in which the secondary re-distributions 
 have gone on, and are ever going on, most actively, are those 
 in which the most highly-compounded molecules pre- 
 dominate; and parts which, like the deposits of fat, consist 
 of relatively-simple molecules, are seats of but little structure 
 and but little change. 
 
 We find clear proof, too, that the continuance of the se- 
 condary re-distributions by which organic aggregates are so 
 remarkably distinguished, depends on the presence of that 
 motion contained in the water diffused through them; 
 and that, other things equal, there is a direct relation be- 
 tween the amount of re-distribution and the amount of 
 contained water. The evidences may be put in three 
 groups. There is the familiar fact that a plant has 
 
 its formative changes arrested by cutting off the supply of 
 water: the primary re-distribution continues it withers and 
 shrinks or becomes more integrated but the secondary re- 
 distributions cease. There is the less familiar, but no less 
 certain, fact, that the like result occurs in animals occurs, 
 indeed, as might be expected, after a relatively smaller di- 
 minution of water. Certain of the lower animals furnish ad- 
 ditional proofs. The Rotifer a may be rendered apparently 
 lifeless by desiccation, and will yet revive" if wetted. When 
 
802 SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 
 
 
 fclie African rivers which it inhabits are dried up, the Lepido* 
 siren remains torpid in the hardened mud, until the return 
 of the rainy season brings water. Humboldt states that 
 during the summer drought, the alligators of the Pampas 
 lie buried in a state of suspended animation beneath the 
 parched surface, and struggle up out of the earth as soon as 
 it becomes humid. The history of each organism 
 
 teaches us the same thing. The young plant, just putting 
 its head above the soil, is far more succulent than the adult 
 plant; and the amount of transformation going on in it is 
 relatively much greater. In that portion of an egg which 
 displays the formative processes during the early stages of 
 incubation, the changes of arrangement are more rapid than 
 those which an equal portion of the body of a hatched chick 
 undergoes. As may be inferred from their respective powers 
 to acquire habits and aptitudes, the structural modifiability 
 of a child is greater than that of an adult man; and the 
 structural modifiability of an adult man is greater than that 
 of an old man: contrasts which are accompanied by corre- 
 sponding contrasts in the densities of the tissues; since the 
 ratio of water to solid matter diminishes with advancing 
 age. And then we have this relation repeated in 
 
 the contrasts between parts of the same organism. In a 
 tree, rapid structural changes go on at the ends of shoots, 
 where the ratio of water to solid matter is very great; while 
 the changes are very slow in the dense and almost dry sub- 
 stance of the trunk. Similarly in animals, we have the con- 
 trast between the high rate of change going on in a soft 
 tissue like the brain, and the low rate of change going on 
 in dry non- vascular tissues, such as those which form, hairs, 
 nails, horns, &c. 
 
 Other groups of facts prove, in an equally unmistake- 
 able way, that the quantity of secondary re-distribution in an 
 organism varies, cceteris paribus, according to the contained 
 quantity of the motion we call heat. The contrasts between 
 different organisms, and different states of the same organism, 
 
SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. J03 
 
 unite in snowing this. Speaking generally, tho 
 
 amounts of structure and rates of structural change, are 
 smaller throughout the vegetal kingdom than throughout 
 the animal kingdom; and, speaking generally, the heat of 
 plants is less than the heat of animals. A comparison of the 
 several divisions of the animal kingdom with one another, dis- 
 closes among them parallel relations. Eegarded as a whole, 
 vertebrate animals are higher in temperature than inverte- 
 brate ones; and they are as a whole higher in organic ac- 
 tivity and complexity. Between subdivisions of the ver- 
 tebrata themselves, like differences in the state of molecular 
 vibration, accompany like differences in the degree of evo- 
 lution. The least compounded of the Vertebrata are the 
 fishes; and in most cases, the heat of fishes is nearly the same 
 as that of the water in which they swim : only some of them 
 being decidedly warmer. Though we habitually speak of 
 reptiles as cold-blooded; and though they have not much 
 more power than fishes of maintaining a temperature above 
 that of their medium; yet since their medium (which is, in 
 the majority of cases, the air of warm climates) is on the 
 average warmer than the medium inhabited by fishes, the 
 temperature of the class of reptiles is higher than that of the 
 class of fishes; and we see in them a correspondingly higher 
 complexity. The much more active molecular agitation in 
 mammals and birds, is associated with a considerably greater 
 multiformity of structure and a very far greater vi- 
 vacity. The most instructive contrasts, however, 
 are those occurring in the same organic aggregates at 
 different temperatures. Plants exhibit structural changes 
 that vary in rate as the temperature varies. Though light 
 is the agent which effects those molecular changes causing 
 vegetal growth, yet we see that in the absence of heat, such 
 changes are not effected: in winter there is enough light, 
 bulrthe heat being insufficient, plant-life is suspended. That 
 this is the sole cause of the suspension, is proved by the fact 
 that at the same season, plants contained in hot-houses. 
 
304 SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 
 
 where they receive oven a smaller amount of light, go on 
 producing leaves and flowers. We see, too, that their 
 seeds, to which light is not simply needless but detrimental, 
 begin to germinate only when the return of a warm season 
 raises the rate of molecular agitation. In like manner the 
 ova of animals, undergoing those changes by which struc- 
 ture is produced in them, must be kept more or less warm: 
 in the absence of a certain amount of motion among their 
 molecules, the re-arrangement of parts does not go on. Hy- 
 bernating animals also supply proof that loss of heat carried 
 far, retards extremely the processes of transformation. In 
 animals which do not hybernate, as in man, prolonged ex- 
 posure to intense cold produces an irresistible tendency to 
 sleep (which implies a lowered rate of structural and func- 
 tional changes) ; and if the abstraction of heat continues, 
 this sleep ends in death, or stoppage of these changes. 
 
 Here, then, is an accumulation of proofs, general and 
 special. Living aggregates are distinguished by the con- 
 nected facts, that during integration they undergo very 
 remarkable secondary changes which other aggregates do 
 not undergo to any considerable extent ; and that they 
 contain (bulks being supposed equal) immensely greater 
 quantities of motion, locked up in various ways. 
 
 105. The last chapter closed with the remark that 
 while Evolution is always an integration of Matter and dis- 
 sipation of Motion, it is in most cases much more. And 
 this chapter opened by briefly specifying the conditions 
 under which Evolution is integrative only, or remains 
 simple, and the conditions under which it is something 
 further than integrative, or becomes compound. In illus- 
 trating this contrast between simple and compound Evolu- 
 tion, and in explaining how the contrast arises, a vaguo 
 idea of Evolution in general has been conveyed. Unavoid- 
 ably, we have to some extent forestalled the full discussion 
 of Evolution about to be commenced. 
 
SIMPLE AND COMPOUND EVOLUTION. 305 
 
 There is nothing in this to regret. A preliminary con- 
 ception, indefinite but comprehensive, is always useful as an 
 introduction to a complete conception cannot, indeed, be 
 dispensed with. A complex idea is not communicable 
 directly, by giving one after another its component parts 
 in their finished forms; since if no outline pre-exists in 
 the mind of the recipient, these component parts will not 
 be rightly combined. The intended combination can be 
 made only when the recipient has discovered for himself 
 how vhe components are to be arranged. Much labour has 
 to be gone through which would have been saved had a 
 general notion, however cloudy, been conveyed before the 
 distinct and detailed delineation was commenced. 
 
 That which the reader has incidentally gathered respect- 
 ing the nature of Evolution from the foregoing sections, he 
 may thus advantageously use as a rude sketch, enabling him 
 to seize the relations among the several parts of the enlarged 
 picture as they are worked out before him. He will con- 
 stantly bear in mind that the total history of every sensible 
 existence is included in its Evolution and Dissolution; 
 which last process we leave for the present out of considera- 
 tion. He will remember that whatever aspect of it we are 
 for the moment considering, Evolution is always to be re- 
 garded as fundamentally an integration of Matter and dis- 
 sipation of Motion, which may be, and usually is, accom- 
 panied incidentally by other transformations of Matter and 
 Motion. And he will everywhere expect to find that the 
 primary re-distribution ends in forming aggregates which 
 are simple where it is rapid, but which become compound in 
 proportion as its slowness allows the effects of secondary 
 re-distributions to accumulate. 
 
 106. There is much difficulty in tracing ont trans- 
 formations so vast, so varied, and so intricate as those 
 now to be entered upon. Besides having to deal with 
 concrete phenomena of all orders, we have to deal with 
 
306 SIMPLE AND COM.OUND EVOLUTION. 
 
 each group of phenomena under several aspects, no one 
 of which can be fully understood apart from the rest and no 
 one of which can be studied simultaneously with the rest. 
 Already we have seen that during Evolution two great 
 classes of changes are going on together ; and we shall pre- 
 sently see that the second of these great classes is re-divi- 
 sible. Entangled with one another as all these changes 
 are, explanation of any one class or order involves direct or 
 indirect reference to others not yet explained. We have 
 nothing for it but to make the best practicable compromise. 
 
 It will be most convenient to devote the next chapter to 
 a detailed account of Evolution under its primary aspect ; 
 tacitly recognizing its secondary aspects only so far as the 
 exposition necessitates. 
 
 The succeeding two chapters, occupied exclusively with 
 the secondary re-distributions, will make no reference to the 
 primary re- distribution beyond that which is unavoidable : 
 each being also limited to one particular trait of the se- 
 condary re-distributions. 
 
 In a further chapter will be treated a third, and still more 
 distinct, character of the secondary re-distributions. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 
 
 $ 107. Deduction has now to be verified by induction. 
 Thus far the argument has been that all sensible existences 
 must, in some way or other and at some time or other, reach 
 their concrete shapes through processes of concentration; 
 and such facts as have been named have been named merely 
 to clarify the perception of this necessity. But we cannot 
 be said to ha*ve arrived at that unified knowledge consti- 
 tuting Philosophy, until we have seen how existences of all 
 orders do exhibit a progressive integration of Matter and 
 concomitant loss of Motion. Tracing, so far as we may by 
 observation and inference, the objects dealt with by the 
 Astronomer and the Geologist, as well as those which Bio- 
 logy, Psychology and Sociology treat of, we have to con- 
 sider what direct proof there is that the Cosmos, in general 
 and in detail, conforms to this law. 
 
 In doing this, manifestations of the law more involved 
 than those hitherto indicated, will chiefly occupy us. 
 Throughout the classes of facts successively contemplated, 
 our attention will be directed not so much to the truth that 
 every aggregate has undergone, or is undergoing, inte- 
 gration, as to the further truth that in every more or less 
 separate part of every aggregate, integration has been, 
 or is, in progress. Instead of simple wholes and wholes 
 of which the complexity has been ignored, we have 
 
808 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 
 
 
 here to deal with wholes as they actually exist mostly 
 made up of many members combined in many ways. And 
 in them we shall have to trace the transformation as dis- 
 played under several forms a passage of the total mass 
 from a more diffused to a more consolidated state; a con- 
 current similar passage in every portion of it that comes to 
 have a distinguishable individuality; and a simultaneous 
 increase of combination among such individuated portions. 
 
 108. Our Sidereal System by its general form, by its 
 clusters of stars of all degrees of closeness, and by its 
 nebulae in all stages of condensation, gives us grounds to 
 suspect that, generally and locally, concentration is going 
 on. Assume that its matter has been, and still is being, 
 drawn together by gravitation, and we have an explanation 
 of all its leading traits of structure from its solidified 
 masses up to its collections of attenuated flocculi barely 
 discernible by the most powerful telescopes, fr.om its double 
 stars up to such complex aggregates as the nubeculas. 
 Without dwelling on this evidence, however, let us pass to 
 the case of the Solar System. 
 
 The belief, for which there are so many reasons, that this 
 has had a nebular genesis, is the belief that it has arisen by 
 the integration of matter and concomitant loss of motion. 
 Evolution, under its primary aspect, is illustrated most 
 simply and clearly by this passage of the Solar System from 
 a widely diffused incoherent state to a consolidated coherent 
 state. While, according to the nebular hypothesis, 
 
 there has been going on this gradual concentration of the 
 Solar System as an aggregate, there has been a simulta- 
 neous concentration of each partially-independent member. 
 The substance of every planet in passing through its stages 
 of nebulous ring, gaseous spheroid, liquid spheroid, and 
 spheroid externally solidified, has in essentials paralleled the 
 changes gone through by the general mass; and every 
 satellite has done the like. Moreover, at the samp 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 309 
 
 time that the matter of the whole, as well as the matter of 
 each partially-independent part, has been thus integrating, 
 there has been the further integration implied by increas- 
 ing combination among the parts. The satellites of each 
 planet are linked with their primary into a balanced cluster; 
 while the planets and their satellites form with the Sun, a 
 compound group of which the members are more strongly 
 bound up with one another than were the far-spread por- 
 tions of the nebulous medium out of which they arose. 
 
 Even apart from the nebular hypothesis, the Solar System 
 furnishes evidence having a like general meaning. Not to 
 make much of the meteoric matter perpetually being added 
 to tho mass of the Earth, and probably to the masses of 
 other planets, as well as, in larger quantities, to the mass of 
 the Sun, it will suffice to name two generally-admitted 
 instances. The one is the appreciable retardation of comets 
 by the ethereal medium, and the inferred retardation of 
 planets a process which, in time, must bring comets, and 
 eventually planets, into the Sun. The other is the Sun's 
 still-continued loss of motion in the shape of radiated heat ; 
 accompanying the still-continued integration of his mass. 
 
 109. To geologic evolution we pass without break from 
 the evolution which, for convenience, we separate as astro- 
 nomic. The history of the Earth, as traced out from the 
 structure of its crust, carries us back to that molten state 
 which the nebular hypothesis implies j and, as before pointed 
 out ( 69), the changes classed as igneous are the accom- 
 paniments of the progressing consolidation of the Earth's 
 substance and accompanying loss of its contained motion. 
 Both the general and the local effects may be briefly exem- 
 plified. 
 
 Leaving behind the period when the more volatile 
 
 elements now existing as solids were kept by the high 
 
 temperature in a gaseous form, we may begin with the fact 
 
 that until the Earth's surface had cooled down below 212, 
 
 15 
 
310 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 
 
 the vast mass of water at present covering three-fifths of it, 
 must have existed as vapour. This enormous volume of 
 disintegrated liquid became integrated as fast as the dissi- 
 pation of the Earth's contained motion allowed ; leaving, at 
 length, a comparatively small portion unintegrated, which 
 would be far smaller but for the unceasing absorption of 
 molecular motion from the Sun. In the formation 
 
 of the Earth's crust we have a similar change similarly 
 caused. The passage from a thin solid film, everywhere 
 fissured and moveable on the subjacent molten matter, to a 
 crust so thick and strong as to be but now and then very 
 slightly dislocated by disturbing forces, illustrates the pro- 
 cess. And while, in this superficial solidification, WP see 
 under one form how concentration accompanies loss of co^- 
 tained motion, we see it under another form in that 
 diminution of the Earth's bulk implied by superficial 
 corrugation. 
 
 Local or secondary integrations have advanced along 
 with this general integration. A molten spheroid merely 
 skinned over with solid matter, could have presented nothing 
 beyond small patches of land and water. Differences of 
 elevation great enough to form islands of considerable size, 
 imply a crust of some rigidity ; and only as the crust grew 
 thick could the land be united into continents divided by 
 oceans. So, too, with the more striking elevations. The 
 collapse of a thin crust round its cooling and contracting 
 contents, would throw it into low ridges : it must have 
 acquired a relatively great depth and strength before ex- 
 tensive mountain systems of vast elevation became pos- 
 sible. In sedimentary changes, also, a like pro- 
 gress is inferable. Denudation acting on the small surfaces 
 exposed during early stages, would produce but small local 
 deposits. The collection of detritus into strata of great 
 extent, and the union of such strata into extensive 
 " systems/' imply wide surfaces of land and water, as well 
 its subsidences great, in both area and depth; whence it 
 
THE LA.W OF EVOLUTION. 311 
 
 follows that integrations of this order must have grown 
 more pronounced as the Earth's crust thickened. 
 
 110. Already we have recognized the fact that 
 organic evolution is primarily the formation of an aggre- 
 gate, by the continued incorporation of matter previously 
 spread through a wider space. Merely reminding the 
 reader that every plant grows by concentrating in itself 
 elements that were before diffused as gases, and that every 
 animal grows by re-concentrating these elements previously 
 dispersed in surrounding plants and animals ; it will be 
 here proper to complete the conception by pointing out that 
 the early history of a plant or animal, still more clearly than 
 its later history, shows us this fundamental process. For the 
 microscopic germ of each organism undergoes, for a long 
 time, no other change than that implied by absorption of 
 nutriment. Cells imbedded in the stroma of an ovarium, 
 become ova by little else than continued growth at the 
 expense of adjacent materials. And when, after fertilization, 
 a more active evolution commences, its most conspicuous 
 trait is the drawing-in, to a germinal centre, of the substance 
 which the ovum contains. 
 
 Here, however, our attention must be directed mainly to 
 the secondary integrations which habitually accompany tho 
 primary integration. We have to observe how, along with 
 the formation of a larger mass of matter, there goes on a 
 drawing together and consolidation of the matter into 
 parts, as well as an increasingly-intimate combination of 
 parts. In the mammalian embryo, the heart, at 
 
 first a long pulsating blood-vessel, by and by twists upon itself 
 and integrates. The bile-cells constituting the rudimentary 
 liver, do not simply become different from the wall of tho 
 intestine in which they at first lie; but, as they accumulate, 
 they simultaneously diverge from it and consolidate into ai> 
 organ. The anterior segments of the cerebro-spinal axis, 
 which are at first continuous with the rest, and distinguished 
 
312 THL LAW OP EVOLUTION. 
 
 only by their larger size, undergo a gradual union ; and at 
 the same time the resulting head folds into a mass clearly 
 marked off from the rest of the vertebral column. The like 
 process, variously exemplified in other organs, is meanwhile 
 exhibited by the body as a whole ; which becomes integrated 
 somewhat in the same way that an outspread handkerchief 
 and its contents become integrated when its edges are drawn 
 in and fastened to make a bundle. Analogous 
 
 changes go on long after birth, and continue even up to 
 old age. In man, that solidification of the bony frame- 
 work which, during childhood, is seen in the coales- 
 cence of portions of the same bone ossified from diffe- 
 rent centres, is afterwards seen in the coalescence of bones 
 that were originally distinct. The appendages of tho 
 vertebrae unite with the vertebral centres to which they be- 
 long a change not completed until towards thirty. At the 
 same time the epiphyses, formed separately from the main 
 bodies of their respective bones, have their cartilaginous 
 connexions turned into osseous ones are fused to the masses 
 beneath them. The component vertebras of the sacrum, 
 which remain separate till about the sixteenth year, then 
 begin to unite ; and in ten or a dozen years more their union 
 is complete. Still later occurs the coalescence of the coccy- 
 geal vertebrae ; and there are some other bony unions which 
 remain unfinished unless advanced age is reached. To 
 which add that the increase of density and toughness, going 
 on throughout the tissues in general during life, is the for- 
 mation of a more highly integrated substance. 
 
 The species of change thus illustrated under several 
 aspects in the unfolding human body, may be traced in all 
 animals. That mode of it which consists in the union of 
 similar parts originally separate, has been described by 
 Milne-Edwards and others, as exhibited in various of the 
 Invertelrata ; though it does not seem to have been in- 
 cluded by them as an essential peculiarity in the process of 
 organic development. We shall, however, see clearly that 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTIOH. 313 
 
 local integration is an all-important part of this process, 
 when we find it displayed not only in the successive stages 
 passed through by every embryo, but also in ascending from 
 the lower creatures to the higher. As manifested in either 
 way, it goes on both longitudinally and transversely : under 
 which different forms we may, indeed, most conveniently 
 consider it. Of longitudinal integration, the 
 
 sub-kingdom Annulosa supplies abundant examples. Its 
 lower members, such as worms and myriapods, are mostly 
 characterized by the great number of segments composing 
 them ; reaching in some cases to several hundreds. But in 
 the higher divisions crustaceans, insects, and spiders we 
 find this number reduced down to twenty-two, thirteen, or 
 even fewer ; while, accompanying the reduction, there is a 
 shortening or integration of the whole body, reaching its 
 extreme in the crab and the spider. The significance of 
 these contrasts, as bearing on the general doctrine of 
 Evolution, will be seen when it is pointed out that they are 
 parallel to those which arise during the development of 
 individual annulose animals. In the lobster, the head and 
 thorax form one compact box, made by the union of a num- 
 ber of segments which in the embryo were separable. Simi- 
 larly, the butterfly shows us segments so much more closely 
 united than they were in the caterpillar, as to be, some of 
 them, no longer distinguishable from one another. The 
 Vertebrata again, throughout their successively higher classes, 
 furnish like instances of longitudinal union. In most fishes, 
 and in reptiles that have no limbs, none of the vertebrae 
 coalesce. In most mammals and in birds, a variable num 
 ber of vertebrae become fused together to form the sacrum ; 
 and in the higher apes and in man, the caudal vertebra9 
 also lose their separate individualities in a single os 
 coccygie. That which we may distinguish as trans- 
 
 verse integration, is well illustrated among the Annulosa in 
 the development of the nervous system. Leaving out those 
 most degraded forms which do not present distinct ganglia, 
 
314 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 
 
 it is to be observed that the lower annulose animals, in com- 
 mon with the larvae of the higher, are severally characterized 
 by a double chain of ganglia running from end to end oi 
 the body ; while in the more perfectly-formed annulose 
 animals, this double chain becomes united into a single 
 chain. Mr. Newport has described the course of this con- 
 centration as exhibited in insects ; and by E/athke it has been 
 traced in crustaceans. During the early stages of the 
 Astacus fluviatilis, or Common cray-fish, there is a pair of 
 separate ganglia to each ring. Of the fourteen pairs be- 
 longing to the head and thorax, the three pairs in advance 
 of the mouth consolidate into one mass to form the brain, or 
 cephalic ganglion. Meanwhile, out of the remainder, the 
 first six pairs severally unite in the median line, while the 
 rest remain more or less separate. Of these six double 
 ganglia thus formed, the anterior four coalesce into one 
 mass; the remaining two coalesce into another mass; and then 
 these two masses coalesce into one. Here we see longitudi- 
 nal and transverse integration going on simultaneously; and 
 in the highest crustaceans they are both carried still fur- 
 ther. The Vertebrata clearly exhibit transverse integration 
 in the development of the generative system. The lowest, 
 mammals the Monotremata "in common with birds , to which 
 they are in many respects allied, have oviducts which to- 
 wards their lower extremities are dilated into cavities, sever- 
 ally performing in an imperfect way the function of a u terns. 
 t In the Marsupialia there is a closer approximation of the 
 two lateral sets of organs on the median line ; for the ovi- 
 ducts converge towards one another and meet (without 
 coalescing) on the median line ; so that their uterine dilata- 
 tions are in contact with each other, forming a true ' double 
 uterus/ . . . As we ascend the series of ' placental ' mam- 
 mala, we find the lateral coalescence becoming more and 
 more complete. ... In many of the Rodentia the uterua 
 still remains completely divided into two lateral halves; 
 whilst in others these coalesce at their lower portions, form- 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 815 
 
 ing a rudiment of the true 'body* of the uterus in the 
 human subject. This part increases at the expense of the 
 lateral ' cornua ' in the higher herbivora and carnivora; but 
 even in the lower quadrumana the uterus is somewhat cleft 
 at its summit."* 
 
 Under the head of organic integrations, there remain to 
 be noted some which do not occur within the limits of one 
 organism, and which only in an indirect way involve con- 
 centration of matter and dissipation of motion. These are 
 the integrations by which organisms are made dependent on 
 one another. We may set down two kinds of them those 
 which occur within the same species, and those which occur 
 among different species. More or less of the gre- 
 
 garious tendency is general in animals; and when it is 
 marked, there is, in addition to simple aggregation, a certain 
 degree of combination. Creatures that hunt in packs, or 
 that have sentinels, or that are governed by leaders, form 
 bodies partially united by co-operation. Among polygamous 
 mammals and birds this mutual dependence is closer ; and 
 the social insects show us assemblages of individuals of a 
 still more consolidated character: some of them having 
 carried the consolidation so far that the individuals cannot 
 exist if separated. How organisms in general are 
 
 mutually dependent, and in that sense integrated, we shall 
 see on remembering first, that while all animals live 
 directly or indirectly on plants, plants live on the carbonic 
 acid excreted by animals ; second, that among animals the 
 flesh-eaters cannot exist without the plant-eaters; third, 
 that a large proportion of plants can continue their respec- 
 tive races only by the help of insects, and that in many 
 cases particular plants need particular insects. Without 
 detailing the more complex connexions, which Mr. Darwin 
 has so beautifully illustrated, it will suffice to say that the 
 Flora and Fauna in each habitat, constitute an aggregate 
 
 Carpenter's Prin. of Comp. Phy., p. 617. 
 
316 - THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 
 
 so far integrated that many of its species die out if placed 
 amid the plants and animals of another habitat. And it- 
 is to be remarked that this integration, too, increases as 
 organic evolution progresses. 
 
 111. The phenomena set down in the foregoing para- 
 graph are introductory to others of a higher order, with 
 which they ought, perhaps, in strictness, to be grouped 
 phenomena which, for want of a better word, we may term 
 super-organic. Inorganic bodies present us with certain 
 facts. Certain other facts, mostly of a more involved kind, 
 are presented by organic bodies. There remain yet further 
 facts, not presented by any organic body taken singly ; but 
 which result from the actions of aggregated organic bodies 
 on one another and on inorganic bodies. Though pheno- 
 mena of this order are, as we see, foreshadowed among in- 
 ferior organisms, they become so extremely conspicuous in 
 mankind as socially united, that practically we may consider 
 them to commence here. 
 
 In the social organism integrative changes are clearly and 
 abundantly exemplified. Uncivilized societies display them 
 when wandering families, such as we see among Bushmen,, 
 join into tribes of considerable numbers. A further pro- 
 gress of like nature is everywhere manifested in the subju- 
 gation of weaker tribes by stronger ones ; and in the sub- 
 ordination of their respective chiefs to the conquering chief. 
 The combinations thus resulting, which, among aboriginal 
 races, are being continually formed and continually broken 
 up, become, among superior races, relatively permanent. If 
 we trace the stages through which our own society, or any 
 adjacent one, has passed, we see this unification from time 
 to time repeated on a larger scale and gaining in stability. 
 The aggregation of juniors and the children of juniors under 
 elders and the children of elders ; the consequent establish- 
 ment of groups of vassals bound to their respective nobles j 
 the subsequent subordination of groups of inferior noblea 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 317 
 
 to dukes or earls ; and the still later growth of the kingly 
 power over dukes and earls ; are so many instances of in 
 creasing consolidation. This process through which petty 
 tenures are aggregated in feuds, feuds into provinces, pro- 
 vinces into kingdoms, and finally contiguous kingdoms into 
 a single one, slowly completes itself by destroying the ori- 
 ginal lines of demarcation. And it may be further remarked 
 of the European nations as a whole, that in the tendency to 
 form alliances more or less lasting, in the restraining influ- 
 ences exercised by the several governments over one another, 
 in the system, now becoming customary, of settling inter- 
 national disputes by congresses, as well as in the breaking 
 down of commercial barriers and the increasing facilities of 
 communication, we may trace the beginnings of a European 
 federation a still larger integration than any now esta- 
 blished. 
 
 But it is not only in these external unions of groups with 
 groups, and of the compound groups with one another, that 
 the general law is exemplified. It is exemplified also in 
 unions that take place internally, as the groups become 
 more highly organized. There are two orders of these, 
 which may be broadly distinguished as regulative and 
 operative. A civilized society is made unlike a 
 
 barbarous one by the establishment of regulative classes 
 governmental, administrative, military, ecclesiastical, legal, 
 &c., which, while they have their several special bonds of 
 union, constituting them sub-classes, are also held together 
 as a general class by a certain community of privileges, 
 of blood, of education, of intercourse. In some societies, 
 fully developed after their particular types, this con- 
 solidation into castes, and this union among the upper 
 castes by separation from the lower, eventually grow 
 very decided: to be afterwards rendered less decided, 
 only in cases of social metamorphosis caused by the in- 
 dustrial regime. The integrations that accompany 
 the operative or industrial organization, later in origin, 
 
318 THE I AW OP EVOLUTION. 
 
 are not merely of this indirect kind, but they are also direct 
 they show us physical approach. We have integrations 
 consequent on the simple growth of adjacent parts perform- 
 ing like functions ; as, for instance, the junction of Man- 
 chester with its calico-weaving suburbs. We have othei 
 integrations that arise when, out of several places producing 
 a particular commodity, one monopolizing more and more of 
 the business, draws to it masters and workers, and leaves 
 the other places to dwindle ; as witness the growth of the 
 Yorkshire cloth-districts at the expense of those in the West 
 of England ; or the absorption by Staffordshire of the pot- 
 tery-manufacture, and the consequent decay of the ekia- 
 blishments that once flourished at Derby and elsewhere. 
 We have those more special integrations that arise within 
 the same city ; whence result the concentration of publishers 
 in Paternoster Row, of corn-merchants about Mark Lane, of 
 civil engineers in Great George Street, of bankers in the centre 
 of the city. Industrial combinations that consist, not in the 
 approximation or fusion of parts, but in the establishment 
 of common centres of connexion, are exhibited in the Bank 
 clearing-house and the Railway clearing-house. While of 
 yet another species are those unions which bring into rela- 
 tion, the more or less dispersed citizens who are occupied in 
 like ways ; as traders are brought by the Exchange, and as 
 are professional men by institutes like those of Civil Engi- 
 neers, Architects, &c. 
 
 At first sight these seem to be the last of our instances. 
 Having followed up the general law to social aggregates, 
 there apparently remain no other aggregates to which it can 
 apply. This however is not true. Among what we have 
 above distinguished as super-organic phenomena, we shall 
 find sundry groups of very remarkable and interesting 
 illustrations. Though evolution of the various products of 
 human activities cannot be said directly to exemplify the 
 integration of matter and dissipation of motion, yet they 
 exemplify it indirectly. For the progress of Language, of 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION. 819 
 
 Science, and of the Arts, industrial and aasthetic, is an ob- 
 jective register of subjective changes. Alterations of struc- 
 ture in human beings, and concomitant alterations of struc- 
 ture in aggregates of human beings, jointly produce corre- 
 sponding alterations of structure in all those things which 
 humanity creates. As in the changed impress on the wax, 
 we read a change in the seal ; so in the integrations of ad- 
 vancing Language, Science, and Art, we see reflected cer- 
 tain integrations of advancing human structure, individual 
 and social. A section must be devoted to each group. 
 
 112. Among uncivilized races, the many-syllabled names 
 used for not uncommon objects, as well as the descriptive 
 character of proper names, show us that the words used 
 for the less-familiar things are formed by compounding 
 the words used for the more-familiar things. This process 
 of composition is sometimes found in its incipient stage a 
 stage in which the component words are temporarily united 
 to signify some un-named object, and, from lack of frequent 
 use, do not permanently cohere. But in the majority of 
 inferior languages, the process of " agglutination/' as it 
 is called, has gone far enough to produce considerable 
 stability in the compound words : there is a manifest inte- 
 gration. How small is the degree of this integration, how- 
 ever, when compared with that reached in well- developed 
 languages, is shown both by the great length of the compound 
 words used for things and acts of constant occurrence, and 
 by the separableness of their elements. Certain North- 
 American tongues illustrate this very well. In a Ricaree 
 vocabulary extending to fifty names of common objects, 
 which in English are nearly all expressed by single syllables, 
 there is not one monosyllabic word ; and in the nearly-allied 
 vocabulary of the Pawnees, the names for these same com- 
 mon objects are monosyllabic in but two instances. Things 
 so familiar to these hunting tribes as dog and bow, are, in 
 the Pawnee language, aslialdsh and teeragish ; the hand and 
 
320 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 
 
 the eyes are respectively iJcsheeree and JcecreeJtoo ; for day the 
 term is shakoorooeeshairet, and for devil it is tsaheelcshJcakoo" 
 raiwah ; while the numerals are composed of from two syl- 
 lables up to five, and in Eicaree up to seven. That 
 the great length of these familiar words implies a low degree 
 of development, and that in the formation of higher lan- 
 guages out of lower there is a progressive integration, which 
 reduces the polysyllables to dissyllables and monosyllables, 
 is an inference confirmed by the history of our own language. 
 Anglo-Saxon steorra has been in course of time consolidated 
 into English star, mona into moon, and nama into name. 
 The transition through the intermediate semi-Saxon is clearly 
 traceable. Sunu became in semi- Saxon sune, and in Eng- 
 lish son : the final e of sune being an evanescent form of the 
 original u. The change from the Anglo-Saxon plural, formed 
 by the distinct syllable as, to our plural formed by the appended 
 consonant s, shows us the same thing : smithas in becom- 
 ing smiths, and endas in becoming ends, illustrate pro- 
 gressive coalescence. So, too, does the disappearance of the 
 terminal an in the infinitive mood of verbs ; as shown in the 
 transition from the Anglo-Saxon cuman to the semi- Saxon 
 cumme, and to the English come. Moreover the process has 
 been slowly going on, even since what we distinguish as Eng- 
 lish was formed. In Elizabeth's time, verbs were still very 
 frequently pluralized by the addition of en we tell was we 
 tellen; and in some rural districts this form of speech may 
 even now be heard. In like manner the terminal ed of the 
 past tense, has united with the word it modifies. Burn-ed 
 has in pronunciation become burnt; and even in writing the 
 terminal t has in some cases taken the place of the ed. Only 
 where antique forms in general are adhered to, as in the 
 church-service, is the distinctness of this inflection still 
 maintained. Further, we see that the compound vowels have 
 been in many cases fused into single vowels. That in bread 
 the e and a were originally both sounded, is proved by the 
 fact that they are still so sounded in parts where old habita 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION. 821 
 
 linger. We, however, have contracted the pronunciation 
 into bred; and we have made like changes in many other 
 common words. Lastly, let it be noted that where the fre- 
 quency of repetition is greatest, the process is carried 
 furthest; as instance the contraction of lord (originally 
 la ford) into lud in the mouths of Barristers; and, still better, 
 the coalescence of God be with you into Good bye. 
 
 Besides exhibiting in this way the integrative process, 
 Language equally exhibits it throughout all grammatical 
 development. The lowest kinds of human speech, having 
 merely nouns and verbs without inflections to them, mani- 
 festly permit no such close union of the elements of a pro- 
 position as results when the relations are marked either by 
 inflections or by connective words. Such speech is neces- 
 sarily what we significantly call " incoherent." To a con- 
 siderable extent, incoherence is seen in the Chinese language. 
 " If, instead of saying I go to London, figs come from Turkey, 
 the sun shines through the air, we said, I go end London, 
 figs come origin Turkey, the sun shines passage air, we should 
 discourse after the manner of the Chinese/ 1 From this 
 " aptotic" form, there is clear evidence of a transition, by 
 coalescence, to a form in which the connexions of words are 
 expressed by the addition to them of certain inflectional words. 
 "In Languages like the Chinese," remarks Dr. Latham, "the 
 separate words most in use to express relation may become 
 adjuncts or annexes." To this he adds the fact that " the 
 numerous inflexional languages fall into two classes. In one, 
 the inflexions have no appearance of having been separate 
 words. In the other, their origin as separate words is de- 
 monstrable." From which the inference drawn is, that the 
 " aptotic" languages, by the more and more constant use 
 of adjuncts, gave rise to the " agglutinate " languages, or 
 those in which the original separateness of the inflexional 
 parts can be traced ; and that out of these, by further use, 
 arose the " amalgamate " languages, or those in which the 
 original separateness of the inflexional parts can uo longer 
 
322 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION. 
 
 be traced. Strongly corroborative of this inference 
 
 is the unquestionable fact, that by such a process there have 
 grown out of the amalgamate languages,, the " anaptotic " 
 languages ; of which our own is the most perfect example 
 languages in which, by further consolidation, inflexions 
 have almost disappeared, while, to express the verbal rela- 
 tions, certain new kinds of words have been developed. 
 When we see the Anglo-Saxon inflexions gradually lost by 
 contraction during the development of English, and, though 
 to a less degree; the Latin inflexions dwindling away during 
 the development of French, we cannot deny that grammati- 
 cal structure is modified by integration ; and seeing how 
 clearly the earlier stages of grammatical structure are ex- 
 plained by it, we can scarcely doubt that it has been going 
 on from the first. 
 
 In proportion to the degree of this integration, is the 
 extent to which integration of another order is carried. 
 Aptotic languages are, as already pointed out, necessarily 
 incoherent the elements of a proposition cannot be com- 
 pletely tied into a whole. But as fast as coalescence pro- 
 duces inflected words, it becomes possible to unite them 
 into sentences of which the parts are so mutually dependent 
 that no considerable change can be made without destroying 
 tlie meaning. Yet a further stage in this process may be 
 noted. After the development of those grammatical forms 
 which make definite statements possible, we do not at first 
 find them used to express anything beyond statements of a 
 simple kind. A single subject with a single predicate, ac- 
 companied by but few qualifying terms, are usually all. If 
 we compare, for instance, the Hebrew scriptures with writ- 
 ings of modern times, a marked difference of aggregation 
 among the groups of words, is visible. In the number of 
 subordinate propositions which accompany the principal 
 one; in the various complements to subjects and predicates; 
 and in the numerous qualifying clauses all of them united 
 into one complex whole many sentences in modern com* 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 323 
 
 positions exhibit a degree of integration not to be found in 
 ancient ones. 
 
 113, The history of Science presents facts of the same 
 meaning at every step. Indeed the integration of groups 
 of like entities and like relations, may be said to constitute 
 the most conspicuous part of scientific progress. A glance 
 at the classificatory sciences, shows us that the confused 
 incoherent aggregations which the vulgar make of natural 
 objects, are gradually rendered complete and compact, and 
 bound up into groups within groups. While, instead of 
 considering all marine creatures as fish, shell-fish, and jelly- 
 fish, Zoology establishes divisions and sub-divisions under 
 the heads Vertebrata, Annulosa, Mollusca, &c. ; and while, 
 in place of the wide and vague assemblage popularly de- 
 scribed as " creeping things," it makes the specific classes 
 Annelida, Nyriopoda, Insecta, Arachnida; it simultaneously 
 gives to these an increasing consolidation. The several 
 orders and genera of which each consists, are arranged ac- 
 cording to their affinities and tied together under common 
 definitions ; at the same time that, by extended observation 
 and rigorous criticism, the previously unknown and un- 
 determined forms are integrated with their respective con- 
 geners. Nor is the process less clearly manifested 
 in those sciences which have for their subject-matter, not 
 classified objects but classified relations. Under one of its 
 chief aspects, scientific advance is the advance of generaliza- 
 tion ; and generalizing is uniting into groups all like co- 
 existencies and sequences among phenomena. The colliga- 
 tion of many concrete relations into a generalization of 
 the lowest order, exemplifies this principle in its simplest 
 form ; and it is again exemplified in a more complex form 
 by the colligation of these lowest generalizations into higher 
 ones, and these into still higher ones. Year by year are 
 established certain connexions among orders of phenomena 
 that appear unallied ; and these connexions, multiplying and 
 
324 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 
 
 strengthening, gradually bring the seemingly unallied 
 orders under a common bond. When, for example, 
 Humboldt quotes the saying of the Swiss ' ' it is going to 
 rain because we hear the murmur of the torrents nearer/' 
 when he remarks the relation between this and an observa- 
 tion of his own, that the cataracts of the Orinoco are heard 
 at a greater distance by night than by day when he notes 
 the essential parallelism existing between these facts and 
 the fact that the unusual visibility of remote objects 
 is also an indication of coming rain and when he 
 points out that the common cause of these variations is the 
 smaller hindrance offered to the passage of both light and 
 sound, by media which are comparatively homogeneous, 
 either in temperature or hygrometric state; he helps in 
 bringing under one generalization the phenomena of light 
 and those of sound. Experiment having shown that these 
 conform to like laws of reflection and refraction, the conclu- 
 sion that they are both produced by undulations gains pro- 
 bability: there is an incipient integration of two great orders 
 of phenomena, between which no connexion was suspected in 
 times past. A still more decided integration has been of late 
 taking place between the once independent sub-sciences of 
 Electricity, Magnetism, and Light. 
 
 The process will manifestly be carried much further. Such 
 propositions as those set forth in preceding chapters, on 
 "The Persistence of Force/' "The Transformation and 
 Equivalence of Forces/' " The Direction of Motion/' and 
 " The Ehythm of Motion," unite within single bonds phe- 
 nomena belonging to all orders of existences. And if there 
 is such a thing as that which we here understand by 
 Philosophy, there must eventually be reached a universal 
 integration. 
 
 114. Nor do the industrial and aesthetic Arts fail to 
 supply us with equally conclusive evidence. The progress 
 from rude, small, and simple tools, to perfect, complex, and 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION. 
 
 large machines, is a progress in integration. Among what 
 are classed as the mechanical powers, the advance from the 
 lever -to the wheel-and-axle is an advance from a simple 
 agent to an agent made up of several simple ones. On com- 
 paring the wheel-and-axle, or any of the machines used in 
 early times with those used now, we see that in each of our 
 machines several of the primitive machines are united into 
 one. A modern apparatus for spinning or weaving, for 
 making stockings or lace, contains not simply a lever, an in- 
 dined plane, a screw, a wheel-and-axle, joined together; but 
 several of each integrated into one whole. Again, in early 
 ages, when horse-power and man-power were alone em- 
 ployed, the motive agent was not bound up with the tool 
 moved ; but the two have now become in many cases fused 
 together. The fire-box and boiler of a locomotive are com- 
 bined with the machinery which the steam works. A still 
 more extensive integration is exhibited in every factory. 
 Here we find a large number of complicated machines, 
 all connected by driving shafts with the same steam-engine 
 all united with it into one vast apparatus. 
 
 Contrast the mural decorations of the Egyptians and 
 Assyrians with modern historical paintings, and there 
 becomes manifest a great advance in unity of composition 
 in the subordination of the parts to the whole. One of 
 these ancient frescoes is, in truth, made up of a number of 
 pictures that have little mutual dependence. The several 
 figures of which each group consists, show very imperfectly 
 by their attitudes, and not at all by their expressions, the 
 relations in which they stand to each other: the respective 
 groups might be separated with but little loss of meaning ; 
 and the centre of chief interest, which should link all parts 
 together, is often inconspicuous. The same trait may be 
 noted in the tapestries of medieval days. Kepresenting 
 perhaps a hunting scene, one of these contains men, horses, 
 dogs, beasts, birds, trees, and flowers, miscellaneously dis 
 persed; the living objects being variously occupied, and 
 
82G THE LAW OP EVOLUTION. 
 
 mostly with no apparent consciousness of each other's proxi- 
 mity. But in the paintings since produced, faulty as many 
 of them are in this respect, there is always a more or less 
 distinct co-ordination of parts an arrangement of atti- 
 tudes, expressions, lights, and colours, such as to combine 
 the picture into an organic whole; and the success with 
 wbich unity of effect is educed from variety of components, 
 is a chief test of merit. 
 
 In music, progressive integration is displayed in still 
 more numerous ways. The simple cadence embracing but 
 a few notes, which in the chants of savages is monotonously 
 repeated, becomes, among civilized races, a long series of 
 different musical phrases combined into one whole ; and so 
 complete is the integration, that the melody cannot be 
 broken off in the middle, nor shorn of its final note, without 
 giving us a painful sense of incompleteness. When to the 
 air, a bass, a tenor, and an alto are added ; and when to the 
 harmony of different voice-parts there is added an accom- 
 paniment; we see exemplified integrations of another order, 
 which grow gradually more elaborate. And the process is 
 carried a stage higher when these complex solos, concerted 
 pieces, choruses, and orchestral effects, are combined into 
 the vast ensemble of a musical drama ; of which, be it re- 
 membered, the artistic perfection largely consists in the 
 subordination of the particular effects to the total effect. 
 
 Once more the Arts of literary delineation, narrative and 
 dramatic, furnish us with parallel illustrations. The tales 
 of primitive times, like those with which the story-tellers of 
 the East still daily amuse their listeners, are made up of 
 successive occurrences that are not only in themselves un- 
 natural, but have no natural connexion: they are but so 
 many separate adventures put together without necessary 
 sequence. But in a good modern work of imagination, the 
 events are the proper products of the characters working 
 under given conditions ; and cannot at will be changed in 
 their order or kind, without injuring or destroying the 
 
TUB LAW OP EVOLUTION. 327 
 
 general effect. Further, the characters themselves, which 
 in early fictions play their respective parts without show- 
 ing how their minds are modified by one another or by 
 the events, are now presented to us as held together by 
 complex moral relations, and as acting and re-acting upon 
 one another's natures. 
 
 115. Evolution then, under its primary aspect, is a 
 change from a less coherent form to a more coherent 
 form, consequent on the dissipation of motion and integra- 
 tion of matter. This is the universal process through which 
 sensible existences, individually and as a whole, pass during 
 the ascending halves of their histories. This proves to be 
 a character displayed equally in those earliest changes which 
 the Universe at large is supposed to have undergone, and in 
 those latest changes which we trace in society and the pro- 
 ducts of social life. And throughout, the unification pro- 
 ceeds in several ways simultaneously. 
 
 Alike during the evolution of the Solar System, of a 
 planet, of an organism, of a nation, there is progressive 
 aggregation of the entire mass. This may be shown by the 
 increasing density of the matter already contained in it ; or 
 by the drawing into it of matter that was before separate ; 
 or by both. But in any case it implies a loss of relative mo- 
 tion. At the same time, the parts into which the mass 
 has divided, severally consolidate in like manner. We see 
 this in that formation of planets and satellites which has 
 gone on along with the concentration of the nebula out of 
 which the Solar System originated ; we see it in the growth 
 of separate organs that advances, pari passu, with the 
 growth of each organism ; we see it in that rise of 
 special industrial centres and special masses of popu- 
 lation, which is associated with the rise of each society. 
 Always more or less of local integration accompanies 
 the general integration. And then, beyond the 
 increased closeness of juxta-position among the compo- 
 
528 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION. 
 
 
 nents of the whole, and among the components of each part, 
 there is increased closeness of combination among the 
 parts, producing mutual dependence of them. Dimly fore- 
 shadowed as this mutual dependence is in inorganic exist- 
 ences, both celestial and terrestrial, it becomes distinct in 
 organic and super-organic existences. From the lowest 
 living forms upwards, the degree of development is marked 
 by the degree in which the several parts constitute a co- 
 operative assemblage. The advance from those creatures 
 which live on in each part when cut to pieces, up to those 
 creatures which cannot lose any considerable part without 
 death, nor any inconsiderable part without great constitu- 
 tional disturbance, is an advance to creatures which, while 
 more integrated in respect to their solidification, are also 
 more integrated as consisting of organs that live for and by 
 each other. The like contrast between undeveloped and de- 
 veloped societies, need not be shown in detail : the ever-in- 
 creasing co-ordination of parts, is conspicuous to all. And 
 it must suffice just to indicate that the same thing holds true 
 of social products : as, for instance, of Science ; which has 
 become highly integrated not only in the sense that each 
 division is made up of mutually-dependent propositions, but 
 in the sense that the several divisions are mutually de- 
 pendent cannot carry on their respective investigations 
 without aid from one another. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTI1TCJED. 
 
 116. Changes great in their amounts and vaiious m 
 their kinds, which accompany those dealt with in the last 
 chapter, have thus far been wholly ignored or, if tacitly 
 recognized, have not been avowedly recognized. Integration 
 of each whole has been described as taking place simul- 
 taneously with integration of each of the parts into which the 
 whole divides itself. But how comes each whole to divide itself 
 into parts ? This is a transformation more remarkable than 
 the passage of the whole from an incoherent to a coherent 
 etate; and a formula which says nothing about it omits more 
 than half the phenomena to be formulated. 
 
 This larger half of the phenomena we have now to treat. 
 In this chapter we are concerned with those secondary re- 
 distributions of matter and motion that go on along with 
 the primary re-distribution. We saw that while in very 
 incoherent aggregates, secondary re-distributions produce 
 but evanescent results, in aggregates that reach and main- 
 tain a certain medium state, neither very incoherent nor 
 very coherent, results of a relatively persistent character are 
 produced structural modifications. And our next inquiry 
 must be What is the universal expression for these struc- 
 tural modifications ? 
 
 Already an implied answer has been given by the title- 
 Compound Evolution. Already in distinguishing as simple 
 Evolution, that integration of matter and dissipation of mo 
 
830 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 tion winch is unaccompanied by secondary re-distributions, 
 it has been tacitly asserted that where secondaty re-distri- 
 butions occur, complexity arises. Obviously if, while there 
 has gone on a transformation of the incoherent into the co- 
 herent, there have gone on other transformations, the mass, 
 instead of remaining uniform, must have become multiform. 
 The proposition is an identical one. To say that the 
 primary re-distribution is accompanied by secondary re-dis- 
 tributions, is to say that along with the change from a 
 diffused to a concentrated state, there goes on a change from 
 a homogeneous state to a heterogeneous state. The com- 
 ponents of the mass while they become integrated also 
 become differentiated.* 
 
 This, then, is the second aspect under which we have to 
 study Evolution. As, in the last chapter, we contemplated 
 existences of all orders as displaying progressive integration; 
 so, in this chapter, we have to contemplate them as display- 
 ing progressive differentiation. 
 
 117. A growing variety of structure throughout our 
 Sidereal System, is implied by the contrasts that indicate an 
 aggregative process throughout it. We have nebulae that 
 are diffused and irregular, and others that are spiral, 
 annular, spherical, &c. We have groups of stars the mem- 
 bers of which are scattered, and groups concentrated in all 
 degrees down to closely-packed globular clusters. We have 
 these groups differing in the numbers of their members, 
 from those containing several thousand stars to those con- 
 
 * The terms here used must be understood in relative senses. Since 
 we know of no such thing as absoute diffusion or absolute concentration, 
 the change can never be anything but a change from a more diffused 
 to a less diffused state from smaller coherence to greater coherence ; 
 and, similarly, as no concrete existences present us with absolute 
 simplicity as nothing is perfectly uniform as we nowhere liud 
 complete homogeneity the transformation is literally always towards 
 greater complexity, or increased multiformity, or further heterogeneity. 
 This qualification the reader must habitually bear in mind. 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 331 
 
 taining but two. Among individual stars there are great 
 contrasts, real as well as apparent, of size; and from their 
 unlike colours, as well as from their unlike spectra, 
 numerous contrasts among their physical states are infer- 
 able. Beyond which heterogeneities in detail there are 
 general heterogeneities. Nebulae are abundant in some 
 regions of the heavens, while in others there are only stars. 
 Here the celestial spaces are almost void of objects; and there 
 we see dense aggregations, nebular and stellar together. 
 
 The matter of our Solar System during its concentration 
 has become more multiform. The aggregating gaseous 
 spheroid, dissipating its motion, acquiring more marked un- 
 likenesses of density and temperature between interior and 
 exterior, and leaving behind from time to time annular por- 
 tions of its mass, underwent differentiations that increased in 
 number and degree, until there was evolved the existing or- 
 ganized group of sun, planets, and satellites. The hetero- 
 geneity of this is variously displayed. There are the immense 
 contrasts between the sun and the planets, in bulk and in 
 weight ; as well as the subordinate contrasts of like kind 
 between one planet and another, and between the planets 
 and their satellites. There is the further contrast between 
 the sun and the planets in respect of temperature ; and there is 
 reason to suppose that the planets and satellites differ from 
 one another in their proper heats, as well as in the heats which 
 they receive from the sun. Bearing in mind that they also 
 differ in the inclinations of their orbits, the inclinations of 
 their axes, in their specific gravities and in their physical 
 constitutions, we see how decided is the complexity wrought 
 in the Solar System by those secondary re-distributions that 
 have accompanied the primary re-distribution. 
 
 118. Passing from this hypothetical illustration, which 
 must be taken for what it is worth, without prejudice to the 
 general argument, let us descend to an order of evidence 
 less open to objection. 
 
532 THE LAW 01' EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 
 It is now generally agreed among geologists that the Earth 
 was once a mass of molten matter ; and that its inner parts 
 are still fluid and incandescent. Originally, then, it was 
 comparatively homogeneous in consistence ; and, because of 
 the circulation that takes place in heated fluids, must have 
 been comparatively homogeneous in temperature. It must, 
 too, have been surrounded by an atmosphere consisting 
 partly of the elements of air and water, and partly of those 
 various other elements which assume gaseous forms at high 
 temperatures. That cooling by radiation which, though ori- 
 ginally far more rapid than now, necessarily required an im- 
 mense time to produce decided change, must at length 
 have resulted in differentiating the portion most able to part 
 with its heat ; namely, the surface. A further cooling, lead- 
 ing to deposition of all solidifiable elements contained in the 
 atmosphere, and finally to precipitation of the water and 
 separation of it from the air, must thus have caused a second 
 marked differentiation ; and as the condensation must have 
 commenced on the coolest parts of the surface namely, 
 about the poles there must so have resulted the first geo- 
 graphical distinctions. 
 
 To these illustrations of growing heterogeneity, which, 
 though deduced from the known laws of matter, may be re- 
 garded as hypothetical, Geology adds an extensive series 
 that have been inductively established. The Earth's struc- 
 ture has been age after age further involved by the multi- 
 plication of the strata which form its crust ; and it has been 
 age after age further involved by the increasing composi- 
 tion of these strata, the more recent of which, formed 
 from the detritus of the more ancient, are many of them 
 rendered highly complex by the mixtures of materials they 
 contain. This heterogeneity has been vastly in- 
 
 creased by the action of the Earth's still molten nucleus 
 on its envelope; whence have resulted not only a great 
 variety of igneous rocks, but the tilting up of sedi- 
 mentary strata at all angles, the formation of faults and 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 333 
 
 metallic veins, the production of endless dislocations and ir- 
 regularities. Again, geologists teach us that the 
 Earth's surface has been growing more varied in elevation- 
 that the most ancient mountain systems are the smallest, 
 and the Andes and Himalayas the most modern ; while, in 
 all probability, there have been corresponding changes in 
 the bed of the ocean. As a consequence of this ceaseless 
 multiplication of differences, we now find that no consider- 
 able portion of the Earth's exposed surface, is like any other 
 portion, either in contour, in geologic structure, or in 
 chemical composition ; and that, in most parts, the surface 
 changes from mile to mile in all these characteristics. 
 
 There has been simultaneously going on a gradual dif- 
 ferentiation of climates. As fast as the Earth cooled and 
 its crust solidified, inequalities of temperature arose be- 
 tween those parts of its surface most exposed to the sun 
 and those less exposed; and thus in time there came to 
 be the marked contrasts between regions of perpetual ice 
 and snow, regions where winter and summer alternately 
 reign for periods varying according to the latitude, and 
 regions where summer follows summer with scarcely 
 an appreciable variation. Meanwhile, elevations 
 
 and subsidences, recurring here and there over the Earth's 
 crust, tending as they have done to produce irre- 
 gular distribution of land and sea, have entailed various 
 modifications of climate beyond those dependent on latitude; 
 while a yet further series of such modifications has been 
 produced by increasing differences of height in the lands, 
 which have in sundry places brought arctic, temperate, 
 and tropical climates to within a few miles of one another, 
 The general results of these changes are, that every 
 extensive region has its own meteorologic conditions, and 
 that every locality in each region differs more or less from 
 others in those conditions : as in its structure, its contour, 
 its soil. 
 
 Thus, between our existing Earth, the phenomena of 
 16 
 
334 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 
 whose varied crust neither geographers, geologists, minera- 
 logists nor meteorologists have yet enumerated, and the 
 molten globe out of which it was evolved, the contrast in 
 heterogeneity is sufficiently striking. 
 
 119. The clearest, most numerous, and most varied il- 
 lustrations of the advance in multiformity that accompanies 
 the advance in integration, are furnished by living organic 
 bodies. Distinguished as we found these to be by the great 
 quantity of their contained motion, they exhibit in an ex- 
 treme degree the secondary re-distributions which contained 
 motion facilitates. The history of every plant and every 
 animal, while it is a history of increasing bulk, is also a 
 history of simultaneously-increasing differences among the 
 parts. This transformation has several aspects. 
 
 The chemical composition which is almost uniform through- 
 out the substance of a germ, vegetal or animal, gradually 
 ceases to be uniform. The several compounds, nitrogenous 
 and non-nitrogenous, which were homogeneously mixed, 
 segregate by degrees, become diversely proportioned in 
 diverse places, and produce new compounds by transforma- 
 tion or modification. In plants the albuminous 
 and amylaceous matters which form the substance of the 
 embryo, give origin here to a preponderance of chlorophyll 
 and there to a preponderance of cellulose. Over the parts 
 that are becoming leaf-surfaces, certain of the materials are 
 metamorphosed into wax. In this place starch passes into 
 one of its isomeric equivalents, sugar ; and in that place 
 into another of its isomeric equivalents, gum. By secondary 
 change some of the cellulose is modified into wood; while 
 Borne of it is modified into the allied substance which, in 
 large masses, we distinguish as cork. And the more numer- 
 ous compounds thus gradually arising, initiate further un- 
 likenesses by mingling in unlike ratios. An animal- 
 ovum, the components of which are at first evenly diffused 
 among one another, chemically transforms itself in like 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 335 
 
 manner. Its protein, its fats, its salts, become dissimilarly 
 proportioned in different localities ; and multiplication of 
 isomeric forms leads to further mixtures and combinations 
 that constitute many minor distinctions of parts. Here a 
 mass darkening by accumulation of hematine, presently dis- 
 solves into blood. There fatty and albuminous matters 
 uniting, compose nerve-tissue. At this spot the nitrogenous 
 substance takes on the character of cartilage ; and at that, 
 calcareous salts, gathering together in the cartilage, lay the 
 foundation of bone. All these chemical differentiations 
 slowly and insensibly become more marked and more mul- 
 tiplied. 
 
 Simultaneously there arise contrasts of minute struc- 
 ture. Distinct tissues take the place of matter that 
 had previously no recognizable unlikenesses of parts ; and 
 each of the tissues first produced undergoes secondary 
 modifications, causing sub-species of tissues. The 
 
 granular protoplasm of the vegetal germ, equally with that 
 which forms the unfolding point of every shoot, gives origin 
 to cells that are at first alike. Some of these, as they grow, 
 flatten and unite by their edges to form the outer layer. 
 Others elongate greatly, and at the same time join together 
 in bundles to lay the foundation of woody-fibre. Before 
 they begin to elongate, certain of these cells show a break - 
 ing-up of the lining deposit, which, during elongation, 
 becomes a spiral thread, or a reticulated framework, or a 
 series of rings ; and by the longitudinal union of cells so 
 lined, vessels are formed. Meanwhile each of these dif- 
 ferentiated tissues is re-differentiated : instance that which 
 constitutes the essential part of the leaf, the upper 
 stratum of which is composed of chlorophyll-cells that 
 remain closely packed, while the lower stratum becomes 
 spongy. Of the same general character are tho 
 
 transformations undergone by the fertilized ovum, which, at 
 first a cluster of similar cells quickly reaches a stage in 
 which these cells have become dissimilar. More frequently re- 
 
336 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 
 curring fission of the superficial cells, a resulting smaller 
 size of them, and subsequent union of them into an outer 
 layer, constitute the first differentiation ; and the middle 
 area of this layer is rendered anlike the rest by still more 
 active processes of like kind. By such modifications upon 
 modifications, too multitudinous to enumerate here, arise 
 the classes and sub-classes of tissues which, variously in- 
 volved one with another, compose organs. 
 
 Equally conforming to the law are the changes of general 
 shape and of the shapes of organs. All germs are at first 
 spheres and all organs are at first buds or mere rounded 
 lumps. From this primordial uniformity and simplicity, 
 there takes place divergence, both of the wholes and the 
 leading parts, towards multiformity of contour and towards 
 complexity of contour. Cut away the compactly- 
 
 folded young leaves that terminate every shoot, and the 
 nucleus is found to be a central knob bearing lateral knobs, 
 one of which may grow into either a leaf, a sepal, a petal, 
 a stamen, a carpel : all these eventually-unlike parts being at 
 first alike. The shoots themselves also depart from their 
 primitive unity of form; and while each branch becomes more 
 or less different from the rest, the whole exposed part of the 
 plant becomes different from the imbedded part. So, 
 
 too, is it with the organs of animals. One of the Articulata, 
 for instance, has limbs that are originally indistinguishable 
 from one another compose a homogeneous series ; but by 
 continuous divergences there arise among them unliknesses 
 of size and form, such as we see in the crab and the lobster. 
 Vertebrate creatures equally exemplify this truth. The 
 wings and legs of a bird are of similar shapes when they 
 bud-out from the sides of the embryo. 
 
 Thus in every plant and animal, conspicuous secon- 
 dary re-distributions accompany the primary re-distribu- 
 tion. A. first difference between two parts ; in each 
 of these parts other differences that presently become aa 
 marked as the first ; and a like multiplication of differences 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 337 
 
 in geometrical progression, until there is reached that com- 
 plex combination constituting the adult. This is the history 
 of all living things whatever. Pursuing an idea which 
 Harvey set afloat, it has been shown by Wolff and Von Baer, 
 that during its evolution each organism passes from a state 
 }f homogeneity to a state of heterogeneity. For a gene* 
 ration this truth has been accepted by biologists.* 
 
 120. When we pass from individual forms of life to life 
 m general, and ask whether the same law is seen in the 
 ensemble of its manifestations whether modern plants and 
 animals have more heterogeneous structures thanancient ones, 
 
 * It was in 1852 that I became acquainted with Von Baer's expression of 
 this general principle. The universality of law had ever been with me a 
 postulate, carrying with it a correlative belief, tacit if not avowed, in unity 
 of method throughout Nature. This statement that every plant and 
 animal, originally homogeneous becomes gradually heterogeneous, set up a 
 process of co-ordination among accumulated thoughts that were previously 
 unorganized, or but partially organized. It is true that in Social Statics 
 (Part IV., 1216), written before meeting with Von Baer's formula, 
 the development of an individual organism and the development of the 
 social organism, are described as alike consisting in advance from simplicity 
 to complexity, and from independent like parts to mutually-dependent 
 unlike parts a parallelism implied by Milne-Edwards' doctrine of "the 
 physiological division of labour." But though admitting of extension to 
 other super- organic phenomena, this statement was too special to admit of 
 extension to inorganic phenomena. The great aid rendered by Von Baer'a 
 formula arose from its higher generality ; since, only when organic trans- 
 formations had been expressed in the most general terms, was the way 
 opened for seeing what they had in common with inorganic transformations. 
 The conviction that this process of change gone through by each evolving 
 organism, is a process gone through by all things, found its first coherent 
 statement in an essay on *' Progress : its Law and Cause ; " which I pub- 
 lished in the Westminster Review for April, 1857 an essay with the first 
 half of which this chapter coincides in substance, and partly in form. 
 In that essay, however, as also in the first edition of this work, I 
 fell into the error of supposing that the transformation of the homo- 
 geneous into the heterogeneous constitutes Evolution ; whereas, as wo 
 have seen, it constitutes the secondary re -distribution accompanying 
 the primary re-distribution in that Evolution which we distinguish as com- 
 poundor rather, as we shall presently see, it constitutes the moat coo- 
 upicuous part of this secondary re-distribution. 
 
338 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 and whether the Earth's present Flora and Fauna are more 
 heterogeneous than the Flora and Fauna of the past, we find 
 the evidence so fragmentary, that every conclusion is open to 
 dispute. Two-thirds of the Earth's surface being covered 
 by water ; a great part of the exposed land being inaccessible 
 to, or untravelled by, the geologist ; the greater part of the 
 remainder having been scarcely more than glanced at ; and 
 even the most famiLHr portions, as England, having been so 
 imperfectly explored, that a new series of strata has been 
 added within these few years, it is manifestly impossible for 
 us to say with any certainty what creatures have, and what 
 have not, existed at any particular period. Considering the 
 perishable nature of many of the lower organic forms, the 
 metamorphosis of many sedimentary strata, and the gaps that 
 occur among the rest, we shall see further reason for distrust- 
 ing our deductions. On the one hand, the repeated discovery 
 of vertebrate remains in strata previously supposed to contain 
 none, of reptiles where only fish were thought to exist, of 
 mammals where it was believed there were no creatures higher 
 than reptiles ; renders it daily more manifest how small is the 
 value of negative evidence. On the other hand, the worthless- 
 ness of the assumption that we have discovered the earliest, 
 or anything like the earliest, organic remains, is becoming 
 equally clear. That the oldest known aqueous formations have 
 been greatly changed by igneous action, and that still older 
 ones have been totally transformed by it, is becoming undeni- 
 able. And the fact that sedimentary strata earlier than any 
 we know, have been melted up, being admitted, it must also 
 be admitted that we cannot say how far back in time this 
 destruction of sedimentary strata has been going on. Thus it 
 is manifest that the title Palceozoic, as applied to the earliest 
 known fossiliferous strata, involves a petitio principii ; and 
 that ; for aught we know to the contrary, only the last few 
 chapters of the Earth's biological history may have come down 
 to us. 
 
 All inferences drawn from such scattered facts as we find* 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 830 
 
 must thus be extremely questionable. If, looking at the 
 general aspect of evidence, a progressionist argues that the 
 earliest known vertebrate remains are those of Fishes, which 
 are the most homogeneous of the vertebrata ; that Reptiles, 
 which are more heterogeneous, are later ; and that later still, 
 and more heterogeneous still, are Mammals and Birds ; it may 
 be replied that the Palaeozoic deposits, not being estuary de- 
 posits, are not likely to contain the remains of terrestrial ver- 
 tebrata, which may nevertheless have existed at that era. 
 The same answer may be made to the argument that the 
 vertebrate fauna of the Palaeozoic period, consisting so far as 
 we know, entirely of Fishes, was less heterogeneous than the 
 modern vertebrate fauna, which includes Reptiles, Birds and 
 Mammals, of multitudinous genera ; or the uniformitarian 
 may contend with great show of truth, that this appearance 
 of higher and more varied forms in later geologic eras, was 
 due to progressive immigration that a continent slowly 
 upheaved from the ocean at a point remote from pre-existing 
 continents, would necessarily be peopled from them in a suc- 
 cession like that which our strata display. At the 
 same time the counter-arguments may be proved equally in- 
 conclusive. When, to show that there cannot have been a con- 
 tinuous evolution of the more homogeneous organic forms 
 into the more heterogeneous ones, the uniformitarian points 
 to the breaks that occur in the succession of these forms ; there 
 is the sufficient answer that current geological changes show 
 us why such breaks must occur, and why, by subsidences and 
 elevations of large area, there must be produced such marked 
 breaks as those which divide the three great geologic epochs. 
 Or again, if the opponent of the development hypothesis cites 
 the facts stt forth by Professor Huxley in his lecture on 
 " Persistent Types "if he points out that " of some two 
 hundred known orders of plants, not one is exclusively fossil," 
 while " among animals, there is not a single totally extinct 
 class ; and of the orders, at the outside not more than seven 
 per cent, are unrepresented in the existing creation " if he 
 
310 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 urges that among these some have continued from the 
 Silurian epoch to our own day with scarcely any change 
 and if he infers that there is evidently a much greater average 
 resemblance between the living forms of the past and those of 
 the present, than consists with this hypothesis ; there is still 
 a satisfactory reply, on which in fact Prof. Huxley insists ; 
 namely, that we have evidence of a " pre-geologic era " of 
 unknown duration. And indeed, when it is remembered, 
 that the enormous subsidences of the Silurian period show 
 the Earth's crust to have been approximately as thick then as 
 it is now when it is concluded that the time taken to form 
 so thick a crust, must have been immense as compared with 
 the time which has since elapsed when it is assumed, as it 
 must be, that during this comparatively immense time the 
 geologic and biologic changes went on at their usual rates ; 
 it becomes manifest, not only that the palaeontological 
 records which we find, do not negative the theory of 
 evolution, but that they are such as might rationally be 
 looked for. 
 
 Moreover, it must not be forgotten that though the evidence 
 suffices neither for proof nor disproof, yet some of its most 
 conspicuous facts support the belief, that the more heteroge- 
 neous organisms and groups of organisms, have been evolved 
 from the less heterogeneous ones. The average community 
 of type between the fossils of adjacent strata, and still more 
 the community that is found between the latest tertiary 
 fossils and creatures now existing, is one of these facts. The 
 discovery in some modern deposits of such forms as the 
 Palaeotherium and Anaplotherium, which, if we may rely on 
 Prof. Owen, had a type of structure intermediate between 
 some of the types now existing, is another of these facts. A id 
 the comparatively recent appearance of Man, is a third fact of 
 this kind, which possesses still greater significance. Hence 
 we may say, that though our knowledge of past life upon the 
 Earth, is too scanty to justify us in asserting an evolution of 
 the simple into the complex, either in individual forms or in 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 841 
 
 the aggregate of forms ; yet the knowledge we have, not only 
 consists with, the belief that there has been such an evolution, 
 but rather supports it than otherwise. 
 
 121. \Vliether an advance from the homogeneous to the 
 heterogeneous is or is not displayed in the biological history 
 of the globe, it is clearly enough displayed in the progress of 
 the latest and most heterogeneous creature Man. It is alike 
 true that, during the period in which the Earth has been 
 peopled, the human organism has grown more heterogeneous 
 among the civilized divisions of the species ; and that the 
 species, as a whole, has been made more heterogeneous by 
 the multiplication of races and the differentiation of these 
 races from each other. In proof of the first of these 
 
 positions, we may cite the fact that, in the relative develop- 
 ment of the limbs, the civilized man departs more widely 
 from the general type of the placental mammalia, than do the 
 lower human races. Though often possessing well-developed 
 body and arms, the Papuan has extremely small legs : thus 
 reminding us of the quadrumana, in which there is no great 
 contrast in size between the hind and fore limbs. But in the 
 European, the greater length and massiveness of the legs has 
 become very marked the fore and hind limbs are relatively 
 more heterogeneous. Again, the greater ratio which the 
 cranial bones bear to the facial bones, illustrates the same 
 truth. Among the vertebrata in general, evolution is marked 
 by an increasing heterogeneity in the vertebral column, and 
 more especially in the segments constituting the skull : the 
 higher forms being distinguished by the relatively larger size 
 of the bones which cover the brain, and the relatively smaller 
 size of those which form the jaws, &c. Now, this character- 
 istic, which is stronger in Man than in any other creature, is 
 stronger in the European than in the savage. Moreover, 
 judging from the greater extent and variety of faculty he ex- 
 hibits, we may infer that the civilized man has also a more 
 complex or heterogeneous nervous system than the uncivil. 
 
542 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 ized man ;' and indeed the fact is in part visible iu the in- 
 creased ratio which his cerebrum bears to t^e subjacent 
 ganglia. If further elucidation be needed, we may find it in 
 every nursery. The infant European has sundry marked 
 points of resemblance to the lower human races ; as in the 
 flatness of the alae of the nose, the depression of its bridge, the 
 ii vergence and forward opening of the nostrils, the form of 
 the lips, the absence of a frontal sinus, the width between the 
 eyes, the smallness of the legs. Now, as the developmental 
 process by which these traits are turned into those of the 
 adult European, is a continuation of that change from the 
 homogeneous to the heterogeneous displayed during the pre- 
 vious evolution of the embryo, which every physiologist will 
 admit ; it follows that the parallel developmental process by 
 which the like traits of the barbarous races have been turned 
 into those of the civilized races, has also been a continuation 
 of the change from the homogeneous to the heterogene- 
 ous. The truth of the second position that Mankind, 
 as a whole, have become more heterogeneous is so obvious as 
 scarcely to need illustration. Every work on Ethnology, by 
 its divisions and subdivisions of races, bears testimony to it. 
 Even were we to admit the hypothesis that Mankind origin- 
 ated from several separate stocks, it would still remain true 
 that as, from each of these stocks, there have sprung mai)y 
 now widely different tribes, which are proved by philological 
 evidence to have had a common origin, the race as a whole 
 is far less homogeneous than it once was. Add to which, 
 that we have, in the Anglo-Americans, an example of a new 
 variety arising within these few generations ; and that, if w e 
 may trust to the descriptions of observers, we are likely soon 
 to have another such example in Australia. 
 
