THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the doctrine of development or evolution a doctrine which mani- 



itsrir in every essay with continually increasing distinct- 



uhirh is* thus shown to be taking year after year a 



rand Btronger hold upon the author's mind and a deeper 



and deeper place in all his speculations. 



Aj early as the year 1852 he had published in a periodical en- 

 t it 1. .1 The Leader a short but pithy paper on the Development 

 Hypothesis, which was afterward referred to by Darwin, in the 

 historical sketch prefixed to the Origin of Species, as presenting 

 the general argument for the developmental as against the spe- 

 cial-creation interpretation of the universe with remarkable co- 



y and skill. But, while reasons were here briefly but clearly 

 stated for a belief in the gradual development of all organisms, 

 not excluding man, it must be remembered that the essay does 

 not contain any indication of factors adequate to the production 

 of the alleged effects. One process only is recognized the pro- 

 cess of direct modification by the conditions of life ; and, as with 

 tli is process alone it is obviously impossible to account for all the 

 fa^ts of organic creation, the way was left open to the uniformi- 

 tarians to make good a temporary escape. 



But this noteworthy little paper, though it contained a kind 

 of systematized confession of faith, was only, after all, a start- 

 ing-point for a long and thorough investigation of various aspects 

 of the subject with which it dealt. Its leading ideas, as I have 

 said, came little by little to suffuse all his work, and in the years 

 which followed they underwent consolidation and reached an ex- 

 pressit >n at once more definite and more complete. Was it a ques- 

 tion of deducing a theory of population from the general law of 

 animal fertility? Then we find distinct recognition of an ad- 

 vance from lower to higher brought about by excessive reproduc- 

 tion and the continual pressure of rapidly multiplying organisms 



i the slowly increasing means of support (a statement in re- 

 gard to which we shall have a word to say further on). Did the 

 discussion turn upon the elaboration on a scientific basis of a true 

 philosophy of stylo? Then, along with the application to the 



ia] phenomena of expression of the general law of " the line 

 of ] ' mce," there is further reached the generalization 



down as applying to all products both of man and of Nature 

 of those two fundamental processes of evolution the process of 

 differentiation and the process of integration; since it is shown that 

 a highly developed Btyle "will be, not a series of like parts simply 

 in juxtaposition, but one whole made up of unlike parts 

 that are mutually dependent."* Are the right and wrong ob- 

 jects and methods of education brought up for consideration? 



The Philosophy of Style. First published in the Westminster Review, October, 1852. 



