EVOLUTION. 9 



chinery from the more complex to the less complex ? 

 Invent a machine for a special kind of work which is 

 simpler than those at present in use, and the amount and 

 exactitude of work being equal, on the strength of its 

 simplicity alone it will be considered superior and will 

 soon replace the more complex machinery in the market. 



Mr. Herbert Spencer, the philosopher of evolution, 

 overlooked the main point when he attempted to explain 

 evolution in terms of matter and motion. Evolution 

 means change of form, and this change of form has a spe- 

 cial meaning. Evolution is not a material process and 

 not a mechanical process, and the attempt to solve the 

 problem of evolution on the ground of materialism or me- 

 chanicalism (i. e. to express its law in terms of matter 

 and motion) must necessarily be a failure. Mr. Spencer, 

 it is true, recognizes the importance of the formal element, 

 for his view of increasing complexity involves form and 

 change of form. Yet he selects a mere external feature 

 (one that is not even universal) as characteristic of evo- 

 lution and he neglects the very meaning of the change of 

 form. This meaning remaining as an irresoluble residue 

 in his philosophical crucible might find a place of shelter 

 under the protecting wings of the Unknowable ; but this 

 meaning of the change of form is the very nerve of the 

 question and all other things are matters of detail and 

 secondary consideration. 



The evolution of the solar system, being a mechan- 

 ical process, may find in the Kant-Laplace hypothesis a 

 purely mechanical solution. But the evolution of animal 

 life is not a purely mechanical process. There is in it an 

 element of feeling which is not mechanical. I do not mean 

 to say that the nervous process which takes place while 

 an animal feels is not mechanical. On the contrary I 

 consider all processes which are changes of place, biolog- 

 ical processes included, as instances of molar or molecular 

 mechanics. But the feeling itself is no mechanical phe- 