 122, On passing from Humanity under its individual form, 
 to Humanity as socially embodied, we find the general law still 
 more variously exemplified. The change from the homo- 
 geneous to the heterogeneous, is displayed equally in th 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 progress of civilization as a whole, and in the progress of 
 every tribe or nation ; and is still going on with increasing 
 rapidity. 
 
 As we see in existing barbarous tribes, society in its first 
 and lowest form is a homogeneous aggregation of individuals 
 having like powers and like functions : the only marked dif- 
 ference of function being that which accompanies difference 
 of sex. Every man is warrior, hunter, fisherman, tool-maker, 
 builder ; every woman performs the same drudgeries ; every 
 family is self-sufficing, and, save for purposes of aggression 
 and defence, might as well live apart from the rest. Very 
 early, however, in the process of social evolution, we find an 
 incipient differentiation between the governing and the go- 
 verned. Some kind of chieftainship seems coeval with the 
 first advance from the state of separate wandering families to 
 that of a nomadic tribe. The authority of the strongest 
 makes itself felt among a body of savages, as in a herd of ani- 
 mals, or a posse of schoolboys. At first, however, it is indefi- 
 nite, uncertain ; is shared by others of scarcely inferior power ; 
 and is unaccompanied by any difference in occupation or style 
 of living : the first ruler kills his own game, makes his own 
 weapons, builds his own hut, and, economically considered, 
 does not differ from others of his tribe. Gradually, as the 
 tribe progresses, the contrast between the governing and the 
 governed grows more decided. Supreme power becomes here- 
 ditary in one family ; the head of that family, ceasing to pro- 
 vide for his own wants, is served by others ; and he begins to 
 assume the sole office of ruling. At the same time 
 
 there has been arising a co-ordinate species of government 
 that of Religion. As all ancient records and traditions 
 prove, the earliest rulers are regarded as divine personages. 
 The maxims and commands they uttered during their lives 
 are held sacred after their deaths, and are enforced by their 
 divinely-descended successors ; who in their turns are pro- 
 moted to the pantheon of the race, there to be worshipped 
 and propitiated along with their predecessors the most an- 
 
844 TT1E LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 cient of whom is tlie supreme god, and the rest subordinate 
 gods, For a long time these connate forms of government 
 civil and religious continue closely associated. For many 
 generations the king continues to be the chief priest, and the 
 priesthood to be members of the royal race. For many ages 
 religious law continues to contain more or less of civil regula- 
 tion, and civil law to possess more or less of religious sanc- 
 tion ; and even among the most advanced nations these two 
 controlling agencies are by no means completely differentiated 
 from each other. Having a common root with these, 
 
 and gradually diverging from them, we find yet another con- 
 trolling agency that of Manners or ceremonial usages. All 
 titles of honour are originally the names of the god-king ; 
 afterwards of God and the king ; still later of persons of high 
 rank ; and finally come, some of them, to be used between 
 man and man. All forms of complimentary address were at 
 first the expressions of submission from prisoners to their 
 conqueror, or from subjects to their ruler, either human or 
 divine expressions that were afterwards used to propitiate 
 subordinate authorities, and slowly descended into ordinary 
 intercourse. All modes of salutation were once obeisances 
 made before the monarch and used in worship of him after 
 his death. Presently others of the god-descended race were 
 similarly saluted; and by degrees some of the salutations 
 have become the due of all.* Thus, no sooner does the origin- 
 ally homogeneous social mass differentiate into the governed 
 and the governing parts, than this last exhibits an incipient 
 differentiation into religious and secular Church and State ; 
 while at the same time there begins to be differentiated from 
 both, that less definite species of government which rules 
 our daily intercourse a species of government which, as we 
 may see in heralds' colleges, in books of the peerage, in masters 
 of ceromonies, is not without a certain embodiment of its 
 own. Each of these kinds of government is itself sub- 
 
 ject to successive differentiations. In the course of ages, there 
 * For detailed proof of these assertions see essay on Manners and Fashion. 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 8-15 
 
 Arises, as among ourselves, a highly complex political organ 
 Nation of monarch, ministers, lords and commons, with theii 
 mbordiiiate administrative departments, courts of justice, 
 revenue offices, &c., supplemented in the provinces by muni- 
 cipal governments, county governments, parish or union 
 governments all of them more or less elaborated. By ita 
 side there grows up a highly complex religious organization, 
 with its various grades of officials from archbishops down to 
 sextons, its colleges, convocations, ecclesiastical courts, &c. ; 
 to all which must be added the ever-multiplying independent 
 sects, each with its general and local authorities. And at the 
 same time there is developed a highly complex aggregation 
 of customs, manners, and temporary fashions, enforced by 
 society at large, and serving to control those minor trans- 
 actions between man and man which are not regulated by 
 civil and religious law. Moreover, it is to be observed that 
 this ever- increasing heterogeneity in the governmental ap- 
 pliances of each nation, has been accompanied by an increas- 
 ing heterogeneity in the governmental appliances of different 
 nations : all of which are more or less unlike in their political 
 systems and legislation, in their creeds and religious institu- 
 tions, in their customs and ceremonial usages. 
 
 Simultaneously there has been going on a second differen- 
 tiation of a more familiar kind ; that, namely, by which the 
 mass of the community has been segregated into distinct 
 classes and orders of workers. While the governing part has 
 indergone the complex development above detailed, the go- 
 verned part has undergone an equally complex development ; 
 which has resulted in that minute division of labour charac- 
 terizing advanced nations. It is needless to trace 
 out this progress from its first stages, up through the caste 
 di visions of the East and the incorporated guilds of Europe, 
 to the elaborate producing and distributing organization ex- 
 isting among ourselves. Political economists have long since 
 indicated the evolution which, beginning with a tribe whose 
 members severally perform the same actions, each for himself 
 
846 THE IAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 ends with a civilized community whose members severally 
 perform different actions for each other ; and they have fur- 
 ther pointed out the changes through which the solitary pro- 
 ducer of any one commodity, is transformed into a combination 
 of producers who, united under a master, take separate parts 
 in the manufacture of such commodity. But there 
 
 are yet other and higher phases of this advance from thf* 
 homogeneous to the heterogeneous in the industrial organiz- 
 ation of society. Long after considerable progress has been 
 made in the division of labour among the different classes of 
 workers, there is still little or no division of labour among the 
 widely separated parts of the community : the nation continues 
 comparatively homogeneous in the respect that in each district 
 the same occupations are pursued. But when roads and other 
 means of transit become numerous and good, the different 
 districts begin to assume different functions, and to become 
 mutually dependent. The calico-manufacture locates itself in 
 this county, the woollen-manufacture in that ; silks are pro- 
 duced here, lace there ; stockings in one place, shoes in an- 
 other ; pottery, hardware, cutlery, come to have their special 
 towns ; and ultimately every locality grows more or less dis- 
 tinguished from the rest by the leading occupation carried on 
 in it. Nay, more, this subdivision of functions shows itself 
 not only among the different parts of the same nation, but 
 among different nations. That exchange of commodities 
 which free-trade promises so greatly to increase, will ulti- 
 mately have the effect of specializing, in a greater or less 
 degree, the industry of each people. So that begin- 
 
 ning with a barbarous tribe, almost if not quite homogeneous 
 in the functions of its members, the progress has been> and 
 still is, towards an economic aggregation of the whole human 
 race; growing ever more heterogeneous in respect of the 
 separate functions assumed by separate nations, the separate 
 functions assumed by the local sections of each nation, the 
 separate functions assumed by the many kinds of makers 
 and traders in each town, and the separate functions aa- 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 347 
 
 mimed by the workers united in producing each com- 
 modity. 
 
 123. Not only is the law thus clearly exemplified in the 
 evolution of the social organism, but it is exemplified with 
 equal clearness in the evolution of all products of human 
 thought and action ; whether concrete or abstract, real or 
 ideal. Let us take Language as our first illustration. 
 
 The lowest form of language is the exclamation, by which 
 an entire idea is vaguely conveyed through a single sound ; as 
 among the lower animals. That human language ever con- 
 sisted solely of exclamations, and so was strictly homogeneous 
 in respect of its parts of speech, we have no evidence. But 
 that language can be traced down to a form in which nouns 
 and verbs are its only elements, is an established fact. In 
 the gradual multiplication of parts of speech out of these 
 primary ones in the differentiation of verbs into active and 
 passive, of nouns into abstract and concrete in the rise of 
 distinctions of mood, tense, person, of number and case in 
 the formation of auxiliary verbs, of adjectives, adverbs, pro- 
 nouns, prepositions, articles in the divergence of thos'* orders, 
 genera, species, and varieties of parts of speech by which 
 civilized races express minute modifications of meaning we 
 see a change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous. 
 And it may be remarked, in passing, that it is more especi- 
 ally in virtue of having carried this subdivision of functions 
 to a greater extent and completeness, that the English 
 language is superior to all others. Another aspect 
 
 under which we may trace the development of language, is 
 the differentiation of words of allied meanings. Philology 
 early disclosed the truth that in all languages words 
 may be grouped into families having a common ances- 
 try. An aboriginal name, applied indiscriminately to each of 
 an extensive and ill-defined class of things or actions, pre- 
 eently undergoes modifications by which the chief divisions 
 of the class are expressed. These several names springing 
 
348 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 
 from the primitive root, themselves become the parents of 
 other names still further modified." And by the aid of those 
 systematic modes which presently arise, of making derivatives 
 and forming compound terms expressing still smaller dis- 
 tinctions, there is finally developed a tribe of words so 
 heterogeneous in sound and meaning, that to the uninitiated 
 it seems incredible they should have had a common origin. 
 Meanwhile, from other roots there are being evolved other 
 such tribes, until there results a language of some sixty 
 thousand or more unlike words, signifying as many unlike 
 objects, qualities, acts. Yet another way in which 
 
 language in general advances from the homogeneous to the 
 heterogeneous, is in the multiplication of languages. Whe- 
 ther, as Max Miiller and Bunsen think, all languages have 
 grown from one stock, or whether, as some philologists say, 
 they have grown from two or more stocks, it is clear that 
 since large families of languages, as the Indo-European, are 
 of one parentage, they have become distinct through a pro- 
 cess of continuous divergence. The same diffusion over the 
 Earth's surface which has led to the differentiation of the 
 race, has simultaneously led to a differentiation of their 
 speech: a truth which we see further illustrated in each 
 nation by the peculiarities of dialect found in separate dis- 
 tricts. Thus the progress of Language conforms to the 
 general law, alike in the evolution of languages, in the 
 evolution of families of words, and in the evolution of parts 
 of speech. 
 
 On passing from spoken to written language, we come upon 
 several classes of facts, all having similar implications. 
 Written language is connate with Painting and Sculpture ; 
 and at first all three are appendages of Architecture, and 
 have a direct connexion with the primary form of all Govern- 
 ment the theocratic. Merely noting by the way the fact 
 that sundry wild races, as for example the Australians and 
 the tribes of South Africa, are given to depicting personages 
 and events upon the walls of caves, which are probably re- 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 349 
 
 Curded as sacred places, let us pass to the case of the Egyp- 
 tians. Among them, as also among the Assyrians, we find 
 mural paintings used to decorate the temple of the god and 
 the palace of the king (which were, indeed, originally identi- 
 cal) ; and as such they were / governmental appliances in the 
 same sense that state-pageants and religious feasts were. 
 Further, they were governmental appliances in virtue of 
 representing the worship of the god, the triumphs of the 
 god-king, the submission of his subjects, and the punishment 
 of the rebellious. And yet again they were governmental, 
 as being the products of an art reverenced by the people as a 
 sacred mystery. From the habitual use of this 
 
 pictorial representation, there naturally grew up the but 
 slightly-modified practice of picture-writing a practice 
 which was found still extant among the Mexicans at the time 
 they were discovered. By abbreviations analogous to those 
 still going on in our own written and spoken language, the 
 most familiar of these pictured figures were successively 
 simplified ; and ultimately there grew up a system of symbols, 
 most of which had but a distant resemblance to the things 
 for which they stood. The inference that the hieroglyphics 
 of the Egyptians were thus produced, is confirmed by the fact 
 that the picture-writing of the Mexicans was found to have 
 given birth to a like family of ideographic forms ; and among 
 them, as among the Egyptians, these had been partially 
 differentiated into the kuriological or imitative, and the 
 tropical or symbolic : which were, however, used together in 
 the same record. In Egypt, written language underwent a 
 further differentiation ; whence resulted the hieratic and the 
 epistolographic or enchorial : both of which are derived from 
 the original hieroglyphic. At the same time we find that 
 for the expression of proper names, which could not be other- 
 wise conveyed, phonetic symbols were employed ; and though 
 it is alleged that the Egyptians never actually achieved com- 
 plete alphabetic writing, yet it can scarcely be doubted that 
 these phonetic symbols occasionally used in aid of their 
 
850 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 
 ideographic ones, were the germs out of which alphabetic 
 writing grew. Once having become separate from hierogly- 
 phics, alphabetic writing itself underwent numerous differ- 
 entiations multiplied alphabets were produced: between 
 most of which, however, more or less connexion can still be 
 traced. And in each civilized nation there has now growo 
 up, for the representation of one set of sounds, several sets of 
 written signs, used for distinct purposes. Finally, through a 
 yet more important differentiation came printing ; which, uni- 
 form in kind as it was at first, has since become multiform. 
 
 124. While written language was passing through its 
 earlier stages of development, the mural decoration which 
 formed its root was being differentiated into Painting and 
 Sculpture. The gods, kings, men, and animals represented, 
 were originally marked by indented outlines and coloured. 
 In most cases these outlines were of such depth, and the 
 object they circumscribed so far rounded and marked out in 
 its leading parts, as to form a species of work intermediate 
 between intaglio and bas-relief. In other cases we see an 
 advance upon this : the raised spaces between the figures 
 being chiselled off, and the figures themselves appropriately 
 tinted, a painted bas-relief was produced. The restored 
 Assyrian architecture at Sydenham, exhibits this style of art 
 carried to greater perfection the persons and things repre- 
 sented, though still barbarously coloured, are carved out 
 with more truth and in greater detail ; and in the winged 
 lions and bulls used for the angles of gateways, we may see 
 a considerable advance towards a completely sculptured 
 figure ; which, nevertheless, is still coloured, and still forma 
 part of the building. But while in Assyria the production 
 of a statue proper, seoms to have been little, if at all, at- 
 tempted, we may trace in Egyptian art the gradual separation 
 of the sculptured figure from the wall. A walk through the 
 collection in the British Museum will clearly show this,* 
 while it will at the same time afford an opportunity of ob 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 331 
 
 serving the evident traces which the independent statues bear 
 of their derivation from bas-relief: seeing that nearly all of 
 them not only display that union of the limbs with the bodj 
 which is the characteristic of bas-relief, but have the back of 
 the statue united from head to foot with a block which 
 i rands in place of the original wall. Greece repeat- 
 
 xl the leading stages of this progress. As in Egypt and 
 Assyria, these twin arts were at first united with each other 
 and with their parent, Architecture ; and were the aids of 
 Religion and Government On the friezes of Greek temples, 
 We see coloured bas-reliefs representing sacrifices, battles, 
 processions, games all in some sort religious. On the pedi- 
 ments we see painted sculptures more or less united with the 
 tympanum, and having for subjects the triumphs of gods or 
 heroes. Even when we come to statues that are definitely 
 separated from the buildings to which they pertain, we still 
 find them coloured ; and only in the later periods of Greek 
 civilization, does the differentiation of sculpture from paint- 
 ing appear to have become complete. In Christian 
 art we may clearly trace a parallel re- genesis. All early 
 paintings and sculptures throughout Europe, were religious 
 in subject represented Christs, crucifixions, virgins, holy 
 families, apostles, saints. They formed integral parts of 
 church architecture, and were among the means of exciting 
 worship : as in Roman Catholic countries they still are. 
 Moreover, the early sculptures of Christ on the cross, of 
 virgins, of saints, were coloured ; and it needs but to call to 
 mind the painte.d madonnas and crucifixes still abundant in 
 continental churches and highways, to perceive the significant 
 fact that painting and sculpture continue in closest connexion 
 with each other, where they continue in closest connexion 
 with their parent. Even when Christian sculpture was 
 pretty clearly differentiated from painting, it was still religious 
 and governmental in its subjects was used for tombs in 
 churches and statues of kings; while, at the same time, 
 painting, where not purely ecclesiastical, was applied to the 
 
851* THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 decoration of palaces, and besides representing royal person- 
 ages, was almost wholly devoted to sacred legends. Only in 
 quite recent times have painting and sculpture become 
 entirely secular arts. Only within these few centuries has 
 painting been divided into historical, landscape, marine, 
 architectural, genre, animal, still- life, &c., and sculpture 
 grown heterogeneous in respect of the variety of real and 
 ideal subjects with which it occupies itself. 
 
 Strange as it seems then, we find it no less true, that aD 
 forms of written language, of painting, and of sculpture, have 
 a common root in the politico-religious decorations of ancient 
 temples and palaces. Little resemblance as they now have, 
 the bust that stands on the console, the landscape that hangs 
 against the wall, and the copy of the Times lying upon the 
 table, are remotely akin ; not only in nature, but by extraction. 
 The brazen face of the knocker which the postman has just 
 lifted, is related not only to the woodcuts of the Illustrated Lon- 
 don News which he is delivering, but to the characters of the 
 billet-doux which accompanies it. Between the painted window, 
 the prayer-book on which its light falls, and the adjacent 
 monument, there is consanguinity. The effigies on our coins, 
 the signs over shops, the figures that fill every ledger, the coat 
 of arms outside the carriage-panel, and the placards inside the 
 omnibus, are, in common with dolls, blue-books and paper-hang- 
 ings, lineally descended from the rude sculpt are-paintings in 
 which the Egyptians represented the triumphs and worship 
 of their god- kings. Perhaps no example can be given which 
 more vividly illustrates the multiplicity and heterogeneity 
 of the products that in course of time may arise by successive 
 differentiations from a common stock. 
 
 Before passing to other classes of facts, it should be observ- 
 ed that the evolution of the homogeneous into the hetero- 
 geneous is displayed not only in the separation of Painting 
 and Sculpture from Architecture and from each other, and in 
 the greater variety of subjects they embody ; but it is further 
 shown in the structure of each work. A modern picture 01 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 35*3 
 
 statue is of far more heterogeneous nature than an ancient 
 one. An Egyptian sculpture-fresco represents all its figures 
 as on one plane that is, at the same distance from the eye ; 
 and so is less heterogeneous than a painting that represents 
 them as at various distances from the eye. It exhibits all ob- 
 jects as exposed to the same degree of light ; and so is less 
 heterogeneous than a painting which exhibits different ob- 
 jects, and different parts of each object, as in different degrees 
 of light. It uses scarcely any but the primary colours, and 
 these in their full intensity ; and so is less heterogeneous than 
 a painting which, introducing the primary colours but sparing- 
 ly, employs an endless variety of intermediate tints, each of 
 heterogeneous composition, and differing from the rest not 
 only in quality but in intensity. Moreover, we see 
 
 in these earliest works a great uniformity of conception. The 
 same arrangement of figures is perpetually reproduced the 
 same actions, attitudes, faces, dresses. In Egypt the modes of 
 representation were so fixed that it was sacrilege to introduce 
 a novelty ; and indeed it could have been only in consequence 
 of a fixed mode of representation that a system of hierogly- 
 phics became possible. The Assyrian bas-reliefs display par- 
 allel characters. Deities, kings, attendants, winged- figures 
 and animals, are severally depicted in like positions, holding 
 like implements, doing like things, and with like expression or 
 non-expression of face. If a palm- grove is introduced, all the 
 trees are of the same height, have the same number of leaves, 
 and are equidistant. When water is imitated, each wave is 
 a counterpart of the rest ; an 1 the fish, almost always of one 
 kind, are evenly distributed over the surface. The beards of 
 the kings, the gods, and the winged-figures, are everywhere 
 similar ; as are the manes of the lions, and equally so those of 
 the horses. Hair is represented throughout by one form of 
 curl. The king's beard is quite architecturally built up of com- 
 pound tiers of uniform curls, alternating with twisted tiers 
 placed in a transverse direction, and arranged with perfect 
 regularity ; and the terminal tufts of the bulls' tails are re- 
 
854 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 presented in exactly the same manner. Without 
 
 tracing out analogous facts in early Christian art, in which, 
 though less striking, they are still visible, the advance in 
 heterogeneity will be sufficiently manifest on remembering that 
 in the pictures of our own day the composition is endlessly 
 varied ; the attitudes, faces, expressions, unlike ; the subor- 
 dinate objects different in size, form, position, texture ; and 
 more or less of contrast even in the smallest details. Or, ii 
 we compare an Egyptian statue, seated bolt upright on a 
 block, with hands on knees, fingers outspread and parallel, 
 eyes looking straight forward, and the two sides perfectly sym- 
 metrical in every particular, with a statue of the advanced 
 Greek or the modern school, which is asymmetrical in respect 
 of the position of the head, the body, the limbs, the arrange- 
 ment of the hair, dress, appendages, and in its relations to 
 neighbouring objects, we shall see the change from the homo- 
 geneous to the heterogeneous clearly manifested. 
 
 125. In the co-ordinate origin and gradual differentiation 
 of Poetry, Music, and Dancing, we have another series of illus- 
 trations. Rhythm in speech, rhythm in sound, and rhythm 
 in motion, were in the beginning, parts of the same thing ; 
 and have only in process of time become separate things. 
 Among various existing barbarous tribes we find them still 
 united. The dances of savages are accompanied by some kind 
 of monotonous chant, the clapping of hands, the striking of 
 rude instruments : there are measured movements, measured 
 words, and measured tones ; and the whole ceremony, usually 
 having reference to war or sacrifice, is of governmental cha- 
 racter. In the early records of the historic races we similarly 
 find these three forms of metrical action united in religious 
 festivals. In the Hebrew writings we read that the triumphal 
 ode composed by Moses on the defeat of the Egyptians, was 
 sung to an accompaniment of dancing and timbrels. The 
 Israelites danced and sung " at the inauguration of the golden 
 calf. And as it is generally agreed that this representation 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 855 
 
 of the Deity was borrowed from the mysteries of Apis, it is 
 probable that the dancing was copied from that of the Egyp- 
 tians on those occasions." There was an annual dance in 
 Shiloh on the sacred festival ; and David danced before the 
 ark. Again, in Greece the like relation is everywhere seen : 
 the original type being there, as probably in other cases, a 
 simultaneous chanting and mimetic pepresentation of the life 
 and adventures of the god. The Spartan dances were ac- 
 companied by hymns and songs ; and in general the Greeks 
 had. " no festivals or religious assemblies but what were ac- 
 companied with songs and dances " both of them being 
 forms of worship used before altars. Among the Romans, 
 too, there were sacred dances : the Salian and Lupercalian 
 Deing named as of that kind. And even in Christian countries, 
 as at Limoges in comparatively recent times, the people have 
 danced in the choir in honour of a saint. The in- 
 
 cipient separation of these once united arts from each other 
 and from religion, was early visible in Greece. Probably 
 diverging from dances partly religious, partly warlike, as the 
 Corybantian, came the war-dances proper, of which there 
 were various kinds ; and from these resulted secular dances. 
 Meanwhile Music and Poetry, though still united, came to 
 have an existence separate from dancing. The aboriginal 
 Greek poems, religious in subject, \rere not recited but 
 chanted ; and though at first the chant of the poet was ac- 
 companied by the dance of the chorus, it ultimately grew 
 into independence. Later still, when the poem had been 
 differentiated into epic and lyric when it became the custom 
 to sing the lyric and recite t\e epic poetry proper was born. 
 As during the same period musical instruments were being 
 multiplied, we may presume that music came to have an exist- 
 ence apart from words. And both of them were beginning 
 to assume other forms besides the religious. Facts 
 
 having like implications mi ^ht be cited from the histories of 
 later times and peoples ; as the practices of our own early 
 minstrels, who sang to the harp heroic narratives versified 
 
356 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 by themselves to music of their own composition : thus 
 uniting the now separate offices of poet, composer, vocalist, 
 and instrumentalist. But, without further illustration, the 
 common origin and gradual differentiation of Dancing, Poetry, 
 and Music will be sufficiently manifest. 
 
 The advance from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous 
 is displayed not only in the separation of these arts from 
 each other and from religion, but also in the multiplied 
 differentiations which each of them afterwards undergoes. 
 Not to dwell upon the numberless kinds of dancing that 
 have, in course' of time, come into use ; and not to occupy 
 space in detailing the progress of poetry, as seen in the de- 
 velopment of the various forms of metre, of rhyme, and of 
 general organization ; let us confine our attention to music 
 as a type of the group. As argued by Dr Burney, 
 
 and as implied by the customs of still extant barbarous races, 
 the first musical instruments were, without doubt, percussive 
 .sticks, calabashes, tom-toms and were used simply to 
 mark the time of the dance ; and in this constant repeti- 
 tion of the same sound, we see music in its most homo- 
 geneous form. The Egyptians had a lyre with three 
 strings. The early lyre of the Greeks had four, constituting 
 their tetrachord. In course of some centuries lyres of seven 
 and eight strings were employed. And, by the expiration of 
 a thousand years, they had advanced to their " great system " 
 of the double octave. Through all which changes there of 
 course arose a greater heterogeneity of melody. Simulta- 
 neously there came into use the different modes Dorian, 
 Ionian, Phrygian, ^Eolian, and Lydian answering to our 
 keys : and of these there were ultimately fifteen. As yet, 
 uowever, there was but little heterogeneity in the time of 
 their music. Instrumental music during this period being 
 merely the accompaniment of vocal music, ai.d vocal music 
 being completely subordinated to words, the singer being 
 also the poet, chanting his own compositions and making the 
 lengths of his notes agree with the feet of his verses ; there 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 35? 
 
 unavoidably arose u tiresome uniformity of measure, which, 
 as Dr Burney says, " no resources of melody could disguise." 
 Lacking the complex rhythm obtained by our equal bars and 
 unequal notes, the only rhythm was that produced by the 
 quantity of the syllables, and was of necessity comparatively 
 monotonous. And further, it may be observed that the chant 
 thus resulting, being like recitative, was much less clearly 
 differentiated from ordinary speech than is our modern song. 
 Nevertheless, considering the extended range of notes in use, 
 the variety of modes, the occasional variations of time conse- 
 quent on changes of metre, and the multiplication of instru- 
 ments, we see that music had, towards the close of Greek 
 civilization, attained to considerable heterogeneity : not in- 
 deed as compared with our music, but as compared with that 
 which preceded it. As yet, however, there existed 
 
 nothing but melody : harmony was unknown. It was not 
 until Christian church-music had reached some development, 
 that music in parts was evolved ; and then it came into exist- 
 ence through a very unobtrusive differentiation. Difficult as 
 it may be to conceive, a priori, how the advance from melody 
 to harmony could take place without a sudden leap, it is none 
 the less true that it did so. The circumstance which prepared 
 the way for it, was the employment of two choirs singing al- 
 ternately the same air. Afterwards it became the practice 
 (very possibly first suggested by a mistake) for the second 
 choir to commence before the first had ceased ; thus producing 
 a fugue. With the simple airs then in use, a partially har- 
 monious fugue might not improbably thus result ; and a very 
 partially harmonious fugue satisfied the ears of that age, as 
 we know from still preserved examples. The idea having 
 once been given, the composing of airs productive of fugal 
 harmony would naturally grow up ; as in some way it did 
 grow up out of this alternate choir-singing. And from the 
 fugue to concerted music of two, three, four, and more parts, 
 the transition was easy Without pointing out in 
 
 detail the in creasing complexity that resulted from introducing 
 17 
 
358 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 notes of various lengths, from the multiplication of keys, 
 from the use of accidentals, from varieties of time, from mo- 
 dulations and so forth, it needs but to contrast music as it is, 
 with music as it was, to see how immense is the increase of 
 heterogeneity. We see this if, looking at music in its ensem- 
 ble, we enumerate its many different genera and species if 
 we consider the divisions into vocal, instrumental, and mixed; 
 and their subdivisions into music for different voices and dif- 
 ferent instruments if we observe the many forms of sacred 
 music, from the simple hymn, the chant, the canon, motet, 
 anthem, &c., up to the oratorio ; and the still more numerous 
 forms of secular music, from the ballad up to the serenata, 
 from the instrumental solo up to the symphony. Again, the 
 same truth is seen on comparing any one sample of aboriginal 
 music with a sample of modern music even an ordinary 
 song for the piano ; which we find to be relatively highly 
 heterogeneous, not only in respect of the varieties in the pitch 
 and in the length of the notes, the number of different notes 
 sounding at the same instant in company with the voice, and 
 the variations of strength with which they are sounded and 
 sung, but in respect of the changes of key, the changes of 
 time, the changes of timbre of the voice, and the many other 
 modifications of expression. While between the old mono- 
 tonous dance-chant and a grand opera of our own day, with 
 its endless orchestral complexities and vocal combinations, 
 the contrast in heterogeneity is so extreme that it seems 
 scarcely credible that the one should have been the ancestor of 
 the other. 
 
 126, Were they needed, many farther illustrations m'glit 
 be cited. Going back to the early time when the deeds of the 
 god-king, chanted and mimetically represented in dance 
 round his altar, were further narrated in picture writings on 
 the walls of temples and palaces, and so constituted a rude 
 literature, we might trace the development of Literature 
 through phases in which, as in the Hebrew Scriptures, it pre- 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 359 
 
 sents in one work, theology, cosmogony, history, biography, 
 civil law, ethics, poetry ; through other phases in which, as in 
 the Iliad, the religious, martial, historical, the epic, dramatic, 
 and lyric elements are similarly commingled ; down to its pre- 
 sent heterogeneous development, in which its divisions and 
 subdivisions are so numerous and varied as to defy complete 
 classification. Or we might track the evolution of Science : 
 beginning with the era in which it was not yet differentiated 
 fiom Art, and was, in union with Art, the handmaid of Re- 
 ligion ; passing through the era in which the sciences were so 
 few and rudimentary, as to be simultaneously cultivated by 
 the same philosophers ; and ending with the era in which the 
 genera and species are so numerous that few can enumerate 
 them, and no one can adequately grasp even one genus. Or 
 we might do the like with Architecture, with the Drama, with 
 Dress. But doubtless the reader is already weary of illustra- 
 tions ; and my promise has been amply fulfilled. I believe it 
 has been shown beyond question, that that which the German 
 physiologists have found to be a law of organic develop- 
 ment, is a law of all development. The advance from the 
 simple to the complex, through a process of successive 
 differentiations, is seen alike in the earliest changes of the 
 Universe to which we can reason our way back, and in the 
 earliest changes which we can inductively establish ; it is 
 seen in the geologic and climatic evolution of the Earth, and 
 of every single organism on its surface; it is seen in the 
 evolution of Humanity, whether contemplated in the civil- 
 ized individual, or in the aggregations of races ; it is seen in 
 the evolution of Society, in respect alike of its political, its 
 religious, and its economical organization ; and it is seen IE 
 the evolution of all those endless concrete and abstract pro- 
 ducts of human activity, which constitute the environment 
 of our daily life. From the remotest past which Science can 
 fathom, up to the novelties of yesterday, an essential trait of 
 Evolution has been the transformation of the homogeneous 
 into the heterogeneous. 
 
860 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 127. Hence the general formula arrived at in the last 
 chapter needs supplementing. It is true that Evolution, 
 under its primary aspect, is a change from a less coherent 
 form to a more coherent form, consequent on the dissipation 
 of motion and integration of matter; but this is by no means 
 the whole truth. Along with a passage from the coherent 
 to the incoherent, there goes on a passage from the uniform 
 to the multiform. Such, at least, is the fact wherever Evolu- 
 tion is compound; which it is in the immense majority of 
 cases. While there is a progressing concentration of the 
 aggregate, either by the closer approach of the matter 
 within its limits, or by the drawing in of further matter, or 
 by both; and while the more. or less distinct parts into 
 which the aggregate divides and sub-divides are severally con- 
 centrating; these parts are also becoming unlike unlike in 
 size, or in form, or in texture, or in composition, or in several 
 or all of these. The same process is exhibited by the whole 
 and by its members. The entire mass is integrating, and 
 simultaneously differentiating from other masses ; and each 
 member of it is also integrating and simultaneously differen- 
 tiating from other members. 
 
 Our conception, then, must unite these characters. As 
 we now understand it, Evolution is definable as a change 
 from an incoherent homogeneity to a coherent heterogeneity, 
 accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of 
 matter. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED 
 
 128. BUT now, does this generalization express the 
 whole truth? Does it include everything essentially cha- 
 racterizing Evolution and exclude everything else ? Does 
 it comprehend all the phenomena of secondary re-distribution 
 which Compound Evolution presents, without comprehend- 
 ing any other phenomena? A critical examination of the 
 facts will show that it does neither. 
 
 Changes from the less heterogeneous to the more hetero- 
 geneous, which do not come within what we call Evolution, 
 occur in every local disease. A portion of the body in which 
 there arises a morbid growth, displays a new differentiation. 
 Whether this morbid growth be, or be not, more hetero- 
 geneous than the tissues in which it is seated, is not the 
 question. The question is, whether the organism as a whole 
 is, or is not, rendered more heterogeneous by the addition 
 of a part unlike every pre-existing part, in form, or com- 
 position, or both. And to this question there can be none 
 but an affirmative answer. Again, it may be con- 
 
 tended that the earlier stages of decomposition in a dead 
 body involve increase of heterogeneity. Supposing the 
 chemical changes to commence in some parts sooner than in 
 other parts, as they commonly do ; and to affect different 
 tissues in different ways, as they must; it seems to be a 
 necessary admission that the entire body, made up of unde- 
 composed parts and parts decomposed in various modes and 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 degrees, has become more heterogeneous than it was. 
 Though greater homogeneity will be the eventual result, the 
 immediate result is the opposite. And yet this immediate 
 result is certainly not Evolution. Other instances 
 
 are furnished by social disorders and disasters. A rebellion, 
 which, while leaving some provinces undisturbed, develops 
 itself here in secret societies, there in public demonstrations, 
 and elsewhere in actual conflicts, necessarily renders the 
 society, as a whole, more heterogeneous. Or when a dearth 
 causes commercial derangement with its entailed bank- 
 ruptcies, closed factories, discharged operatives, food-riots, 
 incendiarisms; it is manifest that, as a large part of the 
 community retains its ordinary organization displaying the 
 usual phenomena, these new phenomena must be regarded 
 as adding to the complexity previously existing. But such 
 changes, so far from constituting further Evolution, are steps 
 towards Dissolution. 
 
 Clearly, then, the definition arrived at in the last chapter 
 is an imperfect one. The changes above instanced as coming 
 within the formula as it now stands, are so obviously unlike 
 the rest, that the inclusion of them implies some distinction 
 hitherto overlooked. Such further distinction we have now 
 to supply. 
 
 129. At the same time that Evolution is a change from 
 the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, it is a change from 
 the indefinite to the definite. Along with an advance from 
 simplicity to complexity, there is an advance from confusion 
 to order from undetermined arrangement to determined 
 arrangement. Development, no matter of what kind, 
 exhibits not only a multiplication of unlike parts, but an 
 increase in the distinctness with which these parts are 
 marked off from one another. And this is the distinction 
 sought. For proof, it needs only to re-consider the 
 
 instances given above. The changes constituting disease, 
 have no such definiteness, either in locality, extent, or 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 363 
 
 outline, as the changes constituting development. Though 
 certain morbid growths are more common in some parts of 
 the body than in others (as warts on the hands, cancer on 
 the breasts, tubercle in the lungs), yet they are not con- 
 fined to these parts ; nor, when found on them, are they 
 anything like so precise in their relative positions as are 
 the normal parts around them. Their sizes are extremely 
 variable : they bear no such constant proportions to the 
 body as organs do. Their forms, too, are far less specific 
 than organic forms. And they are extremely confused in 
 their internal structures. That is, they are in all respects 
 comparatively indefinite. The like peculiarity 
 
 may be traced in decomposition. That total indefiniteness 
 to which a dead body is finally reduced, is a state towards 
 which the putrefactive changes tend from their commence- 
 ment. The advancing destruction of the organic com- 
 pounds, blurs the minute structure diminishes its dis- 
 tinctness. From the portions that have undergone most 
 decay, there is a gradual transition to the less decayed 
 portions. And step by step the lines of organization, 
 once so precise, disappear. Similarly with social 
 
 changes of an abnormal kind. The disaffection which 
 initiates a political outbreak, implies a loosening of those 
 ties by which citizens are bound up into distinct classes 
 and sub-classes. Agitation, growing into revolutionary 
 meetings, fuses ranks that are usually separated. Acts of 
 insubordination break through the ordained limits to indi- 
 vidual conduct ; and tend to obliterate the lines previously 
 existing between those in authority and those beneath 
 them. At the same time, by the arrest of trade, artizans 
 and others lose their occupations ; and in ceasing to be 
 functionally distinguished, merge into an indefinite mass. 
 And when at last there comes positive insurrection, all 
 magisterial and official powers, all class distinctions, and 
 all industrial differences, cease : organized society lapses 
 into an unorganized aggregation of social units. Similarly, 
 
864 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 in so far as famines and pestilences cause changes from 
 order towards disorder, they cause changes from definite 
 arrangements to indefinite arrangements. 
 
 Thus, then, is that increase of heterogeneity which con- 
 stitutes Evolution, distinguished from that increase of 
 heterogeneity which does not do so. Though in disease 
 and death, individual or social, the earliest modifications 
 are additions to the pre-existing heterogeneity, they are 
 not additions to the pre-existing definiteness. They begin 
 from the very outset to destroy this definiteness ; and 
 gradually produce a heterogeneity that is indeterminate 
 instead of determinate. As a city, already multiform in its 
 variously-arranged structures of various architecture, may 
 be made more multiform by an earthquake, which leaves 
 part of it standing and overthrows other parts in different 
 ways and degrees, but is at the same time reduced from 
 orderly arrangement to disorderly arrangement ; so may 
 organized bodies be made for a time more multiform by 
 changes which are nevertheless disorganizing changes. 
 And in the one case as in another, it is the absence of 
 definiteness which distinguishes the multiformity of regres- 
 sion from the multiformity of progression. 
 
 If advance from the indefinite to the definite is an 
 essential characteristic of Evolution, we shall of course find 
 it everywhere displayed; as in the last chapter we found 
 the advance from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous. 
 "With a view of seeing whether it is so, let us now re-con- 
 sider the same several classes of facts. 
 
 130. Beginning, as before, with a hypothetical illustra- 
 tion, we Lave to note that each step in the evolution of the 
 Solar System, supposing it to have originated from diffused 
 matter, was an advance towards more definite structure. 
 At first irregular in shape and with indistinct margin, the 
 attenuated substance, as it concentrated and began to rotate, 
 must have assumed the form of an oblate spheroid, which, 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION JONTTNUED. 865 
 
 with every increase of density, became more specific in out- 
 line, and had its surface more sharply marked off from the 
 surrounding void. Simultaneously, the constituent por- 
 tions of nebulous matter, instead of moving independently 
 towards their common centre of gravity from all points, 
 and revolving round it in various planes, as they would at 
 first do, must have had these planes more and more merged 
 into a single plane, that became less variable as the concen- 
 tration progressed became gradually defined. 
 
 According to tha hypothesis, change from indistinct cha- 
 racters to distinct ones, was repeated in the evolution of 
 planets and satellites; and may ir them be traced much 
 further. A gaseous spheroid is less definitely limited than 
 a fluid spheroid, since it is subject to larger and more rapid 
 undulations of surface, and to much greater distortions of 
 general form ; and, similarly, a liquid spheroid, covered as it 
 must be with waves of various magnitudes, is less definite 
 than a solid spheroid. The decrease of oblateness that goes 
 along with increase of integration, brings relative definite- 
 ness of other elements. A planet having an axis inclined 
 to the plane of its orbit, must, while its form is very 
 oblate, have its plane of rotation much disturbed by the 
 attraction of external bodies; whereas its approach to a 
 spherical form, involving a smaller precessional motion, 
 involves less marked variations in the direction of its axis. 
 
 With progressing settlement of the space-relations, the 
 force-relations simultaneously become more settled. The 
 exact calculations of physical astronomy, show us how defi- 
 nite these force-relations now are ; while their original 
 indefiniteness is implied in the extreme difficulty, if not 
 impossibility, of subjecting the nebular hypothesis to mathe- 
 matical treatment. 
 
 131. From that primitive molten state of the Earth 
 inferable from geological data a state accounted for by the 
 nebular hypothesis but inexplicable on any other the 
 
366 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 transition to its existing state lias been through stages in 
 which the characters became more determinate. Besides 
 being comparatively unstable in surface and contour, a liquid 
 spheroid is less specific than a solid spheroid in having no 
 fixed distribution of parts. Currents of molten matter, 
 though kept to certain general circuits by the conditions of 
 equilibrium, cannot, in the absence of solid boundaries, be 
 precise or permanent in their directions : all parts must be 
 in motion with respect to other parts. But a superficial 
 solidification, even though partial, is manifestly a step 
 towards the establishment of definite relations of position. 
 In a thin crust, however, frequently ruptured by disturbing 
 forces, and moved by every tidal undulation, fixity of re- 
 lative position can be but temporary. Only as the crust 
 thickens, can there arise distinct and settled geographical 
 relations. Observe, too, that when, on a surface 
 
 that has cooled to the requisite degree, there begins to pre- 
 cipitate the water floating above as vapour, the deposits 
 cannot maintain any definiteness either of state or place. 
 Falling on a solid envelope not thick enough to preserve 
 anything beyond slight variations of level, the water must 
 form shallow pools over areas sufficiently cool to permit con- 
 densation ; which areas must pass insensibly into others that 
 are too hot for this, and must themselves from time to time 
 be so raised in temperature as to drive off the water lying 
 on them. With progressing refrigeration, however, with 
 a growing thickness of crust, a consequent formation of 
 larger elevations and depressions, and the precipitation of 
 more atmospheric water, there comes an arrangement of 
 parts that is comparatively fixed in both time and space ; 
 and the definiteness of state and position increases, until 
 there results such a distribution of continents and oceans 
 as we now see a distribution that is not only topographi- 
 cally precise, but also in its cliff-marked coast-lines presents 
 divisions of land from water more definite than could have 
 existed when all the uncovered areas were low islands with 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 367 
 
 ihelving beaches, over which, the tide ebbed and flowed to 
 great distances. 
 
 Respecting the characteristics classed as geological, we 
 may draw parallel inferences. While the Earth's crust was 
 thin, mountain-chains were impossibilities : there could not 
 have been long and well-defined axes of elevation, with 
 distinct water-sheds and areas of drainage. Moreover, the 
 denudation of small islands by small rivers, and by tidal 
 streams both feeble and narrow, would produce no clearly- 
 marked sedimentary strata. Confused and varying masses 
 of detritus, such as we now find at the mouths of brooks, 
 must have been the prevailing formations. And these could 
 give place to distinct strata, only as there arose continents 
 and oceans, with their great rivers, long coast-lines, and 
 wide-spreading marine currents. 
 
 How there must simultaneously have resulted more de- 
 finite meteorological characters, need not be pointed out in 
 detail. That differences of climates and seasons grew 
 relatively decided as the heat of the Sun became distin- 
 guishable from the proper heat of the Earth; and that 
 the production of more specific conditions in each locality 
 was aided by increasing permanence in the distribution of 
 lands and seas ; are conclusions sufficiently obvious. 
 
 132. Let us turn now to the evidence furnished by 
 organic bodies. In place of deductive illustrations like the 
 foregoing, we shall here find numerous illustrations which 
 have been inductively established, and are therefore less 
 open to criticism. The process of mammalian development, 
 for example, will supply us with numerous proofs ready- 
 described by embryologists. 
 
 The first change which the ovum of a mammal undergoes 
 after continued segmentation has reduced its yelk to a mul- 
 berry-like mass, is the appearance of a greater definiteness 
 in the peripheral cells of this mass ; each of which acquires 
 a distinct enveloping membrane. These peripheral cells, 
 
868 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 vaguely distinguished from the internal ones by their 
 minuter sub-division as well as by their greater complete- 
 ness, coalesce to form the blastoderm or germinal mem- 
 brane. Presently, one portion of this membrane is ren- 
 dered unlike the rest by the accumulation of cells still 
 more sub-divided, which, together, form an opaque 
 roundish spot. This area germinativa, as it is called % 
 shades off gradually into the surrounding parts of the 
 blastoderm; and the area pellucida, subsequently formed 
 in the midst of it, is similarly without precise margin. 
 The ( ' primitive trace," which makes its appearance in the 
 centre of the area pellucida, and is the rudiment of that 
 vertebrate axis which is to be the fundamental character- 
 istic of the mature animal, is shown by its name to be 
 at first indefinite a mere trace. Beginning as a shallow 
 groove, it becomes slowly more pronounced: its sides 
 grow higher ; their summits overlap, and at last unite ; 
 and so the indefinite groove passes into a definite tube, 
 forming the vertebral canal. In this vertebral canal the 
 leading divisions of the brain are at first discernible only 
 as slight bulgings ; while the vertebrae commence as 
 indistinct modifications of the tissue bounding the canal. 
 Simultaneously, the outer surface of the blastoderm has 
 been differentiating from the inner surface : there has 
 arisen a division into the serous and mucous layers a 
 division at the outset indistinct, and traceable only 
 about the germinal area, but which insensibly spreads 
 throughout nearly the whole germinal membrane, and 
 becomes definite. From the mucous layer, the develop- 
 ment of the alimentary canal proceeds as that of the 
 vertebral canal does from the serous layer. Originally a 
 simple channel along the under surface of the embryonic 
 mass, the intestine is rendered distinct by the bending 
 down, on each side, of ridges which finally join to form a 
 tube the permanent absorbing surface is by degrees cut off 
 from that temporary absorbing surface with which it waa 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 369 
 
 continuous and uniform. And in an analogous mannei 
 the entire embryo, which at first lies outspread on the 
 yelk-sack, gradually rises up from it, and by the infold- 
 ing of its ventral region, becomes a separate mass, con- 
 nected with the yelk-sack only by a narrow duct. 
 
 These changes through which the general structure is 
 marked out with slowly-increasing precision, are paralleled 
 in the evolution of each organ. The heart begins as a 
 mere aggregation of cells, of which the inner liquefy to 
 form blood, while the outer are transformed into the 
 walls; and when thus sketched out, the heart is indefinite 
 not only as being unlined by limiting membrane, but also 
 as being little more than a dilatation of the central blood- 
 vessel. By and by the receiving portion of the cavity 
 becomes distinct from the propelling portion. Afterwards 
 there begins to grow across the ventricle, a septum, which 
 is, however, some time before it shuts off the two halves 
 from each other ; while the later-formed septum of the 
 auricle remains incomplete during the whole of foetal 
 life. Again, the liver commences by multipli- 
 
 cation of certain cells in the wall of the intestine. The 
 thickening produced by this multiplication "increases so 
 as to form a projection upon the exterior of the canal ;" 
 and at the same time that the organ grows and becomes 
 distinct from the intestine, the channels running through 
 it are transformed into ducts having clearly-marked walls. 
 Similarly, certain cells of the external coat of the alimentary 
 canal at its upper portion, accumulate into lumps or buds 
 from which the lungs are developed; and these, in their 
 general outlines and detailed structure, acquire distinctness 
 step by step. 
 
 Changes of this order continue long after birth ; and, 
 in the human being, are some of them not completed 
 till middle life. Daring youth, most of the articular 
 surfaces of the bones remain rough and fissured the cal- 
 careous deposit ending irregularly in the surrounding carti- 
 
370 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 lage. But between puberty and the age of thirty, these 
 articular surfaces are finished off into smooth, hard, sharply- 
 cut " epiphyses." Generally, indeed, we may say that in- 
 crease of definiteness continues when there has ceased 
 to be any appreciable increase of heterogeneity. And 
 there is reason to think that those modifications which 
 take place after maturity, bringing about old age and 
 death, are modifications of this nature; since they cause 
 rigidity of structure, a consequent restriction of move- 
 ment and of functional pliability, a gradual narrowing of 
 the limits within which the vital processes go on, ending 
 in an organic adjustment too precise too narrow in its 
 margin of possible variation to permit the requisite adapta- 
 tion to changes of external conditions. 
 
 133. To prove that the Earth's Flora and Faana, 
 regarded either as wholes or in their separate species, have 
 progressed in definiteness, is no more possible than it was 
 to prove that they have progressed in heterogeneity : lack 
 of facts being an obstacle to the one conclusion as to the other. 
 If, however, we allow ourselves to reason from the hypothesis, 
 now daily rendered more probable, that every species up to 
 the most complex, has arisen out of the simplest through 
 the accumulation of modifications upon modifications, just 
 as every individual arises; we shall see that there must 
 have been a progress from the indeterminate to the deter- 
 minate, both in the particular forms and in the groups of 
 forms. 
 
 We may set out with the significant fact that the lowest 
 organisms (which are analogous in structure to the germs 
 of all higher ones) have so little definiteness of character 
 that it is difficult, if not impossible, to decide whether they 
 are plants or animals. Respecting sundry of them there are 
 unsettled disputes between zoologists and botanists ; and it 
 is proposed to group them into a separate kingdom, forming 
 a common basis to the animal and vegetal kingdoms. Note 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 871 
 
 next that among the Protozoa, extreme indefiniteness of shape 
 is general. In sundry shell-less Rhizopods the form is so 
 irregular as to admit of no description; and it is neither 
 alike in any two individuals nor in the same individual at 
 successive moments. By aggregation of such creatures, are 
 produced, among other indefinite bodies, the Sponges 
 bodies that are indefinite in size, in contour, in internal 
 arrangement. As further showing how relatively indeter- 
 minate are the simplest organisms, it may be mentioned 
 that their structures vary greatly with surrounding con- 
 ditions : so much so that, among the Protozoa and Pro- 
 tophyta, many forms which were once classed as distinct 
 species, and even as distinct genera, are found to be merely 
 varieties of one species. If now we call to mind 
 
 how precise in their attributes are the highest organisms 
 how sharply cut their outlines, how invariable their pro- 
 portions, and how comparatively constant their structures 
 under changed conditions ; we cannot deny that greater 
 definiteness is one of their characteristics. We must admit 
 that if they have been evolved out of lower organisms, an 
 increase of definiteness has been an accompaniment of their 
 evolution. 
 
 That, in course of time, species have become more sharply 
 marked off from other species, genera from genera, and 
 orders from orders, is a conclusion not admitting of a more 
 positive establishment than the foregoing; and must, 
 indeed, stand or fall with it. If, however, species and 
 genera and orders have arisen by ' ' natural selection," then, 
 as Mr. Darwin shows, there must have been a tendency to 
 divergence, causing the contrasts between groups to 
 become greater. Disappearance of intermediate forms, 
 less fitted for special spheres of existence than the ex- 
 treme forms they connected, must have made the 
 differences between the extreme forms decided; and so, 
 from indistinct and unstable varieties, must slowly have 
 been produced distinct and stable species an inference 
 
372 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 which is in harmony with what we know respecting races 
 of men and races of domestic animals. 
 
 134. The successive phases through which societies 
 pass, very obviously display the progress from indeter- 
 minate arrangement to determinate arrangement. A wan- 
 dering tribe of savages, being fixed neither in its locality 
 nor in its internal distribution, is far less definite in the 
 relative positions of its parts than a nation. In such a tribe 
 the social relations are similarly confused and unsettled. 
 Political authority is neither well established nor precise. 
 Distinctions of rank are neither clearly marked nor im- 
 passable. And save in the different occupations of men and 
 women, there are no complete industrial divisions. Only 
 in tribes of considerable size, which have enslaved other 
 tribes, is the economical differentiation decided. 
 
 Any one of these primitive societies, however, that evolves, 
 becomes step by step more specific. Increasing in size, 
 consequently ceasing to be so nomadic, and restricted in 
 its range by neighbouring societies, it acquires, after pro- 
 longed border warfare, a settled territorial boundary. The 
 distinction between the royal race and the people, eventually 
 amounts in the popular apprehension to a difference of 
 nature. The warrior-class attains a perfect separation from 
 classes devoted to the cultivation of the soil, or other 
 occupations regarded as servile. And there arises a 
 priesthood that is defined in its rank, its functions, its 
 privileges. This sharpness of definition, growing 
 
 both greater and more variously exemplified as societies 
 advance to maturity, is extremest in those that have 
 reached their full development or are declining. Of 
 ancient Egypt we read that its social divisions were precise 
 and its customs rigid. Kecent investigations make it more 
 than ever clear, that among the Assyrians and surrounding 
 peoples, not only were the laws unalterable, but even the 
 minor habits, down to those of domestic routine, possessed 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 373 
 
 ft sacredness which insured their permanence. In India ut 
 the present day, the unchangeable distinctions of caste, 
 not less than the constancy in modes of dress, industrial 
 processes, and religious observances, show us how fixed are 
 the arrangements where the antiquity is great. Nor does 
 China, with its long-settled political organization, its elabo- 
 rate and precise conventions, and its unprogressive lite- 
 rature, fail to exemplify the same truth. 
 
 The successive phases of our own and adjacent societies, 
 furnish facts somewhat different in kind but similar in mean- 
 ing. Originally, monarchical authority was more baronial, 
 and baronial authority more monarchical, than afterwards. 
 Between modern priests and the priests of old times, who 
 while officially teachers of religion were also warriors, 
 judges, architects, there is a marked difference in defi- 
 niteness of function. And among the people engaged in 
 productive occupations, the like contrasts would be found 
 to hold : the industrial class has become more distinct 
 from the military; and its various divisions from one 
 another. A history of our constitution, reminding 
 
 us how the powers of King, Lords, and Commons, have 
 been gradually settled, would clearly exhibit analogous 
 changes. Countless facts bearing the like construction, 
 would meet us were we to trace the development of legis- 
 lation; in the successive stages of which, we should find 
 statutes gradually rendered more specific in their appli- 
 cations to particular cases. Even now we see that each 
 new law, beginning as a vague proposition, is, in the course 
 of enactment, elaborated into specific clauses; and further 
 that only after its interpretation has been established by 
 judges' decisions in courts of justice, does it reach its final 
 definiteness. From the annals of minor institu- 
 
 tions like evidence may be gathered. Eeligious, charitable, 
 literary, and all other societies, starting with ends and 
 methods roughly sketched out and easily modifiable, show us 
 how, by the accumulation of rules and precedents, the pur- 
 
374 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 poses become more distinct and the modes of action more 
 restricted ; until at last decay follows a fixity which admits 
 of no adaptation to new conditions. Should it be objected 
 that among civilized nations there are examples of de- 
 creasing definiteness, (instance the breaking down of limits 
 between ranks,) the reply is, that such apparent exceptions 
 are the accompaniments of a social metamorphosis a 
 change from the military or predatory type of social 
 structure, to the industrial or mercantile type, during which 
 the old lines of organization are disappearing and the new 
 ones becoming more marked. 
 
 135. All organized results of social action all super- 
 organic structures, pass through parallel phases. Being, as 
 they are, objective products of subjective processes, they 
 must display corresponding changes ; and that they do this, 
 the cases of Language, of Science, of Art, clearly prove. 
 
 Strike out from our sentences everything but nouns and 
 verbs, and there stands displayed the vagueness charac- 
 terizing undeveloped tongues. When we note how each 
 inflection of a verb, or addition by which the case of a noun 
 is marked, serves to limit the conditions of action or of ex- 
 istence, we see that these constituents of speech enable men 
 to communicate their thoughts more precisely. That the 
 application of an adjective to a noun or an adverb to a verb, 
 narrows the class of things or changes indicated, implies 
 that the additional word serves to make the proposition 
 more distinct. And similarly with other parts of speech. 
 
 The like effect results from the multiplication of words of 
 each order. When the names for objects, and acts, and 
 qualities, are but few, the range of each is proportionately 
 wide, and its meaning therefore unspecific. The similes and 
 metaphors so much used by aboriginal races, indirectly 
 and imperfectly suggest ideas, which they cannot express 
 directly and perfectly from lack of words. Or to take a 
 case from ordinary life, if we compare the speech of the 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 375 
 
 pea sap t. who, out of his limited vocabulary, can describe 
 the contents of the bottle he carries, only as " doctor*s- 
 stu ff " which he has got for his " sick " wife, with the 
 sppech of the physician, who tells those educated like 
 himself the particular composition of the medicine, and the 
 particular disorder for which he has prescribed it ; we have 
 vividly brought home to us, the precision which language 
 gains by the multiplication of terms. 
 
 Again, in the course of its evolution, each tongue acquires 
 a further accuracy through processes which fix the meaning 
 of each word. Intellectual intercourse slowly diminishes 
 laxity of expression. By and by dictionaries give defini- 
 tions. And eventually, among the most cultivated, inde- 
 finiteuess is not tolerated, either in the terms used or in their 
 grammatical combinations. 
 
 Once more, languages considered as wholes, become 
 gradually more sharply marked off from one another, and 
 from their common parent : as witness in early times the 
 divergence from the same root of two languages so unlike 
 as Greek and Latin, and in later times the development of 
 three Latin dialects into Italian, French, and Spanish. 
 
 136. In his "History of the Inductive Sciences," Dr. 
 Whewell says that the Greeks failed in physical philosophy 
 because their " ideas were not distinct, and appropriate to 
 the facts " I do not quote this remark for its luminous- 
 ness ; since it would be equally proper to ascribe the 
 indistinctness and inappropriateness of their ideas to the 
 imperfection of their physical philosophy; but I quote it 
 because it serves as good evidence of the indefiniteness of 
 primitive science. The same work and its fellow on " The 
 Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences," supply other evi- 
 dences equally good, because equally independent of any 
 such hypothesis as is here to be established. Respecting 
 mathematics, we have the fact that geometrical theorems 
 grew out of empirical methods ; and that these theorems, at 
 
376 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 first isolated, did not acquire the clearness which complete 
 demonstration gives, until they were arranged by Euclid 
 into a series of dependent propositions. At a later period, 
 the same general truth was exemplified in the progress 
 from the " method of exhaustions " and the " method of 
 indivisibles " to the " method of limits ; " which is the 
 central idea of the infinitesimal calculus. In early 
 
 mechanics, too, may be traced a dim perception that action 
 and re-action are equal and opposite ; though, for ages after, 
 this truth remained unformulated. And similarly, the 
 property of inertia, though not distinctly comprehended 
 until Kepler lived, was vaguely recognized long previously. 
 ' f The conception of statical force," " was never presented 
 in a distinct form till the works of Archimedes appeared ; " 
 and " the conception of accelerating force was confused, in 
 the mind of Kepler and his contemporaries, and did not 
 become clear enough for purposes of sound scientific reason- 
 ing before the succeeding century/' To which specific asser- 
 tions may be added the general remark, that " terms which 
 originally, and before the laws of motion were fully known, 
 were used in a very vague and fluctuating sense, were 
 afterwards limited and rendered precise." When 
 
 we turn from abstract scientific conceptions to the con- 
 crete previsions of science, of which astronomy furnishes 
 numerous examples, a like contrast is visible. The times 
 at which celestial phenomena will occur, have been predicted 
 with ever-increasing accuracy. Errors once amounting to 
 days are now diminished to seconds. The correspondence 
 between the real and supposed forms of orbits, has been 
 gradually rendered more precise. Originally thought circular, 
 then epicyclical, then elliptical, orbits are now ascertained to 
 be curves which always deviate from perfect ellipses, and 
 are ever undergoing changes. 
 
 But the general advance of Science in definiteness, is best 
 shown by the contrast between its qualitative stage, and its 
 quantitative stage. At first the facts ascertained were, that 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. o77 
 
 between such and such phenomena some connexion existed 
 * that the appearances a and b always occurred together or 
 in succession ; but it was known neither what was the 
 nature of the relation between a and I), nor how much of a 
 accompanied so much of b. The development of Science 
 has in part been the reduction of these vague connexions to 
 distinct ones. Most relations have been classed as me- 
 chanical, chemical, thermal, electric, magnetic, &c. ; and we 
 have learnt to infer the amounts of the antecedents and con- 
 sequents from each other with exactness. Of 
 illustrations, some furnished by physics have been given; 
 and from other sciences plenty may be added. We have 
 positively ascertained the constituents of numerous com 
 pounds which our ancestors could not analyze, and of a far 
 greater number which they never even saw ; and the com- 
 bining equivalents of these elements are accurately calcu- 
 lated. Physiology shows advance from qualitative to quan- 
 titative prevision in the weighing and measuring of organic 
 products, and of the materials consumed; as well as in 
 measurement of functions by the spirometer and the sphyg- 
 mograph. By Pathology it is displayed in the use of the 
 statistical method of determining the sources of diseases, 
 and the effects of treatment. In Botany and Zoology, the 
 numerical comparisons of Floras and Faunas, leading to 
 specific conclusions respecting their sources and distribu- 
 tions, illustrate it. And in Sociology, questionable as are 
 the conclusions usually drawn from the classified sum-totals 
 of the census, from Board-of-Trade tables, and from 
 criminal returns, it must be admitted that these imply a 
 progress towards more accurate conceptions of social 
 phenomena. 
 
 That an essential characteristic of advancing Science is 
 increase in defmiteness, appears indeed almost a truism, 
 when we remember that Science may be described as 
 definite knowledge, in contradistinction to that indefinite 
 knowledge possessed by the uncultured. And if, as we 
 
878 THE LAW OE EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 cannot question, Science has, in the course of agss, been 
 evolved out of this indefinite knowledge of the uncultured ; 
 then, the gradual acquirement of that great definiteness 
 which now distinguishes it, must have been a leading trait 
 in its evolution. 
 
 137. The Arts, industrial and aesthetic, supply illustra- 
 tions perhaps still more striking. Flint implements of the 
 kind recently found in certain of the later geologic deposits, 
 show the extreme want of precision in men's first handi- 
 works. Though a great advance on these is seen in the 
 tools and weapons of existing savage tribes, yet an inexact- 
 ness in forms and fittings distinguishes such tools and 
 weapons from those of civilized races. In a smaller degree, 
 the productions of the less-advanced nations are character- 
 ized by like defects. A Chinese junk, with all its con- 
 tained furniture and appliances, nowhere presents a line 
 that is quite straight, a uniform curve, or a true sur- 
 face. Nor do the utensils and machines of our 
 ancestors fail to exhibit a similar inferiority to our own. 
 An antique chair, an old fireplace, a lock of the last century, 
 or almost any article of household use that has been pre- 
 served for a few generations, proves by contrast how greatly 
 the industrial products of our time excel those of the past in 
 their accuracy. Since planing machines have been invented, 
 it has become possible to produce absolutely straight lines, 
 and surfaces so truly level as to be air-tight when applied to 
 each other. While in the dividing-engine of Troughton, in 
 the micrometer of Whitworth, and in microscopes that show 
 fifty thousand divisions to the inch, we have an exactness 
 as far exceeding that reached in the works of our great- 
 grandfathers, as theirs exceeded that of the aboriginal 
 celt-makers. 
 
 In the Fine Arts there has been a parallel progress. 
 From the rudely-carved and painted idols of savages, 
 through the early sculptures characterized by limbs with- 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 379 
 
 out muscular detail, wooden-looking drapery, and faces 
 devoid of individuality, up to the later statues of the Greeks 
 or some of those now produced, the increased accuracy of 
 representation is conspicuous. Compare the mural paint- 
 ings of the Egyptians with the paintings of mediaeval 
 Europe, or these with modern paintings, and the more 
 precise rendering of the appearances of objects is mani- 
 fest. It is the same with fiction and the drama. 
 In the marvellous tales current among Eastern nations, in 
 the romantic legends of feudal Europe, as well as in the 
 mystery-plays and those immediately succeeding them, we 
 see great want of correspondence to the realities of life ; 
 alike in the predominance of supernatural events, in the 
 extremely improbable coincidences, and in the vaguely- 
 indicated personages. Along with social advance, there 
 has been a progressive diminution of unnaturalness an 
 approach to truth of representation. And now, novels and 
 plays are applauded in proportion to the fidelity with which 
 they exhibit individual characters ; improbabilities, like the 
 impossibilities which preceded them, are disallowed; and 
 there is even an incipient abandonment of those elaborate 
 plots which life rarely if ever furnishes. 
 
 138. It would be easy to accumulate evidences of other 
 kinds. The progress from myths and legends, extreme 
 in their misrepresentations, to a history that has slowly 
 become, and is still becoming, more accurate; the esta- 
 blishment of settled systematic methods of doing things, 
 instead of the indeterminate ways at first pursued these 
 might be enlarged upon in further exemplification of the 
 general law. But the basis of induction is already wide 
 enough. Proof that all Evolution is from the indefinite to 
 the definite, we find to be not less abundant than proof 
 that all Evolution is from the homogeneous to the hete- 
 rogeneous. 
 
 It should, however, be added that this advance in definite- 
 
380 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 
 
 ness is not a primary but a secondary phenomenon is a 
 result incidental on other changes. The transformation of 
 a whole that was originally diffused and uniform into a con- 
 centrated combination of multiform parts, implies progres- 
 sive separation both of the whole from its environment and 
 of the parts from one another. While this is going on there 
 must be indistinctness. Only as the whole gains density, 
 does it become sharply marked off from the space or matter 
 lying outside of it; and only as each separated division 
 draws into its mass those peripheral portions, which are at 
 first imperfectly disunited from the peripheral portions of 
 neighbouring divisions, can it acquire anything like a precise 
 outline. That is to say, the increasing definiteness is a conco- 
 mitant of the increasing consolidation, general and local. 
 While the secondary re-distributions are ever adding to the 
 heterogeneity, the primary re-distribution, while augmenting 
 the integration, is incidentally giving distinctness to the in- 
 creasingly-unlike parts as well as to the aggregate of them. 
 But though this universal trait of Evolution is a necessary 
 accompaniment of the traits set forth in preceding chapters. 
 it is not expressed in the words used to describe them. It 
 is therefore needful further to modify our formula. The 
 more specific idea of Evolution now reached is a change 
 from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity, to a definite 
 coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of 
 motion and integration of matter. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 i 
 
 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 
 
 139. The conception of Evolution elaborated in the 
 foregoing chapters, is still incomplete. True though it is 
 it is not the whole truth. The transformations which all 
 things undergo during the ascending phases of their exist- 
 ence, we have contemplated under three aspects ; and by 
 uniting these three aspects as "simultaneously presented, we 
 have formed an approximate idea of the transformations. 
 But there are concomitant changes about which nothing has 
 yet been said; and which, though less conspicuous, are no 
 less essential. 
 
 For thus far we have attended only to the re-distribution 
 of Matter, neglecting the accompanying re-distribution of 
 Motion. Distinct or tacit reference has, indeed, repeatedly 
 been made to the dissipation of Motion, that goes on along 
 with the concentration of Matter ; and were all Evolution 
 absolutely simple, the total fact would be contained in the 
 proposition that as Motion dissipates Matter concentrates. 
 But while we have recognized the ultimate re-distribu- 
 tion of the Motion, we have passed over its proximate re-dis- 
 tribution. Though something has from time to time been 
 said about the escaping motion, nothing has been said 
 about the motion that does not escape. In proportion as 
 Evolution becomes compound in proportion as an aggre- 
 gate retains, for a considerable time, such a quantity of 
 18 
 
882 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 
 
 motion as permits secondary re-distributions of its com- 
 ponent matter, there necessarily arise secondary re-distri- 
 butions of its retained motion. As fast as the parts 
 are transformed, there goes on a transformation of the 
 sensible or insensible motion possessed by the parts. Tho 
 parts cannot become progressively integrated, either indivi- 
 dually or as a combination, without their motions, indivi- 
 dual or combined, becoming more integrated. There cannot 
 arise among the parts heterogeneities of size, of form, of 
 quality, without there also arising heterogeneities in the 
 amounts and directions of their motions, or the motions of 
 their molecules. And increasing definiteness of the parts 
 implies increasing definiteness of their motions. In short, 
 the rhythmical actions going on in each aggregate, must 
 differentiate and integrate at the same time that the struc- 
 ture does so. 
 
 The general theory of this re-distribution of the retained 
 motion, must here be briefly stated. Properly to supplement 
 our conception of Evolution under its material aspect by a 
 conception of Evolution under its dynamical aspect, we have 
 to recognize the source of the integrated motions that arise, 
 and to see how their increased multiformity and definiteness 
 are necessitated. If Evolution is a passage of 
 
 matter from a diffused to an aggregated state if while the 
 dispersed units are losing part of the insensible motion 
 which kept them dispersed, there arise among coherent 
 masses of them, any sensible motions with respect to one 
 another; then this sensible motion must previously have 
 existed in the form of insensible motion among the units. 
 If concrete matter arises by the aggregation of diffused 
 matter, then concrete motion arises by the aggregation of 
 diffused motion. That which comes into existence as the 
 movement of masses, implies the cessation of an equivalent 
 molecular movement. While we must leave in the shape of 
 hypothesis the belief that the celestial motions have thus 
 originated; w may see, as a matter of fact, that this is the 
 
THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 
 
 genesis of all sensible motions on the Earth's surface. Aa 
 before shown (69), the denudation of lands and deposit 
 of new strata, are effected by water in the course of its de- 
 scent to the sea, or during the arrest of those undulations 
 produced on it by winds ; and, as before shown, the eleva- 
 tion of water to the height whence it fell, is due to solar 
 heat, as is also the genesis of those aerial currents which 
 drift it about when evaporated and agitate its surface when 
 condensed. That is to say, the molecular motion of tho 
 etherial medium is transformed into the motion of gases, 
 thence into the motion of liquids, and thence into the mo- 
 tion of solids stages in each of which a certain amount 
 of molecular motion is lost and an equivalent motion of 
 masses gained. It is the same with organic movements. 
 Certain rays issuing from the Sun, enable the plant to 
 reduce special elements existing in gaseous combination 
 around it, to a solid form enable the plant, that is, to 
 grow and carry on its functional changes. And since 
 growth, equally with circulation of sap, is a mode of sen- 
 sible motion, while those rays which have been expended 
 in generating it consist of insensible motions, we have 
 here, too, a transformation of the kind alleged. Animals, 
 derived as their forces are, directly or indirectly, from 
 plants, carry this transformation a step further. Tho 
 automatic movements of the viscera, together with tho 
 voluntary movements of the limbs and body at large, arise 
 at the expense of certain molecular movements through- 
 out the nervous and muscular tissues ; and these originally 
 arose at the expense of certain other molecular move- 
 ments propagated by the Sun to the Earth; so that both 
 the structural and functional motions which organic Evo- 
 lution displays, are motions of aggregates generated by 
 the arrested motions of units. Even with the aggregates of 
 these aggregates the same rule holds. For among associated 
 men, the progress is ever towards a merging of individual 
 actions in the actions of corporate bodies. While, then, 
 
384 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 
 
 during Evolution, the escaping motion becomes, by porpe* 
 tually widening dispersion, more disintegrated, the motion 
 that is for a time retained, becomes more integrated ; and 
 so, considered dynamically, Evolution is a decrease in the 
 relative movements of parts and an increase in the relative 
 movements of wholes -using the words parts and wholes 
 in their most general senses. The advance is from the 
 motions of simple molecules to the motions of compound 
 molecules; from molecular motions to the motions of masses; 
 and from the motions of smaller masses to the motions of 
 larger masses. The accompanying change towards 
 
 greater multiformity among the retained motions, takes 
 place under the form of an increased variety of rhythms. 
 "We have already seen that all motion is rhythmical, from 
 the infinitesimal vibrations of infinitesimal molecules, up 
 to those vast oscillations between perihelion and aphelion 
 performed by vast celestial bodies. And as the contrast 
 between these extreme cases suggests, a multiplication of 
 rhythms must accompany a multiplication in the degrees 
 and modes of aggregation, and in the relations of the aggre- 
 gated masses to incident forces. The degree or mode of 
 aggregation will not, indeed, affect the rate or extent of 
 rhythm where the incident force increases as the aggregate 
 increases, which is the case with gravitation : here the only 
 cause of variation in rhythm, is difference of relation to the 
 incident forces; as we see in a pendulum, which, though 
 unaffected in its movements by a change in the weight of 
 the bob, alters its rate of oscillation when taken to the 
 equator. But in all cases where the incident forces do not 
 vary as the masses, every new order of aggregation initiates 
 a new order of rhythm : witness the conclusion drawn from 
 the recent researches into radiant heat and light, that the 
 molecules of different gases have different rates of undulation. 
 So that increased multiformity in the arrangement of 
 matter, necessarily generates increased multiformity of 
 rhythm ; both through increased variety in the sizes and 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 385 
 
 forms of aggregates, and through increased variety in their 
 relations to the forces which move them. That 
 
 these motions as they become more integrated and more 
 heterogeneous, must become more definite, is a proposition 
 that need not detain us. In proportion as any part of an 
 evolving whole segregates and consolidates, and in so doing 
 loses the relative mobility of its components, its aggregate 
 motion must obviously acquire distinctness. 
 
