440 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



knowledge, it must establish some ultimate proposition whicli in- 

 cludes and consolidates all the results of experience. It would 

 obviously be infeasible in the space now at our disposal to follow 

 Mr. Spencer step by step in the long and subtle argument by 

 which this ultimate proposition is reached. We must content 

 ourselves with the merest statement of results. Assuming, then, 

 as we must ever continue to assume (for otherwise all thought 

 would be impossible), that in the manifestations of the Unknow- 

 able in and through the phenomenal universe, congruities and 

 incongruities exist and are cognizable by us, Mr. Spencer shows 

 that in the last analysis all classes of likeness and unlikeness 

 merge in one great difference the difference between object and 

 subject. " The profoundest distinction among the manifestations 

 of the Unknowable," to quote his own words, " we recognize by 

 grouping them into self and not-self" * His postulates, therefore, 

 are " an Unknowable Power ; the existence of knowable likenesses 

 and differences among the manifestations of that Power ; and a 

 resulting segregation of those manifestations into those of subject 

 and object." f From these postulates philosophy has to proceed 

 to the achievement of its purpose as above set forth. 



Pushing the argument through a consideration of space, time, 

 matter, motion, force, the indestructibility of matter, and the con- 

 tinuity of force, Mr. Spencer at length reaches his ultimate dictum 

 the persistence of force ; a dictum which possesses the highest 

 kind of axiomatic certitude for two reasons: it constitutes the 

 required foundation for all other general truths, and it remains 

 stable and unresolvable the one inexpugnable yet inexplicable 

 element of consciousness. Force is thus, for Mr. Spencer, the ulti- 

 mate conception, and the persistence of force furnishes the uni- 

 versal criterion of his system of thought. Of such persistence 

 of force under the forms of matter and motion, all phenomena are 

 necessary results. Eliminate this conception, and consciousness 

 collapses. "The sole truth which transcends experience by under- 

 lying it, is thus the Persistence of Force. This being the basis of 

 experience must be the basis of any scientific organization of ex- 

 periences. To this an ultimate analysis brings us down, and on 

 this a rational synthesis must build up." X 



The first deduction drawn from this ultimate universal truth 

 is that of the persistence of relations among forces otherwise, 

 the uniformity of law ; whence we pass to the necessary corol- 

 laries, the doctrines of the transformation and equivalence of 

 forces, and of the rhythm of motion. Both these principles are 

 shown to hold good throughout the whole range of phenomena, 

 from the physical and chemical to the psychical and social. These 



* First Principles, 44. f Ibid., 45, X Ibid , 62. 



