446 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



phenomena were "bronght under this large principle, while in the 

 first edition of the Psychology not only was this same principle 

 shown to comprehend mental phenomena., but there was also rec- 

 ognized the primary law of evolution integration and increase of 

 definiteness. What followed may best be given in Mr. Spencer's 

 own words: "Then it was that there suddenly arose in me the 

 conception that the law which I had separately recognized in 

 various groups of phenomena was a universal law applying to 

 the whole Cosmos : the many small inductions were merged in 

 the large inductions. And only after this largest induction had 

 been formed did there arise the question Why ? Only then did 

 I see that the universal cause for the universal transformations 

 was the multiplication of effects, and that they might be deduced 

 from the law of the multiplication of effects. The same thing 

 happened at later stages. The generalization which immediately 

 preceded the publication of the essay on Progress : its Law and 

 Cause the instability of the homogeneous was also an induc- 

 tion. So was the direction of motion, and the rhythm of motion. 

 Then haviDg arrived at these derivative causes of the universal 

 transformation, it presently dawned upon me (in consequence of 

 the recent promulgation of the doctrine of the conservation of 

 force) that all these derivative causes were sequences from that 

 universal cause. The question had, I believe, arisen. Why these 

 several derivative laws ? and that came as the answer. Only 

 then did there arise the idea of developing the whole of the uni- 

 versal transformation from the persistence of force. So you see 

 the process began by being inductive and ended by being deduc- 

 tive ; and this is the peculiarity of the method followed. On the 

 one hand, I was never content with any truth remaining in the 

 inductive form. On the other hand, I was never content with 

 allowing a deductive interpretation to go unverified by reference 

 to the facts." 



It remains for us now, so far as space will permit, to pass in 

 rapid review a few of the most salient features of the evolution- 

 ary philosophy thus wrought into a firmly knit, logical whole a 

 philosophy which, as a science of the sciences resting upon uni- 

 versal law, is properly called Synthetic* 



To the exposition and elaboration in their broadest aspects of 

 the all- comprehensive truths above epitomized, Mr. Spencer de- 

 votes the initial volume of his series First Principles. Such a 

 presentation of arguments and results constitutes what he defines 



* Readers who desire to know something of Mr. Spencer's reasons for the selection of 

 the term Synthetic Philosophy as the general title of his system will find a good deal of in- 

 formation in Mr. John Fiske's extremely interesting life of Edward Livingston Youmans. 

 See especially pages 233, 290, and 291. 