 Here, then, to complete our conception of Evolution, we 
 have to contemplate throughout the Cosmos, these metamor- 
 morphoses of retained motion that accompany the metamor- 
 phoses of component matter. We may do this with compa- 
 rative brevity : the reader having now become so far familiar 
 with the mode of looking at the facts, that less illustration 
 will suffice. To save space, it will be convenient to deal 
 with the several aspects of the metamorphoses at the 
 same time. 
 
 140. Dispersed matter moving, as we see it in a spiral 
 nebula, towards the common centre of gravity, from all 
 points at all distances with all degrees of indirectness, must 
 carry into the nebulous mass eventually formed, innumerable 
 momenta contrasted in their amounts and directions. As 
 the integration progresses, such parts of these momenta as 
 conflict are mutually neutralized, and dissipated as heat. The 
 out-standing rotatory motion, at first having unlike angular 
 velocities at the periphery and at various distances from the 
 centre, has its differences of angular velocity gradually re- 
 duced ; advancing towards a final state, now nearly reached 
 by the Sun, in which the angular velocity of the whole mass 
 is the same in which the motion is integrated. So, 
 
 too, with each planet and satellite. Progress from the 
 motion of a nebulous ring, incoherent and admitting of much 
 relative motion within its mass, to the motion of a dense 
 epheroid, is progress to a motion that is completely inte- 
 grated. The rotation, and the translation through space, 
 
386 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONOLtTDED. 
 
 severally become one and indivisible. Meanwhile, 
 
 there goes on that further integration by which the motions 
 of all the parts of the Solar System are rendered mutually 
 dependent. Locally in each planet and its satellites, and 
 generally in the Sun and the planets, we have a system of 
 simple and compound rhythms, with periodic and secular 
 variations, forming together an integrated set of movements. 
 The matter which, in its original diffused state, had 
 motions that were confused, indeterminate, or without 
 sharply-marked distinctions, has, during the evolution of 
 the Solar System, acquired definitely heterogeneous motions. 
 The periods of revolution of all the planets and satellites 
 are unlike ; as are also their times of rotation. Out of 
 these definitely heterogeneous motions of a simple kind, 
 arise others that are complex, but still definite ; as those 
 produced by the revolutions of satellites compounded with 
 the revolutions of their primaries ; as those of which pre- 
 cession is the result; and as those which are known as 
 perturbations. Each additional complexity of structure has 
 caused additional complexity of movements ; but still, a de- 
 finite complexity, as is shown by having calculable results. 
 
 141. While the Earth's surface was molten, the currents 
 in the voluminous atmosphere surrounding it, mainly of 
 ascending heated gases and of descending precipitated 
 liquids, must have been local, numerous, indefinite, and but 
 little distinguished from one another. But as fast as the 
 surface cooled, and solar radiation began to cause appre- 
 ciable differences of temperature between the equatorial 
 and polar regions, a decided atmospheric circulation from 
 poles to equator and from equator to poles, must have slowly 
 established itself : the vast moving masses of air becoming, 
 at last, trade-winds and other such permanent definite 
 currents These integrated motions, once com- 
 
 paratively homogeneous, were rendered heterogeneous as 
 great islands and continents arose, to complicate them by 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 337 
 
 periodic winds, caused by the varied heating of wide tracts 
 of land at different seasons. Rhythmical motions of a con- 
 stant and simple kind, were, by increasing multiformity of 
 the Earth's surface, differentiated into an involved com- 
 bination of constant and recurrent rhythmical motions, 
 joined with smaller motions that are irregular. 
 
 Parallel changes must have taken place in the motions of 
 water. On a thin crust, admitting of but small elevations 
 and depressions, and therefore of but small lakes and seas, 
 none beyond small local circulations were possible. But 
 along with the formation of continents and oceans, came the 
 vast movements of water from warm latitudes to cold and 
 from cold to warm movements increasing in amount, in 
 definiteness, and in variety of distribution, as the fea- 
 tures of the Earth's surface became larger and more con- 
 trasted. The like holds with drainage waters. The 
 tricklings of insignificant streams over narrow pieces of land, 
 were once the only motions of such waters; but as fast as wide 
 areas came into existence, the motions of many tributaries 
 became massed into the motions of great rivers; and instead 
 of motions very much alike, there arose motions consider- 
 ably varied. 
 
 Nor can we well doubt that the movements in the 
 Earth's crust itself, have presented an analogous progress. 
 Small, numerous, local, and very much like one another, 
 while the crust was thin, the elevations and subsidences 
 must, as the crust thickened, have extended over larger 
 areas, must have continued for longer eras in the same 
 directions, and must have been made more unlike in diffe- 
 rent regions by local differences of structure in the crust. 
 
 142. In organisms the advance towards a more inte- 
 grated, heterogeneous, and definite distribution of the re- 
 tained motion, which accompanies the advance towards a 
 more integrated, heterogeneous, and definite distribution of 
 the component matter, is mainly what we understand as tha 
 
388 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 
 
 development of functions. All active functions are either 
 sensible movements, as those produced by contractile 
 organs; or such insensible movements as those propagated 
 through the nerves; or such insensible movements as those 
 by which, in secreting organs, molecular re-arrangements 
 are effected, and new combinations of matter produced. 
 And what we have here to observe is, that during evolution, 
 functions, like structures, become more consolidated in- 
 dividually, as well as more combined with one another, at 
 the same time that they become more multiform and more 
 distinct. 
 
 The nutritive juices in animals of low types, move hither 
 and thither through the tissues quite irregularly, as local 
 strains and pressures determine : in the absence of a dis- 
 tinguishable blood and a developed vascular system, there 
 is no definite circulation. But along with the structural 
 evolution which establishes a finished apparatus for dis- 
 tributing blood, there goes on the functional evolution 
 which establishes large and rapid movements of blood, 
 definite in their courses and definitely distinguished as 
 efferent and afferent, and that are heterogeneous not simply 
 in their directions but in their characters being here di- 
 vided into gushes and there continuous. 
 
 Instance, again, the way in which, accompanying the 
 structural differentiations and integrations of the aliment- 
 ary canal, there arise differentiations and integrations 
 both of its mechanical movements and its actions of a non- 
 mechanical kind. Along an alimentary canal of a primitive 
 type, there pass, almost uniformly from end to end, waves of 
 constriction. But in a well-organized alimentary canal, 
 the waves of constriction are widely unlike at different 
 parts, in their kinds, strengths, and rapidities. In the mouth 
 they become movements of prehension and mastication 
 now occurring in quick succession and now ceasing for 
 hours. In the oesophagus these contractions, propulsive in 
 their office, and travelling with considerable speed, tako 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 389 
 
 Dlace at intervals during eating, and then do not take 
 place till the next meal. In the stomach another modi- 
 fication of this originally uniform action occurs : the 
 muscular constrictions are powerful, and continue during 
 the long periods that the stomach contains food. Through- 
 out the upper intestines, again, a further difference shows 
 itself the waves travel along, without cessation but are 
 relatively moderate. Finally, in the rectum this rhythm 
 departs in another way from the common type : qui- 
 escence lasting for many hours, is followed by a series 
 of strong contractions. Meanwhile, the essential actions 
 which these movements aid, have been growing more 
 definitely heterogeneous. Secretion and absorption are 
 no longer carried on in much the same way from end to 
 end of the tube; but the general function divides into 
 various subordinate functions. The solvents and ferments 
 furnished by the coats of the canal and the appended glands, 
 become widely unlike at upper, middle, and lower parts ot" 
 the canal ; implying different kinds of molecular changes. 
 Here the process is mainly secretory, there it is mainly 
 absorbent, while in other places, as in the oesophagus, 
 neither secretion nor absorption takes place to any ap- 
 preciable extent. While these and other internal 
 motions, sensible and insensible, are being rendered more 
 various, and severally more consolidated and distinct, there 
 is advancing the integration by which they are united into 
 local groups of motions and a combined system of motions. 
 While the function of alimentation sub-divides, its sub- 
 divisions become co-ordinated, so that muscular and secretory 
 actions go on in concert, and so that excitement of one part 
 of the canal sets up excitement of the rest. Moreover, the 
 whole alimentary function, while it supplies, matter for the 
 circulatory and respiratory functions, becomes so integrated 
 with them that it cannot for a moment go on without them. 
 And, as evolution advances, all three of these fundamental 
 functions fall into greater subordination to the nervous 
 
890 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 
 
 functions depend more and more on the due amount of 
 nervous discharge. 
 
 When we trace up the functions of external organs the 
 same truth discloses itself. Microscopic creatures are moved 
 through the water by oscillations of the cilia covering their 
 surfaces ; and various larger forms, as the Turlellaria, pro- 
 gress by ciliary action over solid surfaces. These motions 
 of cilia are, in the first place, severally very minute ; in the 
 second place they are homogeneous ; and in the third place 
 there is but little definiteness in them individually, or in 
 their joint product, which is mostly a mere random change 
 of place not directed to any selected point. Contrasting 
 this ciliary action with the action of developed locomotive 
 organs of whatever kind, we see that instead of innumerable 
 small or unintegrated movements there are a few compara- 
 tively large or integrated movements ; that actions all alike 
 are replaced by actions partially unlike ; and that instead of 
 being very feebly or almost accidentally co-ordinated, their 
 co-ordination is such as to render the motions of the body 
 as a whole, precise. A parallel contrast, less ex- 
 
 treme but sufficiently decided, is seen when we pass from 
 the lower types of creatures with limbs to the higher types 
 of creatures with limbs. The legs of a Centipede have 
 motions that are numerous, small, and homogeneous ; and 
 are so little integrated that when the creature is divided 
 and sub-divided, the legs belonging to each part propel 
 that part independently. But in one of the higher Annu- 
 losa, as a Crab, the relatively few limbs have motions 
 that are comparatively large in their amounts, that are 
 considerably unlike one another, and that are integrated 
 into compound motions of tolerable definiteness. 
 
 143. The last illustrations are introductory to illustra- 
 tions of the kind we class as psychical. They are the physio- 
 logical aspects of the simpler among those functions which, 
 under a more special and complex aspect, we distinguish a3 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 391 
 
 psychological. The phenomena subjectively known as 
 changes in consciousness, are objectively known as nervous 
 excitations and discharges, which science now interprets into 
 modes of motion. Hence, in following up organic evolution, 
 the advance of retained motion in integration, in hetero- 
 geneity, and in definiteness, may be expected to show itself 
 alike in the visible nervo-muscular actions and in the cor- 
 relative mental changes. We may conveniently look at the 
 facts as exhibited during individual evolution, before looking 
 at them as exhibited in general evolution. 
 
 The progress of a child in speech, very completely ex- 
 hibits the transformation. Infantine noises are comparatively 
 homogeneous; alike as being severally long-drawn and 
 nearly uniform from end to end, and as being constantly 
 repeated with but little variation of quality between narrow 
 limits. They are quite un-coordinated there is no integra- 
 tion of them into compound sounds. They are inarticulate, 
 or without those definite beginnings and endings character- 
 izing the sounds we call words. Progress shows itself first 
 in the multiplication of the inarticulate sounds : the extreme 
 vowels are added to the medium vowels, and the compound 
 to the simple. Presently the movements which form the 
 simpler consonants are achieved, and some of the sounds 
 become sharply cut ; but this definiteness is partial, for only 
 initial consonants being used, the sounds end vaguely. 
 While an approach to distinctness thus results, there also 
 results, by combination of different consonants with the 
 same vowels, an increase of heterogeneity ; and along with 
 the complete distinctness which terminal consonants give, 
 arises a further great addition to the number of unlike 
 sounds produced. The more difficult consonants and the 
 compound consonants, imperfectly articulated at first, are 
 by and by articulated with precision ; and there comes yet 
 another multitude of different and definite words words 
 that imply many kinds of vocal movements, severally per- 
 formed with exactness, as well as perfectly integrated into 
 
392 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 
 
 
 complex groups. The subsequent advance to dissyllables 
 and polysyllables, and to involved combinations of words, 
 shows the still higher degree of integration and heterogeneity 
 eventually reached by these organic motions. The 
 
 acts of consciousness correlated with these nervo-mus- 
 cular acts, of course go through parallel phases; and the 
 advance from childhood to maturity yields daily proof that 
 the changes which, on their physical side are nervous pro- 
 cesses, and on their mental side are processes of thought, 
 become more various, more denned, more coherent. At 
 first the intellectual functions are very much alike in kind 
 recognitions and classifications of simple impressions alone 
 go on; but in course of time these functions become multi- 
 form. Reasoning grows distinguishable, and eventually wo 
 have conscious induction and deduction; deliberate recollec- 
 tion and deliberate imagination are added to simple un- 
 guided association of ideas ; more special modes of mental 
 action, as those which result in mathematics, music, poetry, 
 arise; and within each of these divisions the mental pro- 
 cesses are ever being further differentiated. In definiteness 
 it is the same. The infant makes its observations so inac- 
 * curately that it fails to distinguish individuals. The child 
 errs continually in its spelling, its grammar, its arithmetic. 
 The youth forms incorrect judgments on the affairs of life. 
 Only with maturity comes that precise co-ordination in the 
 nervous processes that is implied by a good adjustment of 
 thoughts to things. Lastly, with the integration by which 
 simple mental acts are combined into complex mental acts, 
 it is so likewise. In the nursery you cannot obtain con- 
 tinuous attention there is inability to form a coherent 
 series of impressions ; and there is a parallel inability to 
 unito many co-existent impressions, even of the same order : 
 witness the way in which a child's remarks on a picture, 
 show that it attends only to the individual objects repre- 
 sented, and never to the picture as a whole. But with 
 advancing years it becomes possible to understand an in- 
 
THE LAW Of EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 393 
 
 Tolved sentence, to follow long trains of reasoning, to hold 
 iu one mental grasp numerous concurrent circumstances. 
 The like progressive integration takes place among the 
 mental changes we distinguish as feelings ; which in a child 
 act singly, producing impulsiveness, but in an adult act 
 more in concert, producing a comparatively balanced conduct. 
 After these illustrations supplied by individual evolution, 
 we may deal briefly with those supplied by general evolu- 
 tion, which are analogous to them. A creature of very low 
 intelligence, when aware of some large object in motion 
 near it, makes a spasmodic movement, causing, it may 
 be, a leap or a dart. The perceptions implied are re- 
 latively simple, homogeneous, and indefinite : the moving 
 objects are not distinguished in their kinds as injurious or 
 otherwise, as advancing or receding. The actions of escape 
 are similarly all of one kind, have no adjustments of direc- 
 tion, and may bring the creature nearer the source of peril 
 instead of further off. A stage higher, when the dart or the 
 leap is away from danger, we see the nervous changes so 
 far specialized that there results distinction of direction; 
 indicating a greater variety among them, a greater co-ordi- 
 nation or integration of them in each process, and a greater 
 definiteness. In still higher animals that discriminate be- 
 tween enemies and not-enemies, as a bird that flies from a 
 man but not from a cow, the acts of perception have 
 severally become united into more complex wholes, since 
 cognition of certain differential attributes is implied ; they 
 have become more multiform, since each additional com- 
 ponent impression adds to the number of possible com- 
 pounds ; and they have, by consequence, become more spe- 
 cific in their correspondences with objects more definite. 
 And then in animals so intelligent that they identify by 
 eight not species only but individuals of a species, the 
 mental changes are yet further distinguished in the same 
 three ways. In the course of human evolution the 
 
 law is equally manifested. The thoughts of the savage are 
 
394 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 
 
 nothing like so heterogeneous in their kinds as those of the 
 civilized man, whose complex environment presents a multi- 
 plicity of new phenomena. His mental acts, too, are much 
 less involved he has no words for abstract ideas, and is 
 found to be incapable of integrating the elements of such 
 ideas. And in all foit simple matters there is none of that 
 precision in his thinking which, among civilized men, leads 
 to the exact conclusions of science. Nor do the emotions 
 fail to exhibit a parallel contrast. 
 
 144. How in societies the movements or functions pro- 
 duced by the confluence of individual actions, increase in 
 their amounts, their multiformities, their precision, and 
 their combination, scarcely needs insisting upon after what 
 has been pointed out in foregoing chapters. For the sake 
 of symmetry of statement, however, a typical example or 
 two may be set down. 
 
 Take the actions devoted to defence or aggression. At 
 first the military function, undifferentiated from the rest (all 
 men in primitive societies being warriors) is relatively 
 homogeneous, is ill-combined, and is indefinite : savages 
 making a joint attack severally fight independently, in 
 similar ways, and without order. But as societies evolve 
 and the- military function becomes separate, we see that 
 while its scale increases, it progresses in multiformity, 
 in definiteness, and in combination. The movements 
 of the thousands of soldiers that replace the tens of 
 warriors, are divided and re-divided in their kinds here 
 are bodies that manoeuvre and fire artillery; there are 
 battalions that fight on foot ; and elsewhere are troops that 
 charge on horseback. Within each of these differentiated 
 functions there come others : there are distinct duties dis- 
 charged by privates, sergeants, captains, colonels, generals, 
 as also by those who constitute the commissariat and those 
 who attend to the wounded. The actions that have thua 
 become comparatively heterogeneous in general and in de- 
 
THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 395 
 
 tail, "have simultaneously increased in precision. Accuracy 
 of evolutions is given by perpetual drill ; so that in battle, 
 men and the regiments formed of them, aro made to tako 
 definite positions and perform definite acts at definite times. 
 Once more, there has gone on that integration by which the 
 multiform actions of an army are directed to a single end. 
 By a co-ordinating apparatus having the commander-in- 
 chief for its centre, the charges, and halts, and retreats are 
 duly concerted ; and a hundred thousand individual actions 
 are united under one will. 
 
 The progress here so clearly marked, is a progress trace- 
 able throughout social functions at large. Comparing the 
 rule of a savage chief with that of a civilized government, 
 aided by its subordinate local governments and their officers, 
 down to the police in the streets, we see how, as men have 
 advanced from tribes of tens to nations of millions, the re- 
 gulative process has grown large in amount ; how, guided 
 by written laws, it has passed from vagueness and irregu- 
 larity to comparative precision ; and how it has sub-divided 
 into processes increasingly multiform. Or observing how 
 the barter that goes on among barbarians, differs from our 
 own commercial processes, by which a million's worth of com- 
 modities is distributed daily ; by which the relative values 
 of articles immensely varied in kinds and qualities are 
 measured, and the supplies adjusted to the demands ; and 
 by which industrial activities of all orders are so combined 
 that each depends on the rest and aids the rest ; we see that 
 the kind of action which constitutes trade, has become pro- 
 gressively more vast, more varied, more definite, and more 
 integrated. 
 
 145. A finished conception of Evolution we thus find 
 to be one which includes the re-distribution of the retained 
 motion, as well as that of the component matter. This 
 added element of the conception is scarcely, if at all, less 
 important than the other. The movements of the Sola* 
 
896 THE LAW OP EVOLUTION CONCLUDED. 
 
 System have for us a significance equal to that which the 
 sizes, forms, and relative distances of its members possess. 
 And of the phenomena presented by an organism, it 
 must be admitted that the combined sensible and in- 
 sensible actions we call its life, do not yield in interest to 
 its structural traits. Leaving out, however, all implied 
 reference to the way in which these two orders of facts con- 
 cern us, it is clear that with each re- distribution of matter 
 fchere necessarily goes a re-distribution of motion ; and that 
 the unified knowledge constituting Philosophy, must com- 
 prehend both aspects of the transformation. 
 
 While, then, we have to contemplate the matter of an 
 evolving aggregate as undergoing, not progressive integra- 
 tion simply, but as simultaneously undergoing various 
 secondary re-distributions ; we have also to contemplate the 
 motion of an evolving aggregate, not only as being gradually 
 dissipated, but as passing through many secondary re-distri- 
 butions on the way towards dissipation. As the structural 
 complexities that arise during compound evolution, are in- 
 cidental to the progress from the extreme of diffusion to the 
 extreme of concentration; so the functional complexities 
 accompanying them, are incidental to the progress from the 
 greatest quantity of contained motion to the least quantity 
 of contained motion. And we have to state these con- 
 comitants of both transformations, as well as their begin- 
 nings and ends. 
 
 Our formula, therefore, needs an additional clause. To 
 combine this satisfactorily with the clauses as they stand in 
 the last chapter, is scarcely practicable; and for convenience 
 of expression it will be best to change their order. Doing 
 this, and making the requisite addition, the formula finally 
 stands thus : Evolution is an integration of matter and con- 
 comitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter 
 passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a de- 
 finite, coherent heterogeneity ; and during which the retained 
 motion undergoes a parallel transformation. 
 
CHAPTER xvm. 
 
 THE INTERPRETATION OF EVOLUTION. 
 
 146. Is this law ultimate or derivative ? Must we rest 
 satisfied with the conclusion that throughout all classes of 
 concrete phenomena such is the course of transformation ? 
 Or is it possible for us to ascertain why such is the course 
 of transformation? May we seek for some all-pervading 
 principle which underlies this all-pervading process ? Can 
 the inductions set forth in the preceding four chapters be 
 reduced to deductions? 
 
 Manifestly this community of result implies community of 
 cause. It may be that of such cause no account can be 
 given, further than that the Unknowable is manifested to us 
 after this mode. Or, it may be that this mode of mani- 
 festation is reducible to a simpler mode, from which these 
 many complex effects follow. Analogy suggests the latter 
 inference. Just as it was possible to interpret the empirical 
 generalizations called Kepler's laws, as necessary conse- 
 quences of the law of gravitation ; so it may be possible to 
 interpret the foregoing empirical generalizations as neces- 
 sary consequences of some deeper law. 
 
 Unless we succeed in finding a rationale of this universal 
 metamorphosis, we obviously fall short of that completely 
 unified knowledge constituting Philosophy. As they at 
 present stand, the several conclusions we have lately reached 
 appear to be independent there is no demonstrated con- 
 
398 THE INTERPRETATION OP EVOLUTION. 
 
 
 nexion between increasing definiteness and increasing hete- 
 rogeneity, or between both and increasing integration. Still 
 less evidence is there that these laws of the re-distribution 
 of matter and motion, are necessarily correlated with those 
 laws of the direction of motion and the rhythm of motion, 
 previously set forth. But until we see these now separate 
 truths to be implications of one truth, our knowledge re- 
 mains imperfectly coherent. 
 
 147. The task before us, then, is that of exhibiting the 
 phenomena of Evolution in synthetic order. Setting out 
 from an established ultimate principle, it has to be shown 
 that the course of transformation among all kinds of 
 existences, cannot but be that which we have seen it to be, 
 It has to be shown that the re-distribution of matter and 
 motion, must everywhere take place in those ways, and pro- 
 duce those traits, which celestial bodies, organisms, societies, 
 alike display. And it has to be shown that this universality . 
 of process, results from the same necessity which determines 
 each simplest movement around us, down to the accelerated 
 fall of a stone or the recurrent beat of a harp-string. 
 
 In other words, the phenomena of Evolution have to be 
 deduced from the Persistence of Force. As before said 
 " to this an ultimate analysis brings us down ; and on this 
 a rational synthesis must build up." This being the 
 ultimate truth which transcends experience by underlying 
 it, so furnishing a common basis on which the widest gene- 
 ralizations stand, these widest generalizations are to be 
 unified by referring them to this common basis. Already 
 the truths manifested throughout concrete phenomena of all 
 orders, that there is equivalence among transformed forces, 
 that motion follows the line of least resistance, and that it is 
 universally rhythmic, we have found to be severally deducible 
 from the persistence of force ; and this affiliation of them on 
 the persistence of force has reduced them to a coherent 
 whole. Here we have similarly to affiliate the universal 
 
THE INTERPRETATION OP EVOLUTION. 899 
 
 traits of Evolution, by showing that, given the persistence 
 of force, the re-distribution of matter and motion neces- 
 sarily proceeds in such way as to produce them ; and by 
 doing this we shall unite them as co-relative aspects of one 
 law, at the same time that we UDite this law with the fore- 
 going simpler laws. 
 
 148. Before proceeding it will be well to set down some 
 principles that must be borne in mind. In interpreting 
 Evolution we shall have to consider, under their special forms, 
 the various resolutions of force that accompany the re-distri- 
 bution of matter and motion. Lot us glance at such resolu- 
 tions under their most general forms. 
 
 Any incident force is primarily divisible into its effective 
 and non-effective portions. In mechanical impact, the entire 
 momentum of a striking body is never communicated to the 
 body struck : even under those most favourable conditions 
 in which the striking body loses all its sensible motion, 
 there still remains with it some of the original momentum, 
 under the shape of that insensible motion produced among 
 its particles by the collision. Of the light or heat falling on 
 any mass, a part, more or less considerable, is reflected; and 
 only the remaining part works molecular changes in the 
 mass. Next it is to be noted that the effective 
 
 force is itself divisible into the temporarily effective and the 
 permanently effective. The units of an aggregate acted on, 
 may undergo those rhythmical changes of relative position 
 which constitute increased vibration, as well as other 
 changes of relative position which are not from instant to 
 instant neutralized by opposite ones. Of these, the first, 
 disappearing in the shape of radiating undulations, leave the 
 molecular arrangement as it originally was ; while the se- 
 cond conduce to that re-arrangement characterizing com- 
 pound Evolution. Yet a further distinction has 
 to be made. The permanently effective force works out 
 changes of relative position of two kinds the insensible 
 
iOO THE INTERPRETATION OP EVOLUTION. 
 
 and the sensible. The insensible transpositions among the 
 units are those constituting molecular changes, including 
 what we call chemical composition and decomposition ; and 
 it is these which we recognize as the qualitative differences 
 that arise in an aggregate. The sensible transpositions aro 
 such as result when certain of the units, instead of being 
 put into different relations with their immediate neighbours, 
 are carried away from them and deposited elsewhere. 
 
 Concerning these divisions and sub-divisions of any force 
 affecting an aggregate, the fact which it chiefly concerns us 
 to observe is, that they are complementary to each other. 
 Of the whole incident force, the effective must be that which 
 remains after deducting the non-effective. The two parts of 
 the effective force must vary inversely as each other : where 
 much of it is temporarily effective, little of it can be perma- 
 nently effective; and vice versa. Lastly, the permanently 
 effective force, being expended in working both the insen- 
 sible re-arrangements which constitute molecular modifica- 
 tion, and the sensible re-arrangements which result in 
 structure, must generate of either kind an amount that is 
 great or small in proportion as it has generated a small or 
 great amount of the other, 
 
CHAPTER XDL 
 
 THE INSTABILITY OP THE HOMOGENEOUS.* 
 
 149. The difficulty of dealing with transformations so 
 many-sided as those which all existences have undergone, or 
 are undergoing, is such as to make a definite or complete 
 deductive interpretation seem almost hopeless. So to grasp 
 the total process of re-distribution of matter and motion, as 
 to see simultaneously its several necessary results in their 
 actual inter-dependence, is scarcely possible. There is, how- 
 ever, a mode of rendering the process as a whole tolerably 
 comprehensible. Though the genesis of the re-arrangement 
 undergone by every evolving aggregate, is in itself one, it 
 presents to our intelligence several factors; and after in- 
 terpreting the effects of each separately, we may, by synthesis 
 of the interpretations, form an adequate conception. 
 
 On setting out, the proposition which comes first in logical 
 order, is, that some re-arrangement must result; and this 
 proposition may be best dealt with under the more specific 
 shape, that the condition of homogeneity is a condition of 
 nnstable equilibrium. 
 
 First, as to the meaning of the terms ; respecting which 
 some readers may need explanation. The phrase unstable 
 eq idlibrium is one used in mechanics to express a balance of 
 forces of such kind, that the interference of any further force, 
 however minute, will destroy the arrangement previously 
 
 * The idea developed in this chapter originally formed part of an article oa 
 Transcendental Physiology," published in 1857. See Essays, pp. 279290 
 
4,02 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 subsisting ; and bring about a totally different arrangement. 
 Thus, a stick poised on its lower end is in unstable equili- 
 brium : however exactly it may be placed in a perpendicular 
 position, as soon as it is left to itself it begins, at first imper- 
 ceptibly, to lean on one side, and with increasing rapidity 
 falls into another attitude. Conversely, a stick suspended 
 from its upper end is in stable equilibrium : however much 
 disturbed, it will return to the same position. The proposi- 
 tion is, then, that the state of homogeneity, like the state of 
 the stick poised on its lower end, is one that cannot be main- 
 tained. Let us take a few illustrations. 
 
 Of mechanical ones the most familiar is that of the scales 
 If they be accurately made, and not clogged by dirt or rust, 
 it is impossible to keep a pair of scales perfectly balanced : 
 eventually one scale will descend and the other ascend they 
 will assume a heterogeneous relation. Again, if we sprinkle 
 over the surface of a fluid a number of equal-sized particles, 
 having an attraction for each other, they will, no matter how 
 uniformly distributed, by and by concentrate irregularly into 
 one or more groups. Were it possible to bring a mass of 
 water into a state of perfect homogeneity a state of complete 
 quiescence, and exactly equal density throughout yet the 
 radiation of heat from neighbouring bodies, by affecting 
 differently its different parts, would inevitably produce in- 
 equalities of density and consequent currents ; and would so 
 render it ta that extent heterogeneous. Take a piece of red- 
 hot matter, and however evenly heated it may at first be, it 
 will quickly cease to be so : the exterior, cooling faster than 
 the interior, will become different in temperature from it. 
 And the lapse into heterogeneity of temperature, so obvious 
 in this extreme case, takes place more or less in all 
 cases. The action of chemical forces supplies other 
 
 illustrations. Expose a fragment of metal to air or water, 
 and in course of time it will be coated with a film of oxide, 
 carbonate, or other compound : that is its outer parts will 
 become unlike its inner parts. Usually the heterogeneity 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 produced by the action of chemical forces on the surfaces of 
 masses, is not striking ; because the changed portions are 
 soon washed away, or otherwise removed. But if this is pre- 
 vented, comparatively complex structures result. Quarries 
 of trap- rock contain some striking examples. Not un- 
 frequently a piece of trap may be found reduced, by the 
 action of the weather, to a number of loosely-adherent coats, 
 like those of an onion. Where the block has been quite un- 
 disturbed, we may trace the whole series of these, from the 
 angular, irregular outer one, through successively included 
 ones in which the shape becomes gradually rounded, ending 
 finally in a spherical nucleus. On comparing the original 
 mass of stone with this group of concentric coats, each of 
 which differs from the rest in form, and probably in the state 
 of decomposition at which it has arrived, we get a marked 
 illustration of the multiformity to which, in lapse of time, 
 a uniform body may be brought by external chemical 
 action. The instability of the homogeneous is equally 
 
 seen in the changes set up throughout the interior of a mass, 
 when it consists of units that are not rigidly bound together. 
 The atoms of a precipitate never remain separate, and equably 
 distributed through the fluid in which they make their ap- 
 pearance. They aggregate either into crystalline grains, 
 each containing an immense number of atoms, or they aggre- 
 gate into flocculi, each containing a yet larger number ; and 
 where the mass of fluid is great, and the process prolonged, 
 these flocculi do not continue equi-distant, but break up into 
 groups. That is to say, there is a destruction of the balance 
 at first subsisting among the diffused particles, and also of 
 the balance at first subsisting among the groups into which 
 these particles unite. Certain solutions of non 
 
 crystalline substances in highly volatile liquids, exhibit in 
 the course of half an hour a whole series of changes that are 
 set up in the alleged way. If for example a little shell-lac- 
 varnish (made by dissolving shell-lac in coal-naptha until it 
 ifi of the consistence of cream) be poured on a piece of paper. 
 
104 THE INSTABILITY OP THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 the surface of the varnish will shortly become marked by 
 polygonal divisions, which, first appearing round the edge of 
 the mass, spread towards its centre. Under a lense these 
 irregular polygons of five or more sides, are seen to be sever- 
 ally bounded by dark lines, on each side of which there are 
 light-coloured borders. By the addition of matter to their 
 inner edges, the borders slowly broaden, and thus encroach 
 on the areas of the polygons ; until at length there re- 
 mains nothing bat a dark spot in the centre of each. At 
 the same time the boundaries of the polygons become curved ; 
 and they end by appearing like spherical sacs pressed toge- 
 ther ; strangely simulating (but only simulating) a group of 
 nucleated cells. Here a rapid loss of homogeneity is ex- 
 hibited in three ways : First, in the formation of the film, 
 which is the seat of these changes ; second, in the formation 
 of the polygonal sections into which this film divides ; and 
 third, in the contrast that arises between the polygonal sec- 
 tions round the edge, where they are small and early formed, 
 and those in the centre which are larger and formed later. 
 
 The instability thus variously illustrated is obviously con- 
 sequent on the fact, that the several parts of any homoge- 
 neous aggregation are necessarily exposed to different forces 
 forces that differ either in kind or amount ; and being ex- 
 posed to different forces they are of necessity differently 
 modified. The relations of outside and inside, and of com- 
 parative nearness to neighbouring sources of influence, imply 
 the reception of influences that are unlike in quantity or 
 quality, or both ; and it follows that unlike changes will be 
 produced in the parts thus dissimilarly acted upon. 
 
 For like reasons it is manifest that the process must re- 
 peat itself in each of the subordinate groups of units that are 
 differentiated by the modifying forces. Each of these sub- 
 ordinate groups, like the original group, must gradually, in 
 obedience to the influences acting upon it, lose its balance oi 
 parts must pass from a uniform into a multiform state. 
 And so on continuously. Whence indeed it is clear 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 405 
 
 that not only must the homogeneous lapse into the non- 
 homogeneous, but that the more homogeneous must tend 
 ever to become less homogeneous. If any given whole, in- 
 stead of being absolutely uniform throughout, consist of parts 
 distinguishable from each other if each of these parts, while 
 oinewhat unlike other parts, is uniform within itself; then, 
 each of them being in unstable equilibrium, it follows that 
 while the changes set up within it must render it multiform, 
 they must at the same time render the whole more multi- 
 form thar before. The general principle, now to be follow- 
 ed out in its applications, is thus somewhat more compre- 
 hensive than the title of the chapter implies. No demurrer to 
 the conclusions drawn, can be based on the ground that perfect 
 homogeneity nowhere exists ; since, whether that state with 
 which we commence be or be not one of perfect homogeneity, 
 the process must equally be towards a relative heterogeneity. 
 
 150. The stars are distributed with a three-fold irre- 
 gularity. There is first the marked contrast between the 
 plane of the milky way and other parts of the heavens, in 
 respect of the quantities of stars within given visual areas. 
 There are secondary contrasts of like kind in the milky way 
 itself, which has its thick and thin places ; as well as 
 throughout the celestial spaces in general, which are much 
 more closely strown in some regions than in others. And 
 there is a third order of contrasts produced by the aggrega- 
 tion of stars into small clusters. Besides this heterogeneity 
 of distribution of the stars in general, considered without 
 distinction of kinds, a further such heterogeneity is disclosed 
 when they are classified by their differences of colour, which 
 doubtless answer to differences of physical constitution 
 While the yellow stars are found in all parts of the heavens 
 the red and blue stars are not so : there are wide regions in 
 which both red and blue stars are rare ; there are regions in 
 which the blue occur in considerable numbers, and there 
 are other regions ill which the red are comparatively ubund- 
 19 
 
406 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 aat. Yet one more irregularity of like significance is pre- 
 sented by the nebulae, aggregations of matter which, what- 
 ever be their nature, most certainly belong to our sidereal 
 system. For the nebulae are not dispersed with anything 
 like uniformity ; but are abundant around the poles of the 
 galactic circle and rare in the neighbourhood of its 
 plane. No one will expect that anything like a de- 
 
 finite interpretation of this structure can be given on the 
 hypothesis of Evolution, or any other hypothesis. The most 
 that can be looked for is some reason for thinking that irre- 
 gularities, not improbably of these kinds, would occur in the 
 course of Evolution, supposing it to have taken place. Any 
 one called on to assign such reason might argue, that if the 
 matter of which stars and all other celestial bodies consist, be 
 assumed to have originally existed in a diffused form through- 
 out a space far more vast even than that which our sidereal 
 system now occupies, the instability of the homogeneous 
 would negative its continuance in that state. In default of 
 an absolute balance among the forces with which the dis- 
 persed particles acted on each other (which could not exist in 
 any aggregation having limits) he might show that motion 
 and consequent changes of distribution would necessarily 
 result. The next step in the argument would be that in 
 matter of such extreme tenuity and feeble cohesion there 
 would be motion towards local centres of gravity, as well as 
 towards the general centre of gravity ; just as, to use a 
 humble illustration, the particles of a precipitate aggregate 
 into flocculi at the same time that they sink towards the 
 earth. He might urge that in the one case as in the other, 
 these smallest and earliest local aggregations must gradually 
 divdde into groups, each concentrating to its own centre oi 
 gravity, a process which must repeat itself on a larger and 
 larger scale. In conformity with the law that motion once 
 set up in any direction becomes itself a cause of subsequent 
 motion in that direction, he might further infer that the 
 heterogeneities thus set up would tend ever to become more 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. -407 
 
 pronounced. Established mechanical principles would 
 justify him in the conclusion that the motions of these irre- 
 gular masses of slightly aggregated nebular matter towards 
 their common centre of gravity must be severally rendered 
 curvelinear, by the resistance of the medium from which they 
 were precipitated ; and that in consequence of the irregu- 
 larities of distribution already set up, such conflicting curve - 
 linear motions must, by composition of forces, end in a rotation 
 of the incipient sidereal system. He might without difficulty 
 show that the resulting centrifugal force must so far modify the 
 process of general aggregation, as to prevent anything like 
 uniform distribution of the stars eventually formed that 
 there must arise a contrast such as we see between the galac- 
 tic circle and the rest of the heavens. He might draw the 
 further not unwarrantable inference, that differences in the 
 process of local concentration would probably result from the 
 unlikeness between the physical conditions existing around 
 the general axis of rotation and those existing elsewhere. 
 To which he might add, that after the formation of distinct 
 stars, the ever-increasing irregularities of distribution due to 
 continuance of the same causes would produce that patchi- 
 ness which distinguishes the heavens in both its larger and 
 smaller areas. We need not here however commit 
 
 ourselves to such far-reaching speculations. For the purposes 
 of the general argument it is needful only to show, that 
 any finite mass of diffused matter, even though vast enough 
 to form our whole sidereal system, could not be in stable 
 equilibrium ; that in default of absolute sphericity, absolute 
 uniformity of composition, and absolute symmetry of relation 
 to all forces external to it, its concentration must go on with 
 an ever-increasing irregularity ; and that thus the present 
 aspect of the heavens is not, so far as we can judge, incon- 
 .gruous with the hypothesis of a general evolution consequent 
 on the instability of the homogeneous. 
 
 Descending to that more limited form of the nebular hy- 
 pothesis which regards the solar system as having resulted 
 
408 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMCGENEOUS. 
 
 by gradual concentration ; and assuming this concentration 
 to have advanced so far as to produce a rotating spheroid of 
 nebulous matter ; let us consider what further consequence 
 the instability of the nomogeneous necessitates. Having 
 become oblate in figure, unlike in the densities of its centre 
 and surface, unlike in their temperatures, and unlike in the 
 velocities with which its parts move round their common axis, 
 such a mass can no longer be called homogeneous ; and 
 therefore any further changes exhibited by it as a whole, can 
 illustrate the general law, only as being changes from a 
 more homogeneous to a less homogeneous state. Changes of 
 this kind are to be found in the transformations of such of its 
 parts as are still homogeneous within themselves. If we 
 accept the conclusion of Laplace, that the equatorial portion 
 of this rotating and contracting spheroid will at successive 
 stages acquire a centrifugal force great enough to prevent 
 any nearer approach to the centre round which it rotates, 
 and will so be left behind by the inner parts of the spheroid 
 in its still-continued contraction ; we shall find, in the fate of 
 the detached ring, a fresh exemplification of the principle we 
 are following out. Consisting of gaseous matter, such a 
 ring, even if absolutely uniform at the time of its detach- 
 ment, cannot continue so. To maintain its equilibrium there 
 must be an almost perfect uniformity in the action of all 
 external forces upon it (almost, we must say, because the 
 cohesion, even of extremely attenuated matter, might suffice 
 to neutralize very minute disturbances) ; and against this the 
 probabilities are immense. In the absence of equality among 
 the forces, internal and external, acting on such a ring, 
 there must be a point or points at which the cohesion of 
 its parts is less than elsewhere a point or points at which 
 rupture will therefore take place. Laplace assumed that 
 the ring would rupture at one place only ; and would then 
 collapse on itself. But this is a more than questionable 
 assumption such at least I know to be the opinion of an 
 authority second to none among those now living. So 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 vast a ring, consisting of matter having such feeble cohe- 
 sion, must break up into many parts. Nevertheless, it ia 
 still inferable from the instability of the homogeneous, 
 that the ultimate result which Laplace predicted would 
 take place. For even supposing the masses of nebulous 
 matter into which such a ring separated, were so equal in 
 their sizes and distances as to attract each other with 
 exactly equal forces (which is infinitely improbable): yet 
 the unequal action of external disturbing forces would 
 inevitably destroy their equilibrium there would be one or 
 more points at which adjacent masses would begin to part 
 company. Separation once commenced, would with ever- 
 accelerating speed lead to a grouping of the masses. And 
 obviously a like result would eventually take place with the 
 groups thus formed ; until they at length aggregated into a 
 single mass. 
 
 Leaving the region, of speculative astronomy, let us con- 
 sider the Solar System as it at present exists. And here it 
 will be well, in the first place, to note a fact which may be 
 thought at variance with the foregoing argument namely, 
 the still-continued existence of Saturn's rings ; and especially 
 of the internal nebulous ring lately discovered. To the 
 objection that the outer rings maintain their equilibrium, the 
 reply is that the comparatively great cohesion of liquid 
 or solid substance would suffice to prevent any slight tend- 
 ency to rupture from taking effect. And that a nebulous 
 ring here still preserves its continuity, does not reaUy negative 
 the foregoing conclusion; since it happens under the quite 
 exceptional influence of those symmetrically disposed forces 
 which the external rings exercise on it. Here indeed 
 
 it deserves to be noted, that though at first sight the Satur- 
 nian system appears at variance with the doctrine that a 
 state of homogeneity is one of unstable equilibrium, it does 
 in reality furnish a carious confirmation of this doctrine. For 
 Saturn is not quite concentric with his rings ; and it has 
 been proved mathematically that were he and his rings con- 
 
410 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 eentrically situated, they could not remain so : the homo 
 geneous relation being unstable, would gravitate into a 
 heterogeneous one. And this fact serves to remind us of the 
 allied one presented throughout the whole Solar System. All 
 orbits, whether of planets or satellites, are more or less ex- 
 centric none of them are perfect circles ; and were the) 
 perfect circles they would soon become ellipses. Mutual per- 
 turbations would inevitably generate excentricities. That is 
 to say, the homogeneous relations would lapse into hetero- 
 geneous ones. 
 
 151. Already so many references have been made to the 
 gradual formation of a crust over the originally incandescent 
 Earth, that it may be thought superfluous again to name it. 
 It has not, however, been before considered in connexion with 
 the general principle under discussion. Here then it must 
 be noted as a necessary consequence of the instability of the 
 homogeneous. In this cooling down and solidification oi 
 the Earth's surface, we have one of the simplest, as well as 
 one of the most important, instances, of that change from 
 a uniform to a multiform state which occurs in any mass 
 through exposure of its different parts to different condi- 
 tions. To the differentiation of the Earth's exterior 
 from its interior thus brought about, we must add one of the 
 most conspicuous differentiations which the exterior itself 
 afterwards undergoes, as being similarly brought about. Were 
 the conditions to which the surface of the Earth is exposed, 
 alike in all directions, there would be no obvious reason why 
 certain of its parts should become permanently unlike the rest. 
 But being unequally exposed to the chief external centre of 
 force the Sun its main divisions become unequally modified: 
 as the crust thickens and cools, there arises that contrast, 
 now so decided, between the polar and equatorial regions. 
 
 Along with these most marked physical differentiations of 
 the Earth, which are manifestly consequent on the instability 
 of the homogenec -is, there have been going on numerous 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 411 
 
 chemical differentiations, admitting of similar interpreta- 
 tion. Without raising the question whether, as some think, 
 the so-called simple substances are themselves compounded of 
 unknown elements (elements which we cannot separate by 
 artificial heat, but which existed separately when the heat of 
 the Earth was greater than any which we can produce), 
 without raising this question, it will suffice the present pur- 
 pose to show how, in place of that comparative homogeneity 
 of the Earth's crust, chemically considered, which must have 
 existed when its temperature was high, there has arisen, 
 during its cooling, an increasing chemical heterogeneity : 
 each element or compound, being unable to maintain its 
 homogeneity in presence of various surrounding affinities, 
 having fallen into heterogeneous combinations. Let us con- 
 template this change somewhat in detail. There is 
 every reason to believe that at an extreme heat, the bodies 
 we call elements cannot combine. Even under such heat as 
 can be generated artificially, some very strong affinities yield ; 
 and the great majority of chemical compounds are decom- 
 posed at much lower temperatures. Whence it seems not 
 improbable that, when the Earth was in its first state of in- 
 candescence, there were no chemical combinations at all. 
 But without drawing this inference, let us set out with the 
 unquestionable fact that the compounds which can exist at 
 the highest temperatures, and which must therefore have 
 been the first formed as the Earth cooled, are those of the 
 simplest constitutions. The protoxides including under 
 that head the alkalies, earths, &c. are, as a class, the most 
 fixed compounds known : the majority of them resisting de- 
 composition by any heat we can generate. These, consisting 
 severally of one atom of each component element, are com- 
 binations of the simplest order are but one degree less 
 homogeneous than the elements themselves. More hetero- 
 geneous than these, more decomposable by heat, and therefore 
 later in the Earth's history, are the deutoxides, tritoxides, 
 peroxides, &c. ; in which two, three, four, or more atoms of 
 
412 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 oxygen are united with one atom of metal or other base. 
 Still less able to resist heat, are the salts ; which present us 
 with compound atoms each made up of five, six, seven, eight 
 ten, twelve, or more atoms, of three, if not more, kinds 
 Then there are the hydrated salts, of a yet greater hetero- 
 geneity, which undergo partial decomposition at much lower 
 temperatures. After them come the further-complicated 
 supersalts and double salts, having a stability again decreased ; 
 and so throughout. After making a few unimportant quali- 
 fications demanded by peculiar affinities, I believe no chemist 
 will deny it to be a general law of these inorganic combina- 
 tions that, other things equal, the stability decreases as the 
 complexity increases. And then when we pass to the com- 
 pounds that make up organic bodies, we find this general law 
 still further exemplified: we find much greater complexity 
 and much less stability. An atom of albumen, for instance, 
 consists of 482 ultimate atoms of five different kinds. Fibrin e, 
 still more intricate in constitution, contains in each atom, 298 
 atoms of carbon, 49 of nitrogen, 2 of sulphur, 228 of hydrogen, 
 and 92 of oxygen in all, 660 atoms; or, more strictly 
 speaking equivalents. And these two substances are so un- 
 stable as to decompose at quite moderate temperatures ; as 
 that to which the outside of a joint of roast meat is 
 exposed. Possibly it will be objected that some inorganic 
 compounds, as phosphuretted hydrogen and chloride of nitro- 
 gen, are more decomposable than most organic compounds. 
 This is true. But the admission may be made without damage 
 to the argument. The proposition is not that all simple com- 
 binations are more fixed than all complex ones. To establish 
 our inference it is necessary only to show that, as an average 
 fact, the simple combinations can exist at a higher tempera- 
 ture than the complex ones. And this is wholly beyond 
 question. Thus it is manifest that the present chemi- 
 
 cal heterogeneity of the Earth's surface has arisen by degrees 
 as the decrease of heat has permitted ; and that it has shown 
 itself in three forms first, in the multiplication of chemical 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 4 Hi 
 
 compounds ; second, in the greater number of different ele- 
 ments contained in the more modern of these compounds ; and 
 third, in the higher and more varied multiples in which these 
 more numerous elements combine. 
 
 Without, specifying them, it will suffice just to name the 
 meteorologic processes eventually set up in the Earth's at- 
 mosphere, as further illustrating the alleged law. They 
 equally display that destruction of a homogeneous state which 
 results from unequal exposure to incident forces. 
 
 152. Take a mass of unorganized but organizable mat- 
 ter either the body of one of the lowest living forms, or the 
 germ of one of the higher. Consider its circumstances. 
 Either it is immersed in water or air, or it is contained with- 
 in a parent organism. Wherever placed, however, its outer 
 and inner parts stand differently related to surrounding 
 agencies nutriment, oxygen, and the various stimuli. But 
 this is not all. Whether it lies quiescent at the bottom of 
 the water or on the leaf of a plant ; whether it moves through 
 the water preserving some definite attitude ; or whether it is 
 in the inside of an adult ; it equally results that certain parts 
 of its surface are more exposed to surrounding agencies than 
 other parts in some cases more exposed to light, heat, or 
 oxygen, and in others to the maternal tissues and their con- 
 tents. Hence must follow the destruction of its original 
 equilibrium. This may take place in one of two ways. Either 
 the disturbing forces may be such as to overbalance the 
 affinities of the organic elements, in which case there result 
 those changes which are known as decomposition ; or, as is 
 ordinarily the case, such changes are induced as do not de- 
 stroy the organic compounds, but only modify them : the 
 parts most exposed to the modifying forces being most modi- 
 fied. To elucidate this, suppose we take a few cases. 
 
 Note first what appear to be exceptions. Certain minute 
 animal forms present us either with no appreciable differen- 
 tiations or with differentiations so obscure as to be made ou< 
 
414 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 with great difficulty. In the Rhizopods, the substance of the 
 jelly-like body remains throughout life unorganized, even to 
 the extent of having no limiting membrane ; as is proved by 
 the fact that the thread-like processes protruded by the mass 
 coalesce on touching each other. Whether or not the nearly 
 allied Amceba, of which the less numerous and more bulky 
 processes do not coalesce, has, as lately alleged, something 
 like a cell- wall and a nucleus, it is clear that the distinction 
 of parts is very slight ; since particles of food pass bodily into 
 the inside through any part of the periphery, and since when 
 the creature is crushed to pieces, each piece behaves as the 
 whole did. Now these cases, in which there is either no contrast 
 of structure between exterior and interior or very little, though 
 seemingly opposed to the above inference, are really very 
 significant evidences of its truth. For what is the peculiarity 
 of this division of the Protozoa 9 Its members undergo per- 
 petual and irregular changes of form they show no per- 
 sistent relation of parts. What lately formed a portion of 
 the interior is now protruded, and, as a temporary limb, is 
 attached to some object it happens to touch. What is now a 
 part of the surface will presently be drawn, along with the 
 atom of nutriment sticking to it, into the centre of the mass. 
 Either the relations of inner and outer have no permanent 
 existence, or they are very -slightly marked. But by the 
 hypothesis, it is only because of their unlike positions with 
 respect to modifying forces, that the originally like units of a 
 living mass become unlike. We must therefore expect no 
 established differentiation of parts in creatures which exhibit 
 no established differences of position in their parts ; and we 
 must expeci extremely little differentiation of parts where the 
 differences of position are but little determined which ia 
 just what we find. This negative evidence is borne 
 
 out by positive evidence. When we turn from these pro- 
 teiform specks of living jelly to organisms having an un- 
 changing distribution of substance, we find differences of tis- 
 sut corresponding to differences of relative position. la all 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 415 
 
 the higher Protozoa, as also in the Protopliyta, we nieet with 
 a fundamental differentiation into cell-membrane and cell- 
 contents ; answering to that fundamental contrast of con- 
 ditions implied by the terms outside and inside. On 
 passing from what are roughly classed as unicellular organ- 
 isms, to the lowest of those which consist of aggregated cells, 
 we equally observe the connection between structural differ- 
 ences and differences of circumstance. Negatively, we see 
 that in the sponge, permeated throughout by currents of sea- 
 water, the indefiniteness of organization corresponds with the 
 absence of definite unlikeness of conditions : the peripheral 
 and central portions are as little contrasted in structure as in 
 exposure to surrounding agencies. While positively, we see 
 that in a form like the Thalassicolla, which, though equally 
 humble, maintains its outer and inner parts in permanently 
 unlike circumstances, there is displayed a rude structure 
 obviously subordinated to the primary relations of centre and 
 surface : in all its many and important varieties, the parts 
 exhibit a more or less concentric arrangement. 
 
 After this primary modification, by which the outer tissues 
 are differentiated from the inner, the next in order of con- 
 stancy and importance is that by which some part of the 
 outer tissues is differentiated from the rest ; and this corre- 
 sponds with the almost universal fact that some part of the 
 outer tissues is more exposed to certain environing influences 
 than the rest. Here, as before, the apparent exceptions are 
 extremely significant. Some of the lowest vegetal organisms, 
 as the Hematococci and Protococci, evenly imbedded in a 
 mass of mucus, or dispersed through the Arctic snow, display 
 no differentiations of surface ; the several parts of their sur 
 faces being subjected to no definite contrasts of conditions 
 Ciliated spheres such as the Volvox have no parts of then 
 periphery unlike other parts ; and it is not to be expected 
 that they should have ; since, as they revolve in all direction?, 
 they do not, in traversing the water, permanently expose any 
 part to special conditions. But when we come to organisms 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 that are either fixed, or while moving preserve definite adi- 
 tudes, we no longer find uniformity of surface. The most 
 general fact which can be asserted with respect to the struc- 
 tures of plants and animals, is, that however much alike in 
 shape and texture the various parts of the exterior may at 
 first be, they acquire unlikenesses corresponding to the un- 
 likenesses of their relations to surrounding agencies. The cili- 
 ated germ of a Zoophyte, which, during its locomotive stage, 
 is distinguishable only into outer and inner tissues, no sooner 
 becomes fixed, than its upper end begins to assume a different 
 structure from its lower. The disc-shaped gemmce of the 
 Marchantia, originally alike on both surfaces, and falling at 
 random with either side uppermost, immediately begin to 
 develop rootlets on the under side, and stomata on the upper 
 side : a fact proving beyond question, that this primary differ- 
 entiation is determined by this fundamental contrast of con- 
 ditions. 
 
 Of course in the germs of higher organisms, the metamor- 
 phoses immediately due to the instability of the homogeneous, 
 are soon masked by those due to the assumption of the hered- 
 itary type. Such early changes, however, as are common to 
 all classes of organisms, and so cannot be ascribed to heredity, 
 entirely conform to the hypothesis. A germ which has un- 
 dergone no developmental modifications, consists of a spher- 
 oidal group of homogeneous cells. Universally, the first step 
 in its evolution is the establishment of a difference between 
 some of the peripheral cells and the cells which form the in- 
 terior some of the peripheral cells, after repeated sponta- 
 neous fissions, coalesce into a membrane ; and by continuance 
 of the process this membrane spreads until it speedily invests 
 the entire mass, as in mammals, or, as in birds, stops short of 
 that for some time. Here we have two significant facts 
 The first is, that the primary unlikeness arises between the 
 exterior and the interior. The second is, that the change 
 which thus initiates development, does not take place simul- 
 taneously over the whole exterior ; but commences at one 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 417 
 
 place, and gradually involves the rest. Now these facta 
 are just those which might be inferred from the instability of 
 the homogeneous. The surface must, more than any other 
 part, become unlike the centre, because it is most dissimi- 
 larly conditioned ; and all parts of the surface cannot 
 simultaneously exhibit this differentiation, because they can- 
 not be exposed to the incident forces with absolute uniform- 
 ity. One other general fact of like implication re- 
 mains. Whatever be the extent of this peripheral layer of 
 cells, or blastoderm as it is called, it presently divides into 
 two layers the serous and mucous ; or, as they have been 
 otherwise called, the ectoderm and the endoderm. The first 
 of these is formed from that portion of the layer which lies 
 in contact with surrounding agents ; and the second of them 
 is formed from that portion of the layer which lies in contact 
 with the contained mass of yelk. That is to say, after the 
 primary differentiation, more or less extensive, of surface 
 from centre, the resulting superficial portion undergoes a 
 secondary differentiation into inner and outer parts a 
 differentiation which is clearly of the same order with the 
 preceding, and answers to the next most marked contrast of 
 conditions. 
 
 But, as already hinted, this principle, understood in the 
 simple form here presented, supplies no key to the detailed 
 phenomena of organic development. It fails entirely to ex- 
 plain generic and specific peculiarities ; and indeed leaves us 
 equally in the dark respecting those more important dis- 
 tinctions by which families and orders are marked out. 
 Why two ova, similarly exposed in the same x pool, should 
 become the one a fish, and the other a reptile, it cannot tell 
 us. That from two different eggs placed under the same 
 hen, should respectively come forth a duckling and a chicken, 
 is a fact not to be accounted for on the hypothesis above 
 developed. We have here no alternative but to fall back 
 upon the unexplained principle of hereditary transmission. 
 The capacity possessed by an unorganized germ of unfolding 
 
4-18 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 into a complex adult, which repeats ancestral traits in tho 
 minutest details, and that even when it has been placed in 
 conditions unlike those of its ancestors, is a capacity we cannot 
 at present understand. That a microscopic portion of seem- 
 ingly structureless matter should embody an influence of such 
 k : nd, that the resulting man will in fifty years after become 
 gouty or insane, is a truth which would be incredible were it 
 not daily illustrated. Should it however turn out, as 
 
 we shall hereafter find reason for suspecting, that these complex 
 differentiations which adults exhibit, are themselves the 
 slowly accumulated and transmitted results of a process like 
 that seen in the first changes of the germ ; it will follow that 
 even those embryonic changes due to hereditary influence, 
 are remote consequences of the alleged law. Should it be 
 shown that the slight modifications wrought during life on 
 each adult, and bequeathed to offspring along with all like 
 preceding modifications, are themselves unlikenesses of parts 
 that are produced by unlikenesses of conditions ; then it will 
 follow that the modifications displayed in the course of em- 
 bryonic development, are partly direct consequences of the 
 instability of the homogeneous, and partly indirect conse- 
 quences of it. To give reasons for entertaining this 
 hypothesis, however, is not needful for the justification of the 
 position here taken. It is enough that the most conspicuous 
 differentiations which incipient organisms universally display, 
 correspond to the most marked differences of conditions to 
 which their parts are subject. It is enough that the habitual 
 contrast between outside and inside, which we know is pro- 
 duced in inorganic masses by unlikeness of exposure to inci- 
 dent forces, is strictly paralleled by the first contrast that 
 makes its appearance in all organic masses. 
 
 It remains to point out that in the assemblage of organisms 
 constituting a species, the principle enunciated is equally 
 traceable. We have abundant materials for the induction 
 that each species will not remain uniform, but is ever becom- 
 ing to some extent multiform ; and there is ground for the 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 41 Q 
 
 deduction that this lapse from homogeneity to heterogeneity ia 
 caused by the subjection of its members to unlike sets of 
 circumstances. The fact that in every species, animal and 
 vegetal, the individuals are never quite alike ; joined with 
 the fact that there is in every species a tendency to the pro- 
 duction of differences marked enough to constitute varieties ; 
 form a sufficiently wide basis for the induction. While the 
 deduction is confirmed by the familiar experience that varieties 
 are most numerous and decided where, as among cultivated 
 plants and domestic animals, the conditions of life depart 
 from the original ones, most widely and in the most numerous 
 ways. Whether we regard "natural selection" as wholly, 
 or only in part, the agency through which varieties are 
 established, matters not to the general conclusion. For as 
 the survival of any variety proves its constitution to be in 
 harmony with a certain aggregate of surrounding forces as 
 the multiplication of a variety and the usurpation by it of an 
 area previously occupied by some other part of the species, 
 implies different effects produced by such aggregate of forces 
 on the two, it is clear that /this aggregate of forces is the 
 real cause of the differentiation it is clear that if the variety 
 supplants the original species in some localities but not in 
 others, it does so because the aggregate of forces in the one 
 localitv is unlike that in the other it is clear that the lapse 
 of the species from a state of homogeneity to a state of hetero- 
 geneity arises from the exposure of its different parts to 
 different aggregates of forces. 
 
 153. Among mental phenomena it is difficult to establish 
 the alleged law without an analysis too extensive for the 
 occasion. To show satisfactorily how states of consciousness, 
 originally homogeneous, become heterogeneous through dif- 
 ferences in the changes wrought by different forces, would 
 require us carefully to trace out the organization of early 
 experiences. Were this done it would become manifest that 
 the development ot intelligence, is, under one of its chie/ 
 
420 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 aspects, a dividing into separate classes, the unlike things 
 previously confounded together in one class a formation of 
 sub-classes and sub-sub-classes, until the once confused ag- 
 gregate of objects known, is resolved into an aggregate which 
 unites extreme heterogeneity among its multiplied groups, 
 with complete homogeneity among the members of each 
 group. If, for example, we followed, through ascending grades 
 of creatures, the genesis of that vast structure of knowledge 
 acquired by sight, we should find that in the first stage, 
 where eyes suffice for nothing beyond the discrimination of 
 light from darkness, the only possible classifications of objects 
 seen, must be those based on the manner in which light is 
 obstructed, and the degree in which it is obstructed. We 
 should find that by such undeveloped visual organs, the 
 shadows traversing the rudimentary retina would be merely 
 distinguished into those of the stationary objects which 
 the creature passed during its own movements, and those 
 of the moving objects which came near the creature while 
 it was at rest; and that so the extremely general clas- 
 sification of visible things into stationary and moving, would 
 be the earliest formed. We should find that whereas the 
 simplest eyes are not fitted to distinguish between an obstruc- 
 tion of light caused by a small object close to, and an obstruc- 
 tion caused by a large object at some distance, eyes a little 
 more developed must be competent to such a distinction; 
 whence must result a vague differentiation of the class of 
 moving objects, into the nearer and the more remote. We 
 should find that such further improvements in vision as those 
 which make possible a better estimation of distances by 
 adjustment of the optic axes, and those which, through en- 
 largement and subdivision of the retina, make possible the dis- 
 crimination 01 shapes, must have the effects of giving greater 
 definiteness to the classes already formed, and of sub-dividing 
 these into smaller classes, consisting of objects less unlike. And 
 we should find that each additional refinement of the percep- 
 tive organs, must similarly lead to a multiplication of division* 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 4^1 
 
 and a sharpening of the limits of each division. In every infanl 
 might be traced the analogous transformation of a confused 
 aggregate of impressions of surrounding objects, not recognized 
 as differing in their distances, sizes, and shapes, into separate 
 classes of objects unlike each other in these and various other 
 respects. And in the one case as in the other, it might be 
 shown that the change from this first indefinite, incoherent 
 and comparatively homogeneous consciousness, to a definite, 
 coherent, and heterogeneous one, is due to differences in the 
 actions of incident forces on the organism. These 
 
 brief indications of what might be shown, did space permit, 
 must here suffice. Probably they will give adequate clue to 
 an argument by which each reader may satisfy himself that 
 the course of mental evolution offers no exception to the 
 general law. In further aid of such an argument, I will here 
 add an illustration that is comprehensible apart from the 
 process of mental evolution as a whole. 
 
 It has been remarked (I am told by Coleridge, though I 
 have been unable to find thej passage) that with the advance 
 of language, words which were originally alike in their 
 meanings acquire unlike meanings a change which he 
 expresses by the formidable word " desynonymization." 
 Among indigenous words this loss of equivalence cannot 
 be clearly shown ; because in them the divergencies of 
 meaning began before the dawn of literature. But among 
 words that have been coined, or adopted from other 
 languages, since the writing of books commenced, it is 
 demonstrable. In the old divines, miscreant is used in 
 its etymological sense of unbeliever ; but in modern speech if, 
 has entirely lost this sense. Similarly with evil-doer and 
 malefactor: exactly synonymous as these are by derivation, 
 thfty are no longer synonymous by usage : by a malefactor 
 we now understand a convicted criminal, which is far from 
 being the acceptation of evil-doer. The verb produce, bears in 
 Euclid its primary meaning to prolong, or draw out ; but 
 the now largely developed meanings of produce ha^ve little in 
 
422 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 common with the meanings of prolong, or draw out. In the 
 Church of England liturgy, an odd effect results from the 
 occurrence cf prevent in its original sense to come before, 
 instead of its modern specialized sense to come before with the 
 effect of arresting. But the most conclusive cases are those 
 m which the contrasted words consist of the same parts differ- 
 ently combined ; as in go under and undergo. We go under 
 a tree, and we undergo a pain. But though, if analytically 
 considered, the meanings of these expressions would be the 
 same were the words transposed, habit has so far modified 
 their meanings that we could not without absurdity speak of 
 undergoing a tree and going under a pain. Countless 
 
 such instances might be brought to show that between two 
 words which are originally of like force, an equilibrium can 
 not be maintained. Unless they are daily used in exactly 
 equal degrees, in exactly similar relations (against which 
 there are infinite probabilities), there necessarily arises a habit 
 of associating one rather than the other with particular acts, 
 or objects. Such a habit, once commenced, becomes confirm- 
 ed ; and gradually their homogeneity of meaning disappears. 
 In each individual we may see the tendency which inevitably 
 leads to this result. A certain vocabulary and a certain set 
 of phrases, distinguish the speech of each person : each per- 
 son habitually uses certain words in places where other words 
 are habitually used by other persons ; and there is a con- 
 tinual recurrence of favourite expressions. This inability to 
 maintain a balance in the use of verbal symbols, which cha- 
 racterizes every man, characterizes, by consequence, aggre- 
 gates of men ; and the desynonymization of words is the ulti- 
 mate effect. 
 
 Should any difficulty be felt in understanding how these 
 mental changes exemplify a law of physical transformations 
 that are wrought by physical forces, it will disappear on con- 
 templating acts of mind as nervous functions. It will be 
 seen that each loss of equilibrium above instanced, is a loss of 
 functional equality between some two elements of the nervous 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 423 
 
 ay stem. And it will be seen that, as in other cases, this loss 
 of functional equality is due to differences in the incidence of 
 forces. 
 
 154. Masses of men, in common with all other masses, 
 allow a like proclivity similarly caused. Small combinations 
 and large societies equally manifest it ; and in the one, as in 
 the other, both governmental and industrial differentiations 
 are initiated by it. Let us glance at the facts under these 
 two heads. 
 
 A business partnership, balanced as the authorities of its 
 members may theoretically be, practically becomes a union in 
 which the authority of one partner is tacitly recognized as 
 greater than that of the other or others. Though the share- 
 holders have given equal powers to the directors of their 
 company, inequalities of power soon arise among them ; and 
 usually the supremacy of some ono director grows so marked, 
 that his decisions determine the course which the board takes. 
 Nor in associations for political, charitable, literary, or other 
 purposes, do we fail to find a like process of division into 
 dominant and subordinate parties ; each having its leader, its 
 members of less influence, and its mass of uninfluential mem- 
 bers. These minor instances in which unorganized groups of 
 men, standing in homogeneous relations, may be watched 
 gradually passing into organized groups of men standing in 
 heterogeneous relations, give us the key to social inequalities. 
 Barbarous and civilized communities are alike characterized 
 by separation into classes, as well as by separation of each 
 class into more important and less important units ; and this 
 structure is manifestly the gradually-consolidated result of a 
 process like that daily exemplified in trading and other com- 
 binations. So long as men are constituted to act on one an- 
 other, either by physical force or by force of character, the 
 struggles for supremacy must finally be decided in favour of 
 some one ; and the difference once commenced must tend to 
 Deoome ever more marked. Its unstable equilibrium being de- 
 
1-24 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 strojed, the uniform must gravitate with increasing rapidity 
 into the multiform. And so supremacy and subordination 
 must establish themselves, as we see they do, throughout the 
 whole structure of a society, from the great class- divisions 
 pervading its entire body, down to village cliques, and even 
 down to every posse of school-boys. Probably it will 
 
 be objected that such changes result, not from the homoge- 
 neity of the original aggregations, but from their non-homo- 
 geneity from certain slight differences existing among their 
 units at the outset. This is doubtless the proximate cause. 
 In strictness, such changes must be regarded as transforma- 
 tions of the relatively homogeneous into the relatively hetero- 
 geneous. But it is abundantly clear that an aggregation of 
 men, absolutely alike in their endowments, would eventually 
 undergo a similar transformation. For in the absence of 
 perfect uniformity in the lives severally led by them in 
 their occupations, physical conditions, domestic relations, and 
 trains of thought and feeling there must arise differences 
 among them ; and these must finally initiate social differen- 
 tiations. Even inequalities of health caused by accidents, 
 must, by entailing inequalities of physical and mental power, 
 disturb the exact balance of mutual influences among the 
 units; and the balance once disturbed, must inevitably be 
 lost. Whence, indeed, besides seeing that a body of men 
 absolutely homogeneous in their governmental relations, must, 
 like all other homogeneous bodies, become heterogeneous, 
 we also see that it must do this from the same ultimate cause 
 unequal exposure of its parts to incident forces. 
 
