42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



step by step, in widely different fields of phenomena; that he analyzed 

 its conditions and causes, and at length formulated it as a universal 

 principle, to which the course of all things conforms. That view of 

 the universe which the science of the world now accepts, it has been 

 shown that Mr. Spencer adopted a generation ago, and entered upon 

 its elucidation as a systematic life-work. We have traced the course 

 of its unfolding, and I appeal to the record of labors here delineated 

 as furnishing an example of original, continuous, and concentrated 

 thinking, which it will be difficult to parallel in the history of intel- 

 lectual achievement. In newness of conception, unity of purpose, 

 subtlety of analyses, comprehensive grasp, thoroughness of method, 

 and sustained force of execution, this series of labors, I believe, may 

 challenge comparison with the highest mental work of any age. 



As to the character of the system of thought which Mr. Spencer 

 has elaborated, we have shown that it is such as to form an important 

 epoch in the advance of knowledge. He took up an idea not yet in- 

 vestigated nor entertained by his predecessors or contemporaries, and 

 has made it the corner-stone of a philosophy. If, by philosophy, we 

 understand the deepest explanation of things that is possible to the 

 human mind, the principle of genesis or Evolution certainly answers 

 preeminently to this character ; for what explanation can go deeper 

 than that which accounts for the origin, continuance, and disappear- 

 ance of the changing objects around us ? It is the newest solution 

 of the oldest problem ; a solution based alike upon the most ex- 

 tended knowledge, and upon a reverent recognition that all human 

 investigation, however extensive, must have its inexorable bounds. 

 The philosophy of Evolution is truly a philosophy of creation, car- 

 ried as far as the human mind can penetrate. If man is finite, the 

 infinite is beyond him ; if finite, he is limited, and his knowledge, and 

 all the philosophy that rests upon knowledge, must be also limited. 

 Philosophy is a system of truth pertaining to the order of Nature, 

 and coextensive with it ; and, as the various sciences are but the 

 knowledge of the different parts of Nature, Mr. Spencer bases phi- 

 losophy upon science, and makes it what may be called a science 

 of the sciences. Resting, moreover, upon a universal law, which 

 governs the course and changes of all phenomena, this philosophy 

 becomes powerful to unify and harmonize the hitherto separate and 

 fragmentary systems of truth ; and, as this is the predominant trait 

 of Mr. Spencer's system of thought, he very properly denominates 

 it the Synthetic Philosophy. 



In estimating the character of Mr. Spencer's Philosophical System, 

 it is needful to remember that it differs in various fundamental re- 

 spects from any that has before been offered to the world. It is 

 more logically complete than any other system, because its truths 

 are first derived from facts and phenomena by the method of induc- 

 tion, and then systematically verified by deduction from principles 