 The first industrial divisions of societies are much more 
 obviously due to unlikenesses of external circumstances. 
 Such divisions are absent until such unlikenesses are estab- 
 lished. Nomadic tribes do not permanently expose any 
 groups of their members to special local conditions ; nor does 
 a stationary tribe, when occupying only a small area, main- 
 tain from generation to generation marked contrasts in the 
 local conditions of its members ; and in such tribes there are 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 425 
 
 no decided economical differentiations. But a community 
 which, growing populous, has overspread a large tract, and 
 has become so far settled that its members live and die in their 
 respective districts, keeps its several sections in different 
 physical circumstances ; and then they no longer remain alike 
 in their occupations. Those who live dispersed continue to 
 hunt or cultivate the earth ; those who spread to the sea-shore 
 lull into maritime occupations ; while the inhabitants of some 
 spot chosen, perhaps for its centrality, as one of periodical 
 assemblage, become traders, and a town springs up. Each 
 of these classes undergoes a modification of character conse- 
 quent on its function, and better fitting it to its function. 
 Later in the process of social evolution these local adapt- 
 ations are greatly multiplied. A result of differences in 
 soil and climate, is that the rural inhabitants in different 
 parts of the kingdom have their occupations partially special- 
 ized ; and become respectively distinguished as chiefly pro- 
 ducing cattle, or sheep, or wheat, or oats, or hops, or cyder. 
 People living where coal-fields are discovered are transform- 
 ed into colliers ; Cornishmen take to mining because Corn- 
 wall is metalliferous ; and the iron-manufacture is the domi- 
 nant industry where iron-stone is plentiful. Liverpool 
 has assumed the office of importing cotton, in consequence of 
 its proximity to the district where cotton goods are made ; 
 and for analogous reasons, Hull has become the chief port at 
 which foreign wools are brought in. Even in the establish- 
 ment of breweries, of dye-works, of slate-quarries, of brick- 
 yards, we may see the same truth. So that both in general 
 and in detail, the specializations of the social organism which 
 characterize separate districts, primarily depend on local 
 circumstances. Those divisions of labour which under an- 
 other aspect were interpreted as due to the setting up of motion 
 in the directions of least resistance ( 80), are here in- 
 terpreted as due to differences in the incident forces ; and 
 the two interpretations are quite consistent with each 
 otjner. For that which in each case determines the direction 
 
426 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 of least resistance, is the distribution of the forces to be over- 
 come ; and hence unlikenesses of distribution in separate 
 localities, entails unlikenesses in the course of human action 
 in those localities entails industrial differentiations. 
 
 155. It has still to be shown that this general truth is 
 demonstrable a priori. We have to prove specifically that 
 the instability of the homogeneous is a corollary from the 
 persistence of force. Already this has been tacitly implied 
 by assigning unlikeness in the exposure of its parts to 
 surrounding agencies, as the reason why a uniform mass loses 
 its uniformity. But here it will be proper to expand this 
 tacit implication into definite proof. 
 
 On striking a mass of matter with such force as either to 
 indent it or make it fly to pieces, we see both that the blow 
 affects differently its different parts, and that the differences 
 are consequent on the unlike relations of its parts to the 
 force impressed. The part with which the striking body 
 comes in contact, receiving the whole of the communicated 
 momentum, is driven in towards the centre of the mass. 
 It thus compresses and tends to displace the more centrally 
 situated portions of the mass. These, however, cannot be 
 compressed or thrust out of their places without pressing on 
 all surrounding portions. And when the blow is violent 
 enough to fracture the mass, we see, in the radial dispersion 
 of its fragments, that the original momentum, in being dis- 
 tributed throughout it, has been divided into numerous minor 
 momenta, unlike in their directions. We see that these di- 
 rections are determined by the positions of the parts with re- 
 spect to each other, and with respect to the point of impact. 
 We see that the parts are differently affected by the disrup- 
 tive force, because they are differently related to it in their 
 directions and attachments that the effects being the joint 
 products of the cause and the conditions, cannot be alike in 
 parts which are differently conditioned. A body on 
 
 u-hich radiant heat is falling, exemplifies this truth still more 
 
TKJ8 INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 427 
 
 clearly. Taking the simplest case (that of a sphere) we see 
 that while the part nearest to the radiating centre receives 
 the rays at right angles, the rays strike the other parts of the 
 exposed side at all angles from 90 down to 0. Again, the 
 molecular vibrations propagated through the mass from the 
 surface which receives the heat, must proceed inwards at an- 
 gles differing for each point. Further, the interior parts of 
 the sphere affected by the vibrations proceeding from all 
 points of the heated side, must be dissimilarly affected in pro- 
 portion as their positions are dissimilar. So that whether 
 they be on the recipient area, in the middle, or at the remote 
 side, the constituent atoms are all thrown into states of vibra- 
 tion more or less unlike each other. 
 
 But now, what is the ultimate meaning of the conclusion 
 that a uniform force produces different changes throughout a 
 uniform mass, because the parts of the mass stand in different 
 relations to the force ? Fully to understand this, we must 
 contemplate each part as simultaneously subject to other 
 forces those of gravitation, of cohesion, of molecular motion, 
 &c. The effect wrought by an additional force, must be a 
 resultant of it and the forces already in action. If the forces 
 already in action on two parts of any aggregate, are different in 
 their directions, the effects produced on these two parts by like 
 forces must be different in their directions. Why must they be 
 different ? They must be different because such unlikeness as 
 exists between the two sets of factors, is made by the presence 
 in the one of some specially- directed force that is not pre- 
 sent in the other; and that this force will produce an 
 effect, rendering the total result in the one case unlike that 
 in the other, is a necessary corollary from the persistence of 
 force. Still more manifest does it become that the dis- 
 
 similarly-placed parts of any aggregate must be dissimilarly 
 modified by an incident force, when we remember that the 
 quantities of the incident force to which they are severally 
 subject, are not equal, as above supposed ; but are nearly al- 
 ways very unequal. The outer parts of masses are usually 
 
428 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 alone exposed to chemical actions; and not only are their 
 inner parts shielded from the affinities of external elements, 
 but such affinities are brought to bear unequally on their 
 surfaces ; since chemical action sets up currents through the 
 medium in which it takes place, and so brings to the various 
 parts of the surface unequal quantities of the active agent. 
 Again, the amounts of any external radiant force which the 
 different parts of an aggregate receive, are widely contrasted : 
 we have the contrast between the quantity falling on the 
 side next the radiating centre, and the quantity, or rather no 
 quantity, falling on the opposite side ; we have contrasts in 
 the quantities received by differently- placed areas on the 
 exposed side; and we have endless contrasts between the 
 quantities received by the various parts of the interior. Simi- 
 larly when mechanical force is expended on any aggregate, 
 either by collision, continued pressure, or tension, the amounts 
 of strain distributed throughout the mass are manifestly 
 unlike for unlike positions. But to say the different parts of 
 an aggregate receive different quantities of any incident force, 
 is to say that their states are modified by it in different 
 degrees is to say that if they were before homogeneous in 
 their relations they must be rendered to a proportionate 
 extent heterogeneous ; since, force being persistent, the 
 different quantities of it falling on the different parts, 
 must work in them different quantities of effect different 
 changes. Yet one more kindred deduction is required 
 
 to complete the argument. We may, by parallel reasoning, 
 reach the conclusion that, even apart from the action of any ex- 
 ternal force, the equilibrium of a homogeneous aggregate must 
 be destroyed by the unequal actions of its parts on each other. 
 That mutual influence which produces aggregation (not to 
 mention other mutual influences) must work different effects 
 on the different parts ; since they are severally exposed to it 
 in unlike amounts and directions. This will be clearly seen 
 on remembering that the portions of which the whole is made 
 up, may be severally regarded as minor wholes ; that on each of 
 
THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 429 
 
 these minor wholes, the action Of the entire aggregate then 
 becomes an external incident force ; that such external inci- 
 dent force must, as above shown, work unlike changes in the 
 parts of any such minor whole ; and that if the minor wholes 
 are severally thus rendered heterogeneous, the entire aggre- 
 gate is rendered heterogeneous. 
 
 The instability of the homogeneous is thus deducible from 
 that primordial truth which underlies our intelligence. One 
 stable homogeneity only, is hypothetically possible. If centres 
 of force, absolutely uniform in their powers, were diffused 
 with absolute uniformity through unlimited space, they would 
 remain in equilibrium. This however, though a verbally 
 intelligible supposition, is one that cannot be represented in 
 thought ; since unlimited space is inconceivable. But all 
 finite forms of the homogeneous all forms of it which we 
 can know or conceive, must inevitably lapse into hetero- 
 geneity. In three several ways does the persistence of force 
 necessitate this. Setting external agencies aside, each unit 
 of a homogeneous whole must be differently affected from 
 any of the rest by the aggregate action of the rest upon it. 
 The resultant force exercised by the aggregate on each unit, 
 being in no two cases alike in both amount and direction, and 
 usually not in either, any incident force, even if uniform in 
 amount and direction, cannot produce like effects on the units. 
 And the various positions of the parts in relation to any in- 
 cident force, preventing them from receiving it in uniform 
 amounts and directions, a further difference in the effects 
 wrought on them is inevitably produced. 
 
 One further remark is needed. To the conclusion that 
 the changes with which Evolution commences, are thus ne- 
 cessitated, remains to be added the conclusion that these 
 changes must continue. The absolutely homogeneous must 
 lose its equilibrium ; and the relatively homogeneous must 
 lapse into the relatively less homogeneous. That which 
 is true of any total mass, is true of the parts into which 
 it segregates. The uniformity of each such part must 
 20 
 
430 THE INSTABILITY OF THE HOMOGENEOUS. 
 
 
 as inevitably be lost in multiformity, as was that of tlie 
 original whole ; and for like reasons. And thus the continued 
 changes which characterize Evolution, in so far as they are 
 constituted by the lapse of the homogeneous into the hetero- 
 geneous, and of the less heterogeneous into the more hetero- 
 geneous, are necessary consequences of the persistence of 
 force, 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 | 156. To the cause of increasing complexity set forth in 
 the last chapter, we have in this chapter to add another. 
 Though secondary in order of time, it is scarcely secondary in 
 order of importance. Even in the absence of the cause 
 already assigned, it would necessitate a change from the 
 homogeneous to the heterogeneous ; and joined with it, it 
 makes this change both more rapid and more involved. To 
 come in sight of it, we have but to pursue a step further, 
 that conflict between force and matter already delineated. 
 Let us do this. 
 
 When a uniform aggregate is subject to a uniform force, 
 we have seen that its constituents, being differently condi- 
 tioned, are differently modified. But while we have con- 
 templated the various parts of the aggregate as thus undergo- 
 ing unlike changes, we have not yet contemplated the unlike 
 changes simultaneously produced on the various parts of the 
 incident force. These must be as numerous and important as 
 the others. Action and re-action being equal and opposite, it 
 follows that in differentiating the parts on which it falls in 
 unlike ways, the incident force must itself be correspond- 
 ingly differentiated. Instead of being as before, a uniform 
 force, it must thereafter be a multiform force a group of 
 dissimilar forces. A few illustrations will make this truth 
 manifest. 
 
432 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 A single force is divided by conflict with matter into 
 forces that widely diverge. In the case lately cited, of a 
 body shattered by violeni collision, besides the change of the 
 homogeneous mass into a heterogeneous group of scattered 
 fragments, there is a change of the homogeneous momentum 
 into a group of momenta, heterogeneous in both amounts 
 and directions. Similarly with the forces we know as light 
 and heat. After the dispersion of these by a radiating body 
 towards all points, they are re-dispersed towards all points 
 by the bodies on which they fall. Of the Sun's rays, issu- 
 ing from him on every side, some few strike the Moon. 
 These being reflected at all angles from the Moon's sur- 
 face, some few of them strike the Earth. By a like 
 process the few which reach the Earth are again dif- 
 fused through surrounding space. And on each occasion, 
 such portions of the rays as are absorbed instead of re- 
 flected, undergo refractions that equally destroy their 
 parallelism. More than this is true. By conflict 
 
 with matter, a uniform force is in part changed into forces 
 differing in their directions ; and in part it is changed into 
 forces differing in their kinds. When one body is struck 
 against another, that which we usually regard as the effect, 
 is a change of position or motion in one or both bodies. But 
 a moment's thougat shows that this is a very incomplete 
 view of the matter. Besides the visible mechanical result, 
 sound is produced ; or, to speak accurately, a vibration in 
 one or both bodies, and in the surrounding air : and under 
 some circumstances we call this the effect. Moreover, the 
 air has not simply been made to vibrate, but has had currents 
 raised in it by the transit of the bodies. Further, if there ig 
 not that great structural change which we call fracture, there 
 is a disarrangement of the particles of the two bodies around 
 their point of collision ; amounting in some cases to a visible 
 condensation. Yet more, this condensation is accompanied 
 by disengagement of heat. In some cases a spark that is, 
 light results, from the incandescence of a portion struck 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF KFFKCTS. 433 
 
 off; and occasionally this incandescence is associated with 
 chemical combination. Thus, by the original mechanical 
 force expended in the collision, at least five, and often more, 
 different kinds of forces have been produced. Take, again, 
 the lighting of a candle. Primarily, this is a chemical 
 change consequent on a rise of temperature. The process of 
 combination having once been set going by extraneous heat, 
 there is a continued formation of carbonic acid, water, &c. 
 in itself a result more complex than the extraneous heat that 
 first caused it. But along with this process of combination 
 there is a production of heat ; there is a production of light ; 
 there is an ascending column of hot gases generated ; there 
 are currents established in the surrounding air. Nor does 
 the decomposition of one force Into many forces end here. 
 Each of the several changes worked becomes the parent of 
 further changes. The carbonic acid formed, will by and by 
 combine with some base ; or under the influence of sunshine 
 give up its carbon to the leaf of a plant. The water will 
 modify the hygrometric state of the air around ; or, if the 
 current of hot gases containing it come against a cold body, 
 will be condensed: altering the temperature, and perhaps 
 the chemical state, of the surface it covers. The heat given 
 out melts the subjacent tallow, and expands whatever it 
 warms. The light, falling on various substances, calls forth 
 from them reactions by which it is modified ; and so divers 
 colours are produced. Similarly even with these secondary 
 actions, which may be traced out into ever- multiplying 
 ramifications, until they become too minute to be appreci- 
 ated. Universally, then, the effect is more complex 
 than the cause. Whether the aggregate on which it falls be 
 homogeneous or otherwise, an incident force is transformed 
 by the conflict into a number of forces that differ in their 
 amounts, or directions, or kinds; or in all these respects. 
 And of this group of variously-modified forces, each ulti- 
 mately undergoes a like transformation. 
 
 Let us now mark how the process of evolution is furthered 
 
i34 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 by this multiplication of effects. An incident force decora* 
 posed by the reactions of a body into a group of v alike forces 
 a uniform force thus reduced to a multiform force be- 
 comes the cause of a secondary increase of multiformity in 
 ihe body which decomposes it. In the last chapter we saw 
 that the several parts of an aggregate are differently modi- 
 tied by any incident force. It has just been shown that by the 
 reactions of the differently modified parts, the incident force 
 itself must be divided into differently modified partd. Here 
 it remains to point out that each differentiated division of 
 the aggregate, thus becomes a centre from which a differen- 
 tiated division of the original force is again diffused. And 
 since unlike forces must produce unlike results, each of these 
 differentiated forces must produce, throughout the aggregate, 
 a further series of differentiations. This secondary 
 
 cause of the change from homogeneity to heterogeneity, 
 obviously becomes more potent in proportion as the hetero- 
 geneity increases. When the parts into which any evolving 
 whole has segregated itself, have diverged widely in nature, 
 they will necessarily react very diversely on any incident 
 force they will divide an incident force into so many 
 strongly contrasted groups of forces. And each of them be- 
 coming the centre of a quite distinct set of influences, must 
 add to the number of distinct secondary changes wrought 
 throughout the aggregate. Yet another corollary 
 
 must be added. The number of unlike parts of which an 
 aggregate consists, as well as the degree of their unlikeness, 
 is an important factor in the process. Every additional 
 specialized division is an additional centre of specialized 
 forces. If a uniform whole, in being itself made multiform 
 by an incident force, makes the incident force multiform ; if 
 a whole consisting of two unlike sections, divides an incident 
 force into two unlike groups of multiform forces ; it is clear 
 that each new unlike section must be a further source of com- 
 plication among the forces at work throughout the mass a 
 further source of heterogeneity. The multiplication of 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFEC FS. 435 
 
 effects must proceed in geometrical progression. Each stage 
 of evolution must initiate a higher stage. 
 
 157. The force of aggregation acting on irregular masses 
 of rare matter, diffused through a resisting medium, will not 
 cause such masses to move in straight lines to their common 
 centre of gravity ; but, as before said, each will take a curvi- 
 linear path, directed to one or other side of the centre of 
 gravity. All of them being differently conditioned, gravita- 
 tion will impress on each a motion differing in direction, in 
 velocity, and in the degree of its curvature uniform aggre- 
 gative force will be differentiated into multiform momenta. 
 The process thus commenced, must go on till it produces a 
 single mass of nebulous matter ; and these independent curvi- 
 linear motions must result in a movement of this mass round 
 its axis : a simultaneous condensation and rotation in which 
 we see how two effects of the aggregative force, at first but 
 slightly divergent, become at last widely differentiated. A 
 gradual increase of oblateness in this revolving spheroid, must 
 take place through the joint action of these two forces, as the 
 bulk diminishes and the rotation grows more rapid ; and this 
 we may set down as a third effect. The genesis of heat, which 
 must accompany augmentation of density, is a consequence 
 of yet another order a consequence by no means simple ; 
 since the various parts of the mass, being variously condensed, 
 must be variously heated. Acting throughout a gaseous 
 spheroid, of which the parts are unlike in their temperatures, 
 the forces of aggregation and rotation must work a further 
 series of changes: they must set up circulating currents, 
 both general and local. At a later stage light as well as heat 
 will be generated. Thus without dwelling on the likelihood 
 of chemical combinations and electric disturbances, it is suf- 
 ficiently manifest that, supposing matter to have originally 
 existed in a diffused state, the once uniform force which 
 caused its aggregation, must have become gradually divided 
 into different forces : and that each further stage of compli- 
 
436 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 cation in the resulting aggregate, must have initiated furthet 
 subdivisions of this force a further multiplication of effects, 
 increasing the previous heterogeneity. 
 
 This section of the argument may however be adequately 
 sustained, without having recourse to any such hypothetical 
 illustrations as the foregoing. The astronomical attributes 
 of the Earth, will even alone suffice our purpose. Consider 
 first the effects of its momentum round its axis. There is the 
 oblateness of its form ; there is the alternation of day and 
 night ; there are certain constant marine currents ; and 
 there are certain constant aerial currents. Consider next 
 the secondary series of consequences due to the divergence 
 of the Earth's plane of rotation from the plane of its orbit. 
 The many differences of the seasons, both simultaneous 
 and successive, which pervade its surface, are thus caused. 
 External attraction acting on this rotating oblate spheroid 
 with inclined axis, produces the motion called nutation, and 
 that slower and larger one from which follows the precession of 
 the equinoxes, with its several sequences. And then by this 
 same force are generated the tides, aqueeus and atmospheric. 
 
 Perhaps, however, the simplest way of showing the multi- 
 plication of effects among phenomena of this order, will be to 
 set down the influences of any member of the Solar System on 
 the rest. A planet directly produces in neighbouring planets 
 certain appreciable perturbations, complicating those other- 
 wise produced in them ; and in the remoter planets it directly 
 produces certain less visible perturbations. Here is a first 
 series of effects. But each of the perturbed planets is itself a 
 source of perturbations each directly affects all the others. 
 Hence, planet A having drawn planet B out of the position 
 it would have occupied in A's absence, the perturbations 
 which B causes are different from what they would else 
 have been ; and similarly with C, D, E, &c. Here then is a 
 secondary series of effects : far more numerous though far 
 smaller in their amounts. As these indirect perturbations 
 must to some extent modify the movements of each planet, 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 437 
 
 there results from them a tertiary series ; and so on contin- 
 ually. Thus the force exercised by any planet works a dif- 
 ferent effect on each of the rest ; this different effect is from 
 each as a centre partially broken up into minor different 
 effects on the rest ; and so on in ever multiplying and dimin- 
 ishing waves throughout the entire system. 
 
 158 If the Earth was formed by the concentration of 
 diffused matter, it must at first have been incandescent ; and 
 whether the nebular hypothesis be accepted or not, this ori- 
 ginal incandescence of the Earth must now be regarded as in- 
 ductively established or, if not established, at least rendered 
 so probable that it is a generally admitted geological doctrine. 
 Several results of the gradual cooling of the Earth as the 
 formation of a crust, the solidification of sublimed elements, 
 the precipitation of water, &c., have been already noticed 
 and I here again refer to them merely to point out that they 
 are simultaneous effects of the one cause, diminishing heat. 
 Let us now, however, observe the multiplied changes afterwards 
 arising from the continuance of this one cause. The 
 
 Earth, falling in temperature, must contract. Hence the solid 
 crust at any time existing, is presently too large for the 
 shrinking nucleus ; and being unable to support itself, inevit- 
 ably follows the nucleus. But a spheroidal envelope cannot 
 sink down into contact with a smaller internal spheroid, with- 
 out disruption : it will run into wrinkles, as the rind of an 
 apple does when the bulk of its interior decreases from eva- 
 poration. As the cooling progresses and the envelope thick- 
 ens, the ridges consequent on these contractions must become 
 greater ; rising ultimately into hills and mountains ; and the 
 later systems of mountains thus produced must not only be 
 higher, as we find them to be, but they must be longer, as we 
 also find them to be. Thus, leaving out of view other modi- 
 fying forces, we see what immense heterogeneity of surface 
 arises from the one cause, loss of heat a heterogeneity which 
 the telescope shows us to be paralleled on the Moon, where acme- 
 
438 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS, 
 
 ous and atmospheric agencies have been absent. But 
 
 we have yet to notice another kind of heterogeneity of 
 surface, similarly and simultaneously caused. While the 
 Earth's crust was still thin, the ridges produced by its con- 
 traction must not only have been small, but the tracts between 
 them must have rested with comparative smoothness on the 
 eubjacent liquid spheroid ; and the water in those arctic and 
 antarctic regions where it first condensed, must have been 
 evenly distributed. But as fast as the crust grew thicker 
 and gained corresponding strength, the lines of fracture from 
 time to time caused in it, necessarily occurred at greater dis- 
 tances apart ; the intermediate surfaces followed the contract- 
 ing nucleus with less uniformity ; and there consequently 
 resulted larger areas of land and water. If any one, after 
 wrapping an orange in wet tissue paper, and observing both 
 how small are the wrinkles and how evenly the intervening 
 spaces lie on the surface of the orange, will then wrap it in 
 thick cartridge-paper, and note both the greater height of the 
 ridges and the larger spaces throughout which the paper does 
 not touch the orange, he will realize the fact, that as the 
 Earth's solid envelope thickened, the areas of elevation and 
 depression became greater. In place of islands more or less 
 homogeneously scattered over an all-embracing sea, there must 
 have gradually arisen heterogeneous arrangements of conti- 
 nent and ocean, such as we now know. This double 
 change in the extent and in the elevation of the lands, in- 
 volved yet another species of heterogeneity that of coast-line. 
 A tolerably even surface raised out of the ocean will have a 
 simple, regular sea-margin ; but a surface varied by table* 
 lands and intersected by mountain- chains, will, when raised 
 out of the ocean, have an outline extremely irregular, alike 
 in its leading features and in its details. Thus endless is the 
 accumulation of geological and geographical results slowly 
 brought about by this one cause the escape of the Earth's 
 primitive heat. 
 
 When we pass from the agency which geologists term ig- 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OP EFFECTS. 439 
 
 neous, to aqueous and atmospheric agencies, we see a like 
 ever-growing complication of effects. The denuding actions 
 of air and water have, from the beginning, been modifying 
 every exposed surface : everywhere working many different 
 changes. As already shown ( 69) the original source of those 
 gaseous and fluid motions which effect denudation, is the solar 
 heat. The transformation of this into various modes of force, 
 according to the nature and condition of the matter on which 
 it falls, is the first stage of complication. The sun's rays, 
 striking at all angles a sphere, that from moment to moment 
 presents and withdraws different parts of its surface, and each 
 of them for a different time daily throughout the year, would 
 produce a considerable variety of changes even were the 
 sphere uniform. But falling as they do on a sphere sur- 
 rounded by an atmosphere in some parts of which wide areas 
 of cloud are suspended, and which here unveils vast tracts of 
 sea, there of level land, there of mountains, there of snow and 
 ice, they initiate in its several parts countless different move- 
 ments. Currents of air of all sizes, directions, velocities, and 
 temperatures, are set up ; as are also marine currents simi- 
 larly contrasted in their characters. In this region the sur- 
 face is giving off water in the state of vapour ; in that, dew 
 is being precipitated ; and in the other rain is descending 
 differences that arise from the ever-changing ratio between 
 the absorption and radiation of heat in each place. At one 
 hour, a rapid fall in temperature leads to the formation of ice, 
 with an accompanying expansion throughout the moist 
 bodies frozen ; while at another, a thaw unlocks the dislocated 
 fragments of these bodies. And then, passing to a second 
 stage of complication, we see that the many kinds of motion 
 directly or indirectly caused by the sun's rays, severally pro- 
 duce results that vary with the conditions. Oxidation, 
 drought, wind, frost, rain, glaciers, rivers, waves, and other 
 denuding agents effect disintegrations that are determined in 
 their amounts and qualities by local circumstances. Acting 
 upon a tract of granite, such agents here work scarcely an 
 
410 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 
 appreciable effect ; there cause exfoliations of the surface, and 
 a resulting heap of debris and boulders ; and elsewhere, after 
 decomposing the feldspar into a white clay, carry away this 
 with the accompanying quartz and mica, and deposit them 
 in separate beds, fluviatile and marine. When the exposed 
 land consists of several unlike formations, sedimentary and 
 igneous, changes proportionably more heterogeneous are 
 wrought. The formations being disintegrable in different de- 
 grees, there follows an increased irregularity of surface. The 
 areas drained by different rivers being differently constituted, 
 these rivers carry down to the sea unlike combinations of 
 ingredients ; and so sundry new strata of distinct composition 
 arise. And here indeed we may see very simply illustrated, 
 the truth, that the heterogeneity of the effects increases in a 
 geometrical progression, with the heterogeneity of the object 
 acted upon. A continent of complex structure, presenting 
 many strata irregularly distributed, raised to various levels, 
 tilted up at all angles, must, under the same denuding agen- 
 cies, give origin to immensely multiplied results : each dis- 
 trict must be peculiarly modified ; each river must carry 
 down a distinct kind of detritus ; each deposit must be differ- 
 ently distributed by the entangled currents, tidal and other, 
 which wash the contorted shores ; and every additional com 
 plication of surface must be the cause of more than one ad- 
 ditional consequence. But not to dwell on these, let us 
 for the fuller elucidation of this truth in relation to the inor- 
 ganic world, consider what would presently follow from some 
 extensive cosmical revolution say the subsidence of Central 
 America. The immediate results of the disturbance would 
 themselves be sufficiently complex. Besides the numberless 
 dislocations of strata, the ejections of igneous matter, the 
 propagation of earthquake vibrations thousands of miles 
 around, the loud explosions, and the escape of gases, there 
 would be the rush of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to sup- 
 ply the vacant space, the subsequent recoil of enormous 
 waves, which would traverse both these oceans and produce 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OP EFFECTS. 441 
 
 myriads of changes along their shores, the corresponding at- 
 mospheric waves complicated by the currents surrounding each 
 volcanic vent, and the electrical discharges with which such 
 disturbances are accompanied. But these temporary effects 
 would be insignificant compared with the permanent ones. 
 The complex currents of the Atlantic and Pacific would be 
 altered in directions and amounts. The distribution of heat 
 achieved by these currents would be different from what it is. 
 The arrangement of the isothermal lines, not only on the 
 neighbouring continents, but even throughout Europe, would 
 be changed. The tides would flow differently from what 
 they do now. There would be more or less modification of 
 the winds in their periods, strengths, directions, qualities. 
 Rain would fall scarcely anywhere at the same times and in 
 the same quantities as at present. In short, the meteorolo- 
 gical conditions thousands of miles off, on all sides, would be 
 more or less revolutionized. In these many changes, each of 
 which comprehends countless minor ones, the reader will see 
 the immense heterogeneity of the results wrought out by one 
 force, when that force expends itself on a previously compli- 
 cated area ; and he will readily draw the corollary that from 
 the beginning the complication has advanced at an increasing 
 rate. 
 
 159. We have next to trace throughout organic evolu 
 tion, this same all-pervading principle. And here, where 
 the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous 
 was first observed, the production of many changes by one 
 cause is least easy to demonstrate. The development of a seed 
 into a plant, or an ovum into an animal, is so gradual ; while 
 the forces which determine it are so involved, and at the same 
 time so unobtrusive ; that it is difficult to detect the multipli- 
 cation of effects which is elsewhere so obvious. Nevertheless, 
 by indirect evidence we may establish our proposition ; spite 
 of the lack of direct evidence. 
 
 Observe, first, how numerous are the changes which any 
 
i4ii THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 marked stimulus works on an adult organism a human being, 
 for instance. An alarming sound or sight, besides impressions 
 on the organs of sense and the nerves, may produce a start, a 
 scream, a distortion of the face, a trembling consequent on 
 general muscular relaxation, a burst of perspiration, an excited 
 action of the heart, a rush of blood to the brain, followed 
 possibly by arrest of the heart's action and by syncope ; and 
 if the system be feeble, an illness with its long train of 
 complicated symptoms may set in. Similarly in cases of 
 disease. A minute portion of the small- pox virus introduced 
 into the system, will, in a severe case, cause, during the first 
 stage, rigors, heat of skin, accelerated pulse, furred tongue, 
 loss of appetite, thirst, epigastric uneasiness, vomiting, head- 
 ache, pains in the back and limbs, muscular weakness, con- 
 vulsions, delirium, &c. ; in the second stage, cutaneous erup- 
 tion, itching, tingling, sore throat, swelled fauces, salivation, 
 cough, hoarseness, dyspnoea, &c. ; and in the third stage, 
 cedematous inflammations, pneumonia, pleurisy, diarrhoea, 
 inflammation of the brain, ophthalmia, erysipelas, &c. : each 
 of which enumerated symptoms is itself more or less complex. 
 Medicines, special foods, better air, might in like manner be 
 instanced as producing multiplied results. Now it 
 
 needs only to consider that the many changes thus wrought 
 by one force on an adult organism, must be partially paral- 
 leled in an embryo-organism, to understand how here also 
 the production of many effects by one cause is a source of 
 increasing heterogeneity. The external heat and other 
 agencies which determine the first complications of the germ, 
 will, by acting on these, superinduce further complications ; 
 on these still higher and more numerous ones ; and so on 
 continually : each organ as it is developed, serving, by its 
 actions and reactions on the rest, to initiate new complexities. 
 The first pulsations of the foetal heart must simultaneously 
 aid the unfolding of every part. The growth of each tissue, 
 by taking from the blood special proportions of elements, 
 must modify the constitution of the blood ; and so must 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 modify the nutrition of all the other tissues. The distributive 
 actions, implying as they do a certain waste, necessitate an 
 addition to the blood of effete matters, which must influence 
 the rest of the system, and perhaps, as some think, initiate 
 the formation of excretory organs. The nervous connections 
 established among the viscera must further multiply their 
 mutual influences. And so with every modification of 
 structure every additional part and every alteration in the 
 ratios of parts. Still stronger becomes the proof when 
 
 we call to mind the fact, that the same germ may be evolved 
 into different forms according t</ circumstances. Thus, dur- 
 ing its earlier stages, every embryo is sexless becomes either 
 male or female as the balance of forces acting on it deter- 
 mines. Again, it is well-known that the larva of a working- 
 bee will develop into a queen-bee, if, before a certain period, 
 its food be changed to that on which the larvae of queen-bees 
 are fed. Even more remarkable is the case of certain 
 entozoa. The ovum of a tape- worm, getting into the intes- 
 tine of one animal, unfolds into the form of its parent ; but 
 if carried into other parts of the system, or into the intestine 
 of some unlike animal, it becomes one of the sac-like creatures, 
 called by naturalists Cysticerci, or Coenuri, or Echinococci 
 creatures so extremely different from the tape-worm 
 in aspect and structure, that only after careful investiga- 
 tions have they been proved to have the same origin. 
 All which instances imply that each advance in embryonic 
 complication results from the action of incident forces on the 
 complication previously existing. Indeed, the now 
 
 accepted doctrine of epigenesis necessitates the conclusion that 
 organic evolution proceeds after this manner. For since it is 
 proved that no germ, animal or vegetal, contains the slightest 
 rudiment, trace, or indication of the future organism since 
 the microscope has shown us that the first process set up in 
 every fertilized germ is a process of repeated spontaneous 
 fissions, ending in the production of a mass of cells, not one 
 of which exhibits any special character; there seems no 
 
444 T/IE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 alternative but to conclude that the partial organization at 
 any moment subsisting in a growing embryo, is transformed 
 by the agencies acting on it into the succeeding phase oi 
 organization, and this into the next, until, through ever- 
 increasing complexities, the ultimate form is reach- 
 ed. Thus, though the subtlety of the forces and the 
 slowness of the metamorphosis, prevent us from directly 
 tracing the genesis of many changes by one cause, throughout 
 the successive stages which every embryo passes through ; 
 yet, indirectly, we have strong evidence that this is a source 
 of increasing heterogeneity. We have marked how multi- 
 tudinous are the effects which a single agency may generate 
 in an adult organism ; that a like multiplication of effects 
 must happen in the unfolding organism, we have inferred 
 from sundry illustrative cases ; further, it has been pointed 
 out that the ability which like germs have to originate un 
 like forms, implies that the successive transformations result 
 from the new changes superinduced on previous changes ; 
 and we have seen that structureless as every germ originally 
 is, the development of an organism out of it is otherwise in- 
 comprehensible. Doubtless we are still in the dark respect- 
 ing those mysterious properties which make the germ, when 
 subject to fit influences, undergo the special changes begin- 
 ning this series of transformations. All here contended is, 
 that given a germ possessing these mysterious properties, the 
 evolution of an organism from it depends, in part, on that 
 multiplication of effects which we have seen to be a cause of 
 evolution in general, so far as we have yet traced it. 
 
 When, leaving the development of single plants and ani- 
 mals, we pass to that of the Earth's flora and fauna, the 
 course of the argument again becomes clear and simple. 
 Though, as before admitted, the fragmentary facts Palaeon- 
 tology has accumulated, do not clearly warrant us in saying 
 that, in the lapse of geologic time, there have been evolved 
 more heterogeneous organisms, and more heterogeneous 
 assemblages of organisms ; yet we shall now see that there 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 445 
 
 must ever have been a tendency towards these results. We 
 shall find that the production of many effects by one cause, 
 which, as already shown, has been all along increasing 
 the physical heterogeneity of the Earth, has further necejs- 
 sitated an increasing heterogeneity in its flora and fauna, 
 individually and collectively. An illustration will make this 
 clear. Suppose that by a series of upheavals, occur- 
 
 ring, as they are now known to do, at long intervals, the East 
 Indian Archipelago were to be raised into a continent, and a 
 chain of mountains formed along the axis of elevation. By 
 the first of these upheavals, the plants and animals inhabit- 
 ing Borneo, Sumatra, New Guinea, and the rest, would be 
 subjected to slightly- modified sets of conditions. The climate 
 in general would be altered in temperature, in humidity, and 
 in its periodical variations ; while the local differences would 
 be multiplied. These modifications would affect, perhaps 
 inappreciably, the entire flora and fauna of the region. The 
 change of level would produce additional modifications ; 
 varying in different species, and also in different members of 
 the same species, according to their distance from the axis of 
 elevation. Plants, growing only on the sea-shore in special 
 localities, might become extinct. Others, living only in 
 swamps of a certain humidity, would, if they survived at all, 
 probably undergo visible changes of appearance. While 
 more marked alterations would occur in some of the 
 plants that spread over the lands newly raised above the 
 sea. The animals and insects living on these modified plants, 
 would themselves be in some degree modified by change of 
 tood, as well as by change of climate ; and the modification 
 would be more marked where, from the dwindling or disap- 
 pearance of one kind of plant, an allied kind was eaten. In 
 the lapse of the many generations arising before the next up- 
 heaval, the sensible or insensible alterations thus produced in 
 each species, would become organized in ail the races that 
 survived there would be a more or less complete adaptation 
 to the new conditions. The next upheaval would superin- 
 
*46 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 duce further organic changes, implying wider divergences 
 from the primary forms ; and so repeatedly. Now however 
 let it be observed that this revolution would not be a substi- 
 tution of a thousand modified species for the thousand 
 original species ; but in place of the thousand original species 
 there would arise several thousand species, or varieties, or 
 changed forms. Each species being distributed over an area 
 of some extent, and tending continually to colonize the new 
 area exposed, its different members would be subject to dif- 
 ferent sets of changes. Plants and animals migrating to- 
 wards the equator would not be affected in the same way 
 with others migrating from it. Those which spread towards 
 the new shores, would undergo changes unlike the changes 
 undergone by those which spread into the mountains. Thus, 
 each original race of organisms would become the root from 
 which diverged several races, differing more or less from it and 
 from each other ; and while some of these might subsequently 
 disappear, probably more than one would survive in the next 
 geologic period : the very dispersion itself increasing the 
 chances of survival. Not only would there be certain modi- 
 fications thus caused by changes of physical conditions and 
 food ; but also in some cases other modifications caused by 
 changes of habit. The fauna of each island, peopling, step 
 by step, the newly- raised tracts, would eventually come in 
 contact with the faunas of other islands ; and some members 
 of these other faunas would be unlike any creatures before 
 seen. Herbivores meeting with new beasts of prey, would, 
 in some cases, be led into modes of defence or escape differ- 
 ing from those previously used ; and simultaneously the 
 beasts of prey would modify their modes of pursuit and 
 attack. We know that when circumstances demand it, such 
 changes of habit do take place in animals ; and we know 
 that if the new habits become the dominant ones, they 
 must eventually in some degree alter the organiza- 
 tion. Observe now, however, a further consequenca 
 There must arise not simply a tendency towards the differeu 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 447 
 
 flation of each race of organisms into several races ; but also 
 a tendency to the occasional production of a somewhat higher 
 organism. Taken in the mass, these divergent varieties, 
 which have been caused by fresh physical conditions and 
 habits of life, will exhibit alterations quite indefinite in kind 
 and degree ; and alterations that do not necessarily consti- 
 tute an advance. Probably in most cases the modified type 
 wrill be not appreciably more heterogeneous than the original 
 one. But it must now and then occur, that some division of 
 a species, falling into circumstances which give it rather 
 more complex experiences, and demand actions somewhat 
 more involved, will have certain of its organs further dif- 
 ferentiated ip proportionately small degrees will become 
 slightly more heterogeneous. Hence, there will from time 
 to time arise an increased heterogeneity both of the Earth's 
 flora and fauna, and of individual races included in them. 
 Omitting detailed explanations, and allowing for the qualifi- 
 cations which cannot here be specified, it is sufficiently clear 
 that geological mutations have all along tended to complicate 
 the forms of life, whether regarded separately or collectively. 
 That multiplication of effects which has been a part-cause of 
 the transformation of the Earth's crust from the simple into 
 the complex, has simultaneously led to a parallel transforma- 
 tion of the Life upon its surface.* 
 
 The deduction here drawn from the established truths of 
 
 Had this paragraph, first published in the Westminster Review in 1857, been 
 written after the appearance of Mr. Darwin's work on The Origin of Species, it 
 would doubtless have been otherwise expressed. Reference would have been 
 made to the process of " natural selection," as greatly facilitating the differenti- 
 ations described. As it is, however, I prefer to let the passage stand in its origi- 
 nal shape : partly because it seems to me that these successive changes of condi- 
 tions would produce divergent varieties or species, apart from the influence of 
 " natural selection " (though in less numerous ways as well as less rapidly) ; and 
 partly because I conceive that in the absence of these successive changes of con- 
 ditions, " natural selection" would effect comparatively little. Let me add that 
 though these positions are not enunciated in The Origin of Species, yet a common 
 friend gives me reason to think that Mr. Darwin would coincide in them ; if he 
 did not iudeed consider them as tacitly implied in his work. 
 
448 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 
 geology and the general laws of life, gains immensely in weight 
 on finding it to be in harmony with an induction drawn from 
 direct experience. Just that divergence of many races from 
 me race, which we inferred must have been continually oc- 
 curring during geologic time, we know to have occurred dur- 
 ing the pre -historic and historic periods, in man and domestic 
 animals. And just that multiplication of effects which we 
 concluded must have been instrumental to the first, we see 
 has in a great measure wrought the last. Single causes, as 
 famine, pressure of population, war, have periodically led to 
 further dispersions of mankind and of dependent creatures : 
 each such dispersion initiating new modifications, new varieties 
 of type. Whether all the human races be or be not derived 
 from one stock, philology makes it clear that whole groups of 
 races, now easily distinguishable from each other, were origin- 
 ally one race that the diffusion of one race into different 
 climates and conditions of existence has produced many 
 altered forms of it. Similarly with domestic animals. Though 
 in some cases (as that of dogs) community of origin will per- 
 haps be disputed, yet in other cases (as that of the sheep or 
 the cattle of our own country) it will not be questioned that 
 local differences of climate, food, and treatment, have trans- 
 formed one original breed into numerous breeds, now become 
 so far distinct as to produce unstable hybrids. Moreover 
 through the complication of effects flowing from single causes, 
 we here find, what we before inferred, not only an increase of 
 general heterogeneity, but also of special heterogeneity. 
 While of the divergent divisions and subdivisions of the hu- 
 man race, many have undergone changes not constituting ao 
 advance ; others have become decidedly more heterogeneous, 
 The civilized European departs more widely from the verte- 
 brate archetype than does the savage. 
 
 160 A sensation does not expend itself in arousing some 
 single state of consciousness ; but the state of consciousness 
 aroused is made up of various represented sensations connected 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 449 
 
 by co- existence, or sequence with the presented sensation, 
 And that, in proportion as the grade of intelligence is high, 
 the number of ideas suggested is great, may be readily inferred. 
 Let us, however, look at the proof that here too, each change 
 is the parent of many changes ; and that the multiplication 
 increases in proportion as the area affected is complex. 
 
 Were some hitherto unknown bird, driven say by stress of 
 weather from the remote north, to make its appearance on 
 our shores, it would excite no speculation in the sheep or cat- 
 tle amid which it alighted : a perception of it as a creature 
 like those constantly flying about, would be the sole inter- 
 ruption of that dull current of consciousness which accom- 
 panies grazing and rumination. The cow-herd, by whom we 
 may suppose the exhausted bird to be presently caught, would 
 probably gaze at it with some slight curiosity, as being un- 
 like any he had before seen would note its most conspicuous 
 markings, and vaguely ponder on the questions, where it 
 came from, and how it came. The village bird- staffer would 
 have suggested to him by the sight of it, sundry forms to 
 which it bore a little resemblance ; would receive from it more 
 numerous and more specific impressions respecting structure 
 and plumage; would be reminded of various instances of 
 birds brought by storms from foreign parts would tell who 
 found them, who stuffed them, who bought them. Suppos- 
 ing the unknown bird taken to a naturalist of the old school, 
 interested only in externals, (one of those described by the 
 late Edward Forbes, as examining animals as though they were 
 merely skins filled with straw,) it would excite in him a more 
 involved series of mental changes : there would be an elabor- 
 ate examination of the feathers, a noting of all their technical 
 distinctions, with a reduction of these perceptions to certain 
 equivalent written symbols; reasons for referring the new 
 form to a particular family, order, and genus would be sought 
 out and written down ; communications with the secretary of 
 some society, or editor of some journal, would follow ; ana 
 probably tnere would be not a rew thoughts about the addi 4 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 
 tioi) of the to the describer's name, to form the naufc, of the 
 species. Lastly, in the mind of a comparative anatomist, such 
 a new species, should it happen to have any marked internal 
 peculiarity, might produce additional sets of changes might- 
 very possibly suggest modified views respecting the relation- 
 ships of the division to which it belonged ; or, perhaps, alter 
 his conceptions of the homologies and developments of certain 
 organs ; and the conclusions drawn might not improbably 
 enter as elements into still wider inquiries concerning the 
 origin of organic forms. 
 
 From ideas let us turn to emotions. In a young child, a 
 father's anger produces little else than vague fear a disagree- 
 able sense of impending evil, taking various shapes of physi- 
 cal suffering or deprivation of pleasures. In elder children, 
 the same harsh words will arouse additional feelings : some- 
 times a sense of shame, of penitence, or of sorrow for hav- 
 ing offended.; at other times, a sense of injustice, and a 
 consequent anger. In the wife, yet a further range of feel- 
 ings may come into existence perhaps wounded affection ; 
 perhaps self-pity for ill-usage, perhaps contempt for ground 
 less irritability, perhaps sympathy for some suffering which 
 the irritability indicates, perhaps anxiety about an unknown 
 misfortune which she thinks has produced it. Nor are we 
 without evidence that among adults, the like differences of de- 
 velopment are accompanied by like differences in the number 
 of emotions that are aroused, in combination or rapid succes- 
 sion the lower natures being characterized by that impul- 
 siveness which results from the uncontrolled action of a few 
 feelings ; and the higher natures being characterized by the 
 simultaneous action of many secondary feelings, modifying 
 those first awakened. 
 
 Possibly it will be objected that tne illustrations here given, 
 are drawn from the functional changes of the nervous system, 
 not from its structural changes ; and that what is proved 
 among the first, does not necessarily hold among the last. 
 Tina must be admitted. Those, however, who recognize the 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 4M 
 
 truth that the structural changes are the slowly accumulated 
 results of the functional changes, will readily draw the corol- 
 lary, that a part -cause of the evolution of the nervous system, 
 as of other evolution, is this multiplication of effects which 
 becomes ever greater as the development becomes higher. 
 
 161. If the advance of Man towards greater heterogene- 
 ity in both body and mind, is in part traceable to the produc- 
 tion of many effects by one cause, still more clearly may the 
 advance of Society towards greater heterogeneity be so ex- 
 plained. Consider the growth of an industrial organization. 
 When, as must occasionally happen, some individual of a 
 tribe displays unusual aptitude for making an article of gen- 
 eral use (a weapon, for instance) which was before made by 
 each man for himself, there arises a tendency towards the 
 differentiation of that individual into a maker of weapons. 
 His companions (warriors and hunters all of them) severally 
 wish to have the best weapons that can be made ; and are 
 therefore certain to offer strong inducements to this skilled 
 individual to make weapons for them. He, on the other hand, 
 having both an unusual faculty, and an unusual liking, for 
 making weapons (the capacity and the desire for any occu- 
 pation being commonly associated), is predisposed to fulfil 
 these commissions on the offer of adequate rewards : espe- 
 cially as his love of distinction is also gratified. This first 
 specialization of function, once commenced, tends ever to be- 
 come more decided. On the side of the weapon-maker, con 
 tinued practice gives increased skill increased superiority to 
 his products. On the side of his clients, cessation of practice 
 enlails decreased skill. Thus the influences that determine 
 this division of labour grow stronger in both ways : this 
 social movement tends ever to become more decided in tho 
 direction in which it was first set up; and the incipient 
 heterogeneity is, on the average of cases, likely to become 
 permanent for that generation, if no longer. Such a 
 
 process, besides differentiating the social mas& into two parts, 
 
452 ^HE MULTIPLICATION UF EFFECTS, 
 
 the one monopolizing, or almost monopolizing, the perform- 
 ance of a certain function, and the other having lost the 
 habit, and in some measure the power, of performing that 
 function, has a tendency to initiate other differentiations. The 
 advance described implies the introduction of barter : the 
 maker of weapons has, on each occasion, to be paid in such 
 other articles as he agrees to take in exchange. Now he will 
 not habitually take in exchange one kind of article, but many 
 kinds. He does not want mats only, or skins, or fishing-gear ; 
 but he wants all these ; and on each occasion will bargain 
 for the particular things he most needs. What follows ? If 
 among the members of the tribe there exist any slight differ- 
 ences of skill in the manufacture of these various things, as 
 there are almost sure to do, the weapon-maker will take from 
 each one the thing which that one excels in making : he will 
 exchange for mats with him whose mats are superior, and 
 will bargain for the fishing-gear of whoever has the best. 
 But he who has bartered away his mats or his fishing-gear, 
 must make other mats or fishing-gear for himself; and in so 
 doing must, in so.ne degree, further develop his aptitude. 
 Thus it results that the small specialities of faculty possessed 
 by various members of the tribe will tend to grow more de- 
 cided. If such transactions are from time to time repeated, 
 these specializations may become appreciable. And whether 
 or not there ensue distinct differentiations of other individ- 
 uals into makers of particular articles, it is clear that incipi- 
 ent differentiations take place throughout the tribe : the one 
 original cause produces not only the first dual effect, but a 
 number of secondary dual effects, like in kind but minor in 
 degree. This process, of which traces may be seen 
 
 among groups of school-boys, cannot well produce a lasting 
 distribution of functions in an unsettled tribe ; but where 
 there grows up a fixed and multiplying community, such 
 differentiations become permanent, and increase with each 
 generation. An addition to the number of citizens, involv 
 ing a greater demand for every commodity, intensifies thfl 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECT!*. 453 
 
 fiiuctional activity of each specialized person or class ; and 
 this renders the specialization more definite where it al- 
 ready exists, and establishes it where it is but nascent. By 
 increasing the pressure on the means of subsistence, a larger 
 population again augments these results ; since every individ- 
 ual is forced more and more to confine himself to that which 
 he can do best, and by which he can gain most. And this 
 industrial progress, by aiding future production, opens the 
 way for further growth of population, which reacts as be- 
 fore. Presently, under the same stimuli, new occu- 
 pations arise. Competing workers, severally aiming to pro- 
 duce improved articles, occasionally discover better processes 
 or better materials. In weapons and cutting-tools, the substi- 
 tution of bronze for stone entails on him who first makes it, a 
 great increase of demand so great an increase that he pre- 
 sently finds all his time occupied in making the bronze for the 
 articles he sells, and is obliged to depute the fashioning of 
 these articles to others ; and eventually the making of bronze, 
 thus gradually differentiated from a pre-existing occupation, 
 becomes an occupation by itself. But now mark the ramified 
 changes which follow this change. Bronze soon replaces stone, 
 not only in the articles it was first used for, but in many others ; 
 and so affects the manufacture of them. Further, it affects the 
 processes which such improved utensils subserve, and the re- 
 sulting products modifies buildings, carvings, dress, personal 
 decorations. Yet again, it sets going sundry manufactures 
 which were before impossible, from lack of a material fit for 
 the requisite tools. And all these changes react on the peo- 
 ple increase their manipulative skill, their intelligence, their 
 somfort refine their habits and tastes. 
 
 It is out of the question here to follow through its succes- 
 sive complications, this increasing social heterogeneity that 
 results from the production of many effects by one cause. 
 But leaving the intermediate phases of social development, 
 let us take an illustration from its passing phase. To trace 
 the effects of steam-power, in its manifold applications to 
 21 
 
154 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 
 mining, navigation, and manufactures, would carry us into 
 unmanageable detail. Let us confine ourselves to the latest 
 embodiment of steam-power the locomotive engine. This, 
 as the proximate cause of our railway-system, has changed 
 the face of the country, the course of trade, and the habits of 
 the people. Consider, first, the complicated sets of changes 
 that precede the making of every railway the provisional 
 arrangements, the meetings, the registration, the trial- section, 
 the parliamentary survey, the lithographed plans, the books 
 of reference, the local deposits and notices, the application to 
 Parliament, the passing Standing -Orders Committee, the first, 
 second, and third readings : each of which brief heads indi- 
 cates a multiplicity of transactions, and the further develop- 
 ment of sundry occupations, (as those of engineers, surveyors, 
 lithographers, parliamentary agents, share- brokers,) and the 
 creation of sundry others (as those of traffic-takers, reference- 
 takers). Consider, next, the yet more marked changes 
 implied in railway construction the cuttings, embankings, 
 tunnellings, diversions of roads ; the. building of bridges and 
 stations ; the laying down of ballast, sleepers, and rails ; the 
 making of engines, tenders, carriages, and wagons : which 
 processes, acting upon numerous trades, increase the import- 
 ation of timber, the quarrying of stone, the manufacture of 
 iron, the mining of coal, the burning of bricks ; institute a 
 variety of special manufactures weekly advertised in the 
 Railway Times ; and call into being some new classes of 
 workers drivers, stokers, cleaners, plate -layers, &c. &c. 
 Then come the changes, more numerous and involved still, 
 which railways in action produce on the community at large. 
 The organization of every business is more or less modified : 
 ease of communication makes it better to do directly what 
 was before done by proxy ; agencies are established where 
 previously they would not have paid; goods are obtained 
 from remote wholesale houses instead of near retail ones ; and 
 commodities are used which distance once rendered inacces- 
 sible. The rapidity and small cost of carriage, tend to special- 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECT*. 455 
 
 ize more than ever the industries of different districts to 
 confine each manufacture to the parts in which, from local 
 advantages, it can be best carried on. Economical distribu- 
 tion equalizes prices, and also, on the average, lowers prices : 
 thus bringing divers articles within the means of those before 
 unable to buy them, and so increasing their comforts and 
 improving their habits. At the same time the practice of 
 travelling is immensely extended. Classes who before could 
 not afford it, take annual trips to the sea ; visit their distant 
 relations ; make tours ; and so we are benefited in body, 
 feelings, and intellect. The more prompt transmission of 
 letters and of news produces further changes makes the 
 pulse of the nation faster. Yet more, there arises a wide 
 dissemination of cheap literature through railway book- stalls, 
 and of advertisements in railway carriages : both of them 
 aiding ulterior progress. And the innumerable changes here 
 briefly indicated are consequent on the invention of the loco- 
 motive engine r The social organism has been rendered more 
 heterogeneous, in virtue of the many new occupations intro- 
 duced, and the many old ones further specialized ; prices in 
 all places have been altered ; each trader has, more or less, 
 modified his way of doing business ; and every person has 
 been affected in his actions, thoughts, emotions. 
 
 The only further fact demanding notice, is, that we Lore 
 see more clearly than ever, that in proportion as the area over 
 which any influence extends, becomes heterogeneous, the 
 results are in a yet higher degree multiplied in number and 
 kind. While among the primitive tribes to whom it was 
 first known, caoutchouc caused but few changes, among our- 
 selves the changes have been so many and varied that the 
 history of them occupies a volume. Upon the small, homo- 
 geneous community inhabiting one of the Hebrides, the 
 electric telegraph would produce, were it used, scarcely any 
 results ; but in England the results it produces are multitu- 
 dinous. 
 
 Space permitting, the synthesis might here be pursued 
 
45(J THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 
 
 ill relation to all the subtler products of social life. It might 
 be shown how, in Science, an advance of one division pre- 
 sently advances other divisions how Astronomy has been 
 immensely forwarded by discoveries in Optics, while other 
 optical discoveries have initiated Microscopic Anatomy, and 
 greatly aided the growth of Physiology how Chemistry has 
 indirectly increased our knowledge of Electricity, Magnetism. 
 Biology, Geology how Electricity has reacted on Chemistry 
 and Magnetism, developed our views of Light and Heat, and 
 disclosed sundry laws of nervous action. In Literature the 
 same truth might be exhibited in the still- multiply ing forms 
 of periodical publications that have descended from the firet 
 newspaper, and which have severally acted and reacted on 
 other forms of literature and on each other ; or in the bias 
 given by each book of power to various subsequent books. 
 The influence which a new school of Painting (as that of the 
 pre-Raffaelites) exercises on other schools ; the hints which 
 all kinds of pictorial art are deriving from Photography ; the 
 complex results of new critical doctrines ; might severally be 
 dwelt on as displaying the like multiplication of effects. But 
 it would needlessly tax the reader's patience to detail, in 
 their many ramifications, these various changes r here be- 
 come so involved and subtle as to be followed with some 
 difficulty. 
 
 162. After the argument which closed the last chapter, a 
 parallel one seems here scarcely required. For symmetry's 
 sake, however, it will be proper briefly to point out how the 
 multiplication of effects, like the instability of the homo 
 geneous, is a corollary from the persistence of force. 
 
 Things which we call different are things which react in 
 lifferent ways ; and we can know them as different only by 
 the differences in their reactions. When we distinguish 
 bodies as hard and soft, rough and smooth, we simply mean 
 that certain like muscular forces expended on them are 
 followed by unlike sets of sensations unlike reactive forces 
 
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS. 457 
 
 Objects that are classed as red, blue, yellow, &c., are objects 
 that decompose light in strongly-contrasted ways ; that is, we 
 know contrasts of colour as contrasts in the changes produced 
 in a uniform incident force. Manifestly, any two things 
 which do not work unequal effects on consciousness, either \>y 
 unequally opposing our own energies, or by impressing oui 
 senses with unequally modified forms of certain external 
 energies, cannot be distinguished by us. Hence the proposi 
 tion that the different parts of any whole must react differ- 
 ently on a uniform incident force, and must so reduce it to 
 a group of multiform forces, is in essence a truism. A 
 further step will reduce this truism to its lowest terms. 
 
 When, from unlikeness between the effects they produce 
 on consciousness, we predicate unlikeness between two ob- 
 jects, what is our warrant? and what do we mean by the 
 unlikeness, objectively considered ? Our warrant is the per- 
 sistence of force. Some kind or amount of change has been 
 wrought in us by the one, which has not been wrought by 
 the other. This change we ascribe to some force exercised by 
 the one which the other has not exercised. And we have no 
 alternative but to do this, or to assert that the change had 
 no antecedent ; which is to deny the persistence of force. 
 Whence it is further manifest that what we regard as the 
 objective unlikeness is the presence ir. the one of some force, 
 or set of forces, not present in the other something in tho 
 kinds or amounts or directions of the constituent forces of the 
 one, which those of the other do not parallel. But now if 
 things or parts of things which we call different, are those of 
 which the constituent forces differ in one or more respects ; 
 what must happen to any like forces, or any uniform force, 
 falling on them ? Such like forces, or parts of a uniform 
 force, must be differently modified. The force which is pre- 
 sent in the one and not in the other, must be an element in 
 the conflict must produce its equivalent reaction ; and must 
 eo affect the total reaction. To say otherwise is to say that 
 
458 THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS 
 
 
 this differential force will produce no effect ; which is to say 
 that force is not persistent. 
 
 I need not develop this corollary further. It manifestly 
 follows that a uniform force, falling on a uniform aggre- 
 gate, must undergo dispersion ; that falling on an aggregate 
 made up of unlike parts, it must undergo dispersion from 
 each part, as well as qualitative differentiations ; that in pro- 
 portion as the parts are unlike, these qualitative differentia- 
 tions- must be marked ; that in proportion to the number of 
 the parts, they must be numerous ; that the secondary forces 
 so produced, must undergo further transformations while 
 working equivalent transformations in the parts that change 
 them ; and similarly with the forces they generate. Thus the 
 conclusions that a part- cause of Evolution is the multiplica- 
 tion of effects ; and that this increases in geometrical progres- 
 sion as the heterogeneity becomes greater ; are not only to be 
 established inductively, but are deducible from the deepest 
 of all truths 
 
CHAPTER 
 
 SEGREGATION. 
 
 163, THE general interpretation of Evolution is far from 
 being completed in the preceding chapters. "We must con- 
 template its changes under yet another aspect, before we can 
 form a definite conception of the process constituted by them. 
 Though the laws already set forth, furnish a key to the re- 
 arrangement of parts which Evolution exhibits, in so far as 
 it is an advance from the uniform to the multiform ; they 
 furnish no key to this re-arrangement in so far as it is an 
 advance from the indefinite to the definite. On studying the 
 actions and re- actions everywhere going on, we have found 
 it to follow inevitably from a certain primordial truth, that 
 the homogeneous must lapse into the heterogeneous, and that 
 the heterogeneous must become more heterogeneous ; but we 
 have not discovered why the differently- affected parts of any 
 simple whole, become clearly marked off from each other, at 
 the same time that they become unlike. Thus far no reason 
 has been assigned why there should not ordinarily arise a 
 vague chaotic heterogeneity, in place of that orderly hetero- 
 geneity displayed in Evolution. It still remains to find out 
 the cause of that local integration which accompanies 
 local differentiation that gradually-completed segregation 
 of like units into a group, distinctly separated from neigh- 
 bouring groups which are severally made up of other kinds 
 of units. The rationale will be conveniently introduced by a 
 
46' U SEGREGATION. 
 
 few instances in which, we may watch this segregative pro- 
 cess taking place. 
 
 "When towards the end of September, the trees are gaming 
 their autumn colours, and we are hoping shortly to see a 
 further change increasing still more the beauty of the land- 
 scape, we are not uncommonly disappointed by the occur- 
 rence of an equinoxial gale. Out of the mixed mass of 
 foliage on each branch, the strong current of air carries 
 away the decaying and brightly-tinted leaves, but fails to 
 detach those which are still green. And while these last, 
 frayed and seared by long-continued beatings against each 
 other, and the twigs around them, give a sombre colour to 
 the woods, the red and yellow and orange leaves are collected 
 together in ditches and behind walls and in corners where 
 eddies allow them to settle. That is to say, by the action of 
 that uniform force which the wind exerts on both kinds, the 
 dying leaves are picked out from among their still living com- 
 panions and gathered in places by themselves. Again, the 
 separation of particles of different sizes, as dust and sand 
 from pebbles, may be similarly effected ; as we see on every 
 road in March. And from the days of Homer downwards, 
 the power of currents of air, natural and artificial, to part 
 from one another units of unlike specific gravities, has 
 been habitually utilized in the winnowing of chaff from 
 wheat. In every river we see how the mixed ma- 
 
 terials carried down, are separately deposited how in rapids 
 the bottom gives rest to nothing but boulders and pebbles ; 
 how where the current is not so strong, sand is let fall ; and 
 how, in still places, there is a sediment of mud. This select- 
 ive action of moving water, is commonly applied in the arts 
 to obtain masses of particles of different degrees of fineness. 
 Emery, for example, after being ground, is carried by a slow 
 current through successive compartments ; in the first of 
 which the largest grains subside ; in the second of which 
 the grains that reach the bottom before the water has 
 escaped, are somewhat smaller ; in the third smaller still ; 
 
SEGREGATION. 461 
 
 until in the last there are deposited only those fineut 
 particles which fall so slowly through the water, that they 
 have not previously been able to reach the bottom. And in 
 a way that is different though equally significant, this segre- 
 gative effect of water in motion, is exemplified in the carry- 
 ing away of soluble from insoluble matters an application 
 of it hourly made in every laboratory. The effects oi 
 
 the uniform forces which aerial and aqueous currents exercise, 
 are paralleled by those of uniform forces of other orders. Elec- 
 tric attraction will separate small bodies from large, or light 
 bodies from heavy. By magnetism, grains of iron may be 
 selected from among other grains ; as by the Sheffield 
 grinder, whose magnetized gauze mask filters out the steel- 
 dust which his wheel gives off, from the stone- dust that 
 accompanies it. And how the affinity of any agent acting 
 differently on the components of a given body, enables us to 
 take away some component and leave the rest behind, is 
 shown in almost every chemical experiment. 
 
 What now is the general truth here variously presented ? 
 How are these several facts and countless similar ones, to be 
 expressed in terms that embrace them all ? In each case we 
 see in action a force which may be regarded as simple or uni- 
 form fluid motion in a certain direction at a certain velocity ; 
 electric or magnetic attraction of a given amount ; chemical 
 affinity of a particular kind : or rather, in strictness, the act- 
 ing force is compounded of one of these and certain other 
 uniform forces, as gravitation, etc. In each case we have an 
 aggregate made up of unlike units either atoms of different 
 substances combined or intimately mingled, or fragments of 
 the same substance of different sizes, or other constituent 
 parts that are unlike in their specific gravities, shapes, or 
 other attributes. And in each case these unlike units, or 
 groups of units, of which the aggregate consists, are, under 
 the influence of some resultant force acting indiscrimi- 
 nately on them all, separated from each other segregated 
 into minor aggregates- each consisting of units that are 
 
462 SEGREGATION. 
 
 severally like each other and unlike those of the other minor 
 aggregates. Such being the common aspect of these changes, 
 let us look for the common interpretation of them. 
 
 In the chapter on " The Instability of the Homogeneous," 
 it was shown that a uniform force falling on any aggregate, 
 produces unlike modifications in its different parts turns the 
 uniform into the multiform and the multiform into the more 
 multiform. The transformation thus wrought, consists of 
 either insensible or sensible changes of relative position 
 among the units, or of both either of those molecular re- 
 arrangements which we call chemical, or of those larger 
 transpositions which are distinguished as mechanical, or of 
 the two united. Such portion of the permanently effective 
 force as reaches each different part, or differently- conditioned 
 part, may be expended in modifying the mutual relations of 
 its constituents ; or it may be expended in moving the part 
 to another place ; or it may be expended partially in the first 
 and partially in the second. Hence, so much of the perma- 
 nently effective force as does not work the one kind of effect, 
 must work the other kind. It is manifest that if of the 
 permanently effective force which fulls on some compound 
 unit of an aggregate, little, if any, is absorbed in re- arrang- 
 ing the ultimate components of such compound unit, much 
 or the whole, must show itself in motion of such compound 
 unit to some other place in the aggregate ; and conversely, 
 if little or none of this force is absorbed in generating me- 
 chanical transposition, much or the whole must go to pro- 
 duce molecular alterations. What now must follow 
 from this ? In cases where none or only part of the force 
 generates chemical re- distributions, what physical re-distri- 
 butions must be generated ? Parts that are similar to each 
 other will be similarly acted on by the force ; and will simi- 
 larly react on it. Parts that are dissimilar will be dissimi- 
 larly acted on by the force ; and will dissimilarly react on 
 it. Hence the permanently effective incident force, when 
 wholly or partially transformed intr mechanical motion 
 
SEGREGATION. 4G3 
 
 of the units, will produce like motions in units that arc 
 alike, and unlike motions in units that are unlike. If 
 then, in an aggregate containing two or more orders of mixed 
 units, those of the same order will be moved in the same way, 
 and in a way that differs from that in which units of other 
 orders are moved, the respective orders must segregate. A 
 group of like things on which are impressed motions that are 
 alike in amount and direction, must be transferred as a group 
 to another place, and if they are mingled with some group of 
 other things, on which the motions impressed are like each 
 other, but unlike those of the first group in amount or di- 
 rection or both, these other things must be transferred as a 
 group to some other place the mixed units must undergo a 
 simultaneous selection and separation. 
 
 In further elucidation of this process, it will be well here 
 to set down a few instances in which we may see that, other 
 things equal, the definiteness of the separation is in propor- 
 tion to the definiteness of the difference between the units. 
 Take a handful of any pounded substance, containing frag- 
 ments of all sizes; and let it fall to the ground while a 
 gentle breeze is blowing. The large fragments will be 
 collected together on the ground almost immediately under 
 the hand ; somewhat smaller fragments will be carried a 
 little to the leeward ; still smaller ones a little further ; and 
 those minute particles which we call dust, will be drifted a 
 long way before they reach the earth : that is, the integration 
 is indefinite where the difference among the fragments is 
 indefinite, though the divergence is greatest where the 
 difference is greatest. If, again, the handful be made up of 
 quite distinct orders of units as pebbles, coarse sand, and 
 dust these will, under like conditions, be segregated with 
 comparative definiteness : the pebbles will drop almost verti- 
 cally ; the sand will fall in an inclined direction, and deposit 
 itself within a tolerably circumscribed space beyond the 
 pebbles ; while the dust will be blown almost horizontally to 
 a great distance. A case in which another kind of force 
 
404 SEGREGATION. 
 
 comes into play, will still better illustrate this truth. 
 Through a mixed aggregate of soluble and insoluble sub- 
 stances, let water slowly percolate. There will in the first 
 place be a distinct parting of the substances that are the most 
 widely contrasted in their relations to the acting forces : the 
 soluble will be carried away ; the insoluble will remain be- 
 hind. Further, some separation, though a less definite one, 
 will be effected among the soluble substances ; since the first 
 part of the current will remove the most soluble substances in 
 the largest amounts, and after these have been all dissolved, 
 the current will still continue to bring out the remaining less 
 soluble substances. Even the undissolved matters will have 
 simultaneously undergone a certain segregation ; for the 
 percolating fluid will carry down the minute fragments from 
 among the large ones, and will deposit those of small specific 
 gravity in one place, and those of great specific gravity in 
 another. To complete the elucidation we must glance 
 
 at the obverse fact ; namely, that mixed units which differ but 
 slightly, are moved in but slightly-different ways by incident 
 forces, and can therefore be separated only by such adjust- 
 ments of the incident forces as allow slight differences to be- 
 come appreciable factors in the result. This truth is made 
 manifest by antithesis in the instances just given ; but it may 
 be made much more manifest by a few such instances as 
 those which chemical analysis supplies in abundance. The 
 parting of alcohol from water by distillation is a good one. 
 Here we have atoms consisting of oxygen and hydrogen, 
 mingled with atoms consisting of oxygen, hydrogen, and 
 carbon. The two orders of atoms have a considerable 
 similarity of nature : they similarly maintain a fluid form at 
 ordinary temperatures ; they similarly become gaseous more 
 and more rapidly as the temperature is raised ; and they boil 
 at points not very far apart. Now this comparative likeness 
 of the atoms is accompanied by difficulty in segregating 
 them. If the mixed fluid is unduly heated, much water dis- 
 tils over with the alcohol : it is only within a narrow range 
 
SEGREGATION. 465 
 
 of lem]>eraturc, that the one set of atoms are driven off rather 
 than the others ; and even then not a few of the others ac- 
 company them. The most interesting and instructive 
 example, however, is furnished by certain phenomena of 
 crystallization. When several salts that have little analogy 
 tf constitution, are dissolved in the same body of water, they 
 are separated without much trouble, by crystallization : theii 
 respective units moved towards each other, as physicists sup- 
 pose, by polar forces, segregate into crystals of their respect- 
 ive kinds. The crystals of each salt do, indeed, usually con- 
 tain certain small amounts of the other salts present in the 
 solution especially when the crystallization has been rapid ; 
 but from these other salts they are severally freed by repeated 
 re-solutions and crystallizations. Mark now, however, that the 
 reverse is the case when the salts contained in the same body 
 of water are chemically homologous. The nitrates of baryta 
 and lead, or the sulphates of zinc, soda, and magnesia, unite 
 in the same crystals ; nor will they crystallize separately if 
 these crystals be dissolved afresh, and afresh crystallized, 
 even with great care. On seeking the cause of this anomaly, 
 chemists found that such salts were isomorphous that their 
 atoms, though not chemically identical, were identical in the 
 proportions of acid, base, and water, composing them, and in 
 their crystalline forms : whence it was inferred that their 
 atoms are nearly alike in structure. Thus is clearly illustrated 
 the truth, that units of unlike kinds are selected out and 
 separated with a readiness proportionate to the degree of 
 their unlikeness. In the first case we see that being dis- 
 similar in their forms, but similar in so far as they are 
 ooluble in water of a certain temperature, the atoms segre- 
 gate, though imperfectly. In the second case we see that the 
 atoms, having not only the likeness implied by solubility in 
 the same menstruum, but also a great likeness of structure, 
 do not segregate are sorted and parted from each other only 
 under quite special conditions, and then very incompletely. 
 That is, the incident force of mutual polarity impresses unlike 
 
66 SEGREGATION. 
 
 motions on the mixed units in proportion as they are unlike ; 
 and therefore, in proportion as they are unlike, tends to de- 
 posit them in separate places. 
 
 There is a converse cause of segregation, which it is need- 
 less here to treat of with equal fulness. If different units 
 acted on by the same force, must be differently moved ; so, 
 too, must units of the same kind be differently moved by 
 different forces. Supposing some group of units forming part 
 of a homogeneous aggregate, are unitedly exposed to a force 
 that is unlike in amount or direction to the force acting on 
 the rest of the aggregate ; then this group of units will 
 separate from the rest, provided that, of the force so acting 
 on it, there remains any portion not dissipated in molecular 
 vibrations, nor absorbed in producing molecular re- arrange- 
 ments. After all that has been said above, this proposition 
 needs no defence. 
 
 Before ending our preliminary exposition, a comple- 
 mentary truth must be specified ; namely, that mixed forces 
 are segregated by the reaction of uniform matters, just as 
 mixed matters are segregated by the action of uniform 
 forces. Of this truth a complete and sufficient illustration 
 is furnished by the dispersion of refracted light. A beam 
 of light, made up of ethereal undulations of different orders, 
 is not uniformly deflected by a homogeneous refracting 
 body ; but the different orders of undulations it contains, are 
 deflected at different angles : the result being that these 
 different orders of undulations are separated and integrated, 
 and so produce what we know as the colours of the spectrum. 
 A segregation of another kind occurs when rays of light 
 traverse an obstructing medium. Those rays which consist 
 of comparatively short undulations, are absorbed before those 
 which consist of comparatively long ones ; and the red rays, 
 which consist of the longest undulations, alone penetrate 
 when the obstruction is very great. How, conversely, there 
 is produced a separation of like forces by the reaction of un- 
 dke matter fj, is also made manifest by the phenomena oi 
 
SEGREGATION. 467 
 
 refraction : since adjacent and parallel beams of light, fall- 
 ing on, and passing through, unlike substances, are made to 
 diverge. 
 
 164. On the assumption of their nebular origin, stars and 
 planets exemplify that cause of material segregation last 
 assigned the action of unlike forces on like units. 
 
 In a preceding chapter ( 150) we saw that if matter 
 ever existed in a diffused form, it could not continue uni- 
 formly distributed, but must break up into masses. It was 
 shown that in the absence of a perfect balance of mutual at- 
 tractions among atoms dispersed through unlimited space, 
 there must arise breaches of continuity throughout the ag- 
 gregate formed by them, and a concentration of it towards 
 centres of dominant attraction. Where any such breach of 
 continuity occurs, and the atoms that were before adjacent 
 separate from each other; they do so in consequence of a 
 difference in the forces to which they are respectively sub- 
 ject. The atoms on the one side of the breach are exposed 
 to a certain surplus attraction in the direction in which they 
 begin to move ; and those on the other to a surplus attrac- 
 tion in the opposite direction. That is, the adjacent groups 
 of like units are exposed to unlike resultant forces ; and ac- 
 cordingly separate and integrate. 
 
 The formation and detachment of a nebulous ring, illus- 
 trates the same general principle. To conclude, as Laplace 
 did, that the equatorial portion of a rotating nebulous 
 spheroid, will, during concentration, acquire a centrifugal 
 force sufficient to prevent it from following the rest of the 
 contracting mass, is to conclude that such portions will 
 remain behind as are in common subject to a certain differ- 
 ential force. The line of division between the ring and 
 the spheroid, must be a line inside of which the aggregative 
 force is greater than the force resisting aggregation ; and 
 outside of which the force resisting aggregation is greater 
 than the aggregative force. Hence the alleged process 
 
103 SEGREGATION. 
 
 conforms fco the law that among like units, exposed to unlike 
 forces, the similarly conditioned part from the dissimilarly 
 conditioned. 
 
 165. Those geologic changes usually classed as aqueous, 
 display under numerous forms the segregation of unlike 
 units by a uniform incident force. On sea-shores, the waves 
 are ever sorting-out and separating the mixed materials 
 against which they break. From each mass of fallen cliff, 
 the rising and ebbing tide carries away all those particles 
 which are so small as to remain long suspended in the 
 water ; and, at some distance from shore, deposits them in 
 the shape of fine sediment. Large particles, sinking with 
 comparative rapidity, are accumulated into beds of sand 
 near low water-mark. The coarse grit and small pebbles 
 collect together on the incline up which the breakers rush. 
 And on the top lie the larger stones and boulders. Still 
 more specific segregations may occasionally be observed. 
 Flat pebbles, produced by the breaking down of laminated 
 rock, are sometimes separately collected in one part of a 
 shingle bank. On this shore the deposit is wholly of mud ; 
 on that it is wholly of sand. Here we find a sheltered cove 
 filled with small pebbles almost of one size ; and there, in a 
 curved bay one end of which is more exposed than the other, 
 we see a progressive increase in the massiveness of the stones 
 as we walk from the less exposed to the more exposed end. 
 Trace the history of each geologic deposit, and we are 
 quickly led down to the fact, that mixed fragments of 
 matter, differing in their sizes or weights, are, when ex- 
 posed to the momentum and friction of water, joined 
 with the attraction of the Earth, selected from each 
 other, and united into groups of comparatively like 
 fragments. And we see that, other things equal, the sepa- 
 ration is definite in proportion as the differences of the unita 
 ore marked. After they have been formed, sedi- 
 
 mentary strata exhibit segregations of another kind. The 
 
SEGREGATION. 4G9 
 
 flints and tlie nodules of iron pyrites that are found in chalk, 
 as well as the silicious concretions which occasionally occur 
 in limestone, can be interpreted only as aggregations of 
 atoms of silex or sulphuret of iron, originally diffused almost 
 uniformly through the deposit, but gradually collected round 
 certaincentres, notwithstanding the solid or semi-solid state oi 
 the surrounding matter. What is called bog iron-ore supplies 
 the conditions and the result in still more obvious correlation. 
 Among igneous changes we do not find so many examples 
 of the process described. When distinguishing simple and 
 compound evolution, it was pointed out ( 102) that an ex- 
 cessive quantity of contained molecular motion, prevents per- 
 manence in those secondary re-distributions which make evo- 
 lution compound. Nevertheless, geological phenomena of 
 this order are not barren of illustrations. Where the mixed 
 matters composing the Earth's crust have been raised to a 
 very high temperature, segregation habitually takes place 
 as the temperature diminishes. Sundry of the substances 
 that escape in a gaseous form from volcanoes, sublime into 
 crystals on coming against cool surfaces; and solidifying as 
 these substances do, at different temperatures, they are de- 
 posited at different parts of the crevices through which they 
 are emitted together. The best illustration, however, is 
 furnished by the changes that occur during the slow cooling 
 of igneous rock. When, through one of the fractures from 
 time to time made in the solid shell which forms the Earth's 
 crust, a portion of the molten nucleus is extruded ; and when 
 this is cooled with comparative rapidity, through free radia- 
 tion and contact with cold masses; it forms a substance 
 known as trap or basalt a substance that is uniform in 
 texture, though made up of various ingredients. But when, 
 not escaping through the superficial strata, such a portion of 
 the molten nucleus is slowly cooled, it becomes what we 
 know as granite : the mingled particles of quartz, feldspar, 
 and mica, being kept for a long time in a fluid and semi- 
 tiuid state a state of comparative mobility undergo those 
 
470 SEGREGATION. 
 
 ohanges of position which the forces impressbd on them by 
 their fellow units necessitate. Having time in which to 
 generate the requisite motions of the atoms, the differential 
 forces arising from mutual polarity, segregate the quartz, 
 feldspar, and mica, into crystals. How completely this is de- 
 pendent on the long-continued agitation of the mixed par- 
 ticles, and consequent long-continued mobility by small dif- 
 ferential forces, is proved by the fact that in granite dykes, 
 the crystals in the centre of the mass, where the fluidity or 
 semi- fluidity continued for a longer time, are much larger 
 than those at the sides, where contact with the neighbour- 
 ing rock caused more rapid cooling and solidification. 
 
 166. The actions going on throughout an organism are so 
 involved and subtle, that we cannot expect to identify the par- 
 ticular forces by which particular segregations are effected. 
 Among the few instances admitting of tolerably definite in- 
 terpretation, the best are those in which mechanical pressures 
 and tensions are the agencies at work. We shall discover 
 several on studying the bony frame of the higher animals. 
 
 The vertebral column of a man, is subject, as a whole, to 
 certain general strains the weight of the body, together 
 with the reactions involved by all considerable muscular 
 efforts; and in conformity with this, it has become segregated 
 as a whole. At the same time, being exposed to different 
 forces in the course of those lateral bendings which the 
 movements necessitate, its parts retain a certain separateness. 
 And if we trace up the development of the vertebral column 
 from its primitive form of a cartilaginous cord in the lowest 
 fishes, we see that, throughout, it maintains an integration 
 corresponding to the unity of the incident forces, joined with 
 a division into segments corresponding to the variety of 
 the incident forces. Each segment, considered apart, 
 
 exemplifies the truth more simply. A vertebra is not a single 
 bone, but consists of a central mass with sundry append- 
 ages or processes; and in rudimentary types of vertebrae, 
 
SEGREGATION. 47 \ 
 
 these appendages are quite separate from the central masH, 
 and, indeed, exist before it makes its appearance. But these 
 several independent bones, constituting a primitive spinal 
 segment, are subject to a certain aggregate of forces 
 which agree more than they differ : as the fulcrum to 
 a group of muscles habitually acting together, they per- 
 petually undergo certain reactions in common. And ac- 
 cordingly, we see that in the course of development they 
 gradually coalesce. Still clearer is the illustration 
 
 furnished by spinal segments that become fused together 
 where they are together exposed to some predominant strain. 
 The sacrum consists of a group of vertebrae firmly united. 
 In the ostrich and its congeners there are from seventeen to 
 twenty sacral vertebrae ; and besides being confluent with each 
 other, these are confluent with the iliac bones, which run on 
 each side of them. If now we assume these vertebrae to have 
 been originally separate, as they still are in the embryo bird ; 
 and if we consider the mechanical conditions to which they 
 must in such case have been exposed ; we shall see that their 
 union results in the alleged way. For through these vertebrae 
 the entire weight of the body is transferred to the legs : the 
 legs support the pelvic arch; the pelvic arch supports the 
 sacrum; and to the sacrum is articulated the rest of the 
 spine, with all the limbs and organs attached to it. Hence, 
 if separate, the sacral vertebrae must be held firmly together 
 by strongly-contracted muscles ; and must, by implication, be 
 prevented from partaking in those lateral movements which 
 the other vertebrae undergo they must be subject to a com- 
 mon strain, while they are preserved from strains which 
 arould affect them differently ; and so they fulfil the condi- 
 tions under which segregation occurs. But the cases 
 >n which cause and effect are brought into the most obvious 
 relation, are supplied by the limbs. The metacarpal bones 
 (those which in man support the palm of the hand) are separ- 
 ate from each other in the majority of mammalia : the separ- 
 ate actions of the toes entailing on them slight amounts of 
 
472 SEGREGATION. 
 
 separate movements. This is not so however in the ox-tribe 
 and the horse-tribe. In the ox-tribe, only the middle meta- 
 carpals (third and fourth) are developed ; and these, attain- 
 ing massive proportions, coalesce to form the cannon bone. 
 In the horse-tribe, the segregation is what we may distin- 
 guish as indirect : the second and fourth metacarpals are 
 present only as rudiments united to the sides of the third, 
 while the third is immensely developed ; thus forming a 
 cannon bone which differs from that of the ox in being a 
 single cylinder, instead of two cylinders fused together. 
 The metatarsus in these quadrupeds exhibits parallel 
 changes. Now each of these metamorphoses occurs where 
 the different bones grouped together have no longer any 
 different functions, but retain only a common function. The 
 feet of oxen and horses are used solely for locomotion are 
 not put like those of unguiculate mammals to purposes 
 which involve some relative movements of the metacarpals. 
 Thus there directly or indirectly results a single mass of bone 
 where the incident force is single. And for the inference 
 that these facts have a causal connexion, we find confirma- 
 tion throughout the entire class of birds ; in the wings 
 and legs of which, like segregations are found under like 
 conditions. While this sheet is passing through the 
 
 press, a fact illustrating this general truth in a yet more 
 remarkable manner, has been mentioned to me by Prof. 
 Huxley ; who kindly allows me to make use of it while still 
 unpublished by him. The Glyptodon, an extinct mammal 
 found fossilized in South America, has long been known as a 
 large uncouth creature allied to the Armadillo, but having a 
 massive dermal armour consisting of polygonal plates closely 
 fitted together so as to make a vast box, inclosing the body 
 in such way as effectually to prevent it from being bent, 
 laterally or vertically, in the slightest degree. This bony 
 box, which must have weighed several hundred- weight, was 
 supported on the spinous processes of the vertebrae, and on 
 the adjacent bones of vhe pelvic and thoracic arches. And 
 
SEGREGATION. 473 
 
 the significant fact now to be noted, is, that here, where the 
 trunk vertebra were together exposed to the pressure of this 
 heavy dermal armour, at the same time that, by its rigidity, 
 they were preserved from all relative movements, the entire 
 aeries of them were united into one solid, continuous bone. 
 
 The formation and maintenance of a species, considered 
 is an assemblage of similar organisms, is interpretable in 
 an analogous way. We have already seen that in so far as 
 the members of a species are subject to different sets of inci- 
 dent forces, they are differentiated, or divided into varieties. 
 And here it remains to add that in so far as they are subject 
 to like sets of incident forces, they are segregated, or reduced 
 to, and kept in, the state of a uniform aggregate. For by the 
 process of " natural selection/* there is a continual purifica- 
 tion of each species from those individuals which depart 
 from the common type in ways that unfit them for the con- 
 ditions of their existence. Consequently, there is a continual 
 leaving behind of those individuals which are in all respects 
 fit for the conditions of their existence; and are therefore 
 very nearly alike. The circumstances to which any species 
 is exposed, being, as we before saw, an involved combination 
 of incident forces ; and the members of the species having 
 mixed with them some that differ more than usual from the 
 average structure required for meeting these forces ; it re- 
 sults that these forces are constantly separating such diver- 
 gent individuals from the rest, and so preserving the uni- 
 formity of the rest keeping up its integrity as a species 
 Just as the changing autumn leaves are picked out by the 
 wind from among the green- ones around them, or just as, 
 to use Prof. Huxley's simile, the smaller fragments pass 
 through the sieve while the larger are kept back ; so, the 
 uniform incidence of external forces affects the members of a 
 group of organisms similarly in proportion as they are similar, 
 and differently in proportion as they are different ; and thus Li 
 ever segregating the like by parting the unlike from them. 
 Whether these separated members are killed off, as rnosth 
 
474 SEGREGATION. 
 
 
 happens, or whether, as otherwise happens, they survive and 
 multiply into a distinct variety, in consequence of their 
 fitness to certain partially unlike conditions, matters not to 
 the argument. The one case conforms to the law, that the 
 anlike units of an aggregate are sorted into their kinds and 
 parted when uniformly subject to the same incident forces ; 
 and the other to the converse law, that the like units of an 
 aggregate are parted and separately grouped when subject to 
 different incident forces. And on consulting Mr. Darwin's 
 remarks on divergence of character, it will be seen that the 
 segregations thus caused tend ever to become more definite. 
 
 167. Mental evolution under one of its leading aspects, 
 we found to consist in the formation of groups of like ob- 
 jects and like relations a differentiation of the various 
 things originally confounded together in one assemblage, 
 and an integration of each separate order of things into a 
 separate group ( 153). Here it remains to point out that 
 while unlikeness in the incident forces is the cause of such 
 differentiations, likeness in the incident forces is the cause of 
 such integrations. For what is the process through which 
 classifications are established ? At first, in common with 
 the uninitiated, the botanist recognizes only such conven- 
 tional divisions as those which agriculture has established 
 distinguishes a few vegetables and cereals, and groups the 
 rest together into the one miscellaneous aggregate of wild 
 plants. How do these wild plants become grouped in his mind 
 into orders, genera, and species ? Each plant he examines 
 yields him a certain complex .impression. Every now and 
 then he picks up a plant like one before seen ; and the re- 
 cognition of it is the production in him of a like connected 
 group of sensations, by a like connected group of attributes. 
 That is to say, there is produced throughout the nerves con- 
 cerned, a combined set of changes, similar to a combined set 
 of changes before produced. Considered analytically, each 
 such combined set of changes is a combined set of molecular 
 
SEGREGATION. 475 
 
 modifications wrought in the affected part of the organism. 
 On every repetition of the impression, a like combined set of 
 molecular modifications is superposed on the previous ones, 
 and makes them greater : thus generating an internal idea 
 corresponding to these similar external objects. Meanwhile, 
 another kind of plant produces in the brain of the botanist 
 another set of combined changes or molecular modifications 
 a set which does not agree with and deepen the one we 
 have been considering, but disagrees with it ; and by repeti- 
 tion of such there is generated a different idea answering to 
 a different species. What now is the nature of this 
 
 process expressed in general terms ? On the one hand there 
 are the like and unlike things from which severally emanate 
 the groups of forces by which we perceive them. On the 
 other hand, there are the organs of sense and percipient 
 centres, through which, in the course of observation, these 
 groups of forces pass. In passing through these organs of 
 sense and percipient centres, the like groups of forces are se- 
 gregated, or separated from the unlike groups of forces ; and 
 each such series of groups of forces, parted in this way from 
 others, answering to an external genus or species, constitutes 
 a state of consciousness which we call our idea of the genus 
 or species. We before saw that as well as a separation of 
 mixed matters by the same force, there is a separation oi 
 mixed forces by the same matter ; and here we may further 
 see that the unlike forces so separated, work unlike struct- 
 ural changes in the aggregate that separates them struct- 
 ural changes each of which thus represents, and is equivalent 
 to, the integrated series of motions that has produced it. 
 
 By a parallel process, the connexions of co-existence and 
 sequence among impressions, become sorted into kinds and 
 grouped simultaneously with the impressions themselves. 
 When two phenomena that have been experienced in a 
 given order, are repeated in the same order, those nerves 
 which before were affected by the transition are again af- 
 fected ; and such molecular modification as they received 
 
470 SEGREGATION. 
 
 from the first motion propagated through them, is increased 
 by this second motion along the same route. Each such mo- 
 tion works a structural alteration, which, in conformity with 
 the general law set forth in Chapter IX., involves a dirninu" 
 tion of the resistance to all such motions that afterwards 
 occur. The segregation of these successive motions (or more 
 strictly, the permanently effective portions of them expended 
 in overcoming resistance) thus becomes the cause of, and the 
 measure of, the mental connexion between the impressions 
 which the phenomena produce. Meanwhile, phenomena that 
 are recognized as different from these, being phenomena that 
 therefore affect different nervous elements, will have their 
 connexions severally represented by motions along othe.r 
 routes ; and along each of these other routes, the nervous dis- 
 charges will severally take place with a readiness proportion 
 ate to the frequency with which experience repeats the con- 
 nexion of phenomena. The classification of relations must 
 hence go on pari passu with the classification of the related 
 things. In common with the mixed sensations received 
 from the external world, the mixed relations it presents, 
 cannot be impressed on the organism without more or lesa 
 segregation of them resulting. And through this continu- 
 ous sorting and grouping together of changes or motions, 
 which constitutes nervous function, there is gradually 
 wrought that sorting and grouping together of matter, 
 which constitutes nervous structure. 
 
 128. In social evolution, the collecting together of the 
 like and the separation of the unlike, by incident forces, is 
 primarily displayed in the same manner as we saw it to be 
 among groups of inferior creatures. The human races tend 
 to differentiate and integrate, as do races of other living 
 forms. Of the forces which effect and maintain the 
 
 segregations of mankind, may first be named those external 
 ones which we class as physical conditions. The climate and 
 food that are favourable to an indigenous people, are more 01 
 
SEGREGATION. 477 
 
 detrimental to a people of different bodily constitution, 
 coming from a remote part of the Earth. In tropical re- 
 gions the northern races cannot permanently exist : if not 
 killed off in the first generation, they are so in the second ; 
 and, as in India, can maintain their footing only by the 
 artificial process of continuous immigration and emigratk.iL 
 That is to say, the external forces acting equally on the in- 
 habitants of a given locality, tend to expel all who are not 
 of a certain type ; and so to keep up the integration of those 
 who are of that type. Though elsewhere, as among Euro- 
 pean nations, we see a certain amount of permanent inter- 
 mixture, otherwise brought about, we still see that this takes 
 place between races of not very different types, that are 
 naturalized to not very different conditions. The 
 
 other forces conspiring to produce these national segrega- 
 tions, are those mental ones which show themselves in the 
 affinities of men for others like themselves. Emigrants 
 usually desire to get back among their own people; and 
 where their desire does not take effect, it is only because the 
 restraining ties are too great. Units of one society who 
 are obliged to reside in another, very generally form 
 colonies in the midst of that other small societies of their 
 own. Races which have been artificially severed, show 
 strong tendencies to re-unite. Now though these segrega- 
 tions that result from the mutual affinities of kindred men, 
 do not seem interpretable as illustrations of the general 
 principle above enunciated, they really are thus interpret- 
 able. When treating of the direction of motion ( 80), 
 it was shown that the actions performed by men for tho 
 jatisfaction of their wants, were always motions along lines 
 of least resistance. The feelings characterizing a member 
 of a given race, are feelings which get complete satisfaction 
 only among other members of that race a satisfaction 
 partly derived from sympathy with those having like feel- 
 ings, but mainly derived from the adapted social conditions 
 which grow up where such feelings prevail. When, there- 
 
478 SEGREGATION. 
 
 fore, a citizen of any nation is, as we see, attracted towaida 
 others of his nation, the rationale is, that certain agencies 
 which we call desires, move him in the direction of least 
 resistance. Human motions, like all other motions, being 
 determined by the distribution of forces, it follows that 
 such segregations of races as are not produced by incident 
 external forces, are produced by forces which the units of 
 the races exercise on each other. 
 
 During the development of each society, we see analogous 
 segregations caused in analogous ways. A few of them re- 
 sult from minor natural affinities ; but those most important 
 ones which constitute political and industrial organization, 
 result from the union of men in whom similarities have been 
 produced by education using education in its widest sense, 
 as comprehending all processes by which citizens are mould 
 ed to special functions. Men brought up to bodily labour, 
 are men who have had wrought in them a certain likeness a 
 likeness which, in respect of their powers of action, obscures 
 and subordinates their natural differences. Those trained to 
 brain-work, have acquired a certain other community of 
 character which makes them, as social units, more like each 
 other than like those trained to manual occupations. And 
 there arise class-segregations answering to these super- 
 induced likenesses. Much more definite segregations take 
 place among the much more definitely assimilated members 
 of any class who are brought up to the same calling. Even 
 where the necessities of their work forbid concentration in one 
 locality, as among artizans happens with masons and brick- 
 layers, and among traders happens with the retail distribut- 
 ors, and among professionals happens with the medical 
 men ; there are not wanting Operative Builders Unions, and 
 Grocers Societies, and Medical Associations, to show that 
 these artificially-assimilated citizens become integrated as 
 much as the conditions permit. And where, as among the 
 manufacturing classes, the functions discharged do not re- 
 quire the dispersion of the citizens thus artificially assimi 
 
SEGREGATION. 479 
 
 lated, there is a progressive aggregation of them in special 
 localities; and a consequent increase in the definiteness of 
 the industrial divisions. If now we seek the causes 
 
 of these segregations, considered as results of force and mo- 
 tion, we find ourselves brought to the same general principle 
 RS before. This likeness generated in any class or sub- 
 class by training, is an aptitude acquired by its members 
 for satisfying their wants in like ways. That is, the 
 occupation to which each man has been brought up, has be- 
 come to him, in common with those similarly brought up, a 
 line of least resistance. Hence under that pressure which 
 determines all men to activity, these similarly-modified 
 social units are similarly affected, and tend to take similar 
 courses. If then there be any locality which, either by its 
 physical peculiarities or by peculiarities wrought on it 
 during social evolution, is rendered a place where a certain 
 kind of industrial action meets with less resistance than else- 
 where ; it follows from the law of direction of motion that 
 those social units who have been moulded to this kind of 
 industrial action, will move towards this place, or become 
 integrated there. If, for instance, the proximity of coal and 
 iron mines to a navigable river, gives to Glasgow a certain 
 advantage in the building of iron ships if the total labour 
 required to produce the same vessel, and get its equivalent 
 in food and clothing, is less there than elsewhere ; a con- 
 centration of iron-ship builders is produced at Glasgow: 
 either by keeping there the population born to irtfn-ship 
 building ; or by immigration of those elsewhere engaged in 
 it; or by both a concentration that would be still more 
 marked did not other districts offer counter-balancing facili- 
 ties. The principle equally holds where the occupation is 
 mercantile instead of manufacturing. Stock-brokers cluster 
 together in the city, because the amount of effort to bt 
 severally gone through by them in discharging their func- 
 tions, and obtaining their profits, is less there than in other 
 localities. A place of exchange having once been estab- 
 lished, becomes a place where the resistance to be overcome 
 
480 SEGREGATION. 
 
 by each is less than elsewhere ; and the pursnit of the course 
 of least resistance by each, involves their aggregation around 
 this place. 
 
 Of course, with units so complicated as those which consti- 
 tute a society, and with forces so involved as those which 
 move them, the resulting selections and separations must 
 be far more entangled, or far less definite, than those we 
 have hitherto considered. But though there may be pointed 
 out many anomalies which at first sight seem inconsistent 
 with the alleged law, a closer study shows that they are but 
 subtler illustrations of it. For men's likenesses being of 
 various kinds, lead to various orders of segregation. There 
 are likenesses of disposition, likenesses of taste, likenesses 
 produced by intellectual culture, likenesses that result from 
 class-training, likenesses of political feeling; and it needs 
 but to glance round at the caste-divisions, the associations 
 for philanthropic, scientific, and artistic purposes, the reli- 
 gious parties and social cliques ; to see that some species of 
 likeness among the component members of each body 
 determines their union. Now the different segregative pro- 
 cesses by traversing one another, and often by their indirect 
 antagonism, more or less obscure one another's effects ; and 
 prevent ar.y one differentiated class from completely inte- 
 grating. Hence the anomalies referred to. But if this 
 cause of incompleteness be duly borne in mind, social segre- 
 gations will be seen to conform entirely to the same principle 
 as all other segregations. Analysis will show that either by 
 external incident forces, or by what we may in a sense 
 regard as mutual polarity, there are ever being produced in 
 society segregations of those units which have either a 
 natural likeness or a likeness generated by training, 
 
 169. Can the general truth thus variously illustrated be 
 deduced from the persistence of force, in common with fore- 
 going ones ? Probably the exposition at the beginning of 
 the chapter will have led most readers to conclude that it, 
 can be so deduced. 
 
BEGEEGATJON. 481 
 
 The abstract propositions involved are these : First, thai 
 like units, subject to a uniform force capable of producing 
 motion in them, will be moved to like degrees in the same 
 direction. Second, that like units if exposed to unlike forces 
 capable of producing motion in them, will be differently 
 moved moved either in different directions or to different 
 degrees in the same direction. Third, that unlike units if 
 acted on by a uniform force capable of producing motion in 
 them, will be differently moved moved either in different 
 directions or to different degrees in the same direction. 
 Fourth, that the incident forces themselves must be affected 
 in analogous ways : like forces falling on like units must be 
 similarly modified by the conflict ; unlike forces falling on 
 like units must be dissimilarly modified ; and like forces fall- 
 ing on unlike units must be dissimilarly modified. These 
 propositions admit of reduction to a still more abstract form. 
 They all of them amount to this : that in the actions and 
 reactions of force and matter, an unlikeness in either of 
 the factors necessitates an unlikeness in the effects ; and that 
 in the absence of unlikeness in either of the factors the 
 effects must be alike. 
 
 When thus generalized, the immediate dependence of these 
 propositions on the persistence of force, becomes obvious. 
 Any two forces that are not alike, are forces which differ 
 either in their amounts or directions or both ; and by what 
 mathematicians call the resolution of forces, it may be proved 
 that this difference is constituted by the presence in the one 
 of some force not present in the other. Similarly, any two 
 units or portions of matter which are unlike in size, weight, 
 form, or other attribute, can be known by us as unlike only 
 through some unlikeness in the forces they impress on our 
 conciousness ; and hence this unlikeness also, is constituted by 
 the presence in the one of some force or forces not present in 
 the other. Such being the common nature of these uiilike- 
 nesses, what is the inevitable corollary ? Any unlikeness in 
 the incident forces, where the things acted on are alike, must 
 gererate a difference bf tween the effects ; since otherwise. 
 
482 SEGREGATION. 
 
 
 the differential force produces no effect, and force is not per- 
 sistent. Any unlikeness in the things acted on, where the 
 incident forces are alike, must generate a difference between 
 the effects ; since otherwise, the differential force whereby 
 these things are made unlike, produces no effect, and force is 
 not persistent. While, conversely, if the forces acting and 
 die things acted on, are alike, the effects must be alike ; 
 since otherwise, a differential effect can be produced without 
 a differential cause, and force is not persistent. 
 
 Thus these general truths being necessary implications of 
 the persistence of force, all the re-distributions above traced 
 out as characterizing Evolution in its various phases, are also 
 implications of the persistence of force. Such portions of 
 the permanently effective forces acting on any aggregate, as 
 produce sensible motions in its parts, cannot but work the 
 segregations which we see take place. If of the mixed units 
 making up such aggregate, those of the same kind have like 
 motions impressed on them by a uniform force, while units of 
 another kind are moved by this uniform force in ways more 
 or less unlike the ways in which those of the first kind are 
 moved, the two kinds must separate and integrate. If the 
 units are alike and the forces unlike, a division of the differ- 
 ently affected units is equally necessitated. Thus there in- 
 evitably arises the demarcated grouping which we every- 
 where see. By virtue of this segregation that grows ever more 
 decided while there remains any possibility of increasing it, 
 the change from uniformity to multiformity is accompanied 
 by a change from indistinctness in the relations of parts to 
 distinctness in the relations of parts. As we before saw that 
 the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogene- 
 ous is inferable from that ultimate truth which transcends 
 proof ; so we here see, that from this same truth is inferable 
 the transformation of an indefinite homogeneity into a defi- 
 nite heterogeneity. 
 
CHAPTER 
 
 EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 170. AND now towards what do these changes tendP 
 Will they go on for ever ? or will there be an end to them ? 
 Can things increase in heterogeneity through all future time ? 
 or must there be a degree which the differentiation and in- 
 tegration of Matter and Motion cannot pass ? Is it possible 
 for this universal metamorphosis to proceed in the same gene- 
 ral course indefinitely ? or does it work towards some ulti- 
 mate state, admitting no further modification of like kind ? 
 The last of these alternative conclusions is that to which we 
 are inevitably driven. Whether we watch concrete processes, 
 or whether we consider the question in the abstract, we are 
 alike taught that Evolution has an impassable limit. 
 
 The re-distributions of matter that go on around us, are 
 ever being brought to conclusions by the dissipation of the 
 motions which effect them. The rolling stone parts with 
 portions of its momentum to the things it strikes, and finally 
 comes to rest ; as do also, in like manner, the various things 
 it has struck. Descending from the clouds and trickling 
 over the Earth's surface till it gathers into brooks and rivers, 
 water, still running towards a lower level, is at last arrested 
 by the resistance of other water that has reached tie lowest 
 level. In the lake or sea thus formed, every agitation raised 
 by a wind or the immersion of a solid body, propagates itself 
 around in waves that diminish as they widen, and gradually 
 
484 EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 become lost to observation in motions communicated to the 
 atmosphere and the matter on the shores. The impulse 
 given by a player to the harp-string, is transformed through 
 its vibrations into aerial pulses ; and these, spreading on all 
 sides, and weakening as they spread, soon cease to be per- 
 ceptible ; and finally die away in generating thermal undula- 
 tions that radiate into space.' Equally in the cinder that falls 
 out of the fire, and in the vast masses of molten lava ejected 
 by a volcano, we see that the molecular agitation known to 
 us as heat, disperses itself by radiation ; so that however 
 great its amount, it inevitably sinks at last to the same degree 
 as that existing in surrounding bodies. And if the actions 
 observed be electrical or chemical, we still find that they work 
 themselves out in producing sensible or insensible movements, 
 that are dissipated as before ; until quiescence is eventually 
 reached. The proximate rationale of the process 
 
 exhibited under these several forms, lies in the fact 
 dwelt on when treating of the Multiplication of Effects, that 
 motions are ever being decomposed into divergent motions, 
 and these into re-divergent motions. The rolling stone 
 sends off the stones it hits in directions differing more or less 
 from its own ; and they do the like with the things they hit. 
 Move water or air, and the movement is quickly resolved into 
 radiating movements. The heat produced by pressure in a 
 given direction, diffuses itself by undulations in all directions ; 
 and so do the light and electricity similarly generated. 
 That is to say, these motions undergo division and subdivi- 
 sion ; and by continuance of this process without limit, they 
 are, though never lost, gradually reduced to insensible mo- 
 tions 
 
 In all cases then, there is a progress toward equilibration. 
 That universal co- existence of antagonist forces which, as we 
 before saw, necessitates the universality of rhythm, and 
 which, as we before saw, necessitates the decomposition of 
 every force into divergent forces, at the same time necessi- 
 tates the ultimate establishment of a balance. Every motioD 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 485 
 
 being motion under resistance, is continually suffering de- 
 ductions ; and these unceasing deductions finally result in the 
 cessation of the motion. 
 
 The general truth thus illustrated under its simplest 
 aspect, we must now look at under those more complex 
 aspects it usually presents throughout Nature. In nearly all 
 cases, the motion of an aggregate is compound ; and the equi- 
 libration of each of its components, being carried on inde- 
 pendently, does not affect the rest. The ship's bell that has 
 ceased to vibrate, still continues those vertical and lateral 
 oscillations caused by the ocean-swell. The water of the 
 smooth stream on whose surface have died away the undu- 
 lations caused by the rising fish, moves as fast *as before 
 onward to the sea. The arrested bullet travels with 
 undiminished speed round the Earth's axis. And were the 
 rotation of the Earth destroyed, there would not be implied 
 any diminution of the Earth's movement with respect to the 
 Sun and other external bodies. So that in every case, what 
 we regard as equilibration is a disappearance of some one or 
 more of the many movements which a body possesses, while 
 its other movements continue as before. That this 
 
 process may be duly realized and the state of things towards 
 which it tends Jully understood, it will be well here to cite a 
 case in which we may watch this successive equilibration of 
 combined movements more completely than we can do in 
 those above instanced. Our end will best be served, not by 
 the most imposing, but by the most familiar example. Let 
 us take that of the spinning top. When the string which 
 has been wrapped round a top's axis is violently drawn off, 
 and the top falls on to the table, it usually happens that be- 
 sides the rapid rotation, two other movements are given to it. 
 A slight horizontal momentum, unavoidably impressed on it 
 vhen leaving the handle, carries it- away bodily from the 
 place on which it drops ; and in consequence of its axis being 
 more or less inclined, it falls into a certain oscilla- 
 tion, described by the expressive though inelegant word 
 
486 KQUILIBRATIOir. 
 
 "wabbling.* These two subordinate motions, \ariable in 
 their proportions to each other and to the chief motion, are 
 commonly soon brought to a close by separate processes of 
 equilibration. The momentum which carries the top bodily 
 along the table, resisted somewhat by the air, but mainly by 
 the irregularities of the surface, shortly disappears ; and the 
 top thereafter continues to spin on one spot. Meanwhile, in 
 consequence of that opposition which the axial momentum of 
 a rotating body makes to any change in the plane of rotation, 
 (so beautifully exhibited by the gyroscope,) the " wabbling" 
 diminishes ; and like the other is quickly ended. These 
 minor motions having been dissipated, the rotatory motion, 
 interfered with only by atmospheric resistance and the fric- 
 tion of the pivot, continues some time with such uniformity 
 that the top appears stationary : there being thus temporarily 
 established a condition which the French mathematicians 
 have termed equilibrium mobile. It is true that when the 
 axial velocity sinks below a certain point, new motions com- 
 mence, and increase till the top falls; but these are merely 
 incidental to a case in which the centre of gravity is above 
 the point of support. Were the top, having an axis of 
 steel, to be suspended from a surface adequately magnetized, 
 all the phenomena described would be displayed, and the 
 moving equilibrium having been once arrived at, would con- 
 tinue until the top became motionless, without any further 
 change of position. Now the facts which it behoves 
 
 us here to observe, are these. First, that the various motions 
 which an aggregate possesses are separately equilibrated : 
 those which are smallest, or which meet with the greatest 
 resistance, or both, disappearing first ; and leaving at last, 
 that which is greatest, or meets with least resistance, or both. 
 Second, that when the aggregate has a movement of its parts 
 with respect to each other, which encounters but little external 
 resistance, there is apt to be established an equilibrium 
 mobile. Third, that this moving equilibrium eventually 
 lapses into complete equilibrium. 
 
EQUILIBRATION 487 
 
 Fully to comprehend the process of equilibration, is not 
 easy ; since we have simultaneously to contemplate various 
 phases of it. The best course will be to glance separately at 
 what we may conveniently regard as its four different 
 orders. The first order includes the comparatively 
 
 rimple motions, as those of projectiles, which are not pro- 
 onged enough to exhibit their rhythmical character ; but 
 which, being quickly divided and subdivided into motions 
 communicated to other portions of matter, are presently dis- 
 sipated in the rhythm of ethereal undulations. In 
 the second order, comprehending the various kinds of vi- 
 bration or oscillation as usually witnessed, the motion is used 
 up in generating a tension which, having become equal to it or 
 momentarily equilibrated with it, thereupon produces a mo- 
 tion in the opposite direction, that is subsequently equili- 
 brated in like manner : thus causing a visible rhythm, that 
 is, however, soon lost in invisible rhythms. The third 
 order of equilibration, not hitherto noticed, obtains in those 
 aggregates which continually receive as much motion as they 
 expend. The steam engine (and especially that kind which 
 feeds its own furnace and boiler) supplies an example. Here 
 the force from moment to moment dissipated in overcoming 
 ths resistance of the machinery driven, is from moment to 
 moment re-placed from the fuel; and the balance of the 
 two is maintained by a raising or lowering of the expenditure 
 according to the variation of the supply : each increase or 
 decrease in the quantity of steam, resulting in a rise or fall 
 of the engine's movement, such as brings it to a balance with 
 the increased or decreased resistance. This, which we may 
 fitly call the dependent moving equilibrium, should be 
 specially noted ; since it is one that we shall commonly meet 
 with throughout various phases of Evolution. The 
 equilibration to be distinguished as of the fourth order, is the 
 independent or perfect moving equilibrium. This we see 
 illustrated in the rhythmical motions of the Solar System ; 
 which, being resisted only by a medium of inappreciable 
 
iS8 EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 
 density, undergo no sensible diminution in such periods of 
 time as we can measure. 
 
 All these kinds of oquilibration may, however, from the 
 highest point of view, be regarded as different modes of one 
 kind. For in every case the balance arrived at is relative, 
 and not absolute is a cessation of the motion of some par- 
 ticular body in relation to a certain point or points, in- 
 volving neither the disappearance of the relative motion lost, 
 which is simply transformed into other motions, nor a dimi- 
 nution of the body's motions with respect to other points. 
 Thus understanding equilibration, it manifestly includes that 
 equilibrium mobile, which at first sight seems of another 
 nature. For any system of bodies exhibiting, like those of 
 the Solar System, a combination of balanced rhythms, has 
 this peculiarity ; that though the constituents of the system 
 have relative movements, the system as a whole has no 
 movement. The centre of gravity of the entire group re- 
 mains fixed. Whatever quantity of motion any member 
 of it has in any direction, is from moment to moment 
 counter-balanced by an equivalent motion in some other 
 part of the group in an opposite direction; and so the 
 aggregate matter of the group is in a state of rest. Whence 
 it follows that the arrival at a state of moving equilibrium, 
 is the disappearance of some movement which the ag- 
 gregate had in relation to external things, and a con- 
 tinuance of those movements only which the different parts 
 of the aggregate have in relation to each other. Thus 
 generalizing the process, it becomes clear that all forms of 
 equilibration are intrinsically the same ; since in every 
 aggregate, it is the centre of gravity only that loses ita 
 motion : the constituents always retaining some motion with 
 respect to each other the motion of molecules if none else. 
 Every equilibrium commonly regarded as absolute, is in one 
 sense a moving equilibrium ; because along with a motion- 
 less state of the whole there is always some relative move- 
 ment of its insensible p^rts. And, conversely, every moving 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 equilibrium may be in one sense regarded as absolute ; be- 
 cause the relative movements of its sensible parts are accom- 
 panied by a motionless state of the whole. 
 
 Something has still to be added before closing these 
 somewhat too elaborate preliminaries. The reader must 
 now especially note two leading truths brought out by the 
 foregoing exposition : the one concerning the ultimate, or 
 rather the penultimate, state of motion which the processes de- 
 scribed tend to bring about ; the other concerning the concom- 
 itant distribution of matter. This penultimate state 
 of motion is the moving equilibrium ; which, as we have seen, 
 tends to arise in an aggregate having compound motions, as a 
 transitional state on the way towards complete equilibrium. 
 Throughout Evolution of all kinds, there is a continual ap- 
 proximation to, and more or less complete maintenance of, this 
 moving equilibrium. As in the Solar System there has been 
 established an independent moving equilibrium an equili- 
 brium such that the relative motions of the constituent parts 
 are continually so counter-balanced by opposite motions, 
 that the mean state of the whole aggregate never varies ; so 
 is it, though in a less distinct manner, with each form of de- 
 pendent moving equilibrium. The state of things exhibited 
 in the cycles of terrestrial changes, in the balanced functions 
 of organic bodies that have reached their adult forms, and in 
 the acting and re -acting processes of fully- developed socie- 
 ties, is similarly one characterized by compensating oscilla- 
 tions. The involved combination of rhythms seen in each 
 of these cases, has an average condition which remains prac- 
 tically constant during the deviations ever taking place on 
 opposite sides of it. And the fact which we have here par- 
 ticularly to observe, is, that as a corollary from the general 
 law of equilibration above set forth, the evolution of every 
 aggregate must go on until this equilibrium mobile is estab 
 lished; since, as we have seen, an excess of force which 
 the aggregate possesses in any direction, must eventually 
 bo expended in overcoming resistances to change in that 
 
490 EQUILIBRATION, 
 
 direction : leaving behind only those movements which 
 compensate each other, and so form a moving equili- 
 brium. Respecting the structural state simultane- 
 ously reached, it must obviously be one presenting an ar- 
 rangement of forces that counterbalance all the forces to 
 which the aggregate is subject. So long as there remains a 
 residual force in any direction be it excess of a force exer- 
 cised by the aggregate on its environment, or of a force 
 exercised by its environment on the aggregate, equilibrium 
 does not exist ; and therefore the re-distribution of matter 
 must continue. Whence it follows that the limit of hetero- 
 geneity towards which every aggregate progresses, is the 
 formation of as many specializations and combinations of 
 parts, as there are specialized and combined forces to be met. 
 
 171. Those successively changed forms which, if the 
 aebular hypothesis be granted, must have arisen during 
 ;he evolution of the Solar System, were so many transitional 
 idnds of moving equilibrium ; severally giving place to more 
 permanent kinds on the way towards complete equilibration. 
 Thus the assumption of an oblate spheroidal figure by con- 
 densing nebulous matter, was the assumption of a temporary 
 and partial moving equilibrium among the component parts 
 a moving equilibrium that must have slowly grown 
 more settled, as local conflicting movements were dis- 
 sipated. In the formation and detachment of the 
 nebulous rings, which, according to this hypothesis, from time 
 to time took place, we have instances of progressive equili- 
 bration ending in the establishment of a complete moving 
 equilibrium. For the genesis of each such ring, implies a 
 perfect balancing of that aggregative force which the 
 whole spheroid exercises on its equatorial portion, by that 
 centrifugal force which the equatorial portion has acquired 
 during previous concentration : so long as these two forces 
 are not equal, the equatorial portion follows the contracting 
 mass but as soon as the second force has increased up to an 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 491 
 
 equality with the first, the equatorial portion can follow no 
 further, and remains behind. While, however, the resulting 
 ring, regarded as a whole connected hy forces with external 
 wholes, has reached a state of moving equilibrium ; its parts 
 are not balanced with respect to each other. As we 
 before saw ( 150) the probabilities against the mainte- 
 nance of an annular form by nebulous matter, are immense : 
 from the instability of the homogeneous, it is inferrable that 
 nebulous matter so distributed must break up into portions ; 
 and eventually concentrate into a single mass. That is to 
 say, the ring must progress towards a moving equilibrium 
 of a more complete kind, during the dissipation of that 
 motion which maintained its particles in a diffused form : 
 leaving at length a planetary body, attended perhaps by a 
 group of minor bodies, severally having residuary relative 
 motions that are no longer resisted by sensible media ; and 
 there is thus constituted an equilibrium mobile that is all but 
 absolutely perfect.* 
 
 Hypothesis aside, the principle of equilibration is still 
 perpetually illustrated in those minor changes of state which 
 the Solar System is undergoing. Each planet, satellite, 
 and ccniet, exhibits to us at its aphelion a momentary equili- 
 
 * Sir David Brewster has recently been citing with approval, a calculation 
 by M. Babinet, to the effect that on the hypothesis of nebular genesis, the 
 matter of the Sun, when it filled the Earth's orbit, must have taken 3181 years 
 to rotate ; and that therefore the hypothesis cannot be true. This calculation of 
 M. Babinet may pair-off with that of M. Comte, who, contrariwise, made the 
 time of this rotation agree very nearly with the Earth's period of revolution 
 round the Sun : for if M. Comte's calculation involved a petitio principii, that of 
 M. Babinet is manifestly based on two assumptions, both of which are gratuitous^ 
 and one of them totally inconsistent with the doctrine to be tested. He has evi- 
 dently proceeded on the current supposition respecting the Sun's internal density, 
 which is not proved, and from which there are reasons for dissenting; and 
 he has evidently taken for granted that all parts of the nebulous spheroid, when it 
 filled the Earth's orbit, had the same angular velocity ; whereas if (as is implied 
 in the nebular hypothesis, rationally understood) this spheroid resulted from the 
 concentration of far more widely-diffused matter, the angular velocity of iti 
 equatorial portion vould obviously be immensely greater than that of its central 
 portion. 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 briura between that force which urges it further away from 
 its primary, and that force which retards its retreat; since 
 the retreat goes on until the last of these forces exactly 
 counterpoises the first. In like manner at perihelion a con- 
 verse equilibrium is momentarily established. The varia- 
 tion of each orbit in size, in eccentricity, and in the position 
 of its plane, has similarly a limit at which the forces pro- 
 ducing change in the one direction, are equalled by those 
 antagonizing it ; and an opposite limit at which an opposite 
 arrest takes place. Meanwhile, each of these simple perturb- 
 ations, as well as each of the complex ones resulting from 
 their combination, exhibits, besides the temporary equilibra- 
 tion at each of its extremes, a certain general equilibra- 
 tion of compensating deviations on either side of a mean 
 state. That the moving equilibrium thus constituted, 
 
 tends, in the course of indefinite time, to lapse into a complete 
 equilibrium, by the gradual decrease of planetary motions 
 and eventual integration of all the separate masses com- 
 posing the Solar System, is a belief suggested by certain 
 observed cometary retardations, and entertained by some of 
 high authority. The received opinion that the appreciable 
 diminution in the period of Encke's comet, implies a loss of mo- 
 mentum caused by resistance of the ethereal medium, commits 
 astronomers who hold it, to the conclusion that this same re- 
 sistance must cause a loss of planetary motions a loss which, 
 infinitesimal though it may be in such periods as we can 
 measure, will, if indefinitely continued, bring these motions 
 to a close. Even should there be, as Sir John Herschel sug- 
 gests, a rotation of the ethereal medium in the same direction 
 with the planets, this arrest, though immensely postponed, 
 would not be absolutely prevented. Such an eventuality, 
 however, must in any case be so inconceivably remote as 
 to have no other than a speculative interest for us. It is 
 referred to here, simply as illustrating the still-continued 
 tendency towards complete equilibrium, through the still- 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 493 
 
 continued dissipation of sensible motion, or transformation of 
 it into insensible motion. 
 
 But there is another species of equilibration going on in 
 the Solar System, with which we are more nearly concerned 
 the equilibration of that molecular motion known as heat. 
 The tacit assumption hitherto current, that the Sun can con- 
 tin tie to give off an undiminished amount of light and heat 
 through all future time, is fast being abandoned. Involv- 
 ing as it does, under a disguise, the conception of power pro- 
 duced out of nothing, it is of the same order as the belief that 
 misleads perpetual- motion schemers. The spreading recog- 
 nition of the truth that force is persistent, and that conse- 
 quently whatever force is manifested under one shape must 
 previously have existed under another shape, is carrying with 
 it a recognition of the truth that the force known to us in 
 solar radiations, is the changed form of some other force oi 
 which the Sun is the seat ; and that by the gradual dissipa- 
 tion of these radiations into space, this other force is being 
 slowly exhausted. The aggregative force by which the Sun's 
 substance is drawn to his centre of gravity, is the only one 
 which established physical laws warrant us in suspecting to be 
 the correlate of the forces thus emanating from him : the only 
 source of a known kind that can be assigned for the insensible 
 motions constituting solar light and heat, is the sensible motn/n 
 which disappears during the progressing concentration of the 
 Sun's substance. We before saw it to be a corollary from the 
 nebular hypothesis, that there is such a progressing concentra- 
 tion of the Sun's substance. And here remains to be added the 
 further corollary, that just as in the case of the smaller mem- 
 bers of the Solar System, the heat generated by concentration, 
 long ago in great part radiatedinto space, has leftonly a central 
 residue that now escapes but slowly ; so in the case of that im- 
 mensely larger mass forming the Sun, the immensely greater 
 quantity of heat generated and still in process of rapid diffusion, 
 must, as the concentration approaches its limit, diminish in 
 
194 EQUI ITERATION. 
 
 amount, and eventually leave only an inappreciable internal 
 remnant. With or without the accompaniment of 
 
 that hypothesis of nebular condensation, whence, as we see, 
 it naturally follows, the doctrine that the Sun is gradually 
 losing his heat, has now gained considerable currency ; and 
 calculations have been made, both respecting the amount of 
 heat and light already radiated, as compared with the amount 
 that remains, and respecting the period during which active 
 radiation is likely to continue. Prof. Helmholtz estimates, 
 that since the time when, according to the nebular hypothesis, 
 the matter composing the Solar System extended to the orbit 
 of Neptune, there has been evolved by the arrest of sensible 
 motion, an amount of heat 454 times as great as that which 
 the Sun still has to give out. He also makes an approximate 
 estimate of the rate at which this remaining ^-|-jth is being 
 diffused : showing that a diminution of the Sun's diameter to 
 the extent of TO-,WO-> would produce heat, at the present rate, 
 for more than 2000 years ; or in other words, that a contrac- 
 tion of ^-g-.ow.-oinj f h* 8 diameter, suffices to generate the 
 amount of light and heat annually emitted ; and that thus, at 
 the present rate of expenditure, the Sun's diameter will di- 
 minish by something like -^ in the lapse of the next million 
 years.* Of course these conclusions are not to be considered 
 as more than rude approximations to the truth. Until quite 
 recently, we have been totally ignorant of the Sun's chemical 
 composition ; and even now have obtained but a superficial 
 knowledge of it. We know nothing of his internal structure ; 
 and it is quite possible (probable, I believe,; that the 
 assumptions respecting central density, made in the foregoing 
 estimates, are wrong. But no uncertainty in the data on 
 which these calculations proceed, and no consequent error in 
 the inferred rate at which the Sun is expending his reserve 
 of force, militates against the general proposition that thia 
 
 * See paper " On the Inter-action of Natural Forces," by Prof. Helmholtz, 
 translated by Prof. Tyndall, and published in the Philosophical Magazine, supple- 
 ment to Vol. XL fourth, eeriee. 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 495 
 
 reserve of force w being expended ; and must in time be ex- 
 hausted. Though the residue of undiffused motion in the Sun, 
 may be much greater than is above concluded ; though the 
 rate of radiation cannot, as assumed, continue at a uniform 
 rate, but must eventually go on with slowly- decreasing 
 rapidity ; and though the period at which the Sun will cease 
 to afford us adequate light and heat, is very possibly far more 
 distant than above implied ; yet such a period must some 
 time be reached, and this is all which it here concerns us 
 to observe. 
 
 Thus while the Solar System, if evolved from diffused mat- 
 ter, has illustrated the law of equilibration in the establishment 
 of a complete moving equilibrium ; and while, as at present con- 
 stituted, it illustrates the law of equilibration in the balancing 
 of all its movements ; it also illustrates this law in the pro- 
 cesses which astronomers and physicists infer are still going 
 on. That motion of masses produced during Evolution, is 
 being slowly re-diffused in molecular motion of the ethereal 
 medium ; both through the progressive integration of each 
 mass, and the resistance to its motion through space. Infinitely 
 remote as may be the state when all the motions of masses shall 
 be transformed into molecular motion, and all the molecular 
 motion equilibrated ; yet such a state of complete integration 
 and complete equilibration, is that towards which the changes 
 now going on throughout the Solar System inevitably tend. 
 
 172. A spherical figure is the one which can alone equi- 
 librate the forces of mutually- gravitating atoms. If the ag- 
 gregate of such atoms has a rotatory motion, the form of 
 equilibrium becomes a spheroid of greater or less oblateness, 
 according to the rate of rotation ; and it has been ascertained 
 that the Earth is an oblate spheroid, diverging just as much 
 from sphericity as is requisite to counterbalance the centrifugal 
 force consequent on its velocity round its axis. That is to 
 eay, during the evolution of the Earth, there has been reached 
 a complete equilibrium of those forces which affect its general 
 
190 EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 outline. The only other process of equilibration 
 
 which the Earth as a whole can exhibit, is the loss of its axial 
 motion; and that any such loss is going on, we have no 
 direct evidence. It has been contended, however, by Prof. 
 Helmholtz, that inappreciable as may be its effect within 
 known periods of time, the friction of the tidal wave muse 
 be slowly diminishing the Earth's rotatory motion, and must 
 eventually destroy it. Now though it seems an oversight 
 to say that the Earth's rotation can thus be destroyed, since 
 the extreme effect, to be reached only in infinite time by such 
 a process, would be an extension of the Earth's day to the 
 length of a lunation , yet it seems clear that this friction 
 of the tidal wave is a real cause of decreasing rotation. Slow 
 as its action is, we must recognize it as exemplifying, under 
 another form, the universal progress towards equilibrium. 
 
 It is needless to point out, in detail, how those movements 
 which the Sun's rays generate in the air and water on the 
 Earth's surface, and through them in the Earth's solid sub- 
 stance,* one and all teach the same general truth. Evidently 
 the winds and waves and streams, as well as the denudations ard 
 depositions they effect, perpetually illustrate on a grand scale, 
 and in endless modes, that gradual dissipation of motions 
 described in the first section ; and the consequent tendency 
 towards a balanced distribution of forces. Each of these 
 sensible motions, produced directly or indirectly by integra- 
 tion of those insensible motions communicated from the Sun, 
 becomes, as we have seen, divided and subdivided into 
 motions less and less sensible ; until it is finally reduced tc 
 insensible motions, and radiated from the Earth in the shape 
 of thermal undulations. In their totality, these com- 
 
 * Until I recently consulted his "Outlines of Astronomy" on anotner ques- 
 tion, I was not aware that so far back as 1833, Sir John Herschel had enunci- 
 ated the doctrine that "the sun's rays are the ultimate source of almost every 
 motion which takes place on the surface of the earth." He expressly includes 
 all geologic, meteorologic, and vital actions ; as also those which we produce by 
 the combustion of coal. The late George Stephenson appears to have beea 
 rcigl) credited with this last idea 
 
EUU 1L1 BRA TION 497 
 
 plex movements of aerial, liquid, and solid matter on the 
 Earth's ?rust, constitute a dependent moving equilibrium. As 
 we before saw, there is traceable throughout them an in- 
 volved combination of rhythms. The unceasing circula- 
 tion of water from the ocean to the land, and from the land 
 back to the ocean, is a type of these various compensating 
 actions ; which, in the midst of all the irregularities produced 
 by their mutual interferences, maintain an average. And in 
 this, as in other equilibrations of the third order, we see that 
 the power from moment to moment in course of dissipation, 
 is from moment to moment renewed from without : the rises 
 and falls in the supply, being balanced by rises and falls in the 
 expenditure ; as witness the correspondence between the mag- 
 netic variations and the cyclo of the solar spots. But 
 the fact it chiefly concerns us to observe, is, that this process 
 must go on bringing things ever nearer to complete rest. 
 These mechanical movements, meteorologic and geologic, 
 which are continually being equilibrated, both temporarily 
 by counter-movements and permanently by the dissipation of 
 such movements and counter- movements, will slowly diminish 
 as the quantity of force received from the Sun diminishes. 
 As the insensible motions propagated to us from the centre 
 of our system become feebler, the sensible motions here pro- 
 duced by them must decrease ; and at that remote period 
 when the solar heat has ceased to be appreciable, there will 
 no longer be any appreciable re- distributions of matter on the 
 surface of our planet. 
 
 Thus from the highest point of view, all terrestrial changes 
 are incidents in the course of cosmical equilibration. It was 
 before pointed out, ( 69) that of the incessant alterations 
 which the Earth's crust and atmosphere undergo, those which 
 are not due to the still-progressing motion of the Earth's sub- 
 stance towards its centre of gravity, are due to the still- pro- 
 gressing motion of the Sun's substance towards its centre of 
 gravity. Here it is to be remarked, that this continuance of 
 integration in the Earth and in the Sun, is a continuance 01 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 
 that transformation of sensible motion into insensible motion 
 which we have seen ends in equilibration ; and that the ar- 
 rival in each case at the extreme of integration, is the arrival 
 at a state in which no more sensible motion remains to be 
 transformed into insensible motion a state in which the 
 forces producing integration and the forces opposing integra- 
 tion, have become equal. 
 
 173. Every living body exhibits, in a four-fold form, 
 the process we are tracing out exhibits it from moment to 
 moment in the balancing of mechanical forces ; from hour to 
 hour in the balancing of functions ; from year to year in the 
 changes of state that compensate changes of condition ; and 
 finally in the complete arrest of vital movements at death. 
 Let us consider the facts under these heads. 
 
 The sensible motion constituting each visible action of an 
 organism, is soon brought to a close by some adverse force 
 within or without the organism. When the arm is raised, the 
 motion given to it is antagonized partly by gravity and partly 
 by the internal resistances consequent on structure ; and its 
 motion, thus suffering continual deduction, ends when the arm 
 has reached a position at which the forces are equilibrated. The 
 limits of each systole and diastole of the heart, severally show 
 us a momentary equilibrium between muscular strains that pro- 
 duce opposite movements ; and each gush of blood requires 
 to be immediately followed by another, because the rapid 
 dissipation of its momentum would otherwise soon bring 
 the mass of circulating fluid to a stand. As much in the 
 actions and re-actions going on among the internal organs, 
 as in the mechanical balancing of the whole body, there is at 
 3\ery instant a progressive equilibration of the motions at 
 every instant produced. Viewed in their aggregate, 
 
 and as forming a series, the organic functions constitute 
 a dependent moving equilibrium a moving equilibrium, 
 of which the motive power is ever being dissipated through 
 the special equilibrations just exemplified, and is evei 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 491J 
 
 being renewed by the taking in of additional motive power. 
 Food is a store of force which continually adds to the momen- 
 tum of the vital actions, as much as is continually deducted 
 from them bv the forces overcome. All the functional move- 
 ments thus maintained, are, as we have seen, rhythmical ( 85) ; 
 by their union compound rhythms of various lengths and 
 complexities are produced ; and in these simple and com- 
 pound rhythms, the process of equilibration, besides being 
 exemplified at each extreme of every rhythm, is seen in the 
 habitual preservation of a constant mean, and in the re- estab- 
 lishment of that mean when accidental causes have produced 
 divergence from it. When, for instance, there is a great ex- 
 penditure of motion through muscular activity, there arises a 
 re-active demand on those stores of latent motion which are laid 
 up in the form of consumable matter throughout the tissues : 
 increased respiration and increased rapidity of circulation, 
 are instrumental to an extra genesis of force, that counter- 
 balances the extra dissipation of force. This unusual trans- 
 formation of molecular motion into sensible motion, is presently 
 followed by an unusual absorption of food the source of mole- 
 cular motion ; and in proportion as there has been a prolonged 
 draft upon the spare capital of the system, is there a tendency 
 to a prolonged rest, during which that spare capital is replaced. 
 If the deviation from the ordinary course of the functions has 
 been so great as to derange them, as when violent exertion 
 produces loss of appetite and loss of sleep, an equilibration is 
 still eventually effected. Providing the disturbance is not 
 such as to overturn the balance of the functions, and destroy 
 life (in which case a complete equilibration is suddenly effected), 
 the ordinary balance is by and by re-established : the return- 
 ing appetite is keen in proportion as the waste has been large ; 
 while sleep, sound and prolonged, makes up for previous wake- 
 fulness. Not even in those extreme cases where some excess 
 has wrought a derangement that is never wholly rectified, is 
 there an exception to the general law ; for in such cases the 
 cycle of the functions is, after a time, equilibrated about a new 
 
500 EQU I LIBRATION 
 
 mean state, which, thenceforth becomes the normal state of 
 the individual. Thus, among the involved rhythmical changea 
 constituting organic life, any disturbing force that works an 
 excess of change in some direction, is gradually diminished 
 and finally neutralized by antagonistic forces ; which there- 
 upon work a compensating change in the opposite direction, 
 and so, after more or less of oscillation, restore the medium 
 condition. And this process it is, which constitutes what 
 physicians call the vis medicatrix naturce. The third 
 
 form of equilibration displayed by organic bodies, is a neces- 
 sary sequence of that just illustrated. "When through a 
 change of habit or circumstance, an organism is permanently 
 subject to some new influence, or different amount of an old 
 influence, there arises, after more or less disturbance of the 
 organic rhythms, a balancing of them around the new average 
 condition produced by this additional influence. As temporary 
 divergences of the organic rhythms are counteracted by tem- 
 porary divergences of a reverse kind ; so there is an equili- 
 bration of their permanent divergences by the genesis of oppos- 
 ing divergences that are equally permanent. If the quantity 
 of motion to be habitually generated by a muscle, becomes 
 greater than before, its nutrition becomes greater than before. 
 If the expenditure of the muscle bears to its nutrition, a 
 greater ratio than expenditure bears to nutrition in other parts 
 of the system ; the excess of nutrition becomes such that the 
 muscle grows. And the cessation of its growth is the estab- 
 lishment of a balance between the daily waste and the daity 
 repair the daily expenditure of force, and the amount of 
 latent force daily added. The like must manifestly be the 
 case with all organic modifications consequent on change of 
 climate or food. This is a conclusion which we may safely 
 draw without knowing the special re- arrangements that ef- 
 fect the equilibration. If we see that a different mode of 
 life is followed, after a period of functional derangement, 
 by some altered condition of the system if we see that this 
 altered condition, becoming by and by established, continues 
 
EQUILIBRATION 601 
 
 tdthout further change ; we have no alternative but to say, 
 that the new forces brought to bear on the system, have 
 been compensated by the opposing forces they have evoked. 
 And this is the interpretation of the process which we call 
 adaptation. Finally, eact organism illustrates the 
 
 law in the ensemble of its life. At the outset *t daily absorbs 
 under the form of food, an amount of force greater than it 
 daily expends ; and the surplus is daily equilibrated by 
 growth As maturity is approached, this surplus diminishes ; 
 and in the perfect organism, the day's absorption of potential 
 motion balances the day's expenditure of actual motion. That 
 is to say, during adult life, there is continuously exhibited an 
 equilibration of the third order. Eventually, the daily loss, 
 beginning to out-balance the daily gain, there results a dimin- 
 ishing amount of functional action ; the organic rhythms 
 extend less and less widely on each side of the medium 
 state ; and there finally results that complete equilibration 
 which we call death. 
 
 The ultimate structural state accompanying that ultimate 
 functional state towards which an organism tends, both indivi- 
 dually and as a species, may be deduced from one of the pro- 
 positions set down in the opening section of this chapter. 
 We saw that the limit of heterogeneity is arrived at when- 
 ever the equilibration of any aggregate becomes complete 
 that the re- distribution of matter can continue so long only as 
 there continues any motion unbalanced. Whence we found it 
 to follow that the final structural arrangements, must be such 
 as will meet all the forces acting on the aggregate, by equiva- 
 lent antagonist forces. What is the implication in the case 
 jf organic aggregates ; the equilibrium of which is a moving 
 one ? We have seen that the maintenance of such a moving 
 equilibrium, requires the habitual genesis of internal forces 
 corresponding in number, directions, and amounts to the ex- 
 ternal incident forces as many inner functions, single or 
 rximbined, as there ar<? single or combined outer actions to be 
 But functions are the correlatives of organs ; amounts 
 23 
 
502 EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 of functions are, other things equal, the correlatives of sizes 
 of organs ; and combinations of functions the correlatives of 
 connections of organs. Hence the structural complexity 
 accompanying functional equilibration, is definable as one in 
 which there are as many specialized parts as are capable, 
 separately and jointly, of counteracting the separate and 
 joint forces amid which the organism exists. And this is the 
 limit of organic heterogeneity; to which man has approached 
 more nearly than any other creature. 
 
 Groups of organisms display this universal tendency to- 
 wards a balance very obviously. In 85, every species of 
 plant and animal was shown to be perpetually undergoing a 
 rhythmical variation in number now from abundance of 
 food and absence of enemies rising above its average ; and 
 then by a consequent scarcity of food and abundance of ene- 
 mies being depressed below its average. And here we have 
 to observe that there is thus maintained an equilibrium be- 
 tween the sum of those forces which result in the increase of 
 each race, and the sum of those forces which result in its de- 
 crease. Either limit of variation is a point at which the one 
 set of forces, before in excess of the other, is counterbalanced 
 by it. And amid these oscillations produced by their con- 
 flict, lies that average number of_ the species at which its 
 expansive tendency is in equilibrium with surrounding 
 repressive tendencies. Nor can it be questioned that this 
 balancing of the preservative and destructive forces which 
 we see going on in every race, must necessarily go on. Since 
 increase of number cannot but continue until increase of 
 mortality stops it ; and decrease of number cannot but con- 
 tinue until it is either arrested by fertility or extinguishes the 
 race entirely. 
 
 174 The equilibrations of those nervous actions which 
 constitute what we know as mental life, may be classified in 
 like manner with those which constitute what we dis- 
 
EQUILIBRATION. C03 
 
 tinguish as bodily life. "We may deal with them in the 
 same order. 
 
 Each pulse of nervous force from moment to moment gener- 
 ated, (and it was shown in 86 that nervous currents are not 
 continuous but rhythmical) is met by counteracting forces ; in 
 overcoming which it is dispersed and equilibrated. When 
 tracing out the correlation and equivalence of forces, we saw 
 that each sensation and emotion, or rather such part of it aa 
 remains after the excitation of associated ideas and feelings, 
 is expended in working bodily changes contractions of the 
 involuntary muscles, the voluntary muscles, or both ; as also 
 in a certain stimulation of secreting organs. That the move- 
 ments thus initiated are ever being brought to a close by the 
 opposing forces they evoke, was pointed out above ; and here it 
 is to be observed that the like holds with the nervous changes 
 thus initiated. Yarious facts prove that the arousing of a 
 thought or feeling, always involves the overcoming of a cer- 
 tain resistance : instance the fact that where the association 
 of mental states has not been frequent, a sensible effort is 
 needed to call up the one after the other ; instance the fact 
 that during nervous prostration there is a comparative in- 
 ability to think the ideas will not follow one another with the 
 habitual rapidity ; instance the converse fact that at times of 
 unusual energy, natural or artificial, the friction of thought 
 becomes relatively small, and more numerous, more remote, 
 or more difficult connections of ideas are formed. That is to 
 say, the wave of nervous energy each instant generated, pro- 
 pagates itself throughout body and brain, along those chan- 
 nels which the conditions at the instant render lines of least 
 resistance ; and spreading widely in proportion to its amount, 
 ends only when it is equilibrated by the resistances it every 
 where meets. If we contemplate mental actions aa 
 
 extending over hours and days, we discover equilibrations 
 analogous to those hourly and daily established among the 
 bodily functions. In the one case as in the other, there are 
 
604 EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 
 rhythms which exhibit a balancing of opposing forces at each 
 extreme, and the maintenance of a certain general balance. 
 This is seen in the daily alternation of mental activity and 
 mental rest the forces expended during the one being compen- 
 sated by the forces acquired during the other. It is also seen in 
 the recurring rise and fall of each desire: each desire reaching a 
 certain intensity, is equilibrated either by expenditure of the 
 force it embodies, in the desired actions, or, less completely, in 
 the imagination of such actions : the process ending in that sa- 
 tiety, or that comparative quiescence, forming the opposite limit 
 of the rhythm. And it is further manifest under a two- fold 
 form, on occasions of intense joy or grief : each paroxysm of 
 passion, expressing itself in vehement bodily actions, presently 
 reaches an extreme whence the counteracting forces produce 
 a return to a condition of moderate excitement ; and the suc- 
 cessive paroxysms finally diminishing in intensity, end in a 
 mental equilibrium either like that before existing, or par 
 tially differing from it in its medium state. But- 
 
 the species of mental equilibration to be more especially noted, 
 is that shown in the establishment of a correspondence be- 
 tween relations among our states of consciousness and relations 
 in the external world. Each outer connection of phenomena 
 which we are capable of perceiving, generates, through ac- 
 cumulated experiences, an inner connection of mental states ; 
 and the result towards which this process tends, is the forma- 
 tion of a mental connection having a relative strength that 
 answers to the relative constancy of the physical connection 
 represented. In conformity with the general law that 
 motion pursues the line of least resistance, and that, other 
 things equal, a line once taken by motion is made a line that 
 prill be more readily pursued by future motion ; we have seen 
 that the ease with which nervous impressions follow one an- 
 other, is, other things equal, great in proportion to the num- 
 ber of times they have been repeated together in experience. 
 Hence, corresponding to such an invariable relation as that be- 
 tween the resistance of an object and some extension possessed 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 505 
 
 by it, there arises an indissoluble connection in consciousness ; 
 and this connection, being as absolute internally as the answer- 
 ing one is externally, undergoes no further change the inner 
 relation is in perfect equilibrium with the outer relation. 
 Conversely, it hence happens that to such uncertain relations 
 of phenomena as that between clouds and rain, there arise 
 relations of ideas of a like uncertainty ; and if, under given 
 aspects of the sky, the tendencies to infer fair or foul wea- 
 ther, correspond to the frequencies with which fair or foul 
 weather follow such aspects, the accumulation of experiences 
 has balanced the mental sequences and the physical sequences. 
 When it is remembered that between these extremes there 
 are countless orders of external connections having different 
 degrees of constancy, and that during the evolution of in- 
 telligence there arise answering internal associations having 
 different degrees of cohesion ; it will be seen that there is a 
 progress towards equilibrium between the relations of thought 
 and the relations of things. This equilibration can end 
 only when each relation of things has generated in us a rela- 
 tion of thought, such that on the occurrence of the conditions, 
 the relation in thought arises as certainly as the relation in 
 things. Supposing this state to be reached (which however it 
 can be only in infinite time) experience will cease to produce 
 any further mental evolution there will have been reached a 
 perfect correspondence between ideas and facts ; and the in- 
 tellectual adaptation of man to his circumstances will be 
 complete. The like general truths are exhibited in 
 
 the process of moral adaptation ; which is a continual approach 
 to equilibrium between the emotions and the kinds of con- 
 duct necessitated by surrounding conditions. The connections 
 of feelings and actions, are determined in the same way 
 as the connections of ideas : just as repeating the association 
 of two ideas, facilitates the excitement of the one by the 
 other ; so does each discharge of feeling into action, render 
 the subsequent discharge of such feeling into such action 
 more easy. Hence it happens that if an individual is placed 
 
506 EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 permanently in conditions which demand more action of a 
 special kind than has before been requisite, or than is natural 
 to him if the pressure of the painful feelings which these 
 conditions entail when disregarded, impels him to perform 
 this action to a greater extent if by every more frequent or 
 more lengthened performance of it under such pressure, the 
 resistance is somewhat diminished ; then, clearly, there 
 is an advance towards a balance between the demand for 
 this kind of action and the supply of it. Either in him- 
 self, or in his descendants continuing to live under these 
 conditions, enforced repetition must eventually bring about 
 a state in which this mode of directing the energies will be 
 no more repugnant than the various other modes previously 
 natural to the race. Hence the limit towards which emotional 
 modification perpetually tends, and to which it must approach 
 indefinitely near (though it can absolutely reach it only in 
 infinite time) is a combination of desires that correspond to 
 all the different orders of activity which the circumstances of 
 life call for desires severally proportionate in strength to 
 the needs for these orders of activity ; and severally satisfied 
 by these orders of activity. In what we distinguish as 
 acquired habits, and in the moral differences of races and 
 nations produced by habits that are maintained through suc- 
 cessive generations, we have countless illustrations of this 
 progressive adaptation ; which can cease only with the estab- 
 lishment of a complete equilibrium between constitution and 
 conditions. 
 
 Possibly 3ome will fail to see how the equilibrations de- 
 bcribed in this section, can be classed with those preceding 
 them ; and will be inclined to say that what are here set 
 down as facts, are but analogies. Nevertheless such equi- 
 librations are as truly physical as the rest. To show this 
 fully, would require a more detailed analysis than can now be 
 entered on. For the present it must suffice to point out, as 
 before ( 71), that what we know subjectively as states of 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 507 
 
 consciousness, are, objectively, modes of force ; that so much 
 teeling is the correlate of so much motion ; that the performance 
 of any bodily action is the transformation of a certain amount 
 of feeling into its equivalent amount of motion; that this 
 bodily action is met by forces which it is expended in over- 
 coming ; and that the necessity for the frequent repetition of 
 this action, implies the frequent recurrence of forces to oe bo 
 overcome. Hence the existence in any individual of an 
 emotional stimulus that is in equilibrium with certain ex- 
 ternal requirements, is literally the habitual production of a 
 certain specialized portion of nervous energy, equivalent in 
 amount to a certain order of external resistances that are 
 habitually met. And thus the ultimate state, forming the 
 limit towards which Evolution carries us, is one in which the 
 kinds and quantities of mental energy daily generated and 
 transformed into motions, are equivalent to, or in equilibrium 
 with, the various orders and degrees of surrounding forces 
 which antagonize such motions. 
 
 175. Each society taken as a whole, displays the process 
 of equilibration in the continuous adjustment of its population 
 to its means of subsistence. A tribe of men living on wild 
 animals and fruits, is manifestly, like every tribe of inferior 
 creatures, always oscillating about that average number which 
 the locality can support. Though by artificial production, and 
 by successive improvements in artificial production, a superior 
 race continually alters the limit which external conditions 
 put to population ; yet there is ever a checking of population 
 at the temporary limit reached. It is true that where the 
 limit is being so rapidly changed as among ourselves, there 
 is no actual stoppage : there is only a rhythmical variation 
 in the rate of increase. But in noting the causes of this 
 rhythmical variation in watching how, during periods of 
 abundance, the proportion of marriages increases, and how 
 it decreases during periods of scarcity ; ft will be seen that tho 
 
508 EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 expansive force produces unusual advance whenever thf T<** 
 pressive force diminishes, and vice versa; and thus there in tin 
 near a balancing of the two as the changing conditions permit. 
 The internal actions constituting social functions, exemplify 
 the general principle no less clearly. Supply and demand 
 are continually being adjusted throughout all industrial pro- 
 cesses ; and this equilibration is interpretable in the same way 
 as preceding ones. The production and distribution of a 
 commodity, is the expression of a certain aggregate of forces 
 causing special kinds and amounts of motion. The price of 
 this commodity, is the measure of a certain other aggregate 
 of forces expended by the labourer who purchases it, in other 
 kinds and amounts of motion. And the variations of price 
 represent a rhythmical balancing of these forces. Every rise 
 or fall in the rate of interest, or change in the value of a 
 particular security, implies a conflict of forces in which some, 
 becoming temporarily predominant, cause a movement that 
 is presently arrested or equilibrated by the increase of oppos- 
 ing forces ; and amid these daily and hourly oscillations, lies a 
 more slowly- varying medium, into which the value ever tends 
 to settle ; and would settle but for the constant addition of new 
 influences. As in the individual organism so in the 
 
 social organism, functional equilibrations generate structural 
 equilibrations. When on the workers in any trade there 
 comes an increased demand, and when in return for the in- 
 creased supply, there is given to them an amount of other com- 
 modities larger than was before habitual when, consequently, 
 the resistances overcome by them in sustaining life are less 
 than the resistances overcome by other workers; there 
 results a flow of other workers into this trade. This 
 flow continues until the extra demand is met, and the 
 wages so far fall again, that the total resistance over 
 come in obtaining a given amount of produce, is as great in 
 this newly-adopted occupation as in the occupations whence 
 it drew recruits. The occurrence ot motion along linos oi 
 least resistance, was before shown to necessitate the growtfc 
 
EQUILIBRATION 509 
 
 of population in those places where the labour required for 
 self-maintenance is the smallest ; and here we further see 
 that those engaged in any such advantageous locality, or 
 advantageous business, must multiply till there arises an 
 approximate balance between this locality or business and 
 others accessible to the same citizens. In determining 
 the career of every youth, we see an estimation by parents of 
 the respective advantages offered by all that are available, 
 and a choice of the one which promises best ; and through 
 the consequent influx into trades that are at the time most 
 profitable, and the withholding of recruits from over-stocked 
 /rades, there is insured a general equipoise between the 
 power of each social organ and the function it has to perform. 
 The various industrial actions and re-actions thus con- 
 tinually alternating, constitute a dependent moving equili- 
 brium like that which is maintained among the functions 
 of an individual organism. And this dependent moving 
 equilibrium parallels those already contemplated, in its tend- 
 ency to become more complete. During early stages of 
 social evolution, while yet the resources of the locality inha- 
 bited are unexplored, and the arts of production undeveloped, 
 there is never anything more than a temporary and partial 
 balancing of such actions, under the form of acceleration or 
 retardation of growth. But when a society approaches the 
 maturity of that type on which it is organized, the vari- 
 ous industrial activities settle down into a comparatively 
 constant state. Moreover, it is observable that advance in 
 organization, as well as advance in growth, is conducive to a 
 better equilibrium of industrial functions. While the diffu- 
 sion of mercantile information is slow, and the means of 
 transport deficient, the adjustment of supply to demand is 
 extremely imperfect : great over-production of each com- 
 modity followed by great under-production, constitute a 
 rhythm having extremes that depart very widely from the 
 mean state in which demand and supply are equilibrated. 
 But when good roads are made, and there is a rapid diffusion of 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 printed or written intelligence, and still more when railways 
 and telegraphs come into existence when the periodical 
 fairs of early da)^s lapse into weekly markets, and these into 
 daily markets ; there is gradually produced a better balance 
 of production and consumption. Extra demand is much 
 more quickly followed by augmented supply ; and the rapid 
 oscillations of price within narrow limits on either side of a 
 comparatively uniform mean, indicate a near approach to 
 equilibrium. Evidently this industrial progress has 
 
 for its limit, that which Mr. Mill has called " the sta- 
 tionary state." When population shall have become dense 
 over all habitable parts of the globe ; when the resources of 
 every region have been fully explored ; and when the product- 
 ive arts admit of no further improvements ; there must result 
 an almost complete balance, both between the fertility and 
 mortality of each society, and between its producing and 
 consuming activities. Each society will exhibit only minor 
 deviations from its average number, and the rhythm of its 
 industrial functions will go on from day to day and year 
 to year with comparatively insignificant perturbations. This 
 limit, however, though we are inevitably advancing towards 
 it, is indefinitely remote ; and can never indeed be absolutely 
 reached. The peopling of the Earth up to the point sup- 
 posed, cannot take place by simple spreading. In the future, 
 as in the past, the process will be carried on rhythmically, 
 by waves of emigration from new and higher centres of 
 civilization successively arising ; and by the supplanting of 
 inferior races by the superior races they beget ; and the 
 process so carried on must be extremely slow. Nor does 
 it seem to me that such an equilibration will, as Mr. Mill 
 suggests, leave scope for further mental culture and moral 
 progress ; but rather that the approximation to it must 
 be simultaneous with the approximation to complete equi- 
 librium between man's nature and the conditions of his 
 existence. 
 
 One other kind of social equilibration has still to be con- 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 511 
 
 eidered: that which results in the establishment of govern- 
 mental institutions, and which becomes complete as these 
 institutions fall into harmony with the desires of the people. 
 There is a demand and supply in political affairs as in indus- 
 trial affairs ; and in the one case as in the other, the antag- 
 onist forces produce a rhythm which, at first extreme in its 
 oscillations, slowly settles down into a moving equilibrium of 
 comparative regularity. Those aggressive impulses inherited 
 from the pre- social state those tendencies to seek self-satis- 
 faction regardless of injury to other beings, which are essen- 
 tial to a predatory life, constitute an anti-social force, tending 
 ever to cause conflict and eventual separation of citizens. 
 Contrariwise, those desires whose ends can be achieved 
 only by union, as well as those sentiments which find satisfac- 
 tion through intercourse with fellow-men, and those result- 
 ing in what we call loyalty, are forces tending to keep the 
 units of a society together. On the one hand, there is in 
 each citizen, more or less of resistance against all restraints 
 imposed on his actions by other citizens : a resistance which, 
 tending continually to widen each individual's sphere of 
 action, and reciprocally to limit the spheres of action 
 of other individuals, constitutes a repulsive force mutually 
 exercised by the members of a social aggregate. On the 
 other hand, the general sympathy of man for man, and 
 the more special sympathy of each variety of man for others 
 of the same variety, together with sundry allied feelings 
 which the social state gratifies, act as an attractive force, 
 tending ever to keep united those who have a common ances- 
 try. And since the resistances to be overcome in satisfying 
 the totality of their desires when living separately, are greater 
 than the resistances to be overcome in satisfying the totality 
 of their desires when living together, there is a residuary 
 force that prevents their separation. Like all other opposing 
 forces, those exerted by citizens on each other, are ever 
 producing alternating movements, which, at first extreme, 
 undergo a gradual diminution on the way to ultimate equili- 
 
572 TXjnTLTBRATKXN. 
 
 brium. In small, undeveloped societies, marked rhythms 
 result from these conflicting tendencies. A tribe whose 
 members have held together for a generation or two, reaches 
 a size at which it will not hold together ; and on the occur- 
 rence of some event causing unusual antagonism among its 
 members, divides. Each primitive nation, depending largely 
 for its continued union on the character of its chief, exhibits 
 wide oscillations between an extreme in which the subjects 
 are under rigid restraint, and an extreme in which the 
 restraint is not enough io prevent disorder. In more 
 advanced nations of like type, we always find violent ac- 
 tions and reactions of the same essential nature " despotism 
 tempered by assassination," characterizing a political state 
 in which unbearable repression from time to time brings 
 about a bursting of all bonds. In this familiar fact, that a 
 period of tyranny is followed by a period of license and 
 vice versa, we see how these opposing forces are ever equili- 
 brating each other ; and we also see, in the tendency of such 
 movements and counter-movements to become more moder- 
 ate, how the equilibration progresses towards completeness. 
 The conflicts between Conservatism (which stands for the 
 restraints of society over the individual) and Reform (which 
 stands for the liberty of the individual against society), fall 
 within slowly approximating limits ; so that the temporary 
 predominance of either, produces a less marked deviation 
 from the medium state. This process, now so far 
 
 advanced among ourselves that the oscillations are compara- 
 tively unobtrusive, must go on till the balance between the 
 antagonist forces approaches indefinitely near perfection. 
 For, as we have already seen, the adaptation of man's nature 
 to the conditions of his existence, cannot cease until the in- 
 ternal forces which we know as feelings are in equilibrium 
 with the external forces they encounter. And the establish- 
 ment of this equilibrium, is the arrival at a state of human 
 nature and social organization, such that the individual has 
 no desires but those which may be satisfied without exceed* 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 513 
 
 ing his proper sphere of action, while society maintains no 
 restraints but those which the individual voluntarily re- 
 spects. The progressive extension of the liberty of citizens, 
 and the reciprocal removal of political restrictions, are the 
 steps by which we advance towards this state. And the ulti- 
 mate abolition of all limits to the freedom of each, save those 
 imposed by the like freedom of all, must result from the 
 complete equilibration between man's desires and the conduct 
 necessitated by surrounding conditions. 
 
 Of course in this case, as in the preceding ones, there is 
 thus involved a limit to the increase of heterogeneity. A 
 few pages back, we reached the conclusion that each advance 
 in mental evolution, is the establishment of some further 
 internal action, corresponding to some further external 
 action some additional connection of ideas or feelings, 
 answering to some before unknown or unantagonized con- 
 nection of phenomena. We inferred that each such new 
 function, involving some new modification of structure, 
 implies an increase of heterogeneity ; and that thus, in- 
 crease of heterogeneity must go on, while there remain any 
 outer relations affecting the organism which are unbalanced 
 by inner relations. Whence we saw it to follow that in- 
 crease of heterogeneity can come to an end only as equilibra- 
 tion is completed. Evidently the like must simultaneously 
 take place with society. Each increment of heterogeneity 
 in the individual, must directly or indirectly involve, as 
 cause or consequence, some increment of heterogeneity in 
 the arrangements of the aggregate of individuals. And the 
 limit to social complexity can be arrived at, only with the 
 establishment of the equilibrium, just described, between 
 social and individual forces. 
 
 176. Here presents itself a final question, which has pro- 
 bably been taking a more or less distinct shape in the minda 
 of many, while reading this chapter. " If Evolution of every 
 kind, is an increase in complexity of structure and function 
 
514 EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 thab is incidental to the universal process of equilibration, 
 and if equilibration must end in complete rest ; what is the 
 fate towards which all things tend ? If the Solar System 
 is slowly dissipating its forces if the Sun is losing his heat 
 at a rate which will tell in millions of years if with 
 diminution of the Sun's radiations there must go on a 
 diminution in the activity of geologic and meteorologic 
 processes as well as in the quantity of vegetal and animal 
 existence if Man and Society are similarly dependent on 
 this supply of force that is gradually coming to an end ; are 
 we not manifestly progressing towards omnipresent death ?" 
 
 That such a state must be the outcome of the processes 
 everywhere going on, seems beyond doubt. Whether any 
 ulterior process may reverse these changes, and initiate a 
 new life, is a question to be considered hereafter. For the 
 present it must suffice that the proximate end of all the 
 transformations we have traced, is a state of quiescence. 
 This admits of a priori proof. It will soon become apparent 
 that the law of equilibration, not less than the preceding 
 general laws, is deducible from the persistence of force. 
 
 We have seen ( 74) that phenomena are interpretable 
 only as the results of universally-coexistent forces of attrac- 
 tion and repulsion. These universally -coexistent forces of at- 
 traction and repulsion, are, indeed, the complementary aspects 
 of that absolutely persistent force which is the ultimate datum 
 of consciousness. Just in the same way that the equality of 
 action and re-action is a corollary from the persistence of 
 force, since their inequality would imply the disappearance 
 of the differential force into nothing, or its appearance out of 
 nothing ; so, we cannot become conscious of an attractive 
 force without becoming simultaneously conscious of an equal 
 and opposite repulsive force. For every experience of a 
 muscular tension, (under which form alone we can immedi- 
 ately know an attractive force,) presupposes an equivalent 
 resistance a resistance shown in the counter-balancing pres- 
 sure of the body against neighbouring objects, or in that 
 
EQUILIBRATION. 515 
 
 absorption of force which gives motion to the body, or ill 
 both a resistance which we cannot conceive as other than 
 equal to the tension, without conceiving force to have either 
 appeared or disappeared, and so denying the persistence of 
 force. And from this necessary correlation, results our ina- 
 bility, before pointed out, of interpreting any phenomena 
 save in terms of these correlatives an inability shown alike 
 in the compulsion we are under to think of the statical forces 
 which tangible matter displays, as due to the attraction and 
 repulsion of its atoms, and in the compulsion we are under to 
 think of dynamical forces exercised through space, by regard- 
 ing space as filled with atoms similarly endowed. Thus from 
 the existence of a force that is for ever unchangeable in quan- 
 tity, there follows, as a necessary corollary, the co-extensive 
 existence of these opposite forms of force forms under 
 which the conditions of our consciousness oblige us to repre- 
 sent that absolute force which transcends our knowledge. 
 
 But the forces of attraction and repulsion being univer- 
 sally co-existent, it follows, as before shown, that all motion 
 is motion under resistance. Units of matter, solid, liquid, 
 aeriform, or ethereal, filling the space which any moving 
 body traverses, offer to such body the resistance consequent 
 on their cohesion, or their inertia, or both. In other words, 
 the denser or rarer medium which occupies the places from 
 moment to moment passed through by such moving body, 
 having to be expelled from them, as much motion is ab- 
 stracted from the moving body as is given to the medium in 
 expelling it from these places. This being the condition 
 under which all motion occurs, two corollaries result. The 
 first is, that the deductions perpetually made by the com- 
 munication of motion to the resisting medium, cannot but 
 bring the motion of the body to an end in a longer or shorter 
 time. The second is, that the motion of the body cannot 
 cease until these deductions destroy it. In other words, 
 movement must continue till equilibration takes place ; and 
 equilibration must eventually take place. Both these are 
 
516 EQUILIBRATION. 
 
 manifest deductions from the persistence of force. To say 
 that the whole or part of a body's motion can disappear, save 
 by transfer to something which resists its motion, is to say 
 that the whole or part of its motion can disappear without 
 effect; which is to deny the persistence of force. Con- 
 versely, to say that the medium traversed can be moved out of 
 the body's path, without deducting from the body's motion, 
 is to say that motion of the medium can arise out of no- 
 thing ; which is to deny the persistence of force. Hence 
 this primordial truth is our immediate warrant for the con- 
 clusions, that the changes which Evolution presents, cannot 
 end until equilibrium is reached ; and that equilibrium must 
 at last be reached. 
 
 Equally necessary, because equally deducible from this 
 same truth that transcends proof, are the foregoing proposi- 
 tions respecting the establishment and maintenance of mov- 
 ing equilibria, under their several aspects. It follows from 
 the persistence of force, that the various motions possessed 
 by any aggregate, either as a whole or among its parts, must 
 be severally dissipated by the resistances they severally en- 
 counter ; and that thus, such of them as are least in amount, 
 or meet with greatest opposition, or both, will be brought to 
 a close while the others continue. Hence in every diversely 
 moving aggregate, there results a comparatively early dissi- 
 pation of motions which are smaller and much resisted ; fol- 
 lowed by long-continuance of the larger and less-resisted 
 motions ; and so there arise dependent and independent 
 moving equilibria. Hence also may be inferred the tend- 
 ency to conservation of such moving equilibria. For the 
 now motion given to the parts of a moving equilibrium by 
 a disturbing force, must either be of such kind and amount 
 that it cannot be dissipated before the pre-existing motions, 
 in which case it brings the moving equilibrium to an end ; 
 or else it must be of such kind and amount that it can be 
 dissipated before the pre-existing motions, in which case 
 the moving equilibrium is re-established. 
 
517 
 
 Thus from the persistence of force follow, not only the 
 various direct and indirect equilibrations going on around; 
 together with that cosmical equilibration which brings Evo- 
 lution under all its forms to a close ; but also those less 
 manifest equilibrations shown in the re-adjustraents of 
 moving equilibria that have been disturbed. By this 
 ultimate principle is provable the tendency of every 
 organism, disordered by some unusual influence, to return to 
 a balanced state. To it also may be traced the capacity, 
 possessed in a slight degree by individuals, and in a greater 
 degree by species, of becoming adapted to new circumstances. 
 And not less does it afford a basis for the inference, that 
 there is a gradual advance towards harmony between man's 
 mental nature and the conditions of his existence. After 
 finding that from it are deducible the various characteristics 
 of Evolution, we finally draw from it a warrant for the 
 belief, that Evolution can end only in the establishment ol 
 the greatest perfection and the most complete happiness. 
 
CHAPTER XXIIL 
 
 DISSOLUTION. 
 
 5 177. When, in Chapter XII., we glanced at the cycle of 
 changes through which every existence passes, in its pro- 
 gress from the imperceptible to the perceptible and again 
 from the perceptible to the imperceptible when these 
 opposite re-distributions of matter and motion were 
 severally distinguished as Evolution and Dissolution ; the 
 natures of the two, and the conditions under which they 
 respectively occur, were specified in general terms. Since 
 then, we have contemplated the phenomena of Evolution in 
 detail ; and have followed them out to those states of equili- 
 brium in which they all end. To complete the argument 
 we must now contemplate, somewhat more in detail than 
 before, the complementary phenomena of Dissolution. Not, 
 indeed, that we need dwell long on Dissolution, which has 
 none of those various and interesting aspects which Evolu- 
 tion presents ; but something more must be said than has 
 yet been said. ' 
 
 It was shown that neither of these two antagonist pro- 
 cesses ever goes on absolutely unqualified by the other; 
 and that a change towards either is a differential result of 
 the conflict between them. An evolving aggregate, while 
 on the average losing motion and integrating, is always, in 
 one way or other, receiving some motion and to that extent 
 disintegrating; and after the integrative changes have 
 
DISSOLUTION 510 
 
 ceased to predominate, the reception of motion, though 
 perpetually checked by its dissipation, constantly tends to 
 produce a reverse transformation, and eventually does pro- 
 duce it. When Evolution has run its course when the 
 aggregate has at length parted with its excess of motion, 
 and habitually receives as much from its environment as it 
 habitually loses when it has reached that equilibrium in 
 which its changes end ; it thereafter remains subject to all 
 actions in its environment which may increase the quantity 
 of motion it contains, and which in the lapse of time 
 are sure, either slowly or suddenly, to give its parts such 
 excess of motion as will cause disintegration. According 
 as its equilibrium is a very unstable or a very stable one, 
 its dissolution may come quickly or may be indefinitely de- 
 layed may occur in a few days or may be postponed for 
 millions of years. But exposed as it is to the contingencies 
 not simply of its immediate neighbourhood but of a Universe 
 everywhere in motion, the period must at last come when, 
 either alone or in company with surrounding aggregates, it 
 has its parts dispersed. 
 
 The process of dissolution so caused, we have here to look 
 at as it takes place in aggregates of different orders. The 
 course of change being the reverse of that hitherto traced, 
 we may properly take the illustrations of it in the reverse 
 order beginning with the most complex and ending with 
 the most simple. 
 
 178. Regarding the evolution of a society as at onco 
 an increase in the number of individuals integrated into a 
 corporate body, an increase in the masses and varieties of 
 the parts into which this corporate body divides as well as 
 of the actions called their functions, and an increase in the 
 degree of combination among these masses and their func- 
 tions ; we shall see that social dissolution conforms to the 
 general law in being, materially considered, a disintegration, 
 and, dynamically considered, a decrease in the movements 
 
520 
 
 DISSOLUTION. 
 
 of wholes and an increase in the movements of parts ; while 
 it further conforms to the general law in being caused by 
 an excess of motion in some way or other received from 
 without. 
 
 It is obvious that the social dissolution which follows the 
 aggression of another nation, and which, as history shows 
 us, is apt to occur when social evolution has ended and 
 decay has begun, is, under its broadest aspect, the incidence 
 of a new external motion; and when, as sometimes 
 happens, the conquered society is dispersed, its dissolu- 
 tion is literally a cessation of those corporate movements 
 which the society, both in its army and in its industrial 
 bodies, presented, and a lapse into individual or uncombined 
 movements the motion of units replaces the motion of 
 masses. 
 
 It cannot be questioned, either, that when plague or famine 
 at home, or a revolution abroad, gives to any society an un- 
 usual shock that causes disorder, or incipient dissolution, 
 there results a decrease of integrated movements and an in- 
 crease of disintegrated movements. As the disorder pro- 
 gresses, the political actions previously combined under one 
 government become uncombined : there arise the antagon- 
 istic actions of riot or revolt. Simultaneously, the indus- 
 trial and commercial processes that were co-ordinated 
 throughout the whole body politic, are broken up; and 
 only the local, or small, trading transactions continue. 
 And each further disorganizing change diminishes the 
 joint operations by which men satisfy their wants, and 
 leaves them to satisfy their wants, so far as they can, by 
 separate operations. Of the way in which such 
 
 d isintegrations are liable to be set up in a society that has 
 evolved to the limit of its type, and reached a state of 
 moving equilibrium, a good illustration is furnished by 
 Japan. The finished fabric into which its people had 
 organized themselves, maintained an almost constant state 
 so long as it was preserved from fresh external forces. But 
 
DISSOLUTION. 521 
 
 as soon as it received an impact from European civilization, 
 partly by armed aggression, partly by commercial impulse, 
 partly by the influence of ideas, this fabric began to fall to 
 pieces. There is now in progress a political dissolution. 
 Probably a political re-organization will follow ; but, be this 
 as it may, the change thus far produced by an outer action 
 is a change towards dissolution a change from integrated 
 motions to disintegrated motions. 
 
 Even where a society that has developed into the highest 
 form permitted by the characters of its units, begins there- 
 after to dwindle and decay, the progressive dissolution i 
 still essentially of the sjxme nature. Decline of numbers is, 
 in such case, brought about partly by emigration ; for a 
 society having the fixed structure in which evolution ends, 
 is necessarily one that will not yield and modify under 
 pressure of population : so long as its structure will yield 
 and modify, it is still evolving. Hence the surplus popula- 
 tion continually produced, not held together by an organiza- 
 tion that adapts itself to an augmenting number, is continually 
 dispersed : the influences brought to bear on the citizens by 
 other societies, cause their detachment, and. there is an in- 
 crease in the uncombined motions of units instead of an in- 
 crease of combined motions. Gradually as rigidity becomes 
 greater, and the society becomes still less capable of being 
 re-moulded into the form required for successful competition 
 with growing and more plastic societies, the number of 
 citizens who can live within its unyielding framework 
 becomes positively smaller. Hence it dwindles both 
 through continued emigration and through the diminished 
 multiplication that follows innutrition. And this further 
 dwindling or dissolution, caused by the number of those 
 who die becoming greater than the number of those 
 who survive long enough to rear offspring, is similarly a 
 decrease in the total quantity of combined motion and an 
 increase in the qua ntity of uncombined motion as we shall 
 presently se>3 whonwe come to deal with individual dissolution. 
 
522 DISSOLUTION. 
 
 Considering, then, that social aggregates differ so much 
 <rom aggregates of other kinds, formed as they are of units 
 held together loosely and indirectly, in such variable ways 
 by such complex forces, the process of dissolution among 
 them conforms to the general law quite as clearly as could 
 be expected. 
 
 179. When from these super-organic aggregates we de- 
 scend to organic aggregates, the truth tha,t Dissolution is a 
 disintegration of matter, caused by the reception of ad- 
 ditional motion from without, becomes easily demonstrable. 
 We will look first at the transformation and afterwards at 
 its cause. 
 
 Death, or that final equilibration which precedes dissolu- 
 tion, is the bringing to a close of all those conspicuous 
 integrated motions that arose during evolution. The 
 impulsions of the body from place to place first cease ; pre- 
 sently the limbs cannot be stirred ; later still the respira- 
 tory actions stop ; finally the heart becomes stationary, and, 
 with it, the circulating fluids. That is, the transformation 
 of molecular motion into the motion of masses, comes to 
 an end ; and each of these motions of masses, as it ends, 
 disappears into molecular motions. What next takes place ? 
 We cannot say that there is any further transformation of 
 sensible movements into insensible movements ; for sensible 
 movements no longer exist. Nevertheless, the process of 
 decay involves an increase of insensible movements; since 
 these are far greater in the gases generated by decomposi- 
 tion, than they are in the fluid-solid matters out of which the 
 gases arise. Each of the complex chemical units composing 
 an organic body, possesses a rhythmic motion in which its 
 many component units jointly partake. When decomposition 
 breaks up these complex molecules, and their constituents 
 assume gaseous forms, there is, besides that increase of 
 motion implied by the diffusion, a resolution of such 
 motions as the aggregate molecules possessed, into motions 
 
DISSOLUTION. K23 
 
 af their constituent molecules. So that in organic dissolu- 
 tion \ve have, first, an end put to that transformation of the 
 motion of units into the motion of aggregates, which con- 
 stitutes evolution, dynamically considered ; and we have 
 also, though in a subtler sense, a transformation of the 
 motion of aggregates into the motion of units. Still it IB 
 not thus shown that organic dissolution fully answers to the 
 general definition of dissolution the absorption of motion 
 and concomitant disintegration of matter. The disintegra- 
 tion of matter is, indeed, conspicuous enough ; but the ab- 
 sorption of motion is not conspicuous. True, the fact that 
 motion has been absorbed may be inferred from the fact 
 that the particles previously integrated into a solid mass, 
 occupying a small space, have most of them moved away 
 from one another and now occupy a great space ; for the 
 motion implied by this transposition must have been ob- 
 tained from somewhere. But its source is not obvious. A 
 little search, however, will bring us to its derivation. 
 
 At a temperature below the freezing point of water, de- 
 composition of organic matter does not take place the 
 integrated motions of the highly integrated molecules are 
 not resolved into the disintegrated motions of their com- 
 ponent molecules. Dead bodies kept at this temperature 
 for an indefinitely long period, are prevented from decom- 
 posing for an indefinitely long period: witness the frozen 
 carcases of Mammoths Elephants of a species long ago 
 extinct that are found imbedded in the ice at the mouths 
 of Siberian rivers ; and which, though they have been there 
 for many thousands of years, have flesh so fresh that when 
 at length exposed, it is devoured by wolves. What now is 
 the meaning of such exceptional preservations ? A body 
 kept below freezing point, is a body which receives very 
 little heat by radiation or conduction ; and the reception of 
 but little heat is the reception of but little molecular motion. 
 That is to say, in an environment which does not furnish it 
 with molecular motion passing a certain amount, an organic 
 
524 DISSOLUTION. 
 
 body does not undergo dissolution. Confirmatory 
 
 evidence is yielded by the variations in rate of dissolution 
 which accompany variations of temperature. All know that 
 in cool weather the organic substances used in our house- 
 holds keep longer, as we say, than in hot weather. Equally 
 certain, if less familiar, is the fact that in tropical climates 
 decay proceeds much more rapidly than in temperate 
 climates. Thus, in proportion as the molecular motion of 
 surrounding matter is great, the dead organism receives an 
 abundant supply of motion to replace the motion continually 
 taken up by the dispersing molecules of the gases into 
 which it is being disintegrated. The still quicker 
 
 decompositions produced by exposure to artificially-raised 
 temperatures, afford further proofs ; as instance those which 
 occur in cooking. The charred surfaces of parts that have 
 been much heated, show us that the molecular motion 
 absorbed has served to dissipate in gaseous forms all the 
 elements but the carbon. 
 
 The nature and cause of Dissolution are thus clearly dis- 
 played by the aggregates which so clearly display tho 
 nature and cause of Evolution. One of these aggregates 
 being composed of that peculiar matter to which a large 
 quantity of constitutional motion gives great plasticity, and 
 the ability to evolve into a highly compound form ( 103) ; 
 we see that after evolution has ceased, a very moderate 
 amount of molecular motion, added to that already locked 
 up in its peculiar matter, suffices to cause dissolution. 
 Though at death there is reached a stable equilibrium 
 among the sensible masses, or organs, which make up the 
 body; yet, as the insensible units or molecules of which 
 these organs consist are in unstable equilibrium, small 
 incident forces suffice to overthrow them, and hence disin- 
 tegration proceeds rapidly. 
 
 $ 180. Most inorganic aggregates, having arrived at 
 
DISSOLUTION. 526 
 
 dense forms in which comparatively little motion is retained, 
 remain long without marked changes. Each has lost so 
 much motion in passing from the disintegrated to the inte- 
 grated state, that much motion must be given to it to 
 cause resumption of the disintegrated state; and an im- 
 mense time may elapse before there occur in the environ- 
 ment, changes great enough to communicate to it tho 
 requisite quantity of motion. We will look first at those 
 exceptional inorganic aggregates which retain much motion , 
 and therefore readily undergo dissolution. 
 
 Among these are the liquids and volatile solids which 
 dissipate under ordinary conditions water that evaporates, 
 carbonate of ammonia that wastes away by the dispersion of 
 its molecules. In all such cases motion is absorbed ; and 
 always the dissolution is rapid in proportion as the quantity 
 of heat or motion which the aggregated mass receives from 
 its environment is great. Next come the cases in 
 
 which the molecules of a highly integrated or solid aggre- 
 gate, are dispersed among the molecules of a less integrated 
 or liquid aggregate; as in aqueous solutions. One evidence 
 that this disintegration of matter has for its concomitant 
 the absorption of motion, is that soluble substances dissolve 
 the more quickly the hotter the water : supposing always that 
 no elective affinity comes into play. Another and still more 
 conclusive evidence is, that when crystals of a given tem- 
 perature are placed in water of the same temperature, the 
 process of solution is accompanied by a fall of tempera- 
 ture often a very great one. Omitting instances in 
 which some chemical action takes place between the salt 
 and the wa'er, it is a uniform law that the motion which 
 disperses the molecules of the salt through the water, is 
 at the expense of the molecular motion possessed by the 
 water. 
 
 Masses of sediment accumulated into strata, afterwards 
 compressed by many thousands of feet of superincumbent 
 strata, and reduced in course of time to a solid state, 
 24 
 
52(5 DISSOLUTION. 
 
 may remain for millions of years unchanged ; but in sub 
 sequent millions of years they are inevitably exposed to 
 disintegrating actions. Eaised along with other such masses 
 into a continent, denuded and exposed to rain, frost, and 
 the grinding actions of glaciers, they have their particles 
 gradually separated, carried away, and widely dispersed. 
 Or when, as otherwise happens, the encroaching sea reaches 
 (hem, the undermined cliffs which they form fall from time 
 to time, breaking into fragments of all sizes ; the waves, 
 rolling about the small pieces, and in storms turning over 
 and knocking together the larger blocks, reduce them to 
 boulders and pebbles, and at last to sand and mud. Even ii 
 portions of the disintegrated strata accumulate into shingle 
 banks, which afterwards become solidified, the process of 
 dissolution, arrested though it may be for some enormous 
 geologic period, is finally resumed. As many a shore 
 shows us, the conglomerate itself is sooner or later subject- 
 to the like processes \ and its cemented masses of hetero- 
 geneous components, lying on the beach, are broken up and 
 worn away by impact and attrition that is, by communicated 
 mechanical motion. 
 
 When not thus effected, the disintegration is effected by 
 communicated molecular motion. The consolidated stratum, 
 located in some area of subsidence, and brought down nearer 
 and nearer to the regions occupied by molten matter, comes 
 eventually to have its particles brought to a plastic state by 
 heat, or finally melted down into liquid. Whatever may be 
 its subsequent transformations, the transformation then ex- 
 hibited by it is an absorption of motion and disintegration 
 of matter. 
 
 Be it simple or compound, small or large, a crystal or 8 
 mountain chain, every inorganic aggregate on the Earth, 
 thus, at some time or other, undergoes a reversal of those 
 changes undergone during its evolution. Not that it usually 
 passes back completely from the perceptible into the imper- 
 ceptible; as organic aggregates do in great part, if not 
 
DISSOLUTION. 52? 
 
 wholly. But still its disintegration and dispersion carry 
 it some distance on the way towards the imperceptible; and 
 there are reasons for thinking that its arrival there is 
 but delayed. At a period immeasurably remote, every such 
 inorganic aggregate, along with all undissipated remnants 
 of organic aggregates, must be reduced to a state 
 of gaseous diffusion, and so complete the cycle of its 
 changes. 
 
 181. For the Earth as a whole, when it has gone 
 through the entire series of its ascending transformations, 
 must remain, like all smaller aggregates, exposed to the 
 contingencies of its environment; and in the course of 
 those ceaseless changes in progress throughout a Universe 
 of which all parts are in motion, must, at some period be- 
 yond the utmost stretch of imagination, be subject to forces 
 sufficient to cause its complete disintegration. Let us 
 glance at the forces competent to disintegrate it. 
 
 In his essay on "The Inter-action of Natural Forces," 
 Prof. Helmholtz states the thermal equivalent of the Earth's 
 movement through space, as calculated on the now received 
 datum of Mr. Joule. " If our Earth/' he says, " were by a 
 sudden shock brought to rest in her orbit, which is not to 
 be feared in the existing arrangement of our system by 
 such a shock a quantity of heat would be generated equal 
 to that produced by the combustion of fourteen such Earths 
 of solid coal. Making the most unfavourable assumption 
 as to its capacity for heat, that is, placing it equal to that 
 of water, the mass of the Earth would thereby be heated 
 1 1,200 degrees ; it would therefore be quite fused, and for 
 the most part reduced to vapour. If then the Earth, 
 after having been thus brought to rest, should fall 
 into the Sun, which of course would be the case, the 
 quantity of heat developed by the shock would be 400 
 times greater/' Now though this calculation 
 
 seems to be nothing to the purpose, since the Earth is 
 
528 DISSOLUTION. 
 
 
 not likely to be suddenly arrested in its orbit and not likely 
 therefore suddenly to fall into the Sun ; yet, as before pointed 
 out ( 171), there is a force at work which it is held must 
 at last bring the Earth into the Sun. This force is the re- 
 sistance of the ethereal medium. From ethereal resistance 
 is inferred a retardation of all moving bodies in the Solar 
 System a retardation which certain astronomers contend 
 even now shows its effects in the relative nearness to one 
 another of the orbits of the older planets. If, then, retarda- 
 tion is going on, there must come a time, no matter how 
 remote, when the slowly diminishing orbit of the Earth will 
 end in the Sun ; and though the quantity of molar motion 
 to be then transformed into molecular motion, will not be 
 so great as that which the calculation of Helmholtz supposes, 
 it will be great enough to reduce the substance of the Earth 
 to a gaseous state. 
 
 This dissolution of the Earth, and, at intervals, of every 
 other planet, is not, however, a dissolution of the Solar 
 System. Viewed in their ensemble, all the changes ex- 
 hibited throughout the Solar System, are incidents accom- 
 panying the integration of the entire matter composing it : 
 the local integration of which each planet is the scene, 
 completing itself long before the general integration is 
 complete. But each secondary mass having gone through 
 its evolution and reached a state of equilibrium among its 
 parts, thereafter continues in its extinct state, until by the 
 still progressing general integration it is brought into the 
 central mass. And though each such union of a secondary 
 mass with the central mass, implying transformation of 
 molar motion into molecular motion, causes partial dif- 
 fusion of the total mass formed, and adds to the quantity ol 
 motion that has to be dispersed in the shape of light and 
 heat ; yet it does but postpone the period at which the total 
 mass must become completely integrated, and its excess ol 
 contained motion radiated into space. 
 
DISSOLUTION. 529 
 
 * 5 182. Here we come to the question raised at the close 
 of the last chapter does Evolution as a whole, like Evolu- 
 tion in detail, advance towards complete quiescence ? Is 
 that motionless state called death, which ends Evolution in 
 organic bodies, typical of the universal death in which Evo- 
 lution at large must end ? And have we thus to contem 
 plate as the outcome of things, a boundless space holding 
 here and there extinct suns, fated to remain for ever with- 
 out further change. 
 
 To so speculative an inquiry, none but a speculative 
 answer is to be expected. Such answer as may be ventured, 
 must be taken less as a positive answer than as a demurrer 
 to the conclusion that the proximate result must be the 
 ultimate result. If, pushing to its extreme the argument 
 that Evolution must come to a close in complete equilibrium 
 or rest, the reader suggests that for aught which appears to 
 the contrary, the Universal Death thus implied will con- 
 tinue indefinitely, it is legitimate to point out how, on 
 carrying the argument still further, we are led to infer a 
 subsequent Universal Life. Let us see what may be 
 assigned as grounds for inferring this. 
 
 It has been already shown that all equilibration, so far 
 as we can trace it, is relative. The dissipation of a body's 
 motion by communication of it to surrounding matter, solid, 
 liquid, gaseous, and ethereal, brings the body to a fixed 
 position in relation to the matter that abstracts its motion. 
 But all its other motions continue. Further, this motion, 
 the disappearance of which causes relative equilibration, is 
 not lost but simply transferred. Whether it is directly 
 transformed into insensible motion, as happens in the case 
 of the Sun ; or, whether, as in the sensible motions going 
 on around us, it is directly transformed into smaller sensible 
 
 * Though this chapter is new, this section, and the one following it, are 
 not new. In the first edition they were included in the final section ot the 
 foregoing chapter. While substantially the same as before, the argument 
 has been in some places abbreviated and in other places enforced by addi- 
 tional matter. 
 
530 DISSOLUTION. 
 
 motions, and these into still smaller, until they become in- 
 sensible, matters not. In every instance the ultimate result 
 is, that whatever motion of masses is lost, re-appears aa 
 molecular motion pervading space. Thus the questions we 
 have to consider, are Whether after the completion of all 
 the relative equilibrations which bring Evolution to a close, 
 there remain any further equilibrations to be effected ? 
 Whether- there are any other motions of masses that must 
 eventually be transformed into molecular motion ? And if 
 there are such other motions, what must be the consequence 
 when the molecular motion generated by their transforma- 
 tion, is added to that which already exists ? 
 
 To the first of these questions the answer is, that there do 
 remain motions which are undiminished by all the relative 
 equilibrations we have considered ; namely, the motions of 
 translation possessed by those vast masses of matter called 
 stars remote suns that are probably, like our own, sur- 
 rounded by circling groups of planets. The belief that the 
 stars are fixed, has long since been abandoned : observation 
 has proved many of them to have sensible proper motions. 
 Moreover, it has been ascertained by measurement that in 
 relation to the stars nearest to us, our own star travels at 
 the rate of about half a million miles per day ; and if, as is' 
 admitted to be not improbable, our own star is moving in 
 the same direction with adjacent stars, its absolute velocity 
 may be, and most likely is, immensely greater than this. 
 Now no such changes as those taking place within the Solar 
 System, even when carried to the extent of integrating the 
 whole of its matter into one mass, and diffusing all its 
 relative motions in an insensible form through space, can 
 affect these sidereal motions. Hence, there appears no alter- 
 native but to infer that they must remain to be equilibrated 
 by some subsequent process. 
 
 The next question that arises is To what law do sidereal 
 motions conform? And to this question Astronomy replies 
 *-.he law of gravitation. The movements of binary stars have 
 
DISSOLUTION. 531 
 
 proved tins. The periodic times of sundry binary stars have 
 been calculated on the assumption that their revolutions are 
 determined by a force like that which regulates the revolu- 
 tions of planets and satellites ; and the subsequent perfor- 
 mances of their revolutions in the predicted periods, have 
 verified the assumption. If, then, these remote bodies are 
 centres of gravitation if we infer that all other stars are 
 centres of gravitation, as we may fairly do and if we draw 
 the unavoidable corollary, that the gravitative force which 
 so conspicuously affects stars that are near one another, 
 also affects remote stars ; we must conclude that all the 
 members of our Sidereal System gravitate, individually and 
 collectively. 
 
 But if these widely-dispersed moving masses mutually 
 gravitate, what must happen ? There appears but one ten- 
 able answer. They cannot preserve their present arrange- 
 ment : the irregular distribution of our Sidereal System 
 being such as to render even a temporary moving equi- 
 librium impossible. If the stars are centres of an attractive 
 force that varies inversely as the square of the distance, 
 there is no escape from the inference that the structure of 
 our galaxy is undergoing change, and must continue to 
 undergo change. 
 
 Thus, in the absence of tenable alternatives, we are 
 brought to the positions : 1, that the stars are in motion ; 
 2, that they move in conformity with the law of gravita- 
 tion ; 3, that, distributed as they are, they cannot move in 
 conformity with the law of gravitation, without under- 
 going re-arrangement. If now we ask the nature of this 
 re-arrangement, we find ourselves obliged to infer a pro- 
 gressive concentration. Stars at present dispersed, must 
 become locally aggregated ; existing aggregations (except- 
 ing, perhaps, the globular clusters) must grow more dense ; 
 and aggregations must coalesce with one another. That 
 integration has been progressing throughout past eras, we 
 found to be indicated by the structure of the heavens, in 
 
5132 DISSOLUTION. 
 
 general and in detail ; and of the extent to which it has in 
 some places already gone, remarkable instances are furnished 
 by the Magcllanic clouds two closely-packed agglomera- 
 tions, not, indeed, of single stars only, but of single stars, 
 of clusters regular and irregular, of nebulae, and of diffused 
 nebulosity. That these have been formed by mutual gravi- 
 tation of parts once widely scattered, there is evidence in 
 the barrenness of the surrounding celestial spaces : the nu 
 becula minor, especially, being seated, as Humboldt says, 
 in "a kind of starless desert/' 
 
 What must be the limit of such concentrations? The 
 mutual attraction of two stars, when it so far predominates 
 over other attractions as to cause approximation, almost 
 certainly ends in the formation of a binary star ; since the 
 motions generated by other attractions prevent the two 
 stars from moving in straight lines to their common centre 
 of gravity. Between small clusters, too, having also certain 
 proper motions as clusters, mutual attraction may lead, not 
 to complete union, but to the formation of binary clusters. 
 As the process continues, however, and the clusters become 
 larger, they must move more directly towards each other : 
 thus forming clusters of increasing density. While, there- 
 fore, during the earlier stages of concentration, the pro- 
 babilities are immense against the actual contact of these 
 mutually-gravitating masses ; it is tolerably manifest that, 
 as the concentration increases, collision must become 
 probable, and ultimately certain. This is an inference not 
 lacking the support of high authority. Sir John Herschel, 
 treating of those numerous and variously - aggregated 
 clusters of stars revealed by the telescope, and citing with 
 apparent approval his father's opinion, that the more diffused 
 and irregular of these, are " globular clusters in a less ad- 
 vanced state of condensation;" subsequently remarks, that 
 " among a crowd of solid bodies of whatever size, animated 
 by independent and partially opposing impulses, motions op- 
 posite to each other must produce collision, destruction of 
 
DISSOLUTION. 533 
 
 Telocity, and subsidence or near approach towards the 
 centre of preponderant attraction ; while those which con- 
 spire, or which remain outstanding after such conflicts, 
 must ultimately give rise to circulation of a permanent 
 character." Now what is here alleged of these minor 
 clusters, cannot be denied of larger clusters ; and thus the 
 above-inferred process of concentration, appears certain to 
 bring about an increasingly-frequent integration of masses. 
 We have next to consider the consequences of the accom- 
 panying loss of velocity. The sensible motion which disap- 
 pears cannot be destroyed, but must be transformed into 
 insensible motion. What will be the effect of this insensible 
 motion ? Already we have seen that were the Earth ar- 
 rested, dissipation of its substance would result. And if 
 so relatively small a momentum as that acquired by the 
 Earth in falling to the Sun, would be equivalent to a mole- 
 cular motion sufficient to reduce the Earth to gases of ex- 
 treme rarity ; what must be the molecular motion generated 
 by the mutually-arrested momenta of two stars, that have 
 moved to their common centre of gravity through spaces 
 immeasurably greater ? There seems no alternative but to 
 conclude, that it would be great enough to reduce the 
 matter of the stars to an almost inconceivable tenuity a te- 
 nuity like that which we ascribe to nebular matter. Such 
 being the immediate effect, what would be the ulterior effect ? 
 Sir John Herschel, in the passage above quoted, describing 
 the collisions that must arise in a concentrating group of 
 stars, adds that those stars "which remain outstanding 
 after such conflicts must ultimately give rise to circula- 
 tion of a permanent character." The problem, however, is 
 here dealt with purely as a mechanical one : the assump* 
 tion being that the mutually-arrested masses will con- 
 tinue as masses an assumption to which no objection ap- 
 peared at the time when Sir John Herschel wrote this 
 passage ; since the correlation of forces was not then re- 
 cognized. But obliged as we now are to conclude, that 
 
534 DISSOLUTION. 
 
 stars moving at the high velocities acquired during concen- 
 tration, will, by mutual arrest, be dissipated into gases, the 
 problem becomes different ; and a different inference seems 
 unavoidable. For the diffused matter produced by such con- 
 flicts must form a resisting medium, occupying that central 
 region of the cluster through which its members from time 
 to time pass in describing their orbits a resisting medium 
 which they cannot move through without having their velo- 
 cities diminished. Every additional collision, by augment- 
 ing this resisting medium, and making the losses of velocity 
 greater, must aid in preventing the establishment of that 
 equilibrium which would else arise ; and so must conspire 
 to produce more frequent collisions. And the nebulous 
 matter thus formed, presently enveloping the whole cluster, 
 must, by continuing to shorten the gyrations of the moving 
 masses, entail an increasingly active integration and re- 
 active disintegration of them; until they are all dissi- 
 pated. Whether this process completes itself inde- 
 pendently in different parts of our Sidereal System; or 
 whether it completes itself only by aggregating the whole 
 matter of our Sidereal System ; or whether, as seems not 
 unlikely, local integrations and disintegrations run their 
 courses while the general integration is going on ; are ques- 
 tions that need noli be discussed. In any case the conclu- 
 sion to be drawn is, that the integration must continue until 
 the conditions which bring about disintegration are reached; 
 and that there must then ensue a diffusion that undoes the 
 preceding concentration. This, indeed, is thfe con- 
 clusion which presents itself as a deduction from the persist- 
 ence of force. If stars concentrating to a common centre ol 
 gravity, eventually reach it, then the quantities of mot i or 
 they have acquired must suffice to carry them away again tc 
 those remote regions whence they started. And since, by the 
 conditions of the case, they cannot return to these remote 
 regions in the shape of concrete masses, they must returi. 
 in the shape of diffused masses. Action and reaction being 
 
DISSOLUTION. 535 
 
 equal and opposite, the momentum producing dispersion, 
 must be as great as the momentum acquired by aggregation; 
 and being spread over the same quantity of matter, must 
 cause an equivalent distribution through space, whatever be 
 the form of the matter. One condition, however, 
 
 essential to the literal fulfilment of this result, must be 
 specified; namely, that the quantity of molecular motion 
 radiated into space by each star in the course of its forma- 
 tion from diffused matter, shall either not escape from our 
 Sidereal System or shall be compensated by an equal quan- 
 tity of molecular motion radiated from other parts of space 
 into our Sidereal System. In other words, if we set out 
 with that amount of molecular motion implied by the exist- 
 ence of the matter of our Sidereal System in a nebulous 
 form ; then it follows from the persistence of force, that if 
 this matter undergoes the re-distribution constituting Evo- 
 lution, the quantity of molecular motion given out during 
 the integration of each mass, plus the quantity of molecular 
 motion given out during the integration of all the masses, 
 must suffice again to reduce it to the same nebulous form. 
 
 Here, indeed, we arrive at a barrier to our reasonings ; 
 since we cannot know whether this condition is or is not 
 fulfilled. If the ether which fills the interspaces of our 
 Sidereal System has a limit somewhere beyond the outer- 
 most stars, then it is inferrable that motion is not lost by 
 radiation beyond this limit ; and if so, the original degree 
 of diffusion may be resumed. Or supposing the ethereal 
 medium to have no such limit, yet, on the hypothesis of an 
 unlimited space, containing, at certain intervals, Sidereal 
 Systems like our own, it may be that the quantity of mole- 
 cular motion radiated into the region occupied by our 
 Sidereal System, is equal to that which our Sidereal 
 System radiates; in which case the quantity of motion 
 possessed by it, remaining undiminished, it may continue 
 during unlimited time its alternate concentrations and dif- 
 fusions. "But if, on the other hand, throughout boundless 
 
DISSOLUTION. 
 
 space filled with ether, there exist, no other Sidereal Sys- 
 tems subject to like changes, or if such other Sidereal 
 Systems exist at more than a certain average distance from 
 one another ; then it seems an unavoidable conclusion that 
 the quantity of motion possessed, must diminish by radia- 
 tion; and that so, on each successive resumption of the 
 nebulous form, the matter of our Sidereal System will 
 occupy a less space ; until it reaches either a state in which 
 its concentrations and diffusions are relatively small, or a 
 state of complete aggregation and rest. Since, however, 
 we have no evidence showing the existence or non-existenco 
 of Sidereal Systems throughout remote space; and since, 
 even had we such evidence, a legitimate conclusion could 
 not be drawn from premises of which one element (un- 
 limited space) is inconceivable ; we must be for ever without 
 answer to this transcendent question. 
 
 But confining ourselves to the proximate and not neces- 
 sarily insoluble question, we find reason for thinking that 
 after the completion of those various equilibrations which 
 bring to a close all the forms of Evolution we have contem- 
 plated, there must continue an equilibration of a far wider 
 kind. When that integration everywhere in progress 
 throughout our Solar System has reached its climax, there 
 will remain to be effected the immeasureably greater inte- 
 gration of our Solar System, with other such systems. 
 There must then re-appear in molecular motion what is lost 
 in the motion of masses ; and the inevitable transformation 
 of this motion of masses into molecular motion, cannot take 
 place without reducing the masses to a nebulous form. 
 
 183. Thus we are led to the conclusion that the 
 entire process of things, as displayed in the aggregate of 
 the visible Universe, is analogous to the entire process of 
 things as displayed in the smallest aggregates. 
 
 Motion as well as Matter being fixed in quantity, it would 
 seem that the change in the distribution of Matter which 
 
DISSOLUTION. 37 
 
 Motion effects, coming to a limit in whichever direction it 
 is carried, the indestructible Motion thereupon necessitates 
 a reverse distribution. Apparently, the universally-co- 
 existent forces of attraction and repulsion, which, as we 
 have seen, necessitate rhythm in all minor changes through- 
 out the Universe, also necessitate rhythm in the totality of 
 its changes produce now an immeasureable period during 
 which the attractive forces predominating, cause universal 
 concentration, and then an immeasureable period during 
 which the repulsive forces predominating, cause universal 
 diffusion alternate eras of Evolution and Dissolution. And 
 thus there is suggested the conception of a past during 
 which there have been successive Evolutions analogous to 
 that which is now going on ; and a future during which 
 successive other such Evolutions may go on ever the same 
 in principle but never the same in concrete result 
 

 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 184. AT the close of a work like this, it is more than 
 usually needful to contemplate as a whole that which the 
 successive chapters have presented in parts. A coherent 
 knowledge implies something more than the establishment 
 of connexions ; we must not rest after seeing how each 
 minor group of truths falls into its place within some major 
 group, and how all the major groups fit together. It is 
 requisite that we should retire a space, and, looking at tho 
 entire structure from a distance at which details are lost to 
 view, observe its general character. 
 
 Something more than recapitulation something more 
 even than an organized re-statement, will come within the 
 scope of the chapter. We shall find that in their ensemble 
 the general truths reached exhibit, under certain aspects, a 
 oneness not hitherto observed. 
 
 There is, too, a special reason for noting how the various 
 divisions and sub-divisions of the argument consolidate; 
 namely, that the theory at large thereby obtains a final 
 illustration. The reduction of the generalizations that have 
 been set forth to a completely integrated state, exemplifies 
 once more the process of Evolution, and strengthens still 
 further the general fabric of conclusions. 
 
 185. Here, indeed, we find ourselves brought round 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 539 
 
 unexpectedly, and very significantly, to the truth with which 
 we set out, and with which our re-survey must commence. 
 For this integrated form of knowledge is the form which, 
 apart from the doctrine of Evolution, we decided to be the 
 highest form. 
 
 When we inquired what constitutes Philosophy when 
 we compared men's various conceptions of Philosophy, so 
 that, eliminating the elements in which they differed we 
 might see in what they agreed ; we found in them all, the 
 tacit implication that Philosophy is completely unified know- 
 ledge. Apart from each particular scheme of unified know- 
 ledge, and apart from the proposed methods by which 
 unification is to be effected, we traced in every case the belief 
 that unification is possible, and that the end of Philosophy 
 is the achievement of it. 
 
 Accepting this conclusion, we went on to consider the 
 data with which Philosophy must set out. Fundamental 
 propositions, or propositions not deducible from deeper 
 ones, can be established only by showing the complete 
 congruity of all the results reached through the assumption 
 of them; and, premising that they were assumed till so 
 established, we took as our data, those organized com- 
 ponents of our intelligence without which there cannot 
 go on the mental processes implied by philosophizing. 
 
 From the specification of these we passed to certain 
 primary truths" The Indestruct ibility of Matter/' " The 
 Continuity of Motion," and " The Persistence of Force ; " 
 of which the last is ultimate and the others derivative. 
 Having previously seen that our experiences of Matter and 
 Motion are resolvable into experiences of Force ; we further 
 saw the truths that Matter and Motion are unchangeable in 
 quantity, to be implications of the truth that Force is un- 
 changeable in quantity. This we discovered is the truth 
 by derivation from which all other truths are to be proved. 
 
 The first of the truths which presented itself to be so 
 proved, was " The Persistence of the Eelations among 
 
540 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 Forces.** This, which is ordinarily called Uniformity of 
 Law, we found to be a necessary implication of the fact that 
 Force can neither arise out of nothing nor lapse into 
 nothing. 
 
 The deduction next drawn, was that forces which seem to 
 be lost are transformed into their equivalents of other forces ; 
 or, conversely, that forces which become manifest, do so by 
 disappearance of pre-existing equivalent forces. Of these 
 truths we found illustrations in the motions of the heavenly 
 bodies, in the changes going on over the Earth's surface, 
 and in all organic and super-organic actions. 
 
 It turned out to be the same with the law that everything 
 moves along the line of least resistence, or the line of 
 greatest traction, or their resultant. Among movements of 
 all orders, from those of stars down to those of nervous dis- 
 charges and commercial currents, it was shown both that 
 this is so, and that, given the Persistence of Force, it must 
 be so. 
 
 So, too, we saw it to be with " The Rhythm of Motion.** 
 All motion alternates be it the motion of planets in their 
 orbits or ethereal molecules in their undulations be it the 
 cadences of speech or the rises and falls of prices ; and, as 
 before, it became manifest that Force being persistent, this 
 perpetual reversal of Motion between limits is inevitable. 
 
 186. TheSe truths holding of all existences, were 
 recognized as of the kind required to constitute what we 
 distinguished as Philosophy. But, on considering them, we 
 perceived that as they stand they do not form anything like 
 a Philosophy ; and that a Philosophy cannot be formed by 
 any number of such truths separately known. Each such 
 truth expresses the general law of some one factor by which 
 phenomena, as we habitually experience them, are pro- 
 duced; or, at most, expresses the law of co-operation of 
 some two factors. But knowing what are the elements of a 
 process, is not knowing how these elements combine to 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 541 
 
 effect ifc. That which alone can unify knowledge must be 
 the law of co-operation of all the factors a law expressing 
 simultaneously the complex antecedents and the complex 
 consequents which any phenomenon as a whole presents. 
 
 A further inference was that Philosophy, as we under- 
 Btand it, must not unify separate concrete phenomena only ; 
 and must not stop short with unifying separate classes of 
 concrete phenomena; but must unify all concrete pheno- 
 mena. If the law of operation of each factor holds true 
 throughout the Cosmos ; so, too, must the law of their co- 
 operation. And hence in comprehending the Cosmos as 
 conforming to this law of co-operation, muse consist that 
 highest unification which Philosophy seeks. 
 
 Descending from this abstract statement to a concrete 
 one, we saw that the law sought must be the law of the 
 continuous re-distribution of Matter and Motion. The 
 changes everywhere going on, from those which are slowly 
 altering the structure of our galaxy down to those which 
 constitute a chemical decomposition, are changes in the 
 relative positions of component parts; and everywhere 
 necessarily imply that along with a new arrangement of 
 Matter there has arisen a new arrangement of Motion. 
 Hence we may be certain, a priori, that there must be a 
 law of the concomitant re-distribution of Matter and 
 Motion, which holds of every change ; and which, by thus 
 unifying all changes, must be the basis of a Philosophy. 
 
 In commencing our search for this universal law of re- 
 distribution, we contemplated from another point of view 
 the problem of Philosophy ; and saw that its solution could 
 not but be of the nature indicated. It was shown that a 
 Philosophy stands self-convicted of inadequacy, if it does 
 not formulate the whole series of changes passed through 
 by every existence in its passage from the imperceptible to 
 the perceptible and again from the perceptible to the im- 
 perceptible. If it begins its explanations with existences 
 that already have concrete forms, or leaves off while thej 
 
542 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 still retain concrete forms ; then, manifestly, they had pre- 
 ceding histories, or will have succeeding histories, or both, 
 of which no account is given. And as such preceding and 
 succeeding histories are subjects of possible knowledge, a 
 Philosophy which says nothing about them, falls short of the 
 required unification. Whence we saw it to follow that 
 the formula sought, equally applicable to existences taken 
 singly and in their totality, must be applicable to the whole 
 history of each and to the whole history of all. 
 
 By these considerations we were brought within view 
 of the formula. For if it had to comprehend the entire 
 progress from the imperceptible to the perceptible and 
 from the perceptible to the imperceptible ; and if it was 
 also to express the continuous re-distribution of Matter 
 and Motion ; then, obviously, it could be no other than one 
 defining the opposite processes of concentration and diffusion 
 in terms of Matter and Motion. And if so, it must be a 
 statement of the truth that the concentration of Matter 
 implies the dissipation of Motion, and that, conversely, the 
 absorption of Motion implies the diffusion of Matter. 
 
 Such, in fact, we found to be the law of the entire cycle of 
 changes passed through by every existence loss of motion 
 and consequent integration, eventually followed by gain of 
 motion and consequent disintegration. And we saw that 
 besides applying to the whole history of each existence, it 
 applies to each detail of the history. Both processes are 
 going on at every instant ; but always there is a differential 
 result in favour of the first or the second. And every 
 change, even though it be only a transposition of parts, 
 inevitably advances the one process or the other. 
 
 Evolution and Dissolution, as we name these opposite 
 transformations, though thus truly defined in their most 
 general characters, are but incompletely defined ; or rather, 
 while the definition of Dissolution is sufficient, the definition 
 of Evolution is extremely insufficient. Evolution is always 
 an integration of Matter and dissipation of Motion; but it 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 543 
 
 ts in most cases much more than. this. The primary re- 
 distribution of Matter and Motion is usually accompanied 
 by secondary re-distributions. 
 
 Distinguishing the different kinds of Evolution so pro- 
 duced as simple and compound, we went on to consider 
 under what conditions the secondary re-distributions which 
 make Evolution compound, take place. We found that a 
 concentrating aggregate which loses its contained motion 
 rapidly, or integrates quickly, exhibits only simple Evolu- 
 tion ; but in proportion as its largeness, or the peculiar con- 
 stitution of its components, hinders the dissipation of its 
 motion, its parts, while undergoing that primary re-distribu- 
 tion which results in integration, undergo secondary re- 
 di.-'tributions producing more or less complexity. 
 
 187. From this conception of Evolution and Dissolution 
 as together making up the entire process through which 
 things pass; and from this conception of Evolution as 
 dividing into simple and compound ; we went on to consider 
 the law of Evolution, as exhibited among all orders of 
 existences, in general and in detail. 
 
 The integration of Matter and concomitant dissipation of 
 Motion, was traced not in each whole only, but in the parts 
 into which each whole divides. By the aggregate Solar 
 System, as well as by each planet and satellite, progressive 
 concentration has been, and is still being, exemplified. In 
 each organism that general incorporation of dispersed 
 materials which causes growth, is accompanied by local in- 
 corporations, forming what we call organs. Every society 
 while it displays the aggregative process by its increasing 
 mass of population, displays it also by the rise of dense 
 masses in special parts of its area. And in all cases, along 
 with these direct integrations there go the indirect in- 
 tegrations by which parts are made mutually dependent. 
 
 From this primary re-distribution we were led on to 
 consider the secondary re-distributions, by inquiring how 
 
544 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 there came to be a formation of parts during the formation 
 of a whole. It turned out that there is habitually a passage 
 from homogeneity to heterogeneity, along with the passage 
 from diffusion to concentration. While the matter com- 
 posing the Solar system has been assuming a denser form, it 
 has changed from unity to variety of distribution. Sol- 
 idification of the Earth has been accompanied by a progress 
 from comparative uniformity to extreme multiformity. In 
 the course of its advance from a germ to a mass of relatively 
 great bulk, every plant and animal also advances from 
 simplicity to complexity. The increase of a society in 
 numbers and consolidation has for its concomitant an in- 
 creased heterogeneity both of its political and its industrial 
 organization. And the like holds of all super-organic pro- 
 ducts Language, Science, Art, and Literature. 
 
 But we saw that these secondary re-distributions are not 
 thus completely expressed. At the same time that the parts 
 into which each whole is resolved become more unlike one 
 another, they also become more sharply marked off. The 
 result of the secondary re-distributions is therefore to change 
 an indefinite homogeneity into a definite heterogeneity. 
 This additional trait also we found to be traceable in evolving 
 aggregates of all orders. Further consideration, however, 
 made it apparent that the increasing definiteness which goes 
 along with increasing heterogeneity, is not an independent 
 trait; but that it results from the integration which pro- 
 gresses in each of the differentiating parts, while it pro- 
 gresses in the whole they form. 
 
 Further, it was pointed out that in all evolutions, 
 inorganic, organic, and super-organic, this change in the 
 arrangement of Matter is accompanied by a parallel change 
 in the arrangement of Motion : every increase in structural 
 complexity involving a corresponding increase in func- 
 tional complexity. It was shown that along with the 
 integration of molecules into masses, there arises an integra- 
 tion of molecular motion into the motion of masses ; and 
 
8UMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 545 
 
 tliat as fast as there results variety in the sizes and forms of 
 aggregates and their relations to incident forces, there also 
 results variety in their movements. 
 
 The transformation thus contemplated under separate 
 aspects, being in itself but one transformation, it became 
 needful to unite these separate aspects into a single concep- 
 tion to regard the primary and secondary re-distributiona 
 as simultaneously working their various effects. Every- 
 where the change from a confused simplicity to a distinct 
 complexity, in the distribution of both matter and motion, 
 is incidental to the consolidation of the matter and the loss 
 of its motion. Hence the re- distribution of the matter and 
 of its retained motion, is from a diffused, uniform, and in- 
 determinate arrangement, to a concentrated, multiform, and 
 determinate arrangement. 
 
 188. We come now to one of the additions that may be 
 made to the general argument while summing it up. Here 
 is the fit occasion for observing a higher degree of unity in 
 the foregoing inductions, than we observed while making 
 them. 
 
 The law of Evolution has been thus far contemplated as 
 holding true of each order of existences, considered as a 
 separate order. / But the induction as so presented, falls 
 short of that completeness which it gains when we con- 
 template these several orders of existences as forming 
 together one natural whole. While we think of Evolution 
 as divided into astronomic, geologic, biologic, psychologic, 
 Bociologic, &c., it may seem to a certain extent a coincidence 
 that the same law of metamorphosis holds throughout all its 
 divisions. But when we recognize these divisions as mere 
 conventional groupings, made to facilitate the arrangement 
 and acquisition of knowledge when we regard the different 
 existences with which they severally deal as component 
 parts of one Cosmos ; we see at once that there are not 
 several kinds of Evolution having certain traits in common, 
 
546 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIOM. 
 
 but one Evolution going on everywhere after the same 
 manner. We have repeatedly observed that while any 
 whole is evolving, there is always going on an evolution of 
 the parts into which it divides itself; but we have not 
 observed that this equally holds of the totality of things, as 
 made up of parts within parts from the greatest down to 
 the smallest. We know that while a physically-cohering 
 aggregate like the human body is getting larger and taking 
 on its general shape, each of its organs is doing the same ; 
 that while . each organ is growing and becoming unlike 
 others, there is going on a differentiation and integration 
 of its component tissues and vessels ; and that even the 
 components of these components are severally increasing 
 and passing into more definitely heterogeneous structures. 
 But we have not duly remarked that, setting out with the 
 human body as a minute part, and ascending from it to 
 greater parts, this simultaneity of transformation is equally 
 manifest that while each individual is developing, the 
 society of which he is an insignificant unit is developing 
 too ; that while the aggregate mass forming a society is 
 becoming more definitely heterogeneous, so likewise is that 
 total aggregate, the Earth, of which the society is an in- 
 appreciable portion ; that while the Earth, which in bulk is 
 not a millionth of the Solar System, progresses towards its 
 concentrated and complex structure, the Solar System 
 similarly progresses; and that even its transformations 
 are but those of a scarcely appreciable portion of our 
 Sidereal System, which has at the same time been going 
 through parallel changes. 
 
 So understood, Evolution becomes not one in principle 
 only, but one in fact. There are not many metamorphoses 
 similarly carried on ; but there is a single metamorphosis 
 universally progressing, wherever the reverse metamorphosis 
 has not set in. In any locality, great or small, throughout 
 space, where the occupying matter acquires an appreciable 
 individuality, or distinguishableness from other matter, there 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 Evolution goes on ; or rather, the acquirement of this ap- 
 preciable individuality is the commencement of Evolution. 
 And this holds uniformly; regardless of the size of the aggre- 
 gate, regardless of its inclusion in other aggregates, and 
 regardless of the wider evolutions within which its own is 
 comprehended. 
 
 189. After making them, we saw that the inductions 
 which, taken together, establish the law of Evolution, do 
 not, so long as they remained inductions, form coherent 
 parts of that whole rightly named Philosophy; nor does 
 even the foregoing passage of these inductions from agree- 
 ment into identity, suffice to produce the unity sought. 
 For, as was pointed out at the time, to unify the truths 
 thus reached with other truths, it is requisite to deduce 
 them from the Persistence of Force. Our next step, there- 
 fore, was to show why, Force being persistent, the trans- 
 formation which Evolution shows us necessarily results. 
 
 The first conclusion arrived at was, that any finite 
 homogeneous aggregate must inevitably lose its homo- 
 geneity, through the unequal exposure of its parts to 
 incident forces. It was pointed out that the production 
 of diversities of structure by diverse forces, and forces 
 acting under diverse conditions, has been illustrated in 
 astronomic evolution ; and that a like connection of cause 
 and effect is seen in the large and small modifications 
 undergone by our globe. The early changes of organic 
 germs supplied further evidence that unlikenesses of struc- 
 ture follow unlikenesses of relations to surrounding agencies 
 evidence enforced by the tendency of the differently- 
 placed members of each species to diverge into varieties. 
 And we found that the contrasts, political and industrial, 
 which arise between the parts of societies, serve to illus- 
 trate the same principle. The instability of the homo- 
 geneous thus everywhere exemplified, we also saw holds 
 in each of the distinguishable parts into which any uniform 
 
548 eUMMAKl AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 whole lapses ; and that so the less heterogeneous tends con- 
 tinually to become more heterogeneous. 
 
 A further step in the inquiry disclosed a secondary cause 
 of increasing multiformity. Every differentiated part is 
 not simply a seat of further differentiations, but also a parent 
 of further differentiations; since, in growing unlike other 
 parts, it becomes a centre of unlike reactions on incident 
 forces, and by so adding to the diversity of forces at work, 
 adds to the diversity of effects produced. This multiplica- 
 tion of effects proved to be similarly traceable throughout 
 all Nature in the actions and reactions that go on through- 
 out the Solar System, in the never-ceasing geologic com- 
 plications, in the involved symptoms produced in organisms 
 by disturbing influences, in the many thoughts and feelings 
 generated by single impressions, and in the ever-ramifying 
 results of each new agency brought to bear on a society. 
 To which was added the corollary, confirmed by abundant 
 facts, that the multiplication of effects advances in a 
 geometrical progression along with advancing heterogeneity * 
 
 Completely to interpret the structural changes constitut- 
 ing Evolution, there remained to assign a reason for that 
 increasingly-distinct demarcation of parts, which accom- 
 panies the production of differences among parts. This 
 reason we discovered to be, the segregation of mixed units 
 under the action of forces capable of moving them. We 
 saw that when unlike incident forces have made the parts 
 of an aggregate unlike in the natures of their component 
 units, there necessarily arises a tendency to separation of 
 the dissimilar units from one another, and to a clustering of 
 those units which are similar. This cause of the local inte- 
 grations that accompany local differentiations, turned out to 
 be likewise exemplified by all kinds of Evolution by the 
 formation of celestial bodies, by the moulding of the Earth's 
 crust, by organic modifications, by the establishment of 
 mental distinctions, by the genesis of social divisions. 
 
 At length, to the emery whether these processes have any 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 649 
 
 limit, there came the answer that they must end in equili- 
 brium. That continual division and subdivision of forces, 
 which changes the uniform into the multiform and the 
 multiform into the more multiform, is a process by which 
 forces are perpetually dissipated; and dissipation of them, 
 continuing as long as there remain any forces unbalanced by 
 opposing forces, must end in rest. It was shown that 
 when, as happens in aggregates of various orders, many 
 movements are going on together, the earlier dispersion 
 of the smaller and more resisted movements, establishes 
 moving equilibria of different kinds : forming transitional 
 stages on the way to complete equilibrium. And further 
 inquiry made it apparent that for the same reason, these 
 moving equilibria have certain self-conserving powers; 
 shown in the neutralization of perturbations, and the adjust- 
 ment to new conditions. This general principle of equili- 
 bration, like the preceding general principles, was traced 
 throughout all forms of Evolution astronomic, geologic, 
 biologic, mental and social. And our concluding ir_iference 
 was, that the penultimate stage of equilibration, in which the 
 extremest multiformity and most complex moving equili- 
 brium are established, must be one implying the highest con- 
 ceivable state of humanity. 
 
 But the fact which it here chiefly concerns us to remember, 
 is that each of these laws of the re-distribution of Matter 
 and Motion, was found to be a derivative law- a law de- 
 ducible from the fundamental law. The Persistence of 
 Force being granted, there follow as inevitable inferences 
 " The Instability of the Homogeneous" and " The Multiplica- 
 tion of Effects;" while "Segregation" and "Equilibration" 
 also become corollaries. And thus discovering that the 
 processes of change formulated under these titles are so 
 many different aspects of one transformation, determined 
 by an ultimate necessity, we arrive at a complete unification 
 of them a synthesis in which Evolution in general and in 
 detail becomes known as an implication of the law that 
 25 
 
550 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 transcends proof. Moreover, in becoming thus unified with 
 one another, the complex truths of Evolution become simul- 
 taneously unified with those simpler truths shown to have a 
 like affiliation the equivalence of transformed forces, the 
 movement of every mass and molecule along its line of least 
 resistance, and the limitation of its motion by rhythm 
 Which further unification brings us to a conception of 
 the entire plexus of changes presented by each concrete 
 phenomenon, and by the aggregate of concrete phenomena, 
 as a manifestation of one fundamental fact a fact shown 
 alike in the total change and in all the separate change* 
 composing it. 
 
 190. Finally we turned to contemplate, as exhibited 
 throughout Nature, that process of Dissolution which forms 
 the complement of Evolution ; and which inevitably, at 
 some time or other, undoes what Evolution has done. 
 
 Quickly following the arrest of Evolution in aggregates 
 that are unstable, and following it at periods often long 
 delayed but reached at last in the stable aggregates around 
 us, we saw that even to the vast aggregate of which all 
 these are parts even to the Earth as a whole Dissolution 
 must eventually arrive. Nay we even saw grounds for the 
 belief that the far vaster masses dispersed at almost im- 
 measurable intervals through space, will, at a time beyond 
 the reach of finite imaginations, share the same fate ; and 
 that so universal Evolution will be followed by universal 
 Dissolution a conclusion which, like those preceding it, 
 we saw to be deducible from the Persistence of Force. 
 
 It may be added that in so unifying the phenomena of 
 Dissolution with those of Evolution, as being manifestations 
 of the same ultimate law under opposite conditions, we also 
 unify the phenomena presented by the existing Universe 
 with the like phenomena that have preceded them and will 
 succeed them so far, at least, as such unification is possible 
 to our limited intelligences. For if, as we saw reason to 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 551 
 
 think, there is an alternation of Evolution and Dissolution 
 in the totality of things if, as we are obliged to infer from 
 the Persistence of Force, the arrival at either limit of this 
 vast rhythm brings about the conditions under which a 
 counter-movement commences if we are hence compelled 
 to entertain the conception of Evolutions that have filled 
 an immeasurable past and Evolutions that will fill an im- 
 measurable future; we can no longer contemplate the 
 visible creation as having a definite beginning or end, or 
 as being isolated. It becomes unified with all existence 
 before and after ; and the Force which the Universe pre- 
 sents, falls into the same category with its Space and Time, 
 as admitting of no limitation in thought. 
 
 191. So rounding off the argument, we find its result 
 brought into complete coalescence with the conclusion 
 reached in Part I. ; where, independently of any inquiry like 
 the foregoing, we dealt with the relation between the 
 Knowable and the Unknowable. 
 
 It was there shown by analysis of both our religious and 
 our scientific ideas, that while knowledge of the cause which 
 produces effects on our consciousness is impossible, the 
 existence of a cause for these effects is a datum of con- 
 sciousness. We saw that the belief in a Power of which 
 no limit in Time or Space can be conceived, is that funda- 
 mental element in Eeligion which survives all its changes 
 of form. We saw that all Philosophies avowedly or tacitly 
 recognize this same ultimate truth : that while the Eela- 
 tivist rightly repudiates those definite assertions which 
 the Absolutist makes respecting existence transcend- 
 ing perception, he is yet at last compelled to unite with 
 him in predicating existence transcending perception. And 
 this inexpugnable consciousness in which Eeligion and 
 Philosophy are at one with Common Sense, proved to be 
 likewise that on which all exact Science is based. We 
 found that subjective Science can give no account of those 
 
552 SUMMAEY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 conditioned modes of being which constitute consciousness, 
 without postulating unconditioned being. And we found 
 that objective Science can give no account of the world 
 which we know as external, without regarding its changes 
 of form as manifestations of something that continues con 
 stant under all forms. This is also the implication to which 
 we are now led back by our completed synthesis. The 
 recognition of a persistent Force, ever changing its mani- 
 festations but unchanged in quantity throughout all past 
 tirno and all future time, is that which we find alone makes 
 possible each concrete interpretation, and at last unifies all 
 concrete interpretations. Not, indeed, that this coincidence 
 adds to the strength of the argument as a logical structure. 
 Our synthesis has proceeded by taking for granted at every 
 step this ultimate truth; and the ultimate truth cannot, 
 therefore, be regarded as in any sense an outcome of the 
 synthesis. Nevertheless, the coincidence yields a verifica- 
 tion. For when treating of the data of Philosophy, it was 
 pointed out that we cannot take even a first step without 
 making assumptions ; and that the only course is to proceed 
 with them as provisional, until they are proved true by the 
 congruity of all the results reached. This congruity we 
 here see to be perfect and all-embracing holding through- 
 out that entire structure of definite consciousness of rela- 
 tions which we call Knowledge, and harmonizing with it 
 that indefinite consciousness of existence transcending re- 
 lations which forms the essence of Religion. 
 
 192. Towards some result of this order, inquiry, scien- 
 tific, metaphysical, and theological, has been, and still is^ 
 manifestly advancing. The coalescence of polytheistic 
 conceptions into the monotheistic conception, and the 
 reduction of the monotheistic conception to a more and 
 more general form in which personal superintendence be- 
 comes merged in universal immanence, clearly shows thia 
 advance. It is equally shown in the fading away of old 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 553 
 
 theories about "essences," "potentialities/* "occult vir- 
 tues," &c.; in the abandonment of such doctrines as those 
 of " Platonic Ideas/' " Pre-established Harmonies/' and the 
 like ; and in the tendency towards the identification oi 
 Being as present to us in consciousness, with Being as 
 otherwise conditioned beyond consciousness. Still more 
 conspicuous is it in the progress of Science ; which, from 
 the beginning has been grouping isolated facts under laws, 
 uniting special laws under more general laws, and so reach- 
 ing on to laws of higher and higher generality; until the 
 conception of universal laws has become familiar to it. 
 
 Unification being thus the characteristic of developing 
 thought of all kinds, and eventual arrival at unity being 
 fairly inferable, there arises yet a further support to our 
 conclusion. Since, unless there is some other and higher 
 unity, the unity we have reached must be that towards which 
 developing thought tends ; and that there is any other and 
 higher unity is scarcely supposable. Having grouped the 
 changes which all orders of existences display into induc- 
 tions; having merged these inductions into a single 
 induction; having interpreted this induction deductively; 
 having seen that the ultimate truth from which it is deduced 
 is one transcending proof; it seems, to say the least, very 
 improbable that there can be established a fundamentally 
 different way of unifying that entire process of things 
 which Philosophy has to interpret. That the foregoing 
 accumulated verifications ave all illusive, or that an opposing 
 doctrine can show a greater accumulation of verifications, is 
 not easy to conceive. 
 
 Let no one suppose that any such implied degree of 
 trustworthiness is alleged of the various minor propositions 
 brought in illustration of the general argument. Such an 
 assumption would be so manifestly absurd, that it seems 
 scarcely needful to disclaim it. But the truth of the doctrine 
 as a whole, is unaffected by errors in the details of its pre- 
 sentation . If it can be shown that the Persistence of Force 
 
554 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 is not a datum of consciousness; or if it can be shown 
 that the several laws of force above specified are not corol- 
 laries from it ; or if it can be shown that, given these laws, 
 the re-distribution of Matter and Motion does not neces- 
 sarily proceed as described ; then, indeed, it will be shown 
 that the theory of Evolution has not the high warrant here 
 claimed for it. But nothing short of this can shake the 
 general conclusions arrived at. 
 
 193. If these conclusions be accepted if it be agreed 
 that the phenomena going on everywhere are parts of the 
 general process of Evolution, save where they are parts of 
 the reverse process of Dissolution ; then we may infer that 
 all phenomena receive their complete interpretation, only 
 when recognized as parts of these processes. Whence it 
 follows that the limit towards which Knowledge is advanc- 
 ing, must be reached when the formulas of these processes 
 are so applied as to yield a total and specific interpretation 
 of each phenomenon in its entirety, as well as of phenomena 
 in general. 
 
 The partially-unified knowledge distinguished as Science, 
 does not yet include such total interpretations. Either, 
 as in the more complex sciences, the progress is almost ex- 
 clusively inductive ; or, as in the simpler sciences, the de- 
 ductions are concerned with the component phenomena ; 
 and at present there is scarcely a consciousness that the 
 ultimate task is the deductive interpretation of phenomena 
 ia their state of composition. The Abstract Sciences, deal- 
 ing with the forms under which phenomena are presented, 
 and the Abstract-Concrete Sciences, dealing with the factors 
 i>y which phenomena are produced, are, philosophically con- 
 sidered, the handmaids of the Concrete Sciences, which 
 deal with the produced phenomena as existing in all their 
 natural complexity. The laws of the forms and the laws of 
 the factors having been ascertained, there then comes the 
 business of ascertaining the laws of the products, as deter- 
 
8UMMARY AND CONCLUSm* 555 
 
 mined by the inter-action of the co-operativa factors. Given 
 the Persistence of Force, and given the various derivative 
 laws of Force, and there has to be shown not only how 
 the actual existences of the inorganic world necessarily 
 exhibit the traits they do, but how there necessarily result 
 the more numerous and involved traits exhibited by organic 
 and super-organic existences how an organism is evolved ? 
 what is the genesis of human intelligence ? whence social 
 progress arises ? 
 
 It is evident that this development of Knowledge 
 into an organized aggregate of direct and indirect deduc- 
 tions from the Persistence of Force, can be achieved only 
 in the remote future ; and, indeed, cannot be completely 
 achieved even then. Scientific progress is progress in that 
 equilibration of thought and things which we saw is going 
 on, and must continue to go on ; but which cannot arrive 
 at perfection in any finite period. Still, though Science can 
 never be entirely reduced to this form ; and though only at 
 a far distant time can it be brought nearly to this form \ 
 much may even now be done in the way of approximation. 
 
 Of course, what may now be done, can be done but very 
 imperfectly by any single individual. No one can possess 
 that encyclopedic information required for rightly organizing 
 even the truths already established. Nevertheless as pro- 
 gress is effected by increments as all organization, begin- 
 ning in faint and blurred outlines, is completed by successive 
 modifications and additions ; advantage may accrue from an 
 attempt, however rude, to reduce the facts now accumulated 
 or rather certain classes of them to something like co- 
 ordination. Such must be the plea for the several volumes 
 which are to succeed this; dealing with the respective 
 divisions of what we distinguished at the outset as Special 
 Philosophy. 
 
 194. A few closing words must be said, concerning the 
 general bearings of the doctrines that are now to be further 
 
556 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 developed. Before proceeding to interpret the detailed 
 phenomena of Life, and Mind, and Society, in terms of 
 Matter, Motion, and Force, the reader must be reminded in 
 what sense the interpretations are to be accepted. 
 
 It is true that their purely relative character has been re- 
 peatedly insisted upon ; but the liability to misinterpretation 
 is so great, that notwithstanding all evidence to the contrary, 
 there will probably have arisen in not a few minds, the con- 
 viction that the solutions which have been given, along with 
 those to be derived from them, are essentially materialistic. 
 Having, throughout life, constantly heard the charge of 
 materialism made against those who ascribed the more in- 
 volved phenomena to agencies like those which produce the 
 simplest phenomena, most persons have acquired repugnance 
 to such modes of interpretation ; and the universal appli- 
 cation of them, even though it is premised that the solutions 
 they give can be but relative, will probably rouse more or 
 less of the habitual feeling. Such an attitude of mind, how- 
 ever, is significant, not so much of a reverence for the 
 Unknown Cause, as of an irreverence for those familiar 
 forms in which the Unknown Cause is manifested to us. 
 Men who have not risen above that vulgar conception which 
 unites with Matter the contemptuous epithets " gross ** 
 and " brute/' may naturally feel dismay at the proposal to 
 reduce the phenomena of Life, of Mind, and of Society, to a 
 level with those which they think so degraded. But 
 whoever remembers that the forms of existence which the 
 uncultivated speak of with so much scorn, are shown by 
 the man of science to be the more marvellous in their 
 attributes the more they are investigated, and are also 
 proved to be in their ultimate natures absolutely incompre- 
 hensible as absolutely incomprehensible as sensation, or 
 the conscious something which perceives it whoever clearly 
 recognizes this truth, will see that the course proposed does 
 not imply a degradation of the so-called higher, but an 
 elevation of the so-called lower. Perceiving as he will, that 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 557 
 
 the Materialist and Spiritualist controversy is a mere war of 
 words, in which the disputants are equally absurd each 
 thinking he understands that which it is impossible for any 
 man to understand he ^vill perceive how utterly groundless 
 is the fear referred to. Being fully convinced that whatever 
 nomenclature is used, the ultimate mystery must remain the 
 same, he will be as ready to formulate all phenomena in 
 terms of Matter, Motion, and Force, as in any other terms ; 
 and will rather indeed anticipate, that only in a doctrine 
 which recognizes the Unknown Cause as co-extensive with 
 all orders of phenomena, can there bs a consistent Religion, 
 or a consistent Philosophy. 
 
 Though it is impossible to prevent misrepresentations, 
 especially when the questions involved are of a kind that ex- 
 cite so much animus, yet to guard against them as far as maybe, 
 it will be well to make a succinct and emphatic re-statement 
 of the Philosophico-Religious doctrine which pervades the 
 foregoing pages. Over and over again it has been 
 
 shown in various ways, that the deepest truths we can 
 reach, are simply statements of the widest uniformities in 
 our experience of the relations of Matter, Motion, and Force; 
 and that Matter, Motion, and Force are but symbols of the 
 Unknown Reality. A Power of which the nature remains 
 for ever inconceivable, and to which no limits in Time or 
 Space can be imagined, works in us certain effects. 
 These effects have certain likenesses of kind, the most 
 general of which we class together under the names of 
 Matter, Motion, and Force ; and between these effects there 
 are likenesses of connection, the most constant of which we 
 class as laws of the highest certainty. Analysis reduces 
 these several kinds of effect to one kind of effect ; and these 
 several kinds of uniformity to one kind of uniformity. And 
 the highest achievement of Science is the interpretation of 
 all orders of phenomena, as differently-conditioned manifes- 
 tations of this one kind of effect, under differently-condi- 
 tioned modes of this one kind of uniformity. But when 
 
558 rSIMAET AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 Science has done this, it has done nothing more than sys- 
 tematize our experience; and has in no degree extended 
 the limits of our experience. We can say no more than be- 
 fore, whether the uniformities are as absolutely necessary, 
 as they have become to our thought relatively necessary. 
 The utmost possibility for us, is an interpretation of the 
 process of things as it presents itself to our limited 
 consciousness ; but how this process is related to the 
 actual process we are unable to conceive, much less to 
 know. Similarly, it must be remembered that 
 
 while the connection between the phenomenal order and 
 the ontological order is for ever inscrutable ; so is the con- 
 nection between the conditioned forms of being and the 
 unconditioned form of being for ever inscrutable. The 
 interpretation of all phenomena in terms of Matter, Motion, 
 and Force, is nothing more than the reduction of our com- 
 plex symbols of thought, to the simplest symbols; and 
 when the equation has been brought to its lowest terms the 
 symbols remain symbols still. Hence the reasonings con- 
 tained in the foregoing pages, afford no support to either of 
 the antagonist hypotheses respecting the ultimate nature of 
 things. Their implications are no more materialistic than 
 they are spiritualistic ; and no more spiritualistic than they 
 are materialistic. Any argument which is apparently fur* 
 nished to either hypothesis, is neutralized by as good an 
 argument furnished to the other. The Materialist, seeing 
 it to be a necessary deduction from the law of correlation, 
 that what exists in consciousness under the form of feeling, 
 is transformable into an equivalent of mechanical motion, 
 and by consequence into equivalents of all the other forces 
 which matter exhibits ; may consider it therefore demon- 
 strated that the phenomena of consciousness are material 
 phenomena. But the Spiritualist, setting out with the 
 same data, may argue with equal cogency, that if the forces 
 displayed by matter are cognizable only under the shape oi 
 those equivalent amounts of consciousness which they pro- 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 559 
 
 duce, it is to be inferred that these forces, when existing 
 out of consciousness, are of the same intrinsic nature as 
 when existing in consciousness ; and that so is justified the 
 spiritualistic conception of the external world, as consisting 
 of something essentially identical with what we call mind. 
 Manifestly, the establishment of correlation and equivalence 
 between the forces of the outer and the inner worlds, may 
 be used to assimilate either to the other; according as we 
 set out with one or other term. But he who rightly inter- 
 prets the doctrine contained in this work, will see that 
 neither of these terms can be taken as ultimate. He will 
 see that though the relation of subject and object renders 
 necessary to us these antithetical conceptions of Spirit and 
 Matter ; the one is no less than the other to be regarded as 
 but a sign of the Unknown Reality which underlies both. 
 

APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 DEALING WITH CERTAIN CRITICISMS. 
 
 ONE way of estimating the validity of a critic's judgments, is 
 that of studying his mental peculiarities as generally displayed. 
 If he betrays idiosyncrasies of thought in his writings at 
 large, it may be inferred that these idiosyncrasies possibly, if not 
 probably, give a character to the verdicts he passes upon the 
 productions of others. I am led to make this remark by con- 
 sidering the probable connexion between Professor Tait's habit of 
 mind as otherwise shown, and as shown in the opinion he has 
 tacitly expressed respecting the formula of Evolution. 
 
 Daily carrying on experimental researches, Professor Tait is 
 profoundly impressed with the supreme value of the experi- 
 mental method ; and has reached the conviction that by it alone can 
 any physical knowledge be gained. Though he calls the ultimate 
 truths of physics " axioms," yet, not very consistently, he alleges that 
 only by observation and experiment can these " axioms " be known 
 as such. Passing over this inconsistency, however, we have here to 
 note the implied proposition that where no observation or experiment 
 is possible, no physical truth can be established; and, indeed, that in 
 the absence of any possibility of experiment or observation there 
 is no basis for any physical belief at all. Now The Unseen Universe, 
 a work written by him in conjunction with Professor Balfour- 
 Stewart, contains an elaborate argument concerning the relations 
 between the Universe which is visible to us and an invisible 
 Universe. This argument, carried on in pursuance of physical 
 laws established by converse with the Universe we know, extends 
 them to the Universe we do not know : the law of the Conservation 
 of Energy, for example, being regarded as common to the two, 
 and the principle of Continuity, which is traced among perceptible 
 phenomena, being assumed to hold likewise of the imperceptible. 
 On the strength of these reasonings, conclusions are drawn which 
 are considered as at least probable : support is found for certain 
 theological beliefs. Now, clearly, the relation between the seen 
 and the unseen Universes cannot be the subject of any observation 
 
561 APPENDIX. 
 
 or experiment ; since, by the definition of it, one term of the 
 relation is absent. If we have, then, no warrant for asserting a 
 physical axiom save as a generalization of results of experiments 
 if, consequently, where no observation or experiment is possible, 
 reasoning after physical methods can have no place ; then there can 
 be no basis for any conclusion respecting the physical relations of 
 the seen and the unseen Universes. Not so, however, concludes 
 Professor Tait. He thinks that while no validity can be claimed 
 for our judgments respecting perceived forces, save as experi- 
 mentally justified, some validity can be claimed for our judgments 
 respecting unperceived forces, where no experimental justification 
 is possible. 
 
 The peculiarity thus exhibited in Professor Tait's general 
 thinking, is exhibited also in some of his thinking on those special 
 topics with which he is directly concerned as a Professor of 
 Physics. An instance was given by Professor Clerk-Maxwell 
 when reviewing, in Nature for July 3, 1879, the new edition 
 (1879) of Thomson and Tait's Treatise on Natural Philosophy. 
 Professor Clerk-Maxwell writes : 
 
 " Again at p. 222, the capacity of the student is called upon to accept 
 the following statement : 
 
 ' Matter has an innate power of resisting external influences, so that 
 every body, as far as it can, remains at rest or moves uniformly in a 
 straight line.' 
 
 Is it a fact that ' matter ' has any power, either innate or acquired, 
 of resisting external influences? " 
 
 And to Professor Clerk-Maxwell's question thus put, the answer 
 of one not having a like mental peculiarity with Professor Tait, 
 must surely be No. 
 
 But the most remarkable example of Professor Tait's mode of 
 thought, as exhibited in his own department, is contained in a 
 lecture which he gave at Glasgow when the British Association 
 last met there (see Nature, September 21, 1876) a lecture 
 given for the purpose of dispelling certain erroneous conceptions 
 of force commonly entertained. Asking how the word force "is 
 to be correctly used " he says : 
 
 " Here we cannot but consult Newton. The sense in which he uses 
 the word ' force,' and therefore the sense in which we must continue to 
 use it if we desire to avoid intellectual confusion, will appear clearly 
 from a brief consideration of his simple statement of the laws of motion. 
 The first of these laws is : Every body continues in its state of rest or of 
 uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far as it is compelled by 
 impressed f wees to change that state." 
 
 Thus Professor Tait quotes, and fully approves, that conception 
 of force which regards it as something which changes the state of 
 a body. Later on in the course of his lecture, after variously 
 setting forth his views of how force is rightly to be conceived, he 
 
APPENDIX. 505 
 
 pays " force is the rate at which an agent does work per unit of 
 length." Now let us compare these two definitions of force. It 
 is first, on the authority of Newton emphatically endorsed, said to 
 be that which changes the state of a body. Then it is said to be 
 tho rate at which an agent does work (doing work being equiva- 
 lent to changing a body's state). In the one case, therefore, force 
 itself is the agent which does ihe work or changes the state ; in 
 the other case, force is the rate at which some other agent does 
 the work or changes the state. How are these statements to be 
 reconciled I Otherwise put the difficulty stands thus : force 
 is that which changes the state of a body ; force is a rate, and 
 a rate ii a relation (as between time and distance, interest and 
 capital); therefore a relation changes the state of a body. A 
 relation is no longer a nexus among phenomena, but becomes a 
 producer of phenomena. Whether Professor Tait succeeded in 
 dispelling "the wide-spread ignorance as to some of the most 
 important elementary principles of physics" whether his audience 
 went away with clear ideas of the * much abused and misunder- 
 stood term " force, the report does not tell us. 
 
 Let us pass now from these illustrations of Professor Tait's 
 judgment as exhibited in his special department, to the considera- 
 tion of his judgment on a wider question here before us the 
 formula of Evolution. In Nature for July 17, 1879, while re- 
 viewing Sir Edmund Beckett's Origin of the Laws of Nature 
 and praising it, he says of the author : 
 
 " He follows in fact, in his own way, the hint given by a great mathe- 
 matician (Kirkman) who made the following exquisite translation of a 
 well-known definition : Evolution is a change from an indefinite, inco- 
 herent, homogeneity to a definite, coherent, heterogeneity, through 
 continuous differentiations and integrations.* 
 
 [Translation into plain English.} Evolution is a change from a no- 
 howish, untalkaboutable, all-alikeness, to a somehowish and in-general- 
 talkaboutable not-all-alikeness, by continuous somethingelseifications, and 
 sticktogetherations. ' ' 
 
 Professor Tait, proceeding then to quote from Sir Edmund 
 Beckett's book passages in which, as he thinks, there is a kindred 
 tearing off of disguises from the expressions used by otber authors, 
 winds up by saying " When the purposely vague statements of 
 the materialists and agnostics are thus stripped of the tinsel of 
 high-flown and unintelligible language, the eyes of the thought- 
 
 * A conscientious critic usually consults the latest edition of the work 
 he criticizes, so that the author may have the benefit of any corrections or 
 alterations he has made. Apparently Mr. Kirkman does not think such a 
 precaution needful. Publishing in 1876 his Philosophy without Assump- 
 tions, from which the above passage is taken, he quotes from the first 
 edition of First Principles published in 1862 ; though in the edition of 
 1867, and all subsequent ones, the definition is, in expression, considerably 
 modified two ot the, leading words being no longer used. 
 
5(36 
 
 less who have accepted thera on authority (!) are at last opened, 
 and they are ready to exclaim with Titania, methinks ' I was 
 enamoured of an ass.'" And that Mr. Kirkman similarly believes 
 that his travesty proves the formula of Evolution to be mean- 
 ingless, is shown by the sentence which follows it *' Can any man 
 show that iny translation is unfair ? " 
 
 One would have thought that Mr. Kirkman and Professor Tait, 
 however narrowly they limited themselves to their special lines of 
 inquiry, could hardly have avoided observing that in proportion 
 as scientific terms express wider generalities, they necessarily lose 
 that vividness of suggestion which words of concrete meanings 
 have ; and therefore to the uninitiated seem vague, or even empty. 
 If Professor Tait enunciated to a rustic the physical axiom, " action 
 and reaction are equal and opposite," the rustic might not improb- 
 ably fail to form any corresponding idea. And he might, if his 
 self-confidence were akin to that of Mr. Kirkmaii, conclude that 
 where he saw no meaning there could be no meaning. Further, 
 if, after the axiom had been brought partially within his compre- 
 hension by an example, he were to laugh at the learned words 
 used and propose to say instead "shoving and back-shoving are 
 one as strong as the other ; " it would possibly be held by Professor 
 Tait that this way of putting it is hardly satisfactory. If he 
 thought it worth while to enlighten the rustic, he might perhaps 
 point out to him that his statement did not include all the facts 
 that not only shoving and back-shoving, but also pulling and 
 back-pulling, are one as strong as the other. Supposing the 
 rustic were not too conceited, he might eventually be taught that 
 the abstract, and to him seemingly vague, formula " action and 
 reaction are equal and opposite," was chosen because by no words 
 of a more specific kind could be expressed the truth in its entirety. 
 Professor Tait however, and Mr. Kirkman, though the physical 
 and mathematical terms they daily employ are so highly abstract 
 as to prove meaningless to those who are unfamiliar with the 
 concrete tacts covered by them, seem not to have drawn any general 
 inference from this habitual experience. For had they done so, 
 they must have been aware that a formula expressing all orders of 
 changes in their general course astronomic, geologic, biologic, 
 psychologic, sociologic could not possibly be framed in any 
 other than words of the highest abstractness. Perhaps there may 
 come the rejoinder that they do not believe any such universal 
 formula is possible. Perhaps they will say that the on-going of 
 things as shown in our planetary system, has nothing in common 
 with the on-going of things which has brought the Earth's crust 
 to its present state, and that this has nothing in common with the 
 on-going of things which the growths and actions of living bodies 
 show us ; although, considering that the laws of molar motion and 
 
APPENDIX. 5G7 
 
 the laws of molecular action are proved to hold true of them all, 
 it requires considerable courage to assert that the modes of co- 
 operation of the physical forces in these several regions of 
 phenomena, present no traits in common. But unless they allege 
 that there is one law for the redistribution of matter and motion 
 in the heavens, and another law for the redistribution of matter 
 and motion in the Earth's inorganic masses, and another law for 
 its organic masses unless they assert that the transformation 
 everywhere in progress follows here one method and there 
 another ; they must admit that the proposition which ex- 
 presses the general course of the transformation can do it only 
 in terms remote in the extremest degree from words suggesting 
 definite objects and actions. 
 
 After noting the unconsciousness thus betrayed by Mr. Kirk- 
 man and Professor Tait, that the expression of highly abstract 
 truths necessitates highly abstract words, we may go on to note a 
 scarcely less remarkable anomaly of thought shown by them. 
 Mr. Kirkman appears to think, and Professor Tait apparently 
 agrees with him in thinking, that when one of these abstract 
 words coined from Greek or Latin roots, is transformed into an 
 uncouth-looking combination of equivalents of Saxon, or rather 
 old English, origin, what they regard as its misleading glamour 
 is thereby dissipated and its meaninglessness made manifest. We 
 may conveniently observe the nature of Mr. Kirkman's belief, 
 by listening to an imaginary addition to that address before the 
 Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, in which he 
 first set forth the leading ideas of his volume ; and we may fitly, 
 in this imaginary addition, adopt the manner in which he delights. 
 
 *' Observe, gentlemen," we may suppose him saying, " I have here 
 the yolk of an egg. The evolutionists, using their jargon, say that 
 one of its characters is ' homogeneity ; ' and if you do not ex- 
 amine your thoughts, perhaps you may think that the word conveys 
 some idea. But now if I translate it into plain English and say 
 that one of the characters of this yolk is 'all-alikeness,' you at 
 once perceive how nonsensical is their statement, You see that the 
 substance of the yolk is not all-alike, and that therefore all- 
 alikeness cannot be one of its attributes. Similarly with the 
 other pretentious term ' heterogeneity/ which, according to them, 
 describes the state things are brought to by what they call 
 evolution. It is mere empty sound, as is manifest if I do but 
 transform it, as I did the other, and say instead ' not-all-alike- 
 oess.' For on showing you this chick into which the yolk of the 
 egg turns, you will see that 4 not-all alikeness ' is a character which 
 cannot be claimed for it. How can any one say that the parts of the 
 chick are not-all-alike? Again, in their blatant language we are 
 told that evolution is carried on by continuous ' differentiations ; 
 
568 APPENDIX. 
 
 and they would have as believe that this word expresses some 
 fact. But if we put instead of it * somethingelseifications ' the 
 delusion they try to practise on us becomes clear. How can 
 they say that while the parts have been forming themselves, the 
 heart has been becoming something else than the stomach, and 
 the leg something else than the wing, and the head something 
 else than the tail? The like manifestly happens when for 
 ' integrations ' we read fc sticktogetheratioris : ' what sense the 
 term might seem to have, becomes obvious nonsense when the 
 substituted word is used. For nobody dares assert that the 
 parts of the chick stick together any more than do the parts of 
 the yolk. I need hardly show you that now when 1 take a 
 portion of the yolk between my fingers and pull, and now when 
 I take any part of the chick, as the leg, and pull, the first resists 
 just as much as the last the last does not stick together any more 
 than the first ; so that there has been no progress in ' stick- 
 togetherations.' And thus, gentlemen, you perceive that these 
 big words which, to the disgrace of the Royal Society, appear 
 even in papers published by it, are mere empty bladders which 
 these would-be philosophers use to buoy up their ridiculous 
 doctrines." 
 
 There is a further curious mental trait exhibited by Mr. Kirk- 
 man and which Professor Tait appears to have in common 
 with him. Very truly it has been remarked that there is a great 
 difference between disclosing the absurdities contained in a 
 thing and piling absurdities upon it ; and a remark to be added is 
 that some minds appear incapable of distinguishing between in- 
 trinsic absurdity and extrinsic absurdity. The case before us 
 illustrates this remark ; and at the same time shows us how 
 analytical faculties of one kind may be constantly exercised without 
 strengthening analytical faculties of another kind how mathe- 
 matical analysis may be daily practised without any skill in 
 psychological analysis being acquired. For if these gentlemen 
 had analyzed their own thoughts to any purpose, they would have 
 known that incongruous juxtapositions may, by association of 
 ideas, suggest characters that do not at all belong to the things 
 juxtaposed. Did Mr. Kirkman ever observe the result of putting 
 a bonnet on a nude statue ? If he ever did, and if he then reasoned 
 after the manner exemplified above, he doubtless concluded that 
 the obscene effect belonged intrinsically to the statue, and only 
 required the addition of the bonnet to make it conspicuous. The 
 alternative conclusion, however, which perhaps most will draw, is 
 that not in the statue itself was there anything of an obscene sug- 
 gestion, but that this effect was purely adventitious : the bonnet, 
 connected in daily experience with living women, calling up the 
 thought of a living woman with the head dressed but otherwise 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 naked. Similarly though, by clothing an idea in words which 
 excite a feeling of the ludicrous by their oddity, any one may 
 associate this feeling of the ludicrous with the idea itself, yet he 
 does not thereby make the idea ludicrous ; and if he thinks he doe.s, 
 he show* that he Iras not practised introspection to much purpose. 
 
 By way of a lesson in mental discipline, it may be not uuin- 
 structive here to note a curious kinship of opinion between 
 these two mathematicians and two litterateurs. At first sight 
 it appears strange that meu whose lives are passed in smdies so 
 absolutely scientific as those which Professor Tait and Mr. Kirk- 
 man pursue, should, in their judgments on the formult of Evolu- 
 tion, be at one with two men of exclusively literary culture a 
 North American Reviewer and Mr. Matthew Arnold. In the 
 North American Review, vol. 120 page 202, a critic, after 
 quoting the formula of Evolution, says : " This may be all true, 
 but it seems at best rather the blank form for a universe than 
 anything corresponding to the actual world about us." On which 
 the comment may be that one who had studied celestial mechanics 
 as much as the reviewer has studied the general course of 
 transformations, might similarly have remarked that the formula 
 44 bodies attract one another directly as their masses and inversely 
 as the squares of their distances," was at best but a blank form 
 for solar systems and sidereal clusters. With this parentheti- 
 cal comment I pass to the fact above hinted, that Mr. Matthew 
 Arnold obviously coincides with the reviewer's estimate of the 
 formula. In Chapter V. of his work God and the Bible, when 
 preparing the way for a criticism on German theologians as 
 losing themselves in words, he quotes a saying from Homer. This 
 he introduces by remarking that it " is not at all a grand one. We 
 are almost ashamed to quote it to readers who may have come 
 fresh from the last number of the Nwth American Review, and 
 from the great sentence there quoted as summing up Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer's theory of evolution : ' Evolution is &c.' Homer's 
 poor iittle saying comes not in such formidable shape. It is only 
 this : Wide is the range of words I words may make this way or 
 that way." And then he proceeds with his reflections upon German 
 logomachies. All of which makes it manifest that, going out of 
 his way, as he does, to quote this formula from the North American 
 Review, he intends tacitly to inaicate his agreement in the reviewer's 
 estimate of it. 
 
 That these two men of letters, like the two mathematicians, are 
 unable to frame ideas answering to the words in which evobtion at 
 large is expressed, seems manifest. In all four the verbal symbols 
 used call up either no images, or images of the vaguest kinds, 
 which, grouped together, form but the most shadowy thoughts. 
 If, now, we ask what is the common trait in the education an1 
 
&70 APPENDIX. 
 
 pursuits of all four, we see it to be lack of familiarity with tho>e 
 complex processes of change which the Concrete sciences bring 
 before us. The men of letters, in their early days dieted on 
 grammars and lexicons, and in their later days occupied with 
 belles 'eitres, Biography, and a History made up mainly ot 
 personalities, are by their education and course of life left almost 
 without scientific ideas of a definite kind. The universality of 
 physical causation the interpretation of all things in terms of 
 a never-ceasing redistribution of matter and motion, is naturally to 
 them an idea utterly alien. The mathematician, too, and the 
 mathematical physicist, occupied exclusively with the phenomena 
 of number, space, and time, or, in dealing with forces, dealing with 
 them in the abstract, carry on their researches in such ways as 
 may, ud often do, leave them quite unconscious of the traits 
 exhibited by the general transformations which things, individually 
 and in their totality, undergo. In a chapter on " Discipline " in 
 the Study of Sociology, I have commented upon ihe uses of the 
 several groups of Sciences Abstract, Abstract-Concrete, and 
 Concrete in cultivating different powers of mind ; and have 
 argued that while for complete preparation, the discipline of each 
 group of sciences is indispensable, the discipline of any one group 
 alone, or any two groups, leaves certain defects of judgment. 
 Especially have I contrasted the analytical habit of thought which 
 study of the Abstract and Abstract-Concrete Sciences produces, 
 with the synthetical habit of thought, produced by study of the 
 Concrete Sciences. And I have exemplified the defects of judgment 
 to which the analytical habit unqualified by the synthetical habit, 
 leads. Here we meet with a striking illustration. Scientific 
 culture of the analytical kind, almost as much as absence of 
 scientific culture, leaves the mind bare of those ideas with which 
 the Concrete Sciences deal. Exclusive familiarity with the forms 
 and factors of phenomena, no more fits men for dealing with the 
 products in their totalities, than does mere literary study. 
 
 An objection made to the formula of evolution by a sympathetic 
 critic, Mr. T. E. Cliffe Leslie, calls for notice. It is urged in a 
 spirit widely different from that displayed by Mr. Kirkman and his 
 applauder Professor Tait; and it has an apparent justification. 
 Indeed many readers who before accepted the formula of Evolution 
 in full, will, after reading Mr. Clitf'e Leslie's comments, agree with 
 him in thinking that it is to be taken with the qualifications he 
 points out We shall find, however, that a clearer apprehension of 
 the meanings of the words used, and a clearer apprehension of the 
 formula in its totality, excludes the criticisms Mr. Leslie makes. 
 
 In the first place he dissociates from one another those traits of 
 Evolution which I have associated, and which I have alleged 
 
APPENDIX. 571 
 
 to be true only when associated. He quotes me as saying that a 
 change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous characterizes 
 all evolution ; and he puts this at the outset of his criticism as though 
 1 made this change the primary characteristic. But if he will refer 
 to First Principles, Part II. chap. 14 (in the second and subsequent 
 editions) he will find it shown that under its primary aspect, Evolu- 
 tion " is a change from a less coherent form to a more coherent 
 form, consequent on the dissipation of motion and integration of 
 matter." The next chapter contains proofs that the change from 
 homogeneity to heterogeneity is a secondary change, which, when 
 conditions allow, accompanies the change from the incoherent to 
 the coherent. At the beginning of the chapter after that, come the 
 sentences " But now, does this generalization express the whole 
 truth ? Does it include everything essentially characterizing Evolu- 
 tion and exclude everything else? ... A critical examination 
 of the facts will show that it does neither." And the chapter then 
 goes on to show that the change is from an indefinite incoherent 
 homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity. Further qualifi- 
 cations contained in a succeeding chapter, bring the formula to this 
 final form " Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant 
 dissipation of motion ; during which the matter passes from an 
 indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heteroge- 
 neity ; and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel 
 transformation." 
 
 Now if these various traits of the process of Evolution are kept 
 simultaneously in view, it will be seen that most of Mr. Cliffe 
 Leslie's objections fail to apply. He says : 
 
 " The movement of language, law, and political and civil union, Is for 
 the most part in an opposite direction. In a savage country like > frica, 
 speech is in a perpetual flux, and new dialects spring up witn every swarm 
 from the parent hive. In the civilized world the unification of language is 
 rapidly proceeding." 
 
 Here two different ideas are involved the evolution of a language 
 considered singly, and the evolution of languages considered as an 
 aggregate. Nothing which he says implies that any one language 
 becomes, during its evolution, less heterogeneous. The disappear- 
 ance of dialects is not a progress towards the homogeneity of a lan- 
 guage, but is the final triumph of one variety of a language over 
 the other varieties, and the extinction of them : the conquering 
 variety meanwhile becoming within itself more heterogeneous. This, 
 too, is the process which Mr. Leslie refers to as likely to end in an 
 extinction of the Celtic languages. Advance towards homogeneity 
 would be shown if the various languages in Europe, having been 
 previously unlike, were, while still existing, to become gradually 
 more like. But the supplanting of one by another, or of some by 
 others, no more implies any tendency of languages to become alike, 
 than does the supplanting of species, genera, orders, and classes of 
 
572 APPENDIX. 
 
 animals, one by another, during the evolution of life, imply the ten- 
 dency of organisms to assimilate in their natures. Even if the most 
 heterogeneous creature, Man, should overrun the Earth and extirpate 
 the greater part of its other inhabitants, it would not imply any ten- 
 dency towards homogeneity in the proper sense. It would remain 
 true that organisms tend perpetually towards heterogeneity, indi- 
 vidually and as an assemblage. Of course if all kinds but one were 
 destroyed, they could no longer display this tendency. Display 
 of it would be limited to the remaining kind, which would continue, 
 as now, to show it in the formation of local varieties, becoming 
 gradually more divergent ; and the like is true of languages. 
 
 In the next case Mr. Leslie identi6es progressing unification 
 with advance towards homogeneity. His words are : 
 
 " Already Europe has nearly consolidated itself into a Heptarchy, the 
 number of states into which England itself was once divided ; and the 
 result of the American War exemplifies the prevalence of the forces tend- 
 ing to homogeneity over those tending to heterogeneity." 
 
 To this the reply is that these cases exemplify, rather, the preva- 
 lence of the forces which change the incoherent into the coherent 
 which effect integration. That is, they exemplify Evolution under 
 its primary aspect. In the Principles of Sociology, Part II. 
 chap. 3, Mr. Leslie will find numerous kindred cases brought in 
 illustration of this law of Evolution. To which add that such 
 integrations bring after them greater heterogeneity, not greater 
 homogeneity. The divisions of the Heptarchy weie societies sub- 
 stantially like one another in their structures and activities ; but the 
 parts of the nation which correspond to them, have been differen- 
 tiated into parts carrying on varieties of occupations with entailed 
 tmhkenesses of structures here purely agricultural, there manufac- 
 turing ; here predominantly given to coal mining and iron smelting, 
 there to weaving ; here distinguished by scattered villages, there by 
 clusters of large towns. 
 
 Again, it is alleged that an increasing homogeneity is shown in 
 fashion. "Once every rank, profession, and district had a dis- 
 tinctive garb ; now all such distinctions, save with the priest and 
 the soldier, have almost disappeared among men." But while for 
 a reason to be presently pointed out, there has occurred a change 
 which has abolished one order of differences, differences of another 
 order, far more multitudinous, have arisen. Nothing is more 
 striking than the extreme heterogeneity of dress at the present 
 day. As Mr. Leslie alleges, the dresses of those forming each class 
 were once all alike ; now no two dresses are alike. Within the 
 vague limits of the current fashion, the degree of variety in women's 
 costumes is infinite ; and even men's costumes, though having 
 average resemblances, diverge from one another in colours, mate- 
 rials, and detailed forms in innumerable ways. 
 
APPENDIX. 573 
 
 Other instances given by Mr. Leslie concern the organizations 
 for carrying on production and distribution. He argues that 
 
 " In the industrial world a generation ago a constant movement to- 
 wards a differentiation of employments and functions appeared ; now some 
 marked tendencies to their amalgamation have begun to disclose them- 
 Belves. Joint Stock Companies have almost effaced all real division of 
 labour in the wide region of trade within their operation." 
 
 Here, as before, Mr. Leslie represents amalgamation as equivalent 
 to increase of homogeneity ; whereas amalgamation is but another 
 name for integration, which is the primary process in Evolution, and 
 which may, and does, go along with increasing heterogeneity in the 
 amalgamated things. It cannot be said that a Joint Stock Bank- 
 ing Company, with its proprietory and directors in addition to its 
 officers, contains fewer unlike parts than does a private Banking 
 establishment: the contrary must be said. A Hail way Company 
 has far more numerous functionaries with different duties, than had 
 the one, or the many, coaching establishments it replaced. And 
 then, apart from the fact that the larger aggregate of co-operators 
 who, as a Company, car/y on, say a process of manufacture, is 
 more complex as well as more extensive ; there is the fac~t, here 
 chiefly to be noted, that the entire assemblage of industrial 
 structures is, by the addition of these new structures, made more 
 heterogeneous than before. Had all the smaller manufacturing 
 establishments, carried on by individuals or firms, been destroyed, 
 the contrary might have been alleged ; but as it is, we see that in 
 addition to all the old forms there have come these new forms, 
 making the totality of them more multiform than before. Mr. 
 Leslie further illustrates his interpretation by saying : 
 
 " Many of the things for sale in a village huckster's shop were formerly 
 the subjects of distinct branches of business in a large town; now the 
 wares in which scores of different retailers dealt, are all to be had in great 
 establishments in New York, Paris, and London, which sometimes buy 
 direct from the producers, thus also eliminating the wholesale dealer." 
 
 Replies akin to the preceding ones are readily made. The first is that 
 wholesale dealers have not been at present eliminated ; and cannot 
 be so long as the ordinary shopkeepers survive, as they will certainly 
 do. In the smaller places, forming the great majority of places, 
 these vast establishments cannot exist; and in them, shopkeepers 
 carrying on business as at present, will continue to necessitate whole- 
 sale dealers. Even in large places the same thing will hold. It is only 
 people of a certain class, able to pay ready money and willing to go 
 great distances to purchase, who frequent these large establish- 
 ments. Those who live from hand to mouth, and those who prefer 
 to buy at adjacent places, will maintain a certain proportion of 
 shops, and the wholesale distributing organization needed for them. 
 Again, we have to note that one of these great stores, such as 
 AN hiteley's or Shoolbred's, does not within itself displa" any advance 
 26 
 
574 APPENDIX. 
 
 towards homogeneity or de-specialization; for it is made up o! 
 many separate departments, with their separate heads, carrying 
 on businesses substantially separate all superintended by one 
 owner. It is nothing but an aggregate of shops under one roof 
 instead of under the many roofs covering the side of a street ; and 
 exhibits just as much heterogeneity as the shops do when arranged 
 in line instead of massed together. That which it really illustrates 
 is a new form of integration, which is the primary evolutionary 
 process. And then, lastly, comes the fact that the distributing 
 organization of the country, considered as a whole, is by the addi- 
 tion of these establishments made more heterogeneous than before. 
 All the old types of trading concerns continue to exist; and here are 
 new types added, making the entire assemblage of them more 
 varied. 
 
 From these objections made by Mr. Leslie which I have endea- 
 voured to show result from misapprehensions, I pass to two 
 others which are to be met by taking account of certain complicat- 
 ing facts liable to be overlooked. Mr. Leslie remarks that: 
 
 " In the early stages of social progress, again, a differentiation takes 
 place, as Mr. Spencer has observed, between political and industrial func- 
 tions, which fall to distinct classes ; now a man is a merchant in the 
 morning and a legislator at night ; in mercantile business one year, and 
 the next perhaps head of the Navy, like Mr. Goschen or Mr. W. H. 
 Smith." 
 
 Nothing contained in this volume explains the seeming anomaly 
 here exemplified ; but any one who turns to a chapter in the second 
 part of the Principles of Sociology, entitled " Social Types and 
 Metamorphoses," will there find a clue to the explanation of it ; 
 and will see that it is a phenomenon consequent on the progressing 
 dissolution of one type and evolution of another. The doctrine of 
 Evolution, currently regarded as referring only to the development 
 of species, is erroneously supposed to imply some intrinsic proclivity 
 in every species towards a higher form ; and, similarly, a majority 
 of readers make the erroneous assumption that the transformation 
 which constitutes Evolution in its wider sense, implies an intrinsic 
 tendency to go through those changes which the formula of Evolu- 
 tion expresses. But all who have fully grasped the argument of this 
 work, will see that the process of Evolution is not necessary, but 
 depends on conditions ; and that the prevalence of it in the Universe 
 around, is consequent on the prevalence of these conditions 
 the frequent occurrence of Dissolution showing us that where 
 the conditions are not maintained, the reverse process is quite 
 as readily gone through. Bearing in mind this truth, we shall 
 be prepared to find that the progress of a social organism 
 towards more heterogeneous and more definite structures of a 
 certain type, continues only as long as the actions which produce 
 these effects continue in play. We shall expect that if these actions 
 
APPENDIX. 575 
 
 cease, the progressing transformation will cease. We shall infer 
 that the particular structures which have been formed by the 
 activities carried on, will not grow more heterogeneous and 
 more definite; and that if other orders of activities, implying 
 other sets of forces, commence, answering structures of another 
 kind will begin to make their appearance, to grow more hetero- 
 geneous and definite, and to replace the first. And it will be 
 manifest that while the transition is going on while the first struc- 
 tures are dissolving and the second evolving there must be a mix- 
 ture of structures causing apparent confusion of traits. Just as 
 during the metamorphoses of an animal which, having during its 
 earlier existence led one kind of life, has to develop structures fitting 
 it for another kind of life, there must occur a blurring of the old 
 organization while the new organization is becoming distinct, lead- 
 ing to transitory anomalies of structure ; so, during the metamor- 
 phoses undergone by a society in which the militant activities and 
 structures are dwindling while the industrial are growing, the old 
 and new arrangements must be mingled in a perplexing way. On 
 reading the chapter in the Principles of Sociology which I have 
 named, Mr. Leslie will see that the above facts referred to by him, 
 are interpretable as consequent on the transition from that type of 
 regulative organization proper to militant life, to that type of 
 regulative organization proper to industrial life ; and that so long 
 as these two modes of life, utterly alien in their natures, have to be 
 jointly carried on, there will continue this jumbling of the regulative 
 systems they respectively require. 
 
 The second of the objections above noted as needing to be other- 
 wise dealt with than by further explanation of the formula of Evo- 
 lution, concerns the increase of likeness among developing systems 
 of Civil Law ; in proof of which itcrease of likeness Mr. Leslie 
 quotes Sir Henry Maine to the effect that 'all laws, however 
 dissimilar in their infancy, tend to resemble each other in their 
 maturity : ' the implication to which Mr. Leslie draws attention, 
 being that in respect of their laws societies become not more 
 heterogeneous but more homogeneous. Now though in their 
 details, systems of Law will, I think, be found to acquire as 
 they evolve, an increasing number of differences from one another ; 
 yet in their cardinal traits it is probably true that they usually 
 approximate. How far this militates against the formula of Evolu- 
 tion, we shall best see by first considering the analogy furnished by 
 animal organisms. Low down in the animal kingdom there are 
 simple molluscs with but rudimentary nervous systems a ganglion 
 or two and a few fibres. Diverging from this low type we have 
 the great sub-kingdom constituted by the higher Mollusca and the 
 still greater sub-kingdom constituted by the Vertebrata. As these 
 two types evolve, their nervous systems develop ; and though i 
 
576 APPENDIX. 
 
 the highest members of the two they remain otherwise nnlike, yet they 
 approximate in so far that each acquires great nervous centres : the 
 large cephalopods have clustered ganglia which simulate brains. 
 Compare, again, the Mollusca and the Articulata in respect of their 
 vascular systems. Fundamentally unlike as these are originally, 
 and remaining unlike as they do throughout many successive stages 
 of ascent in these two sub-kirgdoms, they nevertheless are made 
 similar in the highest forms of both by each having a central pro- 
 pelling organ a heart. Now in these and in some cases which 
 the external organs furnish, such as the remarkable resemblance 
 Evolution has produced between the eyes of the highest Mollusca 
 and those of the Vertebrata, it may be said that there is implied a 
 change towards homogeneity. No zoologist, however, would admit 
 that these facts really conflict with the general law of Organic Evo- 
 lution. As already explained, the tendency to progress from homo- 
 geneity to heterogeneity is not intrinsic but extrinsic. Structures 
 become unlike in consequence of unlike exposures to incident forces. 
 This is so with organisms as wholes, which, as they multiply and 
 spread, are ever falling into new sets of conditions ; and it is so 
 with the parts of each organism. These pass from primitive likeness 
 into unlikeness, as fast as the mode of life places them in different 
 relations to actions primarily external and secondarily internal ; 
 and with each successive change in mode of life new unlikenesses 
 are superposed. One of the implications is that if in organisms 
 otherwise different, there arise like sets of conditions to which 
 certain parts are subject, such parts will tend towards likeness ; and 
 this is what happens with their nervous and vascular systems. 
 Duly to co-ordinate the actions of all parts of an active organism, 
 there requires a controlling apparatus ; and the conditions to be 
 fulfilled for perfect co-ordination, are conditions common to all 
 active organisms. Hence, in proportion as fulfilment approaches 
 completeness in the highest organisms, however otherwise unlike 
 their types are, this apparatus acquires in all of them certain 
 common characters especially extreme centralization. Similarly 
 with the apparatus for distributing nutriment. The relatively high 
 activity accompanying superior organization, implies great waste; 
 great waste implies active circulation of blood ; active circulation of 
 blood implies efficient propulsion ; so that a heart becomes a common 
 need for highly evolved creatures, however otherwise unlike their 
 structures may be. Thus is it, too, with societies. As they evolve 
 there arise certain conditions to be fulfilled for the maintenance of 
 social life ; and in proportion as the social life becomes high, these 
 conditions need to be more effectually fulfilled. A legal code 
 expresses one set of these conditions. It formulates certain regu- 
 lative principles to which the conduct of citizens must conform 
 that social activities may be harmoniously carried on. And these 
 
APPENDIX. 577 
 
 regulative principles being in essentials the same everywhere, it 
 results that systems of Law acquire certain general similarities 
 as the most developed social life is approached. 
 
 These special replies to Mr. Leslie's objections are, however, 
 but introductory to the general reply ; which would be, I think, 
 adequate even in their absence. Mr. Leslie's method is that of 
 taking detached groups of social phenomena, as those of language, 
 of fashion, of trade, and arguing (though as I have sought 
 to show, not effectually) that their later transformations do 
 not harmonize with the alleged general law of Evolution. But 
 the real question is, not whether we find advance to a more 
 definite coherent heterogeneity in these taken separately, but 
 whether we find this advance in the structures and actions of the 
 entire society. Even were it true that the law does not hold in 
 certain orders of social processes and products, it would not 
 follow that it does not hold of social processes and products in their 
 totality. The law is a law of the transformation of aggregates ; 
 and must be tested by the entire assemblages of phenomena which 
 the aggregates present. Omitting societies in states of decay and 
 dissolution, which exhibit the converse change, and contemplating only 
 societies which are growing, Mr. Leslie will, I think, scarcely allege 
 of any one of them that its structures and functions do not, taken 
 altogether, exhibit increasing heterogeneity. And if, instead of 
 taking each society as an aggregate, he takes the entire aggregate 
 of societies which the Earth supports, from primitive hordes up to 
 highly civilized nations, he will scarcely deny that this entire 
 aggregate has been becoming more various in the forms of societies 
 it includes, and is still becoming more various. 
 
 Criticism would be greatly diminished in bulk if there were 
 excluded from it all that part devoted to disproving statements 
 which have not been made; and were this course pursued, 
 the work On Mr. Spencer's Formula of Evolution, by Malcolm 
 Guthrie, would disappear bodily. It is little else than a mis-state- 
 ment of certain fundamental views of mine, and then an elaborate 
 refutation of the views as mis-stated. 
 
 Let me first show by brief extracts from First Principles what 
 these views are. In a chapter on " Ultimate Scientific Ideas," 
 after showing how the hypothesis that matter consists of solid 
 atoms commits us to alternative impossibilities of thought, I have 
 shown how the hypothesis of Boscovich, that matter consists of 
 centres of force without extension, is unthinkable. In the course of 
 the argument I have pointed out that though Boscovich's hypothesis 
 cannot be realized in thought, yet, on the other hand, the hypothesis 
 of extended atoms itself implies an imaginary separableuess of each 
 atom into parts, and again of these into parts, and so on without 
 
578 APPENDIX. 
 
 limit until unex tended centres of force are reached : the conscious- 
 ness of force being that which alone perpetually emerges. And I 
 have ended by saying that "Matter then, in its ultimate nature, is as 
 absolutely incomprehensible as Space and Time." In the second 
 part of the work, in chapters treating of " The Indestructibility of 
 Matter," " The Continuity of Motion," and " The Persistence of 
 Force," I have at some length elaborated the view that Force is the 
 ultimate component of thought into which our conceptions of 
 external existences are resolvable. Summing up the first of these 
 chapters I have said " thus, then, by the indestructibility of 
 matter, we really mean the indestructibility of the force with 
 which matter affects us." At the close of the second of these 
 chapters I have argued that " the continuity of motion, as well as 
 the indestructibility of matter, is really known to us in terms of 
 force " . . . " that which defies suppression in thought, is really 
 the force which the motion indicates." And then in the third 
 chapter, having shown how the truths that matter is indestructible and 
 motion continuous, can be known to us only as corollaries from the 
 truth that force is persistent that force is that " out of which our 
 conceptions of Matter and Motion are built " I have gone on to 
 say that " by the Persistence of Force, we really mean the persist- 
 ence of some Power which transcends our knowledge and concep- 
 tion." Throughout all which arguments the implication is thai; 
 I hold Matter and Motion to be conditioned manifestations of 
 this unknown Power. Being aware of the perversity of critics, 
 I have, in the " Summary and Conclusion," again endeavoured to 
 bar out misinterpretations. Here is one of the sentences it con 
 tains : 
 
 " Over and over again it has been shown in various ways, that the 
 deepest truths we can reach, are simply statements of the widest uni- 
 formities in our experience of the relations of Matter, Motion, and Force; and 
 that Matter, Motion, and Force are but symbols of the Unknown Reality. 
 A Power of which the nature remains for ever inconceivable, and to which 
 no limits in Time or Space can be imagined, works in us certain effects. 
 These effects have certain likenesses oi kind, the most general of which 
 we class together under the names of Matter, Motion, and Force." 
 In which sentences it is distinctly stated that I have throughout 
 regarded Matter under the form present to consciousness, as a 
 symbol a certain conditioned effect wrought in us by the Unknown 
 Power; and I have gone on to say that "the interpretation of 
 sill phenomena in terms of Matter, Motion, and Force, is nothing 
 more than the reduction of our complex symbols of thought, to 
 the simplest symbols ; and when the equation has been brought to 
 its lowest terms the symbols remain symbols still." 
 
 It will scarcely be believed, and yet it is true, that notwithstand- 
 ing all this, Mr. Guthrie ascribes to me the vulgar conceptions of 
 Matter and Motion; argues as though I really think they are in 
 
APPENDIX. 579 
 
 themselves what they seem to our consciousness ; and proceeds to 
 criticize my views on this assumption. He ignores the conspicuous 
 fact that Matter and Motion are both regarded by me as modes of 
 manifestation of Force, and that Force as we are conscious of it 
 when by our own efforts we produce changes, is the correlative of 
 that Universal Power which transcends consciousness. And then 
 he ends the criticisms forming the second part of his work by saying 
 " if this is not materialistic I do not know what is." He does not 
 do this by inadvertence, though there would be little excuse even 
 then $ but he does it deliberately and with his eyes open. His next 
 chapter begins : 
 
 " It will have been observed that in the preceding part of this criticism 
 I have employed the term ' matter in motion,' and have avoided the use of 
 the word ' force,' although it appears so prominently in the pages of Mr. 
 Spencer a worA. This has not been accidental, but by design, indicating 
 as it does one of my main criticisms of Mr. Spencer. 
 
 I can logically take up one of two positions. The first recognises 
 matter, whose properties are merely those of extension, which are capable 
 of being described in terms of geometry and arithmetic. I can also recog- 
 nise as the sole active properties of matter its modes and rates of motion 
 the motion, that is to say, of ultimate units, atoms, molecules, or 
 masses, also capable of measurement. 
 
 The second position recognises matter and its activity or activities 
 matter as endowed with force or forces." 
 
 Thus it will be observed that having avowedly dealt with Matter 
 and Motion as modes of Force, I am " by design " criticized as 
 though I had not so dealt with them. Having distinctly said 
 what I mean by Matter and Motion, I am practically told that I 
 shall not mean that, but shall mean what Mr. Gruthrie means ; and 
 shall be dealt with accordingly. And then, further, it will be 
 observed that of the two positions which Mr. Guthrie lays down 
 as possible, and proceeds to argue upon as alternatives, one or 
 other of which I must accept, both speak of Matter and units of 
 Matter as though actually existing under the forms thought by us ; 
 and the last, speaking of " matter as endowed with force or 
 forces," implies that whether in mass or in units, Matter is a 
 space-occupying something which is in the one case inert and the 
 other case made active by force with which it is " endowed " force 
 which is added to the inert something. Spite of all the,pains I have 
 taken to show that I regard Matter as itself a localized manifesta- 
 tion of Force spite of all the evidence that our idea of a unit of 
 Matter, or atom, is regarded by me simply as a symbol which the 
 form of our thought obliges us to use, but which we cannot suppose 
 answers to the reality without committing ourselves to alternative 
 impossibilities of thought ; I am debited with the belief that Matter 
 actually consists "of space-occupying units, having shape and 
 measurement." Though I have repeatedly made it clear that our 
 ideas of Matter, Motion and Force are but the .T, y t and z with 
 
580 APPENDIX. 
 
 which we work our equations, and formulate the various relations 
 among phenomena in such way as to express their order in terms of 
 x, y and z though I have shown that the realities for which x, y 
 and z stand, cannot be conceived by us as actually existing thus 
 or thus without committing ourselves to alternative absurdities ; 
 yet questions are put implying that I must hold one or other 
 hypothesis concerning these actual existences, and I am supposed 
 to be involved in all the difficulties which arise. 
 
 Another work devoted to the refutation of my views, is that of 
 Professor Birks, Modern Physical Fatalism and the Doctrine of 
 Evolution, including an examination of Mr. H. Spencer's First 
 Principles. Having dealt with the work of Mr. Guthrie, I cannot 
 pass by that of Prof. Birks without raising the suspicion that I 
 find some difficulty in dealing with it. Indeed, I do 6nd a difficulty, 
 a difficulty illustrated by that found in disentangling a skein of silk 
 which has been pulled about by a child for half an hour. And just 
 as the patience of a bystander would fail were he asked to look 
 on until, by unravelling the tangled skein, its continuity was proved ; 
 so would the reader's attention be exhausted before I had rectified 
 one-tenth part of the meshes and knots into which Prof. Birks 
 has twisted my statements. 
 
 Abundant warrant for this assertion is furnished by the very first 
 paragraph succeeding the one in which Prof. Birks announces that 
 he is about to take First Principles as representative of the " fatalistic 
 theory." In this paragraph he represents me as asserting that 
 ultimate religious ideas are " incapable of being conceived." He 
 further says that ultimate scientific ideas are by me " pronounced 
 equally inconceivable." JSow any clear-headed reader who accepted 
 Prof. Birks' version of my views, would be led to debit me with 
 the absurdity of saying that certain things which are put together 
 in consciousness (ideas) cannot be put together in consciousness 
 (conceived). To conceive is to frame in thought ; and as every idea 
 is framed in thought, it is nonsense to say of any idea that it cannot 
 be conceived nonsense which I have nowhere uttered. My state- 
 ment is that " Ultimate Scientific Ideas, then, are all representative 
 of realities tfcat cannot be comprehended ;" and the like is alleged 
 of ultimate religious ideas. The things which I say cannot be 
 comprehended or conceived, are not the ideas, but the realities beyond 
 consciousness for which the ideas in consciousness stand. In Pro- 
 fessor Birks' statement, however, inconceivableness of the realities is 
 transformed into inconceivableness of the answering ideas] Fur- 
 ther, at the end of this first paragraph which deals with me, I am 
 represented as teaching that religion " is equivalent to Nescience or 
 Ignorance alone." This statement is as far removed from the truth 
 as the others. I have argued at considerable length, and in such 
 
APPENDIX. 581 
 
 various ways that I thought it impossible to misunderstand me, that 
 though the Power universally manifest to us through phenomena, 
 alike in the surrounding world and in ourselves, the Povver" in which 
 we live and move and have our being," is, and mu^t ever remain, 
 inscrutable ; yet that the existence of this Inscrutable Power is the 
 piost certain of all truths. I have contended that while, to tho 
 intellectual consciousness, this Power, though unknowable in nature, 
 must be ever present as existing, it must be, to the emotional con- 
 sciousness, an object to the sentiment we call religious ; since, in sub- 
 stance if not in form, it answers to the creating and sustaining 
 Power towards which the religious sentiment is in other cases 
 drawn out. Yet though in the most emphatic way I have repre- 
 sented this unknown and unknowable Power as the object-matter of 
 religion, Prof. Birks represents me as saying that the unknowable- 
 ness of it is the object-matter of religion ! Though I hold that an 
 Ultimate Being, known with absolute certainty as existing, but of 
 whose nature we are in ignorance, is the sphere for religious feeling ; 
 he says I hold that the ignorance alone is the sphere for religious 
 feeling ! 
 
 When in the first sixteen lines specifically treating of my views, 
 these three cases occur, it may be imagined what an intricate plexus 
 of misrepresentations, misunderstandings, and perversions, fills the 
 three hundred and odd pages forming the volume. Especially may 
 it be anticipated that the metaphysical discussions, occupying five 
 chapters, are so confused that it is next to impossible to deal with 
 them. I must limit myself to giving a sample or two from this part 
 of the work : one of them illustrating Prof. Birks' critical fair- 
 ness, and the other his philosophic capacity. 
 
 In his chapter on "The Reality of Matter," he says (page 111) 
 " The sense of reality in things around us, Mr. Spencer has truly 
 said, is one which no metaphysical criticisms can shake in the least;'' 
 and the rest of the paragraph is devoted to enlarging upon this 
 proposition. The next paragraph begins " ' Permanent possibilities 
 of sensation ' is merely an ingenious phrase, to disguise and conceal 
 a self-contradiction :" sundry antagonistic criticisms upon this phrase 
 being appended. And then the opening words of the paragraph 
 which succeeds are quoted from First Principles. Now since the 
 refutation of my views is the aim of the work ; and since both the 
 preceding and succeeding passages specifically refer to my work ; 
 and since no other name is mentioned ; every reader, not otherwise 
 better instructed, will conclude that as a matter of course the 
 phrase " permanent possibilities of sensation" is mine; and that 
 the criticisms upon it tell against me. Even were there evidence 
 that this phrase " permanent possibilities of sensation," expressed, 
 or harmonized with, a doctrine entertained by me; yet as the 
 phrase is not mine, the quoting it as mine would have been a 
 
582 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 literary misdemeanour. What then must be said of it when, instead 
 of standing for any view of mine, it stands for an opposite view ? 
 Mr. Mill's expression, quoted by Prof. Birks as though it were my 
 expression, belongs to a theory of knowledge entirely at variance 
 with that set forth and everywhere implied in First "Principles', 
 and a theory which, where the occasion was fit, I have per- 
 sistently combated (see Principles of Psychology, Fart VII. 
 " General Analysis "). And yet Prof. Birks tacitly makes me 
 responsible for the incongruities which result from uniting this 
 theory with the opposed theory. 
 
 From this sample of critical truthfulness let us pass now to a 
 sample of critical acumen. 
 
 In arguing against Hamilton and Mansell in 26, I have said 
 "It is rigorously impossible to conceive that our knowledge is a 
 knowledge of appearances only, without at the same time con- 
 ceiving a Reality of which they are appearances ; for appearance 
 without reality is unthinkable." On page 121 of his work, Prof. 
 Birks, quoting the last five words of this sentence, continues 
 '* This is true, when once the conception of distance has been gained 
 by actual experience." And he then proceeds to comment upon 
 visual impressions, illusive and other. Again on page 135, when 
 criticizing my argument concerning the indestructibility of matter, 
 Prof. Birks says : 
 
 " Matter, as knowable, is declared to be not the unseen reality, but the 
 sensible appearances, or phenomenal matter alone. Phenomenal matter, 
 it appears from daily and hourly experience, appears and disappears, 
 perishes and is new-created continually. . . . The cloud vanishes, 
 the star sets, or a mist blots it out, the drop evaporates, the ship melts into 
 the yeast of waves, the candle is burnt away and comes to an end. The 
 substance may last in another form, but the phenomenon or appearance 
 is gone. . . . Thus, by the theory, of Matter, the Noumenon, we 
 know nothing, and therefore cannot know that it is indestructible. Of 
 Matter, the Phenomenon, we may know much. And one main thing we 
 know of it, proved by hourly experience, is that it both may be and con- 
 tinually is destroyed. For an appearance is destroyed and perishes, when 
 it ceases to appear." 
 
 In which sentences, as in all accompanying sentences covering 
 several pages, the implication is that Prof. Birks identifies appear- 
 ance in the philosophical sense with appearance in the popular sense! 
 Everywhere his expressions and arguments make manifest the fact 
 that Prof. Birks thinks the meaning of phenomenon in metaphysical 
 discussion, is no wider than that implied by its derivation something 
 visible 1 Sounds, smells, tastes, are in his view not phenomena; nor 
 are touches, pressures, tensions. And hence it results that ^ince when 
 a poumd of salt is dissolved in water it ceases to be visible, its exist- 
 ence, phenomenally considered, ends : its continued power of affecting 
 our senses by its weight, to the same extent as before the solution, 
 not being considered as a phenomenal manifestation of its existence ! 
 
APPENDIX. 583 
 
 In 46, when commenting on the mental confusion which meta- 
 physical discussions often produce, I have ascribed this in part to 
 the misleading connotations of the words "appearance" and 
 " phenomenon ; " and afr.er illustrating this have said : 
 
 " So that the implication of uncertainty has infected the very word 
 appearance. Hence, Philosophy, by giving it an extended meaning, leads 
 as to think of all our senses as deceiving us in the same way that the eyes 
 do ; and so makes us feel ourselves floating in a world of phantasms. Had 
 pfonomenon and appearance no such misleading associations, little, if any, 
 of this mental confusion would result. Or did we in place of them use the 
 term effect, which is equally applicable to all impressions produced on 
 consciousness through any of the senses, and which carries with it in 
 thought the necessary correlative cause, with which it is equally real, we 
 should be in little danger of falling into the insanities of idealism." 
 This caution was intended for the general reader. That it might 
 be needed by one who should undertake to deal with the work 
 critically, never occurred to me. Not only, however, does it seem 
 that Prof. Birks (who quotes the last three words of the paragraph) 
 needs such a caution, but it further seems that the caution is thrown 
 away upon him. For just those misinterpretations of the words 
 above pointed out, are the misinterpretations he makes. After this 
 I shall, I think, be absolved from examining further his metaphysical 
 criticisms. 
 
 Of his criticisms upon various of the physical doctrines which this 
 work contains, I will notice two only the one because I wish to 
 repudiate a view which, spite of abundant evidence to the con- 
 trary, he ascribes to me ; and the other because, based as his 
 statement is on a fact which he misinterprets, it is desirable to 
 give the right interpretation of it. On page 188, Prof. Birks 
 says : 
 
 " The Essence of the doctrine held by Mr. Grove, Dr. Tyndall, and Mr. 
 Spencer, and which the last has made the foundation of his whole theory 
 of Physical Fatalism, is that there is, every moment, an unchanging total 
 of Force, which never varies in amount, while it incessantly changes its 
 form. The Force, then, which persists, must be a present existence. But 
 Potential Energy is nothing of the kind. It is the sum of trillions of 
 trillions of future possibilities of force, ranging through trillions of trillions 
 of different future intervals of time." 
 
 Now the tacit implication here is, that I accept the doctrine of 
 Potential Energy. The men of science named, with many others 
 who might be added, hold that the total quantity of force re- 
 mains constant. Against these it is urged that energy in becoming 
 potential, ceases to exist ; and that therefore the doctrine is untrue. 
 And being represented as holding this doctrine in common with 
 them, I am said to have based my general fabric of conclusion? 
 upon a fallacy. In the first place I have to ask on what authority 
 Prof. Birks assumes that I hold the doctrine of Potential Energy in 
 the way in which it is held by those named I And in the second place 
 I have to ask how it happens that Prof. Birks, elaborately criticizing 
 
584 APPENDIX, 
 
 
 my views step by step, deliberately ignores the passages in which 1 
 have repudiated this doctrine? In the chapter on " The Continuity 
 of Motion," I have, at considerable length, given reasons for re- 
 garding the conception of Potential Energy as an illegitimate one ; 
 and have distinctly stated that I am at issue with scientific friends 
 on the matter. Devoting, as Prof. Birks does, his chapter entitled 
 " The Transformation of Force and Motion," to the incongruities 
 which result when the doctrine of the Persistence of Force is joined 
 with the doctrine of Potential Energy, as commonly received, it WHS 
 doubtless convenient to assume, spite of the direct evidence to 
 the contrary, that I accept this doctrine, and am implicated in all 
 the consequences. But there can be but one opinion respecting the 
 honesty of making the assumption. Let me add that my rejection 
 of this doctrine is not without other warrant than my own. 
 Since the issue of the last edition of this work, containing the pas- 
 sages I have referred to, Mr. James Croll, no mean authority as a 
 mathematician and physicist, has published in the Philosophical Mag- 
 azine for Oct., 1876, p. 241, a paper in which he shows, I think 
 conclusively, that the commonly accepted view of Potential Energy 
 cannot be sustained, but that energy invariably remains actual. 1 
 learn from him that he had in 1867 indicated briefly this same view. 
 
 The remaining case, above adverted to as calling for comment, 
 concerns my motive for suppressing a certain passage in the chapter 
 on " Ultimate Scientific Ideas," and substituting another passage. 
 Before proceeding to state the reasons for this substitution, and to 
 disprove the inferences which Prof. Birks draws from it, I may 
 remark that it is usual in literary criticism to judge an author by the 
 latest expression of his views. It is commonly thought nothing but 
 fair that if he has made an error (I say this hypothetically, for in 
 this case I have no error to acknowledge) he should be allowed the 
 benefit of any correction he makes. Prof. Birks, however, appar- 
 ently thinks that, moved by the high motive of tk doing God ser- 
 vice," he is warranted in taking the opposite course perhaps 
 thinks, indeed, that he would fail of his duty did any regard for 
 generous dealing prevent him from making a point against an 
 opponent of his creed. 
 
 But now, saying no more about the ethics of criticism, I pass to 
 the substantial question. In the first place, I have to point out that 
 in the passage suppressed I have not said that which Prof. Birks 
 alleges. He represents me as asserting " that gravitation is a 
 necessary result of the laws of space " (p. 227). I have asserted no 
 such thing. He says " There can be no d priori necessity that 
 every particle should act on every other at all at every distance " 
 (p. 222). I have nowhere said, or even hinted, that there is any such 
 a priori necessity. The notion " that gravitation results by a fatal 
 necessity from the laws of space," which he ascribes to me (p. 229) 
 
APPENDIX. 85 
 
 which I should repudiate as utterly absurd, and one which is 
 tiot in the remotest way implied by anything I have said. What I 
 have said is that " Light, Heat, Gravitation, and all cent/al forces, 
 vary inversely as the squares of the distances," and that " this law is 
 not simply an empirical one, but one deducible mathematically from 
 the relations of space." Now what is here said to be " deducible 
 mathematically from the relations of space?" Not a thing, or a 
 force, but a law. What is the law here said to be knowable d 
 priori? The law of variation of any or every central force. And 
 what is alone included in the assertion of this a. priori law? Simply 
 this, that given a central force and such is the law according to 
 which it will vary. Nothing is alleged respecting the existence of 
 any central force. Does Prof. Birks contend that if I say that 
 light, proceeding from a centre, necessarily varies inversely as the 
 square of the distance, I thereby say that the existence of light 
 itself is known d priori as a result of space relations? When I 
 assert that of the heat radiating in all directions from a point, the 
 quantity falling on a given surface necessarily decreases as the 
 square of the distance increases, do I thereby assert the necessary 
 existence of the heat which conforms to this law? Why then do I, 
 in asserting that the law of variation, of gravity kt results by a fatal 
 necessity from the laws of space " simultaneously assert " that 
 gravitation results by a fatal necessity from the laws of space?" 
 Prof. Birks, however, because I assert the first says I assert the 
 second. My proposition Central forces vary inversely as the 
 squares of the distances, he actually transforms into the proposition 
 There is a cosmical force which varies inversely as the squares 
 of the distances. And debiting me with the last as identical with 
 the first, proceeds, after his manner, to debit me with various 
 resulting absurdities. 
 
 Having thus shown that the passage in question contains no 
 such statement as that which Prof. Birks says it contains, I go 
 on to show that I have not removed this passage because I have 
 abandoned the belief it embodies. Clear proof is at hand. If Prof. 
 Birks will turn to the " Replies to Criticisms," contained in the 
 third volume of my Essays: Scientific, Political and Speculative, 
 (pp. 334-337) he will find that I have there defended the above 
 proposition against a previo-is attack; and assigning, as I have 
 lone, justification for it, I have shown no sign of relinquishing it. 
 Why, then, Prof. Birks will ask, did I make the change in ques- 
 tion? Had his mental attitude been other than it is, he might 
 readily have divined the reason. Knowing, as he seemingly does, 
 that this doctrine which he criticizes had been already criticized in 
 a simHar manner (for otherwise he would scarcely have discovered 
 the change I have made), he might have seen clearly enough that 
 the passage was suppressed simply to deprive opponents of the 
 
686 APPENDIX. 
 
 opportunity of evading the general argument of the chapter by 
 opening a side issue on a point not essential to its argument. 
 
 The chapter has for its subject, certain incapacities of the human 
 mind a subject, by the way, on which theologians are never tired 
 of enlarging when it suits their own purpose, but on which an 
 antagonist may not enlarge without exciting their anger. Vari- 
 ous examples of these incapacities are given, to justify and enforce 
 the conclusion drawn. Among th< se was originally included the 
 example in question. Misrepresenting it as Prof. Birks misrepre- 
 sents it, another writer had before him similarly based on his mis- 
 representation sundry animadversions. Though still regarding the 
 statement I had actually made (not the one ascribed to me) as valid 
 I concluded that it would be best to remove the stumbling-block 
 out of the way of future readers ; and therefore decided to replace 
 the illustration by another. The rest of the chapter remains exactly 
 as it was, and its argument is not in the remotest degree affected 
 by this substitution. Nevertheless, Prof. Birks, wrongly describing 
 the nature of the illustration, and wrongly attributing the removal 
 of the illustration to change in my belief, also wrongly conveys the 
 impression that the doctrine which the illustration contained had 
 some vital connection with the general argument of the chapter 
 and with the doctrine of the work ; and by conveying this impres- 
 sion calls forth exultation from religious periodicals. 
 
 Were I to deal with Prof. Birks' book page by page, a much 
 larger book than his would be required to expose his mis-state- 
 ments, perversions, confusions. The above examples must suffice. 
 I will add only that in one belief of his I cordially agree with him. 
 At thy close of his preface he says " I think that those who take 
 the pains to read my strictures, and compare them with the state- 
 ments of the work to which they are a reply, will find the effort 
 repaid by a clearer apprehension of the topics in debate." And 
 1 venture to join with this the expression of my belief that if 
 readers follow Prof. Birks' tacit suggestion, " a clearer apprehen- 
 sion of the topics in debate" will not result from acceptance of 
 bis criticisms 
 
SUBJECT-INDEX. 
 
 (For this Index the Author is indebted to F. HOWAED COLLINS, Esq. 
 of Edgbaston, Birmingham.) 
 
 A priori truth." defined, 179. 
 
 Absolute, the : Hansel on conception of, 
 3 l J-43, 76-9, 87-U7; also Uamilton, 
 74-6, 87-97. 
 
 Adaptation, an instance of equilibration, 
 501. 
 
 Albumen, number of atoms in, 412. 
 
 Alimentary canal, evolution of, 388-90. 
 
 Amalgamation, the same as integration, 
 573. 
 
 America, Central, effects of subsidence, 
 440. 
 
 Animals, see Biology. 
 
 Annealing, molecular action of, 291. 
 
 Annvlosa, longitudinal and transverse 
 integration in, 313. 
 
 Appearance and phenomenon, mis- 
 leading associations of- 158-9, 582. 
 
 Army, evolution of an, 394. 
 
 ArnoLl, M., on the formula of evolution, 
 569. 
 
 Arts, the : integration shown by 324-7 ; 
 
 " also heterogeneity, 350-4; definiteness, 
 378 ; and multiplied effects, 456. 
 
 Assyria, artistic development in, 350-4. 
 
 Astacu&jlumatilis, transverse and longi- 
 tudinal integration in, 314. 
 
 Astronomy : various conceptions of solar 
 mot'on, 103 ; persistence of force 
 exemplified by planetary motion, 188; 
 transformation and equivalence of 
 forces, 203-5 ; the laws of "motion, 
 227-9 ; rhythm of motion, 255-7 ; 
 sidereal and solar integration, 308, 330; 
 increased definiteness of evolving solar 
 system, 364; greater definiteness of 
 prevision in, 376 ; redistributions of 
 motion in evolving solar system, 385 j 
 instability of the houioge eous illus- 
 trated by stellar distribution and 
 coluur, 405-7 ; by the nebular hypo- 
 thesis, 407-9 ; and by planetary 
 orbits, 409 ; the multiplication of 
 effects, 435-7 ; segregation, 467 ; inde- 
 pendent, or perfect moving equili- 
 brium, 487 : Equilibrium mobile, 4h8, 
 480 ; calculations to disprove the 
 nebular hypothesis, 4yl j equilibra- 
 
 tion illustrated, by nebular genesis, 
 490 ; by the planetary motions, 491-3 ; 
 and by solar heat diffusion, 493-5 ; 
 terrestrial disintegration, 527; univer- 
 sal evolution and dissolution, 529-36 ; 
 Sir J. Herschel on stellar concentra- 
 tion, 532 ; gravitation of magellanie 
 clouds, 532. 
 Atheism unthinkable, 31. 
 
 BABINET, J., on nebular hypothesis, 491. 
 
 Baer, K. E. von, the formula of, 337. 
 
 Ball and string, perceptible and latent 
 activity shown by, 185. 
 
 Beckett, Sir E., Origin of the Laws of 
 Nature, 565. 
 
 Bees, the sex of, 443. 
 
 Beliefs: usually founded on fact, 3-5; 
 the common groundwork of opp sed, 
 5-11 ; (see also Religion.) 
 
 Biology : relativity of knowledge ad 
 the nature of life, 82-6 ; definition 
 of life, 84 ; transformation and equi- 
 valence of forces, 208-11; laws of 
 motion, 231-5 ; rhythm of motion, 
 261-4; universal presence of in- 
 tegration and disintegration, 284 ; 
 amount of contained motion in ani- 
 mals and plants, 300-4; and their 
 mutual interdependence, 311-16; 
 heterogeneity of evolving organisms, 
 334-7, 341 ; Von Baer's formula, 337 ; 
 increasing definiteness of mammalian 
 development, 367-70 ; has increasing 
 definiteness characterized evolving 
 flora and fauna ?, 370-2 ; redistribu- 
 t r ons of motion of evolving functions, 
 387-90; instability of the homoge- 
 neous, 413-9 ; multiplication of effects, 
 441-8 ; probable effects of upheavals 
 in East Indian Archipelago, 444-7 ; 
 segregation, 470 - 4 ; equilibration, 
 49S-502 ; dissolution, 522-4. 
 BirJ, wounded, apologue, 69-71,449. 
 Birk-, T. R , on First Princip'es, 580-6. 
 Blood, mental effects of cerebral supply, 
 215. 
 
588 
 
 SUBJECT-INDEX. 
 
 Body : distinguishable from space, 190, 
 224. 
 
 Bones : integration in ossifying, 312 ; 
 heterogeneity in various races, 341 j 
 increased defmiteness, 369; segrega- 
 tion in ossifying, 470-3. 
 
 Boscovich, R. J., theory of matter, 52-4, 
 59. 
 
 Botany : transformation and eqiaiva- 
 lence of forces, 208-11 ; laws of 
 motion, 231-5 ; contained motion, 
 300-4; mutual interdependence of 
 animals and plants, 311, 315 ; hetero- 
 geneity of evolving plants, 334-7 ; 
 has increasing definiteness character- 
 ized evolving flora ?, 370-2; instability 
 of the homogeneous, 413-9 ; effects 
 of upheavals in East Indian Archi- 
 pelago, 444-7 ; plant classification 
 showing psychical segregation, 474-6. 
 
 Brain : causes influencing action of, 215 ; 
 integration of growth, 311. 
 
 Brewster, Sir D., on the nebular hypo- 
 thesis, 491. 
 
 Bronze, effects of substitution for stone, 
 453. 
 
 Bullets, projection of, 194. 
 
 Burney, Dr. C., on musical development, 
 356." 
 
 CANDLE : chemical explanation of burn- 
 ing, not philosophical, 274-6 ; effects 
 on igniting, 433. 
 
 Cannon, rhythm consequent upon dis- 
 charge, 252. 
 
 Caoutchouc, introduction in England of, 
 455. . 
 
 Cause, the First : infinite and absolute, 
 36-9 ; Mansel on, 39-43 ; relativity 
 of knowledge and inconceivability of, 
 93 ; is unknowable, 108-13. 
 
 Cause and effect, popular -misconceptions 
 of, 176. 
 
 Centipedes, iinintegrnted and homoge- 
 neous motions, 390. 
 
 Change, universality of, 281-3. 
 
 Chemistry : transformation of chemical 
 action into other modes of force, 201, 
 202 ; heat as facilitating change, 292 : 
 stability of elements and compounds 
 293-5 ; increasing definiteness of 
 377 ; instability of the homogeneous 
 402, 410-13 ; segregation of analysi 
 and crystallization, 464 ; dissolution 
 526-7. 
 
 Cilia, homogeneous and indefinite move- 
 ments of, 390. 
 
 lassification : a progressive integration, 
 323 ; considered psychologically with 
 segregation, 474 6. 
 
 Coherence, (see Integration). 
 
 Coleridge, S. T., verbal " desynonymiza- 
 tion," 421. 
 
 Colloids, instability of, 295. 
 
 Comte, A.: co-ordination of knowledge, 
 130; on the nebular hypothesis, 
 491. 
 
 Concentration, (see Integration), 
 onception : the actual and symbolic 
 compared, 26-9 ; the preliminary find 
 complex, 303. 
 ! onsciousness, (see Psychology). 
 
 Conservation of energy, objections to 
 the term, 190. 
 
 Conservatism : advantages of a theo- 
 logical, 117-20 ; contrasted with 
 reform, 512. 
 
 Contradictories and correlatives, Hamil- 
 ton on, 89-91. 
 
 Creation, an inconceivable hypothesis, 
 32-6. 
 
 Croll, J., on potential energy, 584. 
 
 Crystalloids, stability of, 295. 
 
 Crystals : simple evolution illustrated by, 
 296 ; influences affecting segregation, 
 465 ; conform to law of dissolution, 
 525. 
 
 DANCING : rhythm of, 265 ; originated 
 with poetry and music, 354-8. 
 
 Darwin, C. : date of publication of Origin 
 of Species, v ; " natural selection " and 
 multiplication of effects, 447; diver- 
 gence of character, 474. 
 
 Death : are we progressing to omni- 
 present ? 514 ; its relation to dissolu- 
 tion, 522-4. 
 
 Decomposition, an increase in indefinite 
 heterogeneity, 361-4. 
 
 Definiteness, a characteristic of evolu- 
 tion : the evidence from astronomy, 
 364, 376; geology, 364, 365-7; 
 meteorology, 367 ; embryology, 367- 
 70 ; biology with botany, 370-2 ; 
 sociology, 372-4, 377 ; philology, 374 ; 
 mathematics, 375 ; mechanics, 376, 
 378; chemistry, 377; physiology, 377 ; 
 the arts, 378; literature, 379; is a 
 secondary phenomenon of evolution, 
 380. 
 
 Definition, difficulties attending, 136. 
 
SPBJECT-INDEX. 
 
 589 
 
 Disease: the rhythm of, 2G2; an increase 
 in indefinite heterogeneity, 361-4 ; 
 hereditary transmission of, 118 ; exem- 
 plifies multiplication of elfe--ts, 422. 
 
 Dissolution : definition of, 285-6, 523 ; 
 interdependent with evolution, 518; 
 law supported from sociology, 519-22; 
 biology, 622-4; geology and chemistry, 
 524-7 ; astronomy, 527 ; considered 
 universally with evolution,529-36,550. 
 
 Divine Eight, substituted for belief in 
 divine origin, 6. 
 
 Division of labour, social : an increase 
 in heterogeneity, 345-7 ; illustrates 
 instability of the homogeneous, 425 ; 
 multiplication of effects, 451-3 ; and 
 motion along line of least resistance, 
 479. 
 
 Dress, progressive heterogeneity of, 572. 
 
 EAUTH, the, conceptions only symbolic, 
 25; (see also Geology.) 
 
 Earthquakes : exemplify laws of motion, 
 231; periodicity of , 260 ; a geologist's 
 not a philosophical explanation, 271- 
 6 ; an increase in indefinite hetero- 
 geneity, 304. 
 
 "Effects, multiplication of: evidence from 
 astronomy, 435-7; heat, 437; geology, 
 437-41, 444-7 ; meteorology, 439, 441 ; 
 embryology, 442-4; botany and 
 zology, 444-7; philology, 447; 
 psychology, 448-51 ; sociology, 451- 
 6 ; corollary from persistence of force, 
 456-8 ; final summary, 548. 
 
 Ego and non-ego, 154-b'. 
 
 Egypt, artistic development in, 350-4. 
 
 Electricity : transformation into other 
 modes of force, 200, 202 ; rhythm of 
 the current, 252. 
 
 Elie de Beaumont, L. f the earth's irregu- 
 larity, 20fi. 
 
 Embryology : connection between vital 
 and physical forces, 210 ; exemplifies 
 progressive integration, 311-5 ; in- 
 crease in heterogeneity of all organisms, 
 334-7; definiteness of mammalian de- 
 velopment, 367-70 ; instability of the 
 homogeneous, 413-9 ; multiplication 
 of effects, 4 12 4 ; sex dependent on 
 incident forces, 413 ; Kirkman's criti- 
 cism, 567. 
 
 Emotions, (see Psychology). 
 
 Energy : " actual " and " potential," 
 183 189, l!H ; the author ascuuied to 
 bold dot'lriae of potential, 583. 
 
 Engine, (see Mechan : cs). 
 
 JKnfozua, development of, 443. 
 
 Equilibration : four orders of, 487 ; Ittw 
 supported from astronomy, 490-5 ; 
 geology, 4;)5-8 ; biology and phy- 
 siology, 498-502 ; psychology, 502-7 ; 
 sociology, 507-13 ; and persistence of 
 force, 513-7 ; summary, 519. 
 
 Equilibrium, unstable, defined, 401. 
 
 Equilibrium mob He, instances of, 486,488. 
 
 Error, definition of, 85. 
 
 Ethnology: evolution of mankind, an 
 increase in heterogeneity, 342 ; the 
 savage and th European compared, 
 448 ; segregation of physical and psy- 
 chical conditions, 476-80. 
 
 Europe, national integration in, 317, 572. 
 
 Evolution : superior to the word in- 
 volution, 286 ; an integration of 
 matter and dissipation of motion, 
 286, 305 ; simple and compound, 
 287-90, 295-8, 329; with disso- 
 lution the total history of exist- 
 ence, 305 ; characterized by coherence, 
 327 ; relative nature of the deiinition 
 of, 330 ; a change from an incoherent 
 homogeneity to a coherent hetero- 
 geneity, etc., 360; increase in definite- 
 ness a secondary phenomenon, 380 ; a 
 change from an indefinite, incoherent, 
 homogeneity, etc., 383 ; final defini- 
 tion, 396 ; persistence of force under- 
 lies phenomena of, 398, 547-50 ; reso- 
 lutions accompanying redistributions 
 of matter and motion, 399 ; aid 
 rendered by multiplication of effects, 
 433-5 ; which is deducible from per- 
 sistence of force, 458 ; aid rendered 
 by segregation, 459-67 ; relation to 
 law of equilibration, 483-90 ; can end 
 only in the greatest perfection, 517 ; 
 mutually interdependent with dissolu- 
 tion, 518 ; considered universally with 
 dissolution, 529-36, 550; the final 
 summary, 543-5 ; universality of, 
 545-7 ; justified by unification of de- 
 veloping knowledge, 552-4 ; the for- % 
 mula criticized by Tait, 563-70; 
 Kirkman, 565-70 ; M. Arnold, 569 ; 
 North American Review, 569 ; T. E. 
 Cliffe Leslie, 570-7 ; M. Guthrio, 577- 
 80; and Birks, 580-6; traits asso- 
 ciated in the definition must be con- 
 sidered as a whole, 571 ; is dependent 
 on conditions, 574, 576. 
 
 Existence, the cognition of, 63 6. 
 
590 
 
 SUBJECT-INDEX. 
 
 Explanation, limitation of, 69 73. 
 Eye, development of the, 420. 
 
 FACULTY, capacity and de?ire usually 
 associated, 451. 
 
 Fashion : rhythm of, 269 ; progressive 
 heterogeneity of dress, 572. 
 
 Fi brine, number of atoms in, 412. 
 
 Figures, mental development and, 175. 
 
 Fiji, belief in ruler's unlimited power, 5. 
 
 First Cause, (see Cause, the First). 
 
 First Principles, aim and scope of, xiv. 
 
 Flint implements, lack of precision and 
 definiteness, 378. 
 
 Food, equilibration of quantity to force 
 expended, 499-501. 
 
 Force: incomprehensibility of, 58-61; 
 underlies time, space, matter, and 
 motion, 169 ; the intrinsic and ex- 
 trinsic forms of, 190-2 ; persistence 
 of relations among various forms of, 
 193 ; the various forms qualitatively 
 and quantitatively correlated, 197- 
 202 ; resolutions accompanying re- 
 distributions of matter and motion, 
 399 ; heterogenous effect of action on 
 homogeneous aggregate, 426 ; and the 
 multiplied effects, 431-5 j Tail's defi- 
 nitions of, 561. 
 
 Force, persistence of, (see Persistence). 
 
 Forces : ol attraction and repulsion sym- 
 bols, not realities, 223-5 ; persistence 
 of force underlies parallelogram of, 
 245 ; persistence of relations among, 
 a philosophical truth, 272. 
 
 Forces, the transformation and equiva- 
 lence of : shown in astronomy, 203-5 ; 
 geology, 205-8 ; biology, 208-11 ; 
 psychology and physiology, 211-8 ; 
 sociology, 218-21 ; corollary from 
 persistence of force, 221; a philo- 
 sophical truth, 273. 
 
 GENERALITIES, when tmsug^estive, 
 565-70. 
 
 Geology : the transformation and equi- 
 valence of forces, 2U5-S ; laws of mo- 
 tion, 229-31 ; rhythm of aqueous and 
 igneous action, 257-61 ; changes 
 undergone by species, 263 ; segrega- 
 tion of silica in porcelain clay, 293 ; 
 terrestrial integration, 309-11; and 
 heterogeneity, 331-4 ; the record 
 consistent with evolution from sim- 
 ple to complex, 337-41 ; indefinite 
 heterogeneity of earthquakes, 3G5 ; 
 
 increased definifencss inferable froi 
 terrestrial structure, 365-7 ; moh 
 motion originating in molecular, 38i 
 redistributions of motion from earth 
 evolution, 386 ; heterogeneity of tr; 1 
 rock, 403 ; physical effects of instab 
 Jity of the homogeneous, 410; ali 
 chemical, 411-13 ; multiplied effec 
 of diminishing terrestrial heat, 437 
 and of aqueous and atmospher 
 agencies, 438-41 ; probable effects ( 
 upheavals in East Indian archipelag 
 414-7 ; segregation of aqueous ar 
 igneous action, 4B8-70; equilibratic 
 -illustrated, 495-8; also law of diss< 
 lution, 525-7 j the earth's disintegr; 
 tion, 527. 
 
 Glass, molecular effect of annealing, 29 
 
 Government : authority and functions o 
 5-11 ; evolution of, marked by ii 
 creasing heterogeneity, 343-5 ; alf 
 integration, heterogeneity and definit< 
 ness, 395 j and by equilibratio. 
 511-13. 
 
 Granite, segregation of, 469. 
 
 Gravity : incomprehensibility of, 60,10' 
 shows "latent" and "perceptible 
 activity, 186 ; terrestrial effects of, 20* 
 8 ; effect on vascular system, 234. 
 
 Grove, Sir WV E., The Correlation 
 the Physical Forces, 201. 
 
 Growth : laws of motion exemplifiei 
 231-5 ; universal presence of, 282 
 integration of, 284 ; shows niolecul- 
 becoming molar motion, 383. 
 
 Guthrie, M. On Mr. Spencer's Fo 
 mula of Evolution, 577-80. 
 
 HAMTTTON, Sir "W. K. : the philosophe 
 agreeing in relativity of knowledg 
 69 ; on the absolute and infinite, 74- 
 87-97 ; correlatives, 89-91 ; trus 
 worthiness of consciousness, 141. 
 
 Harvests, correlation of vital and phys 
 cal forces, 218-21. 
 
 Heart, the : spiral form of, 233 ; ment 
 influences on, 237 ; increasing dej 
 niteness of development, 369. 
 
 Heat : of air breathing animals, 135 
 transformation into other mod- s < 
 force, 1^8-200, 202; Joule's mechanic- 
 equivalent, 202 ; terrestrial effects < 
 solar, 2'/5-8; a cause of condensatic 
 or diffusion, 282, 283 ; molecul; 
 effects, 291 ; chemical stability, 29c 
 5 i siiaple and coui pound evoliitic 
 
SUBJECT-INDEX. 
 
 591 
 
 illustrated, 295-3 ; amount possessed 
 by organisms, 299, 300-4 ; instability 
 of the homogeneous, 402 ; multiplied 
 olivets of the terrestrial decrease, 410- 
 3, i:{7 ; action on simple and complex 
 combination-, 112; action of, on sphere, 
 4^7 ; aids segregation in granite, 469 ; 
 equilibration shown by solar, 493 -5 ; 
 necessary for organic and in rganie 
 dissolution, 523, 525, 527.. 
 
 Helmholtz, H. : on solar heat diffusion, 
 494; terrestrial motion and the tidal 
 wave, 49(5 ; thermal equivalent of 
 earth's motion, 527. 
 
 Heredity, the instability of the homo- 
 geneous, 417-9. 
 
 Herschel, Sir J. F. W. : a rotating 
 etherial medium, 492 ; the sun's rays 
 the ultimate source of every motion, 
 496 ; stellar concentration, 532. 
 
 Heterogeneity of matter: its increase 
 during evolution shown by astronomy, 
 330; meteorology, 333 ; geology, 331- 
 4 ; biology with embryo'ogy and 
 botany, 334-7 ; paleontology, 337-41 ; 
 sociology, 341-7; ethnology, 342; 
 philology, 347-50; the arts and 
 literature, 350-8. 
 
 Heterogeneity of motion, (see Motion). 
 
 Hieroglyphics, the development of, 349. 
 
 Hinton, J., on direction of organic 
 growth, 231-3. 
 
 History, definition of complete, 278-80. 
 
 Homogeneous, instability of the: 401-5; 
 evidence from mechanics, 402 ; astro- 
 nomy, 405-10; geology, 403, 410; 
 chemistry, 402, 410-13 ; meteorology, 
 413 ; biology with embryology and 
 botany, 413-9; psychology, 419-23; 
 philology, 421 ; sociology, 423-6 ; 
 corollary from persistence of force, 
 42(3 30 ; relation to segregation, 4b'2 ; 
 summary, 547. 
 
 Huxley, Prof. T. H. : on persistence of 
 force, 190 ; P-rxist^nt Types, 339 ; 
 osseous segregation, 472. 
 
 IDEAS: and impressions, 143-57, 171; 
 advantages of preliminary, 3')5. 
 
 Impulsiveness, influences modifying, 450. 
 
 India: domestic and political fixity in, 
 373 ; segregation of physical condi- 
 tions in, 477, 
 
 Induction, necessary to verify deduc- 
 tion, 307. 
 
 Iiuhule. the : Hansel on conception of, 
 
 39-43, 76-9, 87-92; also Hamilton. 
 74^6, 87-92. 
 
 Insanity, correlation of the mental and 
 physical forces, 216. 
 
 Insects, transformation of physical and 
 vital force exemplified by, 2*11. 
 
 Integration of matter : and disintegra- 
 tion, 28 i ; the primary aspect of 
 evolution, supported by astronomy, 
 308; geology, 309-11; biology, with 
 embryology and botany, 311-6 ; socio- 
 logy, 316-19; philology, 319-23; 
 science and meteoro'ogy, 323 ; indus- 
 trial and aesthetic arts, 324-7. 
 
 Integration of motion, (see Motion). 
 
 Involution and evolution, the terms. 286. 
 
 Iron, molecular rearrangement in, 291. 
 
 JAPAN, effect of European civilization 
 
 in, 5_'0. 
 Joule, J. P., mechanical equivalent of 
 
 heat, 202. 
 
 KANT, Im., space and time forms of the 
 intellect, 49. 
 
 Kirkman, T. P., on the formula of evo- 
 lution, 565-9. 
 
 Knowledge : thought transcended by, 
 16 ; resume showing limitations, 66 ; 
 relativity of, 826 ; d tinition of com- 
 plete, 278-bO ; uu.fieitionof develop- 
 ing, 552-4. 
 
 LANGUAGE, (see Philology). 
 
 Laplace, P. S., on nebulous ring develop- 
 ment, 408, 467. 
 
 Latham, E. Q-., on inflexional language, 
 321. 
 
 Laughter, laws of motion exemplified 
 by, 238. 
 
 L-iw : of continuity, 52, 57 ; uniformity 
 of, 195 ; the author's belief in univer- 
 sality of, 337 ; increase in definiteness 
 of evolving statutes, 373 ; developing 
 systems, and the formula of evolution, 
 575-7. 
 
 Leibnitz, Q-. W., theory of matter, 52. 
 
 Leslie, T. E. Cliff e, on the formula of 
 evolution, 570-7. 
 
 Libertv : general establishment of, 7f 
 equilibration of, 5] 3. 
 
 Life : and relativity of knowledge, 82-6 ; 
 definition of, 84. 
 
 Light : transformed into other modes of 
 force, 201 ; compound rhythm of 
 interference, 253 ; like mode of pro- 
 
592 
 
 SUBJECT-INDEX 
 
 duction with sound, 32 1 ; segregation 
 exemplified, 466. 
 
 Literature : integration of, 326 ; hetero- 
 geneity, 358 ; increasing truth of re- 
 presentation, 379 j multiplied effects 
 of, 456. 
 
 Liver, development of, 369. 
 
 Logic, definition of " a priori " and 
 " necessary " truths, 179. 
 
 MAGNETISM : transformation into other 
 modes of force, 200, 202 ; illustrates 
 laws of motion, 226 ; rhythm of varia- 
 tions, 257 ; consequent on added 
 motion, 291 ; segregative power, 461 ; 
 equilibration and the solar-spot cycle, 
 497. 
 
 Majorities, usually in error, 5. 
 
 Manifestations, the vivid and faint, 
 143-57, 171. 
 
 Manners and Fashion, essay on, 344. 
 
 Mansel, H. L. : on the first cause, the 
 absolute, and the infinite, 39-43, 76-9, 
 87-97 ; conceptions of rational theo- 
 logy, 41 ; consciousness of self, 65 ; 
 attributes being asserted of the abso- 
 lute, 108. 
 
 Marriages, equilibration to means of 
 subsistence, 507. 
 
 Marsupialia, integration of generative 
 system in, 314. 
 
 Materialism and evolution, 555-9. 
 
 Mathematics : figures and mental de- 
 velopment, 175 ; increase in definite- 
 ness, 375. 
 
 Matter: divisibility, 50; incomprehen- 
 sibility, 50-4; solidity, 51 ; theories 
 of Boscovich, 52-4, 59 ; Leibnitz, 52 ; 
 and Newton, 52-4, 59 ; connection with 
 force, 58-60 ; consciousness of, 166 ; 
 indestructibility, 172-4, 178; crea- 
 tion and annihilation, unthinkable, 
 176-8; and space, 224; inde tructi- 
 bility of, a philosophical truth, 272, 
 276 ; molecular motion and re- 
 arrangement of parts, 290-3 ; con- 
 tained motion in organic, 298-300, 
 300-4 ; effect of uniform force on 
 uniform, 431-5. 
 
 Maxwell, J. Clerk, on Thomson and 
 Tait's Treatise on Natural Philosophy, 
 
 Measurement, unable to prove persist- 
 ence of force, 192 a-c. 
 
 Mechanics : progressive integration of 
 machinery, 325 j increase in indetiniie- 
 
 ness of, 378, 378 ; instability of 
 homogeneous illustrated, 402 ; m 
 plied effects of locomotive engine, < 
 dependent moving equilibrium sh 
 by steam engine, 487. 
 
 Metaphysics : sense of illusion r 
 reading, 158; antagonism resul 
 from word real, 159. 
 
 Meteorology : laws of motion exen 
 fied, 229-31 ; also rhythm of mot 
 257-9 ; effect of heat on clouds, 2 
 visibility and audibility of obj 
 preceding rain, 324 ; climatic eff 
 of terrestrial irregularity, 333 ; < 
 niteness of phenomena of, 367 ; me 
 originating in molecular motion, 3 
 redistributions of motion caused 
 earth's evolution, 386 ; instability 
 the homogeneous, 413 ; multip 
 effects of solar action, 439 ; prob; 
 effects of Central American subside 
 441 ; segregating effect of climate, <. 
 
 Microscopes, great exactness of, 378. 
 
 Mill, J. S., on limit to industrial ] 
 gress, 510. 
 
 3fonotremata, integration of genera 
 system in, 314. 
 
 Morbid growths, an increase in ind 
 nite heterogeneity, 361-4. 
 
 Motion : incomprehensibility of, 54 
 relativity, 55 ; changing to rest, i 
 conception derived from experier 
 of force, 167 ; continuity not s 
 evident, 180-1 ; Newton's first 1 
 182, 564; "latent" and " perc 
 tible," 182-4, 184-7; of celes 
 bodies and pendulum, 182-4; c 
 tinuity known in terms of force, 1! 
 and involves its persistence, 188 ; trg 
 formed into heat, electricity, &c., 1 
 202 ; along line of least resistai 
 225-7; general laws of direction, 2 
 laws supported by astronomy, 227 
 meteorology, 229-31 ; geology, 2 
 31 ; biology and botany, 231-5 ; j 
 cho'ogy, 235-9 1 sociology, 239- 
 spiral direction, 232 ; persistence 
 force underlies laws of direct) 
 245-9; universal rhythm of, 250 
 illustrated from astronomy, 255 
 magnetism, 257 ; meteorology, 257 
 geology, 257-61 ; biology with phy, 
 logy and palaeontology, 2614, 3i' 
 90 ; psychology with the arts, 264 
 351-8, 504 ; sociology, 266-9, 51 
 corollary from persistence of fo] 
 
SUBJECT-INDEX. 
 
 593 
 
 269-71 ; final suramnry, 540 ; con- 
 tinuity of, a philosophical truth, 272 ; 
 also law of direction, 273 j facility of 
 an aggregate to undergo rearrange- 
 ment, 288-90 ; through space, and 
 effects of incident forces, 288-90 ; 
 amount in organic matter, 298-304; 
 integration, heterogeneity, and dis- 
 tinctness of its evolution, 381-5 ; 
 shown by geology, 383 ; meteorology, 
 383,386; astronomy, 385; biology 
 with 
 300-4; 
 391 
 
 molar, changing to molecular, and its 
 relation to universal evolution and 
 dissolution, 529-36 ; final summary of 
 the laws of direction, 540. 
 
 Mountains : rhythm in rain caused by, 
 258 ; altitude and thickness of the 
 earth's crust, 310, 333, 437. 
 
 Movement, (see Motion). 
 
 Multiplication of effects (see Effects). 
 
 Muscle : transformation and equivalence 
 of its action to the sensations causing 
 it, 212-14 ; contraction caused by 
 interrupted nerve discharge, 264 ; 
 equilibration of expenditure to nutri- 
 tion, 500. 
 
 Music : rhythm of, 265 ; and progres- 
 sive integration, 326; originated with 
 poetry and dancing, 354-8. 
 
 NATURAL selection : implies change along 
 lines of least resistance, 234 ; relation 
 to multiplication of effects, 447. 
 
 Nature: Thomson and Tait's Treatise 
 in Natural Philosophy, 5H4 ; " t orce " 
 by Tait, 564 ; Beckett's Origin of the 
 Laws of Nature, 565. 
 
 Nebular hypothesis, (see Astronomy). 
 
 Nerves, transverse integration of, in 
 annulosa anJ Crustacea, 314; (see also 
 Psychology). 
 
 Newton, Sir I. : theory of matter, 52-4, 
 59 ; on force of gravity, 59, 103 ; his 
 first law of motion, 182, 564. 
 
 Nitrogen: instability of compounds, 295 ; 
 amount in animals and plants, 301. 
 
 North American Review, on lormula of 
 evolution, 569. 
 
 OBJECT and subject, 154-7, 171. 
 Orange and Earth's crust, 438. 
 Organic matter, (see Matter). 
 Origin oj Species, The, date of puWica- 
 
 t'on, v. ; "natural selection" and 
 multiplication of effects, 447. 
 
 Ostrich, osseous segregation in, 471. 
 
 Owen, Sir K., on anoplolherium and 
 paleothei'ium, 340. 
 
 PATV, varying rhythm of, 2G6. 
 
 Painting, (see Arts). 
 
 Paleontology : rhythm of motion shown 
 by, 263 ; its record consistent with 
 evolution, 337-40. 
 
 Pantheism, inconceivability of, 32. 
 
 Pendulum : " latent " and " percep- 
 tible " activity, 182-4; alteration of 
 rate by locality, 384. 
 
 Persistence of force : underlies continuity 
 of motion, 188 ; twnscends demonstra- 
 tion, 192a-d ; definition, 192d ; 
 underlies uniformity of law, 193; and 
 tiunsformutiou and equivalence of 
 forces, 221 ; and laws of motion, 245-9 ; 
 an>l rhythm of motion, 269-71; a 
 philosophical and universal truth, 272; 
 underlies phenomena of evolution, 
 398 ; and instability of the homo- 
 geneous, 426-30 ; and multiplication 
 of effects, 45H-8; and segregation, 
 480-2 ; and law of equilibration, 
 513-7; summary, showing it to be 
 the ultimate truth, 539; and evolution 
 to result from, 547-50. 
 
 Phenomenon and appearance : their 
 misleading associations, 158; misin- 
 terpreted by Birks, 582. 
 
 Philology : language and the dispersion 
 of mankind, 14 ; errors of verbal mis- 
 interpretation, 158-62; integration, 
 shown by agglutination of language, 
 31J-23 ; by fewer number of syllables, 
 320; by increasing coherence, 321; 
 and greater complexity of seatences, 
 322 ; incoherence of Chinese, 321 ; 
 Latham on inflexional languages, 321 ; 
 completeness of English language, 
 347; increase in heterogeneity of 
 written and spoken language, 347-50 ; 
 development of writing, 352 ; inte- 
 gration, heterogeneity, and definiteness 
 of evolving speech, 374, 391-4; hetero- 
 geneity, " desynonymization " of 
 words, 421 ; establishes racial com- 
 munity, 448 ; unsuggestiveness of 
 abstract words, 565-70 ; Leslie on 
 language and law of evolution, 571. 
 
 Philosophers, and relativity of know- 
 ledge, 69. 
 
SUBJECT-INDEX. 
 
 Philosophy: hypothesis of first cause, 
 36-9 ; Hamilton on the absolute a? id 
 infinite, 74-6, 87-97; also Hansel, 
 39-43, 76-9, 87-97 ; vai ied interpre- 
 tations of, 128-31 ; completely i.nified 
 knowledge, 131-4 ; general and spe- 
 cial, 134 ; must assume intuitions 
 necessary to thought, 137 ; and justify 
 them, 138-40 ; also assume conscious- 
 ness trustworthy, 140-2 ; the postu- 
 lates adopted, 157, 171 ; errors from 
 verbal misinterpretation, 158 - 02 ; 
 relation to sc : ence, 272-7 ; resume of 
 the laws constituting it, 273 ; should 
 s ek law of continuous redistribution 
 of matter and motion, 277 ; and unify 
 history of existences, 278-80 ; formula 
 must comprehend evolution and dif- 
 fusion, 281 ; induction necessary to 
 verify deduction, 307 ; summary of 
 its relation to evolution and dissolu- 
 tion, 539-43 ; to science and religion, 
 551 ; and conclusion, with the doc- 
 trines re-stated, 555-9. 
 
 Phosphorus in the brain, 215. 
 
 Physiology : knowing, illnstrated by pro- 
 cesses of, 71 ; transformation and 
 equivalence of forces, 212-16 ; rhythm 
 of motion, 261 ; increasing definite- 
 ness of, 377 ; integration of alimentary 
 canal, 388-90 ; correlation of organs 
 to functions, 498-502. 
 
 Physiology, Transcendental, and Origin 
 of Sp'des, dates of publication, v-vi. 
 
 Piano, thought and concept of, 95. 
 
 Pleasure, varying rhythm of, 266. 
 
 Poetry : rhythm of, 265 ; originated 
 with music and dancing, 354-8. 
 
 Political economy, rhythm in the pro- 
 cesses of, 266-9. 
 
 Population: equilibration of, 507, 510; 
 dissolution shown by decrease, 521. 
 
 Pressure, hypothesis of an universal, 
 223-5. 
 
 Principles of Biology, general aim and 
 scope, xiv. 
 
 Principles of Morality, general aim and 
 scope, xvii. 
 
 Principles of Psychology, general aim 
 and scope, xv. 
 
 Principles of Sociology, general aim and 
 scope, xv. 
 
 Printing, the development of, 352. 
 
 Progress, its Law and Cause, and Origin 
 of Species : dates of publication v, 337. 
 
 Protein, oharaci eristics of, 298-300. 
 
 Protestantism and Catholicism, 115. 
 
 Protozoa : extreme indefiniteness, 3 
 and luck of differentiated parts, 4 
 
 Psychology : knowledge transcended 
 thought, 16 ; actual and symb 
 conceptions, 26-9 ; Mam- el on 
 absolute and infinite, 39-43, 7( 
 87-97 ; consciousness only conceive 
 as a relation, Mansel, 40; durai 
 of consciousness inconceivable, 61 
 also its substance, 63-6 ; relati' 
 of cognitions, 69-73, 135-8; Hamil 
 on the absolute and infinite, 7^ 
 87-97 ; likeness implied by c< 
 plete act of consciousness, 79-! 
 the definite and indefinite forms 
 consciousness, 87-91, 91 ; the belie 
 the ac uality behind appearan 
 93-7 ; formation of a thought she 
 by concept of piano, 95 ; philoso] 
 must a-sume consciousness tri 
 worthy, 140-2 ; the two classes 
 manifestations, 143-57 ; relation 
 universal form of thought, 162; 
 periences of f -rce underlie mo 
 of consciousness, 169 ; recognition 
 " necessary truths," 174-6 ; the c 
 ception of force, 192 ; correlation ! 
 equivalence of physical and rnei 
 forces, 211-18 ; the laws of mot 
 exemplified, 235-9 ; also rhythm 
 motion, 264-6, 354-8, 504 ; the ii 
 gration, etc., displayed by evolv 
 phenomena of, 390-4; instability 
 the homogeneous exemplified, 419-! 
 also multiplication of eiTocts, 418-t 
 persistence of force underlies ass 'it 
 of dissimilarity, 457; segregation 
 developing nerve structure, 474- 
 and of men's affinities, 476-8 ; eq< 
 bration shown by moral and nerv* 
 adaptations, 502-7 ; rhythm exem 
 fbd by, 504; mental defects fi- 
 st tidying one group of sciences, 57< 
 
 Pythagoras, philosophy defined by, 1 
 
 RAILWAYS : rhythm of trains, 25 
 integration exemplified by clear 
 house, 318; multiplied effects of, 4 
 
 Real, definition of, 159-62. 
 
 Reform, contrasted with conservati, 
 512. 
 
 Religion: relation to science, 11-1 
 universality, and independent evo 
 tion of, 13-17; antagonist shown 
 science, 17-20; the subject unit 
 
SUBJECT-INDEX. 
 
 595 
 
 transcends experience, 17 ; the funda- 
 mental verity of its varied forms, 
 17, 121 ; the discovery of winch 
 would aid its development, 20-3 ; can 
 only coalesce witli science in some 
 abstract truth, 23 ; the various ere ds 
 defined, 43 ; the underlying mystery, 
 absolute, 43-6; summary reconciling ib 
 with science, 98 ; its gradual purifica- 
 tion, 99-102 ; instances of its irre- 
 ligion, 101 ; the purification effected 
 by science, 102-5 ; a necessary corre- 
 lative to science, 105-8 ; the ultimate 
 cause unknowable, 108-13 ; and of 
 which no attributes should be asserted, 
 108 ; its approximation to the truth 
 dependent on contemporary mental 
 development, 116 - 20 ; its imper- 
 fections relative, 116, 121; advantages 
 of conservatism in, 117-20 ; toleration 
 needful in dealing with its beliefs, 
 120-3 ; rhythm displayed by, 2;>8 ; 
 heterogeneity shown by its evolution, 
 343-5 ; religious character of early 
 art, 351 ; the poetry, music, and 
 dancing, of its ancient festivals, 354 ; 
 summary of its relation to philosophy 
 and science, 551 ; and conclusion 
 with doctrines re-stated, 555-9. 
 
 Respii-a f ion,- explained to illustrate 
 knowing, 71. 
 
 Rest, changing to motion, unthinkable, 
 57 
 
 Rhizopods, without limiting membrane, 
 414. 
 
 Rhythm, (see Motion). 
 
 Rivers, lateral undulations of, 251. 
 
 Roads follow line of least resistance, 
 21-2. 
 
 Rulers, varied interpretations of their 
 origin and power, 5-11. 
 
 SALUTATIONS, the heterogeneity of their 
 evolution, 344. 
 
 Sand, rhythm shown by ridging of, 254. 
 
 Scales, instability of the homogeneous 
 exemplified by, 402. 
 
 Science : general justification, 17-20 ; a 
 higher development of common know- 
 ledge, 18; is prevision, 19; dec.-eases 
 superstition, 102 ; instances of its 
 bein<r unscientific, 104 ; is partially 
 unified knowledge, 131-4, 554: rhythm 
 of its varied eras, 269 ; and philoso- 
 phy, 272-7 ; its progressive integra- 
 tion, 323-4 ; mutual interdependence 
 
 of its division, 328 ; increase in hetero- 
 geneity, 359 ; and definiteness, 
 376-8; exemplifies multiplication of 
 effects, 456 ; final summary of its re- 
 lation to ph losophy and religion, 551; 
 n-id conclusion with the doctrines re- 
 s:ated, 555-9 ; mental discipline of, 
 570; (seealao Religion). 
 
 Sculpture, (see Arts^. 
 
 Segregat-ou : the varied modes of action 
 of, 460-7 ; illustrated from magnetism, 
 461; chemistry, 466; light, 4(56; 
 asjronomv, 467 ; geology, 468-70 ; 
 biology with osteology, 470-4; psycho- 
 logy, 474-6, 476-8 ; meteorology, 476 ; 
 sociology, with ethnology and anthro- 
 pology, 476 8 ; resume, 480-2 j final 
 summary, 548". 
 
 Self, its cognition forbidden by nature 
 of thought, 63-6. 
 
 Self-creation an inconceivable hypothe- 
 sis, 32. 
 
 Self-existence, an inconceivable hvpotho- 
 sis,*3/)-2. 
 
 Sex, and the embryo, 413. 
 
 Ship : relativity of motion, 55 ; rhythm 
 of motion, 250. 
 
 Shops, integration displayed by, 573. 
 
 Small pox, multiplied effects of, 442. 
 
 Sociology : transformation and equiva- 
 lence of the social, vital, and physical 
 forces, 218-21 ; laws of motion illus- 
 trated by a society's growth, 239-41 ; 
 by localization of industries, 241 ; by 
 barter, etc., 241-3 ; and by commerce, 
 243-5 ; exemplifies rhythm of motion, 
 206-9, 512 ; progressive integration of 
 societies, 31o'-19 ; the increase in 
 heterogem itv of civilization, 341-7; 
 and in the definiteness of an evolving 
 society, 372-4; increasing definiteness 
 of, 377 ; integration, heterogeneity, and 
 definileness of social evolution, 394; 
 the instability of the homogeneous, 
 423-6 ; multiplication of effects, 451- 
 6; segregation, 476-80 ; equilibration, 
 507-13 ; law of dissolution conformed 
 to by an evolving society, 519-22. 
 
 Sound and light, their like modes of 
 production, 324. 
 
 Space: without limit, inconceivable, 16 1 
 also its non-existence and creation, 34 ; 
 wholly incomprehensible, 47-50 ; its 
 inconceivability an argument for rela- 
 tivity of knowledge, 93 ; experiences 
 of force underlie consciousness of, 
 
596 
 
 SUBJECT-INDEX. 
 
 162-6 ; how distinguishable from 
 body, 190, 224. 
 
 Species : rhythm in increase nnd decrease, 
 262 ; palffiontological evidence, 263 ; 
 are they becoming more definitely 
 marked? 371; instability of the 
 homogeneous, 418 ; also segregation, 
 473 ; and equilibration, 502. 
 
 Sphere, action of radiant heat on, 427. 
 
 Spiritualism and evolution, 555-9. 
 
 Sponges, general indefiniteness of, 371. 
 
 Statue, intrinsic and extrinsic absurdity 
 exemplified by, 568. 
 
 Sfcephenson, GK, on solar rays, 496. 
 
 Stewart, B., and P. GK Tait, The Unseen 
 Universe, 563. 
 
 Subject and object, 1547. 
 
 Substance, (see Matter). 
 
 Sugar, segregation in preserves, 293. 
 
 Sun, the : varied terrestrial effects, 205-8 ; 
 plant-life dependent on, 208 ; inspira- 
 tion increased by, 213 ; correlation of 
 social and physical forces, 220 ; redis- 
 tribution of motion effected by, 383 j 
 its reserve of force, 493-5. 
 
 Supply and demand, 508-10. 
 
 TAIT, Prof. P. GK, The Unseen Universe, 
 563 ; on the formula of evolution, 
 563-70 ; lecture on Force, 564. 
 
 Tape-worm, development of, 443. 
 
 Temperature, (see Heat) . 
 
 Tension, the hypothesis of an universal, 
 223-5. 
 
 Theism, hypothesis inconceivable, 33-6. 
 
 Theology, Mansel on fundamental con- 
 ceptions of rational, 41 ; (see also 
 Religion) . 
 
 Theories, the basis common to all, 44. 
 
 Tide, Helmholtz on terrestrial eilects of, 
 496. 
 
 Time : incomprehensibility of, 47-50 ; 
 relativity of knowledge shown by, 93 ; 
 consciousness of, arises from experi- 
 ences of force, 162-5. 
 
 Top, equilibration of spinning, 485. 
 
 Trains, (see Kail ways). 
 
 Transcendental Physiology, and Origin 
 of Species : their dates of publicat ion, 
 v ; chapter on " instability of the ho- 
 mogeneous " a development of, 401. 
 
 Truth: definition of, 85, 139; 
 4 ' necessary," 174-6 ; " a priori" an 
 '"necessary," 179; words expressin 
 the highly abstract unsuggestive, 565 
 70. 
 
 Tuning-fork, persistence offeree, 269-71 
 Tyndall, Prof. J., on the rhythm o 
 motion, 253. 
 
 UNIVERSE, the: hypothesis of self 
 existence, 30-2 ; of atheism, 31 ; o 
 self-creal ion, 32; and of creation b ( 
 external agency, 33-6. 
 
 Unknowable, the : 3-123, 551 ; the ulfi 
 mate cause is 108-13 ; the two classt 
 of its manifestations, 143-57 ; sum 
 mary of its relation to the knowable 
 551. 
 
 Unseen Universe, criticism of, 563. 
 
 Unstable equilibrium, definition of, 401 
 
 VARNISH, effect of drying, 403. 
 Vascular system : influenced by force o 
 
 gravity, 234 ; heterogeneity of its evo 
 
 lution, 388 ; and multiplied effects, 442 
 Velocity, in ermediate degrees of 5 
 
 changing, 52, 57. 
 Vertebrata : transverse and longitudina 
 
 integration of, 313-5 ; also hetero 
 
 geneity of osseous system, 341. 
 Vessel, (see Ship). 
 Vision deceptive when unverified bj 
 
 touch, 158, 162. 
 Volcanoes : laws of motion illustrated 
 
 by, 231 j rhythm of eruptions, 259. 
 
 WATCH:, theological simile, 110. 
 
 Water : laws of motion shown by, 230 ; 
 rhythm caused in opposing objects 
 by, 250, 254; organic redistributions 
 effected by, 300-4 ; segregative powei 
 of, 460, 463, 468. 
 
 Weighing and persistence of force, 
 192 a-c. 
 
 Weight, popular misconceptions of, 176. 
 
 Whewell, Dr. W., on increasing definite- 
 ness of science, 375-8. 
 
 Wind, segregative action of, 460, 463. 
 
 Words and abstract truths, 565-70; (set 
 also Philology). 
 
 Writing, (see Philology). 
 
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 MR. SPENCER'S philosophical series is published by D. Appleton 
 A Co., Ne\v York, in quarterly parts (80 to 100 pages each), by 
 subscription, at two dollars a year. " First Principles" is issued 
 in one volume, and four parts of Biology have appeared. We 
 subjoin some notices of his philosophy from American and English 
 reviews : 
 
 From the National Quarterly Review (American). 
 
 Comte thus founded social science, and opened a path for future discoverers ; 
 but he did not perceive, any more than previous inquirers, the fundamental law 
 of human evolution. It was reserved for Herbert Spencer to discover this all- 
 comprehensive law which is found to explain alike all the phenomena of man's 
 history and all those of external nature. This sublime discovery, that the uni- 
 verse is in a continuous process of evolution from the homogeneous to the hete- 
 rogeneous, with which only Newton's law of gravitation is at all worthy to be 
 compared, underlies not only physics, but also history. It reveals the law to 
 which social changes conform. 
 
 From the uftT^st^<tn Examiner. 
 
 Reverent and bold reverent for truth, though not for the forms of truth, and 
 not for much that we hold true bold in the destruction of error, though with- 
 out that joy in destruction which often claims the name of boldness; these 
 works are interesting in themselves and in their relation to the current thought 
 of the time. They seem at first sight to form the turning point in the positive 
 philosophy, but closer examination shows us that it is only a new and marked 
 stage in a regular growth. It is the positive philosophy reaching the higher 
 relations of our being, and establishing what before it ignored because it had no 
 reached, and by ignoring seemed to deny. This system formerly excluded the 
 ology and psychology. In the works of Herbert Spencer we have the rudiments 
 of a positive theology and an immense step toward the perfection of the science 
 of psychology. * * * Such is a brief and meagre sketch of a discussion 
 which we would commend to be followed in detail by every mind interested in 
 theological studies. Herbert Spencer comes in good faith from what has been 
 fco long a hostile camp, bringing a flag of truce and presenting terms of agree- 
 ment me;nt to be honorable to both parties : let us give him a candid hearing 
 
698 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 
 * * In conclusion, we would remark that the work of Herbert Spencer re 
 ferred to (First Principles) is not mainly theological, but will present the lates', 
 and broadest generalizations of science, and we would commend to our readers 
 this author, too little known among us, as at once one of the clearest of teachera 
 uud one of the wisest and most honorable of opponents. 
 
 From the New Englander. 
 
 Though we find here some unwarranted assumptions, as well as seme grara 
 omissions, yet this part (Laws of the Knowable) may be considered, upon the 
 whole, as a fine specimen of scientific reasoning. Considerable space is devoted 
 to the "Law of Evolution," the discovery of which is the author's chief claim to 
 originality, and certainly evinces great power of generalization. To quote the 
 abstract definition without a full statement of the inductions from which it is 
 derived would convey no fair impression of the breadth and strength of the 
 thought which it epitomizes. Of Mr. Spencer's general characteristics as a wri- 
 ter, we may observe that his style is marked by great purity, clearness, and 
 force ; though it is somewhat diffuse, and the abstract nature of some of his top- 
 ics occasionally renders his thought difficult of apprehension. His treatment of 
 his subjects is generally thorough and sometimes exhaustive ; his arguments are 
 always ingenious if not always convincing ; his illustrations are drawiw From al- 
 most every accessible field of human knowledge, and his method of "putting 
 things" is such as to make the most of his materials. He is undoubtedly enti- 
 tled to a high rank among the speculative and philosophic writers of the present 
 day. * * * 
 
 In Mr. Spencer we have the example of a positivist, who does not treat the 
 subject of religion with supercilious neglect, and who illustrates by his own 
 method of reasoning upon the highest objects of human thought, the value of 
 those metaphysical studies which it is so much the fashion of his school to de- 
 cry. For both these reasons the volume, which we now propose to examine, 
 deserves the careful attention of the theologian who desires to know what one 
 of the strongest thinkers of his school, commonly thought atheistic in its tenden- 
 cies, can say in behalf of our ultimate religious ideas. For if we mistake not, ic 
 spite of the very negative character of his own results, he has furnished some 
 strong arguments for the doctrine of a positive Christian theology. We shall be 
 mistaken if we expect to find him carelessly passing these matters by (religious 
 faith and theological science) as in all respects beyond knowledge and of no 
 practical concern. On the contrary, he gives them profound attention, and 
 arrives at conclusions in regard to them which even the Christian theologian 
 must allow to contain a large measure of truth. While showing iheunsearchabh 
 nature of the ultimate facts on which religion depends, he demonstrates theii 
 real existence and their great importance. * * * In answering these ques- 
 tions Mr. Spencer has, we think, arrived nearer to a true philosophy than eithei 
 Hamilton or Mansel. A> least he has indicated in a more satisfactory mannei 
 than they have done, the positive datum of consciousness that the unconditioned, 
 though inscrutable, exists. It may be said that Mr. Spencer is not chargeable 
 with excluding God from the universe, or denying all revelation of Him in His 
 works, since he earnestly defends the truth that an inscrutable power is shown 
 to mist. We certainly would not charge him with theoretical atheism, holding 
 is he does this ultimate religious idea. 
 
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 59i> 
 
 From the Norih American Jfeview. 
 
 The law of organic development announced in the early part of the j resent 
 century, by Goethe, Schelling, and Von Baer, and vaguely expressed in the for- 
 mula, that "evolution is always from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, and 
 from the simple to the complex," has recently been extended by Herbert Spencei 
 BO as to include all phenomena whatsoever. He has shown that this law of evo- 
 lution is the law of all evolution. Whether it be in the development of the earth 
 or of life upon its surface, in the development of Society, of government, of man- 
 ufactures, of commerce, of language, literature, science, and art, this same ad- 
 vance from the simple to the complex, through successive differentiations, holdi 
 uniformly. The stupendous induction from all classes of phenomena by which Mr. 
 Spencer proceeds to establish and illustrate his theorem cannot be given here. 
 
 From, the Christian Spectator (English). 
 
 Mr. Spencer claims for his view that it is not only a religious position, but 
 preeminently the religious position ; and we are most thoroughly disposed to 
 agree with him, though we think he does not appreciate the force of his own 
 argument, nor fully understand his own words. For let us now attempt to real- 
 ize the meaning of this fact, of which Mr. Spencer and his compeers have put us 
 in possession ; let us endeavour to see whether its bearings are really favorable 
 or adverse to religion. They are put forward indeed avowedly as adverse to any 
 other religion than a mere reverential acquiescence in ignorance concerning al) 
 that truly exists ; but it appears to us that this supposed opposition to religion 
 arises from the fact that the doctrine itself is so profoundly, so intensely, sc 
 overwhelmingly religious, nay, so utterly and entirely CHRISTIAN, that its true 
 meaning could not be seen for very glory. Like Moses, when he came down 
 from the Mount, this positive philosophy comes with a veil over its face, that its 
 too divine radiance may be hidden for a time. This is Science that has been 
 conversing with GOD, and brings in her hand His law wriiten on tables of stone. 
 
 From the Header. 
 
 To answer the question of the likelihood of the permanence of Mr. Mill's phi- 
 losophic reign, * * * we should have to take account, among other things, 
 of the differences from Mr. Mill already shown by the extraordinarily able and 
 peculiarly original thinker whose name we have associated with Mr. Mill's at the 
 head of this article. We may take occasion, at another time, to call attention to 
 these speculations of Mr. Herbert Spencer, whose works in the mean time, and 
 especially that new one whose title we have cited, we recommend to all thos 
 uelect readers whose appreciation of masterly exposition, and great reach and 
 boldness of generalization, does not depend on their mere disposition to agree 
 frith the doctrines propounded, 
 
 From the British Quarterly Review. 
 
 Complete in itself, it is at the same time but a part of a whole, which, if it 
 should be constructed in proportion, will be ten times as great. For these First 
 Principles are merely the foundation of a system of philosophy, bolder, more 
 elaborate and comprehensive, perhaps, than any other which has been hitherto 
 designed in England. * * * Widely as it will be seen we differ from the 
 author on some points, we very sincerely hope he may succeed in accomplish i up 
 the bold and magnificent project he has mapped out. 
 
600 OPINIONS OF THE PBESS. 
 
 
 From the Comhill Magazine. 
 
 Our "Survey," superficial as it is, must include at least the men ion of a 
 ifork so lofty in aim, and so remarkable in execution as the system of Philosophy 
 which Mr. Herbert Spencer is issuing to subscribers. * * * In spite of all 
 dissidence respecting the conclusions, the serious reader will applaud the pro- 
 found earnestness and thoroughness with which these conclusions are advo- 
 cated; the universal scientific knowledge brought to bear on them by way ol 
 illustration, and the acute and subtle thinking displayed in every chapter. 
 
 From the Parthenon. 
 
 By these books he has wedged his way into fame in a manner distinctly ori 
 ginal, and curiously marked. * * * There is a peculiar charm in this au- 
 thor's style, in that it sacrifices to no common taste, while at the same time it 
 makes the most abstruse questions intelligible. * * * The book, if it is to 
 be noticed with the slightest degree of fairness, requires to be read and re-read, 
 to be studied apart from itself and with itself. For whatever may be its ultimate 
 fate although as the ages go on it shall become but as the lispings of a little 
 child, a little more educated than other lisping children of the same time this 
 is certain, that, as a book addressed to tl\e present, it lifts the mind far above 
 the ordinary range of thought, suggests new associations, arranges chaotic pic- 
 tures, strikes often a broad harmony, and even moves the heart by an intelleo. 
 tual struggle as passionless as fate, but as irresistible as time. 
 
 From the Critic. 
 
 Mr. Spencer is the foremost mind of the only philosophical school in. England 
 which has arrived at a consistent scheme. * * * Beyond this school we en- 
 counter an indolent chaotic eclecticism. Mr. Spencer claims the respect due to 
 distinct and daring individuality ; others are echoes or slaves. Mr. Spencer may 
 be a usurper, but he has the voice and gesture of a king. 
 
 From the Medico- Chirurgical Review. 
 
 Mr. Spencer is equally remarkable for his search after first principles ; for his 
 acute attempts to decompose mental phenomena into their primary elements ; 
 and for his broad generalizations of mental activity, viewed in connection with 
 nature, instinct, and all the analogies presented by Ufe in its universal aspects. 
 
 Translated from an able and elaborate article in the Revue des Deux Mondes of 
 
 Feb. 15, 1864. 
 
 The great work on philosophy, by Herbert Spencer, whom I would willinglj 
 gtyle the last of English metaphysicians. In the midst of universal indifference, 
 Mr. Spencer remained steadily attached to his philosophical studies, displaying 
 all that heroic courage and that rare independence indispensable to those who 
 devote themselves to toilsome researches which at best only recompense the 
 student with a few obscure and isolated suffrages. 
 
 If Mr. Spencer, with his talent, his fertility of genius, and the almost encyclo 
 pedic variety of knowledge of which his writings furnish the proof, had chosen 
 to follow the beaten path, nothing would have been more easy than for him to 
 secure all those honors of which English society is so prodigal to those who serve 
 her as she wishes to be served. He preferred, however, with a noble and touch- 
 Jig self-denial, to put up with poverty and what is still more difficult, with (b 
 
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 001 
 
 ICurity. itut be deserves more than vain assurances of sympathy : we must not 
 merely mlmire his fidelity to profitless studies ; his work itself merits the indi- 
 vidual attention of all friends of philosophy. 
 
 An impression prevails with many that Mr. Spencer belongs 
 to the positive school of M. Auguste Comte. This is an entire 
 misapprehension ; but the position having been assumed by sev- 
 eral of his reviewers, he repels the charge in the following letter, 
 which appeared in the New Englander for January, 1864 : 
 
 To the Editor qf the New Englander : 
 
 SIR : While recognizing the appreciative tone and general candour of the 
 article in your last number, entitled "Herbert Spencer on Ultimate Religious 
 Ideas," allow me to point put one error which pervades it. The writer correctly 
 represents the leading positions of my argument, but he inadvertently conveys 
 a wrong impression respecting my tendencies and sympathies. He says of me, 
 "the spirit of his philosophy is evidently that of the so-called positive method 
 which has now many partial disciples, as well as many zealous adherents among 
 the thinkers of England." Further on I am tacitly classed with "the English 
 admirers and disciples of the great Positivist ;" and it is presently added that 
 "in Mr. Spencer we have an example of a positivist, who does not treat the sub- 
 ject of religion with supercilious neglect. Here and throughout, the implica- 
 tion is that I am a follower of Comte. This is a mistake. That M. Comte haa 
 givoc i\ general exposition of the doctrine and method elaborated by science, 
 and has applied to it a name which has obtained a certain currency, is true. 
 But it is not true that the holders of this doctrine and followers of this method 
 are disciples of M. Cornte. Neither their modes of inquiry nor their views con- 
 cerning human knowledge in its nature and limits are appreciably different from 
 what they were before. If they are Positivists ft is in the sense that all men of 
 science have been more or less consistently Positivists ; and the applicability of 
 M. Cpnate's title to them no more makes them his disciples than does its appli- 
 cability to the men of science who lived and died before M. Comte wrote, make 
 them his disciples. 
 
 My own attitude toward M. Comte and his partial adherents has been all 
 along that of antagonism. In an essay on the "Genesis of Science," published 
 in 1854, and republished with other essays in 1857, I have endeavoured to show 
 that his theory of the logical dependence and historical development of the 
 sciences is untrue. I have still among my papers the memoranda of a second 
 review (for which I failed to obtain a place), the purpose of which was to show 
 ihe untenableness of his theory of intellectual progress. The only doctrine of 
 importance in wbHi I agree with him the relativity of all knowledge is one 
 common to him and sundry other thinkers of earlier "date ; and even this I hold 
 in a different sense from that in which he held it. But on all points that are dis- 
 tinctive of his philosophy, I differ from him. I deny his Hierarchy of the Sci- 
 ences. I regard his division of intellectual progress into the three phases, theo 
 logical, metaphysical, and positive, as superficial. I reject utterly his Religion 
 of Humanity. And his ideal of society I hold in detestation. Some of his minor 
 views I accept ; some of his incidental remarks seem to me to be profound, but 
 from every thing which distinguishes Comteism as a system, I dissent entirely. 
 The only influence on my own course of thought which I can trace to M. Comte 
 writings, is the influence that results from meeting with antagonistic opinions 
 definitely expressed. 
 
 Such being my position, you will, I think, see that by classing me as a Posi- 
 tmst and tacitly including me among the English admirers and disciples of 
 Comte, your reviewer unintentionally misrepresents me. I am quite ready to 
 bear the odium attaching to opinions which I do hold; but I object to have added 
 the odium attaching to opinions which I do not hold. If, by publishing this let- 
 er '.n your forthcoming number, you will allow me to set myself right with the 
 American public on this matter, you will greatly oblige me. I am. Sir, you! 
 nnedient sei /ant, HEUBKBT Si' UNCEB. 
 
602 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 We take the liberty of making an extract from a private lettc 
 of Mr. Spencer, which contains some further observations in th 
 same connection : 
 
 I by the words 'Positivism' and ' Positivist,' 
 blame for this. Cpmte having designated by the term Positive Philosophy a 
 that body of definitely-established knowledge which men of science have bee 
 gradually organizing into a coherent body of doctrine, and having habituall 
 placed this in opposition to the ^coherent body of doctrine defended by tbeoh 
 gians, it has become the habit of the theological party to think of the antagonif 
 scientific party under this title of Positiyists applied to them by Comte. An 
 thus, from the habit of calling them Positivists there has grown up the assumi 
 tion that they call themselves Positivists, and that they are the disciples o 
 Comfce. The truth is that Comte and his doctrines receive here scarcely any a 
 i,ention. I know something of the scientific world in England, and 1 canm 
 name a single man of science who acknowledges himself a follower of Comte, c 
 accepts the title of Positivist. Lest, however, there should be some such wh 
 were unknown to me, I have recently made inquiries into the matter. To Prc 
 fessor Tyndall I put the question whether Comte had exerted any appreciabl 
 influence on his own course of thought : and he replied, ' So far as I know, m 
 own course of thought would have been exactly the same had Comte never es 
 isted.' I then asked, ' Do you know any man of science whose views have bee 
 affected by Comte' s writings?' and his answer was: 'His influence on scientifi 
 thought in England is absolutely nil.' To the same questions Prof. Huxley re 
 turned, in other words, the same answers. Professors Huxley and Tyndall 
 being leaders in their respective departments, and being also men of geners 
 culture and philosophic insight, I think that joining their impressions with m; 
 own, I am justified in saying that the scientific world of England is wholly unin 
 fluenced by Comte. Such small influence as he has had here has been on som 
 litei-ary men and historians men who were attracted by the grand achieve 
 ments of science, who were charmed by the plausible system of scientific gen 
 eralizations put forth by Comte, with the usual French regard for symmetry an< 
 disregard for fact, and who were, from their want of scientific training, unabl 
 to detect the essential fallaciousness of his system. Of these the most notabl 
 example wag the late Mr. Buckle. Besides him, I can name but seven men wh 
 hire been in any appreciable degree influenced by Comte; and of these, four, il 
 act fiye, are scarcely known to the public," 
 

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